The Journeyman Project

Presto Studios retrospective at Game Blurb

2011-03-18T17:37:00.000-07:00

Nicholas Russell of Game Blurb has written a retrospective of Presto Studios, which includes interviews with modeler Jose Albanil, composer Geno Andrews, and president Michel Kripalani.

The Journeyman Project 2 at GOG

2010-06-29T17:41:00.000-07:00

For those of you who've missed playing Buried in Time for Windows, it's now available for download directly to your PC for only $5.99 from Good Old Games!

New Legacy of Time review

2010-03-11T17:42:00.000-08:00

Inside Mac Games just posted a review of the Mac OS X version of The Journeyman Project 3. Not bad for a game over a decade old. (Has it really been that long?)

The Journeyman Project 3 for Mac OS X sold out!

2010-03-06T10:58:00.001-08:00

The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time DVD-ROM for Mac OS X just ran out of stock and the disc manufacturer that was previously used has apparently exited the business. We'll work on getting more units, but it may take a little while. (hopefully by around the end of the month)

A little something for Buried in Time fans

2010-01-04T20:31:00.000-08:00

Here's a 360 degree QuickTime VR turnaround of Agent 5's time-traveling JumpSuit from The Journeyman Project 2 to start off the new year:

You can actually see the crew turning the real-life suit on a big Lazy Susan in front of a blue screen matte in this Making of production video.

For more pics such as desktop images, check out the Buried in Time gallery.

Happy Grinchmas!

2009-12-02T22:20:00.000-08:00

Oceanhouse Media, a new mobile software developer comprised of a number of Presto Studios alumni, saw its newly released "Grinchmas" become an Apple featured game after it hit #1 in the kid's app category.

This follows the successful release of their other Dr. Seuss licensed app, the "GrinchCam".

The Journeyman Project 3 on Apple's Featured Games

2009-11-28T09:27:00.000-08:00

Back in the 90's, Presto Studios was having very frank discussions about the viability of continuing to support the then-disappearing Mac platform — this was before Steve Jobs' return to Apple rescued the company from the brink of bankruptcy. Fortunately, Presto's last two adventure games, Myst 3: Exile and The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time were released for PowerMacs and later ported to Mac OS X. In a nice Thanksgiving surprise, the latter showed up on Apple's website for featured adventure games.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T12:44:00.000-08:00

This loaf of cornbread would fit right in with turkey day. It's also perhaps the most elaborately hidden easter egg in The Journeyman Project 3. Here's a few hints: it appears in a remote location after successfully entering an alternate "unlocking" combination somewhere else in the same time zone. Regarding the combination, what creature would you most likely feed this to? This easter egg also triggers yet another easter egg as it can be used in place of another hard-to-get item to gain entry into a restricted area elsewhere in the game.

"Whack" An Egg

2009-11-22T07:16:00.000-08:00

One player had found evidence of this easter egg in The Journeyman Project 3 by manually scanning through the source files on the DVD-ROM (which may be as sacrilegious to some adventure gamers as using one's hand to score a goal to soccer fans). However, triggering this specific hidden feature is not quite as simple as just pressing the "easter egg" key. Here is the hint: as Arthur compares this location to a carnival "whack-a-mole" game, what would be used to activate one in real life? (this may require a trip across time zones)

Arthur's "Naughty" Easter Egg

2009-11-20T19:47:00.000-08:00

Our next hidden gem from The Journeyman Project 3 is an ad-lib by Arthur's voice actor Matt Weinhold that was considered a little too saucy for regular gameplay. This can be triggered with the "easter egg" key somewhere up in the destroyed El Dorado environment. Saving your game progress is recommended as there are specific "points of no return" in each of the destroyed environments.

Easter Eggs 101

2009-11-17T22:38:00.000-08:00

Since most of the early birds who ordered The Journeyman Project 3 for Mac OS X should be receiving their DVDs by about now, we can share how a bunch of us on the dev team squandered the precious free time of our youth. By holding down the tilde key (near the top-left corner of your keyboard with the funny squiggle, usually located right below the escape key) on Macs, or the "e" key on Windows, you can unlock one of at least 17 once-known easter eggs in the game. By "once-known", that means we had once kept good track of them so that we could let the QA department know about it in case any of them might trigger an unexpected bug. However, it's been over ten years, so we'll dig up hints for these as best as we can for your gameplay pleasure.

This first one is fairly well-known: hold down the "easter egg" key (noted above) while clicking on Agent 3's empty JumpSuit when it first appears in the destroyed Atlantis environment. The result is a warning against leaving potentially embarrassing Halloween pics lying around imaginative co-workers.

Music fit for Time Travel?

2009-11-10T22:44:00.000-08:00

We've gotten enough requests for some type of official re-release of The Journeyman Project music soundtracks, that we've started a couple of polls below.

One of our very first OS X customers!

2009-11-07T06:41:00.000-08:00

Sean, from the MySpace Journeyman Project group, shows off his setup for playing his newly received The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time for Mac OS X on his big screen TV.

If you have cool pics of your home setup to play The Journeyman Project, feel free to post links here!

Journeyman Blowout!

2009-11-06T08:20:00.000-08:00

We thought we had a decent handle on demand after the recent announcements about The Journeyman Project 3 for Mac OS X brought a steady stream of happy customers. However, the Inside Mac Games story and discussion this morning kind of opened the floodgates a bit more than expected. ~~Purchases placed after 8:15AM of November 6 have been backordered and will ship around the end of next week.~~ All backorders have been shipped! Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Former Presto crew now making "Hot" iPhone apps

2009-11-04T18:07:00.000-08:00

Some of the talented folks who had once worked on The Journeyman Project series and Myst 3 now make up the team at Oceanhouse Media, a new iPhone development studio that's already made it onto Apple's coveted "What's Hot" list of apps.

Back on the Mac!

2009-11-03T19:56:00.000-08:00

Tom Herring of MacGamer has posted a new interview about some of the challenges faced in updating The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time for Mac OS X and includes a rare peek at the TSA JumpSuit inside Presto Studios' secure and undisclosed location. Inside Mac Games also linked to this with a Q&A follow up in their forum.

Beyond the Journeyman Project

2009-11-01T08:13:00.000-08:00

Adventure Classic Gaming has posted an in-depth interview, including Michel Kripalani and Roland Gustafsson, regarding work on The Journeyman Project right up to the recent Mac OS X update of The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time.

Legacy of Time OS X DVDs ready to go now shipping!

2009-10-30T17:52:00.000-07:00

We've begun ~~taking~~ shipping orders for The Journeyman Project 3 for Mac OS X!

Keith Kaisershot, the Temporal Security Agency group co-founder on FaceBook, has also tested the game against the latest version of Mac OS X 10.6 and found that it works fine under Rosetta (support for older OS X architecture such as Carbon and PowerPC apps). The catch is that the default installation neglects to include Rosetta, so ~~make sure you remember where your Snow Leopard install disks are~~ you may be prompted to download it (for free) from Apple.

QuickTime problem solved!

2009-06-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

It's been confirmed that the new QuickTime 7.6.2 update fixes the bugs from the previous versions (7.6/7.6.1) that interfered with the gameplay experience of the Mac OS X version of The Journeyman Project 3. Now that has been solved, we'll be working on getting units publicly available very soon.

Preview of The Journeyman Project 3 vs. an Intel Mac and QuickTime 7.6

2009-04-07T22:17:00.000-07:00

I don't know how I missed this earlier, but Appletell posted their experience of running a review copy of The Journeyman Project 3 on an Intel Mac, a standard white MacBook to be exact. However, this preview also showed the playback bug faced by QuickTime 7.6 users. (since then fixed in version 7.6.2)

Pegasus Prime for only $249.99!?!?

2009-02-27T19:27:00.000-08:00

Why blow 250 bucks on a Wii when you can get this rare and obscure game for Mac OS 7.5 on eBay instead... and it's not even the mythical Japanese Playstation remake of The Journeyman Project! There's even a 3 month payment plan.

What a bargain!

The Journeyman Project 3 version history

2009-02-10T19:58:00.000-08:00

Since folks have asked about the various releases of "J3" leading up to the new Mac OS X version:

Hybrid CD-ROM (Feb. 1998) - First commercial release included 4 CDs (with printed manual) that support Windows 95/98 and Mac OS 8.1-9.2. Vertical resolution of video playback was constrained by bandwidth limitations of CD-ROM drives at the time.

DVD-ROM for Mac (May 1998) - Bundled with the first Apple PowerBooks to feature a DVD-ROM drive. Supports Mac OS 8.1-9.2. Contains exactly the same graphics files as the CD-ROM version, but all the files have been consolidated onto a single DVD, eliminating disc swapping.

Enhanced DVD-ROM for Windows (Sept. 1998) - Limited commercial release supports Windows 95/98 and supposedly runs on XP with acceleration options turned off (no word on Vista yet). All the graphics have been remastered so that video plays back at twice the resolution of the original version while still fitting on a single DVD. Also includes MPEG-2 versions of the Legacy of Time and Riven trailers that can be played back on a standalone DVD player. Although this version only contains an installer for Windows 95/98, the application from the above Mac DVD-ROM is compatible with this disc.

Trilogy CD-ROM (March 1999) - The version bundled in The Journeyman Project Trilogy is exactly the same as the original hybrid CD-ROM, so the Mac OS 8.1-9.2 installer is included (just for The Journeyman Project 3) even though the Trilogy box is specifically labeled for Windows. The manual is included on a separate disc in PDF format.

Anniversary DVD-ROM for Mac OS X (Jan. 2009) - Limited release supports Mac OS X 10.3.9 and later (including Intel Macs) and includes the higher-resolution remastered graphics along with other enhancements such as resolution switching and an additional easter egg. Includes manual in PDF format, but does not include MPEG-2 trailers. Release momentarily delayed pending outcome of video playback bug in QuickTime 7.6. (read on below)

Cat's out of the bag...

2009-02-09T17:48:00.000-08:00

MacGamer (and IMG) posted previews of the Mac OS X version of The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time that even runs on Intel Macs. A very limited number of these anniversary edition DVD-ROMs were distributed among the Presto Studios alumni.

However, we're working through a playback bug that popped up in the most recent update of QuickTime before offering the game to the public. Unlike other unrelated games that have reportedly crashed with QuickTime 7.6, the effect on The Journeyman Project 3 has been limited to cosmetic issues.

Check out additional discussions at Inside Mac Games, Insanely Mac and GameSpot.

Gene Andrews' iPitching Guide

2009-02-03T18:51:00.000-08:00

Geno Andrews (the composer of the first Journeyman Project) and his brother Ryan have created their first iPhone app for golfers at iPitchingGuide.com. This handy program utilizes data drawn from the experience of their father, amateur golf champion Gene Andrews.

Chameleon JumpSuit on exhibit at UCSD

2009-01-25T07:10:00.000-08:00

The time-traveling biosuit seen in The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time is now on display at the Science and Engineering Library in the Geisel Building at the University of California at San Diego. Read the full story from the UCSD News Center.

The dedication of the exhibit on January 10, 2009 became an impromptu reunion of the Presto Studios staff and also provided the first glimpse of the new Mac OS X version of The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time.

Click here for maps and directions to the Geisel Library Building at UCSD.