Secret diaries, swapping beers and switch

Secret diaries, swapping beers and switch

oh arse
its been ages since I've updated , I didnt mean to let it go this long , but I was sick, and I've had a lot on in work ..and...and er...my dog ate my homework ,and I couldnt find my keys and I had to celebrate the feast day of maximum occupancy and..and..etc
Anyway to make up for it this'll be a fun filled bumper edition of retro.......well ok not so much fun really and actually all that er bumper ...er..anyway lets go

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weird old game of the week:
the secret diary of Adrian mole (c64)

(no pic as ..well it looks terrible)
Oddly enjoyable in a very dated "young adult" reading kind of way...basically someone took the book (which if you didnt read it back in the eighties was a funny enough pisstake on the trials and trivialities of being a teenager in Tatcherite britain, theres been a fair few sequels but the law of diminshing returns is in effect here as they're not great)and turned it into a sort of choose your own adventure novel , via the computer.I read it(the novel) years ago , and by and large the text is lifted straight from the book itself , and the extra choices added on are in the same style so its fairly seemless.The developers Level 9 were responsible for a lot of text adventure games in the eighties so this kind of stuff was no problem to them.The multiple choice format makes it a lot easier than ..say "hitchhikers guide"
(the only similar book/game hybrid I can think of)which uses a "walk left" use spanner" command line .Aparantly someone was planning
something similar for the "Harry potter" books on the gameboy a year or two ago,but I havent heard anything since.
if you want a look its about halfway down this page (although I should as that from a copyright view it might be a bit naughty (ala mp3s), you're warned ok :))
run it with this
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PDA stuff:
the pocket pc is about the only thing that keeps me sane on the bus to and from work, I'd been laying off the games for a bit , ended up trying this though,and am now completely hooked.
Now like most Irish people I grew up playing the card game "switch" ,(jack skips 7 reverse and all that ,it's a very bastardised version of whist afaik) which I thought was an Irish game.I Was wrong.
As it turns out it was a derivate of a US one called "crazy 8s".Also at some pointed someone marketed a commercial verison of it called UNO.
"Hotdeathuno" is an absurdly complicated version of switch , with a rake of extra "function" cards added (i.e. instead of picking up 2 or 4 cards you can end up picking up 20-30 in some combinations of cards).Its evil, nasty , and great fun.
Its also very polished for a freeware game and well worth the download..

Something else I discovered recently is todayplus again for the PPC and again is free ,basically it adds a 4 day weather forecast to your desktop as well as a choice of news headlines .Whenever you sync the pda whith an online PC it updates.It is configurable for Ireland (well you have to edit some files)and if anyone gets it and wants a bit more info on how give me a shout
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"same again ...?"
Finally came to the conclusion last night that I need to change beers.Now this might seem trivial to a few of you , but to the average man
changing beers is not something to be taken lightly.You get used to certain brand, your body adjusts to the strength..yeah you might play
away from home once in a while, or maybe have to make do with another at a friends house or a badly stocked bar, but all the while you're thinking about "your" beer ...well I've been drinking Miller myself since they brought it into Ireland , in pubs and in cans as:
a/ I like it
b/ its cheap (especially the "pils" cans.)
But sadly I think the relationship is at an end as :
a/ I get very very hungover even after just two
b/ I'm a bit "unpleasant" to be arond the following day if you happen to be downwind...
So now I'm left with the choice for a new beer...I'm back on the market and a out of practice,so to speak
I'd briefly considered going back to my first love Guinness, but the people in work here have gotten a petetion together asking me not to ,
as the following day after a a "black stuff" night, pest control were called as they though something foul had died under my desk, alas no it
was me and my digestive systems reaction to the black nectar.. So I guess I'll look at fancy foreign ones, maybe some hipper , younger types , there may possibly be a illconcieved drunken one nighter with my old love....it'll be interesting to see
...any suggestions gratefully recieved by the way as I could use some beery advice..;)
right I'm off down to oddbins, wish me luck folks ;)