Electric Adventures
The Beginning
Electric Adventures began in the mid-eighties when I had put together a number of titles and needed a name to start publishing them under.
Starting out with titles written entirely in Basic for the Spectravideo SV-318 and SV-328, I progressed to Basic programs with some machine code extensions e.g. Video Graphitti uses a machine code routine to smoothly capture the mouse position and update the sprite used for the drawing cursor. This allowed the user to draw fairly fine curves.
Next I moved on to games written entirely in machine code, they included clones of Asteroids, Pheonix and Pacman, and an original title Pyxidis (yes another vertically scrolling shoot-em-up).
More Recent Times
In more recent times, I have felt the urge to try things that I could not achieve back in the day so have expanded development first to converting a number of titles to the Colecovision, followed by completely jumping platforms and developing titles for the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
I have also developed a number of Cross Platform development tools, sharing them with the community, along with a set of Videos on my Youtube Channel, so others can get started in writing new games for older systems.
Coupled with these new platforms and my joy of all things retro, I have built up quite a large collection of Retro Consoles, Computers and Software.
Spectravideo & MSX Complete User Guide
I have released a revised/updated version of the book I released in 1991 for both the original Spectravideo and MSX machines, called Spectravideo & MSX Complete User Guide.
I used all of the original text with minor edits, added six articles I released in two different magazines called 'Beyond Basic' and it has been published as both a Printed and Kindle eBook.
Let's Make a Retro Game
Join me as I work through the steps required to make a home brew game for a retro 8-bit console or computer system.
In each episode I will work through various topics, such as tools, methods and design.
Each episode has a tutorial video and downloadable source code and article to work through..
Spectravideo and MSX History
This website includes numerous digital copies of magazines and software produced in Australia for both the original Spectravideo and MSX computers.
They are being regularly added to and updated as more magazines and lost software titles are found and digitally preserved...
Programming Games for the ColecoVision and Adam
This book is all about the authors love of gaming and the want to share with fellow enthusiasts, the understanding of the steps and process that go into creating games.
Perhaps the first of many volumes, this book aims to provide an overall guide on the steps required to start creating games for the ColecoVision 8-bit game console and its bigger cousin, the ColecoVision Adam Computer.
It will take you through each concept step-by-step, and rather than just being a technical guide, it will work through each stage with sample code and examples.
The code presented, will focus on writing games using Z80 assembler, just like the developers of the original ColecoVision games used back in the day.
It is possible to use languages such as C or Pascal to make ColecoVision games, but that is beyond the scope of what is covered in this book.
In addition to the tutorial section, a full technical guide covering the BIOS built into both the ColecoVision and Adam, along with memory and port maps is included.
Most BIOS calls include an example of usage or a reference to the tutorial section that covers it.
Modern Homebrew Titles
I am working on a number of new releases (home brew titles) for a number of systems including the MSX, Colecovision, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and original Spectravideo.
Space Dungeon
A port of the frantic twin-stick shooter to the Colecovision, MSX, and Spectravideo.
