Warren Pilkington

@zawtowers

IT person by day, former Zzap! 64 and Commodore Format contributor, Man City fan, F1, snooker, writer, poet, photographer and music lover at all other times.

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Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· 22d

Can we talk about Rodri? He's won the Golden Ball (and the 11th player in history to win the World Cup, Champions League and Ballon D'Or.) (image via Man City website)

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Jul 9

Alternative Forever would have been a better name. Still smacks of those horrible alt 90s compilations attempting to be cool and trendy with "ooh look we've got Oasis and Blur on this!" advertising. I'd much rather be playing this, when indie *was* independent labels. What a compilation this is!

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Jun 20

Riffs? Yeah! Can u dig it? #PWEI #PopWillEatItself

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Jun 16

I see you and raise you this.

The front cover of Front Line Assembly's Iceolate 12 inch single. The band name and single title lettering are at the top, with a computer image of a person with an open mouth below.

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Jun 16

This still makes me chuckle. Located in memory of the Mayhem Music Mix Demo 1 from Apex Computer Productions, on issue 44's cover tape of @commodoreformat.bsky.social (alt text provided)

The machine code monitor of the Commodore 64 emulator VICE, showing a hidden message in memory at location $4267:
"This is a message to Warren Pilkington. We know you'd look in here you predictable bastard!" - The Boyz

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Jun 10

Eight years ago today. One for the train nerds amongst you. The perfect Pacer kiss is the kiss of death. #Pacer #BusOnTracks #Northern #Trains

Two Pacer trains at platform 10 at Manchester Piccadilly. The two carriages of the ends of each of the trains are lined up so that they are close together but not touching, as if they are almost ready for a kiss.
The left hand train has number 55590 and the right has number 55701, indicating their carriage numbers.
The trains are mainly coloured blue with yellow noses at their fronts (which is in the middle of the image)

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Jun 5

Here's the Zzap! 64 equivalent from their July 1986 issue (alt text has been provided.) Similar story, with only the Mastertronic re-release of Kikstart featuring in the list, and @uridiumauthor.bsky.social top two.

The Zzap! 64 Readers top 30 for July 1986. The text at the top states the top 30, and then underneath shows the winners of the voting draw.

The top 30 itself is as below with the Zzap! 64 rating for each game:
1 - Uridium (94%)
2 - Paradroid (97%)
3 - Mercenary (98%)
4 - Commando (77%)
5 - Winter Games (94%)
6 - Summer Games II (97%)
7 - Hardball (93%)
8 - The Eidolon (97%)
9 - Elite (95%)
10 - Bounder (97%)
11 - Yie Ar Kung Fu (68%)
12 - Pitstop II (91%)
13 - Kung-Fu Master (79%)
14 - Way of the Exploding Fist (93%)
15 - Koronis Rift (96%)
16 - Little Computer People (97%)
17 - Rock 'n' Wrestle (53%)
18 - Rambo (65%)
19 - Revs (96%)
20 - Monty on the Run (90%)
21 - Robin of the Wood (92%)
22 - Who Dares Wins II (90%)
23 - Fight Night (93%)
24 - Zoids (96%)
25 - Super Bowl (90%)
26 - Kikstart (91%)
27 - Dropzone (95%)
28 - Bomb Jack (47%)
29 - Z (88%)
30 - International Karate (91%)

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Jun 3

Undoubtedly a classic of its time. I see you and raise you this, Dub War's 1995 debut Pain. Intense, mental and an essential listen (and of course Benji Webbe and folks would go on to form Skindred as well as do Dub War too)

The front cover of Dub War's 1995 album Pain. The lettering Dub War is near the top left with Pain by the bottom right. The cover art has a central Polaroid type snapshot, with illustrated people feeling pain, covering their heads, as a giant robot tank creature in black and white dominates the landscape.

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· May 14

Indeed. And Granada too.

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Apr 26

London folks. If you want a proper pint of Landlord Dark, then The York in Angel is your pub of choice. Oh yes.

The Timothy Taylor Landlord Dark ale, in a proper Timothy Taylor pint glass. The glass is full of dark beer and is on an outside table at The York in Angel, London.

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Apr 25

Looking around in the code of Amaurote on the MSX, and spotted this. I wonder if @stepickford.bsky.social knows anything more about it? #MSX #retrogaming

A screen shot of the memory dump from the MSX game Amaurote, released by Mastertronic on their MAD label. The hexadecimal bytes reveal the phrase "Being of sound mind I, John Pickford, hereby declare that this is my first and last MSX game."

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Apr 23

Protector on Mastertronic Plus? (image via Ultimate C64 Tape Archive)

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Mar 14

Brian the cat (my girlfriend's cat, named after former Man City player and assistant manager Brian Kidd) vehemently disagrees and miaows "Rachel is fine."

Brian the cat, sat on the table and looking adorable and cute.

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Feb 8

At the Emirates for the big WSL game - Arsenal v Man City. Can City follow up last week's Chelsea win and make it 14 WSL wins on the bounce?

View from Block 20 at the Emirates Stadium with a view of the pitch, the stands and players warming up.

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Jan 30

The title track of this album is 24 minutes of pure brilliance, over 20 years on from release.

The front cover of Dream Theater's Octavarium album. The cradle of balls represent the musical notes F through to F, with the birds being the sharp notes such as C# and D#.

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Jan 23

Brian the cat will see you now.

Brian the cat, hiding in the duvet and keeping it all warm and snuggly.

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Jan 21

So, how do you find all this multi-speed goodness then? Well, use DeepSID (deepsid.chordian.net) and in the Tags bit of the search, use the tags 2x, 3x, 4x etc. You'll find stuff you like then. Happy listening! (End)

A screen shot of the DeepSID page showing the Tags drop down, the entry of 4x as a tag, with the search button to the right.

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Jan 15

The 6-2 streak at the Johnstone's Paint Masters snooker is finally over, thanks to John Higgins: #MastersSnooker

A screen shot of the television screen showing John Higgins 3-3 Zhao Xintong. The flag of Scotland is to the left of John's name and the flag of China to the right of Zhao's name.
In the middle it also states (11) meaning best of 11 frames and Quarter-final underneath.

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Jan 14

It happened! All eight first round games at the Johnstone's Paint Masters snooker ended up 6-2 all the way. #MastersSnooker

A snapshot of a page from the BBC Sport website showing all the first round scores from the Johnstone's Paint Masters Snooker, showing all eight matches with a 6-2 scoreline as follows:

Wednesday 14th January 2026
Judd Trump 6-2 Ding Junhui
Neil Robertson 6-2 Chris Wakelin
(note: Ronnie O'Sullivan pulled out, hence a C-C scoreline)

Tuesday 13th January 2026
Kyren Wilson 6-2 Si Jiahui
John Higgins 6-2 Barry Hawkins

Monday 12th January 2026
Mark Williams 2-6 Mark Allen
Zhao Xintong 6-2 Gary Wilson

Sunday 11th January 2026
Shaun Murphy 2-6 Wu Yize
Mark Selby 2-6 Xiao Guodong

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Jan 10

InterCity 125 klaxon! (Just north of Stoke on Trent)

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Jan 5

The Spectrum version was planned but never released, same with the Amstrad. Instead both of those formats got Konami's Golf instead. Advert image is from Spectrum Computing as below:

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Dec 31

Brian the cat wishes you all a Happy New Year.

Brian the cat sat on the dining table all snuggled next to a jar with a heart stone and pretend red berries. He is sat on a Christmas tree table runner.

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Dec 29

So good to see Zippy Santa in Manchester. #Zippy #Manchester

The Zippy Santa outside Manchester Central Library in St Peter's Square. Zippy sits on top of a present box with ribbons. This is in the day.

The Zippy Santa outside Manchester Central Library in St Peter's Square. Zippy sits on top of a present box with ribbons. This is all lit up at night and looks very festive.

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Dec 21

That will do nicely.

A screenshot from the BBC Sport website showing the final score.
The score reads West Ham 1-5 Man City.
West Ham goalscorer Ueki
Man City goalscorers Kerolin, Hemp, Clinton, Shaw and Coonbs
Assists:
West Ham: Hanshaw
Man City: Clinton, Greenwood, Hemp

Warren Pilkington@zawtowers· Dec 21

Part 2 of the Man City v West Ham double header after seeing the men win 3-0. At Dagenham and Redbridge's ground Victoria Road for the Subway League Cup quarter final.