AN INTERVIEW WITH DAVE PERRY
Dave Perry
I am currently in the process of setting up an Amstrad games resource on the WWW.
Therefore, would you be willing/have time to answer any questions which we could think of concerning CPC's, your games, memories etc etc.

    Do you have a CPC emulator for the PC?
    I have most of my Spectrum games on a great emulator.
    I would be happy to help in any way I can.

So far the main thing has been to work out how much stuff you did.
I know of this lot....

Beyond The Ice Palace
Trantor
Savage
Turtles
Smash TV
Extreme

But you've probably done some other stuff that i can't remember.

The interview type thingy.....
I suppose the easiest way to start is at the beginning :)
Dave Perry, the early years :)

What was your first computer?

    Sinclair ZX81, later I got a wobbly 16K RAM pack (which I now have proudly in my conference room)

But no CPC?

    I got a Spectrum and then a CPC - My first published game was Pyjamarama on the CPC 464.

How did you get interested in programming?

    My school teachers would not let me in the computer room cause I was not old enough. That just made me more determined.

What was your first program? (Useful or Useless...)

    INPUT "What is your name? - ";a$
    PRINT "Hello ";a$

    Top notch stuff that.

What was your first decent program? (may be same as 3 :) )

    A disassembler that was written completely in assembly language on the Artic Assembler.

What did you do before Probe?

    Drakmaze (not released), Pot-holing Pete (Speccy), Pyjamarama (CPC), Herberts Dummy Run (Speccy), Three Weeks in Paradise (Speccy), Stainless Steel (Speccy), Ikari Warriors (not released - Speccy), Beyond the Ice Palace (CPC), Great Gurianos (Speccy).

I didn't realise you'd done so much, although these were written b4 everybody started putting their names in what they wrote i suppose.

    There are more - Dan Dare III (Speccy & CPC), Tintin in the Moon (Speccy & CPC) - I have done LOADS

How did you get involved with Probe?

    They challenged me to get Trantor the Last Stormtrooper working on the CPC. I got it scrolling in one night.

That probably explains why most of their CPC stuff was crap unless you wrote it, or Dave Shea.
Do you have his EMAIL address?

    Unfortunately not :(

Did they have the attitude that the CPC wasn't much good then?
And you proved that a decent programmer could make some of the best games on it?
I thought that you actually designed Trantor as well, is this not true, and you were basically just converting somebody elses game?

    Nick Bruty, the artist designed most of it, he was already at Probe, he now works for me!

Also who did the music for it, as that isn't credited :)

    I can't remember now! - Sound Images in Manchester I think.

What do you consider to be your best 8-bit game - to avoid EWJ references :)

    Extreme on the Spectrum - I cannot find it ANYWHERE, please somebody, tell me where I can find it?.

      N.B. I've already sorted it out for him :)

I would like to thank David Perry for taking time out from lounging on the beach (those who saw the Bad Influence interview know....) to answer my questions.