The Story and Games of Telecomsoft - Firebird, Rainbird and Silverbird | Kim Justice

[@Kim_Justice]

What are your favourites from the almighty library of Telecomsoft, and your enduring memories of them? Have a shout about it here, and thanks for watching. :)

[@grantd165]

Thrust, mainly because it's the first game I remember playing when my uncle gifted me his C64 and all his games.

[@garyjbaker]

The Wild Bunch... it was Red Dead Redemption on the Speccy!

[@memermetalthemiddleagedaut99]

I'll always love "starglider" on the spectrum, a 128k version done right

[@simonjdouglass]

Booty, Megabucks, Spiky Harold (arghh), 3d Stock Car, Mr Wino, Peter Packrat, Skateboard Kidz, Oli & Liisa (were the ones I liked)

[@Bellpipe41]

Really enjoyed Spiky Harold on the Speccy as a kid, and later Starglider 2 on the ST.

[@stephenrobertson6025]

Wow, this is a trip down memory lane! I used to draw loading screens for Firebird's £1.99 Silver range back in 1986/87, and I visited the Telecomsoft offices on several occasions. My most famous picture would probably be the loading screen for the excellent scrolling shoot-em-up Warhaw. Telecomsoft were an amazing company producing amazing games, and many of my all-time favourite games from that era are published by them (especially Elite and Sentinel). I'm very grateful for the opportunities they gave me to work for them, that led to further work for companies such as Hewson, and laid the foundations for a lifelong career. I remember getting a call from my contact at Firebird, excitedly saying that Geoff Crammond had visited their offices to demo a new game, where a robot teleported over a Marble Madness style 3D landscape. He said Geoff built a tower of boulders, teleported to the top of it and you could see the whole landscape. It sounded pretty incredible, and later when Sentinel came out I realised that was what he was talking about, and he was right to be amazed. So many thanks Kim for this video, it represents a part of my life that is really valuable to me, and one which I look back on very fondly.

[@ALLESWIRDHOOD]

You're easily the most underrated creator on this platform!

[@JustJamie1983]

100%

[@domedagskatten]

Agreed. Pure quality.

[@bengalinsky4300]

Yep

[@j-lgroen1239]

Aye

[@Fellipe2k5]

Nope. Is Top Hat Man and Lady Decade 🫢🤣🤭

[@doozeruk2000]

Never tire of these full featured documentaries...you are undoubtedly KZbin's retro gaming community's answer to the BBC's David Attenborough for wildlife... Top stuff

[@gamingtonight1526]

Helped Firebird get Elite into the U.S. market, by acting as a consultant for two Firebird executives attending trade shows like the CES in Vegas and Chicago. Got a very good fee, considering they ended up with opening a U.S. Office. And I did get a free copy of the Spectrum and Commodore 64 versions of the games for free.

[@arostwocents]

Rose Tinted Spectrum has an AMAZING review of Olli & Lissa where it is all a poem, building as he completes each world. Its definitely worth checking out!

[@colinfuidge8660]

I worked there from very near the start until the end. It was an epic place to work and so many brilliant games.

[@suewinslow7131]

I agree Colin - best job I ever had and the best people to work with

[@colinfuidge8660]

@@suewinslow7131 hard to believe it's more than 30 years ago. A brilliant time and we all contributed to making (mostly) fantastic products. Wasn't 'Sue's Garden' named after you? Another classic unreleased Firebird game.

[@suewinslow7131]

@@colinfuidge8660 haha forgot all about that - but yes I think it was!! nearly a claim to fame!

[@Dashslapp]

I gather from this comment section that most of you worked /produced these games. Just wanted to say thank you. You touched a lot of people's lives in a positive way. a whole generation of kids like me in 80s who spent their youth on these game. Ok maybe in some cases only for a few minutes ( I'm thinking face ache) was that yours? ..the excitement for me of buying a cassette reading the blurb on bus home was unreal . Good job.

[@tomkrawec]

It turns out Firebird were hugely important in my childhood. I remembered them fondly, but didn't realise how many games I enjoyed from them.

[@ukteapower8832]

I loved that Samurai Rabbit game, I'd forgotten all about it ! Cheers Kim

[@MitchQuadrupleTree]

I'm an American, so these documentaries are always great to get a window into another side of the history of video games that I was completely unaware of. Thank you for the work you do.

[@shabmaster7128]

As an American with absolutely 0 micro experience, anytime Kim uploads a deep dive on the Micro devs, it's an instant like from me. Genuinely love these Kim

[@lasskinn474]

Firebird is such a cool name for a company with that logo - coupled with elites logo the branding combo was just a chefs kiss.

[@joedent3323]

yer mums a chef's kiss.

[@Antireality]

There's also another quite important difference between Stuntcar Racer and Hard Drivin'': Stuntcar Racer isn't crap.

[@DJKC]

A cool bonus on Booty on Speccy was the hidden game. Plug in a Currah Speech and you'd get a Scuba Dive type game when loaded.

[@massimogiordani8398]

As always, an excellent documentary about the gaming industry of the past. I have fond memories of most of the Firebird classics featured here. In particular, the Sentinel's mortal gaze even crept into my teenage dreams. Terrifying and beautiful.

[@rlacombe]

Your attention detail, clear and concise journalism, and sheer depth of knowledge of this golden era is beyond anything anyone else out there has.

[@davidmylchreest3306]

Stunt Car Racer was a favourite of mine, having it on both the C64 and Amiga.

[@mamehaze]

When I think about the games I had on the Speccy / CPC it surprises me how many of my favourites had Firebird or Silverbird logos on the boxes. Obviously there was Bubble Bobble, but then there were Biospheres, one of my favourite space based maze-em-ups and Beach Buggy Simulator, which I played to death, and enjoyed more than any proper Moon Patrol port thanks to the theme (the CPC version of BBS clearly shares a lot of code with the CPC port of Ninja Scooter, the presentation layer is practically identical. Maybe not surprising with both being early, quickly thrown together Probe Software titles) Mr Wino is another gem on the CPC, and glad to see you give it a mention here, the smooth animation and use of colours stood out. Dynamite Dan is another I associate more with Silverbird due to the box style, even if it has Mirrorsoft plastered on the screen; the randomized item locations and creative world design made that one infinitely replayable. Pogostick Olympics while objectively awful was a game I spent hours on, while Pasteman Pat was one of the few games I remember that let you load your own images to make the levels (although it's not much more than a tile slider) I think one of the things I most strongly associate with the Firebird games however is the annoying 'Bleep loader' so many of their games used, which always just seemed to cause games to take twice as long to load, and sounded deeply unpleasant. I suppose being able to rewind on a tape error was handy, but typically if a game was going to work, it worked without needing it, and if the tape was bad, no amount of rewinding helped. This association is so strong I was actually surprised to find out that another favourite, High Steel doesn't seem to be Firebird related at all, because that used it too.

[@RetroBytesUK]

Cholo was one of my favourite games as a kid, and one almost nobody seams to remember. Such an ambitious idea, an executed about as well as it could have been at the time.

[@chiroquacker2580]

Hello from west central Florida, USA!!! I am watching this as my area is being slammed by hurricane Ian with full on hurricane force winds outside. The power is somehow still on, but if it does go out I'll have to finish the video after the storm passes and I can start my generator. Kim Justice is among the best when it comes to youtube documentaries, gaming or otherwise. Nobody else could make professional wrestling, beanie babies, and Mr. Blobby actually interesting.

[@bemani247]

Stunt Racer on a micro computer still runs infinitely smoother than Hard Driving on consoles a few years later

[@richardhewison6414]

Wow. It's just like a video version of my old website and my RG articles.... thanks for the thanks! :-) Should point out that the winner of the Gyron competition took the money equivalent and not the car, as he was too young to drive!

[@dragonchaserkev]

I love the history of game companies I've never heard of. I did work for a company once called Rain Bird Irrigation.

[@joedent3323]

You are a born story-teller.

[@c7261]

So lovely waking up to a Kim Justice mega-documentary. Consistently great. Thank you for highlighting the C64 "The Sentinel". It was quite the oppressive atmosphere, particularly as a child. Nothing quite filled me with such existential dread as seeing the Sentinel's silhouette fade in and out with that SID music playing! 🥶

[@ratspike8017]

Ah, Stunt Car Racer. Many happy memories of playing it head-to-head over a link cable with two Amigas. After a small league of this in the afternoon we would settle down to two player Populous while we had the link set up. Those were, indeed, the days.

[@bengalinsky4300]

Starglider theme song still stuck in my head!

[@philrob1978]

I was a member of the Silver Club back in the day - I even got a mention in one the last newsletters for moaning about the fact that Olli & Lissa was too bloody hard! Happy times. :) As always Kim, wonderfully presented and researched.

[@guybrushthreepwood3054]

My favorite episodes are these historical ones, full of late 70s and 80s British tv clips

[@RetroSanctuary]

Like to see the love for Crazy Caverns! People never seem to rate the game but my family all played it a good amount back in the day, especially for a budget game. My mother actually really liked it! it was one of the only Spectrum games she played a lot of :D

[@pbarratt73]

50:14 A sequel to Quazatron ! I never knew this existed .. thank you so much. I thought Paradroid on c64 was the sequel. This video must of took hours to do and prepare ! I loved seeing Crazy Caverns again first game I ever bought with paper round money.

[@dannysaltdean]

Chaos! My best friend and I knew nothing about it when it came on a YS covertape. 5 minutes and we were absolutely hooked. Such a simple mechanic, but infinite ways to play. Spent a whole summer trying to get him with a gooey blob. Also, The Sentinel is a masterpiece

[@phillusted7364]

love it when a Kim Justice documentary appears in my feed. Always welcome and something to watch while relaxing at the weekend...........keep them coming Kim

[@BlueMaximaC099]

Like The Sentinel and Sentinel Returns, Virus actually got a "modern day" version of itself called V2000 on PC and PS1, which I remember playing the crap out of.

[@sambra1979]

Another great video. The spectrum reminds me of such simpler times, and the era in computing has influenced so much in today's world.

[@lilacfloyd]

Always loved the Rainbird big boxes. Beautiful art work. Good stuff. :)

[@jexthegamer]

Every time i think i know all the games that are worth knowing about, you come out with another video to prove me wrong. Thank you for such stupendous content!

[@RichardCyberPunk]

Great story, but you forgot to mention that Firebird and Rainbird also published many games and adventures for the Atari 8bit computers.

[@khorgor]

so many great games, Weird dreams was such a, well, weird game to play without knowing what to do, we had to use a magazine solution to take us through it, especially because the massive amount of dream logic like the cotton candy sticking to the player used as bait for the bee, or throwing the murder ball back to the knife girl in the garden. Also there would be no X-Com without Chaos

[@fatalfallacy]

Rick Dangerous! So much frustration and fun in one package…

[@lasskinn474]

memory game.. and the name into high score cheat didn't work on pc.

[@jamesroberts8971]

Great documentary as ever 👍🙂 To many excellent games. Thrust is probably the one I return to the most and am currently making game in the same style of.

[@BinnisRetro]

Never really thought about Firebird as a company, but this list of games makes them look like best publisher on the Speccy!

[@scottnapier943]

Fantastic video KJ! Firebird games were a huge part of my Speccy childhood. Would love you to do a Mastertronic Games video!

[@Christian-ve1wi]

Boredom struck again but Kim saves the day again 😊 with an epic hour plus video.

[@EpicallyCasual]

Always happy to see a new KJ doco pop up 😊

[@upthebuffer1921]

Love you videos. No-one else comes close for the detail you include. A joy to watch and listen to. Thank you x

[@kristianTV1974]

Great work Kim, can't wait to see the rest. Hopefully Mike Singleton's Whirligig will get a mention - I found that game fascinating, though I don't recall if it was any good or not!

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

It was a superb graphics demo but game itself, very very repetitive. 4 billion very, very samey worlds.

[@emoneytrain]

Thrust reminds me of Continuum for the Macintosh. Likely inspired the design of Continuum. Very cool

[@craigwalker3194]

Enjoyable Episode Kim!. Thanks!.

[@philharmonic2251]

Another video of pure gold, thanks Kim.

[@tolindaniel]

Finally got a chance to watch this one. Great video!! A lot of my old favourites popped up in here, and the name Telecomsoft wasn't familiar to my mind so this was super interesting!

[@stevensgoodallsg]

That was superb. Many thanks

[@bokuboke482]

Terrific doc, Kim! I always enjoy your software house chronicles. Could you profile a single standout game sometime? For whichever Brit micro tickles your whimsy!

[@Peter-MH]

Can’t believe I never got into Elite back in the day! One of those games I Know I would’ve loved if I’d spent a bit more time getting into it!

[@strzxgvnuvwvfld3597]

I tried, but as a kid I could never figure out how to reliably dock without crashing!

[@MusicalPenguin127]

Stunt Car Racer was incredible in its day, the sense of speed and movement was something else even on the Speccy. It's a shame Geoff Crammond never handled the 8 bit ports of Hard Drivin. I know people say that game was too much for them to handle but I reckon he'd have made it work.

[@strzxgvnuvwvfld3597]

I think Stunt Car Racer is a better game than Hard Drivin anyway. If you strip away the wheel and pedals of the arcade cab and replace that with a digital joystick, Hard Drivin doesn't offer very much. Instead Geoff could create a much more varied game, designed to be played on home computers. One that was even playable on my C64!

[@WhatHoSnorkers]

What a lovely video! I rather like the Comet Game, frustrating though it is. The best minigame was the "make coffee for the astronaut and control their P" for me... I even completed it, as a kid. Disappointment... Gyron was brill, although I never got far. I have the box in my mum's garage... Usagi Yojimbo is LEGIT. Loved it on the Speccy, and finished it too. Stressful but an achievement I'm proud of. No save states back then! Rest in Peace, the Lord of Midnight and Midwinter. I never know that Rainbird was named after a person, I kind of thought the "bird" thing came from the bird mascot Buzby! I liked Black Lamp on the Speccy but never got too far. The map looked lovely. Carrier Command! Starglider 2! Both astonishing on the ZX Spectrum +2... I've been fascinated by Flames of Freedom for years.

[@JD.78]

I had Ollie & Lissa for the Spectrum, i loved that game. It was pretty difficult for 7 year old me, though i did manage to get to level 5, so that was an achievement i was proud of.

[@hotdogsoup-nl]

Yes! So excited about you doing a piece on Odin Computer Graphics! ❤

[@sidequest22]

Fantastic work, very interesting look at the landscape before everything was Nintendo/Sega, then Nintendo/Sony, then Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft. I had an ST but be dammed if all I could play on it was Time Commando and Centipede.

[@damienpark2181]

Another excellent documentary!! Thanks Kim!!

[@strzxgvnuvwvfld3597]

Another great video! A massive part of my gaming past that no one else is really covering, presented in a informative and entertaining way. I remember trying to join the Firebird club and having my cheque returned with a message that it had been closed. Now I know why!

[@raijin2950]

Genuinely excited about watching another feature length KJ gaming doc, lets gooooo!!!

[@danjclark1975]

Another great video 😀 Definitely my favourite producer of this type of video 👍🏻

[@villehursti]

Having "5th dream about happiness" as the end music was excellent! :D Thanks for the awesome video once again.

[@fraserpeterkindrums9764]

Absolutely fantastic as always, :) really enjoyed it

[@TheSlysterII]

Bloody great video, thank you Kim for highlighting how good retro gaming was! xx

[@tobybridson]

Love your documentaries, so good.

[@grantd165]

God, I loved Chaos. Me, my mate, his brother and his girlfriend used to play this for hours. You got shouted at if you cast the gooey blob or fire too early.

[@djackmanson]

It blows me away - even though I was a teenager around this time - that in the 80s a division of a huge corporation would routinely assign game development to single creators. Obviously games then were nothing like the scale of today's AAA titles, but it still feels odd. I suppose that helped to drive the more quirky and original games then. One person can head off on their own tangent quite easily. Of course we have plenty of one-person creators making indy games today, but not for the giants of the industry.

[@peterpereira3653]

What a great piece of work, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this video. I never got into Stunt Car Racer, I just never found it exciting enough for me personally. But I played both Rebelstar Raiders loads on my then Sinclair ZX Spectrum+. Enjoyed Elite, The Wild Bunch and Booty. Was indeed good times.

[@B3tanTyronne]

Ahh Booty, the game that hid a second game within it which was only accessible if you had a currah microspeech connected to the speccy when you loaded up Booty. You ended up playing as a character attempting to catch small fish whilst avoiding bigger fish.

[@UK_Cobra]

Another well made documentary, thanks for the upload.

[@nevspace]

Super stuff Kim! always reliably informative and usually mentioning facts from an unique perspective. Your documentaries should be listed on the likes of imdb! Awesome!

[@xudes77]

Kim, Two things about Graftgold.. the marvelous and talented Graftgold. 1 - You omitted the Soldier Of Fortune Spectrum version, which is completely different and is a really cool game. Is like a GhostGoblins/Ice Palace game superb smooth and veeeery good, with a more progressive and adventure feeling. The C64 version is more a coding exercise from the usually music man, Jason Page. The ZX version is the one to consider as a classic from gaming arcade platformer. Were released at same time of Savage, nearly as a sword and sorcery duo.. Savage received all the spotlight, but Soldier Of Light ZX was the good one, and supports the test of time PERFECTLY. Better than all the Castlevanias all together put on a row =). The coder and the grafician are two brothers responsable from Zithum (previously) and Rainbow Islands on the Speccy( posteriously ) 2 - Bubble Bobble its not from Graftgold but from Software Creations

[@Nolasco.]

This was great Kim, as always. Thank you 💕

[@dirceubaccin4657]

I've played a lot this game in my childhood.

[@ninjawacker5442]

Fantastic documentary as always Kim. Appreciate all the research involved and was a great trip down memory lane :)

[@JamesShow]

Okay, Kim. Thanks for the fair warning up front. Going to pause the video and plan a night on the comfy couch to enjoy this one.

[@AngryBootneck]

Superb as always Kim, Elite is still the most groundbreaking game ever made. 👍👍

[@twankistevenson3884]

Brilliant video and more to come. Thanks again

[@hardkoregamer1981]

Thank you Kim Justice I sincerely enjoy your video game stories 💯👍

[@Baggio_10_]

Fair play to you mate, your documentaries are bloody brilliant and a blast from the past of my younger days of playing these games. Thanks a lot.

[@meltdownremix1996]

Right when I'm working on an important exam and needed something to listen to while at it, thanks Kim!

[@dcikaruga]

Zarch/Virus was bloody hard, it's just so hard to shoot them, you have to spray and guide your fire some of the time.

[@caeserromero3013]

Excellent content. Very detailed.

[@torhansen8570]

Fantastic work!

[@wardyx360]

Another brilliant video, very informative and also brings back so many happy memories form my childhood. Keep up the great work

[@steve16384]

Another brilliant video.

[@superscatboy]

These videos are great, and the nostalgia is heavy.

[@EdCourtenay]

Nice to see the BBC Micro getting some love for once - how about an in-depth look at Superior Software?

[@2001pl]

Mixed feelings here. Nice video, as usual from this YT channel, but... I fail to understand why Carrier Command & Starglider 2 have so little coverage in the video, while these 2 were (and still are!) absolutely game changer.

[@Kim_Justice]

I plan to cover them extensively when Argonaut and Realtime get their own vid in this series

[@2001pl]

@@Kim_Justice oooooh ok thank you! That sounds way better now 😊🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@Kim_Justice]

@@2001pl no problem!

[@cjh0751]

I own a copy of Zzap 64 with Elites Raptor on the cover. I used to dream about that ship as a young whipper snapper and low and behold David Braben brought that ship to reality in Elite Dangerous. I just wish I had the time I had when I was a kid to play it to its full potential. I bought it on Steam when it was released and it's no exaggeration that my jaw fell to the floor with how beautiful that game is. Beats Star Citizen IMHO. Love your channel !

[@tomkrawec]

"Beats Star Citizen IMHO." But Star Citizen will be better once tens of billions of dollars from people buying ships, plus three decades of waiting, produces a better product.

[@thestarglider]

Great video. Small thing. Vectron was a re-release, it originally came out in 1985 on the Insight label.

[@Barcrest]

Loved it. Took me a bit longer to get to watch it than i had planned.

[@pda1799]

Booty was the first game I have ever seen or played. It got me into gaming… nostalgic tear go away!

[@Strateggo]

Every single time I watch one of KJ docu, I want to jump right back to one of my old micros… ah old days gone by 😢

[@skywalkerranch]

Excellent as always Kim thanks once again for all your hard work in putting this together as it is much appreciated by myself and many others.

[@DarkShroom]

i come back and forth from most the channel i like and i m pleased Kim is still making quality loooong documentaries lol

[@Ladefuss]

Another masterpiece. Cheers Kim

[@MichalFridrich]

Firebird is also name of one song from white noise´s electric storm album

[@almurray2000]

I wish you had more subscribers and views. You’ve certainly earned it with the effort you put in and the quality of your videos. Have you thought about trying to split longer documentaries up into 10-20 minute chunks? I for one see the length of a video like this and have to put it off until I know I’ll have the time to watch it all