I remember.

[boneboys 0]

Ian,

Senior here as well.

Back in the late 80's my son was tugging on my shirt tails saying "Dad, dad, I want a computer". He got a Atari 500(s)?

Well, I'm still here.

CC and F18 Interceptor were my downfall.

Pleased to have met you and thanks...

[bfcrusader 10]

Like W0lle im not a sci-fi nut per se, but like music to me these days a good tune is a good tune no matter what genre, and so far BIS hasnt let me down so there will definately be a Gaea CC title in my shelf soon enough.

That made me think of 2 things.

1. Ian, was there any thought to bring music to the CC game? I know there was supposed to be a version which did, but my Atari ST didn't have anything but sound effects.

2. I wonder what BI's approach to music will be for CC:GM

[celery 8]

The Carrier Command theme music is awesome in that 80s way. :p

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[bfcrusader 10]

Aha, that's what I remembered. Good show.

But I would like to know if there was any planning to include in-game music.

Also, why's the carrier and Manta's image design here so different than in the game?

[celery 8]

Also, why's the carrier and Manta's image design here so different than in the game?

The same reason why none of the box art matched the content at the time: no clue.

[gadgetmind 10]

The Carrier theme and box design were organised entirely by Rainbird. I did speak to David Lowe about the music, and while we had a pleasant chat, my head was full of bits while his was crammed with beats and beeps, so it wasn't very productive. I've forgotten who did the artwork, but I quite liked it!

I guess we never did much with in-game music as none of the three of us were ever very musical, nor tremendously artistic; I drew all the icons for CC's user interface, and I think it shows!

Ian

[sav112g 10]

The Carrier theme and box design were organised entirely by Rainbird. I did speak to David Lowe about the music, and while we had a pleasant chat, my head was full of bits while his was crammed with beats and beeps, so it wasn't very productive. I've forgotten who did the artwork, but I quite liked it!

I guess we never did much with in-game music as none of the three of us were ever very musical, nor tremendously artistic; I drew all the icons for CC's user interface, and I think it shows!

Ian

Yan you did the original game?

If so well done still got it here in the box, one of my fav games.

Not played it in over 20 years probably but cant remember could you actually fight the other carrier in the end? :j:

[gadgetmind 10]

Yes, you got to fight the enemy carrier. If you're not around when the enemy carrier is attacking an island, the "fighting" is all done with a model of the situation and the computer equivalent of the twenty-sided dice from Dungeons and Dragons. When you are around, everything has to be done differently, and the enemy carrier needs to drive around 'intelligently' and fight in a 3D world.

These were the last bits to be done, we were so far behind the contract that the money had run out months ago, and we were totally burnt out. This is my excuse for the nasty habit the enemy carrier had of driving into the islands in the first ST release! New disks were sent to those who complained.

Ian

[sav112g 10]

Hats off to you it was still great. I would say in my Top five games of all time.

Elite (BBC Model B)

Original sim city

Command and Conquer

Original Champ Manager

Carrier Command

have you anything to do with this new game? Hope the spirit of the game is still there on the new one. Hope they do a Damage model and you need to fight to keep your ship working I always love stuff like that.

[gadgetmind 10]

I have absolutely zero to do with the new game, and as I haven't really kept up with gaming over the last few years, that's probably all for the best!

Ian

[bfcrusader 10]

Lol, you ought to be invited to see what and how they're doing in the sequel, which is your legacy in Carrier Command. Although I can understand if you'd rather be surprised.

At least you should be an honorary developer, all I'm saying

[FoxTwo 10]

Ian,

The user interface you designed was well laid out. The icons themselves were primitive, but clear in purpose. The game followed the rules of good user-interface design still in use today.

If you could turn back the hands of time, what would you modify on the Carrier Command interface?

Very Respectfully,

Ryan

[gadgetmind 10]

I don't think I'd change much on the user interface, but was always aware that my artistic skills were (and are still) somewhat limited. However, so was storage space: we had to compress those icons using a number of fancy tricks to fit on the disk(s) so there is a chance that prettying them up would have meant they wouldn't fit.

Ian

[von_paulus 0]

Carrier Command is one of the best computer games I've ever played.

It belongs to any TOP 20 best computer games.

I'm hopeful and confident that BIS will honor the legacy game.

Ian, I'm glad to see you in this forums. Thanks for having created CC.

A salute to all retro gamers here.

Edited June 30, 2010 by Von_Paulus

[ajfarrell 10]

Hi Ian, I join fellow CC veterns and salute you for a turely emersive and enjoyable game that time just stopped when playing! I noticed that if the carrier was reversed into a corner of an Island, the buildings could be blasted from the cannon - was this a purpose made cheat (and does the enemy carrier do this or is there simply a time period related to the enemy carrier once it enters landing range of an Island)? I'm kinda sorry I found it as it made the game allot easier than sending in the air attacks! I wasn't aware the PC version had a time warp, whats the significance of it? I had an ST and CC was the best game by far in my collection (and still is most memorable game to date, in fact just recieved an original PC version from ebay with tape, but 5.25" discs!), fond memories, thanks!

Anthony

[gadgetmind 10]

I loved that cannon. :-) Yes, you could blast like that, but it put you in range of the islands defenses if it was advanced enough.

The time warp removed the delay when moving between islands. On the map screen, you set a destination for your carrier, pressed the warp button, and everything went like stink as long as you kept it pressed! We just ran the stochastic game play with no 3D, and did simple navigation to get your carrier past islands; it worked well.

Ian

[bfcrusader 10]

Also of note is a glitch I found out when playing the game. It's when you resupply your carrier.

All items that are classified as payloads, i.e. missiles, mountable lasers, bombs and devices as well as the carrier's protective drones (the ones that go into a formation of your choice to defend against anti-ship missiles) could be overstocked if you load your vehicles to the maximum amount (if more than one is possible, otherwise just the one) of units of each type.

Then you call the resupply drone, stocked only with the items you've loaded/drones. When it's done, you can unmount all the payloads and dock the drones. Repeat as necessary with the items you didn't load during the first resupply run.

Voila! You have successfully overstocked and wont have to resupply for a greater while when it comes to these items.

Fuel and other items not classified as payloads, i.e. carrier launched rockets/flares, reserve Manta's and Walruses and the like are impossible to overstock, sadly :P

[gadgetmind 10]

Wow, nice find. You guys are massively more expert regards Carrier than I am: I'd even forgotten the supply drone, but that's maybe because Graeme coded those bits, hence the bugs. :-)

Ian

[bfcrusader 10]

Wow, nice find. You guys are massively more expert regards Carrier than I am: I'd even forgotten the supply drone, but that's maybe because Graeme coded those bits, hence the bugs. :-)

Ian

Hahahaha! :D Nice

Speaking of resupplying, I just remembered about this island which is very remote and the only way to get there was from the island which is the closest to it and your carrier has to get maximum fuel at the furthest reach of the resupply drone's range in order to make it all the way over there.

I'm curious as to why you made such an island, that is if you even remember way back then. :confused::p

[dmarkwick 261]

Hello Ian. If you're one of the original coders for Carrier Command then I feel I have to make a special effort and congratulate you on an iconic title that made people see the potentials in modern 3D games. When I first saw CC on a friend's Atari I was blown away, so naturally it became the top title for me to get as soon as I bought an Amiga.

Also a stroke of genius to have a rolling demo intro, I'm sure it generated many sales not only for the game but for the Amigas and Ataris that displayed it. I think it is more or less forgotten just how ahead of its time it really was, the power and features of a futuristic carrier in a virtual world made my mind spin, and each thing I learned about it made it more incredible. The decoy buoys. The rebuilding of lost vehicles. The incremental detail build-up of buildings being constructed on the islands. All these, and much more, working right out of the box (unheard of these days ;)) and available to ordinary folk right in their homes. It was a very long time before anything similar, or comparable, ever made it for release again on any platform short of modern PCs, if it ever even did.

I think it's a testament to its appeal that many people did sit through the long inter-island journeys, and did it without complaint. I rate CC as one of the best titles released, ever, on any platform.

Kindest regards

DMarkwick

Edited July 2, 2010 by DMarkwick

[scrapser 11]

Wow, I didn't realize until now I was talking with one of the original developers of Carrier Command. Thanks for that game many times over. I was totally immersed by it back in the day. You mentioned Rainbird/Firebird and the game Elite. I know Braben developed Elite and Virus. He had a website up for a long time but I lost track of it.

Do you know if he left the game development industry? I was hoping for a modern version of Elite or Virus (wishful thinking I suppose).

Forgot to mention one time I was playing Carrier Command and arrived at an island, deployed my Walrus and was heading for the beach when lo and behold there was the enemy carrier sitting just on the other side of the part of the beach I was approaching. It very slowly rotated until it was pointing away from the island, then shot off out of sight as fast the the Starship Enterprise enters warp speed. It was really cool and I was never able to repeat the experience.

Edited July 2, 2010 by scrapser

[von_paulus 0]

Do you know if he left the game development industry? I was hoping for a modern version of Elite or Virus (wishful thinking I suppose).

I've read a recent interview with David Braben in Retro Gamer, that he stated that Elite IV is still in development. The fact is that after been waiting it for so long, hearing here and there that the project was canceled, that I really don't know what to believe anymore. There are so many contradictory news.

It seems to be more an example of vaporware than anything. But hope is the last to die.

Maybe Ian (not Bell) knows something....

[gadgetmind 10]

I'm curious as to why you made such an island, that is if you even remember way back then. :confused::p

I have *no* idea. Maybe it was just to see if anyone was daft enough to actually go there. :-)

Ian

[bfcrusader 10]

Guilty as charged I suppose:p :D

Although I think I did it only when I've destroyed the enemy carrier, otherwise it would've just conquer 2-3 islands in my absence

Edited July 5, 2010 by BFCrusader

[sic-disaster 311]

It sounds like you had to do a lot of work to get stuff done in the original CC.

I definitely like that. I'd hate to be done in under 30 minutes or whatever, because it makes me feel a lack of accomplishing anything, like it's all too easy, even if you get your ass kicked.

The slower certain processes are, the more rewarding they will be when you finally get them done (like colonize an island), you can actually feel a bit proud of finally establishing something.