Sharpworks is very proud to present "Beyond" by Paul Stringer and Paul Heritage. Both were authors of previously published games (available from Kuma). Beyond was written back in 1985 but didn't make it to a publisher back then. The one remaining copy of the game was recently rescued from the only tape which existed in the entire world and is now available direct from Sharpworks.
Beyond is a fantastic platform game in the mould of classic titles such as Manic Miner and Chuckie Egg. Explore the rooms of the castle, avoiding the various monsters patrolling each location. Collect the keys to unlock the vault in each room to piece together the coveted crown previously split in four by the Master of the Dark Crystal, Bostok. With all the sections of the crown retrieved, the powers of the Dark Crystal can be yours!
We spoke with one of the authors of Beyond, Paul Heritage, to find out more about his history with programming on the MZ computers
How did you end up coding for the MZ-700? Was it your first computer?
Like most people of a certain age, my first computer was the ZX81 and gave me the bug for computers and writing code.
As part of the new school computing club we started playing with the VIC-20, and I was part of a small group connecting it via its RS232 interface to a Hornby train set and programming the train to automatically move around a track and points changing. That's what really interested me.
A friend at the time had access to a Sharp MZ-80K and I loved the all-in-one feature (and previously wanted a Commodore Pet). I decided that I wanted the Sharp and by then the MZ-80A was out so I got myself a paper round and saved up all my money to buy one.
I wrote a couple of games for this (Othello and Yahtzee) for 2 people to play. I also wrote Super Bandit for the MZ-80A as well which eventually came out for the MZ-700 with Kuma. I'd also managed to build an I/O board for the 80A and had a photo sensitive diode monitoring light and had my bedroom curtains automatically opening and closing at certain light conditions. I was at school with Paul Stringer and had similar interests & hobbies and we became good friends around this time. It was Paul S who got the MZ-700 and it was from there we started writing together for this computer.
Kuma published some of your earlier games, what were they like to work with? How did you approach them?
I can't remember how the Kuma thing came about. We had Super Bandit and Mission-X published with them, and I suspect it was Paul S who pushed it. I remember getting a few cheques off them and although not a lot it was really just the kudos. Paul S used the money to buy an IBM PC (his uncle worked at IBM so got a deal, and a full Winchester drive in his bedroom. They're about the size of a household washing machine).
We did send Beyond to Kuma but they said there was a problem with the name and couldn't publish unless we changed it. I don't know why there was a problem but accepted it. Because of the way we'd designed and wrote the game the name Beyond was quite integral and we thought at the time it would have taken so long to change it throughout the game it would take too long, and newer/better platforms were coming out and maybe we'd have missed the boat.
Shortly after though, Kuma asked us if we wanted to write some software for a new computer, and although we thought we wouldn't be able to, we just agreed.
We received a pre-release Tatung Einstein in a makeshift aluminium case :D We didn't like it and the graphics were a bit strange so sent it back :)
What was the creative process behind Beyond? Did you and Paul S. work together on the whole title or independently on different sections?
From memory we did everything together, no doubt Paul S will say he did it all after I left his house :)
We split everything, and took in turns reading out the code and typing in. Most was done directly through assembler using the back of the MZ-80A manual to convert commands to hex. I'd love to give more details but 35 years haven't been kind to my memory. I know I did FORTRAN code on the MZ but unsure if/how much FORTRAN was used in Beyond.
I remember at the time being excited about the way we used the screen memory to maximise the look, as well as give us more levels due to saving space elsewhere.
