When crash was on its last legs or so to speak. The covertapes where a massive selling point for them. They needed to get the costs down as much as physically possible. Every 1 min of duplication tape ran the bill up.
Hence I got tasked with compressing all the tapes, removing the loading screens. Turboloading them thats how tight Crash got with its cover tapes.
Su then asked for a password, sorry my fault each month on them as the star game call our premium rate number to play the game. Made them a chunk of money.
Most games didnt have the original loaders or saving schemes for them. So I was getting sent su`s cover tape to do and also Crashes cover tape to do, to master each month. This was via Duplidata in Corby for both mags. This is a 48k program load in 48k mode etc. Or I had to recreate firebird mastering programs beep beep. Alcatraz savers, as in Most cases the original masters had gone as it was year or more since they had come out.
Theo devil used to get paid a massive ?100 quid per game for Su, Sometimes a whole ?200. I got paid a whopping ?100 for Pokemania and ?100 for doing all the tapes per mag of duplication. All done about 1 month in advance of each issue.
Ah my namesake (almost, i'm an "eme" rather than a "ham"). Thanks for commenting on my feature Graham and for your additional comments here. Must have been an interesting time, even though we all knew it was coming to end sooner or later.
I've just read the 4 pieces in one breath. It was very good :) Well Done!
Back in the days covertapes were my main source of software, and as you wrote, there were lots of good games on them. Beach Head, Magic Knight, Rebel, Rebelstar 2, Spin Dizzy, Tau Ceti, to name a few.
Hyper Active deserves a special mention. I still load the game every year.
What I felt was missing from your comprehensive list of good cover games were the Vortex games. From Android One to Cyclone, they were all amazing.
I'd forgotten about the premium rate phone number in SU. IIRC, you could work out the password yourself by solving a cryptic riddle printed in the mag, and the mag was like: "Can't solve it?! Phone 0898... for the answer, that you very much!"
I also remember that when Dizzy appeared on YS, the Codies 0898 hintline number was displayed on screen while you played. Codies must have made a killing out of that.
I remember the cover tapes with demos on, and the odd rejected game from the big publishers appearing in full, but by the time they were putting bundles of full re-releases out I'd moved on to an ST. I guess I was part of the decline...
Comments
Ah my namesake (almost, i'm an "eme" rather than a "ham"). Thanks for commenting on my feature Graham and for your additional comments here. Must have been an interesting time, even though we all knew it was coming to end sooner or later.
Back in the days covertapes were my main source of software, and as you wrote, there were lots of good games on them. Beach Head, Magic Knight, Rebel, Rebelstar 2, Spin Dizzy, Tau Ceti, to name a few.
Hyper Active deserves a special mention. I still load the game every year.
What I felt was missing from your comprehensive list of good cover games were the Vortex games. From Android One to Cyclone, they were all amazing.
Games List 2016 - Games List 2015 - Games List 2014
it's prolly my fav tape.. SU 12 or something .. there was another tape with some of the games they missed ? android 2.
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0013731
and
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0013732
I also remember that when Dizzy appeared on YS, the Codies 0898 hintline number was displayed on screen while you played. Codies must have made a killing out of that.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -