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.
Cynicus on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Scotland’s team manager,Steve Clarke, has just resigned. It takes an honourable man to act honourably. So, don’t expect the resignation…” Jun 28, 01:07
Angus on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: ““But we promise you this, readers: the questions are never going to stop. And unlike the SNP, we keep our…” Jun 28, 00:14
Red on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Stuart, I don’t mean to embarrass you or be a sook but I’ve been a reader of yours since the…” Jun 27, 22:25
Confused on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “unredacted – from : Dot Bain to : Swinney cc : NEC, the gang, the girls, girlboss#1 Look John -…” Jun 27, 22:12
Bob Johnston on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Is there a precedent for a Privy Councillor being jailed for fraud? Could be the establishment isn’t too keen on…” Jun 27, 20:43
Northcode on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: ““…some kind of martyrdom.” Now we see the deployment of the: “I’m Going to Use Three Big Words So You…” Jun 27, 19:59
Young Lochinvar on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Claire I wish to heck I could put my hand on the quotation in print but my (admittedly not always…” Jun 27, 19:52
Northcode on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: ““…your petulant foot stamping…” Having now examined the specimen in its natural habitat (a social-media thread), we can confidently classify…” Jun 27, 19:50
Hatey McHateface on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: ““A lot more involved” Sure. £660k wisely invested for several years might be double that now. Might be ten times…” Jun 27, 19:44
Hatey McHateface on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Your good friend, perhaps. No friend of the tunnel skulking scum whose misogyny, barbarism, hatred, theft and contempt for the…” Jun 27, 19:39
Hatey McHateface on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “You been criminalised yet, Northy? Seems to me you’re as free as I am to post whatsoever you like. Like…” Jun 27, 19:30
holymacmoses on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “I’m simply assuming that the Police and the Crown Prosecution Office knew they would have to prosecute someone – so…” Jun 27, 19:20
Mark Beggan on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “That’s what hells for. The post colonials are running out of text book excuses. “We’re going to need a bigger…” Jun 27, 19:18
Northcode on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: ““…you’re pebble dashing the site with high pressure shite.” Here we encounter the “Over-Invested Bathroom-Tile Enthusiast” School of Rhetoric. Only…” Jun 27, 19:09
Hatey McHateface on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Cants gubbed Panama 6-1 an a. Is there no justice under heaven?” Jun 27, 18:58
ALANM on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “There’s a simple explanation which I’ve also cited in relation to a case currently being pursued through the courts by…” Jun 27, 18:55
David Johnston on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “The problem with the two interviews is the both the DCC and COFS were talking about the embezzlement case and…” Jun 27, 18:32
Hatey McHateface on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Mind to come back on here, Northy, and tell us as soon as your resistance is criminalised and you’re punished…” Jun 27, 18:28
A2 on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Where’s Colin Beattie by the way? Slipped out the back door while no-one’s looking?” Jun 27, 18:19
Northcode on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “In The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon describes the colonial world as divided into the coloniser’s zone (privileged, protected, policed…” Jun 27, 18:15
M.E on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “There’s more waffle going on here than the freezers in Iceland.” Jun 27, 18:14
Hatey McHateface on The Promise: “Good Lord, Northy! Are you claiming that the hyphen (“-“) is an alien imposition forced on the Scots by the…” Jun 27, 18:10
Fiona on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Hands up anyone who agrees with Mr Logue that “we have a system that words” Or is there anyone who…” Jun 27, 18:04
Hatey McHateface on The Promise: “Haha, Alf, but I’ve noticed before that to be a fully paid up member of the tonto Indy faction that…” Jun 27, 18:01
Ex President Xiden on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “Crown office are being disengeneous here. In cases like this the police investigate under the direction of the Crown office.…” Jun 27, 17:38
george wood on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “In the police interview at 26minutes in, the officer says “he was funding a lifestyle that he didn’t think he…” Jun 27, 17:34
Percy Adam on Ping-Pong-Fiddle-Aye-No: “I see that Dorothy Bain, The head of COFPS at the time, has just resigned.” Jun 27, 17:29
