Lost Dragon Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 1 hour ago, Landstalker said: You inspired me to momentarily step away from my herculean labour of wading painfully through each and every god-forsaken excuse for a review in the ZX Spectrum DUMB-pendium and peek at the pdf's I have of his 2600 and CD-i rags. I only glanced at the 2600 text but within seconds we get a typical Hawken-ism, "In this book I take you through the life of the 2600 looking a varied cross section ". Slapdash wankspangle! I updated a few misc reviews i had left to combat those 5 star reviews on Amazon.co.uk (and do my eyes deceive me, or did I glance at a 1 star review of Kieren's Amiga A To Z guide, left by Chris Wilkins on Goodreads? :-))) and in his Hard Drivin review, I spotted the phrase, Domark did a fair with this conversion :-)) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Landstalker said: There is simply no way you can be impartial when reading ANY of his publications. There is no excuse or exonerating factor for the poor diction, the lack of any flow from one sentence into another or any flair in the writing that might engage the reader. It plods glacially from one poorly constructed and invariably grammatically incorrect jumble of words to another with sloppy punctuation, exclamations marks thrown in whenever the mood takes him and cut and paste phrases put in with frightening regularity to simply pad out each "review". A large number of said "reviews" only get started somewhere near the end of that particular section, as Kieren feels he should entertain us with whimsical snippets from his childhood memories or tedious anecdotes about some other machine and/or company. He throws in details that are totally irrelevant, such as movie studio names and starring actors, rather than focus on the game and say what is good/bad or indifferent about said title. All this padding and sidetracking tends to raise ones suspicions that he possibly (certainly?) has no real experience of playing that particular game and is merely raising the word count on a review he found somewhere else. So far I have ploughed through this remedial level tripe and have seen (I can't say read, it's an offense to real books) 100 reviews. Every single one fails the quality test. Stilted diction. Sloppy punctuation. Grammatical Errors. Spelling mistakes. Excessive padding instead of detail. Incorrect facts. Inconsequential anecdotes. I know full well that Kieren will claim that he knew for a fact that he would not get a fair review from me, but this is simply not true. If I had felt that people were being unduly unfair, or there was anything of any redeemable merit in any of the publications I have in my possession, I would happily eat humble pie and admit my mistakes. But they are without any creative or informative merit whatsoever. They are hack jobs, cobbled together with little or no thought for the finished object other than to get it to market and receive financial return as fast as humanly possible. I have not imagined the errors, nor have I nit-picked. As someone who has written for a variety of publications over the years, (Obviously not as many or as professionally as Kieren, of course!) has written game designs and pitch documents and is a constant and passionate reader of all genres, I feel I can recognise good writing and bad. This is bad, and not in that funky hip jazz-influenced way. It is an insult to anyone unfortunate enough to purchase one of these titles. It is an insult to the products contained within and the machines he claims to have owned and/or played. It is an insult to every person who worked on any of the titles mentioned. I'm glad you brought these aspects of his books up, I have encountered so many of them and still don't quite know what to make of them. His dislike for the NES and his Atari bias, has been well established over the years, but when your potentially looking to sell NES guides to the same people your selling Atari guides to, you'd think a writer of his experience would write in an impartial manner, not Kieren. Murders the NES version.. was just one such phrase i saw today alone. Then you've the clumsy attempts at providing history on conversions. Area 51 in his Saturn A To Z talks about the Arcade version being based around Atari Jaguar hardware, but fails to point out how the CoJag hardware has been enhanced over the consumer Jaguar hardware. It talks of the Jaguar not getting a conversion of Area 51. Saturn Quake has talk of the game being annouced on the Jaguar.. So what on both counts? If you want to discuss Lost Jaguar games, put it in your Jaguar guides instead of giving your 9 Lives a review and 10/10 score. So what if Mean Machines voted the Sega Mega Drive version of Dark Castle, the worst Mega Drive game ever, your supposed to be detailing the ST version in this A to Z guides. It all comes across as so amateur, just filling space as he is physically unable to convey to the reader what the game is about, why it's worth picking up or should be avoided, how it stands among other titles in the same genre on a system. So often you read a review and you know the game was chosen as it was easy for him to alter a few lines to suit the current A to Z guide. The Arcade A To Z was horrendous for this, came out after the home computer and console guides and if you go in expecting stand out Arcade titles, titles that never received a home conversion, look out. All Kieren has done is alter slightly his earlier reviews of Double Dragon, Arkanoid, Cabal, Donkey Kong, Afterburner II, Elevator Action and yes... Eswat :-)) the Cyber Police aspect now explained. Kung-Fu Master though, didn't even mention it's original Japanese release as Spartan X. His triva is usually totally incorrect in these guides as is. Eliminator (Atari ST) OutRun 2019 (Mega Drive) His origins stories on both is complete bollox, half a story, incorrect claims. Nobody would give a dusty one, but Kieren, your charging good people to read bad information. This isn't trolling, here's classic Kieren finding fault with fellow RetroGamer Writer,Adam Bucanan's work back in the day: The Laird wrote:I was excited by the Mega Drive collectors guide until I saw it was written by the same person who did the infamous NES collectors guide and so that ruined it for me. Have you read it yet? I'd hope lessons have been learned so wouldn't write it off. Yes and it has a number of errors including: - Saying the EA sports games were an infection on the system when they were one of the biggest reasons the MD sold so well. Precisely why, in the US especially, the MD/Genesis was known as the "sports console" and thus became the first console to really appeal to casual gamer male adults, way before the PS1. - Saying the Mega Drive launch was over shadowed by the release of Super Mario Bros. 3 on NES. There was no relevance in mentioning the release of a NES game at all. - Listing Thunderforce III as one of the rarest PAL releases when it never got a PAL release. Just because some importer sold imports with a German manual it doesn't make it official. Telegames used to sell imports with translated manuals, doesn't make them official. - Top Import Games lists Golden Axe 3, which is widely considered to be crap and Magical Turbo Hat even though its the same game as Decap Attack. - Rarest PAL games lists The Punisher, which isn't that rare considering I bought one not so long ago for £28. - No mention at all of the holy grail that is MD Tetris. - Bizarrely no mention of 6 button control pads either anywhere in the article, these were essential for games like Street Fighter II. My Digital Books | Laird's Lair | XEGS Podcast In your 15 page statement Kieren, you went after my reviews of your A To Z books, claiming the scores you awarded games were just your opinions, so is Adam not allowed his for Golden Axe 3? Is the shit you use to fill the word count in your reviews of any relevance half the time? No. You pissed on the back of Adam enough times on RetroGamer and RVG forums, yet he was never a threat to you, he never went crying about being hounded or a victim or people being trolls or retards. What is being done to your work now Kieren is exactly what you've been doing to others for years. You hounded that poor bastard and others who had written articles here and there for the magazine, out of insecurity and spite and once they dropped you, you ran around social media crying how awful the magazine was. Even when you were writing for them, you sobbed away about how unfair it was you'd never had your profile and charactures in the magazine, despite writing for them for years. Edited April 9, 2020 by Lost Dragon 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 >Removed< Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 (edited) Regarding Kieren saying: First off, you have bought some of my books before so you already know the concept so why would you suddenly be expecting something different from this one? That confuses me. It confuses me even more that you would continue to buy these books when you continually state your dislike for them. The concepts of using feedback to improve your writing is clearly an alien one then to Kieren. Chris Wilkins by comparison took onboard critiscm left by myself and maybe others, that the Ocean Software book contained a little too much information regular readers of RetroGamer magazine and Gamestm etc would of been familiar with, as the same names and stories appear in all 3 publications at times. Chris didnt run around like a little bitch with no date on prom night, wailing his eyes out about the injustice, Chris took the point onboard and as a result the US Gold book that followed, was a clear progression. You could tell from the start Chris had used feedback to see what worked for his readers and what areas fell short and what content they were looking for, from his next project. Chris and other writers and book producers mature with each new project. They don't think, blimey, if I change a few lines here, i can bang out 40+ volumes in a matter of months for the PDF A To Z Guides, use a few old interviews, maybe bung in a new one here and there and fill the rest of the book with old reviews i didn't use in the PDF books, hey presto a Compedium version. They conducted lengthy research, used multiple sources, used established, credible writers, WHO DID NOT ASK FOR PAYMENT or simply EXPECTED a free copy of the book :@ and they used professional proof readers That's why people like myself buy publications from Fusion Books and Bitmap Books and so on and so on and leave verified reviews. I had the chance to buy 2 Compedium books of yours from Amazon Kieren after my bank gave me an Amazon code for free as a thank you. Even with no cost to myself, I was unwilling to devote time to buying your compedium books and leaving a verified purchase review, because as Landstalker is now discovering, it's just too big a test of endurance to get through your reviews, in anything but small chunks. The horrors we discover in the sample pages of the A To Z guides are examples enough of your buffoonery when it comes to your writing ability. Edited April 9, 2020 by Lost Dragon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 (edited) There are no excuses. He has wantonly gone out to shaft people, taking no care. There are no excuses that can be made. They are 100% 'hack jobs'. Every criticism levelled is highly justified. These publications (don't want to use the B word) are thrown together word jumbles of incoherent incomprehensible shit, masquerading as a book (fuck!) written by a man who has done more leg work to put the kibosh on his own reputation and 'career' than absolutely anyone here there or anywhere. I put it to you, Landstalker that your task of reading this Finnegans Wake level gibberish is on par with the trials of Sisyphus. The thing that angers every single one of us here is the complete lack of care that goes into these things. No effort. No research. No nothing. Bad selections of games when classics would be your primary choices. He chooses to review demos and work in progress uncompleted tech demos as well which no-one seems to have picked up on. How is something that has not been completed, let alone released worthy of inclusion in an A-Z Compendium of Games. There's a Good Reads review somewhere which mentions this. I think he feels he gets more credit by doing this kind of thing, it only goes to show how little he knows. No One. Absolutely no one has reviewed any of his books going in with the intention to take them to bits. A lot of reviews on YouTube that I have seen have been very kind, overlooking a lot of the issues with them and even then the boy comes out to play and attack them with nasty comments. You don't have ANY right to do that, if, you just don't give a flying fuck, as you clearly do not, Kieren. He talks about 'creative freedom' which is a gift to anyone who is actually talented, gifted or creative but to a butcher it's just another cut of meat. The very reason why my books (which I have been working on for years) have not come out yet is I want them to be good. Had there been no quality bar I could throw out 100 books in the time he has, and, they would all be complete shit, just like his, maybe a bit better, and they would all have my name on them, but it would mean nothing. We all know putting together a half decent retro gaming book though hard work if done right is not brain surgery. Most of us who were there or took the time to learn and digest the copious amounts of information regarding the systems in question could do it. To see someone not give a flying fuck is the biggest insult because most of us know we could do a far better job than this swindler. I don't even think he plays them. He copies other reviews liberally, and he watches the videos he took from JS2 and writes about the games as he watches. Probably. What a spunkmagnet. Edited April 9, 2020 by Guest It not I Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welshworrier Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 Well he does like some books, possibly from people he still thinks he has a chance of working with. (Though I couldn't hypothecate) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 5 hours ago, Welshworrier said: Well he does like some books, possibly from people he still thinks he has a chance of working with. (Though I couldn't hypothecate) Apparently he has something to do with various Bitmap Books... so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 (edited) If one considers the Retro community to be say a house that's been renovated with new and credible information over the last 10 years or so and that renovation is fresh new furnishings, paint and plaster and expensive, thick carpets in every room, then Kieren is the individual who's walked into an open house viewing (free drinks and nibbles) but he's wearing clown shoes and he walked in dogshit on the way. Now Kieren KNOWS that A) He can never afford the house and B) He walked in that dogshit, but rather than go back home and clean up, Kieren choose to walk right on in, went straight for the freebies, looked in every room and was asked to leave due to damage done. Thus the community now find ourselves having to clean up after Kieren's grand tour and even with the vanish carpet cleaner and us scrubbing away, all the windows open, we are yet to get rid of the smell and there's still plenty of traces of dogshit in the carpet yet We've pointed out to Kieren he walked shit all over the carpet and it's done a lot of damage, several folk are physically retching and it's going to take a lot of time to get everything cleaned up and gwad, that smell.. But Kieren denies any shit was ever found on his shoes, in fact he has a mountain of evidence it was in fact the previous viewers of the property and that evidence is all over social media and it's easy to find. No says Kieren, i won't be apologising, i would like however to thank my cobbler for the shoes and if you message me in private i will claim the dog in fact was owned by whoever i hate the most when you message me. Kieren will also get in contact with people who hate dogs and get them to defend Kieren saying this is all the fault of dog owners, not Kieren who's shit itself doesn't stink or if it did, it's of roses as he was on Sky TV he will have you know. He'd would probably also say you are wrong, it's Cat shit,not dog shit and the Cat just happens to be a close personal friend of mine. Edited April 9, 2020 by Lost Dragon 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KidGameR186496 Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 Who the fuck was the idiot who included Kieren Hawken's A-Z toilet paper packs on a number of Wikipedia articles? Since that worthless and valueless shit are independent publications with nothing of value such as interviews or anything that's worth a damn, they DO NOT count as reviews for the games they have it. If people want to include reviews in the reception section, do some actual research beyond just searching on google and you'll come across with multiple reviews for certain games. Yes, it's headcache-enducing but at the very least, that's effort from your part. I don't give two flying fucks if your regard those piece of shit books as a source Kieren William Hawken, they do not count and there's nothing you can do about it. Hell, people on the video game section of Wikipedia ARE aware of your past and current antics, so you're just another joke of a "game journalist". 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STE'86 Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 errr.... i didnt intend to post again but i think i need to reiterate something from it... I never took ownership of being a friend of KH, indeed I have only met him once at revival. I actually said "friend, and sometimes colleague of Mr. WILKINS" ? Indeed the only thing that i will take ownership of is the fact that it was possibly my questioning of his Thalamus articles which precipitated his vitriol against Chris and led down the path to where we are now it seems. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 (edited) On 4/4/2020 at 1:57 AM, STE'86 said: As a friend, sometimes colleague and other times advertising and PR adviser to Mr. Wilkins I have with the latter hat advised him to "stay the fck away" from posting on this thread. You have just joined the ever expanding club of people I have to publicly, on this forum apologise to, Steven. Sorry! For some bloody reason when reading your bit I substituted Wilkins (the boy Christopher), with Hawken (the clown). I apologise profusely, Ste'86. I have been very poorly for more than two weeks now and I think my eagerness to get back on this forum and distract myself from it all has taken its toll. Sorry pal. You advise him wisely. He is a good bloke and although he deserves the opportunity to say his bit, I think he did a sterling job on his Facebook post which has been linked here. The outpouring of support when he posted is reflective of the collective opinion here too and although I don't and never have spoken for everybody I can confidently say we're all on the same Brig aiming our cannons at the one man in a small boat that is rowing the wrong way. Edited April 10, 2020 by Guest spelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayhem Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 9 hours ago, ∞ Vince ∞ said: Apparently he has something to do with various Bitmap Books... so... Just want to step in here mate, as someone who has either written pieces for, proofed, or owned all of Sam’s books to date, the only Bitmap book Kieran has been involved with is the upcoming Atari book. None of the others, not even the Speccy book he reviewed there. Wanted to only fact correct. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landstalker Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 (edited) COMPENDIUM: a collection of concise but detailed information about a particular subject. Sadly there is none of the above to be found in A Compendium of ZX Spectrum games by Kieren Hawken. "as well 26 bonus reviews." "even find it that brings" These two gems are from the Introduction. It doesn't bode well. "Their main forte..." If someone has a forte then that is their MAIN area of excellence. You don't have a MAIN FORTE, or a secondary forte. "catacombs underneath"...where else would they be? On the roof? "The graphics in Addams Family mostly very good..." Oh dear...and we're only on the second review. "shooting the colourful cowboys and various collecting items". Well, we know what he meant to say, so why didn't he say it? Kieren seems to be unaware that the words "also" and "too" mean exactly the same thing. The number of sentences that also use both words are innumerable too! "take out your opponents in most violent fashion!" He does love a good exclamation mark, even at the end of another fine example of his horrendously sloppy proof-reading. "The bricks are staked both vertically and horizontally," Ouch! "in very scantily clad attire." Bless, he does try. "all future titles to follow." What else can future titles do except follow? Is that not their nature, that they are following something that came before? "the tracks gets harder..." "But there is far more too than that..." "get rid of all the baddies completely like a smart bomb." A favourite. I think it should become a meme. "the Egyptian Sphinx and Greek Acropolis", just so the reader doesn't confuse them with the other equally famous Mongolian Sphinx or the Belgian Acropolis. (Padding!) "really do make this game that..." I'm sure it made sense in the vacuum between his ears. "you might fight your way through each level..." Now he's talking about Bubble Bobble here, so unless there's a hidden level where Bub and Bob can simply chill and have some snacks rather than do their bubble-blowing thing, I must admit to being more than a tad confused by this description. "might...." Gosh! "slower fuels is consumed..." "is pretty lacklustre conversion..." he could even be describing the publication in question. It is a pretty lacklustre conversion of the beautiful English Language into something quite horrendous. "he will lose his last connections with the human species." Too late Kieren, you've lost them long ago! "some of concepts really cool." Not in this "book" they're not. COMPENDIUM: a collection of concise but detailed information about a particular subject. If anything, people unfortunate enough to purchase this or any of his other similarly sloppy and horrendously cobbled-together travesties, should be able to refute the title and demand a refund as nowhere does he impart any detailed information. Trades Descriptions claims anyone? No-one should be required to translate in their heads what the author "meant" to say, rather than what is actually written on any given page. These books are supposed to be entertaining and informative. This description fails completely on the former and the only information to be gleaned from one of Kieren's publications is that he is an appalling writer, with only the slightest grasp on the English language and should, almost certainly seek another career. These publications only validate the tales of every one of his articles needing to be almost completely rewritten and corrected in both spelling and grammar by other, infinitely more talented writers. Edited April 10, 2020 by Landstalker additions 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 @Landstalker:I would like to add to your post, the following: Ace Invaders (ST A-Z volume 3), word BRILLIANT used 3 times in opening paragraph (Brilliant :arcade game clones, versions and music) Goldrunner (same publication) word LEGENDARY used twice in same review (Legendary:Atari ST games and Rob Hubbard) Kieren used the SAME opening text for his reviews of Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure in both the NES A-Z guide volume 2 and C64 A-Z guide Volume 3 and his Licence To Thrill article on Bill and Ted games for RetroGamer Magazine. Sticking with volume 2 of his NES guide: In his NES review of Bad Dudes Vs Dragon Ninja (Volume 2 of his guides) he attempts to educate people about Karnov making a cameo appearance, as if it was a one-off. Data East used Karnov in a lot of titles (Tumblepop, Trio The Punch etc) Why is he telling NES owners the NES was included in the long list of platforms the game was converted to, the fact they are looking at the review in his guide makes that obvious. Elite sees the word Legendary featured again, as does E.T (and E.T features a sideways rant about how Kieren could name at least a 100 titles worse than E.T and many of the said 100 would be for the NES and not the 2600, NES bashing in a NES guide Kieren?). The sheer audacity of Kieren to class himself as a top tier writer, when his vocabulary and knowledgeable are so limited and his work ethic is simply terrible. He takes an assembly line approach to everything he touches. Off the shelf blocks of text used again and again and again. Even Hienz have more varied products than Kieren. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landstalker Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 He certainly loves bullying women. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+CyranoJ Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 1 hour ago, Mayhem said: Just want to step in here mate, as someone who has either written pieces for, proofed, or owned all of Sam’s books to date, the only Bitmap book Kieran has been involved with is the upcoming Atari book. None of the others, not even the Speccy book he reviewed there. Wanted to only fact correct. That'd be the one Sam still won't tell us exactly what he did for it..... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deathray Specs Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 1 hour ago, Landstalker said: He certainly loves bullying women. I think you have an admirer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 3 hours ago, Mayhem said: Just want to step in here mate, as someone who has either written pieces for, proofed, or owned all of Sam’s books to date, the only Bitmap book Kieran has been involved with is the upcoming Atari book. None of the others, not even the Speccy book he reviewed there. Wanted to only fact correct. Fair play. Thanks for the clarification. I did have my eye on some of Sam's older books (pricey as they are) but I was unaware to the extend the rampant spud carrot was involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+CyranoJ Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 Just now, ∞ Vince ∞ said: I did have my eye on some of Sam's older books (pricey as they are) but I was unaware to the extend the rampant spud carrot was involved. And that is 100% Sam's fault. And it'll continue to be Sam's fault until he makes a statement on it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 4 minutes ago, CyranoJ said: And that is 100% Sam's fault. And it'll continue to be Sam's fault until he makes a statement on it. And (although I don't like to start a sentence with And) I can't disagree with you. At the very least he should have known a lot of what the boy has done at the point he engaged his services. You would think that due diligence when undertaking an endeavour of the magnitude of a print book, not least the lavish affairs he puts out, would extend to at the bare minimum, a good google search. Just goes to show that some people don't give a flying fuck about anything, anything at all as long as they benefit financially. That isn't a dig at Sam, I don't even know him. It's a cold hard fact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landstalker Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 (edited) • A Compendium of Atari 2600 Games Hawken, Kieren 1-789-82130-4; AG Books; July 10, 2019; $14.99; 168p; PB. Notes: The book notes it's unofficial and unauthorized. It should also note that it's uninformed and unnecessary. The back cover starts with "The Atari 2600 might not have been the first ever games console." There's no "might" about it; it wasn't the first. It also states "The first game arrived in 1977 with the last being released in 1992, an incredible 15 years later." Well, the first games arrived in 1977 - 9 of them - and exactly 0 games were released in 1992, since the system was discontinued on January 1st, 1992. The cover also notes this is the first volume. If the rest of the book is as disjointed and incorrect as the back cover, this should be the first and last volume. Much like books from Michael D. Salzman, Kieren Hawken is trying to capitalize on people's interest in vintage console and computer systems. Hawken is responsible for over 30 (!) quickly thrown-together books, all of which were released within a year's time. Most of his books are available as Kindle versions for $2.50 - $3, and they're not even worth that. Edited April 10, 2020 by Landstalker 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 (edited) I need to retract my earlier statement about Kieren's Atari 7800 A-Z Guide: Volume 1, being the worst of all the guides he's done so far. The MSX A-Z Guide: Volume 1, appears to be even worse. It looks like you need to purchase the ZX Spectrum Compedium book or the individual guides, before purchasing the MSX guide, as review after review won't give you much in the way of insight, other than to point out the game is a ZX Spectrum port or a lazy ZX Spectrum port. I did a little comparison test, Kieren's free to read via sample pages review and Retro Core's free to watch, Battle Of The Ports YT video. Game in question :Mappy. Kieren's review told me:Kieren didn't like the game,but if i liked it in the Arcades, i would probably like it on MSX. Retro Core review told me the MSX version featured plain coloured sprites,lacked the Coin-Op bonus stages and floors only had 4 levels, compared to 6 in the Coin-Op and 5 on most home conversions. I then looked at Kieren's review, compared to other YT videos of:MSX Operation Wolf. Kieren told me it was a lazy ZX Spectrum port, the YT community pointed out Toybox remade it for the MSX and brought it closer to the ZX Spectrum port. I went for the hat trick, Kieren review compared to the YT community reviews and comments section, this time, OUT RUN: Kieren told me Pony Canyon remade it but it was still flawed. YT told me the remake was for the MSX II hardware,NOT the original MSX (you done fucked up there Kieren) and whilst closer to the Sega Master System version, it failed to use the MSX 2 hardware features and (thanks to Retro Core again) i learnt it suffered from the same issues:road staying still, car darting sideways. This is your competition Kieren, your mass producing absolute rubbish in PDF and physical form and for a price, where as likes of Retro Core are constantly producing exceptionally well researched and presented videos, which we can read for free and people can add extra information on, via the comments section. You still can't grasp the fact your going up against the pro's out there, not the likes of myself or RG Forum or Retrocanteen posters, but people who really know their shit, you just constantly pump out shit. Edited April 10, 2020 by Lost Dragon 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Dragon Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 25 minutes ago, Landstalker said: • A Compendium of Atari 2600 Games Hawken, Kieren 1-789-82130-4; AG Books; July 10, 2019; $14.99; 168p; PB. Notes: The book notes it's unofficial and unauthorized. It should also note that it's uninformed and unnecessary. The back cover starts with "The Atari 2600 might not have been the first ever games console." There's no "might" about it; it wasn't the first. It also states "The first game arrived in 1977 with the last being released in 1992, an incredible 15 years later." Well, the first games arrived in 1977 - 9 of them - and exactly 0 games were released in 1992, since the system was discontinued on January 1st, 1992. The cover also notes this is the first volume. If the rest of the book is as disjointed and incorrect as the back cover, this should be the first and last volume. Much like books from Michael D. Salzman, Kieren Hawken is trying to capitalize on people's interest in vintage console and computer systems. Hawken is responsible for over 30 (!) quickly thrown-together books, all of which were released within a year's time. Most of his books are available as Kindle versions for $2.50 - $3, and they're not even worth that. VCS didn't also have the longest commercial console lifespan as Kieren claims, if stats for both the NES and Master System are correct. I'm not a historian, but on the charts i have seen online, VCS comes in third. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 1 hour ago, Landstalker said: • A Compendium of Atari 2600 Games Hawken, Kieren 1-789-82130-4; AG Books; July 10, 2019; $14.99; 168p; PB. Notes: The book notes it's unofficial and unauthorized. It should also note that it's uninformed and unnecessary. The back cover starts with "The Atari 2600 might not have been the first ever games console." There's no "might" about it; it wasn't the first. It also states "The first game arrived in 1977 with the last being released in 1992, an incredible 15 years later." Well, the first games arrived in 1977 - 9 of them - and exactly 0 games were released in 1992, since the system was discontinued on January 1st, 1992. The cover also notes this is the first volume. If the rest of the book is as disjointed and incorrect as the back cover, this should be the first and last volume. Much like books from Michael D. Salzman, Kieren Hawken is trying to capitalize on people's interest in vintage console and computer systems. Hawken is responsible for over 30 (!) quickly thrown-together books, all of which were released within a year's time. Most of his books are available as Kindle versions for $2.50 - $3, and they're not even worth that. I quoted that review already, but it is certainly worth a second read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retrobob Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 2 hours ago, Deathray Specs said: I think you have an admirer This would have actually been funny if he knew the difference between gland and glans. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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