hardware, software, & accessories for the Atari 8-bit & ST computers.
It also published newsletters & catalogues, & ran a membership club for
its customers. Some of its former employees went on to work for other
computer companies, such as Escom, Intel, AMD & Microsoft.

- David Timothy, the founder & managing director
- Mason John Woodhams, the secretary of The Silica Shop Ltd
- Noel Daniel, a former programmer who worked in the Tottenham Court road
branch:

- Silica Shop was originally called Prodis, which stood for Program Distribution Services. The name was changed to Silica Shop in 1984, to
reflect the company's focus on silicon-based products. Silica Shop was one
of the first retailers to offer a mail-order service for computer games and hardware, which allowed customers to order from anywhere in the country.
They also had a loyalty scheme called Silica Points, which gave customers discounts & free gifts. Silica Shop was involved in the development and publishing of some Atari games, such as Sidewinder, Thunderfox, and
Foundations Waste. Some of their staff were former or current programmers,
such as Noel Daniel & Eroll Elliston. I don’t remember this but..
apparently Silica Shop had a mascot called Silica Sid, a cartoon character
who appeared in their adverts & catalogues. He was a friendly & helpful
guide who gave tips & advice to customers Silica Shop became one of the
largest Atari retailers in Europe.

Silica was the Uk importer for Commodore & would repackage commodore
products to better appeal to the uk market, so you may remember the various xmas packaged gift sets with free games & a lovely designed xmas cover of
the commodore computer, this was Silica who would buy up the rights to the games, reproduce them in house & then re-package them with the machine to public ad though trade channels.

The Atari users would be given a shrink wrapped pack of about 20 games to
get them started . Within Silica there were often competitions to design
the box contents, layout, picture & pack name. the packs were sent out
separate so the shops could repackage them, so an xmas box would be ripped
of its outer cover & any reference to xmas & packaged as a summer
collection etc

A brief history of a forgotten age, I still have my silica greed tshirt and
my silica manager ID badge. People now don’t remember this passing phase but just for a brief few years of time Silica had the world of computer retail
at its feet.

Can you add to this story, Did you work in one of the many Debenhams outlets
or directly for Silic itself? Let me know


******************************************
Commodore Free review
Gina sisters for the 264 range (+4 CBM 16) ******************************************

History
If you have seen Mario the Nintendo plumber then you get the basics of this game, a right to left scrolling landscape, but you can only move right, you
can only go back to the edge of the screen, the screen doesn’t scroll left
to right & just stops! You are to collect items & squish the monsters
by landing on them, you can headbutt various items than will give you bonus
and energy.

Developed by Time Warp Productions, a german video game company, & released
in 1987 on the Commodore 64 “The Great Giana Sisters” was designed by Armin Gessert & features music composed by the legendary Chris Hülsbeck. The game was published by Rainbow Arts for the Commodore 64 & was later ported to
other platforms such as the Amiga, Atari ST, & Amstrad CPC.

Head butting releases & item

grate graphical loading screens

Released originally on the Commodore 64 & then pulled quickly for copyright reasons, “the great gina sisters” still remains a classic on the commodore 64
with many sites offering a download to this piece of history, & while we
can complain all we like it is a very close copy of mario from Nintendo al
be it with different main character sprites.

Amiga version of this classic platformer:
The Amiga version was released in 1988. Retaining the design from the
original Commodore 64 version. The scroll screen melody of The Great Giana Sisters was composed by the talented Chris Huelsbeck & remains iconic in
gaming history. Port to Commodore Plus/4: On March 3rd, 2024, a coder named TCFS ported the original game from 1987 to the Commodore Plus/4 platform

Gameplay & Features
The Great Giana Sisters C64 is a 2D side-scrolling platform game where the player controls either Giana or her sister Maria (supporting alternating two-player mode). Each level contains dream crystals that give points when collected, contributing to the game’s high score. Power-ups include: Fire Wheel Transforms Giana into a punk with the ability to crush rocks by
jumping & hitting them from below. Lightning Bolt Awards Giana “dream bubbles,” a single projectile shot. Double Lightning: Gives her the ability to shoot recoiling projectiles. Strawberries Grant her homing projectiles. Water Drop A defensive item that protects Giana against fire.

Enemies include owls, rolling eyeballs, flesh-eating fish, & deadly
insects. Special items affect the entire screen, such as the “clock” (freezes all enemies) & the “magic bombs” (kill all enemies).

Plus 4 version
With an excellent conversion of the original music the plus 4 is never going
to be a SID chip but does a plausible rendition of the music. The game looks very colourful & for a moment you forget this isn’t the C64 version, its smooth glitch free & with all the game play elements remaining intact, even
to the point of changing direction while jumping gives an other world non gravity floating feeling just right for the games mechanics, because this
helps when timing jumps. You need to get some pixel perfect jumps for this action, but its never frustrating & it’s a little more forgiving than some games of this ilk.

The game is both polished & great to play, as you can tell its one of
those frustrating, one more time games where you wanted to leave but are
now late as your on your 25th one more time plays The great Gina sisters is
a classic game for he Commodore range of machines, it’s a shame Nintendo wouldn’t franchise Mario out to be developed for the Commodore range, Its also great to see this game now available on the plus 4 even if its taken
so long to arrive. The Commodore e64 version would receive the same score
so a very worth 7 isn’t to feel disappointed about. I think all versions would score the same if I’m pressed into an answer.

SCORE
7/10

Version comparison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnObTaZWR6M

Plus 4 version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YqWt3Oq0ek


*******************************
The incomplete history of ELITE
By Commodore Free
*******************************

Rose tinted glasses
Way back in time, when the bbc micro had its own tv service on the BBC & the years started with 19 (something), a game was released that was so impossible to comprehend it became & still is a classic. The game called ELITE was a

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* Origin: Dragon's Lair BBS: dragon.vk3heg.net Prt 6800 (39:901/280.0)