Homebrew developers: a couple of questions, this goes hypothetical

[PeteProdge]

Firstly, what's your favourite game YOU have made?

And secondly, if you could put that game under a commercial-era software brand (Ocean, Ultimate, Hewson, Gremlin, etc) of your choice and have it released in a certain year, what would you pick?

[Sokurah]

I would say probably Dingo. I was my first game for the Speccy and I really enjoyed re-learning Z80 and slowly (but surely) getting things working better and better. Back in the day it would obviously have to be released under the Ultimate brand and around the time of their 16K games ... and I'm sure that with less "presentation" it could also be "shaved" down to 16K too

But I also really liked The Speccies. I had a lot of fun making that and I think it was a great and very polished remake.

[R-Tape]

I'd go for one of my Moebius games, probably Biscuits in Hell because it's the most polished. A 1984 release would be nice, because things were really hotting up then, but it's got AY music, so I'll settle for the second the 128K Speccy came out in 1986.

It's an intentionally difficult game, with a completion code at the end and a prize for the first person to finish it (as happened with the Monument Microgames release). Hopefully that would create a buzz in the magazines and on the streets and playgrounds.

I'm not sure how well it would go down in 1986. The trend was more for ports and licenses, rather than whimsical platformers. I still like to think it's got enough personality to stand out.

A Bug-Byte release with a Roger Tissyman inlay would be nice—the game characters would be right up his street, but they went belly-up in 1985! So I'll go for a budget release under Mastertronic. More people would play it that way.

...actually which publisher was known for giving the coder a generous cut? Them please.

[R-Tape]

Back in the day it would obviously have to be released under the Ultimate brand and around the time of their 16K games ... and I'm sure that with less "presentation" it could also be "shaved" down to 16K too

You'd better bloody keep the define keys. I'm not playing it with QWERT!

[TomD]

I’m going to go with Maze Death Rally-X and on the same label as the original, PSS, oh and released in in 1983 would love to see what would follow.

TomD

[R-Tape]

I’m going to go with Maze Death Rally-X and on the same label as the original, PSS, oh and released in in 1983

The game's excellent Mr Dalby—there's just one thing. We feel the loading screen would be better if replaced with an enormous cyan on blue PSS logo, and a bit of ropey text at the bottom.

would love to see what would follow.

That would set the bar VERY high. With a bit of luck the Speccy would never have a bad arcade port.

[TomD]

The game's excellent Mr Dalby—there's just one thing. We feel the loading screen would be better if replaced with an enormous cyan on blue PSS logo, and a bit of ropey text at the bottom.



That would set the bar VERY high. With a bit of luck the Speccy would never have a bad arcade port.

I’ll make a special edition just for you.

[Daveysloan]

Great question, one I've been thinking about when recording our compilation tape, something I've spent 30 hours doing over the weekend!

Manic Mulholland will always have a special place in my heart as it was made during lockdown with my then 9 year old son and the first Speccy game I ever made.
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/3 ... Mulholland


Forward to the Past also means a lot as it stars me & my son and it was released on an actual real tape that you could buy on a real online shop.
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/3 ... o_the_Past

Golden Joystick is the one that's had the most positive response, getting such a lovely review on Planet Sinclair.
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/3 ... RetroHitch

But my favourite one to go back and play is Janky Joe. It's actually quite easy to complete once you've played it a few times. We've been really lucky with getting talented musicians to provide AY music for our games & this one is an absolute banger.
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/3 ... Retro_Hell

I don't think any of our games are anywhere near polished or sophisticated enough to have been a release back in the day. Maybe on a budget label in the "Wild west" days when anything went, or perhaps a covertape filler.

It'd be nice to have seen it as an early Firebird release, with a big old screenshot on the cover.

[R-Tape]

It'd be nice to have seen it as an early Firebird release, with a big old screenshot on the cover.

Have you got a release date in mind for Janky Joe? Be careful of temporal disruption: before 1988 we don't get Cybernoid, before '85 we lose Bubble Bobble (on any platform) and Chaos (Prodge won't like that), and before '84 we'll never see the frustrations of Hunchback.

[Daveysloan]

Haha good point, maybe I could sue Raffaele Cecco for nicking my good ideas.

I'd go for one of my Moebius games, probably Biscuits in Hell because it's the most polished.

How have I not played this before, just had a 5 minute blast & it's brilliant! Pencilled in to give it a proper go when things are less hectic.

[MatGubbins]

That's a question I've asked myself many times for many years....

Bomb Munchies.
A game based in the style of Eric and the Floaters/Bomberman.
Multiplayer that requires 4 joysticks/pads to really gain no key lockouts.
Joefish's K-55 interface hasn't come into existance yet (nor K95 for that matter), so that's a bit of a bother, so I might need to find a way of inventing that too, better still, drag Jason along for the ride.

I have thought of taking the game to Kempston (the joystick and interface people) along with a new fangled K-55 interface and letting them see the game in action, explaining the little I know of the interface to persuade them to make all new interface with 4 joystick ports supporting Kempston 31, K+55, both Sinclair 1+2 ports along with a very important expansion port to plug more stuff in afterward and including the game with the interface. Yes, I will try and them to upgrade the reading of the bits to get those extra fire buttons.
Also have a stand alone version for sale with a mail-in coupon for £2 off the interface.

Failing that... DK'Tronics with a new interface, or Com-Com with the 2 sinclair ports and 2 definable ports on the same interface with a throughport

As for the year, it's a bit of a tough one... if I include AY music - then I'll need a 128k machine (the AY music lives in a paged bank of the 128k memory) and yes, I'd have to drag Yerzmyey along for the ride too as he's responsible for all the excellent tunes in the game. That makes it release in 1986/87 era.
If I forgo the AY music then maybe 1985-86, providing I can get one of the hardware companies onboard.

[Einar Saukas]

I'd go for one of my Moebius games, probably Biscuits in Hell

Although El Stompo would make you a billionaire...

[R-Tape]

Although El Stompo would make you a billionaire...

...depending on Nirvana royalties!

[PeteProdge]

...depending on Nirvana royalties!

I don't see what Kurt Cobain's estate has to do with this.

[R-Tape]

I don't see what Kurt Cobain's estate has to do with this.

Given that I'm risking the whole time machine thing, I may as well go all-in and put the Nevermind singles on the B side. I'll say I had a sore throat during recording.

[Alessandro]

1) My favourite game is always the last one. I try to do each time something different and more extensive than what I did previously.
2) I do not know, probably some medium/small software house interested into something quirky and off the beaten track? Durell, A 'n' F, PSS?

[Timmy]

For me that's just a difficult question.

Every single one of my games is from a different genre, therefore, for me, they are really incomparable.

And if I don't like them I wouldn't release them. So I like them all.

I guess that's the difference for our new wave of developers, that we can do whatever we like, and not just another sequel.

It's time for me to make some more games soon, I hope. That doesn't mean there will be some coming out soon. These things takes time.

[uglifruit]

I'd definitely want 3D ATTR Maze published by one of the early companies. The ones that looked like they had hand drawn, photocopied inlays, and liberally used '3D' as a selling point. Or maybe Blaby Computer Games, as they were from a town very near where I lived, and have an equally homegrown feel.

I'd *really* like to head back in time and write some things published in Sinclair Programs magazine though.

[MarkRJones1970]

I would say probably Dingo. I was my first game for the Speccy and I really enjoyed re-learning Z80 and slowly (but surely) getting things working better and better. Back in the day it would obviously have to be released under the Ultimate brand and around the time of their 16K games ... and I'm sure that with less "presentation" it could also be "shaved" down to 16K too

But I also really liked The Speccies. I had a lot of fun making that and I think it was a great and very polished remake.

I can't choose between Dingo or Mr.Do!. They both are special to me. Dingo, because it was the 1st game I'd been involved with since the early 90s and it turned out so much better than I'd hoped (and way better than any of the games I'd been involved with at Ocean). Plus, I did the music and the cover illustration for it, which I'd never done before. While making it I also, sort of, pretended I was working for Ultimate back in 1983 and tried to make it look like it could have been one of their titles from back then. It also confirmed to me that you don't forget how to make loading screens or animate simple sprites. My favourite animated sprite in the game being the SQUISH animation when the fruit pops. It just looks so WET in such a tiny space.

Mr. Do was also special as, in order to do it, I had managed to trace Adrian Singh, who was my best mate at middle school starting in 1979. I'd not spoken to him for at least 15 years. Back then, while I was at Ocean, he worked as 'Mr. Poke' for Sinclair User while studying full time to earn some extra cash. Even back in 87/88 I always thought it was a shame that Adrian hadn't put his Z80 coding knowledge towards making his own game. 30 plus years later that actually happened. We both, totally independantly of each other, wondered if we could get together and do a Spectrum version of Mr. Do. We were literally writing an email to each other suggesting the same thing at exactly the same time. Bizarre! Once finished, we couldn't have dared hoped for a better reaction. I think it could have been a good Imagine game released in 1986 (in a yellow clam case box like Mikie & Hyper Sports), which, for Ocean at least, was full of a lot of dross!

Working on both games was both great fun and very exciting to finish and put out for everyone else to play!