Did You Ever Write Your Own Games?

[Si Hunt]

I did! Not in machine code obviously, that always seemed to be a complex practise involving lots of pages of numbers and a blunt pair of scissors that nobody ever explained.

But I did devise a way of making 'moving person' games using BASIC on the 128k Spectrum! There was a way of creating sprites which you did by drawing block people/objects on 8x8 grids and working out the number sequences (each row and column being represented by a sequence of numbers: 1,2,4,8,16,32... etc). I also found a routine to move a character round a screen, basically by 'overwriting' it with a space and reprinting it one place to the left or right depending on which key you pressed. Combine the two and voila! You could make your own games!

A whole series followed gradually, which by turns now make me cringe and feel nostalgic. I can detail them if people are interested!

In the meantime, did anyone else write their own games, and please share your memories!

Si.

[Si Hunt]

My first game, incidentally, was called Mickski, for some reason, and involved lots of characters akin to a Dizzy game. However, gameplay was very linear and basically involved going backwards and forwards between screens getting e.g a key that unlocked a door at the other end which revealed a passport to progress you at the opposite end etc.

The second game was a sequel called Street Cred Mickski and was set in "the streets" which meant a few bins and graffitti and a bit where someone hurled arrows at you. You could meet all Mickski's friends from the first game again, like Truffle the Dog and Mackski and some new ones as well. I seem to remember a nausea-inducing finale where you had to battle the "Lizard King" which was a big flashing mass of sprites.

The third and final game in the Mickski series was Fairytale Mickski which famously was named by my sister in return for a prize which she is still waiting for. It was written over a weekend and featured characters from nursery rhymes and things including Red Riding Hood and some others. There was a screen with millions of doors and a cool bit where you fell off a 'cloud station' platform and off the screen.

For all Mickski's joys, it was all a bit black and white so the next game I wrote, which again in no way homaged Dizzy, was called Dippy. You took control of this square bloke and there were loads of really good colour screens like a tree house and a mine with moving carts. Woo!

Which reminds me of End of the World which was slightly different in that you had a different challenge on each level. On Level 1, I remember, you had to catch a runaway mine-cart, while on one of the other levels you had to shoot something etc.

My one attempt at a platform game was an utter rip-off of Bubble Bobble called Bobble. All the sprites were used up on a fab logo and at full pelt the flashing screens could induce snowblindness during play. It was a basically a platform "epic" with rising water from the bottom (just like Bubble Bobble). I think you could shoot too.

I did some other, less impressive ones, like Who Did It?, a murder mystery where you could interview suspects and Tron, a kind of boring skills challenge thing.

That was all on the Spectrum! The Amiga opened up a whole new world of dull football management games and (hurrah!) text adventures!

The sad thing is that the tapes, if indeed I still have them, will undoubtedly have decayed by now and the fragile programs within will have been lost forever...

Si.

[Alex]

I used to write adventure games on my C64, mostly revolving around very basic code like "Input A$ - If A$ = North then print "You went north and were devoured by a large kettle." I know that's not quite right, but you get the gist...

I'd spend hours and hours doing them, putting in A$ for all variety of possibilities, and then end up only playing them myself. Or if I was lucky, one friend might have a go for 5 minutes before getting bored...

Thinking about it now, I even used to do graphics, but only by using the symbols the C64 had on the keyboard if you pushed the ctrl button.

Blimey, it was all a bit of a waste of time really. But I did strangely enjoy doing it a lot...


Ooh, and not really related but kind of, I did used to make lots of Shoot Em Ups on the Shoot Em Up Construction Kit on the Amiga. Most of which were quite surreal...I think it was a strange Tennis one involving Jeremy Bates which was the best one...!

[Paul Clement]

I managed to write a few simple games when I was much younger on my first computer, the Commodore 16. Crap they were, but then again so were all the games available in those days.

[WhiteCrow]

I did! Not in machine code obviously, that always seemed to be a complex practise involving lots of pages of numbers and a blunt pair of scissors that nobody ever explained.

In my day we had to make our own computer games ...



But I remember with fondness those books which went "MAKE YOUR OWN COMPUTER GAMES".

Actually it was an investment in time well spent, as I'm now a software engineer, it kind of taught me some tricks of the trade.

[cullsoft]

I still do. Currently I'm working on a customised mod for a modern day strategy-RPG called Jagged Alliance 2, after some of the fans have been able to make a new version of the game with a lot of the data externalised so folks can make their own mods more easily. I've been working on numerous ideas and concepts for games, but it's only really with this one where I've found myself spending some solid time on getting anything developed and coded/scripted.

I recall back in the day when Phillip and I used to make (or at least plan) text adventure games in Basic...

[The Secretive Bus]

There's a text adventure of mine floating around the Net. I wrote it to coincide with the Survivor games at OG, in which you as JR Loflin had to get your votes to Chesterton. The process by which you had to acquire paper, pen and an ink was ridiculously complicated and you had to talk to a lot of Survivor players to do it, whilst avoiding the Secretive Bus!

Oh, I had fun back then...

[Antony Cox]

Our very own Andrew Clancy (Ian Lethbridge-Stewart) wrote a very basic Doctor Who computer game years ago on a Spectrum ZX. I can't really remember a lot about it other than it looking like a page from Ceefax!

You can see it very faintly in this photo:

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

Our very own Andrew Clancy (Ian Lethbridge-Stewart) wrote a very basic Doctor Who computer game years ago on a Spectrum ZX. I can't really remember a lot about it other than it looking like a page from Ceefax!

You can see it very faintly in this photo:

Where was that photo taken? It looks like an old school desk!!!
Look at those terrible graphics - It does look like a page of CEEFAX doesn't it!!!

I recall that everytime you went back to the TARDIS console room you would have to wait about 5 minutes for the graphics to load (each roundal being drawn one after the other)

I co-wrote a text with basic (CEEFAX) graphics called Space attackers before doing the Doctor Who. Space Attackers featured a robot dog called K9 - although with the high quality graphics he looked more like a fridge with a face - Si Hart would have been apalled!!!!

I only threw that computer out about 2 years ago!!!!

[Antony Cox]

Where was that photo taken?

It was at the flat, though I'm not sure why the background is perfectly white??

I only threw that computer out about 2 years ago!!!!

That was the last vestige of my beloved console!

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

That was the last vestige of my beloved console!

I'd forgotten about that - oh well, never mind!!!

[Antony Cox]

I'd forgotten about that - oh well, never mind!!!

Your compassion is overwhelming!

[Zbigniev Hamson]

I used to make little programs on the Spectrum that drew things and made them move and things, not really "games". The best was probably one where you could move a little dot around the screen with the keys and it had inertia and gravity and would bounce of the sides of the screens. Pretty simple but quite fun, especially if you left "trails" on so you cold draw with it.

I also made a couple of adventure games with The Quill. The second one was a "comedy" set on a spaceship which I was actually really quite proud of, but no-one ever played it I have it on my PC now though if anyone has an emulator and is interested