Dink Smallwood
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| Dink Smallwood | |
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| Developer(s) | Robinson Technologies |
| Publisher(s) | Iridon-Interactive |
| Release date(s) | 1997 |
| Genre(s) | RPG/Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | PC |
| Media | Compact Disc |
Dink Smallwood is a humorous computer role-playing game. It was first released in 1997 before being released as freeware on October 17, 1999. It was developed by Robinson Technologies, at the time consisting of Seth Robinson, Justin Martin, and Greg Smith. The game has a small but constant fan following that continues to develop add-ons for the game nearly a decade after its release.
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[edit] The game
The game centers on Dink, a pig farmer turned hero who embarks on various quests throughout his world. The game features isometric, Zelda-like gameplay, including weapons, items, and magic. The game has a satirical off-color slant, including everything from a fiercely abusive uncle to a town that worships ducks. Dink is never freed from the grievances of being a pig farmer, a fact he is far too often reminded of by his nemesis, Milder Flatstomp.
[edit] Storyline
Dink starts out as a pig farmer, living a normal life. His father is said to have disappeared, leaving him behind in a small village with his mother. Somehow, as he is outside, his house burns down, killing his mother. He is then told to go out of his village, into the world to find his aunt, and start living a new life with her. Along the way, he hears of a powerful and sinister group known as the Cast whose nefarious deeds are threatening the kingdom. Dink eventually makes it his quest to defeat this mysterious cabal.
[edit] D-Mods
Dink Smallwood comes with a level editor that allows for the creation of D-Mods, which are add-on levels created for the game. In addition, the game employs a scripting engine dubbed DinkC that at the time allowed for greater versatility than most modding methods in similar games. The freeware game comes with its own D-Mod, Mystery Island, which follows Dink's adventures after his victory in the original story. D-Mods can be heavily customized, and some of them are very different from the original game. Many good D-Mods, some of them much longer than the original game, can be found online (see links below) However, many D-mods are not child-geared but contain nudity and sexual innuendos.
[edit] Distribution and subsequent developments
Dink Smallwood was initially released for purchase in the United States and Europe. The game could be purchased from retail stores in Europe; however, Robinson Technologies did not secure a publisher for the United States, requiring them to sell to this region via mail order at the reasonable price of $25 (including shipping).
By the summer of 1999, Robinson Technologies had sold out of all their copies of Dink Smallwood and claimed that there were no plans to publish more copies. It was announced a short time later that the game would be distributed as freeware, and the freeware version of Dink Smallwood was released on October 17, 1999.
Shortly after the freeware release, fans of the game often asked Seth Robinson if he had any plans to release the game's source code, to which he generally replied no. He commonly cited the game's sloppy and embarrassing coding as a reason for withholding the source from the community. After years of being pressed to do so, Seth finally decided to release the source code in July 2003. A handful of projects focused on upgrading/porting Dink Smallwood have surfaced, most of them being cancelled or postponed indefinitely.
In 2005, Dan Walma (aka redink1), owner of the Dink Network, the largest Dink Smallwood fansite, was asked by Seth Robinson to create a new patch for Dink Smallwood with the intent to fix numerous longstanding bugs and streamline the Dink experience for new players. After nine months of development and numerous bouts of alpha, beta, and release candidate testing involving the community, Dink Smallwood 1.08 was released in March 2006. In addition to fixing dozens, possibly hundreds, of bugs large and small, the update also included true color support, windowed mode, and several additions to the game's DinkC scripting engine.
