Original: Amiga / Atari ST · 1991
Éric Chahi built it essentially alone over two years, in polygons rather than sprites — which is precisely why it ported to almost everything, and why almost every version looks right.
Another World was designed by Éric Chahi and published by Delphine Software in November 1991, released in North America as Out of This World. Chahi developed it largely by himself across roughly two years, with Jean-François Freitas contributing the soundtrack, and it originally ran on the Amiga and Atari ST at 320×200. Its technical foundation is what makes its porting history remarkable. Rather than pixel-art sprites, Chahi built the game from filled vector polygons, animated with rotoscoped motion. That decision has two consequences. Visually, it gives the game its distinctive austere, cinematic look — clean shapes, stark silhouettes, no texture noise — which is why it has aged far better than its sprite-based contemporaries. Structurally, it means the game is largely resolution-independent and hardware-agnostic, since polygons can be redrawn at whatever fidelity a machine supports. Interplay handled conversions to the Super NES and Apple IIGS in 1992, and the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1993, and also produced a 3DO version with substantially reworked, far more detailed backgrounds and a new soundtrack. It has since been ported to nearly every platform in existence. Amiga World named it the top new Amiga game of 1992, and Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it Most Innovative New Game of the year.
The original release at 320×200, developed almost single-handedly by Éric Chahi.
Converted by Interplay as Out of This World; adds content and is widely regarded as one of the best versions.
An impressive conversion given the hardware, benefiting from the polygon-based rendering.
A solid conversion, though the more restricted palette is noticeable against the SNES version.
Significantly more detailed, reworked backgrounds and an entirely new soundtrack.