Fifteen Minutes of Fame
This article was printed in my local daily newspaper, the Coventry Evening Telegraph, on 25 May 1982.
TEENAGER computer ace Simon Wadsworth has achieved every schoolboy's dream... by making money out of his homework.
Sixteen-year-old Simon designed a computer game as part of an O-level project - and sold the programme to a firm for £200.
Now, with the new computer he bought with the cash he is all set to invent more money-making video games at his Coventry home. His successful programme involved a series of problems to be overcome in a magical make-believe land, including how to kill a dragon with a magic sword.
Simon, of Rees Drive, Finham, is a fifth-year pupil at Finham Park School. He is studying for O-levels and he hopes to become a computer programmer. He worked out the programme on his own computer at home.
"I started computer studies in the fourth year at school and my interest has just grown" said Simon.
Bug-Byte Software, of Liverpool, is the company which bought the programme, and Simon has already send a second one off for consideration. He has sent a third programme, for a space invader game, to another company.
The head of maths and computer studies at Finham Park, Raymond Westwood, said Simon's success with his programme had exposed the shortcomings of the computer studies examination.
Simon would have scored higher in his O-level project with a less-complicated and shorted programme because of the way it was assessed by the examiners.