wee doors banging

This weekend saw the return of the highest rated comedy show in BBC history. Space based cult sitcom Red Dwarf returned to UK screens after a nine year hiatus, not on the BBC as before, but on satellite channel Dave which has resurrected the show for a three part special, Red Dwarf: Back To Earth.

When we last saw the Boys From The ‘Dwarf back in 1999, they were in trouble. Red Dwarf itself was being consumed by metal eating space bacteria and on the verge of breaking apart. The crew had abandoned ship, our heroes Lister, Cat, Kryten and Kochanski had fled to a mirror universe leaving Rimmer trapped on the burning mothership with the Grim Reaper and a vending machine with a bad attitude.

How did they get out of that one?

Originally written by Rupert Goodwin, I first read this excellent ode in an issue of The Home Computer Course back in the 1980’s. The C programming language is just as popular today as it was back then, and this poem is just as funny too.

Over at CPC-Live, Markus has released an updated version of the JavaCPC open source Amstrad CPC emulator package. JavaCPC powers the Amstrad CPC Online Arcade at one of my other websites, girv dot net.

Version 6.2 of JavaCPC brings the following changes:

• Bilinear display filtering
• Tape support
• YM recorder and player
• Digitracker
• Memory size and computer name selectable
• Automatic and manual update checking
• Many other bugfixes and improvements

For more details, see the official release notice or download JavaCPC from SourceForge.

John Girvin is a software engineer, sci-fi buff, cyclist and retrocomputer fan (ie: nerd) from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

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In a posting on one of their blogs, Capcom have announced that their forthcoming multiplatform action game “Dark Void” is to get all new in-game graphics and marketing materials inspired by games from the 1980’s.

Dark Void’s plot centres around a cargo pilot named Will who crash lands in the Bermuda Triangle. From there, he is teleported to a parallel universe where he encounters other humans, called Survivors. Together, Will and the survivors must battle the alien race who control the parallel universe in order to return to Earth.

Regarding the move to a retro style more at home on an Amstrad CPC than a Playstation 3, Capcom simply say:

“…Cell processors, complex shaders, and dual analog sticks, although modern, really don’t capture the essence of what we set out to accomplish.  Additionally, extensive market research has taught us that “photo-realistic graphics” are so totally last-gen…”

But 8-bit graphics aren’t their only bright idea. They’re going for the whole retro package with redone packaging, title music and they’re even implementing a retro-innovative “pass word” system for saving your progress through the game, so doing away with those tedious storage devices and save states found on Dark Void’s contemporaries.

Dark Void's all new old style title screen

Dark Void is being developed by Airtight Games and published by Capcom, on Unreal Engine 3, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows.

Now that it’s got a retro-revamp, I’m really looking forward to it!

John Girvin is a software engineer, sci-fi buff, cyclist and retrocomputer fan (ie: nerd) from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

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Battlestar Galactica, the much praised “re-imagining” of Glen A. Larson’s classic 1970’s science fiction series of the same name, came to and end this week. I was hooked on the new show since 2003’s astounding mini series that introduced us to the new cast of characters, including advanced Centurions, Cylons that looked like humans and a female Starbuck. These are my thoughts and rantings on the three hour series finale, “Daybreak”.

Spoilers ahead!