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.
Lorna Campbell on Learning Insanity: ““For the Scotland Act to apply to Scotland there has to be parliament of England in existence in 1998 and…” Jan 17, 17:52
TURABDIN on Learning Insanity: “CATASTROPHE is always round the corner, it pays to have a mirror on a stick. sadly such a simple device…” Jan 17, 16:42
SophiaPangloss on Learning Insanity: “Metagender is obviously people who are attracted to breaking the fourth wall during sex, turning to the camera with a…” Jan 17, 16:40
Hatey McHateface on Learning Insanity: “Aye, TURABDIN, no fool like a progressive, pseudo intellectual, lefty fool. As we sometimes observe on Wings BTL!” Jan 17, 15:38
TURABDIN on Learning Insanity: “@Hatey McHateface You might have seen this, https://archive.is/wUC4L The west has more to concern itself with this type and the…” Jan 17, 15:08
Aidan on Learning Insanity: “@James Cheyne perhaps you could set out what you think those persuasive legal arguments are and what precedence in case…” Jan 17, 14:32
Hatey McHateface on Learning Insanity: “Scotland’s geographic position is indeed significant, not just for England but for Europe too. That makes independence less likely, not…” Jan 17, 14:06
TURABDIN on Learning Insanity: “One route is growing realization that the British State is in deep trouble with future in the hands of English…” Jan 17, 13:33
sarah on Learning Insanity: “Sorry to say that the Not Proven verdict was abolished wef 1.1.26 by our hugely learned [ahem] SNP government.” Jan 17, 13:07
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “There are many possible routes to a independent Scotland, some of the more obvious ones are being ignored. But aligned…” Jan 17, 12:30
Hatey McHateface on Learning Insanity: “Could it be that the sword is mightier than the pen? Another simple question.” Jan 17, 12:26
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “The true devastating effects on Scotland has been over three hundred years of opression and suppression of its people and…” Jan 17, 12:15
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “No one questions that the treaty between the parliaments agreement of Scotland and England ended in 1800 when the parliament…” Jan 17, 11:53
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “England has 11 missing days in its side of the treaty of union in 1752. No one questions this lost…” Jan 17, 11:49
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “There are so many issues on incorrect chronological dates alone that I am surprised that they have never been questioned…” Jan 17, 11:43
James Cheyne on Learning Insanity: “Scots law does have the ” Not proven ” judgement applied to it in Scotland, it also has trial by…” Jan 17, 11:38
willie on Learning Insanity: “Not much intellectual rigour from Ulster University and Queen’s Belfast then if they restrict speech. Woo woo wacky is certainly…” Jan 17, 09:00
Hatey McHateface on Learning Insanity: “I see you’ve done that authentically Scottish thing, YL, come up with a couple of disparaging names. How very productive.…” Jan 17, 08:35
Young Lochinvar on Learning Insanity: “Fear not Sarah, all will be well in the M.E. now that Teflon Tony and (super) Mario Rubix (cube) are…” Jan 17, 02:21
Cynicus on Learning Insanity: “Marie says: 16 January, 2026 at 11:38 am Re:Darlington nurses victory – no muddying of the waters there. Thank you…” Jan 17, 01:39
Jim Tadgercock on Learning Insanity: “What Lorna Campell says. Absolutely spot on . Nothing needs to be added to her statement. Regards.” Jan 17, 00:17
sarah on Learning Insanity: “O/T: a delightful few minutes watching the livestream of the Craig Murray initial hearing [has he standing or not re…” Jan 16, 21:41
holymacmoses on Learning Insanity: “People with absolutely NO self-control who demand total control over others. Singular dictatorship” Jan 16, 21:26
Aidan on Learning Insanity: “Sorry Stu, someone (James) has come and done a massive turd all over your latest blog post BTL. Some insane…” Jan 16, 20:51
Lorna Campbell on Learning Insanity: “What an excellent idea, H McH.” Jan 16, 18:48
Lorna Campbell on Learning Insanity: “The Darlington nurses have won (most of) their claims against the health authority, but the fragrant (not) ‘Rose’ has been…” Jan 16, 18:46
Hatey McHateface on Learning Insanity: “Does anybody know if one of these people convinced they are in the wrong body has ever claimed to have…” Jan 16, 16:07
Hatey McHateface on Learning Insanity: “Prick and cunt, eh? Puir James. Every bit at sea with gender as the hairiest, biggest-bollocked bloke cramming himself into…” Jan 16, 15:55
Doug on Learning Insanity: “Fit like? or Foo’s yer doos?” Jan 16, 15:32
sam on Learning Insanity: “Lorna, You are right. Some studies do find that some children with gender dysphoria grew out of it. In Ireland,…” Jan 16, 14:01
