![]() ![]() Smith has made a lasting mark upon my life. I went on to try other games in the series like Lode Runner: Online, and Lode Runner 3D among others. It is a game I have fond memories of growing up with. I haven’t played all of these games by any means, but Lode Runner the Legend Returns captured my attention growing up. Level designer for Lemmings 2: The Tribes, Psygnosis Limited.Creator, along with Dane Bigham, for Mine Runner, Brøderbund.Programmer for NBA Showdown, Electronic Arts, Inc.Executive Producer for Secret of Mana, Square Co., Ltd.Programmer for Top Gun: Guts & Glory, Konami (America), Inc.Later on in 1993, he worked on a handful of different games, which include the following: By 1987, he was working on Defender of the Crown for Cinemaware Corporation, and in 1991 he worked as a programmer for Bill Elliott’s NASCAR Fast Tracks for Distinctive Software, Inc. It had only 50 levels compared to 150 in the original, but the difficulty was much higher. Then in 1984, there was Championship Lode Runner, a sequel to the original game. As mentioned above, he created Lode Runner, which was published by Brøderbund in 1983. According to Moby Games, Smith had a sizable list of credits to his name. Of course, Lode Runner is far from the only thing Douglas E. Being quite impressed with the game, all four companies (Sierra, Sirius, Synergistic, and Brøderbund) quickly sent him offers, and as you may know, Douglas chose to go with Brøderbund. When he was ready, he submitted the game (now called Lode Runner) to four publishers around Christmas of 1982. But being struck by a bit of bad luck, his joystick broke down and he had to wash cars for a couple months to pay for the necessary repair. So with only one thing left to do, Douglas borrowed some money to get a color monitor and a joystick and set about improving the game. Unfortunately, the response he got was a rejection letter. Then around October of 1982 he presented it to Brøderbund. In a single weekend in September of 1982, he wrote the core of the game on an Apple II+ in 6502 assembly language and renamed the game Miner. The game was written in Fortran and soon ported to VAX minicomputers since there were more terminals of this type at the university. Around September of 1982, he created a prototype for a game he called Kong for the Prime Computer 550 minicomputer (which was part of the facilities at the university). Lode Runner came about while Smith was studying architecture as a student at the University of Washington. What a contribution Doug made to the video game industry.ĭoug, from all of us at Tozai, and from all of your fans, may you rest in peace.Īn older photo of Douglas E. In Doug’s honor, we call on the legions of Lode Runner fans everywhere to take a private moment to reflect on your own personal memories of Lode Runner. Our hearts and prayers are with Doug’s family during this difficult time. It is with great sadness that we learned today of the passing of our friend and colleague, Douglas Smith, the creator of the iconic game, Lode Runner. They followed up their tweet with the following announcement on their site, entitled “ In Memoriam, Douglas E. The news of Smith’s passing was tweeted by Tozai Games earlier in the week, the company that currently holds the rights to the Lode Runner franchise. Smith (1960-2014), most well-known for being the creator of the game Lode Runner, has died at the age of 54 (cause currently unknown). The four Irem arcade versions had three special point bonuses that were awarded at level completion: Trap no enemies = 20,000pts., Kill no enemies = 10,000pts., Trap all enemies in an enclosed room or pit = 10,000pts.We are saddened to report that the creator of one of gaming’s early successes has passed away. The four Irem arcade versions incorporated time bonuses that quickly counted down to zero – the remaining time was awarded as points upon completing a level (the bonus was doubled if less than half of the allotted time had expired), but if the timer reached 0 a life was lost – an evil way to keep players from tying up a machine for extended lengths. Although a smaller overall grid size (24x15 – compacting the levels had the effect of speeding up the action, thus making the game more suitable to standard arcade total game time), the game incorporated a split vertical grid – allowing blocks to be placed directly above/below each other, or with a half gap or a one-and-a-half gap – this gave the illusion of taller levels (only Irem versions did this). This was the very first game to make the transition from the PC to the coin-op gaming arcades (generally games made the journey from arcades into the living room on consoles and the PC).
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