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?pag... 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-su...

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

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