In 1985 I had just bought my first own computer - an Atari 520 STM - after using my dad's Apple IIe before. Shortly afterwards Magnetic Scrolls published The Pawn for the ST and it was one of the very first games I bought for "my machine". I was absolutely stunned by the game and later even more by Guild of Thieves and Jinxter. It is hard to tell in retrospect but I guess that they had much influence in my decision to learn programming and to study computer science after school. Looking at the games today this might be hard to understand. That time from my perspective as a 14 year old I was literally "talking to the machine". I played a lot of games over the years, but the Magnetic Scrolls games had a special place in my heart. Over time I learned that many people had fond memories of the games and I guessed there should be a place to preserve them. Hence the pages...

The Magnetic Scrolls Memorial is online since the spring of 1997. I cannot remember the exact date of the launch however the backups suggest something like late March or the first days of April. The overall size of the MSM at the beginning was around 5 MB. Now the MSM has more than 800 MB. Today it might be difficult to believe, but around 1997 it was rather hard to find 5 MB of reliable and affordable or free web space and the access to the internet was quite expensive: telephone line and limited capabilities of analog modems. So the pages moved their home several times. Lucky as I was there were always helpful and friendly people who offered web space for the pages, e.g. Matej Pokorn and Helena Kenda from jump.org. Finally, things got much easier when if-legends.org started in 2000, providing the MSM - among other pages - with a constant home.

In 2017 my love for Magnetic Scrolls was taken to the next level. The Strandgames project started. Together with Hugh Steers - founding member of Magnetic Scrolls, terribly nice guy, and brilliant programmer - we aimed to preserve and enhance the games for the modern times. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. After the spectacular rescue of the original game sources, I got the incredible chance to work on the games with the original development tools and code with the original sources. It is surely the best thing that can happen for a fan like me. not to mention all the fantastic people I get to know though the project.

So, now there are actually two projects running site by site. The Magnetic Scrolls Memorial and the Strandgames project. The Memorial will stay the place for paying homage to the original games. Strandgames is the place for the remastered versions of the games and new i.f. technology.

Below I try to answer some more questions on the background, the status and the perspective of the Magnetic Scrolls Memorial.

I have never been affiliated with Magnetic Scrolls, Rainbird or any of their distributors. Nowadays I am part of the Strandgames project which aims to preserve and enhance the Magnetic Scrolls games.

The rights on the games are held by Magnetic Scrolls Ltd, which belongs to Anita Sinclair and Ken Gordon. They have granted Hugh Steers - founder of Strandgames - the rights to use the Magnetic Scrolls IP. The games have not been made available as freeware officially. But to preserve the games and provide an easy way to play the games, the game data files and the game materials are offered here with kind consent for personal, non-commercial use. So, play the games, enjoy the games, but do not redistribute or use commercially without a written permission. In that case, contact Hugh Steers.

Concerning the articles and additional materials: A lot of those were collected over the last 25 years, many pieces were sent by helpfull people. Wherever possible, I added full credits. When including articles, I refrained from collecting full magazines, but only the relevant pages - although often it would have been nice to see an article in the context of it's time.
Nevertheless, sometimes it was impossible to fully give proper attribution, so if you think something on these pages violates your copyrights, please contact me.

The site has always been and will always be non-commercial, it doesn't generate any revenues, neither direct nor indirect.

You should be aware that the site holds a lot of old documents and files, some from unknown source or with uncertain copyright status.