What did Tynesoft have against Atari gamers?

[Pengwin]

I would like to pose a question to everyone that reads this post: What did Tynesoft have against Atari gamers?

 

Why such a bold question? Well, the answer is three little words, Jet Set Willy.

 

I have known for some time that the Atari version of JSW is far inferior when compared to the original Spectrum version, so I recently took it upon myself to dig out some other versions (and respective emulators) to have a look to see how other micro owners faired with this game. I would have also used the original Manic Miner for comparison, but it appears that not all computers that got JSW got Manic Miner and vice versa.

 

Sinclair Spectrum

So, lets start off by looking at the original. Coded by the almost legendary Matthew Smith for the Sinclair Spectrum, this game was released in 1984 by Software Projects. The game was an instant hit, although some may argue that it was riding on the success of Manic Miner. The graphics were bright, animation smooth and the sounds and music only added to the game play.

Some people see this game as Matthew Smith's masterpiece, and I believe it is one of the most remade and expanded games ever to grace the Spectrum.

 

Commodore 64

Next up, we take a look at the Commodore 64 version of the game.

This version was also published by Software Projects in 1984, although the conversion was done by Shahid Ahmed with George Neophytou producing the music.

This proved quite a surprise to me. Instead of aiming to improve on the Spectrum version graphically, the game is very similar in looks to the Spectrum version. The title music is a different tune, although it does make use of the Commodore's advanced music capabilities. In game, the music is also of an equally high quality, but the sound effects are almost non existent, bit of a let down in my opinion. ut, despite this minor gripe about the sound, this game is just as good as the original.

 

Amstrad CPC

Next, onto the final Software Projects version in this blog entry (Software Projects also published a version for the MSX, but I am not talking about that on here).

The Amstrad CPC version of JSW was written by D. P. Rowson and S. Wetherill. It was published a year after the original, in 1985, and like a number of Spectrum games that were ported to the Amstrad, it remained very faithful to the original. The only real criticism I have of this version is the lack of in game music. Why it was decided not to implement this feature is beyond me, the Amstrad was more than capable of handling it.

 

BBC Micro

Now on to the Tynesoft conversions, the first of which I will look at is the BBC Micro version. This was written by Chris Robson and is extremely faithful to the original, although the limitations of the BBC Micro meant that the game is limited to only four colours on the screen at one time.

But this minor quibble does not detract from the game at all. Chris even got the same in game music in as the Spectrum. The sound effects are there and the animation is just as smooth as the other versions. Unfortunately, I do not have a release date for this version, but I estimate it was probably around 1985.

 

Acorn Electron

Released on the other side of the cassette of the BBC Micro version, the Acorn Electron version was also converted by Chris Robson, as can be seen in the attention to detail.

Unfortunately, this was a purely mono affair once in the game, I assume this was due to some limitation of the Acorn Electron (I don't have enough experience with this machine to be sure of this).

This game also suffered from a lack of music. not only in the game, but also at the title screen. this does detract from the games charm a great deal, in my opinion, but the graphics and animation are true to the original. Maybe it was the limitations of the electron that caused the music to be missed out and the graphics to be monochrome, if so, then I feel that this is a valiant effort by Chris Robson. If not, then they are, what I think, serious flaws in the game.

 

Atari 8-Bit

Now on to the cause of the question I opened this post with. I have tried to demonstrate that Jet Set willy can be ported to most platforms of that era, without too many compromises (except the music in the Electron version). So, why on earth were Atari users presented with what I feel is one of the worst ported games to hit the platform.

This version was released in 1986, written by Mark Riddell with graphics by David Riddell and music by Rob Hubbard.

Let me start with the good about this game. The music! Rob Hubbard has created a very professional tune, one of the best heard on Atari games, utilising the Pokey chip to it's fullest.

OK, now that's out of the way, on to the bad. where to start. This conversion is awful. The graphics look nothing like the original, which I feel had a charm all of their own. The animation is jerky. And the colours are very limited. This last point is especially galling considering that the Atari was renowned for its graphics and colour capabilities.

Whilst testing this game, I also noticed that, every now and then, miner Willy would sink a pixel or two with no apparent reason. Level designs have also been changed, I assume that is because of the blocky graphics used in the game.

 

 

So, back to my original question: What did Tynesoft have against Atari gamers?

[carmel_andrews]

Pengwin...you could also ask the same question of all UK software companies at the time...none of them were particularly interested in the A8 (only int. in the ST) hence the classic 'Anti Atari 8bit' tag most A8 users used to level at software houses (and rightfully so)

[Pengwin]

Most of my experiences with UK software houses weren't too bad. I feel that JSW sticks out because it appears that there was no care put into the conversion (I could be wrong, and I apologise to the Riddells if I am). With all other conversions, it appears that the programmers were trying to at least get as close to the look of the original, whereas with the A8 version, I wonder if the programmers had actually seen the original.

 

Even the Oric got a decent port of Manic Miner!!

Edited August 14, 2007 by Pengwin

[xxl]

port JSW or MM is not a problem, problem is colour in this game.

[thomasholzer]

Tynesoft were good on A8, Phantom, Mirax Force, Winter Olympiad 88.

Forget JSW and MM (clone of Miner 2049er, as admitted by MS), they were probably good enough on Spectrum. JSW was rubbish on C-64 too.

 

The question must be: Why did Tynesoft bother to translate an originally bad game to the >>superior A8 (Matthew Smith own words)<< in the first place? And make it even more bad?

 

But you could turn it around: Why do American Activision products look and play excellent on C-64 and A8, but stink on Spectrum?

Edited August 15, 2007 by thomasholzer

[TMR]

We're not discussing particular companies' attitudes to particlar machines, just "shoddy port syndrome" (or SPS as it's known medically =-) The Amstrad CPC suffered very badly from it...

 

Software companies are just that, the reason they release bad ports is that they commission someone to do the work and pay them, then put the port out onto the market; if the code they get back is sub-standard, they've already paid (unless they were wily enough to get a contract that guaranteed a certain quality threshold that they alone decided on like a few firms did) so going for a second try isn't really an option a lot of the time.

Edited August 15, 2007 by TMR

[Pengwin]

We're not discussing particular companies' attitudes to particlar machines, just "shoddy port syndrome" (or SPS as it's known medically =-) The Amstrad CPC suffered very badly from it...

 

I read somewhere that the problem of ports to the CPC, when the original was Spectrum, was that the code needed minimal rewriting to create workable games. Therefore a number of ports to the CPC looked and behaved just like the Spectrum versions. this was a shame as the programmers failed to take advantage of the superior hardware (please don't flame me for this statement, I am just paraphrasing) to create better games.

 

From what I understand (again, I am only remembering what I have read), some ports were created in a rush, to get the games to the market, so minimal work was done to create versions for other platforms.

 

My original post, about JSW, is because the A8 version differs so much from the other versions. I would have been happy seeing a direct(ish) port, rather than what they did produce.

[Pengwin]

I've just done a quick search on Atarimania and Googled for Tynesoft, and from what I can see this is the only game Mark Riddell coded for the A8. Is this right? Did he code for any other platforms?

[deathtrappomegranate]

I've just done a quick search on Atarimania and Googled for Tynesoft, and from what I can see this is the only game Mark Riddell coded for the A8. Is this right? Did he code for any other platforms?

 

Don't know if it's actually the same guy, but Mobygames suggests that he might have been involved in some recent-ish stuff.

[TMR]

I read somewhere that the problem of ports to the CPC, when the original was Spectrum, was that the code needed minimal rewriting to create workable games. Therefore a number of ports to the CPC looked and behaved just like the Spectrum versions. this was a shame as the programmers failed to take advantage of the superior hardware (please don't flame me for this statement, I am just paraphrasing) to create better games.

 

Yup, that's what happened quite a bit with the CPC, either the entire game was dropped over or, for example with Cybernoid 2, the Spectrum code was modified to drive it and the C64 graphics "skinned" over the top. Andrew Braybrook documented the making of his C64-only game Morpheus in Zzap! 64 and the installation of a couple of Opus PC compatibles for cross assembly at Graftgold; at one point he says that Steve Turner took two weeks to produce the CPC version of Ranarama after completing the Spectrum version:

 

ST meanwhile, having written Amstrad Ranarama in two weeks flat, was trying to communicate with extra-terrestrials by waving an RS-232 lead in a skywards direction, which was causing pretty patterns to appear on the Spectrum. Why bother to build an interplanetary craft when you can use RS-232 ... Aaarrgh!

 

My original post, about JSW, is because the A8 version differs so much from the other versions. I would have been happy seeing a direct(ish) port, rather than what they did produce.

 

Often, direct-ish ports yield far better results although the Spectrum versions of Manic Miner and Jetset Willy aren't, if memory serves, synchronised to the frame refresh so they'd always end up looking different on platforms where that's the norm.