MDK (video game)
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| Developer(s) | Shiny |
| Publisher(s) | Interplay |
| Designer(s) | David Perry |
| Release date(s) | May 31, 1997 |
| Genre(s) | Third-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T (Teen) USK: 16+ |
| Platform(s) | Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, DOS, PlayStation |
| Media | 1 CD-ROM |
| System requirements | 90 MHz CPU, 16 MB RAM, 37 MB available hard disk space, Windows 95 (WIN) |
MDK is a third-person shooter game developed by Shiny Entertainment and released in 1997 by Playmates Interactive Entertainment for the PC, Macintosh, and subsequently PlayStation. It was one of the first games to run only in Pentium or superior range of processors (for the PC version) but did not have a GPU requirement. Critically, it was hailed as one of the best games of 1997, and sold accordingly. The game soundtrack, composed by Tommy Tallarico, was also released, with moderate success.
The game tells the story of its protagonist, Kurt Hectic and his attempts to rescue Earth from an alien invasion of gigantic strip mining city-vehicles named 'Minecrawlers', which are not only removing all of earth's natural resources but are also flattening any people and cities that get in their way. The game combined fast action with fully 3D rendered, state-of-the art (for the time) graphics and a warped sense of humour. It featured a never before seen "sniper mode" that allowed the player to zoom in on an enemy and target them with astonishing accuracy.
A sequel, MDK2 was developed by Bioware and released by Interplay for the PC and Dreamcast in 2000, and later for the PlayStation 2 (titled MDK 2: Armageddon) in 2001.
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[edit] Technology
The game uses a powerful software-based engine, unlike most other games that relied on "brute force" hardware acceleration, low resolution graphics or tricks such as fogging and clipping to maintain good FPS in large maps. Although a fast CPU was recommended, the game ran smoothly with (relatively) low RAM and a slow CD-ROM drive, as the game did not use FMV (which by 1997 was the video game component that required more drive speed). The game also surprised the industry with the fluidity of Kurt's movement, which was done using motion capture and sprite-based animation.
Its innovative "sniper mode" feature allowed the player to zoom in all the way from one side of the map to the other without having objects popping up.
[edit] Plot
MDK is noted for its instruction manual, in the form of a diary of an eccentric inventor, Dr. Fluke Hawkins. Dr. Hawkins discovers something he calls "Flange Orbits", but when he broaches them to scientific community, he is ridiculed.
Dr. Hawkins then builds a space station, The Jim Dandy, bribes his laboratory janitor, Kurt Hectic, with Hungarian Goulash, and launches himself into a self-imposed exile, swearing never to return until he "comes up with some really good stuff". Upon reaching orbit, he realizes that "Flange Orbits" don't actually exist. Rather than return to Earth in shame, he begins work on a robotic dog that Dr. Hawkins calls "Bones" (the dog prefers "Max").
Dr. Hawkins continued work in relative peace until one day, he noticed a strange phenomenon- streams of incredible energy headed straight for the Earth. The good Doctor sent down a warning (along with a basket of Max's oranges) but was promptly ignored. The streams proceeded to disgorge innumerable hordes of enemies in "Minecrawlers", giant fortress-cities designed to strip the mineral wealth (and potato crop, according to Dr. Hawkins) from a planet. The military forces of Earth were crushed.
Dr. Hawkins decided to take action. Pairing his new "Coil Suit", a revolutionary armor suit capable of repelling "bullets, bees, and small but very hard, sticks" with a chaingun that was capable of being attached to the suit to form a sniper rifle, Dr. Hawkins had the perfect weapons suite. Kurt was the only one who could wear it, due to the Doctor's age and Max's extra pair of arms.
So, Kurt was dispatched on "Mission: Deliver Kindness", entering the Minecrawlers from above, and destroying them from the inside-out, shooting his way through to the "driver", typically killing them in some rather violent fashion. Kurt fights his way though the Minecrawlers, destroying them one by one, until he comes to meet Gunter Glut, the hideous leader of the invasion.
Kurt destroys the Minecrawler but Glut escapes with Max in captivity, chased by Kurt along a stream leading to the alien homeworld. Kurt frees Max and kills Glut, ending the game.
[edit] Gameplay
MDK's gameplay is usually a third person shooter, except when sniper mode is entered. As expected, Kurt has a wide range of weapons to choose from, which differ in standard gameplay and sniper mode.
In addition to the standard run-and-gun/sniper modes, there are a few mini-games in MDK. All levels start out with the atmospheric re-entry (explained below), while some levels have a bombing run, boarding a glider and dropping iron bombs on enemies. This clears the enemies far easier than would be on foot and often garners extra weapons. One level even has a snowboarding sequence where you must navigate obstacles while destroying enemies along the way.
[edit] Atmospheric Re-entry
All levels save the previous one and begin with Kurt diving from the Jim Dandy to the Minecrawler below. The Minecrawler fires a radar (a green cone in the screenshot) which if touched triggers the launch of anti-air missiles, which must be dodged. Dr. Hawkins also sends down weapons at this point which (if collected) are added to your level inventory.
[edit] Stream Riding
Once a level has ended, by killing the boss in command of the Minecrawler, the Minecrawler self-destructs and its debris and inhabitants are sucked back into the energy stream, taking Kurt with them. Kurt has a set time period in the energy stream- Kurt is pursuing a health powerup in front of him through the stream, which when collected grants 150% health. If he touches the walls of the stream, he loses 5 points health and decelerates. At the end of his period in the stream, Max will come out on a tether and pluck Kurt from the stream.
After the destruction of last minecrawler, Max is unable to retrieve Kurt from within the stream, due to his capture by Gunter Glut. As a result, Kurt emerges at the other end of the stream: the alien homeworld.
[edit] Kurt's Coil Suit
Kurt's main defense against the Streamriders is Dr. Hawkins's Coil Suit, a skin-tight armor suit made of a leather-like material inlaid with twisting gold designs. This suit serves as a bullet proof vest and protects Kurt from the atmospheric friction of re-entry. The coil suit also contains the following gadgets:
[edit] The Helmet
Kurt's pointed helmet gives him a rather bird-like look and increases his aerodynamics, allowing him better manouverability during his aerial insertions. The helmet serves as a base for the chaingun to attach to, forming the sniper rifle.
[edit] Sniper Rifle
The sniper rifle is actually Kurt's chaingun mounted on his helmet. It gains 100x zoom and the capability of supporting 6 different types of ammunition. Kurt does not actually see out of the helmet, rather, he sees out of a HUD camera, used to aim. An interesting feature of this is the three "Bullet Cams" above the HUD. These track the path of the bullets and linger briefly after impact, showing the damage done.
[edit] Chain gun
The front end of Kurt's helmet can be removed and attached to his arm, becoming a machine gun with unlimited ammo. There is also a powerup that increases the damage and firing rate of the chaingun, making it even easier to waste vast quantities of enemies.
[edit] The Ribbon Chute
The Ribbon Chute allows Kurt to navigate long jumps, long falls, and utilize updrafts (deploying automatically). The Ribbon Chute retracts automatically when not being used and can be used infinite times. According to Dr. Hawkins's diary, there were also concepts for a "Bow Chute" and a "Tie Chute".
[edit] Powerups
Kurt is entrusted with a large number of weapons, some usable in regular gameplay and some usable in sniper mode.
[edit] Regular gameplay powerups
- Hand Grenades- These items are exactly as they are in other games- hand-thrown ballistic explosives that detonate on contact. These are by far the most common powerups.
- Super Chaingun- This powerup, when acquired, gives you 400 rounds of increased damage and fire rate.
- The World's Smallest Nuclear Explosion- A matchbox-sized nuke, Dr. Hawkins designed this to make nuclear war impractical. Now, it's used to blow locks off doors.
- Dummy Decoy- This powerup, while not a weapon, is still handy. It is a crudely painted inflatable that distracts and draws the streamriders' fire, allowing you to either bypass them or kill them.
- Tornado- This powerup sends out multiple homing projectiles that pass through all obstacles and pop the heads off all non-boss enemies in range.
- Thumper- This powerup is a giant hammer that shakes the ground at a 10.4 Richter scale earthquake, damaging or destroying anything in range. A giant hamster was put as "This would also work!"
- The World's Most Interesting Bomb- This interesting powerup is unfortunately only available twice in the entire game. Based on technology developed to make children eat their vegetables, it attracts all enemies near it to itself and then explodes, killing them.
- Unknown powerup- This powerup is in the form of an Earthworm Jim head. It drops a cow on a pre-specified target, destroying it.
- World's Most Cowardly Powerup - a 150% health powerup that sprouts legs and runs away screaming when Kurt approaches it.
[edit] Sniper powerups
Sniper mode powerups are different projectiles fired from Kurt's sniper rifle.
- Homing bullets - Bullets that have small fins on them and steer themselves toward enemies, sometimes getting an automatic headshot.
- Mortars - Ballistic rounds that are often used to solve puzzles by firing a mortar into a hole to get a powerup or destroy an obstacle.
- Sniper Grenades - Highly explosive straight-line munitions.
- Homing Sniper Grenades - The name says it all.
- Bones Airstrike - Calls Bones in on a target anywhere not under cover, that is, anywhere outside. It does extreme damage, but is exceedingly rare- you will only have 2 or 3 at most.
[edit] Enemies
The enemies in MDK are a collective of aliens called 'Stream Riders' under the command of Gunter Glutt. They use the energy streams to invade planets and strip them of their mineral wealth. The alien force is mainly comprised of 'Grunts', called this due to their number and vocalizations, and various different types of sentry robots, usually far more deadly.
[edit] Meaning of MDK
While the actual meaning of the title's TLA is not revealed within the game, the gaming press and fans adopted Murder, Death, Kill, going with the game's tagline "On a good day, only 2.5 billion people will die". In interviews, Shiny employees each gave their own version - My Dog Ken; Max, Dr. Hawkins, and Kurt; Million Dollar KO; Maim Death Kill; Massive Dollops of Ketchup; Mother's Day Kisses; and My Diary something beginning with K. Yet another possibility is documented inside the game manual, where Kurt's mission is named Mission: Deliver Kindness. In the readme for the MDK demo, it is stated that nobody's quite sure what MDK means, it means what ever they need it to mean on that given day. Since the readme was penned on Mother's Day, the meaning for that particular day is "Mother's Day Kisses".
In the European version of the game, the background images of the installation program present many possible meanings for the letters M, D and K; some silly, some believable, and one of them "Murder, Death, Kill." The acronym MDK ("Murder Death Kill") itself dates back to the 1993 action movie Demolition Man, in which the term was used by the fictitious San Angeles Police Department of 2032 to denote homicide.
It is revealed in the "Making of MDK" booklet that came with the "Limited Edition" of the game that the term was actually the game's codename, when Shiny came around to coming up with a name for the game, they chose to stick with the codename.
However, there is no information available as to why "MDK" was chosen in the first place. The British computer magazine, PC Format, in a prelude to an interview they published with the Shiny director, said that the game was indeed called "Murder, Death, Kill" but was changed to "MDK" to give it a lower rating as the rating authorities in Britain felt it was too violent a name. This was then turned into a marketing campaign with various silly meanings for "MDK" given followed by a question mark, such as "Madonna Dates Kylie?".
In the installation screen for MDK 2, various meanings are shown scrolling down as a backdrop to Kurt diving through or to an unknown destination with "Murder, Death, Kill" highlighted.
[edit] Notes
- The endgame music videoclip is performed by Billy Ze Kick (abbreviated BZK), and is the song "Non Non Rien N'a Change", a remake of the original song from 1971 made by the french band called "Les Poppys". The clip itself consists mostly of clips taken from Shiny's original MDK promo video, but in black and white.
- The Macintosh version, ported by Shokwave Software [1] (now defunct), was bundled with the original iMac.
- Key members of the MDK development team went on to start up Planet Moon Studios.
- The first minecrawler is heading towards Laguna Beach, where Shiny's headquarters was located when the game was being developed.
- MDK was one of the earliest games to use motion capture technology during development.
- There are Earthworm Jim powerups/items in the game.
[edit] Taglines
The game had two taglines to sell the game, one being the above mentioned "On a good day, only 2.5 billion people will die" and on the games CD art; "Prepare for a religious experience"
