Making Molten Core for consoles into a real game
Bornakk posted a poll on the forums the other day asking what everyone's favorite April Fool's joke from Blizzard was, and surprisingly (to me, anyway -- I thought Tauren Marines would win for sure), the Molten Core Atari game is winning. There's no question that the bears joke was great (it does make sense), but I thought the game looked a little boring. Blizzard fans disagree, however -- people like the pixelated versions of the old MC bosses.Which brings us to the question of whether Blizzard could actually do this. Boffo says he'd shell out $10 to play this game, while other people say they'd spend as much as $30 to actually see it on retail shelves (or, more likely, as a download). The game looks like a version of Asteroids more than anything, and the trailer (on purpose, probably) don't really make it clear what the rules are. But it looks simple enough to put together -- maybe a weekend's work by a dedicated coder with some MC runs under his or her belt.
Instead of a release, though, it'd be more fun to see this implemented as a minigame somewhere. We already know that Blizzard is planning to do some mobile work, so maybe they could release this as a fun distraction for the iPhone while planning something bigger. Incorporating it into the main WoW game somewhere would be a fun possibility as well. I can't think of any other time when a Blizzard 4/1 joke actually made it into real life (Two-headed ogres aren't actually playable yet), but they might as well start here, right?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Instances, Humor






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Bob of the North Apr 3rd 2008 4:47PM
I'd like to see it go full circle. Design it as a Roguelike game, with enhanced graphics instead of just ASCI. Maybe a variation of Angband
Ryan Apr 3rd 2008 4:57PM
Actually the inspiration for this mock game seems to be from a game called Venture seen here:
http://www.klov.com/V/Venture.html
The game existed in arcades and on the Intellivision Game system back in the early 80's and was one of my favorite games at the time.
peaglemancer Apr 3rd 2008 4:50PM
$10 says this is a web game within the month.
Marc Apr 3rd 2008 5:04PM
In all honesty, I'm surprised that they DIDN'T make it playable. Ask the guys from Homestarrunner.com because they make old Atari games playable online all the time. Can't be that hard.
mswindell Apr 3rd 2008 5:14PM
There is a pretty solid Atari homebrew scene over at Atariage.com, and I wouldn't be suprised to see one of the guys over there take this idea and run with it.
Feoremar Apr 3rd 2008 5:12PM
"I can't think of any other time when a Blizzard 4/1 joke actually made it into real life (Two-headed ogres aren't actually playable yet), but they might as well start here, right?"
Pandaren. :|
Sean Riley Apr 3rd 2008 5:13PM
Count me in with the guys who'd like to see this show up as a Gnomish invention in the game proper. The idea of a gnomish video arcade in Azeroth is hilarious and entirely fitting. It gets extra points if it runs off steam and losing occasionally causes the machine to overheat and explode, killing the player.
themann1086 Apr 3rd 2008 5:28PM
Playing a video game inside a video game?
I'd so do it, even though it sounds nerdtastic.
Sean Riley Apr 3rd 2008 6:34PM
It's happened already.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tringo
There's a fairly big precedent for this kind of idea.
Raze Apr 4th 2008 8:01AM
"Playing a video game inside a video game?
I'd so do it, even though it sounds nerdtastic."
You don't play too many video games, than. Nintendo titles do it all the time, to the point that it's a little overdone.
Tiforix Apr 3rd 2008 5:30PM
It reminded me more of Berserk (for the Atari 2600) than anything else.
jbodar Apr 3rd 2008 11:11PM
How did I miss this comment? Oh well, I guess great minds think alike. :)
Jake Apr 3rd 2008 5:38PM
i would way rather see the bard made into an actual character, and i no a ton of other people who were actually incredibly disapointed that it was just a joke
Dras Apr 3rd 2008 5:46PM
Wasn't Starcraft announced on 4/1?
Feoremar Apr 3rd 2008 6:19PM
March 31rst, actually.
Shrimpkebab Apr 3rd 2008 6:27PM
Pandaren was an april fools joke. Check it out http://www.battle.net/war3/pandaren/
But it made it into warcraft 3 frozen throne as a playable hero.
Marco Polaris Apr 3rd 2008 6:56PM
Don't forget the Goblin Tinker was announced as a patched-in neutral Hero on April 1st during the same year that two-headed ogres were announced. It both amused and saddened me that more people believed the 2-headed ogre story was true than the tinker one.
John Apr 3rd 2008 8:01PM
They should hook up with those atariage guys, or someone, if they put that on an atari 2600 cart I'd buy it, I'd play the heck out of it too (for like a day), 10 bucks if it's just a cart, but I'd pay 20ish if it was boxed with a manual and other stuff.
Lockpain Apr 3rd 2008 8:08PM
Blizzard could create a new button on WOW menu panel entitled "mini games" and make this their first.
Shadowcid Apr 3rd 2008 8:10PM
I was under the impression that they were trying to parody the game Adventure ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_(Atari_2600) ).
The graphic style and map layout sure looked similar... anyone care to prove me wrong?