Spontaneous Monotony

Red Alert is my favourite strategy game of all time. In fact, it’s up there with Final Fantasy VIII as probably my favourite game full stop. The sequel at the turn of the century was good fun too - now it seems that there’s a third Red Alert game in development for the same platforms as C&C3 (PC, PS3, 360). Given the hour I can’t post anything substantial, but here’s some highlights culled from the EA press release:

• Follows the three-side structure seen in the C&C games since Yuri’s Revenge. The sides are the Allies, Soviets, and Japan.
• Beta test entry (no word whether it’s automatic ala Crackdown/Halo3 or a lottery) for people who buy C&C3 Kane’s Wrath or the double pack for the PC
• Naval combat - always a staple of the RA games and ommitted in C&C - is included
• The more sci-fi developments of RA2 - dolphins, attack blimps etc. - return. Also: ARMORED BEARS.
• Did I mention? ARMORED BEARS!

It turns out that Tesla Coils aren’t just useful for defending your base from enemy tanks, they can also be used as musical instruments. Those of you old enough to remember dialup (*shudders*) will know what a Midi file is. Who would have thought that the playing of a Midi file would end up being a hugely popular video on
YouTube linked by the likes of Gizmodo? Well that’s exactly how these things work:

The music that you hear is coming from the sparks that these two identical high power solid state Tesla coils are generating. There are no speakers involved. The Tesla coils stand 7 feet tall and are each capable of putting out over 12 foot of spark. They are spaced about 18 feet apart. The coils are controlled over a fiber optic link by a single laptop computer. Each coil is assigned to a midi channel which it responds to by playing notes that are programed into the computer software.