Bonaventura Di Bello
Bonaventura Di Bello started his computing career as an IF programmer in 1985 with its first adventure game for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer (known as Timex in the USA), published on a tape magazine called Load'n'Run. In the same year other adventure games of him appeared on a new magazine, Epic 3000, followed by new titles published on two new magazines called Viking and Explorer, with versions for the Commodore 64, Sinclair Spectrum and MSX home computers. The games were published on a tape included with the printed magazines of the same name. You can find an anecdote about the start of his IF programming career on this Web page, in English: http://bdb.tripod.com/myadventureeng.htm His adventures were programmed using Gilsoft's The Quill with graphics added using the same software house's product The Illustrator. The MSX versions were coded in BASIC with a parser derived from Enrico Colombini's adventure coding routines and adapted to The Quill's structure, but lacked graphics. Some of Bonaventura's adventure games where co-authored by Gentili Gianpaolo, and credits are show in the games' splash page where due. When the adventure games trend expired in Italy, Bonaventura became chief editor of the Italian version of Newsfield Publishing's Zzap! videogames magazine and, one year later, of the italian version of same publisher's magazine The Games Machine. In the following years Bonaventura has worked on various editorial projects for several Italian IT publishers, planning, creating, writing and translating whole magazines or single articles, both on paper (GigaByte), on disc (MacPower Interactive, MacOnly) and the Web (http://www.mobtech.it). He's also author of the book, Internet Tour '95, which was one of the firs guides and directories about the Internet in Italy. He currently owns an editorial and communications services company called MediaMagic (http://www.mediamagic.it), and writes also under the nickname Jack Ventura, specialising in contents creation and management. Bonaventura's games are available on various Web sites in a format compatible with C64 and Spectrum emulators (see links below).
Author Credits
NOTE: All these games are in Italian.
- Dimensione Sconosciuta (c. 1986 ; Spectrum).
Explorer #1 (Nov-1986)
- Amos Newton - Mente aliena (Parte I).
- Roger Barrow - Il Triangolo Maledetto (Orrenda Scoperta - Parte I).
- Terry Jones - L'Occhio del Condor (Furto al Museo - Parte I).
Explorer #2 (Dec-1986)
- Amos Newton - Mente Aliena (Solo Contro Tutti - Parte II).
- Clive Sullivan - N.N. dal Campo Base.
- Terry Jones - L'Occhio del Condor (Il Tempio - Parte II).
Explorer #3 (Jan-1987)
- Frank "Hero" Russel - Unico Sopravvissuto.
- Nigel Stevenson - La Rosa Scarlatta.
- Roger Barrow - Il Triangolo Maledetto (Missione Finale - Parte II).
Viking #1 (Jan-1987)
Explorer #4 (Feb-1987)
- Frank "Hero" Russell - Nel Campo Nemico.
- Magnus Tanner - Dov'è Mark Williams?.
- Nigel Stevenson - La Valle Incantata.
Viking #2 (Feb-1987)
- Dick Ironside - Attacco al Bunker.
- Morgan Tyler - Il Pianeta Maledetto.
- Yarhko - Il Cobra di Cristallo.
Explorer #5 (Mar-1987)
Viking #3 (Mar-1987)
Explorer #6 (Apr-1987)
- Kurt Warren - Missione a Bangkok.
- Roy Norton - I Misteri di Villa Parson.
- Trevor Scott - L'Isola della Paura.
Viking #4 (Apr-1987)
Explorer #7 (May-1987)
Viking #5 (May-1987)
Explorer #8 (Jun-1987)
- Amos Newton - Incubo.
- Dick Ironside - Underground Killers.
- Murray Shannon - L'Orrore di Goldmine City.
Viking #6 (Jun-1987)
Explorer #9 (Jul-1987)
Viking #7 (Jul-1987)
Explorer #10 (Sep-1987)
Viking #8 (Sep-1987)
Explorer #11 (Oct-1987)
Viking #9 (Oct-1987)
Explorer #12 (Nov-1987)
Viking #10 (Nov-1987)
Viking #11 (Dec-1987)
Links
Interviews
- Intervista a Bonaventura di Bello - Di Giovanni Riccardi (archive) - Terra d'IF Numero 2, February 2004.