dk'tronics

23 Sussex Road, Gorleston, Great Yarmouth

Since the 48K Spectrum was launched the opportunities it offered has attracted peripheral manufacturers throughout the world.

One of these manufacturers was bound to emerge as the "brand leader" and in the case of the Spectrum this turned out to be DK'tronics. The company is based in Saffron Walden in Essex and proudly boasts a history dating back to the ZX80. All the company's products are manufactured in England at their own factory and they have now established themselves as world leaders, exporting to over 30 countries!

Automata Adverts

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. 

Realtime Games Ltd

Prospect House, 32 Sovereign Street, Leeds, LS1

"Why would you order a taxi from where I don't know where it is? Why didn't you order it from the station?" The person on the phone outside Leeds station was having a bad day. Don't drive to Leeds I was told but public transport apparently carried its own frustrations. I left him to it, and headed towards Prospect House which I was delighted to discover was barely five minutes walk from the station. If only they could all be this easy.

Virgin Games

I briefly worked for Virgin Games during its Virgin Interactive Entertainment regeneration. This was the second of my three grazes along the side of the UK games industry (for graze number one, see Graftgold). I never met Richard Branson because the company split from the Virgin mothership in 1993, before I joined, and used the brand name under licence. However, my time there was exactly the glamourous never-ending parade of celebrities you'd expect. Dave Prowse once passed through the office and signed a copy of Tie Fighter. The company receptionist was Simone Hyames, Cally from Grange Hill. I saw Feargal Sharkey a couple of times. And, I was once nearly in the same room as Chaos and X-Com designer Julian Gollop. That's right, look impressed.