''Attack Retrieve Capture'' (ARC) was a free multiplayer, 2D
computer game created by John Vechey and Brian Fiete, who would go on to co-found
PopCap Games, as a college project and was later published by
Hoopy Entertainment in 1995.
The game was primarily
capture the flag
Capture the flag (CTF) is a traditional outdoor sport where two or more teams each have a flag (or other markers) and the objective is to capture the other team's flag, located at the team's "base", and bring it safely back to their own base. ...
(CTF), but other game modes existed. In the two-team CTF mode, each team tried to capture the other's flag(s). Players piloted small ships equipped with four types of weapons: lasers, missiles, bouncy lasers, and grenades.
Gameplay
There are two to four teams (green, red, blue, and yellow). Each player pilots a ship of his or her team's color. The ships move around a plane. There are obstacles which the ships cannot pass through (walls, areas with no floor, etc.) Ships are armed with a laser and a special weapon. When the laser is fired, its power drains. Laser power returns at a constant rate.
In Capture the Flag Mode, a team wins by bringing the other team's or teams' flags to their own flagpost corresponding to the color of the flag. A team may have multiple flags. There are also neutral flags, which are white. A player carrying a flag moves more slowly than normal; also, he or she cannot use a teleporter or move "against" a conveyor belt.
If a player drops a team flag (not white), a player from that team or another opposing team can pick up the flag after a few seconds. If a player touches their own dropped flag or the flag is left alone for a certain time, the flag is returned to its home post immediately. Neutral flags do not return by themselves.
In Switch Mode or button Mode, the map has one or more switches on it. A player claims a switch for their team by touching it. A team wins by gaining control of all the switches.
In Deathmatch Mode there are no team objectives. Players only attempt to kill each other to gain a high score.
History
Initially ARC was hosted on a server rented out by Hoopy at Ulink.net, an internet service provider in Sacramento, California. Clients ran it via HFront (Hoopy Front End), a program downloaded to serve as the game to support multiplayer mode. The original developers of ARC, John Vechey (jv) and Brian Fiete (bf), took ARC to
Total Entertainment Network
Total Entertainment Network (TEN) was an online game, online gaming service that existed from September 1996 until October 1999. T E Network, Inc., which created and operated the TEN service, was formed from the merger of Optigon Interactive and O ...
(TEN) (now pogo.com) in 1998 for its 1.0 release.
In 1999, TEN went under and ARC appeared to go with it. But by December 1999,
World Opponent Network
World Opponent Network (WON) was an online gaming service created by Sierra Games as the Sierra Internet Gaming System (SIGS). WON was used by games such as ''Homeworld'', ''Half-Life'', '' Outpost 2'', '' Star Trek: Armada'', '' Soldier of Fortu ...
(WON) had acquired ''ARC'' and began to run another beta test. During this time, WON attempted to make ''ARC'' a source of income, by adding advertisements into the game interface. However, the idea never got off the ground, and WON suffered the same fate as TEN in 2001. The future of ''ARC'' was again uncertain, but
Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genre ...
bought WON which included ARC. This kept ''ARC'' going under much the same operation as WON had. A few updates were added to ''ARC'' but these were only security fixes. In 2002, development was handed to a community member with the alias Err0r. Err0r resigned on April 21, 2005 handing the lead administrator role over to Goose and Sonique, who were Co-Lead Administrators until Sierra eventually terminated ''ARC''.
Termination
On July 16, 2007, Sierra Entertainment posted a news release on their website expressing intentions to terminate multiplayer support for several Sierra Heritage titles (including ''ARC'') as of August 16, 2007.
Reception
Christ Centered Gamer gave ''ARC'' and overall rating of B.
References
External links
ARC Headquarters (official)ARC on gamerankings.com*
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* {{Cite web, url=https://www.4gamer.net/games/071/G007198/20110305003/, title=[GDC 2011]カジュアルゲームの雄,PopCap Gamesが語る「Bejeweled」ができるまで。世界中でヒット中のパズルゲームは,どのようにして作られたのか, last=Inc, first=Aetas, website=www.4gamer.net, language=ja, access-date=2019-01-25
1995 video games
Multiplayer online games
Sierra Entertainment games