Female Spectrum programmers...

[5MinuteRetro]

Prompted by another thread, my mind got to wondering who were the big-name female programmers for the ZX Spectrum during its heyday?

Hand on heart, I can't currently think of a single one. In fact, as I type this, the only female I can think of that's in any way related to this side of the business is Ocean's Dawn Drake -- but I think she was/is an artist, rather than a programmer.

So.. who are the female Joffas / Bagleys / Ceccos, and what were their games?

[Ersh]

Veronika Megler - The Hobbit

[5MinuteRetro]

Veronika Megler - The Hobbit

Ah yes -- good call. (Though I personally didn't enjoy that game.)

[5MinuteRetro]

Replying to my own thread, I suppose Helen Reidy counts -- Skool Daze etc.

[5MinuteRetro]

Replying to my own thread, I suppose Helen Reidy counts -- Skool Daze etc.

Hmm. Or perhaps not? She might've been on the marketing side.

[8BitAG]

Outside of "proper programming", there were lots of female text adventure authors using utilities such as The Quill, GAC and PAW.

[Rorthron]

Veronika Megler - The Hobbit

Ah yes -- good call. (Though I personally didn't enjoy that game.)

She also co-wrote Penetrator (which it is obligatory to like ).

[Ralf]

Tina Billet who made Mrs Mopp
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=3315

I haven't seen any info about her or photo however so feel free to share if you have some

and of course Dawn Drake
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... el_id=3616

actually a game artist not a programmer, please decide if it counts

[DouglasReynholm]

Angela White, who iirc co-authored Zombie Zombie with Sandy White

[PeterJ]

I see the need for another ZXDB field [mention]Einar Saukas[/mention]. Gender.

Peter

PS. That was a joke.

[druellan]

Not a programmer, but I was researching a bit about Karen Davies https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... el_id=7883

Karen started on the original Imagine Software, she was a fabric designer, and seems that working with patterns helped her to quickly start working with pixels. She worked on Imagine, Denton Designs, Ocean and Special FX, and Mobygames shows she was involved on the industry until 2002 (https://www.mobygames.com/developer/she ... rId,40506/).


Tony Pomfret, Jonathan Smith and Karen Davies

She also had a brother working with her (Chas Davies, I think), so, sometimes is not clear who was involved on what project. I wold love to have more information about her, specially at Ocean/Special FX, since the information on the ZXDB looks incomplete, for example, on Wikipedia she is mentioned on Hudson Hawk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Hawk_(video_game)

[Alessandro]

Outside of "proper programming", there were lots of female text adventure authors using utilities such as The Quill, GAC and PAW.

St Bride's, who also ran a school for young ladies (and later older pupils of both sexes) with some dubious sides...

http://live.worldofspectrum.org/infosee ... user/45#82

http://www.crashonline.org.uk/26/stbrides.htm

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jg27p ... 930103.txt

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jg27p ... 930207.txt

And:

Hanan Samara, who founded and headed Dalali Software.

Nicole Baikaloff, member of the Gang Of Five team.

[+3code]

Outside of "proper programming", there were lots of female text adventure authors using utilities such as The Quill, GAC and PAW.

St. Brides School?

[+3code]

Outside of "proper programming", there were lots of female text adventure authors using utilities such as The Quill, GAC and PAW.

St. Brides School?

Ups, sorry, Alessandro was faster

[Morkin]

Tina Billet who made Mrs Mopp
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=3315

I haven't seen any info about her or photo however so feel free to share if you have some

Completely randomly, I met one of her (adult) kids in a pub a few years back, who told me

- she died
- she was an ardent feminist (may surprise a few here who've played Mrs Mopp!)

[SteveSmith]

I remember Anita Sinclair (Magentic Scrolls?) getting a profile in Sinclair User.

[Ralf]

Completely randomly, I met one of her (adult) kids in a pub a few years back, who told me

- she died
- she was an ardent feminist (may surprise a few here who've played Mrs Mopp!)

Sorry to hear that.

How did you know meeting someone in the pub that he was a kid of Tina Billet?
And do you have any more info? How it happened that she wrote a game?

[RWAC]

Angela White, who iirc co-authored Zombie Zombie with Sandy White

I always thought Sandy White was female!

Linda Wright springs to mind, author of text adventures Agatha's Folly and Cloud 99.

[Ralf]

I see the need for another ZXDB field Einar Saukas. Gender.
Peter

PS. That was a joke.

And to be politically correct allow it to have at least 256 values

[8BitAG]

Linda Wright springs to mind, author of text adventures Agatha's Folly and Cloud 99.

Well, if you're allowing users of Quill, PAW, GAC, etc, and not just "proper programmers" then there are lots...
Sue Medley, Diane Rice, Karen Tyers, Mandy Rodrigues, Sandra Sharkey, Dorothy Millard, Sharon Harwood, Edwina Brown, Doreen Bardon... etc. etc.

The text adventure community was full of female players, playtesters, authors, writers and magazine editors.

[5MinuteRetro]

I see the need for another ZXDB field Einar Saukas. Gender.
Peter

PS. That was a joke.

And to be politically correct allow it to have at least 256 values

Although, with no little irony, every single one of them would be recorded in binary.

[5MinuteRetro]

Well, if you're allowing users of Quill, PAW, GAC, etc, and not just "proper programmers" then there are lots...
Sue Medley, Diane Rice, Karen Tyers, Mandy Rodrigues, Sandra Sharkey, Dorothy Millard, Sharon Harwood, Edwina Brown, Doreen Bardon... etc. etc.

I feel terrible for saying this but I did kinda mean 'real' programmers -- not just talented (or not-so-talented) story-tellers that mastered an adventure-writing tool. I mean, cripes, even I once penned a simple adventure in GAC, and I'm a proper idiot.

[8BitAG]

I feel terrible for saying this but I did kinda mean 'real' programmers -- not just talented (or not-so-talented) story-tellers that mastered an adventure-writing tool. I mean, cripes, even I once penned a simple adventure in GAC, and I'm a proper idiot.

Oh, no... as a PAW user myself... I completely agree. It's not proper programming. It's just that people started to mention utility users.

[Firefox]

I remember Anita Sinclair (Magentic Scrolls?) getting a profile in Sinclair User.

There's a really good interview with her in issue 3 of Classic Adventurer:

http://classicadventurer.co.uk/

Lots of interesting facts, such as she's a long-time pal of Clive Sinclair (no relation).

[Turtle_Quality]

It was established here that Toni Baker counts

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=53&hilit=toni