Did Peter Scott live in Germany?

[leenew]

Hi,
I have a strange question.
Did Peter Scott the prolific programmer live in Rodgau Germany?
The reason I ask is I have come across an old game published in Practical Computing called Caving which is by Peter Scott of Rodgau, but I don't know if it is THE Peter Scott.

If you look at the Peter Scott games that he had published in magazines http://bbcmicro.co.uk/index.php?rt_R=&r ... =on&sort=b I don't think it has his "look", but I would like to be sure.

Thanks,

Lee.

[paulv]

I can't answer the question but very much related is that for some reason, outside of the big commercial titles, caving was THE game that kept me coming back for more. I always loved it.

It's also a great example of the predictability of randomness in computing

Paul

[CMcDougall]

Roving robot 1&2 chars look like Hunkidory,
so might say Yes is same

[davidb]

The sprites from Roving Robot, plus the effect between levels, are just like Haunted House.

[iamaran]

Lee, I wondered the same.

Somewhere in those boxes of clippings I'm cataloguing/scanning there's a submission by an Ian Bell. Not necessarily that Ian Bell of course.

[iamaran]

Just when I thought I'd imagined it, I found it. It was published in Popular Computing Weekly, 24 June 1982, p 16. It's erm...
...attached.

[jms2]

The similarity in concept between this and the randomly generated planet descriptions in Elite is striking...

As Ian Bell is presumably contactable via his website, you could ask him.

[leenew]

Hi Col,
The game I am querying is "Caving". Did the famous Peter Scott write it? or just another Peter Scott that lived in Germany?
http://bbcmicro.co.uk/index.php?rt_R=&r ... =on&sort=b

Lee.

EDIT: the "Morris The Millipede" listing from Personal Computer News March 84 states the game is by "Peter Scott of Bedlington Northumberland".
There is only 2 months between the publications of "Morris" and "Caving", so maybe this is looking less and less likely it is the same Peter Scott?

[leenew]

Just when I thought I'd imagined it, I found it. It was published in Popular Computing Weekly, 24 June 1982, p 16. It's erm...
...attached.

That is quite funny
I wonder if THE Ian Bell sent that in as a joke?

Lee

[lurkio]

Just when I thought I'd imagined it, I found it. It was published in Popular Computing Weekly, 24 June 1982, p 16. It's erm ... attached.

That is quite funny I wonder if THE Ian Bell sent that in as a joke?

Nice find! This is obviously some early procedural-generation code that Bell kept working on and eventually developed into Elite.

Code: Select all

  0 REM Star Trek script generator by Ian Bell, 1982
  1 REM typed in and tidied up by lurkio @ Stardot, 2019
 10 MODE7:VDU23;8202;0;0;0;:PRINT'"Star Trek"'"on BBC Micro"
 11 PRINT'"It is  a  little  known  fact  that  thescripts of Star Trek  were  produced  byParamount's   enormous    1960s    valveoperated computer. I have replicated theprogram for the BBC Micro.   Indeed,  it";
 12 PRINT"has  proved possible to improve upon theoriginal, producing scripts of a  highercalibre than those filmed."
 13 PRINT" Of course, the program produces scriptsof variable length.   Paramount  handledthis  by  inserting  fights  and   nobleprofile shots to pad out the episodes."
 14 PRINT" The program  will  run  on  either  theModel A or B. Make sure that the stringsin lines 130 and 505  are  identical  orthe program will never end  (that's  howthey got the motion picture)."
 15 PRINT'"_ Ian Bell, Popular Computing Weekly,"'"   24 June 1982, p.16":*FX15
 16 TIME=0:REPEATUNTILINKEY0<>-1ORTIME>6000:IFRND(-TIME)
 17 :
 50 MODE7:FORI=2TO3:VDU31,7,I,141,131:PRINT"   S T A R   T R E K":NEXT:VDU31,12,5:PRINT"   by Ian Bell"'
 90 B$=""
100 R=RND(11):IF R>7 X=500 ELSEIF R>4 X=520 ELSE X=500+20*R
105 FORDD=0TO999:NEXT
110 PROCSAY(X):IF A$=B$ GOTO 100
120 PRINTN$;A$".";:IFPOS<>0PRINT'ELSEPRINT
130 IF A$<>"Take us out of orbit, Mr Sulu" OR RND(4)<>4 B$=A$:GOTO100
140 PRINT"    ALL: Hah! Hah! Hah!"''"                 THE END"
150 END
300 DEF PROCSAY(X)
310 RESTORE X
320 READ N$,A
330 FORI=1TORND(A):READ A$:NEXT
340 ENDPROC
500 DATA"   KIRK: ",4,I'm responsible for the lives           of 3000 crewmen,It's a thousand to one against          but it's our only chance
505 DATA"Take us out of orbit, Mr Sulu","That's what makes us human,             Mr Spock"
520 DATA"  SPOCK: ",3,It appears to be some kind of           unknown energy,Fascinating,Most illogical
540 DATA SCOTTIE: ,2,"The enjins canna take it,               Cap'n","She canna take the strain,              Cap'n"
560 DATA"   SULU: ",1,"Captain, it just...disappeared"
580 DATA"  McCOY: ",1,"He's dead, Jim"

Run the code in JSBeeb:

• http://bbcmicro.co.uk/jsbeeb/play.php?p ... 696D220DFF

[sbadger]

EDIT: the "Morris The Millipede" listing from Personal Computer News March 84 states the game is by "Peter Scott of Bedlington Northumberland".
There is only 2 months between the publications of "Morris" and "Caving", so maybe this is looking less and less likely it is the same Peter Scott?

Though "Peter Scott of x" is quite a specific way to put it, How many other Dev's put just their name, not also where they live?
And people do move!.

I wonder if any stylistic similarities can be seen in the code?

[leenew]

Hi
No, there are no similarities that I can see.
I just think he is a different person.
I found many references to the more famous Peter Scott as being around the Northumberland area so at the moment I have the other chap as Peter Scott 2 until I differentiate him properly.

Lee.