∞ Vince ∞

Previously on this channel I made an allusion to the fact that Kieren ripped of the whole concept for all his A-Zs from a book that was put out in 2013 by Justin Kyle. The A-Z of the Atari 2600: Volume 1 Justin Kyle (2013) Kyle put his book out in 2013. Having just arrived through the post (paperback) and having had a brief flip through it, I can confirm that the layout and style is pretty similar, with a main image and the review summary. Though the Kyle book uses an image of the Box above the main text of each review and then uses good sized in game images as well. It has that, I wrote this in word and imported the pics (same as KH) feel about it (because lets face it neither of them has a fucking clue how to use inDesign) The Kyle book acknowledges both the author of the game specifically and the publisher/copyright holder at the time of release. Something Hawken's doesn't. The book also features a list of the top ten best selling titles as well as a Q&A with Nolan Bushnell halfway through, which I thought was a very nice touch. It seems to have most of the big titles released covered (about 45?) and I couldn't spot any glaring omissions. This seems to be the book Kizza wanted but failed to reproduce with his special brand of incompetence. Might be worth a look. He got a copy of this book and went 'I could do that!' and he did, badly.

So this is one of the reviews out there on the webs done by ataricompendium.com so I think it is fair to reproduce it here. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ • A Compendium of Atari 2600 Games Hawken, Kieren 1-789-82130-4; AG Books; July 10, 2019; $14.99; 168p; PB. Notes: The book notes it's unofficial and unauthorized. It should also note that it's uninformed and unnecessary. The back cover starts with "The Atari 2600 might not have been the first ever games console." There's no "might" about it; it wasn't the first. It also states "The first game arrived in 1977 with the last being released in 1992, an incredible 15 years later." Well, the first games arrived in 1977 - 9 of them - and exactly 0 games were released in 1992, since the system was discontinued on January 1st, 1992. The cover also notes this is the first volume. If the rest of the book is as disjointed and incorrect as the back cover, this should be the first and last volume. Much like books from Michael D. Salzman, Kieren Hawken is trying to capitalize on people's interest in vintage console and computer systems. Hawken is responsible for over 30 (!) quickly thrown-together books, all of which were released within a year's time. Most of his books are available as Kindle versions for $2.50 - $3, and they're not even worth that.

If Kizza's accounts had been hacked, the hacker would have either changed the passwords and locked K out of them, or posted something indicative of the hack. I'm out now.

Not affiliated with KH, ho ho ho; so why would you mention this ? and why the obsessive tweets quoting this forum thread specifically ? Why is someone who has no link with Hawken so concerned with him getting his comeuppance ?

Yes, you are right but the fact is that as the 1st true 32 bit console it should have got at least a 3. i don't see why people (you, others) get so bloody pedantic. I did mention the boy himself and his obsession with Atari. The thing is, to have free and open discussion you will sometimes vie into side-roads occasionally, the knack is to pull things back when they go far far away. People who jump up and go 'Stay on topic stay on topic!' put possible posters off mostly.

Not to bang on about those systems cards, but, they all look crap; a middling idea executed badly. What classic gamer of his salt does not know pretty much everything they contain verbatim ? Cool factor, fuck right off. What are you, 8? What dickhead did these anyway ? The Amiga CD32 was both the first CD based system to see a release outside of Japan (FM Towns Marty, which wasn't even popular in Japan, mainly due to its price) and the first console to be 100% 32 Bit (Marty has a 16bit data bus), they gave it 1/10 for innovation. These people are paid coin of the realm for this shit! On a Kizza the Jizza note, even these would have made him angry / cry... On one hand he would have creamed himself over The Atari Lynx getting 10/10 for Innovation, and on the other he would have blew a gasket for his beloved Jaguar to only get a 3.

Yeah, I take on what you are saying, but there will be randoms who love retro who don't deserve what would come their way. I have however been working on something slightly different that quotes the reviews but does not specifically attribute them to anyone or any site they may be on. It will be worth the wait.

I really wish I was this informed when he popped up at the man with the top hat's (very enjoyable) game event the last time I was there. I'll admit to being distracted though as not only did I bring a guest I also saw some very good friends there. I had no time for his old nonsense so zoned him out. Sat there bitching while we all tucked into a pizza. ____ I've got a big personality and I make a lot of noise. I have a deep voice that cuts through any room and I have lots of opinions which I freely put forth irrespective of who the audience is or if they offend. I won't go out of my way to make friends. I don't like a lot of people. That's by intention. I don't have time for idiots or sycophants. I like people who are clever, funny or talented. I stand my ground. I respect people I don't like. But I am quick to admit when I am wrong. Hold my hands up. In short I am a contradiction. But I am a good person and I do like people. I'm make a good friend, but a terrible enemy. Despite my faults there is one thing that I do not stand for it is misogyny and the abuse of women. You could call me a lot of names and people have. In some cases they are justified, but the truth is I love and respect women, always have; plus I don't like bullies. I might not be the sharpest tool (I recon I'm a screwdriver. Not sharp enough to kill you, but good enough to puncture a lung.) but my own intellect let alone that of some of the people I know would obliterate him in a debate, on Twatter or no. This is the exact reason why people do indeed call Twitter Twatter. Kieren is that person! The hate fuelled loser turned bully who in real life would not say boo to a goose, though why people insist on confusing poultry with ghosts is beyond me. So... He's put on a fair amount of weight recently. Now I won't knock people for gaining weight, I'm on the big side myself, but one thing I do know is that over-eating on the regular is a tell-tale sign of unhappiness. Kieren is not happy. Notoriety has not brought about copious money, fame or happiness. He doesn't have any friends beyond the nutters that roam the internet looking for someone to bully. He has been a person of ridicule for many years. He has no credibility talent or personality. Talking to keiren is like listening to the sound of a garbage disposal trying to chew up a spoon, It is highly irritating and you're not convinced what you are listening to will have any positive outcome, and you walk away with an uneasy feeling, something's not right. Even Microsoft Word hates him. Every time I put his name in it suggests the proper spellings of his first name ! He is the only person I have ever known to have that spelling. Talking of his mum. If she knew the kind of sickening despicable things he has been saying about women I should think she would be aghast at his cruelty. I don't have anything against her. She might be a lovely woman, probably is. That gets us to another point... what about his wife ? Christ. If he is like this on a public forum like the internet, I can't think what kind of crap that poor mare gets on the daily, in private. You could say that is unfair, but as he's fucking unhinged I shouldn't imagine she is the one person who he reserves for special treatment, or his kids. I heard recently he has kids. My only thought is that I really feel for them. That isn't below the belt, that is a fact. I feel for anyone who has to spent a lot of time with him and TBH I hope she leaves him and takes the kids, that way they might have a chance of a moderately happy life away from his repugnant behaviour. ____________ Oh yeah, I was going to put up all those reviews I was banging on about. The only reason I have not done so is that it occurred to me that I couldn't bring myself to throw innocent people in his line of fire. They paid good money to write freely about the product they paid for, though to suddenly be a targeted by Hawky the Stalky would be a truly unfair thing to do to anyone.

I wonder how many times he can keep doing this, 'changing all his profile pics to black' when he feels sad and feels he hasn't got his own way, Or disabling but not deleting all his accounts, only to keep popping up like an unwanted turd at the exact moment you though he had gone round the U-bend. I know he went round the bend a long time ago but sadly he's not been flushed away. I've seen more maturity from toddlers.

And no, I couldn't be bothered to sort the numbers correctly.

KWH, tell me something. How did you know that was my review of Shaun's book ?

Game production is that a reference to that time he was "representing" Epyx over on sega-16. ? What happened with that in the end. It seems to have just faded out.

Compulsive Liar.

I just struck on an idea for a simple Bot that would accept a text document and search in block sections (say it would chop out a sentence) for EXACT matches online, surely that would bring up all the misappropriation Hawky the Stalky / Kieren Hawken has been guilty of all this time ? I wonder what the numbers (%) would be for wikipedia. It would be a fairly trivial thing to code. But do I hate him enough to bother...

I wonder how much of this. Which came out back in 2013, Kieren Hawken stole and put into this. Clearly even the idea of these A-Zs isn't original.

No, none of them are by Kieren Hawken of that I am certain. There is mention of some of his socks throwing 5/5s about but I acknowledge those and discount them from the mean average scores. I didn't get round to finishing up today, but I will. Some of these reviews are quite damning, as is to be expected considering the quality of what we are talking of here. Just found out KH has me on his stalking list as well...

I'm very tired because (for various reasons) I've been up all night. But, I've got some good stuff to follow later today. Who wants to read some of the reviews out there that were not written by Kieren Hawken ? I know there are a handful on amazon. Some by yours truly but I just hit the ' motherload ' in this regard elsewhere. I've collated a whole bunch of these together and will finish up and post later.

So I was skimming about the other day and was reminded of when Kieren was over on atari-forum and was using the Retro Gamer name (and magazine cover) as his user-name (taking liberties from the very get-go) and was asking other forum users for suggestions of ST only games. Top Retro Gamer Atari Retro freak Posts: 13 Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2012 2:40 pm Location: South England Contact: Contact Retro Gamer Atari Re: Retro Gamer Mag: Need Some Help On ST Exclusives! At this time I had not had any interactions other than a brief chat when I went to one of my first retro events (IIRC). I would have thought someone who was such a knowledgeable die-hard Atari fan would have had a big list of games in mind already (aside from his pre forum wikipedia raid). So you get a few well intentioned replies and you get a couple of 'you're a journalist, do your job' type things. Which was a fair hit considering he was 'chosen' to write this article (due to his supposed incredible knowledge of the system!). So let me get this straight, in my mind; 🎯 This self proclaimed ' Expert ' and ' Video Game Historian ' who had a 520STfm as a kid was totally oblivious to the outer game scene beyond his ST. By which I mean: He can't have been buying and reading the Multi Format mags like the original The One 16 Bit , Zero and Ace and others which I should imagine would have made a point of the fact that those games were ST exclusives when reviewed, or at least in passing in issues down the road. Or even ST/Amiga Format - all of which you would have thought made a point about the ST exclusive even only on the basis that they were rare. Even the playground banter would have brought up a few ST exclusives in the [Format Wars] ' St / Amiga ' edition. We used to use that kind of thing as fodder. The Olli & Lissa II: Halloween game was one that was regularly thrown my way in the 'Spectrum / C64' version for example; where I would happily throw back (original) ' Last Ninja ' say. I can't off the top think of any major ST only games I remember back in the day, but I also appreciate I came to the Amiga late in the day in mid 91 when the ST was on its way out. I'd have and do know the Amiga exclusives. But if they were there he (Video Game Historian) should know! Not coming from the Atari side my appreciation has been much more recent and I am inclined to bow to people's superior knowledge of a subject or system that I am much less familiar with. If I don't know, then tell me, I'm interested. That's my attitude. Feels like Kieren Hawken just decided one day to pick an outsider. Then bang on about it, bully Jones until he gave in into giving him a piece; then went over to that forum, took people's suggestions. Gerbil then goes scurrying back over to youtube and wikipedia (his favourite go-to 'reputable source') then knocked out the article. Once he had therefore established himself as a contributor to let us not forget, the ' Award Winning Retro Gamer ' he built and built apon it until he had a small but loyal band of weirdos and nutjob sycophants (as well as his cabal of puppets / split personalities) he changes track and started pumping out 'books' for all the popular formats. When I had met him he was all 'Jaguar', had no time for any system that wasn't Atari. Used to throw about the most ridiculous nonsense about why he hated the C64 and others... Let alone his thoughts on the 'Lynx'. Chewing people's ears off over the Jaguar and his supposed superior knowledge and found yourself just agreeing with him and zoning out, only to now realise that even then he was talking utter shite and didn't have a fucking clue. I suspected as much as time went on and we become facebook friends, but I thought at the time, well he knows more than me because my exposure to Atari systems had been quite limited. I had a 2600 and until recently that was it. I'd followed all the games though. I DID buy the magazines I devoured them. Recently I've got really into the A8 series and my own 800XL. Anyway just a little revelation on my part really. Everything he has ever said from the very beginning was complete and utter shite. I don't know if he got bullied at school, but I bloody hope so. ______________________________________________ I don't know user remowilliams , but I'll give him credit for calling out Kieren back then. One of the defending members of the forum was Greyfox™, who subsequently had his own choice interactions with the boy himself ! Despite the implication of his user-name / profile pic combo, His first gig for RG only appeared in issue 105 (published in August 2012) - If that wasn't a bloody big red flag, then what was ? the issue that claimed the Atari ST an Amiga Beater (make of that what you will). I only came to know all this 'previous' apon falling out with him after the ROM fallout. I knew there was something a bit odd about him but I couldn't put my finger on it.

I've just noticed something. If you do a search 'site:wikipedia.org kieren hawken' it becomes apparent that someone has been systematically linking / using his A-Z titles as sources even though they are nothing of the sort. They are also quoting his opinions of games as if he is some credited authority. The problem here of course is those people who go to wiki and read about these games then go buy his book. Now that is ironic really as most of the content of those books is lifted directly from wikipedia

This is an extract from that Review Fix (Never heard of it) interview from before that I posted a link to, with a big picture of the boy himself and the book he was hawking removed. I've just chopped together the most choice quotes. If you hold in mind his almost split personality levels of Sock Puppetry and the fact that he writes the reviews for his own books, this makes good reading.

Wow! NIiiice! 😄

I was trying to think of nicknames for Kieren Hawken the other day but gave up not because it was too difficult but because it was too easy. Shooting fish in a barrel. I've got dozens. But what I really find quite funny is how his surname Hawken derived from Hawking, I assume, to Hawk.