Michael Cranford

Last updated
Michael Cranford
Michael Cranford.jpg
Born (1963-06-05) June 5, 1963 (age 61)
Orange, California, U.S.
Alma mater University of Southern California
Occupations
Employers
Known for
Children3

Michael Cranford (born June 5, 1963) is a video game designer and programmer. As a designer and programmer his works include The Bard's Tale, The Bard's Tale II, and Dark Seed. Cranford left the video game industry in 1992 to pursue an academic career as an ethicist.

Contents

Game designer

Cranford was the designer and programmer of 1985's The Bard's Tale [1] and 1986's The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight role-playing video games published by Interplay Productions. He also programmed the Apple II version of Donkey Kong , the Commodore 64 version of Super Zaxxon , as well as Maze Master (a spiritual predecessor of The Bard's Tale). His last video game was Dark Seed for Cyberdreams in 1992. He left the video game industry to pursue graduate studies, and thus was not involved in the creation of 1988's The Bard's Tale III . Almost thirty years later, however, he was approached by inXile Entertainment to assist with the development of The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep and had agreed to provide feedback and advice for the new game. [2]

Games

NameYearCredited withPublisher
Story Machine (VIC-20 port)1983programmer Human Engineered Software
Maze Master1983designer, programmerHuman Engineered Software
Super Zaxxon (C64 port)1984programmerHuman Engineered Software
Donkey Kong (Apple II port)1984programmer Atarisoft
The Bard's Tale 1985designer, programmer Electronic Arts
Borrowed Time 1985writer Activision
The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight 1986designer, programmerElectronic Arts
Centauri Alliance1990designer, programmer Broderbund
Dark Seed 1992designer Cyberdreams

Academic career

He was a professor for eight years at Biola University in La Mirada, California, gaining his Master of Divinity degree from Biola and a master's degree in Social Ethics from the University of Southern California. He is currently an adjunct professor of philosophy at Concordia University in Irvine, California. He studied architecture at the University of California, Berkeley and he holds a degree in philosophy from the University of California, and has completed a Ph.D. in Religion and Social Ethics from the University of Southern California, with a focus on ethics and technology. [3]

Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dwight Schultz</span> American actor (born 1947)

William Dwight Schultz is an American television, film and voice actor.

<i>Wasteland</i> (video game) 1988 video game

Wasteland is a role-playing video game developed by Interplay Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1988. The first installment of the Wasteland series, it is set in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic America destroyed by a nuclear holocaust generations before. Developers originally made the game for the Apple II and it was ported to the Commodore 64 and MS-DOS. It was re-released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux in 2013 via Steam and GOG.com, and in 2014 via Desura. A remastered version titled Wasteland Remastered was released on February 25, 2020, in honor of the original game's 30th anniversary.

<i>The Bards Tale</i> (1985 video game) 1985 video game

The Bard's Tale is a fantasy role-playing video game designed and programmed by Michael Cranford for the Apple II. It was produced by Interplay Productions in 1985 and distributed by Electronic Arts. The game was ported to the Commodore 64, Apple IIGS, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Mac, and NES. It spawned The Bard's Tale series of games and books. The earliest editions of the game used a series title of Tales of the Unknown, but this title was dropped for later ports of The Bard's Tale and subsequent games in the series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Harsanyi</span> Hungarian-American economist and philosopher (1920–2000)

John Charles Harsanyi was a Hungarian-American economist who spent most of his career at the University of California, Berkeley. He was the recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1994.

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

Frank Brian Fargo is an American video game designer, producer, programmer and executive, and founder of Interplay Entertainment, inXile Entertainment and Robot Cache.

Moira Quirk is an English actress and comedian. As an audiobook narrator, she has won four Audie Awards.

inXile Entertainment American video game developer

inXile Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Tustin, California. Specializing in role-playing video games, inXile was founded in 2002 by Interplay co-founder Brian Fargo. The studio produced the fantasy games The Bard's Tale and Hunted: The Demon's Forge, along with various games for Flash and iOS such as Fantastic Contraption in its first decade of development. In 2014, inXile released the post-apocalyptic game Wasteland 2, following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Following the game's critical success, the studio went on to raise a then-record US$4 million on Kickstarter to develop Torment: Tides of Numenera, a spiritual successor to Interplay's Planescape: Torment. The studio was purchased by Microsoft and became part of Xbox Game Studios in 2018, just as they were developing Wasteland 3, which they released in 2020. The studio is currently developing Clockwork Revolution for Windows and Xbox Series X/S.

The Bard's Tale is a fantasy role-playing video game franchise created by Michael Cranford and developed by Brian Fargo's Interplay Productions (1985–1992) and inXile Entertainment (2004–present). The initial title of the series was Tales of the Unknown. The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight dropped the Tales of the Unknown series title, as did all ports of the original game after 1988. From then on, the series was known as The Bard's Tale series. Both Cranford and Fargo have refuted the assertion that the original projected titles for the second and third installments were The Archmage's Tale and The Thief's Tale.

<i>The Bards Tale</i> (2004 video game) 2004 video game

The Bard's Tale is an action role-playing game developed and published by inXile Entertainment in 2004 and was distributed by Vivendi Universal Games in North America and Ubisoft in Europe. The game was marketed as a humorous spoof of fantasy role-playing video games. It is neither a remake nor a sequel to Interplay Productions' Tales of the Unknown, Volume I: The Bard's Tale (1985).

<i>The Bards Tale II: The Destiny Knight</i> 1986 video game

The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight is a fantasy role-playing video game created by Interplay Productions in 1986. It is the first sequel to The Bard's Tale, and the last game of the series that was designed and programmed by Michael Cranford.

<i>The Bards Tale III: Thief of Fate</i> 1988 video game

The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate is a computer fantasy role-playing video game created by Interplay Productions in 1988. It is the second sequel to The Bard's Tale. It was designed by Rebecca Heineman, Bruce Schlickbernd, and Michael A. Stackpole. The game was released for the Amiga, Apple II (64k), Commodore 64, and MS-DOS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. P. Moreland</span> American theologian

James Porter Moreland, better known as J. P. Moreland, is an American philosopher, theologian, and Christian apologist. He is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology at Biola University in La Mirada, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dona Bailey</span> American video game programmer (born 1955)

Dona Bailey is an American video game programmer and educator. Bailey, along with Ed Logg in 1981, developed Atari, Inc.'s arcade video game Centipede.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca Heineman</span> American video game programmer

Rebecca Ann Heineman is an American video game designer and programmer. Heineman was a founding member of video game companies Interplay Productions, Logicware, Contraband Entertainment, and Olde Sküül. She has been chief executive officer for Olde Sküül since 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Talbot School of Theology</span> Evangelical theological seminary near Los Angeles, California

Talbot School of Theology is an evangelical Christian theological seminary located near Los Angeles. Talbot is one of the nine schools that comprise Biola University, located in La Mirada, California. Talbot is nondenominational and known for its conservative theological positions, particularly its historical adherence to biblical inerrancy.

Dogmeat (<i>Fallout</i>) Non-player character dog in the Fallout series

Dogmeat is the name given to various dogs featured in the post-apocalyptic role-playing game series Fallout. Dogmeat was introduced as an optional companion to the player character in the original Fallout (1997), and made a cameo appearance in Fallout 2 (1998). Other dogs named Dogmeat are featured and serve similar roles in Fallout 3 (2008), Fallout 4 (2015), and in the American post-apocalyptic drama television series Fallout (2024).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Cain</span> American video game developer

Timothy Cain is an American video game developer best known as the creator, producer, lead programmer and one of the main designers of the 1997 video game Fallout. In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.

David Dayan Fisher is an English actor from London, England. He is known for his frequent portrayal of antagonistic characters, as well as his deep voice.

Jon Burton is a British video game designer, director, and programmer. He is the founder of development studio Traveller's Tales and its parent company TT Games.

The Mage's Tale is a first-person virtual reality dungeon crawler role-playing video game developed and published by inXile Entertainment in partnership with Oculus VR. It is a spin-off of The Bard's Tale, set before the events The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep. It is inXile's first virtual reality title.

References

  1. ↑ Tresca, Michael J. (2010-11-16). The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games. McFarland. pp. 139–. ISBN   9780786458950 . Retrieved 10 July 2012.
  2. ↑ inXile Entertainment, 16 June 2017. "Update 37: Bringing an Iconic Series into the 21st Century". Kickstarter . Retrieved 17 June 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ↑ Cranford, Michael. "LinkedIn". LinkedIn Profile. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.