wee doors banging

Elite, the groundbreaking space trading and combat game created by Ian Bell and David Braben, was released 25 years ago on September 20th 1984. In celebration of this milestone, Frontier Developments have launched a new website dedicated to Elite.

I’ve released an updated WHDLoad patch for an Amiga game that nearly wasn’t, Expose’s platformer No Buddies Land. This release updates the installer script and fixes a lurking access fault in one of the Synthdream module replay routines. Credit is again due to Don Adan of Wanted Team for helping identify and explain the problematic sections.

PRONI, the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, have launched a searchable archive of Belfast Street Directories dating back as far as 1819.

Street Directories are books containing a listing of the names, addresses and occupations of the inhabitants of Belfast as well as lists of commercial establishments operating in the city, and so are a vital resource for historical and genealogical researchers. Having them easily searchable online is a big step forward.

I’ve released an updated WHDLoad patch for Binary Asylum’s 3D helicopter’em’up, Zeewolf. This is a minor release to bring the installer script up to date.

Matter is Iain. M. Banks’ latest novel set in his much lauded Culture universe, an advanced, interstellar society of (mainly) humans, operating in a scarcity free economy and protected by benevolent artificial intelligences. I’ve very much enjoyed Banks’ previous outings into science fiction and the Culture, and Matter is his first Culture novel for eight years and his first science fiction novel since 2005’s The Algebraist, so I was eager to find time to read this latest offering.