It ain't what you do (It's the way that you do it)

Or so the song goes, and there is very much a point of thinking that the same principal can be applied to wargaming as a hobby. No matter what period you prefer, historical wargaming must, almost by definition, use (to varying degrees), historically accurate rulesets. I mean, if you didn't, then it's just a dice rolling contest and if I wanted that, I'd play a board game.

After my recent review of Operation Warboard, it was decided that the next Saturday game would use these rules for a World War 2 scenario. Despite some last minute hiccups (we moved from Normandy to Africa due to model availability - this meant some tinkering during the actually game as the rules are pretty much built for post D-Day games), four of us duly arrived the the pub (would that make us a quartwat???) to give Mr Lyall's rules a go. In preparation, no expense was spared on the production of the MG, Shell Burst and Artillery templates:

The joys of acetate sheets... but practical and cheap.

Shaun was first out of the gate, volunteering to be the Italian commander, Andy took the British and Steve controlled the German forces. The scenario was designed to mirror (in spirit only), the initial ambush scenario in the book. As I was umpiring, the forces were selected by myself, so the British got three infantry squads with transport, four Matilda's, two Honeys and a couple of Universal Carriers and Dingo's. The Germans got two infantry squads with transport, three Panzer II's, a short '75 equipped Panzer IV and two Pak-36's with transport. The Italians comprised of two infantry squads, three light tanks (which for the life of me I can't recall what they were) and a very light tankette.

Scenario-wise, the British could see a hill that would give them commanding views of the area, they had to capture it and the Axis forces had to stop them. As the Germans and Italians were already there, their positions were marked on a map but not placed upon the table - it was time to see how Andy would approach this. They would only be revealed by firing or very close observation.

The British came on to the table obliquely and make straight for two clumps of trees at the base of the escarpment - two Dingo's with Honey's and a UC in support. Andy figured that there would be a gun line hiding somewhere near there - after all, they were his toys on the table and whilst he knew what he had brought, he did not know what I had allowed the Germans and Italians to have - not for once that day did the famous quote by Mr B. Bunny Esq ring out: "Ain't I a stinker!"

The top Dingo is very, very warm in this game of "Finding Jerry!"

Steve waited until the British were practically on top of him before firing. To no effect. The return fire incapacitated one Pak-36, but the next round of firing killed the attached Bren Carrier. The other Pak-36 tried its best but still had no effect on the other Honey. The British closed and managed to MG the gun crews with only one of the Dingo's being incapacitated. So far, things were looking up for the British.

At this point, I added a dice role for spotting as even though the German infantry were dug in on the slope of the escarpment, the British were that close, they could have spotted them, and so they did.

At this point, Shaun decided that he should do something, so the Italian armour started a long and majestic sweeping herd-like charge across the length of the table. It was magnificent. Sadly, with only 20cm to cover each turn, it took a while. Still, it was magnifico! Which was good, as his infantry were dug in where the armour started so wouldn't be joining in the fight anytime soon.

Il Magnifico Quartetto.

Not only that, but Andy had brought on the Matilda troop and had angled it to meet the on-coming Italians. At that point, that flank was in limbo as whilst the armour was present, there wasn't a decent gun between the lot of them and it would take close quarter battle to sort out the victor there. At the same time, Andy brought on on infantry in trucks, screened by the armour, heading for the trees which had just been cleared of the Pak-36's.

Steve was not overly happy with this and released his armour reserve that had been hiding behind the hill. With the Panzer II's leading the way, trouble was brewing for the British.

It's all go here, the British have gone defensive at the top of the picture, whilst the Germans are ready to punch through the flank.

Needless to say, it didn't take long for the Germans to get into position, by which time, the British had taken up defensive positions in the trees.

That Dingo looks very, very worried... but there is a Honey on the left - that speck of blue paint.

Top Pz II is incapacitated, right hand one is dead, the Pz IV is out for a Saturday drive and the last Pz II is not long for this world.

It wasn't long before the firing happened, and what a cock-up that was. Steve rolled consistently bad dice for the Panzer IV - as the range closed and the effect of fire increased, he rolled 1's. The same could be said for the British, who eventually rolled well enough over three turns to incapacitate and then kill two of the Panzer II's. The last one was finally incapacitated and ruled out of the game as there was nothing they could do. The addition of vehicle crew morale was needed as despite Lyall stating common sense would dictate a withdrawal, he hadn't considered the "Death of Glory" mentality that Saturday wargamers in a pub sometimes have. Also, the 20, cannon on the Panzer II's wasn't in the rules so that was added as an ad-hoc gun, beefed up a little by the rate of fire it had. Still, you had to get in close and to the flanks to use it but it was no good here.

Given the losses to the German armour, I forced a morale check on the Pz IV - which he passed with style and off he trundled past the now de-bussed British infantry, shrugging off two volleys of rear-shots from the Honeys (two 1's from Andy at exactly the wrong time!). Truly, this was a blessed tank. Of course, Steve had a plan - approach the Matilda troop from behind! Sneaky Bugger!!!

The Panzer IV makes a break for freedom and aims to be tiresome to British Matilda's.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch flank, the Italians closed the gap, whilst the British remained steadfastly stoic. Long range fire was pointless for both sides so wait we did.

Add your best elevator muzak and that's what this felt like.

But now the waiting was over, and this is where is got a bit sticky for the British as whilst Andy incapacitated one of the Italians, the rest of his shots were 1's! By this point, the Pz IV had finished its handbrake turn and was fast approaching the rear of the British armour who themselves had to deal with the remaining Italians passing through their ranks! The British even reversed half a move - the Italians (and Shaun) went wild. A rendition of Nessun Dorma was heard from the Italian infantry - although quietly as they didn't want the British to know where they were.

At this point, the British were whistling their own tune - the Benny Hill Theme. You see, whilst the Italians were racing through the British and the Pz IV was in position, the British had a Honey following the Pz IV! It would have been farcical except for the firing. Oh, wait, that was too. At least partially. The Pz IV killed a Matilda, who in turn killed another Italian tank.

All we need now is a milk cart...

Sadly for the Axis, it wasn't a long lived success. The Italians were finished off and whilst the Pz IV killed three of the four Matilda's, (incidentally, forcing a morale test on the remaining Matilda, which it passed), it in turn was incapacitated by a rear shot from the pursuing Honey and finished off the next turn.

Whilst all that excitement was happening, the British infantry had continued its wandering, two squads in the trees and the third storming the first line of German infantry.

If you go down to the woods today...

The British go in, the Germans have already taken two casualties.

With Dingo, UC and Honey support, the British soon took the first trench line, albeit with some casualties - rifle fire and MG fire killed seven Germans, their return killed five British. Still, they took the first line and paused, to wait for the other two, untouched, squads to arrive before pushing on. It was all over for the Axis.

I had some idea as to how the game would work but what I did not expect was how easily it flowed. Really, there were no long gaps for rule book searching to find something out, no real issues with game mechanics and ad-hoc elements were slotted in very easily as expected, nay, demanded by the rules themselves. Since they felt right for the period, the way that we did it mattered more than what we did, and that was surely the point.

We'll definitely be using these again, though maybe with less stuff on the table, and probably fewer tanks as these rules are very infantry-centric. What was also noted is that despite the forty plus year gap, the machanics are very similar to Team Yankee - proof that there is nothing new under the sun, no matter how may pretty pictures you fill a book with. We all enjoyed the afternoon and, as always, the Consett Ale Works Pale Ale was superb, as were the beef butties! Thank you very much, Jean!

There won't be another gathering of TWATS until the demo game at the Durham Wargames Group show in June which will be me again, this time with Team Yankee (plus my additions) using Steve's wonderful 20mm Moderns. No doubt there shall be a report here.

Handspring Visor - oh, so close!

As I have said before, I used a Palm m515 for quite a while back in the early noughties to keep track of personal and professional commitments and very quickly got used to dropping it into my pocket and having it on hand on a daily basis. But it was not the only palmtop device at the time and, indeed, not the only Palm-based device either. Starting back in 1998, there were licensed hardware manufacturers for the Palm OS and some of the best devices came from Handspring.

Handspring was a company created by the original inventor of the Palm Pilot and the founders of Palm Computing, unhappy at the time of the way Palm was being ran by their corporate overlords. What they did was take the basic concept and take a slight left turn to create this: The Handspring Visor.

The Handspring Visor - looks just like a Palm device.

Screen cover, Visor and leather case

Looking pretty similar to the original Palm Pilot, the Visor had a few differences that made it stand out from the crowd. Yes, it ran using the same Motorola Dragonball processor with either 2 or 8Mb of memory. Some models had a translucent plastic casing (Jonathan Ive has alot to answer for!) but the device I have has a very simple black casing that hasn't really aged at all - not like the beige of home computers from the time. And yes, it ran on two replaceable AAA batteries that lasted up to two months(!).

Back of the Visor, SpringBoard to the top, battery compartment and dock connector to the bottom.

But what the Visor range offered as a unique selling point was the SpringBoard slot. On the back of the device was an expansion slot that offered a variety of options that could add to the Visor's usefulness.

The cover is in the background

Whilst a proprietary design, the SpringBoard gave the Palm OS platform the option of adding additional memory, software, wired and wireless networking, GPS and even cellular cards that turned the Visor into a mobile telephone. They truly were plug and play devices, with software being added to the device once you plugged a card in, contrasting vastly with the supposed plug and play of computing at the time where it was often called plug and pray!

Now I will say that the Visor, as a basic device, doesn't do anything a Palm handheld couldn't do, apart from a few basic application tweeks: the OS was the same, but with the Springboard slot, the versatility of the platform increased a hundred-fold - albeit at a cost, the modules could be quite expensive.

Bog-standard organiser

But back to the actual device for a moment. It sports a 160x160 16 grey-scale screen, an IR port on the left hand side for wireless syncing and a proprietary connection port on the base for a docking station connection to your desktop computer. For the time, this was a speedy option, using the relatively new USB connector, rather than the then traditional serial cable. It also made setting up the dock quick easy as you didn't have to fool around with any out-of-the-way settings. As an aside, it also means connecting to a modern day computer is straight forward - hardware wise. There is also a microphone port for use with the cellular expansions, but it does little else otherwise. Despite being made out of plastic, the Visor is quite solid in the hand and doesn't make any creaky noises when prodded and squeezed. And, whilst this may just be me, I find it quite natural to use the stylus and the easy to learn Graffiti handwriting system to enter information, something that can't really be said for any touchscreen device as you are taken away from the task by the manner in which the software on modern devices wants you to act. By that, I mean the brain `gets` writing but has to adapt to tapping and swiping - and that process varies depending on the individual application you are using.

IR port and detail of the ridge effect that prevented the device slipping from your hands

There were seven buttons on the front of the device, from left to right, they were: power (with a dimple for use with the included stylus), Calendar, Contacts, Up and Down, To-Do list and Memo. The silkscreen area above has shortcuts for Home, Calendar, Calculator and Search, plus the Graffiti area itself. This is divided into two, one for letters, the other for numbers with additional shortcuts for the on-screen keyboard and numeric keypad.

Visor and supplied screen cover - note included help sticker.

The help sticker, detailing the Graffiti handwriting system

The Visor I have was very cheap to buy but still works surprisingly well for something approaching its 20th birthday. The screen is still very responsive and the only niggle I would have using it today is the back-light - it's totally useless unless you are in a pitch-black room. Aside from that, I would happily use this today, and there are still places you can get desktop software if you have a quick Google (and hardware too!). The battery life is, compared to modern day alternatives, immense, and there is something to be said for prioritising battery life over other features, especially for devices used in this manner. Sadly, it seems that functionality beats practicality for many - and I say this as an iPhone 7 user who knows damn well how that has worked out!

So what happened to Handspring? Well, it was the curse of modern technology, poor management decisions and the market in general. It tried to move into mobile communications with the Treo range, halfway houses between organiser and mobile telephone, but they were a damp squib. They were bought out by Palm (of all people) in 2003, who were themselves bought out by Hewlett Packard in 2010 but by that point, the original ethos had fizzled out, replaced by ever more capable mobile phones. There was also a lot of corporate shenanigans about branding and licensing but that could fill a book in itself.

It's a shame, really, as it wasn't too difficult to carry two devices at the time (remember, long battery life and AAA batteries meant no charger to consider, and mobile phones would be good for three to five days back then) but maybe that's the nostalgia speaking. The m515 and by association, the Visor, are probably best remembered as very good technological dead ends, but that doesn't mean to say that if you can live with the (relatively) few limitations, you shouldn't be able to still use them today.

A Psion of the Times

If you are of a certain age and have an interest in tech, the name Psion may mean something to you. Coming to prominence during the 1980's home computer boom as both a hardware and software supplier, Psion rode the wave and successfully launched a range of electronic organisers, helpfully called the Psion Organiser, that whilst clunky and very 80's looking, their job well enough to gain a dedicated following. This allowed them to progress from the calculator-like Organiser II with a pocket computer that defined the company into the 90's and still, to this day, gives certain individuals a sense of glowing nostalgia when seen in public.

Closed from the top

The underside and the speaker

Underside with the "gull-wing" card slot covers open

The Series 3 was their first clamshell design, one which nailed the brief spectacularly. What you get is a pocket-friendly device with a hunt and peck keyboard that, by good design, is pretty much capable of decent typing speeds with a bit of use. This is down to the well-spaced layout and the slightly concave keys that help guide the fingers accurately. True, like all Psion clamshell designs, there were issues - namely a slightly fragile hinge and a ribbon connecting the gubbins in the bottom half to the screen that could fray and cause display problems, but that does not take away what they got so right with the Series 3.

There is a screen in there somewhere...

It's alive!!!

The screen, however, is a compromise, fair enough really given the year of release. As you can see, the screen on the original Series 3 is a bit lost in the lid and has a relatively poor resolution of 240x80, and that is one area they improved upon with the following Series 3a, where the display was not only physically bigger but offered a resolution of 480x160. The main processor is an NEC V30 running at 4.7MHz (a reverse-engineered copy of the Intel 8088 that powered the original IBM PC), coupled with 256Kb of RAM and 1MB of ROM that held the EPOC 16 operating system. Not exactly heady stuff at the time but then it did run north of 20 hours on two AA batteries.

A bit of Word.

A World Clock, circa 1991

The aforementioned Series 3a offered the bigger screen, a faster (7.68MHz) processor and double the RAM (and later 1 and 2MB models). The 3c (one of which I carried at university and sorely wish I had never sold on afterwards) bumped the RAM up to 2Mb and had a matte exterior (whilst some US models added a back-light to the display).Finally, the 3mx all offered a back-light and faster NEC V30MX processor running at 27.648 MHz. At that point, the Series 3 was retired for the Series 5.

Now I mentioned the batteries and their expected lifetime. Time was that the AA battery was ubiquitous and if you need to, replacing them was just a shop visit away. These days, with densely packed lithium battery tech, all I can say is good luck with that. True, high resolution colour displays and multi-gigahertz-clocked processors require that kind of power supply, but sometimes it would just be handy to be able to swap out old for new (or rechargeable) ones.

Anyhoo, back to the Series 3. The batteries are kept in the hinge and are easily accessible. The hinge itself is still pretty firm and doesn't feel in anyway compromised by the years of use - not bad for something made in 1991! That same hinge, on the interior, gives access to eight soft-keys - shortcuts for the built-in applications: System, Data, Word, Agenda, Time, World, Calc and Program. Pretty self-explanatory but as memory serves, both the Agenda, Data and Word applications were bloody good for their time and proved more than useful twenty years ago! In fact, I don't think I have used a better calendar application ever. The Program soft-key is of particular note, as having a programming language baked in meant that those who wished could program their own applications for the device.

Check out those short-cut keys.

Connectivity was well catered for too, with two expansion slots for Solid State Disk memory cards and software packs, and a proprietary connection for a serial cable. Later models also offered an infra-red connection.

Using the device today, the screen is pretty easy to read in decent light and the lack of a back-light isn't an issue. The small amount of RAM isn't too much of a hurdle either given what the device was used for and if you wanted to do any serious typing, a memory card was easy (if not overly cheap) to add. The example I have was purchased off E-bay and though the battery contacts need a good clean, it's in pretty good nick. There are always quite a few Series 3 models available but be warned, the more recent 3c and 3mx models go for near £100 or more, proof that they are still in demand today. A quick Google located a UK based company advertising new and second-hand Psion devices so, without doing any advertising, if you do want a Psion of your own, you know what to do.

The biggest hurdle for anyone under the age of 30 using anything like the Psion is the lack of a touchscreen. You see, back when the Series 3 was released, touchscreens were a rarity on portable devices so navigation is purely via the keyboard. There is a menu button and the on-screen menus are very well laid out so with a bit of practice, you'll be zipping about in and between applications with ease. For pretty much any option, there is a suitable key-based shortcut. True, it is not as intuitive as a mouse pointer or a touchscreen but for the time of release, this was pretty good. Indeed, anyone with a passing knowledge of DOS would feel pretty much at home here. How many there are of you in this day and age is up for debate! But in any case, the Series 3 is very usable and with only a small amount of practice too.

Is this a serious tool for 2018? Well, depends on what you want to use it for. As an organiser, the software is brilliant but there is the issue of connectivity and syncing software for the modern day PC. You can get serial to USB cables and a quick search online brought up a handful of useful articles so yeah, certainly with a later model with the higher-res screen, they are certainly usable today. Would you want to pay for one, well that is another matter...

On that note, I'll leave the blog for now, what with Salute at the weekend and then another appearance on Attention Please on Monday evening with Eddie Carter. If you fancy a listen, we're on 102.5FM in the local area or you can click on the Listen section here on the NE1FM website.

Operation Warboard - a review

Special effects, pre-CGI...

Operation Warboard could be described as "just another one of those how-to" books that wargaming seemed to breed during the 1960's and 70's. Written by Gavin Lyall (who also wrote a series of thrillers, a few of which were adapted for television by the BBC), Op W is a beginners guide to wargaming World War 2 in the 20-25 mm range of miniature figures popular at the time. However, to describe it a "just another" book of the genre would be to do it a great dis-service.

Much like Charles Grant and Battle (which I covered here), Op W is very much a relaxed, introduction to a specific period of the hobby, narrow in view but superlatively detailed in what wargaming should really be about. From the beginning, the tone is friendly and plain speaking, no condescension here. It very much has the spirit of "give it a go", "use what you can" and "you don't have to spend a fortune". It comments that money can be spent hand over fist with regards to the hobby but that should not get in the way of playing the actual game in as realistic manner permissible within the boundaries of enjoyment. 

Does what it says on the "tin" as it were.

And this is the thing. Op W states time and time again that enjoyment of your (my italics) hobby is paramount. You have the interest in the period so you get to choose what path you follow. Op W is just a handy guide. Alongside that, the book also adds that if you want to change something or add to the admittedly basic rule set contained within, then have at it Bonny Lad (I added that bit myself). Work out your own values for additional vehicles, weapons etc and give them a go. If they don't work, change them again. If there isn't a model available of a vehicle you want to put on the table, why not try scratch building (and he includes an example too - though if you look at today's market, say the 15mm Command Decision range from Old Glory, it's going to be pretty hard to pick a vehicle they don't have!). It doesn't matter if it's not 100% accurate, as long as it proves a decent representation and can be used for effect within the game.

Given that, though, it is in no way completely about the game, as historical accuracy and realism are well catered for. The rules themselves are very straight forward and I am going to suggest to the TWATS that we give them a go at a future Saturday meeting. They remind me a bit of Team Yankee in that the basic set up is quite simple and to be honest, I think Lyall's are better, being more clearly laid out and quicker to understand - and yes, this is despite the picture heavy TY rules which are effectively a catalogue for the accompanying models - this is very much a case of Games Workshop - create rules to sell plastic!. 

It may seem like I am using TY as a ball here, giving it a kicking but think about how times have changed since Op W was first published. The modern day games designer is practically packaged with a manufacturer in tow. Indeed, it's usually the same company, and they control everything about the game/rules/miniatures. I have heard that at some games, if you are playing TY, you can only use TY models. If we TWATS took that point of view, we'd never play a bloody game at all. Rules are a tool to represent the period and models are there to represent the participants. Or do I have that wrong? Yes, I'll be using TY for the demo game at this year's Durham show but with my own take on things and amendments where I consider appropriate and no-one can tell me otherwise. If it works, all well and good. If it doesn't, I am sure the feedback in the pub afterwards will be suitably brutal!

That is the joy of wargaimg, you make of it what you will for your own enjoyment, not what any corporate suit (and trust me, look past the branded t-shirts and smiling faces and pretty much every larger scale company with their own rules and miniatures is a corporate entity looking for your cash!) tells you to do. As Aussie Bill Wallace once said, "FREEDOM!!!".

In the end, there is a place in the world for books like Lyall's and it would be a shame if many of today's wargamers (and not just those interested in WW2) didn't get to read something like this to give them another view of the hobby and maybe to educate them about freedom of thought and not just accepting what they are given. This post has turned into a bit of a tub-thumper when it was never meant to but I believe this is a message that needs to be repeated. That and Operation Warboard is a good read!

March Musings

So here we are, the last day of March and with the UK Tax Year End fast approaching (which is always a joy, professionally speaking...), I thought it timely to add an update before life really gets busy.

First up, this month saw me return to Attention Please, a radio show hosted by my friend Eddie Carter on NE1FM. This time, however, was a little different as apart from one song, I chose the whole  two hour playlist. Yep, it was a random collection indeed but I had a great time and it was a laugh. So much so, I will be appearing again (but maybe only picking a single track this time) on Monday April 16th, work depending. There was some good live feedback during the show and Eddie has placed a recording of it on Mixcloud here if you fancy a listen.

I also managed a cinema trip this month, this one to see the new Tomb Raider film. Now games to film adaptations have  a rocky history and this one kind of has the same problem but in reverse to the usual complaint - it's not that it doesn't follow the style of the games, it is that it follows it too closely, more specifically, it follows the story of the 2013 re-boot of the game series, Tomb Raider. Now this may not entirely be a bad thing, that title was a tremendous re-introduction to the character of Lara Croft but as some Youtube channels have pointed out, some scenes from the film are nearly shot to shot identical to the game. The film does have a couple of other problems, namely pacing that is a little too quick but I can see why they have done that and a villain who doesn't really come off as threatening. The acting is decent to good, Alicia Vikander is a suitable Lara and Dominic West is always good value, and the action is...actiony (!) enough. On the whole though, this is a good game to film adaptation and a decent action film in its own right. True, it's not high art, but an enjoyable passing of a couple of hours and I hope it performs well enough for a follow up as there are some decent threads left dangling.

The one piece of saddening news this month was the recent closure of Grainger Games. Not overly well known outside of the north of England, Grainger Games was a 67 store strong chain of video game (and geeky merchandise) shops. Founded in the Newcastle's Grainger Market way back when, it had, until about a year ago, provided a nice alternative to GAME on the UK high street for video games, always being a couple of pounds cheaper on most releases. That, however, stopped when their pricing matched GAME's and they introduced merchandise to the stores (in some instances, nearly half the store was given to non-video game stock). These were the first signs they were not making enough off games alone and as it turned out, a slippery slope to closure. This now means that there is only one large scale high street retailer for video games, in the same way there is only one national high street retailer for books (Waterstones) and one for films and music (HMV). It does make you wonder what specialist stores will be left within a few years...

Anyhoo, I have a meeting of the TWATS to get to and hopefully not make a complete hash of it this time...

The Explorers Guild Volume One - A Book Review

Whilst checking out the local branch of Travelling Man a couple of weeks ago, I found book that interested me. The tale is about an organisation, The Explorers Guild and the search for the mythical city of Shambhala. Its approach is a tad different from most novels, mixing prose and comic book presentation, but it does work, mostly.

Written by John Baird, Kevin Costner (yes, that Kevin Costner), Stephen Meyer and illustrated by Rick Ross, the novel covers the years 1912 to 1918 and is written in the style of factual tomes of the 1920's and 30's, with a hint of Victoriana thrown in for good measure. By the way, don't think that because volume one is mentioned in the title, there is no volume two. At least, there is no sign of it yet.

So, beginning in 1912 and running several story strands concurrently, TEG weaves a complex tale with quite a few characters introduced at the beginning and more added later on. The language is quite flowery, even for the period it is supposed to ape and I did have difficulty in the switching from text to art. To be fair, most of that was down to me, but I would say that, whilst I did get used to the switches, they still jarred even towards the end. Oh, and when I say flowery, I mean downright purple. I get it that real books written around that period could, and often did have such style, but I think they overdo it here just a tad.

Mixing in a forgotten city, a loose cannon of a British Army Major and a gallivanting actress, plus a religious order and the aforementioned Guild, TEG reads like it should be adapted for the small screen. Maybe, given the background of the creators, their was an eye to that end. Who knows. It certainly ticks the boxes for serial production; foreign locations, duplicitous characters and a scope of story that takes all of its 763 pages to get through. The pace does sag in the middle third but the final two hundred pages pass by in a flash.

The artwork for the illustrated sections is clean, well drawn and easily readable. There are colour illustrations at the beginning of each "book" of the story and the format mimics the style of tomes for the period it covers.

This did take some time to get through, partly due to the high pages count, partly due to the nature of the text. However, I did enjoy it and if there were ever to be a volume two, I would pick it up.

Wing Commander - A Film Retrospective

Ah, Wing Commander. For those of you who were PC gamers in the early to mid-90's, Wing Commander may evoke deep feelings of nostalgia for space combat games, complex story telling and full motion video acting. Whilst the first and second games used traditional animation to convey the story, games 3 and 4 brought in real, honest-to-goodness actors, notably Mark Hamill, John Rhys Davies and Malcolm McDowall. That and the increase in quality of 3D animation meant that the fourth game had a budget of $12 million, most of it for the cutscenes shot using both traditional and virtual sets using greenscreens. The was serious money for a computer game back then!

The success of the series, and the fact that by the late 90's, several of the titles had been ported to home consoles and there were spin off computer games, meant that there was much thought given about a jump to the cinema screen. When Chris Roberts, creator, director and producer of the games series decided he wanted his games production company Digital Anvil to move into film production, Wing Commander had its big screen debut.

Got to love the marketing blurb!

And remember, this is a family friendly film too...

The film version of Wing Commander was released in 1999 and Digital Anvil not only produced the film but also provided the CGI for the film. The story was removed from the existing game lore and all of the roles were either re-cast with younger actors or created from scratch for the film. The budget was a relatively modest $30 million and, prior to release, it had all of the hallmarks of a decent time filler. Then people saw the final film.

Principal photography was completed in Luxembourg and an above average number of British actors; Saffron Burrows, David Warner, David Suchet, Simon MacCorkindale, Hugh Quarshie and many lesser known names join Jurgen Prochnow, Tcheky Karyo, alongside Freddie Prinze Jr and Matthew Lillard.

That Prinze Jr and Lillard headline the film should be cause for concern. Whilst they worked very well together in Scooby Doo (hell, their casting was a minor work of genius!), their acting styles are poorly suited for this film and it's plain to see that their acting abilities were not at the top of the list of reasons why they were cast. Lillard gives his usual one note slacker performance whilst Prinze Jr lacks the acting chops to give his character any gravitas. This is evident when he is supposed to look all moody and thoughtful and ends up looking like he's forgotten is credit card pin number. Still, they don't sink the film by themselves.

Most of the rest of the cast look bored, like they know they are in a crap film but at least the cheque has cleared so they might as well make as best they can of the situation. Suchet is wasted (as in underused, not sloshed!), a sub-plot about treason is jettisoned from the film (but is a full plot point in the novelisation of the film), and he ends up getting conked on the head and carried off. I swear he has a smile on his face when that happens. Prochnow gives it his all, proving once again that whilst his (unearned) reputation as a journeyman actor is evidenced here, he is good value for money and hey, the guy's gotta earn a living! He is at least giving it some welly! Burrows has another mis-cast role, she really can't play the hard-ass (but with a soft centre) commanding officer who slowly comes to appreciate Prinze Jr's character. By the way, that characterisation continues to the group of fighter pilots under her command: one is portrayed as a bastard just because he smokes in a mean fashion, smirks at the lead and has a scar. That is the depth of his character.

It's not all bad, acting wise. Ginny Holder has a ball as the proto love interest for Lillard until an unfortunate crash landing (that's the Top Gun link on the DVD case!) and David Warner serenely occupies the screen , head held high, with the while thing beneath him. For him, he accepts the cheque has cleared and he knows he is a professional. Quarshie is shirt-changed but good value anyway, whilst Simon "Manimal" MacCorkindale is a blink and you'll miss him Deck Boss.

So, we know the cast got paid, but what about the rest of the film?

The CGI was passable at the time (think about Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, much higher budget, similarly ropey visuals today!) and the sets weren't too bad. The fighter cockpits were taken from old English Electric Lightning frames and these shaped the CGI design of the complete fighter which, to be honest, look kinda naff. Iconic ship designs, they are not. The same can be said for the Kilrathi, the feline aliens bent on destroying humanity. Roberts was never happy with the look and the sets were completed before the look was locked down, leading to overly tall costumes and a cramped, stooped  appearance. Human costumes were another sign of penny pinching, looking cheap and ill-fitting and I swear that the hat and jumper combo was in a boyband music video sometime in the 90's. 

Then there is the tone of the film. It essentially wants to be a World War 2 movie, with screaming dive bombers (in space!), tense U-boat style hunts (including "pings", depth charges and ship to ship torpedoes - if you want to see how that should be done, try Prochnow's career defining role in Das Boot), and a bombastic fighter pilot story on an pseudo aircraft carrier (Top Gun again - btw, the Starship Troopers link from the DVD cover is the fighter pilot as elite combat troops doing a ship boarding set piece - yeah, like highly trained pilots would be used as grunts! - I am looking at you, Space: Above and Beyond!). Seriously though, when Ginny Holder's character, Rosie, dies after her damaged fighter hits the carrier a tad too hard, the wreckage is removed by a tractor with a plough. In space. With no gravity. Sigh.

The problem here is that Roberts wants an old fashioned war movie, dark and gritty, but as it's in space, there are a few, in no way minor, practical differences that can't be glossed over. That and the low budget, poor cinematography and PG rating means that it comes off looking amateurish and crap.

And yet, Wing Commander remains a guilty pleasure. Sure, it's cheesy, loud and brash, lacking subtlety, but you can see that some people were putting the effort in (as mentioned above), Karyo in particular attacks each scene like he's in a totally different film and mention must be made of David Arnold's score, which is typically good for that period of his career. 

I know, I have panned this film, but that doesn't mean to say it does not have its place in the world as a dumb, mindless sci-fi film. Indeed, the so-bad-it's-good card comes into play here and I have found myself laughing at so called serious moments where reality is well and truly put to one side. If you haven't seen this film yet, grab a few cans of lager/bottle of wine/whatever your favourite tipple is, and sit back and enjoy. As a Friday night chillout film, this one is hard to beat.

So, what are your thought? Have you seen Wing Commander? Played the games? Let me know in the comments.