left-4-dead-nes posts

You may remember a few months ago we did an interview with game developer Eric Ruth who was creating a version of Valve's hit zombie co-op shooter Left 4 Dead as a NES 8-bit title. Now the game has been completed and is available as a free game download for the PC.

This game allow players to go through all four single player campaigns in the original Left 4 Dead or you can bring in a friend for some two player co-op (sadly there's no four player co-op available). All four characters are available with two difficulty levels and all of the primary and secondary weapons. This is the first game in a planned series of titles that will adapt current games to play like they were made for older systems.

While folks are waiting on their PCs tonight to unlock Left 4 Dead 2 on Steam (that should happen at midnight Eastern time tonight) another developer is working on his own version of the original game. The difference? He's making it as a 8-bit NES-style title. Yep, it's supposed to be a fully playable version of the game with support for just a few pixels and support for just one or two players (sorry no four player co-op in NES's timeline).

The game's creator is budding game designer Eric Ruth and while he has created a number of original NES-style games this is apparently his first attempt to port an existing franchise to his game design style. As you can see from the video above he's got the general idea behind Valve original game down patch. Thankfully you won't have to have a modded NES to play the full version; Ruth says he will release the game for free for the PC in early January. Big Download got Ruth to answer some questions about his upcoming reimagining of Left 4 Dead.