Utente:Casmiki/Sandbox
Premi Nobel
Pär Fabian Lagerkvist (23 maggio 1891 – 11 luglio 1974) è stato uno scrittore svedese. Vinse il Premio Nobel per la letteratura nel 1951.
Lagerkvist scrisse poesie, opere teatrali, romanzi racconti, storie e saggi
Biografia e opere
Lagerkvist nacque a Växjö (Småland).
Lagerkvist ricevette una tradizionale istruzione religiosa che influenzò fortemente tutte le sue opere, although his passion for religion mellowed in his later years under the influence of modern scientific ideas, which eventually led him to break with the religion of his forefathers.
Inizialmente Lagerkvist supportò il modernismo e il radicalismo, come mostrato nel manifesto Ordkonst och bildkonst (word and pickther art) (1913) e nelle opere Den Svåre Stunden ("The Difficult Hour"). Fu anche influenzato dal socialismo.
One of the author's earliest works is Ångest (Anguish, 1916), a violent and disillusioned collection of poems. His anguish was derived from his fear of death, the World War, and personal crisis. He tried to explore how a person can find a meaningful life in a world where a war can kill millions for very little reason. "Anguish, anguish is my heritage / the wound of my throat / the cry of my heart in the world." ("Anguish", 1916.) "Love is nothing. Anguish is everything / the anguish of living." ("Love is nothing", 1916.) This pessimism, however, slowly faded, as testified by his subsequent works, Det eviga leendet (The Eternal Smile, 1920), the autobiographical novel Gäst hos verkligheten (Guest of Reality, 1925) and the prose monologue Det besegrade livet (The triumph of Life, 1927), in which the faith in man is predominant.
Ten years later Hjärtats sånger (Songs of the Heart) (1926) appeared. This collection of poems is slightly less desperate in its tone and expresses the strive to come to peace with life itself that was to become so prominent in his later works. In Hjärtats sånger he wrote: "Only you, my bosom, is left, / you who can suffer, / you who can feel the depth of pain / but not complain." His prose novella Bödeln, later adapted for the stage, (The Hangman, 1933; play, 1934) shows his growing concern with the totalitarianism and brutality that began to sweep across Europe in the years prior to World War II. Criticism against Fascism is also present in the play Mannen utan själ (The Man Without a Soul, 1936).
Lagerkvist's 1944 novel Dvärgen (The Dwarf), a cautionary tale about evil, was the first to bring him international attention. This was followed in 1949 by the unusual plat Låt människan leva (Let Man Live).
Barabbas (1950), which was immediately hailed as a masterwork (by among others fellow Nobel laureate André Gide) is probably Lagerkvist's most famous work. The novel is based on a minor Biblical story. Jesus of Nazareth was sentenced to die by the Roman authorities immediately before the Jewish Passover, when it was customary for the Romans to release someone convicted of a capital offense. When the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate offers to free Jesus or Barabbas, a convicted thief and murderer, a Jerusalem mob demands the release of Barabbas, who spends the rest of his life trying to come to terms with why he was chosen to live.
The novel was filmed in 1962, with Anthony Quinn playing the title role.
Lagerkvist died in Stockholm.
Works
- Ordkonst och bildkonst (1913)
- Motiv (1914)
- Järn och människor (1915)
- Ångest (1916)
- Teater (1918)
- Kaos (1919)
- Det eviga leendet (1920)
- Den lyckliges väg (1921)
- Onda sagor (1924)
- Gäst hos verkligheten (1925)
- Hjärtats sånger (1926)
- Han som fick leva om sitt liv (1928)
- Bödeln (1933)
- Den knutna näven (1934)
- Seger i mörker (1939)
- Sång och strid (1940)
- Dvärgen (1944)
- Barabbas (1950)
- Aftonland (1953)
- Sibyllan (1956)
- Det heliga landet (1964)
- Mariamne (1967)
Note e riferimenti
Mesopotamia
Impero neo-babilonese
Independence from Assyrian rule
Through the centuries of Assyrian domination, Babylonia enjoyed a prominent status, and revolted at the slightest indication that it did not. However, the Assyrians always managed to restore Babylonian loyalty, whether through granting of increased privileges, or militarily. That finally changed in 627 BC with the death of the last strong Assyrian ruler, Ashurbanipal, and Babylonia rebelled under Nabopolàssar the Chaldean the following year. With help from the Medes, Nineveh was sacked in 612, and the seat of empire was again transferred to Babylonia.
Nebuchadnezzar
Nabopolassar was followed by his son Nebuchadnezzar II, whose reign of 43 years made Babylon once more the mistress of the civilized world. Only a small fragment of his annals has been discovered, relating to his invasion of Egypt in 567 BC, and referring to "Phut of the Ionians".
Rise of the Achaemenids
Of the reign of the last Babylonian king, Nabonidus (Nabu-na'id), and the conquest of Babylonia by Cyrus, there is a fair amount of information available. This is chiefly derived from a chronological tablet containing the annals of Nabonidus, supplemented by another inscription of Nabonidus where he recounts his restoration of the temple of the Moon-god at Harran; as well as by a proclamation of Cyrus issued shortly after his formal recognition as king of Babylonia. It was in the sixth year of Nabonidus (549 BC) that Cyrus, the Achaemenid Persian "king of Anshan" in Elam, revolted against his suzerain Astyages, "king of the Manda" or Medes, at Ecbatana. Astyages' army betrayed him to his enemy, and Cyrus established himself at Ecbatana, thus putting an end to the empire of the Medes. Three years later Cyrus had become king of all Persia, and was engaged in a campaign in the north of Mesopotamia. Meanwhile, Nabonidus had established a camp in the desert, near the southern frontier of his kingdom, leaving his son Belshazzar (Belsharutsur) in command of the army.
In 539 BC Cyrus invaded Babylonia. A battle was fought at Opis in the month of June, where the Babylonians were defeated; and immediately afterwards Sippara surrendered to the invader. Nabonidus fled to Babylon, where he was pursued by Gobryas, the governor of Gutium[1], and on the 16th of Tammuz, two days after the capture of Sippara, "the soldiers of Cyrus entered Babylon without fighting." Nabonidus was dragged from his hiding-place, and Gutian guards were placed at the gates of the great temple of Bel, where the services continued without interruption. Cyrus did not arrive until the 3rd of Marchesvan (October), Gobryas having acted for him in his absence. Gobryas was now made governor of the province of Babylon, and a few days afterwards the son of Nabonidus died. A public mourning followed, lasting six days, and Cambyses accompanied the corpse to the tomb[senza fonte].
Cyrus now claimed to be the legitimate successor of the ancient Babylonian kings and the avenger of Bel-Marduk, who was assumed to be wrathful at the impiety of Nabonidus in removing the images of the local gods from their ancestral shrines, to his capital Babylon. Nabonidus, in fact, had excited a strong feeling against himself by attempting to centralize the religion of Babylonia in the temple of Marduk at Babylon, and while he had thus alienated the local priesthoods, the military party despised him on account of his antiquarian tastes. He seems to have left the defense of his kingdom to others, occupying himself with the more congenial work of excavating the foundation records of the temples and determining the dates of their builders.
The invasion of Babylonia by Cyrus was doubtless facilitated by the existence of a disaffected party in the state, as well as by the presence of foreign exiles like the Jews, who had been planted in the midst of the country. One of the first acts of Cyrus accordingly was to allow these exiles to return to their own homes, carrying with them the images of their gods and their sacred vessels. The permission to do so was embodied in a proclamation, whereby the conqueror endeavored to justify his claim to the Babylonian throne. The feeling was still strong that none had a right to rule over western Asia until he had been consecrated to the office by Bel and his priests; and accordingly, Cyrus henceforth assumed the imperial title of "King of Babylon."
A year before Cyrus' death, in 529 BC, he elevated his son Cambyses II in the government, making him king of Babylon, while he reserved for himself the fuller title of "king of the (other) provinces" of the empire. It was only when Darius Hystaspis ("the Magian") acquired the Persian throne and ruled it as a representative of the Zoroastrian religion, that the old tradition was broken and the claim of Babylon to confer legitimacy on the rulers of western Asia ceased to be acknowledged. Darius, in fact, entered Babylon as a conqueror.
After the murder of Smerdis the Usurper by Darius, it briefly recovered its independence under Nidinta-Bel, who took the name of Nebuchadnezzar III, and reigned from October 521 BC to August 520 BC, when the Persians took it by storm. A few years later, probably 514 BC, Babylon again revolted under Arakha; on this occasion, after its capture by the Persians, the walls were partly destroyed. E-Saggila, the great temple of Bel, however, still continued to be kept in repair and to be a center of Babylonian patriotism, until at last the foundation of Seleucia diverted the population to the new capital of Babylonia and the ruins of the old city became a quarry for the builders of the new seat of government.
Conquista islamica della Mesopotamia persiana
The collapse of the Sassanid polity after the death of Khusrau II left the Persians in a weak position vis-a-vis Arab invaders. At first the Muslims merely attempted to consolidate their rule over the fringes of the desert and the Lakhmid Arabs. The border town of Hira fell to the Muslims in 633. The Sassanids had reorganized under a new king, Yazdegerd III.
The main military commander of the Muslims, Khalid ibn al-Walid, was able to conquer most of Mesopotamia (Iraq) from the Persians in a span of nine months, from April 633 until January 634, after a series of battles. The following are some of the most significant battles fought between the Muslim Arabs and the Persians in Mesopotamia.
Battle of Walaja
The Battle of Walaja was a battle fought in Mesopotamia (Iraq) on May 633 between the Muslim Arabs under Khalid ibn al-Walid against the Persian Empire and its Arab allies. The strength of the Persian army at the battle was 10,000–50,000 compared to 18,000 for the Arabs.
Khalid decisively defeated the Persian forces using a variation of the double envelopment tactical manoeuvre, similar to the manoeuvre Hannibal used to defeat the Roman forces at the Battle of Cannae, though Khalid developed his version independently.
Battle of Firaz
Khalid defeated the combined forces of the Persian Empire, Byzantine Empire and Christian Arabs at the Battle of Firaz. The result of the battle was a decisive victory for Khalid, which led to most of Mesopotamia being annexed by the Muslims.
After this victory, Khalid left Mesopotamia to lead another campaign at Syria against the Roman Empire, after which Mithna ibn Haris took command in Mesopotamia.
Battle of the Bridge
The Sassanids mounted a counterattack under Bahman Jadu, who led 9,000 Persians against 10,000 Arabs. The Persians won a major victory at the Battle of the Bridge against the Muslims in October 634, in which Abu Ubaid was killed in battle. The Persians lost 600 men, and the Arabs more than 4,000.
After a decisive Muslim victory against the Romans in Syria at the Battle of Yarmuk in 636, the second caliph, Umar, was able to transfer forces to the east and resume the offensive against the Sassanids.
The Battle of al-Qādisiyyah
This was the decisive engagement that sealed the fate of the Sassanid empire. Intorno all'anno 636, Rostam Farrokhzād, advisor and general for Yazdegerd III (r. 632–51) condusse un esercito di circa 60.000 uomini a al-Qādisiyyah, presso l'odierna città di Hilla in Iraq. Alcuni lo hanno criticato per la sua decisione di affrontare gli Arabi in casa loro — nel deserto — and surmised that the Persians could have held their own if they had stayed on the opposite bank of the Euphrates.
Il Califfo Umar mandò 36.000 uomini comandati da Sa`d ibn Abī Waqqās contro l'esercito persiano. Fu così che iniziò la Battaglia di al-Qādisiyyah, con i persiani che prevalsero in un primo momento, ma al terzo giorno di battaglia, the Muslims gained the upper hand. Il generale persiano Rostam Farrokhzād fu catturato e beheaded. Secondo alcune fonti, i Persiani persero 20.000 uomini mentre gli Arabi 8.500.
In seguito alla battaglia, l'esercito Arabo si diresse verso Ctesiphon (anche chiamata Madā'in in Arabo), la capitale dell'impero, che fu rapidamente evacuata da Yazdgird dopo un breve assedio. Dopo la presa della città, gli arabi continuarono il loro cammino verso est all'inseguimento di Yazdgird e delle sue truppe rimanenti. Within a short space of time, gli Arabi sconfissero un major Sāsānian counter-attack in the Battle of Jalūlā', as well as other engagements at Qasr-e Shirin, and Masabadhan. A partire dalla metà del VII secolo, gli Arabi controllarono tutta la Mesopotamia, inclusa l'area che è ora la provincia iraniana di Khuzestan.
Mario Bros.
Nemici
Ci sono vari tiri di nemici.
- Shellcreepers look like turtles. They move slowly, and it only takes one hit to flip them over.
- Sidesteppers look like crabs. They move the fastest of all the pests, and it takes two hits to flip them over. After taking one hit, sidesteppers move faster.
- Fighterflies. They move by taking short hops, and can only be hit when touching the ground.
There are other enemies that do not need to be killed to clear the phase.
- Slipice (later renamed Freezies). They move slowly. A hit instantly kills them. A new one is respawned in a few seconds if the previous one is killed. They can freeze a platform, turning it into ice, making it harder to maneuver Mario. If a platform is iced, it is returned to normal at the start of the next phase. If all three ice-eligible platforms are iced, no more slipices spawn for that phase.
- Icicles. They start appearing on Phase 16, after the third coin phase.
- Red Fireballs. They bounce diagonally. Mario can kill a fireball by hitting the ground as the fireball bounces; killing a fireball is unwise, as one soon respawns and moves faster. If the red fireball makes a complete circuit of the screen, it disappears and then respawns moving faster, effectively limiting the amount of time Mario can safely take to complete a phase. Normally, only one fireball is present; after the fifth coin phase, Phase 29, two fireballs are present simultaneously.
- White Fireballs. (sometimes called hurricanes) They move horizontally, spawning on one end of the screen and travelling to the other. They bounce at regular intervals, making it risky to jump over one.
Phases
- Phase 1-2. Shellcreepers
- Phase 3. First coin phase; POW not replenished
- Phase 4. Sidesteppers
- Phase 5. Sidesteppers and shellcreepers; this is the only phase in the game that has both sidesteppers and shellcreepers.
- Phase 6. Fighterflies
- Phase 7. Fighterflies and sidesteppers
- Phase 8. Second coin phase; POW replenished
- Phase 9. Slipice are now present on every phase; fighterflies and shellcreepers.
- Phase 10, 11. Fighterflies and sidesteppers
- Phase 12-14. Same as 9-11, but the fireballs are more frequent
- Phase 15. Third coin phase; floors turn invisible; POW replenished
- Phase 16-21. Icicles are now present on every phase; otherwise same as 9-14. Fireball frequency is decreased on phases 16-18.
- Phase 22. Fourth coin phase; POW replenished
- Phase 23-28. Same as 16-21, but fireball frequency is maximum and icicles are more common.
- Phase 25. Phase counter replaced with a red "KO".
- Phase 29. Fifth coin phase; POW replenished
- Phase 30-35. Same as 23-28, but now two red fireballs appear on each phase.
- The same pattern of 7 phases repeats for the remainder of the game.
Scoring
- Kicking off a pest: 800 points. If you can kick off multiple pests at one time, the value increases to 1600, 2400.
- Each coin is worth 800 points.
- Killing a slipice is worth 500 points.
- Killing a white fireball (hurricane) is worth 200 points. It is possible to kill it by hitting the floor just after it bounces.
- Killing a red fireball is worth 1000 points. This is usually a bad idea, as it immediately respawns and then moves faster.
- You can kill an icicle as it is forming, but this is not worth any points. If you touch an icicle after it has formed, but not dropped, Mario dies.
- Getting all 10 coins on the coin phase is worth 5000 the first time and 8000 later times.
- Flipping over a pest is worth 10 points.
Strategy
Usually, you should try to clear the phase as quickly as possible. Risking a life for 800 extra points is not usually worth it. The danger level increases as the phase progresses, because the red fireball gets faster.
You should try to kick off as many pests as possible at the start of each phase. If you do not kill some of the pests quickly, you can get stuck in a situation where many lives are lost on one phase.
Use the POW only if you expect to lose a life, especially if you may lose control and lose multiple lives, due to too many pests onscreen. Try to save at least one charge left in the POW, because standing on the POW is a useful escape strategy. Remember when a coin phase is approaching, so you can freely use up the POW when you know it is about to recharge.
The enemies behave deterministically. You can anticipate where they will be. The white fireballs spawn at regular intervals based on where Mario is standing. Anticipate where you will need to hit a pest, and stand elsewhere to draw the white fireballs. Only icicles spawn randomly, and the time interval between icicles spawning and dropping is constant.
You can jump over a pest, or walk under a fighterfly. Jumping over a white fireball is possible, but only at certain parts of the screen. Jumping over a fireball should be a last resort.
If a sidestepper is about to wake up, hit it again to wake it up. This way, it won't change color and increase speed. It usually pays to let fighterflies speed up, because their slow speed makes it more likely that a fireball or icicle will kill you before the fighterfly is in position. Notice that the last enemy onscreen speeds up to maximum if it is a sidestepper or shellcreeper. It sometimes pays to flip over a fighterfly, knowing you won't be able to kick it off in time, just to speed it up.
Comparison of versions
- The Japanese arcade version of Mario Bros. features an extra life every 30000 points, compared with only one free life per game in the English version.
- The NES has all game features except icicles, but the animation of the original has been simplified; for instance, the turtles can not be seen 'naked'. It is more stingy with time on the coin phase. The NES does not have the invisible coin phase.
- The Atari 7800 version is similar to the NES version, but with worse graphics.
- The Atari 5200 version has far fewer colors than the Atari 7800, but the animation is almost as detailed as the arcade version
- The Atari 2600 version is the least faithful of all versions. Due to 2600 limitations, there is only one pest per floor at a time. You can kick off the slipice as it is icing a floor. Iced floors only heal at the coin phase.
- The Apple II version included the invisible coin phase and icicles. However, the game is slow due to system limitations.
- The Commodore 64 version, published and ported by Atari in 1984, is extremely playable but includes the following bugs in two player mode: player two cannot jump player one; a player occasionally sticks on the top level when trying to bounce the other player; player two cannot knock player one from the wraparound side platform from beneath. In addition, the fireball animation has a graphical glitch, and there are several problems with the sound.
Trivia
The musical introduction at the beginning of the game is the beginning of first movement of Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik.
External links
Super Mario Bros.
The point where Mario continues depends on how far he ran through the level before dying; either from the very beginning, or a set ___location approximately halfway through the level.
In early 2004, Nintendo rereleased the game on the Game Boy Advance in Japan as part of their Famicom Minis collection and in the U.S. as part of the Classic NES Series. Unlike previous re-releases, these versions contain no graphical updates. Differences between this and the original are that the screen images appear a bit squashed, due to the smaller GBA screen, and the high score is saved to the cartridge. In 2005, Nintendo released this game again for the GBA as part of its 20th Anniversary with a special edition, selling approximately 876,000 units [1].
The reason for this is because the pipe at the end of the level leads to the very beginning, instead of dry land, and therefore, the level loops, or repeats itself. The name was created by a glitch, and since it is not a normal level, the name is literally (nothing)-1, creating the effect of -1.
warp pipes without an onscreen value quickly. More "glitch" levels are available, but only through special memory-modifying tools such as the Game Genie.
World 36 in the Japanese Famicom Disk System version of the game is considerably different and has three levels, after which the player is returned to the title screen as though he or she completed the game. This glitch has been fixed in the Super Mario All-Stars remake.
Jumping the flag
Dating from the time of the original Super Mario Bros. release, urban legend claimed that in levels 3-3 and 7-2 it is possible to jump over the flag at the end of the level by exploiting pulleys. The claim was for the most part unsubstantiated until 1999 when a NESticle movie demonstrating the capability was publicly released. [2] When the engine was redone for the SNES game Super Mario All-Stars, this ability was retained while found less difficult to perform (and, interestingly, the -1 bug was removed). Creators of tool-assisted console videos have also demonstrated (in the original NES game) that the flagpole can be surmounted on several other levels including 1-1. This is done by exploiting a glitch to induce a Koopa Troopa to walk across the bottom edge of the screen and then using it for an extra bounce over the pole. However, jumping the flag is not very useful as the level goes on forever and is completely empty after this. There is nothing to do but to keep running forward until Mario dies from Time Over. There are also many levels in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels in which jumping over the flag is possible.
Little Fiery Mario
Internal to the game, Mario's powerup state is recorded in two independent variables; one describes size (0=regular; 1=super) and the other tracks the 'upgrade state' (0=need mushroom; 1=need flower; 2=has flower). The 'size' decides the sprite (small on 0; big on 1) used for Mario; the 'upgrade state' decides what powerup will come out of a block (mushroom on 0; flower on 1 or 2) and what will happen when Mario is hit (die on 0; switch 'size' and clear 'upgrade state' on 1).
These states can be knocked out of synchronization. The game checks for all sprite collisions, knocks the 'upgrade state' to 0 if it hits, and switches size only when all checks are done. If Mario's sprite strikes the King Koopa sprite and the bridge release sprite in one frame, the game will register the collision between Mario and Koopa, knock the 'upgrade state' to 0, register the collision between Mario and the bridge release, and jump into the level complete loop that causes Mario to walk to the right -- and never switches the 'size' variable.
If Mario was naturally large (state 1 or 2, size 1) when he hit the switch he will stay large (state 0, size 1). If he strikes an enemy he will die (because his 'upgrade state' is 0), but he can break blocks. If he gets a mushroom, he will shrink and be unable to hit blocks; if he is hit now, he will grow again. If he gets a fire flower, his pallette will be changed and he will be able to shoot (but the game will use the large image for shooting; it will, however, keep Mario's small feet if Mario is moving.) Mario will now be Little Fiery Mario.
If Mario was naturally small (state 0, size 0) when he hit the switch he will appear to die but the level will still be beat and he will not lose a life. If Mario was unnaturally small (state 1 or 2, size 0) when he hit the switch (that is, if he does this trick twice), he will revert to his normal form. When Mario dies his size is set small and his state is set unupgraded, no matter how he died or what his state was before.
Using the third part only of a 3-code Game Genie code for "Always Stay Big" will produce similar results (the code is SZLIVO). As long as Mario has gained a power-up, he will become small when hit, then grow when hit a second time. This is a much simpler way to view the "Little Fiery Mario" quirk.
This glitch, originally discovered by gamers Grady Haynes and Tom Shoemake, appears to have been fixed in the Super Mario All-Stars version, though you can still see it with a cheating device.
Trivia
Super Mario and the Game Genie
It is a well-known phenomenon among those who possessed a real Game Genie that by some quirk in how the original Super Mario Bros. was programmed, the game has proven to be extremely receptive to Game Genie codes, responding with far more effects than any other known NES game. Hundreds (possibly thousands) of codes have been generated, and although large lists of them exist, none of them has proven truly comprehensive.
Altri progetti
Wikiquote contiene citazioni di o su Casmiki/Sandbox
Collegamenti esterni
- Super Mario Bros. Headquarters
- Super Mario Bros at The NES Files
- toadscastle.net
- The Mushroom Kingdom
- Secret Maryo Chronicles, a GPL'ed clone using similar characters and built with Simple DirectMedia Layer and C++
- Mega Mario, a GPL'ed clone using similar characters and built with C++
- SuperTux, a GPL'ed SDL-based game with similar game-play starring Tux the Linux penguin (Wikipedia entry for SuperTux)
- Super Maryo World, full clone of Super Mario Brothers in Javascript