French Home Computer Games
This is an alphabetical listing of stylish, unique and artistic French home computer games that were released in the late 1980s and early 1990s on Western home computer game machines. Only French computer games that were released in English-speaking countries are listed. In addition, only computer games that originated in France and that were designed and developed by French software studios are listed. For example, Pang of 1990 on Amiga stands as a brilliant coinop port by Ocean of France, but Pang is of Japanese origin; it is not a French game. Thus, Pang is not listed but French clones thereof would be, if such existed. Thus far, 32 genuinely French computer games have been covered by my commentary.
In case some readers think I have overlooked them, please note that Unreal of 1990 and Agony of 1992 are Belgian computer games, not French.
In the late 80s and early 90s French computer games were notable for their artistry, cinematics and atmosphere. British and American gamers of this time period deemed French computer games to be stunning in terms of presentation and unique in terms of mechanics, but also, at times, distinctly foreign and strange -- almost alien.
On C64 and Amiga, one can only imagine the kind of computer games that could have resulted from combining French innovation and aesthetics with German compositions and technical prowess, but the inferior Amstrad CPC and Atari ST were more popular in France.
It could be considered a tragedy that the Atari ST was more popular than the Amiga in France; in fact, it was a tragedy. Afterall, the Amiga was the computer of choice for artists, animators and graphicians, not the ST. In addition, Amiga game audio was far superior to ST game audio; in games, the Amiga was simply superior across the board, period. Even the fact that you could cram more data onto diskettes sets the Amiga apart from the ST (880K vs. 360-720K), to say nothing of the Amiga's custom chips. When harnessed by top-level coders the Amiga featured an infinite color palette range in comparison to the ST, infinite. Indeed, on a technical level the ST did not come within an astronomical proximity to the Amiga. In palette, in scrolling, in sprite-shifting and in audio the ST does not even deserve to be compared with the Amiga. The ST was ho-hum, the Amiga alienware.
Imagine what French computer games would have looked like and sounded like if they were not hamstrung by the ST's feeble, off-the-shelf hardware. The ST did not do French graphicians or composers justice.
As such, the French were unable to contend with the British or the Germans as regards 2D arcade-action games. However, on a technical level French 3D games and super sprite-scalers matched their British, German and American equivalents in the very early 90s.
In 1991-92 French technical innovations were sudden, coming seemingly from out of nowhere. And this lack of predictable incremental advancement surprised British, American and German gamers alike. For example, a French software house that lacked pedigree in a specific genre might nonetheless release the most technically advanced game in that genre. And I'm referring to advances that were obvious to gamers back in the day, not ones that require ponderous retrospective analysis to appreciate.
As regards graphics adventure games, French Delphine were superior to American Sierra but could not contend with American LucasFilm in any way, shape or form.
In the late 80s and early 90s many French software studios focused on innovation, aesthetics and cinematics at the expense of raw and unadulterated gameplay, which was the province of the Germans and the British. Nonetheless, French software studios developed some of the best adventure games and some of the most memorable, otherwordly and visually-striking computer games of the late 80s and early 90s.
Paul Cuisset and Éric Chahi were the most famous French programmer-designers of the late 80s and early 90s.
Another World Amiga Delphine 1991 was imitative of American Prince of Persia of 1989.
Captain Blood Atari ST ERE Informatique 1988 was unique.
Cruise for a Corpse PC DOS Delphine 1991 was outdone by Amercian Monkey Island 2.
Flashback Amiga Delphine Software 1992 was the apex of its subgenre.
Future Wars PC DOS Delphine 1989 was outdone by American Indiana Jones of 1989.
Gobliiins IBM PC MS-DOS Coktel Vision 1991 was unique.
The Ishar series was outdone by British and American flip-screen cRPGs.
Lamborghini American Challenge PC DOS 1992 was outdone by British Lotus of 1990-92.
Mortville Manor Atari ST Lankhor 1987 was outdone by American Maniac Mansion of 1987.
Vroom Atari ST Lankhor 1991 was outdone by British F1GP of 1991, but had deeper draw distance and better framerate.
I'll end with a mid-90s French computer game:
Rayman PC DOS 1995
UbiSoft Paris Studios released Rayman for IBM PC MS-DOS in December of 1995. Rayman was conceived by Michel Ancel and Frédéric Houde of Ubi Pictures of France. Rayman was originally released for the Atari Jaguar console in September of 1995.
PC DOS Rayman displays in Mode X 256-color VGA 320x200, but its active drawspace is only 304x200.
PC DOS Rayman audio supports Maxi Sound 16, Maxi Sound 32, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster 16, Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Master 2, MV_PAS, AdLib Gold, ESS AudioDrive, Ensoniq SoundScape, Microsoft Sound System, Sound Source PC/Tandy, Sierra, Roland RAP-10, Gus, Gus Max, Wave Jammer, Speech Thing, Yamaha and Blue Power.
PC DOS Rayman was distributed on 1x CD-ROM and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via Rayman Installation. The install size is 88.5 megs and consists of 102 files.
Indexes:
- German Computer Games Late 1980s Early 1990s
- Amiga Games Reviews (Index to all Amiga game reviews)
- Computer Game Reviews (Index to all computer game reviews)
- The First REAL Amiga Game
- Best Amiga Games
- History of Computer Games 1976-2024 (Master Index)
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