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But enough about that: if you'd like to appear here, or you've something you'd like me to give some attention to in our occasional Plug Zone, please send your filthy emails early to this place here: digitiser2000@gmail.com
I noticed your recent trip to Blackpool, the jewel on the Lancashire coast, to visit a retro gaming expo.
I too was at the show with you, and enjoyed many of the delights that the seaside has to offer. I've now returned home with a worrying rash near my Kempston Joystick. Could I have caught one of those old computer viruses from an old Amiga port, or is it something to do with the Millennium Bug which might have been incubating in one of the Quake PCs?
Mr Gremlin
Oof...
Nudity! Nude-nude-nud-ity! Nudey-nudey-noooooo!
Digitiser: The Show. I'm concerned that it might be haunted by the spectre of Grumpy Mr Biffo, so will try to drive it away with more unsolicited advice. I know, but it's probably less painful than Paul Gannon shoving a PKE meter up your bottom.
The thing about Digitiser now is, though driven by the Biffo Vision, it would feel incomplete without the motley crew of commentators. Gaming Mill's tales of Lucozade alcoholism, talcing bollocks with Dean, MrPSB's stories, and those yet to send in oddities for our general amusement.
I appreciate the difficulty of balancing work with inclusiveness, inclusiveness that encourages enthusiastic, amateurish, and largely useless advice. So, can you hire someone as the friendly, filtering face, who makes all contributors feel valued even when you're wishing them dead? Or at least budget to pay Sanya for doing that anyway.
David W.
I'll leave it to others to interpret its deeper message, and read between the lines, lest I be damned further as "grumpy" and "unfriendly" and that I undervalue contributors and wish them dead...
Dear Mr Bifidus Digestivum,
A quick look at my Xbox controller shows fourteen potential buttons to press in addition to the two thumbsticks. How on earth did we get by in the days of the Quickshot joystick with its one button?
More worrying is the fact that I almost wrote a letter about the hipster I saw the other day who was dressed as Harold Meeker from Rent-a-Ghost, a show which must have finished long before his birth, and musing as to whether anyone would get the joke if I paid a couple of people to dress as a pantomime horse and follow him about.
Your humble and obedient servant,
Treacle
Hey: do you remember a couple of years ago, when hipsters first came about, and how some people online got really defensive if you took the piss out of them, and said how it was just old people being sneery about young people? Yeah, well, those people were wrong. I know loads of young people who aren't hipsters. Wear socks, you horrible men!
Incidentally, I went to a sort of "hipster KFC" with a mate last night where they played really loud 90s hip-hop so you had to shout to have a conversation, and there was something on the menu called "Holy Fuck Chicken", which is funny, because when I was a teenager I used to make this fake newspaper thing called The Gat, which was full of newspaper cuttings that I'd sliced up and rearranged to make different headlines, and one of the things I did in one issue of The Gat was an advert for "Ken Fuck Chicken", and there you go.
The difference between me and that restaurant is that I was trying to be funny, and they were trying to be edgy.
So, movies and TV and books all that are great. I’m sure we can all think of a scene from some work of fiction that we found shocking, or definitive, or changed the way we look at things... Something that felt real, or surprising. Something emotional!
I always go back to the bit in 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' when the policeman arrests Deckard and tells him he’s an android: it turned me on my head the first time I read it. Anyway, I can’t really think of any times in videogames that have affected me in a similar way. Eli Vance dying was a bit upsetting... Fox McCloud’s ghost dad turning up and guiding him out of Andross’ exploding lair was unexpected... But I can’t think of anything that ever stirred proper emotion.
Anyone able to think of anything that made them feel some feels?
Richard.
I am looking forward to seeing what kind of fun/silliness Digitiser The Show will bring, and I also enjoyed seeing the sort of things that went down at Play Expo. Which has made me think, I seem to be more interested in the old school gaming scene these days.
With the exception of Yakuza 6, there isn’t a whole lot of new game releases I’m super excited about. I also remember having a time out during my last city wide bender to play Galaga. I’m not sure if I’m getting old or what, the old school just seems more appealing at the moment. Will be fun to see Digitiser The Show doing the gaming thing. Will assume that it will involve less Sting getting freaked out by poo than Found Footage.
El Greenio Screenio
P.S. Ok, If I’m being honest, I am looking forward to Yakuza 6... And Them’s Fightin’ Herds. Hopefully won’t get too much flack for admitting that.
So... yeah, I've started to realise that I'm more interested in old games than new ones, which is why Digi2000 has taken on a bit more of an overt retro-gaming feel recently. The old games are just so much quirkier and more interesting, and everything is all corporate and homogenised now.
For anyone that missed the news on Twitter last week, I’m really happy to say that the brand new Super Page 58 is here, redesigned and ready for the Space Year 2000 AD. Hope everyone likes the new look, but if not, well, the old site’s still available for ‘posterity’, broken links and all. Just follow the link on the homepage.
Crucially, it’s going to be a lot easier for me to maintain now, so updates: will happen. Starting soon, with something which I hope will surprise and add to the collective Digi knowledge base.
On that note, I’ve been looking around, and wondered how long your ‘link-up’ with Super Control magazine lasted? Cheesey Keeble sent me a copy of the mag which featured the Digitiser Lard Challenge some years back, which I duly featured on the site, but I think you said The Man had a regular comic strip too, aside from the single edition I scanned? If that’s the case then I have some digging around to do for dimes and flakey bits.
Loving the Digitiser: The Show promos. That cameo from Mr T at the end of the last one made me grin like the idiot I am, and I’m itching to shove my currency down your cash-hole.
Oh, and I’ve persuaded a few gents who are foolish enough to associate with me to attend the big Digi birthday as part of my own 40th birth-fest this year. We’ll try to keep things civilised.
So there we are. Thanks for all the kind words you’ve said about Super Page 58 recently, and over the years, it’s meant a lot and helped motivate me through the slog of the relaunch. If anyone remembers something that isn’t covered or mentioned on the site, then I’d love to know - just email superpage58@gmail.com or tweet me @trueadventures. I’ve already had a couple of reminisci-pointers sent to me by Glyn that I’ll add to an update, and I’m sure there must be lots more out there.
Chris Bell
I've slightly put the Digitiser birthday party on hold for three reasons: 1) Preparations for Digitiser The Show have been all-consuming, and 2) One of the things we're hoping to do as part of the series is an episode filming in front of a live audience (there'll be the chance to buy tickets as one of the reward tiers) which will double as a sort of 25th anniversary celebration, and 3) I don't want you lot buying tickets to a Digi party and then having no money to back Digitiser The Show.
So, once we've got the Digishow funding period out of the way, we'll look at where we are and make a decision on whether to do a separate event.
Hola, What is great pie? I looove pie of apple.
Do the needful and sayonara,
Koja BaGibsy
I loved the Dreamcast. It was a good looking little thing and had a nice catalogue of games, not to mention the forward-thinking nature of the online functionality.
It reminds me of my teenage years and conjures up certain feelings and emotions going on back then while I was playing through the likes of Shenmue, Grandia II and Street Fighter Alpha 3, in much the same way music can instantly transport us back to a specific time and place.
I also have a particular fondness for the Amstrad CPC 464 and the Mega Drive for similar reasons, though obviously reminding me of earlier times in my life. What's the most nostalgic console for you? Which one do you have the most positive gaming memories for? Is there a console or game you know to be "da smellz" but you love regardless due to the nostalgia factor?
Cheers,
The Fitcher
P.S. I'm looking forward to seeing what lies in store for Digitiser: The Show. After foolishly missing out on backing FF, I'll definitely be in on day one for this one, or you can call me Stinky Pritchard.
Although there’s no specific rules on it, most people understand the idea of cult films. Is there such a thing for video games? If falsehood then why? If truth accepted then what should we consider cult games?
Big hugs,
Dangleberries
Do you remember Bishi Bashi Special? I actually bought that on your recommendation. Really fun party game stuff with a surreal edge to it. What would be a modern equivalent do you think?
Glyn Heaviside
Last year, out in the wilds of real life, I saw a guy wearing a moc-moc-a-moc t-shirt. I looked at the t-shirt as the man inside it approached, and I smiled. The man wearing the t-shirt realised I was looking at it, so he stopped walking and posed for me, holding his shirt open so I could see it in its full splendour.
A few seconds later there was a moment of awkward silence where the man realised he had held his shirt open for a socially awkward amount of time, and I realised that I had also looked at another man's stomach for an equally socially awkward length of time. I mean, the phrase on the t-shirt took less than 1 second to read, and here I was 5 seconds later still staring at him. I felt I HAD to break the silence…
“Are you…. Him?” I asked.
He replied “No, I’m not Him,” and laughed slightly. “...I’ve never met him,” he said sadly.
“Me neither,” I replied, “so I’m not sure what he looks like. You could have been him.”
Then we both nodded as if to assure ourselves that we had shared an experience of not knowing the same thing.
“Superb t-shirt” I added, before we both laughed slightly, nodded again and carried on our journeys.
I was never sure, until recently, whether the man was actually Mr Biffo, but had just pretended to not be.
Do you ever pretend to not be you?
Craig Anderson
www.80sNostalgia.com
That's a funny old story, though. I mean... it never gets not-weird that I'm semi-famous, albeit in a really, really sporadic, low-level, way. I appreciate it, because it's a pretty unique experience to say I've had, and I of course like that people like what I've done enough that they know who I am - yet I'm sufficiently obscure that it doesn't affect me day-to-day. Funny old life.
Evening. Hope I'm not too late for inclusion. Just wanted to show you how Wanda likes to make a mockery of my gaming prowess!
I had to go to the the doctor's surgery this morning for another blood test. Surprisingly the taxi arrived on time and I arrived there ten minutes early for my appointment, only to find out upon my arrival that I would have nearly an hour wait because they were excessively busy.
My local GP's surgery is usually pretty good with their timekeeping, but the waiting room was chock full of ill people and I suspect my appointment wasn't really that much of a priority. Fortunately I had sort of anticipated such circumstances. I had my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge fully charged, and took my Samsung Gear VR along with me that I only received yesterday. I was quite happy enjoying some excellent virtual reality sat right at the front of the rows of chairs.
It wasn't to last though, when I slipped off my chair and headbutted a notice board in front of me and knocked it over. A receptionist came up to me and told me take my headset off. "It's inappropriate behaviour" she said, "and, you look like a pillock."
Very professional, I'm sure you'll agree. I just wish they had a comments box like you get in a Berni Inn - I would have filled that slip up on both sides; it would only improve their customer service surely?
I'm off to bed now because I still feel weak from all the blood they drained from my body. A few cans of cider might also have something to do with it.
I am unfit but still strong and that is all,
Gaming Mill.
Hello. I am really not feeling very well mentally speaking at the moment (there is a REASON for this which I may elaborate on sometime shortly), but the people I've met via the Found Footage or Digi 2000 things, and the ones I natter to on Twitter and hope to meet someday are all an incredibly positive thing that's now in my life that wasn't before, so thanks for that, yeah?
I hope you're proud of what you've done, you rotter. I keep SPEAKING TO PEOPLE.
MrPSB
P.S. I hope the Digitiser Show gets funded and similarly wonderful things happen for everyone else.
Which is obviously a strange thing for a grumpy, unfriendly, un-inclusive person like myself to say...