∞ Vince ∞

That's some compliment. I know nothing of the hardware in the system? Can you point me to a thread where I can find out more ?

Apparently because I am dyslexic and make a few errors of my own, I am not deemed worthy of contributing here, or allowed an opinion. It's funny how some people ride in on their white horses, wielding their swords, castigating people for their fucked up behaviour, but act in much the same way outside of earshot of the baying crowds. I'll see some of you on other threads. Other forums maybe, but... I'm un-following this one for the sake of my own sanity. 321px-SunsetHikkaduwa-April2012.jfif

I quoted that review already, but it is certainly worth a second read.

And (although I don't like to start a sentence with And) I can't disagree with you. At the very least he should have known a lot of what the boy has done at the point he engaged his services. You would think that due diligence when undertaking an endeavour of the magnitude of a print book, not least the lavish affairs he puts out, would extend to at the bare minimum, a good google search. Just goes to show that some people don't give a flying fuck about anything, anything at all as long as they benefit financially. That isn't a dig at Sam, I don't even know him. It's a cold hard fact.

Fair play. Thanks for the clarification. I did have my eye on some of Sam's older books (pricey as they are) but I was unaware to the extend the rampant spud carrot was involved.

You have just joined the ever expanding club of people I have to publicly, on this forum apologise to, Steven. Sorry! For some bloody reason when reading your bit I substituted Wilkins (the boy Christopher), with Hawken (the clown). I apologise profusely, Ste'86. I have been very poorly for more than two weeks now and I think my eagerness to get back on this forum and distract myself from it all has taken its toll. Sorry pal. You advise him wisely. He is a good bloke and although he deserves the opportunity to say his bit, I think he did a sterling job on his Facebook post which has been linked here. The outpouring of support when he posted is reflective of the collective opinion here too and although I don't and never have spoken for everybody I can confidently say we're all on the same Brig aiming our cannons at the one man in a small boat that is rowing the wrong way.

Apparently he has something to do with various Bitmap Books... so...

I grew up with this image of Strider. From computer mags in the UK. So when I saw this artwork for it, for the NES (North American) release recently, I was taken aback. When I gave myself a few moments to acclimatise to it, I really like the art itself. I don't like the iffy title logo, but the picture on its own stands strong. There are a few other takes on Strider art but these two are the standouts.

There are no excuses. He has wantonly gone out to shaft people, taking no care. There are no excuses that can be made. They are 100% 'hack jobs'. Every criticism levelled is highly justified. These publications (don't want to use the B word) are thrown together word jumbles of incoherent incomprehensible shit, masquerading as a book (fuck!) written by a man who has done more leg work to put the kibosh on his own reputation and 'career' than absolutely anyone here there or anywhere. I put it to you, Landstalker that your task of reading this Finnegans Wake level gibberish is on par with the trials of Sisyphus. The thing that angers every single one of us here is the complete lack of care that goes into these things. No effort. No research. No nothing. Bad selections of games when classics would be your primary choices. He chooses to review demos and work in progress uncompleted tech demos as well which no-one seems to have picked up on. How is something that has not been completed, let alone released worthy of inclusion in an A-Z Compendium of Games. There's a Good Reads review somewhere which mentions this. I think he feels he gets more credit by doing this kind of thing, it only goes to show how little he knows. No One. Absolutely no one has reviewed any of his books going in with the intention to take them to bits. A lot of reviews on YouTube that I have seen have been very kind, overlooking a lot of the issues with them and even then the boy comes out to play and attack them with nasty comments. You don't have ANY right to do that, if, you just don't give a flying fuck, as you clearly do not, Kieren. He talks about 'creative freedom' which is a gift to anyone who is actually talented, gifted or creative but to a butcher it's just another cut of meat. The very reason why my books (which I have been working on for years) have not come out yet is I want them to be good. Had there been no quality bar I could throw out 100 books in the time he has, and, they would all be complete shit, just like his, maybe a bit better, and they would all have my name on them, but it would mean nothing. We all know putting together a half decent retro gaming book though hard work if done right is not brain surgery. Most of us who were there or took the time to learn and digest the copious amounts of information regarding the systems in question could do it. To see someone not give a flying fuck is the biggest insult because most of us know we could do a far better job than this swindler. I don't even think he plays them. He copies other reviews liberally, and he watches the videos he took from JS2 and writes about the games as he watches. Probably. What a spunkmagnet.

>Removed<

Just a friend. A friend of a friend most likely, who kinda knows everybody in the retro scene. Someone who has impeccable credentials that I trust. Lee Fogarty please do not message me. When you were on my friends list over on Facebook years ago, I thought you were a nice guy, a friend of friends but when I found out about your part in Vega+ I would prefer not to hear from you. I'm not having a go, I'd just prefer not to speak to you. Thanks.

Right, ok man. I've just had an email from someone outside of this forum telling me I am wrong, miles off, that you're actually from the east midlands and you love your Sonic. Ok. Apologies, Bob! I think paranoia has got me. You seem to have a good sense of humour, so I hope you can forgive me for well... accusing you of being a complete cunt. Sorry Bob!!!! As you have shown your face, This is me. I'm not Kizza either ______ NB:I ignored that PM by a well known user.

Yes. You are right of course. Bob was only questioning the reasoning behind and checking the facts of the claims. I've been a very silly boy here. Hands up! I owe RetroBob some beers. I'm only really here for the talk of games and stuff but had a stake in this so post here as well. I am currently discussing box artwork elsewhere, for example.

So Bob, RetroBob has proved he is not and has never been Kieren William Hawken.

I accused RetroBob of being Kizza here. In my defence I have been very poorly. Inexcusable really. Sorry Bob! If you're ever at an event in the Midlands, I'll get you a couple of pints mate. I think this might highlight the fact that KWH messes with your head so much you see him everywhere.

It didn't take long. I spotted a crack one morning, and by the end of that evening half the wall had fallen away. He's got NPD, or maybe, by the way he totally fails to acknowledge his sock accounts despite the mountainous evidence to the contrary he might even have MPD , Multiple Personality Disorder or DID as they now call it. NPD is probably more appropriate as Narcissists are very adapt at inter personal manipulation, something so far removed from the natural state of an 'Aspie' it is untrue. Of course the young Narcissus was a good looking fella and would stare at his own image constantly because he was captivated by it, how things may have been radically different had he himself looked like a podgy little potato someone had abandoned halfway through mashing it and some other person had come along and grated a bunch of carrot over the top of it, is anyone's guess.

I'd like to take a moment to apologise to @Greyfox / Darren. Back when I still thought K.W.H was a real person and not the parasite I later found him out to be, I wrote Darren a nasty message or three espousing my support and my anger at how Darren had wholehearted ripped off my friend both creatively and financially. I think I was even told that he had been stalking the boy wonder. Needless to say, after about 2 weeks of drip feeding me bullshit I snapped. I regret this. At the time I thought I was standing up for someone who was being taken advantage of and bullied; something I have always abhorred. Because Kieren is small and weedy, I felt he had been picked on and needed someone to stand up for him. Oh how my eyes have seen the light ! I know my own behaviour at the time was reprehensible and I was doing something that I hate from others. Sorry Darren. I later messaged Darren after I found out what the boy was like and he told me that he held no ill will towards him. This is a wonderful way to be, if you can manage it, I can't. I won't. Ps I wanted to put this up in public rather than just inbox an apology because being a grown up means owning up when you have been wrong, something boy wonder (I wonder why anyone paid him good money for the trash he laughingly calls copy) would never do. Having posted 3 in a row (I thought this should be separate and not just tagged on to one of the others), I am going to sit a few rounds out (the crowd cheer).

Yeah, a good shout and a decent game, Mayhem, though I'd not have gone mad and given it 94% like Zzap did. He has a unique take on the definition of the word 'unique'. hee hee hee 😊

I understood and I acknowledged. I reiterate once again my own point that I and others choose to ridicule him with names other than his own because he is incredibly touchy about it. A lot of things you say will be water off a duck's back, but to disrespect him at name level where all his pride and hubris lies is to attack him at the heart of his overblown self promoting self aggrandising Walter Mitty Billy Liar DNA character. He will be raging inside, completely irrationally. It feeds off childhood memories of bullying and ridicule and a perceived (whether real or imaginary) persecution and I personally will keep mining that c-ore. This is from the thread about ATARI GAMER magazine. But how about this for ratification of what I have just said... ______________________________________ Posted July 8, 2015 JIMBOB005: Wow Foxy, you sure do talk a lot of shit. I happen know Mr. Hawken (no S by the way) He then goes on a long winding rant about how Greyfox is completely wrong in every way, using his own first name about 50 times in the process. GreyFox goes in for one last dig at the boy, and to his heart... and he could not let that go, no no no... Which gave us this from boy blunder: Now you are really takin the piss. To which MODERATOR CPUWIZ (he who does the knocking) took an opportunity to uppercut the fucker... Posted July 8, 2015 This is understandable, since you are, in fact, Mr. Hawken. As others have said, this thread is copperplate, set in stone, cast in iron. His name is mentioned in full every day by someone and my posts are often quoted and invariably overlap with other peoples use of 'Kieren Hawken' anyway. Stop getting hung up on it, I am sure at one point one of his socks has probably made the point of needing to use his full name in this or another thread about him and other and users with good intent have taken it on board inadvertently... We all have a right of opinion, A right to express ourselves however we wish. We're all crew on the same ship aiming cannonballs at a man rowing a small boat (in the wrong direction). Aside from Steven - Ste86, who took ownership of being his friend, I can't recall anyone defending him at all. Aside from Bob. If someone, anyone takes themselves so seriously and you attack them at a base level it hits and it hits hard.

@remowilliams I've got nothing against you pal, and I acknowledged your clocking Karen's bullshit way back in time and on this thread, but the reason we are all using variations of his name is because we are all aware how much it really fucks him off. I will continue to do so as I like. This thread will soon be visible from 'cyber' space so I don't think you have any worries. The old days of using terms you wanted over and again to try to populate the spider / crawler / google database and get higher rankings in search engines are long gone and will get you penalised for it. When I was building websites (moons ago) I got a few I had built for people on page one of some of the top browsers by using the same terms over and over hidden by having the same colour background and text colour. That kind of thing is dead in the water. If you want you could start new threads and link them to this one. Use your blog or social media accounts to link here. The backlinks would do far more than what you say. If any of you have blogs, get blogging. If any of you have Facebook posts about this, throw a link or two to here in there. If you're on coding sites for other systems get links on there going. I am going to actively start to do that soon, not to pee people off, but as an aside to warn people about him. He has actively roamed the Sega-16 forum for example touting his Epyx credentials. How much of that is BS is anyone's guess, but putting him up front and centre is not a strategy that I would embrace. The EPYX brand has a great deal of good will. The Impossible Missions and Chips Challenges of the world are still remembered fondly and the association of Kieren Hawken and EPYX is on par with McDonald's recent faux pas regarding their using the song 'Rhythm of the Night' in their ad campaigns, seemingly oblivious to the fact most of us 90s music lovers know that the original number one hit of 94 was by a lady by the name of Corona. You can't make it up.

Ah right. I see what you mean now you have clarified your point. Where does this come from ? Maybe Mike Lamb the coder of the Spectrum version if I remember correctly had clocked Karen's claims of having written HIS Steve Davis Snooker.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. I can say with total confidence that he is right that it was Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior. The first game... Barbarian II has no gore. Not sure why the name changes. It takes place in a dungeon type environment. There's no blood, it's all weird Monsters. Germany in particular had a strict gore list. ( National Regulator of Media that could have a Harmful effect on Children or something like that!) Others like Mortal Kombat went on it later and if I remember rightly they told the developers to change the colour of blood, again, like they had with Barbarian. I think some of the Silent Hill's may have 'got the treatment as well'. Here in the United Kingdom we had the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. All the cartoons and films had the weapons shots edited heavily and they took out all reference and images of things like Flying Stars. In warning potential victims of your previous behaviour, you cunt. I've got a second version of Enduro Racer that I liked very much as a kid. It was on Beau Jolly Big 30. Not sure why Buggy Boy is a sub for a motorbike based racer either. Outrun Europa has a very nice motorbike section. as well as Bomb Runner (1987) Mighty Bombjack (1990) and Bomb Fusion (1989) though different has a touch of the Bomb Jacks about it as well... And that excludes Bomb Jack II. In the world of games to call anything 'unique' is a clown statement.

I've just been reading some of Karen Hawking's best ' Journalism ' - The A-Z of Commodore 64 Games Volume 1 and I agree with LandStalker, that it is a painful experience. I'm only going to break down a very brief passage, from his review of ESWAT. The self proclaimed (no one else is calling you it, Karen) 'Game Historian' fails to inform the reader that ESWAT's coin-op progenitor was called 'Cyber Police ESWAT' , despite mentioning the Cyber Suit upgrade that features prominently; in his 'review'. it's a side scrolling action styled shooting game apparently though most of us would just call it a Side-Scrolling Shoot 'Em Up or Shooter. He then goes on to mention the Atari ST and Arcade versions of Robocop specifically. For no bloody reason. As if the ST and Arcade versions are different to all over versions, which they are not. Despite what his favourite reputable source (can you guess?) says... I've played every single version of Robocop and they are exactly the same save for the obvious allowances for hardware differences. Some have brief mini-games (64) but the side scrolling fighting/shooting sections are the crux of all of them! Wikipedia's assertion of: Despite being an arcade game, numerous versions appeared for home computers and video game consoles. ? Sounds like something Karen would say. Despite! fuck right off. Most arcades got home versions because they were popular coin-ops. In 1989, Ocean released a different Robocop game that only bore a loose resemblance to the arcade.# #Bullshit. Mini games aside, they're all the same. Ok getting back to my point; Now if said Robocop were in any way a rarity in being a side scrolling shooter (and none of the other conversions were) this might be a good reference to make; as it is, it makes no sense what-so-ever. Side scrolling shooters are very much a big thing in retro gaming, am I wrong? Are there any people reading this 'book' and thinking, I don't know, I've never played a game like that before ? On top of which, every Shoot Em Up ever made is Action based. State the fucking obvious why don't you? In my 37 years of gaming, I am yet to play a laid back shooter. And finally, why use a few descriptive words which make sense when you can use lots of words you yourself (Karen) don't understand the meaning or use of and cluster them together into an untangle-able mess that the poor bastard who paid good money to read this shit will need to re-read about 30 times before they comprehend what the twat that let's face it, cut and pasted it together is trying to say ? You can tell the reviews he has lifted from elsewhere because they make some sense and in doing so stick out like a sore thumb. It's like wading through treacle for fucks sake.

I can't answer this question. There are too many variables. I'd be here all day and only have a shortlist. If I were going Atari I'd go Joust 2600. But of course that is ineligible as you put 'Computer'. Um, Bubble Bobble Commodore 64. The best 16 bit / Amiga games came in the 90s, a handful of exceptions aside. The IBM PC/compatibles were piss-poor for games and the only exception to this, off the top of my head, is the wonderful , qualifying Prince of Persia which I saw and played on a guy from school's dad's 386? in 1989.

Publisher A traditional publisher will review the content, proof read, sort all spelling and grammar mistakes. Edit the text and lay it out in a compelling and interesting way. They will add the images and do a professional job of producing a book people want to read. You can self publish. That is legitimate, as long as your proof read and edit the book to a decent standard. Vanity press From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia A vanity press, vanity publisher, or subsidy publisher is a publishing house in which authors pay to have their books published.[1] Where mainstream publishers aim to sell enough copies of a book to cover their own costs, and typically reject a majority of the books submitted to them, a vanity press will usually publish any book that a writer pays it to. Because vanity presses are usually unselective, publication by a vanity press is typically not seen as conferring the same recognition or prestige as commercial publication.[2] Vanity presses do offer more independence for the author than do the mainstream publishing industry; however, their fees can be higher than the fees normally charged for similar printing services, and sometimes restrictive contracts are required. While a commercial publisher's intended market is the general public, a vanity publisher's intended market is the author and a very small number of interested members of the general public. In some cases, authors of a book that is vanity published will buy a substantial number of copies of their book, so that they can give it away as a promotional tool Oh yes I almost forgot Was me being sarcastic. I think that preview looks terrible. Put together by a complete novice.