If you ever flicked through the pages of Your Sinclair back in the day — with its irreverent humour, chaotic reviews, and love of all things Speccy — you’ll feel right at home with Breakspace.

Breakspace is a modern ZX Spectrum zine, packed with retro gaming articles, original artwork, developer interviews, and that unmistakable British wit that made 8-bit gaming so much fun. It even features writing from Your Sinclair legend Phil South — which is enough to make any old-school gamer’s pixels tingle.

I’m proud to say I’m one of the writers for Breakspace, bringing my own blend of daft humour to its pages. The zine is completely free to download and available right now on itch.io.

Spread the word and let us know what you think in the itch comments.

👉 Download Issue 3 here: https://breakspace.itch.io/breakspace-issue-3

https://www.websiteplanet.com/blog/jonbardi-interview/

Well, would you look at that—after just 15 years, I’ve finally finished my choose your own adventure (although you’re not allowed to call it that – registered trademark or something – so I’ve called it a DECIDE YOUR OWN DEATH. This means it’s not just any book. This masterpiece comes complete with several branching storylines, multiple endings, morally dubious decisions, and lots and lots of death scenes!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:

The Marvellous Adventures of Flashrat

In this deeply questionable tale, you play as Scott Macarthur, council toilet cleaner (freelance). A man of simple pleasures and even simpler hygiene habits, Scott resides in an abandoned shopping trolley in his local park after being booted out by his wife—who, as it turns out, has been up to all sorts of shenanigans with Scott’s best friend.

But hope is not lost.

There’s a chance—a tiny, whisky-stained chance—that Scott might just be a superhero in the making. He’s got a costume (sort of), a purpose (ish), and a mentor: the mysterious, possibly imaginary vigilante known only as Flashrat.

Is Flashrat a genuine English-speaking crimefighter? Or is Scott just incredibly dehydrated and off his rocker from drinking something blue he found behind the Co-op?

• Will you guide Scott toward redemption, heroism, and maybe even a home with an actual roof?
• Will Scott get his revenge on his wife, or will you lead him to a gooey, romantic, mills-and-boony reunion?
• Or will your decisions lead him to an inevitable, blood-soaked end involving evil mad scientists, the Yakuza, an evil genius living inside a volcano, a wolf-man (or sorts), a mysterious cobbler, the Brotherhood of the Bogbrush, secret microfilms, and, of course, the KGB?

This is a dark, adult comedy packed with filthy jokes, tragic choices, and moments so surreal even David Lynch would ask you to tone it down. It is absolutely NOT for children or the easily offended.

If you’ve ever wanted to star in your own grimy, low-budget superhero origin story—now’s your chance.

The Marvellous Adventures of Flashrat is available now on Amazon!

If you’re interested (and I can’t imagine why you would be) in more of my creative writing, please look at my author website at jonbardi.com

Reviews!

5.0 out of 5 stars

 “Brilliant lawnmower”

A brilliant lawnmower, very easy put together just by looking at pictures on box, delighted with my first cut, cuts close to the edges, and left my lawn looking lovely, it’s my first electric lawnmower and iv no complaints, does what it says on the box and I’m very happy with it.

5.0 out of 5 stars

 “Worth every penny.”

Brilliant!! Cleaned an outside wall and two cars so far. Easy to use, different sprays and strong jet. 2 batteries sold it to me, could not have imagined it would perform so well. An excellent piece of kit.

5.0 out of 5 stars

 “Great”

It really absorbs water. 1 box lasted me almost a month, but I have very high humidity in the room and I used several boxes in different places (in the closet, near the bed.) There was a little less mold. And the air became a little less humid.

5.0 out of 5 stars

“ Absolutely bargain of the season”

You won’t find a better value tent for the money, absolutely blown away by it.

Has opening both sides with awning on one side. Storage in all 4 corners. Loads of bag storage on both sides.

I’ve used it a few times now and can be put up easily within 10mins even by a novice.

5.0 out of 5 stars

 “Ideal for the job!!”

I purchased these cones on behalf of my church to enable us to reserve parking spaces at the front of our building when needed for wedding or funeral vehicles etc. They are ideal for the job, sturdy, colourful and clearly visible to traffic. An excellent purchase!!

5.0 out of 5 stars

 “Good quality for price”

This is only a toilet brush I know, but it looks good. Surprisingly it doesn’t drip either, after a tap on the side of the bowl, easy to clean much better than our old bristle ones. We have replaced all our old ones with these.

1.0 out of 5 stars

“Würde es nicht empfehlen – NICHT SICHER!”

Die Leiter ist nicht leicht und viel schwerer als erwartet. Außerdem ist es nicht stabil und gibt nach, wenn es ausgezogen wird. Ich würde der Leiter nicht zutrauen, über 10 Fuß hinauszuklettern, da sie nicht sicher ist. Ich würde es nicht empfehlen – diese Leiter ist NICHT SICHER

Maverick ping-pong champ, Tom Fallows, is sent to the Isle of Wight for the annual all-counties table tennis tournament. He soon discovers that the residents of the island are actually Lizard-People, who not only want to destroy Tom’s mind – but also his hopes of winning the tournament!

Is Tom’s only hope of defeating the scaly scoundrels – to beat the evil Lizard King in the tournament final?

– From the terrible tale “Zero – Love – Lizard!“

Welcome to the most horrifying reading experience you will ever endure. Prepare to plumb the depths of hell! You will read tales of Mad Scientists, mummified monsters, crumbling old mansions with strange comings and goings, evil lizard people from the Isle of Wight and most horrifying of all – a story set in Southport.

• Your nails shall dig into your palms…

• Your eyes will bulge…

• You’ll stop reading and go and watch telly…

• You will wish you had never bought this book.

Welcome to Tales to Make your Teeth Twitch

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Hello website-chums. Times are hard at the moment, what with Covid-19 and being stuck indoors day in and day out. We could all do with some cheering up.

And what’s the best way to cheer up? Rock and Roll of course!

Below I’ve shared a video of one of the best Rock and Roll songs ever released. It’s called “Hold my hand very tightly (very tightly)” and it’s by “Whistlin’” Rick Wilson.  You may never have heard of him – but he was massive in the eighties.

Sadly, it was the only number one record Rick Wilson was to have, before vanishing from the music scene.

So, make a cup of tea, have a seat, and listen to some good old fashioned Rock and Roll. I’ve added the lyrics below so you can even sing a long if you like.

I have written the world’s first SOAP-BLOG (or BLOG-SOAP? – comment below on which you think sounds better).

It’s based around a lone-wolf, maverick freelance web designer, who looks like Paul Newman and moves from Manchester to Bournemouth and solves mysteries. Think Eastenders meets Banacek.

I showed the script to my friend Tom and he says it’s so good the BBC would more than likely be interested, so we are going to try and get a meeting with Anthony William Hall (Director general of the BBC) for sometime in the following weeks, and take the script along with us. 

I don’t know if I would get any say in casting  once commission is approved, but I think Michael Madsen and Pamela Anderson would be great in a British daytime soap. Just click below to have a read of the first episode. More coming soon!