Some of the earliest breakout video games ever made were platformers and now those classics of yesteryear have their very own documentary, called Forerunners. It's not a long one, running in at just 16 minutes, but it talks to many of the original developers of classic titles like Commander keen, Jazz JackRabbit, John Romero and Cliff Blezinski, all of whom had a hand in sculping some of the most iconic games from the 90s and beyond.
What goes into making a platformer? What drew this men to build games like this in the first place?
Traditionally science fiction space ship titles had dominated and the screens were limited, but the idea with many of these new creations were designed to offer much larger stories, much greater scope and much more nuanced gameplay.
Shareware too made it easier to people to get their hands on the games, which helped increase popularity of these sorts of games.
Control systems were important though and as time went on, the genre waned when the limitations of even the great sidescrolling platformer began to be discovered - which is why it's so great perhaps to see these sorts of experience make comebacks in recent years. Limbo, Inside and more.
Forerunners is a neat little insight into how the game industry worked back then. Enjoy it for free above.
