H.U.R.G., High-Level User-Friendly Real-Time Game Designer

Game Meta:

Release Year:

1984

Genre:

Utility

Creator:

William Tang (Design, Programming)

Company:

Beam Software (Developer), Melbourne House (Publisher)

Platform:

ZX Spectrum 48K

“H.U.R.G., High-Level User-Friendly Real-Time Games Designer”, is a program that enables you to create games. It is a menu-driven program, which was relatively new at that time, and it enables people with little or no programming knowledge to make their own games.

For example, using the ‘Edit Game’ menu option, you have the ability to select actions such as creating a title page or specifying playing conditions via sub-menus.

Programs like “H.U.R.G.” opened up the possibilities for using home computers, by making programming accessible to anyone who was interested.

“H.U.R.G.” came with three demo games that were created within the engine on the B-side: ‘Manic Koala’, ‘Egg Pack’ and ‘Ms. Hortense’.

Games created with “H.U.R.G.” are not stand-alone; they still require the engine to run.

Melbourne House ran competitions to encourage people to use “H.U.R.G.” in games design, with cash prizes for the best games created on the software.

References: “Hobbit Hurg and Holmes” (1984) Crash magazine, Issue 3, April 1984, http://www.crashonline.org.uk/03/hobbit.htm

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