Frank Sidebottom's WEIRD Videogames | ZX Spectrum \ ZX81

[@sonofafitch85]

It's a real shame Chris died when he did, because technology was finally catching up to him. I think the world of KZbin, Tik Tok etc. would have been perfect for him if it was around back in the day, not to mention the indie game scene being what it is. I'm sure they would have been great outlets for his creativity. He was a creator who occupied a niche, and these days it's very easy to "find your audience", no matter how big or small which would have suited him really well. As it is, at least there are still plenty of people who appreciate him for the extremely unique talent that he was.

[@peetabix]

Great video. Camouflage is a really good song, I wasn't expecting that.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

It is really good, been listening to it a lot since putting this video together!

[@TheMaxbrooks]

The end of the Chris Sievey documentary was tragic, the closeup inside the mask he had to keep putting on almost terrifying... a beloved character but the man underneath could only find success with the mask on so he could never escape it. Just tragic was all I could think of.

[@Bitmuchmate]

I was not ready for how excellent that song was. Loved the Frank movie too.

[@mattmyers9351]

It's great that someone is paying tribute to Chris Sievey and his many creative endeavors!

[@HelloMyNameisSol]

Had no idea Frank had so many strings to his bow. That explosion animation when you crash the train is actually pretty damn great. and Pingu? Didn't see that coming..

[@t00ty_fru1ty]

The train explosion is amazing!

[@80srenaissance67]

I used to love Frank Sidebottom on No. 73 on those glorious 80s Saturday mornings

[@RetroBytesUK]

I knew about the music video, I did not know he wrote games as well. I did find Frank Sidebottom a little scary as a kid, I remember him being on Number 73 a fair few times. I think that's mostly what I knew him from as a kid.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

I seem to remember him turning up on random kids shows as well. Him and little Frank. Terrifying.

[@RetroBytesUK]

@@RoseTintedSpectrum Children's TV has some odd and scary characters in 80's. I mean what the hell was noesybonk about.

[@anactualmotherbear]

the music video was genius. I was doing that with the C64 in the 90s. Making blinky little animations that go with music was fun.

[@lestat1uk]

Chris/Frank was so much fun. The first experience i had of Frank was on No. 73. Also enjoyed Franks Fantastic Shed show. He has been gone for sometime now, but a clip of Frank and the recently departed David Soul has been circulating on twitter and made me start thinking of Frank again. He is the inner child in all of all of us. Chris was insightful, and just plain bonkers....well i hope they have both "Do do do do do, doo do do...hit the north!"

[@cbuxton2953]

If you do want to know more about Chris Sievey & Frank, then you really should watch my friend Steve Sullivan's amazing documentary feature Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story. It's not just revealing, it's also very moving. (You can see Steve holding a camera following Frank around Timperley in one of the clips that RoseTintedSpectrum used here). Here's a trailer for Being Frank... kzbin.info/www/bejne/lairlHuXhdCMpNk

[@scotthels]

Did anyone not notice that the keys used to control the Train was C & V (Sievey) I know that’s the most common keys used for Left and Right but still that’s a bit of genius. 4:21

[@edie267]

That’s fantastic !!

[@GenerationPixel]

What an absolute stunning bit of Speccy history to stumble. Thanks for sharing this mate 👍

[@YouTubeMrP]

There aren’t enough likes for this video. I wish I could like it 1000 times for Chris.

[@carolsocialmedia5296]

Thanks for posting this. I had no idea Chris had ever done any computer games, since I only knew him from Oink comic. And I laughed out loud at your "Matrix" bit. 😆

[@aarons1811]

Who remembers 'Little Frank'? Mr Sidebottom was hilarious 😂.

[@Dino83]

Fantastic song, my Brother lived in Timperley when I was super young and loved Frank Sidebottom. Good memories here, brilliant video

[@ffs_idol]

the music video is still absolutely mind-blowing to this day. on a ZX81 of all things! there's ahead of your time and then there's this

[@yogyog]

I simultaneously laughed and cried watching this. Mind you, mood swings are a side-effect of recovering from brain surgery after a siezure.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Ouch! I hope you're recovering well mate.

[@yogyog]

@@RoseTintedSpectrum Alarmingly well, but thinking is still super tiring.

[@TheUrbanSplash]

Absolutely loved Camouflage. Thanks so much for sharing. Chris was amazing.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

I loved it so much, I spent a stupid amount of money on the record a few months later. It's such a lovely track, I just had to have it.

[@RetroWorkshop]

I really enjoyed this look at the great man and his computer games. My dog is called Frank in his honor. Frank also had a TV show in the 90's called "Frank's Fantastic Shed Show" which is worth a look.

[@zetetick395]

Yeah, they're all on KZbin 👍 They go from GREAT to absolutely hard '90s cringe by the minute (particularly depending on the special guest) @_@

[@benaynsley2554]

Great piece, really enjoyed that. What a great tune to end with.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

It is a genuinely fantastic track. Thankfully, with Chris having self-published the Freshies stuff, it's not at the whims of copyright claims so I was able to blast it out in full.

[@London_Native]

That is amazing! When did Chris make these games, especially Camouflage? It is genius. I was a ZX Spectrum addict and I never knew about any of this!

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Camouflage was for the ZX81, so very early doors - before the Frank character even came about iirc. The programme was on the B side of the record and, due to the way vinyl could easily warp, hardly anyone got the bloody thing to work, haha.

[@London_Native]

@@RoseTintedSpectrum Thanks for the info! My Dad bought home a ZX81 when I was about 8 years old. Didn’t have a clue how to use it, but I loved it all the same! That started my obsession with buying computer mags and typing out programming from the pages in the hope I would have a game to play! As for Chris, he was WELL ahead of his time! Genius.

[@zetetick395]

The song sounds about 1982 era to me (I reckon)

[@berarma]

The copyright at the end of the video for the song says 1983.

[@sirrichardpitchard]

I love Frank Sidebottom. I’m not gonna lie I’ve never played a single spectrum game, but imma have to change that now 😂

[@stewsretroreviews]

I was looking forward to Flying Shark mate, but the the Flying Train was class, great content 👌🏻

[@libre-tad6283]

I remember seeing a Pete Shelley release on cassette, an album with a ZX Spectrum program somewhere on it Also Automata released a game, I have called Pi-Eyed a bit like Frogger where you negotiate a pub avoiding vomit or dogs which convesly had a song of the same name on the other side. Automata were trying something different too but didn't really gain ground Must be more such oddities around Good Sidebottom knowledge though Ta Boss

[@martinr3993]

Thank you, this is an hilarious and appropriately affectionate video. It is, it really is.

[@MultiSamster1234]

There's a nice Frank Sidebottom reference in Irvine Welsh's Filth book/film

[@ZacHawkins42]

"There is no genius without a touch of madness." -Someone Smarter Than Myself

[@dweston76]

Just found your channel, instant Sub!

[@DrymouthCWW]

Rest in peace Chris

[@LordmonkeyTRM]

Wow there was a big Chris Sievey shaped hole in my knowledge. Also I thought Camoflage was the song about the ghost marine in Vietnam. Have I slipped into an alternate universe?

[@misjavanlaatum]

That train game is ... art? madness? genius?

[@simonjdouglass]

I love this so much thank you X

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

You’re welcome!

[@TheRoboG]

Great stuff. Not long found your channel...really enjoying it Sir!

[@LemmyBarnett]

The Biz is brilliant!

[@videogamebookreviews]

"Buy yourself an Oric" :-D

[@chrisball3778]

Coventry General Wolfe (as misspelled in The Biz) was a real music venue. Don't think the Duck & Ant-Eater was, at least not in Coventry.

[@Vakantscull]

stick a shoot em up on, that'll be easy and painless... *Dudley will remember that*

[@RetrogradeScene]

Amazing video! Absolutely loved it thank goodness the game didn't load

[@wisteela]

I love the weirdness.

[@SteveHill68K]

The music video was a great idea.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Yeah, it was a great idea and it works beautifully!

[@WhatHoSnorkers]

Fantastico!

[@Vakantscull]

not the worst impression at the end there 😉

[@NobletheSavage]

I'm really disappointed with myself for not really giving Chris and Frank any thought at all in the nineties. I was in my 20's and I just saw the mask and just thought it was a Noel Edmunds type light entertainment bore fest. His music really wasn't bad and as you said, his sense of fun with his his games and his music videos was so outside the box, that he would of been such a big attraction at conventions and podcasts that he wouldn't of died penniless and actually got the love of younger culture vultures. Such a shame.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Yep, definitely a man outside his time, bless him.

[@t00ty_fru1ty]

Creative off the wall guy he was, eh?

[@tombstoneharrystudios584]

I first became aware of Chris/Frank, not through his tv appearances, but through his many comic strips for Oink! Oink! if anyone doesn’t know, was a porcine pre-teen version of Viz, with Pete’s Pimple replacing the improbable endowment of Buster Gonad, and Tom Thug an expy of Biffa Bacon Chris’ strips immediately jumped out due to their extraordinary attention to details, their colourfulness & the bizarrely boring nature of the plots Occasionally Frank would appear in photo strips, parodying the likes of Look-In, or there’s a board game featuring lard-loving aliens with the sort of convoluted rules you’d imagine would appeal to Chris’s (or indeed Frank’s mind) The fact they stood out midst strong competition from the likes of the legendary Lew Stringer says it all! However, Frank was rather marmite…you either got in on the joke of how mundane the strips were, or groaned in disappointment and turned the page to the adventures of Burp (The Smelly Alien) Ironically Frank worked far better in print than on screen…the restrictions of the medium meant that the storytelling was tight. His many appearances on the likes of Number 73 and such meant much extended mucking about, and there’s only some many times you can laugh at an American guest star’s “WTF?” expressions. The ball-bonced band botherer became like Mr Blobby; you knew this would be 5 minutes long so you went for a wee and another bowl of Coco Pops! Whilst the joke wore thin, there’s no doubt Chris was a creative genius. The video games here are a testament to that. Additionally, Frank’s stylistic trait of reducing every song he ever covered to the key of C & the basic three chords was punk deconstructionism at its finest. As another poster said, he was a man out of time and would have thrived in todays high tech, TikTok world RIP Chris Sievey

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

I never got chance to read Oink, though I do remember the game, as I was quite fond of it (though I doubt it stood the test of time). I should really get around to replaying that! Thanks for the comment, lot of stuff there I was unaware of!

[@BuJammy]

He invented furries.

[@ctrlaltrees]

Not gonna lie - that train game does look fun

[@jubeaumont6305]

He was definitely unique and a great British eccentric. Was he funny ? FUUUUCK no.