TSA Advent Calendar: Day 1

What sumptuous chocolate covered fact lies behind door one?

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Article written by Tuffcub in Blog, on Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at 19:15.

day1

Every day from today until Christmas day we will bringing you a special bite-sized nibble of gaming chocolate in the extra special and not thought at the very last moment, TSA Advent Calender! Each day will be a surprise - perhaps some gaming trivia, maybe an amusing story or even a poetry recital from Lorcan - you will have to wait and see. One thing I can practically guarantee is that as the wintery weather draws in, certain TSA alumni will use this feature for pictures of huskies..

Day One: Gaming Trivia

Classic Amiga, ST and Commodore 64 beat ‘em up “IK+” featured a move directly copied from the hit film ‘Grease’. Programmer Archer Maclean was looking for new moves to include in his game and decided upon a back flip.

“Now, to do something like the back flip – which hadn’t been put in a game before – I tried all sorts of things,” said Archer, “One was just drawing it, but I couldn’t get the flow of it right. Then I went out and bought a video camera, and filmed myself jumping around. That didn’t work, either. I looked at hundreds of cartoons, karate films, all kinds of movies, looking for these moves I wanted. ”

“One afternoon I happened to be watching Grease with my girlfriend. At the very end of it there’s a fairground scene… and in the background, sideways on, there’s a guy doing a back flip. I watched it over and over and over, and said: that’s it! A real person, doing a proper back flip. It was perfect.”

To capture this move Archer devised an elaborate plan that was similar to the technique of rotoscoping. He disassembled his television set and adjusted it so the back flipping Grease character was the same size as the fighters in IK+. He then placed cellophane on his TV screen and traced round the character before advancing the movie by a few frames and tracing the next part of the back flip. These drawings were then copied back in to the game to create the final move.

Archer declined to comment if the classic “trousers falling down” move from IK+ had been copied from a Carry On film.

Source: Edge

Comments

Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.

kevatron400 | 01/12/2009 19:35
Member
1557 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008

Brilliant! I bloody loved that game; one of my favourites growing up. TC’s features are the best – how do you even find things like this out?
- Tuffcub | 01/12/2009 19:39
  Team TSA: Writer
  3444 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
  
  It’s not my feature, it’s Lorcans – he only thought of it at 2.30am in the morning (in his time zone) so asked someone to fill in just for today.
  - Lorcan | 02/12/2009 01:02
    Team TSA: Writer
    1132 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
    
    And I love you for it!
waddo_89 | 01/12/2009 19:35
Member
423 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009

This is genius. Dark chocolate mint stick thing for me today
- cam the man | 01/12/2009 22:18
  Member
  1861 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
  
  and tomorrow?
Ryan1991 | 01/12/2009 19:38
Member
1733 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009

Nice little idea here. Clearly not thought of at the last minute and I hope Lorcan’s poem will be Baldrick’s from Blackadder goes forth. Easily related to gaming too.
oMega-W | 01/12/2009 19:42
Member
2447 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

No fair! I want huskies today…
- Michael | 01/12/2009 20:40
  Team TSA: Development
  2026 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
  
  Patience, young man…
Imaruler | 01/12/2009 21:27
Member
202 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2009

I want my huskies now!!
dirtyhabit | 01/12/2009 21:59
Member
1152 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

I loved IK+ on my Amiga!

If I remember rightly, the voice effects were taken straight from ‘Enter the Dragon’
- toutski | 02/12/2009 08:55
  Legend
  4007 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
  
  IK+ was a great game!
  
  Especially the bonus level where you had to deflect the balls!
BIGAL-1992 | 01/12/2009 22:41
Member
832 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009

That’s new for me.
yogh_wayne | 01/12/2009 23:55
Member
2718 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008

Nice story Now I want to play IK+ again. One of the best fighting games ever!
Manorhowze | 02/12/2009 01:43
Driving God
1890 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008

Nice idea. I never played IK+ as I was never into fighting games until streetfighter came along. I wonder what door number two has in store for us on the advent calendar.
seedaripper1973 | 02/12/2009 02:45
Member
1356 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

OOOh the joys of IK+ (laughs at the trousers falling down reference) still, Yie Ar Kung-Fu is still the best…
or maybe Karate Champ
hazelam | 02/12/2009 07:38
Member
2986 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009

i did not know that.
bit extreme taking a tv apart to do it, would be so much easier to do it these days, with digital media and a computer.
but then any fighting game these days would all be motion captured, apart from the odd 2d game.
wonder what tomorrow will bring, or should that be today now?
TRiLoGY | 02/12/2009 08:54
Member
306 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009

I loved IK+.. I’m sure there used to be a cheat/hack so that when you pressed “T” on the Keyboard, everyones trousers would fall down, which was funny when i was 7.
- TRiLoGY | 02/12/2009 08:56
  Member
  306 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
  
  doh, just read the last comment of the article..
- double-o-dave | 02/12/2009 10:04
  Member
  821 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
  
  You were right though, it was ‘T’. I spent hour and hours on that game.
  I think if you pressed ‘B’ it used to change the pattern on your shield when you deflected the bombs and ball things
BadBoyBoogie | 02/12/2009 11:20
Let There Be Rock
2516 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009

I loved IK+ on my trusty C64. Nice story about what lengths the programmer went to, to capture the back flip motion!!!

I’m looking forward to Day 2 now of the calendar!!

TSA Advent Calendar: Day 1

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