Michael Reed's Blog: Michael Reed Freelance Writer and Author, page 2

Retro Gamer: Citadel (BBC Micro, 1985, Superior Software)

This month’s Retro Gamer (May/June 2012 #103) contains a four pager from yours truly. This time, the subject is the 1985 BBC Micro/Electron release Citadel. Like most games of the era, it might look a bit primitive by modern standards, but programmer Michael Jakobson squeezed every ounce of storage out of the old Beeb to deliver a colourful gameworld made up of 240 interlinked screens. It’s a wonderful example of a vintage arcade adventure, and it’s also a consummate BBC Micro game. One of the commenters on the forum remarked that when he first played it, the game seemed as big to him as Skyrim does now. This time I was able to get in touch with Michael Jakobson and also Simon Storr, the author of Citadel 2.

I was particularly happy with the layout as the guys managed to cram some decent sized screenshots into the mag to show off the (8 colour) graphics. The BBC Micro had a colour system that was based on primary colours giving it a very bright and distinctive look and Citadel is a fantastic example of that.

Some of the guys that I follow on YouTube have covered the game before. Steve Benway gave it a first impression look, and PsiMan did a more detailed retrospective on it as it was a favourite of his back in the day. There are some more gameplay vids to be found on YouTube and there is a nice video of Darren Jones, the editor of Retro Gamer flicking through the issue here. The article is being discussed on the StarDot (BBC Micro) forums, and the issue itself is being discussed on the RetroGamer forum.

Retro Gamer issue 101: BBC Micro

This month’s Retro Gamer (Issue 101, Mar/Apr 2012) features my eight page feature on a favourite retro platform, the BBC Micro. It’s immensely gratifying for me to write about the Beeb as it was my first computer. Some of you may know that it has recently celebrated its 30th birthday. It’s a great platform and I genuinely enjoyed playing some of the old games. It was also nice to get in touch with some BBC Micro developers that I hadn’t spoken to before while re-establishing contact with some that I already knew. I was also able to bring some of the best YouTube retrogamers into the mag (see videos here, here, here and here).

One snag with the way that the feature came together is that I ran out of room and I wasn’t able to use all of the material that I was given. No matter: I plan to spin the extra stuff out into later features, and I’ve already discussed some ideas with the editor. More info when it’s confirmed.

There is a feedback thread for the issue on the forum. As ever, thanks go to all of the people who helped me with the article.

Linux User & Developer: How to distribute Linux desktops to thin clients

Issue 111 of Linux User & Developer (March 2012) contains my four page tutorial on LTSP, a system to distribute Linux desktops to clients. Basically, a server runs LTSP and the clients (which could be old PCs, for example) boot over the network. Subsequently, a small version of Linux runs on the client, from a RAM disk. Like a lot of the LU&D content, it’s one for the techies.

I’ve had a fair bit of stuff in the mag of late and some of it ends up on the website (such as these reviews of EyeOS and Gentoo). Other than that, I’ve got another mag related announcement in the next few days.

I had a nice surprise, a few weeks ago, when I noticed an article that I did for Den of Geek last year (one of the best SciFi sites on the net, IMO) at the top of my Facebook newsfeed. The article was about the Kevin Costner movie The Postman (which rules), and at first I couldn’t work out why it was at the top of the page after so long. Then I noticed it had been linked to by David Brin, the author of the source novel (which also rules). It was quite an honour as his remarks were mostly complimentary and he’s a very well known SciFi author and a fascinating essayist.

Take care, all. Another magazine article in the next few days and I’ve got a couple of other irons in the fire in terms of article ideas.

Retro Gamer 95 Krisalis Software

It’s that time again. This month’s Retro Gamer contains my six page feature on Teque/Krisalis Software. It’s my fifth article for the publication. Between 1987 and 2001, working as both a developer of original games and conversions power house, Krisalis produced hundreds of games. As ever, putting the feature together was fun but a lot of hard work.

This time around, I was able to contact and interview quite a few of the people who were originally involved in the company. Krisalis was particularly close to my heart because they converted a lot of mainstream hits to the Acorn Archimedes series of computers, which was the system that I ran as a teenager. As ever, it was great to interact with people whose names I’d seen come up on the screen so often over the years. I doubt I could have imagined this sort of contact when I was a spotty teen, admiring their efforts. Thanks go to Shaun Hollingworth, Tony Kavanagh, Neil Adamson, Keith Birkett, Nigel Little and Matt Furniss for all of their help.

I don’t have my copy of the magazine yet, but you can watch the editor of the magazine, Darran Jones, flicking through the latest issue on YouTube. There is a feedback thread for the issue on the Retro Gamer forum.

Linux User and Developer 98: Productivity On Linux and other news

Issue 98 of Linux User and Developer (March 2011) features my four page article on productivity applications for Linux. It’s basically a collection of tips and application recommendations. There are more details about the issue as a whole on the LU&D website. There should be a distro review from me in next month’s issue, and hopefully, you’ll see more from in the mag in the future. [Update: Actually, Russel has posted up the review, of Tiny Core Linux, in advance. Update #2: The mag, issue 99 has now been released.]

Recently, I did another guest post on my other main writing interest, gender politics. This article appears on A Voice For Men, the website of Paul Elam. The article is called OMG – Our Gender Is Being Oppressed By Language!, and it’s an attack on a technique that is commonly used in text books. It’s a good one for people interested in language, gender politics and/or men’s rights.

The article was written quite quickly by making use of some of my notes for the book that I’m writing. However, I still haven’t yet reached my goal of placing any paid writing work on the subject of men’s issues. If you’re in publishing and you hear of any publications that might need some men’s rights or feminist critical content, let me know.

Paul’s also the editor of Men’s News Daily which has taken some of my posts in the past. Paul even has a ground-breaking Men’s Movement call-in internet radio show. As some of you will know, I’m not a very active participant in the Men’s Movement at large, as I prefer to work on my ideas for my book in isolation, but I’ve listened into the show and it sounds amazing.

All my musical equipment is set up at the moment. From time to time, I seem to take a year or so away from it, and when I was very poorly, pre 2005, I found it particularly difficult to stay involved with music. At the moment, I’m just getting back into practice. When I’ve produced a few instrumental electronica tracks that I’m happy with (probably via YouTube and maybe Soundclick). Following that, the first thing I want to do is to revisit some older material, yet I don’t want to touch it while I’m still out of practice. The older material consists of guitar based acoustic prog rock that stretches back to 1999 and some other, mostly incomplete electro-pop material that was written in 2003-2005. Given the amount of work that I put into it, I really ought to try and make some sort of release out of it. I’m trying to fit in a bit of time for music each day.

The weather has begun to improve, so hopefully, I’ll be able to get back into shape for cycling. In addition, carbooty season is getting back into full swing.