SunDog: Frozen Legacy

SunDog: Frozen Legacy
Box Cover, Illustrated by David R. Darrow
Developer(s)	FTL Games
Publisher(s)	FTL Games/Accolade
Designer(s)	Bruce Webster & Wayne Holder (Apple II) Wayne Holder, Doug Bell, Mike Newton and Andy Jaros (Atari ST)
Programmer(s)	Bruce Webster (Apple II)
Platform(s)	Apple II, Atari ST
Release	1984
Genre(s)	Space trading game, role-playing video game
Mode(s)	Single player

SunDog: Frozen Legacy is a 1984 space trading and combat simulator video game. SunDog was first developed for the Apple II, with version 1.0 being released in March 1984, and version 1.1 (bug fixes) released three weeks later. Version 2.0, which included enhancements and improved performance, was released in October, 1984. A greatly enhanced version was released for the Atari ST in December 1985. Although FTL intended to release further games in the series, this was pre-empted by the tremendous success of their follow-on effort, Dungeon Master.

The first game produced by FTL Games, and the only game programmed by Bruce Webster, SunDog not only stored an impressive amount of data in the limited 64K of the Apple II, it also implemented a GUI inspired by the pioneering interface developed at Xerox PARC.

The player begins the game with a top-down view of a spaceship, the player's character represented by a white circle in the center. All actions are controlled by the joystick (or joystick and mouse on the Atari ST). By moving the cursor and clicking a joystick button, the player moves the character about the screen and controls all action in the game.

The player, as Zed, finds himself aboard the SunDog. A quick inspection of the ship finds many systems damaged and several destroyed components. A quick visit to the city's Commodity Exchange finds some goods belonging to the SunDog's captain (now Zed). Zed's bank account holds a few thousand credits (money). Zed's uncle made a contract with a colony to supply them with various goods throughout their settlement. With nothing else to go on, the player must find the colony and attempt to fulfil Zed's uncle's contract.

The cities in SunDog vary in size, though all appear to be neatly laid out. They contain ship parts shops, hotels, gun shops, restaurants/bars and banks. If the player wanders about on foot for long, they'll eventually encounter others. Some are beggars, some are hawkers trying to sell him items, but most are thugs who'll attempt to mug him. If the player has taken appropriate precautions (and is a good shot), he can sometimes turn the tables on the hoodlums. With the use of bluffs or threats, sometimes he can avoid getting mugged without the use of a gun.