Adventure

Concept and Storyline
A quest game based on castles, dragons, keys, sword, magnet and a chalice.

Goal
Find the chalice and return it to the castle.

Core Game Mechanic
Move your player up, down, left and right to explore the maze and collect and move items.

Challenge

Work out a path through the maze. Find the correct key so that you can open the corresponding castle gate. Avoid the dragons protecting the keys. Use the magnet to put the key and the dragon in a tactically suitable position. Kill the dragons with the sword.

 

Overall Impression

Game although simple graphically was enjoyable to play. Most enjoyment came from figuring out the puzzle and completing the quest.

My Rating

5 out of 10 stars.

Analysis of the 4 Elements of Game Design

1. Mechanics - You move your character around using the 4 arrow keys. Your movement is restricted by walls and gates. Dragons will attack your character so you must avoid at all costs. You can pickup the sword, keys, the magnet and the chalice but you can only carry one item at a time.
2. Story - You must complete each stage in sequence otherwise you cannot get through the locked castle gates. In the first stage your must get the gold key to open the gate of the gold castle. You can use the magnet to help you accomplish this. You must get through the gold castle gate in order to get the sword. You need the sword to kill the gold dragon that pursues you, the green dragon protecting the black key and the red dragon protecting the chalice. Once you get the chalice you can return it to the gold castle and complete the quest.
3. Aesthetics - Graphical representations of dragons, keys, castles, sword, magnet, and chalice help complete the story.
4. Technology - The interaction of picking up items and running and fighting with the dragons and the grahical representation of the objects especially the mazes in the story is provided by the computer system. The sequence of events in the story is also maintained by the computer system.

Donkey Kong

Concept and Storyline

Classic story of King Kong, the beautiful but helpless maiden and the hero, Mario, who will save her from the beast. Donkey Kong makes rescue difficult by throwing barrels at you not to mention all the other dangers and pitfalls.

 

Spatial Arenas

Building girders with interconnecting ladders, elevators and moving conveyor belts.

Goal
Climb the girder maze and rescue the maiden. When she is rescued she will be overwhelmed by your heroism so who knows what the prize may be. Also score points by jumping barrels and smashing everything with the hammer.

Core Game Mechanic
Move hero up the girder maze towards the maiden whilst avoiding and jumping barrels and obstacles. Use the space bar to jump, left and right buttons to move player left and right and up and down buttons to climb up and down ladders.

Challenge
As game progresses it gets harder to climb the girder maze due to the types of obstacles and the frequency of barrels and other objects coming at you. Some barrels land in fire and start burning and chase you around the girder maze. Get the hammer and you can smash all the things trying to hurt you.

Overall Impression
This is a another classic 2D game. The Flash version shown is a good representation of the original version. The sound effects are good. Many other clones and games in the Donkey Kong genre attest to the games core game mechanics and concept popularity. From my perspective using the console joystick makes it better to play.

My Rating
8 out of 10 stars.

Asteroids

Concept and Storyline
Space ship stuck in aseroid belt fighting aliens. Destroy all the asteroids and alien before they get you.

Spatial Arena
Black meaningless space surrounded by giant rocks which you need to disitegrate bit by bit. So simple yet so effective.

Goal
Destroy everything in sight and score as many points as possible.

Core Game Mechanic
Use the space bar to fire your missiles, up arrow to fire your rocket thruster and left and right arrow keys to rotate your ship and hence control the direction of your thrust and hence the position of your spacecraft. The shift key teleports you to a random spot. Use this facility when death is immenient and note death usally follows soon after due to the new precarious position you usually find yourself in. Most important destroy everything.

Challenge
As game progresses it gets harder to avoid asteroids because they are everywhere and moving fast.  Aliens become more ferocious, faster and their missiles become more accurate. No chance of for a peace treaty with the aliens so they must be destroyed.

Overall Impression
This is a great 2D game. The Flash version is as good as the original version. The sound effects are fantastic and this adds to the immersion in the game. The explosions when you crash and blow things up are good too. The physics in the game are fairly realistic and that makes the game, for me at least, enjoyable and challenging with zero frustration levels. In summary after all these years I still love this game. My final comment is don't forget to destroy everything.

My Rating
10 out of 10 stars.

Lunar Lander



Concept and Storyline
Flight simulator for a lunar landing craft. Land on the moon with out crashing.

Spatial Arena
Black meaningless space and the foreboding an ominous terrain of the moon. Simple yet effective.

Goal
Navigate the terrain and land on the landing pad with a safe velocity before you run out of fuel.

Core Game Mechanic
Use the space bar to fire your rocket and generate thrust. Use the left and right arrow keys to rotate your ship and hence control the direction of your thrust and hence the position of your spacecraft.

Challenge
As game progresses it gets harder to land on the next pad before your fuel is expended and you consequently crash. This version also allows you to select higher gravity environments which increases the challenge also.

Overall Impression
This is a good simulation albeit simple and 2D. The sound effects worked fairly well and this adds to the immersion in the game.  The explosions when you crash are good too. I have a recollection that some of the earlier versions had some feedback in terms of the ships velocity and altitude in the game interface. The physics in the game are fairly realistic and that makes the game, for me at least, enjoyable and challenging with zero frustration levels. In summary after all these years I still like this game.

My Rating
5 out of 10 stars.

Pong

Concept and Storyline
Almost certainly a digital version of "Table Tennis" which is also known as "Ping Pong". No storyline although with a little bit of beer one could probably extrapolate to the eternal struggle of good against evil.

Spatial Arena
Black meaningless space.

Goal
Make the computer miss the ball and score points.

Core Game Mechanic
Serve ball with a mouse button click and then you can only move your paddle up and down via the mouse and prevent the ball from going out behind your paddle.

Challenge
Try and hit the ball with a moving paddle to put on some greater angular deflection.
(Or was that my imagination trying to reduce my boredom.)

Overall Impression
Pong! What a classic or did it really stink. It was the best for it time or more accurately it was all we had. I found myself initially amused but I quickly became frustrated yet again. A little bit annoying when mouse pointer not over Pong Java application as mouse input is not sent to application. I remember it being more enjoyable with original joystick hardware and the graphics were definitely larger albeit slower. Sound effects although simple definitely add another dimension to this game. I also remember the ball would serve itself after a certain time not that you could gain an advantage with your serve. Two player version was more fun than playing the computer. I hope to play this game again in another 10 years.

My Rating
3 out of 10 stars.