Be Excellent To Each Other

SWOS had an expansion disk to fix a load of bugs and stuff didn't it? How did we get that?

Did that involve sending a disk off or something? I cant remember.

That was a coverdisk on AP, IIRC.

Was that the first recorded "update" that we know and love in modern gaming?

It was meant to be, but it wasn't. Some other mag did it, though.

Alternative famously did their own tape duplication which is probably why their games were such bastards to load. In fact here's Amstrad Action's Adam Peters on a visit to the said software house:

There's a SWOS Team Editor in AP58. Must have been Amiga Format that had the bug fixes. I still reckon there was something in AP about it; maybe an address to send your copy or get the data disk.

There was the whole Swiz article - it was perhaps in that.

And apparently it was Stu that showed JD how to play SWOS (JD having not played before but not wanting anyone else to have to review an unfinished game).

More here: #swos">http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/ap2/bad/un ... .html#swos

My floppy drive emulator has arrived from Poland:



Plugs into any computer with a standard floppy drive port (CPC, Spectrum (+2a and +3 models only), ST, Amiga, etc) and emulates a floppy drive via images stored on an SD card.

Can't test it yet as my Amstrad cables haven't arrive (you buy them separately).

That will mean all of my computers will be loading via modern media. My Amiga has compact flash internally + a PCMCIA compact flash reader, my BBC master has a SD card reader, my C64 has a disk emulation cartridge and everything else can use the new emulator box. Hoorah!

[edit] Actually not quite all my computers load via modern media. My 464 doesn't have a disk drive controller chip. But I have it loading via a tape adaptor instead]

Article also mentions Alternative don't put out re-releases of other peoples games, which isn't strictly true:


Dodgy Bash Street Kids artwork rip off, yesterday

In fact memory serves that they had spin off labels such as Summit as well that dealt purely in re-releases.

On a 14 inch CRT the scrolling on the CPC version of Operation Gunship was fairly ropey. On a 24 inch LCD it's dreadful. Renders the game unplayable. Which is a shame as it's a great top down Choplifter knock off. Speccy version looks just about tolerable:

I'd forgotten I'd even asked about that. I used to frequent that forum quite a bit (I think I still have a mod account). In fact, it was someone on there that pointed me towards WoS... And then stuff happened, and now here we are.

The admin over at classicamiga is a really nice guy, always happy to help out.

Well thanks anyway.

I asked the author of the YouTube video and he says he can't find the disk anymore. So close.

I could bump the thread.... maybe something will come up this time?

That would be good, ta.

Already done. Who knows, perhaps something will come of it...

Filthy Tapatalk.

Wizardy Dizzy knock off with big graphics, Slightly Magic:

Amiga Format 100 had the SWOS editor.

I'll be damned if I can find it.Tch.

Been doing some more research on budget labels, and unexpectedly, the Kixx label was used on reissued games for Sega consoles (Mega Drive and Game Gear), making it possibly the only budget label to branch out from games for home computers.

Apart from the whole Codemasters fuss over the Game Genie and them bypassing Nintendo's protection chip......

They were cheaper. And of course the Americans would have no idea they were rehashes of Speccy games.

Terminus, a game that looked lovely on the Speccy and CPC but in all honesty I had no idea what I was doing:



IIRC it was one of the first £2.99 MAD games I purchased.

Oh, err, yeah, that. True.

[quote="mrak" And it turns out there's a bit of a story with the German version of said compilation...[/quote]

The Germans banned and altered all sorts of games war related. Nazi symbolism was also (and might still be) a no no. In fact IIRC they decreed any blood in games had be coloured green!

Just played Killer Cobra from Mastertronic on the CPC (been testing an update to my cassette adaptor mod). Memory said it was a good game, the reality is that it's a shit game with headache inducing scrolling. If the scrolling is any better on a CRT I have no idea but on an LCD it was intolerable.



Blimey, the version on Youtube is even worse. Looks like the emulator is having issues as look how the entire screen is jerking!

Aside from the scrolling if you die you go back to the start of the level.

To be fair it does look like a Scramble / Super Cobra rip off and in the arcade versions of those dying always took you back to the start of that section regardless of how far you had made it (how long are the levels?)

Yes it did remind me of an arcade game I played.

But the scrolling is so terrible that it's hard to ensure. Each level probably only lasts for 90 seconds to 2 mins so not the end of the world. But as the gameplay is so repetitive you do resent it.

Also played Lost Caves last night. Got about 5 mins and 3/4 through level 1 died and it kicked me back to the start of the level to begin again. I don't have the tolerance for that these days. It's not so much the level reset that bothers me as how long it takes to redo the level. Shame because as I mentioned before it's a great Boulderdash/Repton knock off.

Did anyone play Just Imagine? I played it on the Spectrum, but it might have existed for other formats. It was a game company management sim, and my cousin and I spent weeks on it.

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek ... id=0002665

I had this:

I has a emulator version!

The name of this PR chap can't be a coincidence, can it?

One of my favourite internet comedy characters.

Still the case the banning of Nazi imagery, and many violent games are still restricted from sale in Germany. Believe it or not.

I know some of the recent COD games still have issues and there is a separate version of them released on steam (e.g. BLOPs had swastikas in Zombies which is removed in the German version)

The building where Addictive's HQ was located is literally round the corner from the current offices of Retro Gamer magazine, fact fans.

Also about 400 yards from the site of the former Bournemouth Amstrad Centre. Got both North & South + Lemmings in there on disk. They always had the latest CPC software which was great.

The update was on The One wasn't it?

Been playing Feud but have been struggling. Tried various maps but most of them are inaccurate or wrong. But this one works well:

Feud Map

It's for the CPC version but the map should be the same for all versions barring the C64 as for that version the programmer decided to ignore the game design documents.

Malc once did this for us:



Full map of Super Robin Hood. Just for us.

Do you want to do another 8-bit challenge ?

I might not have much time for the next week or so but could probably get something setup the week after and given the activity on this thread we could (for example) limit it to games which had a budget release (or were launched on budget?)

I'd be up for that!

With the shiny new Amiga emulator everyone has, shouldn't we be doing an Amiga challenge?

Well volunteered!

I thought about it, but kept quiet as I didn't want to be roped into organising it.

Great idea. By the time we do it I should have all 3 of my 8 bits up and running with SD cards so will be able to use original hardware.

Not sure if we should limit to budget or not. I only say that as the Bubble Bobble CPC remake should be in for a shout or the superb Star Sabre:

I don't have a shiny Amiga emulator you insensitive clod!*



* I have a shiny pimped Amiga though.