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.
James on The Love Of Big Brother: ““Humiliated and defeated”. LOLZ, aye that’s right, Adrian ya clown. And here’s your wee ubiquitous pal arrived, Adrian. All day,…” Oct 6, 21:32
Hatey McHateface on There May Be Justice: “You make it sound like you’re gonna be depriving “them” of some invincible, merciless, super-fit, highly efficient, killing machine. Somehoo…” Oct 6, 20:12
Hatey McHateface on The Love Of Big Brother: “Ye cannae whack a guid wang oan an oan aboot some cant who’s never coming back (Thatcher) and some dosh…” Oct 6, 20:06
Aidan on The Love Of Big Brother: “A common tactic of people like yourself, get totally humiliated and defeated on one subject and rather than admit your…” Oct 6, 19:47
James on The Love Of Big Brother: “So, “naw it disnae” then. LOL. Here’s yin for you and yer Tory bedfellows. “After £100 billion has finally been…” Oct 6, 19:17
Aidan on The Love Of Big Brother: “lol 2/10 – managed to copy and paste some relevant material, so let’s look closer: “Scotland appears to fall into…” Oct 6, 18:20
James on The Love Of Big Brother: “That would make you clowns repetetive, abusive Unionist trolls then, aye? Unsurprising then,that an eminent Scottish KC, and others much…” Oct 6, 17:37
Aidan on The Love Of Big Brother: “Now this is really gets hard because we have two opposing views, the first which I’ve copied below is written…” Oct 6, 16:37
James on The Love Of Big Brother: “Soubds good but it’s not right….. In fact it doesn’t even sound good. Must try harder, “troops”.” Oct 6, 15:50
Marie on There May Be Justice: “Correct. I’ve not long finished reading Dr Jim Swire’s book on Lockerbie and his efforts to seek justice for the…” Oct 6, 15:27
Hatey McHateface on The Love Of Big Brother: ““having hoovered up our votes” Zat so, James? More fool you then.” Oct 6, 15:04
Aidan on The Love Of Big Brother: “@Alf – even if we took your somewhat suspect view of a foreign military occupation in the 1700’s (rather than,…” Oct 6, 14:55
Hatey McHateface on There May Be Justice: “Professor Baird demonstrating correct use of the royal “we” there. I’ve noticed its increasing use by many, these days. Always…” Oct 6, 14:31
James on The Love Of Big Brother: “Adrian wouldn’t know a fact if it punched him in the face, chum. Who are you anyway, his carer? “Their…” Oct 6, 14:27
Alf Baird on The Love Of Big Brother: ““outside of a military occupation or colonialism (neither of which apply in Scotland)” Who told you this, colonial history books?…” Oct 6, 14:25
Captain Caveman on The Love Of Big Brother: “Let’s put it this way, if he was any thicker he’d need watering twice a week.” Oct 6, 14:23
Insider on The Love Of Big Brother: “James @12:41 James, Are you REALLY that thick you can’t understand understand what Aidan explained quite clearly ?” Oct 6, 14:09
James on The Love Of Big Brother: “So, Adrian; “The right to self-determination is indeed universal and inalienable…” Except for Scotland. Need the crossword clue again, brains?” Oct 6, 12:41
Alf Baird on There May Be Justice: ““No judiciary or legal establishment has ever been about justice for the plebs” Valid point, Angus. However the reality might…” Oct 6, 11:58
Hatey McHateface on There May Be Justice: “Good point, MH, and approximately 43.8% true. Have a word with one of the New Scots who arrived last week…” Oct 6, 10:40
Minceheid on There May Be Justice: “Hatey McHateface says: 6 October, 2026 at 9:20 am The rest of us have been enjoying free health care Eh?…” Oct 6, 09:55
Hatey McHateface on There May Be Justice: “If it’s true that Scotland’s judiciary and legal establishment were world renowned, it can only have been during Scotland’s most…” Oct 6, 09:31
Hatey McHateface on There May Be Justice: ““Have the plebs ever benefited from fighting and dying for the elites?” I guess not you, Angus. Shame. The rest…” Oct 6, 09:20
McDuff on There May Be Justice: “How does it go ………..”When good men do nothing”. Well good men and women are doing something. Respect and thanks…” Oct 6, 09:05
Spartan 117 on There May Be Justice: “Great to see this issue transcending politics and uniting people, just goes to show people do still care for integrity…” Oct 6, 07:57
Angus on There May Be Justice: ““the credibility and respect that Scotland’s judiciary and legal establishment were world renowned for” No judiciary or legal establishment has…” Oct 6, 04:23
twathater on There May Be Justice: “Thank you and the legal Eagles supporting you and us on this challenge to corruption and lies within the legal…” Oct 6, 02:02
Hatey McHateface on There May Be Justice: “Quote Cesaire until the cows come home, Alf, it won’t undo the fact you selectively cropped Northy’s post to change…” Oct 5, 21:56
Alf Baird on There May Be Justice: “That’s quite a meaningless diversion even for ‘an operator’ like you Hatey. The obvious reality here is that Scotland is…” Oct 5, 21:36
