Category: My Life

Hello World. Again

Let’s try again, shall we?

For those who have known me for a fair amount of time will know how I got into this online marketing malarkey was via blogging. During university I used to write a fair bit, blogging usually once per day. That dropped when I started work, and instead I was down to one a week. I relaunched this blog a couple of years ago with the thoughts of writing something thoughtful, and insightful, once a week. “Piece of piss”, I thought.

Wrong.

Yeah, the issue was mainly that Author+, followed by WP Email Capture got in the way. The latter of which has been pretty successful for me. As such, writing to you lot, just – well – wasn’t profitable.

Sorry.

But now it’s calmed down, and I’ve thought long and hard about starting this up again. I’m on a mission to kind of restructure what I do outside of work on this big bad thing called the internet. I’m a geek, so most nights after work I’m usually found doing some cooky shit on the internet. Or playing Words With Friends, one of the two.

Or in the pub. One of the three.

The plan is to reduce the amount of sites I am managing or require an epic amount of managing and content creation (blogs, mainly), and build up small sites for stuff that interests me. Blogging Dojo is getting the MyBlogGuest Plugin on it so I can get some guest posts on there. You’re Supposed To Be At Home is being left dormant bar the odd game here and there I go to that is actually new. Retro Garden…well…not sure about that, any offers?

It’s not necessarily to make me a millionaire, more to just try make sites of stuff that interests me. Small, self standing sites similar to Tweets2CSV. I’ve a couple of ideas of sites I’m thinking of running.

This site, along with Winwar (a site that is being both culled and rebuilt), is where you’ll hear about them first. Winwar is becoming a bit of a portfolio for all these new sites. Not wanting to brag but that site looks bloody amazing in development.

Of course, this site isn’t just about my sites, I’m also posting rants and thoughts about anything. I’m feeling I need to get my name a bit out there again. If that means I become a “thought leader” (shudder), then so be it. Please don’t call me a thought leader.

So yeah, that’s the redesign, the reboot, and why I’m doing it. It’s a place for me to share my thoughts whenever I feel the need to. I hope you like it.

A Christmas Gift: Bringing Your Games In On The Last Day

At the beginning of the month, I was out with members of the most excellent Computer Club in the Lass O’Gowrie. At the club, there are various Atari Jaguar home brew developers – who develop their own games on the console. One of the more popular games is Superfly DX – which is a gorgeous one button game based on Copter*. I commented that I made a simlar game in the early noughties, during a summer where I didn’t work nor do much except program video games and speak to the lovely people on Blitzcoder, some of them I still chat to now and again.

Anyway I found the video games I made, including the game mentioned above – Wormhole, so I’ve decided to give them away as a free Download.

I usually give them away (they were on my other blog for ages), but for those who missed them, I’m sharing them here :).

1. The Wormhole – The game mentioned above, a game that was started out as a bet, but turned out to be pretty good. A mate of mine said that I couldn’t create a game that copied the helicopter game to perfection. So I spent the best part of two days making this: The Wormhole. My mate said that it was better than the original, so I lost this sportsman bet in the greatest travesty in recent history.

Download The Wormhole

2. The Square Game – Loosely based on an old Commodore 64 Game: Sensitive, The Square Game was my most ambitious game I ever made. Took over 6 months to make, and features a Level Editor. Fairly well received (featured on loads of download sites), but I didn’t enjoy playing it up until recently, as by the end of the project, I was sick of it.

Download The Square Game

3. Penalty Prize 2002 – A remake of my first ever game made in QBasic! Updated for the 2002 World Cup (the original was for the 1998). Penalty Prize is back, live and in living colour! 2 players only and featuring the last 16 teams in the World Cup (so all you French and Argentine’s have to make a cup of tea!). 6 players for each team trying to win the shoot out. Incidentally, the first game that I was in talks with for being published, and me receiving money for. Result!

Download Penalty Prize 2002

4. Intruder Alert – After a discussion over at Blitzcoder about certain games, this was the result. The discussion was about games where you play the bad guy (Dungeon Keeper and Wario) spring to mind. This is Pac Man, but instead of playing the hero, you play the ghost, who has to protect his pills from the intruding Pac-Men. First game I made to feature music. Not, fortunately, made by me.

Download Intruder Alert

5. Gridshot – This was a competition entry for “Produce a Vector Game” (lines and internal graphic functions only). This was loosely based on the classic Tempest. Not as good, but still good fun to make.

Download Gridshot

6. Eskew – The Second Entry for the “Produce A Vector Game”. Move a circle around a grid, collecting squares and avoiding blue balls. Was based on a flash game.

Download Eskew

7. Sudoku Blitz – My Sudoku game. Nothing more, nothing less.

Download Sudoku Blitz

8. Lizzie’s Jubilee Manager – I completely forgot I made this! There was a “Stupidest Game” Competition on Blitzcoder, and my game was a Satirical Satirical Commentary on The Golden Jubilee that was happening at the time. Increase Royal Popularity by completing a whistle-stop tour of the UK. It’s crap, but that was the point.

Download Lizzie’s Jubilee Manager

Disclaimer

These games are for Windows PC’s. These games work on my Windows 7 machine. Your milage may vary though. I’m not sure if these games work on Apple Macs.

Some of these games have dismal music (Intruder Alert, I’m looking at you), so you may want to mute your speakers.

I’ve checked (and compiled) these files, so there’s nothing untoward in them. However, if you download these and your computer blows up, you can’t hold me responsible.

A Chance of A Christmas Miracle?

These are most of the games I’ve made, but not all. I made more games that I’ve been unable to find. My Christmas Wish would be to find these games, as they represented a good time for me:-

  • Ripcord – No idea why I don’t have this. Was my first ever game I produced and was a parachute simulator. It was featured on remakes.org (now Retro Remakes) and looked like this. Possible file name – ripcord.zip.
  • Intruder Alert 2 – A sequel to Intruder Alert that was an entry into the Blitzcoder “8 Bit” Competition. Play a Space Invader and destroy wave after wave of Turrets. It looked like this. Possible file name – ia2.zip
  • Blitz Lights – A “Lights Out” Clone. That’s all I know about this I’m afraid.

So if you can think of ways of digging up the files (these were previously hosted on http://mysite.freeserve.co.uk, and then http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk), I’d be extremely greatful!

Merry Christmas Everybody 🙂

Rhys

* Copter was based on another game (which name escapes me – Wormhole’s based more on that flash game – linkback if anybody can remember it)

 

Where the Hell is Matt? In Manchester

In my last post, I talked about Matt, from the internet viral videos “Where the Hell is Matt?”, visiting Manchester to record a new video. That was last night, which I attended.

I was running a little late (an epic game of Angry Birds meant I missed my tram stop) so missed the first recording, but by the second cut I moved into the background and followed the simple choreographed moves. The whole process took about 30 minutes, after which Matt signed autographs and copies of his book, as well as posed for photos.

It was great fun and a nice distraction from a cold Wednesday in early Autumn. The video will go on the internet in early 2012. I’ll be at the back, to the left, in a grey hoodie.

If I make the cut, though!

Why You Shouldn’t Trust Wikipedia As Your Source

“Sheffield is the world’s oldest football club.”
“No it isn’t.”
“Yes it is, check Wikipedia.”
“Yeah you probably shouldn’t trust Wikipedia. Look! It now says you’re the manager of Sheffield FC!”

And so was another day in work. Dan had changed Wikipedia page for Sheffield FC to make me as their Manager – unfortunately it never got changed back, and the Grimsby Telegraph said I was Sheffield FC manager.

Marvellous!

It worked out okay. You’re Supposed to Be At Home got mentioned in The Cod Almighty Fanzine, making it a huge traffic day for my blog. Result!

Unfortunately, I lost 2-0.