Operation Killbot
Release type: Freeware
Release date: 1993
Levels: 7
Author: Don'Pan Software
Related games: Tony & Me
Not to be mistaken for Sherwood Forest Software's Operation: Tiger.
There’s sort of a long story here. You know when you’re little, and your parents match you with other kids your age, and somehow they’re your friends, whether you actually like them or not? That was never more the case than with this client. Let’s call him Mark. My, he was a pushy one. Mark had a grudge against another fellow in our grade, we’ll say Harold. I never quite understood why.
As I say, I had no problem with Harold, but being young and conflict avoidant, I tended to just go along with Mark’s nonsense until Mark went away. One day Mark invited himself over and decided that I needed to make a game in which he killed Harold. Mark wanted to be portrayed as basically a Harold-slaying machine. He also wanted a sort of 3D, behind-the-back perspective reminiscent of Dead Angle.
In the tradition of games like Street Fighter II, interspersed with the normal levels were various bonus stages. In one stage Mark attacked Harold’s house and killed his mother. In another he simply chased Harold through a town and field, throwing sharp objects at him. In portraying Mark, I drew roughly from my memories of the arcade version of Sega’s E-SWAT, a sort of Japanese response to Robocop. Mark certainly liked his Robocop.
Which is not to say that I put any effort into the project. In fact I borrowed nearly all the game’s resources from Tony & Me, a project that received little enough attention. I think every step of the process I was simultaneously dragging my heels and looking for ways to avoid thinking about what I was doing.
Ultimately I filed Operation Killbot way in the back of my directory structure, unwilling to throw anything away but unsure what to do with the game. Eventually, as with Tony & Me, I made some effort to clean the game up. I removed some of the more uncomfortable imagery, changed around the premise and identities, and tried to tidy the mechanics.
That last part was the most damning, though, and explains why, even after several passes at fumigation, I never released the game. It simply doesn’t work, on any level. Mark’s requests were impossible within the framework I was using, but I didn’t care. I was only concerned with shutting him up and getting him out the door. Granted, in retrospect you can take Killbot as a curious experiment. It comes off as a sort of shooting gallery game, like a poorly designed Hogan’s Alley or Chiller without the light gun.
Maybe with extensive revision I could have salvaged the basic format. The level that works the best is the first bonus stage, where the player attacks the house. This is not to suggest that the level actually works, but the variety of targets — some stationary, some moving — does suggest a better direction for design.
Contents
Story[edit]
DANGEROUS FELON ON THE LOOSE
You are an advanced killing system, D.R.A.T. Your mission is to slaughter a villain posing under the name of Ted.
It's not easy. Unless you're absolutely thorough, he will always find a way to return.
Use every device necessary to destroy him and free the world from his terror.
Instructions[edit]
YOUR MISSION IS AS FOLLOWS:
NORMAL ROUNDS:
- Goal: Obliterate Ted
- Left, Right: Move those ways
- <SPACE>: Fire
BONUS ROUND #1:
- Goal: Storm Ted's hideout and kill his accomplice, if possible
- Left, Right: Walk those ways
- <SPACE>: Toss rock
BONUS ROUND #2:
- Goal: Chase Ted and hack him to bits
- Left: Slow down
- Right: Speed up
- <SPACE>: Throw cleaver low
- <ENTER>: Throw cleaver high
LAST ROUND:
- Goal: Use precision aim to blast Ted away
- Arrow keys: Move crosshairs
- <SPACE>: Pull the trigger
Credits[edit]
Produced with Recreational Software Designs' Game-Maker
Availability[edit]
This game was not distributed in any form.
Archive History[edit]
Operation Killbot was retained as part of the archive from the game's inception.
Links[edit]
Interviews / Articles[edit]
Misc. Links[edit]
Downloads[edit]
- Operation Killbot (495.0 kB)
- Level 1 map (7.3 kB)
- Level 2 map (7.5 kB)
- Level 3 map (5.9 kB)
- Level 4 map (8.0 kB)
- Level 5 map (6.9 kB)
- Level 6 map (21.6 kB)
- Level 7 map (7.2 kB)
