Home Videogame Design Artwork Links
 RICK DANGEROUS
Published
June 1989
Publisher
Firebird
Developer
Core Design
My Role
Atari ST Programming, Sprite Graphics and Design
Commodore Amiga Programming, Sprite Graphics and Design
Commodore 64 Sprite Graphics and Design
Sinclair Spectrum Sprite Graphics and Design
Amstrad CPC464 Sprite Graphics and Design
PC Sprite Graphics and Design

Rick Dangerous was an original platform game that spoofed the Indiana Jones genre and was the first game to be developed by the newly formed Core Design. 

Rick emerged when Terry Lloyd (my co-artist on the project) and I were asked one afternoon to come up with original game ideas for the newly formed company. We sat down writing a list of game genres and themes discounting those that had been done recently. After about an hour we saw that the only thing that remained on our list was the one that read 'Indiana Jones/adventurer' and the more we talked about it the more we realised how few games had explored the theme let alone done it well. Certainly for us, no one had ever really done an Indiana Jones-style game that got to the heart of what made movies so cool. The arcade conversions based on the films had come and gone, but nothing for us had ever captured the feeling of those first five minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark with the hero leaping pits, dodging poison darts and being pursued by giant balls of rock. 

So, on 3 bits of A3 paper we wrote up the game design that went something like this: 

"Rick Dangerous! Vertically scrolling climber game, basically climbing down for the majority of the time. Each level linked with a cartoon sequence to tie story together.
The game follows the adventures of Rick Dangerous (a hero) through numerous Indy Jones style predicaments with numerous bad guys pursuing him (soldiers, Casablanca/Maltese Falcon-type enemies). By having the enemies chasing Rick it is hoped that a more natural feel will be given to the game, with the need for having abstract Jet Set Willy- type floating heads following a constant movement pattern being reduced. Rick may stop his pursuers by many devious means, fundamentally by activating traps around the level using his weapons.
He is equipped with:
A Gun! (This has limited bullets)
…A Big Stick
…And Some Dynamite (Like bullets, a limited quantity) (A very big stick of dynamite)" 

And so on… 

So, armed with that brief we managed to convince enough people to go for it and set about putting together what has turned out to be a surprisingly memorable title for many people.

 

Rick narrowly avoids getting caught by the Goolus...

 

Indeed, some 17 years after it was created, Rick is still remembered fondly by many and is being kept alive by a number of retro-gaming websites. The most interesting that I have found so far are: 

 

Rick Dangerous Resurrected  A site by a really dedicated fan, with information about every version of Rick ever made.

 

X Rick  An emulation site that is keeping Rick alive and well.  I must admit that seeing a perfect version of of Rick, complete with intact high score table and 'Waaah!' sound effects being played on a mobile phone really brought the memories flooding back.

 

The Kirun Network This page just gave me a real laugh when I found it.   To say that Rick was the great grandfather of a certain more curvaceous adventurer would not be wide of the mark, considering the number of times after Rick was made that I was asked to go back to the tombs and boulders to make yet another platform game.

 

Cafeshops.com Rick T-Shirt anyone?  Courtesy of retro-gaming site  lemon64.com - to see a character I'd created up there after all these years with some of my C64 videogame heroes is sooo cool.

 

 

For those of you visiting this page in search of more info about Rick that very few people would know about (and more could care less about), here's some odd bits of trivia:

    • The squashed look of the characters was inspired by the Spectrum game 'Joe Blade' and the wondrous art of Argentinian cartoonist Guillermo Mordillo.

    • The screen was 32 characters (256 pixels) wide on all formats, including the Amiga and ST versions, since we were so tight on time we could not afford to have different width maps for the different formats.

    • Similarly, all sprites were 24 pixels wide by 21 pixels high on all formats - the restriction of the hardware sprites on the Commodore 64 - another time-saving technique.

    • Rick's characteristic 'Waaaah!' sound effect was me - recorded on an old tape cassette machine - the result of myself and Terry spending a half-hour making ridiculous noises for the game and picking the funniest.

    • The cartoon strip that came boxed with the game was drawn by Ian Gibson - of 2000AD's Robo Hunter fame. We knew nothing of this until we received boxed copies of the game and it was a great surprise to think that one of my comic artist heroes had illustrated a game that I'd worked on. (The 'Fat Guy' who appeared later in Rick Dangerous 2 was entirely a creation of Mr. Gibson's and was such a hit with us that we simply had to bring him in as Rick's nemesis when it came around to doing the sequel.)

    • There were 74 different enemy and trap types in the game, all handled by the same very simple and very small control routine.

    • Rick was designed in July 1988 and took four months to create, although it was not released until June of the following year. (Back then it was often the case that you would finish making a game only for it to be held for a period and not three seconds after you had made your final build.)

    • The game ran to 85 screens in size on the 8-bit formats, with 50 additional screens on the 16-bit formats.

    • One feature that was designed but never implemented was a sequence in which the enemies on a level could capture Rick. The plan was to show an animated sequence in which Rick was carried off tied to a stretcher. He would then be placed in a cell with four exits that the player could choose between. 2 exits would lead to instant deaths, 1 exit would return Rick to the start of the level he was on with the final exit that returning our hero to the last position he was at when captured. Fortunately for us all, this frustrating little feature never saw the light of day.

 

In Schwarzendumpf castle, Rick encountered bulldogs and a bunch of soldiers whose uniforms were changed to green in the last week of development...
...ahem...

Additional Credits
Terry Lloyd Design and Background Graphics
Dave 'Ken' Pridmore Music, Amstrad and Spectrum Programming
Stu 'Dangerstu' Gregg Commodore 64 Coding
Rob Toone Level Design
Bob 'Goth' Churchill Level Design
TEXT © SIMONPHIPPS 2005
www.simonphipps.com