Nathan Rocks
Release type: Incomplete
Release date: 1994
Levels: 3
Author: Alan Caudel
Website: DummyDuck.com
Related games: N/A
Nathan Rocks is a small-scale, apparently unfinished experiment with some unusual design techniques.
There are two main levels here. The first involves one of Alan Caudel's friends (presumably the person who thought up Scurvy the Squirrel) in a Zelda perspective top-town world. The world is distinguished by a few curious qualities:
- The tiles tend to be flat colored squares, sometimes with a pattern
- Nearly every tile is animated, often with a cycling or strobing effect
- The action all takes place on a single screen
- The goals and exit point are unclear
The player is given rein to noodle around the screen, slinging whispy circular projectiles at monsters that look straight out of Number Munchers. Some of the tiles have defined properties, like solidity. Mostly the character can wander.
This level is stylish and interesting, though the interest only lasts as long as it takes the player to putter around the screen once or twice in search of an objective.
The second level (after a brief transition screen) is a Pong remake. The ball physics are a bit wonky, but the existence of working physics at all is somewhat miraculous. The tangle of monster logic here is difficult to parse out; it seems to involve transitions amongst various movement behaviors, triggered by monster death.
As with the first level, the end condition (if any) for the Pong level is unclear. It may just be a trap. It's certainly meant as a gag of some sort, presumably along the lines of the CGA levels in some of Caudel's and Adam Tyner's games.
As a whole, Nathan Rocks is an inscrutable project. In its parts, it suggests strong stylistic and technical potential.
Story[edit]
N/A
Instructions[edit]
- Arrow keys: Move those ways
- Spacebar: Sling a star
- S: Become a squirrel
- P/D: Pick up/Drop itsms
Credits[edit]
Designed by Alan Caudel.
Availability[edit]
This game is not known to have been distributed in any form, prior to its addition to the Archive.
Archive Status[edit]
After an earlier wave of rediscoveries, on July 13 2011 Alan Caudel provided another archive of previously missing Game-Maker material, including the following:
Links[edit]
Downloads[edit]
- Nathan Rocks! (80 kB)
