What is Digg?37 Comments
- Tunguska, on 10/11/2007, -6/+42Just to paraphrase the article:
1) Take a Well-Known Genre, Make It Better
2) Promote through Web Aggregation Sites
3) PROFIT!!!! - praveenmarkandu, on 10/11/2007, -11/+35Step 1: Copy someones Warcraft III mod
Step 2: Done - Cimlite, on 10/11/2007, -3/+25WarCraft 3 was not the origin in this type of games.
It started with something called "Sunken Defence" maps for StarCraft. It's the exact same idea as now and also where those WarCraft 3 maps came from. - saggygrandma, on 10/11/2007, -4/+24"Tower defense, despite what some people say did not originate in Warcraft, or Starcraft, or Command and Conquer. It actually dates much farther back with a game from Atari. In 1990 Atari released rampart a sort of shoot' em up puzzle game.
Rampart allowed you to build a path and place your towers, slightly more complex than the current variation that doesn't allow "Mazing" in most cases."
Source: http://www.xyhd.tv/2007/04/gaming/tower-defence-killing-enemies-and-killing-time/ - Quag, on 10/11/2007, -9/+24I could easily write a more thorough history than this article, simply by mentioning the fact that the idea is hijacked from a Starcraft custom map.
- hassmaschine, on 10/11/2007, -0/+14It's nice to see an every day joe find his path, hit a little luck, and make something cool the rest of us can do when we're bored at work.
- djbelieve, on 10/11/2007, -1/+10Best. Browser Based Desktop Defense Flash Game. Evar.
- saggygrandma, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8Out of interest I found this video of rampart, hard to tell, make your own decision.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdR8eCcPQPo - Cimlite, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7@dignon
I just had to say that I think your missing the core game-mechanics of Rampart and Tower Defense games.
Some of the major differances between these games are:
Rampart there's a build-phase and and attack-phase. During the build-phase you construct your castle only, nothing else. This if anything is a variation of Tetris, you use those exact pieces to build. Rampart is also about keeping your walls intact. You loose the game when your walls have a hole and the build-timer expires.
In Rampart you directly control all your guns. There's no auto-firing turrets anywhere.
In Rampart the enemies attack your castle head on. They are tearing down your walls.
In Tower Defense it's all about dealing damage over time. Making it hard for your enemies to pass, slowing them down and dealing damage. The objective is always to stop the enemies from successfully getting past your defenses (not tear it down like in Rampart).
I really don't see how anyone could compare those two games. You could just as well say that Space Invaders was the successor to Half-Life because they were both shooters. - slapthemonkey, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Game is good but cannot spend lots of time on it. One gets addicted to it.
- br0ck, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6Serious question - do any other of the tower defense games allow you to build your own mazes like DTD does? It has almost infinite variation and compared to all the other fixed maze tower defense games that I've seen. Add all the crazy challenge modes and this game shows real genius in my opinion. Now if I could just finish the 3000 limit challenge with a decent score. Dammit!
- foolonthehill, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5"Out of interest I found this video of rampart, hard to tell, make your own decision."
The person who made that video is amazingly bad at building walls. - cruzlee, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Sorry, no time for commenting. Must play game.
- Jack9, on 10/11/2007, -8/+12There's no story here. Nothing describing the history of Tower Defense nor salient information about how he made the game other than "he's a ***** programmer, but was able to clone a game!". Marked lame.
- dignon, on 10/11/2007, -3/+6@cimlite
Actually, you are wrong, Rampart was definitely a "Tower Defense" game and most likely the originator of the genre. It does indeed have many similarities in that, yes, as you mention you build something (walls and towers) but also the towers did "level up" for each successive wave (they were able to shoot faster and the player also gained successively more towers to put into play). Finally the towers were also assulted by wave after successive wave of attackers, increasing in number and more difficult to kill as the player progressed. In these ways, Rampart was obviously the precursor to the DTD-type games. True, the enemies were not trying to pass, for example, from the left of the screen to the right but they were trying to eliminate the towers. I think you'd agree that this is a small difference and merely a progression of the genre, not a completely new take on it.
Anyway, DTD is a great game... one of the only web-games I've ever played more than once. Rampart, for what its worth, is also still an excellent game... It can even be played on the Wii and NGC with the appropriate retro game pack. ;-) - ApeInago, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I personally loved matrix defence in starcraft, teaming up with people to defend lanes was awesome.
- Cimlite, on 10/11/2007, -7/+9@saggygrandma
I'm sorry to tell you this but Rampart did not have anything at all to do with "Tower defense" games. I've played Rampart for hours on end personally, especially on the Amiga version. It has no similarities to tower defense games other than the fact that you build something. That is it though, you don't stop any enemies from getting from point A to point B. There's no maximizing how much damage you deal to the enemies as they pass.
It's not even remotely the same game.
Wikipedia has a pretty good description of what Rampart is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rampart_%28arcade_game%29 - Xanadude, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Cimlite is right - Rampart has nothing to do with Tower Defense. I suggest you download the MAME ROM of Rampart and play for yourself (also because it's a lot of fun).
- DonLim, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2will it be a hit if there is a mobile version game of the Tower Defense?
- calebb, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12a) Get fans to make promotional videos on Youtube for you for free :p
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3lk2ySVhvU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9aBiTupje0 - Xanadude, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I still think the best tower defense game ever made was the tower defense level in Warcraft III. Complex dynamics, huge map, heroes, interesting enemies - I'd reinstall it and play it now, but I've got work to do.
- Agret, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1@br0ck
Get Warcraft III and you can play tower defense maps all you want. They all allow you to build your own mazes and there are ones where you verse other people and ones where you co-operate. Good stuff. - billy21, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AVqCLb0PNg
- tech42er, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2I know I played Rampart somewhere, but where?
- Buzzbean, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3All I know is that I'm addicted to this game. Fun gameplay, funky scribbled graphics and addictive. Gotta go get my fix.
- razicop, on 04/17/2008, -0/+0very nice game, thanks for sharing nice games with us!
http://joinarcade.wordpress.com/ - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0This game is really addictive i played it last time for more than 6 hrs, http://www.thegameworm.com/2007/05/06/warcraft-td-one-of-the-biggest-distraction-ever/
- bladespirit, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0Or better yet:
1. Write short "article" about a game that makes cash via ads
2. post on digg
3. profit++ - Typhoon2009, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1Does anyone remember Blixel's Tower Defense on WCIII? I LOVED that map. Jet TD was good too.
- solodude59, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2i ***** love this game!
- jimmye, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2digg down
- allywilson, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2Ivor The Engine - I so wish I didn't turn the sound off when i played that game now...that would have been excellent :-)
- Satanael, on 10/11/2007, -10/+3No joke... It doesn't even mention Warcraft III. Almost want to bury this as inaccurate.
- GawtMilk, on 10/11/2007, -15/+4Starcraft was the origin of Tower Defenses, but this TD was copied *EXACTLY* from a Warcraft III Custom Map.
What a ***** programmer. - Gr3y, on 10/11/2007, -21/+0site down at 27 diggs...
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