The Return of Mitch

[Boggit]

Hi!
My name is Mitch and I reckon I was the first person to play Dungeon Master in Britain.
As the Dungeon and Disk Drives columnist for the Atari ST games magazine ST action, I first spread news of this fantastic game.
I probably have a heap of stories around this story which I would be happy to repeat if anyone is interested.

Mitch

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Articles added to Encyclopaedia here:
http://dmweb.free.fr/?q=node/100

Individual articles also available below:
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- b.

[RAF68]

Yes tells your history

[beowuuf]

Aha, you made it! Welcome to the forums as a registered poster, sorry for the rocky start

So, what build did you get to play? An early version, or the finished version? If an early version, what was missing / dropped compared to the final version?

Also, since you played the first version... do you ever remember being able to create a FUL bomb?

[ian_scho]

Welcome. Love to hear anecdotes. Always

[ChristopheF]

Welcome to this place.
I guess all the regulars here would be glad to hear all the anecdotes you may have about DM!

[greatstone]

Welcome!
We are here always hunting for some unknown news or stories about DM.
Feel free to share and initiate a discussion about them with us.

Regards.

[Gambit37]

Aha! The Boggit! I used to buy Amiga Action and wasn't there a similarly named adventurer column in there too? I remember I won a game by sending in my complete 45 page of DM to the magazine. Ah, those were the days, before the web, when success depended entirely on a good postal service

Many years ago, but before I found the DM community online, I had a clear out and disposed of all my Amiga magazines (I had some ST Actions too). They all had lots of DM info in them, including letters I'd submitted. I'm still annoyed with myself about that!

[zoom]

Hope you are a good storyteller
welcome Mitch!

[oh_brother]

Also, since you played the first version... do you ever remember being able to create a FUL bomb?

According to these excerpts from "Dungeons and Disk Drives" Mitch did not believe there was any way to make a Ful bomb. Which is strange, because I am pretty sure that I used to make them all the time, I just cannot remember the spell....

Mitch - I would also love to hear stories about DM. We were regular St Action readers in our house until it went out of print (or at least off the shelves of the shop near us) at which time we had to switch over to ST Format.

[Boggit]

I'm back - and to prove it, I'm here.

First I should introduce myself properly. If you have read an adventure colmn in a Atari St, Commodore Amiga or PC magazine, then I probably wrote it.
Although my name is in fact Andy Mitchell, I have hidden behind many names while writing for game magazines. I did this for lots of reasons. It let me write for different magazines who were in competition with each other, and by having different names the editors didn't know I was writing for other people as well as them. I also could write in a different style by giving myself a different name and a different fantasy character. It also allowed me to insult the users of other game computers without revealing that I was a user of all the game computers.
Some of my most well known personas were, Mitch, The Boggit, Vampyra and The Inn Keeper.

As one of you has already twigged, I was the bad tempered "Boggit" who wrote the Boggit's Domain column for Amiga Action. I loved that column as I spent most of my time writing rude things about Atari ST users, which was really funny as I also wrote the Dungeons & Disk Drive column in the ST Action magazine.

The Dungeon and Disk Drive column was supposedly written by Mitch and his invisible Dragon, but of course was me!

I was crazy about Dungeon Master and played it constantly. I was invited to Mirrorsoft's Office in London to advice them on various aspects of the game and was able to interview the FTL team who wrote it.

Anyway that's me, and if you want to hear more I'll be glad to tell all.

[Rasmus]

I am very interested to hear more
Especially about interviewing the FTL team, your personal experience of them etc.

(By the way, was it possible to drink the ven potions to get the empty flask back in this first DM version?)

[Boggit]

Just a quick note:
Last night I decided that I should at least take a quick look down the Dungeon as I don’t suppose I have been down there for over 20 years. Longer I suspect than some of you have been alive.
I loaded up the emulator at 11pm , grabbed a bottle of beer and opened up that familiar doorway.
A little later I glanced at the clock and saw the time was 2:30am. The damn game had done it to me again. I have many modern games which I am currently playing on a Playstation which have fantastic graphics and sound, so I was not prepared to once again fall under the spell of this seemingly basic game. What is it that Dungeon Master has that captured the imagination of so many gameplayers? For a start it is so easy to get into. The controls are fairly simple to master although there also so many ways to play the game. What leads so many of us to spend countless hours playing is that fascination to find out what is just around the corner. At 2:30am I knew I should switch off, but just ahead of me was yet another staircase leading down into the darkness. I could have saved there and then, but surely it wouldn’t hurt to just go down and sneak a quick look at what was there. It might be yet another magical item waiting to be picked up and played with, or perhaps a sword with the capability of splitting purple worms into burgers. Nope, I’m not going down there. I’m going to bed and I’m not playing this bloody, addictive game any more. Well, not until tomorrow anyway.
Mitch

[Trantor]

Hello Boggit, I have never heard of you since I'm not from Britain, but I echo the warm welcome and the wish to hear as many DM experiences and memories as you are willing to tell!

[beowuuf]

Glad to see after all this time DM can still re-hook you!

I think alot of the regulars here are in the 30 - 40 range, though there are outliers on both sides.

[ian_scho]

Q: Did they KNOW that it was going to be the best selling game for the ST? I mean did they suspect that they were working on a 'biggie'?

Thanks for the interesting stories about yourself!

[Boggit]

I go away - I come back again!

Well I didn’t play DM yesterday. Ehem! Well not for long, only a couple of hours. Oh, all right I played for most of the day. Well I had to, as the plumber was here, and I needed to be around in case he stole my chest of gold coins and rubies.
My God, I had forgotten how much of a puzzler this damn game is. The monsters seem easier to kill, perhaps because Mummies who lurch at you out of the darkness don’t seem quite so shocking as they were for the first time, but finding tiny stone keys still drives me nuts.

Did Mirrorsoft realise what an all time classic game the had on their hands. Not likely.
Mirrorsoft was a newly formed software department within the Daily Mirror newspaper company and it had only a few employees. As a result of good (but not ecstatic) reviews in the games magazines, the game started to sell and that’s when the telephones in the Mirrorsoft office started to ring off the wall.
Game players were driving themselves nuts trying to solve the dungeon’s puzzles and in desperation they besieged the office with their problems. Meanwhile I was writing the Dungeons & Disk Drives column in ST Action and I too had become hooked.
A young lady from Mirrorsoft who knew of me, gave me a phone call and invited me to visit the office in London. When I arrived they explained that they needed help to give them a break from the constant telephone calls, and the suggested that I started giving hints, tips and suggestions to the readers of the magazine, as at the time the Atari ST games magazine, ST Action was the mag that most gameplayers bought.
So, armed with a full solution to the dungeon provided by the game writers (FTL) and a game editor which enabled me to play as an invincible hero with the ability to walk through walls, I began a crusade to help out the bemused and anxious gameplayers. My postbag started to explode as the letters arrived from all over the world and I spent hours writing, playing and grabbing screenshots to illustrate the articles. I believe my enthusiasm for the game encouraged many more gamers to buy it and Mirrorsoft were delighted. As a result when the FTL team visited England to get even more publicity for their game, I was selected to interview them for the games magazines.
What were they like? I’ll tell you later.

Mitch (aka) Boggit

[Gambit37]

Cool, I'm excited to hear about what they were like in person. I email interviewed most of the original FTL team a few years ago for a new DM website that I'm (very slowly) building. Would be great to have some of your information on there too

If Mirrorsoft didn't know they had a hit, FTL sure did:

We released a demo in April 1986 that showed the front doors opening and took a short walk through a non-interactive dungeon. This demo created tremendous buzz and turned out to be most of the marketing we ever had to do

[Twiggy]

I vaguely remember the InnKeeper actually, although a lot of those magazines were in their prime while I was under 13, so didn't get to read a hell of a lot because I couldn't afford them lol

Nice to see you on board though

[MasterWuuf]

I go away - I come back again!

Well I didn’t play DM yesterday. Ehem! Well not for long, only a couple of hours. Oh, all right I played for most of the day. Well I had to, as the plumber was here, and I needed to be around in case he stole my chest of gold coins and rubies.
Mitch (aka) Boggit

Ha! I was reminded of when I first played DM (er, on my WONDERFUL ST ...loved the color monitor).
I almost hated DM at first, since I was also 'all alone' as far as knowing anyone else playing the game.
(That was when it first came out, back in the Dark Ages)
Getting used to playing a game on a computer/game console keyboard was new to me,
so that probably added to the early frustrations.

Now, being 'stunned almost out of my chair' at 2:30 am, by a group of skeletons???
Yeah, I was definitely taken 'under the spell' of the DM universe.

Glad to have you here, Mitch.

P.S. I was 30-31, the first time I played DM. (That would make me...er, older than dirt? )

[Simon]

I used to read your column on the back page, and I loved it! Welcome!

[Boggit]

The FTL team used to drive the Mirrorsoft staff completely nuts. Once it became clear that the game was going to be a massive hit, Mirrorsoft quickly realised that there was going to be big money to be made. The obvious next move was to get a sequel to market as soon as possible. After all, what go-getting American team wasn't going to cash in a golden goose? Well that's the way to get your business to become a world force. Find a great game, follow it up with a Dungeon Master II then sit back and watch the cash flood in.
However what Mirrorsoft didn't reckon on was the the sofware writers at FTL didn't seem to care too much about making money.
They were generally pretty young and idealistic. It appeared that if they were to get anymore laid back, they would have been horizontal. Like all the fans, I was as keen to play another game out of the same mould so I was in constant touch with the Mirrorsoft sales team trying to find out when the next installment would be available. If I was frustrated then they were even more so. Their pleading with FTL seemed to have no effect as the team had endless reasons for delays. Whether it was more fun sunbathing on the beach, swimming in the surf or pursuing other goals, nobody could tell, but delay after delay produced nothing.
I received a phone call one day to invite me to London to meet the FTL team who had decided to do a small publicity tour.
As this took place almost 20 years ago I must confess my memory of the actual meeting is pretty dim. All I can recall is that there were around five young men all dressed in smart suits. They also looked as if wearing suits was the last thing they wanted to be wearing. I suspect they all would have been much more comfortable in bermuda shorts, sandals and tee shirts. However they were all as pleasant as you would have hoped. They all loved computer games and admitted that when they weren't creating games, they were playing them.
I was presented with some replicas of the gold coins which would be found in DM II which was a nice parting gift.

[Boggit]

I forgot the mention. Do you all know the story of the Firestaff and April Fools Day?
If not, I'll tell you tomorrow.

Mitch aka ( The Boggit)

[Gambit37]

Yep, we know the Firestaff April Fools joke. In fact, if you search the web for DM Cheats, you'll see it printed "as fact" all over the place. You've managed 20 years longevity of a fake cheat. Nice one!

I agree with your assessment of the FTL team; they were definitely idealistic and laid back. Michael Newton sent me some pics of the team, there's one of himself eating breakfast at his computer, in shorts and t-shirt.

[oh_brother]

That was you??!! I read that cheat ages ago in either ST Action or ST Format...it was submitted by someone called Mr. F. Ibber. I still wanted to believe that it would work, and tried. It did not work.

[ian_scho]

I'd still like to know the source of the april fools joke though ... Fibber!

[zoom]

I remember to be kind of mildly angered because of a supposedly working DM-cheat(which in fact didn´t).
Could have been your april fools joke. Lord Librasulus smites thee down or some such ...

[Boggit]

Well as many of you already know ST Action magazine published a cheat code which made you invinsible. The only problem was that it was all an April Fool joke. This wonderful cheat was simply rubbish and didn't work. The fact that it was rubbish did not stop many other magazine publishing the cheat as correct, as they never bothered to actually try it.
I would love to have been the guy who actually wrote this piece of nonsense, but truth be told it was written by the editor - Nick Clarkson. Nick was a young man with a great sense of humour and he played lots of tricks on people. As I was only a freelance writer who worked from home and sent in my copy each month, I did not see him often, but he once pulled a terrible joke on me.
There was a time when I telephoned and complained that I was upset that I was not receiving enough adventure games each month from him and this was causing me trouble as I did not have enough to write about. Nick apologised and promised he would send me everything he could find on everyone's desk in the office. A few days later a box, the size of a tea-chest was delivered by courier to my home. I was thrilled.
Unfortunately the chest was filled with old coffee cups, boxes of tissues, newspapers, apple cores and even someone's cold toast.
I didn't laugh!!!
However looking back, it was really funny.
One cheat that does work with the Firestaff is that FTL made a mistake when they designed the game so that you could not leave the room carrying the Firestaffstaff. They did not want the player to be able to go back up the dungeon and kill everything with the powerful staff. What they forgot was that a sneaky player can still throw the staff out through the door and then walk out and pick it up. When they first found out that it could be done they were upset, but then they reckoned it showed initiative, so accepted it.

Mitch aka (The Boggit)

[MasterWuuf]

Don't I feel like the clever one, since I figured out the 'toss the firestaff' trick with no help?

[Boggit]

Hi,
Just thought I would let you know that I have scanned the pages of the ST Action magazine which held my interview with the FTL team and sent it to the moderator of this forum. If he agrees he may make it available for you all to read.

[Gambit37]

I'm excited to see this! For years, I've been buying up any magazine I've found on eBay that mentions Dungeon Master -- but so far I didn't manage to replace any of my Amiga or ST Actions that I stupidly threw away....