Red Alarm

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Red Alarm

Developer(s)	T&E Soft
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Release date(s)	1995
Genre(s)	Shooter
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Kids to Adults (KA)
Platform(s)	Virtual Boy

Red Alarm is a game for the Nintendo Virtual Boy video game console. Released in August 1995 by T&E Soft, it was one of the four titles available at the console's introduction. The game takes place 70 years in the future, where a computer named KAOS threatens to take over the world and destroy mankind. The player's mission is to enter KAOS using a Tech-Wing Fighter plane and destroy it.

The game is set in a full 3-D environment, using wire frame graphics similar to those used in games like Star Fox. The player has extensive control over the plane's movements, using all available buttons on the Virtual Boy's controller.

[edit] Controls

Because the Virtual Boy was released prior to the rise in popularity of the analog stick in console video games, the designers of the system implemented dual D-pads for control (for more information see the article on the controller for the system). In this specific game, one D-pad controlled the pitch and rotation of the ship you were piloting, while the other controlled forward, back and strafe movement (in bursts). The 'A' and 'B' buttons controlled speed on a throttle-like setup, where tapping A would cycle forward through the speeds the ship could go, and tapping B would cycle down to stop.

As mentioned above the game was similar to Star Fox in that it was a third person shooter where one's view is positioned behind the character being controlled. In this case you see the ship you are controlling from behind as you navigate it through the levels. The game also shared graphical styles with Star Fox as some creatures in the Star Fox game took on the wireframe appearance that permeated the Red Alarm experience (although Star Fox had an expansive range of colour, something the Virtual Boy did not).

The illusion of 3D that is generated by the Virtual Boy's unique setup helps to determine how close the ship is to an object. While this is still difficult to tell in a monochrome, wireframe environment, it was certainly much clearer than in an earlier game of this type, such as Super Glove Ball for the NES.

Despite the illusion of 3D there were some complications in Red Alarm when it came to depth perception. Players often became disoriented in a wireframe environment and would find that they ran full tilt into a wall, indiscernible from an open area.

Even though the system and game in question predated the standardization of the analog stick in home consoles, the designers still made novel use of the dual D-pad system that the Virtual Boy provided.