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Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2017 7:50 pm
by polomint
Back in 2000ish I discovered that I do not literally round the corner from none other than Woody, the legendary Speccy emulator coder! I sh*t you not, that was probably the best thing to happen that day.

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 4:09 am
by Seven.FFF
Used to live near gasman and spud, then when I realised it I moved away.

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2017 2:49 pm
by PeteProdge
Have met gasman on one of those old comp.sys.sinclair meets in north London around 2003 or 2004, something like that.

Happily dealt with a customer complaint from Jon Ritman while I was working at an online technology retailer. (He was in the right, my colleagues did not think so, *sighs*)

Using RealProducer - which gives you an idea of how old this anecdote is - I captured the bits of E4's Thumb Candy that had Matthew Smith in it, and forwarded these RealPlayer clips on to his friend who had asked me to record them especially for Matthew.

Sat in between the Oliver Twins at Spectrum35, where I also met Jim Bagley and was in spitting distance of Jonathan Cauldwell and Rick Dickinson.

Now and again I speak with Iain Lee live on his late night talkRADIO show, had a chat about the ZX Spectrum days about a month ago when I was last on.

I'm friends with comedian Jon Pearson, who is one half of the Silicon Nights YouTube channel. I'm also friends with another comedian, Laura Monmoth, who put together the LGBTQZX show.

Back in 1983 I discovered that I lived literally round the corner from none other than Ryan Lambie, who would go on to become a DenOfGeek.com writer, penning quite a few articles on old ZX Spectrum games. I sh*t you not, that was probably the best thing to happen that day.

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2017 3:12 pm
by PeteProdge
And just half an hour after posting that, my Facebook comment to a certain figure on the Spectrum scene is screenshot and used as a basis for today's Register article on a certain piece of Spectrum-related hardware. Blimey.

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2017 4:18 pm
by R-Tape
EDIT - moved to miscellaneous, some idiot started this thread in Brand New Software.
PeteProdge wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2017 2:49 pm Happily dealt with a customer complaint from Jon Ritman while I was working at an online technology retailer. (He was in the right, my colleagues did not think so, *sighs*)
It sounds like you did ask "are you the Jon Ritman?"

To be fair, I'd probably side with a Speccy hero whatever the issue was. "Broken coffee cup holder on your PC sir? absolutely, I'd be head over heels to send you a new one".
PeteProdge wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2017 3:12 pm And just half an hour after posting that, my Facebook comment to a certain figure on the Spectrum scene is screenshot and used as a basis for today's Register article on a certain piece of Spectrum-related hardware. Blimey.
Cripes! The only bits of facebook I get to see are things kicking off.

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2017 4:22 pm
by PeteProdge
R-Tape wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2017 4:18 pm EDIT - moved to miscellaneous, some idiot started this thread in Brand New Software.
PeteProdge wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2017 2:49 pm Happily dealt with a customer complaint from Jon Ritman while I was working at an online technology retailer. (He was in the right, my colleagues did not think so, *sighs*)
It sounds like you did ask "are you the Jon Ritman?
Heh, didn't need to, it was all through email and I could tell it was him!
R-Tape wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2017 4:18 pmTo be fair, I'd probably side with a Speccy hero whatever it was. "Broken coffee cup holder on your PC sir, absolutely, I'd be head over heels to send you a new one".
Yeah, I see where you're coming from, but he was actually in the right and I was one of the few people in the department for whom technology is a passion.
R-Tape wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2017 4:18 pm
PeteProdge wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2017 3:12 pm And just half an hour after posting that, my Facebook comment to a certain figure on the Spectrum scene is screenshot and used as a basis for today's Register article on a certain piece of Spectrum-related hardware. Blimey.
Cripes! The only bits of facebook I get to see are things kicking off.
Yeah, although I'm a rarity in trying to keep things civil, as evidenced in that screenshot.

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2017 4:30 pm
by R-Tape
PeteProdge wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2017 4:22 pm Heh, didn't need to, it was all through email and I could tell it was him!
That "Jon Ritman, Legendary ZX-Spectrum Coder" signature was the giveaway.

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2017 8:59 pm
by KenD
OK, this isn't really Speccy-related, but: I met the lady who did the at some of the voices of the Lemmings.

I was working in Dundee doing general IT support, and regularly visited a small company which I'm sure was called Medical Instrumentation. I got to know them pretty well, and one day one of the ladies there mentioned that her son worked at a company nearby ... DMA Design. Her name was Mrs Johnston, and her son was Scott Johnston (who wrote the classic Hired Guns). I can't remember the exact store, but one day he'd asked her to record a few phrases for one of the games they were working on, something to do with little men falling off cliffs ...

I emailed Scott years later, just to say "hello" to him ... and his mum :)

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2017 9:26 pm
by PeterJ
I worked in Chichester with Adrian Fosberry of AGF fame.

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 2:09 pm
by Mike Davies
I worked for Lovefilm, which was acquired by Amazon along with an independent video streaming development company called PushButton. Amazon merged these two companies to form Amazon Development Centre London (in 2012), and the head of PushButton became our managing director. Someone called Paula Byrne. The top-floor lounge/eating-area had two MAME cabinets and a cocktail table MAME console, which was nice. Turns out our managing director is fond of retro games too.

Only after I left Amazon did I realise that Paula Byrne worked for Melbourne House back in the eighties, and then switched to Telecomsoft/Firebird/Rainbird (https://www.filfre.net/2015/06/kaos/), and led the management buyout of the software arm from BT. http://birdsanctuary.co.uk/sale/2/


It's my loss that my anger around the cultural toxicity of Amazon got in the way of getting to know Paula.

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 3:15 pm
by R-Tape
Neat (and a shame). It sounds like she went some way to improving the workplace atmosphere at least.

While I've got you - I'm sure LoveFilm owed me a disc in the post before it shut up shop, I had 'La Famille Belier' on my high priority list. Could you look into it please?

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 5:10 pm
by PaulJ
I used to work in a computer shop in Harrogate and for a while was friendly with Ed Hickman. He wrote a few DK Tronics games like Appple Jam and Zig Zag (and some Amiga titles too) He had a rather nice Porsche!.

Also in the shop on a regular basis were the Twighlight boys (also called Atronic and some others!). They wrote Mega Twins and DNA Warrior for the Speccy, amongst others - possibly even WWF?? (and some Amiga games..)

Top Fact: The initial high scores on Elf (the Amiga Game) included several initials, one being PJ - which was me!! They told me they would add me for giving them good deals and letting them use my NEC Multisync 3D monitor to test Alfred Chicken for the Gameboy.

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 5:25 pm
by gasman
Some time around 2005 I took part in a hackathon in London where you had to build and present a tech project over the course of a weekend. I ended up teaming up with a couple of folks who were building a website called UNdemocracy, which scraped the PDF-ridden UN website and presented the information in searchable form. It was only after the event that I realised one of them was Julian Todd of Fat Worm Blows A Sparky fame...

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 12:04 am
by 5MinuteRetro
Sounds a bit daft but I've literally just remembered that one of my good mates in the late 80s/early 90s was Fred O'Rourke: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.php?cat=999. I remember one weekend heading up north somewhere with him to visit the offices of Teque. I was pretty awestruck by the presence of Peter Harrap and Shaun Hollingworth. They probably thought I was a bit odd.

We parted ways when he headed somewhere up north and I headed to London. I tried to contact him a couple of times since but came to nothing. Perhaps he thought I was a bit odd too. :shock:

Ho hum!

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2022 9:58 pm
by alun
I went to college with Julian Todd, author of Fat Worm Blows a Sparky. Nice guy. Studied more than I did.

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2022 10:43 am
by Vampyre
I've probably mentioned this a million times but I now work with a guy who used to work for Rare - when the Stamper brothers were in charge. He was Rare's lead developer for the Gameboy Advance. Knew a lot of the guys that did Goldeneye and went on to do Timesplitters.

An old college friend of mine worked for Rage before they went bust. He's worked with Joffa, Andy Williams (some of the old Elite games) and had shared accommodation with David Jones (Finders Keepers) for a while. I *think* he may have also worked with John Gibson too. I've mentioned in the past that he's very good friends with Mark Haden, who wrote Metal Army and also worked with Follis and Carter at Gargoyle for a while.

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2022 3:44 pm
by alun
Realised last night I forgot this one - I went to school with ZZKJ.

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2022 5:11 pm
by Lee Bee
Reviving a 5-year-old thread? Why not, eh?

I could drop a few names, having more than a few family celebrity connections, but none relating to the Speccy. Though I am lucky enough to have interacted with some of the biggest names in the scene right now through an online community I belong to ;)

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2022 11:16 pm
by ZXnibbs
I used to live in Anerley, near Crystal Palace. I just remember that back then I found out that Matthew Smith lived in nearby Penge, so every time I went shopping there I kept my eyes peeled right back incase of meeting Mr Smith!! Never did :( I did see him at the Croydon Fairfield Halls Retro Show in 2004 :)

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:32 am
by redballoon
I've been lucky enough to do portraits of quite a few video game related people over the past few years.
Spectrum related ones include Ste Pickford and Charles Cecil.
Sort of Spectrum related, I've done a couple of (now ex) Rare employees, including :
Kev Bayliss, who designed the characters for Killer Instinct, which included Sabre Wulf, and designed the modern style for Donkey Kong and his family. Steve Mayles, creator and father of Rare's Banjo Kazooie.

Further name drops for portraits include; Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Mark Ferrari of LucasArts and many more classic point and click game creators. Finally, Mark Cerny, who is a big deal at Sony, being the Lead System Architect of the PS4 and PS5 as well as developing and producing games for Sega and Sony and who also created the SegaScope 3-D Glasses.

Finally, got a lot of support from former Rare people when producing Melkhior's Mansion.

Oh, and designed and produced the logo for a footy hand from Jon Hare’s studio…but that was then replaced. I went for something akin to artwork used by Atari on their arcade cabinets but he then wanted something more modern.

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2022 1:52 am
by DouglasReynholm
Think I mentioned it in a another thread a while back, but my boss at Arrow electronics (component distributor) 20 years ago was part of the team at TI in the early 80's that brokered the 'binned parts' RAM deal on the original machine that ultimately helped keep its price down. RAM that was supposed to have double the capacity was put to one side and sold rather than being scrapped by disabling/re-routing the relevant address line internally (I'm probably oversimplifying).

Re: Spectrum namedrops...

Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2022 11:37 am
by Turtle_Quality
Sir Clive held out a Spectrum for me to try the keyboard at the original launch. Think that would have to be my biggest Speccy namedrop.

Met Mel Croucher several times at Microfairs, he was usually the most memorable figure there.

A few visits to Romantic Robot in Kilburn when I offered to write compression for the snapshots the Multiface was saving. (It's kind of bizarre that they are still going today with the same logo)

I forget how I came into contact with Alan Miles and Bruce Gordon, might have been through friends at JKL Computers at Uxbridge.. but we were on chatting terms when I bought the MGT Interface through to when I bought my Sam Coupe.

There was bunch of us computer geeks in Uxbridge that used to try out the new Spectrum games from JKL on a Saturday night... one of those, Steve, was starting to write games and asked me how to go about drawing the graphics for 3D chess on the Spectrum, bit masking and such, (no idea if my advice was any use). We used to call him Snake then, he's still known as Steve Snake (many games, most recently Horace and the Robots, plus some emulators) I remember him spending his last pennies to fly to see Kylie Minogue in concert in Tokyo, so he said he'd be sleeping on a park bench there before flying home.

From around 2002 to 2006 I worked with (and played football with) Graham Sturmy at BMC Software who had made an excellent Spectrum emulator for Windows and one for a handheld machine that I can't remember, and has contributed a few Spectrum games maps.