Player Two- An Emotional Short Animation About Brothers Gaming

Gaming has been a huge part of my life. Some of my fondest and earliest memories are to do with playing and seeing video games, and usually right there beside me was my brother. I remember vividly going to a friends house with my brother and playing the ZX Spectrum and my mind being blown by Super Robin Hood and Dizzy. As time moved on we got a Sega Master System and a Megadrive. The game that really bonded us was Target Renegade on the Amstrad CPC 464. We had been working through that for months but always kept on dying near the end, then one summers day, with my best friend and my brother's best friends around we finally completed the game. We went crazy at the time and even now I remember it vividly, us jumping for joy around the monochromatic green screen in my brothers bedroom.

Time has moved on and we've both got family and kids. I look back fondly at those days of yore and there is a tinge of sadness at the passing of time. This film by Zachary Antell captures that is a short 4 minute rotoscoped animation. In his own words:

Player Two is a short animation that explores the relationship that develops between two brothers of differing age growing up, and how video games foster that bond.

Do yourself a favour and watch it!

Play the Dizzy Games In-browser Now

Now it's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Dizzy, the puzzle solving egg. Last year I was lucky enough to meet the Oliver Twins and get my games signed by them (the article is linked below). Now some amazing individual has released the ZX Spectrum version of all the games on a website, the bonus is that they can all be played in-browser. No worries about emulation and downloading. How cool is that! My first port of call will be Spellbound Dizzy as I never had a chance to play the game on my Amstrad CPC 464 as I could never find the thing in shops. Now time to relive some old memories of Dizzy!

I'm excited to be finally playing Spellbound Dizzy!

30th Anniversary of the Amstrad CPC 464

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Amstrad CPC 464. The computer launched in the spring of 1984 by British manufacturer Amstrad. The "color personal computer" (CPC) was a success in Britain and across Europe, selling 3 million units. It sold far less than the Spectrum and Commodore 64 but these are impressive numbers for the third placed machine.

The CPC 464 operated using the BASIC language and was equipped with a cassette tape deck, a Zilog Z80A processor running at 4Mhz, and 64KB RAM. The first set of Amstrads came with monochromatic (green) monitors was many programmers first introduction to coding. An entire generation of gamers, now probably in their thirties and forties, grew up with the device and games such as "Gauntlet," "Barbarian," "Arkanoid" and "Rainbow Islands."

The CPC 464 was my first computer and I still have it. I have kept my favourite games but I have fond memories of "Target Renegade," "R-Type," "Robocop," "Chase HQ," "Continental Circus," "Ghost and Goblins," "Super Robin Hood," "Fantasy World Dizzy," "Head Over Heels," "Rainbow Islands," "New Zealand Story" and "Barbarian."