Affectionate Discourse Oratorio Tangram

In direct violation of several court orders, Tony tracks down ex-Journo and F2P expert Mark Sorrell and harasses him at length, spoiling what would have been a really pleasant walk in the country. We chat about AI for the most part, and how we see it might influence and affect videogames in general. Expect slammed dynamics (sloppy normalisation), some panting (due to exercise), strong opinions (due to gross ignorance on my part) and swearing (par for the course).Tony wrote about AI once and has seemingly learned nothing since, and you can read it here.Mark writes about AI and other things right here.

Once again, Tony Coles waffles indulgently about games he loves and loathes with a surprising density of swearing, even by his usual standards. This one is all about the niche, featuring discussion of Shmups R-Type Final 3 Ultimate, Gradius V and the historical compilation, Gradius Origins. Also mentioned for extra cool points are Blazing Star and Progear. Tony uses the second half to ramble about WH Smiths as an excuse to smuggle in a bit about the SID chip and its tunes while utterly fumbling its model number like a rank amateur. He ends up losing his shit, Ed Zitron style, over the death of physical games and arguing that everybody should be ransacking charity shops of DVDs because you can buy a HDMI-out player in B&M for £25.Read about R-Type Final 3 Ultimate here and here.Read about the death of GAME here!Listen to the SIDtune mix right here.Also read everything on Affectionate Discourse, because he needs the likes and shares.Email affectionatediscourse@gmail.com or abuse him at length on Bluesky.

Hello! This is the first episode of the official Affectionate Discourse podcast, which is a Substack about videogames and videogaming culture written by me, Tony Coles. This podcast has some origin story waffle, but is mostly to do with my PlayStation 2. Feel free to assail me with any corrections, complaints, desires and so forth. Find me via the Substack, on Bluesky, or email me at affectionatediscourse@gmail dot com.I sincerely hope I manage to record more than one episode of this.Best wishes,Tony