RetroMania is OUT NOW!

Well, it’s out on Steam anyway. Console releases are to follow, but shouldn’t be too long coming. Let’s be honest, it wouldn’t be RetroMania if everything went smoothly.

Also, if you happen to have $800 to blow, you can get the RetroMania IIrcade cabinet!

Anyway, yay! It has been fun binging on gameplay videos over the last few days. All I really did was the character sprite art, but, in the days leading up to Friday’s release I found myself feeling quite nervous for Mike as this was really his baby; it has been in the works as a commercial entity for just over two years, but prior to that he’d been working on it as a hobby for several more. I am thrilled to see the reaction has been mostly positive, and hopefully that bodes well for future content – more superstars, more match types and more playability. With a community behind this game, the sky really is the limit. Or, at least, the skies not patrolled by WWE or AEW.

If you think you’re up to the challenge, grab RetroMania Wrestling and let the team know what you think!

Neon Blocks

Back in those heady days of 2018, I had a go at some Channel 4 mocks, not for the first time either. “Let’s see how we get on with the blocks in 2021” I said at the end of that post. And look what’s happened!!! Prescient or predictable? I know what my money’s on.

Anyway, these were inspired by a favourite YouTuber returning to the fray after several years and posting various mocks of his own – one of which sees the Channel 4 blocks morphing into the TV Ark logo. Musing on that idea of fusion, I took two favourites – the 1982 package from Four, and the neon lights BBC Two ident from 1991 – and smooshed them together. Here are the results. It’s rather busier than the original in terms of lighting and possibly the reason Lambie-Nairn kept to neon blue is revealed here, as things go a tad Chrismassy. But I thought it would be criminal to do this for Channel 4 and not use the colours. I probably say it every time I post Four stuff, but they really should bring the colours back.

The lights are cloned and set to flash at random. It’s possible to have an animated sequence whilst this is going, so really I could have had another bash at some of the original Four motifs. But I thought stationary was effective and quite satisfying in itself.

As both idents used here were created by the Lambie-Nairn agency, I can’t let this post go by without a tribute to the man behind it all, Martin Lambie-Nairn, who passed away over Christmas. What a genius Martin was; a true visionary who made marks that inspired me, along with countless others I’m sure. Thank you, Martin.