The Death Trap (Game)

The Death Trap

GAME » on October 1984

FM-7 (Platform)NEC PC-8801 (Platform)NEC PC-9801 (Platform)

An adventure game released in 1984. It was Squaresoft's first game and was a commercial hit on Japanese computers. The plot has similarities to the later MSX game Metal Gear (1987).

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Overview

This was the first game developed by Squaresoft (Company), as the first part of the Death Trap (Franchise) trilogy, followed by Will: The Death Trap II and Alpha (Game). The Death Trap was the first game written and designed by what would become its most famous game designer, Hironobu Sakaguchi (Person). It was also programmed by Hiromichi Tanaka (Person), who would later be the designer and writer for Alpha, the third and final part of the trilogy. It is an adventure game with basic Japanesetext input and graphics that represent locations, people, and objects. There are different routes the player could take at some points in the game, adding some replay value. The game went on to sell over 500,000 copies, more than any other computer game released up until that time. Its success paved the way for a hit sequel, Will: The Death Trap II, in 1985.

Plot

The game's plot is set during the 1980s. In the game, the Cold War (Concept) has become tense, and many countries have begun to prepare for a global-scale war, working on new weapons. One such country is the mysterious "B country" in Eastern Africa, which in an attempt to create biological weapons kidnaps the famous scientist Dr. Gitanes. An agent named Benson is sent to B country in order to rescue the doctor and avert the new threat to world peace.

Trivia

The game's plot has some similarities to the later Metal Gear (Franchise) series. Metal Gear (Game) (1987) is similarly set during the Cold War and involves a special agent (Solid Snake (Character)) sent on a rescue mission to a rogue nation in Africa (Outer Heaven (Location)) that is threatening world peace after kidnapping a scientist (Dr. Madnar) developing a new weapon (Metal Gear (Object)).
Long before Final Fantasy IX (Game), Hironobu Sakaguchi (Person) had already used the name ジタン (Jitan), the Japanese name of Zidane Tribal (Character), in The Death Trap. ジタン is romanized "Gitanes" in The Death Trap and "Zidane" in Final Fantasy IX, but it is the same word in Japanese.

External links

Hironobu Sakaguchi: "The Lost Art of Telling a Story", RetroGamer

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