Film tie-in Flash online games

With eagerly anticipated films such as Shrek 4 and Toy Story 3 coming up over the next couple of months, I thought I'd just remind anyone who's interested that you can play hundreds of fantastic free online games based on films, cartoons, TV shows and video games at these great sites:

The Cartoons, Movies and TV Online Games Site
(Flash online games based on Star Trek, Star Wars, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester, Tweety, Taz, Scooby-Doo, Flintstones, Tom and Jerry, Hong Kong Phooey, Wacky Races, SpongeBob SqaurePants, Avatar the Last Airbender, Naruto, Ben 10, Garfield, Power Rangers, Transformers, Ninja Turtles, Matrix, Hellboy, Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Hulk, Harry Potter, Simpsons, Futurama, South Park, Betty Boop and many more)

The Disney and Pixar Online Games Site
(Flash online games based on Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Winnie the Pooh, Pirates of the Caribbean, Chronicles of Narnia, Lion King, Lilo and Stitch, Bolt, Princess and the Frog, Disney Princess, Toy Story, Buzz Lightyear, Bug's Life, Monsters Inc, Incredibles, Cars, Lightning McQueen, Ratatouille, WALL-E, UP and many more)

The Shrek, Ice Age and Other CG Movies Online Games Site
(Flash online games based on Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs Aliens, Flushed Away, Shark Tale, Ice Age, Horton, Robots, Happy Feet, Astro Boy and many more)

The Mario, Sonic, Nintendo and Sega Online Games Site
(Flash online games based on Super Mario, Luigi, Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Super Smash Bros, Pokemon, Kirby, Legend of Zelda and Megaman)

They're the best online games sites on the web, promise!

Dan Dare books and magazines you should buy

Further to my earlier post about Dan Dare's 60th Anniversary today, and in response to a few subsequent reader's questions, here are links to where you can buy some truly great Dan Dare and Eagle books and magazines:

Classic 1950s and 60s Dan Dare full-colour story reprint books

Garth Ennis and Gary Erskine 2008 Dan Dare story reprint book

Spaceship Away Dan Dare magazine

Eagle Times blog and magazine

Classic 1960s Eagle full-colour Bible Stories reprint book

If you're a comics fan then I thoroughly recommend you to get hold of as many, if not all, of them as possible - you won't be sorry because they are all super-high quality publications!

Today is Dan Dare's 60th Anniversary!

On April 14th, 1950 the first ever issue of the Eagle comic appeared in newsagents in Britain, and its star feature was the now classic sci-fi comic-strip series "Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future".

Dan Dare was created by the late, great Frank Hampson, recognised by his peers in his own lifetime as one of the world's greatest ever comic-strip artists. Every week he and his studio team produced fantastic space adventure stories for the Eagle comic with amazingly detailed and realistic colour illustrations. Almost one million copies of Eagle were sold every week at the height of Dan Dare's popularity in the 1950's, and the character has continued to be very popular in a variety of "rebooted" forms ever since.

Rather than fill up this blog with further illustrations and details of the history of Dan Dare, which would require many pages, please follow these links instead - I think they will prove to be very interesting to you, and will give you an idea of just how brilliant Dan Dare was, and still is:

A complete brief history of Dan Dare

Some original Dan Dare comic-strip reprints in full

A "Dan Dare through the years" picture gallery

An extended alternative Dan Dare gallery

A showcase of original Dan Dare artwork samples

To commemorate Dan Dare's 60th Birthday, I have commissioned a brand new Dan Dare Flash online game called "Dan Dare MatchIt", which is a fun picture card matching memory game. You can play it online here:

Dan Dare 60th Anniversary MatchIt Flash online game

The game is completely free to play and distribute, so if you would like to add it into your own web space or site, you can download the .swf Flash game file and an example .html page (with useful notes) to run it here:

Dan Dare 60th Anniversary MatchIt game download

Enjoy! :-)

(See also here)

Thailand political unrest - 19 dead in Bangkok fighting

Unfortunately the continuing political unrest here took a terrible violent turn for the worst last night when 19 people were killed and more than 800 were injured during fighting in Bangkok between anti-government protestors and the Thai military.

Luckily for us we're currently "up country" and not in the capital. See Su's blog post about last night's turmoil in Bangkok for more information.

Update on April 14, 2010 at 7:45 AM: Sadly, the official death toll from Saturday night's violence has now risen to 23, because 4 people seriously injured in the clashes have since died in hospital.

Pac-Man, plus Mario Pac-Man and Sonic Pac-Man

Pac-Man (which is much more commonly written as Pacman, despite the fact that it's technically incorrect that way) was one of the first ever colour video games - it made its debut in video arcades almost exactly 30 years ago, way back in May 1980.

It was the first ever video game to become truly popular in global mainstream culture, to the extent that the Pac-Man character became an instantly recognizable icon during the 1980s. It is a true gaming classic, and is still very popular today - indeed, its simple, fun and addictive gameplay puts many modern 3D "mega-games" to shame.

There are some brilliant Flash online versions of the Pac-Man game in the MarioSonicGames.com site for you to try if you would like to experience the legend for yourself - two versions with a Super Mario Bros. theme and one with a Sonic the Hedgehog theme. There is also a superb reproduction of the classic original, plus an awesome Disney/Pixar "UP" 3D isometric version too:

  Classic Original Pacman

  Super Mario Bros. Pacman

  Baby Luigi Pacman

  Sonic Knuckles Pacman

  UP: Kevin's Chocogobble Pacman

Interesting trivia: Pac-Man was actually originally called "Puck Man", but the name was changed in North America in case any mischievous people vandalized the video game cabinets replacing the "P" with an "F". Read it here if you don't believe it: Pac-Man Wikipedia article