Putty Squad remake will not include 3.5" Amiga version :(

[Codetapper]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

I think its time to sift through the shit, and get in contact with him, remove his excuses to not release it until we actually get given the game/code/whatever, or, in all likelihood, he admits that he simply hasn't got it and it will NEVER be released.

The original is 2 disks according to the Amiga Computing review of Putty Squad (in the middle of the 2nd page). Send the boys around...

[vagrant]

[ Show youtube player ]

[Bamiga2002]

Originally Posted by Akira

"Hello? Yes, this is System 3. An Amiwhat?"

Originally Posted by Codetapper

...Send the boys around...

LOL!

[Merlin]

I think some of you might want to vent your speens at System 3's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/System3Games) and let them know how we feel. I've just had my 2p's worth on there.

So, basically you bullshat Retro Gamer about releasing it, then tried to blame them via Eurogamer for mis-quoting you? That's lower than a rattlesnake's nuts. Talking bolleaux about floppy disks when most of us with Amigas can use ADF files doesn't do you any favours either.We all know the history behind this game, so why don't you or John Twiddy just admit you don't have the complete game any more and be done with all of the smoke and mirrors? Alternatively, work with the Amiga community to re-create it and make the ADF avalable.

[andy82]

@Codetapper: Did you ask Rob Northen whether or not he copylock'ed Putty Squad? That would be a way to find out if there actually was a master copy of Putty Squad or not.

@thread:
According to Linkedin, John Twiddy is still "head of development" at System 3. I think it is Twiddy we need to talk to to get closer to the truth. System 3 offices are right in the middle of London... maybe we really just need somebody who drops in there and tries to get a definite answer. Or camps out until Twiddy explains to him what happened to that mysterious DAT streamer with the Putty Squad files..

[Don_Adan]

Originally Posted by Akira

That's no proof at all of the existence of the FULL GAME. Not even in 1994. And since we don't have a time machine (and travel back in time seems not scientifically plausible ) the game does not exist.

Of course full game exist in 1994 year, you can check main file from demo.
Or check exactly (right page, right top) of this review:

http://amr.abime.net/review_40942

Full version must have minimum 2 disks to stored all necessary MAPS/BLKS/PAR files, can be more if extra anims are used. But two disks is enough, and I never heard about extra anims for Amiga versions. Only PC version has nice intro.

I checked both (7 levels) demos of this game from AMR, and full version has 67 levels. This demo engine can handle without problems other levels too. Then only data (MAPS, BLKS, PAR) files are missed. You can try to convert these files from SNES, iphone or PSX version, only Amiga music (stored in BLKS files) can be problem, but maybe Jason Page still have music for this game.

And finally, the main reason for me, why this game was never published is legal reason only. This game/demo contains 3 mods files, two are from Jason Page and third (stored inside FASTCODE) is from Andrew Barnabas from Dens Design. This is ripped music from Cool Spot game by Virgin. I don't think that System 3 has rights to using this music for this game.

[Merlin]

Maybe his dog or his budgie ate the disk; it's as good an excuse as any he's offered so far?

It's like listening to excuses for not handing your homework in.

Mark Cale certainly appears not to have heard of Cloanto and the lots of copies of the Amiga Forever emulator that get sold, or even of ADF image files. He certainly knows how to pimp a dream though, the lying sack of <censored>.

[Amiga1992]

Yes, the game engine perhaps is 100%, but that doesn't mean all level design was actually finished. Did you see them? I didn't. And nobody I know did. if there were such two disks and they were sent to magazines, they would have appeared somehow. But even if they did exist, they are nowhere to be seen, making this just moot. The fact is that, nowadays, this game probably does not exist at all, and any Amiga nerd wetdreams are just that.

Did the magazine reviews show any proof of levels that are missing in the demo? I don't think so. As far as I know, they just reviewed the demo version. It would actually help if anybody that actually wrote a Putty Squad review back in the day can tell us more information. Anything else is JUST speculation.

[Merlin]

@ Akira

You're probably right, but it gives the haters a chance to hate on their Facebook page.

[Codetapper]

Originally Posted by Akira

Did the magazine reviews show any proof of levels that are missing in the demo? I don't think so. As far as I know, they just reviewed the demo version. It would actually help if anybody that actually wrote a Putty Squad review back in the day can tell us more information. Anything else is JUST speculation.

Matt Broughton reviewed the game for The One and he's in my Skype contacts list. I'll ask him. (He's now a guitar teacher!)

I have a feeling I asked him in the past (no Skype history to check sorry) and I believe he said it was "almost" the final version. Often they got the not-quite-complete version when last minute tweaks might be made but not often affecting the gameplay.

Occasionally they would be sent a bunch of files that ran each level of the game but not as one continuous loading game. Hopefully my memory isn't playing tricks! I'll post here when I get a reply from him if he remembers anything.

Update: After re-reading the review again, there's a few inconsistencies to suggest it wasn't 100% complete. It states there are 36 levels + about 20 bonus rooms that almost count as levels. That's quite different from the 67 levels quoted elsewhere, unless they included the bonus rooms and the 20 is more like 30! Super Putty is mentioned instead of Putty Squad on the first page. But they do have pictures from other levels at least.

[Merlin]

From now on, this is the only Super Putty I will believe in:-

[vitux]

the WHDLoad and ADF demo crash in winuae, even crash the completely winuae/AmiKit environment.(in the case WHDload)

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Codetapper

Matt Broughton reviewed the game for The One and he's in my Skype

Nice! Good old Matt, one of my faves from The One!
From what you say, I am pretty inclined to believe a lot of the reviewing magazines reviewed the demo version or another form of incomplete game. I strongly believe and am pretty sure this game was never actually finished!!!! And I will stand by my claim until any PROOF is shown that clearly states otherwise. Which will be pretty hard as, nowadays, whatever progress was made into this game is probably lost forever. And I blame most of all John Twiddy for not growing some balls and giving us what he had left many years ago.

[nittamituaki]

Winuae has crashed? At least my winuae+whdload+my own adf didn't.

Ah I remember a weird thing.
Magazine's description says "8 Levels Demo", however,
there were only 7 levels I could find.


Dear Codetapper,

Your description of WHDload's slave also says "this is an 8 level demo".
http://www.whdload.de/games/PuttySquadDemo.html

Did you confirm existance of 8th stage? (perhaps 2nd secret room somewhere)?

I have already pushed "up" key (of joystick) at all platforms, btw.

[Codetapper]

I'm pretty sure I just copied the "8 stage demo" from the magazine. I admit I never played all 8 levels, just WHD'd it enough to work and released. It is probably 7 and a typo in the magazine or something. No idea sorry.

Also the WHDLoad patch works fine on my WinUAE here so not sure what your problem could be. Hopefully not a pirated WHDLoad key!

Update: I got the 8 level information from the disk label on the front cover of Amiga Power issue 41.

[vitux]

Originally Posted by Codetapper

I'm pretty sure I just copied the "8 stage demo" from the magazine. I admit I never played all 8 levels, just WHD'd it enough to work and released. It is probably 7 and a typo in the magazine or something. No idea sorry.

Also the WHDLoad patch works fine on my WinUAE here so not sure what your problem could be. Hopefully not a pirated WHDLoad key!

No, not a pirate. ADF also crashes
WHDLoad solved, thanks

[Codetapper]

Here's Matt's reply:

Hi Ian - hope you are well.

Needless to say it was long enough ago that I could be wrong on some of this, but as far as remember it was complete, and If it wasn't complete it was certainly pretty much there. I can for SURE we didn't review the demo as I know I had personally played te demo to death and remember very clearly being excited when we got the new disks and loaded up new content! I certainly don't remember it being a 'bits and pieces' review - which we sometimes had to do where the code came to us split up across disks and with very little polish in the way of menus, etc. so I think it was at least a near-finished version.
I remember it being very good, very professionally put together, loading and flowing well etc etc.
Disk-wise, again it's a little hazy but my immediate thought is it was on two floppies, but I think we actually had it installed on an A1200 hard disk as we were just starting at that time to get more games that was possible with (I think I still have one of the only versions on Microprose Pizza Tycoon sitting on my A1200!)
So, basically I think what you're saying is correct: it was a finished master we reviewed from (or VERY close to it) and yes, I think it was on two floppies.
I could look too closely at the forum as on my phone right now, but someone was suggesting the reason they thought the review was from the demo. There's a very good chance that they are right in that the screenshots COULD have been from the demo. Back then screengrabbing wasn't the breeze it is today, and sometimes we would do some grabbing for the assets we already had (ie preview code or demo code) and as long as the final game hadn't changed drastically we would use that for print. Especially if the game and in quite close to deadline and we wanted to spend as much time playing the game rather than grabbing and converting and editing (which was severe ball ache back in the day!)
Hope that's of use/interest.
Out on interest, why does anyone still care about this?
Cheers
Matt B

[Don_Adan]

Originally Posted by nittamituaki

Winuae has crashed? At least my winuae+whdload+my own adf didn't.

Ah I remember a weird thing.
Magazine's description says "8 Levels Demo", however,
there were only 7 levels I could find.


Dear Codetapper,

Your description of WHDload's slave also says "this is an 8 level demo".
http://www.whdload.de/games/PuttySquadDemo.html

Did you confirm existance of 8th stage? (perhaps 2nd secret room somewhere)?

I have already pushed "up" key (of joystick) at all platforms, btw.

Only 7 levels is availbale on demo disk, here is the dir:
.DIR 512
BLK01.DAT 43822 ProPack (RNC)
BLK02.DAT 26056 ProPack (RNC)
CHIPCODE 249174 ProPack (RNC)
FASTCODE 385200 ProPack (RNC)
MAP01.DAT 1852 ProPack (RNC)
MAP02.DAT 2367 ProPack (RNC)
MAP03.DAT 980 ProPack (RNC)
MAP05.DAT 2448 ProPack (RNC)
MAP06.DAT 3273 ProPack (RNC)
MAP07.DAT 2768 ProPack (RNC)
MAP08.DAT 2677 ProPack (RNC)
PAR01.DAT 13276 ProPack (RNC)
PAR02A.DAT 7987 ProPack (RNC)
PAR02B.DAT 7987 ProPack (RNC)
PuttySquad 4920 Executable
755299 16 files

Total: 1 dir, 16 files, 755.299 bytes
List making time 0,01 min. (Spis 1.0 by Inikep/Genetic)

No MAP04.txt level on demo disk, it can be any special level, maybe boss.
Here are all level codes or level names:

Tomb of King Phut
Halls of Silence
Lost Lavatories of Phut

Bazaar Al Kebab
The Wailing Tower
Palace of Baghdad
Kebabs 'R' Us

Downtown Klud
Fortress of Klud
Upper Klud
Lower Klud
Mr Spleen's Ex-house

Jungles of Squirt
Watchtower of Squirt

Dr Sushi's Lab of Terror
Dr Sushi's Scarier Lab
Dr Sushi's Dinner of Fear
Dr Sushi's Snack of Death
Dr Sushi's Medicine Cupboard

The House of Fun
Fun Land
Ghost Train
The Sputum Pool

Major Smith's Escape Tunnel
Major Smith's Decoy Tunnel
Major Smith's Sticky End

Gateway to the North
The Guard Rooms
Upper Reaches

Night Flight
The Tower of London
Traitor's Gate
The Drop

Jumble Street
Napalm's Pad
Old Moon Street
Napalm's Kitchen
Flimbo's Rest
The Library
Napalm's Den
Napalm's Pantry
The Scret Cupboard

Cloud Castle
Pup Headquarters
The Kennels

Wizard's Frozen Garden
Castle Of Scatterflash
The Fortifications
The Way to the Depths
The Shrubbery

The Depths of Despair
The Sunken Brewery

Chambers of Scatterflash
The 27th Dimension
THE END

[nittamituaki]

Thank you very very much, Don_Adan !!!!!

About 5 month ago, I also played snes version again and again (searched at all platforms!!),too,
because I thought my question(about amiga demo) might be solved
to confirm whether 2nd secret stage exists at the first 6 stages in snes version or not.
Then I got same results, so I am tired about system3 for this reason,too.(this summer)

And I am happy that I can know about all stages about amiga version.
Snes version has 35 stages and secret rooms.
I am a bit surprised that the number of stages are almost same.
If there are some Amiga version exclusive stages, it seems under 5 stages, I thought.

Thanks anyway, mystery is solved.

[Amiga1992]

"Out on interest, why does anyone still care about this?"
Matt nailed it right in the head Thanks for that Codetaper! So I guess the game did exist back then. It is indeed a shame to have lost it. Whatever.