Game Developers Conference

[Avram]

Yesterday I attended the Lucasfilm talk at GDC, and then the Robotron talk later that day. I didn't have much time for questions but I found out some cool trivia from both speakers.

 

I approached David Fox as he was leaving and asked him about Rescue on Fractalus and its origins as a Star Wars game. Apparently, he had originally wanted to make a game set in the Star Wars universe called Rebel Rescue but wasn't allowed to because Lucasfilm typically sold the game rights to other other companies, which forced them to come up with their own IP (which ultimately was a better outcome as it meant they weren't restricted by the rules of the Star Wars universe). I can't remember the details of his original concept but I think he said it wouldn't have differed from ROF all that much.

 

I also asked him why Lucasfilm made four great games for the Atari and then concentrated on the C64 - was it piracy? He said it was simply that the Commodore became the much more popular machine.

 

The Robotron talk with Eugene Jarvis was also really interesting. Again, I only had a little time before a meeting I needed to get to but I was able to ask him why he developed Robotron for the arcade, and then used an Atari 8-bit for the sequel Blaster. "Well," he said, "the Atari was an awesome machine!"

[kiwilove]

I will take a guess that most people would not know that David Fox - co-wrote a book titled 'Computer Animation Primer' that has a lot of program listings in it - for the Atari 800. The big demo in it, I think it's called the Hollywood? demo - has a man walking, truck, tree and a car passing by in parallax smooth scrolling - while the graphics may be of 2600 resolution - I still rate it as a very nice demo. The other half of the book covers the latest computer graphics of high end machines/etc.

Jarvis's most highly rated game would be his Defender - which should be played without a joystick - but with buttons only --- as that is the only way that shows how hard this game was - back in it's day, with not a joystick in sight.

 

Harvey

[+Allan]

I will take a guess that most people would not know that David Fox - co-wrote a book titled 'Computer Animation Primer' that has a lot of program listings in it - for the Atari 800. The big demo in it, I think it's called the Hollywood? demo - has a man walking, truck, tree and a car passing by in parallax smooth scrolling - while the graphics may be of 2600 resolution - I still rate it as a very nice demo. The other half of the book covers the latest computer graphics of high end machines/etc.

Jarvis's most highly rated game would be his Defender - which should be played without a joystick - but with buttons only --- as that is the only way that shows how hard this game was - back in it's day, with not a joystick in sight.

 

Harvey

http://www.atariarchives.org/cap/

 

We posted this years ago. It's a nice book.

 

Allan

[+Ripdubski]

I will take a guess that most people would not know that David Fox - co-wrote a book titled 'Computer Animation Primer' that has a lot of program listings in it - for the Atari 800. The big demo in it, I think it's called the Hollywood? demo - has a man walking, truck, tree and a car passing by in parallax smooth scrolling - while the graphics may be of 2600 resolution - I still rate it as a very nice demo. The other half of the book covers the latest computer graphics of high end machines/etc.

Jarvis's most highly rated game would be his Defender - which should be played without a joystick - but with buttons only --- as that is the only way that shows how hard this game was - back in it's day, with not a joystick in sight.

 

Harvey

Thats one of my favorite gfx books.

[kenjennings]

Ditto. this book has always been the top of my list.

 

I especially liked the galloping horse and walking man discussions. Those woke me up to the perspective that animated objects can (could/should) be done without forcing the idea into 8 bit/8 pixel wide hardware preferences.

 

The listings are beautifully done for readability. Usually only one statement per line and loops are indented.

[santoscork]

I know this is an old post but the extraordinary element of Rebel Rescue was that there was no fire button because the game design called for killing alien ships by having them chase you while you maneuvered around mountains — in the hopes the alien ships would crash into the mountains. It would be nice if the game in that incarnation were found alive in while living in code somewhere. It must be very different in game play. I fear it has been lost forever.