A Brief History Of Jops



	A BRIEF HISTORY OF JOPS - PART THREE
Ok - its the late 80`s. I'm now at High School and I'm still in possession of my beloved Commodore C64.Out there in the big wide world other phenomena was happening. On television, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were kicking the baddies butts while poorly educating children that pizza was an okay staple diet. Harry Enfield & Chums were keeping us laughing, while in the cinema, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Buster, & Rain Man were all pulling in the money. Tiffany and Bros were being heard over the airwaves (oh dear), while people where walking around in ripped Jeans and Doc Martens. Oh and Fluffy Dice started materialising in peoples cars. Ahh.......fond memories. Unbeknownst to me, my dad had been talking to a good friend (Hi Phil) about a new computer that he had acquired. This was Atari`s new ST machine. It wasn't long before my Dad had made a purchase, and we`d excitedly unpacked it in expectation of its 16 bit wonder. And it was good.

One of the first gaming experiences I remember of the ST was borrowing Backlash (basically a reworking of Encounter by Paul Woakes - Creator of Mercenary), Star Wars (a near perfect port of the arcade machine), Shufflepuck Cafe (a brilliant air hockey game that was, I believe, originated on the Apple Macintosh) and Prohibition (moving a cross hair around the screen shooting Al Capone's gangsters). There was also a pretty good art package which I enjoyed using on the Atari called Degas Elite.If the websites are to be believed, it was and still is the most popular Art Software for the machine. Of course the Atari computers were well known for their music creation facilities. With an array of decent software and MIDI support (a type of connection which allowed you to wire an instrument with the same connection directly into the computer for editing). The music side of things never really interested me that much though. I recall being really annoyed that the machine we had only had a single sided disk drive in it. This meant that friends who had purchased machines with double sided drives were able to play the games on the other side. Unfortunately it wasn't just a case of flipping the disk over like the good old days of the C64. The Atari 520 STFM
Now it was around this time that Commodore had introduced another 16 bit Computer. The Amiga. I had first seen one in Viking Computers, while hunting for games, demo`ing Rocket Ranger. That was what prompted me to buy that game for the C64 when it came out. The sound and graphics had really grabbed me and i longed to own one of these amazing pieces of equipment. A year or two later after the Atari - my dad decided to take the plunge by getting rid of it and going the way of the Commodore again. And what a fantastic move it was. If there is anyone out there reading this who ever had an Amiga or had a friend who had one, then you will appreciate how cool i found this new machine. All of a sudden, I was able to play games that I'd been reading about in the games magazines, for the first time. The Commodore Amiga A500 with Philips colour monitor & external floppy drive. Image © Bill Bertram 2006.
I can remember fondly loading up Shadow Of The Beast and being wowed by the intro screen and music, then the game started and there were all these colourful images scrolling in parallax (a method of creating perspective in games by layering the scenery and scrolling it across the screen at different speeds). The main character was this hunched creature that ran about beating up gigantic baddies. Alien Breed, Full Contact, Superfrog and Zool were amazing titles from a company called Team 17. Like the C64, there are so many great titles - i feel that i need to explore them further in another article. For now lets just say there were hundreds.
Amiga Games - Shadow Of The Beast and Super Frog
Another set of games which really caught my imagination were the ones from Cinemaware. Now this definitely commands an article of its own. I cant even begin to speculate now many man hours I`ve put into completing these groundbreaking games. The intention of the company, which in the UK was distributed by Mirrorsoft, was to try and create interactive films and to a greater or lesser extent, they succeeded. The first to come out was Defender Of The Crown. Originally made for the Amiga but ported to several other machines, it ended up selling over one million copies worldwide. The box read - A time of lusty wenches and black hearted villains. King Richard has been murdered and England is thrown into civil war! Amidst the raging battles across the land, Saxon knights have chosen you to lead them into battle against the hated Normans. To save England your skills as swordsman and military leader will be severely tested. But should you succeed you'll win the Crown of England and the love of many a beautiful damsel! WOW!! – I had this first of all on the C64 (on cassette of all things – but was virtually unplayable due to the loading times). The Amiga versions fantastic fanfare of sumptuous graphics had me hooked. A while back I owned a Nintendo Gameboy Advance with a copy of Defender of the Crown – so I could play the game anywhere. Genius!!!
Two images from the Amiga game, Defender Of The Crown
The next one that I got to play was the king of Chicago. Set in Chicago in the 1930's during the Prohibition era. You have to use violence, intimidation, bribery, treachery, and clout to battle the legendary Al Capone for control of the 'Windy City'. Cinemaware were to release a load more games, including 'Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon', 'Rocket Ranger', 'The Three Stooges', 'Lords of the Rising Sun', and the classic 'It came from the Desert'. I still play on these today thanks to the wonders of emulation. Yes, the purists out there are probably thinking “Why hasn’t he got an Amiga?”, but unlike Retro Kid, I just do not have the space to store such treasures. But who knows in the future!!!
King Of Chicago and Project-X, both Amiga
We migrated through several generations of Amiga, being the 500, 600, 1200, and a brilliant purchase at the time, the 4000 (which was basically a 1200 in a desktop case with a hard drive and monitor). This I found useful for my graphics and all of a sudden I was able to produce some of the amazing graphics that I'd seen in demos like the Juggler and the Eric Schwartz cartoons. My enthusiasm for all things arty was fuelled in the 90`s by the fact that the graphical power of the machine was being employed by the film and television industry - SeaQuest DSV and Babylon 5 are just two examples of shows produced using Amiga`s and Newteks Video Toaster graphics card and Lightwave software.
SeaQuest DSV and Babylon 5, Amiga graphics meets science fiction.
It was about now in my pot- holed memories of the past that I`d left school and was starting to experience the PC while training on the YTS. Primitive games where available to play in limited colours, with sound that made the spectrum sound fantastic and no joystick control. Of course at the time, I still had a decent gaming computer at home but found games like Test Drive and Castle Master to be an amusing divertion from all the hard learning I was doing on my lunch breaks. Its probably worth also reminising over the arcade machines that were in the canteens. Many a ten pence was pumped into the likes of Galaxians and Moon Cresta.
The wonders of CGA Graphics on an early PC
But something wonderful was about to happen - and it would change my view of a machine that was considered to be only a business machine and not a proper games machine. And I was also about to gain employment in an establishment that would forever make a mark on my life. Until next time.............
Article by Jops, January 2007.

norwich retro gamer logo image

kronos rift link image

A BRIEF HISTORY OF JOPS - PART THREE

Ok - its the late 80`s. I'm now at High School and I'm still in possession of my beloved Commodore C64.Out there in the big wide world other phenomena was happening. On television, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were kicking the baddies butts while poorly educating children that pizza was an okay staple diet. Harry Enfield & Chums were keeping us laughing, while in the cinema, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Buster, & Rain Man were all pulling in the money. Tiffany and Bros were being heard over the airwaves (oh dear), while people where walking around in ripped Jeans and Doc Martens. Oh and Fluffy Dice started materialising in peoples cars. Ahh.......fond memories.

Unbeknownst to me, my dad had been talking to a good friend (Hi Phil) about a new computer that he had acquired. This was Atari`s new ST machine. It wasn't long before my Dad had made a purchase, and we`d excitedly unpacked it in expectation of its 16 bit wonder. And it was good.

One of the first gaming experiences I remember of the ST was borrowing Backlash (basically a reworking of Encounter by Paul Woakes - Creator of Mercenary), Star Wars (a near perfect port of the arcade machine), Shufflepuck Cafe (a brilliant air hockey game that was, I believe, originated on the Apple Macintosh) and Prohibition (moving a cross hair around the screen shooting Al Capone's gangsters).

There was also a pretty good art package which I enjoyed using on the Atari called Degas Elite.If the websites are to be believed, it was and still is the most popular Art Software for the machine. Of course the Atari computers were well known for their music creation facilities. With an array of decent software and MIDI support (a type of connection which allowed you to wire an instrument with the same connection directly into the computer for editing). The music side of things never really interested me that much though.

I recall being really annoyed that the machine we had only had a single sided disk drive in it. This meant that friends who had purchased machines with double sided drives were able to play the games on the other side. Unfortunately it wasn't just a case of flipping the disk over like the good old days of the C64.

The Atari 520 STFM

Now it was around this time that Commodore had introduced another 16 bit Computer. The Amiga. I had first seen one in Viking Computers, while hunting for games, demo`ing Rocket Ranger. That was what prompted me to buy that game for the C64 when it came out. The sound and graphics had really grabbed me and i longed to own one of these amazing pieces of equipment.

A year or two later after the Atari - my dad decided to take the plunge by getting rid of it and going the way of the Commodore again. And what a fantastic move it was. If there is anyone out there reading this who ever had an Amiga or had a friend who had one, then you will appreciate how cool i found this new machine. All of a sudden, I was able to play games that I'd been reading about in the games magazines, for the first time.

The Commodore Amiga A500 with Philips colour monitor & external floppy drive.
Image © Bill Bertram 2006.

I can remember fondly loading up Shadow Of The Beast and being wowed by the intro screen and music, then the game started and there were all these colourful images scrolling in parallax (a method of creating perspective in games by layering the scenery and scrolling it across the screen at different speeds). The main character was this hunched creature that ran about beating up gigantic baddies. Alien Breed, Full Contact, Superfrog and Zool were amazing titles from a company called Team 17. Like the C64, there are so many great titles - i feel that i need to explore them further in another article. For now lets just say there were hundreds.

Amiga Games - Shadow Of The Beast and Super Frog

Another set of games which really caught my imagination were the ones from Cinemaware. Now this definitely commands an article of its own. I cant even begin to speculate now many man hours I`ve put into completing these groundbreaking games. The intention of the company, which in the UK was distributed by Mirrorsoft, was to try and create interactive films and to a greater or lesser extent, they succeeded.

The first to come out was Defender Of The Crown. Originally made for the Amiga but ported to several other machines, it ended up selling over one million copies worldwide. The box read - A time of lusty wenches and black hearted villains. King Richard has been murdered and England is thrown into civil war! Amidst the raging battles across the land, Saxon knights have chosen you to lead them into battle against the hated Normans. To save England your skills as swordsman and military leader will be severely tested. But should you succeed you'll win the Crown of England and the love of many a beautiful damsel! WOW!! – I had this first of all on the C64 (on cassette of all things – but was virtually unplayable due to the loading times). The Amiga versions fantastic fanfare of sumptuous graphics had me hooked. A while back I owned a Nintendo Gameboy Advance with a copy of Defender of the Crown – so I could play the game anywhere. Genius!!!

Amiga Defender Of The Crown Trumpeters Image Amiga Defender Of The Crown Castle Siege Image
Two images from the Amiga game, Defender Of The Crown

The next one that I got to play was the king of Chicago. Set in Chicago in the 1930's during the Prohibition era. You have to use violence, intimidation, bribery, treachery, and clout to battle the legendary Al Capone for control of the 'Windy City'.

Cinemaware were to release a load more games, including 'Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon', 'Rocket Ranger', 'The Three Stooges', 'Lords of the Rising Sun', and the classic 'It came from the Desert'. I still play on these today thanks to the wonders of emulation. Yes, the purists out there are probably thinking “Why hasn’t he got an Amiga?”, but unlike Retro Kid, I just do not have the space to store such treasures. But who knows in the future!!!

King Of Chicago and Project-X, both Amiga

We migrated through several generations of Amiga, being the 500, 600, 1200, and a brilliant purchase at the time, the 4000 (which was basically a 1200 in a desktop case with a hard drive and monitor). This I found useful for my graphics and all of a sudden I was able to produce some of the amazing graphics that I'd seen in demos like the Juggler and the Eric Schwartz cartoons. My enthusiasm for all things arty was fuelled in the 90`s by the fact that the graphical power of the machine was being employed by the film and television industry - SeaQuest DSV and Babylon 5 are just two examples of shows produced using Amiga`s and Newteks Video Toaster graphics card and Lightwave software.

SeaQuest DSV and Babylon 5, Amiga graphics meets science fiction.

It was about now in my pot- holed memories of the past that I`d left school and was starting to experience the PC while training on the YTS. Primitive games where available to play in limited colours, with sound that made the spectrum sound fantastic and no joystick control. Of course at the time, I still had a decent gaming computer at home but found games like Test Drive and Castle Master to be an amusing divertion from all the hard learning I was doing on my lunch breaks. Its probably worth also reminising over the arcade machines that were in the canteens. Many a ten pence was pumped into the likes of Galaxians and Moon Cresta.

The wonders of CGA Graphics on an early PC

But something wonderful was about to happen - and it would change my view of a machine that was considered to be only a business machine and not a proper games machine. And I was also about to gain employment in an establishment that would forever make a mark on my life. Until next time.............

Article by Jops, January 2007.