[SIGCIS-Members] Broadcast software in the UK

[James Sumner]

Thanks, Joly. Was interested to learn from that Kotaku piece about 
software broadcasts on local radio, where enthusiasts could become more 
closely and directly involved than they could with the national-level 
stations' output.

For anyone who's interested in broadcast software more generally, it's 
covered in Frank Veraart's paper "Basicode: co-producing a microcomputer 
Esperanto" in /History of Technology/ 28 (2008), which mentions the 
involvement of various European broadcasters (including, in the UK, BBC 
Radio 4, which scheduled early-morning data transmissions to accompany 
its computing show /Chip Shop/).

There were even limited attempts at similar approaches on British TV in 
the 80s. Channel 4's show /4 Computer Buffs/ experimented with screening 
data to be picked up by a photoreceptor:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9907510

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7O5EXtN94PIC&pg=PA214&lpg=PA214&dq="4+computer+buffs"

http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/oldott/www.offthetelly.co.uk/index7943.html?page_id=568

The story of Automata, the firm that produced Pimania, is also 
fascinating. Tom Lean's 2016 book /Electronic Dreams/ has an interview 
with presiding genius Mel Croucher among its most revealing sources, and 
Croucher himself last year produced a book on the development of the 
firm's most extraordinary production, 1984's /Deus Ex Machina/.

Best
James

On 22 Apr 17 11:20, Joly MacFie wrote:
>
> Story today on the Pimania video game for ZX Spectrum
> https://theconversation.com/how-punk-and-thatcherism-came-together-in-the-surreal-zx-spectrum-pimania-craze-74866
>
> leads to a more detailed one on the history of 'broadcast' software in 
> the UK
> http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2014/10/13/people-used-download-games-radio
>
> -- 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Joly MacFie 218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>
>
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