There are some buzzwords, like ‘multimedia’ that dominated the gaming culture in the Nineties. But the one word that was even more ubiquitous than that was ‘interactive’ – absolutely everything just had to be interactive and, if possible, an ‘interactive movie’. Which in reality usually meant cheaply produced postage-stamp-sized, direct-to-video quality level clips on CD-ROM, giving the player only the lowest possible level of actual interaction.
Ken Demarest, who started work at Origin in 1990, had a different point of view on the matter, as he came from the technological side of things: as a coder on Wing Commander and the lead programmer on Ultima VII: The Black Gate, he saw interactive movies as a chance to create games that were as movie-like as possible without reducing the players to mere spectators. The key element for him were ‘synthetic actors’ – virtual characters who behaved like their realworld counterparts, only exactly when the players wanted them to. Logically, the game’s working title was Interactive Movie 1 – later to be changed to Green Guns and ultimately BioForge, with Ken taking on the roles of director, chief programmer and motion-capture model.
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PLAYING CO-OP
This month's collector isn't going it alone
The 400 Mini
MORE FUN, LESS HASSLE?
THE MAKING OF BURNOUT 3 TAKEDOWN™
THIS IS THE REMARKABLE STORY OF HOW CRITERION'S DISASTROUS DEAL WITH EA TO REMAKE A CLASSIC SKATEBOARDING GAME SOMEHOW LED TO THE BRITISH STUDIO CREATING ONE OF THE BEST RACERS OF ALL TIME
PSP Go
While Sony was no stranger to tinkering with its hardware, the PSP got a lot of attention over the years – the PSP Go was the fourth major iteration of the hardware, and the most radical redesign.
THE IMPACT OF 3rd STRIKE STREET FIGHTEr III
THEY SAY THIRD TIME'S A CHARM, ALTHOUGH STREET FIGHTER III DIDN'T IGNITE FIGHTING GAMES IN THE SAME WAY AS ITS PREDECESSOR UNTIL 3RD STRIKE. MEMBERS OF THE FIGHTING GAME COMMUNITY TELL US HOW THIS COMEBACK CEMENTED ITS PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF 2D FIGHTERS
ARCADE WRATH OF THE MUTANTS
A NEW TURTLES BEAT-'EM-UP IS FINALLY HEADING HOME AFTER YEARS OF DELIGHTING ARCADE-GOERS WE TALK TO EUGENE JARVIS AND MARC-ANDRÉ JUTRAS TO LEARN HOW THIS THROWBACK BRAWLER CAME TO BE, AND HOW IT'S BEEN EXPANDED FOR CONSOLES
THE MAKING OF STAR TREK 25TH ANNIVERSARY
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Datasette
If you’re going to adopt a common storage method across a range of computers, it makes sense to make the hardware as widely compatible as possible – and that’s just what Commodore did with the Datasette, known by the model numbers 1530 and C2N.
THE MAKING OF CAPTAIN BLOOD
AS HE TRAVELS THE HYDRA GALAXY IN HIS SHIP THE ARK, CAPTAIN BLOOD MUST TRACK DOWN AND DISINTEGRATE HIS FIVE REMAINING CLONES. TO DO SO, HE’LL HAVE TO COMMUNICATE WITH SEVERAL ALIEN SPECIES USING THE UPCOM, A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE DEVICE. UNIVERSALITY IS THE KEY CONCEPT BEHIND THIS WIDELY ACCLAIMED FRENCH CLASSIC
SUPER METROID AN ENDURING LEGACY
AS NINTENDO'S SCI-FI CLASSIC TURNS 30 WE REVISIT THE PLANET ZEBES AND SPEAK TO DEVELOPERS OF BOTH METROIDVANIAS AND ACTUAL METROID GAMES TO LEARN WHAT MAKES SAMUS ARAN'S 2D ADVENTURE SO SPECIAL
