All posts by Darren

Dolly and I Finally Get A Good Walk In

#walkingDolly, hiking/backpacking/camping, Walking

Finally Dolly and I managed to get out for a decent walk.

Life had meant it had been a while since our last “proper” walk. Dolly and I were owed a chance to get out and destress in nature.

We decided to return to Shouldham Warren. The last time we had been here we had started to head off towards the abbey remains. However we had to abandon that effort due to the heat. What we didn’t know at that point was we were about to enter into the first of the summers heatwaves that hit the UK.

It seemed right that we return and complete our mission.

The woodland on our left that we didn’t make it to the previous time was most definitely planted by man. The trees were too neatly in rows. I imagine at some point the landowner will turn this lovely woodland into cash.

River Nar
An unexpected diving pool
Definitely planted by man
The abbey in the distance
What’s this strange object ?
‘Hello there”
Hops I think

Sadly when we got to the river Nar the banks were too steep for Dolly to have a paddle. Luckily I had a long enough camera stick to take the under water footage in the video below.

But the big surprise was the diving board into the river. A visual inspection of the water did indeed confirm that this was a most excellent spot for a diving board. Plus the diving board was secured to the ground with some serious big spikes. Which told me that this was a popular spot for locals.

I have to admit I was tempted to jump in. But it would have been unfair on Dolly leaving her on the side while I enjoyed a swim.

But the river Nar reminded me of bygone years when as a young lad we would swim in similar rivers at Santon Downham. That was a more carefree time.

I did shoot some video too while we were out. I even got to try one or two outdoor YouTube tropes. I don’t know how they do them for their videos. It was a right pain especially the walking towards the camera.

I even managed (after checking the video) to capture the big fish in the river near to the swimming hole.

Lunch was the usual ramen and a mug of coffee. Dolly had beef billatong and a bowl of water. There might be a pleasant surprise for the lunch break next time we go out.

We had this sitting next to the idilic River Nar.

Today’s stove was a Bushbuddy playing windshield to a Trangia burner. Pot is a snow peak 900ml (iirc). And yes that is a titanium ramen spoon!
Army instant coffee
Added the soya chunks first
Finally the miso mix, and ramen
The finishing touches were the soy sauce, hot sauce, and the Japanese rice topping.
Next added the friend veg and mushrooms

We didn’t actually make it to the abbey itself. We stopped at the crossing of the River Nar. It was basically a country lane to the abbey and that didn’t hold any appeal to me. Plus would we be able to look around for free. I know it’s used as a wedding venue. Which stinks of being charged and not being able to take Dolly in.

There was a good view of it from the river and where we stopped for lunch.

After refuelling we packed up and headed back the way we had come.

It had been good timing because as we got back to the car there was the odd spot of rain starting to fall.

Distance walked: 3.6 miles

Bgstats for August 2025

bgstat, by the numbers, gaming stats, stats

Wow this month has flown by.

I’m hoping September flies by as well because at the end of it, maybe a day or two into October Diogo should be joining the little monsters. Plus I’m also on holiday at the same time.

But I know September will drag on especially as it gets closer to arrival and the excitement levels ramp up.

However today you are here to see what I played in August. And you know I hate to disappoint.

So here are the “infographics” summing up my August gaming.

Obviously I owe you a long post talking about the games I’ve played recently and that’ll be in a day or two.

Jeff’s Birthday Gaming Day 2025

TI, Twilight Imperium 4

Apart from last year, which was a special case (Jeff was celebrating a significant wedding anniversary with a cruise instead). The highlight of August is Jeff’s birthday gaming day.

These gaming days are usually a big epic game, such as Civilisation, Memoir ‘44 Overlord, or Twilight Imperium 3. Plus some equally epic food such as Jeff’s homemade Indian food.

This year it was once more the turn of Twilight Imperium 3 to hit the birthday celebration table.

Five factions sought to rule the galaxy but only one would be victorious.

Top left; Muaat (me), Top Right: Sol (Charlene), Middle Left: Creuss (Jonas), Middle Right: Mentak (Jeff’s youngest), Bottom Left: Hacan (Jeff)

I’d never played Muaat before so decided to go with them. Which meant I started with a War Sun. And yes there were many Star Wars Death Star references through out the day.

Looking back on the days play I wasn’t nearly as aggressive or expansionist as I could have, or even should have been.

For me the War Sun seemed to be a big red flag telling the others not to mess with me.

I think it was after round two when everyone but Jeff’s youngest got the War Sun technology thanks to a vote being successful that allowed those with a trade agreement to share technology.

This years melt in your mouth double cooked chicken curry

For a longtime during the game I remained on zero victory points. As the others claimed objectives of one kind or the other I was being left behind.

I had a bit of an alliance going with my neighbours the Cruess.

I was determined that I’d score one victory point so that I wasn’t completely embarrassed with scoring zero points.

Then in what was to be the final two rounds I had a made splurge of points scoring a total of three points, followed by two more in the final round.

That left me tied with Jeff and Charlene for second place or as we lovingly call it in Fenland Gamers, first loser. The winner was Jonas, who by claiming his tenth victory point end the game instantly screwing his brother out of scoring any more points and keeping him in last place.

Whether it’s third or fourth edition I do enjoy playing Twilight Imperium. Luckily October/November the second expansion for fourth edition comes out giving us an excuse to get it to the table again (as if we really needed an excuse).

I had a great day playing with friends, and helping Jeff celebrate another lap around our sun. A big thank you to Jeff for inviting me.

Games I’ve played in August so far

Gaming roundup

It’s back to the ol’ cardboard and plastic posts. Specifically just quickly going over what’s hit the table recently.

51st State Ultimate Edition: I finally got my hands on a gamefound edition of 51st State. I can’t believe the person I bought it from didn’t get the extra faction board add on.

Rebirth: Not going to say much about this because I have nothing new to say about this great game.

Raising Robots: After playing this engine builder that Marcin billed as similar/like Wingspan a bit disappointed, even frustrated. Yes it has a Wingspan like element to it but that seems minor. The engine you build is basically your opening hand. Getting new cards was frustrating and apart from an action that had you discard cards to get new ones, no other opportunities came to get them (although some robot cards allowed you to). Playing cards to your board other than your opening hand seemed less of the game. I felt the game was over complicated and not as fun as any of the Wingspan family.

Planet Unknown: an interesting game where you are placing tetronomes on your game board. Well basically that’s its core mechanic. Very Uwe Rosenberg like. It’s interesting.

Citizens of the Spark: nothing to add to what I’ve said previously. It’s fun.

Rebel Princess: our go to trick taker. Colin set a new record for most points gained in a round of 26 beating the previous record held by Marcin.

Rail Road Tiles: a newly arrived kickstarter, which looks really nice. This tile drafting/placement game is fun. We played a basic game as recommended by the rule book for the first game. Mechanically it’s not complicated. But with the objectives and expansions to still be added in the decision making of where to place tiles should get more interesting.

Gift of Tulips: not a bad area majority, market manipulation game. Along with post apocalyptic themed games this type of filler card game seems to be a favourite of Marcin’s. He has one or two of them. It was a fun game. Didn’t blow me away.

And that’s it for August so far.

Learning to fly

Z80 Assembly, ZX Spectrum, ZX Spectrum Next

“There is an art, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy

Sometimes I think this HHGTTG quote sums up learning assembly language whether it’s Z80, 6502, 68000, or any other processor. There is a knack to it, almost a frame of mind/thinking you need to achieve/enter.

I like to have something I’m aiming for while learning. It gives me a focus.

For learning Z80 assembly and the ZX Spectrum Next I have two things I want to aim for. However I’m only going to reveal one of them now.

This first target is to write a small Z80 assembly program to generate fractal music.

I first came across fractal music back in 1986 with a “short” program listing in a Commodore magazine for a game called Syncro by my favourite games programmer of all time Jeff Minter.

Luckily I didn’t have to type it in because it was also available as a download on Compunet (an official Commodore dial up bulletin board).

In Syncro you had three or four floors moving in different directions and speeds which you had to get numerous cippy’s (the creature first introduced in the Llamasoft game Ancipital) synchronised with. Whilst doing this in the background playing away on the SID chip was some fractal music.

It was nothing like anything else on the C64. The likes of Whittaker, Galway, and Hubbard were masters of the SID chip. What they did and the tunes they produced were incredible.

However this was something completely different. Mathematically driven.

In an interview Minter talked about the fractal music and the Byte article that inspired it.

I’ve tracked down a pdf of that issue of Byte (although I’d love a physical copy, which I once had) and printed out the article.

This article will also be my inspiration for my first assembly program that will not be a learning exercise from a book.

I’m all out of bubblegum

So as I wait for the kickstarter to complete and take my money (tomorrow as I write) and then the actual machine to arrive later in the year. I’ve started reading the books on assembly, making notes, and making a temp dev environment on my laptop.

That should mean when the Next finally arrives I’m in a good position to continue my journey.

ZX Spectrum Next – my next geek out?

life, the universe, and everything, Retro Computing, still alive, ZX Spectrum, ZX Spectrum Next

One project I recently backed on Kickstarter and about to finish and go into production is for the ZX Spectrum Next version 3.

I’ve been aware of the ZX Spectrum Next since its original crowdfunding a few years back. But I resisted backing that and the subsequent follow up campaign. The cost put me off if I remember correctly.

So what changed with this new edition to tempt me to part with my money?

When I saw that this version will also have the ability to be a Commodore 64 I was tempted. After all I had a C64 before I had a Speccy. For the record I loved both, and I think this was the start of my gaming philosophy of playing a game on the platform that had the best version.

However what got me to press that back project button was a third computer that it could also run as. That third machine was the Sinclair QL. The QL was a dream machine for me that I’d never own. It really was an object of desire for me.

And the thing about the ZX Spectrum Next is this is not some Raspberry Pi running emulators in a pretty case. It’s doing all this in hardware! Plus it upgrades the graphics, sound, can use sd cards, tape, WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI, etc.

Not only that as a programmer it comes with NextBASIC (I’m assuming I can also tinker with Sinclair BASIC if I so desire), full C support, Assembly, and complete IDEs and toolchains. So I can write my own stuff for it.

“With every system shipped, a SD card is included packed with games, apps, demos, documentation, and development tools to get started right out of the box.” (from the kickstarter page)

I’m looking forward to tinkering with Z80 assembly on it. Back in the day I was a BASIC and 6502 assembly guy. Then it was BASIC/C/Modula 2/68000 when I made the jump to 16bit on the Atari ST.

To help me with my Z80 journey I found out that a company has reprinted Spectrum Machine Language for the Absolute Beginner that was originally printed by Melbourne House publishing (I had the C64 version). To go along with that I also got Programming the Z-80 by Rodnay Zaks. Back in the day the go to authors for assembly programming were Zaks and/or Lance Leventhal. I had Lance’s 6502 and 68000 books. I had one by Zaks as well but I can’t remember for which processor.

I also backed and received a copy of Hewson’s Helpline for the ZX Spectrum, ZX80 & ZX81 a few months back. This is basically a collection of his columns from Sinclair User. These are fairly technical articles answering readers questions with snippets of code in BASIC and assembly.

I’ve also ordered a copy of 40 Best Machine Code Routines for the ZX Spectrum by Hewson as well.

So armed with these books I’m hoping to write my first ever Z80 assembly programs for the Speccy. There’s just something about writing assembler that higher languages don’t give you. I’m kinda excited about that prospect.

Finally before I finish this post I should say there were two versions of this Next, classic black and magenta. I went for the magenta.

I’m sure there will be more on this subject once the project delivers later in the year.

Hide and Seek

Uncategorized

One game genre/mechanic I love playing is hidden movement games. But to be fair I don’t play them that often. I actually own only three games that feature hidden movement as the main/feature mechanic.

Out of those three I’ve played two of them. The third sits on my pile of shame.

I’ve played Letters from Whitechapel a couple of times. Plus the two player Mr Jack. Both owned by Jonathan and you might notice they share a common theme.

I’ve played on both sides of the screen. Do I have a preference? No I just love the experience both sides give. Whether it’s the planning, information sharing, deduction of those hunting. Or the adrenaline rush of slipping through the net as the one hiding.

After watching a YouTube video a couple weeks back for Mind Mgmt I was reminded how much fun these style of games are.

Before I knew it I was searching for a deluxe copy of the game, and buying it.

As I was doing that I remembered I had never bought the stand alone expansion/sequel to Spectre Ops that came out.

So while I was in a searching mood I also tracked down a copy of Spectre Ops Broken Covenant. Sadly the copy I found was going to have to come from the US of A.

I’m not sure how I stumbled upon Sniper Elite the board game but that to looked interesting. The Second World War theming was appealing. So I’ve kinda gone all in on this. The core game and expansion were bought together off eBay. The deluxe upgrade kit preordered from the publisher. And the new expansions plus a storage box “preordered” on Gamefound.

So in a matter of two weeks I’ve doubled (once they all arrive) the number of hidden movement games I own.

The full list will be as follows:
Fury Of Dracula;
Mind MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game.”; (new)
Nuns on the Run;
Sniper Elite: The Board Game; (new)
Specter Ops;
Specter Ops: Broken Covenant. (new)

Now I just need to get these games to the table.

An end of July gaming round up

Gaming roundup

I’m liking these semi-regular round ups of the games I’ve played. I may do a longer post on a particular game from time to time but that’s going to depend on how lazy I feel and whether I think the game warrants it, and I have lots to say about it.

This round up seems to be all new to me games or in the case of SWU decks.

Let’s get on with it.

Star Wars Unlimited: with the new set Legends of the Force being released came two new spotlight decks. The leaders for these two new decks are Darth Maul and Qui-Gon Jinn. Like previous spotlight decks they are meant to showcase new mechanics in the latest set. I really liked the first spotlight decks of Han Solo and Boba Fett. They seemed evenly matched. Something I felt these two decks were not. I was playing the Qui-Gon Jinn deck, while Dave was playing Maul. I got my butt kicked by the Maul deck. We played five games. It wasn’t even close. I wanted to play multiple games to rule out poor card draw, bad decisions etc. I’d love to see the play test data for these two decks, and how they even thought these were evenly matched.

Vantage: the latest Stonemaier Games release. A game eight years in the making by Jamey Stegmaier. You can certainly see the influences on this game from rogue likes, to choose your own adventures, and games like 7th Continent. The game plays 1 to 6 players. But I don’t think I’d want to play it at the higher player counts. Marcin and I played this together using my pimped out copy (upgraded tokens, coins, and player boards). We had a blast playing the game. Yes in reality it’s a solo game with minimal player interaction. But I liked the shared story telling experience, the other player reading out from the storybooks, describing what you see on the bit of the planet you are on. It almost had a ttrpg feel. A shared story where you get snippets of information. The hype is real (if you like this style of game) folks.

Galactic Cruise: this game did seem to get a lot of buzz upon release. Worker placement, hand management. I liked when playing you can combo cards that you play.

Citizens of the Spark: card drafting with the strength of an action you take determined by the number of that card you have. I like that you are able to follow other players actions if you have that card, a bit Eminent Domain like. Well that’s the first game I thought of with that mechanic. This a nice quick game with a bit of take that. Well if you select the right cards during setup. Which reminds me you can tailor the type of game you want during setup. Which is very cool, and reminded me of the Sushi Go Party setup.

Innovation Ultimate: a civilisation card game. A game I really enjoyed that had plenty of player interaction and a bit of take that. We played the recommended first game, ie no expansions. This is definitely a game I want to play more.

Money: a quick bidding, set collection game. It was an enjoyable experience where I hadn’t really cottoned on to the scoring. That cost me in the end. But still very tactical on the bidding.

That’s it for this round up that technically should have been posted about a week ago. But work, tired. You know the story.

A new Diogo photo

#littlemonsters

Ok this latest photo of Diogo was sent to me at the weekend. But I’ve waited until today to share it with you. No reason except maybe laziness.

I’d love to be able give a home to the other dogs in the photo behind Diogo. But poor life decisions and not being born into lots of money mean I’m unable to.

I can’t wait until Diogo is finally here taking his place as a little monster.