Whether it’s the high score tables, challenges or just forming friendships, Antstream Arcade is all about community and bringing gamers both young and old together. With our carefully-curated selection of retro classics the starting point, there’s a whole new virtual neighbourhood at the heart of what we do.
For our latest gamer profile, we present Daniel Ibbertson, known as DJ Slope on Antstream Arcade, YouTube and social media. Why not friend him up, and throw a challenge his way – if you dare!
Bio
Name: Daniel Ibbertson AKA DJ Slope
Age: 37
Antstream Arcade Handle: DJSlope
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SlopesGameRoom
Occupation: YouTube Content Provider
First Gaming Love: Amstrad CPC464
Favourite Games on Antstream: Metal Slug, Rolling Thunder, Slam Tilt, Super BurgerTime, Elevator Action and loads more!
Favourite Challenge on Antstream: Any of the Metal Slug challenges
DJ Slope Begins
While many gamers in the UK grew up with the Commodore 64 or ZX Spectrum, Daniel’s first gaming love was the Amstrad computer, a machine that usually found itself wedged in between the other two during playground arguments. “Technically the computer was purchased by my mum while I was a wee nipper,” he says. “But it was never actually used for any work, and only used by family and friends to play games!” From Daniel’s self-admittedly hazy memory, several games stand out. “Treasure Island Dizzy, Jack The Nipper 2, Chase HQ and even Roland On The Ropes were all stand out titles. And Fast Food Dizzy, the first game I ever completed.”
DJ Slope the Gamer
Gaming is a fascination for Daniel and something that he’s harboured a fondness of for a long time. “For as long as I can remember, I have always been captivated by the weird shapes I can make on TVs when pushing random buttons on controllers and keyboards,” he explains. “Eventually, as I ‘grew up’, that fascination turned into an obsession with every generation of gaming.” Despite this overarching love of gaming history, Daniel still has a favourite era. “I’m always fascinated by the jumps between generations – however, I still always find myself going back to the incredible 16-bit generation.” This era, of the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Super Nintendo and, particularly, Sega Mega Drive, also contains Daniel’s favourite game of all time: Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the chaotic cart combo that took the super-speedy blue hedgehog to another level.
DJ Slope on DJ Slope
A question we’ve been dying to ask is how Daniel’s DJ Slope persona, a popular character on YouTube in particular, came about. “It’s actually a bit stupid!” he laughs. “Basically, I fancied this girl while out clubbing one night, and she said I looked like Spike from Buffy The Vampire Slayer, probably because of my bleach blonde short hair.” That must have been quite a look – but while Daniel’s hair was more influenced by rapper Eminem than the hit TV show, he soon changed his existing sobriquet of DJ Dan Kerr-uption to DJ Spike. This is turning into quite a story. “Yeah, bear with me! I quickly realised DJ Spike was a stupid generic DJ name. At the time, I was a big fan of Jack Black’s super average movie, Shallow Hal, and my friends and I stole the line ‘That’s why they call it quip, not a slowp’ from that movie. We used it as a kinda grading system every time we made fun of each other; a ‘quip’ was awarded for a good bit of banter, while a ‘slowp’ was for the rubbish stuff.” Still here? Don’t worry, we’re almost there. “As you may have guessed, DJ Spike ended up becoming DJ Slope as a way to wind me up. However, over time I realised it’s actually a pretty good name, super memorable and kinda weird.”
And breathe.
DJ Slope on Collecting
Collecting videogames and posting about it on social media is a popular pastime today. But when it comes to his own personal collection, Daniel has a sad story to tell. “Sadly, I sold my entire Mega Drive and Master System library for £1 a pop back in my late teens,” he says grimly. Why, Daniel? Why?! “It was so I could buy extra Dreamcast controllers and VMUs – what a facepalm!” The YouTuber made up for this blunder in later years, purchasing as much random retro content as he could, until he realised it was getting a bit out of hand. “I had four copies of Ecco The Dolphin! I have since sold most of the fluffer stuff and now only collect games that are of interest to me. My Nintendo Switch and Japanese Mega Drive collections are the biggest with around 100 or so games in each.” With Daniel’s interests constantly changing, who knows what’s next?
DJ on YouTube
Of course, Daniel is most known for his YouTube work, and he regularly posts videos in his channel, Slope’s Game Room. These range from reviews, to unboxing and expose-style vids to Daniel’s personal favourite, his complete history guides, where he takes the viewer on an exhaustive journey across a particular game series. With over 130 thousand subscribers, Daniel’s channel is as popular as ever – but what tips does he have for budding new YouTube stars? “Create what you want to create,” he says. “Over time, if you still enjoy it, you would have organically started to fall into a specific niche that’s unique to you. Don’t be afraid to take inspiration from someone else, but be mindful that it’s YOUR channel and NOT some dedication to someone else. Plus, don’t get too bogged down in social media marketing, SEO and so on: as important as these things are, it’s all stuff you will learn along the way.”
DJ on Antstream Arcade
While he did not back Antstream on Kickstarter, Daniel is a big fan of the concept. “Thankfully it all just works, which is great – but those challenges are super addictive. They are 100% the way to go when it comes to gaming in the cloud.” As to how we could make the service better, there’s one thing it’s all about according to DJ Slope: “You can never have enough games!”
Daniel is on Twitter, and he can be found there most days tweeting retro joy. For more bountiful retro gaming goodness, go subscribe to him on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/djslopesroom.
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