18 Comments
Apr 15, 2023Liked by The Post, Jack Walton

To be honest, I have little to no interest in the world of gaming etc! But the article like all The Post articles, is so well written that I was gripped like it was a fascinating novel unfolding, I couldn't put down!

Wow! Matthew Smith wherever you are, well done and thank you for your contribution to the Gaming world. Hope you're happy and peaceful 🤗.

As an honorary scouser, the more I learn about this city, the more I realize it's depth and potential for greatness again! Grassroots UP!

Not the other way round!

Liverpool WILL BE great again, mark my words!😉

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Thanks Rosey! I wrote the article and I’m so glad that so many people seem to have enjoyed it. Liverpool is so full of odd firsts and achievements! I like shining a light on them.

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Amazing. I never knew that Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy were written in Liverpool. Thanks for a great article.

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I’ve obviously heard of manic minor and jet set Willy being an 80’s child, but had no idea about their Merseyside origins. That’s the problem with us, we don’t publicise ourselves enough! If it was any other city they’d be shouting it from the rooftops! But make no mistake, this region is still great! The Grand National, Eurovision and the Golf Open Championship all in one year! Shout it from the f###### rooftops!!!

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Thanks, this really brought back a lot of memories. I’ve often thought of Matthew - hope you doing well kiddo!

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Glad the article brought back memories-hope they were happy ones.

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Moving article.

I hope Matthew is happy wherever he's living.

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Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment, Mick-Matthew's story is very moving, which is what drew me to it. I reckon it would make a good film!

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Fascinating. I knew none of this. Great work.

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Yet another interesting article. was never really interested in computer games other than the occasional afternoon spent in the arcades. I never owned a computer and had no idea how to use one until many years later, when redundancy forced me to re-evaluate my future employment prospects. I do remember hearing tales of peole who would spend hours programming computers, or loading games, only for the computer to decide that the final stretch was just more than it was prepared to carry out in one go, and would crash, meaning you'd then have to basically reset everything form the very start and try again. I also remember, when I first went on a course to learn all aspects of computing (word procesing, Data Processing, spread sheets) and all the work that had to go into even simple programming. (you basically had to tell the computer exactly what it was you wanted to do, line by line and near enough in exact minute detail) So I'm not in the slightest bit surprised to read, even if it is only speculation and wild guesswork, that Matthew Smith - possibly - ended up "Going off his cake," because if you've ever tried it, even in its simplest form to just flash up a very simple "hiya mate" greeting when you first log on to your computer, You'll realise what "fun" such a task is

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Thanks for the comment, Baz. I do think the intensive nature of computer programming is bound to create a great strain. It's not something I could ever do myself.

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Chris Cannon was in my brothers year at school, he did pretty well himself as your story says. We had a ZX81 with a 16k ram upgrade, musical birthday cards probably have more computing power these days.

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Chris is a great guy and the interview with him added a nice perspective on things. You're right about the advancement in tech- I was a C64 man myself!

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founding

Great read, thanks!

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I know full well what you mean! When I did the Introductory Course (late 80's) the tutors were looked upon almost like gods! Like I said, I remember when I programmed my computer to simpkly say "hiya Baz" when I logged on at any time, you had to basically "guide" the computer to where you wanted to start, then tell it what to put on the screen, then tell it to move back after completing that part, then tell it something else, and each of these required a seperate line, of detailed code, so that in the end the programme just for that could near enough run to two pages! Then, if for some reason it never worked, you'd have to examine the whole programme instructions, line by line. This was before any graphics like we now take for granted, so it's no wonder that programmers, are often seen as weird loner types who never move outside their rooms, Quite often it's not always through choice!

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A really good read. Thank you.

It got me thinking, whatever became of that other early 1980s Liverpool coding wunderkind, Eugene Evans? I seem to remember he became rich enough to go out and buy himself an incredibly expensive sports car, but his dad had to drive it for him because Eugene was far too young to drive, still being at secondary school.

He even had a Manic Miner level named after him, "Eugene's Lair", populated by dangerous sentient loos with vicious snapping toilet seats.

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I have to admit to not knowing much about Eugene. Sounds like a future article maybe!

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