Let’s Play: Ancient Greek Punishment
I recently read that the element Tantalum was named for Tantulus (no kidding, you say), by Anders Ekeberg, the Swede who discovered it.
“The name tantalum was derived from the name of the mythological Tantalus, the father of Niobe in Greek mythology. In the story, he had been punished after death by being condemned to stand knee-deep in water with perfect fruit growing above his head, both of which eternally tantalized him. (If he bent to drink the water, it drained below the level he could reach, and if he reached for the fruit, the branches moved out of his grasp.)[14] Ekeberg wrote “This metal I call tantalum … partly in allusion to its incapacity, when immersed in acid, to absorb any and be saturated.”[15]” (Wikipedia)
Perhaps more interestingly, tantalum holds a charge well, and is a major component of coltan, known industrially as tantalite. Coltan is infamous for being required to make modern mobile phones, and for being at the centre of lethal disputes in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Let’s Play: Ancient Greek Punishment
From the maker of The Artist Is Present – Marina Abramovic – The Game, Pippen Barr continues to merge retro gaming with culture with the latest offering about Ancient Greek figures who were punished for their deeds:
You can do it Sisyphus! Be the boulder! Keep on rollin’! Don’t stop! Never give up! No retreat! No surrender! No end in sight! Just delicious Greek torment as far as the eye can see and as fast as the fingers can type!
Let’s Play: Ancient Greek Punishment was written in ActionScript 3 using Adobe’s FlashBuilder 4.5 and the excellent Flixel library. It uses sound effects made in bfxr. The font in Let’s Play: Ancient Greek Punishment is Commodore 64 Pixilized by Devin Cook
Prepare for button-bashing … you can play the game here
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The Plastic Brain 