This page contains interviews with people that were involved with CreatiVision-related projects during the 1980's.
The list or interviews will grow in the future.

Interviews List

» Darren Robertson, June 2025

» Jamieson "Jim" Rowe, May 2015

Interview with Darren Robertson | June 2025

Darren contacted me around 2022 and told me about his involvement with Dick Smith Publishing back around 1983 and the production of his simple yet fun game: Space Duel. So I took the opportunity and asked him if he was interested in an interview and he kindly agreed.

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Luca: How old were you when you started using the Dick Smith Wizzard and did you have any previous experience with computer programming?

Darren: I was about 15 when I got my dick smith wizzard. But my friend and I had found out our school had purchased an Apple IIe for the four unit maths students. We got lunchtime access to that machine and type in assembly language skiing or driving games in monochrome to entertain ourselves. This was a while before the Wizzard existed, I can work out the exact year but it was the first times computers were being used as game machines.

Luca: Since you had a bit of experience in computer programming with the Apple, how did you end up getting a Wizzard?

Darren: I think it was 1982. It was purchased with the intent of programming. I got the base machine with Basic and also purchased tape drive and interface expansion and 80 column dot matrix printer. Oh and the moving key keyboard. The choice for the wizard over things like microbee was that it had the 6502 like the apple IIe.

Luca: Wow rvery ally nice setup! Were you disappointed to find that the BASIC interpreter was quite limited and unable to execute machine code? How did you try to make the most of the system then?

Darren: At the time I did not understand machine code even though I was using examples from magazines. I understood the commands to some degree but not how to use registers. So BASIC was perfectly fine for my programming.
I explored the computer to its limits. My keyboard died while on computer camp in Sutherland shire so I pulled it apart and put foil on the carbon contacts. I wrote lots of little programs and I typed in anything in Wizzard BASIC interpreter I could find.

Luca: What's the back story of your collaboration with Dick Smith Publishing, that lead to your game being published on their Second Book of Programs?

Darren: From memory there was some sort of promotion or contact with DSE staff who mentioned that they were looking for programs for a book. You had to send in a tape with the program for them to look at.

Luca: How did you come with the idea of Space Duel? What game does it draw inspiration to?

Darren: The request for games came before the design of the game. So I had to sit down and think about what would work for a "commercial" game.
So my decision was a two-player game. I then thought about what limits the Wizzard would put on game design. So I knew I was working with 1 character sizes objects moving across the screen.
I then wrote the code in my head to make the game work testing little things as I went. Just before finishing I ran into a problem with garbage collect and fragmented RAM. This meant as I got close to finishing I had to save the program to tape then reset the machine then load from tape again. This allowed me to continue typing for a while, then I really ran out of RAM.
So I started looking at how the interpreter worked and removing blank space characters between commands and variables. The code I had in my head had to be shoehorned into the limited space available on the Wizzard. I was always worried I had pushed the machine too far and the game may crash due to RAM management.

Luca: Was that perhaps the first time you programmed a "commercial-grade" program or game, and what were the main challenges you faced with for example the limitations of the BASIC interpreter?

Darren: Yes it was the first time I tried to write code in a serious way, I had done lots of experiments and short routines. Space Duel just flowed from the things I knew about the Wizzard rigtht up until the RAM problems started to freak me out. I did not know how I was going to get the last lines of code crammed in.
The last question is part of the reason the game is what it is, I knew the strengths and weakness' in BASIC but only when the code was almost done did the methods BASIC used to handle typing and used RAM really hit my work. I think the program went from idea to working in a few weeks.

Luca: Yep, the limitations of the BASIC are well known nowadays, not so much back then! I recollect the maximum RAM allowed for a CreatiVision BASIC program is 9Kbytes. But there are even more limitations, with arrays/matrixes for example, the maximum allowed is 256 elements which is not enough for the majority of applications.
Let's talk about how the game got published. Did you contact D.S. Publishing when the game was finished? Did they "invite" you to send the game, or did you send it "unsolicited" and waited for their response? What format did you send it? Paper print? Tape? Both? And lastly, what was the agreed payment?

Darren: Because it was done in such a short time and I already knew they were looking for games, I sent it in to them printed and on tape. I got an offer back of $150 for the rights to the program. I think I still have the letter somewhere...

Darren Robertson

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Interview with Jamieson "Jim" Rowe | May 2015

I contacted Jim as suggested by Mr Dick Smith a few months ago. Jim was the Technical Director at Dick Smith Electronics between 1980 and 1984. He managed and produced several projects, including writing the programming books "Fun Way into Computers with your Wizzard" and "An introduction to home computing with Funvision".

Jim was more than happy to share his memories and stories with the CreatiVision and the Wizzard fans through the CreatiVEmu website. I would like to publicly thank him for this and wish him all the best!

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Luca: What were the circumstances of your joining Dick Smith Electronics (DSE), and can you tell us a little of your professional background?

Jim: I joined the staff of the magazine "Radio, TV and Hobbies" in 1960, while I was doing a university course (part-time) in electronics. Then when the magazine changed its name to "Electronics Australia" in 1965, I was appointed its Editor (under Editor-in-Chief Neville Williams). I remained in this position until late 1979, writing articles in the magazine as well as a few magazine-format books on the Fundamentals of Solid State electronics, Digital Electronics and building a baby learning computer (the EDUC-8) which I had designed. However in late 1979 I was becoming restless.
Our largest advertiser at that time was Dick Smith, who visited the magazine office from time to time to find out about our latest construction projects (so his firm could decide whether they would market kits for them).
At that time Dick was building a large office and warehouse complex in North Ryde, and I learned that they would be moving their head office to the new facility as soon as it was finished. They were also starting to get involved with personal computers, and Dick asked if I was interested in joining his company as its "Technical Director". It seemed to be an opportunity too good to miss (especially as the salary was significantly higher than my salary at the magazine). So I joined DSE in early February 1980, at the North Ryde head office.

Luca: What was your initial role at DSE, and can you mention some of the assignments you had?

Jim: My initial role was mainly to evaluate samples of new products (especially small computers, peripherals and other technical products) obtained from overseas, in order to help Dick decide whether they would be good products to market in Australia. However this role quickly grew, since many of the products had little or no documentation. So before long I was also writing User Manuals and Technical/Servicing Manuals for quite a few of these products. I think this began with the Exidy Sorcerer CP/M based microcomputer, and continued with products like the System-80 (a Taiwan knock-off of the Tandy TRS-80) and the VZ-200 and VZ-300 (from Hong Kong).
With these latter products I gained the further role of commissioning and testing useful software that we could sell to support them.

Luca: I know that BASIC programs released on cassette tape mostly came from VTech in Hong Kong, whereas there were a few of them produced locally by DSE. How did you manage the commissioning and testing activities? Were the programmers in-house at DSE or consultants?

Jim: I think you're right in proposing that some of the software was produced at Video Technology in HK - mainly the games. We had to produce the more serious software ourselves, and most of this was done for us by contractors. I can't remember all of their names, but some of them may be in your listing.
All I did was test them out and see if there were any bugs (and if they were, arranging for the contractor to fix them) before we arranged for them to be prepared for sale in DSE's stores.

Luca: What software programs and methods did you use to create the books and their layouts?

Jim: From memory, I used a System 80 microcomputer (fitted with two 5" floppy disc drives) to write most of the books, using a simple word processor program. The text files were passed to DSE's in-house advertising department, where we had a phototypesetter and quite a few layout artists - plus a skilled photographer.

Luca: What memories do you have about the "Fun Way into Computers Using Your Wizzard" book, and about Sue Robinson, its co-author?

Jim: My memory is a bit vague about this, but I think we first made contact with Sue Robinson when I needed some assistance in preparing some of the user manuals and software manuals for the VZ-200 and VZ-300. Sue proved to be very capable as a technical writer, and as a result we also used her in preparing some of the later books.
I don't remember much about the "Fun Way into Computers Using your Wizzard" book, but I think we asked Sue to adapt the material in a similar earlier book she and I had produced, directed towards the VZ-200 and VZ-300.

Luca: Can you recall why the Wizzard book was re-released as "An Introduction to Home Computing with Funvision"?

Jim: I can't really remember the reason for this, but I think it may have been because Dick felt that the Funvision needed to be seen as not just an el-cheapo video game, but an easy way of learning about personal computers as well.

Luca: Do you remember the reasons behind DSE starting to sell the Funvision at the same time as the Wizzard was still popular?

Jim: Again, I can't quite remember the reasons for this - sorry!

Luca: What was your last job assignment at DSE, why did you leave, and what projects you faced after leaving DSE?

Jim: Not long before I left DSE (in mid-1984, I think), Dick had sold a half-interest in the company to major retailer Woolworths. Before this Marketing Director Gary Johnston had also left, to acquire and rebuild the electronics supplier Jaycar Electronics (which he did with great success). I was asked to take over the Marketing role, but I soon learned that I was very poor at this.
Then I was approached by the publisher of "Electronics Today" magazine at Federal Publishing, asking if I would be interested in taking over the position of Managing Editor for that magazine and two others: "Your Computer" and "Sonics". So I accepted, leaving DSE and joining Federal Publishing in Rosebery.
Before long FPC also purchased my old magazine "EA" from Fairfax/Sungravure, so it was added to my responsibilities.
However not long after this management made quite a few changes, and I found myself without a job.
Luckily within a few weeks I was approached by Owen Hill, who had just gone public with his firm Microbee Computers. Owen offered me the job of Technical Writer, which I accepted (I had a family and there were lots of bills to pay).
Anyway, to cut the story short I wrote various documents for Microbee (also becoming Advertising Manager as well), but the company struck trouble within about 18 months. Then I was approached by Michael Hannan, the MD of Federal Publishing, asking if I would like my old job back as Managing Editor of EA and ETI (which were being merged). This was mainly because my old magazine colleague Leo Simpson had left to start up his own electronics magazine "Silicon Chip".
So before long I was back at Federal Publishing, which had moved to Alexandria.
I worked at EA again until 1999, when management decided that I was a bit too old and inflexible. So they pushed me into an early retirement, and I became a freelance contributing writer. However the magazine didn't last much longer (after they had revised and updated it), and the contributing work dried up.
Luckily my old colleague Leo Simpson had achieved great success with his magazine Silicon Chip, and I was able to keep earning a crust contributing to his magazine. And that's the situation today, I'm happy to say.

I hope these answers are of interest, Luca, and best wishes.

Jim Rowe

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