Line #7 VideoGame/TotalDistortion


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/total_distortion.png]]
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3	A 1995 AdventureGame for the [[Platform/IBMPersonalComputer PC]] and Platform/{{Mac}}.
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5	Taking place within an AlternateHistory setting, mysterious devices have suddenly appeared on Earth that scientists have found to be useful teleporters (albeit dangerous for living beings as it puts them into a six-week coma). They also noticed that they can teleport to different [[AnotherDimension dimensions]], most of which are [[TheWorldAsMyth based on pop culture]]. You play as a music director whose just recently come into a large sum of money and somehow come up with the insane idea to invade a [[WorldOfChaos dimension of chaos]] based on rock music to [[SurrealMusicVideo shoot music videos out of the weird imagery there]]. However the endeavor is quite risky as you spent most of your money building a tower to transport in and getting the go ahead to transport there which your government has starchly warned will not bring you back if you don't have the funds. What's more there's the matter of the dimension's dangers as well. So your mission? Get in, get the footage needed and hope you come out of this alive and financially sound.
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7	It was acclaimed for its creativity though was criticized for the numerous backtracking and limited editing of the videos.
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10	!! Total Distortion provides examples of:
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12	* AWinnerIsYou: There's no ending here, you basically head back to Earth. Your score is totaled and you're presented your award for how you did, along with a specialized song either mocking or praising you. Surprising considering how in depth the game was in establishing its world and your backstory.
13	* AbortedArc: Along the journey you find a memo from the Metal Lord who knows of your presence in the dimension and orders his troops not to kill you if possible as he doesn't want to draw suspicion of his invasion plans of Earth. However the game never follows up on this. Heck you don't ''even see'' the Metal Lord through your adventure.
14	* AcidTripDimension: The Distortion Dimension itself has shades of this, but the TV Maze halfway through greatly qualifies.
15	* AcmeProducts: Your tower's fuel rods are made by Acme Power, based in Dallas, Texas.
16	* AllThereInTheManual: Before you begin the game, there are three optional videos that explain the setting, your base, and your mission.
17	* AlternateUniverse: The protagonist's home universe, Parallel Earth #27, is an Earth where alien tech that enabled teleportation mysteriously appeared in the mid-90s.
18	* ApocalypticLog: One of the books in your base is a notebook from the CIA, containing a transcript of dimensionauts who first visited the Distortion Dimension and came in contact with the Metal Lord. Though [[ClassifiedInformation some sections are redacted]] for national security reasons.
19	* ArgumentOfContradictions: Possible with the first Guitar Warrior. "You ''are'' a turd!" "I am not a turd." "You are ''too'' a turd!" "I am not a turd." "You are ''too'' a turd!" Repeat until you choose another dialogue branch.
20	* AutoKitchen: The kitchen in your tower largely consists of a pair of programmable dispensers for food and drinks, as well as a pair of robot arms that slice and pack your sandwiches when prompted.
21	* BagOfHolding: Your guitar case serves as a handy portable gateway into a dimension purely used for storing items such as multiple guitars, your video camera and, more likely, the metric ton of synthesized sandwiches and drinks that you wasted your food goo experimenting to make. It also doubles as a mailbox of sorts, since items you buy from Earth are automatically teleported into it.
22	* {{Beatnik}}: Jed, the first [=MacBeatnik=] module, is one of the minigame books in your tower. If you use him, he spouts completely random words in a rhythmic fashion in a parody of beat poetry. The best part is he comes with a ''warning label''.
23	* BlackoutBasement: Your entire Media Tower can turn into this if your fuel rods run out, and the only machine that works is the elevator chair. Worse, if the power is out when you're trying to get back in, you have to ''force the door open''. And [[{{Unwinnable}} heaven help you]] if you didn't bring enough sandwiches.
24	* BookEnds: The game starts with your Media Tower leaving Earth, and ends with a return trip, both set off by talking to Mr. Red beforehand.
25	* CoolChair: The elevator chair in your Media Tower, and the chain-mounted audience chair in the L.A. Stage area.
26	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Yuji Dude, who rambles in rapid Japanese and mangled English slang whenever he talks - such as [[UnusualEuphemism "Ice crazy wow" and "Stone cold heavy"]]. He's also slightly unpredictable with how much he pays for the videos you sell.
27	* TheComputerShallTauntYou: Happens for almost ''everything'' in the game, from voices mocking you if you fail certain puzzles, to the game's awards screen showing "Ha ha! Loser!" if you view it after you die.
28	* CreatorCameo:
29	** The game's developers have their own [[FullMotionVideo FMV]] clips in-game, which you can buy and insert into your videos if you wish.
30	** Joe Sparks himself plays Edgar Death.
31	* CreepyCemetery: The Sonic Cemetery, late in the game.
32	* DancingBear: InUniverse, your music videos' value comes from containing footage of a dangerous alternate dimension which you recorded yourself. If you don't include footage of the Distortion Dimension in your videos, the producers will not pay you well for your work.
33	* DataPad: Your [=DataBrick=] VideoPhone, which folds out into 3 screens, for good measure.
34	* DialogueTree: One of the earliest adventure game examples. Characters will remember you if you've talked to them before, and react based on what you told them previously. Averted in some situations, where [[ButThouMust all four available options are the same]].
35	* DiegeticInterface: Your inventory screen is a guitar case that you carry around.
36	* DigitalPiracyIsEvil: In-universe. The whole reason the Metal Lord wants you to leave is because videotaping in his dimension is stealing, so much that Guitar Warriors may steal your camera and other items from your guitar case if you pass out.
37	* DimensionLord: The Metal Lord, [[TheGhost while never seen]], is stated by the Guitar Warriors to rule over the Distortion Dimension. He's also the closest thing the game has to a [[BigBad main antagonist]], as the one sending the Guitar Warriors after you.
38	* DimensionalTraveler: NASA has a branch dedicated to exploring the other dimensions, with its members termed "dimensionauts". You essentially become this before the game starts, as well.
39	* EasterEgg: Your tower has some of these.
40	* EasyModeMockery: If you pick the lowest settings for difficulty and danger, both Mr. Red and your status screen will make fun of you. Heck, the guy snickers even if you pick the second easiest setting. Playing on a lower difficulty will also award you a worse trophy when you win, with a song mocking you for all except the two best awards.
41	* EldritchLocation: The entire game is you traveling through these. Why did your character come to these dimensions in the first place? [[SeriousBusiness To get good footage for music videos]].
42	* EmergencyBroadcast: Parodied. Your radio aquarium can at one point pick up a test of the "Emergency Distortion Broadcast", followed by a shrill, sustained guitar riff, then ended with, "In the event of an actual emergency, you would have been instructed where to shred."
43	* EpilepticFlashingLights: The Distortion Dimension has some of this, and the TV maze cranks it up to very trippy levels, particularly when you first enter.
44	* EverythingTalks: There's very little in this game that ''doesn't'' talk.
45	* EvilLaugh: The Guitar Warriors do this if they kill you, and when [[CameFromTheSky dropping in from the sky]] in one area.
46	* EvilOverlord: THE METAL LORD. He's also a DimensionLord, according to the Guitar Warriors.
47	* ExactProgressBar: Shown when you launch the game, and just before you get your endgame award.
48	* ExpositoryThemeTune: "Alien Bomb", a song that has lyrics describing the game's premise and motive, which strangely can only be heard in an in-game book about ''the game's creators''.
49	* FeaturelessProtagonist: Your body is never shown in the game (except in the "Death by Flame" GameOver screen, where it's been burnt to an unrecognizable crisp), though you can choose between a male and female voice at the beginning. Humorously, your male voice sounds like a fast-talking [[SyntheticVoiceActor text-to-speech program]] that sings its dialogue.
50	* FoodAsBribe: You can bribe Roxanne, the ticket woman with a hamburger instead of your bank card.
51	* FutureFoodIsArtificial: Food Goo, sold by the rectangular prism by Taft Foods. It's a cheap but effective way to handle shipping costs, as the sandwich and drink maker in your tower are state of the art machines which can turn the base nutrients of the food goo to something edible.
52	* GameOverMan: The Guitar Warrior. It remains one of the most hilarious examples of this trope thanks to their musical [[TrashTalk track about how much you suck]].
53	* GarageBand: The motif of Hell's Garage, with its own set of songs, although the band itself is never seen.
54	* GenreBlending: The box art uses "Music Video Adventure Game" as a description of the genre. The game is a first-person pre-rendered point-and-click adventure game, but it also has some music (fighting Guitar Warriors requires you to recognize the notes they play) and simulation (making music videos and selling them) elements, not to mention the large amount of action mini games you need to play to do things like sleeping or unlocking doors.
55	* TheGhost: We never do see what the Metal Lord looks like.
56	* GiveMeYourInventoryItem: [[ViolationOfCommonSense Putting out a fire with booze]] qualifies.
57	* GreatBigLibraryOfEverything: Your Tower's book collection, ranging from instruction guides to your equipment, small minigames, celebrity interviews, and even an in-game book on the ''game's creators''.
58	* HackingMinigame: Some of the Distortion Dimension's puzzles.
59	** Reaching the controls for the video halls requires [[VisualPun putting out a wall of fire]], and solving a timed puzzle on the controls.
60	** Another of these involves a [[Platform/AppleMacintosh Macintosh]] in Hell's Garage, by [[RubeGoldbergMachine coaxing a group of eyeballs with a torch, into landing on a lever]] that unlocks the desktop after 5 rounds.
61	* HaveANiceDeath: In addition to unique animations, deaths are accompanied by a catchy theme: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pPQnhhUqtU "You are dead. Dead. Dead."]]
62	* TheHeroSucksSong: The infamous game over music is one long diss track that basically says "you're dead, and you suck" over and over.
63	** The songs for getting anything less than the top two prizes at the end of the game. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaWboqiZ5GE The Gold TV song]] really goes after you for stopping short of true victory.
64	-->''You've worked your tail off, now here's your reward\
65	A special prize, so you'll never be bored\
66	500 channels for you to absorb\
67	A gold TV set, [[{{Scatting}} ba-dee,]] ba-dee-[[LeastRhymableWord borb!]]\
68	It's not the best prize that you can get\
69	It only receives, it don't transmit\
70	You made your money, you're a VIP\
71	You're such a square, that's the irony!''\
72	(sour chord)
73	* HintSystem: The CrystalBall in your tower gives subtle hints, depending on how far you've traveled, though it also uses power. Same case for some of the jigsaw puzzles in your bookshelf.
74	* HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: The red-haired man on the box cover and start menu is your government agent, Mr. Red.
75	* HurricaneOfEuphemisms: Famously delivered in regards to the player's demise in the Game Over song.
76	* IAmSong: Each of the three rockers has at least one.
77	* ItsAllAboutMe: Every one of Johnny Fang's songs. One of them is even named after this trope.
78	* JokeItem: The "Special [=VidChip=]" in your inventory. Examining it plays a particularly disturbing video that can't be used in your editor.
79	* LargeHam: The first Guitar Warrior you meet talks to you in a deep, loud voice.
80	* TheManyDeathsOfYou: The Game Over screen shows a different visual depending on the way you died. So if you're tired of "Death By Guitar Warrior", there's also "[[ManOnFire Death By Flame]]" (in which your player character gets [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath gruesomely incinerated]]) or "Your Life Force = Zero!" (happens when bat-winged skulls have [[VampiricDraining drained all your life force]], or if you've suffered a lethally-high fall). And don't worry, the "You Are Dead" song is still present.
81	* MeaningfulName: The Distortion Dimension gets its name from the abundance of loud guitar noise heard there.
82	* MiniGame: Lots and lots of them, especially in your tower's book collection.
83	* MovingTheGoalposts: Your official goal is to either get a huge amount of money, a huge amount of fame, or a slightly smaller amount of both. Once you've achieved your goal, a cutscene plays announcing that you also need to pay $1000000 to be returned to Earth before you can actually be declared a winner.
84	* MultipleLifeBars: You have three.
85	** Physical energy which measures whether you can open doors or move objects, [[WizardNeedsFoodBadly replenished by food]].
86	** Mental energy for solving puzzles, refueled by sleeping.
87	** Life Force, which is your overall health. If it drops to zero, you die. It also slowly increases if the other two bars are full.
88	* {{Mouthscreen}}: The video on the Special [=VidChip=] contains this, mixed with footage from the intro videos.
89	* MundaneUtility: Alternate dimensions are used to expedite shipping in this game's universe (mainly because it's incredibly dangerous to teleport living creatures).
90	* MusicalAssassin: The Guitar Warriors, of course.
91	* MysteriousEmployer: Mr. Red, given that very little is explained about him in-game.
92	* NightmareSequence: Used as minigames when you sleep, which generally involve avoiding nightmares that drain your mental energy.
93	* NoOneShouldSurviveThat: The newspapers and game show hosts John and Jenna in the intro videos think your character couldn't possibly survive the Distortion Dimension. The game's goal is to prove the world wrong.
94	--> '''John''': [[TooDumbToLive Someone this stupid deserves to die!]]
95	* OminousMultipleScreens: Two hallways are covered wall-to-wall with monitors, all showing videos that negatively impact your health in different ways. You have to upload a positive video to them in order to pass.
96	* ParodyCommercial: The Radio Aquarium in your tower is full of these between songs.
97	* PeopleJars: Dimensionauts have to travel in Coma Tanks when teleported, nicknamed "soup closets" by the nutrient-rich fluid the user floats in during their six-week coma. You wake up in one at the beginning of the game as well.
98	* PixelHunt: "Key Card X" and the door opener to Hell's Garage are hidden in extremely obscure spots. The former in [[spoiler: one of four lights near the TV portal]], and the latter inside [[spoiler:a potted plant in the LA Stage's lobby]].
99	* PlanetOfHats: The Distortion Dimension's hat is Grunge Rock.
100	* PlayerHeadquarters: Your Personal Media Tower.
101	* PlugNPlayTechnology: Occasionally you have to use video chips to upload or download footage from devices in the environment.
102	* ThePowerOfRock: A common theme.
103	* TheRockStar: You get to watch three rock star characters play a number of songs near the end, with background effects controllable from your keyboard. The characters in question are a Zombie [[Main/GothRock Goth]] called Edgar Death; [[Main/PunkRock Punker]] Betty Pink complete with oversized Mohawk, and an [[Music/GunsNRoses Axl Rose-sounding]] rocker named Johnny Fang. Viewing all of them is your largest source of Fame points, and finding recorded footage of them is the most valuable resource you can get in the game.
104	* RockMeAsmodeus: Subverted in [[GarageRock Hell's Garage]], late in the game. Some of the files you can steal from a computer inside contain appropriately hellish sound effects, and a few songs dedicated to the location. The place's owner never shows up, though.
105	* RuleOfThree: The 3 intro videos at the beginning, The 3 [=VJs=] on Earth, three locations at the endgame, and three rock stars.
106	* SequenceBreaking: As noted by one [[LetsPlay Let's Player]], your in-game video editor can export projects to your computer's hard drive if you so choose. This allows you to effectively bypass making new music videos entirely if you have existing ones with very valuable content.
107	* SoundCodedForYourConvenience: Guitar battles go back and forth with this trope, depending on difficulty. Low difficulty [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience adds colors to each note]], while high difficulty requires playing entirely by ear.
108	* StylisticSuck: The songs and video clips you start with are intentionally low-quality, and aren't likely to make profitable videos.
109	* SurrealMusicVideo: You get a whole editor dedicated to making these and In all honesty a good majority of the game's fun comes from messing with this editor.
110	* TeleportationWithDrawbacks: Travel to alternate dimensions consumes a lot of energy, dependent on the size of the object being sent. Living creatures sent through are put into six-week comas - as such, you have to use a highly durable nutrient-fluid-filled tube when you want to travel to and from your base, and the sheer energy cost means it has to be pre-approved. (Also, the millions of dollars in energy bills it took to get your tower across put you in hock, and your tower's fuel will run dry if you can't come up with some good videos ''fast''.)
111	* TelevisionPortal: With a maze between channels.
112	* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: Betty Pink's general style of rock.
113	* TotallyRadical: Some of the game's songs and radio commercials run on this. Justified, since it's set in an alternate 1990s. Even better, one of the commercials advertises "Hooked-On Slang" tapes to learn it.
114	* TowerDefense: Somewhat. On high danger settings, Guitar Warriors will occasionally dismantle parts of your Media Tower, including the antenna on top. They can be automatically repaired, but this costs power to do so.
115	* TraumaButton: The three TV producers each have some form of traumatic past, and they will reject any video containing elements that remind them of that.
116	* UnintentionallyUnwinnable:
117	** If run on modern systems, most of the minigames run faster than players are able to keep up with, some of them with [[TimedMission time limits]]. This means players won't have enough time or reflexes to keep up with them, making the game fit this trope without locking the CPU speed through Platform/DosBox or similar emulators.
118	** If the tower runs out of power while you're away, you need to force the door open to get back in. Problem is, this requires a certain amount of physical energy. Since physical energy can only be restored by food, which requires access to the tower to make, it's possible to become permanently stuck outside of the tower if you run out of energy and don't have any sandwiches on you.
119	* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Being a rude jerk to the various sponsors you can talk to is an easy way of losing out of a ton of potential money and eventually lose the game.
120	** Also, as tempting as it is do NOT click on Roxanne's breasts.
121	* VoidBetweenTheWorlds: Your Personal Media Tower is stationed on a guitar-shaped asteroid inside a purple nebulous void of stars, with a wormhole into the actual Distortion Dimension that opens up when the tower first appears.
122	* WarpWhistle: The player can construct a portable teleporter midway through the game, which can take the player back to wherever it was set, within two available uses. The Windows port of the game renders it unusable due to a [[GameBreakingBug non-working "EXIT" button in the HUD]], though.
123	* WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife: Almost identical words ("What a pitiful waste of a human life") are actually part of the lyrics of the GameOver song. Quite fitting since the protagonist is basically an entrepreneur who wanders an alternate dimension chock-full of hostilities merely for profit...
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Context VideoGame / TotalDistortion