From Phillip L. Ramsay
February 5th, 2009

The publication order of my games (Along with the systems I used to create 
them) was as follows:
SYS (Save Your Sister) a basic game designed to be easily solvable. (GAC)
The Weirdstone (GAC)
The Sphere of Q'Li (GAC)
Hades (GAC)
The Eunuchs' Ball (Adults Only!) (GAC)
City of Shadows (ADLAN) 
The Assassins' Guild (a 2-part game) (PAW)
The Assassins' Guild 2 (again, a 2-part game) (PAW)

The first five were originally published by Debbie Howard on her 
'Dragonsoft' label. Some people mistakenly thought that they were PD since 
Debbie also ran 'Adventure PD', charging £1 for each cassette or collection 
of games ordered.

Eventually, Debbie closed Adventure PD, and her Dragonsoft label, which 
meant that there was — then — no way to obtain my games.

However, I became a playtester for 'The Adventure Workshop', and the owner 
offered to publish my games on the proviso that he felt they were worth 
publishing. I apparently passed this assessment, as he did indeed publish 
them, and was happy to publish any more I might write.

That was how the other games came to be written; Debbie Howard was given a 
job as the adventure game columnist for Amstrad Computer User.

One of the games she reviewed was my own: 'The Eunuchs' Ball', which she 
gave a rating of 89%. 

As a result, The Adventure Workshop was deluged with orders for that 
particular game. I rated it as Adults Only, and although when people asked 
me why I wrote it, I replied: 'Because I'd never written an adults only 
game before', that was true - but not the whole truth.

I'd played some 'adults only' games and found that their plots were weak 
(or non-existent), and the only difference between these games and 
'ordinary' ones was that you could type in F*ck <character> and you would 
be allowed to.

In my game, I tried to inject humour into everything; typing in F*ck 
<woman> in one particular situation was catered for, but when engaged in, 
the woman yelled rape and the police came to cart you away, with my 
comment: 'and I've no sympathy for you.', and that was end of game. I 
didn't want my game to imply I was condoning rape or other non-consensual 
sexual activity.

There were lots of sexual references, and one of the subquests was to find 
a vibrator - but when it was found, wouldn't you believe it.....batteries 
were not included, sparking a sub-sub-quest.....

Ultimately, I tried hard not to include anything which would be considered 
offensive, and to keep the whole think tasteful. In her review, Debbie 
described it as: 'full of Carry-On style bawdiness...' which I thought was 
quite a fair assessment of the game.  Perhaps the best indicator of how 
well or poorly I succeeded in my ambition to write an adults only game and 
not be offensive is the fact that The Adventure Workshop did not receive 
one complaint regarding the game.

I was later told that 'The Eunuchs' Ball' was The Adventure Workshop's 
best-selling game ever. Many Amstrad games were converted to other formats, 
and I believe that many of my games were released in Spectrum format. There 
were some of my games which released and could be played under emulation on 
the PC. I believe the emulation program was present on t he disk.

Ultimately, after several years, The Adventure Workshop closed down, and 
the distribution rights for my games reverted to me.

As far as I am aware, my games are no longer available, and if anyone is 
selling/distributing them, they are doing so illegally. Some people do 
publish what they term 'abandonware' games, where the firms who released 
the games have moved on so far that they have abandoned any interest in 
prosecuting those who may make the games available. Personally, I would be 
unhappy if I found anyone was distributing my games without having had the 
courtesy to contact me and see if I mind.

'The Assassins' Guild' game plot came to me one day as I was returning home 
on a bus. I was staring blankly out of a window when the thought came to 
me: 'Wouldn't it be funny if an apprentice assassin had to prevent a 
fully-accredited assassin from assassinating someone as his test to 
continue to the next year of his apprenticeship?'

For me, creating the map and the problems the adventurer would have to 
solve and programming them was the easy part of the process. The difficult 
part was always thinking up a plot/storyline. By the time I got off the bus 
around 20 minutes later, the plot for the whole game was clear in my mind, 
and as soon as I got home I made a coffee and began creating the map for 
the game, and jotting down ideas for problems as they occurred to me.

One (for me) amusing thing which I do recall about writing my games was 
when I was actually at the keyboard, typing away. Cups of coffee would 
mysteriously appear next to me without my being aware of it. Usually when I 
noticed them, they would be cold, too. My wife would provide these, but I'd 
be so wrapped up in the creative process that I'd not even notice she had 
entered or left the room, much less that she had brought me a (then hot) 
drink.

The second Assassins' Guild game was written mainly on the PC, using an 
Amstrad PAW emulator to compile it. I remember the speed of the compilation 
always amazed me. On the PC, the game would be compiled in around 40 
seconds. On the Amstrad, it would be close to 15 minutes!

When completed, I used a program which changed the format of the PCs 3.5" 
disk into one that the Amstrad could read (using a 3.5" drive as a second 
drive under ROMDOS) and therefore allowing me to copy the source file over 
to the Amstrad, to be compiled and playtested before being published.

This last game, The Assassins' Guild 2, was the most complex game I ever 
wrote. In fact, each game I wrote was more complex than its predecessor, 
and in many ways I enjoyed presenting myself with ever more difficult 
programming problems to solve.

Both Assassins' Guild games took 9 months from conception to realisation (7 
months writing/programming, and around 2 months for playtesting and 
bug-removal, and last minute additions) - which is 18 months where I was 
working 7 days a week programming, refining the plot, adding new 
difficulties and sub-quests when my muse suddenly smiled upon me.....

When I looked at my 'to do' list and found everything crossed out and 
ticked (depending on my mood!) I would realise that the game was finished, 
and ready to go to TAW for final testing and suggestions, I'd find that a 
feeling of satisfaction would envelop me.

Perhaps, one day, I'll try running the source files through WinPaw and if 
there are no significant problems/difficulties, allow the games to be 
distributed. This is, of course, very much dependant on time and other r/l 
issues.

The final game of the Assassins' Guild trilogy (and it was always envisaged 
as a trilogy) was clear in my mind; the plot had been in place since I 
began the second game. In some ways it was an inversion of the first game, 
and I had thought of presenting some of the same problems but their 
solutions would be fundamentally different from in the first game. However, 
there were no written schemes or plans. Everything was kept in my head 
until I actually began creating the map and writing the location 
descriptions.

The emphasis of the game would be humour. My first few games took 
themselves very seriously, perhaps too seriously. Once I introduced humour 
(in The Eunuchs' Ball), I realised that this was the niche which I wished 
my games to inhabit. Sequences which made people laugh loud and long would 
be replayed and returned to, time after time, and certainly, I enjoyed 
creating the games much more when I was injecting humour into them.

Unfortunately, this third (and final) of the Assassins' Guild games was 
never written due to the intrusion of r/l problems. I do regret the fact 
that the third game never saw the light of day, and I must confess that I 
have occasionally had the urge to write that game, even now, just for my 
own amusement. However, that would demand a considerable investment of time 
and work, and I'm not sure I could commit myself to it as things stand 
right now.

At the same time as writing these games, I also wrote serialised adventure- 
themed stories which were published monthly in an adventure-game specific 
magazine.

I also wrote a full-length occult/horror story around this time, but which 
was not published until 2002, for various reasons. (In case anyone is 
interested, it's called 'The Enchanters' Torment', and the ISBN is: 
0-595-23064-4).

It is good occasionally to think back to those days. When writing games, I 
really did love the whole creative process. I knew that my games were 
playable, and more importantly, were excellent value for money. The ethic 
of The Adventure Workshop was good games for a good price. I think my 
'Assassins' Guild' games cost £6 each, and when you stop to think they came 
on a 3" Amstrad disk (and those non-standard disks cost between £3 - £4 
pounds depending on the supplier) we were virtually giving the games away. 
A mainstream software house would have charged considerably more.

More than anything, we (The Adventure Workshop and I) wanted to give back 
something to the Adventure scene which had given us so much enjoyment over 
the years, and I believe that we more than achieved that ambition.

Phillip L. Ramsay