Some information missing on Hewson games

[Audionautas]

Hi all!


As I mentioned in the Cover Artists thread, I miss some information in several Hewson games on the ZXDB. Let's go.


* PYRACURSE *

Link: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=3952

Pyracurse was the first game developed by the Hewson in-house team (the second and last one was Zynaps), On the ZXDB there are only credited as authors Keith Prosser and Mark Goodall. Thanks to the From The Archives section covering the Hewson story in Retro Gamer Magazine issue 77 (page 55) now we know that Dominic Robinson took part on that game but remained uncredited. When he talked to Retro Gamer he said exactly:

"In the end I was hired on the strength of the Spectrum code I had showed them. I ended up doing a wide range of jobs -code, graphics and level design- for Pyracurse before I eventually moved on to write Uridium".

My point is that we must include as much information as possible about any game, even if we have been aware of that detail or that little data 35 years later, in this case thanks to Retro Gamer. The Pyracurse development was quite long in part because Goodall and Prosser weren't really games coders, they were more application developers. I think that Dominic's help in finishing the development of the game was absolutely crucial, but we don't have that information recorded on the ZXDB and obviously is not included on Dominic's softography. I think it should be included on Pyracurse's entry.


* REX HARD *

Link: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=4132

OK, this is not a Hewson game, well, at least, not completely. Let explay myself. Maybe some of you remember from back in the day The Games Machine magazine issue from October 1987 (page 125). In that issue Hewson premiered their new budget label Rack-It and it was mentioned, amongst others, a new game for that new label called "Rex Harde". Over the years I always believed that a Spanish game called Rex Hard was in fact that "Rex Harde" (probably a typo in the magazine). In 2018 thanks to Un Pasado Mejor a Spanish website devoted to the Amstrad CPC posted an interview with its author, programmer Javier Fáfula and this is what he told (Googlish translation reviewed). Link: http://videojuegosretro-upm.blogspot.co ... afula.html

- The first game you developed was Rex Hard, published by Mister Chip in 1987. What can you tell us about the origin and development of this game? Who made the graphic section? Were you the author of all versions?

I started doing it I think in 1984, and I must have finished it in 1985. I did it in what I had, a Spectrum, and the graphics I did too. My idea was to try to sell it in the UK, but due to lack of money, it was necessary to sell it here first. I showed it to Paco Menéndez, a charming person, and he spoke with his father to distribute it here. With that I decided to send it in the UK ... after sending video tapes to the companies and waiting for a response. I think I remember that after endless months I only had three answers: Hewson, I think it was called, one of cheap games (Codemasters?) and Ocean.

Obviously, I wanted it to be Ocean, which was one of the star companies at that moment, when the producer saw it, he convinced the director to buy it, after a facelift of the game, providing me with an advance for buying a decent development equipment… Upon learning that the rights for Spain were already sold, they sent me to see the company's "catacombs"; In a corridor where they put some boards as a table, they were developing a curious game ... it would be Arkanoid.

When going back upstairs, the director, obviously, the fact of not having the exclusive did not like it at all, and was no longer interested. They passed me some contacts, but the goal was ruined. In extremis, the aforementioned Hewson bought it for a pittance, but having delayed my return so much, I had no money to going back to Spain, and had been eating only "digestive" cookies for almost a week, so there was no other solution. Soon after, Hewson released a game called Pyracurse, produced by them, so they surely bought it so that there was nothing similar to his, although he always annoyed me the enormous similarity.

Despite some innacuracies on Fáfula's version (especially the dates: his game was released in Spain around november 1987 and Pyracurse was released in June 1986 in the UK) I think it would be great to have some kind of comment on the Rex Hard entry on the ZXDB about this story because Hewson talked about the existence of this game to the press that would be released through their budget label but finally it was not.


* MARAUDER *

Link: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=3030

There are several things to point out about Marauder's entry on ZXDB.

1. Marauder is a C64 original. Arcanum Software Develpments was the name of the development team of that particular version, a young group of developers from Glasgow. The game concept was developed by this team, but they only coded the C64 original version. They had nothing to do with the Spectrum and Amstrad CPC versions. As you know during their heyday Hewson used to highlight the name of the original author on the back cover of the cassette or disk boxes of every version of the game, even though that wasn't the name of the people involved in that particular version.

2. The Spectrum and Amstrad CPC versions were comissioned by Hewson to be developed by another freelance team. That team consisted of Keith Burkhill as a coder that used the alias "Casey Bee Games" and Rory Green as a graphic artist. As you already know Burkhill worked on a string of hits during the 80s: Commando (teaming up with Green), Ghost 'n' Goblins, Space Harrier, Afterburner and so on. After a lot of research I published a couple of years ago a long piece about Marauder on El Mundo del Spectrum website. Link: http://www.elmundodelspectrum.com/marau ... ants-1988/ But also you can find more information about Marauder's development on the Retro Gamer magazine issue 160 where Burkhill's name is also mentioned. Anyway Burkhill's involvement in this game was well-known prior to this making of.

3. On the Marauder entry on ZXDB we only have "Casey Bee Games" that is OK, but we should add Keith Burkhill's name too, because when you are consulting Burkhill's softography on the ZXDB, Marauder is missing, and a lot of people probably doesn't know it's part of his career as a programmer.

4. In the Authors/Contributors section on Marauder's profile on ZXDB we should erase the relation of Casey Bee Games, Rory Green and Dave Rogers to Arcanum Software Developments. As I commented previously, Arcanum Software Development were the developers of the C64 original version and Casey Bee Games, Rory Green and Dave Rogers were freelancers. In my opinion it would be correct citing Arcanum Software Developments as Concept/Design on the General Info section of the profile as Authors or even as Contributors.

5. In the Different Authors/Contributors According to SPOT/SPEX section on Marauder's profile is also mentioned Robert McGowan. He was part of the Arcanum Software Developments. Along with Mark Kelly was the coder of the C64 original version, but I don't understand why he is mentioned separately.

6. In the Comments subsection of General Info is mentioned "a.k.a Battlecar Marauder (?)". That is correct. In several magazines from back in the day they used the name Battlecar Marauder on news or preview sections previously to its release.

What do you think guys?

Well, that's all, thank you! and stay safe!

✓ Reviewed

[druellan]

Love this!

* PYRACURSE *
My point is that we must include as much information as possible about any game, even if we have been aware of that detail or that little data 35 years later, in this case thanks to Retro Gamer.

I agree, and SPECIALLY if we have information firsthand from the author. I wish we have an "uncredited" tag for the roles to denote this kind of cases on where we don't have official information, but a good confirmation that a developer was involved, but we can leave an explanation on the comments.

* REX HARD *
Despite some innacuracies on Fáfula's version (especially the dates: his game was released in Spain around november 1987 and Pyracurse was released in June 1986 in the UK) I think it would be great to have some kind of comment on the Rex Hard entry on the ZXDB about this story because Hewson talked about the existence of this game to the press that would be released through their budget label but finally it was not.

Something like: "Fabula got in contact with several UK publishers and finally Hewson bough the rights to distribute it through their budget label , but the title was never published".

* MARAUDER *
3. On the Marauder entry on ZXDB we only have "Casey Bee Games" that is OK, but we should add Keith Burkhill's name too, because when you are consulting Burkhill's softography on the ZXDB, Marauder is missing, and a lot of people probably doesn't know it's part of his career as a programmer.

We can tie-up Casey Bee Games to Burkhill's profile, and that way is going to show up on the listing credited as "Casey Bee Games" but related to his real name.
Something interesting is that "Casey Bee Games" is listed as a company, not a nickname. That must be an error, but I ask to be sure: there is no information he used "Casey Bee Games" as legal firm to receive Hewson's payments, right? It is just a nickname.

4. In the Authors/Contributors section on Marauder's profile on ZXDB we should erase the relation of Casey Bee Games, Rory Green and Dave Rogers to Arcanum Software Developments.

Except the part about Casey Bee Games above I think it is correct.

6. In the Comments subsection of General Info is mentioned "a.k.a Battlecar Marauder (?)". That is correct. In several magazines from back in the day they used the name Battlecar Marauder on news or preview sections previously to its release.

Interesting. We can improve this comment a bit: "Hewson used the name "Battlecar Marauder", but later changed it to just "Marauder" at the moment of the release".

[Audionautas]

Love this!

* REX HARD *
Despite some innacuracies on Fáfula's version (especially the dates: his game was released in Spain around november 1987 and Pyracurse was released in June 1986 in the UK) I think it would be great to have some kind of comment on the Rex Hard entry on the ZXDB about this story because Hewson talked about the existence of this game to the press that would be released through their budget label but finally it was not.

Something like: "Fabula got in contact with several UK publishers and finally Hewson bough the rights to distribute it through their budget label , but the title was never published".

Exactly, but it's Javier Fáfula, not Fabula, but the rest of the sentence sums up the case very well. Thank you.

* MARAUDER *
3. On the Marauder entry on ZXDB we only have "Casey Bee Games" that is OK, but we should add Keith Burkhill's name too, because when you are consulting Burkhill's softography on the ZXDB, Marauder is missing, and a lot of people probably doesn't know it's part of his career as a programmer.

We can tie-up Casey Bee Games to Burkhill's profile, and that way is going to show up on the listing credited as "Casey Bee Games" but related to his real name.
Something interesting is that "Casey Bee Games" is listed as a company, not a nickname. That must be an error, but I ask to be sure: there is no information he used "Casey Bee Games" as legal firm to receive Hewson's payments, right? It is just a nickname.

Tying up Casey Bee Games to Burkhill's profile would be enough to not loosing track of Burkhill's softography, but I think it would be perfect something like Casey Bee Games (Keith Burkhill) on the Marauder profile if that is possible, of course.

Regarding your second question I used the word "alias" and probably it's not correct. Yes, it's more accurate a company name, but in this case I think it's secondary. Let me explain. Burkhill was a freelancer, even when he worked on Elite's hits in mid eighties, later on he worked for a lot of different companies and developers but as ever as a freenlance. Your guessing about a company name to recieve Hewson payment could be right because it is the only game in which he used that name, but it's just a guessing, so I wouldn't touch anything in that department. It's a company name and that's it.

6. In the Comments subsection of General Info is mentioned "a.k.a Battlecar Marauder (?)". That is correct. In several magazines from back in the day they used the name Battlecar Marauder on news or preview sections previously to its release.
Interesting. We can improve this comment a bit: "Hewson used the name "Battlecar Marauder", but later changed it to just "Marauder" at the moment of the release".

Back in the day the name "Battlecar Marauder" was published in several magazines. Even there was a contest around this game using Battlecar Marauder as well (The Games Machine magazine, picture attached). It's odd, because the game was virtually on the shelves, the cover done and so on. The Games Machine contest ad is from July 1988 and the game was released at the end of June in the UK and supposedly the layout of the magazine was done along June, uummm! I think it's a little too risky to claim that Hewson changed the name just before release. You have to think that the instructions manuals, the cover and its artwork (also the layout would have to be changed in the last moment to erase "Battlecar" from the logo), the advertising campaign, the loading screen in the game itself in three different versions. Too many things in my opinion. In my humble opinion Hewson used the name "Battlecar Marauder" in press releases way before its release, but in the end the actual name for the game was decided probably a couple of months prior to its release with enough time to finish everything up. Probably it was a development name, but I wouldn't add anything without having solid evidences.

Anyway in a future post about Hewson my intention is to talk about development names of their games missing on the ZXDB.

Thank you! and stay safe!

[druellan]

Exactly, but it's Javier Fáfula, not Fabula, but the rest of the sentence sums up the case very well. Thank you.

Oh, so sorry about that!

Your guessing about a company name to recieve Hewson payment could be right because it is the only game in which he used that name, but it's just a guessing, so I wouldn't touch anything in that department. It's a company name and that's it.

Perfect.

In my humble opinion Hewson used the name "Battlecar Marauder" in press releases way before its release, but in the end the actual name for the game was decided probably a couple of months prior to its release with enough time to finish everything up. Probably it was a development name, but I wouldn't add anything without having solid evidences.

Lets see:
"Hewson used the name "Battlecar Marauder" on the first press releases, but it was later changed to just "Marauder" on the final release".

[Audionautas]

In my humble opinion Hewson used the name "Battlecar Marauder" in press releases way before its release, but in the end the actual name for the game was decided probably a couple of months prior to its release with enough time to finish everything up. Probably it was a development name, but I wouldn't add anything without having solid evidences.

Lets see:
"Hewson used the name "Battlecar Marauder" on the first press releases, but it was later changed to just "Marauder" on the final release".

As I have said before, this is only an assumption on my part based on the information about Marauder that can be found in the magazines of the time and that I have in my personal archive, not a proven fact. The person who knows the most about Hewson and their games is Paul Chamberlain (who currently works at Sumo Digital), who had the position of Software & Operations Manager at Hewson back in the day and in fact he was the producer of all or almost all of the company's games from 1986 to 1991 (replacing Gordon Hewson, Andrew's brother in this position when he left). Three years ago when I was writing my reportage about Marauder I wanted to interview him in order to post the translated interview on El Mundo del Spectrum website and had prepared a notebook with more than 70 questions about the company, the games (released and unreleased, 8 and 16 bit), the covers, the Rack-It label, his way of working etc. Precisely one of the questions I had prepared was about the name Battlecar Marauder. Specifically, my question was: Was it a confusion of the journalists or did Hewson actually come up with this title?

Unfortunately he refused to speak and is not interested in doing so. I couldn't send him my questions and I have not insisted again. He sometimes comments on Hewson's posts on FB here and there but that's it. Andrew and Rob Hewson also did not get him to collaborate on their book Hints & Tips for Videogame Pioneers, which although it has many other collaborators and is a very pleasant and entertaining memoir, lacks the testimony of the person who worked directly in the development of the games, coordinating the freelance teams of the games, testing them, etc., and therefore without his voice a very valuable testimony is lost.

Therefore Darío, personally in the Marauder entry I would not add any comment without being corroborated by an authorized spokesman of the company (past or present). At the most I think that the question mark that appears behind "Battlecar Marauder" could be removed because that name was indeed used in the press on several occasions and that is documentary evidence, but we do not know with absolute certainty if that was a development name or simply a move by the company's marketing department to make the game more attractive to the press or public. But hey, it's just my opinion.

Thank you! and stay safe!

[druellan]

Specifically, my question was: Was it a confusion of the journalists or did Hewson actually come up with this title?

Oh! now I see you point. Gotcha!

At the most I think that the question mark that appears behind "Battlecar Marauder" could be removed because that name was indeed used in the press on several occasions and that is documentary evidence

Agreed then. Thanks for your work!

[Audionautas]

Hi all!

Since my last post I've been reviewing every Hewson (and Rack-It) title on the ZXDB and these are my comments.

* NETHERWORLD *

Link: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=3393

1. In Netherworld's entry there is a mistake on the Authors/Contributors section where it mentions that Chris Wood, Dave Rogers and Steve Crow were part of Imagitec Design, but they weren't at all. Imagitec Design was the team responsible of the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga conversions of this C64 original, but not the 8 bit versions, as you can see below on the original Commodore Amiga instructions manual. So in this case they should be listed as NO TEAM.



2. Netherworld had, at least, one working title during its development that was ABYSS ZONE as you can see on the Games That Weren't website (link: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/abyss-zone/) and the scanned Finnish magazine interview with Jukka Tapanimäki below.



3. Would it be correct to add the name of the producer of the game as part of the team who developed it if it's cited on the instructions manual or mentioned on the game itself? I comment this because, as many of you probably know, Paul Chamberlain was the producer of every single game produced by Hewson from 1986 to 1991 and is completely missing from the ZXDB even when some games of that period mention him on the game itself (Deliverance: Stormlord II comes to mind) or the instructions manuals as it happens in Netherworld. So, do we just have to limit ourselves to mentioning the programmer / graphic artist / musician in each ZXDB entry or can the producer be considered part of the game development process hence part of the creative team? What do you think guys?


* ANARCHY (Rack-It) *

Link: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.php?cat=96&id=187

Just two brief comments regarding Anarchy.

1. The original programmer of the C64 version, MICHAEL SENTINELLA was Australian, not British, so the general info mentioning him as British is incorrect. You can see it below in a press clipping.



2. In this entry we should add "Comments" to explain that Anarchy is inspired by the UPL/Taito's arcade Raiders5 (1985) as you can see in the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZmeT5C1A6s

Much more interesting game mechanics on microcomputers than arcades I would say.


* EVENING STAR / SOUTHERN BELLE (box set) *

Link: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=27214

1. This box set figures out as MIA on the ZXDB, when there is a picture from the back cover of the game where it's displayed that it was released in 1990.

2. The two games contained in this box set were developed by Mike Male and Bob Hillyer and their names are also missing on the authors section, so it is not included on the softography of both coders.


* SCORPION (Rack-It) *

Link: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=23612

It's really odd to come across this entry on the ZXDB. Scorpion was a game developed by Mark Washbrook on the C64 when he was doing an internship at Hewson in 1987/88. It seems that the existence of this entry is justified only by the press clipping of the Fax section of Computer & Videogames magazine that we can see attached on the Magazine References section. In that tiny piece there are only pictures of the C64 version and there is no mention at all to an upcoming Spectrum version. We can't forget that C&VG was a multiplatform magazine, not a Spectrum magazine. Several years ago I carried out the Hewson softography for their Wiki site (Link: https://hewsonconsultants.fandom.com/wi ... tants_Wiki), and I did a lot of research on Hewson's catalogue and I've never seen any reference on magazines from back in the day for an eventual Spectrum conversion of Scorpion. So, several questions come to mind now.

1. Does it make any sense to have an entry on ZXDB based on just a tiny press clipping from a multiplatform magazine? Shouldn't we have a double-check system for the information or at least more (Spectrum) magazine references in order to create an entry on the DB?

2. Don't get me wrong, I know this Scorpion entry comes from WoS DB, but does it make any sense to replicate the same errors here? Thanks to Martijn WoS was a magnificent project and a Herculean effort, for sure, but it had its flaws, probably due to information compiled from magazines before an Internet widely available with lots of ways to get and to check the information: Blogs, webzines, Retro Gamer and other retro magazines, etc.


* ASTAROTH - ANGEL OF DEATH / CUSTODIAN / MOONFALL *

Link: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=11489
Link: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=11631
Link: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=24383

Similar to Scorpion's case, but this time three entries on the ZXDB based on the (reliable?) T'ZERS section of Your Sinclair magazine. As far as I know (and researched) Hewson never planned to convert any of this three games to the Spectrum.

* ASTAROTH (mispelled as ASAROTH on Your Sinclair magazine and on the ZXDB). This game was a flop for Hewson. You won't find any reference anywhere to any 8 bit conversion.

* CUSTODIAN. Another flop for Hewson on the ST and Amiga, but this time at least there was a C64 version in the works, but was cancelled (Link: . No news about a Spectrum port.

* MOONFALL. This was Jukka Tapanimäki's last game for the C64 (his last game overall, in fact), later converted to Atari ST / Commodore Amiga by another team. It was intended to be released over 1989/1990 when Hewson still existed as such, but the game suffered a big delay. Some magazines at the time previewed it as a Hewson game in late 1990, but finally Hewson went bankrupt in April 1991 and the game was released that same year (two years later than planned) by its succesor 21st Century Entertainment. Plans for a Spectrum version? Are you kidding me? Hewson was struggling to survive since 1987 onwards with their original games, releasing fewer 8 bit titles every year, so at that point, in 1991, Hewson had abandoned the Spectrum market completely and I don't think that making a conversion of a vector-based game, similar to Elite, for the almost non-existent Speccy market was even considered. On the other hand 21st Century Entertainment was focused on the 16 bit market.

I know this entries on the ZXDB are inherited from WoS, and it's a way to document every name that showed up on magazines back in the day, but I think that doing it this way, there is an artificial number of MIAs and especially "Never released" games on the ZXDB, simply because those games from other systems were never intended to be converted to the Speccy. Many magazines assumed that many games were going to be released on Spectrum and it really wasn't the case, especially in the last commercial stage of the Spectrum, when they had to fill pages and create hype among readers. I hope you get my point.


* TUNNEL VISION (Rack-It) *

Link: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=15072

Regarding this game I also have some doubts. This is another C64 original developed by Graham M. Blighe, but there is no trace anywhere of an eventual Spectrum version. According to WoS the author for the Speccy version was a certain Ian Cox, who has other Spectrum titles under his wing (link: https://www.worldofspectrum.org/infosee ... p=^Ian+Cox$), but all of them educational and self-published titles, not exactly games as such. I guess Martijn contacted him and he said that Tunnel Vision version for the Spectrum was part of his softography, but who knows? At least there is no reference to an specific Spectrum version on magazines. I hope we will have more information about this title in the future.


* HEAD THE BALL *

Link: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=2262

There is an interesting story about Head The Ball by Christian Urquhart (Cybadyne) that could be expanded on the "comments" section of this entry on the ZXDB.

This game was going to be released on Hewson's 4th Dimension compilation in 1990. The original concept of this game was by Urquhart on the Spectrum, but for whatever reason the game remained unfinished. Knowing that, Hewson replaced it by Rollaround (a Mastertronic game from 1988) in the last moment when the boxes layout was already done. If we look the 4th Dimension back cover we can see it clearly that this compilation had to include Head The Ball on the Spectrum and C64 (and the screenshot is taken from the Spectrum version). Even Crash, Sinclair User and Your Sinclair reviewed Head The Ball as part of this compilation.



It's funny because on the C64 version developed by Jason Page (Graftgold), the alias of Urquhart is clearly displayed as "Original Spectrum Version by Cybadyne", and I said it's funny because the Spectrum version is an unfinished game (only includes the first level and the shmup stage), but the irony is that the C64 version, which is a conversion from the original Spectrum version is complete!!! Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjGwMUt5Zbc

In 1992, two years later, the game resurfaced on Crash magazine issue 96 covertape, but it was just the first level looped, not a complete game as the C64 version. I always had a soft spot for this tiny little game, very colourful and well done technically, that could have been a good addition to the Spectrum Rack-It catalogue. I think Jason Page is quite accesible through Twitter, so he probably knows what happened to this game. I will try to contact him.

----

* Just to finish I wanted to comment that I have seen that in some game entries "Also known as" shows up as a section just below the name of the game (Quazatron, Quest Adventure, Evening Star...), and in others that also have working or alternate titles the "Also Known as" section is missing and the working title shows up in the comments section (Battlecar Marauder/Marauder, Sphinx/Pyracurse...). Shouldn't we have some kind of common criteria?

Thank you! and stay safe!

✓ Reviewed

[Audionautas]

Sorry, I forgot to link the cancelled C64 version of Custodian in my previous post: https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/custodian/

Thank you!

[druellan]

* PYRACURSE *

"In the end I was hired on the strength of the Spectrum code I had showed them. I ended up doing a wide range of jobs -code, graphics and level design- for Pyracurse before I eventually moved on to write Uridium".

Going back to this one, I have Dominic credited. I was looking for some role accreditation. Seems that he helped on Code, In-Game graphics and level design, but how about the other two authors?

Mark Goodall was working on the code, but he also mentioned having problems with the dog's animation, so, he was also doing graphics. He also wrote the story.
Keith Prosser helped with the code but I don't have other information.

[druellan]

Would it be correct to add the name of the producer of the game as part of the team who developed it if it's cited on the instructions manual or mentioned on the game itself? I comment this because, as many of you probably know, Paul Chamberlain was the producer of every single game produced by Hewson from 1986 to 1991 and is completely missing from the ZXDB even when some games of that period mention him on the game itself (Deliverance: Stormlord II comes to mind) or the instructions manuals as it happens in Netherworld. So, do we just have to limit ourselves to mentioning the programmer / graphic artist / musician in each ZXDB entry or can the producer be considered part of the game development process hence part of the creative team? What do you think guys?

We actually discussed this not long ago, because on some manuals we have the figure of the "producer" but also the "director". As you point out, the idea is to focus on the creative team and the manpower involved directly on the creation of the title. The producer gravitates towards an executive role, providing resources to the creative team, and perhaps the original ideal, but usually the involvement ends there. I know there are probably exceptions, but in that case we can credit them for that specific role, for example, if the producer was involved on the story, we can use that role.

The "director" role is the one that MIGHT worth to mention, because it is clearly involved on the final result, plus, "directors" are also usually developers already listed on the database. We need to discuss this further.

[Audionautas]

Going back to this one, I have Dominic credited. I was looking for some role accreditation. Seems that he helped on Code, In-Game graphics and level design, but how about the other two authors?

Mark Goodall was working on the code, but he also mentioned having problems with the dog's animation, so, he was also doing graphics. He also wrote the story.
Keith Prosser helped with the code but I don't have other information.

Yes, exactly, Dominic's credits are those you mentioned. Mark Goodall was the main coder, sure. I remember he wrote a background story about Pyracurse for Sinclair User's September 1986 issue. According to what he told there, Mark Goodall can be credited as game designer, main coder and graphic artist. As you can see Keith Prosser is not mentioned at all, Dominic Robinson neither. Crash magazine also published a preview of "Sphinx" (later Pyracurse) on issue 24 (Christmas 1985 Special) (http://www.crashonline.org.uk/24/hewsons.htm) and I would say it's even more revealing. The game was in development since around Christmas 1984. Also this preview confirms that Goodall was an utilities programmer for Hewson (it seems he did several tools for Pyracurse in order to develop more games using those tools), and it's clear he was the main programmer. But Andrew Hewson also tell us about a scriptwriter who wrote the storyline and contributed some ideas to the game. Who this person was?

On the other hand, Keith Prosser was basically an Amstrad CPC programmer, but it was older and much more experienced than Goodall. Up to that time, as an in-house coder, he had released Zapp, an assembler/disassembler for the CPC in 1985 and the same year he converted Dragontorc to the Amstrad. So my guess is that Keith Prosser was a support programmer mainly, at least at the beginning of the development in 1985. However, later on, when approaching the deadline, he probably worked in other departments, but this is only my guessing, not facts. Sorry for not being more accurate.

In my opinion Prosser's role must be as support programmer by now. Maybe in the future we will know more details about his contribution to Pyracurse.

Thank you [mention]druellan[/mention]

✓ Reviewed

[druellan]

* ANARCHY (Rack-It) *
1. The original programmer of the C64 version, MICHAEL SENTINELLA was Australian, not British, so the general info mentioning him as British is incorrect. You can see it below in a press clipping.

I'm going to credit him as "Game Design / Concept". He was not involved directly on the Spectrum version, right?

2. In this entry we should add "Comments" to explain that Anarchy is inspired by the UPL/Taito's arcade Raiders5 (1985) as you can see in the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZmeT5C1A6s

We have an "inspiration" relation-type, so we can link it that way

Much more interesting game mechanics on microcomputers than arcades I would say.

Something similar to Motos, I was not aware it was an arcade conversion until much much later.

1. This box set figures out as MIA on the ZXDB, when there is a picture from the back cover of the game where it's displayed that it was released in 1990.

Mmmm but it was not preserved, right? MIA meaning there is no image of the cassette, that cover might be the only thing preserved. Am I right?
BUT, we can add the release year

2. The two games contained in this box set were developed by Mike Male and Bob Hillyer and their names are also missing on the authors section, so it is not included on the softography of both coders.

Compilations usually don't have authors, unless something changed from the original authors of the games bundled. [mention]Einar Saukas[/mention]
is this correct?


(*) I´ll keep reading and fixing the rest of the message, hang on!

[Audionautas]

I'm going to credit him as "Game Design / Concept". He was not involved directly on the Spectrum version, right?

Exactly, Michael Sentinella was not involved at all on the Spectrum version. He coded the C64 original version only. Michael Sentinella was a freelance programmer. The Spectrum and Amstrad version were developed in-house.

We have an "inspiration" relation-type, so we can link it that way

Great!

Mmmm but it was not preserved, right? MIA meaning there is no image of the cassette, that cover might be the only thing preserved. Am I right?
BUT, we can add the release year

Yes, I think you're right. This double pack is really difficult to find. From time to time it shows up one copy on eBay, even in mint condition, but it's a rarity. Those train simulators were oldfashioned in 1990. It probably had a limited run.

Compilations usually don't have authors, unless something changed from the original authors of the games bundled. [mention]Einar Saukas[/mention]
is this correct?

Oh!, Ok. I thought that as it was a double pack with two games from the same authors that information could be included.

Thank you [mention]druellan[/mention]

[druellan]

* Just to finish I wanted to comment that I have seen that in some game entries "Also known as" shows up as a section just below the name of the game (Quazatron, Quest Adventure, Evening Star...), and in others that also have working or alternate titles the "Also Known as" section is missing and the working title shows up in the comments section (Battlecar Marauder/Marauder, Sphinx/Pyracurse...). Shouldn't we have some kind of common criteria?

Yes!, The alias feature is more intended to document changes on the title upon release, for example, "Licence to Kill" published as "Licencia para Matar" in Spain, but totally works to document an alias for titles that got a "development title", but since the aliases must be related to a publisher and a release, I'm also adding a small comment to clarify things. The ones missing are probably due to the way WOS database handled them. I already added "Battlecar Marauder" and "Abyss Zone". I'll add Sphinx (is that a development title BTW?)

[Audionautas]

Yes!, The alias feature is more intended to document changes on the title upon release, for example, "Licence to Kill" published as "Licencia para Matar" in Spain, but totally works to document an alias for titles that got a "development title", but since the aliases must be related to a publisher and a release, I'm also adding a small comment to clarify things. The ones missing are probably due to the way WOS database handled them. I already added "Battlecar Marauder" and "Abyss Zone". I'll add Sphinx (is that a development title BTW?)

Excellent! Yes, Sphinx was a working title.

Keep up the good work [mention]druellan[/mention]

[Audionautas]

We actually discussed this not long ago, because on some manuals we have the figure of the "producer" but also the "director". As you point out, the idea is to focus on the creative team and the manpower involved directly on the creation of the title. The producer gravitates towards an executive role, providing resources to the creative team, and perhaps the original ideal, but usually the involvement ends there. I know there are probably exceptions, but in that case we can credit them for that specific role, for example, if the producer was involved on the story, we can use that role.

The "director" role is the one that MIGHT worth to mention, because it is clearly involved on the final result, plus, "directors" are also usually developers already listed on the database. We need to discuss this further.

Sorry [mention]druellan[/mention]. This interesting post passed me by completely.

I agree that the creative team should be the focus. The question is: should the producer be considered part of the creative team or not? As you explain, the producer usually is something like an intermediary between the creative team and the company, helping them to achieve their goal, critisizing, contributing ideas, testing the game, coordinating different teams and individuals, often supplying tools or equipment, but it is also very important to push the team to meet the deadlines and in some cases helping them on the creative side. Anyway, I know it's really difficult to know their exact role on any given game.

All the best!

[druellan]

* HEAD THE BALL *

Just updated the comments to:

This is an unfinished game (although listed on the Crash covertape as finished), with the 1st level looped.
The title was planned to be released on Hewson''s {4th Dimension||0011455} compilation in 1990, the original concept by Christian F. Urquhart (Cybadyne) on the Spectrum, but remained unfinished. Hewson replaced it by {Rollaround||0004229} (Mastertronic, 1988) in the last moment when the box layout was already done, and Head the Ball can be seen on the back cover with images from the Spectrum version. The C64 version developed by Jason Page (Graftgold), the alias of Urquhart, is clearly displayed as "Original Spectrum Version by Cybadyne".

Also, added "Cybadyne" as Urquhart's company/alias.

ALSO!, something interesting: Dave Rogers y listed as J. Dave Rogers. He is usually credited as just Dave Rogers, I wonder from where that "J" is coming from?

[druellan]

I agree that the creative team should be the focus. The question is: should the producer be considered part of the creative team or not?

We are currently NOT contemplating the producer as part of the creative team, but we can open a new thread to start a formal discussion if you think it should. I have the feeling that such change might also worth an update on Spectrum Computing's front, perhaps similar to how the inlay artist is displayed.

[Audionautas]

Just updated the comments to:

This is an unfinished game (although listed on the Crash covertape as finished), with the 1st level looped.
The title was planned to be released on Hewson''s {4th Dimension||0011455} compilation in 1990, the original concept by Christian F. Urquhart (Cybadyne) on the Spectrum, but remained unfinished. Hewson replaced it by {Rollaround||0004229} (Mastertronic, 1988) in the last moment when the box layout was already done, and Head the Ball can be seen on the back cover with images from the Spectrum version. The C64 version developed by Jason Page (Graftgold), the alias of Urquhart, is clearly displayed as "Original Spectrum Version by Cybadyne".

Also, added "Cybadyne" as Urquhart's company/alias.

Excellent!

ALSO!, something interesting: Dave Rogers y listed as J. Dave Rogers. He is usually credited as just Dave Rogers, I wonder from where that "J" is coming from?

Sorry, I haven't researched about what does "J" mean: John? Jonathan? James? Jeremy? Jacob? Julian? I don't know. Too many options in English, I'm afraid.

[druellan]

Sorry, I haven't researched about what does "J" mean: John? Jonathan? James? Jeremy? Jacob? Julian? I don't know. Too many options in English, I'm afraid.

Oh, nono. I was thinking on the source of the information, not the meaning of the "J." I don't remember any game on where he is credited that way, and I'm thinking om perhaps normalizing the name to just "Dave Rogers".

[Audionautas]

We are currently NOT contemplating the producer as part of the creative team, but we can open a new thread to start a formal discussion if you think it should. I have the feeling that such change might also worth an update on Spectrum Computing's front, perhaps similar to how the inlay artist is displayed.

It's OK. I don't think it's necessary at the moment to open a new front on the ZXDB including producers on it. A lot of games released by 'bedroom coders' at the beginning of the Spectrum's commercial life didn't have a producer as such. This job position began to grow and gain importance at the same time the videogame industry became more and more professional and especially when software companies had to deal with different in-house and freelance teams, higher budgets involved and it was necessary to control the quality of the product. Hewson had Paul Chamberlain, Ocean had Gary Bracey, Dinamic in Spain had Víctor Ruiz, Topo Soft had Javier Cano and so on. Anyway, I know adding producers to the DB would be a huge task and probably not interesting enough to worth the effort.

All the best!

[Audionautas]

Oh, nono. I was thinking on the source of the information, not the meaning of the "J." I don't remember any game on where he is credited that way, and I'm thinking om perhaps normalizing the name to just "Dave Rogers".

No, as you probably know, Dave Rogers worked primarily for the Amstrad CPC (in fact he started programming for the ZX81, but later on along with his friend Colin Hogg switched to the CPC). His first work for Hewson as a musician was the soundtrack for Zynaps on the CPC and in that game he is already credited as "J. Dave Rogers". On every Cecco's game he worked on he is correctly credited (just as "Dave Rogers"). However, on Marauder was used again "J. Dave Rodgers" (mispelling his surname), also on Netherworld as "J. Dave Rogers". Once again is credited as "J. Dave Rogers" on Bear-a-Grudge, a game developed for Sinclair User by Chris Wood (who worked at Hewson at the time), with Dave on the music department.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBCZYavGTZ0.

As far as I know these are the games where he is credited with the "J". So, yes, he is credited both ways.

[druellan]

Anyway, I know adding producers to the DB would be a huge task and probably not interesting enough to worth the effort.

Yeah, that is exactly the main concern, but as you pointed out, we have enough information for a lot of big companies to at least cover those. So, probably at this point is not going to happen, but I think worth to bring this discussion again in the future.

[druellan]

Ok, let's start with these entries that are the most interesting and probably difficult ones. Just for the record, the idea is to try NOT to remove information from the database, but on the other side, keep everything as historically factual as possible, so,

* SCORPION (Rack-It) *
Link: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=23612

It's really odd to come across this entry on the ZXDB. Scorpion was a game developed by Mark Washbrook on the C64 when he was doing an internship at Hewson in 1987/88. It seems that the existence of this entry is justified only by the press clipping of the Fax section of Computer & Videogames magazine that we can see attached on the Magazine References section. In that tiny piece there are only pictures of the C64 version and there is no mention at all to an upcoming Spectrum version. We can't forget that C&VG was a multiplatform magazine, not a Spectrum magazine. Several years ago I carried out the Hewson softography for their Wiki site (Link: https://hewsonconsultants.fandom.com/wi ... tants_Wiki), and I did a lot of research on Hewson's catalogue and I've never seen any reference on magazines from back in the day for an eventual Spectrum conversion of Scorpion. So, several questions come to mind now.

Giving that the only reference we have is a small generic mention on a multisystem magazine with no Spectrum screenshots, there is not much we can check about this entry. It is interesting it has a publication year, 1988, but that is also the year's magazine.

My opinion: perhaps worth to be removed.

* ASTAROTH - ANGEL OF DEATH / CUSTODIAN / MOONFALL *

Link: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=11489
Link: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=11631
Link: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=24383

Similar to Scorpion's case, but this time three entries on the ZXDB based on the (reliable?) T'ZERS section of Your Sinclair magazine. As far as I know (and researched) Hewson never planned to convert any of this three games to the Spectrum.

* ASTAROTH (mispelled as ASAROTH on Your Sinclair magazine and on the ZXDB). This game was a flop for Hewson. You won't find any reference anywhere to any 8 bit conversion.

* CUSTODIAN. Another flop for Hewson on the ST and Amiga, but this time at least there was a C64 version in the works, but was cancelled (Link: . No news about a Spectrum port.

I agree, looking at the ads on other magazines, there is no mention of a Spectrum version at all, but I think we can keep both in database, just because there is a mention on a Spectrum magazine (I want to maintain that reference). Perhaps add some comments about it.

My opinion: keep them but add a comment.

* TUNNEL VISION (Rack-It) *

Link: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=15072

Regarding this game I also have some doubts. This is another C64 original developed by Graham M. Blighe, but there is no trace anywhere of an eventual Spectrum version. According to WoS the author for the Speccy version was a certain Ian Cox, who has other Spectrum titles under his wing (link: https://www.worldofspectrum.org/infosee ... p=^Ian+Cox$), but all of them educational and self-published titles, not exactly games as such. I guess Martijn contacted him and he said that Tunnel Vision version for the Spectrum was part of his softography, but who knows? At least there is no reference to an specific Spectrum version on magazines. I hope we will have more information about this title in the future.

Yeah, this one is complex. I have suspicions that "Tunel Vision" is a totally different game. Usually in these cases we prefer to leave the attribution and the title on the database, because, who knows, chances are the author might bump into the entry and clarify things. Perhaps we can change the MIA status to "never released", but leave the rest in place.

My opinion: remove the information about the release, change the status to "never released".

[Audionautas]

Giving that the only reference we have is a small generic mention on a multisystem magazine with no Spectrum screenshots, there is not much we can check about this entry. It is interesting it has a publication year, 1988, but that is also the year's magazine.

My opinion: perhaps worth to be removed.

Agreed.

I agree, looking at the ads on other magazines, there is no mention of a Spectrum version at all, but I think we can keep both in database, just because there is a mention on a Spectrum magazine (I want to maintain that reference). Perhaps add some comments about it.

My opinion: keep them but add a comment.

Yes, I get your point. Adding a comment would be perfect.

Yeah, this one is complex. I have suspicions that "Tunel Vision" is a totally different game. Usually in these cases we prefer to leave the attribution and the title on the database, because, who knows, chances are the author might bump into the entry and clarify things. Perhaps we can change the MIA status to "never released", but leave the rest in place.

My opinion: remove the information about the release, change the status to "never released".

I had the same feeling when I saw this entry on the ZXDB, that is, it was a totally different game with the same title.

Thank you [mention]druellan[/mention]

✓ Reviewed