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Planet Midori Telephone Adventure Game A

Brian!? Get off that phone! Your tea is getting cold! – Welcome to the world of vinyl telephone gaming.

Posted on January 27, 2018

I’ve been alive long enough to have witnessed gaming in an array of guises. From the small classifieds in the back of Darkside and CU Amiga magazines et al appealing for hardy gamers to come play-by-mail (the art of taking turns playing a game, usually sports management or some sort of fantasy battle, by using the postal service) to the very latest in online AAA megablockbuster multiplayer excite-o-thons that pepper the various video game platforms of 2018.

During my time roaming our good planet I have also come across numerous forms of storytelling. Books, audio, video games, television, seedy ad’s in the back of Exchange & Mart etc. As I am sure have you.

Nothing quite prepared me though for this. Vinyl record telephone gaming. Yes, you read that right.

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Giants vs Tigers Baseball Super Record Game

They Might Be (Yomiuri) Giants. Or Tigers, The Choice Is Yours.

Posted on September 29, 2017
Audio samples i’ve recorded are available at the bottom of the page!

No sooner had I finished discussing the wonders of parallel records and mentioning that there is an extremely rare Baseball Super Record Game vinyl in my recent blog entry, than the inevitable happened. A copy of said extremely rare record shows up for sale. And yes, I bought it.

As it turns out, this rare little ball yard beaut is quite the handsome offering.

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Limited Edition Video Games

You, me and our love affair with limited edition tat.

Posted on March 18, 2017

Rotund chubmeister Martin Roberts

“Did you have a good time?” burbles the baritone host of BBC’s Bargain Hunt, Tim Wonnacott, “Yeah!” scream the contestants, “Well done. Enjoy your £5 profit then.”

“Alice has dreamed of owning a set of copper saucepans her entire life. Hopefully by clearing out her gaf that’s full of useless tat to gullible profiteers, who we hope are just stupid enough to make a few bids, we can fulfill Alice’s dream” wails a delightfully shrill, shit-eating Alistair Appleton on daytime TV treat Cash In The Attic.

“Neil and Jason have done great with this condemned 1 bedroom studio in Lewisham. Bought for just £15,000 at auction, we’re delighted with our guidance they’ve made a whopping £150,000 profit!” squeals rotund chubmeister Martin Roberts on lunchtime favourite Homes Under The Hammer.

Profitatting

I’m hoping you are sensing a recurring theme here. We’re in the age of profitatting (a word I just made up). An age of buying up any old video game shit and flogging it off to the highest bidder. A practice that’s as old as time itself within many trade circles, but something relatively new to the world of video games. Let me have a go at explaining what, precisely, I mean by this.

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WFL Football 1974

4th & Inches: Where are they now?

Posted on October 27, 2016
“My one aspiration: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward…I press on toward the goal to win.” – Philippians 3:13

When you think of good, well known gridiron video games, what immediately comes to mind? Madden? Highly likely. NCAA Football? Probably. Tecmo Bowl? Absolutely. How about 4th & Inches? Probably not. With the current American football season now in full swing and 4th & Inches a mere handful of weeks away from celebrating it’s 30th birthday, I felt it an appropriate time to revist one of the true great elders of gridiron video games.

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sega saturn game basic code

DIY Game Lab (ゲームラボ) Sega Saturn Game Basic Program!

Posted on July 8, 2015
Just what does lie beneath a bunch of code published in a Japanese magazine 17 years ago?

Having delved through a pile of my Japanese books and magazines recently, I happened upon this little chunklet from the wonderful Game Lab (ゲームラボ) magazine. This, it would appear, is a full, working game for the Sega Saturn, from the blotchy on-line translation available to me I was able to find out a few facts about what this program is and how to use it. Essentially I just wanted to scan it, share it and get this out there in the hopes the community will tinker with the code!

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