Retro game interview: Paul Neurath (Space Rogue)

Retro Games

Paul Neurath

As a follow up to my post about the game known as “Space Rogue“, I tracked down one of the people responsible for the game.  In this case it was Paul Neurath who is currently the Creative Director / Founder of Floodgate Entertainment.

Paul Neurath has been involved with games like: Neverwinter Nights, Thief, Descent and Ultima Underworld.  Starting out his game career back in 1986 with a game called Ogre.

He was kind enough to answer some of my questions, so here are his responses.

Retro game interview: Robert Trevellyan (Speedball II: Brutal Deluxe)

Retro Games

 

Robert Trevellyan

Speedball II: Brutal Deluxe was a fantastic game and those who you who haven’t played it have missed out.  It’s like ice hockey, minus the sticks and ice, replace the puck with a ball and up the physicality.  I managed the track down one of the original developers, in this case Robert Trevellyan.  He kindly agreed to answer a few of my questions and what follows is the brain dump he executed for me.

Retro game interview: Ken Silverman (Duke Nukem 3D)

Retro Games

As part of my “I used to play…” series of posts, I get tempted to track down the original developers (which can be tricky enough) and then coerce them into answering some questions.  I’ll be following up this post with a “I used to play… Duke Nukem 3D” one sometime next week.

In this case I contacted Ken Silverman who was the man behind the engine which powered the games:

• Duke Nukem 3D
• Shadow Warrior
• Blood
• Powerslave
• Witchaven I + II
• TekWar
• Fate
• Redneck Rampage + Rides Again + Deer Huntin’

I was a huge fan of Duke Nukem 3D and spent way too much time in Ken’s editor, creating my vision of the perfect level that I never managed to complete and release (but it was flipping awesome ).

Here is the interview, which was conducted via email so I couldn’t really follow up his answers with questions based on them.

I used to play… Space Rogue

Retro Games

Details

Name	Space Rogue
Developer	Origin Systems
Publisher	Origin Systems
Platforms	Apple II, Commodore 64, PC, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST and FM Towns
Release Date	1989
Genre	RPG, Space Combat

Game Cover

UPDATE: Managed to track down one of the developers behind the game, read my Q&A with Paul Neurath.

Introduction

Plot

Your character is the son of a famous Jeweller who, instead of following in his fathers footsteps, decides to go into space as a crewman on a merchant vessel. The ship was called the “Princess Blue” and you serve with the crew for a year before they encounter a derelict craft. The captain decides to salvage it and entails you with the task of retrieving the spacecraft. As you make it to the derelict aliens, known as the “Manchi”, attack the Princess Blue and destroy it, killing the crew. When the aliens leave, you are the sole survivor.

Vowing to avenge your crew-mates, you repair the derelict and start on your quest. There is a nearby space station where you’ll need to upgrade the ship and finds ways of making money. Maybe someone there will have information on the aliens who attacked you. Life must go on and you decide what paths it will take!

I used to play… Carrier Command

Retro Games

The Original Carrier Command

Released in 1988 on, among others, the Atari ST, Amiga, PC and ZX Spectrum.  This game was about two remote-controlled robotic ships that battle against each other for domination of 64 islands.  The player would take control of one of the ships and could launch planes called Mantra’s and water / land vehicles called Walrus’s.  The land vehicles could deploy a base on an island which could then be used to gather resources, build vehicles, airports and island defences.