Interview of Odiesoft (September 2011)
Georg Odenthal, better known under the name of Odiesoft, was a very productive programmer back in the early nineties. He produced one major game - Megablasters - as also many innovative visual effects for the time (especially since everybody was still having fun with raster bars). I was curious to know more about him... and he kindly accepted to answer my questions ! Thank you Georg !
1. Hi Georg ! Please can you present yourself ? (age, country, what you do for a living..)
Hi Arnaud, first of all I wanted to say sorry, that it took me so long to answer to your questions.
Currently I'm &x000100111 years of age and I'm living in the self-proclaimed "most beautiful town in the world", which of course is Hamburg, Germany (was there any doubt which city was meant?).
Currently I'm working an a marketing research institute, but I'm kind of in between jobs. That is, since the company moved the only office from Hamburg to Berlin (which is roughly 280 kilometers away) and I have to commute 5 hours each day by train I'm open for new opportunities...
Currently I'm &x000100111 years of age and I'm living in the self-proclaimed "most beautiful town in the world", which of course is Hamburg, Germany (was there any doubt which city was meant?).
Currently I'm working an a marketing research institute, but I'm kind of in between jobs. That is, since the company moved the only office from Hamburg to Berlin (which is roughly 280 kilometers away) and I have to commute 5 hours each day by train I'm open for new opportunities...
2. When did you encounter the Amstrad CPC for the first time ?
My siblings and I got our "family computer", an Amstrad CPC 464 in the fall of 1984. My parents were quite modern at that time, that is, they bought us the CPC not only to "help us with our homework", but also with the intention that we children would have an advantage over our peers sometime in the future.
And since my programming skills and my computer knowledge helped me finance my studies and was a door opener for each and every job I had so far, I must admit that my parents were dead right with that assumption.
And no, it didn't really help with the homework, rather the opposite...
And since my programming skills and my computer knowledge helped me finance my studies and was a door opener for each and every job I had so far, I must admit that my parents were dead right with that assumption.
And no, it didn't really help with the homework, rather the opposite...
3. You are the programmer behind Megablasters, a Bomberman clone that took more than 2 years to develop. If you could rework that game, what would you change or enhance to it?
Actually I'm quite happy with the game as it is. Every time I load it again in a CPC emulator I still wonder how I ever had this much time to create this game. Nowadays time is such a sparse commodity!
But there are indeed things that I would have done different the second time. First of all I would have changed these Ninja-Turtles-lookalike characters into something that is less obviously an excuse for my below average graphical skills.
Over and above that I had several ideas for additional worlds, such as a China-World or a Night-World with limited visibility (the latter at least made it into the game as the "under Cobrons coat level", which actually had no homoerotic intention whatsoever!), as well as for new skills, like tossing bombs or carrying bombs around.
Another thing I already thought about while writing the game was to integrate a network client for the Wizcats network, that was used by Face Huggers Tetris and the Wizcats own Lightcycle game. I think it would have been quite fun, if the four players in the battle mode could play the game each on their own CPC instead of squeezing in front of one CPC.
But there are indeed things that I would have done different the second time. First of all I would have changed these Ninja-Turtles-lookalike characters into something that is less obviously an excuse for my below average graphical skills.
Over and above that I had several ideas for additional worlds, such as a China-World or a Night-World with limited visibility (the latter at least made it into the game as the "under Cobrons coat level", which actually had no homoerotic intention whatsoever!), as well as for new skills, like tossing bombs or carrying bombs around.
Another thing I already thought about while writing the game was to integrate a network client for the Wizcats network, that was used by Face Huggers Tetris and the Wizcats own Lightcycle game. I think it would have been quite fun, if the four players in the battle mode could play the game each on their own CPC instead of squeezing in front of one CPC.
But the thing I regret most is that I didn't have the time to integrate the game I had planed to be the special Easter Egg in Megablasters! I had intended to write a CPC conversion of the highly addictive Minestorm game from the MB Vectrex video game console. I already had started to write the code for the game, but since the date for the release party was approaching quickly I had to abandon those efforts in favor for creating the disc routines to load Megablasters and the individual levels.
So as you can see, there are indeed several things I would do differently. But all in all I'm quite proud that I created a CPC game that is still regarded very highly today and is considered the best CPC game ever by several reviewers and TOP CPC Games lists.
So as you can see, there are indeed several things I would do differently. But all in all I'm quite proud that I created a CPC game that is still regarded very highly today and is considered the best CPC game ever by several reviewers and TOP CPC Games lists.
4. Still about Megablasters, I know it was distributed as a shareware but still - was it a commercial success to you?
Nope.
5. You made lots of visual effects based on heavy use of Z80 processor. Some people tend to think a demo is not a good Amstrad CPC demo if not using advanced CRTC techniques. What is your opinion about that?
I think, that a demo can be called good, when it entertains people with new ideas, amazing effects and a cool soundtrack. Nobody wants to see a demo consisting only of the one thousandth scrolling text with a few hardware effects or a nice font. That's quite boring, but somehow was the standard "I can write a demo, too" release so many new groups and new programmers flooded the CPC market with for some time.
I preferred writing software effects, because I really sucked at getting the timing for the hardware effects right on the different CRTCs - just look at the ending screen of Megablasters, which only looks right on a CRTC 0...
Besides there was just so little one could do with hardware effects and so much more, one could achieve with an elegant piece of optimized software. I wanted to amaze people and make them wonder about how I made the small CPC move so many pixels at a time. I didn't really care about whether my demo ran with 50 frames or not - something I was often criticized for by the 50hz section. The effect and the looks was the center of my attention, not how I achieved it or whether it was running slower than the other demos.
But that doesn't mean, that I wasn't sometimes surprised by demos using mainly hardware effects. Especially the whole Logon team often demonstrated that good programming accompanied by subtle hardware effects was indeed the way to go. Also Alien, Prodatron, Thriller and Elmsoft demonstrated, that hardware effects can be much more than just mode-mixing and huge scrolltexts.
Finding the right blend of hard- and software effect was the art, not just doing the one or the other.
I preferred writing software effects, because I really sucked at getting the timing for the hardware effects right on the different CRTCs - just look at the ending screen of Megablasters, which only looks right on a CRTC 0...
Besides there was just so little one could do with hardware effects and so much more, one could achieve with an elegant piece of optimized software. I wanted to amaze people and make them wonder about how I made the small CPC move so many pixels at a time. I didn't really care about whether my demo ran with 50 frames or not - something I was often criticized for by the 50hz section. The effect and the looks was the center of my attention, not how I achieved it or whether it was running slower than the other demos.
But that doesn't mean, that I wasn't sometimes surprised by demos using mainly hardware effects. Especially the whole Logon team often demonstrated that good programming accompanied by subtle hardware effects was indeed the way to go. Also Alien, Prodatron, Thriller and Elmsoft demonstrated, that hardware effects can be much more than just mode-mixing and huge scrolltexts.
Finding the right blend of hard- and software effect was the art, not just doing the one or the other.
6. Some people from Germany used to use a secondary machine such as Amiga to develop faster. Did you follow that trend at the time?
Even though I sometimes thought that this could speed up the development of my demos and especially that of Megablasters (where compiling the whole source code took up to 20 minutes...), I never took the time to investigate how to work that out. I saw others develop on their PC and then send the compiled code to the CPC, but for me it looked quite complicated at that time and over and above that I didn't have another system for a long time, so I was bound to write and compile my software on the CPC.
7. You assisted to the Euromeeting 2, held in France in 1992. Do you have some good memories about it?
Well of course I have fond memories of the Euro2. It was my first international meeting and we went there in three cars with 9 people, but returned back to Germany with just two cars, since Lovebytes car broke down. That is actually a funny story, because when the car started to make strange noises and smoke was coming from under the hood, we went to a garage to have somebody look at it. So when the mechanic came back out he said something like "la voiture est fini' and we thought at first, that he meant that he is finished with the car and we can drive on. It took a few minutes for the mechanic to explain us (since none of us we any good at French) that he meant, that the car is done for...
Another funny story is, that on the other night Crown, Alien, Lovebyte, Hiroyuki, Crittersoap and I went on a stroll through Reims and Crown was in a bad mood and wanted to smash something. So he started kicking at trash cans and street lights. Did you know that when you kick a street light hard enough, that the light bulb inside breaks?
Then Crown discovered an old TV set at the side of the street and he wanted to smash it, but regardless how hard he kicked it or how far he tossed it, it the tube wouldn't break. Eventually he gave up on it and we went on.
On one of the days Fefesse showed us a first demonstration of his Xyphoes Fantasy game. The scrolling of the screen was really smooth and the number and the sizes of the sprites was quite amazing, but the animation of the main character looked a bit rough. So afterwards we were standing outside the hall with Thriller, Wee, Hiroyuki, Alien and some others and Thriller and Weee were making fun of the game and it's main character, by reenacting his sort of handicapped way of walking and fighting. Thriller was quite the actor and we had great fun - I just hope Fefesse didn't see us out there.
Anyway, since the Euro 2 is nowadays considered to be the most important meeting at that time, I'm quite proud that I was part of it.
Another funny story is, that on the other night Crown, Alien, Lovebyte, Hiroyuki, Crittersoap and I went on a stroll through Reims and Crown was in a bad mood and wanted to smash something. So he started kicking at trash cans and street lights. Did you know that when you kick a street light hard enough, that the light bulb inside breaks?
Then Crown discovered an old TV set at the side of the street and he wanted to smash it, but regardless how hard he kicked it or how far he tossed it, it the tube wouldn't break. Eventually he gave up on it and we went on.
On one of the days Fefesse showed us a first demonstration of his Xyphoes Fantasy game. The scrolling of the screen was really smooth and the number and the sizes of the sprites was quite amazing, but the animation of the main character looked a bit rough. So afterwards we were standing outside the hall with Thriller, Wee, Hiroyuki, Alien and some others and Thriller and Weee were making fun of the game and it's main character, by reenacting his sort of handicapped way of walking and fighting. Thriller was quite the actor and we had great fun - I just hope Fefesse didn't see us out there.
Anyway, since the Euro 2 is nowadays considered to be the most important meeting at that time, I'm quite proud that I was part of it.
8. During 1989-1992 - did you feel a technical (and friendly) war between people from France and Germany was present at this time? If yes, in which form?
I wouldn't have called it a war. Let's say there was a healthy competition at that time which resulted in some really cool demos on both sides of the Rhine. In Germany the newly founded group BENG made quite a lot of noise, some of which was justified, since most top programmers from Germany joined BENG (I was asked as well, but declined because the headquarters was so far away from my hometown and I wanted to stay independent - later that year I joined the HJT, but more out of personal than professional reasons...), some of it was the "megalomania" of its founding fathers to create the only one group anybody would want to join, completely disregarding the other talented groups and individuals out there. The idea obviously was to create a German answer to Logon systems, which worked out fine for some time.
9. Are you still in contact with other persons related to the Amstrad CPC in Germany? If yes, do you still discuss about computers?
Old friends meet together (Odiesoft at BSC's home)
Even though I sold my last CPC (a CPC6128 Plus) some years ago I indeed am still in contact with several German ex-CPC freaks and I do attend at least one meeting each year (usually the Xzentrix, which takes place in Seeshaupt/ Bavaria at the second weekend in September each year).
Over and above that I sometimes meet privately with a few of the old CPC heroes such as BSC, Fraggle, Face Hugger, Octoate, Lovebyte and recently I've been back at Marabu's place for the first time in ten years. You wouldn't believe how much Crittersoap has changed since back then...
Nowadays with Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and the like, no ex-CPC freak can disappear from the screen forever...
Over and above that I sometimes meet privately with a few of the old CPC heroes such as BSC, Fraggle, Face Hugger, Octoate, Lovebyte and recently I've been back at Marabu's place for the first time in ten years. You wouldn't believe how much Crittersoap has changed since back then...
Nowadays with Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and the like, no ex-CPC freak can disappear from the screen forever...
10. Do you still follow what is being done nowadays by the community? Do you enjoy what you see?
Infrequently I check the news on Pouet.net or CPC portals such as the CPC wiki or even one or the other French or Greek CPC site.
I liked this Sappy demo a lot and also the recently released Batman forever demo, which is a demo of my taste, a unique blend of hardware and software effect with the only goal of impressing people with a great idea and an eloquent implementation.
So I indeed like what I see. But most of the time I wonder why people still spend this much time in front of this old computer system. It was fun while it lasted, but I for my part have other things to do nowadays much less the time for that anymore...
I liked this Sappy demo a lot and also the recently released Batman forever demo, which is a demo of my taste, a unique blend of hardware and software effect with the only goal of impressing people with a great idea and an eloquent implementation.
So I indeed like what I see. But most of the time I wonder why people still spend this much time in front of this old computer system. It was fun while it lasted, but I for my part have other things to do nowadays much less the time for that anymore...
11. You wrote about your Plasma demo: "My surprise was big when I once got send a disc from one of my French contacts with my own Plasma Demo on it. My friend told me that there was a cool new effect on the disc, even though he didn't knew who had created it. I wasn't really very happy about that." Good news for you: I (NORECESS) was that guy that shipped it through Ghoul's Fanz discmag. Any comments, many years later? :) PS. I was 14
Ah well, this is forgotten and forgiven. Eventually it was my fault for giving out an unfinished or rather unbranded demo prior to any official release. I had to learn this lesson the hard way...
12. Finally, this is free topic for you. Something else you would like to share?
There are days when I look back in nostalgia to the time I had with the CPC and being part of the CPC scene. While researching some information for the answers I gave you in this interview I googled myself and my productions to see what others have written about me and my work. It was amazing to see how many people are still interested in the CPC and in the games we produced back then. Last year a book was published (Jerry Ellis - The 8-Bit Book - 1981 to 199X) with a review of my game in it and my name (well my alias) was mentioned between the same two covers as the names of David Braben, Ian Bell, Andrew Braybrook, Rob Hubbard, David Whittaker, Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond and others.
That was quite a humbling experience.
I'm thankful for the time we had and that it still resonates in the lives and minds of people nowadays.
Keep up the good work on the CPC. I would love to see somebody convert Wing Commander (insider joke...) for the CPC!
That was quite a humbling experience.
I'm thankful for the time we had and that it still resonates in the lives and minds of people nowadays.
Keep up the good work on the CPC. I would love to see somebody convert Wing Commander (insider joke...) for the CPC!
Thank you Georg ! It was great reading you ! :)
If you want to know more about Odiesoft, I invite you to visit his personal website. There are tons of interesting photos and all his CPC work is highly detailed. A must-see !!!
