| Last updated November 8, 1998 |
Graeme Porter interview: September 5, 1998 |
Lennart: First or all, please tell us a bit about yourself and the Amiga you're using. |
| Graeme: Well, I'm an 18-year old college student from the town of Thurso in the far North-East of Scotland. My main interests lie in music, both accoustic - drums, piano, vocals and guitar - and electronic - keyboards, guitars, basses, and writing with OctaMED SoundStudio. Cheap Plug My machine is an Eagle E1200T-040/40. In plain terms, it's an A1200 in a jet black tower case with a Blizzard 1240T/ERC 68040 40MHz and 16MB RAM. It's got 1.4GB of HD space, plus a 12x CD-ROM drive. I also have a Microvitech Deltascan 14" multisync monitor, and a Canon BJC-4300 colour inkjet printer. Although my interests lie mostly in music, I also do graphics work (Cheap Plug |
Lennart: Graeme is also a member of the fraggiest Amiga Quake clan around, but that's another story. :-) |
| Graeme: Whoops! Knew there was SOMETHING I forgot :/ |
Lennart: What made you do the HyperVelocity Missile launcher (HVM) conversion for Quake? |
| Graeme: To be perfectly honest, I thought the regular rocket launcher was a really poor weapon. It was neither fast enough or powerful enough. I decided to fiddle around with the QuakeC code, and see what mischief I could get up to. I thought at first I'd made it too fast and to powerful. But then I read a book on US Military hardware, and saw it: the HyperVelocity Missile Launcher. The perfect excuse :) I also noticed after making the HVM that the game had become too easy. I was feeling bored one day, and decided to toughen up the baddies for the game. First was the Enforcer; y'know, start from the bottom and work your way up... Then I decided that the Fiend was too easy to kill with the HVM - he wasn't fast enough anymore... Not now :) |
Lennart: Well, killer weapons need killer foes (to kill that is)...:-) |
| Graeme: This is my point, though; the game HAS to be challenging, otherwise nobody's going to play it, regardless how cool it looks or sounds. I still feel that the game still isn't enough of a challenge with the HVM; perhaps I'll do something about that for V1.2... |
Lennart: Were you influenced by other, existing conversions when you made HVM? |
| Graeme: Obviously influences can affect a new programmer's work; I was looking at PlanetQuake and the like, and I kept seeing improvements to the game, like more gore, huge weapons, new monsters. However, I believe that in the Quake world, my HVM launcher is unique. That's not to say that the code is all my own work; I have included some pieces of other people's QuakeC code, but ONLY when the authors have said that the code in question is to be used freely. Everybody whose work I have used in my patch has been credited in the documentation. This is the way it should be. Everybody whose work I have used in my patch has been credited in the documentation. This is the way it should be. |
Lennart: Did you encounter any real problems when creating the HVM conversion? Features that are difficult to build with QuakeC or so? |
| Graeme: The only problems really were when qcc crashed when it found an error - but hey; life's like that... :) Right now the main problem I'm trying to solve is the implementation of a chasecam - I have no idea where to start, and I can't find QuakeC code anywhere for such a feature. Maybe in V2, if I last that long :) |
Lennart: Is it me or does HVM create somewhat of an AB3DII - TKG atmosphere? I've heard you're planning to add sounds of footsteps so that the player will hear the advancing enemies... |
| Graeme: I have to say that I'd completely forgotten that AB3D2 had footsteps in it... I never played the full game, only the Amiga Format (was it them?) demo. I fired that up again quite recently just to see. I have to say it's still an impressive game. It had atmosphere, that's for sure - although I still have to say I'm not trying to create that sort of feeling while playing the game. Call it "an evolution of gameplay" :) And yes, I'm planning on adding monster footsteps. If they're not in V1.2, then expect them later on. This is for added atmosphere; you should be able to hear the clinking of armour and chainmail as a knight walks down a corridor. A beast as big as a Shambler would also make fairly hefty footsteps. You see what I mean? |
Lennart: You've recently started an Amiga Quake development team and it's already got a few members. Would you like to tell us about it and the main idea behind it? |
| Graeme: Obviously the points of The Team are twofold :- 1) We're going to make some wicked Quake conversions 2) We're only going to do it using the Amiga and Amiga-made tools - no PC-Task/PCx running any PC Quake tools. |
Lennart: At the moment there aren't many Quake tools available for the Amiga and not a single that can be usedto create model files. Won't this make it very hard not to use any PC emulator in your work? |
| Graeme: I realise the temptation to use existing development tools through emulation. But remember, it is this desire that keeps Amiga developers developing for the Amiga these days. They like the Amiga, and they see that this software does not exist for the platform yet. This is the side-effect of what I'm trying to do - the Amiga scene keeps growing. Pretty soon, someone will take notice once again. |
Lennart: Will you keep supporting HVM or will you make a new Quake conversion? Any plans for a total conversion (TC) with new levels, monsters and weapons? |
| Graeme: I'll keep supporting HVM as long as I can find the time; college is going to eat loads of that. As for a complete TC? Well, that's why I started The Team - and there's a few ideas going around in my head for THAT one :) |
Lennart: Anything you can share with us right now or is it bound to be a long-awaited surprise? |
| Graeme: All I can say at the moment is that the first project I hope to work on will be a revolutionary development within the Quake scene - something that nobody else has done before using the Quake engine... Also, it will be something the Amiga is lacking as well... |
Lennart: Finally, what's your opinion on the state of the Amiga Quake scene? Is it getting stronger or is it doomed to slowly die? |
| Graeme: Unfortunately I can't really comment on that one; I have no idea how Quake is selling. I also have even less idea of who amongst the Amiga Quake user world is going to develop for it. But please remember that the point of Quake is that it's a multiplatform game; any Quake scene is anyone else's Quake scene. As long as PlanetQuake is running, people will be able to get Quake patches regardless of what machine they are using. |
Lennart: Thank you very much for doing this interview and good luck in the future with HVM and your Quake development team. I sure will be looking forward to play a 100% Amiga made TC. Keep up the good work Graeme! |
| Graeme: No problem! |