Shaw Brothers Twice As Good Interview, ZX Spectrum Computer, Sinclair ZX Spectrum

interview - with graham, adrian and david
interviewed by vincent vity.
vincent - your names and ages, if you please?	graham (22), adrian (18), david (16)
vincent - when did you start programming and who started first, second and third?	shaws - christmas 1983, in no particular order, just who happened to have the biggest fist.
vincent - how did you get into programming?	shaws - through reading books and mags like the old "sinclair user" and also "sinclair programmer", and hacking into other games around the time.
vincent - have you ever owned a zx81?	shaws - no, honest! but we did have go on a "borrowed" one.
vincent - where do you get your ideas from and who usually comes up with them?	shaws - ideas? what's one of those? usually we think of a game that we want to play on, one with a fair bit of scope for graphics and a fair bit ogf gameplay... then we write it!
vincent - what games have you wrote - published or not?	shaws - jungle jie '84, pendragon '84, 2o-2o vision '84, mole on the dole '85, hunter, demonslair '85, robin the outlaw '85, impact/starburst '86, a.t.a.c. '86, final frontier '87, pizza bar '86, excalibur '86, rakattak '87, boid '87, strangers from outer space '87, gunpowder, treason and plot '87, the boxing game ("sinclair user" '84), cerius '87, gunfighter '87, tank command '88, aquasquad '88, kosmos '88, heartbroken '86 & '88, superkid '88, iron soldier '88, soccer star '87, '88 and '89.
vincent - how did you learn machine code?	shaws - through various books and user friendly programs... we once sent off to timothy closs for a few, from/through a magazine article.
vincent - how long did it take you to learn?	graham - well i personally started at midland road infants school in royston, but i'm a slow learner, but i can now fully understand my hundreds, tens and units. very helpful when adding up royalties.
vincent - who does what when you program and sell your games?	shaws - well graham does the programming of the game and designs the various structures, whilst adrian will give us a quick tune (he plays guitar!) and david (dave!) does the backdrops.
vincent - how long does the average game by you 3 take to do?	shaws - what's an average game? iron soldier took approx. 7o days, superkid's taken only 36 days (super fast!), whilst soccer star has taken more than 2 years - what with improvements and alterations. so what's an average game?
vincent - why did you pick atlantis?	shaws - because it was itching, and i've just had a bad cold, mucas all over the place, wow like this is a long interview, what's the pay like? i am the ghost of a troubled joe!
vincent - how did you get with atlantis?	shaws - well we first sent them a letter asking them about them (?!) in 1984, and after a couple of false starts (our faults really for writing bugged up games) we finally got them to publish a game (4 years later!) in 1988!!
vincent - were any of your games refused by other houses? if so which and who?	shaws - we were always sending games off to houses early on (even mole on the dole got sent), the ones who turned us down(probably 'cos the games weren't commercial enough) include... mastertronic (mastercronic!), firebird, silverbird, mockingbird, bluebird, alternative, incentive, players, powerhouse.
vincent - what each of you is the best game ever wrote on the spectrum? (not by you)	shaws - each of us? our tastes are very similar, try these... cobra, space harrier, dark star, elite, match days 1 and 2, all ultimate games, wally week, tomahawk, avalon, combat school.
vincent - as above but worst?	shaws - there are many, many tripe ones - including recent ones.
vincent - what's each of your favourite pop groups?	shaws - we all have sim tastes! the smiths, the wedding present, lloyd cole & the commotions.
vincent - what are your dislikes?	gra - marzipan, ade - cheese, dave - carrots .
vincent - as above but likes?	shaws - tag (!!!), viz, crash, gra - water, ade - booz, dave - black levi 5o1s.
vincent - do you have a contract with atlantis?	shaws - nope! but we do get on fine with them, no big prob;lems or hassles etc.
vincent - when the house publishes your game do they ever change things to suit themselves or say "we don't like this, take it out"?	shaws - quite often but it's usually something that we didn't think of doing in the first place. for instance "gunfighter" was once called "gunslinger", or a little "bug" crept in and crapped on a code, like a 128 hassle, but we're pretty good de-buggers.
vincent - what are the main problems you face when programming?	shaws - the only problem we have is the memory problem. 'cos we like to make our games graphically pleasing and playable at the same time.
vincent - have you ever burnt the sunday roast?	shaws - we never have ice-cream, 'cos we're too cool! and anyway wouldn't it melt before burning? ..."meat is murder" unquote. vincent - whoops! i forgot they were vegies?
vincent - do you have any tips for budding programmers?	shaws - stop budding and blossom! keep sending off yer games (it took us 4 years and over 2o games before we got one published!!).
vincent - what will be your next release and what's it about?	shaws - "kosmos" (a space adventure lark), "heartbroken" ( a princess lark), "superkid" (the best super hero game ever!), "iron soldier" (war! save us all), "soccer star" (a soccer management game through "cult" budget software).
vincent - what do you all do in your spare time?	shaws - (1) fill in interviews (2) play soccer in summer time! (3) pubs (ade lad!) (4) spend warm summer days indoors writing frightening verse to a buck-toothed girl in luxembourg.
vincent - what do you all think to t.a.g.?	shaws - well it's better than the your sinclair, but then again, that's not saying much is it? it's the vest fanzine we've ever come across. and it has very good v.f.m. (vegetable farm machinary!).

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