Greetings, all.
Firstly, this page has nothing useful on it at all - so if you're looking for downloads try Robert Swan's page instead. It's lovely...
I bought my NY at the full original price, with Codewarrior, so it is a tad galling that it is now £300 less... but that's the computer industry for you. Personally, I hope that many more people buy them now that they're cheap, and discover the joys of Playstation programming!
I work at SCEE, in the Technology Group. This means my job is an eclectic mix of Research and Developer Support. I started in July '98 - before that I spent four years doing an MEng in Computing (Software Engineering) from Imperial College, London.
I always meant to get around to writing something for the Yaroze, but pressures of work meant that I always found myself in the bar, recovering, rather than in front of a PC. However, now I have a nice dev kit on my desk - hurrah! I may put up converted code from my private little projects, once they are presentable.
OK, that's it - for those of you who (ergh!) actually know me, you might want to see my 'real' homepage. Other than that, I suggest you head on back to the list of members.
Bye now,
Mark
P.S. Why "of DOOM?". Answers
on a postcard to :
Mark couldn't think of a name for his page,
SCEE, London, UK
2 October 1998 Games European Computer Trade Show '98 London Olympia ** DOS S*** fload ECTS is the chance for all the developers in Europe to get together, see what everyone else has done, and get royally drunk. This year was both a success and a disappointment. More people and media types attended the show than ever before, the show itself was larger, and the Sony party was amazing, complete with a concert from Pulp. However, the quality of games being shown was appaling. Absentees included Electronic Arts and Sega, who were showing their unfin- ished Dreamcast hardware to a select few at a nearby hotel. Rumours of a Sonic title at launch continue... Sony had three main titles to back: Spyro a Mario-a-like with excellent graphics; Medievil - an off-beat plat- former with a reanimated knight as the main character, and the eagerly awaited PAL conversion of Tekken 3. Round 1... Fight! Nintendo was displaying its many forthcoming games. The most popular (and promising) was certainly Zelda: Oca- rina of Time which was surrounded by a constant crowd of spectators. F:Zero was very disappointing, with featureless polygonal tracks and low detail cars. Eidos had the most impres- sive stand, helped along by a certain Ms Croft putting in an appearance for the cameras (pictured right). Despite the pub- licity, Tomb Raider III looked like another formulaic zombie.si Infogrammes impressed many with its voxel-based game Outcast which, although slow, looked outstanding. DGS 27 It's clear that in the PC mar- ket, everyone is expecting 3D graphics cards to be installed. In fact, all of the games looked very similar due to their reliance on accelerated hardware. One that did stand out from the crowd was Descent III, if only for a lovely 'water-hit-ud Most amusing bits of the show: a ting-the-windscreen' effect. Konami had me queueing for ages to see a six minute video of Metal Gear Solid, then have a quick go on the game itself. This continues to look amazing, and I can't wait to get it home. Lego had an interesting PC control system on show, and a virtual lego set. Personally, I can't see the point. No irony there, then. guy with the nametag "Mr N. E. Body"; the students who snuck in disguised in their dad's suits, who then stood out like a sore thumb; the 300 billion button joystick that "accurately models the real 290 controllers in an F-15" and last but not least, the guy with the nametag "Tariq Aziz, Iraqi Foreign Minister". The BBC was pushing its Teletub- bies licence - apparently it will be an educational title to help children speak. Mark Baker Nightlong Trecison work in progress The year is 2099. Governments are pow- erless, and the world is controlled by massive corporations. You play Joshua Reev, a private detective working on a dangerous case for his old friend, the city governor. Spicing up your life is Eva Tompson, the "beautiful, intelligent and very elegant" owner of the Free Climax Nightclub. Nightlong is a futuristic detective thriller with pre-rendered graphics, 'jaw- dropping' FMV and a gritty, 30-some- thing lead character. If that sounds a little too familiar, then you'd be forgiven for mistaking Nightlong for Westwood Studio's Bladerunner, adapted from the leg- endary sci-fi film. Comparisons are inevitable, although the Italian develop- ment team are keen to distance them- selves from accusations of plagarism. "From our point of view, the two games share almost nothing," claims the eight- year old developer. "Our mood is not 'Noir' but takes inspiration from the clas- sic cyber-punk novels by William Gibson. And we have also a completely different approach to puzzles, which are not just 'evidence retrieval', but involve more complex and challenging tasks. Our 3D characters look definitely less 'blocky'. We approached the adventure genre in a more traditional fashion, because we really wanted the story to nail you to your chair." The game certainly looks wonderful, and is sure to raise the already high graphical standard for point-and-click adventures. What remains to be seen is whether Trecison can create a game that is truly immersive, or just another FMV- laden turkey. Mark Baker Lavish rendered scenery fills Night- long's three CD-ROMs. Buck Bumble (N64) minis24 Ubisoft **** Good Nintendo games are in danger of losing their endangered status, with a good, new platformer and at last a decent racing game; the third bus in the row is Buck Bumble. OK, because it is an N64 game you have to endure a sickly sweet story. This time you play the role of the only cybernetic, genetically enhanced, and surgically-messed-about with bee fighting off the alien mutant insectoids and preventing total destruc- tion of little cutsie earth insects (though the loss of wasps should be considered acceptable losses). So it's a simple case of finding the enemy and making sure it ends up on the floor with its legs in the air - not all that taxing really. Where it is really good is in its graphics especially its fast-moving colourful 3D backgrounds. OK, so it might look a little like Lylat War's all range mode but after a few minutes of dodging the stems of the mini-jungle, Lylat is a distant memory. Also with its 20 multiple missions and a few hidden bits, coupled with the 2 player mode which is actually playable, it should hold interest. In fact the only problem I had with the game was the Nintendo 64's graphics fogging, but given the option between fogging, pop- up and spending £1000 on a decent PC system I'll accept it this once. Gary Smith
28 Games 2 October 1998 Competition Feature You've beaten Quake 2, bored with Command & Conquer clones, and sick of Mario. What do you do next? How about creating your own PlayStation game? Sounds 'impossible? Not with a Net Yaroze! Put simply, the Net Yaroze is a programmable PlayStation - the bedroom coder's dream come true. Whilst most of us can't afford thousands of pounds for a development kit, the Yaroze retails for a mere £230. You will need something to plug it into, however. A telly and a PC are required, and some experience of 'C' programming is certainly useful too. The 'Net' bit of the Net Yaroze is supplied by an exclusive web site and newsgroups. Yaroze members have a free web page to show off their games, or to help other Yarozers (as they are fondly known). 1968 hsM Dog Com 00:58.48 Gas Girl The main restriction of the Net Yaroze is that there is no access to the CD, so all of a game's data and code must be squeezed into the teeny 2Mb of memory in the PlayStation nors avert von (less than in most graphics cards these days, but that's progress for you). Whilst the sup- plied software is adequate, those who prefer a fancy integrated development environment can pick up a copy of CodeWarrior for an extra £90. 1872m Air Bob Members who want to show off their games can enter the 'fame game' competi- tion. Winners' games are published on the Official PlayStation Magazine demo disc, and they get twenty copies to give to friends. There's also a Net Yaroze category in the Games Developer's UK competition, with a top prize of £5000. rt of all innertsubo But most people will get the Net Yaroze to try their hand at game programming. Sev- eral Yaroze owners have now gone on to get jobs in the games industry. Scott Evans, now working at top UK developers Codemasters, said "The people who buy a Net Yaroze get to learn how to program one of the best games consoles around today. If you can put World Football Manager (PC) Ubisoft 3 1/2 stars Football management games: written by fanatics for fanatics. They are dull, dull, dull. Usually, with little help, you are left to assemble a team which will struggle not to lose its first 20 games. The current king, Championship Manager 2, fits this rule per- fectly. So perhaps World Football Manager is the game to drag this genre into the 90's and actually provide us less fanatical footballers something fun to play with. 15 So we start with the obligatory big name on the cover. Big Fat Ron's seal of approval isn't the best of adverts for football, either on sex appeal or football cred- ibility stakes - one league, one FA Cup and lots of near-relegation misses doesn't really inspire confidence. At least it's better than having Alex Ferguson's scowling mug. If Ron puts you off your dinner you can always hide the CD case, and luck- ily the game is much prettier by far. The graphics are clear and while you might not get 30 frames per second with polygons flying about the screen, at least you can navigate between any two screens with a minimum of mouse clicks (say bye to hun- dreds of menus). You still have your train-spotting statistics and your hundreds of 3 M Letest scorer PSV Eind. Roda JC Kel. V Yellow Cards Sat 13 Sep 55 20160000 options to play with: scouts, squads, training programs, man to man marking - possibly enough to keep you occupied for a week between the simu- lated games (if you really don't have a life outside your dark- ened den). Those with a life might find the two best fea- tures to be the interactive help and the fact that the footballers actually seem to have a life off Enough options to please even Stato the field. Midfielders with ten- bage to bwoo Insinco dencies to put their feet through plate glass windows and fight other players' sisters are all possibilities (hint: don't buy N. Wheelan). So if you like football, don't mind Ron's face and want a management game with slightly more humour than Championship Manager 2, this is the one to go for. If you love Championship Manager for its useful statistics, I'd advise more daylight. I'd advise m Gary Smith on your CV you have got PlayStation pro- Videogame top 20 chart Stonegate gramming experience you will have a greater chance of getting interviews." Come Baa Universities and Colleges are now using the Yaroze as a basis for courses in computer games. Middlesex University even offers a three day introduction to Net Yaroze pro- gramming. As for myself, I bought my Yaroze last summer, and the experience of program- ming a real console was an invaluable aid in getting my job at Sony Computer Entertain- ment Europe. Of course, the degree in Com- puting from Imperial probably had something to do with it too! Sony how All formats PS Eidos Interactive PC, PS EA Sports PC, PS, GA, N64 Acclaim Psatinum/Eidos 1 C Tekken 3 2 NE F1 World Grand Prix Namco/Sony Nintendo PS N64 3 0 TOCA Touring Car Championship 4 0 Colin McRae Rally Psat./Codemasters Codemasters PC,PS PS 5 0 Premier Manager 98 Gremlin PC, PS 6 0 Tomb Raider 2 7 0 Gran Turismo 8 0 World Cup 98 9 C WWF: Warzone PS, N64,GA 10 O Tomb Raider PC, PS, SA at bns 11 O Banjo-Kazooie Nintendo N64 For full details, see the Net Yaroze website at http://www.scee.sony.co.uk/ 12 O ISS 98 Konami N64 yarinfo/index.html. 13 O Crash Bandicoot Psat./Sony PS TOTAL W SOCCER Man Gt400 Liverpool Schaerbe Fredel Neule is 2 Showton 9083H Jon & To celebrate the recent price drop of the 14 C Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines Eidos PC Butt & nofter Bestbea 2 Pens Sexe & In Cleans Yake Gips & Fult 33 34 33 05 exis Fences 6009 ERDO Net Yaroze to £230, we've got an exclusive Net Yaroze t-shirt to give away. Simply email felix@ic.ac.uk with the answer to the follow- ing question: What is the prize in the Net Yaroze Fame Game competition? The lucky winner's name (and any other dirt we can dig up on them) will be printed in the next issue of Felix. 15 O Resident Evil 2 Virgin PS 16 0 V Rally Psat./Infogrames PS, GA 17 O Tekken 2 sring 18 O 19 O 20 O Die Hard Trilogy Grand Theft Auto Rayman Psat./Sony./Namco Psat./EA/Fox DMA/Take 2 Psat./Ubi Soft PS PC, PS, SA PC, PS PC, PS, SA Total Soccer Mark Baker