Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2017 July 3

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

July 3

Anybody knows this flash game?

A while ago I came across this flash game which I found was quite different from others but I have since forgotten its name. Here are the things I remember. Gameplay-wise there are basically a bunch of different colour balls on the screen (sometimes there are obstacles too). You click on one of the balls to select it, then you get to control the direction and force with which you shoot the ball. The aim is to let the ball impact as many balls of the same colour as possible, which will get tagged and disappear from the screen. The goal is to eliminate all balls in the least number of shots possible. I forgot whether there's a limit to the number of shots you can take for each level. There is also an arcade game mode where there are no obstacles and you aren't allowed to miss or something like that. Oh and there's a special ball that is half white and half rainbow coloured, which changes its colour to match whichever ball it impacts first. The annoying thing about finding this game is that search results often render classic-bubble-shooter-type games due to the similarity in destroying balls of the same colour, but at the same time this is a kind of a billiards game due to the way the balls bounce off obstacles and balls at certain angles and the walls are also solid as well. I don't honestly think anyone will have seen this game before (and I forgot the website on which it is hosted so my bad) but I'm just giving it a shot anyway (excuse the pun). The Average Wikipedian (talk) 15:40, 3 July 2017 (UTC)

Armor Games has a huge selection of flash games. Category 'Ball' finds 112 games (here). You might try other categories (?). — 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:A975:997:5261:F444 (talk) 21:45, 3 July 2017 (UTC)

Much of your description reminds me of Zuma and its variations but it is pretty popular so it probably not what you are looking for. Hopefully it will spark some memories for others. MarnetteD|Talk 22:33, 3 July 2017 (UTC)

@MarnetteD: IMO it's actually quite different from Zuma because the balls spawn randomly on a table. Think of it really as more of a pool game than bubble shooter. Angles are quite important in this game. The Average Wikipedian (talk) 05:45, 4 July 2017 (UTC)

LOTR: Two Watchers and Stairs of Cirith Ungol

According to tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Gorbag, Gorbag's patrol was sent from Minas Morgul to Cirith Ungol, after the Two Watchers had noticed Frodo and Sam passing Minas Morgul. However, the Two Watchers belong to the Tower of Cirith Ungol, not to Minas Morgul! Now, was there in fact a different pair of watchers at Minas Morgul itself?

Another question related to this complex: Trying to pick up the thread of the story – who would have actually built the stairs of Cirith Ungol? According to tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Stairs_of_Cirith_Ungol, this remains unclear in the end. But as they lead to the cave of Shelob, it does not appear very likely the Numenorians or rather Gondorians created them, does it? If so – for what reason then –, Shelob must have entered the cave (from the other side, i. e. Mordor?) after the stairs had been built by men, but this I find admittedly rather far-fetched. What do the Tolkien experts say?--Tidrek (talk) 15:50, 3 July 2017 (UTC)

In chapter 10 of LOTR, Gorbag tells Shagrat "our Silent Watchers were uneasy more than two days ago ... but my patrol wasn't ordered out for another day". AFAIK, there's no other reference to Silent Watchers in the book apart from the pair in Cirith Ungol, so it's not exactly clear what Gorbag is referring to. Regarding the stairs, since both Minas Morgul and the tower of Cirith Ungol were built by Gondor, it seems likely that the stairs between them were built by them too, but I don't think the book says this explicitly. The book does say that Shelob lived in the pass before Sauron built Barad-dur however. CodeTalker (talk) 18:53, 3 July 2017 (UTC)

A number of years ago, I posed a related question on the Usenet group rec.arts.books tolkien, and one of the responders (Christopher Kreutzer by name) pointed out that Gollum had previously mentioned the presence of "Silent Watchers" in Minas Morgul:

... the phrase "Two Watchers" is used to refer to the Watchers of Cirith Ungol, but there were also Watchers in Minas Morgul, as we see here in this comment from Gollum:

"Nothing moves on the road that they don't know about. The things inside know: the Silent Watchers." (Gollum, The Black Gate is Closed)

Gollum is here clearly referring to Minas Morgul, as seen by the detailed description he gives of the road and the pass through the vale of Morgul, only later describing the other route that passes over Cirith Ungol. Of course, he fails to mention that Cirith Ungol is also watched, by both orcs and Watchers.

So if tolkiengateway.net says that Gorbag was referring to the "Two Watchers", that's probably a slip on their part for "Silent Watchers". Deor (talk) 10:15, 4 July 2017 (UTC)

Thank you very much, Deor, for this insightful response!--Tidrek (talk) 19:16, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

PS: I've fixed that now.--Tidrek (talk) 19:21, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

You're welcome, Tidrek. Here's another comment in that thread, from the knowledgable Tolkienist Steuard Jensen, that may be of interest:

I suspect that some of the confusion ... may stem from textual history. In early drafts of LotR, Frodo was a prisoner in Minas Morgul and Cirith Ungol didn't even exist. As I recall, the Two Watchers dated back to the original tale, so Tolkien did imagine them guarding Minas Morgul at some point. When the plot shifted and Cirith Ungol was invented, the story and description had to be divided between those two towers. The various "Watchers" thus both had the same textual origin, and it seems that Tolkien did not put much effort into differentiating them.

—Deor (talk) 19:57, 6 July 2017 (UTC)