Classic: Glider PRO

By: Derek Yu

On: June 9th, 2009

I’ll end Classics Week with John Calhoun’s Glider PRO (1991), seemingly one of the few early Macintosh games that has enjoyed both a strong community and lasting presence. In it you play a paper airplane that flies in and around a house or set of houses. You can move left and right but have to depend on air drafts (usually provided by vents in the floor) to lift into the air. The goal is to collect all the stars in each house, and avoid hitting obstacles.

I hadn’t played Glider PRO before tonight, but now that I have I can safely say that it is a wonderful game. Slumberland, the only official level (or “house”) packed with Glider PRO, is challenging and also rewarding to play – getting to a new part of the house is a lot of fun due to all the mundane-yet-exciting things you can encounter as you fly from room-to-room. As much as I do enjoy the bombast of modern games, there’s something timeless about the way some of these older games can conjure thrills from, say, getting a box of rubber bands to fling from your Glider. No cutscenes, no tutorials every time there’s a new thing… just a paper airplane and a house to explore. And for a game with such simple basic mechanics (only the arrow keys are used) there really is a lot that you can see and do, and many surprises in store.

The Mac OS9 version of the game comes with a house editor, which was unfortunately not ported to the OSX version. If you have an Intel Mac, you’re out of luck. But there are a handful of downloadable levels available from the official website and the fan sites linked on it.

Windows users can try out the archaic black and white version of the game, called Glider 4.0 (also obtained from the official site linked above).

Note: According to Ted Martens, the original Glider PRO only let you see one room at a time (on OSX you can see as much as the screen allows). He recommends lowering your resolution to play it as it was meant to be played.

TIGdb: Entry for Glider PRO

Posted in Action, Freeware, Highly Recommended, Macintosh | Tags: JohnCalhoun

http://www.geenat.com gnat

A true classic. I totally remember playing this on my old Mac LC.
respondant

I’m pretty sure I remember being able to see more than one room at a time playing this on my old Mac IIsi. It had trouble dealing with more than one room, but they were there.
The Monster King

Maaan

Glider

That was awesome
SkyBox

This can be played on WinXP too, although it’s spotty.

Only being able to see one room at a time is what makes it so hard. I’ve died many times by entering a new room, and not knowing there is a strong downdraft right at the beginning, or a toaster, or a candle, or some other obstacle. Most lives are lost through trial-and-error like this, so being able to peer into the next room would be really handy.
http://www.roachpuppy.com IceNine

Nice, although I dont think I played this version. I remember playing the black and white one on the old Macs along with Shufflepuck and OIDS.
undertech

Mmm, a nice bit of nudity for the stodgy school computer labs of the ’80s. Can’t beat that!
SamSJester

Truly a classic, didn’t know anyone else knew about this…
nosesquid

You can run this in XP?! How?!! I HAVE to play this game again!
I’ll even upload all the extra houses from the CD…
I just need this and Mortal Pongbat and I’ll be in classic games heaven.
Adrian

I remember playing a paper air plane game like this for DOS waaay back when I was little. It came with those cds full of shareware. It was a glorious 256 colours and the first stage was a sewer. I loved that game.
Cobalt

@nosesquid: An emulator should do it: minivmac.sourceforge.net/screens/index.html I think there’s another called vMac or something. I’ve messed around with Mac OS emulators but… I don’t remember much. Of course, you’ll need a ROM…

Are you the one who made all of those sexy spaceship animations in the forums? Those are awesome.
Cobalt

Edit: Well, there’s Glider Pro 4.0 at the bottom that should work with Windows. Sorry, didn’t see that.
shepard

Just call this site Classic Games Source and be done with it. Or at least have another section on the site where you cover classic games. This is ridiculous.

No news for this many days? I would have been fine with it if it were a one time thing only, but you’re now just blatantly refusing to cover anything new that has been going on lately.
Cobalt

Non-classic game posts during Classics Week:
The Notorious BIGJam
The Path: Demo Released
flixel
Icy Tower 1.4 Released!
Cobalt

Those were suppose to be on separate lines, but whatever.
Flamebait

@Cobalt:

**Non-classic game** posts during Classics Week: The Notorious BIGJam The Path: Demo Released flixel **Icy Tower** 1.4 Released!

How dare you!
Spincut

Oh my God, I totally remember this game. I loved it so much when I was little. And I played the old old black and white Glider!
Cobalt

@Flamebait: Ah, well… it’s a *new* version. Yeah.
Flamebait

I vaguely recall wanting to play this years and years ago, but I didn’t have a Mac. Now that I have I can’t share in the enthusiasm.

For some reason the thermals are drawn behind objects flat against the wall (like paintings) when I play. Some of the visual design is just broken as well- you can clearly see from shadows that certain objects are behind your glider, yet you collide with them.

I enjoy the sense of adventure, which is unfortunately constrained by Glider’s structure (you can only ever start from one part of the house). I *would* keep playing to get better and further, but the gameplay is too dull.
farik

man i used to play this when i was a kid. you brought back some old memories. my dad and i used to use the editor and make levels, it was the first time we’d seen some kind of open-ended thing like that.
xhiryu

I recall that Glider was recently ported to the NES with DLC content. I’d like to play it but even at $38 the price is a bit steep for me to consider a purchase. Well that and I sold my NES recently. Yay recession!
Flamebait

@Derek, forgot to mention:

“Windows users can try out the archaic black and white version of the game, called Glider 4.0”

That’s what I played, except it was in glorious color.
tamore

How come those 1991 graphics are much better than most 2008 indie games’ graphics huh?
tamore

and even 2009 mothafuka