Category: Prototron

Lookback - "The Wizard" By PROTOTRON

5/8/2016

1989 was a good year. Bat fever was sweeping the world (literally the whole globe!) with the release of Tim Burton's phenomenal Batman. We also got a look into the future (now the past.....*Sobs*) with Back To The Future II, and the Ninja Turtles craze was at it's peak. The world of gaming also took a step up with the release of Shadow Of The Beast on the Amiga. The 16-Bit home computers and the Sega Megadrive were starting to come in to their, own but the Nintendo NES still had some mighty fight in it, and so a deal was struck between Nintendo and Universal pictures to produce a kids adventure film which would feature heavy product placement.

The Wizard was released in 1989 to some mixed reviews, but has since become a cult classic for it's retro games theme and it's unusual stance of lightly tackling some taboo issues.

Lookback - ALIEN: RESURRECTION

5/1/2016

In 1997, 20th Century Fox made the decision to continue with their most well known and lucrative franchise, the Alien saga. World famous, insanely popular, and highly influential. The Alien series is adored worldwide by millions of fans, and so the sound of $$$$ was just too much for the suits to ignore.

Alien: Resurrection was released to mixed and some fairly positive reviews, but over time it has become the outside runt of the litter.

MAKING A GAME IN GAME MAKER

3/14/2016

In this article I try to bungle my way through explaining the trials, tribulations, and techniques of writing a home made 1990's style video game using the Game Maker software.

STREET FIGHTER: The Legend Of Chun-Li (2009)

3/1/2016

In the 21st century, films based on video games isn't a new concept, but in 2009 a film came really from out of nowhere, based on a character from probably the greatest game of the last century, and people went..”Huh?” The film bombed and was panned by critics, but did it get a fair cop?

Let's find out!

VIDEO VISIONS - DOOM!

2/22/2016

It took 12 years for ID software's game changing release to find it's way on to the big screen and was met with mixed reviews. The original game released as a 1 level shareware download back in 1993 changed the world of PC gaming for good with it's blend of pseudo 3D ultra violence, occult imagery and sci-fi themes and was probability the most played game in the world next to Streetfighter II at that time but was the film any good?

Video Visions - Mortal Kombat Annihilation (1997)

2/16/2016

Following up the rather splendid, and let's face it, rather surprising success of the first Mortal Kombat film, New Line Cinema was quick to churn out a sequel.

Maybe a bit too quick!

The film takes place immediately after the very first movie ends, and we once again follow the adventures of Liu Kang, Raiden, Sonya Blade and Kitana as they join forces to fight the evil Shao Khan. As mentioned before, the first film stunned audiences by being really quite good! Some quality sets, well timed humour, and some pretty cool fight scenes along with a really swish visual style made audiences walk out of theatres in 1995 feeling thoroughly satisfied.

Video Visions - Mortal Kombat

2/13/2016

Midway took the arcades by storm in 1993 with the release of their phenomenally sinister game Mortal Kombat.

Reviewers of the time, drunk on bias towards Streetfighter II, gave it par to sub-par reviews, but the reality was that the game was an absolute beast, and one which managed to make a huge dent in the seemingly impenetrable armour of Capcom's flagship game. Fast forward two years later and the game to film craze was well under way, although also loaded with a reputation of producing utter turds. Yes just about every film to game translation had been either dire or 'so bad it's good', so another entry was met with a sigh and a bracing of the anus.

VIDEO VISIONS - Double Dragon (1994)

1/5/2016

Double Dragon: The Movie was released to audiences in 1994, a mere month before the Street Fighter film so I guess the video game trend was really kicking in at this point. Being loosely based on the superb 1987 arcade game by Technos, Double Dragon is an action adventure film with a little martial arts thrown in for good measure but is it any good?

VIDEO VISIONS - SUPER MARIO BROTHERS

12/10/2015

It all started here!

Super Mario Bros. is the film version of the monumentally popular platform game by Nintendo, and also holds the honour of being the very first film ever to be made that was based on a video game (Tron doesn't count because the concept was first and foremost a movie!). The film's plot differs from the game, and revolves around the rescue of Princess Daisy from the evil King Koopa in the Mushroom Kingdom.

That's the exact plot of the game right? Yes, but it's executed in a VERY different way!

VIDEO VISIONS - STREET FIGHTER THE MOVIE

12/1/2015

In 1991, the phenomenal success of Capcom's seminal arcade machine, Street Fighter II, was the turning point where people were starting to realise that video games were nearing movies in terms of popular money making entertainment. So, what better way to cash in on the monstrous craze for this amazing game? Make a film out of it (and then make a game out of the film!)