The speaker for the January ROUGOL meeting was Anthony Bartram of AMCOG games, giving us an update of what he had been up to since he last visited ROUGOL (remember those days when we used to meet in person!).
 

TextEase if far more than just a DTP package. Depending on the version you buy, there are several additional programs included. In our first article, we looked at TextEase as a DTP/Word-processor and the packages available. In this part, we look at the Presenter application (!TeShow).
 

Upgrading RISC OS systems has become much simpler with recent releases. We covered how in an earlier article. However, if you are have a RISC OS machine from R-Comp, it is even easier. You can also take advantage of their very slick Installer which was updated just before Christmas to upgrade your machine to RISC OS 5.28.
 

Having successfully taken over and published his first edition of Archive magazine (doubtless a steep learning curve he seemed to very successfully negotiate), the new editor (Gavin Smith) has announced sightly revised plans for the 2021 publishing schedule.
 

This time, we pop across the channel to find out what David Feugey's desktop looks like...
 

While we still continue to live in 'interesting times' in 2021, and most of us are confined to our homes, there are still lots of RISC OS related events for you to join in.
 

Acorn - A World in Pixels, by idesine publishing, is a new 476 page book about the best the BBC Micro had to offer in games. From Airlift to Zalaga, a huge number of the well known BBC Micro-era games are included with wonderfully designed full-colour pages for each and interviews with some of the programmers behind the games and also the people behind the computers themselves. The book, published on 27 November, 2020, is beautifully presented in hardback form with an Acorn green bookmark attached to the spine and contained within a hard slip cover.
 
The book starts with a short overview of Acorn and the BBC Micro followed by overviews of some of the bigger publishers of the time including Acornsoft, Superior Software, Micro Power and the 4th Dimension before diving into the games themselves. Many games have a full page spread with a description of the game and screenshots and illustrations. Interspersed between the game pages are interviews with developers, publishers and other prominent names from the era.
 
Towards the end of the book, there's a selection of interviews and information about the magazines of the time including Acorn User, The Micro User and Electron User as well as some interviews with some of the people who produced the sound and graphics to go with the games.
 
Finally, there's a quick look at some more recent activity in game development for the BBC Micro with interviews with some developers who have been working on games for the systems in recent years.
 
If you played games on the BBC Micro or Electron, Acorn - A World in Pixels is bound to bring memories of the time flooding back.
 
The book is available from the usual book stores and the publisher's website with an RRP of £29.99.
 
Links
idesine: Acorn - A World in Pixels (Publisher's website)
 

Some things we noticed this month. What did you see?