1.
Video game industry
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The video game industry is the economic sector involved in the development, marketing and Monetizing of video games. It encompasses dozens of job disciplines and employs thousands of people worldwide, the computer and video game industry has grown from focused markets to mainstream. They took in about US$9.5 billion in the US in 2007,11.7 billion in 2008, sound cards were developed for addition of digital-quality sound to games and only later improved for music and audiophiles. Early on, graphics cards were developed for more colors, later, graphic cards were developed for graphical user interfaces and games, GUIs drove the need for high resolution, and games began using 3D acceleration. They also are one of the pieces of hardware to allow multiple hookups. Product and talent layer, includes developers, designers and artists, production and tools layer, generates content production tools, game development middleware, customizable game engines, and production management tools. Distribution layer, or the industry, involved in generating and marketing catalogs of games for retail. Hardware layer, or the providers of the platform, which may be console-based, accessed through online media. This layer now includes network infrastructure and non-hardware platforms such as machines, or software platforms such as browsers or even further Facebook. End-users layer, or the users/players of the games, the game industry employs those experienced in other traditional businesses, but some have experience tailored to the game industry. Some of the specific to the game industry include, game programmer, game designer, level designer, game producer, game artist. Most of these professionals are employed by video game developers or video game publishers, however, many hobbyists also produce computer games and sell them commercially. Recently, game developers have begun to employ those with extensive or long-term experience within the modding communities, prior to the 1970s, there was no significant commercial aspect of the video game industry, but many advances in computing would set the stage for the birth of the industry. In 1947 Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann filed a patent for a cathode ray tube amusement device and their game, which uses a cathode ray tube hooked to an oscilloscope display, challenges players to fire a gun at target. One of the first known examples is Spacewar, developed by Harvard and MIT employees Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen. The introduction of easy-to-program languages like BASIC for mainframes allowed for more games to be developed. In 1971 the arcade game, Computer Space was released, the following year, Atari, Inc. released the first commercially successful video game, Pong, the original arcade version of which sold over 19,000 arcade cabinets. That same year saw the introduction of video games to the market with the release of the early video game console
2.
David Crane (programmer)
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David Patrick Crane is a video game designer and programmer National Semiconductor. Crane started his career at Atari, making games for the Atari 2600. He also worked on the system for the Atari 800 computer. After meeting co-worker Alan Miller in a game, Miller told Crane about a plan he had to leave Atari. From this meeting, Crane left Atari in 1979 and co-founded Activision, along with Miller, Jim Levy, Bob Whitehead and his games won many awards while he was at Activision. At Activision, he was best known as the designer of Pitfall, Pitfall. was a huge hit, and maintained the top slot on the Billboard charts for 64 weeks and was named video game of the year in 1982. Over 4 million copies of the game were sold in the 1980s and it was the second best-selling game for the Atari 2600 after Pac-Man. He believed instead that tailoring new games to the strengths and weaknesses of the 2600 machine would have yielded positive results, in 1986, Crane left Activision to co-found Absolute Entertainment with Garry Kitchen. Crane said that he left because the newly appointed CEO of Activision, Bruce Davis, although Absolute was based in New Jersey, Crane did all of his programming at his home in California. In 1995, Absolute Entertainment was dissolved, in 1995, Crane co-founded Skyworks Technologies as the organizations Chief Technical Officer. And Activision, retrieved December 2013 Playing Catch-Up, A Boy And His Job, Activisions David Crane, interview with Crane on Gamasutra
3.
Santa Monica, California
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Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. The Census Bureau population for Santa Monica in 2010 was 89,736, due in part to an agreeable climate, Santa Monica became a famed resort town by the early 20th century. The city has experienced a boom since the late 1980s through the revitalization of its core, significant job growth. The Santa Monica Pier remains a popular and iconic destination, Santa Monica was long inhabited by the Tongva people. Santa Monica was called Kecheek in the Tongva language, the first non-indigenous group to set foot in the area was the party of explorer Gaspar de Portolà, who camped near the present-day intersection of Barrington and Ohio Avenues on August 3,1769. Named after the Christian saint Monica, there are two different accounts of how the name came to be. One says it was named in honor of the feast day of Saint Monica, another version says it was named by Juan Crespí on account of a pair of springs, the Kuruvungna Springs, that were reminiscent of the tears Saint Monica shed over her sons early impiety. In Los Angeles, several battles were fought by the Californios, following the Mexican–American War, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave Mexicans and Californios living in state certain unalienable rights. US government sovereignty in California began on February 2,1848, in the 1870s the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad, connected Santa Monica with Los Angeles, and a wharf out into the bay. The first town hall was a modest 1873 brick building, later a beer hall and it is Santa Monicas oldest extant structure. By 1885, the towns first hotel was the Santa Monica Hotel, around the start of the 20th century, a growing population of Asian Americans lived in and around Santa Monica and Venice. A Japanese fishing village was near the Long Wharf while small numbers of Chinese lived or worked in Santa Monica, the two ethnic minorities were often viewed differently by White Americans who were often well-disposed towards the Japanese but condescending towards the Chinese. The Japanese village fishermen were an economic part of the Santa Monica Bay community. Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. built a plant in 1922 at Clover Field for the Douglas Aircraft Company, in 1924, four Douglas-built planes took off from Clover Field to attempt the first aerial circumnavigation of the world. Two planes returned after covering 27,553 miles in 175 days, the Douglas Company kept facilities in the city until the 1960s. The Great Depression hit Santa Monica deeply, one report gives citywide employment in 1933 of just 1,000. Hotels and office building owners went bankrupt, in the 1930s, corruption infected Santa Monica. The federal Works Project Administration helped build several buildings, most notably City Hall, the main Post Office and Barnum Hall were also among other WPA projects
4.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
5.
Activision Blizzard
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Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game developer. Activision Blizzard currently includes five units, Activision, Blizzard Entertainment, Major League Gaming, Activision Blizzard Studios. The company owns and operates additional studios under an independent studios model, including Treyarch, Infinity Ward and Toys for Bob, and its titles have broken a number of release records. Call of Duty, Black Ops III grossed $550 million in sales during its opening weekend in 2015. In December 2007, Activision announced that the company and its assets would merge with fellow games developer and publisher Vivendi Games, at the time, Vivendi was best known as the holding company for the game studios Sierra Entertainment and Blizzard Entertainment. The new company was to be named Activision Blizzard, and would retain its headquarters in California. Bobby Kotick of Activision was announced as the new president and CEO, the European Commission permitted the merger to take place in April 2008, approving that there werent any antitrust issues in the merger deal. On July 8,2008, Activision announced that stockholders had agreed to merge, Vivendi was the majority shareholder, with a 52% stake in the company. At this point, Jean-Bernard Levy replaced René Penisson as chairman of Activision Blizzard, the merger made Activision Blizzard the parent company of Vivendi Games former divisions. While Blizzard retained its autonomy and corporate leadership in the merger, other Vivendi Games divisions such as Sierra ceased operation, with the merger, Kotick was quoted stating if a Sierra product did not meet Activisions requirements, they wont likely be retained. However, a number of Sierras games such as Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Activision Blizzard does not publish games under its central name and instead uses its studios to publish games. In early 2010, the independent studio Bungie entered into a 10-year publishing agreement with Activision Blizzard, by the end of 2010, Activision Blizzard was the largest video games publisher in the world. The 2011 release of Activision Blizzards Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 3 grossed $400 million in the US and UK alone in its first 24 hours, making it the biggest entertainment launch of all time. Call of Duty, Black Ops III grossed $550 million in sales during its opening weekend in 2015. In 2011, Activision Blizzard debuted its Skylanders franchise, which led to the press crediting the company with inventing and popularizing a new toys-to-life category. The first release Skylanders, Spyros Adventure was nominated for two Toy Industry Association awards in 2011, Game of the Year and Innovative Toy of the Year. Skylanders, Spyros Adventure and its sequels were released for consoles and PC. At the conclusion of the deal, Vivendi was no longer Activision Blizzards parent company, bobby Kotick and Brian Kelly retained a 24. 4% stake in the company overall
6.
Beenox
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Beenox is a video game developer, established in Quebec City, Quebec. Founded in 2000 by Dominique Brown, the became a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision on May 25,2005. Between 2002 and 2006, the developer was essentially a porting house and they completed approximately 30 projects for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS, based on popular franchises such as X-Men, Spider-Man and Shrek. In 2006, they returned to game development, with Bee Movie Game. Beenox employs about 440 employees who are developing games for such as PlayStation 3, Xbox 360. They released the Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, Wii and PC versions of Monsters vs. Aliens, beenox later created the Spider-Man games Spider-Man, Shattered Dimensions, Spider-Man, Edge of Time, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2
7.
Demonware
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Demonware is an Irish software development company and a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Demonwares products enable games publishers to outsource their networking requirements, allowing them to concentrate on playability, the organisation has offices in Dublin, Ireland, Vancouver, Canada, and Shanghai, China. Demonware was founded in 2003 by Dylan Collins and Sean Blanchfield, in May 2007, the organisation was purchased by Activision. During the acquisition, Activision offered long-term contracts to the management team, primary products developed by Demonware include the Demonware State Engine and Matchmaking+. The State Engine is a high-performance state synchronization C++ programming framework that eliminates the need to reinvent netcode in multiplayer games, Matchmaking+ provides services for multiplayer games such as matchmaking, user profiling, and gaming statistics. Demonwares main product, which is used for multiplayer in the Call of Duty franchise is programmed in Erlang and Python Official website
8.
High Moon Studios
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High Moon Studios is an American video game developer that used to be a part of Sierra Entertainment. After a period as an independent studio, the developer was acquired by Vivendi Games in January 2006 and it is now owned by Activision Blizzard, a parent company of Activision. It has developed multiple Transformers video games as well as assisting in the development of both Call of Duty, Advanced Warfare and Destiny. In March 2005, the announced that it had completed a management buyout from Sammy Corporation. John Rowe, president and CEO of High Moon, continues to manage the studio from Carlsbad, after the merger of Vivendi and Activision, the studio became a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Following the completion of Deadpool, Activision fired 40 full-time employees from High Moon Studios that worked on the project, Sammy Corporation Vivendi Games Official website High Moon Studios profile on MobyGames
9.
Infinity Ward
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Infinity Ward, Inc. is an American video game developer. They developed the video game Call of Duty, along six other installments in the Call of Duty series. Vince Zampella, Grant Collier, and Jason West established Infinity Ward in 2002 after working at 2015, all of the 22 original team members of Infinity Ward came from the team that had worked on Medal of Honor, Allied Assault while at 2015, Inc. Activision helped fund Infinity Ward in its days, buying up 30 percent of the company. The studios first game, World War II shooter Call of Duty, was released on the PC in 2003, the day after the game was released, Activision snapped up the rest of Infinity Ward, signing employees to long term contracts. Co-founder Collier left the company in early 2009 to join parent company Activision, in 2010, West and Zampella were fired by Activision for breaches of contract and insubordination, they soon founded a game studio called Respawn Entertainment. On May 3,2014, Neversoft was merged into Infinity Ward, Infinity Ward was founded in 2002. This coincided with Jason West and Vince Zampella editing their profiles on the website LinkedIn to list Infinity Ward as an employer as of March 2010. It was later confirmed by Activision that West and Zampella had been dismissed, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick addressed Infinity Ward studio heads on March 2,2010 about Zampella and Wests dismissal. A second meeting was held all of Infinity Wards employees on hand. The outcomes of those meetings are currently unknown, but Activision has explained that Infinity Ward is still central to the future of the Call of Duty franchise, Activision has used a new studio, Sledgehammer Games, to create an action-adventure installment of the Call of Duty franchise. Following West and Zampellas firings, nearly half of the remaining Infinity Ward employees resigned, throughout April and May 2010,46 employees, among them lead designers and programmers who worked on Modern Warfare 2, abruptly left Infinity Ward. All of them have so far declined to comment on their reasons for leaving, vivendi chairman and CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy stated that Infinity Ward got over their problems and are fully reconstructed and that Activision is very happy with the result. The executive went on to say there will be three studios working on the Call of Duty franchise including the newly formed studio Sledgehammer Games. If their lawsuit is successful, West and Zampella could retain the power to halt the development and release of any future games, on April 9,2010 a countersuit was filed by Activision stating their actions in firing Zampella and West were justified, calling the two self-serving schemers. Zampella and Wests attorney responded to the countersuit the same day saying the claims are false. The trial date for this case was revealed on July 9,2010 to be scheduled for May 23,2011 but was rescheduled for December 14,2011 and it was then rescheduled again for March 29,2012, and further rescheduled for June 1. On March 31,2012, the two agreed to a confidential settlement
10.
Radical Entertainment
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Radical Entertainment Inc. is a Canadian video game developer based in Vancouver, British Columbia and a subsidiary of Activision. The studio was founded in 1991 by industry veterans Rory Armes and Dave Davis and it is best known for developing three games in the Crash Bandicoot franchise, and the Prototype series of games. Studio head Dr. David Dave Fracchia left the company in May 2014, Radical Entertainment most recently contributed to Destiny in 2014. Radical Entertainment was founded in 1991 by Rory Armes, Dave Davis, the studio primarliy developed Nintendo Entertainment System ports and adaptions of other video games, peaking at eight projects in 1994. Between 1997 and 1998, serveral employees left the studio to form Barking Dog Studios, in 2003, Radical Entertainment opened a development division,369 Interactive, which was set to develop multiple titles based on the CSI franchise, in partnership with Ubi Soft. Although Radical Entertainment developed few titles for Vivendi Universal Entertainment, the titles gained massive success, Radical was also given the license to continue development of the Crash Bandicoot franchise which was also published under Sierra Entertainment. Radical took over the development of Crash Tag Team Racing from Travellers Tales, the critical and commercial success of Crash of the Titans spawned one more sequel, Crash, Mind over Mutant, which managed to both critically beat its predecessor as well as commercially. During the development of Crash, Mind Over Mutant, Radical began working on its first original IP, in 2008 it was announced that Vivendi Games and Activision were to form Activision Blizzard. The merger changed the mood of Radical and made it more like a first-party developer, at the time of the merge Radical was working on three different projects, one was an unnamed project and the other two were Crash, Mind Over Mutant and Prototype. After the merger took place, about half of Radicals staff was cut under Activision Blizzards restructuring and this resulted in the cancellation of the unnamed project while development of Crash and Prototype were unaffected. Crash, Mind Over Mutant was the last games to be published under the Sierra Entertainment label, nevertheless, Activision is given credit within the video game. Prototype was published only underneath the Activision label, however, when Radical Entertainment experienced layoffs which resulted in over 60 people losing jobs, the project was cancelled by Activision. At the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards, Radical announced Prototype 2, Radical Entertainment released the first details for Prototype 2 in an interview with EGMi. In the same interview revealed that they halted the development on an unknown game, possibly the rumoured Crash Bandicoot title. However, other candidates for the game were rumored to be an unknown Spider-Man game. This title was revealed to be cancelled. In January 2011, an artist posted video showing the cancelled Jason Bourne game called Treadstone. The game was cancelled when the Bourne license was reacquired by Ludlum Entertainment, to celebrate the release of Prototype 2, Radical Entertainment revealed that, to coincide, they were releasing RadNet
11.
Raven Software
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Raven Software is an American video game developing company based in Wisconsin and founded in 1990. In 1997, Raven made a publishing deal with Activision and was subsequently acquired by them. After the acquisition, many of the original developers, largely responsible for creating the Heretic and Hexen, Beyond Heretic games. Raven Software was founded in 1990 by brothers Brian and Steve Raffel, the company was independent until 1997 when it was acquired by Activision. Raven has a history of working with id Software, who were located on the same street. They used ids engines for many of their games, such as Heretic in 1994 and they took over development of ids Quake franchise for Quake 4 and the 2009 iteration of ids Wolfenstein series. The company started with three development teams, in August 2009 following poor performance and possible over-budget of Wolfenstein, the company made a major layoff of 30-35 staff, leaving two development teams. This was reduced to one after more layoffs in October 2010, after delays with Singularity, following the layoffs, Raven has been focused on assisting with the Call of Duty series ever since. In 2012, Raven began hiring employees for a next generation game, on 3 April 2013 following the closure of LucasArts, Raven Software released the source code for Star Wars Jedi Knight II, Jedi Outcast and Star Wars Jedi Knight, Jedi Academy on Sourceforge. As of April 2014, the company is the developer of the free-to-play Chinese Call of Duty title, Call of Duty. The company also remastered Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare, titled Call of Duty, Modern Warfare Remastered
12.
Sierra Entertainment
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Sierra Entertainment is an American publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams. Based in Oakhurst, California and later in Fresno, California, the division is now owned by Activision, Sierra is known for its multiple lines of seminal graphic adventure games started in the 1980s, many of which proved influential in the history of video games. The Sierra label was absorbed by its parent company in 2008, some franchises that were published by Sierra were later published by Activision. Sierra was revived in 2014 by Activision Blizzard and it now focuses on re-releasing their old games, reviving their franchises and collaborating with independent developers for smaller projects. Sierra Entertainment was founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems in Simi Valley, California, by Ken, Ken Williams, a programmer for IBM, bought an Apple II microcomputer which he planned to use to develop a Fortran compiler for the Apple II. At the time, his wife Roberta Williams was playing text adventure games on the Apple II, dissatisfied with the text-only format, she realized that the graphics display capability of the Apple II could enhance the adventure gaming experience. After initial success, On-Line Systems was renamed Sierra On-Line in 1982, by early 1984 InfoWorld estimated that Sierra was the worlds 12th-largest microcomputer-software company, with $12.5 million in 1983 sales. In 1980, On-Line Systems released their first game in the Hi-Res Adventure series, Roberta wrote the script for the adventure game in three weeks, then presented it to Ken. At this point, Roberta convinced Ken to help her develop the game in the evenings after work and she worked on the text and the graphics, and told Ken how to put it all together to make it the game she wanted. They worked on it for three months and, on May 5,1980, Mystery House was ready for shipment. Mystery House was an instant hit and it was the first computer adventure game to have graphics, although they were crude, monochrome, static line drawings. It sold about 15,000 copies and earned $167,000, the Hi-Res Adventure series continued with Mission Asteroid, which was released as Hi-Res Adventure #0, despite being the second release. The next release, Wizard and the Princess, also known as Adventure in Serenia, is considered a prelude to the later Kings Quest series in both story and concept. Through 1981 and 1982, more games were released in the series including Cranston Manor, Ulysses and the Golden Fleece, Time Zone, a simplified version of The Dark Crystal, intended for a younger audience, was written by Al Lowe and released as Gelfling Adventure. Many of Sierras most well known series began in the 1980s, in 1983, Sierra On-Line was contacted by IBM to create a game for its new PCjr. IBM would fund the development of the game, pay royalties for it. Ken and Roberta accepted and started on the project, Roberta created a story featuring classic fairy-tale elements. For the game, a development system called Adventure Game Interpreter was developed
13.
Sledgehammer Games
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Sledgehammer Games, Inc. is an American video game developer, formed in 2009 by industry veterans Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey. The pair formerly worked at Visceral Games and are responsible for the creation of Dead Space, the company is an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of Activision and is based in Foster City, California. This studio is known for co-developing Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 3 with Infinity Ward, and developing Call of Duty, Advanced Warfare, which released in 2014. Sledgehammer Games co-founders Schofield and Condrey first worked together at EA in 2005 on 007, From Russia with Love, with Condrey as director, the collaboration carried forward to Dead Space. The two men had complementary skills and similar backgrounds—middle class with fathers in the construction business, Activision sat on the proposal for weeks until Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick offered to bring the studio into the Activision fold. Sledgehammer Games spent six to eight months working on the Call of Duty project in 2009, the game would have reportedly extended the franchise into the action-adventure genre. But then a battle between Infinity Ward, the studio behind the Modern Warfare franchise, and co-founders Jason West. Activision requested that Sledgehammer Games stop work on the third-person shooter, the offer was a gamble for both sides. Infinity Ward was more likely to receive credit for any success while Sledgehammer Games was apt to be blamed for any failure, the studio first polled its staff and got unanimous approval. It was a risk for Schofield and Condrey’s new studio. The Infinity Ward name was the marquis on the Modern Warfare franchise, looking back at the success of that game and franchise as a whole, it is easy to overlook the chance Sledgehammer took. The collaboration with Infinity Ward marked the first time a co-development relationship would produce a Modern Warfare title, despite the companies’ differing histories and development methodologies, GamesTM called the arrangement a rare symbiotic relationship for such a high-profile game. The two teams first met in the spring of 2010 to compare ideas. There was some overlap, both wanted to set the game in Europe and, recalled Schofield, achieve a “payoff on the story that had been told over the last four years. ”It was announced in February 2014 that Sledgehammer Games would be developing a new Call of Duty title. On May 1 GameInformer teased a high image of a soldier wearing an exo-skeleton suit. It was also announced more details, the cover, the full name. However the trailer was leaked which confirmed the release of Call of Duty, Sledgehammer Games operates out of a custom-designed studio with an open-plan space, high-end development equipment, and a theater. Schofield oversees the companys effort, Condrey its business operation
14.
Toys for Bob
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Toys for Bob is an American video game developer founded in 1989 by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford. They created Star Control and its sequel Star Control II, The Ur-Quan Masters in the early 1990s, however, they were not involved in the development of Star Control 3. After this they went on to create a number of games for Crystal Dynamics and this relationship with Crystal Dynamics ended in 2002. The company was bought by Activision on May 3,2005, the management team and employees have all signed long-term contracts with Activision, and Toys for Bob remains in place in Novato, California. Under Activision, the developer mainly focused on licensed games, however. On February 12,2011, it was revealed that Toys for Bob had been working on the latest Spyro game in the series for Activision, known as, Skylanders, Spyros Adventure. The name Toys for Bob was invented by Laurie Lessen-Reiche, it was chosen to stimulate curiosity and allude to Paul, official website Toys For Bob company overview from MobyGames
15.
Treyarch
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Treyarch is an American video game development company, founded in 1996 by Peter Akemann and Doğan Köslü, and acquired by Activision in 2001. In 2005, Gray Matter Interactive was merged into Treyarch, as part of the 2007 Leipzig Games Convention, Activision announced that Treyarch would be one of three developers behind their first James Bond based game, Quantum of Solace. The game was released on October 31,2008 in Europe, vicarious Visions developed the DS version and Eurocom developed the PlayStation 2 version. Treyarch is also a developer in the Call of Duty series. They have made Call of Duty 2, Big Red One, Call of Duty 3, Call of Duty, World at War, Call of Duty, Black Ops, Call of Duty, Black Ops II and Call of Duty, Black Ops III. Sales from the game worldwide reached US$650 million within five days after its release, Treyarch worked on the Wii U version of Call of Duty, Ghosts, in order to optimize it for the console. Treyarchs most recently released game is Call of Duty, Black Ops III
16.
Vicarious Visions
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Vicarious Visions, Inc. is an American video game developer. Vicarious Visions games accounted for over $2.5 billion in retail sales, the headquarters of Vicarious Visions is located in Menands, New York. It was announced in December 2016 by Activision that Vicarious Visions will be working on Destiny, the studio was founded by brothers Karthik and Guha Bala in 1990 while both were in high school. Under their leadership, a sale of the company was negotiated to Activision, in January 2005, Vicarious Visions was acquired by publisher Activision. On April 5,2016, the Bala brothers announced that they had left the company, terminus, an online multiplayer space trading and combat simulation game, won two Independent Games Festival Awards in 1999. They developed the first three Crash Bandicoot GBA games and they are also well known for many games including Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Ultimate Spider-Man, Crash Nitro Kart, Jedi Knight II, Jedi Academy, and Doom 3 for the Xbox. Vicarious Visions developed for the Guitar Hero series on the Nintendo DS, for Guitar Hero, On Tour, Vicarious Visions created the Guitar Grip peripheral for the Nintendo DS, which emulates the guitar controller for the portable system. It was revealed on June 10,2011, that Vicarious Visions was working on the 3DS version of Skylanders, on December 8,2016, Vicarious Visions announced that they are partnering with Bungie to work on the Destiny franchise
17.
Video game console
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A video game console is an electronic, digital or computer device that outputs a video signal or visual image to display a video game that one or more people can play. The term video game console is used to distinguish a console machine primarily designed for consumers to use for playing video games. An arcade machine consists of a video game computer, display, game controller, a home computer is a personal computer designed for home use for a variety of purposes, such as bookkeeping, accessing the Internet and playing video games. There are various types of game consoles, including home video game consoles, handheld game consoles, microconsoles. Although Ralph Baer had built working game consoles by 1966, it was nearly a decade before the Pong game made them commonplace in regular peoples living rooms. Through evolution over the 1990s and 2000s, game consoles have expanded to additional functions such as CD players, DVD players, Blu-ray disc players, web browsers, set-top boxes. The first video appeared in the 1960s. They were played on massive computers connected to vector displays, not analog televisions, Ralph H. Baer conceived the idea of a home video game in 1951. In the late 1960s, while working for Sanders Associates, Baer created a series of game console designs. In 1972, Magnavox released the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home game console which could be connected to a TV set. Magnavox replaced the switch design with separate cartridges for each game, by autumn 1975, Magnavox, bowing to the popularity of Pong, cancelled the Odyssey and released a scaled-down version that played only Pong and hockey, the Odyssey 100. A second, higher end console, the Odyssey 200, was released with the 100 and added on-screen scoring, up to four players, almost simultaneously released with Ataris own home Pong console through Sears, these consoles jump-started the consumer market. All three of the new consoles used simpler designs than the original Odyssey did with no board game pieces or extra cartridges, in the years that followed, the market saw many companies rushing similar consoles to market. Most of the consoles from this era were dedicated consoles playing only the games came with the console. These video game consoles were often just called video games, because there was reason to distinguish the two yet. While a few companies like Atari, Magnavox, and newcomer Coleco pushed the envelope, Fairchild released the Fairchild Video Entertainment System in 1976. The VES, however, contained a programmable microprocessor so its cartridges only needed a single ROM chip to store microprocessor instructions, RCA and Atari soon released their own cartridge-based consoles, the RCA Studio II and the Atari 2600, respectively. The first handheld console with interchangeable cartridges was the Microvision designed by Smith Engineering
18.
Atari 2600
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The Atari 2600 is a home video game console by Atari, Inc. This format contrasts with the model of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware. The console was sold as the Atari VCS, an abbreviation for Video Computer System. Following the release of the Atari 5200 in 1982, the VCS was renamed to the Atari 2600, after the units Atari part number, CX2600. The 2600 was typically bundled with two controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a game cartridge, initially Combat. Ted Dabney and Nolan Bushnell developed the Atari gaming system in the 1970s, originally operating under the name Syzygy, Bushnell and Dabney changed the name of their company to Atari in 1972. In 1973, Atari Inc. had purchased an engineering think tank called Cyan Engineering to research next-generation video game systems, and had been working on a prototype known as Stella for some time. Unlike prior generations of machines that use custom logic to play a number of games, its core is a complete CPU. It was combined with a RAM-and-I/O chip, the MOS Technology 6532, the first two versions of the machine contain a fourth chip, a standard CMOS logic buffer IC, making Stella cost-effective. Some later versions of the console eliminated the buffer chip, programs for small computers of the time were generally stored on cassette tapes, floppy disks, or paper tape. In 1976, Fairchild Semiconductor released their own CPU-based system, the Video Entertainment System. Stella was still not ready for production, but it was clear that it needed to be there were a number of me too products filling up the market. Atari Inc. didnt have the flow to complete the system quickly. Nolan Bushnell eventually turned to Warner Communications, and sold the company to them in 1976 for US$28 million on the promise that Stella would be produced as soon as possible. Key to the success of the machine was the hiring of Jay Miner. Once that was completed and debugged, the system was ready for shipping, the unit was originally priced at US$199, and shipped with two joysticks and a Combat cartridge. In a move to compete directly with the Channel F, Atari Inc. named the machine the Video Computer System, as the Channel F was at that point known as the VES, for Video Entertainment System. The VCS was also rebadged as the Sears Video Arcade and sold through Sears, Roebuck, another breakthrough for gaming systems was Ataris invention of a computer-controlled opponent, rather than the usual two-player or asymmetric challenges of the past
19.
Vivendi Games
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Headed by Bruce Hack, it was headquartered in Los Angeles, California and employed over 3,400 people at four separate development divisions. It later merged with Activision and is now known as Activision Blizzard, the direct predecessor of Vivendi Games was Universal Interactive, the game publishing division of Universal Studios. Founded in 1993, it was best known for publishing the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon series, CUC Software was founded in February 1996, when CUC International, a large mail order and subscription company, offered to acquire entertainment software developer Sierra Entertainment. Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, Sierra published adventure game such as Kings Quest, Gabriel Knight. Sierra was a company, which employed roughly 1,000 employees at 12 different acquired studios. CUC offered to absorb Sierras stock shares at a price roughly 90% higher than what Sierra was trading, at the same time, CUC also approached Davidson & Associates, a leading publisher and distributor of educational software, with an offer of a similar stock swap. Headquartered in Torrance, California, Davidson published the Math Blaster, Warcraft, Davidson was also a public company, founded and headed by Bob Davidson, who acted as CEO, and also by Jan Davidson, who acted as President. Soon after its creation, CUC Software acquired in January 1997 Knowledge Adventure, a developer of educational software. CUC also acquired Gryphon Software, another software company. Davidson & Associates and Gryphon were then absorbed into Knowledge Adventure, in 1997, CUC Software also acquired Berkeley Systems and integrated Berkeley Systems into Sierra On-Line. CUC then merged with a hotel, real-estate, and car-rental franchiser called HFS Corporation to form Cendant in 1997, the company sold its consumer software operations, which included Sierra and Blizzard, to French publisher Havas in 1998, the same year Havas was purchased by Vivendi. In June 2000, Vivendi acquired Seagram to become Vivendi Universal, in 2004, Vivendi Universal Games sold one of its divisions, Knowledge Adventure to a group of private investors. When parent company Vivendi Universal dropped the Universal in its name in 2006 to simply become Vivendi SA, Vivendi Universal Games followed suit and it ceased to publish under its own name and instead assigned those duties to its divisions. Spyro and Crash Bandicoot were assigned to Sierra Entertainment in this arrangement, in 2006, Vivendi Games created a new mobile division Vivendi Games Mobile, which was promised to begin publishing and distributing games in 2006 through mobile carriers and portals. In December 2007, it was announced that Vivendi Games would merge with games publisher Activision, in July 2008, the merger went active. Activision Blizzard operated the games division of Vivendi SA, and became an independent company on July 25,2013, Blizzard Entertainment is a development studio best known for creating the series Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft. World of Warcraft, one of the most popular MMORPG games, has currently over 3.5 million subscribers, Blizzard Entertainment later became independent, as compared to a subsidiary. Sierra Entertainment creates and publishes software for consoles, handheld gaming devices, Sierra Entertainment features a portfolio of titles, including F. E. A. R
20.
Atari
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Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972, currently by Atari Interactive, a subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA. The original Atari, Inc. founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney was a pioneer in arcade games, home game consoles. The companys products, such as Pong and the Atari 2600, in 1984, the original Atari Inc. was split due to its role in the video game crash of 1983, and the arcade division was turned into Atari Games Inc. Atari Games received the rights to use the logo and brand name with appended text Games on arcade games, the Atari Consumer Electronics Division properties were in turn sold to Jack Tramiels Tramel Technology Ltd. which then renamed itself to Atari Corporation. In 1996, Atari Corporation reverse-merged with disk-drive manufacturer JT Storage, in 1998,6 November Hasbro Interactive acquired all Atari Corporation related properties from JTS, creating a new subsidiary, Atari Interactive. After IESAs acquisition of Hasbro Interactive, Infogrames, Inc. intermittently published Atari branded titles for Infogrames Interactive, on October 11,2008, Infogrames completed its acquisition of Atari, Inc. making it a wholly owned subsidiary. In 1971, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded a firm, Syzygy Engineering, that designed and built Computer Space. On June 27,1972 Atari, Inc. was incorporated, Bushnell asked Alcorn produce an arcade version of the Magnavox Odysseys Tennis game, which would be named Pong. While Bushnell incorporated Atari in June 1972, Syzygy Company was never formally incorporated, Atari was incorporated in the state of California on June 27,1972. Joe Keenans management of the led to him being promoted president of Atari that same year. In 1976, Bushnell, through Grass Valley, CA firm Cyan Engineering, the result was the Atari Video Computer System, or VCS. The introductory price of $199 included a console, two joysticks, a pair of paddles, and the Combat game cartridge, Bushnell knew he had another potential hit on his hands but bringing the machine to market would be extremely expensive. Looking for outside investors, Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications in 1976 for an estimated $28–32 million, Nolan continued to have disagreements with Warner Management over the direction of the company, the discontinuation of the pinball division, and most important, the notion of discontinuing the 2600. In 1978, Kee Games was disbanded, in December of that year, Nolan Bushnell was fired following an argument with Manny Gerard. E started fighting like cats and dogs, and then the wheels came off that fall. Warner claimed they fired me, recalled Bushnell, development of a successor to the 2600 started as soon as it shipped. The original team estimated the 2600 had a lifespan of three years, it then set forth to build the most powerful machine possible within that time frame. Mid-way into their effort the home computer revolution took off, leading to the addition of a keyboard and features to produce the Atari 800 and its smaller sibling, the new machines had some success when they finally became available in quantity in 1980
21.
Video game programmer
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A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebases for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines, all of which fall under the term of game programmer. A game programmer should not be confused with a game designer, in the early days of video games, a game programmer also took on the job of a designer and artist. This was generally because the abilities of computers were so limited that having specialized personnel for each function was unnecessary. Technology has advanced to such a degree that contemporary games usually boast 3D graphics. Nowadays, the term programmer art has come to imply the kind of bright colors. The desire for adding depth and assets to games necessitated a division of labor. Initially, art production was relegated to full-time artists, next game programming became a separate discipline from game design. Now, only games, such as the puzzle game Bejeweled, are simple enough to require just one full-time programmer. Despite this division, however, most game developers have some say in the design of contemporary games. Each aspect of the game can consume all of one time and, in many cases. Some programmers may specialize in one area of programming. The number of programmers needed for each feature depends somewhat on programmers skills, Game engine programmers create the base engine of the game, including the simulated physics and graphics disciplines. Increasingly, video games use existing game engines, either commercial and they are often customized for a particular game, and these programmers handle these modifications. A games physics programmer is dedicated to developing the physics a game will employ, typically, a game will only simulate a few aspects of real-world physics. For example, a game may need simulated gravity. Since processing cycles are always at a premium, physics programmers may employ shortcuts that are computationally inexpensive, in other cases, unrealistic physics are employed to allow easier gameplay or for dramatic effect. Sometimes, a subset of situations is specified and the physical outcome of such situations are stored in a record of some sort and are never computed at runtime at all
22.
Embroidered patch
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An embroidered patch also known as a cloth badge, is a piece of embroidery which is created by using a fabric backing and thread. There are various methods of affixing them to a surface, the art of making embroidered patches is decades old and was originally done by hand. High-speed, computerized machines have led to mass production, an embroidered patch, also known as a cloth badge, is a piece of embroidery which is created by using a fabric backing and thread. Embroidered patches can be attached with a pin, sewn on, or affixed with modern methods such as iron-on, dryer heat-activated adhesive. The art of making embroidered patches is decades old, but the introduction of new high-speed, computerized machines has brought a once rare, elaborate hand-stitched designs and patterns were used to embellish the robes of royalty and for religious artifacts. Today, embroidered patches are used by government organisations, sports teams and companies in the sector to denote rank, job. Youth groups, including teams, scouting organizations and specialized clubs often wear clothing emblazoned with embroidered patches. They are also used by agencies on the uniforms of astronauts to denote the mission. Patches are also collected by enthusiasts as well, military patches are full of metaphor, from the colors used to the types of images portrayed. White or silver means peace and sincerity, yellow or gold signifies generosity, blue stands for loyalty, red for fortitude, even animals depicted on military patches have significance. A lion represents deathless courage, a tiger signifies fierceness and valor in combat, the bear denotes protection of kindred, rhinoceros shows great ferocity when aroused and an elephant signifies courage and strength. Leopards show valiant and hardy warriors, horses show the unit is ready for all deployments on behalf of their government/king, john J. Pershing authorized limited use. The oldest of all official U. S. military patches is the Big Red One of the 1st Infantry Division, first issued on October 31,1918. SSI became common during World War II and distinctive patches for individual units of the US Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, there is an active collectors market, especially for rare, limited edition patches. Various regulations exist on how badges are displayed, how many may be worn at one time, in the U. S. Army, the SSI is worn on the upper left arm, just below the uniform’s shoulder seam. It is sometimes worn on other places, most notably when soldiers’ body armor covers their shoulders, for the U. S. military, patch designs are certified and protected by the Institute of Heraldry. The institute decides how military patches are displayed, how it is worn, a hallmark is assigned to each certified manufacturer of military insignia to indicate which manufacturer produced the product. It is illegal for manufacturers to create designs on their patches that incorporate the likeness of an official Army heraldic item
23.
Pitfall!
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Pitfall. is a video game designed by David Crane for the Atari 2600 and released by Activision 1982. The player controls Pitfall Harry and is tasked with collecting all the treasures in a jungle within 20 minutes while avoiding obstacles, Pitfall. received very positive reviews upon release, and is one of the best-selling games made for the Atari 2600, with over 4 million copies sold. It was the top game on the Billboard charts for more than a year. It is widely viewed as helping define the side-scrolling platformer genre, the player must maneuver a character through a maze-like jungle in an attempt to recover 32 treasures in a 20-minute time period. Along the way, he must negotiate numerous hazards, including pits, quicksand, rolling logs, fire, rattlesnakes, scorpions, Harry may jump over or otherwise avoid these obstacles by climbing, running, or swinging on vines. Treasure includes bags of money, gold and silver bars, and diamond rings, there are eight of each treasure type, with 32 in total. A perfect score of 114,000 is achieved by claiming all 32 treasures without losing any points, points are deducted by either falling in a hole or touching logs, point loss depends on how long contact is made with the log. Under the jungle there is a tunnel which Harry can access through ladders found at various points, traveling though the tunnel moves forward three screens at a time, which is necessary in order to collect all the treasures within the time limit. However, the tunnels are filled with dead-ends blocked by walls, forcing the player to return to the surface at one of the ladders. The player loses a life if Harry comes in contact with any obstacle or falls into a tar pit, quicksand, waterhole, the game ends when either all 32 treasures have been collected, all three lives have been lost, or the time has run out. Pitfall. was created by David Crane, a programmer who worked for Activision in the early 1980s, innovative techniques were used to keep the code space within the 4k limit, including a polynomial counter to create 256 screens within 50 bytes of code. The swinging vines are created by displaying the Ataris one-pixel ball sprite at different offsets. Several ports were made for systems, such as the MSX, Commodore 64, Atari 800, as well as for home consoles. Were ported to home computers under different names around 1983. This version was then re-ported back to computers like the Commodore 64, when Pitfall. was originally sold, anyone who scored above 20,000 points could send Activision a picture of his or her television screen to receive a Pitfall Harry Explorer Club patch. The television commercial for Pitfall featured then-child actor Jack Black at age 13 in his first TV role and it was much more successful than rival E. T. the license for which Atari had paid $21 million. The same version was awarded Best Adventure Video Game at the 4th annual Arkie Awards. and Electronic Games in June 1983 praised its superb graphics and varied play-action. Video Games in March 1983 criticized Activision for not enhancing the Intellivision versions graphics, so why no improvements in Pitfall
24.
Arcade game
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An arcade game or coin-op is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games. While exact dates are debated, the age of arcade video games is usually defined as a period beginning sometime in the late 1970s. The old Midways of 1920s-era amusement parks provided the inspiration and atmosphere for later arcade games, in the 1930s the first coin-operated pinball machines emerged. These early amusement machines differed from their later electronic cousins in that they were made of wood and they lacked plungers or lit-up bonus surfaces on the playing field, and used mechanical instead of electronic scoring-readouts. By around 1977 most pinball machines in production switched to using solid-state electronics both for operation and for scoring, another Sega 1969 release, Missile, a shooter and vehicle-combat simulation, featured electronic sound and a moving film strip to represent the targets on a projection screen. In 1970 Midway released the game in North America as S. A. M. I, in the course of the 1970s, following the release of Pong in 1972, electronic video-games gradually replaced electro-mechanical arcade games. In 1972, Sega released a game called Killer Shark. In 1974, Nintendo released Wild Gunman, a shooter that used full-motion video-projection from 16 mm film to display live-action cowboy opponents on the screen. The 1978 video game Space Invaders, however, dealt a yet more powerful blow to the popularity of electro-mechanical games, in 1971 students at Stanford University set up the Galaxy Game, a coin-operated version of the Spacewar video game. This ranks as the earliest known instance of a video game. Later in the year, Nolan Bushnell created the first mass-manufactured game, Computer Space. In 1972, Atari was formed by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, Atari essentially created the coin-operated video game industry with the game Pong, the first successful electronic ping pong video game. Pong proved to be popular, but imitators helped keep Atari from dominating the fledgling coin-operated video game market, taitos Space Invaders, in 1978, proved to be the first blockbuster arcade video game. Its success marked the beginning of the age of arcade video games. Space Invaders, Galaxian, Pac-Man, Battlezone, Defender, by 1981, the arcade video game industry was worth $8 billion. By the late 1980s, the video game craze was beginning to fade due to advances in home video game console technology. By 1991, US arcade video game revenues had fallen to $2.1 billion, the pseudo-3D sprite/tile scaling was handled in a similar manner to textures in later texture-mapped polygonal 3D games of the 1990s
25.
Creative Computing (magazine)
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Creative Computing was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from October 1974 until October 1985, the covered the whole spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format than the rather technically oriented BYTE. Creative Computing also published software on cassette tape and floppy disk for the computer systems of the time. The magazine was founded by David H. Ahl, who sold it to Ziff-Davis in the early 1980s, featured writers included Robert Swirsky, David Lubar, and John J. Anderson. The magazine regularly included BASIC source code for utility programs and games, ted Nelson, known for the invention of hypertext, was briefly the editor. The April 1980 issue of Creative Computing contained parodies of the computer magazines of the time. Ahl published three volumes of The Best of Creative Computing Magazine in 1976,1977, and 1980, the cover of volume 2 was illustrated by famed underground cartoonist Gilbert Shelton. At the end of its run, Creative Computing was attempting to refocus on business computing, but was not successful at this and ultimately ceased publication in October 1985
26.
Interactive fiction
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Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the form of Interactive narratives or Interactive narrations and these works can also be understood as a form of video game, either in the form of an adventure game or role-playing game. Some users of the term distinguish between interactive fiction, known as Puzzle-free, that focuses on narrative, and text adventures that focus on puzzles. As a commercial product, interactive fiction reached its peak in popularity from 1979 to 1986, due to their text-only nature, they sidestepped the problem of writing for widely divergent graphics architectures. This feature meant that interactive fiction games were ported across all the popular platforms at the time. Today, a stream of new works are produced by an online interactive fiction community. The most famous example of form of printed fiction is the Choose Your Own Adventure book series. The term Interactive fiction is sometimes used wrongly as a synonym for interactive movies or visual novels which are forms of interactive narrative. Text adventures are one of the oldest types of computer games, the player uses text input to control the game, and the game state is relayed to the player via text output. Input is usually provided by the player in the form of sentences such as get key or go east. Parsers may vary in sophistication, the first text adventure parsers could only handle two-word sentences in the form of verb-noun pairs, later parsers, such as those built on Infocoms ZIL, could understand complete sentences. Later parsers could handle increasing levels of complexity parsing sentences such as open the red box with the key then go north. This level of complexity is the standard for works of interactive fiction today, despite their lack of graphics, text adventures include a physical dimension where players move between rooms. Many text adventure games boasted their total number of rooms to indicate how much gameplay they offered. These games are unique in that they may create a space, where going north from area A takes you to area B. This can create mazes that do not behave as players expect, Interactive fiction shares much in common with Multi-User Dungeons. Interactive fiction features two modes of writing, the player input and the game output. As described above, player input is expected to be in command form
27.
Infocom
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Infocom was a software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced one notable business application, a database called Cornerstone. Activision finally shut down the Infocom division in 1989, although they released some titles in the 1990s under the Infocom Zork brand, Activision abandoned the Infocom trademark in 2002. The name was registered by Oliver Klaeffling of Germany in 2007. The Infocom trademark is held by Pete Hottelets Omni Consumer Products. Infocom games are text adventures where users direct the action by entering short strings of words to give commands when prompted, generally the program will respond by describing the results of the action, often the contents of a room if the player has moved within the virtual world. The user reads this information, decides what to do, examples include go west or take flashlight. Infocom games were using a roughly LISP-like programming language called ZIL that compiled into a byte code able to run on a standardized virtual machine called the Z-machine. As the games were based and used variants of the same Z-machine interpreter. Each game file included a sophisticated parser which allowed the user to type complex instructions to the game, unlike earlier works of interactive fiction which only understood commands of the form verb noun, Infocoms parser could understand a wider variety of sentences. For instance one might type open the door, then go west. The company was known for shipping creative props, or feelies. Inspired by Colossal Cave, Marc Blank and Dave Lebling created what was to become the first Infocom game, Zork, Zork I was released originally for the TRS-80 in 1980 and eventually sold more than a million copies across several platforms. Lebling and Blank each authored several games and additional game writers were hired. Other popular and inventive titles included a number of sequels and spinoff games in the Zork series, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, in its first few years of operation, text adventures proved to be a huge revenue stream for the company. Whereas most computer games of the era would achieve success and then suffer a significant drop-off in sales. Employee Tim Anderson said of their situation, It was phenomenal — we had a basement that just printed money. In late 1984, management declined an offer by publisher Simon & Schuster to acquire Infocom for $28 million, in 1993 Computer Gaming World described this era as the Cambridge Camelot, where the Great Underground Empire was formed
28.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
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Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and is a part of the Boston metropolitan area. According to the 2010 Census, the population was 105,162. As of July 2014, it was the fifth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Cambridge was one of the two seats of Middlesex County prior to the abolition of county government in 1997, Lowell was the other. The site for what would become Cambridge was chosen in December 1630, because it was located safely upriver from Boston Harbor, Thomas Dudley, his daughter Anne Bradstreet, and her husband Simon, were among the first settlers of the town. The first houses were built in the spring of 1631, the settlement was initially referred to as the newe towne. Official Massachusetts records show the name capitalized as Newe Towne by 1632, the original village site is in the heart of todays Harvard Square. In the late 19th century, various schemes for annexing Cambridge itself to the city of Boston were pursued and rejected, in 1636, the Newe College was founded by the colony to train ministers. Newe Towne was chosen for the site of the college by the Great and General Court primarily—according to Cotton Mather—to be near the popular, in May 1638 the name of the settlement was changed to Cambridge in honor of the university in Cambridge, England. Hooker and Shepard, Newtownes ministers, and the colleges first president, major benefactor, in 1629, Winthrop had led the signing of the founding document of the city of Boston, which was known as the Cambridge Agreement, after the university. It was Governor Thomas Dudley who, in 1650, signed the charter creating the corporation which still governs Harvard College, Cambridge grew slowly as an agricultural village eight miles by road from Boston, the capital of the colony. By the American Revolution, most residents lived near the Common and Harvard College, with farms and estates comprising most of the town. Coming up from Virginia, George Washington took command of the volunteer American soldiers camped on Cambridge Common on July 3,1775, most of the Tory estates were confiscated after the Revolution. On January 24,1776, Henry Knox arrived with artillery captured from Fort Ticonderoga, a second bridge, the Canal Bridge, opened in 1809 alongside the new Middlesex Canal. The new bridges and roads made what were formerly estates and marshland into prime industrial and residential districts, in the mid-19th century, Cambridge was the center of a literary revolution when it gave the country a new identity through poetry and literature. Cambridge was home to some of the famous Fireside Poets—so called because their poems would often be read aloud by families in front of their evening fires, the Fireside Poets—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, and Oliver Wendell Holmes—were highly popular and influential in their day. Cambridge was incorporated as a city in 1846, the citys commercial center began to shift from Harvard Square to Central Square, which became the downtown of the city around this time. The coming of the railroad to North Cambridge and Northwest Cambridge then led to three changes in the city, the development of massive brickyards and brickworks between Massachusetts Ave. For many decades, the citys largest employer was the New England Glass Company, by the middle of the 19th century it was the largest and most modern glassworks in the world
29.
Silicon Valley
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Silicon Valley is a nickname for the southern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area, in the northern part of the U. S. state of California. The valley in its name refers to the Santa Clara Valley in Santa Clara County, which includes the city of San Jose and surrounding cities and towns, where the region has been traditionally centered. The region has expanded to include the half of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Mateo County. It was in the Valley that the integrated circuit, the microprocessor. As of 2013, the region employed about a quarter of an information technology workers. The term is now used as a synecdoche for the American high-technology economic sector. The first published use of Silicon Valley is credited to Don Hoefler, hostler used the phrase as the title of a series of articles in the weekly trade newspaper Electronic News. The series, entitled Silicon Valley in the USA, began in the papers January 11,1971, the term gained widespread use in the early 1980s, at the time of the introduction of the IBM PC and numerous related hardware and software products to the consumer market. The silicon part of the name refers to the concentration of companies involved in the making of semiconductors. These firms slowly replaced the orchards and the fruits which gave the area its initial nickname — the Valley of Hearts Delight, Stanford University leadership was especially important in the valleys early development. Together these elements formed the basis of its growth and success, the ship had been outfitted with a wireless telegraph transmitter by a local newspaper, so that they could prepare a celebration on the return of the American sailors. Local historian Clyde Arbuckle states in Clyde Arbuckles History of San Jose that California first heard the click of a key on September 11,1853. It marked completion of an enterprise begun by a couple of San Francisco Merchants Exchange members named George Sweeney and it was known as the Inner Station, the second, as the Outer Station. Both used their primitive mode of communication until Messrs, Sweeney and Baugh connected the Outer Station directly with the Merchantss Exchange by electric telegraph Wire. According to Arbuckle Sweeney and Baughs line was strictly an intra-city, San Francisco-based service, allen and C. Burnham led the way to build a line from San Francisco to Marysville via San Jose, Stockton, and Sacramento. Delays to construction occurred until September 1853, but, …San Jose became the first station on the line when the wire arrived here on October 15, the line was completed when Gambles northbound crew met a similar crew working southward from Marysville on October 24. The Bay Area had long been a site of United States Navy research. In 1909, Charles Herrold started the first radio station in the United States with regularly scheduled programming in San Jose
30.
Nintendo Entertainment System
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The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit home video game console that was developed and manufactured by Nintendo. The best-selling gaming console of its time, the NES helped revitalize the US video game following the video game crash of 1983. With the NES, Nintendo introduced a business model of licensing third-party developers, authorizing them to produce. It was initially released in Japan as the Family Computer on July 15,1983, and was released in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986. In South Korea, it was known as the Hyundai Comboy and was distributed by SK Hynix which then was known as Hyundai Electronics and it was succeeded by the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In 2009, the Nintendo Entertainment System was named the single greatest video game console in history by IGN and it was judged the second greatest console behind the Sega Dreamcast in PC Magazines Top 10 Video Game Consoles of All Time. Following a series of arcade game successes in the early 1980s, Nintendo made plans to create a console called the Famicom. A test model was constructed in October 1982 to verify the functionality of the hardware, because 65xx CPUs had not been manufactured or sold in Japan up to that time, no cross-development software was available and it had to be produced from scratch. Perhaps we could say it is a family computer, meanwhile, Hiroshi Yamauchi decided that the console should use a red and white theme after seeing a billboard for DX Antenna which used those colors. Original plans called for the Famicoms cartridges to be the size of a cassette tape, careful design attention was paid to the cartridge connectors since loose and faulty connections often plagued arcade machines. As it necessitated taking 60 connection lines for the memory and expansion, the controllers were hard-wired to the console with no connectors for cost reasons. There were concerns regarding the durability of the design and that children might step on joysticks left on the floor. Katsuyah Nakawaka attached a Game & Watch D-pad to the Famicom prototype and found that it was easy to use, ultimately though, they installed a 15-pin expansion port on the front of the console so that an optional arcade-style joystick could be used. Uemura added an eject lever to the slot which was not really necessary. He also added a microphone to the controller with the idea that it could be used to make players voices sound through the TV speaker. The console was released on July 15,1983 as the Family Computer for ¥14,800 alongside three ports of Nintendos successful arcade games Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. and Popeye. The Famicom was slow to gather momentum, a bad chip set caused the release of the system to crash. Following a product recall and a reissue with a new motherboard, the deal was set to be finalized and signed at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in June 1983
31.
Master System
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The Sega Master System is a third-generation home video game console that was manufactured by Sega. It was originally released in 1985 as the Sega Mark III in Japan, after being redesigned prior to its North American launch, the console was renamed Master System and released in 1986 in North America,1987 in Europe, and 1989 in Brazil. The redesigned Master System was also released in Japan in 1987 with additional features over the overseas models, the Master System also featured accessories such as a light gun and 3D glasses which were designed to work with a range of specially coded games. Succeeding the SG-1000, the Master System was released as a competitor to the Nintendo Entertainment System in the third generation of video game consoles. The Master System was constructed with hardware superior to that of the NES, however, it attained significantly more success in Europe and Brazil. The hardware of the Master System also shared similarities with Segas handheld game console. Sales of the console have been estimated between 10 and 13 million units, not including recent Brazil sales, compared to 62 million NES units sold, as of 2015, the Master System is the longest-lived game console, due to its popularity in Brazil. The company retained its Japanese subsidiary, Sega Enterprises, Ltd. as well as Segas North American research, with its arcade business in decline, Gulf and Western executives turned to Sega Enterprises, Ltd. s president, Hayao Nakayama, for advice on how to proceed. Nakayama received permission to proceed with project, leading to the release of Segas first home video game system. The SG-1000 was first released in Japan on July 15,1983 and it was launched on the same day that Nintendo released the Family Computer in Japan. Nakayama was then installed as CEO of the new Sega Enterprises, following the buyout, Sega released another console, the SG-1000 II, for ¥15,000. It featured a few hardware tweaks from the model, including detachable controllers. The SG-1000 II did not sell well, however, leading to Segas decision to work on the video game hardware used for the system. This resulted in the release of the Sega Mark III in Japan in 1985, engineered by the same internal Sega team that had created the SG-1000, the Mark III was a redesigned iteration of the previous console. The CPUs in the SG-1000 and SG-1000 II were Zilog Z80s running at 3.58 MHz, while the Mark III, the Mark III and Master System also carried over the Sega Card slot used in the SG-1000. According to Edge, lessons from the SG-1000s lack of success were used in the hardware redesign of the Mark III. The futuristic final design for the Master System was intended to appeal to Western tastes, the Sega Mark III was released in Japan in October 1985 at a price of ¥15,000. Despite featuring technically more powerful hardware than its competition, the Famicom
32.
Atari 7800
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The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a home video game console officially released by Atari Corporation in 1986. It is almost fully backward-compatible with the Atari 2600, the first console to have backward compatibility without the use of additional modules and it was considered affordable at a price of US$140. The 7800 has significantly improved graphics hardware over the 2600, and it also shipped with a different model of joystick than the 2600-standard CX40. A few units were released to test markets in June 1984 though, the Atari 7800 ProSystem was the first game system from Atari Inc. designed by an outside company, General Computer Corporation. The system was designed in 1983-84 with a mass market rollout in June 1984. The project was called the Atari 3600, though was later renamed the Atari 7800. Atari had been facing mounting pressure in the form of competition from the ColecoVision, at the same time, the Atari 5200 had been widely criticized for not being able to play Atari 2600 games without an adapter. GCC, which had a background in creating games, designed their new system with a graphical architecture similar to arcade machines of the time. The 7800 allows a number of moving objects that far exceeds previous consoles. Powering the system is a slightly customized 6502 processor, the Atari SALLY, in contrast to the Atari 5200, the Atari 7800 can play almost all Atari 2600 games out of the box, without the need for an adapter. In addition, it features a return to a digital controller, then as an added bonus, GCCs programmers would also do almost all of the Atari 2600,5200 games in 1983-1984 for Atari. atarimuseum. A keyboard was developed, and the keyboard had a port that allowed for the addition of peripherals such as disk drives. To further enhance the experience, GCC had also designed a high score cartridge. On the side of the 7800 was a port, reportedly for a planned connection with a laserdisc player. The 7800 was initially released in southern California in June 1984, following an announcement on May 21,1984 at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show. Thirteen games were announced for the launch, Ms. Pac-Man, Pole Position II, Centipede, Joust, Dig Dug, Desert Falcon, Robotron,2084, Galaga, Food Fight, Ballblazer. Atari was a sponsor of the 1984 Summer Olympics and planned to push the 7800 aggressively in time for Christmas that year, on July 2,1984, Warner Communications sold Ataris Consumer Division to Jack Tramiel. All projects were halted during an evaluation period
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Atari ST
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The Atari ST is a line of home computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial ST model, the 520ST, saw limited release in April-June 1985 and was available in July. The Atari ST is the first personal computer to come with a bitmapped color GUI, the 1040ST, released in 1986, is the first personal computer to ship with a megabyte of RAM in the base configuration and also the first with a cost-per-kilobyte of less than US$1. The Atari ST is part of a generation of home computers that have 16 or 32-bit processors,256 KiB or more of RAM. It includes the Macintosh, Commodore Amiga, Apple IIGS, and, in certain markets, ST officially stands for Sixteen/Thirty-two, which refers to the Motorola 68000s 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals. The ST was sold with either Ataris color or monochrome monitor, the systems color graphics modes were only available on the color monitor, while the highest resolution mode needed the monochrome monitor. In some markets, particularly Germany, the machine gained a foothold as a small business machine for CAD. Thanks to its built-in MIDI ports, the ST enjoyed success for running music-sequencer software, the ST was superseded by the Atari STE, Atari TT, Atari MEGA STE, and Falcon computers. The Atari ST was born from the rivalry between home-computer makers Atari, Inc. and Commodore International, when his idea was rejected, Miner left Atari to form a small think tank called Hi-Toro in 1982 and began designing the new Lorraine chipset. The company, which was later renamed Amiga Corporation, was pretending to sell video game controllers to deceive competition while it developed a Lorraine-based computer, Amiga ran out of capital to complete Lorraines development, and Atari, owned by Warner Communications, paid Amiga to continue development work. In return Atari received exclusive use of the Lorraine design for one year as a game console. After one year Atari would have the right to add a keyboard and market the complete computer, as Atari was heavily involved with Disney at the time, it was later code-named Mickey, and the 256K memory expansion board was codenamed Minnie. After leaving Commodore International in January 1984, Jack Tramiel formed Tramel Technology with his sons and other employees and, in April. The company initially considered the National Semiconductor NS320xx microprocessor but was disappointed with its performance and this started the move to the 68000. Tramiel learned that Warner wanted to sell Atari which, in mid-1984, was losing about a million dollars per day, interested in Ataris overseas manufacturing and worldwide distribution network for his new computer, Tramiel negotiated with Warner in May and June 1984. He secured funding and bought Ataris Consumer Division in July, as executives and engineers left Commodore to join Tramiels new Atari Corporation, Commodore responded by filing lawsuits against four former engineers for theft of trade secrets. This company was originally called TTL, later renamed to Atari Corp, at the time of the purchase of Atari Incs assets, there were roughly 900 employees remaining from a high point of 10,000. After the interviews, approximately 100 employees were hired to work at Atari Corp, Amiga Corp. had sought more monetary support from investors in spring 1984
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Commodore 64
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The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, C-64, C=64, or occasionally CBM64 or VIC-64 in Sweden, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International. It is listed in the Guinness World Records as the single computer model of all time. Volume production started in early 1982, marketing in August for US$595, preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore PET, the C64 took its name from its 64 kilobytes of RAM. It had superior sound and graphical specifications compared to earlier systems such as the Apple II and Atari 800, with multi-color sprites. The C64 dominated the low-end computer market for most of the 1980s. Sam Tramiel, a later Atari president and the son of Commodores founder, said in a 1989 interview, When I was at Commodore we were building 400,000 C64s a month for a couple of years. In the UK market, the C64 faced competition from the BBC Micro and the ZX Spectrum, part of the Commodore 64s success was its sale in regular retail stores instead of only electronics and/or computer hobbyist specialty stores. Commodore produced many of its parts in-house to control costs, including custom integrated circuit chips from MOS Technology and it has been compared to the Ford Model T automobile for its role in bringing a new technology to middle-class households via creative and affordable mass-production. Approximately 10,000 commercial software titles have made for the Commodore 64 including development tools, office productivity applications. C64 emulators allow anyone with a computer, or a compatible video game console. The C64 is also credited with popularizing the computer demoscene and is used today by some computer hobbyists. In 2008,17 years after it was taken off the market, in January 1981, MOS Technology, Inc. Commodores integrated circuit design subsidiary, initiated a project to design the graphic, Design work for the chips, named MOS Technology VIC-II and MOS Technology SID, was completed in November 1981. Commodore then began a game console project that would use the new chips—called the Ultimax or the Commodore MAX Machine and this project was eventually cancelled after just a few machines were manufactured for the Japanese market. At the same time, Robert Bob Russell and Robert Bob Yannes were critical of the current product line-up at Commodore, with the support of Al Charpentier and Charles Winterble, they proposed to Commodore CEO Jack Tramiel a true low-cost sequel to the VIC-20. Tramiel dictated that the machine should have 64 KB of random-access memory, although 64-Kbit dynamic random-access memory chips cost over US$100 at the time, he knew that DRAM prices were falling, and would drop to an acceptable level before full production was reached. The product was named the VIC-40 as the successor to the popular VIC-20. The team that constructed it consisted of Yash Terakura, Bob Russell, Bob Yannes, the design, prototypes and some sample software were finished in time for the show, after the team had worked tirelessly over both Thanksgiving and Christmas weekends
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Amiga
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The Amiga is a family of personal computers sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The Amiga provided a significant upgrade from earlier 8-bit home computers, the Amiga 1000 was officially released in July 1985, but a series of production problems meant it did not become widely available until early 1986. The best selling model, the Amiga 500, was introduced in 1987 and became one of the home computers of the late 1980s. The A3000, introduced in 1990, started the second generation of Amiga systems, followed by the A500+, finally, as the third generation, the A1200 and the A4000 were released in late 1992. The platform became particularly popular for gaming and programming demos and it also found a prominent role in the desktop video, video production, and show control business, leading to video editing systems such as the Video Toaster. The Amigas native ability to play back multiple digital sound samples made it a popular platform for early tracker music software. It was also an expensive alternative to the Apple Macintosh. Initially, the Amiga was developed alongside various Commodore PC clones, Commodore ultimately went bankrupt in April 1994 after the Amiga CD32 model failed in the marketplace. Since the demise of Commodore, various groups have marketed successors to the original Amiga line, including Genesi, Eyetech, ACube Systems Srl, likewise, AmigaOS has influenced replacements, clones and compatible systems such as MorphOS, AmigaOS4 and AROS. The Amiga was so far ahead of its time that almost nobody—including Commodores marketing department—could fully articulate what it was all about. Today, its obvious the Amiga was the first multimedia computer, but in those days it was derided as a machine because few people grasped the importance of advanced graphics, sound. Nine years later, vendors are still struggling to make systems that work like 1985 Amigas, Jay Miner joined Atari in the 1970s to develop custom integrated circuits, and led development of the Atari 2600s TIA. Almost as soon as its development was complete, the team developing a much more sophisticated set of chips, CTIA, ANTIC and POKEY. With the 8-bit lines launch in 1979, Miner again started looking at a next generation chipset, Miner wanted to start work with the new Motorola 68000, but management was only interested in another MOS6502 based system. Miner left the company, and the industry, shortly thereafter, in 1982, Larry Kaplan was approached by a number of investors who wanted to develop a new game platform. Kaplan hired Miner to run the side of the newly formed company. The system was code-named Lorraine in keeping with Miners policy of giving systems female names, in case the company presidents wife. When Kaplan left the late in 1982 to rejoin Atari, Miner was promoted to head engineer
