Gravity Force

Gravity Force is a video game series for the Amiga. The first game in the series was published commercially by Kingsoft GmbH in 1989,[1] as a Thrust-clone. The aim is to pilot a spacecraft through caverns avoiding enemy fire. The ship is subject to gravity and inertia and colliding with terrain or the walls of the cave results in destruction of the ship.

Gravity Force
Screenshot of Gravity Force 2
Genre(s)Multidirectional shooter
Developer(s)Kingsoft GmbH (original)
Jens Andersson and Jan Kronquist (sequels)
Publisher(s)Kingsoft GmbH
Amiga Power
Platform(s)Amiga (all in series)
Atari ST, DOS (original only)

Gravity Force 2 and Gravity Power
GF2 logo

In 1994, fans Jens Andersson and Jan Kronquist obtained permission from creator Stephen Wenzler at Kingsoft to release a sequel, Gravity Force 2. They collaborated on the graphics with Christer Masmanidis, Niklas Ivarsson, and Jan Warner (of Amiga demoscene group Nexus). The game was released onto the Blekinge Institute of Technology's student BBS, hosted at the Soft Center business park in Ronneby. The game was re-distributed to the Datormagazin BBS, and at this point the creators published an update making the game shareware. Subsequent contributions from fans include a level editor by Richard Franks, and many unofficial levels.[1][2][3]

As a complete rewrite, sharing no code with the Kingsoft original, Gravity Force 2 added destroyable walls, single player missions and a 2-player multiplayer mode, both split-screen and over a null modem cable. Sound effects were homemade recordings such as hitting a cord against a radiator and dropping fruit into water. [1][3]

In 1994, Gravity Force 2 attracted the attention of British computer game magazine Amiga Power, who released it on the coverdisk of issue 39, and the following year ranked it the second best Amiga game of all time (behind Sensible Soccer). Their endorsement continued in 1995 through the commissioning of Gravity Power, a slightly enhanced version which was published on the coverdisk of issue 50. Amiga Power had asked for a 4-player mode, but this did not make it into the final version as it would have required substantial rework to the codebase.[1]

Reception

The original Gravity Force was reviewed in 1989 by German game magazine ASM, receiving 75/100 points, and by Power Play in the same year, receiving 72/100.

In 1995, Amiga Format praised Gravity Force 2, identifying the non-commercial nature of the game as a critical factor in its success: "The programmers didn't have to succumb to the creative restraints of anxious publishers and deadlines. And that, more than anything else contributes to the game's beauty."[4]

In 2011, Gravity Power was named one of the 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die.[5] In 2016, the book Swedish video game development from the 50s to the 90s was published, featuring an interview with Andersson and Kronquist, and in 2017 another interview featured in the book Generation 500, in which the game was described as "one of the Amiga platform's most loved titles".[1][3]

Legacy

A planned sequel to Gravity Force 2, to be called gf2k was abandoned at an early stage in 2001.[6] The developers did eventually release a multi-platform sequel in 2015 named Gravity Force 20, built using the Unity engine.[7]

On September 21, 2008 the developers of Gravity Force 2 released the Amiga Motorola 680x0 assembly language source code for "nostalgic interest" without specified license.[8] In April 2017 the authors clarified the game and source code license as CC BY-SA 4.0.[9]

Many similarly titled clones have since appeared.[10][11][12][13][14][15] These games are generally freeware and position themselves as direct descendants of Gravity Force and Gravity Power rather than Thrust.

See also

References
  1. Sunhede, Thomas (2016). Svensk videospelsutveckling : från 50-tal till 90-tal. pp. 508–511. ISBN 9789198112047.
  2. "INTERVIEW WITH JENS ANDERSSON and JAN KRONQUIST". Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  3. Wilhemsson, Jimmy (2017). Generation 500. Bokfabriken. pp. 158–161. ISBN 9789176293706.
  4. McGill, Steve (April 1995). "Just because they're cheap..." Amiga Format. No. 70. Future Publishing.
  5. Mott, Tony (2011). Flammarion (ed.). 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. p. 261. ISBN 978-2-0812-6217-1.
  6. "The Gravity-Force 2 Homepage".
  7. "Gravity Force 20". Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  8. Jens Andersson; Jan Kronqvist (2008-09-21). "The Gravity-Force 2 Homepage". lysator.liu.se. Retrieved 2013-10-13. Jan made an archaeological expedition and recovered the GF2 source code from a dusty old floppy disc! We do not pretend it is a wonder in coding style (in fact, it is a complete disaster!), but for primarily nostalgic interest we publish it here.
  9. gf2 on lysator.liu.se "The screenshots, the GF2 source code, and the actual Amiga game (v1.10, v1.20) are released for use under the CreativeCommons CC-BY-SA license." (April 26, 2017)
  10. "Gravity Jam". Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  11. "Gravity Power 2". 8 May 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  12. "Gravity Fight". Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  13. "Gravastar". 29 November 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  14. "Galaxy Forces".
  15. "Complex Gravity". Retrieved 15 August 2022.
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