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Message: 6666

Author: jetsetdanny

Date: 27/07/2010

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

 

Thank you so much for all your replies! It is really thrilling to receive such quick and detailed comments.

Let me get back on some of the names you have pointed to with some additional info and questions:


01.

--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, andrewbroad wrote:
>
> 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 might implement this if some of you feel so strongly about the American spelling. I'll have to think about it.


02.
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, andrewbroad wrote:
>
> 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).

After your comments I am inclined to change the name to:
"Mysterious Launching Pad No.1"
However, should it be:
"No.1" or "No. 1"?


03.
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, andrewbroad wrote:
>
75. Homo erectus
>
> I think it should be "Erectus", since almost all the other room-names are in title-case.

My personal rule is: non-English names should be capitalised according to the rules of the language they are in.

"Homo erectus" is Latin. I believe in Latin only the first word of a proper name / title is capitalised.

Similarly, in "La lettre du Spectrumaniac,Paris" the "l" in the word "lettre" is lower-case, because in French only the first word of the title is capitalised (apart from words which are proper names or capitalised for other reasons, of course).

--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, J.G.Harston wrote:
>
> > 171. La lettre du Spectrumaniac,Paris
> I think it should be "Lettre", since almost all the other room-names are
> in title-case.
>
and if you make it "Lettre du Spectrumania, Paris" you get your
punctuation back.

I have just explained the reason for "l" instead of "L" in "lettre" above.
Now, this is a room designed by Paul Equinox Collins. Personally I wouldn't mind changing it to "Lettre du Spectrumaniac, Paris", but I do not want my interference with Paul's room names to go beyond changes in capitalisation of some words (which I introduced for the sake of consistence).
Another thing is that in Romance languages the articles are not dropped from titles as easily as in English. So maybe it's a good thing it is there.
Paul, if you are following this, could you please advise?


04.
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, andrewbroad wrote:
>
> > 97. Cloud Ninety-nine
>
> "Ninety-Nine"

Before asking you for help, I tried to make the names as perfect as possible myself, by reading various materials on the Web concerning proper spelling rules in English and looking for examples. From what I could find, the spelling of compound numbers in titles should be like I have done: first digit capitalised, the other digit after the hyphen in lower case.
If you can quote (point to) any rules or convincing examples to the contrary, please do so.


--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, J.G.Harston wrote:
>
> > 97. Cloud Ninety-nine
>
> >LOAD "%.BLib.IntToTxt"
> >PRINT FNIntToTxt(99)
> ninety-nine
> >REM Oh, ok then.

Sorry, I don't get it. Are you supporting Andrew in his bid for change to "Ninety-Nine" or not?


05.
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, andrewbroad wrote:
>
> > [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.

Great point, of course it should be "desufnoC".


06.
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, andrewbroad wrote:
>
> > 173. Aaargh! Format's Sam Coupe Fair!
>
> "SAM Coupé"

I may change this, although it will require another interference with Paul E. Collins's original room name. However, Paul's rooms in "JSW 96 Remix" were in the JSW48 game engine, where changing the font is not so easy (although it can be done, as Andrew demonstrated in JSW: LOTR"). So Paul may have wanted to make it "Coupé", but couldn't.
I may change it, if I can find a spare font character. You see, most of them have been used for... something else (let me leave a little mystery here for the time being :-) ).


07.
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, andrewbroad wrote:
>
> > 192. The All New Swimming Pool
>
> "All-New"

I was on the verge of changing the name already, but respect for Paul's original name has stopped me (since apparently a lot of people write "All New", judging by a Google search).
Perhaps I will reconsider and add the hyphen. Paul won't mind, will you, Paul, if you happen to read these messages?


08.
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, andrewbroad wrote:
>
> P.S. My website is back online, with a slightly different domain-name (Sqweebs changed "com" to "org").

Great! The next big event will be the update of your list of MM/JSW games (after the release of "The 2010 Megamix" towards the end of the year :-) ).


09.
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, "Roger" wrote:
>
> 15 Brick Way to 3 Brick-Hard Rooms.
> I didn't understand this one at first and had to read it several times. If it means that it leads to 3 rooms which are difficult to do and therefore might be said to be as hard as a brick then it's ok.

Intriguingly, I made up this room name because of something Andrew has written! He uses the adjective "brick-hard" (hyphenated, of course, referring to rooms and meaning - IIUC - "very difficult" or "extremely difficult") five or six times in his text file accompanying "Party Willy". This inspired me to attempt the pun with "brick way" (you can see it in the room design, the room looks like it is made of bricks) leading to "brick-hard" rooms.

Perhaps the number here is misleading and unnecessary, especially that it cannot be spelled as a full word.

So I think I will change the name to:

"Brick Road to Brick-Hard Rooms"

How about that, Roger and everyone else?


10.
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, "Roger" wrote:
>
> 21 The BBC Wine Cellar Gone Berserk.
> Berserk comes from Berserker which is defined as a fierce Norse Warrior who fought with frenetic violence. I would therefore take this to be only applicable to a person. My alternative suggestion would be "Awry" which means amiss or wrong.

That's what I was afraid of, although e.g. if you google "room went berserk", you see quite a number of instances of such usage. Now, I understand it really refers to the people in that room. This does not help much.

"Awry" does not seem strong enough - it's a very difficult room, as you will soon see - the guardians are very violent, just like Berserker :-) .
So what other nice adjective can I use which can be used without any doubt for a room (cellar)? "Crazy" perhaps? "Mad"?
Other ideas?


11.
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, "Roger" wrote:
>
> 24 Dumbbells in Distress.
> This should be Dumb-bells.

Not according e.g. to the online Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, which I like a lot: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/search/british/?q=dumbbell&x=48&y=3

If there are two possible spellings, I prefer to spell "dumbbell" as one word to make it more similar to "damsel".


12.
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, "Roger" wrote:
>
> 30 Frustratingly Frenetic UG Forest.
> I personally don't like this as I didn't realise you meant Underground until I read your explanation. In the game itself I would just have remained mystified. As there isn't room to write it in full, I wonder if it's actually necessary to mention Underground at all? If you don't it leaves a nice example of alliteration with all F's.

It shall be done as you suggest. I was never 100% happy with the UG part anyway.


13.
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, J.G.Harston wrote:
>
> > 77. Eeerily Familiar... Plinth,Is It?
>
> Drop one '.' and it fits properly: "Eerily Familiar.. Plinth, Is It?"

Good suggestion. Applied it has been.


14.
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, J.G.Harston wrote:
>
> > 82. Nodes of Yesod,Is It? Or Jetpac?
>
> If you are forced to remove spaces from punctuation, change what
> you're trying to write. Again, it makes it look like the person
> writing it hasn't managed to get out of Infant School.
> Try: "Nodes of Yesod...? Or Jetpac?"

Another suggestion I like. I have changed it to what you have suggested, with a double space between the first "?" and "Or", to distribute the name more nicely (evenly) in the 32-character space.


15.
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, J.G.Harston wrote:
>
> > 147. -The Wrong Way - The Right Way
> > [room from the final sequence; instead of hyphens, there are arrows
> > pointing in the right direction]
>
> Either have *both* arrows with a space seperating them from the words, or
> *both* with no space seperating them from the words.

Absolutely. In fact, there are no spaces in the room name between the words and the arrows, but I misspelled it when writing my message.
Similarly, some of the other problems which have been pointed out (like "obserwatory" or "Hold") have only appeared in my message (in the game the names are OK) - but thanks to you all for pointing them out anyway!


16.
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, J.G.Harston wrote:
>
> > 36. The Cagelike Catwalk
>
> Cage-like. (cat-like, panther-like, star-like, etc.)

Does it have to be hyphenated? A Google seach of this word reveals quite a number of instances, in scientific texts mainly, where it is spelled "cagelike" (while, admittedly, statistically hyphenation seems to be more common).
But if there are two possibilities of spelling it, I would go for spelling it as one word. Any further comments on this one?


17.
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, J.G.Harston wrote:
>
> > 25. Craftily Created Creepy Crypt
> > [a redesign of "Crypt" (45) from JSWII for the BBC Micro]
>
> I'd write it as: Craftily-Created Creepy Crypt
> Otherwise, you're saying that a person called Craftily created a
> crypt, said crypt being a creepy crypt.

When I did my internet research, much to my suprise (I had been convinced otherwise before) I learnt that a definitive majority of manuals recommend NOT using hyphen between adverbs and the adjectives which follow them if the adverb ends in -ly.

This is what Wikipedia says, for instance:

"Hyphens should normally not be used in adverb–adjective modifiers such as wholly owned subsidiary and quickly moving vehicle, because the adverbs clearly modify the adjectives; "quickly" cannot modify "vehicle". However, if the adverb can also function as an adjective, then a hyphen may be used for clarity."

And a tip from another part of Wikipedia:

"TIP: don't use a hyphen between an adverb ending in -ly and a linked adjective, even when they come before the noun:

Many schools offer summer supply teaching to newly appointed staff.
We can offer highly competitive rates to benefit your business."

I think that it is unlikely that a person should be called "Craftily", so I am inclined to omit the hyphen here.


18.
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, J.G.Harston wrote:
>
> > 26. Semi-automatic Beheading System
>
> Semi-automatic? Semiautomatic? My Collins Gem says Semiautomatic.

My internet search produced all possible results: semi-automatic, semi automatic and semiautomatic in hard-to-determine proportions. IIRC, "semiautomatic" seemed to be more common when refererring to cars and used as a noun, at least that's the impression I had.
I also analysed in detail whether is should be "Semi-automatic" or "Semi-Automatic", and decided on the former, although it wasn't a 100% obvious decision (an 85% obvious, I would say).


19.
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, J.G.Harston wrote:
>
>jetsetdanny wrote:
> 12. 1 Dumb Waiter & 2 Useless Lifts
> [an "extreme redesign" of "Dumb Waiter" (63) from JSWII for the BBC Micro]
>Stylistically, that should be: One Dumb Waiter and Two Useless Lifts
but that's 37 characters.

--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, J.G.Harston wrote:
>
> Using numbers instead of words really makes writing look amateurish
> and badly thought out, unless ur trying 2 mock the txt generation.

I am not happy about using numbers. But in some cases I feel it's better to use a number than change the name completely.

With the dumb waiter, I thought the name was good, because the three moving guardians in this room are: the horizontally moving dumb waiter (as defined by JSWII :-) ) and two vertically moving lifts (it says "LIFT" on them) which are useless (in fact, harmful - they are just regular guardians).

So I can either keep the current name, or perhaps change it to someting like:
"One Dumb Waiter and Two .... Lifts", where .... would have to be a four-letter adjective.
How about:
"One Dumb Waiter and Two Daft Lifts" ???


Thank you once again to all three of you for your help. I really appreciate it. If you have any further comments or suggestions, please let them be known - it is still not too late to incorporate them into the game!


Daniel

 

 

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