Play #C64 games online http://tinyurl.com/3xvayq3 #C64Link

the rather ace SIDDY beepage of @_lemon and his magic #C64 http://soundcloud.com/andy_l #C64Link #fb

Download http://bit.ly/d5NSWF the latest #C64 SID*tastic Anorak from the home of Commodore 64 remixes SLAY Radio A jolly fun packed 159 mins of retro computer silly things and great music  :D

* SID = Sound Interface Chip – the Music chip of the C64

Thanks to the jolly lovely @LollyGee on Twitter we had champagne breakfast on the London Eye first thing this morning :D Many APOTSPOAB’s – more pics to come…

London Tour #2 – Horse Guards Parade


London Tour #1 – Houses of Parliament

Popped into the City on Wednesday to meet Andy from retrocomputers.eu – a veritable hub of all things retro micro computer.

Andy is a volunteer for the “The Centre for Computing History” in Haverhill, Suffolk http://www.computinghistory.org.uk and a jolly nice chap. He was recently at the Gadget Show in Birmingham displaying some rather fabulous SD/Flash add ons for various retro systems of which I am very  jealous! ;)

The Centre for Computing History also provides background retro computer bits and bobs for the excellent Channel 4 Comedy  “The IT Crowd” Andy was off  to watch a recording in Pinewood later in the week – so have to keep our eyes peeled for some rare items in Series 4. Hurrah!

Also, during a ZX Sinclair Spectrum part of the conversation Andy told me about the rarity of the 16K “Issue 1″ Speccy’s. Intrigued, I checked my boxed 16K when I got home and turns out that I actually own one! Hoopla! Thanks Andy! —-> See the “Issue 1 Spectrum” Page

Obviously of course we didn’t forget the most important part of meeting up and decided on a Fire of London-esque APOTSPOAB :D

Many of you will know I am a complete retro computer geek. Specifically Commodore 64 and 16, but I collect other systems like ZX Sinclair Spectrum, Atari, Coleco, etc. Back in the day I used to program games and adventures and do all sorts of fun things with them. Easy tiger.

Anyway, back in the mid 80′s a company called Melbourne House released a text adventure called “Hampstead”. For the uninitiated a text adventure is a game where you type in a series of commands and you try and solve puzzles and pick up objects and find treasure, etc. It’s very much like reading a book. You create the locations in your imagination :)

The aim of Hampstead was not just to reach Hampstead, but to attain it. Questions and answers posed on the advert below included:

Questions people ask about Hampstead:
Q: Is there life after Hampstead?
A: No, Only before and during…

Q: Why do dustbins have no lids in Hampstead?
A: In order that passers-by may see the week’s completed Guardian
crosswords stacked neatly within…

As I now live not far away from Hampstead I am determined to complete this classic game and therefore attain my own version of Hampstead and hopefully my own bicycle with a basket ;)

Check out Hampstead on World of Spectrum and get yourself an emulator to attain Hampstead with me :)

Ages ago I made this odd Doctor Who locations in London odd thing with Joan Metabelis. There is a proper prize which still hasn’t been won – I think it may be too hard :D (I have the answers written down somewhere…) Watch till the end and email me if you know the answers. The prize is a homemade tardis and a special film made just for you!

Music courtesy C64Audio.com

The Signed Photograph went somewhere funny…

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