The Download Munkey

Wallpapers Wednesday : Dissidia : Final Fantasy

November 11th, 2009Roys0 comments

Dissidia : Final Fantasy is a long overdue fighting game featuring the heroes and villains from each of the Final Fantasy games from first Final Fantasy to Final Fantasy XI.

Final Fantasy V was the only one that I completed but I can neither recognize Bartz Klauser or Exdeath in both wallpapers – one for the forces of Cosmos and the other for Chaos.

In contrast, Cloud and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII are instantly recognizable despite the fact I never played the game

Download these wallpapers from the official website for Dissidia : Final Fantasy (choose Cosmos or Chaos and then click Multimedia)

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Exit Fate – Excellent Freeware RPG
Warren Louw – Illustrator
Magical Orchestral Score, Wallpapers & More from Blue Dragon Fansite Kit
Magna Carta (Korean RPG) Wallpapers

Tags: Games Wallpapers

Random Monday : The Macabre World of Parasitoids

November 9th, 2009Roys2 comments

Came across this interesting article at Neurophilosophy on parasitoids with the capability to “brainwash” or modify the behaviour of their unfortunate hosts. From Wikipedia:

A parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life history attached to or within a single host organism which it ultimately kills (and often consumes) in the process. Thus they are similar to typical parasites except in the certain fate of the host.

That said, the behaviour of some of these plants and animals can be a truly engaging read although it’s best to leave this stuff alone until after lunch or dinner. For the same reason, graphic photos are kept to a minimum too

I’ve elected to provide a short summary of the contents of this interesting article instead of simply regurgitating what I read – you can jump to the actual post for the juicy bits

The article introduces the genus of parasitic fungi cordyceps, of which cordyceps sinensis is one of the most well known species for its prized healing properties in traditional Chinese medicine (I’m taking some pills made from it to speed up recuperation after a bad spell of eczema flare-ups, that’s how I found this article ).

At Neurophilosophy, the reader is introduced to another species cordyceps unilateralis which has a startling ability to influence the behaviour of its infected ant host to ensure its spores disperse over a wider area and increase its chances of infecting other ants. There’s more photos of cordyceps fungi and their hosts over at www.fruit.affrc.go.jp and www.utexas.edu if you’re so inclined.

Photo by L.E Gilbert @ The University of Texas

Camponotus ant with Cordyceps lloydii.

And if you thought that these plants were creepy enough, wait until you read about the gordian worm It appears that these two species are just the tip of the iceberg, just browse around in Wikipedia and check out freaky stuff like the suicide-inducing parasitism category, the phoridae family of flies or the Solenopsis daguerrei species of parasitic ants.

Learn more at Neurophilosophy.

Tags: World

Games Thursday : Federation Wrestling

November 5th, 2009Roys0 comments

Federation Wrestling is just one of Mat Dickie’s many games from a prolific game development career spanning nine years from 2000 to the present day. Essentially an one-man development team, you gotta respect someone like Mat who took it upon himself to code and create the accompanying graphics and sounds to implement his own gameplay ideas into real, playable games.

Mat Dickie, da Man!

Federation Wrestling is a freeware release of one of the older games in Mat Dickie’s portfolio. While the 2D sprites may turn off gamers used to the photorealistic 3D graphics in today’s games, I find these old-skool graphics nostalgic as they remind me of a time when pro-wrestling was more entertainment than bloody violence that the current WWE has become.

While there are no licensed wrestlers in Federation Wrestling, any wrestling aficionado will surely appreciate the sheer customization options offered by this game. It’s pretty obvious at this point that Federation Wrestling was developed by a big wrestling fan

After tweaking your wrestler’s appearance, fighting animations and moves (and even the entry theme music) to your heart’s content, lead him (sorry, there’s no option to create a female wrestler) to fame and glory though a 12 month contract to prove himself as the best in the game. Thankfully, the story in the 48 match Contract mode isn’t half bad either (for a wrestling game, that is )

action

Standard moves like punching, kicking and grappling are available to everyone together with loads of different bodyslams, suplexes and submission holds and other special moves for each wrestler. While climbing up the turnbuckle for more risky aerial moves is possible, there’s unfortunately no way for running clotheslines and the like since the ropes are static (and your wrestler can’t run).

Aku Rinne staring intently at a stick of dynamite as he enters the arena. It’s gonna be one explosive match tonight

As you make your entrance into the ring with your custom theme music blaring in the background, note the bewildering array of handy tools like microphones, baseball bats (and wait, dynamite??) lying around conveniently outside the ring for the dirty players. Some of the largerprops like glass panels and crates are interactive too – try tossing your opponent through the glass and see what happens next

Aku Rinne just busted Benjo onto a long table

Watch out when you use your dirty tricks though since not every match allows the referee to turn a blind eye to your wrestler bonking his opponent over the head repeatedly with a microphone. Different rules, scoring systems and optional gimmicks like steelcage matches will ensure that the matches in Contract mode never end up being overly repetitive.

Download Mat Dickie’s Federation Wrestling (scroll, scroll, scroll).

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Tags: Games Games Downloads Recommended

Military Tuesday : Supercavitating Torpedoes

November 3rd, 2009Roys0 comments

I recently read about supercavitating torpedoes being used in fictional near future global conflicts in Dragon’s Fury and Shotgun One and thought that it was a too much of a coincidence to be a fictional weapon so I went Googling and well, this stuff really exists!

The white area depicts the gas bubble surrounding the moving black object. Water resistance against the moving object is redirected away by the gas bubble.

Simply put, supercavitating torpedoes are rocket-propelled torpedoes which create a envelope of gas around the body of the torpedo to significantly reduce water resistance and drag, thus enabling incredible speeds of over 200 knots per hour – nearly 5 or 6(!) times faster than most warships, even new ships like the futuristic-looking USS Independence designed by General Dynamics.

There isn’t much information on the Internet about these ingenious weapons though since the only two types of supercavitating torpedoes in active service seem to be the Shkval/Shkval-II (above) developed by the Russians in the 1970s and an alleged Iranian copy of the Shkval-II.

Surprisingly, the Russians did not intend to use these weapons in the anti-ship role as depicted in the abovementioned novels but only as defense against enemy torpedoes instead. The Shkval probably wouldn’t be practical for attacking enemy warships in real life due to the limited maximum range of around 13 km (the American Mark 48 torpedo while slower, has a more useful maximum range of around 50 km) and the significant noise signature created by the ignition of the rocket motor which would have greatly compromised the launching submarine.

More information about the Shkval at Military Periscope, Articles Extra, World Affairs Board and of course Wikipedia. Or read the novels : Dragon’s Fury and Shotgun One

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Tags: Books Military

Art Friday : The Weird and Wonderful World of Afu Chan aka aznmextofu

October 30th, 2009Roys1 comment

Afu Chan or aznmextofu @ deviantART has a knack for conjuring up some of the most wildly fantastic artwork that I’ve ever laid my eyes on – quite reminds me of several of my dreams in the past, only much weirder, more violent and most definitely much more fascinating and intriguing

One of my favourites is Fishbones Attack – a tie wearing horseman lets loose a blast from his shotgun on the rolling gunmen-infested deck of a ship with giant fish (tuna?) leaping into the air in the background. Also notice the nice little detail where the rear hoof of our horseman’s black charger has stomped on the left hand of one of the fallen gunmen. And that unfortunate guy’s probably isn’t dead yet because his face has just turned very red All very odd which makes Afu’s stuff so interesting.

Something’s about to turn real ugly soon as these two girls stand by patiently with weapons loaded and ready to ROCK!

Street Fight 07 – a martial arts movie-like scene set in the streets with the ragdoll-like agility of Matrix.

A day out in Zombie City

Street Fighter II done in Afu’s distinctive style.

The Lugaidh Brothers and Sisters – a band of unconventional pugilists with totally unkungfu-ish sounding names From left to right : Frank, Stephanie, Cindy, Paul, Monica, David and the guy up front is Lugaidh himself. The word Nepenthes is also the genus name for the carnivorous pitcher plants.

Swordfights in the sky – City of Violence – ever seen a punch so powerful that it breaks a passing airliner into two – Bruce Lee’s famous one inch punch doesn’t even come close

More chaos in Fight Back to School,

… in a forest with Daruma dolls hanging from the trees (Heaven & Earth),

… and in a church with walls pockmarked with bullet holes (Battle Royal 08). The funny thing is no one seems to have managed to hit and shatter any of the stained glass windows yet