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Vimana

 
Games: Vimana
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Game Description

Vimana is a constantly scrolling space shooter with a top-down view. You pilot a deep space craft which shoots lasers and can fire powerful boomerang bombs. As you travel through the dozens of levels in the game, you will face space and ground enemies. They fire scores of lasers, bombs and other objects at you in an attempt to destroy your ship. There are dozens of different enemies in each level of Vimana. Smaller foes can be dispatched with a few shots, while larger ones can withstand many shots before exploding.

There are power-up icons in each level. Slow-moving space stations always contain a power-up icon which is revealed after it explodes. Icons are also revealed when other types of enemies are destroyed. These power-ups float around in random patterns on the screen for several seconds. Grabbing them with your ship earns you a weapon upgrade or bonus points. The weapon icons increase the power and size of your ship's laser fire. The more power-ups you grab, the more powerful your weapon becomes.

Holding down the fire button engulfs your ship in laser shots. Releasing the button fires an array of shots in all directions ahead and to the sides of your ship. When you fire a boomerang bomb, six energy orbs surround your ship. These orbs strike against enemies as they come onto the screen, and continue the strike until all the orbs are exhausted. There are dozens of levels in Vimana. The final battle takes place against a giant rock ship with four grasping tentacles. Then, the game restarts with tougher and faster enemies. Two-player games are team games in Vimana. Both players appear on the screen simultaneously. Player one begins on the left. Player two begins on the right. You cannot shoot your teammate. Players begin each game with three ships. When they are all destroyed, the game is over. Vimana can be continued indefinitely for additional credits.
~ Anthony Baize, All Game Guide

Roots & Influences

Like many scrolling space shooters, Vimana is basically Space Invaders by way of Galaga. Destroy the aliens before they destroy you, save the earth, etc.

Vimana also features elements of other classic games, including one enemy that looks and moves just like the heavy from Centipede.
~ Anthony Baize, All Game Guide

Review: Overall

Vimana is your run-of-the-mill space shooter with a few gimmicks that make it stand apart from the field. The graphics, sounds, and game play are all what you would expect from a late 1980s or early 1990s scrolling shooter.

In most aspects, Vimana is like many of the Arcade shooters circa 1990. It's your job to shoot bad people before they shoot you. It's really very simple. The firepower you wield in Vimana is what separates it from other games.

First, the endless ammunition gun can shoot straight ahead or in a scattered pattern. This is especially useful in areas where dozens of one-shot enemies fill the screen. You have to hold down the fire button longer to get the scatter gun going, but it is well worth it. The only drawback of the scatter gun is the fact that it looks like a shield before you release the shot. Sure, I learned that it was not a shield after a couple of wasted ships, but I was slightly frustrated.

Second, the boomerang bomb is a lot better than the big bombs in most scrolling shooters. When you unleash this puppy, you fire a series of six smart bombs which home in on their targets and obliterate them. I like the boomerang bomb a lot, and I rely on it heavily in many levels of Vimana.

Vimana is one of the few scrolling shooters that I have ever managed to finish. I like the fact that Vimana takes a while to play and more than a few quarters to finish, but at least it is not an endless maze of aliens. Other scrolling shooters are nearly impossible to finish, whether because they contain a myriad of levels or an impossible-to-beat enemy somewhere in the game. It might be that Vimana is easier than other games, but I think the weapons are simply better than in other coin-ops.

Vimana's graphics are good. They contain a great deal of texture and color. With multiple planes, developers pull off the simulation of three dimensions with no problems. Vimana looks like many other shooters, and the aliens are definitely an unoriginal insectoid race.

Vimana's sound is fine, but it is also very similar to other Arcade shooters around 1990. The music sounds like some hack banged it out on a Yamaha 44-key synthesizer, and the sound effects are simple splats and crackles.

Overall, Vimana is an average scrolling shooter with a few new twists. It is not as challenging as other shooters, but sometimes winning without straining your brain is enjoyable.
~ Anthony Baize, All Game Guide

Review: Enjoyment

A few new elements make this game slightly more enjoyable than other shooters.
~ Anthony Baize, All Game Guide

Review: Graphics

Good, but unoriginal. This game looks like every other scrolling shooter in the early '90s Arcade.
~ Anthony Baize, All Game Guide

Review: Sound

Weak, and also unoriginal. Sub-par for its time.
~ Anthony Baize, All Game Guide

Review: Replay Value

Continuing the game is fun, but coming back after you defeat the final boss is not.
~ Anthony Baize, All Game Guide

Review: Documentation

Standard demos and instructions for this type of game.
~ Anthony Baize, All Game Guide
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Artist: Vímana
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Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Pop Artists

Group Members:

Candinho, Luiz Paulo Simas, Richard Court, Lulu Santos, Lobão, Fernando Gama
  • Formed: 1974
  • Disbanded: 1978
  • Genres: Latin

Biography

Vímana wasn't typical in terms of discographical production or high sales. In the band's short career of four years they only recorded a single, and their main visible accomplishment was to back Patrick Moraz (former Yes keyboardist) in an ephemeral project. The importance of Vímana, a competent rock band with strong musical possibilities, resides in it being a link in the elaboration of Brazilian rock, a style that emerged in the '80s, and also having been the departure point for expressive musicians of that movement, like Lulu Santos, Ritchie, and Lobão. Since the late '60s, Os Mutantes became the main reference for new bands wanting to play rock in a Brazilian way. The scene of Rio and São Paulo was crowded by a multitude of groups which emulated the seminal rock band, together with the heroes from abroad. In 1974, some musicians left previous projects and put together the group Vímana, a Sanskrit word for the fire chariot used by the gods to descend to Earth. Luiz Paulo Simas (keyboardist) and Candinho (drummer) came out of Módulo 1000, a Black Sabbath-influenced band, while Luís Maurício Pragana dos Santos (Lulu Santos, guitarist, vocalist, composer), and Fernando Gama (bassist) were from the the Rolling Stones clone band Veludo Elétrico. With the later addition of Ritchie (the English Richard David Court, composer, vocalist, flutist) the group seemed ready for its start, but then drummer Candinho left, due to a mystical revelation. At that point, Vímana was hired to perform in the play A Feiticeira, at the Teatro Casa Grande (Rio), when Lobão (João Luís Woerdenbag, drummer, vocalist, composer) was introduced to the band by Inácio Machado. The energetic and rebellious drummer was hired immediately, and they departed for their solitary release, the single "Zebra" (Som Livre). They recorded also a 24-track tape at Estúdio Level by the American engineer Don Louis and by producer Guto Graça Mello, which remained unpublished. In those days, Vímana made considerable success in their performances at the Modern Art Museum, Teatro Tereza Rachel, and Teatro Galeria (all venues located in Rio). In 1977, Swiss keyboardist Patrick Moraz, who had left Yes after recording the LP Relayer, decided to make Vímana his supporting band, rehearsing in a Brazilian tour for a European one. The Vímana members thought that a big break was coming, but the results of the association were disappointing. Moraz began to disagree with Lulu Santos, and the band finally expelled Santos under the false accusation that he didn't know how to play. The collaboration of Vímana with Moraz continued until 1978, when the partnership and the band were altogether dissolved under a cloud of scandal. Lobão allegedly had an affair with Moraz's wife. Moraz came back to Europe, joining the Moody Blues, and the Brazilians and Ritchie departed for their solo careers. ~ Alvaro Neder, All Music Guide
Wikipedia: Vimana
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
For other uses, see Vimana (disambiguation).
For the pyramid-shaped roof-towers of south India temple architecture, see Vimanam (tower).
 This article contains Indic text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks or boxes, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead of Indic text.

Vimāna (Sanskrit: विमान) is a Sanskrit word with several meanings ranging from temple or palace to mythological flying machines described in Sanskrit epics. It is made of vi- = "apart" and mā-na- = "having been measured".

Contents

Etymology and usage

Sanskrit vi-māna literally means "measuring out, traversing" or "having been measured out". It can refer to (ref Monier-Williams[1]):

  • The palace of an emperor or supreme monarch (especially one with seven stories)
  • The adytum of a Rama temple, or of any other temple
  • A temple or shrine of a particular form, see Vimanam (tower)
  • From that meaning, "a god's palace", Rāvana's flying palace Pushpaka in the Ramāyana.
  • From that, a chariot of the gods, any mythical self-moving aerial car (sometimes serving as a seat or throne, sometimes self-moving and carrying its occupant through the air; other descriptions make the Vimana more like a house or palace, and one kind is said to be seven storeys high.
  • From that, any chariot or vehicle (especially a bier)
  • In medicine, the science of (right) measure or proportion (e.g. of the right relation between the humours of the body, of medicines and remedies etc.)
  • In the Vimanavatthu, a small piece of text used as the inspiration for a Buddhist sermon.
  • In some modern Indian languages, vimāna or vimān means "aircraft", for example in the town name Vimanapura (a suburb of Bangalore).

In Sanskrit literature

Vedas

The predecessors of the flying vimanas of the Sanskrit epics are the flying chariots employed by various gods in the Vedas: the Sun (see Sun chariot) and Indra and several other Vedic deities are transported by flying wheeled chariots pulled by animals, usually horses (but the Vedic god Pūsan's chariot is pulled by goats, as is that of Norse Thor).

The Rigveda does not mention Vimanas, but verses RV 1.164.47-48 have been taken as evidence for the idea of "mechanical birds":

47. kṛṣṇáṃ niyânaṃ hárayaḥ suparṇâ / apó vásānā dívam út patanti
tá âvavṛtran sádanād ṛtásyâd / íd ghṛténa pṛthivî vy ùdyate
48. dvâdaśa pradháyaś cakrám ékaṃ / trîṇi nábhyāni ká u tác ciketa
tásmin sākáṃ triśatâ ná śaṅkávo / 'rpitâḥ ṣaṣṭír ná calācalâsaḥ
"Dark the descent: the birds are golden-coloured; up to the heaven they fly robed in the waters.
Again descend they from the seat of Order, and all the earth is moistened with their fatness."
"Twelve are the fellies, and the wheel is single; three are the naves. What man hath understood it?
Therein are set together spokes three hundred and sixty, which in nowise can be loosened." (trans. Griffith)

In Swami Dayananda Saraswati's "translation", these verses become:

"jumping into space speedily with a craft using fire and water ... containing twelve stamghas (pillars), one wheel, three machines, 300 pivots, and 60 instruments."[2]

But likelier in the original Indian symbolism when that hymn was composed, the wheel is a year, the 12 "fellies" are months (lunations), and the 360 spokes are days.[citation needed]

Ramayana

Rama being welcomed back to Ayodhya, also shown him flying in the Pushpaka Vimana, which here is depicted as a boat

In the Ramayana, the pushpaka ("flowery") vimana of Ravana is described as follows:

"The Pushpaka chariot that resembles the Sun and belongs to my brother was brought by the powerful Ravana; that aerial and excellent chariot going everywhere at will .... that chariot resembling a bright cloud in the sky ... and the King [Rama] got in, and the excellent chariot at the command of the Raghira, rose up into the higher atmosphere.'"[3]

It is the first flying vimana mentioned in Hindu mythology (as distinct from the gods' flying horse-drawn chariots).

Pushpaka was originally made by Maya for Kubera, the God of wealth, but was later stolen, along with Lanka, by his half-brother, the demon king Ravana.

Mahabharata

One example in the Mahabharata is that the Asura Maya had a Vimana measuring twelve cubits in circumference, with four strong wheels. Apart from 'blazing missiles', the poem records the use of other deadly weapons. 'Indra's Dart' (Indravajrā) operated via a circular 'reflector'. When switched on, it produced a 'shaft of light' which, when focused on any target, immediately 'consumed it with its power'.[citation needed]

In one exchange, the hero, Lord Krishna, is pursuing his enemy, Salva, in the sky, when Salva's Vimana, the Saubha, is made invisible in some way. Undeterred, Lord Krishna immediately fires off a special weapon: "I quickly laid on an arrow, which killed by seeking out sound".[citation needed]

The Mahabharata compliments "the all-knowing Yavanas" (sarvajnaa yavanaa, the Greeks), as the creators of the vimanas[4]: The Yavanas, O king, are all-knowing; the Suras are particularly so (sarvajnā yavanā rajan shurāz caiva vishesatah)[5].

Jaina literature

Vimāna-vāsin ('dweller in vimāna') is a class of deities who served the tīrthaṃkara Mahā-vīra.[6] These Vaimānika deities dwell in the Ūrdhva Loka heavens.[7] According to the Kalpa Sūtra of Bhadra-bāhu, the 24th tīrthaṃkara Mahā-vīra himself emerged out of the great vimāna Puṣpa-uttara[8] ; whereas the 22nd tīrthaṃkara Ariṣṭa-nemi emerged out of the great vimāna Aparijita[9]. The tīrthaṃkara-s Abhinandana (4th) and Sumati-nātha (5th) both[10] traveled through the sky in the "Jayanta-vimāna", namely the great vimāna Sarva-artha-siddhi, which was owned by[11] the Jayanta deities; whereas the tīrthaṃkara Dharma-nātha (15th) traveled through the sky in the "Vijaya-vimāna"[12] . A vimāna may be seen in a dream, such as the nalinī-gulma.[13]

Vimanas and the Vaimanika Shastra

The Vaimanika Shastra is an early 20th century Sanskrit text on aeronautics, claimed to be obtained by mental channeling, about construction of vimānas, the "chariots of the Gods".

The existence of the text was revealed in 1952 by G. R. Josyer, according to whom it is due to one Pandit Subbaraya Shastry, who dictated it in 1918-1923. A Hindi translation was published in 1959, the Sanskrit text with an English translation in 1973. It has 3000 shlokas in 8 chapters and was attributed by Shastry to Maharishi Bharadvaja,[14] which makes it of purportedly "ancient" origin, and hence it has a certain notability in ancient astronaut theories.

A study by aeronautical and mechanical engineering at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1974 concluded that the aircrafts described in the text were "poor concoctions" and that the author showed complete lack of understanding of aeronautics.[15]

In popular culture

Vimanas have appeared in books, films, internet and games including:

References

  1. ^ Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, version 0.1a_12
  2. ^ cited after Mukunda, H.S.; Deshpande, S.M., Nagendra, H.R., Prabhu, A. and Govindraju, S.P. (1974). "A critical study of the work "Vyamanika Shastra"" (PDF). Scientific Opinion: 5–12. http://cgpl.iisc.ernet.in/site/Portals/0/Publications/ReferedJournal/ACriticalStudyOfTheWorkVaimanikaShastra.pdf. Retrieved 2007-09-03.  p. 5.
  3. ^ Dutt, Manatha Nath (translator), Ramayana, Elysium Press, Calcutta, 1892 and New York, 1910.
  4. ^ Clive Hart, "The Prehistory of Flight", (Berkeley, 1985)
  5. ^ Mahabharata VIII.31.80
  6. ^ Hermann Jacobi : Jaina Sūtras. p. 169 http://books.google.com/books?id=8si5ZrsP90UC&pg=PA169&lpg=PA169&dq=Jaina+vimana+vehicle&source=web&ots=-5KSiv48Yo&sig=a6_Qw39h8DZhc8tcz8ep-4prwS8&hl=en&ei=ElSRSa6mIZ3etgeHp4jdCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA169,M1
  7. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jain_cosmology#Urdhva_Loka.2C_the_upper_world
  8. ^ http://jainsamaj.org/literature/bhadrabahu-040806.htm (2)
  9. ^ http://jainsamaj.org/literature/bhadrabahu-040806.htm (171)
  10. ^ Johann Georg Buhler (ed. by James Burgess) : The Indian Sect of the Jainas. London : Luzac, 1903. p. 67
  11. ^ Johann Georg Buhler (ed. by James Burgess) : The Indian Sect of the Jainas. London : Luzac, 1903. p. 74
  12. ^ Johann Georg Buhler (ed. by James Burgess) : The Indian Sect of the Jainas. London : Luzac, 1903. p. 69
  13. ^ Saryu Doshi (transl. by Thomas Dix) : Dharma Vihara, Ranakpur. Axel Menges, 1995. p. 11a http://www.mewarindia.com/ency/ran.html s.v. "Ranakpur, founding of"
  14. ^ Childress (1991), p. 109
  15. ^ "Flights of fancy? (Part X of XII)". The Week. 2001-06-24. http://www.hvk.org/articles/0601/100.html. Retrieved 2009-06-29. 

See also

External links

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