Moondust | |
---|---|
Publisher(s) | Creative Software |
Designer(s) | Jaron Lanier |
Platform(s) | Commodore 64 |
Release | 1983 |
Genre(s) | Music game, art game |
Mode(s) | Single player |
Moondust is a 1983 generative music video game created for the Commodore 64 by virtual reality pioneer, Jaron Lanier. Moondust was programmed in 6502 assembly [1] in 1982, [2] and is considered the first art video game. [3] [4] [5] Moondust has frequently been used as an art installation piece in museum exhibitions [6] from Corcoran Gallery of Art's 1983 "ARTcade" [7] to the Smithsonian's 2012 "The Art of Video Games". [8] [9] It has also been used by Lanier and others in papers and lectures as an example to demonstrate the unexpected ephemerality of digital data. [10] [11] [12] [2]
Moondust is also considered to be the first interactive music publication, [13] [14] and it sold quite successfully. [15] With the profits from Moondust [16] and additional funding from Marvin Minsky, [17] Lanier formed VPL which would later go on to create the DataGlove and the DataSuit [18] and to become one of the primary innovators of virtual-reality research and development throughout the 1980s.
Moondust's gameplay is characterized by graphical complexity, [19] and the game features an abstract ambient score. [20] The goal of the game is to cover the bullseye at the center of the screen with "moonjuice." To do this, the player controls spaceman Jose Scriabin (named in honor of synaesthetic composer Alexander Scriabin) [7] as he drops a seed square and then moves around the screen in arcing paths to run over the seed, smearing it to cover the bullseye. As Jose travels, flight patterns of he and the bullet-shaped spaceships he must avoid are created and as they pass through the trails that are created, and as the moonjuice spreads and smears, the musical score is modified according to a generative algorithm. [21] In-game scoring system assigns point-values according to an algorithm when the level is completed. Players start with three seeds but may acquire more if they have scored highly enough. [7] The game has been compared to the works of Jeff Minter. [22]
The game features 4 modes: Beginner, Evasive, Freestyle, and Spinsanity. In Beginner mode, the seeds that Jose must smear remain in one position wherever they had been dropped. In Evasive mode, however, the seeds seek to evade Jose by rushing to the edge of the screen. Freestyle mode greatly increases the player’s control over Jose, removing the physical element of momentum to connect Jose's motions directly to the joystick controller's. In Spinsanity mode, the spaceships travel in a spiral pattern making smearing of the seed more difficult for the player. [7]
Ahoy! 's review began "And now for something completely different. You have never seen anything like Moondust ... No mazes, no nuke the alien aggressors, no 'find ring, sit on ring'". The magazine, which gave the game a grade of B for graphics and A for gameplay, stated that it was "not for everybody", warning that "the instructions are confusing. Even the people at Creative Software didn't know what Lanier was up to". The review nonetheless concluded "Players shopping for a non-violent game that incorporates graphics and music will want to consider Moondust ... I recommend it". [23] The Commodore 64 Home Companion agreed on Moondust's uniqueness, describing it as "one of the most creative new games I've seen for any computer". Describing gameplay as "more like ballet than combat", the book concluded that it "is a computer game for people who don't like computer games". [24]
Jaron Zepel Lanier is an American computer scientist, visual artist, computer philosophy writer, technologist, futurist, and composer of contemporary classical music. Considered a founder of the field of virtual reality, Lanier and Thomas G. Zimmerman left Atari in 1985 to found VPL Research, Inc., the first company to sell VR goggles and wired gloves. In the late 1990s, Lanier worked on applications for Internet2, and in the 2000s, he was a visiting scholar at Silicon Graphics and various universities. In 2006 he began to work at Microsoft, and from 2009 has worked at Microsoft Research as an Interdisciplinary Scientist.
Lode Runner is a 2D puzzle-platform game, developed by Doug Smith and published by Broderbund in 1983. Its gameplay mechanics are similar to Space Panic from 1980. The player controls a character who must collect all the gold pieces in a level and get to the end while being chased by a number of enemies. It is one of the first games to include a level editor.
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Beach-Head is a video game developed and published in 1983 by Access Software for the Atari 8-bit family and Commodore 64 home computers in the US. Versions for the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, and Acorn Electron were published in Europe by U.S. Gold in 1984, followed by versions for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 16 and Plus/4 in 1985.
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On-Court Tennis is a computer game developed by Activision's Gamestar division and published in 1984 for the Commodore 64.
John O'Neill was a British artist and video game designer best known for developing the games Lifespan and The Dolphin's Rune. He is one of the earliest art game designers, and his work has been compared to that of contemporary game designer, Jaron Lanier.
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