Weeknote: 19 October 2024 – retro games, app ecosystems and comics

Published stuff
My column for Stuff this week is I’m converted: cheap and cheerful plug-and-play is a great way to revisit classic retro games. While I understand the love for original hardware and flexibility, I’m getting to the point where I just want to pick up a controller and play. Plug-and-play TV units do the job, but I’m also really enjoying the new Hyper Mega Tech Super Pockets, which are just play, rather than plug.
Each one feels like a greatest hits album from a classic publisher. If you want to see the latest two in action, check out my 24-second YouTube first look ‘epic’.
Over at TapSmart, I wrote about iPhone 16 vs iPhone 16 Pro and asked whether the Pro is still worth it. And camera app Halide became the latest entry in my classic apps series.
Other stuff
Joan Westenberg asked people about the struggle between “the seamless simplicity of an all-Apple ecosystem [and] the freedom and flexibility of cross-platform independence”. I struggle with this myself. iCloud is too flaky to be reliable. Notes is a risk, because I for years had a scratchpad that had loads of stuff in, and it one day vanished. (I managed to get a version back by powering on a laptop I’d not opened in a week and turning off Wi-Fi before it could sync. That still lost me a week of input though.) Apps can help, such as Exporter, but I really wish Apple’s first-party apps were better at export. And that’s because I do value the simplicity of the ecosystem, and am now fully on board with the Reminders set-up I wrote about last week.
Elsewhere, I found myself in a discussion that comics are doomed because today’s children only love screens. Which is rubbish. What matters are habits, and those are driven by parents and accessibility.
Regarding comics, there are three issues. The first is that, for years (although this is changing), educators dismissed them. Children were taught comics were ‘lesser’ and not proper reading. I was therefore delighted when my daughter’s school specifically listed comics in her reading recommendations, alongside prose fiction, non-fiction, magazines and poetry.
The second – arguably bigger – concern is we have an entire generation of parents who themselves never got into the comics habit in the UK, because the market was largely destroyed during the 1990s. I’m an old fart compared to many parents in my kid’s year. I also love comics. So mini-G has subs to three of them. As far as I’m aware, no-one else in her class is subscribed to any comics at all. One boy had (but no longer has) a Beano subscription. These kids are only ten years old. At that age, I had loads of the things.
Finally, there is the issue of accessibility. Comics used to be a working class thing and priced accordingly, but the market shifted. Magazines and comics are no longer impulse purchases like they once were, but things you consider. That in itself adds a barrier. Doubly so when you look at the rapid reduction in outlets as supermarkets pare back magazine sales and branches of WHSmith decide they want to focus on stationery and cards.
Fortunately, the market has responded. Bookstores sell chunky paperback comics and manga. Jamie Smart has sold over a million copies of Bunny vs Monkey. As a fan of that strip, I’m thrilled for Jamie Smart. But I can’t help but feel wistful for a time that gave kids more choice with cheap weeklies, which because of their sheer number gave many more cartoonists opportunities than comparatively risky books ever will.
If you’re in the UK, have a youngling and like the idea of comics, I strongly recommend the six issues for £1 offer from The Phoenix. The Beano and Monster Fun also have great offers for new subscribers as well.