Rainbow Islands development story

[catmando]

Interesting read here

[mlynn1974]

This was originally published in either Zero magazine or Ace. I can't remember which and I can't find it at the moment.
It's good that this is a searchable document. Nice mention of Run Length Compression and the use of STOS and a great game.

[Cogweasel]

Interesting! Thanks for posting the link!

[simonsunnyboy]

A great read! Makes me wanna play that game again. It was quite funny back at the STOT times.

[prog99]

Thanks, it looks like Andrew Braybrooks own blog, the cobol references gave it away.

[ruthless]

I was working in a local computer shop when this was released for the 16 bit machines. For some reason the company owners believed this would be a massive commercial success so hundreds of copies were ordered per store, which for a small store like us took up almost an entire wall for both ST and Amiga alike.

For whatever reason it didn't sell anywhere near as well as they had hoped, we had mountains of stock and nowhere to put it. I spent hours upon hours re merchandising stock, I don't think I'll ever fully unsee the cover art on the box.

Then there was Parasol Stars... another story altogether

[lostdragon]

This was originally published in either Zero magazine or Ace. I can't remember which and I can't find it at the moment.
It's good that this is a searchable document. Nice mention of Run Length Compression and the use of STOS and a great game.

I thought it was The One magazine, but could be wrong .

It seemed to come about after an irate Amiga owner had written in complaining of Rainbow Islands being yet another ST port and the Amiga's superior hardware was not being used and Braybrook responded by saying it was not much use for Rainbow Islands.

[dlfrsilver]

This was originally published in either Zero magazine or Ace. I can't remember which and I can't find it at the moment.
It's good that this is a searchable document. Nice mention of Run Length Compression and the use of STOS and a great game.

I thought it was The One magazine, but could be wrong .

It seemed to come about after an irate Amiga owner had written in complaining of Rainbow Islands being yet another ST port and the Amiga's superior hardware was not being used and Braybrook responded by saying it was not much use for Rainbow Islands.

Well in fact, Andrew will learn later that the Amiga could do more. He was too ST focused when he said that.

[jamesrc]

You know, I kind of owe this game an apology.

I played the Spectrum version of Rainbow Islands a *lot*, and it really is an excellent port. When I got access to the arcade version, I found the skills I'd honed translated quite nicely -- I was able to crush the first three islands on one life.

And then one day I got the ST version. Well, I got Pompey Pirates 26. And I found it...

Somehow disappointing. It just didn't feel *right*. The timing or something was off, I was off. I was really bad at it for some reason, but bad in a way that felt frustrating. Felt like the game's fault.

But years later, I don't understand what I was thinking. This is an *fantastic* version and I don't know what was wrong with me. It plays incredibly closely to the arcade game, and I don't find myself struggling with it.

So I don't know if it was the joystick I was using at the time or solar flares or what.

But I'm sorry I ever doubted it.

(Now, Bubble Bobble on the other hand I seem to recall the ST version has one less monster on screen on some levels than other versions, but I could be misremembering).

[Anima]

Well in fact, Andrew will learn later that the Amiga could do more.

Actually in respect to Rainbow Islands he was specifically referring to an Amiga 1200 while developing the Playstation port. He mentioned that the Amiga 1200 would (finally) be capable of reproducing the dual background layers mode which wasn't easy to "emulate" even on an Amiga 500.

[X3peri_MENTaL]

This was originally published in either Zero magazine or Ace. I can't remember which and I can't find it at the moment.
It's good that this is a searchable document. Nice mention of Run Length Compression and the use of STOS and a great game.

I thought it was The One magazine, but could be wrong .

It seemed to come about after an irate Amiga owner had written in complaining of Rainbow Islands being yet another ST port and the Amiga's superior hardware was not being used and Braybrook responded by saying it was not much use for Rainbow Islands.

Good memory, BUT it was a different article in The One Magazine (I have a scan somewhere).

Mr Braybook compared the Amiga rather unfavourably to the ST in that article. This as you said was due to perceived unfair criticism from Amiga fanboys over the 'ST port' of Rainbow Islands.


… Mr Braybook's response (rightly or wrongly) made me chuckle.

[dlfrsilver]

Well in fact, Andrew will learn later that the Amiga could do more.

Actually in respect to Rainbow Islands he was specifically referring to an Amiga 1200 while developing the Playstation port. He mentioned that the Amiga 1200 would (finally) be capable of reproducing the dual background layers mode which wasn't easy to "emulate" even on an Amiga 500.

HI anima

In fact, there is no need to reproduce the dual background layers mode. At all.

The coin op internally works like this, but there is no need to reproduce this since it would eat up some computing power for nothing. Both layers must have been merged, and there you go, end of the story.

The goal when converting is to get the most accurate result on screen, and no one will give a poo about the background mechanics, I m sure you will Confirm this as well

[dlfrsilver]

Oh he used an a1200 to work on the pc CD-ROM pack from acclaim.

[mlynn1974]

Good memory, BUT it was a different article in The One Magazine (I have a scan somewhere).

Thanks for confirming that. I was studying Standard Grade Computing at the time (Scottish equivalent of GCSE) and reading about how the game was made was one of those eye-opening moments of gaining a useful insight of how commercial quality games were made. Dominic Robinson's articles in Your Sinclair were also amazing.

[lostdragon]

My memory is getting worse the older i get.

Threw out all my physical magazines some time ago (went to recycling over a period of months i was horsing that many), digital copies went shortly after.


I was not going to search through online archives as have always hated Rainbow Islands despite owning on C64..ST..Playstation etc.

I used to keep returning to it to try and see why it's so well thought of.

Bubble Bobble all day long for me.


So i am very happy someone knew which magazine and article the comment was in