Welcome to the first of what is looking to be a new era of The Spaceacst!

So instead of thinking about this as the 20th installment of our little show why not think of it as 2.0. We're all new and improved! But "How?!" I hear you all ask!

Well we've got a revamped format based on listener feedback! You love Plasmacaster! You demand The Analyst! And i3t? Well let's be honest we'd need a miracle to prise the mic off of him! What this means then is that (hopefully) each show from here on out will feature all three main Spaceman writers as the hosts. However you're not going to get three at once. If that were to happen the world would indeed end. Instead we're going to have each show split into three 15-20 minute segments.

Even number shows, starting today with 20, will feature Plasmacaster on intros and outro duties and a Great Old Gaming Gem and have The Analyst appearing in the middle segment.

Odd numbered shows will instead feature The Analyst opening and closing with Plasmacaster providing the interludes.

i3t will be the one consistant voice of insanity throughout...

Simples. Hopefully...

So that being said what's instore tonight I hear you cry!

Well in part 1 we've got discussion covering Howard The Duck, Plas and i3t's favourite 80s movies, Samurai Pizza Cats and the Teenage Mutant HERO Turtles. Should be Ninja but we blame Maggie Thatcher...

Part 2 is The Analyst interlude which we start with our new Wrestling Revolution jingle. And in that we review the latest House of Pain show that i3t managed to attend despite the chaos that is his life and then we tell a story.

A story that we've kept quiet for  a very long time.

Just what exactly happened in Lincoln County Hospital Social Club in 2004 or 2005 when the UK Pitbulls came to town?

I'll tell you this much now. It's not pretty.

And finally we end the show with Plas looking at Perfect Dark, this weeks gaming gem, but we don't just leave it there.

We also cover everything from The Muncher on the C64 to Streaker on the ZX via Duke Nukem Forever, Zero Tollerence and erm... Games with really good lift music.

Oh and don't forget Dizzy and Alfred Chicken!

As always if you want to get in touch with the show, and we really do want to hear from you, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Technical note - This episode overran being the first of our new-format shows. As a result we've had to shrink the bitrate as for some inexplicable reason our hosting company has set a frankly baffling 32mb file limit. We're working to resolve this and as soon as it is? We'll replace the show with the high quality master and this little message will disappear!

Usually this site brings you a mixture of old retro and funny reviews, heavily biased coverage of current affairs, funny news stories, great old games, wrestling, comics and of course the Spacecast. All of this is done with, we hope, humour and in a light hearted fashion. However today I'd like to get serious with you all and speak to you about cancer.

It is said that one in three have direct experience of cancer. It's a hard trying time for a lot of people. I know, I've both had cancer, and I've been through my father having cancer. Thankfully we both beat it. My dad is now 3 and a half years all clear and I'm over 9 years cancer free.

But those are stories for another time and place.

The story I bring you today is an inspirational tale from a woman called Sue. I was going to retell her story, as I will be doing on Spacecast 22 in a few weeks, but then I thought I might lose something in the retelling. So instead I'm going to give you her story in her own words.

In May 2011 I was given the devastating news that the high risk breast cancer I was diagnosed with initially in 2005 had spread to my lung, liver and bones. I was told that this was incurable and that the only treatment option available to me was palliative. I had undergone a mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and years of hormone treatment previously and really hoped that I had beaten the disease for good but unfortunately this did not turn out to be the case. For the past year I have been on palliative chemotherapy to hopefully slow down the progression of the disease, this worked initially but since December 2011 the disease has progressed further in my lung and liver.

I have always loved music, in particular singing and on and off throughout my life I have sung to raise money for various charities, in amateur dramatic groups, in bands, and solo in bars, restaurants, pubs and clubs. I have always enjoyed this but have never believed in myself enough to really push myself. If was to be truly honest with myself, I have played at it for years on and off and not sung at all for the last 7 years but not any more!!!!

I had never recorded my voice, so after a conversation with friends discussing what I need and want to do with my life after my news I decided that I must do something about that. I initially purchased a Groupon voucher to have a one hour recording session in a local recording studio (The Music Factory Entertainment Group, Parkgate, Rotherham) and then as a surprise my lovely husband Mark bought me a voucher to record 10 more songs for Christmas, so from then on I got the bug, my condition had brought me back to singing, admittedly hesitantly at first as my voice was very weak and I had to overcome my struggles with breathing and basically have had to learn all over again to sing in a different way to enable me to breathe, as I do suffer from shortness of breath due to the tumours. I seem to struggle much more on walking and talking ironically than when singing. It’s funny how that works isn’t it?, when you think of people who overcome speak impediments when singing, its amazing really.

I believe that as we travel through life we are sent many challenges to help us grow as individuals and life can throw some pretty hard things at us. I believe that it is not what life throws at us, but how we chose to deal with it that matters. I have chosen to be strong and positive. Negativity is not an option for me, I have 2 children aged 13 and 16 and I have to be there to see them grow up, I have to be there to share in their lives and to see them embrace life and live it to the full, my greatest fear is that I will not be here to see that, so I refuse to believe I am going anywhere. I may have been told I am incurable,but I prefer to say I am living with a nasty disease, but I am in charge. I refuse to be a statistic.

This may sound cliché, but I believe that this disease has given me an almighty kick, it has made me the strongest I have ever been in my life, and ultimately, more content with my lot. It has made me appreciate the people and things around me so much more. It has made me believe that I can do anything, and it has brought me back to my great love of music and has given me the positive approach to make me reach for my dream of writing my own song, something I have always wanted to do.

So, here we are. You will shortly be listening to my song “Believe”. I hope it makes you feel something. I hope you think the lyrics are inspirational and uplifting, I hope you can feel what I was feeling when I wrote it, that whatever we have to deal with in life, sometimes the difficult things can make us a better person, can make us truly what we are supposed to be. If you “use your mind to make you strong”, (you will understand that when you hear my song) you can achieve anything you want.

The cover versions I have chosen to record are all chosen as they mean something on an emotional level to me, either for my wonderful husband and children, or for my extended family and friends. All the songs l have chosen have wonderful strong lyrics and say just what I want to say to them. I believe that whatever genre of music anyone listens to that these songs will make people feel uplifted and make them realise what a wonderful thing life is and that we should all look more closely at what we have in life, and be grateful, appreciate every second and not take things for granted. We should count our blessings every day.

In February 2012 I decided to learn to play the piano to help with my song writing dream. Along with the help of my wonderful music teacher Steve I learned enough to enable me to write “Believe” and this has ignited the fire in me to carry on and write more, so I am now busy writing towards an album of original material. I’m so excited.

Since May 2012 my song Believe has been in the hands of a wonderful music producer and musician Carl Lamb. He has supported me wholeheartedly and even came up with an ingenious way of recording to enable me to cope with my breathing. He never pushed me or rushed me and  allowed me to record Believe in the comfort of my own home. Carl is the epitome of a caring, selfless and all round truly good and compassionate person! He has made it possible for me to achieve my dream and I will never forget his kindness and hard work. He has believed in me and worked so hard. The amazing thing is that Carl "gets" just how much my song means to me because of the journey I am on. Thank you Carl!! x

My dream is helping me to have something other to focus on than cancer. Something positive and good. Cancer can take over your life, so you become the “person with cancer”, instead of yourself. It can consume your every thought and take over your life. Cancer is expensive and has had a immense financial drain on my family with my wonderful husband having to work 2 jobs at times for us to survive. I have had times that I have been unable to work due to treatment side effects and recovery from various surgery over the past 7 years and in December 2011 my employment was terminated due to incapacity to work due to serious ill health. Unfortunately, I do not have life or health insurance and therefore I need to be able to help myself when my NHS options run out and research other medications/treatments plus complimentary medicine as I refuse to give up! If I can do that with the help of my music then how wonderful for something good to come out of something that started off not so good.

So as I said at the beginning, Thank you so much for believing in me, and for helping hopefully to give me more time. With your help you have made me realise my dream, you have given me  and my family more hope and helped me to keep the fire in my belly alive.

I will fight this disease with all my might in any way I can and know that with you behind me that this journey, wherever it takes me, will be the best journey of my life. Thank you

Sue XXXX

Slow breathe, and just Believe!!!

Inspirational isn't it? I've embedded an extract of Believe below and as soon as it's available on iTunes I'll give you all the link too.

Let's all get behind this and show that no matter what happens to us in life we can all still seize our dreams and make them into reality.

All we have to do is believe.