Video game designer and programming genius, David Jones, has donated his Tandy TRS-80 Model III computer to the Centre for Computing History.

David's computer was welcomed into the collection because this was the machine that he used to create his classic games featuring ‘Magic Knight’, Finders Keepers and its sequels: Spellbound, Knight Tyme, and Stormbringer.

David Jones said "I posted on Facebook that my computer was available, but there were so many comments saying that it should go to the Centre for Computing History, that I contacted them and was really pleased to find that they would preserve it for future generations to see.”

The Magic Knight games were released on cassette for numerous home computers including the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad, and Commodore 64. Many of these games were published by Mastertronic, who were known for publishing high-quality games at budget prices. David said "I received royalties of 10p per cassette sold, which doesn’t sound a lot today - but when you sold 300,000 copies of a game, that’s quite a lot of money.”

Adrian Page-Mitchell, Collections Officer at the Centre for Computing History, said "These were some of the most highly-regarded games, certainly for the Spectrum. For instance, Spellbound scored 95 out of 100 in Crash Magazine, one of the highest scores they ever awarded to a budget title. Knight Tyme was also the first game written specifically for the 128k Spectrum.”

David's TRS-80 computer also came with many floppy disks, and a 15 megabyte hard disk that contains the original source code and assets for many of his games. Museum volunteers will endeavour to image the disks, and make sure that the data is preserved as part of the museum’s collection for future reference.

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Notes to editors:

Centre for Computing History

Established in 2006, the Centre for Computing History is a charitable heritage organisation with a strong focus on learning. Since opening in Cambridge in August 2013, the Centre has helped people understand how tech has shaped the modern world and revolutionised the way we live, work and play through interactive displays and exhibitions, our schools programme, learning events and workshops, and an astonishing collection of computers old and new. Most recently, the museum has been awarded 'Full Accreditation' status by the UK Arts Council.

Visit www.computinghistory.org.uk.
Follow @computermuseum on Twitter
Follow @thecentreforcomputinghistory on Instagram.

David Jones

David Jones is a former freelance computer game programmer who was prolific in the mid-to-late 1980s. He is best known for the creation of the cult computer game character Magic Knight in his 1985 game Finders Keepers for the Mastertronic budget label and released on the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX and Commodore 64.

For further information or images, please contact:

Jason Fitzpatrick (jason@computinghistory.org.uk, 01223 214446).

Date : 29-06-2019

Date : 02-07-2019