The Icon Bar: Right On Commander!

Gareth Moore wrote in to let us know that, as foretold in the forums, the "Brits Who Made the Modern World" series is a big rip-off of the book "The Backroom Boys". No, wait, that wasn't it.

The final episode airs on August 22nd at 7:30pm on Five. Go on, guess what it's about.

	Right On Commander!
	monkeyson2 (22:33 22/8/2008) Loris (13:52 23/8/2008) rich (15:24 23/8/2008) monkeyson2 (15:44 23/8/2008) steviebaby (15:39 24/8/2008) Loris (10:47 26/8/2008) andrew (20:07 28/8/2008) andrew (20:19 28/8/2008) tribbles (21:02 23/8/2008) andrew (21:28 23/8/2008) tribbles (23:57 27/8/2008) andrew (20:05 28/8/2008)

Phil Mellor	Message #108122, posted by monkeyson2 at 22:33, 22/8/2008
Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler monkeyson.info Posts: 12380	I missed it Is it repeated?
	[ Log in to reply ]

Tony Haines	Message #108123, posted by Loris at 13:52, 23/8/2008, in reply to message #108122
Ha ha, me mine, mwahahahaha Posts: 1025	I saw it. was okay. You never saw Ian Bell and David Braben together. Jon Snow is getting increasingly annoying. At one point he typed in his name to a 'what is your name' prompt on a BBC, then it wrote it out in different colours down the screen - you know, a standard Hello World effect. Then he said with derision "that took me 10 minutes."... Well, fine. But I bet he couldn't do that on a PC in less than 10 hours.
	[ Log in to reply ]

Richard Goodwin	Message #108128, posted by rich at 15:24, 23/8/2008, in reply to message #108123
Dictator for life Posts: 6828	I saw part of it. He seemed to be implying that games like Elite were written in BASIC, and then I fell asleep. TV Genius can't seem to find a listing for it, suggesting that either it's not being repeated - or TV Genius isn't as smart as it thinks it is. I'd suggest resorting to Teh Torrentz but I can only find the first two episodes. I have it stored on my super-whizzy next gen dual tuner hard drive recordering box, which as we've already established is shit at receiving Five. In summary: go read the book. ________ Cheers, Rich.
	[ Log in to reply ]

Phil Mellor	Message #108129, posted by monkeyson2 at 15:44, 23/8/2008, in reply to message #108128
Please don't let them make me be a monkey butler monkeyson.info Posts: 12380	In summary: go read the book. I have
	[ Log in to reply ]

Jason Tribbeck	Message #108136, posted by tribbles at 21:02, 23/8/2008, in reply to message #108128
Captain Helix Posts: 929	He seemed to be implying that games like Elite were written in BASIC, and then I fell asleep. It appeared as though it initially written in BASIC - or rather the 3D stuff was. Which is what I would've done (come to think of it, I did do that - albeit with the Archimedes). He did say later on that they'd learnt assembler to increase the amount of available code space.
	[ Log in to reply ]

Andrew	Message #108137, posted by andrew at 21:28, 23/8/2008, in reply to message #108136
Handbag Boi Posts: 3439	What 3D stuff did you do with the Arc?
	[ Log in to reply ]

Stephen Robinson	Message #108140, posted by steviebaby at 15:39, 24/8/2008, in reply to message #108129
Member Posts: 24	well, that was ok wasn't it? Of course we had to have that, race against time, will they or won't they get the first 3-D game out first, a point made rather accademic as they showed the 3d battlezone in the first 5 minutes...
	[ Log in to reply ]

Tony Haines	Message #108151, posted by Loris at 10:47, 26/8/2008, in reply to message #108140
Ha ha, me mine, mwahahahaha Posts: 1025	Battlezone was 2D with a 3D perspective display. So was that monster maze game they also showed. I'd have said there were other proper 3d games around though; flight sims and the like. There was Aviator on the BBC for example; I'm not sure whether this came out before Elite or not. However if what they really meant was full 6 degrees of freedom 3D, maybe not. I don't remember the advertising making a big thing of that in any case. Program makers do seem to get fixated on emphasising a particular part of the story sometimes, even if it wasn't the real focus at the time. Did anyone else think that they were showing images from non-BBC versions of Elite sometimes? They kept on showing this huge spinny elite logo, which ... well, maybe my memory is fallible, but how many colours was it in, anyway? Maybe it was the tube version, and used dithering I suppose.
	[ Log in to reply ]

Jason Tribbeck	Message #108169, posted by tribbles at 23:57, 27/8/2008, in reply to message #108137
Captain Helix Posts: 929	What 3D stuff did you do with the Arc? Nothing that was released - although I'd be surprised if you'd forgotten this: http://www.iconbar.com/forums/viewthread.php?threadid=10018&page=1#98259
	[ Log in to reply ]

Andrew	Message #108184, posted by andrew at 20:05, 28/8/2008, in reply to message #108169
Handbag Boi Posts: 3439	Remember now
	[ Log in to reply ]

Andrew	Message #108185, posted by andrew at 20:07, 28/8/2008, in reply to message #108151
Handbag Boi Posts: 3439	Battlezone was 2D with a 3D perspective display. So was that monster maze game they also showed. I'd have said there were other proper 3d games around though; flight sims and the like. There was Aviator on the BBC for example; I'm not sure whether this came out before Elite or not. However if what they really meant was full 6 degrees of freedom 3D, maybe not. I don't remember the advertising making a big thing of that in any case. Program makers do seem to get fixated on emphasising a particular part of the story sometimes, even if it wasn't the real focus at the time. Did anyone else think that they were showing images from non-BBC versions of Elite sometimes? They kept on showing this huge spinny elite logo, which ... well, maybe my memory is fallible, but how many colours was it in, anyway? Maybe it was the tube version, and used dithering I suppose. The year 1983 seems to associate with Aviator. So it is! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoff_Crammond [Edited by andrew at 21:08, 28/8/2008]
	[ Log in to reply ]

Andrew	Message #108186, posted by andrew at 20:19, 28/8/2008, in reply to message #108151
Handbag Boi Posts: 3439	Battlezone was 2D with a 3D perspective display. So was that monster maze game they also showed. I'd have said there were other proper 3d games around though; flight sims and the like. There was Aviator on the BBC for example; I'm not sure whether this came out before Elite or not. However if what they really meant was full 6 degrees of freedom 3D, maybe not. I don't remember the advertising making a big thing of that in any case. Program makers do seem to get fixated on emphasising a particular part of the story sometimes, even if it wasn't the real focus at the time. Did anyone else think that they were showing images from non-BBC versions of Elite sometimes? They kept on showing this huge spinny elite logo, which ... well, maybe my memory is fallible, but how many colours was it in, anyway? Maybe it was the tube version, and used dithering I suppose. There was a 3D Elite logo on the MAster Executive Edition (Tube) apparently. But the one on the show ISTR did seem post-8-bit by the colours and resolution.
	[ Log in to reply ]

The Icon Bar: News and features: Right On Commander!