Ah, the humble BBC Micro. This was the weapon of choice of my primary school back when I was but a little piglet (and the weapon of choice of most primary schools in the UK at the time, prior to the rise of the CD-ROM). Although most of my computer memories from that time are associated with the ZX Spectrum which we had at home, I have one distinct memory the BBC Micro, and that is a red blob in the form of Podd.

What is Podd exactly? Well, Podd was an educational game (both terms are used in the loosest sense here) which presented the user with the words “Podd can” and a blank space for the user to type what they think Podd can do. If you typed something which Podd could indeed do, you were rewarded with watching him do it. Observe (unfortunately the sound goes a bit out of sync as the video progresses):

Podd can walk – yep.

Podd can jump – yep.

Podd can fart – I’m afraid Podd is not flatulent.

Podd can poo – No, he’s constipated it would seem.

Of course, playing this game in school (when unsupervised) usually resulted in typing in all sorts of obscenities, only to find disappointingly that Podd didn’t do any of the things that we really wanted him to do. Podd can pop was probably the best action that I can remember (shown at the end of the video above).

The reason I have such a distinct memory of Podd is not just because of the unparalleled thrill of the game, but also because I managed to break it – and I’m not talking about something that could be fixed with a simple off and on here. No, I managed to break Podd to the point of no return. Apparently, pressing the break key on the keyboard, does actually break the game and its disk. At least, after I pressed break to exit the game, it never worked again and I got the blame. I became the target of a mass hate campaign of Podd-loving classmates. Candle lit vigils were held in Podd’s demise and attempts to contact Podd with a Ouija board proved unsuccessful. Limits were imposed on me to ensure that I never harm another pixel puppet ever again.

R.I.P. Podd.

Looking back, Podd was rubbish… and yet we loved it. It was easily the most popular choice when we were allowed to decide what program we wanted to use (although the choices were limited). Something about being able to control this ‘thing’ on the screen really hit the spot. A far cry from blowing stuff up and driving over hookers with your car these days, eh kids? (Sarc.)

A similar toy for the PC a few years later called Dr Sbaitso, who talked to you and said whatever you wanted him to say, was also similarly amusing.

I absolutely adore this.

(via xkcd)

Just a quick note to say that on Thursday I passed my PhD viva interview, and I couldn’t be more relieved. I’ve got a feckin’ PhD!

It’s been a very long and difficult three and a half years. Looking back on when I started the project feels like a whole different life, a different era. I intend on writing a much longer blog on the whole experience in the near future, but for now I’m feeling pretty fragile after some preliminary celebration last night.

Highlights from the kids involved:

“Yeah, you don’t know cuz you’re a grown up… You hardly do this… You have work to do!”

and the kid describing Mario:

“It’s weird.”

I would’ve been about the same age as these kids back then. The only game console we ever had in that era was the Sega Master System, with games like Operation Wolf (light-gun!!) and Alex Kidd in Miracle World. We also had a PC, so I tended to play that more often (games like Lemmings, Commander Keen and the original platform Duke Nukem). I missed out on the golden age of Nintendo, aside from playing a Super Nintendo at a friend’s house.

Sad.

This video still makes me nostalgic as hell.

I meant to post this a while back. Minecraft is a great little game that’s been something of a phenomenon within the past year, with over one and a half million copies sold. The way I always describe Minecraft is your own virtual world to craft, much like playing with Lego. Oh, plus monsters. Anyway, 2 Player Productions have been in the process of making a full-length documentary about the man (and the team) behind Minecraft. In the mean time, this 20 minute video was released in an attempt to drum up enough funds to film a full-length feature, which the team have now done. It’s really interesting, and gives a good insight into how the game and the team came about.

Because of the sandbox nature of Minecraft, it has a ton of potential uses. One such potential use is using the game to teach – read about how one teacher in New York City implemented the game into his computer class at his Minecraft Teacher Blog.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, completing my PhD thesis has given me some time to disconnect myself from the real world and to take some pleasure in escapism. I had a huge list in my mind of things I wanted to do – games I wanted to play, books I wanted to read, TV shows and films I wanted to watch, and activities to pursue. So far I haven’t done too badly, though I’ve merely been scratching the surface.

Firstly, I delved into Fallout: New Vegas on the Xbox 360. I loved Fallout 3, so I was really looking forward to this. I played through the main quest and several side-quests in the game and logged around 50 hours of gameplay. Initially, the game didn’t quite grab me the way Fallout 3 did – I guess I can put this down to post-apocalyptic wasteland fatigue – but as it progressed, and as I finally found my feet in the world, I became hooked. This did take a considerable amount of time investment prior to being hooked though, so if you’ve played a lot of Fallout 3, it’s pretty much more of the same. You’ll enjoy it, it’s definitely a great game, but it might not grab you the way Fallout 3 did. If you’re new to the Fallout universe, you’ll probably love it. Also, I totally did not realise that Matthew Perry was voicing Benny until the end credits scrolled. I guess Bethesda gave him a call when they found out he crippled his hand after playing so much Fallout 3. I also got around to completing Halo: Reach, which was probably my favourite of all the Halo games I’ve played – excellent soundtrack too!

Around the time I was finishing off Fallout: New Vegas, I became a bit ill. Funnily enough, my supervisor in Health Sciences at my university told me this would probably happen – apparently it’s pretty common for a person’s immune system to take a beating once the adrenaline wears off after submitting a thesis and exhaustion takes grip. I couldn’t really face playing games, so I lay in bed for a few days watching Twin Peaks. For those who don’t know of Twin Peaks, it was a TV series created by David Lynch back in 1990. Think of it as the weirdest, darkest, funniest, most out there soap opera you could imagine. It was hugely popular back at the time when it was airing, but due to pressure from the TV networks to maintain high ratings, certain parts of the plot were forced to be revealed early, which meant half way through the second series the show hit a bit of a plot slump. Thankfully, it managed to get back on track for the final few episodes of Season 2, but sadly did not got recommissioned for any further series. I took a chance on this series, buying the boxset before I’d even seen one episode, simply because I’d read a little about the show and its cult status and it sounded right up my street. Thankfully, it was fantastic. It’s sad that the show was cut short, but even now, 20 years on, the show was a breath of fresh air to watch. If you have never watched Twin Peaks, I highly recommend you correct that error as soon as you can. It is… excuse me… a damn fine TV show. I’ve watched I can’t tell you how many TV shows in my life, but this, this is one the best (obligatory show quote reference). It made my illness somewhat bearable (although it did give me some pretty messed dreams, thankfully not as messed up as Cooper’s dreams).

Next, on to books. I’ve bought so many books over the past few years and barely got the time to read any since my eyes were always ridiculously tired after each day of work. So now was a fine time to get down to some reading. First up, I read J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye for the first time. The book is narrated by Holden Caulfield, a cynical teenager who is disillusioned with the world and the people around him and who gradually falls into a downward spiral. Part of me wishes I had read this when I was a teenager as I think I would’ve connected a lot more with the character’s angst and cynical views of the world. Reading it as a 26 year old, I found it hard to sympathise with the guy, and actually quite disliked him as a person. I know this is considered a literary classic, but, sadly, it really wasn’t for me. Next, I moved on to something a bit more my style – Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. My first encounter with Neil Gaiman was watching the excellent film, Coraline, which was based on his novel of the same name. The book centres around the character of Bod (short for Nobody), a young boy whose family was brutally murdered when he was a baby and who unintentionally escaped to the nearby graveyard where he was taken in and raised by the spirits there, determined to keep him safe from the evil man responsible for the murder of his family. The book took a while to lure me in, but yesterday I spent a good 5 or so hours reading the second half of the book which was absolutely captivating (no mean feat given my short attention span!). A recommended read – likeable characters, enchanting scenarios and a great plot, particularly in the latter half. I’m now intent on checking out another of Gaiman’s books, The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch.

On the musical side of things, 2011 has already brought plenty of great albums from the likes of (Youtube links to tracks contained within): And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Radiohead, The Joy Formidable, Mogwai and Cut Copy. More goodness to come throughout the year as well, notably from Explosions in the Sky – shaping up to be a great year of music already.

In addition to all this, I’ve also been trying to develop my skills a bit by brushing up on C++ programming and having a go at iPhone app development. I also intend on finally playing with that Arduino I got a while back. Free time is chuffing great!

One final thing, I was giddy as a schoolboy watching this new Skyrim trailer earlier today. 11th November really cannot come soon enough!

It’s amazing when you actually get some free time – you make a list in your head of all the things you want to get done, subsequently occupy all free time trying to get all these things done, and inevitably don’t have enough time to get all those things done. I guess the important thing is I’m putting my free time to good use, even if I don’t get to do everything I intend to, right?  Anyway, blogging just happens to be one of those things, and today I made a start on that, and man did I forgot how long it can takes sometimes. I spent most of today writing a blog on my top 10 favourite albums of last year – not exactly timely, but music sharing and discovery need never be untimely! You can check out this post over on my Alpha Waves music blog: My top 10 albums of 2010.

In other news, I saw this trailer last night and thought it was fantastic. It merely intrigues me about the game – it doesn’t suggest the game will be good, since it doesn’t show gameplay – but damn it if it isn’t one of the best trailers I’ve seen in a long time. This was all over Twitter last night, so I’m guessing it’s provoked a high level of hype, and so whoever put the trailer together has definitely done their job well. Check it out, here’s the trailer for the upcoming game Dead Island (warning: contains simulated gore):

Normal blogging service will resume shortly. Since I submitted my thesis I’ve taken ill (I guess better now than while I was working towards a deadline).  Anyway, saw this yesterday and connected with it way too much. I am too damn excited for the new Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim. Although, maybe not this excited*:

* Debatable.

Hey folks!

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a great festive holiday. It’s January, and this month is pretty huge for me. This will be the final month of my PhD project. I aim to submit my thesis at the end of the month so, all being well, the writing will be done and dusted come February. After that, there will be a short waiting period and then I’ll have to do an interview defense of my work. After that, if I pass then I’ll probably have some corrections to do. It’s all scary biscuits, but I don’t really care to think that far ahead right now – for now, I’m all about this month. It’s gonna be tough, but I’m hoping I can make it through. The end cannot come soon enough!

Hope you all have a great start to the year and can keep it that way. I’ll be sure to update once I’m done.

UPDATE 25/01/2011: Submitted! :-)

The 7th Guest holds a great deal of nostalgic value for me. I was playing it on PC CD-ROM when I was a mere 10 years old, well below the required 15 age rating. Thanks Dad. Check out the intro sequence below.

The game sees you enter the mansion of Henry Stauf, a crazed toy maker who enjoys to see you suffer through the agony of his twisted, complex puzzles. Being so young, I found the puzzles very challenging and I’m not sure I completed many past the first handful of puzzles. I did, however, use the “ZAPHOD BEEBLEBROX” cheat in the menu to go and check out every room of the house and the scenarios therein (hey, I was young, cheating wasn’t a big deal!). The game featured a ton of awesomely awful acting and story twists, including a fair share of creepy horror moments, this one being my particular favourite that always freaked me out as a kid (the clip seems laughable now, but I still hate clowns):

The 7th Guest is due to be re-released on the iOS platforms of iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch this Christmas, and I’m really looking forward to it. Maybe this time I’ll be able to legitimately get through the game’s puzzles.