Many people have e-mailed me to advise that a current UK advert for Dairylea cheese-type-stuff features a POP Station. By using the dark powers of the Internet I’ve extracted this screen cap showing it:
Judging by the position of the controls and screen, it isn’t actually a POP Station but a less authentic-looking PSP rip-off. The screen also appears to be grey, implying that it’s a normal LCD display. The closest thing to that shape I’ve seen was a portable Sudoku player – but your guess is as good as mine.
Whatever it is, I’ll bet it doesn’t justify wearing huge headphones like that. “Wow, these monophonic bleeps sound so clear!”
In other news – I’ve removed the Ashen Action Figure advert from YouTube as the auction has now ended. Many, many thanks to all bidders – especially the ones who won (and therefore sent me money).
In the unlikely event that you’d still like to see the advert, I’ve stuck it on Revver as you can see below.
I recently bought a board game based on the popular-yet-ancient UK gameshow Catchphrase from a charity shop. It cost £1.49 and looks like this:
I’m not entirely sure what I expected to see when I opened the box, but I am sure it wasn’t this:
Now call me Captain Overly-Sensitive, but one thing I don’t want to see in a family board game is a burning cross. I’ve blurred out the answer so you can have a jolly time guessing which catchphrase it’s supposed to represent. That art in full:
What is it? Mississippi Burning? Just remember Roy Walker’s original advice and say what you see…
The answer is “Crossfire”.
Was there no quality control at Paul Lamond Games? Did nobody think that an image of a burning crucifix is not the best thing to include in a family board game? What’s next, Mr. Chips wearing a white hood?
Whilst posting this I noticed the other catchphrase in the photo, “Corn on the Cob”. The clue features the words “corn” and “cob” written out. Setting the difficulty level a bit low there, I feel.
In the unlikely event you’re curious about the game itself: It’s terrible, tedious and fiddly due to poor design. One person has to leave the room and spend several minutes setting things up before each round, and a round often lasts about 2 minutes. Crap.
I can’t believe nobody has done this before, but I can’t find any other versions on the net so here goes:
Olivia Newton John and John Travolta dubbed with the far superior cover version of ‘You’re the One That I Want’ performed by Arthur Mullard and Hylda Baker.
EDIT: Have re-encoded the video. It’s now lower quality, but the lipsync is much better and there are play controls. Click on the little ‘play’ triangle to start, obviously.
Why haven’t I put this on Youtube? Because it would be pulled by lawyers in about 25 seconds, apparently.
Also: I finally decided to put some photos up on Flickr, which can be accessed here. The descriptions feature 97% more poetry than most!
There’s been a lot of talk recently about the worst box art ever inflicted on the video game buying public. But nobody seems to be aware of what must surely be the actual, no kidding, flat-out worst image to ever have been slapped on a cardboard box.
It is Metrocross for the Atari ST.
Some random idiot dressed in spandex, pulling the most gormless face humanly possible, leaping out of a damaged chessboard. The little silhouette of a prancing man is just the icing on the cake. I’ve heard this described as the “world’s crappest image”, a description which bears some merit.
Other home versions of Metrocross featured a futuristic illustration far more relevant to the game than idiot-boy and his skateboard. Why did the Atari ST warrant the creation of this visual abomination? There is no excuse for the existence of this image, and the retarded work experience boy who made it should be hunted down and terminated with extreme prejudice.
The game was pretty good, by the way.
As a sort of runner-up, here’s a picture of Anirog Software’s Kong game for the ZX Spectrum.
Hooray!
EDIT: I’ve been advised to “Digg” this post, by submitting it to the Digg website and writing “Digg” in inverted commas a lot. So I have. I’ll put up one of those nice little counting buttons when I have time to figure out how.
I recently went to a collector’s fair. One of the stalls had a big box of greetings cards, all with painted scenes from the 1940’s. My girlfriend looked through them to find one with aeroplanes on for my Dad’s upcoming birthday. What did she find instead?
THE WORST BIRTHDAY CARD EVER MADE. Behold:
Yes, It’s supposed to be a Bobby comforting a small child. But that isn’t what it looks like, is it? How did this leave the factory without anybody saying, “Hang on, that looks a bit like OH GOD NO”?
And yes, it does say “Happy Birthday” inside. Giving this to someone would guarantee that they’d have a very bad birthday indeed, mostly spent washing their eyes.
Here’s the back of it, just to prove I’m not making this up:
It’s available as a print, apparently. Sell many prints of this, Rothbury Cards…? Didn’t think so.
I feel a bit ill now. Quick site news thing: Yes, I am aware that all the Youtube links have gone blank again. No, I don’t know why. Yes, they’ll come back of their own accord in a day or so.
