Well if Mr. Estcourt (or family) is reading this then I would ask permission for the following :
1) Permission to release an Interface II 16K ROM version of Deathchase. I have one called "Deathchase 2012". You can play it like the original, you can play an enhanced version, you can play the original at fast (200%+) speeds, you can even play it in washed out C64 colours with ULA+.
2) Permission to release an annotated disassembly of the original Deathchase game. It's amazing what you can do in 16K! It includes information on how the trees are drawn and how they move around.
Copyright on all the above would remain with the original author - I still code on a 30 year old machine for fun, not for profit...
xxl works on the Atari 8-bit version, I did a Tandy/Dragon version, Richard Wilson did an Amstrad CPC version and I'm sure we'd all like to ask the same thing.
Richard Wilson did the Amstrad CPC version? I don't believe it!
Sorry, I couldn't resist...
[If you're bemused by this, then stop reading and immediately buy the DVD box set of One Foot in the Grave (or bit torrent it, if you're a meany) as it's one of the best TV comedies ever.]
Hi guys,
Got an email from Merv's Cousin. The good news is he is better but he went on to say:-
"Mervyn told me to tell you thanks for the interest ,but he had so many people wanting to interview him he'd rather not, (hope you understand) he said that was the past ,which gone now, but thanks for your emails"
Hopefully if Merv changes his mind he'll come back to me but for the moment it appears this will remain one of the Spectrum's great mysteries :cry:
Hi guys,
Got an email from Merv's Cousin. The good news is he is better but he went on to say:-
"Mervyn told me to tell you thanks for the interest ,but he had so many people wanting to interview him he'd rather not, (hope you understand) he said that was the past ,which gone now, but thanks for your emails"
Hopefully if Merv changes his mind he'll come back to me but for the moment it appears this will remain one of the Spectrum's great mysteries :cry:
I'm glad he's OK, and of course we have to respect his wishes about privacy, but I am a little dissapointed. I'd love to know how and why he created the brilliant 3D Deathchase (was it just inspired by the forest chase scene in Return of the Jedi, or was it unconnected to ROTJ), why he never did a follow up type game Deathchase, why he left the Spectrum scene so after just three games, and did he write any games for any other machines, etc. And how does he feel knowing (if he's kept up with computer games) that Deathchase is still (AFAIK) the best game of it's type, even twenty-nine years later, and when modern games machines are about a zillion times more powerful than the 16K Speccy?
Still, with a legacy like 3D Deathchase, he's not likely to be forgotten.
Seems silly to me. If he's having lots of people wanting to interview him the easiest way to stop that is to do an interview and get all those questions out of the way!
It is a shame he isn't receptive to an interview, but I suppose from Mervyn's point of view computer games were 2/3 years of a 60+ year life and he's probably done many other things before and since his games writing days.
It's often the same way with musicians, actors and sportsmen who shone briefly and then faded into obscurity...many find themselves happy in another sphere of life and don't really want to talk about their brief time in the spotlight.
We know Mervyn Eastcourt as the writer of a couple of undeniably classic games. In my case those have been with me for 29 or 30 of my 39 years and they mean something to me.
Very good point Absinthe_boy. I suspect Sir Clive gets a little fed up sometimes being associated with the Spectrum and the C5 given all the other items he has invented. Also what is "special" for one person can be a chore or just a "job" for another.
Seems silly to me. If he's having lots of people wanting to interview him the easiest way to stop that is to do an interview and get all those questions out of the way!
I did politely suggest this, but see Absinthe boy's reply above. Maybe it's just not of interest to Merv.
I'm also inclined to think it is pointless to continue asking Mr. Estcourt about something he did almost 30 years ago for a now obsolete home computer system. Life went on and he has done other things, leaving that as a brief episode of his past. Now he's apparently got some serious health problems and has other things to care of. Can't really say we could blame him for that.
As for Sinclair being fed up with being associated with the Spectrum, it's much more than a suspect, Paddy - it was clear even back then. Excuse me if I quote myself, but I believe the following explains it all:
Well, as he said at the time of the Amstrad takeover:
Sinclair tended to become bored with his inventions precisely when they became successful, mass market products. He rapidly ceded his pre-eminent position to others - to the Japanese in the case of calculators, and to Sugar in home computers. 'Personally I don't like controlling a business that makes commodity products,' he acknowledges. (David Thomas, Alan Sugar: The Amstrad Story, Century 1990, p. 206)
So I guess that is a yes to the 16k rom cart question huh...he doesn't seem to care.
I'D love a copy of your game of IF2 cart, i have a full collection of all the other speccy games and one or two others that I shouldn't! The only one i have missing is the original IF2 test rom.
"Mervyn told me to tell you thanks for the interest ,but he had so many people wanting to interview him he'd rather not, (hope you understand) he said that was the past ,which gone now, but thanks for your emails"
It was nice to read that Mr. Estcourt's health is improving, and I fully respect his "no interviews" policy. I would just ask, like JMK, if he could clarify his position on remakes and distributing his old games.
Fellow programmer at Micromega, Derek Brewster, granted permission and it would be great if Mr. Estcourt could announce something similar.
Comments
a n d ?
1) Permission to release an Interface II 16K ROM version of Deathchase. I have one called "Deathchase 2012". You can play it like the original, you can play an enhanced version, you can play the original at fast (200%+) speeds, you can even play it in washed out C64 colours with ULA+.
2) Permission to release an annotated disassembly of the original Deathchase game. It's amazing what you can do in 16K! It includes information on how the trees are drawn and how they move around.
Copyright on all the above would remain with the original author - I still code on a 30 year old machine for fun, not for profit...
xxl works on the Atari 8-bit version, I did a Tandy/Dragon version, Richard Wilson did an Amstrad CPC version and I'm sure we'd all like to ask the same thing.
Also, a few retro mags seek an interview.
Maybe he should have a word with Elite too? ;)
Richard Wilson did the Amstrad CPC version? I don't believe it!
Sorry, I couldn't resist...
[If you're bemused by this, then stop reading and immediately buy the DVD box set of One Foot in the Grave (or bit torrent it, if you're a meany) as it's one of the best TV comedies ever.]
Got an email from Merv's Cousin. The good news is he is better but he went on to say:-
"Mervyn told me to tell you thanks for the interest ,but he had so many people wanting to interview him he'd rather not, (hope you understand) he said that was the past ,which gone now, but thanks for your emails"
Hopefully if Merv changes his mind he'll come back to me but for the moment it appears this will remain one of the Spectrum's great mysteries :cry:
I'm glad he's OK, and of course we have to respect his wishes about privacy, but I am a little dissapointed. I'd love to know how and why he created the brilliant 3D Deathchase (was it just inspired by the forest chase scene in Return of the Jedi, or was it unconnected to ROTJ), why he never did a follow up type game Deathchase, why he left the Spectrum scene so after just three games, and did he write any games for any other machines, etc. And how does he feel knowing (if he's kept up with computer games) that Deathchase is still (AFAIK) the best game of it's type, even twenty-nine years later, and when modern games machines are about a zillion times more powerful than the 16K Speccy?
Still, with a legacy like 3D Deathchase, he's not likely to be forgotten.
Ex-Ocean Software graphic artist -
Download my FREE PDF 'LOAD DIJ DIJ' (180,000+ words): https://ko-fi.com/i/IG2G3BEJZP
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It's often the same way with musicians, actors and sportsmen who shone briefly and then faded into obscurity...many find themselves happy in another sphere of life and don't really want to talk about their brief time in the spotlight.
We know Mervyn Eastcourt as the writer of a couple of undeniably classic games. In my case those have been with me for 29 or 30 of my 39 years and they mean something to me.
They may well not mean much to Mervyn...
Paddy
I did politely suggest this, but see Absinthe boy's reply above. Maybe it's just not of interest to Merv.
Offer to cross his palm with Ewoks or copies of Mire Mare.
As for Sinclair being fed up with being associated with the Spectrum, it's much more than a suspect, Paddy - it was clear even back then. Excuse me if I quote myself, but I believe the following explains it all:
I'D love a copy of your game of IF2 cart, i have a full collection of all the other speccy games and one or two others that I shouldn't! The only one i have missing is the original IF2 test rom.
It was nice to read that Mr. Estcourt's health is improving, and I fully respect his "no interviews" policy. I would just ask, like JMK, if he could clarify his position on remakes and distributing his old games.
Fellow programmer at Micromega, Derek Brewster, granted permission and it would be great if Mr. Estcourt could announce something similar.