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Wings Over Scotland


The Gathering Storm 116

Posted on October 05, 2023 by

After months of phony war, we’re actually about to find out something concrete about the current state of Scottish politics.

The omens aren’t massively auspicious.

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Going on a journey 116

Posted on October 04, 2023 by

Or not, as the case may be.

All aboard!

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The Winter Of Independence 75

Posted on October 03, 2023 by

Following on from that unforgettable summer:

We’re sure that, like us, you can hardly wait.

From the archives #16 132

Posted on October 02, 2023 by

Someone tweeted this today:

We were curious to find out what we’d said, but it seems to have been expunged from The National’s website. We eventually managed to track the email down in our vaults, though, so just as a bit of a change, here it is, as a reminder of a different time.

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Not long now! 89

Posted on October 01, 2023 by

Get your coat, it’s nearly time.

The Widowmaker 160

Posted on September 30, 2023 by

The greatest intellectual weakness of the independence movement is its attitude towards Trident, and trying to reason with people about it (whether readers or other independence activists) is consistently one of the most frustrating aspects of writing Wings, because nuclear disarmers and Unionists are equally impervious to logic on the subject.

The UK’s nuclear “deterrent” – or as it was more accurately and memorably described by the former Vulcan nuclear bomber squadron commander Air Commodore Alastair Mackie, “a virility symbol, like a stick-on hairy chest” – is the greatest gift to a future Scottish independence negotiating team imaginable.

The rest of the UK gets a lot of economic and infrastructural benefits from Scotland, like water and energy, but ultimately it’s not massively bothered about those. Water is not yet a critical area and energy can be sourced elsewhere, and in any event Brexit shows us that the UK is more than willing to do itself enormous harm in the service of ideological political goals.

But Trident is a whole different kettle of sweaty underwater men.

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The Speccy Arcade 100 (2023 Edition) 1

Posted on September 27, 2023 by

It’s been almost two years since I wrote the totally definitive list of the 100 best arcade conversions (both official and unofficial) on the ZX Spectrum, to mark 30 years since the original Your Sinclair All-Time Top 100 – also compiled and written by me – was published in 1991.

Obviously stuff has continued to happen on the Speccy scene since then, so it’s now, in some senses, not quite so definitive. Or at least it wasn’t, until I updated it, which I’ve just done, so now it is again. Of it. Or something.

(I appear to have a debilitating compulsion to write top 100s for no very good reason. There’s also this one, and I’m currently working on yet another as a distraction from the wretched state of politics, so fans of subjectively-numbered lists of extremely old videogames should definitely stay tuned.)

I also wanted to have it all in one post rather than five, so now if you want to see the videos of the original arcade games you’ll have to click the titles of each entry – only the Speccy videos are embedded within the article, so the page SHOULD now actually load up without falling over.

There are loads of new entries, a few position adjustments – don’t get TOO excited, Bomb Jack fans – and a bit of general tidying, but I haven’t rewritten the entire thing because it’s 33,000 words and I’m not a lunatic, although those two facts are mostly unrelated. So if you haven’t seen it before, go and get a cup of tea and some biscuits, because this might take a while.

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Birth Of A Politician 463

Posted on September 26, 2023 by

You can’t do this, you know. You just can’t.

These things cannot both be true.

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Taking Stock 254

Posted on September 23, 2023 by

Holiday Boy is sadly incapacitated today – ironically, having injured himself on his last holiday – but fortunately we do have some graphical content for you, having just been leaked this copy of the SNP’s campaign poster for the next general election.

You can almost smell the mince and carrots, can’t you?

The Lost Adventurer 2

Posted on September 22, 2023 by

The Spectrum community is arguably more on top of the machine’s history than any other in the world of gaming, so it’s always quite noteworthy when something and/or someone escapes its notice entirely. And so it is with Lukasz Kur.

The screenshot above is of a game called a_e Adventure, or sometimes a_e in King Chrum’s Gold Mines. (According to Kur the character’s name represents “a portion of a forum member’s user name which inadvertantly looked like an emoticon of sorts – a little face with asymetrical eyes.”)

A fun, inventive 12-screen platformer with puzzle elements, it came out in 2014 and was apparently a spiritual successor to a Polish-language text adventure for the C64 and Nintendo DS from a few years earlier by the same author.

That’s already quite weird, but we’re just getting started.

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The Control Panel 212

Posted on September 22, 2023 by

Last night a by-election hustings was held in Rutherglen to which all 14 candidates were invited to hear and answer questions from the electorate on women’s issues. The SNP, Labour, Green and Lib Dem candidates all declined to attend. But the SNP, at least, was represented at the event.

Or at any rate, just outside it.

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The washing of the hands 289

Posted on September 20, 2023 by

The Scottish National Party, in legal character, is what’s known as an unincorporated association. (The same form of entity as Wings, local colour fans.)

This has a number of interesting ramifications.

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    • Dan on Too Tight To Mention: “@Anne Unless there’s been a change in the last 6 months, that’s a different Liz Lloyd. https://www.thenational.scot/news/24712043.liz-lloyd-responds-liz-lloyd-gets-top-job-keir-starmer/Jul 6, 11:43
    • Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “@Dan – it’s a fine article by Barrhead boy. I particularly liked the description of the “vicious” attacks by independence…Jul 6, 11:32
    • Captain Caveman on Too Tight To Mention: “@Aidan So is it the definitively the case that Baird’s petition to the UN has officially been rebuffed/rejected? If so,…Jul 6, 11:19
    • Anne on Too Tight To Mention: “I believe L.L.also works as a policy advisor for the Labour government.All her past efforts are bringing home the gravy.Will…Jul 6, 11:12
    • Captain Caveman on The Con Merchant: ““This is quite the corner of concentrated wit and wisdom…” Well, quite. There’s something ghastly yet inexorably compelling about it…Jul 6, 11:12
    • Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “Sorry, Dan, nothing personal, but I can’t let that one go unanswered. “Over the decades, 5.5 million folk in the…Jul 6, 10:54
    • Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: ““Groundhog day” Clear case of cultural colonisation there, Dan. Anyway. Didn’t some famous boy once say that most people sincerely…Jul 6, 10:23
    • willie on Too Tight To Mention: “Tax Payer facing the bill to fund Peter Murrell’s legal defence against fraud charges screams the headlines very much typifies…Jul 6, 10:17
    • TURABDIN on Too Tight To Mention: “MEANWHILE elsewhere in the British Banana kingdom. https://archive.is/QImRZJul 6, 09:58
    • Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “Look at Starmer. Look at Farage. Haud oan though, that’s England. And this is Scotland. Nothing happens here in years…Jul 6, 09:53
    • Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “You can never hae too mony flags, x. You can use them tae keep warrum in the winter. Wrap one…Jul 6, 09:47
    • Sven on Too Tight To Mention: “100%Yes @ 09.33. OldJapanese saying, “Even monkeys fall out of trees”. Let’s just hope it’s a very long drop onto…Jul 6, 09:46
    • 100%Yes on Too Tight To Mention: “Liz Lloyd appointment, FFS what can you say. The SNP are the biggest threat to Scotland and our people, they…Jul 6, 09:33
    • Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: ““same lunatic asylum as the rest of us” No way TH. There’s “lunatic asylums”, and then there’s lunatic asylums. Most…Jul 6, 09:27
    • Dan on Too Tight To Mention: “Lolz at waking up to another groundhog day with Andy accusing and complaining of others mischaracterising folk when for years…Jul 6, 09:24
    • Hatey McHateface on The Con Merchant: “This is quite the corner of concentrated wit and wisdom. The fat winker, the passed over for promotion, closet lurking,…Jul 6, 09:10
    • Andy Ellis on Too Tight To Mention: “Sarah, you’ve been banging on about the petition for months now. This – as we’re often reminded – the most…Jul 6, 08:58
    • Hatey McHateface on Too Tight To Mention: “Dial 999. Paramedic needed. Suspected overdose of castoreum 🙂Jul 6, 08:53
    • Andy Ellis on Too Tight To Mention: “You seem to have a real bee in your bonnet about Stu’s lack of support for “cunning plans for indy”.…Jul 6, 08:45
    • Andy Ellis on The Con Merchant: “Glandular…uh huh? That right…? Does that account for the tourette’s as well?Jul 6, 08:32
    • twathater on Too Tight To Mention: “Sara thanks for that link to the parliamentary petition, unfortunately it is coming back as server not found And Sarah…Jul 6, 03:05
    • twathater on Too Tight To Mention: “Just like your fellow unionists, TOO stupid to realise that you are in the same lunatic asylum as the rest…Jul 6, 02:59
    • twathater on Too Tight To Mention: “Thanks for that link Dan, apparently there are things happening in Scotland that may be relevant to independence supporters or…Jul 6, 02:49
    • Young Lochinvar on Too Tight To Mention: “Very well said Ian! From apparently halcyon days they are now an incompetent “progressive” (in its worst sense) boil that…Jul 6, 02:09
    • Young Lochinvar on Too Tight To Mention: “I an energy rich country like Scotland,that is surely the most preposterous thing to say.. To look at it another…Jul 6, 02:03
    • James on Too Tight To Mention: “Prick.Jul 6, 01:42
    • James on The Con Merchant: “Andy, it’s glandular with me; I eat next to nothing….Jul 5, 22:46
    • Towbar Sullivan on Too Tight To Mention: “@Northcode KizlodeJul 5, 22:27
    • Andy Ellis on Too Tight To Mention: “@Alf So if (when?) the UN refuses to recognise cases like Scotland, Quebec and Catalonia as de-colonisation…..what then? Seems like…Jul 5, 21:44
    • Aidan on Too Tight To Mention: “@Andy – all valid points, but the thing that chopped it off at the knees is that the UNCDC has…Jul 5, 21:13
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