The American Policy Player's Guide and Dream Book (1892)

Policy, also known as a numbers racket, was an illegal lottery played mostly in poor neighborhoods (black, Italian, latin)  in the US, wherein a bettor attempts to pick three digits to match those that will be randomly drawn the following day (Source). The book below--which could pass as a book on dream interpretation--has a secondary purpose. To associate winning policy numbers with the dreamer's dream. More context: see, Herbert Gladstone Parris: Professor Konje Policy Players Dream Books and Policy Pete’s Dream Book (1933) | Digital Harlem Blog.

Battle Royale: Character Design, with Weapons

• Battle Royale Manga online.  N
• Battle Royale Wikia.  N
• Battle Royale Character Entry on Wikipedia  N
• Internet Movie Firearms entry.  N
• Battle Royale film fan site.  N
• Chart with characters and weapons on fan film site.  N

The History Of Slot Machines

Source.

GAMBLING MEN

Source.

"1891 and against the backdrop of the town of Brooklyn, in the recently-booming east coast New York City, Sittman and Pitt had just developed the gaming machine that in the years to come would be considered THE precursor to the modern slot machine. Based on poker, possibly to cash-in on the popularity of the game, the machine contained five drums carrying a total of fifty cards and like it’s namesake in the table-sitting world, it proved to be a popular hit with gambling players everywhere but especially in it’s home city of New York. At this time you would be hard-pressed to find a bar in the city that didn't have at least one of these machines standing at the side of the bar waiting for potential players to insert a nickel and press the lever in the hope of a good poker hand. These machines had a drawback. There was no direct payout mechanism, so in order to cure this problem, establishments would for example, offer a patron a free beer should he receive a pair of Kings, maybe a cigar if he hit a lower hand. It was not ‘made’ easy for a customer to win. Once obtaining a machine, many establishments would typically remove two select cards from the deck: the Ten of Spades and the Jack of Hearts. This, naturally, cut the odds of winning drastically and to make it even more difficult to win, the drums themselves could also be re-arranged to the taste of the proprietor.

"What can not be re-arranged so simply however, is the differing accounts of a German immigrant named Charles Augustus Fey, and his invention over on the west coast. There are some who say he invented the first mechanical slot machine in 1887, four years BEFORE Sittman and Pitt’s machine hit the bars of New York. There are others who state that Fey conceived his innovation in 1895, four years AFTER Sittman and Pitt’s machine. It is the year 1895 however, that seems to prove more popular with gambling history enthusiasts. Regardless of the chronology, Fey’s invention was revolutionary.

"With what later would be termed the first "one-armed bandit," Fey had solved the problem of designing a machine capable of making an automatic pay-out for all possible winning combinations. This was achieved by replacing ten cards with five symbols ( Diamonds, Hearts, Horseshoes, Spades and a cracked Liberty Bell ), and utilizing three reels instead of five drums thereby considerably reducing the complexity of reading a win! Three bells in a row equaled the largest payoff, amounting to fifty cents or ten nickels. The machine, consequently called Liberty Bell due to it’s attractive symbol became a massive success and is generally credited with spawning the massive mechanical gaming device industry at this time.

"During the next five years Charles Fey also invented the first descendent of the Liberty Bell called "4-11-44" named so after the maximum winning combination of the machine, worth five dollars. After this success, Fey upgraded his business from small-shop trading to factory production and in successive years invented the "Card Bell" machine and then further improved it a year later in 1899. This latest innovation had an altered symbol ( Star ) and boasted a maximum prize of twenty dimes or tokens, achieved with a three bell combination!

"Fey had been enjoying limited competition and favorable government legislature in his bid to dominate the gaming device market. However, various companies including Kalamazoo and Monarch had also released slot machines and one company in particular would severely test his control. Again, there are conflicting theories as to what actually happened but it was well-known in gaming device circles around the turn of the century that Charles Fey refused to sell or lease his revolutionary Liberty Bell slot machine to anyone. One theory as it that in 1905, a robbery occurred at a saloon in San Francisco, a theft in which only two items were stolen - an apron and a Liberty Bell slot machine. Less than a year later, Herbert Stephen Mills who had inherited the ‘Mills Novelty Company’ some years earlier from his father Mortimer Mills, produced a new version of the Liberty Bell called the Mills Liberty Bell. Despite the competition, the Mills Liberty Bell saw off all challengers. Mills, at this point, was employing assembly-line techniques for the construction of slot machines and despite the controversy, later became known as the "Henry Ford of slot machines."

"The other theory however states that Charles Fey actually went into business with the Mills Novelty Company, and then manufactured the Mills Liberty Bell which stunted all competition.

Source

"The Mills Liberty Bell itself featured a cast iron case with a classic Liberty Bell actually cast into the front of the machine. Originally the machine had cast iron feet with toes, but this was scrapped in later versions and they were replaced with ornate scrolled feet. Playing cards ( the King, Queen and Jack ) were depicted on the machine’s reel strips, and it also featured a bell that rung when a winning combination was hit. This was later dropped for the Mills Liberty Bell, though this concept would resurface many years later.

"Charles Fey had not only had to contend with these commercial losses, but he suffered most heavily when his main slot-machine producing factory was almost utterly destroyed in an earthquake. After this point, Fey faded into relative obscurity and he died some years later in 1944. Herbert Mills’ company however continued to thrive.

A BOOMING INDUSTRY

"By 1910 slot machines could be found seemingly everywhere. The Mills Novelty Company introduced slight variations to it’s Liberty Bell design and named it the Operator Bell. The Operator Bell had a more fitting neck coin entry and also featured fruit symbols unlike previous models. The Mills Novelty Company was also now producing five different variations of it’s Liberty Bell design at it’s factories, and by the time World War One broke out, the company had expanded into Europe and it’s factories were manufacturing up to 30,000 gaming machines.

"The age of the cast iron machines came to an abrupt end when Mills introduced slot machines fashioned with cheaper wooden cabinets, and by the early 1930’s the Mills Novelty Company made a number of changes to it’s production line of slot machines that signaled another revolution of the gaming industry.

"The new wave of machines introduced a double jackpot that allowed players the luxury of knowing that they could win twice in quick succession. The machines were also designed to be quieter and these 1930’s machines are now referred to as the "Silent Bell(s)."

"New cabinet designs were also released as part of this new wave of slot machines and included such themes as the Lion Head, the War Eagle, the Roman Head and finally in 1933, the Castle Front.

"The War Eagle also boasted a new coin acceptor that displayed the coins played moving successively across the top of the machine. In the case that slugs were used to operate the machine, the operator would now be able to see if such an object was being used. The new specification also added additional movement. Herbert Mills passed away in 1929 at the age of 57, leaving a vast fortune to his wife and eight children.

"In 1909, the previously favorable laws were thrown out the window, and new laws were introduced declaring that slot machines could no longer dispense cash. Slot machine manufacturers and bar owners managed to cope with these new laws by giving away free packs of gum and other prizes for getting certain combinations of symbols on the machines. There is a theory that this was the idea for the fruit and bar symbols present on modern-day slot machines. The bars are said to represent the packs of gum and the fruit symbols indicate the various kinds of candy that were won. Another theory holds that an early slot machine rewarded it’s players by awarding fruit-flavored chewing gums with the pictures of the flavors depicted by the corresponding symbols on the reels. The popular ‘cherry’ and ‘melon’ symbols are said to have derived from this machine. According to this representation of events, the ‘BAR’ symbol now common in slot machines was actually derived from an early logo of the Bell-Fruit Gum Company.

"In 1919, the American government declared PROHIBITION and the consumption or supplying of alcohol was made illegal. The slot machines which mainly populated bars and saloons, were moved into the speakeasies that had been set up in light of the recent changes in the law. Since the speakeasies were illegal anyway, the managers figured they may as well go back to offering cash prizes on the slot machines. Because of this, the popularity of slot machines increased even more.

"Despite the governmental pressure the gaming industry continued to bloom and grow, especially in the state of Nevada where gambling was legalized in 1931. Several companies sprung up to take advantage of the situation, and they began to manufacture and sell slot machines to the fledgling casinos in Nevada. The manufacture and enjoyment of slot machines grew at an exponential rate well into the 1960’s.

"NEW LOOKS FOR NEW ERA

The pinball machine manufacturer, Bally, in 1964 began to produce a new slot machine named Money Honey. This machine was powered by electricity, and also possessed new sound effects as well as being classed as a multi coin machine. It was also the first slot machine ever to have a hopper - the name for the holder into which the coins get paid out. More innovations flowed from the Bally business brains; they added games that had more reels, bigger hoppers and more coins until 1970 when they produced a hopper large enough to hold dollar coins which meant larger jackpots for the consumers.

"In 1978, Atlantic City legalized gambling, and by this time Bally had cornered about 90% of the slot machine market. The company continued to add reels, knowing this would decrease chances of winning and so maximizing the size of a jackpot . In addition to increasing the number of symbols on each reel with 25 eventually becoming the maximum, they also raised the wagers so games could be played at $5, $25 and even $100. Bally also hired a computer programmer by the name of Inge Telnaus to increase the size of the jackpots without losing profits for the company. Using a computer program, Telnaus utilized a random number generator that cycled through the numbers on imaginary reels he had made. A revolution had been realized in slot machine gaming as Telnaus with these imaginary reels could radically change the amounts that could be won. This random number generator has ushered slot machines into a new age and opened up new markets with new opportunities to be explored much like the Californian gold fields did for the American populace over 150 years ago."

Fox and His Friends (1975)

In German, with English subtitles. Source.

Interview with with Shigeru Miyamoto, Creater of Super Mario (in Three Volumes)

I saw this article posted by Sheila Heti on Facebook. A fascinating talk of the conceptualization behind Super Mario Brothers, with the video game designer speaking as the (humble? unaffected?) auteur. This article is divided into three volumes and multiple parts, accessible from the links below.

Volume 1

• Mario Couldn't Jump At First
• The Reason Mario Wears Overalls
• I Saw A Pipe On The Way Home From The Office
• Letting Everyone Know It Was A Good Mushroom
• Allowing Novices To See the Ending Too
• A Medal for Skilled Players
• A Block Floating In Mid-Air Is Unnatural
• Capturing That Mario-Esque "Smell"
• The Correct Way to Enjoy An Action Game

Volume 2

• It All Began In 1984
• I'd Never Heard Of Pac-Man
• It Started With A Square Object Moving
• Adjusting the Map In A Daily Cycle
• Applying A Single Idea To Both Land And Sky
• No Rest After Completing Super Mario Bros.
• Persistence Led To Mario Riding A Dinosaur
• Coming Up With Ideas Together For Twenty-Five Years
• The Three Of Us Got Sucked Into The Development Process
• There's Something New To Discover After Playing Many Times

Volume 3

• Solving Multiple Problems with Bubbles
• Shouting "Roasted Riceball"?!
• With His Wife on His Shoulders!
• The Peer-Evaluated Super Guide
• New Courses Two Weeks Before Deadline
• Heart-racing Coin Battles
• Finding Your Own Way To Play

Space Invaders (1978)

Play! 

Download at Abandonia.

"Backed by a thudding bass beat, dozens of invaders from another world descended on our planet in 1978. Within months, Space Invaders was one of the hottest fads on the globe, helping propel the video arcade into a multi-billion dollar industry.


The invasion began in Japan. Programmer Toshihiro Nishikado took the classic sci-fi riff of alien invasion and transported it to the video screen. The otherworlders, arranged in a tight row and column formation, marched left and right across the screen, dropping down one level each time they hit the side. You controlled a lone laser base, defending the planet by firing back at the hostile armies. You could also move left and right, using four convenient shields to play a dangerous game of fire and retreat as the aliens unleashed their own laser assault.


As the invaders were knocked out one by one, their march grew faster and faster, until a lone invader sped across the screen. If you managed to hit them all, a new wave of invaders would take to the sky. But if the baddies hit ground zero, it was game over for you and for the Earth.


When Taito released Space Invaders in Nishikado’s homeland, the game caused a national furor. Hundreds of thousands of Space Invaders machines were produced, and the game’s popularity caused a shortage of 100-Yen coins. When restaurants complained that customers were playing instead of eating, Taito simply supplied them with sit-down cocktail cabinets, further fueling the Space Invaders hysteria." Source.

• For a history: Wikipedia.
• A history of the Taito corporation.
• Ten Things Everyone Should Know about Space Invaders.
• About the original arcade game consul.
• This Youtube video details how to exploit game glitches to win.
• Invader, the artist
• Human Performance of Space Invaders.
• World Trade Towers Space Invaders Installation.
• Some history of the hilariously paranoid + understandably paranoid reception of the game: Space Invaders: The Untold Story.

A Throw of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance - Mallarmé

"The paper intervenes each time as an image, of itself, ends or begins once more, accepting a succession of others, and, since, as ever, it does nothing, of regular sonorous lines or verse – rather prismatic subdivisions of the Idea, the instant they appear, and as long as they last, in some precise intellectual performance, that is in variable positions, nearer to or further from the implicit guiding thread, because of the verisimilitude the text imposes."

Translator’s Introduction. 4

Mallarmé’s Preface of 1897. 5

The French Text 7

The English Translation. 19

The  English Translation – Compressed, and Punctuated. 31

The Atomic Cafe

c/f The Atomic Bombers Speak

Naive Capitalism

We are not here to make friends.

An interesting thing about this millennium's first decade's love affair with reality television is how quickly the genre used up the conceit it was, somehow, in documentarian fashion, about an unbarred relationship between camera and life, yet continued to draw an audience specifically fascinated with its reality version of a game show.

Instead of the promised reality, which mostly took the form of scheduled asides, scenarios akin to amateur improv games and actors whose vitality was in their unschooled quipping and mugging, the genre is more notable for the universe it inaugurated of its own evolving, self-recycling conventions. Internally self-regulating, the show's hastily turned-over casts came equipped in advance with strict truisms learned from earlier runs, communal experience evolved into iron-clad rules of engagement. Participants quickly sorted themselves into either the heroes or villains of sentimental tele-novels. Hastily shedding any semblance of individual subjectivity, the borrowed morality and self-conscious aims of these shows' villains, part talent show competitors, part talk-show trash of a debased (yet voluntarily simulated) humanity, when allotted their moment before the camera, often echoed this shrewd popular conception (see clip above) of how one is supposed to be, in reality, which is a game, which requires winners, and winning is good. Call it naive or folk capitalism.

     *
Yet why not make friends? And why this fascination with the question? For the question is at the pounding, wounded heart of all this plaster-thin, byzantine interpersonal wrangling. Is it misrecognition of the terms of the game: that to deny subjectivity and worthiness in others nearby is tantamount to emptying the playing field, thereby handing over victory to the most nihilistic of competitors by default? Is it magical, ritualistic logic? That to sacrifice friends in this small game of a television series is to gain them all in the bigger one, that worthy field of engagement these contestants often address in the footlights, when talking to camera, "America." Is it a defensive or apprehensive gesture: One prefers, ultimately, the fair shot of a game than the trauma-inducing, commonly emotionally asymmetrical experience of a friend? Is it compulsive: We often destroy what is actually good for us in favor of what we think is good, based on whispers, limp willingness towards seductions and candy-coated delusions? Or are these contestants simply the bottom-crop of aspiring entertainers whom they appear to be, trying to clock in some valuable screen time, deftly intuiting that an audience needs a structure and that there's power in repetition and the familiar, like melodramatic plotting and a tag-phrase. Moreover, that to portray a cringe-worthy stock villain might be the more lucrative route to an on-screen career than actually "winning" these games; witness the fame industry's main tools for fascination: hating on, and scandal. For, important to note, as a strategy, not making friends only ever yielded mixed results (community-building or the esteem of one's peers was as valid an angle to win on these shows). That the contestants would be or should have been aware of this make their ad nauseum quoting of the platitude all the more quizzical. Not making friends was never a winning strategy in itself.