art, illustration & design
I had the pleasure of speaking in depth about my career in the games industry with the awesome Dean from the Mean Machine Dean Podcast recorded recently with my lockdown hair and wannabe Gandalf (feeling) beard! Oh and my trusty ZZap! 64 mug courtesy of my ol’mate at Fusion RetroBook Chris Wilkins.
Before I start this post I’d like to send out a big thanks to Quang from Asobitech for putting Danny (BBC Level 23) in touch with me without whom I would not have been a guest on the show – thanks man I appreciate it! (Quang is awesome by the way check out Mao Mao Castle which I had the pleasure of playing at EGX 2019 – if you love Space Harrier you will adore this! – Check it out >>>here<<< ).
So where was I…Ah yes...BBC Level 23 – I’ve given a fair number of interviews over the years; some in print, some on the web, some as audio and a few on video, so when I was approached by BBC 3 Counties radio to feature as a guest on their Level 23 gaming show I couldn’t say no could I.
October 2019, I’m at EGX helping Matt and Mark (Branching Narrative) man their stand for their debut title “Death Trap Dungeon the Interactive Video Adventure”. Now if you follow me on Twitter you’ll know I’ve been working on this game over the past few months. One of the great things about being at one of these shows is it put faces to names and connects you with people both in and out of the industry. Good old fashioned networking I guess. 😉
One such connection was via the lovely guys at Arcade Attack (Interview here >>><<<) who came over, said hello and introduced me to the lovely chaps from a Podcast called The Waffling Taylors. We had a good chat and they asked me if I would like to be on a future episode to talk about video games along with some of the projects I’ve worked on over the years. I do like a good natter so my immediate answer was – a resounding yes.
I’m sure I’m no different to a lot of artists when it comes to my work environment. A nice hot cup of something in ones favourite mug, a comfy supportive chair, work stuff at hand when it’s needed and one of the driving forces to getting in “The Zone” is of course music!
I’ve been a regular viewer of the Retro Man Cave and the equally excellent The Back Office Show on Youtube for quite some time, so when the chief cave dweller Neil asked me if I would be interested in appearing on the Retro Island Diskettes podcast I immediately replied with a resounding YES!
After I’d accepted I then thought… would I actually be able to choose 8 tunes to take with me on the Retro Island? How wrong I was, in the end I had to shortlist my selection! It was a very close call on a couple of the tracks but I got there in the end and one thing I must say is the process really filled me with joy. I’d not listened to many of these tracks for years so hearing them again brought back memories of when I first heard them. Ahh but it wasn’t just the music, no… but memories of the people I was with, family, friends and the associated good times, all from hearing a handful of video game tunes! How cool is that? – And back in the day they said video games were a fad! Yeah…Right!
I was honoured when Chris (Wilkins) invited me to join my old Sensible mate Jon Hare to give a talk about all things Sensible Software at the recent Retro Revival 2019 event in Walsall, UK.
The thing is I’ve never actually been to a retro gaming event before so I had no idea what it was going to be like. I’d seen a few photos on line from similar events but up until this point I hadn’t attend one. Crazy right?
I’ve been a regular viewer of the Retro Man Cave and the equally excellent The Back Office Show on Youtube for quite some time, so when the chief cave dweller Neil asked me if I would be interested in appearing on the Retro Island Diskettes podcast I immediately replied with a resounding YES!
After I’d accepted I then thought… would I actually be able to choose 8 tunes to take with me on the Retro Island? How wrong I was, in the end I had to shortlist my selection! It was a very close call on a couple of the tracks but I got there in the end and one thing I must say is the process really filled me with joy. I’d not listened to many of these tracks for years so hearing them again brought back memories of when I first heard them. Ahh but it wasn’t just the music, no… but memories of the people I was with, family, friends and the associated good times, all from hearing a handful of video game tunes! How cool is that? – And back in the day they said video games were a fad! Yeah…Right!
It was my genuine pleasure to answer a few questions from the lovely chaps at Arcade Attack Retro Gaming and I thank them for asking me. It’s always nice to talk about a subject that’s been part of my life for many many years and I appreciate the interest in my work.
>>>>Check out my interview here<<<<
Before I start this little post about what this little post is all about, can I ask if you would check out Fusion Magazine , you’ll understand why in minute. All I’ll say is it’s a rather nifty publication I’ve been honoured to have written for in the past, put together by some really talented folks who all share a genuine passion for video games.
So what’s this all about then? Well a few weeks ago Chris Wilkins (Time lord and publishing wizard) asked me if I would like to write something for an upcoming issue. Ok I said what did you have in mind? Erm.. something about Cannon Fodder if you can? (…cue long drawn out pause while my brain scrambles about thinking of what to say, what to write and why the dead pixel is Theresa May still PM(correct at time of keyboard tapping – thankfully she’s going going gone!).. well maybe that last part is every day – am I alone here?)
An update to an interview I gave to the excellent Retro Video Gamer website a few years ago with answers to new questions and soem of the things I’ve been upto since.
Please check it out along with many of the other excellent interviews and reviews too.
Check the image link below… Lovely stuff..
