The British IBM and Gimpy Software at the Play Expo

                                                                 

While at the Play Expo I Ran into the talented Adrian Killens who is One part of The British IBM a brilliant band which their website describes as.

"The British IBM was formed by retro enthusiast and singer-songwriter Aidy as a way of combining his two passions; indie rock and vintage computing. Joined by an innovative rhythm section featuring bassist David and drummer Paul, the trio have been performing and touring together for two years as 'Aidy' before The British IBM was officially born on the 1st January 2012."

Adrian not only introduced me to a great band with cool music but also My first experience with a classic Eight track machine (if you don't know what one of them is then Google it!). With a lot of The British IBM influence being Vintage Computing it seemed only appropriate to feature them on Crazy Horse Gaming and Aidy Kindly took the time out to talk to me about what he and the band have been up to. A section from one of their press releases best describes them.

"Even though some songs are loosely based on "retro computing" themes, The British IBM aren't a comedy or chip tune type band with songs about micro chips and commodore 64s etc. It’s more about the human story; what goes on behind the screens. The music is soft, vintage and visceral."

If you haven't herd of these guys before then now is your chance to discover them why not check out their Submission for the Weezer cruise competition? and don't forget to hit that thumbs up button.

            

"  Prior to forming The British IBM, Adrian has enjoyed success as a solo artist. Previous projects include releasing a single sold only on a 3.5” Floppy disc, and the 2010 'Song A Week' project which saw the artist releas a new song every Friday for an entire year. The result is a 53-track album, simply titled, 'Song A Week’ under his pseudonym ‘Aidy’. "

Now as the title suggests there is also a second part to this article about a game Studio called Gimpy Software, which is also another project Adrian is involved in  Gimpy software describes themselves as.

"Founded by three computer geeks from Cambridge and a professional animator from Barcelona, Gimpy Software are intent on doing their bit for the UK IT Industry. It’s no surprise that the hacker culture amongst kids today has vanished along with the BBC Micros and ZX Spectrums of yesteryear. Computer lessons in schools seem more intent on teaching pupils about spread sheets and no one really needs to know how a computer works on a technical level in order to play Call of Duty or update a Facebook status."

Their latest creation  Lunar Panda was on display at the Play Expo and I had a quick play around with it and it is quite an enjoyable little game even if I was terrible at it. The game gave me a  great Nostalgic feeling of  playing the classic title Lunar Lander when I was a Much smaller and less grey Gamer, Which is handy as that is what they creation of Lunar Panda  inspired from.   

Gimpy Software's goal is to help kids and adults alike learn the basics of software coding through experimentation to see if they can help get people once again interested in learning programming code and who knows maybe bring a new generation of software enthusiasts back to the computing and gaming scene Teaching a skill and knowledge which a lot of people do not get the opportunity to learn any-more. 

"In 2012 the Raspberry Pi was officially released with the intention of addressing some of these issues and getting kids coding again. When news of the Pi and what it was setting out to achieve hit Adrian Killens, Dean Edis and Andy Cardy decided they’d also contribute some of their time to the cause. All three work as IT Professionals and feel they owe a lot to their past experiences, experiences that kids today aren’t getting today. So after a lot of discussion they got together with artist Jose Cubero and began working on a Panda based video game for the Raspberry Pi. 

The game is based on the classic seventies arcade hit Lunar Lander, in which the objective is to safely land a Jetpack wearing Panda on a randomly generated terrain. The game is completely free to download along with the complete source code and a tutorial from www.GimpySoftware.com. They hope to encourage people to take the source code and use it to learn through experimentation." 

Why not check out Lunar Panda for your self see what you think .

Once again you can find more info at www.GimpySoftware.com