Do you know anything about the history of these games?
Moderator: Alastair
Do you know anything about the history of these games?
The following can be thought of as the same game though there are some differences between them, e.g., character names and how you obtain money.
The Cricklewood Incident - Dragon & Spectrum - Salamander Software
Pythonesque (or The Cricklewood Incident [1]) - C64 - Supersoft
Streets of London - C64 - Supersoft
The Kilburn Encounter - Oric - Tansoft
[1] This is the sub-title and not an alternative name.
I have tried to find the release history of these games so as to determine which version can be thought of as the original, then I can amend the site's database accordingly. However I have not been successful, so I throw the question out to the members of this forum. Does anyone here know anything about the history of these games?
The Cricklewood Incident - Dragon & Spectrum - Salamander Software
Pythonesque (or The Cricklewood Incident [1]) - C64 - Supersoft
Streets of London - C64 - Supersoft
The Kilburn Encounter - Oric - Tansoft
[1] This is the sub-title and not an alternative name.
I have tried to find the release history of these games so as to determine which version can be thought of as the original, then I can amend the site's database accordingly. However I have not been successful, so I throw the question out to the members of this forum. Does anyone here know anything about the history of these games?
- Gunness
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Re: Do you know anything about the history of these games?
Fascinating - this type of question is one of the reasons why I love being associated with a site like this
My impression has always been that Pythonesque was a hacked version of Streets, given the theme and lack of an official license.
The games were co-written by Grant Privett. I found a 50-something UK resident with that name on the net and have emailed him to see if he's the right guy. Hopefully he is.
My impression has always been that Pythonesque was a hacked version of Streets, given the theme and lack of an official license.
The games were co-written by Grant Privett. I found a 50-something UK resident with that name on the net and have emailed him to see if he's the right guy. Hopefully he is.
Re: Do you know anything about the history of these games?
I think it more likely that it was called Pythonesque but had to change its name precisely because it did not have an official license (see HitchHiker-64, another Supersoft title - it looks like they were a very naughty boy). Let's hope that the Grant Privett you contacted is the right man and that he has the answers.Gunness wrote:My impression has always been that Pythonesque was a hacked version of Streets, given the theme and lack of an official license.
- Gunness
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Re: Do you know anything about the history of these games?
He is indeed the right one, so I hope to have an answer very soon.
- Gunness
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Re: Do you know anything about the history of these games?
Grant has given me a long, eloborate reply, which I'll hopefully be able to mirror on the site, but the gist of it is:
- Pythonesque was (as you rightly guessed) written first, originally on a PET.
- Supersoft picked it up for commercial release as Streets of London.
- Cricklewood Incident was written for the Dragon
- The Oric and Spectrum versions were more polished, with substantial game play changes. They never saw any money for the latter.
- Apparently an Amiga version was created, too, by his co-author.
The odd thing is that the Oric version has a different title than the Speccy (Kilburn Encounter vs Cricklewood). Grant openly admits that his recollections are a bit hazy here and there.
Some of the explanation might boil down to the fate of Salamander Software. What happened to them? You made a few comments about them on the Cricklewood page.
- Pythonesque was (as you rightly guessed) written first, originally on a PET.
- Supersoft picked it up for commercial release as Streets of London.
- Cricklewood Incident was written for the Dragon
- The Oric and Spectrum versions were more polished, with substantial game play changes. They never saw any money for the latter.
- Apparently an Amiga version was created, too, by his co-author.
The odd thing is that the Oric version has a different title than the Speccy (Kilburn Encounter vs Cricklewood). Grant openly admits that his recollections are a bit hazy here and there.
Some of the explanation might boil down to the fate of Salamander Software. What happened to them? You made a few comments about them on the Cricklewood page.
Re: Do you know anything about the history of these games?
Because Kilburn's close to Cricklewood? (They are areas within London, the distance between them is about two miles.)Gunness wrote:The odd thing is that the Oric version has a different title than the Speccy (Kilburn Encounter vs Cricklewood). Grant openly admits that his recollections are a bit hazy here and there.
Salamander stopped trading in either late 1984 or early 1985. I think Microdeal took over the distribution of some of Salamander's titles, but I would have to do some digging through some magazines I have from that time to find out any more information.Gunness wrote:Some of the explanation might boil down to the fate of Salamander Software. What happened to them? You made a few comments about them on the Cricklewood page.
- Gunness
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Re: Do you know anything about the history of these games?
I think it's odd because - according to Grant - both versions were substantially rewritten from the earlier C64 & Dragon versions. Hence I'd expect them to share names.Alastair wrote:Because Kilburn's close to Cricklewood? (They are areas within London, the distance between them is about two miles.)Gunness wrote:The odd thing is that the Oric version has a different title than the Speccy (Kilburn Encounter vs Cricklewood). Grant openly admits that his recollections are a bit hazy here and there.
Re: Do you know anything about the history of these games?
Is Grant saying that the Spectrum version of the Cricklewood Incident is substantially different from the Dragon version? I cannot check this because WoS does not have a copy.Gunness wrote:I think it's odd because - according to Grant - both versions were substantially rewritten from the earlier C64 & Dragon versions. Hence I'd expect them to share names.
There is also mention of a BBC version which I have been unable to locate, did Grant mention the fate of this release?