When we were just starting out in the games industry and when SPOnG was a twinkle in the eye of of your very own DoctorDee several SPOnG staffers ventured from their humble interactive entertainment office to the local pub. We realised that everyone else in the DotCom boomer we'd landed at was doing the same, just not, for some reason, in the pub located 24.7 metres from the door.
Upon entering and before we'd made it through the vestibule, a gruff voice shouted "Oi! We're closed!" but we blundered in anyway. It was an awesome site. What had once been a normal pub had become something out of a British horror movie project. Everything of value had been stripped, the place stank and the vinyl furniture, last refurbished in the late 70s, lay in splinters on the floor.
The pub was split into two halves, separated by the bar, we can only assume from the headier days when The Giant Mess was a lounge and taproom. On the other side from where we stood agog, a fat man with a beard sat wearing only white Y-fronts at a drum kit he wasn't playing, semi-lost in a cloud of marijuana smoke looked us up and down, realised we weren't whoever usually drank in his hostelry, and that we were probably from the office about videogames across the street.
Raising the PlayStation 2 controller in his hand not holding a poorly-rolled spliff, he bellowed, "You're from across t'way eh? Fuckin' gerrin 'ere an' 'elp me this on Everybody's Golf! Can you rob any games there? I'll pay a tenner each... 15 actually... What about that new Syphon Filter?"
And so it was that two fledgling SPOnG staffers found a new best friend who had a pub, a drum kit and a passion for videogames.
Moving on from the anecdote this writer thought was worth sharing, though is now having some doubts, the team behind Everybody's Golf (known to our militarised cousins as Hot Shots Golf) has shown some new footage of a Tennis game they've been working on. It's called Everybody's Tennis and features the same cast as Golf, with the Clap Hanz development team mistakenly thinking they built recognisable characters from what has emerged as the most fun and addictive golfing series ever made.
Sony's released a trailer for the game here, and there's some screengrabs from it floating around the net we've included to the right. Due out mid-September in Japan, the PlayStation 2 exclusive has no firm release date outside its native land.
Upon entering and before we'd made it through the vestibule, a gruff voice shouted "Oi! We're closed!" but we blundered in anyway. It was an awesome site. What had once been a normal pub had become something out of a British horror movie project. Everything of value had been stripped, the place stank and the vinyl furniture, last refurbished in the late 70s, lay in splinters on the floor.
The pub was split into two halves, separated by the bar, we can only assume from the headier days when The Giant Mess was a lounge and taproom. On the other side from where we stood agog, a fat man with a beard sat wearing only white Y-fronts at a drum kit he wasn't playing, semi-lost in a cloud of marijuana smoke looked us up and down, realised we weren't whoever usually drank in his hostelry, and that we were probably from the office about videogames across the street.
Raising the PlayStation 2 controller in his hand not holding a poorly-rolled spliff, he bellowed, "You're from across t'way eh? Fuckin' gerrin 'ere an' 'elp me this on Everybody's Golf! Can you rob any games there? I'll pay a tenner each... 15 actually... What about that new Syphon Filter?"
And so it was that two fledgling SPOnG staffers found a new best friend who had a pub, a drum kit and a passion for videogames.
Moving on from the anecdote this writer thought was worth sharing, though is now having some doubts, the team behind Everybody's Golf (known to our militarised cousins as Hot Shots Golf) has shown some new footage of a Tennis game they've been working on. It's called Everybody's Tennis and features the same cast as Golf, with the Clap Hanz development team mistakenly thinking they built recognisable characters from what has emerged as the most fun and addictive golfing series ever made.
Sony's released a trailer for the game here, and there's some screengrabs from it floating around the net we've included to the right. Due out mid-September in Japan, the PlayStation 2 exclusive has no firm release date outside its native land.
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