England, Thailand and Other Things

Apparently we're all aliens!

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:55:00 +0000

This article in The Independent newspaper is very interesting:

We're all aliens... how humans began life in outer space

Su has joined me on Newgrounds

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:59:00 +0000

That means we're both members now, which will be useful for submitting future new Flash games developed for our MarioSonicGames.com site. You can find our Newgrounds profiles here:

Peter Inns's Newgrounds Profile

Sureephon Inns's Newgrounds Profile

All our Mario and Sonic Flash games at Newgrounds

A special year for Mario and Sonic

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 07:57:00 +0000

As I mentioned over in my MarioSonicGames.com blog yesterday, this year is the 30th Anniversary of Mario, and the 20th Anniversary of Sonic.

The first ever Mario game, the original Donkey Kong arcade game, appeared in 1981. Although the hero character of that game was originally known as Jumpman, he quickly became known by his now world famous name instead, and since then Mario has appeared in over 200 different games.

The first ever Sonic the Hedgehog game appeared on June 23, 1991 on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive 16-bit games console, and a few months later on Sega's Master System and Game Gear 8-bit games consoles as well.

Over the years since their creation they have become the two best-known video game characters in the world.

CG cartoons on YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 08:54:00 +0000

I have just been watching some great computer animated cartoons in this YouTube channel: CGcartoons4u. There are three cartoons in there from the Blender Foundation which are as good as any of the stuff put out by the major studios. Take a look and see for yourself, as I am pretty sure you will be impressed.

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:09:00 +0000

All the very best for 2011 (or 2554 as the year is here in Thailand)!

Complete Dan Dare story reprints online

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 15:52:00 +0000

If, like me, you enjoy reading classic comic strips, then these free Dan Dare reprints (courtesy of DanDare.org.uk and the Dan Dare Corporation) will be right up your street:

From 1954: Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future in Operation Triceratops

From 1960: Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future in Moon Run

From 1965: Dan Dare in Space Rocks

From 1968: Dan Dare and the Moon-Eaters (also available here)

From 1969: Dan Dare and the World of Thought

From 1970: Funfair of Death (also available here)

From 1982: Return of the Mekon

Tron videos

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 17:39:00 +0000

Here are some very cool videos from the new "Tron Legacy" film that was released a few days ago, plus an even cooler video from the original "Tron" film from 1982 (courtesy of Disney and my Mum's YouTube channel):

Original 1982 Tron Light Cycle Race - movie clip

Tron Legacy Light Cycle Race - concept test (HD)

Tron Legacy - original movie trailer (HD)

Tron Legacy - newest movie trailer (HD)

Fantastic Christmas online games

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 20:05:00 +0000

Here are some brilliant free Flash online games for you to play over the Christmas and New Year holidays, featuring the likes of Casper the Friendly Ghost, Jack Skellington from Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas", Ebenezer Scrooge from Disney's "A Christmas Carol" and many more:

  Casper's Haunted Christmas

  The Nightmare Before Christmas

  A Christmas Carol: Soarin' Star Ride

  A Christmas Carol: Ghostly Adventure

  A Christmas Carol: Rooftop Surfer

  A Christmas Carol: Penny Pincher

  The Polar Express Ticket Chase

  Jingle Ballistics

  Snow Throw

  Snowball

HAPPY HOLIDAYS to you!!

I've now got a new WordPress blog

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:55:00 +0000

I have migrated my Windows Live Spaces blog over to WordPress in view of the fact that Windows Live Spaces is being killed off early next year.

You can find the new blog here:

Yet another blog by Peter Inns

There are some extra pages in the blog in addition to the actual posts, and they are:

About Peter Inns

Free Flash Games

Free Desktop Wallpaper

Finally got back to Thailand ok!

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 10:56:00 +0000

It's taken three days to get back here to Thailand from England!! Here's why:

I was due to fly out of London Heathrow airport to Abu Dhabi in the U.A.E. with Etihad Airways last Friday night (October 29th), with a flight transfer from Abu Dhabi to Bangkok at midday on Saturday. But just as the plane was going to taxi out onto the runway at Heathrow there was an engine failure which, although it didn't cause any kind of accident, did turn out to be a major problem that couldn't be fixed quickly. So myself and all the other passengers were taken to a nearby hotel to wait for a replacement flight the next day.

On Saturday morning we were told that the plane was now fixed and could take us to Abu Dhabi, but for me that meant I would miss my connecting flight to Bangkok. When I eventually arrived in Abu Dhabi late night on Saturday October 30th I was told I would have to wait until Monday November 1st for my connecting flight, due to there being no free seats until then. It wasn't a major hassle for me though, as the airline put me up in the lovely Radisson Blu hotel on Yas Island for two nights for free, which was very nice indeed.

So, I eventually got to Bangkok on the evening of Monday November 1st, three days after leaving England!

Going back to Thailand today

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 11:53:00 +0000

Time to go home now.

Going back to England tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 10:51:00 +0000

It's time to go and see my parents and friends in the UK because it's been a whole year now since I was last there and saw them. I'm going for two weeks and will be back here in Thailand at the end of this month.

Toy Story 3 reaches $1 billion in worldwide box office takings

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:19:00 +0000

Last Friday saw Disney/Pixar's "Toy Story 3" become only the seventh film ever to reach the $1 billion worldwide box office mark, and it is now currently sixth in the all-time chart having overtaken "Batman: The Dark Knight" in the process.

Given that "Alice in Wonderland" also crossed the $1 billion mark earlier in the year, 2010 has been an amazing year for Disney, and in fact it is the first time that a studio has had two $1 billion movies in the same year.

See my previous post about Toy Story 3 for links to a fantastic collection of free Toy Story online games and wallpaper background pictures (or alternatively see here and here).

The Nokia N97 - it's rubbish really

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:38:00 +0000

I've had my Nokia N97 smartphone (the full-size version, not the mini) for nearly a year now, and I have to say I haven't been very happy with it - considering that it cost just over 400 GB Pounds it really is quite rubbish.

Now, I'm not talking about the usual phone crashes and lock-ups that most people experience with smartphones from time to time - I've suffered plenty of those with my N97, and I can generally live with such things. They're to be somewhat expected due to the very complex and intricate nature of these types of device.

The main problem with the N97 for me is that it is extremely slow to do anything, especially with the multimedia I have stored on it. It takes around two minutes to access my MP3 music library of around 3000 songs and 100 playlists each and every time I go into the music player, which is absolutely terrible. The N97's main rival, the iPhone, has no such problems, giving almost instantaneous access to a similar sized music library.

The N97 is also pretty poor at playing MP4 videos (which have been formatted specifically for the N97 using Nokia's OVI Suite), often freezing and/or skipping during playback, which is very annoying.

And the N97 is also dreadfully slow to access my photo library of around 500 photos.

I have tried all manner of things to try to improve the situation, including a soft reset and a hard reset of the phone, a reformat of the phone's mass storage device, and a careful reload of all the multimedia, but nothing ever makes any difference.

Clearly there are two major problems with the N97:

1. The processor is not powerful enough, and...

2. There is not enough dedicated RAM for the processor to use - there is only ever about 50 MB of free internal phone memory showing on my phone, with almost no apps installed or running, which is a shockingly low amount. (And which is similar to what most other people report having free on their N97's during use.)

Both of these factors combine to make the N97 very slow to do anything - unacceptably slow for such an expensive smartphone. For what is basically Nokia's flagship product, it really is a very sorry story.

In summary, I don't recommend anyone to buy the Nokia N97, which is the first time I have ever had to say anything negative about one of Nokia's products. Oh dear.

The Last Airbender film is released in the UK tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 09:52:00 +0000

After a long wait (it was released in the US on July 1st and Thailand on July 29th), M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender" movie, based on the first season of the very popular Nickelodeon cartoon series "Avatar: The Last Airbender", is finally released in UK cinemas tomorrow.

To tie in with the film's release, here are some free official Avatar: The Last Airbender Flash online games for you to play:

  The Last Airbender - Elemental Battles

  The Last Airbender - Trial of Air

  The Last Airbender - Bending Battle

  The Last Airbender - Elemental Escape

  The Last Airbender - Fortress Fight

These games also include Avatar: The Last Airbender film and Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon desktop wallpaper pictures for you to use on your computer if you wish.

You can find all the above games, together with 100's more film and cartoon-based games, at my Cartoons, Movies and TV Online Games site.

Enjoy! :-)

(See also here and here)

The top 5 best Mario and Sonic online games ever!

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 03:21:00 +0000

See today's entry in the MarioSonicGames.com blog for my list of the "All-time Top 5" Mario and Sonic online games.

Pixar movie trailers and clips (plus others)

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:33:00 +0000

I have been adding lots of new videos to my main YouTube channel recently, and as a result there is now an impressive collection of 180 videos in total.

To make it easier to use the channel I have created a number of playlists that group related videos together, and here are some of the best and most popular ones:

Pixar and other CG movie trailers collection

Pixar: Luxo Jr. cartoon collection

Pixar: WALL-E video collection

Pixar: Up video collection

Pixar: Toy Story 1, 2 and 3 video collection

2009 sci-fi and fantasy movie trailers collection

2010 sci-fi and fantasy movie trailers collection

Dan Dare video collection

Harry Potter video collection

The Twilight Saga video collection

My Twitter is working fine again, hoorah!

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:47:00 +0000

During the first half of May my Twitter profile (see Peter Inns's Twitter) started to suffer from a serious technical problem whereby older tweets began to randomly disappear from my timeline. This was a problem suffered by many other Twitter users too.

Yesterday I noticed that at long last Twitter have fixed everything, so I have started using the system again after a month and a half away from it. I'm amazed it took them so long to sort it out!

Doomwatch - a classic British sci-fi TV series remembered

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:10:00 +0000

Most people have heard of the BBC's sci-fi series Dr. Who, but how many of you out there have heard of Doomwatch, another great BBC sci-fi series that ran in the early 1970s?

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:
"Doomwatch was a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC, which ran on BBC One between 1970 and 1972. The series was set in the then present-day, and dealt with a scientific government agency led by Doctor Spencer Quist (played by John Paul), responsible for investigating and combating various ecological and technological dangers.

"The series was followed by a feature film adaptation produced by Tigon British Film Productions and released in 1972, and a revival TV movie broadcast on Channel 5 in 1999."

I remember watching repeats of the earlier series when I was quite a bit younger, and I really enjoyed the episodes I got to see. The show was very unusual because it was the first television series I can recall to feature the dangers of uncontrolled real-world science and technology as its major plotlines.

I won't go on any more about this brilliant show here though, because if you want to know more there is an awesome blog dedicated to the series that I recommend you to read instead:

Doomwatch.org - For fans of the classic BBC TV series

Free online games based on famous characters

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 06:44:00 +0000

Here is a selection of the very best character-based Flash online games from the hundreds and hundreds in my group of free online game websites (see the navbar on the right for links to the sites):

  New Super Mario Flash

  Ultimate Flash Sonic

  Super Smash Bros. Brawl Flash

  Pokemon: Breakdown Blast

  Ben 10: Power Splash

  Naruto: Battle for Leaf Village

  Power Rangers Dino Thunder

  Transformers: Roll Out

  Astro Boy: Blast-A-Bot

  Ice Age 3: Bubble Trouble

  Monsters vs. Aliens: Panic in the Streets

  Shrek Shreds Skateboarding

  Disney's Run Bolt Run

  UP: Kevin's Chocogobble

  WALL-E Pinball

  Cars: Tractor Tippin'

  The Incredibles: Top Trumps

  Toy Story: Buzz Lightyear's Alien Rescue

  SpongeBob SquarePants: Anchovy Assault

  Tom and Jerry: Refiger-Raiders

  Scooby-Doo Skateboarding 2

  Wacky Races: Wacky Racing

  A Christmas Carol: Ghostly Adventure

  Star Trek: Flash Trek V2.0

  Gangster Life (GTA II)

  Dan Dare Matchit

I hope you enjoy them all! :)

(See also here and here)

The Inns family's blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 20:09:00 +0000

Myself (Peter Inns), my wife Su Inns and my mother Anne Inns are all regular bloggers, writing about things relevant to our lives in Thailand and England.

My blogs are:
England, Thailand and Other Things (this blog)
MarioSonicGames.com - Mario & Sonic Games News
Peter Inns's Blog

Su's blog is:
Life in Thailand, by Sureephon Inns

My Mum's blog is:
Life, stuff and things

A new "About Me" page for this blog

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 13:49:00 +0000

Since Blogger have now so kindly provided us with the ability to create up to 10 extra pages attached to our blogs, I have just now created simple "About Me" pages for my two blogs, just in case anyone out there is interested.

You can view the new page for this blog by clicking on the link at the top of this page, and the same page for my other blog by clicking on this link:

A bit about Peter Inns, the author of this blog

Update on June 20, 2010 at 9.45 PM: I have now added two more extra pages to this blog ("Free Online Games" and "Free Wallpaper Backgrounds") which can be accessed via the links at the top of this page.

Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 3 is released in the US today!

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 09:52:00 +0000

It's out at last, "Toy Story 3" goes on wide release in US and Canadian cinemas today. Hoorah! I am sooooo looking forward to seeing this film because every Pixar movie to date (such as UP, WALL-E and Ratatouille for example) has been an absolute classic, and early reviews suggest that Toy Story 3 merrily continues that trend. Oh joy!

Fans in other parts of the world will have to wait a little longer to see it though, which is always my one and only gripe about Pixar - why can't they release their films around the world on the same day like many of the other movie companies? It won't be released in England until July 23rd and Thailand until August 12th for goodness sake! Oh well, better late than never I guess.

Anyway, to celebrate the occasion of the film's release today, here are 16 different official Toy Story 3 related Flash online games for you to play for free:

  Buzz Lightyear: Operation Alien Rescue

  Toy Story: Bowl-o-Rama

  Buzz Lightyear: Space Ranger Training

  Buzz Lightyear: Space Ranger Training 2

  Buzz Lightyear: Target Practice

  Buzz Lightyear: Galactic Shootout

  Toy Story: Woody to the Rescue

  Toy Story: Woody's Big Escape

  Toy Story: Catch That Moving Van

  Buzz Lightyear: Flight for Distance

  Toy Story: 2-in-1 Shooting

  Toy Story: Jigsaw Puzzles

  Toy Story: Memory Match-Up

  Toy Story: Woody's Rodeo

  Toy Story Lego: The Claw

  Toy Story: Etch-A-Sketch

And there's more..... 16 different Toy Story 3 desktop background wallpaper pictures are also included with the games, and you can find everything, together with over 100 more awesome Disney and Pixar games, at my Free Disney and Pixar Online Games site. A special page displaying all 16 of the Toy Story 3 wallpapers can also be found here: Toy Story 3 Wallpaper Collection

Finally, you can watch my large collection of official Toy Story 3 movie trailers, film clips and featurettes in my YouTube channel here: Toy Story 3 video playlist

Enjoy! :-)

(See also here and here)

The curfews in Thailand have been lifted

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Sat, 29 May 2010 12:11:00 +0000

As of tonight there are no more curfews, so now we can all go out and have some night-time fun once more!

This means that officially all the trouble here in Thailand is now finally over and life can get back to normal. That's very good news indeed!

Shrek Forever After (Shrek 4) is out today

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Dare) — Fri, 21 May 2010 09:17:00 +0000

The fourth and final part of the Shrek film series, "Shrek Forever After" - also known as "Shrek: The Final Chapter" and "Shrek 4" - is released in the US and Canada, and also here in Thailand, today. (It will be released in England on July 2nd.)

To celebrate this occasion, here are six different official Shrek 4 related Flash online games that you can play for free:

  Shrek Shreds

  Shrek 'N' Slide

  Shrek: Concentration

  Shrek: The Battle of the Belch

  Shrek: Eyeball Dropper

  Shrek: Ogre Baby Word Scramble

There are also two different Shrek Forever After desktop wallpaper backgrounds included with the games, one featuring Shrek and the other featuring Rumpelstiltskin.

You can find all these free goodies, together with lots of other brilliant related games and wallpaper, at my Free Shrek and Other CG Movie Online Games site.

Finally, you can watch my collection of official Shrek 4 movie trailers, film clips and featurettes in my YouTube channel here: Shrek 4 video playlist

Enjoy!

(See also here)