JOURNEY'S END 1999.
Dear Mr Ericcssonn,
I'm in work putting a new y2k version of COS in. Four or so hours ago I entered the save storage command - should take 5 hours. Since then i've been experimenting with getting Journey's End working. I have achieved total success but I'm not sure what to do. What I need is a copy of the original documentation - who has it?. Will swap working version for docs!
Fleabee Geebee.
Oberleutnant Gauleiter Herr Von Kellog
Put simply, Journey's end is the greatest computer game EVER. Itäs more than a game, it is an analog of life itself.
If the 8 year old memory of playing it while tr**ping like f*ck serves me correctly, the first screen you should see is completely black with a little figure in the middle. You are in a maze, (full of datk twisty passages, all alike). But his is a Spectrum, so your maze is just a screen coloured black.
As you move along, you "uncover" bits of the maze, (it turns white). The object is to stumble around the maze, picking up jewellery, bits of gold, arrows and shit until you find the exit. You will want to gather as much loot as posiible, because one of the next steps is hiring some good men to assist you in your quest for the magic castle\dragon\untold riches. But before that you get the chance to increase your riches by betting on the rats. If you het this far and still need assistance, you are a) stupid, and b) welcome to some more advice.
Did you really play it just 8 years ago? Does that means that (guess) Charlie B may still have the docs? What is his email address?
I can't get out of this dungeon
Charlie B never possesed a spectrum.
I thought he was the best candidate - who had one and who had a copy of JE and what is their email address?
I had a spectrum. I had journey's end. My e mail address is: thomas.waite@***.er******.se I have long since lost documentation etc. The docs can't tell you anything that I haven't, I don't think....Have you got out of that maze yet?
Why this obsession with original documentation, Lee?
Well, the original document was a nice little b/w booklet the size of a tape box - it was just a really beautiful object!
The yellow # is the exit indeed but you need a key - I got out but I had a bit of trouble saving the game.
Do you think that you would enjoy elaborating on your history of je/lsd? I'd like to hear it.
Of course you need a key.. I forgot all about that part. Well, it all started off in 1990, The Sega Megadrive (interesting fact: Sega means "wank" in italian) was just on the market, but none of us had one. One night we (the 3 guys I lived with) were reminiscing about Vic 20's, Spectrums etc, when I realised that my spectrum was at home, in the loft in working order, except it had no power supply. Neil had a broken Spectrum in his loft, so he brought down the power supply and a few games, among them was journeys end (i had a copy of it too, but it was a copy).The main purpose of having video games was to stay in and cut down on our drinking expenses. Another method of cutting down was to pay 3 quid to get into a realm far better than pissed (at least it was in those days), so at least the walk home form the bar was more interesting, and you didn't feel like drinking anyway., Thing was, after closing time, strange things would still be in their ascendancy, so the normal plan was to gather everybody, go back to ours, put the kettle on, get rolling and break out journeys end. It seemed to have all the elements that we needed at that time. Painfully slow gameplay, a huge degree of randomisation in your performance, yet with just enough tactical involvement required to keep it interesting. (as you will discover when you and your party venture forth into the wilderness ona a quest for the castle.) And then there was the rat racing bit. Superb.
Imagine of you will about 20 people crammed into a living room shouting "Go on! go son! go on ya fucker!" at badly animated rat "sprites" (although they are not actually sprites).
aahhh. I can remember it all so vividly..
I will seek out documentation on the world wide web of wank.
Have you played it straight? How does that compare?
I think that we should do a JE webpage - could you write a PC version?
As I told you before Lee, Tommy Slater can code anything he just needs a decent specification and a bit of time. I don't think I could code WinJE from a half remembered and polluted memory of the original, but I could have a go.
Would you want it to faithfully resemble the old one, or take advantage of DirectX super fast 3-D animation? That would take a while... the game "engine" itself would be a piece of piss though. A couple of weeks to do it properly.. (i.e a nice OO approach that could later be mated to a really flashy interface)
re: Playing it straight.. I tried it a couple of times and it was just as compelling, but in a different way. One was less satisfied with the rat racing, yet better at some of the quickfire tactical decisions which need to be made in teh "crossing the wilderness" section.I did manage to complete the entire game once and only once(and I was straight). Unfortunatel, Neil, Richard and Laurence were down the pub at the time and they never believed me.
Yes well I think the best solution would be a mind blowing combination of the two.
For an example of this style I recomend you view the trailer for the South Park movie (or have I hit upon another of your ferocious social taboos by mentioning South park?). Basically the voice over goes on about the leading american animators meeting the finest japanese animators to collaborate using the latest technology to create state of the art cartoons. During this the graphics on screen are cool green vectors plotting out shapes which are then filled in to be a 3D Cartman in extreme close up. Camera POV rotates around this shape until you get to a normal shot and then Cartman appears as his normal flat paper cutout self.
So what I thought would be nice would be if you took the original and left it largely unchanged during normal gameplay and threw in some breathtaking transitions - obviously the more warped and psychedlic the better!
Other general thoughts : I think that the main character from the dungeon bit should be fully rendered to look exactly like a real man wearing a "blue spectrum stick man" suit if you get my drift. The rats should look like real rats that are all one colour but still jerk along the track as they used too. I also think that there would be amazing scope for funky dungeon sounds and music.
Another thing - I think that the game should be produced by people on acid for people on acid and adherence to the original design should always be sacrificed to that which would make it better on a trip.
Also look at possibility of synchronised audio tape soundtrack featuring Z grade celebrities!
Finally (for now) a beautifully rendered intro screen should feature cups of tea, overflowing ashtrays, a speccy and four looneys with spirals in their eyes staring at the screen shouting "Go on fucker" etc. Maybe one can look sort of isolated and scared as a bright yellow rat slinks its way out of the screen towards him.
What do you think? I can provide Spec emu amd JE file if you do not have them yet.
I think a revis3ewd version should be programmed to "crash" on accasion (i.e., simulate a crash). I also think that when the program is loaded into RAM, it should take much longer than you would expect on a PC, and should be accompanied by those FSK tones and scrolling stipey screen that we know and love from our speccy days.
Its things like this that I don't understand about Journey's End. I've been all around the edges and no gaps appear, I can't budge the purple things and I can't get out.
It just happens sometimes.
I see - what are your thoughts on a revised version?
