Commodore Free 11/Commodore_Free_Issue_11_2007_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/t.iv frank 2

Text File | 2023-02-26 | 8KB | 257 lines

u            Interview with
          Games that Weren't
            Frank Gasking
        http://www.gtw64.co.uk

PART 2 of 2

Q-What information would you like to
recieve for Example our reader may be
thinking I worked on a game in XXXX
that is on the wanted list but you
don't have the date would someone just
emailing & confirming the date the game
was worked on be good news & worth the
effort from our reader?

Of course - any information is welcome
for the website - but we'd also pester
them for the game if they still had it
;-)

Q-(an impossible question) When will
you have all the games listed?

Never - you're right - it's an impos-
sible goal that will never be reached
unfortunately. It's more realistic for
something like the GX4000 or Vectrex as
the release amount is in double figures
pretty much, but the C64 was so open to
developers - although Gamebase 64 has
about 30,000 odd games in its archive,
there's probably still another 30,000
(Or more!) unaccounted for still - the
hard to find ones!

We'll just keep searching until the
death & dig up as much as we can -
mainly the ones which have been in the
spotlight like Daffy Duck & Murder.

Q-Have you had companies contact you
with information & updates?

Not companies - though Dave Palmer (Who
was the head of Hi- Tec) contacted us
recently to tell us he found Bugs Bunny
on disk for us. We originally made
first contact with him though. The main
people we get coming to us are ex-
developers from the C64 era who worked
for the big companies like Ocean,
Thalamus etc.

They have often done a search for
their name in Google, & found their
name linked to some titles in our
archive. Occasionally a developer has
discovered a game they did which they
haven't seen for almost 2 decades!

Q-How do some of the still running
companies look on your efforts, for
example has anyone asked you to remove
titles for some reason or have you had
any favorable comments?

We've had no comments at all - nor any
requests to remove anything just yet.
Of course, if the likes of Electronic
Arts asked us to remove anything, we
would do so. We try to make it clear
that GTW is non-profit based & not
hence doing any harm (Especially
because the games aren't already being
sold for profit else where because
they weren't properly released in the
1st place! :-) Some day I'm sure things
could get messy with a particular find-
ing especially if it was something like
"Sonic X" on the Saturn, but we'd be
careful about putting anything like
that up & would most likely tell people
to search with Google for a download to
play it safe :)

Q-Are you currently working on other
projects, directly or indirectly, am I
right thinking you were working with
Richard Bayliss on a sub hunter port of
the Vic 20 game to the C64?

I occasionally help out with Vinny
Mainolfi's "End of the Line", though
I've sadly not helped for a while
because I've been so busy. I also
occasionally write for "Old School
Gamer" which is run by Jason Kelk &
have just submitted a new article for
Retro Gamer magazine on a lost Vectrex
game.

Development wise I am currently working
on about 3 games doing graphics - 2
games which I can't mention at the
moment, & Sub Hunter. Which was origin-
ally to be a port of the Vic 20 game,
as the C64 version sucked

Now its evolved into a similiar game
to the Vic 20 with many improvements &
different styles of gameplay crammed
in. I think also it should be Richard's
best game ever on the C64 that he's
written. It will soon be launched on
Cronosoft on tape (With a custom Ocean
tribute loader) & disk, with a free
download on our websites - hopefully in
time for Xmas 2007.

Q-Have you written any games & did you
have any games commercially published?
If so can you name a few our readers
can look at?

I have done a few questionable games in
the past with nothing spectacular at
all - Certainly never had anything pub-
lished unless you count games being put
on C= Zone's covermount. I hope that
may change with Sub Hunter soon though
with a Cronosoft launch.

I was mainly doing stuff for Binary
Zone PD in SEUCK, but dabbled with
enhanced BASIC too. Overall my 2 best
efforts were Synetic SEUCK & Q-Billion
BASIC, but neither were ground breaking

Q-In your opinion what is the worst
mistake C= games manufacturers made?

Rushing conversions I would say is
probably the worst mistake made -
Tiertex are a key example of a company
which just wanted a quick turnout
instead of concentrating on quality
like Thalamus. But unfortunately
Thalamus have gone, & Tiertex are still
going! :-/

Also, some companies made strange
decisions - with Solar Jetman, the only
reason it wasn't released was because
the company decided that it wouldn't
appeal to gamers - yet it was 100 times
better than most stuff in 1992

Q-How do you rate the current games for
PC & playstation,xbox etc

As sad as it is - I see life through
rose tinted glasses most of the time &
really don't get on with new games. I
feel there is not much difference
between the first person shooters, &
all the 3D platforming efforts feel
very stale to me. However, I have an
X-box with Burnout Revenge, Pro Evol-
ution 5 & a load of the popular
releases regardless.

Burnout & Pro evo get played a lot, but
the likes of Half Life 2 & GTA are
gathering dust (I got bored of them
very quickly because of the time they
needed dedicating to get into them).
Because I work all day & have little
time at home - I love games I can pick
up & play.

Old games have this quality, & some
games like Burnout Revenge do also -
luckily some developers are realizing
that most gamers are casual gamers &
want a quick fix

- hence some of the recent remakes.

Q-Do you think the "gameplay" has been
lost on graphics & sound for new games?

In most cases - yes. I feel particurly
poor games can hide behind a lot of
gloss due to excellent technology.
Sometimes a poor game can however be
made good by interactivity via online
gaming - which makes sense, as we often
found on the C64 that some games were
crap as single player - but came alive
when another human was involved.
However, I feel a greater quantity of
games today are poor & just hide behind
the gloss & licensing.

On the likes of the C64, because of its
limitations in comparison to the big
consoles of today, it is harder to hide
a poor game under graphics & sound.
"Another World" by X-Ample is 1 prime
example which is mentioned a lot for
being a game which looks the dogs but
plays like a brick.

Q-What is your favourite game & least
favourite & why?

My favourite game of all time is
probably Midnight Resistance, mainly
because I've been playing it for so
long & still enjoy it. I addition-
ally love The Sentinel, Blue Max &
Burnout Revenge recently.

My least favourite game has to be
Chase HQ on the C64 - after seeing the
awesome Spectrum conversion, this just
made me sick on the C64. A poor waste
of a tape. Even the music is a cheezy
insult.

Q-going back to Games That Weren't has
anyone finished off partly completed
games?

Richard Bayliss did finish off Super
Pac Twins for XLCUS a few years back.
Boombastic Benny was additionally
finished off as Bomberman 64 for the
recent game competition held by Game
Overview. Apart from that, nothing that
I know of.

I wish someone would someday finish off
Spellcast. My favorite GTW of all time.

Q-Finally our reader looking at your
website what can they do to help?

Just please keep checking out the
archive - email us if you know any-
thing, know about any of the developers
or have information from magazines of
the past etc. We'll add whatever is
submitted into our info base for later
updates in the future.