John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games)

@spacegoblingames.com

1486 Followers 550 Following

Indie text game developer, creator of Seedship and Beyond the Chiron Gate. Now working on a pulp sci-fi adventure narrated by the villain! Website: https://www.spacegoblingames.com/ Blog: https://write.as/johnayliff/ Header and avatar by Tom Morley

Attention, creatures of Earth! I, Vorak the Master Brain, have taken control of your primitive communications systems.

Your planet has the honour of being the newest addition to my space empire. Your world government will be dissolved, your population will be upgraded with cyber-implants, and your planet's resources will be redirected towards the goals of Thorlon super-science.

Even as I speak, my space dreadnought is entering orbit of your planet. It is protected by a neutronic ray shield and carries thousands of Thorlon battle-cyborgs. Your primitive technology is no match for it!

Do not attempt to resist. Surrender now, and some segment of your population may retain limited autonomy as my minions.

Attention, creatures of Earth! I, Vorak the Master Brain, have taken control of your primitive communications systems.

First edition cover of I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. A metal robot with glowing eyes stands ominously in a minimalist red landscape. (This was not the edition I read, just the first picture I found online.)

BlueSky license for John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames

Stats:
Web of Trust: 4/5
Generosity: 5/5
Streak: 3/5
Engagement: 5/5
Velocity: 2/5
Veteran: 4/5

Screenshot of Beyond the Chiron Gate system view in light mode, with black text on a white background and light blue links.

Such glorious destruction!

Inconceivable energies crackle across the void, as a dozen ray batteries unleash their destructive power at the Starfury—while you turn the Starfury's lasers and missiles on those batteries one by one.

Your gunship's armoured hull glows white hot as it dissipates that terrible energy—but it holds, and eventually the last of the ray batteries that had a firing solution on the ship fall silent.

Damaged but still intact, the Starfury careens towards—
Your command spire!
The hyperspace engine!
The main hangar bay!
The ray shield generator!

Giant sexy purple hologram Ana de Armas points at depressed blade runner Ryan Gosling as he stands on a bridge in the dystopian gloom

Jeff Hawke newspaper strip featuring a humans man and woman in space suits, a dog-headed alien, an alien in a bulky metal suit, and a floating orb creature with a single eye and tentacles.

shipNames: {
fast: [
"Angel",
"Aurora",
"Condor",
"Eagle",
"Falcon",
"Freedom",
"Horizon",
"Nimbus",
"Nova",
"Paladin",
"Phoenix",
"Quasar",
"Star Hawk",
"Viper",
"Zephyr"
],
tough: [
"Avenger",
"Defender",
"Dragon",

"Data Doesn't Have Emotions And That Makes Him Sad" over the Enterprise as a fake Star Trek TNG title card

Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves as Bill S. Preston Esq. and Ted "Theodore" Logan, who together are WYLD STALLYNS!!!

Comic panel.

In the foreground, a sign reads, "Danger: Space ship talking off, do not pass this point."

In the background, a space ship is taking off.

(Art by Frank Hampson from Dan Dare, 1950)

Magic cards with the titles "Banners Raised", "Union of the Third Path", "Fight On!", "Stand Together", "Protect the Negotiators", "Together as One", and "Banner of Kinship".

Tales of the Dying Earth by Jack Vance. In a frosty landscape with a ziggurat in the background, a black-clad woman with a black sword stands as if about to behead an identical but white-clad woman kneeling before her.

Screenshot of the space empire grand strategy game Stellaris

Text-based game screenshot. The passage text is in black on a white rectangular box, which floats in front of a black space backdrop.

Watercolour painting of a smiling green goblin wearing an 18th-century coat and ruffled shirt. The coat is dark blue with a night sky pattern and a gold star trim.

A large white mug with a cartoon picture of a blue dinosaur saying "you're doing a good job and your hair looks nice". It's filled with pens, and there are barely visible cracks on the handle where I glued it back together. Behind it are a small Lego spaceship and a standing microphone.

Behind my command throne you find the personal transport tube I used to escape the command spire. It is just big enough for you, Sergeant Cosmos. What is left of your army will have to stay here to wrestle with my dreadnought's controls.

One final confrontation, between just the two of us—with the future of your planet at stake.

Next: The Final Confrontation.

The AUDACITY

The spaceship from the game Command Deck but it's named the CFV Space Goblin

Game screenshot of an angry alien face above the text:

PLACEHOLDER: Defeated, Vorak escapes in his escape pod.

Curse you, Commander Quasar. You win this time...

...But we will meet again!

Panel from The Dark Knight Returns where Batman breaks a gun and says, "THIS is the weapon of the ENEMY. We do not NEED it. We will not USE it," and the gun is labeled "AI".

STOP CARRYING OUT YOUR INTENTIONS

Comics cover depicting a globular black spaceship resting on a landscape of colourful vegetation. Art by Keith Watson for "Dan Dare: Operation Time Trap" (30 March 1963).

Screenshot of a Facebook post that reads:

If you are reading this, then Janet pas posted it as I asked her to

My life has been an amazing journey. The opportunities I've had, the people I've met and the love I have given and received have made my 82 years on the planet deeply satisfying.

My journey has taken me from Arkansas to New York to Los Angeles, and finally, to my home in NOrth GEorgia with my amazing wife, Janet, of 18 years. It's been a great ride, but inevitably one that comes to a close as mine has.

Don't waste your time on anything that doesn't thrill you or bring you love. See you out somewhere int he cosmos.

Lego spaceship with engine in closed position.

Completed Lego Interstellar Spaceship.

PLACEHOLDER: Ha ha ha! You are being sucked towards a whirling fan of death!

Constance Moore as Wilma Deering with Buster Crabbe as Buck Rogers in the 1939 serial

Poster for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979). Buck and Wilma, both in shiny silver space clothes, stand in front of a futuristic city. Twiki the stupid annoying robot stands next to them while the beautiful Princess Ardala does the floating villain head thing in the background.

Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle-flags were furl'd

In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.

There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,

And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law.

Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain'd a ghastly dew

From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue;

Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm,

With the standards of the peoples plunging thro' the thunder-storm;

For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,

Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;

Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,

Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales;

Dale Arden pushes Queen Valkir into the terrocrab pit!

Flash fights a swarm of large green-and-red lobster-like creatures.

Flash hugs Dale Arden while Valkir haughtily sentences him to "the last and worst ordeal."

Flash struggles underwater with an octopus shark monster.

Flash faces two brown-skinned "savages" armed with braziers fill of hot coals which they throw using tongs.

Flash faces two gladiators armed with electric shock guns and transparent shields

Queen Valkir taunts a chained up Dale Arden, while both sit on a balcony overlooking the arena where Flash is tied to a wall and an ape-man throws knives at him.

Queen Valkir, a blonde woman in a green dress, orders her warrior women to take Flash away.

Vorak to Cyber-Squadron Omega! Your weakness is unacceptable. You will disable self-preservation protocols and destroy the humans at all costs!

...

Captain Kraid! You have lost half your squadron! Your command skills are clearly defective. When you return to the dreadnought, you will report to my laboratory for cybernetic recalibration.

...

Cyber-Squadron Omega! Report!

...

Vorak to Captain Kraid! By losing your squadron you have failed me—and you know my reward for failure. But you can still redeem yourself in my eyes by destroying Lex Nebula.

Larry "Buster" Crabbe as Flash Gordon (1936)

"Interstellar Spaceship" Lego set in its box.

Text-based game screenshot with an evil gloating alien emoji face.

Promo art of Dan Dare: First Contact, in which Dan is holding some kind of ray gun that plugs in to his belt, and Peabody is holding what looks like an enormous machine gun.

Foolish human! Do you really think you can beat the galaxy's greatest warrior in single combat?

Very well—General Zorg, you may destroy this human in whatever way you see fit.

General Zorg takes a step back and waits. It seems she is going to let you make the first move.

> I quickly draw my gun and fire!
> I drop my gun, grab a jagged piece of metal from the wreckage, and wield it like a sword.
> I drop my gun and adopt an unarmed fighting stance.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 from The Cat In The Hat

A Martian from The War of the Worlds (which, you may recall from the book, feed by sucking people's blood using little straws). Illustration by Henrique Alvim Corrêa, 1906.

A goblin gleefully writes something with a quill pen, which he's holding the wrong way round. (Art from the MTG card Crime Novist.)

Dale Arden lies on the ground looking at Flash, who is in the background bending over to look at some tree roots or something.

Caption: Aided by darkness, Flash pits his woodcraft against the problem of getting through Brazor's thinly-held, but heavily armed and alert line of patrols and outposts.

Dale Arden leans out of the door of a moving rocket boat and shoots a ray gun a something off panel, her lip wrinkled in a determined expression. A dying pterodactyl-like creature flounders in the water.

Caption: While Lieutenant Kolan maneuvers the powerful rocket-car towards the struggling men, Dale hurls ray-bolts at the bloodthirsty whip-hawks--with telling marksmanship.

Cosmic Voyage (Космический рейс) (1936). A man in a space uniform floats weightlessly across the cabin of a spaceship. This was one of the first films to realistically depict space travel, including weightlessness.

Aliens. Sigourney Weaver as Ripley holding Newt in one hand and a flamethrower in the other looking badass.

In an alien jungle, Flash and Dale stand opposite a haughty red-headed woman wearing a gold bra, gold belt, and floor-length white belt.

Caption: Flash Gordon, hero of a thousand adventures--and Queen Desira, the imperious queen of Tropica--stand face to face, measuring each other. For somehow, in that first moment, they both realize that this meeting will change their destinies.

Next week: Fate's Trap

Dale Arden, wearing a 1940s dress and holding a piece of paper, stands with Dr Zarkov, who's wearing a yellow coat and lighting a pipe. They're in his study, on the wall of which is a diagram of a rocket ship.

Caption: Zarkov returns to his study to find Dale fingering Flash's note, which contains just enough information to arouse her suspicions: "You're going to Mongo, aren't you?" Zarkov masks his surprise: "What rot! Whatever gave you that idea?"

A silver rocket ship streaks downwards through an orange sky crowded with WW2 fighter planes.

Caption: Only Flash Gordon and his rocket ship stand between the western hemisphere and the dictator's invading fleet. Flash rockets toward the ocean, his incredible speed carrying him through the swarms of hostile planes. The massed might of the dictator's battleships send up a terrific anti-aircraft barrage--but their electric calculators cannot outspend the rocket's power dive.

Doctor Zarkov and a pair of bald Mongonian scientists look worriedly at a bank of gauges in his laboratory.

Caption: Zarkov's hard-drive corps of scientists finally achieve their goal--they intercept radio waves from Earth. But the news is appalling--"A new world war---mechanized invasion---the Red Sword, Stukin, is on the March---"

Next week: A Great Decision