Ninja Tuck
Release type: Shareware
Release date: April 29, 1995
Levels: 12
Author: A-J Games
Registration bonus: Registered version of Ninja Tuck, Ninja Tuck II: Booka, Ninja Tuck II .MOD soundtrack
Registration price: $40
Related games: Ninja Tuck II: Booka
Not to be mistaken for Yurik Nestoly's Ninja.
One of my associates was to spend his senior year in India. We had grown close since fall orientation, and had developed a pile of in-jokes together. I chose to give him a send-off, filled with all those jokes and hints of his own interests and personality — a fondness for martial arts, a blanket irreverence to cultural norms and sensitivities.
It helped that despite my knowledge of Tintin and Uncle Scrooge and an ostensible eleventh-grade education I had trouble separating my oriental stereotypes. Ninjas were from Asia, and so were snake charmers — and there was something in there about cattle worship. It was all part of the same pop culture muddle. Mind you, at this point I was in a prestigious private school. So I’m not sure what happened there.
With the prevalence of Ninja-based action games, I also had my choice of tropes and templates. Probably my favorite of Sega’s first-generation Genesis games was Revenge of Shinobi.
I made the character was tall and thin, like Joe Musashi. I filled the early backgrounds with bamboo and secret tunnels. I even littered the starting screen with autumn leaves, that blew away after a moment. All was well, except that the tall character meshed awkwardly with Game-Maker’s limited monster sizes. Without getting really clever, the tallest enemies could only be half as tall as the character sprite. This was acceptable in some cases, as with the scattered cows and burning swords, but it got a little weird when I chose to include knee-high enemy ninjas.
I had the notion of building the game around short-range melee attacks, as in Ninja Gaiden. A problem that I had noticed in hindsight about Peach the Lobster was that the natural attack zone for a 40-pixel tall character tended to fly over the heads of 20-pixel ground-based monsters. Thus I drew from Joe Musashi’s powered-up melee weapon, crossed with Strider Hiryu’s Falchion — which is to say, a blade that is all swoosh and a swoosh that envelops all before the character.
Given that in RSD’s engine all attacks are achieved through monster birthing, there is not much leeway for preciousness. Melee attacks are hard enough when they’re a single, static monster block. A whole two-block sword swoosh takes some intense experimentation. Though in retrospect I can think of one or two better solutions, I eventually solved the problem with a single monster block that quickly shifts down as it animates. Good enough!
After the first couple of levels, my inspiration again shifted from Sega to Tecmo. Several of the later themes are inspired by either the first or the second NES Ninja Gaiden.
Finishing touches include a slightly pointless map screen informed by Commander Keen‘s overworld (itself informed by Super Mario Bros. 3) and a wealth of digitized sound effects. Most of these I recorded myself, and manipulated in Cool Edit. Some, such as the sound the apples make, were directly inspired by Adept Software’s little-known yet neato Zelda knock-off, God of Thunder. A few effects came later, when the object of this game’s tribute was available for recording.
As a final touch, I added morphing menus. As usual I teased the player with promises of a sequel, and even mocked up a few pictures to suggest what was in store for registered users. Maybe it was left-over ambition from my summer commission, but this time I actually followed through...
- - EJR Tairne
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Contents
Story
Tucker Harding, a master ninja, was studying in India. One day, only a few hours before he was scheduled to return home to the States, he ran into a group of robed figures, blocking the street.
Tuck didn't want to even bother asking what was going on, so he just turned to the side and started to take another route. As he started down an alleyway, a large cow came from the opposite end and essentially plugged its exit.
Tucker was seriously starting to get frustrated, and climbed over the cow. The figures, however, had been watching.
"He has trodden upon a child of Ghamuta! He must die!"
Tucker was startled when he heard this, but did not wait more than a moment. He dropped his bags and unsheathed his katana. Within the minute, at least a half dozen holy ninjas were on his tail.
"What the heck is going on around here? I just wanted to go home!"
Tuck started for a nearby bamboo forest, where he had practiced his arts during the last few months. Maybe, in that familiar yet twisted territory, he could find a way home, to safety.
Instructions
How To Be A Ninja
- G: Slash Left
- H: Slash Right
On Numerical Keypad:
- 7: Jump Left
- 8: Jump Up
- 9: Jump Right
- 4: Walk Left
- 6: Walk Right
- 2: Duck
Space Bar: Total Spaz!
Levels
- 1-1 - Sunset Bamboo
- 1-2 - Bamboo Labyrinth
- 2-1 - Windy Crag
- 2-2 - Sunken Depths
- 3-1 - Cows R Buddha
- 3-2 - Brittle Stones
- 4-1 - Missile Toe
- 4-2 - Moonstruck
- 4-3 - Bonus to Tuck
- 5-0 - Cowering One
Credits
Graphics, game design, sound processing, etc:
Character based on, voice:
- Tucker Harding
Testing:
- OmegAkira, Hackman, Morphio
Game Engine:
Availability
During the early 1990s the game was available for download from various dial-up bulletin boards, including:
- The Kobayashi Alternative
- CyberDrunk BBS
- I.D.D.C BBS
Also vailable on several shareware compilation CD-ROMs, including:
- PC Spiel CD-ROM (January 1996),
- Jump & Run Games 2: Ausgewählte Shareware-Spiele (March 1996), and
- PC Joker (April 1996).
Archive History
Ninja Tuck was retained as part of the archive from the game's inception.
Links
Sites
Interviews / Articles
Misc. Links
Downloads
- Ninja Tuck (3.4 MB)
- Overall map (13 kB)
- Level 1-1 (Sunset Bamboo) map (49 kB)
- Level 1-2 (Bamboo Labyrinth) map (75 kB)
- Level (Windy Crag) 2-1 map (74 kB)
- Level (Sunken Depths) 2-2 map (397 kB)
- Level (Cows R Buddha) 3-1 map (84 kB)
- Level (Brittle Stones) 3-2 map (94 kB)
- Level (Missile Toe) 4-1 map (149 kB)
- Level (Moonstruck) 4-2 map (43 kB)
- Level (Bonus to Tuck) 4-3 map (70 kB)
- Level (Cowering One) 5-0 map (18 kB)
- Level 1-1 (Sunset Bamboo) map (49 kB)
