Cannon Fodder
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For the literary use of the expression "cannon fodder", see cannon fodder.
| Cannon Fodder | |
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| Developer(s) | Sensible Software Codemasters (New Version) |
| Publisher(s) | Virgin |
| Designer(s) | Jon Hare |
| Release date(s) | 1993, 1994 |
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy, Action game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | 3DO, Acorn Archimedes, Amiga, Amiga CD32, Atari Jaguar, Atari ST, Game Boy Color, PC, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Super NES, PlayStation Portable |
| Media | 3½ inch Floppy, Cartridge, UMD |
| Input | Joystick, Mouse |
Cannon Fodder was a short series of two war (and later science fiction) themed action computer and video games developed by Sensible Software. The first version of the game was released for the Commodore Amiga but it was later converted for many other formats . Only two games in the series were released, but were converted to most active systems at the time of release. The series has a clear, somewhat darkly humorous method of gameplay that perhaps even doubles as social commentary. The pre-mission screen shows a hill with a grave for each dead soldier, with recruits lining up in front of it and a sports-like score at the top of the screen. Soldiers each have unique names, while on the grand scale of things being nothing more than interchangeable cannon fodder. The tagline for the first game was "War has never been so much fun", and for the second (with a more sci-fi background, which included some alien missions) "War has only been this fun once before".
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[edit] Overview
In both games, the player is in charge of a squad (the titular "cannon fodder") of between one and eight elements that can be, for command purposes, split up to three groups (referred to as Snake, Eagle and Panther squads). All units have a machine gun with unlimited ammo, as well as caches of limited grenades and rockets that can be found on the map. In later levels, the player is provided with some free grenades and rockets at the start of the mission. The player's machine guns do not harm its own soldiers, but friendly fire can ensue from grenades and rockets, which are also the only weapons capable of destroying buildings and vehicles. Player units can also die if hit by debris flung from exploding buildings and vehicles, get caught in man-traps, mired in quicksand, and of course, hit by enemy fire. Units usually walk on foot, but several vehicles are available in some missions. The games are split into several missions, which are usually sub-divided into phases. Dead soldiers are replaced by "fresh meat" at the start of each phase. Each soldier that survives a mission is promoted and receives a small increase in the rate of fire, accuracy, and range. The player is only able to save the game upon completion of a whole mission.
Each phase is structured around mission objectives which range from "Kill all enemy" or "Destroy enemy buildings" to "Rescue all hostages". Some phases are complexly constructed and require the player to use imagination, pre-planning and strategy to complete. For example players may sometimes have to split their team of commandos into two or more groups and leave one group to defend an area or route (being controlled by the game's Artificial Intelligence) whilst taking control of another group.
Such careful thinking is required in phases structured around a central element or vehicle. For example, one phase (which consists of a large number of enemies) requires the soldiers to take control of a turret surrounded by water. Soon the turret is being swarmed from all sides by enemies and the player's only hope is to fire just behind them or risk being caught in the blast of their own shells.
The theme tune (War Has Never Been So Much Fun) for the game was written by the lead game designer Jon Hare, with musician Richard Joseph. Vocals were sung by Hare himself.
[edit] Corn Poppy controversy
The corn poppy, used as a symbol by World War I veterans, was also used as the game logo. The Royal British Legion reacted strongly against the usage of the Remembrance Day poppy, since it could induce buyers in error, believing the game was endorsed by them. Britain's Daily Star newspaper wrote an outraged article about this, urging its readers to "Make sure you do not buy this shameful game". Virgin removed the poppy from the box but it remained on the title screen. The Amiga version, and later versions of other formats of the game, had an opening screen that read "This game is not in any way endorsed by the Royal British Legion".
[edit] Pacifism versus warmongering
The game was also criticised by the media for what was then considered excessive violence and glorification of war - in Germany, the game was banned for sale to minors. While the violence, quite tame by modern standards but still rather gratuitous (it is possible to wound a soldier so that he bleeds to death while screaming in agony, until he is shot again or finally dies of blood loss), is clear, the claims that the game glorifies war are ironic. The game itself is a satire on war and those that revel in it, and makes numerous statements to this effect, including in the title song (with phrases such as War has never been so much fun), the poppy, and the queue of recruits signing up to enlist next to the hill full of gravestones of deceased soldiers. Each soldier has a name and the player is reminded of the casualties by name at the end of the level. The PC version manual ended with "As Cannon Fodder demonstrates in its own quirky little way, war is a senseless waste of lives and resources. We hope you never find out the hard way."
[edit] Music video
A little-seen music video of the theme song War Has Never Been So Much Fun was put together to promote the original release. Shot over just one day and for a total budget of £500, it featured the entire team dressed up in military uniforms, an assortment of masks (including one of Mario) and toy guns. The version of the music track is more complete than the one that appeared on the 16-bit versions and was recorded professionally. In fact, the menu screen track is also a pared down version of a proper song, featuring studio-standard vocals. Both of these tracks were written and performed by Jon Hare, as were many of the other songs featured in Sensible's games.
Though segments of the video were featured on a short retrospective TV feature [1](from around 2000) profiling the title's origins, it is unsure where else the music video appeared. It was rumoured that it did feature on ITV's "The Chart Show" in 1993, but this has never been confirmed. Though a new song was created for the sequel, it is not known if it also received the same music video treatment. However a music video does exist for Sensible Golf, featuring the team members behind the game.
Interestingly, while the Super NES and other versions of the game had the normal title music, the Atari Jaguar version also supported a vocal arrangement.
Parts of this video were also edited into a presentation for the Amiga CD32 and 3DO versions of the game. Archive on Google Video.
[edit] Characters
The original game saw hundreds of recruits marching for battle, each named individually. The first few members - Jools, Jops, Stoo and Rj - were named directly after the development staff. As each recruit was killed in battle, the next one in line would take their place. Players of the game often fondly remember the great loss of losing one of the original 4 characters, despite barely occupying 30 pixels each when on-screen. Each character was incremented a rank and given a slight boost in firing range when completing a mission, so the loss of a seasoned veteran soldier was more than sentimental.
The first 40 characters are named Jools, Jops, Stoo, Rj, Ubik, Cj, Chris, Pete, Tadger, Hector, Elroy, Softy, Mac, Bomber, Stan, Tosh, Brains, Norm, Buster, Spike, Browny, Murphy, Killer, Abdul, Spotty, Goofy, Donald, Windy, Nifta, Denzil, Cedric, Alf, Marty, Cecil, Wally, Pervy, Jason, Roy, Peewee, and Arnie.
[edit] Sensible Soccer 92/93 Meets Bulldog Blighty
- Also known as Sensible Soccer: England vs Germany
On the Amiga Power Coverdisk 21 one of the demos was Sensible Soccer Meets Bulldog Blighty. It was a homage to the famous Christmas-time football match between the Germans and the British over no-man's land in 1914. It featured a mode of play that involved replacing players with soldiers from Cannon Fodder, and the ball with a hand grenade. The grenade would randomly begin to flash and would eventually explode after a few minutes, killing any nearby players. The match itself was also played in black and white.
[edit] Cannon Soccer
- Also known as Cannon Fodder - Amiga Format Christmas Special
One Christmas, a free Sensible Software minigame was included on an Amiga Format cover disk. Called Cannon Soccer, it was essentially two bonus levels of Cannon Fodder in which the soldiers fought hordes of Sensible Soccer players in a snowy landscape.
[edit] Handheld versions
Once Sensible Software was sold off to Codemasters, the decision was taken to port the game over to the Game Boy Color. The limit on having two men in your squad and a much smaller playing area meant changes had to be made to the gameplay, mainly to make it easier. Jon Hare described the change as converting "11-a-side football to 5-a-side football".
In 2004, Jon Hare set up a small mobile phone games team known as Tower Studios. Their first release was Sensible Soccer in 2004, followed by Cannon Fodder in 2005. Both titles were published by KUJU. The games were only playable on certain colour handsets and due to many keypads' inability to register a diagonal movement (like UP & RIGHT) the control systems for both games had to be radically redesigned.
On the 28th August 2006 it was announced that there will be a brand new version of the game coming to the PSP in spring 2007
[edit] Cancelled PlayStation 2 update
After selling Sensible Software to Codemasters, Jon Hare ended up consulting on many of their development projects. One of which was the PS2 title Prince Naseem Boxing. Work on this title was performed in a satellite studio based in Hammersmith, London. However due to the commercial failure of this title, the studio was shut down. A casualty of this was cancellation of a 3D update of Cannon Fodder, something that Jon had been working on for at least nine months. It's not known if the game was ever prototyped at even the most basic level, however Jon did speak about how he was looking to expand on the whole theme of war and include gameplay not just set on the battlefield: "I'd like to focus on the public's perceptions of war and warfare. There's many interesting things that go on behind the scenes with politicians". It may have been that Jon was looking to examine and provide a new satire on the media and governments actions during conflicts within his early drafts.
In an interview with Eurogamer in late 2005, Jon confirms that there was up to two years' work (on and off) put into a 3D update of Cannon Fodder: "I designed Cannon Fodder 3 with Codies six years ago, development stopped and started three times and eventually it was seemingly permanently halted when the London studio was closed 4 years ago."
He then goes on to add: "Nothing would please me more than to see this project resurrected, it was very advanced in its structure and therefore would need little modernisation."
[edit] PSP Version
On 28th August 2006 Codemasters announced that a brand new version of Cannon Fodder would appear exclusively on the PSP. The game will retain its familiar top down view, and the big heads of the soldiers, but for the first time the game will be 3D. Set for release Spring 2007.
[edit] References
- Darwinia makes a reference to Cannon Fodder's intro with a bootloader which simply reads "This game is not in any way endorsed by SENSIBLE SOFTWARE". A shortened version of the original theme tune also plays in the background. Some of Darwinia's gameplay was influenced by cannon fodder.
- The 1996 Amiga game Mortal Tennis also references this intro with an opening message stating "This game is not in any way endorsed by the Royal Mortal Legion".
[edit] External links
- Article on PSP Version
- Documentary Short (Quicktime, 4min) on the game's origins. Features segments from the music video.
- Cannon Fodder Amiga version info page
- Cannon Fodder 2 Amiga version info page
- Cannon Fodder 2 development history The story behind Cannon Fodder 2 by Stuart Campbell
- Original intro sequence (Amiga version) at Google Video
- Eurogamer's November 2005 interview with Jon Hare, where he discusses what happened with Cannon Fodder on PS2 and how the project's still on ice.
- TV plug-in-and-play version of Cannon Fodder that includes Sensible Soccer and Mega-Lo-Mania (all based on the Megadrive code).
- Poppy controversy
- Sensible Soccer 92/93 Meets Bulldog Blighty
- Cannon Soccer
Categories: 1993 computer and video games | 3DO games | Acorn Archimedes games | Amiga games | Atari Jaguar games | Atari ST games | DOS games | Game Boy Color games | Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis games | Super NES games | CD32 games | Mobile phone games | Sensible Software | PlayStation Portable games
