Jungle Pyramids

Or as I like to call this, a wild gold chase. The boys have been tasked to find some gold bars, stolen from the Wakefield Mint in an audacious heist. The guards hypnotized and a trail that leads out to Switzerland and then on to Mexico before heading home to Bayport.

The Jungle Pyramid itself is a place called Palango down near Chichen Itza in the Yucatan ( and always humorously corrupted to It's a chicken, by me), which serves as a base for an American archaeology group and prey for a looter called Rumble Murphy and his pilot, who they manage to catch in the act. 

It's not a bad one and introduces some Scythian gold that was stolen too along with the Mints ingots. In fact this is what gets the boys to Switzerland and when that pans out, to Mexico, hunting a mysterious Mr Zemog.

Its an OK book and won't reveal why I call this a wild gold chase. Incidentally, copy of the text in the Weebly archive seems to be the UK edition which of course I already have, so whatever differences in text (if any) are not going to be shown for obvious reasons. 

You can read both here and here and as there's no difference between them, the choice is yours.  

Skull mountain

 I really thought I was done buying Hardy boys books from eBay, turns out I was wrong. This is the last of the originals that was incompetently scanned from an old book and as my guessing game is off ordered an original version of The Secret Of Skull Mountain. Apart from the scan being terrible it also missed out a few things such as a graphic box when the boys go to the harbourside. Its not, miss half a chapter bad, as it was in Broken Blade. But its bad enough.

As the books go this is one of those that is halfway between a small edit and a complete rewrite of the original. It's still a story about water shortages and sabotage to a reservoir, but there are a few crucial differences in the original than the remake.

For starters there is just a skeleton crew on the mountain rather than a whole team prospecting. The mineral the crooks are after was Bauxite and is now "Cesium" I guess the old version really liked their tin cans as its used to produce Aluminium. Caesium as it properly should be is an absolute nightmare around water (it explodes in contact) can remember an old Thunderf00t vid where he was exploring alkali metals such as this before he went off the deep end into full on Musk derangement syndrome.

The last final difference in the original is that Chief Collig is not a pal of there's, he's jealous of their success and along with Con Riley are an active thorn in their sides. If you're used to the new versions of them being close, then this is quite the eye opener. Oh and Callie gets a job as a clerk to help the boys out. Which was nice.

 Finally you would never get away with treating human remains like that nowadays, a full archaeological survey would  be carried out on the Indian remains up on the hill and the Hermits pranks would be seen as disrespectful. But its the 1940's so what can you do. 

Anyway you can read the original and the remake here. Seeing as I've given away so little of the plot.

A superbike and some romz.

Hello everyone I've got two topics today. Firstly a new book transcribed The Mystery of the Silver Star and the last bit of holiday road testing an R4 with a 3DS, with a few roms added.  

We'll get the book out the way first as its not that important. Number 84 one of the last Hardy boys books released here, is the Mystery of the Silver Star. A book revolving around the sabotage of a new carbon fibre wonder bike, but of course is much more involved. The guy riding, Keith Holland can be thought as a prototypical Chris Boardman or Victoria Pendleton for those who like to bang on about women in everything. But much more Chris Boardman. His rival Gregg Angelotti can be though of as a bad boy of competitive cycling. A pre smack Lance Armstrong, if you will. 

The story itself isn't bad, its not awful by any stretch and its localization is hit and miss. Words like neighbours get their u's but other words like tires are not properly localized. 

You can of course read both books here and here.

Two ROM talks.

We took the R4 from the bootsale on holiday, we reinstalled CFW on it after the original SD card got borked, and we have to say it performed OK. Playing a fan translation of SaGa 3 and Golden Sun via MGBA, works well alongside playing Pokemon Picross again because the crash wiped out all your progress. 

These however are not the two rom talks, though. First up is Golden Nugget Casino. A perfectly serviceable casino sim, that is basically ruined by being clunky. It's OK for what it does but its not horrible, just dull. 

The last one however, is Rainbow Islands Revolution. A fuck awful incarnation of a beloved platformer, that seems to rely on touch screen antics for everything. You control Bub in a bubble via the touch screen and also draw on the touch screen to create rainbows to block / kill enemies. If that sounds clunky and unwieldy then you'd be absolutely correct. There is no non touch screen controls to make it any less clunky and I can't be bothered to go back and see if they have the proper Somewhere Over The Rainbow theme. 

Part of Taito's disastrous updating of its old IP for DS era. I've heard that Bubble Bobble Revolutions isn't bad apart from its Myxomatosis suffering Bub n Bob boxart. Arkanoid DS is boring as hell and I actually own that on physical (£1.49 paid and still feel cheated) much to my dismay. Can remember an old Rev Flattop review of it saying how dull it was and that only after much work does it offer a secret, much better mode.

In fact it took until Bubble Bobble Neo for Xbox 360 and Wii for it to improve and the Switch version (4 Friends) while taking a lot of directions from mobile games, is still playable, says how much the brand wasn't harmed. by the DS / PSP era games. 

EDIT.

Oh and finally, saw this today and RPG nut as I am, wonder why we don't have a golden age of sail / pirate JRPG. Can think of nothing else but upgrading your ship, treasure maps and dungeons and carving out trading routes for a stylized 16th century earth, all European powers sailing to Zipang and Cathay down to the new world and Caribbean. Now that would be worth playing.  

Infinity

 Might do two posts this week, as I have a genuine mystery as well as a new book transcribed. 

The Infinity clue is the 68th book in the series here and the boys are having to face a strange plot involving nuclear power, earthquakes and a bomb threat. Oh and an albino  terrorist thrown in for good measure.

There are no differences  as its part of that era where we got hardback versions with identical texts and that means no localization. 

The boys are visiting Biff Hooper's uncle at Bayridge nuclear powerplant, where he works,  when an earthquake goes off jepordaizing it's security. The area has no history of quakes or of being on a fault line presents the boys with a challenge. 

There are a few nice touches such as a trip to the Smithsonian museum and a mysterious geologist group. Also thrown into the mix is the theft of a cursed diamond owned by missing racehorse magnate, Arthur Rutlidge. A theft of which the Hardys and Chet Morton are accused of. 

A nice touch is Chapel Island a place where 18th century English is still spoken, which the boys visit over the course of the mystery, and could be based on this place.

Anyway you can read them here and here. 

Hissing Serpents

 Still not feeling especially lucky, mind, but finally, this is now done. 

Do you like ballooning and chess, then this is possibly for you. A Hardy boys mystery that combines both and with the bonus of going to China (Hong Kong as it was then) in the dying final 4th quarter of the book. 

Two mysteries for you here, one being a shady jewellery business scam with a side line in tailored Hong Kong suits, and a life-sized chess piece called the Ruby King, which is not only life-sized (as mentioned) but cursed to boot. 

This is currently owned by an Albert Krassner a local business tycoon along with his Chinese wife (who is never named in the entire book) and is the grand prize in a grand chess tournament. The local champ is Conrad Greene who was being bugged by unscrupulous Chinese gamblers who want to rig the contest so their preferred candidate wins.

Chet not only suffers in this (breaks his arm in a stake out) but also has the unlikely hobby of hot air ballooning as well as learning Cantonese to help with the case. 

Differences are pretty thin here, but do exist, Tony Prito doesn't say mama Mia or cross himself when Joe takes him on a disastrous flight, and there is the usual UK English spellings from the American equivalents. Also my copy has both Joe and Tony on the front cover one of the only times I've seen Tony Prito drawn.

What you see of Hong Kong isn't bad, there are a few Armchair Graves and bone jars (Gam Ta) containing the remains of long dead Chinese ancestors, and Tai Pak floating restaurant (now closed) off Aberdeen harbour gets a look in as the mystery comes to a climax.   

You can read the UK and US versions here. 

Werewolf

Night of the Werewolf, was the first of the new era of Hardy Boys digest stories continuing on from the classic 56 stories in the UK (58 in the states as they include Hidden Harbour mystery and House on the Cliff). 

Mostly we got these as an Angus & Robertson hard back edition with the unrevised US text rather than a fully localized UK English version as before.  Which is exactly the edition I have.

The story is about a glowing werewolf appearing at a diner where the boys are dining and evolves from there as it involves a young man called John Tabor and his father, Karel. Karel is an architect, working on a skyscraper project in New York but also has a home in the Adirondacks and a project there called the Eagles Nest.

His son John is the focus, after spending time in a sanitarium out at Pine Creek for a while and the wolf attacks escalate when he came out. He is a distant descendant of a noted European werewolf of legend and this is what the boys have to deal with. 

Chet Morton's hobby this time is building a birch bark canoe and has a love interest in John's chubby sister Alena. He seems to be paired up with larger ladies maybe due to his size, but secretly I'm sure that's his fetish. 

Anyway as the first Angus & Robertson hardback edition both UK and US editions are identical.

You can read them here UK and here US.  

A Den of Demons

 So we're up to book 79 and The Demon's Den is quite a nice little read for you. And yes its going to get a little strange, as it covers an Apocalypse cult (red herring this) Paul Bunyan and Genetic Engineering. 

Or as someone who's clearly not read past the first few chapters in this says, 

"Pretty weird. Over the top. You know who doesn't need to be in a Hardy Boys book? Satan."

The doomsday cult in this gets the blame for the kidnapping of an athlete's son, the boys travel to Canada on the advice of their dad to see if someone was carrying a genetically modified virus from a secret group and find that its actually a programme to breed a race of super-athletes instead. 

This came out in 1984 and 40 years on with all the advances in genetics made,  (cough CRISPR and Genetic Engineering) we're still no nearer of doing what the guys are supposed to do in this. It's not completely whacked out (the Original Disappearing Floor is still the one to beat for this) but it's still not the best for science. Oh and there is no Satan in this, its actually Paul Bunyan's camp in Canada, named by the cult, instead. 

Anyway its a late era book, so no changes in between versions.  Choose either UK or US original.

Outlaws Silver

I'm seriously going to look into a Wordpress incarnation of this site, as blogger has become unusable over the past few months. Stuff that has proper paragraphs just get lumped into one and there is the ever present Google censorship to contend with. Doing a feminish got ratioed before they found out it wasn't that bad. Anyway. The Outlaws Silver. The 65th Hardy boys book here and its basically a trip out to the pine woods of New Jersey for the brothers, but also Chet Morton, Biff Hooper and Tony Prito. The official reason they're out there is that Frank manages to get reverse pickpocketed a little Jersey Devil figure that leads them out looking for redcoat pirate treasure. 

The other reason is that a man, convicted of a crime he didn't commit comes into his inheritance along with a pardon for what he didn't do. Of course our boys track him down and the treasure but not without some trouble. It seems that he's a doctor in those parts now, and the people round there are fond of him and protect him. Wiki has a good resume of what a Piney is here,  but for the ignorant its a local name for a Pine Barrens resident.

Because the texts from 57 to at least the late 70's are the same there are no differences, between the two stories regardless of region. But , for the sake of completeness, both UK and US texts can be found here, and here.  

Edit, seems I was  using HTML view for the past two months. Oh and really wanted to talk about the recent sentencing of Axel Rudakubanana, but realized that this wouldn't get me censured, and that I had forgotten all about it until looking at the post list. 

Stone Idols.

Here is The Stone Idol Hardy boys mystery, and the point where I think the whole series jumped the shark. 

Wiki says its brought about by the popularity of Indiana Jones, but it really doesn't fit in with that. No tomb raiding or mysterious artefact apart from the aforementioned stone idol. Just a wild goose chase and two different stories that don't really gel together. 

There are at this point no differences between the US and UK texts. All spellings and terms are the same. So it's a choice of if you want either Mystery number 63 or 65. 

The story starts off with a newspaper advert and a number for the boys to call. A Mr Kimberley of South American Antiques reports that a stone idol from Easter Idol has gone missing. The boys travel to Chile where South American Antiquities have their headquarters and with a cryptic clue find it hidden behind a painting in the head office. And there it all unravels as its stolen again and they chase it across the Andes, take a break to work on a case for their dad in the Antarctic before heading back to Easter Island where the Idol is recovered. 

I won't spoil the end but it's a nothing mystery and for me jumps the shark. It seems that whoever ghost wrote this read Thor Heyerdahl's Aku-aku. So you get some facts on Easter Island and a visit to see the famous Moai Heads. I know this would carry on for 120 or so books give or take. But in the UK where the series ended with the 87th, this is the equivalent of the last season of a popular show where they officially ran out of ideas. 

 Anyway both can be found for reading here US and here UK.

Vanishing thieves

Book 64 here in the UK. A nice tale about the boys going to L.A. to track down a 1913 Liberty Head nickel once owned by Chet Morton's Uncle. The Vanishing thieves part comes from a sub plot where a car theft ring is stripping cars down for parts and Chet's Cousin Vern has his car stolen. A few times they try to catch them at it but in all cases the gang disappear and set up shop elsewhere. And finally seeing as Joe Hardy is tipped overboard by the thugs and is rescued from a shark attack by a pod of dolphins, this is officially where the series jumps the shark*. 

A good tale with a good balance between numismatics and car theft and its not often you can say that. You can read the original here and the UK version here there is no difference between the two sadly. 

*The actual place where the series jumped the shark is The Stone Idol a nothing burger of a case where the boys travel to Antarctica for reasons.

Vampire Trail.

Danger on Vampire trail is the 42nd Hardy boys book released here, and it seems to be something of an anomaly. There are two stories which the boys are investigating, the first is the wholesale fraud on the Magnacard credit card (a sort of prototype American Express) and the second is the illegal mining of sapphires up in the Rockies. 

The anomaly here is as it's written in the early 70's is this the first story or detective novel solely concerned with credit card fraud? 

The main story is that Biff Hooper, friend of the Hardys has a bloodhound called Sherlock which they bring on a trip out west celebrating Chet Morton picking up a cheap trailer which turns out was bought fraudulently on a Magnacard. Several incidents take place as they head towards Denver, Colorado and there is a showdown of sorts up on Vampire Trail complete with imported Vampire bats. 

There is a few things here for pedants like myself. Chet has no hobbies in this one. Biff Hooper gets a dog for this one novel*. Though I'm pretty sure he had another called Tivoli in another book. And we learn that Mrs Hardy wants a sapphire as its her birth stone making her birthday fall in September. Anyway there isn't too many differences between the two editions. We get no next book at the end and a few terms are changed, trailer is now caravan. 

You can read both the UK and US versions here and here.

*Edit. Sherlock makes an appearance in The Clue of the Hissing Serpent where he upsets an old lady's pussy. 

Samurai Swords

 The mystery of the samurai sword is the 58th book in the Hardy Boys series and concerns the visit to America of a reclusive tycoon Takashi Satoya. He disappears en route to his hotel from his limo and as Fenton Hardy is tasked with his security is unceremoniously dumped from this task detail .

There is a secondary plot of the theft of a katana from the Palmer Dade auction house also owned by Satoya Takashi. Fill in  with a motorcycle gang plot and some insider dealing deep within Satoya's own company, and you have a pretty good story. The various plot points come together and play out with a big showdown with some yakuza thugs a biker gang and a very surprising ninja, that saves the day.

These later UK Hardy boys are word for word the same as the American releases, including spelling and terms. Angus and Robertson just reused the scripts without much localization, and apart from one line which could be from the text file I'm going from, has no real differences.

Anyway you can read the original here and UK version here. 

Wild, cats!

 A trip up town yesterday, making sure I avoided the Tommy Tank bring our "Ingerland" home rally and all I see are a bunch of ugly tranners in dresses for a Trans Pride Rally. Jesus they have their own Troon bus. Anyway what you'll want is a brand new book to keep your mind off of this. 

The Secret of Wildcat Swamp, is the 38th Hardy boys book here and one of the last of the original rewritten stories. It involves the boys going out west to dig up a fossil camel with their science teacher, and falling into a mystery along the way. Like  I say its the rewritten edition we have, purloined from school when I left for the last time as we broke up for summer hols.  So this is sort of appropriate. 

It's a good adventure complete with some differences between the two books. The original scans to 25 chapters and extends out the boys riding the rails and meeting a circus strongman that is gone from the rewrite. Also a weird tale about Adam and Eve is also cut from this (something about them being giants) to save space.

Anyway you can get the original and the remake here. and here. 

Game plan

The reason you're getting an extra dose this week is that another hiatus is on the way. I'll see if I can post from the resort but for now... you're getting books. 

Game Plan for Disaster is the 74th book released here in the UK. It's not a bad story seeing its all about hand egg (U.S Football). The quick version of this is two stories. Kevin "Ace" Harrington state's star player is being targeted by mystery accidents and gamblers, whereas Robbie Stevenson son of the head of the Library is being targeted by two thugs who convinced him to steal a rare edition of Edgar Allen Poe's The Gold Bug. 

It's quite a nice mix of stories for once. Not everyone is part of one gang for once. Everyone seems  to want a piece of Ace and they get busted one by one. 

We'll also take a minute to say how nice the illustrations are in this one. And that the Hardback Angus and Robertson edition that I have completely spoils the plot. Clue its not the boys lost in the woods which is the cover for every other edition. And that includes the UK paperback.

Also for some reason we do not get a next episode / book trail in this version which is the only difference between the two editions. 

 Anyway US edition here.  UK edition here.

Shattered Helmets

 What happens if you mix lost media, a Greek exchange student and some dangerous criminals. You get the Shattered Helmet.

The main meat of this story is the search for an old Mycenaean Helmet used in a silent movie, The Persian Glory, and the Hardys and Chet Morton taking a course on film making at a community college and the arrival of a pen pal from Greece, Evangelos Papandropolous. Fenton has his own case trying to put away a crook by the name of Filbert Francisco "Twister" Gerrold.  These cases of course, intersect. Add into the mix a campy and arrogant fellow student Leon Saffel and you have what amounts to a pretty decent adventure. 

The nature of old nitrate film stock is of course explained (it's basically a fire hazard) and the search for the silent movie, the helm was used in of course has parallels to modern lost media searches for songs used such as Geronimo or the most mysterious song on the internet. 

Finally as they have a Greek pen-pal, their search ends up on the Greek mainland with a further trip to Corfu, which is known as the childhood home of Gerald Durrell. We also went there for a holiday some time the the late 90's. You want a groan from us tell us how we walked miles to reach Paleokastritsa after going once on a coach trip. We also had to take a trip back on a small boat, like the one the Hardy's used.

Differences.

Not many and its mostly spelling. One thing not changed or picked up on is Rabbitbrush, which is a shrub in the Asteraceae family. Like a bushy version of Senecio or some of the New Zealand Daisy bushes.

You can read both the US and UK version here.

Skyfire

 We found a lot of Russian records tossed out and logging just what they are has been a bastard, so forgive me if this is a short review of no 83 the Skyfire Puzzle.

The Skyfire Puzzle is kinda like the shark jumping episode of Happy Days, you know from here on it's all downhill from here. To put this in some sort of context, the boys are trained up for some fictional space shuttle program down at Cape Canaveral, in order to work on a case involving sabotage and foreign powers. Its a good story, and along with the desert phantom case are prototypical versions of the later casefiles series. 

Frank Hardy gets a love interest that isn't Callie Shaw, though its pretty tenuous if they're an item. Oh and the Van has a fucking modem circa 86 that can be used to analyze video, from space. 

That's right the boys are in low earth orbit due to signing up for the Skyfire shuttle program. 

There are no differences between the two books but you can read the UK edition here and the US edition here. Note, I had to add in a paragraph which was missing from original scans. The joys of having every UK edition of the original series.

Spiral bridges.

 We're up to the based numbers, as this is number 8 in the series here. 

The story this time is that the Prito construction company has been suffering sabotage attempts on a bridge building project out in Kentucky. Fenton Hardy is out of commission, due to him suffering at the hands of the crooks, so its down to the lads (and it is the lads) to bring them in by joining the project.

There are the usual small edits such as a few spelling edits and baseball terms and bum of course being tramp now. But it's still quite a powerful story and one were the boys face genuine malice and threat. Fenton isn't all powerful in this as his near death experience attests. We could have done without the "Con speak", though I've heard one of two of the terms used normally. Arkintay indeed.

Anyway UK version is here and Original, here.

Smugglers cove

 Another book for you and another one based on the Angus & Robertson hardback editions, so expect there to be no differences in the text.

The boys are framed up for stealing a local businessman's portrait of Simon Bolivar, when they're named as couriers of the aforementioned picture. There are a few side stories as they track some smugglers and poachers in the everglades, before it all comes together in the last 2 chapters, where its found that the smuggling and poaching teams are part of a larger group. 

It's a odd tale this as the stories never really gel together. The beasts that are the target of poaching, the American Alligator is said to endangered, but a quick look on the IUCN red data list shows that the American Alligator is of least concern. Whether it was when it was written is anyone's guess, but they are now said to be increasing in population.

Also for  some strange reason we get to see Florida Man in his natural habitat. In this case some nutter in full wizards get-up performing alchemy out in the swamp. Of course he's being duped by the smuggling gang so they can steal a diamond necklace from him. Palming gold into his crucible of slag, to convince him that he's succeeded. 

Anyway, as I've said before, there is no difference save for the numbering of the books between these two editions.

You can read the UK and US editions here and here. 

Whale Tattoo

The secret of the whale tattoo review, then, when I should be wishing you a happy new year and putting myself to bed. 

The boys are helping out at a local carnival hoping to catch pickpockets on behalf of a MR Solo. Fenton has a case where a man, calling himself Black Right, has a missing ivory idol for sale,  that was looted a few years back. Those two cases couldn't possibly be connected... could they?

Indeed they are and when a stuffed blue whale is uncovered on a building site owned by Tony Prito's dad then it seems that some one wants to  stop them from putting two and two together and finding out who the gang on robbers with whale tattoos are. 

The action takes place in Bayport and Mystic Connecticut. There is a nice throw in to cryptozoology too, as the whale was washed up in Montauk where a mystery beast was also found in 2008. The whale, now owned by Tony Prito and Biff Hooper, gets stolen and the boys head out to capture it.

It's not a bad story overall, the Tattoo angle is strange for the point of view these days as the world and their dog seems to have some sort of body art. Back when it was written this was quite different, as only certain types had tatts. 

There is no real differences between the UK and US editions either. All references to carnies and such are gone. It's not as if we don't have these travelling fairs either. And the ending where Cousin Elmer (a long lost cousin and some sort of sailor) comes to stay is changed. But that is it.

You can find the original and the UK versions here. and here.

That's why mum's go to Iceland

 We started reading through the Arctic Patrol mystery just as reports were coming through that Iceland was  experiencing a major volcanic event. That would have been last month when that big crack in the earth split open Grindevik.

Anyway Arctic Patrol mystery, serendipity aside, is the second Hardy boys book here. You may have got House on the Cliff in America. For us its the Hardy's trip to the cold north. The boys, Chet Morton and Biff Hooper travel  to Iceland to find one Rex Mar and say he's inherited $50,000 from someone who saved him back then. There is of course another mystery of a missing Astronaut training in  the harsh lava landscape of  Iceland's countryside. Gee  I wonder if the two cases are related.

There seems to be quite a good bit on Iceland here. Some language and last name customs along with talk on cuisine and the ever present elves. You don't get much difference between the two editions. We get the term sod hut replaced which sounds like a step up from the naughty step, and a few UK spellings of words, but compared to the later books which have bugger all done to it, this seems like a veritable litany of changes. Finally thanks to my printer dying you were supposed to get a copy of the map of Iceland printed in the front of the book. Also another cat I drew in biro back in the day (he's called Leo).

Anyway you know the drill UK version here US version here.