Steve Trower

The Ambivalence Chronicles - A GameLit Comedy in 8 Bits: Bits 1-3 Steve Trower

Bit#1: The Chip Whisperer

It all started, as so many good stories do, on eBay. However, when retro tech collector Phil Grundy snatches a pristine Sinclair ZX81 from under the nose of a fellow enthusiast, he has no idea he has entered into more than just a bidding war.

Phil soon discovers that his simple auction purchase has brought him to the attention of both 'chip whisperer' Benito Stetson, and more worryingly, the far more sinister Assembly of Newly Uplifted Systems.

The Chip Whisperer starts with the everyday trials in the life of a collector, then spins them off into a world which anyone who lived through the 80s will find weirdly familiar.



Bit#2: The Kempston Interface

For retro computer nerds Phil Grundy and Benito Stetson, a trip to 1982 should be a dream come true. Unfortunately Stetson has already been kidnapped by the Assembly of Newly Uplifted Systems, who are intent on using him to open a portal between worlds real, imaginary and otherwise.

Thankfully, not only do Phil and his friends still have the trusty Dodge Ambivalence, but they also have a newly sentient ZX81 calling itself Dexy, and Gary the Hi-Vis Ninja to help them.

Part time travel story, part comedy, part homage to 80s ninja video games, The Kempston Interface picks up where The Chip Whisperer left off, and gets a lot weirder.





Bit#3: The Road Worrier

On the other side of The Kempston Interface, Phil Grundy and his friends find themselves in a world where a terrible apocalypse has left the highways deserted but for a few bands of armed bandits and warriors.

Joined by the enigmatic Bryonetta Bootlesquith, they take the Ambivalence and T-Rex on a road trip like no other, meet Mr Heli, and rescue Sam Cooper from the evil clutches of Viktor Wendig - all on an empty stomach.

If Max Mad had been set on the M4 near Slough instead of the Australian outback, and if Max had been an overgrown 80s kid with a penchant for racing games instead of, well, Mad Max, it might have looked like The Road Worrier.