Making this a public post because I thought it might be nice to share it a bit more widely, for reasons that will probably become apparent!
Hello! Happy new year! Thank you, once again, to everyone who has supported my efforts in exploring, preserving and analysing overlooked, underappreciated and retro games over the course of the last year (and more, in some cases!) — and welcome to those of you who have never stopped by my Patreon page before. Do please check out the main profile page if you haven't already — it explains a lot more about who I am and what I do.
Anyway, for this official first post of 2020, I wanted to highlight the creators that I've thrown my support behind on this 'ere platform, because you might be interested in checking out their work, too!
In the order that they appear on my active memberships page, then…
CheapShow – A wonderfully anarchic comedy podcast from the delightfully creative minds of Paul Gannon and Eli Silverman, with occasional guest appearances from fine folks such as Paul "Mr Biffo" Rose, Stuart "ashens" Ashen and many more. Gannon and Silverman are clearly committed to making the most entertaining show they possibly can, and are very obviously great friends; this comes across in the amazing chemistry they have, which often sees them yelling insults at one another during episodes in the same way that one does with only one's very closest friends.
CheapShow is, in its own words, all about getting the very best out of the very worst, and delves into the charity shops, the bargain bins, the discount stores, the jumble sales, the bazaars and car boot sales of the world in order to find the treasure among the trash.
Expect plenty of doot-doodoo-doo-doot sauce reports, discussions of Cheap Eats, the official League of Snacks (and crisps) plus, of course, Eli's Country Urban Noodle Testlab Kitchen. People love noodles, all right? It's a fact of CheapShow you're going to have to learn to fuckin' accept. Check out CheapShow here.
Paul Rose – Mr Biffo here was a defining influence on a generation of British teens who were interested in video games, thanks to his delightfully offbeat Digitiser pages on teletext. In recent years, Biffo has been flexing his creative muscles with a variety of projects, including the wonderfully bizarre Mr Biffo's Found Footage and, of course, the return of the Digitiser brand as written articles, full-length TV-style shows on YouTube and, most recently, hilarious "minis" on YouTube. Biffo is a constant inspiration who always wants to push himself further — too far, sometimes, one might argue — and is more interested in expressing his own creativity and offbeat sense of humour than appealing to a particular "market".
Digitiser as a "brand" (such as it is) has evolved somewhat from just covering video games to more broad nostalgia and grown-ups being free to indulge in childish, imaginative play. You often come away from a modern episode of Digitiser Minis on YouTube not being quite sure what you just watched, but well aware that you had a very good time while your brain was being systematically melted. It's the craziness of early '90s Saturday morning children's television for the over-30s… or perhaps more accurately, the over-30s who have never shown any desire whatsoever to grow up. Find Biffo on YouTube here.
Rob Caporetto – Known as "hellfire64" on YouTube, Rob is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable retro gamer who specialises in 8-bit home computer platforms — particularly, as his username suggests, the Commodore 64. His Beyond the Scanlines series of videos provide well-researched documentary-style presentations about games or series that he finds particularly noteworthy or interesting — not necessarily the biggest or most famous names out there, but for me, that's precisely what makes Beyond the Scanlines worthy of note itself.
Rob's been a tremendously supportive presence on my Atari A to Z project in particular, so I was glad to throw my support behind his own work. He clearly throws a huge amount of dedication and passion into it, so if you have the slightest interest in retro microcomputers, I urge you to give him a follow. Find Rob on YouTube here.
The Well-Red Mage – Moses at The Well-Red Mage and his veritable army of contributors are doing their absolute best to genuinely redefine what a large-scale, collaborative video game site should be all about. Much like MoeGamer, Red and the team don't necessarily cover the latest or the greatest games — but that's what makes their coverage consistently interesting and a pleasure to read.
Red is also immensely supportive of the enthusiast gaming blogger community; many of his contributors are drawn from around the WordPress community at large, and he runs frequent donation drives where anyone throwing their support behind The Well-Red Mage can nominate a particular creator for Red to support in exchange.
The Well-Red Mage's recent site redesign looks lovely, and it's clear the whole team are in this for the long haul. I wish them every success, and we need more fine folks like them out here. Pay them a visit!
Liana Kerzner – Liana has been kind enough to support some of my work in the last year, particularly my piece on MoeGamer about how we need to get better at talking about sex. I've always enjoyed every conversation I've had with her, and she was also good enough to put me in touch with Lori and Corey Cole, creators of the Quest for Glory series, so I could pick their brains about their upcoming new Hero-U project. You can read that interview here!
Liana provides commentary on gaming and popular culture via her YouTube channel, and is presently putting the finishing touches to her new series called BOSSFIGHT, which is about video game myths. She's an insightful, knowledgeable commentator who is able to respect a variety of viewpoints while expressing her own opinions with confidence and without shame — and she's often what feels like a lone voice of sanity in the more mainstream side of the modern gaming sphere online. Check out her YouTube channel here.
I'd also like to give a shout-out to Matthew of Normal Happenings, who is no longer accepting Patreon donations, but who has been kind enough to support my work here on the platform even after he stopped taking his own income here. Matt is a wonderfully supportive presence in the WordPress community, and now we're in 2020, his most ambitious collaborative project, The Characters That Define Us, will be kicking off very soon! I'm a part of this, and it's going to be fascinating to see it unfold over the course of the coming year.
If you're a writer, Normal Happenings also plays host to daily writing prompts known as Daily Inklings, so if you're ever struggling for something to write about, be sure to check the archives — these are starting up again soon after the site's ambitious redesign, so subscribe to get your daily inspiration!
That's everyone for now, then; I do shift my Patreon pledges around every so often according to my own financial circumstances and if there are any other creators that I particularly want to support at any time, but at the time of writing, these are the people I'm currently pledged to. Do please check out what they do — they all do fantastic work and deserve both plenty of success and your support.
Once again, happy new year, and thank you for your support as we move into 2020.
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