Rest in Peace: Masq

[Indiana212]

Since it's been quiet in the "Dead Games" section of the forums, I thought I'd try and revive the topic by talking about a very obscure game. The game in question is called, Masq. It was one of the first interactive story games that gave players a limited time to make choices, and how they would impact them in later episodes. Originally, you could play the first two episodes on the developer's website before you had to register a free account to play the rest of the game. After making an account on the website, you could download the game through your browser and then play it on your desktop. The game itself had monochrome illustrations that gave it a more comic book feel to the game. The story itself was rather basic with your usual plot twists and sex appeal that is more akin to a soap opera. Even with these minor drawbacks, it was a very entertaining game to play. I wanted to replay the game and see what decisions I could've made differently, but now it seems that the game is officially dead at this point. You can still download the game files using the Wayback Machine for a free preview of the game, but for the small few that had a registered account on the website, the game itself cannot be played as it will always lead to a connection error.

 

If anyone can offer any technical assistance for possibly data mining the game files, or some sort of loophole for playing the game online again, that would be immensely appreciated.

[BTGBullseye]

Sounds like it was a digital version of a Which Way book.

[Indiana212]

Pretty much. If it was a Which Way book that was about a fashion designer trying to find out his corrupt boss's ties to the mob. That was pretty much the whole plot of the game. The executable file ran on Macromedia Director, which could make it possible to try and extract some of the files from it. But it just goes to show that it doesn't matter if you're a small indie developer or a AAA studio, games that rely on central servers suck. Even PC gamer had an article about it called, "If Deus Ex had been a steamy soap opera". Which is more or less accurate, even though the image of Bob Page trying to use Majestic 12 to try and take over a fashion company sounds hilarious.

 

What really puts the nail in the coffin is this blogspot comment left by Clockwork Rex:

 

To AlterAction and the creators of Masq,

 

I happen to be curious about Masq and wish to play it, having stumbled on a reccomendation of it from several years back. However, key parts of the experience seems to be disabled. The "masq67" executable file demands an internet connection, yet attempting to play always results in a "connectivity error." Meanwhile, alteraction.com itself seems to be defunct, accessible only via the wayback machine.

 

Is it at all possible to play Masq now? Can

 

 

Sincerely,

 

An interested player.

 

July 11, 2018 at 9:12 AM

[koleq]

> If anyone can offer any technical assistance for possibly data mining the game files, or some sort of loophole for playing the game online again, that would be immensely appreciated.

I have managed to get all the gamefile, even decompiled the code, but I can't really managed to compile the game because I have not enough experience with Macromedia Director 7,  the game is build on ShockWave.

 

I trying to either compile the game and remove the online DRM or make a private server (I have some progress on both but not enough to play the game)

if you want the game files, sprites, code, what ever please contact me, either here or discord Stocking#0321