Sitting on my bum... Because I have to.

Here's an interesting article in the news today...

"There has been "an alarming increase" in the number of working-age people suffering strokes, with unhealthy lifestyles being seen as the main cause." They mention television and computer games (as they always do).

These news reports annoy me.  They're very quick at criticising those who sit on their bums all day, watching TV or playing computer games.

The problem isn't watching TV or playing computer games.  I love playing computer games...  I always have and always will, and that will never change.  I'm a computer nerd, however I spend 8 hours of the day sat in front of a computer not playing computer games because it's my job.  YES, THAT'S RIGHT, the majority of my day is spent in front of a computer because I have too - I make a living from it.  Is that any different to sitting at home playing games?  Why not mention that when writing these articles since so many of us have to sit at work?

So if the chances of me suffering a stroke are increased because of that, maybe I should get danger pay?  After all, what they are saying is that my job is dangerous to my health.

Also, if they're going to whinge at those watching TV as well, why not have a go at those who sit on their bums and read books....  play board games....  draw/paint...  etc.?

Sitting on our bums doing things is a part of life!  How easy it is to single out TV and computers for the health problems of today.

Moving Right Along...

It was inevitable...  It had to happen eventually...  We're moving house! (again)

For the 5th (and hopefully final time) in 13 years, we've decided that our current house is just too small for such a large family, and are now moving from a tiny 3 bedroom terraced house which barely has enough room to swing a cat, to a detached 4 bedroom family house.

So as I write this, I am surrounded with lots of cardboard boxes and not stressing too much (at the moment).  We get the keys to the new house next week, and don't have to be out of our current one until the end of the month.  Fortunately this means we'll have a good couple of weeks to gradually get stuff moved to the new house.

So, what are the benefits of the new home....  Well, other than the extra space, I can think of a few immediately....

TWO TOILETS!  Oh yes.  No more will there be queues to take a pee in the morning.  No longer will I have to endure Kieran, Kayleigh or Sophie asking to go to the toilet whilst I quickly cover myself in bubbles to avoid embarrassment in the bath tub.  See, something you'd think would be standard for most families these days is still lacking in many houses.

The living room in the new house is over twice the size of our current one.  We struggle with the limited space we have at the moment - not for much longer!

Strangely, even after gaining an extra bedroom, you'd think the girls would like a room each...  Nope.  Sophie and Kayleigh want to carry on sharing, meaning we'll have a spare room for visitors and storage.

A driveway for several cars.  No more will I have to worry about people blocking my driveway when we go away.

Of course, the best thing of all is that I get my own Man Cave.  A place where I can display my Star Trek memorabilia with pride (and without embarrassing Michelle), and a place where I can set up my retro computers and game consoles.

Here's some piccies of the new house (minus a few of the bedrooms).

The main hallway, dining room, and open plan stairs leading up to the 4 bedrooms and upstairs bathroom.

 

The living room

The master bedroom (not too keen on the mirrors!)

Kayleigh and Sophie's bedroom, plus the landing leading to the bathroom.

Bathroom

Downstairs study.  Michelle is using this room for when doing nails and girly stuff

Kitchen

Kitchen

 

The Man Room (ahem) Utility Room.

The Man Room (ahem) Utility Room.

The back garden.  It needs a bit of de-weeding, but the estate agents said they would do it for us before we move in.  How nice.

I admit, we will be a little sad to say goodbye to the old house.  We've been here for nearly 10 years, and have watched Kieran grow.  He was only 10 months old when we moved in, and now he's 10 years old!

Oh well.... Back to more packing.

Alive and Kick'Starting'

Kickstarter is addictive....  There I said it.

Last year, I backed my first Kickstarter...  a book called "Commodore 64: a visual Commpendium", by Sam Dyer, and published by Bitmap Books.  It surpassed all expectations and became quite a hit with fans of the Commodore 64 (including me).

So, when I heard that Sam was producing a follow up book entitled "Commodore Amiga: a visual Commpendium", I just had to back it immediately.

The book had a target goal of £25,000 so I think it came as a bit of a surprise to most when the total amount pledged to the project came in at just short of £130,000.  Wow.  It just goes to show how much love there is for the old Commodore computers.

Anyway, after several months of waiting, the book finally arrived through the letterbox today, and WOW.

The book is fantastic, and considerably larger than the Commodore 64 one.  The graphics on each page depicting various well known games are truly remarkable, with a small piece of text from well known people from the Amiga days (game/demo programmers, designers, graphic artists and fans)

AND due to the massive success of the project, backers also get loads of cool extras with the book as standard.

• Shadow of the Beast 2015 Remix CD by Tim Wright (CoLD SToRAGE)
• I Love Commodore Amiga Sticker
• Metal Amiga engraved bookmark
• Amiga pen
• Amiga Ball Pin
• 6x Demoscene postcards (one signed by the author of the book)
• Another World poster
• Ask Me About Loom badge (from The Secret of Monkey Island) Limited to first 100 Backers

I highly recommend this book (and the Commodore 64 one) to any person who has an interest in old computer games - even if you never had a Commodore computer.  I cant wait for Sam's next book which I hear may be about the Spectrum.

Amiga Book - http://www.funstock.co.uk/commodore-amiga-a-visual-commpendium-book
C64 Book - http://www.funstock.co.uk/commodore-64-a-visual-commpendium-c64-book

Now, I've just got to wait for the other Kickstarter projects I've backed to arrive, including Matt Gray's "Reformation" C64 music project, From Bedrooms to Billions : The Amiga Years, Marcel Donne's "Project Sidologie" CD Box set, and Uncle Art's Elite 2 (Frontier) Orchestral and Retrogaming Music Remakes.

Both Books - the Amiga Commpendium and the C64 Commpendium.

Both Books - the Amiga Commpendium and the C64 Commpendium.

 

Remember this from The Secret of Monkey Island?

Demoscene Postcards

A3 Poster from the cover of Another World

Shadow of the Beast 2015 Remix CD by Tim Wright

Sticker!

The full booty!

Oh yeah, I got my name in the book as an official backer!

Please wait... Loading.

One of the great things about loading old cassette games on the Commodore 64 were the fantastic loading pictures that would often appear (usually accompanied with some equally fantastic music).  It usually made the wait for the game to load much more tolerable

I thought I would share with you some of my favourites.  Not bad considering the graphical limitations of the Commodore 64.  Remember, the C64 had a palette of only 16 colours!

After Burner

Arkanoid

Back To The Future Part II

Batman The Caped Crusader

Buggy Boy

Cobra

Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future

Dark Side

Dominator

Driller

Druid 2

Druid

Fairlight

Head Over Heels

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Robocop

Short Circuit

The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars

The Sentinel

The Untouchables

Total Recall

We want you... We want you... We want you as a new recruit.

 

Asset Management....  I just bloody hate it.  I know, it has to be done, but come on....  I've got to stick one of these stickers on EVERY piece of IT equipment in the school, and then scan it in to a central database.  We have over 600 computers and laptops, and a large number of printers, tablets, network switches, servers, monitors, interactive white boards, and other peripherals.  Guess I'm going to be busy for a while! 

 

Might be a good time to mention that we're looking for a new IT technician to join our team if anyone is interested!  (Probably not now knowing they'll have to help with the auditing  hehe!)

 

Application form and information can be downloaded from the school website by clicking here.

 

Games that remind me of my childhood Number 30 : Star Trek The Rebel Universe (Commodore 64)

Space...  The Final Frontier. 

 

Combining computer games with Star Trek (two of my favourite things) will always be a winner for me, but the first time I experienced this unique combination was back in 1988 (or maybe 1989 - it was so long ago!) with a little known game on my friend Steve's Atari ST….  Star Trek The Rebel Universe.

 

It was developed by Firebird Software which itself was a division of the UK’s main telecommunications company, British Telecom.  It was designed by the late Mike Singleton, renowned game designer and programmer who also created The Lords of Midnight, Doomdark’s Revenge, Midwinter, and many others. 

Nice title screen with a good SID rendition of Alexander Courages Star Trek TOS theme

 

Now, for reasons unknown (well, possibly due to poor sales), the game was only released for a small number of computers – The Atari ST being one of them, IBM PC, and….  The Commodore 64.  However, the game wasn’t easy to come by.

Nice hi-res graphics

 

Now it wasn’t until my birthday in 1990 when a trip into Basildon to spend some birthday money in Woolworths ended up with me coming out of the shop a very happy 13 year old with a copy of Star Trek The Rebel Universe.  It was cheap too, but that was because the shop couldn’t find the instruction book to go with it.  Hey, I didn’t need the book – I already knew how to play it from the Atari version.

The game consists of various styles of gameplay but is completely controlled via an intuitive icon driven system which was quite original at the time.

The story is this…  The USS Enterprise and its crew under the command of Captain James T. Kirk has been sent by Starfleet Command to investigate an area of space that has caused any previous Federation starships and crew to mutiny and turn against the Federation.   There are many ways to win the game (something I never did manage) but what made this game special was that it really made me feel like I was Captain Kirk.  Being able to select a star system and warping to it, then plotting an orbit around a life supporting planet before beaming down with all my favourite characters from the original series only to be recalled back to the Enterprise again because it was being attacked by a fleet of Klingon battle cruisers, Romulan Bird of Preys, or even rebel Federation Starships.  It was great, and it was only achievable on my Commodore 64.

As mentioned before, the game is icon driven, and the main screen is divided in to 8 sections – 7 of which are the digitised heads of the command crew of the Starship Enterprise, and then the main gameplay area.  Clicking on a digitised head takes you to that persons screen where you can control that persons responsibilities.

Mr Sulu - For navigation, plotting courses to star systems and orbits.
Mr Chekov – Weapons control.
Mr Scott – Checking the status of the Warp and Impulse engines.
Uhura – Communications.
Mr Spock – Ships status, and planet analysis.
Captain Kirk – Checking the ships inventory, and beaming down to life supporting planets.
Dr McCoy – Checking the health of all members of the command crew

 

We've arrived at a star system.  Course plotted for Xuram I

 

On arriving to a star system, the Enteprise can orbit any planet, but the crew can only beam down to ones that support life.  When beaming down, you can choose which characters you want as part of your landing team.  Once you have beamed down, you can search the planet, while facing some simple puzzles and obstacles which can be overcome by either a suggestion from a member of the team, or from an object picked up from a previous away mission.   Beaming down is depicted by using very basic line graphics, but it’s enough to make you feel like you’re on an alien planet.

 

This fantastic image appears once orbit is achieved.

 

Selecting your landing party.  Nothing against Uhura, but I've always left her on the ship!

 

The command crew of the USS Enteprise face their biggest challenge....  A door!

 

Another fun part of the game is the combat.  Occasionally you’ll be attacked by Klingons, Romulans or rebel Federation starships.  Selecting Chekov and choosing whether you want to fire the more powerful (but limited) Photon Torpedos, or using the lesser powerful (but rechargeable) phasers really makes you feel like you are on board the ship and in control during battle stations.  The combat is shown in wireframe vector graphics and although they look very simple on the Commodore 64, they move fairly quick, and it can get quite intense when locking on to an multiple enemy ships and firing.

 

Klingons on the starboard bow.  Great vector graphics.

 

Lock on to your target...

 

and FIRE! 

Modern Star Trek games are usually hit or miss.  I loved Star Trek Voyager Elite Force, Deep Space Nine The Fallen, but none of them capture Star Trek the way The Rebel Universe did, and neither did they give the player the freedom to boldly go wherever they wanted.  The Rebel Universe allows players to explore star systems in a non-linear way,  and features some very impressive graphics (albeit a little blocky is places).

 

Travelling at warp speed for a long time will stress Mr Scott out!

 

Dr McCoy is busy caring for the command crew after a disastrous away mission - wait, who is running the ship?

 

Course plotted for the Dakiak star system.

 

I spent countless hours playing this game, and even though I never did find a way to win, I still go back to it every now and then.  Yes the Atari ST version is/was better with its improved graphics and digitised sound effects, but the Commodore 64 version showed what could be done to put a game designed for a 16-bit computer in to a single loader game on a computer with limited memory.

The box cover

 

Information sheet that comes with the Commodore 64 version

 

Information sheet that comes with the Commodore 64 version

 

A nice instruction manual with back story to the game.  A good read.

 

The tape