Crowther on Minter In recent months Jeff Minter has had interviews in about five different magazines, and in some of them he’s been saying things about Tony Crowther, implying that all your games are very similar, all with scroll routines, and that you’re not too good. Does it hurt you when you read that? I don’t know, I do in a way, but I find it’s a compliment’ because I’m being mentioned, because he knows I’m there - and so do a lot of other people. I know I’m not bad because people are buying these programs I’m writing. Whatever I write they go into the charts. They may not get that high in some cases, but they still go in the charts. I don’t see why I should be criticised just because all my games are scrolling. I’d say there are two types of screen you can have - a flick screen or a scrolling screen. I find a scrolling screen more advanced, and it’s also harder to write on, than a flick screen. Do you like Minter’s games? I won’t answer that! (laughs) - I do like one of his, Hovver Bovver, that’s the only one I do like though. Only because I’m too thick to understand them - that’s my problem. Do you see you and Minter as big rivals? I don’t know. What I’d like to do is to get together with him and write a game, splitting the profits 50-50. That sounds interesting - have you put the idea to him? No, I haven’t talked to him about it, because he won’t talk to me. We don’t even get to that stage! I don’t really mind what he says about me, because I really like the guy.

You mentioned earlier that you were quite a competitive guy. Would you really like to be clearly recognised as the number 1 UK games programmer?

I’m not sure if I am aIready! (laughs)

But would you like to be clearly recognised as that?

Um. . . I don’t know, I don’t think you can class anyone like that - because not everyone’s going to like my games, just like not everyone likes Minter’s games. But I think everyone knows I’m here. Like I rang up Currah a while back and said: hello, it’s Tony Crowther, and they said: not THE Tony Crowther - you get all of this. Everyone knows who I am, it’s really good.

That gives you a buzz?

Yeah, it does.

Where do you get the ideas for the amazing graphics that you have in games like Suicide Express, or should I call it Black Thunder?

What happened was I started doing Suicide and I disappeared off to Spain. And when you’re on the beach, sunbathing away, you get really bored. I got a little pad and started drawing things like giant mushrooms, mazes, even things like the words in stone. So when I got home I just put it straight in.

What do you think of the games market as a whole at the moment, do you think it’s in decline?

In what sense?

Well, people talk about the home micro boom being over.

The boom is over, yes. I’m still worried if people are going to go on buying software. Eight quid a shot is so expensive - I’d love to release programs at four quid, but it’s not advisable for us because we don’t get much money that way. I know they’re even more expensive than records, that’s what worries me about the price of software - you sometimes find you get more enjoyment from a record than you do from a program. It makes the programmer think then because he’s got to put so much in it that he keeps them happy for at least two or three hours.

In all, you mean? - for the game’s entire lifetime?

For someone who buys the thing he’s got to be happy for at least three hours.

A lot longer than that, surely.

No, I buy a record, listen to it once and never hear it again. Right? So I’m only happy with it for about an hour. With software you’re paying twice as much, so I’m saying that if you play a game for three hours you’ve got your money’s worth.

Do you think quite a lot of software on the market won’t even hold people’s interest for that long?

I don’t think they will, some of them. I can only play games for about 10 minutes in some cases. In some cases I play up to three hours.

Long term, what are your plans? Do you want to keep writing games?

I want to keep writing games as long as the market’s there. As far as I know I can keep writing games till it comes out of my ears because I enjoy doing it. With writing them so fast it’s really nice because I can spend three weeks on a program and then a full month just thinking about it. You just sit there with a book - when you’re bored you can scribble, watch telly. That’s the beauty of it - ‘cos obviously the software house can’t release more than so many, they wouldn’t be able to cope with it.

Do you have anything else lined up after your next program?

No, but then I’ve got a month to think about it - that’s the beauty of it.

'I don't like playing games'

Tony Crowther always insists that he doesn’t ‘like’ playing games - on the other hand, he’ll admit that those below did ‘keep me happy’ for a while. His verdicts:
GHOSTBUSTERS: ‘Completed it the second or third time I played it.’
CLIFF HANGER: ’Kept me happy for a reasonable amount of time. Really funny.’
BOOGA BOO ‘Played it for a long time.’
DINKY DOO ‘I developed a cheat version which was a lot more fun.’
THE GUARDIAN ‘I cheated on that too, and got right up to level 99. There’s a bug up there somewhere. The aliens start running away from you!’
STAFF OF KARNATH ‘I like the 3D background, but not the sprites.’
POLE POSITION ‘Kept me happy.’
IMPOSSIBLE MISSION ‘Played it for half an hour, didn’t finish it.’
BOULDER DASH ‘It’s good, I played it a lot until my copy went wrong. It’s written completely without sprites.’

: Yorkshire bitter. Plenty.

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