Easter Egg

Adalbertus · June 1, 2002, 13:04

Just playing another game of SMAX, I stumbled over the base name "Concordat of Worms". As probably many of you are not familiar with medieval German history, a short explanation:
The name has nothing to do with Mindworms at all. Worms is a nice city of 82 000 inhabitants on the west bank of the Rhine with a much more splendid past than presence

. In 1122, this was the place where the German Emperor and the Pope settled the dispute on investiture (Investiturstreit), i. e. who has the right to determine who becomes bishop. As many bishops in Germany also were rulers over a country (and of the seven Electors - those who had the right to elect the Emperor - three were bishops, those of Mainz, Trier and Cologne), this was an immensely political issue.

BustaMike · June 1, 2002, 18:31

There's a few funny things like that in SMAC. When your probe gets compromised by the Hunter Seeker in the message popup you can see the word FIRAXIS amongst the garbled background. Also, if you look at the picture files in the game folder the flags.pcx file has some weird stuff in it. There is a dogprint with writing that says BKTSP WAS HERE. And I'm sure most people know about the SID and BRIAN factions that are hidden.

Googlie · June 1, 2002, 20:38

Quote:

Originally posted by BustaMike
And I'm sure most people know about the SID and BRIAN factions that are hidden.

And the base-names are hilarious for the SID/BRIAN factions.

The logo, of course, is the Firaxis logo, but the bases have skyscraper renditions of the Firaxis office tower, logo included - neat

Capt Dizle · June 2, 2002, 00:07

So what does this have to do with eggs?

Adalbertus · June 2, 2002, 01:43

Easter eggs are hidden in the garden and wait to be searched for.

Chowlett · June 2, 2002, 05:15

Of course, the Firaxis logo also makes an appearance in Nonlinear Mathematics.

Clear Skies · June 2, 2002, 09:22

It's all part of the big FirAxis of Evil plot...

Mr. President · June 2, 2002, 19:26

One of the books that you can get at the end of the game is the "Critique of the Critique of Pure Reason", a reference to Immanuel Kant's philosophical work. Another one is "The Unbearable Lightness of Hovertanks", after Milan Kundera's novel. The one that goes with the highest rating, if I recall correctly, is "Stairway to Transcendence: The Last Book You'll Ever Need" or something like that, which is a reference to something which I can't remember.

Alex · June 2, 2002, 20:01

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr. President
The one that goes with the highest rating, if I recall correctly, is "Stairway to Transcendence: The Last Book You'll Ever Need" or something like that, which is a reference to something which I can't remember.

Stairway to Heaven?

"There's a lady who's sure
All that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven..."

Alex · June 2, 2002, 20:02

Oh, Mr President, thanks for your support.

Mr. President · June 2, 2002, 23:35

Quote:

Originally posted by Alexnm

Stairway to Heaven?

"There's a lady who's sure
All that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven..."

That's probably it.

Quote:

Thanks for your support.

How could I not support Brasil, after all they've done to show the rest of the world the real way to play football?

bondetamp · June 3, 2002, 00:37

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr. President
One of the books that you can get at the end of the game is the "Critique of the Critique of Pure Reason", a reference to Immanuel Kant's philosophical work. Another one is "The Unbearable Lightness of Hovertanks", after Milan Kundera's novel. The one that goes with the highest rating, if I recall correctly, is "Stairway to Transcendence: The Last Book You'll Ever Need" or something like that, which is a reference to something which I can't remember.

Most of the books are spoofs on existeing books.

"Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" (ore somesuch), "The litle train that could" (or somesuch), "How to raise a disabled child" (or somesuch, my memory isn't very exact one these books' titles

) "The cat in the hat" etc.

BustaMike · June 3, 2002, 02:36

Recon Rovers: Unsafe at any speed. A reference to Ralph Nader's book.

My personal favorite of those end credits is the one that reads "How to raise a nerve-stapled child." Atrocities are fun, hehe.

Adalbertus · June 3, 2002, 14:17

Funny enough, but sometimes I think about real-life persons who should be nerve-stapled. Does anybody know what nerve-stapling really is? And why you don't need to discover neither Neural Grafting nor MMI to do so?

Ogie Oglethorpe · June 3, 2002, 15:29

Nerve Stapling prolly something on the order of lobatomization ala "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest".

Og

Maniac · June 3, 2002, 15:36

Good movie!

Clear Skies · June 3, 2002, 16:11

*remembers the 1984-style lobotomising in The Simpsons....Re-Neducation...hehehe....*

Googlie · June 4, 2002, 00:21

Quote:

Originally posted by Adalbertus
Does anybody know what nerve-stapling really is? And why you don't need to discover neither Neural Grafting nor MMI to do so?

Here's an extract from The Spartan Chronicles:

**********************************************

Kurt drew his riot control nerve prod stick he'd requisitioned from the armory that afternoon, and dialed it to max. He padded up behind Bert, reached out, and touched him on the side of the neck, toggling the switch as he did so.

Bert froze in shock as the paralysis was instantaneous.

Kurt moved round in front of him.

His wide eyes showed the recognition - and wonder. His vocal chords were paralyzed, so he could not utter a word.

Kurt took his backpack from his shoulders, and opened it. He pulled out the contents piece by piece, and showed them to Bert as he arrayed them on the floor beside him.

Bert's eyes were wide with horror as he recognized the items.

Kurt found the power source, and plugged in the base unit. He connected the nodes to their receptacles, then placed the plasteel cap on Bert's head. He connected the sensor filaments, and moistened the pads and placed them on Bert's temples and at the base of his skull.

He connected the filament probes, then looked at the set up. Satisfied, he turned a dial and the equipment hummed to life.

The filaments snaked out and met the sensor pads, penetrating the neural cortex rapidly and easily. They searched for the interstices where the synapses joined and separated, and each time they encountered the join the current surged and the synapse fused. After a few seconds it was done.

Kurt removed the apparatus, and stowed the equipment back into his backpack.

He drew his shredder pistol, set to flame, and turned to the Vidtrance equipment. One burst was enough to incinerate the tape that Bert had somehow manufactured from the dream sequence. The image of Lisa faded from the screen. "I hope you find another man worthy of you" he whispered to the blank screen.

He turned to Bert.

"You've no idea what I'm saying to you, but in case there are recorders operating, note this:

"The nerve prod will weaken in about one hour.

"This attack was not random. It is in revenge for the Hive nuking of the Spartan Command Center through this operative.

"I am a Believer"

He padded out and closed the door on the nervestapled Bert.

*************************************************

That's how I imagined it, anyway.

Googlie

Capt Dizle · June 4, 2002, 00:39

Thats pretty good.

I always get nervous around talk about nervestapling cause thats what MoSe and Mongoose are always threatening to do to me.

Marid Audran · June 5, 2002, 01:25

In the alphax.txt file the truncated name for the tech "String Resonance" is:

BFG9000

The technology abbreviation for "Self-Aware Machines" is:

HAL9000

GeneralTacticus · June 5, 2002, 04:02

Quote:

Funny enough, but sometimes I think about real-life persons who should be nerve-stapled. Does anybody know what nerve-stapling really is? And why you don't need to discover neither Neural Grafting nor MMI to do so?

Michael Ely had a description of nerve-stapling in Dragon Sun. It involved driving small metal staples through the victim's skin into their nervous system.

aaglo · June 5, 2002, 04:55

The virtual world -movie reminds me of the movie 'Lawnmower man'...

IIRC, the SID and BRIAN -factions had only one bonus - the singularity engine....

GT; Michael Ely has a poor imagination

Mr. President · June 5, 2002, 07:07

Quote:

IIRC, the SID and BRIAN -factions had only one bonus - the singularity engine

I liked their base graphics too.

aaglo · June 5, 2002, 07:46

Mr. President... the base gfx hardly is a bonus

but yes, they looked 'nice'...

The Mad Monk · June 5, 2002, 17:32

While the nerve stapling of Dragon Sun may be less imaginative then The Spartan Chronicles, it's probably more accurate; nerve stapling is available from the very beginning of the game, which implies that it is decidedly low-tech.

BustaMike · June 5, 2002, 18:04

.... low tech for the year 2100 that is. I'm not sure how "low tech" that would really be.

Kassiopeia · June 5, 2002, 18:55

Could be that nerve stapling exists already in the world before the launch of Unity, in 2060. Manipulating nerve endings with actual metal staples sounds, I admit, rather unimaginitive. I always thought nerve whips (not sure of translation), that marvellous invention of Isaac Asimov, as an invention of that field... electrical stimulii directed to the nerves, maybe by staple-like instruments, like electrodes.

Mr. President · June 5, 2002, 19:50

Yeah, neuronic whips were, surprisingly, more sophisticated. But novel writers aren't sophisticated any more. For an obscure example, look at the difference between classic Magic: The Gathering and the novels based on it. For a less obscure example . . . well, Dragon Sun is definitely one!

Deirdre's motivation for withholding data from Morgan and co. is pretty weak all through that book. The Hive is developed better, but that stuff about Jin Long being a clone felt tacked on. I'm not sure what he was trying to do with Corazon Santiago.

Dove · June 10, 2002, 05:17

I can only assume Believer HQ has some reference to Swedish mystic and scientist Emmanuel Swedenborg's work 'The New Jerusalem.'

Sikander · June 10, 2002, 05:22

Quote:

Originally posted by Dove
I can only assume Believer HQ has some reference to Swedish mystic and scientist Emmanuel Swedenborg's work 'The New Jerusalem.'

What was that about?