Redshift, Murkwood and Julian Gollop

morph

I've just found a game listed as being published by Redshift called Murkwood. It plays just like Rebelstar Raiders except its moving fantasy figures around intead of spacemen. The tiny graphics, especially the wizards, look just like the ones out of Chaos.

But I can't find any mention of Murkwood on the internet in connection with Julian Gollop. I wasn't aware of it before. Before Rebelstar and Chaos, as far as the internet is aware, there was Nebula, Rebelstar Raiders, part of Battlecars, and two designs whicn came out on the BBC. I can't find any mention anywhere of Murkwood. What is its providence? Is it a genuine Gollop game or is it something someone else did using the Raiders code?

jdanddiet

Very interesting and certainly looks and plays like a Gollop game.
However like you say there's absolutely no reference of it on the net in connection to him

Timmy

The 'internet' is a strange place. It's an echo chamber for everything but you will never find the answer to these very specific questions there. Remeber that person who was here continously asking a while ago if someone could write a 'Bresenham' for a spectrum game, as if it was the best thing ever? I think it was only stopped until I've pointed out that there is a true Bresenham algorithm embedded in the Spectrum ROM.

For the answer of the question whether it's a 'Gollop game', the only way to verify this is to ask Mr. Gollop, as well as what you mean by 'Gollop game'.

As for what I personally think about these two games, I've done some reverse engineering on Murkwood a few months ago (but I've stopped soon after I found out it was a 2 player game) but I've never looked at Raiders. Now that I've seen both the spectrum basic part of the code next to each other, I can see many similarities between them (and this is an understatement, most lines are the same). I would say that they are coded by the same person.

Mousey

Could it be a reskin rip-off, like Crimebusters was to Spellbound (and the many other Harry S Price “works”)?

Timmy

It's definitely not a "rip-off", at least, if I guess what you meant by that.

Both Rebelstar Raiders and Murkwood were published by Red Shift. So, if it was a "rip-off", they would certainly have known.

Secondly, I feel like that the code of Raiders is being added on top of Murkwood. Also my (educated) guess is that Murkwood was released before Raiders. But this is just a personal opinion.

To be honest, I think it's a bit sad that Murkwood didn't got any reviews or praise back in the day. And if you like Rebelstar Raiders, you definitely should play Murkwood once.

morph

OK, so it seems pukker. Theres no release details about in on WOS at all, compared to RR which has a cassette inlay and magazine adverts. So maybe it was unreleased. It feels like Mr G has a big interview every few months in Retrogamer, so its odd that this has passed by.

Timmy

Looking back at the information about Murkwood, it is perhaps an unreleased game, but it could be just a fake, too.

There are no credits at all anywhere in game (except the "Red Shift" logo in the loading screen, but I understand that that loading screen is 'recovered'), and although it said it was "published" by RedShift there really is no proof it was actually published. Perhaps the Preservation Team still has that info as they've preserved it, but someone else can ask them.

Still, all the likely information about it has disappeared from the internet, so it does sound like an unreleased game. Also, the ads back in the day did not show Murkwood as one of their games, so this is strange as well.

jdanddiet

So has anyone reading this thread actually asked julian?

morph

The great man has replied thusly :

Intriguing. I know nothing about the game, but it does indeed seem to be using the Rebelstar Raiders code.

Regards,
Julian

So it looks like its a fanedit, and not an unpublished game. I was quite excited tthat it might have been a Gollopian Miremare or Willy And The Taxman.

jdanddiet

At least we solved the mystery partly!

Timmy

I'm glad at least we know it's a fanedit. It looks surprisingly good, too.