Trap Door , CPC nostalgia and just random things

We didn't have TV when I was growing up so when my friends reminisce about the programmes they used to watch, I can't really join in. For example, I once caused outrage by daring to suggest I thought the Muppets were stupid. I still think that, but I'm much more careful about saying so now.

The only two programmes that really stick in my mind from seeing them on other people's TVs are 'The Mysterious Cities of Gold', mainly because of the theme tune, and The Trap Door. I always really liked The Trap Door, it was a really fun program. Another reason I remember it is because there was a game released on the 8-bit computers, and it was really good. I played it a lot on my Amstrad CPC6128. It was also voiced by Willie Rushton, who had a very distinctive voice and I heard him a lot on Radio 4.

So anyway, they have released the whole lot of Trap Door on DVD, and it's cheap, so I got it. And it is surprisingly good to watch. The plasticine animation is not quite as polished as something like Wallace and Gromit, but it's really well done, and there are lots of nice details.

On a side note, here is a YouTube video of The Way of the Exploding Fist, the first ever game I played on the Amstrad. I really liked that computer, I was absolutely gutted last year when I hooked it all up to find it didn't work any more. I threw the monitor away but I still have the machine itself. Hurrah for emulators!

Even scarier - here is a Nintendo DS running a CPC emulator, and I remember the game running on it well! Hmm. I've already explored the homebrew scene on a Sony PSP I brought back from the dead, perhaps I should find a spare DS and take a look at that. I did once build a DS from scratch out of spare parts, which I gave to Steve and Kara, so faulty DSs might be the way to go. You can even run Linux on it.

Oh and I love this Flickr photo, which is safe for work.

And the iPhone has been released, cue a buying frenzy at all Apple stores. I'm intrigued to see what the multi-touch interface is like, but other than that...meh, not too impressed, though the screen does look beautiful. As Apple tends to be rather a trendsetter, I reckon in a couple of years time, keypads will be a rarity on phones. Which will be a shame, I'd rather have a Nokia E61 or E90 than the iPhone.

Thinking about the Cities of Gold theme tune, I remembered the very cheesy intro to the Soul Blade game on the PlayStation. It was the predecessor to the Soul Calibur series, which we played an awful lot on the Dreamcast (a great machine which deserved better) and the PS2/GameCube.

This was only supposed to be a short post, but it's rambled on rather. So I'll publish it now before it gets any longer.