The review of A-Z of Atari ST Games Volume 3 book RetroLaird is trying to delete!

[+Sauron]

4 hours ago, Lost Dragon said:

It was back in early 2015 when i had emailed Romero, Stalker Hawkens had seen John's reply and went into full-on discredit mode.

 

Kieren had met him at event X, chatted with him (cue obvious greater credibility than a mere exchange of emails) and went onto try and say we shouldn't go too much off what Romero was saying about the limits of the Jaguar hardware, Romero wasn't much of a coder.

 

Imagine having to take that claim to John? 

 

 

Well i did and again he was kind enough to reply:

 

From John Romero to my inbox:

 

'Well, that's hugely incorrect. I've been a coder since 1979 and programmed dozens of games before meeting Carmack. Coding 8-bit machines means you're a hardware guy. I've built transfer cables between the Apple II and C64 and coded the 6502 to transfer data between them, not to mention coded in 6502 daily for almost 10 years.

 

Regarding Doom I coded the map editor, DoomEd, in Objective-C on NeXTSTEP then coded a ton of Doom in C (every environmental effect: lights, switches, doors, platforms, slime, etc), the save/load code, all tools, installer, etc.

 

Jag Doom was coded by me, Carmack, and Shawn Green. John did the 3D engine port, AI, and I did the rest. Shawn did a little bit too. We finished it pretty quickly.

 

Doom's vertical span-blitter was made for the PC's hardware only. That's why it was tough getting the Jag to run it fast enough.'

 

That's just straight up embarrassing. I don't know John personally, but I know several people who know him quite well, and all have had nothing but praise not only for his kindness, but for his coding prowess. Kieren embarrasses all of us with his antics, just due to our mutual association with the Jaguar community.

 

[Lost Dragon]

@Sauron :Isn't it just?

 

Imagine having to return to an industry figure John's standing, having gracefully thanked him for his time and information,  to say to him, your really sorry to trouble him, but, erm, his statement has caused someone who works for a supposedly respectable magazine, somebody who John himself has spoken with ( and by Kierens logic, no doubt classed as a personal friend), to basically TROLL HIM..:$ 

 

 

If you were lucky, the industry individual would of had previous dealings with Kieren, one who i will not name, described Kieren as "Barking Mad". 

 

You'll remember him Kieren,  he asked you why you constantly played the Victim? and you responded by blocking him on social media, you still ran around social media describing him as a personal friend mind..

 

 

It's not just industry people's time he has pissed away though is it?

 

Atarimania had to delete a slur by Kieren on their FB comments page by Kieren after they promoted my Jim Gregory interview (irony not lost on me there either, as Gregory turned out to be just as big a revisionist and bullshitter as Kieren, hence the interview being pulled).. 

 

 

Luca (Unseen 64) had to delete lord knows how many misdirection,  feet stamping and whatever else current mood was, from one of Kierens then familiars, because Wahhhh, i had credible Atari information he didn't. 

 

Said familiar ISP was put on instaban on GTW as well.

 

It's this pathetic and utterly twisted behaviour that has seen many of us think F##K THIS SH#T and stop researching and helping other folks projects for free.

 

We were never going to see you loose your precious RetroGamer magazine work Kieren, we all KNEW you'd F##K that up good and proper all by yourself and you did yourself proud.

 

The fact you've in essence wiped your arse with the good will of the Atari community,  what was your thinking? with Marty Goldberg having taken a step back, the new Atari Inc book on long term hold, you had a chance to establish yourself as the Atari authority? 

 

Not with your levels of effort and research you weren't. 

 

But yeah, Golf clap is yours, you've taken my childhood and teenage years of growing up with Atari and poisoned them to the point i don't even want to conjour up the name, for fear of remembering some bullshit you sprouted in relation to it.

[Lost Dragon]

Another example of Kieren in his prime.

 

New poster arrives on RG forum,  thinks Paradroid was started on PC Engine,  Laird jumps in to correct him, using exchange from a COMMUNITY interview WE did with Andrew Hewson on RVG, quotes the question I put to Andrew as Rogue Trooper as i was known on there,along with Andrews answer, but kieren claims interview as HIS ( you sent the questions and put up the replies, the community put forward Q's)... 

 

Here's how it ended up:

 

 

 

The Laird

Re: Paradroid on the PC Engine

Post Sat May 31, 2014 7:27 pm

Mallo wrote:So what if you're a writer for the magazine? Does that make you right? It doesn't make your original post any less embarrassing for you (including your childish comment "I was trying to help you, I won't bother in future.")

I didn't even say I was, somebody else told you that so get your facts straight, I am certainly not the one playing the big I am. Your arrogance is astounding it really is.

EDIT: I also don't appreciate the barrage of abuse you are sending me via PM - and you are calling me childish! 

My Digital Books | Laird's Lair | XEGS Podcast

 

Re: Paradroid on the PC Engine

 

 

Darran@Retro Gamer

Re: Paradroid on the PC Engine

Post Sat May 31, 2014 8:08 pm

I'm with Mallo. I'll take the word over the person who made the game over anyone else.
I'm sure Mallo didn't realise that website belonged to you. If he did, then yes he was rude. I like to give all new members the benefit of the doubt though.

 

 

 

Mallo

Re: Paradroid on the PC Engine

Post Sat May 31, 2014 8:32 pm

Darran, thank you for being fair. I had no idea the website was his, and even said in my previous comment that my criticism of the website was meant affectionately.

Although I've got no bones about the website itself my point was that I couldn't trust the information on it.

I think that one line in RG 125, about Paradroid on the PC Engine, was very exciting to read and I am keen to know more. To be dismissed in the first reply of my thread was hugely disappointing and left me thinking that people would read that response and not bother commenting any more.

Thus my upset-ness 

Sorry if I offended anybody.

 

 

 

You can't hide your behaviour towards others Kieren. 

 

There are now too many examples,over too many years  concerning too many individuals. 

Edited February 11, 2020 by Lost Dragon

[Lost Dragon]

Another name.. 

 

Another example 

 

(#I.P Marks himself had been a contributor to RG magazine himself at one point)

 

This one has it all,Kieren in full on YOU ARE WRONG mode,chest beating mode ( I knew more than Marty Goldberg), Kieren taking constructive criticism on one of his articles as a personal attack.

 

Text book stuff.

ianpmarks

Re: Why do you buy Retro Gamer?

• Quote

Post Sat Sep 06, 2014 4:10 pm

The Laird wrote:

ianpmarks wrote:Firstly it is really starting to repeat articles now - case in point being the Atari 7800 article. We have been told the story of that machines development over and over in RG, I could pretty much write the article from memory. It was well written, yes, but it didn't add anything new.

I tend to stay away from stuff like this these days, but sorry you a just plain wrong. There was a lot of stuff in my 7800 article that was not in Marty's previous article. Not only did I read it first before writing my own but also spoke to Marty myself on numerous occasions. I even discovered a bunch of interesting info that even he didn't know and now wants to include in the next Atari book. The programmer of Ninja Golf had never been interviewed before and believe me when I say that game is legendary among fans of the system. It was also great to discover a huge amount of info about a lost 7800 game, especially one attached to a quite high profile (for the time) licence. Marty's article was much more technical than mine and focused very much on the history. It also, understandably, had more of a US slant. Mine was geared towards a European perspective and had more focus on games and the incredible homebrew scene the system has.

Also: Regarding EFTPOTRM - it actually does talk about gameplay and this was something several people at the time said they liked about it. The reason I did include that element was because a few people had been asking for that and so it was very much on my mind. I tried to strike a happy balance between the two.

I'm not getting into an argument with you. Stop treating critiques of articles as personal attacks. I wasn't even aware you had written both of them, as don't really bother seeing who wrote what. Why would I? I particularly love the comment 'I tend to stay away from this stuff...' and then you proceed to launch into a long comment about how wrong I am.

To me the 7800 article felt like it had been done before. How can I be wrong about how I feel? I already felt I knew most of the information. I don't read other retro magazines or blogs, so a lot of it must have been in RG in some form - either Marty's article you talk about, or other articles about Atari in general or 7800 games.
As to EFTPOTRM I said it taught me nothing about the game. That's the impression I got of the article. That's what I took away from it. Again how can that be wrong. In my defence even Darran mentions in his reply to me that I raise an interesting point with EFTPOTRM. I really didn't think there was much in the article about how the game played.
Anyway they were just my thoughts... feel free to try and convince me that my thoughts and personal opinions are incorrect.

Top

The Laird

Re: Why do you buy Retro Gamer?

• Quote

Post Sat Sep 06, 2014 4:13 pm

I didn't take anything personally, I merely replied stating a few facts. End of.

My Digital Books | Laird's Lair | XEGS Podcast

Top

ianpmarks

Re: Why do you buy Retro Gamer?

• Quote

Post Sat Sep 06, 2014 4:18 pm

The Laird wrote:I didn't take anything personally, I merely replied stating a few facts. End of.

I see. Yours are 'facts' whilst I am just plain wrong. Brilliant.
Despite your 'facts' I still think my opinions on the magazine are valid.

 

[Bliz71]

Hello everybody. I just registered so I could post here.

Brief intro: I'm a video game artist and started my career in 1988 ( my mobygames entry ) . I never did any work for 8bit Atari machines but did a lot of AtariST work. I did most of the original graphics for Prophecy: The Viking Child (while working for Martin Hooley). 

 

Before you read further, I don't have anything salacious to add, I just thought my experience with Kieren as someone on the outside of the retro scene might be interesting.

 

Anyway back in early 2015, on an Imagitec FB group a guy called Kieren pops up and asks for info on Viking Child because he's writing a RG article about it. I comment about my involvement and say I'm happy to answer any questions about my involvement and time on Viking Child.

 

We become FB friends and he sends me a word doc over FB messenger that has a list of questions on it. Probably egotistical of me but I was expecting him to ask me for a skype chat so he could ask me questions directly but ok, a simple questionnaire is easier and less time consuming so fair enough I think to myself.

 

Of course life and my day job get in the way and Kieren has to prod me over messenger a couple of times but he was always polite about it. I tell him I'll forward the questions on to Fish (the original coder of Viking Child) because Fish isn't on FB, which I did (no idea if Fish responded to him). Anyway I email my answers to Kieren, he thanks me and says he got some answers out of Barry Leitch (Viking Child musician) who I introduced to Kieren in my initial FB response.

 

I never hear anything further about the Viking Child article. To this day I don't know if it ever came out? I think there was a general Imagitec article but I never got a chance to read that.

 

Then in early 2016 I get an email out of the blue from Kieren asking for material for an Atari ST book. In the email he asks me to forward the email on to Fish (which I did). At this point I'll hold my hands up and say that I was busy at work and forgot to reply with anything. I did want to but I was doing some heavy crunch back then.

 

Anyway we remained FB friends up until a couple of days ago. For as long as I was FB friends with him, he'd occasionally post on FB about being victimised by trolls in the retro community. Me and other people outside the retro scene would reply and tell him to ignore trolls and spend his energy and time on creating his own stuff. He'd always come back with the "easy for you to say, this is my livelyhood" type of response and we'd go back to our lives.

 

Well a couple of days ago he posts the 1st Wotsit video on his FB and says along the lines of "look, this is the sort of abuse I'm getting. This is all outrageous lies" etc. (I'm paraphrasing from memory). 

 

So I watch the Wotsit video (listen to it I mean) and am incredulous that Kieren posted it. For a start, the video made me google "Atari Age forums" and I found this thread. And inside the thread found many people from different backgrounds and time periods, all agreeing that Kieren has behaved badly.

 

I really do believe he has autism because a person without autism would not have given people without knowledge of the 'trouble', the means to find out more and make their own mind up.

 

If you are reading this Kieren, I'm sorry but there are tens of unconnected people here with complaints about your behavior. I'm afraid the chances of all these unconnected people putting their energy into an organised campaign of harassment, is statistically very small. You must see that. Also, nobody 'accidently' repeatedly crops copyright info off videos. As someone who creates content, I find this a hard act to ignore.

 

Anyway, I went back to FB to ask him a couple of questions and we're suddenly not FB friends anymore. I don't think he has quit FB but I can't see any of his posts so that's that.

 

The one silver lining to all this is that over the past few months my interest in creating small indie pixel art games has resurfaced and I'm glad Kieren made me discover this forum. So I look forward to chatting to you all in happier threads.

 

 

[+Sauron]

45 minutes ago, Bliz71 said:

Well a couple of days ago he posts the 1st Wotsit video on his FB and says along the lines of "look, this is the sort of abuse I'm getting. This is all outrageous lies" etc. (I'm paraphrasing from memory). 

 

So I watch the Wotsit video (listen to it I mean) and am incredulous that Kieren posted it. For a start, the video made me google "Atari Age forums" and I found this thread. And inside the thread found many people from different backgrounds and time periods, all agreeing that Kieren has behaved badly.

 

I really do believe he has autism because a person without autism would not have given people without knowledge of the 'trouble', the means to find out more and make their own mind up.

 

If you are reading this Kieren, I'm sorry but there are tens of unconnected people here with complaints about your behavior. I'm afraid the chances of all these unconnected people putting their energy into an organised campaign of harassment, is statistically very small. You must see that. Also, nobody 'accidently' repeatedly crops copyright info off videos. As someone who creates content, I find this a hard act to ignore.

 

Anyway, I went back to FB to ask him a couple of questions and we're suddenly not FB friends anymore. I don't think he has quit FB but I can't see any of his posts so that's that.

 

The one silver lining to all this is that over the past few months my interest in creating small indie pixel art games has resurfaced and I'm glad Kieren made me discover this forum. So I look forward to chatting to you all in happier threads.

 

 

Hi, welcome to AtariAge, the single best Atari-related website on the Internet! He gets away with this "woe is me" act because most people are generally indifferent about others' problems, combined with the trusting nature that those want to exhibit towards others in a shared hobby. He's done this for years. Several of us here have tried warning numerous other websites, magazine publishers, etc. about working with him, and the general response was always the same: "He hasn't done anything bad here, so we'll give him a chance". He could get away with it before because it was only a small group of people from one website complaining about him. Now, though, with so many others finally realizing who he is, he just can't get away with it anymore. I think he was banking on that same mentality when he posted the "Wotsit" video.

 

Anyways, glad to have you here, and look forward to anything you have to share on this website!

 

[Mayhem]

Welcome Bliz!

 

The really really short and stupid analogy around Kieran is pretty much like the #MeToo campaign. Suddenly lots and lots of different people in the retro community as a whole who had no connection to each other are discovering they aren't the only ones to have been shafted over or defamed by him the last 15 years or more.

 

And yes, posting the Wotsit video himself was a classic example of the Streisand effect.

[Welshworrier]

14 minutes ago, Mayhem said:

Welcome Bliz!

 

The really really short and stupid analogy around Kieran is pretty much like the #MeToo campaign. Suddenly lots and lots of different people in the retro community as a whole who had no connection to each other are discovering they aren't the only ones to have been shafted over or defamed by him the last 15 years or more.

 

And yes, posting the Wotsit video himself was a classic example of the Streisand effect.

 

To paraphrase king Kong:

'twas humour and cursing that killed the beast666

[Funkyspectrum]

chris wilkins, a highly regarded publisher in the retro gaming community, posted this yesterday. also, since then, many high profile names have come out both expressing their disgust with this individual and confirming that, contrary to what he says, they are not "close personal friends" and most of them have never even heard his name !

"I did not want to do this - but the last couple of days I have been noticing apologetic tweets from some of the retro Youtubers - Octavius Kitten, RetroPrincess etc to me on Twitter and with all the rest of the info out there on Kieren Hawken, I messaged them to find out what he had been saying to them.

I feel sick to the stomach at the moment. I really do. Kieren you should be ashamed of yourself m8 - I know you will be reading this. I would never talk about a lady/girl in that way, having 2 young daughters myself. And we have NOT spoken since I PAID you for those sub-standard Thalamus reviews you did for me at the time where you were going to OUT me on Twitter for not paying you, and that was December 2018.

Since then you have piled on the abuse, and I have ignored it. I have read all the posts on Atari Age and my name comes up again and again and I ignored it. You ripped into my Fusion magazine on your YouTube channel and I ignored it. I have been shown chats you have had with people, accusing me of pinching the Ocean book, using Bob Wakelin art without permission, owing Bob money etc and I ignored it. Other chat where you were dissing the Oliver Twins, talking about us not paying charity money etc and I ignored it. And so much, much more. I have all the screen grabs and chats from many people who are apologising for believing the stuff you have said about me to them. How dare you!

We welcomed you into Revival. I welcomed you into Fusion Retro Books to write with and for me. You totally abused both position, always playing the victim.

You took the Jon Romero video that I paid to have done at Revival and made it your own - one of your biggest hits - I ignored it.

I want you to apologise. To me and to all those you have hurt over the last 15 months or more due to whatever rift you have with me. This is not a threat; this is not me harassing you - this is me asking you to do the right thing.

I want you to take down the Romero video; I want you to take down the Fusion magazine review - as showing each page is not fair usage; I want you to apologise on Facebook.

I have been tolerant in all this - what I found out this evening from the Youtubers - too f**king far m8. Too far."

[Lost Dragon]

Been at work all day, though had numerous people,including those who i have some serious questions over how they got my details :@,  have been sending me updates on the situation. 

 

I'm appalled the ever excellent Paul Rose, aka MR BIFFO of Digitiser 2000 has been a victim of Kierens :

 

 

 

Paul Rose

 

@mrbiffo

·

21h

 

Replying to

@welshworrier

,

@Retro_Fusion

and 7 others

Well, that is certainly a bit weird, given I barely know the guy, other than his unprompted, gossipy, DMs to me years back. Ultimately, I'm staying out of this whole mess. But it did very much look like I owed Chris an apology.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lost Dragon]

19 hours ago, Bliz71 said:

Hello everybody. I just registered so I could post here.

Brief intro: I'm a video game artist and started my career in 1988 ( my mobygames entry ) . I never did any work for 8bit Atari machines but did a lot of AtariST work. I did most of the original graphics for Prophecy: The Viking Child (while working for Martin Hooley). 

 

Before you read further, I don't have anything salacious to add, I just thought my experience with Kieren as someone on the outside of the retro scene might be interesting.

 

Anyway back in early 2015, on an Imagitec FB group a guy called Kieren pops up and asks for info on Viking Child because he's writing a RG article about it. I comment about my involvement and say I'm happy to answer any questions about my involvement and time on Viking Child.

 

We become FB friends and he sends me a word doc over FB messenger that has a list of questions on it. Probably egotistical of me but I was expecting him to ask me for a skype chat so he could ask me questions directly but ok, a simple questionnaire is easier and less time consuming so fair enough I think to myself.

 

Of course life and my day job get in the way and Kieren has to prod me over messenger a couple of times but he was always polite about it. I tell him I'll forward the questions on to Fish (the original coder of Viking Child) because Fish isn't on FB, which I did (no idea if Fish responded to him). Anyway I email my answers to Kieren, he thanks me and says he got some answers out of Barry Leitch (Viking Child musician) who I introduced to Kieren in my initial FB response.

 

I never hear anything further about the Viking Child article. To this day I don't know if it ever came out? I think there was a general Imagitec article but I never got a chance to read that.

 

Then in early 2016 I get an email out of the blue from Kieren asking for material for an Atari ST book. In the email he asks me to forward the email on to Fish (which I did). At this point I'll hold my hands up and say that I was busy at work and forgot to reply with anything. I did want to but I was doing some heavy crunch back then.

 

Anyway we remained FB friends up until a couple of days ago. For as long as I was FB friends with him, he'd occasionally post on FB about being victimised by trolls in the retro community. Me and other people outside the retro scene would reply and tell him to ignore trolls and spend his energy and time on creating his own stuff. He'd always come back with the "easy for you to say, this is my livelyhood" type of response and we'd go back to our lives.

 

Well a couple of days ago he posts the 1st Wotsit video on his FB and says along the lines of "look, this is the sort of abuse I'm getting. This is all outrageous lies" etc. (I'm paraphrasing from memory). 

 

So I watch the Wotsit video (listen to it I mean) and am incredulous that Kieren posted it. For a start, the video made me google "Atari Age forums" and I found this thread. And inside the thread found many people from different backgrounds and time periods, all agreeing that Kieren has behaved badly.

 

I really do believe he has autism because a person without autism would not have given people without knowledge of the 'trouble', the means to find out more and make their own mind up.

 

If you are reading this Kieren, I'm sorry but there are tens of unconnected people here with complaints about your behavior. I'm afraid the chances of all these unconnected people putting their energy into an organised campaign of harassment, is statistically very small. You must see that. Also, nobody 'accidently' repeatedly crops copyright info off videos. As someone who creates content, I find this a hard act to ignore.

 

Anyway, I went back to FB to ask him a couple of questions and we're suddenly not FB friends anymore. I don't think he has quit FB but I can't see any of his posts so that's that.

 

The one silver lining to all this is that over the past few months my interest in creating small indie pixel art games has resurfaced and I'm glad Kieren made me discover this forum. So I look forward to chatting to you all in happier threads.

 

 

Welcome Bliz71 

 

As you might of read in an earlier post of mine, Kieren has had a habit of doing this, approaching people for RetroGamer magazine articles (the Viking Child article might of been something he pitched, yet was rejected as editor wanted it to cover Imagitec Design as a company, rather than a specific game or kieren might of lied through his teeth)  and sadly your far from alone in how he treated you.

 

I was labelled a Troll and much,much worse, for pointing out to Kieren, when your doing paid-for work, like RG magazine articles,  you have to put in a damn sight more work than a FB or email based interview,  those are fine for free to read interviews for forums or free to download magazines,  I have carried out numerous ones myself,  but when your doing them for the basis of a professional magazine,  group FB interview, with generic Q's for each individual, just isn't on.

 

You have to invest time, research your subject material and dig deep

 

 

The Imagitec article wasn't brilliant. 

 

Martin Hooley was allowed to revise history on why Jaguar CD Space Junk and Freelancer were cancelled,  attack Leonard Tramiel and Kieren missed an awful lot of Imagitec titles.

 

 

I really appreciate you coming forward and adding your voice and highlighting just how far this cancer spread. 

[Lost Dragon]

5 hours ago, Funkyspectrum said:

chris wilkins, a highly regarded publisher in the retro gaming community, posted this yesterday. also, since then, many high profile names have come out both expressing their disgust with this individual and confirming that, contrary to what he says, they are not "close personal friends" and most of them have never even heard his name !

"I did not want to do this - but the last couple of days I have been noticing apologetic tweets from some of the retro Youtubers - Octavius Kitten, RetroPrincess etc to me on Twitter and with all the rest of the info out there on Kieren Hawken, I messaged them to find out what he had been saying to them.

I feel sick to the stomach at the moment. I really do. Kieren you should be ashamed of yourself m8 - I know you will be reading this. I would never talk about a lady/girl in that way, having 2 young daughters myself. And we have NOT spoken since I PAID you for those sub-standard Thalamus reviews you did for me at the time where you were going to OUT me on Twitter for not paying you, and that was December 2018.

Since then you have piled on the abuse, and I have ignored it. I have read all the posts on Atari Age and my name comes up again and again and I ignored it. You ripped into my Fusion magazine on your YouTube channel and I ignored it. I have been shown chats you have had with people, accusing me of pinching the Ocean book, using Bob Wakelin art without permission, owing Bob money etc and I ignored it. Other chat where you were dissing the Oliver Twins, talking about us not paying charity money etc and I ignored it. And so much, much more. I have all the screen grabs and chats from many people who are apologising for believing the stuff you have said about me to them. How dare you!

We welcomed you into Revival. I welcomed you into Fusion Retro Books to write with and for me. You totally abused both position, always playing the victim.

You took the Jon Romero video that I paid to have done at Revival and made it your own - one of your biggest hits - I ignored it.

I want you to apologise. To me and to all those you have hurt over the last 15 months or more due to whatever rift you have with me. This is not a threat; this is not me harassing you - this is me asking you to do the right thing.

I want you to take down the Romero video; I want you to take down the Fusion magazine review - as showing each page is not fair usage; I want you to apologise on Facebook.

I have been tolerant in all this - what I found out this evening from the Youtubers - too f**king far m8. Too far."

It's MY time to apologise to Chris Wilkins now. 

 

@Chris:

 

 

Full disclosure time.

 

Until i witnessed the above FB post by you, i had little sympathy for you.

 

I had bought your Ocean and US Gold books, borrowed a few others of yours from friends and classed you firmly in the camp of being daft enough to use kieren as a writer and ignoring all the warnings of his behaviour. 

 

You had approached a good friend of mine, Stuart Tracey, some months ago, with regards him doing a feature on his amusement arcade, TimeWarp Arcade.

 

He asked my advice and i said don't touch it with a barge pole, Chris uses Kieren as a writer and people always get f##ked over when Kierens involved in anything. 

 

 

I was naive enough to think Kieren was focused on slandering myself, Greyfox, CyranoJ, Atari Age etc and was just having another WAHHH over being kicked from your services the unpaid wages claims were same bullshit he'd pulled on Greyfox over Atari Gamer Magazine. 

 

 

I was literally horrified to learn the disgusting and foul comments he had made about you to Octav1us and saddened to hear he had been poisoning Digitiser 2000 to your name.

 

Grimmer Wormtongue is made reality by Kieren.

 

But it clearly didn't stop there.

 

 

To claim a video you paid to have professionally made,as his own..

 

 

I just haven't the words.

 

Please accept my humblest apologies for seeing your situation through blinkers of my creation.

 

 

[Lost Dragon]

Potted history of Kierens involvement with Atari Gamer Magazine and false claims he was never paid for his work:

 

Back in  2013, Kieren set up home on RVG forum,  a safe haven for him,safe from ridicule that he had recieved on the likes of:Atari Age, World of Spectrum, RG forum and many others, where he was no longer welcome on due to his volatile behaviour and conduct towards others, as you have seen in the examples i posted up earlier.

 

He had written a collective of Atari 8-bit reviews that were possibly used in Atari User magazine, which  were provided to RVG review portal on the RVG site, sitting for many months without anyone taking any real notice.

 

 

Kieren was then approached by Greyfox, who wanted to use the reviews he had donated to the site and asked if  he would be up to doing more on Homebrew titles and a 130XE profile for Atari Gamer Magazine.. 

 

The magazine would  promote his writing and bring revenue from the sales of the magazine to the server costs of the RVG site.

 

 

I was approached to research some lost games and  misc trivia for the magazine, which i did,free of charge for Greyfox.

 

 

At this point Kieren and myself had fallen out in a massive way  ( I found Kieren to be a talentless  spunk trumpet,who struggled with the most basic understanding of Atari).

 

 

 

When Kieran found out about my involvement, he threatened to pull all his reviews and extra content he had provided up until then. To which in theory would kill the magazine dead in its tracks.

 

So in resolution to the use of his reviews he excepted a pay pal payment of £25 to allow them to remain  from Greyfox.

 

He then fabricated lies about Greyfox claiming that he had ripped him off and that he got nothing for his writing.

 

Kierens reviews etc were initially donated, at no time did he resort to wanting payment,until he discovered my (limited)  involvement in the magazine.

 

That's how spiteful he is.

 

6 years later, he makes similar claims and slander, this time over non-payment by Chris Wilkins. 

 

There can be no forgiveness for Kieren,  it is in his nature to do what he does, sorry, but it is.

 

If more people had come forward earlier, less people and communities could of been harmed.

 

It's that simple.

 

 

Nice to see Fusion Books describe your writing as sub-standard Kieren,  without the support of the RG editorial team, your seen for the fanzine grade writer you always were

 

 

Your research is pathetic 

 

Your understanding of a primary school level

 

Your grammar and punctuation not far above my own.

 

The fact you couldn't prove any of my research finds incorrect meant you conjoured up sock puppet accounts like Beast,RetroGirl, Forza and Johnson, sent Kgramr out to fight for you.

 

Falsely claimed you'd gotten the police involved, i had sent you death threats, i wasn't right in the head.

 

But by god, i got off lightly compared to the filth you spread about Chris Wilkins and whispered in the ear of Mr Biffo, Octav1us and many more by sounds of it.

 

What kind of creature are you?

 

What sort of example do you set for your son?

 

You need serious clinical assessment and help.

 

 

Edited February 12, 2020 by Lost Dragon

[Mayhem]

35 minutes ago, Lost Dragon said:

You need serious clinical assessment and help.

The missus read Chris’ post on FB and that was literally the first thing she said about Kieran, knowing nothing more except what I had told her about why Chris had made it.

[Lost Dragon]

I've also seem the screengrabs where Roberth/Kgramr mention me slagging your RetroGamer articles off.

 

Couple of points :

 

1.As a subscriber to RG magazine at the time, i was paying to read that GSCE level crap you were pumping out and was trying to get you to understand you couldn't use Pixel Nation/Atari User /RVG level research and writing in a supposed professional magazine,  you had to up your game,but you always ran to the Mods or fellow freelancers or other go to heroes of yours, rather than argue your case.

 

2.Nice to see Roberth/Kgramr putting links to MY interviews, thought people shouldn't believe anything said in them Roberth? 

In his Wikipedia entries on Jaguar games.

 

Sorry if i messed your Hand Made Software entries up by pulling the  Jim Gregory interview, after it became clear he lied through his teeth.

 

 

I can't for the life of me remember being asked my permission for you to use any of them though.

 

 

Edited February 12, 2020 by Lost Dragon

[Lost Dragon]

10 minutes ago, Mayhem said:

The missus read Chris’ post on FB and that was literally the first thing she said about Kieran, knowing nothing more except what I had told her about why Chris had made it.

It's the only possible way this will be properly resolved for the good of the all the individuals and communities that have been damaged by this established behaviour over 15 years and for Kieren himself. 

 

He needs to be removed from social media channels,  full and total disconnect.. 

 

Full  clinical assessment to find the root cause of all of this senseless and cancerous behaviour.. 

 

And put on a treatment programme that can at the very least moderate or contain the behaviour we have all now experienced. 

 

He is a clear and present danger to himself and others.

 

 

 

Look what's been made public 

 

If people knew the accusations flying around in private or if individuals come forward to make the allegations, after seeing what's been said already..(people did just that after the Jane Whittaker news broke), i just don't know.

 

F.F.S man, see your doctor or go to the hospital,just do SOMETHING to get this resolved. 

 

There's no shame involved, if not for you,do it for your family. 

 

Forgiveness can be sought in time.

 

You need professional help here and now.

 

Whatever it is that's been eating away at you for years Kieren, it's costing you dear.

 

You had so many opportunities to establish yourself as a force for good in the community,  you've let your inner demons turn it to ash.

 

 

[Phoenix_Z80]

Retro Unlimited have binned him off

Link

[+Biff Burgertime]

What the fuck is a "Laird," anyway?

Edited February 12, 2020 by Buffalo Biff Burgertime
punctuation

[Crusty Starfish]

2 hours ago, Buffalo Biff Burgertime said:

What the fuck is a "Laird," anyway?

It's Liar with a 'd' on the end, but he can't spell.

[Lost Dragon]

5 hours ago, Buffalo Biff Burgertime said:

What the fuck is a "Laird," anyway?

A rather sick individual, who having been exposed,  would rather use the opportunity to promote his YT channel, rather than seek professional medical help and forgiveness, by looks of things.. 

[+Biff Burgertime]

  

2 hours ago, Crusty Starfish said:

It's Liar with a 'd' on the end, but he can't spell.

Damn you aren't kidding, I just watched the book review in the OP... the amount of typos, misspellings, and other English mistakes in that book are unbelievable!

 

I'd heard of this guy and some of his issues but didn't know the extent of it until this thread. Unfortunately judging by the amount of time he's been doing this, I can tell that he isn't going to change his behavior or admit wrongdoing any time soon. One important lesson I've learned as I've gotten older is that I can't change the behavior of others so all I can do is distance myself from them to preserve my sanity. However, that isn't always possible especially in a situation like this where you're all trying to co-exist on this tiny Jaguar-infested island.

 

At least you guys are sharing stories and compiling this list of grievances so that others can be warned in advance before they get pulled in as well. I wish you all the best in dealing with this mountain of shit.

[SamDyer]

Hi all – first time posting here.

 

My name is Sam Dyer and I run the publishing house Bitmap Books.

 

I’ve been asked multiple times on Twitter and Facebook as to whether Kieren Hawken is involved within our new book – Atari 2600/7800: a visual compendium. These questions have come out of the blue and I (maybe naively) wasn’t expecting so much interest in his involvement. We engaged Kieren back in 2019 to come on-board as part of the team to help create the book and he has ghostwritten some parts, along with other writers. It’s important to say that I’ve had no issue with his work and the working relationship has been fine. 

 

Our books are very much a team effort so the overall writing is a combination of many contributors, including the original developers. When we cannot reach the original developer for a game, that entry is ghostwritten – something we’ve done since our NES book. When listing contributors on our website, we don’t tend to list ghostwriters and traditionally these have been credited within the book, not publicly. 

 

I had no idea of the interest that his involvement would incur. The book was a HUGE undertaking and around 9 months of work and officially licensed from Atari. It has has been verified and fact-checked as best we can by other Atari enthusiasts and proofreaders. This is something we do on all books so I’m confident that it’s as accurate as it can be.

 

If you guys wish to boycott the book based on the above then I can’t stop that, but I wanted to publicly state the facts regarding Kieren’s involvement and squash the speculation. 

 

If anyone has any questions about the book, please email hello@bitmapbooks.co.uk and I’ll do my best to answer.

 

Thanks, Sam

[+CyranoJ]

6 minutes ago, SamDyer said:

Hi all – first time posting here.

 

My name is Sam Dyer and I run the publishing house Bitmap Books.

 

I’ve been asked multiple times on Twitter and Facebook as to whether Kieren Hawken is involved within our new book – Atari 2600/7800: a visual compendium. These questions have come out of the blue and I (maybe naively) wasn’t expecting so much interest in his involvement. We engaged Kieren back in 2019 to come on-board as part of the team to help create the book and he has ghostwritten some parts, along with other writers. It’s important to say that I’ve had no issue with his work and the working relationship has been fine. 

 

Our books are very much a team effort so the overall writing is a combination of many contributors, including the original developers. When we cannot reach the original developer for a game, that entry is ghostwritten – something we’ve done since our NES book. When listing contributors on our website, we don’t tend to list ghostwriters and traditionally these have been credited within the book, not publicly. 

 

I had no idea of the interest that his involvement would incur. The book was a HUGE undertaking and around 9 months of work and officially licensed from Atari. It has has been verified and fact-checked as best we can by other Atari enthusiasts and proofreaders. This is something we do on all books so I’m confident that it’s as accurate as it can be.

 

If you guys wish to boycott the book based on the above then I can’t stop that, but I wanted to publicly state the facts regarding Kieren’s involvement and squash the speculation. 

 

If anyone has any questions about the book, please email hello@bitmapbooks.co.uk and I’ll do my best to answer.

 

Thanks, Sam

And given all the above, and the post from Chris Wilkins on facebook, you are still prepared to stand by his work?

 

Sorry, I'm out. I feel sorry for everyone else who's hard work is gonna be tainted by this.

[Austin]

I wasn't expecting this thread, along with other happenings on Twitter and YouTube, to go where they did, but with that I'll share my experiences with Kieren.

 

I joined up on AtariAge in mid-2009 simply looking for a place to chat about the Jaguar. I had re-obtained a system after a few year absence along with other non-Atari consoles, and being the good, busy community AtariAge was (and still is), I became a regular on the forum. That eventually led to hanging out in the AtariAge chat (something that no longer exists) where folks like Kieren would frequent. He seemed like a nice individual at first, along with a few of his cohorts at the time. We all had some fun conversations in chat and eventually started connecting up on MSN Messenger and other places off-site.

 

It quickly became apparent though that something wasn't right with these folks, Kieren in particular. They seemed to have personal vendettas against several individuals involved in the Jaguar scene, particularly with Reboot in general, not to mention various mods at AtariAge. They would slag off other "less noteworthy" members of the site on a regular basis as well. They particularly wanted to lead anyone to believe that Reboot was this evil group of goons that you would never, ever want to associate with. Being the naive individual I was at the time, I even bought into some of it. In hindsight it was all pretty ridiculous.

 

Pre-Kieren ban, the peak of the stupidity was when I woke up to a direct message from him begging me to help defend him in a thread that went South (pretty much of his own doing). He seriously treated it as if it was some kind of medical emergency. I thought to myself in the moment, "Seriously man? I have to deal with a stressful job and other issues. I have no need for this internet drama from people I will likely never meet." I had put up with a lot of other nonsense from him, but that moment was when I started to seriously question his sanity.

 

Being the moderately laid-back individual I am, I still tried to keep things pretty even-keyed after the fact. I don't like confrontation and so I still chatted with these folks like normal. Shortly after, an ex-member of this site opened up a private forum and I was invited to join. It seemed okay at first, but then the vitriol there towards certain people on AtariAge and the Jaguar scene in general came out pretty hard. The constant slagging off at members in the scene along with Reboot was off the charts.

 

All while this was happening, Kieren would put on a nice face at AtariAge, only to backtrack on whatever positive attitude he would have the moment he was behind closed doors. I had enough of this pretty quickly, grabbed a couple snapshots of the private forum's live chat, then sent them to a mod here. There were some other snapshots [that I can't find anymore] with him slagging off AtariAge specifically while still remaining an active member here. He was banned shortly after and I stopped visiting that private forum for good (good riddance, what an awful place).

 

I later ended up blocking him from my own YouTube channel as to not have to worry about running into him again. Although with all the fake accounts listed earlier in the thread, I'm starting to wonder if some of his comments made it through after all. ?

 

But there you go. That's my KH story. Based on all the stuff I've read recently, it doesn't look like much has changed over this last decade.

 

Edited February 13, 2020 by Austin

[Welshworrier]

50 minutes ago, SamDyer said:

Hi all – first time posting here.

 

My name is Sam Dyer and I run the publishing house Bitmap Books.

 

I’ve been asked multiple times on Twitter and Facebook as to whether Kieren Hawken is involved within our new book – Atari 2600/7800: a visual compendium. These questions have come out of the blue and I (maybe naively) wasn’t expecting so much interest in his involvement. We engaged Kieren back in 2019 to come on-board as part of the team to help create the book and he has ghostwritten some parts, along with other writers. It’s important to say that I’ve had no issue with his work and the working relationship has been fine. 

 

Our books are very much a team effort so the overall writing is a combination of many contributors, including the original developers. When we cannot reach the original developer for a game, that entry is ghostwritten – something we’ve done since our NES book. When listing contributors on our website, we don’t tend to list ghostwriters and traditionally these have been credited within the book, not publicly. 

 

I had no idea of the interest that his involvement would incur. The book was a HUGE undertaking and around 9 months of work and officially licensed from Atari. It has has been verified and fact-checked as best we can by other Atari enthusiasts and proofreaders. This is something we do on all books so I’m confident that it’s as accurate as it can be.

 

If you guys wish to boycott the book based on the above then I can’t stop that, but I wanted to publicly state the facts regarding Kieren’s involvement and squash the speculation. 

 

If anyone has any questions about the book, please email hello@bitmapbooks.co.uk and I’ll do my best to answer.

 

Thanks, Sam

I believe that's known as the curates egg defence.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curate's_egg