We are slightly cheating with this entry, but this is for a collection of games written by Duncan Kershaw way before his Players Software days.
They are all written in BASIC, and are some of the earliest examples of Duncan’s work on the C64 which were intended for his Electra Software, where games were shared only to friends.
Duncan has been busy preserving all of his disks and tapes, and the following 3 titles have come from some of his recent tape archival work (including managing to save Space Hop!):
- Quest 64!
- Crystal Kingdom
- Hunchy
Both Quest 64! and Crystal Kingdom are two BASIC text adventure games which were written in 1984. Hunchy was as you may guess a Hunchback clone.
Quest 64! and Hunchy are rather special – as they are two of the first games that Duncan ever produced. Duncan recalls Quest 64 as follows … “Neither games we’re ever released, but they both hold good memories for me. Quest is the reason I got into the games industry… I swapped the cassette for The Hobbit and got a call from a mates Mum asking for help… That was it, I was going to be a coder…”
Duncan managed to get two of the games originally off his tapes via the WAV to PRG method, but Quest 64! proved troublesome. Luigi Di Fraia however came to the rescue and helped Duncan to save his very first game, managing to help salvage the title from obscurity.
So for the first time, here are some of Duncan’s first ever games ready to be seen for the first time in 30 years! Enjoy!
Contributions: Duncan Kershaw, Luigi Di Fraia
