When I mentioned almost exclusively male, I had in mind the most "hardcore" audience of assembly programmers, not computing in general. At least that's the impression I got in Brazil at the time. Perhaps in UK it was different?
You're probably looking for "proper" games but loads of Speccy text adventures were written by women. A lot of the home-grown adventure scene writers, editors, reviews & playtesters were female too.
Having lived as young adult/teenager in the early 80's I don't think Einar's explanation is really that plausible. I knew girls who were interesting in computing and some that were programming for a living (albeit on larger mainframe type machines and not Spectrums) so a female programming author would not have been that much of a surprise to the publishers.
Also Carol Brooksbank was a regular contributor to ZX Computing during the 80's and she was definitely female.
Not just the cryptic gender reference but also the deliberate end program change.
@ Karingal.
Carol Brooksbank!
That's a blast from the past a feisty female who was an older married house wife at the time as opposed to the young bucks who seemed to rule the roost, who I remember more for the arguments she used to have in print with anyone who preferred decimal over hex and if memory serves she is still computing and has her own website.
A truly inspiring lady.
I met someone who apparently used to be friends with Toni Baker - according to their account, she's not transgender, but her real name is neither Toni nor Tony, and she deliberately adopted the name Toni as a not-overtly-female-sounding pseudonym. I wish I could elaborate more, but I'm told that she's a very private individual, and wouldn't welcome her personal details being made public.
I met someone who apparently used to be friends with Toni Baker - according to their account, she's not transgender, but her real name is neither Toni nor Tony, and she deliberately adopted the name Toni as a not-overtly-female-sounding pseudonym. I wish I could elaborate more, but I'm told that she's a very private individual, and wouldn't welcome her personal details being made public.
Hmmm doesn't really answer the question of why the male references and the two allusions by Toni to a future gender change in the first revision of the book in fact it makes the aforementioned sound like complete b0lux why Tony then Toni and all the cryptic nonsense that went with it, just plain Toni would have sufficed?
Pretty weird for someone not wanting to draw attention to themselves.
I'm always a bit suspicious of "I knew a man who was a friend of an uncle who knew my sister etc " stories but I do know people who have met you Gasman and their past description of you leads me to believe you're a very honest individual not given to spouting bull so I happily believe what you say and accept you can't elaborate more and for my part, in respect of her wishes for privacy I'll leave it there.
PS.
Can I also as a very old school wood steel and brass working musician who came to chip tune 35 years too late, thank you, yerz' and all the other AY minstrels for opening my eyes to something wonderful and different.
Oh and the tracker manual as well. :-)
Centipede, the atari arcade game, was co-written by a woman, Donna Bailey. M.U.L.E., a very popular Atari 8 bit/C64 strategy game, was written by Dani Bunten, a woman who was born in a male body.
Offhand I can't name any Spectrum game written by a woman.
I thought Wikipedia would have had a page about female programmers, but the closest I could find is:
what a terrible "invention",
i TRIED to play some games but its realy ONLY clicking on a 'gem' or 'dress' or 'boyfriend-from-other-girl", http://www.girlgames.com/ellie-love-trouble.html
is that the brainwash of "how to be a 5 year old bitch" ?
i guess its for girls of 3-5 years old that still are very influencable to "be" a barbie type for life , a "click&go" brain
are "boys games" as dumb ? "click&shoot"
well, luckely this tread is about woman that program themselves and not about that crap you found on www
Yeah, sorry. I was drunk when I posted that. Just me trying to be funny, and failing, as usual. I agree, it's cringeworthy stuff (the site, not my jokes ... well I suppose they both are, in different ways).
I work at a small tech company, and the day I posted that the managers of my company had been doing some corporate brown-nosing at a tech event, where they basically watch boring presentations where the presenters basically use a bunch of buzz words to describe things that should be common sense. Then afterwards they'll blabber on about great opportunities, and this that and the other, and I'll sit there getting drunk and wanting to jam my eye with a spoon.
One of the things that came up was encouraging women in the workplace.
Apparently, according to one of my managers, women won't work in our office because "it's too dirty", because of course every woman is obsessed with cleanliness. The comment irked me, because it almost seemed like a defeatist thing to say: "Yeah, but what you gonna do? Women are too fussy! Not much you can do about that! Can't have silly women in the office."
Actually, when it comes to women who work in tech, the Indians are ahead of us, which is strong evidence that it's our education system and culture which is discouraging women from taking this path. Of course, I'm reasonably sure we are ahead of India when it comes to gender equality, but at least with this particular facet, it seems that they're ahead.
But then perhaps it's that more Indians end up working in tech in general, and the women just filter through. Or perhaps the women start off in manufacturing and naturally end up in IT roles? I've worked with quite a few Indian women while I've been working in this industry.
Growing up, school certainly didn't encourage me to work in the IT industry, and it's something I ended up obsessively doing in my spare time, so I'm kind of surprised by the amount of British men I see in this industry, just because I barely remember anyone at school who was interested in computers the way I was.
Post edited by chriswyatt on
My only Speccy game (so far): a simple snake clone
When I was a schoolboy, my elder brother's girlfriend, who was at uni then, often used to come to our place and helped me with my question and ideas--mostly about Speccy)
She (as most girls) never gave a direct answer, but provided a look at the issue from a different angle instead, so I could grasp the crux myself. Very efficient, I must admit (and those big boobs!).
Also she was the first to teach me to separate functions/procedures (FN/SUB) I had never used before, yet I was really grateful to her when we started to learn Turbo Pascal/C and on. Only later I knew she didn't know Speccy Basic at all... Unfortunately, when my bro was in the navy, her parents moved to some other city.
So far, thinking differently is not always thinking wrongly or badly, because even from the women's perspective(s) it's very us--men--who think differently.
In programming there's no big difference for only the result matters.
Alas, society is the cause of many incorrect perceptions. Various studies have shown that the majority of people (whether they realise it or not) try to conform to the bias that society has taught us is normal :-(.
And this includes mothers who know the sex of their unborn child developing a bias. The bias then continues throughout that child's life.
So because of this, it makes it hard for women to get jobs and be promoted in areas that are traditionally dominated by men.
A very simple example is driving. You all will have heard all the "reasons" why men are better than women. But in blind testing, it turns out that there is no significant difference between men and women.
It's the same in areas where women are supposed to be better than men.
But the vast majority of people have been so indoctrinated by their whole life experience of society, that it is very hard to get change.
! Standby alert !
“There are four lights!”
Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb!
Looking forward to summer in Somerset later in the year :)
I don't buy this gender is all societal influence nonsense. I became a father 5 years ago and no matter how many stuffed toys we gave him/exposed to my son too he was always instantly drawn to trucks, trains and buses. I think certain things are hardwired into boys/girls which is the result of sex hormones. The thing that really blew my mind was that my son loves the same Christmas carol (Noel, Noel) that my wife does, this musical toy plays several tunes but he'd only let it play Noel.
Comments
so have any GAMES been solely written by women?
*making the tea and doing a bit of ironing doesn't count* :P
@Einar
Not just the cryptic gender reference but also the deliberate end program change.
@ Karingal.
Carol Brooksbank!
That's a blast from the past a feisty female who was an older married house wife at the time as opposed to the young bucks who seemed to rule the roost, who I remember more for the arguments she used to have in print with anyone who preferred decimal over hex and if memory serves she is still computing and has her own website.
A truly inspiring lady.
Yup thought so..
http://www.caroluk.org.uk/homepage/
About three quarters down the page for the z80 stuff.
Hmmm doesn't really answer the question of why the male references and the two allusions by Toni to a future gender change in the first revision of the book in fact it makes the aforementioned sound like complete b0lux why Tony then Toni and all the cryptic nonsense that went with it, just plain Toni would have sufficed?
Pretty weird for someone not wanting to draw attention to themselves.
I'm always a bit suspicious of "I knew a man who was a friend of an uncle who knew my sister etc " stories but I do know people who have met you Gasman and their past description of you leads me to believe you're a very honest individual not given to spouting bull so I happily believe what you say and accept you can't elaborate more and for my part, in respect of her wishes for privacy I'll leave it there.
PS.
Can I also as a very old school wood steel and brass working musician who came to chip tune 35 years too late, thank you, yerz' and all the other AY minstrels for opening my eyes to something wonderful and different.
Oh and the tracker manual as well. :-)
Regards.
Moggy.
Christine Johnson (co-author of FIRST book for ZX Spectrum "Educational Usage of the ZX Spectrum".
Yep, she was mentioned earlier by leespoons.
@luny@mstdn.games
https://www.luny.co.uk
http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/bio/developerId,22184/
Jenny Tyler
Audrey Meredith
Shelly Ben-Ami
we also have the mysterious Deborah and Gina
Offhand I can't name any Spectrum game written by a woman.
I thought Wikipedia would have had a page about female programmers, but the closest I could find is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_notable_women_in_the_video_game_industry
Yeah, sorry. I was drunk when I posted that. Just me trying to be funny, and failing, as usual. I agree, it's cringeworthy stuff (the site, not my jokes ... well I suppose they both are, in different ways).
I work at a small tech company, and the day I posted that the managers of my company had been doing some corporate brown-nosing at a tech event, where they basically watch boring presentations where the presenters basically use a bunch of buzz words to describe things that should be common sense. Then afterwards they'll blabber on about great opportunities, and this that and the other, and I'll sit there getting drunk and wanting to jam my eye with a spoon.
One of the things that came up was encouraging women in the workplace.
Apparently, according to one of my managers, women won't work in our office because "it's too dirty", because of course every woman is obsessed with cleanliness. The comment irked me, because it almost seemed like a defeatist thing to say: "Yeah, but what you gonna do? Women are too fussy! Not much you can do about that! Can't have silly women in the office."
Actually, when it comes to women who work in tech, the Indians are ahead of us, which is strong evidence that it's our education system and culture which is discouraging women from taking this path. Of course, I'm reasonably sure we are ahead of India when it comes to gender equality, but at least with this particular facet, it seems that they're ahead.
But then perhaps it's that more Indians end up working in tech in general, and the women just filter through. Or perhaps the women start off in manufacturing and naturally end up in IT roles? I've worked with quite a few Indian women while I've been working in this industry.
Growing up, school certainly didn't encourage me to work in the IT industry, and it's something I ended up obsessively doing in my spare time, so I'm kind of surprised by the amount of British men I see in this industry, just because I barely remember anyone at school who was interested in computers the way I was.
She reminds me of two actresses, Kate Mara and Maite Perroni.
She (as most girls) never gave a direct answer, but provided a look at the issue from a different angle instead, so I could grasp the crux myself. Very efficient, I must admit (and those big boobs!).
Also she was the first to teach me to separate functions/procedures (FN/SUB) I had never used before, yet I was really grateful to her when we started to learn Turbo Pascal/C and on. Only later I knew she didn't know Speccy Basic at all... Unfortunately, when my bro was in the navy, her parents moved to some other city.
So far, thinking differently is not always thinking wrongly or badly, because even from the women's perspective(s) it's very us--men--who think differently.
In programming there's no big difference for only the result matters.
And this includes mothers who know the sex of their unborn child developing a bias. The bias then continues throughout that child's life.
So because of this, it makes it hard for women to get jobs and be promoted in areas that are traditionally dominated by men.
A very simple example is driving. You all will have heard all the "reasons" why men are better than women. But in blind testing, it turns out that there is no significant difference between men and women.
It's the same in areas where women are supposed to be better than men.
But the vast majority of people have been so indoctrinated by their whole life experience of society, that it is very hard to get change.
Mark
Repair Guides. Spanish Hardware site.
WoS - can't download? Info here...
former Meulie Spectrum Archive but no longer available :-(
Spectranet: the TNFS directory thread
! Standby alert !
“There are four lights!”
Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb!
Looking forward to summer in Somerset later in the year :)