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"Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle [...]"
- John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address
TWILIGHT STRUGGLE is a card-driven board game simulation of the Cold War. It has been called a game of
crisis management; dealing with them yourself, creating them for your opponent, and their proper timing. There is a extensive blog about the game,
Twilight Strategy.
This is that site's article on starting out play. This page could help you decide if it's for you. ("Do you enjoy games that are extremely tense and nerve-wracking?") Here's a YouTube video on how to play it.
And, although I suggest learning to play with a physical set, the online multiplayer wargaming client Warroom
has a Java Twilight Struggle client/server program available. There is also
a VASSAL module, but it currently doesn't work with VASSAL 3.2 or later. There's a lot more on the game after the break....
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 3:29 AM on March 24, 2013
(48 comments)
Hey guys, remember that old show "Fraggle Rock?"
And, and you know that recently-released movie The Hobbit?
Well, why not combine the two?
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 2:36 PM on March 2, 2013
(8 comments)
NEW from VIDEO Magazine, arising out of its popular "Arcade Alley" column, it's
ELECTRONIC GAMES Magazine!
(page of PDF links) Brought to you by editors Frank Laney Jr. and
Bill Kunkel, and filled with all the latest news on programmable home console games, computer games (with special coverage for the new ATARI 800 system), stand-alone electronic devices and arcade gaming.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 5:43 AM on February 7, 2013
(37 comments)
The blog of video game journalist Jeremy Parish,
ToastyFrog GameSpite TeleBunny.net, has four in-depth, stage-by-stage, exhaustive examinations of classic 8-bit game design:
Castlevania,
Castlevania II,
The Legend of Zelda, and
Castlevania III. They are required reading for prospective game designers. (Complete links inside. Mega Man fans,
look here.)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 1:49 PM on January 29, 2013
(27 comments)
Courtesy of that saint of old school gaming and dark god of the underworld Jason Sholtis, who runs the awesome,
previously-posted blog
The Dungeon Dozen, it's a new adventure to run using the game system of your choice:
THE SECRET PARTY-HOUSE OF THE HILL GIANT PLAYBOY (PDF viewer w/ available download). Looting, slaying, and party crashing beckon to the bold!
Also from Sholtis: the one-page dungeon
FLESH FOR THE WITCH QUEEN. (PDF viewer with download)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 5:45 PM on January 13, 2013
(12 comments)
An Unknown Alien Being acquires a child's forgotten book and mistakenly believes that it depicts proper protocol for interaction with the human world.
The book is a collection of Peanuts comics.
Woodsnoopy 45 stares into your open heart. Her yellow head squirms and pukes up feathers.
It makes you uncomfortable when she looks at you. She makes a demand.
Her demands come often and always create uncomfortably simultaneous feelings of resentment and obedience.
ACQUIRE NICKELS
That is the territory of the Lucy faction. They are the ones who gather nickels. Woodsnoopy 45 is overstepping her boundaries.
Being a mere Woodsnoopy 799, however, you can do naught but obey."
MASTABA SNOOPY
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 12:43 PM on January 6, 2013
(31 comments)
What is perhaps the best license ever applied to a pinball machine? Probably
Star Trek: The Next Generation, which is surprisingly like playing an episode.
Williams also released a special ROM of funny quotes from cast members that people can install into their machines.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 8:01 PM on December 30, 2012
(62 comments)
For Zelda Day, some points of interest regarding Zelda II, the black sheep of the Legend of Zelda series of video games:
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 3:03 PM on December 26, 2012
(62 comments)
Hey everyone let's watch
Aaron Long's Fester Fish, that irreverent cartoon scamp, as he
watches his nephew,
goes, uh, fishing,
makes some friends, and
takes his boozy girlfriend Blotty to meet his fokes for Christmas.
(VIA CARTOON BREW - note, preroll ads before most cartoons)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 10:45 AM on December 25, 2012
(5 comments)
Back in March I posted about the forgotten Nickelodeon show
Turkey Television. Recently a full episode of the show (later era) has shown up on YouTube:
Part 1 -
Part 2 -
Part 3.
If that's too much video tryptophan (even at its best, Turkey Television was amazingly uneven), here's a
few clips (
WARNING: CONTAINS UNCLE HOGRAM, also some of
Uncle Floyd's bizarre Day In The Life Of A Food) from
YouTube user 2reelers.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 9:13 PM on November 25, 2012
(19 comments)
Classic Shell is an open-source program that fixes two of the biggest problems users perceive with the newly-released Windows 8: it brings back the Start Menu, and it allows users to log-in directly to the Desktop instead of the Start Screen.
(8.4 MB WINDOWS DOWNLOAD)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 12:06 PM on October 29, 2012
(154 comments)
Who's More Full of Shit? Aggregates
Politifact ratings and identifies which politicians, pundits and media figures lie most often. [via
mefi projects]
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 6:31 PM on September 14, 2012
(33 comments)
"I guess it started for me when, as a young sci-fi movie fan, I did a fanzine at age 12 to 15... that’s when I learned how relatively cheap and easy it was to self-publish, at least for a small circle of weirdos. Later, after comics went up to 50¢, I started collecting stuff equally weird but much cheaper than comic books: kook literature." -
Rev. Ivan Stang
You may know of the Church of the SubGenius, that parody religion that worships the almighty "Bob" and was a fixture of
MTV and
Night Flights back in the day. But do you know of its SECRET ORIGINS? Co-founder Ivan Stang corresponded with hundreds of "mad prophets, crackpots, kooks & true visionaries," from sincere cults to winking charlatans to utter nutjobs to hate groups to independent artists and musicians, with some respected names thrown in, and synthesized them into a half-joking, half-serious celebration of the kook spirit. These days of course the forward-thinking crackpot looking for sheep goes directly to the internet. But while it lasted Stang and co-authors Mike Gunderloy, Waver Forest and Mark Johnston collaborated to document this vanished scene in the legendary book
HIGH WEIRDNESS BY MAIL. (All links within may quickly lead someplace NSFW by the nature of the beast.)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 3:05 PM on August 27, 2012
(133 comments)
Super Mario Bros. Special occupies a strange place in Mario history. It's one of the few Mario games produced for a system other than Nintendo's own, licensed by Hudson Soft for the
Japanese PC-8801 computer system. The system was fairly weak compared to an NES, so it didn't scroll; when Mario gets to the edge of the screen, it flips to the next. The game wasn't always designed with that in mind however, leading to a lot of blind jumps. You can play a hacked version of the original Super Mario Bros. designed to recreate this game using the patch found
here. And here's a video playthrough of the whole game:
World 1,
World 2,
World 3,
World 4,
World 5,
World 6,
World 7,
World 8,
Last level & ending. And here's
a trap room in World 4.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 12:00 PM on August 14, 2012
(45 comments)
Recently we learned about
Erdos-Bacon-Sabbath numbers. Continuing in this vein,
forum members at Select Button have been compiling Williams numbers, being characters in video games who can be linked to Nina Williams from the Tekken series of fighting games.
[NSFW forum images]
Mikhail Gorbachev is easy, he has a Williams number of only 2. Adolph Hitler has a Williams number of 3. Also, the guy from Doom, Voltron, Barack Obama and Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. God has a Williams number of 4. So does T. E. Lawrence and Tron. The Burger King has a Williams number of 5 as well as Sarah Palin, Sigmund Freud, Avatar Aang and H.P. Lovecraft. Homestar Runner has a Williams number of 7.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 4:28 AM on July 1, 2012
(27 comments)
Two clips from the 70s kids show
Marshall Efron's Illustrated, Simplified and Painless Sunday School:
David & Goliath and
Jonah.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 3:37 AM on June 30, 2012
(17 comments)
Atari, the first successful arcade video game company, would have been 40 years old today. The blog Arcade Heroes takes the opportunity to look back over 40 years of arcade gaming (from Atari and other companies) with flyers and video.
Part 1 (1970s & 80s) -
Part 2 (1990s to present).
(WARNING: huge pages ahead with lots of flash videos.)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 12:50 PM on June 28, 2012
(24 comments)
スターウルフ, "
Star Wolf," was a half-hour sci-fi TV show produced and aired in Japan in 1978. (
TV Tropes page -- addiction warning) It had somewhat cheesy special effects, understandable being a TV series made just one year after Star Wars, but it made up for it with style, energy, and
ACTION PACKED MUSIC.
American viewers will know it best as the show ripped apart and reassembled into two Fugitive Alien movies by
Sandy Frank Productions, then shown on two memorable episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
(Episodes on YouTube: Fugitive Alien, its sequel.) Although the Japanese show got at least two seasons (the second under the title
Space Hero Star Wolf), only the first four episodes appear to exist on the internet. Here they are:
One -
Two -
Three -
Four. (There are no subtitles, but you should be able to figure out what is going on if you've seen the MST episode.)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 3:43 AM on June 27, 2012
(26 comments)
Shards of Equestria is a set of 270 fan-made Magic: The Gathering cards based off of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. (made by MeFi's own XQUZYPHYR, via Projects)
Savage Worlds of My Little Pony (PDF version recommended, requires Savage Worlds game system books) is a roleplaying game based on the show, using Pinnacle Games' Savage Worlds system. Notable for its tenent against violence, which punishes characters who pursue violent solutions to problems.
MLP: Roleplaying is Magic (PDF) is another roleplaying game using a custom system.
MLP: Clash of Realities is a miniatures combat game played on computer. Game system plugin for Lackeyccg. Setup instructions
MLP: Fighting is Magic is a slick-looking, upcoming fan-made fighting game. Demo videos: Applejack test, general demonstration, Fluttershy is not OP
Ponykart is an upcoming, fan-made Mario Kart-style driving game. Demo video.
My Little Investigations is an upcoming, fan-made Phoenix Wright-style investigation adventure game. Playable demo.
Cutie Mark Crusade is also a work in progress, and a more traditional adventure game. Playable demo. Demo video.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 4:20 PM on June 16, 2012
(41 comments)
Flash Friday: Written for
Ludlum Dare 23,
Super Strict Farmer is a flash game that plays like a light version of the popular Eurogame Agricola. If you have trouble figuring out how to play, the rules are in the comment thread.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 9:00 AM on June 1, 2012
(27 comments)
VGJUNK looks at "Gonbee no I'm Sorry", a strange Japanese arcade maze game released in 1985 by Banpresto and Sega that mocked notoriously corrupt former Japanese Prime Minister
Kakuei "Shogun of Darkness" Tanaka, who was convicted in 1983 of taking 1.8 million dollars from Lockheed Martin in exchange for letting them sell planes to the national airline.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 6:53 AM on March 24, 2012
(14 comments)
The IMDB says of the Canadian-produced, early 90s Nickelodeon show Turkey Television:
A series comprised entirely of short (several per episode) comedy sketches. Unfortunately practically nothing of the show survives on the internet today, other than two clips:
the theme songs from the two formats of the show and
a commercial showing off some archive clips.
Page on the Classic Nick Wiki -
Everything2 node
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 5:21 AM on March 22, 2012
(25 comments)
How to Host a Dungeon is a solitaire pen-and-paper game in which you create an underground complex of rooms, populate them with various fantasy races and monsters, and simulate its history. At almost any time you can stop and have the basis for a D&D campaign. Here's a YouTube playthrough of a game:
Part 1 -
Part 2
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 9:44 PM on March 4, 2012
(53 comments)
Tevis Thompson writes about Nintendo's video game series The Legend of Zelda. Specifically about
how it's gone downhill since Ocarina of Time.
(via Kotaku)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 5:42 PM on February 22, 2012
(113 comments)
It's On The Ceiling! Roll d12:
1. d100 Swords of Damocles
2. City of the Intellectual Bats
3. Manhole-like trap door to maintenance level
4. Tapestry of webs depicting events in spider history
5. Stalactite pueblo dwellers: evil dungeon fairies
6. Adventurers impaled on barbed spikes
7. The furniture: nailed up by prankster
8. Alarming amount of dripping water and muddy seepage
9. Pulsating illumination from strange glass tubes in metal fixtures
10. Shriekers!
11. Eyes (d1000)
12. Hand-chiseled diagram of dungeon level
This and many other useful tables for DM improvisation at
The Dungeon Dozen. New table every day!
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 5:46 PM on February 3, 2012
(22 comments)
Pokemon:
Game Freak and Nintendo's series of cartoony monster-training RPGs that kicked off huge crazes among the kids of both Japan and the U.S. In these games, children take up the calling of "Pokemon trainers," capturing the titular animals and then keeping them as pets or fighting them against either wild pokemon or those of other trainers.
Nobunaga's Ambition:
An even-longer-running classic series of historical strategy/simulation games produced by Koei. Noted for their realistic approach, their difficulty, and a high level of dryness. You grow rice, distribute it to your population to keep them happy, send out spies, guard against assassins, raise and train a military, and ultimately attempt to unite feudal-era Japan.
And now...
Pokemon + Nobunaga's Ambition, a Real Thing that will Soon Exist.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 9:52 PM on January 1, 2012
(26 comments)
??? WHAT IS KUSOGE ??? From the Japanese for "shit",
kuso, and "game." They're relentlessly terrible video games that in some cases have attracted a following because of their awfulness. Here are some of the most commonly recognized examples:
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 8:56 PM on December 31, 2011
(30 comments)
Here are a variety of strange creatures, realized by the surreal Swiss mime troupe
Mummenschanz:
1 2 3 4 5 Previously, and Muppetly. MLYT
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 8:53 PM on December 30, 2011
(16 comments)
Here is Left-Handed Toons (By Right-Handed People), a weekdaily webcomic drawn by two guys, Justin and Drew, using their "off" hands, and with their "off" brains.
They have a lot of series. Here's some highlight strips.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 8:52 PM on December 29, 2011
(13 comments)
Here are fan-translated Game Center CX
(previously) Episodes on YouTube:
#1: Atlantis No Nazo,
#2: Challenger,
#3: Ghosts 'N Goblins,
#4: Konami Wai Wai World,
#5: Metroid,
#6: Solomon's Key, #7 & #8: Prince of Persia:
Part 1 -
Part 2,
#9: Mega Man II,
#10: Super Mario 3. Much more after the break....
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 8:41 PM on December 28, 2011
(32 comments)
Here is the Shep of the Day podcast: bringing you something that Jean Shepherd said this day on the radio. (Actually, sometimes a whole show.)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 8:37 PM on December 27, 2011
(17 comments)
Here is a video playthrough of The Legend of Zelda without a sword. It is possible to get right up to the last boss without one, although it requires knowing a
lot of tricks. That is exactly what mev1978 does in his playthrough, without dying. And then he does it again in the second quest.
First quest (1:61:31) -
Second quest (1:13:18)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 8:34 PM on December 26, 2011
(33 comments)
Here is Dungeon Squad! A simple, free role-playing game intended for younger players (but enjoyable by older ones), with lots of dice rolling and action.
Here's a couple of adventures for it, here's an expansion,
and here's a more complex version. Here's the expansion Adventure Squad, in three PDFs:
Core -
Abilities -
D&D 3E Classes.
Here's yet another expansion.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 8:28 PM on December 24, 2011
(21 comments)
Here is dotEPUB, a Chrome extension that will convert any web page into an EPUB document, able to be viewed in most ereaders. Other browsers can use it via bookmarklets, including mobile Safari.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 8:26 PM on December 23, 2011
(23 comments)
Here is
Incursion: Halls of the Goblin King, a computer game that adapts the 3rd Edition rules of the Dungeons & Dragons game to roguelikes.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 8:24 PM on December 22, 2011
(25 comments)
Here is "The B.S. of A. with Brain Sack," a show aired on Glenn Beck's TV channel that claims to be a "non-partisan" alternative to the Daily Show. How good is it? Better than the right's previous attempts at making a satire show, but uneven.... Judge for yourself: here's a monologue, in five parts:
1-
2-
3-
4-
5. Here's a few of the better bits:
Kill Panel -
Pilgrim Funnies -
Isle of Skulls MLYT
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 6:38 PM on December 17, 2011
(88 comments)
Here is Game Club 19XX, a new monthly podcast from Hardcore Gaming 101
(previously) in which knowledgeable gamers discuss playing through old video games without FAQs or walkthroughs. Episode 1 is on Snake's Revenge, the forgotten NES sequel to Metal Gear. (
MP3 download from MediaFire, 1:27:32)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 6:11 PM on December 16, 2011
(10 comments)
Here is the pilot episode of Les Mondes Engloutis (Part 2), a French animated sci-fi/fantasy televison series from 1985.
Here is its iconic theme song. In English it translates into "The Sunken Worlds," but English-speakers know it better as
Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea. More information can be found on Tripod fansite
The Lost Archives of Arkadia.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 4:06 PM on December 14, 2011
(23 comments)
Here is the opening anime from the 20th Japan Science Fiction Convention, Daicon III (1981).
And here is the follow-up anime for the 22nd convention, Daicon IV (1983). Both are loaded with pop culture references, and are
(I hear) famous among Japanese anime fans.
Here's some more information on them. The student animators of these shorts went on to found the anime studio GAINAX,
which you may have heard of.
GAINAX previously: one two
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 3:18 PM on December 13, 2011
(19 comments)
𝑯𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝑸𝒖𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝓪, 𝓪 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝑻𝒓𝒖𝒆𝑻𝒚𝒑𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝓪𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝓪𝒊𝒏𝒔 10,000 𝒄𝒉𝓪𝒓𝓪𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔. 𝓘𝓯 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓲𝓽 𝓲𝓷𝓼𝓽𝓪𝓵𝓵𝓮𝓭, 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓬𝓪𝓷 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓶𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓪𝓰𝓮 (𝔲𝔫𝔩𝔢𝔰𝔰 𝔶𝔬𝔲'𝔯𝔢 𝔲𝔰𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝕮𝔥𝔯𝔬𝔪𝔢).
"Here is Quivira, a free TrueType font that contains 10,000 characters. If you have it installed, you can read this message (unless you're using Chrome)."
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris
at 7:45 AM on December 10, 2011
(111 comments)
