Interview - Well-known facts from the history of DELTA 4 (in three chapters with a prologue and epilogue).

 MULTI-KNOWN FACTS FROM THE HISTORY OF DELTA 4 
  (about three chapters with a prologue and epilogue)  
                               
music by MIDISOFT              
(C)1996-1997 Fergus McNeil     
(C)1997-1998 Alex ASP          
________________________________
                               
            Prologue.            
                               
Andthe day of writing this article was born
about a year ago when I was browsing
comr.sys.sinclair and came across the link
to the newly opened website dedicated to
nal Delta 4. Having studied all its contents,
I saw one very funny one
thing called "Gross Encounters" for
translation and, perhaps, publication in
one of the ZF numbers (believe me, she
worth it!).  However, there was something there
it is written that, they say, if you really want
print, so, they say, copyrights and
all that. Is it possible or not - I don’t understand -
but (now everything is written there clearly
and clear).  Well thensince it's nearby
Fergus' email address was lying around, then
I decided to really find out whether they would
to beat or not, and at the same time whether he will find
he has some time to answer a few
questions that have been bothering me for a long time. It hasn't passed and
weeks since I received the answer. Unfortunately,
Fergus asked not to print "Gross" yet
Encounters", but agreed to answer
questions.  Well, having printed the translation of the pair
pages from the site and something else, I
beamed this text. I hope that he
will introduce at least some ambiguity into the
what our readers know without me o
Delta 4 and o Fergus McNeil.            
                               











                               
             Fergus McNeill  Fergus MacNeil              
                               
                               
           Chapter 1.            
 How did we allow this disgrace?!   
                               
 F: Whether by malicious intent or as a result
freaky natural disaster, DELTA 4
was born around 1984 as
the result of certain events that occurred
best in the home computer industry, and
not as a punishment sent by the gods,
how many completely groundlessly
lag.  These events were the invention
Sir Clive Sinclair of a very inexpensive
home computer known as ZX
Spectrum, detection of the now classic
what game "The Hobbit" from Melbourne House,
as well as Gilsoft's adventure-building
body system "The Quill". This cmep-
a solid mixture of iron and software was a
bet that the group of sixteen-
summer teenagers from Swanmore Secondary
school, which is located in the south of England open-
was digging her own software company (exactly
her, room).                           
                               























                               
              Judith Child               
              Judith Child              
                               
  Held together by the school chamber
riya and a series of completely wild parties,
at the beginning DELTA 4 did not have a formal
structures, but included at different times
Fergus McNeill, Judith
Child (Judith Child), Colin Buckett (Co-
lin Buckett), Ian Willis,
Jason Somerville
Jonathan Walker and
Andrew "Spud" Cnpahta (Andrew "Spud"
Sprunt (“Spud” is translated either as moty-
ha, or like a potato, which one
the meaning was meant, it was not possible to find out
moose - AA)). Working secretly in the bedroom
Fergus, youth experimented with
production of the few remaining un-
tagged games before I turned my
glance towards parodies. Having fun
over other Spectrum toys,
"Quest For The Holy Joystick"
holy joystick") was very favorable
Fully accepted by the English computer industry
press and collected almost sufficient proceeds
a story (50f!) to finance a sequel
"Return Of The Joystick"
joystick"), but only after
The award-winning "Bored Of" was released
The Rings" ("Sick of the rings"), DELTA 4
came into the spotlight. Kotpakt with CRL /
Silversoft blamednothing bothers my head
to mature buyer "Bored", "Robin
Of Sherlock"
and "The Boggit" ("Bolotnik"), but the most
the worst was yet to come.                 
   At the request of Macmillan Publishers o
writing toys for their new label Pi-
ranha DELTA 4 messed with Terry's head
Pratchett (Terry Pratchett), as a result
why did he allow them to computer his
the first book in the Discworld series ("Flat
world"), called "The Color Of
Magic" ("Color of Magic").  Fortunately,
this work did not interrupt Terry's interest, and
he continued to write, becoming one of the best
and lucky humor writers all
times (and if he ever wants to
give me another book to tear to pieces,
let him contact me).                 
  The last game created under the label
DELTA 4 became "The Big Sleaze"
Dystrophan") - Chandler-like (Chandler)
detective story published by Piranha. After this-
a related company was organized
Abstract Concepts for writing more
serious adventures.  It was written un-
how many programs, although not all of them were
launched due to unexpected
breakdown of relations between Abstract Concepts
and publisher Activision (but that's another story
history).                                
   The last comedy was also written -
new game "The Smirking Horror"
Xiahorror"), but it was also not released.
The name DELTA 4 has peacefully passed away, like
the wonderful smell that comes from the fresh
an unopened can of coffee, which is also not
eternal.                                   
   It would be possible to put an end here,
if it weren't for games like "Kingdom O' Ma-
gic" ("Kingdom of Magic") yes this web-
website. Perhaps it will continue like this...
forever, or perhaps someone will record
pays me a lot of money to
put an end to this once and for all...   
   As one famous person said,
you can't win the lottery without buying a bi-
years...                                   
                               
           Chapter 2.            
             Fergus MacNeil.             
                               
 F: Produced in Glasgow in 1969
year, Fergus MacNeil led a quiet peaceful
life until somewhere in the early eighties
years as a result of a prolonged attack
weakness and recklessly did not create his own company
company called DELTA 4. Devotees
oblivion months of work based on postal
orders crawled away, and everything would be here
the story ended with bouts of nausea
from gluing stamps, if nottwo-s-
Page article in Micro-Adventu magazine
rer, which sixteen-year-old Fergus is on-
wrote in English class at school
(this is the same as our level -
Russian language com - AA). This note
praised the first parody game DELTA
4 - "Quest For The Holy Joystick", and
led the DELTA 4 team into action.         
                               













                               
              Anna Popkess              
                               
   Having graduated from school with only knowledge in his head,
ve and a pack of Camel (Camel is the one that
with a camel - AA), Fergus as ex-nepumehta visited a number of
Ledge, until the agreement with Silversoft / CRL
tied it to my computer (and location
for drinking alcoholic beverages). Several
games later, he met Anna Pop-
kecc (Appa Popkess) and worked with
her over the game "Mindfighter"
thought") for Abstract Concepts. And everything went on
quite good until one of them
newspapers did not print the horoscope that led to
fatal consequences: "Pisces - today
your publisher will break ties with all subordinates
unidentified companies, leaving you without
funds for current projects."             
   Fergus, who did not believe in horoscopes, was
ryasen when Activision announced the stop
percentage budget cuts to all subordinates
nym companies.  Staying this way
without a publisher, he, as well as a colleague
both joined Advanced Media
Matthew Wilkinson's Group
son), where they provided various audiovisual services
al services for corporate clients.    
   Multiple rotating trigger logos
cha, Fergus returned to gaming, working in
On-Line Entertainment together with "betepa-
nom" of the gaming industry and the almighty us-
tabhukom Clement Chambers
Chambers), where the first ones were then produced
games on CD-ROM. This is an amazing honey
mining continued for some time,
but could not have any effect on several
belated wedding with Anna in1991.  
   About a year later, several things happened
events leading to the exclusion of football
Partick Thistle Football Club
from the Scottish top league, which is quite
had a strong impact on Fergus: he organized
val and began to manage Southampton deve-
lopment studios for SCi. Starting with
CD-ROM toys such as "The Lawnmower
Man" ("Lawnmower Man") and "Cyberwar"
("Cyber War"), SCi grew from a small
groups of people into a team consisting of almost
out of 50 people, which became suspiciously larger
gatoy to be able to buy himself a drink.  
                               
           Chapter Z.            
        Talkers in formation!..          
                               
 F: I bought my first Spectrum when
I was about 15. There was a lot of
rank to buy it... Melbourne House
just released "The Hobbit", Ulti-
they wrote their toys in mate... But the main thing
the reason was that I was full
my ZX81's wonky 16k RAM. He became too
com unreliable, so I had to
upgrade it to something less
prone to self-destruction.              
 A: What made you write the firsthell-
venture?                                 
 F: Yes, nothing “forced”... it’s just this
somehow happened! I think one of the main
the reason was "The Hobbit". I just loved it
this toy and wanted to create something in
nice.                                  
 A: Why is the basis for most of your
games were taken in a parody style?           
 F: Well, first I wanted to do something
serious. I even tried to get a license
zion for the production of Tolkien's "Vlas-
Telina Rings" ("The Lord Of The Rings" by
Tolkien), but to no avail. Well then, boo-
Duchi is in a cheerfully drunken state, I'm on-
wrote a toy that made fun of the industry
her creation of computer games, what kind of
was at that time. To was "Quest For The
Holy Joystick" and it turned out to be more successful
better than anything I had done before. And
before I realized where I was, magazines
have already written huge articles about her, inspired
updating on the creation of the sequel "Return Of The
Joystick" and, some time later, "Wo-
red Of The Rings".                       
 A: How did it happen that there is
several versions of your programs?         
 F: The infamous 2, 3, 4, or even 5
Spectrum versions of "Puke" will receive
were due to the fact that Delta 4 released
game based on a mail order system
before the contract was signed with
Silversoft/CRL.  They asked us lightly
"polish" the game, as a result it is ver-
this one that they sold is a little different -
xia from the one that sold Delta 4.        
 A: A few words about the bug in "Robin of Sherlock"
 F: Oh, yes, a famous bug! Somehow
once one very evil parent
I went to the distribution department for
the fact that her son entered something into the "Puke"
and she just curse him! We are otbetu-
Is that the only reason for this?
could happen at all, it’s because
th that her son himself entered something no less
rude, and, accordingly, received it. On
that the department (and distribution company
Websters) stated that such things should
be absent from further games, and say
They said that they will check it carefully! Then
For fun, we made it so that the program
the frame was reset if you entered something
obscene - we thought it would serve it right
to fighters against immorality!  Well, it turned out like this
what was used in "Robin Of Sherlock"
four-letter recognition system
text, and the phrase BREAk WINDow (break ok-
but)was taken for BREAk WIND, which is
synonymous with FART (I'm not too strong)
regarding English curse words, therefore
I can’t translate this - AA) and was
also part of our dictionary of bad words
injuries.  As far as I remember, it was like this
place in the game where it made sense to type
"BREAK THE WINDOW" (if I'm not mistaken, then
it was near the house of the godfather Smur-
fov - AA), but the program said that ru-
It’s not good to quit, so I threw it away! Oops!
We apologize to everyone for this bug!       
 A: What was popular at that time?
display all messages in ASCII codes
for plugging unused npoctpahc-
TV and increase game loading time
(at least such things have happened
in your programs)?                     
 F: The fact is that our savers and loaders
worked in such a way that the game was more convenient
download as one file. Usually the remaining
there were a couple of kilobytes (game database
grew from bottom to top, and graphics from above
down), so we decided to somehow use
take over this space. I'm totally surprised
that someone found it. I'm afraid to even remember
Well, what was there - when I wrote this,
I was absolutely drunk!                      
 A: What was your magazine for you?Scepti-
cal?  (I think in Russia there are only a few
completely insane individuals, including
me, have you heard at least something about him or the video?
whether it is.)                                 
 F: We saw "Spectacle" released in conjunction with
those with "Dark Star" from De-
sign Design" and thought it was very
funny.  In short, we decided to chat in
about what came into our heads during
time working on the game, but the game itself
either it didn’t fit, or it just didn’t fit. Yes
and it turned out to be "Sceptical", and it turned out to be
so popular that we made another
two issues!                             
 A: Are you really “sick of parodies”?
Is it bad that "Mindfighter" appeared?      
 F: No, of course I didn’t feel sick. In effect
In fact, we started writing "The Smirking
Horror" at approximately the same time
I mean the same as "Mindfighter". We just decided
expand your horizons a little and cotbo-
try something more international.
It was also important to do something different
new from the Delta 4 style, so that it is associated -
I started with Abstract Concepts.     
 A: By the way, the graphics in Mindfighter are scanned
rovanny, or someone eedid you draw?         
 F: The graphics were scanned from photographs taken
by someone from Gilsoft who wrote
"The Quill" and "The Illustrator".         
 A: And here's another question: what is SWAN?  
Isn't this a PAW clone?                
F: SWAN ("System Without A Name" - "System
theme Without a Name") is really based
was on PAW, but was even more powerful. We
at one time we looked at PAW and asked
Should Gilsoft rework it a little and make it
by compiler type.  They fulfilled our
order and created a system that could
take the original CP/M version, two sets
graphics (8 and 16 bit) and automatic
ki to issue working versions of the game for ANYONE
format! Gilsoft was a great company
Pania, unfortunately, was underestimated.   
 A: What are you working on now? After all, Qu-
ill is certainly not the only prog language
pammupobahu, what do you know.              
 F: Of course not, but to be honest,
I'm not a programmer. I like it much better -
write various texts or work with
graphics.  And now I'm working on a whole
a bunch of things, many of which I haven't yet
I can talk. Check out mywebsite: 
                               
 http://www.delta4.demon.co.uk          
                               
I'll update it from time to time...
(last updated about half a year ago)
yes back - AA)                           
 A:  Can we expect anything new from you?
someone (or an old one, but not released)
on Speccy?                               
 F: Unfortunately, nothing new for Spectrum
behbkoro will not be, but if you have a manager
If you have used an Atari ST emulator, you can
start the last one (never officially released)
running!) game from Delta 4, called "The
Smirking Horror" - just climb up
to my website.                          
 A: Which of your games do you consider the most
the best?                                  
 F: Best game?  Tough question! I think
my favorite game will always be "The
Boggit", although I also always liked
"The Big Sleaze". I really liked it
working on "Kingdom O' Magic" - by the way,
check out the new SCi website from there
you can download the full script "The Queen"
twa"!  - but this is no longer a Spectrum game -
Ruska on everyoneparameters, right?     
 A: In truth! However, the script
made in the good old Delta 4 style.
(A couple of years ago she appeared on
Russian market. I saw only Russifi-
digital version, and Russified
there was only text (And thank God!), but how!
With Stylus! Without any follow-up
processing!  Who ever translated for them
English texts, knows what to take
completely normal serious text,
translate using this program, and
then bother you for several days in a row
neighbors with hysterical laughter, accompanying
all kinds of "general reworkings"
ki", "hints of a mouse" and "animals like ver-
ticking direct acting pump" (for
uninitiated: this animal is an elephant). Co-
In other words, a complete holiday! So es-
if there are anyone who wants to have fun, I know -
good English, I highly recommend this one
software product!)                    
 A: Next question: what can you say?
talk about the Zenobi scandal? (Again for
for those who don’t know: in the spring of 1997, when
yes, this correspondence was just going on, a certain
the catcher said that he had bought the rights to
a whole list of Spectrum games, and
"asked" all sorts of sites to remove these
games from download, as it is going
publish them asI don’t remember the method in
as files for the emulator. And everything would be
nothing if not for the fact that among
list of games listed by this person-
com, there were those to which he simply
Well, I couldn’t buy it, as well as the rights
to use some emulators.
I called it the Zenobi scandal because
that if my memory serves me right, man
was from there (indeed, his games-
they asked not to post for downloa-
yes, still considering them commercial
products, but except for the Norwegian server,
in my opinion, they weren’t anywhere, but there they were
the first requirement was lifted). Well, the question is
I set this one based on what is in the list
there were also games from Delta 4. In my opinion
Fergus MacNeil had long ago announced to sources
made them free for distribution
(freeware)).                             
 F: I think this whole Zenobi situation
is nothing more than a storm in a teacup.
As for the Delta 4 programs, the one
who wants to use them, can it de-
bark completely calmly. (So
no prohibition on distribution
Delta 4 programs were out of the question -
AA)                                      
 A: Is there any information that
happened to the rest of the Delta members4?  
 F: It looks like this:              
                               
Colin Buckett - Oracle network guru
le is one of the most common
DBMS - AA)                               
                               
Stephanie Stranger - works for IBM     
                               
Jason Camerville - not sure, but I think
works for one of the Formula 1 teams     
                               
Andrew "Spud" Cnpaht - married!           
                               
Ian Willis - I think he works for Philips  
                               
Judith Child - I have no idea where this is -
hour Judith - I would like to contact her myself
                               
 A: Favorite music, books, games?         
 F: Yeah! Yes, music has changed since the days of Su-
existence of Delta 4. I still listen
old Marillion albums, but in addition
developed a love for ambient/trance
and typical club/industrial music. Favorite co-
bands: The Orb, Depeche Mode, Speedy J.,
Namlook.   Didn't make any progress in literature
further than Tolkien (although as an alternative
natives are not bad and David Edings (David Ed-
dings)).  What about games?  Well, let's stop at
that we will say that "Full Throttle",
"Quake" and"Warcraft" is always on my mind
hand. (Let me remind you once again, the dialogue took place
in the spring of 1997.)                       
 A: Can you tell me something about your personal
life?  ("brand-new son" sounds good!)
(My son's name is Cameron - AA)      
F: Oh, yes! Being a father is amazing
(and very, very hard)! I would like to give some advice:
walk to your heart's content, travel, take from
life all the way BEFORE THEM, as be-
you decide to become a father. How happy I am that
That’s exactly what I did at the time!      
 A:  Well, how do you like to spend your
free time?                         
 F: Hey!  I had a baby! All
free time, what's left, I'm SLEEPING!!!!
                               
            Epilogue.            
                               
   I hope this is enough for now. Does not provide
judge that the information is almost a year old
a long time ago - all hands did not reach the keyboard.
Well, at the very end I will give information,
which has not changed for several years now
years, yes, apparently, and will not change in the future -
generally, namely softography. You are in it
works by Fergus McNeil included
forдругих платформ и лейблов. Некоторые
даты  поставлены приблизительно из-за от-
сутствия данных                          
                               
            Delta 4            
                               
1984 (?) The Dragonstar Trilogy          
1984 (?) Quest For The Holy Joystick     
1984     Return Of The Joystick          
1985 (?) Bored Of The Rings              
1985     Robin Of Sherlock               
1986     The Boggit                      
1986     The Colour Of Magic             
1986     Galaxias                        
1987     The Big Sleaze                  
1988 (?) The Smirking Horror             
          (unreleased, Atari ST)         
                               
       Abstract Concepts       
                               
1988     Mindfighter                     
                               
              SCi              
                               
1995     Kingdom O' Magic (IBM PC)