Archive for the ‘Casual’ Category

(wme) Eight Squares in the Garden – ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves…

Monday, April 27th, 2009

Apr27 Through the Looking Glass was Lewis Carroll’s sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  Alice wonder’s what it’s like on the other side of the mirror.  She then is able to pass through it.  She meets the Red Queen there and the queen offers her a throne to her, if she can get to the 8’th square.  There’s also the poem The Jabberwocky which she can only read by holding it up to a mirror.  Reason I mention the poem is here, I will recite a line or two.  Ahem! <clears throat> “’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves, Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;  All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.  "Beware the Jabberwock, my son!  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!  Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch!"”  – Okay so I’m like, umm what what, and what?  They call it literary nonsense, like it’s on purpose or something, which it probably is.  In fact supposedly the effect of nonsense is caused by an excess of meaning, rather than the lack of it.  I guess what it means is, that it’s so full of symbolism and meaning that it comes out as nonsense.  Contrariwise they may be using nonsense to cover up their meaning, that is if they’re meaning something, that is supposed to look like it means nothing, thereby masking the meaning.  If you get my, umm… meaning. 

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(xblig) Cubage – Like, totally Rubik’s!

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Apr15 Remember The Empire Strikes Back?  The boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, protesting Soviet invasion of Afghanistan?  Airplane? Defender, Battlezone and Pac-Man?  Zork?  John Lennon’s murder? Iron Maiden’s debut?  AC/DC’s “Back in Black” ?  “Disco Sucks?” (granted that was on a sign in 79’s Disco Demolition Night but the sentiment still rings true)  Mount St. Helens eruption?  The US ice hockey team beating the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics? Who shot J.R.?  Well all of these were in 1980, not just the 80’s but the turn of the decade.  There was another thing that debuted in 1980 and that was the Rubik’s Cube.  Invented in ‘74 by a Hungarian sculptor, it was sold to Ideal Toys in 1980.  As Wikipedia describes it – In a classic Rubik’s Cube, each of the six faces is covered by 9 stickers, among six solid colors (traditionally white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow).  A pivot mechanism enables each face to turn independently, thus mixing up the colors. For the puzzle to be solved, each face must be a solid color.

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Jumping Jack’son – I’m Jumping Jack’son, it’s a gas, gas, gas!

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

Apr09Before there were guitar hero’s and dance revolutions there was Dance Aerobics a relatively obscure NES game that had you hit buttons on the “power pad” (much like Dance, Dance, Revolution).  Before that there was Simon in like the 70’s.  You know you had to hit the lit but tons in the exact order they played, and it would play notes.  I guess that’s the first rhythm game.  Of course I went too far back, so let’s jump back after Simon, after Dance Aerobics and before what is arguably called the first influential music game to a game called Jumping Jackson by Infogrames.  Of course I am not reviewing that game, I’m reviewing a remake for the retro remakes competition.  It’s called, guess what?  Jumping Jack’son! It’s by Puzzle House Finland  Okay so there’s a little difference in the name spelling.  Actually after looking at screenshots it looks pretty faithful.

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