Interview with Thorsten Schreck

Interview with Thorsten Schreck, former member of the Cevi Aktuell editorial staff, a German C64 magazine in PDF format and the founder of C64wiki.

Introduction

The interview with Thorsten Schreck, former member of the Cevi Aktuell editorial staff was created by the SCACOM-Team. The article was published in the English SCACOM issue 3 (July 2008). The interview was made by Stefan Egger.

Interview

Hi Thorsten Schreck! Please introduce yourself and your hobbies in detail!

Hello Stefan, I am also known in the scene as Sledgie and the operator of the C64-Wiki. I live in Hannover, the green capital city of Niedersachsen (Germany). Next to my fondness of retro computers my main infatuation is my family. With three kids I am quite busy. I also play board and card games of all sorts regularly in a group. My favourite card game is Tichu. The game is a mixture of “Doppelkopf”, poker, “Mau Mau” and skat.

What do you do along with your hobbies?

Shopping, working, sleeping, etc.

Which was your first computer and which ones followed?

My very first computer was a VIC20 with cassette drive. Later a C64 and also a C128 were added. After that I changed to a PC. My brother has had an Amiga for a long time.

What classic computers or games consoles do you own nowadays? Which of those is your favourite system and why?

Unfortunately I don’t own one myself any more. They are all sold. My children still have various consoles (from SNES up to PS3).

What are your top 5 of Amiga and C64 favourites?

On the C64 I can tell you 5: Loderunner, Great Giana Sisters, Boulder Dash, Davids Midnight Magic, Wizard of Wor… I have even more, but you only asked for five ;-)

On the Amiga I think the realisation of Zak McKracken is fantastic, Pinball Dreams and Fantasy… there are lots more, but they don’t come to my mind, as I play on the Amiga very rarely.

In the past you were doing some work for the Cevi-Aktuell – we know each other because of that. Tell us more of your time with the “Cevi”! What did you do and why did you quit?

For the Cevi-Aktuell I was editor and I contributed a few interviews, game reports and the C64-Wiki course. The work was much fun, as it was stress-free and all the members of the team are very likeable. I left the Cevi-Aktuell, because at the moment I can’t contribute very much. I mainly made a break. Maybe in the future a possibility might arise to join in more actively again.

We want to talk about Gold Quest 4 (short: “GQ4”). Please tell us about the first part and the “invention”of GQ!

Gold Quest evolved in 2005 from my first efforts to create something in SEUCK. At the beginning I just started with an empty draft. I didn’t want to make a typical shooter game. So I thought of a rough story… dwarf searches for gold... and has to be careful not to run into traps. So there is no use to simply walk through, the player has to see that he receives an extra life every 10000 points. Each gold chest gets him 1000 points and for the rare diamonds even 2000 points. This way the very first version namend “Gold Sucher” (German for “Gold Searcher”) emerged. There I worked with very rough surfaces and pixeled the dwarf which coincidentally is called “Sledgie”.The the English name “Gold Quest“ came to my mind. The second dwarf is called “Dave“ and is dedicated to the former owner of the Loadstar magazine Dave Moorman. He issued the first version of “Gold Quest“ on one of the last editions of the LOADSTAR magazine. This version didn’t contain the music by Richard Bayliss. The version issued in the CSDb was improved by Richard Bayliss with title screen and music.

In the second part of Gold Quest you supported me actively as a beta tester. In Gold Quest II there are many new puzzles and new levels. One of them is dedicated to the game Wizard of Wor. There you meet many old friends from this game.

The third part only came about, because Telespielator started a public enquiry in the forum-64. I agreed provided that at least 10 people wanted the third part for Gold Quest to be made. Tele pushed this a bit by promising the first 10 people a free green disk (very limited number of copies). More about this can also be found in the C64-Wiki. The story is completely penned by him. Unfortunately I could only realise half of it due to the lack of memory. The background graphics were completely repixeled by Richard Bayliss and Tele gave me the basis for many new enemies. The game was released at the end of 2006.

We wanted to put all parts on the green disk and issued it as the collection Trilogy of the dwarfs in 2007. There is also a new version of the ur-Gold Quest with new background graphics and a very long bonus level on the disk. All the three parts can be started from a main menue.

Why did you do the fourth part? Did you get so much positive feedback or did you do it just for fun?

The fourth part came about through a request from Richard Bayliss. He asked if I might want to do a new Gold Quest. This was at the end of 2007. Telespielator quickly provided a new story, which was very freaky this time and couldn’t be used. The current story was penned by Richard Bayliss. He also gave me some new background graphic components for the start of the new project. With the help of these I built all the levels according to the story in the first step.

For the third part of Gold Quest I received both negative and positive feedback. After the release in the CSDb I was criticised heavily by some users. I wanted to pack it all in after that. But with the support of many users from the forum-64 (who built me up again) I changed my mind. Things rudely written down as “now THIS is crap :D“ don’t bother me any more. You mainly like SEUCK games or you hate them. ;-)

I helped as a designer and tester, as you know. Please tell our readers, who else took part and how they helped you!

As many people as never before helped with Gold Quest 4. Richard Bayliss provided the graphic basic elements, story, music and intros. Telespielator painted two of the end bosses and the girl to be rescued. Furthermore he works on a new disk cover. You desgined –next to many drafts- the dwarf dragon (it resembles Spyro, coincidence?) and the tiger. The writing “Gold Quest 4“ in the intro was sketched by Dflame. Then Michael Krämer strongly supported us in testing. The English story was translated to German by Camailleon.

Very good! It was a pleasure to do that, it was great to help there! Richard Bayliss of “The New Dimension” – how did you get the idea to let him improve GQ (graphics, title screen, other extensions)?

This time it was his idea. In the first “Gold Quest” I looked for someone on the CSDb who could help me and Richard agreed spontaneously.

How did the testers and designers work? Did everything go smoothly or were there any problems?

Everything went like clockwork. We were a great team.

The 7th issue of German “SCACOM-Aktuell” will be launched soon. What do you think of our “new” magazine? What would you change and what do you like best? Do you think this magazine was mainly a good or a needless idea?

I think it’s great, that you make such a magazine. There is a lot of work in it. Keep it up. I always like reading the games section.

The magazine mainly enriches the scene. Nowadays there are only very few magazines of this type. I see SCACOM more as an addtion than as competition.

What else do you do besides GQ? What desires or projects do you have for the future? Is there a plan for GQ5?

Next to Gold Quest I spend a lot of time with the C64-Wiki. There is definitely no plan for Gold Quest 5 yet. Maybe next year... But for now I’ve had enough of Gold Quest. ;-)

Thank you for this interview and the permission to enclose the game in this magazine – I hope the readers have fun. Do you want to get rid of something else?

I would like to thank everyone who took part in Gold Quest 4 so actively and I would be happy if the game will be fun for many players. Concerning the difficulty level I would say that Gold Quest 4 is a little easier than Gold Quest 3. Reason: I already played it to the end without using the cheat.

Links

• Inferior C64
• Gold Quest
• Gold Quest II
• Gold Quest III
• Gold Quest 2007 (New version of Gold Quest)
• Gold Quest 4

Author

Interview number 3; (C) Stefan Egger from SCACOM English issue 3 (July 2008)

Translated by Camailleon