<< 2011 2010 2009 >> You can now get email and RSS alerts to monitor these updates. 26/09/10: Well, as I've just written on the latest update on the front page of this website, I'm moving on to other things. Whilst I would have liked to have created an introductory chapter and a final chapter for the documentary, I just cannot face the work involved in creating them. When it comes to Speccy stuff in general, I feel completely burned out. So, time for a fresh start in a different sphere.     But on the plus side, I think I've left a pretty decent legacy. If I don't come back one day to finish the documentary, then I hope someone creates something similar whilst taking it to the next level. I don't claim to be a genius at this sort of thing, I just had the pleasure of being first in the Speccy scene.     In addition to the people I mentioned on the front page, I'd also like to thank Gerard Sweeney, Steve Anderson, Dave Foreman, Colin Woodcock and Andrew Rollings who, together with Martijn van der Heide, gave me help and guidance during the development of each documentary chapter. Thanks guys - you made a fun project even more so. 25/09/10: A little bonus - I've trawled through YouTube and created a couple of playlists containing all the music videos for all the songs used in the documentary. There's one for the 1982-1990 series and one for the Christmas Special. 19/09/10: Real Life Stuff is intervening again, but have just got all the ZX80, ZX81 and arcade game footage I need, plus sourcing lots of images covering Sinclair's pre-history. There's some very interesting stuff in there, including products which clearly show Sinclair's obsession of miniturizing everyday products at minimal price. I'm almost in a position to start writing a script for The Inevitable Prequel, after which I'll have a good idea of how long it's really going to be. 30/08/10: The End Is Nigh... Time to tie up the series - the first chapter (pre-1982) and final chapter (post-1990 and retroscene) are going to be developed back-to-back. After that, there will be no more! Ten years is long enough to spend on one project :) Plus I'm now looking at more mainstream uses for my animations - I find this animation for Mitchell and Webb rather inspiring. Need to do some work with moving characters though. 27/08/10: 1990's ready for download! Meanwhile, I've been doing some research for the next chapter, The Inevitable Prequel which covers pre-1982. Early days yet, and I'm not sure what format it will take, but the documentary continues. 25/08/10: After a brief delay due to "stuff" (Real Life and otherwise), it's now at the stage where there's nothing else to do but build the soundtrack - and I have the songs I want to use ripped to WAV files already. Just need to edit it all together now - stay tuned... 31/07/10: The draft version of the 1990 chapter is currently being built - nothing more to do apart from the final tweaks and the soundtrack :) 12/07/10: The first screenshot :) 11/07/10: Things are moving quickly - taking footage of SAM Coupe games turned out to be simpler than I thought, and I'm now at the stage where I have all the in-game footage I need and am powering through the other animations. Can't really find an opportunity for a fancy 3D animation within this chapter as there's a lot of things to show and tell - maybe a very short one towards the end. The intro will be in 3D, of course. Whisper it quietly, but it could be done by the end of this month...     And whisper it even more quietly: I've been thinking about what to do once the 1990 chapter is done and dusted. 04/07/10: The rubber's hitting the road now! The intro animation is done, the game footage has been acquired and is about to be edited together. Only a few other things to do and then it's ready for an August release. Hopefully. 22/04/10: Three months pass...     I'm still alive, and so is this project. Truth be told, the Christmas Special completely burned me out - I'm never going to do anything to a deadline ever again! Still, the Special, the Advent Calendar, and ZXmas in general were great, wern't they?     Afterwards, I wasn't even sure that I was going to stay in the scene - I had been working so hard that I was sick of the sight of Speccy stuff. The antics of a few of the Speccy scene's "personalities" didn't help my disillusion with everything - there are a prominent group of people who believe that those involved in emulation and hardware are somehow superior, and that everyone else should just put up with some of the crap they pull. Needless to say, as someone who believes in a scene which is fully inclusive of everybody, no matter what they do and contribute to the scene, that sort of attitude doesn't impress me. Fortunately it's only a small clique, and they've removed themselves from the public forums so they can run down others in the scene from their own private sandpit.     Anyway... After a while, I dipped my toe into the 1990 chapter's intro animation (this one is based on Klax), and that led me to feel something I hadn't felt in a while - nostalgia for old computer magazines (especially YS from the times where I originally read it). That led to research for the content of the 1990 chapter, which led to a script, and that led to where I am today: with a close-to-finished intro animation, and a chapter body waiting to be filled with footage and content.     1990 was a very eventful year, and the chapter will be longer and news-heavy as a result - close to nine minutes in total. It's also a little saddening as the Spectrum was on its way out - 1990 ended with the killing off of the +3 - but I think I've set the tone of the chapter to one that isn't too depressing!     There's a short pause in development now, though - my rendering machine (which I've been using since 2006) has just died. A new machine will be built and installed next week - I'll be moving up from a Pentium D940 with 2GB RAM to a Core 2 Quad Q8300 with 4GB RAM. That'll give me a speed increase of at least 3x. Just as well as I'm currently maxing out the RAM with each new animation, and making compromises as a result.     No ETA for the 1990 chapter's release as I'm never doing anything to a deadline ever again. Hopefully Summer 2010. 30/01/10: As the Xmas Special DVD ISO went down pretty well, I've created another DVD ISO containing just the 1982-1989 regular chapters. The picture clarity is amazing, especially during the 3D sections. The DVD ISO is 1.3GB in size, so is only available via BitTorrent, but I've also uploaded the high-quality videos to YouTube too. More details in the Downloads page. 14/01/10: The regular VCD MPEGs are now available to download via normal means. The DVD ISO and the new all-in-one VCD MPEG will still be BitTorrent-only as they're so big, but you can now download the Special in five parts. 03/01/10: The movie's been finalised, it's 39m11s long, and you can currently download a 1.2GB DVD ISO image via BitTorrent. It'll be a slow download, but it's the option which gives you the best quality image. More download options to come...