The map feels like a "whole" experience, rather than a series of individual experiences strung together. It doesn’t keep you in any one place for very long, nor does it sacrifice its ability to create memorable moments. Closely tied to that note about the layout and rounded-corners, there’s a focus on momentum in Brigandine. A lot of the fights kick off in a flash, they’re intense, and in a moment they’re over and we’re moving again. In his text file, Viggles expressed his intention to bring “deathmatch flow” to a single-player experience: he nailed it.Ĭombat is bite-sized, even up to the larger "setpiece" arenas. On top of that, there are several doors that open themselves with the careful use of WR (fast) lines, offering Viggles the luxury of a barrier without having to stop the player. Another defining aspect is found in the lack of right-angles – the majority of corners are rounded, leading to a sort of “roller-coaster” sensation as I zipped around the level. I was never lost, despite the level utilizing tons of clever “overlapping” in terms of connected space (both visually, and in combat), because Viggles put a great deal of care into making sure that my path invariably led me straight towards my goal. The layout is smooth, compact, and clear. what the hell is even that? While I don’t possess a degree in Gamerology, Brigandine offers great examples of what I considered satisfying “flow” at work in a Doom map. More to the point of what really butters my eggroll about this map is the flow. I can’t imagine attempting the blue key region to the south-east without that early, secret RL, but god bless the souls who try. As a mapper, I'd really like to use this approach more often. Each one comes with a small “bonus fight” (the details of which I’d rather not spoil), but it made finding them a lot more exciting, and the fruits of each secret all the more rewarding. The three secrets I did find were the Berserk cave, the early RL, and the BFG, and this is a perfect point to dive into some of the things I love about this map – to start, I admire just how much fun it is to find secrets here. I played using GZDoom on UV, securing 100% kills and items, and a modest 3/6 secrets (I couldn’t figure out how to reach the Megaarmor, the Backpack, and I’m not actually sure what the last secret was). I think I’m even more impressed now than I ever was. I wondered to what extent my view of the map would change, on the back of everything else I’ve experienced since my first playthrough. Having not played the map in 4-5 years, time that has been marked by an incredible journey into the Doom scene – both, as a player, and now a happy little mapper myself – this seemed like an awesome chance to revisit Brigandine. To sum up my experience at that time of Viggles’ brown, gothic gem with a single sentence, it would have to be “ Holy shit, you can make this kind of stuff?” After downloading my first source port, Scythe 2 was my introduction to full 32-map PWADs, and shortly after that, I tried my first single-map PWAD: Brigandine. I played UD, D2, and Final Doom for the first time around 1999, and went back to them (well, mostly D2 and Plutonia) every so many years, but the modding scene managed to stay off of my radar until 2016. Notes: Criticality and Miasma are long and difficult One Boom-format map by Chris Lutz (requires retres.wad for textures, ZDoom is author recommended although not mandatory) Whatever you prefer. You can play any or all of the month's wads, in any order and at any time. When a set has more than one map, you can do a single write-up for the whole thing or one for each map. Play along and post write-ups and share videos. Through user suggestions and my own picks. My goal is to maintain some diversity along vectors like difficulty and art style, so selections won't always default to whatever got the most votes. Thread cycles are now roughly a month and a half. The next thread will begin around April 15 "Smaller" refers to the amount of content, not necessarily the map count. The DWMegawad Club fills most of its days, but this club won't, so that you can maintain other Doom obligations. It's like the DWMegawad Club, but we'll focus on single maps and smaller mapsets.
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Trade Melyon any of the below to complete the quest.The number of trades needed to increase fame appears to have been greatly reduced in a recent update. I've added the functionality you requested, and also made it available for most of the items currently supported by this addon.NOTE: Some of the information below may be outdated. Gobbie keys, crystals, yagudo necklaces, many others. Now you can choose to run '//qtr loop' and it'll perform whatever current trade the NPC requires repeatedly until you run out of valid items. If you don't want to loop through everything for any reason, you can enter '//qtr loop 6' to limit the maximum number of automatic trades. If you change your mind in the middle of a loop, you can simply walk away from the NPC and the next trade will fail, resetting the addon, or you can manually reload the addon mid-loop. There is a hard-coded delay after each trade that may be slightly long or short depending on which NPC you are trading with. If you have problems with these durations, you can find them listed at the ends of lines 285-321 where it says 'loopWait = #'. You can manually change these #'s and reload the addon to test them. If one is far too long or too short, please let me know so I can update it for everyone. I tested the gobbie keys, zinc ore, seals, crystals, moat carp, vouchers, rem's tales, and ancient beastcoins and the delays seem reasonable. Too fast and the NPC won't accept your trade. Regarding the Reisenjima trades, I'm trying to work on the best way to implement the remainder of the trades and hope to be able to figure out the key-item scanning to make it way more efficient and effective. The addon and instructional readme are available on GitHub. I recommend downloading the latest QuickTrade x.x.x.zip from the Releases page. I previously released the addon "Crystal Trader" on this forum and it has expanded enough that I decided to rename it and re-release it. If you regularly trade any of the items below, this addon will help you save a lot of time in the process.Įlemental Crystals and Clusters: Trade with Ephemeral Moogles for storage or with Waypoints to accumulate Kinetic Units. Seals and Crests: Trade with Shami in Port Jeuno to store your various seals and crests. Rem's Tale Chapters: Trade with Monisette in Port Jeuno to store your chapters.Īlexandrite: Trade with Paparoon in Nashmau for the quest 'Duties, Tasks, and Deeds.' Moat Carp: Trade with Joulet or Gallijaux in Port San d'Oria for the Lu Shang's Rod quest.Ĭopper Vouchers: Trade with Isakoth, Rolandienne, Fhelm Jobeizat, or Eternal Flame to store your vouchers. Yagudo Necklaces: Trade with Nanaa Mihgo in Windurst Woods for the repeeatable quest 'Mihgo's Amigo.'Ĭornettes: Trade with Yoran-Oran in Windurst Walls for the repeatable quest 'Manragora-Mad.' Zinc Ore: Trade with Talib in Port Bastok for the repeatable quest 'Shady Business.' Special Gobbie Keys: Trade with one of the various goblins throughout Vana'diel. La Theine Cabbage, Millioncorn, Boyahda Moss: Trade with Melyon in Selbina for the repeatable quest 'Only the Best.' * The other 4 items that Yoran-Oran accepts are also supported. Wildskeeper Reive JSE Capes: Trade with an A.M.A.N. Reclaimer to trade a single cape, or trade with Makel-Pakel in the Celennia Memorial Library to trade 3 of the same cape. * Currently set to NOT skip dialogue when trading 3x JSE capes. Make sure your inventory does not have any capes that you want to keep. Pellucid, Fern, and Taupe Stones: Trade with Oseem in Norg. You will be charged Escha Silt.Īncient Beastcoins: Trade with Sagheera in Port Jeuno. ** Ru'Aun: Ark Angels, Heavenly Beasts, Warder of Courage Geas Fete: Trade with Affi, Dremi, or Shiftrix in the Escha zones and Reisenjima to speed up your acquisition of NM pop items. * UNTESTED - Mellidopt Wings: Trade with the ? in Yorcia Weald. * UNTESTED - Salvage Plans: Trade with Mrohk Sahjuuli in Aht Urhgan Whitegate to store your plans. Rufus meets the "real elephant" although it are some men in disguise as they do not want to reveal their real identity. It crashes in the town and sets the other buildings in fire. Rufus leaves with the balloon alone but it catches fire. After they catch the "animal" it turns out to be the oversized mother of Toni who suffers obesity on which Toni ends the relationship. They reveal the elephant is hiding in the abandoned shopping mall. Rufus and Tuck, a drunk, try to figure out a method how to catch the elephant in the past. Rufus also realizes everything that has happened in the Deponia-trilogy must have been a dream as the time frame in which those events take place still have to come. McChronicle is somehow astonished Rufus could remember the future: normally this is only possible when the time travelers wear a special hood, but he doesn't question further. Rufus reactivates the machine, but identically the same scenario repeats. He is however distracted by a pink elephant thus the glasses are broken again. McChronicle arrives with the car and Rufus tries to give parking instructions. Rufus activates the machine and time is turned back until some seconds before McChronicle arrives at the balloon. He is not eager to use the device as it will create a time split and the consequences are not fully known. His car is actually a time machine to travel back at some point in near past. Not much later the glasses are indeed destroyed by the car of professor McChronicle: an expert in temporary physics and the fourth dimension. Once outside, he gets déjà vu and thinks all of this happened before: the crystal glasses will be destroyed, Toni and he will split up and there is a conspiracy of the Organon. He only has to wrap up some crystal glasses, currently standing outside, and to pick up his girlfriend Toni. He is about to leave to Elysium with an air balloon. Rufus activates the bomb which will explode the planet. Not much further, a fallen Elysium can be seen. Wells 1895 novel, The Time Machine), arrives at the tower which should have destroyed Deponia in the original plan of the Elysians. Next, the game moves to Deponia, now an ice planet due to a nuclear winter, where an old Rufus, followed by the Fewlocks (a parody of the Morlocks from H. Goal finishes her story but wonders what she would change if she were able to travel back in time and if these actions could lead to a better ending to her story. As a result, nobody is aware Rufus is the hero who saved Deponia. In an attempt to avoid the crash of Elysium onto Deponia, Rufus fell off of the spaceship and died. Things changed unexpectedly thanks to Rufus who convinced the Elders of Elysium that he lives on Deponia, thus confirming that the planet is inhabited. That is why they wanted to blow up the planet. During the following decades the Elysians forgot their own history and were sure Deponia was only a dumping ground where nobody lived anymore. One day they built a spaceship called Elysium and left. Buildings became higher and higher and technology improved. The settlement became a town, eventually graduating to a city. Her ancestors started a small settlement on Deponia. In the introduction, Goal briefly explains the history of Elysium. Furthermore, the game has some optional minigames. These items, combined or not, are used to solve puzzles and advance the story. Rufus can startup conversations with other characters and put items in his inventory for later use. The game follows the principles of a classic point-and-click adventure: the user controls Rufus as he travels across highly detailed backgrounds as the plot continues. It is not ideally suited for importing existing sites. Note: This app generates clean HTML (choice of verbose and efficient) during the build phase. Check out the freebie, then buy the pro version. (By the way the somewhat crippled "non-pro" version is free. It also supports shared authoring, which can be very useful.Īgain, Freeway 5 Pro is a bit dated. It will detect the device and switch layouts (such as iPad landscape and portrait) on the fly. Switch tabs, alter the layout and that's it. They have also been known to have users send them their site document for hands-on assistance with an issue (let's see Adobe match that).Īmong other things, the current version - Freeway 7 Pro - lets you create tabs for custom page widths to correspond to various devices. You can also email tech support (based in the UK, by the way) and get solid support from them. Also, there is a very active user community and if you have a question, you can get an answer from the forum usually within an hour (and sometimes immediately). There are also quite a few third party actions available. It also comes with a lot of Actions (plug-ins) for everything from targets, rollovers and favicons to PayPal and more. You simply choose attributed from pop-up lists and set them as you wish, plus you can extend they with tags, Google analytics code, GoogleFonts, etc. For example, the CSS interface doesn't feature a massive pile of choices all at once. It is a great WYSISYG app and it supports custom tags and code, plus it is way easier. I made my trek from PageMill to GoLive to Dreamweaver, and finally switched to Freeway at version 3 because I was tired of the klunky nature of DW and am now using version 7. I've been using this for creating serious corporate sites for years. The ideal app for the beginner, with a ton of power and features for professionals. Within reason, it will look the same in a browser, too! And because you create an entire site in one Freeway document, it's virtually impossible to make a bad link between page The same layout in Freeway can be output in XHTML Strict or HTML 3.2, or anything in between, without changing your original layout. There's never a chance of a compromise or "old code" messing with your design. In fact, each time you publish a change, Freeway 5 throws out the old code and re-writes from scratch. Precision layout without pain Unlike so-called WYSIWYG HTML editors, Freeway isn't editing code as it goes. Simply drag-and-drop or draw a content frame and import-it truly is the same as desktop publishing. Use multimedia content like QuickTime, Flash, and Director just as easily as any other graphic format. Freeway 5 automatically compresses and resamples high-resolution artwork without changing the original files. Import graphics in nearly any raster or vector format, and almost any resolution or size. Use site-wide spell check and find-and-replace-even spell-check your graphic headlines-all without leaving Freeway's legendary WYSIWYG design view. Stay close to your design by making graphic headlines, cropping, rotating, or scaling photographs and illustrations right in your layout. Freeway calculates the most efficient layout code possible to reproduce your vision on the widest range of browsers and operating systems. Simply draw the page the way you want it to appear, and publish. The fastest Web design tool Design exactly what you see in your mind's eye. Freeway 5 Pro - our new flagship application for precision Web design features CSS layout and styling control, standards-compliant XHTML output, and hundreds of other improvements, all with the legendary WYSIWYG control that makes Freeway such a joy to use. Workspace Premium: All Standard features, plus advanced security controls for SaaS and web, unified endpoint management, and Content Collaboration Premium service.Workspace Standard: Includes SSO and MFA for all apps, microapps, personalized feeds, unlimited file storage, and Content Collaboration Standard service. Workspace Essentials: Includes SSO, SaaS, and web applications with multi-factor authentication (MFA).Licensing options start at 25 users per yearly contract, with a 20% discount for a 3-year contract. Other features include usage policies, bandwidth prioritization, and seamless migration to Microsoft 365.Ĭitrix Workspace offers several plans depending on the number of users, features, and duration. It allows users to access every app, desktop, and file with single sign on (SSO), eliminating the need for multiple passwords. The digital workspace also lets IT move to the cloud and store workloads at their own pace, whether in full or hybrid implementation. They can create custom workflows in minutes, creating increased efficiency with minimal cost. Users can choose from over 100 microapp workflows these are small and specific key actions employees use in their day-to-day work, so they can get work done faster without IT needing to build complex APIs. Simplified IT ProcessesĬitrix Workspace allows IT to create microapps using out-of-the-box integrations. Advanced contextual access management for IT include tools to disable printing, copying, and pasting in certain scenarios isolate web traffic from corporate networks and bring your own device (BYOD) options. It provides additional options to scramble keystrokes and protect against screenshot malware. Instead of using multiple VPNs that increase the attack surface, Workspace provides access at the application layer to securely deliver apps and data without exposing network assets to external discovery. Read more: Agile Project Management Methodology & Principles Enhanced Business SecurityĬitrix Workspace offers an alternative to virtual private networks (VPN) with strict zero trust security. Versions are available for Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, Chrome, and HTML5. Users can download the Citrix Workspace app, an easy-to-install client software that provides seamless, secure access to everything users need to get work done. Unified endpoint management gives companies the tools to promote mobile productivity. The universal search quickly locates documents in the cloud, within an app, or on a user’s desktop. The friendly interface provides a consistent experience across platforms. Companies can make a rapid recovery even when unanticipated disruptions occur, as remote teams can easily pick up work where they left off and continue meeting the needs of customers. Citrix Workspace Review: Features and StrengthsĬitrix Workspace Review: Features and Strengths Improved Employee ExperienceĬitrix Workspace helps companies implement remote work by providing employees a digital workspace they can access anywhere.Citrix Workspace is a cloud workspace that provides a straightforward work interface, simplifying administration and monitoring. Instead of having one computer with access to a set of applications and another mobile device having access to another set of applications, users have a single interface that provides them access to all of their applications, corporate data, files, and apps on any device, network, or location. With LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.Citrix Workspace is an all-in-one digital workspace solution that allows employees to securely access company apps and data in one central platform. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference Reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We monitor all Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. See our list of best Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) vendors. On the other hand, Citrix Workspace is most compared with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, Microsoft Remote Desktop Services, VMware Horizon Cloud, VMware Workspace ONE and NetApp Virtual Desktop Service, whereas Nerdio is most compared with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, NetApp Virtual Desktop Service, VMware Horizon View and Parallels Desktop. The top reviewer of Citrix Workspace writes "Fast set up, easy to install, with responsive support". Citrix Workspace is rated 8.8, while Nerdio is rated 0.0. Citrix Workspace is ranked 5th in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with 12 reviews while Nerdio is ranked 20th in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). At about the same price, you’ll get 3 stacks of the fluffy pancakes instead of two. We originally wanted to go with the original (what good writing here!) pancakes. But first, the sweets pancakes… Gram Pancake Menu Sweets Pancake We’ll update the next time we try out these mains and brunch offerings from Gram Pancakes. Of course, these are only pictures from menu. Also, look at the size of the Pan Seared Salmon. The Gram Hamburg Pancake as well as the Egg Benedict Pancake definitely caught our eye. Check out this Gram Pancakes Menu and find out some of the offerings that they have… Gram Pancake Menu Savoury Pancake Gram Pancake Menu Main Course When you think about Gram Pancakes, you’d probably know about its fluffy pancakes and that’s about it right? Turns out, Gram Pancakes is also a pretty good brunch menu that offers options such as eggs benedict, bagels, toasts and also mains like salmon and donburi. There are pros and cons to having Gram Pancakes at home and in this review, we’ll tell you what we had from Gram Pancakes and whether it is worth it to do so… The main problem of dining at Gram Pancakes is that the hype has not died down and the queue is still so long! Thankfully, Gram Pancakes has worked with Oddle to offer delivery and pick up options. Reminded us our 12 days travel to Japan where we tried out Pablo Cheese Tarts and flew SQ First Class, visiting the Private Room. With the current border restrictions, without physically flying to Osaka, you can still get a taste of Osaka through a visit to Gram Pancakes. Gram Pancakes originated in Osaka is famous for its pillowy (or ふわふわ fluffy) pancakes. Several research groups are working on addressing this issue. The transition from blocks to text is a very pressing problem for many teachers at the moment, and it is frequently discussed at computing education conferences. It also eases the transition for learners coming from block-based systems, such as Scratch, Snap or Alice. Stride is a Java-like language, and its attraction lies not so much in language features, but in its unique frame editor: Half way between blocks and text, it makes the entry into programming much easier than it ever was before with an essentially text based system. There is, however, now the added ability to write classes in Stride. Greenfoot 3 was carefully designed so that existing teaching material is still usable and existing instructions and tutorials continue to work. Java editing, as we know it, is not gone: Java and its old editor are still present, and we expect that many people will still use Greenfoot with Java. This version of Greenfoot adds the Stride language and its frame-based editor to Greenfoot. Greenfoot 3 has been released – the biggest change in Greenfoot since its original release. Recordings of these events will be accessible afterwards for viewing retrospectively.ĭon’t forget to mark this date in your diary with a big red pen and join us in a couple of weeks! 18:00 in Germany, Scandinavia, Italy, France, …Īfter this first event on 8 May, we will host Greenfoot Live every two weeks.The first Greenfoot Live event will be held on To join the event, please visit this link where you can also set a reminder.ĭon’t forget to mark this date in your diary and join us! Recordings of these events are accessible for viewing retrospectively at our channel. Save the dateĢnd Greenfoot Live event will be held on Monday,, at 5pm UK time (GMT + 1) You will have a chance to listen to us talk, as well as ask questions. We will discuss educational aspects, as well as general programming topics, related to Greenfoot. The event is aimed mostly at teachers who use Greenfoot in their classes, but also at general Greenfoot users. Greenfoot Live will be a regular chat event where members of the Greenfoot team will be live online and talk about Greenfoot, among ourselves and with you – the users of Greenfoot. Greenfoot Live started on 8 May and will be every two weeks. Programming Education Chat With The Greenfoot Team Monday,, at 5pm UK time (GMT + 1) Greenfoot Live (note: you can NOT rename your creations once you have saved them, unless you are planning to upload it for others to download)Īssembling the chassisfirst, there are 2 types of chassis you will see commonly: Now to save your creations, click the floppy disk save icon with a arrow next to it, type in a name relevent to your creation, i called mine "blocks", now you can move onto the next section to learn how to make your creation appear in the game's world. now, grab a seat block out of the menu and put it somewere on your build, this will allow you to spawn it, your creation will not spawn without it. you can change the block's colour at any time. when you click the colour you want it will instantly apply the colour, unlike lego's digital editor. To paint bricks different colours, left click the desired brick and on the right menu you will see two buttons, "paint" and "Material", for now you do not need to worry about the material tab, it is for making bricks transparent, shiny etc: Press the X on the right side of the screen and select whatever colour you want, scroll for more colours. To copy duplicate bricks, press "c" on your keyboard and then move the brick as if you have "cut" it. (note: you can't move the camera while moving a brick.) to rotate bricks, press the "g" key and then use the "q, w, e, a, s, d" keys. if it is the first block you have placed, you will not have to worry about moving it because all of the rest of the blocks can move onto it, as the foundation of your build, if you want to move your block press "g" on the keyboard and then you will be able to move it again, left click to stop moving. then drag the block into place (moving your mouse and scroling holding shift and moving the mouse up and down. First, i will tell you how to spawn/place blocks, this is very simple, all you have to do is 1: type the dimensions of the block you want (eg: 4x2x1) and click it to spawn it. Boom Boom Football offers prominent features such as Train and Evolve your Team, Crush the Competition, Enhance your Skills and more. There are multiple stages available, and each stage offers the different team to compete. Kick the ball and effort as many goals as possible compared to an opponent team within the time limit to become the hero. There are five different card classes such as All Star, Platinum, Gold and more. Evolve and train your players to dominate the playing field and earn the highest points to become the master. It mixes the sports, collectible cards and football elements and features up to three hundred player cards and enables you to create your team by selecting the best card from them. The game allows you to build your superb squad, plan your strategy and unleash your skills to lead your team to victory. Try it out, and you’ll enjoy it.īoom Boom Football developed and published by Hothead Games is an Action, Football and Sports Simulation for Android and iOS platforms. Striker Soccer London offers prominent features such as Two Modes, Three Level Difficulties, Sixteen National Teams, and more. There is a chance for you to show off your sports abilities and impress your fellows. The team with the highest goals will win the match and earn the gold cup at the end of the game. The primary objective is to kick the ball and struggle to score the goal within the time limit. After selecting the team, you have to customize your players and jump into the game against another team. It takes place in the 3D environment and offers multiple matches. Up to sixteen national teams are ready to participate in 2012 Olympic. It has two different modes such as London Cup and Friendly Match. The game features all national teams and lets you select one of them to take part in 2012 Olympic Games. Striker Soccer London is a Sports, Football, Single and Multiplayer Simulation developed and published by U-Play Online for Android, Windows Phone, and iOS. FIFA Mobile Football offers prominent features such as Thirty Leagues, 650 Real Teams, 17,000 Real Players, Manage your Team, Attack to Win, Live Events, and more. In Multiplayer mode, the player can join together to build a team and compete against another league to show off their sports skills. The game takes place in different grounds around the globe and introduces Season mode with multiple teams from over all the globe. Several international teams available in the game and you can pick up one of them to present your nation while competing against another team in 3D environment. There are different mini-games available based on skills such as dribbling, shooting, goalkeeping, and passing. You also have an ability to defend the counter-strike from the opponent team. The game introduces a new mode called Attack, in which you mostly play the offensive levels of a match. Try it out, and it’ll entertain you a lot.įIFA Mobile Football developed by EA Mobile and published by EA Canada is an Action, Sports, Football, Single and Multiplayer Simulation for multiple platforms. Soccer Star 2017 World Legend offers core features such as Choose your Way, realistic Football Experience, Coach and Sponsors, Tough Decisions and more. After winning several matches, you can get access to additional teams and can unlock World Leagues. It has different training modes such as Penalty, Free Kick, Assist the Striker and more. Before getting the world, you can customize your avatar using multiple options and can give the name. are prominent national teams in the game. Spain, France, England, Germany, Brazil, etc. Become the manager, raise your skills as the real football players and shot the best. There are different soccer teams available, and you have to select one of them and lead your team to a victory scoring the goals in the realistic and 3D stadiums. Through the game, you can fulfill your dream to become the ultimate football players in the world. Soccer Star 2017 World Legend is a Sports and Football Simulation developed and published by Genera Games for Android and iOS. Murphy is now 89, his eyes as blue and alive as the ocean. I could interact with the gallery, I could laugh with my playing partners. Reading that allowed me to understand that, while I had to concentrate over the ball, the rest of the time I could just be myself. I love that line from Shivas, when he says golf is all about what happens in between the shots. It’s been very impactful on me in how I view the game. “It’s so rich,” he says, “that every time I read it, I take away something new. I said, ‘What is this?’ He growled, ‘Only the best golf book ever written.’ And he was right.” Jacobsen estimates he has read GITK a dozen times. “It gave us the language to talk about the spiritual side of the game,” says Brad Faxon, “which I had always believed in.”Īdds Peter Jacobsen, “In the late ’70s, I discovered my caddie Mike Cowan had one book in his possession - a copy of Golf in the Kingdom, which was all torn apart and held together by tape and rubber bands. But for golf’s soul surfers, GITK is holy scripture. For some readers it is simply too much philosophical woo-woo. The slender volume - just over 200 pages - includes cameos from Saint John of the Cross, Plotinus, Pythagoras, Parmenides, Plato, the Koran, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, the Bhagavad Gita, Pharaoh Ikhnaton, Pablo Picasso, Matthias Grünewald, Joan of Arc, Jean-Paul Sartre, Goethe, Meister Eckhart, Alan Shepherd and Sandy Koufax, to say nothing of Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones and Sam Snead. When he came out the other side, the story of GITK emerged from deep within his learned and agile mind. Murphy spent the 1960s expanding his mind - through meditation, hallucinogens, the study of ancient texts, and commingling with mystics and shamans. It would become one of the epicenters of the counterculture (and is still thriving today). In the years afterward, he cofounded the Esalen Institute, a retreat and research center on the cliffs of Big Sur dedicated to exploring and realizing human potential. As a young man, in 1956, he had indeed stopped in St. The second half of the book is a series of musings on the game, purportedly copied from Shivas’ journals. They never find this specter-like creature, but Shivas makes an ace in the moonlight using an old feathery and MacDuff’s only club, a crude Irish shillelagh. Finally, at midnight, Michael and Shivas return to the course (the fictitious Links of Burningbush, which shares much in common with the Old Course) in search of Seamus MacDuff, a sage and a seer who is Irons’ mentor. This is followed by a convivial dinner party where the meaning and mysteries of the game are discussed and debated. The first half of it is a tale in three acts: a young Californian named Michael Murphy is on his way to India to study the teachings of the guru Aurobindo but first stops in Scotland, where he plays a round of golf in which, under Shivas Irons’ tutelage, his consciousness is altered and game unlocked. That the very spark of GITK remains a mystery to its author should come as no surprise considering the book has been disorientating readers ever since its publication in 1972. “Norman Mailer said every writer gets one book that is a gift from God,” says Michael Murphy with a twinkle, “and Golf in the Kingdom was mine.”īut which deity bestowed the gift? Was it Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and redemption, whose name is evoked by Shivas Irons, the mysterious Scottish teaching pro at the core of the novel? Is it the Episcopalian god the young Murphy served in the 1940s as an altar boy in his hometown of Salinas, Calif.? Perhaps it is Buddha, whose teachings first entranced Murphy in the comparative religion class he took at Stanford, the seminal experience of his life, which set him off on a quest to become, in his felicitous phrasings, “an astronaut of inner space” and “lead a Manhattan Project of the psyche.” Maybe the book was a present from the very golf gods that beguile and bewitch us all, given to Murphy so he could help us make sense of an inexplicable game of which he writes, “How often have we seen a round go from an episode out of The Three Stooges to the agonies of King Lear - perhaps in the space of one hole?” When Murphy talks of the writing of GITK, his first book and, indeed, his first attempt to write one, he speaks in biblical terms, saying, “It came like a flood.” But to this day, the magical power and mystical musings of golf in the kingdom inspire, as does the unlikely story of its visionary author. Almost 50 years ago, Michael Murphy penned what many consider to be the definitive book on golf - not that he knew it at the time. |
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