Luca Bordoni Lost Treasures....
For some reason today I came across Luca Bordoni's name. That ringed a bell so went and checked it out. Luca was the author of one of the most ambitious and fun BASIC projects : "Jungle King" which came out in a Italian tape magazine back in the 80s. Luca did other things in BASIC but this one was my favorite (back in those days i tried to learn BASIC, just to write a "Jungle King" game, but I failed miserably).
Luca's effort was really a generous one: he managed to recreate the whole game in BASIC (to me really a non trivial task) and if you bear with the obious limitations I can assure it is good fun!
Now from what I read in the RandomKak blog he is working at some new AGD game
So I just wanted to send Luca my best wishes for that. I am really looking forward to this!
In the meantime I wanted to invite you to check out his lost treasures in the Infoseek
they are all written in BASIC and some of them are really good: I particularly liked JK and Zippy (tough i am not sure this one in in BASIC too) and "Save the Whale". on this last one I totally agree with Dandyboy review:
"One of those first games I ever tried ... not spectacular but quite nice with tons of nostalgic value.
Misguide the nasty eskimos onto the icebergs and make them sink into the freezing waters.
The idea behind the game is smart and addictive enough as to implement a remake of this Save the Whale -a sugestion for any programer who may be reading this-.
The idea behind Save the Whale is quite attractive ... why not give it a fresh new look ??
Kids will love it, I?m sure... and so will I. ;D"
I think CGD (of course you could do it with AGD, but CGD would keep the 80 feel) is just perfect for a remake and if Luca is not going to do that i will eventually do it myself :D
:D
Gab
Luca's effort was really a generous one: he managed to recreate the whole game in BASIC (to me really a non trivial task) and if you bear with the obious limitations I can assure it is good fun!
Now from what I read in the RandomKak blog he is working at some new AGD game
So I just wanted to send Luca my best wishes for that. I am really looking forward to this!
In the meantime I wanted to invite you to check out his lost treasures in the Infoseek
they are all written in BASIC and some of them are really good: I particularly liked JK and Zippy (tough i am not sure this one in in BASIC too) and "Save the Whale". on this last one I totally agree with Dandyboy review:
"One of those first games I ever tried ... not spectacular but quite nice with tons of nostalgic value.
Misguide the nasty eskimos onto the icebergs and make them sink into the freezing waters.
The idea behind the game is smart and addictive enough as to implement a remake of this Save the Whale -a sugestion for any programer who may be reading this-.
The idea behind Save the Whale is quite attractive ... why not give it a fresh new look ??
Kids will love it, I?m sure... and so will I. ;D"
I think CGD (of course you could do it with AGD, but CGD would keep the 80 feel) is just perfect for a remake and if Luca is not going to do that i will eventually do it myself :D
:D
Gab
Post edited by gabriele amore on
Comments
First of all, thanks for the kind words. Before announce Land of Mire Mare to the world (thanks BiNMaN, you are a real legend), honestly, i have to tell the truth...
I contacted WoS administration and asked to remove my old BASIC programs, because i never really liked them a lot... and i felt someway afraid for an inevitable connection between the old programs and the new one, an important title such as the first unofficial Mire Mare game (after almost 30 years of waiting!)...
But after reading your words, i've reconsidered my thoughts ;-)
The programs you mentioned were all written in BASIC, Zippy (terrible for me!) has only some machine code sound inside...
I spent years learning programming languages and tricks to create websites, until i discovered Arcade Game Designer and Jonathan Cauldwell, so i've combined the passion (never died) for the Spectrum with all my programming reminiscence... and here it is!
Thanks again, now i'm thinking at some new AGD projects and hope to create enjoyable things ;-)
What ever you do I will look forward.
Its always good to see the old (not because of you, because of the time which has passed!) Spectrum people back in business ;)
I will have a go to your games when I get my computer fixed soon, but as somebody said, these old BASIC games are part of our legacy too, and very likely better than you say they are, Im sure ;)
Ciao!
Well honestly i've always wondered how it could be a modern game if it could be someway ported on a 48K Spectrum... So actually the direction rotates around a modern award-winning title (don't want to declare the title yet, it's only an idea at the moment)...
First of all, these days, i'm checking fans warnings in order to provide fixes to any possible problem on Land of Mire Mare... after that, i'll be happy to draw brand new sprites and post news about a probable new AGD production ;-)
Seriously, do not expect brilliant achievements... my only favourite title was Space Chase, because i was a Scramble big fan since 1981 (Space Chase represents a basic vertical Scramble remake). Load'n Run magazine agreed to publish it, but actually they never did... We were at the end of the 80's and the Sinclair gold mine was running out!
Incredibly, i recently found a better version (self-published) for Atari 2600!...
https://atariage.com/screenshot_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=2740