Most gamers aged later 20s upwards will have come across Speedball 2 in their time. The future sport title – think handball with added violence – was one of the very best Amiga games, especially on multiplayer. Even a slightly disappointing Xbox Live Arcade port a couple of years ago hasn't tarnished the legacy of Speedball 2. A new version – Speedball 2 Evolution – was announced last week for the iphone/ipad and I caught up with veteran Speedball developer Jon Hare.

Why Speedball 2 and why now?

There are several reasons why. Firstly Speedball 2 is a classic game that is perfect for many modern day downloadable platforms including iOS and there is nothing else like it on the market at the moment. To those of us who know the game I hope it will be received as the best version of Speedball since the original – that is certainly what I believe in any case. To those too young to remember the original, and to most people in the US, Speedball will be something brand new, despite the fact it has sold over 2m copies to date in its various forms, and I genuinely believe this game can be as big a hit as something new to these two new markets for us.

I have been working closely with Mike Montgomery and the Bitmap Brothers since 2004 and have helped Mike get conversions of Bitmap games done before. Mike has very kindly given me the choice of choosing the order we wish to remake the old Bitmap Games and I chose this one first, because it is my personal favourite. For Speedball 2 Evolution I have been working very closely with Vivid Games for over a year.

The game has already been ported to Xbox Live – what does this new version bring to the party?

It is much, much more than a port. We looked at the original source code and then proceeded to build the game from the ground up. This has enabled us to properly take advantage of the touchscreen and tilt technology and the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectability that wasn't around when the game was originally made. We have redesigned the menu system and the game controls so that it appears as if the game was actually designed for smartphones and other touch screen devices.

The control system works incredibly well. We have given the game two

basic control mechanisms.

The first is tilt control: you tilt the device to emulate the direction you would push the joystick in, and it is now a 360 degree joystick, it is very intuitive after abut 30 seconds use. We have a full Sensible Soccer style player selection engine sitting underneath this which helps to keep the action flowing and to give the player the man he wants to use without the need for a player select button.

The second control system is the virtual joystick – this has been seen on a number of iOS games before and works very well too, although it is in my opinion a retro way of playing the game.

I have observed that all people under 25 pick up the tilt system immediately where as some older guys tend to first opt for the comfort of the stick before jumping over to the tilt mechanism after a while. In any case the player is free to change from one system to the other as he chooses at any time. The other big advantage of the tilt system for the iPhone and iPhone4 is that it means the screen is clear of your fingers most of the time.

In both versions tapping on the screen emulates the actions of the fire button in the original Speedball for tackling, passing and shooting.

On the game content side we have ensured that whatever we do fits in with the existing world of Speedball. Speedball is a futuristic sport with set rules and a set configuration of scoring items on the pitch and pickups appearing from time to time and in every respect we have remained faithful to this. Of course we have increased the number of pitches and greatly enhanced the quality of the graphics but the game is still very definitely and instantly recognisable as Speedball.

The main area we have added new features is in the depth of teams and competitions in the game. In addition to the established two divisions of eight teams such as Brutal Deluxe and Super Nashwan, we have added a whole extra layer to the game. The competition structure is a bit more like Sensible Soccer, in that it offers you a choice of Quick Match, Preset Competition (choose from five cups and leagues in the game), Custom Competition (devise your own league, cup or tournament) and Career Mode.

Career Mode gives you a 10-season career to create your own team and

take them from the bottom of Division Two to the Speedball Intergalactic Champions League. As you progress through the divisions and win the cups on offer so you have the chance to play and unlock teams and pitches from different galaxies. The Intergalactic Cup (for this read UEFA Cup ... sorry, Europa Cup) and the Champions League feature four teams from each of the Ice, Fire and Cyber galaxies who look a bit different to regular Speedball players and are generally pretty tasty practitioners of the Speedball art. On top of this we have overhauled the look, but kept the functionality of the Gym and Transfer screens so that your squad can be constantly upgraded with new signings and player enhancements. The other main additional feature specific to this version is head to head Multiplayer Mode which can be played via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

What are the main benefits of developing for mobile/tablet devices?

Gameplay-wise the main benefits are the ability to enhance and vary controls in different ways to what is possible using joysticks, joypads or mouse. In this case I believe that the tilt controls for Speedball opens up the possibility of a whole range of games made with this mechanism that ensures a large percentage of the screen is visible at all times. I find the instant route to billing and lack of need for boxed product, as well as a less stringent vetting process for the games also massively beneficial as it also gives us more freedom and options in regard to how we bring the games to market. And the ease with which communication between the player, his friends, the publisher and Apple or any other platform holder can happen via multiple channels is also highly beneficial and something we are keen to improve upon with every release.

And the downsides?

The saturated market: 150,000 apps released last year and only 25 slots on the App Store that matter at any one time (Odds of 6,000:1 are not ideal). Finding the right formula for monetisation: the current penchant for free gaming has forced us game makers to come up with more and more devious ways of extracting money from people so that we can continue to run our businesses and give people the games that they want. The truth is that the solution is different for every game and every platform, which can be a headache.

What about new versions of other games you were involved with – Sensible Soccer, Wizball, maybe even Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll?

Wizball is a possibility, I am also in discussion with Codemasters about the other Sensible games which are also possibilities, however we are also balancing remakes of old games with totally new games designed specifically for these formats both by myself and by the development teams we work with. For me it is very important to keep on making and designing new games. It is what I love the best and to me it is the major appeal in the long term of these new machines. You must remember Parallax, Wizball, Mega lo Mania, Sensible Soccer, Wizkid and Cannon Fodder all started their life as new games made specifically for the hardware of the time.

You are often outspoken about today's games industry but with the amount and quality of games we have today surely things have never been better right?

Absolutely, in the bigger picture the market has really opened up to

embrace a whole wave of new games on newer smaller platforms over the last three years or so. What I would now like to see is the stranglehold

of the bigger licences and endless FPS variants broken at the higher end of the all-format charts where all of the really big money is spent. We need to make it easier for the guys making good original games to make money, by freeing up some of the money from the weaker of the AAA titles and diverting it into educated gambles on the big consoles in the more innovative sections of our industry. We are a creative industry and we need to keep things fresh and encourage new blood coming through by backing them to mix it with the big boys with original games.

Most of the origination in the past seven years has been hardware and

peripheral driven. Titles like Heavy Rain remind us that you can also originate with software alone, but for this to happen these new titles need to be backed on a more regular basis by established big hitting publishers with much deeper pockets than those of us focussing on mobile and downloadable markets. Overall however the situation is better now than it has been since about 1995, thanks to mobile and downloadable platforms.

The various app stores have clearly made it easier to get stuff out there but how do you break through the sheer amount of releases – isn't it just old fashioned marketing and branding?

Yes absolutely it is too saturated and therefore yes, ultimately it is all about good, clever, targeted marketing. It is very difficult to find the right solution out there. There are many, many ways to tackle it, with no guarantee of return on your marketing investment and each time we try, we go two steps forward and one step back … let's hope we have managed it better this time with Speedball 2 Evolution. Brand building is also something we can build in game. Free releases do not make money but they allow you to build brands and also to direct players towards your other products. I think in many ways both developers and players would be happy with less choice and more quality out there, but only time will tell.

I'm not really sure what retro gaming means but do you think the

handhelds have made "retro" gaming popular?

I must admit I have a bit of a problem with the definition of retro gaming. Is Fifa 2011 a retro game because it is a remake of a game from 1993? Are the majority of first person shooters retro games because all they are doing is emulating games from the early to mid-1990s and adding better graphics? Is the only difference between Fifa and Speedball that one has had consistent releases and marketing over a 20-year period and the other has had a few gaps?

Yes at the moment people are interested in seeing retro games on new machines, in some cases almost as if they are brand new product, but very few of them have gone on to sell really serious numbers. I hope Speedball 2 Evolution can defy this trend and be seen as a great game designed to take full advantage of modern technology in its own right, with far, far more depth than most games currently clogging up the App Store. I think handhelds are natural places to bring the best of the pre-console games to, they are kind to 2D graphics and they replicate the action well, although these titles ideally need to be optimised to really hit the casual gamer and his demand for bite sized pieces of gaming.

Maybe an accurate definition of retro could be "titles with definitive

versions released pre Playstation".

3DS or NGP is the hardware "battle" for 2011 – which one do you

think will "win" in the current climate and do you imagine seeing some of your games on them?

I feel that 3DS may be seen as a bit of a gimmick in the long term, but in the short term I believe the demand for a new DS is bigger than that for a new Sony handheld, so I expect Nintendo to triumph. We are most likely to license our games to third-party publishers interested in putting them out on these machines.

Can Sensible Soccer ever be properly played without a Competition Pro Joystick?

Good question … on the Amiga, I don't think so. However, I would advise

you to check out the tilt controls for Speedball 2 Evolution … they

just might work in the new Football game we are developing for iOS and

other platforms.

Is a potential Speedball 3 dependent on how Evolution does?

Absolutely, we have to take things one at a time. We have many opportunities on our plate right now, not least the entire Bitmap Brothers back catalogue, other potential licenses and 10 or so original games in different states of development from concept to Alpha… However, Speedball 3 would be great, with Mike's blessing.

Speedball 2 evolution is released this month on iOS