Incorporating the Player Avatar and Navigation

Taxonomy of Virtual Spaces

In my previous blog post, I replicated the visuo-spatial configuration of Ultimate Play the Game's Knight Lore (1984, ZX Spectrum game) in 3-D geometry. Now, I need to add a player avatar to replicate its player affordances in order to create a simulacrum of the "Filmation" spatial paradigm that I've defined previously.

This aspect of the project is a first step toward creating a tool for analyzing different spatial paradigms as intentional aesthetic styles, where the types of projection and avatar movement may be set to different parameters while playing.

The Player Avatar

Our hero in a test scene

I needed a simple, animated, humanoid player character to use as a sample avatar. I own a license for the "Everyday Motion Pack" assets by Gizmozman and opted to start with the male character model and animations included in that pack. If time permits, I may include options to customize the player character and include a female character as well.

I created a new animator controller and wrote some player controller scripts to closely mimic the simple "tank" style controls seen in games like Knight Lore.

The Environment

The Filmation style of environment, as exemplified by Knight Lore, consists of a series of interconnected rooms and corridors and often takes place in an enclosed environment (such as a castle or a large starship). The game world is explored one room at a time, using a "page flip" style of frame mobility when moving from one screen to another.*

* The Filmation II engine allowed for smooth-scrolling frame mobility across the game environment, allowing for open streets and enclosed buildings (see Nightshade and Gunfright).

Initial test environment of 16 rooms

I built an initial test environment of 16 near-identical rooms with doorways connecting them, as seen above. However, the bottom half of the image doesn't match the expected play experience. The player should only see one room at a time.

A single room with player start

Each room is enclosed in a trigger volume (with yellow grid material) that is invisible to the game camera. All geometry in the room is parented under the trigger volume object. By default, no environmental geometry is rendered at game start. Whenever the player character enters a room (including at game start), a script on the trigger renders all geometry in the current room and sends an "EnterRoom" message to an overall Game Manager script. The Game Manager sets the camera position to the new room and sends the previous room the player was in to disable its visibility.

Player Avatar Navigating the Virtual Environment

It works! This closely matches the experience of older Filmation style games, with a "pixel dimetric" projection method to display the environment.

Next, to make the camera's projection methods dynamic during gameplay.

Toward a "Cartoony" Spatial Paradigm? pt. 4 (Platformer Evolution)

Taxonomy of Virtual Spaces

This post continues my exploration toward evaluating a spatial paradigm of "cartoony" digital games, which evolved through the 1980s. Part one analyzed two important early titles, namely Cutie Q and Pac-Man. Part two looked at some Pac-Man clones and Frogger. Part three analyzed some other maze games that do not feature "dot eater" gameplay: "maze shooters" and "maze looters."

This post looks at how maze games evolved into platformer games.

Heiankyo Alien/Digger

The original Heiankyo Alien (The University of Tokyo's Theoretical Science Group (TSG), 1979, NEC PC-8001 computer game)

The Japanese arcade version of Heiankyo Alien (Denki Onkyō Corporation, 1980, arcade game)

The USA arcade release of Digger (Sega-Gremlin, 1980, arcade game)

Heiankyo Alien is little-known in the west, but may be one of the most influential digital games. The player avatar is a Kyoto policeman 1000 years in the past when the then-capital city of Japan was called Heian-kyō. The player is pursued by alien invaders roaming the maze-like streets of the city. Our heroes only defense is to dig holes in the street for the aliens to fall into, then refilling the holes before the alien escapes.

This maze game was released before Pac-Man and could have easily been an influence on Pac-Man. Like Frogger, which I analyzed previously, this game has a concept gravity and layered space. An alien may fall "into" the holes, falling below the main layer of the streets.

Heiankyo Alien/Digger Visuo-Spatial Analysis: The original game was developed by students at the University of Tokyo and was released for NEC's PC-8000 series of computers. Like many other maze games I reviewed previously, the environment is projected in a plan orthographic view. Due to graphical limitations, this first iteration used symbolic representation of the game agents, as seen by the yellow spade (player avatar) and red circles (aliens) seen in the top image above. Gameplay space is not continuous, but is instead limited to a layered, 2-D grids of discrete spaces and gravity in the z-axis of the screen. This single-screen game has a fixed frame.

Denki Onkyō Corporation created an arcade version and upgraded the game's graphics and spatiality. The player character is shown in profile with an orthographic side elevation view. The aliens are shown in more of a 3/4 view, with an orthogonal horizontal oblique view. This version features layered, continuous, 2-D spaces. 

Sega-Gremlin changed the game slightly for the USA arcade audience, changing its name to Digger. Any story of alien invasion and the Heiankyo policeman are replaced with the player in a "maze-like desert canyon" digging holes to defeat spider-like "creatures" (Digger Arcade Flyer, Sega-Gremlin, 1980).

Crazy Climber

Crazy Climber screen shot. No, that is not Donkey Kong!

Crazy Climber (Nichibutsu, 1980) is an early "climbing" game that was released to the Japanese arcades in November, 1980 (Masumi Akagi, Arcade TV Game List, Domestic/Overseas Edition (1971-2005), Japan: Amusement News Agency, pg. 55) and in the USA by Taito one month later (Akagi, pg. 127). The player avatar hero climbs to the top of a building while overcoming obstacles that include a giant ape - 10 months before the release of Donkey Kong!

This game can't really qualify as a "platformer" as it is missing an important ingredient: platforms. The player constantly climbs the building until they reach the top, almost like a platformer level comprised of nothing but ladders. It features an unusual two-joystick system: one each to navigate the player avatar's left and right hands. Left/right movement is possible, but the primary direction the player moves is up (they can't go down unless they fall).

Lupin III Visuo-Spatial Analysis: Spatially, this game is very similar to later "smooth scrolling" platformer games. The environment and agents are shown in an orthographic front elevation view (well, "rear" view for the player avatar). Gameplay happens on a continuous, layered 2-D space with a background layer (inside the building, where "antagonist" residents (Crazy Climber Service Instruction, Nichibutsu, 1980, pg. 4) hide behind windows). It features a smooth-scrolling framing device with vertical mobility (up only). It also has a mini-map (on the left edge of screen) and gravity down to bottom of screen.

Space Panic

Player avatar digging a hole in Space Panic

Space Panic (Universal Co. Ltd., 1980) is another "climbing" game, released in Japan one month after Crazy Climber in December, 1980 (Akagi, pg. 15) and in the USA in February, 1981 (Akagi, pg. 165). It is a major leap forward in digital maze games, one that owes much to Heiankyo Alien. The player avatar "man" is in a multi-level structure with limited oxygen (represented by the timer bar near the top of the screen). Three types of aliens, monster, boss, and don, are invading the building and the man's only defense is to dig holes to trap them and then bury them to make them fall (Space Panic Operation, Maintenance, and Service Manual, Universal Co. Ltd., 1980, pg. 3).

The player's view is looking at a series of straight, narrow platforms connected by ladders. The nature of the building is never explained (Space station? Alien structure? Exoplanet cave system?), but oxygen is in short supply here. The platforms are malleable enough that the man may punch holes in them with what looks like a simple shovel. The existence of platforms, ladders, and gravity give credence to calling this the first platformer game. It is missing one key ingredient of platforming as we know it - jumping.

Digging holes and burying aliens in Space Panic (above) and Heiankyo Alien (below)

The Retrogame Deconstruction Zone blog has a thorough comparison of Space Panic and Heiankyo Alien on their site. The gif above is referenced from that page, showing the actions of moving, digging, trapping, and burying in both games. That site is under the impression that Space Panic should not be considered as "the first platformer" as it does not fit the definition of platformers as we know them now (must include jumping). However, they also admit that genres are fluid and they aren't really convinced of their own argument.

What makes sense to me is that Space Panic is the first of a different kind of platformer: one that involves climbing ladders, trapping enemies by manipulating those platforms, and no jumping.

Apple Panic screen shot

Where Space Panic was not very successful in arcades in the west, Ben Serki's unlicensed clone Apple Panic (Broderbund, 1981, computer game) was quite successful on Apple II home computers. It was later ported to other popular computer platforms in 1982 and even spawned its own series of clones.

Mr. Do's Castle screen shot

Mr. Do's Castle (Universal Co. Ltd., 1983, arcade game) (a.k.a. Mr. Do! vs. Unicorns in Japan) seems to be Universal's attempt to refine their original Space Panic formula using their successful new character, Mr. Do. Instead of digging, little clown player avatar knocks blocks out of the floors with a hammer. Certain ladders can be moved left or right to change the playfield and there are a number of innovative ways to complete each level.

The environment (platforms) and background (windows in castle wall) are drawn in elevation oblique view, allowing some dimensionality and depth to be inferred. There is a sense of space (blue sky) beyond the window, but all gameplay takes place only on a single, 2-D plane inside the castle.

Lode Runner (Atari 8-bit) screen shot

Doug Smith's Lode Runner (Broderbund, 1983, computer game) refined the Space Panic formula further and became a huge hit. It was ported to seemingly every home computer on the market and spawned a number of sequels. The athletic player avatar must collect gold bars (squares) and avoid guards, who can also pick up and carry gold. In addition to ladders, characters can move across horizontal "hand over hand bars." Guards can be dropped into holes to temporarily incapacitate them (and force them to drop any carried gold). Once all gold bars are collected in a level, the player is free to move to the next level by moving to an exit ladder that appears, giving some sense of a page-flip frame mobility that moves the player to another point in space.

One other important development of Lode Runner is this is one of the first commercial games to include its own level editor. This tool allowed the developers to easily create dozens of challenging or aesthetically interesting levels (like the triple-crown Broderbund logo in the screen shot above). It also allowed Lode Runner players (including this author!) to get their first taste of level design.

This "ladder/digger" take on platformer gameplay probably reached its peak with the Lode Runner series, which saw releases through the 1990s and even a Lode Runner for XBOX 360 (2009). Few other titles use the same basic formula in the past several decades, such as Moraff's Escapade (Moraffware, 1996, Windows computer game), The Worlds of Billy (Intense Entertainment Interactive, 1997, DOS computer game), and The Worlds of Billy 2 (Global Star Software, 2002, Windows computer game). The Space Panic style of platforming was completely overshadowed by the run-and-jump style that emerged from Donkey Kong.

Space Panic Visuo-Spatial Analysis: While most previous maze game environments are understood in my analysis as plan (overhead) views, this game has ladders and gravity that reinforce the environment's orthographic side elevation side view. The game agents use similar orthographic front (aliens) and side (man) elevation views. This single-screen game has a fixed frame and gravity down toward the bottom of the screen. All gameplay takes place in a continuous space on a 2-D plane. Except where noted above, the other games of this type use the same visuo-spatial construction.

Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong screen shot

Nintendo first released Donkey Kong (Nintendo, 1981) in Japanese arcades in August, 1981 (Akagi, pg. 57) and Nintendo of America brought it to the USA in October, 1981 (Akagi, pg. 150). Much ink has been spilled about how this game set the stage for the legions of platformer games that followed, notably with the addition of the "jump" button.

Donkey Kong seemed so different that it was hard to classify when it was released. Video Games Magazine editor Steve Bloom called it "another bizarre cartoon game, courtesy of Japan" (Bloom, Video Invaders, 1982, pg. 181) and rightfully noted its similarities to Crazy Climber and Space Panic. Electronic Games magazine lumped all these games together into the category of "climbing games" ("The Player's Guide to Climbing Games," Electronic Games, vol. 1, no. 11, pp 49-56). Game designer Chris Crawford, creating his own "taxonomy of computer games" found Donkey Kong impossible to categorize and described it as "a game that looks a little like a race game with intelligent obstacles" (Crawford, The Art of Computer Game Design, 1984, pg. 29). 

Donkey Kong Visuo-Spatial Analysis: Is almost exactly like Space Panic, which Donkey Kong's first level looks suspiciously similar to. What is different is the incorporation of an overall story structure broken up into 4 different screens as Mario ascends the building. I don't know if Shigeru Miyamoto ever called out Crazy Climber as an influence, but he wanted this game to have a smooth-scrolling climb to the top of the structure. However, that wasn't possible due to the Radar Scope (Nintendo, 1980, arcade) hardware this game had to be based on. Instead, Miyamoto and his team implemented a simple page-flip framing device for different sections of the building to be played as individual game screens.

[Addendum 5 Sep 2023]

BurgerTime (a.k.a. Hamburger)

BurgerTime (Data East/Midway, 1982)

Data East released this game as Hamburger in Japanese arcades in August 1982 (Akagi, pg. 47) and Data East USA rebranded the game as BurgerTime, launching the game with Midway for the US audience in December of that year (Akagi, pg. 115).

After the release of Donkey Kong in 1981, many platformer games with run-n-jump gameplay followed in its wake. Notable games that quickly innovated on the DK spatial paradigm (without being outright clones) include Miner 2049er (Big Five Software, 1982), Kangaroo (Sun Electronics, 1982), Chuckie Egg (A&F Software, 1983), Hard Hat Mack (Electronic Arts, 1983), and Jumpman (Epyx, 1983). Each of those games features jumping as an important aspect of navigating space and avoiding hazards.

BurgerTime has no jump button and appears to be influenced by the Space Panic style of "climbing platformer" than DK. Like Space Panic, enemies are defeated by dropping them down by one or more elevation levels or by crushing them by dropping something on top of them. Unlike Space Panic, the theme is about making hamburgers at a fast food restaurant while being pursued by killer eggs, sausages, and pickles. The player avatar has a limited-use pepper weapons that can temporarily stun enemies in case the player gets cornered.

BurgerTime Visuo-Spatial Analysis: Same as Space Panic.

Popeye

Nintendo of America brought the Popeye arcade game to the USA in November 1982 (Akagi, pg. 128) ahead of Nintendo's Japan launch of the game in December 1982 (Akagi, pg. 57).

"Popeye-1" Nintendo design document signed by Miyamoto, March 1981

It is an oft-told story that Donkey Kong started development as a Popeye game licensed from United Features, and Shigeru Miyamoto's design document above bears that out. The level sketch looks almost exactly like the first stage of DK, with Brutus holding a captive Olive Oyl and rolling "beer barrels" at a tiny Popeye. The design had to be changed at the last minute, either due to delays in reaching a licensing agreement or due to technical limitations in displaying detailed "cartoony" sprites of the Popeye characters. Nintendo released an official, licensed Popeye platformer in the following year, one with greater graphical capabilities that allowed it to display large, detailed sprites.

Popeye is another non-jumping platformer. The player avatar climb stairs, ladders, stair-like ship's rigging or simply drop down to reach a different platform. Miyamoto has stated that his original design for DK was about "climbing through a maze" and jumping was only added later. The Popeye/DK transitional design document above bears this out. The control scheme in the bottom right only uses a 4-way joystick (with no jump or punch button) and the "up" direction is only used to climb ladders. Later designs for the two games each added a button, jump for DK and punch for Popeye.

Popeye Visuo-Spatial Analysis: Similar to Space Panic, with a limited elevation orthographic foreground image plane (the "THRU" signs on the right and left sides of the screen and some tufts of grass). Some of the navigable game environment is rendered in horizontal oblique projection (the staircases seen in the gif image above).

To be continued...

Toward a "Cartoony" Spatial Paradigm? pt. 3 (Maze Shooters and Looters)

Taxonomy of Virtual Spaces

This post continues my exploration toward evaluating a spatial paradigm of "cartoony" digital games, which evolved through the 1980s. Part one analyzed two important early titles, namely Cutie Q and Pac-Man. Part two looked at some Pac-Man clones and Frogger.

This post looks at other maze games that be influenced by Pac-Man, but are different from the "dot eater" gameplay of many Pac-clones. We might call these games "maze shooters" and "maze looters."

The earliest of maze shooters may be Steve Bristow and Lyle Rains' Tank (Atari/Kee Games, 1974, arcade game), a two-player head-to-head battle between two player-controlled tanks in a blocky maze. The game was successful and spawned several sequels: Tank II (1975), Tank 8 (1976), and Ultra Tank (1978). Tank 8 is an 8-player marvel. The big 25" color monitor (a rarity in 1976 arcades) is mounted upward and 2 players can take the controls on each of the four sides.

Tank 8 Arcade Flyer (Kee Games, 1976)

Tank also served as inspiration for about half of the games in Combat (Atari, 1977, VCS console game cartridge), the original pack-in game cartridge included with Atari's VCS (a.k.a. 2600) programmable game consoles.

As important as Tank is to game history and as much as I enjoy teaching abou thte series, it doesn't quite fit the sort of "character" games being analyzed in this series.

Wizard of Wor

Wizard of Wor screen shot

Dave Nutting's Wizard of Wor (Midway, 1980) is an early example of co-op/competitive gameplay. In this two-player game, player-controlled "worriors" explore maze-like dungeons, shooting various monsters (and maybe each other!) for points. Although functionally similar to previous games discussed here, this doesn't quite fit the "cartoony" aesthetic.

Wizard of Wor Visuo-Spatial Analysis: Pac-Man was probably a strong influence on this game, even though the two arcade titles were released in the same year. The spatial constructions between the two games are almost identical. Note that Wor also features screen-wrap side tunnels, giving it a cylindrical topology. Wor also includes a mini-map, an unusual feature for a single-screen game, but one that reveals the locations of invisible monsters.

Warp & Warp

Warp & Warp screen shot

Warp & Warp (Namco, 1981) is a Japan-designed "maze shooter" similar to Wizard of Wor, but with the addition of time bombs that may have been an influence on Bomberman (Hudson Soft, 1985). The player avatar is a gun-toting sci-fi warrior, but the alien "berobero" monsters are comical round creatures sticking out their tongues (ベロ “bero” means tongue and ベロベロ “berobero” can refer either to licking or drunkenness).

The game has a mix of fairly realistic sci-fi imagery (the player avatar) with cartoony and cute enemy characters (berobero and a frog enemy (not shown above)).

Warp & Warp Visuo-Spatial Analysis: Like Pac-Man, but without screen-wrap side tunnels. So, not a cylindrical topology.

Lupin III

Lupin III screen shot

Lupin III (Taito, 1980) is a "maze looter" game that may predate predates Pac-Man.

[Update 8/28/23: Lupin III was released in Japan in April 1980 (Masumi Agaki, Arcade TV Game List, Domestic/Overseas Edition (1971-2005), Japan: Amusement News Agency, pg. 103) and Pac-Man was released in July (Ararki, pg. 93) in Japan and December (Araki, pg. 160) in the USA.] 

The player-controlled Lupin must steal bags of money from the top of the screen and stash them away at the bottom of the screen while dodging his enemy aggressors: guards, guard dogs, and the indefatigable Inspector Zenigata of Interpol.

Lupin III fits being “cartoony,” as it is based on the long-running manga and anime series of the same name, created by the artist known as Monkey Punch. That series is based on the French “gentleman thief” Arsène Lupin stories created by Maurice Leblanc in the early 1900s.

Lupin III Visuo-Spatial Analysis: Like Pac-Man, but without cylindrical topology.

Alibaba and 40 Thieves

Alibaba and 40 Thieves screen shot

Alibaba and 40 Thieves (Sega, 1982) is a combat-oriented reversal of Lupin's gameplay (maybe the "maze anti-looter?"). The player here is Ali Baba, fighting the 40 thieves that try to the money bags from the bottom of the screen and secrete them away at the top of the screen. Ali Baba's round, yellow form looks like an angry Pac-Man with a red hat and a clenched fist.

Presumably, the top of the game’s maze represents the “open sesame” cave where the thieves hid their treasure in the original Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves story. The "stop the thieves from stealing your stuff" gameplay is also seen in Tim Skelly's earlier vector arcade game Rip Off (Cinematronics, 1980).

Ali Baba and 40 Thieves Visuo-Spatial Analysis: Like Lupin III.

To be continued...

Toward a "Cartoony" Spatial Paradigm? pt. 2 (Maze Games)

Taxonomy of Virtual Spaces

This post continues my exploration toward evaluating a spatial paradigm of "cartoony" digital games, which evolved through the 1980s. Part one analyzed two important early titles, namely Cutie Q and Pac-Man.

In the Wake of Pac-Man

Illustration for "The Real Threat of Pac-Man" by Steven M. Fink, The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 20, 1982

Pac-Man's simple and charming aesthetic helped the game appeal to players of all ages and genders. The yellow circle with an ever-hungry mouth became the first video game avatar (long before that term was coined) with personality and character. That character soon became merchandised, appearing on trading cards, bed sheets, Saturday morning cartoons, toy figurines, board games, canned pasta, and much more. Pac-Man also became video gaming's first mascot, with his round form being used to represent video games, video game addiction, the video game industry, fears of technology, and so on. Take a look at Cat DeSpira's "Mall Rats, Vidiots, and Addicts" (2019) article for a small sample of how Pac-Man appeared in the press via political cartoons and how the video game industry was represented through the 1980s.

The game was popular in Japan, but the USA became swept up in Pac-Mania by the summer of 1981. As often happens, numerous imitators were published that tried to duplicate a fraction of Pac-Man's success.

Lady Bug and Mouse Trap

Lady Bug screen shot

Mouse Trap screen shot

The arcades saw two new cartoony maze games hit the arcades in 1981 that stick close to the basic Pac-Man formula. Lady Bug (Universal Co. Ltd., 1981) and Mouse Trap (Exidy, 1981) do feature gates that empower the player to modify the maze as they play, but don't do much to innovate otherwise. The Japanese-designed Lady Bug features a few cute enemy insect designs with big eyes (see above), not unlike those of the monster enemies in Pac-Man. The American-designed Mouse Trap "cute" characters (like the blue mouse, above) have much smaller eyes.

Visuo-Spatial Analysis: The spatial constructions of these two games are almost identical to Pac-Man, except they are missing the screen-wrap side tunnels that gives Pac-Man a cylindrical topology. Also, Lady Bug agents are projected in plan view (from overhead) rather than front or side elevation view.

Frogger

Frogger screen shot

Frogger (Sega/Gremlin, 1981) does not have obvious influence from Pac-Man, but shares some similarities. In Pac-Man, the goal is to navigate across all points in the maze to clear a level. Frogger's goal is to navigate from the bottom of the screen to the frog homes at the top of the screen five times to clear each level. So, the amount of player movement required before a level is complete is similar between the two games. Second, Frogger's environment is also a maze: a dynamic, ever-shifting, navigable maze of different obstacles. The busy freeway is clogged with traffic and the treacherous river may only be crossed by hopping onto logs, crocodiles, and untrustworthy diving turtles (it isn't clear why our amphibian hero can't simply swim across).

Frogger features a spatial innovation not seen in the earlier titles written about here. Each previous game has the game agents traveling on a single, two-dimensional plane. There is no "background" imagery at all, with nothing but black outside of the agents and environments. The player avatar always collides with another game object, either eating it or getting killed by it. The enemy characters ignore and pass "through" pellets and power ups, but don't really seem to move "over" them. Conversely, Frogger is an example of layered space, where game agents may move over several 2-D planes. As the level starts, the player frog stands atop a ground layer (shown as purple dirt in the image above). At the river, the player frog (and lady frog) may be atop the diving turtles, logs, and crocodiles, all of which are understood as floating above the surface of the water. The diving turtles may also dive under that water layer, thus being behind the base "floor" layer of the water's surface. There is also a sense of gravity into the z-space of the screen, as the player frog may make a misstep and find themself drowned below the water layer.

Frogger Visuo-Spatial Analysis: Most Frogger agents are projected to the screen in an orthographic, plan (overhead) view, which matches the environment's projection. Crocodiles are shown in a side elevation view, which better shows their details (like open, toothy jaws) and prevents them from being confused with logs. The logs are illustrated in horizontal oblique projection, which allows their cylindrical forms to be easily understood. It is a layered, continuous, 2-D game space with a fixed frame and gravity in the z-axis.

To be continued...

Toward a "Cartoony" Spatial Paradigm? pt. 1 (Cutie Q)

Taxonomy of Virtual Spaces

Many of my previous posts have focused on the "Filmation" aesthetic style as an example of a spatial paradigm in digital games.

This post is an exploration toward evaluating another paradigm through the evolution of "cute" or "cartoony" games, with their genesis in the late 1970s and evolution through the 1980s.

Cutie Q

Cutie Q screen shot

Cutie Q (Namco, 1979) was the third title in Toru Iwatani's Gee Bee series, preceded by Gee Bee (1978) and Bomb Bee (1979). The Gee Bee games were inspired by Breakout (Atari, 1976) which had kick-started arcade game popularity in Japan in a way that Pong (Atari, 1972) and its clones never had. The Gee Bee series mixed block-breaking gameplay with pinball and pachinko aesthetics, featuring interactive items on the playfield like pop bumpers, spinners, and rollover targets. Cutie Q is the first to feature cute characters in the game, such as pink ghost "minimon," yellow "walkmen," happy/unhappy faces, and characters on the rainbow-colored blocks.

Earlier arcade games had featured recognizable characters that were more than simple paddle, car, tank, or rocket ship shapes (such as TV Basketball (MIdway, 1974), Western Gun/Gun Fight (Taito/Midway, 1975), and Circus (Exidy, 1977)). Tomohiro Nishikado's Space Invaders (Taito, 1978) aliens are recognizble as different sea creatures (octopus, crab, and squid). However, none of these earlier characters would be considered to be "cartoony" or "cute" (although the crab space invader is generally considered to be "the cute one").

Cutie Q is probably the earliest example of a "character game"* with intentionally cartoony and cute (it's right there in the name) figures. This concept served as direct influence on Iwatani's next game with Namco, Pac-Man.

Cutie Q Visuo-Spatial Analysis: The game screen emulates an orthographic view of a bagatelle-style playfield, but there is no real sense of gravity to understand which way is "down." The player could be looking down at a plan view of the playfield (like a pinball machine) or across at an elevation view (like a vertically-mounted pachinko machine). The character images are shown in orthographic front and side elevation views, the best way to show character details on a tiny 16 x 16 one-bit-per-pixel (1BPP, i.e. a two-color palette) sprite. The game has a sense of continuous 2-D game space limited to a single screen (fixed frame).

* The term "character game" is also a term used for Japanese "simulation games" (what we call board-and-counter wargames in the west) that are based on manga and anime series. For more on this topic, you should see my other blog for articles and translations I've made of various Japanese sci-fi and anime games (and one German one).

Pac-Man

Pac-Man screen shot

Iwatani's next game, Pac-Man (Namco, 1980) abandoned ball-and-paddle gameplay for the relatively untapped genre of maze games (preceded by few examples like Gotcha (Atari, 1973) and The Amazing Maze Game (Midway, 1976)). Pac-Man is similar to car racing game Head On (Sega, 1979), which is about driving over and clearing the screen of "lane markers" (dots) in a maze of roads before an opponent car can run into you.

Pac-Man, of course, replaces the act of driving with eating as the titular character devours his way through each maze. Bonus point edibles include fruits like cherries, strawberries, and oranges, their graphics reminding the player of "fruit machine" (a.k.a. slot machine) reel images. Pac-Man is pursued by four ghostly, large-eyed monsters that look like they evolved from Cutie Q's pink minimons. Pac-Man features a technical leap past Cutie Q's graphics capabilities: the multicolored monsters and bonus items feature two-bit-per-pixel (2BPP, 4 colors, including transparency) sprites. Iwatani designed his monsters to be "cute," with big expressive eyes that look ahead in the direction they are moving.

The game also included some of the first "cutscenes" seen in a digital game.

Pac-Man first intermission

Pac-Man includes three intermissions that play after mazes 2, 5, and 9. These are short and humorous "cartoons" that reward the player with short breaks between rounds. This is further evidence of bringing visuals from animation into digital games.

Pac-Man Visuo-Spatial Analysis: The game screen emulates an orthographic plan view of a maze (not unlike a hedge maze) seen from overhead. It could be argued that the maze is seen from the side, but the lack of gravity that pulls to the bottom of the screen (this is not a platformer) and similarity to overhead driving games like Head On support a view from above. The character images are shown in orthographic front and side elevation views, much like in Cutie Q. This creates an incongruity between characters and their environment, one that I wrote about before (see the Orthographic Projection section). The game has a sense of continuous 2-D game space limited to a single screen (fixed frame) with a cylindrical topology (characters may move directly from one edge of the maze to the other by using the side tunnels).

To be continued...

Reconstructing the Virtual Spatial Configuration

Taxonomy of Virtual Spaces

In my last blog post, I took a close reading of Ultimate Play the Game's Knight Lore (1984, ZX Spectrum game) and pre-visualized what the game's spaces would look like in Unity. The next steps are to replicate its visuo-spatial configuration in 3-D geometry and add a player avatar to replicate its player affordances. These two aspects together represent the "Filmation" spatial paradigm that I've defined in the previous post.

This aspect of the project is a first step toward creating a tool for analyzing different spatial paradigms as intentional aesthetic styles, where the types of projection and avatar movement may be set to different parameters while playing.

Space

As previously seen in my last blog post, I chose the cauldron room from Knight Lore as an initial target for my project (this is the room where the player must bring certain spell components to the wizard so that he may remove the player's curse of lycanthropy). Once I manage to emulate one room in the Filmation paradigm, I can begin to change the visuo-spatial settings (means of projection, to start with) and show the same environment as rendered under different aesthetic qualities.

Knight Lore cauldron room

Cauldron room visualization target

Cauldron room in 3-D geometry, but projection is not true isometric

The simple geometry was easy to create using Unity's ProBuilder modeling tool. I created a gridded "prototype" material for the level geometry, keeping a similar look to the original Kenney Isometric Prototype Tile assets that I used for the previsualization.

The camera settings are more challenging than I'd like them to be. Any change to the size of the projection (in order to incorporate the entire room on the screen) also changes the angle of the projection. I have the correct angles to use, in part thanks to Cartesio, but this isn't just a matter of plugging in the right numbers to get the exact visuals. The the key is keeping the orthographic camera Size and Far Clipping Plane values in synch. If you double one value, you must also double the other value. Looking through the code, the Camera Perspective Editor tool I am using uses the Far Clipping Plane when determining the effect of its "Lens Shift" adjustments, as needed for this visual.

A new problem has arisen. The camera settings seen in the bottom half of the third image are using the tool developer's "True Isometric" camera settings. However, in a true isometric projection, the white cube in the corner of the room (outlined in magenta, above) should form an equilateral hexagon. It does not. The vertical edges of the hexagon outline are notably longer than the angled edges, which means that this projection is not as advertised. These projectors are oblique when they should be orthogonal to the projection screen.

Corrections

I still plan to use the Camera Perspective Editor tool for oblique and other projections, but I can simply use Unity's built-in "orthographic" camera settings for correct orthogonal projections. Here are two corrected projections of the same environment.

True isometric projection (35° downward angle)

The outline of the cube in the corner of the image above creates a true equilateral hexagon (each edge measures 74 pixels), so this projection is correct.

2:1 "pixel" dimetric projection (30° downward angle)

In this next image, the gray floor tiles are projected twice as wide as they are tall (64 x 128 pixels), making this match the 2:1 "pixel" dimetric projection.

Trimetric (1:1, 1:3) projection (35° downward, 30° oblique to front face)

This final image is close to the "pixel" trimetric (1:1, 1:4) projection of Crystal Castles that I analyzed before, but the camera angle I calculated with the Cartesio tool (33.5° downward) did not give the correct results in Unity. I will have to further revise the camera settings for use with the Unity project.

Towards a Digital Simulacrum of "Filmation" Spatial Paradigm

Taxonomy of Virtual Spaces

In my last blog post, I explored the history of and defined the "Filmation" spatial paradigm, as pioneered in Ultimate Play the Game's Knight Lore (1984, ZX Spectrum game). This is currently my best-defined example of a spatial paradigm, one with a long history, especially in action/adventure platformers

My goal with my latest digital project is to be able to replicate various spatial paradigms seen in digital games, starting with the visuo-spatial configurations as defined by my "Taxonomy of Virtual Spaces" (Rowe, unpublished).

The "Filmation" visuo-spatial configuration:

• Gameworld
• Game Space
• Continuous Spatiality
• 3-D Game Space
• Mapping
• Rectangular Topology
• Modifiers
• Gravity - Down
• Framing Device
• Frame Mobility:Diagonal Direction
• Discrete (Page Flip)
• Three Conceptual Image Planes (angle and projection method)
• Agents - 30° Dimetric
• Environment - 30° Dimetric
• Background/Foreground - N/A

I began with a study of the original "Filmation" game, Knight Lore.

Studying Knight Lore

Playing Knight Lore on my ZX Spectrum Next (with HDMI output)

Like any game I am studying, I try to first play it on original hardware the game was designed for. I don't own an original Sinclair ZX Spectrum from the 1980s, but I do own a ZX Spectrum Next computer. It has an FPGA-implemented Z80-compatible processor that can replicate the functionality of a Spectrum or other Sinclair computer. It also sports an SD card reader, 512Mb RAM, joystick ports, HDMI and VGA output, and other amenities far above the original Spectrum's capabilities. The case and keyboard was designed by Rick Dickinson (RIP), who designed the some of Sinclair's original Spectrum cases. As a researcher and a gamer, it feels like a good mix of an authentic experience with enough modern conveniences to make my life easier (not worrying about a decaying keyboard membrane, a Kempston joystick interface, disintegrating cassette tape data, or PAL video formats). 

Playing the game reminds me that one thing I do not miss about old computer games: the wonky control schemes they often use. PC gamers owe so much to Thresh and his work to help standardize the WASD keyboard configuration scheme (though I am still a fan of ESDF). Knight Lore uses common-for-the-time "tank" style controls, where the player avatar can only move forward or rotate left/right by 90 degrees (and jump).

• Jump: Q, W, E, or R
• Forward: A, S, D, or F
• Left: Z, C, B, or M
• Right: X, V, N, or SYMBOL SHIFT

You can settle into a tight SZX control scheme, or widen your fingers out to a DZV to move without too much difficulty. The biggest problem is that jump is only on the top row of keys, not the standard space bar! If your left middle finger is on one of the ASDF keys to move forward, you need to move your other hand to one of the QWER positions to keep your other left hand figures to rotate left/right on the bottom row of keys. I think joystick controls are the way to go with this game.

Analyzing Knight Lore with the Spectrum Graphics Editor

I tried using the Spectrum Graphics Editor (still in development) to view Knight Lore's graphics data for analysis, but didn't have much luck. I found the graphics and image mask data, but it would take too long to extract the data into a useful format. I can see the graphics for the cauldron, crystal ball, boot, the ghost, the wizard, and the player sprites in the image above, but the pieces are still jumbled.

Knight Lore Cauldron Room showing 8 x 8 tile floor grid

As described in my previous blog post, Knight Lore rooms are 8 x 8 "tiles" in size along the floor plane. Each doorway is two tiles wide. The blocks the player often climbs onto are one tile in size and approximately 1/2 tile in height. The player can jump onto a block of this height.

Previsualization

Recreating the Cauldron Room in Unity 2019.4.40f1

I used the Cauldron Room as a previsualization target for the look of the digital game tool I'm creating. The initial pre-viz would also give me the opportunity to learn how to use Unity's isometric tilemap tools. I created a palette of tiles using the Kenney Isometric Prototype Tiles set (free to use under CC0 1.0) that I modified slightly.

I do like the gray and orange grid "under construction" palette used in these tiles. We used a similar texture on our prototype, graybox levels when using the Unreal 3 editor to create Legendary. It is very obviously not final art for the game, so it didn't pose much risk of accidentally being left in the shipping build for the final product. I like this look for my purposes as it does not really convey a specific architectural or artistic style. I need something that keeps the visualized spaces clear and distinct without giving the impression of a specific culture or genre.

Next Step: Create texture, material, and other assets based on a similar "prototype" look to use in order to build 3-D assets for replicating virtual spaces.