Clearing out my loft, I'm discovering old game concept doodles and sketches that I did throughout the 80s. I never considered myself great at art, but being able to make computer games motivated me to draw.
All my inspiration came from Sci Fi artists like Chris Foss, Syd Mead and Ron Cobb, and the tv work of Gerry Anderson and Derek Meddings.
While only a few of these games were published, all of them were coded and some almost completed. The earliest sketch I found is for a character called Nuker who was born when I started doodling over my art homework of a shaded ball!
When Paradroid came out, it inspired me to design a game around the character. Nuker (meaning "Nuclear Snooker") had the very simple concept of a droid ball that has to push radio-active waste balls down disposal chutes.
Then, we started work on Hades Nebula, so the idea was put on hold. After Hades Nebula came out, I presented the idea to Darren Melbourne and he recruited Stuart Cook for coding duties, and I did the pixel work.
By then, Arkanoid was the current craze, and so we put in all these power ups that made it easier to dispatch the balls. And enemy droids would get in the way or try to kill you.
In my memory, it was never finished or released, and as it had been a year since leaving school, I had to choose between further education or work, and that was when I joined Sci.
Thanks to the internet, and the growth of interest in vintage gaming and abandonware, I've been able to learn that Thalamus expressed an interest in the game, and Frank Gasking has written about it all here!
I still love the concept of Nuker, and who knows, maybe I will bring the game back to life!
In part 2, Hades Nebula!
No comments:
Post a Comment