grasshopperslament

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the world wants a christine that dresses like a dark academia librarian. the world needs a christine that dresses like its christian girl autumn and smells like a pack of marlboro reds. the world wants a christine that journals about her problems and talks to raoul about her innermost secrets. the world needs a christine that wears business casual to the club with a statement necklace.

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Erik: Phantom of the Opera (1987)

The 1987 game titled “Erik: Phantom of the Opera” has been both captivating towards fans of Phantom and frustrating for its plethora of reviews and gameplay footage, and lack of access to an emulator.

“Erik: Phantom of the Opera” was an 8-bit game developed for the PC which the plot of Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera. You are Raoul, traversing the catacombs of the Opera House to rescue Christine. The gameplay is a typical side scroller, with Erik presumably assaulting you with a variety of objects on your way down.

One of the most infamous aspects of the game is that rather than a typical GAME OVER or YOU ARE DEAD screen, if you fail, you are prompted with the text “ERIK HAS DEFEATED YOU. CHRISTINE IS DEAD.”

The second I discovered footage of this game I was fascinated with playing it. Of course, with my short attention span and my lack of technological knowledge, I consulted the Internet Archive. To my surprise, if you have internet access, a download-free emulator is available to play.

The one issue that I’ve seen people who have played is that the controls are reversed once you do get them to work by selecting option 2 under “controls” in the start page. It’s rather fun, but very hard on account of only having one life.

Just finished looking into the topic and I thought it would be interesting to share on here as well! A link to a page regarding the history of the game and the Internet Archive link will be provided below.

Play the Game

Additional Information

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WHAT IS GRASSHOPPERSLAMENT?

grasshopperslament is an informal blog regarding gaston leroux’s the phantom of the opera and its adaptations

HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT FROM ANY OTHER PHANTOM BLOG?

it’s not! the truth is, unless you have specified education in a field related to phantom’s topics, there is no point in trying to pretend to be more established than you really are. this blog is dedicated to the fact that the information shared and reposted is freely available!

WHAT CAN I EXPECT?

i primarily post archival photos/videos freely available in public databases.

CAN I REPOST THINGS ON OTHER PLATFORMS?

of course! i only ask that since i am typically not the one curating and i source a lot of my leads from forums, that you credit the original source! if there is an original source, i will make sure to always have it linked! of course i’m not going to be running around enforcing this, however, you’re really doing yourself a disservice by not looking into it yourself.

WHO ARE YOU?

hi, my name is hale and i make liking the phantom of the opera one of my only personality traits! i’m a twenty year old college student and any pronouns work for me.

IS THERE A DO NOT INTERACT?

i do not tolerate racist, homophobic, transphobic, or proed rhetoric. support of any kind of bigotry will be an automatic block.

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Brad Little and Rebecca Pitcher, "Why So Silent?"

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one of my biggest pet peeves has to be people posthumously putting words in gaston leroux’s mouth. quite frankly, hes dead. i dont think hes going to be upset about you headcannoning characters as girlfriends

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The 1916 Lost Phantom of the Opera Film Adaptation

 Recently I have been doing some research into the lost film ‘Das Phantom Der Oper’ for a fun passion project I am working on, and I encountered some things along the way that I thought would be interesting to share. 

To contextualize, ‘Das Phantom Der Oper’ is a 1916 film that is said to have been filmed in Germany of 1915 and directed by Ernst Matray. However, no known stills or even a poster for said film have surfaced. Although the information surrounding the film is sparse, lost films are a guilty pleasure of mine so I had to see if there was discussion in other spaces. 

I would up combing through several forums before finding someone who, throughout the curation of a video essay regarding the topic of ‘Das Phantom Der Oper’. 

There, I was pretty astounded to find a pretty good number of advertisements found in the german film journal dating from 1913-1917. I’d like to restate that I hold no credit to finding these advertisements and you can find the video the curator of this information made here. I just thought it would be helpful to curate the images in a way that may be easier to comb through, I will be including links to the archive below if you’re interested in looking through them yourself. 

I would furthermore like to preface that I know about eight words in German so although I like to put on the faux appearance of knowing what I’m talking about, if anybody would like to lend further clarification regarding the text on the posters that would be welcomed. 

The first mention of ‘Das Phantom der Oper’, from what I could make of it, it appears to just be announcing the production and Ernst Matray’s involvement as a director. (Febuary 1916 Issue of the Lichtbild-Bühne)

Promotional Poster (Lichtbild-Bühne, Febuary 1916)

Promotional Poster (Lichtbild-Bühne, March 1916)

If you would like to learn more, I highly suggest Phantom Retrospective’s if you want something far more concise or eloquent than what I could provide. 

Sources

Archive (If you would like to do your own research, select 1913-1917 in your search prefrences!)

2006 discussion thread 

Original curator of sources

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my favorite thing about this fandom is all of the incredibly niche, minor things that make women FERAL BEASTS

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Official photos from the Italian production!

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i woke up and made these silly picsart memes

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just read a comment stating raoul gaslit christine into thinking there wasn’t a ghost… are we forgetting that raoul may just be a little silly

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its always “you’re an asshole” never “it’s in your soul, that the true distortion lies”

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A standing ovation for Julia Udine after her final Wishing!

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Click through to see the whole thing! But here’s a little sneak peek/behind the scenes of the “photo”.

I’ve entitled it “And They Were Roommates”

@thedrawingduke on tumblr and Instagram

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This is so real

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“phantom of the opera” vs “the phantom of the opera” discourse is so funny to me, i understand the inherent copyright rumor stuff but is there an actual reason ethics-wise for people getting onto newer fans for saying “phantom of the opera”

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Erik Destler would drive a Jeep