Snakes!

[Graham Humphrey]

What file are you referring to on Aminet?

[prowler]

http://aminet.net/package/game/misc/snakes

[Paul_s]

I'm not sure that's the same game tbh.

[prowler]

Hmm... I don't think it is, either.

[Graham Humphrey]

No, that's what I wanted to check. I suspected it wasn't.

[Paul_s]

It'll be a shame if this is lost as it seems to have been forgotton Not having much luck finding the PC version either.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

No, that's what I wanted to check. I suspected it wasn't.

It seems you were right about that, Graham.

On the other hand, the DOS demo version page on the link given by Paul_s above lists Victrix Software as the developer and states that "the demo version contains 5 of 50 levels", which agrees with the description of the disk that pickaweapon sent me.

Originally Posted by Paul_s

It'll be a shame if this is lost as it seems to have been forgotton Not having much luck finding the PC version either.

It won't be lost if I can help it, I promise.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by prowler

...the full 50 level Snakes disk labelled "SNAKES (C) 1993 VICTRIX P.O. BOX 76 4840 AB PRINSENBEEK HOLLAND".

This disk has 45 bad sectors, 2 of which may be unrecoverable, so there's a huge amount of work to do on it. The good news it that they're scattered all over the disk with no more than 2 bad sectors on a single track.

If anyone else has a copy of this disk, even one with read errors, it would be of tremendous help in preserving this game.

[Paul_s]

Victrix's old homepage can be found here (Cached)

http://web.archive.org/web/200105111...i.com/victrix/

Looks as though they went AWOL in the early 2000's

[pickaweapon]

Thanks Prowler. Sorry for delay. In typically rainy Belfast for a wedding with shocking reception reading about the scorchio weather back home in London with a heavy heart. I think that finding someone else with a copy of this game might be hard but hope someone on here can help. I checked that victrix link, thanks Paul-s, and it mentions Snakes but it doesn't seem to lead anywhere when you click on it from an iPhone. Anyone else have any luck? I may have to try finding a contact when im back. Hein Holt is the same guy behind disposable heroes. Wonder if it might be poss to track him down if recovery is a problem. I'll research when I return. Enjoy the weather everybody!

[prowler]

Originally Posted by pickaweapon

Thanks Prowler. Sorry for delay. In typically rainy Belfast for a wedding with shocking reception reading about the scorchio weather back home in London with a heavy heart.

Yes, it's been a scorcher here today!

Originally Posted by pickaweapon

I think that finding someone else with a copy of this game might be hard but hope someone on here can help. I checked that victrix link, thanks Paul-s, and it mentions Snakes but it doesn't seem to lead anywhere when you click on it from an iPhone. Anyone else have any luck?

I'm beginning to think your claim that you seem to have the only copy with all 50 levels might well be true! I forgot to mention that a copy of The full PC version might be almost as useful as the Amiga version if it comes to fixing this disk rather than salvaging it.

Originally Posted by pickaweapon

I may have to try finding a contact when im back. Hein Holt is the same guy behind disposable heroes. Wonder if it might be poss to track him down if recovery is a problem. I'll research when I return. Enjoy the weather everybody!

On this page ( http://www.exotica.org.uk/wiki/Vision ) I discovered that Slash was responsible for the Snakes code and graphics, so there's another possibility.

[pickaweapon]

Quick update. I have been putting out messages on various boards to try to find a contact for Hein Holt (or Slash - thanks prowler, although Slash may be more difficult obviously as we don't know Slash's real name). I'll let you know if I manage to sort anything!

[prowler]

Thanks for your effort to contact those involved in the creation of the Snakes game, pickaweapon. It won't be easy after all these years, but it will be well worth the effort if you succeed.

If they have been out of the scene for most of that time you may well find them surprised that anyone could still be interested in playing their game, and even more so when they discover that a thriving Amiga community survives to this day.

I have made some progress on salvaging this disk over the last couple of weeks in that I seem to have recovered one of the bad sectors I had thought would be impossible. I have made forty or so images of this disk at various opportunities, but I've not yet had time to collate them and create an image with only the remaining bad sectors missing, so I'm not sure quite how far I've got with it.

I've recovered CU_AMiGA's X68000 hard drive to the point where it's now working, so I had hoped to be spending more time on this now, but an intermittent video fault on my A1200 has just decided to get a lot worse! I attempted a quick fix by swapping out the motherboard, but the replacement gave no video output at all, so I had to swap it back!

The video can be restored by waggling the power supply connection where it plugs into the Amiga, but it's so bad now that it lasts only for a few seconds before the display disappears again. I'll have to do some resoldering in that area of the motherboard before I can use it again.

[pickaweapon]

Originally Posted by prowler

Thanks for your effort to contact those involved in the creation of the Snakes game, pickaweapon. It won't be easy after all these years, but it will be well worth the effort if you succeed.

Fingers crossed!

Originally Posted by prowler

If they have been out of the scene for most of that time you may well find them surprised that anyone could still be interested in playing their game, and even more so when they discover that a thriving Amiga community survives to this day.

I'm just as surprised myself. I've never quite managed to shake my obsession with the Amiga and it's great to discover this thriving scene myself.

Originally Posted by prowler

I have made some progress on salvaging this disk over the last couple of weeks in that I seem to have recovered one of the bad sectors I had thought would be impossible

That's great news. Your hard work is greatly appreciated prowler! Let's hope I can be of further help, fingers x'd

Originally Posted by prowler

The video can be restored by waggling the power supply connection where it plugs into the Amiga.

It's been decades now and we've not yet reached the point where consoles are immune to intermittent power supplies. My last XBox did the same

Hi everyone, this is why I love the internet - there's always a small corner that has something that is really niche but fantastic! Here's hoping I can help, because I remember this game too! On a whim I did a search and found this thread after viewing this on youTube:

[ Show youtube player ]

One of the commenters, jcamcam, says he still has the disk for the full game. Do you think it worth contacting him as it sounds as if he is willing for someone like Prowler (sorry if I'm being presumptious with my nomination) to try converting it.

Thanks for making my day!

P.S. Unless jcamcam is also pickaweapon...

[prowler]

Hi flateric,

Thanks for your contribution to this thread with the YouTube link.

Though I wouldn't be at all surprised if, as you say, jcamcam turns out to be pickaweapon.

[pickaweapon]

Oh whoops sorry flateric. Yah, he and me are indeed one and the same. Also sorry for not checking in for awhile. Work troubles and all that. I've found it very hard tracking down the makers of this game but haven't exhausted all avenues yet

Ah ha! You really are the exclusive owner pickaweapon I've only just started revisiting all this retro gaming, and will be reading lots over the coming weeks. Will be keeping a particular eye on this thread. I'll dig out my old collection that is in my folk's attic, which should also have the demo disk (if my old gear is still working). Thanks both pickaweapon and prowler for your effort!

[prowler]

I had to use my Catweasel MKIV controller recently to obtain images of a couple of coverdisks to upload to AMR, and while it was set up I decided to give the Snakes disk a try and got an image with 'only' 36 bad sectors, one of which may be unrecoverable.

Compared with the first images I got three months ago that's a total of 9 sectors recovered - and that includes one of the two I had thought might be unrecoverable ("missing sector header").

In an attempt to clear some clutter from the hard disk of my PC, I have spent this afternoon and early evening fixing some of the remaining bad sectors in this image by pasting in valid sectors from previous images I had collected while 'exercising' the disk. By the time I had dinner this evening, I had recovered another 11 sectors, and before I got online, I examined the 25 remaining bad sectors with a binary file editor and fixed another 6 of them which had trivial errors.

I now have a Snakes disk image with only 19 bad sectors - one possibly unrecoverable - and I still have more than thirty previous images to get through tomorrow before they are exhausted!

It may not be necessary to recover all the bad sectors to get a working copy, so when this is completed, I will try the resulting disk image in WinUAE to see if it works at all and upload it here if it does.

If it doesn't, don't worry; there are plenty more methods of salvaging the remainder of the disk.

Thanks for the update and great work Prowler. Where did you learn all this?