Article from CU Amiga

[Edwinner]

Back in the ninetees I was a (lonely) AMOS programmer. In those days I had really spend a lot of time creating a game called "Snakeman" and placed it on Aminet (that was in 1995). The software was entitled as postcardware, because I was very curious how many people liked it and sent me a postcard. I just got one letter from someone who asked me what the cheats are in the game. I was very disappointed and I thought that the Amiga community didn't like it.

Until recently, I discovered that my game was reviewed in CU Amiga in Feb 1998 (page 67) and got 5 stars! Since I had a subscription on Amiga Format I had never seen this article. :dry:

So is there anyone who has this magazine and want to scan this page and e-mail it to me? I would really appreciate it, because I am still very curious what they wrote about it.

[TiredOfLife]

Just downloaded it and gave it a quick blast, excellent.
Never seen this before.
I think there is a link somewhere on this site to a site with scans of Amiga mags.

[AlexJ]

Hi Edwinner and welcome to the Classicamiga forum. I don't myself have the issue you're looking for but I know there's a couple of guys on the forum that have fairly large CU Amiga collections - hopefully one of them will have the issue (and article in particular you're looking for) Congratulations on getting 5 stars - I'll have to try the game when I get a chance.

[Puni/Void]

Hi there Edwinner!

Welcome to the Classicamiga forum! I'm very interested in trying out that game you wrote in AMOS. I do a bit of coding in AMOS from time to time myself. It is a nice language for creating games. I'm heading off to Aminet now to get a copy of Snakeman. :)

Sadly I don't have access to my collection of CU Amiga issues here, but as Alex wrote, there are probably others on the forum that has this issue. Good luck with searching!

Hope you will enjoy your stay at Classicamiga. :)

[Submeg]

Wow that's pretty cool to know someone that actually coded some stuff that was reviewed. :thumbs: Good stuff! Oh and welcome!

[Harrison]

Hi Edwinner and welcome to the forum.

I'm sure I have that issue of Cu Amiga. I will have a look, and if I have I will scan the article in for you, and everyone else here, to read.

[Edwinner]

Hi everybody.

Thank you for the enthusiastic reactions.
You should all really try the game :)


@Harrison: I hope that you could do that for me.

[Puni/Void]

Hi Edwinner,

Have tried out Snakeman and I enjoyed playing it. It was surely a new twist to melt Pacman and Snake into one package. The game looks and feels good as well.

Have you written any other software using AMOS?

[AlexJ]

Screenshots now available here (http://www.classicamiga.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3167&Itemid=86)

Enjoyable game by the way, a cool idea and very nicely done.

[Demon Cleaner]

Hi Edwinner, welcome to the boards. Looks nice the game, haven't tried it yet, but saw the screenshots Alex added to the main site's game section. Perhaps Alex should attach the .adf file here?

[Puni/Void]

Here's an .lha version of the file:

Snakeman (http://www.aminet.net/game/misc/snakeman.lha)

:)

[Harrison]

Nice to see the game entered on the main site. Good work Alex :thumbs:

I located my copy of CU Amiga Magazine Feb 98 and have scanned the review in for you. You can all view the review on the main site on the snakeman (http://www.classicamiga.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3167&Itemid=86) page.

The review mentions the game is a direct copy of a C64 game called Oil's Well. Is this correct Edwinner? Did you have anything to do with the C64 game? Or was it just an inspiration for you creating the Amiga game?

Also is there any more information you can give me for the site about the game Edwinner? Does it have any cheats built in? Any facts about the game. How long did it take to create? Was anyone other than yourself involved in the creation of the game? What got you started creating the game? etc.

Would you be interested in writing a short article for the site about the game?

I will also be adding the game as a download on the same page, using the link PG has provided from Aminet.

Maybe we should use Snakeman as our next hiscore competition?

[AlexJ]

Yeah I thought it reminded me of a C64 game I'd played, checked out Oil's Well (it's credited in the readme if you look guys) on Mobygames and it's simular but there, you have a robot arm where as this one uses a pacmansnake.

A really postive review from CU Amiga - Congratulations!

Also anyone know how to make it into a bootable .adf file? Would be quite cool to have it easily accessable in this way.

[Demon Cleaner]

Also anyone know how to make it into a bootable .adf file?Have to look in my PD collection.

[Harrison]

I did consider making a bootable ADF of the game. Its quite easy. Will set one up later and add it to the page. :)

[Edwinner]

Thank you very much Harrison for scanning this article for me! :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs:

I guess this was some kind of recognition that I was hoping for.
Wow, it was even game of the month!! :) :)


Ok, some more information about the game.
It is based around "Oil's Well" on the C64. I was completely addicted to that game at the time (and to Rick Dangerous :) ), but there was no similar game on the Amiga. So I thought I make it myself as an Amos Professional project.

I think it started in 1994 with the aid of a book "Ultimate Amos" by Jason Holborn. I didn't have much time because I had to finish my Physics study. That was finished in Feb. 1995 and I had no job, so there was much time to create this game. I asked some friends to help me with it (mainly for graphics and sound), but no-one volunteerd. So, I made it all by myself. The sound that Snakeman makes when he eats a point is actually made by my own tongue. The sound that you hear when the slow-walking baddies is over is my mothers cooking-alarm. The total development time is around 400 hours :o. I was completely surprised that it took so long to complete.

A special Level Creator was made to create the 10 levels and there was also a Snakeman version where you could collect money and buy (and sell) some stuff in a shop when you have finished a level (like Galaga). You could buy/sell: bullets, mines, gates, armour, time and lives. Later on I removed it because it didn't add anything to the playability. There was also a NTSC version, but I dropped it because I had to design each level twice. Initially the game was called PacSnake, but for some reason (I don't know why anymore) the name was changed to Snakeman. I still have the source code of some of these early versions. There was also a cheat in the game to test the levels for their difficulty. Pressing Shift-Fx in the main menu would start the game on level X. But I removed this in the final release (maybe I shouldn't do that). So there is no cheat in the game anymore. (Maybe I can recompile the cheated version and upload it). The levels are stored in the Levels directory (seems logical :p ) as an Amos bank, but I did not want anybody to hack it. Therefore there game checks if there has been a filename renaming and there is a checksum calculation on the level information.

Some of my friends have tested the game and provided some feedback. I know that one of them has actually finished the game completely (the only feedback that he gave was that he was dissapointed that the final screen was not so fancy :dry: ). I told him that I didn't spent much time in the end-screen because I thought that nobody could finish level 10 (at least I can't). He did a pretty good job to finish the game without a trainer.

After releasing the game as postcardware on Aminet I received exactly one letter of someone who asked what the cheats in the game are. That was the only reaction I got.

Finally, I am not expecting any postcards anymore, but I hope you will have an enjoyable time when playing it.

[Harrison]

Hopefully once we have all had chance to play the game some comments will be left, and maybe even a proper review on the classicamiga Snakeman page.

I've yet to try the game myself, but will when I get a chance.

If it is OK with you, can I use some of your comments about the game on classicamiga?

[Edwinner]

Yes, you may use these comments on Classicamiga.

[Demon Cleaner]

The game is even listed at Obligement (http://obligement.free.fr/articles/listejeuxamigas.php). They really have a huge database. It's shown in 2 words though, Snake Man.

[AlexJ]

The game is even listed at Obligement (http://obligement.free.fr/articles/listejeuxamigas.php). They really have a huge database. It's shown in 2 words though, Snake Man.

Wow! 11,040 games excluding Data Disks! Awesome database, shame it's only basic infomation on each game though.

[Demon Cleaner]

shame it's only basic infomation on each game though.Just imagine to enter every screen and info to those games, already have enough to do on the commercial games. But the db is really huge.

[Harrison]

It is useful as a resource to check we haven't missed any commercial games once we have completed all the game sections. Once the commercial games are all on the site we could then add some more of the best PD and shareware titles using such databases for reference.

[Demon Cleaner]

It is useful as a resource to check we haven't missed any commercial games once we have completed all the game sections.That's what I had in mind. If the whole section is finished, I will do an overhaul of the commercial games, using this db.