Happy Halloween! Unless you’re reading this on November 1st, in which case happy All Hallow’s Day, because technically Halloween is All Hallow’s Eve, as part of the three day Christian festival of Allhallowtide (this is why we get Day of the Dead celebrations on the 1st and 2nd of November.) So you don’t have to give up the spooky season yet. Or ever.
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This Month’s Soundtrack
For the second time in a row I’m selecting a song I first heard in one of my buddy Justin Decloux’s 24 hour movie mind melters (he can’t keep getting away with this!) Early in the morning of 11th October he played the surprisingly entertaining Trick Or Treat Scooby-Doo! that, out of nowhere, includes this solid synthwave banger in the middle. I don’t think I’ll have as much success getting this released on Bandcamp or anything but I want to champion it anyway.
This Month On exp.
Subscriber Posts:
Friday The 13th: The Computer Game (Domark, 1986)
UFO 50 #9: Attactics (Yu/Perry, 2024)
Yes it’s the exp. Halloween spooktacular, which means I play scary games all month, though a UFO 50 subscriber exclusive snuck in because I wasn’t paying attention.
Unlocked Posts:
Dragon Quest Heroes: Torneko’s Mystery Dungeon -Classic HD- (Square Enix, 2026)
The Exit 8 (Kotake Create, 2023) / Exit 8 (2025)
The Evil Dead (Palace Software, 1984)
Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo (Xeen, 2023)
With the Torneko’s Mystery Dungeon remaster I probably faced the scariest thing all month: that AI is going to slop up literally everything we like with no material benefit (and in fact, just make everything at least slightly worse compared to if it had been done properly.)
In better news, I get to enjoy a couple of recent horror-adjacent games from the last few years I hadn’t got to yet, and talk at length about the video nasty era.
From The exp. Archive:
Silent Hill: Origins (Climax, 2007)
Splatterhouse (Namco, 1988)
The House Of The Dead [PC] (Sega, 1998) / The Typing Of The Dead (Sega, 1999) / The House Of The Dead III (Sega, 2002)
Wow it’s spooky as hell up in here as in 2015 I went hard on all the top horror franchises in games knocking off a (bad) Silent Hill, Splatterhouse and several games in The House Of The Dead franchise. I think I was too hard on Splatterhouse, I bet I’d like it more now—I like to think I’m much more thoughtful on games in their own context and in considering their limitations.
exp. Du Cinéma
It’s been a busy month so I feel a bit frustrated I wasn’t able to get a full review of Street Fighter up, but also it’s probably that it was such a demoralising experience that it was hard to sit down and actually write about it. When I finally do we’ll see if it ends up something tossed off on Letterboxd or something worthy of a full post. However, on Letterboxd this month we do have The Sheep Detectives and Obsession, and then a clump of movies from the aforementioned 24 hour horror movie mind melter: The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe, The Sadist and Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!
Zine News
A Profound Waste Of Time 6
“The stars align in APWOT ISSUE 6, featuring Astro Bot director Nicolas Doucet, Giant Squid Games, Team Ninja’s Fumihiko Yasuda, Danganronpa’s Kazutaka Kodaka and so much more!”
This was long in gestation, but I’m really thrilled to reveal that I was honoured to be included in the new issue of the opulent video game periodical A Profound Waste Of Time, providing an in-depth interview with Joe Richardson about his career and The Immortal John Triptych:
Look how good that looks! A perfect thing to read and then leave on your coffee table so visitors can go “oh, what’s that?” and you can go “Oh, it’s A Profound Waste Of Time… there’s a great article by Mathew Kumar in it…”
New York City in Video Games 1986-1993
“NYC in Video Games 1986-1993 is a cross-genre art book that showcases the unique relationship between New York City and the games that took place there during this era. It features video game print advertisements, reviews, and still photography. It tells the story of how the 42nd Street Development Project coincided with the end of the golden age of American arcades.”
Good lord, a second project I’m involved in? And after I was just in Pixels and Polygons Quarterly last month??? This was another work that had a long lead time, but I’m similarly thrilled to say I was involved in this book providing capsule reviews of NYC-themed games from the era. The book launches on November 5th, and there will be a book launch at Vitamin in Brooklyn on December 5th that I probably won’t be at but if you’re in the area you should go anyway!
Break Space Issue 7
“Break Space Issue 7 is available now, featuring all the ZX Spectrum news and reviews you can handle. We interview Denis Grachev from Retrosouls, Chris Smith, Rich Hollins and Graham Relf. Plus a report from Crash Live, and a review of some Spectrum clones.”
Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA
“Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA is a critical reappraisal that takes Wood seriously, positioning him as a true independent who blurs the lines between high and low art. Will Sloan traces his marginal career—from Bela Lugosi collaborations to pornographic films—and explores how Wood’s chaotic sets, fading stars, and taboo subjects created something singular.”
Let’s give a quick shout-out to friend-of-exp. Will Sloan (publisher of The Journal Of Stoogealogical Studies!) whose book on Ed Wood is currently a mere $2 (or £2) as an e-book, an incredible deal!
Have a zine project you’d like us to share? Get in touch!
And Finally…
Just over a year ago I (and my partner) adopted two tiny barn cat kittens who were in need: Pinball and Tiki. Because they were so tiny, and fragile I didn’t want to post about them online, but they have lived and are thriving so I’m now catching up on over a year of cute cat pics over on Instagram. Instagram is obviously :/ but unfortunately the hustle is real, and I am absolutely using their adorable faces to attempt to grow my reach. However, I think that’s a fair trade? You get a new cute cat pic at least daily, getting to see these sweet girls grow up, and I get to see a number go up. It’s a win win!
But seriously: please give me a follow. 😅
Next week on exp.: A preposterously awesome waste of time.
