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1. in which year did you play boulder
dash for the first time?? what was your age in this year? 2. why are you fascinated from boulder
dash?? 3. Prof. Knibble, you are one of the Boulder Dash "Legends", and you created very many Boulder Dash-games. What was the motivation for you to create so many games? I like to create. Already when I was
a child I liked to see marbels rolling down an aslant table over
hindrances as long as possible. It's good to see when a cave
is working exactly like I wanted and like I imagined. I completed
every single cave before I released it! I was satisfied when
other people had fun with my caves and games. It was even better
when somebody said "hey, what you created is amazing!".
I often got this feedbacks in greetings or intros in game-releases
from other people. 4. which boulder dash-game or clone do you prefer?? The only clone that pleased me was called "Repton" or something like that. I played all the other ones, too, but I never liked them as much as I like Boulder Dash. I prefer the "Eat"-games. At the end I only produced "Eat"-games. I also like to play my own "Eat"-games, otherwise I like the Moonlight- and Midnight-games from Boulderwilli. With this selection i only refer myself to the "old"-games at that time. I never played the newer games like in example the "Firefox"-games, but I will do it as soon as possible, promised! 5. What else can you tell us from your famous time or from other Boulder Dash-legends you used to know or you still know today? I was always annoyed of some limitations
in Boulder Dash, for example the 255 seconds time, or at maximum
100 diamonds to collect. Or when you controlled more than one
Rockford the game got mad (the scroll doesn't work proper). When
I increased my knowledge in coding I decided, to include improvements
myself. Up to this time I only coded "around" the game.
Changings of the highscore, choice of difficulty and char-collection
didn't really changed the game. As I wanted to include some additional
game-elements with more animations, I noticed that the Processor
wasn't fast enough. So nothing else remained for me than to analyze
the game and to optimize every routine. It was fun doing this,
but nowadays I wouldn't do it again. In addition it's to consider
with how primitive tools we had to work back then... (Monitor
and Power- Cartridge!). Regrettably the whole Boulder Dash-community
broke apart just at that moment, when I finished my "New
Boulder Dash" (Marek calls it First Boulder, because the
first games that Posocopi built with it beared that name). Everbody
was changing to Amiga or to PC. It's good to know that Marek
Roth used my results for his own good work. So my work lives
on. 6. Do you still have contact to other Boulder Dash-freaks? Yes, with P.E.T.E. of course. We sometimes play games together, and rarely Boulder Dash. We always liked to play games, in which team-work is possible. This was something we missed on Boulder Dash, because at the same time only one person can play the game. In our good days we were both very good players, so it could take much time when one of us was playing and the other had to wait... . Michael from Michingo went into pre-retirement. I'll possibly see him more rarely now. The once good contact to Posocopi broke apart, as our common basis with Boulder Dash got lost. Also the friendship to Sandy got lost. The reason for this purpose would lead to far. Besides of this I have now found new contacts by help of the internet to you, Firefox, the community and Marek Roth. 7. which other c64-games do you like most?? In the first place is Giana Sisters. Lasting for months we fought for new high-scores. Then we programmed the construction kit and created some games. Because of the Amiga and the PC I didn't work on a packer anymore. Besides of this I remember: Castle of Dr. Creep (a horrible game, but I couldn't stop playing it), Druids, Katakis, Impossible Mission 1 + 2 and a game from which I lost the name (you had to collect colors with kinda ball, and there was a cat to control separatly). On Amiga I remember 3 games: Pipi Hammer, Fire and Ice and Alien Breed. 8. what were the most fascinating things
or programs I never "worked" with a C64 even tough I told my wife I needed it to keep up in discussions with my fellow-workers. I wouldn't have achieved my knowledge without the C128. Fascinating was the graphically, musically and game-technically "quantum jump" comparing to the atari-console I had before (I spent much money on game-cartridges). I brought a great capability to code with me from my job-relation and technical alignment (electric and construction). Logic is a condition. It was a great experience when I was able to move the first sprite just because I entered some hex-numbers into the computer. Wow! 9. do you still work with the c64? Again, again!! When I discovered yours and Marek's homepage I spontaneously bought a C128 again. Now I'm trying to collect my games again, which I loved to play. And of course I try to collect our old games. Fortunately P.E.T.E. and Michingo still are having all the old discs. But I'm sure that I'll only play Boulder Dash and Giana Sisters. 10. which actual games do you prefer (2003)?? Nowadays I don't play as much as in former times. Because I work with computers in my job the stress for my poor eyes increased very much. So I don't spend all of my spare time with a computer. I like to play Rollercoaster Tycoon (with all expansions), Neverwinter Nights, The Summoner and Divine Divinity. I also play sometimes Diablo 2 with P.E.T.E. on a home-network. Furthermore I re-discovered a long-lost hobbie, the motor-biking. After my wife and myself discovered the swiss alpes last summer we just dream of our alp-trip we'd like to do. |