1.
MS-DOS
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MS-DOS is a discontinued operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. MS-DOS resulted from a request in 1981 by IBM for a system to use in its IBM PC range of personal computers. Microsoft quickly bought the rights to 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, IBM licensed and released it in August 1981 as PC DOS1.0 for use in their PCs. During its life, several competing products were released for the x86 platform and it was also the underlying basic operating system on which early versions of Windows ran as a GUI. It is a operating system, and consumes negligible installation space. MS-DOS was a form of 86-DOS – owned by Seattle Computer Products. This first version was shipped in August 1980, Microsoft, which needed an operating system for the IBM Personal Computer hired Tim Paterson in May 1981 and bought 86-DOS1.10 for $75,000 in July of the same year. Microsoft kept the number, but renamed it MS-DOS. They also licensed MS-DOS1. 10/1.14 to IBM, within a year Microsoft licensed MS-DOS to over 70 other companies. It was designed to be an OS that could run on any 8086-family computer, thus, there were many different versions of MS-DOS for different hardware, and there is a major distinction between an IBM-compatible machine and an MS-DOS machine. This design would have worked well for compatibility, if application programs had only used MS-DOS services to perform device I/O, Microsoft omitted multi-user support from MS-DOS because Microsofts Unix-based operating system, Xenix, was fully multi-user. After the breakup of the Bell System, however, AT&T Computer Systems started selling UNIX System V, believing that it could not compete with AT&T in the Unix market, Microsoft abandoned Xenix, and in 1987 transferred ownership of Xenix to the Santa Cruz Operation. On 25 March 2014, Microsoft made the code to SCP MS-DOS1.25, as an April Fools joke in 2015, Microsoft Mobile launched a Windows Phone application called MS-DOS Mobile which was presented as a new mobile operating system and worked similar to MS-DOS. Version 3.1 – Support for Microsoft Networks Version 3.2 – First version to support 3.5 inch,720 kB floppy drives and diskettes. Version 3.21 Version 3.22 – Version 3.25 Version 3.3 – First version to support 3.5 inch,1.44 MB floppy drives and diskettes, Version 3. 3a Version 3.31 – supports FAT16B and larger drives. MS-DOS4.0 and MS-DOS4.1 – A separate branch of development with additional multitasking features and it is unrelated to any later versions, including versions 4.00 and 4.01 listed below MS-DOS4. x – includes a graphical/mouse interface. It had many bugs and compatibility issues. Version 4.00 – First version to support a hard disk partition that is greater than 32 MiB. Version 4.01 – Microsoft rewritten Version 4.00 released under MS-DOS label, First version to introduce volume serial number when formatting hard disks and floppy disks
2.
Sierra Entertainment
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Sierra Entertainment is an American publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams. Based in Oakhurst, California and later in Fresno, California, the division is now owned by Activision, Sierra is known for its multiple lines of seminal graphic adventure games started in the 1980s, many of which proved influential in the history of video games. The Sierra label was absorbed by its parent company in 2008, some franchises that were published by Sierra were later published by Activision. Sierra was revived in 2014 by Activision Blizzard and it now focuses on re-releasing their old games, reviving their franchises and collaborating with independent developers for smaller projects. Sierra Entertainment was founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems in Simi Valley, California, by Ken, Ken Williams, a programmer for IBM, bought an Apple II microcomputer which he planned to use to develop a Fortran compiler for the Apple II. At the time, his wife Roberta Williams was playing text adventure games on the Apple II, dissatisfied with the text-only format, she realized that the graphics display capability of the Apple II could enhance the adventure gaming experience. After initial success, On-Line Systems was renamed Sierra On-Line in 1982, by early 1984 InfoWorld estimated that Sierra was the worlds 12th-largest microcomputer-software company, with $12.5 million in 1983 sales. In 1980, On-Line Systems released their first game in the Hi-Res Adventure series, Roberta wrote the script for the adventure game in three weeks, then presented it to Ken. At this point, Roberta convinced Ken to help her develop the game in the evenings after work and she worked on the text and the graphics, and told Ken how to put it all together to make it the game she wanted. They worked on it for three months and, on May 5,1980, Mystery House was ready for shipment. Mystery House was an instant hit and it was the first computer adventure game to have graphics, although they were crude, monochrome, static line drawings. It sold about 15,000 copies and earned $167,000, the Hi-Res Adventure series continued with Mission Asteroid, which was released as Hi-Res Adventure #0, despite being the second release. The next release, Wizard and the Princess, also known as Adventure in Serenia, is considered a prelude to the later Kings Quest series in both story and concept. Through 1981 and 1982, more games were released in the series including Cranston Manor, Ulysses and the Golden Fleece, Time Zone, a simplified version of The Dark Crystal, intended for a younger audience, was written by Al Lowe and released as Gelfling Adventure. Many of Sierras most well known series began in the 1980s, in 1983, Sierra On-Line was contacted by IBM to create a game for its new PCjr. IBM would fund the development of the game, pay royalties for it. Ken and Roberta accepted and started on the project, Roberta created a story featuring classic fairy-tale elements. For the game, a development system called Adventure Game Interpreter was developed
3.
Video game programmer
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A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebases for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines, all of which fall under the term of game programmer. A game programmer should not be confused with a game designer, in the early days of video games, a game programmer also took on the job of a designer and artist. This was generally because the abilities of computers were so limited that having specialized personnel for each function was unnecessary. Technology has advanced to such a degree that contemporary games usually boast 3D graphics. Nowadays, the term programmer art has come to imply the kind of bright colors. The desire for adding depth and assets to games necessitated a division of labor. Initially, art production was relegated to full-time artists, next game programming became a separate discipline from game design. Now, only games, such as the puzzle game Bejeweled, are simple enough to require just one full-time programmer. Despite this division, however, most game developers have some say in the design of contemporary games. Each aspect of the game can consume all of one time and, in many cases. Some programmers may specialize in one area of programming. The number of programmers needed for each feature depends somewhat on programmers skills, Game engine programmers create the base engine of the game, including the simulated physics and graphics disciplines. Increasingly, video games use existing game engines, either commercial and they are often customized for a particular game, and these programmers handle these modifications. A games physics programmer is dedicated to developing the physics a game will employ, typically, a game will only simulate a few aspects of real-world physics. For example, a game may need simulated gravity. Since processing cycles are always at a premium, physics programmers may employ shortcuts that are computationally inexpensive, in other cases, unrealistic physics are employed to allow easier gameplay or for dramatic effect. Sometimes, a subset of situations is specified and the physical outcome of such situations are stored in a record of some sort and are never computed at runtime at all
4.
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
5.
Leisure Suit Larry
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Leisure Suit Larry is an adult-themed video game series created by Al Lowe. It was published by Sierra from 1987 to 2009, then by Codemasters from 2009, the games follow Larry Laffer, a balding, double entendre-speaking, leisure suit-wearing man in his 40s. The game play revolves around him attempting, usually unsuccessfully, to seduce attractive women, the Larry games were one of Sierras most popular game series during the genres heyday, when it was first released in the mid-1980s. The series contains the games produced by Sierra that contain significant sexual themes. In general, the follow the escapades of Larry Laffer as he attempts to convince a variety of nubile women to sleep with him. A common link between the games are Larrys explorations of luxurious and cosmopolitan hotels, ships, beaches, resorts, the character of Larry Laffer was voiced by Jan Rabson. At most, the raunchier moments were usually hidden as Easter eggs, things became racier again toward the end of the series, particularly in the final installment, Love for Sail. Leisure Suit Larry, Magna Cum Laude, a version of the series, featured a different protagonist. It was developed by High Voltage Software and released by Sierra in 2004, in 2007, Vivendi Universal Games announced a mobile remake of Love for Sail. In 2008, Sierra Entertainment announced plans to release Leisure Suit Larry and it was developed by Team17, and the publishing rights were offered to Codemasters, who published the game in 2009. Larry Lovage, the protagonist of Magna Cum Laude and Box Office Bust, was voiced by Tim Dadabo, in June 2011, Replay Games announced on their blog that they had acquired a license for the Leisure Suit Larry series. Replay Games planned to re-release the titles it licensed and it was also announced that the series creator, Al Lowe, would be involved with the development of the new releases. The HD game, titled Leisure Suit Larry, Reloaded was originally announced to be released in late 2012, in April 2013, Lowe said that early development had begun on a remake of Larry 2, Josh Mandel later confirmed the games early development in a Kickstarter update. Leisure Suit Larry, Love for Sail, other sources claim that it was nothing but an internal office prank. The franchises installments were numbered as if this installment had been published, two official reasons were given by Al Lowe for the cancellation of Leisure Suit Larry 4. The first was that Sierra had begun work on an installment for The Sierra Network. This completed a relatively cohesive trilogy, and was a dead-end for a new story arc and it became one of softwares big jokes. The absence of the floppy disks was introduced as an element in the sequel to explain how Larry, as a computer generated character
6.
Game engine
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A game engine is a software framework designed for the creation and development of video games. Developers use them to games for consoles, mobile devices. The process of development is often economized, in large part, by reusing/adapting the same game engine to create different games. In many cases game engines provide a suite of development tools in addition to reusable software components. These tools are provided in an integrated development environment to enable simplified. Game engine developers attempt to pre-invent the wheel by developing robust software suites which include many elements a game developer may need to build a game, most game engine suites provide facilities that ease development, such as graphics, sound, physics and AI functions. Gamebryo, JMonkey Engine and RenderWare are such widely used middleware programs, however extensibility is achieved, it remains a high priority for game engines due to the wide variety of uses for which they are applied. Some game engines only provide real-time 3D rendering capabilities instead of the range of functionality needed by games. These engines rely upon the developer to implement the rest of this functionality or assemble it from other game middleware components. These types of engines are referred to as a graphics engine, rendering engine. This terminology is used as many full-featured 3D game engines are referred to simply as 3D engines. A few examples of engines are, Crystal Space, Genesis3D, Irrlicht, OGRE, RealmForge, Truevision3D. As technology ages, the components of an engine may become outdated or insufficient for the requirements of a given project. Since the complexity of programming a new engine may result in unwanted delays. Such a framework is composed of a multitude of different components. The actual game logic has to be implemented by some algorithms and it is distinct from any rendering, sound or input work. The rendering engine generates 3D animated graphics by the chosen method, before hardware-accelerated 3D graphics, software renderers had been used. Game engines can be written in any programming language like C++, C or Java, though language is structurally different
7.
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
8.
Microsoft Windows
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Microsoft Windows is a metafamily of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Microsoft. It consists of families of operating systems, each of which cater to a certain sector of the computing industry with the OS typically associated with IBM PC compatible architecture. Active Windows families include Windows NT, Windows Embedded and Windows Phone, defunct Windows families include Windows 9x, Windows 10 Mobile is an active product, unrelated to the defunct family Windows Mobile. Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20,1985, Microsoft Windows came to dominate the worlds personal computer market with over 90% market share, overtaking Mac OS, which had been introduced in 1984. Apple came to see Windows as an encroachment on their innovation in GUI development as implemented on products such as the Lisa. On PCs, Windows is still the most popular operating system, however, in 2014, Microsoft admitted losing the majority of the overall operating system market to Android, because of the massive growth in sales of Android smartphones. In 2014, the number of Windows devices sold was less than 25% that of Android devices sold and this comparison however may not be fully relevant, as the two operating systems traditionally target different platforms. As of September 2016, the most recent version of Windows for PCs, tablets, smartphones, the most recent versions for server computers is Windows Server 2016. A specialized version of Windows runs on the Xbox One game console, Microsoft, the developer of Windows, has registered several trademarks each of which denote a family of Windows operating systems that target a specific sector of the computing industry. It now consists of three operating system subfamilies that are released almost at the time and share the same kernel. Windows, The operating system for personal computers, tablets. The latest version is Windows 10, the main competitor of this family is macOS by Apple Inc. for personal computers and Android for mobile devices. Windows Server, The operating system for server computers, the latest version is Windows Server 2016. Unlike its clients sibling, it has adopted a strong naming scheme, the main competitor of this family is Linux. Windows PE, A lightweight version of its Windows sibling meant to operate as an operating system, used for installing Windows on bare-metal computers. The latest version is Windows PE10.0.10586.0, Windows Embedded, Initially, Microsoft developed Windows CE as a general-purpose operating system for every device that was too resource-limited to be called a full-fledged computer. The following Windows families are no longer being developed, Windows 9x, Microsoft now caters to the consumers market with Windows NT. Windows Mobile, The predecessor to Windows Phone, it was a mobile operating system
9.
Macintosh
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The Macintosh (/ˈmækᵻntɒʃ/ MAK-in-tosh, is a series of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. Steve Jobs introduced the original Macintosh computer on January 24,1984 and this was the companys first mass-market personal computer featuring an integral graphical user interface and mouse. This first model was renamed to Macintosh 128k for uniqueness amongst a populous family of subsequently updated models which are also based on Apples same proprietary architecture. Since 1998, Apple has largely phased out the Macintosh name in favor of Mac, Macintosh systems still found success in education and desktop publishing and kept Apple as the second-largest PC manufacturer for the next decade. In the 1990s, improvements in the rival Wintel platform, notably with the introduction of Windows 3.0, then Windows 95, gradually took market share from the more expensive Macintosh systems. The performance advantage of 68000-based Macintosh systems was eroded by Intels Pentium, even after a transition to the superior PowerPC-based Power Macintosh line in 1994, the falling prices of commodity PC components and the release of Windows 95 saw the Macintosh user base decline. In 1998, after the return of Steve Jobs, Apple consolidated its multiple consumer-level desktop models into the all-in-one iMac G3, since their transition to Intel processors in 2006, the complete lineup is entirely based on said processors and associated systems. Its current lineup comprises three desktops, and three laptops and its Xserve server was discontinued in 2011 in favor of the Mac Mini and Mac Pro. Apple also develops the operating system for the Mac, currently macOS version 10.12 Sierra, Macs are currently capable of running non-Apple operating systems such as Linux, OpenBSD, and Microsoft Windows with the aid of Boot Camp or third-party software. Apple does not license macOS for use on computers, though it did license previous versions of the classic Mac OS through their Macintosh clone program from 1995 to 1997. The Macintosh project was begun in 1979 by Jef Raskin, an Apple employee who envisioned an easy-to-use, in 1978 Apple began to organize the Apple Lisa project, aiming to build a next-generation machine similar to an advanced Apple III or the yet-to-be-introduced IBM PC. In 1979, Steve Jobs learned of the work on graphical user interfaces taking place at Xerox PARC. He arranged a deal in which Xerox received Apple stock options in return for which Apple would license their designs, the basic layout of the Lisa was largely complete by 1982, at which point Jobs continual suggestions for improvements led to him being kicked off the project. At the same time that the Lisa was becoming a GUI machine in 1979, the design at that time was for a low-cost, easy-to-use machine for the average consumer. Raskin was authorized to start hiring for the project in September 1979 and his initial team would eventually consist of himself, Howard, Joanna Hoffman, Burrell Smith, and Bud Tribble. Smiths design used fewer RAM chips than the Lisa, which production of the board significantly more cost-efficient. Though there were no memory slots, its RAM was expandable to 512 kB by means of soldering sixteen IC sockets to accept 256 kb RAM chips in place of the factory-installed chips. The final products screen was a 9-inch, 512x342 pixel monochrome display, burrels innovative design, combining the low production cost of an Apple II with the computing power of Lisas Motorola 68000 CPU, began to receive Jobs attentions
10.
Adventure game
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An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving. The genres focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media, literature and film, many adventure games are designed for a single player, since this emphasis on story and character makes multi-player design difficult. Initial adventure games developed in the 1970s and early 1980s were text-based, within the Asian markets, adventure games continue to be popular in the form of visual novels, which make up nearly 70% of PC games released in Japan. The Asian markets have found markets for adventure games for portable and mobile gaming devices. The video game genre is defined by its gameplay, unlike the literary genre, which is defined by the subject it addresses. Essential elements of the genre include storytelling, exploration, and puzzle solving, Adventure games have been described as puzzles embedded in a narrative framework, where games involve narrative content that a player unlocks piece by piece over time. While the puzzles that players encounter through the story can be arbitrary, combat and action challenges are limited or absent in adventure games, thus distinguishing them from action games. In the book Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design, only that combat is not the primary activity. Some adventure games include a minigame from another video game genre. Hybrid action-adventure games blend action and adventure games throughout the experience, incorporating more physical challenges than pure adventure games. This definition is hard to apply, however, with debate among designers about which games are action games. Adventure games are distinct from role-playing video games that involve action, team-building. Adventure games lack the numeric rules or relationships seen in role-playing games and these games lack any skill system, combat, or an opponent to be defeated through strategy and tactics. However, some hybrid games exist here, where role-playing games with strong narrative, finally, adventure games are classified separately from puzzle video games. Although an adventure game may involve puzzle-solving, they involve a player-controlled avatar in an interactive story. Adventure games contain a variety of puzzles, decoding messages, finding and using items, opening locked doors, solving a puzzle will unlock access to new areas in the game world, and reveal more of the game story. Logic puzzles, where mechanical devices are designed with interfaces to test a players deductive reasoning skills, are common. Others have been criticized for requiring players to guess, either by clicking on the right pixel
11.
Super video graphics array
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Super Video Graphics Array or Ultra Video Graphics Array, almost always abbreviated to Super VGA, Ultra VGA or just SVGA or UVGA is a broad term that covers a wide range of computer display standards. Originally, it was an extension to the VGA standard first released by IBM in 1987, unlike VGA—a purely IBM-defined standard—Super VGA was never formally defined. The closest to a definition was in the VBE extensions defined by the Video Electronics Standards Association. When used as a specification, in contrast to VGA or XGA for example. Though Super VGA cards appeared in the year as VGA. In that first version, it defined support for a resolution of 800x600 4-bit pixels. Each pixel could therefore be any of 16 different colors and it was quickly extended to 1024x768 8-bit pixels, and well beyond that in the following years. In consequence, so far as the monitor is concerned, there is no limit to the number of different colors that can be displayed. This applies to any VGA or Super VGA monitor, while the output of a VGA or Super VGA video card is analog, the internal calculations the card performs in order to arrive at these output voltages are entirely digital. Even so, the graphics chip vendors were producing parts for high-color video cards within just a few months of Super VGAs introduction. Monitor manufacturers sometimes advertise their products as XGA or Super XGA, in practice this means little, since all Super VGA monitors manufactured since the later 1990s have been capable of at least XGA and usually considerably higher performance. SVGA uses a VGA connector, the same DE-15 as the original standard, see also Digital Visual Interface which is a common non-analog cable for SVGA and other resolutions. Some of the early SuperVGA manufacturers were, Ahead Technologies Not related with Nero AG Amdek AST Research, ATI Technologies Chips and Technologies Cirrus Logic Compaq Everex Genoa Systems Orchid Technology Western Digitals Paradise Inc. Sigma Designs STB Systems V-RAM VGA ) Willow Trident Microsystems SVGA effectively supported resolutions like 1280x800 and higher
12.
Spoken dialogue
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Dialogue is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. In the 20th century, philosophical treatments of dialogue emerged from thinkers including Mikhail Bakhtin, Paulo Freire, Martin Buber, although diverging in many details, these thinkers have articulated a holistic concept of dialogue as a multi-dimensional, dynamic and context-dependent process of creating meaning. Educators such as Freire and Ramón Flecha have also developed a body of theory, the term dialogue stems from the Greek διάλογος, its roots are διά and λόγος. The first extant author who uses the term is Plato, in whose works it is associated with the art of dialectic. Latin took over the word as dialogus, in the West, Plato has commonly been credited with the systematic use of dialogue as an independent literary form. Ancient sources indicate, however, that the Platonic dialogue had its foundations in the mime and these works, admired and imitated by Plato, have not survived and we have only the vaguest idea of how they may have been performed. The Mimes of Herodas, which were found in a papyrus in 1891, Plato further simplified the form and reduced it to pure argumentative conversation, while leaving intact the amusing element of character-drawing. By about 400 BC he had perfected the Socratic dialogue, all his extant writings, except the Apology and Epistles, use this form. Following Plato, the became a major literary genre in antiquity. Soon after Plato, Xenophon wrote his own Symposium, also, Two French writers of eminence borrowed the title of Lucian’s most famous collection, both Fontenelle and Fénelon prepared Dialogues des morts. Contemporaneously, in 1688, the French philosopher Nicolas Malebranche published his Dialogues on Metaphysics and Religion, in English non-dramatic literature the dialogue did not see extensive use until Berkeley employed it, in 1713, for his treatise, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous. His contemporary, the Scottish philosopher David Hume wrote Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, a prominent 19th-century example of literary dialogue was Landor’s Imaginary Conversations. In Germany, Wieland adopted this form for several important satirical works published between 1780 and 1799, in Spanish literature, the Dialogues of Valdés and those on Painting by Vincenzo Carducci are celebrated. Italian writers of collections of dialogues, following Platos model, include Torquato Tasso, Galileo, Galiani, Leopardi, in the 19th century, the French returned to the original application of dialogue. English writers including Anstey Guthrie also adopted the form, but these seem to have found less of a popular following among the English than their counterparts written by French authors. Authors who have employed it include George Santayana, in his eminent Dialogues in Limbo. Also Edith Stein and Iris Murdoch used the dialogue form, Stein imagined a dialogue between Edmund Husserl and Thomas Aquinas. Murdoch included not only Socrates and Alcibiades as interlocutors in her work Acastos, Two Platonic Dialogues, more recently Timothy Williamson wrote Tetralogue, a philosophical exchange on a train between four people with radically different epistemological views
13.
Larry Laffer
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Larry Laffer is a player character and the protagonist in the Leisure Suit Larry series of adventure video games, created by Al Lowe in 1987. The character is a middle-aged, balding man trying to seduce attractive women, Larry was a nerdy geek all his life and eventually became a computer programmer. He never had relations with friends, women, or his colleagues. Around his 38th birthday, his hit a sexual alarm and started having his first kinky thoughts, he started reading adult magazines. Because of this his life was destroyed, he was fired from his job, Larry then decided to turn a page forward in his life, he left everything and decided to live the wild life. He moved to the city of Lost Wages, where, assuming that 1970s styles were still trendy, he bought a polyester leisure suit. He then sold his Volkswagen Bug to a junkyard for $94 and ended up in front of Leftys Bar, however, in his more recent games, Patti is absent and Larry roams alone again. The Official Book of Leisure Suit Larry, which was written between Leisure Suit Larry 6, Shape Up or Slip Out. and Leisure Suit Larry, Love for Sail. Hints that Larry was still engaged with Patti during that period, outside of the adventure game series, appears in Sierras Hoyle Book of Games, Volume I, The Laffer Utilities, Larry Pops Up. Leisure Suit Larrys Casino, Leisure Suit Larrys Sexy Pinball, Leisure Suit Larry Bikini Beach Volley, the game version of Love for Sail. Regarding Larrys male chauvinism, Al Lowe said that Larry is intended as a satire of that type of man, according to Lowe, Larry was modeled after a salesman for Sierra On-Line that shall remain nameless. He would return from sales trip and brag to us about how much ass he had gotten and those of us sitting there coding hated him. While making Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards and they agreed that he should be named after a certain Jerry, who had visited him at work and became well known in the Sierra studios. Lowe had to find a new surname, and having in mind the many L-words of the title and he fell on the entry of Arthur Laffer, and the name caught his attention due to its phonetic resemblance to laugher. Laffer asked his secretary if she knew about the games and she told him that she had played them for years, Laffer gave the permission and also paid a visit to the Sierra studios. One of Larrys trademarks is his manner of introducing himself, Hi, my name is Larry, Larry Laffer, a reference to James Bonds introduction style, My name is Bond, James Bond. The Leisure Suit part came from Al Lowes statement to Sierra founder Ken Williams that the series predecessor Softporn Adventure was so dated that it should be wearing a leisure suit. Originally, Larry was a typical 16-colored sprite, although on box covers he was seen as a cartoon with huge triangular head, as technology advanced to allow more cartoon-like graphics, the VGA games updated the sprite to resemble the depiction of Larry on the covers
14.
Steam (software)
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Steam is a digital distribution platform developed by Valve Corporation, which offers digital rights management, multiplayer gaming, video streaming and social networking services. Though initially developed for use on Microsoft Windows operating systems, versions for OS X, mobile apps with connected functionality with the main software were later released for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices in the 2010s. The Steam platform is considered to be the largest digital platform for PC gaming. By the end of 2015, the service had over 125 million registered accounts, the success of the Steam platform has led to the development of a line of Steam Machine micro-console, as well as SteamOS, a Valve developed fork of the Debian operating system. Valve decided to create a platform that would update automatically and implement stronger anti-piracy. Valve approached several companies, including Microsoft, Yahoo. and RealNetworks to build a client with these features, Steams development began in 2002, with working titles for the platform being Grid and Gazelle. It was first revealed to the public on March 22,2002, at the Game Developers Conference, to demonstrate the ease of integrating Steam with a game, Relic Entertainment created a special version of Impossible Creatures. However, the game was not released on Steam until 2015, Valve partnered with several companies, including AT&T, Acer, and GameSpy Industries. The first mod released on the system was Day of Defeat, the Steam client was first made available for public beta testing in January 2003 during the beta period for Counter-Strike 1.6, for which it was mandatory to install and use. At the time, Steams primary function was streamlining the patch process common in computer games. Steam was a component for all other games. 80, 000–300,000 gamers tested the system when it was in its beta period, the system and website choked under the strain of thousands of users simultaneously attempting to play the latest version of Counter-Strike. In 2004, the World Opponent Network was shut down and replaced by Steam, the online features of games which required World Opponent Network ceased to work unless they were converted to Steam. Around that time, Valve began negotiating contracts with publishers and independent developers to release their products, including Rag Doll Kung Fu and Darwinia. Canadian publisher Strategy First announced in December 2005 that it would partner with Valve for digital distribution of current, in 2002, the managing director of Valve, Gabe Newell, said he was offering mod teams a game engine license and distribution over Steam for US$995. Valves Half-Life 2 was the first game to require installation of the Steam client to play and this decision was met with concerns about software ownership, software requirements, and issues with overloaded servers demonstrated previously by the Counter-Strike rollout. During this time users faced multiple issues attempting to play the game, although digital distribution could not yet match retail volume, profit margins for Valve and developers were far larger on Steam. Large developer-publishers, including id Software, Eidos Interactive, and Capcom, by May that year,13 million accounts had been created on the service, and 150 games were for sale on the platform
15.
Spa
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A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water is used to give medicinal baths. Spa towns or spa resorts offer various health treatments, which are also known as balneotherapy. The belief in the powers of mineral waters goes back to prehistoric times. Such practices have been worldwide, but are especially widespread in Europe. Day spas are also popular, and offer various personal care treatments. The word spa itself denotes fountain, some experts also suggest that the word spa originated from the name of the Belgian town named Spa where a curative natural spring was discovered in the 14th century. Since medieval times, illnesses caused by iron deficiency were treated by drinking chalybeate spring water and it is commonly claimed, in a commercial context, that the word is an acronym of various Latin phrases such as Salus Per Aquam or Sanitas Per Aquam meaning health through water. Spa therapies have existed since the times when taking bath with water was considered as a popular means to treat illnesses. The practice of traveling to hot or cold springs in hopes of effecting a cure of some ailment dates back to pre-historic times, archaeological investigations near hot springs in France and Czech Republic revealed Bronze Age weapons and offerings. In Great Britain, ancient legend credited early Celtic kings with the discovery of the hot springs in Bath, many people around the world believed that bathing in a particular spring, well, or river resulted in physical and spiritual purification. Forms of ritual purification existed among the Native Americans, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, today, ritual purification through water can be found in the religious ceremonies of Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Hindus. These ceremonies reflect the ancient belief in the healing and purifying properties of water, complex bathing rituals were also practiced in ancient Egypt, in pre-historic cities of the Indus Valley, and in Aegean civilizations. Most often these ancient people did little building construction around the water, some of the earliest descriptions of western bathing practices came from Greece. The Greeks began bathing regimens that formed the foundation for modern spa procedures and these Aegean people utilized small bathtubs, wash basins, and foot baths for personal cleanliness. The earliest such findings are the baths in the complex at Knossos, Crete. They established public baths and showers within their gymnasium complexes for relaxation, Greek mythology specified that certain natural springs or tidal pools were blessed by the gods to cure disease. Around these sacred pools, Greeks established bathing facilities for those desiring healing, supplicants left offerings to the gods for healing at these sites and bathed themselves in hopes of a cure. The Spartans developed a primitive vapor bath, at Serangeum, an early Greek balneum, bathing chambers were cut into the hillside from which the hot springs issued
16.
Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail!
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Leisure Suit Larry, Love for Sail. is a video game, part of the Leisure Suit Larry series. It was the last LSL game written by series creator Al Lowe, despite being known as Leisure Suit Larry 7 during its development, Love for Sail. was actually the sixth installment in the LSL series due to the nonexistence of a fourth game. After many of the LSL games had gained a reputation for not actually featuring all that much raunchy content when analysed, included some much more risqué elements compared to previous installments. It also featured more fleshed-out, cartoon style graphics than its predecessors and this was the first LSL game to receive an ESRB rating upon its original release. The formula was much the same as the games, the twist was that Larry was a passenger on a cruise ship populated by parodies of famous people. Among the other guests were Drew Baringmore, Dewmi Moore, Victorian Principles, Jamie Lee Coitus, Nailmi and Wydoncha Jugg. Most of the supporting cast are named after popular euphemisms for the male reproductive organ or are in some way related to it. The plot revolves around Larrys attempt at winning a weekly contest held on the ship by Captain Thygh, the contest involves a series of other games varying from legitimate sports competitions like bowling to naughtier things like a machine created to test ones sexual prowess. Each passenger is given a card with a selection of the various competitions to compete in. Among Larrys chosen competitions are a cooking contest, a best dressed contest, a game of horseshoes, bowling, at times Larry wins these contests not by cheating but only by an unexpected twist of fate triggered by his actions. For instance, Larrys encounter with fashion designer Jamie Lee Coitus causes his Leisure Suit to become the height of fashion, as such he wins the best dressed competition. Similar to Leisure Suit Larry 5, Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work, players could also appear in the game by placing voice samples of selected dialogue and a digitized photo in a particular directory. Due to time constraints, the information to do so was not printed in the manual and this usually indicated that a seduction scene could now be played featuring nudity that was normally obscured. A mobile version titled Leisure Suit Larry, Love for Sail was released on June 21,2007 by Vivendi Games and Mighty Troglodytes, the game was reviewed by Danny Wallace in the January 1997 edition of PCGamer magazine and was given a score of 23%. Wallace described the game as a mountain of toss. Leisure Suit Larry, Love for Sail. at MobyGames
17.
PC Gamer
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PC Gamer is a magazine founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries. PC Gamer reviews are written by the editors and freelance writers. In the UK edition, no game has yet been awarded more than 96%, in the US edition, no game has yet received a rating higher than 98%. In the UK edition, the lowest numerical score was 2%, the sequel, Big Brother 2, was given an even lower score of N/A%, the review explaining that put as much effort into reviewing it as they did in making the game. In issue 255, August 2013, the score of 2% was matched by the review of the re-released Leisure Suit Larry, Magna Cum Laude, originally given 3% when it first launched. In the US edition, the lowest score awarded was 4%, given to Mad Dog McCree, unseating the previously lowest-rated game, there are two main editions of PC Gamer, a British version and an American version, both are published by Future plc. Founded in the United Kingdom in November 1993, the American sister version was launched a year later in June 1994, there are also numerous local editions that mainly use the materials of one of the two editions, typically the British one, including a Malaysian and Russian edition. An Australian edition was published monthly by Perth-based Conspiracy Publishing since August 1998, a Spanish edition titled PC Juegos y Jugadores also exists. Both American and British magazines are published thirteen times per year, the British edition of PC Gamer has been in constant monthly publication since 1993. Subscribers get an edition of the magazine with no headlines on the front cover. Almost exclusively devoted to PC games, the magazine has a reputation for giving in-depth reviews, the magazine originally shipped with an accompanying 3. 5-inch floppy disc. A CD demo disc was released alongside the floppy disk edition from issue 11 onwards with the first CD Gamer containing all the content from the previous 10 issues floppy discs, the single CD was later expanded to two CDs. An edition with a 9 GB DVD known as DVD Gamer ran alongside the 2CD edition for a couple of years, the UK Edition then only came with a single double-sided DVD. In August 2011, the UK magazine announced it was to be discontinuing the disk as of issue 232, the magazine has many regular features which make up each edition of the magazine. There is also a section, which reviews and recommends hardware such as video cards. The back page of the magazine is entitled ´Its All Over´, the PC Gamer blog was started to coincide with the transfer of the PC Gamer UK site to become part of the Computer and Video Games network which incorporates all of Future plcs gaming magazines. The move brought some controversy, with long standing members of the forum leaving due to the new forums cramped spacing, advertising
18.
Computer Gaming World
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Computer Gaming World was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. In 1979 Russell Sipe left the Southern Baptist Convention ministry, a fan of computer games, he realized in spring 1981 there was no magazine dedicated to computer games. Although Sipe had no publishing experience, he formed Golden Empire Publications in June, the first issue appeared in November, at about the same as rivals Electronic Games and Softline. Early bi-monthly issues were typically 40-50 pages in length, written in a style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings, Dan Bunten. As well, early covers were not always related to the magazines contents. In January/February 1986 CGW increased its publication cycle to nine times a year, and the staff included popular writers such as Scorpia, Charles Ardai. CGW survived the game crash of 1983, which badly hurt the market. In autumn 1987 CGW introduced a quarterly newsletter called Computer Game Forum, the newsletter never became popular, only two issues were published before it was cancelled. Some of CGFs content became part of CGW, which became a monthly, the magazine went through significant expansion starting in 1991, with growing page counts reaching 196 pages by its 100th issue, in November 1992. During that same year, Johnny Wilson became editor-in-chief, although Sipe remained as Publisher, in 1993, he sold the magazine to Ziff Davis but continued on as Publisher until 1995. The magazine kept growing through the 1990s, with the December 1997 issue weighing in at 500 pages, in 1999, Wilson left the magazine and George Jones became editor-in-chief, at a time when print magazines were struggling with the growing popularity of the Internet. Jones was replaced by Jeff Green in 2002, on August 2,2006, Ziff Davis and Microsoft jointly announced that Computer Gaming World would be replaced with Games for Windows, The Official Magazine. The final CGW-labeled issue was November 2006, for a total of 268 published editions, simultaneously with the release of the final CGW issue, Ziff Davis announced the availability of the CGW Archive. The Archive features complete copies of the first 100 issues of CGW, as well as the 2 CGF issues, the Archive was created by Stephane Racle, of the Computer Gaming World Museum, and is available in PDF format. Every issue was processed through Optical Character Recognition, which enabled the creation of a 3+ million word master index, although Ziff Davis has taken its CGW Archive site offline, the magazines can be downloaded from the Computer Gaming World Museum. On April 8,2008, 1UP Network announced the print edition of Games for Windows, The Official Magazine had ceased, CGW featured reviews, previews, news, features, letters, strategy, and columns dealing with computer games. While console games are occasionally touched on, these are primarily the territory of CGWs sister magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly, tom vs. Bruce sometimes featured a guest appearance by Erik Wolpaw, formerly of Old Man Murray. For many years, CGW never assigned scores to reviews, preferring to let readers rate their favorite games through a monthly poll, scores were finally introduced in 1994
19.
GamePro
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GamePro was an American multiplatform video game magazine media company that published online and print content covering the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software. The magazine featured content on various game consoles, PC computers. Gamepro Media properties included GamePro magazine and their website, the company was also a part subsidiary of the privately held International Data Group, a media, events and research technology group. Originally published in 1989, GamePro magazine provided feature articles, news, previews and reviews on various games, video game hardware. The magazine was published monthly with October 2011 being its last issue, gamePros February 2010 issue introduced a redesigned layout and a new editorial direction focused on the people and culture of its gaming. GamePro. com was launched in 1998. Updated daily, the content included feature articles, news, previews, reviews, screenshots and videos covering video games, video game hardware. The website also included content such as forums, reviews. In January 2010, the website was redesigned to reflect the new editorial changes being made in the print magazine. The website was based at Gamepros headquarters in San Francisco from 1998–2002 and then in Oakland, Gamepro. com also had international variants that have now outlasted their parent publication in countries such as Germany, and France. Gamepro was first established in Redwood City, California in late 1988 by Patrick Ferrell, his sister-in-law Leeanne McDermott, and the husband-wife design team of Michael and Lynne Kavish. The later addition of John Rousseau as publisher and editor-in-chief Wes Nihei, as well as renowned artist Francis Mao, established Gamepro as a large, profitable magazine worldwide publication. Francis Mao, acting in his role as art director for the nascent GamePro, over the years, the Gamepro offices have moved from Redwood City to San Mateo to San Francisco and lastly Oakland, their current and latest location. In 1993, the company was renamed from Gamepro Inc. to Infotainment World in reflection to its growing, the magazine was known for its editors using comic book-like avatars and monikers when reviewing games. As of January 2004, however, Gamepro has ceased to use the due to a change in the overall design. Meanwhile, editorial voices carry over to the redesigned and highly active community on its online sister publication. Gamepro was also most widely famous for its ProTips, small pieces of gameplay tips and it also features a special corner section known as Code Vault, where secret codes are all posted. These particular features have since gradually vanished, Code Vault was also published in print format and sold as a quarterly cheats and strategy magazine on newsstands
20.
Bellevue, Washington
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Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, across Lake Washington from Seattle. As the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area, Bellevue has variously been characterized as an edge city, the city had a population of 122,363 at the 2010 census. Prior to 2008, downtown Bellevue underwent rapid change, with high rise projects under construction. The downtown area is currently the second largest city center in Washington state with 1,300 businesses,45,000 employees and 10,200 residents, based on per capita income, Bellevue is the 6th wealthiest of 522 communities in the state of Washington. In 2008, Bellevue was named number 1 in CNNMoneys list of the best places to live and launch a business, in 2014, Bellevue was ranked as the 2nd best place to live by USA Today. More than 145 companies have located in Bellevue. Current companies with headquarters in Bellevue include Expedia and T-Mobile, the name Bellevue is French for beautiful view. Bellevue was settled in 1869 by William Meydenbauer and Aaron Mercer, prior to the opening of the Lake Washington Floating Bridge in 1940, Bellevue was a rural area with little development. Although it was small, developers were pushing to change that, in the 1920s and he envisioned plans that included the bridging of Lake Washington and an area filled with golf courses and airports. His map with these visions was published in 1928, once the Murrow Memorial Bridge opened, access from Seattle improved, and the area gradually grew into a bedroom community. After the Japanese Internment began in 1942 a large quantity of land was available for development. This made way for the development of the Bellevue downtown area. Bellevue incorporated as a third city on March 21,1953. Following the 1963 opening of a bridge across the lake, the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge. It has since become one of the largest cities in the state, with several structures in its core. The city experienced a boom during the mid 2000s, with the building of developments such as Lincoln Square. Reflective of Bellevues growth over the years is Bellevue Square, now one of the largest shopping centers in the region, opened in 1946, the mall underwent a significant expansion in the 1980s. Patterned after what many civic leaders consider the successful redevelopment of the downtown core, Bellevue is located at 47°36′N 122°12′W
21.
MobyGames
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MobyGames is a commercial website which catalogs video games both past and present. As of October 2016, this includes over 200 gaming platforms and over 114,000 games, the site is supported by banner ads and by users paying to become patrons. The MobyGames database contains information on games and the people. Some individual developer profiles have biographical information, content is added on a volunteer crowdsourced basis, with all items tracked to a non-anonymous user account. The most commonly used sources are game packaging and manual or the game itself, registered users can rate and review any game entry, and the scores are aggregated into a single value. Users can create game have lists and want lists, which may be made public. This can generate another list of available for trade with other users. The site has an integrated forum, each listed game can have its own subforum. MobyGames was founded on March 1,1999, by Jim Leonard, Brian Hirt, Leonard had the idea of sharing information about electronic games with a larger audience. The database began with entries for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows games, on its second birthday, MobyGames started supporting other platforms, initially the leading consoles of the time such as the PlayStation, with older systems added later. MobyGames was nominated for a Webby Award for Best Games-Related Website by the International Academy of Digital Arts, in mid-2010, MobyGames was sold by its founders to GameFly for an undisclosed amount. As this was announced to the community post factum, a few major contributors left in protest. On December 18,2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs, upon assuming control of the site, Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel. Support for arcade coin-operated games was added in January 2014
22.
Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude
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Leisure Suit Larry, Magna Cum Laude is a 2004 video game, part of the Leisure Suit Larry series. The game introduces a new character, Larry Lovage, as Larry Laffers nephew. This is the 7th game in the series and it was the only High Voltage Software game ever released to receive an AO rating. Like many other current games, Magna Cum Laude has an exploration mode where Larry can walk about campus and interact with students. In this mode, Larry can search for money or tokens, strike poses to impress girls. At several locations on campus a minigame can be entered, usually by activating an object or a person, the player must win most of the minigames in order to advance. Minigames started by a conversation usually increase the affection of one of the girls, the game originally received an Adults Only rating from the ESRB and was subsequently edited to receive a more commercial Mature rating in the United States and Canada. In Europe, the game was released unedited on all three systems and featured a disclaimer on the packaging highlighting that it was uncut, the unedited version was eventually released in North America under the title Leisure Suit Larry, Magna Cum Laude—Uncut and Uncensored. Both versions were refused classification by the OFLC and effectively banned in Australia, the main protagonist, Larry Lovage, is a student at Walnut Log Community College whose purpose is to get on a dating TV show called Swingles. Uma Yasmine, the hostess of the show wont allow Larry in the show until he will prove his seductive wits by obtaining tokens of affection, sixteen college girls will conveniently be at his disposal. His aging uncle, Larry Laffer, from the games, provides brief advice. Larry also must outsmart a sorority house and a fraternity house, known as Dio, a brief subplot involves the colleges arena football team going against a rival team known as the Maiming Maggots. However, the team name is a running gag because it is obscured by objects. The final scene shows the name is actually the Flaming Fantasticks after the Swingles van leaves the school. In 2003, Sierra Entertainment announced that the Leisure Suit Larry franchise was being revived with a game, called Leisure Suit Larry. This is the first game in which Al Lowe is not involved in any way, as game was created by game developer High Voltage Software. On his website, Lowe talks about how he was in talk with Sierra about working with them on the game, but they stopped contacting him, as they went into downsizing. Later he received a letter from a writer on the game, the new Larry game does not star Larry Laffer, but a new character, his nephew, Larry Lovage
23.
Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust
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Leisure Suit Larry, Box Office Bust is a video game developed by Team17 and published by Codemasters for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was released on March 27,2009 in North America and it is the 8th game in the series, and the first Leisure Suit Larry game to be released for seventh generation consoles. It was announced on January 17,2008 in a press release, the official debut trailer was released on February 16,2008 via Gametrailers. com. There was a Wii version in development to be released 2 months after the release of the HD version, Box Office Bust has open-world sand-box gameplay such as exploration, platforming, racing and puzzle-solving. However, Box Office Bust contains more swearing than its predecessors, artie Lange and Dave Attell were also featured as voice characters. This is the second Larry game that was created entirely without any input from original Larry game designer and developer Al Lowe, artie Lange, who voiced Big Al, said he was paid for his brief contribution. He has also stated that this installment has a higher budget than all the predecessors, Leisure Suit Larry, Box Office Bust was met with overwhelmingly negative reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Xbox 360 version 26. 08% and 25/100, the PC version 20. 22% and 20/100, Leisure Suit Larry, Box Office Bust is, without a doubt, one of those games. We can think of a number of other uses for your two hands, and were using ours to give this stinker two thumbs way down. Official Xbox Magazine gave the game a 1 out of 10 and they also stated it was their worst rated game of the year so far, as well as going as far to say that it was the worst game on the Xbox 360 console thus far. Al Lowe thanked Vivendi Games on his website for keeping him away from what he called the latest disaster, in PlayStation, The Official Magazines September 2009 issue, they joked about punishing a PlayStation 3 owners dog by making it play the Leisure Suit Larry game. The dog had urinated on his owners PlayStation 3, which still works. GameSpot nominated the game for Flat Out Worst Game of the Year in 2009 and it lost to Stalin vs. Martians. Giant Bomb gave the game the Worst Game of the Year Award in 2009, australian television show Good Game awarded it to be the Worst Game of 2009. Screwattack. com gave the game a SAGY award for the Worst Multiconsole game of 2009, similarly, GamesRadar gave Leisure Suit Larry, Box Office Bust the title of the 28th worst game of all time. Official website Official debut trailer Interview with Executive Producer John Melchior Leisure Suit Larry, Box Office Bust at MobyGames
24.
Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded
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The game is available for Microsoft Windows via Steam, OS X, Linux, Android and iOS. It is an remake of the 1987 Sierra On-Line adventure game Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. It is the remake of this game, following the 1991 remake. Like the first remake of Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, the game employs a point-and-click interface over the original 1987 versions text parser. The game consists of a variety of puzzles, which can be solved by looking at, picking up, licking, talking to or using items on a variety of objects and people in the game. There are five buildings in the game, Leftys Bar, a mini-mart, a chapel, a multi-floor casino. The locations are fully explorable to the player from the beginning of the game, although limited by the money in Larrys wallet. Plot-wise, the game is based on the original version, this extends to the time of the setting. To help the project along, a Kickstarter campaign was launched in early April 2012 during which $655,182 was raised within 30 days from 14,081 backers. Several ex-Sierra Entertainment employees got involved with the project alongside Larrys creator Al Lowe, including Josh Mandel, the soundtrack of the game was composed by Austin Wintory, a Grammy-nominated composer. The remake was promised by the Replay Games team to have a girl and expanded dialogue for trying certain things. Al Lowe stated, One of our goals with doing this remake was not to do a remake and we didn’t just want to port the game over with higher-res and better graphics. We wanted to do a better game and it gave me a chance to fix some of the puzzles that I’ve hated for twenty five years that I wish I had changed back when. And I’d like to say to all of those that pirated the games, we’re going to give you a new chance to come clean and own up—man up—and buy a copy come January. Lowe also said rest of the Leisure Suit Larry series, or even other classic Sierra adventure games, might be remade if the sales of the game enable to fund the future titles. The game was supposed to be released in October 2012, but once the Kickstarter campaign passed through the $650,000 goal, a new love interest was added to the game. The new content was scheduled for a March 2013 release, then delayed further to late May/June 2013. Al Lowe announced on June 18,2013 that the release date would be June 27,2013 and Leisure Suit Larry
25.
Softporn Adventure
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Softporn Adventure is a comedic, adult-oriented text adventure game produced for the Apple II in 1981. The game was created by Charles Benton and released by On-Line Systems, Chuck Benton, a Massachusetts native, had a difficult time finding a publisher for Softporn until Ken Williams discovered it at a trade show and decided to give the game a chance. In the game, the searches for certain items that will allow him to win the affections of three beautiful women. Benton claimed that parts of the game were based on his own life, Softporn Adventure was originally written for the Apple II in Applesoft BASIC in 1981 by programmer Chuck Benton. Benton programmed the game as an exercise to teach himself programming on the Apple II, bentons friends enjoyed the game and encouraged him to self-publish it. Sometime in 1981, Benton was selling his game at a show where he encountered Ken Williams, co-founder. Williams eventually decided to release the game as part of On-Line Systems catalog, the games box cover and advertisement features three nude women and a male waiter in a hot tub, shot at Ken and Roberta Williamss home. The ad was considered scandalous at the time because of the degree of nudity displayed. The photographer was Brian Wilkinson. Wilkinson shot several dozen takes before arriving at the image used for the cover. The photo accompanying Times article was of the Softporn Adventure advertisement, united Press International also covered the games release. Because computer stores did not want to only one game from On-Line they purchased other software with it. Bentons own romantic life also reportedly improved, due to the ongoing controversy, Softporn was withdrawn from sale after only a few months. Customers asked for a version for women, but Benton could not find a female collaborator and he worked on other Sierra games until leaving the company in 1985 to found Technology Systems, Inc. Softalk was the first publication to run an advertisement, the letters-to-the-editor section of the magazine ran numerous pieces written by readers who were offended by the ad on moral or anti-pornography grounds. These letters were avidly responded to, however, by readers who supported representations of sexuality or simply did not have conservative social views. Lowe then used the puzzles of Softporn Adventure for creating Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, Lowe reportedly came up with the name Leisure Suit Larry after remarking that Softporn was so outdated that it ought to be wearing a leisure suit. In 1991, Softporn Adventure was also ported by designer Gary Thompson to MS-DOS for the PC, Thompson loved Softporn Adventure in 1981, so he printed out the source code and archived it. In the late 1980s he re-designed, and re-wrote it for the PC, in 1991, after purchasing a copy of Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, he realized it was the same game
26.
Mystery House
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Mystery House is an adventure game released by On-Line Systems in 1980. It was designed, written and illustrated by Roberta Williams and programmed by Ken Williams for the Apple II, Mystery House is the first graphical adventure game and the first game produced by On-Line Systems, the company which would evolve into Sierra On-Line. The game starts near an abandoned Victorian mansion, the player is soon locked inside the house with no other option than to explore. The mansion contains many interesting rooms and seven people, Tom, a plumber, Sam, a mechanic, Sally, a seamstress, Dr. Green, a surgeon, Joe, a gravedigger, Bill, a butcher, and Daisy. Initially, the player has to search the house in order to find a cache of jewels. However, terrible events start happening and dead bodies begin appearing and it becomes obvious that there is a murderer on the loose in the house, and the player must discover who it is or become the next victim. At the end of the 1970s, Ken Williams sought to set up a company for software for the market-dominating Apple II computer. One day, he took a teletype terminal to his residence to work on the development of an accounting program, rummaging through a catalog, he found a program called Colossal Cave Adventure. He and his wife Roberta both played it all the way through and their encounter with this game would lead to their influence on video-gaming history. Having finished Colossal Cave Adventure, they began to search for something similar, Roberta Williams liked the concept of a textual adventure very much, but she thought that the player would have a more satisfying experience with images and began to think of her own game. She thus conceived Mystery House, the first graphical adventure game, Ken spent a few nights developing the game on his Apple II using 70 simple two-dimensional drawings done by Roberta. The software was packaged in Ziploc bags containing a 5¼-inch disk, to their great surprise, Mystery House was an enormous success, quickly becoming a best-seller at a first-release price of US$24.95. Eventually, it more than 10,000 copies, which was a record-breaking phenomenon for the time. Though Ken believed that the market would be less of a growth market than the professional software market. In 1980, the Williamses founded On-Line Systems, which would become Sierra On-Line in 1982, Mystery House was re-released in 1982 through the SierraVenture line, which produced a number of early Sierra games until 1983. The game was released into the public domain in 1987 as part of Sierras seventh anniversary celebration. The game went on to sell 80,000 units worldwide, though the game is often considered the first adventure game to use graphics, dungeon crawl role-playing video games had already been using graphics prior to its release. Applying graphics to a game, however, was unprecedented as previous story-based adventure games were entirely text-based
27.
Wizard and the Princess
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Wizard and the Princess, also known as Adventure in Serenia, is an adventure game by On-Line Systems for the Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, and Commodore 64. It was the title released in On-Line Systems Hi-Res Adventures series after Mystery House. Wizard and the Princess is a prelude to the Kings Quest series in both story and concept and it was also the first adventure game released with full color graphics. The game takes place in the land of Serenia where King Georges daughter Princess Priscilla has been kidnapped by a wizard named Harlin. Harlin has held her inside his castle far in the mountains, the King has offered half of his kingdom to anyone brave enough to travel to the Wizards castle, defeat him and return his daughter. The player assumes the role of a wanderer who answers this challenge. He boasted of using his magic to change the world creating obstacles for anyone who would challenge him and he turned back the sands of time leaving the adventurer in the desert just outside the village of Serenia. He mocks the hero telling him that he may have been defeated once, the princess gives the hero some words of advice and a computer to help him defeat Harlin, and tells him he has become the wanderer. The manual story as reprinted was also included with the Roberta Williams Collection, the introduction for Adventure of Serenia, explained that the adventurer, with the help of a computer, had magically transported to Serenia to save the Princess. The instruction sheet had the title listed as The Wizard and the Princess, the story was based on the many fairy tales Roberta used to read as a child. The game improved upon Mystery House by adding color graphics and it was the first adventure game to have full color graphics and sold over 60,000 copies. The Apple II could only display six different colors simultaneously, Wizard and the Princess was ported to the IBM PC in 1982, Sierras first game for the PC platform. For unknown reasons, this version was retitled Adventure in Serenia, Roberta Williams reputedly referred to the colors on the IBM PC as atrocious upon seeing the completed game running for the first time. Ports for the Atari 8-bits and Commodore 64 followed in 1982–83 under the original title, Adventure in Serenia was also a launch title for the IBM PCjr, announced in late 1983. The Atari computer version is monochrome hi-res mode and could be played in a shade of green, blue, or black depending on the chip in the computer, later versions also included an orange mode depending on the machines chipset. Dithering was used to create shades on screen, the color version for the Atari 8-bit more or less resembled the on-screen colors and dithering of the Apple II, but on a light greenish tinged screen. The Commodore version uses more on-screen colors and solid colors, the items in the game were more detailed and of higher resolution have alternative artwork. According to Sierras Interaction magazine, this game can be considered a prequel to the Kings Quest series, Kings Quest V marked a return to the Kingdom of Serenia
28.
Cranston Manor
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Cranston Manor is a graphic adventure game released in 1981. It was created by Ken Williams and Harold DeWitz, in the game, the player must invade a mansion that was occupied by a millionaire and steal the sixteen treasures that are inside of it. The game allows players to switch between graphics-based and text-based gameplay
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Ulysses and the Golden Fleece
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Ulysses and the Golden Fleece is a graphic adventure game released in 1981 for the Apple II. It was created by Bob Davis and Ken Williams, with a graphic at the top of the game screen, the player navigates the game via a two-word command parser. The game was ported to the Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, PC Magazine rated Ulysses 14.0 out of a total of 18 points. It called the graphics gorgeous, but noted the limited text parser compared to Infocoms Infidel, the IBM PC version of Ulysses and the Golden Fleece can be played for free in the browser at the Internet Archive
30.
The Dark Crystal (video game)
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The Dark Crystal is a graphic adventure computer game based on Jim Hensons fantasy film, The Dark Crystal. The game was designed by Roberta Williams and published under the SierraVenture line in 1983 as Hi-Res Adventure #6 and it was the first Hi-Res Adventure released under the SierraVenture line, the previous titles being released under earlier names and later re-released under SierraVenture. The Dark Crystal is set in Thra, a world with three suns, every thousand years the three suns come together in an event known as The Great Conjunction. The player controls Jen, a gelfling, two souls are destined to battle to reveal the secrets of their past. One warriors fate rests in the hands of a villain who is hellbent on destruction. The game features no music, a single beep is used to alert that no other than the return key can be taken. It took Roberta Williams a little over a month to develop the design for the game, the game would go on to receive a Certificate of Merit in the category of 1984 Best Computer Adventure at the 5th annual Arkie Awards. The Dark Crystal at MobyGames HI-RES VOL,1, NO.3 / MARCH1984 The Sierra Help Pages Gamespot An official free re-creation of the game
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King's Quest
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Kings Quest is a graphic adventure game series created by the American software company Sierra Entertainment. It is widely considered a series from the golden era of adventure games. Following the success of its first installments, the series was responsible for building the reputation of Sierra. Roberta Williams, co-founder and former co-owner of Sierra, designed all of the Kings Quest games until the reboot in 2015. The Kings Quest series chronicles the saga of the family of the Kingdom of Daventry through their various trials. The story takes place two generations and across many lands as the heroes and heroines fight evil witches and wizards. The exception is Kings Quest, Mask of Eternity, where the protagonist is Connor of Daventry, the later sequels have more elaborate story lines, more complicated puzzles, and more original and well-developed characters. Technologically, the series pioneered the use of animation and pseudo-3D environments in graphic adventure games, so that the character could, for example. The primary way in which characters solve puzzles and advance through the game is by using items found earlier in the game and stored in their inventory. Other puzzles include the mapping of labyrinths, deserts, or other places, solving riddles. It is important to use all ones characters senses to gather all the available, look, listen, smell, taste. The Kings Quest usually involves becoming a king or the adventures of members of the family of Daventry in other lands to save their kingdom. Often, the quest is given to the protagonist through the magic mirror. In Kings Quest II, Romancing the Throne, the quest is for King Graham to find his queen, through the magic mirror, retrieved in the first game, he learns of the beautiful Valanice captured by the witch Hagatha in the land of Kolyma. Gwydion begins as a peasant of Llewdor and a slave of the wizard Manannan, but ultimately discovers he is really the long lost son of the Graham, Kings Quest V, Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder. Returns to the King in his attempt to both his kingdom and family from Mordack, Hagathas and Manannans brother and also an evil magician. This is the first game which does not include the magic mirror, Kings Quest VI, Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow follows Prince Alexanders attempt to save his true love, marry her, and ultimately becoming the king of the Land of the Green Isles. The magic mirror pointed him in the direction to finding the kingdom
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King's Quest I
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Kings Quest is an adventure game developed by Sierra On-Line and published originally for the IBM PCjr in 1984 and later for several other systems between 1984 and 1989. The game was titled simply as Kings Quest, the subtitle Quest for the Crown was added to the game box in the 1987 rerelease. It is as the first official part of the long Kings Quest series, in which a knight, Sir Graham. Designed by Roberta Williams, the game was revolutionary and highly influential in the evolution of the adventure game genre by introducing more detailed graphics. An official remake titled Roberta Williams Kings Quest I, Quest for the Crown was released in 1990, an unofficial remake titled Kings Quest I VGA was released by Tierra Entertainment in 2001. Kings Quest features interactive graphics that were an enormous leap over the mostly static rooms of previous graphical interactive fiction, prior to Kings Quest, the typical adventure game presented the player a pre-drawn scene, accompanied by a text description. The players interaction with the game consisted entirely of typing commands into the parser, then reading the parsers response. Kings Quest is the first adventure game to integrate graphical animation into the view of game world. Because of this, Kings Quest shifted the focus away from the scenery, to the players character. There are animation sequences for most player-world interactions reachable through the course of exploration. For example, there were different animation sequences showing Graham picking up objects from the ground, opening doors, and wading through water. Depth perspective was simulated as well, Graham could walk behind objects, causing his character to be hidden from view, or walk in front of them, obscuring the object. This attention to animation, while commonplace in action games. The original version of the game primarily on textual input as its interface. As the player used the keyboard to explore the game world, Kings Quest was innovative in its use of 16-color graphics for the IBM PC platform. Selecting RGB mode at the screen would instead result in the usual 320×200 CGA graphics mode limited to 4 colors. In this mode, dithering was employed to simulate extra colors, like previous static-screen Sierra adventures, Kings Quest used vector graphics rather than pre-rendered bitmaps which would take far too much disk space. Each screen is drawn line-by-line and painted in and this technique was used on all Sierra adventure games up to Kings Quest V
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King's Quest II
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Kings Quest II, Romancing the Throne is the second installment in the Kings Quest series of graphic adventure games by Sierra On-Line. It uses the same AGI game engine as Kings Quest I, Quest for the Crown, the title is a spoof of the 1984 film Romancing the Stone. Kings Quest II resembles Kings Quest I in appearance and interface, like in Kings Quest I, the game world has wrap around allowing player to travel infinitely in the directions of the north or south. This was the first Kings Quest to include an introduction cutscene and it also is the first game in the series with a linear story progression. The world actually changes as the story progresses, new characters appear in the world, areas are opened up to the player, puzzles involve trading these or using these items to receive new items or to get past obstacles, allowing the player to progress. The game in general honors non-violent solutions, offering points for them. Many puzzles have more than one solution, but only one solution to earn maximum points. Alternate solutions will net less points or in some cause the player to lose points. Examples of alternate solutions are taking more violent approach to getting past an obstacle such as killing or stealing, some choices may lead to dead ends or death. All puzzles in the game are solved through a parser, for example, you could type, dig, or dig the beach and receive messages about how pointless it is to be digging. Sometimes even illogical verb/noun combinations will net unique comments, such as typing Pick up horse will mention that the flying steed is too fast to catch, with this system the player is able to collect many items using pick up placed into the games inventory. The items in the inventory have close up pictures giving an idea what the item looks like, in a rare few examples an item may be manipulated in some way. Having killed the evil Dahlia and retrieved the magic mirror. The mirror shows him a vision about a young woman, Valanice. Being charmed by her, King Graham travels to the world of Kolyma to rescue, there he must travel through sea, air, and even death to gain the keys that unlock the three doors to the enchanted island where the witch Hagatha has imprisoned Valanice. Limited floppy space would have restricted the design, but Sierra On-Line had been compressing the pictures by drawing them as lines, the original version for PC DOS/PCjr does not support sound cards or mice, as they did not exist at the time of publication. That scheme was all the way up to Kings Quest V. Future Space Quest series designers Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe joined the development team and they helped to make the game an even bigger hit than the original
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