What a wonderful site and hello out there :)

[Hoggy]

Hi All,
Just came across your site via dcemu->retroactionmagazine->cpczone, while researching some of the old games on my companies site.

http://www.codemonkeys.com

A little introduction about myself:

Worked on the following Amstrad titles:
Radzone - With Dave Rogers (still a good friend)
Bio Spheres - With Dave Rogers
The Scout Steps Out - With Dave Rogers
Dragons Lair - With Mike Davies at Software Projects
Dragons Lair 2 - With Mike Davies at Software Projects (not credited because I quit Software Projects just before we completed the game, thanks Mike! maybe one day I'll post the tale of what happened!)

Previous to the Amstrad stuff Dave Rogers and I worked on.
Compac - ZX81
Hi Rise Hive - ZX81
Bug Burst - ZX81
Pinbat - ZX81
Flee - Dragon 32

And finally what I've been upto post Amstrad:
Err... the lists too long (and not relevant to CPC gaming) so I'll leave a link instead http://www.codemonkeys.com/history.htm

Anyway I enjoyed looking thru the CPC Zone and this forum/wiki site, wonderful memories.

Colin Hogg.

B.T.W
I clicked the paypal donation link on cpc zone and nothing happened.

[Morri]

hello and welcome, wow your resume seems impressive. What was your job on the Amstrad projects? And please any stories you have especially around the Amstrad... do tell. 

[mr_lou]

Hi Hoggy and welcome to the forum.


I just have to tell you, Radzone has been one of my favorite games for the CPC since I first saw it those many many years ago. I have (when I got old/skilled enough to not be game over within 3 minutes) tried many times to complete all screens (lately with cheat though), but so far I've always missed out a single screen or two. :-)

I think that game has so much atmosphere and nice cozy graphics, and have often been looking for similar games. It was quite easy to recognize the graphics in The Scouts Steps Out, but although that game is indeed similar to Radzone, it's just too difficult. :-/
Music in both those games are very catchy.

Neat to see you're also doing J2ME stuff. I'm a hobbyist J2ME game developer myself, and quite intriuged by it (and game-development overall, but mostly indie/amateur/retro/simple stuff. Not huge 3d shooters).

When you decide to do a J2ME (or other) version of Radzone, remember to release 2 versions; one with CPC graphics and one with today-standard graphics.

Cheers!

[Cholo]

B.T.W
I clicked the paypal donation link on cpc zone and nothing happened.

Well Cpczone had a nasty attack by spam/scripts (i think) and was completely down but is on its way back. Right now only the gamebase is up, but the donation button and the rest will hopefull be back soon 

[Gryzor]

Hello mate,

Really glad to see you here; your history page is certainly very, very interesting to put it mildly!

Could we entice you to maybe write an article or two on anything you have worked on?

Welcome
Gryzor

PS We got a donations page as well - and it works

[Xaero_Vincent]

Why would hackers want to attack a Amstrad CPC nostalgia site? 

Hopefully better security measures are in place to protect the web servers from exploits.

[Gryzor]

Well. The Zone, from what Malc has said, was simply taken over by spammers who mounted an attack on the server and who, several months ago, had successfully managed to inject malicious code into the site's code. So basically they didn't care what kind of site that was...

That said, for some reason and up to a few months ago (when I had to take some draconian measures) CPCWiki had come under repeat DoS attacks; this used to happen every few weeks and that has been really frustrating... indeed, why on earth would someone do it??

[Hoggy]

What was your job on the Amstrad projects?..

Hi Morri,
On the games with Dave Rogers, I was the programmer, artist and designer (along with Dave), the lovely music was all Dave's doing.
On the games at Software Proejcts, I was the programmer (along with Mike Davies). I also built and coded the transfer hardware to
enable us to get placeholder graphics from the c64. I'll have a think about any stories (I have to be diplomatic, as im still in the
games industry).

I just have to tell you, Radzone has been....
Neat to see you're also doing J2ME stuff....
When you decide to do a J2ME (or other) version of Radzone...

Hi mr_lou,
Well thank you for the nice comments, porting Radzone well there's a thought, unfortunately things move so fast in games industry that my time is spent keeping up and not much time left for comtemplation of the past Yeah J2ME is a nice language, good for anyone to get to grips with programming, without the complex syntax of say C++. Last thing we did in J2ME was a Castlevania Aria of Sorrow on mobiles.

Well Cpczone had a nasty attac ...

Hi Cholo, yeah I read about the attack on the wiki, I'll try the donation sometime later.

Could we entice you to maybe write an article or two on anything you have worked on?
PS We got a donations page as well - and it works

Hi Gryzor, dont have much time (see answer to mr_lou), but I'll pass on the invite (if you dont mind) to Dave Rogers, anyway Dave's a far more literate person for that .
I'm outta the country for the next few weeks (GDC San Francisco), I'll check out the wiki donate button before I go.
Many thanks to you all for the interesting postings,
Colin.

[Gryzor]

Hi Gryzor, dont have much time (see answer to mr_lou), but I'll pass on the invite (if you dont mind) to Dave Rogers, anyway Dave's a far more literate person for that .
I'm outta the country for the next few weeks (GDC San Francisco), I'll check out the wiki donate button before I go.
Many thanks to you all for the interesting postings,
Colin.

I guess Dave will have to do

Just kidding, it's just that anything that comes from actual developers is kind of sacred and we just can't have enough of this...

If you do donate (sincere thanks for the interest...) any amount, please do let me know so that I can put your name/id on the wiki homepage: I don't see the money - it goes straight to the host...

[Hoggy]

Your donation link, is trying to force me into setting up a paypal account to donate!

Shouldnt I be able to just donate?

[Gryzor]

Your donation link, is trying to force me into setting up a paypal account to donate!

Shouldnt I be able to just donate?

Hmmmm yes, but donate how? You mean just send money in an envelope? Or a bank account number? I guess this could be arranged too... Otherwise how could it be done?

Thanks for your interest, really
G

[Border_7]

Your donation link, is trying to force me into setting up a paypal account to donate!

Shouldnt I be able to just donate?

Hoggy, you still around?

[TFM]

Well, this must be one of the most oldest threads resurrection! Hope he got PayPal now or decent envelopes 

[Gryzor]

Border_7 does well in resurrecting it; it'd be very interesting to hear from old-time devs...

[Border_7]

Well, this must be one of the most oldest threads resurrection! Hope he got PayPal now or decent envelopes 

Nothing like microwaving a corpse...

[TFM]

Haha! 

[Bryce]

Nothing like microwaving a corpse...

Hoggy hasn't logged in since March 2009. I think you'll have as much success getting an answer from him as you would from your microwaved corpse.

Bryce.

[steve]

Send Hoggy a pm, this site will send him an email so he will get the message:)

[Bryce]

Only if he has his settings set that way. You can turn off e-mail notifications in you profile settings (I have).

Bryce.

[Border_7]

Well the microwaved corpse hasn't done much, so the only thing left to do is hook up the lightning rod.

I've PM'd him and emailed him (although I can't see what the email addy is, if its @codemonkeys.com then that's a dead end).


We shall see....

[TFM]

Codemonkeys was closed down at 2011 IIRC... so keep on microwaving ;-)

[Border_7]

Codemonkeys was closed down at 2011 IIRC... so keep on microwaving ;-)

Indeed it was. Just waiting for that electrical storm now... wires are all hooked up 

[TFM]

Haha!


Since you mention storm... [offtopic now...] I'm currently working at the TU in New Orleans. Yesterday everybody went totally nuts because the weather forecast told about a cold front and some snow and the storm. So they immediately closed down the whole university. As I woke up this morning it was just a chilly day, no snow, no rain, no nothing. And I had to sneak in (unseen by TU Police) to reach my lab. Guess I'm the only one here now. Well, I had to come for an important experiment which already runs since two weeks. The point is... there is no storm 

[Border_7]

Does the word storm invoke unfounded Katrina fears?

[TFM]

Maybe it does in them... but actually nothing does happen. It's just -1 degree in Celsius, the streets are dry. So for no reasons they blocked all the bridges and I had to drive through unknown parts of the city where noone should be anyway. The temperature in the lab now reached 30 degrees Celsius, because the heating goes mad. But nobody is here to fix it so I work in this sauna and look towards the moment when all of my cells are dead and I can finish here.  What the heck will they do if it really snows?