Film vs Book #1

I have long been one of those people who loves books, has many books, buys new books often, but doesn't actually get around to reading them that often. The Japanese even have a term for people like me: tsundoku. Short attention span, hand aches from holding book, easily distracted - these are all reasons/excuses for my idiotic behaviour, but I have been improving of late. I also realised I have a lot of books that were adapted into films or were inspired by or related to films, so I've concentrated on these in order to make a few posts here. In pretty much all cases I will have seen the film before reading the book so the emphasis will be on the former. First up is the book that accompanies one of my favourite films, and it had an unusual start.

Contact (1985 - book, 1997 - film)

Book By: Carl Sagan Film Directed By: Robert Zemeckis Starring: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, John Hurt, Tom Skerritt, Angela Bassett

Certificate: PG Length: 144 Minutes / 429 pages

Tagline: "A message from deep space. Who will be the first to go? A journey to the heart of the universe" (film) "We are not alone" (book)

I'm usually slow to adopt new technologies - I fear change, I guess, to paraphrase Garth from Wayne's World - but one notable exception was DVDs. I forget the year now. It must've been 1997 or 1998, but whenever it was, I was almost immediately taken by the new movie format and spent a fortune (credit card, of course) on what was probably the best player available at the time, the Sony DVP-S715. At the time there were only about 20 films available on the format and not too many interested me, but the shop where I bought the player had three titles that looked acceptable - Face/Off, Assassins and... yes, that's right, Contact! I didn't know much about it prior to buying it, I just wanted a few new films to play on my shiny new player and a sci-fi selection is usually a safe bet for me. Plus, you can rarely go wrong with Jodie Foster, right?

First Look PC #8

Victory Heat Rally by Skydevilpalm (202?) - PC

As someone for whom retro games hold great value, one of the best things about the indie scene for a good few years now is the number of 'homages', or games inspired by other famous old games. There are tons and more turn up seemingly on a weekly basis. This one caught my eye quite a while ago (I believe it has been in my 'games to review' folder for about two years now) as it initially looked to be a Mario Kart-inspired racer. Upon playing it, however, I soon realised it has much more in common with Power Drift and even Out Run 2! There is only a demo so far in which you can choose between two racers and then race over three courses, and it's these that remind me so much of Sega's buggy racer as they are twisty-turny with sharp turns and elevated sections, just like AM2's classic!

MSX Games #3

Knightmare (1986)
By: Konami Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: MSX First Day Score: ???,???
Also Available For: Nothing

Not the most exciting title screen...

Back in the 80s which, as everyone knows, was the undisputed king of decades, there was a children's adventure game show here in the UK called Knightmare. Episodes featured a team of four youths, one of whom would don the vision-obscuring 'Helmet of Justice' and is then placed into a fantasy medieval environment while the other three attempted to guide him or her through obstacle and puzzle-filled dungeons. It was rather ahead of it time too, featuring some CGI and even some virtual reality bits and was pretty cool. More recently, word reached me of an MSX game called Knightmare too. What was a game based on a British adventure game show doing on a Japanese home micro? As it turned out, it wasn't. It appears to have nothing to do with it, in fact. Naturally, this both confused and intrigued me considerably so I immediately (i.e. a few years later) sought to find out what the devil it actually was.

Splendid Arcade Music #3

Slap Fight (1986)

It has been many moons since I reviewed Slap Fight here but, despite liking it, I have failed to play it since. That is until last week when I got a sudden, unexplained desire to give it another playthrough, and whilst doing so I ultra-remembered just how catchy the first in-game theme is! Not sure how I forgot to be honest, but now I keep playing the game just to hear it and, if anything, I like it even more than I did! It doesn't have a proper name as far as I'm aware - it's merely listed as BGM#1 on the soundtrack - and accordingly it's the first in-game music you'll hear. Enjoy it while it lasts though, which is little more than a minute (unless you keep dying).

(full Slap Fight review here)



Special Note: I didn't record this great tune myself, I'm just an admirer, so all credit goes to the original composer

TV Shows #29

Treason (2022)
Developed By: Matt Charman
Starring: Charlie Cox, Olga Kurylenko, Oona Chaplin, Ciarán Hinds, Tracy Ifeachor, Danila Kozlovsky, Alex Kingston, Beau Gadsdon, Samuel Leakey

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 37-44 Minutes per Episode (approx), 5 Episodes

I was thinking about spy/espionage-related films and shows recently and realised they must be not only one of my favourite genres but one of the most popular generally too, considering how many of them there are. Is it more of a recent thing or have there always been so many? Most of the ones I've seen are of course based around the CIA or some other secret American government thing but I don't recall seeing many British examples involving MI6. Well, not counting James Bond of course (guffaw!). But in recent months I have stumbled upon not one but two examples - crikey! The shortest of the two is Treason, a miniseries (or 'limited' series, as they are now apparently called) consisting of a mere five episodes which take place during the race to determine the next Prime Minister. It starts right at the top too, with the chief of MI6 known as 'C' - Sir Martin Angelis (Hinds) - using kompromat to blackmail a supreme court judge, only to find himself a target.