<>@6 :=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:= *4@2 FROM COMPLETE S.H.I.T.S. TO AGAS *3]5@3 by Andy Gibson (AGAS Productions - May 1996) *1]1@6 =:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=: @4 I'm not sure how many people will actually read all this article, but maybe if you're new to the Amiga and are planning to start writing PD, Shareware, Licenceware or even Commercial titles, then this may give you some ideas! What I am about to type has]3 NEVER]1 been seen before in any other disk mag before now. It is a history of my past with the Amiga since I first moved over to it from the good old C64 (what a machine that was in it's day). Let me begin at the very start shall I? My first ever computer was a Spectrum 48K which I bought (well my parents did) just to play Jet Set Willy. Playing this game was my life for some weeks as I was addicted to it. It was also responsible for why I wanted to learn more about computing and writing my own games! All Speccy users will have used Pokes before to give games those endless lives etc. @4 Well, I had about half a dozen (no, maybe only six!) pokes for Jet Set Willy that made him climb walls and of course others to give endless lives etc. (Can anyone remember that poke?) Anyway, this poking was something which I loved doing ]5(don't we all guys, fingers at the ready, Hmmm, sniff sniff!!! - Sick!)]1 Eventually I was given a Commodore Plus 4 computer (did anyone else have one of these shit machines?). It had 64K I think, of which some of was set aside for its built in word processor and spread sheet thingies! It was so long ago that I can't remember what was built into it now. Anyway, I managed to get Jet Set Willy II for it which was just Jet Set Willy with more rooms (enhanced if ya like). But ya couldn't poke values on this machine, or at least, I didn't know how to! So I hardly ever played JSW again after that! I moved onto text adventures and had a couple for the C+4 machine on a cart. (Yes it took carts as well as cassette tapes.) @4 I played one of the text adventures for weeks and eventually completed it. Wow, amazing! "I wanna write a game like this one day", I thought to myself. Eventually I managed to buy a C64 and loads of games. This was the new style C64. (Yip, there were older models which were a bit bulky.) My C64 was my pride and joy and I managed to get one heck of a large software collection built up over a couple of years. Some classic games too such as Beach Head II, Raid Over Moscow, Little Computer People and The Great Giana Sisters etc. (The last two which I even have for the Amiga now! Yip, Amiga versions, not snapshot files for emulators!) After a while I bought an Action Replay cart for my C64 and started learning how to alter scrolly messages and even the sprites in most games. Wow, this was fun and I eventually had special copies of games saved on tape compilations. I also started learning to write shitty programs with C64 Basic. I tried for weeks to write a text adventure, but it was pretty shit! I just didn't have enough knowledge. I was a complete lamer gamer!! @4 Most of my mates had C64's (didn't everyone?) and of course we used to swap games with each other! But still I wasn't happy just playing other people's games. I wanted to write my own. I started buying magazines hoping I would find some help. I must have been buying the wrong mags, coz I didn't get any real help. I bought loads of issues of Zzap! and also C64 User (or Commodore User as I think it was known as back then. Of course, this eventually changed its name to Commodore User Amiga - CU Amiga). Everyone seemed to be going Amiga and I was not gonna be converted! I had too much equipment for my C64. What with loads of games, Action Replay and even a sound sampler! I had spent a fortune! (Well, I was young and not on much income) Eventually I had no choice but to upgrade to an Amiga 1.3 back in 1989. I think I paid about £500 for the machine and a further £60 for a half meg fast ram upgrade! Eventually I bought a second drive so I could play games with ease and less disk swapping. Still not having written my text adventure, I scanned the mags for any software that would help me create one of these games. I eventually came across a program named HATRACK II which was selling for £30! I bought it and at the time I thought it was amazing! @4 I could write a text adventure (no gfx) with ease and was soon on my way to writing my first real game. I soon got bored with it when my friends said it was boring due to lack of gfx! What was I to do now? There was no point in going any further with the game! I started buying PD and mostly music demos. I really wanted to do my own demos! So I bought Stereo Master Sampler (£40) and Audio Master III Software (£60)! I wasn't impressed with the sound quality at all, so I ordered the most expensive sampler (at the time), Audio Engineer Plus 2 for a whopping £200! What a difference in sound quality. I was impressed and started working on my first music demo: UTAH SAINTS - WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR ME It required 2 megs and was spread over two disks. It was a HUGE sample which was sequenced together using Audio Master IV. (I didn't have a clue about sample rates and all that, or a CD Player at the time.) The quality was fine and the gfx were drawn up by my mate Andy Strachan. We needed a name for our new demo krew and we decided upon: The S.H.I.T.S. (Super Humble International Trax Stealers). What a name! I was to be known as Kenwood (as in Kenwood mixer) coz I was doing all the music stuff ya see! Yip, very crap I know! @4 But we were trying our best! Anyway, we eventually made loads of music demos and had reviews in some of the Amiga mags such as CU (my Michael Jackson Mega Mix) and another mag called Public Domain (anyone else ever seen it?) Suddenly we noticed that none of our demos were being reviewed (not that we had that many to begin with). We then bought a digitiser and started working on slideshows (boring). At the same time, we decided that we should have a new name! We had two new members also who were George Burnett and Stevie McGowan. We simply took all our initials and stuck them together: AGAS - Andy, George, Andy and Stevie! Simple. Pronounced as Eh?-Gas and not as Ah-Gas as some people thought. CU Amiga eventually reviewed one of our slideshows (Hellraiser) and gave it a huge rating. (Can't remember what it was now.) One thing lead to another and both George and Stevie were no longer interested in working on slideshows! (who can blame them?) After all, anyone can digitise pics from videos! Still, it was kinda new at that time and not a lot of people had the equipment. @4 So only myself and Andy Strachan remained with AGAS! What were we to call ourselves now? Simple, we took our initials again and came up with....AGAS! - Andy Gibson and Andy Strachan :^) So the name AGAS remained, but with one slight change, Inc. Yip, we were now called AGAS Inc. Don't ask me why or even who's idea it was! Still it didn't last long coz Andy Strachan decided he was too good and was very slow at presenting his work on time! So he was dropped and I had to think of a new name! Arrgghh! What would it be? Simple, AGAS - Andy Gibson's Amiga Software. Yippeeee! I had nothing I wanted to do though! That was until I got CanDo. I decided to attempt to write a game with it! (I must have been mad!) At this point in time, my mate Jason was running a PD Stall in a market named The Barras up here in Glasgow. I had fixed numerous Amiga titles for him under the name of SKID MARKS! (before Acid Software even thought of the game with that name) @4 Why did I call myself Skid Marks? Well, two reasons really, I used to see a lot of Skid Row stuff and decided to take the piss outta them by calling myself Skid Marks and also because of our previous group name, The SHITS. Skid Marks seemed very appropriate. Anyway, I started working on my quiz using CanDo which was called:- SKID MARKS CanDo Pop Quiz Volume 1 During the making of this game, my A500 with 2 megs of ram and an Action Replay II Cart was damaged beyond repair when I sent it off to Future World to be fixed. I borrowed my young brother's A500+ to continue working on the game. Meanwhile, Future World said that they would replace my A500 with an A500+ as their insurance would cover the cost. Oh great, I was gonna get an A500+. But nothing ever arrived at my door for about 1 month! Eventually I got so pissed off that I got a solicitor to sort it all out for me and on Christmas Eve of 1992, a new Amiga was at my door. But bugger me backwards and sniff my botty, if it wasn't a brand spanking new A1200! These were brand new and had only been out a couple of months. Happy X-Mas Andy! :-) I was pretty lucky to get this as Future World bent bust on January and a lot of their customers probably received zilch! Phew! @4 Anyway, where was I? Ah yes..... I finished my Pop Quiz and sent it off to a few PD Libraries and eventually it was reviewed in some magazines too. Great, another review I thought. What a boost. Still, I hated CanDo and wanted random questions in my next quiz game. What was I to do, CanDo wouldn't let me have this feature! (I then labelled it as CanDon't) I had Amos from a cover disk and decided to give it a go, after all I knew some C64 Basic from a couple of years before. Bugger me! Amos was so hard! I ordered the manual and started to learn it bit by bit. Still, it wasn't enough! I couldn't get random questions. I wrote a letter to Alan Carter (who I didn't even know at the time). I saw one of his games, BatDog, on the cover of AUI (I think) and decided to ask him for some help. A few days later Alan replied along with some neat code. No wonder I couldn't do my random questions! Two reasons: 1) I was crap and 2) Amos Pro was required, which I didn't own! So I ordered Amos Pro and Amos Pro Compiler for about £60 I think and started work on The Ultimate Quiz Volume @4#@41 proper. This was back in 1993 and I still had to learn Amos Pro too! @4 Eventually the game was completed with the help of some friends writing questions for me. (1000 questions in total and 3000 answers) which I had to type in! The game complete and released as my first true Shareware Title and my first real game under the name of AGAS also. Eventually the game (demo version) appeared on coverdisk of AUI Super Disk @4#@434 - March 1994. This was also AUI'S first CD edition of the mag and in order to get the coverdisk with my Quiz on it, you had to take your CD along to some store and see the CD³² in action! In return, you got the coverdisk and a chance to win a CD³² into the bargain! Sales eventually picked up and I was happy with my product. During this time, my mate Jason's PD stall required a catalogue disk listing all his PD software and he asked me to do it for him! This is when things really started to take off for AGAS. I was using Magnum and to be honest, it was so bugged, that it wasn't worth while using it at all. The config file loaded in really slow coz it was read in as a sequential file! (Read in line by line from disk a bit at a time. Etc.) @4 The only way around this was to use AddBuffers in the Startup-Sequence to speed up disk access, but this used up too much precious memory! (AddBuffers had to be set very high indeed!) So I wrote to the author of Magnum and asked him to sell me the source code seeing as it was written in Amos. He was no longer supporting Magnum and I eventually got the source code after a huge fight with him! (only kidding, he was really nice. "Hi Wai") The first thing to do was remove all the bugs! I hate De-Bugg(er)ing programs and especially somebody else's! It took me hours to fix most of the ones I had found. Eventually Jason's catalogue disk was complete and ready for release to his PD punters. They all loved the disk mag and I ended up updating it each and every month. One thing lead to another and some PD Libraries got in touch with me asking myself to code their cat disks also! I never did get paid for any of them though! Some PD Libraries I coded cat disks for included: Amiga World, Video World, Saddletramps PD, North Staffs PD, Aurora PD, Seasoft Computing, Logic PD and probably a couple of others too! @4 Eventually I coded DMC from what I had learned from updating Magnum and released it as Shareware. this way, people could create their own Disk Mags and Cat Disks without asking me to do it all for them. It was eating up too much of my time anyway! I then started working on a new Quiz game by the name of The Ultimate Quiz 2 which was to be far better than Quiz 1. Well, I had learned a lot more about Amos by now and knew exactly what I was doing. Quiz II was completed during December 1994 and by this time, Steve Bye at F1 Licenceware had already accepted Quiz 1 into his listing. Quiz II was quickly signed up and I was happy to have two Licenceware titles selling. Wanting to learn more about Amos, I bought Amoszine 1, 2 & 3 to see if it would help me any. (A disk mag dedicated to Amos users.) Steve kindly sent me a free copy of issue four to see if I wanted to contribute anything to it! Little did I know that two issues later I would be editor! How did I manage this? @4 Amoszine was actually a lot like DMC and I simply asked Steve if he wanted me to add in some new options to his code for Az. He agreed and send me the source code for Az 5. At this time, I was coding a disk mag by the name of Moviezone and had added some neat options to it. So I simply added these to the Az code and a few other bits nicked from my DMC code too. Issue 5 of Az released and during the making of Issue 6, Steve asked me if I wanted to take over as editor coz he was too busy to keep his positions as ed. I agreed and Issue 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 were all mine! (probably after issue 12 I'd pass the job to someone else. After all, Az is released every two months, so that would be over a year working with it!) While working as ed of Az, Ultimate Quiz 1 and 2 both received massive 95% ratings (each) in a couple of issues of AUI. A demo of Quiz 2 was also featured on AUI Super Disk 63 - August 1995. Even Amiga Shopper (a non-games magazine) had the FULL F1 release of The Ultimate Quiz Volume 1 on their December 1995 Subscriber's Disk! A demo of Amoszine also appeared on the Shopper Coverdisk that month! Not bad, two of my titles on the same mag's coverdisks in the same month! @4 Two new releases of DMC were released via F1 Licenceware during 1995. DMC V2.0 and DMC GOLD V2.3 (Complete with printed manual and loads more features) I also released 4 more DATA disks for The Ultimate Quiz II during 1995 and had planned to work on more, but I still have not done so! (Current Date - May 1996) I've been pretty quiet so far in 1996 with releases, but I have been working very hard on a new version of DMC with even more features and I've half completed a Data Disk for Ult Quiz II. I also started work on a new title by the name of Dox Disk Creator, but put it on hold due to lack of time. Amoszine was just about to be released (Issue 11). As I type this file, I am now working on a new game by the name of Roswell. Remember way back at the start of this article how I said I wanted to write a text adventure? Well, I've now gone one better. Not only is my new game an adventure, but it has gfx! NO! Not just a typical text adventure with gfx, it's one of those gfx adventure games in the style of Monkey Island. Yip, I'm actually now writing my adventure at last. @4 It's getting there slowly but surely and it will be released during 1996 probably via F1 Licenceware (aka F1 Software). So if you're planning on writing a software title, just consider this. I couldn't do it on a Spectrum, Commodore Plus 4 or even the C64. Only the Amiga made it possible. It has taken me many years to learn how to create software and it won't happen to you overnight, so be prepared to learn how to use the Amiga, and of course, the software properly. I'm now planning to learn another new language called Blitz Basic which I've heard is better than Amos! I've bought BB2.1 and I'm looking forward to spending the next year learning it. Over the years that I've been using the Amiga, I've learned all sorts of things to get the most from the machine and its software. From learning all about DOS/WBench to High Level Programming (AMOS Pro - High Level means it's used by a lot of people.). So there ya go. It's only a short outline of what I've achieved on the Amiga. Obvioulsy there's a lot more to it than what I've typed above, but I'm sure ya all get the general idea. @4 There now follows a complete listing of ALL my Amiga Titles to date (May 3rd 1996): @5 Music ~~~~~@3 Utah Saints - What Can You Do For Me (2 disks/2 meg) A sequenced sample of the single plus some other bits on the disks too. My first demo. (Reviewed in PUBLIC DOMAIN magazine issue 5) Michael Jackson - Black Or White (2 disks) Clarence Carter - Strokin` (2 disks) Neil - Hole In My Shoe (2 disks) Queen - A Kind Of Magic (3 disks) Erudites - Walk With An Erection (1 disk) Wonder-Dog - Ruff Mix (1 disk) Various - Thunderbirds Mix (2 disks) The Tams - Ain't Nothin Like Shaggin (2 disks) Yello - Oh Yeah Remix (2 disks) Various - Doctor Who Mix (1 disk) @5 All the above play as they load and do not require any extra memory. I would suggest an extra drive though. @3 Michael Jackson - The Mega Mix 1992 (3 disks) Sampled from my mega mix on audio cassette which took me over eight hours to mix. (Reviewed in CU AMIGA May 1992) @1 ______________________________________ @5 Slideshows ~~~~~~~~~~@3 Jungle Burger - Great Adult Cartoon Stuff (2 disks) Hellraiser 1&2 - Good quality slides (1 disk) (Reviewed in CU AMIGA 1992) MISERY - Ham pics from the movie (2 disks) @1 ______________________________________ @5 In The Mix ~~~~~~~~~~@3 Vol.1 - Get Ready For This and also Jack To The Sound Of The Underground Remixes (1 disk - 1 meg) Vol.2 - Bungle Is Flying (1 disk - 1 meg Chip) Now this is a bit of a comedy double act! Rainbow meet The Shamen! Here George, Zippy and Bungle shout out...Oooh I like E's to the Shamen backing track of E's are goode! Quite well done and fun too. Includes a Chart Show type of Anim with the Rainbow cast dancing. Etc. Vol.3 - No Limit (A1200 Mix) (2 disks- 2 meg Chip) 2 Unlimited get the treatment this time. A great mix which lasts for over nine minutes !!! Also includes samples from Pump Up The Volume, I've Got The Power Vol.4 - Tribal Dance (A1200 Mix) (2 disks- 2 meg Chip) 2 Unlimited get another doze of Amiga mixing! This has superb sound quality an it's another monster mix. @3 Vol.5 - What Can You Do For Me '93 (2 disks- 2 meg Chip) Various artists get in on this MegaMix. In fact over TEN artists in total. All included in a brand new version of the UTAH SAINTS hit WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR ME ? Again it has great sound quality and loads of stereo effects. Vol.6 - Fade To Grey '93 Remix (2 Disks- 2 meg Chip) (The A1200 Version only - AGA only) In 1993 the BASSHEADS remixed the classic VISAGE 1980 hit FADE TO GREY. Now it wasn't a hit! So I decided to do my promotional bit and work on an Amiga version of the BASSHEADS remixes. Again great sound quality and a great mix too. This demo also contains a great AGA picture from the original 12inch sleeve! (Digistised by myself with my friend's V-Lab and A4000/040) Vol.7 - React/Amnesia Remixed (2 Disks- 1 Meg Chip) Ultra Sonic get the treatment in this music demo. First one coded with Amos! Scrolly message and neat piccy shown while the mix plays along. Excellent sound quality as always. @5 All of my `IN THE MIX' demos were created with OctaMed (various versions and contain stereo sound and fx) @5 Other Stuff ~~~~~~~~~~~@3 Med Samples 1 - Sound FX Samples for MED (1 disk) Some nice sound FX for your anims. Etc. Harry Enfield - Totally Poptastic Mate! (2 disks) Sampled sketches from the man himself. Funny. Danger Mouse - Digitised, animated demo (1 disk/1meg) A mini Amiga Cartoon. Digitised from The Four Tasks Of Danger Mouse. Every frame has been touched up and is displayed in 16 grey shades. Neat cartoon. The T.V. Morph! - BBC morph digitised (1 disk/1meg) See Smith and Jones morph into Noel Edmonds, Sharon from Eastenders. Etc. You've seen it on T.V. Now see it on your Amiga. @1 ______________________________________ @4 So there you have a listing of all my PD Titles from a few years ago. Next I shall list all my more important titles that are the ones which mean the most to me. @3 Skid Marks Pop Quiz - My first ever game written with CanDo. DMC Registered - First version of DMC (Disk Mag Creator). DMC DELUXE - 3 new versions. Ultimate Quiz 1 - My first game written with Amos Pro. Ultimate Quiz 2 - A better game than quiz 1 in many ways. 4 Data Disks for above - 4 New Data Disks for Ult. Quiz 2. DMC V2.0 - Enhanced version with loads of new features. DMC GOLD V2.3 - Now with printed manual and new features. Amoszine - I was editor of many issues and coded the actual driver from issue 5 onwards. @4 Now in 1996 I plan to release more Data Disks for Quiz II and I'm currently working on a graphic adventure game called `Roswell' which should be released this year. I'll also be continuing as editor of Amoszine Disk Mag (now onto issue 12). There are too many reviews and coverdisks/CD's containing my software to remember, but the two I am most impressed with are:- Ult Quiz 1 and 2 both receiving 95% each. All available from F1 Licenceware! Skid Marks Pop Quiz! Don't laugh, it was my first game. DMC Registered and DMC Deluxe were sold by myself and due to many requests from DMC users, I kept on updating the code with new features. Ultimate Quiz 1 was sold by myself for about a year and then I passed it over to F1 Licenceware to deal with the distribution. From that day on, all of my titles were handled by F1. A good move! I suppose I've created quite a lot of Amiga Demos and Software over the last few years and I'm glad I did. I won't be leaving the Amiga in the near future either. I plan to stand by this great machine through thick and thin. I have made a lot of friends through the Amiga and it is their help and support that has made me continue to create more software. :^) I hope you have enjoyed this article and I would like to say thanx for reading this far. If you have never did anything with your Amiga, apart from playing games, start learning and you too could have your own list of YOUR titles one day.