IAN BELL
2007 Interview with Stuart Goodwin

When did you first come across an Acorn computer? What did you make of it?

I never found them exciting enough to come across them. My father bought me a BBC Micro which eventually arrived when I was at university.

At what point did you decide to try your hand at programming? Was Reversi your first game?

No, my first program was on on a TRS 80 at school. Then I wrote a lot of of little games for the 80x80 text diplay of a TX9900 micro.

You've said in the past that you weren't entirely happy with how Freefall turned out, and that perhaps you implemented too many ideas suggested by the publishers. How different would the finished game have been if you had been left to your own devices?

It would have been harder. You would have been killed more easily.

Elite was one of the earliest games to really push the limits of the BBC - was there anything you would have liked to have incorporated into the game that there simply wasn't space for?

Some sort of acknowledgement or medal sequence when you made Elite. But we realised that it would not really really add much to the game as experienced most of the time by most players.

The Electron and BBC tape versions of the game were more restricted than the disk version - how satisfied were you with these versions?

The cassette version was the base game. The extras on the disk version were nice but not crucial. The Electron version was limited by the limitations of the Electron, which I never really liked as a computer.

A few programmers I've spoken to have mentioned occasional frustrations with coding for the Electron, particularly when they'd initially started working on a Beeb. What were your experiences of working with the Electron?

We were working with prototypes after hours in the Acorn offices. As far as I can remember it was fairly straightforward modifying Elite for the Electron, but it was a matter of reducing the number of ships, loosing the colour, and so on. We were limiting the game to the point where the machine could handle it.

Did you ever make use of the BBC B+? Were you ever approached to program an enhanced version of Elite for it?

I can't remember whether we were approached. We did the Master and 2nd Pro versions simply because we wanted to make the game as good as we could and those platforms existed. More memory and speed meant we could just ramp everything up and chuck in some frills like the 3D text and title sequence. They weren't really intended as commercial.

Gremlin's short-lived Star Clash was notoriously similar to the original Elite. What was your reaction to this game, and how was the situation eventually resolved?

I don't think I've ever seen it.

What are your memories of working with both Acornsoft and Superior Software?

Working with Acorn was good. I don't recall doing much with Superior.

While all the other programmers were playing Elite, what were you playing?

Chuckie Egg.

How far into an Elite sequel did you and David Braben get before aborting the project?

I had recoded the Elite Universe in a custom TIL (Threaded Interpretive Language, like Forth) and writen new tactics routines for enemies and player buddy ships. Also solid crescent moons.

Did you ever attempt to write any more games for the Acorn computers?

I worked on the Archimedes for a few years, but then abandoned it for PC.

Were there any other programmers for the 8-bit Acorns that you particularly admired?

I knew Peter Irvin ("Starship Command", "Exile") and Jeremy Smith ("Thrust", "Exile") and liked their stuff. I respected Roger Wilson (BBC Basic) and Chris Jordan (Ample).

Do you still own any of your old Acorn machines? Looking back, which was your favourite and why?

I think I still have a BBC Master somewhere. My favourite would have to be the original BBC B, with a 6502 2nd Pro to beef it up. It was such a classy PC for its time.

Interview by Stuart Goodwin, Autumn 2007.

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