Interview:Hardcore Gaming 101 2010: Difference between revisions
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Now things start to get really interesting, as Mr DeSharone reveals some truths about the Philips and Nintendo agreement. | Now things start to get really interesting, as Mr DeSharone reveals some truths about the Philips and Nintendo agreement. | ||
{{Interview/A|Dale DeSharone|This is where the Link and Zelda story begins. Somehow, Philips got a deal with Nintendo to license five characters. As I understood the arrangement, it wasn't a license of five games but five characters. A number of developers pitched AIM with ideas. I think AIM chose to go with the biggest names that Nintendo had at the time. We pitched separate ideas for a game starring [[Link]] and a separate one with [[ | {{Interview/A|Dale DeSharone|This is where the Link and Zelda story begins. Somehow, Philips got a deal with Nintendo to license five characters. As I understood the arrangement, it wasn't a license of five games but five characters. A number of developers pitched AIM with ideas. I think AIM chose to go with the biggest names that Nintendo had at the time. We pitched separate ideas for a game starring [[Link]] and a separate one with [[Zelda]]. The development budgets were not high. As I recall they were perhaps around $600,000 each. We made a pitch that we could maximize the quality of the games by combining the funding to develop only one game engine that would be used by both games. This was in 1991-92 and even at this time a U.S. technical employee cost about $100,000 per year to support (salary, taxes, office space, equipment, insurance, administration costs). This was also a time when a 1GB hard drive cost $3000. We had a team of three programmers (other than myself), one audio engineer/composer, four artists and a producer. We had a single freelance writer who wrote the scripts and helped design both games.}} | ||
So the studio was formed and work began. Wishing to hear more, I asked about the atmosphere of the time and what it was like creating these games. | So the studio was formed and work began. Wishing to hear more, I asked about the atmosphere of the time and what it was like creating these games. |
Latest revision as of 21:49, May 29, 2013
Date | 2010 | |
Interviewee | Dale DeSharone | |
Interviewer | Hardcore Gaming 101 | |
Description | DeSharone describes his history with Phillips and the development of the CDi games. | |
Source |
How they came about
Mr DeSharone was originally a primary school teacher who became involved with early Atari home computers, creating software to help teach the children in his class. During this time he sent programs to the Atari Programming Exchange, winning both first and second prizes. Desiring a change of career he moved into full-time software development.
Once involved with games full-time, Mr DeSharone created the much loved Commodore 64 classics: Adventure Creator, Alice in Wonderland, and Below the Root (if you like 2D adventuring I highly recommend Below the Root - utterly brilliant), and also co-authored several books with Herb Cole. He then worked on other titles, before becoming involved with Philips.
Mr DeSharone went on to explain at length all the technical problems with the system, from an inability to properly stream audio, the poorly interfaced infra-red controller, slow 68000 processor, problems with saving and so on. It's a miracle what developers managed to squeeze out of the CDi, and even then AIM (American Interactive Media, Philips' CDi software publishing arm) didn't want games.
Now things start to get really interesting, as Mr DeSharone reveals some truths about the Philips and Nintendo agreement.
So the studio was formed and work began. Wishing to hear more, I asked about the atmosphere of the time and what it was like creating these games.
The games were released simultaneously, and the rest is history as they say (see further pages for specifics on audio, visuals and gameplay).
I asked some more general questions, such as what he thinks of games development today and also of Zelda's Adventure, the third Zelda game on CDi.
Audio
The music is the most instantly gratifying element of LZ and difficult to argue against, since online gameplay videos and the scant MP3s from Galbadia Hotel do not lie. It's in no way like other Zelda music and there is no traditional Hyrule tune, but this for me emphasises the music's quality. It's unique, eclectic and very unusual, sounding like a medley of ethnic instruments and themes. South-American Panpipes, African percussion, a strong middle-eastern vibe, plus a lot of delicious 1980s synth. Overall the music is quite unlike anything else I've heard in videogames - surely such diversity is a good thing?
Unfortunately the voice acting was atrocious, being the first thing which people criticise. It was poorly acted, with apparently no attempt to match what was onscreen to what was being said. Hence why we have a skinny blonde girl trapped in a Viking longboat on top of a mountain, with her overlaid character-cinema instead showing a bloated fat woman with red hair, while the voice is that of someone with a thick Texas accent (please, whatever you do, ignore the cinemas). The idea of overlaying animated character portraits onto the in-game action is an ingenious one (done superbly on Popful Mail for the Turbo Duo, if you want a comparison) - but unfortunately it's a wasted effort when the animation is sloppy and acting poor.
Though it was perhaps out of Mr DeSharone's control, since as he explained, they used union actors.
If you've not got access to the games, I highly recommend checking out some videos or MP3s to experience the unique and high-quality music on offer.
Visuals
The in-game graphics are another highlight of LZ, especially the backgrounds, since rather than being traditional pixel-based sprite-art, they have a Claude Monet-like pastel impressionist quality. This should be evident from the screens - strokes from when the backgrounds were first painted are still visible. Over the years only a few games have tried experimenting with different visual styles, which elevates LZ to the plateau of titles like Okami (Japanese brushwork); Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct (CG renderings); Skullmonkeys (claymation); Rakuga Kids and Rakugaki Showtime (graffiti); Saga Frontier 2 and Legend of Mana (water color) plus of course, Yoshi's Island (wax crayon), among others.
This was a direct result of the CD medium being able to hold the higher resolution scans, and it's a pity that not more games have tried being a little different. Also as clever, as previously stated, is that character dialogues are introduced via portrait-cinemas which overlaid onto in-game action. The problem though is that all the FMV-style cinemas are of a very low quality.
The reason for this proves fascinating: a bunch of Russian animators were flown over and placed in an apartment, then drew everything. Not to offend anyone from Eastern Europe (my surname reveals that I too hail from that area), but when you think about it, the post-communist east-bloc styling is painfully evident in the cut-scenes, and for anyone who enjoys Japanese anime (a staple in most videogames) or the kind of output from Ghibli studios, then those in LZ aren't very palatable.
What Mr DeSharone describes next is almost like outsourcing (bringing foreign workers over to do the job.)
This created quite an ironic situation: a Japanese company (Nintendo) licensed out their intellectual property to a Dutch company (Philips), which then funded an American company (Animation Magic, under the tenure of Dale DeSharone) to creates games with said IP, in turn bringing over Russian artists to create the cinemas.
As stated though, it's best to ignore these completely, since they will only taint what is an otherwise expertly crafted pair of games.
...
Gameplay Development
When considering the gameplay of LZ, you need to realise that development began in early 1991, with only two previous Zelda games having been released on the NES. Link to the Past on the SNES was only released in the November of 1991 in Japan (hitting the U.S. roughly 6 months later in 1992), and prior to release would only have been viewable deep within Nintendo's R&D lab in Kyoto. This means that, due to not much source material to work from and little if any information about LttP available, LZ collectively was developed to be the third game(s) in the series. By the time the team would have had access to LttP, development of LZ would have already progressed a fair amount. Though Mr DeSharone did explain that the entire team had been fans of the first two Zelda titles.
The level of influence which Philips, AIM and Nintendo had was insignificant, and I provide for you here an unedited interview segment with Dale DeSharone, regarding development.
Considering this situation, it would be unfair to criticise LZ for being unlike LttP or other Zelda games. The series' identity was still only forming, and Nintendo gave little direction in how they wanted it to be. In isolation, the creativity shown by Mr. DeSharone's team works well.
Conclusion
I have a lot of sympathy for LZ and those who developed them, since much of the criticism is unfounded, written by people who've never played the games, and this has no doubt resulted in people avoiding them. The facts need to be clarified and documented.
I explained my motivation for the interview to Mr. DeSharone, asking if he was aware of the intense criticism LZ had received and what his reaction was.
They weren't Nintendo games and they are by no means perfect (is any game?), but if people look past this, and accept them for what they are - fun, challenging, 2D adventures, albeit with poor cinemas - then they provide a lot of enjoyment, especially when you consider their infamy. To find a hidden gem is a wonderful experience, but finding a hidden gem in something regarded as terrible is even better!
...
Special thanks to Dale DeSharone for answering questions, and www.quebecgamers.com for supplying images.