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.
agentx on Spot The Problem: “additional information: ” The appeal announced today by the information commissioner relates to a judgment made by the Court of…” Aug 27, 14:15
Aidan on Spot The Problem: “In the structure you have described “Westminster” plays no role at all. It is the Scottish FM and the Scottish…” Aug 27, 14:13
Northcode on Spot The Problem: “Aye, Alf. The Lord Advocate’s authority is enshrined in the Scotland Act 1998, and the Lord Advocate exercises these responsibilities…” Aug 27, 14:05
agentx on Spot The Problem: ““Watchdog goes to Supreme Court over secret Whatsapps in Sturgeon row Scotland’s transparency watchdog is to take the Scottish Government…” Aug 27, 14:05
agentx on Spot The Problem: “The Fabian Society does not advise all the governance of Great Britain or Crown officials, as it is not an…” Aug 27, 13:52
James Che on Spot The Problem: “It is not surprising that most people outside of Scotland think the Scottish government is actually a Scottish government. But…” Aug 27, 13:42
Aidan on Spot The Problem: “It’s nothing to do with the way Westminster runs Scotland. Scottish law has never provided for private prosecution (unlike English…” Aug 27, 13:42
Michael Bruce on This Other Earth: “To be fair, crimes that come with a public and unambiguous admission of guilt are notoriously difficult to prosecute.” Aug 27, 13:41
John Cleary on This Other Earth: “Hi Robert. Would that be the first ring fenced fundraiser in 2017 or the second ring fenced fundraiser in 2019?” Aug 27, 13:33
Alf Baird on Spot The Problem: ““the Crown Office IS at least theoretically accountable to Parliament” Aye, an in Ashis Nandy’s ‘subtradition’ colony that has ‘digested’…” Aug 27, 13:29
James Che on Spot The Problem: “Aidan, What you say is true, This is the way Scotland is run by the Westminster parliament legislation and Statues…” Aug 27, 13:24
James Che on Spot The Problem: “The Fabian Society are not in only one governance of Westminster due to being under the Westminster parliament of Englands…” Aug 27, 13:15
Alastair on Spot The Problem: “So the Crown as in the English Crown and its structures – the Scottish Crown has not been passed -…” Aug 27, 13:15
James Che on Spot The Problem: “This Fabian Society think tanks for the governance of Great Britain is where the ideas are formed on more than…” Aug 27, 13:08
James Che on Spot The Problem: “The Fabian Society are the think tanks advising all the governance of Great Britain and Crown officials under employment ,…” Aug 27, 13:03
cirsium on Spot The Problem: “Thanks Rev – that provoked a laugh. Thanks also for your continued coverage of what is actually going on in…” Aug 27, 12:58
Hatey McHateface on Spot The Problem: ““resolution would more likely come through … sustained external pressure” Maybe 100,000 Sovereign Scots on the streets every Saturday, demanding…” Aug 27, 12:57
Effijy on Spot The Problem: “Dear God, It’s like a corrupt process Donald Trump has cobbled together. Did you hear that Trump has sacked everyone…” Aug 27, 12:53
James Che on This Other Earth: “The left leaning think tank founded in Great Britain has many members in the Labour party and probably in in…” Aug 27, 12:48
Aidan on Spot The Problem: “Unlike England and Wales, there isn’t really the possibility of a private prosecution in Scotland either.” Aug 27, 12:38
Hatey McHateface on This Other Earth: “Greatorex, eh? Great name, great guy. Seems to me women have all the power they need to ace this one.…” Aug 27, 12:36
lothianlad on This Other Earth: “So the corrupt Scottish establishment is hoping that by simply saying there is no investigation that you will simply accept…” Aug 27, 12:24
Hatey McHateface on This Other Earth: ““to keep independence ‘radicals’ at bay” Must be just me that’s sick and tired of waiting for these mythical Independence…” Aug 27, 12:19
Hatey McHateface on This Other Earth: ““Wings is dismissed, its threats of legal action contemptuously ignored” Oh, I don’t know, Northy. Threats of legal action often…” Aug 27, 12:08
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on This Other Earth: “« The repulsive courtesies began once more; one handed the knife over K to the other, who then passed it…” Aug 27, 11:28
Alf Baird on This Other Earth: ““Do we know the senior personnel?” In the colonial framework does anybody really expect the native to be in charge?…” Aug 27, 11:26
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on This Other Earth: “NUS CALLS FOR STUDENTS TO ‘RESIST’ SINGLE-SEX GUIDANCE The National Union of Students (NUS) has called for students to subvert…” Aug 27, 11:13
Oneliner on This Other Earth: “Indeed so. One should give careful consideration before making any charitable donations or signing up to any Standing Order.” Aug 27, 10:35
Robert on This Other Earth: “Person A collects the money, intending to ring fence it. Pays it into general account in the mean time, then…” Aug 27, 10:13
Northcode on This Other Earth: “And so, with just three paragraphs and a “Yours sincerely” kiss-off, Wings is dismissed, its threats of legal action contemptuously…” Aug 27, 10:03
