| Posted By
Doug
on 2001-12-19
|  Nice to see the old stuff still being appreciated
Hi everyone!
Just found this site. Great - what a blast from the past! I am particularly pleased to see that Icicle Works is still being played. Anyone still got Prospector Pete, or Fingers Malone (my other two contributions to the world of Plus/4 gaming)?
Who do I see about getting the royalty cheques posted on to me??? 8o)
Game on guys!
Doug.
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Posted By
Doug
on 2001-12-24
| Well it is Christmas 8o)
Sure - do what ever you want! I've already managed to get my hands on a Finger's original. No luck in tracking down any others though 8-(
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Posted By
Akira
on 2001-12-22
| Hey I've got fingers Malone (original)... [txt]
Can I make a WAV out of it so it could be played in an emu, and possibly be copied to another tape? I'd be glad to give it to you 
- Akira
Shmups Mk2 - 2D Shooter Heaven
.:[ http://www.shmups.com ]:.
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Posted By
Doug
on 2001-12-20
| You are welcome
James & Lando,
I never realised my games had so much of a following! Well, actually I kind of suspected, which is why I sought out this site. A few days ago I was chatting with a guy here at work (I now design and write operating systems to go in set-top-boxes and other embedded toys - great fun!!) and the conversation got on to the old 8 bit machines. His chin hit the floor when I said that I wrote Icicle Works; a reaction I was not expecting! So I thought I'd have a dig on the 'net and see what was happening with them.
I wrote Icicle Works (and a ton of other stuff) during a year off from university. The 8 bit games market was screaming, and there was so much fun to be had, I could not waste my time in a stuffy lecture theatre. Icicle Works was a commision from Commodore, and I did it for Plus/4 and C64 (not sure if this version ever saw the light of day). My initial version was (in my opinion) superior to the version that shipped. It used the full screen, and did 2D smooth scrolling - NICE. Trouble was you could not see the toys being built up as you progressed. I was persuaded to move to the version we see today, but I still recon the first one was the best.
I think I still have the source for these games somewhere (hardcopy). Bet they are mouldy by now!
Fingers Malone and Prospector Pete were banged out in a few weeks each when I returned to university (Southampton Uni actually, Lando). They provided much needed beer money! Glad you liked Fingers - it was fun designing the levels. I can't play it at all now!!! Prospector Pete was an interesting technical challenge - the flood algorithm took some thinking about, as did the sprites. Sorry to see such a poorly hacked version on the 'net. But I did deliberately make that one hard to copy, so I'm not surprised to see some of the graphics corrupted.
Much of the other stuff I did back then was not so glamorous as gaming. I did a lot of consultancy work, and wrote a bunch of turbo loaders - Burner for the C64, followed later on by Vecta load, also for the C64, which had a tape and disk version. The disk version was used on C64 Elite. Remember those crazy buz bars it used to generate while loading? The annoying thing is that I would do it all much differently (and far faster) now!
Keep up the good work & Merry Christmas!
Doug.
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Posted By
MIK
on 2001-12-19
 | Xmas with-out Icicle Works
Wow Doug! You the man. Icicle Works is and is still one of the greatest games on the Plus/4. You did us proude, I mena what would we of done with-out it???
Fingers Malone was 1 game I spent many hours on. It was so hard, but quality it was I could not put it down, and hell I wanted to know what whole message was
you added on each screen. Games like this made the C16/Plus4 what it was. I even remember the fancy loading Screen that poped up while the game was still loading. Impressive If you was to look back and think this gem sold for 1.99 you would cry. Ranked one of the best again.
Prosector Pete was fun at the time, I had to many C16/Plus4 games so I did'nt play it much. But saying that and with many titles they play even better today than they did 15 years ago. I don't know what it is, but something magical about them for sure
I'm the one to blame for your games on the site so I'm gona do a runner 
I don't and never got payed, but the site is here as a mark of respects to your good self and everyone else who gave so much enjoyment to all C16/Plus4 owners with their software.
I'd like to say a big thanks for your games, I dought your ever forget about them, but nor will we
Cheers Doug and happy Xmas.
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