Two more episodes, and Paul is no longer a regular podcast host. On a side note, there will be no podcast next week due to scheduling conflicts.
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Lode Runner, a game many of us logged hundreds of hours upon. Lode Runner has a great deal of replay value thanks to its great map editor. The game was first published by Broderbund in 1983, but was first prototyped by Douglas Smith, an architecture student at the University of Washington.
The Lode Runner prototype was called Kong and was originally written for a Prime Computer 550 minicomputer on campus, but shortly after it was ported to the VAX minicomputer. Originally programmed in FORTRAN and utilized only ASCII character graphics (the most basic of characters).
In September of 1982 Smith was able to port it to the Apple II+ (in assembly language) and renamed it to Miner. In October of that same year he submitted a rough copy to Broderbund and he’s said to have received a one-line rejection letter, “Sorry, your game doesn’t fit into our product line; please feel free to submit future products.”
The original title had no joystick support and was developed in full black and white…not exactly exciting. So, Smith then borrowed money to purchase a color monitor and joystick and continued to improve the game. Around Christmas of 1982, he submitted the game, now renamed Lode Runner, to four publishers and quickly received offers from all four: Sierra, Sirius, Synergistic, and Brøderbund.
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One of the most famous classic gaming moves, Screw Attack, is one of Samus Aran’s best power suit moves in Metroid. It was powerful enough to kill most enemies by contact; one hit for one kill.
What makes this special attack at retro gaming classic is its well balanced game play style. Although Screw Attack is enormously powerful it required Samus to jump at full length to trigger. On more than one occasion gamers would use their Screw Attack to kill an enemy easy to find they don’t have a great platform to stand on and land in the lava, in a worse situation than they started.
Game developers knew they had a hit on their hands, as Screw Attack makes an appearance in many of the future Metroid games after the original NES release. The power up had the ability to trigger at will, if somersaulting of course, yet requires skill and respect to use to perfection.
Screw Attack gives gamers a nice piece of mind, knowing a risky jump won’t end you with a tap from a flying enemy and a bath in the lava. You could freely jump and destroy annoying little enemies whom have no other goal but to get in your way and slowly take away energy with each tiny hit.
On one hand Screw Attacks main purpose is to allow a gamer to jump through areas in levels quickly without an extreme annoyance from starter enemies strategically placed to add challenge. As Samus grows in power the beginning enemies aren’t the true threat and thus are wiped from the level as you go. You become more worried when encountering new, stronger enemies who cause real harm to you and your super suit.
This retro move is placed perfectly in level progression, making you feel a great sense of accomplishment when aquiring it (it’s not just another missile pack) and allows you to progress into deeper caverns without utter fear at every tap. Powerful enough to invoke when needed but weak enough to leave you vulnerable in closed quarter battle.
Screw Attack, a Retro Gaming Move.
In 1995 Ensemble Studios formed as an independent studio and kicked out a little game franchise known as Age of Empires. The title has received many accolades from the first in the franchise extended out to all the Age of Empires releases and spin-offs, all-in-all selling millions of copies.
Ensemble Studios had a mission “to create great games and a great place to work,” says Bruce Shelley from Ensemble Studios. Bruce Shelley also helped design Sid Meier’s Civilization and Railroad Tycoon with MicroProse prior to his work at Ensemble Studios. Now, however, he’s a bit upset at the closing of Ensemble Studios because they were profitable, created top-quality titles and had a great working environment.
Ensemble Studios, from his perspective at least, was a place you’d go to work and be happy with what you’re doing. When you’re working along nicely and become blind-sided by the news, it’s not surprising he didn’t take it lightly.
“Everyone at our studio was shocked, and I think remains very disappointed that this is going to happen. I believe we thought we were immune to shut-down talk because our published games have done so well and have been so profitable. Plus we felt we had built a really stable (low-turnover), talented, hard-working, and creative team, which is not easy to do. We thought we were among the best studios in the world, and that may be true, but we don’t fit in the future plans of MGS as an internal studio so we’re out.” (ensemblestudios.com)
What’s the future plans for Ensemble Studios? As we’ve stated before, they plan to live on in spirit, within the bounds of a new name and a new game plan. “I believe the spirit and mission of ES will be carried forward in this new company if enough of the key leaders agree to take part, which I expect to happen. There has been no announcement about what the new studio will be working on when it gets going,” says Shelley.
This is a horrible way to have to launch a hot new intellectual property. Usually creating a new title with a building fanbase would lead to excitement, parties and high hopes for the future of the franchise. Instead, people will be dusting off their resume in hopes to continue a life of game development.
Hopefully the leaders will indeed form a brand new company and build brand new hot products with their entire staff intact. Then, take their titles to a different publisher (besides Microsoft) and make some money and fans.
