The life of a Spectrum programmer can be something of a rollercoaster ride at times. All those endless cups of tea, the fun-packed hours spent staring at a screen of cryptic mnemonics muttering "why the bloody hell doesn't this work?" and numerous exciting trips to the toilet. If the code isn't making sense after the third bottle of homemade wine it probably never will. Join me on a thrill-a-minute journey into the development of new games for a machine that has about 10,000 titles already in existence. Are there any game styles which haven't already been written for the machine? How many programmers does it take to change a lightbulb? And more importantly, why do Sugar Puffs make your piss stink? These questions, and many more, are not answered here...

25.04.07: A belated happy 25th birthday to the ZX Spectrum! Apologies for not posting sooner, but I've been pretty busy working on the new game. Anyway, after six weeks of hard work it's finally here. It's called Quantum Gardening, and it's not like anything you'll have played on any games machine before.

09.06.07: So a few more weeks pass and I thought it was about time for an update. I'm not planning any new games in the next few weeks, but have started work on something which might be finished sometime around the autumn. November the 29th sounds like a good target date, it gives me plenty of time to enjoy the summer, finish boarding up the loft (It's taken me years but it's nearly there now) and spend a lot more time boozing it up and generally misbehaving. More details will follow in due course.

12.08.07: Time to come clean. The 29th of November is Egghead's 18th Birthday. To celebrate, Egghead is off on holiday with his mates. Naturally, he has an enormous yacht with a couple of bars, a cinema, a casino, a ballroom etc. and will be taking a tour of the Mediterranean and possibly some other locations too. Meanwhile, work has begun on a new Platform Game Designer utility.

19.08.07: Egghead has his work cut out this time, make no mistake. His largest adventure to date has been Egghead Entertains at 53 screens. The new game has 62 so far, and it's nowhere near finished yet. The screens are generally a little harder to navigate this time around, so Egghead might start the game with a good supply of extra lives. There'll be a few hidden rooms too, containing bonus extra lives to collect.

02.09.07: It's no easy task designing dozens of new screens for the Eggy fellow's Mediterranean tour and keeping them different and challenging. I'm up to 97 now, and running out of ideas fast. Spain, Greece, France and Egypt have been covered, so where next, I wonder? Italy? Gibraltar? Turkey? They all have to be researched before I start designing screens.

09.09.07: Spent half an hour putting in a new item - a clock - and a bit of logic which prevents the player progressing beyond a certain screen without it, but not much more than that today. I'm off to pick blackberries and elderberries to make some more wine.

09.10.07: Work is progressing very slowly at the moment, the odd screen here and there. On the plus side, I've updated my MYSPACE page if anyone wants to take a look.

11.11.07: Despite being knocked for six by a 'flu-like illness I've managed to keep adding screens, and the odd piece of logic here and there. Egghead 5 now has more screens than Egghead 2, 3 and 4 put together. Yerzmyey has contributed another funky soundtrack and the game is finally starting to come together.

02.12.07: Egghead 5 was released on Friday, and I've been monitoring the response pretty keenly on forums here and there. Judging by the people coming in through this site's front door interest seems to be significantly down compared to Egghead 4, and even compared to Blizzard's Rift the numbers are far lower than expected. I'm guessing that a lot of Spanish visitors are going straight to the download page as There is a direct link there from on the CEZGS forums, but it could just be that people have had enough of Egghead. Or perhaps I should be doing more to publicise the game?

07.12.07: The results of the 4K minigame competition have now been published, the winner being Pacman 4K for the Atari 2600 - congratulations are due to the author, Dennis Debro. My own game, Big Baps, managed a respectable 4th place and I'd like to thank my fellow contestants and all those who voted this year. Regrettably, it appears that the level of interest in the competition has all but disappeared completely, so plans for my next 4K "god sim" have been abandoned. On the plus side, interest in Egghead 5 hasn't tailed off too quickly and the game now seems to have generated at least as many hits as Blizzard's Rift. :)

09.12.07: In all the years I've been writing Spectrum games, I've never done anything with a Christmas theme. While it is something I would like to do, it would be completely absurd to start such a game now, with Christmas being so close. I'd perhaps only have a few days to knock something together, and I haven't done any Christmas shopping yet.

31.12.07: Oh alright, so I was only joking, hope you enjoyed the Christmas game. Anyway, happy new year and all that. 2007 has undoubtedly been the best year for Spectrum games since the commercial era ended in 1993. Let's see if we can't better it in 2008. I suppose I'd better put my thinking cap on and come up with another game design.

05.01.08: The Loco Bingo demo has gone now, and there's something else in its place. I really ought to update these irregular demo downloads more frequently.

18.01.08: I've done a little more work on Shoot-Em-Up Designer, and posted the latest demo on the downloads page. It's almost workable now, although you may have to experiment a little to discover which keys perform which actions.

02.02.08: Work on SEUD is progressing well, and it now boasts the ability to change the game's logic in a large variety of different ways. There is a small table of events, to which a list of actions may be attributed. For example, you could dispense with the lives counter and have an energy bar instead, or limit the player's ammunition or fuel, or bring in bonus items which can be collected to give power-ups or extra ammo, or extra lives, or bonus points or... well, you get the picture. It's all very flexible and I'm getting rather excited about it.

24.02.08: SEUD is effectively finished. Testing has thrown up a large number of bugs as one might expect, and these have mostly been pretty simple to fix. The only thing left to do now is to keep going through the whole program looking for ways to increase the amount of RAM available to the user.

04.03.08: So, now that SEUD is complete what's next? Well, I have a vague idea for a scrolling platformer which needs a bit more wine to develop, and promised someone an article or two related to my next game so that's high on the list. I've also started to play around with some code for an Arcade Game Designer, which is what became of some of the code for PGD 2. I'd like to produce a free tool that evolves and improves over a long period of time, and that others would be able to use as I develop. Let's see how SEUD is received first though, shall we?

29.03.08: AGD is now a workable little utility. It's not as easy-to-use as SEUD or PGD, because it's more of a simple programming language. Not a particularly powerful one, I'll grant you - it's sort of like GAC for arcade games - but it's more of a blank canvas than a template. My favourite aspect is the ability to define different types of sprites, then write code specifically to deal with each type of sprite.

29.04.08: Following feedback from the WoS forums I've updated AGD, version 1.0 is now on the downloads page. That's all for now though, I'm off to Spain for a few days of drunken debauchery.

15.06.08: Another game drifts into view from who-knows-where, and I haven't a clue what it is going to be called. I was originally asked to write a shooter, but once the scrolling and display routines were written the project started to mould itself into something else. If you can imagine the illegitimate offspring of Moon Patrol and The Great Giana Sisters you'll have a rough idea. I usually hate my own games, but for some reason this one has me hooked to the extent that I am spending too much time playing it, and very little on development. That doesn't happen often, the last time was on Mister Fruity three years ago, but it's frustrating when it does. Development at a snail's pace.

27.07.08: Unfinished though it may have been, the game went down well at the Retro Fusion event. Since then I've added moving bits of wall, and started twisting an extra device into the gameplay. Don't worry though, there'll still be an option to revert to the simpler Retro Fusion mechanics.

25.10.08: Blimey, is it that long ago that I last updated this page? For the past few weeks I've been busy writing a side-on golf/platformer hybrid game, if that makes any sense. It's a little different in that the player can change the type of ball he uses before he plays each shot, and obviously each ball type has unique properties to overcome the different obstacles. Expect a release on this site before the end of the year.

18.11.08: Good news folks, the side-on golf game is now fairly close to completion. It'll have a few people tearing their hair out in frustration, but thankfully there's a screen editor so you can redesign any difficult holes - or perhaps make the easy ones a little harder. All it needs now is a little music.

12.12.08: As part of the Byte Back event in March, I have agreed to write a Spectrum game on the day. Well, actually, I'll knock up the basic engine beforehand then asking attendees to design levels, graphics, and make sensible suggestions while I finish it on the day. However, we need your suggestions as to what sort of game it should be. You can submit your ideas using this form.

10.01.09: Before long, I'll have to decide which game to write for Byte Back, the current favourite being a hybrid of two of the best suggestions. Before then, I'm doing a little more work on the DNA game I mentioned in Retro Gamer a few months back. It's more of a concept than a design, as the game will design itself as it's played. Programming is being done on autopilot - as usual - but it'll play well. In fact, playability is the only thing about this game I can actually picture at the moment. Does that sound strange to you?

18.01.09: Work on the Byte Back game is now underway. I've decided to combine two of the suggestions together to create a third game which should be fun. I'll leave the announcement to the Byte Back site, so check out the Homebrew Challenge Page for more information. Now all I have to do is get things appear on screen, and then make them move around.

14.02.09: The Byte Back game is progressing well, with lots of sprites wandering around the screen, which the player can redirect by changing the platforms. I've been blogging the development on Gaming Verdict so that's the place to go if you want more information.

14.03.09: Following the Byte Back event, I've tidied the game up and sorted out the remaining issues. Matthew Westcott provided an excellent piece of music for the game while he was there, as well as contributing in other ways. A big thanks to all those who helped out, or just came along to give a bit of moral support. The final game will be available from the Byte Back Site as soon as Mat updates it. Have fun.

12.04.09: I've been busy since Byte Back. Busy enough not to bother posting here, or many other places for that matter. The reason will become clear very soon. Start packing some sandwiches, and a flask of tea. I'm taking you on a trip around the Kuiper Belt.

25.04.09: Kuiper Pursuit was released to a slightly mixed reaction last week, and is available on the downloads page. Meanwhile, I've taken the opportunity to move most of my downloads to Rapidshare, so let me know if you experience any problems.

06.05.09: Of late I've been thinking seriously about the game I'm going to write for Urbis, and the idea is fermenting away slowly, rather like the orange and grapefruit wine bubbling away in my kitchen. It's a chance to show off a bit of creative game design, so that's what I'll be doing - something fun, and a bit daft.

24.05.09: I've now knocked a few routines together for Urbis, so I'll have a base to start from at the event. Maybe I'll get some good suggestions for how the game might develop on the day.

25.05.09: I've started work on Slubberdegullion this weekend, a sort of follow-up to Rough Justice. The control method is different, and I've decided to use trails for the extra weapons - collect numbers to progress along each trail, but land on a gap and it resets again. It's a new angle, which is, after all, the point of most of my games. The trails aren't in yet, but there is a preview on the downloads page - check it out.

31.05.09: Slubberdegullion is progressing well, the trails are working well, and I've added bombs. 3 levels are in, and they're all fairly small but devilishly difficult. Difficulty will need some tweaking later.

14.06.09: Despite having to contend with a stag weekend followed by 'flu last week, I've made more good progress. Bouncing bombs are in, and a joker which can be played to double the scoring for a short period. 4 levels are complete, with something new in each one. Now, what to do about level five?

01.07.09: Very little is left to do now. A small number of screens need designing, and Yerzmyey's music has to go in but after that, Slubberdegullion will be finished.

12.07.09: I've been scratching my head for a couple of days, wondering why Yerzmyey's music would only work for a few minutes before everything went pear-shaped. Last night I realised what I was doing wrong. For some unknown reason I had assumed the length of the compiled song to be shorter than it actually was. No idea why. Anyway, it's fixed now, and I'm almost ready to send the game off to Simon.

25.07.09: Just a bit of testing left now, and I'll be ready to release Slubberdegullion. Right now I'm off to bed, I have an early start and a 2-hour drive to Urbis in Manchester in the morning.

04.10.09: I've done quite a lot of work on AGD of late, and thanks to some good input from Binman and Mulder on the WoS forums, it has transformed into a very useful piece of kit. Draw your graphics, write your code with a simple scripting language, and let the utility convert it into smooth machine code. The latest update, version 2.2, was released yesterday. So what are you waiting for? Head to the downloads page to get yourself a copy, then start creating!

28.11.09: We're nearly into December already, doesn't time seem to fly these days? I've had another Spectrum game on the go for about 3 weeks now - and no, it isn't the Egghead ULA+ demo, though I might return to that and finish it off if I can think of a new angle. Provisionally titled Battery's not Precluded, it sees the player performing varying missions with different craft. Boats, cars, rockets... the controls vary for each vehicle. I like it, though I've no idea what a few hundred Spec-chums are going to make of it. We'll find out soon enough.

06.12.09: The new Spectrum game has progressed well, and is nearly complete. Yerz's music is in, and so is the new ULAplus palette so there's just the odd bug fix and some tidying up left to do. After that, I'll be doing a bit more work on Telly Heroes, a Cronosoft game I've been writing with Graham Richards. More on that game will follow in due course.

24.12.09: Battery's not Precluded is finished, so it's time to take a little rest. That won't stop me doing bits and pieces on Telly Heroes, though. Meanwhile, if you've ever wondered what Jet Set Willy might look like on a 16K(!) Spectrum, now's your chance to find out.

26.12.09: With Christmas over, thoughts start to turn to the coming year. My back garden is still a mess, I still haven't done anything with spare bedroom 2, and I've been meaning to get around to put a pool table in my living room for some years but never managed to get around to it. On the Spectrum front, Telly Heroes is my first foray into strategy games since Fun Park, and it has whetted my appetite for the genre. I might just be tempted to rewrite my 4K Civilization clone, Anno Domini, for the ULAplus. Then again, I've been asked by a couple of people if I'd consider doing a ULAplus version of AGD. There are plenty of other project ideas too. Decisions, decisions...

12.02.10: Telly Heroes is pretty much finished. It's a game where you get to run an imaginary 6th terrestrial television channel, buying or commissioning your own programmes, casting celebrities, and setting the schedules. Then there's merchandising, award ceremonies, Mary's complaints, TV magazines, sports rights, strikes and loads of other stuff. It's all done in a slightly tongue-in-cheek way, a bit like Rock Star Ate my Hamster or Dictator. Graz has drawn the graphics, and a really good job he has made of them too - some of his caricatures made me laugh out loud. We've packed as much as we can in to the game, so hopefully it'll go down well.

20.02.10: I can't stop tweaking... some minor bugfixes and tiny improvements have been made in the last week, and I'm now in the process of packaging the whole thing up into a tape file. So here's a screen shot: