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Lode Runner creator Douglas E. Smith passes away
Douglas E. Smith, creator of 1983 puzzler Lode Runner, has passed away. Tozai Games, the current holder of the Lode Runner license, tweeted its condolences yesterday and asked for fans to reflect on their personal highlights with Smith's iconic classic. According to Tozai's timeline for the series, Smith's development of Lode Runner began during his time at the University of Washington, where he created a prototype called "Kong." The interest and support of his peers pushed Smith to work full time and submit a finished version called "Miner" to publishers, with Broderbund distributing it as Lode Runner for the Apple 2, Atari 8-bit, MSX and Commodore 64 in 1983. Lode Runner's legacy of ports and successors includes a 2012 release of Lode Runner Classic, which added features to the original version that Broderbund Software distributed. [Image: TozaiGames]
Broderbund founder donates company archives to National Museum of Play
Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? She's currently lurking at The Strong museum in Rochester, New York. Broderbund Software founder Doug Carlston has donated company records, design documents and games for permanent archival at the The Strong's International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG). The Strong's Broderbund Software Collection includes material documenting the creation of Lode Runner, Prince of Persia, Myst, SimCity, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, and other landmark PC releases. The collection spans Broderbund's founding in 1979 up until 1997, when the developer was acquired by The Learning Company. The new collection supplements a previous donation of archival materials from SimCity creator Will Wright. Featured material is available for research purposes on request. [Image: ICHEG]
Myst and SimCity enter the History of Electronic Games collection
Broderbund Software's legacy is sure to live on through ports, sequels and source code, but what about the game developer's behind-the-scenes history? Thankfully, it won't be fading away any time soon. Company founder Doug Carlston has donated Broderbund's software and corporate records to The Strong, a museum dedicated to all forms of play. The move should help illustrate the creation process behind every title that Broderbund published, including classics like Myst, Prince of Persia, the original SimCity and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. The collection isn't limited to game assets -- Carlston is donating correspondence, photos and other material that reveals the studio's culture. Few people will get to see this treasure trove of gaming nostalgia in person, but it should preserve Broderbund's accomplishments for a long time to come.
Brøderbund's Living Books return for iPad via Wanderful
Some of you may not remember the early 1990s. Heck, some of you probably weren't born yet in the early 1990s. But for Mac users of a certain vintage, it was an exciting time. The growing popularity of CD-ROM drives paired with Mac II-series machines (did the IIci really cost over $6,200 at introduction? Criminy) made for engaging, inventive multimedia applications on the platform. Among the best of these multimedia experiences -- the young-kid equivalent of Cyan's revolutionary Myst immersive world, which is now back as an iPad app -- was the Living Books series from Brøderbund. The Living Books took children's picture stories (Mercer Meyer's Just Grandma and Me, Marc Brown's Arthur's Teacher Trouble and several Dr. Seuss books) and transformed them into clickable, lovingly animated and narrated environments. Kids (and eager grownups) could listen to the story read all the way through, or take control and play inside each page of the virtual book. Objects onscreen reacted to clicks with individualized sounds, motion or transformation; even the narration, delivered in multiple languages, was broken down word by word. This let new readers explore and absorb at their own individual paces. Trust me when I say that they were all kinds of awesome. Or, you know, you could skip the whole trusting me thing and just find out for yourself. These classic children's applications (in both the "great and old" and the "ran on pre-OS X versions of Mac OS" senses of the word "classic") are making a return to the market in the form of iPad apps. The original content may have been developed two decades ago, but the experience is brand-new -- and certainly almost all the target audience of early readers will be experiencing the Living Books for the first time. The new Living Books, which preserve the animation and narration of the originals while adding teacher's guides and other enhancements, are available from Wanderful Interactive Storybooks. Current titles for iOS include The Tortoise and the Hare, Arthur's Teacher Trouble, Little Monster at School and the just-released Harry and the Haunted House. (The iOS version of Just Grandma and Me currently available from Oceanhouse Media is not the original Living Books version, much to the chagrin of App Store shoppers.) Versions for Mac OS, Windows and Android are in the works, as are other titles from the Living Books library. Wanderful's mission to restore access to these landmark titles is a labor of love. When Brøderbund was acquired in the late '90s, the rights to the original Living Books began to bounce from corporate owner to corporate owner. They eventually landed with publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which maintained the rights to the software titles; the author agreements, however, had lapsed. Many companies might have given up the effort to recover the rights at that point. In this case, however, Wanderful founder Mickey W. Mantle -- the early '90s-era CTO at Brøderbund who managed the development of the original Living Books -- pressed on, and eventually obtained most of the author agreements needed to bring back Living Books. Nearing retirement after a decade-plus stint at Gracenote, Mantle recruited several former Brøderbund colleagues to rebuild the Living Books content for a new, more flexible platform. In the process of "getting the band back together," Mantle approached Mark Schlichting, the illustrator and creative director who invented the original Living Books products. Schlichting (a father of three grown sons and now grandfather to three young kids) came back to the project with the insistence that the new iOS Living Books not be simple reproductions of the originals; he wanted to see them enhanced and improved to stand with the best children's apps available today. I had the opportunity to meet both Schlichting and Mantle at this weekend's Mac Computer Expo in Petaluma, Calif. It's clear from their enthusiasm and pride in their apps that this band of software veterans is ready to tackle the App Store. Sure, the Living Books are about as far from sleek, tightly rendered Retina-quality graphics as you could possibly get. The effort and care that went into their original versions, however, is still evident in the restorations that you can download and run 20 years later. Each Living Books title is US$4.99 in a single-language version; a premium edition that includes all languages plus a teaching guide is $7.99 (languages can also be added to the single-language version via IAP for $1.99). If you are looking for apps to enhance your child's love of reading, the Living Books are a sure thing.
Jordan Mechner on Prince of Persia, respecting game writers
In 1985, Jordan Mechner was thinking about baggy pants, arches and columns -- images that could be clearly conveyed in a low-resolution, pixelated computer game. While delivering his Prince of Persia postmortem during GDC earlier this month, Mechner delved into his memories, his journals (which you can read online) and his temporary departure from the game midway through development to pursue a screenwriting career in Hollywood. Mechner's interests and techniques have always been embedded in cinema. He filmed his brother David running about in a Reader's Digest parking lot with a VHS camera, and layered drawings on top of those movements (in a process called rotoscoping) to capture the protagonist's movements in Prince of Persia. You've heard that part, but you might not know about the fate of the camera that captured such iconic scurrying. According to Mechner, he purchased it, recorded the necessary footage, and then returned it within a 30-day guarantee. "I felt a little guilty about it, but I was trying to keep costs down," he said. Initially dubbed "Thief of Baghdad" (and inspired by the film of the same name), the game continued to come together in a modular fashion, at one time incorporating a full level editor that Mechner had to persistently test, making sure users couldn't introduce game-breaking bugs. "My job title was programmer, all those other things were extra."
Virtually Overlooked: Prince of Persia
It's actually kind of insulting that we don't have a version of the classic Prince of Persia on the Wii. Ubisoft, who currently holds the rights to the series, went so far as to (hire Gameloft to) produce a high-definition 3D remake of the game for Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network, and we have nothing. There are at least five separate versions of the original Prince of Persia available on systems that the Virtual Console supports -- although there's probably a matter of permission from the original publishers and developers of those versions. We know that Ubisoft isn't against porting Prince of Persia games to the Wii, since one hundred percent of the currently available PoP games on the system are ports.
Virtually Overlooked: Deadly Towers
Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.Deadly Towers is the most frustrating game on the NES. It may be the most frustrating game of all time, although we're sure that there's some Koei number-crunching Chinese war game out there or realistic PC submarine simulator that's much, much harder. You go into those things expecting a convoluted mess; you go into an NES action-RPG expecting at least to understand where you are or what you're supposed to be doing before you die. Deadly Towers doesn't afford you the luxury. Why do we suggest that others should play it, then? Because we had to.
Rumor: Mystery XBLA game is Lode Runner
Our man, Godfree, over at Gamertag Radio sent us another tip about our would be mystery XBLA game. Shake the magic 8 ball with us ... "signs point to Lode Runner." Check out this detective work on IloveXBLA.com: "No joke, I'm fairly certain I figured it out. Let's look at the trail of tips. Ross Erickson says that Lode Runner in very good hands, which would dictate hands that want to put it on Xbox Live Arcade (since he wants the game). Luke Smith thinks it might be Bomberman On this GamerScore blog post they dropped a hint that Peter Moore said "what happens in Shinjuku stays in Shinjuku." Later on this GamerTag Radio thread Microsoft's John Porcaro dropped a hint that "what happens in Montana stays in Montana". Ok, so with the current hints down how did I make the connection. Here's my timeline. I originally thought the game must be Bomberman, so I was looking for links between Shinjuku, Montana and Hudson Entertainment the creators of Bomberman. Score! Hudson Soft moved to Shinjuku in 1985 shortly before releasing Bomberman. While on the page I noticed Hudson Software also released Lode Runner for NES, and remembered they are currently doing a DS version. Lode Runner was originally published by Broderbund, who operate out of MONTANA. According to Game Dev Map there are no current game developers operating in Montana. I don't think it can get any clearer than that. Case closed in my opinion, next week's release is Lode Runner!" Nice work. We couldn't agree more. Lode Runner is definitely a major franchise worthy of the hype that we've generated seen in the last week. What do you think? Did these guys nail it, or is it something else? [Thanks, Godfree]
That should be on XBLA: Lode Runner
Last week, we gave you Power Stone as a great XBLA candidate. However, after going through the comments, we've decided to revise our rules a little bit. A few of our readers pointed out that they'd rather see a full blown next gen sequel to Power Stone rather than a Live Arcade rehash. You know what fanboys? You're right. From now on we will try and steer clear of games that might actually get legitimate sequels. And with that out of the way, we present this week's pick, Lode Runner (as submitted by BklynKid). A puzzle game of the highest order, Lode Runner has all the right curves in all the right places for an XBLA title. The game is simple, fun, addictive, and easy to play in quick bursts. Read on to find out what makes Lode Runner super special.
