2010 AND BEYOND! So 2010 is slowly coming to a close and here I am, at my desk at the office, writing a small blog to pass away the hours before I can get away with going home - probably about 4pm, a time when no-one will really notice my absence at this 'time' of the ...Posted by boyo on Dec 30, 2010 11:13 (Dec 30, 2010 11:13) |
So 2010 is slowly coming to a close and here I am, at my desk at the office, writing a small blog to pass away the hours before I can get away with going home - probably about 4pm, a time when no-one will really notice my absence at this 'time' of the year when most are at home with their family awaiting the celebrations of a New Year. And what will 2011 bring I wonder? Well let's look back to 2010 first. For myself, 2010 has been mainly been me being 40, until that is my biological clock ticked over 1 towards the end of September and my personal slippery path to 50 started. Back in February, being the restless person I am, and as usual looking for yet another challenge, I decided to relaunch the Retro Fusion site as you see it today. Having created three Fusion magazines previously and having launched a couple of doomed websites (www.retrofusiononline.com and www.gamingverdict.com) I had a back catalogue of great features and articles that in my opinion were wasted just being on my local PC so I wanted them back within the 'online' space. After purchasing the CCMS games website engine, it was a matter of learning some PHP and basic graphics design to arrive at the site as it is today. The site took off, and a number of very good writers have come on board over the last 10 months and written some fantastic articles for the site (bedroomcoder, Turrican and Invisible to name but three). Thanks guys, your help is really appreciated. I have had the pleasure to bump into, in the virtual and real world, some fantastic gaming icons in the last year. The obvious are Archer, Jon Hare and Philip Oliver who have now been friends of mine for over 5 year - the top 5 of the others that I can now call 'friends' are: - Gary Bracey (Ocean) who I have exchanged mails with, had a long phone conversation and finaly met at R3play in November - Nolan Bushnell (Atari) - I have exchanged a number of mails with Nolan and he has agreed to be interviewed for the site. - Walter Day (Twin Galaxies) - Walter is a great guy, and we have spoken a lot via mail. Walter has also sent me a number of Funspot marketing posters that I will hand out as prizes on the site in the New Year. - Roger Kean (Newsfield) - Roger let me put the Crash, Zzap and Amtix mags on the site. The aim is to get them all up there over time. - Simon Butler (Ocean) - Mr Controversial as he perceives himself. A very funny and opinionated guy that has a history of great games behind him. I look forward to the next one. 2010 saw myself attend 2 retro events - Retro Rewind in Sheffield and R3play in Blackpool. Both were great showcases for retro and social gatherings that cannot be beaten. Gaming in 2010 for me has been primarily been on the Xbox 360 though the purchase of an iPad in the summer has seen me spending more time/money on this device than any other handheld I have ever owned. The games are accessible, cheap and addictive and the retro base is covered extremely well. 2011 is going to be huge in my opinion for the iPad - all we need now is for someone to create a joystick or joypad for it! I built, played and sold another MAME cabinet. This one was a mini upright that I simply loved. Unfortunately it was not wife friendly so had to go. I still have a 2-way Cocktail cabinet in the lounge which the wife likes - this one gets played usually when we have friends around and is my pride and joy. 2010 was also the year of the major clearout - pretty much all the retro consoles and computers I had have now been sold or given away. From memory, all that I have now is a GBA SP and the Cocktail cabinet. I have though recently bought a modded XBOX from Ebay - that should be with me any time now - so it goes to show that us retro enthusiasts tend to re-buy the kit that has a place in our hearts. I also bought, played and then sold a MiniMig (Amiga 500 Hardware Emulator) - great if you like tech. It was expensive though and I could not justify keeping it as WinUAE does more and is absolutely free and more compatible with the myriad of games, utilities and demos that are Amiga based. So the kit list that 'we' have now in the house is as follows (I say 'we' as some of my older kit is now owned by my three children): - 2 x XBOX 360. One has been soft Modded and banned from XBOX Live - this is now used on the proejctor for gaming and films. I now own a Kinect - this maybe sold on in the New Year. The 360 is the best gaming platform since the ZX Spectrum and both these consoles are just mine. - PS3 - glorified Media centre used for DVDs, Singstar and more recently Playstation Move games. The PS3 is the original 60gb model that can play PS1, PS2 and PS3 games. - Wii - kids toy under the TV. My 4 year old plays it the most (Disney Cars). - iPad, iPhone 3GS and iphone 4. The iPad is used by all the family for gaming, internet usage, music etc. The 3GS is mine and the iPhone 4 was a present from me to my wife - both get used for gaming, music etc. - 2 x Nintendo DS. One XL the other a standard DS - both played by the kids. - Cocktail Cabinet - over 5,000 MAME games on this beauty. The cab has appeared in a number of retro shows, is 3 sided so can play both horizontal and vertical games and has a Tron themed graphic. It's lovely. And so to 2011 - well I am looking forward to the Nintendo 3DS which I am pretty sure I will get on launch; there is R3play 2 to look forward to and then in November I will be purchasing the next in the COD installment - so all pretty predictable really. I will continue to post ramblings on this site along with any others that would like to join me for the ride (please do get in touch) and I hope to see Duran Duran and Simple Minds in concert in the Summer (very retro!). Thanks again for the support on the site - look forward to seeing you in the New Year! Chris Retro Fusion Editor. |
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Feb 5, 2011 23:27:16 (
Feb 5, 2011 23:27
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