This is the US NES version of the Famicom game Dragon Quest. It was never released over here in the UK, and I didn’t even hear about it at the time. I first encountered RPGs reading about them in Super Play magazine for the SNES.
This is a Game Boy Advance remake of the original Metroid for the NES. I’ve never finished the NES one since I always get lost, it lacks the map of Super Metroid and the graphics aren’t detailed enough to make the areas as distinct. I’ve finished this one a couple of times now, and it’s excellent. It’s a pretty short game like all Metroids, but the whole thing flows so smoothly and there is no padding.
I borrowed this from the library as an audio book. It’s written by the professor of AI at the University of New South Wales. Despite that, it’s not particularly technical or even all that in depth. It’s an overview of the current state of AI, the hype around it and the issues around its use.
This is the 1994 Game Boy version, not the original 1982 arcade machine or any of the ports. It starts as if it was a simple port of the original game, but quickly becomes so much more than that. After you finish the first four levels you are taken to a map screen where you chase Donkey Kong in an attempt to rescue Pauline across groups of four levels. In the first three levels of each group you need to find a key, then carry it to an exit door. Each fourth level is a boss fight against Donkey Kong.
This is the Master System version rather than the Mega Drive one. I’d never really played it before, but had heard comments that it is better than the 16bit version. I did enjoy it quite a lot, but I don’t believe that to be the case at all.
This is the last full length Rincewind novel in the Discworld series. There are two main plot threads, one being Rincewind stranded in XXXX, a continent parodying Australia which has yet to settle in as it was added by the gods after the others were already there. The other features the faculty of the Unseen University trying to locate Rincewind hoping that he can help cure the librarian of his illness that causes him to change shape (Rincewind is the only person who knows the librarian’s name). The wizards end up stranded on a deserted island thousands of years in the past inhabited by strange and unique animals and plants created by the god of evolution.
I had this as a part of the Mega Games 2 cartridge for my Mega Drive as a kid. Mobygames says that it was only available as a pack in with the Mega Drive 2, and never for sale separately. I must have bought it second hand as I had the original model with the headphone socket on the front.
The Colour of Magic is the first book in the Discworld series, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read it. The book is structured as a collection of four loosely connected novellas following the adventures of the inept wizard Rincewind and the tourist Twoflower. Despite having read it numerous times, I still found myself laughing out loud at its silliness.
This is a part of the Discworld series, featuring the Lancre witches and a family of Vampires. Magrat and Verence are now married, and have had a child. Verence invited the vampires to Lancre for the christening. They begin taking control of people’s minds and as such the town itself.
This is the last Discworld book centred around the City Watch, although most of the story focuses on Vimes on holiday at the Ramkin’s estate in the countryside. There’s not much in the way of a holiday happening though as Vimes is dragged into a criminal conspiracy around the exploitation of goblins.
This is a story set in a future where antibiotics are no longer effective due to overuse. People over the age of seventy are refused healthcare and end up in hospitals called waiting rooms.
This is a cute indie game where you solve people’s problems by taking photos of things. It’s almost entirely in black and white, with a very charming art style. It features an overhead third-person perspective, 3D graphics, and a rotatable camera.
This is a game I got in a Humble Bundle. I hadn’t heard of it before and have just got around to playing it. It’s a story-focused single screen puzzle platformer, on each screen you need to figure out how to get to the top right using a series of platforms. There are several different types of platforms that behave differently, from disappearing after you jump off them to teleporting you to another with the same pattern.
I listened to this on Spotify. I started before he actually became Prime Minister, but just got around to finishing it now. On election night, I stayed up most of the night, going to bed as Labour hit the 326 seats needed to become a majority and Jacob Rees-Mogg lost his seat.
This month’s pick for the Dystopian Novels Book Club. I’ve read it before, but so long ago that I’d forgotten most of the details. In it, a group of boys crash land on a deserted island and attempt to build a society with each person filling different roles. Throughout the course of the book, this all falls apart, descending into arguing, fighting, and eventually murder.