Yellow Boots
Cover art by Jimmy Stockton: the author in yellow boots on a mountain of wrecked PCs and gamers

The Golden Age of PC gaming… what a special time to be alive. Well, maybe not special. Maybe just strange.

Yellow
Boots

Especially if you're a borderline unemployable geek who wears weird boots and can only get work writing the back page “funny” column for an obscure PC gaming magazine.

Read the columns Meet the author

In a world before consoles took over, before smartphones and Facebook, we played games on PC. These are our memories. Some of those memories are on fire.

With awesome googly-eyed illustrations by awesome googly-eyed illustrator Jimmy Stockton!

How it all startedPitbull Futures 2001 The book opens in Cobar, with a man making a dogfighting simulator. It goes downhill from there. Read the first chapter →

The final column · issue 300 · September 2023

The Reunion

My God, it's full of… well, not stars exactly, more sort of curious brown dwarfs

Eleven years after the last regular column, the gang gets back together for the magazine's 300th issue. Somebody is not wearing the boots.

Read the final column

The columns

36 back-page columns, issue 149 to issue 200, as filed, and the final column, issue 300. Start anywhere. Each one ends with a way to the next.

Cutaway map by Jimmy Stockton: The Games

Part 1 · 2008The Games

#149 · January 2008My Funky ValentineAnd in this case we're using the classic definition of "funky"
#150 · February 2008RetrovertigoRemember: you only THINK you like the old stuff better than the new stuff
#151 · March 2008The ParadeUnity is an illusion, brand loyalty doubly so
#152 · April 2008Year of the WrathBecause sometimes our anger gets the best of all of us
#153 · May 2008Kinds of ViolenceYou can look, but don't touch. That's what today's censors want to teach us.
#154 · June 2008Tales from the BingeBecause sometimes what goes down must come up
#155 · July 2008Sim ResolutionBecause six months is too long to leave a guy dangling
#156 · August 2008Sign Your Name Across My ArtIf everything you said got filtered through a Google SafeMode search, wouldn't you go crazy too?
#157 · September 2008Moving DayBecause even the richest life can be reduced to 27 boxes and a roll of carpet
#158 · October 2008Yoghurt and JunketBecause sometimes being at work means not coming in to work at all
#159 · November 2008Yule BrynnerDeck the halls with gasoline, light it up and watch it gleam
#160 · December 2008The RoadThis is the way the world ends: with both a bang, and a whimper
Cutaway map by Jimmy Stockton: The Life

Part 2 · 2009The Life

#161 · January 2009The Shambling LifeDoes gaming exclusively on PC actually make you a better person?
#162 · February 2009Cursum PerficioFor those times when sailing away seems the perfect solution
#163 · March 2009Tightening the BeltsHow can you cut back on a zero-spend budget?
#164 · April 2009ReciprevertsexculsionMaking a MOCery of our precious childhood memories
#165 · May 2009ChoplifterBeware the man whose dream costs only $39.95
#166 · June 2009The Meme That RoaredTo blog or not to blog is rarely a question you even get time to ask, these days
#167 · July 2009North Indian DinerIn which we tackle the question: does familiarity breed contempt?
#168 · August 2009The Drying of the NewIt really is some catch...
#169 · September 2009Statistics, Damn Statistics, and LiesWe're all PC gamers. Every one of us. Science proves it
#170 · October 2009Son of Yellow BootsIn the grim future of the third millennium, there is only... games?
#171 · November 2009Sleep CityAdventures in a polyphasic headspace
#172 · December 2009Infinitely BoredSometimes you have to stand up and fight for what's important
Cutaway map by Jimmy Stockton: The Fall

Part 3 · 2009 to 2012The Fall

#173 · January 2010NunpuncherA deep exploration of the nature of moral choice... or something
#175 · March 2010The Walking LifeTaking a stand against the emasculation of motor transport
#176
#176 · April 2010Crafty BuggersInconvenience is just a matter of perspective...
#177 · May 2010The Final Maha AvataraBecause we're all frankly sick to the back teeth of Kali Yuga
#178 · June 2010Tom Cruise Was Right!And others in a series of unfortunate events
#179 · July 2010The Finest LineIt's not the bread, but what goes between it
#180 · August 2010Launch Party Massacre: The Next GenerationFilthy gestures? Those are just me old finger-snapping tricks!
#182
#182 · October 2010Redux Revisited: the SequelBecause change ain't good Leon
#183
#183 · November 2010Buried Alive!Let no games journalist write mine epitaph
#184 · December 2010Set Your Mind in MotionThe lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning...
#185
#185 · January 2011Duckie NukemQueer eye for the cartoonishly exaggerated action hero guy
#200 · April 2012A Bicentennial ManSome say the world will end in fire...

Epilogue · September 2023The final column

#300The ReunionMy God, it's full of… well, not stars exactly, more sort of curious brown dwarfs

Features

The longer pieces.

Pitbull Futures 2001Because it's important to be open to new thingsExtreme BASE Jump 3D!Think of it as skydiving for aviophobesLaunch Party MassacreThe Original and Still the Best
Yellow Boots book cover

The book

A collection of short-to-medium pieces that reflect the sometimes bizarre, often offensive and occasionally insightful world of PC games journalism, in that very special time: 2001 to 2011.

Buy it on Amazon

Praise for Yellow Boots!

If I had found the time to read an entire book, I definitely would have read this book. Or at least I would have skimmed it.

Edman Charnwhitepublisher, PostCodex Media

Why wasn't I told about this?

Warren NadirCEO, PostCodex Media

A lot of these indie books are quite short, and this one is actually really long, so I guess it's pretty good value for five dollars?

Sarahfan of cat detective books

Captures the essence of life as twenty-something geek with a sweet PC and who likes to play PC games a lot and is also awesome and a good writer.

Victor Ninoxauthor's crazy ex-third flatmate

Additional praise pending!

Illustration by Jimmy Stockton