Out now: The Raspberry Pi Guide to Retro Gaming

10 November 2026

The Raspberry Pi Guide to Retro Gaming is out now in print and ebook formats, including a tutorial I wrote for BASIC programming on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

Most of my BASIC programming has been on the Amstrad CPC computer, but I was returning to my roots with this article. I learned to program Spectrum BASIC before I had a computer. I borrowed books from the library, bought a BASIC book with my birthday money, and had some slim books of listings. On a Saturday, I'd pop into WH Smith and Dixons to experiment with their demo machines and write simple games. I probably helped to sell a few computers back then as families shopping for a computer watched me and asked me about what I was doing. When we got a computer, it was the Amstrad and so my allegiance switched to its Locomotive BASIC.

Returning to Spectrum BASIC for this book project, I brought my experience programming in Amstrad BASIC and more recently in Python. It was striking how Python-like the string slicing was on the Spectrum, which I used for an anagrams game in the book. But it was also strange that strings in arrays must all be the same length (and get padded or truncated to fit), which wasn't a feature of other BASICs of the time.

BASIC is hardly a speed-optimized language, but Spectrum BASIC is especially slow. Computing Today described it as "snail-like" in their August 1982 review and changed one of their benchmarks from 1000 repetitions to 100 because, the reviewer said, "I thought you might like to read the review before the Christmas holidays".

For the final game in my tutorial, I made a snake-like game called Caterpillar, redefining characters (using user-defined graphics, or UDGs) for the head and body parts. I hadn't written a snake game before and it seemed like a great match for the Spectrum because only two things move: the head and the tail. The body parts in the middle are effectively a trail of where the head has been.

Writing the game involved a number of speed optimisations, which are described in the book. Spectrum BASIC is optimised for minimal storage because it emerged from the ZX81 which only had 1K of memory and Sinclair BASIC wasn't redesigned for the larger memory of the Spectrum. As a result, it's weirdly faster to jump to an earlier line in the program than a later one, because a GO TO instruction makes BASIC scan the program from its top to find the destination line number.

I ran my own benchmark tests for some of the optimisations. Shorter variable names are faster to process than longer ones, which led me to use one- and two-character names for the most frequently used variables. Using ATTR to detect the colour status at a screen position and SCREEN$ to identify the text character was faster than creating a two-dimensional array for a map (and a 2D array was faster than using a 1D array and multiplication to find the right entry in it). Each individual speed-up was extremely small but taken together the combination made the game feel smoother.

I imagined there might be three main types of readers:

• People who did some BASIC programming in the 80s, perhaps on a different platform.
• People who came across BASIC in the 80s but didn't learn to use it.
• People who code today and are curious about what coding was like in the 80s.

By showing how to quickly get interesting results with BASIC, and highlighting some of the distinctive features of Sinclair BASIC, I hope that I've created an entertaining guide for them all.

In the rest of the book, I've particularly enjoyed reading the chapters about emulating various platforms including the BBC Micro, Commodore 64, and Atari 8-bits, for which there are code examples. The book also shows you how to use CRT displays and CD readers and how to build arcade cabinets and handheld devices, so it's perfect for Raspberry Pi tinkerers with an interest in gaming.

The ebook is available for free to those who subscribe to The Raspberry Pi Official Magazine and you can order the full-colour paperback from Raspberry Pi Press or through other bookshops. For more information on the book, buying links, and to download the code from my chapter, see my page dedicated to The Raspberry Pi Guide to Retro Gaming.

You might also be interested in my free Retro Compendium and Coding Compendium ebooks.

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Hello World magazine features HaHaKeys

08 September 2026

The new issue of Hello World magazine for educators in computer science features an article I wrote about HaHaKeys, my joke-based typing tutor for children. The magazine is distributed free of charge in print to educators and is available for anyone to download.

The article details:

• The inspiration for HaHaKeys
• The development process, iterating using AI in a similar way to the technique I outlined in How to Make Money with ChatGPT
• The feedback from my Code Club when we tried it in a sesssion

As I note in the article, I had reservations about using AI for development but this was the only way I could make it happen. The app creation process still required my programming and software testing knowledge, so I don't think AI is a magic wand for making apps just yet.

I continue to add jokes as I remember or hear them, so there are now 220 to amuse you as you refine your typing skills.

Download issue 30 with my article and subscribe to Hello World here.

HaHaKeys was also featured in Primary Times magazine in May. Thanks to both publications for helping to spread the word. HaHaKeys is a free tool without advertising for anyone to use, so there's no budget for promoting it. If you know someone who might benefit please do share it with them or their parents. There's no need to register. Try it today!

I previously wrote an article for Hello World about debugging in Scratch (PDF), which also features in my free Coding Compendium ebook of Scratch, Python and Raspberry Pi tutorials.

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Discover the TinyProgrammer coding companion

13 July 2026

The new issue of the Raspberry Pi Official Magazine is out now, and includes my article about TinyProgrammer, a desk companion that uses AI to write Python code.

It goes through a cycle of generating code (at human typing speed), testing it and refining it, and sometimes lurks or posts on bulletin boards. The programs it creates include game of life, Pong, fractals and 3D plots. At night, a recreation of the Starry Night screensaver kicks in. For the article, I interviewed the device's creator Cüneyt Özşeker, who had two TinyProgrammers beavering away beside him.

Interestingly, TinyProgrammer not only creates code using AI but was also created using AI, which is increasingly being used for software development.

For the BBC, I recently wrote about Kineto, a AI-based tool for creating apps where the user never sees the code and the apps are automatically generated and hosted, including with back-end databases where required. I also used AI to create HaHaKeys, my typing tutor for primary school children. In both cases, I found that I did need some coding knowledge to get best results from the AI, but it was nonetheless impressive to see what AI can create.

To find out more about TinyProgrammer and how you can run it yourself on Raspberry Pi, seek out issue 167 of Raspberry Pi Official Magazine, which also includes a cover feature on smart homes and all the usual reviews, projects, and inspiration.

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Tips for newcomers to Raspberry Pi: DOs and DON'Ts

08 June 2026

One of the great things about the Raspberry Pi community is that new people continue to join, and the Raspberry Pi Official Magazine is there to support them as well as those with more experience.

For my latest article for the magazine, I compiled a set of Do and Don't tips to help relative beginners navigate their new single board computer. These tips are organised in categories covering formatting the microSD card, exploring the operating system, building electronics projects, and preventing problems.

In writing this, I've considered the common misunderstandings, and how Raspberry Pi is different to other platforms readers are likely to have used (including Windows and Arduino). Taken together, the tips provide an accessible overview of the software resources available for Raspberry Pi and how you can get started with your first electronics circuit.

Other topics covered in the magazine include music software, the OpenClaw AI assistant, and LED lighting, along with the regular round-up of projects, news, and community activities.

Raspberry Pi Official Magazine issue 166 is available in shops now and you can order it or download it at the Raspberry Pi Store. Subscribe to save money and support the magazine.

Visit my Raspberry Pi resources, including projects and code from previous magazine issues.

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Why is BMW using humanoid robots?

02 June 2026

For my latest article for the BBC's Technology of Business site, I report on BMW's trial using Aeon humanoid robots at its Leipzig plant in Germany. It's the first time BMW has used humanoid robots in Europe, although it has previously used Figure O2 robots in the US.

I was interested to discuss why humanoid robots exist, given the range of other shapes available.

“We started with different form factors and we landed on a humanoid,” said Arnaud Robert, president of robotics at Hexagon, which makes the AEON robot.

The AEON robot is multipurpose, able to carry out tasks including manipulation, inspection, and reality capture. “[Humans] evolved in such a way that we can do a lot of very different movements and tasks,” says Robert. “You need a [robot] form factor that's quite adaptable. And if you had fixed legs, for example, it limits you quite a bit.” AEON’s legs are jointed and bend so it can access things low down.

For BMW, a big part of the appeal is that you don't have to redesign the workplace. Adapting the production line for new robots is expensive, and humanoid robots can easily operate at the existing work stations.

“We come from a very long industrialization journey in robotics in the automotive industry," said Michael Nikolaides, head of process management and digitalisation, BMW. "This is the next level in automation and artificial intelligence in production.”

To find out more about how BMW and other car makers are using robots, read the article on the BBC site.

If you share my interest in robots, you might enjoy this video I made for my song We Work to Earn Our Sleep, from my album Artificial. The album explores what happens beyond AI, when robots acquire emotions. The album was released in 2019 and was created without using any AI.

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HaHaKeys teaches typing with jokes

18 May 2026

When working on a recent Scratch project in my Code Club, I noticed a huge difference in the children's typing speed and accuracy. They used to have a typing tutor available to them, but don't have one any more. Typing is such a fundamental skill, but the typing tutors I've seen mostly drill kids using nonsense words and phrases and reward them with an unrelated animation. For example, one tool shows a car racing across the screen as you type. Programs like these are valuable for consistent practice, but I don't think they're inherently interesting and they need children to bring a lot of their own motivation, which many will struggle to do.

I started to think about whether there's a better way. When I was a kid, I learned to type by programming on my Amstrad CPC 464 computer. My motivation was to create the programs, my reward was the programs I created, and I picked up typing along the way. I suspect I still type the BASIC keyword "print" faster than most words because I used it so often.

So I got to thinking: what would be meaningful to type, have a relevant reward built in, and be appealing to nearly everyone?

The idea I hit upon is HaHaKeys. It's a web-based game where you type in the feed line for a joke and are rewarded with the punchline, along with your speed and accuracy scores. There are more than 170 human-curated jokes in there, and I'm adding new jokes from time to time. There's a form to suggest your own, too.

I tested the program in my Code Club and the kids loved it. Some used it for the entire session and asked to use it again next session. One boy got an accuracy streak of 14 (no errors in 14 entries), while others compromised on accuracy to get a higher speed score. The punchline is only revealed when the feed line has been typed correctly, but you can edit your entry as you would in a word processor.

I created the program with assistance from AI, which is the only way I could do it with the resources I have available. I have reservations about AI and the amount of AI content that is being mindlessly generated at the moment, but this app has a good and original idea at its heart, and has been created with care. My programming experience was required to get good results from the AI and to refine the finished app.

HaHaKeys is free and available for anyone to use at school, in Code Clubs, or at home. There's no need to register: you can pop in and get started immediately and come back whenever you have a few minutes to practice.

If you like the idea, please do share it with friends. People I've shown it to love it, but children can't use a tool they don't know exists and my reach is limited. There's a one-page PDF advert you can add to school newsletters or share with your Code Clubs.

Play HaHaKeys here!

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Don't steal our books

29 April 2026

Artificial intelligence (AI) presents an existential challenge to many jobs, including creatives. They're under attack from two sides. On the one side, AI companies are taking their work without permission and using it to train AI models that might replace the creatives. On the other side, the market for their works is being eroded by the influx of AI-generated content.

The flood of AI-generated work is particularly striking in music and photography. Since I created my experimental EP Songs About Coding in May 2024 using AI, a number of AI-generated bands have accumulated a huge number of streams online. When I was looking for stock photos last week, I was struck by how much of the library content was AI-generated.

The government carried out a consultation on copyright and AI, and I was alarmed to see that their preferred position initially was to permit AI companies to use work without permission or payment unless the rights holder opts out. I imagine the government's goal was to attract investment from AI companies, but it severely underestimated the impact on the UK's creative industries, which make a huge contribution to the economy.

I sent an extensive reply to this consultation, including the following: "This proposal is an attack on creators and copyright. The government wants to take one of the fundamental rights of creators away from them: the automatic right to decide who may use and reproduce their content. Giving AI companies the right to use content by default is an extreme contravention of copyright, and represents the state assuming ownership and control of creative work, which it is not entitled to do."

I added: "The use of content for training [AI models] cannot be considered fair use. Modern AI models are derivative products based on the input content, because they cannot exist without the training data, and they reproduce the information in it, and sometimes the expression of that information, too."

The government has since changed its stance to say that its preferred approach is no longer that AI companies can use copyright-protected content without permission, although the question of how AI and creatives will work together and the legal framework around that remains unresolved. As a minimum there needs to be a fair licensing scheme with payments to creatives and a mechanism for creatives to decide whether or not their works are used. The most likely model will be collective licensing, which is already used for secondary royalties such as library loans and copying licences through organisations such as ALCS and the British Library which administers the Public Lending Right.

At the London Book Fair, Don't Steal This Book was published. It's blank except for the names of 10,000 authors who are protesting the use of their books by AI companies without consent or payment. My name was among them. One of my books is covered by the Anthropic class action settlement for copyright infringement, and other books were likely used but not covered by the legal terms of the settlement. Other AI companies are also likely to have used pirated copies of my books for training their AI models, based on reports online. Books take at least months and occasionally years to write, and it very much feels like theft when they're exploited in this way.

I've also signed up to the Society of Authors Human Authored scheme, which aims to provide an easy way for readers to validate that books were created without AI. None of my books have been written using AI and I have registered the three titles that qualify for the scheme by reason of their publication dates: Earworm 10th Anniversary Edition, 100 Top Tips: Microsoft Excel, and Web Design in Easy Steps. It will be interesting to see how widespread the icon becomes and whether any major publishers adopt it.

While I have concerns about the impact of AI on the economy and how AI tools have been trained without consent, I take a pragmatic approach to its use. It delivers a huge amount of knowledge, on demand, in an easily consumed way (albeit sometimes with inaccuracies). For research and learning, it's immensely valuable, and it can be a powerful accelerator for ideas. I have used AI, for example, to develop apps I don't have the time, skills or budget to create any other way.

AI is developing quickly, and many creatives will have an uneasy coexistence with it while it provides value to users but continues to exploit those whose work has made it possible.

Many thanks to Matthew Chattle for the photo, taken at the London Book Fair.

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