visitors
book page 3 (don't miss page 4!)
Whoopee! The visitors
book has now expanded to four pages!
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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 :) |
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name
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planet
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comment
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date
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reply?
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Delbert
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Glasgow
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It was great to visit the site and play Ant
Attack and then I moved on to ritman.co.uk for more nostalgia.
Got my fist Speccy at 10 yrs old in 82 via a friend of my parents
who worked at the SInclair factory in Dundee. Check out clothes
shop www.ladend.co.uk - I just ordered one of their "funky"
Sinclair logo t-shirts! Nice! All the best Sandy!
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21/08/01
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Hi Delbert... hey I'd forgotton that Speccys
were made in Dundee... in the old Timex factory wasn't it? ...
Come to think of it, one of my friends' parents used to work there
too... I think they used to make the Sinclair pocket TV there,
as well as the US version of the Speccy, the TImex 1000. Glad
you enjoyed the site, and Jon's! cheers, Sandy :)
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Padraig
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Germany (Previously Ireland)
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Well Well Well, Nostalgia is just not what it
used to be. The only other time i felt like this was when (Don't
laugh, he's my hero) I was at a Leonhard Cohen concert and one
of the fans tried to get up on stage, Security tried to stop him,
and then Lenny himself said "leave him he's an enthusiast,
not a terrorist" The fan asked lenny to sing "The story
of Isaac" and lenny then said "Well maybe he is a terrorist"
What's this got to do with your web-Site ?? The creator of "Soft-Solid"
actually taking time to talk to his fans! giving a friendly answer
and seemingly not regretting that commercialism killed the cottage
industry that was computer gaming. I can't say I bough Ant Attack
myself. It came with a Microdrive that I bought (along with Tasword
2 and some kind of Database program that I never tried to load)
But as soon as i had it I never stopped playing it until last
year when my interface 1 gave up the ghost. (And Mdrive cartridges
were supposed to be unreliable??) I remeber we (a friend came
up with the idea) actually managed to change Anchester by poking
the map (As far as I remember every "Block" was 1 bit
and the highest building was 8 blocks high) though the changed
maps were not very playable.....
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31/07/01
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Hi Padraig :) I had no idea that Ireland had
been re-named! ahem... I enjoyed your LC story :) I suppose that
when I started this site just over a year ago I had no idea how
it would turn out.. I didn't imagine that many people would leave
messages - it has been a pleasant surprise that they have. It
has been great fun for me to field questions on the old games,
though I confess that the more 'flattering' messages are quite
hard to reply to - having a personal website is already
a kind of a "blow your own trumpety" thing to do ;)
one can end up feeling rather immodest! (a little voice in my
head tells me I should enjoy it while it lasts) ahemmm... anyway...
there are no bouncers here, apart from myself that is! I'd forgotten
that AA went out in a compilation Microdrive title... I can't
remember what it was called - or getting any royalties from it
come to that! Your microdrive and interface1 should get an award
for long service... I remember trying to use them as part of my
new fangled development system after ZZ, and getting extremely
ratty 'cos they chewed up tape so regularly... you got lucky I
think ;) It's fun you found a way to modify the city... you're
quite right about the bits 'xept they only went up to 7 high,
the 8th bit was used as a flag for something (I can't remember
what)... tar for writing :))
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Sheila
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yahoo
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Hi Sandy, Am looking for Sandy White from NC,
whom I met in Framingham, Mass. about circa 1981-83. My name is
Sheila. My brother, Darel, introduced us. Might you be him...
or might you be able to help me in my search,?... as you seem
very internet-savvy! Thanks for any enlightenment you may share.
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25/07/01
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Hi Sheila, sadly the Sandy you are looking for
cannot be me. I was definately not in the US in anywhere around
the period you mention, also I am not from NC. Regards other Sandy
Whites on the net... I have noticed that they have a tendency
towards real-estate involvement, sandywhite.net,
sandywhite.com.
(Is that the same woman in cunning disguise on both sites? Will
I end up selling property online too?;) One thing you could do
is go to google
and type in "finding lost friends" for hundreds of links
on the subject. I hope this might be of some help, meanwhile,
if I should happen accross any other Sandys fitting your description
I shall let you know. I wish you the best of luck with your search
:)
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Richard H
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Bedfordshire
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Hi, I used to work for Telecomsoft when Angela
Sutherland was made head of the development department way back
in 1988. I seem to recall an Amiga w.i.p of a game of yours that
was in development at the time that never 'happened'. Was it "Dick
Special"?
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24/07/01
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Hi Richard :) blimey you must be really really
old - er... um what does that make me.... ;) - my memory of those
days are very fuzzy to say the least, deliberately so probably
;) however I could not forget "Dick Special" - and after
a little rootling around in some old hard drives, here's the man
himself! If I can find a way to resurrect some of my ancient Amiga
disks, I shall put up some screen shots sometime..:)
PS He was called Dick Special 'cos I liked the name "Jet Set Willie" - er... 'nuff said... |
Hugh Tynan
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Europe
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Sandy, I've long believed that video games should
and will be formally recognised as an artform - the novel was
only accepted as 'art' in the last 100 years, and film is still
struggling for acceptance. When gaming design is finally acknowledged
as art, YOU will be hailed as a consummate, visionary artist.
AA was a work of genius and set so many precedents (survival genre,
Escher-esque isometric 3D, character switching, amazing technical
gimmickry given the hardware) that its true influence can never
be accurately assessed. I salute you and your ilk in the days
of 'cottage gaming' that you fondly recall above. You're right,
gaming has changed utterly since then... except for the fundamental
imaginative landscape which was so brilliantly mapped out by yourself
and your fellow pioneers. Thanks for all the hours of fun playing
AA and ZZ, and thanks too for your enormous contribution to the
world of art!
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19/07/01
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Hi Hugh, I thank you sir! Trouble is... ooops..
I think you've set me off on a rant... ;) er... yip...er.... this
"art" thing... sometimes I believe that what is 'art',
and what is not 'art', is quite arbitrary... it's a fashion thing
- a label that is pinned on things by 'art' critics, and people
involved in the 'business' of art. Still... I would be immensely
chuffed to think that one day these things would be considered
so... When I was at Art College (back in the mists of time pre
AA) many did not see what I was doing as art beacuse I made made
use of computers and electronics - it was suggested by some that
I would be better studying maths... I was mortified.. (when I
was at school the maths dept thought I should be doing Art!) I
grew to realise however that as long as there were a few people
around who liked what I was doing, I didn't care what it was called!
Having said all that, certainly I see guys like Matthew Smith,
Jeff Minter etc (ie the cottage industry you mention).. as artists....
There's gotta be art in today's games, but there is also a lot
of cack out there... stuff made by big teams, and to a formula
... if there is art in it, it is diluted; art by committee perhaps.
So where is the art happening? I suspect that Peter Moleneux,
for one, may be able to make his artistic mark right through the
whole team process, rather in the way that Damien Hirst, might
design a sculpture and then have it made real by his team of technicians
- as with some of those virtuoso Japanese games designers. However,
my opinoin is that the earlier games carry the mark of their makers
to a much greater extent, from code to graphics to music all done
by one person.. (as it happens this is my preference when it comes
to art of any sort... individuals expressing themselves, by themselves)
Maximum self indulgence! Perhaps that's what art is? But
let's look at the bright side, personkind ;) has been making art
for millions of years, we've had computers for 50*
- I think it is early days yet.. Just 'cos what's currently commercial
takes teams to do, doesn't mean that's the only thing that can
be done! Why does everything have to be commercial? ;) (Bitter?
Moi?) I am as excited about computers as a means to "expressing
oneself" as I ever was.. and still dreaming of writing a
one man game/something - with the emphasis on "something"!
Blimey - my sincere apologies for that rant! :) Coming back down
to earth, glad you've enjoyed the old games :) and thanks :))
for such a posative and thought provoking letter! It'd be nice
if you turned out to be right ;) S :)
* depends whether you want to start with the Babbage Engine, Sinclair Speccy, or Jackard Loom...;) |
Modesty B Catt
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"Sunny" Stoke-on-Trent
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Just a quick note, Ant Attack rules. It'd be
really cool if there was such a thing as an Ant Attack t-shirt
thou, I'd be sure to wear one and make everyone jealous :)
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19/07/01
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Hi Modesty... thankyou! funny you should say
that, 'cos someone else with the exact same name as you has designed
one, and it's already on sale!! :) Good design too! ;) what a
small world... Details on the welcome
page. :))
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chris
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planet.nl
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Hello I have a little (sexist) question? Are
you indeed a woman or is it just myidea? I only know your name
since I found this site (via muckeypaws en retrospec). Not that
it matters, exept for the possibillety to be at the list of "first
woman to make a 'hack' off a graficcal game in a time man still
used charracter$ to draw", but for speccie it was the first
anyway so way talk about sex(ism). Maybe becouse the game gives
a choise! probably the firt to! Succes en lots off FUN
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19/07/01
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Hi Chris - I don't think it's a sexist question
at all... well... on my own planet of origin (Scotland) Sandy
is an abbreviation for Alexander... I always forget that it is
not widely used as such elsewhere! ... You're right, AA was certainly
billed as the first ever nonsexist game. To my mind it couldn't
possibly have been done any other way - it really would have been
very discriminating if you had been forced to play one particular
sex rescuing the other. I wish now that it had been a little more
thoughtful and allowed for 'same sex' rescues... mind you, without
extra graphics it would have got a bit confusing... and the ants
might have felt left out of the rescuing! ;)
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Darren
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UK
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I have been reading what other people have said
and what more can I say. Ant Attack i got in a small town and
played it until the end. It's good to see that other's are still
living in the past like myself. Anyway best of luck with the future
yours Darren PS. Games like this change my life forever I now
work for a big computer firm due to what the spectrum did to me.
Thanks for a past worth remebering
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18/07/01
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Hi Darren, glad you enjoyed played AA - and
thanks for the good luck wishes, here's wishing you the same!
I think all of our lives were affected by those days, we're lucky
to have been around to witness the dawn of home computing and
gaming - exciting days. :)
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col p
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walsall
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3D Ant Attack...I was 13 or 14 when it was released
and mightily impressive it was. The other two games in this genre
which impressed me, were Knight Lore and Head over Heels (do you
remember this one?). Your game probably paved the way for the
rest however, and was the first 3D isometric game I ever saw.
I have one question - do you use your PC for any games playing
today or did you give that up years ago? Thanks for the trip down
memory lane.
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16/07/01
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Hi col... yip 13 seems to have been the classic
age for Speccy fans. It would be cool to think that AA might have
inspired others to do isometric games... (wish I could've made
that patent stick!) Looking back on it from here I reckon that
if I hadn't done it, someone else would have pretty soon - if
you ever saw Zaxxon - things were sort of going in that direction.
At least I can say I was first though! Check my reply
to Todd re PC. :)
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Moggy
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SaafLondon
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Hi, i'm sure you've heard this lots of times,
but you are one of my heroes, it's games like yours that got me
interested in the spectrum, i use to sit there playing ant attack
when i was young (i feel very old now) wondering how to make my
own games as good. of course i never could, but i did teach myself
basic and made a few games i pasted on to my mates. Can you please
do me a big favour? i have a website called www.saaflondon.co.uk,
it's a music site, but please can you sign my guestbook so i can
show it off to my mates again, i say again because i've already
got Kevin Toms of football manager fame to sign it. I think i'm
gonna see how many of my Speccy heroes i can get to sign my guestbook.
Anyway, love live Ant-Attack, love live the Speccy Moggy
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30/06/01
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Hi Moggy... cheers I is from da north and me
don't know where SaaafLondon is, but big up.. me bring maximum
respect to da southern massive... I has already signed your guestbook...
;) (I see my mate Jon Ritman got there b4 me wotcha Jon) Liked
your Time2leave mp3... ahaaar... why don't u post some of your
old basic games on your website - run 'em in a Java Speccy emulator
- yess! long live the Speccy! :)
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PJ
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Slightly warmer
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Me again - just to correct myself and also
give you the correct info (ahem..!) The screen saver is not Speccy
heroes (Doh!) its the other one 'Spectrum Classics' and its located
(its a long story) in the 'Hardware Page' section, under the Goodies
link... is this confusing!!! Have a beer on me..
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29/06/01
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Cheers PJ, said beverage will be duly consumed!
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PJ
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Somewhere cold
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Hi, Its great to find a site run by one of
my heroes from the distant past. I remembered the compo with that
Speccy mag, I went out and bought the newspaper, but bought the
wrong one. It was all a bit confusing! I played and played to
make sure I knew the game inside out, took photos of the winning
screen etc... but bought the wrong damm newspaper!!! AA is one
of the games featured in my 'Speccy Heroes' screen saver (available
on WOS), hope you don't mind :-) Keep smiling :-)
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28/06/01
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Hi PJ... hmmmnn.. hero from the distant past....
(scratches chin - craggy face er.. glints in the noonday sun)
;) glad u like the site! ;)) I have a vision of you living in
a refrigerator somewhere. Arrgg.. that dreaded competition...
I can't even remember who ran it... but I've never heard a good
word said about it... :)) you certainly sound as if you deserved
to win :) Oi 'ad a look for your 'Speccy Heroes' on WOS
(World of Spectrum - fascinating site)... but couldn't find it
:-| Sounds like fun though :) Generally speaking I ain't complaining
about non-commercial use of these graphics.. it's nice to see
people having fun.. I'm not giving away any rights however! :)
Hmmn.. s'pose I do smile a lot on this page :) it's great fun
reading messages and writing replies! :)))))))))))) Keep smiling
too :-)
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Alessandro Grussu
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Messina, Italy
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I can't believe I am actually talking to the
man who created that brilliant masterpiece, Ant Attack! I played
it first in 1984 and have played it throughout the years, even
nowadays I give it the odd try on the PC with an emulator. I've
played AA so many times, I could finish it blindfolded ;) I've
just a little question for you: What's that small cube-like object
with letters on it which stands in the middle of the desert, after
a good walk from Antescher? Bye from your biggest fan in Italy!
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22/06/01
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Hi Alessandro, thanks for the kind words :)
Have you actually tried playing it blindfolded? The thought reminded
me of something that I had long forgotten! If you have a real
Speccy (not an emulator) and sit an AM radio beside it, you can
tune it to the RF produced by the Z80 chip and the circuit board,
so you can actually hear the program executing! I used to use
this for debugging the code sometimes... by listening to the sound
of the code executing you could tell quite a lot about where it
had got stuck if it crashed for instance! No I'm not joking! Aha..
the cube in the desert... The AA code had the ability to draw
8 sprites... you will never see more than 5 ants on screen at
once, plus boy & girl and a grenade... that's 8! When the
grenade sprite was not being used it was drawn at coordinates
0,0 of the world.. which happens to be in the middle of the desert...
rather than leave it blank, I wrote the word AMMO on a cube and
left it there... I never expected anyone to find it... of course
everyone did! If you find the AMMO cube, and fire a grenade, you
will see it disappear! S :)
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Davide Barlotti
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Italy
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Hi Sandy! You know that for AA guilt I have
thrown via the c64 and I have bought the Speccy? For me it is
a dream to know the author of AA:) It would be much beautiful
one that you made a page dedicated to ZZ as you have made for
AA, but reading the messages I have understood that you don't
have inlay of ZZ. I of recent have only come in possession of
an original copy of ZZ and if you want I can send to you via e-mail.
Very very intersting the project about the MIDI interface via
network port. I would want to try to connect my Spectrum to the
Game/Midi port of sound card AWE32 of my PC. Considering the bug
of compatibility MIDI (DX7) It can work? excuse me for my English..
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21/06/01
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Hi Davide! Did you know that AA was also published
for C64? ;) If you are interested, here is a scan of the cassette
inlay.. no doubt there will be copied of it floating around
on the web suitable for C64 emulators too. Thank you very much
for the offer of the ZZ cover, there is no need to send it though,
as I do already have one :) I don't think that you should try
building the ZZ MIDI cable... yet... in case you damage your AWE32!
I recently tried to get the MIDI feature to work myself, and couldn't...
so until I find out why, it would be best not to try! I no longer
think it has anything to do with the DX7 - it could be the cable
design or a bug in the code. To get the ZZ sample for the music
page I recently set up a Speccy and loaded ZZ, which in itself
I found to be an extremely fiddly and frustrating process! The
'rapid' loading system was always a bit unreliable... but these
tapes are nearly 20 years old now... I tried 4 different tapes
before I could get it to load... it kept crashing with a very
unhelpful red screen. I've a good mind to complain! Anyway...
I might do a ZZ page sometime... Thanks for writing, I understood
your English perfectly... except I'm not quite sure what you felt
'guilty' about! There's nothing wrong with owning a c64! I've
got one myself ;) I'll post something here if I figure out what's
wrong with the MIDI interface... S :)
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Tom Kane
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Dundee
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Hi Sandy I've just found your site and thought
I would write to say thanks for many hours of entertainment I
got from Ant Attack and Zombie Zombie. AA was *the* first 3D game
on the Spectrum, out before Ultimate released their Filmation
stuff, and I can truly say that I was gobsmacked by the graphics
at the time. What really impressed me though, was the two-channel
music routines on Zombie Zombie - once again, the first, proper
two-channel music program out there. The hours my mates and I
spent picking it apart to see how it worked, and then reassembling
the logic to get the instruction timings right so that the pulse
width was 50%:50% (== more volume from speccy speaker) and the
time between notes was reduced to cut down on clicking. Yup, truly
an inspiration to me. Unable to come to terms with the loss of
the early eighties, I've been working for various computer games
companies for the past 6 years! (DMA Design, Visual Sciences and
now, Denki). And if Ant Attack/Zombie Zombie had not been released...would
I be here now? Probably not. Thanks mister! I've been working
on the Gameboy Advance for a while now, and I'm thinking...wouldn't
Ant Attack translate sooooo nicely...Watch this space...
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12/06/01
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Hi Tom... ahem... first, three cheers for Dundee,
home of my forebears! Since you wrote this, of course, the music
page has gone up, so I hope that will bring you some good
memories. I'm impressed that you went into the code so deeply
- though dismayed to find that I left room for improvement! peh!
;) The pulse time should have been divided 50/50 between
the two channels... I knew there was a problem with volume per
channel being a lot less than half as loud as a normal beep; at
the time I thought it might be something to do with the logarithmic
response of the human ear. It's fiddly stuff writing code and
balancing Z80 T states in the different branches, as you will
know, but quite satisfying if you can get it right! I intend to
add a feature to the music page covering the two-channel routine
at some point.. I hope you might find that interesting... Cor...
so AA/ZZ prob set you off on your career.. that's cool :) ...
yes sir, you surely are welcome... and I'm watchin' that space!
s :)
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Cambridge, UK
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The real Sandy White!Wow!Well I would just
like to say thanks for creating one of the best games on any platform
EVER! Along with Sabre Wulf and Lords of Midnight, AA was one
of my favourite games. I don't know if it was because I was younger
and more imaginative but games on the old Speccy just seemed to
keep me hooked for hours. I don't know if you have already answered
this on your website but what was your favourite Speccy games
(apart from AA!) and what games do you play these days?
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07/06/01
|
Hi Todd... whoooaa! The twenty pound note is
in the post! ;) Seriously, I'm very flattered you liked it so
much... and up there with Sabre Wulf and Lords of Midnight...
that's good company ;) I suppose the Speccy games I liked most
were 'Ultimate' ones like Jet Pac and Pssst for instance... they
simply looked so slick and professional... but there were so many...
there was something about Manic Miner that I liked... and Jon
Ritman's 3D Comabt Zone, a clone of the arcade hit Battle Zone...
I've never been a major game player though... always been more
interested in how they work and look than in playing them... however
when I do buy games, they tend to be simulations... most recently
Colin Macrae Rally, a Motocross thingie, and Tony Hawks Skateboardy
thingie! :)
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MartinN
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Sussex
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Good grief this takes me back... Happy days.
If you don't mind me asking, and sorry if someone else has asked,
why did you stop after zombie zombie, and what are you doing these
days? (aside from maintaining this cracking website!)
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05/06/01
|
Hi MartinN, thanks... very glad u like the
site! A question like that has the potential to set me off on
a major bout of self-analysis! Well, I did one more game after
ZZ - 'I of the Mask'. After that was published I started working
on a game called 'Dick Special' for the Commodore Amiga... It
was never finished, though I still have a working demo.... It
was whilst writing DS that I got fed up with the games business...
out went the nice friendly bods from the cottage industry I knew,
and in came money, politics and people in suits... also games
were starting to get bigger, and it was no longer feasible for
one person to write a game. I guess I had found a lot of pleasure
in doing everything - design, coding, graphics and music, but
was increasingly finding that I couldn't cope. If I had been really
smart I suppose that I might have formed a team... but at the
time I really wasn't up to it... As for now, I currently make
my living writing server side Java, and inventing weird numerical
things for some clever people who are about to revolutionise the
way insurance is sold online. Sounds pretty boring eh? ;) I tell
you though, it's great working on something that's cutting edge,
whatever the genre! I still have ambitions to be a pop star however
:)
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stuart sumner
|
england
|
Thankyou for setting up this lovely warm site,
it was a real pleasure reading through it! Thinking back now to
playing AA with my friends, I seem to remember I would waste my
go trying to find things outside the fortress (sectret levels
etc) sounds silly but I was convinced there might be a sectet
passage or hidden room somewhere. :-) thanx again...bye
|
04/06/01
|
Hi Stuart, thankyou! ... it's very nice indeed
to hear that the site feels warm... I couldn't hope for better..
:) and you are most welcome... really, it can only be thanks to
everyone who's written in... you are a warm hearted lot, you lot!
I had never guessed that people would play AA multi-player, taking
turns as you describe... wish I had.. could've built in the scoring
for it... ah well... next time... I feel very sorry that there
was no such secret passage (I was tempted for a second there to
try and convince you that there was and that you missed it!) I
hope at least that you found the AMMO sprite in the desert ;)
Thankx for bringing your own bit of warmth to the site :-)
|
Clint Sanders
|
North Carolina, TRoy
|
Ihave a question for you about you Out of all
a the colnys did you know that pretty much all worker ants are
femail fasnatic write any way IS it true that if you feed salt
to them theyll die
|
30/05/01
|
Hi Clint! I'm not an ant expert, but I'll have
a bash at answering... Salt is poisonous to all living creatures
(including humans!) if eaten in sufficient quantity. The
big question is whether ants are senseless (literally) enough
to eat a fatal quantity of salt if you put it in front of them.
I do know ants have a pretty good sense of taste through their
feelers and mouth-parts, and I think that they can taste salt
and avoid eating too much - even if it is mixed with something
tasty; if this were not the case, the web would be littered with
ant poison recipies containing salt - and it isn't! People make
ant poison by mixing Borax 50/50 in solution with sugar, and it
kills them in exactly the same way that salt would, by dehydration
(if you're interested - a process called reverse
osmosis). Hope that's some help - though I hope you're not
going to go off and murder ants now, not even the virtual kind
- you only have to stun 'em! fasnatic! ;)
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LabRat
|
UK
|
Hey, Sandy! I fell into this site almost by
accident and oh, the nostalgia! I have such fond memories of late
nights spent racing around your wonderful city and the terror
those giant ants instilled in me! Thank you for a lot of fun!
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27/05/01
|
Hi LabRat, thanks :) you're most welcome -
glad to have brought back some good memories! :)
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ZeDeX82
|
North Wales
|
Hey great website. Good to see that you are
human linke the rest of the 8-bit Computer crazed nutters on the
web
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26/05/01
|
Hey ZeDeX82! thankoid very muchoop! Glad yooo
nijoyed thessiteep howwoopoid doo you knoid oim hewmoin thoughhh?
:~;)
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Barry Leitch
|
New York State
|
Howdy Sandy, As a fellow Scot, I gotta say
good work.. AA was one of the first games that sparked my interest
in sound in games at the impressionable age of 13.. It got me
messing around with the spectrums Beep command and from there
went on to do the sound for over 200 games... Hurry up and get
the midi files up... and check out www.barryleitch.com
:)
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24/05/01
|
Howdy Barry! I see you've caught a bit of an
American twang there! pleased AA might have played a wee part
in setting you off on such a career... that's a dang shootin'
ranch of games you've done there dude! (ahemm..) I enjoyed listening
to the mp3s on your site... what did you say about your vocalist
Carla having lungs? On "Trip With Me" she makes the
word "overload" last 14 secs... but then she does seem
to vomit at the end of the track... ;) as for midi files... OK
OK ! ;) I want to do a whole music page... it'll be nothing like
yours though, I'm just an amateur! - hope u keep up the good work!
:))
|
Cole
|
Christchurch, England
|
Hi Sandy, One of the greats, Ant Attack. Why
have you not mentioned Zombie Zombie on your web pages, and added
some info for this? I thought this was equally as good as Ant
Attack and in some ways better. Also whats the story in Zombie
Zombie about your quote... "Due to strong personal convictions,
I wish to stress that this game in no way endorses a belief in
the occult." ..you've got to admit this is not normal. Cheers
Cole
|
10/05/01
|
Hi Cole, thankyou.. ahaaar.. good question...
I suppose its partly cos AA is the one I'm being asked most about,
and also at the time ZZ was rather slated for being so similar
to AA, and kind of became associated in my mind with negative
feelings... so I tend to neglect it! I was able to put more time
into designing the gameplay than with AA, but given its relative
lack of success, I always assumed that this was a bad thing, so
it's very nice to hear that someone liked it! :) As for "strong
personal convictions", that was totally tongue in cheek...
M Jackson's "Thriller" video was out before ZZ was written,
and carried that exact same warning.. you're right though.. definately
not normal! ;) I may put up the ZZ emulation sometime! thanks
for writing! S :)
|
will brooker
|
london
|
hi Sandy - I'm really glad you're still around
online - I'm still getting over the fact that Crash letters editor
Lloyd Mangram wasn't real! I'm writing an academic article on
the study of video games - using Jetpac not AA, sorry! - and wonder
if you know who did the art and weirded-out text for the boxes
of Space Intruders, Meteor Storm and Timegate? Was it David Rowe
and Mark Eyles?
|
09/05/01
|
Hi Will, Mark did indeed do the 'weirded out
text' for those 3, much more of which is to be found in the Time
Gate game itself - a whole tutorial loads up before you start
the game. Artworks: Space Intruders & Meteor Storm - Richard
Shenfield. Time Gate - Craig Hamilton. The other artists who worked
on a lot of covers were Dave Rowe and Steinar Lund. (info courtessy
Mark - thanks Mark!) You might also be interested in looking at
an interview he did recently on the Quicksilva years at
zxgoldenyears. As for Lloyd Mangram... you just shattered
my own illusions ;).. mind you, now that I think about it... it's
very nearly Lloyd Anagram!... should've guessed! Best of luck
with the article, Sandy :)
|
Matt Petty
|
London UK
|
Hi, another speccy fan here - thanks for the
memories! Just wanted to say that the current tV ads for the guardian
online look like good old AA! cheers Matt
|
08/05/01
|
Hi Matt, thanks you're very welcome! ... the
one with the city building itself out of newspapers? I saw it
and thought exactly the same thing! :)) Wish AAcould have looked
like that! ... mightily jealous of their processing power.. mind
you.. perhaps with a GForce3! .. ;) Sandy :)
|
Ant
|
An ant colony, CA, USA, Earth
|
Wow, this is a cool old game! I have never
heard or seen this game. I am an ant freak. I found out about
this game from my own message
board. http://antfarm.home.dhs.org
|
16/04/01
|
Thanks Ant! (or should I say "Master Ant"?
;) It's funny.. I somehow kind of knew that eventually an ant
would get round to writing to me.. ;) I checked out your message
board and site... good laugh... er... you're all completely bonkers!!
I'm glad you got some fun out of the old game... not many in the
US will have played it I guess, the Spectrum it used to run on
was not very popular in the States... you may have known it as
the "Timex 1000" (I think) Hey... the magic of Java
Applets! ;)
|
Mark Hewitt
|
Birmingham, England
|
Hi Sandy - are you really the guy who made
Ant Attack? So I finally get to write to the person who got me
hooked on computing as a kid! AA was the first game I saw on a
home computer and after nagging my parents for a zx 48k I now
find myself at the age of 26 still getting a face-full of radiation!
I too must agree that Ant Attack still remains the only game to
have made me physically SCARED! (an ANT appearing from around
a corner block was true emotion!) Can I suggest you look at starting
a YAHOO egroup (www.yahoo.co.uk) for us AA victims to swap memories
etc etc? Getting my 'hero' to stand on the girl's head while she
gets eaten by a killer ant, will be a memory I take to the grave!
All the best for the future, Mark Hewitt mark_hewitt@mail.com
|
09/04/01
|
Hi Mark - yes it's me...Thankee sire! excellent
that you actually got SCARED! I certainly never imagined at the
time that it could have had that effect...coool! you reminded
me how I used to get "running away" scared at Dr Who
and Hammer Horror films when I was a kid... the fact that they
were low budget and had creaky effects didn't seem to matter...
they don't seem so scary now (unfortunately!)... Perhaps even
with its simple graphics there was just enough in AA to enable
you to suspend your disbelief and believe you were there!... re
an egroup, yip, it could be a laugh!! unfortunately too busy with
work at present tho to set anything up meeself.. shall file it
away in "things to do" box, along with some things I'd
like to do with this site but haven't had time... like, for instance,
to have an online high-score table on the AA applet... Getting
your 'hero' to stand on the girl's head is real skill by the way...
all the best to you! :)
|
roddy
sutherland |
@ecosse.net
|
Yes indeef! Aah, wasn't ant attack a good game.
I've just druck shit loads of stella , and i can say without a
question of a doubt, that ant attack was probably one of the finest
games ever to make its prescence known on that funny little thing
with the rubber keys, which we all fondly remember as the sincalair
specy. I've just been playing jet set willyy, which i don't recdfommend,
even for a bit of nostalgia, cos it's nothing but a pain in the
arse. Anyway, enough, and onwards with Ant attack. I dread to
think of what dastardly shananigans those ants are going to get
up to... Ah, I wish i had a life. i do, of sorts though, i design
web sites, but my bird just left me the otther day and she's off
to mexico, i bet she shags loads of fuckwits eniughsefmknodmfkmnofdvnj
|
07/04/01
|
Hi Roddy, glad you're still enjoying the old
game, I'm quite sure it does play better after a few beers ;)
Thanks for the great compliment re AA!! Blimey it's ages since
I saw Jet Set Willy I always thought it looked pretty cool.. admittedly
I was crap at playing it... I'm sorry about your bird leaving
- sounds crap - (voice, unfortunately, of experience)... please
accept my sympathy and a virtual pint :-| PS I put your name in
colour to bring you some cheer... :-) oh and those ants are currently
running about in my kitchen...
|
Rob
|
Midlands'ish
|
Don't you think what a wonderful version of
Ant Attack for the GBA would be. Right now I have hunted you down
I am off to find Jez Sans to pester him to make 3D Starstrike
for it as well. Then I may buy one.
|
01/04/01
|
Hi Rob, interesting thought, and I thank you
for the suggestion - it's just the whole issue of commercial viability...
d'ya fancy buying... say... 50000 copies? ;) only joking! ..just
a thought... I don't suppose there's a Speccy emulator for GBA?
16Mhz Arm.. could be tight... but then a Z80 chip must cost pennies
these days... and could go in the cartridge... along with a complete
Speccy retro compilation! I could use my share of the royalties
to finance work on my anti-gravity machine - if Dean
Kamen doesn't beat me to it that is! I wish you well with
3D Starstrike... it would look pretty good on GBA I reccon...
s :)
|
AAlan
|
Dorchester
|
Hello again Sandy. Thanks for explaining how
I could play Ant Attack again. It's exactly how I remember it
! I have played it several times, but still haven't managed to
rescue all 10 yet. Just time for 1 more go...... P.S. "AAlan"
was going to be the name of my software company, (if I ever created
any gaming software !).
|
30/03/01
|
Pleasure AAlan... hope you manage all 10 eventually!
By the way, if you don't start a software business it would be
a good name for a Taxi company.... though 123AAAAlan Taxis would
be better still... s ;)
|
Mobile Man
|
So whats so great about insurance? Curious
of Bolton
|
29/03/01
|
Now.... then, let me see, how many people do
I know from Bolton who know that I'm working in the insurance
industry... er... Steve? ;)
|
|
ignacio alonso berrioategortua
|
spain
|
Hi Sandy, Thank you very much for your marvelous
game. It´s like a dream to contact with you, the ant attack author.
Anyway, excuse me if I dare to suggest you two changes, improvements
in my opinion, in the game: -Without the "scan" information the
game is even much, much more interesting. I started playing and
played it many years in an old non colour TV without noticing
the "scan", and even now when I play I hide that part of the screen
to avoid the red/green information. And it remains possible to
get the gold medall without big dificulties. -Changing the perspectives
in a sequential mode, as the changes in runnig direction, with
just two keys, would be the other sugestion. Thank you very much,
and excuse my english.
|
28/03/01
|
Hi ignacio - thanks for the nice words - and
for taking the trouble to write to me :) Suggestions are always
welcome - though it's a bit late to put anything right! ;) I always
wondered whether 'scan' was too much of a hint... I think you're
right... an option to switch it off would have been good... in
return for higher scoring perhaps.... I also agree that the keys
could be a lot better.. next time maybe ;) your English better
than most of the 'native' English sent to this page by the way!
(oops I'm for it now!) s ;)
|
Venom
|
Perm, Russia
|
I not english language... Assembler coding
for z80 - was my Life ! Today - C++, Asm for f**king "Wintel",
..?
|
21/03/01
|
Hi Venom - great to get a message from Russia!
What did you write z80 asm for? Did the Sinclair Spectrum ever
make it to Russia? s :)
|
Neil
|
Norfolk
|
It's nice to be able to pay homage to one of
my Speccy era heros. What can I say about AA that hasn't already
been said, apart from it was my favourite speccy game as a boy
and I still indulge my speccy fantasies using my Speccy emulator
and for a special treat my old speccy from the loft. It was a
real feat of 3D engineering and I'm glad I have had this chance
to thank the genius behind the code. Thanks
|
20/03/01
|
Neil - sentiment very much appreciated! I'm
pleased to hear that your old Speccy gets out of the loft from
time to time, and that AA was your fave as a kid.. praise indeed!
I am also very flattered to be called a genius!! I'll have a swelled
head for the next day or nine! glad to have brought some fun!
s:)
|
AALAN
|
Dorchester
|
Sandy, I bought Ant Attack back in 1984. I
always lost interest quickly in the shoot-em-up games, + the sports
simulation games were for kids, but AA kept me playing for years.
I was always top-scorer among my friends, + would AMAZE them by
jumping on the ants to get onto walls, etc. I am keen to relive
those happy days, but cannot find the link. Is it still available
? (All I can see is the simulation of the spectrum screen "Quicksilva
present.... " etc, and the controls below it, but no link. Please
help !
|
15/03/01
|
Hi Aalan! How many AAs? ;) I was a bit the
same myself with games... got fed up with with e'm quickly...
mind you, I could play Tetris until it was coming out of my ears...
(odd thought) By the sounds of it, if you can see the simulation
on the Speccy screen, your browser is running Java fine... trick
is.. there's no link! Click your mouse pointer on the Speccy
screen, then play the game right there in your browser using
the specified keyboard controls... (hopefully!) the Java applet
is running a complete Speccy emulator! If this doesn't work then
I'm lost... you could try running one of several other non-Java
Speccy emulators that are around... see the message from Antiriad2097
further down this page for some links. Whew.. I hope that helps!
happy Ant jumping - & here's hoping your friends will be just
as impressed in 2001 as they were in 1984 ;) s :)
|
Jorgen Vervliet
|
Belgium
|
Hi, when will there be a Ant Attack game for
PC, I mean with all the power of pc. Elite and Ant Attack are
my all time favorites. I hope you are going to do this! Thanx
for the nostalgia!!!
|
08/03/01
|
Hi Jorgen! First of all, have you seen Tyrone
C's PC remake Ant
Attack PC ? The first thing I did was play it with 70 ants...
cheers Tyrone, great fun.. :) looking forward to the next update!
I suspect, however, that what you might mean by 'all the power
of a PC', is a completely new version of AA with state of the
art 3D graphics, new plot features, new levels... Unfortunately,
to do a proper, up-to-date sequel to Ant Attack would be a full
scale commercial enterprise, and would cost as much to do as to
develop any new game... guessing here... between 0.5 and 2 million
quid! That kind of dosh would require the backing of a publisher...
and I can't imagine it seeming particularly attractive, compared,
say, to a nice film licence... But then, for a bit of fun, taking
the original city and turning it into a 3D model would be quite
straightforward... as would adding textures, and rendering it,
say in D3D, or even with an full-on commercial renderer. I could
imagine, in a mad moment, doing an exact copy of the game in full-on
sexy perspective 3D; trouble is, even such a modest update would
take, me at least, weeks. Having said that, I would be
very curious to know what it would look like from a first person
perspective!.. no promises though! Thanx for the nice words, and
sorry if my answer sounds a bit disappointing... I wish there
were 27 hours in every day! s :)
|
The Chessplayer
|
Bourne End
|
Remember the AA birthday cake we shared at
the White Tower restaurant at Blackpool Pleasure Beach? Followed
by you videoing the whole of the Blackpool Illuminations using
your Sony F1 Betamax recorder?
|
04/02/01
|
Cheers Martin! Blimey! Hey! you found the site....
Mmmm...t'were a lovely cake it 'were - shame to eat it! and them
were the days when camcoders came in two parts, one domestic VCR
sized bit that hung over one shoulder, and another mamoth camera
bit that rested on the other! I also remember going on nearly
every ride in on Blackpool Pleasure Beach til nearly sick - still
got the pics! (not of the sick) If you read this, send me a note
with your email address.. will get in touch :) [Martin (Wren-Hilton),
by the way, wrote "The Chess Player", published for
the Speccy by QS - and many Speccy related books]
|
dave woodhouse
|
twickenham, middx
|
Just to say thanks for Ant Attack; I think
it was probably the most engrossing Speccy game I had...your fascinating
website brought back many memories,
|
25/01/01
|
hi dave - very glad you enjoyed playing Ant
Attack, and that you liked the site... makes it worth the effort!
:)
|
Linc
|
London
|
Yeah.. same story here..AA was the game i bought
the day i got my speccy.. Loved it.I remember it loading ,the
game starting, and mine and my brothers jaws dropping at the GFX
(we were used to atari 2600 Pac Man) Still play it on ZX32 emu
to this day!! As for ZZ well !! That used to make me jump out
of my chair !! Those zombies were nasty !! cept when you got in
a position where the just run round and round you in circles!!
he he Oh yeah the music in ZZ (when new zombies wake ect) was
the best piece that ever came out of my tiny zx bleeper!! You
could connect it to MIDI couldnt you ?? Very creepy tune anyway.
Had I O T M as well... and that was ahead of its time So ta Sandy
for 2 of my top ten speccy games
|
6/1/01
|
Linc. Hi... cheers glad you enjoyed! I was
dead proud of that beeping code... it used pulse width modulation
to provide two simutanous notes! Ooooo & I'd forgotten about
the MIDI interface! I'll try and get the original tune up here
on the site now that you reminded me... Funny thing is I don't
think it ever worked except on the DX7 synth that I developed
it on... it turned out that I had a rogue DX7 with a slightly
wrong MIDI protocol... though Yamaha were very helpful and gave
me a new ROM - it was too late and the game went out with the
bug - embarassing when I tried to demo the thing on an unfamiliar
synth at a press launch and it didn't work... Watch this space
for a midi file sometime... er... this year! s:)
|
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White 2000