User:Mikado282/Sandbox

Heavy is not he previously jolly self.

Train

Train's paint scheme matches the "Bloody Nose" standard that Southern Pacific used from 1958 on -- with the exception that the characteristic SP nose wings are not the standard Sunset Red but the rare "Halloween" orange that SP experimented with early on.

Bugs

The road name "Northern Express" is in mirrored reverse on the right hand side.

Descriptions

This is the closest most players will come to hiking around old farm shacks,

User Boxes

This user is a fan of Atomicpunk.

This user is a fan of Spacepunk.

This user is a fan of Planet of the Apes references.

This user is a fan of Halloween mode

This user would like you to kindly consider clicking on this link to his replay.

Yes, this user is aware there are other modes than Halloween.

This user wants to be a REAL engineer.

Click for cheap replay.

Click to help user with the replay achievements.

Grainary

While most TF2 maps contain hidden missile bases, UlS farm kids really did tell visiting big-city kids that the big white grain silos were really missile silos.

References

Many item names and achievement titles embody puns and double or even triple entendras; part of the fun of the game is figuring those out. Spoiler alert: Answers or guesses at answers to the riddles in some of those titles are provided herein.

Achievements

The title also refers to Optical Diffusion, the scattering of light, which is an important game technology, such as in the Source Phong shader on the Valve Developer Community. Furthermore, the purposeful misspelling suggests that by defeating Demoman’s Optical organ the player is defusing an explosive situation.

Also, an w:array:array is a standard programing term for a set of things of the same type, like an array of missions.

Companies

others are simply references to actual or archetypical companies, products, and corporate art to support the game's general reference to the 1960s.

subtle incorporation of a "happy" emoticon into a common coopertive circle icon

In software and in general use, and array is an ordered set of of same or related type. the objective of this achievement is the completion of an array of raids

References Archer Daniels Midland’s green leaf and molecule logo (minus one atom), which in 1958 symbolized making industrial chemicals from plants instead of from oil or (ironically) coal.

From 1958, the "Double Circle CO-OP" was an trademark owned by Farmland Industries and was displayed by member CO-OPs.^[1]

Several unrelated retail businesses had and have the name Farmers Feed & Seed. Master Mix was a product and trademark of McMillen Feed Mills.

"Make hay while the sun shines." On the farm, we could play games inside, but only on rainy days. A wonderful rule. This gamer learned to read the clouds.

Shiny's Bullion/Gilded Gold

Bullion is another name for gold. Both signs reference a false appearance of gold: A gilded thing looks shiny but is not gold; and "All that shines is not gold." The word choices Shiny/Gilded reflect the BLU/RED new/antique dichotomy designed into the game art.

Foundry

Blue Corn Co. Grey Gravel Cornwell/Cornwell Casali Shafting Co./Dr. Wilson's AUTO-BORAX Self Scrubbing Mechanical Soap

XAROB-OTUA

As CP maps are generally laid out symmetrically, the Company signs on this map are symmetric in their references

BLU STEEL/RED IRON

These company names both reference characteristic colors of steel; Blue Steel and Red Iron. Note: Grey Iron is a type of gray colored cast iron.

BLU Blast Complex/RED Iron Works

A blast complex and an w:Ironworks:Iron Wworks are both places where iron ore is smelted into iron. Neither of these types of places is a Foundry. Note: Grey Iron is only made in a Foundry.

Industrial Trust the Best/Happy Farmers Trust the Best

Both signs incorporate a Happy Face. Both signs display a type of tractor. These types of tractors also echo the BLU/RED industrial/rustic dichotomy designed into the game art.

Goldstream Fuel Co./Brown Nugget Prospecting

Both of these company names reference one of two closely associated biological processes.

Scoot's Canoe/Sunny Hay

Moon and Sun

Cliffe Rocks Inc./Salt

Jimi Jam/Driller

Bigg's/Crummy's

Process Achievements See counter par This company is a reference to names th Like its counterpart BLU Steel, this company's name references several real businesses and products named Red Iron (after a characterist color of weathered iron). An iron works is a place where iron ore is smelted into pig iron. This company is a reference to names th Like its counterpart Red Iron, this company's name references several real businesses and products named Blue Steel (after a characteristic color of tempered steel) A blast complex is a place where iron is refined into steel.

Neither of these are foundries.

Red iron and blue steel are real names for real materials named for their characteristic colors, neither of which are made in foundries. Grey Iron is also real material named for its characteristic color and it is only made in foundries.

Red Iron may refer to a characteristic color associated with iron and steel or to forms of iron and steel that are associated with that color:Iron Red will refer more to the color, not to iron or steel Ironically, Grey Iron refers to specific alloys of cast iron, due to their characteristic mat finish or fracture. Related to the characteristic blue color of the ... oxide of iron, ... may refer to One of the four main opposing properties on Foundry. One of the two main opposing properties on Granary. Counterpart to the Red Iron, Blue Steel Property on Foundry. Like Red Iron, Blue Steel is a reference to the color of one of the two common oxides of iron. are both references to the natural colors of Blue is a color associated with steel. A Blast Complex implies Blast furnace operation, wherein iron is refined into steel w:iron alloys. Counterpoint to Red Iron on Foundry. Red is a color associated with iron.

Goldstream Nuggets

References biological function. Counterpart to Reference to a mammalian biologial process.

Counterpoint to Brown Nugget on Foundry. Counterpoint to Blue Steel on Foundry. Reference to a mamalian biologial process. Counterpoint to Goldstream on Foundry.

Historical Context

The content of TF2 is based on historical and cultural elements of the late 1960's. The setting of most of the first maps released for the game is 1968, generally in the southwestern deserts of the United States. Several later release maps are set a few years later the purpose here is to list historical events or movements that influenced TF2, but also to mention very important events and movements that are not omitted from the game. If we are to justify games as educational, then we should make efforts to that purpose.

Historical Context of TF2 In someways, the historical presentation in TF2 is reasonably accurate, if nostalgic. The art captures the Atomic Punk and Space Punk movements of the time, yet also shows many iconic references to bygone Americana (rustic farmsteads, delaptidate mines). The Cold War, the Space Race, Hippies, and World War II (the latter still culturally relevantin the late 1960's) are notablty, if steriotypically, evident in maps, items, character back grounds, or responces. However, other serious contemporary issues are not generally referenced; in particular, global civil unrest, War Protests, and Racial tensions.

Late 1960's

1968 is the time frame of the Gravel Wars 1968 is a culmination of a historically and culturally significant period in U.S. and World history

Referenced in Game

Cold War

China was relatively impenetrable.

Space Race

The US was winning the Space Race and was on the verge of the Manned Moon Landing, making the Monkeynaut business a bit anachronistic.

Railroads

Trains appear immensely popular with Valve and Community Developers, appearing in some form in almost all maps. US Railroads were completely dieselized by 1968, but rail passenger service has generally failed by this date, prompting the formation of AMTRAK, which began operation in 1971.

Popular Music

Surf Rock had progressed to Girl Rock and Car Rock and grown to influence soundtracks for Space, Spy, Monster, and Western movies and TV series; these later four forms being a basis for much of the Team Fortress Soundtrack (cf. In 1967, Tom Jones moved to the desert region to begin regular performances at Las Vegas lounges. His television variety show (This Is Tom Jones) abruptly ends with his death in 1971 at the hands of his roommate Merasmus.

Movies/Televison

Silver age of cinema?

Night of the Living Dead (1968) established the Modern Zombie genre (cf. Zombie Fortress) Nuclear Weapons dominated international relations (heavily referenced in TF2 Maps).

Star Trek (1966-69)

Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy was released in the United States in 1967, as tributed in TF2 by references in Engineer items and achievements (Face Full of Festive The Goo badn and .

The scores for these movies established Ennio Morricone's influence in Western movie music, as tributed in TF2 by "The Calm". (signatures whips, whistling, jew's harp, bells, trumpets, reverberating electric guitar

WWII

WWII was still a relatively recent and culturally pervasive event features in several moves produced at that time. (Soldier), references in several items but its significance was to begin to fade as Baby Boomers came to political influence. Having ended just over two decades prior, World War II is still a vivid national memory, but its cultural influence is fading to that of the Vietnam War. Several achievements and Items, especially those of Soldier, reference WWII equipment, events, or movies. Market Gardener Guns of the Navar0wned In 1968, Veterans of WWII are now in middle age and at their peak earnings stage, and they are confronting the Generation Gap -- their children the baby boomers are now passing through high school and college.

Hippies

Long hair became a political statement (Hippies, hair cuts, Hippies)

Soldier natural enemy of robots hippies.

Definitive events happened around 1968 Woodstock 1969

Not Referenced in Game

Some very Big Things were going on then and are referenced in the game, but some of the very Big Things happening then are not referenced at all. Most Americans still live on farms Major, harmful changes in U.S. diet: food processing, replacement of animal fat with hydrogenated vegetable oils. replacement of grass-fed cattle with grain fed Concentrated Feeder Operations

Protests of 1968

The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, predominately characterized by popular rebellions in many countries worldwide. This was much larger situation than the recent Islamist uprisings. These revolts were against military, capitalist, and socialist elites alike. The protests were brutally quashed in 2^nd and 3^rd world Communist Block countries, but were appeased by progressive spending measures in Western 1^st world democracies.

Cultural Revolution

Mao Zedong's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution targeted counter-revolutionary revisionists with violent class struggle.

Vietnam War

The archetypical M134 (Minigun) was developed specifically for action in Vietnam War and is one TF2 item that is associated with that war. But other than that, this conflict is largely ignored in TF2.

By the end of the 1960s, the Vietnam War became a major culturally divisive issue in the United States. Then Republican Candidate for U.S. President Richard M. Nixon campaigned on a platform of ending that war and wins the biggest U.S. Presidential landslide

The infamous Tet Offensive occurred in 1968. Even though that event was a major military defeat, it was a political victory

Racial Tensions

Race was an extremely intense issue in the US at this time, witnessing the Long Hot Summer of 1967, desegregation of housing through the Fair Housing Acts of 1968 and the assassination of Martin Luther King, which was followed by riots.

As recently as 1964 and 1965, Civil Rights Acts were passed banning segregation and addressing the voting disenfranchisement of blacks. In 1967, the United States Supreme Court declared unconstitutional all anti-miscegenation laws in the United States.

In truth, the close friendship of Demoman and Soldier, which seems unremarkable today, would have been relatively novel at that time.

Personally, having been an impressionable (white) child in the 1960s, I have always felt a little uncomfortable with the stereotypical blaxploitation hats and miscellaneous items for Demoman; so, I hope their apparent acceptance in the TF2 community reflects that gamers are post-racial.

Game Wiki Editor's Prayer

As I sit to type, I utter this self-admonishing prayer: Very, very few edits to this wiki feed, clothe, or comfort anyone or anything except egos. I pray to minimize my self-absorption and sloth and that I not compound my sins with jealousy and or anger over such petty concerns as games. Loving games is easy, even thieves, murders, and haters love games. How much more glorious is it to love something that does not give such immediate, easy pleasure?