Delta 4 : Andy Greens portrait ...

Want to talks about games you like, would like to see developed on the Oric, it's here.
User avatar
ibisum
Wing Commander
Posts: 1643
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 8:56 am
Location: Vienna, Austria
Contact:

Delta 4 : Andy Greens portrait ...

Post by ibisum »

Anyone got any ideas how Andy Green put his selfie into the game of Delta 4 - maybe he used some known techniques at the time to scan a photo, or something? Was just playing this game for a bit of fun and realized thats quite an advanced technique for the time ..
User avatar
Dbug
Site Admin
Posts: 4437
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:00 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact:

Re: Delta 4 : Andy Greens portrait ...

Post by Dbug »

Well, back in the days there was already things like the "handy scanner", I even remember some magazines articles on how to turn your printer into a 1 bit scanner by adding a sensor on the printer head.

Things like that: http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Dart_Sc ... P-Printers
User avatar
Symoon
Archivist
Posts: 2301
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2006 12:44 am
Location: Paris, France

Re: Delta 4 : Andy Greens portrait ...

Post by Symoon »

Another option was to use some graph paper above a real picture and color the squares accordingly.
But that would have taken a lot of time for 48.000 pixels!

Didn't someone demo, at a UK meeting in the early 90's, a video camera (or was it a simple camera?) linked to the Oric displaying pictures in Hires?
User avatar
ibisum
Wing Commander
Posts: 1643
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 8:56 am
Location: Vienna, Austria
Contact:

Re: Delta 4 : Andy Greens portrait ...

Post by ibisum »

Oooh .. now that I would love to see - a camera attached to an Oric?! I could imagine the low-res mono camera of the Nintendo Gameboy providing enough pixels to make such a pic ..
User avatar
coco.oric
Squad Leader
Posts: 720
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:50 am
Location: North of France
Contact:

Re: Delta 4 : Andy Greens portrait ...

Post by coco.oric »

Not at all, Andy has made a repro of the time machine
coco.oric as DidierV, CEO Member
Historic owner of Oric, Apple II, Atari ST, Amiga
User avatar
Dbug
Site Admin
Posts: 4437
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:00 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact:

Re: Delta 4 : Andy Greens portrait ...

Post by Dbug »

I was wondering: What type of packaging did the game came in? There's only one photo of the inlay on oric.org, and it looks like it's never crystal case or clamshell format... I actually think I never played the game, I'm not even sure if it's one game tape or four of these :D

I have a version with 5 files laying around in a folder:
- DELTA4
- DELTA-DM
- DELTA-EC
- DELTA-MI
- DELTA-TE

were these all on the same tape, different tapes, different sides maybe?
User avatar
Symoon
Archivist
Posts: 2301
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2006 12:44 am
Location: Paris, France

Re: Delta 4 : Andy Greens portrait ...

Post by Symoon »

- DELTA-DM
- DELTA-EC
- DELTA-MI
- DELTA-TE
Those 4 programs are from Mission Delta by Ere Informatique (respectively Demo, Ecole de pilotage, Mission, and Test)

IIRC Delta 4 is in a larger package. I haven't transfered it yet but I think I got the tape.
User avatar
Symoon
Archivist
Posts: 2301
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2006 12:44 am
Location: Paris, France

Re: Delta 4 : Andy Greens portrait ...

Post by Symoon »

Found this back, it's on the right.
IMG_1931.jpg
User avatar
Dbug
Site Admin
Posts: 4437
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:00 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact:

Re: Delta 4 : Andy Greens portrait ...

Post by Dbug »

Rhooo... Lost in Space!

Regarding Delta 4, that looks like a double size clam shell?
Can you take a photo of the content? Is there only one tape, or more than one?
User avatar
Symoon
Archivist
Posts: 2301
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2006 12:44 am
Location: Paris, France

Re: Delta 4 : Andy Greens portrait ...

Post by Symoon »

It's an old photo. The tape is 130km away from me right now, so no, I can't picture anything else yet ;)
In 15 days, if I don't forget ;)
User avatar
Steve M
Squad Leader
Posts: 787
Joined: Fri Mar 24, 2006 3:33 am
Location: Cumbria, UK
Contact:

Re: Delta 4 : Andy Greens portrait ...

Post by Steve M »

I think it is a double. I used to keep a Design Aid tape in there.

I think there was a mention of the digitised screen in OUM or somewhere - but I don't recall if there was any details about how it was done.

I don't think there has ever been an Atmos version of this ? I enjoyed a couple of the games a lot.
User avatar
Symoon
Archivist
Posts: 2301
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2006 12:44 am
Location: Paris, France

Re: Delta 4 : Andy Greens portrait ...

Post by Symoon »

delta4_gl1.jpg
delta4_gl2.jpg
User avatar
Dbug
Site Admin
Posts: 4437
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:00 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact:

Re: Delta 4 : Andy Greens portrait ...

Post by Dbug »

This is so weird! A double size box with room for two tapes, but only one is used ???
Lol :)

Thanks for the photo!
User avatar
Symoon
Archivist
Posts: 2301
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2006 12:44 am
Location: Paris, France

Re: Delta 4 : Andy Greens portrait ...

Post by Symoon »

You're welcome ;)
Other strange thing: the inlay says "Nectarine", the program says "Emerald Software", and the tape label and manual say "Foulsham & Co. Ltd".
User avatar
iss
Wing Commander
Posts: 1637
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2010 5:43 pm
Location: Bulgaria
Contact:

Re: Delta 4 : Andy Greens portrait ...

Post by iss »

"Foulsham & Co. Ltd" is the publisher and (maybe) the copyright holder too.
Other curious details are some strings inside the TAP file:

Code: Select all

Andy Green, Author of DELTA FOUR, sold  his first 
program, MISSILE BASE to  ACORNSOFT when he was sixteen.  
Since then he's gone on to write PROTECTOR for QUICKSILVA, 
DELTA FOUR (this one!)then ULTIMA ZONE and THEM for TANSOFT..
and this one:

Code: Select all

****    SO, YOU FINALLY BROKE INTO ME!  
TELEPHONE ANDY GREEN ON FLITWICK (0525) 714744    ****
Maybe there is/was kind of protection scheme.... is it possible that this was Andy's real phone number ? :)
Post Reply