In 1986, a Canadian called Chris Gray made a stealth game locked behind a helicopter sim. U.S. Gold successfully sold it to the UK as "the game that rocked America". Gray was still a teenager, but already the co-creator of Boulder Dash. New post on Infiltrator:
www.superchartisland.com/infiltrator
Terry and June
Good evening listeners! Here's Gary and Tilt discussing the ever-popular BBC series Terry and June and its predecessors. sitcomclub.com/the-lives-of...
...and yes, Gary really is running the London Marathon next Sunday! Donations gratefully received here: justgiving.com/page/gary-ro...
If I was sub-editing that review I'd have chopped the final paragraph because it reads like the reviewer has slipped into writing about the game in their head and not the one in front of them.
But then, I'm not the sub-editor. I'm just the guy reviewing the review 30 years later.
The reviewer is clearly not suggesting there would be no need to fight if we could only have a frank exchange of views with these hellspawn. But there must have been a better way to suggest they they got a bit bored and found themselves wishing the game offered more. 2/3
I used to know someone who worked for Edge and I think the talking to monsters comment became a bit of an albatross for the magazine. My friend moaned about misinterpretation of the line in a way that suggested the topic had come up more than once in the office. 1/3
Mick McMahon
🚨NEW EPISODE! 🚨
A conversation with friend of Gerry Davis, Anthony Clark, including a never before published interview with Gerry Davis himself!
The archive interview has him sharing his memories of The Highlanders and The Moonbase. What a treat!
Shares are much appreciated x
Link ⬇️
I never worked on a magazine but the June 1986 issue of CRASH was on sale from 29th May, and subscribers could, depending on how lucky they were, get their copy earlier in the week.
I've ordered this. I don't think I've known anyone who's written a book.
The Way of the Exploding Fist was at the forefront of a home computer fighting game trend. Rather a sequel on the same lines, Gregg Barnett and Beam made something weirder and more atmospheric (and put the conventional one on the B-side). New post on Fist II: www.superchartisland.com/fist-ii-the-...
Remembering Oliver Postgate, born this day in 1925.
New on my #DoctorWho blog today, I celebrate the characters Lizan and Roald from The Nightmare Begins, and briefly analyse their role in the episode:
thehiddenplanet.substack.com/p/in-praise-...
A new post about the story of the 3DO console in the UK. It contains one of the weirdest office moves I've ever seen (how tantalising!).
whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/04/3do.... #RetroGaming #RetroComputing #3DO
Castle Yard House, or The Bradford Exchange as the owners insist on calling it for some reason.
Melbourne House update. I've been back in Richmond and it looks like Castle Yard House is getting a facelift. Visit soon if you want to see how it looked back in 1984.
whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2022/01/melb...
Paperboy hit the top of the UK games chart in 1986. And 1987. And 1989. And 1990!
New post on the making of Atari's arcade classic and of Elite Systems' enduringly popular conversion for Spectrum, C64, and just about anything else they could think of:
www.superchartisland.com/paperboy
He is also the son of someone quite famous.
Fab. Many thanks. A trip to Derby beckons.
Core Design have been on my should-really-do list for ages. I'd be grateful for their Derby addresses.
That Acornsoft address is a new one, for me. I keep thinking of writing about them but they've been covered by people who know much more than me. Still, maybe it's time for another Cambridge trip.
For future reference, where was the building behind the car dealership?
Thanks, that's good of you to say. There is a map to go with the blog which can be found here
www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/e...
I'm always open to corrections, clarifications, and pointing out when I've missed the really obvious.
This is a brilliant essay. Full of insights and perception. It makes excellent apéritif for Friday's iPlayer release of the two recovered Dalek's Masterplan episodes.
40 YEARS AGO TODAY: the Dangerous Brothers have been banned from the last in the first series of Saturday Live, leaving Fry and Laurie ample time to demonstrate their flower arranging dance.
A new blog post about the surprisingly complicated story of SEGA in the UK.
whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/03/sega... #RetroGaming #RetroComputing #SEGA
New on my blog today, I explore the decision to use a negative image effect to represent Dalek gun blasts in #DoctorWho, and the prior history and associations of this effect in television and film:
thehiddenplanet.substack.com/p/negative-c...
What about posting it before DMP and then, if necessary, posting the rewritten version afterwards. So you've got two versions showing how the return affected your opinion.
(This may be a silly and overcomplicated idea.)
Yeowell / Hart
British label Mastertronic's approach to software, selling as cheaply and widely as they could, proved influential. In 1986, they took a year-old-port of a 2-year-old Spectrum bike game to #1 for a month. New post on the story of Speed King and Mastertronic:
www.superchartisland.com/speed-king
New on my Doctor Who blog today, I look at the design of the Dalek city in 'The Daleks' and consider the rarely-acknowledged questions that the design raises:
thehiddenplanet.substack.com/p/the-dalek-...
What else can you expect from The Guardian?
A follow up to last year's blog post on The Battle For Santa's Software.
October 1983, BBC2's magazine programme Riverside went to Liverpool to interview the rich and successful team at Imagine and ask; are computer game programmers the new rock stars?
whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/03/mike...