Philips Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy - Manual (Page 362)

Trigger Happy
364
Genesis
In a dance of fire are new worlds born. At British
videogame developers Core Design, they have a
special, home-grown software tool designed exactly for
the purpose of building new worlds: it’s called, not
inappropriately, Worldbuild II. After the artists have
drawn hundreds of pencil sketches of imaginary
landscapes, the topographical features of each area are
fed directly into the computer. Acetate plans go up on
the walls. Now begins the process of making it an
explorable environment.
As in many things, ontogeny (the development of
an individual) recapitulates or mirrors phylogeny (the
evolution of a type). At its early stages, the human fetus
bears certain physiological resemblances to our fishy
ancestors. And in the early stages of gestation of a
modern virtual world, it resembles the cutting-edge
arcade games of two decades ago: the pure, abstract
geometry of Battlezone. The digitally created “land” is
a wireframe model made up of hundreds or thousands
of polygons; the worldbuilder simply has to drag
individual bits up or down with the mouse to create the
shapes of what will become molehills, mountains,