David Braben, co-author of
Elite, has been interviewed by the BBC technology programme
Click at the Science Museum's Game On exhibition.
He discusses whether it is still practical for bedroom coders to write games: "
I'm a little skeptical - I hugely think it's a very good idea for people to be able to learn to program at home ... I was very lucky - machines like the Acorn Atom and BBC Micro were very easy to program. I was in the right place at the right time; it's much harder to get started now. So anything that people like Microsoft [XNA] can do to encourage that is a good thing."
We also get to see a
PDP-1, a super computer used for space research in the 1960s, which ran one of the earliest computer games,
Spacewar, on an oscilloscope.
Seems like the programme was recorded some time ago - they keep mentioning the Wii will be coming out soon, and the
exhibition finished in February - but it was broadcast last night and you can watch it again
here
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David Braben interviewed |
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mavhc (14:05 12/3/2007)
SimonC (14:09 12/3/2007)
krisa (14:31 12/3/2007)
rich (14:46 12/3/2007)
monkeyson2 (14:56 12/3/2007)
moss (15:19 12/3/2007)
rich (15:27 12/3/2007)
monkeyson2 (15:42 12/3/2007)
SimonC (11:40 13/3/2007)
mavhc (22:57 14/3/2007)
SimonC (10:47 15/3/2007)
richcheng (16:36 12/3/2007)
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Mark Scholes |
Message #99810, posted by mavhc at 14:05, 12/3/2007 |
Member
Posts: 660
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This was on Digital Planet a while ago, a program you can watch, well, listen to, on RISC OS: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/downloadtrial/worldservice/digitalplanet/rss.xml |
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Simon Challands |
Message #99811, posted by SimonC at 14:09, 12/3/2007, in reply to message #99810 |
 Right on, Commander!
Posts: 398
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There's something odd-looking about that Elite running in the background. It looks too wide for the original BBC version, but there's something else that doesn't feel quite right either. |
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Kris Adcock |
Message #99813, posted by krisa at 14:31, 12/3/2007, in reply to message #99811 |
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Posts: 62
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It's not the Beeb version - I think it's the NES/Famicom one. |
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Richard Goodwin |
Message #99814, posted by rich at 14:46, 12/3/2007, in reply to message #99813 |
 Dictator for life
Posts: 6828
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There's certainly a big chunk of text across the middle that's too big for anything in the Beeb version.
________
 Cheers,
Rich.
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Phil Mellor |
Message #99817, posted by monkeyson2 at 14:56, 12/3/2007, in reply to message #99814 |
 Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler
Posts: 12380
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I don't like Click. The presenter sneers at everything, and is the fourth person in the world who I'd quite happily slap in the face (after Jimmy Carr, George Bush, and Stephen Hendry.) |
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John Hoare |
Message #99820, posted by moss at 15:19, 12/3/2007, in reply to message #99817 |
Posts: 9348
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Click is terrible. It's the most patronising technology programme I've ever seen. How far we've fallen from the days of Micro Live...
I love the BBC, but their technology output is generally woeful. |
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Richard Goodwin |
Message #99821, posted by rich at 15:27, 12/3/2007, in reply to message #99817 |
Dictator for life
Posts: 6828
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He played Elite for ages, and blames it for not getting a girlfriend, but later says he only got to "average"? Weak. Sounds like one ad-lb writer didn't know what the other was doing.
________
Cheers,
Rich.
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Phil Mellor |
Message #99828, posted by monkeyson2 at 15:42, 12/3/2007, in reply to message #99821 |
Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler
Posts: 12380
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He played Elite for ages, and blames it for not getting a girlfriend, but later says he only got to "average"? Weak. Sounds like one ad-lb writer didn't know what the other was doing. Depends which version he played, of course:
http://www.iancgbell.clara.net/elite/faq.htm#A4
But I don't really see him as an ArcElite fan.  |
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richard cheng |
Message #99834, posted by richcheng at 16:36, 12/3/2007, in reply to message #99817 |
Posts: 655
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I don't like Click. The presenter sneers at everything, and is the fourth person in the world who I'd quite happily slap in the face (after Jimmy Carr, George Bush, and Stephen Hendry.) You wrote Stephen Hendry, but I read Stephen Hawking  |
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Simon Challands |
Message #99920, posted by SimonC at 11:40, 13/3/2007, in reply to message #99828 |
Right on, Commander!
Posts: 398
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Should be able to do it in a couple of hours on any version of Elite. If you want to make it hard try with Elite A and no saving allowed. I think I once got to Competent doing that, but Poor was more typical. |
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Mark Scholes |
Message #99993, posted by mavhc at 22:57, 14/3/2007, in reply to message #99920 |
Member
Posts: 660
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Should be able to do it in a couple of hours on any version of Elite. I got up to about 600 kills per hour on BBC Elite, so that's 11 hours, plus the time it takes to get the equipment. |
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Simon Challands |
Message #100002, posted by SimonC at 10:47, 15/3/2007, in reply to message #99993 |
Right on, Commander!
Posts: 398
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Should be able to do it in a couple of hours on any version of Elite. I got up to about 600 kills per hour on BBC Elite, so that's 11 hours, plus the time it takes to get the equipment.
I'm talking about getting to Average, not Elite. |
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