Jasper Byrne
From: Richie B
To: Jasper Byrne
Sent: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 11:04:23
Hi Jasper,
My name's Rich, I'm a graphic adventure fan and an old Amiga enthusiast and I tried
contacting you a couple of years ago about "Keith's Quest". At the time I was trying to
get permission from old F1 Licenceware authors of graphic adventures to put them onto the
Aminet for free, and you were the only one I couldn't track down (I wrote to your old Norfolk
address - if I'd know you were "Sonic" it would have been a lot easier!).
I have a page at http://musicplace.screaming.net/ag/story.htm which describes my quest. I
was successful for all the games except for yours. F1 still hold the rights for distribution
for the games, so I wanted to get permission from the authors to revoke their copyright so I
could upload them for free onto the Aminet (which is still going!). I have a copy of
"Keith's Quest" after many months of searching online - it was a very hard one to find - but
I still need permission so it's all legal and conforms to Aminet's rules (i.e. no
copyrighted material).
Have a read of my page. If it's okay with you, all I need is an e-mail from you saying you
revoke copyright to the game and are happy with it being uploaded as freeware onto the Aminet
(and I'll package it up and do the rest). I got permission for the great "Relics of Deldroneye"
series and that was uploaded in 2005. Also, I know it's a long shot but if you still have any
of the source code or sprites - any of the 'back end' creation stuff - I'd like it for my site
which is dedicated to rare and unique content. Lee Bamber, creator of the "Relics" series, said
he would send me his development bits once he finds his Amiga in the attic.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Rich
From: Jasper C Byrne
To: Richie B
Sent: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 16:29:27 +0900
Hi Rich,
You have my blessing, haha! I lost contact with Steve and never really knew what became
of the game until I tracked it down on Hall of Light. Like most Amiga users my old A4000
is collecting dust in a shed somewhere.
I really miss the creatvity of the Amiga days, and it's only recently that I've felt that
the same kind of indie gaming is starting to thrive again. It's really good to know there's
even one or two people out there who are still interested in my old work.
Nowadays, as you might have gathered I'm a musician, DJ / producer, living in Tokyo, Japan.
But strangely enough I have begun programming again. Keith's Quest was written on Amos
(a lot of people though it was done on GRAC but I wrote my own engine + GUI which I used
to make the game's editor.) Funilly enough I spoke to the creater of Relics several times
during the making of Keith's on issues like pathfinding (I never did use his ideas as I
wasn't skilled enough to implement them haha, the pathfinding is the weakest element of
the game...)
As I said I, have started to code again, at the moment I am making a platformer on Blitzmax
and hopefully, if it earns me any money I will put it back in to developing the game of my
dreams - one I have wanted to make my whole life - a brand new graphic adventure. Even
stranger still is that I've recently heard from Caspar Newbolt, an old friend who did the
graphics for Keith (we were only 16 and 18 then - 12 years ago I can't believe it!) His
father is a well known British artist (Thomas Newbolt) and he has gone on to form an
incredible multimedia web-design company with branches in London and New York, Version
Industries (http://www.versionindustries.com/). He and I have been talking about
collaboration on the point'n'click, 'Amnesia' which like I said I've had in the back of
my mind for a long time. I even have an engine up and running - you can see a screenshot
here (http://blitzbasic.com/gallery/view_pic.php?id=1401&gallery=&page=6). So the chances
are the old team will reform and perhaps the anticipated follow-on from Keith's will finally
get made, 12 years on!
Anyway, thanks for your interest, and like I said please consider permission granted to
exploit Keith's Quest in any way you choose (the art files are on the disk as it happens,
as for development tools, that is more tricky as they are on the HD of my Amiga halfway round
the world in a dusty shed). I only ever wanted to reach people with it, to share the fun I
had making it, it was almost a 2 year project so it has a special place in my heart...
All the best,
Jasper
Jasper Byrne (aka Sonic) - Space Recordings