In July 1984, Imagine Software went bankrupt and collapsed. Just over a year later, its name appeared at the top of the UK charts for the first time with Hyper Sports. New post on that story and how Ocean ended up with dual Daley Thompson's Decathlon sequels: www.superchartisland.com/hyper-sports

Saw a post about a movie advert that's been up at Stratford station for a few years. Inspired me wonder what happened to the Tom McRae billboard which I used to always see when I lived in north London. It's gone but it made it to 12 years and he got a story out of it tommcrae.com/blogs/end-of...

In July 1984, Imagine Software went bankrupt and collapsed. Just over a year later, its name appeared at the top of the UK charts for the first time with Hyper Sports. New post on that story and how Ocean ended up with dual Daley Thompson's Decathlon sequels: www.superchartisland.com/hyper-sports

ICYMI, my post this week was on The Way of the Exploding Fist. Read about: - how its approach to martial arts stood out - the Hong Kong cinema influence on it and on early fighting games in Japan - the misfortunes of International Karate www.superchartisland.com/the-way-of-the-exploding-fist

I think I have my list of favourite songs of the 2020s for #TheTwen2ie5. The numbers go 2020: 4 2021: 6 2022: 10 2023: 10 2024: 14 2025: 6 Which reflects how much less engaged I was with new music for a few years there at least as much as it does recency bias

ICYMI, my post this week was on The Way of the Exploding Fist. Read about: - how its approach to martial arts stood out - the Hong Kong cinema influence on it and on early fighting games in Japan - the misfortunes of International Karate www.superchartisland.com/the-way-of-the-exploding-fist

I'm in The Big Issue this fortnight reviewing The Bad Guys 2 in possibly my final contribution, as TBI has cut the review sections to save money and lower printing costs. It's sad and frustrating. I've loved being part of it for the past five years, and hope one day I'll write for them again.

NEW BLOG POST: It's been very pleasant to look back on childhood experiences through playing Pokemon Yellow. pixpen.co.uk/2025/09/17/r...

I was just days ago trying to figure out the tangle of oddly similar 8-bit fighting games and as if by magic an explainer appears!

New post tracing some of the early history of fighting games, and looking at the arcade-influenced classic that broke through to be one of the biggest home computer hits of 1985: www.superchartisland.com/the-way-of-the-exploding-fist

New post tracing some of the early history of fighting games, and looking at the arcade-influenced classic that broke through to be one of the biggest home computer hits of 1985: www.superchartisland.com/the-way-of-the-exploding-fist

After years of porting hobbits and Horaces to the C64, Melbourne House let Gregg Barnett do something (slightly) more original. The result was a beautiful and defining home computer fighting game. New post on The Way of the Exploding Fist: www.superchartisland.com/the-way-of-the-exploding-fist

"Jump" has been in the UK top 40 for twice as long as any other Blackpink song ever. I wonder how much of that is the good fortune of coming out exactly as a bunch of people started thinking "I'd like to learn more about this 'KPop' thing"

Some solid gold foreshadowing in the choice of headline for this early profile on the ill-fated Imagine Software, from March 1983

Some games things among a display of stuff found in the river

The impulse was already there and had been for a while, white nationalism isn’t new. GG caused the creation/expansion of online infrastructure for networking, community building (mainly among young online people) and spreading/testing of tactics and propaganda. But it didn’t invent the fasc wheel.

There have been many songs modelled on "Dancing on My Own" ("Plastic Box" is one of them, it's also good) but it's great to hear someone do Robyn by drawing on "Indestructible", the actual best song of that album, instead. And really well with bonus trash rock bits youtu.be/cu4--ehajz0?...

This Jens Lekman album is SO MUCH Jens Lekman, I'm not sure I know what to do with an 80 minute album in this mode. However the song on it which is 100% the most Jens Lekman, in every sense, is the best one and a treat: youtu.be/MQBUISpY76I?...

"Underrated butts of videogames" [🧵1] Ninja Gaiden/Ninja Ryūkenden/Shadow Warriors Tecmo, 1988, Arcade

Incredible: The Virtual Boy has stayed the same price since 1996

ICYMI, my post this week was on Soft Aid, a kind of Band Aid Humble Bundle that dominated UK software charts in 1985. Read about how it happened and about every game included, from Ant Attack to Kokotoni Wilf: www.superchartisland.com/soft-aid

ICYMI, my post this week was on Soft Aid, a kind of Band Aid Humble Bundle that dominated UK software charts in 1985. Read about how it happened and about every game included, from Ant Attack to Kokotoni Wilf: www.superchartisland.com/soft-aid

Exciting day for new album releases today

this is getting ridiculous

So @dc.com pulled Red Hood from digital storefronts but you can still buy all of Sandman. The lesson here is that DC doesn't care if you sexually assault women, but don't you dare make fun of a dead fascist.

loved loved loved chatting to x-cetra about their outsider teen classic SUMMER 2000, getting back together, and y2k outside of the obvious touchstones — have a read on guardian music! 🦋🎤🎀

I wonder why all these great indie games are coming out of Australia where they have a massive public funding effort for videogame creators

This week: 23 reads on Silksong (discourse), King's Field (-likes), and political economy (no catch): critical-distance.com/2025/09/09/s...

Very informative and a good read!

I think that if you are trying to understand the Anthropic book settlement, and you are not doing it in light of the (extremely) failed Google book settlement from 2011, you will never be able to understand what is happening.

Doing this post on how games took after pop music led to checking in on the UK compilations chart. It was separated out from the albums chart in the '80s when Now That's What I Call Music and its imitators took over. Currently it has had the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack at #1 for 11 weeks

Live Aid happened 40 years ago, and so did a less remembered Band Aid spin-off in home computer games. New post on the Soft Aid compilation which spent 16 weeks at #1, its legacy, and each of the 18 games it included. With guest star @shammountebank.bsky.social: www.superchartisland.com/soft-aid

I helped out a little bit with this article. It was a pleasure going back and playing Ant Attack and Horace Goes Skiing. (Starbike and Jack and the Beanstalk slightly less so.)

The Humble Bundle, invented in Britain - who'd have thought

Live Aid happened 40 years ago, and so did a less remembered Band Aid spin-off in home computer games. New post on the Soft Aid compilation which spent 16 weeks at #1, its legacy, and each of the 18 games it included. With guest star @shammountebank.bsky.social: www.superchartisland.com/soft-aid

Been thinking about this all week; but really this just brings a bunch of stuff bubbling up that I've been sitting on for way longer. On the death of criticism: noescapevg.com/games-critic...

It stands for Willy I'd Like to Fly

For @singlesjukebox.bsky.social, I wrote about how easily the aesthetics of Jeon Somi's "Closer" worked on me:

ICYMI, my post this week was on the original Football Manager. Read about: - its '50s and '60s board game inspirations - the Arsenal player who "could play this 24 hours a day and never get tired of it” - how a 1982 game ended up a UK #1 hit in 1985 www.superchartisland.com/football-manager

ICYMI, my post this week was on the original Football Manager. Read about: - its '50s and '60s board game inspirations - the Arsenal player who "could play this 24 hours a day and never get tired of it” - how a 1982 game ended up a UK #1 hit in 1985 www.superchartisland.com/football-manager

wrote about exhilarated despair, francis bacon and the new @suedehq.bsky.social album (very good, out tomorrow) for the quietus thequietus.com/quietus-revi...

No shade on The Beat which has been patiently pointing out that yes, Dog Man and Raina Telgemeier are comics for years and years! I just think “how can Marvel and DC compete with manga?” is by this point like asking “What can Def Jam and Sub Pop learn from the Idol system?”

Kevin Toms had aspirations to be a board game designer. Instead he had to settle for making a computer game so compelling and flexible that it ended up at the top of the UK chart three years after its release. New post on the story of Football Manager: www.superchartisland.com/football-manager

The day I won the FA Cup I just left the celebration graphic on the screen for what must have been a good 15 minutes. I also used to change players names after I sold them to keep things fresh. Must have racked up 30 seasons on that game taking Spurs (chosen at random!) up through the divisions.

Kevin Toms had aspirations to be a board game designer. Instead he had to settle for making a computer game so compelling and flexible that it ended up at the top of the UK chart three years after its release. New post on the story of Football Manager: www.superchartisland.com/football-manager

I saw this tonight! My only previous video game concert experiences have been with Final Fantasy ones at the Royal Albert Hall and this was on a very different kind of scale. Lena Raine's soundtrack remains superb and hearing "Ressurections" with live drums and piano was worth it on its own

Substitute the even vaguer "growth" in place of "success" and this could be a lot more recent than 1984

ICYMI, this week's post was on Alien 8. Read about: - Knight Lore and "the most animated character in home computing software" - Why one reviewer thought Alien 8 might be "a resounding first raspberry for Ultimate" - Why Ultimate/Rare left home computers behind www.superchartisland.com/alien-8

ICYMI, this week's post was on Alien 8. Read about: - Knight Lore and "the most animated character in home computing software" - Why one reviewer thought Alien 8 might be "a resounding first raspberry for Ultimate" - Why Ultimate/Rare left home computers behind www.superchartisland.com/alien-8

Got Galaxy Express 999 the song on the brain, so it's my duty to remind the younger gamers among us that once upon a time, Jaleco—your friends and mine behind City Connection—put out a Japan-only DDR clone for the PS2 launch over there featuring FMV backgrounds I can only describe as courageous.