Software:First Samurai (video game)

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The First Samurai
First Samurai
Super NES cover art
Developer(s)Vivid Image
Publisher(s)Image Works
Ubi Soft (MS-DOS)
Kotobuki (SNES)
Director(s)Mev Dinc[1]
Designer(s)John Twiddy[1]
Programmer(s)Raffaele Cecco[1]
Artist(s)Paul 'Dokk' Docherty (uncredited)[1]
Platform(s)Amiga, Commodore 64, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Super NES, iOS
ReleaseAmiga, Atari ST
September 1991[1]
C64, MS-DOS
1992
SNES
1993
iOS
2011
Genre(s)Platform, Beat 'em up
Mode(s)Single-player

The First Samurai, alternatively titled First Samurai, is a 1991 beat 'em up platformer developed by Vivid Image and published by Image Works. The First Samurai was originally released in September 1991 for the Amiga and Atari ST,[1] and was later ported to the Commodore 64, MS-DOS and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was followed by a sequel, Second Samurai.

In 2011, The First Samurai was ported to iOS.

Plot

In The First Samurai, the protagonist undertakes a quest as the first samurai in the history of feudal Japan, and must compete against rival swordsmen.

Gameplay

Fighting some bats

Eating food and drinking sake will help the player get stronger, while fire and enemy contact will weaken the samurai. The main objective in a level is to collect a set of four items which must be used to get access to the area with the end of level boss. Magic pots serve as checkpoints and are activated with the energy of the player's sword. Killing a monster releases a portion of sword energy which the player then collects automatically. Using a bell at the right place removes an obstacle blocking the player's path. The player starts out as a hermit in an ancient forest, but he eventually becomes powerful enough to fight in the villages and towns, and eventually the dungeons.

Development

The First Samurai began development in July 1990, and was originally scheduled for a September 1991 release for Amiga and Atari ST, with a DOS port stated to be 'unplanned' at the time.[1] In a December 1990 issue of British gaming magazine The One, The One interviewed team members from Vivid Image for information regarding The First Samurai's development in a pre-release interview.[1] The First Samurai's samurai theme was first conceived by graphic artist Paul 'Dokk' Docherty as a 'random thought' while watching the 1954 monster film Them!, and Docherty expresses that "At the time we were in the middle of designing another game but we weren't very happy with it."[1] The One purported that the title The First Samurai's correlation to The Last Ninja is "purely coincidental".[1] Docherty's proposal of a samurai theme was received by Vivid Image as "exactly what they were looking for", and Docherty states that "We wanted something fairly mystical so that we could put in lots of special effects. Samurai also have a very strong sense of honour - that fitted in with our plot."[1] Mev Dinc, The First Samurai's project manager, expressed that programmer Raffaele Cecco was invited to the project "because he's not only a very good programmer, he also comes up with lots of really good ideas. If I suggest one thing, he usually comes back with three."[1] The First Samurai's development was described by The One as "an ongoing creative process in which everyone is encouraged to participate", and Dinc expressed that "Deciding on sprites and backgrounds that everybody is happy with can be time-consuming. We don't argue, we just have constructive discussions."[1]

User-friendly controls were a priority in the game's development, and John Twiddy, The First Samurai's map editor, stated that "You have to be able to pick up the joystick and just play the game."[1] The balance between easy-to-learn controls and allowing the player an array of different attacks was an important factor in The First Samurai's design, and Twiddy stated that "The main thing is to get lots of manoeuvres in there. They're all effective so ultimately you don't actually need to know how you've done each one."[1] The animations in response to the player's inputs were partially inspired by arcade games, and Twiddy states that ”In some arcade games, when your opponent's in a certain position you end up grabbing them and throwing them over your shoulder. It looks like you're doing something spectacular but in fact it's the computer showing standard joystick moves in different ways on screen. That's a feature we'd like to include."[1] The First Samurai was the first 16-bit game that Raffaele Cecco worked on, and he spent the first two months on the project learning how to program for the Amiga, stating that "Obviously I couldn't use any old sprite handling or scrolling routines because I didn't have any. I've had to start everything from scratch."[1] The First Samurai was programmed on a 386 PC using the Programmer's Development System (PDS) developed by Fruad Katon.[1] Vivid Image deliberately chose a "fairly long" development period according to The One, and Cecco expressed that "We want to make certain there's plenty of time at the end for tweaking. This is the sort of game where it all comes down to how many enemies there are and where they're positioned."[1]

The First Samurai's environment is defined by white blocks superimposed over the game's graphics; these blocks determine attributes such as the edge of a platform, the spawn point of entities, whether a wall is climbable, and collision detection.[1] For the Atari ST port, all the blocks needed to be 'pre-shifted', and a Vivid Images team member expressed that "We need to know how many there are so we can calculate them in advance; the editor automatically keeps track of all the different types of blocks on screen."[1] John Twiddy created a custom map editor for The First Samurai which runs concurrently with Deluxe Paint and allows graphics to be loaded in, background graphics to be selected & positioned, and an object's depth to be defined relative to other objects.[1] More features were incorporated into The First Samurai's map editor over the course of the game's development, and Docherty stated that "Whenever we want a new feature we simply phone John up and ask him to include it."[1]

Prioritizing sound effect design over a soundtrack was a design decision made in part due to memory restrictions, as well as Vivid Images' belief that 'subtle' sound effects would 'add more atmosphere'.[1] Due to memory restrictions, the protagonist's sprites are separated into pieces, e.g. the limbs, torso, and legs are stored separately; this also allows animations to be made easier, as rather than create a new sprite for a different animation, it could be created from existing sprites 'pieced together'.[1] At the stage of development at which the interview was conducted, The First Samurai had 105 different limb sprites, and 30 different animations using those sprites.[1] A level taking place in a sewer was scrapped before release due to memory restrictions, particularly due to the level's 'running water' sprites, stated to take up 'almost as much memory' as the protagonist's sprite.[1] The First Samurai runs at 25 frames per second, as a Vivid Images team member expressed that "We decided not to go for 50 frames because it's got too many limitations. You can't have huge areas of sprites and animation if you want that kind of speed."[1]

The Amiga version of First Samurai cost 'around 84' Deutschmark in 1992, and was released on two floppy disks.[2]

Reception

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
GamesMaster90% (Amiga)[3]
Amiga Joker82% (Amiga)[2]

Amiga Joker gave the Amiga version of First Samurai an overall score of 82%, comparing it to other similar games such as Shadow Dancer and The Last Ninja, and expressing that "If someone were to say that the game isn't really original, they would be correct. However, First Samurai impresses not so much with an innovative idea, but more with technical brilliance and excellent gameplay." Amiga Joker praises First Samurai's 'compelling' gameplay, noting the number of usable weapons, its "difficult" puzzles, and "crafty" level design, particularly praising the inclusion of hidden areas and items. The magazine praises First Samurai's graphics, calling them "gorgeously colourful" and noting the game to be "full of fantastic minute details (e.g. the sword sparkles!)", furthermore expressing that it has "great parallax-scrolling, fancifully animated sprites and a very impressive explosion when the hero dies." Further more it mentions First Samurai's "nifty" title screen music and "comical" sound effects, and concludes by stating that "It is clear that the programmers at Image Works have put care into the game and successfully created a masterpiece ... Anyone who wants to sell an Asia-themed beat 'em up after this game will have their work cut out for them."[2] Super Gamer reviewed the Super NES version and have an overall score of 79% stating: "A novel and pretty platformer, but later levels are disappointing."[4]

The Channel 4 video game programme GamesMaster gave the Amiga version a 90% rating.[3]

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 Hamza, Kati (December 1990). "Turning Japanese". The One (emap Images) (27): 165–166. https://archive.org/details/theone-magazine-27/page/n163/mode/2up. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Borgmeier, Carsten (January 1992). "First Samurai Amiga Review". Amiga Joker (Joker Verlag): 28. https://archive.org/details/Amiga_Joker_1992-01_Joker_Verlag_DE/page/n27. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "GamesMaster Season 1 Episode 2". https://archive.org/details/gamesmaster_s01e02.  24:06. Channel 4. 6:05-6:50.
  4. ↑ "First Samurai SNES Review". Super Gamer (United Kingdom: Paragon Publishing) (2): 122. May 1994. https://archive.org/details/super-gamer-02/page/122/mode/2up. Retrieved April 15, 2021. 
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
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