A couple of links for you with my latest writing...

First up is the FIFA 10 review for Console Obsession:
http://www.consoleob.com/fifa-10-xbox360-review.html

I've done quite a few reviews for this website over the last couple of years and it's good fun. Of course it's something I'd like to do for a proper job too.


Next is my latest blog for ObscureInternet:
http://www.obscureinternet.com/portable-problems/

It's on the subject of the PSP, and is the latest Obscure Gamer
Again, it's a lot of fun thinking up a subject and writing about it. I try to get a new column written every couple of weeks.

Off to watch the last Grand Prix of the season.

So, the NFL played their latest game at Wembley and it turned out a little one-sided. I'm an American Football fan, but I can't afford the prices they were charging.

Instead I was at home, playing FIFA 10 for a forthcoming review. FIFA 09 was one of the games I got with my Xbox 360 earlier in the year, and it was soon apparent there were several key changes (and improvements). I'm really enjoying the Be A Pro Seasons mode, and the new 360-degree movement feels very good. Frustrating to lose games online, particularly when you hit the post as I did yesterday. Clocked up a few achievements too.

I've always been a fan of football games, from International Soccer to the earlier versions of FIFA on the SNES. But it was probably Microprose Soccer (created by Sensible Software) on the C64 that produced the best moments. It always seemed to end up being a draw between me and my brothers, leading to tense moments in extra time and an eventual winner...

Looks like I will be giving GameCity a miss this year, through a combination of the replacement bus service and a lack of money. Shame.

My name is Andrew and I'm a Bejeweled Blitz addict.

It took several months after the hype began before I joined Facebook, and I wasn't a regular visitor to the site to start with. Certain things, like linking my Myspace blog, made sense, and it helped me get in touch with a few people.

However, adding the Bejeweled Blitz button to the taskbar at the bottom of the Facebook home page marked a change. I started to visit daily, checking status messages and playing a couple of quick games.

Before I went on holiday in September, I felt that it was time to stop playing. I even thought that a week away from it would cure the addiction. It didn't. The new beta appeared and at first I thought the slight differences in play would put me off. It didn't. Then I wondered what would happen to the old scores when the new version went live - they were retained, and another good reason to stop playing was taken away from me.

So, I've now got to find the willpower to stop playing it every day. It's definitely affected how much work I've been doing on the new book.

Went to Skegness Hospital yesterday to see my consultant. He's happy with how things are progressing, there was just a small change in medication and a blood test. I'll have to have another blood test in 3 months' time (January 2010!) and see the consultant again in 6 months (April). Although, today I'm not feeling so good with some pain and lack of sleep. But in general things are going OK.

Been a busy couple of days for the postman, before they go on strike next week...

Yesterday I got a big parcel from my mate Wayne. Technically it's my birthday and Christmas presents arrived early - The Legend Of Zelda and The Adventures of Link for Game Boy Advance (from the NES Classics range) and a Stormtrooper T-shirt.

Today there was FIFA 10 to review for Console Obsession. Now I've been seeing quite a few comments about bugs online, so it will be interesting to see what my own experience with the game is like.

I also got a big parcel from Jon Wells. This contained a brand new tape game for the Commodore 64 - The Wild Bunch. Jon has converted it from the Spectrum original, and Jason Mackenzie has gone to town with the packaging. Cleverly you can reverse the inlay - so it either looks like a classic Firebird budget game, or a brand new Psytronik release. Best of all I won the pre-order competition, so I also got the soundtrack CD (with songs from The Wild Bunch and other Western-themed C64 games). Check out www.psytronik.com for more on how to order the game.

There was also the new single from MJ Hibbett & The Validators - My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once. I made sure I ordered this on Wednesday as soon as the "early bird" offer was open to newsletter subscribers. Best of all it came with a pin badge!

Spent a bit more time playing Repton and improved my score. I finally reached the underground section, which plays a bit like Scramble. Above ground in Repton you get nothing for shooting down the missiles, but underground you get 10 points each - which soon mounts up. My score so far is 30625, and I've got until Sunday to improve that. But it's definitely a game I will be coming back to.

Thanks to Chris at Console Obsession I now have IL Sturmovik Birds of Prey for the Xbox 360. The only trouble is, it didn't come with instructions (because it's a promo copy) and I haven't had time to play it yet...

There was a character on Holby City tonight with Crohn's Disease. Which reminded me of two things. First, I have an appointment with the consultant next week, and it doesn't seem like three months since I last saw him! The other is that I am - all things considered - doing alright at the moment. I do have days where my stomach is painful, but I'm off the steroids for now. I do need something to give me a "buzz" though, so I'm looking forward to my night out in London with my brothers and my birthday next month...

(Something odd.... Firefox doesn't seem to like the readibng/watching/listening/playing window, haven't been able to add them to the blog recently. Currently reading The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, listening to Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt)

It's been a while since I wrote a proper insight into what I'm playing, so I thought today I'd write something about the game we are currently playing in the Lemon64 game competition.

REPTON
By Sirius Software, 1983
Programmed by Dan Thompson & Andy Kaluzniacki




First of all, let's clear up any confusion - this is not related to the Superior Software series Repton (of which only Repton 3 was converted to the C64). That was a puzzle game with many similarities to Boulderdash, although it wasn't directly inspired by it.

This is a Defender-style shoot 'em up. There are four bases and a power station on the planet surface you have to defend, with the power bar being drained by enemies drawing power out of the bases. You can stop this process by shooting them, or better still flying into the "beam". This fills your ship with the power, which can be dumped back into the power station.

There are several types of enemy, including a UFO that splits into four mini-UFOs when shot and the annoyinig orb that shoots horizontal beams. The Qarriors, looking like Space Invaders, pick up blocks from the landscape to build the enemy base. When it's complete, you are in trouble - and the blocks shoot missiles at you too. If you run out of power or the base is completed, you get drawn into an underground sequence (which I've yet to see).

As well as the main gun, you have smart bombs (earning an extra bomb and an extra ship every 5000 points) and a shield. In joystick mode, the shield activates by letting go of the controls.

It's pretty tricky, and while the colour scheme initially looks garish it works well. One very nice touch is the instructions shown by pressing I on the title screen. Rather than just a page of text, it shows you how many of the features of the game work.

IF YOU LIKE THIS: try Star Ray, which is not a brilliant conversion on the C64 but has similarities to Repton. Oh, and it also has the LAST GAME option - turn this option on and the computer will reset. Useful if you can't stop playing...

It was a great holiday, with fantastic weather - we had one shower of rain, lasting five minutes while we were in the car heading back to the cottage. Otherwise it was fine and dry all the time, with a lot of sunshine.

For those who don't know the Norfolk Broads, we stayed in a lovely cottage called The Nook at Potter Heigham. Because it's in a river valley, all the holiday homes (and some of them are permanent homes) are of wood construction, with the concrete piles going down forty feet. One of the oddest places is Dutch Tutch - it looks a bit like a windmill but is in fact an old helter skelter!

Over the course of the week we had a couple of meals out, went to various craft places (including a pottery and a candle maker), walked along Caister beach and spent many a relaxing hour sitting outside. For the second half of September, that's amazing. Dad got the chance to do some fishing, and it was really great to spend some time with Mark & Sam (my younger brother and his wife).

Picked up a bargain too - Return of Saturn by No Doubt (with bonus track) for £2.49. I've been looking for it online for ages, but that was a great price in Roy's of Wroxham.

So it was back to another pile of e-mail and lots of forums to catch up on. And some good news - a poem being published by Forward Press, and winning a prize in the pre-order competition for The Wild Bunch on C64. I also wrote some more poems while I was away - sitting in the lounge of the cottage looking out over the water inspired me.

Retro Reunited was a LOT of fun.

I got there - the Cedar Court Hotel in Huddersfield - Friday evening, had a lovely meal in the restaurant and then went up to the suite (actually two rooms) where the event was going to be held. Familiar faces were there setting up and I helped for an hour or two, before spending the next couple of hours in the bar chatting to people. Then (at midnight!) it was back up for more setting up. I called it quits at about 1am, but apparently there were others there long after that...

Saturday morning it was breakfast and then up to the suite about 10am. There were still a few things to set up, and of course machines to be switched on and games loaded (as well as the electrician testing and checking the circuits). The show was officially opened by Darran Jones, editor of Retro Gamer, at 11:30am - only half an hour late, but that kind of set the tone for the day.

Korinna from Ubi Soft gave the first presentation, a short history of the company after many problems with getting the laptop to talk to the projector. After that I finally met Andrew Rollings, editor and publisher of my book! With the next presentation delayed, my first Q&A session was pushed back to 4pm. After a few laptop problems of my own, Archer Maclean showed a demo of his new Wii game Wheelspin and then I got the chance to interview/talk to him. The reaction from people was very good, and I hope they liked the unusual style (a ZZAP-style review of his career).

It was gone 8pm by the time my next Q&A went on, after an impromptu talk/discussion by Charles Cecil. This time I got to interview Jon Ritman, although I dropped the slideshow to make sure it started on time. It was a lot of fun and I got some interesting answers from him. And from a personal point of view it was interesting to learn that Andrew Rollings used to work with Jon at Cranberry Source!

Then it was time for... Rock Band! I spent the next two hours playing bass, with fellow RG writer Mike Bevan on the drums. It was also my first chance to try out Beatles Rock Band, and that is amazing - from the great presentation of the menus to the polished in-game graphics recreating various phases of their career. With "Hello Goodbye" the final song of the evening, it was down to the bar. There was a Retro Gamer gathering outside then, with Darran, Mike, former editor Martyn Carroll and Jon Szczepaniak discussing a wide range of topics, with Colin Davies joining us with some juicy leads that will lead to new articles...

I got to bed about 2am and was awake again about 8, eager to get on with the day. After breakfast it was up to the main room to sneak a few games before everyone else got there. My friend Wayne and his girlfriend Carol arrived later in the morning. I also did pretty well on the new GR9 Strike Force game, although Darran won the competition (and completed the game!) I must admit, I actually played more games on the Sunday than I had on the Saturday (what with doing/watching the Q&As and spending a lot of time talking to people). It was a shame the event wound up fairly early with people packing up from 4pm on, but it's understandable when they had to travel home. The other thing I'm disappointed about is that I missed a fantastic gig by Turin Brakes in London because I was all the way up in Huddersfield...

It was a short bus ride to Halifax, a nice Chinese meal and then back to Carol's. Monday was spent travelling back to Skegness by train with Wayne and Carol, who have gone home today (Thursday). It was a mixture of shopping, ten pin bowling and gaming while they were here, and I hope they had a nice break.

Now I'm off on holiday myself for a week on Saturday, back to a riverside cottage on the Norfolk Broads. I'm looking forward to relaxing, maybe a bit of writing and some day trips to various places. Then it will be back to writing the new book(s).

So, it's off to Huddersfield for Retro Reunited

I'm excited and nervous about it at the same time.

I'm looking forward to all the retro consoles, meeting up with friends and maybe even buying one or two things. I'm nervous about actually doing two of the interview/Q&A sessions. One's with Archer Maclean, the man behind such classics as Dropzone and IK+. The other is with Jon Ritman, a legendary Spectrum programmer (creator of Head Over Heels and Match Day).

I'm also looking forward to playing The Beatles: Rock Band at the show. As a Beatles fan, it should be a lot of fun. And with all the hype over the remasters, here's a nice little link to the 8-Bit Operators MySpace page -
http://myspace.com/8bitoperators2

I Wanna Hld Yr Hndhld is a chiptune tribute to the Fab Four, and the preview tracks are now online.

I don't often post about music here, but this is a good one.

Got my copy of "Bottled at Source" in the post today. This is the "best of Turin Brakes so far", as they change labels from Source/EMI to Fiction, and I pre-ordered my copy from www.recordstore.co.uk

It's a 2-CD set, with the second CD featuring B-sides and previously unreleased material (which is the main reason for getting it).

But best of all, because I pre-ordered, I got a signed booklet! Yay!