My start in the games industry

My start in the games industry

I’ve been making games for a while and what got me into games as a kid was a visit to the Lismore Show. I grew up in rural NSW and a trip to the Lismore Show was a big event – it was basically lots of cows and horses and ferris wheels. A number of tents were set up to show off different things and in one of the tents was a computer exhibition. In the exhibition they had a PET computer running a game called “Colossal Cave”, which was written by Crowther and Woods.

Microbee – a local AU computer

Microbee – a local AU computer

The Microbee was an Australian computer designed, built, and marketed by Applied Technology, in Gosford, N.S.W.  Originally released in February 1982, it was intended for the schools market but also had a wide and deep following amongst home users.  A considerable amount of software was published locally for the Microbee, through Honeysoft.  Many titles were games.

John Passfield

John Passfield

“Halloween Harry” was the last game that the schoolboy Passfield published in the 1980s, although he wrote many more, including a Star Trek Text Adventure. Passfield was also responsible for “Jaruu Tenk”, “Flight of the Amazon Queen” and “Brainiversity” properties.  At Krome he co-created the “TY the Tasmanian Tiger” series.

HoneySoft

HoneySoft

Honeysoft was the Publishing division of Applied Technology/Microbee Systems and known as Honeysoft Publishing Company, Waitara, N.S.W. They issued all manuals and software for the Microbee. This was the original office that Applied Technology started from until Applied Technology moved to bigger premises at Gosford.