SunDog: Frozen Legacy
FTL and Software Heaven released SunDog: Frozen Legacy for the Atari ST in December of 1985. SunDog is a historically significant space trading and space combat simulator.
SunDog was marketed as a ZoomAction adventure game because SunDog employs intuitively functioning windows that depict scales of inter-action that range from star systems down to a single spaceship or person. In other words, players can effectively "zoom in and out" between player-character and star system. Players can navigate space, navigate planetscapes, navigate within cities and navigate the interiors of buildings as well as their own one-man star freighter, the SunDog.
The Atari ST version of SunDog was programmed by Doug Bell of Dungeon Master fame. The original 64K Apple 2 SunDog of 1984 was programmed by Bruce Webster and designed by Bruce Webster and Wayne Holder.
SunDog is set in the Drahew sector of a federation of planets known as the Jebal Imperial Protectorate. Drahew consists of 12 star systems, 18 inhabited planets and 50 cities.
In SunDog players assume the role of a young man, Zed, who inherited the SunDog star freighter as well as a contract to aid in the construction of the colony, Banville, on the planet Jondd.
Zed is constituted by five stats the initial values of which are assigned by players via a point pool of 440. The stats are Strength, Intelligence Dexterity, Charisma and Luck.
SunDog displays in 16-color 320x200. The graphics were entirely redrawn for the superior Atari ST display hardware. SunDog cities are 2D top-down tile-rigged playfields consisting of 32x32 tiles. The cityscapes scroll in tile-based increments, and the Zed and cargo-pod sprites move about the full-screen 320x200 cityscapes on a per-pixel basis.
The interior of the SunDog star freighter and its cargo-pod are presented in 2D top-down plan view. Zed can move about within these vehicular interiors, interacting with systems and items.
SunDog features hardware mouse cursor control in all modes of operation. The left mouse button is the action button whereas the right-mouse button is the back-out or cancel button. Thus, players can action into menu options and also back their way out of them incrementally, which was novel control for most 1985 gamers. The right mouse button also calls up the character status window. Also novel is that items are transferred to and from the inventory via click-grip-drop.
The SunDog star freighter consists of over a dozen interactable locations:
- Combat status indicator
- Pilotage x2
- Ship stores
- Warp drive
- Sub-c engine
- Guns
- Pod locker
- Pod driver's station
- Cargo pod
- Shields
- Tactical
- Ship's locker
- Airlock
Interactable locations either transition to other modes of play or call up pop-up menus that overlay the playfield.
SunDog space navigation consists of 3D star map, star system map and planetary map. The SunDog is equipped with sub-lightspeed travel and warp drive.
The SunDog tactical display consists of a 160x112 active drawspace surrounded by indicators, displays and a control panel. The tactical display is where Zed dog-fights space pirates. The SunDog is equipped with force shields and fires cannons and lasers. The SunDog needs to be refuelled, and its hull usually needs to be repaired post-battle, which consumes credits.
In SunDog wealth accumulation consists in buying goods where they are abundant and cheap and selling them off where they are scarce, thereby turning a profit. Exchanges are conducted via in-city trading, warehouse and banking menus.
Space pirates ensure that ferrying cargo from one point to another is not smooth sailing. In addition, Zed can be waylaid by muggers when on-foot in the cities. Zed can either pay them off or fight them in real-time, wielding his Stinger gun. Zed needs to eat and sleep as well.
SunDog was distributed on 1x 3.5" 720kB DD diskette. It was not installable to hard disk drive.
Criticism of SunDog: The character sprite is too small and simple (practically a stick-figure) and the pathfinding routine is subpar. SunDog also frequently accesses the diskette, which slows down gameplay.
However, we must bear in mind that SunDog came out in late-1985 and that SunDog was one of the first great 16-bit micro games.
Overall, relative to its release, SunDog stands as one of the most technically impressive Atari ST games.
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