Sea Dragon (video game)
| Sea Dragon | |
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 Title screen |
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| Developer(s) | Wayne Westmoreland & Terry Gilman |
| Publisher(s) | Adventure International |
| Platform(s) | TRS-80, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, TRS-80 CoCo, MS-DOS, Commodore 64 |
| Release date(s) | 1982 |
| Genre(s) | Side-scroller |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Sea Dragon is a side-scrolling game for the TRS-80 computer, written by Wayne Westmoreland and Terry Gilman, and released in 1982 by Adventure International. It was one of the most popular games for the TRS-80. Its success on the TRS-80 led to it being ported to the Apple II, Atari 400/800, and the TRS-80 Color Computer.
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[edit] Summary
The game concept and gameplay are similar to the Scramble, although the ending is more reminiscent of the game Phoenix.
The player controls a submarine that can shoot torpedoes both forwards and upwards. The gameplay involves navigating "past underwater mountains and through labyrinthine passages while avoiding webs of explosive mines that rise from the sea bottom. Additional dangers include mine-dropping ships, enemy attack stations, falling stalactites, and deadly lasers—any of which could keep you from your ultimate goal: destruction of the incredibly powerful nuclear reactor at the end of the undersea course." (Adventure International catalog, 1982)
[edit] Innovation
The Apple II version of Sea Dragon was mildly notable because of its use of a digitized voice that says "Sea Dragon!" When the user starts the game he or she is told, "Attention Captain. Your ship's computer is now ready. Please wait while I initialize the systems", and during the game will be informed, "Air level critical!" and "Approaching maximum damage!"
This use of speech was a novelty, as the Apple II speaker is usually only able to emit a one-bit click. Programming Sea Dragon to play back an audio sample, using only a one bit sound generator, was thus an interesting technical achievement, shared with several other 1982 Apple II games: Dung Beetles, Creepy Corridors, and Plasmania.
The Color Computer version is the only other version that features speech; it says "Welcome aboard, Captain!" on the title screen.
[edit] Ports and Remakes
The original version was developed by Wayne Westmoreland and Terry Gilman in 1982 on the TRS-80.
In 1995, Wayne Westmoreland released the game into the public domain. [1]
- The Tandy Color Computer port was done by Jim Hurd of Coniah Software
- The Atari 8-bit version was done by Russ Wetmore.
- The PC DOS port was done by Hervé Thouzard
- The IBM-PC color-graphics version was done by Dan Rollins
- The Apple II version was done by John Anderson
- The Commodore 64 version was done by David H. Simmons
- The ZX Spectrum version by Andrey Zhiglov, 2010 [1]
[edit] External links
- Sea Dragon video clip of game play on YouTube.
- Sea Dragon download the original game (requires TRS80 emulator to run).
- Review of Sea Dragon at TRS-80.org
- Reminiscing: Sea Dragon Screenshots from the Atari 8-bit version
[edit] References
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