1. The taxonomic genus to which humans (Homo sapiens) and certain extinct hominids, such as the Neanderthal, belong.

2. One of the two Latin words for "man"; it corresponds to the Greek "anthropos". As with the English word "man", it can refer to humanity as well as the male sex thereof. Oppose "femina"; contrast with "vir".

3. The Ancient Greek root for "same". Used in words such as homophone, homonym, homologous, and homosexual. Oppose "hetero"; contrast with "auto".

A rude abbreviation for homosexual. Used more often by children than by adults. Among the adults who use the term, many qualify as children in mental age anyway.

Essential to the inane interpretation of "2% homo milk" that kept my school chums in chuckles for all of three seconds back in the third grade.

Abbreviation for Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital.

According to Molecular Orbital Theory, the atomic orbitals of the component atoms of a molecule combine in linear fashion to make a large number of hybrid electron orbitals. The electrons of all the atoms in the molecule fill these orbitals, starting with the lowest energy orbitals. The molecular orbital with the highest energy that contains electrons is called the Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital.

The HOMO can reflect the stability of a molecule, especially when compared to the LUMO. The difference in energy between the HOMO and LUMO is known as the gap.

Homo was an old arcade game released by Homo Sapiens/ALSFTW back in 1987.

My mama always said I should choose titles carefully

It was 1987 and Sun Electronics has just released a hot new Arkanoid clone named GoinDol. It was a ball and paddle game with a prehistoric theme.

Soon after the first GoinDol unit shipped, pirate game manufacturer ALSFTW decided that they were going to make a bootleg version of the game to sell to the rich American and European market. Now the first thing you do when creating a bootleg game is to change the name, and set up a front company. So they saw the little caveman that was on all the game screens, and decided to name their game "Homo", and their front company "Homo Sapiens". All these decisions were made by people with little experience with the english language, so they had little idea that Homo also meant "A rude abbreviation for homosexual. Used more often by children than by adults".

They went ahead and created thousands of "Homo conversion kits", and then tryed to sell them to the english speaking market. Bootleg conversion kits usually sell fast, because they are priced so much cheaper than the games they copy. But, they had a hard time selling their "Homo conversion kits" to anyone, the thirteen year old mentality was just too prevalent among distributors, and arcade operators.

So most of these "Homo conversion kits" just languished unsold in warehouses, a few were actually sold and installed, but not many.

Ma'am, we thought you should know: Your son is a homo sapien

The game itself is a blast. Think of Arkanoid, but then add a few pinball elements, such as angled rubber bumpers near the bottom of the screen, and a big target in the center.

To finish each level you must break all the bricks on the current one, a few items like the center target cannot be broken, but they can earn you extra points, or even a bonus round for hitting them. Your main enemy is "Homo" the caveman, he walks around at the top of the screen, and tosses obstacles in your way (these work just like the enemies in Arkanoid).

Most levels feature a little Pac-Man style scene between them. These scenes refer to the game by its original title of "GoinDol", as it seems the people who put this together didn't bother to actually play the game past the first level. The game has 100 unique levels in all, but I can't get nearly that far, so you will have to figure out the ending on your own.

Homo Delphinus - The Dolphin Within Man

Homo was sold as a conversion kit only (remember the whole part earlier about "Homo conversion kits"?). The conversion kit consisted of a marquee (very plain, just said "Homo" on it), a PCB, and an instruction manual. You were expected to supply your own spinner and buttons. The game itself ran on 2 Z80 processors, on a boardset nearly identical to the original "GoinDol" (of course the components were much lower in quality).

Is Homo sapiens the most advanced species?

You can play this title using the MAME emulator, although chances are you don't have a spinner hooked up to your computer, a trackball is your next best option, although you can use a mouse in a pinch.

You may want to add this to your arcade game collection, and I wouldn't blame you. It is a fun game, with a unique title that is sure to get a snicker out of your 13 year old cousins. You are probably more likely to find an uninstalled kit than an actual machine. The kit will work on any vertical Jamma cabinet, but you will need to purchase a spinner separately.

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