Keeper of Classic Gaming

As a teacher and a parent many feel that it is my role to impart my knowledge and wisdom to the younger generation. However I got to a-thinking, apart from being older than those I teach what gives me the right to feel that what I say is correct or the choices I present are the correct ones for my wards? Rather shouldn't I help to educate the children so that they can make informed choices independently? These are profound questions which came from a very 'unprofound' place; gaming. What games should I introduce to my nephew as he gained an interest in gaming? My brother asked me to introduce his son to gaming as he had shown a keen interest in the PSP he had been playing.

Now being the Keeper of the Gateway to Classic Gaming, who am I to decide what games he should play? Of course I want him to experience stone-cold classics like Pacman, Sonic and Super Mario Bros. but maybe he should have a chance to experience gaming organically. This could include 'bad' games, like Dragons Lair on the NES or ET on the Atari.

In my formative years I played lots of 'bad' games but isn't taste objective? One only has to look online to find difference of opinion on just about anything. A prime example would be Deadly Premonition, I absolutely loved this game and in my opinion it was one of the best games of the last generation however in much of the gaming media the game was slated for being shonky and awkward. It was one of the most divisive games of the last generation garnering 10/10 on Destructoid whilst also gaining 2/10 on IGN.

Children are explorers, they like to find things out for themselves and decide what they like and don't like. I am not the Keeper of the Gateway of Classic Gaming, rather I am an observer and adviser. If the children ask me what games to play I can advise but I should not impose my tastes on them... let them explore and find their own interests organically.

Retron 5 Review

The Retron 5 has been a long time coming to the UK. Initially planned to be released in early 2014 the clone console was delayed, when the initial shipment was produced the machines went to America to fulfill orders there, unsettling those in the UK. And so we arrive, a year later than expected... But was it worth the wait?

First the preliminaries, the Retron 5 is a clone console which means it plays original hardware using emulation.
The machine has HDMI output and it is excellent, the picture clarity is superb and whilst it wont match the costlier upscalers it does a darned fine job making your old game gleam like they have never gleamed before.
The extensive menus also allow you to tinker with the visuals and add filters which significantly change the look of the game and you can screen capture images.

However its trump card is that it has 6 pad ports for SNES, Mega drive and NES controllers, for many this is the main attraction of the machine. This is just as well as the machine looks like a hideous toaster and comes packed in with a horrible controller which is best used to just navigate the menus.

Remapping joypad buttons is a treat for the games that had the jump button not keyed on for optimum ease and it also lets you save your progress at any time. For the Gameboy games you can change the screen colours and save your progress from cartridges with batteries (brilliant for saving your Pokemon progress from the mid 90s whose battery packs are dying, however this doesn't work at the moment but has been promised as a firmware update).
The machine has an SD card slot and it will only be a matter of time before some hackers figure out a way of allowing you to play the ROMs you want but may not have hard copies of.

So would I recommend the machine? In a word yes! Even though it is quite costly (£129.99) the Retron 5 is a space saving smart solution to playing your old games in the high fidelity you remember from your childhood but even better.

I have started a Retro Games Club in my school and we have been playing a different game each week. We started off with Street Fighter 2 on the SNES, then moved onto Golden Axe on the Megadrive and both games looked stunning on the HD 52 inch screen (for the article on this click here). This is what the machine is best for, not to replace your old original systems but to offer a way to play the games you loved in your youth in the simplest possible way,  As a soon to be father I want to make sure my child has access to the games of my youth to appreciate modern gaming. I look forward to sharing my passion for retro games without it taking over my living room and life.

My Visit to the Cartoon Museum in London

Not far from the British Museum is this hidden gem, the Cartoon Museum. I have lived in East London most of my life (32 years) yet I only became aware of its existence a few weeks ago through a flyer in a comic shop.... well, that's the beauty of London isn't it?

So finally I found myself at a loose end a couple of weekend ago (as my wife was having a girly day in with a friend) so I trotted along to Holborn and with a quick 10 minute walk was outside the museum.

The museum itself is not a large building but they made good use of the space available. There are free lockers available so you can put your bags and stuff it there so you can enjoy the museum unencumbered. The museum covers two floors and is not very crowded at all so I could spend a great deal of time looking at all the art and read the provenances.

Upstairs is a wonderful large room flooded with light from the skylight, there is an area to sit and lots of different cartoon books to look at. This is a wonderful change from many museums I have been to where I feel rushed and hurried through. There is a small adjoining room where children (and adults) can practice their artistic skills and read the many comics available for free.

Downstairs there is an exhibition hall where they were showing the art of Mark Boxer, it was interesting but as I am not a fan of his work I moved through this quite briskly. Of more interest to me were the original Beano, Dandy, Constantine and V For Vendetta works.

This is a wonderful museum which is run by volunteers who want to save the heritage of comic art from Great Britain. If you get a chance go along and support it. It will be money well spent, there are worse ways to spend 8 quid!

Japan: My Journey to the East

Yesterday my life changed forever as after years of believing it wasn't possible, due to various circumstances, my wife and I finally had a child. The introduction of my daughter is obviously a life altering event and late the next day has me becoming more reflective over my past. It is 4:04am on the Saturday as I write this, a piece about my dreams and aspirations as a child.

A couple of years ago I finally fulfilled a dream I've had ever since I was a child of 8, I went to Japan! Japan has held me in awe for so long due to a variety of factors. I was (and still am) a huge Mysterious Cities of Gold (MCOG) fan, which I found out was a specific style of animation called anime. For me the series had it all; relatable characters, amazing adventures and a thrilling story line. I found out much later that the series was only 39 episodes long but back then it seemed to stretch on forever, like Dogtanian, Ulysses 31 and Willie Fogg; all large sequential series that showed on BBC 1 and ITV weekly and then in large chunks in the morning during those looong summers.

Whilst wondering through our local WHSmiths, (a newsagents here in England) I saw Manga Mania on the top shelf, next to the more salacious magazines. The art seemed reminiscent of MCOG so after seeing it a few times over the next few days I finally picked it up and fell down the rabbit hole. I vividly remember going over the next few months with my friend to WHSmiths and reading Fire Tripper, a lesser Rumiko Takahshi work but for me at the time I didn't know any better and it was perfect! My uncle, who was only slightly older than me, saw that I had an interest in manga and gave me Devilman and Akira to borrow on VHS- not bad for a 13 year old kid enthralled by this new genre. At the time Akira blew my mind, I didn't understand it then and don't even pretend to now but I knew that I was watching something special.

This was the cover of the first Manga Mania I bought, in the letters section it had a comment about the 'Mysterious Cities of Gold' and I remember being excited to see my favourite show mentioned.

There was a local comic shop in our town called 'Rodneys Books and Games' which sold games, VHS films and books too. Every Saturday, my best friend and I would go to browse and occasionally purchase something. Even though I knew they sold anime and manga it wasn't until I'd been given the films by my uncle that it clicked, these were the same genre and style that I'd liked- for all those years I hadn't noticed them but now I was all about them. The first series I worked through and completed was The Guyver. Getting only a couple of pounds a week, it took me a couple of years to complete the entire 12 part collection. Even now I have the series, unwilling to part with it even though I do not have a video recorder to play it on. My interest in manga peaked at the same time of the Marvel and comic boom in the early to mid 90's and I soon forged a group of friends who became Japanophiles and comic buddies, recording and swapping recordings off the Sci-fi channel and Channel 4 late on Saturday nights.

I loved the Guyver series, although it ended only a third into the manga.

For my friends and I, Japan was a fantasy place where everything came out first and it was all amazing. This reached its zenith with Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop, two of the greatest series of all time. The late 90s were a difficult time in Japan with its economic bubble bursting. High unemployment and soaring suicide rates were featured prominently on the news and this soaked into the media coming out at the time. Being a teen with all the difficulties that entails I enjoyed the nihilistic and over the top mayhem of films like Battle Royale, which showed the anger and desperation of youth and a society trying to figure itself out. However, GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka) showed another side, it made me laugh. I remember getting the last trade paperback and reading it on the train home. I stifled laughter and an Asian passenger who sat opposite me looked at me quizzically until I showed the cover, he then smiled as if he understood. Yup, there was no doubt about it... Japan was a huge deal for me.

Evangelion is still everywhere in Japan, the cottage industry that grew out of the series is unbelievable. Even in England the amount of Eva related stuff you could buy was mental!

So, with only a few months to go before we were going to leave Cambodia where we had been teaching for two years, Japan was booked. Even though we only had a little bit of cash it was now or never; my wife and I agreed that this was the time to do this as we would probably never be closer to the country geographically! Excitedly, I told my oldest friend, the one I used to go to WHSmiths with regularly and share manga comics and films. In a weird case of serendipity he had booked to go near the same time as we had booked. There would be a couple of days overlap where we would be able to meet up. Considering he had emigrated to Australia and we would be moving back to England this was unbelievably lucky, almost like destiny. Neither of us had been to Japan and now after 32 years we had booked to go to Japan and there would be overlap. Weird!

When we reached Japan, I can honestly say that it was every bit as amazing as I thought it would be. We stayed in Shinjuku and walked around the red light district Kabukichō, in the heady days of the economic boom unbelievable amounts of money passed through here. Now it was slowly recovering, highlighted by the fact that there was a robot fighting show opening that week, all at a reasonable price of £50 for admission- bargain!

A great book for a great megalopolis!

On the first day, we explored Shibuya and Harajuku. Harajuku I knew through various quirky fashion magazines and Fruits books which I'd bought in Forbidden Planet in London. My wife and I explored the area for the day and loved it, the uniqueness and individuality of the products on sale were beguiling. Living in London, where chain stores rule and very few independent stores existed or survived, it was refreshing to come across a country that appreciated individual shops as well as the big chains. For lunch, we had a quick MacDonald lunch and saw that people were there with their ipads, macbooks and tablets but when they needed the toilet they just left it at their table and off they went. The crazy thing was that when they returned their property would still be there, pretty much unthinkable in London yet here it was happening in a city of 20 million plus!
Working our way through Harajuku my wife bought a lot of makeup and trinkets and I bought a few skate stickers which I knew I'd put on my recently bought macbook pro.

Yoyogi Park was nearby so we headed down there, I was keen to see the cosplayers out in force as it was a Sunday. We saw a few but what really stood out for me was the peace and quiet I felt whilst in this small park within a huge megalopolis. The temples were beautiful and I loved getting pictures around the Dori gates- now I felt like I was in Japan! We travelled to Shibuya and I went into Mandrake, a well known anime and manga shop, whilst my wife went mall shopping.

The highlight of the journey for me was visiting Akihabara, the gaming and manga mecca. My friends and I had heard about this hallowed place in the 90s but being there alone seemed a pity for me. My wife is not a gamer and so had little interest in going with me, so I  deposited her in a nice French style cafe (after trying to persuade her to wait for me at the Gundam Cafe- which she didn't like). Walking around Aki with a pupils borrowed copy of the 'Guide to Japan for Geeks' book I popped into various computing and manga shops in thrall to just ALL the stuff that was there. Much I recognised from my childhood but a lot I hadn't seen before. I bought a few games and an original Gameboy but wish I had more money to buy a lot more. I went to Namco Museum Arcades and Sega Gaming Parlours and played a few games, including the Persona beat em up, but it being a school day and just past midday there were very few people there. I loved the experience but just wished I had someone to share the experience with. I went into a pachinko parlour and left very quickly due to the amount of noise, even for an old gamer like me, someone who is used to arcades, the noise was deafening.  Akihabara held its allure for me but I know that if I had gone to Japan at the peak of my interest in anime and manga, then it would have been a much bigger deal.

We had booked tickets to go to Kyoto and I was very excited as I wanted to go on the Bullet train. However the cost was wayyyy to much for a return so we decided to go by bus and arrive back in Tokyo by Bullet train. The bus was extremely comfortable and cheap so that was a bonus and once we arrived we travelled to the Kyoto temples, the largest number of buildings under UNESCO in the world. The temples really didn't disappoint, the most spectacular being the gold temple and the famous Kiyomizu Temple.

The journey back by Bullet was a real pleasure but, to be honest, having travelled by Eurostar it didn't have a wow factor that I thought it would. However it was great to see the Japanese countryside drift by at speed.

The last day in Japan we spent walking around Tokyo some more and caught up with my best friend for our overlap day. We walked around Shinjuku and chatted away and it was the first time that they had a chance to meet my wife. All in all Japan was amazing but make sure you take someone who likes hustle and bustle and the city as it is a very fast paced city with courteous and friendly people.

So why did the birth of my daughter lead to to think about this Japan trip from a couple of years ago? Well, I think it’s due to a couple of things. Firstly, even though I had visited Japan I hadn't written about the trip until now... a bit of unfinished business I suppose. But also I guess I was just ruminating about what my life was and how now it is going to be very different from now on. It's now no longer about just me and my dreams but about my whole family- life is never going to be the same but that's okay... I am really for the next exciting part of my life.

Gods in his Heaven

And all is right with the world.

Oliver Frey- The Fantasy Art Book

I was a very lucky child growing up in the 80's. It was an amazing time for music, animation and computer games (but not fashion... oh gosh the fashion!) Growing up in the 80s and played computer games you would have been aware of the incredible illustrations of Oliver Frey. His gorgeous airbrush artwork, which appeared on classic games magazines, such as Crash, Zzap!64 and Amtix stood out from the competition and made the magazines a huge seller. At the time I was very young but I remember seeing some of these covers and they are ingrained in my memory.

The Fantasy Art of Oliver Frey celebrates the life and work of the great man. It starts off with a brief biography about the evolution of childhood comic fan to full time illustrator at Newsfield. The artwork is presented without coverlines, logos or titles so you can appreciate the pieces in all their majesty. At the back of the book there is an index of covers for those who wish to age themselves but truly it is the sumptuous artwork that shines through.

Anyone with an appreciation of computer gaming art should check this out as the 80's really were simpler times with basic graphics, Oliver Frey brought the games and worlds alive through his artwork and game covers. A must read and look! For those who want to know more check out the brilliant film From Bedrooms To Billions which looks at the evolution of gaming in the 70's and 80's in Great Britain.

Ms. Marvel Can Change the World

Ms. Marvel received a lot of hype due to  her status as the first Muslim character to headline a Marvel series, but a year on and the comics series has become one of the industry’s best titles because it is an excellent superhero comic intelligently written with wit and pathos.

Superhero stories featuring teenage characters are notoriously difficult to write for but to create a monthly comic with a teenage girl of faith is something nearly unheard of in mainstream comics, let alone the religion in focus being Islam. Islam has not talked about a great deal in the comic series so far but Kamala is Muslim and as such it forms a major part of her narrative, it greatly influences her behavior and decision-making, adding tension to her life that doesn’t come from the more traditional sources like  romantic interests or the masked supervillain. In a medium which has been hegemonic in portraying powerful white heroes, the recent wave of real world representations in comics is exciting.

In the first comic of Ms. Marvel when Kamala first meets Captain America, Iron Man and Captain Marvel she is surprised to hear them speak Urdu, to which Captain Marvel replies,

"We are faith. We speak all languages of beauty and hardship."

This is a real nice touch that speaks to the universal humanity in us all, the underrepresented now being represented in a medium supported by the diverse community invested in these characters.

As a longtime comic book fan (I first started collecting when I was 7, Iron Man and Spiderman were my first loves) the fact that the main protagonist, Kamala is a child of immigrant parents from Pakistan, Muslim and a millennial changes the hitherto well tilled soil of fertile comic tropes. I have loved comics for years and certain aspects I could identify with, Peter Parker being picked on by Flash Thompson in High School, the various aspects of loss in the Death of Superman and striving to achieve against all odds, which is a common comic book trope but with Ms. Marvel it's different. I can identify with her, even though I'm not a millennial teenage girl I am a Muslim comic book geek who enjoys pop culture. I remember what it was like as a young teen trying to find my way through school and life where balancing my home life and religious beliefs and practices with those of my mostly white Christian friends was difficult. I wanted to go to parties, go out clubbing and have relationships. Other comics have covered these aspects but the fact that the struggle Kamala has in balancing her home and life outside rings true for me.

A moment that touched me occurs in issue 6, Kamala seeks guidance from Sheikh Abdullah, an Imam. Fearing she will be told off for not following her parents will she is surprised to be told,

  "... do it with the qualities befitting an upright young woman: Courage, strength, honesty, compassion, and self-respect.”

This message is one of positivity, which against the current media obsession with violence done in Islams name is interesting and challenging.

 For once I feel represented in a mainstream comic, usually I have had to read Indie comics to feel a connection but Marvel have changed all that. Ms. Marvel has been used to fight racism in the real world, Anti-Muslim adverts on the sides of buses in San Francisco have been defaced with posters of the Pakistani-American teen superhero. The adverts were run by the notorious right wing anti-Muslim organization, the American Freedom Defence Initiative (AFDI). Ms. Marvel author, G. Willow Wilson, tweeted,

“Some amazing person has been painting over the anti-Muslim bus ads in San Francisco with Ms. Marvel graffiti. Spread love.”

Who said comics can't change the world? By encouraging community and discussion change can occur as Kamala has shown. This is a well written comic story with a great character who has dynamic stories to be told and I look forward to reading more. Roll on the Ms. Marvel movie!

Preserving the Spirit of Media Past

Preserving the past is a tricky preposition and getting trickier with the amount of information stored on fragile digital media. Filmmakers like Martin Scorsese have made it their mission to preserve classic films whilst Christopher Nolan has sought to preserve the medium of the physical film stock itself. However whose mission is it to save the audience?

We are at a watershed moment in film history, not just with the impending extinction of physical film but the demise of an audience equipped to appreciate some of its greatest works. I am a great lover of silent film and early movies, having been introduced to many in my youth by my parents and BBC 2 Sunday morning programming. I have fond memories of watching Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin. Having attended a University which specialised in media and film studies (but studying Anthropology myself) I was introduced to many 'new' old films almost through a process of osmosis. I would take 8 to 10 VHS tapes at a time and consume them voraciously between assignments, listen in to students discussing them in the library and although many years have passed I still appreciate and watch these classic movies.

The Great Dictator is an absolute classic and contains one of the greatest speeches ever written.

I was concerned that the medium would be forgotten by the new generation- these films exist out of the childrens palate don't they? Well as a teacher I have had to endure many wet plays and this past December was a particularly soggy one, so there were more wet plays than usual. So I put on some Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy short films. There was no hype, no boombast, no 3D and no dramatic Hans Zimmer score.

My 30 pupils were motionless for a few minutes, I assumed that they were struggling to find a way in but watching patiently out of politeness to me. After a few moments I asked "Do you want me to turn it off?" and the children shouted "No!" Then the laughter started, the children were mesmerised for the length of the 25 or so minutes, they requested more clips so I worked through my collection. Children don't need to be told what to like, they will intuitively try things out and relate it to their world and experiences. In this case Charlie Chaplin was like "An old Mr Bean."

In much the same way as cinephiles do not need to guard older films, we older gamers do not need to feel like guardians of gaming heritage.

This term I have started a Retro Games Club using the Retron5 with original controllers and games to introduce children to the games of yore. The first game I unleashed on them was the SNES classic 'Street Fighter II Turbgo.' The children loved it and recognised some of the main characters. This led to a discussion on other characters that the children knew like Megaman and Pacman as well as the more famous contemporary icons from more modern games. A few of the children told me that their parents had the old systems and so they played some of the older games at home.

Punchout is the spiritual father of Wii Sports boxing, a game many children have played.

This wasn't 'Fauxstalgia' (False nostalgia) but something palpable- the children could relate to these characters and games from their own experiences and those who couldn't recognised the mechanics from their current gaming experiences. In the same way that 'Punchout' was compared to Wii Sports Boxing by my children people will always find a way in and seek out the origins of thing. Our gaming and film heritage is in good hands; God is in his heaven All is right with the world.

Secrets in Games

In my youth, a time before the omnipresence of the internet, gamers would share secrets and advice. Some were true and some weren't, but there was never a way to know which were so you had to try them out. Here are some of the ones I heard of as a kid and tested out but to no avail:

 

Mortal Kombat 2- Play as Reptile

This was one of those school-playground legends that was actually true. Mortal Kombat was a popular game in my secondary school days, and challenging the mysterious 'Reptile' was a moment every gamer dreamt of.  When you were fighting at 'The Pit' stage, certain objects would sometimes pass by the moon. This meant that you needed to complete the tough task of a double-flawless-fatality. If you were successful, a green, poison spewing lizard-man would appear and and challenge you- the fact that it actually just a Sub-Zero/ Scorpion a-like with green trim didn't matter. Doing this made you seem boss. I never managed it myself but I saw a couple of people who actually did in my local arcades/ sweet shop.

 

R-type- Hidden Level

I had R-type on the Master System and I heard about a secret level somewhere but never got to it myself. I'm not sure where I heard this rumour but I just looked it up on YouTube and now like vicariously through this amazing gamer.

 

Super Mario Bros- Minus World

This is an infamous glitch in Super Mario Bros. 1, which takes you to a never ending water level known as the 'Minus World.' I heard of this glitch through friends in the playground and my best friend and I tried in for hours but to no avail. But again, thanks to the wonder of YouTube I can once again live through others.

Original Hardware, Emulators or Clone Hardware?

Playing old computer games is pretty easy nowadays with many games being available online through digital download services such as GOG, Steam and the numerous legal download services, as well as illegal emulator sites too. However when playing computer games there's nothing like to have the real thing, many of the retro games are available to play but the real problem lies with the joypads. There is nothing like playing a game with the controller it was meant for. Also for many gamers space is a premium and the problems associated with compatibility with modern television sets comes into play too.

The Retron5 comes in a very cool looking box

The Retron5 comes in a very cool looking box

I am a collector and have many of the original computers, consoles and games from my childhood but with my room being converted into a nursery for our imminent firstborn space is at a premium. So I purchased a Retron5 Clone Console, a machine that plays the original games AND uses the original controllers of the Famicom, NES, SNES, Megadrive, Gameboy, Gameboy Colour and Gameboy Advanced. The aspect I am most looking forward to is the fact that it is usable on the current television sets and upscales to 720p. Also with fatherhood around the corner the use of Save States will come in very useful I'm sure.

I will be testing the system over the next couple of weeks and will be providing my opinions and feedback here.

Gaming vs Life

Something crystalized for me the other day whilst reading an online game review ... I'm getting old. Now this isn't a piece about gaming no longer being for me or my interest waning, in fact the opposite is true. There are more games of interest to me than ever before, even with the Summer 2014 gaming drought. The simple fact is that I don't have the time I used to have to enjoy my hobby. As a teacher I work from 6am to 6:30pm, often preparing work for the next day. After that I spend time catching up with my wife and as she's an early bird I often have an hour or two before bedtime. It's a case of splitting time between reading books and comics, working on this website or consuming media such as films or documentaries. We are living in a golden age of television, podcasts, comics and animation, splitting my time between all of these is difficult.

In the last year I've blazed through and completed Deadly Premonition, Tomb Raider, Devil May Cry, Dishonoured, Thomas Was Alone, Bioshock Infinite, Monument Valley, Gone Home, Broken Sword 5, Red Dead Redemption and Child of Light. I've played but as yet have a few games I'm still working through and it may sound strange but I have had some sleepless nights fretting that I wouldn't work through my gaming pile of shame, games that define a generation and are must plays. First world problems for sure!


I've been working through and been successful but now with impending fatherhood 3 months or so away it may be that generation is the point where I become less plugged in to gaming. I'll still play games of course but I may have to become very selective about the titles I choose. Most games are now 30 plus hours and getting bigger and longer, I would love to work through No Mans Sky but with the scope and scale I'm not sure I'll have the time to enjoy all that it has to offer. I feel I may have to play the games which are more contained and episodic, as in the hour I may get free during weekdays the feeling of progress will feel much greater than if I were to play a MMORPG or a long game. Well, time will tell!

Why I Collect

The internet age with all the social networking that entails has changed the hobby of collecting. Before it might have been just a few people who knew about someones collection but now with YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and blogging you can share your  collection online for all to see. But why do people collect? There are typically two types of collectors, the ones who collect to display and those that collect to play. Often the people who display are after sealed (mint) games or perhaps after a complete series or collection. Those who collect to play choose the games for the nostalgia and curiosity factor.

I collect games for the same reason other people might collect art- I appreciate and admire the craft and I want them. There is also a mix of nostalgia and the promise I made to my younger self that when I got older I would buy loads of games and all that I missed out on. I occasionally play the games I have in my collection, for the last 15 or so years the games I've really enjoyed I've kept. For me it's the idea of some halcyon future where I have free time to revisit these games, even though I don't have some of the systems to play them anymore.

I also collect games for completion, for example I have Final Fantasy 6 to 9 on the PS1 and would like to acquire the rest of the collection. Not because I'm a big Final Fantasy fan, although I do like the series, but because I just think it looks neater. It sounds strange but I am also a comic collector and so having an unfinished series seems wrong to me. I have already explained the pains I went through to finish the Battle Angel Alita collection even though the series had lost its appeal years ago for me. It may be difficult to understand but unless you are a collector it is hard to explain. So why do you collect and what do you collect?

'From Bedroom to Billions' Review →

There has never been a detailed look at the UK gaming scene in the late 70's and 80's... until now that is! Anthony and Nicola Caulfield sought to gain funding through the major UK TV channels to rectify this but after being declined they went through the process of crowdfunding and smashed through their target on Indiegogo and Kickstarter. This was all a couple of years ago and since then I have been looking forward to this documentary as most of the gaming films are American and Japan-centric. In Britain we didn't have a gaming crash in 1983, in fact there was never a more vibrant time and I'm glad that this period has now been covered in the wonderful 'From Bedrooms to Billions'

The couple leave a message in their credits to those who doubted that there was a market for this documentary.

The couple leave a message in their credits to those who doubted that there was a market for this documentary.

In the words of creators Anthony and Nicola Caulfield;

'From Bedrooms to Billions' tells the story of how the creativity and vision of a relatively small number of individuals allowed the UK to play a key, pioneering role in the shaping of the billion dollar video games industry, which today dominates the modern world’s entertainment landscape.

Developments in computer technology in the UK of the late 70’s early 80’s  helped inspire a generation of small team enthusiasts, hobbyists, school kids, bedroom coders and entrepreneurs to make and release some truly classic games. From Bedrooms to Billions reveals some of the remarkable stories, struggles and successes that saw the UK video games industry go from quite literally nothing into a major force littered with original thinkers, innovators and eccentric characters.

At 2 and a half hours this documentary is long but still whips along at a brisk pace so time flies by. There is no narration  or voiceover but rather the interviews weave the story, being expertly edited and cut to create a flow and narrative. The film starts with the early days of the UK games industry, talking about the home coders who started selling their games through adverts placed in the back of magazines. It then moves on to discuss the various Micro Meets where groups would come together to share their work and ideas.

The second part of the film talks about gaming gaining traction and the rise of distributors like US Gold and Ocean. The interviews are insightful and honest and thoroughly engaging, of particular note is the interview with Matthew Smith, creator of Jet Set Willy and Manic Miner. He was burnt out and thoroughly depressed after producing two hits at such a young age, he didn't know how to handle the fame and expectations placed on him and candidly recalls the 80's being a terrible time for him. As a gamer with much nostalgia for the 80's this section of the documentary was very interesting as it explained the introduction of the middle men and emerging business orientated approach of the industry. This professionalisation led to bigger teams and higher budgets, including the introduction of film license tie-ins and rising advertising budgets. There was a reduction in lone programmers and for many interviewed was a sign of things changing for the worst.

The final part of the film talks about the rise of the 16-bit era and the end of the micro computers. With the rise in quality and the demands on cost and skills many lone programmers either left the business altogether or went to join the big teams in America or Canada. However rather than end on a sad note there is a denouement with the rise of mobile gaming and the indie scene. Ian Livingstone, creator of 'The Next Gen Report' explains how computing is now back in British education and there is an emerging programming scene once again. This hopeful note is a wonderful end to the documentary, as a teacher in a primary school in East London I hope to show some of this film to my class to inspire them to be producers rather than just consumers.

This documentary is a brilliant look into a special time in Britain, where there was a punk spirit and where people with imagination and a hard work ethic could achieve. Compared to 'Indie Game: The Movie' the interviewees seem less egotistical and self-absorbed, more honest and engaging. This is a wonderful movie and I highly recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in retro gaming.

Game Over Review

Growing up in the 80s there was one name that stuck out, Atari. The 2600 brought gaming to the masses and  introduced many to computing.  However after burning so brightly Atari all but vanished  by the mid- 80s. As a kid growing up in England I never heard of the computer games crash in America. In Britain the microcomputing industry was booming with the Spectrum, Amiga, Amstrad and BBC Micro doing very well, the 80s were an incredibly fruitful time for home computing.  It was only as I got older that my friends and I were told about the worst game ever which apparently had caused Atari, the gaming juggernaut to die. Legends were spread around the schoolyard about how E.T. was dropped off into  a pit in the Nevada Desert. As time went by this grew into mythical proportions and soon became legend, with people proclaiming many million E.T. carts dumped.
 


Game Over explores the E.T. game legend and looks to find the truth behind the mystery. What emerges is a fascinating social anthropological piece about the evolution of a new technology and markets that no-one understood. There was excess and demand which culminated in Howard Scott Warshaw, the programmer on E.T, assigned to complete the game within 5 weeks, in time for Christmas. Warshaw was an Atari legend, having designed Yars' Revenge and Raiders of the Lost Ark, both of which were instant classics which sold more than a million games each. He left the industry, disenchanted and ridiculed. It is hard not to empathise with Warshaw as he describes how he fell from grace so spectacularly.
The moment the dig starts and they find the carts is wonderful, the game designer is surrounded by hundreds of gamers and he poses happily together for this momentous occasion, it seems like a moment of redemption. 

The film is quick and well paced at just under 70 minutes and I was impressed with the way the story unfolded, like an Indiana Jones story to find the dig location then the actual digging to the conclusion where the games are found and the game designer is able to let go of a dark part of his history. Fans of documentaries will love this and as a gamer I feel happier for having watched it. That's another mystery done... Now let's find out why Bubsy was ever released!

Battle Angel Alita Finally Ends

*Please note that since writing this article a new series, Battle Angel Alita: Mars Chronicles, has been released and is currently still running. It continues the story of Alita as well as exploring her mysterious origins. Please check out the links below for reviews on those as they are released in English. Also, I have added my review of the Alita: Battle Angel film in the links*

... and so it ends. After 24 long, loooooong years Battle Angel Alita is finally over. So how does feel to finally reach the end of this epic series? Well let’s start from the beginning...

The first series is a masterful piece of work which is an essential sci-fi read. The story tells the dark tale of Alita, a young cyborg girl who is discovered broken but with her brain intact by Dr Daisuke Ido. Ido is delighted with his find and takes Alita to his home and repairs her. Over time there develops a father-daughter bond but Alita has amnesia and is unhappy as she wants to find out more about her mysterious past. Over time she learns that she knows the powerful 'Panzer Kurst' fighting technique and enters the Motorball Tournament, a Running Man/ Rollerball style gauntlet filled with cyborgs and other hideous mechanical marvels.

These final pages of the comic have stuck with me for years… such a beautiful moment.

These final pages of the comic have stuck with me for years… such a beautiful moment.

Over the course of the first 4 graphic novels Alita enters and becomes the champion of Motorball. The other 5 graphic novels see Alita try to live a ‘normal’ civilian life but life has other plans and there are plots to overthrow the floating city and bring equity to the Scrapyard… all pretty heady stuff! In my opinion, the original series peaks with the fifth graphic novel, Angel of Redemption, but the rest of the series is still very high quality. The finale, Angel's Ascension, is a stunning conclusion to Yukito Kishiro's gritty cyberpunk masterpiece. In the end Alita finally discovers the ghastly secret of Tiphares, saves the floating city and the Scrapyard from destruction and finds love.

When I first read the series I loved the ending and thought that Kishiro had tied up the series wonderfully.

Then it was announced that the series would continue as Kishiro felt that the story wasn't finished yet. In a redux Last Order continued from Volume 9 of Battle Angel Alita, but diverged from the original ending. It ignored the transformation of Ketheres into a nanotechnological space flower, Alita's subsequent transformation into a flesh-and-blood human girl and her reunion with Figure, her love. Instead it takes place after Alita is killed by a doll bomb in the final volume of Battle Angel Alita.

Here’s how the graphic novels measure up… Last Order is a spawling mess though!

Here’s how the graphic novels measure up… Last Order is a spawling mess though!

Battle Angel Alita: Last Order begins when Alita is resurrected by mad scientist Desty Nova's nanotechnology in the floating city of Tiphares. The city's dark secrets are brutally exposed, but it turns out to be a small part of a complex world. Going into space with new and old companions alike to look for her lost friend Lou Collins and to find out more about her forgotten past, Alita is caught up in an interplanetary struggle between the major powers of the colonized solar system. Along the way, she forms an alliance with three of the Alita Replicas who have now begun to think for themselves, an unsavory superhacker, and Nova himself when she enters the Zenith of Things Tournament (Z.O.T.T.), a fighting competition held every ten years. During the course of the story, more background about the setting of Battle Angel Alita that was not disclosed in the prior series is revealed, such as how the Earth emerged from a cataclysmic impact winter that wiped out most of the population.

In principle this all sounds great, more of the same and then some but the story was extremely slow moving and the fighting so excessive that it actually ground the plot to a complete halt several times and over multiple volumes of the graphic novels. Many of the volumes were a chore to wade through as we were introduced to new characters and then told overly long back stories that no-one was really interested in.

By the end of the 19 run series it seemed as though Last Order was a pale shadow of the original run. I started reading Battle Angel Alita in the early 90's and as it lurched to a close over 24 years later I kind of felt relieved. I wish Battle Angel Alita had ended with the original run as it would have remained one of the best and unique graphic novel series of all time. As it is, ignore Last Order but definitely read the first 9 graphic novels.

Web We Want Festival at Southbank Centre

The Southbank Centre is running a celebration of the internet and how it has changed our lives. The 'Web We Want' exhibition explores some of the things that threaten the web as we know it and through interactive talks, debates, workshops and seminars tries to find out what solutions there might be to solve the myriad of issues including privacy, copyright and the fight for the control of online information.

Over two days there is an extensive programme of guest speakers and experts in their fields, discussing the impact of the internet with such titles as; 'Is the Web Rewiring our Brains?', 'Open Democracy-Using the Web to Change the World' and 'Censorship and the Web.' As an ICT/ Computing educator these are important issues and I interested in attending the event, so I did. I was lucky enough to arrive to hear the 'Web Bytes' discussions about cryptography and digital legacy. The talks comprised of 4 separate discussions on the issue of privacy and how our online information is stored and used. The talks were all very informative and briskly paced, importantly there was minimal techno-babble so people with very little computer talk knowledge could also be engaged. The event is on tomorrow (Sunday 28th September 2014) and I would recommend that anyone with any interest in computing go and see this festival celebrating the wonder that is the internet!

Quentin Blake Exhibition at the House of Illustration

House of Illustration is the home for the art of illustration, it opened it's doors in Summer 2014 in the regenerated King's Cross area. I hadn't been to this newly regenerated area so it was a surprise to find a wide open space with fountains, a clean canal and a bridge- a great change from what King's Cross used to be like years ago!

Granary Square, Kings Cross

For it’s inaugural show the House of Illustrations is exhibiting Inside Stories: The Art of Quentin Blake. For millions of people around the world the scratchy, knobbly, angular style of Quentin Blake's art style is instantly recognisable. He is one of the UK’s most important and best-loved illustrators who is able to capture the subtleties of surprise, joy, nervousness, longing....

I was very excited at the prospect of seeing his rough drafts and learning about his illustration processes as his work has always seemed so sketchy and erratic, it is this unique art style that first drew me to Blake's illustrations. One of my earliest school memories was of having my infant school teacher read Mr  Magnolia, who apparently only had one boot...

Mr Magnolia by Quentin Blake

The exhibition did not disappoint, many of Quentin Blake's books were represented but having illustrated for over 60 years not all his works were on show. However the pieces present were: Sad, Story of the Dancing Frog, Candide (a book by Voltaire!), How Tom Beat Captain Nojak and his Hired Sportsmen, The Wild Washerwomen, The Twits, Clown and The Boy in the Dress. As well as having the illustrations there was a short film showing how Blake went about creating his pieces.

The exhibition is open until 2nd November and I would recommend that any fan of Blake's work to go. The House of Illustrations runs many activities and is open for school groups too... what a great idea for a school trip!

Why Minecraft Persists!

Minecraft has been here for years, for many young gamers it is hard to imagine a time before it. Simon and I have already discussed the importance and educational aspects of Minecraft before (links to these are at the bottom of this article) but I want to discuss why Minecraft still persists.

Minecraft is at a fixed premium price on iOS yet has been in the top position in UK charts for many many weeks. In fact over the Summer holidays Minecraft was the number one selling game on consoles, beating AAA heavy hitters like Watch Dogs, Grand Theft Auto V and Mario Kart 8. In other media like music and films you do not get old films staying at the top of the charts for years, so why does Minecraft still persist?

I am no stranger to online gaming, playing Age of Empires way back and more recently COD but this is different. This is not gaming, this is a parallel world for children and adults alike. The collaboration, commitment, creativity and community that Minecraft inspires within children in particular is jaw droppingly revolutionary. In this over-protected, dumbed down, congested, polluted, corrupted world that we have handed to them the children have found something that we elders could only ever dream of... a magical Never Never Land where anything is possible. Through the various mods and updates Minecraft renews and refreshes itself- it adapts and evolves to each persons personal preference.  It is not a craze or fad, it is not going away. It is a multimedia juggernaut that sells cosplay equipment and books that have topped the charts across the world. Anything that encourages this level of creativity in children is okay with me, long live Minecraft.

LINK- Minecraft Still Dominates Charts

LINK- Deadpixels article- Exploring the World of Minecraft

LINK- Deadpixels article- The Power of Minecraft

Reaction Times

Okay I'm going to just come out and say it: I hate multiplayer as I generally lose. Now I could make excuses like I don't get to play as much as I used to or other gamers are ploughing more time into gaming or some such thing but the reality is that my reaction times have slowed down. The biggest indicator for me was when I had a friend around to play 'Burnout Revenge' recently. Now I bought the game when it first came out and played it to death, getting most of the trophies and achievements, but I hadn't played it in about 3 years.

Burnout Revenge, a great multiplayer racer.

Burnout Revenge, a great multiplayer racer.

My friend, who was 3 years my junior (I'm 33 and he's 30) owned me on this game, not just beating me but beating me comprehensively.  He had played the game before but not to the extent I had. I don't mind getting beaten in games, its part and parcel of being a gamer. However I remember in my youth completing twitch games likes Operation Wolf on the keyboard on my Amstrad CPC 464. For people who don't know the game, that is quite an achievement, even more so when you consider the game is based in a jungle and the primary colour is green and I had a monochrome green screen for my Amstrad! I was King of twitch games and this showed in my completing many a  shmup like Thunderforce 3 and 4 and many bullet hell shooters.

As I've gotten older and my time less freer to play games my reaction times have got worse. Almost every online game is about reaction times and adapting to situations as they occur whether they be racing, FPS or beat 'em ups. These games are all about making split second decisions and adjustments and I have gotten slow, so recently I've taken to improving my reaction times using the free Human Benchmark Reaction Time Test. I've noticed that with practice my reaction time has improved from 335 miliseconds to 297 milliseconds. It may not seem much but with more practice I hope to improve further still.

So, have your reaction times got slower and how is this affecting your gaming?

Sweets and Nostalgia

Food, like music, is amazingly transportive. One bite of a Wham bar takes me back to my youth when all Summer my friend and I would load up on sweets and play games all day and some nights too, whenever we had a sleepover. Humans are sentimental beings, and the power of memory is strong and distinctly rose coloured. Nostalgia is a sentimental yearning, or wistful memory, a longing to  return to some real or romanticised period or irrecoverable condition or setting in the past.

As we grow older we look back fondly at our youth, often forgetting the more difficult aspects such as acne, social awkwardness and trying to find ones way in the world. As a gamer in his early 30s there are certain sweets and foods that have become embedded in my memory, not just because of how they taste, but because of the feelings I originally had around them. I associate a particular food with an event or an experience. For example, I remember having lunch at school and being given cauliflower and cheese and the smell of it made me vomit. In contrast Cola bottles remind me of playing Super Mario Brothers around my friends house on his NES.  With certain foods you create a link that continues to exist, even years later. So here are a few of my favourites. I have a huge stash of sweets that I eat when I am gaming, it reminds me of my youth and is my comfort food. What sweets do you associated with your gaming past?

The Cambridge Centre For Computing History

I've been meaning to visit the Cambridge Museum for Computing History since I first came across their website a while ago, but knowing that the Oliver Twins (of Codemasters and Dizzy fame) were going to be doing a talk there was all the impetus I needed to finally get down there.

The museum is located in an industrial area, usually the preserve of out of town shopping centres and shops like B & Q and Carpet Right, but for a collection of vast proportions it makes sense that the computing centre is here. The centres collection explores the historical, social and cultural impact of personal computing. What makes this museum so special is that unlike many other museums the displays are not behind glass, instead most of the old computers and game consoles are plugged in and working, ready for use by visitors (Only the very rarest items have a 'do not touch' sign on them or are behind glass).

Being a retro gaming geek, this museum has the perfect blend of interactive exhibits and informative knowledge displays. As an avid gamer I felt that I knew a lot about computing but boy was I wrong, there were so many machines which I didn't even know about, the one that really surprised me was the Amstrad/ Sega Megadrive hybrid, that was a thing apparently! Who's fevered mind dreamed that one up?

The Amstrad Mega PC- The power of the Sega Megadrive and Amstrad PC combined.... wow, just wow!

The centre had it all; Macintoshes, Sinclairs, Microcomputers as well as  all the Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft consoles. The museum had gadgets and peripheries and even a Sinclair Electric car.

Although the centre had only been open for exactly a year, it had plenty to see and do and was packed. There had been a school group earlier in the day and as the time ticked on closer to the Oliver Twins talk more of a crowd started to build. I played many of the game on show including Super Robin Hood, Fantasy World Dizzy, Cybermorph on the Atari Jaguar (the controller is horrendous to hold), Sonic the Hedgehog on the Megadrive and a shmup on the Turbo Grafx 16. Also I saw the graveyard of arcade machines, there were 13 in total and whilst some were fixed many are in need of major renovations. The museum is hoping to get them back online soon and that would be special!

Just after 3 o'clock the Oliver twins, Philip and Andrew arrived and had a look around the centre. Once they had a look around they went into the conference room and after a few technical hitches, started their talk. The talk was relaxed and illuminating, they talked about their interest in gaming from a young age and their enthusiasm for coding right up to their relationship with Codemasters. They discussed Dizzy of course but this was much more than just that, they talked about starting their own company and the founding of Blitz Games, its closing and the emergence of Radiant Games, their newest venture. They spoke with enthusiasm and candour and it was refreshing to see such honesty and lack of hyperbole.

After the talk, which lasted just over an hour and a half, there was a chance to ask questions. I learnt that the brothers enjoy the works of Nintendo and respect their fun way of producing games that engage people of all ages. Also the brothers thought that Fantasy World Dizzy had the best art of their games, anything with a dragon is cool apparently!

  There was a short break for drinks and refreshments and this provided me with an opportunity to get things signed and discuss gaming further with the Philip Oliver. He signed my Fantastic Dizzy Master System poster and my Quattro Games cassette from Codemasters, both of which I'd had since my childhood.

After a time Adam Oliver, the 15 year old son of Andrew, spoke about game designing and the challenges of making a game. He discussed learning coding in Scratch and then moving onto GameMaker and then producing Alien X, the BAFTA Young Game Designer of the Year 2014 Award winning game. Andrew answered questions and offered an interesting take on the changes to the ICT Curriculum. I asked him how schools were coping with the new curriculum and he spoke openly how things had shifted from consuming to constructing, there was a notable shift in his school from proprietary Office packages to creative software where the pupils were given creative freedom under a remit. It seems like computing is finally moving in the right direction and the Olivers are helping by being involved in such initiatives as 'Made in Creative UK.'

I left the centre after having been in there for over 6 hours and I have to say that I had the most fantastic time. I played games I hadn't touched in years, met fellow gamers and enthusiasts an met my childhood game heroes and got my swag signed. All in all an amazing day!

My signed copy of Fantasy Dizzy and Quattro Adventures pack.

Here I am on the far right hand side... so stoked to have been here!