Empedocles Takes Entertainment to a Higher Level Quiz

Answer: The Tempest

In "The Tempest", Prospero was the rightful Duke of Milan and a sorcerer. His brother Antonio had banished Prospero to an island and claimed the title of Duke of Milan. Prospero lived on the almost deserted island with his daughter Miranda and their servants Ariel (a fairy) and Caliban (a sea monster). When Antonio sailed past Prospero's island, Prospero conjured a tempest to shipwreck Antonio and strand him on the island, where Prospero would use several schemes in order to marry off Miranda and regain the title of Duke of Milan himself.
Main characters in "Love's Labour Lost" were King Ferdinand, Lord Berowne, Lord Longueville and Lord Dumaine, who swore not to get involved with women - until four lovely ladies entered.
The eponymous "Two Gentlemen of Verona" were Valentine and Proteus. These two noblemen each had a girlfriend, but Proteus also fell for the charm of Valentine's beloved.
"The Taming of the Shrew" stars Katherina Minola, her younger sister Bianca and Petrucchio. Katherina was ill-tempered, but her father demanded that Katherina should be married before Bianca, the merrier and more desirable sister. The bachelor visitor Petrucchio was than incited to court Katherina.

Answer: Gene Roddenberry

Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991) came up with the idea for "Star Trek" and wrote several episodes of the first TV series. The first season did not have the expected success, but a large fan base protested at the broadcast company, and so two more seasons were made. As the fan base kept growing, subsequent TV series, movies, books, comics and games were launched.
And then there were of course the parodies. I remember the song "Star Trekking" (1987) by The Firm, which popularized the phrase "It's life, Jim, but not as we know it". If you're in for a good laugh, you can find the full song on YouTube.
George Lucas was the creator of the "Star Wars" franchise, starting with movies.
Malcolm Wheeler - Nicholson was the founder of DC Comics. Stan Lee was the main author of Marvel Comics.

Answer: Joachim Beuckelaer

During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century, painting a series of the four elements (as defined by Empedocles) was quite popular in Flanders and in Italy.
Beuckelaer (1533-1574) made a famous series, that can be admired in the National Gallery in London. For the element air, he painted a Flemish market where different kinds of fowl and eggs were sold. Likewise he painted a fish market for the element water, a vegetable market for the element earth, and a kitchen full of meats to roast for the element fire.
Arcimboldo's series on the elements features human heads consisting of related objects (birds in the "Air" painting).
Albani created a series combining people in a certain age with the four elements. The air is combined with a young adult man.
Bassano started a series on the elements. Alas, only his painting on the element "Earth" can still be admired.

Answer: Space Invaders

While all these games were early video games, there is only one of these that can be considered as a shooter.
"Space Invaders" (1978) consisted in the basic version of a player-controlled cannon at the bottom of the screen, some bunkers to hide behind, and a few rows of alien monsters at the top. The monsters moved slowly downwards, the player could shoot upwards and get points for each monster destroyed, and the monsters shot back - destroying the bunkers and aiming to hit the player's cannon. One had three "lives" at the start, meaning that the game was only over after the third time one was defeated (either by a direct hit or because the monsters reached the end line). After reaching certain targets, one could gain an extra "life".
"Pac Man" (1980) was one of the first maze games.
"Pong" (1972) was a rough simulation of ping pong and could be regarded as the first sports video game.
"Donkey Kong" (1981) was an early platform game.

Answer: Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines

The official movie title is even longer: "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, Or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes".
The movie is set in 1910, when a British newspaper owner offered a substantial prize for the daredevil who succeeded as first in a trip from London to Paris (a year after Louis Blériot had performed the trip in the other direction). Some of the competitors in the movie were the American Orvil Newton (reference to real-life Orville Wright), the Prussian Manfred von Holstein (sharing the first name of real aviator Manfred von Richthofen), the British Sir Percy Ware-Armitage (reference to real-life RAF officer Michael Armitage), the Italian Emilio Ponticelli (sharing the first name of the real-life Mexican captain Emilio Carranza Rodrigues) and the Japanese Yamamoto (reference to the real-life admiral Isoroku Yamamoto).
The characters in the movie did not only compete for the prize of the first Channel crossing west to east, but several of them also fell for the charm of the same ladies.

Answer: The Texas Tornado

Although the son of Fritz von Erich, Kerry was born (in 1960) under the name Kerry Gene Adkisson. His father was a professional wrestler, as well as Kerry's brothers David, Kevin, Mike and Chris.
Kerry von Erich started his career in the ring in 1978. He won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship once, the WCWA World Heavyweight Championship four times, the WWWA World Heavyweight Championship once and the WWF World Heavyweight Championship once.
(The NWA was the National Wrestling Alliance, the WCWA was the World Class Wrestling Association, the WWWA was the rivalling World Wide Wrestling Alliance, and the WWF was the World Wrestling Federation - since then renamed WWE for World Wrestling Entertainment).
In 1993 Kerry was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident. After amputation of one of his feet, he became addicted to painkillers and finally committed suicide in 1993.
"The Beast from the East" was one of the stage names of Scott Charles "Bam Bam" Bigelow.
Beth Phoenix chose the stage name "The Glamazon", short for "The Glamorous Amazon".
"The Funkasaurus" was born as George Murdoch.

Answer: Rovio Entertainment

Rovio Entertainment is the only Finnish company mentioned here. It was founded in 2003 as Relude, renamed Rovio Mobile in 2005 and again renamed Rovio Entertainment in 2011. It developed fifty-odd games up till 2009, without much commercial success. But then came "Angry Birds": a game designed for mobile phones with a very peculiar gameplay. One had to use a slingshot to launch a number of birds to a bunch of green pigs who had stolen the birds' eggs. Some of the birds had special effects, such as a chicken that could lay exploding eggs.
The franchise was expanded to TV shows, movies and theme parks.
Ubisoft is French and best known for games as the "Assassin's Creed" and "Prince of Persia" franchises.
Capcom is based in Japan and developed (among others) the "Street Fighter" and "Resident Evil" franchises.
Electronic Arts is an American company, responsible for the original "FIFA" series as well as the "Need for Speed" franchise.

Answer: Storm

The X-Men was a group of humans who disposed of superhuman powers because of a genetic mutation. This group appeared first in comic strips by Marvel Comics. Later on there were also made movies, TV shows and video games.
Storm was born Ororo Munroe, the daughter of a Kenyan princess and an American photographer. Her most intriguing superpower was the control of weather phenomena: she could create rain, wind, or fog. In different movies her adult character was played by Halle Berry, while Alexandra Shipp played the young Storm.
Firestar is the X-Men name for Angelica Jones.
The X-Man born as Warren Kenneth Worthington III started his career as Angel, later becoming Archangel.
Polaris is the codename of Lorna Sally Dane.

Answer: Condor ride

People who want to try out the Condor ride, are seated in a closed gondola. Seven gondolas each are attached to four arms, and as soon as the arms are raised to the exact altitude, two different rotations are started: the gondolas rotate horizontally about each arm, and each arm in turn rotates horizontally around the tower.
The ride was invented by the German company HUSS. Condor rides have been installed in several countries, including the USA (for instance Six Flags Great Adventure), Egypt (Dream Park), Germany (e.g. Wunderland Kalkar) and China (among others in Happy Valley Beijing). Fantasialandia in Chile had a Condor ride, but it was removed.
The Ferris Wheel has several gondolas frimly attached to a high, vertically turning, wheel-like structure.
The Caterpillar is an amusement ride with several car compartments one after the other, driving on the ground at relatively high speed over a waving track.
The Carousel is the classical merry-go-round: a number of seats fixed to a horizontally rotating platform. Sometimes the seats are shaped as a horse and move up and down as well.

Answer: Blowin' in the Wind

Bob Dylan wrote "Blowin' in the Wind" in 1962. He was the first to record this song, within a few weeks followed by Bobby Darin. But the most successful cover was the one made by Peter, Paul and Mary.
Here is the first verse of the song:
"How many roads must a man walk down //
Before you call him a man? //
How many seas must a white dove sail //
Before she sleeps in the sand? //
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly //
Before they're forever banned?"
And then the refrain is "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind // The answer is blowin' in the wind".
"Walking on Air" by Katy Perry contains not a single question. Nor does "Fly Me to the Moon" by Frank Sinatra.
"Skies the Limit" by Fleetwood Mac does not mention cannonballs.