A screenshot from Monkey Island 2 where Guybrush is sitting by the fire with Bart and Fink

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge

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I was ten years old when I first played Monkey Island 1 and it blew my mind. Granted, it does not take much to impress someone at that age: pirates, sharp writing, and a well-realised world is plenty.

A more mature and cynical eleven year old, on the other hand, is much harder to excite. It was therefore somewhat surprising to me at the time to have the belief I had experienced everything the world had to offer roundly shattered by the 1991 sequel, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge.

Warning: spoilers

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An illustration, based on a reference image, of a dude passed out on a park bench
Sketch of a girl in a salmon top
Illustration of TW (a robot) and Gus (a dragon). Gus is making breakfast and cheerily wishing TW a good morning. TW does not look happy to be awake.
An illustration of a bust of a professor
A collection of four screenshots of Space Quest IV. From top left: Roger Wilco in a space bar, Roger Wilco being saved by a time-hopping security guy, a cyborg on Xenon horrified by the sight of Roger, Roger Wilco sneaking up out of the sewers

Space Quest IV

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Space Quest IV is a graphic adventure by Sierra On-Line, first released in 1991, and is the fourth in a series of six Space Quest games.

This is my second Sierra adventure (the first being Quest for Glory IV, which I haven’t written about yet because I only realised after finishing it that it was published in 1993 and not 1989 like I first though) and I found this one to be more accessible and the puzzles to be a more straightforward. Unfortunately, it suffered from the same narrative problems as Quest for Glory.

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BIS Year-End Self Classification Report

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Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. I am not a encryption expert. If you are in doubt, do your own due diligence. I’m confident that “I read it on the internet and they said it was OK” will not be a good defence if the NSA kicks down your door and hauls you away for cyber crimes. I am trying to keep this up to date, but this stuff changes often so it’s worth double checking. If you notice anything wrong or out of date, please let me know. Thanks!

Update January 2023: According to this document on the BIS website, the reporting requirements for mass market items have been changed. My current understanding is that if your app uses any encryption that is included with iOS, or https, then you no longer need to send a report.

Yesterday, after uploading an app for beta testing, I received this message in iTunesConnect for the first time:

If you are making use of ATS or making a call to HTTPS please note that you are required to submit a year-end self classification report to the US government.

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A screenshot of the Secret of Monkey Island showing a close up of Guybrush being awed by a monster (which turns out to be a parrot)
An illustration of a man waiting at the bus stop in the hot hot heat.