Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 30,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 11 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Working Okay, just no mouse!

I was doing so well with the blogging! I even had a long list of Amiga games lined up ready to play, however, after just over 20 years of constant use, my Amiga 500 has developed its first fault. Not bad I’d say for such a well used and old machine. Still, Amiga gaming in the last 2 months has been pretty non-existent and I’ve been on a little research mission to identify the problem, and begin preparations to try to repair it.

Burnt Out R401 on my motherboard

Not wanting to be defeated I decided to open up my Amiga, I managed a peek at the motherboard, and, with a large amount guess-work and common sense, thought I saw what looked like a burnt out thingy-ma-jig near to Joystick Port 1. Turning to the interweb I sought help from the knowledgeable folks at EAB and Lemon Amiga, who asked me for more details and came up with a pretty conclusive point that the ‘resistor’ in question was burnt out, or at least no longer working, and would need to be replaced.

Some of the advice given:

• Most common problem is damaged U15 chip but first check mouse port +5v pin. (Mouse needs +5v, joystick don’t)
• Problem has to be missing +5v - Check resistor R401 first.
• Swapping CIA chips

U15 Chip and Resistor (Not my board, illustration purposes only)

For this I’ll require:

Replacement R401 resistor (4.7 Ohms)

Soldering Iron

Solder

Steady hands

Lots of luck

Joystick gaming, repairs to follow!

This post is coming to you before the repair, as you can see from the pic, my Amiga still actually works and I can play games using Joystick Port 1, like James Pond shown. However, I love playing point n’ click adventures amongst other games and software, the mouse is pretty essential to me and I need to get it working, especially as some of my favourite games require a mouse (Hunter, Monkey Island, Sim City, The Settlers) Depending on how succesful the repair is, you may or may not see a follow-up post to this one.

A comically oversized character from the 80's, and Mario!

Reality Glitch Online

2nd Birthday!

Technically it was yesterday, October 31st, but in best blogging tradition I didn’t have time to mark this awesome occasion. *Note in diary – make more time*.

I hope everyone had an awesome Halloween, if you celebrate it of course, and if you don’t then I still hope you had an awesome time! Reality Glitch Online has made it to two years old, it celebrated its birthday by reaching just over 4000 hits this month (I have no idea if thats good) but considering its first month 2 years ago it barely reached 500 I’m going to say it’s a plus.

It’s been a good year for RGO, I’ve managed to blog almost every month, as well as go to a few actual events this past year as well, namely the Manga UK 20th Anniversary Party, London Film and Comic Con and the Eurogamer Expo 2011. Last year I listed a few tips on blogging, gathered from around the interweb and I am pleased to say I have put most of them into practice over the coming year. One of the more adventurous ones was to get out there and actually meet some people. Making connections and networking was one I’ve been trying to expand on since last year, mainly through events such as above, or on Twitter and Facebook, and since then I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some awesome people!

I’ve definitely got more than a few thanks to make to everyone who has supported me, the guys online who’ve helped make this blog better every year, especially the ones who read it I urge you to check out some of the sites listed in my blogroll on the side, and in particular the awesome sites listed below and many more I follow on twitter! Special thanks to my wife for proofreading my often terrible grammar (apparently I’m in love with commas) and spelling, she’s a star and Buzz Killington for his awesome contributions to the site!

Retro Collect

Red Parsley

Lemon Amiga

Retro Fusion

Old Game Reviewer

Next years wish list, Replay Expo in Blackpool, and definitely more Eurogamer. Christmas blog post has already been planned, when I’ve asked for suggestions for games to review this one has come up several times so it’ll finally be here this December! I’ll also be reporting from the SFX Weekender in February 2012.

A few of my favourite posts from the last year are listed below, mainly because the research side of it was so much fun, from watching old episodes of Bad Influence! to looking through all the Amiga magazines to find some of my favourite adverts!

Bad Influence

Hero Quest (Amiga)

Retro Adverts from Amiga Action

Monkey Island Halloween by Kenjiartworks on deviantArt

Worms Crazy Golf

 Developer: Team 17

Publisher: Team 17

Players: 1-4

Available On: PC, PS3, iPad, iPhone

Ah, Worms. It  brings back so many great memories of playing the original on my Amiga; the big box with the funky art work, the 3 disks, the black code book for the copy protection, making a load of teams with funny names and characters – ‘Aliens’ was my favourite, with Hicks, Hudson, Ripley, Kane etc in all their Wormy awesomeness. (Get on with it – Ed)

Apologies, it’s why I like reviewing retro games…

This game is in fact the latest release from Team 17, Worms Crazy Golf, which has taken the great Worms concept and added a sporting theme (who would have thought?). Worms Crazy Golf is a fun deviation from the usual Worms format. Instead of the usual war like destruction between a number of teams you take control of a single Worm and play your way through 18 holes of golf. The game retains the familiar Worms design and landscapes but introduces a different style of game play, whilst doing its utmost to keep in the general mayhem and craziness associated with previous Worms games. There are four courses to play; Britannia, Pirate Cavern, Graveyard and Carnival, each with their own unique set of level design, characters and pitfalls.

The game begins with setting up your Worm golfer, including name, voice and other customisations, with more to be unlocked as you progress through the game, such as a range of customisable clubs and hats. Starting a single player game, and choosing career, you are able to choose from Britannia or Carnival, all with a massive 18 holes to play on each course. The courses start off easy to allow the player to get used to the controls, the game then introduce more and more unique abilities and power ups needed in order to solve levels further down the line. Abilities such as; swerving the ball in midair, using a parachute to float your ball down and into position and an array of switches, cannons and shortcuts scattered across the landscape. The initial controls are simple; a power bar dictates the strength of your swing and a trail line to show where the shot is being aimed, some levels feature ‘wind’ so shots (like the bazooka) can be curved. The additional controls are introduced gently and make the course more challenging and more interesting than your average pitch and putt.

The game is simple and fun however, even on easy you must make par or better to unlock the next hole otherwise you cannot progress. A few times I had wished for a ‘restart hole’ feature to crop up, as when you realise you are not going to make par you still have to finish the hole knowing it won’t unlock the next one, which can be a little frustrating. Having played more than a few hours of this it was the only drawback I could find – the graphics are superb and I believe Team 17 excels when it comes to making great looking games. The landscapes are beautifully designed and extremely colourful. The Worms characters are distinct amongst the landscape, as are all the other characters to be found, including a few old favourites, with exploding sheep, old ladies, and odd disgruntled gardeners. These characters can be a help or a hindrance when it comes to playing a shot, but it also adds to the randomness and great humour of the game.

The sound effects are much the same as in previous Worms games, the humour is on top form and adding personality in the voices is still a great feature (I loved Scottish from the original). Most of the sound effects come hand in hand with the environment, whether it is firing your ball from a cannon or scoring a hole in one. The music is a nice background element but nothing outstanding. It seems like Team 17 sat around a table and thought what would the Worms be doing on a Sunday afternoon, taking some time out from the mayhem to relax?

It seems the answer is here. I loved playing this game, fun and simple with plenty of bonuses and customisation to keep the playability going long after you’ve finished the courses, with plenty of scope for an expansion or two. In single player mode there are trophies to collect, and a range of challenges including the familiar Time Attack and Chip In games, the game also includes multiplayer, something I’ll be exploring once I’ve finished the single player career (bring on the pirating). A brilliant addition to the Worms franchise, a sporting triumph and challenging in places but with all the humour and randomness that makes the Worms games so popular.

Below is a few of the features available in the game, as listed on the awesome Team 17 website, including the games original blurb, which sums this game up beautifully. Please visit the site for more information on Worms games available as well as the awesome Alien Breed.

“Worms Crazy Golf is a hilarious mixture of the explosive action of Worms and the puzzle-based challenges of crazy golf! All of the trademark Worms humour, comic violence, and cartoon visuals are present, combined with addictive yet accessible golf gameplay. With extensive and replayable single-player options, and hot-seat multi-player for up to 4 players, this is not just a load of balls!“

Game Features:

EXTENSIVE SINGLE-PLAYER CONTENT:  Single-player career mode – x3 18-hole courses – Britannia, Pirate Cavern and Graveyard, with Steam Achievements. Single-player challenge mode – x15 challenges with leaderboards.

LOCAL MULTI-PLAYER ACTION: Hot-seat multi-player for up to 4 players.

HIGHLY REPLAYABLE PUZZLE-BASED GAMEPLAY: Crazy golf! Navigate the hilarious, and increasingly challenging, holes in unique ways with interactive objects, utilities and ball spin.

WORMS HUMOUR AND CHARACTERS:  Worms humour! Exploding sheep, teleports, ball-whacking Old Women, ball-stealing moles, mines, magnets and even new bats!

CRAZY CUSTOMISATION: Customise the name, hat, club, speech and balls of your worm, and earn in-game cash to unlock even more customisation options.

Worms Tribute by uberflash

For some more Worms reviews, and some video of the actual gameplay, take a look at the video below from Ginx TV, which includes Worms Crazy Golf gameplay footage and interviews with the guys at Team 17.

Picture above drawn by uberflash on deviantART, link here!

Team 17 website.

Amiga Power 14 June 1992

 Retro Adverts

Amiga Power

Replay – Retro Awesomness

My visit to the Eurogamer Expo gave me an opportunity to play some of the most anticipated games releases before they even hit the shops, however, the area I was most excited about seeing was from the guys at Replay. It was a fantastic opportunity to experience and play on consoles, handhelds and arcade machines from back in the day, some of which I hadn’t even played before (I kinda blinked and missed the Dreamcast when it came out).

As well as offering a huge range of consoles and games to try, highlights of which are below, the area was set up into different gaming zones. Replay Ages allowed people to play on different games and consoles, with retro machines from (amongst many others) Commodore, Atari, Nintendo, Sega and Sony. The Replay Arcade area offered a range of cabinet retro arcade machines to play on, from Bespoke Arcades. Replay Mini had a selection of handhelds. And amongst all this several areas were dedicated to tournament and multiplayer gaming. 

Below is a few of the highlights and pictures of my visit to the Replay area, a fantastic look back in time and an awesome look at what will be on offer at the Replay Expo in Blackpool. Kudos to the Replay guys for making this a memorable and nostalgic visit to the Eurogamer Expo.

It’s lucky Eurogamer was spread over 4 days, as I spent quite a few hours moving from game to game in the Replay Ages section. My favourites included the Amiga 1200 playing IK+ and the Amiga 600 playing Chaos Engine and Sensible World of Soccer. It was also great to play on the Sega Master System as I’ve not used one in years and brought back some great memories of playing Alex Kidd and Sonic the Hedgehog, the game available to play this time was Bubble Bobble.

Managed to get some time playing on a few old favourites on the Sega Mega Drive and SNES in the form of Sonic the Hedgehog and Mortal Kombat, as well as Street Fighter II and Mario All Stars. Couldn’t resist having a go on Goldeneye and Mario Kart 64 in the multiplayer area on the Nintendo 64, as well as on Micro Machines which was set up on the Mega Drive. The Replay Mini Zone included examples of a range of handheld consoles, including the original Gameboy, Gameboy Colour, Gameboy Advance and the Lynx.

Hopefully you’ll be able to see something in the pictures, I won’t blame the camera. Please check out the Replay Expo and Replay Events websites, and hopefully, some of you will be going to the Expo itself, here’s a quick blurb to let you know what it’s all about!

“Replay Expo is the unique video gaming event that prides itself in celebrating both the classics as well as the very latest titles. Following the success of last year’s debut show, Replay Expo will return to the Norbreck Castle Exhibition Centre in Blackpool on the 5/6 November 2011; the final weekend of the famous Illuminations”

Websites:

Replay Expo

Replay Events

Bespoke Arcades

Facebook:

Replay Expo on Facebook

Twitter:

@ReplayExpo 

@ReplayEvents 

Guild Wars 2

Developer: ArenaNet

Publisher: NCsoft

Had an opportunity to play Guild Wars 2 this morning at the Eurogamer Expo,  being held at Earls Court. It was on the top of my list to play so knowing these things can get quite busy I made a beeline straight for the game! Available was a fully playable demo that allowed you to create a character, complete quests and objectives, join a team and take out as many enemies as you could handle, the demo itself had a 40 minute playing limit attached, which is understandable giving the amount of interest in the game and how busy it was later in the day.

First off, the 40 minutes flew by, the game is as addictive as its predecessor and extremely fun to play, the graphics are gorgeous and the environments instantly drew me into the action. Feeling bold, as ever, I chose to make a character from the new Sylvari race, you can learn more about this new race on the Guild Wars 2 website, see link below. The character creation is much more immersive and detailed than before, with the addition of being able to choose a character from a different race. You can choose from Human, Charr, Norn, Asura and Sylvari.

The professions also have a few new additions in the form of Thief, Engineer and Guardian. The only profession I couldn’t see was Mesmer, my favourite from the first Guild Wars, so instead I went for my second favourite, Ranger. The game play itself was smooth and the controls a lot more refined, considering this game wasn’t ‘ready’ yet the demo itself was amazing, if this was a glimpse of what was to come than I’d say Guild Wars 2 will be immense. Movement is through the mouse and keyboard, combat isn’t as ‘locked in’ as it was in the first game, by this I mean there is better scope for dodging, and er, running away. A feature no longer in this game is the ability to move your character by just clicking on the area around you, this took a little getting used to. However, in recollection of the first game,  it used to be a pain going to click on an enemy to attack and running off into the distance by mistake.

During the 40 minutes our team of characters spoke to several non-playing characters in order to take on missions, which proceeded to be defending various camps, towns and shorelines from enemy invasion. The combat system is excellent and easy to use, with keyboard and mouse use in order to make various attacks, enhancements and healing. There was also the opportunity to use weapons such as catapults and cannons.

The ArenaNet and NCsoft guys were really helpful in answering questions about the game and extremely knowledgable about both Guild Wars 2 and Guild Wars. I’m sure if I were a better interviewer I could have asked some more fascinating questions, but unfortunately I’m not! Here’s a brief outline of what I learned (not much – Ed)

No release date as yet (Boo! Hiss!)

Adjusted control method (which was easy to learn)

Expanded character creation, different races, new professions

No monthly fee (music to my ears)

Characters can now jump (and also fall off cliff edges *sigh*)

Characters can now go into water and swim to other areas

The environments now feature weather!

I took some pics of game play, but they really don’t do the game justice. Time for a better camera.

For more information on the new race the Sylvari, please go here, the site also has plenty of other information on the games new races, professions and other features!

Other websites of interest:

NCsoft

Guild Wars 2

ArenaNet

Follow Eurogamer on twitter @Eurogamer_Expo #egxp for all the latest goings on!

For now, here’s a trailer to keep you going until it’s released! Great game, great guys at the event, really sold it to me. Looking forward to this one and highly recommend it.

Bad Influence

 Year: 1992 – 1996

Genre: Video Game Show shown on CITV

Presenters: Violet Berlin, Andy Crane, Nam Rood, Z Wright, Studio Audience

I loved watching Bad Influence! Back in the day it was an awesome video games show which covered all the latest (back then) games consoles, games and technology, from the SNES to the N64 and even covered my favourite the Amiga, as well as the occasional PC release.

The show was presented by Violet Berlin, a video games guru, and presenter Andy Crane in a studio which was set up with consoles and various other gadgets which the studio audience could be seen playing on. The show featured games reviews (often done by members of the studio audience) in which they gave a ‘boys and girls score’ out of 5.

The show also covered the latest hardware news with reports from Z Wright in the US, who was replaced by ‘Virtual Violet’ in the final series. The show often covered in-depth looks at gaming issues and new computer technology. I always remember the launch of the Nintendo 64 (then called the Ultra 64) which is shown in the last series, as well as the virtual reality machines and robots in the US, and a special on Industrial Light and Magic. Being an Amiga fan most of my favourite episodes featured anything Amiga related, Bad Influence! Series 2 Episode 4 features the Amiga, and games such as Rise of the Robots (Meh!) Desert Strike, Robocod and the Amiga CD 32.

Another presenter was Nam Rood, an expert in games cheats who had his own special section of the show. He would present a cheat for a game (not always related to the show) in random and sometimes comical ways, usually whilst insulting the audience. I’m still not sure what a ‘furtler’ is to this day. Either way Nam Rood’s appearance was a nice break from the masses of information presented in the main show.

It was definitely one of my favourite shows, and I think Violet Berlin needs to be back on the TV at some point, she was pretty awesome. The show usually ended with a competition, and a ‘datablast’ of information that you were encouraged to record and play back to be able to read it. The datablast were pages of text displayed at speed during the end credits with all of the reviews, news, features and cheats of that weeks show.

For more information, and also the best source of information on Bad Influence! please check out this awesome Bad Influence website, where you can also watch the show! The shows themselves are taken from VHS recordings so the sound and picture on some of them isn’t so good, but it’s still great to see this show again and the effort that has gone into putting these online for us all to enjoy. The website includes information on the show, the presenters, the shows themselves spanning 4 series, and interviews with Andy Crane and Violet Berlin, the site also contains links to other related sites!

There’s also a Bad Influence YouTube channel here!

Below is Series 1, Episode 1 to get you started, which also includes the opening introduction

Puzzling, one disk wonders on the Amiga

“You need the blue key… Hmmm, you don’t say. Is that the same blue key I just used in that blue door which didn’t allow me to pick up the other blue key for this door…”

One disk wonders is a selection of my favourite puzzle and maze games that I used to love playing on my Amiga, specifically on rainy afternoons when there was either nothing good on the TV or, for some magical reason, I needed a more thought-provoking and challenging game to play.

These games were always first to come out of the box, and have seen many hours of game play, even though I still haven’t completed at least 3 of them. All one disk games they were quick to load and difficult to play, the game play and graphics for each varied in style and quality but they all required quick wits, concentration and a minor amount of mental agility. Some of them you’ll need to play without music, after a while anyway, and some of them you’ll be wanting to launch through the window out into the road, as one silly mistake can cost you the game. Still, I always came back to them again and again, some might say it was stubbornness; I like to think it was just great game play.

In no particular order, some puzzle and maze favourites for the Amiga 500, the games I couldn’t give up on, and still hope one day, to complete.

Chips Challenge

Release year: 1990 Publisher: US Gold Music: David Whittaker Design: Chuck Sommerville

In Chips Challenge you take on the role of Chip, our nerdy hero who is trying to impress Melinda and get into the Bit Busters club and um, ‘integrate technologies’ with her (words on the advert, not mine). The game is a vast and spread over 144 levels of varying difficulty, enemies, traps and pitfalls try to prevent you from reaching your goal at every turn. Using your wits and cunning you must navigate Chip safely to each level exit, solving puzzles along the way.  Along the way you’ll use objects such as handy keys (blue, yellow, green and red) as well as shields to protect you from fire and water, boots to help you navigate ice, and a magnet to help you move about on what I’ve always thought was a demented escalator.

Chips Challenge is a great top down puzzle and maze game. Most memories of this game start with the musical score by David Whittaker (Alfred Chicken, Bubble Bobble, Kid Gloves) which, although lively and quite funky at first, does nothing to help your concentration when playing, especially on a tough level. The music however does add great pace to the game and almost causes that extra level of panic as you race against the clock to solve each level. Some of the levels in this are painful to play, the maze level called ‘Brushfire’, which is quite early on in the game, always gave me a headache.

The replay value on this game is second to none and the levels are very well designed and thought out with some really challenging levels. The game eases you into it gently and by the time you get the hang of it you feel that drive to keep playing, completing level after level until you realise its 2am. The level code feature (as opposed to saving) lets you put this down and return to it later, one of the many reasons why this game works so well, its fun to play, a challenge to complete and a classic puzzler.

Puffy’s Saga

Release year: 1989 Publisher: Ubi soft Graphics and Sound effects: Fabrice Visserot

I love the title screen, I love the characters and I love the enemy sprites in this game, the dragon is also pretty awesome. My most fond memories of Puffy’s Saga are from its aesthetically pleasing look, more than likely thanks to a certain Fabrice Visserot (Flashback). The game itself is very hit and miss, the ‘Gauntlet‘ style game play is fun and the first few levels tend to be very simple and easy to complete (as with Chips Challenge) however, what you get after this first few levels is a maze of confusion and frustrating game play, leading to small amounts of crying and chucking of the game across the room.

The game follows the usual good versus evil storyline, an evil wizard has turned two star crossed lovers into yellow balls and sent them to the depths of a dungeon maze, in order to break the spell our heroes must find their way out by completing each level, and restore themselves to their human form. Sounds simple enough, but it’s not really simple at all, by that I mean I’ve not beaten it, but I want to, this reason and only this reason brings me back to Puffy’s Saga each time. I do love the characters and design of the enemies, a little fine tweaking and not so much madness this could have been a half decent game.

A good puzzle game should be challenging, but not impossible, Puffy’s Saga is the Yolanda (shudder) of the puzzle gaming world, in that you get the feeling it was developed to be impossible and/or boring at points. However, I can’t help myself with this game and I must finish it!

I’d consider Chips Challenge a reasonably succesful game, in terms of popularity and critical acclaim, as well as being one of the more memorable and classic games of this genre. Puffy’s Saga I think belongs at the other end of this spectrum, however, both remain as appealing and playable to me today as they were in the early 90′s. Short of doing a top 5, there were 3 other games that for me sat between these two games in term of popularity, great gameplay and quality. I still have fond memories of the following 3 games, although I didn’t play them half as much as the two above, in fact, although I own them all for my Amiga I believe I originally played 1 of them on an old Acorn computer in Secondary School.

Pac-Mania (1989) The one game I may have played in break times at school (alongside ‘Moonquake’ a Bomberman clone), was a great looking update to the original Pac-Man, with a nifty 3D isometric look. A decent arcade conversion this game is brilliantly presented and fun to play, with some great level design and colourful graphics. The added bonus for me with Pac-Mania was that it actually held my interest, I’m pretty terrible at the original but I felt I could get into this one more and wanted to return to it to try again each time.

Magic Serpent (1991) Was a fast and frustratingly difficult maze game set within a relatively simple scenario. The general idea was you navigated the maze (starting off as a small serpent) and collected fruit, which in turn made your serpent grow in length, the longer you got the more difficult it was to complete the level without running into yourself and dying. Certain other bonuses throughout the maze allowed for more points, time or to reduce the length of your tail. The idea was to collect everything avoiding any collisions with yourself. Taking a wrong turn would, most of the time, result in game over! Magic Serpent is a pretty fun and entertaining addition to the genre, with some pretty memorable intro music and a wonderful selection of sound effects.

Supaplex (1991) I’m still not even sure how to pronounce it, was a great game as well as a variant on the brilliant Boulderdash. I was fascinated by the level design, the bad guys and the graphics, which, compared to other games aren’t great. however these are all superseded by the superior playability and gameplay, which in itself was on Chips Challenge scale of size and difficulty. Another one I have yet to complete but I always enjoy playing and exploring, it is rewarding to plough your way through the levels as well as having the handy bonus of being able to save your progress.

If any of the names Magic Serpent, Supaplex, and Pac-Mania ring any bells, specifically the first 2, I’d love to hear your opinion on these games. I loved them, but I don’t remember anyone else ever owning them let alone playing them back in the day.

Check out links and videos below if you want to find out some more about these games!

Supaplex game information and review in Amiga Action 26 (Nov 1991)

Magic Serpent game information, seems to be an absence of reviews on this one so here is a link to its page on Hall of Light 

Pac-Mania game information and review in Amiga Computing Vol 1 No 9 (Feb 1989) 

Puffy’s Saga game information and review in Amiga Format 8 (March 1990)

Chips Challenge game information and review in Amiga Action 17 (Feb 1991)

Check out the Chips Challenge intro and first level below, the first level of Supaplex, some gameplay fromMagic Serpent and Amiga Longplay for Pac-Mania.

Chips Challenge

Supaplex

Magic Serpent

Pac-Mania

Manga UK 20th Anniversary Party

June 16th 2011

“Manga has cultivated the international theatrical market for Japanese animated feature films. Since 1994, Manga has distributed critically acclaimed and award winning anime features including The Wings of Honneamise, Patlabor 1 and 2, and the smash anime sci-fi feature Ghost in the Shell, bringing top-quality anime to the big screen”

I remember watching Akira in the early nineties and was extremely confused by what I saw (my only experience of anime before this was Robotech) but I was also blown away by the story and the animation – especially those awesome motorbikes. So much so when I finally managed to get my hands on a copy of the VHS I actually wore it out through playing it too much. I love the character of Kaneda, mainly because he was voiced by Cam Clarke in the English version. I’ve been a fan of him ever since Robotech (1985) where he voiced Lance Belmont  and Max Sterling, as well as Leonardo in the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles cartoon (1987-1996).

Some of the first Manga entertainment videos I owned were Ninja Scroll, Ghost in the Shell and Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, these 3 remain my favourites to this day and they have been upgraded in my collection to DVD from VHS, and will more than likely be upgraded to Blu-ray at some point as well.

The party was a well organised and awesome evening, and a great chance to meet some interesting people from lots of different industries! Our hosts served up some great sushi along with Asahi, a tasty but dry Japanese beer, and some funky cocktails with anime inspired names, ‘Sex on the Bleach’ was one of them as I recall. I say recall, the Asahi was flowing quite a bit so feel free to update this information! The room was filled with cosplayers, a live band and projectors playing various animes and trailers on the walls. There was also a gaming area with some PS3′s set up.

Have a browse at some pictures below of the night and please forgive my terrible photography skills.

A great evening all round, congratulations to Manga UK on their 20th Anniversary! Keep up the good work!

Starting quote from ‘About Us’ section on the awesome Manga Website here!

Please also visit Manga UK for the latest and up to date news! 

Cam Clarke on IMDB

Manga are also on twitter @MangaUK and on Facebook, further links available on their website.

Please also follow the brilliant @SFXmagazine and @MangaMasters on twitter!