The Secret History of Mac Gaming by Richard Moss

Author:Richard Moss
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2018-07-05T16:00:00+00:00

John Calhoun with his Macintosh Plus, late 1980s

It was worth it. Glider 4.0 came out right on time to benefit from the growth of AOL and dial-up pre-Web Internet access. Thousands of fans would hop online to download custom houses. Glider now had its own community. They traded tips, wrote reviews of each other’s houses, distributed home-made electronic zines, and helped share their favourites to a wider group of players.

Calhoun tried to download and play them all. His favourite house, by a guy called Ward Hartenstein, was ‘Hands-Off House’. It played like a Rube Goldberg machine:

Without touching a single key on the keyboard, your paper glider would be carried through the entire house for you. As you fell to the floor, for example, you might pass in front of a fan and the little gust from the fan was enough to nudge your glider out over a floor duct that would suck you in. Then you might be deposited from a duct in the ceiling where you would then pass by a staircase and head down into the basement of the house.

Sometimes the glider would even revisit a previous room and leave via a different route to before. Calhoun had never imagined his game could be used for something so elaborate and clever. He was stunned.

Glider 4.0 was such a hit that Casady & Greene were willing to let Calhoun do whatever he wanted next. The only idea that came to his mind, however, was to revisit Pararena and give it the same kind of ‘full treatment’ that Glider got. But what to add? Bright colours would not only add sparkle but also help players distinguish between the opposing characters and goals. New computer-controlled opponents were obvious, too. Unlike Glider, however, a level editor didn’t make much sense. He searched for more ideas to set it apart from the shareware version – new features that might justify the price tag.

Pararena showcased a future sport, so why not make it look like it’s on TV? ‘Ladies … and … Gentleman. Pare-ah-rena!’, an announcer chomped, as the crowd cheered. An instant replay feature zoomed in on the action to show goals back in slow motion, and metallic clank sounds lent it a ‘live sports’ feeling – like the squeaking shoes he noticed while watching basketball on TV. Commercial Pararena also added a networked multiplayer mode that Calhoun says worked well ‘when the planets were aligned just right’.

After a year in retail, Pararena’s sales revenue was only about 15 per cent of what Glider 4.0 had made. ‘A little sad when you realise you would have made more working at McDonald’s for those six to nine months it took to write,’ Calhoun says.

Slowly he realised that Glider might be that one game for him – his only successful idea. But perhaps, also, he should count himself fortunate to at least have one. And maybe he could find a way to revisit the game, again, without compromising his hard-won artistic integrity.

To escape the confines of the increasingly claustrophobic house, he threw the windows open.

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