RISC OS Cloverleaf - thoughts on the funding campaign

Regular readers (including you, Eddie), may recall this post from the beginning of October about the Cloverleaf Project. This began its Kickstarter funding campaign last Tuesday and as of the time of posting, had reached 24% of its funding goal. I was going to revisit the three questions I posed at the end of that post concerning the project but as I read through the Kickstarter campaign blurb, I realised that I had this all wrong. 

The desktop range... (screenshot from Kickstarter)

... alongside the laptop and all-in-one design (screenshot from Kickstarter).

What we have is a drive to get people who don't use RISC OS into the market. The t-shirt is a marketing touch but really, the included copy of Archive magazine (latest issue reviewed here), the RISC OS Introduction book and the included software are all there to support the new user. In many ways, this mirrors the packages created for the Amiga back in the day, taking the manufacturers' bundle and adding extras. The ones I most remember are Silica Systems (pictured below) but their were many more retailers that did the same thing, such as Hobbyte, Gordon Harwood and Diamond.

I miss 90's magazine adverts.

I don't think this is a bad idea at all, to be honest and I applaud the attempt to bring RISC OS to a wider audience. I would like to see the project succeed as any new software development fed back into the core OS can only be a good thing, as is the aim to get the OS running on a different ARM chipset. However, I have some niggles about Cloverleaf that I wish to note...

Their timeline for one.

This is... aspirational? (screenshot from Kickstarter)

As you can see, there is a very small window from the end of funding to getting hardware into the hands of supporters. The Kitten is now a Raspberry Pi 4-based system and the 11-inch laptop is no longer an option (even though it's still on the timeline...). I can understand the former, as it means they can easily get some hardware out to specific backers, but the latter? Unless they can't source them anymore? As for the other systems, RISC OS does not support the RK3399 processor but they hope to have deliverable systems within three months of funding. They do state that hardware may ship without some functionality (it would have to considering their deadline for NVMe support, but actual OS support???). The thought of pledging for the top end Puma desktop and not having access to a key feature for two months sits poorly with me. Also remember, that's development and testing time - as a software QA tester by trade, I think Cloverleaf aren't leaving enough time to get their offerings to a user ready state. Unless they want to use the backers as testers which is not a good idea at all, especially if said users are new to the OS anyway. 

I know, Kickstarter is not a shop. It's a backer funded system that should, hopefully, deliver on the campaign promises. However, the Puma desktop/laptop/all-in-one pledges are not small amounts of money and I question the belief that they should ship hardware that isn't fully operational. Will new users stick with the OS if bits don't work out of the box and the introductory guide is months away? I wonder...

This campaign has been likened to that of the Spectrum Next which successfully reached it's second campaign total and then some. Cloverleaf is not at all similar to that machine. Whereas the Next is a bespoke machine that is trying to do something different, other than emulation of a retro system, Cloverleaf is, in a way, duplicating a lot of what is already out there. The last six Kickstarters I have pledged to have been for projects that have been extremely specific and unique. From histories of the PS Vita, Dreamcast and Amiga, a definitive guide to Sierra On-Line games and a history of British Bullpup Firearms, all have filled a niche where previously nothing existed. Cloverleaf doesn't, and this brings me to the hardware.

I can already buy ready made kit from a number of suppliers, ready to go out of the box and with documentation to help me along. The 4te is £250, RISCOSbits can get you a working machine from £59 and even the higher end systems don't break the £300 barrier unless you buy add-ons or go portable. These prices make Cloverleaf look expensive. Take a RISCOSbits Delta Pi Lite 256 with 4GB of  RAM: £189. Buy an Archive magazine subscription (£40) and the RISC OS 5 user guide (£20.00). Add delivery for seasoning and you get a RISC OS desktop by the end of the month with easy access to the PlingStore and PackMan to add any software you need, and plenty to read, for £249.00 plus postage - cheaper than the Kitten desktop that you might, if everything goes to plan, receive three months from now with the beginners guide three months further out. And if you want a t-shirt, RISC OS Open do them for £12.50.

You could counter that the Cloverleaf pledge also supports software development for the OS and that's what is advertised, though how much of that will benefit the RISC OS universe is open to question. If you wanted to, you can directly support the development of the OS by pledging toward the bounty schemes here so there are other ways of supporting development other than via Cloverleaf. 

I will point out here that there has been a lively thread in the RISC OS Open: Forum about the project and if you have a look through it, you'll see a good amount of dialogue from project lead, Stefan, including a bit of an explanation as to dev resources posted on the 22nd November. This is handy to know and perhaps should have been included somewhere in the Kickstarter. They want you to hand over money, so the more detail about what the project will do (not just aspire to) is a good thing.

A list of included software with Cloverleaf (screenshot from Kickstarter)

This piece is not intended as a hit job, it's really not. As I have stated above, I like the idea of the Kickstarter campaign. I hope it raises the profile of RISC OS and maybe drums up some more support. However, as an existing user, this drive is not aimed at me and, as I have demonstrated above, if you know the market, you can get alternatives to Cloverleaf products more quickly and for less money.

I admit, I was carried away by my earlier enthusiasm for Cloverleaf. Looking at it in the hard light of day from my perspective, it's not something I think will I support but then again, I am torn on the issue. I don't need another desktop system and though I do want a RISC OS laptop, I think north of £500 for something I won't get for at least another seven months is an ask too far. Truth be told, I am also holding out for the article in the next issue of Archive magazine about portable RISC OS computers, as I have yet to see a proper review of the options available and I do like to do some research before handing over a few hundred pounds on anything. 

At the end of the day, it's a personal choice and I doubt my wittering will have much sway on your decision. This a new way of trying to grow the user base and awareness which, although it has its pitfalls, I hope it manages to succeed where it can. If more information comes out via the Kickstarter page or the forums, I may change my mind, but at present, it's not for me.

RISC OS Cloverleaf - thoughts and comments

In my last post, I mentioned the Cloverleaf project (possibly a dream given form but definitely not our last, best hope for peace...) that is gaining a fair amount of attention in the RISC OS world. As a keen RISC OS user and someone who is considering a new hardware purchase, I thought I'd give you a run down of the project and my own thoughts on it.

At heart, Cloverleaf is an attempt to use crowdfunding to not only bring new hardware to the RISC OS market, but also to support development of and improvements to the OS itself. Their website states that they aim to provide an alternative to Microsoft, Apple and Google produced operating systems, and bring support for modern day functionality such as Wifi, USB3 and NVMe drives to the OS. These are noble goals. The crowdfunding isn't live as of yet but they have provided details on the hardware and prices on their website, screenshots of which are below. So let's have a look at what they are asking for.

For 99 euros (approx £90), you can become a RISC OS supporter.

Screenshot from Cloverleaf Website.

This gets you a download of the Cloverleaf Distro for RISC OS hardware and emulators, and supports development of the OS. There is also a t-shirt and a printed copy of Archive magazine. Depending on how much you want a t-shirt, this isn't a bad pledge amount. The copy of Archive is a nice touch (and also included with each computer bought as well) and I hope the t-shirt's are available in a suitable range of sizes - not all of us are as slim as we used to be!

If it's hardware you're after then the cheapest option is the Cloverleaf Kitten 64 for 299 euros (£275 approx). This includes a 100 euro (£91 approx) support pledge for further RISC OS development.

Screenshot from Cloverleaf website.

Taking the support pledge away for a moment, £184 for that spec machine is rather decent, using as it seems to the Pine ROCKPro64 board as its foundation. You get a fast multi-core processor (of which RISC OS will only support one core but hey, it's a development need), 4GB of RAM, which is more than enough for RISC OS, and a reasonable amount of storage to get you going. This does sound like a handy little machine though, from the listing, you don't get a keyboard or mouse. Then again, they're not going to break the bank to add yourself if you don't have any lying around the house. 

The step up from the Kitten is the the Cloverleaf Puma 128, costing 599 euros (£550), again with a 100 euro (£91) support pledge. 

Screenshot from Cloverleaf website.

This ups the storage to a 128GB NVMe drive, so bigger and faster. You also get a keyboard and mouse in with the package. As the main board is the same as the Kitten 64, I am wondering what else there is to justify the 300 euro (£275) price difference. I have seen pictures on the Cloverleaf Facebook Group that shows the case with a DVD drive installed but there's no reference yet as to whether it's included in this higher priced machine or if it's an extra to be added later.

On to the laptops now, and this is an area that, outside of old Acorn A4's, has lacked dedicated hardware until the release of the Armbook and re-purposing of Pi-Tops. As with the desktops, there are two models in the Cloverleaf line-up. 

Your budget option is the Cloverleaf Netbook, yours for 399 euros (£365) including a 50 euro (£45) support pledge. 

Screenshot from Cloverleaf website.

Unlike the desktop options, you have a different processor but still more than enough for the purpose of the OS. You get an 11-inch display, 2GB of RAM, a reasonable amount of SD storage and, well, that's pretty much it. From what I can tell, this is a re-badged Pinebook which is no bad thing. After all, that's also what the Armbook is. I do have a question as to whether the Netbook will have a similar set of RISC OS utilities as supplied with the Armbook to improve the RISC OS laptop user experience. That same question also applies to the high-end machine.

The Cloverleaf Notebook is 599 euros (£550) with a 100 euro (£91) support pledge. 

Screenshot from the Cloverleaf website.

This sees a return to the same Rockchip RK3399 processor as the desktop range. We have 4GB of RAM and 128GB NVMe storage of the Puma desktop along with a 14-inch display. This is a re-badged Pinebook Pro - again, no bad thing. For the sake of appearances though, I do feel they shouldn't have just copied the Puma spec for the Notebook - unless you also get a wireless keyboard and mouse with the laptop...

The last machine in the line up is the Cloverleaf All-in-one PC, yours for 899 euros (£820) with that 100 euro (£91) support pledge. 

Screenshot from the Cloverleaf website

I'm not sure about the need for an all in one design but since they're offering it... You get the same basic spec as the Puma desktop but with a different storage set up and that built-in 24-inch display. This is probably the machine I am the least excited about just because I am not a fan of all-in-one designs. I prefer to have the freedom of hooking up my own monitor, but that shouldn't take away from the intention of producing such a form factor.

So there you have it, the range of computers Cloverfield want to release. By using the already available hardware from Pine64.org, a lot of the risk any crowdfunded hardware project entails should be mitigated, as the availability of the Pinebook-based Armbook attests. That surely counts in the project's favour.

But...

(and you knew there would be a "but", right?)

But... there are a few questions I'd like to see answered by the time pledges go live. 

Question One: What is the reason for the price difference between the Kitten and the Puma (either a line from an episode of The Man from Uncle or one of the worst interview questions ever devised)? That 300 euro difference cannot just be for the NVMe drive, keyboard and mouse. Those three items can be had from Amazon for less than 80 euros (£72) so even doubling that for fitting and margin, that still leaves a hefty 140 euro difference and at heart it is the same specification board.

Question Two: Will there be a similar suite of utilities as provided with the already available Armbook to cover keyboard/mouse mapping, battery, lock screen and the like? That software is something that makes the Armbook a more attractive purchase than the Netbook/Notebook models at the moment and from a laptop users perspective, near essential.

Question Three: How exactly is the support funding going to be used? I can see from the website the project targets but some more detail on where and how the money is to be spent would be nice. After all, they're asking for £45/£90 per pledge to go into a pot that ideally requires some explanation beyond "here's what we'd like to spend it on."

I am incredibly interested in the aims of the Cloverleaf project. I've followed them via their various social media profiles from their early days and have appreciated how engaged they have been with the RISC OS community in general. I know crowdfunding has had its share of successes and failures, but I'd say I am optimistic about this one. The basic hardware is already in production for other purposes so I am intrigued to see how much their funding goals are (given the relatively small size of the RISC OS market at present). If the above questions are answered in due time (and address the points raised), then I'll happily support the initiative, leading to a dilemma: choosing which of the machines to get (apart from the all-in-one, obviously!). 

Alternative Computing, but at what cost?

You may have noticed that I have posted several pieces about using operating systems other than Windows over the last couple of years. Since then, I've had a few queries about how much it would cost to purchase hardware capable of running these alternative OS's. For your enlightenment, but possibly not your entertainment, here is my rough, ready and not entirely comprehensive guide to how much it would cost to buy into an OS that isn't Windows. Disclaimer here: this isn't a buying guide as such, with no recommendations about which OS to chose. That decision is up to you. I'm just giving you prices as of October 2020 and a personal comment on those prices where I think necessary. These comments are my own opinion, right or wrong as they may be. All prices are UK GBP unless stated and any conversion to other currencies is the value given by Google on 08/10/2020. These conversion prices do not include shipping, import duty and any other taxes, so watch out for that 20% VAT differential when comparing $ to £. Also, if I've missed something out, please let me know in the comments.

So, first up, we have the other two "mainstream" operating systems: Mac OS and Chrome OS. Neither should need much introduction so I'll just summarise the key points. 

Mac OS is restricted to Apple hardware, the cheapest of which is the Mac Mini starting at £799. You'll need a keyboard, mouse and display to use that but if you've already got those then you're set. If you don't, then you'll either need to factor in the cost of these or chose the next model up, the iMac, which starts at £1,099. Laptops start with the MacBook Air at £999, progressing to the 13-inch Macbook Pro starting at £1,299 and the 16-inch Macbook Pro, whose lowest price model will set you back £2,399. As you can see, these are not small sums of money and if Mac OS is your thing, consider these two caveats. One, Apple is transitioning their range from Intel processors to Apple Silicon (ARM-based) processors. Whilst there is no issue about legacy support (they've been good in previous transitions), there are rumours that the new machines may be slightly cheaper - but that's just a rumour. Also it will take time for Apple Silicon native software to be released, though their translation layer, Rosetta 2, seems to be good enough to run Intel native software in the mean time. The other caveat is that whilst the starting prices might not seem that high (relatively speaking), getting a spec that you want may take the price of the machine to eye-watering levels. For example, that £1,099 iMac - want a Retina 4K display instead of 1080p? £1,299. Want the 27 inch display instead of 21.5 inch? £1,799! And that's before you upgrade the memory or storage as I feel that no machine costing way north of a grand should have less than 16GB of memory these days. Oh, and if you want a Mac Pro, they start at £5,499. The wheels cost another £400 and let's not forget the monitor stand for £949. What about the monitor? Apple's Pro Display XDR will set you back ££4,599. Of course, you can easily buy second-user kit but that's not overly cheap as Apple gear holds its value very well.

Cost of entry: £799 and it only gets higher. 

Chrome OS from Google is available from a ton of manufacturers, such as Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Dell, HP and Google themselves. The issue here is that the budget machines (which can, at times, be had for well under £200, model depending) tend to suffer from budget issues (screen quality, lack of memory, small displays, poor keyboards etc) whereas the pricier machines (e.g. the Google Pixelbook Go) are, well, quite pricey - £629 for the base model. Want a faster processor and more storage? Step up the £829, £949 and £1,349 models! And therein lies the rub. Chrome OS is not that flexible an operating system. True, it does 80% or so of what you want to do but for similar prices to the Pixelbook Go, a Windows (or Mac OS) machine will give you more functionality. 

Cost of entry: Less than £200 though that can be pushed beyond the £1,000 barrier if you feel the need.

Now we get to the trio of operating systems that are less mainstream from a general consumer point of view (that's my Linux defence in place). As a reminder - this is my opinion on the cost of entry for these operating systems. I'm not taking into account what you may or may not want to use them for. Only you can do that and I already know how I do/would use each of the following operating systems.

Amiga OS

I'll be brutally honest, this is a hobbyist OS at best these days. But just like buses, when you want to talk about Amiga operating systems, there are three alternatives to consider. There is v3.1.4 (and the earlier 3.9 - it's briefly explained here) for Classic Amiga hardware, so anything running a Motorola 68k series processor as well as the Vampire boards, Amiga OS 4.1 and Morph OS. This makes things a tad complicated but from a personal point of view, OS 4.1 would be my preference if shopping for an Amiga OS computer. The problem here is that you need to have money to burn. The singular new build Amiga OS 4.1 desktop available now costs £1,799! Yes, I am aware of the Tabor/A1222 board but that's been on the cards for years now and you still can't buy the damn thing, never mind a complete desktop system. That and even though the board should be available for around four hundred euros (£365), a full system would be much more than that. For Amiga OS v3.1.4, you have older hardware that's now at frankly silly prices (and 25 plus years old) or the Vampire accelerator boards, the standalone version costing 579 euros (£530). With Morph OS, that requires either long-unsupported Amiga hardware or a G3/G4 powered Mac, and Apple finished the switch away from those processors in 2007, so good luck sourcing the hardware (or paying a reasonable price when you do find one for sale). As you can see, hobbyist OS with hobbyist pricing. It's do-able, certainly, but it'll cost you.

Cost of entry: Without existing kit, you'll face a steep second-hand market or costly, limited-run hardware. With existing kit, just the costly, limited-run hardware.

Linux

Linux and yes, before the pedants comment, I know Chrome OS is Linux-based but for the sake of this post, I am treating them separately, and that's before we get into the Google discussion. As you can see from my post here, if you have an older Win 7 machine then Zorin Lite will work really well on it. The other versions will suit more powerful hardware, as will pretty much every other Linux distro out there. The choice is yours and as long as you have the hardware, the actual OS tends to be free or very low in price. If you don't have the hardware but you don't want to buy brand new kit, check out places such as Morgan Computers and Tier1 (there are many others) for refurbished machines that can very easily handle Linux. But what if you want to buy new hardware with Linux pre-installed? Just how much would you need to spend to emulate the straight forward process of buying a Windows/Mac OS/Chrome OS device? The answer is, with a couple of exceptions, quite a bit!

The Zorin desktop.

Star Labs advertise two laptops, an 11 inch model for £399 and a 13.3 inch model for £699. For the spec of each machine, 8GB of memory and 240GB of storage for the lower price machine, 16GB and 240GB respectively for the higher price, is pretty good, and you have a choice of Linux distros too: Zorin, Manjaro, Ubuntu, elementary OS, MX Linux and Mint. The reviews seem pretty decent and if I were to buy a new build laptop with Linux pre-installed, UK-based Star Labs would be my first port of call.

Another decently priced vendor is Slimbook, where their Essential range of laptops start at 499 euros (£455). They offer numerous installs and dual-booting with Windows if you so wish. 

Juno Computers offer Linux laptops from £599 at the time of writing, which is a tad pricier but their range is much larger, as are the subsequent price tags. They only seem to offer Ubuntu as a default install though you can buy without an OS.

Prices get a bit sillier when we get to System 76. Their desktops start from $899 (£700) and the laptops from $1,099 (£850). Admittedly, this is a high-end manufacturer and even offer their own distro, Pop! OS alongside Ubuntu. Like Apple, the higher the spec, the more astronomical the price. 

The key thing to remember with Linux is that you are no further away than a free download in order to try it out. Zorin (as well as Puppy Linux, Peppermint OS, MX Linux among others) offers a boot from USB option to give you a taste, and you can always partition your main machine to offer a dual boot into Linux and Windows. 

Cost of entry: Without existing kit, not bad as starting at £400 brand new, less if buying second user hardware. With existing kit, free. Can't say fairer than that!

RISC OS

Finally, we have my favourite alternative OS, RISC OS. This OS could also be described as hobbyist. In fact, until a few years back, it was in a more unenviable position than Amiga OS, but that all changed with the release of the Raspberry Pi single-board computer. In fact, it's a Rasp Pi 3B+ that powers my RISCOSbits desktop that's been in steady use since August last year. That was just over £200 for the spec but, for now, let's start off at the lower end of the price range.

If you don't have a Rasp Pi to hand then this, gentle reader, is the cheapest way of experiencing RISC OS. This memory stick contains an emulator for RISC OS for Windows and Mac, plus the full source code for Linux users. At £14 all in, it's a neat way of having a go without spending too much money. I know this because the stick in the picture below is mine and I wanted to see how it compared to the Pi-based machine. The answer, well, not bad, though it is emulation and I prefer to use native hardware. Highly recommended though as a taster.

An entirely unexciting picture of a USB stick - the backing is colourful though.

If you want native hardware then your cheapest option is buying a Raspberry Pi 3B+ (NOT the Pi 4 as they're still porting the OS to the newer architecture though that is progressing well). You can either buy one yourself then download an image of RISC OS to an SD card or buy a ready made kit (as I did) from the likes of RISCOSbits, CJE Micros, and R-Comp. You're not just limited to the Pi, either. There's other ARM-powered boards that form the basis of RISC OS machines, but they can to cost a bit more - for example a Ti-Machine will set you back £899 which is at the top end of the market but still half the price of an Amiga X5000. 

If you want a laptop, then you're currently limited to variations of the PiTop or the Armbook, the latter of which I am slowly coming off the fence to purchase.

That's not all. There is still a healthy looking market for RISC OS machines and that is aided by the RISCOS Cloverleaf project. This is an effort to use crowd-funding to not only get new hardware out there but also fund development of the OS itself to bring it up to date. As time goes by, more information is released and they have posted the prices they'll be asking for when the crowd-funding begins for each of the five machines they want to release (two desktops, two laptops and an all-in-one design). These are 299 (£275) and 599 (£550) euros for the desktops (each figure contains 100 euros to support RISC OS development), 399 (£365) and 599 (£550) euros for the laptops (50 and 100 euros respectively for OS development) and 899 euros (£820) for the all in one (100 euros for development). Doing a straight euro to pound conversion reveals these prices to be reasonable, especially when you factor in the donation to the software side, but I'll have a dedicated post about this up in the next couple of days.

Cost of entry: Without dedicated ARM hardware, £14. With hardware, can be free. 

So there you have it, my (incomplete) price guide to some alternative operating systems to Windows. Lots of options to pretty much suit every wallet, if not every OS, but I hope you've found it informative.

January 2020

So here we are. 2020. It feels like an age since I last posted and to be honest, I’ve not had much time to sit down in front of a keyboard outside of work. So, to get me started in the new year, I thought an update on what to expect in the forthcoming twelve months would provide suitable motivation.

Wargaming first and as always, there will be shows to attend. This year, these will be Vapnartak (York) in February, Salute (London) in April, First and Second Partizan’s (Newark) in May and October respectively, Claymore (Edinburgh) in August and possibly Border Reiver (Gateshead) in September. That last one will probably be the most interesting to attend as last year’s show was hobbled by another, larger show on the same weekend. It would be nice to see a better turn out this year, if only to keep a local show going. As for the others, all of them are good shows, with a wide variety of traders as well as demo and participation games. No doubt money will be spent throughout the year at each show and it’s always interesting to see what kit appears on the tables as well as catch up with some familiar faces.

On a gaming level, there will be the usual semi-regular meet ups of the TWATS. I may also get the boat load of Cruel Seas plastics (see what I did there) assembled and painted but let’s not get too excited just yet. Many a promise has been made in the past about actually getting stuff on the table. I also want to get my hand in on some plastic kit construction so I may end up putting some very sorry looking Airfix kit pics on the blog at some point. 

Videogames next and 2020 promises the release of new hardware from both Sony and Microsoft. This should be something to look forward to and, to a degree, I am, but that feeling is tempered by a growing lack of time to actually play videogames. I will probably buy the next-gen X-Box (it’s been a format of choice since the first X-Box and Halo: Combat Evolved), but will probably give the PS5 a miss until I get a proper idea of whether there are any format exclusives that might warrant a purchase. Alas, unlike the PS4, there is no Uncharted game on the horizon. In the meantime, the X-Box One and Nintendo Switch are getting some attention, more the latter than the former as it really is a handy portable system to have. Without even mentioning new games though, I'll probably spend most of this year trying to clear the backlog of titles that has built up over the past few months. 

Computing next, and I plan to dabble more in using Risc OS as an alternative to Windows. The aim this year is to shift more of my regular computing needs to the former platform and see what works and what doesn't. There are, admittedly, issues and limitations that I will discuss as time passes but I like Risc OS. I like the way it works and I love the drag and drop simplicity, as well as that menu button. I’ll expand on this later but it is going to be an intellectual exercise as well as a practical one. Even though Risc OS is a niche operating system, there is still a very active community and a sense of purpose, something akin to that of the still extant Amiga OS format. Plus there are some great games (and serious software titles) that are unique to the RiscOS world that really shouldn't be missed.

Retrovideogamer.co.uk remains a nice little side project for me and one that I will continue to provide retro reviews for as long as they’ll have me. After concentrating on the 3DO for a while, I’ll be shifting to other formats for a bit but will return to that under-appreciated 32-bit machine as well. Have a gander here if retro video games is of interest. If you have any titles that you want me to look at, you can leave a comment here or get in touch via Twitter here. There will be some retro stuff also appearing on this blog as well, content that I don't think will fit into RVG's remit.

Another side project is “Then There Were Two”, an irreverent podcast starring myself and Mr Eddie Carter of Attention Please infamy. With six episodes out now, we’re getting pretty good at the monthly release cadence and 2020 should see another twelve or so episodes hit iTunes (search for eddieap under Comedy) and PodBean. There is also a Facebook page here. I might even get to promoting the damn thing as well…

Then there is this blog. Lacking attention recently, I am thinking that the (frankly daft) plan of three posts per month was too much to keep up with, especially towards the end of the year. I’ll still be posting as and when, about hobbies, interests, games, films, TV shows, books and other ephemera, but without the self-imposed pressure to put stuff out regularly.

As for down time, well, when not doing any of the above, this year should bring some good TV shows (Star Trek Picard, new seasons of The Boys, The Umbrella Academy, Titans, Star Trek Discovery to name a few). Over the past month, my good lady and I have managed to catch up with the excellent second season of Lost in Space (here’s hoping for a third), the brilliant The Witcher (due back in 2021) and, in my humble opinion, the best sci-fi show out there at the moment, The Expanse, season 4. A fifth season is filming now and I am very excited for where the story will go for this one.

And that’s it, a quick summary of the year to come. If you have any comments or suggestions, I welcome them and if you’re on Twitter, you can follow and contact me here.

And by the way, by my counting, this was my 100th post. Huzzah!!!

Hey! Listen! - A Book Review

As you may know, the history of computing and video games is one of my things. I have a decent, if not complete, collection of books on the topic and whenever a new title is announced, it gets my attention pretty quickly. And so it was when "Hey! Listen!" was released earlier this week. I picked up a copy at Waterstones in short order and read it within a couple of days.

A bit of background here: Steve McNeil is definitely a video game fan. The blurb on the back tells you this but having seen him in the TV show "Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit" which lasted 27 episodes over three series on Dave (a show he created off-screen before the on-screen shenanigans) he does know his stuff. His natural enthusiasm for games, both playing them, and their history, translates very well into this book.

Now the author admits that there are more detailed and in-depth books out there on the subject, and he provides an excellent bibliography at the back of "Hey! Listen!" to prove that, but that cannot be taken as a negative point about this book. McNeil sets out his aim in the introduction: this will cover the industry from the date of his earliest experiences with it to the release of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (where the title of the book also comes from). And what a journey it is.

This is a history of computing and video gaming, from the background given about Space War and the founding of Atari, to the bitter court fights between Sega and Nintendo in the early '90's but told through the eyes of a slightly hyperactive man child - and that's not a criticism. In fact, it makes for a very well written and easy to read book. McNeil's voice is clarity itself through the writing and he peppers almost every page with footnotes as well. I must admit that when I started having to look at these, I found it a bit tiresome - I am a believer that footnotes should be used sparingly as they can take you out of the narrative very quickly, but with "Hey! Listen!", they do exactly the opposite. McNeil uses these for comic anecdotes, remarks and just plain fooling about, whilst also keeping on topic. By the half way point of the book, I was looking forward to these to see what gems he had added. And this is the thing that makes "Hey! Listen!" such a good book: it gives you a very readable account of the industry's history whilst making you laugh (at times out loud). I have even recommended it to my wife, not because she is a video game history nerd like me, but that she'd find the book itself a funny read. That she'll learn about the video game crash of '83 is just an added bonus!

If there are any negatives, it must be that it ends where it does. There are twenty years of gaming to write about after the scope of the book ends but, and I say this with a hint of sadness, there might not be the variety that made video gaming up to 1998 so interesting in those years. True, we had Microsoft enter the hardware field after Sega left it, but to me, at least, the industry matured and became more money focused, and that took a bit of the excitement and personality away. McNeil points this out too when mentioning the likes of Activision and Electronic Arts - two companies founded because of the way corporate behaviour was treating developers in the early days. They have become what they strove to avoid. I can only hope though, that the author gets round to another book on the topic, because I'll grab a copy of that one too!

Anyhoo, back to "Hey! Listen!". My recommendation: buy it! You'll have a laugh anyway and you'll maybe learn some things you didn't already know.

Interest or Hobby?

Part of the joys of work is that you interact with people of different ages and this can lead to some interesting conversations. I got talking to a gentleman who is a few years younger than myself who has an interest in videogames. Aha, I thought, this could be enlightening. It was, but not necessarily in a good way. You see, whilst he has fifteen years of console and PC gaming to his name, he has very little awareness of the history of his chosen hobby and, more importantly, no interest at all in expanding his knowledge. His is a transitory hobby, whatever new thing is in front of him is either great or shit. There are no levels in between these two extremes, just a binary yay or nay. So me being me, I raised this question: "Is this a hobby or an interest that you have?"

Now we each have our own approach to our hobbies. Indeed, how we approach a hobby defines that hobby's appeal to us (so the history and design of console hardware is of particular interest to me as an off-shoot to actually gaming itself). In the case of this younger gentleman, his was almost proud announcement that he knew nothing of gaming before he started playing back in the early 2000's and had no interest in what had happened before then, even to the point of not playing games that were released on his first console before he started gaming. I wasn't particularly surprised but it was quite saddening to hear.

The gentleman's first console was the Sony Playstation 2. A fine piece of hardware that hosted some of the best games of its generation, but my colleague expressed a narrow minded view that other console hardware released around that time (the sublime Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo's under-appreciated GameCube and the ground breaking original Microsoft X-Box) didn't matter because the PS2 won the sales war and as the other three lost, they didn't matter. As he wanted the best (in popularity at least), all other alternatives were discarded. Once the PS2 was replaced by the PS3, the older hardware was discarded and the games collection sold on. They were now old and of no further use. The latest was now, in his mind, the greatest.

A classic of its time.

Horses for courses I suppose, but then I have always been a collector (or hoarder as my better half would have it). Since the last house move, I have sold on most of my collection due to space issues but I did keep a few titles that have never been replicated since their original release. For example, Sky Odyssey for the PS2. The aim of the game is to pilot your aircraft successfully from A to B, encountering various obstacles and challenges along the way. There is no shooting, no whizz bang explosions, just pure flying. This title was in some way a slightly more realistic spiritual successor to the "Pilotwings" series that had releases on the Nintendo SNES (1990), the Nintendo 64 (1996) consoles. That such titles are few and far between demonstrates their sheer niche appeal and since then, only the lightweight Pilotwings Resort, released for the Nintendo 3DS (2011) has offered anything similar in the flying genre. I know Pilotwings Resort is lightweight by the fact that I have played both of its predecessors. Sky Odyssey, by the way, is still a great experience today and well worth a try if you can pick up a copy and have the hardware to play it on.

But what really made me think was how shallow my young colleagues approach to his hobby was. I struggled to bring together the two ideas of loving a hobby but having no knowledge or interest in anything outside of your own sphere of experience. In fact, he wouldn't countenance any move to expand that knowledge - it's old and therefore it's shit. That attitude, it must be said, is not just limited to videogames. Wargaming also has a similar issue.

Now, to be fair, I am not going to be tarring everybody with this brush, but lack of knowledge seems to be a badge of pride, and not just for the younger generation. Without a depth of knowledge in your hobby, how do you put what is current market offering into perspective? How can you judge any perceived improvements when you have no background on the subject you are purported to enjoy? That was evident when, at a show a couple of years back, one guy wanted fighting camels for his forces. When told they weren't used for that during the period he was fighting, he replied "It doesn't matter, you can still put them on the table." Historical wargaming indeed!

Back to my colleague. As gaming to him doesn't exist prior to 2002, he has never, and proudly claims will never, play classics like Command and Conquer, any LucasArts point and click adventure, Super Mario 64, Goldeneye, Resident Evil, Half Life and countless other titles because they don't matter. Yet without those titles, we wouldn't have the games we have today. True, time has not been kind to most of these, but some have aged well and to miss out on those today, if you are a gamer, is a crying shame.

From a wargaming perspective, I'll use Team Yankee. I like them for what they are (and the chance to tinker with them at will adds some of the depth that a hobby needs), but subjectively, how different is the core mechanism from Operation Warboard? Or Featherstone's rules? Not much, but because TY has shiny hard-backed rule sets with lots of pictures, they are perceived by quite a few gamers as better - and that is a conversation I had at the Durham show this year where I ran a demo game. It also revealed that most of the people who asked questions about my amendments (which were based on my reading of texts both modern and contemporaneous) had taken what was offered in the rule sets as sufficient knowledge of the period - further reading was something that seemed like an anathema to them. Woe betide anyone (i.e. me) to use actual knowledge to dis-abuse them of their ignorance. Hey ho.

Take your pick...

Personally, I don't follow the "newer is better" mindset - after all, I am typing this on an 18-year old Alphasmart 3000. Yes, there are new niche text entry products (looking at you, Astrohaus) but I'm not willing to spend a few hundred quid on something when a more convenient (and cheaper) option exists. The same can be said for wargames rules - our recent attempts at playing Charge (I picked up a re-print at Salute this year for my own perusal after the first kicking I received) and other older rule sets have been interesting. They don't have lots of pictures or specialised kit, but they do the job and (this is important) they follow the historical period they model. Certainly compared to some more modern rules (Black Powder, Pikeman's Lament and others), the older set's adherence to history is refreshing, possibly demonstrating how far the modern wargaming market has lost its way from historical knowledge and focuses on rolling lots and lots of dice.

It does make me wonder if we are moving to a point where the history and context of any particular hobby no longer matters to the individuals partaking in that hobby. Whilst people may demonstrate a breadth of knowledge, there is so little depth that the individual misses out on the richness that makes a hobby enjoyable. Without that depth, could the hobby be classed as such at all? Is it not just then a passing interest? Also, without context, how do you judge whether the latest rule set/game/whatever is an improvement on what came before or just a money making enterprise by the creator and will it enrich your enjoyment of your hobby? As far as hobbies go, surely this is a bad thing?