A to Zed - the rest of 'em

For those keeping track, I ended off with the Elder Scrolls in this challenge. I've been absent for quite some time. Between just not being around and a curiously dodgy internet connection, there's been little time for the web, or Blogger for that matter. Now, instead of spamming everyone's blog watch I'll condense the rest of my list into one post, that you may at least know where I was going to go.

Frank Herbert - the mastermind behind Dune and various other works of science fiction. Besides my long-standing love for Dune, his Destination: Void (The Jesus Incident being my favorite) series and The Dragon in the Sea are some of my favorites of his works.

Gyrojet - Gyrojet were a unique family of weapons back in the 60's that utilized gyroscopically stabilized microjet bullets for projectiles. Poor manufacturing and design dashed their chances of becoming any more than a curiosity. I first encountered these weapons in the role-playing game, Star Frontiers. Curious as to the nature, I did some research and was very pleased with what I had stumbled upon. The designs of the real world Gyrojets even had the visual aesthetics of fire-arms in Traveller.

Hivers - Given my fixation with non-human sapients, the hivers of Traveller fame were a welcome discovery. Their bodies are fine examples of symmetry, with a distinct society and culture.

Illithid - The Mind Flayer, the brain lasher, cutter, devourer, alhoon, and et cetera ad infinum. They're freaking aliens that eat fantasy adventurer brains; what's not to like? These practically build adventures on their own.

Jason and the Argonauts - Any person considering inspirational flicks to watch prior to running a game should see this beauty. The combat isn't retardedly choreographed, the monsters are mean, and the stop-motion animation still looks fluid.

Knights -I would have prefered to have done a bit on armsmen, or "men-at-arms," though knights are these things. Though there has been, I believe, two paladins throughout our group's entire history together, not one knight has ever truly graced its collective chronicles. Whether it be an errant knight, or merely nobility.

Lüscher -My family name; a Swiss name. I like pole-arms, but no, I'm not some autist with a thing for tables and charts. There is history behind this name, though I know so little of it. My grandfather came to North America after his stint as a missionary and eventually married, then later moved to Canada where when he retired, he took up farming. I've seen pictures of the Lüscher homestead in Aargau, somewhere near Muhen in Switzerland. It was a thatch-roof structure that I believe has since been torn down decades ago. Should I ever get a chance to see Europe I would much like to meet his family, and also give Mr. Giger a good handshake, and buy a pint. My name means roughly "he who lives near reeds."

Marathon Series - One of Bungie Software's flagship series. Originally for the personal Macintosh computer, the games were later ported to Windows. Totaling three games, each starts right where the previous left off; going from first contact with a hostile (aren't they all?) collective of races, the generation ship, Marathon, and its colony on Tau Ceti, is assaulted, to later adventures near the galactic core in a stolen vessel with a rampant AI, (and a good supply of expendable human meat-bags). The first game was instrumental in story-telling within first-perspective video games. For those even remotely interested, I heartily recommend going to Bungie.org and downloading Aleph One (all Operating Systems), and the three accompanying games. Marathons RED, Evil and Morgana's Revenge are also available there, and while fan projects, each are built to a high standard, almost befitting professional standards.

Non-Humanity - This is a recurring interest of mine. Sapient life of any matter, form, or environment, that is by definition alien. It could think completely different and apply obscene logics that make sense only to themselves, and it could be bizarre anatomy and senses that stand apart from ours. Basically, while I do enjoy 'men in rubber suits' aliens, I get a figurative hard-on, (pardon my vulgarity), just guessing at and musing how life not like our own would function.

OD&D - When I first encountered Dungeons & Dragons, it was as AD&D 2nd Edition, and that was just before 3rd started doing the rounds. I've never had a real copy of the three Little Brown Books, but once their realm was known to me, and I made my first step past the threshold, I knew what Arneson and Gygax had done, was lost with time, and edition. There is no purist here; I play anything set before me (except 4th Ed., once was enough!), but I am lessened for knowing too few do or want to play the game as it was. As a result, I also became quite interested in the history and development of the game, and later found things like a copy of the First Fantasy Campaign, and the lovely sites Hidden in Shadows, and Philotomy's OD&D Musings.

Pathways into Darkness - Before there was Marathon, there were pathways into darkness, and they  were full of things that go bump in the night. Though most certainly not fantasy, this was a dungeon crawl; with guns, the dead, Nazis, aliens, and skinny Buddha monks. Popular oppinion says Marathon shares more than just a few easter eggs with this gem of a crawler. As of yet though, still no Windows port or source game.

Querulous - And I don't mean the adjective. Arne of Querulous, his blog, has been to some manner of degree an inspiration to me when it comes to visual design, and just video games in general. Through his web log, there is often re-imaginings of various old game series, and other media icons. He is also responsible for Android Arts and Prometheus Spawning Grounds 7. For anyone simply interested in just looking at pretty pictures, or interested in something to ruminate over if video games are an interest of theirs, I heartily suggest taking a gander. His material on Exile is some of my favorite, given how he somehow makes an awesome game better!

Robert A. Heinlein - If you couldn't already guess, I dig science fiction, and the older stuff moreso. Mr. Heinlein is no exception. And I don't care what claim Games Workshop supposedly has to 'space marines', given that this guy (and a coupla' others) all beat those toads to it, (and can make more interesting space marines to boot!)

Syd Mead - A futurist artist of great repute and resume. A good chunk of his early days were doing futuristic paintings for Ford. If I were to look at a non-dystopic future, I would see it in his worlds. The stylings have 50's leanings, but with the right counter of post-modernism to balance it out. The new world look may not be to everyone's tastes, but there's hope, and a bright future to be had in each of his works, and it is things like his paintings that keep my hopes for the future high. That sounded pretty corny, no? All the same, this man is my favorite visual artist ever.

Tales from Earthsea - Or Gedo Senki, is an animated film by Studio Ghibli roughly(?) based on a collection of stories under the same name, as I recall tell. I've only ever watched it a few times, but the setting, along with various other objects and designs that persist about the world made it special. And definitely a setting I would enjoy running or playing a campaign to.

Unobtainium - Phlebotinum, handwavium, et cetera. This is the magical sauce, the stuff, and the E-99 that makes the latest gadgets, gizmos and reactors run on all cylinders. Often a plot point or enabler in any piece of fiction, without Unobtainium we would instead have to rely on real world materials that wouldn't work as well, either stretching plausibility, or completely throwing adventure out the window.

Vallejo, Boris - If Syd Mead is my fondness for the future, Boris is my fondness for monsters and babes in the company of monsters. A maker of very fantastical illustrations, but I'm sure we already know who he is.

Wipple Shields - Science has told me that wipple shields are a very important asset to spacecraft. So what made them get this spot? Simple: it's one of the first realizations of space armour, and is almost as important as radiation shielding. How wipple works, is that it is a very thin layer of ablative material designed to take hits from micro-meteorites, using their own kinetic energy against them, disintegrating the particles with little more than superficial damage to the surfaces below the shield.

X-Files - One thing I've  humored myself with repeatedly is how much this show is an inverse to Scooby-Doo. They kept thinking it wasn't so, yet always found the supernatural. Scoob and Crew are always on the hunt for a monster, but it's always that old man Jenkins. Incidentally, this post is moreso aimed at my general paranormal interests, and the title music still invokes an emotional response from me.

Yazirians - These anthropomorphic, gliding apes are positively my favorite of the main races in Star Frontiers. I couldn't really tell you why, and it definitely is not the battle rage ability, but the idea of power gliding across some moon with bubble goggles might have some say in the matter.

ZOrk - You wouldn't believe how hard I had to think of, and remember, the only interest of mine that starts with a zed. So, Zork. The text adventure role-playing game. Where being eaten by a grue was punishment for trying to not find a lamp. Originally, as I recall, the eponymous grue was added to replace the fallible logic of stumbling into a bottomless pit in the dark, given that this pit could happen in nonsensical locations. I had the gameboy version, not the original.

A to Zed - E is for Elder Scrolls, the

And we resume this lovely list with the letter 'E' for our look at The Elder Scrolls series of action role-playing video games.

To date, there are five main titles, along with several expansion packs (almost sounds antiquated next to all the DLC about these days, no?), and spin-off games. The series has seen massive popularity, and presumably so thanks to its deep and rich world, plot-lines, quests and design aesthetics. Much of its inspiration drawn from previous games, including, wait for it... Dungeons & Dragons, is quite apparent.

Throughout the series we see many of the humanoid races develop from simple monster encounters to fleshed-out societies. By the time of TES: Morrowind, players could immerse themselves in the world as either beast-races: the emotion-absent, reptilian argonians, along with the desert folk, the khajiit. And if one were to play TES: Oblivion, well, I hope you don't laugh too much at the well-dressed/groomed orcs, 'cause they might just pound ya' flat for that one.

The later games of The Elder Scrolls focus greatly on the open-world approach to design that allows for great flexibility in where or what the player wishes to explore. The world isn't quite so much a sandbox, given that there's always some drive, or plot, for the player to pursue and conquer.

If I were to choose any specific favorite of the lot, I would tell you that it's gotta' be Morrowind, true and true. The setting of Vvardenfell is, straight off the prison ship, obviously alien in the sense of fantasy visuals. Just about all of the scenery, from the flora to the fauna is unrecognizable to our earthly persons. The player must discover what is and is not nice, and what will rip their face off right from the get-go. It allows for a purveying sense of mystery and exploration that lasts all the way till the hero finally ends his journey. I remember being just 'wowed' at how unique the biome of Morrowind's Vvardenfell was when I first played it, and how distinctly different the people were. Morrowind also marks the point in the series where the pen & paper RPG aspect is at its strongest before it turned more to its action RPG element of the later titles. It was also the last TES game I could specialize in and use pole-arms! I mean, their mechanics in the game were so useful too, in that the player could swing, stab and slash the things, but each worked best when used properly! It being a halberd really mattered, as opposed to mashing the attack button till your foe was paste. TES: Skyrim gets a near second for the visual design, eye-candy, better NPCs, oh, and all the DRAGONS. Plus, FUS RO-DAH!

Here's to hoping I can get this list done before I move next month, haha!

A to Zed - D is for Dirtside

Seems I've been off the ball for keeping these posts consistent. At the very least, I have an excuse for yesterday. My friend Evan got beat up pretty bad and we had a hospital day through till this morning. He's doing alright now though. There wasn't a concussion as I initially feared.

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On the bounce.

Here I figured I'd dedicate the letter 'D' to an explanation of just why I've chosen to name the blog so.

"Hitting Dirtside" was a game me and some childhood friends long-gone used to play, it had nothing to do with the tabletop game, 'Dirtside'. Depending on where we would play, and what was available, some days the game was akin to 'King of the Hill', and others still, 'Capture the Flag'. "Hitting Dirtside" was never anything more than our fancy way of saying drop troopers hitting planet-side.

So how do the two correlate? Well, in our little game world there were the ground-pounders, or any manner of ground force/garrison; the dirt-stompers, marine forces deployed from space; bug-stompers, marines deployed from space to kill 'aliens' (think the USCMC); muckers, or expeditionaries; and squelchers, the assassins, spies, and saboteurs. In this game, regardless of variants, the bug-stompers would hit dirtside, take the hill (or flag) and defeat whoever was playing the space-jerks, or at least they would try to.

On occasion we'd even play some proto-version of child role-playing game, back when people weren't afraid of using their imagination to make anything fun. We even made up military ranks for our assassin game, where a space-jerk would try to knock off the whole command element. The equivalent of Operational Commander was called 'Head', with second-in-command being the 'Lance'. The aim of the game was to 'cut off the head of the snake', as the old saying goes.

In addition, I do not play the rules system Dirtside, nor do I plan to, though I do have a copy of the rules, and I do at least admire its design aesthetic.

Jumping Starside.

A to Zed - C is for Church, Doug

'C' is for Church, or Doug Church, a game designer currently enlisted within the ranks of game company, Valve. After leaving post-secondary, Church went on to begin his career working for Looking Glass Studios. The company, along with Church have received renown as creators of various innovations in video games, all the while still retaining interesting and engaging stories. Funnily enough, their games almost always did quite poorly in sales compared to their contemporaries, and were often regarded as "ahead of their time."

Various titles he is known to have worked on while at LGS include:  Ultima Underworld 1 & 2, System Shock, and Thief. Though I will strain right now that my main interest in this man and his work is for System Shock, and its sequel, System Shock II. He has proven to be an innovative member of the gaming industry time in and out, creating intricate and lively worlds that keep me coming back, even now, when DOS has all but died off.

For what time he has been involved with Valve, we can see his tendrils at work in Portal 2. His work has also influenced spiritual successors Deus Ex and BioShock. And though the company has not said what position he keeps, we can expect from what has been leaked on the internet, that he is involved in another game quite possibly similar to the previous System Shock games. The future can only tell what more this man has in store for us.

A to Zed - Broadmore, Greg

Greg Broadmore is an illustrator, designer, writer, and concept artist for Weta Workshop. Whether its science fiction, zeerust, Victorian punk, robots or dinosaurs, the man's on top. Some of his most well known work comes from District 9, King Kong, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. And to say he has an eye for detail and flare for creativity is an understatement. Much of his visual design work is as is seen in the films themselves, almost as if transmuted straight from his drawings.

I first came to know of Broadmore and his work after appropriating a copy of the art book by Weta for the 2005 film, King Kong. Though I had known of Weta Workshop since The Lord of the Rings movies came about, it wasn't until the reimagining of one of my favorite films that I came to know of this fellow. And if you can find a copy of The World of Kong, A Natural History of Skull Island, you will be in for a treat, I guarantee it. There are multiple maps of Skull Island, along with breakdowns of the local ecologies for each section of the island. Our gaming group used it to run a fantasy expedition campaign, though I don't recall it ending well for the party...
Beyond the films he's been apart of, Broadmore has created the wonderful universe of Dr. Grordbort, though with the help of Weta, as I'm told. It's a lovely medley of Victorian science fiction and pulp topped off with eye candy. And the bestiary on the site has some beaut monsters! Other things he's had his hand in include the Riff Raff sculpture, and this funny tripod thing.


He regularly keeps the world up to date on his personal art through his website and web log.

Also, 'weta' are roughly 70 species of insect similar to crickets. And I'm not sure I sympathize with those complaining with the new Blogger layout. It seems to work fine for me.

A to Zed - A is for Asimov, Isaac

Well, after finally caving in after seeing how much fun everyone else is doing, I figured, heck, why not? After all, it's all in good sport and an excellent way of sharing one's interests with others, and does so without being intrusive like one of those chain-games. We'll see how well I can manage a-letter-a-day.

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I begin with the letter 'A', and to represent it, I choose Asimov, or rather Isaac Asimov to be specific. Writer; futurist; creator of the Three Laws of Robotics; and maker of many science fiction tales. Some of his most notable works include: the Foundation, Galactic Empire, Robot, and Lucky Starr series of books. As time marched on ever forward, he later united these seemingly separate series into one "future history", though Lucky Starr is not included so far as I can recall.

Considered one of the top three science fiction writers that dominated the time, of which the others were respectively, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein, Asimov also wrote works of mystery and fantasy, along with a fair spattering of non-fiction.

While I almost equally enjoy the works of Arthur C. Clarke, and there are numerous other interests and entries suitable for my representation of 'A', Asimov remains simply for the impact his worlds have imprinted on myself.

Any science fiction nut worth his salt is familiar with Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. It frequently turns up in various stories in all seriousness and in jest, but also presents a solid platform of which to oppose the non-sense that any and all A.I. will by nature, eventually turn upon its creators. Not only do the rules govern safer synthetic thought processes, it also presents a challenge to the individual's integrity, and whether or not the rules can be broken. The Robot book series has left its own mark on where my thoughts turn to, and how to approach artificial intelligence, and the potential that true, unshackled synthetic intelligence might possess and utilize. One of my favorite Asimov works is The Robots of Dawn, third in the series, and an interesting "whodunnit" adventure for plainclothesman, Lije Baley.

The man can write an intricate story and plot, laced with interesting and diverse characters, whether or not they're human. Some have criticized his style of prose, for its often direct or sparse way, but its fashion leaves room for the mind to interpret and develop. Another intriguing aspect of all but a select few of works feature worlds devoid of non-humanity, where even at times robots do not accompany Man. It is a neat principle that avoids what is known as 'Clement's Paradox', or the effects of time and longevity on sentient races, and the chances of encountering them. This is also handy for certain interpretations of a humanist Traveller universe.

Plus, Alien has been so oft used for the 'A' entry, I found it a little passe to follow suit.