Inverted/Non-Inverted

The inverted/non-inverted y-axis debate has been around for years now. The non-inverted users (who I will refer to as NIU) cannot see the logic of having the y-axis the 'wrong way round'. To the inverted users (IU), it seems perfectly natural, and the moment they go to play an FPS where the y-axis is not inverted, they lose their in-game fine motor control, and even when playing for a good ten minutes or so, they still can't aim straight or move like a normal person. And, of course, vice versa.

In one respect, the non-inverted way resembles, at its simplest form, moving a camera from a fixed point. The inverted view can pretty much be traced back to the joysticks of days gone by. In the flight simulators these were used for, it made sense to have it inverted, as in real planes and helicopters. Pull back the stick to tilt the plane upwards, push it forwards to go into a nose dive. Many of the people who grew up on these games would now be the IU.

I, however, was not brought up on flight simulators, in fact, I despise them. Partly because of the lack of variety in gameplay and environments, but that's another story. I am definitely part of the inverted group, so that's not the whole story. Ultimately, I have been brought up using inverted controls, and I'm not about to switch now. Maybe, the same reasoning for the flight simulator can be used to explain the FPS. Imagine yourself, well, as you are now, as a human. To look down, you tilt your head forwards. To look up to the ceiling, you pull your head back. It's a bit contradictory, yes, but it works. Perhaps us IU can therefore be more immersed in gameplay than NIU. That'd be quite hard to prove, and I'm not saying that it is true. The non-inverted users use what they know, and that's fine. It's just the scone debate again. Scone, pronounced as 'gone', or scone, pronounced as 'stone'? I suspect that neither of these debates will be ending anytime soon.

If you've got this far, thanks for reading. Any and all suggestions welcome, please send them to 'jazzphilosophybiscuits@googlemail.com'.

EST and Free-Jazz

Up until a few months ago, I couldn't stand free-jazz. The thought of noise rather than music put me off trying it properly. However, I recently attended the gig of a famous free-jazz musician, though I cannot remember his name, that's not particularly important anyway. I am using the term 'gig' loosely, as this was held in the back room of his rather nice house, maximum seating capacity 12. When the band, consisting of the musician mentioned above, a drummer and a pianist began to play, I was scared. Scared for the safety of my ears. The trombone, played by said musician, was played with such ferocity that saliva was flying everywhere, and I mean everywhere. What came out of the trombone, noise-wise, was just noise. Very, very loud noise. However, when my mind stopped thinking thoughts like "My ears hurt, my ears hurt, my ears hurt", or "Why is the drummer using his head to repeatedly knock cymbals off drums?", I found that I was caught up in the energy of the whole experience. The rising and falling tension, the new and unexplored territories of sound. Granted you won't get the full force and energy of the music on a recording, but believe me when I say it is worth a try.

Now, onto EST. Short for the Esbjorn Svensson Trio, this band is not only great in its own right, but it serves well as listening for anyone who is new to free-jazz. You can make up your own mind when you hear EST as to whether they are truly a free-jazz band, but a couple of tracks that I recommend are: From Gagarin's Point Of View, from the album with the same name, and Dodge The Dodo. The studio version of Dodge The Dodo is good, by all accounts, but I recommend the live version, from the album E.S.T. LIVE. Both tracks give a good feel as to what EST are like, and aren't too experimental for anyone new to the free-jazz genre.

Thanks for reading, and please direct any suggestions to jazzphilosophybiscuits@sky.com. Feel free to comment, and stay tuned for more updates.

Satori

It's strange how different environments affect us. Yesterday morning on my paper round, for example, it was a clear sky before dawn and you could see the stars perfectly. It was absolutely freezing, but it was good. And then, while looking at the sky, I had a satori. Just to clarify, a satori is a word used in Buddhism to mean a sudden and brief moment of realisation, peace, tranquillity and understanding.

However, this morning, it was about the same temperature (my hands were, once again, freezing), but the sky was overcast. I don't expect to receive enlightenment just like that, but I noticed that I didn't feel anything, even remotely. This isn't a hard and fast rule, but I think that it shows how the environment affects us, perhaps even when we're not expecting it.

As always, suggestions welcome, e-mail jazzphilosophybiscuits@googlemail.com

Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection

The good old Sega Mega Drive. Gaming doesn't get much simpler, 4 directional buttons, A, B and C. If you had (or have) the privilege of owning a Mega Drive, you'll know how fun it was. Games didn't have to rely on near-perfect graphics, actual game design was used. Obviously I'm not saying that modern games do not have a good design (take a look at the likes of the recently released Dragon Age: Origins, a favourite of mine), but Mega drive games did it without the aid of scarily real graphics. The fact that the games haven't been remade makes it seem odd to me that they went to the effort of making them in HD, but, hey, I'm not complaining.

So the game itself, the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection, attempts to capture some of that classic charm from the original games. It contains Phantasy Star (I, II, III and IV), Golden Axe (I, II and III), Ristar and, of course, a whole assortment of Sonic games. Along with the classics, it comes with a bunch of games I personally have never heard of, Bonanza Bros. being one of them.

If you ever got frustrated by not being able to save on the Mega Drive, the Ultimate Collection allows you to actually reach the end of the whichever game you're playing. This really is a game worth buying. A truly amazing collection.

It begins

I have just begun blogging, so forgive me if the blog doesn't seem to work properly at first. Feel free to tell me how it's gowing by e-mail. I'll be posting about the things that tend to interest me, such as the things in the blog name, science, maths, games, anything really.

If there's anything that you want me to look up, talk about, etc., please e-mail and I'll try my best. Thanks so far, let's see how this goes...