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     Redzie's Blog
Half-Life coffee shop in Riyadh, Headcrab expert and former resident from Riyadh weighs in.
 by Redzie on 05.07.2008      6 comments






A reading from my c-blog sidebar alone, none of you may have known that I used to live in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Im not Arab in any way, cept maybe my bad driving (Fuck you if you disagree, I lived there and they sucked at driving I almost died many times). Growing up there, I was exposed to all kinds of imported goods due to the ports being open to any kind of item that wasnt drugs, pork products, booze or porn (Which were all illegal in that country). Needless to say, I grew up with pirated goods from clothes to games but that is a story for another day.

Above is a picture from Kotaku displaying a Half-Life Coffee shop. I can tell you that the existance of this very likely and that this isnt a shoop. Saudi Arabia has lousy copyright enforcement with the government officials more concerned over oil money and religious observance (I was arrested once for having burned music CDs which they thought was porn).
In my years of living there I've seen countless ripping off of stuff, one company even used the character design styles of South Park to sell potato chips. Logo styles of recognizable western companies skewed to sell their own products was a familiar sight and this one here is one of them.



Via Kotaku

Attached photos:

Photo

There are 6 comments about this post:
BlindsideDork's Destructoid Blog
I'd go there...
Reaprar's Destructoid Blog
I'd go there if it wasn't in Saudi Arabia.
Eschatos's Destructoid Blog
I'd hit that.
Redzie's Destructoid Blog
Head Crab latte FTW. Saudi has porn, booze, and drugs all illegal. No fun at all.
NihonTiger90's Destructoid Blog
Valve's secret plans unveiled: Starbucks is their next target!
razerangel's Destructoid Blog
Id tap that...oil that is

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My name is Red. My gaming roots consisted of me watching my cousins
play games on the famicom from 9 in the morning til 3. Then I had to
go away to the land of sand where I was trained to be a ninja of the
sand to fight terrorism. My training consisted of the Sega Megadrive
which came prepackaged with AlienStorm, which was once dubbed as
"Showgirls of video games" by the Concelmo. Later on I moved on to
the Playstation. Due to my limited funding and due to game publishers
in the US not caring about Ninjas training in the sand like me,
I resorted to black market alternatives. My great gaming memories
consisted of pirated games which I had plentiful of due to the lack
of giving a damn by the local authorities. All those games kept me
sane in the desert wasteland. I was a prisoner in my own ninja fortress.
Then all my training was for naught when the US military beat me to
my ultimate mission: CAPTURE SADDAM HUSSEIN. But then they discovered
that he was an impostor. Intelligence reports point out that he is where
I am stationed now: TEXAS. My mission continues on.
You have read this, you shall be exterminated.

My webcomic (discontinued due to my laziness):




AWESOME ART but not by me:


I lost one of these at OniCon 2007 Houston


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