The PlayStation Anthology by Geeks-Line - Book Review

This is the last of the anthologies from Geeks-Line that were part of the Kickstart-backed PC Engine Anthology purchase last year and one that departs from the format set by the previous releases. The English publication of the PlayStation Anthology lacks the games directory. Does this make it a lesser book? Certainly not, but what do you get instead?

First up, you get a well made and high quality publication. I know it's becoming a bit repetitive but there are no issues with the print, art style or layout of any of the Geeks-Line books I've read, and the PlayStation volume continues that trend. 

The first hundred or so pages tells the tale of Sony and the PlayStation. I do like how the authors include the background to the company with each of their titles, and the story of the early days of Sony was unknown to me until now. Relayed chronologically, this gives a reasonably well balanced telling of how Sony approached the videogames market and changed it for ever. And no, that's not hyperbole. There are plenty of photographs, charts and side boxes with additional info as well.

The next 150-ish pages are the interviews, and this is where the PlayStation Anthology scores over other entries in the series. From Yuji Horii to Lorna Planning via Martin Edmonson, Ian Livingston, Charles Cecil, Yoshinori Kinase and Tommy Tellarico, there are 26 interviews in total and these are packed with tidbits, asides and fun little facts. Their length varies from three pages to nine, the average being four. Once again, there are photographs, screenshots and artwork galore, and I believe almost everyone who reads these will find out something new for their trouble.

Sixty pages deal with the many collectable and special edition titles from all three main markets, before we move onto the Hardware section. You get an overview of the console, how it changed over the years it was in production, the controller, packaging styles, bundles, accessories and the like. The section on the use of PlayStation hardware in arcades was another, to me, little known area and a cracking read. The tail end of the book covers unreleased titles, some in a bit of detail. The list of Kickstarter backers and some Oddworld art finish off the package. 

Despite the lack of coverage on actual games, there is much to read here and this certainly is a great celebration of the glory days of 32-bit home console gaming. If I had to pick a fault, well, there are a few idiosyncrasies with the text in the front half of the book - oddly hyphenated words and the odd typo, but I am stretching here.  

This is yet another great release from Geeks-Line and it will joint the existing three volumes on a shelf for future reference. Sadly, at present, it seems to be out of print on the Geeks-Line website but, if you can get your hands on a copy, I recommend you do so. Check out the Geeks-Line website here for more information and, you never know, they might complete another print run at some point. 

Oh, and if you're a Gameboy fan, Geeks-Line currently have a Kickstarter on the go for a GameBoy Anthology. Check it out here if you are interested. 

Computer Shopper Issue 4 - A blast from the past.

Ah, Computer Shopper, you are still a miss now. It's been two years since you departed the shelves of newsagents after 32 years of service to your readership. Like most UK computer magazines, the pinnacle of your existence was the 1990's, as the consumer PC market took off and manufacturers seemed to be sprouting up almost daily. But it wasn't always like that, so when I picked up a copy of issue 4 from 1988, I had to remember that this was before the period where the magazine became known as that telephone directory-sized behemoth that strained even the strongest of Postie's backs. Let us travel back to the summer of 1988, where the most recent issue of the latest computer mag to hit the UK market would set you back 78p...

Who, in June 1988, could fail to be enticed by such a publication?

Whoa, whoa whoa! 78 pence? Yep, that was pocket money even for me back then, and I vaguely remember having this issue when it first came out. As you can see, it's very much of its time, stapled with all but the most basic of colour restricted to the covers and the first/last couple of pages. Everything else feels like newspaper or a comic of the time. Remember people, we're not in full colour, perfect binding territory just yet... but those days will come...

There's not much colour, but look! PREMIER DISKETTES!!!

At 128 pages excluding the covers and colour sections, it's a decent enough size and feels quite familiar to what Micro Mart (remember that?) remained as until its demise in 2016. As always with magazines, it is what's on the cover that grabs your attention and, if the promise of a preview of the "fastest 286 PC on Earth" doesn't get you going, nothing will... (sarcasm alert, just in case you didn't get the tone...)

I'd buy a PC from him, just so he wouldn't kill me Patrick Bateman-style... 

Having said that, a picture of peak 1980's Michael Dell is a close second, if just for those glasses, but news of Star's latest colour printer, the LC10 (who, as a computer user at the time, did not want one of their colour dot matrix printers???) as well as Dixons' Amstrad basher (for only £399 - we'll get to that in a bit) made this issue an almost mandatory purchase! Apologies, it's easy to take the pittle out of a 34 year old magazine cover, so let's have a look inside, shall we?

And what a contents page it is too!

As you can see from the contents page, there is a lot in here and it's pretty varied. Following on from the news section we have reports on the Atari Show (teasing their PC compatibles that, let's be honest, merely distracted them from the core ST business, and even then, they continued to shoot themselves in the foot for years afterwards), a report from the Einstein Show (now that is a relatively obscure 80's format), before the mag dishes the dirt on the Olivetti PC1 that Dixons thought would be a good competitor to the low-end Amstrads of the time. Not sure about that, what with a lack of built in expandability and frankly silly add-on costs (plus that £399 just gave you single 3.5" drive mono set up and that's before 15% VAT is added for the consumer), but hey, this was a time of interesting machines, rather than generic beige (then black, now LED festooned) boxes.

An introduction to Michael Dell and his company (whatever happened to them?) comes next, with what can only be described as his "serious" expression although I like to call it "constipated." Others might think psychotic, in which case I must axe(!) them to put on "Hip to be Square" by Huey Lewis and the News and chill... To be honest, the idea of fast 286's was a dream back in '88, although the prices were more of a nightmare. The 20MHz 286 of the mono Dell 220 would set you back £2,099 ex VAT, whilst the 310 could give you a 20MHz 386 with colour for £5,099 ex VAT!!! Farking 'ell! This was (and is) serious moolah, and it should be noted that your average DOS user would not benefit much from such power. Those aiming for the new OS/2 would be much better suited to these machines. Of course, what was also new was his sales process - direct to the customer. Another new fangled thing that would never... oh!

There's a handy guide to budget music production, and when I say budget, I mean the software - a decent MIDI keyboard would still set you back £300! There is a piece on "Practical Spreadsheeting" (seriously, there is...), whilst a fan of Locoscript gets to wax lyrical about, well, Locoscript. There are several pages dedicated to Zortech's C++ compiler (for the love of all that is Holy, why???) combined with pages of listings and an explanation of what Object Orientation is.

It's a light read, really...

We then have a question little asked since, ohhh, 1988. Why is there a barrier between business and games software? It's very much a pro-gaming piece and rather quaint, knowing what we know now. What I didn't expect was an online section, with extracts of Bulletin Board conversations. Moving on, there is MacBiter. Ah, MacBiter, possibly the funniest column ever to grace Computer Shopper throughout it's life (until the author passed away, that is). Here, MB tackles the question as to why people like Macs, given issues with over-heating, pricing and the new threat of viruses. Looking at the 2022 M2 MacBook Air line up, two out of three ain't bad - the more things change, the more they stay the same...

The Amiga gets some love with a column that also lasted a good few years until well after Commodore bit the dust, then a single page detailing the membership of the British Association of Computer Clubs in the north, from Lancashire to the Borders. This is followed by a comprehensive list of bulletin boards in the UK - I have no idea how much this must have cost users, I just remember phone calls being expensive and having to ask permission even to make a ten second call to arrange meeting friends. 

There's pages of these listings.

The Star LC10 gets its glory pages (£259 ex VAT thank you kindly) along with the Sidekick Plus review. Public Domain and Leisure Suit Larry get a look in, as does a decent letters section and some classifieds, before it all ends with, as you'd expect if you've ever read any issue of Computer Shopper, Zygote and Croucher & Evans' Great Moments in Computing.

One of the many adverts - I hope you like Amstrads...

I'll be covering a lot of the advertising and pricing in a later post, after I have shown you the jewels of Personal Computer World circa 1990, but I do want to say that there is a fair amount of advertising in here. The resellers pretty much only offer Amstrad PC1512/1640's as a starter, and if you want portables, Amstrad has only slight competition, with much more expensive brands like Epson, Sharp and Toshiba occupying the £1k plus price bracket. And as for software... look at those prices! Lotus 1-2-3 could be had from a reseller for about £235, so the big name packages are bloody expensive. It was also interesting to see an advertiser here that is (in name only) still around today: Morgan Computers. Selling remainder and ex-stock, that company was a go to in the 1990's as their prices were always decent and their variety of stock was second to none. 

Now this ad really does take me back!

Anyway, there we have issue four of Computer Shopper. I have had great fun (yes, I know, I am sad) reading this and I shall be trying to pick up further issues of the magazine as I find them and when they are not stupidly priced. This particular issue is a lovely little time capsule to a time long gone, pre-Windows, pre-Internet, pre-VAT inclusive prices (it helped develop my maths skills, until the buggers raised it to 17.5% in 1991). And yes, there is just a hint of rose in those spectacles. 

Coming up in a couple of weeks, a look at another of the titans of the British computing magazine world: Personal Computer World, this time from 1990.

Was That Film Really That Bad??? - Death Train (1993)

Did you know there was a Yorkshire International Film company? No? Me neither. But there was, and before you go searching for those elusive cinematic outings of Last of the Summer Wine or Emmerdale Farm (they doesn't exist!), there was a film that YIF was involved in that, whilst not filmed in Yorkshire, seemed to have a budget similar to the average episode of those TV shows. From such humble origins, a question must be asked of Death Train. Was that film really that bad???

Alistair MacLean's Death Train, to give this film its full title - although it was also called Detonator in the US - is a 1993 action thriller starring a pre-Bond Pierce Brosnan, flexing his acting and action muscles post-Remington Steele. He plays Mike Graham, a retired "business associate" of Malcolm Philpot (Sir Patrick Stewart, taking a break from the Enterprise D), head of UNACO.

T' Yarkshire!

UNACO (United Nations Anti-Crime Organisation) may seem familiar to some. It was the organisation used in a series of books headlining Alistair MacLean but written by others using his notes. The first, Hostage Tower, was turned into a TV movie for CBS way back in 1980 starring Keir Dullea, Peter Fonda, Douglas Fairbanks Jnr, Maud Adams, Britt Ekland and Billy Dee Williams. It's not a bad made-for-television movie and certainly looks the part considering it was shot entirely on location in Paris. Alongside Hostage Tower and Death Train, the only other UNACO novel to hit the screen was Night Watch (also known as Detonator II: Night Watch) in 1995, Brosnan's final film before Goldeneye. The rest, as they say, is history.

Evil Thomas is going to screw up Sodor.

Back to Death Train, and the plot is pretty simple. Disgruntled Russian General Konstantin Benin (Sir Christopher Lee) has enlisted the help of a German physicist to create a nuclear bomb that, in a completely off the wall way, will allow the Soviet Union to regain its rightful place as a world superpower... Yeah, I know, but it's a TV movie, what do you expect? To do this, he's put said bomb on a train along with a ton of mercenaries led by right wing conspiracy nut Alex Tierney (Ted Levine - he of doggies, baskets, aggressive skin care routines, and constant asking if you'd make the beasts with two backs with him...). To stop said crackerjacks, Philpott enlists Graham, Sabrina Carver (Alexandra Paul) and C.W. Whitlock (Clarke Peters), plus a fairly anonymous cast of European associates to add a bit of flavour. These generic characters are also used to introduce a level of treachery because, you know, dodgy stereotypes must be observed.

Someone is going to need some talcum powder... and Lynx Africa!

If you've ever seen this movie, you'll already know what I am going to start off with, and yes, it's the budget. This film was shot on a shoestring in Slovenia and Croatia during 1992 and it shows. They do the best they can, but once you've seen Carver shoot a "grenade launcher" or, even better, that helicopter rocket attack, you'll know you have a slice of pure cinematic Wensleydale. 

Rockets galore! Yet not a single one on target.

That is not to say that there isn't some enjoyment to be had from watching this and it is certainly more than just a curio for those wanting to see pre-Bond Brosnan - even if he still looks far too young in this role and his "accent" wanders more haphazardly than any of those rockets! 

For all you Amiga fans out there: Scala!

Arguably the biggest mis-steps are the direction and the script. The character interactions, at least as far as the UNACO team go, fall flat most of the time. Where there should be camaraderie, there is awkwardness. Where there should be banter, it sounds more like they're talking to their creepy uncle. Brosnan isn't helped by coming across as a sexist moron, whilst Alexandra Paul lacks the oomph to make the retorts hit back in any meaningful way. Aficionados of action movies of the 70's to 90's will recognise the tropes from the start but by this point, said tropes were wearing more than a little thin. As for the scheme to transport a bomb across most of Europe into the Middle East, well, it's different. 

Never look the Headmaster in the eyes! Especially when he's cos-playing!

Minor characters suffer too - the traitor sub-plot is obvious a mile away, C.W. is practically a functioning alcoholic given the amount he drinks from that hip flask, and Sir Pat Stew does his best with almost nothing at all. Those of you who remember the Demon Headmaster TV show of the early 90's will rejoice to see Terrence Hardiman playing a German Police commander, whilst kudos should always be given to Sir Christopher Lee, whose ability to "get by" in Russian is demonstrated well here, although the region 2 DVD lacks subtitles so I have no idea what he was actually saying. Levine gives good value as the on-train bad guy, even if his trigger technique is... concerning.

Picard found the new holo-novel quite disappointing.

It doesn't help that whoever trained the actors in firearms handling really wanted to use the Dummies Guide to Action Films, rather than, you know, have them even pretend to use the sights on the kit. The hospital fight scene is diabolically bad, and the lack of budget makes Lee's scenes look as if they were filmed guerrilla style in Zagreb.

More wacky rocket action!

Comment must also be made about the music. It's fits like a glove at times, but at others, it jars terribly, like lift muzak in a gunfight. Pacing is something else, and the relatively exciting helicopter attack and tunnel gun fight give way to a denouement that a) feels like it was written on the back of an envelope, and b) a whip round of the cast and crew's loose change was used to complete filming. 

Mike Graham will return...

Yet, for all of that, Death Train is a decent Friday night movie, either as a post-pub time filler or something to occupy you whilst you polish off that second bottle of wine, 'cos you'll need the mild anaesthetic of booze to see you through this. It has numerous flaws and plot holes - landing the chopper right in front of the news crew, that tease about a second bomb - but the principals do put the effort in (excepting Brosnan's dialect coach... if he had one). You could do far worse and I hope one day to pick up Night Watch as well but that thing is rarer than rocking horse poop. If I do, you can bet there will be a post about that one too, even if only for Brosnan's facial hair...

The SNES Anthology by Geeks-Line - Book Review

Ah, the SNES (or Super Famicom depending upon where you live), a classic gaming machine that not only cemented the Big N's place in gaming history after the 8-bit NES (or Famicom), but which also saw some of the most celebrated titles ever to grace a home console. It saw a huge number of titles in general which makes this Gold Edition of the SNES Anthology a very chonky read. And when I say chonky, I mean chonky!

Coming in at over five hundred pages(!), it's larger than almost every other one of Geeks Lines' publications aside from the NES Anthology. There is the now expected level of quality with the book, in full colour with excellent stock used to give the many screenshots, artwork and photographs the treatment they deserve. 

The Nintendo and SNES stories take up the first fifty or so pages, before we get to the hardware section and, much like the PC Engine volume, the technical detail of the SNES' hardware capabilities is impressively portrayed here. From comparisons with its competition to full on explanations as to how the graphics and sound ships work, there is much here that, whilst it may not impress the average gamer, does more than enough for fans of console hardware. Throughout, the explanations are clear and very straight forward, and the quality of the translation is very high. 

Accessories get thirty five-ish pages, including the intriguing Satellaview system that never made it outside of Japan. Reading about such amazing things in magazines like Computer and Videogames made me green with envy back in the day, so reading about it now after thirty years was both enlightening and informative. 

It's the games, though, that are the centre of attention for this Gold Edition, and this was where the alphabetically listed range takes up three hundred and fifty pages. As with other volumes, each titles gets a list of release details, box art and at least one screenshot. After some brief comments, each is scored out of five stars and whilst many get just 1/8 of a page, some of the bigger and well-known titles get the luxury of a full page! Flicking through the directory, it is a handy reminder (also noted in Chris Scullion's excellent SNES Encyclopedia), of just how many Super Nintendo games started with the word Super. There are a lot.

This is another superb anthology from Geeks-Line and is not only a cracking reference for collectors but also a perfect one stop read for anyone with an interest in the SNES, either regarding the games or the hardware. It also makes an excellent companion to Chris Scullion's SNES Encyclopedia (reviewed here). You can order the SNES Anthology directly from Geeks Line here, and Mr Scullion's book here.

The GameCube Anthology from Geeks-Line - Book Review

Another one of the batch from Geeks-Line Books received at the beginning of the year, the GameCube Anthology was originally published in 2018 and, as you can tell from the title, focuses on all things GameCube. Dismissed by many at the time as a children's machine, Nintendo's follow up to the N64 struggled against the might of Sony and from Microsoft's first gaming behemoth (and that was a beast of a console!), but the GameCube managed to carve out a relatively small niche for Nintendo as its first disc-based console and, more importantly, paved the way for the Wii. But what about this Anthology?

Holding this volume in your hand, you can tell straight away that this is up to Geeks-Line's usual standards. Hefty, with quality stock that makes screenshots and artwork jump off the the pages, this is a stylish and well-designed book. 

Contents-wise, the first fifty pages tell the story of the console's creation and time on the market. I know I was quite scathing about the translation work on the PC Engine volume but here it's pretty much spot on. Detouring slightly I need to reiterate that the information and the effort put into the PC Engine volume was immense and it is still an essential purchase for fans of NEC's 8-bit machine. 

The hardware section details the different models of the GameCube, the retail packages that made it to the shops, the Triforce arcade board, the optical discs, game cases, controllers and other accessories. From page 84 though, this is where we get to the core of the book: the games.

Nearly 240-pages are set aside to cover each title released for the GameCube. These are arranged alphabetically and vary from a sixth of a page up to two pages for the big titles. Each entry gets at least one gameplay screenshot, box art and release details, alongside a rating out of five stars and a write up. I can't fault the presentation or the content, except for one title. Die Hard: Vendetta gets two stars? No, just no. One star and that's being generous. You are welcome to disagree, but you'd still be wrong :-)

Once the games directory is out of the way, ten pages are given over the cancelled titles that never saw the light of day, before ending with collector's editions, bundles and a tick-box guide to the games featured in the main section in case you feel like marking off each game as you add it to your collection. 

This is another classy release from Geeks-Line and an essential buy if you're a fan of the GameCube. As with the other titles from the publisher, a ton of work has gone into this volume and all concerned should be congratulated on bringing the story of the machine to modern day readers, as well as providing a great resource for collectors and fans alike. The publisher's site is here, where you can check out the full range of their Anthologies. At the time of this post, the GameCube Anthology is not in stock but sign up for notifications if you can. You might be able to find it at other online retailers though.