Iain Mew

Over the summer, I've written histories of 13 computer games which reached #1 in the UK charts during 1987: superchartisland.com/timeline/#1987 Here is a thread on what the British public was buying that year, with links

Microdeal. A new blog post about this St Austell based games company and a chance for me to stick a map pin into Cornwall. whereweretheynow.blogspot.com/2026/10/micr... #RetroGaming #RetroComputing #Dragon32 #AtariSt #Amiga

www.superchartisland.com/joe-blade-2

Yet another sequel! After the success of Joe Blade, Colin Swinbourne and Interceptor applied its formula to a dystopian future London of punks and self-destructing citizens. The result was an even bigger hit in the budget charts. New post on Joe Blade 2: www.superchartisland.com/joe-blade-2

I think this is my first time appearing in Further Reading! @mathewkumar.com's piece here on Palace Software's Evil Dead is a great read, as are many others here

Remember the 90s Schwarzenegger movie Eraser? Or the Charlie Sheen alien conspiracy thriller The Arrival? Or Keanu as Johnny Mnemonic? Well all three of these received FMV adventure games that CRUSHED MY ENTIRE SOUL IN UNIQUE AND HELLISH WAYS. My suffering distilled into 90 minutes, just for you:

Yesterday evening I travelled from Canterbury to London by train and it took me four hours, thanks to assorted trees on assorted lines. From hearing other people's stories at Ashford International I had it comparatively lucky!

This week I wrote about the making of Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge. Featuring Lucozade adverts, Serious Arm Lock-Up, and advertised gameplay features which didn't exist: superchartisland.com/daley-thompsons-olympic-challenge

According to legend, it’s 31 years to the day since the Financial Times killed one of Britain’s finest poets? They didn’t mean to. It’s just that Gavin Ewart was 79, and the day before they’d bought him a lunch that involved enough booze to fell an ox. A glorious story, but is it true...?

This week I wrote about the making of Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge. Featuring Lucozade adverts, Serious Arm Lock-Up, and advertised gameplay features which didn't exist: superchartisland.com/daley-thompsons-olympic-challenge

I'm hopefully taking a six-month work sabbatical to write a book about Pulp! But only if I can hit my goal on Kickstarter. So, please consider backing, or even better share with people who love Pulp as much as I do.

it cannot actually be ignored or danced around that the closure of BioWare came so soon after the Saudi and Jared Kushner acquisition of EA. they absolutely did take the studio making EA’s broadly queerest games out back and shoot it old yeller style. do not let yourself or colleagues ignore that

Fed up with the modern mainstream games scene full of remakes and brand tie-ins? Let me take you back to the good old days of 1988... when Ocean remade Daley Thompson's Decathlon 4 years later, with added product placement. New post on the making of Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge:

There was also "The Challenge" audio tape soundtrack which came with the game too. Cue "Challenge!" voiceover from Gary Bracey throughout. Here it is: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VlP...

This week: Penguin Colony, Ace Combat 8, and the purpose of play: critical-distance.com/2026/10/18/o...

ICYMI, this week I wrote about Argonaut Games and the making of Starglider 2. Featuring MUD, hacking live on TV, Star Wars, taming the blitter, star-mangled UI, and a C64 version that was "a bit of a disaster" superchartisland.com/starglider-2

ICYMI, this week I wrote about Argonaut Games and the making of Starglider 2. Featuring MUD, hacking live on TV, Star Wars, taming the blitter, star-mangled UI, and a C64 version that was "a bit of a disaster" superchartisland.com/starglider-2

New blog post! I played the original Metroid for the NES since Ravenous is on the horizon, and wound up enjoying it a lot more than I expected to given the general consensus that it's aged poorly: pancaketime.home.blog/2026/10/13/n...

Metal Gear Solid V, set in 1984, has a collectable tape of Friday I'm In Love by The Cure, which came out in 1992. There's also nanomachine undead women and walking robots but I don't care about that

superchartisland.com/starglider-2

One of the later games I had for the Speccy – an ambitious conversion that looked impressive but was a nightmare to play. The bundled soundtrack cassette was ace though.

The Atari ST and Amiga offered great new possibilities for games, but for years those games couldn't compete with the old 8-bit machines in the charts. In 1988, a pioneering 3D space game helped to change that. New post on Starglider 2 and Argonaut Games: www.superchartisland.com/starglider-2

Here's Starglider being played on the Saturday morning programme 'Get Fresh' : youtu.be/ywlC6fk7axo?...

This week: labour, genre, physical media, and something called "CeX": critical-distance.com/2026/10/11/o...

dear johnny silverhand, stop telling me what is and isn't possible

NEW VIDEO We're delivering pizza, we're watching a baby getting eaten by a fish, and we're watching me losing the will to live. It's a fun time! Obscure & Forgotten PS1 Games Vol.18 is out now! youtu.be/CKbJ5bFixRE

Screenshotting an episode of Bluey for an upcoming 1988 blog post

Very into this, a great dramatic space-themed breakup song www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP1x...

This week my post on a UK #1 from 1988 was on Football Manager 2. Featuring Football Manager's American Football equivalent, Football Manager's appalling MSX version, Software Star, Graham Taylor (not that one), and how to make 35 versions of a game at once: superchartisland.com/football-manager-2

This week my post on a UK #1 from 1988 was on Football Manager 2. Featuring Football Manager's American Football equivalent, Football Manager's appalling MSX version, Software Star, Graham Taylor (not that one), and how to make 35 versions of a game at once: superchartisland.com/football-manager-2

It's a Super Chart Island x @singlesjukebox.bsky.social crossover as I put a song from Grand Theft Auto VI in the context of the evolution of those soundtracks

Iconoclasts is something I seem to recommend every other Steam sale, but for good reason. Still some of the most impressive pixelart and animation I have ever seen, impressive boss battles, incredible story and characters, and some unbelievable music. It's a serious gem.

It's a Super Chart Island x @singlesjukebox.bsky.social crossover as I put a song from Grand Theft Auto VI in the context of the evolution of those soundtracks

I found those three and added a magician with a puppet

That makes it 3/8 of the games I have left to write about this year where the devs/company are in the news in 2026 and it's not good. It's a bit shit to see how many of the makers of the iconic British games of the 80s split into "left games decades ago" or "now working with GenAI/arms dealers"

The GenAI epidemic spreading across retro gaming circles exposes something: Making the scenes unfriendly to queer/trans/furries by giving a pass to unpleasant people and bigots in the past has left them without the networks of creators LGBT-friendly communities have access to and self-support with.

New for subscribers! the exp. October spooktacular begins with the new hotness: liminal space horror! I play The Exit 8, watch Exit 8, and find a game that does what film can't do and a film that does what games can't do: expzine.com/2026/10/06/t... On Patreon: www.patreon.com/expzine/post...