August 11, 2000


Duke & Classic Games

For those of us who were around when Nintendo hadn't yet come onto the scene, then this news article will be of interest. The gaming site Daily Radar a very good piece on classic games on classic games. They cover the old Atari arcade hits such as Battlezone, Crystal Castles, and Asteroids. Other topics are the Apple II games, the Intellivision game system, and other pieces of gaming history.

Why are we covering this? Well, there is a section titled "FPSs and Duke Nukem". In this section, our own Scott Miller talks about some of the limitations of creating game "characters". Here's a bit of what Scott has to say:

PCG: What was the biggest challenge in trying to imbue a side-scrolling 2D game character with real personality?

SM:The problem in those days was the technical limitations of 16-color EGA graphics, and 320 by 200 resolution. This put a limit on the detail characters could have, so we had a one pixel line for teeth, gave Duke a square chin, and had him say things via pop-up text windows. Another thing we added to the original game to enhance Duke's ego-driven personality was a very flamboyant summersault jump.

Make sure and check this out - it's a great piece on how video gaming has come from the past into what it has become today.

Posted by Joe Siegler on August 11, 2000 at 4:30 PM | Permalink
News Categories: Misc