So a few weeks ago I was renewing the domain when I realised that this site's second birthday was due - Format War's forum went live along with the domain around the 16th August 2009 (with the actual website coming quite a bit later) so that's two whole years. And like any other two year old it's slightly whiny, doesn't go to bed when told to and has demanded a cake... and to prove said confectionary isn't a lie, here's a photo of the one purchased just yesterday, balanced on a tasteful cake stand...

...and rather gorgeous! But to actually celebrate the event properly we've got the official announcement that the first Format War collabortition is up and running (yes, I forgot to post about it okay?!) and I've spent the last couple of days making the first group of comparative reviews that I threatened promised last year ready to actually go live.

So we'll just cut the decorative ribbon on the 8-bit computer game reviews section with a ridiculously oversized pair of scissors, thank James Monkman over at RGCD for proof reading the text, Trevor Storey and Sean Connolly for their excellent work on Edge Grinder and indeed offer around virtual cake to all the lovely fluffy forum bunnies who've helped to make Format War a quiet but surprisingly fun place to be on the interwebs - who knows, maybe an actual argument will break out eventually?

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The best retro gaming event in the UK is back for 2011, tickets for Replay have gone on sale at the website. The first event, which was early November 2010, was excellent, with huge names such as Sony, Sega and Nintendo bringing friends like Sumo Digital along to play as well and, off in one corner room, were indie developers Ovine By Design and the almost legendary Jeff Minter demonstrating the then not-quite-finished iOs blaster Minotaur Rescue.

And, because the adorable, fluffy bunnies who organise Replay had a bit of a lapse and asked a certain long-haired wazzock with the organisational skills of a goldfish in a plastic bag to put together something to showcase homebrew gaming, there's going to be an Oldschool Gaming (and, since they're sisters, Format War) presence at Replay 2011! For any coders wanting to contribute there's more information in this thread over at the Oldschool Gaming forums.

  • External link:   Replay Expo website
  • News source:  Oldschool Gaming

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After a slightly shaky start, the 2011 Minigame competition is now under way with a first entry called Wiwo Dido (for the Spectrum) submitted and published on the new website. Organised by Dr. Beep, the competition has, as with previous instalments, been divided into 1K, 2K and 4K categories with the closing date for submissions being the last day of August, October and November 2011 respectively.

As we've noted previously, the original MiniGame competition evolved from a cross-posting flamewar between the denizens of various USENet groups, so it's proof that good can come from these discussions, at least as long as they're about the machines and not reduced to personal insults and fanboyistic "arguments".

  • External link:   Minigame 2011 website
  • News source:  World of Spectrum forums

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Old Gold Tech is a podcast about old technology - you'd never guess it from the name! But their first two videos, which are here and here, make them relevant to Format War since they both revolve around the C64 and Spectrum... but unfortunately, the "facts" presented are pretty wide of the mark for both machines!

The presenters are under the impression that only later revisions of C64 had a cartridge port, that the Spectrum used a "Sinclair Z80 chip" and they even get caught out making some fairly n00bish mistakes (at least by our standards here at FWar) such as looking at a 1MHz 6502 and a 3.5MHz Z80 and assuming the latter is three and a half times faster. Still, it's amusing to watch them and the second "on the couch" video which isn't scripted is probably the more enjoyable of the two.

  • External link:   Old Gold Tech
  • News source:  Speccy Live

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