The Last Crusade

A GUARDIAN MOON CRUSADE IN A LEISURE WEEKEND
by Richard Karsmakers

As we left Mirrorsoft, the slight drizzle had stopped - lucky
for us, as the people at Mirrorsoft had told us we had to cross
the Thames to get to the nearest Tube Station: Blackfrairs on the
North of the river.
The sky hung threateningly above us, as if telling us that ONE
wrong movement of us might very well result in getting soaking
wet throughout. It was hideously grey, and I must admit that this
kind of weather in combination with the foul stench of London
traffic was almost enough to make me feel slightly depressed.
When we saw someone selling fresh vegetables on Blackfrairs
Bridge, my stomach started signalling me to help to get rid of
this peculiar Vitamin C deficiency we probably had. So we bought
some fresh apples, which tasted really great.

My newly acquired 'Imageworks' watch (which we got ONE only -
sorry Stefan) told me that is was six when we arrived at
Blackfriars Tube Station. Since fate had decided that we should
leave Mirrorsoft in the middle of London rush hour, it was
frightfully busy at Blackfrairs. We had to take the
Counterclockwise Circle Line to King's Cross/St. Pancras, and
every single tube we saw that went there was filled to the roof
with commuters that looked threateningly as us (and, more
specifically, as our large rucksacks) as we wanted to go in.
Since the tubes were leaving at a rate of about two in five
minutes, we decided to wait for the opportune moment - and enter
a train that was less busy.
It didn't take long before it came around. We hopped in it, and
got out at King's Cross/St. Pancras some time later to switch to
the Piccadilly Line Northbound. Just one stop further would be
Caledonian Road Tube Station, where we had to get out and visit
my brother Stuart who lives there and who had kindly allowed us
to stay at his (and his wife's) place for three nights.

Short family note:

My real mum divorced my dad in '81 and last year October he
remarried this very nice English lady by the name of Sally that
he knew already for 25-odd years (who was also divorced). She
really is much nicer than my 'real mum', but this is of no
significance to this note. This marriage, however, suddenly gave
me one brother (Stuart) and one sister (Ruth) whereas I used to
be an only child. Since I look upon Sally as my true mum, I look
upon Stuart as a true brother: Hence me calling him 'brother'
instead of the hated term 'steph-brother'.

18:55

We arrive at Camden Road 354 Flat 4 - the place where we will
spend almost three days of nice leisure time without having to do
much visiting and the kind.
It is a cosy but kinda small house, consisting of just one
bedroom, one bathroom, one loo, one kitchen and one living room -
and the hall, of course, in which we now stand.
A cat curls its tail around our legs as we drop down and
rucksacks and let the sweat dry up.
We're almost dying of thirst.
Stefan seems to be totally absorbed by an enormous record
collection that fills one entire wall and that most surely
contains about 2,000 records...

Richard

19:35

Stefan Edberg has just beaten John McEnroe and forced him out of
the Wimbledon tournament!

Stuart

19:36

Hi!

Wendy (Stuart's wife, ED.)

20:30

I just came out of the shower, which almost fried me alive. I
really couldn't get the hang of the controls (Stefan seemed to
have no problems with it, as he already had a shower earlier) so
I carefully washed myself under boiling hot water.
Ouch!

Richard

21:47

We have eaten. Since Stuart and Wendy happen to be vegetarians,
they treated us to vegetarian nutroast, a mixture of several
fresh vegetables and chili beans.
Very good, but too much.
The desert will include ice cream. Yummy yummy!!

Richard

Since Wendy runs a local club (with music and all), the both of
them went out at about 10 PM, and we left as well.
But we didn't join them at their club - we went for a nice
evening stroll through Camden Town.
It didn't take long for us to discover a nice pub called "Old
Kings Head", a couple of hundred metres down the road south. It
was very cosy and we had a couple of drinks there - Stefan drank
some Gin Tonics and I drank some bitter.
The evening was nice and cool, and at 23:10 we came back at the
house - which, by the way, is nicknamed "Wend'an'Stu's House of
Musical Fun".
We spread out the couch and Stefan's portable mattress and soon
went to some deep, deep sleep. Finally, one night that we could
just think of SLEEP without having to get up at eight or nine in
the morning!

Saturday, July 8th 1989

10:15

We wake up, and feel rather lazy and sleepy still. Since we do
not know where the edible stuff in this house is, and since both
Stuart and Wendy are still sleeping nicely, we consider it to be
a good idea to split silently and get some breakfast along the
way into town.
Today, we'll go and walk a bit in London centre, and try to get
our hands on some nice CDs and God-knows-what we will more find
in this city. The first leisure day - a day we will surely
thoroughly enjoy!

Richard

11:15

We have breakfast - or, rather, we drink some soda pop from the
local grocery store. No food, yet.
In England, they have a VERY nice drink called "Cherry 7-Up".
It's the only thing that beats Cola and I surely like this first
can - I am sure that many will follow if only I can get my hands
on them!
Stefan thinks it sucks, and still only drinks Coke.

Richard

11:33

Caledonian Road Tube Station. It is very, very quiet. We're not
at all used to this, but I can't say I hate it.
I guess I kinda like it. Now you can at least sit in the subway
decently.
Also, we don't have to carry those damn rucksacks around today:
We left them at Stuart's place, and now only carry some money and
stuff we need to interview and photograph Alex Herbert who we
will visit this evening.

Richard

12:30

We have just had some TRUE breakfast - which means a couple of
egg- and tuna sandwiches - after visiting Tower Records on
Piccadilly Circus.
Tower records is indeed huge, but I had imagined it to be even
better. There weren't many CDs that I wanted to buy, and only a
couple of T-shirts. I got a CD of Acid Reign (one of the best I
now have; it's called "The Fear") and one of Venom ("Japanese
Assault"; a rare one). I also bought T-shirts of Metallica and
Yngwie Malmsteen (yeah!). I also started collecting picture post
cards with Iron Maiden album covers on them!
We now walk down Piccadilly, towards Green Park Tube Station.

Richard

12:47

We have arrived at Oxford Circus Tube Station. To the east lies
Oxford Street, the street that we roamed through in a haze of
heat and heavy rucksacks on last Tuesday already.
But now we have more time - and no rucksacks to drag around!
Yippie!
It is very busy on Oxford Street - everybody seems to want to
enjoy these rare hot days in English summer.

Richard

14:05

We walk out of a major bookstore on the east side of Oxford
Street.
Before we visited the bookstore, we paid a visit to another one
of the major record stores here on Oxford Street: HMV. Stefan
bought a CD of Gandalf there, that he had never heard of before:
"Journey to an Imaginary Land". Also, we brought a visit to a
very small alley to the south of Oxford Street, where there was a
tiny shop that was specialised in heavy metalware and rare heavy
metal records and CDs. I bought a Japanese imported version of
the "One" CD-single there (which came with a free sweatband).
Apart from the regular "One" CD-single songs, "Breadfan" is also
located on it, as well as a pre-version of "One". By the way: The
CD is red.
In the bookstore, Stefan bought a large picture book of Jean
Michel Jarre (featuring some excellent pics of the concerts he
did in Houston/Lyon and China) as well as parts I and II of
"Mordant's Need" by Stephen Donaldson. I bought a book with
miscellaneous short tales by the same author.

Richard

14:23

We decided to sit down for a while, and a very comfortable place
to do that was on the edge of a fountain on the square near
Tottenham Court Road Tube Station, on the crossway of Charing
Cross Road and Oxford Street.
The sound of the fountain is rather quieting, and we look at the
people and the traffic of London. There's really interesting folk
about here, varying from real Japanese girls that walk on those
funny wooden shoes to long-legged blond German female tourists
that sit down a couple of yards away from us.
We are drooling at some of the pictures contained in the Jean
Michel Jarre book, which are truly amazing. When Jean Michel
Jarre will play in France next year - on the occasion of the
celebration of the French Revolution - we will surely go there!
Everything seems to be getting wet here. It's not the fountain.
It's not any rain (for it is dry). It's our drooling.

15:03

We're hiding from a vicious shower of rain, somewhere before an
office in Oxford Street. We have already visited two software
retailers, and I have both told them that "I've heard that the
new CRL virus killer is very good for the Atari ST" (that's the
new name of the "Virus Destruction Utility", haha).
We have to take special care that the bag containing the Z88,
the walkmans and Stefan's fotocamera doesn't get wet because of
all this excess humidity. But the rain is nice and cool, and
temporarily gets rid of the stench of London city.

Richard

16:40

Carnaby Street - outside one of the many shops there.
When we were sitting at the fountain, Stefan spoke of a street
that he had heard of. A street filled with places where you could
buy T-shirts, posters and all kinds of other stuff.
"Carnaby Street," he mused, while looking to the sky as if
something divine could be found there, "that's the place."
Some quick searching on the map tought us that it was a road off
Regent Street, so we walked there.
The rain has eased away, and that's quite a comfort.
We had already popped into a massive number of stores - each of
them filled with people and merchandise, and each of them pretty
hot - as we stumbled upon the one I am now standing in front of.
At this very moment, Stefan is supervising the production of his
exclusive ST NEWS T-shirt; mine is already made.
If you happen to see any people walking around town wearing T-
shirts with "ST WHAT?" on the front and "ST F.CKING NEWS THAT'S
WHAT!" on the back - rest assure it's us!
Stefan also bought an "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" T-
shirt there somewhere.

Richard

17:20

At the other Pizza Hut in Oxford Street (last Thursday we
visited the one at the east end, now the one in the middle).
After finishing off Carnaby Street and making sure that none of
the shops had any Iron Maiden picture postcards left that I
didn't have, we listened to the violent barking of our stomachs.
We were surely hungry, and the perfect place to silence that
barking was a Pizza Hut.
Stefan now orders Priazzo, Garlic Bread and Basic Salad Bar, and
I order Spaghetti and some more Pasta. Of course, we also order
some Stella Artois and Big Cokes to help flushing down all these
gastronomic delights.
An interesting detail: We happened to sit down at a table where
that was a mains power socket nearby. So we are now recharging
the walkman batteries on Pizza Hut expenses!
Ha ha!

Richard

18:55

We are now walking towards Tottenham Court Road Tube Station,
where we will have to take the Northern Line to Clapham Common -
that's where we have to call Alex Herbert and where he will come
to pick us up.
We left the Pizza Hut at 18:50, and it must again be said: The
food is truly excellent there (as well as the mains sockets, but
that's an entirely different matter altogether).

Richard

19:19

It had started to rain, so we noticed as we surfaced at Clapham
Common and called Alex to come and pick us up. Unfortunately, he
couldn't come and fetch us by car, so I hope he'll be bringing a
fairly BIG umbrella to assure us not getting awfully wet.
Just now, we have been 'attacked' for the second time by poorly
looking drunken bums that want us to give them 20 Penny 'for the
bus'.
Bad luck, chaps.
"Maybe it was Alex Herbert in a good disguise, checking out if
we are nice guys" (Stefan quote).

Richard

19:32

As we stand gazing into the humidity of Clapham Common rain, we
notice two young men coming towards us. One of them is about just
as long as we are, with blond hair and some beard attempts at his
chin. The other one is smaller, has a very creative hairdo and is
wearing a Napalm Death T-shirt.
These couldn't be.....
Yes. They were: Alex Herbert and John Dower respectively - the
latter being the guy responsible for the graphics of Alex' first
game, Microdeal's "Goldrunner II".
They are indeed carrying a fairly big umbrella - that would turn
out to be more of a menace rather than something comfortable
because of various low tree branches mixed with the clumsiness of
the bearer (which was to be me).

Richard

19:54

We have arrived at a large house, probably of mid-nineteenth
century age. It's one of those high-ceilinged gentlemen's houses,
and that's where Alex and John live - at Alex' parents' place.
The room the two live is occupied mainly by two ST systems, a
bunk-bed and various other equipment including some pretty neat
audio stuff. Another mess - and that's precisely the working
environment these guys like (so does the editorial staff of ST
NEWS, by the way).

Richard

We sat down while John left the room to fetch us some tea. After
he returned and we felt the hot mugs in our hands, we started the
tape and recorded the following interview.

What are your date & place of birth?
Alex: The 14th of April 1969, London (the same birthday date as
Stefan and Ronny, our dear Nutty Norwegian distributor!!).
John: Somewhere in Buckinghamshire, on the 14th of September
1969.
How did you two end up in the computer industry?
Alex: Don't know.
John: Something we did as a hobby, just for the sake of it. And
then Alex wrote something on the QL that I thought was good
enough and he should try to get it published. That was
"Stoneraider II" - best game ever on the QL!
What are your other interests besides computing?
Alex: Sleeping....um....listening to music...sleep...more music,
watch the tele....more sleep.
John: I play the drums for a group called "The Demented
Avengers", but we need a guitarist. We play hardcore, but not as
fast as "Napalm Death".
What's the thing you dislike most about the software industry?
Alex: Apart from U.S. Gold? All this rubbish that is being
produced.
John: No. I dislike people who buy bad games. Not so much people
who make them.
Alex: I hate people who sort of nick games from the early
previews at the PCW stands, too. There was an early version of
"Goldrunner II" nicked, two months before it was even released.
What's the best game on the ST, do you think?
Alex: On the ST? I don't know. Er....probably "Xenon".
John: "Xenon" is very good. "Megaroids" or "Super Sprint" is my
favourite game.
Alex: "Carrier Command" was nice; I couldn't do it, but it was
nice.
And what about the lousiest game?
Alex: We just got "Vixen". Quite bad. One really bad one was
"Street Fighter". Those kind of things.
John: "ST Super Breakout".
Alex: (Nodding enthusiastically) That's quite bad as well.
What have you done on various computers up to now?
Alex: "BMX Rider" (a listing for the Dragon 32, in basic),
"Stoneraider II" (QL), "Goldrunner II" (ST) and, eventually,
"Guardian Moons".
John: Two.
John, have you ever done anything else except for doing graphics
for Alex?
John: No. Not really.
When did you two meet each other?
John & Alex: When we were about two.
John: Before computers were invented.
Alex: Before the abacus.
What do you think of ST NEWS?
Alex: What I've seen of it, ages ago, was very good.
Do you know a joke?
Alex: What's pink and orange, and lies on the bottom of a
swimming pool? .... A baby with burst armbands.
John: Let's call that a mutual joke; it's the only one we know.
What car do you drive?
Alex: I don't drive. He does (pointing to John).
John: Yes, I do. I drive a dirty, metallic blue 1.8 S Marine
called "Shamus" - which is based on the name of a Pink Floyd
track. Anyway, I can't afford to insure it at the moment or put
petrol in it or tax it. It's not in London anyway.
The tools that you use to program are, I suppose, "Devpac"?
Alex: Yeah. And "GfA Basic" for all sorts of things. I use the
latter to create graphics and tables and stuff.
John: I always use "NeoChrome".
OK; now for the 'favourites' department. What's your favourite
book?
Alex: "ST Internals". No.
John: You've only read one book, Alex.
Alex: No, I read lots of books. All of the books of Douglas
Adams. I haven't read the new one yet, but I've been told to do
so.
John: Mine is "Far from the Madding Crowd".
Favourite film?
Alex: "Weird Science" (the one in which schoolkids create Kelly
LeBrock - the perfect woman, ED.).
John: "The Graduate", followed by "Weird Science".
Alex: Or "Better off Dead".
OK. Favourite food.
John: Beans on toast. I only eat one meal a day and that's
breakfast.
Alex: Live Baby Lambs (John suggested this).
Favourite drink?
John: Tennents Super, hi hi (pointing to an enormous collection
of empty beer cans on one of the walls), or tea.
Alex: Merrydown Vintage Cider.
And your favourite band?
Alex & John (not without us even having hinted them): Apart from
Pink Floyd...
Alex: Pink Floyd, Rush.
John: Snuff, Blurt. They're excellent.
Who do you consider to be the most interesting person in the
software industry?
Alex: Most interesting? Eddie Scio. He wrote "Soccer" and
"Airball". He is completely....I don't know...something strange.
John: No. Yak; Yak the Hairy (Jeff Minter, ED.).
What are your main sources of inspiration?
Alex: Throwing things. That is why there are so many posters
here - they are to cover the holes and stains on the walls.
What are you working on at the moment?
Alex: "Guardian Moons" and "Eggbox Warrior".
John: Sssshhh...hush....hush....
Alex: They are for Microdeal, as far we know. It's just some new
scrolling that I've come up with and that looks like an eggbox.
What's your opinion about software piracy?
John: We think they're very clever, apart from the ones who just
buy the latest copy of "Procopy".
Alex: It depends on how much money we lose.
What do you think of hacker's demos, like those of "The Lost
Boys" or the "Union"?
Alex: Pretty good. The "Lost Boys" weren't too good to start
with, though. Until they stripped parts of my code from
everything.
What's your worst habit?
Alex: Throwing things, I guess. And not washing up and leaving
an awful mess in the kitchen.
John: It used to be throwing up, but I don't do that much. Now I
only wash up all the time. Further, I don't have any bad habits.
What's it like to program a sequel to a game like "Goldrunner",
that had set new standards on the ST?
Alex: We had to fight to get our scrolling as good as Steve
Bak's, and it was even more a fight to get our graphics as good
as Pete Lyon's.
John: Which they weren't (John did those graphics, ED.). Not
anywhere near.
Alex: There was this nice thing about the scenery disks. But the
Pete Lyon one was a bit too difficult. Actually, there are some
genitalia hidden in there, but most of them aren't used in the
game.
Did you get the scrolling from Steve Bak or did you program it
yourself?
Alex: Steve Bak asked me how I did it, and then went ahead and
wrote "Return to Genesis". I don't really scroll. It's a big
cheat. Good job we had 512 Kb for it is one big bitmap.
There are some rumours going around (which we heard at "The Lost
Boys", ED.) that you know something that nobody knows, Alex. It
has to do with 'DMA Blitting'. What's all this?
Alex: I can't get it to work now. You basically try to send data
through the DMA chip to the disk drive or whatever, without
having the drive connected, and then retrieve the data and change
the address. I think it's a 256 byte buffer, so you can move 256
bytes without losing processor time. But the last couple of times
I tried it, it didn't work. First time I tried it, it worked.
It's not that useful really, but I might use it in a demo one
day.

That ended the interview. By now, the tea had cooled down enough
to be drinkable, and while we drank it Alex showed us something
of "Guardian Moons". There wasn't much more to see than six
months ago, he told us. He also has a normal day's job, and he
doesn't work as much on "Guardian Moons" as he should - he has to
admit.
After that, we showed them some of the "Lost Boys" stuff we got.
Alex' comment at the 3D sprite demo: "The Lost Boys have improved
slightly..."
Alex also showed us the "Eggbox" scroller. It looked neat, but
took so much processor time that it will be hard to use.

22:15

Clapham Common Road - we have just left Alex and John, who
walked with us a bit towards Clapham Junction Railway Station up
to a place where we could impossibly go wrong.
After the experience of once again meeting a couple of
youngsters who seem to be programming very well, I feel like a
senile, demented, rheumatic old sod. They are very young and do
things we can't do.
Shoot.
"I am thirsty and I want to go to the bathroom..." (Stefan
quote)

Richard

22:30

Clapham Junction Station. Here, we will need to take the train
to Victoria Station, from where we will hop onto the subway again
and get to Caledonian Road.

Richard

22:37

The train is really unbelievably filthy, and heading towards
Victoria Station. Cigarette Boxes, flattened fags, empty
Milkshake cartons and Coke Cans litter the floor. The benches are
clad with graffiti, cobwebs hang from the ceiling and everything
feels greasy.
It's awful.
"I have a minority complex!" (Stefan quote)

Richard

22:43

We arrived at Victoria Station - for the third time in our
quest. Again, we pass the photo machine that is responsible for
the reproduction of our criminal faces on our "Visitor Travel
Cards". Now, we feel very much at home here.
We're desperately looking for the subway. It's rather busy
still, and we pass still all kinds of tourists. Our feet are
aching and we're wet with sweat.
"Batman" posters everywhere. Bwaargh!

Richard

23:13

We have just got out at Caledonian Road and are now heading for
a quarter of an hour's walk to Stuart's House.
At Victoria, we took the Victoria Line to Green Park, where we
switched to the Piccadilly Line that brought us here.
I wanna go to sleep desperately.
"Monday we'll have to walk with those rucksacks again. Weep!"
(Stefan quote)

Richard

23:20

We have arrived back at "Stu's an' Wend's Groovy House of
Musical Fun". Stuart seems to be quite excited about the mess we
left behind this morning, and we behold our rucksacks mashed in a
corner with everything crammed in them.
Ooops.

Richard

Sunday, July 9th 1989

00:55

We've just seen a very crappy sixties movie called "Cratermass
and the Pit". It's not too good, but quite amusing. The actors
acted great (har har).
"A nineteensixtyseven science fiction classic, I'll have you
know!" (Stuart quote)

Richard

01:05

We're preparing to go to sleep again. We've deserved this after
yet another day of frantic travelling, walking, and interviewing.
I am looking forward to my body being caressed by the soft couch
and the gentle forms of my sleeping bag.
I am dead-tired.

Richard

10:00

We wake up.
Some way or another, in spite of the fact that this is done at
an average of 365.25 times each year, it still remains quite a
heavy job to do - each and every single morning.
Such are the mysteries of life, sigh...

Richard

11:20

We are listening to the highly exclusive versions of Metallica's
"One" on the CD-single I bought yesterday. I also had a go at
"Acid Reign" - those guys are bloody GREAT! We can't play them
too loud for Stu'n'Wen are still in bed - I think.
The cat walks around rather confusedly dumbfounded, not really
knowing how to cope with all that noise that is so dissimilar
from what it usually hears here.

Richard

12:45

We are now finally going to get our lazy bums out of the
respective sleeping bag and off the respective couch. We have to
go and eat something, wash ourselves. We also have to hang up our
laundry that was done yesterday.
Yuck...they surely use some weird washing powder, as it makes
our clothes smell a bit sour.
The sky is threateningly dark as I go and hang up the laundry.
Shall it remain dry, so that we can take the clothes with us
tomorrow?

Richard

As advised by Wendy, we spent the entire afternoon in Camden
Town, where there was a small market. It was really busy, and we
walked quite an enormous distance. We had breakfast at the local
Wimpy's at 3 o'clock: I had a halfpounder plus two strawberry
milkshakes, and Stefan has a Chicken in a Bun, a Cheeseburger, a
Coke and a chocolate milkshake.
After the market, we ended up in a rather desolate tube station
on the Northern Line (we always tend to have to take that one!):
Chalk Farm. We took the Tube to King's Cross/St. Pancras and
switched to the Piccadilly Line to Caledonian Road (again).
We arrived back at Stu's place at about a quarter to five in the
afternoon. We had decided to go and visit "Plaza" Cinema at
Piccadilly Circus to watch "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade",
so we left again pretty soon afterwards - the film was to start
at 18:00.

We arrived at Piccadilly Circus at about half past five. It was
rather crowded at "Plaza", but everybody did not seem to notice a
ticket counter where there was no queue at all. So we got our
tickets there, which set us back £6 each.
Rather expensive.
We were located on the balcony; Row W, seats 1 and 2.
We bought some Coke, and later got a super-big portion of sweet
Popcorn (£3.50 - for a wastepaper bucket full of popcorn which we
managed to devour savagely within about three quarters of an
hour...).
After the usual adds, the movie started. It was GREAT. The sound
was breathtakingly stunning - you seemed to be right in the
middle of it all. That was surely worth every damn penny of that
six quid each!
"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" is just as good as the
other ones in the series - maybe even better. Sean Connery plays
a very good role as Indy's somewhat naive father, and the stunts
are really astounding.
Go and see it! It's worth it.
It ended at 20:40.

23:05

Back at Stuart's again.
After the movie (which Wendy and Stuart also turned out to have
gone to, but in a different cinema, only paying £2.50...) we went
for an evening stroll through London.
On Shaftesbury, I think, I had the hottest 'shawarma'
(Kebabs) ever eaten, and my mouth was literally ablaze for half
an hour or so. Boy, that stuff was tough!
We walked through China Town afterwards, and later ended up at
Trafalgar Square - looking up at the high Nelson Monument
littered with Pigeon's Poop. From there, we also saw "Norway
House" and we couldn't help to think back to our dear Nutty
Norwegians whom we have so thrilled earlier.
Though they still haven't sent anything significantly back after
our "ST NEWS Home Vid'" (hint, hint, Ronny & Co.!).
Just before getting to the Tube to go back to Caledonian Road,
we entered an arcade hall on Charing Cross Road and Stefan got
instantaneously hooked to a vector-graphics arcade game called
"Hard Driving" (which we understand is converted to the ST by
Domark - which is good news!). We spent about six or seven pounds
on it before I could drag Stefan away from it to Tottenham Court
Road Tube Station.
With our minds still filled with the amazing arcade hall racing
game, we took the wrong tube: To Euston instead of Leicester
Square.
So we changed at Euston and went to Leicester Square anyway.
There, we switched from the smelly Northern Line to the trusted
Piccadilly Line that brought us back to Caledonian Road.
I think we'll go to bed fairly soon, as we shouldn't get up too
late tomorrow - because then we have to leave London and get to
Hewson Consultants in Abingdon, near Oxford.

Richard

Guardian Moons

Excluding the graphics, "Guardian Moons" is at the moment ONE
big source file of just over 100 Kb. According to some notes in
the source file, Alex started programming on the 25th of July
1988...
The music is excellent, and done by Alex himself, using his own
sound routines. There are quite some pieces of music in it, that
are very near to the quality displayed by Jochen's sound synth
(including some pretty good drum sounds sometimes). Actually,
Alex told us that he is seeking to be a sound programmer as well
- do sound for other people's games.
In "Guardian Moons", you're the baddy. You have to get rid of
the Guardians of some nice and peaceful planet and obliterate the
whole thing. John is working on a pretty absurd background story.
The first level of "Guardian Moons" is a multi-way smooth
scroller. Long range scanner on the screen; 2/3 of the screen is
scrolling. The second stage is not yet working, nor is the third.
The fourth is the one displayed in some screenshots: A smooth
horizontal scrolling, 3D like parallax. It plays like the C-64
game "Delta" (the best game on the '64, according to John). It
looks pretty neat, moves smoothly, and there are a lot of
sprites. There will be animated in-between graphics as well, and
there will be more than 16 colors on the screen at all times.