{"id":560,"date":"2026-10-05T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/?p=560"},"modified":"2026-10-06T09:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T08:47:12","slug":"why-weve-gone-retro-manchesters-high-score","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/why-weve-gone-retro-manchesters-high-score\/","title":{"rendered":"Why we&#8217;ve gone retro: Manchester&#8217;s high score"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you&#8217;ve visited the site, you&#8217;ll have noticed the pixel bees, the blinking cursors and a schedule full of levels and power-ups. There&#8217;s a reason we&#8217;ve gone retro gaming, and it&#8217;s because Manchester has form&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Games have been played on Manchester computers for a very long time. In 1951, Dietrich Prinz wrote one of the earliest computer game programs, a chess program, for the Ferranti Mark 1 at the University of Manchester. That machine grew out of the Manchester Baby, the world&#8217;s first stored-program computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thirty years later, the city was home to Ocean Software. Founded in Manchester in 1983 by David Ward and Jon Woods, Ocean became one of the biggest European game developers and publishers of the 1980s and 1990s. If you grew up with a ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 or Amstrad, there&#8217;s a good chance an Ocean game was in your collection: <em>Daley Thompson&#8217;s Decathlon<\/em>, <em>Head over Heels<\/em>, <em>Batman<\/em>, <em>RoboCop<\/em> and plenty more. The story carries on just down the road in Knutsford, where Traveller&#8217;s Tales went from <em>Sonic 3D Blast<\/em> to the hugely popular LEGO games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like those games, WordCamp Manchester is about playing together: no traditional talks, just a day where you choose your own adventure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So insert your coin, press start, and we&#8217;ll see you on 6 November. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Player 2 has entered the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Famous games made in (or near) Manchester<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"256\" height=\"192\" data-id=\"708\" src=\"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/09\/image-3.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-708\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"256\" height=\"192\" data-id=\"710\" src=\"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/09\/image-5.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-710\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"258\" height=\"194\" data-id=\"711\" src=\"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/10\/image-4-edited.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-711\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"256\" height=\"192\" data-id=\"707\" src=\"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/09\/image-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-707\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ocean_Software\">Ocean Software<\/a><\/strong> (Manchester, 1983) was based in the city and often associated with licensed games, arcade conversions with a few original titles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-contrast-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-1\"><strong>Notable Games<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Daley_Thompson%27s_Decathlon\">Daley Thompson&#8217;s Decathlon<\/a> (1984): the famous joystick-waggler.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Batman_(1986_video_game)\">Batman<\/a> (1986): an isometric adventure by Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Head_over_Heels_(video_game)\">Head over Heels<\/a> (1987): Zzap!64 gave it 98%, and Your Sinclair named it its 1987 Spectrum Game of the Year.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/RoboCop_(1988_video_game)\">RoboCop<\/a> (1988): Ocean&#8217;s biggest hit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"320\" height=\"224\" data-id=\"712\" src=\"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/09\/image-6.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-712\" style=\"aspect-ratio:4\/3\" srcset=\"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/09\/image-6.png 320w, https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/09\/image-6-300x210.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"512\" height=\"512\" data-id=\"713\" src=\"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/09\/image-7.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-713\" style=\"aspect-ratio:4\/3\" srcset=\"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/09\/image-7.png 512w, https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/09\/image-7-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/files\/2026\/09\/image-7-300x300-1.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Traveller%27s_Tales\">Traveller&#8217;s Tales<\/a><\/strong> (Knutsford, Cheshire, 1989): were a late stage 16 bit developer who specialised in Disney and lego games, and worked closely with Sega. They are still around today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-contrast-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-2\"><strong>Notable Games<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sonic_3D_Blast\">Sonic 3D Blast<\/a> (1996)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lego_Star_Wars:_The_Video_Game\">Lego Star Wars: The Video Game<\/a> (2005)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Where it all started:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Manchester_Baby\">Manchester Baby<\/a> (1948)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ferranti_Mark_1\">Ferranti Mark 1<\/a> (1951): Prinz&#8217;s chess program ran on it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From one of the world&#8217;s first chess programs to Ocean Software&#8217;s 8-bit hits, Manchester has a gaming high score. Here&#8217;s why we&#8217;ve gone retro for WordCamp Manchester 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18639594,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phpjWT-92","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18639594"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":714,"href":"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions\/714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manchester.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}