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Reminiscing Over Retro Games

ByKevin Simon

May 22, 2015

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Today of writing this article 22nd may 2015 is the 35th anniversary of the release of pacman, first this does make me feel at tad bit old as at the time of release I would have been 6 nearly 7 years old. But has made me think about some of the games I loved when I was a kid. Mainly this service for me is a little trip down memory lane.

Now in the early 80’s I wasn’t really one to play games in the arcades, but did used to play games on the old 8 bit computers. In the early 80’s I remember my father buying a Dragon 32 computer, if I remember right he got it from the local curry’s branch in Brownhills where he worked as a manager. I remember the computer being setup on the kitchen table with a old portable tv. The first time of switching it we didn’t know what to do as you just got a prompt. Remember this was a time that every entry on a computer was by text only and you had to keep referring to the manual, how things have changed now 🙂

Well the best game I can remember on the dragon that we used to play for hours and hours was chuckie egg by A&F software. This was a very simple game but was very addictive and so infuriating sometimes. All you had to do was to collect eggs and avoid the birds, sounds simple but did get very harder as you progressed if my memory serves me right there was only 9 levels, if you completed these levels you then went back to the first level, but game play was speeded up, and then carried on that way. I have lately been messing around with older emulators on my android tablet using the BBC B micro, spectrum emulators and have put chuckie egg on and really does bring back special memories from my childhood.

Other games that I remember fondly from that era on the dragon computer are crazy painter, all you had to do was paint the screen in a colour while avoiding the other objects, this was one my of moms favourite games. We also liked manic minor and jet set willy. Also the cuthbert games, of course you had frogger but also games that were based on donkey Kong, pacman etc, though some of the games were only licenced to certain system, the names were different but the games were basically the same.

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At the time we had the dragon computer I remember going to computer clubs, these were get-togethers with other people that had the systems and used to meet every few weeks at each others houses and lug around your computer and TV and we would share games, I remember these being very fun and I remember liking going with my father as it normally meant would get to stay up a bit passed my bed time at that early age 🙂

When I started at senior school as with most schools at that time had computer rooms with the BBC micro B’s. I remember the school having computer clubs in break times and lunch times and this does bring back memories of playing text adventures, there is a game that I used to play with a friend, but can’t remember the name, as far as I can recollect the game was a mystery type of game that you played either a detective or newspaper reporter, if any reading this know of this game please leave a comment with the title as would love to get the game.

When the BBC B was out I remember wanted one but couldn’t afford one so had a Acorn Electron instead as ran the nearly the same basic language so most of the software for the BBC B would also work on the Acorn. Then moving on from the Acorn was to 16BIT computers like the various commodore amiga range, well I will go into that another time though have a look at my old amiga section on this site.

Writing this article has brought back some very nice memories of my childhood, and the more I have been writing the more I remember so I think in the future I will write some more about this subject, so if you like what I have wrote and you remember stories like this please leave comments below and can also follow this site for updates.

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By Kevin Simon

I run this blog & also self employed cleaning out fish ponds, but due to spinal problems not able to do as much, now started a youtube channel showing my converted Peugeot Partner micro camper also as interest in photography so now vlog about the trips and of course Lego figures out in the wild photos.

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