Land of Pictures 2

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== Picture Commentary Continued : ==
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== Still More pix ==
Some weird experiments were done in Rapture. Some things were not quite as benign as first expected.
Real World 1952. An overgrown adding machine really (because of its limited memory). A Punchcard Cardreader isn't visible, so how data/programs got into this unit isn't obvious (also its a bit early for magnetic tape). $68000 was alot of money in those days (that is approximately $607,000 in today's money).
Building type that the game's Skybox artists fixated on for those very tall thin cityscape buildings we see dozens of, and many with some weird exaggerated tower/spike on top. The top of the Empire State Building's (in NYC) tower was planned as a mooring mast for Dirigibles (was planned in late 20's) and then repurposed with a radio tower (with lightning rod) added above that. Rapture's buildings need none of those things (radio doesn't work well through water). Looked neat ? Not really.
The depth of even the tops of Rapture's tallest buildings would leave their view of even the bright sun a murky dimness -- so even observation decks at their top have little use.
Fink Manufacturing's Pez Dispenser - unfortunately Fink didn't quite get the part about it is supposed to fit in your pocket But no matter, as nobody in Columbia could afford one (much like those overpriced Vigors). In tests, the ejected candies could take a head off at 50 feet.
I almost missed seeing the most obvious problem on this crossing of the tracks - for the that track above -- Cars which hang/run underneath would strike the other track (as draw, they weren't separated sufficiently in height). It does NOT appear the upper AE tracks pillars (both ?) were damaged or were sank some, WHICH could have explained this odd placement.
There ALSO should be an offset overhang for the 'rail' away from the supporting pillar. It's a nice picture, but the artist maybe got a little too involved with the girderwork, and did NOT check the whole to be workable (SEE that track with the traincar next to the pillar - THAT is with a correct arrangement).
Since they recycled so many other things (many inappropriately) for Infinite:BS, they could have had that same 'build it - scavenger hunt' for Booker to get past some contrived blockage in the game's stockyard/abattoir-like game terrain maze. Disrupt the Veronoi Field Blocking the corridor leading to Comstock (or whatever). So picture here is what it should look like :
(Actually it's an era electric air compressor for a pneumatically amplified phonograph - made back before vacuum tubes (electronics) worked doing that amplification).
Useful Apparatus for the ADAM business. Somewhat better than a bathtub full of filthy green goo.
Actually it is a kind of motor for a clock, which rotates when alcohol is vaporized by a heating coil on the lower left, forcing the liquid to the top and its other side, THUS the weight causing that side to get pulled down. THIS Used in a 30's consumer product, when small electric motors were still extremely expensive.
Comstock's Nightmare. Not sure why Columbia's flag wasn't the Stars-n-Bars with that game's whole strangely contrived society's attitude (Oh that's right - somehow for the gamewriters it's 'Americas' evils, etc ...). Anyway, this guy appears in Comstock's nightmares alot, hence Comstock making a Hero of Booth the Cowardly Assassin (Note - Booth never bothered to go fight for the Confederacy the whole war).
One of Rapture's 'Streets', with a Trolley track and Sidewalks down its middle, and with businesses and apartments to either side. There would be several (many) miles of such 'Streets' in Rapture. They would criss-crossed Rapture, and frequently the Streets met at intersections like this spot. 
Sander Cohen guest-hosting the "Rapture Tonight" show on the Ryan TV Channel, sub'ing for the regular host. It may not have been "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson", but it was the 'big time' compared to the plethora of community-access-quality TV channels. Unfortunately, with its small venue and Rapture's limited entertainment, you'd be likely any night to see the equivalent of Biggles the Tap Dancing Cat on the show.
Real Skyhook on Skyline, for if Columbia was NOT terribly hokey fantasy. It was really pathetic when Booker had to get down by being lowered from that hoist. Some industrial sites in Rapture would have things like this. But sorry, no rollercoaster rides are to be had on THESE things.
Real Edison Concrete (cement at least) Furniture - Edison bought a cement company and improved some processes, and then was looking for NEW things to make out of cement. Edison also actually made ENTIRE houses out of concrete, cast as one piece in a mold. A number of them still exist to this day. With the expense of woods of most types in Rapture, this substitute might be a viable idea (at least for some things).
If they redo Columbia in the MMORPG (Jack's ADAM-addled Fever Dream) something like THIS will be the corrected Skyline.
At least it is not a dead rat strung across a Splicers face, like later it Chaos-Era Rapture ...
Mark Twain tried his hand at floating things too.
Tennessee Willams Play "A Floating City named Desire"
Mixing ADAM with Cats was a VERY bad idea.
Made a bit wrong. I wonder if the game developer who used this form for their model even knows why it was shaped that way. Hint : the tape hangs/runs down below both reels on either side. The Vacuum Column mechanism revolutionized Tape Drives, allowing small read/write/seek movements of the tape via air pressure, instead of only the clumsily movement of the motorized turning of the spools, or other mechanical means.
Illustration of 'Flying' circa 1878 ( Near the time when Columbia was built ) THIS was the ideas people had then of 'Flight'. Now you might say that to build Columbia's various craft (the Zeppelins with wings, etc...) they (Fink) could by 1912 have looked into the future, but then why select something so ponderous/ungainly and also a recombination of what never existed ? Why not something more advanced AS apparently was done with so many other things ? Why not real airplanes, even from just a few years later from 1912 ?
Reason : The Zeppelin game model was already made back before the Quantum BS was expanded with the greater anachronisms/fantasies (and the Player running around shooting in a realistic (small) airplane interior would have been pathetic).
Note : the proportions of this thing are somewhat close to what Columbia The Floating Balloon City would have needed to be -- With a balloon the size of a large stadium for each city 'block' -- Even if it was all made mostly of lightweight sheet tin, chickenwire, plaster and wood scaffolding (like most real exposition "show cities" were) instead of the absurd solid brick/stone/pavement ...
Hermetically sealed in the glass tube (a good thing with all Rapture's leaks...) and with many more contact pins than on a typical Electronic Vacuum Tube. The actual circuitry is in a block of glass within which is made up of many thin plates of glass (think microscope slide cover glass) which has been etched and various materials deposited on its surface. The layers are connected via hair-sized gold wires wrapped around the outside, and tapped into by the component layers. Such miniaturization made possible the electronic controllers used by things like the Security Flybots, Security camera, Robotic Little Sisters, etc...
Hello Kitty apparently is over 50 years old now (this is from some website about it), but more importantly, THIS is the Great Enemy which Comstock feared (one wonders if Comstock had nightmares about slavering cats in power-armor, chasing him across the Great Plains, making frightening warwhoops as they pursued him)
(come to think of it THAT would have made a more logical plot than Infinite BS)
Every time I see the Voxophone from Infinite BS I laugh at the ridiculousness (and how stuck Ken & Co got on just slavishly copying previous game elements, to the third game's detriment). Now THIS thing is somewhat closer to what those portable audio player were supposed to be.
An early concept picture for Columbia's Skyline mechanism - it was a bit closer to potential reality (still has issues with parts of the machinery, but at least no need for Quantum Faerie Dust - which probably didn't even exist yet in the game plot when this was drawn). Practical cable systems only go in straight lines, but with a little imagination STILL could have been made to work as the transport system (endpoint platform to platform along the path, transferring to a well-supported overhead rail, before transitioning to the next cable). That would of course eliminate the rollercoaster curves and dips and dives (and strange circular paths ONLY within a level). BTW - In Fintkton we see conventional railroad cars (even ones carrying tree logs, wherever THEY come from) which roll on tracks on the ground, but no Skyway connectivity into that (having one system = Real World logical).
But then, the Skyway fully degenerated into a circuitous Player jumping and shooting mechanism. We might have had an IndianaJonesTempleDoomMineRide equivalent with switches to go around trains and opponents. That might've been interesting - multiple routes selectable, etc... Instead of some industrially pointless loop. If only we HAD got what the earlier trailers showed, but the "Impressive" idea turned to "Meh" ...
A faulty part of this mechanism's design is : You would not suspend a long rectangular box like the Columbia Freight containers hung on a single bogey like that. The load should be square to minimize front-to-back swinging from contacting the cables (that in-game clip-on version would've been even worse with that). There also should be some good-sized piston type actuators to work the load clamps (in any case, hooks ontop of the freight boxes would be far simpler and more sturdy/effective - hydraulic clamp requires a power source...).
The drive for real systems like this is usually a third (and often fourth) cable that attaches to drag the car along (and in Columbia it doesn't have to be fast - just get there, across a not so large City).
Amazing what you can do with Photoshop's built-in functions. A piece of 'NON-Unconscious' art.
Does this qualify as a bunch of Lighthouses? Not really sure what the advantage is of building cities like this, perhaps if flying belts (which we didnt see in Infinite:BS) became ordinary items to people...
Columbia in Space ...
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