C5 Clive

The Offer

During one of my regular trips to Scorpio Games to chase up royalty payments for Mr Frosty, they threw me an interesting proposition: would I convert C5 Clive to the C64? The Spectrum version had done well, and they needed someone who could make it work on Commodore's machine.

I said yes. The money would finally get me that C64 hard drive I'd been after.

Reverse Engineering, 1985 Style

Here's where it gets interesting – or frustrating, depending on your perspective. No source code. None. Just a Spectrum version to play and figure out. This would become a recurring theme in my early career, though I didn't know it at the time.

I spent weeks playing the Spectrum version, working out the game mechanics, taking notes, and then rebuilding it from scratch for the C64. Different hardware, different architecture, same gameplay. It was proper detective work, really.

The Hard Drive Dream Realised

The game sold reasonably well. Getting paid, however, remained an exercise in persistence. I made more trips to Scorpio Games to collect royalty cheques than I care to remember. But eventually, the money added up.

I bought the C64 hard drive. No more developing with tape backups. No more waiting ages for programs to load and save. For anyone who didn't live through the tape era, you can't imagine what a difference this made. It fundamentally changed how I could work.

What I Learnt

Reverse engineering became a skill I'd use repeatedly over the years. Not having source code forced you to really understand how games worked at a fundamental level. You couldn't just copy and paste – you had to rebuild the logic from observation.

Also learnt that getting paid in this industry requires persistence. That lesson stayed with me.