Airheart

Last updated
Airheart box art.jpg
Publisher(s) Broderbund
Designer(s) Dan Gorlin [1]
Platform(s) Apple II
Release
Genre(s) Action
Mode(s) Single-player

Airheart is an action game designed and programmed by Dan Gorlin for the Apple II and published by Broderbund in 1986. [1] It requires a 128K Apple IIe (or later) to run, as it uses the 16-color double hi-res graphics mode. [3] After three years of development, the game was technically advanced at its time of release, using scaled sprites for 3D effects, but did not include all of the planned features. Gorlin reworked the game as Typhoon Thompson in Search for the Sea Child for the Atari ST (1988), and later the Amiga (1990), which is closer to what he originally envisioned. [4]

Contents

Gameplay

The name Airheart is the title the player aspires to earn. The user controls a jet-propelled flotation device. They must navigate their craft and fight robotic defenders. Spirit guardians instruct the player to collect certain items, such as a sword or a goblet, which are needed for a final battle to free an infant boy prince. [5]

Development

Gorlin had great success with his first title, Choplifter , which he developed in six months. Airheart took about three years to develop. This is in large part because he also developed other games which he lost interest in and never completed and also because he did a lot of research and built a number of tools to help in game development. [4]

Gorlin was unable to include all the features he planned. At one point, for example, he had tunnel and underwater levels working, but was unable to complete them due to time constraints. Tunnels and islands, in fact, were key elements of his original vision for the game, but had to be scrapped, being too ambitious for the time. [4]

The largest version of each sprite was created by hand, then Gorlin used proprietary tools to create the roughly twenty smaller versions. Storing these sprites in RAM, he was able to simulate scaling in realtime. Though the sprites used a lot of memory, it was the only method that satisfied Gorlin since he hated the low-polygon look of other contemporary games. [4]

Reception

Jordan Mechner visited Gorlin in 1986 and saw the final version of the game. He wrote in his journal "It’s got some staggering special effects and it’s no fun at all to play." [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>Prince of Persia</i> (1989 video game) 1989 platform video game

Prince of Persia is a cinematic platform game developed and published by Broderbund for the Apple II in 1989. It was designed and implemented by Jordan Mechner. Taking place in medieval Persia, players control an unnamed protagonist who must venture through a series of dungeons to defeat the evil Grand Vizier Jaffar and save an imprisoned princess.

<i>Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame</i> 1993 platform video game

Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame is a platform game released by Broderbund in 1993 for the MS-DOS, and later ported to Macintosh, Super NES, and FM Towns. It is the second installment in the Prince of Persia series, and a direct sequel to 1989's Prince of Persia. Both games were designed by Jordan Mechner, but unlike the original, he did not program the sequel himself. In the game, players control the Prince as he attempts to return to Persia and defeat the evil wizard Jaffar once and for all, who has assumed his appearance, seized the throne, and put his love interest, the Princess, under a death spell.

<i>Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time</i> 2003 video game

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a 2003 action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. Revealed in March 2003, it was released on the Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox and Microsoft Windows in November 2003. The Sands of Time is a reboot of the Prince of Persia series created by Jordan Mechner. Mechner served as creative consultant, designer, and scenario writer for The Sands of Time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jordan Mechner</span> American video game designer

Jordan Mechner is an American video game designer, author, screenwriter, and filmmaker. He is best known for designing and programming the Broderbund Apple II games Karateka and Prince of Persia in the 1980s, the latter of which grew into a multi-platform franchise.

<i>The Last Express</i> 1997 adventure video game

The Last Express is an adventure video game designed by Jordan Mechner and published by Broderbund in 1997 for PC. Players take on the role of an American who accepts an invite by a friend to join them on the Orient Express, days before the start of World War I, only to become involved in a maelstrom of treachery, lies, political conspiracies, personal interests, romance and murder, upon boarding the train. The game is unique in how it was created, its non-linear story, and in how events in the game are conducted within real-time.

<i>Choplifter</i> Video game first made in 1982 for the Apple II computer

Choplifter is military themed scrolling shooter developed by Dan Gorlin for the Apple II and published by Broderbund in 1982. It was ported to the Atari 8-bit family the same year and also to the VIC-20, Commodore 64, Atari 5200, ColecoVision, MSX, and Thomson computers.

<i>Prince of Persia 3D</i> 1999 action-adventure video game

Prince of Persia 3D is a 1999 action-adventure video game developed by Mindscape, and published by Red Orb Entertainment for Microsoft Windows. A port for the Dreamcast was developed by Avalanche Software and published by Mattel Interactive in North America the following year under the title Prince of Persia: Arabian Nights. It is the first 3D installment in the Prince of Persia series, and the final game in the trilogy that started with the original 1989 game. Taking the role of the titular unnamed character rescuing his bride from a monstrous suitor's schemes, gameplay follows the Prince as he explores environments, platforming and solving puzzles while engaging in combat scenarios.

<i>Skyfox</i> (1984 video game) 1984 video game

Skyfox is a combat flight simulation game developed by Ray Tobey for the Apple II and published by Electronic Arts in 1984. Ariolasoft published the game in Europe. It was released for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, and Macintosh in 1985, to the Amiga and Atari ST in 1986, and to the PC-88 in 1988.

Doom, a first-person shooter game by id Software, was released in December 1993 and is considered one of the most significant and influential titles in video game history. Development began in November 1992, with programmers John Carmack and John Romero, artists Adrian Carmack and Kevin Cloud, and designer Tom Hall. Late in development, Hall was replaced by Sandy Petersen and programmer Dave Taylor joined. The music and sound effects were created by Bobby Prince.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Veda Hlubinka-Cook</span> American programmer and game developer

Veda Hlubinka-Cook is an American programmer and co-founder of Metaweb. The company was acquired by Google in 2010. She was a video game programmer at Broderbund in the 1980s. She designed and wrote the games Gumball and D/Generation; was the model for one of the characters in Jordan Mechner's game Prince of Persia; and was technical director for The Last Express. She came out as transgender in 2017.

Prince (<i>Prince of Persia</i>) Fictional characters in the Prince of Persia franchise

The Prince is the name given to a group of fictional characters who act as the main protagonists of the Prince of Persia franchise, originally created by Jordan Mechner and currently owned by Ubisoft. Beginning with the titular original game in 1989, there have been several distinct Prince characters, all sharing general traits. The most prominent version was first featured in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003), who has featured in a large number of games set within that game's continuity. In the 2008 reboot, the Prince is not from a royal family, but was planned to earn his title during the course of his journey. Other versions of the Prince have appeared in related media, most prominently the character Dastan in the 2010 Prince of Persia film portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal.

Dan Gorlin is a video game programmer and designer best known for his 1982 Apple II game Choplifter, in which the player pilots a helicopter to rescue hostages. His next Apple II game, Airheart (1987), took three years to complete. While technically advanced, it was not as well received as Choplifter. He wrote the sequel to Airheart for the Atari ST: Typhoon Thompson in Search for the Sea Child (1988). All three games were published by Broderbund.

<i>First Samurai</i> 1991 video game

First Samurai, alternatively titled The First Samurai, is a 1991 beat 'em up platform game developed by Vivid Image and published by Image Works. The First Samurai was originally released in September 1991 for the Amiga and Atari ST, and was later ported to the Commodore 64, MS-DOS and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was followed by a sequel, Second Samurai, in 1994. In 2011 a port was released for iOS.

Prince of Persia is a video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner. It is built around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous Prince, set in ancient and medieval Persia.

<i>Cranston Manor</i> 1981 video game

Cranston Manor is a graphic adventure published for the Apple II by On-Line Systems in 1981. It is Hi-Res Adventure #3. The player must invade a mansion that was occupied by a millionaire and steal the sixteen treasures that are inside of it. The game allows players to switch between graphics-based and text-based gameplay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GrafX2</span> Raster graphics editor

GrafX2 is a bitmap graphics editor inspired by the Amiga programs Deluxe Paint and Brilliance. It is free software and distributed under the GPL-2.0-only license.

<i>Karateka</i> (video game) 1984 video game

Karateka is a 1984 martial arts action game by Jordan Mechner and is his first published game, created for the Apple II while attending Yale University. The game was published in North America by Broderbund and in Europe by Ariolasoft. Along with Karate Champ and Yie-Ar Kung Fu, Karateka is one of the earliest martial arts fighting games. It was inspired by Japanese culture and by early Disney animated films and silent pictures.

Cocos2d is an open-source game development framework for creating 2D games and other graphical software for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, HarmonyOS, OpenHarmony and web platforms. It is written in C++ and provides bindings for various programming languages, including C++, C#, Lua, and JavaScript. The framework offers a wide range of features, including physics, particle systems, skeletal animations, tile maps, and others.

References

  1. 1 2 Hague, James. "The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers".
  2. Airheart release information at GameFAQs
  3. Apple II Csa2 FAQ excerpt from stason.org
  4. 1 2 3 4 Hague, James (1997). "Halcyon Days: Interviews with Classic Computer and Video Game Programmers".
  5. Airheart at MobyGames
  6. Mechner, Jordan (December 22, 2011). The Making of Prince of Persial Journals 1985-1993. ISBN   978-1468093650.