Tim Hartnell
Encyclopedia
Tim Hartnell was an Australia
n journalist, self-taught programmer and extremely prolific, bestselling author of books and magazines on computer games. His company, Interface Publications (set up with Elizabeth North), produced titles for all of the machines in the home computer market, including Sinclair
machines. Hartnell wrote several compendiums of computer games, which typically had several categories of games, with several games in each category. Each category had tips for writing enjoyable games in that genre. Each game had a description of the program and an explanation of its implementation, sometimes with ideas for modifications; this was followed by the raw code, which the reader had to enter into the computer. Some long games, such as Bannochburn Legacy, had more than 500 lines of code.
To illustrate the style of these compendiums, here is the Table of Contents from Hartnell's Giant Book of Computer Gameshttp://www.devili.iki.fi/library/publication/119.en.html:
Hartnell also wrote several how-to books about various genres of computer games, including Giant Book of Spectrum Games published in 1983, and also edited others, including Pete Shaw
's Creating Adventure Games On Your ZX Spectrum, also published in 1983. They were designed so that a beginner could, using his programs as examples, intuitively learn the BASIC programming language. Although he created a wide variety of games, the code for all of them tended to be characterized by an outline-style organization that made it easy to discern the basics of how the program worked. His prose showed a passionate interest in, and enjoyment of, the games he created; he tended to be imaginative, witty, and dramatic, as well as nostalgic - he had little use for graphics, favoring text games that let the programmer's and player's imaginations do the work of creating the setting.
Hartnell returned to Australia in 1984 and died of cancer
in 1991, at the age of 40.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n journalist, self-taught programmer and extremely prolific, bestselling author of books and magazines on computer games. His company, Interface Publications (set up with Elizabeth North), produced titles for all of the machines in the home computer market, including Sinclair
Sinclair Research Ltd
Sinclair Research Ltd is a British consumer electronics company founded by Sir Clive Sinclair in Cambridge. Originally incorporated in 1973 as Ablesdeal Ltd., it remained dormant until 1976, and did not adopt the name Sinclair Research until 1981....
machines. Hartnell wrote several compendiums of computer games, which typically had several categories of games, with several games in each category. Each category had tips for writing enjoyable games in that genre. Each game had a description of the program and an explanation of its implementation, sometimes with ideas for modifications; this was followed by the raw code, which the reader had to enter into the computer. Some long games, such as Bannochburn Legacy, had more than 500 lines of code.
To illustrate the style of these compendiums, here is the Table of Contents from Hartnell's Giant Book of Computer Gameshttp://www.devili.iki.fi/library/publication/119.en.html:
- BOARD GAMES - ChessChessChess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
, GomokuGomokuGomoku is an abstract strategy board game. Also called Gobang or Five in a Row, it is traditionally played with go pieces on a go board ; however, because once placed, pieces are not moved or removed from the board, gomoku may also be played as a paper and pencil game...
, Awari, KnightsbridgeKnightsbridgeKnightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of central London. The road runs along the south side of Hyde Park, west from Hyde Park Corner, spanning the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
, ShogunShogunA was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...
and others - ADVENTURE GAMES - Stronghold of the Dwarven Lords, The Duke of Dragonfear, The Bannochburn Legacy
- SIMULATIONS - including Mistress of Xenophobia
- DICE GAMES - Chemin de ComputerBaccaratBaccarat is a card game, played at casinos and by gamblers. It is believed to have been introduced into France from Italy during the reign of King Charles VIII , and it is similar to Faro and Basset...
, No Sweat, Under'n'Over and three more - ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - including ElizaELIZAELIZA is a computer program and an early example of primitive natural language processing. ELIZA operated by processing users' responses to scripts, the most famous of which was DOCTOR, a simulation of a Rogerian psychotherapist. Using almost no information about human thought or emotion, DOCTOR...
and Electronic Brain - JUST FOR FUN - Inner Spring, Robot MinefieldRobots (computer game)Robots is a computer game originally developed for the Berkeley Software Distribution—a derivative of Unix—by Ken Arnold. In the turn-based game, players are tasked with escaping robots programmed to kill them. Since then it has been reproduced as clone games for various platforms.-Gameplay:Robots...
, and five others - FUN WITH YOUR PRINTER - Celestia and Billboard
- SPACE GAMES - including Moonlander
- BRAIN GAMES - Fastermind, Switcheroo and several others
Hartnell also wrote several how-to books about various genres of computer games, including Giant Book of Spectrum Games published in 1983, and also edited others, including Pete Shaw
Pete Shaw
For the football player of the same name see Pete Shaw .Pete Shaw is a British author, broadcaster, programmer and theatrical producer.- Early life :...
's Creating Adventure Games On Your ZX Spectrum, also published in 1983. They were designed so that a beginner could, using his programs as examples, intuitively learn the BASIC programming language. Although he created a wide variety of games, the code for all of them tended to be characterized by an outline-style organization that made it easy to discern the basics of how the program worked. His prose showed a passionate interest in, and enjoyment of, the games he created; he tended to be imaginative, witty, and dramatic, as well as nostalgic - he had little use for graphics, favoring text games that let the programmer's and player's imaginations do the work of creating the setting.
Hartnell returned to Australia in 1984 and died of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
in 1991, at the age of 40.
External links
- The Giant Book of Computer Games, Table of Contents,
- The Giant Book of Spectrum Arcade Games, Tanzarine Technology Ltd.
- Hartnell, Tim: Creating Adventure Games On Your Computer.
- Tribute at worldofspectrum.org