In the 40th year of the C64, my intention for this book is to contribute something to the C64 scene (and remind everyone how awesome Mercenary and other such games were). I will also be sharing bits that never made the final book and sharing the references to the games, along with the cover design story.
Mercenary has the most game time. To respect Novagen's IP, I changed the name from Targ to Targa. Hard to get permission but I did try, Paul Woakes escaped from Earth in 2017. Simon Guyart (who runs the Mercenary Site that hosts MDD clone - he has Novagen's permission to distribute the Mercenary games for free) made some enquiries for me but it became too grey to get a definitive answer re: using all of the names. That said, it's very obvious where the first, long sequence of the book is set. These two pictures are bits that made it into the final novel. I'm super ruthless during rewrites so next post I'll share some of the pages that didn't make the final cut. The reason so much of the book is set on Targa isn't just because Mercenary had more impact on me than any other game, it's because these chapters are where Sarah leaves her ordinary world to enter into the extraordinary world. You may have heard of the Hero's journey paradigm? This is a big part of that journey, sometimes referred to as 'crossing the threshold'. In terms of Sarah's character arc, these are the foundational chapters. (edited)
