Warzone 2100 (Pumpkin Studios/Eidos)
PlayStation, PC (1999)
The critically acclaimed 3D Real Time Strategy Game. Set in a post apocalyptic America you must gather resources, research artefacts, and design your own vehicles with which to destroy rival factions and rebuild civilization. Featuring a great storyline spanning 3 diverse campaigns, expanding maps (so you can keep your base) and 3D people that use only 5 polygons each. The PC version also has MultiPlayer and Skirmish modes.
I worked on the interface layout, graphics for the 3D people and cyborgs, and the campaign enemy AI scripting. At the time, this was the best game I'd ever worked on, mainly thanks to its designer, Jim Bambra (Hi Jim!).
The sourcecode was made public, so you can download the game here.
Assault Rigs (Sony/Psygnosis)
PlayStation, PC (1996)
Yep, you guessed it, another Tank game. This time it's a 3D Virtual Tank Combat Game. Drive up ramps, onto lifts and over pits, destroy the enemies, pickup the powerups and collect all the gems to open the exit to the next arena.
The graphical style was inspired by Disney's Tron, the gameplay was a mix of Tank Pong and Car Wars. I worked on the VR intro along with Angus Fieldhouse & Trevor Slater (sadly both no longer with us), the Tron style graphics, some of the arenas and helped with the design. I still have the gameplay storyboards I did so we could figure out the gameplay elements early on.
The intro was voted one of the top 5 PlayStation intros by Official PlayStation magazine. To quote Flynn: "Why did I write all those Tank Games?"
The Legacy (Microprose)
PC (1993)
Sort of a horror version of Eye of the Beholder, with plenty of HP Lovecraft Cthulhu overtones! You have inherited an old mansion that holds a dark secret. This has a great atmosphere, thanks to the various diary entries you find scattered around the house, which helps you piece the story together. It's even possible for your character to go insane! Other features included automapping, spellcasting, realtime combat and moveable interface windows.
I did the player characters, interface, item graphics and the odd (very odd!) paintings, whilst Nick Cook (Hi Nick!) did all the wonderful scenery and amazing monsters with 3D Studio (can you dodge the attacks in the basement from Clint, the shotgun wielding Zombie?). I can still remember the panic and fear when playtesting this game and trying to get a phial of holy water out in time as a gargoyle demon flew towards me. Chilling stuff!
Pacific Islands (The Mystery Machine/Empire)
Amiga, Atari ST, PC (1992)
The sequel to Team Yankee, this time with resource management! Set in the archipelago of Yama Yama on the return of Team Yankee from the Gulf, this had a lot more missions than the original. I did the graphics whilst working on some original products, which unfortunately didn't get publisher funding.
Amiga Format gave it a 93% and a Gold award. Mark Ramshaw in Amiga Power said: "Pacific Islands is simply the closest the Amiga has ever come to those glorious World War II adventure movies, with the added spice of a fantastic strategy system and a well orchestrated enemy force. Sheer tank heaven."
Deathbringer (The Mystery Machine/Empire)
Amiga, Atari ST, PC (1991)
Sideways scrolling hack 'n' slash 'em up with 36 levels of parallax (quite an achievement for the time!). Originally planned as an Incredible Hulk game, this was changed into an Elric inspired slaughterfest. The hero is cursed with a demonic sword and must keep it well fed or have it turn on him.
I started programming this before leaving to form The Mystery Machine with Steven Green. John "Elv" Wood did the Amiga and ST versions, working in the same way as on The Amazing Spiderman. The name "Deathbringer" was only supposed to be a working title (I much preferred "Sword of Abaddon", but there were too many other games with sword in the title at the time!)
History
Before forming Purple Wax Games, Kevin worked on many game titles. Perhaps you have
fond memories of some of these? We’d love to hear from you -
The Amazing Spiderman (ODE/Empire)
Amiga, Atari ST, PC (1990)
Webslinging Platform Game based on the comic book character of the same name. As Peter Parker (aka Spiderman), you must rescue your girlfriend Mary Jane from the clutches of Mysterio. Set in a Movie Studio, it gave us lots of scope for different themed levels. Spidey can walk up walls and onto ceilings, as well as swing from webs and stun the enemy robots.
This was my first foray into the wonders of IBM PC assembly language programming. I'd already done a bit of 8086 coding on a Speedboat game for the failed Konix MultiSystem, and ODE needed a PC programmer! John "Elv" Wood worked on the Amiga and ST versions, with each of us working on different parts of the game, then swapping and converting the others code. I also did the graphics for Spidey and the other characters, as well as a few levels (I'd love to have done more, but had to get the PC version finished!).
Considering this game was written for DOS (and all those wonderful video modes like CGA, EGA, VGA and Tandy 16 colour), I'm surprised it still runs, even under WinXP!
Team Yankee (ODE/Empire)
Amiga, Atari ST, PC (1990)
3D Tank Strategy Game based on the book of the same name by Harold Coyle. This was my first tank game, and as you can see from the other titles, not my last!
It used an updated version of the Sleeping Gods 3D engine and we thought it would be fun to have 16 vehicles to control at the same time! Fortunately, the interface was designed so you could control all those vehicles simultaneously, thanks to the Quad view, where you could see 4 tank views at once. I worked on interface design and all the graphics.
