Who doesn't love a good underdog story? Chris Sharp is a noteworthy apprentice of the renowned François Lionet, as he mastered the art of coding with the almighty STOS Basic. Chris crafted a few games for our cherished ST, including fan favourites like Magic Tomb and the Freaked Out series. Intrigued? Dive into our interview to revisit the era when game development could still be a solo endeavour.
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Hamurabi, dated 1979. This text based strategy adventure was the first game Chris experienced on his TRS-80.
Magic Tomb. Chris calls it 'Pretty standard fodder nowadays', yet it is one of this interviewer's favourites ;-)
1) If you could give us a brief introduction about yourself to those of us that haven't heard of you before?
Sure! I first got an Atari ST around about 1989/1990, as a Christmas present. I loaded it up in awe, firstly DevPac to try to learn how to code the machine, but that was a bit beyond me. Next, I loaded STOS Basic, and quickly realised that this was the development software for me! I was instantly hooked because it was so powerful, yet so easy to use. I spent the next year or so writing regular articles for Power Diskmag, and occasional articles for Stosser Diskmag as well. After that I spent 2 or 3 years writing loads of different games for the ST, all using STOS Basic. I’ll say more about those in a bit.
2) Can you remember your first experience in relation to as I like to call them computer machines?
My very first programmable computer was a Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80, Model 3 I think it was. This would have been around 1979. It had a huge 4k of RAM! But, for the time, it was cutting edge. I loaded up a game called Hamurabi which was something to do with being the ruler of a land, and deciding how much food etc. to give to your "subjects". I don’t think I ever won (and I’m not even sure it was possible to actually win). But this game, and others like it, set me on the path to attempting to code my own software. I did very quickly manage to pick up rudimentary coding, even at the age of 4 or 5 years old, which is what I would have been in 1979. Looking back now I can’t really see how I managed it, but somehow, I did. I don’t think it would be possible to learn coding from scratch by teaching yourself these days, because it’s way too complicated now, but back then it was indeed possible.
3) I notice on your profile on many websites it mentions you being part of the company Supreme Software, could you tell us more about this?
I think that’s just what I called my range of software. To be honest there isn’t a lot really to be said about this. I came up with a rubbish name for my software, and I’m pretty sure my mother disapproved and suggested Supreme Software, which is what I then went with. That’s how I remember it, anyway!
4) One of the games I really loved was the Magic Tomb game, could you tell us what the objective of the game is to those of us that haven't played the game yet?
I’m not 100% sure! It was a long time ago, almost 30 years, that I wrote Magic Tomb amongst other games. But, from what I remember, it was all about guiding some soldier looking bloke around a maze, whilst avoiding the aliens. Pretty standard fodder nowadays, but back then it was reasonably new I suppose. I certainly enjoyed writing that game.
5) I thought Magic Tomb was a great game that you created, I remember rediscovering the game, which must have been over 15 years ago. Could you tell us what that involved, were you the main programmer of this game?
I was the only programmer of the game, and in fact I was the only programmer for all of my games. I preferred to work alone, from my little "office", which was actually a small room in my parents' house (don’t forget I was around 16 or so years old at the time). Each game used to take maybe 1 or 2 months from start to finish. I didn’t usually write the music or make the graphics for my games, I used to pinch those from other games, I only really did the coding. I think that’s how a lot of people were doing it back then.
6) Did you get the chance to play Magic Tomb and how far were you getting in the game? I notice sometimes the person who makes the game stays away from playing the game too much?
I never really bothered to play the games I wrote, my enjoyment was writing them for others to play. I would test each level to make sure that it was possible to complete, and then probably never play that level ever again!
7) There were a few other games you created as well, could you tell us more about those ones and what the objective of those games are?
Freaked Out, and Freaked Out 2, Shapes, Magic Tomb, a fruit machine game of some sort, these were all my creations. I bet there are plenty more, but again, it was 30 years ago, so I’ve probably largely forgotten a lot of it now. The Freaked Out games were a form of maze game, guiding an alien to the exit of ever more difficult levels. Shapes was some sort of Tetris variant.
8) I'm sure there was a game that inspired you to create the Freaked Out game, was it Square Off by any chance? Could you tell us a bit more about that?
Yes Freaked Out and 2 were both inspired by Square Off, which was included on an Atari magazine coverdisk. I wrote to Andrew Oakley (who wrote Square Off) and he bothered to write back and help me, which I thought was very nice of him. I think it was at that point that I realised there was a "community" of like minded individuals, and I thought "yeah, this is for me, I like this".
9) Could you tell us more about Freaked Out 2, was it simliar to the first one?
It was just more of the same, really. Although it was written from scratch, it didn’t use the game engine from the original Freaked Out.
10) Were you a big fan of the other Atari ST games and if so what would your favourite games be?
Not really. As previously mentioned I used to enjoy writing things for others to play, rather than playing games myself. If I had to choose a favourite, it might be Fantasy World Dizzy or something like that.
11) You might have mentioned this game earlier but when I completed Magic Tomb there was text that came up mentioning about another game called Shapes, could you tell us more about that one?
Haha yeah, it was a complete rip off of Tetris, which I wrote in about 2 days. It had nothing original about it, and I doubt anyone ever played it!
12) I'm getting into STOS Basic and learning about the language, did you find STOS Basic to be a good tool for making games?
STOS Basic was THE game creation software for me, it was absolutely incredible! There was SO much control that you had over the Atari by using STOS. It was easy to use, yet very powerful. Perhaps not so great by today's standards but, hey, it was 30 years ago! The fact that you could load extra modules into STOS to provide extra commands was groundbreaking. Francois Lionet (the creator of STOS) was way ahead of his time with it.
13) Would you say you are a gamer yourself and if you are what games have you been playing lately? Any modern games?
Nope, I don’t play games at all. Not interested at all. Weird huh!
14) Have you got family or friends who are into their retro games or Atari ST games?
Not that I can think of. My friends are too busy buggering about on their phones to bother with gaming!
15) When you are not busy do you like watching TV shows or films, what are your favourite TV shows and films?
Yeah got a fair few shows -: Gavin and Stacey, Inbetweeners, The Aapprentice, to mention a few. Not got too much time to watch telly any more, which is a shame, but that’s life, isn’t it.
16) I like asking this question as I'm a big board game fan, do you have a favourite board game that you play regularly and what would your favourite board games be?
I quite like Monopoly, but no one else that I know does, so I don’t really get the chance to play it too often. It’s good fun, but there’s not much skill in it to be honest.
17) I always liked the question ST Graveyard usually asks at the end of the interview, If you could have a drink with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and what would you ask?
Albert Einstein would be an incredible choice I think. His contributions to physics, particularly the theory of relativity, revolutionized our understanding of the universe. Beyond his scientific achievements, Einstein's thoughts on philosophy, humanity, and his experiences during turbulent times would offer deep and insightful conversation. Discussing his views on science, creativity, and life would be both inspiring and enlightening.
Thank you Chris for the great interview, lots of very interesting answers about the past and the games you created.
October 4, 2024 by grams88
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July 29, 2024 by grams88
Who doesn't love a good underdog story? Chris Sharp is a noteworthy apprentice of the renowned François Lionet, as he mastered the art of coding with the almighty STOS Basic. Chris crafted a few games for our cherished ST, including fan favourites like Magic Tomb and the Freaked Out series. Intrigued? Dive into our interview to revisit the era when game development could still be a solo endeavour.
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When Sega released its Master System, it came bundled with the game Alex Kid. To this day the game remains very popular, loved by many. One of those people is Terry Lloyd. More so, Alex Kid was the main inspiration for the Atari ST platform classic Axel's Magic Hammer. But that is just one of his many accomplishments. Terry has been around the block. Working as an artist and game designer at the beginning of the 80's for Gremlin Graphics, he then moved on to Core Design, which he helped get off the ground. During the 90's he contributed to founding the company Malibu Interactive. On the Atari ST, Terry's resumé include Dynamite Dux, Car-Vup, Rick Dangerous 1 & 2, Torvak the Warrior, WarZone and many more. Read all about this veteran of the games industry in this exciting interview.
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Aengus Jankowsky was the founder of the group Gravatics. Although he was never a coder or hacker, his menus were simply a way for him to save disk space by compressing commonly used programs. He was connected with other well-known groups such as The Medway Boys, Pompey Pirates, and Automation. Gravatics was the only menu disk series from Ireland to ever make its mark on our beloved Atari ST. Learn more about this fascinating chapter in Atari ST history in the interview that follows.
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