Posts filed under: Melbourne House

Adventure Fans, Clubs and Help Columns

Help columns were a regular feature of computer magazine in the 1980s. As Adventure games were perhaps the most challenging games to play frequently leaving players stuck and unable to progress the Adventure help guru was a must for most game publications. The popularity of “The Hobbit” and ... Continue Reading »

Australian Pioneers – Melbourne House and the Tyranny of Distance

The ‘tyranny of distance’ was the famous phrase historian Geoffrey Blainey used in 1966 to describe his thesis on how Australia’s geographical remoteness shaped the nation’s history, with the country generally viewed as a British colonial outpost on the far side of the planet. Whilst such a legacy would seem ... Continue Reading »

Australian Pioneers: Did Britain’s bad weather breed a culture of tinkerers and crackers?: Alfred Milgrom on the UK vs the US Market

Melbourne House and Beam Software Director Alfred Milgrom sees “Vast cultural, societal difference in what consumers wanted from electronic games” between the mass markets for games in American and UK in the early days. “American consumers were happy to ... Continue Reading »

Australian Pioneers: John De Margheriti on Learning from the US

Micro Forté co-founder and CEO John De Margheriti reflects on how, when Micro Forté was established in the mids 1980s, despite the US ‘crash’, they looked to America. They didn’t know of any other Australian games companies. They knew nothing of the UK games ... Continue Reading »

From Melbourne House to Czechoslovak Clubs

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 »

How I got started in games – Matthew Hall – Klicktock

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 »

If you had access to a micro computer in the 1980s chances are you played a text adventure. You may have even written one.

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 »