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Post by randomtask on Jul 29, 2022 9:18:44 GMT
You did well reading Simarillion as a kid, i found it hard going even now. I remember trying to read it as a kid after loving the Hobbit and LOTR books but gave up fairly quickly (and probably just re-read the other books again). I also had that Hobbit text based computer game, i think for my first ever ZX Spectrum. I remember it well because i always got stuck at Mirkwood Forest. I was only young but despite knowing the book plot really well i just couldn't seem to find the right words to get me through there and i just went round in circles  Then before i could finish it i got my head turned by the high-end graphics of games such as Chuckie Egg and JetPack lol  I still have my old speccy in the loft and the games... i wonder if it still works  In fact i think i still have my old Amiga+ in the loft as well, maybe give Discworld and Monkey Island another go CopShop - A conman intentionally gets himself arrested to get away from an Assassin, however the Assassin then also gets himself arrested... I didn't mind this. It's not the greatest story, or acting for that matter, but it doesn't take itself too seriously and has some fun. 6/10 In TV world, really loving Season 4 of WestWorld, they keep changing it up and doing it well. Also season 4 of What We Do In The Shadows has recently started in the US, still funny 
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Post by randomtask on Jul 29, 2022 9:31:29 GMT
Don't know what's going on with my previous post, i was trying to post the below but it didn't want to work no matter how many times i edited it. BBC news have been reporting on this hard the last few days, apparently the last episode is soon out. I too didn't realise it was still going, mainly because we seemed to stop getting that influx of wannabe ozzie pop singers that went through the show and then came here to burn our eardrums  Maybe that was just the sudden influx of wannabe X-Factor pop singers shunting them aside...
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Post by randomtask on Jul 30, 2022 8:57:13 GMT
I was just reading up on the The Hobbit text based game (well actually i was looking to see if there was a free version i could safely download to my laptop!) and it seems they programmed it using a new system called Inglish which allowed it to be quite complex and understand a wider variety of commands and the game non-playing characters could roam more freely than in other text based games... Unfortunately that meant it was prone to bugs and it was easier to get stuck places. Honestly it's a bit like a weight has been lifted off lol  Maybe i wasn't a dumbass that got stuck at Mirkwood, maybe I was unlucky enough to get into one of the dodgy coding parts The Northman - A young prince sees his father murdered, mother kidnapped and survives his own murder attempt, all by his Uncle who steals the throne. He escapes, grows up to a Viking and then seeks revenge with the help of mystical forces. The story itself has been done many times before but it is quite stylishly done and it feels like they've tried to make it as real as possible for the time. I enjoyed it, but there was something a bit lacking to make it really great, i'm not sure what though. 7/10 Logan Lucky - Heist caper in which a couple of down on their luck hillbillies decide to rob the Nascar vaults. It's actually got quite a big name cast and everyone seems to be having a laugh and not taking themselves too seriously. I liked it, a hillbilly Oceans 11 i guess. 8/10
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Post by randomtask on Aug 5, 2022 8:24:12 GMT
I realise that 4 posts in a row is bad form but since 2 of those were supposed to be in 1 post i'm counting this as number 3  Sticking with the whole Tolkien thing, i noticed that LOTR:Rings of Power TV show starts next month on Prime. I don't know whether i'm looking forward to it or not. On the one hand i do love the stories, on the other hand the trailers haven't been exactly inspiring and they don't have the Rights to the Ages in which the story takes place so it's likely not based on Tolkien's stuff apart from some character names. Oh well, will give it a go at least. Season 2 of Reservation Dogs (another Taika Waititi TV show) started this week (in the US anyway). Continuing the good stuff The Prestige - Christopher Nolan movie about a stage magician rivalry. Can't believe i hadn't watched it before, it came out in 2005 or something. Really enjoyed that, well told twisty story as expected from Nolan. 9/10 Happythankyoumoreplease - Indie film. Some friends live there lives in New York. Not really much else to say about it. I liked it though, slow and not much happens i guess, but likable characters and fun in places. 7/10 Jurassic World: Dominion - Much like LOTR i love the franchise and have watched all the films and read the books multiple times. More of the same here, of course it can't match up to the original but lots of exciting Dino action. I mean sure, the plot only slightly makes sense, and the deadliness of the Dino's seems to change depending on whether they are after a goodie or a baddie (or an extra of course), but who cares really  So after the last movie (spoiler alert i guess) Dino's are roaming freely over Earth and living with us Humans, quite dangerously, so Biosyn and Lewis Dodgson (which as a book reader meant more to me than a non-book reader) have set up another reserve for them somewhere. What they are actually doing is some naughty experiments and kidnapping etc... though. A good set up for some Dino mayhem. 8/10
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Post by Art Vandelay on Aug 6, 2022 2:08:19 GMT
I don't think I finished it to be honest. The Silmarillion I mean. I definitely finished the Hobbit computer game  Because I got the solution from somewhere. It was on pages and pages of A4 with pictures and everything, and I followed it through relentlessly to the end. I got my old spectrum out a couple of years ago and it still worked. Played quite a lot of manic minor. I've still got the old skills. I think at least when you complete the Hobbit you get a congratulations message, on Manic Minor you just go back to the first screen again... I had an Amiga too which still worksish but the Atari ST was dead. Specky (and the tape recorder and tapes) still going strong after 30 years. I won an xbox a few years ago, only turned it on about four times and it stopped working. Poor. Monkey Island was great but it was on about 12 disks, constantly swapping disks in and out I get The Prestige and The Illusionist mixed up. I watched them one after the other without knowing they were similar beforehand and they merged together in my mind. I think I quite liked them both. I gave up on Shadows near the start of series 3. I enjoyed the first series but thought series 2 was a bit hit and miss and the third was really poor. You know my stance on sequels and I think it's the same with tv comedy. Most of my favourites only have 1-3 series and the ones that go on longer tend to have a real drop off in quality. All the reporting is as though Neighbours is ending in Australia and here at the same time but when I used to watch it we were at least a year behind. How did we catch up? I remember the terrible news of Daphne's death coming through via some kid who'd gone to Australia on holiday. Sorry for the spoiler for anyone who's just starting watching from the start. I think that covers everything. I haven't got any film to mention but didn't want you to have to do five posts in a row
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Post by randomtask on Aug 9, 2022 16:21:38 GMT
Thanks for that  I used to play The Bards Tale on my speccy which was one of those move forward one place, you've been attacked by 4 goblins, attack attack attack, defend defend defend types games. And i had one of those big A4 copied walk throughs for it as well. I think actually it was more like maps than a walk through but still very helpful. I'd have never finished it without it. It was also one of those games that you had to constantly move between maps and load each one only it worse than Monkey Island because it was on tape and you had to get the exact right spot to start to load  I think my copy had loads of numbers on it on where to start the tape for each thing. Wow that was boring, sorry. I actually know the reason for this, and unfortunately it too is boring as hell. They had a hiatus every year in Oz, but they showed it every day here. Then when we were like 2 weeks behind or something they had a binge in one week with extra episodes to finally bring it up to date. I remember there was a bunch of news stories around the time about it. The Legend Floyd: The Dark Side of the Rainbow - So apparently in the 90's someone came up with the theory, most likely while stoned to hell, that Pink Floyd made The Dark Side Of the Moon as an unofficial soundtrack to the Wizard of Oz and it spread big time. The theory is that if you start them both at the same time (obviously with the sound muted on the movie) then there are some definite moments of synchronisation. Everyone involved in the album has said it is nonsense of course (and not even possible with the tech available at the time) but the urban legend continued and someone actually put it together. There really are some great bits in it, the best surely being The Great Gig in the Sky being weirdly well sync'd with the tornado sequence. Unfortunately the album is only 45 mins long, while the movie is 110mins so after it plays the album once it just starts it again... i actually stopped after the first play. At the very least it's an excuse to listen to Dark Side of the Moon again  Can't really give a rating for this one. Palm Springs - Really enjoyed this. I didn't know anything about it going in, i thought it was a simple rom com, so the plot really took me by surprise. Recommend doing the same if you can. 8/10
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