March 17 1983 to May 1 1985. 109 weeks. J. Alfred Prufrock measured out his life in coffee spoons. Automata measured theirs with weekly adverts on the back page of POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY. The first Automata advert, 17-23 March 1983, sits alongside news about the 16K Oric and Commodore's proposed factory in Corby, and reviews for Football Manager, The Hobbit, and Automata's Pimania. The last advert sits next to details about a new computer called the Amiga and the liquidation of Bug-Byte, and reviews of... well it wasn't a great week for classic games, Booty, Shadowfire, and Spy Hunter are probably the most notable titles. Those two years cover a lot of ground and the advantage of the weekly grind is that Christian Penfold, Mel Croucher, and artist Robin Evans frequently turn their gaze out onto the wider industry when casting around for material. The adverts provide a window onto how the UK software scene looked and how Automata regarded itself.
Where Were They Now?
Seeking out Britain's pioneering video games houses.
Sunday, October 13, 2024
Sunday, September 29, 2024
Automata UK
65(a) Osbourne Road, Portsmouth, PO5
Most of the pages of this blog exist because they give me a warm hug of nostalgia. "I loved Highway Encounter," etc, etc, etc. But occasionally things get more complicated. Newsfield, for example, was supposed to be my lovely stroll down memory lane but instead forced me to consider the difference between the job of my dreams and the realities of working with actual fallible humans. Automata is also less straightforward. Positioned deliberately outside the mainstream of UK software, they were, and remain, a contradiction. A counterculture business. Simultaneously obscure and well known. Lionised, today, and yet my memory is of not liking them much. Was I a stuffy teen conformist, unable to cope with anything which didn't fit into my plastic-fantastic routine of Top of the Pops on Thursday and Howard's Way on Sunday? Am I, as Star Trek once put it, Herbert?
Sunday, September 15, 2024
Questions in the House
Sunday, September 1, 2024
Quicksilva
Palmerstone Park House, 13 Palmerstone Road, Southampton
I didn't realise how interconnected the British software scene could be. The story of Mastertronic blurs into the story of Virgin Games. The Liverpool software houses give the impression of all living in each other's pockets. You can't write about Software Projects without writing about Bug-Byte and you can't write about Bug-Byte without writing about Imagine and you can't write about Imagine without writing about Denton Designs. The same is true of Quicksilva. Its story is part of the story of Argus Press Games. And also part of the story of Electric Dreams. And part of the story of Activision. Oh, and part of the story of Bug-Byte. I feel I should make one of those complicated maps with pins stuck in it and string joining the pins together.Sunday, August 18, 2024
Konix
35 Rassau Industrial Estate, Ebbw Vale, Gwent, NP3
Sunday, August 4, 2024
EMAP: East Midland Allied Press
Priory Court, 30-32 Farringdon Lane, EC1R
Monday, July 22, 2024
Red Shift
12C Manor Road, Stoke Newington, N1
[GRAMS: Symphony No. 6, Beethoven] Late December 1984. I am a lamb, plump with Christmas cash and skipping to the computer shop. I have money for a new game for my new ZX Spectrum. What should I buy? My eye is caught by a picture of a fearsome three-legged beastie looming over the Houses of Parliament. The Tripods! I love The Tripods. "Oh shop keep! Take my £12.95! Post haste!" [FX: record scratch]. This blog isn't just about nostalgia or getting me out of the house, sometimes it's about exorcising the ghosts of poor decisions made by young me.
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65(a) Osbourne Road, Portsmouth, PO5 Most of the pages of this blog exist because they give me a warm hug of nostalgia. "I loved Highwa...
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2 Freebournes Court, Newland Street, Witham Essex CM8 I remember looking through a friend's copy of ZZAP64 issue 3 and reading Andrew Br...
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March 17 1983 to May 1 1985. 109 weeks. J. Alfred Prufrock measured out his life in coffee spoons. Automata measured theirs with weekly adve...
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Castle Lodge, Castle Green, Taunton, TA1 DURELL SOFTWARE ARE STILL IN BUSINESS! This is almost unreasonably exciting. Sure, there's quit...
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It's there in black and white on page 15 of THE GUARDIAN (29 August 1985). "Questions were asked in Parliament." The questions...
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Atari House, Railway Terrace, Slough, SL2 Atari was founded in 1972, and it took 10 years for them to cross the Atlantic and set up their UK...