In the lead-up to the release of Mortal Kombat 11, NetherRealm Studios has been sharing reveal trailers for each of the fighters on a regular basis.

In the latest Kombat Kast live stream, the team showed off Frost – the final launch game character. Frost was introduced to the series in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance as Sub-Zero’s apprentice and since then has turned into an evil cyborg.

Can you feel the chill in the air? Frost makes her long-awaited return to kombat in #MK11

While we’re at it, here’s the Kombat Kast:

So, after about four months of character reveals, we now know the entire base game roster. Of course, more fighters will be added as paid DLC over time. The first of the six is the master sorcerer, Shang Tsung. For more information about the Kombat Pack, click here.

Mortal Kombat 11 is now available in North America and arrives in Europe this May.

Have you tried out the game on the Switch yet? Tell us down in the comments.

Last weekend, Team Hare took on Team Tortoise in the Splatoon 2 SpringFest. The votes have now been tallied up:

The #Splatoon2 #SpringFest numbers are in, and #TeamHare rewrites the story with a 2-1 win! Thanks to all the rabbits and turtles that joined in this #Splatfest, and be sure to grab your Super Sea Snails in Inkopolis Square!

Did you participate in the SpringFest? Were you on the winning side? Let us know in the comments.

Did it take a village to finish Minecraft’s biggest update yet? Oh pah-lease. It took so much more! It took hardworking developers, pixel artists, that wonderful person who keeps the office fridge stocked, far too many employees to thank here, and most of all – you! – the players, giving us your constant feedback every step of the way. You helped make Village & Pillage an update we couldn’t be more proud of.

Best of all, we get to release it today! Xbox One, Windows 10 Edition, iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch players will find the update ready to be installed either right now, very soon, or in the recent past – in fact, why not check your chosen Minecraft platform now and see if you’re ready to join all new-villages, fight all-new mobs, and discover tons more all-new all-great features!

(Playing Minecraft: Java? You get Village & Pillage today too! Click this lush line of emerald green text to find out more).

You’ll find a full changelog below, but while you’re still up here, I’ll highlight some of my favourite new features:

• Pillagers! What can I say? I love a good scrap, and so do the newest mob to enter Minecraft, even if they’re not too bright. Quick, craft a brand-new crossbow before they attack you with theirs!
• The Wandering Trader! A mysterious merchant who travels the lands in search of sales. Sure, I could waste more of my life telling you all about this sales savant, but why bother when I can just link you to this ace video all about the Wandering Trader instead? Or this brilliant article written by Per ‘you better mention I also worked on that video’ Landin?
• New villager trades! You’ll find villagers busy beavering away at their new jobs in each village you visit, and we’ll have a deep dive into all their new occupations this Saturday!

Keep checking Minecraft on Xbox One, Windows 10 Edition, iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch for the update, and enjoy!

Want to chat with us about the update? Join us on the official Minecraft Discord at discord.gg/Minecraft

Known Issue: some mobs are bugged and might look like new villagers in some Marketplace maps. We’re working on a hotfix and we want to get it out to you as soon as we can – please don’t open these worlds until then. See aka.ms/brokenworlds for more information.

Please note that there is a bug that currently affects HD texture packs on mobile devices. Using these texture packs may cause your game to crash. Until we get this bug fixed, we advise you to not use HD texture packs on mobile devices. We hope to get this bug fixed soon!

FULL CHANGELOG

Village

• Updated Villages

  • Many new building types and enhanced village generation

  • Biome specific architecture for plains, desert, savannah, and taiga

• New Villagers

  • Villagers have new clothing to indicate their level, profession, and biome

  • Added Mason and Nitwit villagers

  • Villagers now sleep in beds

  • Villagers now visit their job sites during the day and go home at night

  • Greatly improved villager pathfinding

  • Villagers in existing worlds will convert to new villagers (if they are not part of a template world)

  • Zombie Villagers now have biome-specific and profession skin layers

• Village Job Sites

  • Villagers can now take on a new profession when near a job site block

  • While villagers claim these sites, they also have functions for players

  • Cartography Table – Provides an easier way to copy and enlarge maps. Maps can be locked by using glass panes

  • Grindstone – Used to repair weapons and tools, plus disenchanting

  • Barrel – Stores items like a chest but can still be opened with blocks on top of it

  • Smoker – Cooks food much faster than a furnace

  • Blast Furnace – Faster ore smelting

  • Composter – Adding enough crops will produce bone meal

  • Stonecutter – Easy crafting for stone and cobblestone items

  • Smithing Table and Fletching Table – Functionality coming in a later update

• Villager Trading

  • Added brand new villager trades (169044)

  • Villagers now have a visual based trading system and will hold up an item they wish to trade if the player is holding something they want

  • When villagers make trades, they gain experience. When they gain enough experience, they level up. Leveling up unlocks new trades

  • Villagers will resupply their trades when arriving at their job site (172559)

• Wandering Trader

  • A villager mob that will appear at a village’s gathering site periodically and stays for a period of 2-3 game days

  • This trader offers items from a wide variety of different biomes, random dyes, and other rare materials

  • Accompanied on their journey by two fancy llamas!

• Bells

  • When rung, all villagers will run into their houses

  • Bells ring when players interact with them or are powered by redstone

Pillage

• Pillager Outposts

  • The new tower hangout for pillagers that generate in the same biomes as villages

  • Pillagers will respawn around the tower

  • Clear them out and score some loot!

• Illager Captain

• Raids

  • When a player enters a village with Bad Omen, a raid will be triggered

  • Pillager enemies will attack a village in waves

  • Players that successfully defend a village from a raid will receive the Hero of the Village effect, giving a steep discount on trades with villagers

• Ravager

  • A powerful, new enemy mob found in illager patrols and during village raids

  • When running, it can destroy some blocks like crops so watch out!

  • Can be ridden into battle by illagers

• Pillager Patrols

New Features

• Campfire

  • A new light source to cozy up your village

  • Works great as a fireplace in a home, with no fire spread to worry about

  • Throw some food on it and become a campfire cooking pro!

• Sweet Berries

• Bamboo Jungle

• New Achievements

  • Plethora of Cats – Befriend twenty stray cats (20G)

  • Kill the Beast! – Defeat a Ravager (30G)

  • Buy Low, Sell High – Trade for the best possible price (50G)

  • Disenchanted – Use a Grindstone to get experience from an enchanted item (20G)

  • We’re being attacked – Trigger a Pillager Raid (20G)

  • Sound the Alarm! – Ring the bell with a hostile enemy in the village (20G)

  • I’ve got a bad feeling about this – Kill a Pillager Captain (20G)

• Roaming Skin Choice

  • When choosing a skin from a skin pack, the selected skin will now be selected automatically on other Bedrock devices using the same account

  • Some skin packs may not be eligible for roaming selection

• Accessibility Features

  • Text to Speech can now be enabled to read in-game chat

  • UI Screen Reader can be enabled to say the name of interface controls and their current state

  • Accessibility features can be enabled in Settings

Changes

• Note on World Generation: In order to deliver the coolest generated villages possible, some world seeds may have villages generate in different areas than they used to before this update

• A fresh new batch of seeds are now available in the Seed Picker when creating a new world

• Added even more new textures to blocks and items, including stained glass

• Increased the amount of scaffolding that can be placed out from its initial support

• Changes to the way cats spawn in villages:

  • Cats now respawn based on number of beds in the village

  • The number of cats = 1/4 the number of beds

  • Cat total caps at 10 cats per village

• Lecterns now emit a redstone signal when turning pages

• Darkened portions of the game’s menus to provide stronger contrast for accessibility

Fixes

While Capcom actually has a firmer grounding the world of RPGs than we give it credit for – Breath of Fire, anyone? – the company’s name doesn’t instantly spring to mind when discussing the genre; that’s what made the release of Dragon’s Dogma in 2012 such an unusual event. Following hot on the heels of FromSoftware’s critically-acclaimed (and thematically-similar) Dark Souls, Capcom’s action role-player had the hallmark of a hastily-assembled clone, released solely to capitalise on the gaming public’s newfound interest in the fantasy genre, but in actual fact, it had been in development since 2008 and shares some similarities with studio stablemate Monster Hunter. Still, the comparisons with Dark Souls – and other action RPGs – did Dragon’s Dogma absolutely no harm whatsoever, and it quickly sold over a million copies globally; no mean feat for an entirely new IP.

Fast forward to the present day, and Nintendo players are finally getting to find out what all the fuss is about. Despite meeting with critical and commercial success at the time of release – and getting an updated release in the form of Dark Arisen – Dragon’s Dogma has never been blessed with a proper sequel, outside of the Japan-only spin-off Dragon’s Dogma Online. Capcom has instead been content to simply reheat the Dark Arisen update, which was first released in 2013 and has since seen its way onto the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. That’s the version we’re getting today on Switch, six years after the original game hit the PS3 and Xbox 360.

So yes, this is another ‘remaster’ release of an old title that Sony and Microsoft fans have played (and perhaps even replayed) years ago – but before you judge it too harshly, it’s worth noting that Dragon’s Dogma has rightfully earned its reputation as one of the finest action RPGs of recent memory, and even a straight port – which this effectively is, as the additional content is meagre at best – is cause for celebration, especially as we can now explore the rolling expanses of Gransys on the move.

You assume the role of the titular Arisen, a customisable human avatar who is plucked from obscurity following an early encounter with an apparently malevolent dragon. Accompanying you on your quest are up to three ‘Pawns’; versatile (and, with the exception of your first Pawn, whom you create from scratch) totally interchangeable warriors who lack the free will to make them truly human. While you don’t have the ability to directly control these AI companions, you can issue them basic instructions during battle, such as coming to your aid or simply urging them to fight.

The level of Pawn you can ‘hire’ is tied to your current level, so you’ll want to visit the many Riftstones dotted around the landscape to swap them out for stronger characters from time to time – or keep an eye out for wandering Pawns as you walk the roads of Gransys. You can also exchange Rift Crystals to hire Pawns that are above your current level, which is a sound tactic when you need a powerful helper for an especially tricky quest. The really cool thing about Pawns is that they are created by other players, just as you create your ‘main’ Pawn, giving the game a sense of community even though there are no traditional multiplayer options present. You can even share Pawns using your Nintendo Account without the need for a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, which is a nice touch.

The Pawn system – and the combat mechanics which tie in with it – set Dragon’s Dogma apart from other games of this type. We dare say that since its initial launch in 2012 many people will have gazed at screenshots of the game and dismissed it as another boring fantasy RPG, but that couldn’t be less true. While it has all the staples of your traditional role-playing epic – consumable items, a crafting system, experience points, upgradeable equipment (which, like other items in your inventory, adds to your overall weight, slowing you down the more you carry) and loads and loads of NPCs to chat with, many of whom sound like they’ve wandered in from a local amateur stage production of well-known Shakespearean works – Dragon’s Dogma’s combat system is a joy to behold.

Whereas titles like Skyrim boast enjoyable yet clunky combat, Dragon’s Dogma puts Capcom’s experience in the realm of action titles to good use; director Hideaki Itsuno worked on the Devil May Cry series, and it shows. At its most basic level, you have a weak and strong attack, and these can be used to create simple combos. The game does a decent job of making sure you’re locked onto the nearest enemy, and battles tend to be pretty swift affairs, making this feel more like a hack-and-slash brawler than a slow-paced RPG. However, the combat engine has surprising depth thanks to the fact that you have different abilities mapped to the L and R buttons. Hold one of these down, and the Y, X and A buttons become assigned to certain skills, such as dashing attacks, grapples and other special moves. All of these skills are linked to your current ‘Vocation’, which is Dragon’s Dogma parlance for character type, and using them consumes stamina, which takes a short time to recharge (running also eats away at your stamina gauge, and draining it down to zero leaves you breathless and exposed).

You start the game with the ‘Basic Vocations’, such as Fighter, Strider and Mage, and as you gain experience through combat you boost not only your base level (which of course means your stats increase) but also your Vocation level. Growing your Vocation level opens up more skills, which can be unlocked using Discipline Points earned in battle by speaking to certain NPCs (usually at inns or points where you can sleep and recover). Visiting the same NPCs allows you to switch out your skills and even your Vocation, and a massive part of the game’s appeal is changing to a different character type and exploring fresh battle strategies. Even when you’ve arrived at your preferred Vocation there’s ample room for experimentation and customisation as you chop-and-change your assigned moves and abilities to find the perfect balance for your own personal playstyle.

After a while, you unlock Hybrid and Advanced Vocations, such as Magik Archer, Mystik Knight, Assassin, and Sorcerer, and these not only allow you to carry over other skills you’ve unlocked elsewhere (for example, any skill tied to the use of a sword will be available from the off when you switch to another sword-based Vocation) but you also get the chance to gain more powerful skills exclusive to that Vocation, as well as access to exclusive weapons and gear. Vocations like the Assassin allow you to mix ranged bow attacks with robust blade skills, while assuming the Mystik Knight Vocation means you can support your Pawns with spells without sacrificing your melee potential. Because so many of the Vocations have abilities that apply to other character types, slowly but surely expanding your skill base – which also includes ‘Core’ skills which are activated immediately, and ‘Augments’ which bestow special talents – becomes an incredibly addictive pastime. It also means that every single enemy encounter in the game is worthwhile, as it not only gives you the chance to boost your Vocation level but also gain Discipline Points which can be used to unlock more skills, starting a whole new cycle of experimentation as you swap out existing skills for freshly-obtained ones.

Of course, even the most satisfying of combat engines will lose its appeal if you don’t have a wide and varied selection of foes to dispatch, and Dragon’ Dogma certainly does not disappoint in this regard. Sure, there are certain weaker enemies you’ll encounter regularly (the lizard-like Saurians and a host of goblins spring to mind) but occasional encounters with larger opponents – such as the Griffin, Troll, Chimera and Cyclops – give off more than a slight whiff of Monster Hunter, another of Capcom’s famous franchises. Using the ZR trigger (which also allows you to grab smaller enemies and restrain them while your Pawns finish them off) you can grapple bigger foes and climb onto them, delivering as many devastating, targeted blows as your rapidly-depleting stamina will allow.

Facing off against Dragon’s Dogma’s bigger monsters is a real thrill, especially as your Pawns begin to grow in experience and learn the correct tactics to take down certain beasts. The Cyclops, for example, is covered in tough armour which must be picked away to reveal its tender flesh, but its true weak spot is its single eye. The Crimera, on the other hand, has the head of a lion, goat and snake, each of which has its own energy bar. Silence the goat, and the monster’s ability to use magic is removed, making the confrontation easier. While these epic battles aren’t quite as nuanced as those in Monster Hunter, they’re still surprisingly deep and very enjoyable.

The thoroughly rewarding feedback loop afforded by the Vocation system would be enough to encourage hours of play, but its appeal is buttressed by the fact that the world you inhabit is so vast and rich in detail. Gransys is massive; it takes a considerable amount of time to walk from one end to the other, and while fast travel items are available, more often than not you’ll find yourself moving on foot so you can comb the forests, beaches and caves for valuable items and get into as many brawls as possible to earn more experience points. A day-and-night system is also in place, and travelling in the dark is made more difficult by the fact that your most trusted source of illumination – an oil-based lamp – needs to be constantly restocked.

Progress in Dragon’s Dogma is underpinned by an evolving story which sees you journeying to Gran Soren – Gransys’ capital city – to meet with Edmun Dragonsbane, the current ruler of the kingdom and a former Arisen himself, before striking out into the wilds in different directions from this main base. As is often the case with these games, you’ll find that things aren’t strictly as they seem, but along the way, there are a staggering number of side-quests and missions to undertake, all of which offer items, money and experience points as reward. Some even have ramifications on other quests later in the game; a character you aid early in the game may prove pivotal at a later juncture, for example.

On your initial playthrough, you will almost certainly invest tens of hours into Dragon’s Dogma; even if you decide to rush through as quickly as possible (a speedrun mode is included, in case you were wondering), you’ll still be expending many, many hours. A complete run – where you try to finish as many quests as possible – could see your time in Gransys creep over 100-hour mark, and once you’re done, there’s the NG+ mode to consider. Longevity is not an issue with Dragon’s Dogma, and let’s not forget the inclusion of Bitterblack Isle, a super-tough dungeon exclusive to the Dark Arisen update which will test even the most dedicated of players.

What could be an issue is the fact that the game does become slightly repetitive over time; while Gransys is undeniably massive, you’ll end up seeing some parts of it more often than others, purely by virtue of the fact that there are only a handful of major settlements to speak of and missions tend to be focused around these bustling bastions of humanity. Other parts of the kingdom remain criminally underused, perhaps only seen during a single quest before being forgotten. It’s a minor issue admittedly, but one that does tend to stick out after you’ve spent a large amount of time in Gransys.

Another problem is the fact that even in 2012, Dragon’s Dogma looked a little rough around the edges. While the landscape is incredible and you’ll never grow tired of the amazing sunsets and vistas which go on for miles in the distance, this visual beauty is balanced out by the fact that some environmental details pop-in awkwardly as you get close to them, and many of the game’s motor-mouthed NPCs look primitive and goofy. Like Dark Souls, Dragon’s Dogma nails the grim fantasy aesthetic the majority of the time, and we suspect the two call upon some of the same influences (Kentaro Miura’s ultra-violent medieval fantasy Berserk being one obvious example), and, like FromSoftware’s seminal series, actually ends up being a more convincing western fantasy than many games created by western developers; still, in places it does look and feel like it could do with a little more polish. And did we mention that the constant, incessant chatter of your Pawns during battle can become utterly maddening? There’s only so many times that we need to be told that “Wolves hunt in packs!” and “Fire works well!” before it sinks in.

Like the PS4 and Xbox One update of Dark Arisen, this is a largely untouched update. The visuals haven’t been polished up, so you’re getting pretty much the same experience as was available back at the time of the original launch. The Switch version runs well enough, with only a slight drop in performance when there’s a lot of on-screen activity – and this is only really noticeable when playing in handheld mode. You could argue that getting the likes of DOOM and Wolfenstein II running on Switch is a far more commendable achievement, but cramming a world as large as Gransys into a portable system feels – to this writer, at least – just as impressive; while it’s not as huge as Hyrule is in Breath of the Wild, it’s arguably richer and detailed.

The Nintendo Game Boy turns 30 this Sunday, and to celebrate this amazing occasion we’ll be running a series of related features this week, right up to the big day.

The Game Boy may be 30 years old this week, but that doesn’t mean the system is dead and gone from a retail perspective; over the past few years we’ve seen an explosion of interest in Gunpei Yokoi’s masterpiece, with people buying up old units and modding them to make them even better than before. Out of this community, we’ve also seen a number of retailers emerge, with one of the most notable – in the UK, at least – being Gameboy Shack.

Operated by Richard Tewkesbury from his base in the UK’s heartland, Gameboy Shack is a business which focuses mainly on reconnecting players with the handheld games of their youth. If you’ve attended one of the many big shows in the UK over the past few years, then there’s a good chance you’ve spotted Richard manning his stand, which is always packed with Game Boy consoles, games and other associated merchandise.

Seeing as he’s just down the road from Nintendo Life HQ, we thought it was only right that we pay him a visit to celebrate the Game Boy’s 30th – and to buy a load of games from him, of course. Below is a transcript of the waffle we had. Enjoy.

What was your first exposure to the Game Boy?

Probably back when it first came out, around 1989. We used to go to Leicester on the bus, me and my friend, every Saturday. We’d go to Dixons [defunct UK high street electronics retailer], and basically play the Nintendo display stand, as well as the Atari Lynx, pretty much until the guy in Dixons kicked us out. Back then, we didn’t have any money, so it was the only way we could play the Game Boy. I must have been about 12 or so years old. My parents wouldn’t buy me a Game Boy, so I had to wash pots and hustle to make that money to buy one. I got really good at washing pots.

What do you think made the Game Boy the market leader, despite the fact that there were more technically advanced machines, like the Lynx?

There were more games out there, which played a big part. It was the most popular system by far when we were at school. Battery power came into as well I think. I was whipping through batteries left, right and centre, so you probably needed £5 or £10 worth of batteries a week – if you’re rocking out an Atari Lynx, you’d need even more! There was only one kid at school who had a Lynx, and only a couple that had the Sega Game Gear. Everyone mainly had Game Boy; so there was the obvious desire to be part of that club so you could share games.

How did you become involved in modding and selling Game Boys?

I started selling at conventions, and I was already doing video games across the board, and my friend Gavin and I basically traded together. The smallest thing I could get in the car was Game Boy, and it pretty much grew from there. It was purely logistics. “I can get 100 games in the car and it only takes up 12 inches of space”, that kind of thing. I only had a car at the time, so we couldn’t get a lot in, full stop. We basically had to get two stores into one vehicle! It’s just grown and grown and grown. There are lots of other video game traders at events, but I’m the only one that does the full range of Game Boys, I suppose.

How have you seen that market grow?

There is a lot of interest in it. There’s a lot of interest from sellers as well, so now the market is getting saturated, I’m afraid to say – which makes it harder for everyone. When I first started out, there were only a couple of games sellers and that was it. And now, you can go to a show and there’s 15 or 20… and now every time we go, there’s another one, and another one, and another one. It’s just part and parcel. The market is growing, there’s room in there for everyone. Personally, I’ve put a lot of effort into making what I do as good as I can possibly do it, and basically giving it that ‘wow factor’. Every console that I sell is refurbished. It’s all taken apart, cleaned up, put back together again. I get them fully working and I usually refresh them; everything’s refreshed when it goes out, so I try and aim for a very good standard of product.

Do you think the market has reached its biggest point? Is there a danger it could shrink?

Sometimes you go to an event, and it all depends on what the event is. There’ll be good ones, and there’ll be very bad ones, and there are new customers at all of them. A lot of people are just those spontaneous people; they want a Game Boy with Tetris, Super Mario, and so on – what they remember from their childhood. Just a quick hit. They’ve got no interest in collecting whatsoever. They just want two to three games, and off they go, and that’s cool. I think there’s plenty of room left in the market yet, when you combine that sector with the serious collectors.

I think there’s plenty of room left in the market yet, when you combine that sector with the serious collectors

How many events do you tend to do a year, and how do you go about picking which ones to attend?

We’ve now gained experience of which shows work best for us. Sometimes it’s down to the preference of what you want to do, and other times its when it happens during the year, and other times it’s simply because I’ve got no money. I basically don’t do any shows between December and March, so that’s the dry spell where you’ve got basically last the winter – and by that point, when you start back, you just take anything that’s going. This weekend there’s an event I don’t want to do, but I’ve got to do it so I can then get extra money to physically get me to the event the weekend after that. Because I have to put so much money into buying stock and getting everything else ready for the event, it’s really a big balancing act; it’s quite horrible at certain points of the year. The two big shows that I do are at the worst point of the year, and if they don’t pay off, then I’m completely screwed really!

Which are the next events that you’ve got coming up?

We’ll be doing Insomnia next weekend. Then we’re doing MCN London. I’ll also be doing my own show – Comic-Con Leicester. I’ll be doing Hyper Japan, London and Film Comic-Con. They’re some of the bigger ones. You try and stick to the larger ones, because there’s more footfall there and you know what’s going on, although I did a random one for a friend in a shopping centre in Hull recently, and that really worked because it was instant footfall – there were people there all day long. But you have good shows, and you have bad shows, and no show is ever guaranteed. Personally, I never take anything for granted. Don’t go in thinking you’re going to make £5000 in a weekend, because you’re not.

Is the mentality just to break even and then see what you can do from there?

Always try and be in the green and cover all your costs. I want to go to an event and enjoy myself – that’s always the main thing. I don’t want to sit there bored out of my mind. I want to be active, interact with some nice people and sell some good stuff. I want people to enjoy what they’re buying, go away with something they’re going to enjoy, and make some money on the side. I have to put hours and hours and hours into getting things ready. That’s the problem. Especially when it’s weekend to weekend, where I’ve only got a couple of days in-between to basically reload again. Over the summer, when there are a lot of shows, that’s when it can get really stressful, and I end up doing 15 to 18 hours a day just to try and get ready for the next show. And then at night time, in-between shows, in the hotel room I’m building Game Boys to sell the next morning. That’s when it really gets bad!

How easy is it to source the stuff that you sell?

I could spend money all day long. I look back at some of the videos when I first started, and I’ve got some pictures of my first stall that I did, and I was selling Game Boys at £10 – now I sell them at £45, and that’s only a few years down the road. That’s where the market’s changed; everything is so expensive now and it keeps on creeping up. Sometimes, I buy multiple copies of game if the price is right, so I can sit on it and find that in a year or two down the line, it’s gone up in value. I spend way too much money on stock, that’s my problem. I always try and keep everything fully-loaded. I can’t stand if the shop is not rammed to the nines; everything needs to be topped up. All the consoles, all the shelves need to full all the time, and if they’re not, I just can’t stand it. If people are like, “Oh, you’ve not got that game”, I’ll go home and I’ll find it, then I’ll get it, and it will be on the shelf next time around.

Do you use network of collectors to source things?

I have pickers that basically pick for me. I use a lot of Facebook and gaming pages. Sometimes, there’s the occasional deal that comes up on eBay. People just come to me with stuff that they want to sell. And then sometimes I just need to get off my arse and go through storage units and actually sort through the stuff I’ve actually got and sell that rather than buy new stuff. It constantly keeps coming in. But it’s a borderline addiction, that’s the problem. My accountant is like, “Stop spending money!”

Which part of it do you love the most?

I do like talking to people. As I said, it all depends on the events. Certain events, the people can be toxic, I will be honest, and at the end of a long day, you just need to have an hour in a quiet room. But connecting with enthusiastic players is a bit part of the appeal.

Sometimes I hate selling – I’ve literally been at the point of handing over the game and I’m thinking “I really don’t want to sell this”, because I really don’t want to let it go

Do you still collect for yourself?

No, my collection now is 90 percent is the stock that I have. I kind of use that as my collection. I have some personal things, don’t get me wrong; I have a Game Boy bubble bath collection, so that’s niche and that’s my thing. I’ve got 26 different bubble bath bottles! But I use my stall as my collection. Sometimes I hate selling – I’ve literally been at the point of handing over the game and I’m thinking “I really don’t want to sell this” because I really don’t want to let it go. And that’s partly because I know I’ll never get another one. It’s wicked when you do find that thing that you never find again, and you do find it. There have been lots of times where I’ve let something go and I was like, “I should never have sold that”. Sometimes, you’ve got to think, “You’ve got bills to pay, you’ve got this that and the other, you’ve got a life, you just need to let it go. You’ve got plenty of other stuff. Ten minutes later you won’t even notice it’s gone”.

You offer a tactile, tangible shopping experience that you don’t really get any more; do you get a buzz out of that?

I like Game Boy collectors that go in and they know what they want, and they get in there. And they come out with a stack of random games and it’s not just Zelda, Pokémon and Tetris. I have said that one day that’s all my stall is going to be. I’ll have nothing on the table apart from a stack of Tetris carts, a stack of Mario carts, a stack of Zelda carts and a stack of Pokémon carts, and that’s it! Some weekends that’s all I’ve done, and that sometimes can be a bit disheartening. I like selling other games, and there are so many good titles on the Game Boy that people just need to get over the hurdle that there are these five games that you essentially need when in fact there are hundreds of other amazing games, too.

What would you say is the most expensive game you’ve ever sold?

About £100. Things like Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow on the Game Boy Advance, for instance. I sold that recently, but I’ve got another one in now. That’s the mission. I’ve got to find another miracle game, and I managed to get one. Sometimes, it’s the finding it where there’s a little bit of meat on the bone for you as well because I can go and buy everything if I didn’t care about losing money. It’s finding it at a price point because every year the shows keep getting more expensive and all your costs keep rising and you need to put your prices up. I don’t like putting my prices up. Sometimes I’m not the cheapest person in the world, but again, everything I sell is really good quality. Boxes aren’t smashed up, it’s all good gear and the Game Boy consoles are in perfect condition. You can go and buy a rotter on eBay, take a chance on it, and it’s £10 cheaper, but at least I put the time and effort into it you can be sure you get a nice solid console.

Moving to online, what’s your current online presence, and what’s the ratio between what you do on events and what you do online?

This is my problem. Because I’m only a one-man-band, I’m really stretched with time. And now, with having a baby as well, and everything else that’s going on, my time is just gone. Having to run the Instagram account as well, the problem is, I put something cool out on Instagram, for instance, and then everyone’s instantly, “Oh, can I buy that, can I buy this, can I buy that?” And the problem is I can’t sell it because I have to have that stock to do the event. If I could sell it all on Instagram, and that would be that, but it’s having that balance, because I need the events to pull in the big money. If I go with a rubbish-looking stall because I’ve sold everything online already, then I’ll just blend in with everyone else. The time I’ve got when I’m proactive on my website is between December and February when I’m off. Did you see I did a Game Boy Mystery Box I did at Christmas? I’m going to do another one of those shortly. I could sell those all day long, but it takes me a while to get the extra goodies together to actually do them. Online is awesome when I’ve got the time to do it, but realistically for me, there’s a greater turnover at the shows than there is online.

You’re kind of going in the opposite direction to everybody else, essentially?

Yeah. I’d love to open a proper shop, full stop. If I hadn’t got a baby then I’d be owning a shop right now! I had some money put aside to open a shop this year, and then the baby happened, and then I had to buy bathrooms and house stuff instead! That’s life. I’d love to have a shop, but it scares the hell out of me, that’s the only thing – whether it’d actually work. I’ve got friends that have got shops; Lee at Sore Thumb Retro in York said it’s the best thing he’s ever done. Ever.

I fit Pokémon save batteries, but my big confession is that I’ve never actually played a Pokémon game

You say you don’t have much time now; do you actually have time to play any of the games you sell?

I probably play 20 lines of Tetris when I’m testing things out, or I’ll have a go on the first level of Super Mario Land. I fit Pokémon save batteries, but my big confession is that I’ve never actually played a Pokémon game. I’ve played the first level where you have to basically put your name in and get to the first room – let’s say I’ve played that 2,000 times, basically to test when I’ve put a new battery in. I’m the master of that bit of the game! The other day I went out of the first room, I was like, “What’s actually outside the first room? Oh, some other things.” Then I stopped!

If anyone reading this is interested in getting into the Game Boy, what’s the advice you’d give them on where to begin?

I would start at the beginning. I’d buy an original Game Boy. I think that’s a good stepping stone. I’d go stock, too, not modded – to literally ‘discover’ it. Then build it up. Work your way through each generation, and then at points get a modded one. Don’t start off with a modded console if you’re new to the Game Boy, because sometimes it ruins the experience. People sometimes come back to me, and they’re like, “I can’t even see it” and I’m like, “Well, that’s how it was designed.” Also, start off with the early games, but look into all the other great titles out there. There are plenty of other wicked games out there that people just don’t touch, and they should do. Do a little bit of research, watch some videos online, and you’ll realise there are plenty of amazing Game Boy games out there.

Linux operating systems are great for making unique customizations and tweaks to make your computer work better for you. For example, the i3 window manager encourages users to think about the different components and pieces that make up the modern Linux desktop.

Fedora has two new packages of interest for music tweakers: mpris-scrobbler and playerctl. mpris-scrobbler tracks your music listening history on a music-tracking service like Last.fm and/or ListenBrainz. playerctl is a command-line music player controller.

mpris-scrobbler records your music listening trends

mpris-scrobbler is a CLI application to submit play history of your music to a service like Last.fm, Libre.fm, or ListenBrainz. It listens on the MPRIS D-Bus interface to detect what’s playing. It connects with several different music clients like spotify-client, vlc, audacious, bmp, cmus, and others.

Install and configure mpris-scrobbler

mpris-scrobbler is available for Fedora 28 or later, as well as the EPEL 7 repositories. Run the following command in a terminal to install it:

sudo dnf install mpris-scrobbler

Once it is installed, use systemctl to start and enable the service. The following command starts mpris-scrobbler and always starts it after a system reboot:

systemctl --user enable --now mpris-scrobbler.service

Submit plays to ListenBrainz

This article explains how to link mpris-scrobbler with a ListenBrainz account. To use Last.fm or Libre.fm, see the upstream documentation.

To submit plays to a ListenBrainz server, you need a ListenBrainz API token. If you have an account, get the token from your profile settings page. When you have a token, run this command to authenticate with your ListenBrainz API token:

$ mpris-scrobbler-signon token listenbrainz
Token for listenbrainz.org:

Finally, test it by playing a song in your preferred music client on Fedora. The songs you play appear on your ListenBrainz profile.

playerctl controls your music playback

playerctl is a CLI tool to control any music player implementing the MPRIS D-Bus interface. You can easily bind it to keyboard shortcuts or media hotkeys. Here’s how to install it, use it in the command line, and create key bindings for the i3 window manager.

Install and use playerctl

playerctl is available for Fedora 28 or later. Run the following command in a terminal to install it:

sudo dnf install playerctl

Now that it’s installed, you can use it right away. Open your preferred music player on Fedora. Next, try the following commands to control playback from a terminal.

To play or pause the currently playing track:

playerctl play-pause

If you want to skip to the next track:

playerctl next

For a list of all running players:

playerctl -l

To play or pause what’s currently playing, only on the spotify-client app:

playerctl -p spotify play-pause

Create playerctl key bindings in i3wm

Do you use a window manager like the i3 window manager? Try using playerctl for key bindings. You can bind different commands to different key shortcuts, like the play/pause buttons on your keyboard. Look at the following i3wm config excerpt to see how:

# Media player controls
bindsym XF86AudioPlay exec "playerctl play-pause"
bindsym XF86AudioNext exec "playerctl next"
bindsym XF86AudioPrev exec "playerctl previous"

Try it out with your favorite music players

Need to know more about customizing the music listening experience on Fedora? The Fedora Magazine has you covered. Check out these five cool music players on Fedora:

Bring order to your music library chaos by sorting and organizing it with MusicBrainz Picard:

Photo by Frank Septillion on Unsplash.

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