Space Giraffe
Encyclopedia
Space Giraffe is an action
arcade
video game by Jeff Minter
and Ivan Zorzin of Llamasoft. Space Giraffe visually resembles the arcade classic Tempest, an arcade game
by Atari Inc.
released in October, 1981, though Minter claims that it is not a clone of this game. The game was released on August 22, 2007 for Xbox 360
through Xbox Live Arcade
for 400 Microsoft Points
($5 USD). The main graphics engine is based on the Neon
Xbox 360 light synthesizer visualisation
software built into the console. Llamasoft released a version for Windows on December 15, 2008. It was made available on Steam on March 19, 2009.
The player controls the Space Giraffe as it moves around the outer rim of a 3-dimensional extruded surface. Enemies appear in notably greater quantities than in Tempest, beginning at the opposite end of the third dimension and approaching the player, firing bullets. The Giraffe can destroy these enemies by firing at them.
A line on the surface behaves as a VU meter
, indicating the "power zone". Damaging or destroying enemies extends the Power Zone, and at all other times it slowly contracts, contracting more quickly when the giraffe is stationary. While the power zone is not at zero:
The player can collect power-up "pods" which allow the Giraffe to jump; jumping also fills the entire power zone. The Giraffe can store up to five pods, and one is lost each time it jumps. Collecting extra pods when the giraffe already has five provides extra benefits: the first extra pod grants an extra life, the second grants Fast Bullets, and the third awards a token which counts towards accessing the bonus round, but only if no other pods were missed during the stage. Further pods collected provide bonus points.
Enemy shots can be targeted by the Giraffe's own shots, which has the effect of pushing them back. Although they can be pushed back beyond the far edge of the surface, they are never destroyed, and will resume moving forward again when able, possibly returning onto the surface and even destroying the Giraffe.
When a stage is completed, the Giraffe flies along the surface to the far end. During this period, all enemy shots remaining on the surface are harmless to the player, and the player scores a bonus for each one the Giraffe passes, based on the length of time that has passed since it was fired. If the player happens to collect a Pod while the Giraffe is leaving the surface, they are awarded Fast Bullets on the following round.
The player can use a Smart Bomb once per life, which automatically attacks the enemies nearest them.
fan forum YakYak and on his blog in which he semi-seriously referred to the player's character in the game as resembling a giraffe. This immediately attracted calls from readers and forum posters that the entire game should be named Space Giraffe, and this was used as the working title for the game, and then adopted for the final release because by that time it had already been the subject of widespread publicity. Minter in an interview related:
The game includes humor and references that are common to Minter's games, including allusions to Super Mario Bros.
, Pro Wrestling for the NES, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
, the Commodore 64
, and even to Microsoft
's J Allard
. Some of the early screenshots of the game include obscenity, though such obscenity does not appear in the release version. The inclusion of obscenity is Minter's known way of preventing mainstream gaming media from reproducing early work-in-progress screenshots, by rendering them unprintable.
. You won’t know unless you try."
The first published professional review of Space Giraffe came in Official Xbox Magazine's
September 2007 issue. Dan Amrich
("OXM Dan") gave Space Giraffe a 2/10 rating, stating "You'll frequently die because you couldn't pick out the pulsating assassin from the warped playfield floating over the throbbing LSD nightmare that is the background, which makes this game uniquely aggravating." OXM named Space Giraffe the "Worst Game of the Year" for 2007 in March 2008.
Space Giraffe has received a more positive review from Angry Gamer, scoring an unusual "Holy crap this is awesome hell yes / 10 ". The reviewer 'Flamey' praised the addictive mood of the game, although on the Angry Gamer podcast, Space Giraffe was called "annoying and pointless", with a reviewer commenting of the creator of the game; "Jeff, we love you, we just don't love Space Giraffe." Conversely, veteran video game journalist Stuart Campbell described Space Giraffe as "one of the best games released this year at any price" but Campbell used the first letter of each paragraph
to spell the phrase "MINTER IS A BIG TWATTY SPACKER TRUFAX". The February 2009 issue of PC Gamer awarded the PC version of the game a score of 92%.
Space Giraffe was also listed as 94th in Edge magazine
's "The 100 Top Games to Play Today" list in the Edge 200th anniversary issue.
.
Flossie's Frolic was created using Fruityloops by Jeff Minter http://www.yakyak.org/viewtopic.php?t=63572. The song was later lost by Jeff, but recovered http://www.yakyak.org/viewtopic.php?t=63572&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=4 by a member of YakYak.org, eventually finding its way into Space Giraffe. The sheep vocals for the song were done by Flossie, Jeff's pet sheep, who has since died. The song also went by the name of "Silly.mp3."
Welsh Numbers Station uses a sequence of specially recorded Welsh
numbers in the style of numbers station
s. http://www.yakyak.org/viewtopic.php?t=66996&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15 The bonus level music, Gardening By Numbers, also has similar numbers spoken in the background.
Before release, there was interest in licensing music used in Tempest 2000
(also used in Tempest 3000
) from Atari
, but no deal ever went through. Per Ivan Zorzin, one of the developers who worked on the game:
, another game by Llamasoft released in 2002. The "mu-mu" noise that is heard when the player collects a power pod is a KLF sample from the track What Time Is Love?
.
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
arcade
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
video game by Jeff Minter
Jeff Minter
Jeff 'Yak' Minter is a British computer/video game designer and programmer. He is the founder of software house Llamasoft and his recent works include Neon , a non-game music visualization program that has been built into the Xbox 360 console, and the video games Space Giraffe , and Space Invaders...
and Ivan Zorzin of Llamasoft. Space Giraffe visually resembles the arcade classic Tempest, an arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
by Atari Inc.
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
released in October, 1981, though Minter claims that it is not a clone of this game. The game was released on August 22, 2007 for Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
through Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
for 400 Microsoft Points
Microsoft Points
Microsoft Points are the currency of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Games for Windows - Live Marketplace, Windows Live Gallery, and Zune online stores. The points allow users to purchase content without a credit card and to reduce the number of small credit card transaction fees, which Microsoft would...
($5 USD). The main graphics engine is based on the Neon
Neon (light synthesizer)
Neon is a light synthesizer developed by Jeff Minter and Ivan Zorzin . It was based on an enhanced version of the graphics engine originally to be included in Unity , which became an independent project after Unity was cancelled in 2004.A version of Neon is used as the default visualiser for the...
Xbox 360 light synthesizer visualisation
Music visualization
Music visualization, a feature found in electronic music visualizers and media player software, generates animated imagery based on a piece of music...
software built into the console. Llamasoft released a version for Windows on December 15, 2008. It was made available on Steam on March 19, 2009.
Gameplay
Although the game is aesthetically similar to the arcade game Tempest, Minter has strongly denied that Space Giraffe is an update to Tempest, as it introduces significant gameplay changes.The player controls the Space Giraffe as it moves around the outer rim of a 3-dimensional extruded surface. Enemies appear in notably greater quantities than in Tempest, beginning at the opposite end of the third dimension and approaching the player, firing bullets. The Giraffe can destroy these enemies by firing at them.
A line on the surface behaves as a VU meter
VU meter
A VU meter is often included in audio equipment to display a signal level in Volume Units; the device is sometimes also called volume indicator ....
, indicating the "power zone". Damaging or destroying enemies extends the Power Zone, and at all other times it slowly contracts, contracting more quickly when the giraffe is stationary. While the power zone is not at zero:
- The Giraffe can safely collide with enemies on the rim, knocking them off in the process (referred to as "bulling"). This attracts higher scores, especially if a large chain of enemies are bulled off the rim at one time. It can also increase the global bonus multiplier.
- Enemy shots are slowed down when travelling within the power zone;
- The Giraffe fires an additional two shots, which can be steered with the right analog stick;
- When an enemy spawns multiple other enemies, the spawned enemies appear at the power zone boundary.
The player can collect power-up "pods" which allow the Giraffe to jump; jumping also fills the entire power zone. The Giraffe can store up to five pods, and one is lost each time it jumps. Collecting extra pods when the giraffe already has five provides extra benefits: the first extra pod grants an extra life, the second grants Fast Bullets, and the third awards a token which counts towards accessing the bonus round, but only if no other pods were missed during the stage. Further pods collected provide bonus points.
Enemy shots can be targeted by the Giraffe's own shots, which has the effect of pushing them back. Although they can be pushed back beyond the far edge of the surface, they are never destroyed, and will resume moving forward again when able, possibly returning onto the surface and even destroying the Giraffe.
When a stage is completed, the Giraffe flies along the surface to the far end. During this period, all enemy shots remaining on the surface are harmless to the player, and the player scores a bonus for each one the Giraffe passes, based on the length of time that has passed since it was fired. If the player happens to collect a Pod while the Giraffe is leaving the surface, they are awarded Fast Bullets on the following round.
The player can use a Smart Bomb once per life, which automatically attacks the enemies nearest them.
PC version
The PC version (released December 15, 2008) differs in a number of ways to the Xbox 360 version, including using a re-worked Neon engine which makes everything more presentable, less psychedelic and easier to see what's going on within the game. The new version also includes an "Acid Mix" that resembles the more intense graphics in the Xbox 360 release. On 20 March 2009 the game was made available for download from Steam.Development
The name "Space Giraffe" originated from Minter's posts on the Jeff MinterJeff Minter
Jeff 'Yak' Minter is a British computer/video game designer and programmer. He is the founder of software house Llamasoft and his recent works include Neon , a non-game music visualization program that has been built into the Xbox 360 console, and the video games Space Giraffe , and Space Invaders...
fan forum YakYak and on his blog in which he semi-seriously referred to the player's character in the game as resembling a giraffe. This immediately attracted calls from readers and forum posters that the entire game should be named Space Giraffe, and this was used as the working title for the game, and then adopted for the final release because by that time it had already been the subject of widespread publicity. Minter in an interview related:
The game includes humor and references that are common to Minter's games, including allusions to Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros.
is a 1985 platform video game developed by Nintendo, published for the Nintendo Entertainment System as a sequel to the 1983 game Mario Bros. In Super Mario Bros., the player controls Mario as he travels through the Mushroom Kingdom in order to rescue Princess Toadstool from the antagonist...
, Pro Wrestling for the NES, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
, the Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, and even to Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's J Allard
J Allard
J Allard was "Chief Experience Officer" and Chief Technology Officer for the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft...
. Some of the early screenshots of the game include obscenity, though such obscenity does not appear in the release version. The inclusion of obscenity is Minter's known way of preventing mainstream gaming media from reproducing early work-in-progress screenshots, by rendering them unprintable.
Reception
Reviews for Space Giraffe from both game critics and game players have been polarized. Jeff Minter has stated of the game, "It’s like MarmiteMarmite
Marmite is the name given to two similar food spreads: the original British version, first produced in the United Kingdom and later South Africa, and a version produced in New Zealand...
. You won’t know unless you try."
The first published professional review of Space Giraffe came in Official Xbox Magazine's
Official Xbox Magazine
Official Xbox Magazine is a monthly video game magazine which started in November 2001 around the launch of the original Xbox. A preview issue was released for E3 2001, with another preview issue for November 2001. The magazine is bundled with a disc that includes game demos, preview videos and...
September 2007 issue. Dan Amrich
Dan Amrich
Dan Amrich is an American writer, author, actor, musician, and social media expert. He graduated from Ithaca College with a major in Audio Production and minor in Writing and became a professional journalist and critic with numerous video game and music magazines and websites...
("OXM Dan") gave Space Giraffe a 2/10 rating, stating "You'll frequently die because you couldn't pick out the pulsating assassin from the warped playfield floating over the throbbing LSD nightmare that is the background, which makes this game uniquely aggravating." OXM named Space Giraffe the "Worst Game of the Year" for 2007 in March 2008.
Space Giraffe has received a more positive review from Angry Gamer, scoring an unusual "Holy crap this is awesome hell yes / 10 ". The reviewer 'Flamey' praised the addictive mood of the game, although on the Angry Gamer podcast, Space Giraffe was called "annoying and pointless", with a reviewer commenting of the creator of the game; "Jeff, we love you, we just don't love Space Giraffe." Conversely, veteran video game journalist Stuart Campbell described Space Giraffe as "one of the best games released this year at any price" but Campbell used the first letter of each paragraph
Acrostic
An acrostic is a poem or other form of writing in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out a word or a message. As a form of constrained writing, an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aid memory retrieval. A famous...
to spell the phrase "MINTER IS A BIG TWATTY SPACKER TRUFAX". The February 2009 issue of PC Gamer awarded the PC version of the game a score of 92%.
Space Giraffe was also listed as 94th in Edge magazine
Edge (magazine)
Edge is a multi-format computer and video game magazine published by Future Publishing in the United Kingdom. It is known for its industry contacts, editorial stance, distinctive anonymous third-person writing style, yearly awards and longevity....
's "The 100 Top Games to Play Today" list in the Edge 200th anniversary issue.
Sales
Space Giraffe sold almost 10,000 copies in its first two weeks of release. Minter himself has expressed disappointment at the low sales of Space Giraffe, especially in being outsold 10-to-1 by a remake of FroggerFrogger
Frogger is an arcade game introduced in 1981. It was developed by Konami, and licensed for worldwide distribution by Sega/Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct frogs to their homes one by one. To do this, each frog must avoid cars while crossing a busy road and navigate a river full of...
.
Music
| Title | Artist | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Flossie's Frolic | Yak (Jeff Minter) | In-Game |
| Satipn | Redpoint | In-Game |
| Side of the Angels | Jim McCauley | In-Game |
| Gardening By Numbers | Redpoint | Bonus Level |
| Welsh Numbers Station | Catryn Burnell | Main Menu |
Flossie's Frolic was created using Fruityloops by Jeff Minter http://www.yakyak.org/viewtopic.php?t=63572. The song was later lost by Jeff, but recovered http://www.yakyak.org/viewtopic.php?t=63572&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=4 by a member of YakYak.org, eventually finding its way into Space Giraffe. The sheep vocals for the song were done by Flossie, Jeff's pet sheep, who has since died. The song also went by the name of "Silly.mp3."
Welsh Numbers Station uses a sequence of specially recorded Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
numbers in the style of numbers station
Numbers station
A numbers station is a shortwave radio station of uncertain origin. In the 1950s, Time magazine reported that the numbers stations first appeared shortly after World War II and were using a format that had been used to send weather data during that war.Numbers stations generally broadcast...
s. http://www.yakyak.org/viewtopic.php?t=66996&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15 The bonus level music, Gardening By Numbers, also has similar numbers spoken in the background.
Before release, there was interest in licensing music used in Tempest 2000
Tempest 2000
Tempest 2000 is a 1994 remake by Jeff Minter of the Dave Theurer 1981 arcade game classic, Tempest. Originally an exclusive to the Atari Jaguar, the game received critical praise for its 3D graphics, soundtrack, and gameplay.-Gameplay:...
(also used in Tempest 3000
Tempest 3000
Tempest 3000 is a remake of the Tempest arcade game and a sequel to Tempest 2000, written by Jeff Minter for Nuon.-Gameplay:Tempest 3000 includes all of the enhancements from Tempest 2000 plus additional web designs, webs that move and reform, a greater game role for the jump control, a missile...
) from Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
, but no deal ever went through. Per Ivan Zorzin, one of the developers who worked on the game:
Now to make a bad story really short let's say so "forget to talk about anything with 'Atari' unless you have a really big wallet and you want to be raped".http://www.yakyak.org/viewtopic.php?t=66996&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=10
Sound effects
Some of the sound effects that appear in the game also appeared previously in Gridrunner++Gridrunner++
Gridrunner++ is a shooting game written by Jeff Minter for Windows. It has since been ported to Mac OS X, to the iPhone and to a portable Java applet. It was offered only as shareware for download from the Llamasoft website, with a registration fee of £5. Its sequel is Gridrunner...
, another game by Llamasoft released in 2002. The "mu-mu" noise that is heard when the player collects a power pod is a KLF sample from the track What Time Is Love?
What Time Is Love?
"What Time Is Love?" is a song released, in different mixes, as a series of singles by the band The KLF. It featured prominently and repeatedly in their output from 1988 to 1992 and, under the moniker of 2K, in 1997...
.
External links
- Llamasoft official website
- Jeff Minter's blog
- 1UP.com - Interview with Minter
- Hidden Music - home of Redpoint