#questions in spaaace

[scattered-winter]

okay i THOUGHT that last ask was going to say “what would be the order of interrogation most likely to break them” and i think i need to go home, stop reading whump, and maybe convert to some kind of monotheistic religion. taking suggestions.

wait NO no. do not go home. let's live in this space for a moment. let's indulge.

#as soon as i get done with this studio class i am GOING to be elaborating on this. (threat) #the question we have to ask ourselves is what will make the paladins break faster? being tortured or being forced to watch? #now Personally i am a huge fan of shiro having to Watch it happen because he feels so much responsibility towards keeping them safe. #perhaps even we could indulge a bit and make shiro watch them fight in the arena. #who can say. who can SAY. certainly not me. #<- desperately beating back fic ideas with a broom #franke 🔪 #voltron #LIVE WITH ME IN THIS SPAAACE

[minuy600]

Review 78-01: Space Invaders (Arcade)

So this might be the biggest video game release ever after Pong. The first game on my list by a company that isn't Atari, too. Taito joins the fray and quite possibly completely embarrasses all other games that have come before it.

Now the question is, will it be the first game to achieve my Gold Award of a 9/10 or even a 10? Let's see.

Do note, I played both the black and white version and the slightly later color rerelease which added an extra digit to the score, using the Space Invaders Invincible Collection. I'm not sure when the latter released and if it changed anything else, but I honestly doubt it did. I

Graphics (4/5)

So besides the Pong paddle, which you can hardly call one, this is most likely the first ever arcade game to recognisable characters! The Invaders are pretty cute and still used as a symbol for 'video games' 45 years later.

It also introduces a new type of attract screen. Whereas previously, you would just get silent gameplay done by an AI or prerecorded footage (I think?), this time, you get the score table laid out *before* it moves over to that. It's a relatively small addition, though it would become a very very common sight pretty quickly after this game released.

Black and white (with some green if you use an overlay) as it is, it's not the most stunning game to look at, in fact you could consider the small 8-bit sprites a minor downgrade to Atari's 1977 output, which seemed to use larger graphics with less chunky pixels. Still, it took- give or- take half a decade for the visuals to be replicated correctly on SG-1000. I think it did it's job.

The colored version makes it so that you can more easily tell what is a danger and what is not, as well as a red flash across the whole screen when you die. It's obviously the more definitive way to play, though it hardly ends up mattering what version you choose or enounter in the arcade.

Sound (4/5)

This game has ingenious sound design. Pretty minimal, but inventive in the right places. It's the first game to have background music while you play, unlike Star Ship's random noises which were cute but not really composed, so to say.

This one's got spunk by having a 4-note descending loop. That doesn't sound like much, BUT it gradually speeds up as you vanquish more Invaders, increasing the stress factor to the player. It worked on me when I was younger, so that's solid. Even if it's effect became less over time, the idea is something I have always enjoyed (and feared) in video games.

Otherwise, the sound effects are pretty good too. I like the spacey noises of the UFO in particular, they're fun. Overall, a neat package.

Gameplay (4.5/5)

Take the tired old shooting genre and flip it on it's head, bam, it's Space Invaders. Instead of shooting another player or shooting stuff within a specific time limit, you now get all the time in the world to shoot down the 55 titular Invaders in spaaace. At least, untill they hit the bottom of the screen, cuz then you're instantly dead.

You also have those barricades which, by expert players, actually get seen as more of a hindrance than a help. The reason for that is the Nagoya Attack is one the first ever examples of an exploit! Open a gap between multiple columns of aliens, let them go to the row before the instant game over one, and they won't be able to hurt you at all. You still need quick reflexes to get the final ones though, and that I simply don't have.

I could go on all day about this, point is, it's much deeper than anything that came before it and is more than likely the oldest game on my list that younger people actually do still play legitemately, without any nostalgic or curiousity reason attached to it. It's THAT good.

The is one small con to this all, and that is that the Invaders' shots feel a bit too random and could end up screwing over your rounds due to a cheap shot you could not take down in time. However, I call this an opinion and not a fact- there is a solid chance this is due to my own bad gameplay.

Longevity (4.5/5)

The first game to have a strategy guide? Check. The first game that gradually gets more difficult as you complete stages? Check. The first game to cause a huge uproar in Japan because of how everyone wanted to play it? Check check.

The 9990 point limit may SEEM a bit skint now, and the color version improves it to 99990, so sure, it's not endless. Have you ever tried reaching it though? The best I can do is slightly over 4k, and that took me several weeks without save states. Unless you're a gaming god or have huge preseverance, which hey, adds to the replay value, you're not gonna be done exploring strategies for top scores in a hurry.

The difficulty does peak at about 6 or 7 levels in, so much like the other soon-to-be all time classics from the late 70s and early 80s, you do run into repetition eventually. Again, they throw everything at you to ensure you'll never actually make it.

Overall

It was inevitable. This game does so much so right. This being a big leap forward for the gaming industry has been talked about endlessly, for me to rehash that history lesson is quite unneccessary. Taito really could not have 'landed' any better.

Even NOW, you can probably still find it laying around in Japan and North America. Even now, you can pick it up and have a blast. Even now, you would not realise the game is older than Pac-Man and Donkey Kong at first. It's addictive as heck too! I tend to accidentally play for hours at a time.

Yes, this is 100% a deserved first Gold Award. Long may it continue.

Update: Due to the way my reviews work as of 28 August, the score may seem like a downgrade, but I will consider anything that shows a happy Sona (so an 8.5 or above) to still be a Gold Award. Likewise, Silver Awards and Bronze Awards have their treshold moved half a point down as well.

#retro gaming #minuy600 #taito #review #sona #1978 #space invaders #arcade #minuy's must haves

[automatisma]

I have finally started Gideon the Ninth because necromancy is the coolest form of magic... and I am cautiously curious. I have Questions about the worldbuilding and I really hope they will be answered and not just left as “flavour” (as in sword duelists! but IN SPAAACE for some reason), which would suck verily because the setting looks interesting, even if quite puzzling from the technological advancement angle.

But Canaan House seems full of exciting secrets and Gideon is a fun protagonist with a very distinct voice, although Harrow is by far my favourite character one-hundredish pages in: hey, she’s a total arsehole who’s not above looking pathetic to get what she wants – what’s there not to like?

#eng #fandomposting #gideon the ninth #the locked tomb #also the memes are... not great #they're not a big deal #but they actively work against immersion and just aren't funny enough to compensate

[darkmarkets]

The Horrors of Proper Manuscript Format

In my wildest dreams, I'm the shadowy robed figure at the head of a writer cult plotting to take over the publishing world. But instead of chanting "Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn...!" we'd all intone "Twelve point! Times New Roman! Twelve Point! One inch margins...!"

Okay, so I have awhile to go before I'm good cult leader material, but that doesn't mean we can't all keep the chant. Proper manuscript formatting is the single most important thing a new writer can do for their career. It promotes professionalism and displays your writing in the most clear, most readable way possible. A crap story formatted correctly will be much more agreeable to an editor than a genius story that's formatted like crap. It is sheer eyeball-exploding terror to be faced with nine point Papyrus font crammed on the page in single space with half inch margins. Chances are, an eyeless editor isn't going to be sending out any acceptances.

So, how can we, as writers, put our most professional foot forward? In most circles, the agreed-upon manuscript format contains these elements:

twelve point font

Times New Roman or Courier New

one inch margins

double-spaced

It's also good to include the writer's name and contact information in the upper left hand corner of the first page, as well as page numbers and the writer's name in the header. Easy, yes? One would think. It's shocking how often writers do not follow these rules.

What proper manuscript formatting does not contain is:

any bizarre artsy font that looks like a first-year design student's creative seizure

any font color other than black (that means you, purple and turquoise!)

eyeball-exploding single spacing

creative writing class designations (IE, no Miss Jenkin's Intro to Fiction 291!)

margins thinner than piano wire

hostage demands scribbled across the headers

Also, no sixteen point font. I'm sure there are kindly elderly editors out there that prefer large print documents while they wait on their cataract surgeries, but I doubt many of those editors work for a Tubby's House of Gorefest Magazine. (Sidenote: someone named Tubby needs to start this magazine, because it sounds aaawesooome!) Anyway, my point is: keep it reasonable size.

If anyone feels like a visual aid would be helpful, I highly recommend Nebula award winner William Shunn's article on proper manuscript format. He even goes so far as to detail dialogue formatting and the eternal burning question of scene break markers (Pound signs? Asterisks? Lesser folk have been driven to the brink of screaming madness contemplating such things.) Courier New is best for snail mail submissions, because the monospaced font makes it easy to manually tally up word count (make sure to kill your widows and orphans, though. Man, sometimes the jokes just write themselves.) And, surely these days the more modern incarnations of Times and Courier won't be looked down upon; Cambria and Consolas are fine-looking Word 2010 alternatives. When in doubt, clarity and ease-of-reading is key.

Of course, there's always going to be slight variations. No one will burn you alive if you put the page numbers on the right instead of on the left. Writers don't always format exactly the same way, and most editors understand that. What they don't understand is why a manuscript written in pink Comic Sans thinks it's going to be published.

At the end of the day, follow the guidelines. Follow the guidelines religiously. If a market says they want their manuscripts single spaced with no indents, do it. If they say not to include your name on the front page, don't do it. But, if there are no specifications for formatting in the guidelines, its easy to assume editors will want to read a story in the most professional-looking format possible. That means repeating after me: "Twelve point! Times New Roman! Twelve Point! One inch margins...And don't fooorget dooouble spaaaced."

Got it? Fantastic. Your shadowy robe is right over there on the table. We'll be taking over the publishing world next weekend.

Lorna D Keach

#The Horrors of Horror Writing

[communistkenobi-archive]

obi wan is just so incredibly gay. limpest wrist in the galaxy

It’s why he keeps dropping his lightsaber

#sw.txt #questions in spaaace

[communistkenobi-archive]

baby yoda is complicit in anakin's mass murder of the younglings for being in the literal same building and not even TRYING to stop him

#mando.txt #questions in spaaace #one of his all time best tweets #1k

[communistkenobi-archive]

I was mildly interested in the Sam and Bucky show until I found out the villains are going to be an anarchist group called the Flag Smashers...

hello everyone this is my new antifa gang the Private Property Dislikers

#misc.txt #questions in spaaace #flag smashers............... #1k

[communistkenobi-archive]

every time I see this picture it gets worse

#sw.txt #questions in spaaace #maulposting #um. how do I tag this #food mention #I guess

[communistkenobi-archive]

concept: Din is very much aware of who Han Solo is but he’s never taken a bounty on him because the price was always too low and Han is extremely annoying to catch

#mando.txt #questions in spaaace #han is in the sweet spot of being extremely irritating to a lot of crime lords #but nobody wants to actually pay anybody to catch him because like. why would I pay all that money for han solo #1k

[communistkenobi-archive]

Oh man yeah that scene in Rebels where Saw is like

"I hope, Senator, after you've lost, and the Empire reigns over the galaxy unopposed, you will find some comfort in the knowledge that you fought according to the rules."

is one of my favorite parts of the whole show but I do get the feeling we're supposed to disagree with him lol

literally saw fucking rules

#sw.txt #questions in spaaace

[communistkenobi-archive]

Who is the best star wars character and why is it din djarin

he’s the best because he is LITERALLY just some guy. like he’s wearing the most Wanna Start A Fight? suit of armour I’ve ever seen in my life but his anxious background NPC energy balances it out

#mando.txt #questions in spaaace #din djarin #i love him. i love him

[communistkenobi-archive]

have u seen the video of the spongebob and patrick voice actors dubbing the revenge of the sith scene where obi wan leaves anakin in the lava

I HAVE NOT

#sw.txt #questions in spaaace #that sounds amazing lmao

[communistkenobi-archive]

the kenobi show should show us obiwan sadly flirting in the desert

I want to see him get shot down by a girlboss. a win for feminism

#sw.txt #questions in spaaace #my expectations r not high I just want to have a good time

[communistkenobi-archive]

obi-wan being called ob’ika in fics involving mandos >

the only thing mandos call obiwan is this

#sw.txt #questions in spaaace #kenobiposting

[communistkenobi-archive]

obiwan is not my poor little meow meow he's the dude who keeps eating my leftovers and then when I confront him about it he says that "everything in the universe has its place, it was simply meant to be eaten by me" instead of apologizing. fucker.

instead of addressing his actual textual crimes in canon I think we should just make stuff up about him like this because it’s way funnier

#sw.txt #questions in spaaace #kenobiposting

[communistkenobi-archive]

Thoughts on the line “Jedi cannot help what they are. Their compassion leaves a trail. The Jedi code is like an itch. He cannot help it”?? Personally it’s giving good non-Filoni vibes 🤌🤌

sorry lol this is gonna be rambly because I feel like my brain is a cold car battery when it comes to star wars. I gotta warm it back up

but anyway yes that’s a GREAT line. Like on the one hand there’s an element of unreliability to that line because it’s being delivered by an Imperial, so of course they’re going to essentialise the characteristics of a Jedi. Framing Jedihood as this ingrained thing that they just “are” and cannot help but “be” takes on a distinctly sinister tone when it’s being said by an agent of a fascist empire. The particular bit “their compassion leaves a trail” is itself supposed to sound sinister imo. “Leaves a trail” is a hanging sentiment. They leave bodies behind, they leave their compassion like a disease wherever they go. Obviously that’s a bad faith and hypocritical criticism coming from an Imperial, but it’s also maybe not an entirely incorrect observation given how gruesome the war was. There was a fatal ideological contradiction present in the final days of the Order, which is that they were supposed to be nonviolent peacekeepers who were also generals leading the war effort, and I think “their compassion leaves a trail (of bodies) behind” is a very succinct summary of that contradiction.

But on the OTHER hand it’s also a good summary of Obi-Wan! He’s always slouching towards something greater. He cannot help but be present in the middle of things and to make himself known wherever he goes. He is a true believer in the Jedi as an institution, and even after O66 and the fall of the Republic, which proved to him that the Jedi’s involvement in the war and their broader involvement with the Republic as a political tool was a massive mistake, he still wants there to be an Order of some kind. He’s an institutions guy, he likes norms and structure and he likes the formal guidance that the Order provided Jedi. That’s a more political/utilitarian perspective on his worldview but I think he is genuinely a big believer in those things. Which then feeds the moral/religious aspects of his worldview, which is that those big institutions are necessary because they are mechanisms for good in the world. Like I think Obi-Wan wants to do good (obviously) and relieve suffering and prevent injustice, but the way he wants those things to happen is, again, via institutional structures like the Order.

So like he’s doomed by his own beliefs to leave a trail. He cannot help but be what he is because it’s the only way he can justify who he is. Obi-Wan has always played the role of executor, arranging the affairs of the dead, whether those dead be the people he loves or the order he serves. He literally leaves bodies behind him because his role is to live on after they’re gone and continue, always, to turn towards something better.

#sw.txt #questions in spaaace #kenobi #kenobiposting #i love obiwan so much bro I can’t take it