Hi, I'm Phil Spilsbury (1966)
I enjoy building cool - and sometimes quirky - software products.
Hey there! I'm Phil – a Software Polygot, Music Lover & Maker, and an avid gig-goer for over 35 years. I call a small island in the North Atlantic, known as Great Britain, my home.
With nearly 40 years in the commercial software industry, I've had the pleasure of building awesome software products for some fantastic companies both in the UK and around the globe. Plus, I've dabbled in entrepreneurship, creating micro-businesses that have generated over $[redacted] million in sales – not too shabby, right?
Right now, I'm teaming up with another industry veteran, Ron Perkins, to craft some amazing new tools. When I'm not doing that, you can find me building my own projects, and diving into the nostalgia of building cool retro arcade game clones and other quirky creations. Let's bring the classics back!
Here are some of my more recent collaborations.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| The Tools Foundry (2024) | Useful Software Tools (and they are completely FREE for you to use!) |
| TextZformatter (2022) | Say Goodbye to Boring Social Media Posts with TextZformatter: Stand Out from the Crowd... |
| zubbit.io (2016) | zubbit.io is a URL Link Shortener that lets you increase the value you get from sharing content |
| TCF Email Miner (2014) | The Ultimate Email Data Mining Tool [now retired] |
A Journey into Retro Games 👾
My programming journey began back in 1981, as a teenager in the early days of home computing. I started with the BASIC programming language on a Commodore Vic-20, and later upgraded to the legendary Commodore-64.
Back then, business software was the furthest thing from my mind. Instead, I was captivated by the world of game development. I eagerly awaited the latest issues of computer magazines like Zap! 64, which were brimming with program listings. I'd spend countless hours copying the code onto my computer, and once it finally worked (after many typos and frustrations), I’d dive into hacking and modifying them to add my own quirky twists and features. That's how I learned to code!
Fast forward to today, and the nostalgia bUg has bitten, and I'm back writing games, blending the charm of retro classics with perhaps some modern twists. Join me on this exciting journey back to the golden age of gaming!
A few of my recent Retro game clones
| Game | Loading.... |
|---|---|
| Asteroids (1979) | Asteroids is a space-themed multidirectional shooter arcade video game designed by Lyle Rains and Ed Logg released in November 1979 by Atari, Inc. |
| Tailgunner (1979) | Tail Gunner is a monochrome vector arcade game created by Vectorbeam/Cinematronics in 1979. The premise of the game is that the player is the tailgunner of a large space ship. |
| Spacewar (1962) | Spacewar! is a space combat video game developed in 1962 by Steve Russell in collaboration with Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen, Bob Saunders, Steve Piner, and others. |
| Pong (1972) | Pong is a table tennis–themed twitch arcade sports video game, featuring simple two-dimensional graphics, manufactured by Atari and originally released on 29 November 1972. |
| Hamurabi (1978) | Hamurabi is a text-based strategy video game of land and resource management. It was first developed under the name King of Sumeria or The Sumer Game by Doug Dyment in 1968. |
A Bit More About Me
By 1985 I'd well and truely caught the programming bug and found myself at a coding bootcamp learning COBOL, one of the main programming languages of the time. My instructor? An alcoholic ex-monk. Sounds wild, but he was an incredible teacher!
By 1986, I was writing business software for one of the first software houses in the United Kingdom building software for some of the first personal computers hitting the market. Those were great days, creating groundbreaking stuff like the first generation of point-of-sale software for PCs.
Since then, I've done a bit of everything. I helped save the world from the millennium bug in the 1990s, I designed and built some of the first Browser-based applications to hit the market, I also wrote the first mobile applications used by the National Health Service in the UK, tracked down £150 million of missing taxpayers' money, and even saved a Bruce Springsteen stadium concert. Talk about variety!
Over the years, I've worked in many sectors for a diverse range of clients including the NHS, Department of Health, Pen Test Partners, Ryder Plc, Ministry of Defence/British Army, Wincanton, Marks and Spencer's (UK & China), Orange, Waitrose, Karstadt (Germany/Europe), Bass Pro Stores (USA), DSG International (Dixons, The Link), 3663, Unipart, Budgens, BWG Spa, Event Support Team Ltd, IAW Resources, All Sports, Benetton, Sacha Shoes, and many more.
And on top of all that, I've built plenty of my own projects and micro-business, and hopefully added a bit of my humour and personality into each one. It's been a thrilling ride, and I wouldn't have had it any other way!
Where you can find me
© 2024 Philip Spilsbury. All Rights Reserved.