Author Archives: admin

VIC-20 Adventures: The Return Journey

Posted on January 30, 2026 by admin

An Update Five Years in the Making Back in May 2020, I wrote about a collection of text adventures I’d created for the Commodore VIC-20 between 1983 and 1984. At the time, I reflected on those six games—two released, four … Continue reading →

Posted in Commodore, Commodore, Uncategorized | Comments Off

River Software Down Under: Bringing British Adventures to Australia

Posted on August 7, 2024 by admin

1991. The home computer industry was moving fast — CD-ROMs were looming on the horizon, console gaming was muscling in on the market, and the golden age of the text adventure was flickering like a candle in a storm. I was … Continue reading →

Posted in Commodore, Retro | Comments Off

Rian Rookaby and the Quest for the Sun: How a School Work Experience Became a Professional Game

Posted on July 1, 2024 by admin

September 1986. I was a Year 10 student at a regional high school in New South Wales, and I was about to get my first taste of the computer industry. My work experience placement was at a local computer shop called RAMROD — … Continue reading →

Posted in Atari ST, ATARI ST, Programming, Retro, STOS | Comments Off

The Night the Modem Answered: How We Built a BBS from Scratch in 1986

Posted on June 22, 2024 by admin

Monday, June 30, 1986. The cursor blinked. The modem crackled. And then — it happened. A phone line in Umina, NSW, rang in the dead of night, and a Commodore 64 answered it. That was the moment everything changed. After six months … Continue reading →

Posted in 8 Bit Computer, BASIC, Commodore, Programming, Retro | Comments Off

Relics from the Past: Rescuing a Lost Adventure, 39 Years Later

Posted on June 1, 2024 by admin

2020. The world had stopped. Locked down, grounded, and suddenly confronted with more time than I knew what to do with, I did what any self-respecting hoarder of computing history would do: I dragged out the boxes. Dozens of them. … Continue reading →

Posted in Commodore, Programming, Software | Comments Off

Programming Books for Retro Machines

Posted on December 22, 2023 by admin

Over the past 4 years I have been on the look out for some programming books for the retro machines, computers and the original classic consoles from the early 1980’s when I stumbled across an author named Oscar Toledo G. … Continue reading →

Posted in 6502 Assembly Lanuage, 8 Bit Computer, C, Hardware, Programming, x86 Assembly Lanuage | Comments Off

Parachute Rescue

Posted on February 6, 2023 by admin

Introducing “Parachute Rescue”, the retro-inspired game currently in a beta release that will take you on a thrilling adventure to save falling parachute divers from the jaws of hungry sharks! In Parachute Rescue, players take control of a small rowboat … Continue reading →

Posted in HTML5, Programming | Comments Off

SNAKE – VIC 20

Posted on October 4, 2022 by admin

Had a few nights free recently so was inspired to create a simple game for the unexpanded Commodore VIC – 20 using BASIC v2.0. For those who have programmed the VIC 20 in BASIC realise that you only have 3.5KB … Continue reading →

Posted in BASIC, Commodore, Programming | Comments Off

Discover a utility from the past

Posted on February 22, 2022 by admin

I’ve been continuing to clean up old documents, backup, and take the time to sort these out. Unsurprisingly, after 40 years of working with, programming and running various computer/software-related businesses, I would gather so much stuff. I’m slowly putting it … Continue reading →

Posted in Commodore, Software | Comments Off

STM8 BASIC

Posted on November 20, 2020 by admin

Well continuing on from my last post with an Arduino Nano running TinyBASIC with it 1k of memory I’ve gone one step further and picked up an STM8 BASIC dev board (STM8S103F3 Microcontroller) which is running BASIC and has 611 … Continue reading →

Posted in Hardware, Micro controller, Software | Comments Off