RVG Interviews Aetherbyte Studios.

[zapiy]

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zapiy

What was the inspiration behind Atlantean?

Andrew

I'm tired of outer space shooters.   I like them, but holy crap, it's like, all they ever made in the 80s.
Every shooter is space ships, asteroids, star fields, and crap.   It's getting old.   PC Engine had this love/hate game called Deep Blue that took place under water.
Combine that with my love of Defender, and Ecco the Dolphin, and you get Atlantean.   
Dolphins are awesome.  Dolphins that fire lazers are even better.

PaulDeep Blue inspires everything in life.


zapiy
 
Can you share any sneak peaks or info of Grelox that you have in dev for the PC?

Paul

I'm trying to be fairly open with the development process on my Blog, but for those who do not know about it, the basic premise of the game is a cross between Zillion, Dizzy and a hint of Metroid. I want to get the feel of the old 8-bit platforming action games but adding puzzle solving and the need to actually draw a map. I miss those days.

Andrew

Nooo.  Only what is on Paul's blog.


zapiy

Inferno for the MSX2/2+ looks fantastic, where in the development timeline is this?

Andrew

It's a demo right now.  The engine is going to get some polish/reworking, and then I will need to spend time doing level layouts, and more music.   The engine itself is probably somewhere around about 75% done.

Paul

I've drawn a lot of the art for enemies and suchlike. But there's always more to do, and sprite animation can take a lot of time because I find it quite difficult.

When i met Arkhan he said he went from C to asm mid process.  I'm wondering what tools/compilers he recommends for beginning TG-16 developers.  Also, how hard it was to transition to asm.
Andrew: You're stuck with HuC.   Use it to learn the ropes, but then, start using ASM where you can.   It's not hard to transition to ASM if you take your time and use a solid book to explain how the instructions work, and how to do some simple things.   Without a good explanation, you're kind of hosed.    I recommend the book Assembly Lines for the Apple II.   It uses a 6502, so the concepts in it apply still.   There is also the 6502 book by Leventhal.  It does a good job of explaining the basics.   
Avoid trying to just dig into someone else's code.   Undocumented assembly looks horrible, will confuse you, and won't really teach you anything.  This is especially the case if you're looking at super optimized assembly that is making use of various programming tricks.  Starting off with tricks and shortcuts is a great way to set yourself up for a mess later on.

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Notes: Our various websites.
Aetherbyte: www.aetherbyte.com
Aetherbyte's Blog: http://aetherbyte.blogspot.co.uk/
Paul's Blog: http://chunkypixels.blogspot.co.uk
Sunteam: www.sunteam.co.uk
The PC Engine Software Bible: www.pcengine.co.uk
Paul's YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/sunteam
Paul's Facebook page: www.facebook.com/sunteamretro
The PC Engine Software Bible Facebook page: www.facebook.com/obeypcengine
PC Engine Homebrew Facebook page: www.facebook.com/pcenginehomebrew

[Shadowrunner]

Great interview, and nice detailed answers  :21:

[zapiy]

Thats what i thought, but Andrew answered it anyway..

[AmigaJay]

Good interview, they seem nice down to earth guys.

[TrekMD]

This was a nice interview!  I've updated the Interviews tab to have this one appear. 

[sunteam_paul]

Good interview, they seem nice down to earth guys.

Haha, we are

[zapiy]

Thanks Paul, great to hear you might consider a C64/Speccy game..

[sunteam_paul]

Thanks Paul, great to hear you might consider a C64/Speccy game..

I would, but I wouldn't hold your breath though!

[zapiy]

One can hope and should you ever perhaps RVG can help produce it!