Gareth Pitchford

Gareth Pitchford is a text adventure author, writer and researcher, who initially created games in the 1990s for the ZX Spectrum.

His early games were collaborations with Scott Denyer for the Delbert the Hamster Software label. Later games were published by Zenobi Software. Authorised CP/M ports for Amstrad CPC were produced by The Adventure Workshop.

In the 1990s, Gareth contributed to various fanzines such as Adventure Probe, Red Herring and From Beyond. He was the reviews editor for the Sam Adventure Club disk magazine. He was a playtester of several ZX Spectrum and SAM Coupe titles, such as Captain Kook.

Since 2018, Gareth has returned to writing adventure games for retro platforms. As well as producing his own work, he has collaborated with John Wilson and John Whatson.

He is the author of Twilight Inventory (a collection of reviews of homegrown text adventures from the 1990s) and an editor on the Classic Adventure Solution Archive. He maintains a series of text adventure writing resources and articles at 8bitag.com.

Author Credits

Games Written

• Personal Computing Whirled! (publisher: Delbert the Hamster Software; 1992; Spectrum et al.)
• Deception of the Mind's Eye (1993; Spectrum et al.)
• Man About the House (publisher: Zenobi Software; 1993; Spectrum et al.)
• The Search for the Nether Regions (publisher: Zenobi Software; 1994; Spectrum et al.)
• Scout's Honour (2018; Adventuron, Spectrum)
• Trolleymania (2019; Spectrum et al.)
• The Revenge of Moriarty (2019; Spectrum et al.)
• Deer Creek (publisher: Primary Resources; 2019; Spectrum et al.)
• A Troll's Revenge (2019; Adventuron, Spectrum et al.)
• The Lost Planet (2019; Spectrum)
• Mirror Mirror (2020; Spectrum)
• Dream Walker (2021; Spectrum et al.)
• Pesky Kids (2021; Spectrum et al.)

Games Designed

• Microfair Madness (implementer: Scott Denyer, publisher: Delbert the Hamster Software; 1991; Spectrum; later Amstrad CPC et al.)
• First Past the Post (implementer: Scott Denyer, publisher: Delbert the Hamster Software; 1991; Spectrum; later Amstrad CPC)
• The Quest for the Holy Snail (implementer: Scott Denyer, publisher: Delbert the Hamster Software; 1992; Spectrum; later Amstrad CPC et al.)
• The Life of a Lone Electron (implementer: Scott Denyer, publisher: Delbert the Hamster Software; 1992; Spectrum; later Amstrad CPC)
• Get Me To the Church On Time! (implementer: Scott Denyer, publisher: Delbert the Hamster Software; 1992; Spectrum; later Amstrad CPC)

Games Implemented

• Behind Closed Doors 7 (designer: John Wilson; 2018; Spectrum et al.)
• Ramsbottom Smith & the Quest for the Yellow Spheroid (designer: John Wilson; 2018; Spectrum et al.)
• ISS Emergency! (designer: John Whatson; 2019; Spectrum et al.)

Review and Article Credits

• Reviews & articles for Adventure Probe, Red Herring (fanzine) and From Beyond.
• Reviewer and reviews editor for The SAM Adventure Club.
• Twilight Inventory "A collection of Forgotten 8-bit Adventure Games" (2017).

Testing Credits

• Captain Kook (1989).
• Various Delbert the Hamster Software games.
• Flight of Fantasy (1993).
• The House on the Other Side of the Storm (2019).

Interviews

• The Classic Adventurer - Issue 1. 2018.
• Amtix, relaunched issue 11. 2024.

Links

• Microfair Madness & other text adventures - official site
• Gareth Pitchford (archived) - at Baf's Guide.