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Classic Games (Games) Entertainment Games

On The Making Of Cannon Fodder 39

Posted by simoniker from the captain-insensible dept.
Thanks to Games Radar for its Edge-reprinted piece discussing the making of the classic Amiga action-strategy title Cannon Fodder. The piece rhapsodizes of the cult title, later converted to the Game Boy in very limited amounts: "It stirred the British Legion into a fury, was immediately hailed as a classic by Amiga magazines, and abides as one of the 16-bit generation's most memorable games. Though best known for the eponymous Soccer, Cannon Fodder was the third hit of Sensible Software's golden age: a period between 1989 and 1994 when the UK codeshop could do little wrong, enjoying universal critical acclaim and validation, in retail form, to the tune of cash registers ringing up millions of sales."
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On The Making Of Cannon Fodder More

On The Making Of Cannon Fodder

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  • Oh, this isn't an editorial (Score:3, Funny)

    by orthogonal ( 588627 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @02:37AM (#9515867) Journal
    On The Making Of Cannon Fodder

    And I thought Slashdot was finally editorializing about Bush's quagmire in Iraq.

  • Names (Score:3, Informative)

    by fatboyslack ( 634391 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @02:44AM (#9515890) Journal
    Anyone else notice the name of the game creators? Jools and Stoo were two of the first soldiers you got in Cannon Fodder. My nick on all games online since was 'Jools' named after the little guy that my brother and I spent hours trying to keep along though the entire game. I never played the Amiga version though, just the PC version. Man I loved that game. It was the first time I ever got to drive a tank around. Just ignore me while I reminisce of other times.
    • And the last names in the list were Kirk, Spock, and other trek crew. I guess all the redshirts must go first.
  • Can anyone tell me the name of a similar game on the C=64 ? I'm looking for this for a long time
    and have a hole in my memory, I can see the screen before my eyes but don't remember the name :-((

    Basically it was the same setup as Cannon Fodder, but ran around with one small man, you could shoot and throw grenades, had several missions to do.. you had an overview and had towards the top of the screen to advance.

    And do it was not Commandos, although it was about the same time period. If I'm correct there
    was

    • Re:C 64 similar game ? (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Ikari Warriors? [mobygames.com]
      • No, that's not it.

        It's similar though..
        In contrast to commandos and ikari warriors the sprite of the man you controlled was very small..

        The difference in gameplay is that in commandos and ikari warriors speed was more important, everything went very fast and targets came also towards you, while the game I look for was a bit slower-paced, you could wait behind a tree and strategy/finding a good path was more important..
    • I don't think I'm thinking of the same game as you but I remember a game for the C64 where one of the sub-games was to get your guys to advance to the top of the screen by using walls for cover to take out the turret that was shooting at them. One player controlled the turret, the other had a slew of guys at the bottom. When the guys would get hit, one of the things they'd cry out was "Medic!" I believe another sub-game had the two players on little ledges on either side of a river in a tunnel chucking k

  • Also ported to the Jaguar (Score:3, Interesting)

    by TheAlchemist ( 89319 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @02:54AM (#9515917)
    Although not mentioned in the article, Cannon Fodder also appeared on the Atari Jaguar [atariage.com], published by Virgin.

  • Good times (Score:4, Funny)

    by identity0 ( 77976 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @03:10AM (#9515973) Journal
    I only played the PC shareware version, but what a great game it was. As the article states, it had a bit more flexibility and strategy than most games of its type. My favorite feature was the ability to split your team up, and switch from one group to another to coordinate attacks.

    I found that when a team was unsupervised, they'd shoot at the enemy automatically. So one time, I placed some soldiers in front of one of the enemy-generating buildings, set them on auto, and left for a vacation. : ) When I came back, their kills were in the thousands...

    Ah, good times. Anyone know if there's a free or opensource version these days?
    • ... and abides as one of the 16-bit generation's most memorable games.
      I don't know about that... I didn't even know about it until it hit the Jag. Maybe it's cause I'm in the US and it was more popular in Europe (like the Turrican seris). Or maybe I'm just too young.

  • war! never been so much fun (Score:5, Informative)

    by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @03:38AM (#9516031) Homepage Journal
    War! Has never been so much fun; War! Has never been so much fun; Go up to your brother, kill him with your gun; Leave him lying in his uniform, dying the sun; War!

    glorious title music. google for it with "cannon fodder title music mod" and you should find it.

    clickclickclickclick.. mouse finger
  • Is this to happen every single month, now?

    As someone with an Edge subscription already, its a touch weird seeing the Making Of articles appear a couple of weeks after reading them on paper. I sort of wish they wouldn't do it, as without the gorgeous artwork it just looks wrong.

    Still, I understand its a nightmare for you US people to get hold of the mag, so for you lot its better than nothing.
  • This brings back some memories. I spent countless hours playing this gem. Hopefully the disks haven't gone to hell.

  • Classics (Score:3, Informative)

    by ude ( 572968 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @07:14AM (#9516757) Homepage
    ah... what a classic. I used to play this game alot, and it was often late at night before I eventually could drag myself from my Amiga 500. I seem to remember that the game was ported to PC as well. Indeed. Just download Cannon Fodder here [the-underdogs.org], and Cannon Fodder 2 here [the-underdogs.org]. Thanks The Underdogs [the-underdogs.org]:-)
    • Thanks The Underdogs:-)

      Don't forget you can also try some of the other offerings from Sensible Software [the-underdogs.org] while you're there (Sensible Soccer and Mega Lo Mania highly recommended). Don't be afraid to give a donation while you're there - its great to be able to get access to this stuff - show your appreciation!!!!

  • That game was an absolutely great, and in my opinion, along with X-Com, early Might & Magic games, Ultimas, Doom, LucasArts adventures, Dune 2, and many many others, represented the golden age of computer gaming . I just wish someday gaming companies would return to caring about gameplay and not visuals.
  • Cannon Fodder stands out in my memory as one of the best games I ever played on my Amiga 3000. The graphics and gameplay were very clean and engaging, and the squad control was always an excellent point of strategy. I do agree with the article that one of the best aspects of the game was its careful and concise use of humor; it isn't over-the-top, nor hopelessly cynical, but rather strikes that perfect balance that helps keep a game fresh even a decade after its release. I felt that the Army Men series cou

  • Paradroid Developer Diary (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Thornae ( 53316 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @09:35AM (#9517999)
    Anyone interested in this really should read Birth of a Paradroid" [zzap64.co.uk], which is Andrew Braybook's developer's diary for the C64 classic Paradroid. It's a fascinating glimpse into what game writing was like back in those days...
    • I decided to re-read that about a month ago from my Zzap!64's I still have. Those were great times.

      Cannon Fodder was a brilliant game and the title music was very funny.
      • ZZAP!64 was so great. I only had like one or two issues, and man did I read those things into the ground...it was so much fresher than any USA magazine. And games, ones I had never heard of, looked So Good in the ads...

        I was so drooling over their review of Alien Syndrome.

        Unfortunately I don't have a wide enough view to know what magazines were leaders and which were followers in terms of layout and style, but it seemed like the multireviewer approach got copied in some other mags a few years later.

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