Massimo Belardinelli

Ian Gibson

How did a developer that started as a war game specialist end up making a game about a cycling race? Why did the game climb to UK #1 months after the real life race finished? And what does all that have to do with the price of milk? New post on Milk Race: www.superchartisland.com/milk-race

A look at the way some UK software houses tapped into the imagination of Douglas Adams. whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-...

The Carver brothers and Access Software set new golf game standards with Leader Board. Then they built on that further. Trees! Sand traps! Ahead-of-their-time licensed expansion packs! New post on World Class Leader Board: www.superchartisland.com/world-class-leader-board

“Now just hold your horses, everyone. … Let’s let it run for a minute or so and see if it gets any colder.”

The kids of 1976 didn’t moan about the heatwave on social media they got out and made their own fun

Thank you. This one was fun to write. I never did track down the location of the QL Quantum Leap advert.

Mark Cale and System 3 set out to "take the square cursor blob from Adventure on the Atari 2600 and turn it into a fully interactive 3D adventure". With a ninja theme. It wasn't straightforward but the result was a defining C64 game. New post on The Last Ninja: superchartisland.com/the-last-ninja

Fantasy Software. A new blog post about the software house who released a game called Backpackers Guide to the Universe and got a letter from solicitors acting for Douglas Adams. whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/06/fant... #Amstrad #C64 #ZXSpectrum #RetroGaming #RetroComputing

Where's my officially licensed Jupiter Ace Morse Code Tapper?

Dear Gareth Roberts, The BBC who made the Doctor Who you are nostalgic for no longer exists. This is due to the owners and readers of The Spectator, to whom you pander. Yours etc,

Barbarian was great fun. Another game that was a real time sink for my brother and I. The decapitation move even got a rare seal of approval from my dad. The goblin coming in and kicking the head made it funny rather than shocking.

Brothers Richard and David Darling made a hit BMX game for Mastertronic, but they still wanted much more. They set up their own budget games company, returning first to BMXs... and that was a pretty good beginning for Codemasters. New post on BMX Simulator: www.superchartisland.com/bmx-simulator

This is a great interview and the chat about The Macra Terror is fascinating. I'm really looking forwards to the main Missing Episodes discussion about The Macra Terror as well.

A new blog post about the history of Nintendo in the UK. It's complicated, probably more complicated than the story of SEGA in the UK. whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/06/nint... #RetroGaming #RetroComputing #Nintendo

Feud was really good fun and I spent a lot of time playing it although I apparently have a false memory of it being a two player game. Another great article from Super Chart Island.

Harpo Marx, plugging "Harpo Speaks" as only he can, by gatecrashing his brother's gig on "You Bet Your Life". A textbook "put the leg in someone's hand" moment, doling out books willy-nilly, not a single scene left unstolen, out and done. I love that man dearly. www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdFg...

A livestream of a volcano in the Philippines captured a meteor crashing to Earth today. What are the odds? Mayon Volcano, Location: Albay, Luzon, Philippines

A new blog post about Mikro-Gen. The Wally Week software house. whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/05/mikr... #Amstrad #C64 #ZXSpectrum #RetroGaming #RetroComputing

From the exp. archive: revisiting Super Mario Bros. via Super Mario Bros. Deluxe on Game Boy Color in 2015, and remembering it's a masterpiece:

A really nice explanation of how tape loading worked. It was dead boring waiting for a game to load back in the day but now I'm surprised how relaxing those tape squawks can sound. It's like my version of white noise.

Gauntlet's 4-player dungeon action was a hit for Atari at the arcade, and U.S. Gold on home computers. Several similar games set off suggestions of copying. But when is a clone not a clone? New post on Gauntlet, Dandy, Druid, a different Dandy, and more... www.superchartisland.com/gauntlet

I've finally done it. A new blog post that combines my twin obsessions of old software houses and Blake's 7. It doesn't get any more exciting than this! #RetroGaming #RetroComputing #Blakes7 whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/05/inte...

This is rather wonderful, from September 1968

Epyx became champions of a less action-focused type of multi-sports Olympics game. Then they needed another new direction, and opened up to a wider world of sports. New post on the creation of World Games, and the games it inspired at Epyx and elsewhere: www.superchartisland.com/world-games

Something completely different on my #DoctorWho blog today: a report of my visit to the beautiful Nanjizal Bay in Cornwall, where parts of The Smugglers were filmed way back in 1966, in the series’ first shoot away from London and the home counties. thehiddenplanet.substack.com/p/nanjizal-b...

This week I wrote about 10 Computer Hits 3 from Beau Jolly. Read about: - their music business origins - assessing the accuracy of the 'Hits' in the title - what probably made this one chart higher than 10 Computer Hits 2 and 4 www.superchartisland.com/10-computer-hits-3

December 1991, THE ONE publishes an article by Dave Gruisin about a mystery console that was the talk of the attendees at InterTainment 91 (ugh). So what was it? Here's a blog post in which I make a few uninformed guesses. #RetroGaming #RetroComputing whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-...

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

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...

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'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

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.

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...

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-...

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...