Every so often, I think of something - perhaps a book, television programme or computer game - that I remember but that I have lost or have no record of. Usually when that happens, I turn to the web - a simple search and I have a massive amount of information on whatever it is in no time.
However, sometimes it doesn't work. For whatever reason, the collective consciousness has failed to remember some things. A few of these are recorded here, but since I'm relying on my memory, some facts may be inaccurate.
Fire was a computer game I used to have a copy of, but it was destroyed by the Dir II virus. You had to fly a helicopter through 8 levels, blowing up various things including hot air balloons, planes and a train (which constituted level 2). Then there were some levels over water, where you had to destroy boats, and some over desert, where you had destroy tanks and ground-to-air missile launchers. The really amazing thing about this game was the parallax scrolling - I'd never seen anything like it on the 8MHz 8086 I played it on. It had CGA and EGA graphics modes. The title screen (which took up most of the first of the two 360K floppy disks the game came on) was beautifully atmospheric, with the helicopter flying in front of the sun and stopping in the middle. Then there was this brilliant (and long) bit of sampled soundtrack. There was some documentation, but it was in French. When I asked Jim Leonard of Mobygames, he hadn't heard of it but said it sounded like a game by Loriciels. I found some screenshots for another Loriciels game on the web and the graphics did have a similar sort of style. I'd really like to play this again, but searching for "Fire" in the context of computer games is a somewhat futile exercise.
[Update!] - Fire wasn't by Loriciels at all but by New Deal Productions. I have found information about versions for the Amstrad CPC, Amiga and Atari ST, but still haven't found the PC version.
[Update!] - Found it! (at ibm5150.net). It can run from a hard drive in theory but the contents of the zip file need to be in the root directory for it to work. I seem to recall that to run it from 2 360Kb disks, the CGA and EGA directories need to be on disk 2 and everything else on disk 1. Start with "fire c" for CGA graphics, "fire e" for EGA graphics or "fire h" for Hercules graphics. The documentation also mentions "fire v" but that doesn't seem to work. This is probably because there's no vga graphics directory (it was also missing on the copy I had on floppies). The sampled soundtrack 52.7 seconds of 4-bit samples at 9.322KHz (1/384 of the NTSC colour burst frequency). DOSBox plays it fine in all 3 graphics modes, though needs to be slowed down a bit from the default - the game is CPU-speed dependent (unusually for a game made as recently as 1989).
For the most part the game is of very high quality but there are a few rough edges - apart from the VGA graphics problem already mentioned, the game seems too difficult to start with and then very easy once you get the knack of it. This, combined with its rarity, makes me wonder if the PC conversion was unfinished or unreleased.
I used to have a book which (like the "choose your own adventure" series) was divided up into sections, between about 1 and 5 per page. At the end of most of the sections there was a decision to make, with a section number for each choice. There were about 200 sections altogether, and many possible paths through the book. Every time I read it I came across sections I hadn't seen before. The book was also a competition - if you figured out it's secret you had a chance of winning a trip to Disneyland. The plot was that the land was dying, and you had to find a magic word to tell Steeleye the Raven so he could break the spell and restore the land. At one point in the book, you were falling and had to shout "Save me, Steeleye!", holding the feather he gave you at the beginning of the book, in order to get rescued. There were puzzles such as roman numeral codes and liar/truth-teller type things. There was a unicorn near the beginning who gave you a tear which emitted light. There was a talking tree near the end, and there might have been a swarm of bees somewhere. One character says "Deeds, not words" and tries to kill you. The book was published by Ladybird (it was that shape) but I don't remember what it was called or who wrote it.
[Update!] - I now know that the book is called "Steeleye and the lost magic" by Jason Kingsley, illustrated by Jon Davis and pubished in 1987. If anyone can help me find a copy I'd be very grateful to them!
[Update 2!] - I now have a copy of the book! It's a bit shorter than I remembered (only 117 sections) and a bit easier (I've solved it, I think, apart from one cryptic clue) but otherwise very much as I remember. I've scanned it so hopefully soon I'll find time to put it on the web (okay, it would be a copyright infringment, but since the book is out of print I'm sure there would be no harm in it.)
Links which helped me in my quest to find this book:
Demian Katz's Gamebook site - http://www.netaxs.com/~katz/game/book.htm
The Cheesypeas Ladybird book site - http://www.cheesypeas.demon.co.uk/ladybird
Sadly, both of these websites have since gone missing. Please let me know if you find them.
Comedy wordsmith and Splicer's disease sufferer Creighton Wheeler, who used to appear regularly on
Kevin Greening's weekend morning shows on BBC Radio 1, and now appears somewhat less regularly on Steve Wright's afternoon show on Radio 2.
[Update!] - The part of Creighton Wheeler is performed by Andrew McGibbon. Testbed made two shows about Creighton Wheeler in 2003 for Radio 4, called "Wheeler's Wonder" and "Wheeler's Fortune". Anybody know where I can get a hold of these? Apparently Creighton Wheeler has also appeared on Loose Ends.
Pickwick tell-a-tale tapes (in association with Ladybird books, Pickwick international and Moss Music) - brilliant audio books for children. I have "Treasure Island", "Swiss Family Robinson" and "Gulliver's Travels" but I'm sure there were many more. The voice acting and classical music were great.
[Update!] - Reader James pointed me to this website which is selling these tapes.
Along a similar vein, there used to be a magazine (I think) which came with a tape which had various childrens stories on it. The one I remember was "The thin king and the fat cook" but there were a few on each tape. I had a couple of tapes, but I've lost them now. Maybe they are still at my parents' house somewhere.
[Update!] - This is what I was talking about. Apparently I had "Story Teller 2" parts 5 and 16 and possibly also "Christmas Story Teller" part 2, because the titles Bored Brenda, Noggin And the Birds, The Snow Bear, The Inn Of Donkeys, Shorty The Satellite And The Brigadier, The Nightingale, Hugo And the Man Who Stole Colours, Mole's Winter Welcome, The Tale of the Little Pine Tree and Grogre and the Giant Nasher seem familiar. I remember very little about any of these except that (as I recall) some of them made me feel quite sad. And there was something about a picnic of bread, cheese and apples in one of them. And people getting swallowed up by a bog. Derek Jacobi's voice still makes me think of these stories to this day. It's quite possible that at least some of these tapes were chewed up by my tape player - it used to do that every once in a while (particularly when I stuck things into it - I was a little scientist).
[Update!] - I got a hold of a digital copy of all of the tapes and magazines, and they are just as good as I remember - extremely well done. I have been playing them for Alexander but he's a bit young for them at the moment. I look forward to the day when he is old enough to enjoy them. The one with the picnic was "The Snow Bear", and the sad one was "The Nightingale" (all these stories have happy endings, though). "Mole's Winter Welcome" still brings a tear to my eye.
The A Word A Day entry for 18th December 1998 reads:
Date: Fri Dec 18 00:04:27 EST 1998
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--straight-from-the-shoulder
X-Bonus: We see but dimly through the mists and vapors; \
Amid these earthly damps \ What seem to us but sad, funeral tapers \
May be heaven's distant lamps. -Longfellow (1819-1892)
straight-from-the-shoulder (strayt-fruhm-thuh-SHOAL-duhr) adjective
Frank and forthright: straight-from-the-shoulder reporting.
"A striking poem called Sequinned ends this way:
Girl, don't you let that city get away.
Lift it up, raise it up, slip your arms through
and take it back to dance.
This is poetry that speaks to us boldly, straight from the shoulder."
Natalie Soto, et al., On the Shelf, Rocky Mountain News, 21 Dec 1997.
This week's theme: idioms.
Anyone know who this poem is by and where I can get a copy?
[Update!] My friend Claudine Burgos found the poem. Not on the web, though - by the old-fashioned technique of looking up the archives of the Rocky Mountain News and calling the library to find a copy. The poem is by Allison Adele Hedge Coke and goes:
Don't tell me you couldn't reach down pick up
the whole gleaming garment and wear it
to fancy shawl dance back home. Dancing proud
in a twenty -four- dollar trinket city.
All laid out
shimmering and shining on jet black world
traffic lights, stret lamps, hot neons, cool fluorescents.
Headlights
swim freeways electric
minnows, glittering eyelets on bridges
bridges lacing up New York and Newark, separate
sides of a sequined vest. Borough lights trace out
webbed wing
butterfly design, no wasps- mosquitoes even.
Something ready to fly off the whole metro stretch.
Some cousin calling:
Girl, leave your French braids right `cause
Cut Nose is goin' ta have it out with you
Over snagging her sometimes half-side last night.
She wants to take yoru prize and crown
from Red Nations Pow Wow-
Her eyes painted sharp red at the corners,
red as the landing light
on this plane's wing tip.
Her plume high and straight, the Empire State,
while yours falls
gently over your part. But that vest-
red, green, gold, silver sparkles,
no one's got more brilliance.
More elegant that bugle beads and embroidery,
More stunning than satin and silk.
Girl, don't you let that city get away,
Lift it up, raise it, slip your arms through
And take it back to dance.
The game Willy the Worm was written by a guy called Alan Farmer. Anyone know anything about this game other than what's in the documentation, such as where to obtain the editor, and what the author is doing these days? I'd be particularly interested to know if there was ever a "Willy the Worm II" or a "Pete the Pigeon" game.
[Update!] - A school friend of Alan's sent me some of his software:
- Willy the Worm II and the level editor for Willy the Worm I.
- A DOS shell called The Compleat Filer (sic).
- A Spacewar clone called Rocket Rangers.
- An implementation of Conway's The Game of Life.
I used to have a book called something like "20 Games for the BBC Micro". They were written in BBC BASIC mostly (although there was one - a board game - which was written partly in assembler). You had to type them in. The games included Hunchback, Monty Mole, a Star Wars game and some others I don't remember. How come you can't find downloadable copies of these games to run on an emulator?
[Update!] I since found out what happened to the book - I lent it to a friend of mine and forgot about it. I'll have to try to remember to get it from him next time I see him, and possibly reproduce some of the programs here.
Chris Evans used to do the breakfast show on BBC Radio 1, and every Friday he and his cohorts would sing "The Weekend Song" (or, possibly, "The Friday Song".) Some of the lyrics were "I want Spielberg to focus my camera / I want Versace to dress my dog...".
[Update!] - Someone sent me some more lyrics:
I want to live in a castle,
I want an ocean for a pond,
I want a jumbo jet just to get to work,
Because it always takes me far too long.
I want to skip in the sunshine,
I want to dive into the deep blue sea,
I want to buy an ice cream for the man in the moon,
Because he always shines his light on me.
I want Spielberg to focus my camera,
I want Versace to dress my dog,
I want a current account at the Jodrell Bank,
I want Niagara falls to flush out my bog.
We're all just a drop in the ocean,
And the world's just the size of a pea,
And like a meal for one, it'll soon be gone,
And it's all just a cliché for me.
Anyone got a recording?
"Das Verflixte Hundespiel" by Artus Puzzle. You had nine cardboard squares, and on the side of each square was half a dog (either a head or a tail). There were four different types of dog. You had to arrange the squares into a 3x3 matrix in such a way that the heads and tails matched up. It was very difficult! There are 9! x 48 = 23,781,703,680 different ways of arranging the squares but only 2 solutions. I eventually gave up and wrote a computer program to solve it.
[Update!] - Das Verflixte Hundespiel is still being sold here. Apparently it is Swiss. This isn't exactly the same version I had - the dog illustations on the version I had were different.
A friend of mine remembers having a British version - anyone know anything about it?
My then girlfriend (now wife)'s family bought me a similar puzzle which is even more difficult as it only has one solution. The box and website claim that there are "over 300,000" wrong ways to assemble the pieces but this is a gross underestimate (probably based on 9! = 362,880 permutations, which doesn't include orientations).
[Update!] - Commenter John requested the solver program and solutions. Here they are. It is currently set up to solve the card suits jigsaw version (I don't have the "Das Verflixte Hundespiel" puzzle to hand). It's not a particularly elegant way of coding it (18 nested loops for the tile choices and orientations) but it should be easy to adapt for similar puzzles. There is a project file for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 but the code is portable.
This one isn't for me, but for a friend of mine. Dave writes:
Several years ago, a band called Blind Melon did an acoustic set on a late-night ITV rock/metal show called "Noisy Mothers". Around a month later, the lead singer died of a cocaine overdose, after they'd only released two albums [they released a third posthumously]. I've been trying to track down a recording of that ever since I accidentally taped over it a couple of years ago, before I could transfer the VHS to digital... I'll be impressed if anyone in the world can track a copy down...
Can you help?
[Update!] here is one of the songs from the set.
Some years ago, I remember seeing several episodes of a TV show called "They Who Dare" on BBC2. Each episode was only 10 or 15 minutes long (might have been longer or shorter, I don't remember, but I'm sure it wasn't a full half-hour).
Each episode documented some dare-devil sport such as parachuting, hang-gliding or BASE jumping. One particularly memorable episode featured people jumping out an aeroplane and then parachuting down large holes in the ground. The holes themselves were formed by some unusual natural phenomenon, and were quite spectacular even without people parachuting down them.
Each episode was a real work of art - fusing music and beautiful landscape cinematography with the human drama of people who get their kicks from flying through these scenes in some dangerous fashion. It was so enthralling that I remember regularly finding myself realizing at the end of an episode suddenly realizing that I had actually been watching TV for the past 15 minutes and not actually performing these incredible stunts.
I'd love to get a hold of copies of all the episodes of this show, but have only found single, in-passing mention of it using Google.
Along similar lines, I remember hearing about a 5-minute BBC promotional film short featuring a Helicopter tour around the coast of Britain. I never saw it (except for highlights on Points of View but I remember people saying it was really amazing to watch. I have ever since been kicking myself for missing it.
What is this piece of music? I found it on an episode of This American Life but this piece isn't listed. It isn't on TAL's scoring tracks page either (I think - I listened to them all and didn't hear anything that sounded like it). The world needs a search engine where you can upload a piece of music and find out what it is.
[Update!] - Somebody pointed out that such services already exist - Shazam is one and I think there are several others. Unfortunately they all seem to need an SMS-capable mobile phone which doesn't really help me because I don't have one.
[Update 2!] - John Philips from Bath emailed me with the answer - the song is "At The River" by Groove Armada.
This one is a real long-shot, since there is almost nothing to go on.
There is a childrens book I remember reading as a child, but I remember almost nothing about it. I remember that I read it in the childrens' section of Goring library, and it may have been about some children going into space. I think it was (at least mostly) a picture book. I have a vague recollection of one of the illustrations being of something like this (possibly in the middle of a large room, possibly aboard an alien spaceship - though that could just be a mental picture I formed at the time). I don't know that I would even recognize it if I saw it. I do remember that I felt amazingly inspired by it at the time and I have a feeling it may have influenced my life greatly.
I recently visited Goring Library again for the first time in more than 19 years. It was very much like I remembered (though as one would expect it seemed smaller than I had remembered). Unfortunately (with the exception of some Meg, Mog and Owl books I had completely forgotten the existence of) all the books I that were around when I was a child seemed to have been replaced.
So to sum up, this book:
- Was written for children
- Has colour illustrations
- Was published in the UK in 1988 or before
- Has a science-fictiony sort of story, possibly involving aliens
Any suggestions about books that might fit these criteria?
From Ben Davis, via Dave:
Just wondering if anyone remember a game called 'Prunes' for the BBC computer?
I tried searching the Internet the other day, but amazingly the Internet seems to contain absolutely no knowledge of the game's existence. :/
I remember it well enough to remake it last night :) I'm just still getting to grips with the fact that it seems to be completely unknown to the world.
Screenshot: http://bdavis.strangesoft.net/prunes.png
You are "the last of the Giant Prunes", aka the white pixel leaving a cyan trail. You have to surround the "Giant Figs" (red pixels moving randomly and leaving a magenta trail), and then touch a blue-yellow flashing pixel, at which point any fully surrounded magenta regions turn green. Unfortunately there's no win condition (in mine or in the original), so you eventually end up with what resembles a cyan and green world map and nothing to do.
It's a pretty faithful remake. Apart from exact dimensions and timings and stuff like that, the only bits I couldn't remember were the scoring mechanism and the behaviour when a blue helper prune (which eats through fig trails for you) touches a flashing pixel. The sound effects are missing from my version, which is a shame since they had bags of character.
Executables (insert standard disclaimer here yada yada): http://bdavis.strangesoft.net/prunes.exe (DOS) http://bdavis.strangesoft.net/prunes-win.exe (Windows)
Source - compiles with Allegro on some other platforms like Linux and Mac: http://bdavis.strangesoft.net/prunes.cpp
Maybe I'll launch a full-scale investigation to find out who made the original game and make sure they know that they are awesome.
My suspicion is that this was never actually published anywhere - that it was just something coded by a secondary school student over a few lunchtimes (probably starting with the random walk used by the figs and blue things - I coded that up algorithm myself shortly after learning C), evolved into a game and possibly got passed around on disk. It has a Qix-like feel to it so may have been inspired by that. The simple graphics, the fact that it's not winnable and the fact that it's relatively easy to get to a stalemate situation all point to an unpublished, one person job. However, it would be interesting to track down the original version and/or it's author.
I am pulling my hair out trying to find the solution to the Verflixte Hundespiel puzzle you mentioned in one of your blogs. Any chance you can post the program you wrote to solve it?
\john
[...] Cool Stuff You Can’t Find On The Web has been updated: [...]
There is open source project Crazy Turtle Solver. You can enter problem in editor at http://crazyturtle.sourceforge.net/editor.html press SOLVE and you get complete list of all possible solution images. You will have to map dogs to turtles, but principle is the same. There is more stuff on site, editor solver, on-line game...
On line game Applet example: http://crazyturtle.sourceforge.net/ngame.html?p=053016704237206543216165436310747525
There is source too.
What is the answer to steeleye and the lost magic? HELP!
Hello, the answer is "The proud golden eagle cherishes the lost magic". I worked this out a few years ago but I wasn't sure I had got it right. I just worked my through the book again and confirmed it. I'm afraid you're about 21 years too late to win the Disney holiday, though!
I actually have one old VHS videotape I still treasure. It has the episode of "They Who Dare" where the Italian climbers go canoeing to the base of the glacier and climb their way up from inside it, all to the songs of 'Monastery of La Rabida' and 'Light and Shadow' from Vangelis' 1492 - The Conquest of Paradise. Still can't believe after all this time I haven't been able to find any source to get the (other) episodes. If the BBC released them on whatever format I'd be the first customer.
Hello,
you have a digital copy of the Tell-A-Tale tapes and books? Please, where could I purchase that? My tape of "A Christmas Carol" just broke and this bloke never gave me back my copy of "Dracula", argh. I cannot do without them, especially the Christmas Carol. My dad bought several Tell-A-Tales for me when I was a little girl in Germany and he brought them home from GB. Now I am 34 years old and still listened to the tapes, actually I can quote from The Christmas Carol. Please let me know how I can get a new copy of my favourites,
all the best,
Kay
I'm afraid I haven't been able to find digital copies of the Tell-A-Tale tapes, only The Storyteller. I too would be interested in such a thing.
Kay, a commenter sent me a copy of A Christmas Carol, but your email address bounced. Let me know if you're still looking for it.
Do you still have a digital copy of the Tell-a-Tale A Christmas Carol Would love to know how to get hold if it :)
Hi! Check out my reply to Dan says. I think you might be interested!!!
Brilliant - many thanks!
Hi there! Please check out my reply to Dan says. I think you might be interested!
Hi Kay! Check out my reply to Dan says. I think you might be interested!!!
Many thanks for the link to Willy the Worm Part II. This was my favorite game as a child. Sadly, the only copy I had was corrupted. Thanks again.
I too remember Shorty The Satellite. He appeared in a weekly collectable book club thing with a cassette called "Storyteller". Such a terrific idea. Poems, stories. Gobbolino and the little wooden horse etc
Most stories had some moral message. Brilliant memories. One of my fave video games was Toki, Trojan, Wrestle War, Altered Beast.
I've been looking for They Who Dare for ages too, I really liked the fact that they focused on the majesty of it all, with good cinematography and soundtrack, rather than talking heads. I'd be very interested if you found any of it in an available form.
I've similarly searched in vain for any reference to the BBC "They Who Dare" series on the Internet. You just get tons of references for the 1954 film. A search for "They Who Dare" on youtube returns no results. It's obviously a conspiracy.
Anyway, here's my contribution: the brilliant haunting theme music used on "They Who Dare" is a clip from Ennio Morricone's sound track for the film "The Mission". You can listen to this on youtube (the bit they used is about 3:20 from the start) and you may find it brings back memories of the stunning production quality of the series and lent such atmosphere to the beautiful footage of highly skilled nutters trying to kill themselves in spectacular parts of the world.
Also, there is a tiny amount of info on the series at: http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/520744 . The producer was Tony Rayner, if that helps anyone.
Ok, I have after all this time managed to somehow get my one and only prized VHS tape recorded into my computer [after a few failed initial attempts related to my tuner card etc which is why it's been put aside this long] so you fellow fans can revisit one of the They Who Dare episodes! Enjoy! Hopefully the presence of this on Youtube will jog some memories and some other people who never thought of uploading They Who Dare might dig up some old videotapes or share episodes they've digitized already [if they exist].
Look for "They Who Dare BBC2 part 1 of 2" on Youtube.
Oh bugger not sure it seems to work using the title in the search as I just tried it!
direct link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1oM9EEkpGY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGcuUeK9C-4
I actually found this clip of the second part of the They Who Dare episode I posted above, however it is all in Italian and has some slightly different (but actually quite nice ambient) music choices at particular points. It seems it was supposedly shot for a "No Limits" episode, however I can't find this anywhere. BUT, "Many years ago the client (Sector Sport watches) asked to make a TV serial with 10 films and every film had to be a record, possibly a world record! " so if you look on his Upload videos page it shows a couple of clips including a Base Jumper whom I'm not sure if he was in They Who Dare or not though the "10 film tv serials" may have nothing to do with the Ice Climb episode, if he was involved with the shooting of that somehow as well.
SL, thanks for uploading that episode to youtube - fantastic!
Here's another thing I can't find on the web: when I was a kid (late 1970's to early 1980s) there was a black and white sci-fi series on the TV some time around 5 or 6 in the evening. It might have been set in the '30's or'40's. It had short-ish episodes. The only one I can clearly remember involved a device called the "Decimator" (IIRC) - some kind of ray gun gizmo invented by a guy in a white lab coat. I think he was a good guy, but the bad guys wanted the device. It ended up with a punch-up in the villain's underground lair. Some guy lobbed a stone at the switch of the Decimator which then turned-on and melted the caves and caused it all to collapse - the guy in the lab coat stayed behind to try and turn it off but couldn't and he got trapped/killed in the ensuing cave-in.
Does that ring any bells for anyone?
That sounds like an old Doctor Who episode to me. Or maybe The Outer Limits or The Twilight Zone - I think those had longer episodes, though.
What a God send this site was!! I've been racking my brains for so long about the theme tune to 'They Who Dare' and with the help of this site can confirm it is 'The Falls' taken from Ennio Merricone's soundtrack from 'The Mission' (as described above. Here's the link to the isolated track if your interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv7OmraB01c Enjoy
Hi! I just stumbled upon your blog today in search of Story Teller 2. Could you let me know where I can find digital copies please? I had some parts as a kid & I love them! I have lost them & is now desperately trying to find them again but they don't seem to be available anywhere at all! Thank you!!
I have digital tranfers, (mp3's) of Story Teller 2 along with PDF scans of the booklets if you are interested.
I know what it feels like as I hunted them down over a period of many years. Contact me if you want copies.
Do you have Treasure Island? I'd love to have all of the MP3's, I grew up with Treasure Island audio tape but it was lost long ago :( I found the version on youtube but it's not v high quality, I also loved the other stories and would really enjoy listening to them all again x
I have Treasure Island on tape but unfortunately it has not survived the years very well and the sound quality is very poor, with some parts being completely inaudible. I'll clean it up as well as I can and upload it somewhere if you haven't found a better copy elsewhere.
Sorry, I have another question that you might be able to help me with. Have you ever watched any fairy-tales that were telecast on television but they were acted by real people, not cartioons or images? They were pretty realistic & had nice effects too. I watched them as a kid but I can't find any info on them either. I remembered some of the stories as "The Twelve Dancing Princesses", "Jean & the Beanstalk", "Cinderella"? Thank you!!
Oh in case anyone wonders, the two Vangelis tracks in the They Who Dares episode are "Monastery of La Rabida" and "Light and Shadow" from his soundtrack to the film '1492 Conquest of Paradise'. Light and Shadow being the slightly ominous choral like one from the 1st part and Monastery of La Rabida the icy landscape evoking one from the 2nd part.
Hi guys,
two things you may be able to help me with. I notice that there is mention of the Ladybird Pickwick International tapes. I have been looking for ages for the 'well loved tales' series of cassettes. These were produced as a companion to the ladybird books between 1979-1993 and are not either the ladybird 'favourite tales' produced from 1994 onwards or given away on CD with the daily Mirror. Does anyone know if this stuff is archived on mp3 anywhere? Ladybird and Pickwick (at least the versions of the company that produced these tapes) no longer exist and there are no audio archives.
Second question relates to a tv program I saw almost 20 years ago. I'm racking my brains trying to remember what it was called.
I'm beginning to think I dreamed it. I have no idea of its title but I do think it must have been similar to The Twilight Zone or Tales from the Darkside.
The story was about a singer who was filming a rock music video. In the video (in her rock costume, and heavy make-up)she became a character that was very different to her own personality : seductive, predatory and dark.
She get's so caught up in the excitement that she begs the recording crew to shoot the video over and over again.
In the end, when she is playing the tape, the darker version of herself takes on a life of its own and begins to taunt and stalk her.
I don't even know if this was British made or U.S. The lead looked a lot like Bonnie Tyler in the 1980's complete with Blonde Spiky hair.
Can anyone remember this?
J
As regards Pickwick Tell A Tale, check out my reply to Dan says! I think you might be interested!
Thanks for all the info regarding "they who dare", that program stuck in my memory for years and this is the only time I have ever heard about it since :) props to all the people out there who it made such a big impression on, in right with you!!!
Ps. I do have a few of the Tell-a-Tales digitised! not very many but it is a start!
This is a great site! Congratulations!
Related to "Steeleye and the lost magic": I've just found it this weekend while going thru some of my *old* stuff...
I've realized that there are two sections (72 and 50) which are not referred to at all (50 being a sort of "try it again" unsuccessful end to the story). Rather then believing that this is some kind of a "bug" or editing mistake, I tend to think that the original story was darker and longer than the one finally printed.
Any ideas on how we could contact the authors to validate this? They have also gone M.I.A. on the internet...
Cheers,
Thanks, DN!
I think the fact that 72 is unreachable is due to a mistake - the "TURN to 28" in 65 should read "TURN to 28". As it is there is a loop. I think the "TURN to 33" in 80 should also be "TURN to 23".
I'm not sure if 50 is a vestige of a longer, darker version or just an easter egg. I always thought it was a way to "kill" players who were not following the directions properly (being approximately half-way through the book), but that doesn't really make any sense.
I wonder if the Jason Kingsley who wrote Steeleye is the same Jason Kingsley who founded the computer game company Rebellion?
As for the BBC Micro games, there is a page called "Christopher's BBC Pages" (http://www.c.r.dewhurst7.freeuk.com/bbc/BBCBOOKS.HTM) that has many of the old BBC Micro type-and-run books as PDFs as well as disk images that can be run on an emulator such as BeebEm available for download. Now that was a trip down memory lane!
Wow - thanks, Richard! That is a very comprehensive set of books. I think the one I was thinking of might be "Virgin Games for your BBC Micro" (and I'm wondering if that is the same as "Games For your BBC Micro" by Alex Gollner). Unfortunately that one isn't available on the site (removed for copyright reasons?) so I can't be sure. I also had "21 Games for the BBC Micro" but those games were simpler (I think that might be the one I leant to my friend).
I find it astonishing that, given the extraordinary amount of information which is covered by the web, how much more information ISN'T covered.
Example: a line from a poem which was in a book I read sometime between the late 1940s and late 1950s. " ...the green wind and the rain...." This does not seem unsearchable, yet I have never found the poem. It was about an approaching storm, and I think it was from a "graded reader" -- a book of assorted reading suitable for a single school grade.
I think myself to be a fairly talented web searcher (people often come to me for searches they have failed at) yet this one eludes me. (Many searches elude me, but in this case the failure aggravates me.)
Does anyone else have a single search failure that haunts them?
Is there any update on the tell-a-tale stories? Is there any way to get them in a digital format?
Thanks so much for putting this site up. It is sad that these tales have not survived over time...
Hi! Check out my reply to Dan says. I think you might be interested!!
I just added They Who Dare to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Who_Dare_%28TV_Series%29
It is time for these Pickwick Tell a Tale (Penguin Children's Classics) tapes to be digitised. I have written to Penguin and they have no archives so the only recordings available are those that are out there in dusty old boxes or at car boot sales! I remember so fondly listening to Hound of the Baskervilles and Treasure Island - I had all of them - but sadly my tapes were lost in a house fire. Now I want to share them with my children but can't find them ANYWHERE!
Can anyone help? Maybe we should start an on-line digitisation project?
Hi! Check out my reply to Dan says. I think you might be interested!
Hi just reading about steeleye and the lost magic, I was fortunate enough to be the winner of the competition. I met Jason the author and still have my signed copy of the book on my shelf. The pize of going to disney world is still one of my best memories.
Hi Simon,
I work freelance for different tv channels - im doing a programme on niche retro - can we make contact please?
p.s. it is the same jason kingsley as rebellion software :)
Simon - thanks for commenting and congratulations on your skill and good fortune! I remember being very frustrated at the age of 8 or so that I couldn't figure out the answer. Did I get it right in the 5th comment above?
[...] – little program I wrote to convert the audio data for the game Fire! by New Deal Productions from 4-bit to 8-bit format so that I could play it back [...]
Andrew - your answer is correct for steeleye. I think at the time i did get a bit of help from mum in soving it (but don't tell anyone !!) :)
Hullo chief! Found some Story-Teller stuff on YouTube including Shorty the Satellite! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So9br8dUBrI Used to love this story in particular, though the slightly eerie music and premise of being eaten by magnets in a black hole still gives me goosebumps!
Hi everyone -
I'm also desperately looking for the digital versions (or in any formatto tell the truth... ;-) of some of the pickwick tapes. The one that really would brighten up my day is the hound of the baskervilles with the col soundtrack from Mussorgsky (Night on bare mountain as I recall). This one I have so many childhood memories of, and I would like to brin 'em back! Does anyone have them on file somewhere???
Cheers David
Check out my reply to Dan says. I think you might be interested!
Thanks for the link to Willy the Worm 2 girlfriend is a big fan of Willy 1 and didn't know this existed!
I too am looking for the Hound Of The Baskervilles tape/mp3. I love that as a kid, but can't for the life of me remember where my copy went. I still have the book, but it's the audio I'm really after.
Can't believe that there's nowhere on the internet you can find it. :( If anyone has a copy please let know
Hi Dan,
Check out this link: http://english.htu.cn/STORIES/INDEX.HTM
You will find Hound of The Baskervilles along with other audio recordings! I found this link when looking on youtube and I came across an audio of A Christmas Carol which had the attached link. Tip though: when I looked up this site on Google Chrome there was only text displayed. When using Internet Explorer 9 you can actually listen to the recordings, although it didn't really work for me which is probably due to my internet connection. Anyway after some trial and error I found a way to download these recordings! Again it was slow but it does work. I've only come across this site in the last couple of weeks. It is long winded but this is how you do it:
Firstly you will need Internet Explorer 9 & Google Chrome installed. You may be able to use other browsers but when I used Google Chrome to look up this webpage, the function to enable you to play the stories as audio was missing. It was only when I used Internet Explorer 9 that I saw you could play it as audio, although my internet connection is slow. But if you combine Google Chrome & Internet Explorer 9 together, you will be able to download. Once you have both: copy link address http://english.htu.cn/STORIES/INDEX.HTM
and browse it using Internet Explorer 9, click on the title you want to download. You will then see the text of the story. Depending on your settings, it might ask you to enable Windows Media. If it doesn't and you see the Play and Stop symbol on screen, that's fine. Otherwise enable Windows Media. Once enabled, again, you will see the Play & Stop symbol. Once you get to this stage, hover your cursor over the Play symbol and right click and select Properties. You will then see a box appear on the left hand side of the screen. Highlight the web address which follows Location, then copy address and paste it into Google Chrome browser. You will then have a black screen with a time run in the middle of the screen. Click on the Play symbol so the recording pauses. Then go to the Spanner symbol on the top right hand side of the screen, then select Save Page As. You will then have the box appear on the left where it will give you the option to save file in MP3 format. Click Save and your download will begin! It may be slow. It was for me but my Internet connection is crap!
Hope this helps and enjoy! This applies with all the stories on that webpage. :)
Thank you so much!!!
You just can't imagine what it means to me to finally get a hold of this!
The perfect ending for a perfect day!
regards David
Hi stuart
Sorry for the long delay in my reply, been a bit busy recently so only just around to leaving a message.
A HUGE thanks to you, you're a star :D am overjoyed to find it again. I've got two small kids so am looking forward to playing it for them
Thanks again
Dan
Hi Pickwick fans!
Does anyone remember the Ladybird Horror classics audio cassettes? I am trying to get hold of Dracula. The following is a forum link where you can download other Horror classics in this series: Frankenstein, The Mummy, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: http://forums.doyouremember.co.uk/threads/8773-1980s-children-audio-cassettes-Well-Loved-Tales
Of course Dracula is also included but the problem is only side 2 of it is available. When you try to download side 1 the link is not available or has expired. All the others, at the time of writing this, you can download fine. Although, as you would come to expect, the audio quality can very but remember how old these recordings are and the fact that they were on cassette. So does anyone out there have a copy of the Ladybird Horror cassette of Dracula they could rip and upload to a site? This is the only one I am missing so hope someone can help! Thank you!
For other classic Ladybird recordings, check my reply to Dan says!
Reference my above request: I am pleased to say I have been given a link to side 1 of the Ladybird Horror classic Dracula and the sound quality of the recording is great! Compared to the original upload from a few years ago which was quite dodgy for several minutes at the beginning, this is soooo much better! So for anyone interested, here the links for side 1 & 2 of Ladybird Horror Classic: Dracula.
http://www.mediafire.com/?al8fl59evvv66cs (side 1)
http://www.mediafire.com/?89bbthb5yvf4jv2 (side 2)
Enjoy!! And please, don't have nightmares....
Hey guys, thanks so much for the links. Its a joy to hear them again :D
Can't believe I've heard it again for the first time in twenty odd years. Woohoo
Hi Dan,
That's no problem. Glad you're enjoying them! This should be a real treat for your kids. I can't believe myself how long ago I heard Dracula and the rest of these stories. It just proves that they don't make them like they used to. Hope your kids don't have nightmares! lol :)
Stuart
Just stumbled across this blog....by any chance do you have a link to The Hound of the Baskervilles LadyBird Horror Classic? The Dracula one was great but it was the Hound that terrified me as a child! Thanks.
Hi,
Please check out my reply on this page to Dan says 7th March. My reply was on the 14th March. There is a link for Well Loved Tales, including Hound of the Baskervilles and how I downloaded it!! Enjoooyyyy!!!
Hey man what was the answer to Steeleye and the Lost Magic? It's been torturing me for ages!
Drew, the answer is "The proud golden eagle cherishes the lost magic".