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hkt3030.neocities.org
Nick Thorpe
@hkt3030.neocities.org
1.6K followers 770 following 2.7K posts
Struggling to pass as human since the mid-80s. Not fussy about my pronouns. Features editor at @retrogamermag.bsky.social with occasional bylines elsewhere. https://hkt3030.neocities.org/
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · Oct 17
Wow, hello new followers! If you don't know me from elsewhere, I tend to post about this stuff:

- Games, often old ones
- Retro Gamer
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Wrestling, usually AEW
- Heavy music
- Anime, often old ones
- Funny little anecdotes
- A little politics (sorry, I do try to keep it minimal)
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hkt3030.neocities.org
Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 7h
Fine then, looks like it’s an anime VHS night.
LCD TV displaying the Appleseed anime OVA, from the Appleseed/Battle Angel Alita 2-in-1 VHS tape.
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 7h
lol, lmao
A DVD player menu screen, with the error message “incorrect disc”
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 7h
There we go, that’s entertainment.
A small LCD TV sits atop a DVD/VCR combo. A Sega Mega-CD promotional VHS tape is being played.
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 8h
lmao, first my Xbox 360 is messed up and now my broadband has gone down. Think it’s about time to hook up the ol' DVD/VCR combo.
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 10h
I wanted to get my Xbox 360 set up on the capture card that's good for screenshots. Did it, they look great. Excellent!

Try to play Dead Or Alive 4. Doesn't work. DVD movie? Doesn't work. Audio CD? Fine. Oh no, my console's disc drive is hecked for DVDs. Balls.
A screenshot of Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown for Xbox 360. Lau slams Jacky back-first into the wat ground, causing water to splash up, in the Great Wall stage. A screenshot of Space Giraffe for Xbox 360. The player is bulling the enemies off the rim of the web. A screenshot of The Simpsons Arcade for Xbox 360. Homer is beating up random goons in a shopping district. A screenshot of the Xbox 360 audio player menu. The console is successfully playing The Best Summer Album in the World… Ever! So it's happy to blare out Eternal and the Spice Girls, but won't play Dead Or Alive 4. Prick.
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 12h
Nah, that totally tracks. I've not checked in a while, but the general attach rate used to be 7-8 games sold per home console, and more like 4-5 for handhelds. Obviously that discounts the used market, but yeah.
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 13h
Yup. Free ball launcher!
Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic cover, advertising free ball launcher. Price: £6.99
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hkt3030.neocities.org
Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 15h
Things I have enjoyed this year include:

Axyz: space-lion-studios.itch.io/axyz

Blippo+: blippo.plus

Evil Egg (coming soon!): www.ivysly.com/games/evil-e...
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 16h
Yeah, I know a few people like that
A screenshot of Steins;Gate for the PlayStation Vita. Kiryu Moeka is at the Future Gadget Lab. Okabe Rintaro is curious about her motives for wanting to see the IBN 5100, speculating "Or maybe she's even a pervert with a retro PC fetish?"
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 1d
A little bit, yeah :(
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 1d
Going live on Twitch with Sakura Wars again! Not quite sure how much longer is left – someone on our team is acting mighty dodgy these days, but we have a battle to kick things off. www.twitch.tv/HKT3030
HKT3030 - Twitch
[18+ stream - expect strong language] Hi, I’m Nick - call me that, or HK. I'm a UK-based gaming writer, and I stream a variety of games - usually retro games. I play on real hardware, and try to show ...
www.twitch.tv
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 1d
I'm not a horror person, but the vibe of the Kurushi demo borders on that and just really works for me.
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 1d
Ooh, very nice! Did you get to see a Videopac G7000?
A Philips Videopac G7000 console with six cartridges. This console is also known as the Magnavox Odyssey 2.
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 1d
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 2d
It will follow me forever
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 2d
The photoshoots definitely made for some memorable spreads! Sometimes it's fun to get a little bit silly with things.
30 Years of Duck Hunt spread from Retro Gamer issue 135. Darran is dressed in his hunting gear, with a beak-shaped duck call in his mouth and a NES Zapper in his hands. The Bluffer's Guide to Dungeons & Dragons spread from Retro Gamer issue 137. Nick is sitting down in a hooded cloak with a ridiculous expression on his face, going to move D&D miniatures with his right hand while conjuring a fireball in his left. Other D&D things are scattered around, including a big box copy of Baldur's Gate and an Intellivision with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 3d
#ScanlineSunday

Samurai Shodown (Neo Geo MVS, 1993)
Wharfedale CTV1428
RGB SCART (via Vogatek Mk.IV Supergun)
A close-up of Haohmaru from the intro to Samurai Shodown, for the Neo Geo MVS.
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 3d
Heck yes! This is the kind of stuff I love to see, photos of how gaming was actually happening rather than some idealised vision of it. Also, I spot Tobal No.1 in that stack…
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 4d
Working on my laptop today. All the previous ones I’ve owned had little hatches to let me access the HDD and RAM. This one is rather inconvenient, as it requires taking the whole bottom panel off to upgrade anything. I’m adding more RAM and a second SSD specifically for games.
The innards of my laptop, exposed. Visible components include the HDD, one stick of RAM, one M2 SSD, and a pair of beefy fans that connect to the CPU and GPU heatsinks with large heat pipes.
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 4d
This one just came up in Back To The Noughties in Retro Gamer. I always intended to play it, but my problems with motion sickness in first person games developed before I could.
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 4d
It’s random game Saturday!

Dragon’s Lair for the SNES, a hand-me-down from an older cousin. Would you believe that I’d never seen or even heard of the arcade original when I first encountered this middling platformer? Needless to say, it took me a while to get what the fuss about Dragon’s Lair was.
A boxed PAL copy of Dragon’s Lair for the SNES.
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 4d
Over my 155 issues on the mag, I’ve been the main writer for about 80 cover features, and contributed to joint efforts too. My first was in my first issue, 124.

If I need to prioritise a cover feature, I’ll sometimes have to pass an interview I conducted to a freelancer. We’re sorting one out now!
retrogamerdaz.bsky.social
RetrogamerDaz @retrogamerdaz.bsky.social · 4d
227) When it comes to writing cover features @hkt3030.neocities.org is the absolute king. He's written so many since issue 124 that I've lost count (I'm sure he hasn't though).
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 4d
Classic Gaming Expo UK 2005 in Croydon! I met Darran for the first time at this event and bought Virtua Cop 2 and Sonic Jam from him. I should have bought Panzer Dragoon Saga instead. He was still on GamesTM at the time, and Retro Gamer’s no-show was my first sign that Live Publishing was no more.
retrogamerdaz.bsky.social
RetrogamerDaz @retrogamerdaz.bsky.social · 4d
219) When the late Doris Self and a number of other US gamers came over for a Gaming Event in 2005 I had to stop her from getting run over crossing a busy London road as she was looking the wrong way while crossing.
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 5d
As someone who has spent nearly 12 years working on a British video game magazine, I wish I could offer a defence. Unfortunately, I came across this page for the first time today.
A competition promoting Evil Zone and Manga Video, which ran in issue 10 of Station, a British PlayStation magazine. Readers are asked to complete the sentence "If tentacles erupted from my guts suddenly, I would…"
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Nick Thorpe @hkt3030.neocities.org · 5d
satisfying horn honk noise
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