Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:chuappgame, author: etc.

In those days, almost all video games were pirated software in Iran.

In 2005, when the author began his career as a journalist in Iran, it was generally believed that the rise of the Iranian game industry represented by "Quest of Persia: The End of Innocence" and "Nejat-e Bandar" was just in recent years. Since then, I have been studying the complete history of Iranian games and found several older works that were born in the mid-1990s.

In an article published some time ago, the author summarized the history of the Iranian game industry as comprehensively as possible through the research, collation and field investigation of the relevant information on the print media and the Internet. at that time, it was considered that the Tank Hunter produced by Honafa Gams Studio was the first Iranian game to be released to the public. But it wasn't long before an Iranian developer named Ramin ZafarAzizi contacted me on social media to show me some documentation for the development and production of Alibaba and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves-a game released in 1995, months earlier than the just-mentioned Tank Hunter.

The relevant materials of "Alibaba and the 40 Thieves" can be traced back to 1993, and Zafa Aziz classified them, including magazine reports, videos, source code, and even official registration information with the Iranian scientific and technological research organization. According to these documents, the author can basically conclude that it is the first Iranian game in history. But before telling the story of its development, let's take a brief look at what happened to Iran's gaming and technology industries in 1979-1989.

In 1985, when the first Atari 2600 came to Iran, most recreational activities and even some sports were considered illegal during the previous turbulent period, when the Iranian monarchy was overthrown at the end of 1978. It wasn't long before the current government, known as the Islamic Republic of Iran, was formed. At that time, the whole country was in turmoil, rebellion continued, and various violent incidents such as assassinations, bombings and terrorist attacks occurred frequently, which eventually led to the subsequent "Iranian hostage crisis" and the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq war. During that period, all social and technological progress in Iran came to a complete standstill.

With the end of the war, Iranians began to understand the series of advances made in foreign science and technology over the past decade. Prior to this, the first batch of game consoles represented by Atari 2600 and Pong knockoffs have appeared in Iran, but they are sold on the black market without the participation of official organizations or companies. After a decade of silence, the craze for video games is coming.

In Iran, magazine media tend to write game reviews and popular science articles, and self-taught computer people are very interested in these games. In 1990, as the Iranian public finally had access to computers and game hardware, some people began to try to develop their own games, and Ramanzafa Aziz was one of them.

A game console called "Video Master" introduced by Daneshmand magazine in 1976 appears to be the first game device released in Iran. Raman was born in 1967 and graduated from Azad University in Tehran with a bachelor's degree in graphic design. He showed great artistic talent from an early age, often tinkering with wooden handicrafts, writing stories, drawing, and enjoying making electronic and mechanical equipment. In addition, he also taught himself the ability to create electronic music.

At the age of 16, Raman designed a mechanical engine and registered it as an original invention in the Iranian Scientific and technological Research Organization. At the age of 18, he wrote another science fiction novel called "The Strange Journe", which was published in the magazine Javanan in serial form.

In his father's toy store, Raman sold some computer software and hardware and developed Alibaba and the 40 Thieves in his spare time. "A game is a complete ecosystem, which is probably the most important reason why I am willing to invest my time and energy." "you can create a new world from scratch, and games are the only medium with this kind of interaction, and these features are very attractive to me," Raman said. "

"at that time, there was no Internet in Iran, and there were no textbooks or articles on game programming. I was good at Basic. I had some programming experience on ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amiga computers, but not enough to make a complete video game, so I began to learn assembly and Qbasic."

Alibaba and the Forty Thieves is a 2D horizontal scroll platform game that is very similar to the original Prince of Persia released in 1989 in terms of play, art style and animation. At first, it just wanted to move the characters smoothly on the screen. Some friends and other programmers often come to the store to discuss how to get the characters moving. A friend told me it was absolutely impossible, but I was determined to finish the project and proved him wrong. "

It wasn't long before Raman succeeded in getting the character to move the way he wanted. But another programmer friend insisted that it was impossible for him to develop a video game in Iran because he simply could not get enough resources. But Raman did not give up, but worked hard to overcome many difficulties, and finally completed Alibaba and the Forty Thieves.

During the development process, Raman used the Deluxe Paint software for digital painting and created all the material with a trackball mouse. The game contains about 140 art materials and 5 levels, and there is a passing animation between each level. The name of the game comes from the classic folktale in "1001 Nights". Even if you don't know the story of Alibaba, you must have heard the famous mantra-Sesame Open door.

The game was launched at the end of 1995, and most of the copies were sold in my father's toy store. A few months later, Rahman was interviewed by a number of computer magazines in Iran. In 1997, the Iranian Science and Technology Research Organization provided a booth for Rahman to show the game at the Tehran International Exhibition. In 1999, he also participated in the first Iranian multimedia exhibition held in Tehran.

Raman attended the 1997 Tehran International Fair with his first game. In October 1995, the Iranian computer magazine Elm Electronic va Computer (still published today) conducted an interview with Raman and published an article in November of the same year (issue 243).

In April 1997, the magazine published a short information article in issue 255, introducing readers to an enhanced version of Alibaba and the Forty Thieves, mainly adding music sound effects, theatrical animation, Persian dubbing and several 3D levels, as well as support in Persian, Arabic and English.

In the same year, Rayane, another Iranian computer magazine, wrote an article about "Alibaba and the 40 thieves" and called it the first Iranian computer game in history. In 2000, Iranian state television invited Rahman to appear on a television program to talk about the story of game development.

The article begins by saying: "Alibaba and the 40 Thieves, developed by Parsin Soft Studio, is the first Iranian computer game in history." Although Rahman may be the first game developer in Iranian history, around the same time, another person named Maham Saman Paji developed Iran's first Commodore 64 game, Beauty and the Beast (Beauty and the Beast), which was released in 1996. Like Rahman, Maham had to promote his game on his own.

Unfortunately, the sales of their games were dismal. It has been revealed that Alibaba and the 40 Thieves have only sold about 130 copies. Maham is not sure about the exact sales, and his guess is between 200 and 300.

In those days, almost all video games were pirated software in Iran, and Iranian publishers could easily copy and sell games without having to negotiate with the original developers and publishers or pay any share of the profits. As a result, the vast majority of Iranian issuers are reluctant to invest in domestic products. Since Prince of Persia 2 (1992), Flashback (1993) and Doom 2 (1994) can be sold at will, why take the risk of investing in Alibaba and the 40 Thieves?

"We are not welcome in the market because publishers think it is risky and do not want to invest in games made by the Iranians themselves." Rahman said.

The play of "the Great War" is very similar to the classic PC game "Thunder Veyron" (Raptor: Call of the Shadows) released in 1994. Since the release of "Alibaba and the 40 Thieves", Raman has been working on the new game "the Great War" (The Big War). As a shooting work from a downward perspective. But after the development was completed, Raman never found investors willing to provide R & D funding or release the game, so the game never entered the market.

Rahman spent five years creating two games, but had to say goodbye to the industry because he ran out of money. But he recently started a new studio, Rahamin, and is currently working on his third work, "Zoono," an action adventure game similar to "Limbo," and Raman is the only developer on the project. This time, instead of waiting for investors to provide funding, he raised money through platforms such as Kickstater and Patreon.

This article is compiled from: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/ culture / the-history-of-iran-s-very-first-video-game

Original title: "The history of Iran's very first video game: Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves"

Original author: Arash Hackimi

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.