Pushy II, one of the Acorn's best PD games, has been released on the PlayStation. It can be found on the cover CD of this month's (October) Official PlayStation Magazine and will also be given away as a freebie at the Yaroze stand at next week's ECTS show.

 
If you don't own a PlayStation or you're too smug that you can get PushyII free on your Acorn then you can download it here! Fred Williams, the author of the game, works for Eidos Interactive by day and so used his knowledge of PlayStation programming to give his pet Acorn project to a much wider audience.

Acorn Version

PlayStation Version

The Playstation version features the following 'improvements':

• Some new graphics to avoid copyright problems
• A new set of levels
• 320 by 256 in 256 colours (no high colours as in Acornn version)
• Passwords are the same as in the Acorn version with the exception of the new levels
• Sound effects are as annoying as ever!

Fred Williams developed the PlayStation version using his RiscPC by running the Yaroze development kit on the PC card on one side of the screen and displaying the PlayStation's video output on the other side using Irlam's RiscTV TV tuner.
 

Acorn Boris

PlayStation Boris (darker by far!)

Mini Interview...

Fred kindly agreed to do a short interview with us on the subject...

 

AA: How easy was it to port Pushy II to the PlayStation?
 
rfw: The whole *point* of deciding to port P2 rather than start work on some huge mega 3D epic with lots of cool Playstation lighting effects was that it'd be a nice easy learning experience. Having all the levels and graphics already done helped a fair bit too! The main problem's just one of finding a bit of free time at the weekends - If I'd been working full time on it it'd've taken a couple of days. Instead it was months.

 

AA: Have you had any positive feedback from any PlayStation users yet?
 
rfw: A couple of emails just to say "nice one". A few comments & suggestions from fellow Yarozites, a few more from Sony's QA department prior to it getting on the OPSM disc. (In particular, this is the reason for the extra options on the pause screen)... All good & positive input, anyway: No-one's written to say "gawd, this is awful" (!) I'm dreading the fifth wave of "I can't do Boris" emails - I seem to get'em after every release of P2 ;)

 

AA: You're currently working for Eidos Interactive, can you give us any hints as to what project you're working on or have they got you under too tight an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement)?
 
rfw: 'Fraid so.

 

AA: Any plans for future Acorn games?
 
rfw: Plenty of ideas, no time for action, at the moment, I'm afraid... I keep on meaning to have a look at the Piper/Watts 3d code (see csag recently) with a view to doing something sweet & simple with it, but I ain't had the time...

 

AA: Thanks for talking with us, we wish you the best of luck but do not underestimate the power of PlayStation!
 
rfw: One of the nice things about being a developer is having the specs, & knowing *exactly* how much power's there ;)