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
leads to a
more detailed one on the history of 'broadcast' software in
the UK
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Joly MacFie 218 565 9365
Skype:punkcast
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