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What about Dune II? It was way ahead of its time. If I remember correctly it had unlimited unit select. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_II
Earlier quoted context omitted.
[note: I wrote the Warcraft article] /agree If the patent-standards for the 80's and 90's were as awful as today, I'm sure that some CAD company would have locked up the idea of drag-select, and the Macintosh WIMP interface (and hence MacDraw/MacDraft) would have been legally impossible to create. On a related note, after Blizzard Entertainment was acquired along with Sierra Entertainment in a corporate merger, I got…
'we decided to allow players to select only four units at a time based on the idea that users would be required to pay attention to their tactical deployments rather than simply gathering a mob and sending them into the fray all at once.' Damnation! Sometimes I would just build huge mobs for the fun of it, but trying to get them to attack at the same time was a pain. Great game though, artistically I enjoyed it more…
> Stu is quite memorable as a voice actor in the role of Human Peon, where his rendition of a downtrodden brute-laborer was comedic genius. Nice to finally know the person behind the still-funny-in-my-head warcraft phrases - "Yes me lord", "Who me", "Uhuhuh"
This brings back so many memories. I had to find some Dune 2 gameplay on youtube... Hoping some people here will enjoy it too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiJLOjeyDxs
Being a fan of Starcraft 2, I can't believe how painful it was to have to select each unit individually... Glad the mechanics of RTSes have evolved.
What about Dune II? It was way ahead of its time. If I remember correctly it had unlimited unit select. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_II
Dune II is the grandfather of all of modern RTS (for good and for bad, the genre hasn't changed that much). But the unlimited unit select wasn't there and starting/cancelling an attack when you had twenty or so units was a joke. I wasn't even a teenager at the time and I can remember desperately trying to get large groups of units off the sand when the sandword was inbound (some people will know what I am talking about).
What I find really interesting in the article is this:
> Later in the development process, and after many design arguments between team-members, we decided to allow players to select only four units at a time based on the idea that users would be required to pay attention to their tactical deployments rather than simply gathering a mob and sending them into the fray all at once.
This, this is probably the reason why Warcraft and Warcraft II (even Starcraft!) had this limitation. As a kid I could never figure out why this was the case when Westwood had no limits on unit selection from Command and Conquer and onwards.
> Stu is quite memorable as a voice actor in the role of Human Peon, where his rendition of a downtrodden brute-laborer was comedic genius. Nice to finally know the person behind the still-funny-in-my-head warcraft phrases - "Yes me lord", "Who me", "Uhuhuh"
"Your sound card works perfectly." "Your sound card works perfectly." "Your sound card works perfectly." "Enjoying yourself?" "Your sound card works perfectly." "Your sound card works perfectly." "Your sound card works perfectly." "It doesn't get any better than this!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_A1GNx0M9M
Another one that springs to mind is from Constructor; "Hello this is constructor are you receiving?" with that very distinct British accent.
> Before I started in the game industry I had worked extensively with several low-end “Computer Assisted Design” (CAD) programs like MacDraw and MacDraft to design wine-cellars for my dad’s wine cellar business, so it seemed natural to use the “click & drag” rectangle-selection metaphor to round up a group of units to command. > I believe that Warcraft was the first game to use this user-interface metaphor. When I fi…
[note: I wrote the Warcraft article] /agree If the patent-standards for the 80's and 90's were as awful as today, I'm sure that some CAD company would have locked up the idea of drag-select, and the Macintosh WIMP interface (and hence MacDraw/MacDraft) would have been legally impossible to create. On a related note, after Blizzard Entertainment was acquired along with Sierra Entertainment in a corporate merger, I got…
For some evidence, back in May 2000 people on Slashdpt were up in arms about Microsoft nigh-unto patenting package management; the conversations were newer (Slashdot was maybe "Web 1.5"), but even back then I had to point out this wasn't really new: take any patent you don't like, start tracing back the references, and you realize IBM or Xerox probably patented the basics back in the 80s.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/00/05/05/1033208/microsoft-pat...
I spent my youth playing Dune 2 (and then Warcraft, etc). This brings back so many memories. I had to find some Dune 2 gameplay on youtube... Hoping some people here will enjoy it too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiJLOjeyDxs Being a fan of Starcraft 2, I can't believe how painful it was to have to select each unit individually... Glad the mechanics of RTSes have evolved.
I read that World of Warcraft was born when playtesting prototypes of Warcraft III, the first 3D version in the Warcraft series. People were having so much fun just running around with their 3D heroes that the concept grew. This is a great example of letting the product lead you .