Sony Playstation - You wear it well!

20 Years on - The Playstation is still looking cool for a new merchandise review for www.numskull.co.uk 
NOW AVAILABLE using code: GYL - 5% off at www.funstock.co.uk

More great Playstation goodies were on the way from our friends at  www.numskull.co.uk and with Christmas just around the corner now we needed some inspiration for gamer friends and family - as well as ourselves here at GamesYouLoved.

More importantly now with the 20th Anniversary of the Playstation on the 3rd December 2014 this was seriously good timing too. It was time to celebrate this great gaming brand and what else did we need but some cool accessories when we were about to Party like it was 1994!

www.numskull.co.uk has some seriously cool goodies and from our time before with the wallet review we waited with eagerness as the parcel arrived. 

What we got.
Here on this review we're looking at the Sony Cufflinks range, Street Fighter socks by Capcom and Sony Sock range,  under the www.numskull.co.uk brand.

The range of gamerwear, clothing, gifts, merchandise and also Sony Official goodies www.numskull.co.uk now develop - goes further and wider than these items we've featured here too.

We'll be bringing alot more from www.numskull.co.uk Some goodies already available, plus new gaming merchandise concepts not even released over the coming months and weeks. 

www.numskull.co.uk specialises in creative, exciting concepts that it develops into products released to gamer fans the world over.

Gamers keep a look out for GYL news on this - which we'll be putting out via our social spaces on Facebook and Twitter, as well as this ongoing BLOG via www.gamesyouloved.com

Packaging
As before www.numskull.co.uk  have done an amazing production and design job in the quality of their outer packaging. As a gift this is really key as you want the item to not only to be well protected, but to look good too in presentation. The boxes are really nicely finished in a solid cufflink box with imagery from the official Sony Playstation branding.  The socks are nicely packed in plastic with care and they are wrapped with official imagery with an outer card holder - with both the Playstation and Street Fighter versions.

The cufflinks
Three cufflink styles were received. All in Sony Playstation design and styling. The quality of these are much better than you get in the high street for this price so as a set of cufflinks they are actually very good value. Aside from that they are totally geared for the gamer in your life or simply as a treat for yourself so the fact they are well built is an added bonus. Against a white shirt the black Playstation cufflinks look really smart. The silver links also look cool with a dark shirt and stand out without being too gimiky.

The designs are based on a PS1 PS2 and PS3 styling - no PS4 just yet - but who knows! Anyway for us retrogaming types these work just fine for us.

The socks

These are really cool - especially with Christmas on it's way there is nothing better than having a stylish pair of socks to go to parties, or put put on during xmas dinner with a bit of gaming afterwards. Both the Street Fighter socks and Playstation socks come in a pack of 3 and are made to a high quality on both occasions. 

For Street Fighter fans you can choose from the 3 designs in the pack depending on your mood. Select Ken, Ryu or Blanka - all 3 have a very bright colourful top to the sock and elegant black bottom. You'll stand out wearing these for all the right reasons! 

The Playstation Socks are equally memorable - with some very cool designs to them. These really evoke the style of the advertising and design of the original Playstation imagery. From the cool grey controller type, to colourful rainbow like playstation styling and the festive blue. These are socks to be seen in!

 
Watch out for more GamesYouloved Merchandise reviews from www.numskull.co.uk 

SONY MERCHANDISE  
NOW AVAILABLE using code: GYL - 5% off at www.funstock.co.uk

Also available from: 

www.yellowbulldog.co.uk

www.game.co.uk

Putty Squad to get a physical Amiga release after 20 years!

Set to be used as special pledges in an upcoming Amiga book Kickstarter campaign, 100 physical replica copies of Putty Squad for the Amiga are set to be produced!

These 100 copies will come in authentic replica packaging on actual Amiga floppy disks. Bitmap Books have gained exclusive permission from System 3 to produce these copies of Putty Squad and will work with them closely to ensure that the final packaging is as near as possible to how Putty Squad would have looked if released in 1994.

50 of the 100 copies will be signed by the original Putty Squad development team.

Commodore Amiga: a visual commpendium
Commodore Amiga: a visual commpendium is Bitmap Books follow up to their hugely popular debut book; Commodore 64: a visual commpendium. Following on from the C64 book, the Amiga book will focus on the visual side of the computer featuring stunning pixel art, game maps and box art. It will also showcase the best software houses on the Amiga and is set to feature the Amiga demo scene.

The Kickstarter campaign starts on the 13^th October and runs for 30 days. So far, some really exciting contributors are lined up and Commodore Amiga: a visual commpendium is set to be Bitmap Books biggest project yet.

Sam Dyer of Bitmap Books says ‘Putty Squad remains the Amiga’s most famous unreleased game. To be able to take Galahad’s 2013 release and produce physical copies of the game is hugely exciting. Huge thanks to System 3 and Galahad for allowing this to happen.”

About Putty Squad
Putty Squad was developed by System 3 and the follow up to 1992’s insanely good Putty. Set to be released in 1994 but this famously never happened due to the twindling Amiga market, but a pretty much full game remained in the System 3 archives. Fast forward 20 years and thanks to English Amiga Board member Galahad, in 2013 a version was released as a Christmas gift on System 3's website as free digital download.

About Bitmap Books
A new publisher specialising in beautifully designed and produced books all about video games. Commodore Amiga: a visual commpendium is the second book by Bitmap Books.

www.bitmapbooks.co.uk

Follow on Twitter @mrsidc64

A New Gen Gamer - Reviews an Old Skool 'New' Console

The GamesYouLoved Team is full of different kinds of gamers - different preferences and ages.  For this review of the Sega Sonic Nano by www.funstock.co.uk we gave it to one of the younger members of the team. All of 21 years old - Alex Reviews...

Let’s face it…gaming has gone mainstream. In the last 5 years or so the popularity of new-gen consoles has grown exponentially, with millions of people now owning an Xbox, a Playstation, or some form of games console.

So in today’s era of modern gaming where bigger, faster and sharper always means better, you could be forgiven for struggling to understand why someone would opt to play a smaller, simpler, retro games console like the Sega Mega Drive Arcade Nano.

As a new-gen gamer myself, I too had a certain degree of uncertainty about what I might be about to play.

But oh how wrong I was.

This little beauty is amazing, plug it into the TV and you’re away in less than 10 seconds. Considering many modern games have loading times long enough to grow a beard in, this is brilliant, and a definite positive if you’re looking for a ‘quick fix’ gaming session.

And if you’re a fan of variety, you’ll be pleased to know that straight out of the box there’s almost as many games on this as there are in your local GAME store.

Sure, the graphics aren’t quite up to the same level as the (massively overpriced) Xbox ONE, but in the age of ultra-fast processors and almost perfect graphics, we seem to have become ‘graphics sluts’, losing any loyalty and prostituting ourselves just to find a game with better graphics, and completely forgetting our roots.

Games don’t need to be perfect to be enjoyable.

The Arcade Nano is the perfect example of this. It’s quick, simple and massively fun to play…and what other games console will clip onto your key ring! It makes a so-called ‘sexy and slim’ Xbox ONE look like a fat geezer that single-handedly keeps his local McDonalds afloat.

I wasn’t around in the age of the original Sega Mega Drive and this retro style of gaming, I was still years away from being born in fact, but I am so glad I can still enjoy those great games today in such an easy, hassle free way.

There’s only one thing wrong with the Arcade Nano…it needs a warning message on the box: WARNING, HIGHLY ADDICTIVE

Get yours here with 10% off - use code GYL10:

http://www.funstock.co.uk/sega-megadrive-arcade-nano-sonic-edition

NEO GEO X - Hardware Review by GYL Fan Andy Pryer

Neo Geo X Hardware Review

By Andy Pryer

Believe it or not, I was once a mere mortal man like you. It’s true I swear; there I was going about my daily business when the skies parted and I was singled out from the rest of the rat-race and illuminated by a brilliant shaft of light. Tykhe, the goddess of fate & fortune had finally noticed me and rewarded my patience and devotion with a brand new/old console. From that day forward, I have been a proud owner of a Neo Geo X system and my life has been changed since. So read on, mortal and I shall impart my wisdom and perhaps you too will be convinced enough to join the ranks of proud and mighty owners.

The system comes handsomely packaged in a classy black and gold box with a carry handle, just the thing for storing and transporting it about should the need for either arise.  The box contains everything you’ll need to get started including an HDMI cable and some rather fetching stickers found in the back of the manual. They’re not strictly necessary, but they’re a nice touch and I like stickers.

The console itself is well made enough although it feels a bit on the light side because it’s larger than it needs to be to contain the components. It’s mostly hollow as it’s been designed as a replica of the home console of legend, but it’s still fairly compact, around the size of a Mega Drive II, but nicer to look at.  It has a nice matt finish and feels like it’s made of a fairly good quality plastic.  It certainly doesn’t look cheap or out of place under the TV.

Connecting the console to the TV is a straightforward affair: video, power, done. Now although I blame myself completely, I must confess to being quite disappointed when first firing up the machine. Although I was aware there was an update available, my enthusiasm got the better of me and in my impatience I charged ahead with it right out of the box. As penance for my lack of self-control I was greeted with glitchey video, which was too big for the screen and poor sound emulation. After I updated the firmware (which was very simple to do thanks to a helpful tutorial video on the Neo Geo X website) all my worries drifted away with performance now improved to the level of perfection you’d expect form an officially licensed product.  With this in mind, the firmware update should be considered as part of the initial setup process. Just be patient, it doesn’t take long and the difference is remarkable.

One joystick is supplied with the console and the system supports a second which can be bought separately. The joystick is also made to replicate that of the original home system.  It’s a sad story, but I was never fortunate enough to play on the original so I can’t say how it compares. While I was at school we shared rumours of the fabled Neo Geo console and its ridiculously priced games. A couple of the kids knew another kid (who conveniently went to another school) who had one, but we honestly weren’t 100% sure the thing even existed in this pre Internet age.s I mean, a home console that played arcade games? Many of use were still loading from tape!

Back to the controller: While it’s a perfectly serviceable and accurate controller, it lacks the heft and solidness of some other home arcade joysticks and so it delivers a slightly disappointing tactile experience initially. It’s not that it feels breakable, I’m sure they’re robust enough to cope with the most vigorously executed combos. It was nice to have a large control platform on my lap again.

Now for the pièce de résistance: On this new 21ts century version there’s a real treat: The body of the console opens like a clam shell and reveals (now this is really good)…. a hand held version!  I know: too good to be true, but it’s real!  This device is the mother brain of the system as the ‘console’ serves just as a docking station to charge and play with the joystick on a TV screen. 

This portable device is very impressive indeed. The handheld aspect is a hefty, solidly constructed unit, which is a delight to hold in the hand. I was really impressed with it when I first saw it as it looks like it should cost far more than it does. You certainly won’t feel embarrassed pulling this out in public. Its soft-yet-grippy rubberised back is emblazoned with a chrome ‘SNK’ logo, so the guy opposite you on the bus can watch with envy and only jealously imagine what’s going on. The highly reflective black with gold legend of the front is sheer class and the sharp, bright screen nestled within feels luxuriously big. The controls are well laid out too. The face button layout has been reconfigured from the joystick to suit the thumb and the shoulder buttons are within comfortable reach thanks to their forming around the corners. Other controls, such as volume and brightness, are located on the bottom edge, well out of accidental reach. While the home portion of the package has been made to replicate the original console, clearly much thought has gone into the design of the handheld. It genuinely feels like it’s been designed by gamers for gamers of the hardcore variety.

The Neo Geo is of course famous for its beat ‘em ups, but the device comes pre-loaded with a generously mixed bag of twenty games which should satisfy fans of all genres and is more than enough to keep you busy for a good while whatever your gaming tendencies. This was particularly good news for me as I’m not a huge fan of beat ‘em ups, but I still have more than enough to keep me very happy indeed. I was pleased to see many of my Street Fighter 2 moves translate into the other fighters as I have a fairly limited repertoire.

More game packs are available via the expandable game card slot. They can be bought in collections of three, or (at time of writing) a mega collection of fifteen, which is teasingly named Mega Pack Volume 1 and makes much more financial sense.

Overall I’ve been more than delighted with the console.There are a couple more tiny niggles like having to charge the handheld unit through the docking console and I would have liked a menu button on the joystick to save me having to disturb my cat when I fancy changing the game, but it could be argued that this replicates the action of changing the cartridge and is therefore the ‘real’ experience. Anyway, the gripes are slight and completely overshadowed by the brilliance and attention to detail of the rest of the package.  This isn’t some cheap plasticy 3^rd party console filled with abandonware; it’s an honest to goodness SNK Playmore console and as such is host to some AAA titles which are as playable today as they ever were.

Neo Geo consoles and games continue to change hands for eye-watering prices, but this set finally brings the glory of SNK to mere mortals and it feels like a celebration.

Review by Andy Pryer

Christmas with the SEGA Game Gear

A Guest Blog by Steven Parky Yates (aka Fats McClane)

I had a GameGear.  Odd place to start, but stay with me, you'll see why I started here. I loved it. I remember having a knee high pile of Fleetway Sonic The Comics in an open stackable box cupboard in the corner of my room, piles of drawings I had copied from it strewn across the floor and posters of Sonic I had asked to be kept for me from stores and even a bank (think it was TSB infact I know because I literally found it online - pictured right ) hanging from my wall above my Sonic the Hedgehog covered bed.

As we see, I was a Sonic fanboy without even knowing what a fanboy was. I was eight years old and was a countryboy. Living in a place with maybe eighty people tops but only sixty in the actual village I tended to go on very long walks, feed ducks and game.

Problem was most games I had were for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum.   was given a Game Gear later, but was not up to date with the technology that was around at that time, so home consoles was a lost concept on me.

I saw kids play at school with their Gameboys, well I said play...we couldn't see the screen if we stood next to them, and we were soon shooed away by the irate gamer. 

I wanted one so bad, I once borrowed one and played Mario 6 Golden Coins and loved it so much, but at the same time wished a certain hedgehog was on it.  

Thanks to me miss-spelling 'Gameboy', due to being a rush and writing my Christmas list on a car journey, I was given a Game Gear, I had never even heard of this and was disappointed when I opened the paper hiding it. I hid my sadness and went to my room with it. 

I was told it needed to stay plugged in to play, which a gameboy did not so was angry my friends wouldn't be able to see me being cool at school, and the size of it was huge.  But soon as I plugged it in and inserted Sonic the Hedgehog 1 into it...I was blown away.

Graphics were clearer, true, BUT there was COLOUR!  I was so impressed I turned it off and on again just to see Sonic jump the SEGA logo....it was blue! Not black with a green background. It actually said SEGA through my speakers!  After this I was always on it, playing Shinobi, Sonic and Streets of Rage. I had been bitten with the gamer virus and was not wanting a cure, just another fix.

It was at this time I competed with my then best friend to see who had the best gadgets, and who was the better gamer (in the long run I am winning -  as he has become a boring old man builder and I still melee the hell out of nubstepz on Halo!)
He had same things as me, so we would head to head alot, Micro Machines on the GameGear being the favourite with laptimes. One day I came to visit him...he had it up on his television. I was in awe. He handed me a black controller with three buttons on it and told me to carry on while he went to the toilet. Three buttons?  I instantly knew which button made me go, and I was soon playing the game, not thinking anything of it except that maybe he had bought a cable of some sort that allowed him to play the game on the television.

When he returned he asked me 'So?  What dya think?' I said love it man, he nodded and pointed to the black box under the television. 'My Megadrive...So....when you gettin' one?' I gasped.  He explained it was a GameGear that was better...but could be played on the tv and with better and longer games.  I didn't believe him until he slotted Sonic 2 into the console and switched it on.  I was pretty much close to killing him and stealing the machine he had.  The graphics so clear, so colourful, so....AMAZING!  I wanted it so bad!  

Hiding my contempt by not flushing the toilet when I went to the toilet and returning home, I nagged constantly about the console my friend had. My mother must have heard the constant whining because at Christmas she didn't get it me.  Instead I was given more GameGear games and a chair that was made by a neighbour who loved to carve.  I was screaming internally and said I loved them.  My mother said to go and get the mail, there was unopened Christmas cards in them so I went into the next room, trying not to cry.  When I returned there was a MASSIVE box before me.

'Oh, we forgot this one' she said'must have been behind the couch'.  I fell to my knees, heart was racing and all eyes on me.  I didn't dare raise my hopes again, but it was not far away.  I ripped it open in the corner on the bottom....and saw in blue the Logo,....SEGA!

I ripped the rest open and there it was!  My 16bit dream console.  With Sonic waving his finger in the corner.  I cried.  I was a tough kid but seeing something I had desired for over four months infront of me made me well up.  My fingertips brushed its top and I whispered 'thankyou' through a wall of tears.  My mum laughed and said 'do you want me to set it up?' I laughed, 'stupid question!  Of course!!!!' In less than five minutes I had slotted the first game in, Sonic the Hedgehog 2.  I wept slightly as I ran through the 1st level, the music so much better, the colours streaming across my screen in clear blocks, and the fact it was more of a game than I had ever played.  

I look back at that Christmas as one of the best (until I got my N64 but that's another story) and why? It resembled to me at the time why I liked Christmas. It was a gift, granted. But it was a day I remember, even now, twenty one years later.  It was a gift that made me realise I had been listened to, it was a corner stone in my gaming hobby and it made me appreciate everything that went into it being made and the people who got it for me.  

So I hope this Christmas if any of you get a 3DS, WiiU, Vita, Xbox One or PlayStation 4, that some of you, will feel not just happy, but complete with a sense of accomplishment.  And I hope it inspires you and doesn't burden you.

A Guest Blog by Steven Parky Yates (aka Fats McClane) for his great gaming memories and this special Christmas Guest BLOG

A gaming Christmas - Part one of two - 1980s

I’m Dreaming of a Gaming Christmas - By David Campbell

“T'was the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse”.

Except the mice of parents frantically trying to find an Xbox One or PS4 for their children!

Christmas has traditionally been the time that us gamers were gifted with the latest delights; pocket money and early jobs didn’t afford us the luxury of saving for such things – they were way beyond our price range. Most parents, if they could afford it, would buy the console their child lusted after, guaranteeing a smile on their loved ones faces. Their kindness was generally rewarded by said loved one promptly locking themselves in their bedroom, only venturing out for snack based sustenance and occasional loo breaks.

Christmas is always a magical time, but when you’re a kid with the potential of opening a new console, Christmas Eve is the longest night in history. Lying in bed, willing yourself to get to sleep so the hours would pass until “Santa had been”. The memories of Christmas, especially when receiving a new console as a kid, seem to remain more vivid. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to share some of my favourite Christmas memories.

Christmas 1981

A little background to this one first. I was 5 years old in 1980, and my dad and I used to go to the local video store (Hollywood Video in Roseburn Edinburgh if you’re interested!). He would pick a movie for my mum and him, and I would be allowed to pick a cartoon or kids film. One day, whilst perusing the Tom n Jerry collections, I happened upon a different movie. This was called “Pac Man”, and the video was in a different box. I asked my dad what it was, and he didn’t know, so the owner explained it was a game, for this new thing called an Atari 2600. 

For £2 per night, you could rent the system and a game. I was sold. I don’t think I ever rented a cartoon again – I saved all my pocket money and used to get the Atari once every week or two. We got to know the owner pretty well, and he used to show me all the carts through the back of the shop – I was in heaven!

Fast forward a year, and Christmas day. I ran from my room to the living room, where my presents were laid out for me on the sofa. An array of colourful parcels, all shapes and sizes. I opened them all in what seemed like 10 minutes, to be surrounded by a mountain of shredded paper and a neatly stacked pile of gifts, ready to be played with.

At this point, my mum mentioned that she produced a present that “Santa must have forgotten” from the side of her chair. It was huge. I opened it hungrily, near passing out with excitement.

It was an Atari 2600 console. My very own. And it came with Pac-Man!

It didn’t end there, though – after carefully explaining to my hyper 5 year old brain that these were only on loan, she produced another large box. It contained literally every game that Hollywood video owned. The shop closed over Christmas (as they did back then!), and the owner had given the whole stock to my mum and dad for me to play. I almost expired on the spot! Even though I was only 5, I still remember that like it was yesterday, and it was 33 years ago!

Part two - into the 1990s continues here:

http://gamesyouloved.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/a-gaming-christmas-part-two-of-two.html

Guest Blog by David Campbell

Analogue vs Digital by David Campbell

Games and how they have changed!
by David Campbell

The way we buy games has changed. You may have noticed this yourself. It seems that in today's faced paced lifestyle, we need everything instantly. Steam, iTunes and a plethora of other online options means your game store is open 24-7.. but this isn't necessarily a good thing, in my opinion.

You see, back in the day, buying a new game was an event. Perhaps it was because as a kid your funds were limited, so buying a game was a big decision. You didn't want to waste your hard earned pocket money or paper round wages on something that would be rubbish. For the sake of nostalgia, let's compare how we'd buy a game when we were kids versus how we buy games now.Imagine, if you will, that it's your birthday. Generous friends, aunts and other relatives have kindly put some money in your card, and you have a princely £15 to spend. £15 is a large amount to invest in a new game, so we need to do our research. If you don't have the most recent issue of your favourite computer magazine to hand, we need to pause here, jump on our bikes and cycle to the newsagent.

Now, this in itself poses a problem. Cast your mind back to the shelves as they were.. groaning with magazines trying to separate you from your pocket money. ZZAP, Amtix, Your Sinclair, Amstrad Action, Crash, C&VG, ACE.. what to choose? Choice made, and 95p well spent, we need to head home to swat up on the latest releases.

Back home, grab a glass of orange squash and a biscuit, then we'll speed to our room to conduct our research. After a couple of hours poring over all the screenshots, then going back to read the reviews of the games we like the look of, we have a short list.

Now, if it's a Saturday, we can head straight into town to grab our new game. However, if it's a weekday, we need to wait the painful wait until we can get into town either after school the next day, or worse, the next Saturday.

Once in the shop, you head to the games section, turning up your nose as the shelves of games for the rival computers. At your section, you scan the new releases. You pick up several of the boxes, scrutinising the artwork, the screenshots.. is THIS the game that you need to buy?Here's where things get really complicated though. You've spent £1 on the research magazine, meaning you've £14 left to spend. 

This presents several options.Buy a full price, £9.95 release and two £1.99 budget games
- Buy SEVEN(!) budget games
- Buy a compilation at £12.99
- Buy a full price game and one £2.99 budget game

There are many other variants, but you get the idea. You probably didn't realise as a kid, but you were combining accountancy with cost benefits analysis whilst standing in a shop!

After many hours of deliberating, perhaps interrupted only marginally to type "10 print 'big bums!'" on the nearest computer, you finalise your purchase.

With your latest addition wrapped safely in the bag, maybe even stuffed into your coat pocket, you wait patiently on the bus home, willing yourself to wait, and not take the game out until you are sitting comfortably.



At last, you are seated on the ride home. Oblivious to the chatter and ambiance on the bus, it's just you and your purchase. You take it (one at a time if you're lucky enough to have multiples), and you look at the front cover. Although you scrutinised it earlier, you give it a thorough going over. This game is yours now, not a potential sitting on a shelf. You flip the box over, the satisfying muted rattle of cassette coming from within, and you read every word on the back. You stare at the screenshots, imagining what it will be like to play.

Finally, you carefully prise the box open, ensuring you don't break the hinge on the side. You take the inlay and cassettes out in one go, checking the labels on the tapes before placing them safely back in the box. You fold out the instructions. Although you've played hundreds of games on your computer before, you read the loading instructions. You read the backstory, the controls, the credits. By now you can't wait to get home to play the game!

Now, sometimes, a full price release came in a 'big box'. These cardboard gems were usually a treasure chest of oddments. There could be anything inside.. maps, soundtracks, novels, patches, stickers, comics.. a game that came with lots of "stuff" seemed awesome, no matter how bad the actual game.

This long trip down memory lane does serve a purpose - it's not just an excuse to pop on the rose-tinted shades. Back then, the games were simple. The graphics were simple. The game concepts inspired - a guy stealing chicken feed and eggs whilst chased by ostriches? Can you imagine that on the Xbox 360?! The packaging was as much the game as the code was. It had to get you excited. The extras helped maintain that excitement. You felt a game was going to be good because it came on 6 floppy disks.

Now, compare that to how you buy games now. A lot of us still go to specialist shops to buy our physical games. Some people buy online and have them posted. A lot of people now download directly from Xbox Live or the Playstation Store, and have their game within minutes (unless your broadband is terrible, like mine!).

I just don't get the same excitement any more. Even if you buy a physical game, it comes in a DVD case, and all you get for your money is a disc. Sometimes there's no manual. That doesn't make me want to go and play the game.

The extras that would have been normal before are now 'collectors editions' that are double the price. Compilations don't exist anymore. Modern games really don't excite me. Getting a compilation tape from eBay is more thrilling to me than Medal of Duty 12 on the PS5.

But maybe it is nostalgia. Maybe it's bad broadband that blocks me from all the digital goodness. Maybe I will yearn for Xbox 360 games when I'm older. Who knows?

How do you prefer your games?

Guest blog by David Campbell

Unusual Railway Pubs - Retro Memories by Bob Barton

Writer Bob Barton, author of ‘Unusual Railway Pubs’ (Halsgrove Publishing), explains how an interest in model trains led to him travelling full-size tracks and playing pub games. Read his memories and then enter our prize draw to win the book and a Hornby train...

I've loved model trains for as long as I can remember. Grandad nurtured my interest, getting the eight year-old me a Hornby Dublo electric train-set one Christmas. He  then got the bug and built me a room-size Tri-ang Hornby layout, which he enjoyed as much as I did. I liked the realistic scenes and couldn't understand why school pals wanted to deliberately crash the trains. The Pullman express would be set up to go steaming into the back of a goods train, sending wagons flying in all directions and plastic people dying at frightening rate. As an accompaniment, a vinyl sound effects record would be interspersed with Beatles singles on my parents’ Dansette record player.

This was around 1964, long before electronic games hit the shops. Instead we had to combine three-dimensional objects with lots of imagination. Shortly after, Rovex (the company behind Tri-ang Hornby) did cotton-on to the demand for drama by bringing out some items of fictional military rolling stock. Called ‘Battle Space’, the range included spring-loaded missile launch wagons, a box car which exploded while on the move; another had a pop-up sniper in the roof. There were working searchlight wagons and low-loaders from which a helicopter or satellite would take off. Mates and I set up scenarios such as our train patrolling the West German border and being hi-jacked by the Soviet enemy (the Berlin Wall had yet to fall). Grandad’s enthusiasm grew with mine, his police pension regularly being stretched to the limit in Seymour’s model shop at Harrow-on-the-Hill (no bargain eBay purchases then). I was devastated when he died suddenly aged 70.

In the 1968 catalogue, Tri-ang Hornby advertised its trains jointly with Minic Motorways. Moving trains and cars could be combined on townscapes of tracks and highways. Minic was similar to Scalextric except it used the same 00 scale as the trains. It had level crossings where we engineered heart-stopping near-misses between steam locomotives and Porsches (please don’t try it on the real railways). Of course this was before the age of the microchip. The height of technology at that time was the R406 Automatic Train Control set. One train could be used to start and stop another and control signals and points, using a solenoid relay that the train tripped using trackside contacts.

There were board games as well and my favourite was ‘Go’, the International Travel Game by Waddington’s. You could travel the world by train and ‘plane, exchanging currency and buying tickets as you went. But real journeys beckoned. Grandad had done with travelling and dad was wedded to his car, so I had to wait until I was about 13, old enough to take long distance trains by myself or with schoolfriends. It engendered a wonderful sense of freedom to travel the country, checking timetables as I went. Mum’s Marmite sandwiches accompanied me to the wilds of Cornwall, North Wales and the Scottish Highlands. If you knew which rover ticket to buy (at half fare) you could travel hundreds of miles for little cost. There were more trains at night in those days, so there was no need for expensive hotel rooms.

Starting work at the age of 16, I was introduced to the world of pubs and, for a while, was a keen darts player. Pub games are a world of their own, with toad-in- the-hole, devil-among-the-tailors and several varieties of skittles also played widely then.
In later years. whenever I was travelling on business I went by train if possible: it was interesting checking out the pubs and refreshment rooms on the stations. Many hailed from the early days and were very ornate, though run-down. It was the era before today’s real ale and craft beer revolution. Today historic stations have been smartened up but even a decent coffee was hard to find back then.

When I was made redundant from my job as a press officer in 2007 I was looking for a project and decided to combine my twin interests of trains and pubs. I researched a guide to the best railway pubs, which no one had done before. Published by Halsgrove in 2013, ‘Unusual Railway Pubs’ (www.halsgrove.com) also provided an excuse to travel on some of the preserved heritage railways, which often have great pubs with steam trains passing outside.

Models and pub games are a feature in some railway pubs. Among those in my book is one, on the line from King’s Cross, with an 0 scale model railway running below the ceiling and tunnelling through a wall. Another, in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, is a cross between a railway museum, model shop and games room. Yet another is a brewery in a quirky Lincolnshire windmill. As well as relaxing with a drink in the circular bar, customers can try their hand at traditional pub games now rarely seen, such as shove shive, target bowls and cheese skittles.  

Win a copy of Bob’s book and a retro Hornby train in the free-to-enter draw on www.facebook.com/railwaypubs