So Long Jack Tramiel

Somewhere in a loft, in the fair and mighty county of North Yorkshire, there rests my greatest teenage dream. In 1987 I turned 12 and, apart from being besotted with the female of the species, I had a craving for technology, any technology, and when the Atari ST came into my sights it was love at first sight. 

The following year I was extremely lucky and managed to snag myself a 520 Atari STFM – it had a built in disk drive (still the half meg version) and TV modulator! 

And how I loved it. 

Jack Tramiel - Apparently as hard headed as a business man could be...

I used that computer day and night – pixel art in Degas Elite, writing in First Word Plus, cranking out poems with some weird automated poetry writing software, failing to learn to program with STOS, even sound sampling – which really meant recording things then playing them backwards or at different pitches. And, of course, games, great great games, like Stunt Car Racer, Dungeon Master, Midwinter, Populous and the Secret of Monkey Island. Work (sort of) and play all in one perfect package. 

That ST got used so much that the left mouse button stopped working with any reliability within a year, so my dad swapped the wires around so the right mouse button got all the action. Soon I had to get a new mouse altogether, a Naksha mouse, still the best mouse I’ve ever owned. The power supply even flaked out after a few years of merciless heat and had to be replaced, which is still the pinnacle of my electronic engineering endeavours. 

The man that made this machine possible was Jack Tramiel, a survivor of Auschwitz and founder of Commodore. Under his reign Commodore made and sold a little computer called the Commodore 64, which is a blockbuster by anyone’s standards, bringing a proper computing into tens of millions of homes. 

Corporate wrangling left Jack on the wrong side of the Commodore board room door, so he set up a new company, acquired the computer half of Atari and drove too hard a bargain trying to purchase the Amiga, allowing Commodore to step in and make a sensible offer for the technology instead. Incapable of admitting defeat, Tramiel and Atari cobbled together the ST from off the shelf parts (not like any shelf I ever had) and made my decade. 

I’ve been working in video games development for nearly 17 years now, using skills I half learned with a clunky mouse and my first full keyboard. When people say “you know computers” to me, it’s Jack Tramiel and the Atari ST that deserve the credit. 

Thank you Jack, for making the machine that made me, I will forever be in your debt. 

Monster Flip!

Occasionally a game comes along which makes me think I WISH I’D THOUGHT OF THAT! Launching Pad Games, makers of Mighty Fin!, have created just such a game. 

It’s a match 3 game, so it has the same instant appeal of any match 3 game, that compulsion that lives in the lizard brain and dates back to the dawn of time when our ancient ancestors first lined things up in matching rows – I wish I knew what it means.

Click the image...

But this game isn’t like other match 3 games, it’s got something really special – instead of flipping just two things each time, you can flip whole rows (or columns) of things. In fact you can’t actually flip as few as just two things; you have to flip a minimum of three things. 

To do this, all you have to do is slap your finger down on the screen and drag it through a line of three or more things and then they flip over, switching order. That’s the bit that I wish was my idea, it’s such a great way of taking the match 3 concept and making the most of it with a touch interface – swapping two things, like normal match 3 games, is a mouse clicking and moving exercise, placing your finger on the screen and dragging a selection over several objects, that’s a touch interaction. 

Oh, and the things are monsters who want to escape earth, you can flip without having to make a match and angry monster must be sent home within a limited number of flips, otherwise it’s game over. 

Brilliant; get it now.

Ludography -->

Hey, look over there to the right, there's a page called Ludography where you can  read about some of the games I've made and my experiences making them.

Nike+ FuelBand

I spend a lot of time working on things which I really can’t talk about. However, it’s not unreasonable for me to say that I’ve been doing a lot of research around the fusion of exercise and gaming. One of the latest gizmos into the arena of effort tracking is the Nike+ FuelBand, which you wear on your wrist and measures pretty much all the movement you do. I want one and might just have to get one when it’s launched on the 22nd of this month. Click on the image to go to the official Nike site to learn more.

I am not the only person on the internet who's wondering if this thing tells the time...

Games To Play

When you've had your money's worth out of my Christmas Tripeaks game you might fancy playing a game with your family and friends, in the classic Christmas style. 

Over on my personal blog I implore you not to go for the usual Monopoly default and play something more interesting instead!

Pesky Games

Video games are, naturally, at it again. At what? Destroying society, that's what. The latest offering to be targeted by those that seek publicity by launching a crusade against the popular (am I being cynical? Perhaps I just don't notice the campaigns against less high profile targets) is Skyrim. 

Apparently, the psychological and spiritual damage that this game metes out is more than any other game ever before. I can only assume that what these critics actually mean is "this game will take up a lot of time" although it's not going to be as much as World Of Warcraft.

This case if put forth in a petition, which you can read (I'm assuming you won't be signing it) here.

Everyone has a right to their opinion. 

And I have a right to laugh at it.

DIY Usability

Once upon a time I designed software without using any usability testing. Those were crazy days, full of arguments between team members, which went a lot like this:

Someone: I think it should be like this.

Someone Else: No, I think it should be like this.

Repeat for evvvvvvvvvvvver...

And so, time was wasted.

Then I found myself working at a company that had a usability lab, which I embraced like a bear greeting a picnic basket carrying long lost friend. 

Of course, not every company thinks it can afford a usability lab. So it's up to you, yes you, whoever you are dear reader, to step up to the oche (I've never played baseball, so "plate" has no personal meaning for me, however I have played quite a lot of darts). And I've just read a book that tells you how: Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug.

Steve Krug is the Thomas Harris of factual books, i.e. it takes him a long time to release a new book. His books are 100% wisdom, and 0% waffle. If you're not familiar with his work, you should be.