Autumnal Miscellany

Playing

Bard’s Tale III

I’ll mention something here I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone before: academically, the best thing that happened to me for my final two years of high school were my parents forcing me to sell my Commodore 64 after buying me a ‘286. They didn’t see the value of having more than one computer (mum is still aghast if I rattle off how many computers I have), and therefore to get the ‘286 I had to sell the C64. When I lost the C64, I also lost Bards Tale III, a game I had spent all my spare time on for a few years – playing it through again, and again, and again. Realistically, that likely had a huge impact on the final marks I got on my higher school certificate — without the BTIII distraction, I spent a lot of time studying.

Over the past two decades in particular whenever I’d revisit a C64 emulator, I’d of course try to fire up Bards Tale III only to be horrified at the graphics. Memory, after all, is inexact, and my memories of the game no longer matched the game I could play in emulation.

I’d heard for the past year that there was a remastered version of the Bards Tale trilogy on Steam, and recently when I got a new laptop I finally succumbed to temptation and signed up to Steam for the sole purpose of getting my hands on Bards Tale again.

Intro to turn-based battle scene in Bards Tale III:

"Gimme a break! Where do they come from?" You see 2 Shadow Dragons (20'), 1 Tarjan Warrior (30'), 2 Shadow Dragons (40') and 1 Gremlin (60').
Bards Tale III

Ironically, the remastered version, with graphics and sound infinitely better than anything I’d played on the C64 is how I remember it from the C64. And it’s been a true delight revisiting such an early gaming memory in a modern context.

Reading

Somewhere around the edges of my long days (it’s remarkable how long a day can feel when your first meeting is at 2am and your last finishes at 4 or 5pm), I’ve been managing to get in some good reading of late.

Wavewalker

I’m not big on autobiographies, but I read the promo excerpt in The Guardian for Suzanne Heywood’s Wavewalker and was simultaneously entranced and shocked. This was a story I definitely wanted to know more about – parents deciding to just uproot their kids and start sailing around the world, without any real consideration as to the impact it might have had on them. And yet, it’s hopeful and triumphant. I devoured it in a weekend.

Book cover for "Wavewalker".

The Final Architecture

Adrian Tchaikovsky certainly knows how to weave interesting science fiction. I’d still say that Peter F Hamilton is my favourite SciFi author, but Adrian knows his stuff. I’ve been reading this series as each volume was released. It was great then to have the final book come out in the last month and finish it off.

Book covers for Adrian Tchaikovsky's "The Final Architecture" series: "Shards of Earth", "Eyes of the Void", and "Lords of Uncreation".

This is a series I’ll look forward to re-reading sometime now the set is complete (there’s always a different appreciation to be gathered from a series you can binge-read vs a drip-fed release-by-release approach), and as always it’ll be interesting to see what Adrian does next.

Listening

Mongolian Throat Singing Techno

Look, “Mongolian Throat Singing Techno” is not a phrase I could say that I had ever imagined myself saying. To be perfectly honest, I haven’t actually even listened to techno that much for the past 20 years, but there I was, distractedly watching random reels on Instagram (yes, I do that) and stumbled across a quick clip of Ummet Ozcan doing just that. The subsequent delight was realising it was a full song.

“Xanadu”, by Ummet Ozcan

For whatever reason, I’m loving this and it has been my soundtrack for the past month or so. (I tend to get obsessive about songs I like for a while when I first encounter them – particularly if they’re a completely different style to what I’ve previously listened to.)

Holding out for a Medieval Hero

OK, I’ve been a big fan of the song “Holding out for a Hero” by Bonnie Taylor for ages. I originally encountered it as a kid when it was the intro sound track to an appallingly memorable but fun one-season TV show, Cover Up.

There’s a whole genre on YouTube of people doing medieval music versions of songs (sort of another take on Post Modern Jukebox), but most of the time it’s just an instrumental version of the song. Sometimes there’ll be singing. And in the case of Holding out for a Hero, there’s a full animated clip with modified lyrics to suit the time. And it’s glorious.

Bardcore – “Holding out for a Hero”.

For me a good cover takes over from the original1, and this is a classic example – my apologies to Bonnie Taylor.

Mastodon Migration

While I’m maintaining my Twitter account, it’s just for the sake of keeping my handle. I was done with it as soon as Mr Musk purchased it — based on his behaviour and attitudes for the past several years, I knew the acquisition was going to be an absolute dumpster fire. And yet, it’s managed to become an even worse dumpster fire than I could have possibly imagined.

Which is why you’ll see on this blog now that I note that I’m now on Mastodon. (I will not be joining Bluesky.) If you were following me on Twitter for my random observations, you might be pleasantly surprised at the generally more enjoyable community experience to be had on Mastodon.

Footnotes

  1. Which is why Wilson Phillips original of “Hold on” no longer exists for me, replaced by the NSFW parody Chow Down (at Chick-fil-A).

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