What's Kept Me Busy, and Done Wonders For My Mental Health, in a Bizarre Era - @cultaholic @howling_techie @kasuds @flukesnotskill

 Mental health is a funny thing. It can be as predictable as it is unpredictable. It can be your defining trait or it can be two words that nobody ever associates with you. My mental health has never been close to being tip-top but, over the course of the pandemic, it hasn't been as erratic as I'd expected. A lack of things to do meant a lack of stress, which in turn meant I've done relatively well over the last 16 months. However, I know that that hasn't been the case for everybody. Some have struggled under the circumstances and many haven't coped. 

One thing that's really helped me over the last year and a bit has been volunteering. Keeping myself occupied in a stress-free manner, helping out someone else, giving those in need an extra pair of hands for a bit of heavy lifting and someone to talk to. There's been a local project where I've been helping out, mostly in a production aspect for some broadcasting online, but there's a lot that goes on in that building. Unemployment projects, talking therapies, a food bank, and there'll soon be a diner/cafe type thing on the go. A bit of everything that anyone could find something to do, things that they wouldn't mind giving up a few hours of their time for. You get to know people, you're doing something productive with some hours that'd you'd otherwise spend sat on your arse in front of a screen. 

Strike It Lucky or Strike It Rich - Whichever Name it Went By, It Was Great Fun

Strike It Lucky or Strike It Rich - Whichever name it went by, it was great fun and now there's probably the nearest there'll ever be to some official uploads.

Yesterday whilst scrolling Twitter, as I'm one to do, I happened across something that caught my eye:

The best way to start the weekend is with a dose of Eric and a good belly laugh! A good cure. The FULL episode is over on my YouTube channel (link below) X pic.twitter.com/0Msakyx1HQ

— Michael Barrymore (@MrBarrymore) June 11, 2021

The key bit that I noticed, "The full episode is over on my YouTube channel". Michael Barrymore is uploading episodes of Strike It Rich himself and I'm all for it. There's a lot of shows I've been watching on YouTube over the last year and a bit, and I'm very well aware they probably aren't from 100% legitimate sources. I don't imagine all those episodes of Indoor League I've enjoyed came from someone at Yorkshire Television. And if you like Indoor League, I highly recommend twitch.tv/nikkiandbunty on a Sunday evening, their watch-along streams usually include some Indoor League and Fred Trueman being the most Yorkshire Yorkshireman that ever did Yorkshire.

Strike It Lucky/Rich was a great show, it's quite hard to find anything not to like. An easy to follow format that doesn't suffer from one of my biggest bugbears of modern TV, overproduction. Nowadays everything seems like it's timed to the second, positions and timing are adhered to very strictly and there's no room for spontaneity. In stark contrast, Michael Barrymore found time to completely derail a show from the running order, start dancing with contestants, rant at production about giving an elderly couple trapeze lessons as a prize. One great example, the show starts with an introduction to the contestants which just never ends because MB just gets such great entertainment out of a couple. It goes so long, the episode goes on to skip the first half of the game just to make sure the show still fits its half-hour slot.

If you've never seen it, give it a half hour of your day, it's simply enjoyable throughout:

And I can't mention Strike It Lucky without mentioning the parody from Dick 'n Dom, Strike It Mucky. You know what they say about imitation. Mark Lamarr was less than complimentary about a similar parody of himself on "Never Muck the Buzzcocks" but I hope MB doesn't mind Dave Chapman's impersonation.

 

Fun fact: Dave Chapman, with his other talents as a puppeteer, would later be behind BB8 in Star Wars

Series by Series - My Favourite Games, Revival Edition

 I fully intended on doing this a few weeks ago while my 90s favourites were still fresh in my mind, but then life got in the way. However, I was watching one of my preferred Twitch streams (If someone's watching game shows on Twitch I'm either lurking or annoying the streamer and chat room inhabitants with a pile of pointless info) and it just got me back to wanting to get this done. 

This list is going to be distinctly shorter as I'm only choosing one game from each round of filming. All4 might have the revived series down as 8 series, but those have been put together as 8 runs from 3 rounds of filming. One round a year in 2017, '18 and '19. This is why most games were seen in multiple series.

So, my 3 favourite games from the revived incarnation of The Crystal Maze. Here we go.

2017

Gameshows and Streaming: Twitch Communities Making Viewing a Social Night In

 We're in a weird time, aren't we? We can't really have the level of socialization that we used to have (I've never been social but I know people like interacting) and yet thanks to modern technology we can still communicate in ways that the human race could never have imagined even 50 years ago. If you've ever used Twitch, you'll know that whatever people can do for a live-stream, they'll do happily and build up an audience. It's certainly been a way for people to fill their time under present circumstances.

Performers have turned to Twitch to generate some additional income in these times where they can't be booking gigs and getting on stage for audiences. Comedian and podcaster Richard Herring can't do his podcasts or shows from Leicester Square Theatre anymore so he's doing them live-streamed on Twitch. Likewise for Limmy, instead of being able to tell jokes on stage, he's taken to playing truck driving simulators for hundreds of viewers. Even as I'm typing this, Love Island narrator and Taskmaster alumnus Iain Stirling is playing FIFA 21 for 800 viewers.

TV presenters, wrestlers, singers, writers, people from all areas of entertainment have been creating content on Twitch including many who've already built up a following on YouTube.

Getting Into Game Show Streaming inc. The Crystal Maze PC game

I'm a life long gamer. Since I first tore open a present of a Sega Master System 2 with built-in Sonic the Hedgehog (8-Bit version, bit different to the version everyone's familiar with), I haven't stopped. 

If you've got a PSN account, I'm 'Spudgun20', come say hello.

I recently got a new laptop which, unlike my past computers, doesn't soil itself trying to do anything more complex than minesweeper so I've been playing my old PS1 games via some emulators and I figured it could be fun to stream said games. 

As such, at twitch.tv/spudgun20 I'm going to be playing games such as 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire', 'The Weakest Link', 'Jeopardy', and a whole host of other older games on Twitch. It'll be mostly game shows but not exclusively, e.g. I've been rediscovering the game for The Italian Job. Chat'll be open, I'll get the old Crystal Maze PC game going, you can enjoy a relentless torrent of bad-control based failure.

If you know of any other game shows turned into games then let me know below. For now I've got TCM, Blockbusters, Weakest Link, Jeopardy, and Millionaire but I'd love to grow that list.

Follow me at twitch.tv/spudgun20 and say hi!

P.S. was setting my streaming up, looking for sound effects, and I found the ultimate clip of Chris Tarrant doing an alternate take for a voiceclip for a PC WWTBAM game (Some swearing within):

Week One Of The UK Lockdown Done, How's Everyone Doing?

Obviously, with TV production at a bare minimum and presenters hosting shows from their homes, there's not going to be any TCM in the near future. So, putting game shows to the side for now, how's everyone coping? Think I can sum up my monotonous days quite adequately in a song...

On the plus side, I finally got hold of another book I needed for my TCM collection. The Crystal Maze Puzzle Book 2 has been listed online for months at extortionate prices. Only a week or so ago it was on eBay for £77. I know that the main book seller on there has an automated pricing system so its an algorithm deciding to try and fleece bank accounts but still, £77. Thankfully that automated system dropped it to £6 at the back end of last week so I snapped it up while I could before it shot up again.

 Let us know how you're managing in the comments below. Found anything good worth watching to share? Just need a chat? I might have to sort out a little get together on Twitch or something