With the exception of the original Stranded game, all these games have been developed & tested on freely available software developed by people with an equal passion for the craft. There are links to a lot of them elsewhere on this site, but to name drop a few here...
- Pasmo (Z80 compiler)
- Crimson Editor (tabbed multi-document editor)
- Pu-Crunch (compression suite)
- ZX-Paintbrush (screen image editor)
- TommyGun (retro game development suite)
- Spin (Spectrum emulator for the PC)
- ZXDS (Spectrum emulator for the DS)
But tools are useless without passion, and during the development of ...Harvest Havoc! I had the good fortune to be put into contact with Lee du-Caine, an accomplished musician with both real & virtual instruments, and who has provided the music & sound effects for that and all games since. Lee is a pure genius, and his AY-creations literally add a whole new dimension to my games, allowing me to produce a complete final product. (You really don't want to hear my attempts at beeper-tune music, which is why Stranded & Dominetris are somewhat sparse in the sound department...)
I met Lee through the forums on the World Of Spectrum website, and you couldn't wish to meet a better bunch of talented, passionate, educated, and often just plain crazy people. If you're interested in any aspect of Spectrums, be it hardware or software, new or old - and if you're reading this then I guess you are - then that's the place to be, whether for the forums, all the gathered documentation, or the huge archive of titles for the Spectrum. (Sorry, it's not Stonkers!)
In writing these games for the last couple of years, it's amazing how much the internet has changed the way I work in producing these games. The facilities it gives in aiding communications between like-minded people, wherever they are in the world, and being able to swap & share information and programs quickly & simply has helped me produce better games for a wider audience than I ever imagined possible. Thanks everybody!