A.D. Elliott's Blog

My life in games: 1986

Other than music, films and (natch) books, wasting away my hours playing computer and/or video games has been something that has been poisoning my mind and slowly turning me into a sociopath for 81% of my life (at time of writing). To celebrate this shocking use of oxygen I’ve decided to work my way through the years I’ve been playing and the game highlight from that year from 8 bit noisy load screens right up to the latest generation of black boxes. Geek-me-do!

1986 – Knightlore (Sinclair Spectrum)

I may as well begin with two confessions. Firstly, Knightlore was actually released in 1984 (but I didn’t get my first games platform until two years later) and secondly I have a lifelong love of pretty much anything released by the house that the Stamper brothers built. Anywho, my first computer was the ZX Spectrum 128 +2. The +2 stood for a built in cassette deck, negating the need to have an external machine for loading your games from. Furthermore it replaced the keys made from bits of dead skin found on the Spectrum 48k.

My parents bought a Spectrum just as many did for their children in the 80s not for playing games on but for homework and such tasks. The fact that most schools usually only had a couple of BBC Model Bs or RM Nimbuses kicking about meant that IT in schools wasn’t as ubiquitous as today and homework on a computer was highly unlikely at best. Plus few households had a printer (mine included) so actually handing in such work would be nigh on impossible. The clever brains at b3ta put such events into song a few years ago to jaunty effect: http://www2.b3ta.com/heyhey16k/

Even back in the early days of gaming there were format wars. Perhaps not as nonsensical and feverish as they are between the Xboxers and Playstationists of today, but a certain amount of playground ribbing was caused by what variety of machine your loyalty laid with. My cousin had a Commodore 128k which was undoubtedly a more powerful machine which was hampered somewhat by two factors personal to his own circumstances. For one my uncle wasn’t much of a fan of computer games (the only one he owned for several years was Spyhunter), and secondly the computer was attached to a monochrome monitor so the more impressive visuals of Commodores box could only be rendered in multiple shades of green.

James across the road had the aforementioned  BBC machine which had a very strong ace up its sleeve, but more on that another time. A couple of kids in my class had Amstrad CPCs as well but I don’t recall any of my close chums having a Nintendo or Sega machine at this point.

So which game did I start my gaming odyssey with? There’s probably half a dozen or so to choose from. Firstly there was Manic Miner, Matthew Smith’s seminal and unconscionably tricksy platformer. I never got past “Miner Willy Meets The Kong Beast” so I couldn’t have that as a highlight.

Then there was Bounty Bob Strikes Back! which involved similarly precision perfect jumps against the clock as Manic Miner along with the need to step on every patch of floor within each level, so often you’d reach the end only to realise that there was a tiny section that hadn’t been traipsed across.

The other games that drew me in all came from Ultimate. From bug zapping sim Pssst to the adventurous wanderings of Sabre Wulf and the alien blasting of Jetpac, Ultimate knew how to get the most out of Sir Clive’s machine like no others could, making the more powerful computers inanimately jealous. But of all the games that the Stamper brothers unleashed from Ashby De La Zouch there’s one in particular that I remember most fondly.

Knight Lore.

The third part of the Sabreman series, Knight Lore was notable as being one of the first games to employ isometric graphics in the action adventure genre. The likes of Q*Bert had wowed early gamers with pseudo 3D graphics of this sort, but never to the dizzy heights of Ultimate’s castle based adventure with numerous rooms to explore as you searched for the ingredients needed by the resident wizard to cure you of the lycanthropic curse. This curse manifested itself every night turning allies against you and making the game incredibly tactical.

Cleverly the Stamper brothers randomised the position of the ingredients in each game so every time you played was a unique experience. I completed the game at least five times and each time I had to adjust the way I played due to the day/night cycle and my wolvish ways. No other game I played up until then offered such depth and sense of achievement.

Of course the graphics and sound haven’t stood the test of time, and the game is overly difficult compared to modern standards with their balanced learning curves and such jiggery pokery. Nevertheless I still play this game every few years as a pilgrimage to the start of my continuing wasted youth.

My life in games

Other than music, films and (natch) books, wasting away my hours playing computer and/or video games has been something that has been poisoning my mind and slowly turning me into a sociopath for 81% of my life (at time of writing). To celebrate this shocking use of oxygen I’ve decided to work my way through the years I’ve been playing and the game highlight from that year from 8 bit noisy load screens right up to the latest generation of black boxes. Geek-me-do!

1986 – Knightlore (Sinclair Spectrum)

I may as well begin with two confessions. Firstly, Knightlore was actually released in 1984 (but I didn’t get my first games platform until two years later) and secondly I have a lifelong love of pretty much anything released by the house that the Stamper brothers built. Anywho, my first computer was the ZX Spectrum 128 +2. The +2 stood for a built in cassette deck, negating the need to have an external machine for loading your games from. Furthermore it replaced the keys made from bits of dead skin found on the Spectrum 48k.

My parents bought a Spectrum just as many did for their children in the 80s not for playing games on but for homework and such tasks. The fact that most schools usually only had a couple of BBC Model Bs or RM Nimbuses kicking about meant that IT in schools wasn’t as ubiquitous as today and homework on a computer was highly unlikely at best. Plus few households had a printer (mine included) so actually handing in such work would be nigh on impossible. The clever brains at b3ta put such events into song a few years ago to jaunty effect: http://www2.b3ta.com/heyhey16k/

Even back in the early days of gaming there were format wars. Perhaps not as nonsensical and feverish as they are between the Xboxers and Playstationists of today, but a certain amount of playground ribbing was caused by what variety of machine your loyalty laid with. My cousin had a Commodore 128k which was undoubtedly a more powerful machine which was hampered somewhat by two factors personal to his own circumstances. For one my uncle wasn’t much of a fan of computer games (the only one he owned for several years was Spyhunter), and secondly the computer was attached to a monochrome monitor so the more impressive visuals of Commodores box could only be rendered in multiple shades of green.

James across the road had the aforementioned  BBC machine which had a very strong ace up its sleeve, but more on that another time. A couple of kids in my class had Amstrad CPCs as well but I don’t recall any of my close chums having a Nintendo or Sega machine at this point.

So which game did I start my gaming odyssey with? There’s probably half a dozen or so to choose from. Firstly there was Manic Miner, Matthew Smith’s seminal and unconscionably tricksy platformer. I never got past “Miner Willy Meets The Kong Beast” so I couldn’t have that as a highlight.

Then there was Bounty Bob Strikes Back! which involved similarly precision perfect jumps against the clock as Manic Miner along with the need to step on every patch of floor within each level, so often you’d reach the end only to realise that there was a tiny section that hadn’t been traipsed across.

The other games that drew me in all came from Ultimate. From bug zapping sim Pssst to the adventurous wanderings of Sabre Wulf and the alien blasting of Jetpac, Ultimate knew how to get the most out of Sir Clive’s machine like no others could, making the more powerful computers inanimately jealous. But of all the games that the Stamper brothers unleashed from Ashby De La Zouch there’s one in particular that I remember most fondly.

Knight Lore.

The third part of the Sabreman series, Knight Lore was notable as being one of the first games to employ isometric graphics in the action adventure genre. The likes of Q*Bert had wowed early gamers with pseudo 3D graphics of this sort, but never to the dizzy heights of Ultimate’s castle based adventure with numerous rooms to explore as you searched for the ingredients needed by the resident wizard to cure you of the lycanthropic curse. This curse manifested itself every night turning allies against you and making the game incredibly tactical.

Cleverly the Stamper brothers randomised the position of the ingredients in each game so every time you played was a unique experience. I completed the game at least five times and each time I had to adjust the way I played due to the day/night cycle and my wolvish ways. No other game I played up until then offered such depth and sense of achievement.

 

Of course the graphics and sound haven’t stood the test of time, and the game is overly difficult compared to modern standards with their balanced learning curves and such jiggery pokery. Nevertheless I still play this game every few years as a pilgrimage to the start of my continuing wasted youth.

Album review: Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action by Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand (the band, not the centennially-assassinated archduke) were a breath of fresh air for me when they stormed onto the scene over ten years ago. Indie rock was wallowing around in an introspective stupor with only the likes of British Sea Power and their wondrous live performances to offer any solace. And then came the opening riff of Take Me Out…

I’m planning on adding a few thoughts regarding their first three albums over the next few weeks (I’m always bang up to date with my musical opinion) but for now here’s my take on their latest album. Only half a year after it was released. I’ve also patented a scoring system which already has several obvious pitfalls to it but quite frankly I don’t give a monkeys. It hinges on my view that great albums can be listened to in their entirety without having to reach for the skip button / press fast forward / move the stylus (delete as per your music media of choice). Therefore each track will be followed by a declaration of skip or repeat. Yeah….

Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Actions

 

Right Action opens up the album and is a confident return to the riff heavy merriment of Take Me Out and Do You Wanna? from their debut and sophomore albums respectively. Apparently the opening line “come home practically all is nearly forgiven” is lifted from a postcard that Alex Kapranos found in a flea market and never fails to elicit a smile from yours truly and has encouraged me to scour bric a brac emporiums for similar inspiration (nowt yet, sniff). Bob Hardy’s gloriously dirty bass line goes down as one of 2013’s musical highlights. Definitely a repeat.

Evil Eye peers at you next and was one of last year’s biggest surprises, largely due to the fact it was featured on an advert for Nissan with the line “it’s red ya bastard” intact. Apparently complaints were made to the ASA and largely ignored, showing that the authority appreciate a snappy pop song just as much as the next person (plus bastard was uttered on Radio 4 before midday the other day so if it’s okay by that bastion of Reithian decency it should be alright for a car maker). Repeat!

Love Illumination features yet another classic FF riffs and is relentless in its pure pop magic. It even features a nifty guitar solo in the middle. Lovely stuff! Repeat.

Stand on the Horizon may well be the highlight of the album. Wonderfully complex for a snip over four minute pop song, it features Mr Kapranos serenading a loved one across the North Sea with a subtle but emotional string section accompanying him. Repeat (twice).

I really dislike the opening few lines of Fresh Strawberries, based purely on my disdain for songs that talk about food either in the metaphorical or culinary sense. It soon redeems itself by launching into a catchy chorus which makes the comparisons to punnets of fruit bearable. Repeat.

Bullet and Treason! Animals could be seen as a return to the crash-bangy moments of Cheating On You et al, and for this reason might be viewed as a cynical riposte to those that found the poppy excesses of their last album Tonight a bit unconvincing. Personally I’m far too positive in my outlook in life for such cynicism and find them to respectively be a catchy paean to a lost love and a song that for many months I thought to be about a pharmacist (it’s not). Repeat REPEAT!

The Universe Expanded begins the gentle ending to the album and forlornly describes a relationship in reverse. It’s also rather beautiful. REPEAT (in reverse).

Brief Encounters checks in with the young lovers featured throughout Tonight and finds them bored in their cul de sac, with only a fruit bowl and a set of car keys to spice up their bland existence. It’s clearly a nostalgic look back to the last century, as its roadside laybys where all the action is at these days. Or so I’ve read somewhere. Repeat.

The album closes with Goodbye Lovers and Friends and shows the band laid out bare. The opening line “don’t play pop music, you know I hate pop music” could well be a reference back to the sniffy reaction to Tonight (I loved it Franz, by the way). It also ends with a line that made this listener do a rare double take at his music box. I can only hope that their declaration that “this really is the end” is sung in jest because with Right Thoughts… Messrs Kapranos, McCarthy, Hardy and Thomson have crafted perhaps the finest indie rock album of whatever this decade is called (the 2010s? The teenies? Answers on a postcard, please). Repeat.

So how does the album score using my totez amazing scoring system? Well thanks to some truly mind scrambling maths that Rachel Riley taught me in a dream, I divide the number of repeats by the total number of tracks to create what I call a “percentage”. I think it’ll catch on!

Overall repeat-me-do score: 100%

Poor resolution

Merry new year! I’m nothing if not prompt in getting my first post of 2014 typed up and ready to go. Actually, one of my resolutions was to keep this blog more updated so we’ll see how that goes.

Anywho, a quick update on the world of Owen and his Remarkable chums: book three is coming along nicely and should be ready by the summer (it’s far too damp in my neck of the woods to release at the moment, it’d become all soggy).

In the meantime to prevent myself becoming too submerged in the world of discreet superheroes, I thought I’d use this blog to add a few rants reviews of things I’ve seen and heard. It’s something I used to do a while back and can be kinda fun. I’m usually about three months (at least) behind the big releases so expect reviews soon of some of 2013 most important works. And some not-so-important ones that I came across as well.

The Remarkables on sale this weekend for less than a quid / buck / equivalent

Just a quick reminder that The Remarkables is on sale over at the various tributaries of the Amazon this weekend for less than the equivalent of a pound.

I’d buy that for a dollar!

Reaching Out is released

 

Drumroll……

Reaching Out has finally been let out of its holding pattern.

The story continues on from where we left Owen Johnson and his friends at the end of part one, The Remarkables. Owen, his best friend Katie and next-door neighbour (and 140 year old war hero) Mrs Argyle find themselves in South America and amongst the Provenance, a collection of superheroes whose past is as murky as the Remnant from whom they are fleeing. They may also hold the secret to Owen’s past and how he first gained his remarkable powers.

Even more action packed than The Remarkables, Reaching Out is a thrilling read from beginning to end.

Seek it out at the various tributaries of the Amazon.

Amazon.com   http://amzn.com/B00FKLW6VK

Amazon.co.uk   http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00FKLW6VK

Amazon.ca   http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00FKLW6VK

Drumroll……Reaching Out has finally been let out of it...

 

Drumroll……

Reaching Out has finally been let out of its holding pattern.

The story continues on from where we left Owen Johnson and his friends at the end of part one, The Remarkables. Owen, his best friend Katie and next-door neighbour (and 140 year old war hero) Mrs Argyle find themselves in South America and amongst the Provenance, a collection of superheroes whose past is as murky as the Remnant from whom they are fleeing. They may also hold the secret to Owen’s past and how he first gained his remarkable powers.

Even more action packed than The Remarkables, Reaching Out is a thrilling read from beginning to end.

Seek it out at the various tributaries of the Amazon.

Amazon.com   http://amzn.com/B00FKLW6VK

Amazon.co.uk   http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00FKLW6VK

Amazon.ca   http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00FKLW6VK

Pointy

Whilst book two is having a few kinks bashed out of it, I’m turning my attention to the third chapter. One of the antagonists in the forthcoming and action packed installment has a rather nifty ability to increase its strength. Book three will feature a few scrapes on our home turf (to say the least) and I’m busily trying to decide where the best location would be for them. Ideally I need a tall building next to a hospital.

If only one had just been completed…

Save Jamie

Regardless of one’s opinion on Mr Oliver, I think £9.99 seems an achievable target to save him.

I’ll stump up the first ninepence, any further offers?

Boot

 

For those that have read my debut novel The Remarkables they will be aware that the titular ragtag band of heroes were thrust together during the Second World War.

Whilst there is a bit of backstory in the book, nearly everyone I have spoken to about it has wanted to know more about their escapades during the war. With this in mind, the sequel Reaching Out will feature several of their adventures against the forces of evil. I’ve already popped a sneak peak of The Remarkables taking on a tank in a previous post; below is a more nautically themed escapade.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Boot

Captain Ernst Reeder sat in his quarters and stared at the maps in front of him. They had been patrolling the waters for three months without a successful attack. The Allies, having begun the war with poorly defended convoys, were now becoming frustratingly adept at detecting their movements. Command had speculated that they had developed a new form of sonar that was able to detect submersibles at a far greater distance and depth than previous machines were capable of. Others believed that they had cracked their secret codes. He had even heard some of his crew speculate that they had recruited the services of mermaids or other mythical creatures to come to their aid.

Captain Reeder shook his head. Such foolish notions about the occult were usually reserved to those at the top, not those on the front line. He was about to check their course against their latest orders, when he felt a gentle thud. Most of his crew would not have noticed such a subtle event, but Captain Reeder was renowned for how sensitive he was to variations in the normal vibrations felt aboard a serving U-boat. He lied down on the floor and spread his hands out, listening intently and feeling for any further sounds or vibrations.

It hadn’t been a metallic sound so he doubted that it was a mine or similar offensive weapon. Occasionally they hit a dolphin or small whale; they sounded similar to what he had just heard. After a few moments he was satisfied that a small marine mammal was the most likely cause so he stood up, straightened his uniform, and decided that he would go to the command room to boast about how finely tuned his senses were.

Just as his hand reached for the door handle, the entire cabin shook violently. Captain Reeder was knocked back to the floor, where he was serenaded by a loud screeching sound from the hull and the wail of a siren. He leapt back to his feet, leaning against the wall to steady himself as the entire submarine lurched starboard.

He wrenched the door open and staggered down the narrow corridor past alarmed looking submariners. “Were we hit?” he asked one of the off-duty engineers, who shrugged his shoulders before knocking his head against a metal pipe as the U-boat jolted again and falling to the floor unconscious.

Captain Reeder swore at the fallen man, berating him for not having more seaworthy legs. He staggered onwards to the command room.

“Report,” he ordered the First Officer. Before he could answer the submarine lurched upwards.

“We’re breaking water!” someone shouted.

Captain Reeder was clinging onto his command chair. “Why did you make that command?!” he bellowed at his First Officer, who he noticed was also unconscious.

“He didn’t order us to do so,” a voice cried out, “we just started rising.”

Captain Reeder grabbed the periscope as they emerged from the depths, and looked around. There were no ships to be seen around them. “What the hell is going on?” he shouted.

As they bobbed on the surface, a silence surrounded them, indicating that the engines had been switched off.

He could hear a gentle knock knock knock against the hull, as one would expect a small child to do so on a neighbour’s door.

“What’s that noise?” one of the navigators asked.

“Mermaids!” someone declared.

“Shut up!” Captain Reeder ordered, and walked towards the sound of the knocking, negotiating the U-boat’s corridors in a way akin to a bizarre and one-sided game of ‘Marco Polo’. The noise became louder as he approached the torpedo room.

As he entered the area he saw that the two crewmen stationed there were backed against the rear wall, both looking terrified and white as sheets.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Captain Reeder asked, referring to both the noise and their behaviour.

One of the men responded by feinting, whilst the other just pointed at the torpedo bulkhead. Captain Reeder swore at him and approached the torpedo tube. The knocking continued. He looked at the remaining conscious man, who in response ran out of the room and emitted a high pitched scream hitherto unheard of on any of the Kriegsmarine vessels that Captain Reeder had served aboard.

He shook his head and spun the door to the tube open. A torrent of water entered as if the outer door was open. He pushed against the door and tried to close it. He eventually managed to do so, but not before three black shapes flopped inside with the water.

As he closed the door he slowly turned around, fearful that the crew’s suspicions were correct and they had been attacked by mermaids (although the rational part of his brain reassured him that it was more likely to be large fish).

Stood in the centre of the torpedo room of the German U-boat that he had commanded to victory after victory for four years was a dark skinned boy of about ten, and a fair skinned man and woman both in their twenties.

“Hello,” she said in English.

“Hello,” Captain Reeder repeated, also in English which he spoke fairly well.

“Permission to come aboard?” asked the man.

“Granted,” replied Captain Reeder, deciding that politeness was perhaps the best course of action considering that he had clearly become detached from reality. “Can I help you?”

“Yes you can,” replied the woman. “I would like to know why you felt the need to attack a small battleship off the coast of my island last summer? Have you any idea the upheaval it has caused my brother and me?”

“I’m sorry?” Captain Reeder replied, very confused at these turn of events.

“So you should be,” the woman replied. “Caspian?” she said to the boy.

The boy smiled and spoke with a mischievous grin. “Abandon ship.”

The crew of the sunken U-boat floated on flotsam for several hours before the British cruiser rescued them. The officer that initially debriefed Captain Reeder was incredulous regarding the explanation given as to how the ship was sunk. Notwithstanding the unlikelihood of three individuals entering the vessel via the torpedo tube, the description of how the young Indian boy had produced a corrosive gas from his hands that ate through the hull was dismissed as the ravings of a man affected by some form of nautical shellshock. And when the German continued to describe how the three aquatic intruders had been seen to speed away underwater in some strange air bubble that the woman seemed to be creating with her hands, the British officer stormed out of the room.

It was only when the debriefing resumed with the tall man in the suit with the bald head was Captain Reeder’s account was accepted. After allowing him to give his full description the bald man simply smiled and commented:

“They are remarkable, aren’t they?”