Hi Stoo,

Hello Steve,

First off all I’d like to thank you for taking time out for allowing me to do this interview with you. I hope you don’t mind but I would like to ask you a few questions regarding SWOS 96/97 and SWOS 07.

No worries, only too glad to assist.

Did you and Jon have a lot of fun working on the pixels?

Yes it was a great gig, as was the whole time I worked for Sensible. Paid hobby really does sum up the feelings of working at Sensible during that time.

How long did it take to create all the pixels?

I can't remember to be honest, I seem to recall a varying degree of changes, tweaks and updates being made along the way.

For example drawing a diving goalie, might only take half an hour to draft the initial animation, but to achieve the final sequence may take several revisions before it looks right in the game.

What program did you use to make the pixels?

Jops used Dpaint Amiga and I was a convert to Brilliance on the Amiga which I preferred.

These days I still do a bit of pixel pushing with choice of tool (oo-eer) being ProMotion from Cosmigo. In fact I recently used it to draw the sprites for SWOS'07 and 90% of all the art in Blobbit(www.blobbit.com)

How come the goalkeepers never wore gloves?

I believe there was a shortage of gloves at the time, either that or some thieving blighter ran off with them! (Real answer, Erm.. Mummy???)

Do the goalkeepers open there mouths when they dive?

You'll have to ask a goalkeeper that one as I don't really know, but if there's any goalkeepers reading this, 'Do you open your mouths when you dive?'.

Hang on let me go and have a look...

...Ahaaa...Just had a look at the original sprite file and there is a pixel mouth on some of the frames.. Open wide!!

Why are there only 4 kit styles and limited colours?

The original Amiga had a limited colour palette for sprites, and the particular screen mode we used only displayed 16 colours so it was quite tricky representing the numerous teams and kit styles required in tiny pixel sprites.

I think the 4 styles we used managed to represent most of the teams in the real game.

Out of the 16 colour palette we had to fit in colours entries for, 2 shirt , 1 shorts, 1 socks, 3 skin, 3 hair, plus retain some spares for things like the ref, black, white, grey etc.

Are you still involved with SWOS?

I don't really get the time to indulge in many games of SWOS these days so only as an observer and the occasional interview. Although having said that Swos'07 contains all new sprites from me which is nice as I really enjoyed working on it.

Is there anything in SWOS 96/97 you wish you could change?

I did draw a flasher and a streaker for it years ago, but time constraints failed to permit the inclusion of these sprites. Was probably for the best though. lol

Are you happy with the graphics in SWOS 07?

I've heard the sprites are awesome! ;) The Kuju guys from what I've seen have done an excellent job on bringing the game onto the Xbox 360.

I really like the screen zoom effect and the shadows over the pitch.

Do you think SWOS 07 will do well?

I hope it does, as it really is a first class version of the game, remaining very faithful to gameplay of the Amiga original.

Who knows maybe if it does well enough a revised version of Cannon Fodder might make an appearance. I for one would love to see that updated akin to SWOS'07.

Thanks very much for answering these questions Stoo, I hope it will shine some light for the fans!

May the farce be with you and remember to not forget!

Cheers,
Stoo