Just a couple of weeks now until I appear at the Retro Revival event in Walsall. For some reason, I'm going to be doing a panel with Iain Lee, who you may remember appeared in last year's Mr Biffo's Found Footage.

Lots of other interesting people are going to be there. Dave Perry's filming his new Games Animal YouTube series, and at least two other members of the Digitiser show team will be in attendance. So, that's exciting.

I'll be on stage with Iain on the Saturday, just after lunch. Get your tickets here.

​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 to this place here: digitiser2000@gmail.com

Atari, bless, isn't exactly known for its lack of bad decisions. The company remains iconic today only due to a) Having a cool logo, and b) Having once been the biggest games company on the planet. Indeed, at one point you didn't play video games - you played Atari.

Until, you know... E.T.,  video game crash, Atari ST, Lynx, Jaguar, oblivion... blah blah blaaaaaah.

Of course, Atari today is only Atari in name. It was bought by Hasbro in 1998, then Hasbro was bought by Infogrames in 2001, and then in 2003 Infogrames changed its name to Atari. It's a bit like, I dunno, changing your name to that of somebody you just bought a car off, and then turning up at their place of work and insisting to their boss: "I got this, for I am Grahem!"

"Do you mean 'Graham'?"

"...For I am Graham!"

It's a classic Ship of Theseus paradox; if something has had its components changed so many times, can it really be considered the same thing? The people responsible for "classic" Atari's decisions - both good and bad - are long gone. 

Unfortunately, along with the name, logo, and a back catalogue of games, the new(ish) Atari also seems to have inherited its predecessor's knack for doing things which everybody but them can see is a really awful idea. 

I'm specifically referring to the Atari VCS. No: not the original one. This new one that they announced last year as Ataribox, and that they're crowd-funding on Indiegogo starting May 30th. Yes: a major corporation is resorting to crowdfunding to make a thing - that's how confident they are that there's a market for it!

And they should have doubts, because this new Atari VCS is essentially a living room PC, which - as  many other companies have learned to their peril - is something that nobody ever seems to want. 

GUEST REVIEW by SUPER BAD ADVICE

​It’s hard to know where to start with something as left-field as Nintendo’s Labo kits. There’s the games, the ‘build’ experience, the extras, the genuinely fun little ‘how it works’ videos, and all the other Easter eggs and bells & whistles. Like the kits themselves, it’s not so much one thing but loads of parts all coming together into one hearty ‘activity soup’.
 
There is something I need to mention straight away though: this soup is PIPING hot. If you’ve come here expecting to see a cynical beatdown administered to a ‘silly cardboard kiddies toy’, then I’m afraid you will be horribly disappointed. Also: you are probably a joyless sack of curmudgeonly grump. There, I said it.
 
Because that’s the biggest thing about Nintendo Labo. Yes, it may be bits of card and that, but it’s all been distilled out of drips of more or less pure joy.

Everything has to start somewhere... even this sentence, which began with the word "everything". And also ended with it. 

However, some of the biggest game franchises in the world are now almost unrecognisable from the games which started them. Here are ten such examples.

​That's right, kids: it's another exciting Digitiser listicle!