tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42816549372272034302024-02-14T11:31:25.170-08:00News\GlitchZEITGEIST beyond the BubbleCreative Commonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11256994501847507410noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4281654937227203430.post-60005548572655652892021-12-09T12:13:00.109-08:002022-09-25T01:27:01.997-07:00Early days of Video Games and its Urban Legends <div class="separator cover-item full-cover dark-text-color center-text-align large-text-size" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<p>As with all urban legends, depending on how long they have been circulating, once the groundwork is laid by the initial event, decade by decade more layers are added. Just like the amusing act of whispering something in one person’s ear, then passing the message down to another and so forth and so forth; what comes out at the end is usually very different from how it started. Such is the story of Polybius, a multi decade exercise in how legends begin and how they changed in passing.</p>
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<div class="caption">The POLYBIUS conspiracy</div>
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<p>According to the earliest Internet form of the legend, found in the archives of Usenet, a new game appeared in several suburbs of Portland, Oregon, in November, 1981. The Tempest-like game, reportedly called Polybius, allegedly created by the covert German company, Sinnesloschen, was an instant hit and popular with some players to the point of addiction. Eye witnesses claim Polybius was in a plain, black and unmarked cabinet.</p>
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<h2>Polybius, gaming’s oldest urban legend, is mostly Atari’s fault</h2>
<p>Players, and exclusively young adult males and teens, gathered around the game, forming lines, with brawls often breaking out over who got to play next. Many of the more obsessive players suffered various side effects from playing the game, most notably memory loss, nightmares, paranoia, insomnia and catatonia with flashing images of words and phrases in their minds. Some players quit the game completely, with one purportedly becoming an anti-video game activist in a crusade against them.</p>
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<div><mark>Suggested Post</mark> Militaria – A source of inspiration for Novels and Fiction</div>
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<p>Apparently the game’s program incorporated rapidly revolving kaleidoscopic puzzles, interconnected with numeric shapes and subliminal messages that deeply affected the consciousness of some players. We do not know. No roms have ever been recovered from the mysterious game. But one could generalize that the same theory applied in the creation of The Dream Machine by Ian Sommerville in 1961, a stroboscope believed to alter the brain’s alpha waves and produce trance-like levels of relaxation when used for extended periods of time, could have been used in another, more modern platform game. But unlike The Dream Machine, Polybius’ rotating lights and colors were thought to have been designed for a very different purpose, that being for “mind control”</p>
<p>Legend tells us that players felt as if they were no longer in control of their thoughts after playing the game, that they were still being prompted to think negative thoughts, many of them feeling they were of danger to themselves. One suicide is rumored and, depending on which version of the legend one hears – murder as well. No doubt someone got their facts confused with the unrelated 1983 mass murder in a Texas arcade which, curiously enough, occurred at a Malibu Grand Prix arcade as well.</p>
<p>Weeks after the alleged events in 1981 in Portland, Oregon, as the legend goes, Men in Black, the harbingers of Government activity, began to show up to collect some form of unknown data from the machines, allegedly testing responses to the supposedly psychotomimetic game. It was reported that sometimes the men in black could be seen going to the cabinets, inspecting them, sometimes taking out unknown parts and quietly walking away. Often times they loaded them up in trucks and transported them elsewhere. One day, it is rumored, they took all the Polybius machines away and they were never seen again.</p>
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<div imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><figure><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="1020" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi3mYFyd1xTCYwjZDr0dz_sfp1VMJaC8dhl2eyKrMzuwMvVp4Ti5sW15gvaMVzUaeSlJlGYOpS2RuAAFUUgfh8LZIF_Ju-FrxiWoMbK0Vj4Fq1SfPLRQQCIXk0VBSiRjyazspgB7rpKGHHLQKfpMw9md5uJEpo7XHm7qx1MjJYVhGMvdryaldcV_9fzig=s800" /><figcaption>After ‘the North American Video Game Crash of 1983’ unsold copies of Atari’s E.T. allegedly were buried in a landfill in a New Mexico desert along with other Atari games.</figcaption></figure></div>
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<div imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><figure><img border="0" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi63vCMv98qvc7kIdbXHatJXxSsVUvsAMhwFhgTnglw4G07f2c3jatISHbtX4SJnEwRU0iAAXSI2ppoxjxkDLta5wTgGyS5dxTtpJ6Jt7rvY0_7AHVFMJ9TW-b4Y0FLclLFX6skzzPYvIo1MVLVR_IpDodYwmkZVQl2R3m-QeTPQkfMgQ4A2f7yaiKuqA=s320" /><figcaption style="width: 320px;">The April 2014 dig ended speculation surrounding an urban legend that Atari had discarded hundreds of games, including "E.T. The Extraterrestrial"</figcaption></figure></div>
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<h2>The North American Video Game Crash of 1983</h2>
<p>Atari is one of the most recognized names in the world. Since its formation in 1972, the company pioneered hundreds of iconic titles including Asteroids, Centipede, and Missile Command. In addition to hundreds of games created for arcades, home video systems, and computers, original artwork was specially commissioned to enhance the Atari experience, further enticing children and adults to embrace and enjoy the new era of electronic entertainment.</p>
<p>Despite success in the 70’s and early 80’s, Atari (and the rest of the gaming market) all took a turn for the worse between 1982 – 1983 when over-saturation of bad third party titles and gaming systems, rushed production, over-production, and new home computing options all led to what is called “the North American Video Game Crash of 1983”</p>
<p>The rush of the Atari version of Pac-Man for Christmas of 81′ was one of the first signs of the impending crash of 83′. NAMCO’s Pac-Man was one of the most popular arcade games. Atari was the most popular home system with about 10 million Atari owners.[5] What could go wrong with the first ever Pac-Man port to the home console just in time for Christmas? Everything.</p>
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<h3>The Events Leading up to the Video Game Crash between 82′ to 83′</h3>
<p>The “suits” at Atari and Warner Communications were so confident that Pac-Man would sell that they ordered a copy for every Atari system and 2 million extra (for the 2 million who would buy an Atari just to play Pac-Man). If that seems insane, it’s only truly insane when paired with the actual story.</p>
<p>Tod Frye, the lone Tod Frye, produced the port of NAMCO’s Pac-Man. Warner (Atari’s parent company) choose to rush the release of Pact-Man for the 81′ holiday season before it was ready. This along with other factors, like Atari choosing to use a 4KB cartridge instead of the new more powerful 8KB cartridge to save money, led to a lackluster release. The end result was a rather unfinished looking Pac-Man, that while not unplayable, it simply didn’t look like the arcade version.</p>
<p>12 million units of Pac-Man were produced and rushed to the shelves. An impressive 7 million were sold (although many demanded their money back), but the end result was far less impressive. 5 million versions of the failed Pac-Man port in history sat in an Atari warehouse waiting to be sold in bargain bins around the world.</p>
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8. RealSports: Football
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9. RealSports: Tennis
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10. Star Ship
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11. Swordquest
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<table id="d20211209n1_w3js" class="swipeable-item custom-content-block">
<thead>
<tr>
<th onclick="w3.sortHTML('#d20211209n1_w3js', '.w3js-item', 'td:nth-child(1)')">#</th>
<th onclick="w3.sortHTML('#d20211209n1_w3js', '.w3js-item', 'td:nth-child(2)')">System</th>
<th onclick="w3.sortHTML('#d20211209n1_w3js', '.w3js-item', 'td:nth-child(3)')">Release</th>
<th onclick="w3.sortHTML('#d20211209n1_w3js', '.w3js-item', 'td:nth-child(4)')">Manufacturer</th>
<th onclick="w3.sortHTML('#d20211209n1_w3js', '.w3js-item', 'td:nth-child(5)')">Type</th>
<th onclick="w3.sortHTML('#d20211209n1_w3js', '.w3js-item', 'td:nth-child(6)')">Generation</th>
<th onclick="w3.sortHTML('#d20211209n1_w3js', '.w3js-item', 'td:nth-child(7)')">Sales</th>
<th onclick="w3.sortHTML('#d20211209n1_w3js', '.w3js-item', 'td:nth-child(8)')">As of</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr class="w3js-item">
<td>01</td>
<td>Nintendo Color TV Game</td>
<td>1977</td>
<td>Nintendo</td>
<td>Console</td>
<td>First</td>
<td>2,000,000</td>
<td>1979</td>
</tr>
<tr class="w3js-item">
<td>02</td>
<td>Atari Video Computer System</td>
<td>1977</td>
<td>Atari, Inc.</td>
<td>Console</td>
<td>Second</td>
<td>1,550,000</td>
<td>1979</td>
</tr>
<tr class="w3js-item">
<td>03</td>
<td>Coleco Telstar</td>
<td>1976</td>
<td>Coleco</td>
<td>Console</td>
<td>First</td>
<td>1,000,000</td>
<td>1976</td>
</tr>
<tr class="w3js-item">
<td>04</td>
<td>TRS-80</td>
<td>1977</td>
<td>Texas Instruments</td>
<td>Computer</td>
<td>8-bit</td>
<td>450,000</td>
<td>1979</td>
</tr>
<tr class="w3js-item">
<td>05</td>
<td>Magnavox Odyssey</td>
<td>1972</td>
<td>Magnavox</td>
<td>Console</td>
<td>First</td>
<td>367,000</td>
<td>1975</td>
</tr>
<tr class="w3js-item">
<td>06</td>
<td>Fairchild Channel F</td>
<td>1976</td>
<td>Fairchild Camera and Instrument</td>
<td>Console</td>
<td>Second</td>
<td>350,000</td>
<td>1979</td>
</tr>
<tr class="w3js-item">
<td>07</td>
<td>Epoch TV Baseball</td>
<td>1978</td>
<td>Epoch Co.</td>
<td>Console</td>
<td>First</td>
<td>230,000</td>
<td>1979</td>
</tr>
<tr class="w3js-item">
<td>08</td>
<td>Epoch TV Game System 10</td>
<td>1977</td>
<td>Epoch Co.</td>
<td>Console</td>
<td>First</td>
<td>200,000</td>
<td>1979</td>
</tr>
<tr class="w3js-item">
<td>09</td>
<td>Home Pong</td>
<td>1975</td>
<td>Atari, Inc.</td>
<td>Console</td>
<td>First</td>
<td>150,000</td>
<td>1975</td>
</tr>
<tr class="w3js-item">
<td>10</td>
<td>NEC PC-8001</td>
<td>1979</td>
<td>NEC</td>
<td>Computer</td>
<td>8-bit</td>
<td>150,000</td>
<td>1979</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<footer class="custom-content-block">
<p>wikipedia.org, 1970's in Video Games</p>
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<hr class="separator content-block small-width content-spacer" />
<p>The other problem aside from the 5 million games in a warehouse, 7 million children spent Christmas morning with a bad Atari flavored taste in their mouths. This the first punch of the combo that would spell the end of Atari.</p>
<p>Between 82′ and 83′ even more systems, bad games (especially third party games), and new home computers starting showing up on shelves of about every retailer from Sears to the corner drug store. It’s understandable, the market saw the fastest growing business in the United States and wanted a piece of the action. However, due to the rapid expansion of the market, a lot of quality control went out the window. There was so much “junk-gaming” at this time it’s hard to cover all the events. Suffice to say, the rising popularity of video games was cut short by the increasing confusion and disappointment of the games and systems actually being produced.</p>
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<details>
<summary><span><span class="font-icon"></span><span>Additional Details</span></span></summary>
<dl>
<dt>Published by:</dt>
<dd id="d20211209n1_publisher-link">
<a href="https://retrobitch.wordpress.com/2015/10/29/reinvestigating-polybius-with-2015-update/">
<span class="font-icon"></span>
<span>Reinvestigating Polybius</span>
</a>
</dd>
<dd>
<a href="https://factmyth.com/factoids/unsold-atari-et-games-were-buried-in-a-landfill/">
<span class="font-icon"></span>
<span>The North American Video Game Crash of 1983</span>
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</dd>
</dl>
<footer>
<span class="font-icon"></span>
<span>References and Credits:</span>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://www.artofatari.com/">#</a></li>
<li><a href="https://laughingsquid.com/art-of-atari-a-hardcover-book-featuring-40-years-of-iconic-atari-video-game-packaging-design/">#</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/atari-games-found-in-landfill-fetch-more-than-100-000-on-ebay-1.2539099/">#</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970s_in_video_games/">#</a></li>
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</footer>
</details>
</blockquote>Creative Commonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11256994501847507410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4281654937227203430.post-36829521109797993182021-12-08T13:16:00.128-08:002022-09-25T01:27:09.025-07:00Militaria – A source of inspiration for Novels and Fiction<div class="separator cover-item full-cover dark-text-color center-text-align large-text-size" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhYWAN9lSCEMhlqSVw09hoqDDIkbAU65O8uayrPeR9X3ww8UpqT2MeO726w1h5wlsyvvuZ4W30whiWf4fW4jRJAVi4pvFZyMg6i8GY-fYdaT8BvTJVe610xwRzfKgciM4YGT2VAmYJdjLNfYZ9o6k2n9f6apSm5q29X-J80zpAPMyHkszl6jmWQIGCT-A" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhYWAN9lSCEMhlqSVw09hoqDDIkbAU65O8uayrPeR9X3ww8UpqT2MeO726w1h5wlsyvvuZ4W30whiWf4fW4jRJAVi4pvFZyMg6i8GY-fYdaT8BvTJVe610xwRzfKgciM4YGT2VAmYJdjLNfYZ9o6k2n9f6apSm5q29X-J80zpAPMyHkszl6jmWQIGCT-A=w800-h400-c-k-no-nu" />
</a>
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<hr class="separator content-block small-width content-spacer" />
<h2>Little Green Army Men</h2>
<p>Long before their 1995 spy mission in Pixar’s animated hit movie Toy Story, little green army men inspired hours of make-believe war-play for children.</p>
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<p>Made of hard molded plastic, little green army men first appeared in the 1930s, thanks to the Bergen Toy and Novelty Company. These monochromatic toy soldiers were direct descendants of their metal forebears of previous centuries. Each soldier typically stood two to four inches tall in one of a variety of actions poses, modeled after soldiers in the mid-20th century United States military.</p>
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<a href="/2021/12/early-days-of-video-games-and-its-urban.html" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
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<div><mark>Suggested Post</mark> Early days of Video Games and its Urban Legends</div>
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</aside>
<p>The plastics manufacturing boom of the 1950s meant that these toys could be produced for pennies a piece, and they were sold in bulk by a variety of toy companies. Toy companies also created playsets around them which depicted famous historical battles. The low price point also made them easy to replace – a hit with both parents and kids alike</p>
<p>Sarge (also known as Army Sarge and Sergeant) is a minor character in the Disney/Pixar Toy Story film series and the gung-ho commander of an army of plastic toy soldiers from the Bucket 'O' Soldiers. He is loosely based on the late R. Lee Ermey's role as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket.</p>
<p>He and the Bucket 'O' Soldiers are set in particular positions. They are extremely disciplined with a "leave no man behind" policy and are masters of reconnaissance. Woody describes them as "professionals." Sarge and his soldiers go on missions to help Andy's toys check up on Andy's activities with his friends or family. Sarge and his troops frequently help out their fellow toys. With their assistance, the toys discover what presents Andy and Molly are getting on birthdays and Christmas.</p>
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<div imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><figure><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgJC8jPf8O9ykWzyMB2ObJ3cHsPjY-xA7QbjyNZNkTZZ45OPrKUsn-vA7He-lxNnJoWKdf_jrm0H5nSLYm8y_u5BswnpL4zdg3FHWQ66mnwIJxUOaB7uiPzFnvsu-QExX_YN6flahWCcs0gxwcIfIOrKkatJx05NAyVruVLMSyW2GUauoIJ6pg2BOSVug=s800" /><figcaption>Made of hard molded plastic, little green army men first appeared in the 1930s, thanks to the Bergen Toy and Novelty Company. These monochromatic toy soldiers were direct descendants of their metal forebears of previous centuries.</figcaption></figure></div>
</div>
</section>
<hr class="separator content-block small-width content-spacer" />
<h2>The Guns of Star Wars</h2>
<p>The Empire Strikes Back,” and “Return of the Jedi” feature a good amount of not only existing firearms, but also some historic WWI and WWII vintage pieces. They’re all modified. Lucas apparently thought that taking any old gun, cutting down the barrel and stock, and putting a scope on top made it a space gun.</p>
<p>Most are barely recognizable, but many were left fully operational and actually fired blanks on screen. Doing so made it easier for the actors to react to shooting their blasters while filming, and for the special-effects guys to come along later and add the red or green blasts over the muzzle flashes.It’s interesting to see how many weapons of war, which are antiques by today’s standards and were pretty close to it in the ‘70s and ‘80s when the movies were made, were designed to look futuristic by subtracting a few pieces and adding some aesthetic touches. And since the studio filming for the first movie was done in England, there aren’t any American arms in the mix, which actually made the blasters less familiar to U.S. movie audiences.</p>
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1. BlasTech DL-44, Mauser C96 Pistol
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6. BlasTech A280, Sturmgewehr 44 Assault Rifle
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9. HMS Thunder Child by Grant Regan
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10. HMS Thunder Child by Grant Regan
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11. HMS Thunder Child by Jeff Wayne
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<h2>The Ship Behind HG Wells' Thunder Child</h2>
<blockquote>
<q>HMS Thunder Child is a fictional ironclad torpedo ram of the Royal Navy, destroyed by Martian fighting-machines in H. G. Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds whilst protecting a refugee rescue fleet of civilian vessels. It has been suggested[1] that Thunder Child was based on HMS Polyphemus, which was the sole torpedo ram to see service with the Royal Navy from 1881 to 1903.</q>
<footer>
<p>wikipedia.org, HMS Thunder Child</p>
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>Thunder Child was a Royal Navy torpedo ram famous for sacrificing itself in order to protect the evacuation fleet on the Essex coast. Her valiant efforts resulted in the destruction of two tripods and allowed the evacuation fleet to escape, including the paddle-steamer carrying the narrator's brother and his two female traveling companions.</p>
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<div class="separator content-block content-spacer" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<div imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><figure><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="515" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgJCpRMOKr3t-2_hc0EUrpl_0CrHBpENBsw15X_pLKUyt9ukOV_cNm3F2EGcdXO5J-EIwQJVW0q2RO9vz--Yk8s4amvOY3QomQIl7_BXnedZ32_mXz-lQFFXBwPQVVrp_wIU25ZRBZsqqZCKr0esjiL3tq8mqw1qE0yVYwuMl0ducD13doM59TSFotozA=s320" /><figcaption style="width: 320px;">Martian fighting machine and Thunder Child by Henrique Alvim Corréa, 1906</figcaption></figure></div>
</div>
</aside>
<h3>In the Novel</h3>
<p>In the novel Wells gives only a rough description of the ship, describing her thus: "About a couple of miles out lay an ironclad, very low in the water, almost, to my brother's perception, like a water-logged ship." After the narrator talks about his brother he introduces us to the Thunder Child in chapter 17. This was the ram Thunder Child".[2] A few paragraphs later, it is stated that "It was the torpedo ram, Thunder Child, steaming headlong, coming to the rescue of the threatened shipping".[2]</p>
<p>The battle takes place off the mouth of the River Blackwater, Essex, where people from London are escaping the Martian offensive. Three Martian fighting-machines having approached the vessels from the seaward side, HMS Thunder Child signals to the main fleet and steams at full speed towards the Martians without firing. The Martians, whom the narrator suggests are unfamiliar with large warships (having come from an arid planet) at first use only a gas attack. When this fails to have any effect, they employ their Heat-Ray, inflicting fatal damage on the Thunder Child.</p>
<p>The ship continues to attack, bringing down one of the fighting machines with its guns even as it succumbs. The flaming wreckage of the ironclad finally rams into a second fighting-machine, destroying it. When the black smoke and super-heated steam banks dissipate, both the Thunder Child and the third fighting-machine are gone. The attack by Thunder Child occupies the Martians long enough for three Royal Navy warships of the main Channel Fleet to arrive.</p>
<h3>Real Life Counterparts</h3>
<p>The ship is described as a huge ironclad with several guns and twin funnels. It was also noted as being so low in the water that it appeared to be waterlogged.</p>
<p>The only torpedo ram of the Royal Navy was HMS Polyphemus, which may have served as inspiration for the HMS Thunder Child. There was also a Danish Torpedo Ram named Tordenskjold (Thundershield) whose similar name suggests a connection.</p>
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<div imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding-right: 1em;"><figure><img border="0" data-original-height="1120" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWVZONih9GL4cp7EM6osS0n8e5-2lYTo9g6aQN06_z0engYy3XBtgeqE1pjbhiONCvpy4s2OKzGnIJcTa2GNzGfgE7ti5nliTPSr6UQs9V67IuWbzaUjNqsTFWS46kvl9HIzQX82kA-KfewwAU61gKPvZ_Ujioa2xrEfyss1aU332oLsORAu-S1zCLYQ=s400" /><figcaption style="width: 400px;">HMS Thunder Child based on traits stated in the orignal work. Boilers are at the stern, guns are sizable enough to splinter a fishing boat, and it is low in the water with substantial iron armor</figcaption></figure></div>
</div>
<div class="separator content-block content-spacer" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<div imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding-right: 1em;"><figure><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="1061" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4CuONaIW0blGHT6fDIhViFRliyiiP65IDycZlYfGhUT_5zbGkOZkOm0CV77fg5Y1SJOFIv0s3gkuaXHqUH9z0voxq8KukK8wLp8ysfmoBVJO8gP8lc8oCrcYkAmZ0fM1O_It6AUdcy0OnTzh5sySZCMfDE9pYcIzB1ZqtoZ2Ua62fZ3D8UdtenF9UFw=s400" /><figcaption style="width: 400px;">HMS Thunder Child according to Jeff Wayne, the HMS Canopus</figcaption></figure></div>
</div>
</aside>
<aside class="swipeable-item custom-content-block" style="width: 50%;">
<fieldset class="custom-content-block" onclick="w3.sortHTML('#d20211208n1_w3js', 'li')">
<legend>List of fictional ships (excerpt)</legend>
</fieldset>
<ul id="d20211208n1_w3js" style="height: 600px; overflow: auto;">
<li>
<div>Aurora</div>
<small>Trawler in The Adventures of Tintin story The Shooting Star</small>
</li>
<li>
<div>The Black Freighter</div>
<small>Metafictional pirate ship that is referenced throughout the Watchmen comic series</small>
</li>
<li>
<div>Borneo Prince</div>
<small>19th-century trading vessel converted for use as a gunboat in World War II in Commando Comics</small>
</li>
<li>
<div>Cithara</div>
<small>Alleged source of a distress signal in The Adventures of Tintin story The Shooting Star</small>
</li>
<li>
<div>HMS Cutlass</div>
<small>Name given to four ships of the Royal Navy</small>
</li>
<li>
<div>Eagle's Shadow</div>
<small>Sir Nicholas Fury's ship in Marvel 1602</small>
</li>
<li>
<div>Gotha</div>
<small>Kriegsmarine commerce raider, from the Commando Comics story Greedy For Glory</small>
</li>
<li>
<div>Grossadler</div>
<small>Kriegsmarine battle cruiser, from the Commando Comics story Bright Blade of Courage</small>
</li>
<li>
<div>Karaboudjan</div>
<small>Armenian cargo ship in The Adventures of Tintin story The Crab with the Golden Claws</small>
</li>
<li>
<div>SS Ramona</div>
<small>Tramp steamer in The Adventures of Tintin story The Red Sea Sharks</small>
</li>
<li>
<div>Salty Sea Mare</div>
<small>Ship owned by Captain Hoofbeard from the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic comic series story Friendship Ahoy!</small>
</li>
<li>
<div>Sea Queen/The Gertrude</div>
<small>Lex Luthor's yacht in Superman Returns</small>
</li>
<li>
<div>Sirius</div>
<small>Expedition ship in The Adventures of Tintin stories The Shooting Star and Red Rackham's Treasure</small>
</li>
<li>
<div>Unicorn</div>
<small>17th-century three-masted armed Royal Navy vessel in The Adventures of Tintin stories The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure</small>
</li>
<li>
<div>HMS Viper</div>
<small>British destroyer, from the Commando Comics story Bright Blade of Courage</small>
</li>
<li>
<div>Vulkan</div>
<small>Kriegsmarine cruiser, from the Commando Comics story Flak Fever</small>
</li>
<li>
<div>Wolfgang</div>
<small>Kriegsmarine pocket battleship, from the Commando Comics story O For Orange</small>
</li>
</ul>
<footer class="custom-content-block">
<p>wikipedia.org, List of fictional ships</p>
</footer>
</aside>
<hr class="separator content-block small-width content-spacer" />
<h3>Adaptions in Pop-Culture</h3>
<p>The Thunder Child has only appeared in the Pendragon Pictures version of the War of the Worlds. The film wrongly portrays the vessel as a Havock-class destroyer. The battle is reversed, much like the Jeff Wayne's version, where the ship fires its cannon before ramming the tripod. The 1953 and 2005 versions completely omit any mention of the Thunder Child. The only War of the Worlds adaptation other than the Pendragon Pictures film to feature the Thunder Child was the Jeff Wayne's Musical Adaptation.</p>
<p>Although the Thunder Child does not appear in the movie War of the Worlds: Goliath , the comic book story "The Captain" from Heavy Metal Magazine - which ties into the film - declares that the captain of the Thunder Child was called Captain Eric Wodensen, while the ship itself was referred to as a Minotaur-Class Ironclad Battleship that was already outdated when it was called into battle. </p>
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<a href="https://www.range365.com/guns-star-wars-original-trilogy/">
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<span>Little Green Army Men</span>
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<li><a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Ye8Wdq/">#</a></li>
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</blockquote>Creative Commonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11256994501847507410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4281654937227203430.post-78252172881149433952021-11-28T02:52:00.226-08:002022-09-25T01:28:32.282-07:00Macromedia Director in ScummVM<div class="separator cover-item small-cover light-text-color center-text-align large-text-size" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</a>
</div>
<h2>It’s now possible to play early ’90s CD-ROM games via ScummVM</h2>
<blockquote>
<q>The ScummVM community has just made the early CD-ROM gaming era more accessible. For five years, multiple people have worked on making Macromedia Director games playable on modern hardware, and today, that work is done.</q>
<footer>
<p>arstechnica.com, Long live CD-ROM</p>
</footer>
</blockquote>
<p>In terms of tools for running old software, ScummVM is in a class of its own. It’s a long-running project that “reimplements” old games, reconstructing the game code so they can be played on other platforms. Back when ScummVM was first under development twenty years ago (!), it was meant for games created with the SCUMM engine, a toolset by the developer LucasArts that powered their famous adventure games like The Secret of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and Day of the Tentacle.</p>
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<p>Since then, ScummVM has broadened considerably in scope. ScummVM now supports over 200 games, including other adventure game engines, like Sierra On-Line’s Adventure Game Interpreter; individual titles like The 7th Guest; and even unrelated vintage software like the Living Books interactive children’s book series by Brøderbund. The ability to run these games on modern platforms using a free, lightweight, open-source program — without needing to emulate an entire computer operating system — has made ScummVM a boon for video game preservation. In fact, several game publishers have turned to ScummVM when re-releasing their old games!</p>
<hr class="separator content-block small-width content-spacer" />
<h2>Macromedia Director? Why does this matter?</h2>
<aside class="custom-content-block separator">
<blockquote>
<cite>Making computer software in the 90s was hard. Macromedia Director made it easy. If there’s a single piece of software that defined the multimedia era, it’s Macromedia Director.</cite>
<footer>
<p>obscuritory.com, Hands-on with Macromedia Director in ScummVM</p>
</footer>
</blockquote>
</aside>
<p>It was a tool with a simple drag-and-drop interface that developers could use to place and manipulate elements like text, buttons, graphics, and sounds. Then they could link those scenes together, like pages in a book, or rooms in a virtual world. Even if you didn’t know much programming, you could use Director to make a presentation, an encyclopedia, or a digital magazine, or most relevant to this post, you could use it to make a game. Creating a fast-paced action game with Director was a tall order, but for point-and-click adventure-style games that move between static scenes — the type popularized by breakout CD-ROM titles like The 7th Guest and Myst — Director took out a ton of the work.</p>
<p>At a time when the barrier to computer game design was still fairly high, Macromedia Director was a lifeline for small and independent developers. If you wanted to create interactive media art but didn’t know how to program an application for Windows 95 from scratch, you probably used Director. It’s the reason why the ’90s computer game scene is filled with unusual Myst-inspired titles from new developers. It’s why Theresa Duncan could produce a series of children’s discovery games, or why an artist like Osamu Sato was able to seamlessly transition from digital art to designing a surreal, cosmic exploration of mortality in Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong Nou.</p>
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<p>The collective body of work produced with Macromedia Director represents some of the most creative, inventive, and experimental games and interactive art of the 1990s. That’s why it’s alarming that these games are so difficult to play today!</p>
<p>Here’s the problem: Macromedia Director is built on top of old versions of the Windows and Macintosh operating systems. In order to play a Director game, you need to emulate an old Windows or Macintosh computer, neither of which is an easy task for somebody who’s accustomed to downloading and playing games with the click of a button.</p>
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<div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/ScummVM/posts/10160322784696410" data-width="" data-show-text="true"><blockquote cite="https://www.facebook.com/ScummVM/posts/10160322784696410" class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><p>New year with Californium(*) Several months have passed since our monumental 2.5.0 release, and now the ScummVM Team is...</p>Gepostet von <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ScummVM/">ScummVM</a> am <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ScummVM/posts/10160322784696410">Sonntag, 2. Januar 2022</a></blockquote></div>
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<p>Let’s say you want to play the 1992 adventure game The Legend of Kyrandia. Right now, you can purchase it on a digital storefront like GOG.com, where it comes wrapped up in an emulator and runs on your choice of computer with minimal setup. Meanwhile, if you want to play Cosmology of Kyoto, a critically acclaimed game designed in Macromedia Director, you have to manually set up an installation of Windows 3.1 using the DOSBox emulator… and at that point, unless you’re really committed to playing this game, it might not seem worth the effort. This is also one of the reasons why many of these games haven’t been re-released, because you can’t legally just bundle Cosmology of Kyoto with an emulated copy of Windows and call it a day.</p>
<p>Expanding ScummVM to support Macromedia Director solves this problem. Once Director support in ScummVM is robust enough, it will make it easier than ever to play an expansive library of bold, creative titles that have been left out of the conversation for decades. That’s the promise here.</p>
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</blockquote>Creative Commonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11256994501847507410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4281654937227203430.post-5875005009934750852021-11-25T04:43:00.076-08:002022-09-25T01:28:54.293-07:00Trackers that shaped music history<div class="separator cover-item small-cover light-text-color center-text-align large-text-size" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<h2>Trackers never went away</h2>
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<q>What makes them special is that they’re a musical interface built around the screen and computer keyboard entry. It isn’t an adaptation of some existing metaphor, like the divisions found on sheet music. Once you understand them, you can get the feeling of connecting to what’s in your brain faster. Now a tracker-maker can go create their own hardware device, which is something beyond a conventional DAW: standalone, all-in-one hardware that people actually want to use. So it’s not just a comeback for the tracker – maybe it’s their revenge.</q>
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<p>Peter Kirn, Create Digital Music</p>
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<p>Few music-sequencing softwares have a history as distinctive as the tracker. With the epochal program now arriving in hardware form, we trace the tracker’s lineage, from its humble 8-bit beginnings to its era-defining rave sounds.</p>
<p>Though trackers might look like a nightmare to the uninitiated, their ghastly visages belie a more malleable and fun-loving nature. Don’t let the cascading digits and dry UIs fool you – these things simply love to party. From Calvin Harris and Deadmau5 to Venetian Snares, many legends of electronic music have used the sequencing software to kick off, cultivate and prolong their careers, while soundtracks for pivotal video games such as 2000’s Deus Ex have made use of their distinctive traits.</p>
<p>Now, more than 30 years since trackers played a vital role in democratising electronic music, the software is entering the hardware arena courtesy of the Tracker by Polish company Polyend, and the Nerdsynth from Netherlands-based XOR Electronics.</p>
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Polyend’s Tracker fuses modern design with that classic tracker workflow, and looks to be an all-in-one music-making package
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The fledgeling software that gave birth to many rave classics
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XOR Nerdsynth takes the all-in-one approach and sports a videogame-style aesthetic alongside its tracker-style UI
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<h2>Enter Paula</h2>
<p>In the mid-1980s, computer-based music production didn’t exist in the same way it does today. Home computers were far less powerful, the era’s 8-bit machines typically limited to a few channels of synthesized tones. Things changed drastically in 1985 with the arrival of 16-bit home computers, specifically the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga. The Atari ST had built-in MIDI ports and became the de facto sequencing computer for home musicians. But, for those without MIDI hardware, it was the Amiga that would kick down the door to the world of production, thanks to its advanced audio chip Paula.</p>
<p>Paula was a powerful lady. Her four PCM-based audio channels meant she could play back four samples at once. They may only have been of 8-bit quality but they gave the computer a far broader tonal palette than its predecessors. Today many Amiga games, including Shadow Of The Beast, Xenon 2: Megablast and Project X, are better remembered for their soundtracks than their gameplay.</p>
<p>A few years later, in 1987, Amiga-based musician Karsten Obarski coded a piece of commercial software that would make composing videogame soundtracks much more convenient – and it’s from this that trackers would take their name.</p>
<p>With its inscrutable alphanumeric interface, Ultimate Soundtracker may have looked complicated but operating it was relatively straightforward. Each of its four vertical lanes represented an audio channel, with the vertical axis representing time. Songs were constructed from patterns, which were typically 64 lines long and constituted four bars of music. Samples were triggered by entering a note value on a lane at the desired timing. On playback, the tracker would scroll through the pattern and play the triggered samples, a bit like a digital piano roll. These four-bar patterns could be arranged into complete pieces of music by using the simple playlist editor, giving computer musicians a practical way to create immersive pieces of not inconsiderable duration.</p>
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<p><mark>Suggested Post Series</mark> Three modern technical Inventions that shaped music history forever</p>
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<h2>Dream come true</h2>
<p>Inevitably, some developers identified the potential of the tracker to be a pure tool for musicians, as well as an instrument for videogame and demoscene programmers. Debuting in 1991 with the ability to send MIDI data via an Amiga MIDI interface, and offering a drag-and-drop stave view, a sophisticated built-in sample editor, and a synth sound generator, OctaMED was a dream come true for cash-strapped aspiring producers. It could even play up to eight tracks simultaneously. However, this reduced the output level of the channels, and the resulting decrease in volume and higher relative noise floor limited its usefulness when it came to making records.</p>
<p>Even with just four tracks, OctaMED was a revelation for musicians excited to explore the musical free-for-all that was the early-1990s rave scene. Many hardcore anthems were made with the software, including DJ Red Alert & Mike Slammer’s In Effect, Omni Trio’s Feel (Feel Good), Foul Play’s Survival and, most famously, Urban Shakedown’s Some Justice. Created on two manually synced Amigas, the sub-bass-heavy proto-d’n’b rave banger Some Justice was signed by legendary pop svengali Pete Waterman for his PWL label. A remix of the track reached number 23 in the UK Top 40 in June 1992.</p>
<p>But it wasn’t just the UK hardcore scene that got in on the Amiga action. Australian speedcore merchants Nasenbluten were prolific and enthusiastic users of ProTracker, and Rotterdam-based gabba crew Neophyte also used ProTracker to make their tracks and to perform on stage.</p>
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<h2>Fast track</h2>
<p>With the demise of the Commodore, tracker development predominantly moved to the PC platform which, thanks to dedicated sound cards, increased audio track counts and 16-bit quality. Fast Tracker II, released in 1994 for MS-DOS, and ModPlug Tracker, released in 1997 for Windows, were two popular traditional trackers for the PC. Between 1997 and 2000, however, Jeskola Buzz took things to another level with its graphical modular audio routing environment. Sadly, Buzz suffered something of a stop-start development because its creator lost the source code. During its absence though, in 2002, Renoise appeared to fill the gap.</p>
<p>Renoise was based on the code of NoiseTrekker, created by the late Juan Antonio Arguelles Rius, AKA discoDSP co-founder and FL Studio developer Arguru, immortalised in the Deadmau5 track of the same name. Renoise brought the tracker up to date with the era’s audio and MIDI-sequencing DAWs such as Cubase SX, adding support for plug-ins and Rewire, plus some esoteric enhancements – among them the ability to use the audio output of a track as a parameter value generator.</p>
<p>Still much in development, Renoise remains the leading commercial tracker software of the day. Those looking for a free alternative, however, should consider OpenMPT, the open-source version of ModPlug Tracker. SunVox, another freeware tracker that offers modular sound generation, is also worth investigating, and is available on an array of platforms, including Mac, Windows, Linux, Android and iOS. Trackers have also made their way to the Nintendo Game Boy thanks to Little Sound Dj, which turns the handheld console into a music workstation, and even to digital calculators, thanks to HoustonTracker 2, which is compatible with various Texas Instruments devices.</p>
<p>The next evolution of the tracker comes in the form of the Polyend’s Tracker and XOR Electronics’ Nerdsynth (the latter is also responsible for tracker-based Eurorack sequencer NerdSEQ). These standalone hardware devices are designed for live performance, and have the potential to take the tracker out of the bedroom and onto the stage. Prepare yourself, then, for the revenge of the nerds.</p>
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