Rob’s Punching Robots Club

** with your host, rob remakes **

main

the gallery

newsletter

tatwatch

notes

Author: robotron2084

  • Oidanoid, drawn by Rob

    Chris has been chipping away at Oidanoid for a while now and quite a few folk have had a play around with it before me. I’ll admit that it wasn’t for want of opportunity, it was just I kept forgetting because I’m completely rubbish.

    Fortunately for me, I got thrown a link to the latest version yesterday, downloaded the thing, popped it onto the Steam deck and … yeah, go on then!

    It’s a neat twin sticker very, very much more in the Minter vein than what I do and obviously, everyone knows that’s the correct approach to anything whatsoever. There’s a lot of Yak DNA to the game with its biscuits, flying text, and more chill Llamatrom vibes and that’s probably the first thing anyone will notice.

    A bit of a play and that rather slips away as it reveals itself to be, and I piss you not about this, more Blue Jam than you’d expect any game to be. There’s a constant, calm but unsettling ambience to everything and sure, as far as I could tell nobody has put any lizards in my Steam deck, it still made for a pretty weird (in a very good way) experience.

    And, you know, I do love a game that feels extra personal. Aside from some social media chats over the years I don’t really know Chris as a person but this is one of those videogame recipes where it feels like there’s only one person in the world who could make this the way it’s made and that’s my favourite thing in anything, ever.

    So of course I had to give it a doodle. I love that stuff. Plus, you know, neon grids. I can’t help myself.

    You can follow what Chris is up to over on the Blueskys. Go on.

  • Space Invader, drawn by Rob

    Mucking around with some bits and pieces and this is where it ended up. Quite like it! It should be the law that you have to put a neon grid in everything.

  • Half Man, Half Biscuit – Oblong Of Dreams

    Having a glum day, listening to HMHB because some days you just really need to go and do that. It’s not just the jokes that get me through.

    Idly thinking about the social media clowns that are Sleaford Mods and how much more on point, how much more angry in the right direction – not complaining the world is shit and everyone else is a wanker – just the first verse alone of Oblong Of Dreams is compared to their entire oeuvre.

    “Move him onto his side —
    Give him dignity, give him some warmth
    Which he’d possibly not received of late
    I’m not a mate as such
    I just used to see him around and about
    And I could never work out if he was heading
    For a food bank or a pharmacy
    A field path or indecency
    Either way, he’s out of it now    ”

    You couldn’t imagine them ever being able to write something with the righteous, direct, fury of A Country Practice, which 26 years on is still way, way too fucking relevant.

    ”She died with her telly on, eighty-seven and confused
    With not enough hospital beds ‘cos all the money’s been used
    On the end of the century party preparations
    And they reckon that the last thing she saw in her life was
    Sting, singing on the roof of the Barbican”

    That’s what kind of gets me, has always got me, about Half Man, Half Biscuit. I can sit here talking for days about being in love with the jokes, the wordplay, everyone can hear Vatican Broadside and have it stuck in their head forevermore, but there’s a deep, deep compassion that comes with the jokes, the prodding at the absurdity of the middle classes and shaggy dog stories. And the anger at the things that are wrong.

    26 years on and A Country Practice shouldn’t be relevant. The way 2025 is going, it’s fair to say the now three year old Oblong Of Dreams shouldn’t be too. But it is. And here we are.

    I’m having a bad day, thank fuck for HMHB.

  • Elite, drawn by Rob

    To be honest, I just wanted to see if I could doodle a decent enough space tube and needed something to pop on top of that to see whether it worked. I don’t really care for Elite all that much! Each to their own and all that, it just isn’t my bag of space videogame.

    Still! It gave me a nice break from drawing mascots and I think I’ve sort of got a way of doing tubes how I want to. Wahey, etc…

  • Alcatraz Harry, drawn by Rob

    I weirdly enjoy people finding out that no, I’m not making them up, Alcatraz Harry was a legit, two game, videogame mascot character.

    Whilst everyone else was off with Ramsey The Racist Raccoon or something, here was Barry Jones making a game about a dude in Alcatraz, called Harry. Amazing. Probably dodge too but here he is.

    Alcatraz Harry at Spectrum Computing

  • I, Ball – drawn by Rob

    Pity poor I, Ball, not only a largely forgotten character in the annals of videogame but who, for their second outing, became a being of purest chrome. Still, they looked pretty chonky and far from an executive toy so it could have been worse.

    I have a fondness for Steinar Lund’s take on the character more, though both are pretty fine really. So that’s the one I went with when it came to doodling them, army fatigues, laser guns and helmet and all.

    I, Ball at Spectrum Computing

  • Fido, drawn by Rob

    I’ve always, always, found myself drawn to the small, the janky and in some cases, downright tatty when it comes to my tastes. Whether it’s watching (and enjoying!) cheap films, games or whatever, I’m much more at home with rough edges and jank than I am with super polished, super slick stuff.

    Obviously, the dawning of home computer games and the wild spread of stuff being made, listed, or sold meant I would rarely be short of stuff to tinker with and the notorious Don’t Buy This – five pointedly crap games for a couple of quid and a bit – didn’t exactly help either.

    And sure, most of the games on the compilation were games I was in no rush to play. Fido, however, was an exception. A simple and juuuuust about responsive enough to play whack a mole videogame with a cute doggo, Fido got a lot of play. More than a whole bunch of higher rated, better remembered videogames.

    I could rarely be arsed with Fido 2, solely by virtue of having to put effort into forwarding the tape on far enough to get to it rather than having any particular beef with it but the first one? I still like it and still reckon I got more than my two pounds and fifty UK pence worth of videogame from it.

    I can’t recommend anybody else play it! Well, unless you’re like me and thrive on tat, then definitely, definitely, definitely grab Don’t Buy This and give it a play.

    Don’t Buy This at Spectrum Computing

  • Olli And Lissa (and Sir Humphrey), drawn by Rob

    Despite being perfectly fine mascots (and certainly cuter than that egg) Olli And Lissa got short shrift in the cover art stakes. A screaming dude for the first, their names reduced to a barely noticeable size for the second as a spooky witch takes centre stage in their place and in the third, inexplicably becoming dogs.

    A bit silly because whilst slight, they were a perfectly fine bunch of games and really quite pretty to boot.

    I guess this is just my way of making it up to them somewhat. Better late than never and all that.

    Olli And Lissa at Spectrum Computing.

  • Whiskfinder General Dizzy, drawn by Rob

    It’s been a while since I last picked on the egg.

    I’ve got no excuse for this one really. Yes, I was watching a Vincent Price film whilst sketching it out but that was House Of Wax, not Witchfinder General.

    At least I can honestly say the pun isn’t mine. Everything else though? Yeah, sorry. Sorry about your egg.

  • No Man’s Sky: Worlds II Underwater Screenshots

    First world I’ve taken to exploring after polishing off the quest to open up the new star systems for exploration and its got a 400 unit deep ocean that takes an absolute age to reach the floor of.

    It’s immensely beautiful down there, I’ve found myself just slowly swimming about the place, occasionally grabbing some resources but not with any intent, and enjoying the view.