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Power Up At The UK’s Science Museum

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160 consoles. Five decades. Game on!

The UK’s Science Museum has a new interactive gallery, POWER UP, which is on right now in London’s South Kensington district.

Immerse yourself in a hands-on gaming experience, featuring the very best video games and consoles from the past 50 years!

Back in the early 1970s, Pong, a simple tennis-themed game, took the world by storm as one of the first commercially successful arcade games. From there, the gaming industry continued to grow, introducing us to iconic titles such as Space Invaders, Pac-Man, and Donkey Kong.


source: Science Museum

From its humble beginnings with Pong to the immersive VR worlds of today, gaming has been an integral part of our lives. It has evolved, adapted, and thrived, capturing the hearts of both the young and the young at heart. Whether you’re a seasoned gamer, a nostalgic enthusiast, or a casual player looking for some fun, the gaming world has something extraordinary to offer you.

Day and annual passes for POWER UP are available now. Book your tickets here.

source: © Jody Kingzett, Science Museum Group

source: © Science Museum Group



Sinclair Book of Remembrance (SBOR)

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We received the following message from a friend on behalf of Jim (from SBOR – Sinclair Book of Remembrance) so we thought we would share with you all as we think it is a great idea for the community to share their memories of Sinclair’s computers and also remembering Sir Clive Sinclair.

The Sinclair Book of Remembrance (SBOR) is a project dedicated to the memory of Sir Clive Sinclair who sadly passed away on the 16th September 2021.

Moved as I was, SBOR has been a personal labour of love, to do something in honour of “Uncle Clive”. It is not a business project. It’s completely free and non-monetised.

The objective is to create a unique digital monument, composed of our shared Sinclair memories encoded together so that the final product represents each and every one of us.
For those thinking this is an NFT thing – it is definitely not! It is an opportunity for each of us to share a memory, and together create a unique dedication to Sir Clive.

I am asking that each of us contribute a Sinclair memory, by simply sending an email with your story (with up to 4 image attachments). By sending your email to [email protected] it will trigger the system to automatically create an entry to the SBOR site – for example: https://sbor.uk/m/1?code=41ce. You will receive a reply containing the link to your contribution, which I would urge you to share far and wide!

At a pre-determined date, say the 1-year anniversary of Sir Clive’s passing, all of the entries will be combined and encoded into a single unique value. This will be unique in the universe and will represent all of our combined memories of what Sinclair meant to us and something we can all share in.



The Retro Gaming Vault – September 2021

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It’s spring time! What better way to welcome the warmer weather than to delve into a deep corner of our retro gaming vault and dig up a few nostalgia inducing images from our past!

For September, we have your nostalgia covered with Neo Geo, Vectrex, PC-Engine, Commodore 64, Atari Jaguar and old school Nintendo items to name just a few! Enjoy the trip down memory lane and we’ll see you next month for more vault shenanigans!

All images are copyright of ausretrogamer



 

Diary: Making of Mr. Do! for the ZX Spectrum

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If you follow Mark R. Jones on Twitter, you may have come across his post about the Diary on the making of MrDo! for the 48k/128k ZX Spectrum.

Mark’s 50 page PDF is a fascinating read for any gamers that want to learn how Mark and co. converted the 1982 Universal arcade game and why it took nearly 2 years (Feb 2017 to June 2019) to complete! Oh yeah, did we mention it is free?!

source: Tweet link



 

Relics Unearthed From The Codemasters Vault

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When we saw Codemasters’ thread on Twitter of all the relics they found in their vault, our knees buckled due to all of the nostalgia. Check out the classic games, consoles and peripherals they unearthed from their storage, some being over three decades old! We are well and truly intoxicated with nostalgia.

The gobsmackingly gorgeous Sega Saturn Development Unit. It’s MASSIVE!


source: Codemasters via Twitter

 

 

The ZX Spectrum Is Reborn As The Next

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All you one-eyed C64 lovers licking your wounds after the cancelled Commodore 64: For the Love of a Machine Kickstarter (Ed: which we are still devastated about), please look away now!

Just when those smarmy Speccy owners were popping the champagne in celebration of the rubber key computer’s 35th anniversary, the ZX Spectrum Next makes its appearance on Kickstarter.

source: ZX Spectrum Next on Kickstarter

Not only do Speccy owners celebrate a huge milestone for one of the most enduring computers, but they also have the opportunity to grab a brand-spanking new ZX Spectrum Next! With a brains trust that reads like a who’s who, including original Sinclair computers designer Rick Dickinson, the Next is in fine hands.

A day into the £250,000 crowdfunding campaign, the Next will definitely come to fruition with the goal well within reach – the question remains, how high will the pledge amount go?!


source: Henrique Olifiers

 

Micro Men: Clive Sinclair vs Chris Curry

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MicroMen_movie_titleIf you are tired of the same old documentary style films about the history of the British home computer industry, then Micro Men (2009) might be right up your alley. Micro Men tells the story of legendary inventor Sir Clive Sinclair battling it out with ex-employee Chris Curry, founder of Acorn Computers, for dominance in the fledgling computer market. The rivalry comes to a head when the BBC announce their Computer Literacy Project, with the stated aim of putting a micro in every school in Britain. When Acorn wins the contract, Sinclair is furious, and determines to outsell the BBC Micro with his ZX Spectrum computer. What transpires grips you like a vice for the duration of the film, only letting go once the credits roll some one hour and twenty minutes later.  

Alexander Armstrong plays Sir Clive to a tee, and Martin Freeman is perfectly cast as Chris Curry, Clive’s eventual nemesis. Scottish Director, Saul Metzstein truly captures the fervor of the British home computer rush of the late 70s and early 80s. If you were a fan of British home computing, or a computing historian, then do yourself a favour and watch Micro Men – it will be the best 80 minutes you’ve watched about the battle between Sinclair and Acorn Computers.

Now, if only someone would make a film adaptation of Brian Bagnall’s Commodore: A Company on Edge book!


video source: gimpymoo
material source: BBC

Top 5 Games Charts: September 1987

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Do you recall what you were bopping to in September of ’87? Let me remind you – “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley. Don’t even try to deny it! Perhaps you were more of a Pet Shop Boys fan? Whatever your music tastes were, I bet that you would have been playing a number of the following chart toppers either on your Amstrad, Spectrum or C64:

Amstrad_CPC464 1) Paperboy (Elite)

2) Barbarian (Palace Software)

3) 6 Pak (Elite)

4) Exolon (Hewson)

5) Ball Crazy (Mastertronic)
ZXSpectrum48k 1) BMX Simulator (Codemasterts)

2) The Milk Race (Mastertronic)

3) Barbarian (Palace Software)

4) Road Runner (US Gold)

5) Destructo (Bulldog)
C64b 1) Last Ninja (System 3)

2) Barbarian (Palace Software)

3) Enduro Racer (Activision)

4) Road Runner (US Gold)

5) World Class Leaderboard (US Gold)

 

 

 

Top 5 Games Charts: May 1987

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Back in May 1987, Mannequin was released and Starship’s “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” was rocketing to number one on the music charts. On the video games front, the Spectrum, C64 and Atari XE/XL computers were lavished with quite a few awesome games.

These were the top five games on each platform for the month of May 1987:

 

C64 1) Park Patrol (Firebird)
2) BMX Simulator (Codemasters)
3) Gunship (Microprose)
4) LA SWAT (Mastertronic)
5) Micro Rhythm (Firebird)

 

ZXSpectrum48k 1) Leaderboard (US Gold)
2) Bomb Jack II (Elite)
3) Paperboy (Elite)
4) Olli and Lissa (Firebird)
5) Gauntlet (US Gold)

 

atari_xe 1) BMX Simulator (Codemasters)
2) Colony (Bulldog)
3) Green Beret (Imagine)
4) Gun Law (Mastertronic)
5) Silent Service (Microprose)

 

Top 5 Games Charts: August 1985

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While Madonna’s “Into the groove” was rocking the number one spot on the music charts in August 1985, there were some awesomely great games in the charts of that month for the C64, Spectrum and Amstrad. Here is a hit of nostalgia:

 

C64 1) The Way Of The Exploding Fist (Melbourne House)
2) Elite (Firebird)
3) Hyper Sports (Imagine)
4) Frankie Goes To Hollywood (Ocean)
5) Tour De France (Activision)

 

Amstrad_CPC464 1) Dun Darach (Gargoyle Games)
2) Beach Head (US Gold)
3) Red Moon (Level 9)
4) Alien 8 (Ultimate)
5) Knightlore (Ultimate)

 

 ZXSpectrum48k 1) Frank Bruno’s Boxing (Elite)
2) Hyper Sports (Imagine)
3) Jet Set Willy 2 (Software Projects)
4) Spy Vs Spy (Beyond)
5) Glass (Quicksilva)