There have been some recent changes in the way that I’m making games, and it’s made me think back to when I was growing up, and the games I made then.
I’ve been pretty sensible with backups for the past 30 or so years, so I’ve got a surprising amount I can still show!
“Alpha Wing” is a game I made over and over. I probably made about 30 different versions of this game. Writing a 3D game was out of reach at the time, both due to the availability of SDKs/resources, and because I was just learning programming (OpenGL wasn’t a thing, and trying to write your own 3D renderer when you’re 10 years old probably isn’t going to happen…).
I was massively in to “Wing Commander”, and 2D space games had some thins about them which made them easy-ish to write – no walls to collide with, for example. So a lot of what I would make back then would be 2D space games, and most of them would be called “Alpha Wing”.
Pascal, BASIC, C
This disk is stuck to my office wall, above the light switch. It’s one of the first versions of “Alpha Wing” I ever wrote, probably in around 1992 or 1993.
It would’ve been written in BASIC. I’d also learnt some Pascal, but I found BASIC easier for putting ideas together in.
I like having this stuck to my office wall, as it reminds me that it all sorta started here… in a way, everything up to Bomber Crew and beyond happened because of this.
Above: “Alpha Wing” written in BASIC
Below: A version written C using Allegro for graphics (below)
Learning Programming
I learnt to program when my dad sat me down in front of Pascal. He wasn’t a programmer for work, but he’d taken an interest in it himself. My slightly older cousin was also interested in programming. I had a bit of a kickstart in to the world of computer programming from both of them (and obviously through spending a lot of time in front of the computer).
Homebrewing
As I got older, I learnt C. I did a bit of what we now refer to as “homebrew” programming on the Gameboy and Gameboy Advance. This probably would’ve been around 1998/1999 for the Gameboy (and Color), and I guess 2002ish for the Gameboy Advance.
Here’s a version of the same game for Gameboy Advance. I entered this in a coding competition, and it’s still available to download online in some corners of the internet!
The homebrew scene was interesting to me, as it was a pure hobbyist thing. It’s outside of the industry, so it’s just people doing it for the love of it – everyone was just there for enjoyment and learning. Nowadays the aftermarket/modern retro scene is also very interesting to me. I’ve played some very cool modern NES/Megadrive/GBA games in recent years.
…and now
It’s been interesting looking back at this stuff, because in some ways, it’s more relevant to me than ever. Runner Duck is currently a completely independent studio, and we’re building our game in the most old-school indie way possible. I’ve also been having some fun “hobbyist” programming again, and writing a game for the Sega Megadrive (more on that soon).