DP ServBot
07-06-2014, 03:00 AM
http://images.eurogamer.net/2013/articles/1/6/9/0/6/6/0/remembering-rick-dangerous-the-original-tomb-raider-1404373765992.jpg/EG11/resize/300x-1/format/jpg/1690660.jpgRick Dangerous was first released a quarter of a century ago, but as a certain whip-cracking, Nazi-smacking professor of archaeology once said: "It's not the years, it's the mileage." If you were in any doubt as to the inspiration behind the very first game Core Design brought to market - the 2D platform adventures of a square-jawed hero with a fedora, leather jacket and revolver - the opening seconds of actual gameplay hammer home that this is an undisguised tribute to Henry Jones Junior.
Your first steps as Rick trigger the release of a deadly trundling boulder, forcing you to run, fall and dodge deeper into a subterranean jungle temple to escape being flattened. The first local tribesman you encounter is not so lucky - a deliberate design decision, it seems. Every single time, the poor fellow is creamed by the rolling deathtrap, an endlessly repeated introduction to the franchise's signature death move. The neutralised baddie bounces out of the screen in faux-3D, waving his arms with tantrum intensity while yelling "waaaarrghh!" It's like an Early Learning Centre remix of the famous Wilhelm scream (http://www.wilhelmscream.net/).
If you've spent any time at all with Rick Dangerous, it's this sound effect that will bring it all flooding back. At first, the memories will likely be fond ones: here was a game that seemed to combine the best of eccentric 8-bit character and game design with cinematic 16-bit sparkle. (My experience was on the surprisingly well-reviewed Amiga version, and the various 8-bit adaptations mostly scored well with the gaming press.) Rick Dangerous may have borrowed heavily from an existing intellectual property - and it probably didn't hurt that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade came out in that same golden summer of 1989 - but it gave those elements its own cheeky, cartoonish spin.
Read more… (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-07-06-remembering-rick-dangerous-the-original-tomb-raider)
Your first steps as Rick trigger the release of a deadly trundling boulder, forcing you to run, fall and dodge deeper into a subterranean jungle temple to escape being flattened. The first local tribesman you encounter is not so lucky - a deliberate design decision, it seems. Every single time, the poor fellow is creamed by the rolling deathtrap, an endlessly repeated introduction to the franchise's signature death move. The neutralised baddie bounces out of the screen in faux-3D, waving his arms with tantrum intensity while yelling "waaaarrghh!" It's like an Early Learning Centre remix of the famous Wilhelm scream (http://www.wilhelmscream.net/).
If you've spent any time at all with Rick Dangerous, it's this sound effect that will bring it all flooding back. At first, the memories will likely be fond ones: here was a game that seemed to combine the best of eccentric 8-bit character and game design with cinematic 16-bit sparkle. (My experience was on the surprisingly well-reviewed Amiga version, and the various 8-bit adaptations mostly scored well with the gaming press.) Rick Dangerous may have borrowed heavily from an existing intellectual property - and it probably didn't hurt that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade came out in that same golden summer of 1989 - but it gave those elements its own cheeky, cartoonish spin.
Read more… (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-07-06-remembering-rick-dangerous-the-original-tomb-raider)