No Fragments Archive 10: Diskmags/nf_archive_10.iso/MAGS/SYNTAX/SPECIALPD1.MSA/CLIVE.ART

Text File | 1994-02-22 | 7.7 KB | 181 lines

                 The World of Clive Wilson

If you started playing adventures on one of the 8-bit machines,
you must have come across the name of Clive Wilson. He has written
almost 20 adventures of various types over the years, starting on
the Spectrum, C64 and Amstrad in the mid-80s.

Some of his games, such as Kobyashi Naru, Venom and Zzzzz, were
published by Mastertronic; others, such as Nightwing and Demigod,
he published himself under his Softel label and then through
Zenobi. Several of these games were text only but others were
icon-driven and some were collaborations with Les Hogarth.

With the advent of the 16-bit home computers, Clive discovered the
ST and he and Les wrote Whiplash and Wagonwheel, a 2-disk horror
adventure.  Recently he has moved over to the PC and has converted
three of his text adventures, The Darkest Road, The Unborn One and
'Twas a Time of Dread, using AGT. The games are sold as shareware,
registrations being accepted by The Adventure Workshop.

I'm always interested to know what makes an adventure author
'tick'. As Clive has written so many games, I wondered what it was
about adventure writing that had kept his interest over almost a
decade, so I was glad when he agreed to be interviewed.

                       * * * * *

@~SM: First of all, what started your interest in adventures? I
@~presume playing them came first and you then went on to writing
@~them.

CW:  Back in the dawn of time, I must have been one of the first
purchasers of a ZX80. Les and I both bought Spectrums around the
same time and we began playing The Hobbit and other adventures. I
suppose The Hobbit was the game that hooked me (and is one of the
few games I have solved.)

We decided to try to write a game ourselves and discovered that we
enjoyed writing games even more than playing them.

@~SM: What made you decide to write your first game and how easy
@~did you find it to do?

CW: I suppose we thought that we could write a 'significant' game
and we began work on Solaris which was written in Basic. The game
itself took about six months to write. As it was our first game we
had a lot to learn.

Les wrote the plot and designed the graphics while I concentrated
on the logic and text. I wouldn't call it easy to write but it was
a labour of love. However, I must admit that I cringe whenever I
look at it now. It was so s..l..o..w..

@~SM: Several of your early games were icon-driven. Do you find
@~pure text games more flexible for the player and maybe for you,
@~as the programmer, too?

CW: I think we were driven to icons (pardon the pun) by the fact
that Mastertronic wanted something a little different. Personally
I thought our icon system was really quite advanced. I am still
very proud of it (although reviewers tended to be critical.) The
games did sell in vast quantities, however.

I think pure text adventures are more accessible for players but
as a programmer, I must admit I enjoyed the challenge of
icon-driven code - I could do whatever I wanted with it.

@~SM: The storylines of your games have been very varied. Where do
@~you get your ideas from?

CW: To begin with, Les used to do all the plotting and it was from
Majik onwards that I wrote the plots.

Virtually all I seem to read these days is fantasy literature -
novels such as Lord of the Rings, the Covenant stories, the
Shannara series etc. and I probably draw a lot of my ideas from
there. I tend to create a fantasy scenario on paper and then allow
the game to emerge from there.


@~SM: You've tried several utilities over the years. How do you
@~like AGT? Does it compare well with others you tried? And do you
@~have any plans to try a different utility?

CW: We mainly wrote our games in assembly in the Mastertronic era.
To get a game published it really had to be in code and each game
used to take about six months to write. When I started writing
again on my own, I felt it would be unfair to use the system that
Les and I had developed - it was, after all, a Softel thing.  I
looked at PAW and found I could write a game in just a few weeks
so I stuck to that for the Spectrum games.

When I decided to convert 'The Darkest Road' onto the ST and PC I
discovered that AGT was very similar to PAW.  I found it very easy
to work with AGT - it is a very simple utility to use.  However, I
must say that although assembly is the most user-unfriendly way of
writing a game, it does offer the programmer the greatest scope.

You can do anything you like with assembly and then have the
dubious pleasure of debugging something that causes a system crash
every time you get a calculation just a little bit wrong. But that
is half the fun!

@~SM: How different are you finding the 16-bit market compared to
@~the 8-bit market?

CW: It is a bit too early to say at the moment. I know that my ST
games, Whiplash and Wagonwheel and The Darkest Road, have not sold
very well (via Zenobi) but then the adventure market in general
seems to be in a decline. I'm afraid I don't see any future for it
either. It looks to me as if it has had its day and we are all
going to have to move on to other things.

@~SM: The Darkest Road, The Unborn One and 'Twas a Time of Dread
@~are being sold as shareware. How well has the shareware system
@~worked for you? Does it rely too much on people's consciences to
@~be practical?

CW: Again it is much too early to say but I don't think I will
make very much out of it. Actually, I didn't really expect to make
much from it. I really converted the games simply for the
challenge of doing so. May I ask a searching question of the
readers? How many shareware registrations have you sent off? I
would hazard a guess that the answer to that question is - not
many! I think the answer to the second part of your question is a
definite YES!

@~SM: Are there more PC conversions - or new games - in the
@~pipe-line?

CW: The answer is, quite simply, no and no. I'm afraid that with
the end of the trilogy comes the end of my adventure writing
career.

I've had great fun over the years but I feel that after some 18 or
so games I am beginning to run out of ideas.  This, coupled with
the fact that the adventure market is now far too small to warrant
the amount of time spent on a game, has prompted me to hang up my
keyboards for the last time.

@~SM: Do you have any regrets about your adventure writing career?

CW: Do you mean apart from the fact that we didn't make enough
money to retire on? (Joke, joke.) Seriously, the one regret I do
have is that more people didn't like our type of games. We always
tried to be innovative and fresh but we were continually slagged
by the critics. I've played many games that I thought were
atrociously programmed and yet seen those same games get excellent
reviews.  So yes, that is a real regret. The only other regret I
have is that the adventure scene is dead. I've seen sales of my
games go from the heady days of 65,000+ (for the likes of Se-Kaa
and Kobyashi Naru) to sales of less than 50 for the recent titles.
But then, nothing lasts forever! Perhaps now I'll have some time
to put up my feet and ......... (but that would be telling.....)

@~SM. Thanks very much for taking the time to do this interview.

Registration for all three adventures - The Darkest Road, The
Unborn One and 'Twas a Time of Dread - is £5.00 per game through
The Adventure Workshop, 36 Grasmere Road, Royton, Oldham, Lancs,
OL2 6SR. You will be provided with a snazzy folder containing the
registered, individually numbered version and a booklet containing
the storyline, useful commands and general info, and will be
entitled to help by post or phone.















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