March 12, 2014
Goat Simulator is a third-person perspective game in which the player controls a goat. There does not appear to be any kind of storyline or plot. The player is free to explore the game’s world as a goat, destroying things in the environment, running, jumping, and biting. According to the developers, Coffee Stain Studios: ‘Goat Simulator is like an old school skating game, except instead of being a skater, you’re a goat, and instead of doing tricks, you wreck stuff.’
The game boasts the fact that various glitches and bugs have been intentionally left in the game, as to add to the light-hearted entertainment value. Another gameplay feature is the ability to ‘lick’ objects with the goat’s absurdly long tongue, which will then stick to the goat’s tongue and can be carried and swung around to provide an alternate method of wreaking havoc on the game environment.
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March 12, 2014
Surgeon Simulator 2013, a humorous medical sim, was initially created in a 48-hour period for the 2013 ‘Global Game Jam’ (the four developers spent an additional 48 days building the commercial version). The game is played in first-person perspective. A mouse is used to control the surgeon’s hand (holding the right button rotates the hand; the left button grabs items). Gameplay consists of various surgical procedures, for example a heart transplant. Extra modes are available after completion of the early operations, such as performing an operation in a moving ambulance with surgical instruments bouncing around at random, and operating in outer space where instruments float.
Reception for the game has been positive, with critics stating that although the game was hard to control, this difficulty was ‘part of the appeal.’ Ars Technica commented upon the narrator’s voice over, saying that it ‘belies the ridiculousness that unfolds as he flops and flails his way through surgery.’ ‘Rock, Paper, Shotgun, praised the game’s humor and fun, and said ”Surgeon Simulator 2013′ is not a brilliant game. But it is a brilliant joke. In the form of a game. It’s an idea that is a clean magnitude of awesome above 90% of what will be released this year because it is so absurd.’
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November 20, 2013
Cus D’Amato (1908 – 1985) was an American boxing manager and trainer who handled the careers of three boxers who would go on to become members of the International Boxing Hall of Fame: Floyd Patterson, José Torres, and most notably, Mike Tyson.
He was a proponent of the ‘peek-a-boo’ style of boxing, in which the fighter holds his gloves close to his cheeks and pulls his arms tight against his torso. That style was criticized by some because it was believed that a legitimate attack could not be launched from it.
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November 8, 2013
A bar bet is a wager between patrons at a drinking establishment. It is widely believed that the creation of Scientology was the result of a bar bet between science fiction authors L. Ron Hubbard and Robert A. Heinlein. One night over bridge (which they played regularly, with generous libations) Hubbard bet Heinlein $1 that he could create a better sci-fi religion.
Heinlein eventually conceded the bet, admitting the ‘Church of All Worlds’ from his 1961 novel ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’ was inferior to Hubbard’s ‘Scientology’, which by then had a strong following. There is no supporting evidence for the story, but several of Heinlein’s autobiographical pieces, as well as biographical pieces written by his wife, claim repeatedly that the bet did indeed occur.
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October 22, 2013
SCS Software is a Czech video game development company. It primarily produces simulation games, including the ’18 Wheels of Steel’ (based on truck driving in North America) and ‘Euro Truck Simulator’ series. Other titles include ‘Bus Driver,’ ‘Scania Truck Driving Simulator,’ as well as the ‘Hunting Unlimited’ series. SCS Software has also published several screensavers.
In 2013, SCS Software announced ‘World of Trucks’ with its official motto: ‘One Trucking Game to Rule them All.’ The expected map will feature over 150 countries and more than 600 cities, more than 20 truck brands, more than 70 cargo types, and more than 50 fictional or real companies.
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October 18, 2013
Virtuix Omni is an omnidirectional treadmill video game peripheral for virtual reality games currently in development by Virtuix. The Omni uses a slippery platform used to simulate the motion of walking. The platform requires special shoes that reduce friction when walking.
The player is fully enclosed within a ring that works with a safety harness to absorb the player’s weight. The Omni is designed to be used with a head-mounted virtual reality display, such as the Oculus Rift.
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October 7, 2013
A foam hand, also known as a foam finger, is a sports paraphernalia item worn on the hand to show support for a particular team. The first such hand was originally created by sportsfan Steve Chmelar in 1971, who constructed it from hardware cloth and paper mache for the 1971 Iowa High School Athletic Association Boy’s State Basketball Finals.
In 1978, Geral Fauss created foam fingers to show support for the team at the high school where he taught, to raise funds for the industrial arts club, and as a project that his industrial arts class could produce themselves. His first prototype foam finger was actually made out of plywood and had a painting of a ‘number one’ done in the school’s colors. The success of the hand led Geral Fauss to venture into the sports merchandise business, by making hands to sell at the 1978 Cotton Bowl game, and later by founding Spirit Industries for the large scale manufacturing of foam fingers the following year.
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October 7, 2013
‘Under a Killing Moon‘ is the third installment in the ‘Tex Murphy’ series of graphic adventure games produced by Access Software in 1994. It was one of the largest video games of its era, arriving on four CD-ROMs (although some material was duplicated among the four to reduce the amount of swapping).
The game combined full motion video (FMV) cutscenes with an advanced 3D virtual world to explore. After its creators reacquired the rights to the series, it was re-released on ‘Good Old Games’ in 2009.
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September 29, 2013
Formula E is a class of auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA). The ‘formula,’ designated in the name, refers to a set of rules with which all participants’ cars must comply. Formula E is intended to be the highest class of competition for one-make, single-seat, electrically-powered racing cars. The inaugural championship is planned for 2014. Forty-two cars were ordered in 2012, with Formula One team McLaren providing the motor, transmission and electronics that all cars will use.
Racing circuits will be held in cities, and will be approximately 2.5 km to 3 km long; Cars will accelerate from 0 km/h to 100 km/h in 3 seconds, with a maximum speed of 220 km/h; and Noise decibel levels will be approximately -80dB (ordinary car – 70dB; bus – 90dB; Formula One track – 130dB). Pit stops will involve a change of car: when the battery runs out, the driver will make a pit stop, then will run 100 meters to climb into a recharged car.
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September 23, 2013
‘NBA Jam‘ is an arcade game first developed by Midway in 1993 by programmer and game designer Mark Turmell. The game featured 2-on-2 basketball and is one of the first sports games to offer NBA-licensed teams and players, and their real digitized likenesses. Midway had previously released such sports games as ‘Arch Rivals’ in 1989 (another 2-on-2 basketball game, on which NBA Jam’s gameplay is based), ‘High Impact’ in 1990, and ‘Super High Impact’ in 1991, but ‘NBA Jam’ was the company’s first major hit.
The game became exceptionally popular, and generated a significant amount of money for arcades after its release, creating revenue of $1 billion in quarters. Its success gave rise to a new genre of sports games which were based around fast, action-packed gameplay and exaggerated realism, a formula which Midway would also later apply to the sports of football (‘NFL Blitz’), and hockey (‘2 on 2 Open Ice Challenge’).
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September 9, 2013
Balrog is a character from Capcom’s Street Fighter fighting game series depicted as an African American boxer wearing blue trunks with white trim and a torn white shirt under a blue tank top. He wears red boxing gloves and boxing shoes.
His hairstyle consists of short hair cut in an odd pointing style in the front, similar to Mike Tyson’s haircuts from the time ‘Street Fighter II’ was made. A character named Mike, who was also an African-American boxer, appears in the original ‘Street Fighter.’ Although recognized as a separate character, Mike is considered to be a prototype of Balrog.
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September 8, 2013
‘Holy cow!‘ is an exclamation of surprise used mostly in the United States, Canada, Australia and England. It is a minced oath or euphemism for ‘Holy Christ!’ Similar expressions such as ‘Holy buckets’ and ‘Holy underwear’ employ a play-on-words, ‘holy’ implying ‘riddled with holes.’
According to the ‘Dictionary of American Slang’ (1960): ‘It is also the common oath and popular exclamation put into the mouths of teenagers by many screenwriters, and, is universally heard on radio, television, and in the movies. It was first popularized by the ‘Corliss Archer’ series of short stories, television programs, and movies, which attempted to show the humorous, homey side of teenage life.’
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