Magazines of Yesteryear - Computer Shopper Issue 40 - June 1991

The summer of 1991 - what a time to be alive! If you were a kid, you had the joys of listening to "Do The Bartman" and "The Stonk" (Jesus F-ing wept), while adults got all concerned by Color Me Badd singing "I Want To Sex You Up' - truly a more innocent time. Cinema screens were playing the likes of Highlander II (yep, it really was that bad), Misery and the Alan Rickman classic, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. But you're not here for that malarkey. You're here to see what really cool stuff Computer Shopper 40 had in store. Well, like Color Me Badd, they had SX on the brain.

Like the computers of the time, even the magazine is beige.

386SX, but SX nonetheless (much cleaner than any 16/32-bit joke I could think of...), with thirteen of the chunky blighters lined up to demonstrate what super cool technological beasts they were. Being Computer Shopper though meant there was much, much more, with some Smalltalk before getting you SQL-ing. Oh-err missus! Maybe not so innocent a time...

Before we get to the contents, let us first consider the publication itself. It cost a measly 99p, which works out at around £2.15 today - for 400 (count 'em) pages! Okay, it's not all editorial content - this is Shopper after all, and there are adverts a plenty (the first 110 pages almost completely so), but a lot has changed in thirty years. Speaking of which...

Contents page including the oh-so handy format specific list.

1991 was the year the 386 processor really hit the mainstream as the older 286 became pretty much the "budget" processor option and the rise of Windows 3.0 (priced at £80 by some PC manufacturers because not everyone supplied their machines with Windows as standard. Not yet anyway.) demanded a 386 for a truly (then modern) GUI (Graphical User Interface) experience - fans of the Mac, ST, Amiga and Archimedes can rightly laugh until it hurts at this point. Incidentally, those systems were catered for with specific columns for their machines and, in this particular issue, a piece on expanding the Amiga. In a nice touch, there's a reference guide so you can see which articles may relate to your format of choice. 

My, how newsagents have changed...

Starting with the news (page 112 onwards), the first big piece is about Psion's upmarket handheld, the HC. These were a return to speciality market's rather than the consumer one, and they did pretty well as you'd expect from Psion of the time. Amstrad's decision to cease manufacturing of the by then venerable PC1512 and 1640 models, as well as discount the backside of the ill-fated 2000-series meant there were many a bargain available for canny shoppers. Dell offering of a compact 486 raised some eyebrows, as did the price (£2,799 ex VAT), although they had discounted the existing 486-based 425TE from £8,099 to £5,549 ex. so that's alright then... Mannesmann Tally announced cheaper colour printing, with a Thermal Transfer Printer for under £2k!!! I'll have two, thank you, whilst IBM UK were upset at profits warnings after the sales failure of the PS/1 and 2 ranges. Shame. 

Oh, and before I forget, the subscription card is distinctly of its time...

Sandwiched between the news and the notebook group test is a page on Hewlett Packard's latest portable handheld computer, the 95LX. With built in Lotus 1-2-3 and an almost CGA compatible screen, this pint-sized pocket wonder could last for up to 60 hours, which was handy, as by the time you'd bought the device (£449) and the additional extras, (another £350 or so), you'd have precious little cash left for batteries. Still, it was a fantastic little gizmo. 

Good old specification table.

The big group test covers the 386SX portable market, with thirteen machines come under the microscope. Remember Arche? ITS? Ness? Reeves? Nope. Nor should you, as these companies are long gone. Back in '91, they would sell you a variation on the laptop theme with piss-poor ergonomics and shite battery lives, but they were reasonably powerful and they could be moved around without inducing a hernia. Honestly, if you've never lugged an Amstrad PPC, you've never lived! The cheapest rocked up at £1,499, the most expensive at £3,395. Weight for most hovered around the 6-7lbs mark, screens reaching 8 inches in the diagonal and with resolutions set firmly at 640x480. Claimed battery lives were between two and six hours. DOS 3.3 or 4.01 was the standard OS, while some also included Windows - and remember, this is Windows at VGA resolution on an 8 inch passive matrix screen. What a time to have shares in an opticians!

When an 8086 could (just) about see you through the day.

Speaking of which, here is a feature on Virtuality, a British-designed VR system that found brief success both in arcades and on TV (Cyberzone, hosted by Craig Charles - and yes, it's as period as you can guess), before disappearing into the mists of time, leaving only vague recollections and a generation of people with permanent eye strain - more so than the laptop users.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try (and 30 plus years later), keep trying again!

The rest of the mag is a mix of articles and adverts (see the contents page above), so lets see what the latter have to offer. 

1991 was still the time of dealers and resellers, and 'Puters was having a great time flogging Amstrads and Olivettis to one and all. As you can see, the venerable 8086 was still an option, with a single drive mono display model coming in at £365 ex VAT. The "portable" (cough!) PPC ranges were still around, as were clearance PC1640's, although the price on application notice seems more of a warning sign than anything else. Noticeably, an equivalent Olivetti machine, the PCS 86, was about a hundred quid more, and thus the appeal of Alan's kit can be surmised - unless it was the much-maligned 2000 series, whose special offer prices here are rather tasty (and yes, by this point, they had sorted the reliability issues out... mostly). Of course, whether you wanted an 8086 machine in 1991 was a different question - Windows 3 was a thing and 3.1 was just round the corner. Also of note is the price of printers - your basic 9-pin dot matrix item could be had for just over a ton, but if you wanted a laser printer, well, they cost more than the computer you'd be using it with! Base models around £700, but after that, a grand plus was the minimum. 

Don't laugh! In 1991, a 16MHz 286 would see you right. Not sure about the  £2k plus 486 mentioned on the right mind...

Ah, Reeves, selling direct to the customer, and with non too shabby prices either. Your base machine was a 286 running at 12MHz, although that really was the bottom end of the market by then, and if you wanted Super VGA colour graphics (1024x768 tech fans), it could be yours for £799 ex VAT. Being a PC, if you wanted the monitor to actually support that resolution and not bugger your eyes up, that added two hundred quid to the total. 386's in SX flavours could be had for just under a grand, but after that, the sky was the limit. A CD equipped 386SX 20MHz creeps in at £1,699 - and no, I don't see why you'd buy it with a mono monitor either. 

Here's Viglen, who became a prominent manufacturer until purchased by Amstrad much later on in the decade. Their prices weren't too daft, although they really did fancy those tiny desktop cases on the lower end machines. 

Watford Electronics, familiar to many for their general range of computing goodies, were prolific with their Aries range of machines - and again, although the prices are not silly, offering an EGA option in 1991 was stupid, especially when the difference in price between that and VGA was only £50.

I miss the green adverts of Watford Electronics. 

Computers By Post was another dealer, also selling software too, and it's here you'll see a big change compared to the way things are (mostly) done today. Every piece of software cost money back then (unless if was public domain or the introductory shareware version) and prices are... eye-opening. You'd like Word for Windows? £254 please. The latest version of Lotus 1-2-3 (a spreadsheet for those too young to remember)? £298. However, it is their cataloguing of software that really makes me shake my head. There is no way Autoroute (map and direction software) should be in the leisure category. No way at all!!! Still, you had the comfort that none of the packages sold here were those filthy grey imports from overseas...

Local software for local people, there'll be no trouble here!

This was very much a transitional period in the PC world. The older 8086 machines were on their way out as the 286 careened through the sweet spot of affordability (£500-£1,000) before its inevitable demise. A new processor generation, the shiny 386 was about to hold sway, albeit for barely two years, before the 486 stomped itself on the market. Similarly, the alternative formats were slowly fading, as both Atari and Commodore struggled to get their next generation machines to market - the Falcon was a 68030 beast but priced accordingly even as the parent company fizzled back into the console market before carking it, whereas Commodore finally boosted the Amiga with the A1200/A4000 and the AGA chipset, arguably two years too late and anyway, the corporate behaviour of the exec team was going to catch up with the once global behemoth eventually. The Mac, well, Apple were about to pull a Classic (see what I did there?), rehashing eight year old tech into budget machines, although their long term prospects were hampered by the end of the roadmap for the 680x0 processor architecture (which they neatly avoided), and an increasingly stale operating system (which they didn't, at least not until far worse events were to hammer the company). Acorn? Well, they had the new ARM 3 chip, the forthcoming ARM250 (a system on a chip design long before the concept became popular) and would, by some magic of accounting, stay with the computing world until 1998. 

Fin

I leave you then with the final page of Shopper 40. Naturally, this is Zygote and the sublime "Great Moments in Computing" by Croucher and Evans. There has never been a better way to close an issue of any computing magazine. 

Next time: Shopper 80 and October 1994!

Why have you bought that tat? - Computing magazines, purpose and posts

As someone with an interest in history, the importance of primary sources, contemporary to the events of which they describe, cannot be overstated. The same can, should and will be said (by me) for the history of computing.

MacUser(s) always wanted to show off!

I have an interest in the topic, one that stretches from the earliest years to about the beginning of the 2010's. Over the last few years, I've managed to acquire a selection of pdf's for magazines such as Acorn User, Amiga Format, The One, a decent range of Computer and Video Games, and so forth. However, an area that remains somewhat incomplete is the UK general computing genre. 

You can, for instance, collect quite a few Personal Computer World pdf's from Archive.org, and many an enterprising eBayer will sell you DVD's with these collated for a few quid. The pdf collection of Personal Computer News, a fortnightly mag from the early to mid 1980's is a treasure trove of machines, news and reviews. The thing is, that without access to these long out of print titles, much of that history would be lost. The problem is actually worse for the period that most fascinates me, the mid 80's to mid-90's.

Over this ten year period, the 16, 26 (good old Archie) and 32-bit machines arrived and, in the end, became dominant in the form of the Windows PC and Mac (albeit with the latter having a torrid time). Yet whilst there are any number of format specific mags available in pdf collections, the likes of Computer Shopper are almost totally missing, and neither love, money or entreaties of personal fealty will get you an early PC Pro. And as for 1990's PC Format, jog on, bonny people. 

You DO NOT want to know the postage on these two batches!

Still, through the joys of eBay, I have managed to create a collection of What Micro and Which Computer from the 80-90's period, as well as a smattering of PCW's that aren't around as pdf's. As much as I would love a full collection of period PCW or PC Pro's, the Holy Grail remains Computer Shopper. I have issue 4, covered here, and recently picked up issues 40 (June 1991) and 80 (October 1994).

Why, you may ask? Well, much like contemporary sources serve any historical wargamer well (hearing it in the words of those who were there gives, at the very least, flavour to the period, never mind facts, opinions and the like), for the history of computing in the UK, the equivalent of these primary sources are the magazines of the time. 

Let me demonstrate with a couple of photographs. Below you will see the three physical issues of Computer Shopper I own, as well as the eleven PCW's. Note how they change, oldest at the bottom of their respective piles - they get bigger, and in the case of Shopper, much bigger!

What a difference six years makes.

Are you surprised? It did advertise itself as a journal...

I'll cover these changes in greater details in future posts, but what I'd like to point out is that the computer scene back in the early 1990's was an absolute riot of manufacturers, suppliers and resellers. The sheer variety of kit and software available is mind boggling, especially when compared to the mature, staid and much changed, online dominated market now. 

Without physical copies of these magazines, there is little online evidence, aside from the odd image an wikipedia entry, that this even happened. Having written a piece that should be published later this year on Amstrad's attempts at gaming-focused PC's, it would have been extremely difficult to research such an article without having some of the paper issues of mags long past. Similarly, you get a feel for the period. Going back further than the 90's, you'd think the 8-bit UK computer market in the early 80's was a three way between Amstrad, Commodore and Sinclair (alphabetical order to annoy at least some of the fans) with a few failed formats like the Enterprise, Ace and Lynx. Except it wasn't - it was the Wild West, with scare stories of Japanese competitors (this being the time of the fear of Far Eastern superiority in high tech industries) driving editorials in Personal Computer News, alongside reports of Sinclair's prickly nature, the omnipotency of CP/M, and the constant news reports of computer companies being torn a new one by the Advertising Standards Agency. This is stuff is long forgotten yet is key to understanding why things happened the way they did - and how commentators back then failed to realise how much the US market would drive the home computer revolution in to the 90's - seriously, once the IBM Compatible ensconced itself as the defacto home computer in the States, everybody else's (excluding Apple, eventually), time would be limited. 

As a source of information, be it news, reviews or opinion pieces, or imagery (especially adverts - what have we lost with the decline of print ads - looking at you, Gateway 2000 and MJN - you'll see why when we get to the Shopper 80!), these are a goldmine and, in my humble opinion, should be preserved however possible. 

It's not just the general computing publications either. MacUser, of which I own three issues, is another, and there may be a piece about 1995 coming at some point, as that was the year that things started to fall apart for our fruity little tinkers in Cupertino - as far as hardware goes. The OS was looking very tired against the behemoth that would become Windows 95, and Apple were already half way up the creek when it came to sorting a replacement. 

Similarly, this wonderful screenshot from an Acorn User issue in 1992 and the last paragraph talking about the benefits of getting an A3010 over an Amiga A500 or A500 Plus... as a valid comment, not really, as flavour, hell yes!

The comment in column two: meow, pussycat, MEOW!

Anyway, long post short (too late!), there will be a new series of occasional posts looking at specific issues of computer magazines past, starting with Shopper 40. Much like "Was That Film Really That Bad', they'll happen as and when, but as you can see from the pictures above, there are a few editions to get through... and maybe more if eBay continues to be a friend...

If you're more into video games coverage, check out the Out of Print Archive here, who have a cracking (and growing collection) of high quality magazines scans. 

Homebrew Game Development and the Extra Lives of Consoles by Robin Wilde - Book Review

What, you may ask, does it mean when someone describes a video game as a homebrew development? Well, here is the perfect volume for you as Robin Wilde provides not only the answer to that question, but also an in-depth history to that little talked about corner of the video games industry where, officially, these titles don't exist.

Throughout the 170 pages or so of yet another top quality White Owl publication, Wilde takes the reader by the hand and explains exactly what homebrew games are, where they come from and why they are an important part of video games culture. He breaks their history up into four periods, a pre-history (1950's to about 1980), the First Open Period (roughly 1980-91), the Closed Period (1991 to 2004) and the Second Open Period (2004 onwards), each period defined by the technology that was released to market, it's accessibility and its complexity. 

And there is some complexity, evidenced by the introduction that takes up the first twenty or so pages. This is a subject that requires explanation with subtlety and nuance, and demands the reader pay attention. Sure, the later chapters featuring specific titles for the various platforms do feel like your usual games round up, but don't let the format of this tome fool you - there are some very hefty points of discussion included. 

Where specific titles are covered, there is a balance to the criticism provided, as these games are unofficial in nature. That talented developers, both professional and amateur, have managed to achieve so much with many an older console format is to be applauded, and Wilde does that very well indeed. The added benefit here is that the reader can check out these games themselves, and so judge whether the author's points are valid with their own experience. 

When it comes to the consoles, there is little left uncovered, as not only do the familiar favourites of the NES, SNES, Mega Drive, PC Engine and others of similar vintage warrant inclusion, but handhelds and less successful home machines (Jaguar, 3DO and Neo Geo) also make an appearance. Indeed, the homebrew scene around the various models of Game Boy is huge, pushing the technical boundaries of the hardware in a way very similar to the manner in which demoscene coders pushed the 16-bit home computers. 

There's a focus on the tools used within the scene, as well as the hardware that really failed yet still garnered some attention - the Tiger Game.com, the Bandai Wonderswan and the Gizmondo all appear. The inclusion of the Cybiko was a blast from the past - Phones 4u tried to sell these some twenty years ago and they were as popular as you'd expect - plus the profit margin on them was terrible. 

The author discusses the changes to the scene as the years have passed, as machines became more powerful and the use of 3D graphics hit the mainstream market. This culminates in the chapter detailing the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii, and the potential decline in homebrew efforts for later consoles. 

Fortunately, this book doesn't end on a low, as the final two chapters look at what the steps you can take if you want to make your own homebrew games, as well as the possible future of the scene. Some useful footnotes and bibliography add to the resources for potential 'brewers.

Once again, White Owl have published a well written and timely tome on a niche but very interesting subject within the wider scope of video games. If your interests lie in Indie/Homebrew development, there is much to interest you here. If you're a complete novice on the subject, I can think of no better place to start. As always, you can pick up a copy of this excellent guide at most physical bookshops (or get them to order it in), as well as the usual online sources and direct from the publisher here. You can follow the author on Twitter here. 

Dreamcast: Year Two by Andrew J Dickinson - Book Review

As the saying goes, good things come to those that wait, a refrain your humble scribe hopes is true when volumes two and three of From Vultures to Vampires eventually make their way into the hands of more than patient Kickstarter backers, but that's a tale for another time. Today, we're going to have a look at another long awaited publication that overshot its original estimated publication date by well over a year and a half. What went wrong?

Actually, it's more a case of what went right, as the editor/author of this project found himself Lost in a Cult (sorry, had to do it!), and that award-winning independent publishing group have gone from strength to strength since the very first volume of their journal, [lock-on]. Naturally, paid work should take precedence over a personal project (games, bills, eating, you know, the essentials of life), but Andrew was very conscientious in keeping backers updated as to why Year Two was delayed, and the end result does not disappoint.

Rocking in at over 180 pages (compared to the 110 of Year One), this A5 book is a monument to what is arguably the best second year software catalogue of any console. It's also a reminder that, whilst the games selection on the Dreamcast was a thing of beauty, the financials of Sega themselves were a bit of a nightmare, and by the end of the 128-bit wonder's sophomore year, Dreamcast production had finished. 

Featuring contributions by a number of names familiar to the retro scene, Dreamcast: Year Two begins with a walkthrough of that tumultuous year and a rather neat synergy with the five stages of grief. Then come the interviews: again, there are some familiar names and all have some interesting comments to make. A quartet of features take the reader to near the half way point before we get to the really fun stuff: the games.

If you look at the contents page above, you'll see many a famous Dreamcast titles in there, including two of my all time favourites: Metropolis Street Racer and Fur Fighters - honestly, the latter, despite its funky controls, is one of the best third person shooters ever made. The highlight is the piece on Spirit of Speed 1937, as well as an interview with the managing director of the studio responsible for the game. Widely regarded as terrible (some consider it one of the worst games ever made), its inclusion here is a lovely rebalancing, not putting it on a pedestal, but providing a re-appraisal that considers the good points the game has too. 

There are many screenshots included, as well as original artwork for some of the featured titles, interviews and the like. Production quality is high and, overall, this is a worthy follow up to Year One, and one can but hope that a Year Three Kickstarter is not too far away.

Speaking of Kickstarter, as a backer, there were also some more goodies too - postcards of the artwork, a couple of bookmarks, a sticker, and a DCY booklet centred on a period of gaming from 1998 to 2002. Five features and a round of of opinion pieces, this is a nice add on and well worth a read.

So there we are then - better late than never and definitely worth the wait, Dreamcast: Year Two continues the fine work in Year One and promises a cracking finale for Year Three - if only to see Headhunter get some more love - truly a classic of its time. You can follow the author on Twitter here and, although he may not have any further copies of Year Two for sale (he reckoned they'd be gone by the beginning of June), you never know, Lost in Cult might be persuaded to support a reprinted single volume once the series is complete... I mean, when you're Operations Director, you have to have some say, surely? ;-)

In any case, although much has been written about the Dreamcast and it's library over the years, this worthy tome adds yet further flavour to the machine's history and is highly recommended to all. Andrew and every single contributor to the book should be congratulated on a job very well done!

Defending Rodinu - Volume 2 by Krzysztof Dabrowski - Book Review

Here we are with volume two of Defending Rodinu, this time continuing the story from 1961 to 1991, and this is where things get more interesting as technological and organisation developments both aid and hinder the air defence of the Soviet Union. 

The first chapter gives a run down of the PVO (Soviet Air Defence Force), its organisation and the surveillance, control and early warning systems it employed. Chapter two focuses on the developments in surface to air and anti-ballistic missile technology throughout the period covered - the amount of effort put into fielding highly advanced technology for the time is impressive, despite the obvious effects such spending would have on the wider Soviet economy - but that's a tale for another time. 

Chapter three covers the aircraft pushed into service and the various missile systems they used. As a military aviation enthusiast, I do like the design of early jets, and the range of Soviet machines do, at least for me, have a certain je ne sais quoi. From the svelte Sukhoi Su-11 to the more sedate looking Yakolev Yak-25, there are some striking looking aircraft here. The purposeful Yak-28 gets some love, as does the incomparable (and might fine) Tupolev Tu-128 - now that is how you build a long-range interceptor!

Chapters four and five cover polar and border intercepts, whilst chapter six proves that there is nothing new in this world as the Soviets dealt with many a balloon incursion long before it became fashionable to shoot down the things using an almost priceless F-22 and an expensive AIM-9X. 

Chapter seven is a more sombre read, taking on the subject of airline intercepts and, of course, covering the infamous shoot down of KAL Flight 007 in 1983. There were other intercepts, but none ended in the tragedy that engulfed that Korean Air Lines 747. 

Chapter eight is all about the defections that the service suffered, nine features the successful shoot downs of valid targets, whilst ten highlights possibly the most absurd missed interception of the Cold War, Mathias Rust's jolly boys day out to Moscow. It wasn't the only light aircraft shenanigans, as you'll find out here. The final chapter relates the closing period of the Cold War.

There are a couple of appendices: Commander of the PVO between 1945 and 1991, and a chronological list of the PVO's aerial victories, of which there were many more than I expected. 

As always with a Helion & Co publication, there are numerous photographs, maps and diagrams, all of which are high quality - taking into account the nature of the original imagery and its age, whilst the central artwork section has some lovely profiles of the aircraft featured within. For those who, in the best traditions of the Federal Network infomercials, want to know more, there is a cracking bibliography to investigate too. 

In the same vein as volume one, this is a well written, highly informative and interesting look at how the Soviet Union approached air defence through the Cold War. With plenty to read, look at and follow up on, they're a very worthy pair on the subject, and of much benefit to history fans and those who may wish to put something on the table. You can buy this (and the preceding volume) directly from Helion and Co here, as well as follow the publisher on Twitter here. 

Debug magazine - Issue 1 Review

Whenever a new publication comes along in the computer/video games market, I like to give it the once over (click here to see past magazine posts). In another sign that the printed word is alive and well outside of the traditional newsagent market, Debug arrives with a laser-like focus on the world of Indie video games. 

An 80-page (including covers) high quality magazine, Debug is a timely reminder that over the last decade or so, the Indie developer scene has grown and matured into what is the most exciting and vibrant sector of the video games market. Not that I don't like big AAA titles, but the advent of the £70 RRP and, let's be honest, a very "corporate" approach to modern day blockbusters, has meant that I've found myself moving towards Indie and smaller scale developer titles for my gaming experiences. That, and I have neither time nor patience for anything like another generic Ubisoft-style collectathon. Or live service games for that matter. Hell, even Starfield, what should be another brilliant Bethesda RPG (and all that particular label entails) and due out later this year, is looking like a push simply because of the amount of spare time for gaming I don't have. Excuse me whilst I shake my fist at the sky and start shouting at the clouds, considering whether a future post about my thoughts on video games is in order, but I digress...

What you get for your £7.50 is a mix of previews, interviews, reviews and features, all aimed at informing you about the latest and greatest games from the Indie scene. Nothing upsetting the applecart as regards to games magazines content. There is, however, a definite style to the layout, which some might consider quite "busy", but actually makes great sense as articles have sections dedicated to a developer's previous releases, similar titles in a particular genre, fun facts, and second opinions where it comes to some of the reviews. I also like the footnote style presentation of specific screenshots. 

When it comes to the aforementioned reviews, sixteen games are covered, two of which I have reviewed in Fusion magazine - Lucy Dreaming and Atomic Heart, and I found the opinions expressed here to be fair and balanced. Having seen the score for Horace, I know what my next purchase is going to be. As for the previews and the developer interviews, many a promising title is coming up and it's great they get some coverage here. 

There is a nice balance between text and imagery, and the quality of the writing is as you'd expect considering the team behind issue one. In another word, excellent. Another nice touch is the inclusion of QR codes that will take readers to videos of many of the titles mentioned. 

Overall, I can find nothing to criticise about the first issue of Debug. It is about time the Indie scene had a dedicated outlet and an independent physical magazine feels a great fit. The back cover promises issue 2 on 07.07.23 and yep, I'll be there for that one. Hopefully for many more issues too, as I genuinely believe there is still a place in the world for the printed word, and this issue is an excellent start for the title. If you like the look or content of Debug, check out their website here, and you can follow them on Twitter here. 

Revolution: The Quest for Game Development Greatness by Tony Warriner - Book Review

I'm not doing it. I refuse, point blank, to begin this review with that line. Nope, not going to happen. What? Really? Oh, ok then, since you asked nicely. "Paris in the fall..."

Alongside Barrington Pheloung's classic composition, thus begins one of the finest point and click adventures ever created. In this engaging, revealing and heartfelt volume, Tony Warriner (with the support of Martin Mulrooney) details how he found himself as a co-founder of Revolution Software, as well as the trials and tribulations of working in the videogames industry as it matured from bedroom coders to increasingly larger teams. There are corporate shenanigans ahoy along the way as the small British studio managed to stay the course almost despite, rather than because of, the support of larger publishers. 

Written in an easy going style, there is a lot of detail as to the daily workings of a development studio, as well as a fine line in humour sprinkled throughout (minstrels and Ferrari's!). Individuals are treat fairly, even during the most difficult of circumstances, and the author accepts blame where he was at fault, as well as evenly pointing out where mistakes were made. This is evident by the lovely foreword from Charles Cecil - the context of which becomes clear as you read through the book. Where things get technical, the explanations are easily understood and nothing is left unexplained. 

There is also a great line of cynicism working its way through the text (which is a common thread in many a memoir of the industry), and the behaviours of the corporate layers of publishers gets short shrift as you realise all the team ever wanted to do was create a great gaming/artistic experience - and yes, gentle reader, videogames are art. We've had this discussion already and it's not up for review!

Speaking of art, the book, over its 630 pages, is crammed with artwork, concept drawings, diagrams and photographs. For fans of specific Revolution titles or just the studio in general, there is much to enjoy here. 

As for the topics covered, I particularly liked the chapters focusing not only on the fan favourite Broken Sword series, but also on In Cold Blood, a mis-understood title upon release (got to love marketing people), as well as Tony's involvement in developing for the Gizmondo console - I did order one, then got cold feet just before the company collapsed. It was also enlightening to discover more about the Kickstarter process for Broken Sword 5. 

What comes across clearly here is the author's passion for creating games and being involved in videogame development, as well as an historical taste for chicken, red wine and Silk Cut. Hey it was the 90's, that's how games development rolled back then! 

Revolution: The Quest for Game Development Greatness is a warm and illuminating tale of videogame creation in the UK, told with a personal touch that brings the successes and failures vividly to life. However, it is more than just a memoir or a history of Revolution Software. It is also a searing critique of an industry that has grown over the years yet not necessarily matured - the rise of "the publisher" from small scale outfit to multi-national corporate entity, and of a financial and stockholder focus that threatened then (and continues to do so to this day across the industry) to kill the very geese that lay the golden eggs. As such, it also sounds a note of caution, a message to those who wish to work in the industry, especially for a mainstream publisher-supported (or owned) developer. No matter how good you are, how brilliant your work is, or how talented the team is in which you belong, money and inter/intra-company politics will always talk. 

Yet, so as not to end on a negative note, this book is also a guide. A encouraging observation that, despite the changes over the past thirty years, there are now, more than ever, avenues for those who wish to push themselves in to the industry, opportunities to create and release titles that can demonstrate skill, dedication and artistry. The author puts forward some sage advice, born from years of experience, advice that any would be indie-developer (for Indies are growing segment of the market - next week's post will be my review of Debug magazine, a publication centred purely on said scene), would be wise to take note of.

You can pick up a copy of Revolution here, as well as follow Tony on Twitter here, and Martin here. 

P.S. Upon finishing this excellent tome, I realised that the memories dredged up by it were leading me back into the adventures of George and Nicole. Be it on the Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation, PS2 or Switch (the versions I have to hand across the five titles), I set my mind that I would start at the very beginning (a very good place to start), and once again hear that timeless opening: 

"Paris in the fall..."