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Premier 1994 GAME DEVELOPER MAGAZINE EDITOR‘S NOTES The Dream GGAMEAEM have this idea about every time I play have the best porting tools? These ques- Wolfenstein. I dream about going tions are what I base my answer on. back to the press conference where the For every owner of an Atari 7800, for 386 was unveiled. As a time traveler every person who buys a cool DOS game Editor Larry O’Brien from 1994, I run past the crowds, only to find out that he or she doesn’t have Associate Editor Alexander Antoniades install Wolfenstein on the sole 386 610K of conventional memory, for every Production Editor Nicole Freeman computer in the world, and start it up. SNES owner who wants to play Sonic the Editorial Assistant Andrea Pucky The crowd oohs and ahhs as I blow Hedgehog II, there’s one more person who Iaway the first guard, doubtlessly dazzled by is either tuned out, turned off, or has spent Publisher Veronica Costanza the digitized speech from the sound card I his or her way out of the electronic game Group Publisher Regina Starr Ridley installed the night before. market. Clearly, the electronic game Group Director Donald Pazour I turn around and seize the micro- industry isn’t exactly in a state of ruin, but phone from the dumbfounded speaker and issues such as quality control and over-seg- Advertising Sales Staff proclaim: “You see this world? With the mented markets need to be examined. New England/Midwest proper tools, good programming, great art- That’s where we come in. Holly Meintzer (212) 626-2275 work, and competent project management, Game Developer is written for devel- Middle Atlantic/Southeast a small group of people can assemble a game opers, prospective developers, and interest- Michele Blake (212) 626-2322 of this quality that will run on this processor ed spectators and discusses the issues of Dave Moreau (212) 626-2318 perfectly. So, now the challenge is on for code, commerce, and creativity. As far as West/Southwest game developers to surpass this game and code goes, our technical articles will help Michele Anet (415) 905-2298 show the world what can be done!” novices figure it out and help the profes- Pam Grossman (415) 905-2256 sionals do it better. Commerce topics will Yvonne Labat (415) 905-2353 Developers of Today cover the latest and greatest in computer But, alas, it is only a dream. The state of games, what went right for a company, Marketing Manager Susan McDonald the art in game development today is still where it went wrong, and why it doesn’t do Art Director/Marketing Christopher H. Clarke the state of the art, when it should be closer it anymore. Creativity will focus on the Advertising Production Coordinator Denise Temple to the norm. Ever since the first quarter artists of the electronic entertainment Director of Production Andrew A. Mickus fell through the slot of the first Pong industry from the graphic artists who make Vice President/Circulation Jerry M. Okabe machine, the industry has been shrouded in game images to the musicians who write Group Circulation Director John Rockwell secrecy. Has the paranoia that enveloped the scores. Circulation Manager John Tootill the electronic game industry on behalf of Circulation Assistant Stephanie Blake keeping a competitive edge served the Hey Out There! Newsstand Manager Pam Santoro industry well? No. That’s where we stand, take a look at this Reprints Andrea Varni (415) 905-2552 Do the game developers of today, issue and tell us what you think. We’ve who arguably have the some of the hardest tried to cover as much ground as possible as MillerFreeman jobs in programming, have the best tools at far as the range of subject matter and level A MEMBER OF THE UNITED NEWSPAPERS GROUP their disposal? Do game developers not of information. Let us know who you are, have to worry if the system they’re develop- what you think, and anything else that ing for will be viable in six months? Are comes to mind. Chairman of the Board Graham J.S. Wilson the companies making tomorrow’s com- You can contact me at (415) 905- President/CEO Marshall W. Freeman puter operating systems consulting game 2349, on Internet at 71154.676@com- Senior Vice Presidents Thomas L. Kemp, companies to make sure their needs are puserve.com, or you can write to us at H. Vern Packer, Wini D. Ragus met? And lastly, do game programmers, Game Developer, 600 Harrison St., San Vice Presidents Charles H. Benz, Vicki L. who have to port from the arcade to the Francisco, CA 94107. ■ Masseria, Andrew A. Mickus, Jerry M. Okabe, Super Nintendo Entertainment System to Donald A. Pazour, Charles L. Wrye Sega’s Game Gear to DOS to myriad con- Alexander Antoniades Chief Financial Officer Warren (Andy) Ambrose soles, portables, PCs, and arcade machines, Associate Editor GAME DEVELOPER • PREMIER 1994 2 DEVELOPING WITH OLE 2.X Let’s Go Embed sold into the home in a month than 3DO dreams of selling in a year.” In a world where installed base means every- thing, Braun sees nothing coming to dethrone the PC as the smartest target system. Additionally, the dream of part- nering with small game developers can- not happen without the capabilities of a real operating system. As a matter of fact, it cannot happen without some advanced operating system capabilities that are only now becoming available on PCs. Braun wants to open up SimCity to other programs. People who play one game are likely to play another, and Braun wants to give them as many chances as possible to interact with Maxis products, even when they’re play- ing another company’s game. Braun Jeff Braun, president of Maxis, the company responsible for SimCity, believes games should envisions SimCity as a virtual world in be portable to all systems—consoles, PCs, even TVs. Radical though this vision might seem, which gamers will have their choice of SimCity has reached the 1 million mark in sales worldwide. Who knows, maybe this interop- myriad recreational and simulation erability idea is a good one. Braun seems to think so, and other game developers are begin- diversions. You think people want to be ning to believe he is right. SimCops, SimArchitects, or SimCar- Racers? SimCity will create the environ- ment and economic conditions, you pro- eff Braun, president of Maxis, vide the specialized functions. That’s wants to be your partner. He Jeff Braun’s dream, and you can’t do it wants to help you become rich, on a console. and he wants to help you sell games. He envisions shelves The Path to Interoperability stocked with your work. Although Braun’s vision is radical for a There’s only one small hitch; game company, it’s rapidly becoming the he wants them all to read “A common wisdom in the business soft- JSimCity Add-On.” According to Braun, ware community, which calls it “docu- high-end console machines are dead ment-centered computing” or “compo- coming out of the starting gate. “Where nent-based development.” In many they have potential is as TV-top ways, it makes more sense for game soft- machines for interactive television,” he ware, with its broad-based demograph- says. But that’s years in the future. In ics, than for business software that is the meantime, he says, “More PCs are dominated by only three dominant 4 GAME DEVELOPER • PREMIER 1994 applications (word processing, databases, little more from the game company than by Larry O’Brien and spreadsheets). If Maxis can’t pull it a disciplined attitude toward data storage off, someone else will. and some documentation. The second There are three steps along the way step requires a more sophisticated inter- Developing a game to total interoperability: process communication facility that’s • Static data exchange. Data formats are generally provided by the operating sys- opened up. Maxis has already done tem. Traditionally, the performance this with Mallard and Virtus, which requirements of games have required portable across many will allow you to fly and walk, respec- developers to bypass high-level lan- tively, through your SimCity. guages and operating-system features. • Limited dynamic interface. No console Now that the average player’s PC is has the ability to run multiple based on a 32-bit microprocessor with different systems is a processes simultaneously, but all the 4MB or more of RAM and ample disk popular desktop operating systems storage, and game developers are able to (with the important exception of program in higher-level languages such DOS) have some multiprocessing and as C++, it is feasible for games to move interprocess communication ability. to this second step through the use of daunting if not With this level of interface, gamers such technologies as dynamic data would be able to interact dynamically exchange. with an active and evolving SimCity, The third step requires an even but would not be able to, for instance, more sophisticated interprocess capabili- impossible task. With dynamically change the bitmaps used ty, whereby data elements in one pro- in SimCity. gram can be exposed to modification by • Full programmatic interface. This is the another program. This is one of the big enchilada, a situation in which the goals of so-called distributed object ori- the help of high-level company creating the “server applica- entation. There are a number of tech- tion” (the gaming world) creates two nologies that could be used, but entire interfaces for the program, one Microsoft’s Object Linking and Embed- for the gamer and one for the add-on ding (OLE) 2.x is the most likely one.