London Tour #1 – Houses of Parliament
Jun 032010
Apr 242010
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 
Mar 142010
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
Dec 122009
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 (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
Dec 012009
