Chimera CCG (the CCG doesn’t just stand for Collectible Card Game, but Comics, Collectibles and Games) is situated in Beeston in Nottingham, near the University. Originally sited at Ripley, before expanding to Beeston, Chimera’s owners, Andy and Heather Leach, eventually relocated “lock stock and ammo crate” to the current location, due to a more friendly environment, more affordable rates and a better ability to support its local community; including much more accessible free parking. Although it isn’t a typical “footfall” location, Andy confirmed, you have to seek Chimera out rather than accidentally discover it, as would occur if they were in a more central city location. The joy is that people do. Seek it out that is. Chimera has a loyal and growing community of players and customers, which I must confess (in the interests of transparency) includes my nephew, who introduced me to the store during a recent family visit.

On visiting the shop, one of the players I walked in with announces that it has changed a lot since last time she was in; the playing space and a large part of this quite spacious shop are reconfigurable, with some displays being movable to allow up to 70+ game players to be accommodated easily. Having said that, Chimera also run larger events at nearby locations, including hotels, etc, when greater numbers need to be supported for events. These competitions and tournaments are just an additional part of the service that Chimera provides to deserve it’s fan base. Andy is quite philosophical about the threat of the Internet. A Dork Tower cartoon, decorating the fridge near the counter, says it all. Without active support, the FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) will never compete. Andy comments on the cartoon, “You get what you (don’t) pay for.”

Cardiff is an outstanding place to be a gamer. Although it isn’t home to any major gaming events in the die hard calendar (yet!), it hosts two exceptional games shops, both of which provide the kind of service that should shame you, if you live or work nearby and persist in purchasing your games from Amazon.
Rules of Play
Rules of Play (RoP) is an unassuming little shop in the Castle Arcade in Cardiff. One of those places it might be easy to miss, among the fashionable cafes and weird boutiques.

However, it is not cluttered, and actually quite inviting. There are none of the intimidating tables with sweaty young men hunched over bizarre dioramas, a la Games Workshop. What there is are staff who are keen to please, able to recommend games to meet the needs of Grand Ma wanting a game for her relatives, and the hardened MTG and CCG nut alike. Quite an achievement, and RoP is probably one of the best games shops I have ever frequented.

While normally there is a cellar for game play, with regular events for diverse games, currently the playing space is relocated due to seasonal flooding. However, RoP also run two game events a month:

• The second Sunday of every month at Chapter, a family-friendly event usually starting at 5pm with a selection of games to loan out to interested players (although die hards with their own games are often there earlier). On that, the RoP staff are all excellent tutors in games, and will have you up and running quite quickly.
• The last Monday of every month at The Gate in Roath from 7pm, which is more for seasoned gamers.

I’ll cover their events in more detail in coming months, but it is safe to say that the staff are both knowledgeable and accessible to both novice and expert alike.

Firestorm Games
Firestorm Games (aka StormFire) are less easy to come across, being the “wrong” side of the tracks, if only a convenient walk from Cardiff Central Train Station.

The shop itself, is about the same size as RoP, but in two smaller sections; one being predominantly Games Workshop (GW) products, the other being a range of board games and accessories for War Games, etc. It’s quite compact, but nice to see things on display for a company that does most of its selling through the Internet. However, the real jewel in Firestorm’s Tardis-like interior is the fully licensed (!) massive play space, affectionately known as “The Battlefields”. Click the panoramic image below to fully grasp this!

This huge, well-resourced area, with a cafe, bar, figure painting area, and even an arcade cabinet, must be seen to be believed. While it is clear that War Games are the dominant game type here – there is a huge array of dioramas and peripherals, so you only really need to bring your army to play massive campaigns, and Firestorm even offer lockable storage for regulars – there are regular events for CCG, and board game play.

The staff charge a fixed fee for access to the Battlefields (currently a one off £3.60, but periodic membership is also available), but when I attended recently, there were a range of games on hand, as well as those brought by the regulars, and there was an atmosphere of “Let’s make sure everyone gets a game!” from the staff, who could be seen arranging groups of players to guarantee that people wouldn’t have to wait to be entertained. Even I got roped into a quick game of

“Evil Baby Orphanage” despite not intending to stay for long. It just reinforced the great atmosphere that Firestorm provides for the young adult gamer. While I don’t think that this store is as accommodating for families – the licensed bar on the premises necessitates some control over who can play on site – it is good to know that the two shops complement each other perfectly. Both Rules of Play and Firestorm are worth a visit, if you are ever in the Welsh capitol. Next time, I will cover RoP in more detail, especially the regular Sunday and Monday events, but in the mean time, here are some other shots from Firestorm’s Battlefields:

I came across this site that automates making Hitler Downfall parodies so decided to have a go. It’s not quite straightforward to know what to put in each box, as the transcript doesn’t quite match up to the one at the Hitler Downfall Parody Wiki (?). So here attached is an eXcel script hitler-downfall-script1 to help you.

Here’s my meta effort to thank Jacek Fedoryński for making this possible.

This post will serve two purposes:

1. To support Jonathan Green’s “You are the Hero” KickStarter Campaign for a history of the Fighting Fantasy game books
2. To announce “MaZone”, an upcoming #1GAM #onegameamonth project, which will attempt to innovate in print form on the game book concept

You are the Hero

If this book cover means nothing to you, you are either quite young or very old. It’s by Russ Nicholson and two other guys…

I came across this book in a dusty cupboard that was the Puffin/Penguin book “club”; a sponsored form of school shop that supplied the publisher’s current titles in a ‘sale or return’ arrangement. I’d made many discoveries during the lunch hours Mr. Allen, my first year form teacher and later close friend, gave up running the shop. I think I may have been its only customer in fact. Anyway, he would recommend things he thought I, a voracious reader who had read about 3/4 of the school library by that point, would be interested in. Warlock was a welcome relief from early O-Level revision, as it was waiting for me at the start of the fifth form school year (September 1982). It didn’t do too much harm to my work, thankfully, as I got 5 As 2 Bs a C and a D, but I did ironically fail English, and had to retake that a year later in Sixth Form.

[Kids, O-Levels are not, as you imagine like the Harry Potter OWLs of J.K. Rowling creation, but just like GCSEs really, except you did ALL your assessments in one go – no continuous assessment or coursework! – in a thing called… an exam… while imprisoned in a dusty hall under the watchful eyes of scowling teachers, who’d much rather be drinking tea (or in one case beer or gin) in the lurking smoke-filled staff room. So, actually quite like OWLs, thinking about it…]

For those of us who remember the horrors of Thatcher’s Britain, Miner’s Strikes and the promotion of self-interest over social duty, it may come as a relief to know that
Jonathan Green, who wrote some of these “Fighting Fantasy” books in their heyday, is attempting to celebrate their 30 year legacy.

Many current game designers and writers owe a lot to the green-spined wonders that opened up the idea of non-linear narrative and interactive story telling. Ok, Livingstone and Jackson weren’t the first – there are examples before their first title (shown above), “The Warlock of Firetop Mountain”. Notably Tunnels and Trolls “solo adventures” as well as others – but they stuck somehow. Maybe it was the unique UK writing style, but other brands don’t have the same nostalgia or affectionate appeal as Fighting Fantasy.

Not to say that “Choose you own Adventure”, “Decide your Destiny” and a range of other brands haven’t innovated or done some things better, and (hopefully) Green will cover these, if only to contrast with the FF books as they still compare favourably, in my opinion. However, it is (I believe) timely and topical to consider an official history of this form of literature, especially as tablet computers (iPads, etc) are bringing about something of a resurgence.

You can find out more by clicking the banner below, or Jonathan’s FaceBook Page.

MaZone – A #1GAM #onegameamonth project
When I talked to Ian Livingstone at DragonMeet last month, I asked him if there was any scope for evolution in the game book design. His response was that electronic forms of interactive fiction were probably the best arena for future innovations. I respectfully disagreed at the time, and vowed to try to come up with something that could work in print – still the cheapest and most robust form of distribution – that even he would consider truly revolutionary (or at least different enough to warrant recognition as progress).

So, as part of #1GAM #onegameamonth (See OneGameAMonth for details), I’m planning a multi-player game book that attempt to innovate on the current formula in several respects:

1. The ability to backtrack and revisit old locations – Ian was clear that this was one area of weakness in the semi-linear story telling of game books, which presents a difficult obstacle for environmentally encoded narrative. Dear Esther has done that wonderfully in video game form, but it would be nice to return to a book and traditional literature.
2. The option for several people to each use a game book to independently or cooperatively explore the same environment – I owe Alfred Leonardi’s “Ace of Aces” as well as a recent interview I did with him for the G*M*S Magazine podcast for inspiring this idea, which will be the most technical challenge.
3. The ability to add new books that would work in the same setting, where the uniqueness of each volume would be reflected in both the text and the interactive options available to different readers. The idea here being that one book would allow you to explore a space, but a second would revisit the same locations with different perceptions. For example, a hero would walk along the corridor, but a ghost could float through the very thick wall.

To show MY support for the KickStarter above, I have promised to make the beta of MaZone (a play on Maze and Zone) available for FREE to backers of Jonathan’s book. I am not planning for this to be January’s OneGameAMonth offering, as I am a bit tight for time this month. However, it will be out before Mr. Green’s book is released. I’m sure it will be rough and needing ‘fixing’, and it might just not work or be fun to play/read. However, I am looking forward to trying out something genuinely new in game book design. Fingers crossed.

Now turn to Page 1…

A Random Dot Stereogram (RDS) 2D platformer game for #NaGaDeMo (National Game Development Month) making a game in June.

Because you can see, you do not look. Eyes blind you. How much do you lose, if you lose your eyes?

Listened for he can not be heard. looked for he cannot be seen felt he cannot be touched

The more you try to remain unseen, the more they will feel free to seek you out.

The father learns from the son. That the father learns is, perhaps, enough.

The first country a Dictator invades is his own.

If a man dwells on the Past he robs the Present. If he ignores the Past he robs the Future.

T be alone without someone to love is a waste of the body. To be not alone without someone to love is a waste of the soul.

Love is Harmony, even in Discord. Love born of betrayal is better lost than lived.

Lesson 1: How to Live. Lesson 2: How not to kill. Lesson 3: How to live with Death Lesson 4: How to Die. Seek not others’ death, but your own life.

The puzzle is not to see others, but to let others see you.

Seek not to know all the answers, but to understand the questions.

We are possessed by those things that we seek to possess.

All journeys begin and end. But they set off other journeys, that beget still more. So the journey does not end. Nothing dies that was ever something.

When the Heart knows no Danger, no danger exists. When the Soul becomes the warrior.

Two divided into one will always be trouble

The dust of truth swirls and seeks its own cracks of entry.

The Path is known to each, by finding it.

The screen you see is not the screen I see. Yet we see the same screen. It is us, not the screens that are different. Yet we are one.

Which is evil, the rat who steals, or the cat who kills the rat? You may tell yourself you are good, what does the Universe care?

When you cease to strive to understand, then you will know without understanding.

Your Soul does not keep time, it merely records growth.

It is better to cover the land with love than to let it cover you with hate.

When there is no Fear, there is no Control.

There is gain in every loss as there is loss in every gain.

Click to access SIRDS-Computer-94.pdf

Stereogram TETRIS http://3dimka.deviantart.com/art/3D-Stereogram-Tetris-36795242

Stereogram Tutorial http://www.inf.ufsc.br/~otuyama/eng/stereogram/basic/index.html

C# http://synesthesiam.com/code.php#stereograms

Stereogrammer http://machinewrapped.wordpress.com/stereogrammer/

Textures http://www.garybeene.com/stereo/rds-textures.htm

If you found the flame of a candle struggling to survive, what would you do? Free it of its own wax to help it to burn only a little longer? How much wax to remove, when wax is its life?

Evil cannot be conquered in the World. It can only be resisted in oneself.

Wisdom is not a flower to pluck, but a mountain that must be climbed. A seed to grow.

A man may die of hunger of the body, but whole nations have died of hunger of the spirit