Which is strange because he's normally quite a jolly chap!

I got a phonecall from our local radio station earlier this week telling me a listener had rung in to ask how to get past a puzzle in CSI: Dark Motives on DS, so they naturally thought to ring me at work and ask if they could put her through to me! I politely declined and passed on the address for GameFAQS, then made sure to mention our location and opening hours

haha, I read that and felt a small glow, because although I didn't remember the chap in question - even though we get very few Admirals in the store - I know I've done that many times in the past so I was sure it was me.

I'm surprised your party story didn't get you splashed across the papers mate, but maybe that's an indication of how poorly I understand the world of newspapers!

This is old news by now, but I was in our local paper a few months ago - our games shop donated a Wii to a children's hospital who'd had theirs stolen. The article is HERE, and features me looking stupid for the purposes of an interesting photo. It's quite similar to UK:R's "Best Publicity Photo Ever", but with more pretend make-up.

Have you been in the news recently, or in fact ever? What have you done that you think is newsworthy?

The second time I got drunk was on vodka and orange, and after recording my burps I phoned Hannah with the immortal words, "I can't be drunk - I can still say Yngwie Malmsteen", which I proceeded to repeat many times.

A few years ago I lived a few doors down from a wannabe DJ, who would often stay up until gone 3am with his banging tunes. One night I'd had enough and stood outside his front door at 4am, in my dressing gown and slippers, banging on his door to ask for a bit of quiet. He was actually quite reasonable, if you ignore the 4am MCing.

Anyway, I obviously wasn't the only person who objected to his hobby - a few days later his equipment was confiscated and he was later evicted!

Two projects - I voted for the third answer

I don't remember many good party stories, although obviously that's because I don't go to many parties. I do remember one chap who got drunk for the first time on three Stellas, then when his parents came to pick him up said "about fucking time"! Poor chap - he'll never be allowed to forget it.

There's also something about vodka and Yngwie Malmsteen, but I think that's enough for now...

Many thanks for the in-depth advice, Maestro. I haven't touched those tracks in a while - which I guess means my skills haven't improved, sadly - but I do appreciate your composer's ear and the time you took to listen and give feedback.

I know technically my compositions are always extremely simple, usually revolving around four to eight chords (if I'm feeling wild!), and the same could be said for my orchestrations. My problem is I always have a very rigid view of the melody and find it hard to progress beyond my initial idea of the tune. I'm quite good at improvisation but my composition lets me down usually, I'd say.

I also hate doing drums, as you can tell! There's a revised "Jumpy World" that uses bongos in my feeble attempt to match the "black bottoms" of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?", although I can understand why that wouldn't work as it's a most unlikely accompaniment to a video game song!

Thanks again for the advice - I have a few days off, so if I can I'll try to improve some of my tracks, or do something even better!

Ah, a professional musician in our midsts! I've done a soundtrack or two but most of what you said went way above my head, so excuse me if our future interview is full of inane questions! I'll send you a PM later this week with some preliminary questions and things like that

I wonder if it would also be possible to have a guide to your studio and setup as well: I imagine a room full of 60s sci-fi-looking equipment!

Very impressed by the music I've heard, Maestro! The World Theme wouldn't be out of place in many a paid-for game these days, so my hat is definitely off to you on that one. You've certainly raised the bar for music in a Shining fangame!

I'd be very interested in learning more about how you set about orchestrating these tracks - perhaps we could resurrect the Shining Aid interviews section for such a task?

I've only ever got into two online games properly: Guild Wars and Phantasy Star Online, the former because my friend played it and the latter because, well, it's PSO!

I think when I was younger I was all in favour of establishing myself in whatever online capacity I could - emails, forums, "social networking" etc. - but these days I just can't be arsed. I'm quite happy only playing Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst on my own or with Phil - I haven't even played with anyone else, don't think I will either (unless someone from here joins ).

Of course, we all know that one game would have an amazing online community if only it would get finished...

Yes, it's that time of year again when Sega like to tease us by announcing a "strategy RPG" with the Shining name attached. This time it's for DS and looks like a strange cross between Shining Soul and a more action-orientated turns-based battle system (if that makes sense!).

The first scans of screens are here - what do you make of it?

[so much]

"I am unable to speak."

"I have a sore stomach."

"I intentionally ate some moderately undercooked chicken in order to give myself an upset stomach and so score the day off work because I hate working for you."

A bit extreme I suppose, but if that didn't work I would have been saying "I walked into traffic because I hate you so much"

Thankfully these days I don't have to avoid work because I actually quite enjoy it!

In terms of changing instruments it's as easy as selecting something from a drop-down list, no worries.

Peter - I'll be honest, I haven't had time to get very far! I did a short jingle which I'll upload in a few days and let you listen.

After my long hiatus from the Internet (over a year!) it's good to be back, and I see Ty has posted some short jingles I wrote for everyone to use. They only took me a few hours to do but hopefully they'll save many hours for Shining musicians out there!

I was just wondering if anyone had used these yet, and if you found them useful. If not, how could they be improved to better suit a Shining fangame?