Blast from the Past: Scarab of Ra video game for Macs
1987. Ah, the good old days. Guns ‘N’ Roses was just hitting big. Nintendo was at the top of the video game market. Spider-Man hadn’t yet been cloned (at least not that we knew of).
A couple of other things happened in 1987.
For one, Apple released its Macintosh SE personal computer, which was a big improvement over earlier Macs and quite a popular computer for the next decade or so even though Apple stopped making the SE in 1990. Sure, the SE was a dull gray and had a bulky mouse, but it came with its own hard drive! Yeah, doesn’t sound like such a big deal now, but it was huge back then.
Another thing that happened in 1987 was a company known as Semicolon Software released a Mac game for shareware. That game? Scarab of Ra.
Improve Your Writing by Forgetting About It
You’ve just finished writing your book or article or poem or what-have-you. You’re ready to plunge into editing and rewriting.
But hold on a second. Unless you’re on a tight deadline, it’s probably best to set aside your recent writing project for a while. Why? So you can come to the words on the page or screen with fresh eyes.
With tabletop RPGs, sometimes you just want to play the damn game
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="456" class="zemanta-img"] Role-playing gamers at the Burg-Con in Berlin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption] Here at Nerdarchy, you could say our bread and butter is talking about tabletop role-playing games, most commonly Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition. We have videos and articles and a forum...
Once upon a time, book stores were like treasure maps
In today's world, readers can find just about any book they want. If a particular book, fiction or non-fiction, is not available at one of your local book stores, you can always head online. The most obvious place online to find a book is Amazon, but...
Are fewer people reading today?
Is reading dying or dead? It would seem so. Every few months there’s an article online or in the newspapers or magazines about how people don’t read nearly as much as they used to, or that fewer and fewer people pick up a book. But I’d argue otherwise. I think more people are reading than ever before.
Blast from the Past: The Book of Swords Series
The man behind the books
Author Fred Saberhagen (1930-2007) must have been a busy person. Not only was he the creator of the Berserker series of science fiction tales, the Dracula sequence of novels, the Books of the Gods series, and a number of video games, but he was also the man responsible for The Book of Swords series which consisted of 11 novels. He even wrote another trilogy, collectively known as Empire of the East, which was vaguely related to The Book of Swords due to the events happening in the same world as The Book of Swords but thousands of years earlier.
Fantasy writers deserve not to be pigeonholed
Writers of history
A while back I was in an online forum filled with fellow writers. The majority of writers and authors on the site were thriller and romance writers … the “acceptable” genres.
While there I noticed a posting about historical fiction, asking what are some favorite historical novels and short stories. I started salivating because I could think of tons of historical fiction books and tales I love. Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove comes to mind, as does Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series. James Clavell’s Shogun is also a favorite, as are Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind and Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth. I also thought of Steven Pressfield’s Gates of Fire novel and Louis L’Amour’s The Walking Drum. Just about anything written by Alexandre Dumas springs to my mind as a favorite.
Is fiction writing the last unexplored frontier?
Once upon a time, just about anyone could be an explorer. Little more than a hundred years ago, there were still places on this Earth which had not been reached, or had been reached by very few. In those days, just about any man or woman could set out to trek off into unknown territories. True, major expeditions were funded by governments or business interests, as they are today, but the average person could still sign up with such groups or with a minimum of money set out on their own.
High fantasy vs. Sword & Sorcery: Basics of fantasy literature
A brief look at fantasy
During the last century, numerous authors and editors and fantasy fiction fans have pondered the different sub-genres of fantasy literature. Today the numerous sub-genres come in many shades, but there was a time not so long ago when the majority of fantasy literature was less diverse.
So you know fantasy literature? Prove it with this quiz
Have you read plenty of fantasy literature over the years? Do you think you know your stuff? If so, take the quiz below to find out just how much you really know or don’t know. And don’t worry, as you can find the quiz answers here.
Fantasy Literature Quiz Answers
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For the original quiz, check out this link.
- A ring
- The Gray Mouser
- 1923
- The Sword of Shannara
- Author Ursula K. Le Guin
- Seven
- Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger
- Cimmeria
- A butterfly
- The Knights of Solamnia, or The Solomnic Knights
- A giant turtle named Great A’Tuin
- Kahlan Amnell
- Florida
- Technically seven, though there are more lands than the Seven Kingdoms within Westeros
- The Creator
- Dark elf Drizzt Do’Urden
- Wednesday’s glass eye
- Azoth, eventually known as Kylar Stern
- The Golden Compass
- Twelve
- Assassin
- The Oath of Peace
- Tad Williams
- Magician
- Garion
- Stormbringer
- Fuchsia Groan
- Lirazel, the King of Elfland’s daughter
- Urban fantasy
- Mercury
In fiction, ‘darkness’ is in the eye of the beholder
As a fiction writer, I tend to mostly work in the fields of fantasy and horror. I don't consider my fantasy works especially dark, nor do I consider most of my horror to be overly gory. But readers as individuals have different tastes and wants in...
Blast from the Past: Adventure video game for Atari 2600
[caption id="attachment_15672" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] "Adventure" for the Atari 2600. It looks simple, and was, but it still provided plenty of fun.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_15669" align="alignright" width="235"] The original box for the "Adventure" video game. The Atari 2600 cartridge came inside.[/caption] There was a time when video games were...
Nerdarchy store hosts plenty of nerd swag
If you’ve watched any of the Nerdarchy videos, most likely you have seen the guys over there wearing hats or shirts or other garb sporting the Nerdarchy name and logo. This is not by accident. But did you know you can purchase Nerdarchy gear for yourself? Oh, yes, you can. If you don’t already know about it, allow me to introduce Nerdarchy the Store.
Secrets of Nerdarchy revealed! You won’t believe it!
Last week the entire Nerdarchy crew set out to sea for the Fan2Sea Comic Con Cruise. That’s right. Ted, Dave, Ryan, Nate, their family and friends, the whole shebang, they’ve up and left everything behind to go play at pirate. With Frank Miller.