Please introduce yourself ...
My name is Richard, Christopher, Bayliss. I am 26 1/2 years old. I am a C64 programmer, and musician. I have been using the C64 since Christmas 1990. I first got into creating SEUCK games in 1991. I still needed to get used to the utility at the time. Later on, an old school friend taught a little bit of BASIC, so I started doing BASIC programs. The only trouble was that my BASIC programming skills were below average and I ended up with more games using the same mode (Press spacebar and see if you match the colours). Some people liked those games, but not many people did. It wasn't until 1999 I got involved with the programming in Assembly kind of thing. This was mainly due to a fanzine coding tutorial, which gave me the urge to dig out that "Turbo Assembler" (which was on their cover disk) and learn to code stuff with it. The first program which I wrote was just a very simple, but officially crap game called "Cetimiex".
Games for the 64 are kind of rare these days. But you keep producing them, why?
It is mainly because I enjoy producing stuff for the Commodore 64 and also showing off my work. People suggested I should learn to get involved with the demo scene, rather than the games scene. But I really enjoy creating games for the C64. No matter how big or small the audience is. There is also another reason for why I still code and release stuff for the C64. There's a C64 community (Although we know that it is mainly C64 emulators, which people use) who prefer games to demos, and there are those who are the other way round. I try to support those C64 communities by creating new games for the C64. Some people support me for this, others are opposite. The Commodore 64 has been my all time (and still is) favourite computer, and I think this will probably be for the rest of my computing life. :)
People say that many of your games are "crap". What do you say to that and how do you come along with statements like this?
Everybody is welcome to their own opinions. If people like to say that my games are good, it makes me feel great to what I do on the C64. However, if people say my games are crap, then they probably have a good point. It depends on what the game project is. My earlier projects have been that bad, (Cetimiex, Missile Busters, Target-X, Hysterix, etc), but my work gradually improved. Many people thought last year's game, "Banana Dash" was a big joke, as it was -that- bad. I also made a hard-hitting mistake, which was write a full version of 'Egg Catcher', which people said was crap. However, the longer game projects I wrote made people enjoy those. I know people have positive & negative comments about my releases. If people said that my games were crap, and they kept mentioning how much of a bad coder I am, or something nasty like that, my advice would be "Why not code your own games and let us see a difference". And for those who are not trying to be nasty, their feedback is welcome. On forums people discuss about how my games could have been improved, to become a more better hit than a miss. I try and follow some ideas people have been discussing, but not everyone, mainly because of my standards of coding - or that I don't think hard enough.
And why did you present your latest game, "hell in space", as crap yourself rather than letting "A Life In Hell" and GameOver(iew) do that for you? Why release something of which you know that it won't be liked - or even played?
This was something from the old 1999 archives on my disk. I thought I update the game a little with a little presentation. When I saw the game, I felt that the game is crap, but what if I made the game look kind of - less - crap? So I took a tune from HVSC, dug out one of my infamous charsets and prepared a silly little sarcastic presentation, telling people that the game is ever so crap. I also uploaded it on to the TND crap section and poked fun at the game. I was surprised to see that, although I said that this game was indeed "crap", it actually had a better rating (60%) in Game Over(view), compared to Egg Catcher. Heh, heh. Looks as people *actually* like this game.
But there are some games that are quite nice and do make fun. Super Pac Twins, for example. What can you tell us about the roots of this game and how did it get in your fingers ?
Super Pac Twins was originally created through the Commodore Format diaries by Paul Kubiszyn. (Remember XL.C.US software?). I wrote a letter to Paul many, many moons ago about "Super Pac Twins", when I ordered a C64 catalogue from XL.C.US (After reading the contacts prg on a fanzine's cover disk). He told me that "Super Pac Twins" was renamed to "Twin Balls" but never was finished. Because I was a collector of "Commodore Format" magazine, I had the CF cover tape #60, which had a playable demo of "Super Pac Twins" and I asked Paul, if he'd be happy to see the preview to become a full game. He gave me permission to make a full game out of SPT. So, I started coding a new title screen for the game, did a little bit of bug-fixing and also created new music. JSL assisted me with the title graphics. When I showed Paul the final result. He was impressed. So I released the final version of the game.
Though Super Pac Twins is nice, it sadly isn't complete: there is no end. I played it through together with my nethew and after level 100 there is a strange error, no end picture or something. How come you didn't complete that? And a highscore is always nice ... something many of your games do not have - why?
Strange error? The end of the game was supposed to have displayed the end text moving up & down using FLD. There probably may have been the case that somewhere in the game, a routine had jumped itself to pause everything. Not many of my games have a high score table, mainly due to some problems I have with high score tables. I found those kind of things to be very tricky to code, and very awkward as well. You may have noticed that in Heavy Metal Deluxe, the high-score routine does not work properly as well. I don't use High Score tables as they are difficult for me to handle. Maybe a bit more practise and they're much better.
You're also working with Cronosoft, through who a few of your games get published with case and manual. How did that come? Was it Cronosoft just coming along and saying: "Ok, Rich: this is the plan ..." ? What's the idea behind "Cronosoft"?
Cronosoft emailed me to ask if I would be interested in sending some of my games to them, for distribution on tape or disk. I heard that it was a non-profit making scheme and although those games have been released before, I offered to help support Cronosoft. Cronosoft is not a software warehouse or publishing company, it is a kind of group that like to bring the good old C64 years back. People have been supporting Cronosoft (no names to be mentioned) by sending in their games (or emulator images) for publishing at a very low cost of £1.99 or £2.99, like Mastertronic range in 1984-1990's. I recieved a master tape and cover for my titles and I was very impressed with the quality in design. I did not like the C64 tape loader, so I started creating my own tape mastering, using the Ocean Freeload source (which is now freely distributible). But that wasn't that important though :)
Ok. So there is more to Richard Bayliss than just simple games: you do Music on the 64, too. Please tell us something about how that began and what, in your point of view, are your biggest achievments?
My music started in 1994 when I had a tape full of PD utilities. I wanted to play around with those tools, luckily I had a disk drive. I also had loads of PD tools disks and got composing a bit. My brother was impressed with the tunes I wrote and he wanted to see one of my tunes in one of his SEUCK games :) I used many music tools, from Future Composer to DMC V5.0. I rarely use GoatTracker cross-platform music composer, but I mainly stick to DMC V5.0 or DMC V4.0 for composing quality music. My biggest achievement was in 2001 when I recieved an email from Zeitgeist/Civitas, he was after a C64 musician to compose music for some Civitas stuff, so I joined Civitas, and still am a member. Sadly not many Civitas demos used my music, but they were mainly used in "Publication" disk mag instead. After this, people started asking me for music. I had been composing music to how people wanted it. Later on I joined Protovision and composed music for "PacIt" and "Tanks 3000". Now I'm a member of a newer group called "Covenant". There, I worked on music for some demos (not released yet).
Looking into the future: what can we expect next from you? Perhaps any extraordenary projects you're involved in at the moment?
Well, I have not given up the C64 approach. You can expect some more games from me. There are some extraordinary projects which I am working on, probably with a few friends, who are also involved. Those planned games of which are 'Real Speed We Need', 'Sub Hunter', 'Bomb Chase X-Treme', 'Crash Course' and many others. You probably might have already noticed that I have released 'Grid Zone Remix' through Cronosoft as well. So yes, I'll still be busy on the C64 for another 3 or 4 years or so, or maybe longer. The C64 has always been my passion :)