By FORMAT

‘IT’S BEHIND YOU: The making of a computer game’ by Bob Pape

The book is available free of charge at: http://bizzley.imbahost.com/

This book is different from previous recommendations as it is an autobiography. It covers the story of the writer as he delves in to the world of computing, learns his first programming languages, writes his first softwares, and eventually becomes a paid game developer for the ZX Spectrum home computer, starting with porting ‘Rampage’ and then focusing on his ‘R-Type’ port, which is the subject of most of the book. The work has a fair amount of technical details that will sate the curious who wonder how to develop games on older home computers, but this is largely a work describing the what instead of the how of game development, along with the bureaucracy and scheming involved. It is a very interesting look into the world of home computer game development from decades passed and is sure to interest anyone wondering what things were like in that time and also shock them with the nature of the practices then found to be commonplace.

This is not a particularly long book, so it is best suited to light reading during a vacation or over a weekend.

The original ZX Spectrum is remembered for its rubber keyboard, diminutive size and distinctive rainbow motif. It was originally released on 23 April 1982 with 16 KB of RAM for £125 or with 48 KB for £175, these prices were later reduced to £99 and £129 respectively. Owners of the 16 KB model could purchase an internal 32 KB RAM upgrade, which for early “Issue 1” machines consisted of a daughterboard. Later issue machines required the fitting of 8 dynamic RAM chips and a few TTL chips.

The cassette interface was much more advanced, saving and loading around five times faster than the ZX81 (1500 bits per second compared to 307).