Fahrenheit
ファーレンハイト
This post on Substack is dedicated to those who have died during the Southern California wildfires.
I’m Fire Commissioner Cory Roberts1. Are you ready to feel the heat with the second FMV game released in 1995 on the Sega CD and Sega 32X on Substack? We call it Fahrenheit. Get it while it’s hot!
Developed primarily as a 32X CD title, it also saw a release on the Sega CD, where it was the same game, but with downgraded video quality. Both versions were bundled and sold together as one package for the North American release, while Japan and Europe only saw the Sega CD version released. Domenic Troiano (deceased 2005) is the game’s composer, and Lou Nadeau performed “Feel The Heat”, the song featured in the game. Production (and filming) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Fahrenheit is one of the many full-motion video games released for the Sega CD in the 1990s. Played through a first-person perspective it follows a rookie firefighter belonging to a fictional firehouse called “Company 13”. After an introduction exposition scene, the player advances to the first of three burning buildings (i.e., a house, an apartment (actually a hotel), and a college service basement) to rescue victims and property while disposing of potential hazards (explosives, kerosene, gas valves, etc.). As the player wanders through each building, an on-screen menu will pop up, allowing movement to the left, right, or forward. The game is timed, so decisions must be made quickly or the computer will make the (wrong) decisions for the player. In addition to this, the player has a limited supply of oxygen.
The game has three different levels of difficulty and a password feature. Dentsu and Tohokushinsha Film Corporation took care of the Japanese dub voices for the game, and Yoko Kodera took care of the game’s script translation into Japanese. The game’s Japanese cast in the Japanese release is the following:
Chief Chavez: Nobuo Tanaka (deceased 2018)
Firefighter McGuire: Yuko Mizutani2 (deceased 2016)
Firefighter Hobbs: Tessho Genda
Firefighter “Stinky” Stinkowski: Mitsuo Senda (deceased 2023)
Firefighter Washington: Akio Otsuka
The Distressed Father / The Hotel Manager: Masaaki Tsukada3 (deceased 2014)
Mrs. O’Hara: Sayuri Sadaoka
The Veteran / Nigel Amphil: Atsushi Ii (aka Yoshio Tanaka, deceased 2020)
Dr. Hatcher: Yasuo Muramatsu (deceased 2024)
The Daughter in Burning House: Emi Nomoto (aka Natsumi Asaoka; Helen Scott, the character’s portrayer of the game, does not have a speaking role)
The game’s title is what we use in America (and a few countries) for temperature units (I’m American, as I’m still learning metric units). Most countries (including Canada and Japan) use metric units.
Before I leave, here are some fire safety tips:
Turn off or unplug any unused appliances if you don’t want them to catch fire.
Look out for your younger (half- or step-) siblings (brothers/sisters) and make sure they don’t go near the fire or any other heat source such as heaters or stoves.
Make sure you have functioning fire alarms or fire sprinkler systems in your home.
If your home or a public place has elevators and/or stairs, check that the elevators and/or stairs are up to the fire code. Don’t forget the fire extinguisher!
Don’t forget to clean the lint from your dryer.
The author is not.
Yuko Mizutani was both the original Sora Takenouchi and the Japanese dub voice of Minnie Mouse (Digimon and the Disney universe respectively)
Tsukada is the late husband of Dragon Ball star Masako Nozawa.