Some months ago, I downloaded a game on the BoingWorld site... It was
a preview of a free Arkanoid clone, and the author just asked some
feedback to finish the game ... I tried it, found it FANTASTIC, and prepared a review for the French
printed fanzine "BoingAttack" (www.boingattack.org) I also made an interview with the author, Richard Fhager, and I think
it could be interesting for a new issue of The Crypt. You could use
screenshot from the website for illustration of the article
(Authorisation of the author given.) So, let's go... 1) Could you introduce yourself for your readers (i.e. name,
birthplace, job... anything not related directly to the Amiga)? My name is Richard Fhager and my nick since '89 is DawnBringer. I
live on an island called Dons (Donsoe) outside Gteborg (Gothenburg)
on the Swedish West Coast. I spent most of the last 10 years working
on different Internet and Media projects mostly as a graphic designer
always using my dear Amiga. 2) What is your current Amiga configuration ? (I hope it's the same
word in French and in English, I mean, what is your Amiga, and what
did you add to it?) A1200 + Blizzard `060 50 Mhz. 16MB RAM. 2.3Gb + 170Mb Hard Discs
and an invaluable SoundEnhancer (Makes the Amiga sound MUCH better) 3) How, when did you discovered the Amiga, and what have you make
with it since? I had an older friend that was using Amiga. I bought my A500 in
1990. As I said before I`ve used my (and others) Amiga for a lot of
professional projects, such as homepage design. I have also produced
quite a few Amiga games: 1991: Crave - Two player tank duel game. Good gfx, but pretty lousy
gameplay. My first release. 1995: Memory 95 - Simple memory game, written in one day. 1997: Fnurr 97 - Simple but fun game. Avoid homing pixels. 1997: Simon97 - Classic game, repeat sequences of light and sound. 1997: SeaHaven97 - Solitaire card game, inspired by the SGI version. 1997: SpaceBall - Pong/Tennis/Speedball cross. A sub-game from a
big cancelled Space game 1998: DawnVideoPoker1.0 - First release. 1998: DawnVideoPoker1.62 - Second release. Virtual cards etc. 2000: DawnVideoPoker2.0 - Major update. Aces High etc. 2000: Fnurr2000 - Minor update. First Aminet release. 2000: SeaHaven2000 -Update. First Aminet release. 2000: SpaceBall2000 - Update. First Aminet release. 2000: Memory2000 - Minor Update. Available from my homepage. 2001: Simon2001 - Update. First Aminet release. 2001: D-Flip1.0 - Puzzle game. Change a board of tiles into the
same number. 2001: BabeAnoid-demo1 - First demo of my Arkanoid/BreakOut-clone in
production for 6 years 2001: DawnVideoPoker3.0 - Most recent update. Now with "Bank-roll"
and a new sub-game. I have also written a few demos and utilities,
composed about 300 modules and made some hundred pictures; drawn,
raytraced and processed. In Jan. 2000 I helped starting and design the Amiga News-site
www.BoingWorld.com, unfortunately it`s down right now, due to
server-problems, but we will hopefully come back. For fun I used to play a lot of Civilization, DuneII and UFO. I
still love to play SpeedBall2 and a game of RISK. 4) The main reason which explain why you are still an Amiga User? Who can love a PC? They may be fast and powerful...but they are
crap, and all the M$ products are so full of bugs. Amiga is just so
smooth and easy to use. I am going to buy a PC for some
Internet/Programming purposes but I`ll always use Amiga, especially
for graphics design. 5) I have just reviewed a demo of your game "BabeAnoid"... First ...
Why "BABEAnoid"? To get your attention!;) Well, at first the game idea was, that you
are a commander with an army of Cyber-Amazon Warriors that had been
captured. These were represented by balls trapped in rooms or
prisons, and you had to break them free...but I dropped this idea.
(These are the girls still found on some of the static screens)
Anyway, I just think it`s a cool name...so why change it? 6) Could you tell us the history of this game? In `95 I was attending a Virtual Reality education (I didn`t really
care for VR, but I got to use SGI computers and learning a little C
and Unix). As an exam-project we were writing a game for the
Nintendo Ultra64. In this process two professional game-coders (and
ex. Amiga sceners) were hired as consultants. Also we had SGI
computers for $10,000 a piece but not a decent graphics or 3D
program, so I brought my A1200+Blizzard`030', raytraced some textures
and saved the day! And now to the point; as soon as we had some time
over -- The consultants, my computer partner and I sat by the Amiga
playing games and brainstorming about different ideas. And at the
time I was testing a zone detection and a ball-angle routine -- And
what better way is there to really test that than an
Arkanoid/BreakOut game? So, that`s how it started. I sat with the
guys and programmed and they came up with ideas and tips...then I
just continued another 6 years and improved it, and I`m still not
finished! 7) How did you keep your motivation during 6 years? 1. I added a new feature or effect every time I felt the gameplay got
boring. 2. I worked on some other project when I got tired, like
DawnVideoPoker. 8) Could you evaluate how many hours of work are in this game? I think it`s about 3000 hours. 9) Apart the design of level, do you think this is the ultimate
version of BabeAnoid, or there is still room for innovation? I`m still adding features, so there will be a few new things in the
final game. I have many cool ideas left but I must stop somewhere,
otherwise the game will never be finished. 10) What software did you use for code, gfx, etc? Mostly AMOS, Brilliance and ProTracker. 11) Some gfx looks like Bitmat Brothers' ones, Some others looks like
"Capital Punishment" characters, design looks sometime like a nice
Demo... Did you put voluntarily an "Amiga Spirit" in this game ? I think it`s quite easy to see that I`m inspired by Dan Malone of
Bitmap Brothers (Chaos Engine, SpeedBall2 etc.) He`s a real genius.
Also I`m trying to use every aspect of the Amiga hardware and the
best of my routines, I didn`t have any "Amiga Spirit" in mind, it`s
just the way I do things. I`m an Amigan. 12) Could you talk of your other programs? Well, my most famous, spread and appreciated game is DawnVideoPoker
-- Which is a VideoPoker machine simulator with a lot of features and
effects. I just released version 3. SpaceBall2000 is 1 or 2 player adrenaline pumping Pong, Tennis,
Speedball cross and the only part released from a big space-adventure
I worked on during 4 years. SeaHaven2000 is a solitaire game that still lacks a few features, but
once you get into it, it's a wonderful and challenging game -- I play
it almost every day. 13) Some programming projects? Mostly it`s BabeAnoid right now. I`m also working a little on the
theoretics and formulas of a huge space, adventure, trade, tactics,
roleplaying game I've been planning since C64 days...but sadly if
this project is ever realized I won`t do it on Amiga. But if there
is any way I can port it back to Amiga once completed, will do it, I
promise. 14) Apart coding very good things, what do you make for the Amiga
community? Although it`s down right now, I`m an Editor and one of the designers
of the Amiga news-site.. www.BoingWorld.com. Hopefully we`ll come
back soon. 15) What is the current situation of Amiga in Sweden? Like in most places it`s pretty though. But we still have an Amiga
dealer here in Gothenburg. And we have an IRC-channel: IRCNet,
AmigaSWE visited by 50-70 people every day... Some of them doesn`t
have Amigas anymore but we are all very good friends and sometimes
meet IRL. 16) What do you think of the strategy of Amiga Inc., of the AmigaDE,
of Morphs, bPLAN? I really don`t know much about it, I find most of these things
confusing and I only believe what I can see. I just can`t understand
why Amiga Inc. doesn`t support IBrowse since it`s the superior Amiga
browser (at least when it comes to HTML interpretation) 17) Do you think you will buy an AmigaOne (or Pegasos) ? Perhaps, but I'll wait a while and see what happens... 18) Amiga forever? Possibly, once I've got a PC. 19) A question I did ask you, but that you want to answer to ? (I
hope this is well translated from French) Is there something wrong
with your email address and homepage?" Yes, It's down since Jul 03 along with our Amiga news-site BoingWorld.
I now have a new homepage and mail:
20) A message for our readers? Yes, don`t forget to send Amiga freeware authors feedback, we don`t
get paid anything and spend a lot of time making stuff for YOU, our
only motivation is your appreciation. Bye.
