Greetings from the Cosmic Cockerel!!!
Yes folks its true... The Cosmic Cockerel is indeed alive and well!!!
Welcome to The Software Farm Tribute Page...
Without further ado.. Lets see what's new down on the farm eh?
New arrivals this month:
1/. The Software Farm High Res Range - full documentation, scans and of course the programs themselves - for use on your choice of '81 emulator!
2/. Interview with Software Farm founder and co-owner Julian Chappell. This is the man who invented the pseudo high res system used on the '81 and also the author of Forty Niner, Rocketman, etc.
3/. Miscellaneous other items.
First, before we get started.. a bit of blatant advertising...
Hold your cheques however... Software Farm stopped trading back in 1985!
Still want the games? No problem. Read below...
High-Res Range No.1 - FORTY NINER:
Released in 1982 - This groundbreaking game amazed people at what could be done with a standard 16K ZX81 and some very clever software indeed!
Spectrum quality screen resolution through software only!
Jaws dropped in amazement throughout the world!
Personally, I think the cover artwork for this game and its follow-ups are amongst the best ever produced for computer games. Packaging and image were a big part of the High-Res experience!
They certainly LOOKED like no other ZX81 games!
Click on the tape to download the game!
High-Res Range No.2 - ROCKET MAN:
Released in 1984, this game was even more of a success than Forty-Niner! It surely is one of the most fun ZX81 games of all time to play!
The graphics surpassed even Forty-Niner!!
Considering technically how they were done - its amazing!!
Click on the tape to download the game!
High-Res Range No.3 - Z-Xtricator:
Released in late 1984, this High-Res Defender clone sold a lot of copies on the back of the success of Rocketman.
People expecting Rocketman II were in for a bit of a disappointment!
That said its still an impressive game - technically using a different High-Res display driver than the other games.
Click on the tape to download the game!
High-Res Range No.4 - Booster:
Software Farm's biggest kept secret?? Perhaps!
I always thought it a bit of a shame that not everyone who would have bought this game got to hear about it.
Sadly, due to the collapse of Tiger Distribution, Software Farm became very limited as to what they could do to publicise new releases in 1985.
Gone were the full page ads of yesterday. Instead limited press stories were printed in the various Sinclair related magazines announcing this games release by mail order only.
The thing is... people had long wanted Rocketman II.
Now at the end of days... they got it!
Click on the tape to download the game!
The Software Club Newsletter hinted at what was to come..
The Booster/Spectrumiser Press Release of 1985:
High-Res Util No.1 - Spectrumiser:
This program was not written by Julian - it was sent in by somebody and eventually published in Software Farm's dying days...
It wasn't released until 1985 (despite the 1984 date on the cover).
Perhaps it was written in 1984 or kept back for a later date!
In fact.. there are some legal issues with this software. Unbeknown to Software Farm it contained a commercially available ZX81 compiler within it - this was not the work of the supposed author!
M-Coder being the product in question. It seems the "author" tacked on some of Julian's pseudo high res routines onto this product before presenting it with a view to publishing to them.
Looks like it slipped through unnoticed and was published.
Featuring 4 pages of typed instructions, it enabled BASIC programmers to produce well... very simple "games" in high-res. In short the product and its high-res routines (implementation mainly!) fell well short of what it could have been!
Click on the tape to download the game!
Software Farm did go on to write a Spectrum title around this time before finally calling it a day...
Interview Down On The Farm!
Sinclair User carried a centre page interview with Julian in the January, 1985 issue. Here is is for your enjoyment:
Nice to end on a picture of Julian smoking his pipe and no doubt pondering the eternal secrets of the ZX81's High-Res Display System, eh??
Got a Software Farm tale to tell? Know of the current whereabouts of Julian? Write in and let us know!
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