Martyn Brown (Team 17) Interview

[dreadnought]

Adriano Arcade has scored another good interviewee (check their site for more stuff): this time it's Martyn Brown from Team 17.


[ Show youtube player ]

[Fiery Phoenix]

Stuart Campbell should have interviewed him

[RichL]

He doesn’t sound in the best of health.

[DanScott]

Ah, the guy who made money by selling our demos.....

[sittingduck]

How so?

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by Fiery Phoenix

Stuart Campbell should have interviewed him

Hah. He looks a bit too fragile now to be able to handle the Wrath of the Scot.

[rothers]

Originally Posted by DanScott

Ah, the guy who made money by selling our demos.....

Didn't Microbyte just put out scene disks for people who didn't have modems etc? That's how a lot of people I knew got to see them.


Probably a greater good tbh - it funded them creating Team17 and all their games... also Microbyte went bust in the end.

[mcgeezer]

I honestly fail to see what all of the hype around Team 17 was/is. I know unfortunately I'm in the minority here but apart from Alien Breed I found Team 17 games lacking in gameplay and sound every time. Sure they had Worms by pure fluke which probably kept them afloat and made them what they are today.

Compared to other publishers of the day they were not that special (IMHO).

Derived from 17-bit software as I recall so yeah... sold PD stuff. I'm not a fan.

[XPD]

They were always very polished games, but some were very basic really, just made to look and sound nice.

Still remember first time I saw the intro screen for Full Contact.... was like "WOW!"

[Predseda]

Just for Superfrog I will remember Team 17 FOR EVER.

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by mcgeezer

I honestly fail to see what all of the hype around Team 17 was/is. I know unfortunately I'm in the minority here but apart from Alien Breed I found Team 17 games lacking in gameplay and sound every time.

Gameplay maybe, but sound? That one does not compute for me.

Team 17 filled the holes with games by just doing a little bit of everything. They did a shooter (franchise), they did a platformer, they did a racer, they did a horizontal shmup, they did a one on one fighter. Nothing jaw dropping to be honest but they managed to do at least decent to good output in all regards with decent framerates and loading times, for example. There is no hype, but simple praise for their efforts.

And then they made bank and created near infinite longevity by being the one to nab Worms, the lucky bastards.

[dreadnought]

The aforementioned Stu Campbell said it well: ""I feel the same about them as I feel about most publishers, which is that they made some brilliant games, some so-so games, and some awful games"

They came up with two superhit franchises and a few reasonably decent games, which in the small pond of Amiga publishing wasn't too bad, considering. Worms became a worldwide phenomenon so that gave Amiga some well-deserved mentions too.

I don't rate them super-high myself, I've got a few publishers/devs on my list who are well ahead of T17 (eg Psygnosis, Core, Bitmap Brothers) but they still do deserve a big credit for sure.

Funnily enough my fondest remembered game of theirs is Body Blows, on the account of being one which my the-then girlfriend really liked for some reason. It was really fun in 2 player mode. Alien Breed was okay as a hardware showcase, but I never really liked the Gauntlet styled gameplay. Worms was great fun for a while, but I wanted more than glorified Artillery, so hadn't played it that much either.

[TCD]

When I 'came back' to the Amiga in the middle 2000s I found out about Speris Legacy. Having played 'A Link to the Past' I found it very daring to release a game like that on a (let's face it) dead system. Superfrog, Alien Breed and Worms should put them in a special place, but that game was the icing on the cake for me.

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by gimbal

Gameplay maybe, but sound? That one does not compute for me.

Give me Ron Klaren, Chris Hulesbeck or Jochen Hippel any day over Alister Brimble tunes.

Originally Posted by gimbal

Team 17 filled the holes with games by just doing a little bit of everything. They did a shooter (franchise), they did a platformer, they did a racer, they did a horizontal shmup, they did a one on one fighter. Nothing jaw dropping to be honest but they managed to do at least decent to good output in all regards with decent framerates and loading times, for example. There is no hype, but simple praise for their efforts.

And then they made bank and created near infinite longevity by being the one to nab Worms, the lucky bastards.

I have a particular disdain for Project X and Superfrog. In Project X they took inspiration from Nemesis and wasted God knows how much memory on speech samples, then there's the fatal error of having far too many mutli-hit-to-destroy enemies throughout the game. Superfrog, I can only assume was their attempt at Sonic the hedgehog... the wasp enemies don't actually move very far on level 1, it's just stupid game design.

Look, it's not like I'm a Team17 hater, I just don't consider them being innovative enough on the Amiga, their pixel artists were bloody awesome though (Rico Holmes if I recall?).

I did say I was in the minority.

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by TCD

When I 'came back' to the Amiga in the middle 2000s I found out about Speris Legacy. Having played 'A Link to the Past' I found it very daring to release a game like that on a (let's face it) dead system. Superfrog, Alien Breed and Worms should put them in a special place, but that game was the icing on the cake for me.

What you talkin' 'bout Willis? You suggesting something?

You'd be right whatever it is you're suggesting lol

[Galahad/FLT]

Whilst I didn't like all of Team 17's games, their arrival was pretty influential.

Amiga only and 1 meg only, their success at that meant others quickly followed.

1 Meg only was NOT the norm before Team 17 arrived.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

You'd be right whatever it is you're suggesting lol

This thread reminded me that I need to replay the game

[Fiery Phoenix]

Give them kudos for supporting Amiga pretty much right until the last days too, when many had given up the ghost

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by mcgeezer

I have a particular disdain for Project X and Superfrog. In Project X they took inspiration from Nemesis and wasted God knows how much memory on speech samples, then there's the fatal error of having far too many mutli-hit-to-destroy enemies throughout the game.

Agreed. But it is a particular pet peeve of mine with almost all horizontal shooters, as well as many other Amiga games. I'm not going to point the finger at Project X specifically. I've been replaying so many games lately and I frequently find myself thinking: that should have taken at most half of the shots it did.

I can understand the why though. If they didn't artificially inflate the difficulty like that, you'd complete most games in 20 minutes. Rather than have lots of levels or very long ones, they had to stretch out the few that are there.

[dreadnought]

The real problem with Project X is that controls feel laggy and sluggish. Things like sfx or difficulty are rather subjective. I don't mind the music in it, it's maybe not the best-in-class but is serviceable, and the speech helps to decide on upgrades without looking down. And I'd much rather play a difficult game than a pointless "autoplay" one, such as Agony for example.