Some Random Things
The latest early-modern edition of Carnivalesque is up at Blogging The Renaissance.
I’ve turned off the comment timeout plugin, so comments on most old posts are open again, and should stay open as long as they don’t attract huge amounts of spam. I’ll be manually closing comments on posts which are getting spammed too much but I hope most of them will stay open.
Good news: Calendar of State Papers Domestic, one of the most important printed sources for British history, will be available online later this year. Bad News: it’s a paid subscription service. It remains to be seen how much it costs, but it’s particularly annoying because the project is funded by a charity, and the material is probably in the public domain, having been published by HMSO more than 50 years ago (although my understanding of Crown Copyright could be wrong here, as it was earlier in the week!). More details at the IHR website.
Battle Through Time was a computer game released for the Commodore 64 in 1984. It featured a time travelling car and levels based on World War 1, World War 2, Korea, and Vietnam. Just another example to bring up when lazy journalists say there aren’t any WW1/Korea games, or that WW2/Vietnam games didn’t start to be made until this century. And to emphasise the links between cinema and gaming, the background music included “Suicide Is Painless” for the Korea level and “Ride of the Valkyries” for Vietnam.
And I’m still looking for Military History Carnival Hosts for September and afterwards. If you’re interested, e-mail me or leave a comment.
Comment by Brett — 5:35 am, 26 June 2007 [permanent link to this comment]
I keep forgetting to say, I can host a MHC in October (or later), after I get back from O/S.
I don’t think I ever came across Battle Through Time on ye olde C64, but it looks like a cross between two arcade classics: Moon Patrol and Time Pilot — which also has levels set during WWI, WII and Vietnam. And that in turn reminds me of Blue Max, another popular game from this era which sees you flying a Sopwith Camel. (For that matter, WWI flight simulators have long had some popularity.) So you’re quite right, there are more WWI games than you might otherwise think. Particularly if you’re a young whippersnapper of a gaming journalist who can barely remember the 1980s!
Comment by Gavin Robinson — 11:05 am, 26 June 2007 [permanent link to this comment]
Thanks, I’ll put you down for October. You can pick the exact date nearer the time. I just need someone to do September.
I’ve got yet another post on WW2 games coming up when I have time to write it. Again lazy ignorant journalists will feature prominently…