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The review of A-Z of Atari ST Games Volume 3 book RetroLaird is trying to delete!


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58 minutes ago, Landstalker said:

Obviously no-one does.
https://unbound.com/books/8-bit-on-a-budget/levels/
8boab1

Not even sure if it reached 10%
 

It didn't 

 

It peaked at 69 backers,then one pulled out.

 

It sat on 8% funded, 68 backers for what seemed like a lifetime, before it was finally put out of it's misery.

 

 

I seem to remember it being promoted an awful lot on social media, there was a YT preview, Stuart Ashens etc behind it.

 

It wasn't short of exposure and yet only 68 people had any faith in it and yet Kieren's YT subscriber count was how many thousand at the time?.

 

 

The numbers were rather telling.. 

Edited by Lost Dragon
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If the work Kieren submitted to Chris Wilkins for his planned Thalamus book, was of the standard found in Kieren's own A to Z guides, Chris had every right to reject Kieren as a writer.

 

 

Looking at Hawkeye (or Hawk Eye as Kieren presents it)

 

 

Large chunks of generic text are used in his Amiga and ST reviews of it (yet he has the gall to call the Amiga coders lazy)

 

 

Apparently Sanxion  is as an  essential and stand out shooter for your collection as Armalyte on the C64, both given 9/10, thus rendering the scoring system meaningless.

 

 

And it was Cyberdyne Systems who coded Armalyte Kieren, you have this awful habit of naming coders and teams in one review, then being very vague in others..

 

As a long time C64 owner, even at the time, for all it's technical excellence, Sanxion was a very linear and often frustrating shooter and certainly not in the same league as Armalyte. 

 

 

But it's Kieren's complete and utter lack of understanding of Thalamus history that really stands out.

 

 

Kieren states that it's easy to see why Thalamus went bust after the C64 died, they never really adapted.

 

Complete and utter ignorance on Kieren's part and just highlights why he is the last person to write about Thalamus. 

 

From Kieren's favourite source, Wikipedia :

 

Newsfield ran into serious financial trouble. Newsfield were forced to halt publication of their popular gaming magazines. Europress stepped in to save the magazines, but they slowly died out over the next year or two as their respective markets dwindled.

Thalamus managed to survive the liquidation of Newsfield, but funds were running low. With 8-bit gaming being superseded by 16-bit gaming, production costs were rising, forcing hundreds of independent publishers, such as Thalamus, to either close down or allow themselves to be consumed by a publishing giant. Thalamus released their final C64 game, Nobby the Aardvark in 1993. With their various Amiga projects spiraling out of budget and no further income, Thalamus had no choice but to close down their operations. Eidos Interactive snapped up many Thalamus rights.

 

Note:

Thalamus had Amiga:Nobby The Aardvark and Arsenal F.C finished, Restrictor had been previewed..

 

#The Thalamus reviews mentioned above are in his C64 A to Z guides Volume 1 and Volume 3

 

Atari ST Volume 3

 

Amiga Volume 1

 

 

Edited by Lost Dragon
Added Unreleased games to showcase Thalamus were adapting
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1 hour ago, Lost Dragon said:

It didn't 

 

It peaked at 69 backers,then one pulled out.

 

It sat on 8% funded, 68 backers for what seemed like a lifetime, before it was finally put out of it's misery.

 

 

I seem to remember it being promoted an awful lot on social media, there was a YT preview, Stuart Ashens etc behind it.

 

It wasn't short of exposure and yet only 68 people had any faith in it and yet Kieren's YT subscriber count was how many thousand at the time?.

 

 

The numbers were rather telling.. 

Some of those "perks" The £1000 one! ? Wow who in their right mind would pledge that much for what in my opinion is a rather paltry reward. 

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2 hours ago, Landstalker said:

More bollocks!
But he cites evidence that exists on Facebook, so if he would be so kind as to direct us to said item, we shall rest easy.
He could, if possible upload pdfs of the three unused books he wrote.
That would keep us busy for a while, reading KH originals.

One solution; if there are, as he claims THREE full unused books completely written by the genius that is the Mole Rat, then why not publish them himself?
Unless his publisher is getting tired of being tarred with the stink of the brush that is Mr Hawken's reputation.



92129928_230439384771042_2331570722310193152_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&_nc_sid=b96e70&_nc_ohc=vsBFQImV-vIAX-GtfRV&_nc_ht=scontent-lht6-1.xx&oh=10d652221d1789c830a394cacab17eff&oe=5EAC6479

His claims regarding Chris Wilkins' payments are based on what evidence?
He's semi-suggesting that he has further knowledge of experiences other than his own.
Can he provide this?
One would be fairly secure in placing a rather large bet on his total inability to do so.
 

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And if people would like to report the Tim account on YouTube that keeps commenting on how great Kieren's videos are. 

 

150k subscribers, total of 4 video uploads on how to increase your traffic, been on 6 months. Not at all a sub4sub style account. No siree 

 

That's on the video kieren uploaded yesterday.

 

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44 minutes ago, Grassomaniac said:

Some of those "perks" The £1000 one! ?

 

44 minutes ago, Grassomaniac said:

Some of those "perks" The £1000 one! ? Wow who in their right mind would pledge that much for what in my opinion is a rather paltry reward. 

Can you remember much about the perks? 

 

 

I never really looked at them in detail, just watched the lack of backers.

 

Am i getting very confused or were there such things as:

 

A collection of budget games on tape from his personal collection? 

 

 

Chance to be a guest on one of his social media channels? 

 

 

 

I mean i must be...right?

 

 

Those are not perks or incentives to back a book like this.

 

#it's double quoted you and won't let me remove top quote.

 

Sorry.

Edited by Lost Dragon
Post has gone tits up and double quoted.
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31 minutes ago, Welshworrier said:

And if people would like to report the Tim account on YouTube that keeps commenting on how great Kieren's videos are.

The Tim account is just a spam bot, I've seen comments on my videos and other accounts too.

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13 minutes ago, Lost Dragon said:

 

Can you remember much about the perks? 

 

 

I never really looked at them in detail, just watched the lack of backers.

 

Am i getting very confused or were there such things as:

 

A collection of budget games on tape from his personal collection? 

 

 

Chance to be a guest on one of his social media channels? 

 

 

 

I mean i must be...right?

 

 

Those are not perks or incentives to back a book like this.

 

#it's double quoted you and won't let me remove top quote.

 

Sorry.

Oh no, I was just reading the page you linked and having a good giggle at the “incentives” available for investing. They are visible still.

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1 hour ago, Landstalker said:

His claims regarding Chris Wilkins' payments are based on what evidence?
He's semi-suggesting that he has further knowledge of experiences other than his own.
Can he provide this?
One would be fairly secure in placing a rather large bet on his total inability to do so.
 

Page 8 of this thread has Greyfox responding to Kieren's allegations of non-payment of work for Atari Gamer Magazine etc, have a read.

 

If Kieren does have evidence that Chris breached a written contract regarding payment for work submitted and there's a clause in there that,unlike RetroGamer magazine, whom i believe only pay for submitted work once it's been published?  (sure someone can confirm or deny that for me) then again, the answer is simple.

 

 

Take it and all your other documented evidence Kieren to a court of law, surrender it along with your computers and the right to have your social media accounts analysed and have yourself proven 100% innocent of the accusations being made here and elsewhere online about you..

 

Have money owed to you, paid to you and push for damages. 

 

Going from the claims you've made about the evidence being in clear view and your own 15 page PDF statement clearing you of any blame, it should make for a very short legal hearing.

 

Yet you haven't done this, instead you've used Twitter, FB etc,  made vague hand waving gestures about where such evidence can be found, you've tried to claim Craig Turner dragged your family into a dispute,  yet all Craig did was respond to a comment you made,  that Craig attended your wedding. 

 

So are you now saying Craig had no right to respond to a point you brought into the discussion on a public social media platform? 

 

 

You need to be cross examined by legal professionals Kieren and your much vaunted evidence gone through with a fine tooth comb by them.

 

Until this happens,  this will run and run.

 

Your attempts to further divide the community are in tatters. 

 

I've never seen it so united and people who previously never worked together are going forwards with planned projects without the feeling they have to use you or face a barrage of nonsense from you in the comments and feedback sections.

 

 

We've actually a lot to thank you for in a sideways manner it seems.

Edited by Lost Dragon
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landstalker you are right, there are a lot of people who didn't speak previously now working together to do good creative endeavors. myself and others are now working on books for various uk publishers which they're all very excited about and have said a lot of positive things about the work so far ! then again, those of us involved can actually write and we know what we're talking about, so that's understandable. 

 

this idiot will remain in the rear view mirror, out alone in the desert, while we all move on to greater things. 

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2 hours ago, Lost Dragon said:

Apparently Sanxion  is as an  essential and stand out shooter for your collection as Armalyte on the C64, both given 9/10, thus rendering the scoring system meaningless.

Kieren states that it's easy to see why Thalamus went bust after the C64 died, they never really adapted.

First part, yeah, Sanxion was a decent launch for Thalamus (and I prefer it to the memory test that is Delta) but no comparison to Armalyte.

 

As for Thalamus as a whole, they were adapting but as far as I've been told about their finances, the Amiga games were not selling any where near enough to keep the company afloat in the market with the C64 dying off.

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17 minutes ago, Mayhem said:

First part, yeah, Sanxion was a decent launch for Thalamus (and I prefer it to the memory test that is Delta) but no comparison to Armalyte.

 

As for Thalamus as a whole, they were adapting but as far as I've been told about their finances, the Amiga games were not selling any where near enough to keep the company afloat in the market with the C64 dying off.

Delta is very much a marmite game and it is just a memory test, but play it in a dark room, music right up and it works well.

 

I'd put likes of Salamander and Denarius/Katakis above both Delta and Sanxion and whilst indeed reviews are subjective and personal views, if your going to use a score system, it has to have meaning.

 

A 9 should be the pinnacle of the genre,  try this title first and if you like it, there are similar,lesser experiences to try found within these guides,but they don't score as highly. 

 

Handing out 9's with such proverbial gay abandon, is common place for Kieren.

 

 

Regarding Thalamus, it's Kieren's sweeping, Ladybird Book style, black and white accounting of history in these guides that gets me.

 

His Amazon bio makes him out as this established writer, yet his descriptions are linear and his understandings pathetic. 

 

Thalamus had numerous issues,  aborted projects, unpublished projects, transition from 8 to 16-bit markets,let alone the Newsfield issues.

 

You can't just make such blinkered sweeping statements Kieren.

 

Your Atari stuff is just as bad.

 

Jack Tramiel killed Lynx Wolfenstien you sate, no he didn't.

 

John Carmack did after Jack Tramiel sent the inital payment 3 months late.

 

If your not sure of your claims, don't make them, instead use the review text to talk more about how the games play, leave the triva out of the reviews.

 

The talk of Jaguar games in his Saturn and A8 guides is just as bad.

 

Focus on the bloody platforms in question. 

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His scoring of titles has always been more about his view of the author more than the title itself.  If he wants to buddy up to them and kiss arse they get a good score.  If however he has had a disagreement with them, or they have called him out previously, poor score.

 

For this I would cite a game I entered in a 48Hr coding competition, "Reactris".  It was written from scratch over a weekend whilst at Atari Connexion in France.  I did code, SH3 did graphics, whilst sat in a large French hall with other retro fans.  The game is in no way finished, complete and in terms of playability it's a hint at Tetris (the theme for the competition IIRC).  Did I ever claim anything other? nope, the game was made freely available for people to download and look at from my website (it still is if anyone wants a look), the text around it explains it's incomplete, 48 hour coding yadda yadda.

 

This didn't stop Kieren from putting up a review, slating all of it's flaws (incomplete, bugs out when you fill the stack, scores don't work etc) and giving it a 2/10 score.  Also didn't stop him burning it to CDs, stealing Felyx artwork that he made for it, and selling copies for £25 on ebay either.

 

Am I upset by his score? no, it gave me a good laugh at just how pathetically petty he is, as if his view of something I actually created would bother me.  He simply over estimates his worth in every aspect.

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16 minutes ago, LinkoVitch said:

His scoring of titles has always been more about his view of the author more than the title itself.  If he wants to buddy up to them and kiss arse they get a good score.  If however he has had a disagreement with them, or they have called him out previously, poor score.

 

For this I would cite a game I entered in a 48Hr coding competition, "Reactris".  It was written from scratch over a weekend whilst at Atari Connexion in France.  I did code, SH3 did graphics, whilst sat in a large French hall with other retro fans.  The game is in no way finished, complete and in terms of playability it's a hint at Tetris (the theme for the competition IIRC).  Did I ever claim anything other? nope, the game was made freely available for people to download and look at from my website (it still is if anyone wants a look), the text around it explains it's incomplete, 48 hour coding yadda yadda.

 

This didn't stop Kieren from putting up a review, slating all of it's flaws (incomplete, bugs out when you fill the stack, scores don't work etc) and giving it a 2/10 score.  Also didn't stop him burning it to CDs, stealing Felyx artwork that he made for it, and selling copies for £25 on ebay either.

 

Am I upset by his score? no, it gave me a good laugh at just how pathetically petty he is, as if his view of something I actually created would bother me.  He simply over estimates his worth in every aspect.

There's another prime example,  Kierens A to Z Atari 7800 Guide :

 

 

Quarterback Challenge (Touchdown Football) 

 

 

Kieren gives it 6/10, saying it's a shame the programmer didn't decide to improve the game further..

 

 

No, it's a shame you didn't get off your backside as a writer of paid-for work and look into the game :@ 

 

 

Atarius Maximus explained back in June 2014 that this was just a simplistic game he wrote whilst learning 7800 Basic and his new job left him very little spare time, let alone time to improve on pet projects.

 

 

A simple Goggle search threw that thread up.

 

You either just dusted off old RVG etc reviews sat on your PC since before this thread or you didn't put the work in on the review.

 

 

Like Vince, i was content to lurk and read the comments from the new voices joining the thread here, but what's publically and privately come to light has drawn me back out.

 

You've plenty to say about the posts and work of others Kieren, so it's only fair yours is looked into.

 

 

Anyone thinking our gripes over his books lie with basic grammar, punctuation and spelling mistakes, is very much mistaken.

 

It's simply galling to see Retro Girl 5 star these guides and praise the bloody research,  when next to none has been done. 

 

You talk creative freedom in your writing and how you were shackled by RetroGamer Magazine, hence you made the decision to quit, well this is 100% your work Kieren, you honestly think it meets the criteria and standards the likes of Chris Wilkins require?. 

 

 

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37 minutes ago, ∞ Vince ∞ said:

I can. This makes hilarious reading and although I was just intending to lurk I thought you all might want see the full extent of his madness... https://unbound.com/books/8-bit-on-a-budget/levels/

 

Good Lord...

 

:-)) I honestly hoped i had gotten it wrong with my earlier post. 

 

£45 pledge gets your name in back of the book (but shouldn't anyone who helped fund the book be credited , even at lowest tier pledge?)

 

 

 

£75 to get a free budget game from Kieren's personal collection

 

£99 for 6 of the above, 1 per format

 

What difference does it make coming from Kieren's own collection,  EBay, Car Boot Sale etc? 

 

 

£ 150 to have guest appearance on one of his videos (risky there Kieren, chances are your guests would know a damn sight more about the subject material than yourself) 

 

 

£500 to write a guest review :@ 

 

People research, write articles and reviews for others books for free Kieren.

 

Most authors are bloody glad to have people submit them, it saves them an awful lot of work and helps keep the publication fresh, new insights, views and writing styles etc.

 

 

 

Glad you put that up Vince, it needs to be highlighted.

 

The sheer arrogance of the man.

 

Strewth..

Edited by Lost Dragon
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55 minutes ago, Lost Dragon said:

£45 pledge gets your name in back of the book (but shouldn't anyone who helped fund the book be credited , even at lowest tier pledge?)

Personally, if I had raised money for a book up front and not used my own money, I would put the backers right up front in the introduction pages.

Quote

What difference does it make coming from Kieren's own collection,  EBay, Car Boot Sale etc? 

Obvious one this, really, as Kieren sees himself not as a humble human being like the rest of us but as a 'game historian','serious journalist' and all round King of the Moon, surely this is on par with receiving a signed guitar from Paul McCartney. You can even hear him enunciate the numbers in an over the top how can you not buy this fashion 'SIX!' like ironically his fellow hawkers on the likes of QVC.

Quote

£ 150 to have guest appearance on one of his videos (risky there Kieren, chances are your guests would know a damn sight more about the subject material than yourself) 

Touché. 

Quote

£500 to write a guest review :@ 

So he can write even less of his book you mean ? And be paid handsomely for it.

 

How on earth these beautiful mocked up images did not light a potential backer's fire is beyond me.

I also love how Dizzy would feature extensively as of course The Olivers are his very good friends, despite the boys pointing out this is very much NOT the case.

 

What exactly is that title supposed to mean anyway. On a Budget works. But why would 8 Bit On a Budget make any sense what-so-ever? It's as if he is making a point that Budget games were in some way an anomaly whereas they were very much the norm and a huge part of most of our collections.

8-Bit-On-A-Budget-1.jpg

download (1).jpg

images.jpg

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It Is contraction again
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45 minutes ago, blot said:

These pages would have pulled me in without a dobut, I bet I would have ended up with something like his A-Z books at best.

Going to use one post to reply to.the valid points raised by both Vince and yourself, hope that's OK?

 

 

I was under the impression that unless they expressed the desire not to be credited in the publication,  it was standard practice for crowdfunded books to list all backers and contributors somewhere in the book, front or back.

 

You should not have to go above entry level pledge to be credited. 

 

The £500 pledge,just to have your review featured is insulting. 

 

Any real author would welcome outside contributions for the reasons already stated, you don't offer it as a high level perk.

 

Books like these should embrace the community and offer people the chance to give something to it,sure the book is your vision, but come on Kieren, it's just reviewing some old budget games,it's not submital of a ground breaking paper on quantum physics.

 

 

Each to their own, but the materials i passed onto:Atari Visual History, Unseen64 book and the upcoming GTW book were given freely (Interviews, interview Q's,  Atari Corp documents so interviews could be carried out).

 

The Atari Corp documents were themselves kindly donated to myself by Atari Historian Scott Stilphen, none of us felt we had any privileged status, we just made sure the info was shared and put to the best use possible. 

 

Hell, i even asked not to be credited in Atari Visual History,  yet your constantly claiming you were owed money for YOUR work.

 

You were moaning on social media the other day, you hadn't been given a free copy of Guru Larry Fact Hunt book, despite contributing to it.

 

Stop feeling so self entitled. 

 

 

The mock up images of his 8 Bit Budget book,  cannot fault them, exactly of the standard you'd expect of a book of this type and price.

 

Crying shame likes of Unseen64 hadn't taken similar route (no bias here Kieren, i played an insignificant role in helping Luca with the publication and was very unhappy with black and white photographs and text layout, so your not being trolled). 

 

 

Does anyone know if the Dizzy etc text used in the mock up pages was used in Chris Wilkins Dizzy book and/or Kierens's own guides? 

 

 

I'm not the greatest Dizzy fan, so tend to skip reviews of the games these days.

 

And lastly, yes, budget games were a huge part of our gaming lives, from the £1.99 entry level to the experimental high-end range Codemasters experimented with.

 

But again here to use an example of Kieren's own work :

 

 

Attack Of The Flickering Skeletons (Stuart Ashens),  Kieren reviews HKM on the ZX Spectrum and the closing paragraphs talk of the ST and Amiga versions,  but nowhere does Kieren point out these were done under US Gold's experimental Budget priced 16-bit software range.

 

Kieren is described in the pages as a video game journalist, is trying to get backing for a book based on budget games, yet despite devoting 6 pages to HKM, leaves out a key aspect when it comes to the 16-bit versions.

 

Again, it just highlights why you need to up your writing game when it's for paid-for work.

 

You can't just write in the manner you did for homebrew publications and free to view websites. 

 

People expect quality. 

 

It's not nit picking, your putting your works out into the real world.

 

The likes of Amazon are not your personal playground and review manipulation via the Retro Girl account is going to be countered and your works judged by same criteria as Ashens, Bitmap Books,  Fusion Books etc etc are.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Lost Dragon
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3 hours ago, Welshworrier said:

So was he actually anything to do with revival in 2016?

 

Screenshot_20200402_135224.jpg

Yes, ironic he found it something to brag about as it was on the stand of the guys from Retro Gaming Roundup who has it on display, (having been the ones who made the game after being personally fucked over by Mike Kennedy responsible for the Chameleon), and nearly 4 years later Simon Butler’s segment last month on their podcast tore him to shreds. Funny also how he said ‘last year’, when I canned him for good in March 2017.

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