Enter the Contested Zone, a labyrinth of bizarre and mysterious cyberworlds, where the future is now, and Big Daddy Mainframe is in control. Manipulating the minds of the online masses through his nasty neural nets, BDM is expanding his transplanetary empire and nothing will get in his way.
VNS Matrix sought to further develop their interactive CDROM ALL NEW GEN into a computer game that would be widely available. The artists received funding from the Australian Film Commission in 1997 to develop a prototype. The BAD CODE prototype is a stand-alone artwork and has been exhibited in exhibitions and festivals. The full game of BAD CODE has been scripted and a Producer was engaged to work with VNS Matrix to secure additional funding for the full game. To date the full game has not yet been realised…but…BAD CODE awaits….
BAD CODE: A futuristic quest game by VNS Matrix.
A game of strategy and intelligence, treading a fine line between artwork and commercial prototype, aiming to inject alternative narratives and characters in to a ‘shoot ’em up’ dominated games market.
- Time – Near Future
- Place – The Contested Zone
- Mission – To join the cyber terrorist All New Gen and the renegade tribes of the Contested Zone to sabotage the databanks of Big Daddy Mainframe and launch the New World Disorder
But resistance is not futile! All New Gen, an omnipresent being (computer virus, bio simsystem, intelligent mist) is on a mission with the renegade tribes to sabotage the info core of the insidious data dictator. All New Gen is assisted on her mission by the DNA Sluts, a band of renegade Sheroes; along with ferals, data deviants, cortex crones and code warriors.
By searching for the shards of the ancient digi-cryst hidden in the five worlds of the Zone – The Cybersquat, Futropolis, CorpusFantastica, Spiral Space and Big Daddy’s Domain – the player becomes a cyber renegade on an urgent mission to launch the New World Disorder.
Along the way the player encounters a band of superbabe sheroes, cryptic cybergoths, data deviants, cortex crones and formidable code warriors.
In the BAD CODE prototype the player visits the cyborg surgeon Dr Orlon in his voodoo clinic and constructs a gameplay body. The player is catapulted into The Cybersquat, a multi-story derelict warehouse, where s/he interacts with various video characters and gathers clues to find one shard of the digicryst.
DNA Sluts
The DNA Sluts are three renegade Supersheroes, abdicators from the oppressive Superhero regime, who have joined All New Gen in her fight against Big Daddy Mainframe. These Sheroes with attitude are slimy girls and they love dirty work, mixing business with pleasure as often as possible. The girls are: the Princess of Slime, Patina de Panties, and Dentata. The Sluts are very keen on genetic modification, and buy and sell performance enhancers to suit their needs. For example, Dentata is characterised by a voracious venus flytrap of a head, and Patina de Panties has appropriated fishlike characteristics which enable her to survive in different environments. The appetite of the Princess of Slime is legendary, as her vortex head is not choosy about who it consumes. Their favourite tool is the projectile slime gun, which spurts hostile mucus, especially virulent in contact with chrome, which it corrodes mercilessly!
They are cult heroines, and have continued to wage war against Big Daddy Mainframe, and are now part of the prototype BAD CODE interactive game.
Project Types
- Computer game
- Interactive CD-ROM
- Prototype
Project History
- 1996
- Award VNS Matrix awarded funding from Australian Film Commission to create a game prototype . Adelaide, Sydney, Australia
- 1997
- Production of Bad Code prototype . Adelaide, Sydney, Australia
- 1997
- CDROM installation Cybercultures Street Level. Casula Powerhouse, Sydney
- 1997
- CDROM installation MILIA. Australian Film Commission Pavilion, Cannes, France
- 1998
- CDROM installation Being Connected. Australian Film Commission conference, Melbourne
- 1999
- CDROM installation Axis exhibition / Gens and Digits conference. The Old Church, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Additional People
- Fiona Martin Sound Engineer
- John Tonkin Animation
- Isabelle Delmotte 3D Animation
- Leon Cmielewski Graphic Design
- David Cox Production Consultant
- Bridget McGraw Technical Consultancy
- Alistair Ferguson Technical Consultancy
- Showads Programming
- Noel Tovey Performer
- Derek Porter Performer
- Holdin Hope Performer
- Ewan Cameron Performer
- Maj Green Performer
- Glitter X Performer
- Raena Lea Shannon Legal Consultant
- David Furlow Stage 2 Producer
Events
- Producing Futures 2019
- Gens and Digits 1999
- SYNWORLD 1999
- Cyber Cultures 1997
- 5th International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) 1994
Attached Files
- Bad Code, VNS Matrix. A4 pitch document, 1997 [jpeg 962.66KB]
Publications
- The cyberfeminists who called themselves ‘the future cunt’ in Dazed, 2016
- techné cultures in RealTime, 1997
- Australian Women Artists & New Media Technologies in Mesh: Journal of Experimenta Media Arts, 1996