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D O S G A M E S A R C H I V E N E W S L E T T E R
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No. 13 * November, 14 1999 * http://www.dosgamesarchive.com
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Welcome
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Welcome to the 13th issue of the DOS Games Archive News-
letter! In this issue we've included an interview with the
developer of the popular DOS game Mario, which is one of
the most downloaded games from our site.
If you have any ideas for future content/articles to
include in our newsletter, we would like to hear from
you! Please e-mail us at webmaster@dosgamesarchive.com
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Table of contents
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+ Interview with the developer of Mario
- How many games have you made?
- What do you like most about creating a game?
- Which programming language do you use?
- Do you draw the graphics yourself?
- Which of your games do you like most?
- What's your favorite Windows and DOS game?
+ Top 10 downloads
+ Wanted!
- Game like 'Solar Winds'
- Armada 2525
- King's Bounty and Might and Magic
- Cobra Mission
+ Webpoll
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Interview with the developer of Mario
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We will begin our interview with a short introduction about
the game and author of the game Mario, Mike Wiering. Mike
lives in Holland (Europe), and works at an university. He
has made some really nice DOS games and applications.
Q: How many games have you made? Could you give a small
description?
A: So far, I've completed about five large games and a
number of smaller ones. I also have a few which are
still under construction. The first large game I wrote
was Mario (1994). My main goal was to implement smooth
parallax scrolling, which I had not yet seen in any
other PC game. I never intended to release or sell the
game, but unfortunately a copy of an early version
spread all over the world.
Several people have made modifications to that version
and even changed it into shareware. Now, the modified
version is everywhere!
My second game was Super Worms, which is a racing game
(like Mario Kart or Wacky Wheels), my first shareware
game. It's really small in size but very playable. Then
I wrote Charlie the Duck, which has been my most
successful shareware game so far. It's a platform game
again.
At that time, I saw that several people were making
money out of my Mario game, so I made a new similar
game: Super Angelo.
My latest game is Sint Nicolaas, which is a Dutch
game about Sinterklaas, who throws presents down the
chimneys each year.
Q: What do you like most about creating a game?
A: I actually like all the parts of the process: the
programming part, writing the game engine, optimizing
code, inventing faster algorithms etc. and the designing
part: creating the characters, drawing animations,
designing levels, composing music, etc.
Q: Which programming language is used and how long does it
take to make a game like Mario?
A: I programmed Mario in Turbo Pascal from Borland, with a
lot of inline assembly (machine language) for the
graphics. The complete source code is now available
from my homepage. Writing Mario took about a year of
hard work. After writing Mario, other similar games
can be done much faster: I wrote Sint Nicolaas in
about a month!
Q: Do you draw the graphics yourself?
A: Yes, I usually draw all of the graphics myself. I use
a home-made drawing program, called GRED.
Q: Which of your games do you like most, and why?
A: I think Super Worms is my best game. Although the
graphics are quite simple compared to other racing
games, the game is really fun to play, especially
with two players.
Q: What's your favourite Windows and DOS game?
A: Although I've actually never liked PC games as much
as "real" games from Nintendo or Sega, I do collect
platform games for the PC and enjoy playing them once
in a while. The DOS game I enjoyed most was Lost
Vikings (Interplay). I haven't found any really good
Windows games yet, except converted games like Sonic
(Sega).
-- Homepage and e-mail ------------------------------------
Homepage: http://home.wxs.nl/~mike.wiering
E-mail: mike.wiering@wxs.nl
===================== Sponsor message =====================
Buy The Lost Vikings from Interplay in our online game
shop, for only $15.00! Go for more information to:
http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/gameshop
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Top 10 downloads
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The following games are most downloaded from our site:
1. Fate of Atlantis 6. Epic Pinball
2. Prince of Persia 2 7. Battle Bugs
3. Mario 8. Bomber
4. Monopoly 9. 4D Boxing
5. Lamborghini 10. DOOM
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Wanted!
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In this section you will find postings from our forum. Most
people are looking for a game that isn't in our archive.
Maybe other visitors (or readers of this newsletter) own
the game. Then they could contact the person who has
written written the message.
-- Game like 'Solar Winds' --------------------------------
> "I have played a game ages back (about 3/4 years ago), a
> DOS game, where its like "Solar Winds" but you hunt down
> viruses on the structure of your hard drive, and theres
> other space ships too, and they like/dislike you
> according what you do. Please contact me and help me find
> the name of this game! PLEASE!"
Tim Wilson - timboy@beer.com
-- Armada 2525 --------------------------------------------
> "Looking for an old DOS game called Armada 2525... DOS
> with lousy graphics that ran much like Master of Orion.
> Is this a hallucination I had in college or did this game
> exist. If so, can someone tell me where I can get it?"
Johnboy - faustus@interaccess.com
-- King's Bounty and Might and Magic ----------------------
> "A couple of years ago while moving all of my media was
> stolen. This included all of my games on CD or floppy.
> Well, of late I've been trying to get my hands on King's
> Bounty and some of the earlier Might and Magic series.
> Quite an extensive list of missing games but those are
> what I am craving to play... If anyone can lead me to a
> means of acquiring these titles, I'd greatly appreciate
> it. Thanks much!"
Dwight O. Stapleton - dstaple@hotmail.com
-- Cobra Mission ------------------------------------------
> "Can someone help me with finding the game Cobra Mission?
> I mean I had it and the disk that I had, got screwed
> before I could back them up. I need to find that game.
> It's raunch, risque, and rough. Now that I'm twenty (and
> legal to play it I had it ever since I was 15) I want to
> know where I can buy/download/get it. Thank you for all
> who help this poor soul."
Jose Jr. - pepeelvis@aol.com
===================== Sponsor message =====================
The book 'Running DOS Games under Windows 95' takes a
practical approach by showing how to set up a Windows 95
or 98 system for all those DOS games without conflicts.
http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/bookshop/index.html
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Webpoll
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Here are the results of our webpoll:
What's your favorite game genre?
Action 28% 900 votes
Arcade 22% 689 votes
Strategy 24% 711 votes
Simulation 16% 499 votes
Other 10% 316 votes
Total votes: 3175
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Thanks
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That's it for this issue of our newsletter. See you next
issue and thanks for reading!
DOS Games Archive Team
webmaster@dosgamesarchive.com
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