| Dan Burke Interview |
Dan himself, the mastermind behind numerous games, including the ever-so-cool Challenge of the Dragon game.
The numerous games Dan worked on. I liked Challenge of the Dragon and Robodemons best--Raid 2020 was average, and Pesterminator was the worst out of these titles.
One of Dan's latest drawings, this one is of an orc. Dan, that drawing is totally rad!
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TWZ: Hello. Sorry I've taken so long to reply. I hope you didn't lose sleep over wondering what I wanted. Anyways, I have a few Color Dreams questions. DB: No I can't say I've lost sleep over Color Dreams in general hehe. :) Not lately, anyway. When I was there I worked like a madman, in fact it was in my contract to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week. The good thing was they paid me well for that effort. TWZ: What year did you work at Color Dreams? DB: I started at Color Dreams back in 1989 and worked for them to about 1991. I did some freelance art later on under the Wisdom Tree banner. At that time I was the Art Editor for the Saddleback College Lariat, the college newspaper. I had met someone on staff, a writer named Leo Gilreath, who had met a programmer in an arcade who happened to be affiliated with Color Dreams. It was a tenuous connection at best, but Leo thought I might like to participate in making Nintendo games. At first, I did not totally believe that the programmer was legit, but was willing to me him and see what was going on. I figured, it is some kid making games out of his bedroom...boy was I wrong. Frank turned out to be a very bright programmer and the company, COlor Dreams, was a legitimate effort to put out Nintendo games, albeit, reverse engineered. Frank and I became fast friends at Round Table Pizza over some Coke and Garlic bread, and the three of us became a team...Leo the writer, Frank the programmer who was then working at Unisys, and myself, the artist who was employed at Sterling Art, a local art store. TWZ: Were you one of the founders of Color Dreams? Some sources say it is just Dan Lawton, others say it was Dan L, Eddy Lin, and you. DB: No I wasn't a founder, but I was definitely on the ground floor. I retained copyrights on my art, which was a good thing, and recieved royalties for what I did. The first game I worked on, Raid 2020, was one of the first put out by Color Dreams, and I did the cover art, game art, and Frank and designed the game mostly. Leo did the manual I believe, tho we were finding we did not need a full-time writer as most video games don't require this skill full-time. I worked like everyone else, on speculation, but after working at Interplay a bit (freelance) they made me 'the offer' I could not refuse. TWZ: What games did you work on? I know you worked on Challenge of the Dragon and Exodus. Were there any others? DB: In order (as I remember)
Wisdom Tree: I did a lot of manual art for several games such as Exodus, King of Kings. This is a funny story, because when they asked me to do Bible games under the Wisdom Tree banner, I was not into it because I was a Christian, and did not want to cheapen my beliefs by making money off them like that. The odd thing is, because of open discussion on religion with many people there I thought my position over and ultimately became an atheist, and now, I wouldn't work on Bible Games because I don't believe in it. I guess me and Bible games don't mix. :) TWZ: What was/is your favorite Color Dreams game? DB: I liked Challenge of the Dragon best cuz I thought it was one of the coolest and I tons of animation in it. They basically let me run with the art on this one...I thought the cover art was excellent too....I designed it but we had a painter do the cover, and he did a great job. Raid 2020 is cool too because it has sentimental value...it was the first game I worked on, ever, and I did so much on that...art, music, design, cover. I had lots of effort wrapped up in this. It was pretty fun to play as well. TWZ: Did you ever work with videogames before/after Color Dreams? DB: Yes I have been working on video games for 11 years now, and currently I work at Blizzard in the Film Department. I've come a long way...baby. :) TWZ: Did you work on any never released games? DB: There were a few...at Interplay I worked on Lord of the Rings (commodore) which never released as far as I know. I worked on Hellraiser at Color Dreams a bit but that was never released (as far as I know) either. Glad you liked Challenge of the Dragon game\artwork...yeah I basically designed most of it, Dan Lawton and I rolled it around one night after coming back from some strip club. :) But Dan, he would let me run with the games and I did...I loved doing it too. I did all the art on this one...I was inspired a lot by Karateka, a game by Jordan Mechner for the Atari 800XL. Such a simple game, a simple reward (the girl) but powerful motivation nonetheless. |
