For the past year, we have been preserving Archer Maclean’s legacy, saving his source code and various design notes. You can see some of our examples here of recent work as we start to take a look at prototypes and unused materials.
On the request of Chris Wilkins of Fusion Retro Books, we have preserved many work disks of Archer’s – but have also scanned in a plethora of documents and notes which Archer created as he developed his games. These give a fascinating insight into Archer’s process and attention to detail when developing the game.
Below is a video that talks through some of the items we are about to share with you, followed by small galleries broken up into segments:
Not everything can be shared unfortunately, as much of the documentation consists of source code which we are not allowed to put up. However, we can show some of the early thoughts and concepts that led to the game that we all know and love.
With huge thanks to Chris Wilkins (Fusion Retro Books) for the loan of Archer’s materials to preserve and permission to showcase some materials on the site.
In memory of Archer Maclean – 28 January 1962 – 17 December 2022.
Gallery 1 – The start of IK+ and initial thoughts
Gallery 2 – Graphics and concepts
Gallery 3 – Animations
Gallery 4 – Background animation notes
Gallery 5 – Sunset reflection work/notes
Gallery 6 – Bonus game development notes
Gallery 7 – Code samples and notes
Gallery 8 – Development raw notes and thoughts
Gallery 9 – Moments of frustration
Gallery 10 – Music related arrangements + questions
Gallery 11 – Playtester kit
Gallery 12 – Commodore User article correspondence
I’m honestly blown away by how organized he approached this!
When I heard that he videotaped himself doing karate moves, played back on a TV and put a foil with a matrix on in front of it, I thought that was pure genius – and explained why the animations in IK/IK+ were so much better than in a lot of other games!
It looks like an amazing archive of a very talented person.