GTW news report post

[Frank Gasking]

Right, i've decided to create a post which I can keep people updated with anything interesting that has been happening for GTW, prior to any updates.

This will include the odd post to indicate what has been done, whats been chased up and any news.

Its a locked post, so if anyone has questions or discussion about a particular topic / game etc that I mention, then please make it a new post

As my main news page is not dynamic, this might be the next best thing to keep people updated for the time being.

[Frank Gasking]

Right, slightly busy today.. but mainly research wise.

(*) Working on the search for "The Odyssey" by Duckworth Software. A title which Gamebase 64 are looking for. Got in touch with the game's author who no longer has the game, but informs that the game was infact released.

(*) Only just recieved a really nice email from Chris Fitzsimmons who programmed Crackmania, Arbitrator, Astrodome, Humanoid and DangerZone. A lot of information on these games.

(*) News and information for "Liberator" preview is now bubbling away thanks to Mariusz Mlynski. Credits, missing pictures some sids... plus possibilities of more being found. More soon hopefully.

(*) Got itchy fingers to find out even more about "Spellcast"... Love that preview ... Trying to get in touch with Dave Clarke, the game's programmer.

(*) Contacted some numerous people from my old mail account with regards to titles such as Batman Returns etc etc. Hopefully in the hope to gain some more replies and find out more information. Sadly lost contact with Roy Bannon (B.R coder).. as mail bounced

[Frank Gasking]

Slow day, what with work today.. but more research.

(*) With no doubt, Daffy Duck is the most wanted C64 game of all time. And some serious concentration is required. So today there has been some conversation with Gamebase with regards to finding the game.

Contact has been attempted with David Palmer again, though the mailbox is bouncing now

Contacted another ex-Hi-Tec coder who *may* have got a disk from Ash and Dave.

Hunt is now on to try and find Ash and Dave again...

(*) Dug out some old posts by JCB on Lemon64... which gives the realisation that he was involved with ESPRIT, who did Search For Sharla... and also names "Hugh Binns"... another name to search for. Also another title has been given, called "Flonk".. and some other information for "Darius+"

(*) Apart from that.. some general emailing and enquries.

[Frank Gasking]

Some great news and findings... (More added later probably)

(*) Currently typing up the "Active Minds - Total Recall article", "Cyberdyne Interview" and "Habitat CVG" articles for the next update. Bit braindead after it all, but I will do it!!... (Anyone fancy typing up the "Batman Returns" diaries for me?... anyone??... please??? )

(*) The Odyssey has been found, and is currently being sent in the post to GTW Towers for porting and converting to PC. So one off the list for Gamebase 64 at least :-).... God knows how i'm gonna scan the book!!! ;-)

(*) Contacted Stoo Fotheringham with regards to some strange findings on the Megatree disks... which included
- some Atic Atac char blocks (Not official conversion according to Stoo),
- an unused character for Nodes Of Yesod
- Some extra "Kimera" materials (What was to be Heartland)
- and a very rare sprite, which seems currently to be the only remains of Psyclapse.
- More remains of Megatree... the game's charset!.. half complete.

(*) Had contact from a guy who has contact with Hans Sommer.... Also has given me screenshots of another GTW game by Cosmos which looks awesome, called "outrage" done by bernd buchegger (panther/cosmos designs). Something to add soon maybe?

(*) Contact from a friend of Simon Nicol's, talking about his Road Routine, his involvement on a V1 of 4 Soccer Sims for Codemasters (Scrapped... so another GTW!) and a budget title that Simon and Stavros worked on in a whole night that never saw the light of day.

(*) More information from JCB about a game called Crystal Beacon.. a very stunning game by the sounds of things, and hopefully more to be seen soon if JCB finds anything of it.

(*) Yet another scan from Brendan Phoenix!... that man is a star!

[Frank Gasking]

Site updated tonight... including all the remains of Megatree, thanks to Retro Gamer.

Apart from this..

(*) The Odyssey has been succesfully converted for Gamebase 64, and although Tape One had a lot of trouble, they managed to salvage it from what I sent.. So another Gamebase 64 game found!

(*) Found David Saunders again, so hopefully we might be able to find out if Daffy Duck can still be found from the game's developers. What with contact being lost with David Palmer recently, all the channels have to be followed in the hope of finding the game. More on this soon I hope.

(*) Mike Berry (Aka, Kernal) has promised to try and dig out the remains of his game "Savage Platforms". This very promising title is apparently about 70-80% complete, and Mike has said that GTW can do what we like with the title. If its not fully running, we will try and get it patched up and runnable with all that remains... which should include the unheard music by David Green, Mike's friend (And cousin I think??). Mike also confirmed that a new GTW coming up "IRON FISH"... (Thanks Viktor!!) is infact by him.. and is all that remains.

(*) More scans from Brendan, and sadly the last lot now as he finished going through his mags. Most of these are used in this update, but there is still a few yet to be used for new reviews.

(*) Not GTW related, but things might be slowing a bit soon... or at least updates smaller and as often as possible... I will be teaching at my old university this September, part time... hopefully while I do a MSc.. so again I will be very busy, but will keep doing as much as I can.

[Frank Gasking]

Nothing today, apart from the great news that Bug Byte's "Antics" game has been found and bought on ebay. Gamebase are currently investigating things.

This means that once hopefully the game is ported over, then GTW will be removing the entry. Good news, though a shame that it seems it might be a crap game ... but its another lost title found!

[Frank Gasking]

Nothing much GTW based being done at the moment, but...

(*) Graphics man behind Hawkeye 2, Flimbos Quest 2 and Bamboo has been in touch with GTW.. Jacco van 't Riet. And hopefully GTW will be learning more soon from him, Mario Van Zeist and Laurens Van Der Donk. (Emails yet to be sent to the final two).

(*) Bob Stevenson confirms that he has no contact with Peter Baron. But reports that he last was heard of in Scotland and got out of the programming business. Might be something... who knows.

(*) Parasol Stars is still some way off... no closer to finding any names for the game. Only Keith Tinman is the single credit we have. Someone must know who was behind this game...

Apart from that, i've had a few work commitments, but the big shock (Mainly for myself) is that i've started a small project with Richard Bayliss...

Its a C64 conversion of a Vic 20 game called "Sub Hunt" by Mastertronic. The C64 version was quite piss poor, and after Richard recently mentioning it was dire, I suggested he ported the Vic 20 version.

It is not a greatly complex game by any accounts, but it would make a nice little conversion if there were some added bits and pieces. I think Richard is more than capable of doing a good job of this one, though i'll help him as much as I can with regards to design and ideas etc...

Richard's put a demo up on his site... which is basically in its very early stages.

I'm currently doing a series of sprites and char's for the game, including a 3 layer Parallax sea bed/sea roof design which Richard is to implement. If you look at the Bonus level of Nebulus, this is the kind of thing i've suggested to Richard. If he pulls it off, then the game could look quite nice.

Quite a few ideas have been pushed around, most of which Richard has taken on board. A few have been scrapped (Such as the idea to toggle between Vic 20 and C64 graphic modes).

This is my first bit of graphic work for someone else's game.. so its something different, and hopefully i'll learn something from it.

And thats it... more soon I hope

[Frank Gasking]

A bit dead recently i'm afraid.. busy with uni prep and graphics for Sub Hunter.

(*) Thanks to an email from Gary Lake (Who I found was also behind the Sega Smash Pack for the Dreamcast!), there has been some news on California Games 2...

Here are some clips of an email recieved by the game's producer, Matt Householder (Not replied to anyone yet as its gone 2am )

<From Matt>
Epyx declared bankruptcy in 1989 and canned all but a small core group of game programmers, artists, and office staff.I returned to Epyx after the bankruptcy and produced some more games for them: Todd's Adventures in Slime World (for the Genesis), Laptop Games, and California Games II.

California Games II had been partly done when the layoffs/bankruptcy happened. So, we picked up the pieces and did our best to finish the game. We found some artwork and design documents, but almost no code. We finished the game on the PC (DOS) and licensed it to others to convert, I believe, to the Amiga, Sega Master System, and the Super NES. A Genesis version was nearly completed, but not published. Epyx may have planned to publish it on the C64, but that was before the bankruptcy. Afterward, the C64 was a dead platform (in the US at least).

Epyx eventually dissolved (around 1991) and sold all its assets (including intellectual property) to Bridgestone, a US-based Christian publisher. Atari Corp, I believe, ended up with the right to publish Epyx games on Atari hardware -- the Lynx and 2600.

Regarding the credits: 'Chris Grigg' is the proper spelling of the music credit. Some of the people who worked on it before the bankruptcy were overlooked -- but we weren't sure who did what before we resurrected the
project.

So there is still no hope so far of finding the game.. but indication that the game may never have been completed.. or even started!... Now its time to find the other developers, and even Chris Grigg to find out more... maybe he did the music and completed that aspect?

(*) A new game has been released which will be going into GTW soon. Its called "Dragonfly Attack" and is from way back in 1985 and uncovered in France in a basement on tape. No doubt this would have been pitched at companies.

(*) On Sub Hunter... charset has been started and screens are being built. Going for a Nebulus style water effect which took a bit of tweaking to look half decent. It should look a lot better in motion

Problem is my lack of colour and a colour split... so the sea bed may look rather grey in colour. I've probably used too much blue for the sea, so now i'm struggling with gray and a limited selectable colour. Grrr.. I hate that restricted colour!

A small update will be coming soon... maybe a review or two, but mainly with an Apex Bits page and a few extras. Hopefully by Saturday/Sunday if all goes well..

[Frank Gasking]

Slow day, work at uni and a bit of graphics.. with some GTW research and findings...

Bad news on Daffy Duck

Dave Saunders has now fully confirmed that neither he or Ash have anything of Daffy Duck by Hi-Tec Software.

This means that after speaking also to Nick Taylor, Gerard Gourley and the past development team before Ash and Dave.... Dave Palmer is the only person who has a full version of the game.

Recently contact has been lost with Dave, who runs the gamesproducer.com company. Emails sadly have bounced recently, so a new contact address needs to be found to try this final route of finding the game.

If for any reason Dave does not want Daffy Duck released, then it would mean that we would never get to see Daffy Duck on the C64, and that the game would sadly be wasted after all these years of eagerness to play. I hope it will be the opposite.

So now its time to find Dave Palmer again and try one more time... after that, GTW may have the close the search for good :-(

[Frank Gasking]

Work continues on "Sub Hunter"... and its starting to look quite nice. Richard in the meantime is working on a nice surprise for the game's ending.. something a little different.

LATEST NEWS...

(*) Thanks to Gary Lake, there is reports of another two games by the creator of Imhotep on the C64.. currently which are being chased up.

(*) GTW will be mailing a letter off to Dave Palmer about Daffy Duck... the start of the final dice roll... (Anyone got suggestions about what to do?)

(*) Some very very exciting news... John Kemp of Cyberdyne Systems has been found and Dan Phillips is meeting him this Thursday. John *has* all his development disks... which you know what that *might* mean?... apart from a few surprises.... there is a remote possibility that the remains of Putty could be still in existance, after all seemed impossible. Its early days, but hopefully John will soon shed some more light and Dan will be asking for John's side of the story for Deadlock and Armalyte 2. Good stuff :-)

I hope to put up a small handful of reviews and bits tonight or tomorrow on GTW. This includes the "Apex Bits" and some additional informations and bits.
I will try and do a bit a day (Get into a routine of 1 game update a day when I get really busy).. and then updates will be more likely and substancial.

I will be teaching at the end of September, so its unclear how my time will be affected. Bit of a trip into the unknown, but there you go

[Frank Gasking]

Another update tonight.. just to add a few bits i've been meaning to.

Slow go, a lot of work starting to come in now.. but i've got another update planned for next week.

Good news is that GTW will be getting some welcome publicity in the press very soon. Not sure if I can say exactly what it is yet, but hopefully it may mean that a few of the titles we're looking for will get noticed by more people visiting the site. I'll let people know asap when I get the go-ahead.

Sub Hunt has been left untouched for 2 days... just too busy.. Will be tackling it again tomorrow night... along with a review for TMR/Cosine and the Old Skool Gaming site.

Right.. time to have a break.. enjoy the update (I hope )

[Frank Gasking]

Some interesting developments in the GTW corner..

(*) Firstly we have had contact from a guy who is keen to release all his unreleased work, which includes a fair bit of work which was to be published. This number could be as much as 20 games. The games are not fully polished, but they should provide plenty of interest to many and get the developer some credit for his hard work.

(*) Had an email from Tobias Hultman about Super Barbarian, and recieved a translation of an article about the game in Sweden. Will be preparing this for next update I hope!

(*) Wai-Hung Wan emailed us today with regards to finding John M Phillips (Nebulus 2), and we're currently chasing up leads at Bitmap Brothers.

(*) Recieved a massive amount of photos of production materials for Bloo's Magic Trip from Gareth Taft, including its rejection letter from Zeppelin. Updated the game to include the new bits, including an indepth discussion of the materials by Gareth himself. Will be in next update.

Apart from GTW, i've been busy tonight on the Sub Hunter sprites.. which are almost complete and looking fairly nice. I borrowed the Jelly Fish sprite from Blood Money, as they did it so bloody well, and I couldn't get my own to work... but i've adapted it and improved it for this game. I just hope the sprites will work well on the game's background.

Richard Bayliss sent us a sneak look at a surprise which will feature in the game, and I was quite impressed with what he's done. Of course, saying anything else will give it away. Its not massive, but its a nice touch (The surprise that is!).

Got a quick review of a Vic 20 game done for Jason (TMR) today. Its been a while since I contributed to the OSG site, so I tried to put something together... though I must do something a bit more substancial to pull my weight, other than just reviewing a 1k game.

Sadly the loaned copy of "The Odyssey" has been lost in the post on return to John Ryan. Sent by registered post, John still has not recieved it after 15 days. I feel quite down about it, and feel like i've let John down considerably. When someone puts faith in you with something very prized, it means a lot to repay that faith.. And where i'm in a project where entrustment is crucial, its a black mark for me.

Right.. almost forgetting that I need some sleep (2:38am)... night night.

[Frank Gasking]

A strange few days.... currently bricking it because I start teaching people only a few years younger than me this Monday on a subject i've only just been taught myself.. Few beers tonight I think!

Right...

(*) Dave Palmer has been back in touch with GTW64 out of the blue, and will hopefully be doing a feature on the history of Hi-Tec software very soon. He has also told me that he's found a lot of Daffy Duck materials.. possibly the disks.

(*) Coming up in the next update is a special interview with Ocean's Paul Hughes, who is famous for the Freeloader that graced many a Ocean game. There are a few revelations, and Paul has been asked some questions from some sceners from the Lemon64 board too. Its a nice read

(*) Richard Bayliss confirms that Bombamad was infact released as Clone. So this will be removed.

(*) There has been contact about a possible merger with GTW64 with another popular C64 site. Can't say who, but its being considered. Mainly time constrains might cause problems, but it might happen in the future. Discussions still being made.

(*) Actual credits for Search For Sharla could be here soon. Not overall Esprit credits, but C64 credits. One inclusion could be Hugh Binns for the graphics. This means GTW will finally have some direct leads to chase.

[Frank Gasking]

Some good and bad news today

(*) Dan Phillips has been in touch with John Kemp, and GTW will be asking John some questions about Armalyte 2 and Deadlock very soon, including about some other titles.

(*) Bad news is that it can finally be confirmed that Putty is no more. The only place it will be is on the old 286 Dev system at System 3... if it still exists. But this means the case will have to be closed. Only the main sprite control was apparently ever done anyway along with Rob's background test graphics.

(*) As a result of John being in contact, there is a possibility that other Cyberdyne games could make their way to GTW sometime in the future. This includes a Sinister clone which has been talked of in the past.

(*) Site updated... there is a sizable update with a few bits and pieces, including a nice interview with Paul Hughes of Ocean Freeloader fame.

(*) GTW has declined a merger due to wanting to stay separate and possible plans of a GTW ring if other format site mirrors eventually appear...

Having a night off tonight... so no work on Sub Hunter.
Overall the graphics are coming along nicely, and there are a lot of ideas which have been swapped with Richard. If these get implemented, this could be a nice little game. Excited about getting it done, but man i'm lacking some free time!

[Frank Gasking]

Well, i've survived 2 days of teaching.. and i'm still here!...

Predicatably, site update and Sub Hunter work has been quiet... but some interesting developments!

(*) GTW has been in touch with Mat Sneap, who has confirmed that Second Samurai was never started on the C64. Just merely an idea then that never got passed.
(*) Also we've had contact from Hugh Binns, who is now confirmed as the graphic artist behind "Search For Sharla"... so a credit at last to add!. Hopefully we will hear more soon from Hugh about work on the game, and possibly who was programming it.
(*)Andrew has passed onto me a scan of the Cinemaware article from Zzap, which we will HTMLize soon and add to the two new Cinemaware entries we added this week.
(*)Paul Hughes may be doing a story about the C64GS soon, as he did a lot of work on the cartridges. Paul often tells great stories about his Ocean days, and loves to delve back into the past for those days. Which means that if Paul did get time to do a story on the C64GS, it would be a bloody interesting read for sure
And possibly an eye opener too!
(*) Two new GTW games coming soon. Jazzcat has passed on two unreleased games which are quite nice, and will be reviewed and put up *hopefully* this weekend.
(*) A small update... Jazzcat has sent GTW another title which they have been working on, and will be added this weekend to. Fight For Freedom, a more complete version with the addition of some artwork previously only seen in Zzap 64. So more goodies to come

Right, time to get ready for work...