Time Traveler was an FMV game released for arcades in 1991.
The game's best remembered for two things. The first was that it created by Rick Dyer, the same guy who made Dragon's Lair and the second is that it used holograms for the game's graphics.
The story is extremely simple. You play as Marshal Graham, a cowboy from the Old West that was picked to save Princess Kyi-La of the Galactic Federation from the evil time lord Vulcor and must travel through different points in time, starting with the Marshal's own time in 1873 before going to 50,000 BC, 1998, 2173, 1350, The Age of Magic, and 2552
Time Traveler contains examples of
- All Cavemen Were Neanderthals: Cavemen are the main enemy in 50,000 BC, both male and female.
- Attack Drone: Upon arriving in 2173, Graham's got to jump over small attack robots presumably rolling off an assembly line.
- Bandito: Mexican bandits appear as enemies in the first stage. Fittingly, the scenes they appear in are decorated with the ruins of an old Spanish mission.
- Big Bad: Vulcor is the main villain who kidnaps Princess Kyi-La.
- Excuse Plot: Marshal Graham is picked by a space princess from the future to travel through time and eventually rescue her from an evil Time Master. Aside from that, not much else can be said.
- Flesh-Eating Zombie: Zombies appear as enemies in the graveyard scenes of the 1998 level.
- Gratuitous Ninja: Ninjas are among the enemies who attack Graham. For some reason, they're found in 14th Century Europe.
- Gothic Punk: The levels set in 1998 live and breathe this trope with its unique blend of Gothic aesthetics, horror monsters, and gritty crime-ridden urban slums
- The Gunslinger: Marshal Graham is a 19th Century cowboy lawman who primary uses his six-shooter in combat.
- Hailfire Peaks: The levels set in 1998 and 1350 are weird to say the least and tend to blend genres and settings.
- 1998 is a very weird mishmash of an urban dystopia where the enemies are mostly street criminals and a spooky cemetery with gravestones and dead trees as scenery and enemies such as zombies, ghosts, escaped mainacs, and slashers.
- 1350 is mostly a bog standard Medieval European Fantasy with knights, knaves, and wizards but for some inexplicable reason, Marshal Graham fights ninjas and Wuxia-inspired martial artists straight out of Wutai in certain scenes.
- Lethal Lava Land: Some of the scenes in 50,000 BC are set near a fiery volcano where Graham has to dodge flames and lava.
- The Mentally Disturbed: Ax-Crazy escapees from a local asylum appear as enemies in 1998, attacking Graham in the graveyard. Most of them carry the typical knives and axes but one carries a blowtorch and another wields a Hockey Mask and Chainsaw. Some of the knife-wielding enemies are even still wearing hospital gowns.
- Next Sunday A.D.: One of the years Marshal Graham visits is 1998. The game came out in 1991 and so 1998 is depicted as a mix of a crime-ridden slum and a haunted graveyard full of horror-themed enemies. See Hailfire Peaks for more details.
- Nubile Savage: An attractive cavewoman in a Fur Bikini attacks Graham as soon as he arrives in the prehistoric era.
- Popular History: The levels set in the past are more in line with the fictional pop culture versions of the eras they're set in.
- Outlaw: Cowboy outlaws are the very first enemies you encounter in the game.
- The Quincy Punk: They appear as mooks in 1998, often accompanied by drug dealers and gangsters.
- Rescue The Princess: The main goal of the game and played dead straight.
- The Savage Indian: Zig-Zagged. Native American warriors ambush Marshal Graham in the 1873 level. They do make the stereotypical war whoops and wear the feathers and war paint but it's implied the Marshal is unwittingly trespassing on their village given the tipis in the background and Graham's surprised look when they first attack.
- Snake Charmer: A murderous snake charmer is encountered in the Age of Magic level. First, he tries to use the snake to kill you and then tries to attack the Marshal with a machete.
