| ★ AMSTRAD CPC ★ STEVE EVANS ★ |
| STEVE EVANS | THERE I WAS, WALKING DOWN THE HIGH STREET, WHEN WHO SHOULD I BUMP INTO BUT... |
There's only one thing GARY LIDDON loves doing more than making the tea, and that's talking. So what better way of passing the time than inviting an incredibly famous programmer and a few friends back to his flat for some char and a chat... Oh dear, Steve, I hear you've got a Capri. Well what's wrong with that? It's a bit of a boy racer's car, isn't it? Well, boy racer image, yes, but mine hasn't got fluffy dice and a Breen band saying 'Sharon and arren'. It's just a straight Capri with a little bit of extra trimming, that's all. Who me? I can picture you in an Escort, with a jacked up rear end and the lights and the differentials, leering at passing girls, going 'Awlriteluv?' All right, OK, an obvious question: what got you started in programming? My first encounter with computers was a terminal linked to an IBM 370 at the school I used to go to when I was about thirteen. We had a terminal that was a teletype, with no VDU or anything. All the schools in the area were linked to the same machine and each school had it's allotted CPU time which everyone exceeded. If the time ran out then the job was just dropped. After that I got a ZX80 built from a kit and then I went onto a ZX81, and after that a BBC. On the ZX801 built my own disco box where the ZX80 analysed the music and pulsed various lights. We wrote a couple of games and actually managed to write a flicker free game on the ZX80. For my ZX81 Fgot a 16K RAM pack — you had to stick things like cold milk on it to keep it from overheating. What was your first commercial game? It was actually a Space Invaders fortheZX81, it wasn't fora company though, just for a computer shop and I sold it off their shelf. I did about ten copies. After that, on the BBC, I did a Missile Command and that was three days after I got the machine. I took that into the same place and they sold about ten copies in three days. In it's day it was good, but now, well... I've still got the BBC and that's the only machine I actually own. What about games on the 64? The first thing I did on that was Panic Planet, a version of Space Panic. I wastrying to get into the machine then. Then it was Eagle Empire and after that I did Guardian. That's one of my favourite games. I tried to capture the arcade Defender, mostly through recreating the speed of the original. After that came Rocket Roger— I think I made a mistake in making it too hard. Guardian was OK as it gradually got harder, but Rocket Roger was far too difficult to start with. All your games seem to be fairly derivative. I know, but in the future a bit more on the originality front seems like a good idea. What do you like in the arcades at the moment? Um ... Gauntlet is neat. That's good — I like the idea, it's really social. It's a bit expensive though, and before you know it you can pump tens of pounds into it. I don't go in arcades much anymore though, and I don't get a chance to see anything really new. Dragon's Lair is alright and I recently had someone show me how to do that all the way through. It's okay, but as with all video disc games, it's all yes/no decisions. What are you doing with your life at the moment then? I'm at University at the moment — in the second year studying for a degree in maths. What University? Oxford. I hate saying that. I usually say something like Leeds, since as soon as you say Oxford everyone goes 'OK yah, bad news time'. It s a good college I'm in though, it's fairly liberal. Most of the kids who go there are from comprehensives, but obviously there are a few who are the 'Hooray Henry' type who you avoid. I've no idea what I want to do after uni though. Do you think you're at a bit of a disadvantage not working within a programming team? When I'm working down at Oxford it's very difficult because it's just me and you don't get much in the way of constructive criticism. When I'm at Alligata, in Sheffield, it's a bit different though. I like to finish a game and feel 'I've done all that and no else is actually part of it'. I think overall though it's a bit of a disadvantage to work by yourself. Any ideas as yet for your next game? No, I'm having a bit of a rest after writing Who Dares Wins II on three machines. How do you feel about all the legal trouble with Who Dares Wins? It was a major blow for me because I had spent half of the whole summer on Who Dares Wins and it looked as though it was going to be a big hit. fo be hit by thatwasa real blow to me. Is there anything you think is good within the software market? Mercenary, I don't know who wrote that. Paul Woakes , also author of Encounter. I admire it mainly for it's technical skill — the fast vector graphics system is pretty impressive— but also because of the way he's put it together. I heard the game is really nice, but I haven't had time to really see that. I haven't been in Sheffield for ten weeks though and I haven't seen a lot of the recent stuff. Why is it that all of Alligata's Commodore 64 programmers have blonde hair? They buy it in a bottle. It's not a contagious disease within Alligata. Who else is has got blonde hairthough? Well, Tony Crowther for a start. His is totally dyed though, mine was streaked by my girlfriend. This is really rather embarassing, there was an old streak in the hair when she did it and when it came out the clash between the old streak and the new streak was so bad. All I could really do was rush to the nearest barbers with a paper bag over my head and say 'could you please do something with thisr' That's why my hair's so short now. How do you see your profession progressing in the future? I'm not really sure. I think it'll stay as it is for a while longer. Do you plan to move onto any of the 16 bit machines at all? I thought about it, but there doesn t seem to be any one machine to go for as yet. I've heard the ST is pretty impressive, but I haven't seen one as yet. If those machines take off I can see the standard of software rocketing. Since I'm really a freelance programmer I've got to make sure that anything I do is going to be marketable, so I'll have to wait until they do take off. Don't you ever write stuff just for yourself? Yeah, I write the occasional thing, but I never write an actual game just for mvself. I mean VDU screens — I don't actually like sitting in front of them that much. Then how do you approach a program? Do you just code from a financial point of view or for your own personal gratification? I've got to say it's a mixture of both there. I'd find it difficult to write a game if someone said we'd like this and I wasn't overly enthusiastic. It would take me ages. Usually by the end of a program you feel you'd rather be doing something else anyway. I don't get much time nowadays. I suppose with University and everything you don't. David Palmer: It's the sixty bloody women that take up the time. (Laughter all round) Oh? This is interesting ... Thank you Dave. David Palmer: It seems that Alligata and the degree course share a mutual relationship to combat the women. You seem to be pretty good at multi-tasking. Well I've got a bit of a soft spot for women. David Palmer: In fact, you can put in the article: 'Oxford— watch your daughters'. Look, I've got a bad enough reputation as it is ... (changing the subject totally) I'm a rower as well — as in Oxford v Cambridge, that sort of thing. You won t see me on the telly though, as they do six hours a day training and I can't afford that with women, programming and um ... oh yes, maths. I thought I'd better throw that in, you don't ever get expelled from Oxford, you just don't get invited back. I'll be very annoyed if I don't get invited back after this article. Do you have any other hobbies? Yeah, quite a lot: squash, weight training — I have to do that for the rowing — a lot of tennis. I play most sports and I watch videos. It seems unusual to have a programmer who's into sports in anyway at all. It doesn't seem to be the usual thing. I don't want to seem nasty, but a lot of people say 'I'd never believe you were a programmer, since most programmers Well, there's a stereotype and it does seem to stick. I don't seem to fit in. With most programmers the type of music they like seems to be constant, from coder to coder— what do you like? It varies... Jean Michel Jarre, Japan — good group that, I like their early stuff. I like a lot of different types, I don't just hang on one group and everything they do. Anything else you'd like to be asked? Oh, that's a good question! Um. David Palmer: He'd like to produce a proper arcade game. That'd be good. I wouldn't mind thinking of a game idea, since they usually take the idea and then design and build the hardware around it to cope with it. With virtually unlimited hardware availability so you can have practically anything on the screen, you'd be able to do something pretty phenomenal, I would have thought. I wouldn't mind doing something pretty phenomenal. David Palmer: To come up with something like Guardian though, / wouldn 't think that you would need all of that. The thing about Guardian though, is that it was an excellent exercise in compromise. I had to keep it at speed, the whole game was fast and that was what kept it playable. Anyway, we must rush now since my Capri is in need of a new wing and I've got pick one up from the local garage. Bye then. Cast of players (in order of appearance): Gary Liddon, humble tea boy at Zzap! offices. Steven Evans, freelance programmer for Alligata. Gary Sumpter, office minion. David Palmer, big cheese at Alligata. Steven Evans 'softography' in chronological order: Panic Planet', a version of Space Panic that appeared too early for ZZAP! to review. Eagle Empire: a Phoenix type game that also escaped evaluation by the terrible trio. Guardian: Past Blasted in issue eleven where it picked up a whopping great 95% Rocket Roger : Past Blasted in ZZAPI's sixth issue where it collected 82% overall. Who Dares Wins II: Sizzled in ZZAP! issue eight with an overall of 90% ZZAP! 1986 |
|
