Celebrate the visual games history of the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron with this case bound book, now back in print for 2024. With free postage to the UK, the book is in stock now.
The book features a foreword by Richard Hanson (Superior Software) and Life of an Acorn Gamer by TV's Iain Lee, it features a full retrospect on Acorn Computers with Hermann Hauser, Chris Curry, Steve Furber, Sophie Wilson and Chris Turner; over 170 classic games, with exclusive interviews with key figures in the industry at the time - from the likes of David Braben and Ian Bell (Elite); Geoff Crammond (Revs/Aviator); Peter Irvin (Exile); Tim Tyler (Repton); Nick Pelling (Frak!); Peter Scott (Sim City/The Last Ninja); Gary Partis (Psycastria/Dr Who); Chris Roberts (Stryker's Run); Ross Goodley (Alligata's Blagger); Dave Woodhouse (English Software's Jet Boot Jack); Steve Botterill (Superior Software / 4th Dimension); John Dyson (Superior Software) and many, many more – and features on subjects such as key publishers, cover art and classic magazines.
The book showcases the computers’ inimitable graphic style and is packed full with memories and anecdotes from programmers, artists, publishers, reviewers and enthusiasts. Remember Elite, Chuckie Egg, Repton, Exile, Starship Command, Thrust, Citadel, Revs, Imogen, Codename:Droid, Firetrack, Arcadians, Mr Ee!, Zalaga, Castle Quest, Galaforce, Snapper, Level 9's adventures, Uridium, Jet Power Jack and many more.
Read about the history of the iconic publishers including Superior Software, Micro Power, Acornsoft, Tynesoft, Level 9, 4th Dimension, Alligata, MRM, Ultimate Play the Game, and more. Learn about the magazine publishers of the time, how the games industry evolved and the many 'lost and found' games of the era. And much, much more.
Artwork from Ste Pickford (of the Pickford Brothers), Les Ives (original cover artist for Micro Power and Superior Software) and Mark Hardisty.
An unmissable publication for anyone who grew up with an Acorn 8-bit machine.
You will also receive a download link to the "Memory Full" 700-page digital download edition of the book, free with this purchase from the idesine store. This print edition contains an essential selection. The download link will be sent once the print edition is despatched.
Book specifications
ISBN-13 : 978-1-903527-29-0
Hardback, 560 pages on 150gsm gloss paper, 170mm x 230mm.
This print run of the book comes without a slip case.
Includes contributions from
Acorn – Chris Curry; Steve Furber; Hermann Hauser; Chris Turner; Sophie Wilson
Programmers - Marcus Altman (Heist); Dave Acton (Repton Infinity); Michael Archer (W.A.R); Matthew Atkinson (Repton 3); Ian Bell (Elite); Andrew Bennett (Boulder Dash); Simon Birrell (Microbe); Kevin Blake (Spy vs Spy); David Braben (Elite); Mike Bryant (Gnome Ranger); Stuart Cheshire (Skirmish); Dave Coathupe (Manic Miner); Geoff Crammond (Revs, The Sentinel); Neil Davidson (Ricochet); Tim Dobson (Monsters); Ian Downend (XOR); Martin Edmondson (Codename:Droid); Kevin Edwards (Galaforce); David Elliot (Swoop); Ross Goodley (Blagger); Jonathan Griffiths (Snapper); Trevor Harwood (Commando); Paul Hiscock (Android Attack); Ian Holmes (Pipeline); Angus Hughes (Uridium); Sam Inglis (Shark); Peter Irvin (Exile); Michael Jakobsen (Citadel); Peter Johnson (Yie Ar Kung-Fu); Richard Kay (HyperSports); Gordon Key (Holed Out); Tom Lanigan (Lode Runner); Dave Lawrence (Repton Infinity); Robin Leatherbarrow (Jet Boat);David Lovekin (Space Pilot); David Lloyd (Winter Olympaid ’88); Walter Mansell (The Mine); Michael Mathison (Labyrinth); Tony Monckton (Chipbuster); Mat Newman (Fortress); Tony Oakden (Quest); Philip and Andrew Oliver (Cavey); Steve Parkinson (Hyperball); Gary Partis (Psycastria); Nick Pelling (Frak!); Simon Phipps (Jet Power Jack); Simon Pick (Dare Devil Denis); Keith Purkiss (Tales of the Arabian Knights); Kenton Price (Starquake); William Reeve (Pipeline); Nick Reeves (Tetrapod);Kevin Reid (Snooker); Graeme Richardson (Nevyron); Chris Roberts (Stryker’s Run); Sean Scarff (Moon Cresta);Peter Scott (Sim City); Dan and Eton Shirron (Spellbinder); Jason Sobell (Bug Eyes); Adrian Stephens (Mr Ee!); Michael St Aubyn (Imogen); Martin Sykes (Karate Combat); Nick Tingle (Missile Control); Kevin Toms (Football Manager); Julian Todd (Mineshaft); Tim Tyler (Repton); Richard Warner (Pole Position); Stephen Wileman (Palace of Magic); Dave Woodhouse (Jet Boot Jack);
Sound and Pixel Art – Martin Galway (Ocean); Michael Hutchison (Superior Software); Jolyon Myers (ASL); Ian Waugh (Tynesoft); Melvyn Wright (Firebird)
Publishers – Steve Botterill (4th Dimension); Alan Butcher (Micro Power); Ian Clemmett (Micro Power); John Dyson (Superior); Mike Goldberg (MRM); Richard and Steve Hanson (Superior Software); Dave Palmer (Alligata); Christopher Payne (Micro Power and Superior Software); Darryl Still (ASL); Dave Vout (Software Invasion)
Acorn Computer is the registered trademark of Virtualytics Limited. This book is in no way endorsed or commissioned by Virtualytics Limited.
Customer Reviews
Brilliant book. Great to relive the old days.
A wonderful book, lovingly put together. Looking forward to the next release from Idesine!
First off - disclosure that I'm in it, so I might be biased! But it was lovely to be propelled back to the 1980s and see all those games & listen to the authors give their memories of their games' back story.
Also, very high production quality artwork really shines through, improving the experience still further.
OK so 5000 characters you provide me with here for a review of a potential readers first digital childhood experiences (we don't mention the PET). That's 4842 characters left to describe 600 pages of content? That is also after I have spent the last hour or so already typing my review only to wonder half way through if the counter was going up or down...the rather late arrival of the yellow bar suggests it was going down all along, and despite how often I clicked submit that web enforced limit was having none of it. But hey, there are tricks to fitting a lot into a little as we all know.
So I am assuming you are reading this as either a former (or current) Acorn owner, gamer, teacher, seller, employee, modern blogger, whatever an influencer is- if so then you know when faced with a limitation like characters or in other words RAM. The reward of achieving the impossible is always to be sought. Now I could try to procedurally generate a review from a few bytes of hackneyed old sayings, that is at once seemingly complex and in depth, but is just a tick of the words repeating. Or I could cut out some of the graphics, or rather paragraphs, and claim it is the same thing. No, because as you will no doubt know a Commodore owning mate who will tell you Barbarian had the person you were fighting for appearing on one of the final screens, and that was kind of the point to it. She was censored out of more than just the back page of Acorn World you know! (this topic, I admit, is repeated in my full review). Or perhaps I could overwrite some of all the white space around this box with the random digital coloured pixels of all those thousands (about 5000 tbh) of characters that I ran out of memory for. Actually that is not too dissimilar to how TV or film recreate 9:16 captured phone footage on a 16:9 aspect if you think about it..a blurry mess in the background. I don't approve of that technique in use there - as of course all phone users should hold their phones length ways if they want to influence traditional media rather than mere seconds of tick face insta tweet viewers. So no, I won't use that method.
No, now I have written it, and now I have even downloaded a free licence Mode 7 font for nostalgia reasons, I will instead use the wonderful little HIMEM or PAGE adjusting trick of adding a picture or video. Well, picture in this case. Yep, if you like this ramble so far and want more of the same or if you actually want to know what I think the real magic of ACORN WORLD OF PIXELS is, and a spoiler on that is it is not about reading it cover to cover. Then have a look at the attached carefully curated screenshot of text. If there is no such thing then my cunning plan has failed the T&Cs somehow, and this review is almost pointless. But if there is one, and it is readable, then I shall hand over to a me from about 45 mins ago....
Cheers, oh yes, and before you read my full review in the attached screenshot just buy the book as you will only feel foolish to have got this far into your curiosity and not bought it yet :-)
Very good book, I have both revisions and the usb version. Good to relive the days of the BBC Micro