The Useless Facts Thread

[BIL]

Sega always stealin' shit for Golden Axe!

Funny you should mention that -

https://hg101.kontek.net/tracing/tracing2.htm

Alllllllll the way down at the bottom of the page there is an interesting story about Sega, Boris Vallejo, and the cover art for GA III.

Not the first time I've posted that link round' these parts. If you haven't read it yet the entire article is very much worth the time.

Strange indeed, re GAIII! As I clicked I was thinking to myself "didn't he and Julie do several Sega covers anyway?" SEGA PAY YOU TO DO SHIT THEN STEAL IT ANYWAY

And WTF I had no idea Ecco was one of his!

New page! Three year drought breaker! An auspicious start to this Wednesday evening.

[Jonny2x4]

Funny you should mention that -

https://hg101.kontek.net/tracing/tracing2.htm

Alllllllll the way down at the bottom of the page there is an interesting story about Sega, Boris Vallejo, and the cover art for GA III.

Not the first time I've posted that link round' these parts. If you haven't read it yet the entire article is very much worth the time.

Some of the examples of so-called tracing in that article are a bit of a stretch. Like the author (I'm not sure if it was Etch-A-Sketch or derbooboo) assumed that because Castlevania and Simon's Quest promo illustrations were traced from other illustrations, then Dracula's Curse promo art was also traced. But Tom Dubois's artwork for the game looks nothing like the Clyde Cadwell illustration they're comparing it to. Likewise, Akumajō Densetsu promo art looks nothing at all like the Return of the Jedi poster aside from the fact that they're both group shots of the main characters.

It's possible that the Japanese Golden Axe III illustration might not to be a copy of Boris Vallejo's unused version, but rather a separate commission that was done at the same time with the same instructions given to another artist (I know the JP illustration was featured in a Sega artbook, I think VGdensetsu covered the artist at one point). They never bothered to ask Vallejo to see if this was the case.

[BIL]

The plot thickens

[Jonny2x4]

The JP Golden Axe III artwork was by Shohei Oshiba, who did a few other stuff for them too.

Anyway, I've mentioned this before, but most of the information from that article comes from the 現代用語の予備知識/Gendaiyōgo no Yobichishiki (Background Knowledge of Neologisms), run by a guy who goes by Yadayon, but they simply refer to his page as "some Japanese site". They don't even cover some of the more interesting information on his page, like the fact that there's an earlier version of Ashura promo art where the main guy looks even more like Rambo (the sunglasses and helmet were added on the packaging version). I remember reading somewhere else that Ashura was always meant to be a Rambo game, but they could only get the license for the U.S. (the opposite of what happened with Hokuto no Ken).

[BIL]

Anyway, I've mentioned this before, but most of the information from that article comes from the 現代用語の予備知識/Gendaiyōgo no Yobichishiki (Background Knowledge of Neologisms), run by a guy who goes by Yadayon

Excellent to know, bookmarked. I must've missed you mentioning it the first time around, just a quick browse and I saw a ton of cool stuff I wasn't familiar with.



^ Always knew it was Bruce Willis, but not the exact reference! So it's John McClane cosplaying as Rick Deckard, haha.

[Stormwatch]

Everyone who's into computers surely has heard that 1 byte = 8 bits. However, that's not necessarily true.

A byte, or syllable, is the number of bits needed to encode one character of text, so it is the smallest addressable amount of memory. This can vary depending on the hardware architecture. Historically, bytes with a size from 1 bit to 48 bits have existed, and some machines used variable byte sizes. The modern convention of 1 byte = 8 bits was established by the immense popularity of IBM's System/360 mainframe family, introduced in 1964.

More about it at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte

[Stormwatch]

Skies of Arcadia has much worse music on the Gamecube port than on the Dreamcast original. It is often said that this is due to lack of space: one 1.4 GB miniDVD versus the original version's two 1 GB discs. However, it seems that's not the real problem, or at least not the whole story. The Dreamcast version used InVision Interactive's CyberSound audio tools; but due to InVision's bankruptcy, Overworks had to hastily adopt different tools, so the result was a bit of a mess.

https://segaretro.org/CyberSound
https://skiesofarcadia.wikia.com/wiki/S ... esentation

[Stormwatch]

The power supply unit of the IBM 5150 (the original PC) produced a meager 63.5 watts (for perspective: 200 watts today = cheapo low end). It was so weak that, to install a hard drive, you had to replace it with a better one, or buy the 5161 expansion chassis which came with its own power supply.

[BrainΦΠΦTemple]

most people have two butt cheeks

[Xyga]

https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/10/1830 ... -telescope

humanity:

[Stormwatch]

Joko Widodo, current president of Indonesia, is a metalhead.

[Stormwatch]

It is often joked that banana-flavored candy was invented by someone who has never tried a real banana. But here's the thing: that artificial flavor is based on the Gros Michel, once the most popular cultivar, which was almost wiped out after the 1950s Panama disease outbreak. It's actually a good approximation of a banana you've likely never tried.

So, why don't candy companies "update" the flavor to the milder Cavendish cultivar that is more popular today? Because people would complain, as they expect the candy to taste the way it does.

[ED-057]

I accidentally commited one of the classic blunders today, only slightly less well known than getting into a land war in Asia: Trying to get software to do what I wanted instead of what it wanted.

Unlike Best Opera (9.25), Last Opera (12.18) likes to spread its files all over the disk in obfuscated paths like c:\docume~1\lolololol\herpaderp\derpaherp\opera\opera\opera

This is something that I can't abide.

Many of the paths (cache, skin, mail, etc.) can be manually relocated using operaprefs.ini or about:config but NOT all of them! (That would be too easy). The final pieces of the puzzle are like so:
1) create a Profile subdirectory in the Opera dir (where the program is)
2) copy operaprefs.ini to that Profile directory
3) remove/comment the Opera Directory and Opera Local Directory lines in operaprefs.ini
3) create or edit an operaprefs_default.ini file in the Opera dir, and add these lines under user prefs (with your own desired paths)

Code: Select all

Opera Directory=c:\Program Files\Opera\applic\
Opera Local Directory=c:\Program Files\Opera\locals\
Cache Directory4=c:\Program Files\Opera\locals\cache\
Operator Cache Directory4=c:\Program Files\Opera\locals\opcache\
Skin Directory=c:\Program Files\Opera\applic\skin\
Temporary Download Directory=c:\Program Files\Opera\locals\temporary_downloads\

and this under system

Code: Select all

Multi User=0

During the course of trying to reverse engineer this crap I also came across this handy looking win32 search tool http://www.easexp.com/xsearch/

[ED-057]

VGM Input Plugin for Winamp has an option for "surround" sound. I don't know what it does exactly, but it seems to cause lower frequencies to have opposite phase on each side. Which means that they cancel out in the center.

I was like WTF? My new subwoofer is broken? I don't remember these Genesis games being entirely devoid of bass??? lol

[Stormwatch]

You'd imagine that the original author of Aladdin and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves was a Muslim, right? You'd be wrong, then: Hanna Diyab was a devout Christian - or more precisely a Syriac Maronite Catholic.

[Stormwatch]

The state of New Mexico was named after the valley of Mexico in 1563, more than 250 years before the country of Mexico was established.

[CyberAngel]

You'd imagine that the original author of Aladdin and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves was a Muslim, right? You'd be wrong, then: Hanna Diyab was a devout Christian - or more precisely a Syriac Maronite Catholic.

Speaking of which, Aladdin himself isn't an arab in the original story. He's from China.

[Stormwatch]

Speaking of which, Aladdin himself isn't an arab in the original story. He's from China.

Nah. China is mentioned, but nothing in the story matches it. I think the author just threw the name in because it seemed exotic.

[Randorama]

Border Down contains several references to many anime and manga...and to Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. One of them is the name of the City acting as the anchor point for the orbital elevator: Sheffield.

Even more useless factoid: I had to re-read Robinson's works to re-discover this fact, as I simply forgot about it 15 or so years ago ^_-;;;;

[Leader Bee]

One of them is the name of the City acting as the anchor point for the orbital elevator: Sheffield _-;;;;

The real Sheffield is about a 45 minute drive from where I live.

[copy-paster]

The Phantom Menace has more amount of practical effects than entire OT practical effects combined.

[Stormwatch]

Ken Thompson's 1969 simulator Space Travel is, without a doubt, the most historically significant and influential video game of all time. Even though very few people have played it, and no surviving copy seems to exist, or any screenshot except the one above. Its importance comes from one simple fact: Unix was invented to run this game.

[rapoon]

Ken Thompson's 1969 simulator Space Travel is, without a doubt, the most historically significant and influential video game of all time. Even though very few people have played it, and no surviving copy seems to exist, or any screenshot except the one above. Its importance comes from one simple fact: Unix was invented to run this game.

In the context of OS development, yeah. Otherwise, Spacewar! is arguably the most significant pieces of software/games written. It served as the glue TMRC members would congregate around the PDP-1 for in the early 60's; a petri dish for a cabal of hackers that later moved to across the street to Tech Square and many of whom would migrate to the west coast. Almost every facet of computing has it's roots in MIT and Spacewar! was the common denominator that brought them together.

[Stormwatch]

That's interesting. Spacewar! is astonishing for a 1962 game, it was beyond the power of consoles released a couple of decades later. So I guess the PCMR phenomenon was already a thing!

Now another computer gaming random fact, or at least very obliquely related: the son of the founders of Sierra On-Line writes a fantasy (furry-lite) webcomic. http://www.scurry.ink/

[Xyga]

Axelay is almost short for Axel Foley.

[InnerCircle]

Not sure if it's true but my chiropractor said that β-endorphins are 33 times stronger for pain relief than morphine.

[ED-057]

If you decide to finally eat the package of instant ramen noodles that you've been storing in your car for emergencies for the past seven years, you might want to discard the seasoning packet or else it will end up tasting like an old canvas tent.

[Ajora]

The world's largest Dillard's Department Store is located in Scottsdale Arizona and is 365,000 square feet in size.

[Stormwatch]

Just learned this from Nostalgia Nerd's latest video:



In this famous Apple ad, Richard Feynman's shirt actually promotes another company's machine: that's the logo of the CM-1 parallel supercomputer released in the early 80s by Thinking Machines Corporation (where he and his son worked). This was probably intentional, as Thinking Machines no longer existed by this time, and the CM-1's striking black cube design was the inspiration for the NeXT Computer's design - so it's fair to assume that Steve Jobs was aware of it.

(The shirt can still be bought from its designer's website.)

[6t8k]

Concerning the fine lore of shmups featuring the horsehead nebula, I know of two instances:

• The shorter bonus stages in Super Aleste/Space Megaforce:



• Stage 5 in the first Rayxanber (and what a splendid specimen it is!):



Do you know of more exemplars?