Publishers
Publisher Information and Releases
Arcus / Arcade
Norway
ARCUS Postboks 336 6401 MOLDE tel: 072-15 298
Arcus= software
Arcade= hardware
Translation from norwegian about the game Pancake
https://spillhistorie.no/2017/09/09/tilbakeblikk-pannekaka/
The idea of making a children's play based on the pancake adventure was what Arnfinn Forness came up with. He had been the head of the data department at Dahls Bokhandel in Molde, and in the 1980s, stores represented these important hubs for the environment around computers and games in this country. In his clientele he had several talented youngsters, including Per Ole Mahle and Ketil Jensen. In their free time they were active in a group called Het Network, which consisted of enthusiasts for programming and creative use of computers. They had, among other things, made some demos for Commodore 64, and Forness managed to convince them to use their knowledge and talent on a commercial project instead.
Per Ole Mahle accounted for much of the programming and all the graphics, while Jensen programmed some parts of the game. In addition, they brought with them Bjørn T. Holten, who made the music. For Gaming History, Mahle describes the game as a typical boyhood project - everyone went to high school while developing the game. He tells:
- Programming was done in machine code. Graphics became pixel pixel assembled into blocks (characters) of 8 × 8 pixels. Both are common at that time, but when you look back, it was quite cumbersome.
Sprinkle cake.
According to Mahle, the vast developer was largely self-taught, thanks to the experience they had gained in the Network group and contact with other similar groups. In addition, Forness had no contact with other game developers in the country. Forness says that they attempted to distribute via two of the largest Norwegian distributors of games in the eighties, but there were never any specific deals. Thus, there were quite limited restrictions on how many copies could be sold. Forness:
- We copied the game ourselves on a 1530 cassette player and printed the post (I think). Since we had no publishing channel, there were very few copies we sold - a handful, just.
No big success
The game was sold through Forness' own company, Arcus. Through this company he also sold other things, such as a machine code course for Amiga, and the Norwegian-language data sheet NDM (Norsk Data Magasin), for which he was also the editor.
Without proper distribution, Pannekaka naturally became no financial success. Mahle explains:
"It was a lot of work for little money. We earned a maximum of 15-20 thousand kroner. However, some of the motivation was to get a holiday pay to travel on the interrail that summer. We did, and it became a good memory of it!
Although the game was not a big financial success, of course, it was quickly spread to Commodore 64 owners via the pirate world. In fact, the pirates could earn more money on the game than the developers themselves did:
"I'm unsure how many copies were sold, but know from an article I came across a few years ago that it was pirated and sold in Italy," says Ketil Jensen to Spillhistorie.no.
And they lived happily ever after
Will you be safe?
Will you be safe?
Forness says that the plan was to follow up Pannekaka with an Olympic game for Amiga, but it was never very long in development. According to Mahle, the motivation for game development quite quickly, and all three developers ended up with career careers in other areas. Arcus was also shut down - Forness wanted to turn the focus of NDM over from early home PCs to PC, but did not get the necessary support from the bank.
The lack of success of the game makes it very difficult to get an original copy of it today, and Forness will describe it as a miracle if somebody actually finds one. In fact, if you own an original Pancake copy, you are sitting on a never so small tax. If so, please feel free to contact me - I can hardly afford to buy it from you, but I'd really appreciated if you could take some pictures of the box so we can document it online.
Arcus= software
Arcade= hardware
Translation from norwegian about the game Pancake
https://spillhistorie.no/2017/09/09/tilbakeblikk-pannekaka/
The idea of making a children's play based on the pancake adventure was what Arnfinn Forness came up with. He had been the head of the data department at Dahls Bokhandel in Molde, and in the 1980s, stores represented these important hubs for the environment around computers and games in this country. In his clientele he had several talented youngsters, including Per Ole Mahle and Ketil Jensen. In their free time they were active in a group called Het Network, which consisted of enthusiasts for programming and creative use of computers. They had, among other things, made some demos for Commodore 64, and Forness managed to convince them to use their knowledge and talent on a commercial project instead.
Per Ole Mahle accounted for much of the programming and all the graphics, while Jensen programmed some parts of the game. In addition, they brought with them Bjørn T. Holten, who made the music. For Gaming History, Mahle describes the game as a typical boyhood project - everyone went to high school while developing the game. He tells:
- Programming was done in machine code. Graphics became pixel pixel assembled into blocks (characters) of 8 × 8 pixels. Both are common at that time, but when you look back, it was quite cumbersome.
Sprinkle cake.
According to Mahle, the vast developer was largely self-taught, thanks to the experience they had gained in the Network group and contact with other similar groups. In addition, Forness had no contact with other game developers in the country. Forness says that they attempted to distribute via two of the largest Norwegian distributors of games in the eighties, but there were never any specific deals. Thus, there were quite limited restrictions on how many copies could be sold. Forness:
- We copied the game ourselves on a 1530 cassette player and printed the post (I think). Since we had no publishing channel, there were very few copies we sold - a handful, just.
No big success
The game was sold through Forness' own company, Arcus. Through this company he also sold other things, such as a machine code course for Amiga, and the Norwegian-language data sheet NDM (Norsk Data Magasin), for which he was also the editor.
Without proper distribution, Pannekaka naturally became no financial success. Mahle explains:
"It was a lot of work for little money. We earned a maximum of 15-20 thousand kroner. However, some of the motivation was to get a holiday pay to travel on the interrail that summer. We did, and it became a good memory of it!
Although the game was not a big financial success, of course, it was quickly spread to Commodore 64 owners via the pirate world. In fact, the pirates could earn more money on the game than the developers themselves did:
"I'm unsure how many copies were sold, but know from an article I came across a few years ago that it was pirated and sold in Italy," says Ketil Jensen to Spillhistorie.no.
And they lived happily ever after
Will you be safe?
Will you be safe?
Forness says that the plan was to follow up Pannekaka with an Olympic game for Amiga, but it was never very long in development. According to Mahle, the motivation for game development quite quickly, and all three developers ended up with career careers in other areas. Arcus was also shut down - Forness wanted to turn the focus of NDM over from early home PCs to PC, but did not get the necessary support from the bank.
The lack of success of the game makes it very difficult to get an original copy of it today, and Forness will describe it as a miracle if somebody actually finds one. In fact, if you own an original Pancake copy, you are sitting on a never so small tax. If so, please feel free to contact me - I can hardly afford to buy it from you, but I'd really appreciated if you could take some pictures of the box so we can document it online.