Iain Mew
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superchartisland.com
Iain Mew
@superchartisland.com
820 followers 670 following 1.4K posts
Writing a British history of popular video games one UK sales chart #1 at a time. Now in 1986. Also into pop music and writing on The Singles Jukebox. He/him. http://www.superchartisland.com
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superchartisland.com
Iain Mew @superchartisland.com · 21d
This year, across 45 posts about the history of 45 different UK chart #1 games, my blog has gone from June 1983 to March 1986. A thread of some highlights...
An edited screenshot of The Hobbit, with text reading: The Hobbit Melbourne House 1982 ZX Spectrum #1 in MRIB all formats 18 June 1983 An edited screenshot of Elite. Text reads: ELITE Publisher: Acornsoft Platform: BBC Micro Year: 1984 Position: #1 Chart: ASP Non-Arcade Date: W/E 27 October 1984 The game Elite is reasonably fabled for space action and open world gameplay. An edited screenshot of The Way of the Exploding Fist. Text reads: Way of the Exploding Fist Melbourne House 1985 Commodore 64 #1 in Gallup combined formats Fortnight ending 20 July 1985 An edited screenshot of The Way of the Tiger. Text reads: The Way of the Tiger Gremlin Graphics 1986 Spectrum/CPC/MSX Combined formats #1 w/e 22 March 1986
superchartisland.com
Me listening to this oral history of "Yellow":

Bassist, yep, the producer, sure... oh wow that's the moderator of the Coldplay message board!!

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Soul Music - Yellow by Coldplay - BBC Sounds
Stories of what Yellow, one of Coldplay's most iconic songs, means to people 25 years on.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 13, 2026 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Iain Mew
sophiepilbeam.bsky.social
Found it! The Sketch Bug was so frequently encountered by players that it got discussed in detail in Super Play #41, March 1996.
"Sadly, the most remarkable fact about Relm is that her Sketch skill is slightly bugged and has been known to crash the game in spectacular fashion. One possible by-product of the glitch is that you can sometimes find your party in possession of 99 Ragnarok swords, new costume colours (we've seen Shadow dressed all in white!) or with bizarre magic spells like Siegfried's Hyper Drive. There is no hard and fast rule for working this glitch to your advantage, and you do risk the complete obliteration of your saved file, but if it sounds appealing you might try this. Once she has joined your party. take Relm to the Triangle Island towards the north-east of the map and attempt to sketch an Intangir (or some other monster on which you have cast Vanish). Alternatively, let Gau leap a monster on the Veldt and sketch him when he tries to rejoin your party. If the game crashes, reset and check the inventory of your saved game. For some reason the bug seems ineffective after Relm reaches level 50, and if you want to avoid trouble before that point then what you must do is discover the Fake Mustache relic in Gogo's subterranean lair (Triangle Island, World of Ruin). The Mustache transforms Sketch into Control, a superior skill which turns the devastating special attacks of enemy monsters to your advantage."
January 13, 2026 at 10:38 AM
Reposted by Iain Mew
singlesjukebox.bsky.social
We're starting Readers' Week with Smerz, because you got songs from 2025 and we got blurbs:

thesinglesjukebox.com/smerz-you-go...

Thanks to everyone who submitted suggestions!
Smerz – You Got Time and I Got Money – The Singles Jukebox
thesinglesjukebox.com
January 12, 2026 at 8:18 PM
Reposted by Iain Mew
oma-metal-flesh.bsky.social
reading over my own work and it's good still. from 2022 for @superchartisland.com about how a game rewrites a war crime. superchartisland.com/medal-of-hon...
“I have no doubt that history will remember…” – Medal of Honor: Airborne
Medal of Honor: Airborne (EA, Xbox 360, 2007) [For this guest post, I once again welcome back Oma Keeling! Oma is a freelance writer, artist and art historian. They run GlitchOut, a blog dedicated …
superchartisland.com
January 12, 2026 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by Iain Mew
superchartisland.com
Bomb Jack's arcade action wasn't especially cutting edge by the time it reached home computers in 1986. It still translated well enough to become UK #1, and then did so again in 1988. New post on some impressive design plus the allure of a £2 price tag:

www.superchartisland.com/bomb-jack
Bomb Jack – “Get all 💣by operating Jack!”
The inventive arcade game scene in Japan in 1984 had an impact over in the UK that went on well past the end of the year. Karate Champ inspired The Way of the Exploding Fist, the UK’s bestselling h…
www.superchartisland.com
January 12, 2026 at 6:59 AM
superchartisland.com
Bomb Jack's arcade action wasn't especially cutting edge by the time it reached home computers in 1986. It still translated well enough to become UK #1, and then did so again in 1988. New post on some impressive design plus the allure of a £2 price tag:

www.superchartisland.com/bomb-jack
Bomb Jack – “Get all 💣by operating Jack!”
The inventive arcade game scene in Japan in 1984 had an impact over in the UK that went on well past the end of the year. Karate Champ inspired The Way of the Exploding Fist, the UK’s bestselling h…
www.superchartisland.com
January 12, 2026 at 6:59 AM
Reposted by Iain Mew
superchartisland.com
ICYMI, my post this week was about V the computer game. Read about:

- How the sci-fi TV series benefited from ITV pulling out of covering the Olympics
- Ocean's evolving approach of matching game influences to unrelated licences
- the "poor man's Impossible Mission"

www.superchartisland.com/v
V – “Circuits: on”
On Thursday 9 August 1984, 11.7 million people in the UK turned on BBC1 to watch Olympic Grandstand cover the Olympics in Los Angeles. Fully 20% of the British population watched on the day Daley T…
www.superchartisland.com
January 9, 2026 at 9:56 AM
superchartisland.com
ICYMI, my post this week was about V the computer game. Read about:

- How the sci-fi TV series benefited from ITV pulling out of covering the Olympics
- Ocean's evolving approach of matching game influences to unrelated licences
- the "poor man's Impossible Mission"

www.superchartisland.com/v
V – “Circuits: on”
On Thursday 9 August 1984, 11.7 million people in the UK turned on BBC1 to watch Olympic Grandstand cover the Olympics in Los Angeles. Fully 20% of the British population watched on the day Daley T…
www.superchartisland.com
January 9, 2026 at 9:56 AM
Reposted by Iain Mew
zawtowers.bsky.social
The sales on Ricochet re-release were impressive too, as detailed over on the Mastertronic Collectors Archive:
C64 - 147,108
Spectrum - 168,626
Amstrad - 97,188
Atari XL/XE - 36,913
More detail on the site with the format checklists:
mastertronic.co.uk
Home - Mastertronic Collectors Archive
Welcome to the Mastertronic Collectors Archive, the ultimate fan resource for all things Mastertronic with news, reviews, interviews and more
mastertronic.co.uk
January 9, 2026 at 7:36 AM
superchartisland.com
I went back and edited the end of my post on the Ghostbusters game because I realised I'd missed that it went back to UK #1 again several years later as a budget release. And it's very important to document that it was at #1 at the same time as Doctorin' the Tardis was
Ghostbusters – “You crossed the streams”
Games based on movies go back a long way, including in the UK’s games charts. Earlier in 1984, the charts played host to Richard Wilcox Software’s Blue Thunder, which took inspiration from the heli…
www.superchartisland.com
January 8, 2026 at 11:10 PM
Reposted by Iain Mew
emilyprice.bsky.social
I was asked to contribute to Eteo Archetypes and wrote about vacation towns and summertime in Persona 4. Enjoy!
eteogames.bsky.social Eteo Games @eteogames.bsky.social · 5d
With ever-shifting seasons, schedules and moods, Persona 4's vacation town of Inaba challenges you to spend your time there wisely.

Our second Archetypes feature on seasons, written by @emilyprice.bsky.social, is now live:

www.eteogames.com/seasons-bc-i...
Passing Time in Persona 4's Tourist Town
Inaba's shifting moods, schedules and seasons ask you to spend your time there wisely.
www.eteogames.com
January 8, 2026 at 6:59 PM
Reposted by Iain Mew
breakintoprogram.co.uk
This keyboard is actually an entire computer. Just plug it into a monitor and you’re set.
Picture of a rubber keyed Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K.
January 7, 2026 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Iain Mew
katewillaert.bsky.social
A few people have said my latest videos are the first time they ever heard the term "platform adventure," which admittedly used to be a lot more common than it is today. But it got me thinking about where these various adventure spin-off terms came from. Here's a thread. 🧵
January 5, 2026 at 10:33 PM
Reposted by Iain Mew
peoples-pop-polls.bsky.social
It's here! Welcome to

THE WORLD CUP OF 2025 #PeoplesPop25

256 bangers, but only one can (eventually) prevail! Kick off with the first 6 groups and don't forget to use your BONUS VOTE

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
#PeoplesPop25 DAY 1
Welcome to THE WORLD CUP OF 2025! Throughout January we'll be polling the best tracks of 2025 until we reach an ultimate winner. Vote in each of the 6 groups and then choose one track from the whole ...
docs.google.com
January 5, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Iain Mew
kimimithegameeatingshemonster.com
The sheer audacity of Alien Breed '92's end sequence! This is it! All of it! It goes from "This is your fault for buying a budget game" to "We ran out of space but on purpose" via "Using our ~huge~ selection of in-game cheats means you wasted your time" and then "Please buy AB2!" Fuck you too, AB92!
A screenshot from Alien Breed '92's ending (Amiga). Plain all caps white text against a mostly black background, with a legally-distinct alien head in the middle. The text reads: "HARD LINES SO, YOU WERE EXPECTING A JAZZY LITTLE ANIMATION SEQUENCE? MAYBE A LOVELY BIT OF MUSIC? SOME EXTRAVAGANT EFFECT? WELL WE'RE SORRY TQ STICK OUR FINGER IN YOUR OINTMENT, BUT THIS IS A BUDGET GAME AFTER ALL AND IF YOU WANT HIGH CLASS KICKS THEN YOU SHOULD REALLY TRY COMPLETING ONE OF TEAM17'S CURRENT BLOCKBUSTERS INSTEAD OF THIS ONE. IF TRUTH TO BE SAID, WE JUST DIDN'T HAVE THE DISK-SPACE TO DO ANYTHING REALLY NICE, WE THOUGHT THAT WE WOULD USE ALL THE SPACE UP TO PROVIDE YOU WITH MORE MISSIONS, LEVELS AND ALIENS DID WE DO RIGHT? OF COURSE WE DID." A screenshot from Alien Breed '92's ending (Amiga). Plain all caps white text against a mostly black background, with a legally-distinct alien head in the middle. The text continues on from the previous screenshot and reads: "BY THE WAY, IF YOU HAVE CHEATED TO GET HERE, OR HAVE RIPPED YOUR WAY INTO THIS FANTASTIC END-SEQUENCE, THEN WELL DONE, HAVEN'T YOU REALLY AND HONESTLY WASTED THE SATISFACTION AND PLEASURE THAT COMPLETING THE GAME WOULD OFFER. IT'S THE OBLIGATORY PLUG TIME AND WE WOULD LIKE TO WARN YOU THAT ALIEN BREED 2 IS GOING TO BE ONE MEAN MUTHA OF A GAME .. IF YOU LOVED THIS, THEN IT'S TIME TO CHANGE YOUR UNDERWEAR ... WE SINCERELY HOPE THAT YOU'VE ENJOYED THIS GAME AND ALL THAT IT HAS TO OFFER, I HOPE IT'S PROVED THAT NOT ALL SOFTWARE HOUSES ARE THE SAME - ACCEPT NOTHING BUT THE BEST. FOR YOUR INFORMATION, ITS ABOUT 3AM IN THE MORNING, THERES ONLY 2 LITRES OF GOOD WHISKY LEFT, THE ENIGMA CD HAS NEARLY FINISHED AND I THINK ANDREAS..." it continues on a little longer, implying a member of the team is fornicating with a sheep. You're not missing anything.
January 2, 2026 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by Iain Mew
superchartisland.com
www.superchartisland.com/v
The ‘V’ in V stands for Visitors (its enemies) or Victory (its slogan of rebellion). The show was conceived by Kenneth Johnson, who had previously been showrunner for the series The Bionic Woman and The Incredible Hulk. Inspired by Sinclair Lewis’s novel It Can’t Happen Here, he wanted to make a series about resistance to a fascist takeover of the United States. As Johnson told it to Vanity Fair in 2023, an NBC executive responded that “I don’t know that Americans will get fascism” and asked “couldn’t it be an outside force? Like the Soviets or the Chinese?”. They settled on V's resistance being against disguised reptilian aliens.
January 5, 2026 at 1:24 PM
Reposted by Iain Mew
superchartisland.com
In August 1984, 20% of the UK population watched the finale of an alien invasion miniseries on ITV. Like so many other popular phenomena, Ocean went on to turn it into a hit game. Even as at least one reviewer found getting out of the first room an impossible mission.

New post on the story of V:
V – “Circuits: on”
On Thursday 9 August 1984, 11.7 million people in the UK turned on BBC1 to watch Olympic Grandstand cover the Olympics in Los Angeles. Fully 20% of the British population watched on the day Daley T…
www.superchartisland.com
January 5, 2026 at 7:01 AM
superchartisland.com
In August 1984, 20% of the UK population watched the finale of an alien invasion miniseries on ITV. Like so many other popular phenomena, Ocean went on to turn it into a hit game. Even as at least one reviewer found getting out of the first room an impossible mission.

New post on the story of V:
V – “Circuits: on”
On Thursday 9 August 1984, 11.7 million people in the UK turned on BBC1 to watch Olympic Grandstand cover the Olympics in Los Angeles. Fully 20% of the British population watched on the day Daley T…
www.superchartisland.com
January 5, 2026 at 7:01 AM
Reposted by Iain Mew
katewillaert.bsky.social
The journey begins! You might think of this alternate history a bit like an inverted castle to @jparish.bsky.social's Metroidvania Works.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9zE...
Did A Teenager Create Castlevania Before Konami? | MetroidMania (Phantomas 2 / Vampire (1986))
YouTube video by Critical Kate (of A Critical Hit!)
www.youtube.com
January 4, 2026 at 8:30 PM
superchartisland.com
First new-to me album listen of 2026 is Project 2222 by Hong Kong math-rock group GDJYB/雞蛋蒸肉餅, a very late 2025 release. I'm happy they're back and sounding really good, especially when they go heavier than before

youtu.be/XoBlJPHaxRE?...
Process
YouTube video by GDJYB 雞蛋蒸肉餅 - Topic
youtu.be
January 2, 2026 at 6:27 PM
superchartisland.com
Made the (overdue) switch away from Spotify, to Tidal. Ported over my shortlist of favourite songs from the 2010s for #TheTenx5. Only four of them aren't on Tidal, which is promising! All four of those are Japanese, which is unsurprising
January 2, 2026 at 5:54 PM
Reposted by Iain Mew
superchartisland.com
Fellow prospective #TheTenx5 players! I am hoping to use my bonus points tactically so... is anyone thinking of including any of these songs?

2NE1 - I Am the Best
2NE1 - I Love You
IU - Sogyeokdong
Gain - Paradise Lost
f(x) - 4 Walls
January 2, 2026 at 8:57 AM
Reposted by Iain Mew
underconsolepod.bsky.social
I think the run you may be looking for began April 27th 1984 alongside a returning Number 73, and continued with some variation until the end of 1985. It seems to drop off start of 1986 when Get Fresh appears on Saturday mornings.
January 2, 2026 at 10:05 AM
superchartisland.com
Fellow prospective #TheTenx5 players! I am hoping to use my bonus points tactically so... is anyone thinking of including any of these songs?

2NE1 - I Am the Best
2NE1 - I Love You
IU - Sogyeokdong
Gain - Paradise Lost
f(x) - 4 Walls
January 2, 2026 at 8:57 AM
superchartisland.com
Does anyone know when ITV channels in the UK started their 1980s repeats of the 1960s Batman series? I can find lots about when Batman took over TV-AM during the 1987/8 technicians' strike, but that's drowning out any info on when it started
January 2, 2026 at 7:44 AM