Flashback (1992 video game)
| Flashback | |
|---|---|
Original Amiga cover art | |
| Developer(s) |
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| Publisher(s) | |
| Director(s) | |
| Designer(s) | Paul Cuisset |
| Composer(s) |
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| Platform(s) | Amiga, Acorn Archimedes, Mega Drive/Genesis, MS-DOS, NEC PC-9801, SNES, Sega CD, FM Towns, 3DO, CD-i, Jaguar, Mac OS, iOS, Symbian, Maemo, Dreamcast, Switch, PS4, Xbox One |
| Release | 1992 1993 (MS-DOS, SNES, Acorn Archimedes, Sega Genesis) March 1995 (CD-i) |
| Genre(s) | Cinematic platformer |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Flashback, released as Flashback: The Quest for Identity in the United States, is a 1992 science fiction cinematic platform game. It was developed by Delphine Software of France and published by U.S. Gold in the United States and Europe, and by Sunsoft in Japan.
The game was created for the Mega Drive/Genesis, and was directed, written, designed, and partially programmed by Paul Cuisset, who with Éric Chahi had previously created the adventure game Future Wars. Flashback was launched for the Amiga in 1992. It was released for Mega Drive/Genesis, MS-DOS, Acorn Archimedes, and Super NES in 1993. CD-ROM versions for the Sega CD, 3DO, CD-i, MS-DOS, Macintosh, and FM Towns were released during 1994 and 1995, together with a cartridge version for the Jaguar in 1995. In 2017, the game was released worldwide on the Dreamcast, featuring graphic assets and cutscenes from the MS-DOS version and music from the Amiga version. An updated port titled Flashback: Remastered Edition was released for Switch on June 7, 2018, for PlayStation 4 on November 20, 2018, and for Windows on November 29, 2018. The game was also released on October 2023 for the Evercade platforms as part of Delphine collection cartridge and is based on the original Megadrive/Genesis version.
It was originally advertised as a "CD-ROM game on a cartridge", and features fully hand-drawn backdrops and rotoscoped animation, with unusually fluid movements similar to Prince of Persia from 1989. The video capture technique of Flashback was invented independently of Prince of Persia, using a more complicated method of first tracing video images onto transparencies.
The game was a commercial and critical success and was listed in the Guinness World Records as the best-selling French game of all time. Its sequel is Fade to Black in 1995. In 2013, a Flashback remake by VectorCell was released for the PC and consoles.
A new sequel, Flashback 2 by Microids, was released on November 16, 2023, for the PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S, with previous generation consoles getting their release early 2024. It is a prequel set eight years before the original.