Atari Co Founder Dies

History. So few of us ever get to truly make history, to stamp your foot on the world and its generations, and leave it with something that will keep your name alive forever. Atari Co founder Ted Dabney did just that, and as a longtime player of videogames, I was saddened to hear of his death over the weekend. I only hope he knew how happy he made kids like myself.
You don't have to have played videogames to recognise Atari and its famous logo. Its a genuine icon from the 1980s. And while not everyone is a games fan, I would wager everyone has played Pong. Come now, you know you have.
Ted Dabney helped lay the foundations for one of the greatest, most varied artistic mediums on the planet. A real legend among pretenders and the memories of kids like me, keep our inner child alive as we run from the humble Pong to the current generation of videogames.


Ted Dabney, a pioneer, visionary.

Rest In Peace sir,
you made millions happy xXx

Fishing for Holllywood

Stranger things happen of course, afterall we inhabit a planet filled with miracles and disaster, so it wouldn't surprise me to learn that some sharp suited movie Joe with a fondness for the marching powder buzzed by this old blog of mine from time to time. Hell if nothing else, the hunger of their egos would make this a nailed on certainty. More nailed than a whale God with rare jewels for eyeballs, and bones crafted the calcified souls of super architects but let us get back to earth. Im straying too far from this post.
Can I just say, nay plead with the remains of a quickly greying youth to not be tricked into believing that a reboot/remake of American Ninja, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, They Live and Commando would be good idea. They won't, and you can take that to your overstuffed Century City banks (which if not careful will be remembered for the dosh they made rather than its art). Which would be a shame because while financial reward is itself very nice nothing will dim the glow of producing great work, be it movies, books or music.
Remakes might sound like goof idea, we all remember the glory glory years of the 1980s where it seemed most films were touched by gold but while we know a remake of something like Jaws would be awesome if we were able to capture that creative spark of 1975, we know (with a good del of sadness) that we never will. The most world's most famous shark is born, and attempting a reboot of such an iconic movie would be like mining for gold in a sugar field. Impossible.
Come on, we've seen enough remakes by now to realise that making them is disaster waiting to happen. Move on Hollywood, studios will be making remakes of remakes next (something that would surprise me not in the slightest). Mark my words: movie remakes only serve to dilute the magic of the original.

Here are some personal favourites of mine that ought be left well alone:

American Ninja
They Live
Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Cobra
Point Break
Commando

Mess with these 80s cult classics at thy peril! In fact, better yet, don't mess with them at all. Ever. Lest the ghost of the late Steve James Cpl. Curis Jackson return to karate the movie directors.

Playstation 4

Ubisoft's Watch Dogs

Wednesday 11pm saw gamers huddle around their laptops,iPads,etc to watch the live announcememt of Sony's new console, Playstation 4. And as a fan who has been the Playstation since it first surfaced back in 1995, I expected to be skipping on rainbows of ecstasy like a giddy schoolgirl by the end of it (forgetting the fact im now 41.) I dont care what anyone says, there is a curious thrill about the unveiling of a new videogame console. I was stunned by Wipeout (PS1), KO'd by Resident Evil 2 (PS2) and even swooned over Motorstorm when that hit Playstation 3 in 2007. Im not ashamed by this, its what you get if you give a boy an Oric 1 for Christmas in 1983.
So it is with great sadness that after admitting all of the above, the Playstation 4 announcementleft me slightly cold. Not quite sub zero cold, (more like tee shirt in March cold) but I was certainly not overheating in anticipation of pixelated rapture. I think it was all the talk of "social media" and sharing on Facebook/Twitter that did it. Sorry Sony but I just want to play VIDEOGAMES, im not in the least bit interested in posting scores on Facebook or challenging Twitter followers to online races. I simply want to slip a game into the console and smite weird beasties to kingdom come. Balls to Facebook. Im old fashioned like that. Its nothing new of course, theres already a ton of places on teh interwebz that use social networking sites to share folks interests, and fine some people like that kind of thing but it doesn't boil my kettle im afraid. (Reading comments on forums and underneath news stories about PS4, im not alone either.)
As for the Playstation 4 being able to predict what game you might be interested in and downloading it automatically? I hope we'll be able to disable that nonsense. (Im being dragged into the future kicking and screaming Laughs Out Loud.)
Thankfully things start to look up on the gaming side of things. This is why we're here afterall! Watch Dogs got me most interested (see the trailer above) as did Killzone: Shadow Fall. I didn't notice a huge difference graphically to PS3 (even when a Evolution developer waffled about "even the suede on the car seats has a direction") but as time goes on, game designers will learn how best to squeeze the most OOMPH out of the machine. We didn't get to see any sports titles (or was I asleep?) and I can't wait to see how a NFL or golf game looks on Playstation 4.
Unfortunately we also didn't get to see what the actual console looked like either so fanboys will have to make do with gawking at the new DualShock 4 joypad, complete with touchscreen and LED tracker. Looks a little rubbery but I quite like it. The screen on the pads front reminding me of the Dreamcast's VMU. Speaking of older consoles, as a RetroHead backwards compatabilty is important to me so I was a tad miffed to learn that PS1, 2 and 3 games will be available via Playstation 4’s cloud service. So no using my original copy of Tombi or Yakuza then? Bah! Happy they will be available in some form though.
I realise this started on a downer with the Facebook sharing side of things but I am quite excited about Playstation 4. Its just (obviously) not the mind blowing transition I experienced going from Oric to MegaDrive to Playstation back in those wilderness years.


DualShock 4

Here are some games that we got a glimpse of:

Watch Dogs (Ubisoft)
Killzone: Shadow Fall (Guerrilla)
Diablo III (Blizzard)
DriveClub (Evolution)
Deep Down (Capcom)
Destiny (Bungie)


DriveClub

The Car Boot Heist

Retro gaming. Im a big fan. Huuuuuge. I collect videogames for older consoles like Sega Dreamcast and more importantly I play them and have done since I got my first home computer in 1983. And a big part of collecting retro games is tracking down those must have elusive titles. Yes you can go the eBay route but for me, wandering around a car boot (flea market) or charity shop and finding the title ive spent months (even years) chasing gives me a buzz. You can't beat discovering a title like Tombi or Shenmue 'in the wild' (that is not on auction sites.) But it would seem my hobby is getting popular, and as with everything that gets into the mainstream, sooner or later it gets the soul ripped out from it. Dodgy market traders with no love for gaming, out to make a quick few pounds by trying to snap up every title they can find in order to charge way over the odds. the trouble is (and its sadly spreading quickly) is that some people now believe every title is worth hundreds and they try charging stupid prices at car boots/flea markets for even average titles. I tried explaining this to a woman on sunday that just because Luigi's Mansion is worth around £15, doesnt mean the original Halo is worth the same. She lost what would have been a good sale from me through being greedy. A lot of the time spent cruising car boot sales these days is wasted by foolish sellers flogging average games for way over a fair price. "Every games a rare, classic gem!" They say. Only they are not. Seeing something like Tekken 2 be offered for £10 is quite frankly a joke. Yes its a brilliant game, yes fighting fans should own it but £10? Too much my man, too much. Of course convincing the seller they are flogging a game for too much is like nailing jelly to a ceiling and so it must go that they miss out on a sale.
Look im a fair guy, if I see a hard-to-find title reaching into double figures then im more than happy to stump up the cash, and will merrily skip away with a big, fat contented smile pasted onto my mug. But A Bug's Life for £20? No dice, no, no, no. I sincerely hope some traders read this and adjust their prices accordingly because at least then, they would actually make some money, gamers would get a decent deal and everone would be happy. As it is now though thats all that is happening is sellers make nothing because of their foolish greed and gamers go home without a clutch of goodies.

Dai Does Retro

It'll be fun!

Long time readers of the Dai Jake's Book will know he has a very keen eye on anything retro, especially if its from the 1970's and 1980's when Mr Jakes first went into 'print' in the notebook of a daydream loving schoolboy in West Wales.
So its been decided in the office that there is to be a Dai Jake's Retro Edition and it will be hosted by our spiffy new chums over on the Tumblr website. So what are you waiting for? Get on over there and follow us! Please? Pretty please? We have Welshcakes. And bacon.

I Love Sugar

Sugar rush: hitting all the right notes

I have been an avid porn consumer (that sounds SOOO right!) since the age of 13 when adult magazines used to 'fall' in my schoolbag like they were addicted to my biro ink and tippex. And when I passed for 18 when I was only 15 the hard ons really began. By the way, all that grot hasn't made me blind but I do still feel as fresh now as I did in my teens. But this is to be expected because as any connoisseur of pornography knows, a good skin flick keeps you young!
I have watched a ton of these movies (and then some) and due to my dedication to celluloid bonking I feel rightly qualified in being able to suggest some great titles of the adult silver screen.
Candy's Little Sister, Sugar is one such film. Made in 1988, I saw this when it was first released and it is is a horny piece of XXX cinema. So track it down (its available on the interwebz) and follow dim witted Sugar (Ariel Knight) as she attempts to find a fortune that her uncle Wilbur has left her in his will, so that she can realise her dream of attending word processing school. (I say fortune, old pervy Wilb has only left her $2,434).
There are some real porn legends in Candy's Little Sister, Sugar including Laurel Canyon, Mike Horner, Nina Hartley, Peter North and the late John Leslie as the improbably named Johnny Dooropener.
A wonderful blue movie that caters for every 'taste'. *wink*

Games, Games, Games

Back at the beginning of the 1980's, when I was reaching the age of double digits, the dawn of computer games was also starting to appear, like a twinkling horizon with sickly, bright colours as if to scrub away the gloomy shade of the 70's. Home computers like the Spectrum, Oric, BBC and Commodore 64 were being made available for households and we kids loved them. (Some falling deeper into the craze than others).
My first computer was the Oric 1 which I had Christmas 1983, and with it came my first ever home videogames; Rat Splat! Zorgon's Revenge, Candyfloss & Hangman and Two Gun Turtle. (Im certain Centipede was in that bunch too). And I was Hooked. The lowly Oric had kick started a life long obsession with gaming, which still has me in its digital clutches as I home in on my 40th year on this planet.


And playing and playing and playing

I must have played literally hundreds of different videogames, from Pong right the way through to L.A. Noire, and besides from throwing large sums of cash at games related companies, I have also made a childhood dream turn very real. Back when I was rescuing the princess from the evil Zorgon on Tangerine's computer, or sinking 10p pieces into Double Dragon in the arcades, I used to think how cool it would be to own each and every game I played. (It was a popular wish I can tell you).
Of course it was pure fantasy in those days. Home computers could never replicate the power of arcade cabinets and so we made do with vastly down-sized versions and copies of the arcade hits. I had a Donkey Kong mania when I owned the Oric 1 and can remember my mother buying me a copy of Dinky Kong that was out for it at the time. It was a shambles of a clone but naturally I loved it at the time.
Today things are very different and consoles like the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 can easily bring the likes of Rampage and Kung Fu Master to life without breaking into sweat. And thanks to games publishers who have cottoned onto the fact that retro gaming has become extremely popular, the current generation systems do play the old gems since they appear on numerous Greatest Hits compilations. (Similar to music but better).

Get Zorgon!

The discs contain around 25 games of old, so all I have to do is decide which one I fancy at any given moment. And here is where I decided to go all bloggy on yer web. Choice. When you consider I own 11 different gaming consoles, I must have over 250 videogames in my games library. Something that if you had told my 13 year old self all those moons ago, would have sent me into euphoric raptures! (Or at least given me some kind of gaming vertigo).
Far from being the Heaven I thought it would be, it can be quite frustrating if you're just looking for a game to pass 20 minutes with. I usually spend half that deciding which title to boot up. Will it be Gauntlet, Marble Madness, Smash TV, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Alex Kidd, Arch Rivals, Hunchback, Ghosts n' Goblins.... buzz! Times up! Dinners ready! Believe me this has happened more than once in my house.
But its not a particularly bad situation is it? I cant believe how I almost turned a cool thing into a moan! My 13 year old self has just told me to shut the f**k up and play some of these damned fine games. Peace.

Cider Quench

This hit the spot

Lyon's Maid Cider Quench iced lollies. They were around in the 80's and what a fabulous popsicle they were. During the summer when lizards would bask on railway sleepers and the lawn of the local bowls club baked hard as iron, I used to get one of these lollies from Jones' newsagents in Burry Port and eat it on the harbour wall, pretending it was real alcohol I was having.