Questions for Tony 'Daley Thompson' Pomfret

[DRS]

Hello everyone - my next interviewee spent time at Ocean, Special FX, Rage, Software Creations and Acclaim amongst others and has been making games since the 8-bit days. Tony has provided a handy softography (see below) and I'm chatting to him next Thursday (June 11th) so if you'd like to post any questions for him here, I'll ask them and get your name in the mag.

This will be for RG210 - take care all and thanks as always.

Paul

SOFTOGRAPHY
Title Platform & Role Publisher Year
MotoGP 09/10 Xbox360 / PS3 Capcom 2010
World in Conflict – Soviet Assault Xbox360 / PS3 Vivendi 2009
MadeMan Xbox / PS2 / PC Mastertronic 2007
Gladiator Sword of Vengeance Xbox Lead Acclaim 2003
Space Debris PS1 Lead & Design Sony 1999
The Darklight Conflict PS1 Lead EA 1997
Revolution-X PS1 Lead Acclaim 1995
Power Drive SNES Lead & Design US Gold 1993
Super Off-Road SNES Lead TradeWest 1991
The New Zealand Story NES Solo Ocean / Taito 1990
Picitionary NES Solo & Design LJN Enteractive 1989
FireFly C64 Solo & Design Ocean 1988
Hysteria C64 Solo & Design Software Projects 1987
Mikie C64 Solo Ocean/Imagine/Konami 1986
Cyclone C64 Solo & Design Ocean 1985
Roland's Rat Race C64 Ocean 1985
Rambo: First Blood Part II C64 Ocean 1985
Hunchback II C64 Ocean 1984
Daly Thompson's Decathlon C64 Ocean 1984

[Alex79uk2]

Did you ever get to meet Roland Rat, and if so was he as difficult to work with as the rumours suggest?

[NorthWay]

Did Ocean really have a proper library of routines you could basically just plug in to your game for scrolling, multiplexing etc?
Was Rambo a reaction to Commando? Did Ocean try to get the Commando licence?
Any idea how Ocean actually got the Donkey Kong licence? And why not any more Nintendo games?

[merman]

How did you do that brilliant "transforming letters" input for high scores on Mikie and Firefly?

What development system/hardware did you use for the C64?

Would you ever go back to the old machines and write something new?

How easy did you find moving from 8-bit computer to the consoles?

[psj3809]

Were you disappointed you didn’t have a chance to work on the more superior 8 bit, the ZX Spectrum ?

[Matt_B]

Were you disappointed you didn’t have a chance to work on the more superior 8 bit, the ZX Spectrum ?

To be fair, he had the legendary Joffa Smith to cover that side of things. They do seem to have picked up a few credits on each others games though, so maybe he did work a bit on the Spectrum? It'd certainly seem worth asking.

[Crusty Starfish]

Can I have a refund for the Joysticks broken playing DT Decathlon please.

[DRS]

Excellent questions folks! Much appreciated. Will ask 'em all this Thursday (so if anyone else wants to ask anything, do it before then). And I will definitely ask about his memories of working with Joffa, too.

[ely]

Was Daley Thomsons's Decathlon influenced by Konami's Track & Field or Activision's Decathlon, or both or neither?

[Rory Milne]

How did you feel about magazines raving about how amazing Hysteria was with one breath before slagging it off with the next because they thought it should have more than three levels?

[mr jenzie]

daley thompson decathlon was one of the first two games i bought for my sinclair spectrum
kokotoni wilf was my second

what was your second bought game?

and if i may ask a second question
what was your favourite coin-op conversion?

thank you

[Crusty Starfish]

daley thompson decathlon was one of the first two games i bought for my sinclair spectrum
kokotoni wilf was my second

what was your second bought game?

and if i may ask a second question
what was your favourite coin-op conversion?

thank you

I wonder how many dead flesh keyboards were destroyed in DT Decathlon? A more expensive fix than us C64 gamers with snapped joysticks!

[NorthWay]

Did any lawyers hum and ha over some of the early stuff like Daley Thompson and Gilligan's Gold etc?

[bounty bob]

Did you get to meet Dailey Thompson and / or did he have any say in the games development?

[DRS]

Thanks for taking the time to post these questions. Much appreciated. Spoke to Tony for almost 2 hours on Thursday - he is very frank, very funny and very sweary. Hope they keep it in as that's how he talks.

Next time my interviewee is an American with a career that starts on the Atari VCS and takes in almost every console up to the ps3. All the best till then everyone.