Personal Vision for 'Return to Rom'

My childhood habit of soaking in the details of game manuals and box-art before playing each new video game ensured the associated imaginary worlds were firmly established within my little mind well before our family color computer even turned on.  Instead of setting me up for disappointment when faced with the harsh reality of blocky pixels and limited color palette, these established imaginary worlds helped me see past the on-screen visuals to the secret fully-realized worlds hiding beyond.

Adults watching me play Temple of Rom surely wondered why the rudimentary blue maze captivated my attention, not knowing that in my mind I had embarked on a brave expedition to explore the perilous ancient ruins of an interplanetary civilization.  During two sick days this past week, I came to the realization that it is within my expertise to recreate these imaginary worlds within an interactive 3D environment, allowing others to get a glimpse of what I actually saw within my mind's eye nearly thirty years ago.

Unfortunately, at least for Temple of Rom,  it turns out my childhood vision was wrong.  I recently heard Steve Strow's great interview with the original game developer Rick Adams  (click to watch), in which Rick explained that Radio Shack (Tandy) asserted creative control over his original story, changing several key elements.   As a child, I built my mental world around the printed manual, expounding from that trajectory.  In my mind, the ancient Temple of Rom was actually a massive deactivated computer on an alien world.  If only I could explore every room and get every treasure, the maze computer would activate, reveal it's arcane secrets and I could escape.  The temple walls were as gold and shiny as the computer generated intros made popular on ABC and NBC in the 1980's.

That's the vision I'm going for with this project.  My personal vision.   An accurate representation of the actual gameplay, with the best of the 1980's 3D visuals that filled my head at that time.  Going forward, I hope to reach out to the awesome, supportive COCO community along with Rick Adams, the brilliant mind behind the original game, in order to assure that this remake is done right.  Thanks for reading!  More to come!