Czechoslovakia of the 1980s was a country behind the so-called Iron Curtain. Its economy was in a dire shape and its citizens were either oppressed or annoyed (or both) by its conservative totalitarian regime. It required considerable personal connections to be able to subscribe to a Western magazine or import ... Continue Reading »

The New Zealand Film Archive has been aware of the 'institutional gap' in this country for several years, with regard to the lack of representation of video games & early computer games within national cultural collections. In 2005 when the NZFA held an exhibition called C:/ DOS / RUN - ... Continue Reading »

Forgotten what amused your 12 year old self? Rediscover the pleasure of school boy gags and code with this lost game of the 1980s. Matthew Hall's Microbee adventure game the “Jewels of Sancara Island” had survived the last thirty or so years as a Turbo Pascal listing ... Continue Reading »

Thanks to the wonders of Aldi stores' increasingly strange bargains, Matthew Hall of KlickTock has just saved a bundle of his early games for the Commodore 64 from impending demise. Popping into Aldi for some supplies there amongst the groceries was Aldi's latest oddity to compete with the occasional wetsuit or ... Continue Reading »

This is an edited transcript of Matthew Hall's presentation on "The Australian Story" panel at the Game Masters Forum, Friday 29th June 2012. Matthew runs the one man design company Klicktock. I’m a one man band developer.  I pretty much do everything myself.  And I do it from a ... Continue Reading »

The pleasures of the text Frustrated gamers playing text adventures would inevitably find themselves at some time typing a string of expletives into the hapless interface only to be rewarded by a snide comment or just more stonewalling from the game. Infuriating and often very punitive on the player the punishing ... Continue Reading »

In 2015, while undertaking a PhD in which I examined the role of a writer in creating narrative-driven games, I was fortunate enough to speak to four expert writers, each a pioneer in video game narrative design. One of these experts was Veronika M. ... Continue Reading »

As we have discovered, most early computer games are still protected by copyright and therefore they cannot be archived or made available online (even for not-for-profit purposes like the PlayitAgain project) without the consent of their copyright owners. However copyright protection will not necessarily protect computer games from game cloners, who ... Continue Reading »

What was your local arcade like?  Tell us about it.  Were the machines new, with their own artwork?  Or were they generic cabinets, converted from other games? Was it a welcoming space or somewhere less than safe to hangout?  A full arcade, or just a few machines?  Do you have any ... Continue Reading »

In a second post on the relationship between British and Australian computer game scenes in the 1980s, we turn to two game developers who reminisce about playing Beam Software and/or Melbourne House games during this time. As has been discussed in previous Play it Again blogs, the relationship between ... Continue Reading »

The Microbee was an Australian computer designed, built, and marketed by Applied Technology, in Gosford, N.S.W.  Originally released in February 1982, it was intended for the schools market but also had a wide and deep following amongst home users.  A considerable amount of software was published locally for the Microbee, ... Continue Reading »

What got you started collecting on/around the area of games?  Back in the 80's I was also a stamp collector, so collecting came natural.  But for computer games, there was a scarcity of games for the Microbee at the time, so one collected everything you could, be it a type-in, public ... Continue Reading »

I’ve been making games for a while and what got me into games as a kid was a visit to the Lismore Show. I grew up in rural NSW and a trip to the Lismore Show was a big event - it was basically lots of cows and horses and ... Continue Reading »

This month, we are discussing local scenes and themes, on both sides of the Tasman.  To kick things off, I figured the New Zealanders might enjoy a laugh at some cringeworthy Australiana... Anyone for "Bunyip Adventure"?  What about the virtual Mick Dundee in "Aussie Games"? ... Continue Reading »

Absent a legal solution for the orphan games, archivists have to balance the risks. On the one hand, to not archive them risks their physical deterioration and loss to our cultural heritage, but does comply with copyright law. On the other hand, to digitally archive the orphan games will preserve them ... Continue Reading »

 In Part 1 Carl tells us about where he first encountered computers as a child in Fiji and how he created his first games (and made his first sale) typing listings onto the display machines at his New Zealand home town’s computer shop. These are some of ... Continue Reading »

In Part 2 Carl tells us about finally getting his own computer, joining the local computer club and in how his interest in games design inspired him to learn Assembly language and dissemble games studying the works of UK designer Jeff (Yak) Minter. VIC-20 During the final term the school bought a newfangled Commodore VIC-20. This ... Continue Reading »

In Part 3 Carl tells us about designing his games  from making his own Smurf platformer based on a screenshot of a Colecovision Smurf game he saw published in a magazine to experimenting in sound for “Toccato”. It was a time for experimentation in what could be achieved on a micro and looking at screenshots in ... Continue Reading »

Local role playing games conventions such as Melbourne’s Arcanacon and Canberra’s Cancon were important in the 1980s in bringing together people who were interested in the emerging genre of home computer games. Steve Fawkner, author of the “Warlords” series and “Puzzlequest” games, recalls taking the first ... Continue Reading »

In the last year of a Bachelor’s degree in Science at Melbourne University in 1981, Phil and I were hired by Fred Milgrom as part-time programmers to write “the best adventure game ever”. Based on the game’s commercial success and feedback from fandom still rolling in ... Continue Reading »