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MDK (video game)
Encyclopedia
MDK is a third-person shooter
game developed by Shiny Entertainment
and released in 1997 by Playmates Interactive Entertainment in North America and Interplay Entertainment
in Europe for the PC
, Macintosh, and subsequently PlayStation. It was one of the first PC games to require a Pentium or equivalent processor, and did not initially have a GPU
requirement. The game soundtrack, composed by Tommy Tallarico
, was also released.
The game tells the story of its protagonist, Kurt Hectic, and his attempts to rescue Earth
from an alien invasion
of gigantic strip mining
city-vehicles named 'Minecrawlers', that are not only removing all of earth's natural resources but are also flattening any people and cities that get in their way. The game combined action with a sense of humour. It featured a "sniper mode" that allowed the player to zoom in on enemy targets.
A sequel, MDK2
was developed by Bioware
and released by Interplay
for the PC and Dreamcast in 2000, and later for the PlayStation 2
(titled MDK 2: Armageddon
) in 2001.
s (D3D
, Glide
, Redline
and PowerVR
). Although a fast CPU
was recommended, the game ran smoothly with (relatively) low RAM. Kurt's movement was created using sprite-based animation.
Its "sniper mode" feature allowed the player to zoom in all the way from one side of the map to the other without having objects popping up.
Dr. Fluke Hawkins then builds a space station, the Jim Dandy, bribes his laboratory janitor, Kurt Hectic, with Hungarian
Goulash, and launches himself into a self-imposed exile, swearing never to return until he "comes up with some really good stuff". Upon reaching orbit, he realizes that "Flange Orbits" do not actually exist. Rather than return to Earth in shame, he begins work on a robotic dog that Dr. Hawkins calls "Bones" (the dog prefers "Max").
Dr. Hawkins continued work in relative peace until one day, he noticed a strange phenomenon- streams of incredible energy headed straight for the Earth. The good Doctor sent down a warning (along with a basket of Max's oranges) but was promptly ignored. The streams proceeded to disgorge innumerable hordes of enemies in "Minecrawlers", giant fortress-cities designed to strip the mineral wealth (and potato crop, according to Dr. Hawkins) from a planet. The military forces of Earth were crushed.
Dr. Hawkins decided to take action. Pairing his new "Coil Suit", a revolutionary armor suit capable of repelling "bullets, bees, and small but very hard sticks" that held a retractable/re-usable "ribbon chute" for parachuting or gliding, along with an arm-mounted chaingun that also serves as a head-mounted sniper rifle, Dr. Hawkins had the perfect weapons suite. Kurt was the only one who could wear it, due to the Doctor's age and Max's extra pair of legs.
So, Kurt was dispatched on "Mission: Deliver Kindness", entering the Minecrawlers from above, and destroying them from the inside-out, shooting his way through to the "driver", typically killing them in some rather violent fashion. Kurt fights his way through the Minecrawlers, destroying them one by one, until he comes to meet Gunter Glut, the hideous leader of the invasion.
Kurt destroys the Minecrawler but Glut escapes with Max in captivity, chased by Kurt along a stream leading to the alien homeworld. Kurt frees Max and kills Glut, ending the game. The ending is a monochrome mix of a French pop
music video
(Non Non Rien N'a Changé by Billy Ze Kick
) and clips from the MDK promotion Video.
In addition to the standard run-and-gun/sniper modes, there are a few mini-games in MDK. All levels start out with the atmospheric re-entry (explained below), while some levels have a bombing run, boarding a glider and dropping iron bombs on enemies. This clears the enemies far easier than would be on foot and often garners extra weapons.
There are also a few special game modes in different levels. One level has snowboarding sequences where Kurt must navigate obstacles while destroying enemies along the way. In another level, Kurt must disguise himself as a sentry robot to deceive guards.
, which must be dodged. Dr. Hawkins also sends down weapons at this point which (if collected) are added to Kurt's level inventory.
MDK only has six levels, although each level is fairly large; an entire level could take one hour or more.
After the destruction of last minecrawler, Max is unable to retrieve Kurt from within the stream, due to his capture by Gunter Glut. As a result, Kurt emerges at the other end of the stream: the alien homeworld.
The sniper rifle is actually Kurt's chaingun mounted on his helmet. It gains 100x zoom and the capability of supporting 6 different types of ammunition. Kurt does not actually see out of the helmet, rather, he sees out of a HUD
camera, used to aim. There are three "Bullet Cams" that track each projectile and linger briefly after impact, showing the damage done.
The front end of Kurt's helmet can be removed and attached to his arm, becoming a machine gun with unlimited ammo. There is also a powerup that increases the damage and firing rate of the chaingun, making it even easier to defeat vast quantities of enemies.
The Ribbon Chute allows Kurt to navigate long jumps, long falls, and utilize updrafts (deploying automatically). The Ribbon Chute retracts automatically when not being used and can be used infinite times. According to Dr. Hawkins's diary, there were also concepts for a "Bow Chute" and a "Tie Chute".
Besides these ape-like robots, there are a large variety of other enemies. There are tanks, cannon turrets, small firing ships, larger carry ships, special sentry robots, and a few special enemies. Among these, for example, there are giant ships with spherical cannon turrets; to defeat the ship, each turret has to be sniped. One of the Minecrawler pilots has musician guards which shoot strange shapes at you. Some of these special enemies are hard to defeat, while others are very easy and seem to be there just for the fun.
. Yet another possibility is documented inside the game manual, where Kurt's mission is named Mission: Deliver Kindness. In the readme for the MDK demo, it is stated that nobody's quite sure what "MDK" means, it means whatever they need it to mean on that given day. Since the readme was penned on Mother's Day, the meaning for that particular day is "Mother's Day Kisses".
In the European version of the game, the background images of the installation program present many possible meanings for the letters M, D and K; some silly, some believable, and one of them "Murder, Death, Kill". In the Japanese version of the game on the back cover it says in bold yellow letters: "My Dear Knight".
It is revealed in the "Making of MDK" booklet that came with the "Limited Edition" of the game that the term was actually the game's codename; when Shiny came around to coming up with a name for the game, they chose to stick with the codename.
In the installation screen for MDK2, various meanings are shown scrolling down as a backdrop to Kurt diving through or to an unknown destination with "Murder, Death, Kill" highlighted.
In an interview with David Perry in NowGamer, Perry revealed that the original meaning of "MDK" from the company's initial promo video was in fact "Murder Death Kill". However, because the toy company that was supposed to make toys based on the game did not like to have those words printed on the toys, the words were removed and replaced with only "MDK". At the time of the game's release, Perry's official line on the game's title was that it stood for the first initials of game's characters Max, Dr. Hawkins, and Kurt.
gave the PS1 version of MDK a great rating of 8 out of 10 overall, praising its sound and the game's movement with the only criticism stating "There are random slips in framerate during some levels because of the real-time loading."
Season Five
episode Schizogeny
.
Third-person shooter
Third-person shooter is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting.-Definition:...
game developed by Shiny Entertainment
Shiny Entertainment
Shiny Entertainment was an American video game developer based in Laguna Beach, Southern California, and the creator of several popular titles such as Earthworm Jim, MDK, Sacrifice and The Matrix: Path of Neo. Shiny was founded by David Perry in October 1993...
and released in 1997 by Playmates Interactive Entertainment in North America and Interplay Entertainment
Interplay Entertainment
Interplay Entertainment Corporation is an American video game developer and publisher, founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by Brian Fargo. The company had been a quality developer until they started publishing their own games in 1988, like Neuromancer and Battle Chess. The company was renamed...
in Europe for the PC
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
, Macintosh, and subsequently PlayStation. It was one of the first PC games to require a Pentium or equivalent processor, and did not initially have a GPU
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
requirement. The game soundtrack, composed by Tommy Tallarico
Tommy Tallarico
Tommy Tallarico is an American video game music composer and musician. He is best known as the co-creator of the concert series Video Games Live...
, was also released.
The game tells the story of its protagonist, Kurt Hectic, and his attempts to rescue Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
from an alien invasion
Alien invasion
The alien invasion is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which extraterrestrial life invades Earth either to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it under a colonial system, harvest humans for food, steal the planet's resources, or destroy the planet altogether.The...
of gigantic strip mining
Surface mining
Surface mining , is a type of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit are removed...
city-vehicles named 'Minecrawlers', that are not only removing all of earth's natural resources but are also flattening any people and cities that get in their way. The game combined action with a sense of humour. It featured a "sniper mode" that allowed the player to zoom in on enemy targets.
A sequel, MDK2
MDK2
MDK2 is a video game and sequel to the third-person shooter, MDK. The original MDK was developed by Shiny Entertainment and released in 1997 by Interplay. The sequel was developed by BioWare....
was developed by Bioware
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer founded in February 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. BioWare is currently owned by American company Electronic Arts...
and released by Interplay
Interplay Entertainment
Interplay Entertainment Corporation is an American video game developer and publisher, founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by Brian Fargo. The company had been a quality developer until they started publishing their own games in 1988, like Neuromancer and Battle Chess. The company was renamed...
for the PC and Dreamcast in 2000, and later for the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
(titled MDK 2: Armageddon
MDK2
MDK2 is a video game and sequel to the third-person shooter, MDK. The original MDK was developed by Shiny Entertainment and released in 1997 by Interplay. The sequel was developed by BioWare....
) in 2001.
Technology
The PC version used software rendering to draw the world, however patches were later released that added support for popular (at the time) APIApplication programming interface
An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
s (D3D
Direct3D
Direct3D is part of Microsoft's DirectX application programming interface . Direct3D is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems , and for other platforms through the open source software Wine. It is the base for the graphics API on the Xbox and Xbox 360 console systems...
, Glide
Glide API
Glide is a 3D graphics API developed by 3dfx Interactive for their Voodoo Graphics 3D accelerator cards. Although it originally started as a proprietary API, it was later open sourced by 3dfx. It was dedicated to gaming performance, supporting geometry and texture mapping primarily, in data...
, Redline
Redline (graphics API)
RRedline is the name of a proprietary Windows application programming interface for graphics cards made by Rendition. The original DOS version of the API was named Speedy3D. The company was bought out by Micron as the consumer market settled around NVIDIA and ATI Technologies as the dominant...
and PowerVR
PowerVR
PowerVR is a division of Imagination Technologies that develops hardware and software for 2D and 3D rendering, and for video encoding, decoding, associated image processing and Direct X, OpenGL ES, OpenVG, and OpenCL acceleration....
). Although a fast CPU
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
was recommended, the game ran smoothly with (relatively) low RAM. Kurt's movement was created using sprite-based animation.
Its "sniper mode" feature allowed the player to zoom in all the way from one side of the map to the other without having objects popping up.
Plot
MDKs manual is in the form of a diary of an eccentric inventor, Dr. Fluke Hawkins. Dr. Hawkins discovers something he calls "Flange Orbits", but when he broaches them to scientific community, he is ridiculed.Dr. Fluke Hawkins then builds a space station, the Jim Dandy, bribes his laboratory janitor, Kurt Hectic, with Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
Goulash, and launches himself into a self-imposed exile, swearing never to return until he "comes up with some really good stuff". Upon reaching orbit, he realizes that "Flange Orbits" do not actually exist. Rather than return to Earth in shame, he begins work on a robotic dog that Dr. Hawkins calls "Bones" (the dog prefers "Max").
Dr. Hawkins continued work in relative peace until one day, he noticed a strange phenomenon- streams of incredible energy headed straight for the Earth. The good Doctor sent down a warning (along with a basket of Max's oranges) but was promptly ignored. The streams proceeded to disgorge innumerable hordes of enemies in "Minecrawlers", giant fortress-cities designed to strip the mineral wealth (and potato crop, according to Dr. Hawkins) from a planet. The military forces of Earth were crushed.
Dr. Hawkins decided to take action. Pairing his new "Coil Suit", a revolutionary armor suit capable of repelling "bullets, bees, and small but very hard sticks" that held a retractable/re-usable "ribbon chute" for parachuting or gliding, along with an arm-mounted chaingun that also serves as a head-mounted sniper rifle, Dr. Hawkins had the perfect weapons suite. Kurt was the only one who could wear it, due to the Doctor's age and Max's extra pair of legs.
So, Kurt was dispatched on "Mission: Deliver Kindness", entering the Minecrawlers from above, and destroying them from the inside-out, shooting his way through to the "driver", typically killing them in some rather violent fashion. Kurt fights his way through the Minecrawlers, destroying them one by one, until he comes to meet Gunter Glut, the hideous leader of the invasion.
Kurt destroys the Minecrawler but Glut escapes with Max in captivity, chased by Kurt along a stream leading to the alien homeworld. Kurt frees Max and kills Glut, ending the game. The ending is a monochrome mix of a French pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
(Non Non Rien N'a Changé by Billy Ze Kick
Billy Ze Kick
For the 1985 French film, see Billy Ze Kick .Billy Ze Kick were a French rock and reggae band from Rennes formed in 1990 composed of young musicians. To the non French-speaking world, information about them is difficult to come by. Formed as Billy Ze Kick Et Les Gamins En Folie, they split in 1994...
) and clips from the MDK promotion Video.
Gameplay
MDKs gameplay is usually a third person shooter, except when sniper mode is entered. Kurt has a wide range of weapons to choose from, which differ in standard gameplay and sniper mode. A large part of the gameplay was the use of Kurt's "ribbon chute" which was a parachute that could be used infinitely.In addition to the standard run-and-gun/sniper modes, there are a few mini-games in MDK. All levels start out with the atmospheric re-entry (explained below), while some levels have a bombing run, boarding a glider and dropping iron bombs on enemies. This clears the enemies far easier than would be on foot and often garners extra weapons.
There are also a few special game modes in different levels. One level has snowboarding sequences where Kurt must navigate obstacles while destroying enemies along the way. In another level, Kurt must disguise himself as a sentry robot to deceive guards.
Atmospheric Re-entry
All levels (with the exception of the final level) begin with Kurt skydiving from the 'Jim Dandy' to the Minecrawler below. The Minecrawler activates its radar (a green cone in the screenshot) which if touched triggers the launch of anti-air missilesSurface-to-air missile
A surface-to-air missile or ground-to-air missile is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles...
, which must be dodged. Dr. Hawkins also sends down weapons at this point which (if collected) are added to Kurt's level inventory.
Arenas
Each level is divided into several sections called arenas, interconnected by tunnels. Each arena can be different in style and method of going through it. Some are large areas with many Grunt generators, and others combine platform jumping with puzzle solving. Many arenas have a specific solution, like throwing sniper mortars into tubes, pushing objects next to high platforms, or shooting power generators.MDK only has six levels, although each level is fairly large; an entire level could take one hour or more.
Stream Riding
Once a level has ended, by killing the boss in command of the Minecrawler, the Minecrawler self-destructs and its debris and inhabitants are sucked back into the energy stream, taking Kurt with them. Kurt has a set time period in the energy stream; Kurt is pursuing a health powerup in front of him through the stream, which when collected grants 150% health. If he touches the walls of the stream, he loses 5 points health and decelerates. At the end of his period in the stream, Max will come out on a tether and pluck Kurt from the stream.After the destruction of last minecrawler, Max is unable to retrieve Kurt from within the stream, due to his capture by Gunter Glut. As a result, Kurt emerges at the other end of the stream: the alien homeworld.
Kurt's Coil Suit
Kurt's main defense against the Streamriders is Dr. Hawkins's Coil Suit, a skin-tight armor suit made of a leather-like material inlaid with twisting gold designs. This suit serves as a bulletproof vest and protects Kurt from the atmospheric friction of re-entry.The sniper rifle is actually Kurt's chaingun mounted on his helmet. It gains 100x zoom and the capability of supporting 6 different types of ammunition. Kurt does not actually see out of the helmet, rather, he sees out of a HUD
Head-Up Display
A head-up display or heads-up display is any transparent display that presents data without requiring users to look away from their usual viewpoints...
camera, used to aim. There are three "Bullet Cams" that track each projectile and linger briefly after impact, showing the damage done.
The front end of Kurt's helmet can be removed and attached to his arm, becoming a machine gun with unlimited ammo. There is also a powerup that increases the damage and firing rate of the chaingun, making it even easier to defeat vast quantities of enemies.
The Ribbon Chute allows Kurt to navigate long jumps, long falls, and utilize updrafts (deploying automatically). The Ribbon Chute retracts automatically when not being used and can be used infinite times. According to Dr. Hawkins's diary, there were also concepts for a "Bow Chute" and a "Tie Chute".
Enemies
The enemies in MDK are a collective of aliens called Stream Riders under the command of Gunter Glut aka Gunta. They use the energy streams to invade planets and strip them of their mineral wealth. The alien force is composed mainly of Grunts, called this due to their number and vocalizations, sounding very similar to monkeys. Similar robots with better armour and weapons are found as the game advances. Usually Grunts are the most numerous force, and can be sent in large numbers with generators, grunt-launcher tanks, or even brought to action by carry ships. The larger varieties do not have generators or reinforcements (usually), but are much harder to fight with. No matter how big the robots are, they can be killed by one or two sniper shots in the head when caught off-guard.Besides these ape-like robots, there are a large variety of other enemies. There are tanks, cannon turrets, small firing ships, larger carry ships, special sentry robots, and a few special enemies. Among these, for example, there are giant ships with spherical cannon turrets; to defeat the ship, each turret has to be sniped. One of the Minecrawler pilots has musician guards which shoot strange shapes at you. Some of these special enemies are hard to defeat, while others are very easy and seem to be there just for the fun.
Meaning of MDK
While the actual meaning of the title's TLA is not revealed within the game, the gaming press and fans adopted Murder, Death, Kill, which was coined as a neologism in the film Demolition ManDemolition Man (film)
Demolition Man is a 1993 American, science fiction action film directed by Marco Brambilla, and starring Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes. Sandra Bullock, Nigel Hawthorne, and Denis Leary co-star....
. Yet another possibility is documented inside the game manual, where Kurt's mission is named Mission: Deliver Kindness. In the readme for the MDK demo, it is stated that nobody's quite sure what "MDK" means, it means whatever they need it to mean on that given day. Since the readme was penned on Mother's Day, the meaning for that particular day is "Mother's Day Kisses".
In the European version of the game, the background images of the installation program present many possible meanings for the letters M, D and K; some silly, some believable, and one of them "Murder, Death, Kill". In the Japanese version of the game on the back cover it says in bold yellow letters: "My Dear Knight".
It is revealed in the "Making of MDK" booklet that came with the "Limited Edition" of the game that the term was actually the game's codename; when Shiny came around to coming up with a name for the game, they chose to stick with the codename.
In the installation screen for MDK2, various meanings are shown scrolling down as a backdrop to Kurt diving through or to an unknown destination with "Murder, Death, Kill" highlighted.
In an interview with David Perry in NowGamer, Perry revealed that the original meaning of "MDK" from the company's initial promo video was in fact "Murder Death Kill". However, because the toy company that was supposed to make toys based on the game did not like to have those words printed on the toys, the words were removed and replaced with only "MDK". At the time of the game's release, Perry's official line on the game's title was that it stood for the first initials of game's characters Max, Dr. Hawkins, and Kurt.
Reception
IGNIGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
gave the PS1 version of MDK a great rating of 8 out of 10 overall, praising its sound and the game's movement with the only criticism stating "There are random slips in framerate during some levels because of the real-time loading."
Popular Culture
MDK for Playstation is being played during the opening scene of The X-FilesThe X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
Season Five
The X-Files (season 5)
-Episodes:Episodes marked with an asterisk are part of the series' mytharc. Episodes with a double asterisk are part of the series' Alien Mythology....
episode Schizogeny
Schizogeny
"Schizogeny" is an episode of the popular American science fiction television series The X-Files.- Plot :In Coats Grove, Michigan, Bobby Rich, a sixteen-year-old boy, is berated by his stepfather, Phil, for not finishing his lawn work outside the house. Bobby picks up a shovel and instructs his...
.
External links
- MDK at MobyGamesMobyGames-Platforms not yet included:- Further reading :* Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media; 2 edition , ISBN 0-07-223172-6...
- shiny.com
- Web-site dedicated to the game MDK (translated page)
- Official soundtrack
- MDK fansite