1.
Video game industry
–
The video game industry is the economic sector involved in the development, marketing and Monetizing of video games. It encompasses dozens of job disciplines and employs thousands of people worldwide, the computer and video game industry has grown from focused markets to mainstream. They took in about US$9.5 billion in the US in 2007,11.7 billion in 2008, sound cards were developed for addition of digital-quality sound to games and only later improved for music and audiophiles. Early on, graphics cards were developed for more colors, later, graphic cards were developed for graphical user interfaces and games, GUIs drove the need for high resolution, and games began using 3D acceleration. They also are one of the pieces of hardware to allow multiple hookups. Product and talent layer, includes developers, designers and artists, production and tools layer, generates content production tools, game development middleware, customizable game engines, and production management tools. Distribution layer, or the industry, involved in generating and marketing catalogs of games for retail. Hardware layer, or the providers of the platform, which may be console-based, accessed through online media. This layer now includes network infrastructure and non-hardware platforms such as machines, or software platforms such as browsers or even further Facebook. End-users layer, or the users/players of the games, the game industry employs those experienced in other traditional businesses, but some have experience tailored to the game industry. Some of the specific to the game industry include, game programmer, game designer, level designer, game producer, game artist. Most of these professionals are employed by video game developers or video game publishers, however, many hobbyists also produce computer games and sell them commercially. Recently, game developers have begun to employ those with extensive or long-term experience within the modding communities, prior to the 1970s, there was no significant commercial aspect of the video game industry, but many advances in computing would set the stage for the birth of the industry. In 1947 Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann filed a patent for a cathode ray tube amusement device and their game, which uses a cathode ray tube hooked to an oscilloscope display, challenges players to fire a gun at target. One of the first known examples is Spacewar, developed by Harvard and MIT employees Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen. The introduction of easy-to-program languages like BASIC for mainframes allowed for more games to be developed. In 1971 the arcade game, Computer Space was released, the following year, Atari, Inc. released the first commercially successful video game, Pong, the original arcade version of which sold over 19,000 arcade cabinets. That same year saw the introduction of video games to the market with the release of the early video game console
2.
Bullfrog Productions
–
Bullfrog Productions was a British video game developer, founded in 1987 by Les Edgar and Peter Molyneux. The company achieved recognition in 1989 for their release, Populous. At the time of the founding, Edgar and Molyneux were already involved in an enterprise called Taurus Impact Systems. Bullfrogs name was derived from Taurus and Edgars daughters love of frogs, Electronic Arts, Bullfrogs publisher, acquired the studio in January 1995. Molyneux commented, just cannot compete anymore in an environment where people are paying 4 million dollars for a game, amongst other things, EA offered a pooling of interests, so its more of a merger than a straight acquisition. You wont see our products suffer, were actually publishers now, Molyneux had become an Electronic Arts vice-president and consultant in 1994, after EA purchased a significant share of Bullfrog. Molyneuxs last project with Bullfrog was Dungeon Keeper and he left the company in August 1997 to found Lionhead Studios, other members of the studio founded Mucky Foot Productions in 1997. An early 1995 article in GamePro stated that Bullfrogs work has been termed some of the most innovative by industry leaders, the same year, Next Generation similarly asserted that Bullfrog has earned a reputation as one of the most consistently innovative and imaginative development teams in the world. Following a move to Chertsey in 2000, the last titles to bear the logo were published in 2001. Bullfrog Productions was finally incorporated and merged into EA on 31 August 2001 upon the formation of EA UK, Bullfrogs website remained until spring of 2002, at which point the website link took visitors to Electronic Arts Europe instead. Many former Bullfrog employees have remained within the industry since the closure of the company. Peter Molyneux would stay on with Lionhead Studios until the formation of 22Cans in February 2012, Les Edgar later became EAs Vice-President of European Studio, and although he has some involvement with the games industry, is now focused on other ventures. In August 2009, Electronics Arts was considering revising some of Bullfrogs games for modern-day systems, Bullfrog Productions at MobyGames Interview with Glenn Corpes & Les Edgar of Bullfrog Productions,1989
3.
Media Molecule
–
Media Molecule is a British video game developer based in Guildford in Surrey. On 2 March 2010, Sony Computer Entertainment announced that it had acquired Media Molecule, Media Molecule is a development studio based in Guildford, United Kingdom. They are owned by Sony Computer Entertainment, the studio was founded in January 2006 by former Lionhead employees, Alex Evans, Mark Healy, Dave Smith and Kareem Ettouney. The team developed Rag Doll Kung Fu in their spare time whilst still working at Lionhead, Evans describes the companys formation as a combination of the boost from Rag Doll, some new ideas bubbling in his head, and the new wave of consoles around the corner. Renowned for their size, they are a close-knit group of but 25 developers. Evans says that their size is an arbitrary constraint they placed themselves, the company had with partnered with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe after pitching an early LittleBigPlanet forbearer known as Craftworld. This concept led to Sony funding the development of LittleBigPlanet and it was announced on 2 March 2010 that Sony Computer Entertainment had purchased Media Molecule. The studios first game was the PlayStation 3 title LittleBigPlanet, which was announced and demonstrated at the Game Developers Conference 2007. The plan was always to produce a game, but to keep the size of the company as small as possible so as to keep a tight rein on costs. Evans in particular was keen to avoid what he calls the cycle of debt and it was chiefly this concern that led the founders to consider user-generated content. LittleBigPlanet s best selling point became its set of level-creation tools, every time you boot up there are more levels to play, says Evans. Media Molecule won the Studio of the Year award at the Spike Video Game Awards 2008, LittleBigPlanet scored a 95 on Metacritic. The game also won game of the year awards leading to a Game Of The Year Edition a year later. Media Molecule also worked with SCE Studio Cambridge in the development of LittleBigPlanet for the PlayStation Portable which was released in 2009, the PlayStation 3 sequel to LittleBigPlanet, LittleBigPlanet 2, was released in January 2011. As of June 2012, Media Molecule have opened up new job opportunities for work on new intellectual properties. even more ambitious, than LittleBigPlanet, sparking rumours of new games from the company. At the Sony Press Conference at Gamescom 2012, Media Molecule announced Tearaway for PS Vita, at 2013s PlayStation Meeting, the PlayStation 4 was unveiled. At the Sony Press Conference at E32015, this project was revealed to be Dreams. In addition to the games above, Media Molecule is also credited as a contributor or co-developer on numerous other LittleBigPlanet titles
4.
Peter Molyneux
–
Peter Douglas Molyneux, OBE is an English video game designer and programmer. He created the god games Populous, Dungeon Keeper and Black & White as well as Theme Park and his new studio 22Cans currently works on Godus and the brand new hiking resource-gathering game, The Trail-A Frontier. Peter Molyneux began his career in 1982 by distributing and selling floppy disks which contained video games for Atari and he believed that including games on the disks would improve sales, and later concluded that the games were the main selling point. He created The Entrepreneur, a business simulation game about running a fledgling company. In those days you could call a game Space Blob Attacks Mars. I did a business simulation, Molyneux later said, Molyneux published the game himself in 1984 by duplicating hundreds of tapes on two Tandy Corporation recorders. After taking a space in a game magazine, he prepared for the games success, he later stated in an interview. I thought, You know, this box is just not big enough. Its just not going to fit all the envelopes, so I cut – and this is no joke – I cut a bigger letter box. However, the game received two orders, one of which Molyneux speculated was from his mother. Due to the failure, Molyneux retreated from game design. It suddenly dawned on me that this guy didnt know who we were, I suddenly had this crisis of conscience. I thought, If this guy finds out, there go my free computers down the drain, so I just shook his hand and ran out of that office. Using money earned from the program, Molyneux and Les Edgar founded Bullfrog Productions in 1987. The companys first game was a conversion of Druid II, Enlightenment, Molyneux recalled, I got in touch with a software company called Firebird and told them that I could program games. Of course I was bull-shitting, but they gave me Druid 2 to convert to the Amiga, youre very unlikely to get that kind of break today. Molyneux provided the concept for Populous, the first god game for the personal computer. Released in 1989, Populous was a success for Bullfrog
5.
Guildford
–
Guildford /ˈɡɪlfərd/ is a large town in Surrey, England, located 27 miles southwest of central London on the A3 trunk road midway between the capital and Portsmouth. It is the seat of the borough of Guildford, on the building of the Wey Navigation and Basingstoke Canal Guildford was connected to a network of waterways that aided its prosperity. In the 20th century, the University of Surrey and Guildford Cathedral, in Sir Thomas Malorys 1485 fictional series Le Morte dArthur, Guildford is identified with Astolat of Arthurian renown, however only rural Celtic Bronze Age pieces have been found in the town. Continuing the Arthurian connection, there is a public house. Some of the tiles built into Guildford Castle may be Roman, and it is proven by archaeology and contemporary accounts that Guildford was established as a small town by Saxon settlers shortly after Roman authority had been removed from Britain. The settlement was most likely expanded because of the Harrow Way crosses the River Wey by a ford at this point, alfred the Great, the first Anglo-Saxon king of unified England, named the town in his will. Guildford was the location of the Royal Mint from 978 until part-way through the reign of William the Conqueror, Guildford Castle is of Norman design, although there are no documents about its earliest years. Guildford appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Geldeford and Gildeford, the King officially held the 75 hagae in which lived 175 homagers and the town rendered £32. Stoke, a suburb within todays Guildford, appears in the Book as Stoch and was held by William. Its Domesday assets were,1 church,2 mills worth 5s,16 ploughlands with two Lords plough teams and 20 mens plough teams,16 acres of meadow, and woodland worth 40 hogs. Stoke was listed as being in the Kings park, with a rendering of £15, William the Conqueror had the castle built in the classic Norman style, the castle keep still stands. A major purpose of Norman castle building was to overawe the conquered population and it had £26 spent on it in 1173 under the regency of the young Henry II. As the threat of invasion and insurrection declined, the status was demoted to that of a royal hunting lodge, Guildford was, at that time. It was visited on occasions by King John, Eleanor of Aquitaine. In 1611 the castle was granted to Francis Carter whose grandsons initials EC, the surviving parts of the castle were restored in Victorian times and again in 2004, the rest of the grounds became a public garden. In 1995, a chamber was discovered in the High Street, while this remains a matter of contention, it is likely to be the oldest remaining synagogue in Western Europe. Guildford elected two members of the Unreformed House of Commons, from the 14th century to the 18th century the borough corporation prospered with the wool trade. In the 14th century the Guildhall was constructed and still today as a noticeable landmark of Guildford
6.
Black & White (video game)
–
Black & White is a god video game developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows in 2001. The game was published by Feral Interactive in 2002 for Mac OS, Black & White combines elements of artificial life, strategy, and fighting games. The player acts as a god and takes control over villages, the goal is to defeat Nemesis, a god wanting to destroy all others and take over the world. A primary theme is the concept of good and evil, Black & White features a unique element, a creature who acts as the players servant, and whose personality is shaped by its interaction with him. Multiplayer is supported over a network or online. Peter Molyneux led the development of the highly anticipated game. Black & White was written from scratch using a great deal of custom software, and the intention was to have the user interface free of icons, buttons. Versions for games consoles were in development, but cancelled, Black & White received universal acclaim, reviewers praised the artificial intelligence, uniqueness, and depth, although the system requirements and bugs were criticised. The creatures artificial intelligence set a Guinness World Record for its complexity, Black & White won awards from several organisations, including the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and sold over two million copies. Some reviewers re-reviewed the game and considered it over-rated, an expansion, Black & White, Creature Isle, and sequel, Black & White 2, followed. The player takes on the role of a god ruling over an island populated by various tribes, control is manifested in the animated, on-screen Hand, that is used to throw people and objects, tap houses to wake their occupants, cast miracles, and perform other actions. Key items in the story are gold and silver scrolls, gold ones initiate a significant event, and silver ones detail a task to perform and the reward upon completion. The principle behind the title is the conflict between good and evil. Nearly every action counts toward the image as judged by his followers, the player may be seen as a good god. The land, interface, and music according to that alignment. For example, a good gods temple is bright-coloured, and an evil gods is fashioned to look intimidating, the use of either is never required, although a balance of good and evil can be used to stay in the grey area. There are two advisers, one good and the evil, who try to persuade the player to do things their way. The primary goal is the expansion by constructing buildings and breeding villagers
7.
Fable (video game series)
–
Fable is a series of action role-playing video games for Xbox, Microsoft Windows, OS X, Xbox 360 and Xbox One platforms. The series was developed by Lionhead Studios until the studio was closed in 2016, the setting originally resembles medieval Europe, or traditional fantasy settings like that of The Elder Scrolls or The Lord of the Rings. In the first Fable, players assume the role of a boy who is forced into a life of heroism when bandits attack his village. The choices players make in the game affect the perception and reaction to their Hero by the characters of Albion, even so, set quests are the motor of the story development. Fable II takes place 500 years after the events of the first game, the world resembles Europe between the late 1600s and early 1700s, the time of highwaymen and the Enlightenment. Science and more modern ideas have suppressed the religion and magic of old Albion and its towns have developed into cities, weaponry is slowly taking advantage of gunpowder, and social, family and economic life present more possibilities - as well as challenges. The sequel basically expands most or all parts of the experience from the previous game. The continent of Albion is larger as a world, but contains fewer locations. In contrast to Fable, the solving of set quests is not the basis of the story, rather and this gives the game a sense of more interactivity than the first title in the series. In Fable III the setting is 50 years after that of Fable II, the historical development is further advanced since the last version, Albion is experiencing an industrial revolution and society resembles that of the early 1800s. In all of the versions, the development is at the core of the gameplay. As a role-playing game, the Fable series constructs the development of a protagonist controlled by the player, and the development is related to the same characters interaction with the game world. A major part of this interaction is for the Fable series related to interaction with people, be it conversation, story-telling, education, trading, gaming, courting and relationships, or fighting. The player is able to develop the protagonist following several parameters, such as magic, strength, the player may also direct the moral quality of the protagonist, so that skills may be developed in equal terms and conditions both in the negative and positive field. In addition to this basis of the gameplay, some of the focus on set quest that together give the protagonist the opportunity to develop. Fable II and III also include cooperative gameplay, where two players with their own character can join forces in their different tasks, the first game, Fable, was released for Xbox on 14 September 2004. An extended version, Fable, The Lost Chapters, was released for Windows and Xbox in September 2005, the first sequel of the series, Fable II, was released for Xbox 360 on 24 October 2008. A third game, Fable III, was released for Xbox 360 on 29 October 2010, and this game also featured a tie-in phone game called Fable Coin Golf
8.
The Movies
–
The Movies is a business simulation game created by Lionhead Studios for Microsoft Windows and subsequently ported to Mac OS X by Feral Interactive. It was released on 8 November 2005 in North America, and 11 November 2005 in Europe after reaching gold status on 8 October 2005, the game allows players to take the role of a Hollywood film mogul, running a studio and creating films. Much has been made about the aspect of the game. It won Best Simulation Game at the BAFTA Video Games Awards and was nominated for best game at the Game Developers Choice Awards, on 6 June 2006, an expansion pack was released, The Movies, Stunts & Effects. This expansion added a host of new features, among which were stunts and this game is also available on the Mac. The Mac port of the game was published by Feral Interactive, in The Movies, players get the chance to run their own movie studio. The game can be divided into three main areas – designing the studio, forging the careers of film stars and making films. It is possible to focus on any of those areas that appeal most, the game plays through from the birth of cinema to the present day and into the near future, with all the technology and historical advances that occur along that timeline. After the movies have made, they can be played back for the viewer to watch. It is possible once the movie is made to add voice, text, the two most important types of staff in the game are actors and directors, referred to as stars in the game. In order to keep stars in a mood, the player will need to give them a salary the stars deem satisfactory, an image the stars deem decent, a trailer of good quality. Stars can also get stressed or bored, depending on how many movies the player puts them in, each star has different thresholds regarding when they will get stressed or bored. If stars get stressed, they resort to alcoholism or over-eating. Actors play a big role in The Movies, an actors age and physique affects the quality of movies. Scary-looking actors are suited for horror roles, younger, more handsome looking actors are more suited for romance movie roles. 30-year-old actors are suited for roles, and older actors are suited for comedy roles. All actors and directors will retire at age 70, however, depending on a Stars experience in the movies genre, the movies quality will go up if they have an adequate level of experience, or down if they dont have enough experience. All films require crew members to carry out the filming process, early films just require a camera operator and a clapperboard operator, but more advanced films require boom mike operators, lighting controllers and other specialised crew members
9.
Microsoft Studios
–
They were established in 2002 as Microsoft Game Studios to coincide with the already released Xbox, before being re-branded in 2011. The subsidiary had also known as Microsoft Game Division and simply Microsoft Games before 2002. Microsoft Studios develops and publishes games in conjunction with first and third party development studios under their publishing label, in 2007, Microsoft Studios announced the opening of a European office in Reading, England, headed by general manager Phil Spencer. It disbanded FASA Studio, best known for their work on the MechWarrior series, former Halo developer Bungie announced that they would split from Microsoft Studios in order to become a privately held independent company. In 2008, Microsoft Studios disbanded casual games studio Carbonated Games and it also began to recruit for 343 Industries to take over development of the Halo franchise after the former developer, Bungie, regained independent status. 343 Industries was first officially revealed as steward of the Halo series in mid-2009 with the announcement of the animated project, in 2009, Microsoft Studios disbanded both Ensemble Studios and Aces Studio due to the effects of the late-2000s financial crisis and the restructuring of their game development studios. Phil Spencer was promoted to Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Studios in order to replace the retiring Shane Kim, in 2010, Microsoft Studios forms a Mobile Gaming studio focused on developing gaming and entertainment multimedia for Windows Phone. It also expanded Rare Ltd. to a second additional 90+ person in Digbeth, formed new internal studios named Microsoft Game Studios - Vancouver and Microsoft Flight Development Team, to bring Microsoft Flight to PC. In October 2010, Don Mattrick is promoted to President of the Interactive Entertainment Business, in 2011, Microsoft Studios opened new development studios in Soho London, Redmond, Washington and Victoria, British Columbia. In 2012, Phil Harrison, the former Sony worldwide studios head, joins Microsoft as head of Microsoft Studios Europe, Microsoft Studios recruited for new development studios in Redmond, including Playful Learning and The Connected Experiences. Microsoft Studios acquired developer Press Play, known for developing Tentacles and they aimed to create Microsoft Studios next big IP to rival their most successful series, Halo. Microsoft also recruited for a new development studio in Los Angeles, in 2013, Microsoft established a new European studio Lift London, a studio that would create digital cloud games for tablets, mobiles and TVs and officially reveals the Xbox One on May 21,2013. Later, Microsoft recruited for EMEA Publishing to manage relations with third party developers making Microsoft Published games in EMEA regions, Microsoft Studios announced that they would publish fifteen Xbox One exclusives within 12 months of launch,8 of which would be new franchises. On December 6, Microsoft decided to close the Victoria Studio with explanation to focus on Vancouver based studio, however Victoria didnt develop any games. On January 11,2014, Microsoft Studios announced they had signed multi-year, multi-title publishing contract with Undead Labs, on January 27, it acquired the rights to the Gears of War franchise and announced that the series will continue under Black Tusk Studios. On February 13, Jason Holtman left Microsoft Studios just 6 months after he joined the company, and Phil Spencer was appointed as the new head and boss of Microsoft Studios. On April 5, Phil Spencer announced that a couple of internal development studios that had not been publicly revealed are currently working on exclusive titles for the Xbox One platform. On May 31, it was revealed that Microsoft has acquired the rights of Rise of IP, on July 17, the head of Microsoft Studios, Phil Spencer, confirmed that Xbox Entertainment Studios would close in the coming months
10.
Artificial life
–
The discipline was named by Christopher Langton, an American theoretical biologist, in 1986. There are three kinds of alife, named for their approaches, soft, from software, hard, from hardware. Artificial life researchers study traditional biology by trying to recreate aspects of biological phenomena, artificial life studies the fundamental processes of living systems in artificial environments in order to gain a deeper understanding of the complex information processing that define such systems. The modeling philosophy of life strongly differs from traditional modeling by studying not only life-as-we-know-it. A traditional model of a system will focus on capturing its most important parameters. In contrast, a modeling approach will generally seek to decipher the most simple and general principles underlying life. The simulation then offers the possibility to analyse new and different lifelike systems, vladimir Georgievich Redko proposed to generalize this distinction to the modeling of any process, leading to the more general distinction of processes-as-we-know-them and processes-as-they-could-be. However, different opinions about artificial lifes potential have arisen, The strong alife position states that life is a process which can be abstracted away from any particular medium, notably, Tom Ray declared that his program Tierra is not simulating life in a computer but synthesizing it. The weak alife position denies the possibility of generating a living process outside of a chemical solution and its researchers try instead to simulate life processes to understand the underlying mechanics of biological phenomena. Cellular automata were used in the days of artificial life. Alife and cellular automata share a closely tied history, neural networks are sometimes used to model the brain of an agent. Although traditionally more of an artificial intelligence technique, neural nets can be important for simulating population dynamics of organisms that can learn. The symbiosis between learning and evolution is central to theories about the development of instincts in organisms with higher neurological complexity, as in, for instance and this is a list of artificial life/digital organism simulators, organized by the method of creature definition. Program-based simulations contain organisms with a complex DNA language, usually Turing complete and this language is more often in the form of a computer program than actual biological DNA. Assembly derivatives are the most common languages used, an organism lives when its code is executed, and there are usually various methods allowing self-replication. Mutations are generally implemented as random changes to the code, use of cellular automata is common but not required. Another example could be an intelligence and multi-agent system/program. Individual modules are added to a creature and these modules modify the creatures behaviors and characteristics either directly, by hard coding into the simulation, or indirectly, through the emergent interactions between a creatures modules
11.
Strategy game
–
A strategy game or strategic game is a game in which the players uncoerced, and often autonomous decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome. Almost all strategy games require internal decision tree style thinking, the term strategy comes ultimately from Greek, meaning generalship. It differs from tactics in that it refers to the scheme of things. In abstract strategy games, the game is loosely tied to a thematic concept. The rules do not attempt to simulate reality, but rather serve the internal logic of the game, a purists definition of an abstract strategy game requires that it cannot have random elements or hidden information. This definition includes such games as chess, Go and Arimaa, a smaller category of non-perfect abstract strategy games incorporate hidden information without using any random elements, for example, Stratego. One of the most focused team strategy games is contract bridge and this card game consists of two teams of two players, whose offensive and defensive skills are continually in flux as the games dynamic progresses. Some argue that the benefits of playing this team strategy card game extend to those skills and strategies used in business, eurogames, or German-style boardgames, are a relatively new genre that sit between abstract strategy games and simulation games. They generally have simple rules, short to medium playing times, indirect player interaction, the games emphasize strategy, play down chance and conflict, lean towards economic rather than military themes, and usually keep all the players in the game until it ends. This type of game is an attempt to simulate the decisions, most of the rules are chosen to reflect what the real-world consequences would be of each player action and decision. Abstract games cannot be divided from simulations and so games can be thought of as existing on a continuum of almost pure abstraction to almost pure simulation. Wargames are simulations of military battles, campaigns or entire wars, players will have to consider situations that are analogous to the situations faced by leaders of historical battles. As such, war games are usually heavy on simulation elements, popular miniature wargames include Warhammer 40,000 or its fantasy counterpart Warhammer Fantasy. Popular strategic board wargames include Risk, Axis and Allies, Diplomacy, advanced Squad Leader is a successful tactical scale wargame. Strategy video games are categorized based on whether they offer the continuous gameplay of real-time strategy, Game of chance Game of skill Mind sport
12.
Electronic Arts
–
Electronic Arts Inc. is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Currently, EA develops and publishes games under several labels including EA Sports titles FIFA, Madden NFL, NHL, NCAA Football, NBA Live, and SSX. EA also owns and operates major gaming studios, EA Tiburon in Orlando, EA Canada in Burnaby, BioWare in Edmonton as well as Montreal, the company began developing games in-house and supported consoles by the early 1990s. EA later grew via acquisition of several successful developers, by the early 2000s, EA had become one of the worlds largest third-party publishers. In a note to employees, EA CEO John Riccitiello called this an important milestone for the company. EA began to move toward direct distribution of games and services with the acquisition of the popular online gaming site Pogo. com in 2001. In 2009, EA acquired the London-based social gaming startup Playfish, and in June 2011, EA launched Origin, there is also a On The House feature in Origin that lets you download full versions of EA games for free, it is updated regularly. In July 2011, EA announced that it had acquired PopCap Games, in February 1982, Trip Hawkins arranged a meeting with Don Valentine of Sequoia Capital to discuss financing his new venture, Amazin Software. Valentine encouraged Hawkins to leave Apple Inc. in which Hawkins served as Director of Product Marketing, on May 28,1982, Trip Hawkins incorporated and established the company with a personal investment of an estimated US$200,000. The company was not named Amazin Software, but instead Electronic Arts, seven months later in December 1982, Hawkins secured US$2 million of venture capital from Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Sevin Rosen Funds. For more than seven months, Hawkins refined his Electronic Arts business plan, with aid from his first employee, Rich Melmon, the original plan was written, mostly by Hawkins, on an Apple II in Sequoia Capitals office in August 1982. The business plan was refined in September and reissued on October 8,1982. By November, employee headcount rose to 11, including Tim Mott, Bing Gordon, David Maynard, having outgrown the office space provided by Sequoia Capital, the company relocated to a San Mateo office that overlooked the San Francisco Airport landing path. Headcount rose rapidly in 1983, including Don Daglow, Richard Hilleman, Stewart Bonn, David Gardner and he recruited his original employees from Apple, Atari, Xerox PARC, and VisiCorp, and got Steve Wozniak to agree to sit on the board of directors. Hawkins was determined to sell directly to buyers, combined with the fact that Hawkins was pioneering new game brands, this made sales growth more challenging. Retailers wanted to buy known brands from existing distribution partners, after more flyers were handed out, former CEO Larry Probst arrived as VP of Sales in late 1984 and helped the company sustain growth into US$18 million in its third full year. This policy of dealing directly with retailers gave EA higher margins and better market awareness, in December 1986, David Gardner and Mark Lewkaspais moved to the UK to open a European headquarters. Up until that point publishing of Electronic Arts Games, and the conversion of many of their games to compact cassette versions in Europe was handled by Ariolasoft
13.
Hamster
–
Hamsters are rodents belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae. The subfamily contains about 25 species, classified in six or seven genera and they have become established as popular small house pets, and partly because they are easy to breed in captivity, hamsters are often used as laboratory animals. In the wild, hamsters are crepuscular and remain underground during the day to avoid being caught by predators and they feed primarily on seeds, fruits, and vegetation, and will occasionally eat burrowing insects. They have elongated cheek pouches extending to their shoulders in which they carry back to their burrows. The entire laboratory and pet populations of Syrian hamsters appear to be descendants of a single brother–sister pairing and these littermates were captured and imported in 1930 from Aleppo in Syria by Israel Aharoni, a zoologist of the University of Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, the hamsters bred very successfully, years later, animals of this original breeding colony were exported to the USA, where Syrian hamsters became one of the most popular pets and laboratory animals. Comparative studies of domestic and wild Syrian hamsters have shown reduced genetic variability in the domestic strain, in several instances, he used the hamster to document the equal rights of all beings, including Homo sapiens. The name hamster is a loanword from the German, which derives from earlier Middle High German hamastra. It is possibly related to Old Church Slavonic khomestoru, which is either a blend of the root of Russian хомяк hamster, Hamsters are typically stout-bodied, with tails shorter than body length, and have small, furry ears, short, stocky legs, and wide feet. They have thick, silky fur, which can be long or short, colored black, grey, honey, white, brown, yellow, red, or a mix, depending on the species. The species of genus Phodopus are the smallest, with bodies 5.5 to 10.5 cm long, the largest is the European hamster, measuring up to 34 cm long, not including a short tail of up to 6 cm. The Angora hamster, also known as the long-haired or teddy bear hamster, the hamster tail can be difficult to see, as it is usually not very long, with the exception of the Chinese hamster, which has a tail the same length as the body. Hamsters are very flexible, but their bones are somewhat fragile and they are extremely susceptible to rapid temperature changes and drafts, as well as extreme heat or cold. Hamsters have poor eyesight, they are nearsighted and colorblind, Hamsters have scent glands on their flanks which they rub against the substrate, leaving a scent trail. Hamsters also use their sense of smell to distinguish between the sexes, and to locate food and they are also particularly sensitive to high-pitched noises and can hear and communicate in the ultrasonic range. Although pet hamsters can survive on a diet of exclusively commercial hamster food, other items, such as vegetables, fruits, seeds, Hamsters in the Middle East have been known to hunt in packs to find insects for food. Hamsters are hindgut fermenters and eat their own feces to recover nutrients digested in the hindgut, a behavioral characteristic of hamsters is food hoarding. They carry food in their spacious cheek pouches to their underground storage chambers, when full, the cheeks can make their heads double, or even triple in size
14.
Black & White: Creature Isle
–
Black & White, Creature Isle is an expansion pack for the PC game Black & White by Lionhead Studios. It was released for Windows in January 2002 and for Mac OS X in December 2002 and this expansion pack focuses on the creature and there are no levels as there were in the original game. The new creatures are Crocodile, Chicken, and Rhinoceros, Tyke is given to the player early in the game. Tyke will learn from the players creature and it will treat it as a father. It will ask for food, attention, and playtime, the player can put Tyke into a daycare, relieving the creature of his fatherly duties. But if it is kept in there too long, the advisers will complain, during the trial which the player raises Tyke, they are encouraged to teach it. The advisers will tell the player when they are ignoring Tyke, Tyke can learn miracles also, which adds more impressiveness. It will also learn and try to mimic what the creature does and it will try to have a similar personality, too. After beating the game, Tyke will turn into an AI around the isle, so if the player beats the game as the chimp, the new Tyke will become a chimp. Players can also have an identical model creature, but different ones, the new Tyke will know all the spells and lesson of the old tyke. Many players dislike Tyke because of its tendency to distract the creature, Tykes learning system is also the same as your creatures. It will learn spells if theyre cast and it will watch your creatures actions instead of yours. The creature also praises and scolds Tyke for things he dislikes, so if a player has taught the creature not to eat villagers, and tyke does so, the creature will scold it. Tyke can also be used with multiplayer and skirmish, though some players make rules against Tykes being enabled, Tyke can also interact with the creature during fights, serving as a battle aid. Some players have the problem with the old tyke after they beat the game and it tends to harass the villages. Some players can remove them with scripting the levels, which is dangerous, but tyke has the tendency to be knocked out for a long time. Players should also note that Tyke can suffer neglect, if left in daycare, ignored, or even hurt by your creature, they may become more hateful. Tyke may not turn out how the player wants them to and they may soon ignore you, or possibly defy your creatures teachings
15.
Big Blue Box
–
Lionhead Studios Ltd. was a British video game developer, formerly led by Peter Molyneux. It was acquired by Microsoft Studios in April 2006, Lionhead started as a breakaway from developer Bullfrog Productions, which was also founded by Molyneux. Lionheads first game was Black & White, a god game elements of artificial life. Black & White was published by Electronic Arts in 2001, Lionhead Studios is named after Mark Webleys hamster, which died not long after the naming of the studio. Black and White was followed up with the release of an expansion pack named Black & White, Lionhead then released the popular Fable, from satellite developer Big Blue Box. In 2005, Lionhead released The Movies and Black & White 2, on 6 April 2006, it was announced that Lionhead Studios was to be purchased by Microsoft. Their most recent game to be released is the HD remake of Fable, Fable Anniversary, Milo and Kate was being developed for Kinect, though speculation arose concerning whether it was actually a game or a tech demo. On 7 March 2016, Microsoft announced that it had proposed closing Lionhead Studios, on 29 April 2016, Lionhead Studios officially closed down. Peter Molyneux founded Bullfrog Productions in 1987, which was acquired by Electronic Arts in 1995. Around 1996, Molyneux had contemplated leaving Bullfrog, as he felt limited in his freedom under EA. This new studio was going to be called Red Eye, inspired by the amount of traveling that Molyneux. However, the name was in use by other companies. Webley suggested the name of his pet hamster, Lionhead, which they took, in 1997, due to a series of events and from issues arising between Molyneux and EA, he ultimately left the company in August 1997, co-founding Lionhead shortly after that. The studio was run out of Molyneuxs mansion in Elstead. Their first title was Black & White, which was published by EA under terms of Molyneuxs severance package from departing Bullfrog, for a period of three years, Lionhead established satellite companies, including Big Blue Box Studios, Intrepid Games and Black & White Studios. Lionhead proper was working on three games, Fable, B&W2 and The Movies, between September 2005 and April 2006, Lionhead successfully released two titles, Black & White 2 and The Movies, as well as an updated version of Fable. These titles did not achieve an impact in sales. In April 2006 Lionhead Studios was acquired by Microsoft, signalling the end of independent development, Lionhead remained a fairly independent part of Microsoft Studios, which has also acquired Rare Ltd. and Bungie Studios
16.
Black & White 2
–
Black & White 2 is a video game developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Electronic Arts. It blends real-time strategy, city building and god game elements and it was released in October 2005. A Mac OS X port was released in January 2009, and it is the sequel to 2001s Black & White, also the brainchild of Peter Molyneux. The lead designers are Peter Molyneux and Ron Millar, who worked at Blizzard Entertainment on titles such as StarCraft and Warcraft II. In the game, the player takes the role of a god called from the void to help those who invoked them. However, the player is not an omnipotent style god, but rather a god who rises and falls with his believers and the player must help develop their nature according to their good or evil desires. The player also has a creature, their representation in the world. Its physical manifestation can grow to a size, and adopt a good or evil persona separate of the players. They develop their character as the player rewards or punishes their actions, Black & White 2 also features a more conventional HUD system than its predecessor. The only way the player can interact with this world directly is through the hand, with which the player can pick up people, trees, food. The player can also cast miracles, however, a certain amount of Prayer Power from the players believers is needed to do this. One of the games most innovative features is that its interface is almost button-less. To do things such as cast miracles, the moves the hand in such a way to make a symbol on the ground. This activates the miracle, and if the player has enough mana, miracles have a variety of different uses. There are six ordinary miracles, fire, lightning, water, shield, heal, and meteor, and four epic wonders, which are siren, hurricane, earthquake, and volcano. There are three paths to take in this game, Good, Evil, or a more neutral combination of the two, although this decision is not discrete. Both of these require ore and wood, of which there is an amount, making players choose a strategy —. The game features Egypt, Norse, Aztec, Japanese, the players tribe is the Greeks
17.
Microsoft
–
Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, Microsoft Office office suite, and Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface tablet lineup, as of 2016, it was the worlds largest software maker by revenue, and one of the worlds most valuable companies. Microsoft was founded by Paul Allen and Bill Gates on April 4,1975, to develop and it rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by Microsoft Windows. The companys 1986 initial public offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions. In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion, in June 2012, Microsoft entered the personal computer production market for the first time, with the launch of the Microsoft Surface, a line of tablet computers. The word Microsoft is a portmanteau of microcomputer and software, Paul Allen and Bill Gates, childhood friends with a passion for computer programming, sought to make a successful business utilizing their shared skills. In 1972 they founded their first company, named Traf-O-Data, which offered a computer that tracked and analyzed automobile traffic data. Allen went on to pursue a degree in science at Washington State University. The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systemss Altair 8800 microcomputer, Allen suggested that they could program a BASIC interpreter for the device, after a call from Gates claiming to have a working interpreter, MITS requested a demonstration. Since they didnt actually have one, Allen worked on a simulator for the Altair while Gates developed the interpreter and they officially established Microsoft on April 4,1975, with Gates as the CEO. Allen came up with the name of Micro-Soft, as recounted in a 1995 Fortune magazine article. In August 1977 the company formed an agreement with ASCII Magazine in Japan, resulting in its first international office, the company moved to a new home in Bellevue, Washington in January 1979. Microsoft entered the OS business in 1980 with its own version of Unix, however, it was MS-DOS that solidified the companys dominance. For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, branding it as MS-DOS, following the release of the IBM PC in August 1981, Microsoft retained ownership of MS-DOS. Since IBM copyrighted the IBM PC BIOS, other companies had to engineer it in order for non-IBM hardware to run as IBM PC compatibles. Due to various factors, such as MS-DOSs available software selection, the company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well as with a publishing division named Microsoft Press. Paul Allen resigned from Microsoft in 1983 after developing Hodgkins disease, while jointly developing a new OS with IBM in 1984, OS/2, Microsoft released Microsoft Windows, a graphical extension for MS-DOS, on November 20,1985. Once Microsoft informed IBM of NT, the OS/2 partnership deteriorated, in 1990, Microsoft introduced its office suite, Microsoft Office
18.
Fable Legends
–
Fable Legends is a cancelled cooperative action role-playing video game developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Microsoft Studios for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One. Microsoft announced the cancellation of the game on 7 March 2016, the servers officially shut down on 13 April 2016. The game was based around four Heroes and a Villain, each role may be filled by a player via online multiplayer or by an AI. The same game experience was possible regardless of multiplayer or single player, all of the games story and quests could have been played single player, using AI heroes as sidekicks or enemies. It was possible to play through the content as either a Hero or as a Villain. During each quest, the four Hero characters must use teamwork to succeed in their objectives, each Hero in Fable Legends was to be a unique character with unique abilities, powers, and gameplay. Players can customise any Hero, ranging from colour and aces to outfits, customisations would have been unlocked either with earned in-game silver, or by purchasing them with real life money. Some cosmetic items may have only been purchasable, a limited amount of heroes would have been available for free at a given time, after which a new set of heroes would take their place for everybody to play for a period of time. Heroes could have also purchased for permanent access by earned in-game currency or by real-life currency. The Villain has an amount of creature points, which he uses during a setup phase to plan his strategy. Each creature costs a number of points to summon. During setup, the Villain can also place a number of interactive objects in the quest, such as traps. Once the battle has begun, the Villain player focuses on ordering his creatures about in time in a similar manner to an RTS game. He can order the creatures to attack a specific Hero, to special abilities. During combat, he can also activate gates to damage and split up the Heroes, like other games in the series, Fable Legends would allow players to interact with villagers and customize their characters with weapons, looks, armour, abilities and more. In the hub-city of Brightlodge, players would have had the opportunity to partake in jobs, play mini-games, once the player selects a quest, they would be sent out into the world. Since the game has multiplayer capabilities, players would have been require an active Xbox Live subscription to play on Xbox One, on Windows 10, it was set to have a free-to-play model. Gameplay would have been in sync across platforms, players couldve played on Windows 10 and continue their progress on Xbox One and vice versa
19.
Games Workshop
–
Games Workshop Group PLC is a British miniature wargaming manufacturing company. Games Workshop is best known as developer and publisher of the tabletop wargames Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Warhammer 40,000, the company is listed on the London Stock Exchange with the symbol GAW. L. The companys British operating subsidiary company is Games Workshop Limited, in order to promote their business and postal games, create a games club, and provide an alternative source for games news, the newsletter Owl and Weasel was founded in February 1975. This was superseded in June 1977 by White Dwarf and it opened its first retail shop in April 1978. In early 1979 Games Workshop provided the funding to found Citadel Miniatures in Newark-on-Trent, Citadel would produce the metal miniatures used in its role-playing games and tabletop wargames. For a time Gary Gygax promoted the idea of TSR, Inc. merging with Games Workshop, until Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone backed out. The companys publishing arm also released U. K. reprints of American RPGs such as Call of Cthulhu, Runequest, Traveller, and Middle-earth Role Playing, which were expensive to import. In 1984 Games Workshop ceased distributing its products in the U. S. A. through hobby games distributors, Games Workshop, and Games Workshop in general, grew significantly in the late 1980s, with over 250 employees on the payroll by 1990. Following a management buyout by Bryan Ansell in December 1991, Games Workshop refocused on their miniature wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000, the retail chain refocused on a younger, more family-oriented market. The change of direction was a success and the company enjoyed growing profits. A breakaway group of two company employees published Fantasy Warlord in competition with Games Workshop, but the new company met with little success, Games Workshop expanded in Europe, the U. S. A. Canada, and Australia, opening new branches and organizing events in new commercial territory. The company was floated on the London Stock Exchange in October 1994, in October 1997 all U. K. -based operations were relocated to the current headquarters in Lenton, Nottingham. Games Workshop later attempted to create a dual approach to appeal to customers while still attracting a younger audience. Previously, most of their characters and vehicles were cast in white metal or pewter. With this shift, Games Workshop has been able to offer variety in the armies offered with introductory box sets. This change brought about the creation of such as the Fanatic range. The Fanatic line was mostly dropped, leaving Games Workshop to concentrate more on younger users
20.
Fighting Fantasy
–
Fighting Fantasy is a series of single-player role-playing gamebooks created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. The first volume in the series was published by Puffin in 1982, the majority of the titles followed a fantasy theme, although science fiction, post-apocalyptic, superhero, and modern horror gamebooks were also published. The popularity of the led to the creation of merchandise such as action figures, board games, role-playing game systems, magazines, novels. The text of a Fighting Fantasy gamebook never progresses in a linear fashion, the story continues in this fashion, the player continuing to pick other numbered sections, until their character is stopped by the story or killed in combat, or completes the quest. Some titles use additional statistics or conflict resolution mechanics, a typical Fighting Fantasy gamebook tasks players with completing a quest, with players then making choices in an attempt to successfully finish the adventure. A successful play usually ends with the reaching the final numbered section of the book. In some cases this can only be achieved by obtaining various story items, there were 59 books in the original series, beginning with The Warlock of Firetop Mountain and concluding with Curse of the Mummy. Jackson also wrote a self-contained four-part series titled Sorcery, Andrew Chapman and Martin Allen also wrote a two-book, two-player adventure titled Clash of the Princes. There were also several supplemental books produced that provided information about the Fighting Fantasy universe, including a comprehensive bestiary of monsters. Wizard Books acquired the rights to the Fighting Fantasy series in 2002, the majority of the Fighting Fantasy titles are set in the fictional medieval world of Titan, which consists of three giant continents. Other titles are set in fantasy, horror, modern day, regular contributors included Les Edwards, Terry Oakes, Russ Nicholson, Leo Hartas, Ian Miller, John Blanche, Martin McKenna, and Iain McCaig. In 1980, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone attended a Games Day and their first submission, The Magic Quest, was a short adventure intended to demonstrate the style of game. The Magic Quest was eventually accepted by Penguin Books, although the authors devoted a further six months to expanding and improving upon their original concept. The end result was The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, and after several rewrites, following the success of this title, Jackson and Livingstone began writing individually to create additional Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. In 1983, The Citadel of Chaos and The Forest of Doom were published, by Jackson, four more titles followed, Starship Traveller, City of Thieves, Deathtrap Dungeon and Island of the Lizard King. In 1984, a decision was made to more writers to continue the series, Steve Jackson, Andrew Chapman, Carl Sargent, Marc Gascoigne. Jackson and Livingstone, however, continued to be involved and approved all cover, covers were rarely consistent and due to printing errors and different markets many different versions exist. The Fighting Fantasy gamebooks published in the US by Dell/Laurel Leaf featured a new cover design, Jackson wrote a self-contained four-part series titled Sorcery
21.
Mucky Foot Productions
–
Mucky Foot Productions was a UK computer game development company, which existed from 1997 to 2003. A worldwide publishing deal with the UK publisher Eidos was announced in October 1997 and that announcement was also used to announce Muckyfoots first game Urban Chaos. At this point the game was referred to by its work in progress name of Dark City. Over their lifetime Mucky Foot went on to three titles, Urban Chaos, Startopia, and Blade II. Despite high initial expectations, the company closed its doors in late 2003 and this company closure saw three further games cease development while still only part produced, Bulletproof Monk, The Punisher, and Urban Chaos 2. After the company closed, their website remained active. However, its content at closure was replaced with the developers internal quote sheet, Mucky Foot game list at GameSpot
22.
Alex Evans (video game developer)
–
Alex Evans is a UK-based video games developer. Evans previously worked at Guildford-based Lionhead Studios and developed the video game Rag Doll Kung Fu independently and he is the co-founder of Media Molecule, a video games studio based in Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom. The studios first project was a cooperative platformer for the PlayStation 3 entitled LittleBigPlanet, Evans contributed to LittleBigPlanet by creating a games engine for it. Evans has also been the figurehead for advertising the game to reviewers, for example, at E32008, Evans helped Sony showcase their quarterly sales via a specially created LittleBigPlanet level. Ever since appearing and discussing LittleBigPlanet for the first time at the game developers conference 2007, Evans was active in the Demoscene during the 1990s and was known by the handle Statix. org Awards. Bluespoon – Alex Evans personal site Media Molecule Alex Evans at MobyGames
23.
Edge (magazine)
–
Edge is a multi-format video game magazine published by Future plc in the United Kingdom, which publishes 13 issues of the magazine per year. It is known for its contacts, editorial stance, distinctive anonymous third-person writing style, yearly awards. The magazine was launched in October 1993 by Steve Jarratt, a video games journalist who has launched several other magazines for Future. The artwork for the cover of the magazines 100th issue was provided by Shigeru Miyamoto. The 200th issue was released in March 2009 with 200 different covers, each commemorating a single game,199 variants were in general circulation, only 200 magazines were printed with each cover, sufficient to more than satisfy Edges circulation of 28,898. In October 2003, the then-editor of Edge, João Diniz-Sanches, left the magazine along with deputy editor David McCarthy, after the walkout, the editorship of Edge passed back to Tony Mott, who had been editor prior to Diniz-Sanches. The only team member to remain was Margaret Robertson, who in 2006 replaced Mott as editor, in May 2007, Robertson stepped down as editor and was replaced by Tony Mott, taking over as editor for the third time. Between 1995 and 2002, some of the content from the UK edition of Edge was published in the United States as Next Generation, in July 2008, the whole site was rebranded under the Edge title, as that was the senior of the two brands. Edge has been redesigned three times since the magazine launched, the first redesign occurred in 1999, the second in 2004, and the third in 2011. The first redesign altered the dimensions to be wider than the original shape. The latest design changes the physical dimensions for the second time. Each issue includes a Making-of article on a game, usually including an interview with one of the original developers. Issue 143 introduced the Time Extend series of retrospective articles, like the making-of series, each focuses on a single game and, with the benefit of hindsight, gives an in-depth examination of its most interesting or innovative attributes. Since 2014, some contributed features are credited with a byline, the magazines regular columnists have been consistently credited throughout the magazines run. The current columnists are James Leach, Clint Hocking and Tadhg Kelly, in addition, several columnists appear toward the beginning of the magazine to talk about the game industry as a whole, rather than focusing on specific game design topics. They are Trigger Happy author Steven Poole, Leigh Alexander, and Brian Howe, previous columnists have included Paul Rose, Toshihiro Nagoshi of Segas Amusement Vision, author Tim Guest, NGai Croal, and game developer Jeff Minter. In addition, numerous columns were published anonymously under the pseudonym RedEye, James Hutchinsons comic strip Crashlander was featured in Edge between issues 143 and 193. Edge scores games on a ten-point scale, from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 10, and so on, a tongue-in-cheek reference to people who read too much into review scores
24.
Sega
–
Nonetheless, Sega remains the worlds most prolific arcade producer, with over 500 games in over 70 franchises on more than 20 different arcade system boards since 1981. Sega, along with their sub-studios, are known for their multi-million selling game franchises, such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Virtua Fighter, Phantasy Star, Yakuza, Segas head offices are located in Tokyo. Segas North American division, Sega of America, is headquartered in Irvine, California, Segas European division, Sega Europe, is headquartered in London. After the war, the founders sold that company and established a new distributor called Service Games and this company provided coin-operated slot machines to U. S. bases in Japan and changed its name again to Service Games of Japan by 1953. David Rosen, an American officer in the United States Air Force stationed in Japan and this company eventually became Rosen Enterprises, and in 1957, began importing coin-operated games to Japan. On May 31,1960, Service Games Japan was closed, Three days later, two new companies were established to take over its business activities, Nihon Goraku Bussan and Nihon Kikai Seizo. By 1965, Rosen Enterprises grew to a chain of over 200 arcades, Rosen then orchestrated a merger between Rosen Enterprises and Nihon Goraku Bussan, becoming chief executive of the new company, Sega Enterprises, which derived its name from Service Games. Within a year, Sega began the transition from importer to manufacturer, with the release of the submarine simulator game, the game sported light and sound effects considered innovative for that time, eventually becoming quite successful in Japan. It was soon exported to both Europe and the United States, becoming the first arcade game in the US to cost 25 cents per play, in 1969, Rosen sold Sega to American conglomerate Gulf and Western Industries, although he remained as CEO following the sale. Under Rosens leadership, Sega continued to grow and prosper, and in 1974, Gulf and Western made Sega Enterprises, a subsidiary of an American company renamed Sega Enterprises, Inc. allowing them to take the companys stock public. Sega prospered heavily from the gaming boom of the late 1970s. In 1982, Segas revenues surpassed $214 million and that year they introduced the first game with isometric graphics, Zaxxon, the industrys first stereoscopic 3D game, SubRoc 3D, and the first laserdisc video game, Astron Belt. Astron Belt wasnt released in the U. S. until 1983, other notable games from Sega during this period are Head On, Monaco GP, Carnival, Turbo, Space Fury, Astro Blaster, and Pengo. In 1983-4, Sega published Atari 2600 versions of some of its arcade games, Carnival, Space Fury, Turbo, and Zaxxon were licensed to Coleco as launch titles for the ColecoVision console in 1982. Some of these and other titles were licensed to different companies for 8-bit computer versions, the Atari 8-bit computer port of Zaxxon is from Datasoft, for example, while the Commodore 64 port is from Synapse. An overabundance of games in 1983 led to the game crash. Seeking an alternate source of revenue from the arcade market, Sega designed and released its first home video game console. G&W sold the U. S. assets of Sega Enterprises that same year to pinball manufacturer Bally Manufacturing, nakayama became the new CEO of Sega, Robert Deith chairman of the board, and Rosen became head of its subsidiary in the United States
25.
Nintendo
–
Nintendo Co. Ltd. is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics and video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. Nintendo is one of the worlds largest video game companies by market capitalization, founded on 23 September 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small businesses, such as cab services. The word Nintendo can be translated from Japanese to English as leave luck to heaven. From 1992 until 2016, Nintendo was also the majority shareholder of Major League Baseballs Seattle Mariners, as of 31 March 2014, Nintendo has cumulative sales of over 670.43 million hardware units and 4.23 billion software units. The company has created and released some of the best-known and top-selling video game franchises, such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo was founded as a card company in late 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi. Based in Kyoto, Japan, the produced and marketed a playing card game called Hanafuda. The handmade cards soon became popular, and Yamauchi hired assistants to mass-produce cards to satisfy demand, in 1949, the company adopted the name Nintendo Karuta Co. Ltd. doing business as The Nintendo Playing Card Co. outside Japan. Nintendo continues to manufacture playing cards in Japan and organizes its own contract bridge tournament called the Nintendo Cup. In 1956, Hiroshi Yamauchi, grandson of Fusajiro Yamauchi, visited the U. S. to talk with the United States Playing Card Company and he found that the biggest playing card company in the world was using only a small office. Yamauchis realization that the card business had limited potential was a turning point. He then acquired the license to use Disney characters on playing cards to drive sales, in 1963, Yamauchi renamed Nintendo Playing Card Co. Ltd. to Nintendo Co. Ltd. The company then began to experiment in other areas of business using newly injected capital during the period of time between 1963 and 1968, Nintendo set up a taxi company called Daiya. However, Nintendo was forced to sell it because problems with the unions were making it too expensive to run the service. It also set up a hotel chain, a TV network. All of these ventures failed, and after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, playing card sales dropped. In 1966, Nintendo moved into the Japanese toy industry with the Ultra Hand, Yokoi was moved from maintenance to the new Nintendo Games department as a product developer. Nintendo continued to produce toys, including the Ultra Machine, Love Tester
26.
Square Enix Europe
–
Eidos Interactive Ltd. was a British software technology developer and video game publisher, now operating as Square Enix Europe. The company was headquartered in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton, the company has had offices all around the world, including the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Australia and Japan. Prior to its best known games, Eidos developed Full Motion Video compression techniques on platforms such as the RISC OS computers of the early 1990s and its best-known game series include Tomb Raider, Hitman, Commandos, and Deus Ex. Eidos officially became part of Square Enix on 22 April 2009, following a reorganization of the company, Eidos was merged with Square Enixs European operations into Square Enix Europe. In 1996, Eidos Technologies merged with Domark Software, Simis, on 3 August 2004, the Wall Street Journal reported that Eidos was in preliminary discussions with a small number of companies in relation of a possible business combinations. In early March 2005, Eidos admitted that cash reserves had dwindled to £11. 9m during the half of 2004. This takeover valued the company at £71m, and would inject £23m in order to keep the company solvent in the short term, on 22 March, Eidos received a second takeover bid from the British games manufacturer SCi Entertainment. Sci offered £74m, and tabled a plan to cut £14m from annual costs. To fund this takeover, SCi proposed to sell £60m worth of stock, eventually, in late April, Elevation Partners formally withdrew its offer, leaving the way clear for SCi. The takeover was finalized on 16 May 2005, since the Sci purchase, the vast majority of the old Eidos management were let go. SCi left their Battersea Office and moved into the old Eidos office on the floor of Wimbledon Bridge House,1 Hartfield Road. Eidos announced on 15 February 2007 that they would open a new studio in Montreal, Quebec, Eidos Montréal started developing a new game in the Deus Ex franchise. In February 2007, Eidos acquired Rockpool Games, along with its two sister companies Ironstone Partners and SoGoPlay, on 4 September 2007, the board of Sci Entertainment confirmed recent speculation that the company has been approached with a view to making an offer. On 10 January 2008, SCi announced take over and/or merger talks had been halted, as a result, the share price dropped by over 50%. Major investors called for the resignation of key personnel, including CEO Jane Cavanagh, on 18 January 2008, Jane Cavanagh, Bill Ennis and Rob Murphy left the company. Eidoss parent company, Sci, revealed its 2008 financial report, losses were at £100 million, but new CEO Phil Rogers claimed this was only due to the reconstructing plans. On 19 September 2008, Eidos opened a Shanghai-based studio consisting of a team to build up relations in Asia. On 3 December 2008, Sci changed its name to Eidos plc, in February 2009, Square Enix reached an agreement to purchase Eidos for £84.3 million, pending shareholder approval, with an initial aim of fully buying Eidos on 6 May 2009
27.
Elstead
–
It includes Pot Common its southern neighbourhood. Hamlets in the parish, marginally separated from the centre, are Charleshill and Elstead Common. Elstead lies between Farnham and Godalming on the B3001 road about 2.2 miles west of the A3 Milford interchange, the first known reference to Elstead is in the 1128 foundation charter for Waverley Abbey, where it was called Helestede. The church of St James was built ten years later. It still contains 13th century windows and some 14th century timbers and is a Grade II* listed building, in the 14th century, the Scheduled ancient monument bridge was built over the River Wey. Today this old bridge, strengthened by Surrey County Council in 1993, takes the westward traffic, Elstead had a forge built in 1686 which is now a private house. Elstead Mill, now a pub restaurant, was occupied by Oliver Cromwell’s ‘roundhead’ army during the English Civil War, the present structure is described in its listing as being the result of several re-buildings from the 16th century. This is attributed to the sandy soils in the village which are excellent for carrot growing. In 1997 a millennium oak was planted at the apex of the village green under the auspices of the afternoon WI. In 2005 Elstead became notable for its then brothel, which was down the road so the village green. Elstead is surrounded by land, including Hankley Common which is used by the British Army for training purposes. Thundry Meadow, close to Elstead, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and is an important breeding area for the dragonfly and damselfly. The western hamlet Charleshill, is on the bank of the River Wey on the B3001 to Farnham. Its public house is The Donkey originally called The Half-way House, the pub was converted from two small cottages in 1850, which at that time were owned by Farnham United Brewery. It acquired the nickname of The Donkey, as before the days of traffic, donkeys were kept tethered outside the Inn to help horses and carts up the hill. The average level of accommodation in the composed of detached houses was 28%. The proportion of households in the parish who owned their home outright compares to the regional average of 35. 1%. The proportion who owned their home with a loan compares to the average of 32. 5%
28.
University of Surrey
–
The University of Surrey is a public research university located within the county town of Guildford, Surrey, in the South East of England, United Kingdom. The university specialises in science, engineering, medicine and business and it received its charter on 9 September 1966, and was previously situated near Battersea Park in south-west London. The institution was known as Battersea College of Technology before gaining university status and its roots, however, go back to the Battersea Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1891 to provide further and higher education for Londons poorer inhabitants. The university conducts research on small satellites and has a number of staff who are members of learned societies. The university has expanded into China by launching the Surrey International Institute with Dongbei University of Finance. The universitys main campus is located on Stag Hill close to the centre of Guildford, a second campus, at Manor Park, is located a short distance away and has been developed to expand upon existing accommodation, academic buildings and sporting facilities. The university is a centre for satellite and mobile communications research. The university has 10 Fellows of the Royal Society,21 Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the University of Surrey was preceded by the Battersea Polytechnic Institute which was founded in 1891 and admitted its first students in 1894. Its aims were to provide access to further and higher education for some of the poorer inhabitants of London. Special classes for Women in Domestic Economy subjects, Day Classes in Art, Science, Womens subjects and Gymnastics. Classes in preparation for University and Professional Examinations, Science day School for Boys and Girls, Commercial School for Girls, Training School for Domestic Economy and Training for Teachers. The Institute focused on science and technology subjects, and from about 1920 taught some classes for University of London students, the Institute awarded University of London external degrees. In 1956, the Institute was among the first to receive the designation College of Advanced Technology and was renamed Battersea College of Technology, by the beginning of the sixties, the College had virtually outgrown its building in Battersea and had decided to move to Guildford. In addition to this, the Robbins Report of 1963 proposed that the Colleges of Advanced Technology, including Battersea, should expand, in 1965, the university-designate acquired a greenfield site in Guildford from Guildford Cathedral, Guildford Borough Council and the Onslow Village Trust. On 9 September 1966 the University of Surrey was established by Royal Charter, early visitors to the new campus were Led Zeppelin, who performed their very first gig at the university on 25 October 1968. The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance moved from Aldershot to its own building on the Stag Hill campus in 1985. The university celebrated its 35th anniversary year in May 2002 with an event in Guildford Cathedral. It was also marked by the unveiling of the Surrey Scholar sculpture to mark the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty The Queen, the Surrey Scholar is located at the bottom of Guildford High Street
29.
Electronic Entertainment Expo
–
The Electronic Entertainment Expo, commonly referred to as E3, is an annual trade fair for the video game industry presented by the Entertainment Software Association. It is used by video game publishers and accessory manufacturers to introduce and advertise upcoming games. E3 used to be an event, individuals who wished to attend were required by the ESA to verify a professional connection to the video-game industry. E3 is usually held in late May or early June at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, the show in 2017 will be held from June 13–15,2017. Before E3, game publishers went to trade shows to display new or upcoming products, these include the Consumer Electronics Show. As the game industry grew rapidly during the early 1990s, industry professionals felt that it had outgrown the older trade shows, according to Tom Kalinske, CEO of Sega America, The CES organizers used to put the video games industry way, way in the back. In 1991 they put us in a tent, and you had to walk past all the vendors to find us. That particular year it was pouring rain, and the rain leaked right over our new Genesis system, I was just furious with the way CES treated the video games industry, and I felt we were a more important industry than they were giving us credit for. Sega did not return to the CES the following year, the first E3 was conceived by IDGs Infotainment World and co-founded by the Interactive Digital Software Association. It coincided with a new generation of consoles, the release of the Sega Saturn, although specifications for the Nintendo Ultra 64 were released, no hardware was displayed. Although the IDSA asked the CES for private meeting space for game developers, patrick Ferrell, CEO of IDGs Infotainment World, sent his vice president of marketing to the meeting, when Ferrell received the CES reply, Infotainment World management announced E3. Needing full industry support, Ferrell negotiated an agreement between IDG and the IDSA and they co-produced the show for several years, the first event was held from May 11–13,1995 in Los Angeles. Keynote speakers included Sega of America president and CEO Thomas Kalinske, Sony Electronic Publishing president Olaf Olafsson and it was one of the largest trade-show debuts in history, with 700,000 square feet of exhibit space and over 48,900 attendees. In its current form, the Expo primarily features presentations from major hardware and software publishers, traditionally including Microsoft, Sony, Activision, Ubisoft, Nintendo and this often includes reveals of new hardware and software products. Following these presentations, the exhibition halls open, allowing attendees to speak to various company representations to get more information on upcoming titles. Here, many developers and publishers will have booths for their products. E3 has traditionally been a closed event expect to members of the game industry. In 2015, ESA distributed 5,000 tickets to the exhibitors to give to their fans, E32016 featured a separate but free E3 Live event at the nearby L. A
