Star Wars: Ewok Adventure

This game was ready for release but Parker Brothers executives thought the control scheme was too difficult. The author knew gamers would appreciate the control scheme but the decisions were made and neither party would budge. The control scheme in question concerns the Ewok glider. Push left or right on the joystick to turn. Push down to dive and gain speed, up to climb and lose speed (Switch A-B to swap up and down controls). It's a glider, so it is constantly loosing altitude. Turning and climbing makes it worse. Loading it with rocks (ammunition) makes it worse. Using rocks (reducing weight) helps a bit. Updrafts are a welcome boost to altitude. Fortunately, the game corrects for pilot error so the maximum possible altitude is always available. Also, The level design never seems to allow an obstacle to be located where the glider cannot climb enough to pass over it (if the player flies right). The execs wanted no altitude concerns and the glider going where the joystick points. The execs were willing to compromise and have their preferred controls as an alternate mode. LG wouldn't accept that (and later apologized to gamers).

This description applies to the final NTSC prototype.

The sound for the final prototype is finished. LG would have liked to have included a full musical score but could not fit it into 8k with the game.

Navigate through 256 flip screens if game world collecting rocks to fling at stormtroopers, AT-ST walkers, speeder bikes, and of course the shield generator. Destroying the shield generator is ultimate goal. Location of shield generator facility is always indicated by the arrow-radar. Glider altitude, indicated by shadow, is critical to each task. Updrafts provide altitude boosts. Landing outside ends the game, so don't. Once you have found the Ewoks ground forces after they have collected the explosives for you to take, fly perpendicularly into the entrance of the shield generator facility to find and destroy it. Pickup the explosives, land inside the shield generator, to set them. Advanced strategy includes matching the height of an enemy vehicle to land on, board, and commandeer it. As the player is controlling an Ewok having no formal training to pilot imperial vehicles (and lacking legs long enough to reach the pedals), the controls are non-intuitive and unpredictable. But squeezing gun triggers is simple enough; allowing much more damage to be unleashed on the enemy (especially inside the shield generator). It is much safer to pilot an imperial vehicle into the building and destroy it. The overwhelming task of piloting an imperial craft will eventually prompt an Ewok to return to gliding. An extra life is earned for every 10,000 points.

50 Gathering Rocks
100 Shooting Storm Troopers
250 Shooting AT-STs
400 Shooting Speeders
1000 Commandeer an AT-ST
2000 Shield Generator Destruction

Once you have destroyed 5 or more shield generators, go left 224 screens or right 32 screens to score 3,200 points and see the author's initials.

Games 1-4 are 1 player. Enemy aggressiveness, loss of altitude, and world size (12, 25, 35, 256) are easiest on 1 and hardest on 4. Games 2-8 are versions of games 1-4 with 2 players taking turns. Games 4 and 8 also increase difficulty every time a shield generator is destroyed and the game starts over. Games 1,2,3,5,6, and 7 are considered practice levels by LG.

zerothis # 2016-06-09 09:46:38

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