Apology

To whoever reads the blog, the proposed 5 part series won't be possible as it is part of a book that I'm writing for the magazine. They hold the copyright, I'm just an employee. Anyway I'll come up with some other stuff.

The History Behind Games-Intro

The following is a series I'm writing on the history of PC and Video games. It will constitute of around 5 posts apart from this introductory piece.

The history of computer games isn’t as old as that of the computer but it is quite a tricky one to track. At many points it diverges away from the computer to independent gaming consoles and arcade machines only to rush back in with a fervor that any gaming enthusiast will recognise. From being played on the EDSACs of yore to the Xbox and Playstations of today computer and video/console games as we know it has traversed along a long and revolutionary path. Most of today’s innovation in display and graphic technology is due to the need of better visuals needed for games. The easiest way to take a look at the history behind the games and their evolution is to take a look at each generation and its progress to the next.

The earliest on computer games were played on the supercomputers of those times. For very obvious reasons these were found only in large universities or the laboratories of large corporations or government agencies, typically the US Department of Defence. This restricted games from being available to the common population and it was not until the mid 1970s.

Once you're done I'll come over

How did you get in? Elvis must've forgotten to bolt the gate as he left the building. As you walk down the corridor you can seen Jim Morisson wave his broken arm at you. Do you know where you are? Anyway keep walking down the corridor. It may get a little cold and musty after the bend but you'll be getting where you want to. Life here is all about living it up at this exact moment. Everything you do here, you'd do in Technicolour. The rest, as they say, have gone to fetch a pail of water along with Jack, Jill and Jammy aka Rahul Dravid. You could also sleep off with Goldilocks she's quite lonely, especially in her sleep. Trip on the wings of destiny if she let's you kill the phrase. If not, jump the gun and chase the big bad wolf into the forest, chances are you might meet Gretel. Quite a woman she has turned into, they say.
The stream that flows through the forest may lead you to the rock where Prometheus is bound or maybe not. If one could be Delphic then you'd figure out where you are off to. Let us assume that you are in the black forest, Grimm as ever. The people you meet here depends largely on who can cook, you or them, and what you can cook.
To Be Continued
If you think I can't carry a thought into the next day then I suppose you need a sip of my testosterone.
imhunt

The votes are in

The copy test I've written below clicked. The results are out and I passed. In normal lingo that would mean I've got the job. I can take it up if I take a massive pay hit. 10k less than what I'm getting now. My disgust will help me make a decision.

Some Test I Took, The Results Not Out

1. Name an ad on TV you hate, say why and then do your version.

The Cello Express Pen ad where the Chairman of a board (corporate jargon and fundae thrown around forces me to assume this) goes ballistic, prances on the table like Mick Jagger. Hohum, old man takes his coat off, threatens to do away with his trousers and yay, we’re all queuing up to buy the pen. I mean who wouldn’t want a pen that makes people dance and strip. The jumping Jack antic apparently was to play along with the “Express” tag of the pen. Words that best describe the ad, insipid and avoidable.

The “Express” tag line can be used in far more innovative ways as the word packs more punch than what a pelvic thrust can deliver.

The earlier Reynolds adverts focused on the utility that is a pen, used primarily as writing tool. An advert for a pen must focus on this aspect unless of course the alternative uses can actually help in selling the pen.

Using the idea ‘Express’ a strong identifiable campaign can be created. To add a personal touch you can expand the tag line to “Express Yourself”

AD 1- Woman at the table of a ‘posh’ restaurant. (You can call it a 5 star, I wouldn’t know) Going thru the menu and crossing the ‘Ts’ and dotting the ‘Is’. Checking for grammatical errors and putting the commas in their place. You can have dialogues or just ambient sound (because it’s a ‘posh’ restaurant you can have piped music, “Clear or sparkling”).

The same idea can be explored with a person walking around the city correcting signboards, handing out the right spelling to shopkeepers. All written with the Cello pen.

Tag Line- Express Yourself

AD 2- This is the standard ‘bold’ ad. People will wonder why sex is being used to sell a pen. Response to people “Imagine”. Anyway here’s the pitch:

Couple in bed, man using “Cello Pen” to draw on the woman’s naked/semi-naked body. He draws, writes poetry etc. The woman can act like this is the best thing ever.

Tag Line- Express Yourself

AD 3- Provocative ads that create controversies for social reasons always grab the eyeballs. Ok enough of home grown gyan. The pitch starts here:

Boy walks off with a classmate’s pen (Cello Pen). The classmate shouts out “Pen Chor” as the teacher walks by.

Tag Line- Express Yourself

2. Write a hoarding campaign for adoption

Initially I wanted to work out something different and avoid using the image of a child. The cliché however seems to stick. Every campaign for something like adoption will invoke a sense of deja-vu. You can experiment with style and concept but the ultimate insight, as you call it, would remain the same. We must consider adoption as an option, is the message.

For this campaign we can explore multiple options. One could tug at your heart strings, the other could be cute as hell and yet another could be provocative.

Campaign 1

Message: Do it because you can

Image 1: Shots of baby feet, while they are asleep (alternatively we can us palms as well, as they are all curled up and cute), with name tags. Only one tag can be read (preferably the cutest palm or feet) and it reads John Doe or XXX, for a normal audience.

Tag Line: It Doesn’t Have To Be Like This

Image 2: A cute as hell baby crawling across a busy street and in immediate danger of being run over.

Tag Line: It Doesn’t Have To Be Like This

Image 3: A knobbed, long nailed hand reaching out to grab a scared looking kid. (All shadowed and Frank Miller style)

Tag Line: It Doesn’t Have To Be Like This

The above campaign can have a number of other images each showing an impending danger to a child left alone.

Campaign 2

Message: It’s happening all around you.

Here each billboard will be divided into two halves. One half will show the mother/father and kid frolicking/playing. The other half gives a mug shot of the two. For this particular campaign we can use images from the animal kingdom. The Great Dane and tiger/leopard cubs are well known. We can also use a cow and an elephant calf. In addition we use the image of an Indian parent with a Mongoloid baby and other such combinations.

Tag Line: Birds and the Bees do it; even the educated fleas do it.

Campaign 3

Message: It is the best choice

Image: Supermarket with a large number of cute babies on the shelf to pick from. A not very good looking but benevolent couple or a poor couple making a choice.

(The ugly couple funda is a provocative concept that is used to drive home the point that it’s a choice for everyone)

Image: A family portrait, with the entire family having an obvious deformity except the adopted child who is now a stellar young fella.

Tag Line: A little bit of variety always helps

The last campaign is deliberately provocative.

3. Make a story out of the following in about 250 words

Mermaid, silicon chip, saree, candle, Africa

“This one cannot hold a candle to the earlier one,” he remarked. “Hell this one can’t hold a thing,” said the fisherman, “she has no arms. Whoever saw a mermaid without arms?”

The rough seas and low catch made the fishermen irritable, more so if you were a laid off dotcom employee. If you are wondering how a dotcom boomer takes to phishing then all you need to do is give me your credit card details, number et al and I’d tell you.

The two fishermen sat down in their high speed trawler and called out to RSVP. Ramadorai Shankerpeetam Velapalli Poghai or RSVP was the programming whiz who lost his job because of his brilliance. He programmed a programme to programme programmes. It was an open source application and was available for free. Needless to say the entire programming fraternity got laid off. RSVP went into hiding. He worked as a freelance deckhand, no ESOPs but the pay was better than what a freelance programmer got. The job also gave him a glimpse of the mermaids who swam by the boat. The mermaids never felt threatened by these software junkies, in that respect they were like any other woman. In other respects too they were a chip off the odd silicon blockheads.

RSVP saw the ragged state of his shipmates. He felt like going up to them an apologizing, “Saree, is such a difficult word to say,” he said to himself. But the thought didn’t stick with him too long; rationalizing was the key to survival for any Indian living outside his country. “We’re in the same boat anyway, and it’s not like they’re starving in Africa or anything” he thought.

“Yep?” he asked them.

4. Write 100 words convincing someone to give up smoking

My sister lost her baby last week, my mother has a growth in her uterus, let’s hope it’s benign. Both my uncles succumbed to lung cancer last year; my father is in the final stages of his. My youngest cousin gets bouts of asthma and wheezes his lungs out. The noise disgusts me but his swollen face and bloodshot repulses me even more. The older one, she can’t see him look like a puffer fish, she was born blind. My aunt, she’s dead, had a stroke. We’re a family of orphans. I can only think, can’t move, can’t write, can’t talk, and can’t do anything without help. They say God helps those who can’t take care of themselves. Who helps you when your parents were buttheads? What a drag.

5. Write a radio spot based on the TV commercial you wrote

The scratching noises that’s made while writing and the dialogues between the steward and the customer.

And When The Band Plays A Million Different Tunes

It takes a while to get the keyboard up and running.
There its running fine and now the world seems nice and closed.
I'm seeing a number of collaborative blogs going through some sort of change.
Bloggers have assumed the role of commetators, thinkers etc or is it the other way round.
As a few bloggers would say, bleh

Gravy Train

Don’t let me go away, for every minute that I stay away I shall be keen to keep it that way.

Keep me tight if you want to see me on the eighth night.

If I do not want your life I would never look back as you cry,

I would sway along with the gravy train by my side.

My pound of flesh I shall have,

Only to quench my thirst for the unknown.

...or verse

Drawers in drawers out
Let a good day draw us out
A walk in the rain a stroll by the street
For a fluff cloud to stay the heat
Up up and away to town
With nothing but her bridal gown on
Charge us free us and slip betwixt the sheets fornicus

Better...

All the men in ancient Greece were gay
Rolling around in their skirts and toupe
Aristotle and Plato never screwed a mullato
All they did was dance to YMCA

The Unnecessary

Where you end depends on where you start.