Computer games, board games, tabletop games and pixel art all have a habit of borrowing from each other. Sometimes that inspiration is obvious. Sometimes it is delightfully cheeky. And sometimes it results in a board game that is absolutely, definitely, legally not Pac-Man. Honest.
In our first video on the UKAG channel, I takes a look at three tabletop games that scratch that retro gaming itch when plugging in things feels like a bit too much faff. There is a physical version of Pac-Man, the cooperative card game Level Ten, and the wonderfully presented 8Bit Box, which looks and feels like a board game console.
Same but different
It is all about that familiar retro feeling, but in a slightly different form. No loading screens. No tape errors. No fiddly cables. Just cards, cubes, pixels and a table full of nostalgia.
The video starts with Pac-Man, complete with the familiar ghostly gang of Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. There is a nice strategy-game twist to it too, with shades of Quoridor-style play as players use the board and barriers to outwit each other.
In the game I played with Simon, he took on the role of Pac-Man, trying to grab all four power pellets, while I controlled the ghosts and attempts to stop him. You move one or two spaces trying to catch each other and use up Pac-Man’s lives.
Next up is Level Ten, a cooperative card game where players help Izzy work through ten levels across five different video game worlds. It is full of cute pixel art, simple rules, limited communication and a proper “one more go” feel.
Finally, there is 8Bit Box, a clever board game system styled like a retro console. The base set includes three games: Pixoid, which is absolutely not Pac-Man, Out Speed, a space racing game, and a sports-style game that works much better than taking long turns each. The whole concept is great fun, especially the controllers with multiple uses.
Come and have a go
The best bit? These games will not just be on screen.
I will be bringing them along to the UKAG meet on Sunday 21st June 2026, where you will be able to sit down, have a play and get hands-on with some retro-inspired tabletop gaming.
So, alongside the Amstrads, chats, demos, community atmosphere and general retro goodness, there will be a chance to try something a bit different. These games are a lovely reminder that retro gaming is not only about the hardware. It is also about the ideas, the design, the artwork, the competition, the cooperation and the memories they spark.
Whether you are a long-time Amstrad fan, a board gamer, a pixel art appreciator, or someone who just likes shouting at a wooden Pac-Man, come and have a go.
Jo Cook recently joined the Retro Hour podcast for a warm, funny and nostalgic conversation about her history with Amstrad, her involvement in the scene, and how those early experiences still connect with what UKAG is doing today.
For anyone who remembers waiting for a tape to load on a CPC 464, admiring colourful game box art in high street shops, or discovering that computers could be about far more than just games, this episode will strike a chord.
The conversation covers Jo’s earliest Amstrad memories, her role in the community, the story behind Merline-Serve and King Arthur’s Domain, writing for Amstrad Action, and the way the retro scene continues to bring people together.
From a CPC 464 in the corner of the bedroom
Jo’s first computer was an Amstrad CPC 464. Like many people who grew up with home computers in the 1980s, those memories are about much more than the games themselves. They are about the rituals, the anticipation, the sounds, the box art and the feeling that these machines opened up a much bigger world.
More than games
One of the themes that comes through strongly in the podcast is that Amstrad was never just about gaming. Jo talks about the wider Amstrad range too, including machines like the PCW, NC100 and NC200, and the 6128 Plus, which she especially loved for its keyboard and writing-friendly feel.
The conversation is a good reminder that for many users, Amstrad represented productivity, creativity and experimentation as much as entertainment.
That broader view of home computing is one of the things that makes the episode so enjoyable. It is not just nostalgia for games, but for an era when computers felt full of possibility.
King Arthur’s Domain and Merlin Serve
A particularly fascinating part of the interview is Jo’s account of King Arthur’s Domain and Merline-Serve. Her father, Arthur, was the more technical half of the operation, handling repairs and electronics, while Jo became heavily involved in cataloguing, writing letters, answering the phone and helping run the day-to-day side of things. Together, they built what became a much bigger part of family life than anyone probably expected.
It was community-led, practical and rooted in generosity, even if it also helped fund the family’s own computing habit. Listening to Jo describe it now, it is clear just how much of that work was really about helping people.
Writing, reviewing and finding a voice
The interview also explores how Jo’s involvement in the Amstrad world helped launch her writing career. She wrote for fanzines including WACCI, interviewed people, reviewed software and gradually found her way into magazine work.
There is something lovely in hearing how those early experiences shaped her future. Even then, the interest was not only in the technical side, but in making things understandable, telling people’s stories and helping others get more from the tools in front of them, and that thread runs right through to the work she does today.
The power of community
Another standout thread in the discussion is community. Jo talks about conventions, user groups, fanzines and the people who made the Amstrad scene what it was. That same spirit is part of what sits behind UKAG now. What started as a few friends getting together with their machines and memories has grown into something much bigger: a welcoming group for Amstrad fans, retro enthusiasts and the simply curious.
The upcoming UKAG event is part of that same tradition, bringing people together to share stories, show off projects, repair machines, play games and enjoy a bit of collective memory-lane wandering.
Why this conversation is worth a listen
What makes this Retro Hour podcast episode especially enjoyable is that it is not just a bit of Amstrad history, it’s a personal story about growing up with computers, finding confidence, building community, and discovering interests that last a lifetime.
For anyone with a fondness for Amstrad, retro computing, or the wider home computer culture of the 1980s and 1990s, it is well worth a listen. And for anyone planning to join UKAG in June, it offers a perfect reminder of why these machines, and the communities around them, still matter.
My earliest memories of computing is having the CPC 464 and waiting for tapes to load. I would have been about 6 or 7 years old in 1984, using the computer in the corner of my parent’s bedroom. We had the colour screen and I loved playing Oh Mummy and Harrier Attack that came with it. I remember Animal Vegetable Mineral, which guessed something you were thinking of. As a child that felt like AI does to me these days.
Obviously being young I was mostly playing computer games with my younger brothers. One particular favourite was Gauntlet and Gauntlet II… two-player mode getting to level 99 or something and the computer crashing. Such pain. Other favourite games where Chuckie Egg, Klaxx, Rainbow Islands, Boulderdash and I’m sure more that will ping in my brain when I see them somewhere.
“I’m 13 and want to be a journalist”
As I got a bit older, I started using it more functionally. I remember doing the type-ins and my stepdad helping me to write a prime number generator in BASIC. I think that’s probably my best ever bit of programming!
Merline-Serve for all your CPC needs
Things started to accelerate when I was helping my dad with what grew from a hobby into an obsession. He was good at repairing electronics, and we started buying people’s items and reselling them. That grew and grew and became something dad and I did together.
Jo’s dad, Arthur Cook
My dad’s name was Arthur, and ran a PD library that became known as King Arthur’s Domain. So our buying and selling effort became known as Merline-Serve. That was Merlin with an “e” to make it the feminine form as I was really the everyday person that dealt with people and the logistics side of things.
In theory Merline-Serve wasn’t a non-profit, but all the money went back into the hobby, buying more stock and enabling us to get to conventions to sell things. This included the CPC Southwest convention and the WACCI Conventions at Walsall football stadium. My computer use at this time was for cataloguing what we were selling, writing letters and all sorts. My dad and I even did an evening GCSE together in Computer Studies, both passing with the same grade. I remember writing a DBASE III database for our stock.
Jo’s CPC 6128, with Plus computer just about visible on the right
The start of things
It was around this time I knew I wanted to write. The first ever thing I got published was for WACCI fanzine, the first sentence was something like: “I’m 13 and want to be a journalist.” It came true; at 19 I studied magazine journalism at the prestigious Highbury College, became deputy editor of a magazine in the learning and development field a few years ago, and now I’m editor of its latest iteration as a content website.
Back to teenage me: I wrote for various fanzines and got involved in speaking to various companies about competitions and computer fayres and stuff I can’t really remember in that much detail now. One distinct memory was a company returning a call about something I was trying to find out about, only to be dismayed that I couldn’t speak to them because I was at school! I guess in those days it was all a bit weird that kids were using computers and doing things.
Whilst I was technical in a lot of ways, at school I was more than comfortable using the BBC computers that were in all UK schools, and we even had some PCWs too, I wasn’t into the electronics or programming side of things. I focused more on software use and the people. I did some interviews (including with Rob Buckley of Radical Software) and I got into writing game reviews and even a terrible short story. I cringe now when I look back at all of my writing, but of course at the time it felt amazing to be contributing to something and have my work published.
Amstrad Action magazine
The way I got to writing for Amstrad Action was through being friends with Rob Buckley and getting to know Simon Forrester and Dave Goldberg. Another embarrassing memory is sending hand written astrology backgrounds to them both, one of them was a taurus seems to be fixed into my memory. Rob Buckley was a programmer and, if memory serves me correctly, they hired him to write the BASIC programming page, but he was rubbish at deadlines. So I helped him with the writing and timing and he focused on the programming. From there I offered other reviews and got a fair few things published (listed at the end).
I wrote for Amstrad Action the first time when I was about 15 or so. I remember the day I received my GCSE exam results was also the day Amstrad Action issue 108 arrived in the post with my first ever published article. I’ve never lost the buzz of seeing my name in print, which of course these days extends to website content, social media and videos, podcasts, reports and the like.
At the time I was published under my given name Angela Cook. Joann is my middle name and these days I’m known as Jo. The lightbulb part comes from my own company name, Lightbulb Moment, which is about loving the ‘aha’ moment when people are learning something new.
I really enjoyed writing different features, which is where my strengths were, rather than the more technical elements, though I got into teaching networking and server building much later. I also loved the art work back in the mid-90s for magazines, even more so when my feature made the cover art.
Writing for AA at that time I think gave me my own identity. Until then it had been very much wrapped up with my dad, running Merline-Serve. That was great, I learned a lot and have some very fond memories of going round to people’s houses and buying things, cataloguing them, speaking to people on the phone and all sorts. But now this was about me being my own person in the CPC scene and fulfilling dreams about being published.
On and on
I did a few other things after this, including marketing and selling, or trying to, titles from Radical Software. I think I got involved in some other things here and there, but again it’s lost to a memory these days. I wish I’d kept my files and taken more photo’s.
Radical Software advert in AA117, yes, the last one!
I wrote for Micro Mart, PC Mart and other publications outside the computer industry. Doing what I had from such a young age gave me not only a lot of experience and practical skills, but a huge confidence in what I was doing and where I was going that.
When I look at my career for the past 30 years, I can trace it all back to that choice of Amstrad rather than an Amiga or Spectrum. Even my love life is related to it, as my other half is Simon “Doc” Green. Simon ran PD libraries, did some coding, and worked on BTL along with Richard Fairhurst, myself and others and that’s how I met him. One of my earliest memories of Simon is about 1996 at the WACCI convention, where he though the 256k silicon disc I was selling was too expensive!
The BTL crew at the WACCI convention circa 1997 L-R Richard Wildey, Simon Green, Richard Fairhurst, (Angela) Jo Cook, Rob Scott, Simon Matthews
The Amstrad community to me was about being with friends, having a laugh and sharing your learning with others. It’s not lost on me that I now work in the learning and development industry, and that’s the same, a lot of friendly sharing. CPC architect and UKAG honorary president Roland Perry has said how the “community was friendly” on the Retro Hour Podcast (59 minutes in).
Back then, it was more than just owning a computer. The different “scenes” as they were called had some rivalry, but mostly within it was helping people, going to conventions, having great conversations and camaraderie. I almost couldn’t understand it when people didn’t get any one of the great magazines or weren’t part of a club – what did they do with their computer!?
In the 2000s I wasn’t involved in the Amstrad scene a lot. Almost the opposite as, quite sadly, my dad had hoarded a lot of computer stuff over the years and it became a bit of a problem. We eventually sorted that out, with a lot of it coming back home with me as Simon was still very much enjoying his retro hobby.
My dad’s AAs at The Cave
Simon then donated my dad’s entire Amstrad Action and Amstrad Computer User collection to The Cave at The Retro Collective. We went up there a while ago and it was odd: I had to wear gloves for the magazine archive, where, in my head, I was just flicking through dad’s old mags and seeing my childhood address on the cover. It’s a fitting tribute now that my dad has passed away.
Back to the future
In the last few years I’ve really enjoyed reminiscing about my time with Amstrads and the other computers we were using, which these days are just old tech. The UKAG meetings we’ve hosted have been great fun for the sights and sounds that bring back such memories. It’s also been good fun to going to places such the Play Expo in Blackpool, including helping out with some of the speaking sessions, and meeting retro celebrities.
I’m proud of being a tiny cog for my contribution to the Amstrad scene at the time, since then it’s an even smaller part. But the Amstrad’s part in my life is huge and I’m loving it’s resurgence.
If you are on holiday in one of the most beautiful parts of the UK, the Lake District, it’s well worth a visit to The Retro Zone, a collection of 70s and 70s nostalgia.
UKAG founding members Simon Green and Jo Cook enjoyed wandering around and talking to the owners about their personal memories from the decades many of us grew up in.
Simon Green and the CPC 464 at The Retro Zone.
It’s peak 70s/80s microcomputing nostalgia, instant “I had that” or, more often, “I wanted that” feeling, and a museum full of memory-triggering kit from the home computer boom.
