MDK is a 1997 third-person shooter video game developed by Shiny Entertainment for Microsoft Windows. It was ported to M
Read moreMDK is a 1997 third-person shooter video game developed by Shiny Entertainment for Microsoft Windows. It was ported to Mac OS by Shokwave, and to the PlayStation by Neversoft. It was published on all systems by PIEin North America, with Shiny Entertainment publishing it themselves in Europe. The Windows version was released in April 1997, the Mac version in June and the PlayStation version in November. The game was released on GOG.com in September 2008, and on Steam in September 2009.The game tells the story of Kurt Hectic, a janitor who reluctantly must attempt to save Earth from an alien invasion of gigantic strip mining city-sized vehicles named "Minecrawlers". These Minecrawlers are removing all of earth's natural resources, and crushing any people and cities that get in their way. Aided by his boss, the possibly insane inventor and scientist Dr. Fluke Hawkins, and a robotic two-legged/four-armed dog named Bones, Kurt must infiltrate each Minecrawler, and fight his way to the pilot, whom he must then kill before returning to Hawkins' in-orbit space station, the Jim Dandy.Conceived and co-designed by Nick Bruty, MDK was Shiny's first PC game, and was notable for using software rendering, requiring a Pentium or equivalent microprocessor, rather than necessitating any GPU enhancements, despite its large 3D levels and complex polygon-based enemies. As the developers were attempting things never before seen in a PC game, they had to write their own programming language from scratch. Additionally, when in sniper mode, the player has the ability to zoom up to 100x, but the developers chose not to employ any of the standard solutions to pop-up, such as clipping or fogging. They also worked to ensure the game ran at a minimum of 30fps at all times on all machines. The game's original system requirements were a 60MHz Pentium, 16MB of RAM, 17MB of hard drive storage, an SVGA compatible video card, and a Sound Blaster or equivalent sound card; modest specs even by the standards of the time.MDK received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the gameplay, the level design, the sardonic sense of humor, the game's technical accomplishments and, in particular, the use of sniper mode. The most oft repeated criticisms were that the game was too short and the story was weak. The game was a commercial success, and Interplay approached Bruty to work on a sequel immediately. However, he was already developing Giants: Citizen Kabuto, and so BioWare was hired to develop the game. MDK2 was published for Windows and the Dreamcast in 2000, and for the PlayStation 2 (as MDK 2: Armageddon) in 2001. In 2007, Interplay announced a third game was planned, but it was never made.
