Sham Mountebank

Rage Software

The story of Rage Software. They and Psygnosis were the two main characters in the nineties Liverpool Software scene.
whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/03/rage...
Includes a second special guest appearance from @jake74.bsky.social #Amiga #AtariST #PlayStation #RetroGaming #RetroComputing

When Dennis Potter wanted to write for Doctor Who “Blossomiest blossom”, says Jodie Whittaker’s thirteenth Doctor moments before she regenerates in The Power of the Doctor. This snatch of dialogue references a famous remark by Dennis Potter from his ...

New on my blog today, an article about the time Dennis Potter tried to get into writing for Doctor Who in the 1960s, what his story would have been about, and the other times he crossed paths with the series. Hopefully this will interest a few of you.
thehiddenplanet.substack.com/p/when-denni...

I played Ghosts 'n Goblins in the arcade and at home on my Spectrum. I was rubbish at both.

Newspaper advert: "COSTLY COLLECTION OF COMPUTER EQUIPEMENT: OFFICE FURNITURE: VIDEO TAPES, ETC. Briefly: By Order of the Sheriff re Imagine Software Ltd. Important collection of Computer equipment comprising approximately 16 SAGE 2 COMPUTER PROCESSORSL 6 SAGE 4 DITTO (all with keyboards): 5 Televideo Computers: 4 BBC Computers: other Computers by Commodore, Apple, Atari, etc: Computer Print Outs by Manessmann, Apple and Remtronic: approximately 12 VDU's: approximately 20 Normende portable colour TC SetsL several Disc Drive units, etc. Nearly new office furniture including oak, teak, and rosewood desks: 2 tone stationery and Filing Cabinets: Olivetti ET121 Typewriter: office chairs: 3 nearly new carpet cleaners: etc, etc. By Order of A and D. Dean on instructions of the Collector of Taxes re E Lappart, approximately 135 Video Tapes. By Order of the Liverpool Country Court Doric colour TV set. ON VIEW TOMORROW WEDNESDAY FROM 9 A.M. TO 5 P.M. TELEPHONE: 061 709 4005

10th July 1984. Imagine Software is wound up. The corporate dismemberment begins to try and recover some of their debit. The LIVERPOOL ECHO carried this advert giving people the chance to buy computers, desks, carpet cleaners, VHS tapes, and more. #ZXSpectrum #Commodore #RetroGaming #RetroComputing

ICYMI, my post this week was on Imagine's home computer ports of Green Beret (aka Rush'n Attack in some territories). Read about:

- the extra-difficult C64 version
- the extreme memory-filling of the Spectrum version
- "Green Hat", "Green Bert" and other British magazine reactions to its hero

“Listen … you go tell Billy’s mother, and I’ll start looking for another old tire.”

“Listen … you go tell Billy’s mother, and I’ll start looking for another old tire.”

George Pal's War of the Worlds
The animated version of Animal Farm.
Joe Macbeth
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (no one in the class was 18)

I like your blog.
The documentary is great, isn't it. My favourite moment is the distributor's look of polite disbelief when he is told Bandersnatch will cost £40 (in 1984).
The film of Mark Butler driving round Liverpool is a money saving reuse from an October 1983 programme called Riverside.

Liverpool 1. Mark Butler of Imagine drives his car passed what looks like a shell of a building.

Liverpool 2. In the background of this picture is some sort of warehouse or industrial unit.

Liverpool 3. A very washed out building in the background. It could be a tower?

Liverpool 4. A wide three lane road. Buses parked in the very background. And what's going on with that weird open-topped red car on the left?

Liverpool people. Is there any chance you recognise these 1983 streets?
They come from this BBC Archive report on the success story that was Imagine Software www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aV5...

Terry Nation’s Seeds of Destruction It’s common for writers to include aspects of their own lives in their fiction.

New on my blog today, a (possibly slightly morbid) look at how an aspect of Terry Nation’s life – and death – is reflected in one of his Dalek Annual short stories:

thehiddenplanet.substack.com/p/terry-nati...

Dave Lawson

A follow up to the Psygnosis article, with a look at founder Dave Lawson and his short-lived company Kinetica.
whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/02/dave...
#Amiga #AtariST #RetroGaming #RetroComputing

Ron Smith

My post this week was on Silent Service. Read about:

- how MicroProse and Sid Meier got their start and then made it in the UK too
- why they decided submarine warfare would make for a good game
- the advantages of hiring a real artist

www.superchartisland.com/silent-service

Cover picture for the October 1978 issue of Electronics Today International. Showing the Tolinka system and the headline "Television Chess."

Tolinka appeared on Tomorrow's World in March 1978, which is possibly where the Blake's 7 team learned about it. Although the system was also getting a lot of newspaper coverage in October/November 1978. It would be great if the BBC Archive channel could make the Tomorrow's World clip available.4/4

There's a lot more information about the system here www.chesscomputeruk.com/html/intelli..., including a short film clip of Victor Korchnoi using Tolinka to prepare for his World Championship match against Antoly Karpov.3/4

Tolinka didn't play chess. Moves from a match were typed into it and the pieces moved on screen. It was designed (I think) to record games as they were played, so they could be watched back in a more visually friendly way than just a basic written list of moves.2/4

Speed Chess -solved! (But not by me). The source for the chess footage was identified in 2021 at the Atari Age forum forums.atariage.com/topic/326611...
It's called Tolinka, a chess "visual recorder" that could record and display games using a modified cassette tape recorder and a television. 1/4

Do you know any of these winners?

Thanks. That's really helpful. I've just updated the Psygnois article to take all this into account. It's now 200% more accurate and it's given me a couple more places to visit when I'm next in Liverpool.

That's brilliant. Thanks. I've just gone virtually down the road on Streetview and I went right past it.
(Sorry if I'm asking a dim question but did you work for Psygnosis?)

I'd say go for it. If you can't trust the word of an anonymous stranger online, then who can you trust?

Dal to Lek In my Black Archive monograph about The Daleks (out in April), I examine the naming of the story’s various characters and species.

On my blog today, I take a (rather silly) look at Terry Nation’s ‘Dal to Lek’ anecdote and consider which book spines might really have been useful to him in naming the Daleks, riffing on a thread in my upcoming Black Archive monograph.

thehiddenplanet.substack.com/p/dal-to-lek

Psygnosis

In 1985 Ian Hetherington and Dave Lawson built Psygnosis from the ashes of Imagine Software.
This is the story of what happened next, with a special guest appearance by @jake74.bsky.social
whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/02/psyg... #Amiga #AtariST #PlayStation #RetroGaming #RetroComputing

That's a serious looking piece of kit!

I think A Sound of Thunder got better known once The Simpsons spoofed it in 1994.
In terms of Future Shocks and their repeated stories in which something is small and not big like we thought. Are they all ripping off the joke from Hitchhiker's Guide about a battle fleet being eaten by a small dog?

The cover of Action comic which resulted in it being withdrawn from sale. A bike chain weilding kid bares down on a terrified middle aged man. A discarded Police helmet lies on the ground. A mob of kids run foward from the background.

The cover of 2000Ad comic which resulted in nothing whatsoever being withdrawn from sale. A giant ant bares down on a terrified child. A dead soldier lies in on the ground. A man in the background raises a meat cleaver to attack the ant. A terrified woman cowers behind the man.

It's a terrific image. My brain keeps seeing a similarity between the Ant Wars cover and the notorious Kids Rule OK one for Action.
It's a coincidence but there's something about the layout and combination of elements which makes me think they resemble each other.

Two framed covers of the 1982 relaunched Eagle. On the right, issue one with the Mekon bursting forth and an offer of a free "space skimmer". On the left, Doomlord leers at the reader. "It's back! The all-powerful alien force Doomlord II. TERRORISING ELIMINATING DESTROYING" Best cover ever.

I may not know much* about art but I know what I like.

*or, indeed, anything.

I brought mine and also broke it on launch day. I think enough time has passed for me to confess that I lied to get a replacement and the guy in the shop accepted my claim it had "just stopped working". It did. It fell on the floor and just stopped working.