Daikatana
Developer(s)	Ion Storm Kemco (Console versions)
Publisher(s)	Eidos Interactive Kemco (Console versions)
Designer(s)	John Romero
Engine	Quake II
Latest version	1.2 (September, 2000)
Release date(s)	April 14, 2000[1]
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: M (17+) OFLC: MA15+
Platform(s)	Windows, GBC, N64
Media	1 CD-ROM

For the type of sword, see Daikatana (sword).

Daikatana is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos Interactive. Released on April 14, 2000 for Windows,^[1] it was lead developed by John Romero. The game is known as one of the major commercial failures of the computer game industry. Daikatana was later ported to the Nintendo 64. A different version of the game was developed for the Game Boy Color, with a version for the PlayStation cancelled during development. Image File history File links Box art for Daikatana. ... A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates computer or video games. ... The Dallas Chase Tower Ion Storm Inc. ... Categories: Stub | Computer and video game companies ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Eidos Interactive is a publisher of video and computer games based in the United Kingdom. ... Categories: Stub | Computer and video game companies ... Professional Game Designer Andrew Abbs has copyrighted this quote Game designers take an idea for a game out of the world of fantasy and make it reality. ... Alfonso John Romero (born October 28, 1967) is a well-known game designer, programmer, and developer in the video game industry. ... A game engine is the core software component of a computer or video game or other interactive application with real-time graphics. ... The Quake II engine powers Quake II and several other games. ... April 14 is the 104th day of the year (105 in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 261 days remaining. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In computer games and video games, single-player refers to the variant of a particular game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into computer and video games. ... The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a self-regulatory organization that applies and enforces ratings, advertising guidelines, and online privacy principles for computer and video games and other entertainment software in the United States and Canada (officially adopted by individual provinces 2004-2005). ... The Office of Film and Literature Classification is a statutory censorship and classification body which provides day to day administrative support for the Classification Board which classified films, video games and publications in Australia, and the Classification Review Board which reviews films, computer games and publications when a valid application... Microsoft Windows is the name of several families of proprietary software operating systems by Microsoft. ... The Game Boy Color (also referred to as GBC) is Nintendos successor to the Game Boy and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan and in November of 1998 in the United States. ... Nintendo 64 ) is Nintendos third home video game console for the international market. ... The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ... Daikatana (usually given as the kanji 大刀) is a pseudo-Japanese term meaning large sword. (In Japanese, 大刀 is actually read daitō, and is a less-used synonym for uchigatana. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... The Dallas Chase Tower Ion Storm Inc. ... Eidos Interactive is a publisher of video and computer games based in the United Kingdom. ... April 14 is the 104th day of the year (105 in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 261 days remaining. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... Microsoft Windows is the name of several families of proprietary software operating systems by Microsoft. ... Alfonso John Romero (born October 28, 1967) is a well-known game designer, programmer, and developer in the video game industry. ... The computer and video games industry has seen several commercial failures since its birth in the late 1970s, some of which have drastically changed the video game market. ... Nintendo 64 ) is Nintendos third home video game console for the international market. ... The Game Boy Color (also referred to as GBC) is Nintendos successor to the Game Boy and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan and in November of 1998 in the United States. ... The Sony PlayStation ) is a video game console of the 32/64-bit era, first produced by Sony Computer Entertainment in the mid-1990s. ...

The game takes place during 2455 AD, in a world suffering from a major pandemic caused by a man named Kage Mishima. Through use of a magical sword called the daikatana, Mishima travelled back in time and prevented the disease from being cured, allowing him to take control of the world. The protagonist takes the form of a martial arts instructor named Hiro Miyamoto. Hiro, along with minor characters "Superfly Johnson" and Mikiko Ebihara, attempts to recover the daikatana, travelling to a number of different times and places in the process. A pandemic (from Greek παν pan all + δήμος demos people) is an epidemic (an outbreak of an infectious disease) that spreads across a large region (example a continent), or even worldwide. ...

Daikatana's title is written in Japanese kanji which mean "large sword", but their correct reading is actually "taito" in Japanese (see Daikatana (sword)). The name comes from an item in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign played by the original members of id Software,^[2] which Romero cofounded. Japanese writing Kanji Kana Hiragana Katakana Hentaigana Manyōgana Uses Furigana Okurigana Rōmaji Kanji (Japanese:  ) are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with hiragana (平仮名), katakana (片仮名), and the Arabic numerals. ... Daikatana (usually given as the kanji 大刀) is a pseudo-Japanese term meaning large sword. (In Japanese, 大刀 is actually read daitō, and is a less-used synonym for uchigatana. ... This article is about the role-playing game. ... id Software (IPA: officially, though originally ) is an American computer game developer based in Mesquite, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. ...

Gameplay

Daikatana has a total of twenty-four levels, divided into four episodes. The number of maps per level varies, but is generally about three. The episodes represent different locations and time periods: futuristic Japan, ancient Greece, the Dark Ages in Norway and near-future San Francisco. Gameplay tends towards fast-paced combat, although an attempt was made to include problem-solving elements as well. In computer and video games, a level (sometimes called a stage, course, episode, round, world, map, wave, board, phase, or landscape) is a separate area in a games virtual world, in modern games typically representing a specific location such as a building or a city. ... Ancient Greece is a period in Greek history that lasted for around one thousand years. ... ‹ The template below has been proposed for deletion. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ...

One element that Daikatana stressed was the important role of the protagonist's two "sidekicks". The death of these sidekicks resulted in the failure of the mission, and their assistance was sometimes required for the completion of puzzles. Due to poor AI implementation in the sidekicks, however, one of the game's selling points turned out to be a focus of criticism. Game artificial intelligence refers to techniques used in computer and video games to produce the illusion of intelligence in the behavior of non-player characters (NPCs). ...

Development history

Romero's initial game design, completed in March 1997, called for a huge amount of content -- 24 levels split into 4 distinct time periods, 25 weapons, and 64 monsters. Despite this, Romero believed that development of the game could be completed in seven months, just in time for Christmas 1997. The game was to license the existing Quake game engine. While at id Software, the content portion of Quake had taken a nine-person team only six months. Romero had 8 artists, and calculated that he could finish in seven. This schedule was called "patently ludicrous" by John Carmack. What Romero had failed to realize was that he did not have an established, experienced team to rely on (see The Mythical Man Month). Ion Storm was still forming as a company, constantly adding new employees. Many were talented amateurs, hired on the basis of level designs they had created. 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Christmas is an annual holiday that marks the birth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. ... The Quake engine is the game engine that was written to power 1996s Quake, written by id Software. ... id Software (IPA: officially, though originally ) is an American computer game developer based in Mesquite, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. ... John D. Carmack II (born August 20, 1970) is a widely recognized figure in the video game industry. ... Book cover The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering is a classic book on software project management written by Fred Brooks. ...

Ion Storm showed Daikatana at E3 in June 1997. Unfortunately, the engine was still running in a software mode, and looked outdated and unimpressive. At the same time, id software was debuting their Quake II game engine, featuring hardware acceleration and innovative visuals. Romero realized that they were falling behind technologically. The Christmas 1997 deadline was quietly dropped, and the new plan was to keep creating the content for the game, and switch to the Quake II engine as soon as it was ready. The game was rescheduled for a March 1998 release. id Software (IPA: officially, though originally ) is an American computer game developer based in Mesquite, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. ... The Quake II engine powers Quake II and several other games. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

The Daikatana team received the source to the Quake II engine around Thanksgiving 1997, and immediately realized that the switch would not be simple. The code was completely different from the original Quake engine, and would require throwing away eleven months of work for a complete rewrite. Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is an annual one-day holiday to give thanks, traditionally to God, for the things one has at the end of the harvest season. ...

Even this would not have prevented the release of Daikatana in 1998, but internal company politics began to erode morale. Ion Storm had grown extremely quickly, and was spending money freely. The Dominion project, put on a fast path by Ion Storm in a desperate attempt to generate some revenue, was resented by the Daikatana team for stealing resources from their project. In November 1998, morale got so bad that twelve members of the Daikatana team quit, leaving Romero with no team, and no way to make the Christmas 1998 deadline.

Screenshot from Daikatana.

In January 1999, the switch to the Quake II engine was complete. What had been scheduled for a few weeks had taken an entire year to complete. Ion Storm proudly announced that "Come hell or high water, the game will be done on February 15, 1999." This deadline was missed, but a demo was released in March 1999. However, this demo failed to impress players as it featured no monsters and no single player game, only multiplayer deathmatch. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (945x709, 127 KB)daikatana This is a screenshot of a copyrighted computer game or video game. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (945x709, 127 KB)daikatana This is a screenshot of a copyrighted computer game or video game. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... February 15 is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...

The Daikatana team was then frantically trying to create a new, far more impressive demo for E3 that year. Last minute changes to the level design led to a demo that could only run at about 12 frames per second, far less than the 30 frames per second that was considered a minimum for first person shooters. The E3 disaster led to a crisis for Ion Storm. Eidos, the parent company who had financed Ion Storm to the tune of $25 million so far, had had enough. In June 1999, Eidos and Ion Storm reached an agreement. Eidos got majority ownership of Ion Storm, and founders Todd Porter and Jerry O'Flaherty left the company. Todd Mitchell Porter is a computer and video game developer. ...

Despite this turmoil, and the departure of the fourth lead programmer on the project since its inception, Daikatana was nearing release. Ion Storm was confident enough in its progress to schedule a huge release party for December 17, 1999. This date came and went like all the previous ones, as the bug testing, ambitiously scheduled for a few weeks, dragged out into several months. On April 21, 2000, Daikatana finally reached gold status. December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... April 21 is the 111th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (112th in leap years). ... This article is about the year 2000. ...

The N64 Version

The N64 version of Daikatana has received particularly harsh criticism. Since it was rushed through development (it was released about 3 months after the PC version), significant concessions were made, and many of the "flaws" of the PC version were retained.

For one, the quality of the graphics was significantly lowered. In order to keep the framerate up, large amounts of fog were added to certain levels, particularly in Greece. The graphics were also blurred tremendously, possibly to hide low resolution textures. The level of blurriness increases an order of magnitude in the multiplayer mode as well, making it nearly unplayable.

Also, the characters Superfly Johnson and Mikiko Ebihara were completely removed from gameplay, which may strike the player as odd since they were retained in all of the cut scenes.

Controversy

The infamous Daikatana advertisement

From very early on in the game's development, Daikatana was aggressively advertised as the brainchild of John Romero, a man famous for his work at id Software in the development of Doom and Quake. Time magazine gave Romero and Daikatana glowing coverage, proclaiming "Everything that game designer John Romero touches turns to gore and gold."[1] An early advertisement for Daikatana, created by marketing guru Mike Wilson and approved by Romero, was a red poster with large black lettering proclaiming "John Romero's about to make you his bitch". Nothing else featured on this poster but a small tag-line reading "Suck It Down", along with an Ion Storm and Eidos logo. Image File history File links Bitchad. ... Image File history File links Bitchad. ... Alfonso John Romero (born October 28, 1967) is a well-known game designer, programmer, and developer in the video game industry. ... id Software (IPA: officially, though originally ) is an American computer game developer based in Mesquite, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. ... Doom (or DOOM)[1] is a 1993 computer game by id Software that is among the landmark titles in the first-person shooter genre. ... Zombies attacking the player. ... (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ...

Following its appearance in several gaming magazines, more negative news came out of Ion Storm, fueling distaste for the unreleased shooter. The lavish rockstar-like treatment given to Romero in his attempt to build a designer-centered game studio (including a multimillion-dollar office on the top floor of a Dallas skyscraper), Romero's well-publicized expensive tastes and hobbies (such as racing Ferraris), the dubious saga of Romero's girlfriend Stevie "Killcreek" Case being hired on as a level designer, and the game's development (which included most of the original development team quitting en masse to form a competing company), incited fierce disdain and criticism among certain elements of the then-emergent online gaming fan community. The press regularly published leaked gossip from disgruntled former (and current) employees, providing ample and regular doses of new drama to keep interest in the story high. Several online industry gossip websites came into existence primarily to track the unfolding debacle, some of which are still publishing today. Rock Star or Rockstar may refer to: Rock Star, a 2001 film starring Mark Wahlberg. ... Nickname: Big D Location in the state of Texas Country United States State Texas Counties Dallas, Collin, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall Incorporated 2 February 1856  - Mayor Laura Miller Area    - City  385. ... Ferrari is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. ... Stevana Case (born September 7, 1976) is a recognized figure in the video game industry. ... A level designer is a person who creates levels, challenges or missions for computer and/or video games using a specific set of programs. ...

Due to these and other problems, Daikatana was delayed multiple times from its conception in early 1997 to its eventual release in 2000. By this time, numerous games based on more advanced graphical technology (such as Id Software's Quake III and Epic MegaGames' Unreal Tournament) had already been released, causing Daikatana to lag technologically in the market with its dated Quake II game engine. Additionally, its gameplay had many aspects that were widely disliked by players, such as an artificially limited number of saves per level and the presence of computer-controlled "sidekicks" who were an active impediment to the player. As a result, Daikatana received mediocre reviews from reviewers and users alike. Many believe the fallout from Daikatana sidelined Romero's career in the high-end PC gaming industry for a number of years, though Romero himself has stated that he chose to make his next company, Monkeystone, drastically smaller for his own reasons. The game was a major contributing factor in the closure of Ion Storm's Dallas office. 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Quake III Arena or Quake 3, abbreviated as Q3A or Q3, is a multiplayer first-person shooter computer and video game released in 2000. ... Epic Games, formerly known as Epic MegaGames and also known as Epic, is a computer game development company based in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. ... Unreal Tournament, UT, (sometimes referred to as UT99 or UT Classic or UT1 to differentiate from Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004 and Unreal Tournament 2007) is a popular first-person shooter video game. ... The Quake II engine powers Quake II and several other games. ... Monkeystone Games logo Monkeystone Games is a video and computer game company founded by John Romero, Tom Hall, Stevie Case, and Brian Moon. ... The Dallas Chase Tower Ion Storm Inc. ...

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Daikatana at Game Rankings. Game Rankings. Retrieved on September 15, 2006.
2. ^ Kushner, David (2003). Masters of Doom. New York: Random House Inc.. ISBN 0-375-50524-5. 

Game Rankings is a website which keeps track of video game reviews from other sites, and combines them to present an average rating for each game. ... September 15 is the 258th day of the year (259th in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... David Kushner is a writer who has contributed to magazines like The New York Times, Rolling Stone and Salon. ...

External links

• Knee Deep In a Dream: The Story of Daikatana or alternative link at GameSpot
• Eidos' official Daikatana website
• John Romero's Daikatana website
• PlanetDaikatana website
• Slipgate Ironworks
• Daikatana at MobyGames

News articles

• The Dallas Observer's "Stormy Weather" expose on Daikatana's development problems from January 14, 1999
• Wired News: "Doom and Gloom at ION" from January 21, 1999
• The Dallas Observer's "Vapor War: ION Storm's Daikatana still isn't out, but several legal filings are" from April 29, 1999
• Salon Magazine's "The Waiting Game: Will John Romero's Daikatana ever hit the shelves?" from February 8, 2000