6/24/20 - It's Probably Over

Hi Everyone,

I never posted an update last year and that is because I never heard back from Dianne.  I tried contacting her multiple times over a period of a few months, leaving messages, but never got a callback.  I want to respect her privacy so, I do not want to call her again and keep bothering her.

There are only two possibilities at this point.

1. The footage, The 11th Hour source code disks, and other Trilobyte treasures are gone forever.  They were brought to the dump about 4 years ago now and will never be found.  Heck, some of the items may have gone to an electronics recycling facility and been completely wiped.  Even if not, finding the items in the dump and them being in-tact are VERY slim.
2. Dianne does have the material and is not willing to part with it or to speak further on the matter.  There could be multiple reasons for this including anything from nostalgia, distrust, or just wanting her privacy.

I am still debating one other path.  While I have undergone this journey with the permission of Rob Landeros, I do not work for him or Trilobyte.  What I could do is find Dianne's address and send an honest-to-God snail mail letter explaining that fact and that I would pay for her to send anything she has to me directly, and pay to archive/digitize it out of my own pocket.

Granted, I believe I'd still need to return everything to Trilobyte as legally it is their intellectual property.  However, it might give Dianne more peace of mind to know that the material is in the hands of someone who cares, doesn't seek to profit off of it, and is archiving the material in some fashion.

The only other options are ones I've discussed previously and would be painful at best, impossible at the worst.  I could try working with the extracted video frames, build a custom AI model specifically designed to correct and upscale blocky footage, and try that.  However, I am not knowledgable with AI modeling and creating the sample set alone would be a HUGE effort.

Regardless, it was a great experience getting to connect with so many people tied to the game.  For better or for worse.  If anyone knows Dianne personally and would feel comfortable asking her about the footage, by all means, please do so and then reach out to me.  Even then, the footage may be lost forever.  Luckily we are still left with the legacy of The 7th Guest, and the game itself to enjoy.

4/29/19 - The Waiting is the Hardest Part

I left Dianne a message this week seeing how things were going.  As I mentioned in my post from a couple of weeks ago, I don't want to put too much pressure on her.  You don't randomly call a stranger about stuff they may or may not have in their house and just demand "drop everything in your life and look for this stuff".

I've been thinking about the future possibilities for T7G and T11H.  I'll note that these are just my thoughts and do not reflect the business plans of Trilobyte LLC nor of Attic Door Productions.  I'll also note that if the original footage does still exist, I have no legal rights to it and the footage will likely go directly to Trilobyte, LLC as it is their property.

If The Footage Exists

Once again, I have no real say in what happens if the footage does exist.  However, I would talk to Rob and see what he thinks about the following:

1. Digitally Capture the VHS Tapes

This is an obvious and a must.  I'm pretty sure that if the tapes exist, this is a high priority for Trilobyte and fans alike.  There would be no debate on this one, although, you'd need to find a good company that will ensure they use a VHS deck with similar tracking encoding as the original VHS camera.  They also would need to capture the audio and video in LOSSLESS quality and not in the compressed versions often used with personal digital video capture services.

2. Publicly Release Some or All of the Footage in Original Quality

This is a dicey area.  The footage is Trilobyte's property.  It isn't something that fans have a "claim" to.  It represents possibilities for future revenue for the company.  Just "releasing" it to the public on Archive.org might not be the best thing for business plans.  That being said, I see two potential options.

- Release ALL the Footage in Original Quality on Archive.org

This is UNLIKELY but, is something I wish would happen.  Despite the footage being Trilobyte's property, it was "lost" for 20+ years.  Putting the footage on Archive.org would ensure that this piece of gaming history is preserved.  It also would give fans the ability to see all of the outtakes and deleted scenes in their original VHS quality.

- Release Select Outtakes and Behind the Scenes Footage on Archive.org

This is a more realistic ask of Trilobyte.  The fact is, there may be deleted scenes the company could use in new/revised versions of the games.  We have technology today that wasn't even a thought back in 1993!  However, there would be no risk to the company bottom line if they released outtakes of known scenes and random behind the scenes conversations, director instructions, and other fun things like that.  This would at least provide fans with unique detail into the filming process for the game(s) without actually giving away the stuff that could turn a profit.

3. Upscale the Footage and Textures (if they exist) to HD

This is another OBVIOUS move.  If the video footage and possibly the original textures for the games exist, they need to be upscaled to HD because this would allow for the creation of a remastered version of the games.  The question would be, what is the best way to do this?  Here are some options:

- A Commercial Solution

Trilobyte hires a company to upscale the video footage and old textures using some level of proprietary technology.  The advantage here would be the expertise of the company in doing this kind of work and would likely have good results with minimal effort on the part of Trilobyte itself.  The problem is, it costs a lot of money to have a company properly interpolate and upscale old video footage and textures.

- An Open Source, AI-Driven Customizable Solution

The ESRGAN AI Engine is open source and is used to upscale game textures.  It is easy to use and relatively easy to train for custom applications.  It requires time and a medium to high-end computer.  The only down-side is that it would require hardware and someone to train the models, both for upscaling the video and for upscaling game texures.  Granted, ESRGAN has some amazing models already for texture upscaling but, it is always better to customize a model to fit the specific kind of textures or video that is being worked with.  This might be a cheaper option, even with the cost of custom hardware and the time necessary to train custom models.  The custom models would yield better results as they would be trained to do SPECIFICALLY what Trilobyte needs them to do.

4. Re-Create Updated Versions of the Games

This would be a potential end goal if the footage could be found and upscaled.  It would be possible to literally re-create the original games, possibly with the inclusion of new or alternate scenes.  The games could be kept point and click or could be moved into a "free-move" environment.  Either way, the games could be re-created as they were originally intended using modern technology.  Think of the idea as T7G and T11H director's cut editions.  Of course, there could also be play modes that remove the extra or changed scenes and just allow the player to experience a modern version of the classic games.

If the Footage Doesn't Exist

Right now this is a high possibility.  What can be done if the footage doesn't exist and is in a trash or recycling center?

1. Call the Medford Area Transfer Stations

It's worth a shot.  However, I doubt that anyone would know where a box of old tapes and CDs were buried 2-3 years ago.  If they were sent to a recycling center, they would have been wiped and shredded.  But, hey, maybe someone saw the box, saw Trilobyte's name, and took the stuff.  It would be worth trying anyway.

2. Try to Upscale What Exists

It is possible to export all of the video and audio assets out of The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour!  The problem is getting the stuff back INTO the games.  Even then, the games would need to be re-coded/re-written, which is a daunting task to say the least.

It MIGHT be possible to take the original game assets and move them into a more modern development engine/environment.  That would still mean re-coding all the puzzles and some of the animations from scratch.

- But What About the BlueScreen Quality on T7G?

Getting better images out of the T7G data we have is a unique challenge.  While modern video compositing applications could work miracles with the old VHS blue-butcher-paper bluescreen footage, without it we are stuck with 640 x 320 video with very little detail.

The only way I can think of to improve that footage is to train a very specialized ESRGAN model.  To do this, you'd take the better footage from The 11th Hour and footage from other better bluescreen FMV games from the same era.  You'd then intentionally create a mask around ONLY the actors in the FMV videos and pixelate/distort them as much as possible.  This would train the model to attempt extrapolating/inventing the missing data of the actors.

It wouldn't be foolproof or guaranteed.  It likely would take a LOT of iterations to create the model and it would take manually doctoring/messing up thousands of FMV images.  In short, it would be a TON of work, and might not even get great results.  It still might be worth trying.

The rest of the game footage without FMV scenes is easy enough to attempt AI upscaling.  The models/textures are fairly normal by today's standards.  The AI engine might even be able to add more detail by training it on better wood, marble, and other such textures used in the games.

3. Just Be Happy With What We Have

At some point it is just best to let a sleeping dog lie.  While I'm personally tempted to try getting more detail out of the existing T7G FMV scenes using AI, it would be a ton of work.  I'd be willing to do it just to try it out, however, if the process didn't yield good results I wouldn't want to go back and try again.  Even if it DID yield OK results, it would be a large effort to upscale every frame of every video.

At best, I could stitch a "movie" together of the footage but, it likely wouldn't be worth trying to re-code or re-create the original games.  Yes, we may be able to upscale the video footage from the original games but, a "movie" is probably all we'd get out of the experience.

----

So, those are my thoughts as to the potential future regarding The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour.  With the video footage a lot of interesting doors get opened.  Without the original footage there is still some possibility of AI-assisted upscaling but, with very limited applications.

I'll keep everyone updated with any new developments regarding the footage.  As always thank you for your attention and support.

Update 4/12/19 - The Beginning of the End?

Hi Everyone,

As you know, this quest is a long on and off journey into gaming history obscurity.  The quest, to find the original video footage and any other assets from The 7th Guest, The 11th Hour, and other Trilobyte Inc. properties.

20+ Years is a LONG Time

It is difficult to find or even expect people who retain work from over 20 years ago.  I was 15, going on 16 in 1999.  I can't think of one item that I've retained from those days.

That being said, I've made some progress moving forward.

Earlier this year I tracked down some of those who worked most closely with the original footage.  None of them had any copies or materials related to the work.

I didn't do much searching after that.  Life gets in the way, and this is purely a one-person volunteer effort.

A Renewal of Interest

Last week the 25th Anniversary Edition of The 7th Guest launched.  It inspired me to continue digging.  Specifically, I wanted to track down Diane Moses/Watson.  Dianne seemed to be the potential key to everything.  She was, among other things, the office manager for Trilobyte, Inc. during its entire existence.  If anyone would know where stuff was, it would be her.

So, I dusted off my Google skills and decided to have another run at things.  After several hours and some weird free people search sites later, I tracked down what I thought were some good leads.  95% of them were wrong and lead to disconnected phone numbers, disconnected email accounts, and wrong numbers.  Out of curiosity, I decided to try one last phone number before I went back to the drawing board.  I left a message, expecting nobody to return the call.

The Beginning of the End

The call I made on a whim paid off!  Dianne was nice enough to call me back and leave me a voicemail.  It WAS the correct Dianne, although, she has a different last name now.  I called her back and we had a good chat about Trilobyte, and that I wasn't the first person to ever call her out of the blue about the good old days.

In the course of our conversation, she gave me both some amazing and devastating news.  She was the one who had the videos and a bunch of other Trilobyte materials!  The bad news, she thinks she threw all of them away a couple of years ago.

Now, Dianne wasn't sure if she did or didn't throw away the box of Trilobyte treasures.  She is going to look and see if she still has them and get back to me.  

On one side of things, I can 100% understand someone getting rid of something over 25 years old, especially when nobody had asked about it.  (Yes, NOBODY had asked her about the footage in 25 years)  On the other side, I REALLY hope that she didn't throw it away and just thought that she did.  The material she had is a piece of gaming history and wasn't the only treasure in the Trilobyte box.

If she does have these assets, they will end up going to Rob Landeros at Trilobyte.  I hope to continue talking with him about preserving this footage both for the fans and for Trilobyte use.  Obviously, with today's technology, it's easier to apply masks and keys to the worst bluescreen footage.  It's also possible to upscale the video to HD, especially with the advent of new AI-based tools like Waifu2x-caffe.

If the footage still exists I hope Rob might include me in the preservation efforts, and allow me to make the full contents, outtakes, and deleted scenes, available to the fans.  It might not be that simple due to IP rights, but, that was my original goal.

I'm going to give Dianne space in the meantime.  I'll check back with her in a couple of weeks or a month.  It's been 25 years, surely we can wait a while longer.

But What If...

What if everything was thrown away?  Well, the only thing I can do is contact the dump in the hopes that they might know where something like this would be buried 2-3 years ago.  That is presuming the footage didn't go to an electronics recycling facility and that a garbage dump would know where they were dumping things.

This isn't like the Atari ET cartridge find, where thousands of cartridges were buried and someone remembered where they were.  This is a random box in a garbage dump, and over 2-3 years who knows if the contents would even be worth finding.

Yes, I can dream that someone at the dump saw the stuff, knew what it was, and set it aside.  But, there is a high chance that all of the footage is lost forever.

Let this be a lesson to game developers and companies.  Archive everything.  If you get sick of holding on to it, put it on Archive.org or somewhere that will preserve things for you.  If you are someone from the 90s era of gaming and have raw footage or audio, get it preserved for the sake of the fans of your work.  You never know how it might be able to inspire others and possibly be a road to a better tomorrow for you. 

Update 1/1/19

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I got some responses to my emails from Christmas eve!  The first was from Keith Ranney, who indicated that he didn't have any access to the original game footage.  However, he did state that some of the masking work was farmed out to a team in Ashland, OR.  I did look at the credits in the game again and tracked down some members of that team. (I think it is CyberROM Technologies)

Stephen Clarke-Wilson also got back to me via Facebook and said that Virgin never got access to the original video footage.  However, he did find some still photos from the shoot/production itself!  He's trying to find a way to scan/upload them and when he does I'll be happy to share them here.

Today I reached out to Andrew Anderson who did some of the video work on the game.  Andy still does graphic design and video work.  He has taught some of the best people in the industry today as you can see from his website: http://www.realandy.com/index.html .  Andy got back to me and said that he doesn't think that he has much, if anything from the original game but, he is going to check his attic and see what pops up.

I did reach out to Verin Lewis who worked with Andy at CyberROM Technologies Inc.  That was back on the 24th of December.  I haven't heard back from either of his email addresses but, will continue to try in the new year.

One person I can't track down is Dianne Watson.  She would likely be the key to unraveling a lot of the mystery behind Trilobyte and other "lost" video assets that might exist.  However, there is little or no trace of her online that I can find.

Debra Ritz-Mason played Martine Burden and was the Talent Director on The 7th Guest.  Sadly, she is deceased.  She belonged to a company called the Rogue River Motion Picture Company.  I haven't been able to find anything about that group so far.  They may no longer exist and I don't know if the company would know anything about the tape itself.

So, a lot to think about for 2019!

Thanks again for following this blog and my progress!

-Chris

Some Additional Sleuthing - 12/24/18

Hi Everyone,

I've had very little time to spend working on this quest during the year, although I've made some occasional follow-ups.  The 13th Doll will finally be done sometime in Q1 of 2019!  I can't wait to see the overall reaction.

Now What?

I looked at the original credits of The 7th Guest and attempted to contact the following people today:

• David Luehmann
• Dr. Stephen Clarke-Wilson
• David Bishop (Virgin)
• Keith Ranney
• Verin Lewis

I'm hoping that maybe one of them might be able to point me in the right direction.  So far all leads have been to dead ends but have sparked great conversations.

Update 1-10-18

Hey Everyone,

Unfortunately, I had to put a pause on my quest for the past several months.  My time is limited and The 13th Doll project is really gearing up for our launch on Halloween this year.  I've also been doing a lot of extra things at work and just haven't had the time and energy for amateur sleuthing.

This is not abandoned by any stretch, and I have even occasionally been looking into software/hardware for capture and/or upscaling of older video footage.  Some options expensive, others on the lower end side of things.

Back to July 2017...

So I did hear back from Howard Schreiber back in the summer.  He checked his storage location for footage of The 11th Hour.  While he wasn't able to find anything related to The 11th Hour, he was able to find the original video transfer from film for Tender Loving Care.  I let Rob L. know about that!

Howard was also kind enough to recommend contacting/finding:

• Calvin Kennedy - Freedom Films (11th hour cinematographer)
• David Wheeler (11th Hour director)
• Sean McCoy - Oregon Sound Recording

I had made an initial attempt to contact David Wheeler and never heard back from that email address.  I'll have to continue to pursue that connection.

I can't remember if I was able to find any contact information for Calvin Kennedy or for Sean McCoy.  I'm not even sure that Freedom Films and Oregon Sound Recording still exist based on my searches.  However, I will continue to pursue those avenues for finding The 11th Hour footage.

What about footage from The 7th Guest?

On another front, I may have found a link between Diane Moses and Dianne Watson.  First off, I'm not sure why the old Gamespot interview had her listed with one n and other records have two.  However, I was able to track down some old business filings from Trilobyte Inc.  Some of this information is considered to be public record in Oregon, including the name of the "secretary" of the corporation.  I'm beginning to believe that they are the same person but, one name was a maiden name.

That being said, there is still more searching to be done.  I did call a random number listed for a Diane Moses in the Medford area of Oregon but, never got any response.  I apologize to that individual for the random messages on their machine back in the summer.

What's Next?

As I said, right now my time is extremely limited.  The 13th Doll is in full marketing planning mode and it has been a ton of fun and work getting things ready for the eventual launch.  We really have a great team and it has been a pleasure to be part of the project.

Obviously, I have more contacts to track down if this is ever to be successful.  I will also need to reach out to people from whom I didn't receive any responses in the summer.  I don't like "hassling" people and I think 6 months or more is plenty of buffer between contact attempts.

Lastly, I need to work on "marketing" this quest.  I know that I am just one person with limited time and resources.  The more people I can get involved, the better things will be.

So, lots to do but, don't expect a ton of regular updates right now.  I will continue to plug along as I can.  The end goal remains the same, find as much of the original video and audio assets from The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour, archive them, and make them available to fans.  A side goal is to upscale the footage to HD but, again, that can be a costly proposition as it is hard to extrapolate pixels from data that doesn't exist.

Thanks again,

Chris

The Quest for The 7th Guest is the unofficial hunt for the original video and audio footage from The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour games.  To provide information/aide in the quest Click Here.

A Potential Lead- 6/30/17

Hi Everyone,

I apologize it has been a while since the last update.  This is all being done in my free time with limited research/stalking experience so, it all takes time.

Since we last touched base, I had hit a bit of a dead end.  I'm not the most persistent person when it comes to ideas/quests.  I tend to go through an excited phase, burn through my energy, and then lose interest.  Luckily for me, the internet has a LONG tail on delayed communications.

I've connected with several people tied directly to The 11th Hour.  Most recently, I've heard from Greg Goodrich senior producer for The 11th Hour and CEO of Pound Sand games.  He was extremely kind and said he thought David Wheeler and/or Graeme might be the best resources in my hunt.  He even shared a bit about his time with John Hurt during the filming of Tender Loving Care.

I also heard from James Yokota, currently of Cypress Digital Media, and producer on The 11th Hour.  He too, echoed that David Wheeler, along with Graeme, and Howard Schreiber would be the best bet for finding any video footage from the Trilobyte days.  James has also been very open with what he knows.  He advised that the footage he knew about was on Digital Beta, which is still used today in some production circles and has a pretty high overall bitrate considering the age of the format.

However, the big break may have been with Howard Schreiber.  I had messaged Howard on LinkedIn last week but, never heard back.  After getting the recommendation from James, I did a little more digging and found an email address for Mr. Schreiber.  I sent him an email and he responded that he had actually tried to contact me on LinkedIn.  I never got the message.

Howard let me know that he MAY have some of the original footage from The 11th Hour in storage.  He won't have an opportunity to look into it until the end of July at the earliest, however, it is the first major lead/hit in this journey!  I am trying not to get too excited because, who knows how much of the footage Howard has or if there is none at all.  We'll have to wait and see!

In the meantime, I'm also trying to figure out what will happen if this footage is all found.  Will Rob want me to send it directly to him, or will he want me to figure out the re-capture and potential up-scaling of the footage?  Even more importantly, other than preservation and sharing with other fans, what else might be a good use of the footage?  It's thinking about a future that may never come but, it keeps me going for sure.

I'm nervous about trying Graeme for more information on Facebook or elsewhere.  I've been told by several people that he isn't as open about the Trilobyte days, and honestly, I can understand that.  However, he may also have some of the footage or may know who does.  I also haven't yet found a reliable way to get through to David Wheeler, who would definitely have an idea on what became of all the footage.  Although, I secretly am hoping that when Howard said "some", it might turn out to be a majority instead.

I can dream right?

Anyway, I hope this update is as exciting for you as it was for me and again, any encouragement or contact tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris

The Quest for The 7th Guest is the unofficial hunt for the original video and audio footage from The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour games.  To provide information/aide in the quest Click Here.