Long before ripping out spines in Mortal Kombat or carrying out hit and runs in GTA, Bad Taste Software were attempting to push the barriers of acceptability with a game focused on the conception and birth of Prince Harry in Di’s Baby
Posted by fgasking on Dec 21, 2011 20:47 (148 days ago)
RF: So regarding development, what setup did you use?
KW: All development was done on an Atari 800, using the MASM (Atari Macro Assembler). I knocked up a custom 2-bit parallel data transfer system via the joystick ports. The main reason was that the Atari was indestructible, whereas the C64 (particularly the disk drives) was always a bit flaky. I used to say you could stand on the Atari to change a light bulb, which was true, you could and it suffered no damage (and I really am serious – you really could stand on an Atari 800 – they were built like brick shit-houses).
RF: Hope it was fully insured! So were you developing the game by yourself? Any struggles as a result?
KW: No, my wife drew most of the graphic objects by hand on special "pixel shaped" graph paper that we had knocked up at a local printer (which was then converted into hex by myself) and also did the splash screen on a graphics tablet on the Atari. Music came from a traditional song book. The only problem was tight timescales, it shows in the quality of the game.
RF: Sounds like you could have done with another month.
KW: Mainly just to refine things. One review described the game as "rickety" I think, which is about right. With more time the graphics could have been better, the gameplay smoother, and possibly I could have added more levels. By the time everything was coded, it was getting very close to ‘B-day’. We had to get the tape master to the reproduction factory, run off an initial stock of cassettes and get them packed up so that things were ready to go. So it's not like I could keep working on it until Harry was born, the coding had to finish a good couple of weeks ahead.
RF: Were there any plans to port the game to other platforms?
KW: No. There were never enough sales to justify it. It would have had to have taken off big-time to make us even think about it. By 1984 C64 was one of the biggest sellers for Microdeal I believe.
RF: So was it straight onto Santa’s Grotty Christmas afterwards?
KW: I was already working on Santa's Grotty Christmas before Di's Baby was announced to the world. I think it came out pretty soon afterwards, with the intention of riding on the back of the same publicity. I seem to remember there may have been one or two reviews also. I actually think it is a much better game, though it didn't get the same publicity as Di's Baby.. I think after Microdeal had all the returns they may have simply cut their losses.
RF: 'Henry's House' also tied in with the birth of Prince Harry (though was un-controversial in comparison). Did you ever play the game?
KW: No. By the time Di's Baby and Santa's Grotty Christmas were written I was very short of income. I was too busy looking for work to pay much attention at the time.
RF: So you left the games industry?
KW: By Christmas Easter1985 (Easter 1985) I got a proper job and I still have it! (Working with embedded software, and industrial applications.).
Dec 28, 2011 01:31:29 (
142 days ago
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