SunDog: Frozen Legacy
Encyclopedia
SunDog: Frozen Legacy is a 1984 space trading and combat simulator video game. It was the first game produced by FTL Games
. SunDog was first developed for the Apple II
. Version 1.0 was released in March, 1984, with Version 1.1 (bug fixes) released three weeks later. Version 2.0, which included enhancements and improved performance, was released in October, 1984. It was released for the Atari ST
in December, 1985 with some features not found in the Apple II version, as well as greatly improved graphics possible with the Atari ST.
SunDog is a space trading and combat simulation game. The player barter
s, buys and sells commodities
, all the while fighting off pirates and thugs. The game stores a large amount of information in limited RAM. It garnered acclaim when it was released and won several industry award
s.
The game used a layered windowing system called ZoomAction. Inspired by the Apple Lisa
user interface (the Macintosh's precursor), it was developed by FTL for the game and was hailed for its ease of use and intuitive functionality. Players only needed the Apple two-button joystick to play the game. Windows appeared one on top of the other as the player accessed different parts of the game. Drag-and-drop
icons were used for repairing the ship, buying components, eating food, and so on. The user would interact with non-player character
s (NPCs) via buttons listing possible responses to what the NPC had just said.
ZoomAction was used for everything from controlling the ship to walking around the cities and planets in the game. As the user clicked into buildings, a window would appear showing the interior, and the character could walk about and carry on (limited) conversations with other people in the building. The idea of exiting the ship to explore the game world remains fairly uncommon in the genre to this day. A world in which neutral characters populate interactive cities appears to be unique. Compared to games like Elite, the SunDog world was considerably more immersive
, albeit much smaller in terms of the number of stars and planets.
in the glass
mine
s his entire life.
His uncle, Brock Dor-Ceed, died leaving Zed his ship
, the SunDog.
Zed has the chance to earn his freedom if he can fulfill his uncle's outstanding contract to start a colony
for a religious order
somewhere on a planet
called Jondd, where the game begins.
The player, as Zed, finds himself aboard the SunDog. A quick inspection of the ship finds many systems damaged and several destroyed components.
A quick visit to the city's Commodity Exchange finds some goods belonging to the SunDog's captain
(now Zed).
Zed's bank account holds a few thousand credits (money
).
With nothing else to go on, the player must find the colony and attempt to fulfill Zed's uncle's contract.
The cities
in SunDog vary in size, though all appear to be neatly laid out. They contain ship parts shops, hotel
s, gun
shops, restaurant
s/bar
s and bank
s.
If Zed wanders about on foot for long, he'll eventually encounter others.
Some are beggars, some are hawkers trying to sell him items, but most are hoodlums who'll attempt to mug him. If the player has taken appropriate precautions (and is a good shot), he can sometimes turn the tables on the thugs. With the use of bluffs or threats, sometimes he can avoid getting mugged without the use of a gun.
There is no set route the player must follow to win the game, but a typical route would have the player finding the colony on Jondd.
The player can do this by taking the SunDog's cargo pod, which can be used like an all-terrain vehicle when detached from the ship.
Driving the pod over the continent
, the player will eventually find the small colony. Driving into the colony's Commodity Exchange will display what the colony needs in order to upgrade to the next phase.
Several items are listed, such as fruit
s/grain
s, stock
embryo
s and "Sun suns." All these goods can be purchased in the commodity exchanges of cities in neighboring star systems. Some can even be purchased right on Jondd.
The only way for Zed, the player, to fulfill his uncle's contract is by supplying the colony with the items it needs. He has to buy these goods and deliver them to the colony. The colony won't give Zed any money, so the only way the player can obtain the goods for the colony is by buying and selling other commodities for a profit. Zed has to adhere to the economic principle
of buy low, sell high.
He has a few goods initially, but has little money to buy more, especially since the SunDog needs repairs. By visiting cities' commodity exchanges, the player can inspect what is for sale, buy and sell commodities and, ideally, turn enough profit to buy everything the colony needs.
The most important goods the colony will need, however, are cryogens, or cryogenically frozen
colonists. These cannot be purchased, but have to be found throughout the neighboring star systems. Zed's uncle has stored them in various commodity exchange warehouses, but has left no documentation specifying where. The only way to locate them is by visiting the planets in the neighboring systems and investigating the warehouses for any items belonging to the SunDog's captain.
The next item of business, usually, is to repair the SunDog. Normally the SunDog will be in good enough shape to fly, but it will have to be in better condition to combat and flee from the pirates which litter the merchant channels between planets. Repairing the ship is usually a straight forward affair of discarding destroyed components and replacing them with new ones obtained from parts shops found in nearly every city on every planet.
The only initial problem is that some parts can be expensive, eating into Zed's initial chunk of money.
From this point, the player can either take what commodities are waiting for him in the commodity exchange's warehouse or buy new commodities.
Zed can then travel to other systems and try to sell the goods for a profit. While there, the player may want to look for any cryogens that may be stored at various commodity exchanges.
Getting safely to other planets is another matter, however.
The merchant space avenues abound with pirates eager to rob merchant vessels, like the SunDog.
The player either needs to fast talk, threaten or otherwise evade the pirates. As a last resort, the player can give in to the pirates and jettison his cargo, losing any monetary investment he had in the goods.
Sooner or later, however, the player will have to resort to combat.
The SunDog has shields and two weapons systems (laser
s and a cannon), but both have to be controlled manually. Hits from the pirate ships on the SunDog damage systems and shields quickly deplete fuel reserves. If a player manages to make it to the planet's orbit, he can safely land. Pirates only attack if the SunDog has something "interesting," that is, goods other than fuel or cryogens. If the player destroys a pirate, they may be able to obtain whatever cargo it was carrying.
The equipment the SunDog comes with is only suitable for landing in cities with a starport. There is generally only one city per planet equipped with one. Cryogens, however, are sometimes stored in commodity warehouses other than the one in the city the player landed in. Initially the player can use the cargo pod to pick up cryogens in other cities. However, some cryogens will be located in cities on islands or continents other than the one with the starport. The cargo pod cannot cross water, so the player has to find other means to pick up the cryogens.
The only way to do this is by outfitting the SunDog with advanced equipment. Advanced ground scanners, for example, can allow the SunDog to land in any planet's city. These advanced items have to be obtained by visiting distant planets whose shops carry these exotic parts. They can also sometimes be obtained by asking the barkeeps in bars. Other exotic items, such as "charm boosts" and "nutrapacks" can be obtained in this manner.
because of its cross-platform capabilities, but members of the project were more comfortable with C++
and developed in that language. It had several members, but due to his commitment to his work, Webster was unable to sufficiently guide the project, which faded largely from public sight.
According to the Sundog Resurrection Project's SourceForge page as of August 4, 2007, work never ceased completely, but has continued with new and improved sprite/background graphics, as well as some game code (the game is still intended to be developed in Java), such as a functioning stock market
engine. The engine reportedly has over forty stocks and tracks fourteen planetary and system variables (as opposed to the original Sundog's three) which affect market prices and stock availability with great realism and flexibility.
Some early graphics from the project were made available via the Internet on the project's public gallery, but have since been removed. Most city tiles are replicas of the Atari ST version, though there are some original graphics designed by the project artist.
The project artwork can be found on a webpage managed by Jake LaForet.
Some source code
can be found on Patrick Devine's webpage.
FTL Games
FTL Games was the video game development division of Software Heaven Inc. FTL created several popular video games in the 1980s and early 1990s. Despite the company's small size, FTL products were consistently number-one sellers and received the highest critical acclaim and industry awards.FTL was...
. SunDog was first developed for the Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
. Version 1.0 was released in March, 1984, with Version 1.1 (bug fixes) released three weeks later. Version 2.0, which included enhancements and improved performance, was released in October, 1984. It was released for the Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
in December, 1985 with some features not found in the Apple II version, as well as greatly improved graphics possible with the Atari ST.
Overview
Barter
Barter is a method of exchange by which goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. It is usually bilateral, but may be multilateral, and usually exists parallel to monetary systems in most developed countries, though to a...
s, buys and sells commodities
Commodity
In economics, a commodity is the generic term for any marketable item produced to satisfy wants or needs. Economic commodities comprise goods and services....
, all the while fighting off pirates and thugs. The game stores a large amount of information in limited RAM. It garnered acclaim when it was released and won several industry award
Award
An award is something given to a person or a group of people to recognize excellence in a certain field; a certificate of excellence. Awards are often signifiedby trophies, titles, certificates, commemorative plaques, medals, badges, pins, or ribbons...
s.
The game used a layered windowing system called ZoomAction. Inspired by the Apple Lisa
Apple Lisa
The Apple Lisa—also known as the Lisa—is a :personal computer designed by Apple Computer, Inc. during the early 1980s....
user interface (the Macintosh's precursor), it was developed by FTL for the game and was hailed for its ease of use and intuitive functionality. Players only needed the Apple two-button joystick to play the game. Windows appeared one on top of the other as the player accessed different parts of the game. Drag-and-drop
Drag-and-drop
In computer graphical user interfaces, drag-and-drop is the action of selecting a virtual object by "grabbing" it and dragging it to a different location or onto another virtual object...
icons were used for repairing the ship, buying components, eating food, and so on. The user would interact with non-player character
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
s (NPCs) via buttons listing possible responses to what the NPC had just said.
ZoomAction was used for everything from controlling the ship to walking around the cities and planets in the game. As the user clicked into buildings, a window would appear showing the interior, and the character could walk about and carry on (limited) conversations with other people in the building. The idea of exiting the ship to explore the game world remains fairly uncommon in the genre to this day. A world in which neutral characters populate interactive cities appears to be unique. Compared to games like Elite, the SunDog world was considerably more immersive
Immersion (virtual reality)
Immersion is the state of consciousness where an immersant's awareness of physical self is diminished or lost by being surrounded in an engrossing total environment; often artificial. This mental state is frequently accompanied with spatial excess, intense focus, a distorted sense of time, and...
, albeit much smaller in terms of the number of stars and planets.
Story
The game begins with the player assuming the part of Zed, a young man who has been a slaveSlavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
in the glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
mine
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
s his entire life.
His uncle, Brock Dor-Ceed, died leaving Zed his ship
Starship
A starship or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for traveling between the stars, as opposed to a vehicle designed for orbital spaceflight or interplanetary travel....
, the SunDog.
Zed has the chance to earn his freedom if he can fulfill his uncle's outstanding contract to start a colony
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
for a religious order
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
somewhere on a planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
called Jondd, where the game begins.
Game description
A quick visit to the city's Commodity Exchange finds some goods belonging to the SunDog's captain
Captain (nautical)
A sea captain is a licensed mariner in ultimate command of the vessel. The captain is responsible for its safe and efficient operation, including cargo operations, navigation, crew management and ensuring that the vessel complies with local and international laws, as well as company and flag...
(now Zed).
Zed's bank account holds a few thousand credits (money
Money
Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past,...
).
With nothing else to go on, the player must find the colony and attempt to fulfill Zed's uncle's contract.
The cities
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
in SunDog vary in size, though all appear to be neatly laid out. They contain ship parts shops, hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
s, gun
Gun
A gun is a muzzle or breech-loaded projectile-firing weapon. There are various definitions depending on the nation and branch of service. A "gun" may be distinguished from other firearms in being a crew-served weapon such as a howitzer or mortar, as opposed to a small arm like a rifle or pistol,...
shops, restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
s/bar
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
s and bank
Bank
A bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...
s.
If Zed wanders about on foot for long, he'll eventually encounter others.
Some are beggars, some are hawkers trying to sell him items, but most are hoodlums who'll attempt to mug him. If the player has taken appropriate precautions (and is a good shot), he can sometimes turn the tables on the thugs. With the use of bluffs or threats, sometimes he can avoid getting mugged without the use of a gun.
There is no set route the player must follow to win the game, but a typical route would have the player finding the colony on Jondd.
The player can do this by taking the SunDog's cargo pod, which can be used like an all-terrain vehicle when detached from the ship.
Driving the pod over the continent
Continent
A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents—they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.Plate tectonics is...
, the player will eventually find the small colony. Driving into the colony's Commodity Exchange will display what the colony needs in order to upgrade to the next phase.
Several items are listed, such as fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
s/grain
Cereal
Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
s, stock
Stock
The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
embryo
Embryo
An embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...
s and "Sun suns." All these goods can be purchased in the commodity exchanges of cities in neighboring star systems. Some can even be purchased right on Jondd.
The only way for Zed, the player, to fulfill his uncle's contract is by supplying the colony with the items it needs. He has to buy these goods and deliver them to the colony. The colony won't give Zed any money, so the only way the player can obtain the goods for the colony is by buying and selling other commodities for a profit. Zed has to adhere to the economic principle
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
of buy low, sell high.
The most important goods the colony will need, however, are cryogens, or cryogenically frozen
Cryogenics
In physics, cryogenics is the study of the production of very low temperature and the behavior of materials at those temperatures. A person who studies elements under extremely cold temperature is called a cryogenicist. Rather than the relative temperature scales of Celsius and Fahrenheit,...
colonists. These cannot be purchased, but have to be found throughout the neighboring star systems. Zed's uncle has stored them in various commodity exchange warehouses, but has left no documentation specifying where. The only way to locate them is by visiting the planets in the neighboring systems and investigating the warehouses for any items belonging to the SunDog's captain.
The next item of business, usually, is to repair the SunDog. Normally the SunDog will be in good enough shape to fly, but it will have to be in better condition to combat and flee from the pirates which litter the merchant channels between planets. Repairing the ship is usually a straight forward affair of discarding destroyed components and replacing them with new ones obtained from parts shops found in nearly every city on every planet.
The only initial problem is that some parts can be expensive, eating into Zed's initial chunk of money.
From this point, the player can either take what commodities are waiting for him in the commodity exchange's warehouse or buy new commodities.
Zed can then travel to other systems and try to sell the goods for a profit. While there, the player may want to look for any cryogens that may be stored at various commodity exchanges.
The merchant space avenues abound with pirates eager to rob merchant vessels, like the SunDog.
The player either needs to fast talk, threaten or otherwise evade the pirates. As a last resort, the player can give in to the pirates and jettison his cargo, losing any monetary investment he had in the goods.
Sooner or later, however, the player will have to resort to combat.
The SunDog has shields and two weapons systems (laser
Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
s and a cannon), but both have to be controlled manually. Hits from the pirate ships on the SunDog damage systems and shields quickly deplete fuel reserves. If a player manages to make it to the planet's orbit, he can safely land. Pirates only attack if the SunDog has something "interesting," that is, goods other than fuel or cryogens. If the player destroys a pirate, they may be able to obtain whatever cargo it was carrying.
The only way to do this is by outfitting the SunDog with advanced equipment. Advanced ground scanners, for example, can allow the SunDog to land in any planet's city. These advanced items have to be obtained by visiting distant planets whose shops carry these exotic parts. They can also sometimes be obtained by asking the barkeeps in bars. Other exotic items, such as "charm boosts" and "nutrapacks" can be obtained in this manner.
SunDog: Resurrection Project
In the early 2000s, Bruce Webster started the "SunDog: Resurrection Project", an open-source project to recreate SunDog using modern technology. Originally he planned to have the game developed in JavaJava (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
because of its cross-platform capabilities, but members of the project were more comfortable with C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
and developed in that language. It had several members, but due to his commitment to his work, Webster was unable to sufficiently guide the project, which faded largely from public sight.
According to the Sundog Resurrection Project's SourceForge page as of August 4, 2007, work never ceased completely, but has continued with new and improved sprite/background graphics, as well as some game code (the game is still intended to be developed in Java), such as a functioning stock market
Stock market
A stock market or equity market is a public entity for the trading of company stock and derivatives at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.The size of the world stock market was estimated at about $36.6 trillion...
engine. The engine reportedly has over forty stocks and tracks fourteen planetary and system variables (as opposed to the original Sundog's three) which affect market prices and stock availability with great realism and flexibility.
Some early graphics from the project were made available via the Internet on the project's public gallery, but have since been removed. Most city tiles are replicas of the Atari ST version, though there are some original graphics designed by the project artist.
The project artwork can be found on a webpage managed by Jake LaForet.
Some source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
can be found on Patrick Devine's webpage.
External links
- The Sundog Resurrection SourceForge Developer's page
- Bruce Webster's official SunDog site (currently being refurbished) with history, feedback from SunDog players, and old design notes.
- An open-source project, SunDog Resurrection by original SunDog programmer, Bruce Webster
- Wayne Holder's blog
Fan sites
- A history of FTL and SunDog with helpful tips and strategies for the game (archived version)
- Another SunDog fan site