Acorn - A World in Pixels - Book Review

Acorn - A World in Pixels is both a celebration of 8-bit computer games and of the hardware they were released on: the BBC Micro and it's cut-down, cheaper cousin, the Electron from Acorn Computers. I was too young for these machines (just), but I remember playing Stryker's Run on a Beeb in my form classroom in first year comp before the Archimedes took over computing duties at that school. Obviously, that was outside of lesson time...

Book and slipcase - high quality indeed.

Anyhoo, back to the book and what you get after paying the very reasonable £29.99 including postage is something that little bit different. 170mm x 230mm and weighing in at 476 pages, it's quite a hefty tome, and that's before you consider the cardboard slipcase it ships in, the case mirroring the hardback cover and dust jacket of the book. Everything about this screams quality and the thick, glossy paper lends itself well to the format, given that there is a ton of imagery in this book.

Beginning with a short origin story of the two machines, followed by contributions by hardware designer Steve Furber CBE and broadcaster/writer/comedian/retro fan Iain Lee, we are quickly led to the first major section of the book: The Publishers. Here, we get interviews and articles about the major software publishers for the Acorn machines, from Superior Software to Acornsoft, Tynesoft and more. These are enlightening in the extreme and whilst today you might consider software publishing to be an organised corporate process, that was not always the case back in the 1980's. In fact, it was very much the early days of the industry and tales both good and bad highlight its growing pains as home computers gained in popularity and financial success. 

Then we get to the games.

Some 150 titles are covered here over 360 plus pages - some games are given a half page each, others a quarter page, whilst the majority get one or two pages. The text accompanying the titles varies, from snippets of contemporary magazine reviews and comments from current day retro gamers, to full-on interviews with the developers, some of which are dotted around between the games, breaking up the content nicely. The selection is varied and, to be honest, I only knew of a handful of them. As I said before, I missed out on the Beeb era. However, there are some classic titles here, and I am not just talking about the usual suspects of Elite and Repton. No, what you get is a wide-ranging view of the Beeb's and Electron's software catalogue throughout the history of those machines. From arcade "homage" (Killer Gorilla - Donkey Kong, Planetoid - Defender and Hopper - Frogger to name a few) to original titles, (Revs, 3D Pool and Thrust), each game here is treated to sumptuous screenshots that show off the graphical capabilities of the Beeb and Electron in their best light. Yeah, they look big and blocky but that is part of their charm and one of the key points made in this book is the effort put in by the coders, artists and musicians to create these games. Pretty much every interview has a snippet on the struggle it took to code in Assembler to get the most out of the Beeb and, especially, the Electron. How to get more than one screen mode displayed at a time and how to manage the 32kb of memory when the screen alone took 20kb, those were just two of the issues developers worked with and there are many more (you'll just have to read the book to learn about them).

There is no scrimping on the screenshots.

Speaking of the developers, what really struck me whilst reading this was the number of names I recognised from the era that still ring a bell today, and again, I am not just talking about the usual suspects of Geoff Crammond (Revs, Grand Prix), Ian Bell (Elite) and David Braben (Elite, now Frontier Developments). For example, here are three names that, over that last thirty years, have had an effect on gaming in the UK following on from developing for the Beeb: Martin Edmondson - co-founder of Reflections (now part of Ubisoft), creator of the Driver series among others. Darryl Still, who moved to Atari and oversaw the launch of the ST, Lynx and Jaguar. Chris Roberts (who created Stryker's Run which I enjoyed so much), moved back to the US and created a little known space combat sim called Wing Commander, its numerous sequels and spin off's, the film version (of which I wrote about here) and later founded Cloud Imperium Games, currently developing Star Citizen which holds the record for the most amount raised via crowd-funding in videogaming history (and is still going). There are others who remained in the industry, whilst more than a few decided to leave what was becoming a vastly different beast to the bedroom coding they grew up with. It is these personal stories that bring life to "A World in Pixels" and really show you how much the industry has changed. No more copying cassettes and selling them via small ads in the back of magazines, or sending off a tape with a game on it to a publisher, getting accepted and then given a few hundred pounds for the pleasure. What this book does is highlight and revel in the era where videogames in the UK were moving from a cottage industry towards where is it now, a still changing multi-billion pound entertainment giant.

The artwork shines (as does the paper).

Not all of the stories are about the good times though, and for every good company, there were others that didn't pay royalties on time (or at all), and whilst it is easy to romanticise those early days, there was very much a wild-west attitude as well, that the popularity of the industry would vanish overnight and money had to be made whilst the going was good. What is clear from a lot of the contributions is that quite a few of those devs were creating games for the technical challenge, or just to make a few quid on the side - selling a video game was more lucrative than a paper round - but there was no long term aim here, no real plan for a career. That is became so for some can be considered a definite success story.

After the games comes a selection of interviews (and a remembrance) of those known for pushing the art and sound capabilities of the Beeb to its limits. This is followed by a smaller section on the magazines of the period: Acorn User, The Micro User, A&B Computing and Electron User. A piece on Lost and Found games (some of which were mentioned in passing earlier in the book) is followed by a Retro section, covering the Beeb scene today and a few games that have been released in recent years.

Stryker's Run - great for pre-registration chilling.

Finishing this book left me feeling quite melancholy. It felt as if I had missed the glory days of computing in the UK. Yeah, the Amstrad CPC 464 was a great little machine but it seemed to lack the passion that the Beeb invoked (and invokes to this day). The Amiga was another brilliant machine, and whilst its extra capabilities were mind blowing compared to the 8-bit era, it was another step removed from the bedroom coder, with greater numbers of people being required to create truly jaw dropping games. Oh, there were still individual devs here and there, but the gaming industry was changing, and even as the 16-bit computer market retreated under the onslaught of consoles - both cheaper and more powerful - it was clear that the days of the bedroom coder were numbered, as were the days of relatively cheap home computing - at least until DOS/Windows PC's dropped in price and became truly mainstream.

But to feel any sense of sadness would be to miss the point of this book. These games should be remembered and celebrated, as should their creators. Without the fervour of picking every scrap of ability from these machines, the gaming industry in the UK would have been, and today would be, far less vibrant. "Acorn - A World in Pixels" then is not just a thoroughly enjoyable book about an internationally little known 8-bit format, it is also a history about games creation in the UK during the industry's formative years, and that makes it not only an essential purchase for fans of the Beeb and Election, but also for those with an interest in the history of the industry itself.

You can purchase Acorn: A World in Pixels direct from the publisher here.

50 ST Games you have to play - Book Review

"50 ST Games you have to play" by Karl Morris is the latest release from Zafinn Books and, as the title states, gives you a list of ST games that you have to play (in the author's opinion). It is not just that as you can probably tell from the cover. It is also a celebration marking the 35th anniversary of the ST range (1985-2020) as well. Unlike the two previous coffee table-style Atari-themed volumes from Zafinn Books (reviewed here), 50ST (that's what I'll be calling it for the rest of this review) is a 220-page A5 book of predictably high print quality and good production values. A couple of stickers were also included with the book.

Priced at €35 including postage (about £32 depending on the conversion rate), this may seem a little steep to some but, as with the "We Love Atari" books, this is a small scale independent publisher focussing on a niche market and when you consider the cost of postage (€7.50), I don't think the price is too high at all when you consider what you get.  

Of course, if this were just the author's 50 favourite games, it would be an interesting read, finding out why each particular game made it onto the list, but also a pretty boring one. After all, that could get quite monotonous for fifty titles. However, this book is not just a list of games. Oh no. It's much more than that.

After a touching dedication on the first page, we start with a 36-page potted history of the Atari ST, from its creation and initial success, to the faltering of the early 1990's and its final removal from the market. There is also a lovely list of the 26(!) models that were announced, some of which that made it to the market, and some that rightly (or wrongly) didn't. You'll find a deeper history in volume 2 of "We Love Atari" but, from 50ST's perspective, this section gives the reader everything they need to know about the ST. Having said that, you really should buy that twin volume set as and when you can.

Next up is the introduction to the games, and the author uses this section to talk about the very earliest titles released for the system as well as how he played each title before including it within this tome. Following on from the earliest titles, the rest of the selection is grouped by genre: arcade conversions, strategy, adventure, unique games, shoot 'em ups, simulations and sports. As you can see from the pictures below, each entry is divided into sections. First up, we have the game's title, developer, publisher and the year of release. We get a half page of text describing the game and why the author has chosen it for the list. There is a review box, where the author has put a nice graphic in to state how long you'd need to play that game to get a good idea how the game plays, a graphic denoting the author's determination of the title's learning curve, and then a four column review score made up of graphics, sound, playability and an overall rating. A screenshot of the game framed in an Atari SC1435 monitor round off that page.

First page of a game's entry - apologies for the reflection.

The second page gives you a half page screen shot of the game's title/loading screen, a quarter page image of the box art, and finally an "Interesting Things" boxout with fun facts and tidbits about that game. A nice touch here is that the second page is framed in the style of the GEM desktop. 

Second page of a game's entry - less shiny.

Between the games, there are ad breaks - pages showing the advertising posters of some of the titles featured. We also get smaller sections on honourable mentions, recommendations, deeper delves in particular genres and a two page piece by Jeff Minter, which is a great little bonus. The final section of the book covers how to emulate the ST on modern day systems, as well as a reprint of an article the author published on his own website about the ST's sound chip, the Yamaha YM-2149, and some great promotional pictures of the various computers Atari launched during the ST's reign.

As you can probably tell from the above, this is quite a densely packed book and in truth, it does take a bit of reading if you indulge in the time to savour the contents. The relaxed style of writing suits the topic brilliantly and the presentation is clear and easy to follow. The author's passion for the ST and the games he has highlighted is clear to see, and the quality of 50ST matches that of his earlier books.

As for the games chosen, well, that's his personal choice but I will say that it's a varied selection and, having played quite a few of them back in my Amiga days, I'd agree with a lot of his choices. Of the ones I have not played, it has awakened an interest in giving them a go. Certainly, memories were brought back  by the screenshots and descriptions. One of the joys of this book is that most of these games also had Amiga versions (some also had Archimedes conversions too). Even if you weren't an ST owner back in the day, you'll still find plenty of interest here from the heyday of 16/32-bit home computers. 

I also enjoyed the section on emulation, as this is pretty much the quickest, cheapest and easiest way you can experience the joys of the ST today, much as it is with the Amiga. Unlike the ST sadly, legal Amiga emulation is quite simple and easy. Same with RISC OS, where the OS is now open-source and just a free download away. 

There is only one (very slight) criticism of note - there is an apology stuck to the inside back cover of the book about typo's and yes, I did note a couple that the author had not commented upon within his apology. However, these in no way spoil the book and I am sure that future print runs will correct those in due course. I don't wish to be seen throwing stones as regular readers of this blog will have noticed the odd boo-boo and I quite like this glass house as it is... :-)

50ST is another great release from Zafinn Books and the author is to be congratulated on an entertaining combination of games and accompanying articles. Not only a great standalone volume for ST fans and fans of that era of home computing, this is a fantastic companion piece to the "We Love Atari' duo. Highly recommended.

You can purchase this fine book here.

Virtual Cities - Book Review

Virtual Cities by Konstantinos Dimopoulos is a more studious videogame tome than I usually read. When I first saw it on the Unbound crowd-funding publishing site, I had missed the original funding drive. Fast forward a couple of months and its presence on Amazon quickly led to a purchase. So what exactly is this book about?

Dimopoulos is a games designer and game urbanist (with a Masters and PhD in Urban Planning - check out his impressive CV here) who, alongside visual artist Maria Kallikaki, has created a book that investigates the design and implementation of cities in a selection of forty-five videogames. Sitting somewhere between shelf-based reference and coffee table atlas, this is a high quality 208-page hardback though a Kindle version is also available. Each of the entries is given between four and six pages, each consisting of a description of the city, a dedicated map of the settlement, a couple of illustrations and a box out containing comments from either Dimopoulos or, in a small number, that particular title's designer.

The descriptions of the cities themselves are definitely the highlight and each one has been cleverly done. Rather than have identikit accounts which, if repeated for each of the entries would get more than a little stale, the author has framed each city differently. Be it a travel guide, a "historical" note, or the telling of a legend, this in-universe approach is fresh and engaging. By writing about each city as if it were real, you not only gain essential background information and atmosphere, but also a real sense of depth to the story behind each one. And that is a key point for this book - the city is not just a setting, it is part of the story itself and exists not only to wander around but also to provide immersion for the player. By having carefully designed city settings, the engagement the player feels is increased. With the examples chosen for Virtual Cities, the author has proven this with each of the selected games. 

It also helps that Dimopoulos has not constrained himself to a particular gaming period - the games covered here were released between 1983 and 2018. Nor has concentration been given to purely blockbuster titles - I had to Google some of the games as I had never heard of them. What is clear from each entry is that Dimopoulos knows his stuff - both in the sense of videogames design and urban development. He points out exactly how a particular city feels "right', real and believable. He is also clear that, where a settlement is physically impossible, it still works as a concept and to the established in-game rules whatever they may be. Despite the changes in style and presentation, each entry is easy to read and consistently good. 

The commentary sections are interesting and of a suitably different tone from the main text, whether written by Dimopoulos or a guest writer. Here, we get a wider view of the city's place in game, how it relates to real world theory and the various influences that led to its creation. Although much shorter in length, the insights provided by these compliment the main text wonderfully and serve as an explanation as to why each city was included in the book.

The illustrations are stylistic and may, to some, appear quite basic, but the illustrator has done a good job in my humble opinion. The city maps are great, and whilst they may not match the in-game maps you might be familiar with, it is best to consider these as representations rather than direct copies.

I didn't rush through this book, instead reading a couple of entries at a time and letting my mind work its way through the ideas and concepts presented. After finishing it, I admit to being intrigued by some of the landscapes described and have purchased a number of the titles featured here to go with a few I already own. What I feel this book does is give a new perspective on what is a key part of many a video game - the character of the urban environment the player finds themselves in. The importance of having a believable canvas has always been relevant and the fact that videogames developers were thinking about this nearly forty years ago shows that it's not a new idea to the medium. If characters are placed in a city or town that doesn't feel right then it can destroy the very immersion the creators are aiming for. Once that immersion is gone, it can be impossible to get back, spoiling the experiences of the player. In Virtual Cities, you will find many examples that demonstrate that even the smallest detail will benefit that sense of immersion. 

With Virtual Cities, Dimopoulos has written a brilliant book that takes a unique approach to videogames and one that tackles a subject little raised in the art form - because yes, videogames should be considered an art form. This book is not only for those who play videogames, but is also a reference for games designers and, really, anyone interested in world building in general. All in all, a highly recommended read.

Virtual Cities can be found on Unbound.com here, and on Amazon here. You can find out more about the author here.

The Digital Way: Games Pass and Readly

I am sure that most of the readers of this blog will be familiar with, if not actual users of, a digital subscription service. Be it Spotify, Amazon Prime, Netflix, BritBox or any of Apple's offerings (to name but a few), there has been spectacular growth in these services over recent years. In TIT Towers, we have active Netflix, Amazon and Disney+ subscriptions for television viewing, though today I would like to talk about two other services that fit very different requirements, Microsoft's Games Pass Ultimate and the Readly magazine service.

Just a small selection of games on the accompanying app.

Games Pass Ultimate is Microsoft's attempt at creating an all-inclusive gaming subscription. What you get for £10.99 per month is a selection of over 350 console titles and over 220 PC titles, including titles provided by the EA Play service that is also bundled in. To see how impressive that £10.99 is, let's break down what's on offer:

• Xbox Gold Live (online multiplayer - which I don't use, as well as four free titles per month to keep as long as you keep up the Gold subscription, and discounts in the Xbox store) = £6.99 p/m. 
• Xbox Games Pass (access to over 200 Xbox games to download. Rotating list of titles, but all Microsoft published games have so far been constant. All Microsoft titles also appear on launch day in Games Pass. When a title is going to be removed, users are advised and offered a 20% discount off the online store price) = £7.99 p/m
• EA Play (access to EA titles, discounts and rewards) = £3.99 p/m (or £19.99 annually)
• Games Pass for PC (as with Xbox but with some variation in titles) = £7.99 p/m
• Preview of xCloud, allowing you to stream and play over 100 Xbox games on your Android phone or tablet, with plans for other mobile devices in the future.

As you can see, that £10.99 covers £26.96 worth of subscriptions - so the face value is rather good. If that wasn't enough, there have been, and continue to be, various offers to gain access to GP Ultimate and converting your existing Live subs to the more comprehensive offering. That can get a little complicated so I'll leave you to Google those at your own leisure. 

For me, GP Ultimate is a wonderful service, allowing me to play titles that I might not see in any physical shop, try new titles that I am in two minds about paying £30-£60 for, as well as letting me seamlessly switch between the Xbox Series X downstairs to the PC upstairs for certain titles. There is also a companion app for your phone that allows you to control downloads and view the library of Games Pass games. 

Over the last year, I have played the following games via Games Pass: Call of the Sea (a charming Cthulhu themed adventure), Assetto Corsa (a realistic and rather twitchy racer), DOOM Eternal (brilliant shooter), Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (3rd person action which played horribly on base Xbox One but flies on the Series X - EA Play title), Subnautica (underwater survival/exploration), The Bard's Tale Trilogy/The Bard's Tale IV (role playing), Crysis (shooter - EA Play title - with the two sequels on the to-play list), Deliver Us The Moon (adventure game), Grim Fandango (seminal point and click adventure), Quantum Break (3rd person story-based shooter), Day of the Tentacle (another seminal point and click adventure), Full Throttle (yep, another classic point and click adventure), The Talos Principle (puzzler) and Conarium (first person Cthulhu adventure). That's quite a list and doesn't scratch the surface of the titles available. For value, ease of use and choice, I can find nothing to complain about.

Games Pass is the culmination of where the video games industry has been going for a few years now. It's not about ownership any more. Much like Netflix (for example) which has replaced buying movies on DVD, Games Pass is the alternative to buying titles from GAME, Gamestop or a local independent. Add to that the regular discounts on titles not in Games Pass which can be found in the Xbox store, and physical media's days are numbered. Yep, that's been prophesied for a few years now but the broadband infrastructure in the UK has improved and, let us be honest here, most physical discs are just keys to start a multi-gigabyte download of the game itself anyway, and that doesn't include the almost mandatory day one updates. Why bother with a store when it's quicker to buy via the console and you'll still have to wait for the download? It can be cheaper too, if you wait until the sales hit or it's an older title.

Now, I used to be a physical software collector - still am, in fact, but only in a limited way and for certain retro titles only. I pretty much buy most of my current gen games via the online store if they are not available via Games Pass. Gone are the days of having over seven hundred (700!) games for over twenty systems. I have neither the space to store them nor the time to play them, and if they're not going to be played, there is little point in owning them. It was the same with books. My library is down to a more manageable 200-ish though that is increasing slowly. Same principle though: if it's not likely I'll ever read a specific book again, it's not destined to stay on my shelves for long. However, the hardbacks by Massie (Dreadnought) and Chandler (Campaigns of Napoleon) are most definitely staying put! In fact, I think Chandler is due another perusal.

At the end of the day, it all depends on what you want. If you want a collection to savour for years to come, then something like Games Pass is probably not for you. If you just want a steady selection of new and older games to play, it's nigh-on perfect. 

The annual cost of £131.88 is not extravagant. In fact, if you look at how much a current gen title costs at retail (£60 though that's creeping to £70), then even your cheap CD Keys purchase can look expensive compared to Games Pass. As a consumer, you still, just, have a choice between brick and mortar disc sales, online disc sales and online download codes. Does that mean physical sales are doomed? Maybe. GAME in the UK exists only as part of Mike Ashley's empire, Gamestop is continually fighting against Chapter 11 in the US and independents have to find their own niche, much like Games Galaxy in Consett. Yep, it sells current gen software, but that's only part of its appeal, what with retro and merchandise taking up more space than Xbox/PS4/PS5 titles. Can I see myself ever buying a physical copy of a current (or next gen game)? Probably not. Will I still buy from independents? For their niche items, certainly.

It is the same with bookshops, Cogito in Hexham being a prime example. Whenever I have visited the town, that shop always gets a visit. I also still love to browse around Waterstones and will always try to find specific titles there first. There again, Amazon's Kindle bookstore remains a great place to find reference works at prices that don't leave the wallet pining for the fjords. Indeed, when a history book is under a tenner in the Kindle store but unavailable to buy new and second hand sellers want £40 plus for a copy, well, it's Kindle all the way. Anyway, I digress...

On to Readly, a magazine and newspaper subscription service that offers offline reading and multiple users per sub. From £7.99 per month, it's less than the price of two monthly magazines and, again, I think it's brilliant value. You get a range of titles from around the world, with a clear focus on the UK and US. 

This is just the front screen... and not my favourites list... honest!

It is something I was aware of but, prior to March 2020, never really considered. After all, I worked in central Newcastle so passed WH Smiths every day. However, with the lockdown came the situation that I was limited to whatever the local supermarkets carried and this was no good at all. This came to a head around June when Amazon held a sale on it's Fire 10 HD tablets and I picked one up for £105 instead of the usual £150. That was when I signed up for the 1 month free trial of Readly. By the end of that month, I had acquired a list of 26 publications in my favourites list. 

Based on buying five magazines a month (on average, I never bought every issue of every magazine, it always depended on the articles inside, with the exception of Wireframe, of which I was a subscriber), then that would be about £25. Over a year, that would be £300(!). The first year of Readly would be £110. the Kindle, £105. Total cost for year one = £215. Already an £85 saving. Year two: £120 for Readly, no hardware cost - a saving of £180! Adding my good lady, who is the only other user of the account (of which there can be up to five), then it's quite a saving. 

Now, some of you may be thinking "Hold on! What about the magazines? How do they make money?" Well, I am not entirely sure, but considering they have signed up to the services it must work for them. I believe they are paid on the number of downloads and pages read, so a proportion of the £9.99 sub goes to each magazine read. I am probably not a typical user, what with those 26 different titles, but on the plus side, I have discovered niche publications from other countries as well as a great selection of back issues going back several years. 

Are there downsides? Well, it's not directly supporting the magazines that I read, and whilst you can download issues to read offline, you have to be careful how much storage your device has if you go crazy with the downloads. Watch out for the pricing - you can sign up via the Readly website for £7.99 per month but if you subscribe via the app on your device of choice, you'll pay £9.99 per month - this is due to the app store of your choice taking their cut. Also, some publications have basically provided a simple electronic copy rather than a specifically formatted version so you'll have to zoom in for some to see really small text. There are also a few notable omissions from the list of titles. For example, whilst you get Miniature Wargames, you'll not find Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy, nor Wargames Illustrated, at least at present.

Back-issues are available too.

That being said, if you have an iPad, Kindle Fire or a decent Android tablet, I really do recommend trying this service out for a month. I do miss the tactility of a paper magazine, but not having them clutter up the place or having piles of never-to-be-read-again back issues is a bonus. Will I ever buy another physical magazine? Not sure. Excluding the niche computing format ones which are pretty much subscription only, probably not.

Much like video games with Games Pass, your experience with Readly will very much depend on whether you want to keep the content you have read/used. You don't own the titles and you don't control the long term access to them. Yet, for the low cost of entry and the benefits they provide, both services are very good examples of letting people access content they normally wouldn't be able to and have come into their own especially during the pandemic. As such, unless they very much change for the worse, I'll be keeping up these subs for a long while to come.

2021 - Different year, same old sh... enanigans.

Lasting approximately 58 months, 2020 has finally ended and here we are in the "sunlit uplands of 2021". Well, we're in 2021, though I feel "sunlit uplands" is complete bollocks, much like it sounds when any politician utters that phrase. Still, a new year and this blog continues. No grandiose waffle here, just the same random selection of reviews, opinion pieces and typo-filled bollocks you come to know and, for some of you, read. So what does 2021 hold for fans of the TIT?

Starting with video games and I might eventually get round to adding some console game reviews that are not a good fit for Retrovideogamer.co.uk - so Xbox 360,  Playstation 2 and the Evercade. For earlier systems, I'll still be posting regular reviews on that site and may actually veer away from the 3DO, a lovely little system that doesn't half have some distinctly average and crap games. 

There will be some more gaming related book reviews, certainly two more in the next month or so. I also hope to receive a trickle of books supported via Kickstarter: Legends of 16-bit Game Development, Sierra Collector's Quest, Dreamcast: Year Two and From Vultures to Vampires. Touch wood, I have not had a bad experience using Kickstarter as of yet and the signs are positive for each of the above projects. I'll also be slowly adding to my collection of titles from Bitmap Books as funds permit and I'll be posting about these as and when they are purchased.

I'll be posting some thoughts on Microsoft's Games Pass service as well as another, non-gaming digital subscription service in the near future, and, when it is released, a review of the Intellivision Amico, a new games console due for launch in April 2021. It'll never trouble the three main manufacturers but I like the idea behind it and the focus on social gaming in the living room. As noted above, the Evercade will be an on-going subject with two new cartridges (#15 Jaleco Collection 1 and #16 Piko Interactive 2) already pre-ordered. The three remaining announced carts (#17 Indie Heroes Collection 1, #18 Worms Collection 1 and #19 Codemasters Collection 1) will be ordered as and when they can be.

Alternative computing was a fun topic throughout 2020 and there will be more on computing, namely RISC OS, Linux, Amiga OS and Mac OS as the year progresses - though I shall refrain from commenting any more on the Cloverleaf Project, as I feel that subject has run its course. I'll continue to post about the niche magazines that I have subscribed to: Archive for RISC OS and Amiga Attack for the Amiga. I also hope to get back into using the Classic Amiga OS, probably via emulation, though if funds permit, I would really like an FPGA-based system which would be a cool option. 

There will be more "Was That Film Really That Bad???" sprinkled throughout the year, as there turned out  to be far more candidates for this feature than I realised at first. And besides, there are some cheesy classics still to be ripped apart  commented upon.

Wargaming was pretty much a forgotten topic in 2020, with my last post even mentioning wargaming being a report on the York show all the way back in February. Since there is no sign of shows being even considered until the second half of 2021, it looks to be a quiet year on that front again. I might get some painting done to my silver mountain but that's not a statement of intent. Neither is the intent set in stone for the model kit making I started when the lockdown first hit way back when. Some day, we merry band of TWATS will re-unite for a pub based game and no doubt you will hear about it on here or on Andy's blog, Glorious Little Soldiers.

My good lady and I have enjoyed the SnackSurprise boxes that we signed up to in 2020 and, with the selections coming across rather nicely at the back end of the year, this is something we are continuing into the new year. Expect the usual monthly cadence for these.

That about covers the main topics, but that doesn't mean there won't be the odd random topic here and there, just to mix things up a little. Hopefully, you'll enjoy reading these as much as I enjoy writing them.