Violent Retribution

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Adam Randall

Back in 2009, my friend Ben Wood and I were involved in a little bit of a misunderstanding. I don’t want to divulge too many details, but there was an ill-considered comment here, a hurt feeling there and we ended up inadvertently upsetting somebody (the folly of youth!). The upset person then told a friend of theirs, who, one break time at school, wanted to have a ‘word’ with me and Ben.

We went over to see him, and the first thing he did was grab us both by the neck and lift us into the air intimidatingly. He was quite impressively strong, you see.

“Hello,” I said and smiled, trying to keep to situation as pleasant as possible.

“This isn’t funny!” he shouted, which is a shame, because I wasn’t trying to be funny. He then shouted at us for a while about how we had upset somebody, and it made me feel pretty bad.

“So you are going to apologise,” he said, at the end.

“Well, yes, of course,” I said, and perhaps I should have left it there, but I carried on. “Will we get an apology from you afterwards, if we do? I mean, yes, it was probably quite stressful for them, but it could be argued that it’s also quite stressful for Ben and I to be violently grabbed and shouted at too.”

He looked at me and narrowed his eyes. At this point I got quite a bit of bad luck, because I suddenly had quite a tingle in my throat. I needed to cough. But because of the way he was holding me, I’d end up coughing right into his face and that would seem awfully rude. I thought for a second about explaining my predicament, but I couldn’t hold it in any longer and I coughed right in his face.

Before I could say anything he spat right into my eye, which was a little unpleasant. He then lifted us a little higher into the air and threw us hard onto the ground, which was quite painful. Ben and I exchanged a few “Well, that wasn’t very nice” words, and then got on with our days.

So I just wanted to share that; the story of, perhaps, the most intense conflict I’ve ever faced. And there were no lasting bad feeling, either (in case you were worried!) We made up completely with the person whose feelings we had hurt and I bumped into the other person just the other day and we had a lovely little chat.

EDIT: I have been reminded that, after being spat on and thrown on the floor, I actually got quite angry and said to the other person that I’d make a fake Bebo account of them. A rather silly thing to say (again, an example of how immature we can be when young) but, of course, I never actually did that.

(Don’t miss my latest article for SmartDating UK!)

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Colour-Blindness

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Adam Randall
People tend to have a lot of questions for me when I tell them that I’m colour-blind (that is, if they even believe me) so as it seems to be quite interesting to some people, I thought I would make a blog entry about colour-blindness and the few (very minor) ways in which it affects me.
    Right at the start of the day, what’s one of the first things you do? Well, you put on a pair of socks of course, how hard can that be? Well, pretty hard actually because it’s really hard for me to tell which socks are a pair and which ones are odd. I used to have a nice way of avoiding this problem: I’d only buy beige socks. If all my socks were beige (which just happens to be my favourite colour) I could never put on an odd pair. I had this idea in 2008 and I kept it up for quite a while, but in 2012, for some very strange reason, beige socks became very rare and now I can never find any. In fact, I wrote about this sock trouble a little once before. Sometimes I’m told by people that I’m wearing odd socks, and these are people who know why I’m wearing odd socks, so I can’t help but wonder what exactly it is they want me to do with that piece of information.
    Another thing is that I find some DVDs so hard to use. Occasionally the cursor on the menu is a very similar colour to the background, and so I can sometimes get completely lost when trying to navigate around DVDs that have large menus. So, when this happens I’ll just ask somebody else to do it for me. You’d think I could just mentally determine how many clicks are needed, but often the DVD player will miss a button press and, if that did happen I’d have no way of knowing.
    The biggest problem comes when trying to create creating visual art. As I’m sure all regular readers will know, I keep a webcomic which is mostly photography based but I occasionally need to illustrate things. I use the computer programme Paint because when you hover over one of the colours, it tells you what colour it is. This is enormously helpful. The problem is, sometimes the colour I want isn’t there, so then I write ‘Blue’ into Google Images (yes, that’s right, Paint doesn’t have blue as a default), copy and paste something from there and then use the ‘pipette’ tool to extract the colour. I know what colours things are, but I can’t identify different colours easily..
    And that’s about it really. I don’t like it when people use colour as the main way to describe things, though, I understand that that is sometimes the easiest way. For example when people don’t know somebody they might say “that brown haired person” to describe them I might struggle to understand who they mean. If I really try, I can usually identify a colour when I’m looking at it, but it’ll take a little while, and I can’t really do it well from memory, plus, unless I make the conscious effort to identify the colour of something, I’ll just never register it. They’re all minor things, but I know some people are interested in this kind of thing, so, I hope this blog entry, too, was interesting.

(Don’t miss my latest article for Avoid Drowning, which is actually a companion to this entry, being about colour-blindness in video games.)

(Don’t miss my latest article for Rice Digital. It is about the arcade era of Donkey Kong games.)

(Finally, don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)

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Bullying Documentary

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Adam Randall
I’m not really an expert video maker, no, I’m no David Tubb, so I don’t post video content very often. But, having said that, I do enjoy making videos and have very fond memories of a short film that I made along with my friend George Moore in GCSE Media Studies classes.
    For whatever reason, I had to make a little documentary on the subject of bullying in schools, which, of course, is a very serious subject, but my documentary ended up being not very serious at all. It’s a great shame that I don’t seem to have the file for it anymore as it might be something I’d like to post (I’m sure others would find it entertaining) but as things are, I’ll tell you about what was included.
    I introduced the piece and explained the forms bullying could take and so on, but I remember I had a big smile on my face the entire time and I sounded like a wonderful time (and, really, I was!) I ended this segment by saying that I wanted to show you “an example of bullying” just in case nobody knew about it, I suppose.
    The camera was then on George, who was leaning peacefully against a wall. He looks around and reaches into his pocket because, clearly, he has just received a text message. He pulls out his mobile phone and we cut to a close up of its screen and it seems he’s had the rather sad misfortune of receiving a text message that says, simply “I hate you” looking at the sender details, it was very clearly sent by me as well.
    The next bit is truly lost forever. I spoke recently about a science teacher that I liked very much and so, of course, back then I was keen to involve him in the project. I filmed an interview with him where I asked lots of questions about bullying (both in and outside of school) and he had a lot of interesting things to say. My Media teacher told me it was far too long, so I had to cut it down. So I edited it to the following:
    “Have you ever come across bullying before?” I asked, as the interviewer.
    “Umm,” he says, which was originally followed by a long story, but I cut it so that he just said “yes” and that was it. My Media teacher didn’t like it and, sadly, it had to be cut entirely.
    The penultimate scene was me outside, talking to the camera again.
    “Bullying can take many forms. There are the usual things like name calling and then there’s also…”
    But then I was interrupted when somebody ran over, pushed me onto the floor, reached into my pocket, and stole my wallet. The camera followed him as he waked away. It went into slow motion and sinister music played as he made his escape. After this, it was back to me, talking inside once again, and I gave a kind of summary (which I don’t really remember) which was followed by the credits, which were accompanied by more sinister music.
    I don’t know if I can really do it justice with words, but George and I certainly found it quite funny, as did most people we showed it too. We got a B grade for it in the end too, which was surpising, and nice. It’s quite a shame that I don’t have a copy anymore, but then, it’s exactly the kind of thing which people don’t take too much care of. Perhaps this should be a cautionary tale! Be sure to cherish your projects from your schools days.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)

(Don’t miss my latest article for SmartDating UK.)

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Trolls

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Adam Randall
Back in 2009, I always had a great deal of fun in my Science classes. Not only did I share a class with my good friends Hayley, Sarah and Laura, but I also had a rather wonderful teacher named Mr. Curtis (who might be writing an entry for this blog at some point in the future).
    As well as being very friendly and entertaining, I also had a little joke going with him where I would say that he looked like a troll and make references to trolls. This may sound a little malicious (and, indeed, is not something I would do today) but it was all in good fun and he happily went along with it. It wasn’t just me, either, another person in the class, who I was quite fond of, also went along with these ‘troll’ jokes. One thing we’d do is, when asking a questions, we’d fit ‘troll’ into words that it naturally hid within such as con-TROLL or, words that it would less naturally fit within like ou-TROLL-put. Also, we’d regularly have to make Powerpoint presentations about various areas of science, and as well as sneaking in pictures of trolls, I remember one time making an animation to so how protons and electrons worked, using lots of pictures of different bald men to represent the different things (Mr. Curtis was bald).
    Again, this may sound like I was a troublesome student, but it was all done with the utmost fondness. One time we were tasked with writing a short story which had to explain how certain chemical reactions work. In it, I wrote about a scientist called Professor Ticrus (an obvious anagram of Curtis) who created a machine to make particles big enough for people to see and it went wrong and lots of people were killed. To this day, I like to make references to Professor Ticrus in my fiction writing every now and again. I was also very pleased when, two years after leaving his class, I bumped into him and he told me that he still kept a copy of that story at his house and read it every so often for a laugh.
    I remember quite a lot from that class, a lot of the experiments and tasks we did, and I think that he is a wonderful example of a good teacher. Not only do I remember his classes, but I cherish the memories and think of them as some of the extra happy times in life. I think that is exactly what a good teacher should achieve.

(Don’t miss my latest article for SmartDating UK.)

(I wrote an article on Donkey Kong Country for Rice Digital! Read it here.)

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Moral Dilemma

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Adam Randall
It’s a little sad, I think, that at a lot of bus stops, the idea of queuing and of ‘first come first serve’ is completely forgotten. I can’t help but feel a little disappointed when I’ve been waiting for a bus for over an hour, then somebody arrives at the stop five minutes before it’s there and then get on before me and sit in my favourite seat. Because of this, I have a personal rule to always let people on before me if I know they were there first.
    But just the other day, I found my morals challenged at the bus station. I came in, and right away the bus was in the bay, waiting for passengers and there quite a few of them waiting to get on. But when the bus doors opened, nobody got on. I looked at the bus driver, he did a “get on” gesture (which everybody else must have missed) and then I looked at the waiting commuters who almost seemed like they hadn’t noticed that the bus had arrived. What could I do? Do I get on right away and look like some rude impatient person? Do I continue this dangerous game of chicken? This was a double decker bus, so by getting on first I get the seat at the front at the top (the ‘golden’ seat you could call it). I looked at the driver again, he was confused, obviously wondering why nobody getting on. Was there some moral crisis in everybody’s head? Eventually I bit the bullet and got right on. As I sat in the best seat on the bus, I wondered if I’d done the right thing. I reasoned that, had I not done so, the bus driver might have left and nobody would have got on. But this is something I can never know. What a strange event.

(Don’t miss my latest article for SmartDating UK!)

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show, either!)

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The Most Important Thing

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Adam Randall
Over the last few weeks I’ve been starting to arrange my plans for Christmas time. I know you may say that it’s a little early to be doing that, but as soon as it starts to get a little bit colder after summer, I get very excited about the idea that the most wonderful time of the year is just around the corner.
    But, anyway, essentially my plans will involve me having three (possibly four) other ‘Christmas’ days with friends, before the main actual Christmas day. One will be at a delightful restaurant named The Hungry Horse not too far away from my home, and will be had with all of my closest friends from Corsham (who I otherwise don’t get to see too often), one will be at the Nando’s in Bath (a place I have been to for many special occasions) and will be had with all the friends I made at Bath Spa University (and a couple of assorted others who don’t fit into either category) and finally I should hopefully get a chance to see my friends David Tubb and Naomi Brennan too. That’s pretty much every person who has had a significant impact on my life.
    So, I was just getting to bed the other day, when I started to think about how nice it would be if all of that went smoothly. If everyone actually turned out to be available for these events, and I had three days were I saw all of the people I wanted to just before the incredible Christmas Eve/Christmas Day/Boxing Day trilogy. That would probably be the best week of my life. I shouldn’t get my hopes up, of course, because doubtlessly at least one person will end up not making it and it won’t go perfectly, so I shouldn’t build it up so that I will be disappointed, but it will almost certainly still be very nice even if I end up only seeing a few people. It’s a nice reminder though, that the people you know are the most important things you can have in your life. I just couldn’t get to sleep with the excitement of thinking of it all.

(Don’t miss my latest SmartDating UK article.)

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Objective Reviewing

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Adam Randall
I was recently having a chat with a good friend of mine on the subject of being ‘objective’ in reviews. I realised that, as I write a lot of reviews here, I should probably make a post on my stance regarding reviews and my own personal ‘system’ for reviewing things.
    I don’t believe there is any way to objectively value a piece of art. I know some people may say “But what about pieces that do something completely new and then revolutionise their mediums?” but the thing is, when something like that comes along, later artists will adopt the revolutionary aspects and use them in their own work in ways which some people may enjoy much more. So while the piece the revolutionised the medium may be historically significant, you can’t say it’s better, indeed, taking the context into consideration like this is even rather subjective, to be truly objective you’d have to disregard everything but the art itself. The way I see it, every piece of art is loved by one person and hated by another, would either of them be wrong? I don’t think so.
    When I write a review, I always like to give whatever I’m reviewing a score out of ten, and I just want to be clear that the score is about how much I enjoyed it and not how close it is to some mythical idea of artistic perfection. My reviews are 100% subjective and I don’t want to try to be otherwise because I don’t believe it to be a worthwhile endeavour. Does that mean my reviews aren’t useful at all? Well, I hope not. I like to think that if I write about much much I like (or don’t like) something, there’s at least a reasonably sized chance that somebody else might feel the same way.

(Don’t miss my latest article for SmartDating UK on whether or not online dating is useful.)

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Donkey Kong (Game Boy)

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Adam Randall

PictureIf somebody bought this and started playing without any real foreknowledge, they may do the first one or two levels and think it was nothing more than an enhanced port of the original Donkey Kong, but that’s not the case at all. All four of the levels from the original have been nicely remade (with better graphics and control scheme) as the opening for the game, but after that there are nine whole worlds for Mario to make his way through in his hunt for Donkey Kong (who, once again, has kidnapped Pauline).

What I like quite a lot about this game is that it’s very unique. The nine worlds Mario goes through are all quite different to any of the worlds in other games; one level has you making your way through a big city, another has you chasing Donkey Kong around on the outside of an aeroplane mid-flight. Also, each level isn’t a case of getting from the start to the end, instead you are required to think a little more; Donkey Kong runs ahead with Pauline and goes through a door which he locks behind him and in each level you have to find a key and you win by bringing it to the locked door.

Another interesting thing about this game is the fact that this game has the same system for attacking enemies as Super Mario Bros. 2 which is quite different to the norm. Instead of just being able to jump onto enemies to defeat them, you either have to pick something up and throw it at them, or pick up another enemy and throw them at each other. This helps further give this game it’s own very unique feel, because while it does have elements from other games, it uses them in new ways and combinations.

I think this game serves as a grand finale for the old Mario/Donkey Kong conflict, there are nice references to the games that came before it and, frankly, this game stands a full head and shoulders above all the rest. It took me eight and a half hours to complete this game compared to the twenty minutes or so you can beat any of the others in, and I like that. It’s the only one of these games to have any real soundtrack too, and there is some very nice music indeed in some areas. I have a feeling that this game may have been made as a tribute to the early Donkey Kong games as it came out the same year as Donkey Kong Country which completely changed the direction of the series.

Overall, a wonderful little game which can feel very rewarding at times. Rating: 8.5/10

Buy it here.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)

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DK: King of Swing

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Adam Randall

PictureYou know, before I properly start this review, there’s one thing I want to say about this game; doesn’t it seem really weird that it’s called DK: King of Swing and not Donkey Kong: King of Swing? I can’t imagine why they just decided to initialise our hero’s name. Not to complain, of course, but I’ve always found that strange.

Anyway, after Rare left Nintendo it seems they were a little unsure about what exactly to do with the Donkey Kong series. There were several different new Donkey Kong games made by several different developers and all of them seemed to be trying to take the series in new, experimental directions. King of Swing is one of those more experimental titles.

The story line is pretty weak: The Kongs are getting ready for a jungle tournament, when King K. Rool comes along and steals all the medals (which they’ll be using as prizes) meaning that the whole event has to be cancelled. I know games like this are more focused on being fun than having an amazing story, but does that just seem a really pathetic evil plan?

Luckily, the game is nice and fun, so you can forgive the bad storyline. There are five worlds full of 2D levels to get through, but they aren’t just regular sidescrolling platformer stages. You need to climb upward through levels (using ‘pegs’ to grab hold of), avoiding enemies as you do so. This is nice because it’s quite unique and it means that some levels require quite a degree of skill, as the climbing can be quite difficult when you’re holding on to moving ‘pegs’. It’s all very enjoyable and it never gets too hard or frustrating. As with the original trilogy of Donkey Kong Country games, there are also a number of hidden items to find in each level, which adds to replayability. It’s just a shame there are only five worlds.

Outside of the ‘Adventure’ mode, there are also ‘Jungle Jam’ events you can play (‘Jungle Jam’ being the event K. Rool disrupted in the story mode). Here you can choose from climbing races, fights and games where you have to destroy barrels. These are quite fun, but nothing special. As a bonus, there are a selection of playable characters in this mode, including, Diddy, Dixie and Funky, with more to unlock as well, which is quite nice. This can be played in single or multiplayer, where, if you have a link cable, you can play the game against somebody else on their Game Boy Advance (and only using one copy of the game).

On the whole, it’s a nice attempt at experimentation and a welcome addition to the series. I found the soundtrack could be a bit boring, and it’s a shame that K. Rool has given up his thematic disguises, but these are small problems with what is otherwise a lovely little game.

Rating: 8.7/10

Buy it here.

(I now work for Smart Dating UK, don’t miss my first article for them!)

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Donkey Kong II

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Adam Randall

PictureWhen people think of the original Donkey Kong trilogy, they probably think it goes: Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3 but they’d be wrong because, what a lot of people don’t know is, there is actually a Donkey Kong II. This game was a Game & Watch exclusive, there was never an arcade or NES version, and this probably is a big part of why it’s been mostly forgotten. But, I have to say, this is probably my favourite Donkey Kong Game & Watch game.

Story-wise, it seems to be a repeat of Donkey Kong Jr.; Mario has kidnapped Donkey Kong (that man seems to have a nasty habit of doing that!) and so Donkey Kong Jr. sets out to rescue him. I guess a slight difference is that, this time, rather than putting DK in a cage, he held him in place with chains (one on each limb).

The game takes place across two screens, which is quite nice. You have to get Donkey Kong Jr. up to the top of the trees where Donkey Kong is held, tossing keys up along the way so that you can unlock the four padlocks which are keeping him trapped. What I quite like is the fact that you have to go through the level in both directions (both up and down) as it makes a nice change from the other early games in the series. There’s also a nice mixture of nature and technology, with electrical cables mixed in with the branches of the tree, and I find that quite cool. At times the difficulty does feel a bit unfair though, as there are so many enemies that it seems like there’s nothing you can possibly do to avoid them.

A controversial opinion, I’m sure, but this is actually my joint favourite of the early Donkey Kong games. The gameplay feels fast, it’s fun to replay and the graphics don’t look bad. What’s especially impressive is that it achieves all that as a Game & Watch title. Rating: 6/10

Buy it here.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)

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