1.
PAL region
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The PAL region is a television publication territory that covers most of Asia, Africa, Europe, South America and Oceania. It is so named because of the PAL television standard used in those regions, as opposed to the NTSC standard traditionally used in Japan. Most video games designated as part of the region will not play on NTSC-U/C or NTSC-J region consoles because of regional lockout, while this is the most common occurrence, some Xbox and Xbox 360 games are region-free encoded, since Microsofts policy is for publishers to decide. Sony has a policy for the PlayStation Portable, but most publishers choose not to encode a region on their UMD games. With the exception of Persona 4 Arena, PlayStation 3 Blu-ray Disc games are region-free, all Nintendo home consoles except for the Nintendo Switch have region locking either by software encoding or physical differences in media and consoles. Australia uses PAL version games only for the Wii, PlayStation 3, as most hand-held consoles use their own proprietary display system, incompatibilities of differing TV systems are not relevant. However, the regions often exist for localisation and distribution purposes. The scope of the PAL region varies with systems and publishers, the following countries and areas are normally included in a PAL region release, Along with other Middle Eastern, African, and European countries. Beginning with the Dreamcast and continuing through the generation of consoles. Games ported to PAL have historically been known for having game speed and this was especially prevalent during previous generations when 2D graphics were used almost exclusively. The gameplay of many games with an emphasis on speed, such as the original Sonic The Hedgehog for the Mega Drive, suffered in their PAL incarnations. Despite the possibility and popularity of 60 Hz PAL games, many games, particularly for the PS. Square Enix have long been criticised by PAL gamers for their poor PAL conversions, final Fantasy X runs in 50 Hz mode only, and 16. 7% slower and bordered that while prevalent in previous generations was considered inexcusable at the time of release. In stark contrast, the Dreamcast was the first system to feature PAL60, the Xbox too featured a system-wide PAL60 option in the Dashboard, with almost every game supporting PAL60. Seventh generation PAL consoles such as the Xbox 360 and Wii also feature system-wide 60 Hz support, nintendos Virtual Console service has been criticized due to PAL games running in 50 Hz only, despite the ability to run in 60 Hz mode. In recent years, few PAL releases have lacked the standard PAL mode and offered 60 Hz only, notably Metroid Prime 2, Echoes and Geist for the Nintendo GameCube, PAL NTSC Advanced Television Systems Committee standards SECAM Regional lockout
2.
Sega
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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
3.
Home video game console
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A home video game console or simply home console is a video game device that is primarily used for home gamers, as opposed to in arcades or some other commercial establishment. Below is a timeline of each generation with the top three home video consoles of each based on worldwide sales. For a complete list of video consoles released in each generation please see the respective article of each generation. Legend – Unit with the highest sales of its generation, – Unit with the second highest sales of its generation. – Unit with the third highest sales of its generation, – Manufacturer released a home video console during this generation but did not sell the most units. – – Manufacturer didnt release a video game console during this generation. † – Indicates the current generation consoles on the market, although the first video games appeared in the 1950s, they were played on massive computers connected to vector displays, not analog televisions. Ralph H. Baer conceived the idea of a video game in 1951. In the late 1960s while working for Sanders Associates he created a series of game console designs. In 1972 Magnavox released the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home game console which could be connected to a TV set. Magnavox replaced the switch design with separate cartridges for each game, by autumn 1975, Magnavox, bowing to the popularity of Pong, cancelled the Odyssey and released a scaled-down version that played only Pong and hockey, the Odyssey 100. A second, higher end console, the Odyssey 200, was released with the 100 and added on-screen scoring, up to four players, almost simultaneously released with Ataris own home Pong console through Sears, these consoles jump-started the consumer market. All three of the new consoles used simpler designs than the original Odyssey with no board game pieces or extra cartridges, in the years that followed, the market saw many companies rushing similar consoles to market. Most of the consoles from this era were dedicated consoles playing the games that came with the console. These video game consoles were often just called video games, because there was reason to distinguish the two yet. While a few companies like Atari, Magnavox, and newcomer Coleco pushed the envelope, Fairchild released the Fairchild Video Entertainment System in 1976. The VES, however, contained a programmable microprocessor so its cartridges only needed a single ROM chip to store microprocessor instructions, RCA and Atari soon released their own cartridge-based consoles, the RCA Studio II and the Atari 2600, respectively. Both Bally and Magnavox also brought their own programmable cartridge-based consoles to the market, however, it was not until Atari released a conversion of the golden age arcade hit Space Invaders in 1980 for the Atari 2600 that the home console industry took off
4.
Third generation of video game consoles
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In the history of computer and video games, the third generation began on July 15,1983, with the Japanese release of both the Family Computer and SG-1000. The best-selling console of this generation was the NES/Famicom, followed by the Master System, although the previous generation of consoles had also used 8-bit processors, it was at the end of this generation that home consoles were first labeled by their bits. This also came into fashion as 16-bit systems like the Mega Drive/Genesis were marketed to differentiate between the generations of consoles, in Japan and North America, this generation of gaming was primarily dominated by the Famicom/NES, while the Master System dominated the European and Brazilian markets. The end of the 3rd generation of video games comes as 8-bit consoles become obsolete in graphics, some features that distinguished third generation consoles from most second generation consoles include, D-pad game controllers. Screen modes with resolutions up to 256×240 or 320×200, 25–32 colors on screen, from a palette of 53–256 colors. Tile-based playfields with smooth multi-directional hardware scrolling, advanced hardware scrolling, including multi-directional scrolling, diagonal scrolling, and line-scrolling. 64–100 sprites on screen, each with 4–16 colors and 8×8 to 16×16 pixel sizes, up to five channel mono PSG audio. The Family Computer became very popular in Japan during this era, the Famicoms Western counterpart, the Nintendo Entertainment System, dominated the gaming market in North America, thanks in part to its restrictive licensing agreements with developers. The company had an estimated 65% of 1987 hardware sales in the market, Atari Corporation had 24%, Sega had 8%. Nintendo sold seven million NES systems in 1988, almost as many as the number of Commodore 64s sold in its first five years, as Computer Gaming World reported in 1992, No matter how fast your 486 is, you still cant play Super Mario XVII on it. The kids who dont have access to videogames are as culturally isolated as the kids in our own generation whose parents refused to buy a TV, Nintendos market domination, while overwhelming in sheer number of units sold, was not global. Although the NES dominated the market in Japan and North America, Segas Master System made large inroads in Europe, Oceania and Brazil, the Atari 7800 also had a fairly successful life in the United States. Sega was Nintendos main competitor during the era in terms of market share for console units sold, in the following generation, Nintendo would also introduce the Game Boy, which almost single-handedly solidified and then proceeded to dominate the previously scattered handheld market for 15 years. Since the Game Boys release, Nintendo had dominated the handheld market, additionally two popular 8-bit computers, the Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC, were repackaged as the Commodore 64 Games System and Amstrad GX4000 respectively, for entry into the console market. This era contributed many influential aspects to the history of the development of video games, the third generation saw the release of many of the first console role-playing video games. Editing and censorship of video games was used in localizing Japanese games to North America. During this era, many of the most famous video game franchises of all time were founded that outlived the third generation, some examples are Super Mario Bros. Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest, Metroid, Mega Man, Metal Gear, Castlevania, Phantasy Star, Megami Tensei, Ninja Gaiden, the third generation also saw the dawn of the childrens educational console market
5.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
6.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
7.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
8.
Brazil
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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. As the worlds fifth-largest country by area and population, it is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to wildlife, a variety of ecological systems. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, in 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a state governed under a constitutional monarchy. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, the country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup détat. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, Brazils current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. The federation is composed of the union of the Federal District, the 26 states, Brazils economy is the worlds ninth-largest by nominal GDP and seventh-largest by GDP as of 2015. A member of the BRICS group, Brazil until 2010 had one of the worlds fastest growing economies, with its economic reforms giving the country new international recognition. Brazils national development bank plays an important role for the economic growth. Brazil is a member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Unasul, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, CPLP. Brazil is a power in Latin America and a middle power in international affairs. One of the worlds major breadbaskets, Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years and it is likely that the word Brazil comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology red like an ember, formed from Latin brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name, early sailors sometimes also called it the Land of Parrots. In the Guarani language, a language of Paraguay, Brazil is called Pindorama
9.
South Korea
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South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea, is a sovereign state in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. The earliest Korean pottery dates to 8000 BC, with three kingdoms flourishing in the 1st century BC and its rich and vibrant culture left 19 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritages of Humanity, the third largest in the world, along with 12 World Heritage Sites. Annexed into Imperial Japan in 1910, Korea was divided after its surrender in 1945, peace has since mostly continued with the two agreeing to work peacefully for reunification and the South solidifying peace as a regional power with the worlds 10th largest defence budget. South Koreas tiger economy soared at an average of 10% for over 30 years in a period of rapid transformation called the Miracle on the Han River. A long legacy of openness and focus on innovation made it successful, today, it is the worlds fifth largest exporter with the G20s largest budget surplus and highest credit rating of any country in East Asia. It has free trade agreements with 75% of the economy and is the only G20 nation trading freely with China, the US. Since 1988, its constitution guarantees a liberal democracy with high government transparency, high personal freedoms led to the rise of a globally influential pop culture such as K-pop and K-drama, a phenomenon called the Korean Wave, known for its distinctive fashionable and trendy style. Home of the UN Green Climate Fund and GGGI, South Korea is a leader in low carbon growth, committed to helping developing countries as a major DAC. It is the third least ignorant country in the Index of Ignorance, ranking eighth highest for peaceful tolerance. It is the worlds largest spender on R&D per GDP, leading the OECD in graduates in science, the name Korea derives from the name Goryeo. The name Goryeo itself was first used by the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo in the 5th century as a form of its name. The 10th-century kingdom of Goryeo succeeded Goguryeo, and thus inherited its name, the modern spelling of Korea first appeared in the late 17th century in the travel writings of the Dutch East India Companys Hendrick Hamel. After Goryeo was replaced by Joseon in 1392, Joseon became the name for the entire territory. The new official name has its origin in the ancient country of Gojoseon, in 1897, the Joseon dynasty changed the official name of the country from Joseon to Daehan Jeguk. The name Daehan, which means great Han literally, derives from Samhan, however, the name Joseon was still widely used by Koreans to refer to their country, though it was no longer the official name. Under Japanese rule, the two names Han and Joseon coexisted, there were several groups who fought for independence, the most notable being the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. Following the surrender of Japan, in 1945, the Republic of Korea was adopted as the name for the new country. Since the government only controlled the part of the Korean Peninsula
10.
ROM cartridge
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ROM cartridges can be used to load software such as video games or other application programs. The cartridge slot could also be used for additions, for example speech synthesis. Some cartridges had battery-backed static random-access memory, allowing a user to save data such as game progress or scores between uses, an advantage for the manufacturer was the relative security of the software in cartridge form, which was difficult for end users to replicate. However, cartridges were expensive to manufacture compared to making a floppy disk or CD-ROM, as disk drives became more common and software expanded beyond the practical limits of ROM size, cartridge slots disappeared from later game consoles and personal computers. Cartridges are still used today with handheld gaming consoles such as the Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, due to its widespread usage for video gaming, ROM cartridges were often colloquially referred to as a game cartridge. ROM cartridges were popularized by early home computers which featured a special bus port for the insertion of cartridges containing software in ROM. Notable computers using cartridges in addition to magnetic media were the Commodore VIC-20 and 64, MSX standard, the Atari 8-bit family, the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, some arcade system boards, such as Capcoms CP System and SNKs Neo Geo, also used ROM cartridges. The modern take on game cartridges was invented by Jerry Lawson as part of the Fairchild Channel F home console in 1976, the cartridge approach gained more popularity with the Atari 2600 released the following year. From the late 1970s to mid-1990s, the majority of video game systems were cartridge-based. As compact disc technology came to be used widely for data storage, Nintendo remained the lone hold-out, using cartridges for their Nintendo 64 system, the company did not transition to optical media until 2001s GameCube. SNK still released games on the cartridge based Neo Geo until 2004, ROM cartridges can not only carry software, but additional hardware expansion as well. Examples include the Super FX coprocessor chip in some Super NES game paks, micro Machines 2 on the Genesis/Mega Drive used a custom J-Cart cartridge design by Codemasters which incorporated two additional gamepad ports. This allowed players to have up to four gamepads connected to the console without the need for an additional multi-controller adapter, the ROM cartridge slot principle continues in various mobile devices, thanks to the development of high density low-cost flash memory. For example, a GPS navigation device might allow user updates of maps by inserting a memory chip into an expansion slot. An E-book reader can store the text of several books on a flash chip. Personal computers may allow the user to boot and install a system off a USB flash drive instead of CD ROM or floppy disks. Digital cameras with flash drive slots allow users to exchange cards when full. Storing software on ROM cartridges has a number of advantages over other methods of storage like floppy disks, software run directly from ROM typically uses less RAM, leaving memory free for other processes
11.
Central processing unit
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The computer industry has used the term central processing unit at least since the early 1960s. The form, design and implementation of CPUs have changed over the course of their history, most modern CPUs are microprocessors, meaning they are contained on a single integrated circuit chip. An IC that contains a CPU may also contain memory, peripheral interfaces, some computers employ a multi-core processor, which is a single chip containing two or more CPUs called cores, in that context, one can speak of such single chips as sockets. Array processors or vector processors have multiple processors that operate in parallel, there also exists the concept of virtual CPUs which are an abstraction of dynamical aggregated computational resources. Early computers such as the ENIAC had to be rewired to perform different tasks. Since the term CPU is generally defined as a device for software execution, the idea of a stored-program computer was already present in the design of J. Presper Eckert and John William Mauchlys ENIAC, but was initially omitted so that it could be finished sooner. On June 30,1945, before ENIAC was made, mathematician John von Neumann distributed the paper entitled First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC and it was the outline of a stored-program computer that would eventually be completed in August 1949. EDVAC was designed to perform a number of instructions of various types. Significantly, the programs written for EDVAC were to be stored in high-speed computer memory rather than specified by the wiring of the computer. This overcame a severe limitation of ENIAC, which was the considerable time, with von Neumanns design, the program that EDVAC ran could be changed simply by changing the contents of the memory. Early CPUs were custom designs used as part of a larger, however, this method of designing custom CPUs for a particular application has largely given way to the development of multi-purpose processors produced in large quantities. This standardization began in the era of discrete transistor mainframes and minicomputers and has accelerated with the popularization of the integrated circuit. The IC has allowed increasingly complex CPUs to be designed and manufactured to tolerances on the order of nanometers, both the miniaturization and standardization of CPUs have increased the presence of digital devices in modern life far beyond the limited application of dedicated computing machines. Modern microprocessors appear in electronic devices ranging from automobiles to cellphones, the so-called Harvard architecture of the Harvard Mark I, which was completed before EDVAC, also utilized a stored-program design using punched paper tape rather than electronic memory. Relays and vacuum tubes were used as switching elements, a useful computer requires thousands or tens of thousands of switching devices. The overall speed of a system is dependent on the speed of the switches, tube computers like EDVAC tended to average eight hours between failures, whereas relay computers like the Harvard Mark I failed very rarely. In the end, tube-based CPUs became dominant because the significant speed advantages afforded generally outweighed the reliability problems, most of these early synchronous CPUs ran at low clock rates compared to modern microelectronic designs. Clock signal frequencies ranging from 100 kHz to 4 MHz were very common at this time, the design complexity of CPUs increased as various technologies facilitated building smaller and more reliable electronic devices
12.
Zilog Z80
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The Z80 CPU is an 8-bit based microprocessor. It was introduced by Zilog in 1976 as the companys first product. The Z80 was conceived by Federico Faggin in late 1974 and developed by him and his employees at Zilog from early 1975 until March 1976. With the revenue from the Z80, the company built its own chip factories, the Zilog Z80 was a software compatible extension and enhancement of the Intel 8080 and, like it, was mainly aimed at embedded systems. In the early 1980s, the Z80 was the most commonly used CPU of all time, Zilog licensed the Z80 to the US-based Synertek and Mostek, that had helped them with initial production, as well as to a European second source manufacturer, SGS. The design was copied also by several Japanese, East European and Russian manufacturers and this enabled the Z80 to gain acceptance in the world market since large companies like NEC, Toshiba, Sharp, and Hitachi, started to manufacture the device. The Z80 came about when physicist Federico Faggin left Intel at the end of 1974 to found Zilog with Ralph Ungermann, at Fairchild Semiconductor, and later at Intel, Faggin had been working on fundamental transistor and semiconductor manufacturing technology. He also developed the design methodology used for memories and microprocessors at Intel and led the work on the Intel 4004. Masatoshi Shima, the logic and transistor level-designer of the 4004. By March 1976, Zilog had developed the Z80 as well as an accompanying assembler based development system for its customers, and by July 1976, early Z80s were manufactured by Synertek and Mostek, before Zilog had its own manufacturing factory ready, in late 1976. Masatoshi Shima designed most of the microarchitecture as well as the gate and transistor levels of the Z80 CPU, assisted by a number of engineers. CEO Federico Faggin was actually involved in the chip layout work. Faggin worked 80 hours a week in order to meet the tight schedule given by the financial investors, a non maskable interrupt which can be used to respond to power down situations and/or other high priority events. Two separate register files, which could be switched, to speed up response to interrupts such as fast asynchronous event handlers or a multitasking dispatcher. Although they were not intended as extra registers for general code, less hardware required for power supply, clock generation and interface to memory and I/O Single 5-volt power supply. A built-in DRAM refresh mechanism that would otherwise have to be provided by external circuitry, a special reset function which clears only the program counter so that a single Z80 CPU could be used in a development system such as an in-circuit emulator. The Z80 took over from the 8080 and its offspring, the 8085, in the processor market, perhaps a key to the initial success of the Z80 was the built-in DRAM refresh, and other features which allowed systems to be built with fewer support chips. For the original NMOS design, the specified upper frequency limit increased successively from the introductory 2.5 MHz, via the well known 4 MHz
13.
Yamaha
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It is one of the constituents of Nikkei 225 and is the worlds largest piano manufacturing company. Yamaha was established in 1887 as a piano and reed organ manufacturer by Torakusu Yamaha as Nippon Gakki Company, Limited in Hamamatsu, the companys origins as a musical instrument manufacturer are still reflected today in the groups logo—a trio of interlocking tuning forks. The YA-1, of which 125 were built in the first year of production, was named in honour of the founder and it was a 125cc, single cylinder, two-stroke, street bike patterned after the German DKW RT125. In 1955, the success of the YA-1 resulted in the founding of Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd, in 1989, Yamaha shipped the worlds first CD recorder. Yamaha purchased Sequential Circuits in 1988 and it bought a majority stake of competitor Korg in 1987, which was bought out by Korg in 1993. In the late 1990s, Yamaha released a series a portable battery operated keyboards under the PSS, in 2002, Yamaha closed down its archery product business that was started in 1959. Six archers in five different Olympic Games won gold medals using their products and it acquired German audio software manufacturers Steinberg in January 2005, from Pinnacle Systems. K. Ltd, the UK piano sales & manufacturing arm was unaffected, on December 20,2007, Yamaha made an agreement with the Austrian Bank BAWAG P. S. K. Group BAWAG to purchase all the shares of Bösendorfer, intended to place in early 2008. Yamaha intends to continue manufacturing at the Bösendorfer facilities in Austria, the acquisition of Bösendorfer was announced after the NAMM Show in Los Angeles, on January 28,2008. As of February 1,2008, Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH operates as a subsidiary of Yamaha Corp, Yamaha Corporation is also widely known for their music teaching programme that began in the 1950s. Yamaha electronic have proven to be successful, popular, and respected products, for example, the Yamaha YPG-625 was given the award Keyboard of the Year and Product of the Year in 2007 from The Music and Sound Retailer magazine. Other noteworthy Yamaha electronics include the SHS-10 Keytar, a keytar which offered MIDI output features normally found on much more expensive keyboards. Other companies in the Yamaha group include, Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH, Vienna, Yamaha Motor Company Yamaha Fine Technologies Co. Ltd. Yamaha Golf Cart Company Yamaha Livingtec Corporation Yamaha Metanix Corporation Yamaha Music Communications Co. Ltd, Yamaha Pro Audio Kandō is a Japanese word used by Yamaha to describe their corporate mission. Kandō in translation describes the sensation of profound excitement and gratification derived from experiencing supreme quality, some reasonable English synonyms are emotionally touching or emotionally moving. The Yamaha Music Foundation is an established in 1966 by the authority of the Japanese Ministry of Education for the purpose of promoting music education. It continued a program of music classes begun by Yamaha Corporation in 1954, Yamaha expanded into many diverse businesses and product groups
14.
Video display controller
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Some VDCs also generate an audio signal, but that is not their main function. VDCs were used in the computers of the 1980s and also in some early video game systems. Sometimes other supporting chips were necessary to build a system, such as RAM to hold pixel data, ROM to hold character fonts. GPUs with hardware acceleration started appearing during the 1990s, VDCs often had special hardware for the creation of sprites, a function that in more modern VDP chips is done with the Bit Blitter using the Bit blit function. One example of a video display processor is the VDP2 32-bit background. Another example is the Advanced Graphics Architecture chip that was used for the graphics of the later generation Amiga computers. This said, it is not completely clear when a chip is a video display controller. For example, the TMS9918 is sometimes called a display controller. The graphics processing unit goes one step further than the VDP and it is the chip that is now used in modern personal computers. They are directly or indirectly responsible for the timing signals. They get the data from the main CPU, a byte at a time. This serial data stream is used together with the synchronization signals to output a video signal. The main CPU needs to do the bulk of the work, normally these chips only support a very low resolution raster graphics mode. Sprites, however, are not supported by these systems. Video interface controllers are much more complex than CRT controllers, sprites are often supported, as are character generators and video RAM dedicated to colour attributes and pallette registers for the high-resolution or text modes. Video coprocessors have their own internal CPU dedicated to reading their own video RAM, the main CPU can give commands to the coprocessor, for example to change the video modes or to manipulate the video RAM contents. The video coprocessor also controls the character generator, the colour attribute RAM, palette registers, and it could only support a very low resolution monochrome graphic mode. CRT Controllers The Intel 8275 CRT controller was not used in any mainstream system, the Motorola 6845 is a video address generator first introduced by Motorola and used for the Amstrad CPC, and the BBC Micro
15.
Texas Instruments SN76489
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The SN76489 Digital Complex Sound Generator is a TTL-compatible programmable sound generator chip from Texas Instruments. It contains,3 square wave tone generators and its main application was the generation of music and sound effects in game consoles, arcade games and home computers, existing alongside the competing and similar General Instrument AY-3-8910. The SN76489 was originally designed to be used in the TI-99/4 computer, where it was first called the TMS9919 and later SN94624, and had a 500 kHz max clock input rate. A version of the chip without the input was also sold outside of TI as the SN76494. Tone Generators, The frequency of the waves produced by the tone generators on each channel is derived from two factors, The speed of the external clock. A value provided in a register for that channel. Each channels frequency is arrived at by dividing the external clock by 4, thus the overall divider range is from 4 to 4096. This gives a range at maximum input clock rate of 122 Hz to 125 kHz. Noise Generator, The pseudorandom noise feedback is generated from an XNOR of bits 12 and 13 for feedback, the pseudorandom generator is cleared to 0s on writes to chip register 6, the noise mode register. There are two versions of the SN76489, the SN76489 and the SN76489A, the former was made around 1980-1982 and the latter from 1983 onward. They differ in that the output of the SN76489 is the inverse of the expected waveform, the SN76496 seems to be totally identical to the SN76489A in terms of the outputs produced, but features an AUDIO IN pin for integrated audio mixing. Sega used real SN76489AN chips in their SG-1000 game console and SC-3000 computer, but used SN76489A clones in their Master System, Game Gear and these modified sound chips were incorporated into the systems video display processor. Another clone is the NCR8496, used in models of the Tandy 1000 computer. Later Tandy 1000 machines integrated the SN76496s functionality into the PSSJ ASIC and these games shared a common board design by Tehkan that used three of the functionally identical SN76496. Baluba-Louk No Densetsu Senjyo Star Force These games shared a common board design by Universal Entertainment Corporation, Mr. Dos Castle Mr. Dos Wild Ride Do. Sega Genesis Master System - used the clone integrated into its VDP
16.
Yamaha YM2413
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OPLL, is a cost-reduced FM synthesis sound chip manufactured by Yamaha Corporation and based on their YM3812. To make the chip cheaper to manufacture, many of the registers were removed. The result of this is that the YM2413 can only play one user-defined instrument at a time, the YM2413 was used in the FM Sound Unit, an add-on for the Sega Mark III sold exclusively in Japan that improved the sound quality of all compatible games. The Japanese model of the Master System came with this add-on built-in, the YM2413 was used in an arcade board design produced by SNK and Alpha Denshi in the late 1980s for a number of their games. Games using the design include Time Soldiers, Sky Soldiers, the YM2413 was used in the Yamaha PSS-170 and PSS-270 keyboards in 1986. The YM2413 was used in the Yamaha PSS-140 in 1988, the YM2413 was used in the Yamaha PSR-6 keyboard in 1994. The YM2413 was used in several sound enhancement cartridges for MSX computers and it is also built into select MSX2 and MSX2+ systems, and all MSX Turbo R machines, as part of the MSX-Music standard. Konamis VRC7 MMC contains a YM2413 derivative, used exclusively on the Family Computer game Lagrange Point and it has 6 FM channels instead of 9 and lacks the rhythm channels. The hard-coded sound bank is also different, Yamaha YMF281 is another YM2413 derivative. It has the same pinout and register set, but a different sound bank, Yamaha YM2423 is yet another YM2413 derivative. Like the YMF281, it has the same pinout and register map, UMC U3567 is a 100% software compatible chip with a slightly different pinout, requiring a pin-to-pin adapter in order to be used on a YM2413 socket. UMC UM3567 is a 100% software compatible chip, with the same pinout as the U3567 and it requires the same pin-to-pin adapter, but the different DAC output will also require the two pull-down resistors of the audio output pins to be removed from the motherboard. MSX-Music dOsvualdo, G. Luppes, E. Martin, C
17.
SG-1000
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The SG-1000, also known as the Sega Computer Videogame SG-1000, is a cartridge-based home video game console manufactured by Sega and released in Japan, Australia, and other countries. It was Segas first entry into the video game hardware business. Introduced in 1983, the SG-1000 was released on the day that Nintendo released the Family Computer in Japan. The SG-1000 was released in several forms, including the SC-3000 computer, developed in response to a downturn in arcades in 1982, the SG-1000 was created on the advice of Hayao Nakayama, president of Sega Enterprises, Ltd. Shortly after the release, Sega Enterprises was sold to CSK Corporation, due to the release of the Famicom, and the number of consoles present in the market at the time, the SG-1000 was not commercially successful. The company retained Segas North American R&D operation, as well as its Japanese subsidiary, Sega Enterprises, with its arcade business in decline, Gulf & Western executives turned to Sega Enterprises, Ltd. s president, Hayao Nakayama, for advice on how to proceed. Nakayama received permission to proceed, leading to the release of Segas first home game system. To keep costs down while ensuring sufficient longevity, Sega opted to create the platform from popular off-the-shelf components, the SG-1000 was first released in Japan on July 15,1983, at JP¥15,000. It was released on the day as Nintendo launched the Family Computer in Japan. It was released simultaneously with the SC-3000, also known as the Sega Personal Computer SC-3000, the SG-1000 was released in Australia through John Sands Electronics, and in Italy, Spain, and other countries. An unauthorized clone system known as the Telegames Personal Arcade was produced, the SG-1000s launch did not prove to be successful. The three launch games, all of which were ported from Segas VIC dual-arcade board, lacked the name recognition of Famicom launch games Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. however, the situation was quickly turned around. Nakayama was then installed as CEO of the new Sega Enterprises, following the buyout, Sega released another console, the SG-1000 II, on July 31,1984 at ¥15,000. It featured hardware tweaks from the model, including detachable controllers. Sega also employed popular comedy duo Tunnels to provide celebrity endorsement for the console, despite this, the console war turned back in the Famicoms favor during 1984. The SG-1000 was also coming up against game consoles from companies including Tomy and this would result in the release of the Sega Mark III in Japan in 1985, which later became the Master System worldwide. The last cartridge released was Portrait of Loretta on February 18,1987, in 2006, the GameTap subscription gaming service added an emulator of the SG-1000, and several playable titles. Though Sega themselves only released the SG-1000 in Japan, rebranded versions were released in New Zealand by Grandstand Leisure, the console enjoyed a brief period of popularity in Taiwan before the market was taken over by cheaper Famicom clones
18.
Sega Genesis
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The Sega Genesis, known as the Mega Drive in most regions outside of North America, is a 16-bit home video game console which was developed and sold by Sega Enterprises, Ltd. The Genesis was Segas third console and the successor to the Master System, Sega first released the console as the Mega Drive in Japan in 1988, followed by a North American debut under the Genesis moniker in 1989. In 1990, the console was distributed as the Mega Drive by Virgin Mastertronic in Europe, by Ozisoft in Australasia, in South Korea, the systems were distributed by Samsung and were known as the Super Gam*Boy, and later the Super Aladdin Boy. The system supports a library of more than 900 games created both by Sega and an array of third-party publishers and delivered on ROM-based cartridges. It can play Master System games when the separately sold Power Base Converter is inserted, the Genesis has benefited from several peripherals and network services, as well as multiple first-party and third-party variations of the console that focus on extending its functionality. Controversy surrounding violent titles such as Night Trap and Mortal Kombat led Sega to create the Videogame Rating Council, Sega sold 30.75 million units worldwide. The console and its games continue to be popular among fans, game music fans, collectors. As of 2015, licensed third party re-releases of the console are being sold by AtGames in North America and Europe. Many games have been re-released in compilations for newer consoles and offered for download on online services, such as the Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network. The Genesis was succeeded by the Sega Saturn, in the early 1980s, Sega Enterprises, Inc. then a subsidiary of Gulf & Western, was one of the top five arcade game manufacturers active in the United States, as company revenues rose to $214 million. The company retained Segas North American R&D operation, as well as its Japanese subsidiary, Sega Enterprises, with its arcade business in decline, Gulf & Western executives turned to Sega Enterprises, Ltd. s president, Hayao Nakayama, for advice on how to proceed. Nakayama received permission to proceed with project, leading to the release of Segas first home video game system. The SG-1000 was not successful, and was replaced by the Sega Mark III within two years, Nakayama was then installed as CEO of the new Sega Enterprises, Ltd. In 1986, Sega redesigned the Mark III for release in North America as the Sega Master System and this was followed by a European release the next year. In 1987, Sega faced another threat to its business when Japanese computer giant NEC released the PC Engine amid great publicity. First announced in June 1988 in Beep, a Japanese gaming magazine, the developing console was referred to as the Mark V, but Sega management felt the need for a stronger name. After reviewing more than 300 proposals, the settled on Mega Drive. In North America, the name of the console was changed to Genesis, the reason for this change is not known, but it may have been due to a trademark dispute
19.
Game Gear
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The Game Gear is an 8-bit handheld game console released by Sega on October 6,1990 in Japan,1991 in North America and Europe, and Australia in 1992. The Game Gear primarily competed with Nintendos Game Boy, the Atari Lynx and NECs TurboExpress. The handheld shares much of its hardware with the Master System and is able to play its own titles as well as those of the Master System, the latter being made possible by the use of an adapter. Containing a full-color backlit screen with a format, Sega positioned the Game Gear as a technologically superior handheld to the Game Boy. Though the Game Gear was rushed to market, its game library and price point gave it an edge over the Atari Lynx. However, due to issues with its battery life, lack of original titles, and weak support from Sega. The Game Gear was succeeded by the Genesis Nomad in 1995 and it was re-released as a budget system by Majesco in 2000, under license by Sega. Developed under the name Project Mercury, the Game Gear was first released in Japan on October 6,1990, in North America and Europe in 1991, and in Australia in 1992. Originally retailing at JP¥19,800 in Japan, US$149.99 in North America, and GB£99.99 in Europe, the Game Gear was developed to compete with the Game Boy, which Nintendo had released in 1989. The original Game Gear pack-in title was Columns, which was similar to the Tetris cartridge that Nintendo had included when it launched the Game Boy. With a late start into the gaming market, Sega rushed to get the Game Gear into stores quickly. Part of the intention of this move was to make Master System games easy to port to the Game Gear. With its quick launch in Japan, the handheld sold 40,000 units in its first two days,90,000 within a month, and the number of orders for the system was over 600,000. According to Sega of America marketing director Robert Botch, there is clearly a need for a quality system that provides features other systems have failed to deliver. This means easy-to-view, full-colour graphics and exciting quality games that appeal to all ages, before the Game Gears launch in 1990, Sega had success marketing its 16-bit home console, the Genesis, by advertising it as a more mature option for gamers. In keeping with this approach, Sega positioned the Game Gear as a grown-up option compared to the Game Boy. In North America, marketing for the Game Gear included side-by-side comparisons of Segas new handheld with the Game Boy, one Sega advertisement featured the quote, If you were color blind and had an IQ of less than 12, then you wouldnt mind which portable you had. Such advertising drew fire from Nintendo, who sought to have organized against Sega for insulting disabled persons
20.
Nintendo Entertainment System
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The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit home video game console that was developed and manufactured by Nintendo. The best-selling gaming console of its time, the NES helped revitalize the US video game following the video game crash of 1983. With the NES, Nintendo introduced a business model of licensing third-party developers, authorizing them to produce. It was initially released in Japan as the Family Computer on July 15,1983, and was released in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986. In South Korea, it was known as the Hyundai Comboy and was distributed by SK Hynix which then was known as Hyundai Electronics and it was succeeded by the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In 2009, the Nintendo Entertainment System was named the single greatest video game console in history by IGN and it was judged the second greatest console behind the Sega Dreamcast in PC Magazines Top 10 Video Game Consoles of All Time. Following a series of arcade game successes in the early 1980s, Nintendo made plans to create a console called the Famicom. A test model was constructed in October 1982 to verify the functionality of the hardware, because 65xx CPUs had not been manufactured or sold in Japan up to that time, no cross-development software was available and it had to be produced from scratch. Perhaps we could say it is a family computer, meanwhile, Hiroshi Yamauchi decided that the console should use a red and white theme after seeing a billboard for DX Antenna which used those colors. Original plans called for the Famicoms cartridges to be the size of a cassette tape, careful design attention was paid to the cartridge connectors since loose and faulty connections often plagued arcade machines. As it necessitated taking 60 connection lines for the memory and expansion, the controllers were hard-wired to the console with no connectors for cost reasons. There were concerns regarding the durability of the design and that children might step on joysticks left on the floor. Katsuyah Nakawaka attached a Game & Watch D-pad to the Famicom prototype and found that it was easy to use, ultimately though, they installed a 15-pin expansion port on the front of the console so that an optional arcade-style joystick could be used. Uemura added an eject lever to the slot which was not really necessary. He also added a microphone to the controller with the idea that it could be used to make players voices sound through the TV speaker. The console was released on July 15,1983 as the Family Computer for ¥14,800 alongside three ports of Nintendos successful arcade games Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. and Popeye. The Famicom was slow to gather momentum, a bad chip set caused the release of the system to crash. Following a product recall and a reissue with a new motherboard, the deal was set to be finalized and signed at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in June 1983
21.
Gulf and Western Industries
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Gulf and Western Industries, Inc. was an American conglomerate. A partial list of Gulf and Westerns holdings between 1958 and 1982, with year of acquisition in parentheses, APS Holding Corp, after Stax was acquired, that label became a subsidiary of Dot, although Dot was not at all mentioned on the label. Later on, the operation was moved under Famous Music. Gulf and Western sold Stax back to its owners in 1970. A year before, Dots non–country music roster and catalog was moved to a newly created label and it assumed Dots status as the flagship label of Paramounts record operations, releasing music by pop artists and soundtracks from Paramounts films and television series. Dot meanwhile became a country label, Famous Music provided distribution for several independent labels, such as Neighborhood Records and Sire Records. Famous began distributing yet another independent label, Blue Thumb Records, in 1971, while working for Paramount, Barry Diller had proposed a fourth network, but he could not convince the board of trustees/directors of the wisdom of this idea. Fox owner News Corporation was, however, interested in starting a network. On June 5,1980, Gulf and Western unveiled a car, powered by a zinc chloride battery that would hold a charge for several hours. By years end, however, the U. S. Department of Energy reported that the battery had 65% less power than predicted and could be recharged only by highly trained personnel. In 1981, former officials of Gulf and Westerns Natural Resources Division led a buyout of New Jersey Zinc and made it a subsidiary of Horsehead Industries, Davis, who had come up through Paramount Pictures, as the new chief executive officer. Davis slimmed down the companys wilder diversifications and focused it on entertainment, in 1983, Gulf and Western sold Consolidated Cigar Corporation to five of its senior managers. Also in 1983, Gulf and Western sold the U. S. assets of Sega to pinball manufacturer Bally Manufacturing, the Japanese assets of Sega were purchased by a group of investors led by David Rosen and Hayao Nakayama. In 1984, Gulf and Western divested itself of its many Taylor Forge operations to private owners, Taylor Forges Somerville, NJ plant became Taylor Forge Stainless, while its facilities in Paola, KS and Greeley, KS became Taylor Forge Engineered Systems. South Puerto Rico Sugar Co. was sold to an investment group including The Fanjul Brothers in 1984, in 1985, APS auto parts, Kayser-Roth clothing and Simmons Bedding were sold to the Wickes Companies. The company, thus restructured, subsequently renamed itself Paramount Communications in 1989, the Gulf and Western Building by Thomas E. Stanley, was built in 1970 for the Gulf and Western company north of Columbus Circle, at the south-western corner of Central Park. The building occupies a block between Broadway and Central Park West and, at 583 feet, it commands the dramatic view to the north. Similarly, the space in the basement—named Paramount after the picture company that Gulf
22.
Arcade game
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An arcade game or coin-op is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games. While exact dates are debated, the age of arcade video games is usually defined as a period beginning sometime in the late 1970s. The old Midways of 1920s-era amusement parks provided the inspiration and atmosphere for later arcade games, in the 1930s the first coin-operated pinball machines emerged. These early amusement machines differed from their later electronic cousins in that they were made of wood and they lacked plungers or lit-up bonus surfaces on the playing field, and used mechanical instead of electronic scoring-readouts. By around 1977 most pinball machines in production switched to using solid-state electronics both for operation and for scoring, another Sega 1969 release, Missile, a shooter and vehicle-combat simulation, featured electronic sound and a moving film strip to represent the targets on a projection screen. In 1970 Midway released the game in North America as S. A. M. I, in the course of the 1970s, following the release of Pong in 1972, electronic video-games gradually replaced electro-mechanical arcade games. In 1972, Sega released a game called Killer Shark. In 1974, Nintendo released Wild Gunman, a shooter that used full-motion video-projection from 16 mm film to display live-action cowboy opponents on the screen. The 1978 video game Space Invaders, however, dealt a yet more powerful blow to the popularity of electro-mechanical games, in 1971 students at Stanford University set up the Galaxy Game, a coin-operated version of the Spacewar video game. This ranks as the earliest known instance of a video game. Later in the year, Nolan Bushnell created the first mass-manufactured game, Computer Space. In 1972, Atari was formed by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, Atari essentially created the coin-operated video game industry with the game Pong, the first successful electronic ping pong video game. Pong proved to be popular, but imitators helped keep Atari from dominating the fledgling coin-operated video game market, taitos Space Invaders, in 1978, proved to be the first blockbuster arcade video game. Its success marked the beginning of the age of arcade video games. Space Invaders, Galaxian, Pac-Man, Battlezone, Defender, by 1981, the arcade video game industry was worth $8 billion. By the late 1980s, the video game craze was beginning to fade due to advances in home video game console technology. By 1991, US arcade video game revenues had fallen to $2.1 billion, the pseudo-3D sprite/tile scaling was handled in a similar manner to textures in later texture-mapped polygonal 3D games of the 1990s
23.
Bally Manufacturing
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For the fitness chain, see Bally Total Fitness. It was acquired by Hilton Hotels in 1995 and its brand name is still used by several businesses previously linked to Bally Manufacturing, most notably Bally Technologies. The Bally Manufacturing Corporation was founded by Raymond Moloney on January 10,1932, the company took its name from its first game, Ballyhoo. The company, based in Chicago, quickly became a maker of the games. In the late 1930s, Moloney began making gambling equipment, and had success developing and improving the mechanical slot machines that were the core of the nascent gaming industry. The company made a venture into the music business with their own record label. Ray Moloney died in 1958, and the company floundered briefly, with the financial failure of its parent company, Bally was bought out by a group of investors in 1963. Throughout the 1960s, Bally continued to dominate the slot machine industry, in 1964, Bally introduced the first electromechanical slot machine, called the Money Honey. In the late 1970s, Bally entered the business when New Jersey legalized gambling in Atlantic City. This effort moved forward even though the company was unable to attain a permanent license for the completed casino. During this period, company head William T. ODonnell was forced to resign because of alleged links to organized crime, prior to this, Mr ODonnell strenuously denied any such links. He also denied knowing Chicago mobster, Joseph Dan Testa, even though Australian Police described Testa as a representative of Bally who visited Australia, the company opened the Park Place Casino & Hotel on December 29,1979. Also in the late 1970s, Bally made an entry into the market for home computer games. The Bally Professional Arcade, as the machine was called, had advanced features for the time and these included a palette of 256 colors and the ability to play 4-voice music. The machine also shipped with a cartridge that allowed users to do an amount of programming on the machine themselves. The machines price point was above the Atari 2600, and it had a more limited set of available games. Despite a loyal following, it failed to compete successfully, the health club division, under Bally Total Fitness, grew during the 1980s and 1990s. This expansion quickly took its toll on the finances, and Bally was soon forced to sell off several divisions, including Six Flags
24.
Japanese yen
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The yen is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the exchange market after the United States dollar. It is also used as a reserve currency after the U. S. dollar, the euro. Before the Meiji Restoration, Japans feudal fiefs all issued their own money, hansatsu, in an array of incompatible denominations. The New Currency Act of 1871 did away with these and established the yen, the former han became prefectures and their mints private chartered banks, which initially retained the right to print money. To bring an end to this situation the Bank of Japan was founded in 1882, following World War II the yen lost much of its prewar value. To stabilize the Japanese economy the exchange rate of the yen was fixed at ¥360 per $1 as part of the Bretton Woods system, when that system was abandoned in 1971, the yen became undervalued and was allowed to float. The yen had appreciated to a peak of ¥271 per $1 in 1973, then underwent periods of depreciation and appreciation due to the 1973 oil crisis, arriving at a value of ¥227 per $1 by 1980. Since 1973, the Japanese government has maintained a policy of intervention. The Japanese government focuses on an export market, and tries to ensure a low yen value through a trade surplus. Since that time, however, the yen has greatly decreased in value, the Bank of Japan maintains a policy of zero to near-zero interest rates and the Japanese government has an extreme anti-inflation policy. Yen derives from the Japanese word 圓, which is cognate with the Chinese yuan, originally, the Chinese had traded silver in mass called sycees and when Spanish and Mexican silver coins arrived, the Chinese called them silver rounds for their circular shapes. The coins and the name appeared in Japan. While the Chinese eventually replaced 圓 with 元, the Japanese continued to use the same word, the spelling and pronunciation yen is standard in English. This is because mainly English speakers who visited Japan at the end of the Edo period to the early Meiji period spelled words this way, ゑん /wen/ in historical kana orthography. In the 16th century, Japanese /e/ and /we/ both had been pronounced and Portuguese missionaries had spelled them ye, some time thereafter, by the middle of the 18th century, /e/ and /we/ came to be pronounced as in modern Japanese, although some regions retain the pronunciation. In the early Meiji era, James Curtis Hepburn, following Medhurst, spelled all es as ye in his A Japanese and that was the first full-scale Japanese-English/English-Japanese dictionary, which had a strong influence on Westerners in Japan and probably prompted the spelling yen. Hepburn revised most of yes to e in the 3rd edition in order to mirror the contemporary pronunciation and this was probably already fixed and has remained so ever since
25.
Nintendo
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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.
SCSK
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SCSK Corporation is a Japanese conglomerate formed in 1968, that primarily provides IT services to businesses. Between 1984 and 2004, they were the holding group for the video game company Sega. They also owned the CSK Research Institute, which later became CRI Middleware
27.
Hertz
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The hertz is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units and is defined as one cycle per second. It is named for Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, the first person to provide proof of the existence of electromagnetic waves. Hertz are commonly expressed in SI multiples kilohertz, megahertz, gigahertz, kilo means thousand, mega meaning million, giga meaning billion and tera for trillion. Some of the units most common uses are in the description of waves and musical tones, particularly those used in radio-. It is also used to describe the speeds at which computers, the hertz is equivalent to cycles per second, i. e. 1/second or s −1. In English, hertz is also used as the plural form, as an SI unit, Hz can be prefixed, commonly used multiples are kHz, MHz, GHz and THz. One hertz simply means one cycle per second,100 Hz means one hundred cycles per second, and so on. The unit may be applied to any periodic event—for example, a clock might be said to tick at 1 Hz, the rate of aperiodic or stochastic events occur is expressed in reciprocal second or inverse second in general or, the specific case of radioactive decay, becquerels. Whereas 1 Hz is 1 cycle per second,1 Bq is 1 aperiodic radionuclide event per second, the conversion between a frequency f measured in hertz and an angular velocity ω measured in radians per second is ω =2 π f and f = ω2 π. This SI unit is named after Heinrich Hertz, as with every International System of Units unit named for a person, the first letter of its symbol is upper case. Note that degree Celsius conforms to this rule because the d is lowercase. — Based on The International System of Units, the hertz is named after the German physicist Heinrich Hertz, who made important scientific contributions to the study of electromagnetism. The name was established by the International Electrotechnical Commission in 1930, the term cycles per second was largely replaced by hertz by the 1970s. One hobby magazine, Electronics Illustrated, declared their intention to stick with the traditional kc. Mc. etc. units, sound is a traveling longitudinal wave which is an oscillation of pressure. Humans perceive frequency of waves as pitch. Each musical note corresponds to a frequency which can be measured in hertz. An infants ear is able to perceive frequencies ranging from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, the range of ultrasound, infrasound and other physical vibrations such as molecular and atomic vibrations extends from a few femtoHz into the terahertz range and beyond. Electromagnetic radiation is described by its frequency—the number of oscillations of the perpendicular electric and magnetic fields per second—expressed in hertz. Radio frequency radiation is measured in kilohertz, megahertz, or gigahertz
28.
Home computer
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Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, however, a home computer often had better graphics and sound than contemporaneous business computers. Their most common uses were playing games, but they were also regularly used for word processing, doing homework. Home computers were usually not electronic kits, home computers were already manufactured in stylish metal or plastic enclosures. There were, however, commercial kits like the Sinclair ZX80 which were home and home-built computers since the purchaser could assemble the unit from a kit. For example, using a typical 1980s home computer as a home automation appliance would require the computer to be powered on at all times. Personal finance and database use required tedious data entry, by contrast, advertisements in the specialty computer press often simply listed specifications. Since most systems shipped with the BASIC programming language included on the system ROM, many users found programming to be a fun and rewarding experience, and an excellent introduction to the world of digital technology. Often the only difference may be the outlet through which they are purchased. Another change from the computer era is that the once-common endeavour of writing ones own software programs has almost vanished from home computer use. As early as 1965, some projects such as Jim Sutherlands ECHO IV explored the possible utility of a computer in the home. In 1969, the Honeywell Kitchen Computer was marketed as a gift item, and would have inaugurated the era of home computing. Computers became affordable for the public in the 1970s due to the mass production of the microprocessor starting in 1971. Early microcomputers such as the Altair 8800 had front-mounted switches and diagnostic lights to control and indicate internal system status, while two early home computers could be bought either in kit form or assembled, most home computers were only sold pre-assembled. The keyboard - a feature lacking on the Altair - was usually built into the case as the motherboard. Ports for plug-in peripheral devices such as a display, cassette tape recorders, joysticks. Usually the manufacturer would sell peripheral devices designed to be compatible with their computers as extra cost accessories, peripherals were not often interchangeable between different brands of home computer, or even between successive models of the same brand. To save the cost of a monitor, the home computer would often connect through an RF modulator to the family TV set
29.
Edge (magazine)
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Edge is a multi-format video game magazine published by Future plc in the United Kingdom, which publishes 13 issues of the magazine per year. It is known for its contacts, editorial stance, distinctive anonymous third-person writing style, yearly awards. The magazine was launched in October 1993 by Steve Jarratt, a video games journalist who has launched several other magazines for Future. The artwork for the cover of the magazines 100th issue was provided by Shigeru Miyamoto. The 200th issue was released in March 2009 with 200 different covers, each commemorating a single game,199 variants were in general circulation, only 200 magazines were printed with each cover, sufficient to more than satisfy Edges circulation of 28,898. In October 2003, the then-editor of Edge, João Diniz-Sanches, left the magazine along with deputy editor David McCarthy, after the walkout, the editorship of Edge passed back to Tony Mott, who had been editor prior to Diniz-Sanches. The only team member to remain was Margaret Robertson, who in 2006 replaced Mott as editor, in May 2007, Robertson stepped down as editor and was replaced by Tony Mott, taking over as editor for the third time. Between 1995 and 2002, some of the content from the UK edition of Edge was published in the United States as Next Generation, in July 2008, the whole site was rebranded under the Edge title, as that was the senior of the two brands. Edge has been redesigned three times since the magazine launched, the first redesign occurred in 1999, the second in 2004, and the third in 2011. The first redesign altered the dimensions to be wider than the original shape. The latest design changes the physical dimensions for the second time. Each issue includes a Making-of article on a game, usually including an interview with one of the original developers. Issue 143 introduced the Time Extend series of retrospective articles, like the making-of series, each focuses on a single game and, with the benefit of hindsight, gives an in-depth examination of its most interesting or innovative attributes. Since 2014, some contributed features are credited with a byline, the magazines regular columnists have been consistently credited throughout the magazines run. The current columnists are James Leach, Clint Hocking and Tadhg Kelly, in addition, several columnists appear toward the beginning of the magazine to talk about the game industry as a whole, rather than focusing on specific game design topics. They are Trigger Happy author Steven Poole, Leigh Alexander, and Brian Howe, previous columnists have included Paul Rose, Toshihiro Nagoshi of Segas Amusement Vision, author Tim Guest, NGai Croal, and game developer Jeff Minter. In addition, numerous columns were published anonymously under the pseudonym RedEye, James Hutchinsons comic strip Crashlander was featured in Edge between issues 143 and 193. Edge scores games on a ten-point scale, from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 10, and so on, a tongue-in-cheek reference to people who read too much into review scores
30.
NEC
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NEC Corporation is a Japanese multinational provider of information technology services and products, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC provides IT and network solutions to enterprises, communications services providers and to government agencies. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited and its NEC Semiconductors business unit was one of the worldwide top 20 semiconductor sales leaders before merging with Renesas Electronics. NEC is a member of the Sumitomo Group, kunihiko Iwadare and Takeshiro Maeda established Nippon Electric Limited Partnership on August 31,1898 by using facilities that they had bought from Miyoshi Electrical Manufacturing Company. Iwadare acted as the partner, Maeda handled company sales. Western Electric, which had an interest in the Japanese phone market, was represented by Walter Tenney Carleton, Carleton was also responsible for the renovation of the Miyoshi facilities. It was agreed that the partnership would be reorganized as a company when treaty would allow it. On July 17,1899, the treaty between Japan and the United States went into effect. Nippon Electric Company, Limited was organized the day with Western Electric Company to become the first Japanese joint-venture with foreign capital. Ernest Clement and Carleton were named as directors, Maeda and Mototeru Fujii were assigned to be auditors. Iwadare, Maeda and Carleton handled the overall management, the company started with the production, sales and maintenance of telephones and switches. NEC modernized the facilities with the construction of the Mita Plant in 1901 at Mita Shikokumachi. It was completed in December 1902, the Japanese Ministry of Communications adopted a new technology in 1903, the common battery switchboard supplied by NEC. The common battery switchboards powered the subscriber phone, eliminating the need for a permanent magnet generator in each subscribers phone, the switchboards were initially imported, but were manufactured locally by 1909. NEC started exporting telephone sets to China in 1904, in 1905, Iwadare visited Western Electric in the U. S. to see their management and production control. On his return to Japan he discontinued the system of sub-contracting and replaced it with a new system where managers. Inefficiency was also removed from the production process, the company paid higher salaries with incentives for efficiency. New accounting and cost controls were put in place, and time clocks installed, between 1899 and 1907 the number of telephone subscribers in Japan rose from 35,000 to 95,000
31.
TurboGrafx-16
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It was the first console released in the 16-bit era, albeit still utilizing an 8-bit CPU. Originally intended to compete with the Nintendo Entertainment System, it ended up competing with the Sega Genesis, the TurboGrafx-16 has an 8-bit CPU, a 16-bit video color encoder, and a 16-bit video display controller. The GPUs are capable of displaying 482 colors simultaneously, out of 512, with dimensions of 14 cm×14 cm×3.8 cm, the PC Engine once held the record for the worlds smallest game console. In France, the system was released shortly after its American debut under its original Japanese name, in the United Kingdom, Telegames released a slightly altered version of the American model simply as the TurboGrafx in 1990 in extremely limited quantities. This model was released in Spain through selected retailers. The TurboGrafx-16 failed to break into the North American market and sold poorly, however, in Japan the PC Engine was very successful. Two major revisions, the PC Engine SuperGrafx and the PC Engine Duo, were released in 1989 and 1991, the entire series was succeeded by the PC-FX in 1994, which was only released in Japan. The TurboGrafx-16 was an effort between the relatively young Hudson Soft and NEC Home Electronics. NECs interest in entering the video game market coincided with Hudsons failed attempt to sell designs for then-advanced graphics chips to Nintendo. The TurboGrafx-16 was the first video game console to have a CD-ROM peripheral, NEC released the CD-ROM² in Japan on December 4,1988, and released the TurboGrafx-CD in the United States on August 1,1990. The TurboGrafx-CD had a price of $399.99. Fighting Street and Monster Lair were the TurboGrafx-CD launch titles, Ys Book I & II soon followed, the TurboGrafx-16 was released in the New York City and Los Angeles test market in late August 1989. Initially, the TurboGrafx-16 was marketed as a competitor to the NES and early television ads touted the TG-16s superior graphics. These ads featured a montage of the TG-16s launch titles, Blazing Lazers, China Warrior, Vigilante, Alien Crush. The TG-16 was also in competition with the Sega Genesis. The Genesis launch was accompanied by an ad campaign mocking NECs claim that the TurboGrafx-16 was the first 16-bit console, NEC claimed that it had sold 750,000 TG-16 consoles in the United States, and 500,000 CD-ROM units worldwide, by March 1991. That year NEC released the PC Engine Duo in Japan, a model which could play HuCards and CD-ROM² discs, the console was licensed to Turbo Technologies Incorporated, who released it in North America in 1992 as the TurboDuo. In addition to standard CD-ROM² format discs, the Duo could also play games in the newly introduced Super CD-ROM² format due to its greater RAM size, the unit came into competition with the Sega CD, which was released almost immediately after
32.
Mark Cerny
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Mark Cerny is an American video game designer, programmer, producer and business executive. As president of Cerny Games, which he founded in 1998, in the mid 2010s, Cerny served as the lead architect and producer of Sonys PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita video game consoles. Cerny, a fan of computer programming and arcade games, started in the industry at the age of 17 when he joined Atari in 1982. In those earlier days of game development, teams were small. Cernys first major success is cited as Marble Madness in which he, at age 18. For years he worked with Sega in Japan and the United States and he was the vice president and then president of Universal Interactive Studios. He has worked extensively with Naughty Dog, Insomniac Games, from his extensive experience on the dos and donts in the game industry he has developed a teaching method for game development. His method prefers a free-form, pre-production stage that explores a games viability prior to full development, for example, he advocates that if the first level produced doesnt excite customers, then the game idea should be set aside before too much effort is put into it. The International Game Developers Association awarded Cerny with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards in 2004. IGDA stated, Its rare to find a jack-of-all-trades who not only has the vision for great game design. His unusual but highly effective methodology has brought us some of the most entertaining games in history and he was described as a master collaborator. His Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon games have sold more than 30 million units. In 2010, at the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Mark Cerny was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame, Mark Cerny is the closest we have come to a modern-day Da Vinci, said Joseph Olin, then-president of the AIAS. What he does isnt restricted to an aspect of game creation. He is a diversely accomplished game designer, producer, programmer and technologist, fluent in Japanese, hes also one of the only top-level independents in a business dominated by institutions. On February 20,2013 at the global PlayStation 4 unveiling event in New York City Mark Cerny was revealed as the lead architect. He also showed footage of his own new game called Knack which he is developing for the console. On September 21,2013 Cerny was revealed to have been the architect of PlayStation Vita
33.
Multicart
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In video game parlance, a multicart is a cartridge that contains more than one game. Typically, the games are available individually for purchase or were previously available individually. For this reason, collections, anthologies, and compilations are considered multicarts, the desirability of the multicart to consumers is that it provides better value, greater convenience, and more portability than the separate games would provide. Multicarts are distinct from minigame series such as Mario Party, Game & Watch Gallery and these games are made up of several minigames specifically created for the overall game experience. In contrast to this, the NES multicart Super Mario Bros. /Duck Hunt contains two games, each of which were available for purchase individually. Since launch, these systems have seen an increase in the number of “2-in-1” and 3-in-1” games, the list is padded by different variations of these games, hacked to start at different levels or to start a player with different power-ups. Other popular video game also have their own share of unique pirate multicarts. Unlike the Famicom, the Nintendo Game Boy multicarts have a variety of different, standard-sized Game Boy multicarts have either a game selection menu like the NES multicarts, or require quick toggling of the Game Boy power switch to select through games. Most of them incorporate a soft reset button, so you can reset the game without powering off the system. To overcome the limitations of a standard-sized pirate cart, huge pirate carts were created. These unusually large and thick carts, more than 2 times the height and depth of a standard Game Boy cartridge, were able to store many of the new games. One drawback of these carts is they lack any battery backup, most of these carts were produced in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. More recently there have been Game Boy Advance multicarts with several GBA games and these carts are known to include some bootlegs, hacks or variations of games, advertising them as different games and giving them incorrect box arts on the main boxart. These multicarts were published with the consent of the owners of copyright in the games themselves, sunday Funday, from religious game developer Wisdom Tree. Most of these were released outside the US and EU, Mother 1+2, contains the first two games of the Mother series. Super Mario World, Super Mario Advance 2, contains Super Mario World, Yoshis Island, Super Mario Advance 3, contains Super Mario World 2, Yoshis Island and Mario Bros. Super Mario Advance 4, Super Mario Bros,3, contains Super Mario Bros.3 and Mario Bros. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Double Pack, contains Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, Double Pack, Reshef of Destruction & The Sacred Cards Yu-Gi-Oh
34.
Hang-On
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Hang-On is an arcade game designed by Yu Suzuki and released by Sega in 1985. In the game, the controls a motorcycle against time. It was one of the first arcade games to use 16-bit graphics, the game was also built into some versions of the Sega Master System. Nevertheless, he chose to keep the former name, in a 1995 interview Suzuki said he felt Hang-On was his most impressive game at the time of release. Using a behind the motorcycle perspective, the races a linear race track divided into several stages within a limited time. Reaching a checkpoint at the end of each stage extends the time limit, the game ends if the time runs out. The arcade flyer features a bike in Marlboro colors, who had sponsored the Yamaha YZR500 during the championships in the mid. There would be a controversy over cigarette ads in games marketed to children upon the release of another Sega racing game, to steer, the player leaned to tilt the bike, which then steered the in-game bike. The screen was mounted into the area of the bike. An SG-1000-exclusive sequel, Hang-On II, was released in 1985, though it was essentially a port of the original game modified to work within the limitations of the console hardware. In 1987, it was followed by a sequel Super Hang-On for arcade, a polygon based sequel, developed by Genki, was released for the Sega Saturn, named variously Hang-On GP95, Hang-On GP and Hang-On GP96. In Power Drift, the motorcycle is a vehicle and can only be accessed by finishing first place for all five tracks on courses A, C. It is only playable in the Extra Stage, in Sonic Riders, both the Hang-On Gear and the Super Hang-On Gear can be bought in the shop, with each one playing its respective music while racing. In Sonic Free Riders both the Hang-On Gear and the Super Hang-On Gear can be bought in the shop, as in the original Sonic Riders. Shenmue and Shenmue II both feature Hang-On as a mini-game, as well as the ability to win miniature toy versions of the bikes from gashapon machines, the Xbox version of Shenmue II is playable on Xbox 360, but crashes when trying to play Hang-On. In Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Ryo drives a Hang-On sit-down arcade cabinet during water-based portions of a race, in Daytona USA, if H. O is entered on the high score table, a clip of the main theme from Hang-On will play. Hang-On at the Killer List of Videogames Super Hang-On at the Killer List of Videogames Hang-On at MobyGames Super Hang-On at MobyGames
35.
Marksman Shooting & Trap Shooting
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Marksman Shooting & Trap Shooting is a light gun shooter compilation game released for Sega Master System in North America in 1986. A third game, Safari Hunt, was included in the European version, Safari Hunt was also bundled with Hang-On as part of another multicart and also as a built-in game in Version 2.4 of the Master System BIOS. In each game, players must use the Light Phaser to shoot targets, failure to qualify results in an instant game over. Players select from one of three separate games, in each of the three games, players must use the Light Phaser to shoot targets and score a set number of points. The targets vary in each game, Marksman Shooting has players shoot red dots on targets at a shooting range. The second game, Trap Shooting simulates the sport of the name as players shoot at flying targets. Safari Hunt is similar to Duck Hunt for the NES, requiring the player to shoot at various animals, the player must score a certain amount of points by shooting the animals with a limited amount of bullets to move to the next level. The three levels repeat until level 69 at which the required score is one million points. After clearing the level, a screen appears that says that the player has made it to the end of the game followed by a Game Over screen. Marksman Shooting & Trap Shooting at MobyGames Marksman Shooting & Trap Shooting can be played for free in the browser at the Internet Archive
36.
Atari 7800
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The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a home video game console officially released by Atari Corporation in 1986. It is almost fully backward-compatible with the Atari 2600, the first console to have backward compatibility without the use of additional modules and it was considered affordable at a price of US$140. The 7800 has significantly improved graphics hardware over the 2600, and it also shipped with a different model of joystick than the 2600-standard CX40. A few units were released to test markets in June 1984 though, the Atari 7800 ProSystem was the first game system from Atari Inc. designed by an outside company, General Computer Corporation. The system was designed in 1983-84 with a mass market rollout in June 1984. The project was called the Atari 3600, though was later renamed the Atari 7800. Atari had been facing mounting pressure in the form of competition from the ColecoVision, at the same time, the Atari 5200 had been widely criticized for not being able to play Atari 2600 games without an adapter. GCC, which had a background in creating games, designed their new system with a graphical architecture similar to arcade machines of the time. The 7800 allows a number of moving objects that far exceeds previous consoles. Powering the system is a slightly customized 6502 processor, the Atari SALLY, in contrast to the Atari 5200, the Atari 7800 can play almost all Atari 2600 games out of the box, without the need for an adapter. In addition, it features a return to a digital controller, then as an added bonus, GCCs programmers would also do almost all of the Atari 2600,5200 games in 1983-1984 for Atari. atarimuseum. A keyboard was developed, and the keyboard had a port that allowed for the addition of peripherals such as disk drives. To further enhance the experience, GCC had also designed a high score cartridge. On the side of the 7800 was a port, reportedly for a planned connection with a laserdisc player. The 7800 was initially released in southern California in June 1984, following an announcement on May 21,1984 at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show. Thirteen games were announced for the launch, Ms. Pac-Man, Pole Position II, Centipede, Joust, Dig Dug, Desert Falcon, Robotron,2084, Galaga, Food Fight, Ballblazer. Atari was a sponsor of the 1984 Summer Olympics and planned to push the 7800 aggressively in time for Christmas that year, on July 2,1984, Warner Communications sold Ataris Consumer Division to Jack Tramiel. All projects were halted during an evaluation period
37.
Activision
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Activision Publishing, Inc. also known as Activision, is an American video game publisher. It was founded on October 1,1979 and was the worlds first independent developer and its first products were cartridges for the Atari 2600 video console system published from July 1980 for the US market and from August 1981 for the international market. As of January 2017, Activision is one of the largest third party video game publishers in the world and was also the top publisher for 2016 in the United States, before Activision, third-party developers did not exist. Software for video game consoles were published exclusively by makers of the systems for which the games were designed, for example, Atari was the only publisher of games for the Atari 2600. This was particularly galling to the developers, as they received financial rewards nor credit for games that sold well. Kaplan, who called the others the best designers for the in the world, recalled that Kassar called the four men towel designers and that anyone can do a cartridge. Crane, Miller, and Whitehead left Atari and founded Activision in October 1979 with former music industry executive Jim Levy and venture capitalist Richard Muchmore, David Crane has said the name Activision was based on Jim Levys idea to combine active and television. The original name proposed for the company was VSync, Inc, unlike Atari, the company credited and promoted game creators along with the games themselves. The steps taken for this included devoting a page to the developer in their instruction manuals and these approaches helped the newly formed company attract experienced talent. In recognition of this step, Kaplan, Levy, Miller, the departure of the four programmers, whose titles made up more than half of Ataris cartridge sales at the time, caused legal action between the two companies not settled until 1982. As the market for game consoles started to decline, Activision branched out, producing titles for home computers. In 1982, Activision released Pitfall. on the Atari 2600, designed and developed by David Crane, it was a huge success. Many clones of the game were introduced, including arcade games. On June 13,1986, Activision purchased struggling text adventure pioneer Infocom, Jim Levy was a big fan of Infocoms titles and wanted the company to remain solvent. About six months after the InfoWedding, Bruce Davis took over as CEO of Activision, Davis was against the merger from the start and was heavy-handed in its management. Five of them accepted this offer, in 1988, Activision began involvement in software besides video games, such as business applications. As a result, Activision changed its name to Mediagenic to better represent all of its activities. After taking over the company, the new management filed for a Chapter 11 reorganization, in the reorganization, Mediagenic merged with The Disc Company with Mediagenic being the surviving company
38.
Parker Brothers
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Parker Brothers was an American toy and game manufacturer which later became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883, among its products were Monopoly, Cluedo, Sorry. Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Ouija, Aggravation, Bop It, the trade name is now defunct, former products are marketed under the Hasbro Gaming label. Parker Brothers was founded by George S. Parker, Parkers philosophy deviated from the prevalent theme of board game design, he believed that games should be played for enjoyment and did not need to emphasize morals and values. He created his first game, called Banking, in 1883 when he was 16, Banking is a game in which players borrowed money from the bank and tried to generate wealth by guessing how well they could do. The game included 160 cards which foretold their failures or successes, the game was so popular among family and friends that his brother, Charles Parker, urged him to publish it. George approached two Boston publishers with the idea, but was unsuccessful, not discouraged, he spent $40 to publish 500 sets of Banking. He eventually sold all but twelve copies, making a profit of $100, Parker founded his game company, initially called the George S. Parker Company, in his hometown of Salem, Massachusetts in 1883. When Georges brother Charles joined the business in 1888, the name was changed to its more familiar form. In 1898 a third brother, Edward H. Parker, joined the company, for many years, George designed most of the games himself, and wrote all the rules. Many games were based on important events of the day, Klondike was based on the Alaskan gold rush, the game industry was growing, and the company was becoming very profitable. In 1906, Parker Brothers published the game Rook, their most successful card game to this day, during the Great Depression, a time when many companies went out of business, Parker Brothers released a new board game called Monopoly. Although the company had rejected the game in 1934, they decided to publish it the next year. It was an instant success, and the company had difficulty keeping up with demand, the company continued to grow throughout the next several decades, producing such lasting games as Clue, Risk, and Sorry. Parker Brothers marketed its first puzzle in 1887, the most highly sought of Parker puzzles are the wooden Parker Pastimes. Parker also produced childrens puzzles, as well as the Climax, Jig-A-Jig, Jig Wood, and Paramount lines. According to Jigsaw Puzzles, An Illustrated History and Price Guide, by Anne D. Williams, Parker Bros. closed the Pastime line in the 1950s, even after George Parkers death, the company remained family-owned until 1968 when General Mills purchased the company. After this, Parker Brothers produced the first Nerf ball, which became another major national hit, in the UK during the 1970s, Parker Bros. was the games division of Palitoy, and produced a variety of releases such as Escape from Colditz
39.
Video game packaging
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Video game packaging refers to the physical storage of the contents of a PC or console game, both for safekeeping and shop display. In the past, a number of materials and packaging designs were used, today, most console and PC games are shipped in jewel cases or keep cases, with little differences between them. Early machines such as the Commodore 64 were tape-based, and hence had their games distributed on ordinary cassettes, when more advanced machines moved to floppy disks, the cassette boxes stayed in use for a while. In the late 80s and early 90s, computer games became more complex. Possibly in an effort to occupy more shelf-space than their rivals, there was no standard size, but most were around 20 cm x 15 cm x 5 cm. The greatly increasing box sizes may have been justified in some cases, games such as flight simulators came with extremely large, thick manuals. Others came with elaborate copy-protection systems such as Zools circular code wheel, variations on the big box format include a box within a sleeve, such as Unreal, and a box with a fold-out front cover, such as Black & White. Games re-released as budget games usually came in much smaller boxes—a common format for Amiga budget games was a square box roughly 13 cm x 13 cm x 2 cm. Despite the CD jewel case format having been around since the invention of the music CD, a thicker variation with space for a thick manual was, however, used for most PlayStation and Dreamcast games. Around 2000, PC game packaging in Europe began to converge with that of PS2 console games and these boxes are sometimes known as Amaray cases, after a popular manufacturer of them. In the US, most PC games continue to ship in cardboard boxes, special packages such as a Collectors Edition frequently still ship with oversized boxes, or those with a different material, such as a Steelbook. In the US, the IEMA played a role in improving, from a retailers perspective. In 2000, many retailers were becoming disenchanted with the salability of PC games as compared with their more profitable console game counterparts as products, oversized software boxes were blamed for a lack of productivity per square foot. In creating the new box size the IEMA found itself in the position of platform guardian. As such, the industry pressured the organization to develop an identification mark which would unify the display. Again the IEMA worked with publishers to create a new standard PC icon, in 2004, Half-Life 2 was made available for download over the Internet, via Steam. A physical boxed copy was sold, though it also required activation over the Internet. Valve Corporation hoped this method of distribution would take off, as it delivers a greater percentage of the price to the game developer than boxed copies
40.
Tonka
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Tonka is an American producer of toy trucks. Maisto International, which makes diecast vehicles, acquired the rights to use the Tonka name in a line of 1,64 scale diecast vehicles, the Winifred Museum in Winifred, Montana, has a collection of more than 3,000 Tonka toys. Mound Metalcraft was created in 1946 in Mound, Minnesota by Lynn Everett Baker, Avery F. Crounse and their original intent was to manufacture garden implements. Their buildings former occupant, the Streater Company, had made, E. C. Streater was not interested in the toy business so they approached Mound Metalcraft. The three men at Mound Metalcraft thought they might make a side line to their other products. After some modifications to the design by Alvin Tesch and the addition of a new logo created by Erling Eklof, in November,1955, Mound Metalcraft changed its name to Tonka Toys Incorporated. The logo at time was an oval, showing the Tonka Toys name in red above waves. In 1964, Tonka acquired the Mell Manufacturing Company in Chicago, allowing it to produce barbecue grills, in 1987, Tonka purchased Kenner Parker, including UK toy giant Palitoy, for $555 million, borrowing extensively to fund the acquisition. However, the cost of servicing the debt meant Tonka itself had to find a buyer, in 2001, Tonka trucks were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong in Rochester, New York. Tonka has produced a variety of toys over the years, including dolls and other toys aimed at girls like Keypers and aimed at boys like Gobots, Rock Lords, Spiral Zone, and Steel Monsters. It was the manufacturer of the Pound Puppies toy line. However, the Master Systems market share declined, since Tonka didnt have experience with games or how to market them. Hasbro sold the digital gaming rights for various properties to Infogrames for US$100 million in 2000, buying back the rights for US$66 million in June 2005
41.
Leipzig
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Leipzig is the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany. With a population of 570,087 inhabitants it is Germanys tenth most populous city, Leipzig is located about 160 kilometres southwest of Berlin at the confluence of the White Elster, Pleisse, and Parthe rivers at the southern end of the North German Plain. Leipzig has been a city since at least the time of the Holy Roman Empire. The city sits at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, Leipzig was once one of the major European centers of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing. Leipzig became an urban center within the German Democratic Republic after the Second World War. Leipzig later played a significant role in instigating the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, through events which took place in, Leipzig today is an economic center and the most livable city in Germany, according to the GfK marketing research institution. Since the opening of the Leipzig City Tunnel in 2013, Leipzig forms the centerpiece of the S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland public transit system, Leipzig is currently listed as Gamma World City and Germanys Boomtown. Outside of Leipzig the Neuseenland district forms a lake area of approximately 300 square kilometres. Leipzig is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means settlement where the linden trees stand, an older spelling of the name in English is Leipsic. The Latin name Lipsia was also used, the name is cognate with Lipetsk in Russia and Liepāja in Latvia. In 1937 the Nazi government officially renamed the city Reichsmessestadt Leipzig, the common usage of this nickname for Leipzig up until the present is reflected, for example, in the name of a popular blog for local arts and culture, Heldenstadt. de. Leipzig was first documented in 1015 in the chronicles of Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg as urbs Libzi and endowed with city, Leipzig Trade Fair, started in the Middle Ages, became an event of international importance and is the oldest remaining trade fair in the world. During the Thirty Years War, two battles took place in Breitenfeld, about 8 kilometres outside Leipzig city walls, the first Battle of Breitenfeld took place in 1631 and the second in 1642. Both battles resulted in victories for the Swedish-led side, on 24 December 1701, an oil-fueled street lighting system was introduced. The city employed light guards who had to follow a schedule to ensure the punctual lighting of the 700 lanterns. The Leipzig region was the arena of the 1813 Battle of Leipzig between Napoleonic France and a coalition of Prussia, Russia, Austria and Sweden. It was the largest battle in Europe prior to the First World War, in 1913 the Monument to the Battle of the Nations celebrating the centenary of this event was completed. The railway station has two entrance halls, the eastern one for the Royal Saxon State Railways and the western one for the Prussian state railways
