Jeff Braine - ahh the man behind the superb remake of Sabre Wulf - a true ZX Spectrum classic that just about every fan knows, if not by name but by the hours spent playing. Jeff now lives in the lovely warm residence of Australia - which by far kicks butt out of the UK for weather!. Anyway Jeff is now living a pretty good life in Australia with his wife but spends time to code his excellent remake of Sabre Wulf and read his emails on the RetroSpec web site.

Sabre Wulf PC has been featured in the October issue of PC Zone with a before and after shot of the classic - the first shot is obviously the Spectrum classic and the second shot is of the new revamped version - trust me the difference is unreal but the game is pretty much the same, as it should be.

There is no doubt that when you mention Sabre Wulf to any Spectrum enthusiast they will remember this timeless game and have instant flashbacks to the hours spent playing it, if you haven't already played Sabre Wulf or missed the Spectrum era then I suggest you take a visit to the home of Jeff Braine and download the latest version.

There is no doubt that Jeff has an eye for the classics and has certainly done an excellent job of remaking the classic Sabre Wulf for those that love the game and those that have never seen the game.

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Sabre Wulf PC

Sabre Wulf PC is a great re-make of the awesome Spectrum title of the same name, originally coded by Ultimate. Brought bang up to date with the latest PC trickery you can still enjoy the classic spills and thrills of the original with this wonderful remake and is well worth trying if you are a fan of the original.

Malc	When did you own or do you own a Spectrum Computer?
Jeff	My first speccy was a Spectrum +, given to me for Christmas in 1984 or thereabouts. I had that for several years before getting a Spectrum +3 sometime around 1990. I had to give them away when I emigrated to Australia which was a big mistake as there aren't many spectrums over here. In January a friend visiting the UK bought me a rubber-keyed Speccy which takes pride of place alongside my collection of Amigas and assorted vintage computer equipment.
Malc	What made you decide to remake a Spectrum title?
Jeff	I *loved* Sabre Wulf, and there was nothing available for the PC that was like it (at least not nowardays). I'd seen Andy's remake of Manic Miner, and thought "I could do that". In actuality, before starting Sabre Wulf PC I'd started a couple of other remakes on other computers - as projects when I was bored. One was a remake of the ZX81 game 3D Monster Maze for the Acorn Archimedes, the other was SabreWulf for the Amiga. Neither of which ever got anywhere near completion (though I still have a load of printouts of the code for 3D Monster Maze which I may ressurect on the PC at some time as I was pretty proud of the maze generation routines...)
Malc	How long have you been remaking classic Spectrum games?
Jeff	Eek... Coming up to a year and a half now on Sabre Wulf. I don't count the other attempts as they didn't get very far at all.
Malc	Are there any other projects you are working on, either Spectrum based or otherwise?
Jeff	I'm still planning the "Loki" project - a variation on Linux which gives a spectrum compatible environment (with lots of extras over the Spectrum) It's currently back-burnered as I plan to move house and sort out some other personal stuff, but neither it or Sabre Wulf are cancelled.
Malc	Do you plan to continue developing classic games or was Sabre Wulf PC your last game?
Jeff	No, I've been thinking about future projects for some time - an update of Chronos might possibly be looked at, or as I said before, 3D Monster Maze. I'm not sure though - depends on all sorts of things.
Malc	What games can we expect to see re-made in the future?
Jeff	Well, I can't give you any exclusives, but I'm looking forward to Nathan Cross' Ant Attack remake, John Dow's Fred...
Malc	For our technical friends out there, what programming language do you use to develop your games and roughly how long does it take before a release is made available to the public?
Jeff	I use DJGPP - the DOS port of Gnu C, along with the excellent "Allegro" games programming library. Both are free, and better still, there are unix versions and Windows-specific versions of both - so things are pretty portable to other platforms. As for how long - as it's a hobby and some evenings (due to my job) I can't stand to sit in front of a computer at all, it's currently taken over a year. Hats off to people like John Dow who can get a game written, debugged and released in a matter of days!
Malc	Do you plan on developing Sabre Wulf PC any further? - for example adding video, a pounding sound track or maybe 3D graphics?
Jeff	3D Graphics is a definate NO There's already too many 3D games out there that don't expand on the format enough - a 3D Sabre Wulf wouldn't work very well at all - at least not Tomb Raider/Doom style. If I did an isometric 3D version, it'd just end up being like Knight Lore really, and the 'Combat' side wouldn't work. As you can see from the SWPC web page, the graphics are much improved on thanks to the genius of Pierre Jovanovic (who also did all the graphics for the RetroSpec website). They're not all finished yet, but the ones that he's sent me already are stunning. Sound-wise, I don't want to have in-game music as that can get anoying very quickly, but all the little tunes used in the original game will be there - albeit using something a little more sophisticated than a square wave :)
Malc	How do you feel about the legalities surrounding the re-development of early software?
Jeff	I think remakes should definately be freeware, and that authors of remakes should be sensitive to the wishes of the copyright owners - if asked to stop, they should stop. On the other hand, if a company is no longer making money from a game, and have no plans to develop that game for a modern platform, I don't see the harm.
Malc	How do you feel about the current state of the emulation scene (fake emulators etc)?
Jeff	I don't actually know what you mean by 'fake emulators'. I do know there's a lot of people re-inventing the wheel though - there's loads of Spectrum emulators out there which add no functionality on top of that already available - I'm not saying there's anything *wrong* with that at all, but it's a shame that people aren't looking at extending functionality at all.
Malc	How would you feel if the Spectrum computer made a come back with modern technology?
Jeff	It'd be really cool :) Especially if it retained compatibility with the legacy software. Of course the way things are in the computer world today, it'd have to go like the clappers, have 3D hardware and be capable of running Windows or Linux to be commercially viable.
Malc	What is your favourite Spectrum game?
Jeff	Sabre Wulf!
Malc	What is your most memorable Spectrum game?
Jeff	Knight Lore - it blew me away the first time I saw it.
Malc	What is the name of the first game you ever played?
Jeff	The first game I ever played was 'Space Raiders' on the ZX81. The first Spectrum game I ever played was either Jet Pac or Aqua Plane. The first arcade game I ever played was 'Cosmic Guerilla'.
Malc	Have you ever developed software for any machine other than the PC?
Jeff	I wrote the usual BASIC games and utilities for the BBC Micro, ZX81 and Spectrum - none published except some Pokes for Steg The Slug (in YS) and an article on the +3 disk drive (again in YS). At college and Uni I programmed in Pascal, COBOL, Ada, x86 machine code and LISP on IBM PC Compatibles, nothing ever published, but I mostly got Distinctions forthem (mostly...) Professionally, I've programmed in Fortran under VMS on DEC Alpha machines, and written SQL, ksh, sh and csh scripts under Unix on DEC and Sun unix boxes. I've never programmed games software professionally.
Malc	Thats it!, thank you for your time. I wish you and all of the Retrospec team the best of luck in the future and hope you keep up the good work.
Jeff	Thanks, and good luck with the site!
Malc	If you haven't seen any of the RetroSPEC productions then please take a visit to http://retrospec.sgn.net/ and download your copy of Sabre Wulf PC.