The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

© Cranberry Publishing

Even if you’re not a fan of flightsim lites like Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X, you shouldn’t miss this special Gamerzines supplement for this upcoming game because on top of the preview and interview with the developers, there’s also a chance to win a flight on a real Fouga Magister which served as the first jet trainer for the French Armee de l’Air and several other European air forces in the 1950s and were only replaced by the Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jets in the Armee de l’Air from 1994.

© Cranberry Publishing

If contests aren’t your cup of tea, there’s also a free preview chapter of Air Combat Manoeuvres from Ian Allan Publishing. Six double page spreads lavishly accompanied by photos and aircraft profiles explain the evolution of modern air warfare through the introduction of technology like jet engines, air-to-air missiles like Sidewinder AIMs to Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs). Other spreads illustrate the operational histories of famous planes like the A-10 Thunderbolt II (aka “Warthog”) or the combat tactics and techniques adopted to counter the various technological advances in air warfare.

© Cranberry Publishing

More sample spreads can be found at the official Air Combat Manoeuvres site. Believe it or not, this 256 page book is actually written for both serious flight simmers and entry-level gamers as a quick primer to military aviation histrory and tactics past and present.

© Cranberry Publishing

Grab the Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X Special Supplement at the Gamerzines site.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
John Wallin Liberto’s WWII Military Aviation Art
Fighting High – WWII Allied Aviation E-Magazine
War and Game – Military History Blog
Armada International’s Complete Guides

Official wallpapers featuring two of my favourite movie extraterrestrials, the Gigersque Alien, The Predator (aka Jah Dreadlocks From Outer Space) and apparently She-Predator Machiko too!

© Dark Horse Comics

Five wallpapers in all from Dark Horse Comics where they publish comics set in the Aliens vs Predator universe. Totally missed out these wallpapers since my last visit to the Dark Horse site was more than a year ago while looking for wallpapers for Frank Miller’s 300 graphic novel.

If you’re an avid collector of AVP fan-art like me, do check out Dan LuVisi’s work or Wulfsbane’s awesome Predator fan-art – I guarantee you’ll like them

Unfortunately I couldn’t find a page which collects all the Alien vs Predator wallpapers together – you’ll just have to browse through the desktop wallpapers gallery page by page. The link below should take you to the page where most of the Aliens vs Predator wallpapers are found though.

Download these wallpapers at Dark Horse Comics. As a reminder, don’t forget to subscribe to Dark Horse Comics’ RSS feed so that you won’t ever miss a single wallpaper from them again .

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Dan LuVisi’s Black Series : Alien, Predator and Colonial Marine
Aliens – The Board Game (Flash Version)
Official Predator Movie Wallpapers
Dark Horse Comics Goodies (I) – 300 Wallpapers
Dark Horse Comics Goodies (II) – Star Wars Desktop Wallpapers

While the words “cryptids” and “cryptozoology” might be unfamiliar to most, I’ve sure that most would have heard or read stories of famous cryptids like Bigfoot/Sasquatch, Yetis or the Loch Ness Monster.

Cryptids are therefore creatures that are alleged to exist through sightings and reports or physical evidence like tracks and even feces but have not been conclusively verified due to lack of actual specimens for thorough scientific analysis and study. The study of cryptids also extends to animals known to Science but alleged to exist outside their usual areas of distribution or are believed to be already extinct.

While the North American BioFortean Review has been discontinued – the last issue being Issue 18 published in January 2006, this freely downloadable newsletter in PDF format offers a fascinating insight into the world of cryptids and cryptozoology together with an assortment of other articles on zoological and natural oddities.

© North American BioFortean Review

Another case of the old proverb “Do not judge a book by its cover”

Edited by Chad Arment, Brad LaGrange together with Craig Heinselman of CRYPTO magazine, these issues are filled with lots of interesting eyewitness accounts of alleged cryptids ranging from contemporary reports to century-old articles from newspaper archives. Likely causes are provided where the reports are believed to be cases of mistaken identity.

© North American BioFortean Review

Strange carcass recovered by the Zuiyo Maru in 1977

Despite the title, North American BioFortean Review does not focus exclusively on cryptids and other natural wonders from the North American continent. Reports of strange creatures from contributors all round the world feature regularly, from giant American centipedes (Issue 2), the carcass of a possible aquatic cryptid recovered off New Zealand by the Japanese trawler Zuiyo Maru on 25 April 1977 (Issue 2), blue tigers in China (Issue 6), alleged giant squids in the Serbian Carska Bara bog (Issue 7) to wrestling camels and camel caravans across USA during the second half of the 19th century. (Issue 13)

© North American BioFortean Review

Hoaxes are also analyzed like the ghastly little specimen above (Issue 8 ) and the stories of fabled and legendary animals dissected to identify the possible identity of creatures like the Indian bis cobra (Issue 9).

Download the back issues of North American BioFortean Review and CRYPTO.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Deathworm : Be a Mongolian Deathworm
Online Facismilies of Maya Codices
Recommended Mythology E-Texts from Padraic Colum & Others
Eric Pasquier’s Photos

Concepts for the first PC game set in Joe Dever’s fantasy world of Magnamund of his Lone Wolf gamebook series. Originally found this artwork from artist Pablo Vicentin’s portfolio page at CGSociety and there’s even more concepts at his official web site.

© Pablo Vicentin / Ksatria Gameworks

Definitely darker in style than the art for the original books (keeping up with the times, I guess) with suitably menacing Drakkarim warriors and their evil Darklord masters.

© Pablo Vicentin / Ksatria Gameworks

More character concepts below.

© Pablo Vicentin / Ksatria Gameworks

The details I have on the game are rather sketchy though – I do know that development started in 2006 at local game development studio Ksatria Gameworks and is slated for release at the end of this year.

There’s more info for those interested in this compilation of press releases over at Project Aon – a definitive must-visit for any Lone Wolf fan.

Check out more Lone Wolf : Flight from the Dark concepts at Pablo Vicentin’s CGSociety page and his portfolio at his official site.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Lone Wolf Gamebooks – Internet Editions
Game Book Covers @ Mithrandir’s Gamebook Grotto
Fighting Fantasy Wallpapers
Favourite Illustrators of Warhammer 40,000 (I) – Adrian Smith
Magic: The Gathering Wallpaper of the Week Archive

A series of books commemorating the anniversaries of the various services and commands of the Singapore Armed Forces. Since the electronic versions of these books are up for download at the official Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) site, there shouldn’t have any issues with OPSEC I hope.

Some nice photos in Once Armour, Always Armour, the commemorative Book for the SAF Armour Formation’s 35th anniversary in 2004, but nothing much new that we guys in Singapore that have served National Service haven’t seen in there.

© SAF Armour Centre

Locally manufactured Bionix 25 AFVs with an AMX-13 in the top left corner

© Republic of Singapore Air Force

The 2003 Wings on High book which celebrated the 35th anniversary of the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) includes a history of the RSAF starting from the three propeller-driven Cessna planes that constituted the Singapore Air Defence Command in 1968 together with photos of the various warplanes that served the RSAF from the old Hawker Hunters, A-4SU Super Skyhawks with the RSAF to the current F-16s and AH-64D Apaches.

© Republic of Singapore Air Force

An Apache sporting the current low-visibility RSAF roundel adopted since 1990. You can see the previous Yin-Yang style roundel used from 1973 to 1990 at Wikipedia.

© SAF Provost

And in the 40th anniversary commemorative book of the SAF Military Police Command, we get several peeks into of the dreaded SAF Detention Barracks (SAFDB), probably the first thing that comes to mind for SAF service personnel when the Military Police are mentioned.

© SAF Provost

An montage of the Close Protection Operators who provide the security details for both local and foreign military VIPs during state and military functions.

© Government of Singapore

A series of blck-and-white photos from Mission Ready : SAF Peacekeepers in Timor-Leste by local photographer Ken Seet.

© Ministry of Defence Singapore

And last but not least, the 2002 Shoulder to Shoulder which marked the 35th anniversary of National Service – the rite of passage for all Singaporean guys which all starts with the haircut that awaits all recruits at the barracks upon enlistment.

Download these ebooks and more at the MINDEF e-Books page.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
US Army Center of Military History Prints
Armour Photos at Israel’s Yad La’Shiryon Museum
German WWII Atlantic Wall Bunker Photobook PDF
Tompei’s Museum of Machines