Well, this was a nice start to the day. Yesterday morning I heard a catchy tune coming from the living room so I popped my head in to see Kylie singing with “The Wiggles” on NickJr. They covered Monkey Man by The Specials and I have to take my hat off to Miss Minogue. Wow.
The song is full of energy, it’s happy, it’s got that “get up and go” feel. My foot was tapping as I listened. Who knew Kylie Minogue could do Ska? Dare I say it, but she does a better job of it than The Specials?
An oldie, but as they say, “a goody”. For all the Mac fans who are sick and tired of their computers crashing. (Hey Mark!)
Found this on a CD while sorting through my CDRs and music collection. Most are now ripped to MP3 and the physical media is heading into the attic for safe storage.
Why is it that most of my compilation CDs are from about 10 years ago? Does music become less relevant the older you get? I’ve never bought music online but if I do, Blue Lights on the Runway by Bell X1 will probably be the first album I buy. Love “The Great Defector”, their current single.
Get your dose of retro action in this video! The Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC 464, 1541 disk drive, Sony Walkman, D&D, Sodastream and various other memories of the 80’s all make an appearance. Might not be safe for work though. You’ve been warned! 🙂
An introduction video used for a couple of our concerts as a kick starter. A tribute to C64 and the 80s – and Benni Benassi’s “Satisfaction”
This blew me away the first time I heard it. The title tune of classic C64 game Wizball recreated by Reyn Ouwehand. You could watch the embedded movie, but for the full stereo HD experience take a look at the high quality version on Youtube. Reyn explains why he did it:
I also play this track in my C64 live-set but then I got some beats and the arpeggios coming out of Ableton Live. During the live show I couldn’t get Ableton to work and it kept on crashing on me and then Leoni challenged me to do it acoustically without the computer. And so I did….
Truth be told I never got too far in Wizball. It’s a strange shoot-em-up that has many fans and I’m strangely intrigued by it.
There’s even a remake of Wizball for the Mac and Windows. I’ve played it on the Mac and it’s brilliant. The title tune (by Infamous is spot on, graphics are stunning, and gameplay is as I remember it. Very odd and just a bit frustrating and hard.
You can read more about Wizball here or even download the original game on the Commodore 64 too.
Well, the Irish economy is tanking and is heading towards recession. Last time things were this bad was in the Eighties so here’s a few memories from that decade. After yesterday’s rather technical post, I need a nice squeaky throw away nostalgic one today.
I love to play Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii. The cartoon graphics, unusual planet based locations and gameplay make it really fun to play. It’s also relatively easy but I’m really stumped by Sweet Galaxy. Unlike every other galaxy in the game it’s a merciless obstacle course where Mario has to jump over gaping holes that move. Mistakes are cruelly punished and it is the most frustrating level I’ve played on any platform in a long time.
I even left the Wii switched on all day yesterday because I made it halfway through, but the final third of the level defeated me each time. Grrr.
Anyway, if like me you’re ready to give up on Super Mario Galaxy because of this level, here’s proof that it can be completed. I’ll try it again, once my left hand thumb recovers from twisting the nunchuk around.
(via)
In related gaming news. Boom Blox was fun for a while, but boy does it get boring quickly. Worse thing is, I paid the 20 Euro surcharge Irish shops charge for supporting local business. I could have bought it on play.com for 41 Euro, but Gamestop and Xtravision were both charging 59 Euro. Damn my need for instant gratification!
Back to Mario Kart Wii methinks.
Judging by the reaction on Twitter, Wii Fit hasn’t been a big hit with my friends there. When Mario Kart Wii came out there was much excitement. I happily twittered when I bought my copy, others replied asking what the game was like, or that they were going to buy it the next day “for their family”. Lots of fans there.
So, you’ve bought Wii Fit. Have you filmed yourself and put it on Youtube yet? Are you brave enough to? 🙂
Of course, Wii Fit has sold over a million units. There must be a Wii Fit user reading this. Is it really fun? Will it last?
I’ve always wondered, ‘What really happens behind the scenes at Google when I hit the “Google Search” button?’
(via Scott)
Xenon 2 Megablast. If you know this game, you’ll know the soundtrack. This game by The Bitmap Brothers had great title music by “Bomb The Bass”. It was a shoot ’em up released in 1989 although I didn’t play it until years later when I played it on the Atari ST and years later before I’d play it on the Amiga. The Amiga version is widely regarded as the best version and if you look around you can find the adf download fairly easily.
Hand on heart, I have to admit I didn’t like this game much. I love the genre and I’ll happily blast away at Armalyte(C64) or Raiden(Arcade) but Xenon 2 just never did it for me. I do love the soundtrack though!
Here’s a longplay of Xenon 2 in WinUAE. It’s over 48 minutes long but watch a bit of it and you’ll get a taster for the gameplay!
The Bitmap Brothers have created an updated Xenon game, Xenon 2000 but it’s Windows only so I’d love to hear from anyone who has tried it! As luck would have it, someone has created a video of the new game. It’s more a demo than anything else by the looks of things unfortunately.
So, what are your favourite shoot ’em ups? In no particular order mine would probably be:
Geometry Wars Galaxies is almost there but it’s too new. I’ll have to wait a few years before I decide if it goes on the list or not!
“Léim Thart” le Des Bishop ag canadh ag Oireachtas na Samhna 2007 i gCathair na Mart. It’ll be on RTE 1 tonight on “In the Name of the Fada” at 10:15pm if you want to catch a probably better version. I can barely make out any of the song in any of the Youtube videos of his performances I watched this morning!
Fair dues to him for taking on the Irish language. Takes a foreigner to show the Irish how to make it popular! 🙂