Chapter 1

THE EARLY YEARS

Part 3

An Uphill Climb

Mr. Hughes sat down at his work desk on February 4, 1983, with one goal in mind: to produce the best possible video games that would appeal to the most possible consumers. Thus, he began work on The Knights of Camelot, the very first game developed and published by Toolbox Interactive.

Mr. Hughes programmed the game to be playable on popular AAM computer models of the time, as well as other computers that were compatible with AAM software. Originally, Mr. Hughes wanted to program the game for the Govodore 64 and its predecessor, the MIC-10, but Govodore charged a higher price for developing software for its computers than other manufacturers – a deterrent for keeping poor-quality programs off of its hardware.

Obviously, Mr. Hughes did not have the money to pay the fees for Govodore's systems, so he settled on the cheaper AAM and AAM-derivative platforms. In addition, he could not afford to submit his games for critical review, or pay the fees for Quentin Video Services to produce and distribute the games in areas beyond the American Southeast, so he focused on having his games sold at computer hobbyist shops in the greater Atlanta metropolitan area and other major Southern cities, such as Raleigh, Birmingham, and Savannah.

After eleven weeks of work, The Knights of Camelot was released on April 22, 1983. The plot of the game centered around finding the Holy Grail for King Arthur, who had been inflicted with a mysterious illness by an evil alchemist. The goal of players was to find the Grail and fill it with holy water blessed by the bishop of Arthur's castle, then bring it back to King Arthur so he could drink from the Grail and be cured of his illness. Players were able to command a small group of Knights of the Round Table, the knights being Sir Lancelot, Sir Bedivere, Sir Claudin, and Sir Erec, in their journey to and from the Grail's location.

The gameplay of The Knights of Camelot consisted of fighting enemy knights, evil wizards, barghests, and gargoyles, with more powerful versions of those enemies serving as bosses at the end of individual sections of the game, and a dragon serving as the final boss of the game. Players were able to switch between using a sword to attack enemies and using a shield to defend the knights. Only one knight was usable at a time, whom could be switched with another knight at campsites that served as checkpoints (as this was before Mr. Hughes began using save game states as gamers know them today, however, players' progress was reset to the beginning at game startup), or if he was killed by enemies, at which point the knight was permanently removed from the game state in progress. The knights could have their damage healed by drinking the holy water, both before and after retrieving the Holy Grail, but drinking too much of the holy water would leave an insufficient amount to heal King Arthur, which would fail the game.

The Knights of Camelot was met with positive reception from computer gamers from across Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and the Carolinas. Many players praised the game's enjoyable gameplay to their friends and to the retailers they bought their copy from, the latter of which quoted their satisfied customers' statements in in-store sales pitches. The game ultimately sold almost nineteen thousand copies, earning Toolbox Interactive more than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars – a pitiably small amount by today's standards, but a significant success for a company just starting out in the early 80s. The game is currently available on Grid, Toolbox's digital distribution, multimedia, and multiplayer platform for PCs and Toolbox's proprietary Horizon and Horizon 2 consoles, for five United States dollars, as well as being a complimentary free download for all members that joined the service prior to November 2, 2009.

Emboldened by his success with The Knights of Camelot, Mr. Hughes immediately began work on Cannon Duel!, the second game released by Toolbox Interactive. One of several "artillery games" that was released in the early 80s, Cannon Duel!'s gameplay was much the same as many of its counterparts, consisting of players controlling a single artillery unit in turn-based combat against a computer-controlled enemy artillery unit. Using the cannon involved inputting firing coordinates into an on-screen command box. The game had individual levels that took place in a variety of locations, such as a desert, a jungle, and a city.

Cannon Duel! was released on June 17, 1983. The game was not given the same positive reception that The Knights of Camelot had, with general criticism concerning its "uninspired" gameplay. Players were not impressed by its simplistic nature compared to The Knights of Camelot, but some did concede that it did have relatively interesting visuals. Nonetheless, many gamers who owned a copy of both The Knights of Camelot and Cannon Duel! made it clear that they thought that Toolbox didn't put as much effort as they put in the former into the latter.

Cannon Duel! sold slightly over eleven thousand copies and barely managed to earn Toolbox Interactive a hundred thousand dollars. It is not available for retail on Grid or any other legitimate modern digital platform, due to Mr. Hughes' refusal to release the program after its original distribution. He has said he is "embarrassed" by the game and prefers to discuss as little about it as possible.

Mr. Hughes was left depressed by the lackluster performance of Cannon Duel!. In his self-admitted hubris, he believed that several gamers would buy Cannon Duel! regardless of its quality – an attitude that was dangerously reminiscent of many Nevarri executives' impressions about Dot-Guy and AL. Taking a month off from developing video games, Mr. Hughes took the time to rethink his work ethic and integrity. Recalling his admiration for the Japanese work ethic, Mr. Hughes swore he would never take the people who enjoyed his games for granted ever again.

Mr. Hughes also took advantage of the time he took off to brainstorm game ideas, as well as take some time to a play a small selection of recently purchased computer games. One of the games he played was the critically-acclaimed Ultra II: The Warlock's Vendetta, a groundbreaking computer roleplaying game created by renowned video game designer Richard Chariott and part of the expansive Ultra franchise, currently owned by Electronic Mass Productions. Influenced by Ultra II, Mr. Hughes wanted to eventually remake The Knights of Camelot as a roleplaying game and update its graphics and gameplay. However, the hardware of the AAM PCs he was developing for was too limited for what he envisioned; this made him more determined than ever to eventually obtain a license to develop games for the Govodore 64.

Returning to work on July 27, Mr. Hughes began developing Adventures on the High Seas!, Toolbox's third released game. Adventures on the High Seas! put players in the boots of a pirate captain during the Golden Age of Piracy, with the objective of becoming the most famous pirate in the Caribbean. Players start the game in the port of Havana, having just obtained ownership of a schooner and also having hired a crew. Players were then given the opportunity to name their ship; the player character wasn't given the ability to be named, however, being simply referred to as "Captain" throughout the game.

Gameplay consisted of sailing the expanse of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, searching for ships to attack and plunder. Ships that could be attacked varied between civilian schooners that were easy to attack but contained few valuables, other pirate ships that were more heavily armed but also carried more goods to steal, and frigates belonging to the "Royal Navy" of an unnamed country, which contained the highest amount of valuables but were the most difficult to attack. Valuables that were claimed by players could then be taken to a small number of ports and sold for supplies and upgrades, including new cannons, food, medical supplies and even buying new ships. The game officially ends after five Royal Navy ships or fifteen pirate ships have been defeated, at which point the player is immediately sent back to Havana, where the governor declares them to be "The King of the High Seas." After this, however, players were allowed to continue playing as long as they wanted until they turned the game off.

Adventures on the High Seas! was released on October 3, 1983. The game was met with very positive reception from gamers, especially compared to Cannon Duel!. Many players considered its gameplay basic but enjoyable, and considered the visual design to be excellent for a game made for AAM platforms. Due to the lukewarm reception of Cannon Duel!, however, and also due to the '83 Crash being at its height, Adventures did not sell as well as The Knights of Camelot, but still was more successful than the previous game, selling more than sixteen thousand copies and earning almost one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Like The Knights of Camelot, Adventures on the High Seas! is available on Grid for PCs and both Horizon consoles for five dollars, and is a complimentary free download for members who joined prior to November 2, 2009.

Two week after the release of Adventures, Mr. Hughes received a letter from Jason Paul, a manager at Georgia Contracting Services, LLC, a local contracting company. Mr. Paul had bought a copy of Adventures on the High Seas! and greatly enjoyed the game, recognizing that Mr. Hughes's talent could extend beyond developing video games. He offered to provide Mr. Hughes with occasional contract work to supplement his income, and Toolbox Interactive's income by extension. Mr. Hughes accepted the offer, and Toolbox Interactive, Inc., and Georgia Contracting Services, LLC, which Mr. Paul is now vice president of, have maintained a mutually beneficial relationship since then.

For a few weeks, Mr. Hughes put any further development of video games on hold while he worked on a few contracts at a slightly lower rate than what Mr. Paul offered him, out of thanks for giving him the opportunity to improve Toolbox Interactive's finances. Among the contracts he performed included playtesting a game for Active Visionaries, and helping develop an improved inventory software for the Cobb County Public Library System. By the time he finished his work shortly before Thanksgiving, he had earned thirty-five thousand dollars for Toolbox Interactive. His work on the library software also influenced him to eventually begin work on Gear, Toolbox Interactive's first independently-developed video game software engine, which was also one of the very first software engines designed specifically for developing games; he realized that the base software available on his computer wasn't powerful enough for the games he had planned for development on the G64. To be able to develop these games to the fullest extent of his ambitions, he had to utilize the hardware he had available on his computer to its limits and create his own custom programming and design software.

Still, Mr. Hughes believed he was not yet ready to develop an engine. He had plans to negotiate a larger production and distribution contract with Quentin Video Services, which would give him a wider customer base across the east coast of the United States. He also needed to purchase computer hardware to replace some of his current equipment; while his computer was state-of-the-art, the retail-configured hardware was not suited for the modifications necessary for developing a custom-built game programming software. He also planned to begin submitting his work for critical review, hoping that having his work appraised by critics would be a better way for Toolbox to sell more copies of its games than by word of mouth. Finally, Mr. Hughes planned to hire a law firm to handle much of Toolbox Interactive's legal work for him, freeing up more of his time to work on our company's products.

To do all this, though, he needed more money to afford everything he had planned, and to still leave Toolbox Interactive enough money to keep it operational and as far away from potential bankruptcy. Thus, on January 4, 1984, Mr. Hughes began work on The Silver Knights, Toolbox Interactive's fourth game and its first roleplaying game, to earn the money necessary for his planned projects, as well as to function as an unofficial prototype of the Knights of Camelot remake and an experiment to see if he could develop quality RPG titles.

The Silver Knights is set in the fictional world of Fulcrum, on the continent of Avalon, a fertile region which encompasses the kingdoms of Cornucopia and Harvest, as well as more than a dozen different fiefdoms that pledged their loyalty to one nation or the other. The two kingdoms had coexisted peacefully and prosperously for almost five hundred years after the death of the dark wizard Malefactor, who had waged a bloody ten year campaign with his undead army to conquer the continent until his defeat at the hands of the legendary Three Heroes: a dwarf warrior, an elf mage, and a human rogue. The Three Heroes destroyed Malefactor in both his physical and corporeal forms, banishing him to the Plain of the Forgotten, a realm of the underworld where the most evil beings forget who they were in life, doomed to wander the featureless void with the agony of never knowing their identity. For their role in Malefactor's defeat, the Three Heroes were christened "The Silver Knights" by the rulers of the two kingdoms, although they became more known by their folk names as the years moved on.

However, shortly prior to the beginning of the game, a small Malefactor-worshipping cult in Harvest managed to resurrect their dark lord, who rewarded them by killing them all, driven into a crazed rage by the return of his memories. After that, he used dark magic to bind the cultists' souls to cursed armor he crafted from their bones, making them his lieutenants in the undead army he would rebuild for his second campaign to conquer Avalon. Harvest and several of its vassals fell within a year, and Malefactor turned his ambitions towards Cornucopia.

After three years of losing more and more ground to Malefactor's army, Queen Benevolent, the wise ruler of Cornucopia, reluctantly resurrected the Three Heroes with the same technique that the cultists used to resurrect Malefactor, using her life as the power to bring them back to life. After being informed by her grieving daughter, Princess Rose, of the situation, the Three Heroes set out to defeat Malefactor and his dark legion, bringing peace back to Avalon.

The gameplay of The Silver Knights is slightly more complex than The Knights of Camelot. Players travel from the outer edges of Cornucopia's capital, which are serving as the frontlines of the war, to Malefactor's fortress deep within Harvest, fighting against the lieutenants and the lesser soldiers of Malefactor's army, as well as against monsters that roam the countryside, and bandits that take advantage of the chaos to prey upon refugees. Combat against encountered enemies is turn-based, with the warrior and rogue able to target three different areas of enemies to attack, and the mage able to use three different spells. The final battle against Malefactor is the only time players are able to use all three characters at once.

The Silver Knights retains The Knights of Camelot's feature of switching between different characters at campsites, and expands upon it so that each character is needed to accomplish certain tasks. The warrior is the strongest of the party, using a longsword to fight enemies, followed by the mage, who uses spells, with the rogue being the weakest, using a bow to fight enemies from afar. The warrior can fight stronger monsters and destroy barricades, the wizard can fight phantoms and dispel Malefactor's Nodes of Power, and the rogue can pick locks on doors and treasure chests and find hidden items. Visiting campsites also completely restores health for the character being switched out. The aforementioned Nodes of Power serve as magical conduits for Malefactor, distributing power to his army; destroying the Nodes makes the undead enemies in the region weaker, making survivability while playing as the mage and the rogue better.

The Silver Knights was released on March 26, 1984, to widespread acclaim from gamers. The game was praised for its engaging gameplay and excellent narrative; the former was especially lauded for challenging gamers to think about how they wanted to approach each area they visited. Even though Mr. Hughes didn't submit The Silver Knights for critical review, various local newspapers around Atlanta, Savannah, Birmingham, and St. Petersburg featured the game as the main article for their media sections, with all writers strongly recommending that gamers purchase the game. The Silver Knights sold approximately twenty-six thousand copies, earning almost two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and becoming Toolbox Interactive's best-selling game yet released. It is available on Grid for all platforms for five dollars.

The fame and success of The Silver Knights extended beyond what Mr. Hughes expected of it. Early in the game's distribution, several businesses in New England, having heard of its success, placed special orders with Quentin Video Services for copies of the game; more than five thousand copies were sold in shops across the American Northeast. The success of the game brought the attention of the mainstream gaming community on Toolbox Interactive for the first time. A small number of critical reviews that took place a few years after the game's initial release were very positive; the review by Game Hero's Ed Harriett noted the game's excellent gameplay and well-written narrative for its time, and for its role in establishing Toolbox's reputation for making high-quality titles. Retrospective critical review has also been positive – The Silver Knights was ranked number five in Informed Gamer's "Top 10 Underrated Classics of the 80s", and was given the same position in the Global Gaming News Network's (GGNN) "Top 10 80s Games That Deserves A Reboot Or A Remake".

With the success of The Silver Knights, Mr. Hughes finally had the money and public exposure he needed to act on his plans. He acquired the services of Frederick, Stahlberg and Co., LLC as Toolbox's official law firm, who successfully renegotiated Toolbox's contract with Quentin Video Services; after Mr. Hughes paid the necessary adjustment fees, Quentin Video Services extended the sale of all Toolbox games throughout their eastern United States distribution area. He then purchased a number of hardware components he needed to create the development software he had envisioned, including a more powerful graphics processing unit to handle the design of games for the Govodore 64.

For four months, Mr. Hughes put all other tasks aside as he worked on his new development software, giving it the name "Gear" to match the construction-based nature of Toolbox's name. Gear's programming allowed for the creating of more advanced 8-bit graphics, as well as improved audio functionality, allowing for monosyllabic sounds and basic soundtracks to be implemented in Toolbox's games. He also included programming for improved save states, allowing for players to be able to resume their progress at game startup if they quit the game before finishing it. Having noted that some gamers were bringing up concerns that it was difficult to master the controls and gameplay of games being developed at the time without an in-game learning tool, Mr. Hughes also decided that Toolbox Interactive would adopt the increasingly popular practice of including tutorial sections in its future games.

At long last, on August 18, 1984, Mr. Hughes finished work on Gear, and immediately began work on the remake of The Knights of Camelot and Toolbox's first game for the Govodore 64: The Quest for the Holy Grail.

Please proceed to Chapter 1, Part 4: "Claim to Fame."