Spodland
Encyclopedia
Spodland was a computer game for the Amiga
computer, designed by the British
group The Hidden
.
The history of Spodland originally started when the British home computer magazine Amiga Power
held a competition in co-operation with The Hidden, where the readers were asked to design new computer games, and the winner would have his/her game actually implemented by The Hidden. The winner was Martin Fox from Aberdeenshire whose design Spodland was chosen as the winning entry. Other entries included a puzzle game called That Sinking Feeling and a beat-em-up called, strangely, Transformer
-like Robots Kick David Icke
's Butt.
Spodland was a multi-player arcade
/puzzle game, where the players took control of Spods, small Smurf-like creatures that sat on top of mushroom
s and spat on each other. The players would do their best to spit on other Spods and avoid being spat on themselves, until finally only one Spod remained.
The design and implementation of the game was being followed in Amiga Power in a special Diary of a game feature, where The Hidden reported the game's progress. The progress was going rather well, even including a fully rendered Claymation graphical presentation and some basic gameplay, until it was abruptly stopped and abandoned without explanation, never reaching finished stage.
Spodland is not available for sale or download anywhere. The only working implementation of it exists internally with The Hidden, if even they have it any more. The Hidden are better known for their earlier game Donk!, a platform game
starring a samurai
duck
.
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
computer, designed by the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
group The Hidden
The Hidden (game developer)
The Hidden was a British game developer for the Amiga that became famous for their platforming game Donk!: Samurai Duck. The group consisted of Craig Howard, among others. They were also working on an action/puzzle game called Spodland, but the game was cancelled before it was released....
.
The history of Spodland originally started when the British home computer magazine Amiga Power
Amiga Power
Amiga Power was a monthly magazine about Amiga computer games. It was published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing, and ran for 65 issues, from May 1991 to September 1996....
held a competition in co-operation with The Hidden, where the readers were asked to design new computer games, and the winner would have his/her game actually implemented by The Hidden. The winner was Martin Fox from Aberdeenshire whose design Spodland was chosen as the winning entry. Other entries included a puzzle game called That Sinking Feeling and a beat-em-up called, strangely, Transformer
Transformers
A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another by magnetic coupling.Transformer may also refer to:* ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, an Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet computer manufacturer by Asus...
-like Robots Kick David Icke
David Icke
David Vaughan Icke is an English writer and public speaker, best known for his views on what he calls "who and what is really controlling the world." Describing himself as the most controversial speaker in the world, he has written 18 books explaining his position, and has attracted a substantial...
's Butt.
Spodland was a multi-player 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...
/puzzle game, where the players took control of Spods, small Smurf-like creatures that sat on top of mushroom
Mushroom
A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that...
s and spat on each other. The players would do their best to spit on other Spods and avoid being spat on themselves, until finally only one Spod remained.
The design and implementation of the game was being followed in Amiga Power in a special Diary of a game feature, where The Hidden reported the game's progress. The progress was going rather well, even including a fully rendered Claymation graphical presentation and some basic gameplay, until it was abruptly stopped and abandoned without explanation, never reaching finished stage.
Spodland is not available for sale or download anywhere. The only working implementation of it exists internally with The Hidden, if even they have it any more. The Hidden are better known for their earlier game Donk!, a platform game
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
starring a samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
duck
Duck
Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...
.