Simon Barker's Articles On Zath

Simon Barker is the founder and editor of Zath and has over 25 years’ worth of experience of using computers and technology in general. He can normally be found researching or testing the latest in technology products.

He has provided IT consultancy services to both home and small business users for over 15 years, building PCs, fixing hardware/software problems and providing comprehensive training.

Simon always likes to get the best out of the technology products he is using, by both making informed purchasing decisions and also optimising how they are used to get the most benefits possible.

If you'd like to follow and/or contact him on Twitter, please feel free to do so - @SimonBarker.

Northern UK Bloggers’ Meetup Review (Leeds Blogging Event)

16th August 2008 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 19th April 2019

The first Northern UK Bloggers’ Meetup took place yesterday at the Old Broadcasting House in Leeds — which is now one of the facilities of Leeds Met University, which happens to be where I was a student back in 2001-2004 — it kind of felt like I’d come full circle!

The aim of this first session was to decide on the format for future events (which we kind of did), have some informal discussions about blogging and basically get to know each other.

In total there were about 20 bloggers that turned out for this initial event, we proceeded into the “boardroom” — not quite like the Apprentice with Sir Alan Sugar waiting for us — there was certainly no intimidating grillings, it was a very relaxed and good-humoured affair.
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Taking Portable Handheld Gaming Seriously – Has Its Time Come?

12th August 2008 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 20th October 2018

sony-psp-game-playing Zath: Portable handheld gaming is something that I’ve never really got into myself despite being a big fan of various types of gaming, back in the early days I never ended getting a Game Boy – there was always some other expensive gaming hardware to buy, usually PC-related that my money went on. Even to this day I’ve still not embraced portable gaming with either the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP, or even with games on mobile phones – perhaps I’m too much of a purist? Anyway, with that in mind, this post is a guest post written by Daniel Johnson who covers a wide variety of gaming commentary on his website; Daniel Primed – if you’ve not already seen it, I’d suggest you take some time out and read some of his thoughts on gaming – he has a lot of quality content such as How Does it Feel to Play a Video Game?!

The portable gaming space has been continuously growing in size since hitting the mainstream with the Game Boy in 1989 (1990, PAL) and now, in 2008, this market has gained equal footing with the home console market, representing the strongest area in growth in the industry. Despite biding well with a good chunk of the market, portable games still remain an afterthought for both developer and media alike.
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Belief and Betrayal Review (PC)

24th July 2008 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 17th December 2019

Belief and Betrayal is a ‘Point and Click Adventure game’ — something you see a lot less of these days in the age of photo-realistic graphics and free-roaming open-ended game worlds. The ‘Point and Click Adventure’ was a type of game which saw real success back in the 90s – those were the days of great games like Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Broken Sword — unfortunately here’s where the likeness ends!

Belief and Betrayal states on the box “Unveil dark secrets that could destroy humanity” and “Become enthralled in a secretive and mysterious world of power and intrigue; truth and conspiracy” — which I initially thought, “this sounds an awful lot like the Da Vinci Code, but it might be good all the same”, I think it’s fair to say the developers have taken some inspiration from it!

I installed the game — it took a while, so I went away and make a hot beverage, came back to find it was still installing — it eventually finished, I took this to be a good sign – there must be lots of high-quality graphics and audio to make for a really polished game experience. Unfortunately once I loaded the game up I found that this certainly wasn’t the case!
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Dell Event at Formula 1 Silverstone Testing Day Review

12th July 2008 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 23rd May 2019

A few weeks ago I was invited by Dell to attend a Silverstone Formula 1 testing day (26th June 2008) which was actually the final testing session before the British Grand Prix took place there just over a week later. The purpose of the day was for the launch of the new Dell Studio laptops. This was the second Dell event that I’d been asked to take part in, it was, therefore, a great opportunity and I gladly accepted.

Only then did I then find out that we’d be getting flown into Silverstone by helicopter – a place, where on the day of the British F1 Grand Prix is the busiest “Heliport” in the world!

I had to meet up at an Elstree Aerodrome in North London for 8.30am — it meant I had to get up at around 3am — which is probably the earliest I’ve ever had to, so that was bit of a shock to the system! I was out of the house and on the road by around 4am — but it would ultimately be a very worthwhile journey!
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Battlefield: Bad Company Review (Xbox 360)

7th July 2008 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 2nd November 2019

The switch back and forth from PC to 360 controllers is never easy, but Battlefield: Bad Company certainly incentivises the experience. It even got me wrestling with my AV amp in search of some quality surround sound to match the rest of the game.

Using technology to improve gaming immersion is all very well in theory. But in practice, when I came to play Battlefield: Bad Company, I found that my surround sound system was not co-operating at all! Admittedly it started to die a few months back when you’d switch it on and hear the sound stuttering until it had warmed up. Being a bit of a tech-head I’ve tried investigating various options to get it working but to no avail. So until I receive the new system I’ve got on back-order I have to turn it on a while before I want to play.
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Is Digital Game Distribution The Future For Gaming?

21st June 2008 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 2nd November 2019

broken-dvd-game-disc I recently tried and failed to buy Grand Theft Auto 4 in local stores around the day of release – yeah I know I should pre-ordered it a long time ago, but what can I say, every other GTA game I’ve played has been on the PC, so I’ve never experienced places having no stocks, plus I’m used to waiting at least 6 months anyway!

The Physical Issue?

This situation then got me thinking about the way games are still being distributed, I wondered how many other people like me were willing to pay for it on the day of release — I’d taken a day off work and everything! It eventually took me around 2 weeks until I found a store to buy it from — I’d have bought it from an online store before then, but I’d got that annoyed by the situation I’d decided to just wait for the PC release again, it was only because I saw it and it was only an impulse buy that meant they got my money this time around.
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When Good Games Go Bad! – The Not So Elite: First Encounters

30th April 2008 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 2nd November 2019

A really well designed and executed game can be a wondrous thing – but what happens to even the best of ideas and game concepts when they’re hampered or even ruined by poor execution?

I’m sure we’ve experienced this kind of gaming frustration, in some ways it would be better if the game in question was just an absolute turkey from the outset than face this kind of disappointment. But when a good game is almost forced into being a bad one, either by a poor development team working on it or more often than not, publishers rushing to get a game out to hit a certain release and compromising the entire game in the process.
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Do You Conform To A Gamer Stereotype?

27th March 2008 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 2nd November 2019

Portable Gamer Geek Am I a Stereotypical gamer? What is a stereotypical gamer?

I can certainly tell you what I’m not and that is a “hard-core gamer”, someone who spends large amounts of their free time playing video games — I admit I used to do this much more when I was younger.
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What Does Playing Video Games Say About Me?

12th February 2008 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 2nd November 2019

I don’t think you’re an open book to people just from the type of video games you play, I mean just because I, Simon Barker play a Grand Theft Auto game, that doesn’t necessarily make me a threat to society, does it? Despite what certain people would have you know about games such as these. What does playing certain video games say about me?

However, that said if people were to play the following games they could perhaps get an insight into who I am as a person and therefore get to me know on a certain level — or at least I can interpret what I think playing these games say about me. I mean, if you were to play them you’d take your own personal experiences away from them which may not be what I would, don’t you think?
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New Year’s Gaming Resolutions – Are They Worth It?

6th January 2008 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 1st June 2019

New Year’s Resolutions? Are they actually worth anything? I’m normally someone who believes that if you need an excuse like New Year to make a change, then it is probably doomed to failure.

That said, I’m not normally one for making them, but I’m thinking that it is perhaps time that I outlined some “general gaming objectives” that I’ve come up with over the past few months, since in recent years I’m having real problems with gaming, mostly around the “not finding the time to play” all the games that I buy!
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Simon Barker's Articles On Zath

The Physical Issue?

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