@@jackburton8352 I never said they were any good, just that they were iconic. 🙂 (F29 Retaliator was fairly decent on the Amiga, but they only published that, and DiD developed it.) After watching the video, it looks like they were making it up as they went along, although the public perception at the time was that Ocean were one of the big boys. In the late 80's one of my mates had an interview ot Psygnosis in Liverpool, and was very impressed by their set up.
@@jackburton8352 He never got the job there... they showed interest in some of his A500 game demos and animations, but wanted them to be nearly complete games before they'd consider them. (this was when he was 17 and still in 6th Form.) When he finished Uni, he went to work for Denton Designs in Liverpool, and has a few game credits - "Power Drive" on the Amiga was one. Unfortunately, he suffered from mental health issues a few years into the job and quit the industry (Richard Beavan is his name.)
i ABSOLUTELY LOVE your content, Seb. I like your vids in general, but when you do stuff like this, it's a level above. As a C64 owner that never really played with Speccy's as a kid, I still watch all of your stuff, as it is some of the best produced work in the retro scene. Excellent stuff.
Lads, I loved this video - brought back so much of that crazy time that was the birth of something truly amazing. You get a real feeling for how on-the-edge the whole thing was. A lot of us are the people we are today because of those experiences, those games, those hacks, understanding attributes of 8x8 pixel blocks, BRIGHT & FLASH included. Thanks!
This was such a great story, thanks for sharing it ! Its been fascinating to see what was happening behind the scenes when i was too young to appreciate it. What the games designers achieved with so little is still amazing 40 year later
Really enjoyed this video and a lot of work clearly went into it. It's really interesting to hear what went on behind the scenes, as it was all a bit of a mystery back in the day 🙂👍🏻
What a fascinating video. He was so young! Getting the behind the scenes details like this, as I was a kid buying speccy games at the same time is really interesting.
Every one of your videos is so well put together with so much care and attention to detail, each is a real treat. You'll go far, Seb, on this platform. And you deserve to!
@@SebsPlaceYT Did you do any video editing/production before this channel or was this your "proving ground"? You have a real knack for it. Really impressive.
No just this.... I did get lucky with an early video about spellbound popping off which Rose Tinted Spectrum saw and invited me to a discord group of like minded youtubers. Super helpful getting advice or just seeing how others do things to learn from but it's still a massive learning journey which is tons of fun . Thanks again.
Really fascinating, thanks Seb. I can't even comprehend doing something like that at 16 years old. I remember having a job interview about 200 miles away from my home when I was in my late 20s, and absolutely bricking it about moving away.
I still know Mark R Jones now, more than then. He frequents the same Beatles and Pink Floyd bootlegs forums I do. So I PM'ed him, and asked him about Ocean, very nice bloke. Also, great vid, only just stumbled on your channel, I;ll check out the other vids later. Busy checking Geoff (RIP) and Tim Follins 3" Einstein disks today!
@@SebsPlaceYT Without wishing to get pretentious - the 80s game coders were like the 'punk rock' era of the games industry, people starting in their bedrooms and making careers for themselves with no experience but bags of untapped talent and enthusiasm. There are a lot of stories like Mark's from the 80s, truly a golden era. We'll not see the like again.
Very interesting. This video invoked a short lyrical digression...My mind always perceives UK of the 80s almost like a parallel universe, cos my country at that time was strikingly different...not bad though just different. As the glory days of the almighty speccy in USSR occured around the start of the 90s with all the huge library of games already available for our amusement, we evaluated most of the non-top games with neglect and cynism not having a single clue what a great winding way the zx game creators had to crawl to reach those heights that we took for granted🎉
I had the great privilege of working with Mark in retail back in Northampton in the early 90's and he used to talk a lot of his days and the work he did with Ocean. Wizball was one of my favourite games of all time and still play it now. And I'm glad to say I'm still friends with Mark now, and again we have the same career. Great video, and I hope there is more to the story and so this generation can appreciate how far gaming has come. Well done 🎉
That Crash cover took me back - my dad bought that issue but we had a C64! Was good to see what "the enemy" had to offer lol. I worked with a couple of ex Ocean people when I was at Psygnosis - it's still a small industry!
Awesome work, Seb. Absolutely love it. If you don't mind I suggest a video about Bob Pape and his struggles to code R-Type for Speccy 🙂. It's all described in his incredible book "It's Behind You - The Making Of A Computer Game".
Born in 74 as well. My family moved in the 80s and I made new friends. Going to my new mate Collins flat, he had a C64 so that was my choice of computer.
Happy 50th year! 😁 Only a couple of c64 kids I knew, everyone had Speccys. One kid had a CPC which I thought was pretty cool but he had no one to swap games with!
Brilliant deep dive and a well-thought-out and executed documentary of a very fluid time in computing and from someone first-hand experiences. Loved the screenshots and before and after as well as the sprites and masks we really very cool to see. I never realised when I was buying Ocean games it was so seat of your pants, but well that's business I guess. Cheers Seb, really great video. Loved it.
Thank you! Mark had a brilliant knack of keeping everything, which makes such a huge difference when talking about this stuff. Just having the visual examples was amazing and made my job easier.
This was amazing, totally loved it. Need more content like this, and all the other stuff you do, twice a week, plus a three hour special on International Cricket 😆😁 Awesome work man 👍👍
So much effort in th8is video and as a '75 kid myself this brings back some serious nostalgia. The Artist 2, wow I spent so much time on that producing absolute bollocks. Though I did use it to create a character for a competition once... I did not win. Amazing how a kid of 16 could do so much in a short time, then again seemed par for the course for the speccy guys.
Tir na nog should be pronounced "tear nah nogue" (it's Irish for "Land of youth" and Scottish Gaelic for "Land of the young") - just a friendly point of fact; great video Seb! Really enjoyed it - always loved to see Mark's name on the loading screen or mentioned somewhere in the inlay back in the day; a real sign of quality about to load up...
Thoroughly enjoyed that Seb, very well done, can't wait for the next part (and more vids in this style too!) This video brings back some great memories, Northampton was only 13 miles away from me, so I frequented the Northants Computer Centre a fair bit back in the day - plus A-Z Computers in Weston Favell. If memory serves, it lasted well into the 90's too. Had the pleasure of meeting Mark too, he came to our house to pick up a boxed 48k about 8-9 years ago, even signed a couple of his games. Really nice bloke.
@@mlucifersam I've not read it yet! lol, i'm gonna give it a crack over the weekend. It was that long ago though - we hadn't long moved in, our l'il un was only around 3-4 too. Hope you're keeping well, sir.
I loved this video. I've wanted to know more about the magic/work in the studios that released the games I played back in the mid-80'ies+ on my dear Speccy and later C64 and even later my Amiga. Mark's work on the Wizball loading screen as well as in-game graphics is nothing less than amazing just like the other work he did at Ocean. I never had an Amstrad but that loading screen is awesome (the speccy one is great as well). I can't imagine the hoops he had to jump through to create graphics on the speccy. I dabbled a little at the time using The Artist but annoyingly I don't have any of that stuff saved. Imagine finding footage from inside Ultimate as well as developers to interview; that would be a scoop - the secrets from inside the most mysterious developer in the 80'ïes. Alas, we'll never get anything that isn't available in the classic magazines and the few titbits that the Stampers have released over the years.
@@SebsPlaceYT Trouble with doing Ultimate is that there is no 'insider' to expand on the details. A lot of what they did is still shrouded in mystery. Would be fascinating if Chris or Tim Stamper decided to take part. I did try and get Tim's interest about 10 years ago via the Ultimate FB page as he said he had seen it. There was no response :(
@@SebsPlaceYT All good mate. I worked in TV for decades and I'm tempted to get off my ass and do some similar stuff. It's great seeing stuff like this that is more specific and not the same old material being regurgitated in various 'docos'. It was awesome to see Mark's story. I'd love to see more!!!
@@SebsPlaceYT I have a TheSpectrum on the way (I'm reviewing it for a retro mag - I've also covered TheA500 and The400 Mini) so I might start off with that. Haha.
At age 15 my dad escorted me from essex to my interview with Jim Hensons Creature shop in Camden. So i can completely relate to this story somewhat. (they offered me a job)
@@SebsPlaceYT it was in 1992, I had been writing to Jim Henson for 4 years, sending them photos of my work, then they would reply offering me technical advice or commenting on my work, then out of the blue, I received a letter that wasn't in response to anything offering me a tour of the workshop and an interview with their supervisor Neal Scanlan. My dad had no idea what was going on, my parents didn't know I was writing to all this film people, so dad took me to London, my school gave me the day off, long story short I had my tour and interview, showed them my work, they offered me a 2 week placement work experience, which I did while at school then when I turned insurable age, they offered me a job. First job was a Disney movie, same week was "English patient", it was a dream come true. (sorry, left a lot out of this story, I am conscious of this is not a forum for my life story!) great video sir, this era was a magical era for computing, today its more accessible and more tools and waaaay more educational materials to reduce the barrier of entry, yet the caveat is there is a much greater number of competition for jobs. Keep up the good work....SUBSCRIBED!
@SebsPlaceYT it was just bad timing. Left an apprenticeship and was getting ready for an interview there. Next thing it was all canned due to Ocean I believe from memory being absorbed by another software house. These things happen. I know I shouldn't dwell on what could have been.
I have made an effort in the last couple of years to learn ZX Spectrum assembly language, I'm kind of ok at it, I can plot pixels on the screen using an X Y coordinate system and also plot moving sprites that overlap character blocks. But one big lesson I have really learned is how dedicated and creative you would need to be to write a full game. Plus you really need to put in the months of effort in to do it. It's too much for me, so I stick with writing bits of code to understand how certain programming tricks were done. And yes, we all used to copy each others games at school. We didn't have the money to buy games on a regular basis. Not long till Crash Live now. Are you going Seb?
Brilliant stuff, great little hobby for sure! I'm not going this year. It was possibly going to clash with something else, turned out it doesn't but it's sold out anyways. Maybe next year!!!
I miss the days when people would use tracing paper and marker pens to do graphics. Tim Smith of Cardiacs was an Atari ST user in the 80s. I've wondered if the in game music from the ST version of Wizball inspired the music of Cardiacs as it sounds quite similar.
im swedush and yes I remeber Ocean, Image, UsGold, later on Psygosis as far as great spectrum games, green beret, Atic Atack, Sabrewolf,, Movie, Fairlight 1 and 2. , Skool Daze, the great escpae.
Seb.....Seb......mate! No jokes, no stories, just well effin done. As i said the other day, the evolution of the channel continues at break neck pace, but is it evolution or revolution. What a brilliant way to show what the bedroom coder boom was like from the inside, watching a boy become a man in the industry we love. How many of us would have loved to have been in that position but just didn't have the chops for it, better suited to playing than making. The world is changing ever quicker, i watch less of my 50pound a year IPTV and more YT than anything else these days. The mainstream is becoming boring and predictable, the same old same old year after year but not on YT. On YT you can have all your interests catered for, from competitive eating to rage bate videos and beyond, it even has it's own controversies with the Mr Beast debacle and Asmongolds recent meltdown. Your channel and how it has grown over time, changing from something that others were doing in a similar vein to this, a flat out documentary style story with a whole narrative built around it is just top tier stuff. I say this nearly every time nowadays but yeah that's your best video yet and I'm buzzin for part 2 mate.
I hope you don't stop doing the other stuff though like looking at mags and comparing versions of games, it all goes towards making the channel it's own thing.
Anyone else get the weird urge to try Speccy and C64 art programs to see what you can do? I have so many questions... did he do it all with keyboard? Joystick? Did the Speccy have a mouse?
@SebsPlaceYT from what I've read it would seem to have been made lacklustre deliberately, to suppress sales due to various overheads or taxes accumulating losses? Yes, terrible, probably best forgotten.
@@SebsPlaceYTWhich area was it in? I bought most of mine from the indoor market in the town center (it was in the corner) along with wh smith in town as well. There was a game shop eventually just down from where Maccies was in the town center (before Maccies it was a carpet shop). Maybe computer plus it was called then?
Yeah that's the one! In the video, it's here, although I remember it being yellow but might be wrong. At the 1:04 part early on. Right near Maccies and the bus station
What about when they went bankrupt and there is the video of people trying to get back into the building after lunch and being refused. I'd have been annoyed not being allowed to get my coat or bag. Although think that was Imagine Software not Ocean.
So, are we doing 1988 next? 🤗
😁😁Yes we are Mark!!! Did you go back to Ocean or did Elite come calling.........?
@@SebsPlaceYT who can say?! 😇
@@mlucifersam YAY, there's a part 2 coming !
@@frankowalker4662 ssssshhhhh! Dont tell everyone yet! 🤪
@@mlucifersam (oh yeah, sssshhhhhh. sorry, my bad. ha ha)
I love this type of content, from people who were there at the time... and Ocean was iconic in the 80s
Certainly was 🥰
Man Ocean made the odd good game but generally their offerings sucked especially on the Amiga.
@@jackburton8352 I never said they were any good, just that they were iconic. 🙂
(F29 Retaliator was fairly decent on the Amiga, but they only published that, and DiD developed it.)
After watching the video, it looks like they were making it up as they went along, although the public perception at the time was that Ocean were one of the big boys.
In the late 80's one of my mates had an interview ot Psygnosis in Liverpool, and was very impressed by their set up.
@@fredsmith1970 Psygnosis made some very impressive visual games was your mate responsible for the some of the gfx at the company?
@@jackburton8352 He never got the job there... they showed interest in some of his A500 game demos and animations, but wanted them to be nearly complete games before they'd consider them. (this was when he was 17 and still in 6th Form.)
When he finished Uni, he went to work for Denton Designs in Liverpool, and has a few game credits - "Power Drive" on the Amiga was one. Unfortunately, he suffered from mental health issues a few years into the job and quit the industry (Richard Beavan is his name.)
71 and programming a ZX81 with a 16k ram pack from Sinclair user magazine, ahhh memories
🥰🥰
i ABSOLUTELY LOVE your content, Seb. I like your vids in general, but when you do stuff like this, it's a level above. As a C64 owner that never really played with Speccy's as a kid, I still watch all of your stuff, as it is some of the best produced work in the retro scene. Excellent stuff.
Thank you James, means a lot! Really appreciate the super thanks and the email. Very very kind 😊
@@jameswelch2850 same. This is next level great content. More please!
Fantastic video. Learnt alot about how the games were made that I played as a kid. I did not realise they were not that much older than myself really.
love these game history docs, you have a good voice for it.
Thank you 😊
I love that diary entry at 2:46
Lads, I loved this video - brought back so much of that crazy time that was the birth of something truly amazing. You get a real feeling for how on-the-edge the whole thing was. A lot of us are the people we are today because of those experiences, those games, those hacks, understanding attributes of 8x8 pixel blocks, BRIGHT & FLASH included. Thanks!
Love this comment! 🥰🥰
Great work, enjoyed hearing the first part of Mark's story
Glad you enjoyed it
This was such a great story, thanks for sharing it ! Its been fascinating to see what was happening behind the scenes when i was too young to appreciate it. What the games designers achieved with so little is still amazing 40 year later
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you Seb and Mark for this truely wonderful documentary.
Glad you enjoyed it!
You're welcome. Very glad you found it interesting
Really enjoyed this video and a lot of work clearly went into it. It's really interesting to hear what went on behind the scenes, as it was all a bit of a mystery back in the day 🙂👍🏻
Glad you enjoyed it! Cheers for the comment
Omg that load screen from the artist 2 really hits me in the feels.
I had that package and a dot matrix printer procured from my dad's office.
Love this.
All these years and I always thought Ocean was an american company for some reason, crazy.. great video..
Ha - thank you!
Don't worry, for nearly my entire life I thought that Commodore was a British company. AND I WAS A C64 KID!!!
What a fascinating video. He was so young! Getting the behind the scenes details like this, as I was a kid buying speccy games at the same time is really interesting.
Yeah, crazy really!
Every one of your videos is so well put together with so much care and attention to detail, each is a real treat. You'll go far, Seb, on this platform. And you deserve to!
Ah thank you 😊 that's really nice to hear. 😊
@@SebsPlaceYT Did you do any video editing/production before this channel or was this your "proving ground"? You have a real knack for it. Really impressive.
No just this.... I did get lucky with an early video about spellbound popping off which Rose Tinted Spectrum saw and invited me to a discord group of like minded youtubers. Super helpful getting advice or just seeing how others do things to learn from but it's still a massive learning journey which is tons of fun . Thanks again.
I remember when Mark first moved to Manchester and thinking how bold he was. I was so proud and excited for him.
Very bold! Not sure I would have at 16!
Really fascinating, thanks Seb. I can't even comprehend doing something like that at 16 years old. I remember having a job interview about 200 miles away from my home when I was in my late 20s, and absolutely bricking it about moving away.
Yeah, totally agree. Pretty brave!
Please show more stories like this!
I'll try!
Thoroughly enjoyed this peak behind the curtain. The photos and documents are a really interesting.
Yeah, Mark kept so much material, which helped massively in telling the story.
Thanks for the upload, really enjoyed watching and bringing some old memories back
Glad you enjoyed it. Cheers
Seb's Place AND Chinnyvision on the same night! Well Mr Ambassador, wis zeez Veedeeo's you are spoiling us 😂😂😂
😂😂
Excellente!
Verideo roche
I still know Mark R Jones now, more than then. He frequents the same Beatles and Pink Floyd bootlegs forums I do. So I PM'ed him, and asked him about Ocean, very nice bloke. Also, great vid, only just stumbled on your channel, I;ll check out the other vids later. Busy checking Geoff (RIP) and Tim Follins 3" Einstein disks today!
So who are you then? 😊
Fascinating behind the scenes stuff! Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Looking forward to part 2!
Cheers
Great video. I have immediately downloaded the e-book but will wait to read it as I don't want to spoil the cliffhanger you left this one on!
Haha thank you!
@@SebsPlaceYT Without wishing to get pretentious - the 80s game coders were like the 'punk rock' era of the games industry, people starting in their bedrooms and making careers for themselves with no experience but bags of untapped talent and enthusiasm. There are a lot of stories like Mark's from the 80s, truly a golden era. We'll not see the like again.
100% agree! Was a very unique time.
Very interesting. This video invoked a short lyrical digression...My mind always perceives UK of the 80s almost like a parallel universe, cos my country at that time was strikingly different...not bad though just different. As the glory days of the almighty speccy in USSR occured around the start of the 90s with all the huge library of games already available for our amusement, we evaluated most of the non-top games with neglect and cynism not having a single clue what a great winding way the zx game creators had to crawl to reach those heights that we took for granted🎉
I had the great privilege of working with Mark in retail back in Northampton in the early 90's and he used to talk a lot of his days and the work he did with Ocean.
Wizball was one of my favourite games of all time and still play it now. And I'm glad to say I'm still friends with Mark now, and again we have the same career.
Great video, and I hope there is more to the story and so this generation can appreciate how far gaming has come.
Well done 🎉
Thank you for sharing 🥰
Fantastic video about a captivating story! Thank you for sharing this!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video. Stories like this really struck home.
Glad you enjoyed it
It really was a unique period of time before we had to compete with the rest of the world in every little thing
The misprint on the "Whizzball" on the tape always irritated me 😂.
Great video, would love more of these.
Cheers, yeah me too!
That Crash cover took me back - my dad bought that issue but we had a C64! Was good to see what "the enemy" had to offer lol. I worked with a couple of ex Ocean people when I was at Psygnosis - it's still a small industry!
Oooh what did you do at Psygnosis?
Awesome work, Seb. Absolutely love it. If you don't mind I suggest a video about Bob Pape and his struggles to code R-Type for Speccy 🙂. It's all described in his incredible book "It's Behind You - The Making Of A Computer Game".
Oooh thanks. I'll look at that. Appreciate it.
Born in 74 as well. My family moved in the 80s and I made new friends. Going to my new mate Collins flat, he had a C64 so that was my choice of computer.
Happy 50th year! 😁 Only a couple of c64 kids I knew, everyone had Speccys. One kid had a CPC which I thought was pretty cool but he had no one to swap games with!
Brilliant deep dive and a well-thought-out and executed documentary of a very fluid time in computing and from someone first-hand experiences. Loved the screenshots and before and after as well as the sprites and masks we really very cool to see. I never realised when I was buying Ocean games it was so seat of your pants, but well that's business I guess.
Cheers Seb, really great video. Loved it.
Thank you! Mark had a brilliant knack of keeping everything, which makes such a huge difference when talking about this stuff. Just having the visual examples was amazing and made my job easier.
This was amazing, totally loved it. Need more content like this, and all the other stuff you do, twice a week, plus a three hour special on International Cricket 😆😁
Awesome work man 👍👍
Haha, 3 hour special 😂😂
Very good Seb, more like this please.
Ha cheers. I'll try 😁
Excellent video. Watched it all and now I am late to pick up my wife from her sisters. I hope you're proud! 😄
Say sorry to your wife for me, I'll take the blame 😁😁 thanks for watching.
What a great vid! Post-work nosh and a lengthy vid...... perfect. 😁😁
Cheers!
Great content - Batty is best bat n ball game ever!
Melbourne Draw! I had completely forgotten about that
Really enjoyed watching this documentary! 😃
Glad you enjoyed it!
So much effort in th8is video and as a '75 kid myself this brings back some serious nostalgia. The Artist 2, wow I spent so much time on that producing absolute bollocks. Though I did use it to create a character for a competition once... I did not win.
Amazing how a kid of 16 could do so much in a short time, then again seemed par for the course for the speccy guys.
Thank you 😊 yeah totally bonkers what a 16 year old could do!
Tir na nog should be pronounced "tear nah nogue" (it's Irish for "Land of youth" and Scottish Gaelic for "Land of the young") - just a friendly point of fact; great video Seb! Really enjoyed it - always loved to see Mark's name on the loading screen or mentioned somewhere in the inlay back in the day; a real sign of quality about to load up...
100% agree. Thanks for the pronunciation. I've been saying it wrong for 40 years lol
Thoroughly enjoyed that Seb, very well done, can't wait for the next part (and more vids in this style too!)
This video brings back some great memories, Northampton was only 13 miles away from me, so I frequented the Northants Computer Centre a fair bit back in the day - plus A-Z Computers in Weston Favell. If memory serves, it lasted well into the 90's too. Had the pleasure of meeting Mark too, he came to our house to pick up a boxed 48k about 8-9 years ago, even signed a couple of his games. Really nice bloke.
Thank you 😊 lovely that you used the same shop and have met Mark. I'm hoping to have a beer with him at some point. Thanks again for sharing 😊
The book tells you exactly when NHCC closed down!! And I remember coming round your house for that Spectrum, blimey, was it that long ago?
@@mlucifersam I've not read it yet! lol, i'm gonna give it a crack over the weekend. It was that long ago though - we hadn't long moved in, our l'il un was only around 3-4 too. Hope you're keeping well, sir.
@@MrFox-wn5jt Aye not bad thanks
Fantastic video- thank you.
Thank you 😊
Great work! The good old days!!! 😊
Thank you!
Really enjoyed this mate, really interesting.
Working, thanks for the company.
Cheers mate
Very interesting video, I grew up at the same time and remember all those games which really blew my mind back then
Glad you enjoyed!
Ha, my cousin Tim Tyler wrote Repton 1 at 16 years old. He sold it to Superior Software who then employed him to develop Repton 2.
Oooh I've not played that. Will take a look!
Great video, thanks.
Glad you liked it!
I loved this video. I've wanted to know more about the magic/work in the studios that released the games I played back in the mid-80'ies+ on my dear Speccy and later C64 and even later my Amiga. Mark's work on the Wizball loading screen as well as in-game graphics is nothing less than amazing just like the other work he did at Ocean. I never had an Amstrad but that loading screen is awesome (the speccy one is great as well). I can't imagine the hoops he had to jump through to create graphics on the speccy. I dabbled a little at the time using The Artist but annoyingly I don't have any of that stuff saved.
Imagine finding footage from inside Ultimate as well as developers to interview; that would be a scoop - the secrets from inside the most mysterious developer in the 80'ïes. Alas, we'll never get anything that isn't available in the classic magazines and the few titbits that the Stampers have released over the years.
Ultimate would be fascinating. Cheers for the comment!
@@SebsPlaceYT Trouble with doing Ultimate is that there is no 'insider' to expand on the details. A lot of what they did is still shrouded in mystery. Would be fascinating if Chris or Tim Stamper decided to take part. I did try and get Tim's interest about 10 years ago via the Ultimate FB page as he said he had seen it. There was no response :(
😢
nice insights! thx for sharing
Love this, thank you ❤
Cheers!
Awesome video. I look forward to all of your videos and l love all of them, but this is your best. Loved it ❤
Thank you, very kind 😊
Amazing content. Thank you.
Great video, I highly recommend Mark's book it's a fantastic time capsule of the era and insight into the home computer scene in the 80s.
Couldn't agree more
Great video!
Fantastic work, mate! You're bloody good at docos, it seems!!!
Ah thank you 😊
@@SebsPlaceYT All good mate. I worked in TV for decades and I'm tempted to get off my ass and do some similar stuff. It's great seeing stuff like this that is more specific and not the same old material being regurgitated in various 'docos'. It was awesome to see Mark's story. I'd love to see more!!!
Part 2.for sure and yeah, definitely give it a go. It's loads of fun (albeit quite time-consuming) hobby, that gets quite addictive!
@@SebsPlaceYT I have a TheSpectrum on the way (I'm reviewing it for a retro mag - I've also covered TheA500 and The400 Mini) so I might start off with that. Haha.
seb should.make.more videos like this , i enjoyed this documentary
Thank you!
Great vid can't wait for the next part
At age 15 my dad escorted me from essex to my interview with Jim Hensons Creature shop in Camden. So i can completely relate to this story somewhat. (they offered me a job)
Oh wow! That sounds blimmin cool! What did you do? How did the interview come about?
@@SebsPlaceYT it was in 1992, I had been writing to Jim Henson for 4 years, sending them photos of my work, then they would reply offering me technical advice or commenting on my work, then out of the blue, I received a letter that wasn't in response to anything offering me a tour of the workshop and an interview with their supervisor Neal Scanlan. My dad had no idea what was going on, my parents didn't know I was writing to all this film people, so dad took me to London, my school gave me the day off, long story short I had my tour and interview, showed them my work, they offered me a 2 week placement work experience, which I did while at school then when I turned insurable age, they offered me a job. First job was a Disney movie, same week was "English patient", it was a dream come true. (sorry, left a lot out of this story, I am conscious of this is not a forum for my life story!) great video sir, this era was a magical era for computing, today its more accessible and more tools and waaaay more educational materials to reduce the barrier of entry, yet the caveat is there is a much greater number of competition for jobs. Keep up the good work....SUBSCRIBED!
The job was "animatronics assistant"
That's incredible!!! Wow! Just goes to show if you persevere long enough. Thank you so much for sharing!
Subbed, keep doing histories, this was really good
Cheers for the sub. Channel will always be a mix of stuff mainly 8bit but will definitely do more. Thanks!
Great vid. Thanks.
Glad you liked it!
1997/98 was a sad year when Ocean was on the way out.
I missed my chance to work there and very much regret it.
Hi, how come?
@SebsPlaceYT it was just bad timing. Left an apprenticeship and was getting ready for an interview there. Next thing it was all canned due to Ocean I believe from memory being absorbed by another software house.
These things happen. I know I shouldn't dwell on what could have been.
Very interesting. Thanks for this. Top stuff.
Cheers
Brilliant!
Excellent!!! i enjoyed that!
Thank you!
£200 in. 1987 is now worth £705.04p in 2024. Ouch! Great video.
Can see why Gary was a bit pissed!
This is a very cool Speccy docu Seb, great work! :) (subbed 'n' liked)
Thanks John, appreciate it 😊
I really enjoyed that indeed! Very interesting doc and really well done.
I subbed and liked also.
Awesome, thank you!
I have made an effort in the last couple of years to learn ZX Spectrum assembly language, I'm kind of ok at it, I can plot pixels on the screen using an X Y coordinate system and also plot moving sprites that overlap character blocks.
But one big lesson I have really learned is how dedicated and creative you would need to be to write a full game. Plus you really need to put in the months of effort in to do it. It's too much for me, so I stick with writing bits of code to understand how certain programming tricks were done.
And yes, we all used to copy each others games at school. We didn't have the money to buy games on a regular basis.
Not long till Crash Live now. Are you going Seb?
Haven't you thought 🤔 of learning python
Brilliant stuff, great little hobby for sure! I'm not going this year. It was possibly going to clash with something else, turned out it doesn't but it's sold out anyways. Maybe next year!!!
Excellent stuff. :)
Many thanks!
Brilliant vid 👌🏼
Thank you 🙌
Great video. i was wondering where you got all the minute details of his story from. The horse's mouth! Haha. Good job. When's the next part coming?
I was hired as 'Consultant' 😊
Haha! I'll keep you posted on part 2 😊
I miss the days when people would use tracing paper and marker pens to do graphics.
Tim Smith of Cardiacs was an Atari ST user in the 80s. I've wondered if the in game music from the ST version of Wizball inspired the music of Cardiacs as it sounds quite similar.
great video!
Thanks!
the ocean and ultimate play the game address is burnt into my brain , I used to send away a s.a.e for posters every month .
Very good Seb 👍
Thank you 😊
Great video. I love the nicotine (?) stained Atari ST & monitor at 16:35
Cheers, yeah a different time then eh. That's one thing I don't miss!
@Meebzorp5200 yes, it WAS nicotine stained! Ugh! Get the Mr Sheen out!!
Cracking video sir!
Thank you Snorkers!
F29 Retaliator was one of my favourite Ocean games. I ended up working for BioWare and later, CCP Games before I quit the industry.
Oooh very cool! Bioware was Baldurs Gate wasn't it?
Blood heck, is that Joffa Shith?
Yes it is! Joffa SMITH
Jet Set Willy, Manic Miner and the Magic Knight clones were fucking brilliant games.
Agreed
great vid 👍
Thanks 👍
Brilliant and very enjoyable.
Also, I am allowed to watch this channel with having a C64. 😂
Hahaha yep! There is a smattering of C64 content too 🥰 cheers!
Thanks
Thank you James 🥰🥰
Sadly it seems Tina Billet, author of Mrs Mopp, passed away in 2008.
😢
im swedush and yes I remeber Ocean, Image, UsGold, later on Psygosis as far as great spectrum games, green beret, Atic Atack, Sabrewolf,, Movie, Fairlight 1 and 2. , Skool Daze, the great escpae.
All great games !!
Seb.....Seb......mate!
No jokes, no stories, just well effin done.
As i said the other day, the evolution of the channel continues at break neck pace, but is it evolution or revolution.
What a brilliant way to show what the bedroom coder boom was like from the inside, watching a boy become a man in the industry we love. How many of us would have loved to have been in that position but just didn't have the chops for it, better suited to playing than making.
The world is changing ever quicker, i watch less of my 50pound a year IPTV and more YT than anything else these days. The mainstream is becoming boring and predictable, the same old same old year after year but not on YT.
On YT you can have all your interests catered for, from competitive eating to rage bate videos and beyond, it even has it's own controversies with the Mr Beast debacle and Asmongolds recent meltdown.
Your channel and how it has grown over time, changing from something that others were doing in a similar vein to this, a flat out documentary style story with a whole narrative built around it is just top tier stuff.
I say this nearly every time nowadays but yeah that's your best video yet and I'm buzzin for part 2 mate.
Thanks mate, really appreciate this. It's warm and fuzzy to get such positive feedback 🥰
I hope you don't stop doing the other stuff though like looking at mags and comparing versions of games, it all goes towards making the channel it's own thing.
100% mate.
Anyone else get the weird urge to try Speccy and C64 art programs to see what you can do? I have so many questions... did he do it all with keyboard? Joystick? Did the Speccy have a mouse?
Keyboard only! 😊
@@mlucifersam Wow! That makes it so much more impressive, tbh.
I saw the Hey Hey 16k snip!
Ok, you've lost me 😁
@ lol maybe I didn’t. I thought I saw a reference to this...
ruclips.net/video/Ts96J7HhO28/видео.htmlsi=p8QmbTrG_O7cz3II
Highlander, 10 quid wasted again!
Such a terrible game 😫
@SebsPlaceYT from what I've read it would seem to have been made lacklustre deliberately, to suppress sales due to various overheads or taxes accumulating losses? Yes, terrible, probably best forgotten.
wonder what ash and dave be doing now ...
I livee in Stevenage then and bought a few games from that publisher in stevenage. I rememer it well!
Hello! Yeah I bought a few although the horse racing one is the one I remember most. Do you remember that software shop by the bus stop?
@@SebsPlaceYTWhich area was it in? I bought most of mine from the indoor market in the town center (it was in the corner) along with wh smith in town as well. There was a game shop eventually just down from where Maccies was in the town center (before Maccies it was a carpet shop). Maybe computer plus it was called then?
Yeah that's the one! In the video, it's here, although I remember it being yellow but might be wrong. At the 1:04 part early on. Right near Maccies and the bus station
on the OCEAN DRAW download link it says Access Denied
Hmmmm. Works for me. You'll need to be logged into a Google account maybe? I'll double check.
It's definitely set to 'Anyone with link' and not 'Restricted'
A platform no one cared about.. Never once saw a computer store selling this software
Cleary not from the UK then..... 😀
@ and I am not talking about Ocean, they made plenty of great games, like this batman game I loved…. But that computer? It was not in any store.
@@TheRealRaddicalReggie-o9l Where did you live? The North Pole? 🙄😬🙄😬
What about when they went bankrupt and there is the video of people trying to get back into the building after lunch and being refused. I'd have been annoyed not being allowed to get my coat or bag. Although think that was Imagine Software not Ocean.
Yeah, was Imagine. It's in the Commercial Breaks documentary that is linked in the description.
Yeah, wrong company!!😅
New sub here, great work
Awesome, thank you!