A Guide To Video Games Movies by Christopher Carton - Book Review

Regular readers will know that I am quite partial to films based on video games. Even though I can be quite scathing and waspish, there is usually still enjoyment to be found somewhere... and yes, even in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. However, whilst there are some very famous examples, there are also more obscure titles, and this is where Chris Carton's excellent tome comes in. 

A Guide To Video Games Movies does pretty much what it says on the cover, providing a well-written and informative directory of all game-based celluloid treats from the 1990's onwards. Divided into four sections, (1990's 2000's, 2010's and 2020's), Carton details nearly fifty films that, whilst they may be only very loosely based on their source material, are video games movies.

Each entry starts with a film promo poster and a details box giving release date, director(s), cast and tagline. The main entry begins with a brief background to the original gaming inspiration, followed by a description of the film and a comment on the quality alongside its critical and financial success. You then get a one liner reason as to why you should watch it and a brief note on whether a sequel followed up (or is likely). You also get a screenshot of the original game and a couple of shots from the film. 

At the end of each section are a couple of pages for the best of the rest, titles that may not have seen a wide release or were smaller scale features. 

I found this to be a fun read, the author providing a great look at each featured title without (much) sarcasm. If you want sarcasm, check out the Was That Film Really That Bad series on this blog. The author clearly demonstrates a love for the genre and a passion that resonates throughout this book, evident by the author's reasons to watch each film. I had completely forgotten about the "7 Seconds" event(!) in Alone in the Dark, and for that reason, I really need to watch that film again! There are some titles that I have never gotten round to watching, as well as some that I never knew about, and the joy of this tome is that I now have a list of games-based films to add to my collection. 

Indeed, whilst the general quality of video game films is rarely high, they always seem to have a certain charm and Carton displays that charm superbly here. Not sure if the use of the word "charm" will survive a viewing of Postal, but hey, I'd need to watch it to have an opinion. Whilst this book doesn't cover films inspired by video games, that could be an option for a future volume... hint, hint...

As you can see from the pictures, this tome is laid out cleanly and provides more than enough space for the images and text to breath. Production quality is high and it fits very well next to Daryl Baxter's superb Tomb Raider book. This is yet another quality release from White Owl, an imprint of the ever reliable Pen & Sword Books, and is a celebration of that much-maligned cinematic genre that deserves to get some love and attention. Chris Carton has proven to be the right person for that job!

Do I like this book? Yes! If you are a gamer who also likes films, should you buy this book? Hell, yeah! Would you enjoy watching all of the films featured in here? No idea, but what reading this book has done is prompted me to start searching for the films I don't already own to give them a go. And hey, if they're that bad, they'll get a WTFRTB post. 

You can pick up a copy of A Guide To Video Games Movies directly from the publisher here or order it from that online place or your local bookshop. You can also follow the author on Twitter here, where you'll also be able to find out about future titles. 

Crash, ZZAP! 64 and Fusion bookazines

Regular readers may know that I am fan of the printed word, and if you have a look at the magazines tag on this blog, you'll see a wide selection of computing and gaming titles covered. Popping into a relatively nearby WH Smiths a couple of weeks ago led me to buying three bookazines of titles that, whilst I was aware of them, I had never purchased before. 

Crash is a re-launched Spectrum-specific magazine taking its lead from the original Crash publication that ran from 1984 to 1991. Fusion Retro Books (the publisher of all three bookazines reviewed here) brought back the magazine via Kickstarter and the current A5 format has been going since December 2020, published on a bi-monthly basis and has now reached issue 7.

ZZAP! 64 was the Commodore 64 equivalent back in the day, the original mag running from 1985 to 1992. As with Crash, this was brought back as an A5 format bi-monthly publication and is up to issue 6.

Fusion, an original title, is the longest running of the trio, having reached 29 issues so far, and is published on a monthly basis. As with the others, the price is £3.99 per 60-page issue. Postage per issue is £1.65 as of the time of this post. This covers retro and current generation gaming, indie releases, tabletop games and toys. 

If that wasn't enough, there are two more publications from Fusion Retro Books: ZZAP! Amiga (2 issues so far on a bi-monthly basis) and AmtixCPC (2 issues now, a third due soon and on a quarterly basis) That's a serious range of publications which can be bought directly from the publisher's website or via a subscription on Patreon, links for which I'll add to the end of this post. But that's not why we are here today. Nope, we're here to talk about what you get when you pop into a national newsagents.

Priced at £9.99, each bookazine is 120 pages in length and in full colour. The editorials for Crash and ZZAP! 64 note that they each contain 90 pages of previously published material and 30 pages of new content. Fusion, however, is all new material. Together, they act as perfect gateway material for their magazine counterparts, but I'll get to that later. 

As you will see below, I have added pictures of the contents page and the staff/contributors for each volume, and some brief comments on the contents. I'm not going to provide an in-depth guide (you'll have to buy them to find out what goodies lie within) but if you look closely, you'll see some very familiar names listed if you are a follower of the retro gaming scene. That gives some promise as to the quality of the contents.

Crash first and there are some nice pieces on Christmas issues of the old magazine, a handy feature on the effect of running Spectrum games on a Spectrum Next, and some very informative interviews. There are also reviews of old and new games. If you're a fan of the Spectrum, this is a great introduction to the magazine and what you can expect if you were to buy future (or existing) issues. 

ZZAP! 64 is pretty much the same, but for the C64. I know, that's a cop out considering the amount of content in here, and I mean no disservice to the team behind it, but it's as good as its Spectrum counterpart and fans of the ol' chicken lips bread bin will not be disappointed. 

Fusion is probably the one that I was most wary about. After all, it doesn't have the focus of the other two volumes, but I need not have worried. From the Philips G7000 (I so wanted one of those as a child) to the Camputers Lynx, via some weird He-Man toys and really bad videogame adverts of yesteryear, Fusion is a smorgasbord of retro fun. 

The writing is each of the three volumes is of high quality and tremendously engaging, each author showing a passion for their chosen piece. I can't fault the production values either: screenshots and artwork pop out from each page and, all in all, these are a fantastic introduction to their respective regular publications. They have, however, left a question for me to answer. 

I noted above that these volumes are gateway material, a way of reaching potential new customers who might not have found the magazines online. The question is, has this worked on me? Kind of. These magazines are also available on Readly. I've talked about this service before and I am a fan of it. However, publications gain more from you buying their work rather than using a service such as Readly. The counter argument is that without Readly, I wouldn't be able to read the range of publications I do - there simply isn't the spare money to buy everything I read on the service. In the case of Crash, ZZAP! 64 and Fusion, I will continue to read them via Readly. I know, it's not much, but it's the best I can do.

However, as I owned both an Amstrad CPC464 and a Commodore Amiga 500 in my youth, I really did like the Amiga and Amstrad CPC-themed magazines, so have purchased the two existing issues for each and, with the announcement that issue 3 of AmtixCPC is due out soon, I will subscribe to that one via Patreon going forward. The same will go for ZZAP! Amiga when its issue 3 is released. 

What these bookazines (and the regular issues) prove is that the market for small scale, niche publications continues to be big enough to support a veritable cornucopia of titles. If any of this trio interest you, give them a try by picking up a copy. If you like them, show your support for the magazines, either using Readly, buying issues directly from the publisher or via the various Patreon subscriptions. That way, not only do you get to enjoy some great work by dedicated writers and artists, but you also get to support them so that they can continue to deliver said work. 

You can check out the range of Fusion Retro Books publications here, including the magazines mentioned above and a range of books as well. You can also follow Fusion Retro Books on Twitter here.

Finally, the Patreon links for the various magazines are listed below:

ZZAP! 64

Crash

Fusion

ZZAP! Amiga

AmtixCPC

Game Guide to the Atari Lynx - Book Review

When Zafinn Books announced they were going to release a book on the Atari Lynx, this immediately caught my attention. I never owned a Lynx back in the day, having to be merely content to gaze over screenshots of Blue Lightning and Gates of Zendocon in CVG magazine. However, it's always been on my list of systems I'd try to own but never fully justified the price of acquiring one second hand. With the release of two Atari Lynx-themed cartridges on the Evercade, this latest release from Zafinn Books scratched an itch and I ordered it as quickly as I could. 

This Game Guide follows the same physical format of Zafinn's previous release, 50 Great Atari ST Games You Have To Play (reviewed here). The 220 pages contained within this book are divided into several sections, all of which are presented in a clean and colourful manner. 

To begin with, we get the history of the Atari Lynx. From the initial craze of handheld gaming to Epyx's creation of the original hardware, Atari's acquisition of that and the naming of the Lynx, then ending with how the handheld faired against the competition at the time, this is an informative and interesting pocket history. There are additional sections on hardware and accessories, then a quick game guide listing all 71 official Atari-released Lynx titles. 

It is after the quick guide that you get the reviews. Each one gets two pages. The first page of each entry has a half page of review text above a screenshot framed by an Atari Lynx II border. The second page includes a shot of the game's title screen, its box art and a score box, rating the game's graphics, sound, playability, overall score, a thumbs up/down/neutral rating and a scarcity description. That's quite a lot but as with the previous ST book, each entry is clear and precise. The reviews themselves are funny and packed with info. Interspaced with the reviews are pages containing adverts for the Lynx and its titles from various countries. 

Following the reviews is a page on the games that nearly made it to release, and a page of games that were released after the Lynx was removed from the market. The latter titles were still available to buy at the time of this book's publication. 

The final fifteen or so pages are dedicated to Lynx resources. There are interviews with LX Rudis, who worked for Epyx and Atari on the Lynx's audio hardware, Igor from Atarigamer.com, two pages on new ways to play Lynx titles (the Evercade and Analogue Pocket get a look in here), and chats with James Boulton (RetroHQ.co.uk), Carl Forhan (Songbird Productions), and Peter Mortimer (Telegames UK). Two further pages are given over to independent developers, Luchs-Soft and Yatsuna Games being name checked, then finally we get a half page of web resources and a half page of credits.

And yet there is more, as there were a couple of stickers included and a reprint of the Atari Lynx Hint Book, containing hints, tips, cheats and Easter eggs for various Lynx titles. This guide also contains details of the Lynx hardware and some frequently asked questions. It was provided free of charge with the Game Guide and is a lovely touch. 

As you can tell, this is a packed tome and really is the best single printed resource currently available on the Atari Lynx. The story of the Lynx is well told (I am further intrigued as to what went on between Atari and DIP, whose handheld computer featured quite prominently in Terminator 2), and I think that this book is a fantastic piece of work, so well done to Zafinn Books. Having already purchased We Love Atari volumes 1 and 2 (reviewed here), it is pleasing to see that there are further Atari-themed titles planned: Game Guides for the ST and the Jaguar! Looks like two more books for the gaming library coming up!

You can check out Zafinn Book's range of titles here and, and buy the Game Guide to the Atari Lynx here. You can also follow Zafinn Books on Twitter here.

Was That Film Really That Bad??? - Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

Question: Was that film really that bad?

Answer: Yes.

End of post.

Thank Fuck for that!

That, gentle reader, would have been the result of this WTFRTB post on Resident Evil: The Final Chapter if I had shown the same amount of effort as Wor Paul did when he made this conclusion to the long running franchise. This has to be one of the laziest, most pointless films I have ever watched, and that's saying something considering I have watched the previous five films that make up the tale of Alice (and several Uwe Boll titles too!). To put it more politely, I am not just disappointed, I am terribly disappointed.

War. War never changes... Oops, wrong post-apocalyptic franchise! I hope there is no Fallout from that.

The plot is straight forward. Alice finds that Wesker has betrayed her so she want's revenge. The Red Queen also wants Wesker stopped so blackmails Alice to do so within 48 hours or she'll let the last human survivors die. Cue a mad dash back to the Hive, where it all began what seems like decades ago. Add a couple of clones of Dr Isaacs, a very tacked on appearance of Alicia, the daughter who was used to model the Red Queen and whom Alice is based upon, and an opening expository monologue that takes up the first five minutes of the film, and what you have is a movie trying desperately to finish the series in a way that will please fans and any randoms who've wandered in off the street. Yet it can't even be bothered to do that.

It's a fixer-upper.

I have to admit, it's the opening that really annoyed me. At the end of Retribution, there was a camera shot of the White House with our survivors on the roof as the last bastion of humanity fought to the end. Ignore the fact that it's not the last bastion. Ignore the fact that it made no sense. Prepare yourself, however, for one of the worst traits story-telling can have. Telling, but not showing. The Final Chapter opens with Alice escaping to the surface of a destroyed Washington DC after the monologue states that Wesker had set a trap. That is the pay off for the fifth film. That is the way Wor Paul has treat the story, the characters, the actors and the audience. And, in my humble opinion, he's a fucking tool for doing it. See, I told you I was terribly disappointed.

New Cirque de Soleil looks a bit shit.

It doesn't get any better. There's a silly road trip vibe with a couple of badly staged action sequences, followed by some purely nonsensical religious shite from a clone of Isaacs, then another sequence of set pieces that recall earlier entries, such as the defence of the compound gates, the narrow death trap ventilation systems and a completely pointless and un-noteworthy death by large fan. This film is only a 100 minutes long, but by this point, the Rings Trilogy felt shorter... all three of them in one sitting. Yet it gets worse.

This is a fight scene, not that you can see it in the dark.

Most of the back half is filmed at night or in places with poor lighting. With rapid camera cuts and really shoddy CGI, it's like watching a cage fight during a power cut wearing a blindfold. Even the introduction of Isaac Prime means nothing, what with his combat software built in, something that the Downey Jr Sherlock Holmes films did so much better without resorting to technology. I know I have accused this series of stealing, sorry, homaging ideas from other movies before, but here it seems like it has been done half-heartedly, as if even the crew can't be arsed anymore. This extends to the "you're fired so you can be killed" schtick that Robocop did so well... in 1987.

No 3D maps, but plenty of CGI exposition.

The actors, on the other hand, well, Iain Glen as Isaacs x2 is good value and he gives it his all in the fight scenes. Shawn Roberts plays Wesker as the same one note Agent Smith clone we've had for the past two films, and even the returning Ali Larter pretty much sleepwalks through the film. As for Ms Jovovich, she's here, she can still fight, but her role as the aged Alicia is just terrible, with bad make up and a Primary-school play level of "old" performance.

Part of me thinks I am being a little harsh, though that is only a small part. Res Evil 5 cost $65m and took in $240m in return. Not too shabby but worse in general figures than the 4th film. The Final Chapter cost $40 and took in $314m, a superb return but I can't help but think that people really shouldn't have rewarded Wor Paul and co for the worst film of the series. Maybe it was a bribe for them to fuck off and never come back. Who knows? More pertinently, does anyone care? After seeing Alice ride off into the desolation, I know I don't.

What I can say is that this is, without doubt, the worst of the Res Evil films with Wor Paul's mitts on them, and a shite pay off for fans who followed from the oh so innocent days of Res Evil one. True, a couple of the films were decent, if flawed, notably the first and fifth. However, they seem to have existed purely to create employment opportunities and rake in the cash from an audience who should feel conned as the credits of The Final Chapter roll. Hell, if I'd seen this at the cinema, I'd be heading straight for the nearest bar for a medicinal beverage or eight. As it is, watching them on DVD means there is a small blessing. At current rates, I can get £2 from CEX for cash, £5 for trade in. That's got to count for something...

On a different note, if you like movies based on video games, there is a new book on that very subject! A Guide to Video Games Movies by Christopher Carton was released a couple of days prior to this post going up. I have ordered my copy direct from the publisher, Pen and Sword Books, and am looking forward to what the author has to say about Wor Paul's series of films, alongside (hopefully) other movies that I've talked about here such as DOA: Dead or Alive, Wing Commander, and In The Name Of The King (shudder). It should arrive early next week and I'll have a review up a couple of weeks after that.  

Never Ready by Kenton White - Book Review

Readers may recall my review of Battlegroup, by Jim Storr, last year. Included with that book was a slip advertising some of Helion & Co's new releases, one of which was this title, Never Ready, by Kenton White. Seeing as it tied in quite well with the period and subject of Storr's thought-worthy tome, I added this to my list of books to buy. It arrived just before Christmas and having given it a thorough read and some thought, here is my review.

White is a lecturer at the University of Reading in Strategic Studies and International Relations. His bio states that his main areas of research include British Defence Policy over the last two hundred years, and this is where this book comes in, focusing as it does on Britain's armed forces and those organisation's links to the declared NATO strategy of Flexible Response. This publication is an extension of his PhD thesis, expanded to cover a greater time period and re-written to be less academic in style. So how does he do?

The book is divided into seven chapters, building up to a finale detailing the author's conclusions. He begins with a summarisation of geopolitics and the Cold War, followed by a threat assessment, starting in 1967 and carrying through to the 1980's. These give a good background to the theatre and the nature of the threat NATO believed it was facing. Chapter three follows the planning that was put in place through the period concerned, which leads neatly on to chapter four and the British armed force's structure and equipment used at the time. Chapter five is probably the meatiest section, detailing as it does the individual services, providing greater detail on their equipment, how the forces were deployed, war stock levels and the political machinations that each had to engage in to achieve their specific goals. Chapter six focuses on the mobilisation question - how quickly mobilisation could occur for both front line and reserve forces, their move to combat, and the effect combat might have on those forces. It also provides a worthy narration of an exercise undertaken in 1983 that neatly demonstrates the key points the author wishes to make. Chapter seven finishes the discussion with two case studies, the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas conflict and the First Gulf War in 1991. Finally, chapter eight permits the author to provide closing arguments and conclusions.

Throughout, there are photographs, maps, tables and illustrations, all to the usual high standard expected of a Helion & Co publication. The photographs are varied and could be of some use to wargamers and modellers for details and paint schemes. The artworks are similarly good. 

This was an interesting read, well grounded in the period with a great deal of research behind it. It also provides extremely pertinent lessons for politicians and senior officers today. The main thread of the argument concerns that ever-present balancing act between requirement, capability and financial will (the latter of which is always fought as a political battle). Whatever requirements NATO presented, these always came into conflict with national requirements for that nation's armed forces and the political will to spend money on them - and it was always the will to spend money that decided the course of action. The author points out the underlying truth that NATO strategy rested upon the cast-iron requirement to go nuclear at some point, thus undermining the political will to spend money on conventional forces, but the sheer lack of sustainability baked into the armed forces by years of constant defence spending cuts meant that, if war had broken out, the expectation of nuclear release by day 8 would have been found wildly optimistic. 

For someone interested in that period of military history this is a very sobering read and one that, in effect, rubbishes the popular fiction of the period (Team Yankee, The Third World War, Red Storm Rising), and harks more to the cynicism and bleakness of Chieftains. No matter what public pronouncements were made by the British government, this book argues well that the eruption of conflict in Central Europe in the 1980's would have been a bloody and relatively short-lived affair. The two case studies reveal the truth to some of the points raised, but not all. The author notes that conclusions reached after these conflicts should be heavily balanced with the unique situation each involved. The over-reliance of reserves and the practical stripping of every working Warrior and Challenger in 1990/use of all aviation assets/majority of war stocks for a Corps, just to equip a reinforced division - these pinpoint the lie that successive governments have used to justify cuts to the forces. Just because both of these conflicts were victorious didn't mean to say that there weren't many, many issues that demonstrated how thin continuous cuts had made the forces. 

Indeed, there is a common thread of early equipment retirement, capability gaps, personnel shortages, over-reliance on reserves and under-funding of training that runs through the period covered by this book. Another key point is sustainability - the lack of war stocks, the dismantling of production lines able to replace losses, and the inability to continue fighting as, even if there was gear, could the logistics system get it to where it needed to be? 

I did have a couple of niggles with some of the discussion on weapons systems, where there could have been a tad greater clarity, but these were minor points. In all other respects, Never Ready is a very well researched and thought out book. It was eye-opening to me and compliments well my existing library on the period. For that, it is very much recommended and provides an interesting and suitable companion piece to Battlegroup! 

You can buy Never Ready directly from Helion here. 

The PC Engine Anthology from Geeks-Line - Book Review

Geeks-Line are a French company that have been going for quite a while now. I was already familiar with their work having received a copy of the N64 Anthology as a birthday gift from my good lady back in 2020. I really liked that edition so when I saw a Kickstarter campaign for a PC Engine anthology, I quickly pledged towards the project, adding extra for copies of the Super Nintendo Gold Edition (new edition too), GameCube and PlayStation Anthologies as well. The project hit its target in May 2021 and the plan was to have copies in the hands of supporters by July. 

Given the state of the world in 2021, that didn't happen. As the months passed, there were updates on the Kickstarter page and, with a few comms issues, I received three of the four books on the 17th of January. A quick chase up saw the final book arrive three days later. I know it hasn't been the easiest of journeys for backers or Geeks-Line but it does look like they're getting there.

So, with four books to delve into (reviews of the other three will be posted as and when I get round to reading them), I set about the PC Engine Anthology with gusto. 

Let's get the positives out in the open first. It's a glorious book. The physical quality, the sheer number of screenshots, pictures and diagrams, it all adds up to a stunning look at NEC's little console that could. 

The first fifty pages or so cover the history of the PC Engine and the PC-FX. The following two hundred plus pages cover every title released for the PC Engine, its CD add-ons and the Supergrafx. This section also includes the PC-FX library, unofficial and homebrew titles, and collector's/curiosities. Each game gets at least a third of a page, whilst some get a whole page. There are release dates, alternative titles, format details and the like included in each listing. 

The actual PC Engine hardware gets sixty pages and it's here that the real technical information and explanations lie. The sections on graphics and sound really do inform and they top off the regular edition well. You get pictures and descriptions of the PC Engine models, as well as a look at the Laseractive system and a focus on the different PC Engine specific publications. For those, like myself, who pledged for the Gunhead edition, you then get the accessories section, games that were never released and a section on "a different time", which takes a look at the more Japanese content(!) that would never have made it to the west. Box art gets nearly forty pages, whilst the long lost art of phone cards gets an airing. The last two sections are on the advertising of the PC Engine around the world and a collector's list of titles.

There is a stupid amount on content in here and it will suit any fan (or would-be fan) of the PC Engine to a tee. But it's not perfect.

Start at "The announcement..." This is the worst example but you get the idea.

You see, the English translation is, to put it mildly, problematical. In fact, in places, it's a mess. I've included an image of the worst section I can find, but in general it reads poorly. Past and present tense mix in the same sentences, there are more than a few typo's and there are even a couple of French colloquial terms (berezina and arlesienne are the two that spring to mind) that haven't been translated at all and require a trip to Google to figure out that they actually mean. There are also sections of text that are repeated, as you can see below:

I really don't wish to be too mean towards the team at Geeks-Line. They have managed to get a hefty and informative tome out in what have been difficult times. The quality and quantity of the information present is astounding and they should be congratulated for getting this book published. However, the state of the English language version of this book is a disappointment. It's not easy to read and it's not that pleasant to try and plough through. It is certainly not up to the standards of the N64 volume I have read or the brief look through the other volumes mentioned above.

I am in two minds about the PC Engine Anthology. It is a stunning resource on the console and the history of NEC's attempt at cornering the console market. I cannot fault the coverage of the games or the hardware, and those explanatory sections on graphics and sound are bloody useful. However, it is difficult to recommend the current English translation until it has been proofed again. Typo's, I can accept (you have read this blog before...), but the nature of the translation work makes this a very difficult book to read. It doesn't quite spoil it all together, and if you want a definitive, one-stop tome on the subject, here it is, but understand that you'll need to put a bit of effort into reading it and that you might be better off waiting for a second edition, one where they hopefully re-do the translation. 

You can check out the range of Geek-Line publications here and order directly from them. At a touch over £50, the PC Engine Anthology is a pricey tome but is of immense value to fans of the console and its software library. Just beware the translation.