colin.cymru

Can you hear me at the back? Thought not. 'Nôl' (Back) should be available worldwide today via your favourite music streaming service. My first new music of the year, comprises two traditional tunes and one new composition.  1 - Ar Lan y Môr - Traditional  2 - Suo Gân - Traditional  3 - Nôl - Colin Jones  The tracks have a certain sound set in common and a lush, relaxed atmosphere. Those of you who prefer to (ahem) own your music will be delighted to find the EP available in lossless and HD audio from my bandcamp store: cadwswn.bandcamp.com

Here’s the thing. Nobody tells you that you’re retro, and you never quite know when it happens. I spent my early working life writing computer games for the ZX Spectrum, C64 and Commodore Amiga. I had some success, writing and programming Slightly Magic, Rock Star Ate my Hamster, both released by Codemasters. I also programmed versions of the ground-breaking Deus Ex Machina for Mel Croucher and Automata. The computer games industry in the UK contracted dramatically just when I was at my zenith, and I found myself becoming a tutor and writer. Time passed. It hit me when Retro Gamer Magazine contacted me for the second time to do a second article on one of my games – Ah, I get it. I’m now officially retro. You can’t change that, you’re no longer hip, cool, or even vaguely cutting edge. That kind of hurts. But then, another realisation hits like a careering mobility scooter on a dark pavement – You might be retro, but there’s one thing worse than being retro, and that’s being forgot...

I've already written this post, but I thought it was a little unhip to release two blog posts on the same day, in the same timeslot, so I've held this back for the Blogger robots to release. However, a small delight should always be shared, and I am slightly delighted to have found most of my old Blogger posts and resurrected some of the less embarassing ones on this growing new blog device.  Things I have learnt during the past two years, part thirteen; Coffee is better freshly ground, by one's own hand (in a grinder, obvs) Just because a year sounds like an optician's diagnosis (20-20) doesn't mean it will be a good one Take a moment, see how you feel, and if what you're doing now doesn't make you either happy or richer, it might be time to move on Don't take my advice

It only seems right that I should mention my latest artistic endeavour - let's be honest, no one else is going to. Hold on to your hats, and set your alarm early for Wednesday, 1st of June. From 8.10 in the morning (don't ask), the world's music streaming services will echo to the silence of people not playing my new EP. Nôl is a 3 track EP from Sŵn Colin Jones - The Colin Jones Sound, featuring two traditional Welsh melodies (Ar Lan y Môr and Suo Gân) together with my new composition Nôl. I'm very happy with it. If you do have an idle fifteen minutes I'd say it's worth a listen. 

Here we go, getting busy again now. Here's an animation I made for the Cadw Sŵn Welsh course. Funnily enough it's in 4k, although I haven't actually seen it in that resolution yet. If you like it, please like it!

You'll have to excuse me, but this sort of thing doesn't happen that often, and I do get a little excited. My second Welsh-language novel, 'Coed y Brenin' has just reached number one in Amazon Uk's Welsh-language ebook charts. Woohoo!

Ooh look, it's Cwm Gwrachod - my new novel for Welsh learners. Bois bach!

I wish I knew what to say when people ask me what I do. Sometimes I'll say I write video games, other times I'll say that I write books, or that I help people learn Welsh. Of course I do all three. Even that's getting too complicated, as I'm starting to write books about different things and in different languages. I thought it'd be nice to have some way of tying everything together. Linking stuff if you like. colin.cymru is the result. It's not so much a website (it isn't a website btw) but a series of links, which I can redirect over time. So colin.cymru itself will currently take you to my personal website, while colin.cymru/books will magically whisk you away to my Amazon UK Author page, whereas colin.cymru/us will take you to my US Amazon Author page. That way I can leave links in various places and update their destinations if needed. Brilliant, eh? For those of you who have an interest in such modern alchemy it's all made possible by a free an...

At last - something to look forward to. The Nintendo Switch reveal made me realise just how much we've missed the gaming giant's presence over the past few years. Will it be powerful enough to compete with the big 2 consoles? Will the battery last long enough for a decent gaming session? Will those little controllers get lost on the train? Yes, too many questions right now. But just one question from me: Do we want Mario back in all his gameplay glory on a decent console, or do we want him prostituting his inheritance in a dodgy series of casual games on the fag end of tablet gaming? Where do I sign for that pre-order?

What's the hour, you ask in rhyme - on your Pebble, it's Slightly Magic time! Potassium Frog. Official watch designer to Bigwiz the Wizard. Big day today. As well as Deus Ex Machina and Slighly Magic on Steam, we've got a third launch at the Pebble appstore .

Back, way back through the mists of time, when I was young and... oh, I dunno, let's not get maudlin. Twas a dark and smokey night in Cardiff's Top Rank when Madness took over the timeslot with their blend of music hall, Ska and nutty storytelling. We never knew, that's the thing. We never could have known, who could? Listening to their new track Mister Apples has made me realise - you never can tell. If you'd have asked me to predict which group from my youth I'd be listening to in the cold new world of 2016 I would never have said Madness. Funny that. Still, it's very much welcome, and I'll take my medicine however it comes. 

A very strange feeling came over me last Friday afternoon; a mixture of melancholy and release. I was uploading Slightly Magic to Steam for late summer release, when it struck me that this would be nearly the last time I'd be working on the game. I do have another format to program, about which I'm sworn to secrecy for the next month or so, but things are starting to feel pretty final. Slightly Magic is 25 years old this year, and it seems very odd to be working on the game so long after its initial release. I remember at the time being a little uneasy about Slightly's future; I couldn't see that the game would be available for more than 5 years. After all, who was going to reprogram the thing after all the 8 and 16bit formats had died? I didn't expect it to be me, that's for sure. So that's a Good Thing - that the game is still available, and soon to be given a shot in the arm by PC, Mac and Linux Steam release. I won't get my life back, because Slightl...

How fast does 25 years pass? In the blinking of an eye, I fear. For it really was 25 years ago that my game Slightly Magic was released. I'm always a little nervous when I release something new, but in Slightly's case I needn't have been.  He's done me proud over the years, and so I couldn't let this anniversary pass without throwing a magical bean feast. Actually there'll be more than one magical event this year, but I'm sworn to secrecy on the others for a while. However, as a party-starting taster for the awesomeness that's yet to come, a new full-colour art book is available now on Amazon. It's called 'The Making of Slightly Magic' and features some fascinating insights from myself together with the marvellous artwork of Chris Graham. It's well worth a look if you've an interest in games, retro or modern.

You'll have to bear with me on this, but it's been a surprising few weeks at Potassium Frog. A couple of quite wonderful things have decided to come together which have almost made me squeal with delight. However, due to the nature of games design, secrecy pacts and the Time Flux Paradox I can't say anything about these things for quite a while yet. Writing games is a funny business. Anything I'm working on now won't generally see the light of day for a few months, years, or possibly decades. And even some things which I could talk about are probably best left for now, because it's just too early. The trouble with that box of lice is that I tend to get bored with anything I can actually talk about since I probably finished with that months, years or decades ago. That's the Time Flux Paradox in a nutshell. Ho hum.

Yes, it took me by surprise too; one of the perks of occasionally writing in Welsh, I guess. 'Coed Y Brenin' is a book I wrote a while ago, for Welsh learners. I'd never published it until 2016 as I wasn't happy with the format. It was originally Welsh and English side-by-side, but I thought that people were in danger of becoming a little lazy. Anyhow, the book seemed to fill a need, as ten days or so after release it found itself at the top of the Amazon UK Welsh-language e-books chart. Croeso i Aberarthur, pentref bach cysglyd yn y De.  Mae llawer o bobl yn byw yma, ac mae stori gyda phob un. Credwch chi fi. Welcome to Aberarthur, a small sleepy village in the South. Lots of people live here, and each has a story. Believe you me. Apparently Aberarthur is a fictional village, in that it exists only in my mind. The funny thing is that as you read this book it will exist in your mind too, but entirely through the medium of Welsh.

The future is an unwritten country. I think that's what Timmy Flux said on the Deadpan Channel last night. Me, I've got a ton of unfinished business to trifle with and a collection of papers to rifle through which claim to be my diary. Like they say, if you can even remember there was a Tranquil Generation you are almost certainly confused. Even way back then, in the Endless Summer of Tomorrow. So where does the future go to die? And how come there are people in my diary who I've never even met, at least that's what they tell me. I write this from my cell in Amnesia Towers, where the guards are very kind, on the third Tuesday of each month. There's a shadow on my window, and an echo of a daydream on the radio; Tom Thugg and the Violets sing a golfing melody like they always did, even way back then. When? If a tree falls in a barbershop and there's no-one there to plant it, does it really rain on the moon? And just what is the sound of one hand scratching, and wh...

Went to a taxi-driver's funeral yesterday. The hearse double parked outside the house and beeped the horn to let the mourners know it was there.

I don't believe in Astrology, but apparently that's because I'm a Libra. Anyhow... Squirrius, the Nutcollector Your cusp is on the ascendant. Prepare to meet thy matchmaker. Lucky Fish : Pollock Scabies, the Elephant You enter the room, but everyone ignores you. Lucky Dog : Ralph, the Spaniel Doorbell, the Debtcollector Beware of falling marionettes. Lucky Skin Condition : Dandruff

The BBC's decision not to play 'Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead' on the chart show today is understandable; you have to sympathise with any grieving family and friends. However, I think that we should remember that some of the people who will be protesting (and, yes some celebrating) the death of the Iron Lady over the coming week may well be grieving too. They may be grieving for the loss of their communities, their way of life, livelihood, and even the lives of loved ones who were destroyed during the Thatcher years. They need to be able to express their grief too.

… isn’t what it used to be. A long-running list of things I’ve seen in my lifetime now includes: microwave ovens/personal computers/mobile phones/color televisions/drive-by shootings/brainwave entrainment/digital entertainment format wars/infinite possibilities/reality tv/laminate flooring conventions/blogs/the birth of disco/the death of disco/satellite tv/.coms/talentless television talent contests/recycling attendants/flat-screen televisions/5-blade razors/boredom-on-demand