Here’s What My Brother Is (Not!) Getting Me For My Birthday

Every day, when I hear Mr Postman deliver, I eagerly trot down to the box to remove what surely must be arriving any day now: a birthday parcel from my brother.

Alas, I am every time disappointed; the fated package is yet to arrive.

Since my brother is the world’s very worst answerer-of-FaceTime calls, I’m going to use this entry to send a tiny nugget of information. I am assuming Bernard, that you’re birthday shopping for me is completed. As such, I can only imagine that you must have purchased for me the following item:

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As a Star Wars fan yourself, I have no doubt that Colonel Cracken is as beloved a character to you as he is me. Who can forget the battle against the Imperial Fleet in Jedi, when Lando and Nien Numb courageously flew the Millenium Falcon into the incomplete second Death Star to destroy it? True fans such as you and me surely know that success was in no small part due to the valiance of Airen Cracken, who was a crew member on that flight. As such, I have no doubt that the (long overdue!) action figure of the man himself shot to the very top of the list of items you surely wanted to give me to celebrate my birthday.

Alas, it is with a heavy heart that I must say that you’re going to have to return the one you bought, since I myself purchase this very figure today! It even now rests on my desk in a place of great pride.

And next time answer FaceTime when I call, so we can avoid these mixups in the future 😉

Grid runner

The new Llamasoft iOS game is out, and what did Mr Minter bring us this time?

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He wrote a blog post about how easy it was to port the game to iOS using (IIRC) some old ST code. Since it was so quick and easy, and the release is so close after Caverns of Minos, the sheer brilliance of this game was unexpected. It’s a major update of the game that made him famous 30 years ago.

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His iOS games always have a hardware theme, and until now he’s done 2600, Intellivision, Vic 20 etc. Gridrunner is ‘1980’s arcade game’, and he’s absolutely nailed it, since the graphics bring to mind a classic such as Galaxian. Of course only in spirit, since I doubt this madness was possible in those old arcade boards:

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This game is only $0.99, and it’s close to perfect tablet gaming. Absolutely gets my highest recommendation, and if your initials are AW and you don’t have an iOS device games like this is why you should get one ASAP 🙂

Oh yes… It has the Vic 20 and C64 versions included (rotate the device to landscape):

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The Last Plane Out Of Sydney’s Almost Gone

I hadn’t heard this song in perhaps 20 years, but got a copy when I was in Australia earlier this year.

It’s so good. So sad. So powerful. It’s about a Vietnam vet who’s not the same after the war and turns to a destructive life, but for me it’s all about memories of going to workers clubs and pubs with friends back in the very late 1980s and early 90’s. Nostalgia I guess. It was always playing, and people would always sing along (especially when drunk). Back in those days I hated the song. Now I love it.

I could listen to it all day.