Super JetPak DX
Making a Game Boy game in 2020

Here is a story of aspirations, disappointment, and closure. Back in 1999 a younger me was failing university. Having gone through school and college, learning to code in their spare time. Making small games on whatever computer they could get their hands on.

My first experience with home microcomputers, was a friend’s ZX Spectrum running Ultimate Play the Game’s Jetpac. It was like having an arcade machine in their home. Soon after we got a ZX Spectrum +2, where I learned BASIC, then moved on to using STOS on the Atari ST, and advanced to Pascal and C on PC.

1999 was also when I discovered GBDK, Game Boy Development Kit, by Pascal Felber and Michael Hope. A way for people to create their own games using C for the Game Boy. Since I had learnt C in DOS recently, and had been in love with the Game Boy since release, I took to GBDK with much gusto. I devoured as much information as I could, found websites, the IRC #GBDEV channel, and Game Boy emulation. The excellent No$GMB by Martin Korth, was the most accurate at the time. You could also put your creations on a flash cartridge with a GB Xchanger from Bung Enterprises, to play on real hardware.

Bung ran a Game Boy coding competition to help promote their products. I used this as reason to complete my first Game Boy game. But what to make? I decided on a homebrew port of Jetpac. My brother, Veepixels, who had always done art for our games since we were kids, created some new sprites. While Manfred Linzner from Shin’en, composed some songs, created sound effects, and integrated the GHX sound engine into my game. Since this unofficial port was to be Game Boy Color compatible, I named it JetPak DX. Three months later I submitted it to the Bung competition. Unfortunately I did not win, but my efforts were spotted by Graphic State Games. A tiny start up in Leamington Spa looking for a coder, they were impressed and offered me a job making Game Boy Color games.

I dropped out of university and accepted the job. Graphic State had acquired the contract to port Re-Volt over to the Game Boy Color. My first industry job was to cram this 3D remote control car racing game, in to a Game Boy Color cartridge in six months. I was the only programmer, naive and inexperienced, but wanted to do well as it was my dream job. I worked diligently, it was a trail by fire. I learned a huge amount, real fast. As the deadline drew near, the project was cancelled. This happens all the time in the industry. To salvage the work done, we turned what we had into an ATV racing game, that we would try to get published. Our next contract was to make two horse riding games, Mary King’s Riding Star and Equestriad 2001. We created prototypes for both, but then got the contract for Lego Stunt Rally. The horses got put on the back burner as we went all in with Lego, we only had three months. I took what I had learned from Re-Volt, and built upon that. As we entered the third month, pressure and stress had been building. Then disaster struck as my hard drive died. I lost everything between the last build and the current. I totally burned out. The boss fired me. I had failed at my dream job and was totally broken.

It was not until 2007 I started coding again, I rekindled my love for making games once more. I used all my spare time to create games and started Asobitech. Then came eight years of relearning and catching up in the world of game development. Randomly in 2016, I found out about games that Datel Electronics released for the Game Boy Color under the Rocket Games label. Two were extremely familiar, ATV Racing and Race Time. These games had my code in them but like Lego Stunt Rally, my name was nowhere to be seen in the credits. I toyed with the idea of making JetPak DX in to a real cartridge, discussing it with GameBoyGray as a possibility. But I was too busy with my day job and making, MaoMao Castle: A Magical Cat-Dragon Fantasy Adventure in my spare time. Roll on to 2020, and the release of MaoMao is imminent. But with the pandemic ruining everything, it was obvious MaoMao launch was not going to happen. Deflated, I decided to take a break from it. Then the news hit, I was being made redundant from my day job. But I used this as an opportunity. Become a full time game developer, invest everything into making this childhood dream job work.

Not quite ready to go back to developing MaoMao Castle, I decided I would revisit JetPak DX. But this time, I could updated it and have a new version released on physical cartridge. I enlisted the help of GameBoyGray for label and box design, as well as cart production. Lucan Monks @ZombiWorkshop to produce new art for the box cover and label. Lucan did such an awesome job, I asked him also to update some of the in game art. He rose to the challenge and produced some outstanding pixel art within the Game Boy limitations. I started fixing issues in JetPak DX, and found myself really enjoying coding again. So chose to add to the game, new weapons, layouts and more, making it “Super JetPak DX”. The release would need a manual to go with the box, so I asked Bex Trista @TristaBytes to do the design.

It was around this time, I had started streaming on Twitch. Tuesdays: Gaming Club, where I show a retro console from my collection and play video games. Wednesdays: Coding Club, where I do live game development. And Thursdays: Movie Club, where, like a book club, we watch a movie before hand then recap, discuss, and rate. Coding Club was ideal for Super JetPak DX development. There was a real buzz, as people got to see me work on the game, answer questions, and take feedback live.

November 2020, designs were finalised and sent off to the printers. Excitement really started to build as cartridges, labels, boxes and manuals all started to arrive. As I type this, I am finishing up the code for Super JetPak DX, so it can be put on the cartridges and sent out. December 2020 posting happens, to the people around the world. Which means there is finally a physical Game Boy game with my name in the credits, 21 years on from when I started making a Game Boy game.



- QuangDX November 2020
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