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cornerblog934 · 3 years

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Free Tetris For Mac

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Free Tetris For Mac

Free Tetris Download For Mac

Tetris is an authentic retro-Tetris game designed and optimized specifically for Windows and OS X. Pros: Fun, easy to play. Cons: The music for this game has always been distracting to me. I find it easier to play with the sound off. Conclusion: Tetris Zone is a decent game and it’s a lot of fun. The graphics are good, and the sound is decent.

For small DOS games like Frac, you can play online immediately with your browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer...). This feature is still experimental, the game may not work properly. Warning: game save should work, but you should try it early! Also, be careful to select the right game executable in the list below.

Emulator configuration

The 6 Pieces 3D Tetris Cube PowerPoint Diagram is useful business template. For example, display an innovative product design and its features, discuss a development strategy or demonstrate complex model. The editable PowerPoint of 6 pieces Tetris 3D cube assist users in quickly and effortlessly modify the design as necessary. This is a list of official Tetris games. 1 Official Tetris games (1984-1986) 2 Official Tetris games (1988-1996) 3 Official Tetris games (1996-2006) 4 Official Tetris games (2007-present) 5 Other '-tris' games 6 Notable fan games and unlicensed games 7 Tetris as easter eggs 8 See also This list includes games released before the first commercial versions were available.

For small DOS games like Frac, you can play online immediately with your browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer.). This feature is still experimental, the game may not work properly. Classic puzzle games like tetris, jigsaw puzzles, bust a move, mahjong and sudoku, classic strategy games like chess, classic simulation games like tycoon, classic sports games like pool/billiards, bowling, classic card games like solitaire and poker, classic word games like scrabble, crossword, word search and more free downloads.

You have to choose the right game executable, then press PLAY.

To exit fullscreen mode, press escape. Playing experience can be poor due to your browser or your computer. Download Frac and launch it with DOSBox to have the best playing experience!

If the game is too fast or too slow, try hitting CTRL-F11 (slower) and CTRL-F12 (faster).

Comments

Rebalina2019-11-27

Yeah, it is the best tetris ever!

yuwi2017-05-20

I play this game since early 90-s and I still adore it!

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Share your tips to run properly Frac in your browser: best browser to use, specific DOSBox config... You can drop a comment for anything too!

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hydralisk98 · 3 years

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Still trying to figure out my niche

So I like linguistics (natlangs and conlangs alike), vintage editors, retro-style games/mods/demos/engines, collages, mood/stim-boards, vector graphics, early-mid web design, grand strategy sims, tarot, dice, TTRPGs, QGIS, FreeCiv, foldable 3D papercraft toys, pseudocode, printables, Gashaupon, desktop customization, 2D animation, explorative writing games, writing prompts,

Feats:

Use of multiple conlangs and natural languages at once

Exploration and documentation of little-known technologies

2D layered animations

Ideas to record

Video dictionary per theme

Photo collages

Photo albums

Moodboards

Stimboards

Card decks

Tarot

Dice

HTML5 CSS3 ECMAscript11

SVG animations

Desktop customization (Shimejis and more)

Alone in Cyberspace

FreeCiv

FreeCol

FreeMars

Dwarf Fortress

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead

Dungeon Crawl Soup

Nethack

Angband

Parade

Gyo

Unity

Godot

Raylib

GB Studio

sok-stories

sok-worlds

Chip-8

Click4

CToy

PuzzleScript

DungeonScript

Bitsy

npckc

from HTML5.2 down to SGML tutorial

CSS3, CSS2 and CSS1 tutorial

JavaScript and crafting libraries tutorial

Markdown+Argdown tutorial

Explorable explanations

5x5 chess

Century spice road

Senators

Uno

Dos

What do you meme?

ZX Spectrum

Commodore 64

Apple II

IBM-compatible computers

DEC DECmate III+

DEC VT-180

DEC Rainbow 100

PDP-8

PDP-12

PDP-11

PDP-15

LIKO-12

Pico-8

PixelVision8

Pixelbox.js

Môsi

Build2

idTech4

Source(engine)

Dungeons and Dragons 5E

Pathfinder

Talespinner

Solaris

Linux Mint

Debian

Arch Linux

NeXTSTEP

Plan9

Inferno OS

Ubuntu

Manjaro

FreeBSD

MS-DOS 6.11 >> Windows 3.11 for Workgroups

Windows 2.02

KDE

XFCE

Cinnamon

Paper sprites

Paper models

Cylinder worlds

HP 86B

Lisp machines from Symbolics

Xerox Daybreak and Star and Alto

PLATOterm V

Pflaummen & Aperture Science compters

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lanwangjiismyreligion · 4 years

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My german translation of Mxtx’s Modaozushi:

https://boyslovealarm.blogspot.com/?zx=71d65944898b37c0

Updates every Sunday at noon!

Beware!!!

I translated until chapter 82 so far! But I will do everything including the extras (yes, Incence - Burner too).

First I have to say: I am not a professional translator but I’m translating fanfiction from english to german as a hobby since 15 years. My english language level is “only” B2 at the moment (according to the official CEFR, Common European Framework of Reference for Languages), but i am taking lessons to improve and if I’m ready I will do the Cambridge Certificate because my goal is to publish my own novel in english.

I translat the one and only completed english fan-translation that everyone knows and appriciates, despite some undeniable mistakes.

Yes, I am just a chinese beginner but i can use some helping tools like university/scientific literatur and stuff so I can research cultural things I am not familiar with.

BUT: I am aiming at german readers, so I prioritize the german reading flow and reading habits!!!

For that I created a few new german words in order to describe all the cultivation terms properly: for example the word “cultivation“ itself is a problem: the german “Kultivierung” means originally “Anbau” which means you go planting seeds into the ground. You can describe a person as “kultiviert”, but that means the person is sophisticated. You can say in german “Man kultiviert seine Bildung” but that literally means that you are refine/improve your education/manners. But you don’t use this expression to describe some magical refining techniques to use life energy (the qui or ki in japanese) to perform your sword skills or doing the yang or the yin path. So i created the term “Daomagie”. It’s a fusion of the german word “Daoismus” (it depends on the transcription if it’s Dao-ism or Tao-ism! I decided to use the ’D’ 6) and magic (=Magie).

See? Translating is very, very hard.

Then another point:

To describe the ghost path WWX is cultivating: do i use the german word Gespenst (en: ghost, specter), Geist (en: spirit, phantom), Teufel (en: devil, demon) or Dämon (the one you can exorcise, the classicle demon that posses a human etc)? That was so hard to decide! I decided to use the german Dämon in the end because the term is more flexible and nooo, the devil is the christian thing NOT the demon, so in regards to diverse religious believes and such: the word demon is from ancient greek daimon and means “the spirit/soul of a deceased that has no body” (a shadow so to speak), so you can best translate Wei Wuxian as “Großmeister des dämonischen Pfades” in german.

Then the next: Is Wei Wuxian a master, a founder, or an magical ancester? The english term master can mean either “Herr” or “Meister” in german. My fan-translated english novel text lest Xue Yang mention that WWX is in his point of view indeed the grandmaster of the ghost path (but he is the only one in the whole story!!! And we have one hell of an unreliable narrator:-)!). A founder means in german “Begründer” or “Pionier” and usually you mean, that a person is the first one who does a certain thing no one else has done. So i was stucked: should i take “Meister” or “Begründer/Gründer” because both terms make sense!!! But then i looked closer: if you take the whole development of WWX until the end he is both, a “Meister” and “Begründer. So my decision was based on a very trivial matter. “Meister” sounds so much cooler as “Begründer/Gründer”. And then i thought in regards to my german readers: hey, but they don’t want to read about a normal “Meister”, they want some special “Meister” and so i decided to take a very common roleplayer thing, so the german readers could emphasize with: “Großmeister”, but this title is not just fantasy: it is the highest rang among chess players for example, or the title of a freemasonary or much more important:in ancient china (Zhou dynasty) there were the Three Excellencies (and the Grand Master was the senior-most of the top three civil positions!!!): known as Grand Preceptor = referredto as Grand Master, Grand Tutor and Grand Protector....now go and read the novel again after you thought about this:-))!!

The consequences: I don’t do word-for-word-translation! I translate more situations and context so that a german reader can follow the plot even when they know nothing about Wuxia, Xianxia and all those special genre of chinese fantasy literature. I didn’t translate the names either despite it is possible: Wei Wuxian means literally “Der-kleine-Geisterjunge-ohne-Reue/Neid” (=literally the “Little-ghostboy-without-envies”. Sorry, but this is not readible in german!! You can do this one time, but imagine i would name him everytime his name is dropped!! It’s not possible, so all the characters have their names: Wei Wuxian/ Wei Ying, Lan Wangji/Lan Zhan, Lan SiZhui/A-Yuan etc.

In regards to Lan Wangji’s speaking style i could write a whole essay about it, because it’s so, so good and i try very, very hard to do him justice. Believe me, his shortness is NOT the problem in german!! The problem is always the double, or triple meaning etc. You have to nail the context and the situation down. I will give my best until the end! Once i’ m done with the main story (Ch. 113), i will revise my complete translation again to correct mistakes.

In regards to the almost non existent R18 content in the novel: i don’t discuss the extras. I love the incense burner, don’t come to me if you’ve got a problem with thisone or two EXTRAS, i will not discuss it, because mxtx wrote these unbelievable good scenes, so i translate them. Period. The only critical thing is the english wording of the fan-translation, don’t fret i will keep that in mind! I will not discuss the bath tube-scene: it’s great, it’ s sexy and you can’t convince me that you didn’t realize Lan Wangji was sober... don’t try to convince me otherwise, read the scene again until you get it. Hint: It’s in his speaking patterns:-))! (And I hope i will nail that down:-)!)

By the way: I will translate the audio drama of Modaozushi too. This translation i will post here on my tumblr or my linked blog.

I hope that one day, there will be an official german release for 魔道祖师, 魔道祖師, Grandmaster of demonic cultivation, Founder of Diabolism, Großmeister des dämonischen Pfades!

PS: You can always send me asks or messages! My inbox is open!

#modaozushi #mdzs novel #mxtx #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #mdzs audio drama #my translation #german translation

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antiques-for-geeks · 5 years

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Game Review : Space Raiders

Sinclair ZX81 / Sinclair Research/Psion/Mikro-Gen / 1982 / Originally £3.95

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you the golden age of cover art.

Good artists borrow, great artists steal. A comment that is often associated with the late Steve Jobs about his appropriating the GUI concept from Xerox PARC in the 1980s. It’s not an unromantic ideal - the young upstart company taking a technology from another, bigger organisation that had gold on its hands but didn’t know it.

Except Steve Jobs didn’t come up with the quote. He said as much in Triumph of the Nerds when interviewed. He didn’t claim to be the father of the modern GUI either; he just happened to see the potential of putting a low(er)-cost computer in the hands of the public that had a GUI.

The early days of the computing revolution were a kleptomaniac’s dream; intellectual property was respected, however it was done very much in a homage sense, rather than a paying-a-licencing-fee-and-doing-an-official-conversion sense.

Bedroom coders everywhere were getting in on the action, developing home versions of popular arcade titles, safe in the knowledge that Atari, Taito or Namco would not send the lawyers after them. After all, this was the early 1980s. Most of the time these companies didn’t know the kids were making these clones in the first place.

So, enter Space Raiders published by Sinclair Research. No prizes for guessing which arcade machine is being ripped-off here. It seems rather pointless to go through the gameplay; it’s so famous after 40 years of public consciousness that going through the mechanics of the game would seem a waste of time.

Let battle commence!

This version does not deviate too far from the golden formula. Some features are missing, like the bonus saucer craft that you can shoot. That said, alien ships come down the screen, and you with your moving gun must defend. Clear the screen and it continues. Over and over and over until they finally manage to land or you lose all of your lives.

Or get bored and unplug the computer.

Or stand up, knock the desk causing the memory expansion on your ZX81 to wiggle and the machine to promptly crash.

So, with the game being so ubiquitous, it’s difficult to stand out without ‘ruining’ the pure Space Invaders experience. Also, at the time there was little need to; this game would come at a time when recreating the arcade was impossible on home machinery - the Atari 2600 might have been the reference hardware for the home in the US, but even that could not hope to live up to the experience you’d get shoving small change into arcade machines. Though you could get some distance to replicating the feel by turning the lights off, have your younger brother spit out his half-eaten sweets on the floor near the machine to make the carpet nice and sticky and get your Mum to shout at you “This is a cafe, not a change machine. If you want change for those bloody machines you’ll have to buy something you little prick. They should bring back conscription. You’d learn some proper respect!” each time you ventured from the gloom into the kitchen.

Your shot is the upper case I, the alien bomb is the *. Interestingly neither you nor your foe can fire again until the projectiles hit their mark or whizz off the screen.

While released by Sinclair in 1982, the game is actually the older Space Invaders coded by Mikro-Gen in 1981. That release had the usual (for the time) monochrome packaging and was not available on shop shelves as games would come to be. The Sinclair release sees the title packaged with another, Bomber, a Blitz variant on the B-side of the cassette. Sinclair seemed to have worked with Psion (later of Organiser fame), who developed the ZX Spectrum version of Space Raiders to bring a similar game to the ZX81 at the same time. Shame that Psion did little more than just recycle an old title.

Buying it today

There are two versions - the ZX81 and Spectrum. The covers are more or less identical, so it’d be easy to get the two mixed up if you were not too careful.

The Spectrum version seems to be the more prevalent on auction sites. The ZX81 version reviewed here was not produced in as great numbers and so commands a higher price. Prices do vary from £10 to £50 depending on condition and how gullible the seller thinks people are. Expect to be able to get it for the lower end of these two figures at the present time.

Note that there is a cartridge version for the Spectrum. These are quite rare and can cost around the £60 mark. If you end up with that, well done. Now you just need to find a ZX Interface 2 so you can play it.

Commentariat

Tim : I’m going to be straight with you. This was the first game that I ever played, so my opinion of the game is really tinted. Back when I first got my ZX81, I absolutely loved it and played it for hours and hours. One particularly epic game was played at the end of the day with the prospect of bed-time looming. I made it count, going further than ever before; my parents, failing to understand the seismic nature of what they had just seen, sent me to bed instead of cracking open the champagne.

Playing it again, I can’t pretend it’s not a disappointment; it certainly isn’t how I remember it, but in these situations, it never is...

Graphically it’s not impressive, even for the ZX81; the coders could really have got more out of the hardware especially as game requires a 16k expansion in order to play the game. That said, it certainly plays well enough. It is harder than other Space Invaders clones out there, but it kind of has to be to ensure you get your money’s worth, which probably says more about the higher quality of the opposition than anything else.

The hardness kept me coming back for more when I first had it, but given that it was this, Bomber or the ICL “Fun to Learn” educational series tape that my folks had bought me in the vain hope I’d learn geography from the computer, it was an easy market to please. Now, it can grip me enough to play it, but the longevity isn’t there.

So is there much to recommend it today? Sadly no. A trip down memory lane, but not a particularly good one.

Pop : Ah, gaming on the ZX81… a tricky proposition on the painful and unresponsive keyboard. If you’ve never experienced it, try to imagine using the buttons on your microwave to play your PS4. Luckily this game of space invaders can be enjoyed at a slow pace! I can’t honestly remember if it was this or another invaders clone I played back in the day, but it’s barely passable fodder for the ‘81. Space Invaders is already a simple game, so leaving out stuff like the saucer is and the invaders speeding up as they get fewer is criminal. At least the bunkers are all present and correct. Still, I’d have happily played this back in may games-starved youth. If you’re going to (re)visit the machine today, check out something like 3D Defender or even better 3D Monster Maze...

Meat : Really, have we reached the bottom of the barrel this quickly? In some ways I jest, but really you’d only want to play this for nostalgia’s sake. Given that it needs a 16k expansion to run, I’d want to have something far better than this. Even for the time. It’s not that the aliens don’t traverse the screen properly sometimes. It’s not the missing saucer bonus alien. It’s not the absence of sound (which I can forgive - you can’t magic up sound from a machine with no ability to generate it). It’s not the lack of bitmap graphics. It’s just that in 16k you’d expect them to do something half decent. Like redefine a character set. For heaven’s sake, they could squeeze a game of chess into 1k at the same time, so I expect better here.

There is so little recommend this today. A couple of goes and the fun is exhausted. Unless you are a collector, save your money and head for better titles on the machine. If you really must have a Space Invaders clone from the era, try Avenger for the Vic 20. Hell, even the dull Atari 2600 Space Invaders cart is better than this.

Score card

Presentation 6/10

At a time when a photocopied inlay with a dour pencil drawing was the norm, the cover was incredibly stylish and smart. Seriously, look at it!

Originality 2/10

Sadly it can’t score highly here. Even in 1982 Space Invaders clones were ‘me too’ products.

Graphics 2/10

Uses the inbuilt graphics character set - plenty of scope (and memory) to do something else, even without a bitmap display.

Hookability 7/10

Plays well and draws you in quickly and effectively.

Sound N/A

The ZX81 has no sound output so unsurprisingly, neither does the game.

Lastability 3/10

While it hooks you in, at the end of the day it’s still ‘just’ Space Invaders. While tough, the missing features means there isn’t the depth to bring you back too often.

Value for Money 5/10

Will give you a fair amount of fun, even with its’ drawbacks. Plus there is a second game - Bomber - on side B.

Overall 4/10

You will get some fun out of it on your ZX81 but if you’re emulating, it’s not really worth the effort, sadly. Nostalgia will only get you so far. If you must play Space Invaders on a ZX81, try QS Invaders.

#zx81 #sinclair #sinclair zx81 #afg #antiquesforgeeks #retrogaming #retrocomputing #retro #videogames #space invaders #space raiders #retro review #review

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frozendoorgaming · 5 years

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Morning Mist #32

Announcements, Releases, Trailers

The MOP Up: Plants vs. Zombies goes multiplayer

Prayer-based RPG Churchgoers descends into stores

Here are 20 minutes of real-time The Outer Worlds gameplay

New Fairy Tail Trailer Reveals First 5 Playable Characters

The creators of Zero Escape and Danganronpa are working on Death March Club

Gwent's next expansion brings back Radovid, has a better trailer than some full games

Harvest Moon: Mad Dash Launching in North America in October

Square Enix shows off a boss fight from the upcoming Trials of Mana remake

Castle Crashers Remastered coming to PS4 and Nintendo Switch September 17

Betawatch: Chronicles of Elyria shows off its pre-alpha gameplay

Don't Starve dev's avoid-the-floor parkour platformer Hot Lava is out next week

Milestones, Industry

Borderlands 3 is giving Gearbox its "best numbers in Gearbox history", says CEO Randy Pitchford

Games industry should contribute to research into ‘problem gaming', Parliament report recommends

The ESA 'strongly disagrees' with UK commission's finding on loot boxes

Discord's Nitro Games will be closed in October

Nintendo-Themed Land Opening in Universal Studios Japan Next Spring

Spilt Milk Studios Announces New Internal Label for Experimental Games

Deals, Freeware

Resident Evil 2 Remake And Other RE Games Gets Up To 80% Off Discount on PC

PlayStation Plus Platinum Sale Offers Up To 50% Discount on Select PS4 Games

Dirt Rally is free to own on Steam if you download it before September 16

Build your own glitched driving track in Need 4e+9 Speed

Information

Every Cyberpunk 2077 quest will be handcrafted

EVE Online will end the nullsec Blackout tomorrow

Here's what Capcom has planned for Monster Hunter World in the next few months

Capcom confirms no extra downloads for Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection

Final Fantasy 7 Remake has a "classic" mode that makes the combat like the original's

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Beta Adds Gunfight with Three Maps

Nioh 2's beta begins on November 1

Need For Speed Heat Studio App Adds Augmented Reality Feature

Shadow of the Tomb Raider's Mysterious Eighth DLC Tomb is Still Missing

Overcooked 2 goes to the circus in its latest DLC

Yo-Kai Watch 4 Ditches Switch Exclusivity

Sea Of Thieves gets a microtransaction store

No, Keanu Reeves is not a romance option in Cyberpunk 2077

Spyro Reignited Trilogy's first PC mods make it retro again

Etc

Ask Ketchum is a Pokémon League Champion

Editorial: Analyzing the Celeste Controversy

Competitor in Hearthstone Grandmasters caught playing Dota Auto Chess at the same time

Twitch Streamer Shot At and Carjacked in Middle of Livestream

Skyrim: The 10 Most Exceedingly Rare Items In The Game

Pokémon: 10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Johto

#gaming news #gaming #video game news #morning mist

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nervousluminaryangela · 5 years

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New top story on Hacker News: ChesSkelet: Micro Chess Game for ZX Spectrum in 365 Bytes https://ift.tt/2Vblnjv

#IFTTT #Blogger

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retrocgads · 3 years

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UK 1983

#UK1983 #MIKROGEN #ACTION #HARDWARE #CONTROLLERS #STRATEGY #SPECTRUM #ZX81 #BREAKOUT #SPACE INVADERS #SORCERER'S CASTLE #ZX CHESS #BOMBER #A/D CONVERTER BOARD #SCRAMBLE

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indieretronews · 6 years

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(via Knight Hero - Upcoming ZX Spectrum platformer with Chess pieces! )

#retrogaming #retro gaming #gaming #Knight Hero #games #homebrew #zxspectrum #zx spectrum

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sassynightbeliever-blog · 7 years

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MarketJS

Sports games are a tricky beast that usually take lots of hours of practice refining those skills. There are many reasons for this - some games are downloading data from the Internet, while others have leagues and use the online connection to make sure no one is cheating. Once you've got your fill of great games, make sure you check out our best Android apps feature, with the best free and paid for titles from Google Play. However, this large selection of games can often end up becoming a pain for many users who find it extremely difficult to sift through and find the perfect game for the day. If you're looking for the best new games available in the Google Play Store, you've come to the right place. What was once an ironic criticism of games has since become a legitimate game genre, with other games starting to utilize their elements in non-clicker titles. Developer MadFinger Games recently made the zombie shooter free in response to an increase in people pirating the game. NOVA Legacy is the latest installment and it's already one of the best free Android games.

Download The amazing Spider-man 2 for Android mobile by torrent - one of the best apk games. Physically, we can't create these games in all available niches to markets in different countries (because we don't know market specifics). XCOM: Enemy Within is a strategy game that was ported to Android from PC. It displays graphics that are far greater than average for mobile as well as a lengthy single player campaign that has you fighting off an alien invasion using chess style strategy mechanics. The game might look like it's arrived on your Android device from a ZX Spectrum, but this is a thoroughly modern and hugely engaging blaster. With some of the best Android phones on the planet - such as the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge , HTC 10 and the OnePlus 3 - packing serious processing firepower, there's never been a better time to hit up Google Play and enter a world of fantastic mobile gaming. Racing games are great for showing off the graphical capabilities on any device, whether they're on a home console or mobile device, so it's no surprise that CSR Racing looks pretty darn awesome. Football gamers should also check out Football Manager Mobile 2017 , which costs £6.99. If forge of empires hack cannot locate your download page, one of our Humble Support Ninjas should be able to help! Its superior graphics, in-game mechanics backed by a gripping backstory that piggybacks to the various DC characters found in the game, make it one of the best games available on the Android platform currently. It's been used to create some of the most popular games out there, including Monument Valley, and although it does not let you dig into the source code, you'll probably never need to. However, not all games need you to be online to play, so we decided to come up with a list. Working your way through the bouts will eventually lead you towards a face-off with Rocky Balboa, but the main appeal of the game is levelling up your fighter's skills and then taking those online and using them against other real-life opponents. HandyGames also creates games for new innovative gaming platforms, for example VR (Virtual Reality) on Oculus Rift and Wearables. All three use nearly the same technicalities since they are all tower defense games. With a wide choice of games to go for this app should keep entertained for hours.

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supertrendingnewsarticles · 5 years

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ChesSkelet: Micro Chess Game for ZX Spectrum in 365 Bytes 25 by sohkamyung | 1 comments on Hacker News.

#Blogger #World News

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miamibeerscene · 6 years

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Inside the Craft Beer Cold War

February 5, 2018

It’s a narrative that could have been lifted from the pages of a Soviet-era spy novel, complete with misinformation, collusion, embedded cells and double agents. It would make for one hell of a story if it wasn’t a reality in the world of beer.

A quarter-century after the end of the Cold War, Soviet tactics are alive and well in a new clash of world powers: Anheuser-Busch InBev and the collective resolve of small and independent craft brewers. We are in the midst of a Cold War in American beer. The fate of beer as we know it hangs in the balance and years of keeping up uneasy appearances as tension builds under the surface works to make that balance teeter.

(VISIT: Find a U.S. Brewery)

The Stakes

I know the comparison between craft beer and Bolsheviks is melodramatic, but the prospects of a grim beer existence dominated by a leviathan is a clear threat. Warfare has evolved and is taking on civilian casualties, encouraging apathy among consumers and promoting the “Illusion of Choice.”

The “Illusion of Choice” is the name for Big Beer’s fleecing of American beer consumers by leveraging their power to get retailers to serve beer offerings that look diverse but are actually all from breweries that have been acquired by Big Beer. The consumer believes that they have a choice, but in reality, any “choice” goes to support one company. Clandestine cells of actors – in this case, category captains for big beer wholesalers — work in plain sight to ensure this illusion is delivered seamlessly to an unsuspecting beer public. You’ll see the signs the next time you’re shopping for beer. Look closer at cooler and store shelves. Which beer choices are eye-level and front-and-center? When you’re at a restaurant, which beers are most visible on menus? Beer selection should be based on the preference of the beer drinker, not pushed on the public. It’s a battle for territory and occupying territory. They work on the “inside” but are taking orders from the Motherland.

A mock-up shows the independent craft brewer seal on packaging. (CraftBeer.com)

In an effort to fight back, the Brewers Association (BA), publishers of CraftBeer.com, embarked on an awareness campaign to highlight the Illusion of Choice, call for transparency in the marketplace and champion independent craft brewers and the beers they produce. In June, the Brewers Association released the independent craft brewer seal, a silhouette of an upside-down bottle symbolic of small and independent craft brewers’ role in turning the beer industry on its head. The intent of the seal is to give you, the consumer, a visual way to recognize beers from small and independent craft brewers when they’re sitting on a shelf next to beers from breweries owned by Big Beer. The independent seal goes a long way in helping you see who makes the beer you buy.

Many have remarked about AB InBev’s response to this awareness campaign being largely quiet, but that is misleading. The mega-corporation has pulled several pages from the Soviet propaganda playbook to muddy the intent of these efforts. If you think embedded cells, state-run media and Whataboutery is for Cold War history books, think again.

(LEARN: CraftBeer.com’s Big List of Beer Schools)

The Iron Curtain

Whataboutery or Whataboutism is a tactic the Soviets used to attempt to discredit an opponent’s position by charging them with hypocrisy without directly refuting or disproving their argument. The tactic has had a resurgence in contemporary politics; it also a pretty common divisive tactic on social media.

Like the Soviets, AB used Whataboutism in their response video to the independent craft seal by offering other priorities craft brewers should be focusing on instead of independence. Parts of the script read: “We’re all beer, and we’re fighting this bigger battle which is wine and spirits … and we’re losing margin … There are clear threats from wine and spirits … as well as getting back to quality.”

Quality and competition from substitute goods are absolutely legitimate concerns for an industry, but the “threat” of wine and spirits and a call to focus on quality were points that were weaponized. Big Beer’s response was an attempt to distract and divide.

(INFOGRAPHIC: How to Choose the Right Beer Glass)

AB InBev’s strategy has gone far beyond Whataboutery by key individuals. 2017 was marked by further revelations of AB’s infiltration of beer media, and even beer rating sites, to highlight the lengths the company will go to further push the Illusion of Choice on beer lovers. ZX Ventures, the venture capital group that’s entirely owned by AB InBev, “quietly bought a minority stake in RateBeer, a popular beer rating website, last year,” according to the Open Markets Institute. “Brewers soon learned that ZX Ventures had also invested in other beer review websites including ‘October’ and ‘The Beer Necessities,’” writes Jeff Spross of the Week, in a recent article highlighting AB InBev’s strategy.

“This is sinister for rather obvious reasons,” writes Spross. “If a massive brewer can own a stake in a major beer rating site, it could well influence what beers that outfit recommends to customers in the first place. It wouldn’t even need to own its smaller competitors; it could simply and subtly steer potential customers from ever discovering those competitors to begin with.”

Round out these actions with the creation of AB InBev owned brewpubs embedded in strategic beer markets to go along with their purchased breweries, and you have a pretty startling view of the beer company’s efforts to distort the American beer-scape. The company has succeeded, despite pushback from local craft brewers, to set up shop in beer towns that include San Diego, Oakland, Anaheim and Denver, not to mention the purchase of Wicked Weed in Asheville, North Carolina.

It doesn’t take the CIA to see a pattern: infiltrate beer strongholds, break encrypted codes, act normal and try to win over the locals (okay, encrypted codes might be a stretch). The plan is to look normal, but the strategy is to squeeze out the independent neighborhood brewer.

(CHART: How to Pair Beer and Pizza Toppings)

The Thaw

This Cold War can’t last forever. Even the relationship between the US and USSR thawed.

The market for beer is not as free as you would believe.

As beer lovers, we did not ask for this war, but we have a part in it nonetheless. Beer can be anything we want it to be, but at its core, it’s simple and fun. Whether you like it or not, you as a beer lover are a pawn in this global chess match. The market for beer is not as free as you would believe, and apathy is not going to make it correct. Like most things, we must stand up and take action to see change, otherwise, nothing will. Sure, drink what you like, but don’t be naïve about your beer choices either. Look for the signs of the Illusion of Choice. They’re all around you.

In this war of titans, here in your mission: Like a Cold War operative, trust no one, question everything. Use clues, like the seal, to decode your path. Throughout it all, you will encounter sympathizers, hardliners, separatists, double agents (maybe). But trust yourself. We’ve come so far with beer, don’t give it up by not being vigilant.

In 2018, we must rethink what it means to be a beer enthusiast. Decide what type of beer world you want to live in.

Andy Sparhawk

Andy Sparhawk, the Brewers Association’s craft beer web manager, is a Certified Cicerone® and BJCP Beer Judge. He lives in Arvada, Colorado where he is a homebrewer and avid craft beer enthusiast. On occasion, Andy is inspired to write on his experiences with craft beer, and if they are not too ridiculous, you might see the results here on CraftBeer.com.