As annoyingly it’s been a few weeks since I attended, so I’m going to leave the images doing the talking, but if you’re ever in the area and you like nerdy stuff like I do it’s well worth paying a visit. The items in the cave and connected Arcade Archive are beautifully maintained – I am struggling to think of a Street Fighter II machine that was so looked after and presented, it worked perfectly.
Whilst I could wax lyrical about the day and the event (it was good seeing folks again also), I would rather pictures tell the story. I will say my favourite little gimmick was the WH Smith esque area where you could scan the games to play them on a Mister. That was effortlessly cool.
Another one from the list!
The excellent looking WH Smith esque storeThe fabulous NEO GEO Pocket. My brother had one of these, no idea where it went. The joystick is wonderfully clickyA lovely tribute to one of my favourite games ever, DoomAn absolute pristine Unreal Tournament box. Literally immaculateGreat Giana Sisters. Super rare as it’s a bugger to get hold of. It’s a C64 take on Super Mario Brothers and Nintendo got Litigious.Beautiful pins. I want the Lemmings ones. Already looked on eBay. No chanceA complete collection of Codemasters games. I’ve a fair few of these (28 in my collection). Notice the Championship Wrestling game with “Hulk Hogan” on the frontThe Nintendo Kiosk. Is a multisystem that was used to advertise the NES in Japan (I believe). The 3 monitors synced up so I was playing “1 bullet, 1 screen” on Duck HuntI wanted this so much as a child. The Cartoon Classics Commodore Amiga…I had this when I was a child. Shudder to think how long I played it for.At least one person out there paid for WinZip!The Tower of Power. I did add a Game Genie to it too…didn’t work.The Acorn Archimedes was a great machine, used to pray for rain so we would boot these up and play Chuck Rock, Manchester United Europe or Lemmings on them.Serious softwareSo the machine on the left is a joint IBM PC and Megadrive. The machine on the right I think is a machine that was in cars. Not sure of the legality of that but there you go.
If you ever get the chance to go, you should. The Cave is brilliant and would love to go back again one day!
So I’ve figured out today is the day I’ve become a runner. I’ve seen an article on our local news site where there’s a festive fun run taking place in a pub near me. Reading the article I saw that the distance would be “less than one mile”.
My first thought was “Aww, is that all?”.
If only Rhys from 2 years ago could see me now.
If time allows, I’m probably going to try and do it. It’s £2, and it is for a good cause, and the folks at The Griffin are good people. But yeah, that’s a sprint! May run there for a warm up!1
(Header photo is from 2 weeks ago at St Helens’ Parkrun when I set my best 5k time of 33:02. St Helens is a really hilly parkrun so happy with my time. Also I’m wearing my Stonewall FC “Trans Pride” football shirt as I think it’s funny that it exists when EA is going to be sold to a far right regime. Also trans rights.)
You watch when I do it I do something like twist my ankle and fail miserably. Curse my overconfidence! ↩︎
Last weekend I completed another of my 50 before I am 50. I ate in a Michelin Starred Restaurant. The restaurant in question was Wilson’s in Bristol, and I went there with my partner to celebrate one of her friend’s birthday.
Sadly, I’m not Jay Rayner, and I do not have the vocabulary to accurately explain the food, except to say it was delicious. The six course tasting menu was using freshly grown herbs and vegetables from it’s own two acre farm. Really, they were the stars of the show – whilst there were fish and meat that were the main element of the dish, in reality the flavourful herbs were what made it a bit special.
I think the thing for me was I was expecting to be disappointed. I don’t know why. Naturally pessimistic – like you wait your life to see a band only to be terrible. In reality it was excellent. 6 decent portions of food, full of flavour, and also some great non alcoholic mocktails that – whilst not paired with the dishes – were great.
I did the wanky thing and take photos of all the food which are below.
Tomato and lemon verbena. Not sure what a verbena is.This is the Strawberry Soda, probably my favourite drink of the eveningThis was served with the bread course, not sure what these were. Mackerel and dill on a seaweed cracker were the green onesThe bread course, with butter….…and a herby tahini like thing. It was deliciousThis was a gooseberry and chamomile cocktailSea bass, gooseberry, thai basil and smoked creme freche. This was my favourite dish of the dayDry aged trout with courgettes in a horseradish sauce and a chili buttermilky thingFig leaf coktailGuinea fowl, florence onion and carrotsFarm herbs and a mirangue. The puddings were quite herby which worked in this case I thought.Cherries, Basil & Chocolate – probably my least favourite dish, could have done without the basilPetits Fours with chocolate and pumpkin fudgy things and a posh fruit pastille.
Today, I’m one year sober. Still feels weird to write that.
I’d love to say I planned for it. I didn’t. I had some (what has turned out since) minor health issues that I misinterpreted as major issues and told myself I’d stop drinking for a while. It wasn’t even planned because I missed Alcohol Awareness Week by one week.
I’m not going to present a “holier-than-thou” update on being sober for that length of time. In truth, I’m not arsed if other people drink. Please. Do drink around me. Really not arsed.
I have dropped about 20kg in the past year. I’ve still about 10 more to go.
I’m also not going to say that my health got immediately better. It didn’t. Sure the weight dropped but it took me 9 months before I began to feel noticeably better. I slept so badly for so long. Sleeping is still varied. I can’t guarantee a good night sleep, but I’m usually pretty good.
I’m not going to talk about how tough it was. In all honesty, I found it straightforward, being able to count on one hand the times I’ve missed having a drink. Usually in places that don’t have a non-alcoholic offering: stadiums in the UK are the worst for this.
I’m not going to talk about how I’m never touching alcohol again. I probably will. I probably have. I’ve had a few tiramisus that was going spare on holiday for example.
Said bastion of health now sees me waking up at ungodly hours of the morning.
I’m also not going to talk about how I’m the bastion of health now. The amount of ice cream I’ve eaten in the last year has shot up. My diet is better mind, but short of eating a lot less takeaways it’s not changed much. I still enjoy a full English, and can polish off a tub of Pringles depressingly easily.
I’m not going to say how supportive everybody’s been. I’ve drifted from a few people because of it.
Nevertheless. One year down. Feels it’s worth a celebration. You do lose things, but you learn to appreciate other things. I don’t miss the beer portal, for example.
A calm morning in Criccieth
I also appreciated the drive to Ruthin first thing in the morning on Christmas Day to do a Parkrun when the world was dead. The coffee I shared with my girlfriend in a car park van at 8:30am in Criccieth the day my brother got married (and 10 minutes before I fell in a pothole and twisted my ankle). Being at Pennington Flash at 8am to see the world wake up with a bacon butty.
Those are the moments I appreciate. Calm, peaceful moments for reflection where you truly get to appreciate the world in a way other folks may not. It feels like you’ve more hours in a day.
A bit of extra life.
Also, I’ve developed a craving for Salt & Vinegar crisps. Don’t know why.
My latest game – Gone Fission! – has been released and is available to play on itch.io.
How To Play
⬅️⬆️⬇️➡️ – move cursor
❎ (mapped to X/C on browser) – place atom
🅾️ (mapped to Z/V on browser) – next player (2+ human players only).
The goal is to eliminate all other players from the game by causing chain reactions of 4 or more atoms. Probably the game is best explained in animated gif form.
You can play up to 4 players local multiplayer, or you can play with up to 3 computer opponents with 3 different difficulties.
Why I Made It
Been a real labour of love this game, working away on it – as it was the first game I largely developed in public. Working on it publicly when for many years a lot of my work has been behind NDA’s has been equal parts refreshing and terrifying: I’ve had a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to showing off my work, but learning things like particle engines and programming my own difficulty curves has been rewarding. In the world where AI slop seems to be king, humanly crafting something with love for other people’s enjoyment does feel great.
Anyway, would love for you to play it and see what you think. You can play it in browser and made the PICO-8 cartridge free (which means you can play it on retro devices such as the Anbernic). Donations of $2 or more means you get the executable to play on devices such as your Steam Deck. If you do like it, please share my Itch.io page with details on the game on, and leave a review and a comment: it really helps the algorithm.
