Escape to the future

Here's a blast from the past. Back in 1997, I did a bit of writing for the then-cutting-edge, now-defunct Escape magazine (stuff off the Internet turned into a lads' mag). One of my favourite ideas for a feature article required a bunch of people to test drive a full-sized racing game whilst under the influence.

Thus, here we are at the end of the night (me celebrating my first drink, 'cos I was the one who had to write everything down and make notes, plot graphs of motoring performance and so on), at the Namco centre in London's trendy South Bank. It was quite new and interesting then, with a proper bar and lovely staff and everything. It's naught but a chav arcade these days.

But, just look at the talent lined up here! There's two magazine editors, one soon-to-be-published author (that's me), people who work in high-up editorial positions at Dennis Publishing and Yahoo! In the flannel panel of this particular issue you will also find the names Charlie Brooker, Adam Bostock-Smith, Angus Loughran and David McCandless. Heady days.

And there's Danny. In green. Winner on the night, car salesman at the time and now... well, Danny, what are you up to these days?