It’s the summer of 1982 and John Newcomer, designer of Joust, is watching his game collecting quarters in arcades across America. It’s a supremely satisfying moment, given how many industry insiders doubted this strange game, which replaced the ubiquitous fire button with one marked ‘flap’, would ever be a hit. Yet even then, he was mulling over what could have been.
“I’d have liked to add more variety in terms of levels and ledge layouts,” John explains. “I wish I’d had more memory to put in more characters. I would’ve messed about with the layouts and taken some risks. I wish I’d made it, not harder, but more challenging. There’s a difference in making something harder just to force someone off the machine and making it more of a puzzle, something to challenge you and keep you working at [the game]. I mean, you really weren’t supposed to be able to beat the pterodactyl that easily!”
Be careful what you wish for, as the saying goes. After enjoying several very fruitful years at Williams at the start of the Eighties, as its first in-house game designer, a new role in the industry, John had left when the arcade market tanked in the middle of the decade. He joined rivals Gottlieb for a short period, during its time trading as Mylstar, before being tempted back to Williams in February 1986. And almost the first thing he was asked to do was revisit his most successful game.
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Bu hikaye Retro Gamer dergisinin Issue 245 sayısından alınmıştır.
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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
SPACE MAY BE THE FINAL FRONTIER BUT STAR TREK ADVENTURE GAMES WERE PRETTY MUCH THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY IN THE EARLY NINETIES. AT LEAST UNTIL STAR TREK: 25TH ANNIVERSARY CAME ALONG A GAME THAT DARED TO GO WHERE NO STAR TREK GAME HAD GONE BEFORE
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