#December 1987

[captainfreelance1]

The Doctor meets Ace

The Doctor Who serial Dragonfire is a sadly underrated story, it has everything comedy, mystery, drama and irony.

Dragonfire is one of the reasons why the Seventh Doctor and Ace, are my favorite characters in the series long history. Dragonfire introduces us to Ace and faintly hints at a new direction for the series for the few years anyway.

[chicinsilk]

US Vogue December 1987 ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Sleek and colorful cutout at the top, Liza Bruce's striped/plain monokini swim dress. Down below, a double dose of real color Andre Van Pier's one-shoulder bandeau over Anne Cole's hot pink mini dress. Beauty note: Color balance, -Yves Saint Laurent, warm and neutral make-up.

Découpe élégante et colorée en haut, la robe de bain monokini rayée/unie de Liza Bruce. En bas, une double dose de couleur réelle Bandeau à une épaule d'Andre Van Pier sur la mini- robe rose vif d'Anne Cole. Note beauté : Équilibre des couleurs, -Yves Saint Laurent, maquillage chaud et neutre.

Photo Irving Penn Model/Modèle Linda Evangelista Coiffure Oribe Makeup/Maquillage Laura Mercier

[iron-idols]

Filippe Abreu

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

𝔖𝔬𝔡𝔬𝔪 - 𝔈𝔩𝔢𝔠𝔱𝔯𝔬𝔠𝔲𝔠𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫

[itsallmadonnasfault]

@GregvsMatt December - from the official 1988 Madonna calendar ❤

[machetelanding]

It's not Christmas until Martin Riggs fights Mr. Joshua

[indecisivegloom]

[todaysdocument]

“The Parachute,” by U.S. Air Force artist Gregory K.H. Bryant, 12/27/1987.

Record Group 330: Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense

Series: Combined Military Service Digital Photographic Files

Image description: A drawing of a parachute attached to a small, peanut-shaped basket. In the basket is a man wearing a suit and hat.

[nerds-yearbook]

The New Universe inprint began to close with it's first graphic novel, The Pitt, which had a cover date of April, 1988. On December 22, 1987 at 6:06 EST, the city of Pittsburgh and it's surrounding area was destroyed by the Star Brand. Nearly half a million people were killed. The crator left behind filled with mysteries becomes known as the Pitt. ("The Pitt", Graphic Novel, New Universe)

[doctorwho2022]

Doctor Who episodes that aired on the 7th of December…

In 1963, The Forest of Fear (the 3rd episode of An Unearthly Child)  

In 1968, The Invasion Episode Six

In 1987, Dragonfire Part Three

In 1988, Silver Nemesis Part Three

[mitzirockerextendeduniverse]

[Hi! For... god, years now, I've had this massive Spreadsheet (yes, it requires a capital letter) of retro JRPGs I've wanted to (1) play my way through and (2) blog about. (1) was fairly easy after I stopped trying to play on original hardware, but I found it surprisingly hard to do (2) without it devouring all my free time. So instead of a dedicated blog, I'm just gonna do these short summary posts here whenever I beat a game. There's two in the backlog right now, starting with...]

What it is: The Tower of Druaga (ドルアーガの塔 Druaga no Tō) for Famicom, released on the 6th of August, 1985, developed and published by Namco. Based on the arcade game of the same name from June 1984, also published by Namco and chiefly designed by Masanobu Endō, creator of early scrolling shmup Xevious, it's the first game in - the Spreadsheet as a whole, yes, but also the Babylonian Castle Saga, a collection of (for the most part) vaguely RPG-like action games that tell the story of a prince named Gil, his lover, the priestess Ki, and their quest to restore peace to their loosely-Babylonian fantasy world.

What it's about:

I think the attract screen puts it pretty well! There's some more wrinkles to the backstory, which I mostly got from a strategy guide released at the time - an invading empire, the goddess Ishtar, the precise mechanics behind why, exactly, this is our heroes' last chance to save their kingdom - quite a lot for a mid-80s arcade game. It's pretty thin by RPG standards, but as a setup, it works, and I found it surprisingly engrossing.

How it plays: How do you make an RPG work in the arcade? Apparently, you turn it into a Pac-Man clone. Okay, that's a little flippant; Druaga may be a maze chase game, but there's a lot more going on in it than in most arcade games of its day. On the surface, it's a game about running around mazes, killing monsters, and grabbing keys to get to the next floor, until you defeat Druaga and rescue Ki on the top of the tower. All you have to do is fight your way to the sixtieth floor, right?

In any other arcade game of its era, maybe, but not here. Almost every floor of the tower also contains a hidden treasure that can only be revealed by performing a specific action unique to that floor. The higher Gil gets up the tower, the more he'll need them, from books to reveal the layout of darkened floors to a series of items that turn the increasingly common dragons from the most dangerous enemies in the game to an easily ignored afterthought. Pretty much every useful item in the game (there's several duds and a few traps) is needed to defeat Druaga, so knowing where they are and how to reveal them is absolutely key to beating the game.

The catch - because of course there's a catch - is that neither the treasures' locations nor their revealing methods are signposted at all. Every single one has to be trial-and-error brute-forced out, and they can get pretty arcane - entering a fairly long cheat code, defeating several enemies in a specific order, walking over a particular tile in a particular direction... The intent was for arcade-goers to 'solve' the game together, figuring out all its secrets over the course of weeks or months, but when you don't have a friendly mid-80s Japanese arcade crowd to help you out all you're left with is a mountain of guesswork. Or a walkthrough, which has been a standard bonus feature on its Namco Museum rereleases since the mid-90s.

What I thought: I had a lot of fun with this game! Admittedly I was using a walkthrough (in Japanese, because part of the purpose of the Spreadsheet is to practice my language skills) to bypass about half of the Intended Experience™, but the other half, the straightforward arcade action Pac-Man-with-a-sword gameplay loop, was engaging enough in its own right. Gil controls really well, you never feel like you're fighting the programming instead of the monsters, you can always tell why you died even if the game took a cheap shot, and its insanely generous continue system lets you jump right back to the level you were on with all your items intact when you run out of lives. It's still tough, but it's tough in a fair way, breaking up its fast-paced action into discrete digestible chunks with a chance to breathe between every floor. And frankly, though it is 1980s quarter-muncher hard, I've played indie puzzle platformers that were much worse.

And I do think it succeeds at distilling the RPG into an arcade format, though the result is only an RPG by the loosest possible definition. Despite the lack of numbers and exploration (well, in a sense) there's a distinct feeling of progression to Gil's journey up the tower, a kind of character growth uncommon to - basically any genre outside the RPG in 1984. As Gil collects treasures, he grows faster, stronger, better at navigating the labyrinths, to the point that, despite the increasingly tougher challenges the game throws at you, it almost gets easier the further along you get. With the continue system I mentioned, you can even jump back to floors you've already cleared (mostly to replace a particular item that occasionally breaks) and breeze through the monsters that once gave you so much trouble. It's this kind of thoughtful design that makes me really appreciate Druaga, more than I honestly expected to when I first booted it up. Give it a try, it's pretty good!

[mr-e-nigma]

RIP Scout tf2 you woulda LOVED Jackass

[chicinsilk]

US Vogue December 1987 ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Christy Turlington in a natural Golden Island fox cardigan - pure gold to black. From Karl Lagerfeld Furs. Below, a sparkle of pewter sequin dress by Suzana Monacella. Suga Hair. Make-up Andrea Paoletti.

Christy Turlington dans un cardigan naturel en renard Golden Island - or pur à noir. De Karl Lagerfeld Fourrures. En dessous, un éclat de robe en sequins étain de Suzana Monacella. Suga Hair. Maquillage Andrea Paoletti.

Photo Denis Piel

vogue archive

[atbussysparks]

d yall think that every december 5th after scout dies day hes reborn to die again like a promethean santa and what if he gets buried that day do he have tto dig his way out vegeta style and whatnot

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

𝔎𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔇𝔦𝔞𝔪𝔬𝔫𝔡 - 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔉𝔞𝔪𝔦𝔩𝔶 𝔊𝔥𝔬𝔰𝔱 ⛧🜏☥

[natromanxoff]

Record Mirror (December 26, 1987): 338/?

Credits to Michael Kane.