Results: I Spy... Temporal Anomalies

Here are the results for the I Spy... Temporal Anomalies minigame, which finished on 24^th December 2008. I have listed all the nominations in order, even the ones that didn't score because they were never verified.

a strategy videogame or strat-RPG:
      Empire Earth (Bezman)

a first person shooter:
      Time Splitters series (Bezman)
      Timeshift (Bezman)
      Timegate (Bezman)
      Clive Barker’s Jericho (Bezman)

a platform game:
      Chronotron (Bezman = 3, verified: Katherine = 2)
      Braid (dj i/o = 2, verified: Bezman = 1)
      Plok (dj i/o)
      Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (Jose Zagal = 2, verified: Bezman = 1)
      Time Slip (dj i/o)
      Blinx the Timesweeper (Jose Zagal = 2, verified: Bezman = 1)
      Skyblazer (dj i/o)
      Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (Katherine = 2, verified: Bezman = 1)
      Jak 2 (Katherine = 2, verified: Bezman = 1)  

a fighting game:
      God of War 2 (Bezman = 3, verified: dj i/o = 2)

a computer RPG:
      Chrono-Trigger (Bezman = 3, verified: Katherine = 2)
          [Corrected; previously assigned the verification to dj i/o]
      Shadow of Destiny (dj i/o = 2, verified: Jose Zagal = 1)

a massively multiplayer game:
      World of Warcraft (Peter = 3, verified: Bezman = 2)

a text adventure, point-and-click adventure, or interactive fiction:
      Day of the Tentacle (Peter = 3, verified: Jose Zagal = 2)
      Time Hollow (Jose Zagal = 2, verified: Bezman = 1)
      Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the time rippers (Jose Zagal = 2, verified: dj i/o = 2)

a television show which never includes space ships:
      Heroes (dj i/o = 3, verified: Bezman = 2)
      Lost (dj i/o = 2, verified: Jose Zagal = 1)
      Life on Mars (Jose Zagal = 2, verified: Katherine = 1)
      Sliders, “The Guardian” (dj i/o)
      Weird Science (dj i/o)

a novel which is solely set on planet Earth:
      The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter (Bezman)
      “Magic Treehouse” series (dj i/o = 3, verified: Bezman = 2)
      Callahan's Lady by Spider Robinson (Peter = 2, verified: Bezman = 1)
      The Time Machine by HG Wells (Katherine = 2, verified: Bezman = 1)
      The Once and Future King by TH White (caller #6 = 2, verified: Katherine = 1)
      Behold the Man, by Michael Moorcock (caller #6)

a superhero comic:
      Avengers #8 (Bezman)
      Crisis on Infinite Earths (Bezman)
      Dragonball Z (Bezman)
      Judge Dredd: City of the Damned (Bezman)

      I’m not counting the Timecop adaptation nor Alan Moore’s Timewar since I don’t deem these to be a superhero comics. The Dredd comic was also marginal, but I have allowed it. If someone had verified, I would have allowed any of these though.

a one-off movie (which has no sequels, prequels etc.):
      The Time Machine (1960) (Bezman = 3, verified: Katherine = 2)
      Primer (2004) (dj i/o = 2, verified: Bezman = 1)
      Frequency (Jose Zagal = 2, verified: Bezman = 1)
      The Time Machine (2002) (Katherine = 2, verified: Bezman = 1)
      Groundhog Day (dj i/o = 2, verified: Bezman = 1)
      Run Lola Run (dj i/o = 2, verified: Katherine = 1)
      Mr. Destiny (dj i/o)
      Scrooged (dj i/o)
      Time After Time (Bezman)
      Time Rider (caller #6)
      Black Knight (dj i/o)
      Clockstoppers (dj i/o)

the lyrics of a song:
      Back in Time by Johnny Colla (Bezman)
      If I Could Turn Back Time by Cher (dj i/o = 3, verified: Bezman = 2)

Final Scores

• Bezman = 3+1+1+1+1+1+3+3+2+1+2+2+1+1+3+1+1+1+1+2 = 32
• dj i/o = 2+2+2+2+3+2+3+2+2+2+3 = 25
• Katherine = 2+2+2+2+1+2+1+2+2+1 = 17
• Jose Zagal = 2+2+1+2+2+2+1+2+2 = 16
• Peter: 3+3+2 = 8
• caller #6 = 2 = 2

            Winner: Bezman

Please let me know which “victory link” you want inscribed on the Virtual Cup in the comments!

A few scattered thoughts...

Using the Wikipedia et al... this is always going to be an issue. But as a resource available for everyone, I don’t want to ban its use, so the challenge will be finding targets which it doesn’t help with... I shall mull this and see what I can come up with.

For some reason, Katherine’s estimate of her score is 2 points higher than I make it in the tally – it makes me worry that I missed something... (It’s the difference between 3 and 4^th place for her and Jose, so please let me know if I made a mistake).

As far as I’m concerned, a console game is still a computer game (are you really going to claim there isn’t a computer in that console?)

There are indeed two film versions of The Time Machine, more if you count TV-adaptations... Because what Bezman and Katherine did here in dividing the spoils is in the spirit of the game, I am going to allow them both to score.

Shadow of Destiny – really unusual game. Glad to see people know about this one!

Time Slip – easily the most interesting thing to come out of Net Yaroze. I had lots of fun with this time travelling snail!

I can’t believe that no X-men comics were nominated for this! For shame!

I disagree with Katherine about A Christmas Carol – Ebenezer is shown the future, then changes it. That’s a temporal anomaly of some kind, surely! And being published 52 years earlier than HG Wells' The Time Machine, this might be the oldest temporal anomaly in print!

For the next I Spy game (which won’t be for a few months – I have something else in mind for the next minigame), I would consider coming down to single nominations each day – what do the players of this round think about that?

And I loved the song lyrics entries here – it made me chuckle most heartily!

Thanks for playing everyone! I enjoyed reading the transcript greatly.

A new minigame will begin in January 2009.

Update

Corrected the scoring error where dj i/o was assigned the verification of Chrono Trigger instead of Katherine.

Comments

[dj i/o]

1 nomination per day.... I don't think it will be necessary if you can successfully find a less researchable topic. :)

But we could always try it and see how it goes, and then switch back to 3 if it feels too restrictive. What does everybody else think?

I'd also like to add that I had a great amount of fun playing this game. :)

I also found it interesting, Chris, that you've actually played Time Slip. I've never had a chance to play it. Need to check it out sometime though.

[Behrooz 'Bezman' Shahriari]

I definitely agree with 1 claim per day, as you've probably read. What do you think of allowing folk bonus claims if they miss a day?

link: http://www.aciddica.com

I guess I should sort it out with some of my own stuff now...

[Chris]

Bezman: I forgot to ask you to also confirm what name you want inscribing. :)

Here's my draft:

Behrooz 'Bezman' Shahriari
Victory Link:www.aciddica.com

Let me know if this is okay, and I'll send the virtual cup off to its imaginary artisans to get it engraved. :D

Chris.

[Behrooz 'Bezman' Shahriari]

Sure is. :-)

Btw, sorry I never let you know I'd gotten the previous prize. Thanks a lot!

[Katherine]

Chris, I can email you the spreadsheet I made for this if you'd like; just flip me an email.

I see where your scoring differs, you got dj i/o as having verified Chrono Trigger, when actually he was arguing that it shouldn't be valid, but then I verified it. That should sort it out :)

[dj i/o]

Katherine can have Chrono Trigger, that's fine :)