Mclaneinc Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 Still play Omega Boost, really good fun blaster, chunky polys but got the gameplay.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elektraglide Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 Yes it was Q-Ball, really odd game but fun... He said he at the time he was working on his next project that was to do with the physics of a snooker ball which at the time sounded very odd compared to Bellum and Henri that I'd seen at different times in Maplins back room. As for the PS1 game, that's not it but I'll hunt it out and tell you the name, was really fun to play.. Best FX magazine and still going strong is Cinefx, was a field I was agonisingly close in getting into, had the offer but was just married and we both were earning a mint, me racing around the world sounded great but I doubt my still wife would have been happy Hi, yes it was a bit odd. I wrote it for ST and Amiga in the end. Was my first game written in C rather than assembler. Some time back I bought a gizmo so I could read all my 810 disks to pull all the source code for my Atari 800 games. Scary looking through the code the we ever managed to ship anything! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elektraglide Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 The point being that I always found games makers were always keen to show off their stuff and give mates demo's or unfinished games, as I've said before we had all sorts of local programmers pop in to Maplin and show us their in progress stuff, ah saying that I know Adam Michael Billyard was doing a game on the 8bit (he told me about it but I never saw it) which he scrapped and later released on the ST (think it was called Q Ball or similar), I wonder if he still has his old atari files, he's been known to pop on here so Adam, what's is the answer, at the time you were showing me Belum but were saying about this snooker style mechanics game? Hi, I'd totally forgotten that pre-QBall thing! But had a look and sure enough found the files: TITLE '3D POOL version 1.2'ORG $2800 INCLUDE D:INIT.ASM INCLUDE D:AIM.ASM INCLUDE D:HITS.ASM INCLUDE D:MOVE.ASM INCLUDE D:STORE.ASM Back in those days we didn't use automated build systems - you just assembled your files and copied them to the right place on the disk - so for most of my old 6502 stuff I've no idea how to build them. :-( BTW If you hold K + A keys down in QBall, you get a secret message! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Hi Adam, Thank you for confirming I'm not mad or making stuff up, it was always nice to see real programmers popping in to Maplin and showing off their stuff and as i was the only real Atari nerd in the shop it was a privilege to get a heads up on peoples work. All of your games still get a good old playing to this day and are firm favourites in the gamepack of 'the best of' I help maintain. Hopefully life is treating you well and thank you for making a lot of us Atarians happy with your work.. Good days then....As they say, when life was simple 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted March 27, 2015 Author Share Posted March 27, 2015 That Living Daylights missing features from review copy Atari User Magazine had and the retail version?.... Apparently copy A.U had, contained 8 levels and a title screen, retail version only 7 levels (A.User's Level 6 cut due to memory issues)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesD Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Not aware of the 'specs' of the TRS-80 CoCo 3, but guess it's more powerful than say an 800XL/130XE?. Also, what's known about the conversion? for example is it an 'official' conversion or something someone has done off their own back?. Reason i ask, is if Firebird and System 3 lacked the A8 coders needed to tackle conversions such as Elite and Last Ninja, i could'nt see them put resources into advertising, then hiring A8 coders for any conversions, unless they were sure the A8 market was commercially viable to support the results. If it was seen in decline and would only keep declining as work progresses on the conversions, then i very much doubt work on converting either really got off the ground. The CoCo 3 had a 16 color mode selectable from a 64 color palette. The conversion was an official work in progress. I think it came from one of the original programmers. Advertising for magazines is planned and submitted months in advance. When was the ST introduced and when did the ad appear? The Ad could have been submitted before the ST intro and appeared in the magazine after the intro. At the very least it was obviously submitted before the title was cancelled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted March 28, 2015 Author Share Posted March 28, 2015 :-) I've just been going through cupboard loads of old magazines, binned a huge amount... The System 3 advert? clearly designed, planned, booked etc months in advance, a general purpose advert for use in multiple magazines inc Zzap 64, detailed versions PLANNED, C64 screens used etc, just had coming on Atari 800/130 XL/XE, ST (if memory serves) and then a release date.But again, marketing would of just asked what was wanted on the advert, date given, doubt if it was anything but plucked out of thin air, designed to build expectation, ie let the C64 version stun, get gamers on rival machines hungry for a version on their machines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted March 28, 2015 Author Share Posted March 28, 2015 Well, we 'do' know the screens featured in the advert (of C64 version) were themselves fake: 'Bob Stevenson had done some mock up screens for the adverts then left. I spent 3 weekends in Budapest (still behind the iron curtain) where it became apparent that their programmers were having difficulties.' http://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/last-ninja-v1/ So, if even the C64 version had hit difficulties by time advert appeared...chances of work having started on A8 version, i'd say proverbial feline in hells :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted April 3, 2015 Author Share Posted April 3, 2015 Looks like the A8 Elite rumour started back in the day, with said rumour being an A8 version was being 'negotiated'. As for Zoids, that was supposed to hit middle of Oct'85 and this was based on a generic PR statement and photo of a Zoid model, no actual in-game stuff..... Frankie Goes To Hollywood was supposed to be a late summer'85 release.Again more PR stuff, big photo of:Ocean's David Ward, Island Record's James Bradley and Frankies manager, Tony Pope 'playing' a preview copy of the game.... Down for £9.95, what's the betting it had never even gotten started on A8 when that PR piece was sent out?. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted April 4, 2015 Author Share Posted April 4, 2015 There was 'that' claim that the early C64 version shown running on the C64 at the London LET show, had in fact been loaded onto the C64 by a BBC Micro, no idea if this rumour was true or if it's even possible... Also the person responsible for securing the rights to bring the game to the C64, Mr James Scoular, sadly passed away due to a heart attack in early'85, so that's another case of yet another person who might have known more on possible A8 version, sadly passing way too soon :-(. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMR Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 There was 'that' claim that the early C64 version shown running on the C64 at the London LET show, had in fact been loaded onto the C64 by a BBC Micro, no idea if this rumour was true or if it's even possible... Completely guessing here of course, but that's probably more a misinterpretation of what i'd assume was actually done, either pushing over shovelling the source code before the audio and video segments were reworked for the C64 or doing those modifications at the BBC end (essentially using it as a cross assembler) and shipping over object code. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 Entirely possible a quick/dirty hack could have been done. The BBC bitmap mode uses the same cell based arrangement as C64 so a working port from source might have been possible in a matter of hours. Of course probably missing sound and plenty of other stuff that'd take a lot longer to do. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
José Pereira Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 @TMR:Been chatting to Frank last few months regarding possibilty of GTWA8/7800/Lynx etc... All formats he'd love to cover (and i forward on everything i find Lost games wise, be it A8/ST/7800/Lynx/Jaguar etc as well as PS1, PS2-see the Aliens C.M section for an example, N64, Sega Saturn, you name it..if an interview throws something up, it's forwarded onto relevant sites.Also thrown info to AVP Galaxly, Core Design sites etc). It's just the time involved to write everything up..Frank might have a thing or 2 planned for the Atari side of things, cough....say no more sir, say no more Humm... I am right now reading all and all again at GTW so I remembered your post. Can you say us something more? Can we have something soon? Is it good news? Anything discovered? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 :-) Hello José, Happy to share a bit of info on both. The 1st project i was 'looking into' on Franks behalf, was Conan on the Jaguar, you might have seen my recent post on that in the Jaguar thread, where initally things looked promoising, contact made with 1 of the coders (Carlos), questions sent, but things gone quiet of late :-(. Fingers crossed something will come of that yet. As for the other? far better news. 1 exclusive interview 'in' and sat with Frank, another key interview went out few weeks back, nothing in yet, but hopes are high. 3rd interview regarding it and other Atari subjects went out today, as did another email to a potential source (doubtful i'll hear back from him though), questions sat with another source, plus sent some odds n sods regarding background info which confirms a few claims over to Frank over past few days. The key source, i've secured an interview with, but he won't be free for another 6 months, so article will be a while off yet i'm afraid, but it gives us more time... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 (edited) Whats been discovered so far for the 2nd article, i hope will be of interest, highlights a few differences between regions, uncovered a previous unknown to me (and good few others it seems) Lost Games who's origins i also was'nt aware of, had some great industry comments on already from people i put questions to, hope the other interviews turn up similar gems. I've got the 'easy' part, just researching, contacting folk, putting questions to etc.Poor old Franks the one who has to write it all up. :-) Plus forwarded fresh info on 2X Lost ST Games to Greyfox for ST gamer Vol 2.... Albert has an exclusive interview of mine with few snippets regarding lack of games on A8+Jaguar to go up here when he's ready, so more Atari info is coming... Does that help?. Edited April 21, 2015 by Lost Dragon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
José Pereira Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 And we're here at the 8bit forum so what I was trying to know, guess is if you have discouvered or anything worth of notice for A8 unreleased stuff. Those we listen their names for years or any(s) totally new never talked in the community. Do you have any of these for us poor old A8 lovers? :-P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 :-) Well, you've already had the John Croudy interview from myself, which put paid to claims he was doing Druid 2, i hit a dead end with Polar P. chap as i mentioned a while back on here, Chris Shrig.only did the 1 A8 game and that was just a port from the C64. Simon Butler i asked about his work on Never Ending Story-been so long ago he cannot remember (and that's a key issue right there, sheer amount of time passed). David Fox interview was done recently, but did'nt throw up any Lost A8 work... I do have 2 interviews out with A8 coders, both are very busy and i'm loathe to 'hound' people who give freely of their time... But other than fact there simply were so few A8 coders to start with, along with just how long ago the era was, i've had to focus on the formats/games GTW/Unseen 64 need the info on and sorry my friend, but A8 has'nt been among them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 I know there's still a 'demmand' for A8 coders to be interviewed, finding Simon, Chris, David, John and 2 others that were willing to chat was a stroke of luck.There are another 2 on top of that in the full/uncut interviews for ST Gamer Vol 2 and 1 of them worked on a missing game, but at this point i'm not sure what Grey plans to do with the uncut versions of the interviews...might be bonus material for those who order the mag. So that's 8 A8 coders found, questions put to by myself, a man with no internet working PC, no Facebook, does'nt do SKYPE etc...so i've considered myself bloody lucky to get those i could. I work full time so are juggling interviews across too many formats as is :-) But hopefully you'll find something of worth coming from me yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avram Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 How about some of the other UK publishing companies? Zeppelin Games, Tynesoft, English Software, etc? Or have you already tried reaching out to them? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Zeppelin transformed into Eutechnyx... you can reach the MDs via Linkedin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutechnyx got in contact with them after my empire interactive days when empire published their Total Immersion Racing... and at E3 I was lucky meeting the producer of Ghost Master Gregg Barnett (Melbourne House... ). When we were doing our PS2 Game which was developed by UDS (Unique Development Sweden) I meter Peter Zetterberg and in Stuttgart meeting I told him that I love his Atari STe work for Substation and Pinball game he wrote... and design was helped by NEON guys who later became Rockstar Vienna... those were times.... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 Going off the top of my head (and i've been up since 4AM for work, so my memory is going to be hazy..).Kinda have English Software 'covered' to a minor degree, might have something ex-Tynesoft, but never went all out after these 2 as Retro Gamer had done fantastic features on both (i seem to recal), tried someone from Zepplin i'm sure, but would have to check, think it reached the same dead end as Ex-Domark A8 coders. A8 has'nt been my primary focus, i'm ashamed to say. Albert has 2 interviews of mine that'll appear here soon-ish, not A8 but i hope people can still enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avram Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 Thanks for the information gentlemen! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 I have approached another 2 A8 coders, 1 a few weeks back.Nothing heard from, so looking like that one was another dead end and just tried another today. So...we'll see what happens.I've not given up the search, just not expecting a huge amount in terms of results, sorry to be blunt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 :-) Ok, i take back part of the above.Another A8 coder willing to do (mini) interview.He worked on numerous formats inc A8, so i'll try and cover a few bases...plus he's due to go travelling in a week, so not sure when replies will come in, but..ok guys? i've found another A8 coder for you, hopefully it'll be of interest when it arrives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted April 27, 2015 Author Share Posted April 27, 2015 @Avram:RG covered Tynesoft in it's From The Archives feature, way back in Issue 75. Brian Jobling quoted saying he was coder of Winter Olympiad on A8, Kevin Franklin also quoted, but.... He could'nt even recal the names of his 2 unfinished 7800 games he worked on (Plutos+Sirius), let alone why they were never finished, so i personally tended to rule him out as a potential future interview, as it seemed clear he could'nt recal much from that era. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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