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The lighter side of the Left 4 Dead zompocalypse

8-Bit Left 4 Dead

Well, we did say that we would be coming back to L4D once and if we had a reason, and it seems that now we do…

Oh wait…

Apparently this is a different game. Sort of. But it’s still Left 4 Dead… kinda.

Well, let’s get this rolling anyway!

Created by Eric Ruth, this is an Left 4 Dead de-make for the NES(or mayhaps it’s only in the NES style, can’t really confirm it), with the objective of presenting the game we know and love(and has just turned one year old) into an new(old) prespective:

This game play footage gives you an idea of what the project looks like in action and how it plays. As you can see, it’s a standard top-down 4 directional action/shooter. Remade in the NES retro style, the resolution is at 256 x 240 and features 16 colors and a 4 sound channel soundtrack.

You can check out the youtube page for more information, but I’ll just post here the relevant details:

Q: Is this just an animation or an actual game?
A: An actual game. It will be available for free download on PC around January 4th, 2010.

Q: I only see one “special infected.” Will there be more?
A: Yes. All 5 special infected appear in this game regularly.

Q: How far along are you currently?
A: As of November 15th, I am completed with the first “mission: No Mercy” as well as most of the core game play mechanics.

Q: Does Valve know about this? And would they approve?
A: No, Valve doesn’t know about it yet, but I’m sure (with their love of community creations) that they will find this mildly amusing at worst, and hilarious at best.

Q: Will this version have all of the campaigns from the original game?
A: Yes. All 5 maps of all 4 campaigns will be present in the final product.

Q: Like your other games, did you make this one all by yourself?
A: With the exception of a few friends backing me up in the QA area, yes, the coding, debugging, sound effects, music and pixel art are all original work of Eric Ruth.

Q: Will there be more videos that show off more of the game?
A: Maybe 1 or 2, but that’s about it. If you want to see every campaign and fight every zombie, then you will have to download and play it.

[More information from someone who played the game, here]

[via Kotaku and RockPaperShotgun]

 

6 Responses to “8-Bit Left 4 Dead” (post new)

  1.  

    FIRST POST!!!
    My suggestion is to make more zombies if you can, it looks a bit easy

  2.  

    Valve is obligated to take legal action against you for using the name “Left 4 Dead” or risk losing their trademark entirely. Eric, you might consider using a different name for the time being and simultaneously asking for written permission to use the Left 4 Dead name/marks for this project.

  3.  

    @Lord Grey

    If I had the power to edit your post, you would now be describing yourself doing some very painful things with a Tank, a Smoker and no lube. Just because of that ‘FIRST’ answer.

    And in case you didn’t notice it(I don’t even know if you read any of it), I am not the author of it, so you should probably send a message to the author perhaps through the youtube video page.

    @boomfaster

    Considering you might be talking seriously:

    -It is a non profit project.
    -It is intentionally related to the project because well… that’s the point.
    -It is Valve we’re talking about. You know, the ones who hired the guys who made an online mod from the Half-Life engine, the ones who are hire guys who made extra fan levels to Half-Life 2, the ones who encouraged things like Dead Before Dawn and Portal Prelude.

  4.  

    Drexer,

    Current trademark law does not care if a project is non-profit or particularly nifty. If Valve does not police their marks, they risk losing them, it’s as simple as that. Trademark law is shitty that way. Valve has likely worked around this by explicitly granting written permission to the projects that they want to support at the expense of a few hours of counsel. However, knowing about a project and doing nothing at all risks their ownership of the trademark. If Valve lost ownership of the L4D marks, then it would be possible for some to sell a game called Left 4 Dead 2010 *for profit* as long as they sidestepped any copyright issues.

  5.  

    Ah God, dammit. Drex, I’m happy you beat me to making this article.

    Yeah, looks nifty. NOA woulda raped it though if it WAS released.

  6.  

    [...] For those who remember the other post, and for those who don’t. [...]

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