Sometime in the eighties, Rob Cook (ropheasantbcook9 at blueyo, get rid of the bird and number and append "nder.co.uk") interviewed Andrew Moore for OUM (Oric User Monthly). This is the interview, typed from the scans (page 1, page 2, page 3), that Rob posted on comp.sys.oric on 2006-10-28 (message ID <cvH0h.30638$w07.11780@newsfe6-win.ntli.net>).
Andrew Moore wrote 'Don't Press the Letter "Q"' back in 1984, marketed by IJK Software. Andrew did a lot for Oric owners and gave them much to cheer about with a few quality titles that still look good by today's standards, here we catch up with him in this OUM interview. You may be wondering how I got in touch with Andrew, the truth is that by completing his game you will see his address to write to, although he has since moved to Cambridge. I myself didn't complete the game to see his address, but instead managed to crack the amazing security-system and program scambler to see the address, although on repeated attempts the system beat me. On with the interview...
Q: DPTLQ is an extremely original arcade game, voted 'most original Oric game' by OUM readers. What inspired you to put the game together and where did you get the ideas for the games originality ?
At the start, back in June 1984, my motivation for creating a game like DPTLQ was that it would be nice to write a game and yet still not quite know what to expect when it was finally finished. Well, that's not quite true: my real motivation, the sub-motivation was to do something reasonably fun.
The basic idea was to take many generic features from a whole variety of arcade games of the time, and then put them together in all sorts of different ways. As I had expected, this involved significantly less work than would be needed to knock-up several arcade separately. Looking at about fifteen different arcade games (two dimensional) on Boscombe Pier (the amusement arcade where I grew up) there were only about three different sorts of general user movement and perhaps half a dozen different alien/invader/nasty-thing movement routines. This pattern repeats with almost all the other game features. Of course there are lots of subtle differences, and the game features have to combined with care, and this is where the algorithms used in DPTLQ come in.
Q: How long did the game take to write from the very start, and how did you go about putting it together ?
It was about four months worth of eight-hour days, written in Bournemouth during a university summer vacation. Those were very good times. The first six weeks were spent designing structures and representations and then algorithms, followed by about six weeks of coding and debugging. Finally, scattered through the next two or three weeks were all sorts of necessary final adjustments and improvements. Those were the all-too-familiar days in any programming project, of "Yes, that's right — it's just about finished now, I'm just removing one final buglette".
Q: You programmed & designed the game on your own, what were the main problems you faced in the programming and how did you go about overcoming them ?
Answer: The main problems were in some of the deeper algorithms. For example, during game generation it was necessary to combine many game features without allowing combinations to be (a) so stupid as to make the game unplayable (b) so sensible as the make all the games too similar. Other tricky areas were coping with Oric's attribute-style graphics (surprise eh ? — Ed) in real time, doing efficient general collision detection and building random mazes (though in the final case, I think the problem was my stupidity: it isn't really a though problem).
Q: How did you get interested in computers and how did you meet up with the Oric ?
I got interested as soon as I met a friend's Tangerine (not the fruit, this was an early 6502 micro, in the days when all computers were named after vegetation). I got myself a Tangerine and wrote a few games for that (things like "Ghost Gobbler" and "Defender"). Oric was the successor to Tangerine, and so it wasn't long after it appeared that I bought one.
Q: DPTLQ was marketed by IJK Software. What made you decide on them for the programs release, and did you send copies to other software houses ? What help did IJK give ?
I had originally been intending to sell the game to Tansoft, Orics own software house. I had already sold them another game for the Oric, "Defence Force" which I'd written the summer before. However, at the time, they were going bust, owing me an enormous (by my standards, anyway) amount of money. So I searched the computer press for another Oric software house and wrote to IJK, and one other company. IJK gave the best offer, and seemed to be reasonably professional, it was pretty well complete, and so they didn't really need to supply any help of a technical nature.
Q: Looking back DPTLQ, most readers still find the game fascinating. Are you still happy with the end product ?
I was happy with the end product, but could certainly see numerous ways of improving it.
Q: What have you been up to in the world of computers since programming the game, and what's in store for micro users in the future ?
Until recently I'd done almost nothing with microprocessors (except for a small piece of work on the Z88, Sinclair's new laptop). However, last November a friend of mine suggested we work on a joint venture to create a massively improved, much more professional implementation of Don't Press the Letter 'Q'. We hope to have just finished the prototype version and are delighted with the results. There are many, many styles of game, and the graphics are much nicer. The concept of the pathways has been replaced with a huge "Aleph Maze" — an infinitely large universe of games which gets mapped out for you as you complete the games and find the 'Q-cumbers' (got something about Q, haven't you Andrew ? — Ed). The prototype version runs on the Commodore Amiga, but it has been written to be very portable and we hope to be making our first transfers soon (though sadly, at 200K it will never return to the Oric). At the moment we are searching for software companies who would like to market it — a task which seems to have become a great deal tougher and more competitive in the last five years.
Q: On a final note. DPTLQ is a very enjoyable and amusing game which has many features never seen on any micro, but did it sell enough copies to make it worth all the effort and give you the acclaim you obviously deserved ?
It made me enough money to have been more profitable than if I'd been spending the summer working at a "real" job, though it didn't make as much as Defence Force had. IJK were paying me on a royalty basis. My last royalty cheque, covering SIX MONTHS of late 1986, was around £ 10.00 and since then they have apparently sold no more copies.
So, it was worth it simply financially, but also because it was rewarding to see the final result and to occasionally see friends becoming temporarily addicted to it. I haven't played it for a couple of years now, because my Oric was stolen some time ago (good news for Oric lovers, I guess — it is still considered worth stealing !). The furthest I ever got in it was Beacon twelve. I'd be interested in knowing if anyone had got further without cheating.
Many thanks to Andrew Moore for taking the time to help us in this interview.
