ShadowWraith is a top-down view scrolling shooter video game created by American studio Terminal Sunset for the Macintosh, and published by StarPlay. The game has a sequel called Souls in the System.

ShadowWraith
ShadowWraith box art
Developer(s)Terminal Sunset
Publisher(s)StarPlay
Designer(s)Ravi Mehta
Platform(s)Macintosh
Release1995
Genre(s)Scrolling shooter
Mode(s)Single-player

As of December 2002, the StarPlay online product catalog indicated that the company was no longer selling games directly.[1]

Story

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In the game, the player assumes the role of an artificial intelligence representation of a man named Alex Kendall, who was assassinated for having associations with the Defense Department.[2] Before his annihilation, Kendall's work in the Defense Department had grown unsatisfying for him, and so he instead devoted his time and efforts to the expansion of the ever growing cyberspace.[2] In his latest project, he had created a way of designing a person's ego into the net, with such a cybernetic ego incorporating personality and intelligence in addition to tactile senses, using his own as a prototype.[2][3] His attempt at doing so was a success, though Kendall never got a chance to reveal his findings to the world, as he was killed shortly after, awaking to see his family die at the hands of his murderers. Soon afterwards, Kendall's mind came to life again in the form of a cyberspace program.[3]

Throughout the game, the player controls Alex Kendall's cyberspace program of himself, seeking revenge of his family, and his own mortal self.[2][3] The phrase "Revenge is best served on the Net" is shown in the opening titles before game play commences.

Soundtrack

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The soundtrack was composed by Steven Allen, Andrew Schlesinger, Volker Tripp, and Thomas Chenhall, with the songs being stored in MOD format. It consisted of the following song titles in alleged order of game play:

  1. Extend
  2. Into the Shadow
  3. Haunt
  4. Night
  5. Cyberride
  6. Fall
  7. Wraith
  8. Marshins
  9. Dance of Zax
  10. Overlord
  11. World
  12. Ryu
  13. Stardust (Memories)
  14. Oblivion
  15. Silntrac (Silent Racer)
  16. Elysium
  17. Molecule (Molecule's Revenge)
  18. DENSETSU
  19. Pulse
  20. Off Line Pulse
  21. Dance Factory
  22. Internal Impactor
  23. Evergladez
  24. Space
  25. Xenon

Reception

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Inside Mac Games complimented the game on its detailed physics model and music, among other things, and commented that ShadowWraith was better than the other games in its genre, though there were slight difficulties with switching weapons during gameplay and slower performance on 68030-based Macs.[3]

Sequel

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Souls in the System is a sequel to ShadowWraith, released in 1996 for the Macintosh. It included multiplayer modes.[4] It was designed and developed by Ravi J.K. Mehta of Terminal Sunset Software.[5] The cover illustration was designed by Peter Bollinger and came with the CD containing the program and music files.

References

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  1. ^ "StarPlay product catalog". StarPlay. Archived from the original on 2002-12-08. Retrieved 2015-09-09.
  2. ^ a b c d Savignano, Lisa Karen. "ShadowWraith - Overview - allgame". AllGame. Archived from the original on 2014-12-11. Retrieved 2015-09-09.
  3. ^ a b c d Condit, Jeremy (March 1996). "ShadowWraith". Inside Mac Games (Free Preview Edition): 13.
  4. ^ "Souls in the System". The Cutting Room Floor. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
  5. ^ Souls in the System User Manual Credits page.
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