4 FINAL FANTASY II - KILLED BY BOMBS!

Dear Readers,

I got my first game over! It was from a pair of Bombs, who wiped us out pretty quickly.

3 FINAL FANTASY II - FIRST BATTLES!

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about our first bit of progress in the game.

1 MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM HORACE - ANOTHER 2016 RETRO TREAT!

Dear Readers,

The Unofficial Zombo's Christmas Capers isn't the only ZX Spectrum release this Christmas! There's also this lovely simple arcade game from Steve Broad, which I downloaded and configured for my ZX Spectrum Vega.

1 TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES IV TURTLES IN TIME - CO-OP WITH NEPHEW

Dear Readers,

I played a bit of this game over Christmas with my nephew.

1 STREET FIGHTER II TURBO - VS BROTHER & NEPHEW

Dear Readers,

Over Christmas I played a bit of this game with my brother and my nephew.

1 THE UNOFFICIAL ZOMBO'S CHRISTMAS CAPERS - RINGING OUT 2016 IN STYLE

Dear Readers,

Hope ye had a nice Christmas! It's been a while since I made a ZX Spectrum Vega post! I thought I'd try out this game by Malcom Kirk of Monsterbytes Software, who made it as part of the 2000AD MESSAGEBOARD ADVENT CALENDAR 2016™ project.

2 FINAL FANTASY II - NO LEVELS OR EXPERIENCE POINTS! NEW RPG STRATEGY

Dear Readers,

Happy Christmas everyone! Today I'll talk about the weirder gameplay aspects of Final Fantasy II.

1 FINAL FANTASY II - NO NOT THE SNES ONE!

Dear Readers,

It's time to move on to this sequel! This is the GBA remake of the original Final Fantasy II on Famicom, not the SNES release in America that was later corrected as IV in its subsequent releases.

72 FINAL FANTASY - 15 PUZZLE

Dear Readers,

It's time to wrap things up for Final Fantasy, but first let's check out the secret minigame.

71 FINAL FANTASY - SEKHRET, OUR FINAL ENEMY TO FIND FOR 100% BESTIARY!

Dear Readers,

We did it! We found the final enemy Sekhret, #181 in the bestiary and the only one we were missing!

70 FINAL FANTASY - HOT ON THE TRAIL OF FLARE GIGAS

Dear Readers,

Flare Gigas, #149 in the bestiary, was our next target. We found it sometime after the 30th floor of the Whisperwind Cove, on a Gulg Volcano style dungeon floor and on non-hazardous terrain.

69 FINAL FANTASY - THE SHYNESS OF DEATH MANTICORE

Dear Readers,

Death Manticore, number 158 in the bestiary, was what we were looking for next. It was actually on the same floor as the Unicorns in the Whisperwind Cove.

68 FINAL FANTASY - HUNTING FOR UNICORNS

Dear Readers,

We had to go to Whisperwind Cove to find the rest of the remaining monsters to be filled in to the bestiary, the first of which was number 150, the Unicorn.

67 FINAL FANTASY - SPOTTING THE IRON GOLEM

Dear Readers,

Next in our mission to fill the bestiary and "catch 'em all", if you like :), was number 123, the Iron Golem. We had to go through the Chaos Shrine to find it.

66 FINAL FANTASY - HUNTING THE TYRANNOSAUR

Dear Readers,

According to the strategy guides, the Tyrannosaur, which appears as the 103rd entry in the bestiary, was to be found in the desert surrounding the Mirage Tower.

65 FINAL FANTASY - ENCOUNTERING THE DEATH MACHINE

Dear Readers,

With pretty much everything else in the game done, I thought we'd go fill the bestiary. We started by looking for the Death Machine, a rare encounter in the corridor leading to the Wind Crystal where we fought Tiamat.

64 FINAL FANTASY - DEFEATING DEATH GAZE

Dear Readers,

On the 40th and final floor of Whisperwind Cove, we faced the last extra boss, Death Gaze.

63 FINAL FANTASY - DWARF TRADING SEQUENCE

Dear Readers,

There was a dwarf community on one of the floors of Whisperwind Cove. They all wanted something. It's a trading sequence!

62 FINAL FANTASY - PINK ROBOT FRIEND

Dear Readers,

Another very interesting floor in Whisperwind Cove was a deserted village full of scrapped robot materials. The only ones here were a robot and its pink robot friend that needed some spare parts.

61 FINAL FANTASY - CASTLE OF THE DEAD

Dear Readers,

We weren't done with the undead in Whisperwind Cove yet. This floor took place in a castle, where all the royal inhabitants and their guards were undead!

60 FINAL FANTASY - FFVI'S PHANTOM TRAIN AND THE VILLAGE OF THE DEAD

Dear Readers,

One of the floors in Whisperwind Cove is made up of a village of undead people, cursed by the Phantom Train from Final Fantasy VI.

59 FINAL FANTASY - CONFRONTING THE SOULS OF DEFEATED ENEMIES

Dear Readers,

On this floor of Whisperwind Cove, we met a man who told us about the souls of dead enemies that were wandering around here and he asked us to speak with them, to ease their restless souls.

58 FINAL FANTASY - BEAVER HERDING

Dear Readers,

One of the floors of Whisperwind Cove has a man who wants to put his pet beavers into pens.

4 ASTRO WARRIOR - 149,800 POINTS HIGH SCORE, OPTION DRONE STRATEGY

Dear Readers,

Still haven't gotten past the third level, but I got a higher score!

57 FINAL FANTASY - DEFEATING ULTROS OR ORTHROS

Dear Readers,

On floor 20 of Whisperwind Cove, we faced Ultros from Final Fantasy VI, or Orthros as he's known here.

56 FINAL FANTASY - FLOATING CONTINENT

Dear Readers,

One of the floors in Whisperwind Cove was a lovely floating continent above the clouds.

55 FINAL FANTASY - TRICKY FAIRY VILLAGE

Dear Readers,

This is probably one of the deadliest floors in Whisperwind Cove!

54 FINAL FANTASY - DEFEATING TYPHON AND ITS SNORT

Dear Readers,

On the 10th floor of Whisperwind Cove, we met the first boss, Typhon.

53 FINAL FANTASY - HIDE AND SEEK KIDS

Dear Readers,

We appeared in an inn or something on a floor of Whisperwind Cove. There was a kid here who was playing hide and seek with his friends and asked us to find one of them.

3 ASTRO WARRIOR - SCARY THIRD LEVEL, 141,000 POINTS

Dear Readers,

Now for the third level! Never played it before so it's uncharted waters for me... er... uncharted space.

2 ASTRO WARRIOR - DEFEATING NEBIROS

Dear Readers,

Let's have another go at this and see if we can beat Nebiros!

52 FINAL FANTASY - WHISPERWIND COVE, MAGE TOWN

Dear Readers,

It felt good to get back to our airship after leaving Lifespring Grotto. Now it was time to head to Whisperwind Cove.

51 FINAL FANTASY - HIGH HP OMEGA, REACHING LEVEL 99!

Dear Readers,

The remaining boss in Lifespring Grotto was Omega, who seems to be terrifyingly difficult in every Final Fantasy game.

50 FINAL FANTASY - SHINRYU AND ITS SPOILS

Dear Readers,

At the final floor of the Lifespring Grotto, we had a choice between two bosses. Shinryu was the less difficult of the two but it still took long enough.

49 FINAL FANTASY - THE CREEPY LOOKING ATOMOS

Dear Readers,

Somewhere along the way through Lifespring Grotto, we met a mid-dungeon boss. In this case it was the disturbing looking Atomos.

48 FINAL FANTASY - GILGAMESH AND THE MERMAIDS

Dear Readers,

On another floor of the Lifespring Grotto, we met some lovely mermaids! They all lived together on this one floor and were very friendly and chatty.

47 FINAL FANTASY - THE FLOODED VILLAGE

Dear Readers,

Another floor of the Lifespring Grotto was made up of this village, but it was completely flooded and we could only traverse the area by canoe.

1 MAGIC JEWELRY - STACKING BETWEEN TRUMP TOWER AND THE STATUE OF LIBERTY

Dear Readers,

I played a bit of this Columns-like game, which is known as "Jewel Tetris" in the menu of my Mega Joy 2000, which is an NES N64 controller shaped knock-off retro game console I've had since the late 90s.

46 FINAL FANTASY - DISCUSSING PHILOSOPHY WITH SCHOLARS

Dear Readers,

Another cool NPC filled place in the Lifespring Grotto is the library where scholars can be found.

18 MINECRAFT WII U EDITION - CURING MORE VILLAGERS, ONLINE MULTIPLAYER WITH MOP IT UP AND CHRIS

Dear Readers,

Mop it up as Shy Guy and Chris came to my world to hang out. It had been a while! I continued adding more villagers to our little community.

45 FINAL FANTASY - DARK BAHAMUT'S DRAGON QUOTA

Dear Readers,

In the Lifespring Grotto, we met Dark Bahamut, who gave us a subquest to defeat a certain amount of different types of dragons. We had to do this in order to open the door and progress to the next floor.

1 NEW RALLY-X - CLASSIC NAMCO ON PHONE

Dear Readers,

I decided to play this classic Namco game on my old mobile phone one day while waiting for the bus.

44 FINAL FANTASY - CHATTING WITH DANCING GIRLS

Dear Readers,

There were more fun floors in the Lifespring Grotto where we met dancing girls. They're usually in towns and give you a twirly sprite dance when you speak to them.

1 DUNGEON OF DOOM - MY FIRST RPG!

Dear Readers,

There's more to life than Final Fantasy, so let's talk about the very first RPG I ever played! Before Final Fantasy, Pokémon or Zelda, I played this. I decided to have another go at it recently.

43 FINAL FANTASY - VANISHING TILE CASTLE

Dear Readers,

We came across some interesting floors in Lifespring Grotto. This one was quite different and very taxing!

42 FINAL FANTASY - LIFESPRING GROTTO AND ITS TREASURES

Dear Readers,

With Hellfire Chasm finished off, we pressed on to the next extra dungeon, Lifespring Grotto. For this we had to go back to the regular old sea ship and sail it towards Nerrick's canal, because it was inaccessible otherwise.

41 FINAL FANTASY - SECOND TRIP THROUGH HELLFIRE CHASM

Dear Readers,

There was a second set of bosses for us to fight, so we made another trip through this dungeon.

40 FINAL FANTASY - SCARMIGLIONE AND BARBARICCIA

Dear Readers,

On our first trip through Hellfire Chasm we faced Scarmiglione and Barbariccia as bosses.

39 FINAL FANTASY - A WHOLE NEW WORLD IN HELLFIRE CHASM WITH A NEW AIRSHIP

Dear Readers,

I was surprised and delighted to go to another floor in the extra Hellfire Chasm dungeon to find that it was styled after the world map!

17 MINECRAFT WII U EDITION - ANOTHER NETHER ADVENTURE ONLINE MULTIPLAYER WITH MOP IT UP

Dear Readers,

Mop it up as Birdo and I played another session where I focused even more on villagers. We also had another nether adventure.

38 FINAL FANTASY - FINAL FANTASY BECOMES EARTHBOUND! THE NPCS OF HELLFIRE CHASM

Dear Readers,

On one floor of the extra Hellfire Chasm dungeon, there were many non-player characters walking around. It was so weird! It was like something that came out of Moonside!

NBC ELECTORAL COLLEGE USA SIMULATOR 2016 - MOST ADDICTIVE FREE TO PLAY GAME EVER

Dear Readers,

Last night I watched the NBC livestream on YouTube, where they added up projected electoral votes of the US presidential election. Not being American(I'm Irish), I didn't have a vote, so there was no actual gameplay for me, but man it was addictive! It was quite similar to a "Free to play" game.

37 FINAL FANTASY - I WILL NEVER GET USED TO MATOYA'S THEME BEING PLAYED IN A DUNGEON

Dear Readers,

When I think of Matoya's theme, I think of a kindly eccentric witch who lives in a cosy cave with her talking broomsticks. I don't think of a post-game dungeon called Hellfire Chasm!

16 MINECRAFT WII U EDITION - NEW NEIGHBOUR VILLAGERS! ONLINE MULTIPLAYER WITH MOP IT UP

Dear Readers,

Been a small while but we're back! Mop it up and I continued the villager restoration project by getting a new neighbour for our butcher!

36 FINAL FANTASY - CONQUERING EARTHGIFT SHRINE

Dear Readers,

The bosses and enemies were quite easy. We were definitely over the recommended level because some of the enemies were running away from us!

35 FINAL FANTASY - RETURN TO EARTHGIFT SHRINE

Dear Readers,

Now for post-game content! We went back to the Earthgift Shrine. The dwarf still recommended against going in. I know we failed last time, but after defeating Chaos there was no stopping us!

34 FINAL FANTASY - FINAL BOSS CHAOS DEFEATED! ENJOYING THE BEAUTIFUL ENDING!

Dear Readers,

The final showdown: Us versus Chaos! In my last playthrough we had some trouble with him, but this time we didn't have nearly as much. Don't get me wrong though, it was still pretty tense and intimidating!

33 FINAL FANTASY - CHAOS SHRINE 2,000 YEARS AGO

Dear Readers,

Chaos Shrine looked a lot more different to us on travelling 2,000 years into the past. It has multiple floors for one thing. On this first floor, there are lots of White Dragons with the troublesome Snowstorm move.

32 FINAL FANTASY - PREPARING FOR CHAOS

Dear Readers,

With all crystals restored, it was now time to prepare for the Chaos Shrine. We travelled around the world, rendezvousing with the sages at Crescent Lake among others.

1 ASTRO WARRIOR - LASER BLASTING THE WAY TO NEBIROS

Dear Readers,

Lots of RPGs and Minecraft lately! Let's play a shmup/stg! I played a bit of this on my SEGA Arcade Gamer Portable.

HALLOWEEN 2016 GOOGLE DOODLE

Dear Readers,

I had a go at this fun little browser game that was on Google's homepage during Halloween. At first I thought it was a nice little cartoon with cute characters, but it's a game too! You play as a kitty wizard who has to wave its wand in specific patterns to stop the ghosts from getting too close. From the looks of things, there are five levels of play. I played with a mouse cursor, but it looks like it was probably made with touchscreens in mind too.

31 FINAL FANTASY - THE FLYING FORTRESS AND TIAMAT

Dear Readers,

After using the warp cube on the top of Mirage Tower, we found ourselves above the clouds in the Flying Fortress' teleport room.

30 FINAL FANTASY - CLIMBING MIRAGE TOWER

Dear Readers,

It's really nice to just hop in the airship and cruise around to see the world without random battles, you know? I'm not sure if you can go in a straight line and see nothing but blue ocean, but you can always go in a diagonal direction if you feel you've lost sight of land. Anyway, it's time to go to the Mirage Tower in the desert!

15 MINECRAFT WII U EDITION - VILLAGER RESTORATION ONLINE MULTIPLAYER WITH MOP IT UP AND CHRIS

Dear Readers,

After installing yet another update(something to do with a guy named Gary Banner, whoever he is), Mop it up and I returned to my world for more Minecrafting!

29 FINAL FANTASY - TURNING LUFENIAN

Dear Readers,

With the Water Crystal restored and the Rosetta Stone retrieved, we took an airship ride to Melmond to see Dr. Unne, who taught us Lufenian in about two seconds. Wow! If only it were that easy to learn a new language in real life!

28 FINAL FANTASY - THE SUNKEN SHRINE

Dear Readers,

We got into the barrel at Onrac and a little cutscene brought us to the Sunken Shrine. It's a very confusing place!

14 MINECRAFT WII U EDITION - A DANGEROUS GAME OF PING PONG, ONLINE MULTIPLAYER WITH MOP IT UP AND CHRIS

Dear Readers,

Mop it up and Chris came back to my world, or as Chris called it, Leprechaunia.

27 FINAL FANTASY - FAIRY TALE

Dear Readers,

We've been hearing a lot about a fairy that lived in Gaia and how she was captured and sold off.

26 FINAL FANTASY - A ROBOT?!

Dear Readers,

After some mingling, I learned that there was something in the Waterfall Cavern to the north of Onrac. We went there in the canoe to investigate...

13 MINECRAFT WII U EDITION - ENDING THE POTATO AND CARROT FAMINE, ONLINE MULTIPLAYER WITH MOP IT UP

Dear Readers,

With all the fuss of debates lately, Mop it up and I decided to head back to my world and settle once and for all which was better: Fishing or spelunking?

25 FINAL FANTASY - HOW I BECAME MASTER ROCKET!

Dear Readers,

We went back to Bahamut with the Rat's Tail and he upgraded our classes! Here's what we became:

24 FINAL FANTASY - THE CITADEL OF TRIALS

Dear Readers,

The Citadel Of Trials we couldn't land right next to with the airship. Between the forests and everything, we could only land on the end of a spit of land to the north of it. We then had to walk the long way around until we finally reached it.

23 FINAL FANTASY - THE STRONGEST SPELLS

Dear Readers,

I made a mistake about the strongest spells last time. I said they were in Gaia but they're actually in Lufenia.

12 MINECRAFT WII U EDITION - UNDERWATER ADVENTURE ONLINE WITH MOP IT UP AND CHRIS

Dear Readers,

Mop it up very kindly built a fishing hole upstairs from the enchanting room! Hooray! Our house now had four floors! Chris also made a long-awaited return!

22 FINAL FANTASY - DEFEATING MARILITH, EXPLORING THE ICE CAVERN AND FINALLY, OBTAINING THE AIRSHIP!

Dear Readers,

Just like the first time I played the game, I was really excited to uncover the airship, but first I had to deal with Marilith and search for the Levistone.

11 MINECRAFT WII U EDITION - STRONGHOLD ADVENTURE ONLINE WITH MOP IT UP

Dear Readers,

Mop it up came back to my Mario 64 textured world. I did the usual farming to begin with, until it got dark and rainy.

16 DRAGON QUEST VII - DAD'S HOMECOMING HARVEST

Dear Readers,

Back at Pilchard Bay, the lady at the entrance told me my dad and the other fishermen came back with the pilchard harvest. Yay! The music changed to the festive atmospheric one.

15 DRAGON QUEST VII - THE ASSEMBLY ROOM

Dear Readers,

A voice told us we were in the Assembly Room, a sacred place where only chosen ones may enter. Kiefer asked if it was me who said that. I said No. The voice continued and said that the spirit here was to guide us, meaning the creature, who was no longer translucent...

14 DRAGON QUEST VII - THE SACRED ITEMS OF THE SAINTS

Dear Readers,

We left the shrine in the dark of night and made it to the newly opened entrance to the Grave Of Earth And Fire. On the way there, I kept bumping into rocks because I still can't suss the non-inverted camera straight away. Anyway, when we got there, we found two gravestones like the one we saw at the start of the game, each with a glowing bird symbol.

13 DRAGON QUEST VII - THE CREATURE AND THE FOUR SAINTS

Dear Readers,

Keifer and I went inside the newly opened door. Inside, we beheld four statues holding something each and right in the middle, there was a translucent purple and green creature with wings looking at us. It was delighted when we went up and spoke to it, because we could see it.

10 MINECRAFT WII U EDITION - EXPLORING THE SKELETON CAVE IN THE NORTHEAST, ONLINE WITH MOP IT UP

Dear Readers,

Mop it up came back to my world once again with the Birdo skin and the Mario 64 texture pack. Yay! I didn't go to the nether this time though!

12 DRAGON QUEST VII - DERMOT'S DECIPHERING

Dear Readers,

We went back to see Dermot The Hermit. He had deciphered the runes, which got Kiefer all excited. It turns out the sun had nothing to do with the light in the picture. Instead, it was all to do with the strength and radiance given off by the pure heart of a chosen one, perhaps the one who built the temple. Dermot laughed when Kiefer said he was the chosen one and called him Mr Special, before giving him instructions on what to do. It was in the form of a nice little bit of rhyming poetry:

9 MINECRAFT WII U EDITION - CAVE EXPLORING AND NETHER RESCUE, ONLINE WITH MOP IT UP

Dear Readers,

Mop it up and I decided to try some cave exploring this time! My first time going deep underground!

21 FINAL FANTASY - NAVIGATING GULG VOLCANO

Dear Readers,

We explored more of Gulg Volcano. We met nastier versions of Cockatrices called Pyrolisks. Instead of turning us to stone with their gaze they would straight up kill us with a look. It happened to Rocket and Nova a few times. Good thing Joseph had the Life spell. Thank you, healer!

11 DRAGON QUEST VII - KIEFER JOINS THE PARTY! ENTOURAGE!

Dear Readers,

Back in town and in the castle, people were saying how Kiefer went back to the castle in a sad way as nothing was working out for him. I went to see him in his room and he said he was shattered from running all over the place and trying everything he could. He said he even tried the funny stone my Uncle Pike had. He didn't pay the crazy amount of money he asked for it, but "borrowed" it from him when he went home to take a nap. He gave the Sizzling Stone back to me to give back to him.

10 DRAGON QUEST VII - KIEFER'S SUNNY EXPERIMENTS

Dear Readers,

I went back to Pilchard Bay. The shopkeeper had something to say about the book. He told me the hermit would know more about it though. My mother said I was looking down in the mouth. Must be because I was a man on a mission! I showed the book to Maribel who couldn't make sense of it either. She said I wasn't able to stay away from her and to let her know what the shopkeeper thought of it like a "good boy". Man...

9 DRAGON QUEST VII - CATCHING UP WITH KIEFER

Dear Readers,

I now learned the name of the old man who lives on the cliff edge. His name's Dermot The Hermit and he was rude to the man in green in Estard sqaure, rejecting some food he brought him.

8 MINECRAFT WII U EDITION - DEADLY TELEPORTING WOLF, ONLINE WITH MOP IT UP

Dear Readers,

Mop it up came back to my world and we kept it on the Mario texture pack. It's nice of the world to welcome us with the Mario 64 title screen theme!

20 FINAL FANTASY - CAN YOU CANOE TO GULG VOLCANOO

Dear Readers,

Well, I figured out how to get the canoe! All we had to do was speak to the sage standing to the right of Lukahn. We must've missed him last time... From then on we were able to follow the river from Crescent Lake all the way to Mount Gulg. On our first trip there I was pretty amazed not to have any encounters along the river... However, on subsequent trips I did have encounters with river enemies.

8 DRAGON QUEST VII - EXPLORING CASTLE ESTARD, MEETING PRINCESS LISETTE

Dear Readers,

The Chancellor trusted that I wouldn't let the King down as he cared a lot about Kiefer.

The gaurds hoped Kiefer wouldn't end up as a bear's breakfast and said that the ring he took had a rare gem called the Sunstone set in it... Hmm... maybe it's for that door in the Shrine of Mysteries.

Downstairs, the guard said Kiefer was either in his room or gone out. I went into his room and met the maid working there. She said he was about to turn eighteen and that his room was getting smellier by the day. Ah... so that's how old he is...

The lady by the stairs said the beloved queen passed away ten years ago and that poor King Donald was still on his own. She wished he would notice her!

I went up the staircase in the northwest. hoo boy... this castle's becoming maze like... I met a guy up here who said he thought he noticed something glimmering way out on the horizon to the north. Hmm... interesting. The lady towards the south said she noticed Kiefer rummaging throughout the castle too. The guard here said he felt bad to be getting paid to stand guard in a kingdom that was so peaceful. Another red hat guy nearby was glad the kingdom was so peaceful. I noticed a horned hat guy facing the wall below and a staircase... seems strange. I'll have to keep them in mind... The harp bearer further up the steps wondered what inspired the monsters in fairy tales but was more worried about the real life bears in the hills. Up further and on the top of the roof was a guard who saw the ship my dad sailed out on this morning. He was very impressed by it!

In the turret to the left, there was a scholar who told me about the ruins, the Forbidden Place. He said they were a complex of ruins for an ancient royal clan. He asked me to steer clear and I said Yes. He said it wouldn't be good to disturb the departed.

In the turret to the right, there was a guard who had found an old map in the storerooms and that it has loads of islands on it! He said whoever drew it must've had quite an imagination. Gettin' closer to the truth :) Downstairs from here, there was a guard standing by a locked gate and said it was off-limits. Hmm... must keep this place in mind...

I went down the stairs in the northeast corner of the roof. The guard here said it was the King's bedchamber and that Princess Lisette was inside. But... Donald Sutherland doesn't have a daughter named Lisette :(

Princess Lisette was out on the northern balcony and on speaking to her, I immediately realised why she was named so. She has this adorable lisp where she says "th" instead of "s" sounds!(just like Drackies!) I had to read her dialogue out loud and it was so charming! She talked about me being "thummoned" by her father and about her "thilly" brother. Oh man! She's so cute! Can we bring her along on the adventure instead of Maribel? Please? She's dressed nice too, wearing a cone shaped hat with a little drape coming down from the top. Freaking adorable! She's another one who believes there's more to the world than just our island.

I went back downstairs and the tough talking guard said Kiefer was going to the east, but said to forget it as he would lose his job if he was caught passing information like that.

I was now allowed into the banqueting hall. The maids said how sad it was that the King never ate with the Prince and Princess because he was too busy. They also talked about Kiefer's bad table manners. In the kitchen I found Pilchard Pie and it played a special chime. Not sure why but it must be important somehow. The chefs talked about how Kiefer was bold but that they loved the little rascal. One of them took the fish bits from me and said a meal wasn't finished until the washing up was done.

I went down the staircase to the northwest and met and old man looking for his spectacles. I found them for him and he told me about an old good vs evil story. The good spirit won and that's why it's so peaceful today.

Ooo! I panned around the main staircase on the ground floor and spotted another staircase behind it going down. Down here there was a locked gate with four chests beyond it. I must remember this!

7 MINECRAFT WII U EDITION - PLENTY OF CHICKENS IN THE SEA, ONLINE WITH CHRIS AND MOP IT UP

Dear Readers,

I went back to Chris' world with him and Mop it up. I kept my Toad skin and they were wearing Mario and Dr. Mario skins if I remember correctly.

When I joined it was close to nighttime. I hung around the base keep and looked around the surrounding areas. No mobs were spawning. Mop it up found an emerald. Chris had all the villagers locked up in their homes, so no one was visiting our keep.

The next day it rained. I decided to check out the desert mountain near the southwest corner of the map, which was nearby. It's pretty cool with some cliffside caves here and there. I wandered around the desert, while it rained everywhere else!

That night it was dark when I got back to base. A creeper blasted me, but it only blew a hole in the sand luckily and I didn't get killed. It was a stormy night. I stayed indoors. Mop it up and Chris could hear the thunder while deep underground.

Mop it up wondered if anyone found pumpkins yet. I decided to go look for some by exploring the woods in the western part of the map. Didn't find any this day.

That night I decided to do some fishing. There was a little pool by the base designed for farming sugar cane but I could sit on the wall above and fish in safety and comfort :) Mop it up came along and asked if I had any good catches this evening, which I did. :) Just then though, another creeper blast happened below, which was near the creeper that got me earlier. It's a bad old spot for it.

Mop it up joined me after a while, so we were the fishing team :) catching salmon and puffer fish.

The next day I went to look for pumpkins again. Couldn't find any, but I did find a swamp full of lilies! I got carried away collecting about fifty something lilies, whatever I'll use them for. It was dark before I knew it, so I rushed home. I barely outran a witch unharmed too! Yikes!

I unwound by doing some more night fishing. Chris came along this time. I failed to catch a fish while he was watching, missing my opportunity to impress him. He said he was more shocked to learn I could fish in that little pond he made. I'm still not sure how big a body of water has to be before you can fish in it...

Some time later I finally found pumpkins! There was a big cluster of them in the woods near the centre of the map. I harvested about fifteen of them and brought them back to our supplies at the base keep, still rushing to outrun the dark of night! I converted five of them into seeds after learning that I could do it from Mop it up.

At one point, Chris went to the top of the mountain in the southwest to place some torches. I could see him clearly from the base keep. He wanted to do some daredevil thing by jumping down into some water. What he really wanted to do was make himself a mountaintop lair. That mountain's cliffside caves would be good for it alright!

I decided to look for chickens. I grabbed some grass seeds and spotted one swimming in the stream near our base. Chickens don't move very well in water so I was there for a while trying to get it to come out. Just then though, Chris killed it! Gah! He made up for it though... by giving me cooked chicken...

Chris: There you go. Your chicken.
Rocket: XD dang it chris
Rocket: cooked and all lol
Chris: I'm sure it tastes delicious.
Rocket: I was gonna keep it in the front yard or something so we could have eggs
Chris: There will be other chickens.
Rocket: I'll look for another one
Rocket: yeah plenty of chickens in the sea

Soon afterwards I literally found another two chickens swimming in the sea. What are the odds? I spent another two days trying to coax them out. Soon, I found another chicken and bred others, so by the time we finished up for the night, we had four chickens in the front yard. Lots of eggs coming in now :)

Mop it up made a scary portal. Also, the fishing pond was expanded! Yay! Though I forget who expanded it. I kept myself crouched to stop falling off the wall into the pond. I heard a baby zombie down there so I had to be careful. Mop it up killed it. I fished out a nametag and tripwire hook.

I fished out a regular fish too but Chris got in the way and he collected it! The next day he returned it though and whacked me in the head, like it was Monty Python or something!

Mop it up made an enchantment table. Some bookcases were collected too. Chris joked how they were full of porn.

Soon, Mop it up decided to check out the scary portal. It wasn't a safe trip... Deaths happened from fighting ghasts and withering away. Mop it up said there wasn't any cover in there and that it was wide open with not much cover.

I guess that leaves a goal for the next session in Chris' world.

7 DRAGON QUEST VII - KING DONALD... NO NOT HIM!

Dear Readers,

Now to visit King Donald. The guard at the gate welcomed me and so did the doormen. Continuing along, Prince Kiefer called me over to him and talked about our plan for that ship we had in the secret spot to the west of the bay. He said he found a book that talked about a Shrine of Awakening, which is located somewhere in the mountains to the east and that we need the light of the sun if we want to get in there. He said he was going over for a "recce", which I had to look up and it means the same as "reconnaissance". Learning new stuff! He said he wanted me to stall the King while he snuck out.

So here's the castle! The music is a nice royal theme with deep trumpets and everything. The old man nearby asked if I'd like my fortune told. I said Yes and he said my destiny was to bring peace to the world, but since the world was already at peace, he reckoned his skills weren't what they used to be. Since there's a big quest ahead, he may be more correct than he thinks! I like the way he says "Heurgh! Woooh! Yaaargh! as well while coming up with my fortune :)

There's an item shop here and also a bank! Hooray! Nice to have access to the bank so soon in the game :) I don't have 1,000 gold coins yet though.

A heavily armoured man recognised me as Pollock's son. The guard near him was thrilled to have a money pouch that magically filled itself back up with money. Pike sold it to him. Uh oh... I went out the door nearby. A guard outside said he saw Prince Kiefer rummaging through the storerooms and found an old book.

Another guard prevented me from entering the banqueting hall. The two guards by the stairs, one was asleep and the other wanted to act tough because he never had a chance to, but he apologised and let me pass no problem.

Upstairs I finally met King Donald, who was looking for Prince Kiefer. He actually doesn't look too different from Donald Sutherland! The Chancellor tried to calm him down. When the King saw me, he grabbed me by the hand and led me upstairs to the throne room. It was pretty amazing what he did next! He told me to sit on the throne and look him in the eye while he questioned me. Wow! I had the option to say No, but I really didn't want to refuse to co-operate, being confronted like this. He asked me if I was hiding something from him. I said Yes. He said that Kiefer stole a precious keepsake ring that belonged to his mother and that he wanted me to talk some sense into him, because his behaviour was unacceptable for one who would be king in the future. He said he was relying on me and not to disappoint him. Wow! That was a pretty stern talk he had with me! I love his manner, sitting me on the throne and everything, like it was some kind of truth seat. He's a king, but also a father. He said he had other important stuff to talk about with me some other day in the future. He said that I may now return to Pilchard Bay while sitting rather glumly on his throne.

6 DRAGON QUEST VII - THE INFAME OF UNCLE PIKE

Dear Readers,

I went back to Estard to visit peoples homes. The man in the house nearest the gate said Prince Kiefer must've fallen in with some ruffian from Pilchard Bay... hey... :(

I visted the inn. The innkeeper wondered if I was running an errand for my father. I said NO and then YES another time. It seems he saw me as a tearaway but that I was a good lad after all. At least someone appreciates me :) I had a chat with the bunny girl at the bar. She asked me if I was Pike's nephew and that they appreciate his business but he will have to settle his bar tab someday. The old man at the bar asked me about my dad and said that young people should stop bothering with talk about there being other islands in the world and respect their elders. The bartender said it's strange my uncle wasn't here at this time. Hmm... so he's a drinker then... Upstairs, the innkeeper's wife (I assume) was looking after the place. I found another cypress stick up here. The bartender shoos me away if I try to talk to him from behind the bar.

At the church, the old lady's thankful for living for another year and said that young people shouldn't go messing around in places on the island and disturb anything. The boy here wonders if the Almighty is real and where he lives. I found some horse manure in the pots outside.

I visited the house in the northwest corner. The lady there thanked me for visiting, that we were all like one big happy family and said there were bears living in the hills to the east. Nice time to find out! The man here said he had to chase my uncle away from leering at his wife through the window! Yikes! The little girl was doing her make-up and told me to go away. In the bookcase there was a note from Pike, an IOU for fifty gold coins!

I visited the house to the right of the previous one. The man there said he's starting to regret renting out the house next door to Pike. He previously thought he'd be ok, since he's a brother of my dad's. Upstairs, his wife said that Pike owes them half a year's rent... yikes...

I went to Uncle Pike's house and yikes! It was really messy. Bottles all over the place, cobwebs and a washing line. He was fast asleep in bed. I do like his name though. We're all named after underwater things in this family!

I went to the weapon shop. The standard horned mask character was here selling weapons but I didn't buy any. Maribel was upstairs with Piers. He told me to buzz off because three's a crowd and she said they were only friends and that "It's tough being a girl in demand!". Yeesh... I went through the other door of the weapon shop and talked with Piers' mother. She said he could do better and that Maribel seemed like a headstrong little madam. Yyyyyyup! His father just wondered if I was one of his little mates. The chests next to him were locked... I'll have to keep them in mind...

Back outside, there was a staircase near the church. I descended into a strange tunnel with 5 square panels and a locked gate to the north. I continued down the tunnel to the south and came out at the house I saw earlier that was below Estard! I went in and met an old man who didn't seem very welcoming...

5 DRAGON QUEST VII - EXPLORING THE ISLAND

Dear Readers,

Now that Maribel was gone, I was free to visit other places. I went back out of town to visit the man who likes animals. He's The Woodcutter and he can chat with animals, but they scamper when I come close. He greeted me and asked if I was from Estard. I said No and he figured I was from Pilchard Bay, so he gave me some advice to watch out for Pike. He also told me the reason why animals chat with him is because he loves nature so much. I like this guy :) he seems like a gnome or something. I found some rags and a seed of magic in his house. There was nothing in his well.

Next I checked out the tongue twisty Shoreside Shrine. Hoo... quiet place. It plays this beautiful little theme that starts with simple plucking and continues like a Dragon Quest dungeon theme. I really like the way this theme starts :) Inside were many pots and barrels and the stone cover I saw at the start of the game with Kiefer. This must be where we're always going against everyone's wishes. I left.

There was a stone gate I couldn't budge, so I went east. The game's world is quite pretty, even if I can only really see what it allows me to see peripherally. On the cliff was a chest with a chimaera wing inside and I could see a cave below with water flowing out of it. Wonder what's there? Might keep it in mind for later.

I continued along the path to the Shrine of Mysteries. There was a mysterious statue of a man with a beard here. I went further to the door that had a purple symbol on it and it said it was sealed with a mysterious power... hmm... must keep this place in mind too.

4 DRAGON QUEST VII - VISITING ESTARD TOWN

Dear Readers,

Maribel and I took our first steps out of Pilchard Bay. The music that plays here is is a nice light almost marching style theme. It's a decent theme for an overworld.

The non-inverted camera here really messes me up though... I hope this doesn't become an issue later on.

My character has a good running animation and moves nice and swiftly across the map. Maribel runs with her arms out behind her like someone from Naruto or some other ninja anime.

Explored a tiny bit and found a medicinal herb by the house of the weird man who likes animals. Maribel nagged at me when I tried to go anywhere else so we just went to Estard.

There's a house and a treasure chest on the cliffs below Estard... Must keep them in mind...

As soon as we arrived in Estard, Maribel ran off! The woman near the gate said there were plenty more fish in the sea and that Maribel liked me a lot more than she's letting on. Hm... how teasey.

I mingled around the square. The guy in the red hat liked that it was another trouble-free day. The man in green talked about clearing out old rusty swords and shields as it was so peaceful. Men in green are shopkeepers. I guess I should've realised that sooner, having played most of the series...

The old man said he noticed a girl going into the shop and that she could be the sweetheart of a guy named Piers. The little boy cried about how Pike stole his sweeties!

The nun talked about Prince Kiefer being troublesome for his father, King Donald. So uh... for a moment it felt weird to have a recently released video game have a character named "King Donald", but then, since his son is named "Prince Kiefer" I can immediately realise they're named after Donald and Kiefer Sutherland. I wonder if anyone breathed a sigh of relief when they realised this?

I had a chat with the ladies at the well. The younger one had admiration for my father, but not so much for my Uncle Pike. The older lady said that Pike and Kiefer were the only two things that weren't perfect about the town. They wouldn't let me check out the well... ah well, I'll check it out later.

6 MINECRAFT WII U EDITION - SUPER MINECRAFT 64!

Dear Readers,

Mop it up and I played in my world again but this time, we used the Mario texture pack! It was my first time using a different texture in Minecraft so there were many wonders and delights to get used to. I stuck with my Toad skin and Mop it up used a Yoshi skin.

In this texture pack, various music tracks from Super Mario 64 play in a shuffled kind of way. First it was the file select music and then it was Bob-omb Battlefield.

My wolf now looked like Poochy!

The next track that played was the interior of Princess Peach's Castle. I joked and said it was from when Wrinkly Kong was playing video games in Donkey Kong Country 3. I've seen real life people get stuck on this level so maybe that was some kind of clever commentary.

The various kinds of fish are now different coloured Cheep Cheeps...

Rainbow Ride theme then played. I didn't think it was a very good choice, not unless you were doing some kind of fun action like riding around on a railway. I tried out the one Mop it up built between our mountain and the big lake to the north and it was pretty cool.

Mop it up found a horse and built a concrete pen for it outside. Later on I found a pig and a Goomba shaped chicken and led them inside the pen too with some seeds and wheat.

Snowman's Land music played. It's no coincidence that music from Super Mario 64 was chosen. Minecraft to me always had the spirit of an N64 game or at least was the next big evolution in exploring 3D worlds. GameCube didn't have enough of that with regards to being the next big step and had more arcadey stuff for the most part. Still a great console itself though :)

Night time brought the sleepy Piranha Plant music :) I never actually listened to the whole track before listening to this.

The Wing Cap music started playing too and I half wondered if Mop it up was flying around outside.

Then it was the Metal Cap music.

Then Big Boo's roundabout music... really not sure about this one. It's an unsettling and eerie thing in Big Boo's Haunt, but here it sounds like it might get annoying :/

The sun was the beautiful swirly symbol from Super Mario Sunshine :)

Mop it up helped me with my pumpkins... then they started growing like crazy! I had placed them too close to one another. Mop it up then forgot that wheat gets damaged if you run over it! Kind of reminded me of Yoshi from the old Super Mario World cartoon :)

Lots and lots of Jack-o-lanterns were made from the big crop. Mop it up set up another pumpkin farm near our house. At least now I understood that pumpkins grow into the space next to where they're planted. Nice that they don't have to be replanted either.

Mop it up said there are different music tracks I haven't heard yet. For example, in the Nether, it plays the Bowser's stage and Lethal Lava Land themes. Very good choices I'd imagine!

I wonder if the game plays the Hazy Maze Cave music? That would be pretty awesome if it did. Imagine hearing that in an underground ravine! Ooo!

Mop it up found diamonds. They look pretty sweet. Lovely jeweller shape and with eyes of its own! Standard Mario styled item :)

I made some pumpkin pie. Very good item to make as it fills 4 food bars and we now have a flow of pumpkins, eggs and sugar cane coming in.

Mop it up had a nice sky light in our roof. That was until we needed to make an extension and installed an enchanting table upstairs. All Mop it up's work too. Nice stone and wood finish to it too. Very talented interior designer :)

I decided to look for Lily pads. The ones I had fished out previously are very handy for farming because I can walk on them and not fall into the water. In the Super Mario texture pack, they have a beautiful Super Leaf design with green stripes and eyes :)

I ventured north with help from Mop it up's railway. I was hoping to find a swampy area around the huge lake but I didn't find anything and kept running out of daylight time, so I had to make constant commutes over and back. I left a little boat up there overnight.

It's kind of weird how the swords look like Hammer Bros. hammers. I thought they were axes at first, but then the axes look like the axes at the end of a castle stage in Super Mario Bros.

Mop it up brought back tons of gold and iron... continuing to strike it rich :) also built a Nether portal near the mountain. Definitely not time for me to venture there though.

Wow, the flint and steel shows up as a Fire Flower! Kinda clever :)

I sailed around the lake to the north. Found a jungle biome in the top northwest corner but no swamp area yet sadly. I eventually decided to suit up in iron armour as the days just felt so short. The cacti I saw along the way were made to look like Pokeys. :) Love it!

Mop it up had the enchanting table but also an anvil upstairs. There's no village in the map so it'll be kinda tough to find bookshelves, but they can be found in strongholds too Mop it up said. We just need to find one of those.

I went exploring in the west for a bit and found a swampy area! Woo! Lots of lilies as well :) I was so wrapped up in gathering them it was pitch dark on my way back home.

When I got back to our mountain, I found that Mop it up had put lots of lights all over the top and it looked like a big cheerful birthday cake! The idea was to light it up so we could find it in the dark on our way home.

After my lily quest, I stayed home. The farm was now much easier to walk around in with the lily pads covering some of the water and I spent the rest of the days of our session fishing. At night while Mop it up was out working hard at more stuff, I stayed at home with the wolf. At one point it was sticking its Poochy head through the door! Maybe a pet flap should be a feature!

I ought to go cave exploring some time... Like Mop it up said, it's Minecraft, not Fishcraft!

5 MINECRAFT WII U EDITION - STRIKING GOLD ONLINE WITH MOP IT UP

Dear Readers,

Mop it up and I went back to my world. I kept the Toad skin and Mop it up changed to Toadette. Chris wasn't with us this time.

Most of the real work and adventuring wasn't done by me at all as I spent almost the whole time fishing and farming! Mop it up did loads of stuff. First, there was all the storage boxes and sign labels made for them.

I fished up a pufferfish for the first time. The description says it isn't really good for eating as it's poisonous so it's best for brewing and it can't be cooked either.

A full set of iron armour was made for me in case I wanted to go adventuring and I didn't mine, smelt or craft any of it. Such kindness...

Meanwhile I was just defending my farm from more creepers. I built a fence around it and installed a gate. I fished out some more weird stuff like water bottles and string. Lots of pollution here...

However I fished out lots of real fish as well. Good for our food supplies!

One night there was a skeleton wandering outside our home. There was a wolf attacking it and helped defeat it. I gave the wolf some bones and tamed it the next day.

I caught a clownfish. It's edible and non-poisonous, but doesn't restore much and it cannot be cooked.

Mop it up explored the map but couldn't find a village anywhere. I'm not sure if I had structures turned off or on.

I fished out more weird stuff like tripwire hooks and worn down leather boots. I put them on for fun!

Mop it up found some cool floating pieces of land. I really must go exploring...

I fished out lily pads and found them great for walking around the crops in the farm as they allow you to walk on water! Fished out some leather too. The wolf was my fishing buddy and at one point I accidentally hooked it. Whoops!

The wolf sometimes joined us indoors when we went to sleep. Nosy thing. Also, the days seemed really short. Gives new meaning to the expression "Not enough hours in the day"!

Mop it up found some pumpkins and put one on to give me a scare :)

Got pumpkin seeds out of it too, so I planted them on the farm, replacing some of the wheat crop. Mop it up advised leaving a space between pumpkins to allow them to grow but it was too late... I planted them all in a line. Whoops!

Mop it up then found an abandoned mineshaft and some gold! Happy times!

Me: "We're rich! I'm rich! You're richer!"
Mop it up: "Who is richest? Creepers?"
Me: "Not sure, they're inclined to blow it all away"

Lapis, diamonds, melon seeds and loads of other stuff were found down there. When it was night, the wolf and I stayed indoors and looked at Mop it up's dot on the map.

We called the end of the session when the huge haul of stuff was brought back. So much stuff!

19 FINAL FANTASY - THE SAGES AT CRESCENT LAKE

Dear Readers,

We sailed to the port on the east part of the continent. From here we walked some ways to a new town, Crescent Lake.

Here Chris could learn some new spells like Quake, a new element attack for us and Thundaga, a stronger lightning spell. Joseph could now learn Stona, which cures being turned to stone. This would've been handy in the last dungeon instead of buying Gold Needles! I really wanted to learn Exit for him but he couldn't as a white mage. I bought a new Mythril Sword for Nova.

In this town gathered a big circle of sages. One of them was the famous Lukahn, whose prophecy was about us, the Light Warriors. We spoke to the rest of them and they told us all about the fiends. They also said to come back when we restored light to the crystals.

After this I had no idea what to do. I explored more, visited NPCs we met previously and couldn't find any other clue about where to go next. I know from playing it before that we have to go to the volcano and use a boat or something to get there, but where to get the boat? Hmmm...

3 DRAGON QUEST VII - MARIBEL'S SHARP TONGUE

Dear Readers,

A guard called me over to him. He said the King wanted to see me urgently and reminded me of the path to Estard. When he left, Maribel came running up to me and boldly declared she was coming too. She even asked if it was alright with me. I said Yes. I reckon it would turn out to be a "But thou must" situation if I said No. I gave her the hairband to equip.

I tried out the party chat. I always liked this feature in Dragon Quest games. Unfortunately, it's with Maribel and her sharp tongue!

The little boy was excited about his dad bringing back loads and loads of fish. Maribel gave out to me for talking to him! Yeesh!

I went home to my mother. Maribel curtsied in front of her in a completely different and polite tone! My mother said I could learn a thing or two from her. If only she knew! She knew about the guard looking for me though and said to mind my Ps and Qs when talking to the King. She gave me a parcel containing some delicious fish bits for Prince Kiefer. She was happy to get some rest while the men were out fishing.

You know, I don't really like fish that much, but this game is giving me an appetite for them!

The man in green from earlier runs the weapon shop. I spoke to his wife again and she told me about when I was born. I was four months early and my father was out fishing, but I was very healthy. She told me to be good to my parents too, like others in the town have been telling me. Maribel told me I must've gotten my growth spurt out of the way early. Urgh! The mouth on her! The man in green is put out and grumpy because his wife keeps asking him why he didn't become a fisherman. Aw! He's right though about this shop being an important job too! The chest beside him continued to be locked tight... We'll have to come back later.

We went to Maribel's house and her mother reminded her about her elocution lessons. She lied and said she was going to hang out at my house for a while. Her mother was happy enough because it was me! She said that she hoped MY good manners would rub off on Maribel! Justice :)

The lady from the gate earlier was happy to see us getting along so well, to which Maribel huffed dismissively.

We went to my neighbour's house. The old man and his daughter in law were there. She said how dashing my father was but she preferred her own hubby a lot more. The old lady was at the church and said how lucky we were to have such trouble-free lives and how we owed it to the Almighty, not that he had much work with just the only island in the world.

"He"? Isn't it a goddess that's in Dragon Quest lore?

I spoke with the Priest and he said stuff about me being a fisherman someday, though I would turn out like my uncle if I hung out with Prince Kiefer too much. This gets me wondering about my uncle...

I saved my game for the first time. Maribel made fun of the way I came to pray for a safe journey when it was only to the castle. Whew... it's going to be a long adventure...

2 DRAGON QUEST VII - SON OF A FISHERMAN

Dear Readers,

The next morning, my mother woke me up. She's a big, kind looking lady with a blue dress and a white cap. She gave me a pilchard sandwich to take to my father instead of giving me breakfast! Ah well...

The music here is a nice gentle town theme. I headed outside and it played some festive music, marking this day of the pilchard harvest. I actually like midi music instead of orchestrated music. It just seems to go with games better for some reason. Or maybe I'm just so used to it in games.

My father Pollack is a fisherman. The item stand next to my house sells Pilchard pie. I guess we're a fishing community and it can be seen with names like Pearl, from oysters; and Pollack, which sounds like Pollock.

The lady nearby asked if I wanted to be a fisherman when I grow up since I'm a local lad. The man next to her says he's not usually up by this time but this morning he walked all the way from Estard. I guess that's the next town on this island.

The item shop had a locked chest and no one was inside. I headed back out.

The little boy in front of the mayor's house was all excited about the festival and said how Mayor Mayde's... distant ancestor started it. Seems to go back a very long way. The man in green here wished he could sail with my father's crew and said they may be sailing further north this year.

I went into the mayor's house and spoke to the mayor's wife, Mrs Mayde, who was sitting at the dining table. She greeted me good morning and had great praise for me as a helper to my father. The nosy Maribel is their daughter! Yikes! She said Maribel ran off somewhere this morning. I spoke to their maid, who was singing about being made to be a maid. They have a nice model ship above their dining room table.

I went upstairs and had a look around. Looking in mirrors has some interesting dialogue like in other Dragon Quest games. About having a flushed face, about having a spot and about flashing my most winning smile. Hmm... maybe I'm at girl-noticing-age? I found a hairband in Maribel's room.

I visited my neighbours, an elderly couple. They have great admiration for my father, saying he's the greatest fisherman this village has ever seen. They said their own son was going to be taking the helm this year. Very proud parents. They were looking forward to seeing what weird and wonderful fish they were going to be seeing and feasting on this year. I found a seed of resilience in their basement.

I spoke to the Priest again and he said he couldn't believe I was already sixteen years old. Ah so that's how old I am in this story... Actually the whole fishing community thing explains my hat. The anglers in Fantasy Life have very similar looking hats, except with fishy face features!

The lady by the town gate was there to greet visitors, and also to stop me from leaving.

Two ladies were chatting by the jetty. The older lady wishes she married a fisherman and said they were great heroes. Wow! Being a fisherman sounds like the best thing to be here! The young lady hopes her husband will get back from the trip safely.

The sailor in the red bandanna and a-shirt was put out about having a cold, saying he should be saying "Ahoy", not "Ah-choo". He came from Estard as well.

I boarded the ship, where my father and Mayor Mayde were talking about fishing spots. My father's expertise told him they'll have to fish somewhere other than the usual spot and the Mayor didn't seem sure about it.

They greeted me enthusiastically and my dad asked in good humour if I was ready to do some work "for a change". Ah... it's the life of a sixteen year old kid alright! First things first though, he had to have the pilchard sandwich my mother made him. I was curious enough to look up "pilchard" and it's some kind of sardine. Huh, learning new stuff here!

By the way, one of the things I love about Dragon Quest games is the way the text scrolls when you wriggle the D-Pad, or by pressing any other button really. Little touches like that I love, and I can do it with the 3DS circle pad too and hold it in a direction to keep the text scrolling! Woo!

The sailor on deck welcomed me aboard for my first fishing voyage and said my father was the best fisherman in the business. Below deck, another sailor was talking about younger sailors and the natural enthusiasm vs experience issue they had.

In the chests I found a cypress stick and a set of wayfarer's clothes. I equipped them. The two sailors by the map in the next room, one of them was the husband of the young woman outside and had heartache to be leaving her to go on a voyage. He asked me if I understood his pain! The other one was excited to be heading to a different fishing spot than before.

Downstairs from here I spotted a familiar orange hood behind some barrels... It was Maribel! She told me to get lost or I'd blow her cover. The chef came out and spotted her and told her to leave. She really wanted to come along fishing. She had the same desire as Kiefer and myself about wanting to see what kind of world was out there and also couldn't accept that we were on the only island in the world. She said she'll get me for this, and she left... Hmm... I wonder if this was an event that had to happen? What if I just left her there? I'm not sure...

The sailor in the next room was another one who talked about how famous my father was, but he also mentioned my father's brother, whom he said was infamous... hm...

The chef was in the next room. I found a chimaera wing here. He said he was nearly finished peeling the potatoes. He also said he noticed me getting an earful off of Maribel and laughed at how spirited she was.

I went back to the deck. The music stopped and it was just sea sloshing sounds. My father said it was almost time to set sail and I had to stay here at home as I was only a codling. He said I'll be a great fisherman someday since I'm his son, but for now I had to stay at home and look after my mother. He's like a Greek god of a man with lots of muscles, white open chested tunic, a prominent beard and a big manly smile.

I left the boat. They mayor stayed on board. He wears his hair pulled back and also has a mustache. He ordered the crew to set sail and a dramatic piece of music played while they hoisted anchor and shoved off. Quite nice! Also, better than the sailing moment in Dragon Quest VIII, where they just played the overture again.

Then it was back to me on the jetty with the regular town theme. There was no one else here on the jetty with me besides a dog and the sneezing sailor.

1 DRAGON QUEST VII - NON-INVERTED CAMERA? NOOOOOOOOO!

Dear Readers,

It's finally here! I've been waiting years for this game. I mean, Dragon Quest VI came out here in 2011. Before this game was released, the only games in the main series released physically in Europe were IV, V, VI, VIII and IX. With this release, that gap has finally been filled! All we have left now are I, II and III. I know they're on Android, but I'd rather play them on a Nintendo system. The GBC versions on Virtual Console would be lovely, or perhaps a physical compilation!

The 3DS menu splash logo for this game has a slime hopping through the VII like a rotating door and it plays a snippet of the traditional file select screen theme.

On booting, the Square Enix logo appears in the top screen and copyright on the bottom screen. Then the top screen changes to the Artepiazza logo. Total transition is about 5 seconds and they're unskippable unfortunately.

Artepiazza! The last game I played developed by them was Dragon Quest VI and I loved their other games like Opoona too!

The opening plays the overture with seagulls flying over the sea and the camera pans over the island. Nice blue seas and skies! Unlike the logos, this is skippable.

Oh man, the loading icon is an egg timer in the shape of two slimes with the tops of their heads attached! Cute! It loads too fast to enjoy them though, which is a good thing ultimately :)

The game opens with a camera pan over the island. It cuts to me, a kid wearing green clothes with a green hood. Kinda like Link but not quite! I'm here in an ancient looking place with Prince Kiefer, a taller dude with blond hair and red clothes. He asked me to keep my mouth shut about this place and I said Yes. This place is forbidden for us to mess around in but Kiefer is determined to find out the truth about the world. He refuses to believe that our home island is the only island in the world like we're lead to believe. Together, we pushed the stone slab into the wall.

That night I was at the harbour in front of my house with Maribel, a girl wearing a green and red dress and orange hood. She wanted to know what Kiefer and I were up to and asked if I still wasn't going to tell her. I said No and she came back with the double negative taunt! Oops! She taunted further and seemed determined to find out what we were plotting and was gonna tell everyone! Yikes... seems like a busybody...

The pilchard harvest was the next day, so she had to run off home to bed, but not without calling me "Mr. Mysterious". She seems like a handful...

I could now move around. The first thing I did was go around breaking barrels. The character does this by smacking them with his hands so it's nice and quick enough. Not as quick as in the DS remakes where it's an immediate break, but not as long as the PS2's VIII, where the hero has to pick a barrel up before breaking it.

I talked to the cat who replied "Meow!" and I found some gold coins on the top of the church.

Then I tried the camera controls with the L and R buttons and my heart broke. The camera wasn't inverted and there was no way to set it! It was like this in the other DS remakes too but... I hope I don't fall off any cliffs by accident. Thankfully, the game isn't arcade action skill heavy.

I went to the church to talk to the Priest. He asked if I wanted to hear more about what lied beyond the sea and I said Yes. He talked about how he went out in a boat when he was young to find anywhere else in the world that could've existed but he couldn't find anything. He and the nun both just told me to go home to bed at this point as my poor mother would be worried about me.

There was no one else to talk to in the village besides the cats and everywhere else was locked up for the night, so I just headed home. My parents were sleeping. Pollock, my dad, was snoozing in that Dragon Quest way, the "Ah-phew... Ah-phew...". Pearl, my mother stirred slightly and told me to go up to bed.

I went upstairs after rummaging around and found some gold. Found a leather hat next to my bed as well so I equipped it. The menu's nice and speedy and comes up straight away. The equipment screen has a transition but it doesn't have to load. I turned in for the night.

4 MINECRAFT WII U EDITION - IN CHRIS' WORLD ONLINE WITH CHRIS AND MOP IT UP

Dear Readers,

The next Minecraft session I had with Chris and Mop it up was on a world Chris was hosting. Chris was dressed up as Dr Mario and Mop it up was dressed as a Shy Guy. I still had the Toad skin.

I spawned near a village and that's where the base was built. It was a nice looking place, built like a castle or a keep. Chris guided me there. He even made me a bed which he placed between the other two beds they had. We had some fun jumping on the beds before I went exploring the keep.

At night, the villagers piled into the keep and took up our workspace. They got in the way of the crafting, smelting and storage stations. The keep lit up well enough at night and there was a nice vantage point to survey the surrounding lands.

The next morning I borrowed some tools and iron to make an iron sword and headed for the beach. I also gathered some wheat to make some bread for food. Nice handy farms around here. Potatoes were growing here too.

The next night I got a scare. A creeper was standing on top of our beds! I lured it away and it exploded in the hall beneath the lookout tower, not causing too much damage. I spent the rest of the night repairing the steps and restoring the glass in the windows from the supplies.

Mop it up was slain by a zombie at one point while far away. There was a spawner nearby.

Later on I got another scare when a skeleton appeared in the keep! Mop it up and I caught it in time.

Mop it up found some sugar cane and planted some outside. Will come in handy for paper. Chris crafted compasses and gave me one! Nice!

I kind of claimed the chest near the bed for storing food. Didn't put a sign or anything above it though.

I took a notion to explore all the tunnels mined by the others. Quite a network of them and it was like exploring an ant colony. It was pretty cool. Or at least it was until I came to the stronghold they discovered and explored it. Everything became more like a labyrinth then and I got lost! To make matters worse, a witch hit me with a poison splash potion. I survived but I didn't bring any food so I wasn't regenerating health!

Mop it up eventually found me and led me out to safety. My hero! :)

I hung around the keep for a good while afterwards. The others went very far away and explored a cave with lots of iron and a ravine. It was night time but they were safe. I had a desire to go fishing. I climbed the lookout tower with the hope of spotting a spider I could sword for its string. I saw one in the desert and quickly went out to attack it, getting enough to make a fishing rod.

"Is it safe to go fishing at night if you take a boat?" I asked the others. I didn't really want to wait until morning so I made a boat as well. I then headed for the beach.

I cruised out a bit in the boat and hit the invisible wall! Gah! It was really close too. I made another boat and did some more fishing.

I didn't catch much at first. Just a wooden bowl. I eventually caught a decent amount of fish, even caught some salmon. I fished out some other junk too like some nametags. Chris came out to say hello by jumping around on my boat lol.

Poor Mop it up got pricked to death by a cactus. I never actually saw that death message before in Minecraft.

The next morning I did some more fishing but from the beach instead of bothering with the boat. A curious cow wandered up to me. It was all interested in what I was doing.

I caught a bunch of fish and went back to the keep to cook them. Chris went afk (or afc for controller?) to take a shower. I decided to cook all of Mop it up's potatoes too. Make fish and chips as a reward for saving me earlier :)

I went out to harvest more potatoes too. I cooked about 50 of them and put them in storage. Chris asked jokingly if we could make twice baked potatoes.

Chris was messing around with the one square block of water Mop it up was using for the sugar cane farm. It must've been really deep so for fun I went to check it out. Chris jumped in with me and drained the water, making us stuck in a one block wide hole surrounded by sand! He tried to dig out as carefully as possible but some freak chain reaction happened and I got killed down there. Oops!

Ah well, it was no problem because it was right next to our keep and I had no trouble getting my stuff back. It actually worked out for the better, because my map suddenly became over 3/4 complete instead of the barely 1/4 I had explored for myself.

I did some more fishing and we called it a night after that.

18 FINAL FANTASY - EARTHGIFT SHRINE ATTEMPT FAILED

Dear Readers,

With Lich defeated, we decided to head to the Earthgift Shrine which opened up as a result. The dwarf there recommended against going inside. We should've listened to him.

On entering the door, we found ourselves in a big endless looking desert with no way back out! The trees seemed to be making patterns of arrows, so we followed them. Soon, we found a staircase.

Some time later, after fighting some new enemies and finding some treasures, we got into some kind of purple forest. There were so many enemies to fight here. Some of them were onscreen and you had to talk to these guards that were in the way before battling them.

There was so much to face at once that I ran out of time on my commute and I had to switch the game off without saving. I didn't know what to do because there was no obvious exit. I decided to face this area later. Instead I moved on and sailed to the southern port of Elfheim. I've still got the eastern part of this continent to explore.

3 MINECRAFT WII U EDITION - FIRST ONLINE MULTIPLAYER EXPERIENCE WITH MOP IT UP AND CHRIS

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about my first online session playing Minecraft with my American friends Mop it up and Chris, who would join later.

I created a new world in survival mode. Up until now I had only played the tutorial world so playing this game was still pretty new to me, though I have been watching Minecraft videos for years. I kept Player vs Player switched off and set the difficulty on easy.

Mop it up and I spawned in a wooded area and got to work straight away on punching trees to make tools. We found some stone nearby at the bottom of a cliff and made stone tools. Mop it up found a place to build our house and built it speedily out of wooden planks and lit it up with torches, while I continued to fumble with the controls and gather seeds from grass. The house was finished in the nick of time, as a spider riding skeleton spawned right in front of me and gave chase! Made it back to the house and jumped inside! Mop it up built some storage chests inside.

After the first night, I went out to gather more seeds. Just around the corner of our house was a little body of water, so I started the process of converting it into a wheat farm. I spent most of this day gathering seeds from grass. When it got dark, Mop it up was still working on the house when a Creeper came up from behind and exploded! I was the only survivor unfortunately and when I tried to attack it, I threw my sword at it instead! Gah! Wrong button! During the second night, Mop it up repaired the house and also had a basement built.

After the second night we found a skeleton had invaded my farm! I jumped around and distracted it while Mop it up defeated it. I continued to work on the farm and gathered more seeds from the open field down the hill.

On the third night I decided to choose a skin for my character. Mop it up had a cool Captain Toad one. I browsed the various options, some of which were DLC (shakes fist) and decided on a regular Toad. When I think about it now, he was always the best at pulling up vegetables so it's even more fitting! Mop it up had also put a nice stone wall around the pit near the house so we wouldn't fall into it. I continued gathering seeds for wheat farming the next day too.

Then Chris joined. I was dealing with a Creeper lurking near my farm at the time, which I could see from the roof of our house. Mop it up said a wolf killed it, which was pretty interesting! Thanks wild wolf! At one point there was a skeleton on our roof so I sworded it off.

After the fourth night I fought another Creeper away from my farm. I found the Wolf that fought off the Creeper and fed it some bones. I fed it like six bones and it wouldn't be tamed! Ah well. Chris had built a place for himself upstairs from our place and into the mountain. He says it was the supervillain in him that inspired him. He kindly built some steps too.

After the fifth night I had a bit of a fence around my farm to keep out creepies. Mop it up explored some caves and also brought back a lot of beef for our food supply.

On the sixth night, Chris tunnelled his way into our house. Gah! At least they're connected now! I made some shears out of iron ingots.

On the seventh night, Chris had died in the game. I was the only one at home and the others were looking for Chris' stuff. The next day I decided to look for sheep and shear their wool.

I found a few sheep while exploring and sheared them. At last we now had enough wool to make beds for all of us! I checked out Chris' place. He had a nice skylight above his bed. Mop it up and I put our beds in the basement.

Chris had an itch to explore the area to the northwest and I tagged along with him and Mop it up. I found some giant mushrooms and Chris was messing around with a pumpkin on his head, trying to jumpscare me. :)

It was getting dark again so I headed back to our base. Mop it up and Chris explored caves. They didn't find any mole people but found skeletons and a Creeper blew Mop it up up. I got a bit confused on the way back, so I navigated the dense forest with my map and got back to base without too much damage done. Chris helped Mop it up with recovering equipment.

I explored the southeastern bit of the map that was left and found a mushroom biome, which was a nice discovery. Mop it up and Chris found lots of redstone but didn't have any iron pickaxes, so I crafted some for them at home.

It was getting late so we called it a night. Our next plan is to excavate that cave of its redstone. The others said there's lots to find there!

12 ONE THOUSAND LIES - ARCADE MASTER

Dear Readers,

Things continued in the arcade like they should... with fun games! There was a dancing game with arrows that Diniz was an expert at and afterwards, there was a shooting game with light guns. It was four player and the way it was described I couldn't really figure out what real life game it most resembled. Anyway, it was a long session and it came down to Ziva and me being the only remaining survivors.

Ziva then exploited a glitch and I was thrown out of the game, leaving her the victor. I did not react well! I stormed off outside...

Claire caught up with me and tried to comfort me. Luce came out as well and wasn't as comforting. In fact both of them wanted to confront me about something. About why I was always running away from things like this and my birthday party and about how Ziva feels about me. They didn't say it outright, but it's highly suggested that she does have a large place in her heart for me, that she's in love with me. That... would be pretty awesome but I won't call it yet... It's still pretty exciting though!

As for me, they wanted to talk to me about the scar on my leg. I uh... actually don't remember the scar on my leg being mentioned before in the story. I may have mentioned it before in this blog but forgotten about it.

After our chat, we went back to join the others.

17 FINAL FANTASY - FACING LICH

Dear Readers,

We had to bail out of the Earth Cavern again because I got confused and ran out of magic. At least we all levelled up though. Also, Rocket can now land 8 hits and punch 3 times. Looks pretty cool! Nova can land 5 hits now too.

We decided to sail back to buy some Gold Needles. Cornelia didn't have any, so we bought some at Elfheim instead. I would go on to not need any of them and even plunder more from the Cockatrices, but hey, at least we were prepared!

I had to commit the layout of the Earth Cavern to memory... Ok, so the first staircase is off to the right, the second is diagonally down-right as the crow flies, the third we had to go in an anti-clockwise direction to reach where we fought the vampire, the fourth we had to go to the rightmost point of the floor and the fifth we had to go in an anti-clockwise manner again. I'm not sure if we missed any treasures along the way...

Finally we reached where we needed to go. The real culprit was a big skeleton monster named Lich, who was feeding on the life force of the earth. Time for battle!

Rocket and Nova weren't doing much damage to it surprisingly. Joseph's Diara and Chris' Firaga moves were the strongest against it. Chris was doing the main damage while Joseph eventually had to keep everyone healed. After a few turns Lich was defeated and melted away into fading scan lines.

We restored power to the Earth crystal and left the cavern via the teleport at the back of the room and that was that!

Sadda didn't have anything new to say and the townspeople of Melmond didn't say that much either. Next time I'll check out the shrine that unlocked when I defeated Lich.

1 ALL PRESENT AND CORRECT - CHU CHU ROCKET PUZZLE MODE TRIBUTE!

ZX Spectrum Vega game #0034

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about this Chu Chu Rocket puzzle mode tribute by Bob Smith, Fikee, Mister Beep, Graz and Andrew Owen from 2009.

What a lovely idea! Chu Chu Rocket survived through its puzzle mode, which appeared on Game Boy Advance and mobile phones and now here's a nice homebrew tribute to it.

The loading screen has a very pretty picture of hammers, presents and sacks, all with cartoony faces. The presents are here instead of the mice, the sacks are here instead of the spaceships and I suppose the hammers are there instead of the cats?

The title screen music has a nice beat and the tune sounds a bit like static.

There's a level editor too but I won't be trying that out for now at least.

Nice selection of levels here. There are 40 of them.

Level 01 is titled "Mind The Gap Please". Nice introduction to the controls. You hold the fire button and press the direction of the arrow you want to place and remove them if you make a mistake. I like the footstep sounds the presents make as they move along! The victory chime is a lovely buzzy celebratory chime. One arrow for each of the pressies here.

Level 02: The Chase. Now I know the hammers are there instead of the cats. Small bit of thinking with just one arrow here but it's not too difficult.

Level 03: Bolt. 5 pressies and 4 hammers here... and only two arrows to stop the hammers. They all have their own straight lanes which makes the screen look a bit like Tapper. To find out what I needed to do, I just made it play at first. The pressies run faster than the hammers but the bottom two pressies got caught by the top two hammers. So then I figured the arrows should be placed to block those hammers. It worked! :)

There's no real penalty for losing, so that makes the game experiment friendly. I love that about it :)

1 ALL IN A DAY'S WORK - WANDERING WITH AGENT WAUCHOPE

ZX Spectrum Vega game #0033

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about this text adventure by Jonathan Scott, Stephen Boyd and Zenobi Software from 1996. So they were still going by the time 1996 came along? That's pretty cool!

It's a detective game where I have to find evidence of a murder that happened. I also have a female sidekick whom I can give orders to by typing them in, which is an interesting angle.

I put in a few commands and wandered outside with my sidekick Agent Wauchope. We went to her car and got in and back out and wandered a bit more. I could even talk to her about something but I didn't know what to talk to her about or figure out what to do.

I might revisit this game again someday. It's pretty sophisticated with mechanics like this. It might be kind of a pain to type out Wauchope's name constantly though.

I kinda wish these games had multiple choice, like from a menu...

1 ALIEN RESEARCH CENTRE - SPEEDY ALIEN MAGGOT

ZX Spectrum Vega game #0032

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about this text adventure game by Ian Smith, Shaun G. McClure, Tom Smith and Zenobi Software from 1990. Some nice illustrations accompany the text.

From the instructions, it sounds like this game was inspired by the Aliens movies. I have to navigate the corridors of the Alien Research Centre and face dangers on my mission.

The input text reminds me of Teletext font!

I navigated my way into some rooms and found an opening into a vent. There was some rubble here but I couldn't clear it so I went back to the corridor. I came across a Giant Maggot and it killed me! Gah!

I started again and faced the Maggot again, this time shooting at it but I missed it twice. I then tried another way.

I got a titanium scalpel from the lab and an ID card from the doctor's office.

Nowhere else to go but to the Maggot but it keeps dodging my shooting! There's a nice zappy sound effect when you do that though.

I couldn't figure out what to do next and just ended up being eaten by the Giant Maggot again.

1 ALIEN MAZE - SPACE INVADERS FAN FICTION SEQUEL

ZX Spectrum Vega game #0031

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about this first person maze game by V. Ward from 1983, which introduces itself as a story follow up to Space Invaders! Ah, fan fiction :)

It's got a nice title screen that alternates between different colours.

The instructions are dense... but they're vital! I don't think I'll follow them for now, I'll just wander around this maze and talk about what that's like for this post.

Walking around the maze is slow and deliberate. You take one step at a time and each step is separated by the sound of someone taking steps in an old computer kind of way. So it takes ages to get anywhere and I'd say I'll have to draw down the layout of this map if I do decide to play it seriously. Just now I ended up back at the entrance after a bit of slow plodding and hearing those step sound effects being repeated over and over. It's as slow to do turns.

I think that's it for now. If I decide to continue another time, I'll try and solve the Space Invaders' maze and disarm the bomb.

16 FINAL FANTASY - DEEPER INTO THE EARTH CAVERN

Dear Readers,

We went back to the Cavern Of Earth with the Earth Staff and used it on the slab that was in the way before. Now the dungeon was even longer. We continued exploring and I just felt we were getting more and more lost. We got some more treasures and equipment for Nova, but Joseph was running out of healing magic and Chris was running out of attacking magic very quickly.

The odd time a Cockatrice would turn one of us to stone as well. I was lucky to have Golden Needles and the fact that these enemies sometimes drop these items too. There's no item shop in Melmond so we're kind of risking it by not sailing back to a different town.

Anyway, we got so low on healing and attack magic that eventually we had to run from encounters. There were so many of them too and we were getting lost and everything. We eventually made it back to Melmond Inn, but it was pretty close.

15 FINAL FANTASY - THE GIANT AND SADDA THE SAGE

Dear Readers,

After defeating the Vampire we continued beyond until we came across a slab blocking the way forward. We had nowhere else to turn but back. I find this cave a little confusing to navigate and we were running out of MP, but we made it safely back to Melmond, which was still in ruin with the rotting earth. Some villagers were wondering why it was happening.

After healing, we went back to the Giant's Cave. When we gave him the Star Ruby, he was a lot more accommodating and let us pass. He just walked off the screen. We found some equipment in this cave for Nova too.

The path continued to the other side of the mountains and continued to another cave at the end of this land. Here we met Sadda the Sage. He told us the real enemy was deeper within the Cavern Of Earth beyond where we met the Vampire. He gave us the Earth Staff which will let us through that barrier we found earlier. It's a pity neither Joseph nor Chris are able to equip it normally though. It's just a key item.

1 ALIEN INSECTS - AMAZING SOUND EFFECTS!

ZX Spectrum Vega game #0030

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about this arcade single screen shooter by Nigel Stuart and Macronics Systems Ltd from 1983.

WOW what a title screen! It's insane. It rapidly flashes colours while playing zappy, screamy, noisy arcade sound effects.

You play as a guy with a jetpack and a gun in outer space, shooting all these weird insect alien things. You move faster than they do and you move all over the screen, but you can only shoot left or right and can only defeat the enemies with head shots. They eventually get faster too.

The sound effects in this game are incredible. When you shoot it's this rubbery snappy squawky sound. When you hit an enemy the whole universe freezes as the enemy explodes into a little flashing light ball accompanied by a rapid splashy sound. It's so satisfying and a great use of hitstop/sticky friction! Imagine using a catapult to shoot a flock a pigeons that just took a dump on you. That's how satisfying it is.

When you finish a level you get a whooshing and crashing computery sound effect and it sounds so awesome!

I got my first game over with a score of 730. The high score table is blank and has a flickery film strip effect going on.

Got a nice bit of a backstory here too. Actually it's no backstory. Just describing how you're a guy who got a job shooting aliens in space using only a jetpack and a laser and a spacesuit. Lots of lovely colours flashing here but you can switch them off.

On my second try I got a score of 1,974. I came across this other enemy. This crazy homing flashing thing at the top that instantly kills you if you're to the right of it when it starts moving. During this time the universe freezes and it's too late if you haven't moved out of the way already. When it passes by you get an amazing sense of relief and satisfaction that you've outsmarted it too!

A couple of tries later I scored 1,954. That flashing thing sometimes hangs around near the left side of the screen, so that makes life very tricky with such limited safe space. I wish I could face it from the get go though. You know with Game & Watch games, where there's a Game B that starts a little more difficult straight away? I kinda wish that option was here, but no worries.

So my highest score is still 1,974. This is such an awesome and playable arcade game!

One strategy you could use is fire constantly, which makes the action slow down a little bit.

1 ALIEN EVOLUTION - ISOMETRIC POST APOCALYPSE

ZX Spectrum Vega game #0029

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about this isometric action game by Marco Paulo Carrasco, Rui Manuel Tito and Gremlin from 1987. I had a look for this game on World Of Spectrum as I found it to be a bit feature heavy with all its weapons. I didn't get that much information on them but I found a bit of lore and some nice cassette inlay artwork.

You control some kind of hovercraft the humans have sent from underground to get rid of aliens on the surface. The aliens are described as highly sexed and have bred all over the place. The humans are described as nice and kind.

There are two distinctive cassette inlays for this game. One of them has your hovercraft shooting at dinosaur like creatures and their eggs on a barren landscape with a yellow sky. The other has a green xenomorph-like creature with blood dripping from its teeth and claws. I'm a little more fired up to play the game now :)

I just played a session where I kind of hid away in a corner to try and suss out the controls. Isometric controls always take a bit of getting used to for me, even though I played loads of Monster Max on the Game Boy as a kid. The aliens in the meantime multiplied like crazy! I didn't last long and got a game over with 100 points.

The high score table has names of the game makers but no high scores, so I got the top spot anyway. It has some nice music though, and then the title screen had more nice music with its own version of Mozart Symphony #40. (I had to look up old Nokia ringtones to help identify that one!)

After a couple of more sessions, and being no more confident in any way about isometric navigation, I got to defeat a few more aliens with the help of those mines that look like computer chips that you can pick up again. My score that time was 1,410, which is my highest yet. The only new thing I learned was how to use those umbrella like transporters.

I might come back to this game, but it'll take lots of practice to get any good at it, especially with the aliens zipping around the place so quickly.

1 ALIEN DESTROYER - FLICKERY GALAXIAN

ZX Spectrum Vega game #0028

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about this Galaxian-like game by P. Dormand and Kuma Computers Ltd from 1984. It's quite flickery!

I'm welcomed by an option screen that's made up of white text on a green background. The Spectrum's green is so bright that it isn't the best combination of colours. Graphic designers make weird legibility choices all the time nowadays but there were examples of it back in the old days.

The title screen thankfully is a black background with white text. Some nice animations of the enemies are here too. During gameplay the enemies have good colours against the starry background, but they flicker a lot, especially at the start of a screen when it's full of them. The score display is a strange magenta text on blue background.

The gameplay is very Galaxian like with enemies moving side to side with the occasional one diving down at you. Action is flickery and laggy at the start but quickens and smoothens the fewer enemies are there so it's appropriate enough that it would get more challenging this way. Your laser is a straight flashing line. Sound effects are standard ticks and boops.

Playing for this blog entry, I got to the seventh stage with a score of 7,420(after squinting to see it with the colours), which is my highest so far. I find the best strategy is to stay still and shoot at one group when there's nothing coming down. If you hit one, you're likely to hit a few of their neighbours as well this way.

1 ALBATROSSITY - SUPERB CRAZY GOLFING!

ZX Spectrum Vega game #0027

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about this brilliant 2D single screen, side view, crazy golfing game by Jonathan Cauldwell and music by Matthew Westcott from 2008. There's a url for cronosoft.co.uk here too.

Wow the music! The title screen welcomes you with this lovely bouncy music that's somewhat similar to the Vega menu but becomes its own lovely thing when you keep listening to it after a while. The font reminds me of the title font for The Goodies which is lovely too.

I have no idea what the toilet in this game is for...

I've played a few sessions of this and I looked up a map on World Of Spectrum. 38 levels or holes so that's a nice amount of content!

Hole 01 has some basic obstacles like walls and grassy platforms you can shoot up through. The music is a nice happy jaunty tune, the kind of music a first level should have!

The score card (or game over) screen has a slow sentimental tune. I got this screen fairly soon and still get it very often!

Hole 02 has a magenta water hazard with a fast ripply surface. It really goes with the tune, which is quick paced and jazzy and gives you the feeling... or at least gives me the feeling that I'm making some kind of progress and I'm looking forward to seeing what challenges are coming up.

Hole 03 has a nice echoey tune, like I'm continuing my round of golf through a dark cave. The obstacles coming out of the ground... they're the stalagmites, according to my imagination :)

Hole 04 repeats the first hole's music and I think the music loops from here on out. I'm not sure. Anyway this level introduces cyan barriers that can be sliced through with the steel ball. The steel ball's pretty good when you don't want too much bounce too. For this session I used the sticky ball to stick to the wall so that it wouldn't bounce back down. Very cool the way it sticks to walls and ceilings and it comes in very handy!

Hole 05 plays the fast paced jazzy tune and has a lovely blue background to mix things up. I thought at first there were pitfalls but no, there's no danger here. The jazzy tune feels good here because so much progress has already been made and it makes me feel good and like I'm kicking butt... and here's more butt to kick.

Hole 06 plays the echoey cave like tune and it's back to the black background. Another cyan barrier and water hazard here too. In this session I played, I was down to my very last ball, a rubber one. I didn't think I was gonna make it so I went for broke at full power and... WOO! I got it in and went to the next hole!

Hole 07 plays the jaunty tune. It played at the first hole and it feels appropriate here. This stage is all snowy and icy and the music makes it feel like a new beginning or a new season, or in video game terms, like you're going on to the next world. There's a nice snowman here and white and cyan stalactites as hazards.  Not even the steel ball can withstand them.

This was as far as I got. Hole 06 with 45 shots was my score on the card. There's a nifty sounding hole edit feature available but I didn't try that.

1 ALADDIN'S CAVE - MANIC PLATFORMING AND WEIRD NAVIGATION

ZX Spectrum Vega game #0026

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about this platformer by Keith Purkiss, D.J. Burt, M.A. Trace and Artic Computing Ltd from 1985. It's a single screen exploring platformer, kind of like Jet Set Willy.

The loading screen is a nice yellow sand Arabian setting with camels and stuff. The title screen is a nice minimalist setting with a dark sky, a couple of palm trees and a sandy hill and blue landscape.

The very first screen of the game I found almost impossible to beat! Mostly due to that bird thing that kept getting in the way. That huge spider may be more intimidating to look at but that bird is far more troublesome. Then after many tries I found that it's an exploring single screen platformer, kind of like Jet Set Willy. You can even walk through blue brick walls and many other walls too, just not the cave ones.

I managed to get on to the precipice to the right which is just a sheer cliff, so I went down into the cellar. Big scary ol' skull here. To the right is the passageway. This screen has faster movement than the other screens, due to not having so many moving objects here. That jump you think you can make is impassible though. Come on! It's only a tiny step! I had to turn back.

Past the cellar and through the top left into the chandler's. A place with a ship and flying sails and falling anchors. I got a game over here and got a few more game overs trying to get back. Those platforms in the first screen are tricky enough to suss!

I eventually got back to the chandler's and picked up all the fish. Then I went left to the menagerie. There was a flying bird, dangerous looking snake and a jumpy monkey here. The monkey was easy enough to suss, as he just jumps between two platforms. The bird is still as tricky as ever though and I don't think I can make it past the snake. I got a game over from trying anyway.

Back to the first screen and several more game overs. That gap between the big red floating platform and the one to the right of it gets me every time! At one stage I even fell down through the central blue stalagmite. Another time, I managed to collect all the diamond shaped things on the screen. I didn't know what they did though and they reset when you leave the screen and come back if you don't collect them all, so I didn't bother going out of my way to collect then again.

I started again and headed left to the technocave, which is less painful than dealing with the first screen's platforms. Those weird yellow bouncy things always catch me and keep me bouncing in one place until that weird bad guy robot catches up with me. It's tricky then trying to catch those flashing platforms above it. I eventually made it past. I kind of like this screen from a lore point of view. It's weird and anachronistic.

On the left side of the technocave there are two ways to the left. The upper path goes to the lower part of the menagerie, which makes no sense as I fell to the cellar earlier, which connects to the upper part of the menagerie. The lower part then takes me to the lower part of the chandler's! Maybe it's some kind of curse that the screens don't connect logically? Anyway, I'd say I won't get anywhere new if I don't collect all the thingies.

Another thing weird about this game is that the loss of life sound is the same as the screen transition sound, so you don't know immediately if you've gone to the next screen or got killed by a bird or something.

1 AHHH!! - SPEEDY INVADERS

ZX Spectrum Vega game #0025

Dear Readers,

Today I'll talk about this Space Invaders like game by Adam, Jay Derrett and CRL Group PLC.

First of all I have to say it's very fast! There's a variety of enemies on each screen and they each have their own attack pattern. They whizz around really quickly! They often go through the top and appear up from the bottom as well so the game keeps you on your toes.

You've got shooting but you also have a shield button. Shooting has disabling cooldown though if you shoot too much at once and the shield drains fuel so you have to keep an eye on the gauges at the sides of the screen. After a few levels there's a docking sequence like in Lunar Rescue and that refuels your ship.

The game over screen is nice with its rainbow colours but it's unskippable and I wish I could skip its mocking chirping after seeing it so many times in a row! The title screen text bipping sounds lovely though.

My highest score in this game so far is 9,380 after going through enough enemy screens to see two docking sequences. I haven't beaten the 11,840 default high score yet!

14 FINAL FANTASY - VAMPIRE INTERVENTION

Dear Readers,

The Cavern Of Earth was busy to navigate. Lots of undead creatures here. Minotaurs and Earth Elementals as well, but we could take care of them easily enough. Chris with his various elemental spells and Joseph with his holy elemental spells. We excavated lots of treasures with money on our way to finally face the Vampire. He was like the other bats in this cave, but he was a different colour and took on a more human-like form.

The Vampire wasn't difficult at all! We must've hardened a lot after the constant encounters, because it only took a couple of turns to make him do that slow disintegrating vanish that Final Fantasy bosses do when they're defeated. With him out of the way, we recovered the ruby that was in the chest nearby.

Rocket got turned to stone during this excursion, so I'll have to bring gold needles along in future. I was lucky I had the one this time. I hope Joseph can learn a spell to deal with this soon too.

11 ONE THOUSAND LIES - CLAIRE'S CONFESSION

Dear Readers,

I found myself splashing in the pool with a laughing, smiling Luce, her face flushed with joy and happiness. She looked really pretty, but I couldn't enjoy her company as I couldn't swim and was about to drown. I had to get out. It was a pity too, as she was opening up about quitting basketball and spending time with me doing her drawing.

Soon afterwards, I left this, my own party in a low key way.

On the way home in the dark I was being followed. It turned out to be Claire, who followed me from the party. She wrapped her arms around me and confessed her love for me. Oh my gosh... what a lovely scene!

The next day at school, Ziva was giving out to me about leaving my birthday party early. Being Ciarán, I ignored her and continued with Ausse on his "ideal woman" challenge. This time it was monster girls. It was the same problem where I couldn't get him to be turned off by a single type of female. In hindsight, monster girls may not have been a good direction to take this discussion. They're popular enough nowadays!

Ziva excused herself, saying she was going to meet someone, which was surprising to us.

Later on I was with Luce. We talked about Ziva and soon, we spotted her walking along with Diniz. We decided to follow them... It wasn't just Luce and me, but Ausse and Claire were in on the following as well.

We followed them to the arcade. It had the same lovely fresh music that the mall had when I was there at first. You know, like Sonic The Hedgehog going shopping for a fun event or something.

The bartender appeared. He was scary and very familiar. In no time at all we figured out he was the policeman from the other day, or at least a twin of his. Luce even brought it up, but the bartender seemed to become even scarier, though in a polite way. We all ordered our drinks nervously. What the heck was I doing ordering a whiskey? Claire ordered pineapple juice and ended up pouring it into my drink. I tried to dodge paying but eventually I had to cough up for all of us.

Ziva and Diniz found us and our snooping was for naught. It wasn't a big deal after all. They weren't up to anything other than organising graduation festivities.