Well here it is at long last, my personal website on the Information Super Highway. On here you will find retro computing and gaming info, my observations on life and the world as it is today and any other random stuff.
Oh and lets not forget this is the home of the Kilobytes Podcast!
News and titbits
7th February 2010
Finished Warhammer Dawn of War 2 the other day and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. The squad tactical play really works better i find than the base building style of play. You can focus on the combat instead of firefighting to try and keep units being pumped out etc. Well worth getting hold of if you are a fan of the series or the IP. Also finished Batman Arkham Asylum, definitely rates as one of my games of 2009.
On a sad note, a good friend of mine from university died on Wednesday morning. Only 35, full of life and laughter, but his life was on a often self destructive path. So whilst its a complete shock and I still cant believe he has gone, it's also not a surprise either. I jokingly said to him I thought he wouldnt make it past 30, another friend joked he would be the first to go many years back. I only found out about this through Facebook, two days after. If i had'nt looked at his Facebook page I would have never have known. We all could have gone through years of not knowing, as he had become very distant and never made the effort to keep in touch at all.
Dave if you are reading this, take it easy wherever you are, we all miss you and cant believe you have gone.
27th January 2010
Finally after all the rumour and speculation , most of which was totally accurate, Apple have revealed the iPad!!!! Yes it's the tablet computer we have all been expecting. Essentially a large iPhone in essence. It looks gorgeous and another must have piece of kit from Apple. Tablet PCs have failed miserably in the past, yet Apple release one and suddenly you feel it could be a success!
Time to check out an Apple store and actually touch one!
7th January 2010
Welcome to 2010 everyone. This year and decade has kicked off with SNOW and ICE !
31st December 2009
Well it's New Years Eve, end of the day, end of the year and end of the decade or the Naughties as some people have decided to call it. Its been a pretty topsy turvy year for me and the world in general. Redundancies, credit crunch, new job, trying for a baby, michael jackson departing this world and West Ham in turmoil on the pitch.
So 2010 is going to be a year of doing for me. Doing all the things I keep meaning to do but never get round to. Will kick things off with a month off the booze, dieting a bit and cutting down the games so I can free up time to read and program and do constructive things. I feel very positive and motivated for some reason, will make use of that positive energy!
I will sign off this year with some predictions for my life, the IT world, games world and the world in general:
1) Apple will finally reveal their touch screen computer
2) West Ham will struggle to the very last game of the season. We will stay up if we keep our decent players. If we sell the likes of Scott Parker, Rob Green etc then we will be relegated.
3) Another year of game sequels, but they will be GREAT. I am looking at you Bioshock and Gran Turismo.
4) A colour ebook will be available and grey scale ones will be much more common.
5) A new PC architecture will be revealed
6) Microsoft will announce details of its next console
7) A well known and well loved cult film will be remade and totally ruined.
8) Big Brother will be incredibly over the top due to it finally ending.
9) East 17 will reform.
10) I will become a dad ;)
Happy New Years to you all.
20th December 2009
Today we saw the power of the internet and social networking, when Rage Against The Machine got the Christmas number one slot in a battle against the X-Factor winner. After people had got fed up of the X-factor winner always getting number one, 2 people setup a Facebook group to get people to buy Killing in the name to get it to number one instead. And it worked!!! Sure Joe McEllderry will probably be number one next week, but a point has been successfully made.
14th December 2009
Not long till Christmas comes round again, need to get a podcast of some kind out before then with a festive feel to it. Then will get into a routine in the new year. Also can cover an event for the podcast as I got my ticket for Retrovision 2010, which should be good fun. 3 days of beer, curry, games and geeky people in black tshirts! Superb!
Been ploughing my way through Halo to get it finished, now i am on a roll after halo 3 and ODST. Halo is great but some of the levels are a bit lazily designed making it quite frustratingly boring in places. Still I am almost at the end and enjoyed the romp through it all.
Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer has been good fun too, now level 17 and got the hang of it. No longer do I die without managing to kill anyone or wonder who the feck shot me. The new equipment makes it all worth doing.
7th December 2009
4 years ago today my dad passed away. Me and mum still miss you loads.
30th November 2009
Time to get a Christmas podcast on the go and maybe Christmassize the site! What's making that hard to do is a number of rather good games keeping me occupied. Namely Dragon Age Origins and Halo 3: ODST. Modern Warfare 2 has been and gone already, 8 hours to finish which is quite poor value I have to say. Normally it takes me a month or more to play through a FPS at my own pace, but did this in a week! Dragon Age on the other hand is reputed to have well over 70 hours of gametime. Playing it on normal difficulty means it can be quite a challenge sometimes, thus will take me a while. Last game that had me hooked like this and playing for more than 50 hours was Zelda Twilight Princess, not often that happens but I am pleased when it does.
One thing bothering me at the moment is the rarity of the Radeon HD 5870. Pre-ordered nearly 2 months ago and its not in stock ANYWHERE!!! AMD literally cant produce them fast enough. I don't know whether its the chip factories not delivering the GPUs or some kind of supply chain screw up. People in the US seem to have them, but us over here have to sit and wait. bugger.
27th October 2009
Okay finished the podcast script and music, just need to get it recorded then should have it out before Halloween . . .
26th October 2009
Well its taken a while to get momentum going, but finally got this site looking vaguely how I want it. i.e. clean and tidy.Starting work on the 2nd podcast, got the script done, just need to choose some music and get it recorded.
Maybe have a halloween theme to it all. Oh how predictable!
1st July 2008
Okay today is the first day of the Retro Challenge! I have pretty much decided to go with the Z80 on the Amstrad 6128. Its the computer I am most comfortable with having grown up using it. Also I have a few decent books on the Z80 and the Amstrad. So I am going to be drawing on the legendary Programming the Z80 by Rodney Zaks, Z80 Machine Code for Humans by Alan Tootill and David Barrow and BASIC Programming on the Amstrad by Wynford James. A good starting point is the CPC Wiki which has some good tutorial links and some information to get me started. So the reading up begins now!
26th June 2008
RetroChallenge 2008
Okay this year I thought I would jump onboard and take up the Retro Challenge 2008. This is a yearly event which challenges you to make use of your old/retro computer hardware and show off your retrocomputing skills for a whole month. This can be anything from building hardware, learning BASIC or exclusively using retro computers all month! The best efforts will win fame and fortune or most likely a small prize and some retro kudos! This will run from July 1st to 31st.
17th February 2008
Another year and hopefully I will keep up to date with this website and make it worth having! Current situation in my life? Moved down to Farnborough last year, about to get a new car (Mazda 3) on Tuesday and will try making babies this year with the missus. Gameswise I am currently playing Team Fortress 2,Super Mario Galaxy, Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4.
18th May 2007
Yet more bloody sad news, yesterday my Siamese cat Sheri (the family pet for 17 years) was put to sleep. She was very old and was very poorly. Mum took her to the vets to get a final verdict and everyone agreed it was the kindest thing for everyone to put her to sleep, as she would have had a painful death if we left her to die naturally. I am very sad about this and will miss her greatly, but happy she won't suffer any more and will be with my sister and dad
30th April 2007
Well my birthday has come and gone, ripe old age of 32! Had a great birthday and time for Shereens.
3rd April 2007
Happy Birthday to my sister Stephanie. Everyone is thinking of you on your birthday and missing you terribly. I hope you can see this wherever you are.
love always
your brother
Thurstan
17th March 2007 - GOT MARRIED !!!!
Yes finally tied the knot and married Shereen in Ringwood Hall hotel in Chesterfield on Saturday. Bloody knackered but it was perfect and went without any hiccups.Everyone seemed to have a great time and they really made it special. The missus (hehe) is sorting out the photos online, so will post a link later.
15th March 2007
To my beautiful sister Stephanie Johnston (King) who sadly died a year ago to this day. I miss you so much and love you dearly. You are always in our thoughts. Sleep well, one day I will see you again.
love from your brother
Thurstan
1st February 2007 - Wii update
The games just keep on coming! Gradius (NES), Bonanza Bros, Comix Zone and Gain Ground (Megadrive).
26th January 2007 - Wii update
Well the most important update is the activation of the News channel. Requires an update and then you are off. Looks quite interesting and visually looks great. 2 new Virtual Console games today too, Mario Kart 64 (N64) and Soldier Blade (Turbo Grafx).
19th January 2007 - Latest Virtual Console games
Out today we have Super Probotector and Street Fighter II: World Warrior both on the SNES.
16th January 2007 - Latest Virtual Console Games on Wii
The Virtual Console games are slowly trickling through. Latest ones are Super Mario Bros (NES) & Xevious (NES) and Super Castlevania IV (SNES). Been confirmed that Zelda Link to the Past, Super Mario World are coming soon amongst others..
12th January 2007 - Retrovision 2007 and Back In Time Live 2007
Well ordered my tickets for Retrovision 2007 on 11th to 13th May and Back In Time Live 2007 on 22nd to 23rd June. Looking like a good year for retro events so far! Everything is confirmed and ready to go.
1st December 2006 - Glastonbury 2007
Well as luck would have it Glastonbury is on the same time as BIT Live 2007! So that screws things up a bit as i want to go to both. Anyway tickets go on sale 9am 1st April 2007.
30th Novemberr - Everton v West Ham, Sunday 3rd December 2006.
Off to see the mighty Hammers beat Everton at Goodison on Sunday. Nice 20 mins walk and I am there!
23rd November - BIT Live 2007
Well during last nights Boz show on Slay Radio, I spoke to Chris Abbott from C64audio.com and found that Back In Time Live is back! Pencilled in for June 22nd 2007, looks like it may be in London though I need to confirm.
