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Message: 5924
Author: andrewbroad
Date: 03/10/2006
Subject: Spectrum Legends: Matthew Smith in Retro Gamer
There's an interview with various Spectrum legends, including
Matthew Smith, in Load 29 of the UK magazine _Retro Gamer_
(pp. 22-28).
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Highlights of what Matthew said
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He said that the Spectrum "placed a powerful machine in the hands of
a wider audience than ever before", and that it had "high-res,
colorful graphics... compared to other systems at the time."
"I had mine slaved to a TRS-80 so none of the inconveniences
affected me. The architecture of the machine was simple and well
documented in the manual.
"modern games have a sameyness about them. This is just a phase, as
the current push towards physics acceleration will open up new
avenues."
["Q. Do you think bedroom coders can still exist in the industry?"]
"They can, and with the internet, there's no reason why they can't
flourish, in my opinion... the specialist press will always give
independents a fair crack of the whip."
["Q. What has been the defining moment of your career?"]
"It must be the excitement in the Bug Byte office when I brought in
a half-finished Manic Miner, or maybe it was when I was in London
receiving a Golden Joystick award. I have dabbled in other jobs, but
nothing has ever generated this kind of enthusiasm and appreciation."
Matthew may be famous only for two games, but they have spawned a
lifetime of further developments! :-)
There are screenshots of the start-rooms of Manic Miner and Jet Set
Willy - intriguingly, The Bathroom has a blank room-name!
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Highlights of what the other legends said about the Spectrum
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Ste Pickford (of 180 fame): "The games that stick in my memory are
those that managed to frighten you. That's something that doesn't
happen in games these days, and perhaps can't happen with the level
of detail and realism we've got now. There isn't space to use your
imagination so much in modern games, which is where the strongest
emotions come from" [he cited Tir Na Nog, Avalon and Elite as
examples - Elite is Matthew's favourite Spectrum-game BTW].
Andrew Oliver (of Dizzy fame): "Every month would see new types of
games released. It was a big time for creativity and originality."
Jon Ritman (of Head Over Heels fame): "It was a period we'll never
have again; programmers could take risks with game design just
because the money involved was so low. Many unusual ideas were born."
Ste Pickford: "Spectrum merely had a bitmap screen and a
processor... [programmers] had to be of a certain standard just to
be able to move a sprite around the screen. It didn't impose any
particular style of game, because nothing was easier to write than
anything else... Consequently, there were a massive variety of game
styles, genres and graphical systems in use. I don't think any games
machine has such an original, varied and interesting back catalogue."
David Jones (of Knight-Tyme fame): "Because of the limited graphics
capabilities it was an ideal platform for developing gameplay, which
is something that was missing in the first machines that came after
the Spectrum."
Ste Pickford: "I think the mainstream videogame industry has lurched
too far toward making only slick, high-budget, blockbuster-type
products, and hasn't encouraged enough original, lower budget titles
to come through to provide the ideas for the blockbusters of the
future. There are creative developers within the industry who can't
express themselves as part of a 60-man team... So many developers
are turning to Indie development that I think Indies and bedroom
coders are going to become an accepted part of the world of
videogames providing the stream of new ideas we used to get from
regular games in the Spectrum days, but which seems to be missing
from the modern videogame industry."
--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/willy/
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