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Hi guys.
I’m not ashamed to admit that one of the late, great Big Dave’s legacies is that he got me totally hooked on Night Raider. I think it was Tom Kisler who actually introduced me to it, and I know he and Paul Crozier have both played it, but Big Dave and I used to enjoy competing and trash-talking about each other’s scores—it was SO much fun!
Night Raider is (was) a simple online video game which wonderfully mimicked the torpedo shooter arcade games of old (most specifically, Midway/Sega’s Sea Wolf) which many of us submarine-obsessed types would find and glom onto outside of movie theaters back in the ’70s and early ’80s. (For a terrific primer on the whole subject of submarine arcade games, see Paul Crozier’s thorough treatise about same on page 46 of Issue #73 of the SCR.)
Some years back, a small video game development company by the name of Celtronic Labs created an exciting and faithful online/video version of this sub arcade game called, as I’ve said, Night Raider. Here’s a link to the company website’s promo page about it:
If the above link doesn’t work for you, here’s a screen shot of the same page from the site…
And for anyone further curious, here’s a screen shot of the game’s actual interface from my iPhone:
Night Raider was created by a very talented gentleman (and a nice guy too, I’ve exchanged emails with him) named Steve (I never did learn his last name, however). Steve was at one point—or perhaps still is—a SubCommittee member, and at least knew of Big Dave’s interest in Night Raider, if not necessarily having been friends with him personally. And he is also now a top-notch I.T. guy for a big corporation somewhere, and so apparently has little if any time nowadays for keeping up with his former game-writing pursuits.
So here’s the problem: Night Raider has gone obsolete!
It’s no longer available for download from the Apple Store, and no longer runs on the current version of Apple’s iOS. (I don’t know about any Android version, but suspect the same conditions apply.) As such, the game app needs an upgrade from its creator (or someone he’s willing to hire to do the work for him) to be able to return to the phones and tablets of fanatics like me. I’ve been in touch with Steve several times over the last months, and I’m afraid I’ve been something of a thorn in his side (sorry, Steve!) by pestering him to address the situation. I’ve even offered to personally pay him for his upgrade development time—which I suppose would require some evening or weekend hours—and said offer remains on the table. So far though, no luck.
At one point Steve told me he believed no one was much interested in playing his game. I’ve tried to convince him otherwise, and hope that actually doing so might help him to find it worth his while to bring Night Raider back to playable status.
That’s where you guys come in.
Below are Steve’s two email addresses. Would you consider writing him to let him know his upgrade efforts would not be in vain, that Porteous wouldn’t be the only guy playing if he brought Night Raider back to life by investing some time in his off hours? I’d really appreciate it. And I’m sure that Big Dave, watching these efforts from somewhere out on Eternal Patrol, would love to see the game back in circulation and being played again too. I freely admit to wanting to reestablish my own regular Night Raider fixes, but I also think it’s important to have these simple, throwback video pastimes still available in today’s ultraviolent, graphic and bloody game arena. I mean, wouldn’t you just love to see your kids putting a few skimmers on the bottom, taking after the Old Man?
Thanks for reading, and let’s hope anyone interested is soon able to command his own night-raiding Type VII again soon!
Best to you all,
Jeff Porteous
steve426@cox.net
contact@celtroniclabs.com
I’m not ashamed to admit that one of the late, great Big Dave’s legacies is that he got me totally hooked on Night Raider. I think it was Tom Kisler who actually introduced me to it, and I know he and Paul Crozier have both played it, but Big Dave and I used to enjoy competing and trash-talking about each other’s scores—it was SO much fun!
Night Raider is (was) a simple online video game which wonderfully mimicked the torpedo shooter arcade games of old (most specifically, Midway/Sega’s Sea Wolf) which many of us submarine-obsessed types would find and glom onto outside of movie theaters back in the ’70s and early ’80s. (For a terrific primer on the whole subject of submarine arcade games, see Paul Crozier’s thorough treatise about same on page 46 of Issue #73 of the SCR.)
Some years back, a small video game development company by the name of Celtronic Labs created an exciting and faithful online/video version of this sub arcade game called, as I’ve said, Night Raider. Here’s a link to the company website’s promo page about it:
If the above link doesn’t work for you, here’s a screen shot of the same page from the site…
And for anyone further curious, here’s a screen shot of the game’s actual interface from my iPhone:
Night Raider was created by a very talented gentleman (and a nice guy too, I’ve exchanged emails with him) named Steve (I never did learn his last name, however). Steve was at one point—or perhaps still is—a SubCommittee member, and at least knew of Big Dave’s interest in Night Raider, if not necessarily having been friends with him personally. And he is also now a top-notch I.T. guy for a big corporation somewhere, and so apparently has little if any time nowadays for keeping up with his former game-writing pursuits.
So here’s the problem: Night Raider has gone obsolete!
It’s no longer available for download from the Apple Store, and no longer runs on the current version of Apple’s iOS. (I don’t know about any Android version, but suspect the same conditions apply.) As such, the game app needs an upgrade from its creator (or someone he’s willing to hire to do the work for him) to be able to return to the phones and tablets of fanatics like me. I’ve been in touch with Steve several times over the last months, and I’m afraid I’ve been something of a thorn in his side (sorry, Steve!) by pestering him to address the situation. I’ve even offered to personally pay him for his upgrade development time—which I suppose would require some evening or weekend hours—and said offer remains on the table. So far though, no luck.
At one point Steve told me he believed no one was much interested in playing his game. I’ve tried to convince him otherwise, and hope that actually doing so might help him to find it worth his while to bring Night Raider back to playable status.
That’s where you guys come in.
Below are Steve’s two email addresses. Would you consider writing him to let him know his upgrade efforts would not be in vain, that Porteous wouldn’t be the only guy playing if he brought Night Raider back to life by investing some time in his off hours? I’d really appreciate it. And I’m sure that Big Dave, watching these efforts from somewhere out on Eternal Patrol, would love to see the game back in circulation and being played again too. I freely admit to wanting to reestablish my own regular Night Raider fixes, but I also think it’s important to have these simple, throwback video pastimes still available in today’s ultraviolent, graphic and bloody game arena. I mean, wouldn’t you just love to see your kids putting a few skimmers on the bottom, taking after the Old Man?
Thanks for reading, and let’s hope anyone interested is soon able to command his own night-raiding Type VII again soon!
Best to you all,
Jeff Porteous
steve426@cox.net
contact@celtroniclabs.com
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