154 books
—
14 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “It's behind you - The making of a computer Game” as Want to Read:
It's behind you - The making of a computer Game
by
Twenty five years ago I wrote a computer game for the ZX Spectrum called R-Type , a home computer port of an arcade game which a lot of people then, and since, seemed to like. Jump forward to a couple of years ago (ouch, sorry) and I found myself starting to write down what I could remember about those early game years - not through any need to see my name in print but jus
...more
Get A Copy
ebook, 136 pages
Published
July 2013
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
It's behind you - The making of a computer Game,
please sign up.
Be the first to ask a question about It's behind you - The making of a computer Game
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Start your review of It's behind you - The making of a computer Game
Internette tesadüfen karşılaştığım bu kitap, R-Type oyununun Spectrum sürümünün geliştirilmesini, programcısının ağzından anlatıyor. Tüm bu süreçte '80li yıllarda İngiliz oyun sektörü üzerine de hayli bilgi ediniyorsunuz. Az biraz teknik detay da içeren, güzel bir anlatı. Kitap boyunca bir iki yerde Türk oyun geliştirici Mevlut Dinç'in bahsinin geçmesi de hoş bir detay.
Ücretsiz olarak sunulan bu kitabı indirmek isterseniz: http://web.archive.org/web/2016022121... ...more
Ücretsiz olarak sunulan bu kitabı indirmek isterseniz: http://web.archive.org/web/2016022121... ...more
This book is self-published and downloadable for free from the author's website at http://bizzley.com/ (why not on kindle or google play?). There are many scattered interviews, webpages, videos and podcasts that capture parts of the stories of many other developers of games from the same time period but it's fantastic having this in a discrete book form: it's wading through a incoherent mass of short snippets of information vs. seeking out longer form media and being able to enjoy it linearly ov
...more
I started reading this book right before a 48-hour indie game development competition called Ludum Dare based on a Twitter recommendation. I love reading old developer journals and accounts and this was a particularly chilling one. While I have never personally played R-Type, the subject game of most of the book, I was pleasantly surprised to see that he was involved with one translation of Rampage, a game I am quite familiar with and fond of.
I was as impressed by Bob's attitude about programmi ...more
I was as impressed by Bob's attitude about programmi ...more
A really interesting read - an eye-opening account of the "bedroom coding" scene of the late '80s. As someone who only experienced the end-products of this, the details of the financial shenanigans and shady dealings going on were a great surprise.
Back in 1988, from being completely ignorant of the arcade game and being astonished by the C&VG demo tape containing level 1, I was hooked. R-Type was one of the few full-price games that I bought for the ZX Spectrum, and definitely one of the best. ( ...more
Back in 1988, from being completely ignorant of the arcade game and being astonished by the C&VG demo tape containing level 1, I was hooked. R-Type was one of the few full-price games that I bought for the ZX Spectrum, and definitely one of the best. ( ...more
A fun 'war story' about the chaotic early days of computer games, porting arcade titles over to the various home PCs. I was surprised they had to reproduce almost everything from scratch, copying the art, sound, interaction from playing an arcade machine, or even videos of the game. Quite similar to 'The Making of Prince of Persia'.
...more
I enjoy these kinds of personal accounts of programming (Jordan Mechner's game diaries, for example) and this one is no different, despite my having no personal connection to the Spectrum. There wasn't as much technical detail as I would have liked, but the familiar tale of the exploited bedroom coder is a decent read, anyway.
...more
A fantastic behind-the-curtains look at the making of R-Type, along with a much shorter section on Rampage. Some of the technical stuff went over my head, but the author kindly stated to skip ahead that section which was a neat touch. The stories about being ripped off by the developer and the broken level 8 were fantastic. This is a great book and I wish the author had written more games that could have been turned into books!
Awesome true story of computer games, when computer games were basically a gruesome one man fight against the evil software house! 8bit story of one of the most well know arcade game conversion for one of the most "meh" computer of the time! Sorry guys but the Commodore 64 ruled the scene!
...more
Unterhaltsamer und informativer Blick in die britische bedroom coder Videospielszene Asia erster Hand.
Retrogame-н тухай огт мэдэхгүй generation-той танилцав...
Pure nostalgia for me, one of the best games ever written for the Spectrum and well deserved placing on the WoS leaderboard!
Fascinating read, technically, socially and with an enormous dose of nostalgia (I was given R-Type for my Spectrum+ for Christmas 1988, when I was 14!)
Bob Pape's story on R-Type brought back 'the good old days' of Spectrum games, and the fun we had playing that.
The story is not glamorous, and it's why it rings truer than ever. The story telling might be a bit too technical for the casual reader, while the technical reader might not be fully satisfied, even if we get to see the assembly code of the scrolling routine. It is, however, an insightful reading for anyone slightly interested.
R-Type used to rule, although my favorite spectrum game was ...more
The story is not glamorous, and it's why it rings truer than ever. The story telling might be a bit too technical for the casual reader, while the technical reader might not be fully satisfied, even if we get to see the assembly code of the scrolling routine. It is, however, an insightful reading for anyone slightly interested.
R-Type used to rule, although my favorite spectrum game was ...more
This is a short book of memories of Bob Pape of the times, when he worked on converting R-Type on ZX Spectrum. Similar to Jordan Mechner's diaries, do not expect too much technical information, but rather images from the life of game developers during that era. It is especially interesting to see how Bob Pape's experience was different from Mechners, even though it looks like the general lack of competence and treatment of employees was about the same on both sides of the ocean
...more
Vividly conveys the fly-by-night and chaos of early computer games and some of the contortions & challenges of dealing with the limited computers of the day. All in all, though, I think Mechner's
The Making of Prince of Persia
is a better read if you're not specifically interested in R-Type.
...more
A really nice book on how the Spectrum version of R-Type was made. Pope does not romanticize the period or the process and gives some great insight to how games were made back then by bedroom coders. With lots of nice technical details (but not too technical), the book has the one-more-page factor (pun intended).
Thanks to Bob Pape for making this available for free!
Thanks to Bob Pape for making this available for free!
A wonderful look at the creation of R-Type for the Spectrum.
Great story of the trials and tribulations of writing a conversion of an arcade game to a Spectrum. Dealing with dodgy bosses, deadlines, dire working conditions and big name publishers.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers also enjoyed
Goodreads is hiring!
Related Articles
Bill Gates, tech pioneer, co-founder of Microsoft, and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is an avid reader who people follow...
233 likes · 164 comments
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
