It was a year ago this week that the second episode of Mr Biffo's Found Footage went live. It was an epic project (that still isn't quite over yet), and I loved every second of it. Given the generosity of so many of you, it was a no-brainer that I'd do something else through crowd-funding. 

Following the end of the series, it took me a while to realise what it might be. I kind of knew I had the whole glitchy, challenging, deliberately-Marmite-y, bum-heavy, thing more or less out of my system, but it was a while before I hit upon my next major project.

In some ways, Digitiser The Show feels like a no-brainer. It's exactly what I wanted - something that challenges me, but also brings together all the tools in my box. To wit: 25 years writing about games,, close to 20 years working in TV, as well as orchestrating and directing an epic 9-part comedy/sci-fi series. 

I couldn't consider doing Digitiser The Show if it wasn't for those of you who've supported me since I launched Digitiser2000 three-and-a-bit years ago, whether it was backing me via Patreon, or on Found Footage, or just by saying nice things. If it wasn't for everyone who asked me to appear on a podcast, or speak on a panel, I wouldn't have felt confident enough to put myself out there like this... 

I feel supported, like there are lot of you that have my back, and that's why Digitiser The Show is happening, and it's a privileged position to be in. Digitiser The Show will be for all of us - and for everyone who wants a proper, full-blooded, gaming show again, one which doesn't take itself too seriously, and embraces the potential of games as a way to entertain.

So, here's everything I'm able to tell you about Digitiser The Show prior to tomorrow's launch.

Oh, and if you haven't already... please go and subscribe to our YouTube channel. It's really important.

No Digi article today. Sorry.

But... in case you haven't heard - hah! As if... - the Kickstarter campaign for Digitiser The Show launches on Friday.

​Freshly announced to be joining the main presenting team is the one and only Larry Bundy Jr. 

Larry - also known as Guru Larry - is, as many of you will know, one of the biggest retro gaming YouTubers around. His encyclopaedic knowledge of games puts my own to shame... and he's very funny to boot. He'll make a brilliant addition to the team.

Right. More coming soon... but in the meantime - sign up below to be the first to hear Digitiser The Show news. Oh, and please go and subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's where it'll all be happening.

To everyone but the most moronic and indoctrinated, it's pretty obvious that Donald Trump is currently using video games as a smokescreen to distract from the issue of gun control.

It seems unlikely that he has any real conviction over wanting to censoring video games, given that he typically says the first thing that comes into his ridiculous head. That said, I'm not averse to games having age ratings - indeed, I think they should - but, y'know, this is Trump. Going through with any sort of wide-scale censorship would prove a risky move for him, given former Trump adviser Steve Bannon's courting of the Gamergate crowd.

Speaking before a planned meeting with the president - announced in the wake of the recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida - America's Entertainment Software Association issued a statement: "Like all Americans, we are deeply concerned about the level of gun violence in the United States. Video games are plainly not the issue: entertainment is distributed and consumed globally, but the US has an exponentially higher level of gun violence than any other nation.”

That's not to say that video games don't have a history of controversy. We all know about the violence and the epilepsy and the Hot Coffee, but what of some of the other - more outlandish and unexpected - controversies to strike gaming?

Here are ten of them, brah!

I was an Atari ST owner, but I'm not deluded. I only ever played on friends' Amigas or for work, but I know full well that I tethered my fronds to the wrong horse.

I got an ST from my parents for Christmas, but it was a long time ago and I've no real idea why I asked for that and not an Amiga. It's possible - actually, it's more than likely the case - that I chose the ST because it was an Atari-branded thing, and we'd owned an Atari 2600. Plus, I'd been a Spectrum owner through my teens, and I probably couldn't quite bring myself to own a Commodore computer.

I had nothing against Commodore, but it just wasn't who I was. I mean, it's stupid now to think that this might've been my reasoning, but such is the folly of youth.

Nonetheless, with hindsight... yeah, I wish I'd had an Amiga. Obviously, I can recognise that the only real benefit the ST had over the Amiga was its MIDI capabilities. Not that I ever made use of them, or knew what they were. 

I wanted to do a list of great Atari ST exclusives today, but the truth is... most ST games also ended up on the Amiga. It is virtually impossible to think of games which "defined" the ST. Oddly, however, I've learned that a number of the bigger games that appeared on both formats were developed on the ST, before being ported over to the Amiga. When it was the other way around, Amiga games generally blew their ST counterparts out of the water. 

Still... needs must. So, here's a list of the ST games I remember most vividly... bearing in mind that, yeah, we all know they appeared on the Amiga too.

​Stop with the smug expressions, you bunch of social inadequates.

I've written before about Digitiser's history with the Amiga. Indeed, it's one of the first things that comes up whenever I'm interviewed. In short: Digi didn't cover the Amiga initially. Amiga owners complained in their thousands. We relented and got our bosses to buy us an Amiga, but we continued to grumble bitterly, and then - when the Amiga did go under - we gloated and continued to troll Amiga owners, because it was funny.

Thing is, when we started writing Digi, we had nothing against the Amiga or Amiga owners. I mean, why would we? What sort of lunatic would hate a computer?! How broken would you have to be to launch a vendetta against a computer and its entire user base?!

I mean, to be honest I even regretted that I'd chosen the Atari ST over the Amiga. It had probably been down to some latent loyalty from owning an Atari 2600 years before, but it soon became clear to me which system had the best games catalogue.

Regardless, we didn't see the Amiga as a priority. Anyone could see that the games industry was moving towards a PC/console-centric place, and the Amiga had been knocking around in one form or another since the mid-80s. 

Unfortunately, pointing that out didn't stop Amiga owners from hating us, and it didn't stop us trolling them, and that certainly didn't stop Amiga owners telling us we had an obligation to cover the Amiga, and complaining about us to our bosses and television watchdogs, and trying to get us sacked.

I never understood it. If they wanted Amiga reviews there were plenty of magazines they could go to! Were these people also writing complaints to, I dunno, Mean Machines and Super Play?! Why us?!