527: The Untold Story of the Amstrad Scene PD Libraries, Magazines and More - The Retro Hour EP527
The Retro Hour (Retro Gaming Podcast)
The Retro Hour
4.9 • 558 Ratings
🗓️ 16 April 2026
⏱️ 101 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s podcast, we celebrate 42 years of the Amstrad CPC with special guest Jo Cook, who takes us deep inside the Amstrad scene of the late 80s and 90s. From growing up with a CPC 464 and helping run the legendary King Arthur’s Domain PD library and Merlin-Serve, to writing for Amstrad Action and seeing the community evolve into the modern day, Jo shares a warm, funny and fascinating insider’s view of one of Britain’s most beloved computer scenes.
UK Amstrad Group: https://www.ukag.org.uk/
Contents:
00:00 – The Week’s Retro News Stories
49:16 – Amstrad Group Interview
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Show notes
New Neo Geo Hardware?: https://tinyurl.com/n8eheyw9
Mac OS X on Wii: https://tinyurl.com/4rzxpk76
Eclipse Blade Emerges: https://tinyurl.com/23eewcua
Miracle Boy on Atari ST: https://tinyurl.com/453duhke
Ground Zero Terror: https://tinyurl.com/42me5wh8
Mario on Master System: https://tinyurl.com/4bn4zzpx
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Coming up on this week's show is a new Neo Geo console on the way. |
| 0:04.1 | Run macOS on your Nintendo Wii. |
| 0:06.1 | On We chat, Amstrad Action with Joe Co. |
| 0:18.0 | And the Retro Hour podcast is brought to you every Friday with our good friends and our sponsor a bitmap books. |
| 0:23.5 | Now, one of my favorite books, they released recently, is Trigger Happy, a visual celebration of video game controllers. |
| 0:30.3 | Now, this incredible book, presented through more than 560 stunning photos, takes you on a vibrant visual guide to the world of video game controllers. |
| 0:39.9 | Their design, the history and their amazing ability to transform who we are and what we're |
| 0:45.4 | capable of, weighing in at more than 390 pages. |
| 0:49.3 | Check it out on the rest of their retro gaming collection at bitmapbooks.com. |
| 0:53.4 | And with our lovely friends at PCB way. |
| 0:56.1 | Now PCB way offer fully featured custom PCB prototyping, |
| 1:00.7 | low-cost, fast turnaround quality boards, |
| 1:02.9 | and if you're looking for someone to do really good quality 3D printing |
| 1:05.8 | and injection molding, they've got you covered. |
| 1:08.4 | And of course, I'm sure you know that PCBWI are huge |
| 1:10.9 | supporters of the retro community. So check out the shared project section on their website |
| 1:15.0 | and get an instant quote for yours right now at PCBWay.com. |
| 1:21.2 | Hello and welcome to the Retro Hour podcast episode number 527, your weekly dose of retro |
| 1:26.9 | gaming and technology news with me, Dan Wood, |
| 1:29.6 | me Ravi Abbott, and me Joe Fox. |
| 1:32.1 | And a very warm welcome to this week show, of course, a podcast every Friday, brings it up to |
| 1:36.2 | speed on all the big happenings in the wonderful world of retro gaming and technology and |
... |
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