wireframe – Noise

Who remembers E.T. for the Atari 2600?

Ian Dransfield — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 07:16:00 +0000

In the latest issue of Wireframe magazine, video game pioneer Howard Scott Warshaw reflects on the calamitous E.T. for the Atari 2600. Could it serve as a useful metaphor for real life? When Julius Caesar ran into Brutus on the Ides of March so many years ago, it changed his life dramatically. I would say…

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Code a Spectrum-style Crazy Golf game | Wireframe #54

Ryan Lambie — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 11:27:38 +0000

Putt the ball around irrational obstacles in our retro take on golf. Mark Vanstone has the code First released by Mr. Micro in 1983 – then under the banner of Sinclair Research – Krazy Golf was, confusingly, also called Crazy Golf. The loading screen featured the Krazy spelling, but on the cover, it was plain…

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Behind the scenes at Atari

Ashley Whittaker — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 08:24:10 +0000

We love Wireframe magazine’s regular feature ‘The principles of game design’. They’re written by video game pioneer Howard Scott Warshaw, who authored several of Atari’s most famous and infamous titles. In the latest issue of Wireframe, he provides a snapshot of the hell-raising that went on behind the scenes at Atari… Video game creation is…

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Code your own pinball game | Wireframe #53

Ryan Lambie — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 08:33:39 +0000

Get flappers flapping and balls bouncing off bumpers. Mark Vanstone has the code in the new issue of Wireframe magazine, available now. There are so many pinball video games that it’s become a genre in its own right. For the few of you who haven’t encountered pinball for some reason, it originated as an analogue…

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How pillars and triangles can focus your game design

Ian Dransfield — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 08:34:27 +0000

In game design, freedom can lead to paralysis. But in the latest issue of Wireframe magazine, Stuart Maine explains how game pillars and the iron triangle will help you focus on what’s important. This article will cover two game development tools that are designed to help decide what’s important in the game you’re making. The…

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Recreate Gradius’ rock-spewing volcanoes | Wireframe #52

Ryan Lambie — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 07:58:06 +0000

Code an homage to Konami’s classic shoot-’em-up, Gradius. Mark Vanstone has the code in the new edition of Wireframe magazine, available now. Released by Konami in 1985, Gradius – also known as Nemesis outside Japan – brought a new breed of power-up system to arcades. One of the keys to its success was the way…

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Swing into action with an homage to Pitfall! | Wireframe #48

Ryan Lambie — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 09:46:35 +0000

Grab onto ropes and swing across chasms in our Python rendition of an Atari 2600 classic. Mark Vanstone has the code Whether it was because of the design brilliance of the game itself or because Raiders of the Lost Ark had just hit the box office, Pitfall Harry became a popular character on the Atari…

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Code a Light Cycle arcade minigame | Wireframe #47

Ryan Lambie — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 08:15:52 +0000

Speed around an arena, avoiding walls and deadly trails in this Light Cycle minigame. Mark Vanstone has the code. At the beginning of the 1980s, Disney made plans for an entirely new kind of animated movie that used cutting-edge computer graphics. The resulting film was 1982’s TRON, and it inevitably sparked one of the earliest…

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Code your own Pipe Mania puzzler | Wireframe #46

Ryan Lambie — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 11:39:20 +0000

Create a network of pipes before the water starts to flow in our re-creation of a classic puzzler. Jordi Santonja shows you how. Pipe Mania, also called Pipe Dream in the US, is a puzzle game developed by The Assembly Line in 1989 for Amiga, Atari ST, and PC, and later ported to other platforms,…

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Recreate Tiger-Heli’s bomb mechanic | Wireframe #45

Ryan Lambie — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 12:21:35 +0000

Code an explosive homage to Toaplan’s classic blaster. Mark Vanstone has the details Released in 1985, Tiger-Heli was one of the earliest games from Japanese developer Toaplan: a top-down shoot-’em-up that pitted a lone helicopter against relentless waves of enemy tanks and military installations. Toaplan would go on to refine and evolve the genre through…

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Make your own virtual reality 3D Shooter

Mark Vanstone — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 10:08:58 +0000

In the latest issue of Wireframe magazine, Mark Vanstone shows you how to turn a 3D shooter into a VR game for a variety of viewers, from Google Cardboard to gaming headsets. Browser development has really matured of late, with a numberof exciting new features coming to the fore. Where WebGL was well supported, the…

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Code your own Artillery-style tank game | Wireframe #44

Ian Dransfield — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 09:38:31 +0000

Fire artillery shells to blow up the enemy with Mark Vanstone’s take on a classic two-player artillery game To pick just one artillery game is difficult since it’s a genre in its own right. Artillery simulations and games have been around for almost as long as computers, and most commonly see two players take turns…

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AI-Man: a handy guide to video game artificial intelligence

Ryan Lambie — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 09:03:24 +0000

Discover how non-player characters make decisions by tinkering with this Unity-based Pac-Man homage. Paul Roberts wrote this for the latest issue of Wireframe magazine. From the first video game to the present, artificial intelligence has been a vital part of the medium. While most early games had enemies that simply walked left and right, like…

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Code a Rally-X-style mini-map | Wireframe #43

Ryan Lambie — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 10:17:00 +0000

Race around using a mini-map for navigation, just like the arcade classic, Rally-X. Mark Vanstone has the code The original Rally-X arcade game blasted onto the market in 1980, at the same time as Pac‑Man and Defender. This was the first year that developer Namco had exported its games outside Japan thanks to the deal…

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Recreate Q*bert’s cube-hopping action | Wireframe #42

Ryan Lambie — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 08:27:08 +0000

Code the mechanics of an eighties arcade hit in Python and Pygame Zero. Mark Vanstone shows you how Late in 1982, a funny little orange character with a big nose landed in arcades. The titular Q*bert’s task was to jump around a network of cubes arranged in a pyramid formation, changing the colours of each…

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