Dropzone

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This article is about the video game. For the parachute landing area, see Drop zone. For other uses, see Drop zone (disambiguation).
Dropzone

Cover of the NES port released in 1992
Developer(s) Arena Graphics
Publisher(s) U.S. Gold
Mindscape
Designer(s) Archer MacLean
Platform(s) Atari 8-bit, C64, Game Boy, Sega Game Gear, Game Boy Color, NES
Release date(s) 1984
Genre(s) Action-adventure, Action
Mode(s) Single-player
Distribution Cassette, floppy disk, ROM cartridge

Dropzone is a shoot 'em up video game developed by Arena Graphics in 1984. It is a bi-directional, horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up in the style of Defender. It was designed and written by Archer MacLean, his first commercial video game. In fact, "Arena Graphics" is just a shell name for MacLean himself. It was released for the Atari 400/800 and Commodore 64, then later ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Game Gear and Game Boy Color.

Dropzone borrows many elements from the Defender, including the same font style, alien depictions and title screen depictions.[1][2]

Story

On the surface of Jupiter's moon, Io, a scientific research base is under attack by aliens. The player dons a jetpack armed with a laser, a cloaking device and three smart bombs, to rescue the scientists and return them to the base.

Gameplay

The gameplay is much in the style of Defender, as well as Stargate, Scramble and even Robotron: 2084.[3] Players control the hero trying to rescue the scientists on a horizontally side-scrolling game field.[4] Players must elude or engage various aliens—some slow, others faster—and return the scientists to the base's eponymous dropzone. The aliens capture scientists walking along the ground. The player must shoot the enemy aliens and catch the falling scientists. Sometimes the aliens will carry lethal androids instead, which must be avoided.[4]

The ranks awarded to players at the end of a game are (in order):

  1. Not Listed - practice recommended
  2. Dextral Dodger
  3. Trekie
  4. Moon Cadet
  5. Planetsman
  6. Ace
  7. Planet Marshal
  8. Planet Lord
  9. Star Warrior
  10. Solar Prodigy
  11. Megastar - mission completed

Development

MacLean purchased one of the first Atari 800s to be imported into the UK and started writing the game. It was then converted to the Commodore 64 (C64) by MacLean himself.[3]

Of the C64 version of the game, MacLean said:

“ The [Commodore] 64 Dropzone is about 46k [kilobytes] long and consists of 15,000 lines of sparsely commented code with around 350 subroutines and around 3000 labels. Those who can reach Megastar status on the 64 should have had enough practice to attempt an Atari supervised Dropzone mission. The Atari, being the Porsche of home computers, is capable of running Dropzone 2.5 times faster than the 64 and can handle any amount of blobs on screen, even when you release a Strata Bomb. It is visually, sonically etc., identical and about 12K shorter. However, the 64 is still a respectable BMW316.[5] ”

The name Dropzone was not settled on until shortly before the game went gold.[6]

Publishing

MacLean entered into a publishing deal with U.S. Gold for the European distribution of the game. After 18 months, however, they stopped paying him royalties claiming that the game was no longer selling (in reality, the game kept selling for five to six years). In addition, MacLean travelled a great deal and saw it for sale in areas outside of Europe and even in the United States. After seeking legal advice, four years of legal wrangling with the publisher followed, until they finally settled out of court for copyright infringement. With the proceeds from the settlement, MacLean bought his first Ferrari, a 288 GTO.[6]

Awards

  • The Commodore 64 version of the game was awarded a Gold Medal in issue 3 of Zzap!64 magazine, with an overall rating of 95%.

Sequel

The sequel, Super Dropzone, added new weapon types and end-level bosses. It is available for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (titled 'Super Dropzone' on all packaging, but only 'Dropzone' on the title screen), Game Boy Advance and PlayStation. Only the Game Boy Advance version saw a North American release, the others were European exclusives.

References

  1. ↑ Dropzone screenshots at MobyGames
  2. ↑ Defender at the Killer List of Videogames
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 The making of... Dropzone. Edge online - via Internet Archive
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Dropzone at MobyGames
  5. ↑ Zzap!64 magazine, Issue 5, p.79
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Archer MacLean interview from Halcyon Days

External links

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