Nostalgia's not what it used to be...
Published:
…because these days you can relive the good/bad old days in HD(ish)! I’ll try to update this post as I find more ‘cool’ stuff. This is somewhat biased towards the UK, and specifically 8-bit eras, with some ’90s and early-web thrown in. My first machine just for me was an Amiga; so much celebration and nostalgia to be had there, it’s probably worth a separate article at some point.
These links come from both my own ramblings through cyberspace, as well as the recommendations of others (thanks!)
Computing Milestones
- The Mother of all Demos—a truly inspirational part of computing history; just watch it! Links to various versions included on that page.
UK and Wider Computing Industry
- Micro Men—the story of people behind the Spectrum and BBC Micro.
- From Bedrooms to Billions—includes the original ~’how the UK helped kick-start the video games industry’ and ‘The Amiga Years’ in-progress documentaries.
- 10 PRINT…—‘This book takes a single line of code—the extremely concise BASIC program for the Commodore 64 inscribed in the title—and uses it as a lens through which to consider the phenomenon of creative computing and the way computer programs exist in culture.’
- The Story of the ZX Spectrum.
UK Games Industry
- It’s Behind You—amazing story (technical and, most prominently, social/cultural) around the porting of R-Type to the Spectrum.
- Interview in DMA’s office in Dundee, when they were making Grand Theft Auto in the ’90s (BBC News video).
- How Dundee became a computer games centre (BBC News article).
- Commercial Breaks—documentary about Imagine and Ocean software and the rise of video games.
- The chapter about Elite from the book ‘Backroom Boys—the secret return of the British boffin’.
- The history of Ocean software.
- The History of U.S. Gold.
Early Web and Culture
- Code Rush (annotated video)—a documentary about the release of Mozilla as Open Source, whilst Netscape fought for its survival, in the late ’90s.
- GET LAMP—a documentary about adventures in text.
Tutorials
- C64Bites—a video tutorial for making games on the Commodore 64. Also: the free episodes.