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Message: 6662

Author: andrewbroad

Date: 26/07/2010

Subject: Re: "JSW: The 2010 Megamix" room names

 

jetsetdanny wrote:

>
> 04. Ropeway to the Obserwatory

"Observatory"

> 16. The Seemingly Unfair Hold Road

"Holt"

> 19. A Much-Depleted Buttler's Pantry

"Butler's"

> 45. Drama in Color: Guardian Table 1
> [similarly: 2, 3 and 4 - colourful, dramatically difficult rooms
> from the final sequence; for the Brits among you - I am sorry about
> the American spelling of "colour", but this is the only way it fits
> into the 32 characters at my disposal]

I too am sorry about the American spelling of "colour". I'd prefer to lose one of the spaces, e.g. "Drama in Colour: GuardianTable 1" (Pascal case is common in computer-programming, and it's easy to imagine an object called GuardianTable in a JSW-related program).

I'm reminded of the issue that I had with "Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire" in Manic Miner: The Hobbit. Due to the 32-character limit and my decision to left-justify the room-names in that particular game, it came out as "Out of the Frying-Pan into the F", and I chose to leave it as such, rather than rewrite it to the hideously American "Out the Frying-Pan into the Fire".

> 51. S***! This Is the Wrong Ending!
> [room from the final sequence; is it better to say "the wrong
> ending" or "a wrong ending"? (there is only one wrong ending in the
> game, although when the player arrives at it, he may not know that
> there is one one]

"the Wrong Ending" sounds more natural (although if there were any possibility of there being more than one, it would have to be "a Wrong Ending"). Also, the definite article leaves the player with a better impression about the fairness of the game, as it assures him/her that there is only one wrong ending.

> B. Names which I think are OK, but a confirmation of it would be
> nice:
>
> 56. Transportation Module Entrance

Personally, I would never write three nouns in a row without inserting a hyphen to disambiguate which pair binds tighter: in this case, I would write "Transportation-Module Entrance".

Unless, of course, I decided to omit the hyphen – and hence leave the ambiguity in – for artistic reasons. Sometimes, it's fun to leave things open to personal interpretation.

> 57. The Mysterious Launching Pad # 1
> [similarly, 2 and 3]

I wouldn't put a space between '#' and '1'.

I personally avoid using '#' as a number-sign in MM/JSW writing, because of my decision to use '#' as a prefix for hexadecimal numbers. So I use "No." instead of '#' (the Wikipedia Manual of Style agrees with me on this, albeit not for the same reason). However, in this case, replacing "# " with "No." would make the room-name longer than 32 characters, so it seems that you're stuck with '#' (unless you drop the "# " for consistency with Room 136).

> 62. TP Module: Liquid Fuel Tank

I would write "Liquid-Fuel Tank" (cf. 56).

> 73. Mr Cheops Would Have Loved This!

The Americans say that you should write "Mr.", because it is an abbreviation. The Britons say that you should write "Mr", because the abbreviation includes the last letter of the word. In this case, I agree with the Americans (because IMO it looks better with the full stop, and also for consistency with Room 200). Unfortunately, as with "Dr Jones will never believe this", inserting a full stop would make the room-name 33 characters long.

> 75. Homo erectus

I think it should be "Erectus", since almost all the other room-names are in title-case.

> 77. Eeerily Familiar... Plinth,Is It?

"Eerily" (I assume that the extra 'e' isn't in the actual room-name, as that would make it 33 characters long).

> 97. Cloud Ninety-nine

"Ninety-Nine"

> 125. I'm Getting Desufnoc
> [the room leading to "moor gnisufnoC rehtaR A"]

I would write "desufnoC", to be consistent with the style of the room to which it leads.

> 126. Entrance to the CGA Rooms
> [what does CGA actually stand for???]

Colo[u]r/Graphics Adapter

> 171. La lettre du Spectrumaniac,Paris

I think it should be "Lettre", since almost all the other room-names are in title-case.

> 173. Aaargh! Format's Sam Coupe Fair!

"SAM Coupé"

> 191. An Indoor Car Boot Sale?

I would write "Car-Boot Sale" (cf. 56).

> 192. The All New Swimming Pool

"All-New"

--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://abroad.sqweebs.org/spectrum/mmjsw/

P.S. My website is back online, with a slightly different domain-name (Sqweebs changed "com" to "org").

 

 

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