Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 18 Location: In my mom's womb
Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 6:27 pm Post subject: Dorque & Imp (SNES) and SW: Dark Forces (SNES)
Yesterday i was reading some Power Player (The Norwegian Nintendo Power, formerly known as Nintendo Magasinet) while on the crapper, and i stumbled upon 2 games i had not known was in production.
The first is Star Wars: Dark Forces. It's only a short blurb that it's in development, but they do mention that they have a early build so apparently it must have existed in some form. They use the PC version in the screenshots
SW: Dark Forces Preview
This violent, Doom inspired 3D adventure is being released on the PC these days. We can now announce that a SNES port is in production, but it still unknown who is developing it. The extremely early build we have is graphically unimpressive, but hopefully the finished game will be much cooler. The one who lives on, will see.
The second i have heard of before as it was a rather hot topic here back then, the Swedish produced SNES game Dorque & Imp. The same issue has 2 page article on the development of this game, along with screentshots and inside info on how it came about. I translated the article for you guys
Super Nintendo games are now being developed in Sweden!
We are used to thinking that Nintendo games are being developed in Japan, USA or England. Maybe sometimes a stumbler from France or Germany, but the fact that söta bror (=kind brother, Norwegian nickname for Sweden) would make a game for Nintendo is something few would dream of. But right now, the first Swedish SNES game is being developed in this basement location in Stockholm.
Dorque & Imp will be an elegant platformer with 4 worlds, a plethora of items and countless enemies. The clever Dorque is an apparentice of a rather sketchy wizard, and a showdown between the two is inevitable.
-The end will be fair, says Peter Wahler, who is responsible for the programming.
-To begin with we just thought we should get used to the computer and the technique that goes into making video games, but we caught on so quickly that we decided we dared start making our own game, says Jim Studt, the person responsible for the graphics.
Together with the Tv-Spill Börsen (=Video Game Stockmarket), who today funds their project, they are in the midst of founding their own company, Norse, which marks the beginning of a new softwarehouse. They contacted overseas companies for production and marketing of the game at this spring's convention in England
Cheated by Pc Games
-It's gonna be different now, compared to the PC games i have worked on. We who were involved with Legend of Myra were fooled completely. The publisher, Grand Slam has yet to pay us a single dime, Jim says. Dorque and Imp consists of 4 worlds, where Dorque sets out to find as many items as the wizard needs to become allmighty.
2 of the worlds are completed. When Power Player catches up with the team of programmers, they are already hard at work to finish up the demo that will be shown in England. Peter shows us how far they are come. He has 100 000 command lines which helps him to quickly change the envoirment on the screen. He is programming in assembler, and can in principal cut and paste artifacts and backgrounds from the pictures that Jim has created in a image software program.
Two other guys are part of the team, one of them for the music. It looks so simple and fun to make a video game. -The truth is that most of the work up till now has been hard. And also you can't see it - only if it's not working, Peter explains. - The hardest part is making colored pictures that can be used in as many places as possible. We always have to remember that the game can't take up too much memory, memory is expensive, Jim explains.
Not that many colors afterall.
Why are you making a game for Nintendo and not Sega?
-Nintendo's 256 colors versus Sega's 64, Jim answers quickly, but he does admit he is dissapointed he has to settle with less colors because of memory and time issues.
- There is 2 high thresholds you have to overcome before you start creating games. First you have to obtain Nintendo's programming manuals, which explains how you get started. These manuals are only available at "certified" game developers, and you have to know one of these.
Just as big of a problem is the software that automates the coding. This is business secrets on the highest level, and it's there Peter with his math and info education has done everything from bottom up. These tools can be used over again for future games...
Stockholm-game?
The advantage of starting out on your own is that you learn from your mistakes, find your own and maybe groundbreaking solutions and most of all get new ideas from the development. For Dorque & Imp's graphical world Jim has been inspired by Tolkien's fantasy world, and spiced it with a few nordic elements.
-It may have gotten some viking inspiration. We had the idea of including Odin to one of the worlds, even though Nintendo only allows the use of Greek gods to be used in games on their systems. But we can always rename him.
-We have begun thinking about doing a sequel. It would be fun to make something that has it's story lifted from Stockholm, where you could go our shop here and say hello to us, Peter laughs.
I guess they figured dead religions were fair game. However, I have to think that if an Amish shooter were made, all would have been ok, cuz no one would have been offended.
Some games still slipped those crosses in though, of course.
Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 743 Location: Henderson, NV
Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 4:22 am Post subject:
rbudrick wrote:
Some games still slipped those crosses in though, of course.
I'd love to see an interview with one of Nintendo's censors from the NES era. It's always boggled my mind that DuckTales couldn't have crosses on its coffins, and yet the entire Castlevania series got through nearly unscathed. And then there's Monster Party...
I just wonder how much of it was bribery, and how much was sheer laziness.
Joined: 16 Sep 2008 Posts: 36 Location: Virginia, USA
Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:10 pm Post subject:
EarthBound had crosses for the Flying Men, but those were overlooked because the translation was rushed near the end. Oddly enough, when Mother was translated, which also had Flying Men, the crosses were changed into normal graves. Sad as it is, I think they put a lot more work into the game that we didn't get.
Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 576 Location: confirmed
Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 12:37 pm Post subject:
BMF54123 wrote:
rbudrick wrote:
Some games still slipped those crosses in though, of course.
I'd love to see an interview with one of Nintendo's censors from the NES era. It's always boggled my mind that DuckTales couldn't have crosses on its coffins, and yet the entire Castlevania series got through nearly unscathed. And then there's Monster Party...
Maybe the crosses on the coffins in Duck Tales were removed at a request from Disney and not Nintendo? Also, the whole setting of Castlevania wouldn't quite work out without the crosses too.
Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 743 Location: Henderson, NV
Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 4:49 am Post subject:
Quote:
This went along with Nintendo's other key policy regarding death in games, namely that the words "death" "die" "kill" or "killed" were never to be used, unless in a non-violent context. Thus, Nintendo game manuals and texts of the time never say "Mario must kill the Goombas" but rather "Mario must defeat the Goombas."
And yet, in the SMB1 manual's description of Goombas, it says "one stomp and he dies"...
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