The Return of Nintendo - One question for you all

At last - something to look forward to. The Nintendo Switch reveal made me realise just how much we've missed the gaming giant's presence over the past few years.

Will it be powerful enough to compete with the big 2 consoles? Will the battery last long enough for a decent gaming session? Will those little controllers get lost on the train?

Yes, too many questions right now. But just one question from me:

Do we want Mario back in all his gameplay glory on a decent console, or do we want him prostituting his inheritance in a dodgy series of casual games on the fag end of tablet gaming?

Where do I sign for that pre-order?

The PiMan Speaks!

He wouldn't do it for money, he wouldn't do it for fame, but the total recluse formally known as the PiMan has been coaxed out of retirement. Why? The video explains all.

Rock Bottom

It seemed like a good idea at the time. I spent over a year of my life programming various versions of Deus Ex Machina, probably the wierdest game of all time.

So, a mere 30 years later, and the game is now packaged neatly with the sequel, the ebook and the soundtracks. How much? To you $2, if you get there fast enough. I kid ye not.

https://groupees.com/deusexmachina

Getting Quiet

Getting Quiet has had a refresh. No new recordings, but a dusting down and a tidy up. A new cover to be exact, which I'm very pleased with.

Take out the art insert supplied with the new CD version, put it somewhere to remind you to quiet your mind and follow the course.

www.gettingquiet.com is where it's at, and where you can listen to a sample too.

Or you could just buy a print or card of the artwork here.

It's a clear path to a quiet mind, you know.

How to be forgotten

We can play around with the same mediocrities in our entertainments or we can strive for something truly transformational. If we choose the former we'll be forgotten in the blink of an eye.

Thought Pollution

If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.

William Blake

News is emerging of a strange new bliss...

I may regret making this known so soon, but on the other hand I might not, and I have a funny feeling that it'll make me work on it more.

A new entertainment. Yes really.

I'd pencil in July 2011 as a release date, but you never really know.

www.enmindenlight.com

See you.

my God, it's full of fonts

it's full of fonts.

the internet that is. have you noticed yet? not just verdana and times roman, but all sorts of weird and wonderful typefaces. (and how come 'weird' is spelt that way? whatever happened to 'i before e, except after c'?)

look at the headline above for instance. nice eh? fontain dontcha know, from exljbris. unless you haven't upgraded your webbrowser lately, that is. in which case maybe you should.

it all happened in 2009.

@font-face if you need to know.

Neither a religion or a belief system, but a simple tool to quiet the mind.

Strange times call for a clarification. Getting Quiet is not concerened with belief systems, gurus or religion. While I hold my own personal views the Getting Quiet audio course is merely a tool to help quiet the mind.

As stated on the course, I believe that the mind is a tremendous asset, capable of genius. I do believe though, that there are times when quieting the mind will give a more direct, and so richer, experience of the world. There may be times when you want to experience the world more directly, there may be times when you do not.

So, to clarify: Getting Quiet aims to help you quiet the mind, when and should you so choose, to gain a more direct experience of the world. It's up to you when, if and how to use it. Peace, love and a happy 2010.

www.gettingquiet.com

new book for October release

We Live in the Spaces Between the Stars. A book of silences and spaces, to help facilitate a quiet mind and a fourth state of consciousness.

This is the first product from Getting Quiet, and surprisingly comes before the actual release of the Getting Quiet course.

More news here as it happens.

creating positive states of mind, right now

ten thousand nothings

it means nothing coming from me, of course. but ten thousand nothings make a big something, rather than a big nothing.

some people don't get to feel the sun on their skin today. some people don't get to feel the wind in their hair. some good people.

add your tweet, add your words. find out about and help free Aung San Suu Kyi here.

not john lennon - part 2

nineninenine and the ghost of john lennon

9.9.9 is the date of the remastered beatles catalogue release. God bless the beatles of course, they have brought peace love and understanding to millions, but I can't help but wonder how many people will be shelling out for music they've already bought before. It's not inconceivable that the majority of buyers will be buying the music for at least the third time. Vinyl, CD, now remastered CD. 

Not to mention the ghost of John Lennon. My evening nap in front of the tv was interrupted by a badly-spliced voice over a dodgy clip of the great man himself. Laptops for every child may be a worthy cause, but does anyone have the right to put words into a dead man's mouth? He may, if alive, have argued that clean water for all is a bigger priority - we simply don't know. Press play and weep...

20 years on - I blinked

Twas Easter 1989 - or 1988, I can't be completely sure without checking with the Foolscap Boys - and a series of remarkable things had happened. 

I had been given a considerable sum of money, and something even more valuable - total creative freedom - by young millionaires Richard and David Darling, founders and then owners of Codemasters Software.

Why? Well I'd approached them with an idea for a rockstar management game, but a management game with a spin. This one would be totally irreverent, original, and (ahem) funny. And so it was to be. 

Looking back they took considerable risks, legally as well as financially, with a game that was so different from what they - or anyone else for that matter - was producing. Richard and David were great, they found a fine young artist from Liverpool - Chris Graham - who was an excellent caricaturist, and basically let me get on with it.

They even went along with the title I wanted - A Rock Star Ate my Hamster. 

Allister Brimble provided a mind-boggling piece of music mix and match for the game and everything was going to plan. 

The first version was released for the Easter holidays, everything was set. Expectations were high.

Then Good Friday came, and the game was removed from the shelves. Throughout Britain, by at least two major chain stores. Comprehensively and stupidly.

A couple of jokes were found offensive by a store who sold gun magazines and porn. Another store jumped in nervous reaction. I checked with my local stores, and they confirmed that the game had been pulled. They didn't know when it would be back, but one offered to sell me a copy under the counter. Pah.

We lost Easter and the game peaked at number 2. You can see the offending material here.

Happy days though. And the game is still a cult today. Which leads me on to a decision I recently made. After a self-inflicted absence of around 20 years - give or take - from games writing I've decided to do it again.

Am I excited? Yes. Nervous? No.

Everything's changed of course. Will I be retro? Who knows.

Yes, everything's changed. But actually very little has. I left the industry knowing that a new form of computer entertainment would soon grace our screens. A better, more original entertainment beyond shooting, jumping and sports simulations. For every media throughout history has developed and blossomed into a fantastic field of creativity hasn't it? Comics, films - they all grew far beyond their original form and produced fabulous, breathtaking works.

So take a look at your kids. What games are they - and you - playing?

20 years. I blinked. And absolutely nothing changed.

act as though you have everything - how does that feel?

A while ago a thought crossed my mind - a strange, liberating thought which made the hairs on my neck stand on end:
'I probably have everything I need'.

I looked at the books on my shelves - 'Yeah, probably enough information for one lifetime there. No need to browse amazon today.'

I looked at the CDs in my collection - 'Oh yes, almost certainly enough great music there for one person. Something for every mood and occasion. I could live on a desert island with that.'

I looked at my family, my house, even dare I say it my bank account. Enough love, enough room, a certain amount of money. Because if you decide that you have everything, there's very little left to buy. Or to want, to lack, to be unhappy about, even if you don't really have everything after all.

There was also the thought, or the confidence that if there was something I really did want, or need, I probably had the resources to get it. Maybe not the money, but probably the means somehow, someday.

I'm certainly not rich. But I probably could be by now if I really needed to be, for what I need to do. Or I probably could be at some point if I need to be to do something I need to really do.

You know I don't think it's a matter of settling for what you have, of doing without or accepting second best. More a realization that if you can be happy now, content with where you are today, right now at this second, you've probably got life sorted out. Just for this instant we call now.

Give it a go. Decide that you have everything you probably ever need, or the means to get it.

Try on that thought for style, how does it fit, what does it do for you, right now?

How do you feel today?