IBM released its personal computer in 1981.  Whilst this would be the system that would lead to ‘PC’ becoming a synonym for a computer sitting on a desktop, it was quite expensive.  Prices started at $1,565 (presumably USD) for a configuration without disk drives (Wikipedia).  Apples -- destined for the ... Continue Reading »

For many British children growing up in the 1980s, the theme tune and sight of the witch in the educational game Granny’s Garden will often evoke a nostalgic response. Released in 1983, Granny’s Garden was developed by Mike Matson, a deputy head teacher at a school in Devon and an ... Continue Reading »

What got you started collecting on/around the area of games? I was lead into collecting by nothing more than misty-eyed nostalgia. My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81. In the early 80s, at 10 or 11 years old, I taught myself to program a ZX81 which was on display in a ... Continue Reading »

What got you started collecting on/around the area of games?  I’ve always had an interest from a young age in computers and videogames and I’m old enough to have grown up during a period when both were new and exciting. There was a period where there was a flood of different ... Continue Reading »

I was never in the "gaming scene" or "gaming culture" as such. I was never a member of a software-swapping "club" nor did I spend many night and weekends gaming with my peers. Unlike many retro-gaming enthusiasts, who remember the games of their school and teenage years, by the time I ... 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 »

 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 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 »

I purchased my first computer back in the Christmas of 1980. A Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1. This computer came with 16K of RAM, which I upgraded internally to 32K. It used an 8 bit Z-80 processor running at 1.78Mhz and had a monochrome graphics capability of 128 x 48 ... Continue Reading »

How does game development back in the early 80’s compare to game development today? For starters, the computers of that era were far less powerful  and didn’t have anywhere near the graphics and audio capabilities of today’s power houses. My TRS-80 was monochrome and offered a graphic resolution of only 128 ... Continue Reading »

The Poly could well have been the first microcomputer specifically designed for educational use in the world, and it came from New Zealand. The Poly was designed by Neil Scott and Paul Bryant at Wellington Polytechnic (hence its name) in 1980 as ... Continue Reading »

Were you a user group sort of person?  What did your user group do?  How did you find out about it?

How does one identify local themes and scenes in digital games history?  Figuring out what is local will usually require knowledge of the non-local, won't it?  Well, in 1980s New Zealand there were some unique conditions which meant that games production developed at least partly along its own trajectory.  New ... Continue Reading »

  July 12, 2015 is the release date of my first ever computer game named ‘Jam It’ – an arcade-style 2-on-2 basketball game. What’s unusual is that it’s for a computer which was very popular in the 80s – the Commodore 64. I have been asked many times why even attempt ... Continue Reading »