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.
Alf Baird on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “Why always so negative Hatey, anyone would think you were against Scottish independence/decolonization, such is your haste to dismiss even…” Sep 16, 19:34
Aidan on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “Actually, what Northcode said is that these are facts, and not subjective viewpoints, and Northcode is right about that. I…” Sep 16, 19:32
Northcode on Like Responsible Citizens Do: ““As you imply, these are largely your subjective viewpoints.” I think you may have misunderstood the nature of the points…” Sep 16, 19:15
Hatey McHateface on Like Responsible Citizens Do: ““Hence a major restructuring of the UN is expected” If so, nobody’s writing about it in the news feeds I…” Sep 16, 18:59
Hatey McHateface on Fear And Favour: ““you just slink away” Odd, Confused, other regulars like to accuse me of being here 24/7. “if I could be…” Sep 16, 18:56
Alf Baird on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “As you imply, these are largely your subjective viewpoints, which as one can see lack definitive sources. They also assume…” Sep 16, 18:42
Aidan on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “Yes absolutely – within the current framework of international law there is no route to Scotland being designated as an…” Sep 16, 18:29
BH on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Did they say ‘It would not be in the public interest to know we’re corrupt as that might make policing…” Sep 16, 18:09
robertkknight on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “I recon 75% of the Wee Ginger Fud brigade have no idea what day of the week it is and…” Sep 16, 17:34
Cynicus on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: ““ We’re getting so much correspondence from Police Scotland at the moment that we’re starting to feel like their guiltily-neglected…” Sep 16, 17:07
Arthur Martin on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Many thanks for not taking no for an answer Stuart. It feels to me that your determination and tenacity in…” Sep 16, 17:02
J Robertson on Fear And Favour: “Your relentless determination and forensic annihilation of their clearly nonsense reasons must surely win out in the end. No problem…” Sep 16, 16:47
robertkknight on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “Police Scotland and the COPFS are corrupt and as an asset of Thames House, Sturgeon is being protected. What more…” Sep 16, 15:56
Old Bill on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “A trivial point, but I think it is unprofessional for PSoS Legal Services team to be sending anonymous letters “How…” Sep 16, 15:33
holymacmoses on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “I wonder if the problem of a prosecution lies not in the problem of ‘responsibility’ – which as you point…” Sep 16, 15:13
100%Yes on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “I’ll have a guess at why Sturgeon wasn’t charge, it was her looks and personality.” Sep 16, 14:59
Alice Timmons on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “*sigh*..ah, well. Better check out this year’s pension rise. I think I feel a crowd funder coming on. More power…” Sep 16, 14:22
Mark Beggan on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: ““It takes nothing to join the crowd. It takes everything to stand alone.” – Hans Froði Hansen” Sep 16, 14:01
Nicky T Naquetti on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: “You are doing God’s work, here – as a Reverend should, of course. These SNP serpents need trampled underfoot.” Sep 16, 13:57
Mark Beggan on A Thousand Islands In The Sea: ““Scandal begins when the police put a stop to it.” “The Policing begins when a scandal puts a stop them…” Sep 16, 13:56
Northcode on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “It is my view that Liberation Scotland’s claim is structurally impossible. They are asking supporters to believe that raising £200,000…” Sep 16, 13:23
Aidan on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “Thanks Northcode – a helpful and clear summary. I might also add that the political will amongst UN members to…” Sep 16, 12:45
lothianlad on Fear And Favour: “keep at them Stuart! They think by continuing to deny your input that you will eventually give up. NO WAY!…” Sep 16, 12:39
Aidan on Fear And Favour: “Just out of interest Alf – when you meet other Scots in person, do you normally call them “oppressed natives”?…” Sep 16, 12:34
Northcode on Like Responsible Citizens Do: “There seems to be a lot of confusion about how the UN’s Non-Self-Governing Territories list actually works, so it might…” Sep 16, 12:32
Aidan on Fear And Favour: “Yes but you don’t provide any facts or figures, what you do provide is: a) generally written in such a…” Sep 16, 12:27
Alf Baird on Fear And Favour: “Colonial powers destroy annexed nations historical records when they take possession, and destroy their own colonial records when they lose…” Sep 16, 12:07
