Long awaited update
latest update: 20th October 2020
Finally! It's been a while. Paul Woakes' passing left me without much energy to go back at the site, even though many of you contacted me. So I'd like to apologize for being so late, and thank you for all that you sent, and your patience.
First, the sad news: as promised long ago now, I finally added a page with reactions to Paul Woakes' passing, recieved from a few visitors of the site. With a small never-seen comforting surprise (thanks to Andrew Griffiths and Tom Davies), do take a look!
You will also notice the BBS has vanished. Why? Well, disc.yourwebapps.com simply closed. They warned the users with ONE email, which I never recieved (spambox?), so I missed the time limit to backup data. It's all gone, yourwebapps' policy regarding privacy meant: deletion when closing, no backup on their side (which is fair). A bit depressing, I didn't have the time / nerve to start any other one yet (TBH, traffic was low with social medias taking over). So if anyone's seriously willing to open and manage a new forum... Please let me know.
Now, the good news: see below for the many other updates! It took 8 months to read back, contact people, work and have something like 600 added or modified files, with many thanks to all contributors. Hoping I didn't forget anyone! Most updated items are tagged with , so that you notice them easily.
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Damocles for PC: story... And VIDEOS!
Yes, you did read correctly! Updated the Damocles for PC page, with:
new magazine photos, thanks to Simone Gremmo and https://www.retroedicola.com website
the story of Damocles for PC, why was is canceled, and never released?
and incredible new screenshots and VIDEOS of the game!
Also check Andy Krouwel's site with the Damocles for PC music! (scroll down)
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Mercenary Reloaded
Added a new page about Andreas Eversberg's Mercenary Reloaded, a new PC port of Damocles and Mercenary III, with a stunning OpenGL rendition of the two games.
Really worth a try!
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Games pictures and stories
Updated the Mercenary pictures page, Damocles pictures page and Mercenary III pictures page with a short development story, as well as some game jokes explanations... And two pictures of Triton and Juno's surface, after hacking the game!
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Novagen, story and interviews
Added a story of Novagen Software Ltd, focused on the company and Mercenary's origins, told by Bruce Jordan himself in 2004.
On the main Novagen page, added a timeline of software releases, and updated several interviews: Mo Warden's, with lost bits from May 1999 found back in emails, and more recent inputs by Mo; Simon Berry's with more details, Novagen code pictures and an unreleased music bonus for Backlash fans; Michael Rooke's, with recent comments following Paul Woakes' passing.
Added Gary Walton's story, telling us about Paul Woakes and Novagen; an interview of Paul Hughes, who shares some interesting information regarding Novagen history; John Milford's story explaining why he was in Damocles credits; a Nick Bacchus "interview" built from emails; a very short Martin Stallard's story, with the little we know; Dave Dewson's message (previously linked from now defunct BBS); Harrod's anonymous VIP possible story; Jack Moorby's story; Russ Lanier's story (why he was thanked in Damocles).
Also added new names: Jason Paul Bowker (Mercenary tester), Lee Clarke (Backlash illustrator), Donovan Prince (Hellbent programmer), Gary Sabin (Sabin's Cube in Mercenary?), Carolyn Jones and Connor Byrne (actors in Damocles for PC).
Finally added Jason Martin and Mark Bedford's roles (play testers), and moved Tony Takoushi out of the Novagen team itself.
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Magazines reviews
On the Games reviews page :
Upgraded scans quality of ST Action (Novagen interview), The Games Machine Damocles preview, Micro News Damocles review and The One Damocles (early!) review
Added Damocles previews / reviews (Micro News, Joystick, Atari Magazine, Computer And Video Games), Mercenary 1 review (Atari User), Damocles for PC preview (The Games Machine, thanks to Simone Gremmo and retroedicola.com), and ST Format Damocles cheat (thanks to Jacob de Meza).
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Boxes and Manuals
Added box scans for Mercenary 1, from many different versions, with letters from Novagen. Ever seen that huge poster? Also added more Damocles boxes, and details on Mercenary 3 box. Thanks to Jacob de Meza and Stephen Stuttard for their help.
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Games solutions
Added Jacob's help files for Mercenary 1 and 2nd City. Damocles guide was enhanced with links to wonderful vector graphics maps for Damocles in HTML 5 thanks to Gabor Kiss, as well as Gabor's additional details on the Wishes Solution, and minor guide corrections and updates with thanks to Juri Fossaroli. The Mercenary III guide also now has more details about some bugs (thanks to MDDClone author), and help files for items, from Jacob.
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Damocles demo
Another surprise from Andreas Eversberg, who modified the magazine demo disk into a playable version! Fly and explore at will!
Also added a magazine and disk scans. See the Damocles Demo page.
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Gamma System
Added a new Gamma System page, with information on planets, and anecdotes about their names.
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Targ Survival Kit
Now available from the Targ Survival Kit page are scans of English, French and German posters, in rather high resolution.
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Youtube, links
Updated the links page with various videos from Youtube (solutions, playthroughs, from different versions including 8-bits). Also added a link to Gabor Torok's "Merc", an interesting very Mercenary-like new game ;)
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Music
Added a music of Mercenary 1, from the Novaload loader of US Gold's C64 version. (thanks to Stephen from Australia)
Also check Simon Berry's interview for a small Backlash surprise.
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Next updates... could include more box scans, maybe a few BBS messages backed up, more magazines reviews and screenshots from 8-bits Mercenary versions, which I didn't have time to work at if I wanted the update done in 2020 ;)
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