In Middlesbrough on a Thursday night here until 10 o'clock this evening the usual fine selection of decent music and Sean touring aren't I hope everything is alright everything alright in the ops room Alex Alex is my henchman deceiving looks all right in there it's all right in a just all right we have got busy old show we're going to be talking about the spectrum on the program tonight the greatest computor of all time I will accept no argument on this matter I was virtually surgically attached to that expectation throughout pretty much the entirety of the 1980s. Well the 40th anniversary of the said expect room rather alarmingly is racing towards us it's in 2022 going to be talking on the program tonight with Professor will broker who is from Kingston University and he is. Setting these celebrations off already for the 40th anniversary of the spectrum. Speaking to lots of spectrum obsessives filming the compiling their stories and memories will have a good spectrum each out with Professor will broker about half past 7 on the program this evening right we've played the old switcheroo on the show tonight as well Robert Nichols is normally with me well I was going to say 9 o'clock generally somewhere between 5 past and 10 past given Robert Nichols is somewhat less a fair attitude towards timekeeping However in theory he should be here at 8 o'clock this evening so we'll be looking ahead to the week's live musical shindigs after 8 o'clock on the program this evening quite frankly whenever Robert turns up we'll do it there because we've got live music on the show after 9 o'clock tonight we're going to be joined live here in the studio by fine Irish band currently. Unknown or they might be not quite on stage just yet but they are supporting Fairport Convention arc in Stockton this evening so once they've finished they're going to race straight over here and play live in the studio so yeah we have Brendan and Declan Murphy for a verse playing live here in the studio after 9 o'clock. We got a smell of water as well Gavin Perry's wonderful smell of water he is the Teesside psychogeography. In this week's installment of the smell of water he is looking up the mystical properties of the rowan tree I mean quite frankly if you've got a hex on you if somebody you know in thought has given you the evil eye then the Rowan sure a year is what you want to be looking for and then you burn a bit of it and tell you about HEP govern We'll tell you about all of this later on if you do want to drop me a line you're more than welcome always nice to hear from you 8 want trouble 3 is the tax number just make sure you start your message with the word to use or as ever. You can give him a call on the blue. 10859595 is the phone number on the Facebook it's Bob and shock on B.B.C. T S and leave a little missive there or you can look for me on Twitter as well brand new from Sugar Ray Ray for it is it just may. Plz. Plz. Sugar Ray Ray furred is it just me on B.B.C. Days Bob Fisher on 95 F.M. D.A.B. Freeview 722 and B.B.C. Sound right let's have a little roll call here we'll take off the register John in Skelton green is tuning in sat in the dining room checking and signing invoices Jim Morrison's lifestyle had nothing on mind set. Out of control John that's what you are and Marie is tuning in from. In Darlington with one foot in her slipper and the other one slipper free like Cinderella so I can tickle the dog's tummy as he sleeps on the table so yes. Dog torture Wayne is listening in from blah home of the Spartans Hello Wayne We've also got right tons of you send me stuff on the Twitter about spectrums thank you for all of this year we'll broker professor will broker I will be live with me in about 20 minutes time talking about how the Zacks spectrum and the build up to the 40th birthday of the dead expected computer in 2022 John. John is. That I would be there he says but I'm playing hide and seek with the wife and kids and it's not going well for me we live in a small made terrace house and I'm 6 foot 3. OK. I once tried to. I had to go hide and seek when I was living in a rambling townhouse in Lancaster. In the OP a section of the wardrobe in my bedroom which I thought was perfect because like the OP a bit of the wardrobe had a different door on it to the lower bit of the wardrobe so if by housemates came in and just opened the wardrobe door then I wouldn't be in there it would look empty it was empty I didn't really have any clue what clothes I did help weren't in the wardrobe they were scattered around the bedroom floor so I did manage to climb up and secrete myself in the Opus section of the wardrobe with its own separate door but then just as my friends came into the room to look for me and the bit of the wardrobe that I was resting on collapsed. Fell through they entire border up and then the rest of it felt are but needless to say they found me it's essentially what I'm getting at here and we got a fair bit taken of our deposit for the house as well hello to care of electronica wizard care of. Love Open your heart in date played Human League at the start of the program love that he says tying in nicely with these red X. Spectrum theme. The Human League of as that I expect them it wouldn't surprise me when I was a kid says care of my cousins convinced me that the crackle and be as you loaded a game or. Maybe. That was the sound of his that expection loading my cousins convinced me that that noise was alien beings trying to communicate with us the swines says care. You mean it isn't as 1st of all you heard son Tatiana which was in the charts I think at around exactly the time that I was putting a 4 through the little compartment at the top of my wardrobe in Lancaster during an ill fated game of hide and seek that won their gold are the wonderful Vic God of subway sect fame going old Northern Soul on us that's caught in mid-stream it is B.B.C. Days it's Bob $95.00 the IB Freeview 72 to B.B.C. Sound hello to right tones of you here curiously enough a lot of that expect I mean the U.C. Asked by the look of things adventure on says I've got my flute out what you choose to do on a Thursday evening is your own business but hello thank you to Fran in Darlington who is rummaging through tons of her dad's Zedd xpect room stuff. Including some expect from books in French they speak fluent French She says Look go all leave do spectrum. Thank you for those. As well tuning in Rita says I loved my Zed expect the graphics were amazing in comparison to the Atari games that I played my favorite was alchemy I had alchemy though I always wanted paper boy. Those sound when you're loaded those cassettes. Thank you Rita we've also got over on the texts says servers Oh my they've gone there we are David in Jasmine and who has texted in I remember my dad coming in with spectrum 48 K. That he'd bought from Boots says Dave it crash magazine with the glorious graphic covers my dad used to spend ages programming the spectrum to make a small pics old man and then the tapes would crash to my dad's dismay our tape loading error is what you would have got there David Horace goes he said going all misty eyed about horoscopes. I liked a bit of Horace go skiing I was completely obsessed with a game called Jumping Jack that I got for I got it with the spectrum for Christmas 1904 Anyway thank you for all of these travel 3 if you want to drop me a line just start it with. Facebook is Bob and shack on B.B.C. News on the phones tonight 080859595 the spectrum will continue we will have Professor will broker from Kingston University on the blower is with us fairly shortly going to play this though as this is prefab sprout although it did begin life as a party MCALOON solo project that's now been reissued as a prefab sprout album called out where I troll the megahertz and it's a rather lovely thing it's a classical album essentially and this is sleeping room. God Rather lovely I think that's prefab sprout and sleeping rough from well the new album although it has been out before but the new album I trolled the mega heard been reissued on vinyl 1st time it's been on vinyl started life as a party MCALOON album quite a few years ago I think but it's now a prefab sprout album on vinyl wifey's curious and unpredictable it is B.B.C. To Bob Fischer here 95 F.M. D.A.B. Freeview 7 to 2 B.B.C. Sounds I was told got lots of you getting in touch with memories of the spectrum lots of you like talking about there's a spectrum don't you particularly on Twitter I will endevor to get through to enter . From is a wow from has found the game that her dad wrote now it is from Him Darlington Snow White the game that my dad Ro and she sent over loads of pictures of why his it's all the coding and. Plans for it and maps and stuff. It is amazing to dig our mine out at some point they're all in the loft to try to write Spectrum games as well as she says they're the red folder that you can see. How to write an adventure coding instruction thing in it how to set parameters and imagine the world that you build. What I wouldn't give to set parameters and imagine the world that I build thank you from those fabulous stuff all the stuff rolling over in my direction right we are going to speak in 2 takes with Professor will broker from Kingston University will is the man who as far as I'm concerned is kick starting the 40th birthday off the set I expect from computer it doesn't actually take place until 2022. But he started already collecting the memories and thoughts of devout Zed expect from fans so we're going to speak live with wealth in 2 ticks but 1st of all it feels can do you regard and obligatory to play this wondrous thing this is M.J. Hibbert the validators their home age their musical homage to the dead expect a hey hey 16 K. . The wonderful M.J. Hebert and the validators their musical homage to the humbles that expect room 16 carry Yes 2022 marks the 40th birthday of the set expect computor I had one I loved it I was virtually surgically attached to the wonderful little rubber keyed thing throughout the 19 eighties and I was delighted to see that well preparations for the anniversary are already underway professor will broker of Kingston University is looking to gather the memories of his deck spectrum fans for well all kinds of projects I think of be looking into film possibly a book as well all to mark the 40th birthday of the spectrum and Will is live on the line with me how are you sir I would do very well thank you for inviting me on the thank you for doing this it's always nice to speak to a fellow spectrum fan I saw you appealing on Twitter for fans to come forward because you wanted to speak to spectrum aficionados and is it fair to say you were deluged. Still a lot of money there's many more than I expected or hoped for I think might might sway my humble little tweak or about 400 great tweets run off a lot of people yeah a lot of e-mails that way because well it's wonderful to share the memories on Twitter just the chance that people have about the games they love to know how important it was to them and that really confirms that we need this kind of project because otherwise those memories will get to gotten And you know as an academic or you know before I start project I do some research now that a lot of it all came scholarship but expect some is completely neglected there's no there's no mention there's very little mention of that expect and all the academic histories of gaming and gaming computers needs to be done why do you think that is why is it been overlooked by academia I think because the history of video the dominant history of video games tends to be very different narratives about America which is impressed by the jet Japanese systems and in America it was. A Atari and then a console crash and then after that it was mostly comes out of the Nintendo and the Sega so the spectrum did it barely reached America till it was rebranded as the time expected to be a takeoff is a bit of a history of the spectrum in Europe in continental Europe and then particular in the ninety's great developments in Eastern Europe eastern European program is doing rather interesting things that yeah. It was a very I think it's very British culture a very British machine very British games most of the companies are very small which is one thing so policy interesting to me is the story of creation pension and a lot of British humor in it there's a kind of Monty Python spirit about it definitely not great the dominant history of video games which concentrates on Japan and the US I've always thought a really fascinating thing that the computing industry and particularly the industry centered around the spectrum we know is a multi-million pound industry in the mid 1980 S. But it was like. With that it was kind of an underground industry it was D.I.Y. You know it was a computer where teenagers could write their own games How did you not just about get them on the market and those games with old finish they were sold in backstreet shops you know you go down an alleyway and find a computer she'll. Be out of a speakeasy about it there was something in credibly like you say it was a very a very British phenomenon and a kind of slightly eccentric and slightly clunky phenomenon as well I think is what I love about it now that's one of things I like about outside cottage I mean I'm sure you're right it was a very seedy shops sometimes I can hand out stores some get a bike that I can say Yeah I don't know we're stopping the Smiths and John Menzies Well that's true he said the big shops go on a kind of cottage industry and even some of the big companies like he sent and ultimate which was like really enigmatic they were family members doing it like brothers and dance some say sisters chemical they were doing in their own homes so you had I say middle aged men other men in their forty's sometimes earlier coming back from work and in the front room and I'm quoting and school kids are coming back from school and cutting until they were sent to bed and you're right some of those kids age 15 kinds produced and sent to WS meant well as I did a little opportunity it was really entirely possible to cross over from being a player a program of completely I think of people like Matthew Smith who was the guy who did Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy who was an extraordinary enigmatic figure in his own right always about 16 wasn't he when he programmed manic minor and it sold you know a couple of 1000000 cockiness rhymes I think that's right and then I think he kind of turned out he did some crazy games. Most obviously Manic Miner Jet Set Willy and then he kind of disappeared he was quite eccentric and there was a website up for a while like where is Matthew Smith and I was I think he was I think he was he was farming shape in Holland or something and then he came back and now he's going on and now he's doing to the. It's kind of a genius I mean I must confess I never really took a chance that would be the way to you know a lot of artists are it was never really one of my favorites I still totally respect his creation comes easy Jet Set Willy was a big thing for me I was obsessed with jet set with a you know the period when. A 12 year old boy would sit down with 6 sheets of A 4 graph paper Psilocybe together and try and map a game and Jet Set Willy was the one that I attempted to map 1st and it just the problem with the it just didn't make any sense at all there were no to me absolutely that set with house so you could yeah wouldn't matter reliably again or you know how close we came to the way I may go I think is where I like I like the ultimate games kind of polished you know what you're talking about maps and the way that help with their homework kind of square square type are through doing crafts doing a map class geography is now. You know in the way that parents didn't quite intend I think it was educational because people were like spending ages you wanted to map the ones which were published in Crash magazine and so on were maps with like beautiful drawings in the margins like I'm like an old map of you know unexplored seas where they could see monsters in the side you know he is a monster I would draw all kind of pitiful pictures so you had teenage boys spending a lot of time on these labors a lot when they should have been doing their tissue homework I think that's an official homework was pretty creative and dedicated in its own words you know in computer games a problem solving as well there are logic problems to solving spectrum girls are with you all the way here what was your own background with the spectrum then when did you get your 1st spectrum will walk from some of the people I've been talking to as I was pretty early adopter I mean it was December 82 the spectrum came out and spring I tell you. Yeah to the extent that my parents my parents decided to give me a complete which is really kind of magic has a lot of money and it's 99 pounds 16 K. Spectrum and big big. Chunk of cash they were going to get me that excited one and I'm really glad they didn't because they have all the same companies go out one morning color and really glad I didn't know disrespect was Alexei wonder by the start of one kind of memory and I actually like the spectrum cable that come out spectrum in front of me now Bob I have in front in front of my TI say yeah I like the properties but the type sensitive keyboard for that exact one and never never got along without So December 82 was a big turning point for me and simple graphics I guess but just seeing graphics on your family television Yeah absolute marvel my dad was dumbstruck by my he can play that he was really proud of but I didn't even really see the spectrum after that because you know as soon as I had a black community they took it to my room it didn't say again on my Christmas Day. Brought us together as a family because we couldn't believe you could actually control things moving around going out that's that's really heartwarming because I kind of like with the benefit of adult hindsight but I think it kind of divided my lane you know it was like OK I wanted it on the big color T.V. In the front room you know but Christmas Day 9094 which was when I got my spectrum and I was like that was forcibly removed from the front room in the spectrum unplugged so that my mom and dad could watch the just good friends Christmas special and I have a sense of my own for the rest of the eighty's really I didn't take a black and white T.V. Into my bedroom after that are but I think it was worse to have your privacy you know to tell yourself that again even though I was black and white Yeah well my project is about if I can segue a little bit this is a this isn't a forced segue but it's part about is the imagination that people had to invest in the gangs and particularly a lot of us did have black and white when I think of it I think it was black might actually I think of it in color and moreover I don't think of it as being those simple graphics I think of it as being whole immersive world one of the games that . I never really was never good at this never played this game to women I just played it too slow it was taken a knock which is fair enough Cal to the land of Celtic me in there you know you're doing all I ever did because I've not only was I rubbish at I never I never tried to be better I just like walking around and so I really felt I was a Celtic wilderness but if you look at the graphics now they're very very simple and what I was doing and what from interviews are carried out so far pretty much every other player was doing was kind of co-creating they're going by and testing their magination and you look at the simple things and you're reading at yourself you're mentioning things into your foot was the phrase I. The phrase I use in my comment in March because I've written so far is a phrase that a lot more responded use telling in the gaps or filling in the blanks because you got these simple graphics and then by you put your own imagination in between the graphics to fill and fill in the background it was absolutely it was definitely the 1st hobby pastime that I'd ha but I could completely immerse myself in yeah time just vanished You know it felt like I'd been playing for an hour you know you haven't you been in front of a locker my portable T.V. For 6 hours you know and it was time to go deeper on a field or I was moving little graphics on a screen I know I was actually in a while Absolutely yeah interesting the thing was I think a lot of spectrum enthusiasts then went on to to literally create their own world by by by writing their own programs a lot yeah well and I think you know I don't get that somewhat from people with all the computers I do I know I've not come across many coming only for owners you know that there are programs that seem to be something that was very specific towards the spectrum possibly because the spectrum kind of lent its in a spectrum BASIC was very easy to get to grips with that kind of lend you had elf to around it have it have words actually printed on the key you can live in 11 but yeah it's true. Yeah there's there's a big crossover between people playing games and the fans are games then writing their own game thinking employed by that company but also some of those programmers are still working in the street now yeah but the people behind ultimate still in where I have a lot of time to play games now you know I do what I do when I can I think the spectrum the people the big players in the spectrum was a major influence on the gaming say now so what are you looking to do here with the project you're meeting spectrum plans and recording their stories what are you working towards for 2022 Yeah I'm doing good question I'm doing a couple things in my. Rather than just quiet. Really I like kind of the it's almost you made a platform Pollock's I think it's easier to reach people with your message or you know things you can't report that way so I read an article which are submitted to an academic journal. And that I'm usually for an academic journal if that is published it will be open access which means it's available to everyone so as not this one tucked away in the lives of 5 people probably I have to share online or in a book proposal for a publisher that's working with my last book so that's accepted our love developing to writing a book and I find for the anniversary and I'm putting together this film of interviews with Spectrum players which. The Center for computing history in Cambridge is offered to incorporate within their display and to screen at their site the anniversary to so possibly 3 things that were all there really connected there about what the spectrum meant to people. The the incredible creativity and invention of the programmers who was squeezing things pushing this machine further than we ever could have imagined by games that came out and 88 yeah leagues ahead of 82 or only credible people I mean they kept on because of that creative limitation in terms of graphics and sound and memory they took as a challenge and they were like you know what can we get out of this machine so I think that also as a side that the players just how we invest their own imagination as games and our own almost everyone is playing a different game I think because you look at the graphics you imagine worlds which were suggested by the graphics. Kind of like yeah it sounds like a fascinating project. Best of luck with it all please keep us posted we'll definitely come back to the program if that's OK I want to appreciate that it's an absolute pleasure you kind of all right for contributors and I am I am so now I wouldn't say I would want to say no I'm on effort. OK it's my 1st round right now yeah it's great that people can just it's been really really nice just to talk to fellow fans and see how much you share and it's lovely yes memory. Is the detail as well you know people are saying oh well I had a spectrum and I had some games but I can't call. Everybody the specific details of every game they had it's no we've been talking about on Twitter and we said Yeah come and join us then up temperature definitely yeah where can people find you on Twitter Well you want to give us a plug It's just that we'll There we go Donal Yeah and we're just one I mean it's been a pleasure thank you Will for doing this and good luck with it a lot keep us posted I think. As Professor will broker from Kingston University here on B.B.C. To us and I am going to play a couple of trucks a year that were both in the charts when there's that expectation was launched back in April 1982 Starting with us. Let me. Cut cut So a new way of listening B.B.C. Sounds with music makes these moves. They go both of those in the hit parade when there's that expect from computer was launched in April 19th 82 books phase and my camera never lies in the face and that won the 100 and fantastic day and I can use that as an opportunity to plug the fact that Nick Hayward overhead got 100 at the George theatre in Stockton on the 19th of April Good Friday thing right B B C T's Bob Lots of you still getting in touch about the beloved said expect from computer from in Darlington and says this is so much a trip down Memory Lane thank you no thank you and king e says Never once did I use as that expects from rubber keyed to be witty for one piece of homework no never jetpack Yes arithmetic no no mean his her. Head to expect and never never went within a country mile of anything remotely academic and thank you to Eddie who says I love the spectrum segment remember the folklore that built up around some Zed xpect room games as well like the one that said if you went to the boat in the game Jet Set Willy. And waited until the clock on the game went to midnight and it was in real time so there was no way of putting it. Forward then it sailed off to an island like a secret room in Jet Set Willy me in a mate sat up for hours at his house waiting for it to happen says Eddie so did I not your mates I was just at my house and it doesn't happen. You've got to wait about 7. Hours for. Thank you for the date we've also got let me get back on the texts is this a text back up with me texts going I'd love to texts about this that I expect. About closed out my text when I can and don't tell you what I'll stick a record on while I reopen my text window because there was stuff about jets that were they and those that expect them there was stuff about prefab sprout as well as a few prefab sprout found out that while I do that I'll play the. a little bit earlier in the show so good to hear on the wireless at last she says bag great show last night as well thank you for that you're welcome they say yeah it was with me in the studio last night and was very entertaining. And his book is called the base the emperor the milkmen it's about Flemish cycling and it's brilliant Yeah it's good showed us now.