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

[LinkoVitch]

10 hours ago, Buffalo Biff Burgertime said:

What the fuck is a "Laird," anyway?

I believe it is a Scottish term similar to a Lord.  He has always claimed he has direct family ties to the Laird of Forsyth (another alias he also used).  He's never been shy about hyping himself up or overselling himself, so why not claim to be an ancient lord too eh?

[Mayhem]

1 hour ago, SamDyer said:

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.

 

Hi Sam, I had a feeling eventually you would be directed towards this thread given everything that has been happening online re Kieran over the last week or so. Given that I was seeing FB posts from Kieran publicising the book before and after the pre-order opened, then I was left in no doubt that he was involved. Albeit I can't see them now because like he's done to so so many others as well, he's defriended me on FB in the last few days. That hasn't stopped me from pre-ordering the book, but you do rightly surmise that it could very well harm sales. We shall see in due course.

 

Edited February 13, 2020 by Mayhem

[+CyranoJ]

1 hour ago, Mayhem said:

 

Hi Sam, I had a feeling eventually you would be directed towards this thread given everything that has been happening online re Kieran over the last week or so. Given that I was seeing FB posts from Kieran publicising the book before and after the pre-order opened, then I was left in no doubt that he was involved. Albeit I can't see them now because like he's done to so so many others as well, he's defriended me on FB in the last few days. That hasn't stopped me from pre-ordering the book, but you do rightly surmise that it could very well harm sales. We shall see in due course.

 

It would have been nicer if he'd replied on the twitter/facebook posts where he was asked instead of ignoring them for days and then coming here. It's still not acknowledged in those places.

 

People hurt by Kieren will be devastated reading his name hidden inside the book if they didn't know he was involved.

I suspect you'll easily find 1000 people who won't care, but more up front honesty would have been nice.

[CZroe]

I got linked here by a ghosted comment on my YouTube video.

 

 

It seems someone here is literally combing the man's YouTube channel and contacting anyone he's ever interacted with. Strangely, it wasn't under "Held for review" or "Likely spam" despite the URL. My YT channel has always had that glitch where it shows one "Likely spam" message with nothing in there...

 

...so, no, that "1" comment is not his. His is listed under "Public."

 

I didn't even get a notification and only saw it when poking around in the YT Studio Android app where it still wasn't showing on the video. Only reason I can see it being ghosted is if YouTube has flagged this account for trolling or something... likely because this vendetta led to the user contacting many more people who merely commented on a Laird's Lair video.

Whatever the drama, I'm not a YouTuber and I'm certainly not affiliated. I'm just a person watching videos on the Internet and commenting on what I see and occasionally sharing something. What I see happening here isn't pretty on either side.

[CZroe]

Did someone flag my comment on his new intro video from a couple days ago? The comment and reply seem to be gone:
http://imgur.com/a/gS9mp6O

Wow.

All I did was point out that he was missing a titlecard transition in case it wasn't too late to fix it for future use as an intro video. Didn't realize I was stepping into a hornet's nest.

[Mollycat]

29 minutes ago, CZroe said:

Did someone flag my comment on his new intro video from a couple days ago? The comment and reply seem to be gone:
http://imgur.com/a/gS9mp6O

Wow.

All I did was point out that he was missing a titlecard transition in case it wasn't too late to fix it for future use as an intro video. Didn't realize I was stepping into a hornet's nest.

Looks like his whole YouTube account has gone

[neo_rg]

He has either shut down his YouTube account, or YouTube has done it for him because of copyright strikes. I'm guessing the latter. 

[CZroe]

He has either shut down his YouTube account, or YouTube has done it for him because of copyright strikes. I'm guessing the latter. 

Weird. Well, the video/channel was there a few hours earlier when that comment was left on my video so this just happened.

[PeteProdge]

1 hour ago, neo_rg said:

He has either shut down his YouTube account, or YouTube has done it for him because of copyright strikes. I'm guessing the latter. 

It's not the latter. Kieren Hawken has closed down his account.

 

"...the uploader has closed their YouTube account"

 

[Lost Dragon]

9 hours ago, CyranoJ said:

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.

I'm with CyranoJ here.

 

Look Sam, i have bought and enjoyed many of your visual compendium books, a Gremlin in the works etc

 

 

The production quality and accuracy of research within them has been faultless and you set the bar for others to follow. 

 

I personally don't think the 2600 or 7800,lend themselves to coffee table style books,in terms of game screen imagery, both ran at too low a resolution,  but i was looking forward to this book as a 2600 owner as a kid, as your interviews and articles, easily justify a purchase.

 

I bought the ZX Spectrum compendium just for the interviews.

 

 

Nobody is doubting the sheer amount of work these publications require and why you need ghost writers.

 

Your argument just falls down when you imply you knew nothing of Kierens reputation,  sorry, but i struggle to accept that.

 

So many warnings from so many in the community,  people had stopped buying RetroGamer magazine because Kieren had been taken on,warnings on here, warnings on Sega-16 forum, if you were too naive to look into any contributor before taking him or her on,after being in the book business for so long..

 

 

The impression i get is, this has all broken out far too late for you to make changes, book is at the printers and your now having to carry out damage limitation and will be looking at how sales are effected before deciding if you can risk using Kieren again.

 

 

Just my opinion/gut feeling.

 

I can't justify a purchase of the book with a clear conscience, especially after what came to light about Kierens treatment of Chris Wilkins,  Mr Biffo, Octav1us Kitten, many, many more.

 

I wish you the very best on your journey,  but i won't be making it with you this time.

 

[Lost Dragon]

10 hours ago, Austin said:

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.

 

Going purely off memory, Kieren used DCRIP as a professional proof reader for his early RG articles and Greyfox did artwork for Kierens Thalion RG article, so early RG work at least was never all Kieren,  he's always needed others to get him established. 

[Lost Dragon]

1 hour ago, neo_rg said:

He has either shut down his YouTube account, or YouTube has done it for him because of copyright strikes. I'm guessing the latter. 

Knowing his character as we do, i would wager he closed it as a face saving exercise. 

 

Claim you've been driven from the scene by an unjust witch hunt,  rather than try and have to explain why in the video you posted only hours earlier, you looked in good health and why YT had killed your account over repeated copyright strikes.

 

Anyone going to miss it?

Edited February 13, 2020 by Lost Dragon

[SamDyer]

9 hours ago, CyranoJ said:

name hidden inside the book

Hi CyranoJ – His name is not hidden, not sure where you got this from. I've explained why ghostwriters are not listed on the web listing but they're clearly 'thanked' within the book.

 

52 minutes ago, Lost Dragon said:

Your argument just falls down when you imply you knew nothing of Kierens reputation

Hi Lost Dragon – I don't think I said 'I knew nothing'. Of course I knew a few things, but not to the level of digging through internet forums. What I didn't anticipate was this level of outrage in his involvement. if I had, then I probably wouldn't have used his services as I could do without this hassle.

 

52 minutes ago, Lost Dragon said:

will be looking at how sales are effected before deciding if you can risk using Kieren again

No, completely untrue. If you want to believe that something shady is going on then so be it. I've said my peace.

 

Thanks, Sam

[Lost Dragon]

1 minute ago, SamDyer said:

Hi CyranoJ – His name is not hidden, not sure where you got this from. I've explained why ghostwriters are not listed on the web listing but they're clearly 'thanked' within the book.

 

Hi Lost Dragon – I don't think I said 'I knew nothing'. Of course I knew a few things, but not to the level of digging through internet forums. What I didn't anticipate was this level of outrage in his involvement. if I had, then I probably wouldn't have used his services as I could do without this hassle.

 

No, completely untrue. If you want to believe that something shady is going on then so be it. I've said my peace.

 

Thanks, Sam

I'm not talking digging through Internet forums Sam, your writers and contributors for your publications knew of Kierens reputation,  you say you yourself "knew a few things"..i just find it very hard to swallow you wouldn't want to do some very basic background checks on who you have on-board with these projects.

 

Maybe that's my cynical nature coming to the fore, but that's my nature.

 

Let me ask you this then,  regarding the second point:

 

 

Knowing what you know now,regarding Kieren and how he's treated Fusion Publishing, Octav1us Kitten, Mr Biffo,  Kim Justice etc, you'd honestly use him again if the opportunity arose? 

 

 

I'd like to just miss out on this compedium for obvious reasons, but rejoin you on later publications, but the risk of Kieren being used, but not named  due to Ghost Writer status, seems exceptionally high at this point

[SamDyer]

13 minutes ago, Lost Dragon said:

I'm not talking digging through Internet forums Sam, your writers and contributors for your publications knew of Kierens reputation,  you say you yourself "knew a few things"..i just find it very hard to swallow you wouldn't want to do some very basic background checks on who you have on-board with these projects.

Of course I do background checks. I've never said I didn't. I clearly didn't dig deep enough though.

 

14 minutes ago, Lost Dragon said:

you'd honestly use him again if the opportunity arose? 

No I wouldn't and I've not suggested I would.

[Lost Dragon]

9 minutes ago, SamDyer said:

Of course I do background checks. I've never said I didn't. I clearly didn't dig deep enough though.

 

No I wouldn't and I've not suggested I would.

At the end of the day Sam, i am nothing more than a consumer, plain and simple and i work around a weekly wage and from that comes my disposable income and a lot of that goes on Retro Publication books via Amazon. 

 

Basically i need to know what i am purchasing, that's common sense.

 

Now Kieren,  for a mere "Ghost Writer" seemed to be ahead of you somewhat in promoting the book on social media (or rather his hand in it),  now this may well be his nature, but i haven't seen the same approach used by any of your LISTED contributors and that concerns me over just what Kieren has written and how much of the books content it accounts for.

 

Hence i won't be buying the book

 

 

CyranoJ asked you repeatedly on social media about Kierens involvement and you choose to not only answer here, but suggested if anyone had any other Q's, to email you, rather than put them here and you'd answer them here, again that raised an eyebrow. 

 

What's done is done, in hindsight a bit more basic research into Kieren would of done wonders, he's in your book and your happy with his work, you might loose some sales, but your good standing and reputation for quality publications will be what convinces people to purchase,  i doubt this thread alone will do any real harm to your sales.

 

But as a consumer looking at this publication as one that this time is not for me, I needed reassurance lessons have been learnt.

 

I'm NOT telling anyone not to purchase this publication,  let me make that perfectly clear.

 

I just wanted an open and fully transparent discussion with you, consumer to book publisher 

 

 

And I thank you for your time and understanding. 

[+CyranoJ]

1 hour ago, SamDyer said:

Hi CyranoJ – His name is not hidden, not sure where you got this from. I've explained why ghostwriters are not listed on the web listing but they're clearly 'thanked' within the book.

 

He's promoting it directly.

His name is not on the page for the book. Anywhere.

You have just said 'ghostwriters are only listed in the book and nowhere else' - so how would anyone know?

 

As said by LD above, I asked you several times (along with others) if he was involved. You chose to IGNORE those questions on the page, and instead came here to post about it.  As far as I'm aware, you still have not mentioned it on twitter or anywhere else. Or linked to a statement here.

 

You said above:
 

Quote

if I had, then I probably wouldn't have used his services as I could do without this hassle.

 

And then said to LD:

 

 

Probably? PROBABLY? C'mon.

[Lost Dragon]

52 minutes ago, CyranoJ said:

 

He's promoting it directly.

His name is not on the page for the book. Anywhere.

You have just said 'ghostwriters are only listed in the book and nowhere else' - so how would anyone know?

 

As said by LD above, I asked you several times (along with others) if he was involved. You chose to IGNORE those questions on the page, and instead came here to post about it.  

 

You said above:
 

 

And then said to LD:

 

 

Probably? PROBABLY? C'mon.

That was my impression,  Kieren had taken to social media to promote the book, first i was made aware of it was when someone sent me a screen grab of it and that was a good while before the official teasers went up for it.

 

A few weeks ago an official list of contributors was made public and questions started to be asked why Kieren wasn't listed, given he'd been first to break news to many.

 

That just seemed very,very strange. 

 

You then ignored direct requests on Twitter, yet came here?

 

Despite several exchanges, i don't think any of us are any the wiser as to exactly what Kieren has written and how much of it there is in the book.

 

Those should be questions that are very easy to answer..

 

 

You stated Sam:

 

but I wanted to publicly state the facts regarding Kieren’s involvement and squash the speculation. 

 

But by NOT detailing what he's actually written and how much of it, you've just added more speculation to what his role on the book was.

 

Did any other Ghost Writer of yours big there involvement up in the earlier books, the way Kieren has for this one?

 

Potential customers deserve to know what content is Kierens in advance. 

 

Edited February 13, 2020 by Lost Dragon

[Lost Dragon]

Since Sam was a little vague on the exact nature of what a Ghost Writer like Kieren actually did for the book,  i am going to take an educated guess as to what the role could of entailed. 

 

Let's see you wanted to cover 7800 Jinks,  your inital port of call woukd be Peter Pachla, but he's not available,  you then have Kieren, as Ghost Writer, write the feature, using quotes Peter made to magazines or on newsgroups etc back in the day.

 

You therefore have Peter's insights and personal views,  but not direct from Peter himself.

 

 

Am i along the right lines here Sam?

 

In a scenario like this, you wouldn't need to credit Kieren on the specific article, just have him named in acknowledgements at back of the book.

 

 

[CZroe]

Since Sam was a little vague on the exact nature of what a Ghost Writer like Kieren actually did for the book,  i am going to take an educated guess as to what the role could of entailed. 

 

Let's see you wanted to cover 7800 Jinks,  your inital port of call woukd be Peter Pachla, but he's not available,  you then have Kieren, as Ghost Writer, write the feature, using quotes Peter made to magazines or on newsgroups etc back in the day.

 

You therefore have Peter's insights and personal views,  but not direct from Peter himself.

 

 

Am i along the right lines here Sam?

 

In a scenario like this, you wouldn't need to credit Kieren on the specific article, just have him named in acknowledgements at back of the book.

 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostwriter

 

It's also a kid show but I'm pretty sure this is what he meant.

[Greyfox]

Hello Everyone,

 

I feel it is time for me as both share my experience with Mr.Hawkens, I was originally not going to actual contribute to this post as I feel that my contribution would not have made any difference to the out come of what I've read over the last 8 pages, and for the record this isn't something I've waited to do for a long time here, I feel that it is valid to include the expansive reach of negativity that this one person has generated across the entire retro gaming communities and not been truly held for their actions and for those with the conclusion that Kieren is or will ever be sorry, this is delusional of you to assume this would be the case encase you have had no experiences with Kieren Hawkens until reading the above.

 

               My time with Kieren started back over 6 years when I came across a forum that to this day I am very much apart of and have made some amazing friends and colleagues a lot of people would give their right arm for, That forum and website is of course Retro Video Gamer hosted by Zapity (Jamie Battison) of which Kieren Hawkens (The Laird) was already apart of and like many was dead keen on sharing my interests of classic video games, movies and all that jazz, I can't even remember how I found this website, as I was a regular on Retro Gamer forums and had been there since 2008. With having a great love and passion for all thing retro gaming, I had started creating retro gaming related imagery over at Retro Gamer forum for the people, calendars and so on which was received with great reception and had mentioned this on RVG to which Jamie offered me if interested, would I like to help with the website imagery and so on as needed, I whole hearty agreed that i would love this, and for a long time me and all the people there including Kieren got along very well, new found family so to speak. I began to attempt and create exclusive stuff for RVG and migrated to Moderator and so on, until I moved to now positioned Administrator of RVG etc.

 

With the ability to more or less create material on tap, Officiously Kieren recognized the quality of the work and gave great praise to a lot of the content I had produced at the time and even came up with suggestions and so on...so everything is great, new members joining all the time etc..we have a chat area and all that and with doing things at RVG and Retro Gamer previously I was one of the founding team members of a Retro gaming event held in the UK in 2009 which became Play Expo called "Retro Reunited" that I met a host of wealth of talent, the likes of Chris Wilkins, Archer Maclean, Andrew Fisher, Darran Jones and many more, it was a brilliant and nearly convinced Archer to convert IK+ to Apple Iphones back then too..lol..so had built a great re pour with everyone that was an up and rising status in the retro gaming scene in the UK. I was during my time affiliated with some great members over at Retro Gamer now, yet I'd never seen Kieren there as I predated his arrival, and actual began to work with a member there on a NES style fanzine publication called (NesBit) and it received a physical release and was excellent, fast forward about 6 months to a year, Kieren had a keen interest in Homebrew Gaming and not just on the Atari Jaguar, across all formats and He had the idea of producing potentially a magazine designed towards the subject a I don't think there was such a thing in the way I had produced NesBit, although you had Retro Fusion magazine from Chris Wilkins which was great etc..but didn't have my spin on it. So Kieren came up with a name. "Homebrew Heroes" I wasn't sure where this came from as I know Retro Gamer magazine have a section of their magazine called exactly this?, I just never maybe noticed this at the time, so we decided what we could do here and it was sugested by whom I can't remember (Kieren probably will think he did reading this) that we get the RVG community members to contribute which was a great idea and so we began the task of involving up to ten people I believe, with me on complete creative control duties and regular updates of preview pages of how it would look and boy it looked good, we even got mentioned in the news section of an Issue of Retro gamer magazine on Homebrew Heroes which was fantastic and Kieren opted to showcase the magazine at I think was he first Retro revival event hosted by Chris and Craig and this is where I firstly caught an insight to what and how Kieren beginnings of egoistical behaviour, His brother filmed the presentation of the magazine where by kieren introduces "Homebrew Heroes" as a project by him and his team? This was a giant venture between Himself and myself and was simply portrayed as the designer commissioned behind the magazine, as expected I was not very impressed at all, when he should have mentioned that it was both himself and I that had produced this magazine with the help of the RVG community forum members, this was the first of it all.

 

I had confronted him over via skype and he was claiming I was over reacting and that he had mentioned me directly which was of course bullshit. It was also agreed the profits from the magazine would be shared amount the contributors as well as contribution towards server costs to Jamie for maintaining the site, this didn't happen in the way it should have, We both knew that this magazine was something of a diamond in the rough for lots of people and also as a digital download I think priced at £3.99 and I can assume sold very well as it was hosted payment via Kieren's PayPal account, when I began to get suspicious about not only how quite Kieren was been about this aspect of the magazine, I began to feel that the donations he was offering may not be accurate to those who received payment for there work, I know Jamie got about 10 pound or so, I got about 20 pounds and I think one contributor got 10 pounds, and I believe this magazine sold fro a long time also with monies going to Kieren while claiming that the magazine wasn't selling well, This is when I started to believe something wasn't quite right with this all, as I only wanted those that gave their time to help with the project their rightful donation for their work. I began to distance myself a little at this point, yet still remain friends and so on but not entirely.

 

Kieren begins to come up with an idea for something Atari Jaguar related and is in talks with a member on RVG that can code what appears to be some sort of codec playback routine on the Jag and decides that it should be all about lost or unreleased Atari Jaguar games, with no familiarity with the Atari Jaguar I think nothing of this or have any real interest, but Kieren approaches me asking if I would be ale to come up with so Cover artwork for the project, a DVD case image and an image fro the CD itself and come with the title "9 Lives" which is a host of video clips on a cd for the Atari Jaguar CD to whci hhe plans to donate a chuck of the money made from the extremely limited amounts of the release for a whopping £29.99 per copy with the promise of splitting some of the profits to pay me for the work and this other guy fro the coding of the playback codec, I say fine etc..and guess what? it never came even though I'd seen that all limited numbers had all sold out, he even asked me to include on the boxart a white box for the limited number he would write on the box, I also believed he donated nothing to this charity of his and pocketed all the profits and possibly continued to sell this release on his eBay account for many months suckering those stupid enough to purchase the product, which then leads to the dodgy content of fake video contained there in. Kieren had asked me at the time of production would I be able to extract game-play video from a demo of "Power Drive" to which only a demo disc on the 3DO existed and falsify it as Atari Jaguar footage but keep this to myself ? I said mate, this is wrong and you shouldn't include it, he said it would be okay, it was only to show what could have been?, i agreed to it unwillingly but he had asked as a friend so i did it, this game-play footage that is found on this CD is completely false and not at all footage from the Atari Jaguar 100% guarantee this, this was really the first time and only time I was connected to his deceptions.

 

Atari Gamer magazine: Kieren was at the time I felt a dab hand at reviews. he had contributed a great many reviews across many formats and one that stuck out to me , being a colossal fan was the Atari 8-bit computer, which at the time I was lead to believe that Kieren himself must have grown up with this machine and could relate to the nostalgic trip down memory lane which actually wasn't the case at all, he was a Zx spectrum user and only ever migrated to the Atari ST scene maybe a year or two when that itself arrived, so he was no true Atari 8-bit gamer or lived through that time-frame. So unknowingly to me at the time assumed otherwise and notice he had a collection of reviews for the Atari 8-bit on RVG not really getting the attention they deserved, to which in hindsight was probably better going unnoticed in the first place which I found to be the case later one, So I began conception of the magazine idea for an Atari 8-bit digital magazine, against the c64 and Zx Spectrum getting all the love and so on, it was a no brainier for me and asked him if I could use his already written reviews for inclusion of the magazine, I so wished I had NEVER asked this now....He kindheartedly agreed and said he'd love to see what i come up with them, so again the same premise applied here, that donations from the sales of the magazine would go to RVG as well as himself, Bu tI even knew that this wouldn't be as popular as Homebrew Heroes, roll in one other exceptional piece to the puzzle "Lost Dragon" a.k.a Rogue Trooper to help assist me with historical facts and snippets of info that would make the magazine a must read and even himself wrote a contributing article about the Atari 8-bits piracy etc. So on hand you had Kieren donating the reviews and Ross donating this other content and me designing,so three of us, the difference here is that I kept Ross compartmentalized not to let Kieren Know what we where doing as I knew at this point that Kieren would probably have his nose out of joint, and shit..i was not wrong. At the point when Kieren was continuously asking me to send over a proof for what he believed he could also do was "Proof-read" lol..I would side step from. But when came the time to let Kieren know who was involved, I had sent over a copy before mentioning Ross's involvement..

 

Within minutes of the transfer Kieren is on Skype fucking livid with me, demanding why I involved Ross and I why I didn't mention him at all until he had seen what Ross had donated to the magazine, I explained to Kieren firstly this was my magazine, design, concept, production and presentation, he had donated the reviews, an interview and a cover spread on the 130XE and a selection of Homebrew games newly written for the magazine which did not entitle him to ask such questions at which point I was thinking this fucker thinks he's the partner in this? wtf?. I explain that no, your not the co owner of this magazine as I suggested to revitalize your dormant game reviews on RVG that where not getting exposure and in turn would produce something of notoriety for your work with the possible gains of been noticed and seen as someone that was capable of producing this content in potentially a commerce way. He then attempts to pull the a final death blow by insisting if I decide to include Ross's content in the magazine that he will pull all reviews from the magazine (now keep in mind we are supposed to be friends here) and I made a decision to which I actually regret to this day was I paid Kieren the sum of £25 pounds via PayPal for these substandard reviews and also gifted him with thanks before hand which truly boils my piss to say this, a copy of Curt and Marty's "Atari Inc: Business is Fun" which cost me £40, at this point I knew our time and friendship had come to an end where upon Kieren had no problem writing me off and everything else we had been attached too. The last thing I said to the guy was "I hope this now settles any ill feeling and that you will never mention or bring this up going forward" he agreed, which was a lie...

 

The Pro(C) Connection. A great little created by Markus a true Atari 8-bit nut had great relationship with myself and he himself had a funny half ass'ed encounter with Kieren hawkens, against my advice , I warned Markus about Kieren and what he was capable off and not employ him in any regards as he can and is cut throat, Markus chose to have Kieren contribute to his mini magazine which I believe still going. only to have this come crashing down on him also. Markus loved the Atari Gamer magazine and approached me and wanted to actually release the magazine in a physical format by that came with a very high cost because of the full colour printing and page count which actually ended up costing to produce a whopping €17 + €10 for shipping of the magazine finding me having to redo the magazine for print, I was of course blown away by this knowing that if I agreed I could obtain my own copy of my own creation and loved the idea. So we made it happen and produce a very small limited number of copies (30 in total) so very rare now these days and they sold out as you would expect, well i never expected them too. So markus decided we could probably do another print run on pre-orders, again I was all for this. until one day Markus contacts me all upset and distressed? I inquire to what has happened here and Markus mentions that Kieren Hawkens has contacted him demanding a Cease and Desist order to the production of the physical version of Atari Gamer, claiming that the reviews are copyright to him and owned by him and this is illegal what Markus is doing and if you don't stop you will be in point for legal proceedings against Markus for part taking in this action. Firstly this dope lives in the UK and Markus lives in Germany whereby different laws are not aligned, secondly he sends Markus this Cease and Desist letter via a word document, I ask to see this and Kieren didn't even change the "Dollar" signs to the "pound" signs  for wherever he copy and pasted this document from ..lol..I broke my shite laughing at how pathetic and desperate Kieren actually was.. and even had the balls to ask well you could have least sent me a physical copy of the magazine..lol.. I shit you not..he actually asked for this. I told Markus to continue on and ignore this gobshite and he did, having the magazine released to those lucky 30 people whom hopefully still have the magazine. He had failed yet against to command any influence or status over something that was not his in the first place..insane....

 

So Kieren hoped up on to what he does best..his Facebook Page sighting that he has been scammed and ripped off, claims I screwed him over and never paid him for his work, I actually have the snapshot of this paypal transaction and when I'm on my desktop I will include it here as proof of purchase, and portrayed me as public enemy number one to the whole 5 people that would listen to him over there, His malevolent behavior actually attempted to have be me ousted out of commercial work with author "Derek Staton" producer of the "Atari 2600 Encyclopedia Volume One" Private messaging the guy when I was helping promote the book where by dozy Kieren though I had written the book proclaiming that it would be full of grammatical issues and so on and would recommend anything I do...support..contacts him via PM claiming that "he shouldn't pay me for any work as i will rip him off and do a legger with his money and not to be trusted and so.." Now call me whatever you like, but when you are been slandered in this manner whereby livelihood is involved you have to go nuclear and was exactly what I had done, i had written a huge post in relation to Kieren about Homebrew Heroes on my Facebook page calling out everything he had scammed these people out off in reticulation back in 2015 and whenever given the opportunity even when I had produced the Atari Visual History book to ridicule and belittle the project he did. In the end I believe I dodged a bullet with this person and had the ability to raise above his garbage behavior a lot more than most and have so much moved away above and beyond to height Kieren will ever only dream off, that for a shill of a person to have caused some much negativity has to go down in the history books of the retro gaming communities and this thread be pinned for prosperity for those that remotely have any dealings with him or can be pointed to this thread.

 

Apologizes for such a large body of text, I hope I was able to convey what my experiences where with Kieren and for those unaware, this guy is dangerous and I really mean this, he will go to any length to arrive at his means and fuck anyone irrelevant under the bus or to the side.

 

Have a good one

Darren.

 

 

[Lost Dragon]

To this day, i have never understood why Kieren saw me as such a threat on Atari Gamer Magazine. 

 

I did not write anything for the magazine, articles wise,as i had no PC and have always worn a researchers hat.

 

I was very, very naive back then in terms of taking claims at face value.

 

And the entire experience was a huge eye opener.

 

I really should thank Kieren for his reaction to my limited involvement with Atari Gamer Magazine, whilst again apologising to any individuals offended by incorrect information supplied by myself, as Kierens knee Jerk reaction was the catalyst that kick started me doing things properly. 

 

 

At that stage there was an awful lot of talk from Kieren and staff on RetroGamer magazine about how only THEY had the industry contacts, people like myself didn't appreciate how hard it was to find and conduct interviews,  you shouldn't just use old magazine quotes (that aspect is very, very true) etc etc...

 

 

So using just a PlayStation 3 Web Browser and my Gmail account,  i started doing interviews for various sites and free publications and later ST Gamer Magazine, i donated one to Pro Atari Magazine, just glad to be helping the community. 

 

But once i had been bitten by the research bug and taught the proper way to research by the legendary Frank Gasking of GTW, i soon discovered that the supposedly cast iron facts over Lost Atari Lynx and Jaguar games were a mix of other people's finds (Lynx Metal Mutant for example i traced back to this site) and Magazine Claims.

 

 

I was also literally gobsmacked that someone with his resources (Twitter, Facebook, meeting industry events) had not contacted so,so many easy to reach people and he was still making up claims, rather than simply share what actually happened. 

 

 

When people on RG Forum suggested my interviews appeared in the magazine,  those comments were deleted by senior magazine staff.

 

Ask Scott Stilphen just how much work my stuff needed to be made presentable :-)) 

 

 

Grammar and punctuation was terrible, i couldn't provide images,unless the person i had chatted with had supplied them.

 

Yet Kieren had the full resources of a professional publishing company at hand for his articles..editor,art department and we are only now seeing the night and day difference that makes.

 

Compare 'his ' writing in any of his RG articles to that in any of his A to Z guides ( I cannot speak for his compedium books)  and judge for yourselves. 

 

I had no involvement in Atari Gamer Magazine becoming a physical magazine, as Greyfox himself knows,by that time it was something i would rather forget about, i class ST Gamer and Classic Console Magazine material as when i really started taking research seriously.

 

Atari Gamer Magazine was no different to what i did years before assisting friends with fanzines like Exploding Carrot, TCP, United Games Insane Games and i had written a review for Atari Entertainment (for free) and the Official Aliens Fan Club Magazine ( i shudder reading both these days).

 

I literally had no idea what i was doing, friends just needed pages filled, it was that simple.

 

 

I've never been a fan of people spreading false information which suggests code for any Lost Games might one day surface.

 

 

Clint Thompson can back me up here as he was shamefully quoted as being in possession of Jaguar Phear and Conan code and would be giving it away as part of a FB Xmas prize draw.

 

I also assisted Clint at 1 stage in trying to secure sources who worked on the Jaguar CD Duo. 

 

I found and contacted the UK Atari Engineer,named as Pilgrim as Sam Tramiel had made out he was a key player on the team behind the planned Duo.

 

 

Sam lied his ass off here,Pilgrims role was minimal.

 

 

I wasted hours trying to find the John Carmack interview Kieren swore blind John had stated Jaguar Quake was started, but it soon became apparent Kieren had simply gotten confused, mixing up Ultimate Future Games 30% claim with John explaining how if he coded Jaguar Doom from scratch,  he'd increase the games resolution and frame rate.

 

Kieren swore blind Tomb Raider had started life on Jaguar CD and had a screenshot to prove it.

 

After chatting to numerous Core Design coders and artists, i found Richard B., Core's P.R manager who had given the press the various C.G.I for numerous upcoming games, including Tomb Raider, told them the images were mock ups and watched in horror as the magazines falsely claimed the games were headed to 3DO, Jaguar CD etc.

 

Kierens response..this proves nothing.

 

It wasn't until i found the Jeremy Heath Smith and Soul Star coders, confirming that was the only Jaguar CD game in development and all the Jaguar would of seen would of been Sega CD conversions, his familiars stopped claiming Tomb Raider was in development and people shouldn't listen to my bullshit.

 

 

I can honestly say that if your a writer, who can't turn around and opened admit your early stuff was just what you'd read in the likes of The One Magazine, yes Kieren,  your infamous Pixel Nation Magazine Panther article, which Leonard Tramiel called fake news,  then you deserved the reaction Leonard gave by scolding you for not doing proper research. 

 

 

You've ridiculed my Panther research,  yet each and everytime, I have openly named my sources and stated what they told me.

 

You clung to the words of a serial bullshitter, Martin Hooley,where as when i discovered one of my sources fell into the same category, Jim Gregory,  i had the interview pulled as he couldn't be trusted.

 

 

For the sake of all those who have contributed to Sam's upcoming 2600/7800 compedium,  i feel terrible people that deserve to see the fruits of your labour,might not now,as they feel the book is simply too tainted by the work of 1 Ghost Writer. 

 

There's clearly going to be a period of healing needed and bridges within the community rebuilt. 

 

We can't undo years of damage overnight,  but lessons can be learnt and we can go forward. 

[Lost Dragon]

https://youtu.be/MHzHMlpbvYU

 

Around 16 minutes in, Kieren is asked about how he created all the Top 50 etc style YT videos, must have taken hours, did he sit there and play all these games?

 

He admits he CHEATED.

 

Videos were easy to make.

 

Footage NOT his.

 

Talks of his admin days on RVG where they had plans for a video library to showcase games on systems, "loads of people uploading 100's and 100's of clips" which resulted in him being sat on a massive archive of clips, he just added a few of his own.

 

 

When he was confronted over the PET Game footage theft, didn't he claim he found it in an online, free to share archive? 

 

Such an archive, if it exists, is very different to an archive you took from a Community website, just as you took all the magazine scans Mort did and i paid for Kieren, but you copied lock,stock and indeed barrel, as you did the press clippings i sent.

 

You were busy putting up my old clipping of Jaguar CD Freelancer from Gamesmaster Magazine as yours, knew it was mine, recognised it as it was so creased and worn.

 

When i confronted you for proof of Jaguar Mortal Kombat 3, as evidence you put up my clipping from news section of C+VG i had lent you, again i knew it was mine, as i had literally torn it out the magazine :-)) 

 

 

But did you notify the community RVG members and let them know you were now using material they had uploaded for RVG, for your own channel? 

 

 

 

A channel with a Patreon attached which asked people who wanted to see more videos like these,to sign up and pay so you could produce more of them?

 

 

 

you would often talk of the hours of research in your story of..videos.

 

 

Cue you padding them out with old TV commercials,  research from other people's sites, MAGAZINE CLIPPINGS.. 

 

Where was the content where YOU had gone off and interviewed people connected to the hardware in question? 

 

 

 

Guru Larry scripts:You claim you spoke to Zero 5 coder, Matthew Gosling,  yet his account was word for word perfect to what he'd told via an online interview years before.

 

 

Actual interview conviently n dead when you wrote your script, but it's host and key quotes easily found:

 

 

Matthew Gosling as conducted by Justclaws for his website:

http://justclaws.atari.org/jagudome/jagu-dome.html

 

 

 

 

>19)What's this I'm hearing about you guys not getting paid for this game?....Did you guys get paid salaries for working there?

 

All the people involved in the project were paid by Caspian software, we all got our salaries. When I say we didn't get paid, I mean that Caspian software was not paid money owed by Atari for the development.

 

There was a milestone due when Atari received the beta version, and they didn't pay it. All of a sudden, they decided that they didn't like aspects of the game that had been in there since day 1, and unless we completely change everything they won't accept it as a beta version. They kept us hanging on for a month, coming back to us with utterly ridiculous "bugs" (there was a very very small number of genuine bugs, but most of them were just Atari being stupid), and in the end, the company couldn't carry on, and was "put to sleep".

 

I was laid off, and both me & Chris got new jobs.

 

A couple of months ago, however, I got internet access at work, and nearly had a heart attack when I saw people on rec.games.video.atari talking about Zero 5 being published by Telegames. We thought that someone must have just spread some bullshit rumour, but the Telegames website suggested otherwise. We had absolutely NO idea that this had happened, we were not consulted at all, and we are still not getting paid for it (Caspian still exists, it never went into receivership).

 

Atari still maintains that it was not a beta, and sold it to Telegames on the understanding that it was an unfinished product. This doesn't stop Atari from getting a royalty on sales of the "unfinished product", but that royalty is so embarassingly low that if they're that fucking desperate then they're welcome to it as far as I'm concerned.

 

There are legal reasons (that I can't go into) as to why Caspian is not suing the ass off Atari/Telegames.

 

Hopefully you can see why the tone of my usenet post came across as a bit angry, you have to understand that I spent a year working flat out (the latter half of which was working around 12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week) on a game that never came out, and that is now being published and cashed in on without any of the people who created it being consulted in any way. It's Atari that are the scum here, I don't think that Telegames knew the situation, they just bought the rights off Atari.

 

The money doesn't really bother me, it's the principle - but hey who gives a shit, I got my break into the games industry, Atari are welcome to their $1.50 per cart (oops ...)



 

 

You then NEVER thought to ask your number 1 go to Atari UK source, Darryl Still, for the Atari UK side of things, even though the game was one of the key European development centre titles.. 

 

You didn't get Telegames view,yet had spoken with them for your RG magazine article? 

 

 

And when Darryl pulled you over the coals, you had to admit you didn't even know who the boss of Caspain Software was?

 

 

Yet in the video above, your chest beating about how DJ Slopes etc say your Atari knowledge is basically unmatched, you just needed better  video editing skills and more confidence. 

Edited February 14, 2020 by Lost Dragon

[Lost Dragon]

https://www.digitiser2000.com/main-page/the-latest-retro-gaming-drama-and-my-part-in-it#

[+CyranoJ]

1 minute ago, Lost Dragon said:

https://www.digitiser2000.com/main-page/the-latest-retro-gaming-drama-and-my-part-in-it#

Without naming Kieren that may as well not exist. It's not a warning for the future in any way at all. 

 

Anonymous / sock puppetry is how he got as insidious as he did.