PETER JOHNSON
Profile, A&B August 1987
Since beginning this series of focuses on programmers, one name above all others has headed the readers' requests - Peter Johnson.
Well known for a string of Superior titles and, more recently, a non-stop schedule of conversions from other machines, he is a highly visible and prolific programmer. But who is he? Trust the Arcade to track him down and invite him to bare his soul! Over to you, Peter.
I started out playing with a PET that was lying around at college while I was doing my 'A' levels and it interested me sufficiently to persuade my father to buy me a ZX81. I bought a 16K RAMpack a couple of months later and this seemed to be more memory than you could possibly fill! The interest in computers got me onto the HND Computer Studies course at Newcastle Polytechnic.
Around Christmas 1982 I bought a BBC and in the six months before the end of my course I wrote BASIC versions of games like Missile Command and then, when I'd learnt machine code, a lightcycles game that sold about 12 copies through a local shop. I managed to finish Q*bert the day before my exams started.
I sent it off to about 12 different companies and didn't expect to hear anything for some weeks. After my first exam, my mum told me somebody had phoned offering '1000 for the game and, for the next few days, I'd rush home after exams to find out who had rung! I passed the HND and decided to sign with Superior - I'd seen a lot of Richard Hanson's games and he seemed prepared to give me any help I needed.
Q*bert was only on sale for two months before Sega objected on copyright grounds and it had to be withdrawn. I still managed to make about £1500 and spent it on disc dive, printer and monitor and started work (now full-time) on the next game.
I wrote nine games for Superior, some with the help of David Lovekin who I took on as a trainee for a year as part of his sandwich course at Newcastle Polytechnic. What should have resulted from this is VTOL, unfortunately never finished although David has said that he will complete it if there is enough interest. Pirate copies of this are in circulation.
Crystal Castles was written for Atarisoft but unfortunately it fell foul of the Joust syndrome and wasn't released for two years, eventually by US Gold. Next I did a whole series of conversions for US Gold/Imagine, of which my favourite is Impossible Mission and my least favourite is Mikie - mainly due to the game design. Deathstar is also a personal favourite.
While writing Yie Ar Kung Fu II I moved into my own house - a four bedroom, semi in a quiet area - with my girlfriend, a chemistry graduate from Newcastle University. I have one room devoted to computers and one for my music studio.
I've started work on an Amstrad conversion of Citadel with Jason Sobell, but we decided that the Amstrad market was about to collapse and that the ST and Amiga looked more interesting. To date I've written Arkanoid on the ST, which has been received very well, and am determined to write on the Atari and build up as much of a reputation as I have for the BBC, but with the added attraction of worldwide sales if the games are good enough.
One project under consideration is an ST version of VTOL, with close-ups, Top Gun style 'photography', digitised sound and pictures. Another is an ST conversion of Superior's very promising game By Fair Means or Foul. And apparently Ocean have lots for me.
As to future BBC games, that depends on whether or not I get good enough offers to tempt me away from the more 'glamourous' ST work. And, despite earning about £20,000 for the Electron Overdrive, an Electron Arkanoid looks unlikely.
When not computing, my interests are music and theatre. I play guitar in a band for several theatre groups, play, sing and produce demos of my own and other people's music and have done some minor professional acting and dancing roles. I've even appeared in several photo-stories for girls' magazines! Not bad for 23!
My favourite game is hard to detail. I tend to get fairly bored with games quite quickly, but arcade favourites have been Gauntlet, International SuperSprint and Rolling Thunder. I have a pub Asteroids machine at home and, to help my conversions, a suitcase version of Arkanoid.
I'd like to say thanks to Jason Sobell, Kevin Blake and Dave Mann, who've all been a help at some time in many of the games, either technically or playtesting.
Peter Johnson
Games
The following games are all for the BBC; (E) denotes Electron version.
Light Cycles -unreleased
Q*bert - Superior
Spitfire Command - Superior
Star Battle - Superior
Overdrive - Superior (E)
Wallaby - Superior
Space Pilot - Superior
Star Warp - Superior
Airlift - Superior
Crystal Castles - (Atarisoft)/US Gold (E)
Deathstar - Superior (E)
Beachhead - US Gold (E)
Yie Ar Kung Fu - Imagine (E)
Mikie - Imagine (E)
Impossible Mission - US Gold (E)
Yie Ar Kung Fu II - Imagine (E)
Arkanoid - Imagine (plus ST version)
Note that many of these are now available on compilations; as Peter says of the Superior collections - 'I am getting as much out of them as for one new game".
If anyone has copies of either Light Cycles or Q*bert then I'd like to hear from them.
Johnson Tips
Unlike many programmers, Peter doesn't put cheat modes into his games. We've carried a few pokes for his games in previous issues, but for now I'm pleased to offer you two exclusives.
Firstly, his hints for Impossible Mission and, secondly, his own map for Overdrive, which hopefully will make the game easier to complete! Back to Peter.
The key to Impossible Mission is observation. When you enter a room, study the paths and response patterns of the robots before planning your route across the room. Note the position of each lift so that you can take the shortest route.
Some rooms may be easier from one entrance so look for alternatives. Generally I find it best to search all the rooms on the first liftshaft before working my way across to the next.
If a room is very hard to complete, then leave it and return later if you are still short of pieces.
Try to do well in the puzzle rooms, as those extra passes come in handy later on. Save the passes till you need them in a hard room - but it's better to use a pass and live than to waste ten minutes dying and needing the pass to complete the room anyway.
Don't use the computer till you have most of the pieces - it isn't worth the time until you need it. To speed up the pattern matching, instead of sorting through the store matching each in turn against the four locations, try setting all four to the same orientation and colour. Go through the store checking any piece that matches, then flip them all and start again until all the permutations are exhausted.
Goodluck!
This article appeared in the August 1987 edition of "A & B Computing", published by Argus Press.
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