Darron Broad's Game Releases from Players
Taskforce Cheat!
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This was sent in by Darron him self. Holding down L+O+P will enter cheat mode.
You may find this will only work on the real machines? At this time I'm not sure if the
keyboard scan on the emulators can activate the cheat.
"love and peace to all
soundheads", L+O+P refers to a band from that era named "loop" that Darron enjoyed.
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An interview with Darron
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This interview was taken on Sunday 15th October 2000. Both me and Ati would like to take
this opportunity to thank Darron for his kind help regarding this interview.
Did you have comupters before getting your Plus4?
If yes, did you code for these also?- I
had a Vic20 and after that a Gemini Galaxy CP/M box. I learnt everything worth learning on my
VIC. In the 80's computer magazines were much more informative!
I learnt M/C on my VIC and
the CP/M box had a useful 8080 assembler but perhaps the worst editor ever.
How did you enter the world of C16/Plus4?- I
was studying Electronic Engineering and part of the course included low level programming on
the 6502 and the Z80.
I bought the Plus/4 in comet's because it was cheap, had a 6502
compatible CPU and included a machine language monitor. It helped me get through the
programming course with ease.
How did you learn the in`s and out`s of the C16/Plus4 to code such games?-
The course I studied was mostly microelectronics and I had a great deal of interest in ICs and their
workings. I just hacked my way around the system utilising the TED memory map thankfully included
in the user guide.
I always preferred Electronics over Programming and I built my own 6502 machine
as part of my course, and later in the 90s built a 6802 system and developed 80C32 system as well (
all because of a hobbyist desire to do so! ) so understanding ICs is something I have always been
keen on doing.
What made you program for an already "doomed" platform (it was in 1989)?- I
tried my luck at writing demos on C64 but I always let myself down by not being talented at graphics.
Someone at Players noted that I had written an Assembler on the PLUS/4 (which I sent on the reverse
of my C64 demos) and decided to take a chance.
The timing was due to finding myself broke at that time, and I needed the money to fetch my girlfriend from
Spain in easter 89. Consequently I agreed with Players to code Tomcat sometime around February or so.
Did programming for the C16/+4 cover the cost for your needs at the time?-
Immediately it did, once I finished Tomcat my girlfriend visited for Easter. After that though, I wrote
Taksforce for Players and my desire for understanding ICs continued when I bought a Commodore Amiga.
What tools did you use when creating these games?- I
used the only tools available at the time for someone with no money... my own! I wrote the Assembler
during my time studying Electronic Engineering, and when I created demos on C64 all my work was done
on the PLUS/4 using it. I made up a cable to connect to PLUS/4 tape port to the C64 joystick port and
hooked routines into the kernal to allow the C64 to read and write to the PLUS/4 disk drive.
The Assembler wrote its object files to disk, then I loaded them into the RAM on the C64 and off it went.
At this time I wrote the first version of my UDG (user defined graphics) editor and I updated this over
time and it was this that I drew the graphics in Tomcat and Taskforce.
The level editors were specific to each game and were coded once the data and screen layout had been
decided upon.
Did you ever think about coding Plus4 Only games?-
It was a shame that the C16 actually existed in some ways, or that it only had a measly 16K.
Players like everyone else marketed to the lowest common denominator (C16) so PLUS/4 only
games were not really an option.
Did you work from home or at Players main office?- I
never ever visited Players, only spoke to them on the phone or via snailmail.
Was Players the first software house you got in contact with and was there
any other software house you wished your titles could of been released by?-
The titles were Players ones. I could never have produced a game off my own back. A lot of praise
must go to Players who were trying at this time to keep the C16 scene going.
Other companie did contact me, though, only to say that I would be put on file and considered
in future!
Taskforce had graphics by P Ruston. How did this come about and did it cause
problems when making the game?- I
am not sure how this came about. Players had lots of different people working on different versions
of their games at the same time. I have never met this guy, but I got sent a graphic dump on a
floppy disk which I imported into the game. All I can say is that someone in Players was driving
everthing forward and it must have been a weird experience doing things that way. Soon afterwards
software houses changed their ways, and in house teams started to become normal practice.
Would you know how many people actually bought Tomcat and/or Task Force or
how many copys where made?-
Absolutely no idea. The money was not much and I declined any royalty scheme in case sales faultered. I
suspect that they could have only expected to sell up to 10,000 or so, but I may be wrong. I think
figures of home users at that time may give an idea of the potential market, but without facts I
can't really say.
Do you have any unreleased stuff? If yes, are you planning to publish it?-
No unreleased games other than a word puzzle on the Amiga from 94. I wrote that because I was bored at
christmas and I got a great friend to help out with the music which was fun.
I
have a plotting extension for the C16 that I created and it was published in a magazine, but I am
not sure if there is any demand for that other than an historical one.
What things did you like the most about your games and was there anything
you wished you could of done better?- I
liked the frantic nature of programming more than the playing at the time. You have to appreciate
that sitting down for four weeks at a time, and dreaming about writing machine code flashing
before your eyes makes you want to get away from games for a while.
In retrospect I love the frenetic pace of Tomcat and I have fond memories of a crude snake in
Taskforce, but I haven't seen that since the day I wrote it!
Do you still know of people from the old plus/4 world?-
There is a guy at work that had a PLUS/4, he was keen to chat about the old box, but other than that I
know no one else.
I
have a really old friend Brendan from study days who wrote stuff on the Spectrum (GAC, Confuzion, etc)
we still keep in touch, although he lives in Brighton now.
Was there any programmers for the C16/Plus4 that impressed you with there
game releases at the time?- I
cannot remember any particular programmer only particular games. The most enjoyable to play were
Mr Puniverse, Berks, and Mercenary.
How did you find out about the Plus4 world on the net and have you used
any emulators?- I thought I would check out the Amiga emulator and I downloaded UAE
and got it running in Linux and I was impressed. I tried this out on a P166 a few years ago and
it was far from being fast enough, but nowadays my machine is too quick!
This got me thinking about hunting down those games I wrote a while ago. I consequently I came
across your website. Well done, it's an excellent site, and it brings back much of the spirit of that
age when micros were king!
What have you been doing in the past 10 years (in short...)?- I
spent a year or so in Spain, about four working in my families business and the last four have
been spent either working for ISPs or Telco's.
Do you have plans returning to the scene?-
Yes. I have a great desire to relive some of the old days and at the same time reintroduce myself
to the fun side of computing.
I
have been working on so much dull stuff the last few years that I need a break!
What are your thoughts about the Plus4 as a machine and what was the best
things about the machine for you?-
One of the best things about the PLUS/4 was its character. It had a useful basic, M/C monitor and
acres of RAM (at the time). It gave you the opportunity to explore computing where other machines let
you down with either not enough memory or poor implementations of basic etc. Another great machine
like that was the old BEEB, but that was expensive.
At the time it cost me little, I gained much and it paid for itself over and over, I still have a
fond regard for that little computer that some other machines I have acquired in the meantime haven't
lived up to.
Darron you have been a real gentleman!-
No problem at all. I have enjoyed reliving this.
email : Darron Broad
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Darron Borad's Machine owned today
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All home built
Home:- Linux, ATHLON 1GIG CPU, 128MB RAM, GeForce256DDR, Hauppage WinTV,
SBLive!, DVD, CDRW, (all hardware works fine in Linux except the DVD! This is my desktop machine,
occasionally I switch into Win98 for Games and DVD films).
- Linux, PII400, 128MB, Matrox Marvel G200, SBLive!, CDRW, 40GIG HDD (this is my NFS server
and test machine)
- MSDOS, I486DX2/66, 48MB RAM, Cirrus Logic VLB, it has the ever faithfull 1541 drive attached.
Office:
- Bogus.Kewl.Org. FBSD @ Clara.NET, London. P166MMX, 256MB RAM. Does nothing at the moment, but
will come back to life after I leave COLT Telecom.
- Deacon.Kewl.Org FBSD @ COLT, London. P166MMX, 64MB RAM. On loan to a friend working at COLT.
- Beethoven.Kewl.Org FBSD @ COLT, London. P200MMX, 64MB RAM. This is my mailhost and IRC server on the
mostly French Kewl.ORG IRC network. This machine will hopefully stay online for the forseeable future.
- Rufus.Kewl.ORG FBSD @ COLT, London. PII333, 128MB RAM. This host will go offline before I leave COLT,
currently it is a mailhost.
- Socrates.Kewl.ORG Linux @ COLT, London. ATHLON 550, 256MB RAM, this machine is currenly offline and will
have a home wherever I move to next!
Other:
- Lots of "pieces" of computers live in my basement and include a broken ZX81, Spectrum 16K, Atari 800XL,
C64, PLUS/4, Amiga, IBM XT.
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Darron's Top 10 C16/Plus4 games
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