Difference between revisions of "Void Raiders"
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'''Related games:''' ''[[Orb: The Derelict Planet]]'' | '''Related games:''' ''[[Orb: The Derelict Planet]]'' | ||
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| − | Whereas much of John and Robert Brandon's material is unfinished, due often to ambitions greater than the cup | + | Whereas much of John and Robert Brandon's material is unfinished, due often to ambitions greater than the available cup, a few games did continue to some form of rest. ''Void Raiders'' is one of their most complete games, to the point of asking for registration. The lens we use, then, should here be different from the lens we use elsewhere. |
There are two signature themes to Robert's games, compared to his brother's. One, they tend to be in a greater state of completion. Two, whereas John seems to most enjoy producing resources, Robert tends to use whatever is available in order to build. If John is the artisan, Robert is the architect. When Robert happens on a shelf of John's material, we get effective collaborations like ''[[Terra]]'' and ''[[Fox World]]''. In the case of ''Void Raiders'', Robert seems mostly to have found his beats in other authors' material -- namely, ''[[Nebula]]'', ''[[Zark]]'', and ''[[Orb: The Derelict Planet]]''. | There are two signature themes to Robert's games, compared to his brother's. One, they tend to be in a greater state of completion. Two, whereas John seems to most enjoy producing resources, Robert tends to use whatever is available in order to build. If John is the artisan, Robert is the architect. When Robert happens on a shelf of John's material, we get effective collaborations like ''[[Terra]]'' and ''[[Fox World]]''. In the case of ''Void Raiders'', Robert seems mostly to have found his beats in other authors' material -- namely, ''[[Nebula]]'', ''[[Zark]]'', and ''[[Orb: The Derelict Planet]]''. | ||
Revision as of 17:13, 23 July 2016
Release type: Shareware
Release date: 2001
Levels: 7
Author: Robert Brandon
Registration bonus: The rest of the first episode, side-scrolling scenes, and bonus courses
Registration price: $8
Related games: Orb: The Derelict Planet
FULL ENTRY COMING SOON!
Whereas much of John and Robert Brandon's material is unfinished, due often to ambitions greater than the available cup, a few games did continue to some form of rest. Void Raiders is one of their most complete games, to the point of asking for registration. The lens we use, then, should here be different from the lens we use elsewhere.
There are two signature themes to Robert's games, compared to his brother's. One, they tend to be in a greater state of completion. Two, whereas John seems to most enjoy producing resources, Robert tends to use whatever is available in order to build. If John is the artisan, Robert is the architect. When Robert happens on a shelf of John's material, we get effective collaborations like Terra and Fox World. In the case of Void Raiders, Robert seems mostly to have found his beats in other authors' material -- namely, Nebula, Zark, and Orb: The Derelict Planet.
For the melody, Robert seems to be working from a few riffs he improvised in the top-down maze game Droid. That game was fairly chaotic, but some part of its seems to have kept circling and maturing in his head. Put more work into defining the environment, work on the controls, and skin the game with a more focused theme (space ships, say), and maybe we've got something.
On paper, Void Raiders is in fact promising. It's a free-roaming space shooter with Robotron-style controls -- a surprising rarity, yet perfectly suited to Game-Maker. The visuals are largely borrowed, yet applied with some skill and imagination. One level animates a marble pattern from Pipemare, turning it into an apparent torrent of water or plasma. The background is a tapestry of photographic space elements, from various sources.
Fluid, responsive.
Difficult to play; contributing factors: persistent monsters (keep coming, take multiple shots), shots that can't pass through walls, narrow passages, momentum-based movement. Hard to run away. Hard to get into passages. Hard to hit monsters. Monsters never give up. Also, goals are unclear and it's hard to survive long enough to figure them out.
Basically, difficulty balance and overall playability need attention. What's there is appealing. Just hard for the player to make meaningful progress.
Contents
Story
Once, in a land far away, there was a strange occurrence. Where it came from, nobody knew, but whenever anyone touched it, he/she disappeared. Some believed that it was some mystical portal conjured up by the ancients. Others thought that it was an alien device accidentally left there. Nobody knew. It was eventually forgotten, that strange mist of swirling purple gasses, and it remained, swallowing the odd traveler here, a hiker there.
CENTURIES LATER
Technology had improved much since the discovery of the transporter, and the Zorbians were once again ready to take on the once forgotten menace. They constructed a fine ship, made of the best materials of Zorb, and equipped with dual ion cannons. However, the portal was quickly fading, so they strapped in the first junior pilot they could find and started the countdown.
...5...4...3...2...1... PREPARE FOR LIFTOFF!!!
Here's my story; I was walking down the sidewalk in my rider's outfit, (I was waiting for the washing machine to finish) and suddenly, a big guy's arm reaches out, grabs my arm and throws me into a nicely padded seat. As the countdown begins, I'm wondering exactly what I'm doing here. I'm also wondering if I can get back before my clothes are done. I've been using the on-line help section of the ship, and what I've been able to come up with at the moment is the movement keys, the turbo keys, (W,S,A,D) and the fire keys. (T,G,F,H) Well, I hope that they're friendly...
Instructions
WASD = TURBO
TFGH = PHOTON
Arrow keys = movement
[] = Expel - Impel items into your ship
BN = Plasma bolts - if you have them
ENTER = Cloaking device activate
Credits
This game was made by Brandon Enterprises in the name of the great Emperor Zorgisang.
Actually, I was just kidding - Robert Brandon made this game.
Background
John Brandon:
- Game by my brother, looks like it borrows graphics from Nebula, Zark, and Orb. I do remember my brother spending a lot of time on this.
- Looks like it is a maze style game. You can shoot at the enemies, the levels should have exits, and there is a level select screen! Don't forget to regEster! LOL
- Needless to say, like all of our other games and tech demos, none of these were ever released to the public at the time, nor was a more complete/registered version ever created.
Availability
Prior to this archive's online presence, this game is not known to be publicly available.
Archive history
On January 21st 2010, Rob Brandon pseudonymously responded to a Reddit thread with a passing comment about Game-Maker. When pressed about his history with the software, he replied that all of his games were stored on a couple of defunct computers, either inaccessible or destroyed.
Over 31 months later on August 23th 2012, John Brandon commented on a YouTube clip that he had found an archive of his and his brother's old games. The next day he composed a long e-mail describing the contents of a jumbled collection of gameware files, adding up to an ostensible sixteen games. All of the games were in pieces, many of them incomplete.
Over the next five months, through regular consultation, the games were all reassembled as well as the materials would permit. The games were reconstructed or otherwise recovered on the following dates:
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Links
Downloads
- Void Raiders (544.1 kB)
