Super Nintendo by Keza MacDonald - Book Review

It's exceedingly easy to view the video games industry with a cynical eye these days, where late stage capitalism and the general crappiness of the real world have combined to certainly leave your humble scribe more than a little jaded with the whole concept of gaming. So to avoid spiralling further down that particularly dark path, how about reading a book focused a company that is both synonymous with the industry and still, more than forty years after its first home console, striking out on new, inventive, and more importantly, fun directions? As luck would have it, Super Nintendo by Keza MacDonald is just the tonic. 

Coming in at nearly three hundred pages, the reader is taken on a historical tour of the Kyoto-based company via a dozen of its best know products and game series (I am not using the f-word here, that's too corporate and we're not talking about spreading fast food joints around the country!). Beginning with the Ultra Hand and ending with Splatoon, each chapter fuses the history of Nintendo and key individuals within a narrative that weaves in facts, amusing morsels and all out love for a company that remains as inventive today as it was when the Famicom landed in Japanese stores. 

Along the way, you will learn how Nintendo has managed to not only create genre defining video games, but also inspire others to celebrate that achievement in their own way. It's not just about video games either. I salute the level of collectorship of a certain gentleman in Alsace!

It has to be said that this is not an overly critical appraisal of the Japanese gaming giant. They have deserved criticism in the past (one does recall writing a missive to Edge back in the day - issue 97, the one with the Galleon cover - questioning their GameCube release strategy for the UK... I was a sarcastic so and so even then!), and yes, their legal teams make even Games Workshop's look like talented amateurs, but when it comes to delivering fun to gamers and non-gamers alike, they're among the best at what they do without behaving like many of the other large corporations that inhabit the video games world these days, as I'll note below.

What this book is, however, is a study Nintendo and its creations delivered with warmth and a genuine appreciation from an author who has decades of experience in reporting about the company and meeting its employees. This close connection shines through the text and as you discover more, you realise that by following its own path and indeed thinking like games players Nintendo has managed to thrive to this day, despite the odd mis-step and setback. This includes the Wii-U, the only Nintendo home console I have never owned, and the failure of which (alongside a tepid start to the 3DS's life) led then President of Nintendo, the late and sorely missed Satoru Iwata, to halve his salary and cut director payouts due to low sales figures, rather than let developers go. Then you have, as just one recent example, Microsoft's chainsaw approach to their gaming ambitions over the last couple of years. 

Anyhoo, gentle reader, you are not here to read about my deeply rooted cynicism of all things C-suite and AI related. 

Super Nintendo is a fantastic tome about a company that has made having fun the key reason to play video games, and one that should restore your faith in video games as a whole. Illuminating and uplifting, it is very much a reminder that gaming can, and indeed should, be joyous. Even if you're not a fan of Nintendo's vast array of gaming greats, I can still heartily recommend that you pick up a copy of Super Nintendo from the usual online and physical book stores.

You can follow the author on BlueSky: @mackeza.bsky.social, and you can read more of her work at the Guardian where she is the video games editor - that publication's weekly gaming newsletter is well worth signing up for too. 

Frenzy by Jamie Lendino - Book Review

Has it really been two years? Yep, I had to check but it was indeed March of 2024 that I last reviewed a tome from the keyboard of Jamie Lendino, and it really hadn't feel like that long ago. But here we are with his seventh book: Frenzy.

The ColecoVision was but a minor player in a small game as far as the UK, as home consoles were kind of lost in the home computer scrum of the early 1980's, but it is a machine that was part of my collection back in the day. And one that I do have fond memories of playing Donkey Kong on, but these days, RetroArch scratches the Coleco itch. Genuine hardware is lovely, but so is having space to swing a cat (so to speak).

Anyhoo, Mr Lendino is back to talk us through the history of the ColecoVision, the hardware it spawned, and the software that endeared the format to millions of fans. Regulars will know what to expect, but for the newbie, we have a well put together paperback of some 240-plus pages. This is a little more svelte than previous volumes, but not by a great deal, and this is determined by the subject matter anyway.

The book is divided into ten sections: the ColecoVision story and the hardware take up the first two, with the following four concentrating on the arcade conversions the system was renowned for. Console exclusives/conversions make up the seventh, whilst computer conversions are the eighth section's highlight. The Coleco situation today makes for an extremely interesting ninth category, before the final part details the rather active homebrew scene of the format. An epilogue ties everything together before the as-always comprehensive bibliography and notes list. 

This is an excellently written guide to one of the stand out formats of the original console era, and one that certainly had me pining for some spare time to re-visit more than a few games. There are a fair few photographs and screenshots, albeit in mono, and as with the author's previous tomes, this will remain part of my library for years to come as a go-to reference on the subject. 

What really caught my interest was the acknowledgements, and the casual comment of further books to come. The editor of the series wants a TI-99/4A entry, but there are ten more to come before that! Tongue in cheek maybe, but since Scullion hasn't agreed to do an Amstrad GX4000 Encyclopaedia yet, maybe Lendino will??? I mean, 250 pages, only 20-ish released games - that's got to be a winning ratio, surely??? No? Just me? Bugger!

Yeah, I'm being silly, but what isn't silly is Frenzy, and once again, the author has delivered a high quality history about a classic gaming format. I only hope that it won't be two years until the next book. In the meantime, you can pick up a copy from Amazon here, and check out his previous titles here. These are the UK links but you get the idea. You can also follow the author on BlueSky here. 

P.S. Although only briefly mentioned in the text, if you'd like to know more about the absolute dumpster fire that was the Coleco Chameleon, then check out my review of Smoke and Mirrors here. 

Gamers 2 - Ghosts in the Machine - The Golden Age of Micros by Mel Croucher - Book Review

Mr Croucher is back with a second entry in a planned five volume set of Gamers tomes, this time casting an eye on the glory days of the microcomputer - the 1970's and 80's. Twenty machines are featured within this near two hundred page tome and as with the first book, the presentational style is a first person view from the machine itself written in a style fitting to that computer's background.

The Altair 8800 is the first Ghost to speak, followed by the Commodore PET, Apple ][, and so on, until we reach the last micro of the 1980's the ill-fated, but oh so funky, SAM Coupe. As you can see from the contents page, there are a lot of familiar names for those who either lived through the period or know their history, and for this tired and cynical late forties enthusiast, the only entry that foxed me was for the Matra Alice. 

"Alice? Alice? Who the fu...?" as some of you of a certain vintage may ask (or sing), and to be fair, for a computer that only had 125 units produced and never left the borders of France, well, it was a fascinating tale to read. 

With each entry, you get a short fact sheet that provides details of the computer's creators, sales numbers, price, specs etc. I would have liked to have seen the sources for the sales figures, given how muddled various stated totals can be once you go down that particular rabbit hole, but there you go. The core texts prove to be entertaining potted histories/commentaries, and a nice line in humour abounds. There are also some photographs and software screenshots to spice things up a bit, albeit in mono, which is totally fine. 

At the back of the book, we have a Hall of Fame and separate Roll of Honour for those who paid a little bit more to support the publication effort, then details of the entire Gamers series. These comprise of the cover designs and contents pages, as well as the expected dates of availability for both backers and the general public. The schedule seems to be pretty consistent (assuming the following Kickstarter's are successful), with Gamers 5 due out to supporters by July 2027, and to a wider audience by December 2027. 

This is another interesting publication from Mel Croucher, and one that filled in some gaps in my knowledge as well as being an overall enjoyable read. For those wanting a compact reference on the subject, it is a worthy effort. Whether the author can land the following three Gamers tomes without the presentational style becoming tired remains to be seen, but so far, I am looking forward to the third volume's Kickstarter.

Gamers 2 is in the hands of backers now, and general availability is due in July this year. The publisher's page for this volume can be found here. Gamers 1 is available from all good bookshops - you can check out where exactly from the publisher's page here. 

The RISC OS North Show - 21st March 2026

It was that time of year to make the three-ish hour road trip to Warrington for the RISC OS North Show, once again held at the Village Hotel just outside the centre of town. Since we arrived in Warrington late on the Thursday afternoon, we had the opportunity on the Friday to sample the town's Indoor Market. We didn't have the time to take a proper look last year, so made up for that error on this occasion. Two decent pints for under a tenner at the Hop Emporium, and a lovely choice of food stalls. What was not to like? Definitely a place to try if you're in the area.

On the Saturday, the show opened promptly at 10.30am and after paying for my good lady (my entry was free due to an offer for WROCC members), we set about the main room.

The Show Banner

Orpheus Internet were at the first table, followed by RISC OS Developments. More from them in the talks section. 

Orpheus and ROD

R-Comp Interactive were on hand with their array of machines, as well as software packages including the new MailPrint, which received a full briefing in their theatre talk. It was also nice to see the 18-inch Asus laptop that R-Comp sell that can be supplied set up with emulators galore. It's a decent machine, and if you can stomach Windows 11 (I can't), then it's a very useful option to consider.

R-Comp

R-Comp

R-Comp

In the first corner was Nemo2000 who was there showing off software which included standalone modules and a modified version of BASIC: NemoBASIC. Sadly, due to the popularity of the stand (and my timing), I never got a chance to speak to them. Bugger.

Nemo2000

RISC OS Open

RISC OS Open

Elesar

There was a brief stop at RISC OS Open and a chat with Steve, followed by a look at Elesar's excellent keyboard (my good lady and I have one each, so it was more of a question of do we need a spare one? No, apparently, we don't), before reaching Dynabyte Software in the second corner. They were at last year's show but I never got round to speaking to them then. I remedied that this time and had a wonderful two player game of a Pong clone using hand built rotary controllers. There are future plans in motion so one to keep an eye on me thinks. 

Dynabyte

RISCOSBits

Just look at it (the keyboard/display in the middle). It's GLORIOUS!

RISCOSBits had their wide array of goodies, including some nice laptop stuff, wood-effect 5-litre ITX cases, and a really cool keyboard/screen that has no real use in the RISC OS world but I do want one. Whether it's £220 of want one is another question. I did pick up the Plus Five add-on for my existing DIY Three, and I will get round to putting it all together at some point. Lastly, a quartet of slate coasters rounded off the spend with Andy.

Martin Eastwood's set up.

North One Communications had their Organizer table set out for those needing a personal information manager application, and next to them was Martin Eastwood, showing off the Frosted Themes he's been working on. We had a lovely chat and I walked away with one of the many USB sticks he'd brought containing the software. 

Sine Nomine were showing off their updates to RiscOSM, including the new PlaneSpot 1.00, a Python app that can be used in OSM maps to show air traffic. 

Chris Hall sorted out a copy of the Impression manual, along with a USB stick with extra software on it, and OwlArt's table was a blaze of light and colour with multiple Pi-based projects. 

Drag 'N Drop

In the centre row of tables, Drag 'N Drop had their latest issue available as well as back issue collections and print copies of their listing books. I grabbed a copy of The Giant Book of Applications, and Chris kindly gave me details of the update service for people who had bought the 100 BBC and Electron Books collection. 

Steve Fryatt

Steve Fryatt had his usual array of applications to talk about, and it was pleasing to hear that development of Puzzles, the port of Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection has finished. I still drop into a few of these every now and again when time permits, and some are really, really, addictive. 

AMCOG (Kalimba in the background)

AMCOG Games' new game, Silver River Kingdom, was available to buy for the princely sum of £15. A modern day take on 1981's Yellow River Kingdom, this is a resource management simulator that has proven to be engrossing and challenging. One of the cool things about attending a show is that you get to see behind the scenes of the game's development, which is this case included discovering a musical instrument I'd never seen before: the Kalimba. Also known as a thumb piano, this was used to create some of the music in Silver River Kingdom, and whilst I really do not need another time sink, they're easily available and quite affordable... and one is being delivered Wednesday next week! Curse you, Tony!!! ;-)

Soft Rock Software

Soft Rock Software had no new software sadly, but work is progressing on a couple of fronts, so all I could pick up there was a neat RISC OS compatible mouse mat. As they were in the area, Vince, and Bryan from ROUGOL, had taken the opportunity to visit Jodrell Bank observatory, so a few photographs were shown at the Soft Rock Stand. 

ROUGOL stand

The Manchester User Group and RISC OS User Group of London had tables, and it was nice to chat to Bryan. The Wakefield RISC OS Computer Club were also present, and they soon relieved me of another year's subscription fee. 

A tower of hybrid beauty at the WROCC table

That just left the charity stand and the North West Computer Museum display in a side room. Although there was a few good BBC offerings at the stand, I resisted temptation as, really, have you seen the size of a Beeb? They have a larger footprint than you'd think. 

NW Computer Museum

NW Computer Museum

NW Computer Museum

The Museum display started with an Acorn System 5 and ended with a Spectrum and C64, with a Beeb, Elk, A3000, and A7000 filling the gap. 

Charity stand

Charity stand

There were just four theatre talks this year, which actually worked to the show's advantage, as in previous years it has felt a bit rushed once the talks started, what with 45 minute limits to the talks (often over-running), and then only 15 minutes until the next one meaning you kind of had maybe the first hour or so to see the actual traders. This year, there was a good hour after the last talk, and of the three presentations I attended (an on-going back issue meant leaving the show early so I missed Sine Nomine's), they all kept to the designated run time. 

RISC OS Developments/Orpheus took the first slot, with discussion on Orpheus' increased speed capabilites, and details on RISC OS 64, a new path to try and get RISC OS into the 64-bit world. There was also a live demo of the new firewall for RISC OS.

Update 06.04.26 - The WROCC YouTube channel now has this talk available for viewing here.

R-Comp put their new MailPrint application front and centre, and for owners of modern wi-fi enabled printers, this is a real benefit for people who need to print things. There was an update on storage devices - namely namespaces, which permit more flexibility for users, especially with large capacity drives, and a comment that there was little new hardware as what was on offer was pretty much the limit of the 32-bit era. There was also a quick demo of R-Comp's Hydra computer.

Update 20.04.26 -  The WROCC YouTube channel now has this talk available for viewing here.

RISC OS Open provided an update on the work towards the next stable version of RISC OS, 5.32, which should be available in the second half of this year. A Moonshot update brought into focus the funding that has been raised and the funding challenges that lie ahead. An anonymous benefactor has offered a donation matching window between now and the 20th of June, up to a total of £4,000 of donations, so that was a positive piece of news. 

Details were shared as to the status of various module updates, and the key message was that changes being made would also benefit existing users as best they could. There was a request for people to help out if they could, either development, testing or donations, and the possibility was raised of moving ROOL to charitable status in the future. 

Update 12.04.26 - The WROCC YouTube channel now has this talk available for viewing here. 

Update 27.04.26 -  The WROCC YouTube channel now has the Sine Nomine Software talk available for viewing here.

These are but summaries and in due course, the videos of the talks will be available on YouTube. When they are, I'll update this post. 

All in all, this was another good show, and it was reassuring to see it make it to a second year - from my wargaming show experience, that is no mean feat! My only criticism of last year - that the noise from the show during the talks was rather distracting for those sitting at the back - was not an issue this time round.  I would say that the audio set up was louder this year, so that removed that thorn. The show itself did feel a little flat to begin with, but by mid-afternoon, there was a bit more of a buzz, and whilst a couple of familiar faces were missing, a couple of new ones filled the gaps. 

Hopefully we'll see a 2027 show, and yes, all being well, I'll attend that one too. I do keep looking at the London Show as an option, but the logistics are an issue.

OwlArt table

OwlArt table

As for RISC OS itself, well, it's still here and is still a very useful and fun OS to use. The keen of eye may have noticed the dual approach to 64-bit development. I'll say this loudly now: I have no horse in this race. I just want to keep using the OS, but the risk of duplication and wasted effort in what is, admittedly, a niche operating system, all seems a wee bit silly. We'll see how it goes, but there is a history of multiple approaches in the community and I don't think a repeat of that would be a good thing. 

You still have the option of emulation if actually hardware isn't your thing, but what about an FPGA core? Anyone considered that? After all, there are Gameboy Advance and 3DO cores in development, so is it not beyond the possibility of someone looking at that? 

Anyhoo, that was the 2026 RISC OS North Show and a fine one it was too. Shows are an important aspect of any hobby, and with just this and the London Show in the UK, and the Big Ben shindig in the Netherlands, trying to get to at least one of them should be a goal for any existing user or potentially interested party. 

Voices From A Future Passed by Robert Napier - Book Review

Acorn Computers remains for many of a certain generation the quintessential British computing company. From its scrappy founding at the tail end of the 1970's to its (almost) inevitable demise just shy of the millennium, Acorn Computers rode the wave of the 1980's personal computing rush. Yet up until now, there hasn't been a truly personal perspective on just how the little company that could achieved such success. With this oral history from Robert Napier, now is your chance to find out.

At nearly 300 pages in length, Voices From A Future Passed contains the recollections of a multitude of people connected to Acorn. Some names are instantly recognisable to the follower of computing history: Sophie Wilson, Steve Furber, and Christopher Curry to name but three. Yet the sheer breadth of the contributions within this fine tome encompasses BBC staff, hardware developers, distributors, and more. As you can see from the below images, there's a lot of them!

This was an easy read, and because each memoire is presented from the point of view of the interviewees, the style never feels stale. Individual voices shine through the text, and because each chapter is effectively self-contained, makes reading through the book linearly or just dropping in here and there a choice of six and two threes.

In addition to the above, there are additional chapters on the Radcliffe Report which led to the BBC's Computer Literacy Project, a pocket history of general computing up until the rise of Acorn, a BBC Basic primer, details of the Cambridge/Manchester rivalry, and a guide to the various machines Acorn did, and did not, release.

By the time I reached the back cover, my knowledge of Acorn, its people, and its history had been greatly expanded, and I have no qualms at all in recommending Voices From A Future Passed to anyone with even a passing interest in the history of personal computing. I know this will become a fine resource for future reference. 

There are, however, a couple of observations that require noting. And when I say observations, I mean, observations, not criticisms.

The first is that there is, by the very nature of the format, a lot of topic repetition. Individuals who worked at Acorn at the same time were often involved with, or aware of, the same projects, so you'll hear a lot about fruit machines. However, each addition to the narrative exhumes more information, so you never truly feel like you're experiencing Groundhog Day.

The second is that even with nearly thirty contributors, we barely get out of the 1980's. That is not a weakness of the book per se, just that if you were wanting to know more of the Acorn post-Archimedes release, then there's pretty slim pickings here. Maybe an opportunity for another volume perhaps?

Voices From A Future Passed is a terrific read. For the period it does cover, there is depth and detail galore, making it an essential purchase, and one that can be made from Amazon here. There's also the author's website here. You can buy this book in person from a quartet of computing museums, who will also receive a donation from each sale regardless of where the copy was bought from. There's more info at Riscository here. 

All that remains for me now is to prepare for the RISCOS North show which is happening this weekend in Warrington. If you want to keep up with news about RISC OS goings on, check out The Iconbar and Riscository. There's also two continuing publications that are essential RISC OS reads: Archive Magazine and Drag 'N Drop. 

Expect a show report next week along with a few pictures.

Leaps + Bounds by Bitmap Books - Book Review

The latest release from Bitmap Books intends to provide a visual guide to the nine (so far) console generations that have (in most cases, but not all) graced the homes of gamers over the last fifty plus years. From an original concept from Hans Kleinenberg, text by Stew Shearer, illustrations from Adam Rufino, and design by Sam Dyer and Hans Kleinenberg, let's have a look at how they do.

The preface is provided by Bitmap Books, before a rather nice foreword by the CEO of Analgue, Christopher Taber. A curated selection of milestones mark the progression of the home console before we get ot the core of the book - the consoles themselves, categorised by the aforementioned generations. 

The format is simplicity itself. Each machine (excluding the unreleased consoles, which we'll get to presently), receives two pages. the first details the year of release, dates of availability, sales figures (where known), and number of games released. A potted history of the console gives some background, and the lovely artwork of Adam Rufino completes page one. The second page is dominated by a screenshot of a selected title from the console's library, and two or three facts to add flavour to the entry. Overall, this works well, and the contrast between the artwork and the screenshot is appreciated. Some might decry the lack of photography of the actual hardware, but I really do like what they've done here. 

Unreleased hardware retains the details and artwork, but no screenshots. 

There is some good stuff in here, and the only real criticism I can offer, aside from a re-wording of the New 3DS's 4GB mention, is that the Pippin was NOT built using the same kit as the Apple Classic II. Sorry, peeps, but simply not true. There's a Wikipedia page entry with the story of the Pippin's genesis, but the referenced links do not support the detail in that particular section. For the sake of this book review, however, categorically, the Pippin that was prototyped and delivered to consumers was not built using the same hardware as the Classic II. Not even the same processor architecture. An evolution of an earlier project, possibly, but that raises the question as to how accurate the Wiki entry is. There's nothing to corroborate a lot of the "Bandai and Apple" section, so I don't know, but if someone does have additional info, then I'd be happy to learn more. 

There was probably an earlier console concept at Bandai, but the Pippin does not use a 68030.

Does this spoil Leaps + Bounds for me? No, not at all. This are mere niggle in the overall scheme of things, but it is something that the potential buyer should beware of, as well as anyone who wants to use this tome as a source of reference. Always check your sources and, where possible, more than one. As an aside, the most recent issue of PC Pro has a retro piece on the Pippin and it pretty much regurgitates the Wiki story. If you hadn't guessed by now, I have many questions about the history and I may post again on the topic in the coming days.  

Overall, I really do like the latest publication from Bitmap Books, and it's one that will be enjoyed as much by reading through cover to cover, as it will be just dropping in for casual perusal. You can pick up a copy of Leap + Bounds directly from Bitmap Books, as well as the usual online and physical bookstores. 

Update 13.03.26

After some thought, I've decided the story behind the Pippin's genesis is worthy of another post, just not yet. I've prepped most of a post but without more research, it's just going to be supposition rather than actual verifiable and evidenced fact. I kind of have a time line of events, one that does include the Classic II discussion and the licensing decision, but not connected as either the Wiki or PC Pro piece have it. For another day then. What I can say is that next week will see my review of Robert Napier's Voices From a Future Passed.