Way of the Warrior: a first update by David R. Liu!
Text by David R. Liu <davidliu@case.ai.mit.edu>
All of the video out there is certainly before 0.70, which was when
the aliased characters were added. In could conceiably be 0.50
footage (WCES) which had the old ugly backgrounds.
- 0.4x released only as video tape, very old, very bad looking
- 0.5x CES era dec and jan. Old background, few chars, no aliasing
- 0.6x feb/mar no aliasing, new backgrounds (TV add is from this
time)
- 0.7x alised chars, nikki and high abbot
- 0.8x nobu and fox
Way Of The Warrior Update:
written by David R. Liu (alpha/beta tester and in general giver
of hundreds of annoying suggestions during the game's evolution)
Way is coming along very well, with a reasonable chance of
meeting the July release date announced months ago.
There will be TWELVE original types of characters.
Nine will be playable by humans without the use of secret codes.
Two will be CPU-controllable (at least without a code) bosses,
both of which are 3D-rendered with >50,000 (!) polygons.
(Sharp readers will "do the math" (tm) now and realize that 9+2<12)
Here's a summary of the characters:
- DRAGON: A Bruce-Lee genre kung fu character, easy to use, agile, the
"starter" character.
- MAJOR GAINES: A British military man, capable of growing with a
"steroid boost"
- NINJA: Dragon's japanese rival, a ninja (surprise), and a very good
one
- SHAKY JAKE: Australia outback fighter, uses a staff and a bottle of
Jim
Bean and a Bowie Knife as weapons
- NOBUNAGA: Japanese samurai, uses a sword and is VERY low key and
subtle.
- KONOTORI: Chinese American, uses fans as weapons and to fly.
- FOX: HUGE black parisian muy-thai bodyguard, wears a suit and
suspenders.
- CRIMSON: A biker girl, very skilled and counterattacking.
- NIKKI CHAN: A female Chinese kung-fu acrobat, quick and agile, lots
of flips.
- HIGH ABBOT: A 3D-rendered model. He's a DRAGON (whereas Dragon
is a human)
and tough as nails. Speaking of nails....he's got really big ones.
- KULL: Another 3D-rendrered model. This one is a skeleton.
The main reason I'm posting this update is because tv ads,
videotapes,
and the such are showing lots of different versions of Way, most of
which are far inferior to the present version.
Here's a summary
of the evolution of the game:
Versions:
- 0.40: released only as video tape, very old, very ugly, different
characters,
different backgrounds from present version.
- 0.50: CES version (Dec/Jan 94), old backgrounds, few characters, and
the
characters are NOT anti-aliased and thus look rough 'n choppy.
- 0.60: Feb/Mar 94, only 5 characters, not antialiased, new
backgrounds.
THIS IS WHERE THE TV ADS ARE DERIVED.
- 0.70: Characters are finally antialiased (thus their resolution seems to
jump dramatically and they look a LOT smoother), Nikki and High
Abbot
added.
- 0.80: Nobunaga and Fox added (5/94), engine and balancing
continually tweaked.
So the video available in STORES as a demo is probably 0.50 or
*gasp*
0.40. The game has eveolved COMPLETELY since then.
PS: There is a TRUCKLOAD of hidden secret stuff in the game!
David