Skull Cracker
Skull Cracker is a 1996 supernatural beat 'em up video game[1] developed by American studio CyberFlix and published by GTE Entertainment on Macintosh and Windows. It is sometimes considered a spiritual successor to the 1991 title Creepy Castle, which the game's head of technology William Appleton had previously written for Reactor Inc. Skull Cracker was conceptually designed by Ben Calica.[2]
| Skull Cracker | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | CyberFlix |
| Publisher(s) | GTE Entertainment |
| Director(s) | Rand Cabus |
| Producer(s) | Robb Dean |
| Designer(s) | Robb Dean |
| Programmer(s) | Don McCasland Bill Appleton |
| Artist(s) | Eric Whited Anthony S. Taylor |
| Writer(s) | Mark Cabus |
| Composer(s) | Scott Scheinbaum |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Mac OS |
| Release | 1996 |
| Genre(s) | Beat 'em up |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Development
After the release of Titanic: Adventure Out of Time, Cyberflix released this old project which had been sitting in the vaults for a few years.[3] The game was demoed on October 28, 1995 at the Double Tree Hotel (Crowne Plaza) in Rockville.[4] It also previewed at the 1994 Summer Consumer Electronics Show along with other Cyberflix games, presented by Paramount.[5]
Plot and gameplay
The developers described it as an "old-fashioned side-scrolling arcade game".[3] The game sees the player battle through 16 levels of the undead and monsters.[6] The game contains 50s-style monsters and 90s-style urban grit.[7]
Critical reception
GameSpot offered a scathing review, panning the title's "bad art, poor animation, limited controls, no decent action, lame gameplay".[8] MacLedge felt the game was a letdown from Cyberflix's previous work.[9] Inside Mac Games praised the title's intriguing storyline, witty humor and exciting gameplay.[10] Cyberflix head Scott Scheinbaum would later say "Every company makes mistakes, and that was ours...It should have come out a year and a half before it did", noting that 1994 technology seemed stale by 1996.[3] World Village noted the game was a departure from the history-based title Titanic.[11]
References
- "Chapter 23". cw.routledge.com. Archived from the original on 2018-01-13. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
- "The Rules of the Game: Teach a Boy to shoot". 12 June 1998. Archived from the original on 24 December 2018. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
- "Metro Pulse Online: Cover Stories". 2012-10-18. Archived from the original on 2012-10-18. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - "Washington Apple Pi September 1995 General Meeting". www.wap.org. Archived from the original on 2019-01-29. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
- "THE 1994 SUMMER CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW". www.ibiblio.org. Archived from the original on 2017-05-04. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
- Gralla, Preston; Press, Ziff-Davis (1 January 1997). ZDNet Software Library 10,000. ZD Press. ISBN 9781562765378 – via Google Books.
- Hudak, Chris (2004-03-01). "SkullCracker Preview". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2018-04-25. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
- McDonald, Tim (31 October 1996). "SkullCracker Review". Archived from the original on 25 April 2018. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
- "Skull Cracker". 15 June 2000. Archived from the original on 15 June 2000.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - Deniz, Tuncer (November 1994). "Sneak Peek: Skullcracker" (PDF). Inside Mac Games. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-07-30. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
- "Titanic:Adventure Out of Time". archive.li. 2008-12-21. Archived from the original on 2008-12-21. Retrieved 2018-04-25.