toki - no I've not found it

[arnoldemu]

http://imsai8080.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/toki-spectrum/

The Spectrum magazine claims that John Looker was the programmer on the Spectrum version and the CPC version was the base code.

Interesting.

I worked with Dave in a previous job. Would be interesting if we could find something of this game.

[Gryzor]

Very interesting... especially the "based on the CPC version" bit. Wish we could unearth something more!

[fano]

We need Spectrum source code ! 

[andycadley]

It's been long established that the YS preview was based on nothing but a handful of mocked up screenshots and development never got any further than that, so I doubt it'll provide any leads to a CPC version if it was any further along.

[arnoldemu]

It's been long established that the YS preview was based on nothing but a handful of mocked up screenshots and development never got any further than that, so I doubt it'll provide any leads to a CPC version if it was any further along.

yes, maybe nothing will come of it.. but I always hope

[MacDeath]

Perhaps they at last understood that it was the proper way to work Speccy-CPC cross development...

If the code is good for the heavier system, the port on the lighter system would simply be a graphic simplification and work well and fast.

Also the CPC version was supposed to be a PLUS version if I remember well.


Was Toki Announced only for Amstrad Cartridges or also for CPC ?

[TFM]

Announcement:

Toky III (the ultimate Tokyo Simulator) will be released by FutureSoft in 3011. It will be only available for the CPC Plus (128 KB!). The game itself will be delivered on cartridge with a 512 KB ROM and ACID protection. Only 99 carts will be produces (including a serial number).

Features:
- 64 KB screen memory
- hardware pixel split
- using transparent graphic modes
- choose one of 65536 different japanese motorcycle pirate apes (as player)
- you can play the female part
- and and and...
- only 999 GBP each

End of announcement

[redbox]

It amazes me the difference in arcade conversions to 8-bit (and even 16-bit) platforms and how they vary wildly.

They even vary across platform, especially from C64 to CPC.  I know they use different processors, but sometimes it looks like a totally different game from arcade to C64 to CPC etc. 
Toki on the C64 is a good example of this and looks nothing like the arcade OR proposed Spectrum (and hence probably CPC) version. 

I guess back in the day, sometimes people were just asked "write that for the C64" without any help from anywhere.  Today we have powerful PCs and access to the original code/sprites etc. so maybe it's a lot easier but I am still surprised at how it was done considering the amount of money that must have been involved at the time.

[andycadley]

Compared to the arcade version, I'd say the C64 port seemed like a reasonable conversion and pretty faithful given the limitations of the machine. I think back in the day the amount of access to different versions, including the arcade, could vary quite widely and so often it was a case of developers just having to do the best with what they had. And, of course, sometimes features just had to give because reproducing them on home machines just wasn't ever going to happen.

[redbox]

Perhaps they at last understood that it was the proper way to work Speccy-CPC cross development...

The Oliver Twins of Codemasters fame worked this out way before.  From olivertwins.com :

"When the Spectrum turned up with its rubbery keys and infuriating code input rules it was all too much. We wanted to be able to continue writing games on our Amstrad but produce them for the Spectrum as well so we called on a couple of friends - David Jones* & Ivan Link to create a cable to link the two machines. The specification of this electronic device was that we should be able to write a byte (single number 0-255) to the printer port on the Amstrad and it was to be received on the Spectrum parallel port. Once this cable was constructed, we wrote a piece of code on the Spectrum to control it. This was to be the only bit of code we ever wrote on the Spectrum itself and was called SPLINK - SPectrum and LINK. It received the numbers and interpreted them as either memory locations or bytes to write to the current memory location. This enabled us to write Spectrum games on our Amstrad, making the most of the benefits of holding the source code and graphics in the memory of the Amstrad, its very fast and reliable disk drive and a leading Assembler/Machine Code compiler called MAXAM. That way SPLINK gave us an enormous advantage over our competitors who were trying to write Spectrum games - using a Spectrum! (*not of DMA Design and not in the games industry)"

It also looks like they designed the very first parallel cable for the Amstrad, long before we had PCs!

[TFM]

The Oliver Twins of Codemasters fame worked this out way before.  From olivertwins.com :

"When the Spectrum turned up with its rubbery keys and infuriating code input rules it was all too much. We wanted to be able to continue writing games on our Amstrad but produce them for the Spectrum as well so we called on a couple of friends - David Jones* & Ivan Link to create a cable to link the two machines. The specification of this electronic device was that we should be able to write a byte (single number 0-255) to the printer port on the Amstrad and it was to be received on the Spectrum parallel port. Once this cable was constructed, we wrote a piece of code on the Spectrum to control it. This was to be the only bit of code we ever wrote on the Spectrum itself and was called SPLINK - SPectrum and LINK. It received the numbers and interpreted them as either memory locations or bytes to write to the current memory location. This enabled us to write Spectrum games on our Amstrad, making the most of the benefits of holding the source code and graphics in the memory of the Amstrad, its very fast and reliable disk drive and a leading Assembler/Machine Code compiler called MAXAM. That way SPLINK gave us an enormous advantage over our competitors who were trying to write Spectrum games - using a Spectrum! (*not of DMA Design and not in the games industry)"

It also looks like they designed the very first parallel cable for the Amstrad, long before we had PCs!

Ok, they may have done great Spectrum games using a CPC, but honestly, their CPC productions haven't been that great.

[fano]

That's not false !

[arnoldemu]

That's not false !

well I'm going to contact Dave Looker in a couple of days and ask him about the cpc/plus version.

[Xyphoe]

Ok, they may have done great Spectrum games using a CPC, but honestly, their CPC productions haven't been that great.

Dizzy games?
Ghostbusters 2?

They were pretty darn good in my book

[ukmarkh]

Who did Stryker in the Crypts of Trogan? That was Codies wasn't it? Great game!

Grand Prix Sim, Ghosthunters, BMX Sim, and all the Dizzy games were great back in the day. 

[Gryzor]

For what they sold for, they were splendid. Simple, honest fun.

[TFM]

@Xyphoe & UKMarkH: You mention some good games, but they're NO spectrum clones and not from the twins ;-)

I just want to say, if you want to do a good job on the CPC then do it for the CPC and don't mess around with speccy ports or source that is supposed to run on every machine.

[redbox]

Grand Prix Sim, Ghosthunters, BMX Sim, and all the Dizzy games were great back in the day.

Especially when you remember they were programmed in 1986/87 and were budget games.

[AMSDOS]

All the Information about Ghost Hunters is here!