A Retro Game Retrospective

In which Arielle shares some screenshots and thoughts on her most recently completed game. A small but sweet reimaging of a classic: SpaceWar!

I've always enjoyed learning about the past of any subject in which I'm enrolled. In animation, lessons on Winsor McCay and various, now anachronistic technologies and methods in the field were always instant favorites. It seemed fitting when I started my first project for Game Gen, that the assignment would be a remake of one of the first video games.

SpaceWar! is the first video game, created by computer scientist[s] Steve Russell (in collaboration with many others) at MIT in 1962. The game was extremely popular amongst the programming community of the 1960s and is sited to be the influence for many of the games that followed it in the 1970s. SpaceWar! is a combat game set in space between two spaceships maneuvering within a star's gravitational pull.

My apprehensions about unintentionally evoking the most inevitable of artist foibles (ie. the spaceship in Austin Powers 2) dissipated quickly, thanks to my handy dandy unconscious habit of seeking ways to adapt projects to include my special interests. For whatever reason, camels spitting at each other came to mind, so I ran with that instead...

Yeah...That looks really good...with the meat chunklets...wait...

I don't know if I successfully made the sprites read "Camel"...but...baby steps... After all, it's some of my first attempts with game sprites...using only a mouse... Overall, I see I need work on my pixel art, but it's charming...

Below you can see some of the assets of the game zoomed in. I may be tempted to revisit this project at a later date to improve visuals.

Above is a zoomed in look of player1's sprite: a Dromedary. It looks a little like a lion, but I think I just need to lengthen the muzzle a bit and play with various details.

Below is a zoomed in look of player1's run trail sprite. I like how I did the legs, personally.

Below is a zoomed in look at the Oasis sprite in the center.

Above is a screenshot of some of the game's earlier coding. A few things changed from this point, but nothing that changes this greatly.

Last, but not least, we have a screenshot of the game at start. This will be the game's thumbnail!

...Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...or that player2's sprite is upside down....

This week, I completed this game, started this blog, and created an itch.io account where you will be able to access and play this game, as well as many other future games. Expect a blogpost with a link to the game shortly!

Whelp! Onwards and Upwards!