Desert Island 5 1/4’s from issue 21


It isn't much fun being a programmer, spending a huge proportion of your life hunched up over a computer, slaving away over a hot assembler writing a game that ZZAP!'s probably going to slag anyway. It's terrible. So, to give them a bit of a break from the hard grind of coding we asked eleven of the country's finest coders what they would take with them to a Desert Island, if by some strange misfortune they were going to be stranded on one. Each programmer is allowed to take five games (Commodore 64, monitor and disk drive are provided), a utility, a book, a joystick and one luxury item.

Pic of programmer relaxing on a beach

STAVROS FASOULAS

Stavros is such a raucous womanizer it's surprising he has any time to program at all. This slick guy wrote the ever popular Sanxion and is currently spending his time finishing off Delta for Thalamus.

GAMES

Dropzone: 'It is such a fast good shoot em up.'
Paradroid: 'I used to like it — it's the most enjoyable game I've ever played and I don't get nervous with it.'
Bounder: 'It gets me so crazy.'
Revenge of the Mutant Camels: 'I could complete it and it was one of the first 64 games I saw. I like the music very much'
Forbidden Forest: 'A brilliant soundtrack, great graphics, not much of a game itself though.'

UTILITY

Micromon: 'It's all I can use.'

BOOK

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: 'It would be something to read.'

JOYSTICK

'I would like a Wico Red Ball. I couldn't play Dropzone with it.'

LUXURY ITEM

'Eight really big eight channel Dolby speakers blasting wewy loud Heawy Metal music all over the island.'

STANLEY SCHEMBRI

His name is Stan. He is the man, who was delighted, to write Cauldron II and Antiriad. (Well, it nearly rhymes). Stan is Palace Software's sick person.

GAMES

Elite: 'It's just so wonderful.'
Paradroid: 'It's fun, I suppose.'
International Karate: 'It pisses all over Fist.'
Super Cycle: 'I ride a bike and it's the best home computer simulation of the real thing.'
Leather Goddesses of Phobos: 'Infocom appeal to my lewd sense of humour.'

UTILITY

Epyx Fastload: 'I use an Epyx Fastload all the time.'

BOOK

'A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens: I love Charles Dickens. I was born near him, you know.'

JOYSTICK

Tac II: 'It's all I've got!'

LUXURY ITEM

Compact Disc Player and lots of Compact Discs: 'It satisfies my desire for quality.'

MARTIN GALWAY

Martin Galway, slides better than an old dear on ice in winter. Wrote lots of great music and is no doubt going to write a lot more.

GAMES

Thing on a Spring: 'It was the first time I heard music better — no — as good as mine. First time I heard that I thought 'there's someone out there who's bet ... as good as me.' I thought I was the best, you see.'
Parallax: 'It's a decent game and I like the animation on the man. Well, it's crap but... (mumble mumble).'
Terra Cresta: It's got the most objects on screen I've ever seen ever (ever ever ever).'
Kong Strikes Back: 'It's such a simple game for a simple me.'
Mikie: 'There's a really nice title sequence and that was the most memory I've ever had for a piece of music.'

UTILITY

The Ocean Development System: 'It's 18 times better than the best of the rest.'

BOOK

The Dungeon Masters Guide: 'I want to know how to play God properly.'

JOYSTICK

Quickshot III: 'It clicks louder than any joystick I've ever heard ever.'

LUXURY ITEM

'MY portable compact disc NOT midi hi-fi system. It's better than Steve Wahid's.'

ORLANDO

A BBC man by birth but a 64 coder by conversion. Orlando is currently writing Firetrack for Electric Dreams.

GAMES

NEXUS: 'Five copies of the TAPE version so I could build a raft out of the boxes.'

UTILITY

'A dishwasher.'

BOOK

London Telephone Directory (Volumes 1-4) 'I could use the pages to make a sail or blow my nose on.'

JOYSTICK

A Euromax Joyball: 'With BOMB written on it in crayon. I'd scare the natives with it.'

LUXURY ITEM

'The QE2.'

TONY CROWTHER

Tony originally become famous with Son of Suicide Loco Express Potty Mole Two. He then wrote Trap and Kettle. Moebius Strip is his next project.

GAMES

Boulderdash: 'Cos I like it.'
Mercenary: 'Cos I like it.'
Encounter: 'Cos I like it.'
Moebius Strip:' I like it cos it's my next game.'
Crystal Castles (The Hackers Version): 'Cos I like... it's addictive.'

UTILITY

'A cross assembler for an Amiga, 'cos it would be brill.'

BOOK

The Commodore PRG: 'It's a bible.'

JOYSTICK

A Toshiba: Ullo John. I've got a Toshiba: they wobble well.'

LUXURY ITEM

An Amiga: 'If I've got the cross assembler I'll need an Amiga.'

JEFF MINTER

So Jeffrey does some colourspace occasionally. He can handle it. Doesn't mean he's hooked. He's in control — isn't he?

GAMES

Iridis Alpha: 'It's a good blast and I like a good blast.'
Thrust: 'I like a good thrust.'
Mama Llama: 'One of the most difficult games I've ever done, one game I'd never finish, so I'd enjoy that.'
Guardian: 'I do like Defender.'
Commodore Colourspace: 'I'm into all things Psychedlic.'

UTILITY

Laser Genius: 'It's the best assembler that money can buy.'

BOOK

The Fractal Nature of Geometry by Benok B Mandelbrot: 'I could experiment with fractals.'

JOYSTICK

Euromax Competition Pro: 'I want something to last.'

LUXURY ITEM

'A Llama, definitely a Llama. Darling The Female Llama, so I could just say 'come 'ere darling' and I'd get a lot of pleasure out of it.'

ARCHER MACLEAN

Though he's only ever written two games — Dropzone and International Karate — he's got an ego of a man whose written at least a hundred times that amount.

GAMES

Paradroid: 'I just really like it. It's a straightforward game which puts you in a surreal situation with a real feeling of being there.'
Mercenary: 'A damn good game.'
Boulderdash: 'Great fun solving the problems.'
Any Infocom Adventure: 'They talk back to you.'
International Karate: 'Why not?'

UTILITY

'I don't use a utility on 64, everything I do is on the Atari. I do use a disk editor a hell of a lot though.'

BOOK

'A Tom and Jerry Annual. I mean, what's life without Tom and Jerry? That, or Principles of Interactive Computer Graphics (Second Edition) by Robert Sproull and William Newman. It's a graphics bible.'

JOYSTICK

Atari joystick: 'It's got a tactile feedback.'

LUXURY ITEM

'Hmm ... A toss up with Linda Luscardi, a telephone, a pair of sunglasses or a drinks machine...'

ANDREW BRAYBROOK

Author of Gribbly's Day Out, Paradroid and Uridium and owner of a Fiat X-19 — 'No it's not crap, I had it totally stripped and resprayed.'

GAMES

Dropzone: 'I can't play it.'
Gyruss: 'I can play it.'
Sheep in Space: 'I love the way all the little meanies beetle backwards and forwards with their own little task.'
Pastfinder: 'There's a lot of depth to it, considering ... well, everything really. Very professionally done.'
Impossible Mission: 'Because it isn't — but it is challenging and I can just about do it. If my disk version didn't have bugs in it, it would be brilliant.'

UTILITY

'The Commodore Macro Assembler.'

BOOK

Roger Dean's Views: 'He's an awfully good artist.'

JOYSTICK

'I've got two Euromax Arcades and haven't broken one yet, so that's what I'd take.'

LUXURY ITEM

'Clare Hirsch. Definitely.'

CHRIS BUTLER

Chris is currently converting Space Harrier (snigger snort) for Elite and is a real swinger on the Sheffield Night Clubbing scene.

GAMES

Z: 'It's a combination of all my favourite arcade games rolled into one.'
Guardian: 'It's almost identical to the original.'
Elite: 'The graphics are good and there's so much depth to the game.'
Mercenary: 'For much the same reasons as Elite.'
Space Harrier: 'I don't want to get in trouble with my bosses.'

UTILITY

'A graphics utility as written by me. Or a fastload. fastloads are always handy.'

BOOK

CBM64 ROM Disassembly: 'It's my favourite book. I can read it from cover to cover. That or my health food book — The Food Scandal.'

JOYSTICK

'One I saw in a catalogue recently, I can't remember its name but it had a huge great big red ball on it, patterns down the side and four great suckers. I'd want something that feels good in my hand.'

LUXURY ITEM

'A bar of Imperial Leather soap.'

JOHN TWIDDY

Though his second name is a wee bit silly I wouldn't take the pee out of it if I was you. John is built like a brick lavatory. John converted Tau Ceti for CRL and currently converting Ikari Warriors for Elite.

GAMES

Boulderdash: 'I don't know why. I played it a hell of a lot — it's a particularly simple game but it's bloody addictive.'
Encounter: 'Technically very fast and I admire it for that.'
Frak!: 'I don't know why I liked it — I just did. I found it enjoyable to play. I kept playing because I was told that later levels go upside down, but they never did. I could find out if it really does,'
Fort Apocalypse: 'I played it continually for three or four days, hardly going to bed.'
Jumpman: 'The first game I got for my 64. An old tape version, very slow load, but I thought it was great at the time. I saw it on the shelf next to a 64 so I bought them both.'

UTILITY

Laser Genius: 'The best thing since sliced bread.'

BOOK

The Commodore PRG: 'I can't remember locations and I don't like reading a book twice.'

JOYSTICK

Quickshot I: 'Simply because it's the best joystick I've ever had. I had it for two years, then it died and I never managed to replace it with anything decent.'

LUXURY ITEM

'My car with an unlimited supply of fuel. So I can run over anyone or anything that annoys me, like Stavros' speakers.'

ROB HUBBARD

The industry equivalent of Klaus Wundertich. Rob's first big break came when he was asked to write the music tor Razzmatazz- Fortunately it was never released, so he went on to write other great things instead, including the brilliant Knucklebusters music.

GAMES

Sanxion: 'I did the loading music.'
Delta: 'I'm doing the loading music.'
Parallax: 'It's got a brilliant bit of Martin Galway music on it... oh yeah, it's a good game as well.'
Thing on a Spring: 'It's one of the few games I spent quite a time playing. Nothing to do with the music, I'd probably turn that off.'
The Fabulous Wanda: 'It's like, a really old game with no end to it. It's written in basic so you can rewrite it every time you play. It has to be about the best game ever on the 64. Better than Razzmatazz.'

UTILITY

Tony Trowther's Music Editor:' It's the only chance I'd ever get to have a look at it.'

BOOK

'If I was on a Desert Island I'd take the biggest bas ... book I could find except the yellow pages and the dictionaries. It'd be useful for hitting Bazza with if ever he turned up.'

JOYSTICK

'The best one I could find, not the one I've got because it's crap. I'd take Gary Liddon's joystick, cos he probably doesn't need it anymore.'

LUXURY ITEM

'An £80000 house fully fitted with a recording studio and a large selection of synthesisers and samplers. It must a have a small room with a ZX81 and wall to wall women who have no objection to ora...'


This feature was typed in/OCRed by Iain


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