History
Before forming Purple Wax Games, Kevin worked on many game titles. Perhaps you have
fond memories of some of these? We’d love to hear from you -
Sleeping Gods Lie (ODE/Empire)
Amiga, Atari ST, PC (1988)
This was a groundbreaking 3D Adventure Game, mixing scaling sprite characters and polygon environments long before Wolfenstein and Doom. You must save the world of Tessera from destruction by waking the god N'Gnir, hence the game's title.
Dubbed "Steven's Wonderful Game", when I joined ODE, after its programmer Steven Green (Hi Steven!). I was happy to help out with the graphics. That was when I used Deluxe Paint on an Amiga for the first time, creating the Dwarves, Fishmen and the Red Rat.
It's got some great puzzles and a wonderful storyline, created by John "Elv" Wood (Hi Elv!). You'd never guess he has a Degree in Maths considering the world of Tessera is actually a 4D hypercube, would you?
See if you can find the "Glasses of Ultimate Cool"!
Trivial Pursuit: A New Beginning (ODE/Domark)
Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum (1988)
Sequel to the best-
The fact that I'd written Reflex in assembler and had it published got me this job. As well as programming the Spectrum and Amstrad versions, I also got to do the graphics for them. Dr. David "The Doc" Pringle, the boss of Oxford Digital Enterprises (ODE), was impressed enough to give me a full time job there (thanks Doc!).
The Games Machine said "When the Amstrad is used well by programmers, it really comes
into its own. A New Beginning, with graphics and presentation bettering other 8-
Reflex (Players)
Amstrad CPC (1987)
Inspired by an arcade game called Arkanoid, this was my first pure assembler program and I also did everything else: graphics, level design, music and sound effects. Arkanoid was Breakout with knobs on, adding moving aliens to help keep the player on his toes and to prevent the ball from getting stuck in repeating patterns.
In Reflex I have static 'grid defects' (also known as black holes) that spin the ball around when it hits them. There's also the usual range of power ups to widen the bat, split the ball into three, turn the bat into a laser base, and so on. Rather than having lives, each ball uses a set amount of power, and it's important to catch the ball once you've cleared a level, so your power doesn't run out, because when it does, it's Game Over! Other features include a demo/attract mode, high score table and redefinable keys.
Computing with the Amstrad CPC gave it a score of 90%. The reviewer, Steve Lucas, said "This is a game I just can't stop playing... Reflex is challenging and addictive, with good graphics and even better sound effects."
If you manage to find an emulator version of this game (that hasn't been hacked for maximum power, I already have that one and it's no challenge) then please email me.
Mystic Tower (Aardvark Software/ Currah Computers)
ZX Spectrum (1983)
A simple Dungeon RPG that was bundled with the Currah MicroSpeech unit. This was the first game I had published, at the tender age of 16. Written entirely in BASIC, so that anyone could see how to add speech to there own programs.
If you've ever played the old Apple II game, Apple Manor, you'll know the type of game: wander around the maze, revealing it as you go, killing monsters, grabbing treasure, and buying better weapons and armour so you can go to the next level, and so on. I still enjoy these kind of games, although I think I overused the speech just a tad!
If it hadn't been for my friend, Chris Worthy of Aardvark Software, being contacted by Currah Computers I might never have been published (Thanks Chris!). I can still remember debugging it when I should have been studying for my mock 'O' Levels. Ahhh, happy days!
Want more?
Find more early games by Kevin on the excellent World of Spectrum -