Animations

Next Space is not just a game you play by clicking. It is also a film. Between scenes the game plays 25 full-screen 3D animations, created in 3D software and squeezed onto the CD-ROM using the authors’ own compression format (HVI). Together they come to 25 videos, 10,099 frames and about 8.42 minutes of footage (in the Slovak version 8.67, because Ending B runs longer). Every frame is 640×300 pixels in 256 colours, the animations run at twenty frames per second, and their sound is embedded in the file. 9,775 of these frames are distinct; the rest are frozen pictures and repeated shots (see How many frames repeat).

On top of those come three larger films in FLC format (the credits, a THE END caption and the skull shown after a death) and 717 small object animations inside the rooms themselves (see Next Space in Numbers).

A note on order: the animations are listed in the order you meet them while playing. Each entry says where in the game it plays.

Logos and intro

Magic Systems logo

File: MAGIC.HVI · 190 frames · 9.5 s

Fiery letters spelling Magic Systems emerge from the dark and, after a moment, turn into a clean white logo with the word “presents”.

Where in the game. When the game starts, before the title animation.

Repeats. Of the 190 frames, 108 are distinct: the logo pauses several times, so 81 frames are copies of the one before.

NEXT SPACE title animation

File: NEXT.HVI · 454 frames · 22.7 s

Green lines converge in black space, a fireball appears, and huge NEXT SPACE letters rush through it. The longest of the opening animations.

Where in the game. After the logo, before the first scene of the game.

Repeats. Of the 454 frames, 398 are distinct: the animation jumps back to an earlier frame 50 times and 5 frames are frozen.

Opening text about the 21st century

File: UVOD.HVI · 198 frames · 9.9 s

A blue planet with a tiny station and a yellow caption in Czech: “V 21. století lidé začali dobývat vesmír.” (“In the 21st century, people began to conquer space.”) The animation has no sound and is stored in a different variant of the format from all the other videos (the only version-4 file).

Where in the game. It is on the CD, but it does not play in the Slovak longplay (a recording of a full playthrough), and we found no call to it in the room scripts.

Repeats. Of the 198 frames, 150 are distinct: the animation ends on a frozen picture (the last 49 frames are identical).

Flights and transitions between scenes

Orbital station near Earth

File: 1_STATZV.HVI · 431 frames · 21.6 s · rooms: 48, 47

The camera slowly approaches a ring-shaped orbital station above Earth. This is how the game introduces itself: no space wars, just the Boss’s work address.

Where in the game. Right after the Boss’s call in Frank’s room, on the way to the office.

Leaving the station

File: 2_STATMZ.HVI · 766 frames · 38.3 s · rooms: 47, 46

The station near Earth up close; the camera drifts through the structures and then towards a receding ship. The Boss has sent Frank packing, and Frank is on his way.

Where in the game. After the conversation in the Boss’s office, before the cockpit.

The wormhole

File: 4_WORMZV.HVI · 1,059 frames · 53.0 s · room: 46

The longest 3D animation in the game. Empty space warps, a green-and-white vortex forms, and the ship plunges through a tunnel that lasts almost a minute. This is the moment when the story really begins.

Where in the game. In the cockpit of Frank’s ship, when the wormhole pulls him in. The script also calls it on the way back from the greenhouse (after the 7_ODLET animation) and for the transition from the office to the cockpit.

Arrival in another galaxy

File: 5_BUSSZV.HVI · 850 frames · 42.5 s · rooms: 46, 35

The ship shoots out of the tunnel into an unknown universe, where a lone station appears among the stars and a nebula. Frank’s first look at a world he does not know.

Where in the game. After the wormhole flight, before landing outside the bar.

Leaving the bar

File: 11WORMUP.HVI · 149 frames · 7.5 s · room: 35

A view of the bar’s dark platform with green discs. The first of a series of three shots that take Frank to the greenhouse.

Where in the game. When Frank clicks on the landing pad outside the bar.

Descent to the planet

File: LAND_W.HVI · 200 frames · 10.0 s · room: 35

A small ship approaches a grey, cratered surface. There is nothing on screen but the ship and the moonscape.

Where in the game. The second shot of the trip from the bar to the greenhouse.

Flight over a misty surface

File: LET.HVI · 489 frames · 24.4 s · rooms: 35, 12

The ship flies low over a white, misty landscape. Moments later it will be hanging upside down in the greenhouse.

Where in the game. The third shot of the trip to the greenhouse, just before the crash.

Leaving the greenhouse

File: 7_ODLET.HVI · 902 frames · 45.1 s · rooms: 29, 35

A misty structure with an antenna and a cavity filled with light, then a purple ship above the grey surface of the planet. Frank is heading back to the bar.

Where in the game. In the cockpit of the alien ship, when Frank clicks on the map.

The bar from a distance

File: 11BARFSH.HVI · 135 frames · 6.8 s · room: 35

The bar slowly shrinks in black space, with green lights along its edges.

Where in the game. In the scripts of room 35 it appears as the second route (together with LAND_W) from the bar to the greenhouse hangar. It does not appear in the playthrough video.

Sun over the planet

File: 30SUN.HOR · 200 frames · 10.0 s · rooms: 51, 43

A radiant sun rises over the planet’s horizon. Quiet and light after the celebration, before Frank wakes up in a stranger’s bed. The only animation without sound, stored as .HOR.

Where in the game. After the celebration in the bar, as the scene moves to the androids’ bedroom.

Leaving the hotel

File: 8_MED.HVI · 800 frames · 40.0 s · rooms: 23, 35

The ship flies past alien vessels, including yellow ones that look like leaves of some alien plant, and past an orange planet. Frank has the androids behind him and the bar ahead.

Where in the game. When Frank clicks his own ship on the hotel roof.

Leaving with the barman

File: 9_FIWORM.HVI · 865 frames · 43.2 s · rooms: 40, 50

The bar recedes and the ship hurtles through the dark. Frank and the barman fly off towards Earth.

Where in the game. After the barman has been defrosted, on the way to Earth.

Repeats. The first 135 frames (6.8 s) are identical to the whole 11BARFSH.HVI animation (“The bar from a distance”): the same shot was used twice. That leaves 730 distinct frames out of 865.

G-HERN’s station

File: 10_TRAKT.HVI · 711 frames · 35.5 s · room: 50

The camera approaches a dark structure with a maze-like pattern as ships float past. The file name (TRAKT) hints at a tractor beam.

Where in the game. On the command bridge, when G-HERN takes control of the ship.

Station above Earth

File: 8STAT.HVI · 500 frames · 25.0 s · rooms: 50, 26

A large purple ring-shaped station above a blue planet, with tiny ships around it. After the interrogation on the bridge, the scene moves on to the cell.

Where in the game. After G-HERN’s first interrogation, before the transition to the cell.

Green ship by the station

File: 8STATX.HVI · 100 frames · 5.0 s

A small green ship flies past the purple ring-shaped station. A short variant of the 8STAT shot.

Where in the game. We found no call to it in the room scripts. Probably unused, or triggered from the program itself.

Elevators

Elevator shaft (up and down)

File: ELEVAT_3.HVI · 50 frames · 2.5 s · rooms: 23, 36

The camera descends a shaft with a bright light at the end. A short shot that replaces walking between floors.

Where in the game. When Frank rides the elevator from the hotel roof to the corridor or to the laundry.

Elevator ride from the laundry

File: ELEVATOR.HVI · 100 frames · 5.0 s · room: 24

A longer elevator ride: the light at the end of the shaft draws nearer and a cabin with a display flashes past in the shaft.

Where in the game. When leaving the laundry.

Elevator back to the roof

File: ELEVATL2.HVI · 50 frames · 2.5 s · rooms: 24, 23

A fast ride up the shaft until a green cabin appears in front of us.

Where in the game. From the laundry to the roof.

Two endings

Ending A: G-HERN’s ships accelerate

File: 11_END_A.HVI · 430 frames · 21.5 s · room: 50

The purple command ship and smaller green ships accelerate sharply, recede towards an orange planet and vanish.

Where in the game. After the ships in the dock have been sabotaged. The narrator and the Boss follow.

Ending B: Frank flies to Earth

File: 12_END_B.HVI · 300 frames · 15.0 s · room: 47

A blue planet fills the whole screen, and at the end a green vortex appears, like the wormhole at the start of the game.

Where in the game. After the final conversation with the Boss, before the credits. In the Czech version it runs for 15 s (20 frames per second); in the Slovak version the header is set to 10 frames per second, so the same 300 frames last 30 s.

Death animations

Fan

File: FENKILL2.HVI · 120 frames · 6.0 s · room: 2

A shiny six-bladed fan approaches the lens and for a moment fills the whole screen. All that follows is the skull.

Where in the game. When Frank walks into the fan in the anthills.

Carnivorous flower

File: KILLRAS2.HVI · 50 frames · 2.5 s · room: 16

Green stalks with a flower curl towards us in front of the blue wall of the greenhouse, and at the end darkness with blood-red streaks swallows the world. The shortest 3D animation in the game.

Where in the game. When Frank steps into the wrong spot in the flower cave.

Credits and screens in FLC format

Skull on a rock

File: 1.FLC · 200 frames · 14.3 s · room: 54

A skull on a stone, lit by a cone of light. The game invites you to meet it after every death.

Where in the game. After every death, in room 54; then you are returned to the menu.

Credits

File: 2.FLC · 560 frames · 79.5 s · room: 54

White lettering on a black background, more than a minute of names and roles (the Slovak version also has a Voices card): game design, programming, 3D and 2D animation, backgrounds, music, sound effects, editing, story, cast, voices, production and acknowledgements. You can also read them in full in the ABOUT menu.

Where in the game. After the end of the game and in the ABOUT menu.

THE END

File: 3.FLC · 31 frames · 5.5 s · room: 54

White THE END lettering on a black background.

Where in the game. After the 12_END_B animation, before the credits.

What next

The page How the Graphics Were Made describes how the 3D animations were made. Technology in 1997 and What Was Unique explain why they were stored in a format of their own and how they were read from the CD-ROM.

The longest animations (the wormhole at 53 s, leaving the greenhouse at 45 s, arrival in another galaxy at 43 s, leaving with the barman at 43 s) are also the largest files on the CD. 4_WORMZV alone takes up 24 MB.