2019-04-01_Retro_Gamer

MY FIRST MONTH AT OCEAN SOFTWARE

» Let ter from the Spectrum Mag Max

coder, Gary Knight, with

details of sprite size and frames available for animation.

» When pre-production tapes of Mag

Max turned up at Ocean to be tested, I

grabbed myself one.

» Let ter from the Spectrum Mag Max

xcoder, G y

details of sprite size and frames available for animation.

and replace them with the new title,

‘Road Race.’ This game was a long-

overdue conversion which, evidently,

had been deemed too poor quality and

too late to release as a standalone by

Ocean bosses. Looking dated by 1987’s

standards, I didn’t think it was much

fun to play, either.

Upon seeing it running, I noted a

distinct lack of speed, which obviously

wasn’t very good if you were supposed

to be racing at many miles per hour.

Ocean had obviously sorted out

another way of raking back some of

the money spent on its development

by selling it to Your Sinclair which was

planning on putting Road Race on a

tape to be affixed to the front of one

of its future issues. I carried out the

changes and added ‘An Easter Gift

From Ocean’ above the title. I also

wrote ‘Lettering By Mark R Jones’ in

some spare space on the bottom-left-

hand corner then covered it in white

paper and white ink so it was only

visible when the colour attributes had

been removed. That way, once it had

been released, I could prove I’d had a

hand in it to my friends.

Once that was out of the way, Gary

then asked me to produce a loading

screen for Mag Max on the Spectrum.

This title was a conversion of an arcade

game by Nichibutsu and was to be

released on its Imagine label. I hadn’t

seen Mag Max, either as an arcade

game or on a Spectrum, so I had no

idea what it was actually like. The

only thing I was certain of was that

this had to impress everyone; it, most

definitely, had to be the best

piece of work I’d ever done.

Firstly I sourced a copy of

the Bob Wakelin artwork

for the game. Once that

was procured, I loaded

up Melbourne Draw and

made a start. Time

Ocean’s headquarters in 6 Central

Street, Manchester, circa mid 1987.SStStSttrtrerreeeeeeetett, t,, ,MMMaanncchhheesesessttttteeererr,,ccirccammidd

19

Ocean s headquartersOcean s he q

“The place permeated with the

aroma of coffee, smoke and the odd

hygienically challenged staff member”

ction tapes of Mag

turned up at Ocean to be tested, I

grabbed myself one.

This title was a conversionofanar

game by Nichibutsuad

releasedo

EAN SOFTWARE

» When pre-production tapes

Maxxturned up

ke and the odd

ed staff member””

RETRO GAMER | 45