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Style
Registered: Jun 2004
Posts: 498 |
Did anyone make much money writing c64 games?
and if so, what sort of money are we talking?
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Mace
Registered: May 2002
Posts: 1799 |
A friend of mine made a few games for C64 and recently he told me Players only paid for half of them... stinky business it was, if you ask me!
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Platoon
Account closed
Registered: Mar 2004
Posts: 40 |
well the young kid who invented / made the game boulderdash made tons of money of it as far as i can recall :D |
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Graham
Account closed
Registered: Dec 2002
Posts: 990 |
But boulder dash is an atari game and not a c64 game. |
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The Syndrom
Registered: Aug 2005
Posts: 59 |
we in TIA were involved in a few games nearly at the end of the commercial cycle, but as far as I can remember usual payment for the whole game on platforms like 64'er, Magic Disk, Game On etc was a few thousand DMs.
I believe, real commercial games like f.e. Turrican or LN3 surely were commercial success-stories. |
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Oswald
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 5086 |
LN3 sort fragments of LN1 which was rather a success, LN3 was to close to the end of the lifespan. |
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Platoon
Account closed
Registered: Mar 2004
Posts: 40 |
@Graham well didnt know that i only remember playing it alot on the c64 and that it was one of my all time favorites......
and recall i read an article in some computermag that it was a young kid from canada if i remember it correctly that got pretty rich for inventing the little ant concept :P
but if you say so i believe you :P never owned an atari so didnt even know it was on that machine it all began :D
regards platoon |
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BAR.
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 324 |
Quote: @Graham well didnt know that i only remember playing it alot on the c64 and that it was one of my all time favorites......
and recall i read an article in some computermag that it was a young kid from canada if i remember it correctly that got pretty rich for inventing the little ant concept :P
but if you say so i believe you :P never owned an atari so didnt even know it was on that machine it all began :D
regards platoon
I've had an atari2600 and i can't remember boulder dash..
Graham, do you mean dig dug ? |
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Platoon
Account closed
Registered: Mar 2004
Posts: 40 |
@graham is right it was an atari game but it was invented by a canadian guy just googled it :P
Peter Liepa (from Canada) is the inventor of the original Boulder Dash. He wrote Boulder Dash for the Atari 400/800 together with Chris Gray in 1983. Although Peter wasn't familiar with the Commodore 64 scene, First Star Software published a C64 conversion one year later. This game was not very different from the Atari 400/800 version, only the graphics and sounds were slightly different.
regrads platoon |
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BAR.
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 324 |
Quote: @graham is right it was an atari game but it was invented by a canadian guy just googled it :P
Peter Liepa (from Canada) is the inventor of the original Boulder Dash. He wrote Boulder Dash for the Atari 400/800 together with Chris Gray in 1983. Although Peter wasn't familiar with the Commodore 64 scene, First Star Software published a C64 conversion one year later. This game was not very different from the Atari 400/800 version, only the graphics and sounds were slightly different.
regrads platoon
ok, forgot this computer as i never brought an atari xl before
the C64.. ;)
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BAR.
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 324 |
Wasn't Rainbow Arts the ones making much money producing Katakis and DENARIS for the french people and other games together with Manfred Trenz ? |
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Platoon
Account closed
Registered: Mar 2004
Posts: 40 |
@bar
yes i think so rainbow arts where in on alot of big box games on the c64'er back then like turrican . katakis & others :P |
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The Shark-INC
Account closed
Registered: Feb 2005
Posts: 24 |
I think Richard and David Darling of Codemasters made a lot, and are still making money on new games. It helps that they were not only programmers but also the owner of the company. I'm sure there are many more success stories out there. After all, companies do no make games for charity. |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11360 |
Quote:It helps that they were not only programmers but also the owner of the company.
that pretty much sums it up. the creators of any games hardly made (or make) "big" money ever - the company does. |
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Six
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 293 |
If you count projects like the DTV, DTV2, and Hummer, I think a few guys managed to make a little bit of cash, and in some cases even launch a career in game programming. |
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Skylab
Registered: Dec 2005
Posts: 183 |
What is much money for you??? |
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Sander
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 493 |
I recall some ex-density member doing games for Game On, he said he'd earned about 8000 DM for an Firepit (iirc).
Although this is a small figure for a game, imagine it being kids in the attic doing this besides school :) |
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T.M.R
Account closed
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 749 |
Quote: Quote:It helps that they were not only programmers but also the owner of the company.
that pretty much sums it up. the creators of any games hardly made (or make) "big" money ever - the company does.
Well, the Darlings (hehehe... i'm very childish =-) must have made a fair bit of money writing games since their ACE and Mastertronic titles were one of the main sources of funding that they used to start Codemasters.
Some of the earliest game coders got nice pay cheques from the job, the numbers thrown around in Hackers by Steven Levy suggests that poeple like Warren Schwader and John Harris were on pretty good royalties from their work i'd say? |
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11360 |
yes, back in the days (ie early/mid 80s) it might have been possible... later, not so much :) |
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hollowman
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 474 |
There was an interview in soft 3/87 with Per Madsen who programmed special agent and nemesis. I dont know how much is accurate and how much is boasting, but atleast it was filled with figures.
Per Madsen who at the time of the interview was 20 years old had earned 300.000kr in one year on those two games, he had gotten a guaranteed sum of 20.000kr plus another 70 pence or 7kr for each sold game from Hewson. He had programmed the games in his spare time with assistance from Bo Möller-Nielsen who was 18 back then. He also mentions Johannes Bjerregaard and Søren Grønbæk who he was working with.
And speaking of the codemasters, http://www.olivertwins.com/ is quite a fun read |
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Soren
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 547 |
I made 800-900 danish crowns on the music+sound effects I did for a lowbudget game called "Complex". However, I told the makers of the game that I didn't want any money, as the music was pretty crappy. Ofcourse composing music isn't writing games.. but still. ;-) |
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SECRET MAN
Account closed
Registered: Jun 2004
Posts: 336 |
I made a lot of Money as i coded Katakis :-)
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chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11360 |
... |
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Burglar
Registered: Dec 2004
Posts: 1089 |
Quote: I made 800-900 danish crowns on the music+sound effects I did for a lowbudget game called "Complex". However, I told the makers of the game that I didn't want any money, as the music was pretty crappy. Ofcourse composing music isn't writing games.. but still. ;-)
ah Complex +4 ;) |
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Turtle
Account closed
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 70 |
iirc, ther was an article in a german mag (telematch/computer praxis, 11/84) about ECA and their 'noble art of programming' in which Michael Abbot was pictured as becoming a millionair for developing hart hat mack etc.
Never believed it, though.
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Tim
Account closed
Registered: Mar 2002
Posts: 467 |
I have always wondered the same about c64 based papermagazines in their prime days.
Anyone know more about the people behind those? |
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Skylab
Registered: Dec 2005
Posts: 183 |
There are still so many secrets... But not all of them will be published... |
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T.M.R
Account closed
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 749 |
Magazine staff were, at least judging by the ones in the U.K., a mixture of journalists and gamers pretending/learning to be journalists. =-) i've always had the impression that people like Julian Rignall were gamers who got into writing, others like Gordon Houghton were writers who got into gaming; in either case it works 'cos the writer can string a sentence together and enjoys the subject matter.
Some mags were "professional" in that they only hired professional writers, that meant they occasionally got people who could write really pretty, like, but hadn't a clue about their subject matter... i can't think of any examples right now but i've seen some horrendous articles in the past that more than hint at that cause. |
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SIDWAVE
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2238 |
I went to school with the 2 guys that made Thunderforce. They earned very little on that game. |
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Graham
Account closed
Registered: Dec 2002
Posts: 990 |
Quote: ok, forgot this computer as i never brought an atari xl before
the C64.. ;)
The Atari 800 is not an Atari XL. |
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TDJ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 1879 |
Julian Rignall rocked. Him & Gary Penn were my fave writers back in the days.
Btw, I just found out that there's a Wikipedia article about Julian :Z |
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pernod
Account closed
Registered: Nov 2004
Posts: 25 |
Quote: I have always wondered the same about c64 based papermagazines in their prime days.
Anyone know more about the people behind those?
I worked for the danish Commodore-related monthly magazine called 'Oberoende COMputer' from 1987 until the early 1990s (as did Bacchus/FLT, for example). For a high school student it was more than ok pay, say 1500 SEK (160 Euros) or so for one A4 page of text. Bacchus wrote a zillion pages for each issue, just enough to cover his phonebills (modem days). |
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JackAsser
Registered: Jun 2002
Posts: 2014 |
Quote: I worked for the danish Commodore-related monthly magazine called 'Oberoende COMputer' from 1987 until the early 1990s (as did Bacchus/FLT, for example). For a high school student it was more than ok pay, say 1500 SEK (160 Euros) or so for one A4 page of text. Bacchus wrote a zillion pages for each issue, just enough to cover his phonebills (modem days).
And he used me as child labour, typing in the code entries and try them out. Did I get any money? U owe me bro!!! |
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chancer
Registered: Apr 2003
Posts: 346 |
sad to say, I heard more stories about people getting ripped off by companies.. more talented at stealing peoples work and legal stuff than making their own games .
i guess the way would be to make an amazing game by your own company.. then sell the company on for silly amount of profit..
loads of software houses buy each other out, bit like hop scotch really.
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chancer
Registered: Apr 2003
Posts: 346 |
just to add, someone posted a "Did anyone make much money writing c64 demos?" topic, topic closed?
i remember years ago there was a german mag that had a competition for demos.. i'm thinking lotus or crazy won it or someone..
as for the uk , there was a note writer on comodore disk user... also a demo made esp for the mag. can't say if the people involved got paid though, i guess they might of. i have to see if i can dig out the FULL c.d.u demo, not the 1/2 one file version.. maybe tmr/cosine has it ?!?! |
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Tim
Account closed
Registered: Mar 2002
Posts: 467 |
Quote: sad to say, I heard more stories about people getting ripped off by companies.. more talented at stealing peoples work and legal stuff than making their own games .
i guess the way would be to make an amazing game by your own company.. then sell the company on for silly amount of profit..
loads of software houses buy each other out, bit like hop scotch really.
somehow Cherry Software rings a bell in that department ;)
I got bored reading all the "i still haven't received any money yet" complaints.. did anyone ever get payed? |
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Motion
Account closed
Registered: Aug 2002
Posts: 69 |
..ask Mark Cale of System 3 ;D |
