Man, that was is a long title. I really ought to have shortened it somehow. Um. So, anyway, Mojiferous and I are hard at work getting Simoebic Dysentery up and running on every conceivable platform, some of which are pipe dreams that I’m forcing him to look into, and some that are more viable. But long long ago in a land far far away, we put together the concept and artwork for an Lucasarts style adventure game on the iPhone. This, obviously has never been released, and likely will never be released. That said, the character’s were complete, as was the dialog tree and plot. Now, until I figure out a way to present the dialog tree that isn’t boring, I’m going to share the character designs. Enjoy what never was!

It’s been snot-wipingly busy here in Thoronia, as the sole provider of funds has been busy fundraising and attending the university. Of course, the university is being attended in order to expand the histories of Thoronia, but for now we’ll just name drop a few interesting things we’ve spotted about the web or on the shelves.

• *If you don’t already know, David Foster Wallace took his own life last week. He was an amazingly astute and unbelievably talented writer — one whom unwittingly contributed to the Thoronian histories in more ways than one. Although much of his work is amazing, my personal favorite is “Host,” a non-fiction article published in the Atlantic three years ago. The online version does it no justice, but I can’t give you all a copy of it in print.

• *Speaking of snot-wiping, a member of Thoronia has started working on an article looking at Super Mario Bros. 3, and I don’t mean just looking — it’s deep analysis of Super Mario Bros. 3 using Freud, uncanny and Oedipus Rex.

• *Speaking of absurdness, curious as to what is being read in Thoronia right now? Here’s the what hit the chopping block pre-August 25th:

Sarah Vowell — The Partly Cloudy Patriot

David Foster Wallace — The Broom of the System

David Mitchell — Ghostwritten

Haruki Murakami — What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

• *And here is what I got slammed with post August 25th:

Meredith Brosnan — Mr. Dynamite

Renee Gladman — Juice

Patrik Ourednik — Europena

Adolfo Casares — Invention of Moral

Anchor Book of New American Short Stories

Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism

Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives

• *On a completely unrelated note, NHL 09 is by far the best sports game ever to grace a console system — better than 94, better than Tecmo Bowl, better than Mutant League.

• *If you’ve ever played Portal, the highly addictive, interesting, amazing, talked about, awesome, sweet ass, puzzle 3D game, than you’ll likely appreciate this video, which sets the amazing end credits song to some typographical fun.

Portal – Still Alive typography from Trickster on Vimeo.

• *I’ve been trying my best to give the most talked about game of the last 5 years a real play through, but Spore seems to me like a remarkably ambitious, creative effort that went bad. It’s one of the most boring games I’ve ever played — web browser flash games have more depth. However, the actual game, what it does, what it accomplishes, and what happens when you stick with it is remarkable — I mean, if you’re into that whole creationist evolution theory (we here in Thoronia know that the Good King Thor created all). I’ll probably hit it up again come my next three day weekend, but for now, I’ll sit awkwardly in disappointment, thinking that perhaps I just didn’t “get it.”

• *Speaking of King Thor, the Republic of Thoronia Band just got a date to play a show. Mark November 7th on your calenders, take the night off work and come on down for some Friday Night Fun at the hi-dive with The Republic of Thoronia Band, Franklin’s Mint and Sunburned Hand of Man. Show starts at 9:00 sharp kids (if you haven’t been to a show at the hi-dive recently, let me tell you, they’ve whipped it into shape, when it says the show starts at 9:00, the show starts at 9:00), and the RoTB will be kicking it off and getting it started!

• *In case anyone was wondering, here are my picks for holiday games of the year: Dead Space, Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, Prince of Persia and Little Big Planet.

• *That’s all I got.

Unfortunately the voting page is a one band per page deal, so you have to click through a whole bunch of them to get to our track (thumbs down on everyone else!). I imagine this is to avoid people sending direct links to their voting page and making people work a little bit harder to win — so, saddle up, set aside 15 minutes and vote (if you too think its a good idea).

As the car starts the girl appears at the door of Jerusalem’s. The backlighting makes her look like a bit of an angel, but I’m sure that neon could make a bridge-troll look like Dolly Parton at the right angle. 

 Other details that are being released are as follows: GUI is based on construction paper cutouts and felt. Game slated for initial release to iPhone/iPod Touch, with ports to PC and Mac later in the year. The two companies think it would work swell on the Wii, if anyone has any information for developing on that. The cost likely will be free, but may be upwards of $5 if the duo gets greedy.   If anyone has suggestion for puzzles, conundrums or trivials or wants to help, assist, lend in anyway, we would be much appreciative. After we get the text mapped out and the locations solidified there is going to be a lot of cutting and pasting and cutting of construction paper and felt, and oh heavens, the music, yes there will be music… hell, maybe we’ll get Matthew Mcconaughey to do some voice acting, I don’t think he’s doing anything worthwhile with his life right now.  We will also need beta testers on all platforms (so if anyone has a jailbroken iPhone/iPod Touch and wants to win the heart of a God, get in touch).