visitors book page 2
Whoopee! The visitors book has now expanded to four pages!
Click here to visit page 4, page 3 or page 1 !
 
If you would like to leave a comment, question, suggestion, shove it in the box at the bottom of page 4! Thanks to everyone who's left a message!
Sandy :)
 
name
planet
comment
date
reply?
Dominic Prior
Cambridge
Hi Sandy! I love the website. Brilliant fun! Brings back happy memories of Edinburgh. I like your "the Speccy was just you and that old Z80 against the world!" - those were the days! No need to read a cubic foot of obscure documentation before you can paint a pixel! Java and OpenGL make it bearable again so I'm writing a game (after a 15 year break!). I hope you're right about the publishers being interested in the small guys again!
29/12/00
Hi Dominic! Great to hear from you! Glad you like the site.. I'm very excited that you are writing another game - and very enthusiastic about Java myself of late. Having read your message I just downloded the Java 3D SDK to have a play with... If I get anything happening, I might put it up here... would love to hear more about what you're up to... If you read this, send me a message with your email address.. I won't publish it honest! s :) [Dominic had a hand in writing many Speccy games - "Gyron" & "Hive" to mention two]
Carlos Novellon
Spain
Hi Mr Sandy White. You are a idol for me for your contributions at the Speccy. Ant Attack is a game I have played a lot in these days. Iīm a Spanish fan, sorry for that. My english is not very well. You are the best, you are the best. The 80īs days never will end. Never. Speccy and C64 forever!!!! Bye.
29/12/00
Too much - toooooo much... Carlos - Mucho Gusto! I *hope* that means many thanks. Anyway - your English is certainly more well than my Spanish! Spain is obviously populated by a highly intelligent and discerning people!! ;) it was one of the few places outside of the UK where the Speccy was a hit... I am very glad you've enjoyed playing AA - :)) Yes! Speccy and C64 forever!! :)) For sending the most over-the-top letter ever, you win your very own Spanish flag in your planet box! ;)
Dalek
Queensbury, Bradford, UK!!
Hi Sandy. Just so you know, when I was a wee slip of a lad (14), and just having got a speccy for Xmas, I asked my mum to get me Atic Atac to go with said prezzie. Iamgine my horror when she came back with Ant Attack!!!! Out of a depressed curiousity I loaded it in, all the while cursing my addled mother's brain. Imagine then my surprise when I found it was bleeding terrific!!! Oh, so many hours lost....... thanks Sandy, for a great game, even if it's not Atic Atac. Have a great Crimbo and Hogmany Dale K
26/12/00
Hi Dalek - (hey - haven't I seen you on Dr Who?) well at least your mum got you a game that began with two AAs! I am very glad it turned out OK in the end... it must have been a heart-stopper though - these things are a big deal when you're 14 going on er... 30... or in my case...er... 40... Hope you had a great Xmas too, and that you got the right game *this* year!! s;)
Matthew Pimm
Sunny Kidderminster
Hiya, Thanks a million for all the hours of enjoyment I had (and still have) playing Ant Attack and Zombie Zombie. I don`t know what it was that caught me - the chance to be a hero, non-sexist, b-movie style and building your own city in ZZ. I played them over and over again as I loved them so much. I even worked out how to hack into AA and made it so that you was an Ant and you had to rescue and Ant from a city full of evil people which I dubbed People Attack! I also started on an AA editor but didn`t finish it. Thanks for letting me know what the aeroplane graphics were for as this was going to be one of the first questions I wanted to ask you. Here is my second question.... I read in an interview that you used a promo video to show Ant Attack to software companies. What was on the video? Have you still got a copy? Cheers, Matt
25/12/00
Hi Matt, glad you enjoyed playing AA and ZZ.. The game should have gone out with your "people attack" as an option so's to be non antist, in addition to being non sexist! :) What was on that vid - it's a good question - as I remember, it was AA as you know it, but minus the scoring screens, and without a complete city. It's quite possible I still have a copy of that vid somewhere - I'll have a look, and if I find it will try and make an avi of some of it for the AA page! Cheers, s :)
Tunde
Liverpool ex Edinburgh
Sandy, what about the Helmet sculpture with the LED patterns you made at art college? Surely it is worth a picture?
22/12/00
Mr. Cockshot by jove! Blimey, good to hear from you! - how long's it been? 20 years! Yip, there is actually a tiny B+W piccy of the sculpture you mention on the AA page - if I can find a better one, I'll put it in "the Vault" ;) So what you up to these days? Send me another message with your email address, (it won't be published!)... I'll write back :)
Paul Byford
Deepest,
Darkest,
Staffordshire
Hey Sandy, I have also just read the piece in this months Edge and I totally agree with you about small, innovative games. The design-by-focus-group Race 'em/beat 'em/shoot 'em ups with high production values that are the bland pap that is the current games scene is depressing and getting $200,000 (say) for a small project is next to impossible. Publishers won't even look at you unless your company has more than 50 employees, but it's not all the fault of the publishers. I increasingly feel that many developers don't have the 'go' to make cutting edge games. "The PS2 is difficult to code for" "You have to code in Assembler" is a cry I've heard all too often recently, when people should be just getting down and working through the problems. I'm an old school coder with 13 years experience in the games industry and I feel that until you have pushed every last T state (I haven't heard that one in a while ;)) out of a specy or dealt with 2K RAM on a NES or had to pipeline code for SNES/Super FX you don't know what "difficult" is. At the time I was doing that I regarded it as a challenge not a difficulty and I see few people rising to that challenge anymore. Well enough moaning, sorry for that :S. I read that you are doing some work with Jon Ritman - I know him quite well from the days that I was working at Rare, but I've rather lost touch with him of late. Give him my regards when you see him next.
18/12/00

Hi Paul, great rant! I can definately feel one coming on in reply - will post one in the new year!! (Xmas has caught up with me!) Jon Ritman, by the way, has his own site at www.ritman.co.uk. Meanwhile, Merry Xmas!! :))

PS I know, I know - it's the New year now and no rant - coming honest!

JW
London
http://www.upcomingmovies.com/arachattack.html "Sounds like an 80's Atari 2600 videogame" - no it doesn't - sounds like AntAttack..... Get your claim in for a percentage of the box office....
18/12/00
Hi JW You're dead right! Which Atari 2600 videogame would that have been exactly? ;) And what about my royalties on those other Attack's? Art Attack, Hart Attack.. peh!... Merry Xmas! :)
Antiriad2097
Aberdeen
Another Edger here. Great article on Ant Attack, but Zombie Zombie gets my award for best game. I spent hours and hours rebuilding cities. I'll bet there's not anyone out there who played it and didn't write their name on the ground with blocks :-D BTW, did you know that a rubber key Speccy can survive having brandy & coke spilt on it while playing Ant Attack, even to the point of total power failure, if you leave it overnight to dry. Bit of a heart stopper for my cousin when I did it to his, he he he. Oh, and you CAN recreate the rubber key feel for your emulator. There are supposedly 'portable' rubber keyboards that are quite like the Speccys - basically just a flat mat with rubber keys embossed on but you can roll it up and stick it in your pocket. Can't quite see the point as my laptop already has a keyboard. Anyhow, for anyone looking for Speccy games (including Ant Attack, Zombie Zombie and I of the Mask), head on over to www.void.jump.org . They have it all covered. My personal preference in emulators, RealSpectrum, can be found at www.ramsoft.bbk.org/realspec.html For those in the playground who prefer C64 stuff, poke your noses in the direction of www.lemon64.com . I found all my old favourites there. Funnily enough, I was in Edinburgh for most of last week. If I'd realised I'd have bought you a pint. Thanks for the memories... A further thought: Was everyone 13 when they played this game, or do you have some sort of psychic link going on with my generation. I'm a bit worried about this but it certainly explains the voices in my head...
14/12/00

Hi Antiriad2097! Great letter, great links! Hey! I notice you profess to have been 13 when playing Ant Attack - and hold on - you spilled brandy and coke on the keyboard. So, I've been encouraging cursing, truancy, and now under-age drinking?? ;) Oh - you're going to tell me you were old enough to drink, and still pouring drinks over your cousin's Speccy?! ;) Yip - I can believe that it would survive such punishment though - a bit of silicone sealant judiciously applied and the thing would prob have worked underwater! (don't try this at home;) As for the psychic link, I've been sending out mind messages to make everyone buy me pints over the Xmas season - it seems to have reached you! I don't live in Edinburgh these days, so I hope you will join me, and any other readers who've dropped by, in a psychic yuletide pint! Cheers! Merry Xmas! :) Mmmm. tasty...

Alex Ward
Guildford
Hi Sandy, Still hacking that Sony MiniDisc player ? What's happening with Crash Lab these days ? Why was the 64 so much better than the Speccy ? How much did Rod pay you for AA ?
13/12/00
Hi Alex - aha! reference to drunken conversation at party in Guilford two years ago!! ;) 1) I managed to stop hacking into my MiniDisc player befire I broke it (just) 2) Ah but was it? I preffered the Speccy! Well, ok, the 64 had some pretty cool chips in it for sprites and sound that the Speccy didn't have, but the Speccy was just you and that old Z80 against the world! 3) That'll cost you 3 pints! Hope you're keeping well, Merry Xmas! :))
Rocco Siffredi
Edinburgh
Hi Sandy, Seeing Ant Attack in Edge magazine brought back a few memories (it has been at least 8 years since I played the game on a Spectrum emulator). Ant Attack was the very first game I bought for my ZX Spectrum. I can still remember the bloke in the shop saying it was the best selling game at the time so that's why I bought it. On my way home that day I had pictures in my head of what it would look like, but what I saw on screen upon loading up and starting the game looked more amazing than anything I had visualised. I can still remember thinking it looked so lifelike (mind you I was only 13 at the time!) All the best for the future. Maybe you could be executive producer on a first person perspective re-make!
12/12/00
Hi Rocco, hmm.. wondering which shop you bought it in...! I'm really pleased that AA lived up to your expectations, and that those tiny pixelated characters appeared lifelike.. I did put a lot of effort into making it as believable as poss.. in fact you've reminded me of how when I was writing AA, I spent so much time looking at that screen, moving around inside the city, that it became part of my dreams. I spent many restless nights trapped within its walls - bit of a nightmare really - sometimes programming gets you like that. Thanks for the wishes, same to you; who knows, perhaps I shall lead an expedition back to Antescher at some future point! Merry Christmas!!! :))
Ben Simpson
Cambridge
Hey Sandy, Just thought I'd wish you happy Xmas, I was only playing Ant Attack a couple of weeks ago on my Speccy (I had an attack of retro mania, alongside my Atari 2600 and Pac Man). Saw you in the Edge as one of the missing but never forgotten fore fathers of our industry so I here I am. I would like to spend more time talking to you at some point, being a game designer myself, but the pruppose of this is just to wish you a good time at Xmas and over the new year. Take care, kind regards
11/12/00
Hi Ben, Happy Xmas! I hope your own game designing is going well - feel free to write again - hopefully, even though I am officially 'missing', I shall continue to be found lurking around this column..:) There seems to be a lot of retro-mania about at the moment - its not surprising you got attacked! Have contemporary games become a little bit samey, a tiny tad boring? Yes, eventually publishers will come crawling to my door, "Write us something new Sandy", they will beg, "- take these X-BOX and PS2 devkits and this freezer full of food to keep you going." - huh - snort - sorry did I doze off there for a second? Where was I? :) Thanks for your kind wishes & a merry Xmas and fantastic New Year to your good self! :)
jonathan
earth
how about this?
9/12/00
Hi jonathan - a bit cryptic for me, that one!. :)
chi
London
Hey it's you, I was wondering where you had been since perfect, until I picked up the latest edge mag. top bit of publicity, hope things go well. Cheers
7/12/00
Chi - hi ;) Indeed, it is me.. I just checked... Yep, I reccon the guys at Edge did a top job with dodgy material! It was fun to see the old AA graphics given an Edge makeover too! Thanks for the good wishes - very same to you! ;)
Nick Murray (Yes It is Me)
Oxford
Hola Mr White. How goes Life. How goes ur life since the Perfect Days..? Cheers.
7/12/00
Hey Nick :) - Life goes on, ohhhh ohhhh, down by the river, goes on... drop us a line! :)
Greg Duddle
Liverpool
Hi Sandy, I just thought that I would say hello. Good to see you're keeping yourself busy! Why not write a new Mega Ant Attack?
7/12/00
Hi Greg Hellooo :) - The thought occasionally does cross my mind to write Ant Attack II or something like that, problem is, outside of a small (but discerning! ;) bunch of people, nobody has heard of the original!! It would be very hard to raise the funding - still - it it would be good to do something for it's 20th anniversary - Xmas 2003. Though still unlikely, something hand-held, GBA or 3G mobile phone, might be a poss, though perhaps I'd better just bake a cake instead! ;))
David Rowe
Aberystwyth
(planet edge)
Hi Sandy, Great days, when the sun shone all the time. Thanks for taking me back there. I still have posters of the cover art. Drop me a line and I'll send you one.
6/12/00
Hi David, its a very pleasant surprise to hear from you! I think I know what you mean about the sun shining all the time... days of great optimism and excitement, when it seemed that anything could, and probably would, happen... (or were you talking about the ever-sunny deserts of Antescher? ;) - Coo - I'd love to have have an Ant Attack poster! I'd frame it and hang it on my wall, and polish the glass with great regularity.. esp if you will sign it for me! (the poster, not the glass) I have already dropped you a line, to my best guess at your email address.. hope it reaches you.. s :)) (for the puzzled - David painted AA's cover artwork; more about that on the AA page...)
dougal
Holland
Hi Sandy, top game, top site. Glad to see you're still in the trade :-) I can still picture that big map of Antchester published with Your Spectrum - I had it up on my wall for reference for ages. Does anybody else remember the competition they ran for bucket loads of Spectrum goodies? You had to phone up and tell them all the locations of the last prisoner and what was out in the desert I believe? It was the first time I heard of the phone system crashing! Oh, and just to clarify things: Edinburgh beats Glasgow anyday. Every time and I mean _every_ time I nipped over to Glasgow it chucked it down. Mind you, Amsterdam tops them all :-)
5/12/00
Hi Dougal - that competition seems to have caused a lot of trauma! I just dug out the original mag... Prizes included 3D Tanx, Yomp, Centibug, Jet Pac, Arcadia, Pssst, Mr Wimpy, Metioroids, Kong, Schitzoids, Cookie, Pogo, Sheepwalk(what was that??), Tranz Am, Atic Atac, Lunar Jetman ... phew.. it goes on! Eeek! You'll have Slartibartfast back on the Edin/Glas case if you're not careful! :)
JW
London
Trivia time: I met a Scottish guy on holiday in France (many) years ago whose claimed that he knew you. I was reading Your Spectrum issue 2 at the time - he saw the cover feature on AntAttack and said "I live in the same street as the bloke who wrote that". Much thanks for AA & ZZ. Well worth waiting for them to load...
5/12/00
Hi JW.. This is where I think the internet is magic.. how else could I possibly have heard that story!? I don't actually know who that would have been... but blimey... it just goes to show that it really is a small world .. Yip, games sure did take an age to load from tape... time to make a coffee, and then keep it warm on top of the Speccy power supply... Cheers! :)
Darren
London
Am I the only person that was actually scared by both Ant Attack and Zombie Zombie?! Mr White, you have my admiration and respect for fitting so much suspense and wonder into so little 'k'. When I discovered your site I was almost moved to tears! Thanks again for those memories, All the best for the future.
4/12/00
Hi Darren - I had no idea that anyone might have got scared playing AA or ZZ - though I am very pleased to hear that you did! I like, "so much suspense and wonder into so little k".. it would have made a wonderful headline in an ad for AA! Something I have often wondered about is what the limits are in terms of how much emotion could be 'fitted' into how little information. The most frightening horror films are often the ones with the least information in them - darkness. Its like a kind of 'compression' with the mind doing the 'decompression', filling in the blanks and synthesizing something much larger. Perhaps that was happening with these simple games that couldn't force feed you with thousands of polygons. Thanks for a very touching letter, and the very best to you too :) <- how much emotion conveyed in a colon and a right-bracket? ;)
Garry Mills
Scarborough, North Yorkshire
God... this brings back memories... of being sat by the telephone trying to enter a "Your Spectrum" competition to win a sh*t load of Speccy gear by finding some hidden feature in AA Sodding phone line was constantly engaged...!
2/12/00
Hi Garry - I take it you didn't win then... suppose in them days it only took a couple of people to 'phone in to jam the entire exchange.. I'm sure you would have won if you had got through ... so as a consolation prize, you win your name in genuine bold italics! ;)
Joe
London
So - it is YOU that is responsible for my misspent youth. I hold you halfly (?) responsible. Great recreation of ANT!....
1/12/00
Thankz Joe - Blimey!.. er.. ta.. er.. I think!?... wonder what was resposible for the other half?
Tyronne mann
chelmsford,
essex,
england
If anyone would of told me as I sat in a darkened room playing with a machine that smelt of ozone,watching a flikering screen and hearing the sounds of a mangled cat in a blender coming from the cassette recorder.That years later I would be able to write to those who filled my young days with games I would of said rubbish (I would of said worse things but I was naive at that age of 10)Yet now with the wonderful thing that is the `net I can now say thanks to all those creaters who entertained me and many others,so many many thanks.Ant attack and the many other titles you worked upon have eaten up so many hours of my free time over the years that I would`nt even like to count them all up.Good luck then,now and in the future.
21/11/00
Hi Tyronne, thanks for the thanks and the good luck wishes - even though I had to wait 17 years ;) it's still very much appreciated! Yep, its amazing how the world is a-changin' - still waiting for something really amazing like a time machine, or anti-gravity though... S'funny - everyone seems to be nostalgic about the 'smell' aspect of the old Speccy - tho' this is the first time I've heard of one that smelled of ozone! Still - salvation may be at hand... a company called Digiscents say they intend to market a USB device which will emit 128 odours and mix them to produce any smell - for games and web pages! If it can be configured to conjure up that elusive Spectrum smell I'll use it on the Ant Attack page... I only hope it can be set to make a progressively unhealthy and alarming smell as the hours tick by.. just like the real thing! (no doubt everyone will argue that their Speccy smelled different) Wonder if it does the smell of 'mangled cat'? ;)
FIN
Sorry ..still not sure
I thought you had given up....but you seem to have as much life in you as AA did...I have to say though the Level editor would be a fine addition to the world we live...go on do it..you knowyou want to.
9/11/00
Hi Fin... given up? the very thought! Hmmnn.. a level editor would be fun... not volunteering though... life is too short ;) Strangely I just noticed that your name appears all the way through AA's source code!
venturer@
glasgowgamers.
co.uk
glasgow
hi AA ....can't think of the words and the fun we had playing it. this is gona make me late for work, u in scotland, come to our Lan, we will buy you a few beers.
26/10/00
Cheers Venturer! :) currently too far south of the border to take advantage of those beers... does sound tempting though ;)
Burkhard
Germany
Hi Sandy, first heard from your great Ant Attack game in an article of a (very very old) German computer mag - it also featured a picture of you (I still have the issue at home and could send you a scanned image of the article - despite being in German ?). I hope that you'll also post some interesting stuff about your other games..? I thought you might be interested in trying my Biomolecular Exploration program (since you seem to be interested in visualizing molecules and are running the Java molecules applet on your site). You can download it at http://www.biomolecules.de - it's freeware :-) Greetings, Burkhard.
23/10/00
Hi Burkhard! Cheers... blimey... I don't remember having my piccy taken by a German mag - thanks for the offer of the scan :) I hope I will be able to contact you for that via your website 'contact' address. I just tried out your Biomolecular Exploration program... it's brilliant! Anyone else who'd like to try it out: http://www.biomolecules.de Will put up some stuff about the other games eventually! :)
Stewart Gilray
Otley, W.Yorkshire
Good god, I never thought I'd hear or see that name in print again (Sandy White that is) unless I was looking through an old issue of Crash. Some mates and I were only talking about you the other day, and infact an old collegue of yours a certain Ms A. who put another famous speccy coder (Steve Turner) out of business a couple of yeas ago... No matter. Anyway, I hope I am the first to ask this next question, as no one else seems to... "What ever happened to Dick Special?" Any kind of reply would be Tops. Stew(@yyz.com)
21/10/00
Hi Stewart... oh yes, I am still alive, poised panther-like in the ashes, waiting to arise like a digital pheonix from the charred remains of the 20th century ;) .. ahemm.. As tempted as I am to be drawn into the conversation, it would be pure speculation! - he says replacing his camouflage twig-hat. ;) The story of Dick Special is one which I might relate at some future date - briefly, however, a big factor in it's demise was the publisher's (Telecomsoft) decision to get out of computer games, another was - well - it was just too big a project for me to complete single handed. Had I had the nous at that time to form a team and find another publisher, it might have got finished. :)
PeeknPoke

Manchester, UK

Sandy, Having played Ant Attack for many a year gone by, I must say this, You make a classic game there even to the point of the cries of the girl "Take me away from all this" Is this isnt classic gaming I dont know what is!! All the best and visit my Old skool computer game page, Lee's Peeknpoke! http://peeknpoke.emucamp.com
13/10/00
Thanks for the nice words PeeknPoke! Classic eh? Flattery will get you everywhere on this page ;) - so click here anyone who wants to visit Lee's Peeknpoke!
Kevin
So near yet so far!
Hey Sandy, Great game, excellent memories, late nights, skipped school many a time to attempt finishing. Just wondered what you used to code AA in?? What did you guys use in the old days to write your games in? Thanx Kev
12/10/00
Hi Kev - I've only just discovered AA was responisble for bad language.. now it's truancy... oh dear! ;) I wrote AA in assembly language, without the aid of an assembler - 'cos I'd never heard of them! I just used to write the Nmemonics on a sheet of A4, and the op-codes in the margin... Not all programmers of that era were so backwards however! - others were using assemblers. By the time I wrote I of the Mask, I was using an assembler too... though I can't remember the name... I hope soon to be able to include a scan of some of the original hand written code on the AA page... and dig up something about the assembler I used later on... :)
Ken
Dublin, Ireland
wohoo! Superb, this really brings back great memories - the first 3D game I played. I learnt to curse while playing this. B^)
10/10/00
wahah! Cheers Ken... I'm pleased to have brought back some good memories! I had never imagined I was encouraging bad language though! ;)
Stuart
Cambridge
A quick question! Was the use of a helicopter in Zombie Zombie influenced by similar shenanigans in George Romero's 'Dawn of the Dead'?
7/10/00
Hi Stuart, easy question to answer! I'm sure I have heard of 'Dawn of the Dead', but I can't remember it...(oh dear.. I'm so uncultured) sounds good though - I'm going to have to try and get it on video! Jon Ritman who wrote "Batman" for the Spectrum finds it funny that AA started out as a city with a little Superman graphic flying over it (true!), and I never thought of actually doing a "Superman" game! Now I find that Zombie should actually have been marketed as 'Dawn of the Dead'! Peh! ;)
Dave
Monza, Italy
Oh God! how i loved that game! how i wished there where more than 10 levels! One of my top ten ever! Btw. are you aware of an "ant attack 2" hack?
7/10/00
Hi Dave. Thanks for keeping AA in your top ten! I have never seen an "ant attack 2" hack as such... It would be quite easy to hack in a new city.. perhaps someone somewhere has done it... If you do find one, let me know! :)
Simon
The Surrey Suburbs
Hello Sandy. How bizzare is this? I never thought that in the year 2000 I'd be mailing the author of a spectrum game that I played as a spotty 13 year old!! By the way, AA was one of my faves (I've just spent half an hour rescuing a few damsels in distress in the version you've got on this very site!) I actually went on to write some games of my own on the good old speccy, never up to your standard but a few were published by Micronet 800 (remember them anyone?). My moment of glory was having a cover-mounted cassette in 'Crash' magazine (the game was called 'Confused'). I then discovered sex,drugs, and alcohol....well I had such a huge royalty cheque from Crash that I had to spend it on something ;-)
6/10/00
Hello Simon! Bizzarre eh? Now that you've got me thinking about it, I don't suppose I ever imagined back in 1983 that I'd be talking to you 17 years later via a world-wide computer network, and on a screen with 20 times more pixels than my Speccy and with at least a thousand times the computing power ;) 7.63 for bizzareness! 10.6 for pleasant surpriseness! Somewhere I've got a few old copies of 'Crash'... I must see if 'Confused' is amongst them... What else has the year 2000 brought us? ... as I write this I realise that the guy in the baseball cap on Channel 4's 'Latenight Poker' is Sir Clive Sinclair... PS hope those spots have cleared up!
Daz

daz@
trappmail.
freeserve.
co.uk

Hi Sandy your game started me on my road of computers and now i work with them. Just one thing where can i find Zombie Zombie for the spectrum emulator please. P.S fantastic games you where at the top with the stars of your time
23/9/00
Hi Daz! A star eh? Tar guvn'r! :) (another fiver in the post!;) I hope you turned out to be happy with your career in computers - otherwise you might be blaming me! ;) It would not surprise me if Zombie is out there somewhere... the Sinclair newsgroup's F.A.Q page might have some info on where old Speccy games can be found, or at least point in the right direction... :)
Mark Eyles
Yes
Hi Sandy That was me wrote the blurb for Ant Attack! Oh yes it was :)
19/9/00
Hey Mark! I have now expanded upon this on the AA page! Good to hear from you! :)
Roger Rabbit
Well south of the wall
Hi Sandy, thanks for writing such a great game which kept me amused for hours in the '80s - I sill play it now on emulators, along with Deathchase.
16/9/00
Cheers Roger! Really glad you liked it! :)
Slartibartfast
leaving Magrathea
It's getting big isn't it?... Your visitor book that is. Just one small comment - that muffin-master chap was SO obviously referring to Glasgow.
11/9/00
Dear Slartibartfast, I don't suppose you are related to that muffin-master chap at all? ooerrr missus... oh yes, the visitors book. I'm ashamed to say a lot of it seems to be me waffling...
LCD (Tigerīs Claw)
Zerius Prime
Hi Sandy! I still have not figured out how you did the fantastic polygon graphic routines in "I of the Mask" after ripping out the code with a disassembler, so I think, you are a genius. Ant Attack and Zombie Zombie are excellent too. By the way, I still write programms on my Spectrum because it is better than every PC. Tried to write PC games, but failed. My only PC prog is BMP2SCR PC to ZX coolour ;-) Graphic converter, but it is not comarable to your works.
6/9/00
Hi LCD! The fiver is in the post... ;) I suppose we all do have our odd inspired moments... and just between you, me and the other 3 people that are reading this, I reckon that polygon filler was probably the 'cleverest' bit of code I have ever written! (which may not be saying much - and also seems to imply that I have 'peaked'!;) (ahem... just a shame the game itself is so crap) Truth is there is not much call for really pushing the t states any more - it is the designers of silicon who get to have fun with graphics algorithms... (boo hoo) The funny thing about programming is that often the bits we are proudest of are hidden away where no one can see them... its very nice to have someone pick up on something like that, as you just have... The code is quite simple really, (it is a table-driven state machine) but probably makes for quite a cryptic disassembly... As an aside, veteran Speccy programmer Ian Andrews once told me that he disassembled that very same code, and based his 'Freescape' system (as used in 'Driller') upon it (I hope I've remembered those names correctly)... Shame there's no such thing as a software patent in this country! BMP2SCR... so you can convert a bmp to a Speccy screen... wish I'd had that in 1983! I think I might still be writing the odd program on the Speccy myself, if it were not for one thing... storage... cassettes and 'microdrives' drove me nuts eventually... yes sir.. I like my hard drive!! Hmmnnn... I wonder where could I get a rubber keyboard and a smell of burning plastic for my PC... ;)
M.P.
planet zoom
Like many others, AA was the first game I actually paid for - got many other via good 'ol tape-to-tape as was member of a Software Library and from friends. I haven't played it in ages - the rubber keyboard on my Spectrum has been eaten by mice - but recall if you explore the world outside the maze it is a sphere so you end up in the same place -think there was a cube with your initials out there? Can't remember the pyramid though.
25/8/00
Hi M.P. - Yes, there was a good old trade in tape to tape copies in those days - anyway I'm glad you, and some others bought the real thing! ;) A strange fate to have befallen your old Speccy... Strangely enough, moths ate my sporran (for the uninitiated, the furry part of a kilt) leaving only a bare metal skeleton... so I quite believe you... I wonder if you could carve a new keyboard out of cheese? - or use the mice to control the game? :) You do get back to where you started if you carry on in a straight line... and there is a cube out there, but it doesn't have my initials on it... you can see it in Tyrone C's hacking AA page :) The pyramid is slap bang in the centre of the city... :-)
RH
The Scottish part of California
Great game- well worth the five quid I shelled out for it way back in '84 in Dundee!
22/8/00
Ta RH...! They had computers in Dundee in 1984? Joking! 1/2 my family are of Dundonian origin.. Now I'm wondering where the Scottish part of California is - sounds like the best of all worlds...
Mark Serlin
planet Zircon
Scientists have shown that the moon is moving away at a tiny, although measurable distance from the earth every year. If you do the maths, you can calculate that 85 million years ago the moon was orbiting the earth at a distance of about 35 feet from the earth's surface. This would explain the death of the dinosaurs. The tallest ones, anyway.
18/8/00
Mark.. I think you are having me on here... if it was orbiting that low the Clangers would have fallen off it and taken up residence on Earth, interbred with the local populace, and we would all now be made of wool and speak like those funny whistles that have slidy things...
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