1.
Rare (company)
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Rare is a British video game developer located in Twycross, Leicestershire. The company was established in 1985 by Tim and Chris Stamper, during its early years, Rare was backed by an unlimited budget from Nintendo, primarily concentrated on Nintendo Entertainment System games. During this time they created successful titles such as Wizards & Warriors, Battletoads, Rare became a prominent second-party developer for Nintendo, who came to own a large minority stake of the company. During this period, Rare received international recognition and critical acclaim for such as Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark. In 2002, Microsoft acquired Rare, who retained their original brand, logo and it has since focused on developing games exclusively for Microsoft Studios video game consoles. Notable releases include Kameo, Elements of Power, Perfect Dark Zero, in 2015, Rare released Rare Replay, a compilation of 30 games produced by the company to celebrate their 30th anniversary. Rare is currently working on Sea of Thieves, an adventure game. Several key employees left Rare to form their own companies, such as Free Radical Design, Rare was widely recognised by the gaming industry and received numerous accolades from critics and journalists. The company has often described as secretive and seclusive. As a result, a new subdivision named Rare Ltd was established by Ashby Computers and its main goal was to reverse-engineer the console and investigate the codes for Famicoms games to learn more about the consoles programming. With successful results, the decided to sell the Ultimate brand to U. S. Gold. Famicoms owner, Nintendo, once claimed that it would be impossible for their console to be decoded, using the information the Ashby Computers and Graphics team learnt from the Rare division, the team prepared several tech demos and showed them to the Nintendo executive Minoru Arakawa in Kyoto. Impressed with their efforts, Nintendo decided to grant the Ashby team an unlimited budget for them to work on games for the Famicom platform. After they returned to England, they moved from Ashby-de-la-Zouch to Twycross and they set their headquarters in a Manor Farmhouse. Rare also set up another company known as Rare Inc. in Miami, headed by Joel Hochberg, the American company was involved in maintaining Rares operation in the US and contacting major US publishers. Famicom was eventually released in the UK under the name Nintendo Entertainment System, with the unlimited budget, the Rare studio could work a large variety of different games. The first project Rare worked on was Slalom, an ice-skiing title and they helped in creating new and original intellectual properties, including R. C. Pro-Am, a game with vehicular combat elements, and Snake Rattle n Roll
2.
Video game music
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Video game music is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was limited to simple melodies of early sound synthesizer technology. With advances in technology, video game music has now grown to include the same breadth and complexity associated with television and film scores, while simple synthesizer pieces are still common, game music now includes full orchestral pieces and popular music. Music in video games can be heard over a title screen, options menu. Today’s soundtracks can also change depending on a player’s actions or situation, Video game music can be one of two options, original or licensed. In order to create or collect this music, teams of composers, music directors, today, original composition has included the work of film composers Harry Gregson-Williams, Trent Reznor, Hans Zimmer, Josh Mancell, Steve Jablonsky, and Michael Giacchino. The popularity of game music has expanded education and job opportunities, generated awards. At the time video games had emerged as a form of entertainment in the late 1970s, music was stored on physical medium in analog waveforms such as compact cassettes. Such components were expensive and prone to breakage under heavy use making them less ideal for use in an arcade cabinet, though in rare cases. Sound effects for the games were also generated in this fashion, an early example of such an approach to video game music was the opening chiptune in Tomohiro Nishikados Gun Fight. The first game to use a background soundtrack was Tomohiro Nishikados Space Invaders. It had four descending chromatic bass notes repeating in a loop, though it was dynamic and interacted with the player, the first video game to feature continuous, melodic background music was Rally-X, released by Namco in 1980, featuring a simple tune that repeats continuously during gameplay. The decision to any music into a video game meant that at some point it would have to be transcribed into computer code by a programmer, whether or not the programmer had musical experience. Some music was original, some was public domain music such as folk songs, Sound capabilities were limited, the popular Atari 2600 home system, for example, was capable of generating only two tones, or notes, at a time. As advances were made in technology and costs fell, a definitively new generation of arcade machines. This was further improved upon by Namcos 1982 arcade game Dig Dug, Dig Dug was composed by Yuriko Keino, who also composed the music for other Namco games such as Xevious and Phozon. Home console systems also had an upgrade in sound ability beginning with the ColecoVision in 1982 capable of four channels. However, more notable was the Japanese release of the Famicom in 1983 which was released in the US as the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985
3.
Donkey Kong
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Donkey Kong is a series of video games featuring the adventures of an ape-like character called Donkey Kong, conceived by Shigeru Miyamoto in 1981. The franchise mainly comprises two different game genres, plus spin-off titles of various genres, the games of the first genre are mostly single-screen platform/action puzzle types, featuring Donkey Kong as the opponent in an industrial construction setting. Donkey Kong first made his appearance in the 1981 arcade machine called Donkey Kong, in which he faced Mario and this game was also the first appearance of Mario, pre-dating the well-known Super Mario Bros. by four years. Titles outside these two genres have included games, racing games, and edutainment. A hallmark of the Donkey Kong series are barrels, which the Kongs use as weapons, vehicles, furniture, the Donkey Kong character is highly recognizable and very popular, the franchise has sold over 40 million units worldwide. Donkey Kong first appeared in the arcade game in 1981 as an antagonist. He would become a protagonist in later games, Donkey Kong Jr. first appeared in the arcade style game Donkey Kong Jr. released in 1982. The plot was that Donkey Kong Jr. saves his father, Donkey Kong, cranky Kong is the original Donkey Kong who has alternately been called the modern DKs grandfather and father. He is elderly and frequently berates the younger generation of heroes, Diddy Kong was first introduced in Donkey Kong Country and is featured in Donkey Kong Country 2, Diddys Kong Quest as the main character. Dixie Kong first appeared in Donkey Kong Country 2 as a sidekick to Diddy Kong and has referred to as his girlfriend. She later starred in Donkey Kong Country 3, Dixie Kongs Double Trouble alongside Kiddy Kong, other notable members of the Kong family include Funky Kong, Candy Kong, Wrinkly Kong, Tiny Kong, and Lanky Kong. King K. Rool is the main antagonist of the Donkey Kong Country series, though additional villains have appeared as well, including Wizpig, Ghastly King, the Tiki Tak Tribe, and the Snowmads. Characters from the Donkey Kong series have appeared in Nintendos crossover titles such as the Super Smash Bros. the result was a major breakthrough for Nintendo and for the videogame industry. Sales of the machine were brisk, with the game becoming one of the arcade machines of the early 1980s. The gameplay itself was an improvement over other games of its time. In the game, Jumpman must ascend a construction site while avoiding obstacles such as barrels and fireballs to rescue Pauline, his girlfriend, Miyamoto created a greatly simplified version for the Game & Watch multiscreen. Both Donkey Kong and its sequel, Donkey Kong Jr. are included in the 1988 NES compilation Donkey Kong Classics, the NES version was re-released as an unlockable game in Animal Crossing for the GameCube and as an item for purchase on the Wiis Virtual Console. The original arcade version of the game appears in the Nintendo 64 game Donkey Kong 64, Nintendo released the NES version on the e-Reader and for the Game Boy Advance Classic NES series in 2002 and 2004, respectively
4.
Computing platform
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Computing platform means in general sense, where any piece of software is executed. It may be the hardware or the system, even a web browser or other application. The term computing platform can refer to different abstraction levels, including a hardware architecture, an operating system. In total it can be said to be the stage on which programs can run. For example, an OS may be a platform that abstracts the underlying differences in hardware, platforms may also include, Hardware alone, in the case of small embedded systems. Embedded systems can access hardware directly, without an OS, this is referred to as running on bare metal, a browser in the case of web-based software. The browser itself runs on a platform, but this is not relevant to software running within the browser. An application, such as a spreadsheet or word processor, which hosts software written in a scripting language. This can be extended to writing fully-fledged applications with the Microsoft Office suite as a platform, software frameworks that provide ready-made functionality. Cloud computing and Platform as a Service, the social networking sites Twitter and facebook are also considered development platforms. A virtual machine such as the Java virtual machine, applications are compiled into a format similar to machine code, known as bytecode, which is then executed by the VM. A virtualized version of a system, including virtualized hardware, OS, software. These allow, for instance, a typical Windows program to run on what is physically a Mac, some architectures have multiple layers, with each layer acting as a platform to the one above it. In general, a component only has to be adapted to the layer immediately beneath it, however, the JVM, the layer beneath the application, does have to be built separately for each OS
5.
Nintendo 64
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The Nintendo 64, stylized as the NINTENDO64 and often referred to as the N64, is Nintendos third home video game console for the international market. It was the last major home console to use the cartridge as its primary storage format until Nintendos seventh console, while the Nintendo 64 was succeeded by Nintendos MiniDVD-based GameCube in September 2001, the consoles remained available until the system was retired in late 2003. Codenamed Project Reality, the the N64 design was complete by mid-1995, but its launch was delayed until 1996. It launched with three games, Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64, released worldwide, and Saikyō Habu Shōgi, as part of the fifth generation of gaming, the system competed primarily with the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. The suggested retail price at its United States launch was US$199.99, the console was released in a range of colors and designs over its lifetime. In 2015, IGN named it the 9th greatest video game console of all time, as of 2016, the system remains a popular retro console in North America. At the beginning of the 1990s, Nintendo led the game industry with its Nintendo Entertainment System. Although the NES follow-up console, the Super NES, was successful, competition from long-time rival Sega, and relative newcomer Sony, emphasized Nintendos need to develop a successor for the SNES, or risk losing market dominance to its competitors. Further complicating matters, Nintendo also faced a backlash from third-party developers unhappy with Nintendos strict licensing policies, the company created a design proposal for a video game system, seeking an already well established partner in that market. James H. Clark, founder of SGI, initially offered the proposal to Tom Kalinske, the historical details of these preliminary negotiations were controversial between the two competing suitors. Tom Kalinske said that he and Joe Miller of Sega of America were quite impressed with SGIs prototype, the engineers from Sega Enterprises claimed that their evaluation of the early prototype had uncovered several unresolved hardware issues and deficiencies. Those were subsequently resolved, but Sega had already decided against SGIs design, Nintendo resisted that summary conclusion, arguing that the reason for SGIs ultimate choice of partner is due to Nintendo having been a more appealing business partner than Sega. While Sega demanded exclusive rights to the chip, Nintendo was willing to license the technology on a non-exclusive basis, michael Slater, publisher of Microprocessor Report said, The mere fact of a business relationship there is significant because of Nintendos phenomenal ability to drive volume. If it works at all, it could bring MIPS to levels of volume never dreamed of, james Clark met with Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi in early 1993, thus initiating Project Reality. This announcement coincided with Nintendos August 1993 Shoshinkai trade show, as with most of the computing industry, Nintendo had limited experience with 3D graphics, and worked with several outside companies to develop the technology comprising the console. Some chip technology was provided by NEC, Toshiba, and Sharp, SGI had recently acquired MIPS Computer Systems, and the two worked together toward a low-cost realtime 3D graphics hardware system. SGI and its subsidiary MIPS Technologies were responsible for the R4300i microprocessor and that software-based console prototype platform was later supplanted by a workstation-hosted console simulation board, representing the finalized console hardware. SGIs performance estimates based upon their RealityEngine supercomputing platform were ultimately reported to be accurate to the final consumer console product
6.
Nintendo DS
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The Nintendo DS or simply, DS, is a 32-bit dual-screen handheld game console developed and released by Nintendo. The device went on sale in North America on November 21,2004, both screens are encompassed within a clamshell design similar to the Game Boy Advance SP. The Nintendo DS also features the ability for multiple DS consoles to directly interact with each other over Wi-Fi within a short range without the need to connect to a wireless network. Alternatively, they could interact online using the now-closed Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service and its main competitor was Sonys PlayStation Portable as part of the seventh generation era. Prior to its release, the Nintendo DS was marketed as an experimental, third pillar in Nintendos console lineup, meant to complement the Game Boy Advance and GameCube. However, backward compatibility with Game Boy Advance titles and strong sales ultimately established it as the successor to the Game Boy series, on March 2,2006, Nintendo launched the Nintendo DS Lite, a slimmer and lighter redesign of the original Nintendo DS with brighter screens. On November 1,2008, Nintendo released the Nintendo DSi, another redesign with several hardware improvements and new features. All Nintendo DS models combined have sold 154.02 million units, making it the best selling game console to date. The Nintendo DS line was succeeded by the Nintendo 3DS line in 2011, on November 13,2003, Nintendo announced that it would be releasing a new game product in 2004. The company did not provide details, but stated it would not succeed the Game Boy Advance or GameCube. On January 20,2004, the console was announced under the codename Nintendo DS. Nintendo released only a few details at that time, saying that the console would have two separate, 3-inch TFT LCD display panels, separate processors, and up to 1 gigabit of semiconductor memory. He also expressed optimism that the DS would help put Nintendo back at the forefront of innovation, in March 2004, a document containing most of the consoles technical specifications was leaked, also revealing its internal development name, Nitro. In May 2004, the console was shown in prototype form at E32004, on July 28,2004, Nintendo revealed a new design that was described as sleeker and more elegant than the one shown at E3 and announced Nintendo DS as the devices official name. On September 20,2004, Nintendo announced that the Nintendo DS would be released in North America on November 21,2004 for US$149.99. It was set to release on December 2,2004 in Japan, on February 24,2005 in Australia, the console was released in North America with a midnight launch event at Universal CityWalk EB Games in Los Angeles, California. The console was launched quietly in Japan compared to the North America launch, the Nintendo DS was seen by many analysts to be in the same market as Sonys PlayStation Portable, although representatives from both companies have said that each system targets a different audience. At one point, Time magazine awarded the DS a Gadget of the Week award, at the time of its release in the United States, the Nintendo DS retailed for US $149.99
7.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
8.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
9.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
10.
Kart racing game
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Kart racing game, also known as cart racing game, go-kart racing game, or simply kart racer, is a subgenre of racing video games. Kart racing games are known to have simplified driving mechanics while adding obstacles, unusual racetrack designs, Kart racers are also known to cast fictional characters known from various platform games or cartoon television series as the drivers of vehicles with unusual designs. Typically, in games, vehicles move more alike go-karts, lacking anything along the lines of a gear stick. The game was slower than other racing games of the time due to hardware limitations. Since then, over 50 kart racing games have been released, the Mario Kart series is often considered as the pioneer of kart racing series, topping other popular games such as Diddy Kong Racing
11.
Racing video game
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They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings. In general, they can be distributed along a spectrum anywhere between hardcore simulations, and simpler arcade racing games, Racing games may also fall under the category of sports games. In 1973, Ataris Space Race was an arcade video game where players controlled spaceships that race against opposing ships, while avoiding comets. It was a competitive two-player game controlled using a two-way joystick, the same year, Taito released a similar space-themed racing video game Astro Race, which used an early four-way joystick. The following year, Taito released Speed Race, an early driving racing game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado and it also featured an early racing wheel controller interface with an accelerator, gear shift, speedometer and tachometer. It could be played in either single-player or alternating two-player, where each player attempts to beat the others score, the game was re-branded as Wheels by Midway Games for release in the United States and was influential on later racing games. That same year, Sega released Moto-Cross, an early motorbike racing game, based on the motocross competition. Also known as Man T. T. Sega re-branded the game as Fonz, the game also introduced the use of haptic feedback, which caused the motorcycle handlebars to vibrate during a collision with another vehicle. Road Champion, released by Taito in 1978, was an overhead-view timed car racing game where players try to race ahead of the opposing cars and cross the finish line first to become the winner. In 1979, Segas Head On was a game that played like a maze chase game and is thus considered a precursor to the 1980 hit Pac-Man. Monaco GP, released by Sega in 1979, improved upon previous overhead-view racing games with a scrolling view. It also featured an early example of a radar, to show the cars location on the map. Turbo, released by Sega in 1981, was the first racing game to feature a third-person perspective and it was also the first racing game to use sprite scaling with full-color graphics. The most influential racing game was released in 1982, Pole Position, developed by Namco and published by Atari in North America. It was the first game to be based on a racing circuit, and the first to feature a qualifying lap. While not the first third-person racing game, Pole Position established the conventions of the genre, tX-1, developed by Tatsumi in 1983, was licensed to Namco, who in turn licensed it to Atari in America, thus the game is considered a successor to Pole Position II. It also introduced nonlinear gameplay by allowing players to choose which path to drive through after each checkpoint, if the fuel runs out, the game would end. An early attempt at creating a driving simulator was Tomys Turnin Turbo Dashboard
12.
Diddy Kong
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Diddy Kong is a fictional character in the Donkey Kong series of video games, first appearing in the 1994 game Donkey Kong Country. He is a spider monkey who lives on Donkey Kong Island in the Kongo Jungle, and is identified by his red cap, which has a Nintendo logo on it. He is described as the nephew of Donkey Kong in the Donkey Kong 64 manual and occasionally as a chimpanzee. He was originally created by Donkey Kong Country developer Rare as a version of Donkey Kong Jr. He received a spin-off called Diddy Kong Racing, and more recently appeared as co-star to Donkey Kong in Donkey Kong Country Returns, through his relationship with Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong has become a prominent character in the Mario franchise, appearing in several spin-offs. He has also made appearances as a character in Super Smash Bros. games. Outside of video games, Diddy Kong appeared in the TV show Donkey Kong Country, since appearing in Donkey Kong Country, Diddy has received mostly positive reception, one strong enough to create a fan following, resulting in Diddy getting his own spin-off. He has been featured in pieces of merchandise, including plush toys, candies. During the development of Donkey Kong Country, Diddy was originally conceived as a version of Donkey Kong Jr. He first appears in Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as a sidekick to its protagonist Donkey Kong and he accompanies Donkey Kong throughout Kong Jungle to battle King K. Rool and return Donkey Kongs banana hoard. He gained an important role in the sequel Donkey Kong Country 2, Diddys Kong Quest, teaming up with his girlfriend Dixie Kong. He later appeared in Donkey Kong Land, issued a challenge by Cranky Kong that he, the third and final title in the Donkey Kong Country series was titled Donkey Kong Country 3, Dixie Kongs Double Trouble. Which starred Dixie Kong and Kiddy Kong who had to find Diddy and Donkey Kong after they had disappeared, a follow-up was released in September 1996 for the Game Boy called Donkey Kong Land 2. It featured roughly the same plot as DKC2, in 1997s Donkey Kong Land III, Diddy never even put in an appearance, although he was part of the storyline. He and DK took off in a previously unseen part of the Northern Kremisphere in a contest to find the fabled Lost World, Dixie, furious that she wasnt asked along, decided to join forces with Kiddy and find it herself. He starred in the racing game Diddy Kong Racing for the Nintendo 64. It introduced Banjo and Conker the Squirrel, who went on to star in Banjo-Kazooie and Conkers Bad Fur Day and his title was a success, becoming the fastest-selling video game in US history at the time. In 2007, a remake of Diddy Kong Racing was released for the Nintendo DS
13.
Killer Instinct 2
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Killer Instinct 2 is a fighting video game developed by Rare and manufactured by Midway for arcades in 1996 as a sequel to Killer Instinct. A modified version of Killer Instinct 2, licensed by Nintendo, was published for the Nintendo 64 as Killer Instinct Gold that same year, a Super Nintendo Entertainment System version of Killer Instinct 2 was developed and completed, but never released. A digital port of the game for Xbox One is bundled with the season of Killer Instinct under the title Killer Instinct 2 Classic. As with most fighting games and indeed its predecessor, two square off with the goal of depleting the opponents life bar. As with the original Killer Instinct, when a players life bar is fully depleted, he or she will fall to the ground. As with the first game, Killer Instinct 2 relies on an automatic combo subsystem in its matches, the matches, as with Killer Instinct, revolve around a three strength system. However, normal moves have lost a lot of their priority and range, throws have been added into the game to deal with blocking characters. Normal special moves no longer are judged on priority, but instead follow a three tiered rock, paper, scissors system, in which a special move will always break another certain special move. Additionally, a Super bar has been added to the game and this super bar fills as a fighter takes damage or executes an attack that is blocked by the opponent. After the bar reaches a point, the player can use a multi-hit Super Move which is usually an extended version of a normal special move. The combo system has its roots in the original Killer Instinct, by pressing a certain strength button after an opener move, a player will launch an auto-double and initiate the combo system of the game. However, unlike the first game, players can now open up combos with new, additionally, Super Moves can be placed into combos, greatly increasing their damage and potency as well as being unbreakable. Additionally combos can be extended using throws, super linkers, manual-doubles, as a result of the weakened normal moves and other changes to the system, combos have now become more devastating in Killer Instinct 2. In an apparent effort to ease this dominance, combo breakers are now easier to perform. Unlike combo breakers in the first game, which required a three tiered rock, paper, scissors system based on strength to break, combos are now broken depending on the type of attack. Punches break kick doubles, and kicks will break punch doubles, parry, an advanced new addition, allow an open counter-attack after a successful parry block. The finishing moves have also been reworked, now each character can only execute these attacks when the opponents second life bar flashes red. Each characters has two Ultimate combo moves, the Humiliation sequences were dropped, and the Ultra combo feature is still intact, unlike the Mortal Kombat Fatalities, however, the Killer Instinct 2s finishing moves do not feature brutality or dismemberment
14.
Walt Disney World
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The Walt Disney World Resort is an entertainment complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, near Orlando and Kissimmee, Florida. The resort is the destination of Disneys worldwide corporate enterprise. Opened on October 1,1971, Walt Disney World is the most visited vacation resort in the world, the resort is owned and operated by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, a division of The Walt Disney Company. It was initially operated by Walt Disney World Company, Magic Kingdom was the first theme park to open in the complex, in 1971, followed by Epcot in 1982, Disneys Hollywood Studios in 1989, and the most recent, Disneys Animal Kingdom in 1998. Designed to supplement Disneyland in Anaheim, California, which had opened in 1955, the Florida Project, as it was known, was intended to present a distinct vision with its own diverse set of rides. Walt Disneys original plans called for the inclusion of an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Walt Disney died on December 15,1966, before construction began, without Disney spearheading the construction, the company created a resort similar to Disneyland, abandoning experimental concepts for a planned community. In 1959, Walt Disney Productions began looking for land to house a second resort to supplement Disneyland in Anaheim, California, which had opened in 1955. Market surveys at the revealed that only 5% of Disneylands visitors came from east of the Mississippi River. Additionally, Walt Disney disliked the businesses that had sprung up around Disneyland, Walt Disney flew over a potential site in Orlando, Florida – one of many – in November 1963. To avoid a burst of land speculation, Walt Disney World Company used various dummy corporations to acquire 30,500 acres of land, in May 1965, some of these major land transactions were recorded a few miles southwest of Orlando in Osceola County. In addition, two tracts totaling $1. Some are now memorialized on a window above Main Street, U. S. A. in Magic Kingdom, the smaller parcels of land acquired were called outs. They were 5-acre lots platted in 1912 by the Munger Land Company, most of the owners in the 1960s were happy to get rid of the land, which was mostly swamp at the time. Another issue was the rights to the land, which were owned by Tufts University. Without the transfer of rights, Tufts could come in at any time. Eventually, Disneys team negotiated a deal with Tufts to buy the rights for $15,000. Working strictly in secrecy, real estate agents unaware of their clients identity began making offers to landowners in April 1964 in parts of southwest Orange and northwest Osceola counties
15.
Banjo-Kazooie
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Banjo-Kazooie is a platform video game developed by Rare and originally released for the Nintendo 64 video game console in 1998. The game features nine levels where the player must use Banjo. It features challenges like solving puzzles, jumping over obstacles, collecting items, the game was a critical and commercial success, selling nearly two million copies in the United States. It was praised for its graphics, immersive sound. In 1999, it received two awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, Console Action Game of the Year, the game was remastered for the Xbox 360 in 2008 and included in the Rare Replay video game compilation for the Xbox One in 2015. A sequel, Banjo-Tooie, was released in 2000, Banjo-Kazooie is a single-player platform game where the player controls the protagonists Banjo and Kazooie from a third-person perspective. The game is split into nine levels where the player must gather musical notes and jigsaw pieces, called Jiggies, players transit from one level to another through Gruntildas lair, which acts as the games central overworld. Jiggies allow the player to complete jigsaw puzzles which open doors to new levels, like in Super Mario 64, the gameplay of Banjo-Kazooie is very open and allows the player to collect Jiggies and musical notes in a nonlinear order. It is also possible to skip certain levels as long as the player has enough of these items to reach a farther one, each level is composed of a number of challenges that involve solving puzzles, jumping over obstacles, gathering objects, and defeating opponents. The game also features elements of action-adventure games. Players often have to speak with NPCs and then out a way to help them. It is also possible to increase Banjo and Kazooies energy bar by collecting extra honeycombs that are throughout the levels. Banjo and Kazooie can perform a range of abilities, such as jumping, climbing, swimming, flying. Most of these moves are learned by finding Bottles, a friendly mole, some moves require specific items so that they can be performed. For instance, red feathers allow Banjo and Kazooie to fly, some items also allow the character to gain temporary abilities in a particular moment. For instance, the turbo trainers provide a speed burst to reach a destination on time. These transformations have their own features and allow the player to access areas that were previously inaccessible. For instance, the walrus can resist the effects of icy-cold water, Mumbo Tokens that are scattered throughout the game allow the transformation process
16.
Intellectual property
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Intellectual property refers to creations of the intellect for which a monopoly is assigned to designated owners by law. Intellectual property rights are the protections granted to the creators of IP, and include trademarks, copyright, patents, industrial design rights, and in some jurisdictions trade secrets. Artistic works including music and literature, as well as discoveries, inventions, words, phrases, symbols, the Statute of Monopolies and the British Statute of Anne are seen as the origins of patent law and copyright respectively, firmly establishing the concept of intellectual property. The first known use of the intellectual property dates to 1769. The first clear example of modern usage goes back as early as 1808, the German equivalent was used with the founding of the North German Confederation whose constitution granted legislative power over the protection of intellectual property to the confederation. According to Lemley, it was only at point that the term really began to be used in the United States. The history of patents does not begin with inventions, but rather with royal grants by Queen Elizabeth I for monopoly privileges, the evolution of patents from royal prerogative to common-law doctrine. The term can be used in an October 1845 Massachusetts Circuit Court ruling in the patent case Davoll et al. v. Brown. The statement that discoveries are. property goes back earlier, in Europe, French author A. Nion mentioned propriété intellectuelle in his Droits civils des auteurs, artistes et inventeurs, published in 1846. Until recently, the purpose of property law was to give as little protection as possible in order to encourage innovation. Historically, therefore, they were granted only when they were necessary to encourage invention, limited in time, the concepts origins can potentially be traced back further. In 500 BCE, the government of the Greek state of Sybaris offered one years patent to all who should discover any new refinement in luxury. Intellectual property rights include patents, copyright, industrial design rights, trademarks, plant variety rights, trade dress, geographical indications, a copyright gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Copyright may apply to a range of creative, intellectual, or artistic forms. Copyright does not cover ideas and information themselves, only the form or manner in which they are expressed, an industrial design right protects the visual design of objects that are not purely utilitarian. An industrial design consists of the creation of a shape, configuration or composition of pattern or color, or combination of pattern, an industrial design can be a two- or three-dimensional pattern used to produce a product, industrial commodity or handicraft. Plant breeders rights or plant variety rights are the rights to use a new variety of a plant. The variety must amongst others be novel and distinct and for registration the evaluation of propagating material of the variety is examined, a trademark is a recognizable sign, design or expression which distinguishes products or services of a particular trader from the similar products or services of other traders
17.
GameCube
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The GameCube is a home video game console released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14,2001, in North America on November 18,2001, in Europe on May 3,2002, and in Australia on May 17,2002. The sixth-generation console is the successor to the Nintendo 64 and competed with Sony Computer Entertainments PlayStation 2, the GameCube is the first Nintendo console to use optical discs as its primary storage medium. The discs are similar to the format, as a result of their smaller size and the consoles small disc compartment. Contemporary reception of the GameCube was generally positive, the console was praised for its controller, extensive software library and high-quality games, but was criticized for its exterior design and lack of features. Nintendo sold 21.74 million GameCube units worldwide before it was discontinued in 2007 and its successor, the Wii, which is backwards-compatible with most GameCube software, was released in November 2006. In 1997, a hardware design company called ArtX was launched, staffed by twenty engineers who had previously worked at SGI on the design of the Nintendo 64s graphics hardware. The team was led by Dr. Wei Yen, who had been SGIs head of Nintendo Operations, at Nintendos press conference in May 1999, the console was first publicly announced as Project Dolphin, the successor to the Nintendo 64. At the conference, Nintendos Howard Lincoln said of ArtX, This company is headed up by Dr. Wei Yen, Dr. Yen has assembled at ArtX one of the best teams of 3D graphics engineers on the planet. Subsequently, Nintendo began providing development kits to game developers, Nintendo also formed a strategic partnership with IBM for the production of Dolphins CPU, code-named Gekko. ArtX was acquired by ATI in April 2000, whereupon the Flipper graphics processor design had already mostly completed by ArtX and was not overtly influenced by ATI. In total, ArtX team cofounder Greg Buchner recalled that their portion of the hardware design timeline had arced from inception in 1998 to completion in 2000. Of ATIs acquisition of ArtX, an ATI spokesperson said, ATI now becomes a major supplier to the console market via Nintendo. The Dolphin platform is reputed to be king of the hill in terms of graphics, the console was announced as the Nintendo GameCube at a press conference in Japan on August 24,2000, abbreviated as NGC in Japan and GCN in North America. Nintendo unveiled its software lineup for the console at E32001, focusing on fifteen launch titles, including Luigis Mansion and Star Wars Rogue Squadron II. Several titles that were scheduled to launch with the console were delayed. It is also the first console in the history not to accompany a Mario platform title at launch. Long prior to the launch, Nintendo had developed and patented an early prototype of motion controls for the GameCube. These motion control concepts would not be deployed to consumers for several years, prior to the Nintendo GameCubes release, Nintendo focused resources on the launch of the Game Boy Advance, a handheld game console and successor to the original Game Boy and Game Boy Color
18.
Microsoft
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Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, Microsoft Office office suite, and Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface tablet lineup, as of 2016, it was the worlds largest software maker by revenue, and one of the worlds most valuable companies. Microsoft was founded by Paul Allen and Bill Gates on April 4,1975, to develop and it rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by Microsoft Windows. The companys 1986 initial public offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions. In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion, in June 2012, Microsoft entered the personal computer production market for the first time, with the launch of the Microsoft Surface, a line of tablet computers. The word Microsoft is a portmanteau of microcomputer and software, Paul Allen and Bill Gates, childhood friends with a passion for computer programming, sought to make a successful business utilizing their shared skills. In 1972 they founded their first company, named Traf-O-Data, which offered a computer that tracked and analyzed automobile traffic data. Allen went on to pursue a degree in science at Washington State University. The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systemss Altair 8800 microcomputer, Allen suggested that they could program a BASIC interpreter for the device, after a call from Gates claiming to have a working interpreter, MITS requested a demonstration. Since they didnt actually have one, Allen worked on a simulator for the Altair while Gates developed the interpreter and they officially established Microsoft on April 4,1975, with Gates as the CEO. Allen came up with the name of Micro-Soft, as recounted in a 1995 Fortune magazine article. In August 1977 the company formed an agreement with ASCII Magazine in Japan, resulting in its first international office, the company moved to a new home in Bellevue, Washington in January 1979. Microsoft entered the OS business in 1980 with its own version of Unix, however, it was MS-DOS that solidified the companys dominance. For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, branding it as MS-DOS, following the release of the IBM PC in August 1981, Microsoft retained ownership of MS-DOS. Since IBM copyrighted the IBM PC BIOS, other companies had to engineer it in order for non-IBM hardware to run as IBM PC compatibles. Due to various factors, such as MS-DOSs available software selection, the company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well as with a publishing division named Microsoft Press. Paul Allen resigned from Microsoft in 1983 after developing Hodgkins disease, while jointly developing a new OS with IBM in 1984, OS/2, Microsoft released Microsoft Windows, a graphical extension for MS-DOS, on November 20,1985. Once Microsoft informed IBM of NT, the OS/2 partnership deteriorated, in 1990, Microsoft introduced its office suite, Microsoft Office
19.
Video game remake
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A video game remake is a video game closely adapted from an earlier title, usually for the purpose of modernizing a game for newer hardware and contemporary audiences. Typically, a remake of such game software shares essentially the same title, fundamental gameplay concepts, a remake typically shares very little of the original assets and code with the original game, distinguishing it from an enhanced port, partial remake, or remastering. Remakes are often made by the developer or copyright holder. If created by the community, video game remakes are sometimes also called fan game, a remake offers a newer interpretation of an older work, characterized by updated or changed assets. A remake typically maintains the story, genre, and fundamental gameplay ideas of the original work. The intent of a remake is usually to take a game that has become outdated and update it for a new platform. A remake may also include expanded stories, often to conform to the conventions of contemporary games or later titles in the series in order to make a game marketable to a new audience. However, elements that had not become dated, like the narrative, puzzles, another example is Black Mesa, a Half-Life 2 mod that improves in-game textures, assets and models, and facial animations, while taking place in the events of the original Half-Life game. A port is a conversion of a game to a new platform that relies heavily on existing work, a port that contains a great deal of remade assets may sometimes be considered a remastering or partial remake. In the early history of games, remakes were generally regarded as conversions. Due to limited and often highly divergent hardware, games appearing on platforms usually had to be entirely remade. These conversions often included considerable changes to the graphics and gameplay, and could be regarded retroactively as remakes, a conversion is created with the primary goal of tailoring a game to a specific piece of hardware, usually contemporaneous or nearly contemporaneous with the original release. In 1980, Atari released the first officially licensed home console conversion of an arcade title, Taitos 1978 hit Space Invaders. The game became the first killer app for a game console by quadrupling the systems sales. In 1985, Sega released a pair of arcade remakes of older video games. Pitfall II, Lost Caverns was effectively a remake of both the original Pitfall. and its sequel with new layouts and colorful, detailed graphics. This version was successful, and later adapted to the Master System. Both of these games were distinguished from most earlier conversions in that took major liberties with the source material
20.
Boss (video gaming)
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In video gaming, a boss is a significant computer-controlled enemy. A fight with a character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. A boss enemy is quite larger in size than other enemies. Most commonly, bosses are very hard or impossible to defeat without knowing the correct fighting approach, Bosses take strategy and special knowledge to defeat, such as how to attack weak points or avoiding specific attacks. The first interactive game to feature a boss was dnd, a 1975 role-playing video game for the PLATO system, one of the earliest dungeon crawls, dnd implemented many of the core concepts behind Dungeons & Dragons. The objective of the game is to retrieve an Orb from the bottommost dungeon, the orb is kept in a treasure room guarded by a high-level enemy named the Gold Dragon. Only by defeating the Dragon can the player claim the orb, complete the game, a 1980 example is the fixed shooter Phoenix, where the player ship must fight a giant mothership in the fifth and final level. Bosses are usually more difficult than regular enemies, can sustain a lot more damage, while most games include a mixture of boss opponents and regular opponents, some games have only regular opponents and some games have only bosses. Some bosses require the player to them in a certain way that may be unusual to normal attacks, such as using a certain weapon. Story-centered bosses sometimes require certain prerequisites to be performed during the fight for the player to succeed, some bosses are encountered several times through a single game, typically with alternate attacks and a different strategy required to defeat it each time. Boss battles are seen as dramatic events. As such, they are characterized with unique music and cutscenes before. Recurring bosses and final bosses may have their own theme music to distinguish them from other boss battles. A miniboss, also known as a boss, mid-boss, half-boss, sub-boss. Some minibosses are simply stronger versions of enemies, like in the Kirby games. Some well known video game characters who take the role of a miniboss are Dark Link, Vile. A superboss is a type of boss most commonly found in role-playing video games and they are considered optional enemies, though optional bosses are not all superbosses, and do not have to be defeated to complete the game. For example, in Final Fantasy VII, the player may choose to out and fight the Ruby
21.
Deathmatch
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Deathmatch, or more appropriately, Free-For-All is a widely used gameplay mode integrated into many shooter and real-time strategy video games. Normally the goal of a game is to kill as many other players as possible until a certain condition or limit is reached. Once one of conditions is met, the match is over. It is an evolution of the multiplayer modes found in genres such as fighting games. Each individual computer generates the first person view that the character sees in the virtual world. Players are able to control their characters and interact with the world by using various controller systems. When using a PC, an example of a games control system would be the use of a mouse. For example, the movement of the mouse could provide control of the viewpoint from the character. Certain keys on the keyboard would control movement around the virtual scenery, games consoles however, use hand held control pads which normally have a number of buttons and joysticks which provide the same functions as the mouse and keyboard. Players often have the option to communicate each other during the game by using microphones and speakers. Manufacturers of games consoles use different hardware in their products which means that quality, deathmatches have different rules and goals depending on the game, but an example of a typical FPS-deathmatch session is where every player is versus every other player. The game begins with each player being spawned at random locations—picked from a predefined set. Being spawned entails having the score, health, armor and equipment reset to default values which usually is 0 score, full health, no armour and a basic firearm, after a session has commenced, arbitrary players may join and leave the game on an ad hoc basis. In this context a player is a human operated character in the game or a character operated by a computer software AI—a bot. e. they are equally matched except for the controlling part. g. However, some systems deliberately inform the player when inspecting the score list which player are bots, in the event that the player is aware of the nature of the opponent it will affect the cognitive process of the player regardless of the players skill. All normal maps will contain various power-ups, i. a. extra health, armor, ammunition and other weapons. Once collected by a player the power-up will respawn after a time at the same location, the time for an item to respawn depends upon the game mode. In some deathmatch modes power-ups will not respawn at all, certain power-ups are especially powerful, which can often lead to the game rotating around controlling power-ups—i. e
22.
Capture the flag
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Capture the Flag requires a playing field of some sort. Whether indoor or outdoor, the field is divided into two clearly designated halves, known as territories, players form two teams, one for each territory. Each side has a flag which is most often a piece of fabric and it is also suggested that teams wear dark colors at night to make it more difficult for their opponents to see them. If one team has the teams flag on their territory they may be tagged because they have the opposing teams flag. The objective of the game is for players to make their way into the teams territory, grab the flag. The flag is defended mainly by tagging opposing players who attempt to take it, within their own territory players are safe, meaning that they cannot be tagged by opposing players. Once they cross into the teams territory they are vulnerable. The flags are placed in a visibly obvious location at the rear of a teams territory. In a more difficult version, the flag is hidden in a place where it can only be seen from one angle and it also might have some challenge involved. For example, the flag could be hidden in the leaves up in a tree. Different versions of Capture the Flag have different rules, both for handling the flag and for what happens to tagged players. A player who is tagged may be eliminated from the game entirely, be forced to join the team, sent back to their own territory. The jail is an area of the groups territory which exists for holding tagged players and is normally towards the back of the groups territory. While tagged players may be confined to jail for a limited, predetermined time, in this version, players who are tagged remain in jail indefinitely. However, players from their own team may free them from jail by means of a jailbreak, jailbreaks are accomplished by a player running from their own territory into the enemys jail. Such action may, depending on the rules, free all jailed players or simply those who are touched by the one performing the jailbreak. In general freed players are obligated to return directly to their own territory before attempting offensive action, while returning to their own side, freed players usually, although not always, acquire free walk-backs, in which they are safe from tagging until they reach their home territory. The player performing the jail break, on the hand, is neither safe
23.
Outer space
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Outer space or just space, is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including Earth. The baseline temperature, as set by the radiation from the Big Bang, is 2.7 kelvins. In most galaxies, observations provide evidence that 90% of the mass is in a form, called dark matter. Data indicates that the majority of the mass-energy in the universe is a poorly understood vacuum energy of space which astronomers label dark energy. Intergalactic space takes up most of the volume of the Universe, there is no firm boundary where outer space starts. However the Kármán line, at an altitude of 100 km above sea level, is used as the start of outer space in space treaties. The framework for international law was established by the Outer Space Treaty. This treaty precludes any claims of sovereignty and permits all states to freely explore outer space. Despite the drafting of UN resolutions for the uses of outer space. Humans began the exploration of space during the 20th century with the advent of high-altitude balloon flights. Earth orbit was first achieved by Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union in 1961, due to the high cost of getting into space, manned spaceflight has been limited to low Earth orbit and the Moon. Outer space represents an environment for human exploration because of the dual hazards of vacuum. Microgravity also has an effect on human physiology that causes both muscle atrophy and bone loss. In addition to health and environmental issues, the economic cost of putting objects, including humans. In 350 BCE, Greek philosopher Aristotle suggested that nature abhors a vacuum and this concept built upon a 5th-century BCE ontological argument by the Greek philosopher Parmenides, who denied the possible existence of a void in space. Based on this idea that a vacuum could not exist, in the West it was held for many centuries that space could not be empty. As late as the 17th century, the French philosopher René Descartes argued that the entirety of space must be filled, in ancient China, there were various schools of thought concerning the nature of the heavens, some of which bear a resemblance to the modern understanding. In the 2nd century, astronomer Zhang Heng became convinced that space must be infinite, extending well beyond the mechanism that supported the Sun, the surviving books of the Hsüan Yeh school said that the heavens were boundless, empty and void of substance
24.
Magician (fantasy)
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A magician, mage, sorcerer, sorceress, warlock, witch, wizard, or wizardess is someone who uses or practices magic derived from supernatural or occult sources. Magicians are common figures in works of fantasy, such as literature and role-playing games, and enjoy a rich history in mythology, legends, fiction. In medieval chivalric romance, the wizard often appears as an old man and acts as a mentor. Other magicians, such as Saruman, from The Lord of the Rings series, villainous sorcerers were so crucial to pulp fantasy that the genre in which they appeared was dubbed sword and sorcery. Le Guins A Wizard of Earthsea explored the question of how wizards learned their art and this theme has been further developed in modern fantasy, often leading to wizards as heroes on their own quests. Such heroes may have their own mentor, a wizard as well, wizards can be cast similarly to the absent-minded professor, being foolish and prone to misconjuring. They can also be capable of magic, both good or evil. Even comical wizards are often capable of feats, such as those of Miracle Max in The Princess Bride, although he is a washed-up wizard fired by the villain. Wizards are often depicted as old, white-haired, and with white beards majestic enough to occasionally host lurking woodland creatures. This depiction predates the modern fantasy genre, being derived from the image of wizards such as Merlin. In the Dragonlance Dungeons and Dragons setting, wizards show their moral alignment by their robes, terry Pratchett described robes as a magicians way of establishing to those they meet that they are capable of practicing magic. To introduce conflict, writers of fiction often place limits on the magical abilities of wizards to prevent them from solving problems too easily. In Larry Nivens The Magic Goes Away, once an areas mana is exhausted, a common limit used in role-playing games is that a person can only cast a specific number of spells in a day. Magic can also require various sacrifices or the use of materials, such as gemstones, blood. Even if the magician lacks scruples, obtaining the material may be difficult, a. K. Moonfire combines these limits in his book The Aubrey Stalking Portal. The magician expends power to fuel his spells, but does not replenish that power naturally, therefore, the extent of a wizards knowledge is limited to which spells a wizard knows and can cast. Magic may also be limited by its danger, if a powerful spell can cause harm if miscast. Other forms of magic are limited by consequences that, while not inherently dangerous, are at least undesirable
25.
Black magic
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Black magic or dark magic has traditionally referred to the use of supernatural powers or magic for evil and selfish purposes. With respect to the path and right-hand path dichotomy, black magic is the malicious. In modern times, some find that the definition of magic has been convoluted by people who define magic or ritualistic practices that they disapprove of as black magic. Like its counterpart white magic, the origins of magic can be traced to the primitive, ritualistic worship of spirits as outlined in Robert M. Places 2009 book, Magic. During the Renaissance, many magical practices and rituals were considered evil or irreligious and by extension, Witchcraft and non-mainstream esoteric study were prohibited and targeted by the Inquisition. While natural magic became popular among the educated and upper classes of the 16th and 17th century, ritualistic magic, summers also highlights the etymological development of the term nigromancer, in common use from 1200 to approximately 1500, broadly one skilled in the black arts. In a modern context, the line between magic and black magic is somewhat clearer and most modern definitions focus on intent rather than practice. There is also an extent to which many modern Wicca and witchcraft practitioners have sought to distance themselves from those intent on practising black magic, the influence of popular culture has allowed other practices to be drawn in under the broad banner of black magic including the concept of Satanism. While the invocation of demons or spirits is an part of black magic. Those lines, though, continue to be blurred by the inclusion of spirit rituals from otherwise white magicians in compilations of work related to Satanism. Dees rituals themselves were designed to contact spirits in general and angels in particular, laVeys Bible, however, is a complete contradiction of Dees intentions but offers the same rituals as a means of contact with evil spirits and demons. LaVeys Church of Satan, officially denies the efficacy of ritual but affirms the subjective, psychological value of ritual practice. LaVey himself was more specific, The latter quote, though, Voodoo, too, has been associated with modern black magic, drawn together in popular culture and fiction. In fact, Voodoo tradition makes its own distinction between black and white magic, with sorcerers like the Bokor known for using magic and rituals of both. But their penchant for magic associated with curses, poisons and zombies means they, the links and interaction between black magic and religion are many and varied. Beyond black magics links to organised Satanism or its historical persecution by Christianity and its inquisitions, the Black Mass, for example, is a sacrilegious parody of the Catholic Mass. Likewise, a saining, though primarily a practice of magic, is a Wiccan ritual analogous to a christening or baptism for an infant. 17th century priest, Étienne Guibourg, is said to have performed a series of Black Mass rituals with alleged witch Catherine Monvoisin for Madame de Montespan, in Islam, al-Fatiha al-Falaq, al-Nas and other Surahs are recited to protect against sorcery
26.
Conker the Squirrel
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Conker the Squirrel is an anthropomorphic squirrel starring in various video games. The character was created by Rare and he first appeared alongside Diddy Kong of Nintendos Donkey Kong series in Diddy Kong Racing. The character is stated to be 21 years of age and has an affinity for alcoholic beverages, Conker is voiced by Chris Seavor in Conkers Bad Fur Day, Conker, Live & Reloaded and Project Spark. Conker was introduced to the world for the first time at E3 in 1997 and his game, Conkers Quest, was presented by Rareware as another 3D platformer aimed at a young audience. Later the same year, this fact was confirmed with Conkers inclusion in Diddy Kong Racing, for the Nintendo 64, in the spring of 1998, long after the initial release date, Conkers Quest was renamed as Twelve Tales, Conker 64. In 1999, Conker made his first solo debut in Conkers Pocket Tales for Game Boy Color, before its release, the Nintendo 64 game underwent a complete transformation due to criticism for Twelve Tales being considered another kids game. The game suffered from poor sales on account of its release being close to the end of the N64s lifespan. In 2005, a remake was released for the Xbox known as Conker and this featured Bad Fur Day with vastly improved graphics and minor alterations to gameplay. Also included was a never-before-seen multiplayer adaptation that was available for use over Xbox Live, after a cancelled sequel by Rare, Conker was brought back in the game Project Spark, once again voiced by Seavor. An episodic campaign for the game called Conkers Big Reunion, set 10 years after Bad Fur Day, was released on April 23. When Conker was introduced in Diddy Kong Racing, he had no gloves, a shirt that was blue in the front, and yellow in the back, blue and yellow Converse All Stars shoes, and a flat-looking tail. This appearance was kept for Pocket Tales as well, but was changed in Bad Fur Day, Conker now had gloves, a blue zipper hoodie, and the same shoes, but with the Converse logo removed. In Live and Reloaded, he ditched the gloves and had scruffier fur, giving him a somewhat unshaven appearance, and looked shorter, in Project Spark, Conkers appearance is based on that of Conkers Bad Fur Day, albeit much more detailed. Little is known of the origins or his early life. It is known that he had met and befriended Diddy Kong on his adventures prior to participating in races with Diddy and his friends, always kind-hearted and polite, his parents brought him up strictly, teaching him to never touch alcohol, urinate in public or be materialistic. Although Conker drinks, commits lewd conduct, and is very greedy, however, he speaks in a lisp combined with a sped-up voice. After Diddy Kong Racing, in the story of Conkers Pocket Tales, one day, he met a girl known as Berri, and the two quickly became a couple. Berri was originally depicted as a little, cute brown anthropomorphic chipmunk, in Live and Reloaded, Berris ditzy traits still remain, but she is also depicted as a porn star, or prostitute of sorts, judging by various references in the remake
27.
Indian elephant
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The Indian elephant is one of three recognized subspecies of the Asian elephant and native to mainland Asia. Since 1986, Elephas maximus has been listed as Endangered by IUCN as the population has declined by at least 50% over the last 60 to 75 years or three generations, Asian elephants are threatened by habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation. In general, Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants and have the highest body point on the head, the tip of their trunk has one finger-like process. Their back is convex or level, Indian elephants reach a shoulder height of between 2 and 3.5 m, weigh between 2,000 and 5,000 kg, and have 19 pairs of ribs. Their skin color is lighter than of maximus with smaller patches of depigmentation, females are usually smaller than males, and have short or no tusks. The largest Indian elephant was 3.43 metres high at the shoulder, in 1985, two large elephant bulls were spotted for the first time in Bardia National Park, and named Raja Gaj and Kanchha. They roamed the area together and made occasional visits to the females. Raja Gaj stood 11.3 ft tall at the shoulder and had a body weight. His appearance has been compared to that of a due to his high bi-domed shaped head. His forehead and domes were more prominent than in other Asian bull elephants, Indian elephants have smaller ears, but relatively broader skulls and larger trunks than African elephants. Unlike their African cousins, their abdomen is proportionate with their body weight, Indian elephants are native to mainland Asia, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Malay Peninsular, Laos, China, Cambodia, and Vietnam. They are regionally extinct from Pakistan and they inhabit grasslands, dry deciduous, moist deciduous, evergreen and semi-evergreen forests. Elephants are classified as megaherbivores and consume up to 150 kg of plant matter per day and they are generalist feeders, and both grazers and browsers. They graze on the grasses, but the portion consumed varies with season. When the new flush appears in April, they remove the tender blades in small clumps, later, when grasses are higher than 0.5 m, they uproot entire clumps, dust them skilfully and consume the fresh leave tops, but discard the roots. When grasses are mature in autumn, they clean and consume the succulent basal portions with the roots, from the bamboos, they eat seedlings, culms and lateral shoots. They feed on the bark of white thorn and other flowering plants, in Nepals Bardia National Park, elephants consume large amounts of the floodplain grass, particularly during the monsoon season. They browse more in the dry season with bark constituting a part of their diet in the cool part of that season
28.
Donkey Kong (character)
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Donkey Kong is a fictional gorilla who appears in games belonging to the Donkey Kong and Mario video game franchises. A popular character, he has appeared in video games. Donkey Kong was Marios first opponent in the game of the name, Nintendos popular 1981 arcade game. In 1981, Nintendo was pursuing a license to make a game based on the Popeye comic strip, when this fell through, Nintendo decided that it would take the opportunity to create new characters that could then be marketed and used in later games. Miyamoto came up many characters and plot concepts, but he eventually settled on a gorilla/carpenter/girlfriend love triangle that mirrored the rivalry between Bluto and Popeye for Olive Oyl. Bluto was replaced by an ape, which Miyamoto said was nothing too evil or repulsive, Miyamoto has also named Beauty and the Beast and the 1933 film King Kong as influences for the character. Miyamoto used donkey to convey stubborn in English, the name Donkey Kong was intended to convey stubborn ape to the American audience, when he suggested this name to Nintendo of America, he was laughed at, but the name stuck. Donkey Kong was redesigned for the Super NES in 1994 by former Rare character artist Kevin Bayliss and he presented the modern look to Nintendo and was immediately approved. Although the character design has been tweaked over the years, Donkey Kongs appearance remains consistent to this day when Bayliss last modified him, the Donkey Kong Country series introduced the setting Donkey Kong Island and a backstory for the character. The series also introduced Diddy Kong as Donkeys nephew and sidekick and this would become the standard look for Donkey Kong still used over two decades later. The modern Donkey Kong is portrayed as a powerful yet laid-back ape, brawl and Donkey Kong Country Returns, the current Donkey Kong is referred to as Crankys grandson. The story designs of the present DK series, which began with Donkey Kong Country, are clearly different, which Nintendo uses alteration of generations to explain. Donkey Kongs personality is similar to a gorillas, DK shows pride in his strength, enjoys eating and hoarding bananas. He is a hero to the Kongs but a rival to Mario, occasionally this rivalry erupts especially when DK kidnaps Pauline, whom he finds attractive. The original Donkey Kong made his first appearance as the titular antagonist of the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong alongside protagonist Mario and damsel in distress, as Jumpman, the player must reach Donkey Kong at the top of each stage, where he is holding the Lady captive. Donkey Kong attempts to hinder the progress by throwing barrels, springs. The ape reappeared the following year in the sequel Donkey Kong Jr. where Donkey Kong is taken captive and locked in a cage by the renamed Mario, while Donkey Kong Junior sets out to rescue him. Donkey Kong resumed his role in Donkey Kong 3, this time the character Stanley the Bugman taking Marios place as the protagonist
29.
Killer Instinct Gold
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Killer Instinct Gold is a 1996 fighting video game based on the arcade game Killer Instinct 2. The game was developed by Rare and released by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 video game console, as in other series entries, players control characters who fight on a 2D plane set against a 3D background. Players press buttons to punch and kick their opponent in chains of successive hits, large combo successions lead to stronger attacks and brutal, stylistic finisher moves underscored by an announcer. Characters—including a gargoyle, a ninja, and a femme fatale—fight in settings such as a jungle, the Gold release adds a training mode, new camera views, and improved audiovisuals. Rare was a prominent second-party developer for Nintendo in the 1990s, Gold was scheduled as a launch title for the new console but was delayed until its North American release in November 1996. It was released in regions in May 1997. Gold was later included in Rares 2015 Xbox One retrospective compilation, critics recommended Gold primarily for fans of the series and genre, but IGN reported that even fans were upset by changes in the combo system and the absence of several well-liked characters. Gold ultimately did not replicate the success of its Super NES predecessor, Killer Instinct Gold is a port of the arcade fighting video game Killer Instinct 2. Like other entries in the Killer Instinct series, two characters controlled by humans or artificial intelligence fight in matches to deplete their opponents health meter. While the characters move and attack on a 2D plane, the background is depicted in pre-rendered 3D, players fight with a six-button setup, three punch buttons and three kick buttons, similar to the controls in Street Fighter II. Players can chain together a series of hits into combos for increased damage, with some requiring a specific. Multiple hit combos lead to attacks and brutal, stylistic finisher moves. Characters on the end of a combo can interrupt the sequence with a combo breaker move. An announcer narrates major game moments with phrases like, Awesome combo, Gold features arcade, team, and tournament gameplay modes. The games new practice mode lets players rehearse their skills and follow tutorials, in the new knockout tournament mode, players cycle through a preselected team of characters when their current character is eliminated. Gold features the characters, combos, and environments available in the arcade Killer Instinct 2. Players can unlock new character appearances, gameplay difficulty levels, Gold and Killer Instinct 2s shared roster contains ten characters in total, three new additions and seven returning from the previous title. Characters include a gargoyle, a ninja, and a femme fatale, fights are set in spaceship, jungle, and castle settings, among others, and some backgrounds are interactive
30.
R.C. Pro-Am
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Pro-Am is a racing video game developed by Rare. It was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Nintendo for North America in March 1988, presented in an overhead isometric perspective, a single player races a radio-controlled car around a series of tracks. The objective of each track is to qualify for the race by placing in the top three racers. Players collect items to improve performance, and they must avoid a variety of such as rain puddles. It is an example of a game which features vehicular combat, in which racers can use missiles. Originally titled Pro Am Racing, R. C, Pro-Am was also ported to the Sega Genesis in 1992 as Championship Pro-Am, an enhanced remake with enhanced graphics and additional features. Pro-Am was followed by two sequels, Super R. C, listed by video game reviewers as one of Rares first successful NES titles, R. C. Pro-Am was well-received for its visuals, sound, gameplay, the game distanced itself from earlier racing titles by using an overhead, instead of a first-person, perspective. Reviews have cited it as inspiration for future such as Super Off Road, Rock n Roll Racing. It has appeared in top games of all time lists and is regarded as one of the best titles in the NES library. Pro-Am is a video game in which a player controls a radio-controlled car against three opponents around a track from an overhead isometric perspective. Players use the buttons on the control pad to steer their car left or right, and they use the other buttons to accelerate, fire weapons. Consisting of 24 tracks total, the goal for each racer is to qualify for the race by finishing in the top three in the four-car field. The game ends if players finish in fourth, however, they have two continues in which they can restart the race, but they will lose all points accumulated up to that point. For each successful completion of a race, the player receives a trophy, larger High Score Trophies, leading up to the Super Trophy, can also be obtained for achieving high scores. After the game ends, players can record their scores on Top Pro-Am Drivers list, throughout the courses, there are items on the track that players can collect by driving over them. Players can also collect weapons that can temporarily disable other vehicles, missiles take out the vehicles from the front. The number of missiles and bombs carry over to the next race, players can upgrade from a standard truck to a faster 4-Wheeler and then to the fastest Off Roader
31.
Radio-controlled car
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Radio controlled cars are battery/gas-powered model cars or trucks that can be controlled from a distance using a specialized transmitter or remote. This article focuses on radio-controlled vehicles only, Cars are powered by various sources. Electric models are powered by small but powerful electric motors and rechargeable nickel-cadmium, nickel metal hydride, there are also brushed or brushless electric motors. Most fuel-powered models use glow plug engines, small internal combustion engines fueled by a mixture of nitromethane, methanol. These are referred to as nitro cars, recently, exceptionally large models have been introduced that are powered by small gasoline engines, similar to string trimmer motors, which use a mix of oil and gasoline. Electric cars are considered easier for the novice to work with compared to fuel-driven models. In both of these categories, both on-road and off-road vehicles are available, off-road models, which are built with fully functional off-road suspensions, and a wide tire selection, can be used on various types of terrain. On-road cars, with a less robust suspension, are strictly limited to smooth. In the past decade, advances in on-road vehicles have made their suspension as adjustable as many full scale race cars, toy-grade R/C cars are typically manufactured with a focus on design coupled with reducing production costs. Performance tends to depend on price, but with addition of type of batteries toy R/C cars can get up to 1/2 the speed of comparable hobby-grade car for 1/5 of the price. Stock toy-grade cars are equipped with motors and are powered by alkaline or NiCad batteries which means their top speed is usually only 5–15 mph. Cheaper ones lack any form of a suspension and the ones that do feature a suspension have very primitive or rudimentary designs, steering is typically not proportional and there is typically no proportional throttle either, with stopped and full power usually being the only options. With all the disadvantages, toy-grade R/C cars are a great intro to the hobby, especially for ages 5–10, vehicles of this type need little or no final assembly and in most cases, the bodies are shipped painted and trimmed. Safety inspection of the product to ensure correct operation is essential, a number of cars and trucks are presently available only in ready-to-run form. The growing popularity of the RTR vehicle has prompted many manufacturers to discontinue production of kit vehicles, hobby grade vehicles can cost much more, ranging from $90 to over $2000. Electrically powered models utilize mechanical or electronic speed control units to adjust the amount of power delivered to the electric motor, the power delivered is proportional to the amount of throttle called for by the transmitter - the more you pull the trigger, the faster it goes. The voltage is pulsed using transistors to produce varying output with smooth transitions, electronic speed controllers use solid state components to regulate duty cycle, adjusting the power delivered to the electrical motor. In addition, most electronic speed controllers can use the motor as a magnetic brake
32.
Mario Kart 64
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Mario Kart 64 is a 1996 go-kart racing game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It was the successor to Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and it was released first in Japan on December 14,1996, and in North America and Europe in 1997. In January 2007, Mario Kart 64 was released as a downloadable Virtual Console title on the Wii and Wii U, changes from the original include the move to polygon-based true 3D computer graphics for track design, and the inclusion of four-player support. Players take control of characters from the Mario universe, who race around a variety of tracks with items that can harm opponents or aid the user. The move to three-dimensional graphics allowed for track features not possible with the original games Mode 7 graphics, such as changes in elevation, bridges, walls, however, the characters and items remained 2D pre-rendered sprites. Mario Kart 64 is a racing game in which the player controls one of eight selectable Mario characters who race in karts in different race tracks that vary in shape. During a race, the players can obtain items from special boxes placed in different areas of the track that are used to impede the opposition. For example, shells and bananas allow the player to attack opponents and slow them down, Mario Kart 64 has 16 race courses and 4 battle courses. There are four different game modes available in Mario Kart 64, Grand Prix, Time Trial, Versus, Grand Prix mode supports both single-player and competitive multiplayer gameplay, while other modes only support one or the other. Grand Prix – This mode has one or two players participate in four consecutive races, each on a different course, on one of the four selectable cups against seven computer players. When the player completes a race, points are awarded based on the rank he or she finished, if the player ranks 5th or under, the player will be required to repeat the race. After finishing all four races, trophies are awarded to the players who scored the highest accumulation of points, bronze for third place, silver for second, difficulty level is measured by engine size,50,100, or 150cc. There is an unlockable difficulty called Extra, which allows players to race at speed 100cc on tracks that are inverted left-to-right. This is the first game in the series to provide this feature, later installments call this feature Mirror Mode or 150cc Mirror Mode. Time Trial – This is a mode where the objective is to complete a three-lap race on the selected track in the shortest total time possible. There are no opponent racers or item boxes, though the player will begin each race with a Triple Mushroom in reserve. For any given course the top five shortest total times are saved, the player can select to race against a ghost character who will mimic the movement of the player from a previous race. Ghost data for up to two different courses can be saved permanently only on a Controller Pak device, however, the Virtual Console version of Mario Kart 64 released on the Wii is incompatible with the device and is thus unable to save ghost data
33.
Banjo-Kazooie (series)
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Banjo-Kazooie is a series of video games created by Rare. The games feature a bear named Banjo and his friend, a large red bird – of the fictional Breegull species – named Kazooie. Throughout the various games they are tasked with thwarting the various schemes of a witch named Gruntilda. The first game Banjo-Kazooie was originally released on the Nintendo 64 in 1998, entries in the series have also appeared on later platforms. Banjo-Kazooie was released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64 and re-released in 2008 for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade. In Spiral Mountain, Banjos sister, Tooty, has been kidnapped by the known as Gruntilda who wants Tootys beauty and is willing to turn her into a hag for it. It is up to Banjo and Kazooie to save her, Banjo-Tooie was released in 2000 for the Nintendo 64 and re-released in 2009 for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade. Two years after Banjo and Kazooie defeat Gruntilda, Gruntilda is freed from her grave and she proceeds to wreak havoc on the Isle O Hags, sucking the life force out of the land and its inhabitants to gain power to restore her body to its former state. After she kills Bottles, Banjo and Kazooie go to stop her, many new features were added to the game, such as bosses in each dungeon. Backtracking was also a feature, where the player needed to travel to previous dungeons as a result of learned from Jam-Jars in the latter worlds. Banjo-Kazooie, Nuts & Bolts was released in 2008 for the Xbox 360, the ending sequence in Banjo-Tooie suggested the title would be Banjo-Threeie, with early press releases tentatively calling it Banjo-Kazooie 3. The original trailer sported a more angular artistic design for the characters and complete fur and feather detailing on Banjo, the games release on 12 November 2008 marked the tenth anniversary of the series. It is the first original Banjo-Kazooie game released on a non-Nintendo system, the gameplay is a departure from the previous games in that, rather than learning new moves to continue, the player must instead build vehicles of all shapes and sizes to complete challenges. These challenges include races, transporting objects, fighting enemies, Gruntilda is still the main antagonist, but this time the Lord of Games has swept Banjo, Kazooie, and most of the cast into an all new world. Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie were re-released on Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade in 2008 and 2009 respectively and these versions featured fully HD graphics for both the polygonal models and 2D images. They also included revised controls and the reinstatement of the StopnSwop feature, the re-released versions of Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, as well as Banjo-Kazooie, Nuts & Bolts, were released for Xbox One on 4 August 2015, as part of the 30 game compilation, Rare Replay. Banjo-Kazooie, Gruntys Revenge was released in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance and it takes place two months after Banjo-Kazooie. While Gruntilda is still trapped under the boulder that fell on top of her, during the game, Gruntilda transfers her spirit into the Mecha-Grunty robot and travels back in time to prevent the first meeting of Banjo and Kazooie
34.
Conker (series)
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Conker is a series of platform video games created by Rare. It chronicles the events of Conker the Squirrel, a red squirrel that made his debut as a playable character in Diddy Kong Racing. Conkers Pocket Tales, a game released for the Game Boy Color in 1999. Conkers Bad Fur Day, a game released for the Nintendo 64 in 2001. Conker, Live & Reloaded, a game released for the Xbox in 2005. Conkers Big Reunion, a released as a digital add-on for Microsofts Project Spark in 2015 for Xbox One & Windows. Young Conker,2017, a game that will be developed for the Microsoft HoloLens, Conker was introduced to the world for the first time at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 1997. His game Conkers Quest was presented by Rare as another 3D platformer aimed at an audience for the Nintendo 64. Later the same year, this fact was confirmed with Conkers inclusion in Diddy Kong Racing for the Nintendo 64, in the spring of 1998, Conkers Quest was renamed Twelve Tales, Conker 64. In 1999, Conker made his first solo debut in Conkers Pocket Tales for the Game Boy Color, the redesigned game was geared towards a mature audience and featured sexual content, foul language, drug and alcohol usage, and excessive violence. According to Rare co-founder Chris Stamper, When people grow up on games, there arent games for people who grew up on the early systems, explaining the change. The game suffered from poor sales, but received a cult following with its unique brand of humor. After the release of Conkers Bad Fur Day, Rare began development of a new Conker game referred to as Conkers Other Bad Day, designer Chris Seavor said that it was to be a direct sequel dealing with Conkers somewhat unsuccessful tenure as King. He spends all the money on beer, parties and hookers. Thrown into prison, Conker is faced with the prospect of execution, in 2002, Microsoft purchased Rare from Nintendo, so instead of finishing and releasing the game, Rare remade Conkers Bad Fur Day for the Xbox in 2005, renaming it Conker, Live & Reloaded. It features improved graphics and minor alterations to gameplay, also included was a new multiplayer adaptation that was available for use over Xbox Live. After Live & Reloaded, Rare started development on Conker, Gettin Medieval, an online multiplayer shooter game. At E32014, Conker was announced as a character in Project Spark, in 2015, it was announced that Conker will return in a new episodic campaign for Project Spark
35.
GameRankings
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GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games, GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive. Similar websites include GameStats, Metacritic, MobyGames, and TopTenReviews, GameRankings collects and links to reviews from other websites and magazines and averages specific ones. While hundreds of reviews may get listed, only the ones that GameRankings deems notable are used for the average, Scores are culled from numerous American and European sources. The site uses a grade for all reviews in order to be able to calculate an average. However, because not all use the same scoring system. When a game has accumulated 20 total reviews, it is given a ranking compared to all games in the database. The current highest rated game is Super Mario Galaxy, with 97. 64%, there are specific rules that GameRankings follows to determine which review sites are used in calculating a games overall score. From the GameRankings Help page, they are, Sites must have at least 300 archived reviews for a multi-system/multi-genre sites, Sites must publish a minimum of 15 reviews a month. Sites must be visually appealing and look professional, Sites must review a variety of titles. Sites must have a domain name with professional hosting. Site reviews must be well written, Sites must conduct themselves in a professional manner. However, some sites that follow these rules are not included and these are the top 20 games with best scores on the site. GameRankings High Scores Matter To Game Makers, Too, The Wall Street Journal, things that suck about video game reviews, That Videogame Blog, April 2,2008
36.
Metacritic
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Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of media products, music albums, games, movies, TV shows, DVDs, and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged, Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Doyle, and Julie Doyle Roberts. The site provides an excerpt from each review and hyperlinks to its source, a color of Green, Yellow or Red summarizes the critics recommendations and therefore the general appeal of the product to reviewers and, to a lesser extent, the public. It is regarded as the game industrys foremost review aggregator. Metacritics scoring converts each review into a percentage, either mathematically from the mark given, before being averaged, the scores are weighted according to the critics fame, stature, and volume of reviews. Metacritic was launched in July 1999 by Marc Doyle, his sister Julie Doyle Roberts, rotten Tomatoes was already compiling movie reviews, but Doyle, Roberts, and Dietz saw an opportunity to cover a broader range of media. They sold Metacritic to CNET in 2005, CNET and Metacritic are now owned by the CBS Corporation. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal wrote in September 2004, Mr. Doyle,36, is now a product manager at CNET. Speaking of video games, Doyle said, A site like ours helps people cut through. unobjective promotional language and he added that the review process was not taken as seriously when unconnected magazines and websites provided reviews in isolation. In August 2010, the appearance was revamped, reaction from users was overwhelmingly negative. Certain publications are given more significance because of their stature, games Editor Marc Doyle was interviewed by Keith Stuart of The Guardian to get a look behind the metascoring process. Stuart wrote, the phenomenon, namely Metacritic and GameRankings, have become an enormously important element of online games journalism over the past few years. The ranging of metascores is, Metacritic is regarded as the foremost online review site for the video game industry. Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal has written that Metacritic influence the sales of games and he explains its influence as coming from the higher cost of buying video games than music or movie tickets. Many executives say that low scores can hurt the sales potential. He claimed that a number of businesses and financial analysts use Metacritic as an early indicator of a games potential sales and, by extension. In 2004, Jason Hall of Warner Bros. began including quality metrics in contracts with partners licensing its movies for games, if a product does not at least achieve a specific score, some deals require the publisher to pay higher royalties. In 2008, Microsoft began using Metacritic averages to de-list underperforming Xbox Live Arcade games and these are the top 10 individual games with the highest scores on the site as of 2 April 2017
37.
All Media Network
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AllGame was a commercial database of information about arcade games, video games and console manufacturers. The AMG consumer web properties AllMusic. com, AllMovie. com, All Media Network includes of the original founders of SideReel and Ackrell Capital investor Mike Ackrell. The AllGame section of the site was shut down on December 12,2014, AllMusic AllMovie SideReel All Media Network MobyGames, another online database of video games and developers
38.
Edge (magazine)
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Edge is a multi-format video game magazine published by Future plc in the United Kingdom, which publishes 13 issues of the magazine per year. It is known for its contacts, editorial stance, distinctive anonymous third-person writing style, yearly awards. The magazine was launched in October 1993 by Steve Jarratt, a video games journalist who has launched several other magazines for Future. The artwork for the cover of the magazines 100th issue was provided by Shigeru Miyamoto. The 200th issue was released in March 2009 with 200 different covers, each commemorating a single game,199 variants were in general circulation, only 200 magazines were printed with each cover, sufficient to more than satisfy Edges circulation of 28,898. In October 2003, the then-editor of Edge, João Diniz-Sanches, left the magazine along with deputy editor David McCarthy, after the walkout, the editorship of Edge passed back to Tony Mott, who had been editor prior to Diniz-Sanches. The only team member to remain was Margaret Robertson, who in 2006 replaced Mott as editor, in May 2007, Robertson stepped down as editor and was replaced by Tony Mott, taking over as editor for the third time. Between 1995 and 2002, some of the content from the UK edition of Edge was published in the United States as Next Generation, in July 2008, the whole site was rebranded under the Edge title, as that was the senior of the two brands. Edge has been redesigned three times since the magazine launched, the first redesign occurred in 1999, the second in 2004, and the third in 2011. The first redesign altered the dimensions to be wider than the original shape. The latest design changes the physical dimensions for the second time. Each issue includes a Making-of article on a game, usually including an interview with one of the original developers. Issue 143 introduced the Time Extend series of retrospective articles, like the making-of series, each focuses on a single game and, with the benefit of hindsight, gives an in-depth examination of its most interesting or innovative attributes. Since 2014, some contributed features are credited with a byline, the magazines regular columnists have been consistently credited throughout the magazines run. The current columnists are James Leach, Clint Hocking and Tadhg Kelly, in addition, several columnists appear toward the beginning of the magazine to talk about the game industry as a whole, rather than focusing on specific game design topics. They are Trigger Happy author Steven Poole, Leigh Alexander, and Brian Howe, previous columnists have included Paul Rose, Toshihiro Nagoshi of Segas Amusement Vision, author Tim Guest, NGai Croal, and game developer Jeff Minter. In addition, numerous columns were published anonymously under the pseudonym RedEye, James Hutchinsons comic strip Crashlander was featured in Edge between issues 143 and 193. Edge scores games on a ten-point scale, from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 10, and so on, a tongue-in-cheek reference to people who read too much into review scores
39.
GameSpot
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GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1,1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and it was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which purchased CNET Networks in 2008, is the current owner of GameSpot, in addition to the information produced by GameSpot staff, the site also allows users to write their own reviews, blogs, and post on the sites forums. In 2004, GameSpot won Best Gaming Website as chosen by the viewers in Spike TVs second Video Game Award Show, the domain gamespot. com attracted at least 60 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete. com study. GameSpot was founded by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein in San Francisco, CA, initially, GameSpot focused exclusively on PC games. Its sister site, VideoGameSpot. com, was launched in December 1996 to cover console games, in 1997, VideoGameSpot. com became VideoGames. com for a short period, and by 1998, the PC and console sections were united at GameSpot. com. On October 3,2005, GameSpot adopted a new design similar to that of TV. com, a new layout change was adopted on October 2013. GameSpot UK was started in October 1997 and operated until mid-2002, during this period, GameSpot UK won the 1999 PPAi award for best website, and was short listed in 2001. Following the purchase of ZDNet by CNET, GameSpot UK was merged with the main US site, on April 24,2006, GameSpot UK was relaunched. In a similar fashion, GameSpot AU existed on a scale in the late 1990s with Australian-produced reviews. When a local version of the main CNET portal, CNET. com. au was launched in 2003, the site was fully re-launched mid-2006, with a specialized forum, local reviews, special features, local pricings in A$, Australian release dates, and more local news. GameSpot Japan in its current form launched in 2007 and it provides Japanese video game industry news, previews, reviews, features, and videos as well as translated articles from the other GameSpot sites. Jeff Gerstmann, Editorial Director of the site, was fired on November 28,2007, Gerstmann had previously given Kane & Lynch a fair or undesirable rating along with critique. Both GameSpot and parent company CNET stated that his dismissal was unrelated to the review, a month after Gerstmanns termination, freelance reviewer Frank Provo left GameSpot after eight years stating that I believe CNET management let Jeff go for all the wrong reasons. I believe CNET intends to soften the tone and push for higher scores to make advertisers happy. GameSpot staffers Alex Navarro, Ryan Davis, Brad Shoemaker, Davis co-founded Gerstmanns subsequent project, Giant Bomb, and was later joined by Shoemaker and Caravella. Navarro later returned to Giant Bomb, where he works as a Senior Editor. On March 15,2012, it was announced that CBS Interactive, as part of the deal, the non-disparagement agreement between Gerstmann and CNET was nullified, allowing him to finally speak publicly about his termination over four years prior
