The History of BBC Micro Type-in Games - Episode 16: 1985 (Part 3)

[@witchfinder1976]

Content links for this episode: Tex 'n' Dan Game: bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=1457 Mag: archive.org/details/ElectronUserVolume2/Electron-User-02-12/ Kung-Fu Master Game: bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=1289 Mag: archive.org/details/your-computer-magazine-1985-11/ Quasimodo Game: bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=1022 Mag: 8bs.com/beebugmags.htm Shuggy's Garden Game: bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=753 Mag: archive.org/details/AcornUser041-Dec85 Wizard's Castle Game: bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=630 Mag: 8bs.com/tmucovers.htm

[@vauxhalldotnet]

Thanks a ton! Really enjoyed. It’s really interesting seeing the progress over the years in this series. Had a go at Wizard’s Castle-loads of potential there! With a bit more balancing, it could be less ‘wizard’ and more ‘winning.’ Merry Christmas. 🎄

[@witchfinder1976]

Thanks for the donation again, you are too kind! 🙂 Sorry it took so long to get this one done. I hope to get back to a more regular schedule next year. Have a great Christmas too!

[@paulscottrobson]

Hi. I'm the author of Wizard's Castle. You highlighted the one thing that really annoyed me .... they got my name wrong (Robson not Hobson) :( It was borrowed mostly from Atic Atac (I think the actual Wizard sprite was pretty much copied pixel by pixel !). Most of the others were as well, you may notice they either look familiar or they are very basic. This is because I can't draw at all .... almost literally. I probably should have got my mother or sister to draw it as they're both really talented. It does look hard. People know how to play their own games so they do tend to overdo the difficulty, but even with that it's a bit of a challenge. I must've written the copy "local evil Wizard" is very me, somewhat offbeat sense of humour. Thanks for the channel, which I have just discovered :)

[@witchfinder1976]

Hi Paul, thanks for the comments. Great to hear a little more about the background to this game! 🙂 I can't believe the magazine got your name wrong - that must have been hugely annoying. It is tough, which was a problem with a lot of games back then and as you say, was often due to the programmer being too good at their own game. At least in this case you could tweak the difficulty by tinkering with the provided code if you wished. Overall though it is an impressive game for the type-in format. Do you remember how much you were paid for the game, if you don't mind me asking?

[@markf.3617]

Such great memories, thanks you!

[@witchfinder1976]

Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed 🙂

[@commodore3410]

Great video !!!! Thankyou!!!

[@witchfinder1976]

Thanks for watching!

[@kins749]

Gameplay might not be good but I was very impressed by the quality of Wizard's Castle

[@witchfinder1976]

Yes, for a type-in game it looks great, and to be fair the magazine did give tips on how to reduce the difficulty.

[@paulscottrobson]

@@witchfinder1976 I don't think they bothered. I don't recall any requests to change anything. Doing the suggested changes ; slowing it down 15-30% and speeding it up as you get deeper in the castle would have been fairly trivial.

[@sassquadsteve]

Wizard's Castle, one of those games I would have been really interested in learning how it all works, but obfuscated by laborious amounts of DATA statements. The assembler that is readable is only there to decompact and read the data and checksums respectively. Wonder if anyone on Stardot has disassembled it? Tex N Dan looks interesting though, will give that a try. Thanks again for creating these videos, they're great!

[@witchfinder1976]

Yeah, it is a shame that it is getting harder to decipher what is going on in these games as they get more complex, but the upside is better games of course 🙂 Thanks for watching!

[@paulscottrobson]

@@witchfinder1976 Unfortunately it runs into the BBC Micros memory problem, half of the memory goes on the most basic colour gfx and the disk system.