Kevin Edwards ( Retro Videogame development )

Once upon a time you needed one of these huge beasts, and a lot of money, to make a video. Dixons catalogue, circa. April 1986.

Much appreciated. I was very impressed with the tear-down that you also linked to. You'll have to send the author an updated version! LOL.

Thanks for taking a look. I knew it would either be really easy or a total nightmare!

Thanks, I just saw that one too. Fabulous!

YouTube video by The Slow Mo Guys Arcade Machines look WEIRD in Slow Mo - The Slow Mo Guys

Take a look at this great video by the Slow Mo Guys. They explain how arcade game displays work - regular CRT and also Vector based ones. Without doubt the best explanation I've ever seen.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJVp...

Andy was an amazing guy. Anyone who knew him would tell you how funny and talented he was. He passed away quite some time ago so it's nice to see him in this video doing what he enjoyed.

Excellent. Enjoy. Next time they organise these events they need to compare diaries!

I heard that same rumour too, from Mike Follin! Enjoy Crash Live!

Me too!

Just under four weeks to go until the Retro Computer Festival Gaming Edition weekend! I shall be exhibiting alongside fellow Software Creations game developer @breakintoprogram.co.uk so please come along and say hello. I shall be showing how BBC Micro games were developed back in the day.

I've not seen Ste for a very long time. Been trying to connect, but no response. Should be seeing a few other Creations people before xmas though. When are you next in Up North?

Any druids out there need a BBC Micro? Or maybe it's one for any fans of hieroglyphs? Or perhaps it's just made up!

Many of the NES titles have been safely archived too. No plans for them to be released publicly at the moment.

The music driver and game code for Solstice has been safely archived and are back with Mike Webb who originally created the game. It's up to Mike if he wishes to release it at some point.

I wonder if Ste Ruddy knows they've finally released it?

Video credit @chunwah.bsky.social .

Andy Wilson ( RIP ) was an animator at Software Creations and this video shows him working on the Taz character for an unreleased SNES videogame ( late 1993 ) . Please don't confuse Andy with other animators with the same name.

We were working on a SNES 'Taz' game at Software Creations in about 1993/4 and all that remains of the game are these three Taz sprite frames. That may change if I uncover any other artwork. I believe these were drawn/animated by Andy Wilson ( RIP ). Andy is at the front in the photo.

PKXARC that's a name I've not heard in a long time. Along with ARJ, RAR and LZH format files.

Yeah, it gets a bit crazy when you start with the disk versions of the games/adventures. Some of them are really had to find and are therefore expensive! I know a couple opf people that collect the bix box Acornsoft titles and have almost complete collections, including disk variants.

Great collection. Are you collecting the disk and tape versions? What are you missing?

Over 40 years ago we played 'Hopper' on the BBC Micro/Acorn Electron and 'Frogger' in the arcades. Today it's become 'Crossy Road' for mobiles and tablets. There was a rumour that 'Hopper' was named after Andy Hopper, a senior employee at Acorn Computers in the early 80s. Very likely a myth!

JCB "Judder" as some called it was indeed one of their weaker releases. An interesting early licensed title with the JCB company.

Which Snapper - the original release or the later one?

Yes, MODE 7 makes use of the same teletext character generator chip as TVs from that time - the SAA5050. This was present on the BBC Micro, but was removed on the Acorn Electron to save costs and keep the main PCB simpler.

When you saw the Acornsoft MODE 7 loading screen you knew you were about to play a great game! A sign of quality. In 1986, Acornsoft and Superior Software joined ranks and games were released with both companies names present on the packaging.

Actually, I kept the cheats in. Here are the passwords to use ( from the game's source code )

31st December, 1989 ( New Year's Eve ) and I was finalising the CES demo of NES Silver Surfer. It was an early build of the game featuring only 6 playable levels. This document describes a cheat-mode you can activate to make the Silver Surfer invincible! This was removed in the final release.

I was just down the road from the job centre in Coffee Block this afternoon. We must have just missed each other!

Indeed. I had a 28MByte Viglen Hard Disk for my Master 128. It was truly impossible to fill!