1984-198? Archer Maclean
Platforms: Commodore 64
Whilst going through Archer’s work disks, we found a few bits and pieces lurking on the disks, which might be unseen artwork or work that Archer has done. We’ll add to this page over time as more comes to light.
First up we have a series of Doodle pictures found on Quicksilver’s Doodle disk that were saved, including oddly work stages for New Generation Software’s Escape. But also a set of train images, which we are wondering if they are linked to 3D Tunnel at all. There’s an unfinished Sceptre picture too. Did Archer know the artist, and was he given the disk?
According to correspondence from Archer – Quicksilva were in talks with Archer about potentially publishing Dropzone (before U.S. Gold took it on). Maybe they provided Archer with a copy during the time he was speaking with them?
Then lurking on the utilities disk that Rob Hubbard had sent to Archer during the development of International Karate, was Micro Project’s graphic editor that was either created by Jason Perkins or Anthony Clarke. They must have passed a copy onto Rob when Rob was communicating with them regarding Thing on a Spring.
On the same disk is a copy of Supersoft’s “Music Master”, but with a Sir Duke cover that seems to be missing from HVSC and a basic music file called Decarta. Was this Archer having a play around, or something else?
Finally – a set of sprites which may have been intended for Dropzone on the Commodore 64. There are the standard Dropzone sprites, but some unused ones in hi-res mode that Archer must have created as some kind of test. Perhaps they were part of a Dropzone 2 development that never got far? There is an animating rock which certainly doesn’t fit with Dropzone and the worm from IK+ features too.
With huge thanks to Chris Wilkins (Fusion Retro Books) for the loan of Archer’s disks to preserve and permission to add executables to the site, Alan Hammerton for hardware help and Mat Allen for the flippy PC drive loan.
In memory of Archer Maclean – 28 January 1962 – 17 December 2022.
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