Lucky me, I got tagged by heavy metal / web accessibility legend Chris Mills, so I shall enlighten you all, then tag seven friends who can do the same.

The rules

• Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged.

Seven fascinating factoids about me

• I am a video game nut. I used to work at Sony in Liverpool and I collect Japanese Sega Mega Drive games.
• I have the dyslexia symptoms where you cannot tell right from left when pushed for an immediate answer. Obviously know my right from left, but if you ask me off the cuff, I *will* get it wrong. I wrote L and R on my hands when doing my driving test, for the instructors sake as much as mine!
• I’ve met one of my heroes. Trent Reznor. Only briefly, and he wasn’t a cock. Hero status upheld.
• I have titanium metal and 6 screws in my left arm, after breaking it in six places. No, they don’t set off metal detectors.
• I’ve studied five different languages in my time. French, Latin, Japanese, German and Spanish, the last being the only one I’m proficient in.
• I’m a big Star Wars freak. So much so that I have the original trilogy on Japanese LaserDisc…
• I do an awesome Yoda impression.

I seem to be on a roll with video games at the moment. I guess that’s for two reasons. My boy is getting old enough to play Mario Kart on the Wii, and the winter in the UK is made for gaming. Cold, wet and dark.

Anyways, there was a question on the gaming forum I use a lot for chatter and buying/selling, NTSC-uk, asking what your Top 10 Games of the Decade were. Wow, that got me thinking. It’s actually a pretty tough question, and it’s hard to date some games in your head, as when you look ‘em up they were too early in many of my cases. So we chatted about it at work and with friends on Twitter, but it’s taken me all day to get this down.

Here it is, in no specific order.

Phantasy Star Online (DC)
Crazy Taxi (DC)
Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)
Call of Duty Modern Warfare2 (PS3)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3)
Mario Kart DS (DS)
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2)
Katamari Damacy (any version/any system)
Orbital (iPhone)
Guitar Hero World Tour (Wii)

So, explain yourself, Smith!

Some of these are here because they were novel, or a breath of fresh air, like Katamari and Guitar Hero. Some are there because of the memories I have from playing at that time, Phantasy Star Online. Some are there because half way through playing I caught myself saying out loud “Goddamn… I love this game!”—Batman Arkham Asylum.

Notice there’s no Xbox games in the list, since I’ve never owned one, thus Xbox games simply can’t be in my top 10.

Try as I might, I could not bring myself to put Super Mario Galaxy in there. As Dan at work said, there’s no real difficulty curve to the game, it’s the same all the way through, which I think is true in many respects. Maybe it’s due another play.

I’m guessing a few of you will be wondering why I’m including Orbital on the iPhone in this list (and since a few people are linking here, including Orbital’s creators) I guess I’ll pen a few words about that too. The game is ridiculously addictive, which is always a good starter for 10. The graphics are neat, very like Galaxy Wars, and the controls are sublimely simple. You click the screen to fire the ball. It’s not an earth-shattering development in gaming, but it’s the a great example of crafting a great little game for the medium it’s delivered on, the iPhone. You can fire it up for a quick go, it saves it’s state when you hit the home button, and you end up simply blaming yourself when you cock up. You never feel cheated by the game. Orbital’s onsale for 59p at the time of writing, so get it bought if you’ve not done so already!

‘Artley asked me shortly after what my Top 5 Games of the last 30 years would be, which funnily enough I found a lot easier! Mine would be Bubble Bobble, Metal Slug X, Tempest2K, Crazy Taxi, Super Mario World!

I tossed out a question on Twitter that I’d been thinking about for a while.

What’s your favourite obsolete technology?

This had been playing on my mind for a bit, mostly from playing on the Sega Dreamcast, but also a stint on the original Tetris on an old Gameboy Pocket, but also thinking about my old Sony MiniDisc players, like the MD-R90, which I really miss.

I got some great answers from my mates, another MiniDisc lover, the ZX Spectrum, VHS porn (thanks Rob!) and a LaserDisc system for Dragon’s Lair!

Despite Bruce Lawson’s lovely “Seven things you didn’t want to know about me“, I’ll stick to the original meme for fear of crossing the line…

1. My real name is actually Duncan.
2. I have the mild dyslexia of left and right confusion, if asked which direction, my answer is usually “that way”, with a wave of the hand. I wrote L and R on my hands (the correct way round) for my driving test, for my own use and so the instructor knew I’d have trouble.
3. Believe it or not, I’m the “sensible one” in the family.
4. I’m related to a well known (current) football player, whose played in England and Spain. Answers on a postcard…
5. I’ve studied five languages so far during my life, and my abilities in them range from utter crap to rudimentary.
6. I get real cranky if I don’t have a cup of tea in the morning.
7. I dislike touching other peoples feet. Even my wife’s.

So there we are, you know me a little better. I do get to punt this onto seven unsuspecting victims, but I don’t think I know that many who blog! No matter, Phil Sherry, Dan Clarke, Chris Iwanowski, Dan Oliver, Rob O’Rourke, Dan Donald and Alejandro Fernández, you’re up next!