By Tom Fotherby on January 2, 2001
You just have to admire the sheer dedication it takes just to perfect a 2 second cyclic movement:
I rowed all through school and also in my second year at uni in the IC boat novice squad.
I got my 2K time down to 6.36 by training 9 or 10 sessions a week, early mornings, evenings and weekends. We came first in the novice division in the 1999 Thames Head of the River (which sort of made us the best Novice eight in the country for that winter). We raced Oxford in an international regatta in Italy and raced in Henley Royal Regatta as the IC 2nd eight.
We were voted best sports team of the year by our student newspaper Felix.
The First Novice Eight in Action (I’m stroking)
Here we are competing against Abingdon School in the Temple Challenge Cup at Henley (I’m 2 man).
Picture taken on the Henley jetty
Posted in Journal |
By Tom Fotherby on January 2, 2001
|
At uni, I was part of the unicycle hockey club (“The Uni uni hockey club”) when it first started. I have my own unicycle but we borrowed ice hockey sticks and played in Hyde park by the prince albert monument (designed by a ancestor of mine: Sir George Gilbert Scott, 1811-1878).
|
Posted in Journal |
By Tom Fotherby on January 2, 2001
My best friend at school could quote “Withnail and I” from start to finish. I think it’s quite funny that I can quote this “Withnail and I” dialogue but if you asked me to quote some Shakespear I couldn’t 🙂
|
I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame the earth seems to me a sterile promontory; This most excellent canopy the air, look you, this mighty o’rehanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire; why, it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, how like an angel in apprehension, how like a God! The beauty of the world, paragon of animals; and yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust. Man delights not me, no, nor women neither, nor women neither.
|
This is my other favourite W&I quote:
Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day, and for once I’m inclined to believe Withnail is right. We are indeed drifting into the arena of the unwell. Making an enemy of our own future. What we need is harmony. Fresh air. Stuff like that.
This is what I say when people suggest I have a hair cut:
I don’t advise a hair cut man. All hairdressers are in the employment of the government. Hair are your aerials. They pick up signals from the cosmos and transmit them directly into the brain. This is the reason bald-headed men are uptight.
I have the whole screenplay script at: withnailandi.txt
Posted in Journal |
By Tom Fotherby on January 1, 2001
PC,Puzzle-battle,8/10 – 1998
|
I played this with friends intensively for a short while. A number of players run around a board throwing bombs at each other and collecting power-ups. There’s nothing like the glee of winning after rushing around manically concentrating on not dieing, especially if you accidentally caught a virus and can’t stop dropping bombs while your controls are reversed.
|
This games play-life wouldn’t be very long without the ability to have 4 players on one keyboard. It’s also fun to set 10 computer players endlessly battling against each other like a screen saver.
Posted in Game Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on January 1, 2001
N64,FPS,10/10 – 1997
|
This game introduced me to the skills required in multi-player FPS’s: keep an eye on your body armour, known the levels inside out, follow everyone else’s positions carefully and make sure when you meet them you get a perfect head shot. The head-shot is the holy grail of skills to hone and very important since you can’t jump.
|
Another skill is the perfect blend of turn+side-step in order to move around levels fastest. This game is a classic game which has pushed the genre of FPS to another level. The single player game is totally great as well.
Killer App Award! > A reason to own a N64
Posted in Game Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on January 1, 2001
N64,Combat Racing,10/10 – 1997
|
Mario Karts is legendary, it’s great fun and extremely competitive. At a beginners level the racing is fast and furious but the skills one has to fine tune to become an expert are substantial. It’s not just about learning the tracks and shortcuts, it’s about firing shells backwards, dragging weapons behind you as a shield and power sliding round corners.
|
Split-screen multi-player mode with friends is the essence of the experience and coming back from the pub had never been so much fun.
Killer App Award! > A reason to own a N64
Posted in Game Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on January 1, 2001
PC,Real-Time Strategy,9/10
Original:When this came along my life seemed complete. RTS was original back then. I loved the resource management, the building of an army and the marching all over the enemy in large numbers.
Red Alert:Command and Conquer went high-res and now you could amass an even larger army on the screen. Serial linking 2 computers and multi-playing RA allowed afternoon long battles, requiring huge amounts of concentration to make sure the enemy isn’t able to break though your defences.
|
I soon learnt that the feeling of being defeated after 5 hours was horribly depressing and that it’s often better to play co-operative with a friend against the computer. Unfortunately the computer was rather crap and once the ore ran out it’d just sit and do nothing. The firing range of a cruiser was stupidly unfair.
|
Tiberian Sun:From now RTS’s were well established and completely unoriginal, however if you like RTS’s you like RTS’s. The game is essentially the same as the other but with nicer graphics. The forces seem the best balanced out of the different versions.
Red Alert 2: The magic seems to have worn off but I’m not sure if it’s the games fault or whether my tastes are changing.
Posted in Game Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on January 1, 2001
PC,sim,5/10
|
I found myself thinking that this was an interesting game but even though it’s a leap in the sim genre it’s not yet ready for me.
|
I reckon Sims 3 will be great. This is because all I really wanted to do was design my own house and I wasn’t given enough options. There wasn’t enough colour variations, objects or furniture and the squares that are the basis of design were far too big. The Sims dropped rubbish they couldn’t get too because there was a chair in the way. I expected them to move the chair out the way. Another thing that annoyed me was the comedy involved in the game. I didn’t like the silly jobs you’d get and the futuristic names of the more expensive objects.
Posted in Game Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on January 1, 2001
PC,Quest,9/10
|
You go around solving puzzles that are brilliantly funny and entertaining and more often than not – pretty tricky. A hugely fun game with a great change half way through.
|
Posted in Game Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on January 1, 2001
N64,RPG,9/10
|
This is a game that infects your imagination, inserts a hook into your brain and starts to reel you in. You ended up whistling the Song Of Time to school. The first question I found myself asking my friends was “how far are you now?”. The game is an epic adventure with a huge world to explore. When you need to cross the plains you summon your horse to move faster.
|
Posted in Game Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on January 1, 2001
N64,Platform,9/10
|
At a time where it was still amazing when a 2D game transforms into 3D, this game pulled it off so unbelievably well. It was a magic feeling first playing it. I got the feeling I had arrived at console game heaven, the future had arrived. It’s a playworld of possibilities. Tonnes of stuff to do, cool puzzles, interesting bosses, getting blasted out of cannons, swimming, flying. It was rich. Collecting all the stars became a necessity. Great fun.
|
Posted in Game Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on January 1, 2001
GBA,Sport- SkateBoarding,9/10
|
This was great on the handheld. Some goals require hours of practice and others could be busted in-between a tube stop. It’s great when you just clinch a goal in the last few seconds of the time barrier. I love it how you can’t imagine ever being able to get “that higher a score” when you start playing but you slowly learn where and how to do the bigger moves. Great game for the GBA.
|
Posted in Game Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on January 1, 2001
PC,Turn-based Strategy,9/10
|
What made X-COM 1 a classic is its mix of management and action. You had to shoot down alien ships, take your team to the crash sites to battle escaped aliens and all the while manage your bases. During the tactical combat missions you need to capture live aliens to study and interrogate them in the laboratories so you could research their technologies and advance your equipment.
|
The tactical combat scenes were tile based and everything could be blown up. A classic tactic, for instance, was to throw a grenade on top of a roof to blow a hole in it and then throw a new grenade down the hole to blow up any inhabiting aliens.
Posted in Game Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on January 1, 2001
PC,1st-Person shooter,9/10
|
I jumped from Doom to this and was blown away especially because it was my first introduction to FPS serial linked game play. The action was so fast, running, jumping and flying were all new to me.
|
My favourite plan was piling up load of pipe bombs and then setting up a holoduke and jet-packing to a good watching spot where I’d get out the pipe-bomb detonator and wait for my victim (who usually was a friend who knew what I was doing and knocked me out with a rocket launcher!).
The single player game was atmospheric. Duke chick-saving rock-hard geezer.
Posted in Game Reviews |
By Tom Fotherby on January 1, 2001
I painted a keyboard as part of an art piece for art A-level. I used acrylic paints and varnish and decorated each key individually:
When My art course was finished I used the keyboard for touch-typing practice.
Posted in Journal, Tech Journal |
