 |
|
Edward 2000 |
I'm sure I speak for every Lynx fan out there when I say, we'll still hope that he does finally get back to it. Or, maybe he'd like to release a beta of the ROM?
What follows is the original article printed in The Atari Times, Issue #4. (The game screens are of Breakout 2000 for the Jaguar.)
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The Good:
Well the good news is that the Lynx is going to get a Breakout clone. It's actually going to be more like Arkanoid than Breakout, but more people have heard of Breakout than Arkanoid.
The Bad:
It's going to take at least three years to make an appearance. Games normally take around a year and a half to program, and that's when all the team are working in perfect unison. The SHIT team are spread across the globe, only in contact via email, so things will be little slower. You also have to remember that I'm not the best programmer in the world.
The Ugly:
It's being programmed by me, and I'm even crazier than Jeff Minter. I'm not obsessed with Llamas, in fact, if there was any one animal I'm obsessed with, it'd be a rabbit. But no, I'm not an animal mad loon, I'm a me mad loon. It's not that I love myself, it's just that I can't think of anything better to base a game on. So What Is It?
Edward 2000 will feature three different play modes.
1) The first will be Edward Prequel, a simple Breakout clone with no special bonuses, and no fancy monsters.
2) The second play mode will be Edward Orgasmic, a fast paced, bonus filled bright, exciting Arkanoid clone.
3) The third and final mode will be Paddlematch. This will be an exciting two player cross between Pong and Edward Orgasmic.
Edward Prequel:
In Edward Prequel you control a simple paddle, that looks basically like a rectangular block. You have to hit a (square) ball against lines of bricks, destroying any of the aforementioned bricks that the ball hits. The ball is hit back and forth against the blocks until every brick is destroyed. There will probably be 25 Edward Prequel levels, and 5 hidden levels. The number of levels is likely to change. It all depends on how carried away I get with Edward Orgasmic.
Edward Orgasmic:
Edward Orgasmic is the center of the cart. It follows the same style as Edward Prequel, but incorporates extra bits, like monsters, bonuses, Sudden Deaths, flashy graphics, and more exciting sounds.
There will be lots of monsters that are released from certain block, appear if you send too long on a certain level, or are released from the top of the screen and hang around above the blocks. Here is a brief explanation of the planned monsters:
Edward Orgasmic will be the only game mode with music. The music will be futuristic rock riffs, like the one you get at the beginning of a Manga video. It will go perfectly with the high paced, colourful neon graphics.
There will be 150 Orgasmic levels, and 25 hidden ones. There probably won't be enough room on the cart for all that I've planned, so some levels might have to go. I hope to include some multi screen levels, but we'll just have to wait and see.
Paddlematch:
Paddlematch will be a whole new two player experience! The two players will be set in a Pong style arena, but with bonus blocks along the middle of the screen. Each player will be able to destroy certain blocks, and build up their arsenal, ready to destroy the other payer, either by making them miss the ball, or by shooting them with lasers etc. There will some extra bonuses exclusive to Paddlematch, which are:
1) A fireball that you can launch that either scores or kills you if you try to block it. I don't know the fairness factor of that, but maybe as a way of keeping games from being shutouts, or maybe if a player earns 8 in a game to 9, they get the instant shutout.
2) Flip. The sides and paddles change automatically, without warning.
3) Shield. When powered up, your whole area is protected.
4) Block builder. You can shoot blocks onto your opponents half.
Well, that's about all for the condensed plan of Edward 2000. Special thanks go to SmkMirrors for his monster ideas, and to Daniel J. Radzicki for some Paddlematch ideas.