ZX Spectrum games reviewed by Willie Rushton and midlands children in 1983

[PeteProdge]

All six episodes of Central Television's Magic Micro Mission were uploaded to YouTube about a year ago, by a guy who appeared as a reviewer when he was 15.

Of course, there are better-known videogaming shows of the era, such as Bad Influence! and GamesMaster, but I believe this one was flung out only in the Central region (the midlands) during a relative infancy of the 8-bit home computer era. I think it filled that post-Children's-ITV slot where you'd normally get some American-import syndicated sitcom like Benson or Diff'rent Strokes. I never saw it at the time, but, like Central's Saturday Show and HTV's Video & Chips, I'd have been glued to it for featuring THEM FUTURISTIC COMPUTERS EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT.

And that's the show's toe-curling failing, in that the producer has seen fit to give it a space-age theme and the conceit is that it's not Studio 3 in Birmingham's Broad Street (previously home to the hallowed Tiswas, I might add), but they're all aboard a spaceship! Which means a load of Wolverhampton school children in home-made space-themed outfits are the audience.

"It's in 4D, do you think that makes it interesting?"

Anyway, the relevant parts of this well-meaning show, are the kids/teenagers reviewing games, and there's a decent representation of the ZX Spectrum, amongst the Commodore 64, Vic 20, Sharp and the BBC.

Show hosts are Adrian Hedley (usually a mime artist who did a lot of stuff for the BBC's art-based children's programmes, and a few ITV schools programmes) and Jo Wheeler (now a Sky News weather presenter and she can be seen talking about this programme and the studios in a documentary I co-produced a decade back).

A pre-Crash Graeme Kidd was on the production staff. Simon Goodwin, known for a lot of ZX Spectrum contributions, was the graphic designer. In various episodes, you can see Chris Sievey promoting The Biz (yep, totally free of any Frank Sidebottom-ness!) and Mel Croucher and some hapless stooge dressed as the Pi-Man.

You can click on these for the review as I've set them at the relevant timeslot...

Julia reviews Terror-Daktil 4D by Melbourne House. (4/5)
https://youtu.be/4yBp2SVkaH4?t=1334

Stephen reviews JetPac by Ultimate. (4/5)
https://youtu.be/4yBp2SVkaH4?t=1419

Mandy reviews Maziacs by DK'Tronics. (4/5)
https://youtu.be/D3B9-naSEJs?t=1285

David Gower and Stephen review Test Match by CRL. (3/5) and (2/5) respectively.
https://youtu.be/D3B9-naSEJs?t=1413

Willie Rushton and Julia review Manic Miner by Bug Byte. (5/5)
https://youtu.be/AeAS1JJZ4Lg?t=1337

Julia reviews Jumping Jack by Imagine. (4/5)
https://youtu.be/veZbqD6GEwY?t=1098

Dick York (Captain, Orion Airways) and Robin review Heathrow Air Traffic Control by Hewson Consultants. (4/5) and (5/5) respectively.
https://youtu.be/veZbqD6GEwY?t=1197

Robin reviews Valhalla by Legend. (4/5)
https://youtu.be/BqD9AgBmGFU?t=1264

Robin reviews Ant Attack by Quicksilva. (No score given)
https://youtu.be/iDgmOAJCd5w?t=1270

Stephen reviews 16/48 Magazine.
https://youtu.be/iDgmOAJCd5w?t=1427

[8BitAG]

Ah, the legendary Willie Rushton. I hadn't realised he was appreciator of videogames.
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4CO7tmavSI[/media]

[PeteProdge]

Ah, the legendary Willie Rushton. I hadn't realised he was appreciator of videogames.

Heh, one of his cultural contributions BECAME a video game. Two of them, in fact.

A little reminder...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGZja-jjuHk

[dfzx]

Is that actually Dave Lee Travis at the end of the second video? Where they shout "Hey, what's DLT up to? Don't touch anything! Hands off, hands off!"?

[PeteProdge]

Is that actually Dave Lee Travis at the end of the second video? Where they shout "Hey, what's DLT up to? Don't touch anything! Hands off, hands off!"?

Wow, YES IT IS!

Considering he lost his home and livelihood due to his 'wandering hands', that's quite a jaw-dropping find!

[R-Tape]

Ta for the potted links Prodge.

I too was surprised to see Willie Rushton there, and obviously knowledgeable about games. I didn't think computers would have been his kind of thing. David Gower was class (obviously), managing to describe the game even though no-one seemed to know how it worked!

[Morkin]

This is awesome, thanks Pete.

That's a decent amount of weekend viewing lined up...

[Mpk]

Chris Sievey

So, the Yellow Submarine game he was talking about never got released, right?

This show looks great, I'd have loved it when I was a kid. Loving the guy with the eyebrows and the green smock.

[toot_toot]

Good to see the "hairy cornflake" on an early 80s computer game show!

[chip-fork]

This is a great find. I don't think I ever saw it back in the day.

[PeteProdge]

This is a great find. I don't think I ever saw it back in the day.

Oh, yes, I must add that my assertion that this was a 'broadcast only in the midlands' thing, is incorrect, although it was never fully national. According to UKTVGameShows, it got broadcast in 'six ITV regions'. Dunno what they were, but obviously, one of them would have been Central.

[Vampyre]

Well blimey. I'd searched intermittently on and off over a few years for this exact programme to no avail, except for some brief clips.

And now they're all available! Brilliant find, Pete. That's a couple of nights taken up Wonder if it will live up to my memory of it? It was broadcast just before I had my Speccy so I watched it religiously.

[Daveysloan]

This is absolute GOLD! Never knew of it's existence, very much enjoyed it in all its awkwardness.

TV folk really dIdn't know how to do computer games until Gamesmaster came along did they?

I would've lapped this up at the the had it been on in the UTV region.

[Morkin]

Have now watched all of these - they're fantastic...

I found it interesting how some parts seem really dated now (e.g. all the innuendo directed at the female presenter) but most of the predictions about future technology were largely spot on.

Also it's nice to watch a YouTube video and actually want to watch the adverts for a change..

[MatGubbins]

Have now watched all of these - they're fantastic...

I found it interesting how some parts seem really dated now (e.g. all the innuendo directed at the female presenter) but most of the predictions about future technology were largely spot on.

Also it's nice to watch a YouTube video and actually want to watch the adverts for a change..

Yup, watched them originally on TV - we could receive TVS, London and Anglia on a good day, so it was transmitted on one of those stations. The computer generated start and end titles with the text being written to the screen is the bit that I most remember from watching the show. It's been great to watch them again though.
The innuendo at Officer Jo was computer based, but still has that cringe factor.. I was waiting for Prune to say 'you can waggle my joystick anytime'

The Simon Goodwin interview with all his build in sound effects was a joy to watch. He was the same when I met him at an Amiga show at London Hammersmith 97, as he listed the computers he had, the mags he worked on and the things he done.

Kid reviewing Valhalla... it's very good but there's too many characters. Yeah, just you wait for Game Of Thrones mate, cast of thousands.

And no, I'm not with the mission... I'm with the Woolwich.

[PeteProdge]

I found it interesting how some parts seem really dated now (e.g. all the innuendo directed at the female presenter)

When we were putting From ATVLand In Colour together, we had Jo Wheeler on as one of the contributors, mainly as she was an announcer on Central Television who had worked at the Birmingham studios. And when it came to discussing Magic Micro Mission, she admitted to not having much interest in the nascent home computing scene, but gave us some eyebrow raising trivia, like the fact the boots for her sci-fi outfit came from a specialist sex shop!

but most of the predictions about future technology were largely spot on.

Around the same time, The Saturday Show (Central's Saturday morning replacement for Tiswas) had a regular segment on technology, with a lot of coverage on the micros of the day. The Oliver Twins were guests one week, showcasing a program they had come up with. They even broadcast a Spectrum game over the airwaves for Speccy owners to load into their machine.

Also it's nice to watch a YouTube video and actually want to watch the adverts for a change..

Makes a change from TRY YOUTUBE PREMIUM FOR A MONTH FREE and all the other LOOK WE INVENTED YOUTUBE MUSIC AND PLEASE TAKE NOTICE OF IT, IT IS REALLY GOOD AND IT WILL CATCH ON, PLEASE TRY IT OUT, PRETTY PLEASE nagging.

[chip-fork]

I have very strong memories of watching Micro Live. And although I don't remember this show. The main male presenter felt familiar. So I looked him up as maybe I saw him in something else. I probably recognise him from Jigsaw. Adrian Hedley is only the flippin creator and performer of NOSEYBONK !!!

http://www.jedisparadise.com/Adrian_Hed ... erview.htm

[uglifruit]

Have just completed watching these. Amazing. And interesting that it's one of the 'famous five' reviewers who have uploaded it to YouTube.

I think the highlight for me (aside of the cringe inducing awkwardness of some of it) actually are the 'famous five' and their opinions. Some of the games they review are now considered classics, dismissed with a "nahh, I wouldn't buy it". And they're all so young - as an adult you forget that the target for the games were kids of that age. The oldest (I assume) is the YT uploader Stephen, who was 15, and who comes out of it looking quite good (never utterly slamming a now-classic).

Really interesting artists as guests too - in just six episodes you've got all of these: Rick Wakeman, John Walters (Landscape), Francis Monkman (Curved Air/Sky), Automata founders Mel Croucher and Christian Penfold larking around, and Chris Sievey (just before he introduced Frank Sidebottom to the world).

Interesting to see Chris Sievey demoing another 'pop video' (this time on the Spectrum) for his 'Red Indian Music'. (Similar in concept to the 'Camouflage' one on the ZX81 he did). It'd be great if that surfaced somehow, but it's unlikely now (given that I don't think that had a release, and all of Chris's things of note made it to the Manchester Library archive, and I didn't see that amongst them in the exhibition of his stuff). If anyone's watched the 'Being Frank' documentary it'll come as no surprise that Chris is talking about all the projects he's working on - many of which don't appear to have seen the light of day. One that he describes [that never happened] - an album of music with 16 mini games on the other side to play along with the game - definitely sounds like Automata could have been listening given that they gave us the amazing Deus Ex Machina a year later!

[PeteProdge]

Interesting to see Chris Sievey demoing another 'pop video' (this time on the Spectrum) for his 'Red Indian Music'. (Similar in concept to the 'Camouflage' one on the ZX81 he did). It'd be great if that surfaced somehow, but it's unlikely now (given that I don't think that had a release, and all of Chris's things of note made it to the Manchester Library archive, and I didn't see that amongst them in the exhibition of his stuff). If anyone's watched the 'Being Frank' documentary it'll come as no surprise that Chris is talking about all the projects he's working on - many of which don't appear to have seen the light of day. One that he describes [that never happened] - an album of music with 16 mini games on the other side to play along with the game - definitely sounds like Automata could have been listening given that they gave us the amazing Deus Ex Machina a year later!

That documentary is something else. He just lived for pop culture, to the brink of having bailiffs knocking on the door multiple times. Such a heavily creative guy, to the point where financial success wasn't a consideration. It's a shame he died in poverty. I remember donating towards his funeral costs when hearing about it.

You get that bit in his game The Biz where your band visits various regional ITV studios, like TVS, TSW, Central, etc. I think that must reflect all his appearances on these fairly obscure TV shows.

He was a genius, he was, he really was.

Look out for a few flash frames of his Speccy output here...
https://youtu.be/_wHcHaPkYnw?t=7

[WhatHoSnorkers]

Wow, YES IT IS!

Considering he lost his home and livelihood due to his 'wandering hands', that's quite a jaw-dropping find!

I just stumbled across an advert for Dave Lee Travis's Ten Grand Slam contest. I was intrigued by the "Cambridge" game but looks like it never actually existed.

In DLT's segment, I zoned out a bit as Jo Wheeler was standing next to the computer and she was much more interesting...