Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott took to social media to share U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics that indicate his Operation Lone Star "is working" to help decrease the number of illegal migrant crossings into Texas. Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in 2021 to help deal with the migrant crisis at the southern border and deny Mexican cartels and other smugglers the ability to move drugs and people into Texas. It is a joint operation between the Texas Department...

President Joe Biden’s son Hunter will ask a U.S. judge on Wednesday to dismiss the criminal case accusing him of evading $1.4 million in taxes‚ arguing that prosecutors bowed to political pressure from Republican lawmakers investigating his father. Hunter Biden’s lawyers will appear before U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi in federal court in Los Angeles to press several legal challenges to the charges‚ including an argument that he was selectively targeted by prosecutors in response to...

Talks over a hostage deal and a ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas have reached another stalemate but are not over‚ according to three people familiar with the negotiations. A diplomat described the talks as “stuck but ongoing‚” saying that there continues to be “proposals going back and forth.” A second source confirmed the parties are still engaged but said the negotiations are in a “pause.” There was no breakthrough after CIA Director Bill Burns traveled to Doha late...

Israel bombed at least three homes in Rafah overnight‚ raising new fear among the more than a million people sheltering in the last refuge on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip that a long-threatened ground assault could be coming. One of the airstrikes killed 11 people from a family‚ health officials said. Mussa Dhaheer‚ looking on from below as neighbours helped an emergency worker lower a victim in a black body bag from an upper storey‚ said he had awakened to the blast‚ kissed his...

Susquehanna International Group makes its money buying and selling stocks in milliseconds‚ eking out fractions of a penny each time. At one millisecond at the end of last year‚ its holdings included a 2% stake in a blank-check company that this week merged with Donald Trump’s social-media company. That has fed theories that Susquehanna’s founder‚ Republican mega-donor Jeff Yass‚ is funneling money to a cash-strapped Trump by pumping up shares of a company that began trading today under the...

Metaphor or naive? The post ‘My Girl’s Pussy’‚ 1931: Has music always been obsessed with sex? first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

Vertical Flying #SHMUPS  on the #Atari #8bit computers span the genre from simple early arcade blasters though #Xevious clones and ports all the way up to explosion fest bolt on weapons blast fests. Let’s take  a look at 30 of the best.Let’s get to the #Atari8bit blasting NOW Get Your Atari 400 Mini! https://amzn.to/43Efak6 We use Cyberlink 365 Video‚ Photo and Audio Software We use Cyberlink 365 Video‚ Photo and Audio Software https://www.dpbolvw.net/click-101120177-13728120?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cyberlink.com%2Fproducts%2Fdirector-suite%2Foverview_en_US.html%3Fitem%3D1%26r%3D1%26affid%3D2581_-1_37_CJaffiliate&;cjsku=230110 Along with Horizontal Shoot’em ups and Asteroids style rock pulverizers‚ vertical scrolling blasters are one of my favorite genres of computer games. Back in early 1980 we didn’t have too many of these titles for our Atari 800‚ aside from the Activision River Raid and Dreadnaught factor‚ but  Over the last 40 years I have found a wealth of good fun and some great top down scrolling blasters for the atari 8bit computers.  One genre that could fit on this list‚ but we will leave for a follow up video video are the isometric Zaxxon style shooters as coving them would push this video longer than most people’s attention will last (yes‚ Look at the stats)‚  So‚  that Let’s get right to it and  take a look at 30 of my favorite now starting with a 1987 Xevious clone‚ of which there were quite a few on the Atari machines Arax 1987 Comart Software is a German Xevious clone‚ but with only ground targets where you switch weapons between bombs and missiles with the space bar. Astron IX 1982 Cosmi is an American made inertia style cross between lunar lander‚ caverns of mars and the Synapse Classic Zeppelin Astro-Droid 1987 Red Rat is a very challenging space shooter from Don Rogby‚ who also made the classic screaming wings. Atari Blast 2016 Paul Lay is the ultimate vertical scrolling shooter in odd numbers levels and the ultimate horizontal scrolling shooter on even numbered levels Battle Eagle 2013 Cosine Systems‚ an entry into the 2013 ABBUC Software contest is a multi-path shooter that is best played with auto fire button held down for dear life Black Hawk 1984  Orion Software is probably the most unique game on this list with elements of both Blue Max and a precursor to the 16 bit game  Desert Strike Caverns of Mars 1981 Atari– is One of the second wave of early killer apps for the Atari 8 bits that sold so well as an Atari Program Exchange game that Atari released it as a full retail package also.  Dark Abyss 1993 Mirage is a difficult  Polish developed up and down precision control shooter‚ with an interesting color scheme‚  from the same dev team that created the good looking but ultimately too difficult to control attempt at Turrican for the Atari 8bits called Technus Dreadnaught Factor 1983 Activision ultra class that has the player flying over huge spaceships in order to destroy them by bombing all of the energy vents on each ship Espial 1994 Tiger Vision This is a fun close port of the 2600 game of of the same name that has Xevious written all over it Fatum 1993 ASF Shoot everything‚ ear cash buy and buy new weapons to outfit your ship in the game developed by a Polish team with the absolute best name‚  The Mad Men Federation Fire Fleet 1983 English Software is a Caverns of Mars inspired beautiful looking and fun playing blaster that that uses square particles to great effect through 4 very challenging sectors Flak 1984 Funsoft Before the Xevious unreleased port wss found Flak was‚ and maybe still is‚ the king of Xevious clones on the Atari 8bit.  The Last Guardian 1988 Tynesoft is Chris Murray beautiful looking‚ but incredibly difficulty  ode to all thing blasting over a huge dreadnought collecting extra weapons and holding on for dear life until you can land in the docking bay Last Squadron 2021 Sikor Soft is the plane flying answer to the question “is there another game almost as good as Atari Blast”?  Nightraiders 1983 Datamost takes the player through 5 levels of blasting enemy bases with a weapon that must be aimed to properly hit targets  to be effective.  Pastfinder 1984 Activision. Equip your ship with supplies and take off to to explore planets filled with radiation‚ to find artifacts‚ time capsules and items to replenish ship supplies Phobos 1982 Apx is Greg Christensen’s rousing follow up to Caverns of Mars that looks better and is even more challenging than its predecessor River Raid 1982 Activision Is a find upgrade over the Atari 2600 ultra classic with improve graphics much more danger and things to blast along the way Screaming Wings 2020  is a Franco Catrin update to Don Rigby classic that adds more refined graphics and sounds to what is already a much play for the Atari 8bits Sidewinder II 1989 PAL Developments is a well done‚ but quite difficult‚  extra weapon bolt on shooter‚ with a lot of moving barriers to navigate‚  but also a shield that stops you from frustratingly being killed with a single hit.  Space Ace 1982 London Software is Simple looking‚ but has the fun blasting where it counts and quite a little gem if you play it long enough.  Space Fortress Omega 2018 Jason Kendall is a 2018 new classic that plays al little like Caverns of Mars in reverse with even more difficult passage ways than that classic Speed Hawk 1988 Atari UK is another in the line of well made fly over a mother ship blast everything while picking up extra weapons style fun contests for the Atari that started to be released after the XEGS was released Starfire Warrior 1983 Datasoft Prototype is an excellent but unreleased Xevious style shooter that would probably have been considered a must have classic if it had been is had received a proper release Thrax lair 1982 Rantom is quite unique on this list as you fly‚ where you are not a spaceship or a plane‚ but are giant bird-like TARP creatures that must blast bugs and get through the caves as quickly as possible. Tiger Attack 1988 Arari UK is Atari’s reasonably successful  attempt to get a Flying Shark style game ported to the XE machines when Taito would not do themselves  Warhawk 1986 Firebird is an screaming particle emitted‚ wickedly fun explosions generator of a game that was the absolute closest thing to Atari Blast on the 8bits until 2016 Worm War 1 1983 Roklan is a simple by fun update to a pretty good Atari 2600 game that may not look like War Hawk‚ but will keep your finger on the trigger button and you mind on just one more try  Xevious 1984 Atari was originally an Atari 5200 port that was not released‚ and while the main guns are just a bit single player instead of 2 missiles‚ all in all‚ it’s a much play for your Atari 8bit or 400 mini. Wow‚ that;s all for this time. There are more vertical scrolling shooters‚ especially the Zaxxon and Blue Max ones  for the Atari 8bits which we will cover in a further video.OK‚ until next time‚ have fun blasting and scrolling and scrolling and blasting on the machine of your choice‚ in the vertical blank.