Wednesday, January 03, 2007

I've often used gentile beets

Wherein spellcheck would vastly improve readability

From Kottke's Best Links 2006 is this review of the Xbox 360:
DONKEYE-KYNGE: Yn thys game, ye playe a peasaunt who hath yn his care a smal donkeye. Ye use the gentil beeste to dryve yower carte and to transporte donge, for which ye are payde ful litel, and yet ye muste kepe obeiant and meke to wards the bettir and mower substantiale menne of yower village. At the ende of XX minutes, a purveyor of the kinge cometh and taketh aweye the donkey, and the ye, the pesaunte, are sesed wyth despayr and do falle deed. Then ye, the playere, are rankid by how manye piles of donge ye hauen transportid and wyth howe much meekeness.

Speaking of spellcheck, here's what happens if you accept all of MS Word's spelling suggestions:
Donkey king Yen this game, ye played a peas aunt who hath yen his care a small donkey. Ye use the gentile beets to drive lower carte and to transported dongle, for which ye are payee full lintel, and yet ye muster keep obeisant and meek to wards the better and mower substantial mane of lower village. At the ended of XX minutes, a purveyor of the king cometh and teeth away the donkey, and the ye, the peasant, are sensed with despair and do fallen deed. Then ye, the player, are rancid by how many piles of dongle ye haven transported and with Howe much meekness.

But that's still too much to read, so let's autosummarize to 10 percent of the new version:
Donkey king Yen this game, ye played a peas aunt who hath yen his care a small donkey.

Rancid piles of dongles...reminds me it's time to get back to work.

3 Comments:

Blogger XWL said...

gentile beets

Not Kosher?

(at least Word didn't suggest genital)

1/03/2007 04:40:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

now that's a fun game! visited you via googling "a perfectly just city", and arriving at your A Winter's Tale post last November, which was excellent.

Great blog!

1/03/2007 07:44:00 PM  
Blogger bill said...

xwl -- I think the cloven-hoofed beets are the best.

sidhe -- thanks!

1/04/2007 06:00:00 AM  

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