Actual aliens or multiple personalities. Yep, those are the only options. He couldn't have, I dunno, just made the story up, that would be too far fetched!
don't forget the "ultimately we will never know for certain", or the "what I have deduced here may have been what actually happened" ... yes.. that, or, well, he made it all up and maybe sometime he'll admit it There's a lot of rhetoric in this video that sounds like it's coming from some conspiracy theorists rather than Kris himself
That's not how multiple personalities (or more accurately DID) works the personalities (More accurately alters) know each other exist. and it's not a "One is evil and kills people!" situation ether.
16:00 I think you're missing the most obvious explanation: he just made that story up... I don't think it's helpful to delve into psychology as a game developer ;-)
Not impossible, but I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt when I can, until they give me a reason to doubt them, and in this case in particular I felt I had figured out an explanation which served Sean's story while being within the realm of possible odds.
@@Pixelmusement or they made that up to sell the game (now I did read an alt story for this game at some point about person be turned into the ball by the aliens)
The author just wanted to create a mysterious background for the game that he later recognized was just silly. He obviously doesn't believe his own story. Anyway, this kind of strange game is always interesting. Sometimes I find it hard to find things that are really weird and different in the current indie scene that is both playable and fun.
The speculation really went off the deep end! I'd guess he simply wanted to extend his unconventional creativity to a whacky backstory. If it was anything far-out (short of aliens..) I'd think in terms of lesser dissociative stuff and not full-on Hollywood multiple personalities.
I think this is the most thorough video on Helious I've seen so far (even I didn't spend much time looking at the different video modes), though there are some things I'd like to add. The reason the dithering patterns in Helious' different video modes matches with Sean's other games is that the dithering is added automatically by Sean's game engine, called ROSCOE, which was reused for several games. Same goes for the palette. That might also be why the game doesn't play as well in non-VGA video modes, it's automatically converted by the engine so I imagine it wasn't thoroughly tested. Sean *does* remember creating the game (well, as much as anyone can remember creating a game 30 years ago) so although your theory is interesting, I'm afraid it's not accurate. The Z-order error on the tentacle thing is true, but I'm curious where you heard that. I heard it from Sean (and through reverse-engineering the game). I'm glad you got it right though, I've seen another video where they thought the cause was still unknown.
I didn't hear about the Z-order error anywhere, it just seemed like the logical result of what was going on given my own gamedev experience. Also, I didn't know that Sean actually figured things out about how this game came to be; must've missed where that info was posted. :o
@@Pixelmusement Makes sense. I spoke to Sean about it exactly 6 days before this video went up and had been talking about it a bit around that time, so that's why I was wondering (two other videos about Helious came out the same month as this one surprisingly enough, and those two were at least partially influenced by my posting). It is the logical conclusion though, since, as Sean described it: "it just looks sloppy". I haven't "officially" posted about my conversation with Sean nor about my reverse-engineering of Helious yet, that's probably why you haven't heard about it. I've only mentioned it in the unofficial Accursed Farms Discord server. Anyway, great video, I enjoyed your unique take on the Helious backstory! (For some reason I didn't get a notification about this reply, I would've responded earlier otherwise, sorry)
Most likely he made it up to get attention. Clones and aliens being involved is too implausible. The multiple personality disorder theory is actually plausible, but if his condition was genuine, it was clearly very serious. Probably serious enough to be noticed by someone and eventually diagnosed. Was he ever diagnosed with personality disorder to anyone's knowledge? Software development is competitive, so spinning a yarn like that will get people talking and bring attention to the game. It clearly works, as we're talking about it now 30 years later.
Theres a famicom game with slightly similar movement, but that one has a gun thing instead of air. But it has a supply all the same. Jeremy parish just covered it
I legitimately cannot tell if your story is meant to be parody or if you actually think DID is any more of a rational explanation than moon people clones.
I really found your interpretation of events to be profound, and yet interesting. It's sceptical, yet has an element of grounded fantasy to it. No matter what really happened, all we can do is speculate, as is so often the case of the distant past. What events inspired the Epic of Gilgamesh to be written? Who knows! As someone who is not neurotypical, the exploration of the depths of the mind always makes the inner gears turn within my mind.
i kinda like the backstory. i doubt he has multiple personality disorder though, still that'd be kind of a cool concept. but i think in those kind of cases, the two personalities are aware of each other. maybe they could communicate with each other via a game? interesting concept. don't quote me on any of this though, i'm not a psychiatrist lol. the "puzzle" in the main menu would be a super interesting idea as well.
I don't know a lot about it either; as said, it was ENTIRELY speculation on my part. I just felt it was potentially a more interesting explanation for the events Sean described compared to aliens. :B
Hi! Thanks for covering this childhood favorite that I rarely got to play, as someone else had it but not I. EDIT: I thought the balloon doesn't use air but helium. That is where the title comes from.
In the instructions it's specifically referred to as a "ball" with "air" inside. I refer to the ball as a "balloon" here because it kinda makes more sense thematically, and while "Helium" may be the reference of the title, there's other possible references too, such as to Helios/Helius the sun god. :B
Yep! It was one of the first of his reviews I checked out when I discovered his channel a long while back as it was one of those games I distinctly remembered playing back in the 90s! :B
I've got some internet friends with DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) and they say that DID is a traumatic condition. I have some internet friends with multiple personalities that don't manifest from trauma, but they share conciousness (a bit like hotseat multiplayer on a PC game). That's commonly called Plurality. Maybe he literally just slept-coded. So he's still him, but unconciously doing so. People sleep-eat and sleep sex afterall.
1st (what's my prize) (keep in mind I hate "first" comments too, I only did this because Pixelmusement usually responds with a "prize" for these types of comments)
Congrats on being first! The prize this time around is... 50,000 ants! Guaranteed to be shipped in the most natural and most green way possible... by allowing the ants to walk the whole distance! Estimated time of arrival to your home: 52,726 Days! :D
It's always aliens. For instance, they break into my house, eat all the chocolate, and then _I_ get the blame!
Crafty alien jerks always go for the Mars bars, too >:3
Actual aliens or multiple personalities. Yep, those are the only options. He couldn't have, I dunno, just made the story up, that would be too far fetched!
don't forget the "ultimately we will never know for certain", or the "what I have deduced here may have been what actually happened" ... yes.. that, or, well, he made it all up and maybe sometime he'll admit it
There's a lot of rhetoric in this video that sounds like it's coming from some conspiracy theorists rather than Kris himself
He’s following along with the story for the fun of it. Helious isn’t that exciting when it’s just, some weird game made by some weird dude.
It's also possible Sean had one too many mushrooms.
Nah. You're thinkin' o' that one plumbah an' his beanpole of a brothah.
What types of mushrooms did he get? Asking for a friend.
@@jasonc3a I dunno, but whatever they were, I'm pretty sure he was microDOSing.
Pretty sure he was trippin while making the game. It's the best way to get bat shit insane concepts in games and movies!
That's not how multiple personalities (or more accurately DID) works the personalities (More accurately alters) know each other exist. and it's not a "One is evil and kills people!" situation ether.
16:00 I think you're missing the most obvious explanation: he just made that story up... I don't think it's helpful to delve into psychology as a game developer ;-)
Not impossible, but I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt when I can, until they give me a reason to doubt them, and in this case in particular I felt I had figured out an explanation which served Sean's story while being within the realm of possible odds.
@@Pixelmusement or they made that up to sell the game (now I did read an alt story for this game at some point about person be turned into the ball by the aliens)
The author just wanted to create a mysterious background for the game that he later recognized was just silly. He obviously doesn't believe his own story.
Anyway, this kind of strange game is always interesting. Sometimes I find it hard to find things that are really weird and different in the current indie scene that is both playable and fun.
You shouldn't make statements of facts about people you have no idea about. At all.
The speculation really went off the deep end!
I'd guess he simply wanted to extend his unconventional creativity to a whacky backstory.
If it was anything far-out (short of aliens..) I'd think in terms of lesser dissociative stuff and not full-on Hollywood multiple personalities.
Definitely aliens and if Sean says otherwise then he's obviously been replaced by a clone.
What if the aliens themselves were replaced with clones by Sean?
I think this is the most thorough video on Helious I've seen so far (even I didn't spend much time looking at the different video modes), though there are some things I'd like to add.
The reason the dithering patterns in Helious' different video modes matches with Sean's other games is that the dithering is added automatically by Sean's game engine, called ROSCOE, which was reused for several games. Same goes for the palette. That might also be why the game doesn't play as well in non-VGA video modes, it's automatically converted by the engine so I imagine it wasn't thoroughly tested.
Sean *does* remember creating the game (well, as much as anyone can remember creating a game 30 years ago) so although your theory is interesting, I'm afraid it's not accurate.
The Z-order error on the tentacle thing is true, but I'm curious where you heard that. I heard it from Sean (and through reverse-engineering the game). I'm glad you got it right though, I've seen another video where they thought the cause was still unknown.
I didn't hear about the Z-order error anywhere, it just seemed like the logical result of what was going on given my own gamedev experience. Also, I didn't know that Sean actually figured things out about how this game came to be; must've missed where that info was posted. :o
@@Pixelmusement Makes sense. I spoke to Sean about it exactly 6 days before this video went up and had been talking about it a bit around that time, so that's why I was wondering (two other videos about Helious came out the same month as this one surprisingly enough, and those two were at least partially influenced by my posting). It is the logical conclusion though, since, as Sean described it: "it just looks sloppy".
I haven't "officially" posted about my conversation with Sean nor about my reverse-engineering of Helious yet, that's probably why you haven't heard about it. I've only mentioned it in the unofficial Accursed Farms Discord server. Anyway, great video, I enjoyed your unique take on the Helious backstory!
(For some reason I didn't get a notification about this reply, I would've responded earlier otherwise, sorry)
@@duuqnd 10 hours is not that long of a turnaround really for a RUclips reply. I've sometimes seen them take YEARS. ;D
Why don't the aliens ever do my work for me?
You need to ask politely. Also, make sure you have an intergalactic broadcast tower suitable for transmission over at least 100 light years. :P
Most likely he made it up to get attention. Clones and aliens being involved is too implausible. The multiple personality disorder theory is actually plausible, but if his condition was genuine, it was clearly very serious. Probably serious enough to be noticed by someone and eventually diagnosed. Was he ever diagnosed with personality disorder to anyone's knowledge?
Software development is competitive, so spinning a yarn like that will get people talking and bring attention to the game. It clearly works, as we're talking about it now 30 years later.
I dunno, Kris. I think the alien story is the most probable explanation here.
Maybe the answer to Helious is the friends we've made along the way :)
Theres a famicom game with slightly similar movement, but that one has a gun thing instead of air. But it has a supply all the same. Jeremy parish just covered it
I remember Helious.
I legitimately cannot tell if your story is meant to be parody or if you actually think DID is any more of a rational explanation than moon people clones.
My own suspicion is that Sean was high on psychotropics when he made these games.
Not impossible! I'm just going by what info he's offered up publicly, so for that to be true would mean he was hiding that fact. :B
I really found your interpretation of events to be profound, and yet interesting. It's sceptical, yet has an element of grounded fantasy to it. No matter what really happened, all we can do is speculate, as is so often the case of the distant past. What events inspired the Epic of Gilgamesh to be written? Who knows!
As someone who is not neurotypical, the exploration of the depths of the mind always makes the inner gears turn within my mind.
i kinda like the backstory. i doubt he has multiple personality disorder though, still that'd be kind of a cool concept. but i think in those kind of cases, the two personalities are aware of each other. maybe they could communicate with each other via a game? interesting concept. don't quote me on any of this though, i'm not a psychiatrist lol. the "puzzle" in the main menu would be a super interesting idea as well.
I don't know a lot about it either; as said, it was ENTIRELY speculation on my part. I just felt it was potentially a more interesting explanation for the events Sean described compared to aliens. :B
The original ARG.
Maybe Sean was just Drugged while making this game. This is the way, Black Sabbath wrote their songs.
I want to believe
The truth is out there
I like it. It doesn't require as much use of language like Myst.
All I can think of when I see this game is that one time Vinesauce Joel read the backstory to this game in the 'Top 15 Scariest Videos' voice. XP
I always read Sean Puckett as "Yow Pukkeh" thanks to him.
Hi! Thanks for covering this childhood favorite that I rarely got to play, as someone else had it but not I.
EDIT: I thought the balloon doesn't use air but helium. That is where the title comes from.
In the instructions it's specifically referred to as a "ball" with "air" inside. I refer to the ball as a "balloon" here because it kinda makes more sense thematically, and while "Helium" may be the reference of the title, there's other possible references too, such as to Helios/Helius the sun god. :B
@@Pixelmusement Oh, I didn't know that. Thanks for the explanation! (I mean the instructions. I know that Helios is the sun god.)
So Sean is the Moon Knight/Marc Spector/Steven Grant of DOS game developer.
You had way too much fun interpreting the story. 😛
I mean, you can't NOT talk about it when talking about this game. :P
Have you seen Scott Ross's review of these games?
Yep! It was one of the first of his reviews I checked out when I discovered his channel a long while back as it was one of those games I distinctly remembered playing back in the 90s! :B
@@Pixelmusement Well if there's no ending, I guess he's never going to see it footage of it.
Nor will it ever signal the mothership to come take him away. :P
@@Pixelmusement Eh, that bit of code probably doesn't emulate on DOSBox properly. I doubt it would have worked.
@@lilwyvern4 or even on later faster systems running dos.
Hello fellow insomniacs 😂
_Literal_ Alienware
Pixelmusement could you do a special adg episode when you get to adg episode 300 to celebrate getting to adg episode 300
I've got some internet friends with DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) and they say that DID is a traumatic condition. I have some internet friends with multiple personalities that don't manifest from trauma, but they share conciousness (a bit like hotseat multiplayer on a PC game). That's commonly called Plurality.
Maybe he literally just slept-coded. So he's still him, but unconciously doing so. People sleep-eat and sleep sex afterall.
Bananoid...
The game seems actually interesting, but the music is *horrible*. So annoying! lol
вообще то я Helious че это за ноунейм
1st (what's my prize)
(keep in mind I hate "first" comments too, I only did this because Pixelmusement usually responds with a "prize" for these types of comments)
Congrats on being first! The prize this time around is... 50,000 ants! Guaranteed to be shipped in the most natural and most green way possible... by allowing the ants to walk the whole distance! Estimated time of arrival to your home: 52,726 Days! :D
@@Pixelmusement Wow! Can't wait
@@Pixelmusement ANTS! ANTS! ANTS! ANTS! ANTS! ANTS! ANTS! ANTS! ANTS! ANTS! ANTS! ANTS!
You get to become a shovelware game