[Flying Techbot]

It was an idea that I had after taking an interest in John Dryden's and Alexander Pope's mock epic poetry. I inspired to write this, because I was saddened by the aftermath of DNF's development, including the backlash at its final form, and I had been wondering why it happened this way. I was intruiged by the WIRED article about DNF's problematic development history, and while I do agree Broussard had some serious hamartia (serious flaws), I was still fascinated with what he was trying to do. I decided that this was befitting of a mock epic, like the subject of Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel (which involved the failed rebellion of Charles II's bastard son). Like Dryden, I want capture the feelings involved with the even, and to grasp the whole picture of the event, even while satirizing all figures involved. This is just a taster for a bigger concept. It's just a preamble to the main poem. Be warned: there may be bad punning and awkward rhyming I just thought it might be of interest to Duke4.net. It'll get better.

Note: The Earl of Radiation is my parody of Duke Nukem. He's thick accented Austrian (like Arnold) solider of fortune, and his first two game involved him fighting the Molecular Man and his mutants, and a planet robots. TER 3D Had him fight cyborgs. It'll be developed more later.

The Epic Recitation of the Many Year Development of the Earl of Radiation Endurinly, Part 1

The time was the 90s, an optimistic age,
Long precluding the most wretched page
Of the history of video games in early 21st century
Before the old gaming cavaliers melted popular games into mercury
The virtual progress of the Nipponese had their effect
In the 1980s with the North American youths they did connect
By promoting newer and better graphics, concepts, and gameplay
So evermore did the U.S. companies follow their sway
And it was for the IBN computers and similar devices
Whom the ambitious entrepreneurs earned their licenses
To develop new games for a minority of consumers
Which would inevitably lead to the time of the BOOMers
But let us go back to that early part of the 90s
Concerning that little company Prodigee and its little niceties
Then we will migrate to when Prodigee became 4D Realms
And how, in the 21st century, lost its helm
With The Earl of Radiation Enduringly, that beast
Which thus spoiled what would have been a nourishing feast
Ho! You may scoff, sneer, and dismiss this as junk
But the cavaliers of old to your views may debunk
For they, like I, remember the time
When there so much potential for this tragic lime
To know our sorrow, and the lamentable state of 4D Realms
Take a look at what they were before they lost the helm
Once they were great, the sellers of generic coddlers
Those which we cherished as when we were toddlers
Lo, I’m losing my focus, let me begin my oration
In a manner most befitting the court of the English Restoration

By the intuition of Scotch Reeve and Hanover Buzzard
The facilities for Prodigee software was acquired
That wonderful little company, for the IBN did they make
Ruby Caverns, Spy, and Rake
Galactoid’s Galactic Experience, Dead Day Henry, and Creature Slash
And The Earl of Radiation, all in a dash
At their side was Ego Software, who did make
For Lietenant Acute, Schnitzel 3D, Boom 1 and 2, and Fake
But split away when Prodigee were deemed low
In how far their business prospects should go
And they intelligently halted Prodigee before they could do
A sequel to their franchise, Schnitzel 3D-2
No harm was done, for with engine did they heavily mod
That award winning seller, The Emergence of the Quad
Its better graphics and gameplay gave quite an itch
To fellow games Apostate, and its sequel Witch
By emulating the first-person formula, Prodigee was at the helm
And came to call themselves 4D Realms