As readers may already be aware, my main hobby to distract myself from my day job in the profoundly depressing world of politics is to delve into retro videogaming via my Retropie. It’s an endlessly rewarding fount of discovery and entertainment for many reasons, but sometimes the two spheres collide in extremely unexpected ways.
So let’s talk about GORF.
Midway’s 1981 arcade hit was a pioneering and innovative game. It was the first game to be comprised of multiple highly distinct sub-games, boldly including direct lifts of other people’s coin-ops in the form of Space Invaders and Galaxian. And while it wasn’t the first arcade game to feature synthesised speech – it was beaten to that punch by the likes of Berzerk and Wizard Of Wor the previous year – it was famous for the extensive and iconic vocabulary with which it taunted and goaded the player.
It got numerous conversions of variable quality to various home systems, whether as contemporary licences or later homebrew ports, and that’s where we come in.
It’s taken me four weeks to write this, because I barely knew where to start.
Channel 4 showed the singular and vastly wonderful The Banshees Of Inisherin at the weekend, and as brilliant as it is in its own right, it also came loaded with all sorts of resonances and finally prodded me into action.
The equally singular and wonderful Jonathan Nash, who will be known to readers of this isolated and quiet island parish under a variety of names, died last month, of death. It was sudden yet expected, and in those respects very much the opposite of the man himself.
The Spectrum community is arguably more on top of the machine’s history than any other in the world of gaming, so it’s always quite noteworthy when something and/or someone escapes its notice entirely. And so it is with Lukasz Kur.
The screenshot above is of a game called a_e Adventure, or sometimes a_e in King Chrum’s Gold Mines. (According to Kur the character’s name represents “a portion of a forum member’s user name which inadvertantly looked like an emoticon of sorts – a little face with asymetrical eyes.”)
This page lists the various contract tariffs for the imminent iPhone 4S on O2. If you add them up, you get some pretty strange results.
(For the purposes of these calculations, we've worked out the total cost for the term of a 12-month contract, including a £6 "Bolt-On" for 500MB of data, and based on purchasing the 64GB model.)
Not least because I essentially don’t give a shit about the environment. (The result depicted in the image below is from Scottish Vote Compass, and my non-Scotch chums might find it interesting to take the test too.)
I do believe human activities are causing global warming, and that we’re rendering the planet incapable of sustaining human life at a terrifying rate – via greenhouse gases, pollution and overpopulation – to the point where mankind could in my view have well under 100 years left of anything recognisable as our current lifestyle. It’s just that I think that’s a good thing.
Aidan on The quality of mercy: “Well if it’s all been done before, why are you so utterly clueless about it and posting (in that last…” Apr 8, 13:38
Dan on The quality of mercy: “Ooh, an lse report… oh aye, this had been done to death long before Johnny come lately Aidan turned up.…” Apr 8, 13:11
Aidan on The quality of mercy: “Do you have a link to those figures “James”, since I can’t find them anywhere. What I can find is…” Apr 8, 12:52
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The quality of mercy: “BANNED DOCUMENTARY ON SCOTTISH OIL (The McCrone Report) « Tha paipeirean oifigeil a bha dìomhair ach a-nis air am fosgladh,…” Apr 8, 12:49
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The quality of mercy: “McCRONE REPORT – Scotland’s Hidden Oil Wealth « In 1974 the Tory government under Edward Heath commissioned a report by…” Apr 8, 12:42
Captain Caveman on The quality of mercy: “Well, I guess you had better start rummaging that amongst that great big steaming pile of unwashed kecks, empty beer…” Apr 8, 12:32
Alf Baird on The quality of mercy: “Names are names, colonial plunder is colonial plunder. Whaur’s oor oil money, an for aw else tae, ower the past…” Apr 8, 12:06
James on The quality of mercy: ““According to 2013 figures from Fraser Of Allander Institute economist Brian Ashcroft – husband of former Scottish Labour leader Wendy…” Apr 8, 11:58
Captain Caveman on The quality of mercy: “““As of April 7, 2026, oil prices are high and volatile due to supply concerns, with global benchmark Brent Crude…” Apr 8, 11:54
James on The quality of mercy: “Apt coincidence though, eh? Doncha think, “Agent”?” Apr 8, 11:53
Captain Caveman on The quality of mercy: ““Is it down to lack of means, or is it a tactic acknowledgement that deep down they know the money…” Apr 8, 11:46
agentx on The quality of mercy: “@ james “Shell initially named all of its UK oil fields after seabirds in alphabetical order by discovery – Auk,…” Apr 8, 11:27
Aidan on The quality of mercy: “@James – don’t start having a massive tantrum because you’ve been made to look stupid by your own lack of…” Apr 8, 11:25
Captain Caveman on The quality of mercy: “Oh dear. “Eight Ace” is triggered again. 😀” Apr 8, 11:01
James on The quality of mercy: “Our thieving southern neighbours started taking the piss as soon as the stuff was discovered. “An oilfield? In Scotch waters?…” Apr 8, 10:48
James on The quality of mercy: ““UK” “government” giving oil drilling licences out for free then? F*** off the pair of you. Supercillious charlatans.” Apr 8, 10:42
Captain Caveman on The quality of mercy: “@Aidan An interesting question to pose to your (ahem) “detractors”, Fatso, Rambo and “Geri” (in whatever applicable currency in his…” Apr 8, 10:26
Dan on The quality of mercy: “https://wingsoverscotland.com/junkies-tramps-and-thieves/#more-87705” Apr 8, 08:53
Aidan on The quality of mercy: “@James I realise you are extremely dense and credulous and have the same reaction to facts as you do to…” Apr 8, 06:11
Geri on The quality of mercy: ““As of April 7, 2026, oil prices are high and volatile due to supply concerns, with global benchmark Brent Crude…” Apr 8, 00:54
Insider on The quality of mercy: ““Iain More says: 7 April, 2026 at 10:32 pm So oil has hit $150 a barrel.” Nope ! You’re talking…” Apr 8, 00:06
Young Lochinvar on The quality of mercy: “Aidan You are being something of a contrarian here. As I told you recently it’s fairly easy to find out…” Apr 7, 22:40
James on The quality of mercy: “Here’s the misfit and the pub bore back on shift.*yawn* Saw your drivel and thought of this, dunno why… Quote;…” Apr 7, 22:26
Geri on The quality of mercy: “Same could be said of any political party. At least they’re registered in Scotland eh? Westminster politicians are always with…” Apr 7, 22:22
Young Lochinvar on The quality of mercy: “Geri I suspect Baby Trump was handed Uncle Sam’s “Book Of Grudges” by “them and those” knowing he was flaky…” Apr 7, 22:18
Geri on The quality of mercy: “They’ve always committed war crimes. It’s in their DNA. They just didn’t gob off about it like the fake Don…” Apr 7, 21:28
diabloandco on The quality of mercy: “I mentioned a song I’d like to share , now I find that it is on youtube music . It’s…” Apr 7, 21:02
