As promised in the previous post earlier in the day here are the episodes I plan to watch tomorrow morning for those that wish to do similar and then discuss in the comments below of this post.
Thundercats
S1E4 – The Slaves of Castle Plun-darr
S1E5 – Pumm-Ra
S1E6 – The Terror of Hammerhand
Batman the animated series
S1E4 – The Last Laugh
S1E5 – Pretty Poison
S1E6 – The Underdwellers
Dungeon & Dragons the cartoon
S1E5 – In Search of the Dungeon Master
S1E6 – Beauty and the Bogbeast
S1E7 – Prison Without Walls
Don’t worry if you don’t have the dvds like I do. I’m sure that there are streaming sites that you can find the episodes on or even YouTube!
With the previous post announcing my sad attempt to recapture my youth on a Saturday morning I thought why not see if others are interested in doing the same.
Plus to follow along I thought I better share where I am after the first Saturday morning watching the shows. Jut in case folks need or wants to play catch up.
Thundercats
S1E1 – Exodus
S1E2 – The Unholy Alliance
S1E3 – Berbils
Batman the Animated Series
S1E1 – On Leather Wings
S1E2 – Christmas with the Joker
S1E3 -Nothing to Fear
Dungeon & Dragons the cartoon
S1E1 – The Night of No Tomorrow
S1E2 – The Eye of the Beholder
S1E3 – The Hall of Bones
S1E4 – Valley of the Unicorns
As I briefly review what I have written (and yes mistakes still get through) I realised that I had not said why I chose these three cartoons to start with. So that’s rectify this right now.
I chose Batman the Animated Series not because I watched it during the seventies growing up, or even the home computer boom years of the early to mid eighties. The series didn’t actually come out until what ‘89 or their abouts after the Tim Burton movies. The cartoon captures the aesthetics, and tone of the the Burton movies perfectly. It had edge. I do have a special relationship with Batman that I explain away in a very long post due to be seen by the world in the later half of October. So because of a reason that will eventually become clear I added it. Plus I have fond memories of catching episodes at the time.
Thundercats and the Dungeon and Dragons cartoon are two shows that I have very fond memories of watching as a I went from a kid to a teenager in the early eighties. Often these shows were an escape from the world, moving up from a primary school to a secondary school, bullying, etc. I can’t say I saw every episode. Don’t forget tv viewing was vastly different to now. Often you would miss an episode for some reason such as tea, on holiday, etc. There were rarely repeats of kids cartoons.
Another factor that also influenced the choice was the affordability and availability of the series as well. For instance my holy grail of the complete Battle of the Planets is not easily available and those copies that are for sale are very very expensive. Too expensive for me to justify the purchase.
I’ve also added a couple more shows to the Saturday morning schedule. See the photo below to see what they are. As I write this the New Adventures of Batman is on its way.
Two new shows arrived to add to the Saturday morning viewing. I’ll talk more about them in a future post and their significance to me once I start watching them.
But for those wishing to join me in this walk down memory lane I’ll put a post up with that Saturdays planned viewing. Which we can then discuss in the posts comments after we’ve watched them.
A third retro tv project idea
Having Blake’s 7 and MASH dvd boxsets sitting on my shelves waiting to be shown some love by being watched. I thought these would be a great start to a retro midweek tv project.
Shows I’d like to add to this new project include Sapphire and Steel (ordered second hand from Oxfam, so awaiting delivery), Wonder Woman (surprisingly affordable), The Six Billion Dollar Man (you would not believe how expensive this is), The Man from Atlantis (nor this), and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (budget friendly). Shows I have fond memories of watching as a kid and teenager.
I have the germs of a fourth retro tv project as well that revolves around the tv I used to watch as a kid on the holidays. Such as the 1930s (I think that’s when they came out, although could be the 40s) serials for Flash Gordon (already own), Buck Rogers, and King of the Rocket Men (already own). I’m going to add Thunderbirds (yep have these too), Joe 90, Captain Scarlet, Space 1999 and UFO to this list.
As I slowly dip my toes back into the world of Dice Masters I find out that the online side of playing the game took off.
Now I’m not talking about using platforms like Tabletop Simulator or Board Game Arena. Although I’m sure some are using these platforms to play it. They just ain’t for me. Plus I have other issues with them (maybe I’ll write about that sometime).
I’m in fact talking about the use of webcams.
Back in 2014 when I was really into the game when Dice Masters first came out we were using webcams to play.
I even shared a post or two of mine showing my setup at the time with others wanting to do the same.
There aren’t many games that work really well using a webcam. But Dice Masters is one of them. As long as you can see your opponents play area you are good to go.
Playing Dice Masters this way is how I met my friend Freddy. We moved on to the Star Realms app, where he regularly beats me. But still that’s nearly a ten year friendship that’s grown from first playing Dice Masters via a webcam.
Obviously during the lockdowns this type of play would have become even more popular with fans of the game. As did many other games that were playable this way.
But it’s cool to see tournaments and weekly matches being organised this way now.
I should join some Dice Masters communities online at some point and dip my toes into playing the game again this way. Maybe once my project of sorting my home out is finished.
Epilogue: I did have a Dice Masters play mat. Looking back at the post of my old webcam setup there front and centre in the photos was the play mat. Pretty sure that went with everything when Gav took ownership. So must have been lost at some point. Oh well. At least I’m not going mad.
Belated apology! I should say sorry to those that take the trouble to read the words I put on the internet and these Dice Masters posts. Yes there have been one or two lately on Dice Masters. Like most things on this blog, my blog reflects my current addictions within the gaming world. So I’m sorry for talking so much about Dice Masters lately, and at least for the immediate future too.
After I wrote those last paragraphs in yesterdays post about getting back into Dice Masters I started looking for play mats (could have sworn I had one, but no longer the case).
It was during this search of the Internet that I discovered I had been incorrect in calling the game deceased.
There does indeed appear to be a scene for the game. Apparently there was a world championships at GenCon. Plus a tournament at this years UKGE.
It’s also had a lot more releases than I’d thought over the years since I got out of the game. Some have even been within the last three years! Not sure in the last couple though.
Heck there are even a couple of active podcasts for the game too.
Obviously Dice Masters fails my test for if a game is popular and has legs. The game just isn’t being played at any of the FLGS in my area. I don’t care if there is a “scene” in big cities like London. They are the outliers, not the norm. You’re not going to travel hundreds of miles or many hours regularly to play a game or two. So unless you live in those cities with their larger communities they are irrelevant and don’t prove the game is alive and doing well.
“…you assured me that its total lack of movement was due to it bein’ tired and shagged out following a prolonged squawk.” Monty Python Dead Parrot Sketch
The Ashes Reborn (I also loved playing this when it was Rise of the Phoenixborn) also fails this test. It has some die hard hardcore players mainly in the capital from what I can tell. It does seem less active than the Dice Masters scene.
It’s this rule that I judge new kids on the block such as Lorcana with as well.
Back to the play mats for Dice Masters.
I think I’ll have to go the custom route. There are some cool designs out there. I need a couple. One for me and another player (most likely Nathan).
Oh and before I forget a second dice bag. I hate those waxy ones that come with the starter and box sets.
Also like any ccg Wizkids have had to deal with the rotation issue. My current searches have uncovered that Wizkids have two official formats, Modern and Golden Age.
Not owning any sets from the last couple of years means I won’t be playing Modern anytime soon. However with Golden Age being everything ever produced it looks like this will be my format of choice for the time being.
Heck Wizkids also have their version of the banned and restricted list. Surprising to me that the ol’ Gobby and Black Widow cards that were so op when I was playing the game are not on it. So I’m assuming that in the intervening years since I left the game that they became less powerful or there are solutions.
I think one of my gaming highlights of the year has to be the annual gaming day that Jeff hosts to celebrate another year going round the sun. For the record the other is going to the UKGE.
This year like the previous one saw Memoir 44 hit the table with an overlord map.
Our first conflict from World War 2 saw the British forces of Montgomery’s 8th Army go up against the German forces of Rommel’s African Corp at Alam Haifa.
Dave (German General/Commander), Diego, and Katie (a friend and colleague of Jeff’s) were the German forces aka the bad guys.
Whilst Jonas (British General/Commander), Gavin, and myself were the British forces aka the good guys.
Wait Jeff wasn’t playing? I hear you say. Kind of. Whilst we were engaged in bloody conflict he was finishing off the curries for lunch. Then at opportune moments in the cooking process joining us to “consult” with the German forces. Which is a fancy way to say he offered advice to Katie because she hadn’t played Memoir 44 before.
There was lots of good natured banter, lots aimed at me. But when your own side are cheering on your opposite number on the battlefield. I rely on one of my favourite quotes.
“Again, right in the ears, straight to the feelings.” Wil Wheaton Big Bang Theory
Sadly for my “team mates” my opposite number with the aid of outside advice, great cards from her Commander, and really good dice rolls, was kicking the butt of the units under my control.
My team mates were getting what they had been calling for earlier in the game. What’s the say “be careful for what you wish for”?
It was getting so dire Jonas our Commander had to move some tank units to my sector to shore up our forces.
Around midday play was interrupted for lunch. Which was a welcome relief from the whooping we were getting.
Game two for the day saw a change in the conflict to the from the North African theatre to the Pacific theatre of war. It also saw a personnel change as well.
With the food all consumed Jeff was able to join in the action replacing Katie who had to leave.
That meant that the American forces aka the good guys at Guadalcanal were being represented by Dave, Jeff (General/Commander), and Diego.
Which meant the Japanese forces aka the bad guys were unchanged from the first game members and role wise.
There was a Sudden Death victory condition for the Japanese. All we had to do was get a unit to an exit marker and leave the area of play through it.
Early on I got a behind enemy lines card that allowed me to make a dash for that exit marker. I was three hexes from the exit marker. A great distraction for the opposition forcing them to attempt to stop the unit. They had one turn to stop the unit or lose in spectacular fashion.
Luckily despite a little shenanigans from Jonas weakening the American attacks to take out my unit. They did indeed stop my lone unit. But it did divert their attention and force them to burn up some cards.
We were in a strong position I was getting control of my sector whilst Jonas and Gavin inched forward in theirs.
We were getting some great cards, and dice rolls. Whilst the opposite was true for the American forces.
Points wise we were inching closer to victory. Although it was pretty close still.
And then Jonas played one two knockout combo. He started with an arial bombardment to clear the exit space, followed by a behind enemy lines card allowing his unit to make a dash for the space and grab the win.
After our glorious victory defying history once more, we chewed the fat whilst enjoying Jeff’s salty tears over the manner of the win.
This was a great day. They always are. Great food, great company. An amazing way to celebrate Jeff getting a year older. I’m lucky he invited me. A big thank you to Jeff for being such an incredible host.
Another cunning plan with an old favourite…
I did pick up from Gavin his Dicemasters stuff (which was originally mine before we did some wheeling and dealing a few years back). And Jeff very generously gave me what bits of Dicemasters he had.
I really liked Dicemasters back when it came out. But sadly Wizkids really fumbled the ball with it. Which is a shame it’s a great game.
However I had been thinking recently I’d like to get back playing it, especially with Nathan. I think he’d like it.
I know it’s a “dead” game. But that just means we can use what I have, and anything I can get cheaply to build “teams” and play. It doesn’t mean we can’t play it or have fun.
What I do need to do is try and remember how to play the game again!
The pills I have to pop to mask the arm pain are still working. Which means I was able to get some gaming in.
This meant I was able to carry out the Three Sisters plan on Tuesday.
What hadn’t been taken into account was we were clashing with the open mike night at the social club.
Unlike the open mike night at my local back in Guildford when I lived there, which was poetry and comedy. This one was all people that had the impression they can carry a tune.
One particular crime against humanity and music was a cover of Bon Jovi’s Wanted Dead or Alive. Apparently the singer is a really nice guy. But I’d argue otherwise just based on this one song alone that he is a cruel sadistic git.
The other acts were not much of an improvement with their covers either.
With this audible assault going on we were still able to concentrate on our game of Three Sisters. Barely.
This game was an all in game using both the weather mini expansion plus the third mini rock garden pad.
I rarely use the apiary when I play Three Sisters. But this time I set my self the goal of focusing on progressing along its tracks.
It’s one of the things I love about this roll and write. There are so many ways to approach the game and focus on things.
I also managed to grow all the pumpkins! Plus complete a couple of perennials.
Considering Dave had been thrown in the deep end (literally) with this game his score was quite respectable.
Three Sisters Scores
We followed Three Sisters with a game of the roll and write I picked up second hand from this years UKGE, Roll Through the Ages Bronze Age.
This is a step down in complexity from Three Sisters. But still an enjoyable game especially when you roll three skulls and cause a plague giving your opponents minus three points.
I was pleasantly surprised when I won this one. Everyone else was building more than me whether it was cities, monuments, or making discoveries.
Roll Through the Ages Bronze Age scores
After the two roll and writes the “music” got too much for Dave forcing him to leave before he was driven mad and forced to get revenge. We had a three player game of Village Rail.
This was a new to me game. Which was very enjoyable.
You know in Small World if you want a faction not at the start of the market row you have to place a coin on each faction until you get to the one you want? This game uses the same mechanic to draft cards whether they are scoring cards or track cards.
Money is quite tight in this game, with your main source of income coming when you complete a line and earn money for the number of items matching the bonus card or whatever it’s called you decide to use for that track.
Otherwise you are drafting cards to place in your play area to try and maximise the points you score when you complete the a track or for the long game of end game scoring.
Somehow I managed to get a convincing win. Beginners luck.
Village Rail scores
After this victory we too made a dash for the door with our auditory pain tolerance levels having been reached.
Last night saw me play AuZstralia for the first time.
This is a Martin Wallace game. I have one or two of his games in my collection (London second edition, Wildlands, Hit Z Road, come to mind straight away).
Having played this now I can see what all the fuss was when it came out.
These days I find Cthulhu themed games boring or at best a lazy theme for a game. However it works here but then again it could easily be replaced with dragons for example with Cthulhu being replaced by Tiamat.
But it’s the mechanics I like about this game. I like how each action you can take has a time cost, and repeating an action already with a cube on means it costs you gold plus the time cost.
Like Tokaido, Glen More, Trekking Through History, Patchwork, etc the person at the back of the time track takes the next turn until they are no longer last. It then becomes the new last placed person to take a turn or turns.
A rather cool thing is the ancient ones don’t actually start doing their thing until all players pass them on the time track. Then they start waking up and causing havoc.
Our game ended when Cthulhu destroyed Marcin’s port. After the points were totted up Diego and I would have shared the victory if Cthulhu hadn’t scored one more point than us to grab the victory.
AuZstralia final scores, the ancient ones won with a score of 24
I blame Marcin for building too many farms for Cthulhu to reduce to desolate waste lands and thus giving the ancient one the points for victory.
But it is a fun competitive co-op. I like it a lot.
I’m glad the meds masked the pain enough for me to play some games this week with my friends. I needed these after missing last weeks gaming.
You may find this hard to believe but I’ve actually started writing a post that won’t see the light of day until the later half of October.
But in those words I wrote this morning I briefly talked about my Saturday Morning Cartoon project that I have started. I also mentioned that by the time you get to read those words I might have written something about the project.
Well here we are with me just about to tell you about this crazy and cool (who am I kidding its anything but this, more sad and weird) project that I’ve started.
Back in the seventies and early eighties as a kid here in the UK our Saturday mornings were either Swap Shop on BBC1 or Tiswas on ITV.
Like the great home computer playground wars of the early eighties between owners of the C64 and the ZX Spectrum, you were either a Swap Shop fan or a Tiswas fan (to be fair dads would have preferred if there kids were Tiswas fans thanks to Sally James).
I enjoyed both, so sat on the fence. As I did in the great home computer wars (after all I owned both).
Both Saturday morning shows had a similar format. Live presenters, an audience of some kind (either in studio or on location), plus some cartoons to break things up.
It was great getting up on a Saturday, switch on the tv and watch these shows with a bowl of cereal, that weeks comics (Warlord, Battle, 2000A.D., Starlord, Eagle, Beano to name a handful of ones that I used to get).
But here I am some forty odd years later trying to recreate that Saturday morning chill, when I had no worries, life was carefree, and times were much simpler.
The plan I started with is to watch some cartoons from that period of my life (or there abouts) to help escape from the worries of the world. To have a relaxing start to the weekend.
I started last Saturday with the following three cartoon series; Batman the animated series, Dungeons and Dragons the cartoon, and Thundercats.
So with a mug of coffee in hand and a couple of pan au chocolate, the attack chihuahuas and I laid in bed and watched the first three episodes of from the first season of the three shows.
Obviously the animation is of it’s time. But I still found the episodes I watched enjoyable. Yes they weren’t the shows that were shown back then. But they are from my youth (except Batman which was more my young man years).
The plan is to add to the shows to watch Hong Kong Phooey, The New Adventures Of Batman, He-Man, potentially Transformers, and my holy grail Battle of the Planets.
I seem to remember that the Flashing Blade was also shown on a Saturday morning as well during Swap Shop. But my memory may be letting me down on that one. However I do own it on dvd and will rotate it in at some point.
At some point I want to start an equivalent Friday evening tv project as well with such shows as The Water Margins and Monkey. Which are the only two I can remember from a Friday evening on BBC2.
So there you have it my plan for spending a Saturday mornings.
SPOILER ALERT! I think I should start adding these. During these posts I will be talking about where I am in the game and my experience as I play it. Some of that might just spoil the game for you if you are planning on playing it.
It’s been well over a month since I last spent anytime on my Switch Lite. Let alone continued my journey in Hyrule by playing Tears of the Kingdom.
I could come up with excuses as to why this is the case. But that is all they are. Just excuses.
Whatever the reason it doesn’t get away from the fact I’ve not played a video game for over a month.
Back in the eighties and my teenage years I had all the time in the world to play video games, read about video games in the pages of such publications as ZZap64!, Crash, or C&VG.
Some games I completed (not many), others I enjoyed but was just crap at them and never got very far. Sometimes you just didn’t have time to complete the game or get good at it before another game came along and demanded your attention and time.
Now decades later there just doesn’t seem to be the time available. Adult stuff like earning a living gets in the way. Age catches up, and energy levels are just not the same after a long day at work. All I want to do in an evening is unwind a little and sleep. Early nights are a thing for me. It’s surprising how drained I am physically and emotionally after a days work.
In fact it is well over a decade, nearly fifteen years since I last had a significant amount of time that I could dedicate to gaming.
Before that my gaming whilst a step parent was hand held titles for one of the Nintendo systems or the Sony PSP (I had both) on my daily commute. Whilst the kids got to play on the Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo consoles. That would give me a couple of hours gaming a day during the week.
Today it feels like I’m stealing moments here and there.
When last I played Tears of the Kingdom I had failed to take out the boss Colgera at the Wind Temple.
Unusual for me these days I had been playing the game after work one evening! Some how I had some energy left over from a day in front of students. Maybe I was feeling energised from having received the players guide a day or two earlier.
I finished the last two locks that would release Colgera, and had an attempt to defeat him fail. I was running out of arrows or more importantly things to meld on to the arrows to increase their damage.
So I retreated.
Sadly the amiibo stuff doesn’t work during the boss battle. I had to retreat to a shrine so I could unlock some supplies.
By that time it was nearly 10pm and I had work the next day. So I left it there, ready for another assault on Colgera.
I’d like to think that a younger me, even when I was playing Links Awakening on my GameBoy in my early twenties, and blasting my way through Doom, would have beat Colgera.
But as Shahid Kamal Ahmad said in the latest Remaster podcast (and I’m paraphrasing heavily here, maybe even putting words in his mouth, but I think I captured his meaning) “I ain’t getting any younger and my reactions are not the same as they were” when he was talking about the latest Street Fighter game and how his kids are thrashing him at the game (is this his “the student becomes the master” moment?)
Memory keeps telling me games were much tougher back in the day. And they probably were. They definitely were much less forgiving. But game design was in its infancy back then. It felt every other game was pushing boundaries, exploring what games could do, or redefining what a game was.
But back then I had youth and time on my side. Time to spend learning patterns to defeat that boss, or advance through the levels. Plus the reactions, hand eye coordination of a teenager.
Now I have greatly less time. And like Shahid my reactions are no longer the stuff of legend (well in my mind they were legendary) but more like that boxer passed their prime trying once more to capture former glory against a much younger opponent.
Am I finding Colgera hard to defeat because I’m old. Do I have to swallow my pride. Admit defeat and get Nathan to get me pass this bit?
Hell no! I’m not ready for the long walk yet (Judge Dredd reference there for you folks).
Time to remind myself of the controls (that drawback of long gaps between plays) and dispatch this boss.
After a weekend of resting the arm, popping pills (only the prescribed medication btw and in the correct dosages and intervals), the arm is currently pain free!
Not only that today I was able to raise the arm high enough to be able to put on a tee.
Until now I was unable to raise my arm high enough (without hurting) to put a tee on.
So I’m a bit chuffed with this progress.
Sadly I had to sacrifice my gaming plans for the weekend to be able to rest the arm and give the medication time to work.
Fenland Gamers Club Night Last Friday aka the one I couldn’t attend. Photo copyright Jonathan Warren
Which meant I missed a really well attended Fenland Gamers club night on the Friday evening. I think going by the photo there were 15 or 16 that turned up, with about 3 new to group folks giving us a try.
Obviously the banter went it was only so well attended because I wasn’t there! “Again, right in the ears, straight to the feelings.” Wil Wheaton Big Bang Theory
The arm also meant I had to cancel our planned D&D session on Saturday afternoon. This Summer so far has not been good for the running of D&D.
No impromptu gaming session Sunday afternoon.
There are plans to play Three Sisters tomorrow evening. Obviously having just introduced Dave to the roll and write genre with the Trek 12: Himalayas entry level roll and write. The next logic step is to throw him totally into the deep end with the sharks (Charlene, Ben, and myself) and play this combotastic, not even remotely entry level or mid level roll and write.
I am hoping the medication and the arm hold out so that I am able to attend the annual Jeff’s all day birthday gaming day next weekend. I believe it is once more going to be Memoir 44 with an overlord map. But more importantly is the home made curry Jeff makes. His curries are rather good.
Even with these plans in place I think my gaming stats will be down for the month. I played way less than I could at Nathan’s because of the arm. It’s cost me a weekend of gaming. How could the numbers not be down?
I’m just happy the alarm is not a major source of pain at the moment. The rest will be what it is. See you in the next post.
Monday I caved and tried booking an appointment with my doctor. However there were none and was told to login at 8am the next morning and fill in the form to get one (hopefully) for Tuesday.
I did phone the minor injuries department at the North Cambs hospital who do walk ins. However they told me because I had no history of this sort of thing they would most likely just refer me to my doctor! So there was little point struggling to get to them for relief from the pain.
Tuesday morning I did indeed fill in the form that my surgery requires to be done first before getting an appointment, pressed submit and started the wait.
Nearly three hours later I had a text back saying they had sent a prescription to my regular pharmacy. Which surprised me as I hadn’t had a prescription for years and didn’t know I had a “regular” pharmacy. Plus they were referring me to physio.
Within minutes I had a call to arrange an appointment with physio. That will be happening on the 22nd of the month. I also asked them where they thought my “regular” pharmacy was, as I had no idea. When they told me it was ASDA it made sense, its where I pick mums stuff up from.
In the meantime I had my brother pick up my prescription that only had two of the three items I had been prescribed.
But still £28 was a bit of a shock. Tells you when I last paid for a prescription. Plus I had only been expecting one item.
So yesterday saw me having to pick up the missing medication from the pharmacy and after a day it seems to have started making a difference. The arm is less painful with a little bit more movement. But not much.
Hopefully it keeps it this way or better until the 22nd.
