Dogboy / King & GI Games

[8BitAG]

I've posted this here in a separate thread as it is an unresolved issue regarding the games...

Dogboy https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=6191

and

King https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=9878

both by St. Bride's School and potentially the same game. If we can resolve any of the details then I will attach a suitable post to the "little problems" thread.

There are lots of outstanding issues with the entry for Dogboy, notably the publication date of 1985 (which I don't believe) and the creation system of the Quill (it seems to be a PAWed game).

I've put together my research on this title in the file below. I'm looking for any other information about the game (or games) in an effort to try and find sources for some of the information in the existing entry.

http://8bitag.com/info/documents/dogboy-gigames-v1.pdf

As an aside, the document also contains information on GI Games and how their republishing of games by St. Brides, Delta 4 & Walter Pooley pre-date the Zenobi Software and Northern Underground versions (something that isn't always reflected in the existing entries for some of the titles).

✓ Reviewed

[8BitAG]

(An additional justification of the link between Dogboy and King, beyond the fact they share the identical plot, is that the database filenames of Dogboy part 1 and 2 are K1 and K2 !)

[StooB]

The connection with Destiny Software is that King was bought by "the Bertelsman group" - better known to us as Ariolasoft (see Marc Peirson's bio at his agent: http://www.caskiemushens.com/authors/#/marc-peirson/).

Francis Lee started a label called Starlight Software which was marketed through Ariolasoft in late 1986 after leaving Beyond (where he worked with Marc Peirson). This label was reportedly planning to release St Brides' "The White Feather Cloak", also based on a poem by Peirson, which never happened as Ariolasoft pulled out of the UK market.

Lee started a new label with Activision called Destiny Software in November 1987, which disappeared by the end of 1988 after failing to release "The Bobby Yazz Show".

It's not too much of a stretch to assume that Francis Lee was behind the St Brides/Ariolasoft/Starlight deal (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 978&page=5) and took the deal with him to Destiny.

You could contact Marc Peirson though the agent above to ask when he actually wrote King, and Francis Lee seems to be still around at http://www.superherolicensing.com/page24.htm .

[8BitAG]

I've just been looking at Marc's agent website... in fact I've already added that information to the document.

Some good information there about Francis Lee, thanks. I'll attempt to follow up on those other leads.

St. Bride's themselves are a bit of an enigma themselves, as Owen Williams' definitive article has already done a good job of highlighting... https://flexiblehead.blog/2014/02/16/st-brides-school/

It would be nice to actually nail down some details of Dogboy, though. It's one of those games where a lot of false information has just been copied and pasted, and allowed to circulate around the Internet.

[8BitAG]

A small update on this one. I was able to get in touch with Marc Peirson, who was happy to talk about Dogboy/King and The White Feather Cloak, even though he wasn't involved in the work on the games.

I've popped up a page about the three "secret" St. Bride's games; Silverwolf, The White Feather Cloak, and The Dogboy.
http://8bitag.com/info/stbrides.html

I'm hoping to get in contact with Francis Lee, as he seems to be the person who would know a little more about their development and exactly why they weren't published at the time.

On a related note, Marc Peirson/Mark Pearson can be added as the author of the story/novella that came with Firebird's Cholo https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/9 ... trum/Cholo

[Mousey]

Very interesting article, thanks. I’ve never really got around to playing any St. Brides adventures other than Bugsy which I had back in the day and never got anywhere in! I’ll have to check some of their other work out.

P.S. “December 1997 issue of Your Computer” in the article should be 1987.

[8BitAG]

The article has now been updated to include comments from Destiny Software's Francis Lee...
http://8bitag.com/info/stbrides.html

[druellan]

Hi! Are the fixes extracted from this investigation reported? Otherwise I can take a note for checking the final document for fixes.

PS: Didn't commented earlier but amazing job!

[8BitAG]

Thanks. I can't recall if I've submitted any fixes linked to the St. Bride's research in the past. I think it's pretty much okay to say that King and Dogboy are ultimately the same game.

[druellan]

Thanks, I'm going to check and process that, then, just to be sure.