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POSTMORTEM STAR WARS: SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE by Mark Haigh-Hutchinson hadows of the Empire is an action game originally developed for the 56 Nintendo 64 video game console. It formed part of a multimedia Star Wars event consisting of a novel, soundtrack, toy line, comic books, SStrading cards, and other related merchan- dising. The Nintendo 64 version was released in December of 1996, and has proven to be very popular with over one million copies shipped to date. The IBM PC version was released in early September of 1997, and has enhanced cut scenes, Red Book audio (both music and voice), and high-resolution graphics. It requires the Dinner in Kyoto, Japan, August 1996. (Left to right: Don James, Hiro Yamada, Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, Shigeru Miyamoto, Kenji Miki.) use of a 3D accelerator card. GAME DEVELOPER JANUARY 1997 http://www.gdmag.com Images courtesy of LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC, © 1997. 24-bit graphics. Eventually, we would have to change our programmers’ com- puters to INDYs (still powerful machines) to install the Nintendo 64 development systems. In addition, we were fortunate that LucasArts allowed us to obtain a Silicon Graphics ONYX supercomputer. This impressive and somewhat expensive refrigerator-sized computer boasted Reality Engine 2 graphics hardware, four the INDY. This later became known as Why Shadows? R4000 CPUs, and 256MB of RAM. It the Revision 1 board, but on inspection became an essential part of our develop- it was extremely “clean” — no wire ack in the summer of 1994, ment equipment, as it was the only wraps or other temporary items in B LucasArts was exploring the pos- hardware available that could possibly sight. Within three days, technical lead sibility of developing a new 3D title for emulate how the final Nintendo 64 Eric Johnston and second programmer one of the emerging “next-generation” hardware would perform. Indeed, Mark Blattel had ported the game to platforms. After some discussion, the Nintendo and SGI supplied us with soft- the actual hardware. It was an awe- Nintendo 64 was decided upon as the ware that emulated most of the features inspiring moment when we first saw platform of choice, even though there that the real hardware would support. the Battle of Hoth running on the 57 was no hardware available at the time. In late September, the programmers “real” machine. The first revision of Due to our close relationship with took a trip down to Silicon Graphics to the hardware was very close to the orig- Lucasfilm, we were aware that discuss the Nintendo 64 hardware inal specifications supplied by SGI. Lucasfilm Licensing was planning the design with its chief architect, Tim Van Other than the RCP (Reality Shadows of the Empire event. Jon Hook. The SGI engineers were rightly CoProcessor) not running at quite the Knoles, the lead artist and designer on proud of their design, and promised final speed, and one of the special the Nintendo 64 game, took an active that they would deliver hardware video “dither modes” not being avail- part in deciding the timeline of matching the ambitious specifications. able, it performed extremely well. Shadows. He suggested that it take Nine months later, we learned that they Over the next few weeks, we would place between The Empire Strikes Back had indeed met those specifications. receive an additional two boards, so and Return of the Jedi. By Christmas of 1994, we had the that all the programmers were devel- The Shadows story line deals mainly basis of the first level of the game, The oping in a similar fashion. Three with the criminal underworld of the Battle of Hoth, running quite nicely on months later, we would receive Galaxy, and the new period allowed us the ONYX — “quite nicely” being in Revision 2 boards, which brought the to explore some of the things that high resolution (1280×1024), 32-bit RCP up to full speed as well as fixing a weren’t explained in Return of the Jedi. color, and at 60 frames a second. By this few minor bugs. Another pleasant sur- It also opened up some new characters point, we had also received a very early prise was the doubling of the amount that were not bound to the original prototype of the Nintendo 64 con- of RAM to 4MB. story, which gave us more creative free- troller. This consisted of a modified A further development was the hard- dom than using established figures. A Super Nintendo controller with a primi- ware “dither modes” that perform sev- bonus was that it allowed us to make tive analogue joystick and Z trigger. Due eral different kinds of functions at the use of everyone’s favorite bounty to our strict nondisclosure agreement, video back end — mostly to reduce the hunter, Boba Fett. we were unable to discuss the hardware effect of Mach banding, which is com- Since we were developing one of the or the project with anyone outside the mon when using 16-bit color. premier titles for an entirely new game core team. Consequently, we would machine, there was a conscious deci- furtively hide the prototype controller sion to attempt to stretch out and cover in a cardboard box while we used it. In Technology a number of different game-play styles. answer to the inevitable questions about We wanted to ensure that the player what we were doing, we replied jokingly ince Eric Johnston and Mark would have as much variety as possible, that it was a new type of controller — a S Blattel had extensive experience yet still enjoy a satisfying experience. bowl of liquid that absorbed your with the SGI platform, we undertook to thoughts through your fingertips. Of prototype the game using the course, you had to think in Japanese…. Performer 3D API. This is an OpenGL- A Reality Engine for $200? In July of 1995, we received our first based system that is very flexible. actual hardware as a plug-in board for Eventually, we would write our own y early September 1994, we had B received our Silicon Graphics Mark Haigh-Hutchinson is a Project Leader and Senior Programmer at LucasArts workstations and the core team was Entertainment Company. He has been developing computer and video games as a working. Initially the three program- hobby since 1979, and professionally since 1984. Cutting his teeth on numerous 8-bit mers were using Indigo 2 Extremes, computers such as the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, he has contributed to 32 published with 200mhz CPUs, 64MB of RAM, and games, 16 as sole programmer. He may be reached at [email protected]. http://www.gdmag.com JANUARY 1997 GAME DEVELOPER POSTMORTEM (effectively as RGBA values) However, the first problem that we caused the scene to appear came across was hardware incompati- as purely pastel colors. bilities between the MIDI keyboards used by our musicians and the Silicon Graphics computers used to develop Motion Capture the game. The theory was that the compositions could be previewed n the spring of 1995, we directly on the Nintendo 64 hardware Idecided to experiment as a musician played them on a key- with the use of motion cap- board. Naturally, this would provide ture to control the anima- the best possible feedback to the musi- tions of the main character cian. Unfortunately, for some Jon Knoles directs actor Amos Glick who recoils as well as enemies such as unknown reason(s), note on/off pairs from an imaginary shot. Mark Haigh-Hutchinson Stormtroopers. Fortunately were lost, causing chords to sound as wrangles the cables and provides a supporting for us, our sister company, one note. Additionally, note releases hand. Industrial Light & Magic were sometimes missed completely. (ILM), had a capture system Before long, other unwelcome behav- subset of Performer’s functionality on available for use. It was a tethered sys- iors surfaced. We worked around these the Nintendo 64. This allowed us to tem, using a magnetic field to deter- mysteries by having the musicians cap- 58 move the game from a $140,000 SGI mine the position of each of the sen- ture the sample set and play it solely ONYX to a $200 Nintendo 64 in a mat- sors. The sensors were attached to the on their keyboards. ter of just three days. actor at 11 locations using a combina- After some experimentation, though, Level designers used the tool set from tion of a climbing harness, sports joint we felt that the MIDI music was good, DARK FORCES to construct the first-per- supports, bandages, and Velcro strips. but didn’t capture the essence of the son levels for the game. This allowed a The nature of the system presented John Williams orchestral soundtrack crude form of preview using the actual several problems. First, the actor had to that is so closely associated with Star DARK FORCES engine on an IBM PC. This perform on a raised wooden platform, Wars. Furthermore, each additional worked fairly well, although later in the since the metal construction supports instrument channel would require more project we were able to have a single in the concrete floor would affect the CPU time than we wanted to allocate. SGI for dedicated use by the level capture system. Secondly, since the At this point, we tried an experiment designers. The PC solution, however, actor was on a platform as well as teth- using uncompressed digital samples of was also useful because the level design- ered, we couldn’t obtain a “clean” run the Star Wars main theme. The quality ers were already familiar with the cycle. Some of our more ambitious was extremely good, even after subse- processes involved.

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