1.
Video game
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A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or computer monitor. The word video in video game referred to a raster display device. Some theorists categorize video games as an art form, but this designation is controversial, the electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms, examples of these are personal computers and video game consoles. These platforms range from large mainframe computers to small handheld computing devices, the input device used for games, the game controller, varies across platforms. Common controllers include gamepads, joysticks, mouse devices, keyboards, the touchscreens of mobile devices, and buttons, or even, with the Kinect sensor, a persons hands and body. Players typically view the game on a screen or television or computer monitor, or sometimes on virtual reality head-mounted display goggles. There are often game sound effects, music and, in the 2010s, some games in the 2000s include haptic, vibration-creating effects, force feedback peripherals and virtual reality headsets. In the 2010s, the game industry is of increasing commercial importance, with growth driven particularly by the emerging Asian markets and mobile games. As of 2015, video games generated sales of USD74 billion annually worldwide, early games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. The earliest example is from 1947—a Cathode ray tube Amusement Device was filed for a patent on 25 January 1947, by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, and issued on 14 December 1948, as U. S. Written by MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanens on a DEC PDP-1 computer in 1961, and the hit ping pong-style Pong, used the DEC PDP-1s vector display to have two spaceships battle each other. In 1971, Computer Space, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was the first commercially sold and it used a black-and-white television for its display, and the computer system was made of 74 series TTL chips. The game was featured in the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green, Computer Space was followed in 1972 by the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console. Modeled after a late 1960s prototype console developed by Ralph H. Baer called the Brown Box and these were followed by two versions of Ataris Pong, an arcade version in 1972 and a home version in 1975 that dramatically increased video game popularity. The commercial success of Pong led numerous other companies to develop Pong clones and their own systems, the game inspired arcade machines to become prevalent in mainstream locations such as shopping malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants, and convenience stores. The game also became the subject of articles and stories on television and in newspapers and magazines. Space Invaders was soon licensed for the Atari VCS, becoming the first killer app, the term platform refers to the specific combination of electronic components or computer hardware which, in conjunction with software, allows a video game to operate. The term system is commonly used
2.
3D Realms
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3D Realms is an American video game publisher and video game developer based in Garland, Texas, United States, established in 1987. While the company is known as 3D Realms, the name of the company is Apogee Software. The name 3D Realms was initially created as a label in July 1994 for use by Apogee which would be dedicated to just 3D games. Was formed to continue the brand, in July 2008, however, it announced that the brand Apogee Software would be revived with new games, but licensed to an external company, Apogee Software, LLC. Apogee started in 1987 with the release of Scott Millers Kingdom of Kroz, nevertheless, the game sold quite well and Apogee was born. In 1991, George Broussard joined the company as co-owner, bringing with him several games of his that were released under the name Micro F/X. Apogee published games by developers in addition to its own in-house titles. One of these developers, id Software, contributed to Apogees success with such as Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D. President George Broussard explained, We started marketing our games as shareware because it was a way to get started. Initial Apogee games were distributed as shareware, that is, giving away the full game for free. Upon registering, the customer would be able to receive support, however, this marketing model did not prove to be profitable enough, so Apogee decided to implement a variation on the shareware model. Starting with Kingdom of Kroz, Apogee would provide the first installment of a composed of several episodes for free. Registering the first episode would also enable the customer to receive support for that game and this method became known as the Apogee Model. Initially, each episode of a game was sold separately, with discounts for buying all the episodes together. Later games did not offer the option to buy a specific episode, the customer could play the version for free. The former model has some similarities with the episodic model currently used by game companies. Apogee later moved to the traditional retail model through distributors like GT Interactive, however, with the original intent to create a division for every genre of game Apogee produced, the two brand names 3D Realms and the now disused Pinball Wizards were created. This enabled Apogee to target different markets, however, many of those varied genres such as platform or scrolling shooter were slowly dying out in the late 1990s, which made this strategy unnecessary
3.
Epic Games
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Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game development company based in Cary, North Carolina, partially owned by Tencent. Founded in 1991, they are best known for their Unreal Engine technology and it is the parent company of game developer Chair Entertainment, and also owns game studios in Seattle, Guildford, Berlin, Tokyo, and Seoul. Key developers at Epic Games include chairman, CEO and technical director Tim Sweeney, jerry OFlaherty was the studio art director from 2003 to 2007. Chris Perna has been the art director since OFlahertys departure from the company, Cliff Bleszinski, Epics design director, announced his departure on October 3,2012. Epic Games was founded as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991 by Tim Sweeney in Rockville, Maryland, releasing its product, ZZT. In 1996, Epic MegaGames produced a shareware isometric shooter called Fire Fight and it was later released commercially by Electronic Arts. In 1997, Safari Software was acquired in whole by Epic MegaGames, in 1998, Epic MegaGames released Unreal, a 3D first-person shooter co-developed with Digital Extremes, which expanded into a series of Unreal games. The company also began to license the technology, the Unreal Engine. In 1999, the changed its name to Epic Games and moved its offices, including its Rockville headquarters, to Cary. In 2006, Epic released the Xbox 360 and PC bestseller Gears of War and completed work on Unreal Tournament 3 for PC, PS3, on May 20,2008, Epic Games acquired Utah based Chair Entertainment. In summer 2009, Epic released the Chair developed Shadow Complex on Xbox Live Arcade, on November 7,2008, Epic Games released Gears of War 2, the sequel to their bestselling game Gears of War, which continues the story of humanitys struggle against the Locust Horde. Epic worked on an iOS game, Infinity Blade, which was released on December 9,2010 and they also released Gears of War 3, the third game in the Gears of War series on September 20,2011. In 2011, Epics subsidiary Titan Studios was dissolved, at the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards, Epic Games announced their new game Fortnite. In June 2012, Epic announced that they were opening up a new studio, Epic Baltimore, Epic Baltimore was renamed to Impossible Studios in August 2012. However, the studio ended up closing its doors in February 2013, Tencent Holdings has the right to nominate directors to the board of Epic Games and thus counts as an associate of the Group. A number of staff left the company months after the deal was announced. In October 2012, Cliff Bleszinski announced he was leaving Epic Games after 20 years with the company and his official reason was Its time for a much needed break. Later in December 2012, Epic Games president Mike Capps announced his retirement and cite the reasons as the arrival of a boy he is having with his wife
4.
Id Software
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Id Software LLC is an American video game developer headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The company was founded on February 1,1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, business manager Jay Wilbur was also involved. Id Software made important technological developments in video game technologies for the PC, including work done for the Wolfenstein, Doom, ids work was particularly important in 3D computer graphics technology and in game engines that are heavily used throughout the video game industry. The company was heavily involved in the creation of the first-person shooter genre. Wolfenstein 3D is often considered as the first true FPS, Doom was a game that popularized the genre and PC gaming in general, on June 24,2009, ZeniMax Media acquired the company. In 2015, they opened a studio in Frankfurt, Germany. The founders of id Software met in the offices of Softdisk developing multiple games for Softdisks monthly publishing and these included Dangerous Dave and other titles. In September 1990, John Carmack developed an efficient way that would perform rapid side-scrolling graphics on the PC, upon making this breakthrough, Carmack and Hall stayed up late into the night making a replica of the first level of the popular 1988 NES game Super Mario Bros. 3, inserting stock graphics of Romeros Dangerous Dave character in lieu of Mario, when Romero saw the demo, entitled Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement, he realized that Carmacks breakthrough could have potential. Despite their work, Nintendo turned them down, saying they had no interest in expanding to the PC market, miller suggested that they develop shareware games that he would distribute. On December 14,1990, the first episode was released as shareware by Millers company, Apogee, and orders began rolling in. In a legal settlement, the team was required to provide a game to Softdisk every two months for a period of time, but they would do so on their own. On February 1,1991, id Software was founded, the shareware distribution method was initially employed by id Software through Apogee Software to sell their products, such as the Commander Keen, Wolfenstein and Doom games. They would release the first part of their trilogy as shareware, only later did id Software release their games via more traditional shrink-wrapped boxes in stores. Id Software moved from the cube-shaped Mesquite office to a newly built location in Richardson, on June 24,2009, it was announced that id Software had been acquired by ZeniMax Media. The deal would eventually affect publishing deals id Software had before the acquisition, namely Rage, on June 26,2013, id Software president Todd Hollenshead quit after 17 years of service. He was the last of the founders to leave the company. It is presented by the company as a reference to the id, evidence of the reference can be found as early as Wolfenstein 3D with the statement thats id, as in the id, ego, and superego in the psyche appearing in the games documentation
5.
Floppy disk
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Floppy disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive. Floppy disks, initially as 8-inch media and later in 5¼-inch and 3½-inch sizes, were a form of data storage and exchange from the mid-1970s into the mid-2000s. These formats are usually handled by older equipment and these disks and associated drives were produced and improved upon by IBM and other companies such as Memorex, Shugart Associates, and Burroughs Corporation. The term floppy disk appeared in print as early as 1970, in 1976, Shugart Associates introduced the first 5¼-inch FDD. By 1978 there were more than 10 manufacturers producing such FDDs, there were competing floppy disk formats, with hard- and soft-sector versions and encoding schemes such as FM, MFM and GCR. The 5¼-inch format displaced the 8-inch one for most applications, the most common capacity of the 5¼-inch format in DOS-based PCs was 360 kB and in 1984 IBM introduced the 1.2 MB dual-sided floppy disk along with its PC-AT model. IBM started using the 720 kB double-density 3½-inch microfloppy disk on its Convertible laptop computer in 1986 and these disk drives could be added to older PC models. In 1988 IBM introduced a drive for 2.88 MB DSED diskettes in its top-of-the-line PS/2 models, throughout the early 1980s, limitations of the 5¼-inch format became clear. Originally designed to be practical than the 8-inch format, it was itself too large, as the quality of recording media grew. A number of solutions were developed, with drives at 2-, 2½-, 3-, 3½-, the large market share of the 5¼-inch format made it difficult for these new formats to gain significant market share. A variant on the Sony design, introduced in 1982 by a number of manufacturers, was then rapidly adopted. By the end of the 1980s, 5¼-inch disks had been superseded by 3½-inch disks, by the mid-1990s, 5¼-inch drives had virtually disappeared, as the 3½-inch disk became the predominant floppy disk. Floppy disks became ubiquitous during the 1980s and 1990s in their use with computers to distribute software, transfer data. Before hard disks became affordable to the population, floppy disks were often used to store a computers operating system. Most home computers from that period have a primary OS and BASIC stored as ROM, by the early 1990s, the increasing software size meant large packages like Windows or Adobe Photoshop required a dozen disks or more. In 1996, there were a five billion standard floppy disks in use. Then, distribution of packages was gradually replaced by CD-ROMs, DVDs. External USB-based floppy disk drives are available, many modern systems provide firmware support for booting from such drives
