Saturday, June 24, 2006

shadow of the beast


ah, nostaligia and the internet are a dangerous cocktail. i was remembering a game from my amiga days -- shadow of the beast. this was perhaps one of the hardest games of all time, but was revolutionary for its time, with an outstanding soundtrack, and really slick parallax scrolling. the gist of the game is pretty brutal:

"The game's story is about a man named Aarbron who was kidnapped as a child and corrupted through magic into a monstrous warrior-servant for the evil beast lord Maletoth. The creature's memory of his human life returns when he watches a man which he later recognizes as his father, being executed. This prompts him to seek revenge."

i remember being crap at this game, and i certainly never completed it. i remember a certain someone i know (i'll mention no names here to save any embarrassment) being terrified of the harrowing death scene. it was long and drawn out -- first the beast crumbles to bones and dust with an agonising cry, then you are treated to several minutes of morose music playing while the scene pans over some surreal landscape where we see the shattered body of the beast.

here is some trivia from wikipedia:

The Sega Genesis port is considered to be one of the hardest videogames of all time. Some believe it is impossible to play without cheating but others have completed the game without such methods. Gamers struggled to finish it after its release, but due to the incredibly high difficulty level very few achieved this goal until Sega revealed the invincibility cheat in January 1992.

Graphics from Shadow of the Beast and Shadow of the Beast II were each incorporated in two special levels in the original Lemmings game, titled respectively "A Beast of a Level" and "A BeastII of a Level".







Friday, June 23, 2006

if we all chip in....

...we just have to get this

1up

thanks craig, now i have sf2 on my mac.... now i want a few more games. i'm thinking galaga and xenon?

Thursday, June 22, 2006

a few notes on the pasty



first, let me get something straight: a few notes about the pasty.

note that there is no such thing as a cornish pasty, it is simply a pasty. all other claimants are imitations.

second, a pasty must contain the following:

chunks of beef (preferably skirt)... not mince.
potatoes
swede
onions
-a pinch of salt/pepper if you want.
-possibly some kidney (personal favourite)

NO carrot in there you notice.

this must be wrapped and crimped in some short crust pastry (i've seen some terrible crimping examples in 'shop' bought pasties over the years). the crimp was designed so that miners could hold the meal without getting the main body of the pasty dirty. the very end of the crimp was then thrown away to feed the 'knockers' who live in the mines - a kind of offering to keep the miners safe.

tea room observations

excitement -- they have changed the type of swizzler thing to stir tea with in the coffee room. i don't like these though -- you can't bend them the same way as the old ones, and they snap easily. i'll get over it... in time.

yet another observation

in addition to my observation yesterday, may i state that:

bloody windy again today, innit?

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

observation

bloody windy today, innit?

dhalsim trivia

some trivia about dhalsim, found on wikipedia:

  • Dhalsim can talk while blowing fire.
  • Dhalsim apparently does not, or did not always, have an oath of celibacy, as he has a wife, Sally and son, Datta. His family can be seen in Dhalsim's ending in the Street Fighter II series, and in updated versions of these games, Datta is re-drawn to look less like an offensive caricature. Sally can be seen in the background of Dhalsim's Street Fighter Alpha stages cheering him on.
  • Dhalsim often associates with elephants and with the elephant-headed god Ganesha. Elephants are visible in both his Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter II series stages. Ganesha is present as a large statue and on a tapestry in both series, respectively. Upon winning the original Street Fighter II with Dhalsim, he returns home riding an elephant named Kodal. Balrog once killed one of his elephants.
  • The skulls Dhalsim wears are those of children from his village who died of plague, not those of enemies, as Dhalsim will not take a human life.
  • Despite being a secondary character, Dhalsim has appeared in many of the crossover games.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

cutting edge

john and i have been looking at some images and come to some important conclusions: the universe is pissing massive!

see iccmofos for an upsetting calculation on how long it would take to walk to z = 10... without a piss break.