10 years (and one day) ago, the first episode of Prehistoric Park aired. To commemorate this, I made this review.
Soon after this website was founded I included a link to a “Cool dinosaur game”. This link was one of the main reasons for the increased traffic to the website and brought joy to many a school mate all those years ago. An year or so ago the link went down, and so I subsequently removed it from the website. Well, today I can announce that we are back in business! Click the image to access the game.
I have decided to start trawling through the App store to highlight games that are worthy of downloading, and where better to start than this charming little puzzle game. It is worth noting that is costs money to buy, but I’ll assess that at the end of the review.
The gameplay of this app is relatively easy to understand, but harder to put into place. As the name suggests, you combine things to progress on the evolutionary scale. This starts with water and earth, which makes grass, and water and lava, that makes organisms (presumably some form of Amoeba). After that you combine various things to make more things. At first this is easy, combine an object with a different habitat to get a different object, such as a swamp plus a Lizard making an Alligator. Others are harder, some are about food (Bird plus Bunny makes Hawk), while others are about combining traits (Lizard plus Butterfly makes Bird). As you can expect, I got stuck, which brings me on to another point: Customer support. Not only did they reply to my post on the app store, they also replied to my email within a day. That is impressive.
Oh noes, pixels! Boo hoo! No, not really, judging on graphics would be stupid. I like the 8-bit feel of this game anyway. It also stops me from looking for anatomic issues, and suits it, making it look a bit like a 2D Minecraft, just where you craft organisms not tools
This is a palaeontology blog, so what can you expect. Well, this game has no prehistoric animals (One of my few gripes, but then I want prehistoric animals in everything). That said, what they have they do their best. My only complaint is surprisingly with the plants. Now, I’m no botanist, but I can see some, lets say, odd stuff. Grass is a very advanced and modern plant, evolving in India in the Cretaceous, so probably should be one of the last plants to get, while other plants, such as ferns, should come long before hand. That said, the animal evolution I’m fine with. Unlike with a ton of evolution games, birds actually evolve from reptiles and don’t evolve into mammals (I have a bone to pick with Triple lab about that one…). Amphibians and Dinosaurs might have helped to make the evolution happen more smoothly, but nothing’s perfect.
So far I have only found one. Usually when playing a creative game I try to disprove Jeff Goldbloom and contain life. Water holds back most animals, and lave holds back the swimmers. The only ones that can’t be contained are the birds, which makes sense, and the Alligators. Yes, the gators swam across lava. Other than that, I could not find any other glitches, which is always good news.
While I love dinosaurs, I wouldn’t suggest they get added now, as it would confuse the evolution of birds (That said, if Alligator plus Hawk makes a feathered Raptor, I would be a very happy man indeed). The gameplay is inventive, the company is helpful and as there is only one glitch. That said, after you get everything, if you are not imaginative enough you will run out of things to do, so I recommend this game if you are a creative person. That said, I happily give this game:
Also, note that the rating system compares this with all games, not just app games. Compared to other app games, this is a relative masterpiece.
For more information about the people who made this, Colludium studio, see their website.
Pictures from the Android App store.
The cold never bothered me anyway
A Nanuqsaurus in winter observing its snowy kingdom from a mountain. As a 6-7 metre Tyrannosaur it is the dominant predator of the Prince Creek Formation.
Yes, it has been a long time since I updated this blog but anyway, I’m back
I was recently asked to review this Hatzegopteryx model: http://www.flickr.com/photos/_quagga/8613016126/in/set-72157633143744671/
Unfortunately, there is very little in the way of Hatzegopteryx fossils, so most reconstructions are based on its close relative Quetzalcoatlus. I use both skeletal reconstructions: http://museumvictoria.com.au/pages/8758/mm-quetzalcoatlus-skeleton-biga.png and Paleoart (This one is by Mark Witton): http://metrouk2.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/article-1289843122891-0c1330a5000005dc-872280_636x618.jpg?w=636. A word of notice, ignore work by David Peters. His skeletals are reasonable but don’t let him put skin (and other silly appendages) on the bone!
Pros:
Cons:
The only cons are small nit-picks which are that the crest looks to big, the head is bald and the feet are webbed. However, as we do not have fossils of Quetzalcoatlus/Hatzegopteryx skin or keratin, we don’t know how large the crest was or the extent of the fur covering.
Conclusion:
An accurate well-made reconstruction, which is certainly up to the high standard Quagga Associates maintain (they made the Stuttgart NHM Plateosaurus)
This year red nose day released 3 red noses, each in the style of a dinosaur. Here is the low down of what they actually are:
Triceytops is probably the most obvious of the three; she is a Triceratops prorsus. It is sub-adult, as its horns are not fully formed. It also has large frill epoccipitals, which also suggests that it is juvenile. Unfortunately the model lacks a beak, but its a red nose for goodness sake!
T spex is presumably based on a Tyrannosaurus rex. Its large size and sharp teeth support this, but that’s all. Unfortunately it lacks feathers and its lower jaw it lager than the upper jaw.
Good gracious, what on earth is this!!! It has the head of a theropod, bumps on its back and a head bellow the shoulder. He is said to be 70 million years old, which would suggest an Abelisaur. But to be honest, I don’t think the manufacturers had anything in mind!
Can you guess what each fossil is?
Answers coming later!
Many years ago I found an old Pup-a-pet tyrannosaur with no strings in a charity shop. However, it was only two weeks ago when I found it again and inspiration struck me. I realised that I had to make the first Yutyrannus puppet! I found a piece of fake fur and a feather and sewed them to its back and head. I then decided that it needed strings, because it was a marionette. So I found a piece of dowel and made a handle. I then used kite strings to string it up. I had to use a glue gun to attach them to the handle so while I had it out I un-pronated the hands (so they were supinated) and added feathers to the arms.
Here are some pictures of the finished puppet:
On Friday I visited an “Afterhours” at the Natural history museum called “Dino Art” This was a fantastic opportunity to watch some of the greatest Paleoartists talk about their work. The Paleoartists present were Luis Rey, Rob Nicholls, John Conway, Steve White and John Sibbick with Darren Naish the Paleontologist. During the interval and after the presentations there was a chance to buy the book…
…which I had already bought the week before. There was also the chance to get them signed and drawn in, which is exactly what Steve, John and Bob were doing. I also had a chat to Luis about the new book which he and Rob Bakker are writing together. For more information visit Luis’ site here: http://luisvrey.wordpress.com/
In Primeval this week we meet many prehistoric animals. For me this means I have a lot of nit picking to do. Yay!
TYRANNOSAURUS REX
Oh dear. Why did this thing have to rear its ugly head this episode. I thought the idea in Primeval was to show lesser known animals or well known animals in a different light, not the single most famous dinosaur ever!
Because of this the Fankids who run the Primeval wiki exclaimed that the T.rex was “the only prehistoric creature in Primeval to have been made without any errors or mistakes” Oh really. They obviously weren’t paying attention to the arms and in particular the hands. They were pronated!
They were also pleased to see that it took a lot of shots from the taser to bring down and hoped that they would send it back through the anomaly. Erm, I thought they killed it!
Kaprosuchus
If the gnarled, ugly T-rex wasn’t bad enough, meet this mutant monster. I think they exaggerated on the “Boar Croc” thing, giving it huge cheek tusks. So this is what it should look like:
Anurognathus
Worst of all this wretched thing. Like the Jurassic park Compsognathus they are treated as swarming pack hunters, piranhas with wings (while Compies were described as piranhas on legs). Like Compies and piranhas they are misunderstood; Piranhas are scavengers or vegetarians, Compsognathus are probably Omnivores and Anurognathus are insectivores.
How can the above have anything to do with the below, described by Mark Witton as “a stuffed toy in waiting”!!!
I leave you all with this, not prehistoric, but primeval related picture:
I can has Cheezburger?
