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The dawn of the video game era wasn't marked by anisotropic filtering, anti-aliasing, triple Z-buffering or alpha blending. While these hot phrases are splashed across many a flashy game cover across retail stores today, the late 70's had a hot phrase that seems to have been MIA lately: "fun". Games back then were "fun". Sure, Duke Nukem 3D is fun, but the "fun" derived from the games of the 1st video game revolution stemmed from their simplicity. Games back then were designed by a one-man show, in a garage, after school, in between classes. They were packaged in zip lock bags and sold for $5. There were no marketing departments to stand in the way, no deadlines to meet no red tape and consequently, no 401k plans, but I digress. Eventually the garage designers like Logg, Ballouz and Bushnell were all swept up by the likes of Atari and Apple. Consequently, gamers were treated to classics such as Pac Man, Asteroids and Gallaga. One such game was Atari's 1980 arcade smash, Missile Command.
In Missile Command, players controlled a targeting reticle of a missile battery through the use of a trackball. The goal of the game was simple: Save the city. Rockets rained from the sky like, well, rain. Players then had to launch their own volley of missiles in order to intercept the incoming hostile fire. The game was over when the surrounding city or your missile battery was destroyed. Ask anyone who's played the game and they'll be happy to talk about the endless hours, and quarters, spent racking up the points.
That same simplicity is captured in Reactor Software's Global Defender. Reactor Software is Stuart Scandrett's brainchild. Just like the garage designers from decades past, Stuart wears all the hats of his company. He's the programmer, designer, modeler, sound effects specialist, musician and the corporate webmaster.
"Sound, music, graphics, and code are all mine.
The game started in February... It's been worked on continuously since then.
The hardest things were things like the 3D models. Super-low-budget was the name of the game. I did most of my work on graph paper, and then transposed it..."
What started as a contest entry for Voodoo Extreme's Golden Oldies contest has matured and developed into a full fledged (and surprisingly enough, bug free) retro game. Global Defender is a remake of Missile Command. Gone is the trackball. In its stead is the trusty mouse. Gone are the blocky mono-color graphics. In their place are a myriad of OpenGL enhanced visuals. From smoke to texture maps, from particle effects to colored lighting; everything you'd expect in a high budget Quake II-esque game is displayed brilliantly on the screen. Gone are the shoddy sound effects. They're replaced by audio that actually packs quite the punch... there's even CD music to boot.
However, the aspect that makes Global Defender truly shine, is an aspect that Reactor had absolutely nothing to do with, and specifically for that reason, Reactor should be rewarded. What am I yapping about? Gameplay. Reactor Software did the smart thing, and left the simple and fun gameplay of Missile Command untouched. The end result is a very addictive game fit for its time.
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