Antstream Arcade Twitch Superstar: JT & Bex
In our fourth Antstream Arcade Twitch superstar features, we talk to another of the bright heroes spreading the retro gaming glory of Antstream Arcade via streaming platforms. This week, answering questions on their gaming history, favourite games, Antstream Arcade and more, are Minecraft addicts JT & Bex. You can catch them on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/jtnbex, on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/JTnBEX and on Twitter via @JTnBex.
On with the retro inquisition!
Antstream Arcade: Hello JT and Bex! Can we start with your earliest gaming memories?
JT: Hello! I was around six years old when my parents bought my older brother a ZX Spectrum 128k and I remember hearing that sound of the flashing screen before the game loaded and my brother’s excitement as the image slowly built up. A few minutes later and the loading screen for Turbo Esprit was there in all its black and white glory. I didn’t realise Spectrum games were in colour until my parents bought a colour TV! We spent ages taking turns behind the wheel of that Esprit, racing around a city and avoiding other cars.
Bex: My older brother got a SNES one Christmas and I used to watch him play on it. I quickly became engrossed in the graphics and soon I was allowed to play. I was determined to unlock all the secret levels in Yoshi’s Island and get every coin in the levels. I soon mastered the first two islands and was able to speed run through every level.
AA: What was your first console or computer?
JT: The first one I owned myself would be the Atari 2600. My parents bought it for my birthday and my brother and dad set it up in my room during the party as a surprise for me. They ended up getting distracted playing Missile Command and forgot to tell me about it until I went to look for them when it was time for cake!
Bex: My first console was a SNES. I still own it to this day and occasionally set it up and play with JT.
AA: On the spot time part 1: what has been your favourite era for gaming?
JT: It’s toss up between the mid-Nineties, when games characters like Sonic became stars of Saturday morning cartoons and right now, with immersive games becoming more popular and technology offering more possibilities.
Bex: It has to be right now! I have never had more fun gaming than I do now.
AA: How and when did you start streaming?
Bex: We started streaming Terraria in 2014. It was a lot of fun but sadly we had to stop due to moving house. Today, we stream five days a week and play Minecraft on our server or Antstream Arcade, which is a lot of fun. On Saturdays we tend to have a spooky theme; Alien Isolation is our favourite game for Saturday streams – our viewers like to use sound alerts to try and scare us!
AA: On the spot time part 2: favourite game of all time?
Bex: Minecraft – I doubt I will ever find a better game. It allows me to be artistic and creative, I can build anything I can imagine, play with friends and together create some beautiful things.
JT: Skyrim would fill my top spot. Often I don’t follow the questline or look for enemies to fight – I just take a walk and experience the atmosphere.
AA: How do you choose which games to stream?
JT: We mainly play Minecraft because it captures our imaginations so much and I think playing a game we enjoy means we provide an enjoyable experience for the people watching.
Bex: We have a set schedule. Tuesdays we like to try new games; Saturday is for scary games and Sunday we call Sub Sunday and we play with our subscribers. Wednesday and Fridays is Minecraft!
AA: What do you think of Antstream Arcade?
Bex: I think it’s really fun! We had our viewers set us challenges to beat their scores on different games, which I enjoy a lot as it gives us something to work towards in the stream.
JT: I love it. At a time when things are a bit hectic, it brings me back to the happier times of being a kid, blowing the dust out of the tape deck and loading up my favourite game. Hearing the tune from a game – such as Heartland on the Spectrum – that I haven’t heard since I was six years old, really moved me and brought back so many memories.
AA: Do you get a good response streaming Antstream Arcade?
JT: Our community love it! As well as the challenges they set us, they also post their high scores in a channel we’ve set up on Discord. That way we can spend our stream trying to beat them!
Bex: Unfortunately, most of the games we play we get terrible scores, but we have a laugh trying to win!
AA: What do you think we could do to improve Antstream Arcade?
JT: I’d love to see Pitfall! on Antstream one day. I never finished it as a kid – I’m not even sure you can finish it – but I want to try!
Bex: I would like to see some PC games I played as a child, the only issue I have is remembering their names! A game I spent hours playing was called Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure – I could play that all day long! One change I would like to see added is the ability to watch the gameplay of the top scorers. How amazing would that be to watch how they achieved those high scores?
AA: Finally, JT and Bex, on a scale of 1 to 10, how geeky are you?
Bex: I wouldn’t say I’m that geeky, but I can imagine JT giving me an 8 for my love of anime, gaming and Doctor Who!
JT: We’re going to need a bigger scale… for me, 10 wouldn’t even be close!
Thanks to JT and Bex for their time – stay tuned for another Antstream Arcade streaming superstar profile soon!