Hello. Deadlock Art Lead Ken Capelli here. Gary filled out quite a bit, here's what I know I can respond to:
3. Deadlock's data files make reference to a Skirineen Raid in several places. What exactly happened to this event?
4. The data files also make reference to several random events, that are missing from the game. Why were they cut?
I recall the Skirineen raid being cut some time before we spent any effort toward designing or modeling Skirineen attack vehicles... which would have looked somewhat reptilian in shape and patched together. I forget why it was cut... could have been a design issue (it being an interruption, or too random, or redundant (resulted in a goal that was ultimately addressed elsewhere)) or cut out of pure schedule pragmatism. In any case, it resulted in a more streamlined game. Anyone see the long version of Dune? Some stuff really does need the cutting room floor.
5. How likely is it that Deadlock, will be re-released for any platform? We are holding a poll for which platform(s) Deadlock should be re-released on here:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11
8. Is it possible that a Mac OS X (with Intel-Support or just Carbonised) patch for the Mac version of Deadlock, could be released with no input from Atari?
Zero chance. As Gary mentioned, I doubt the people who actually own the old Accolade IP library even know what it is, and it wasn't a big enough hit (or in a presently popular enough genre) for anyone to resurrect. Business-wise it's a bottom-line calculation... for the same effort they could just do something new with zero creative restraints. As an aside, I happen to know that no one at Atari has any of the source code, original art, 3d models, design docs... anything.
However, I'll contradict what I just said about genre when it comes to the facebook platform... there are some very profitable facebook games that are right in the 3-4x strategy genre, some of the most visible and profitable (Kingdoms of Camelot, Dragons of Atlantis, Glory of Rome) from the company where I now work (
http://kabam.com). What's funny is that a game I'm directing now has a LOT in common with how Deadlock was made, down to how the graphics are being created (3d models, rendered isometrically, vehicle sprites in 16 directions, etc). When it goes live in April/ May I'll be sure to ping you all here to check it out the Beta.
6. Accolade was primarily known for console games, was Deadlock ever considered for the Playstation or Sega Saturn?
No. The Saturn had just come out and the PSX was brand new, too. All the games on those platforms were action and were, at least on the Playstation, "limited" to being fully 3d. Sony didn't want to see SNES-era games and graphics on their 3d-capable machine, so they didn't approve anything that didn't bring graphics forward in three dimensions. Rendered flat sprites don't count
Additionally, the control scheme wasn't there. Deadlock was designed specifically for Windows, and specifically for mouse control. I don't know if any of you played the PSX or PS2 port of X-COM: UFO DEFENSE but cursor control via gamepad is painfully clunky.
Accolade was known for action games, with a large part of its library on PC. Deadlock was one of its rare forays into deeper genres before it decided to solely focus on sports and action titles... those are what the studio leadership knew how to make and market successfully.
7. Does the Source Code, 3d model files for buildings, etc. used for the game still exist?
Mmmmmmmno....
9. How many units of Deadlock and Deadlock II were sold?
I don't recall. I think it could have been as high as 200k... which was a hit back then. To put it into context, when I first joined Russell, Paul, Dan and Mark I was told that Deadlock was the first game that Accolade was going to spend A MILLION dollars on (I'm having a Dr. Evil moment). In 1995 that was a LOT of money to put into a game. These days, $1m gets you, maybe, a budget Wii game or DS title. We did quite a bit with that million+... SGI-rendered models with lip sync, 3d characters digitized from clay sculptures, a "voxel" generated landscape, modem and online multiplayer...
10. Was anything from Deadlock cut, because they could not be completed in time for Deadlock's release?
There was that first-person shooter mode...
I kid.
A lot is cut from every game ever made before it makes it out. Most of what is cut no one ever misses because it wasn't there in the first place!
We did have a number of cinematics planned that never made it to production... there was something kinda cinematic called the Tribunal where you'd be brought before shadowy figures (the overlords who were watching over the Gallius IV contest) for some sort of judgment if you were caught using the Skirineen. Early on it was going to be realtime 3d with some sort of conversation tree and (what we now call) minigames. We even had test renders, done with motion capture on an untextured, early Maug model. THAT mode went away fairly quickly when Russell did data throughput calculations on how much data needs to come off the CD or HD (audio, motion data, 3d data, textures) to pull it off to a quality level and found that computers at that time just were not capable. It was very ambitious and was cut early. For context, part-way through development the first Tomb Raider came out... THAT was the state of the art for unaccelerated 3d graphics. Go take a look at how that looks. What we wanted for the Tribunal was, like, Starcraft fidelity at least. For further context, what the PC was capable of just in terms of video was pretty lean, too. That's why the talking heads were that small... what, 150x150 pixels? And even at that size, Dan and Mark had to spend a LOT of time compressing and recompressing each video to play back smoothly, not look too compressed, yet still fit through the data straw. *golf claps to them
And for other things you guys never saw... you should have seen what we had going for the preproduction of Deadlock 3. SPACE. I'll just tease with that as I sign off.
PS. I find it rad that you guys are such big fans after so long, and I get a kick out of seeing the race portraits and my little sprites on your profile badges. Super big blast from the past. DL was my first original game, my first game as a Lead Artist, and the first time I got to work with a real honest-to-satan TEAM. And I'll let you guys know that one neat result of your enthusiasm as fans has been, for the first time in 15 years, the entire original DL team on an email thread talking together.