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When you're lying dead in your coffin, the ancient tradition is to
have two
coins placed on your eyes – payment for the boatman on the river
Styx to ferry you across to the afterlife.
However, as children of the 80s, many of us have been unwittingly
imbued with the concept of reincarnation
– an existential off-shoot
from the "Unlimited Lives" cheats you used to use on your console
games – and we may
not wish to input our three-letter name just yet. Some of us would
appreciate another go.
So, this modern alternative is to have a screen on the inside of
your
coffin with a big flashing graphic that repeatedly alternates between
"GAME
OVER"
and "TRY AGAIN - insert coins now".
Glaring in the middle of the
screen, a clock counts
down from infinity, all set above a small coin slot
with a bright red,
rectangular, flashing button. This way you can either use your eye's
socket-change for a boat ride or you can punt it for another crack
at life.
Using the same coffin each time would be nice, allowing you to
save
your high-scores.
Ideal way to go.
Theme_20park_20cemetery
[coprocephalous, Jun 03 2009]
"Rise from your grave!"
http://www.youtube....watch?v=g5_OEO0-NF4
From the arcade game "Altered Beast". Seems somewhat appropriate. [Jinbish, Jun 03 2009]
"Warrior, your life force is running out!"
http://www.youtube....ure=related#t=5m28s
From "Gauntlet".
You could put more money in and boost your current life force (prolonging the game) [Jinbish, Jun 03 2009]
Prototype
http://www.polr.co....coffin-computer.jpg
More a goth-nerd's wet dream than an ancient Greek funerary custom, revamped for the 21st century, but it's a picture though, right? [theleopard, Jun 05 2009]
That *dead*, dumb and blind kid, sure plays a mean pinball...
http://www.gameroom...from_the_crypt.html
[4whom, Jun 05 2009]
The Arcade Coffin is the opposite of a kill screen
http://blastmagazin...rld-record-attempt/
Both achievable. [theleopard, Jun 05 2009]
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Annotation:
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Excellent [+] - the counting-down numbers hold out a hope of redemption and resurrection. This should appeal to Buddhists. |
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Thanks [hippo] - that's just given me an idea for a Bhuddist prayer-wheel one-armed bandit... |
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Does anyone know what the rate of inflation has been for river rides on the Styx? |
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(An interesting question, and one which Wiki - the source of all
unquestionable knowledge - can surmise an answer) |
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"It is generally considered very hard or even meaningless to come
up with comparative exchange rates with modern currency due to
the fact that the range of products produced by economies of
centuries gone by were very different from today, which makes
Purchasing power parity (PPP) calculations very difficult. |
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"However, some historians and economists have estimated that in
the 5th century BC a drachma had a rough value of 25 U.S. dollars
(in the year 1990 - equivalent to 38 USD in 2006)." |
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The rate on the boat was one obolus, about one sixth of a drachma.
So, about $6.30 (£3.80). |
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//£3.80// About the same price as a pint of Stella. |
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In our modern age, the Styx Ferry should accept Oyster cards (London-centric travel payment smartcard). It would be a nice gesture for the mourners to each swipe their Oyster cards over the coffin to see the deceased on their way. |
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TFL haven't even been able to agree an extension of the Oyster Card
system to the over-ground stations yet! I doubt they'll be anywhere
near completing an agreement to sign up a transport system in a
mythical spectral realm
outside the dimension of time, let alone outside Zone 2! |
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You do realize that a display "counting down from infinity" is impossible, right? I mean how do you display infinity -1 ? If you show it as infinity, then it's not counting down, and if you show 9999...999 then it's not infinity. |
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Hmm... actually, you could display it as "infinity - n" where n is the number of seconds it's been on. Doesn't have the same authenticity, though. |
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If the boatmen are accepting all denominations of all currencies, I would bet there is an oppurtunity for arbitrage. Possibly extending into a "free game". |
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//display "counting down from infinity" is impossible// |
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(Yup, thought it was funny) |
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The clock need not be digital. It could be an analogue dial with one hand stuck forever at the top and the other sweeping round counterclockwise. |
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Funny, but not impossible. Of course you could never actually count down, but it could give a reasonable approximation to counting down. It is just that your most significant digit would never go away. You could count down from infinity in just two decimal place holders, if you want. |
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Ooops sorry [nine...] you just said that. |
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Just seen your link [jinbish] (couldn't play at work). Most appropriate. I presume that's the game you'd have in yours? |
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Nah. 'Altered Beast' is a classic, but there are so many others from a mis-spent youth to choose from. 'Gauntlet' is a contender, for its seemingly never-ending nature. |
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***pish*** (nerds...) I just want to go on record as having voted + |
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donkey kong. If nirvana is achievable then so is a original DK kill screen. |
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//What, you mean Barnes?// You're right about Barnes. It's hair-raising evidence of the non-euclidean geometry of London. Maps show it clearly as an inner suburb, yet letters take longer to be delivered there than to the Scottish Islands, the cars in residents' parking spots show 'Countryside Alliance' stickers, and morning commuters flock southwards to the main-line train station, although they could actually arrive at work sooner by taking a bus into Hammersmith. I lived there for a month. It crept me out. |
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If they *were* to connect up Barnes with the Underworld via the tube,
would they call it the Spectral line? |
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