By way of introduction
So the short version of this is pretty simple: Hi! My name is Kim Justice, and I’m now writing for Retronauts! Some of you may be familiar with my work on YouTube, or in Retro Gamer - if you are, keep schtum, no sniggering at the back. If you’re not, pleased to meet you! I’m mostly here to cover things of interest from the UK/European side of things, including computers like the ZX Spectrum! The Amiga! And the Mega Drive! (insert cheers and boos where necessary) Here’s hoping that you enjoy all, or at least some of the articles that I’m going to be putting on the site. Bye for now!
That is indeed pretty simple, but it also kind of reads like the cover letter I sent in for my first serious job application. I didn’t get that - probably because I also started that letter with a modifier like “so” - but I did get this, and therefore I should probably try to make my introduction stand out a little bit more while also trying to avoid being judged too much by you, the reader. It’s not easy! But I guess I should start with who I actually am. For convenience’s sake, I’ve split this into a couple of easy to digest bullet points:
- I’m from England. This is undeniably a fact, and that’s obviously played a factor in how I got interested in playing games. I started with the ZX Spectrum at a very young age, playing computer games that often weren’t much more complex than the sort of thing you’d have seen on a 2600 nearly a decade previously, but often had a unique touch and style of their own. Until Sonic and the Mega Drive (the Sega Genesis to most of you) came around, computers pretty much ruled the UK, and I’m still a passionate user of the “Speccy” and other computers like the C64 and the Amiga today - that’s something I hope to communicate to you, as there’s still a lot going on in those scenes, not to mention hundreds of interesting games and stories from the past...why, there’s 24,000 games on the ZX Spectrum alone! I’m not saying that I’m going to cover them all, but a big chunk of them are quite unlike the games that people in America were enjoying at the same time.
- I’m from YouTube. Or rather, YouTube’s where I’ve made my name. Bringing this up could be somewhat troublesome these days, when YouTubers often get in the news for things like being racist, or exploiting their children - truthfully, it’s not an honourable profession. But I’ve been carving out a half acre there for a few years now - mostly with documentary-type videos covering the subjects previously mentioned above, as well as other interests such as the Sony PlayStation, or licensed video games...anything that can be put into a cool historical context. And I do it pretty calmly: I’m not the kind of person who loves to shout at games by LJN and invent compound swearwords to describe them and the like - although I actually do swear a lot, and I’m sure that’ll probably bleed out into my work here before too long.
- I love strange licensed games, generic tie-ins and old sports games, and place as much importance in them as classic games like Final Fantasy VII. Not a joke - as fun as it is to play nothing but the greats, to me it’s often more interesting to look at, say, a game based on an advert starring now-retired footballers beating up a team of Ninjas in order to sell sportswear and contemplate how such a thing came into existence. To use a high-faluting wine tasting analogy, you can’t truly appreciate what the high 90’s taste like unless you’re intimately familiar with the low 70’s. Y’know, the one that got you drunk when you were 16 and made you ruin the rug that tied the room together.
The Mission. The Blotto Bros. jug wine of video games.
- Speaking of Final Fantasy VII, that’s my favourite game of all-time. Always has been, most likely always will be. I may not end up adding to the millions of words written about the game here on Retronauts, although I have already done my fair share elsewhere.
- I’m a big hip-hop fan. Seriously, it’s all I listen to. It motivates me to do my best when doing anything, whether it’s editing videos, working my perpetually stiff body out in the morning, or writing this introductory article right now.
- Fish is my favourite dish*. But without no money, it’s still a wish.
- I don’t think I’ll be using this bullet point style for an article again. I’m growing ever more aware of this piece sounding like a rambling manifesto, and the lil’ black dots aren’t helping with that. So I’ll stop now and just try and write conservationally.
Anyway, you now know more about me than you would have if I’d written something more like that shorter sample at the top. I would like to conclude however by saying that it’s an honour to be invited to write for a site like Retronauts, and I’d like to thank Bob and Jeremy for putting their trust in me and offering me the opportunity - even if there’s a fairly decent chance that they’re going to deeply regret it before too long. You’ll be seeing me here most every day, commenting on the latest Euro-centric retro news, hammering out some old reviews and the odd retrospective or two. Hopefully we can have some fun here! Or at the very least, I can - and in the eyes of an egocentric self-employed YouTube-head like me, that’s much the same thing. See you sometime in the next 24!
* Fish is not actually Kim’s favourite dish, although it would probably be somewhere in the top 10. This bullet-point purely exists for the purpose of a belaboured Eric B. & Rakim reference, which is only going to make people think that she is kind of a smart-arse. If you wish to shout at the author, then Kim can be found on her YouTube channel, or on her Twitter @KimXXXJustice.
