1.
First-person shooter
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The first-person shooter shares common traits with other shooter games, which in turn fall under the heading action game. From the genres inception, advanced 3D or pseudo-3D graphics have challenged hardware development, the first-person shooter has since been traced as far back as Maze War, development of which began in 1973, and 1974s Spasim. 1998s Half-Life—along with its 2004 sequel Half-Life 2—enhanced the narrative and puzzle elements, in 1999, Half-Lifes mod Counter-Strike was released and, together with Doom, is perhaps one of the most influential first-person shooters. GoldenEye 007 was a landmark first-person shooter for home consoles, while the Halo series heightened the consoles commercial and critical appeal as a platform for first-person shooter titles. In the 21st century, the shooter is the most commercially viable video game genre. Several first-person shooters have been popular games for eSports and competitive gaming competitions as well, first-person shooters are a type of three-dimensional shooter game, featuring a first-person point of view with which the player sees the action through the eyes of the player character. They are unlike third-person shooters, in which the player can see the character they are controlling, the primary design element is combat, mainly involving firearms. A more important key difference is that first-person light-gun shooters like Virtua Cop often feature on-rails movement, the first-person shooter may be considered a distinct genre in itself, or a type of shooter game, in turn a subgenre of the wider action game genre. Following the release of Doom in 1993, games in this style were commonly termed Doom clones, in time this term has largely been replaced by first-person shooter. Wolfenstein 3D, released in 1992, the year before Doom, has credited with inventing the genre. There are occasional disagreements regarding the design elements which constitute a first-person shooter. For example, Deus Ex or BioShock may be considered as first-person shooters, some commentators extend the definition to include combat flight simulators where the cockpit or vehicle takes place of the hands and weapons. Like most shooter games, first-person shooters involve an avatar, one or more ranged weapons, and a varying number of enemies. Because they take place in a 3D environment, these tend to be somewhat more realistic than 2D shooter games. First-person shooters played on computers are most often controlled with a combination of a keyboard. This system has claimed as superior to that found in console games. It is common to display the characters hands and weaponry in the view, with a head-up display showing health. Often, it is possible to overlay a map of the surrounding area, first-person shooters often focus on action gameplay, with fast-paced and bloody firefights, though some place a greater emphasis on narrative, problem-solving and logic puzzles
2.
Stealth game
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A stealth game is a type of video game that tasks the player with using stealth to avoid or overcome antagonists. Games in the genre typically allow the player to remain undetected by hiding, using disguises or avoiding noise, some games allow the player to choose between a stealthy approach or directly attacking antagonists, perhaps rewarding the player for greater levels of stealth. The genre has employed espionage, counter-terrorism and rogue themes, with protagonists who have identified as special forces operatives, spies, thieves, ninjas. Some games have also combined stealth elements with other genres, such as first-person shooters, some of the early games emphasizing stealth include Manbiki Shounen, Lupin III,005, Castle Wolfenstein, Infiltrator, Metal Gear, and Metal Gear 2, Solid Snake. The genre became popular in 1998, with the success of Metal Gear Solid as well as Tenchu, Stealth Assassins and Thief. These games were followed by other series, such as Hitman. Later games in the genre have allowed the player to choose between, or combine, stealth tactics and direct confrontation, unlike most action games, stealth games challenge the player to avoid alerting enemies altogether. The core gameplay elements of the stealth game are to avoid combat, minimize noise. Completing objectives without being detected by any enemy, sometimes referred to as ghosting is an approach to stealth games. Avoiding detection may be the way to successfully complete a game. Players can hide behind objects or in shadows, and can strike or run past an enemy when the enemy is facing the other way, if the player attracts the attention of enemies, they usually must hide and wait until the enemies abandon their search. Thus, planning becomes important, as does trial-and-error, however, some stealth games put more emphasis on physical combat skill when the player is spotted. Some games offer a choice between killing or merely knocking out an enemy, when ghosting is optional, or even not well-supported by a game, players may still attempt to avoid combat for moral reasons or as a demonstration of skill. When hiding in the dark is an element, light. Usually the player is able to disable certain light sources, players who move recklessly will make more noise and attract more attention. In order for a game to include stealth gameplay, the knowledge of the artificial intelligence must be restricted to make it ignorant to parts of the game world. Enemies typically have a line of sight which the player can avoid by hiding behind objects, enemies can also typically detect when the player touches them or moves within a small, fixed distance. Overall, stealth games vary in what player actions the AI will perceive and react to, often, the AIs movements are predictable and regular, allowing the player to devise a strategy to overcome his adversaries
3.
Rare (company)
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Rare is a British video game developer located in Twycross, Leicestershire. The company was established in 1985 by Tim and Chris Stamper, during its early years, Rare was backed by an unlimited budget from Nintendo, primarily concentrated on Nintendo Entertainment System games. During this time they created successful titles such as Wizards & Warriors, Battletoads, Rare became a prominent second-party developer for Nintendo, who came to own a large minority stake of the company. During this period, Rare received international recognition and critical acclaim for such as Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark. In 2002, Microsoft acquired Rare, who retained their original brand, logo and it has since focused on developing games exclusively for Microsoft Studios video game consoles. Notable releases include Kameo, Elements of Power, Perfect Dark Zero, in 2015, Rare released Rare Replay, a compilation of 30 games produced by the company to celebrate their 30th anniversary. Rare is currently working on Sea of Thieves, an adventure game. Several key employees left Rare to form their own companies, such as Free Radical Design, Rare was widely recognised by the gaming industry and received numerous accolades from critics and journalists. The company has often described as secretive and seclusive. As a result, a new subdivision named Rare Ltd was established by Ashby Computers and its main goal was to reverse-engineer the console and investigate the codes for Famicoms games to learn more about the consoles programming. With successful results, the decided to sell the Ultimate brand to U. S. Gold. Famicoms owner, Nintendo, once claimed that it would be impossible for their console to be decoded, using the information the Ashby Computers and Graphics team learnt from the Rare division, the team prepared several tech demos and showed them to the Nintendo executive Minoru Arakawa in Kyoto. Impressed with their efforts, Nintendo decided to grant the Ashby team an unlimited budget for them to work on games for the Famicom platform. After they returned to England, they moved from Ashby-de-la-Zouch to Twycross and they set their headquarters in a Manor Farmhouse. Rare also set up another company known as Rare Inc. in Miami, headed by Joel Hochberg, the American company was involved in maintaining Rares operation in the US and contacting major US publishers. Famicom was eventually released in the UK under the name Nintendo Entertainment System, with the unlimited budget, the Rare studio could work a large variety of different games. The first project Rare worked on was Slalom, an ice-skiing title and they helped in creating new and original intellectual properties, including R. C. Pro-Am, a game with vehicular combat elements, and Snake Rattle n Roll
4.
Microsoft Studios
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They were established in 2002 as Microsoft Game Studios to coincide with the already released Xbox, before being re-branded in 2011. The subsidiary had also known as Microsoft Game Division and simply Microsoft Games before 2002. Microsoft Studios develops and publishes games in conjunction with first and third party development studios under their publishing label, in 2007, Microsoft Studios announced the opening of a European office in Reading, England, headed by general manager Phil Spencer. It disbanded FASA Studio, best known for their work on the MechWarrior series, former Halo developer Bungie announced that they would split from Microsoft Studios in order to become a privately held independent company. In 2008, Microsoft Studios disbanded casual games studio Carbonated Games and it also began to recruit for 343 Industries to take over development of the Halo franchise after the former developer, Bungie, regained independent status. 343 Industries was first officially revealed as steward of the Halo series in mid-2009 with the announcement of the animated project, in 2009, Microsoft Studios disbanded both Ensemble Studios and Aces Studio due to the effects of the late-2000s financial crisis and the restructuring of their game development studios. Phil Spencer was promoted to Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Studios in order to replace the retiring Shane Kim, in 2010, Microsoft Studios forms a Mobile Gaming studio focused on developing gaming and entertainment multimedia for Windows Phone. It also expanded Rare Ltd. to a second additional 90+ person in Digbeth, formed new internal studios named Microsoft Game Studios - Vancouver and Microsoft Flight Development Team, to bring Microsoft Flight to PC. In October 2010, Don Mattrick is promoted to President of the Interactive Entertainment Business, in 2011, Microsoft Studios opened new development studios in Soho London, Redmond, Washington and Victoria, British Columbia. In 2012, Phil Harrison, the former Sony worldwide studios head, joins Microsoft as head of Microsoft Studios Europe, Microsoft Studios recruited for new development studios in Redmond, including Playful Learning and The Connected Experiences. Microsoft Studios acquired developer Press Play, known for developing Tentacles and they aimed to create Microsoft Studios next big IP to rival their most successful series, Halo. Microsoft also recruited for a new development studio in Los Angeles, in 2013, Microsoft established a new European studio Lift London, a studio that would create digital cloud games for tablets, mobiles and TVs and officially reveals the Xbox One on May 21,2013. Later, Microsoft recruited for EMEA Publishing to manage relations with third party developers making Microsoft Published games in EMEA regions, Microsoft Studios announced that they would publish fifteen Xbox One exclusives within 12 months of launch,8 of which would be new franchises. On December 6, Microsoft decided to close the Victoria Studio with explanation to focus on Vancouver based studio, however Victoria didnt develop any games. On January 11,2014, Microsoft Studios announced they had signed multi-year, multi-title publishing contract with Undead Labs, on January 27, it acquired the rights to the Gears of War franchise and announced that the series will continue under Black Tusk Studios. On February 13, Jason Holtman left Microsoft Studios just 6 months after he joined the company, and Phil Spencer was appointed as the new head and boss of Microsoft Studios. On April 5, Phil Spencer announced that a couple of internal development studios that had not been publicly revealed are currently working on exclusive titles for the Xbox One platform. On May 31, it was revealed that Microsoft has acquired the rights of Rise of IP, on July 17, the head of Microsoft Studios, Phil Spencer, confirmed that Xbox Entertainment Studios would close in the coming months
5.
Nintendo 64
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The Nintendo 64, stylized as the NINTENDO64 and often referred to as the N64, is Nintendos third home video game console for the international market. It was the last major home console to use the cartridge as its primary storage format until Nintendos seventh console, while the Nintendo 64 was succeeded by Nintendos MiniDVD-based GameCube in September 2001, the consoles remained available until the system was retired in late 2003. Codenamed Project Reality, the the N64 design was complete by mid-1995, but its launch was delayed until 1996. It launched with three games, Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64, released worldwide, and Saikyō Habu Shōgi, as part of the fifth generation of gaming, the system competed primarily with the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. The suggested retail price at its United States launch was US$199.99, the console was released in a range of colors and designs over its lifetime. In 2015, IGN named it the 9th greatest video game console of all time, as of 2016, the system remains a popular retro console in North America. At the beginning of the 1990s, Nintendo led the game industry with its Nintendo Entertainment System. Although the NES follow-up console, the Super NES, was successful, competition from long-time rival Sega, and relative newcomer Sony, emphasized Nintendos need to develop a successor for the SNES, or risk losing market dominance to its competitors. Further complicating matters, Nintendo also faced a backlash from third-party developers unhappy with Nintendos strict licensing policies, the company created a design proposal for a video game system, seeking an already well established partner in that market. James H. Clark, founder of SGI, initially offered the proposal to Tom Kalinske, the historical details of these preliminary negotiations were controversial between the two competing suitors. Tom Kalinske said that he and Joe Miller of Sega of America were quite impressed with SGIs prototype, the engineers from Sega Enterprises claimed that their evaluation of the early prototype had uncovered several unresolved hardware issues and deficiencies. Those were subsequently resolved, but Sega had already decided against SGIs design, Nintendo resisted that summary conclusion, arguing that the reason for SGIs ultimate choice of partner is due to Nintendo having been a more appealing business partner than Sega. While Sega demanded exclusive rights to the chip, Nintendo was willing to license the technology on a non-exclusive basis, michael Slater, publisher of Microprocessor Report said, The mere fact of a business relationship there is significant because of Nintendos phenomenal ability to drive volume. If it works at all, it could bring MIPS to levels of volume never dreamed of, james Clark met with Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi in early 1993, thus initiating Project Reality. This announcement coincided with Nintendos August 1993 Shoshinkai trade show, as with most of the computing industry, Nintendo had limited experience with 3D graphics, and worked with several outside companies to develop the technology comprising the console. Some chip technology was provided by NEC, Toshiba, and Sharp, SGI had recently acquired MIPS Computer Systems, and the two worked together toward a low-cost realtime 3D graphics hardware system. SGI and its subsidiary MIPS Technologies were responsible for the R4300i microprocessor and that software-based console prototype platform was later supplanted by a workstation-hosted console simulation board, representing the finalized console hardware. SGIs performance estimates based upon their RealityEngine supercomputing platform were ultimately reported to be accurate to the final consumer console product
6.
Game Boy Color
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It is the successor of the Game Boy. The Game Boy Color, as suggested by the name, features a color screen and it is slightly thicker and taller than the Game Boy Pocket, which is a redesigned Game Boy released in 1996. As with the original Game Boy, it has a custom 8-bit processor somewhat related to a Zilog Z80 central processing unit, the original name - with its American English spelling of color - remained unchanged even in markets where colour was the accepted English spelling. The Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined have sold 118.69 million units worldwide and it was discontinued in 2003, shortly after the release of the Game Boy Advance SP. The resultant product was backward compatible, a first for a handheld system and this became a major feature of the Game Boy line, since it allowed each new launch to begin with a significantly larger library than any of its competitors. The Game Boy Color also has three times as much memory as the original, the screen resolution was the same as the original Game Boy, which is 160x144 pixels. The Game Boy Color also featured an infrared port for wireless linking. A few games used Hi-Color mode to increase the number of colors available on-screen and this is a mode used most notably by the Italian company 7th Sense s. r. l. and can display more than 2000 different colors on the screen. Some examples of using this method are The Fish Files, The New Addams Family Series and Alone in the Dark. When playing an original Game Boy game on a later system and this is achieved by pressing certain button combinations, namely either A or B and a direction key while the Game Boy logo is displayed on the screen. These palettes each contain up to ten colors, the grayscale palette produces an appearance identical to that experienced on the original Game Boy, the inverted colors palette inverts the colors from the Game Boy Colors color palettes. In addition, some Game Boy games have a palette that is enabled when no buttons are pressed. Any game that not have a special palette will default to the dark green palette. The default palettes are stored in a database within the internal boot ROM of the system, titles that have color palettes on Super Game Boy will usually default to a similar palette when played on a Game Boy Color. These games would display a message and refuse to play if used in older Game Boy models. Pokémon Gold and Silver are also examples of Game Boy Color games that work on an original Game Boy system, the clear-colored Game Boy Color cartridges will function correctly only when used in a Game Boy Color or a later model. The logo for Game Boy Color spelled out the word COLOR in the five colors in which the unit was manufactured. Other colors were sold as limited editions or in specific countries, the last Game Boy Color game released in Japan was From TV Animation – One Piece, Maboroshi no Grand Line Boukenhen
7.
Xbox 360
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The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the console in the Xbox series. The Xbox 360 competed with Sonys PlayStation 3 and Nintendos Wii as part of the generation of video game consoles. The Xbox 360 was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12,2005, with detailed launch, the Xbox 360 features an online service, Xbox Live, which was expanded from its previous iteration on the original Xbox and received regular updates during the consoles lifetime. In addition to multimedia features, the Xbox 360 allows users to stream media from local PCs. Several peripherals have been released, including controllers, expanded hard drive storage. The release of additional services and peripherals helped the Xbox brand grow from gaming-only to encompassing all multimedia. Launched worldwide across 2005–2006, the Xbox 360 was initially in short supply in many regions, including North America, the earliest versions of the console suffered from a high failure rate, indicated by the so-called Red Ring of Death, necessitating an extension of the devices warranty period. Microsoft released two redesigned models of the console, the Xbox 360 S in 2010, and the Xbox 360 E in 2013. As of June 2014,84 million Xbox 360 consoles have sold worldwide, making it the sixth-highest-selling video game console in history. The Xbox 360s successor, the Xbox One, was released on November 22,2013, on April 20,2016, Microsoft announced that it would end the production of new Xbox 360 hardware, although the company will continue to support the platform. Known during development as Xbox Next, Xenon, Xbox 2, Xbox FS or NextBox, in February 2003, planning for the Xenon software platform began, and was headed by Microsofts Vice President J Allard. That month, Microsoft held an event for 400 developers in Bellevue, also that month, Peter Moore, former president of Sega of America, joined Microsoft. On August 12,2003, ATI signed on to produce the graphic processing unit for the new console, before the launch of the Xbox 360, several Alpha development kits were spotted using Apples Power Mac G5 hardware. This was because the systems PowerPC970 processor running the same PowerPC architecture that the Xbox 360 would eventually run under IBMs Xenon processor, the cores of the Xenon processor were developed using a slightly modified version of the PlayStation 3s Cell Processor PPE architecture. According to David Shippy and Mickie Phipps, the IBM employees were hiding their work from Sony and Toshiba, jeff Minter created the music visualization program Neon which is included with the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 was released on November 22,2005, in the United States and Canada, December 2,2005, in Europe and December 10,2005, in Japan. It was later launched in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, and Russia
8.
Software release life cycle
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Usage of the alpha/beta test terminology originated at IBM. As long ago as the 1950s, IBM used similar terminology for their hardware development, a test was the verification of a new product before public announcement. B test was the verification before releasing the product to be manufactured, C test was the final test before general availability of the product. Martin Belsky, a manager on some of IBMs earlier software projects claimed to have invented the terminology, IBM dropped the alpha/beta terminology during the 1960s, but by then it had received fairly wide notice. The usage of beta test to refer to testing done by customers was not done in IBM, rather, IBM used the term field test. Pre-alpha refers to all activities performed during the project before formal testing. These activities can include requirements analysis, software design, software development, in typical open source development, there are several types of pre-alpha versions. Milestone versions include specific sets of functions and are released as soon as the functionality is complete, the alpha phase of the release life cycle is the first phase to begin software testing. In this phase, developers generally test the software using white-box techniques, additional validation is then performed using black-box or gray-box techniques, by another testing team. Moving to black-box testing inside the organization is known as alpha release, alpha software can be unstable and could cause crashes or data loss. Alpha software may not contain all of the features that are planned for the final version, in general, external availability of alpha software is uncommon in proprietary software, while open source software often has publicly available alpha versions. The alpha phase usually ends with a freeze, indicating that no more features will be added to the software. At this time, the software is said to be feature complete, Beta, named after the second letter of the Greek alphabet, is the software development phase following alpha. Software in the stage is also known as betaware. Beta phase generally begins when the software is complete but likely to contain a number of known or unknown bugs. Software in the phase will generally have many more bugs in it than completed software, as well as speed/performance issues. The focus of beta testing is reducing impacts to users, often incorporating usability testing, the process of delivering a beta version to the users is called beta release and this is typically the first time that the software is available outside of the organization that developed it. Beta version software is useful for demonstrations and previews within an organization
9.
Perfect Dark
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Perfect Dark is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by Rare for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It is considered the successor to Rares earlier first-person shooter GoldenEye 007. Perfect Dark was first released in North America on 22 May 2000, PAL and it also features a range of multiplayer options, including a co-operative mode and traditional deathmatch settings. Technically, it is one of the most advanced games developed for the Nintendo 64, with a high resolution graphics mode, widescreen support. A Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak is required to access the games campaign, Perfect Dark was developed over the course of three years and uses an upgraded version of the GoldenEye 007 engine. The game met with acclaim and commercial success upon release. Critics widely praised its multiplayer modes and replay value. The games success has led to the development of the Perfect Dark series, a remaster, also titled Perfect Dark, with enhanced graphics and online multiplayer, was exclusively released as an Xbox Live Arcade game for the Xbox 360 in 2010. Perfect Dark is a shooter in which players control Carrington Institute agent Joanna Dark through a series of levels collected together into missions. The general gameplay is similar to that of its predecessor GoldenEye 007, with such as stealth sections. Players can crouch, duck, lean, and drop from most ledges, a number of tutorials and training activities can be taken at the Carrington Institute, which acts as the games central hub. Further weapons are unlocked during the activities in the hub. Players can carry a number of weapons, and certain guns can be used in duplicate. Most weapons have a magazine and must be reloaded after a certain number of shots. Interaction with objects in the environment is via a single Use command, enemies and players can disarm each other at close range, and the player can use this feature to steal weapons or knock foes unconscious. Damage taken during combat for the player and enemy units is location-based, in each level, the player must complete certain objectives and then exit the stage. The requirements are varied, with many levels requiring the recovery, If Joanna is killed or fails an objective, the player must start the level again. If all the levels are completed on the highest difficulty, a setting becomes available
10.
Perfect Dark (2010 video game)
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Perfect Dark is a remastered release of the first-person shooter video game by the same name. It was released for the Xbox 360 video game console in March 2010, the story of the game follows Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute organization, as she attempts to stop a conspiracy by rival corporation dataDyne. Perfect Dark was under development for nearly a year and its engine was completely re-written from scratch to support several Xbox 360 features. Therefore, although the game exactly the same as the original. The game received favorable reviews. Some critics considered the relatively unchanged game to be outdated, as of the end of 2011, the game had sold nearly 410,000 units. It also features a range of options, including a co-operative mode. Combat Simulater matches can be customised and can include bots. The remaster changes little from the gameplay of the original game. In the remaster, any of the modes can be played in either splitscreen or through the Xbox Live online service. An online leaderboard system was added, and players can earn achievements. Although Combat Simulator matches are still capped at 12 entities, the remaster can comprise eight players online simultaneously, players may also play against more than eight bots as long as there are enough slots available in a match. For example, a player can play against 11 bots. The remaster also includes two new control set-ups, entitled Spartan and Duty Calls, which are based on the Halo and Call of Duty first-person shooter franchises, respectively. Perfect Dark was ported by 4J Studios, the studio that previously developed the Xbox Live Arcade versions of Rares platform games Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie. According to Microsoft Game Studios creative director Ken Lobb, the development team took the code, ported it to the Xbox 360. The game was developed over a course of approximately 11 months after the creation of a working prototype, as the Xbox Live functionality had to be written from scratch, the developers opted to completely rewrite the game engine rather than do a port through emulation. As a result, although the game exactly the same
11.
Video game
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A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or computer monitor. The word video in video game referred to a raster display device. Some theorists categorize video games as an art form, but this designation is controversial, the electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms, examples of these are personal computers and video game consoles. These platforms range from large mainframe computers to small handheld computing devices, the input device used for games, the game controller, varies across platforms. Common controllers include gamepads, joysticks, mouse devices, keyboards, the touchscreens of mobile devices, and buttons, or even, with the Kinect sensor, a persons hands and body. Players typically view the game on a screen or television or computer monitor, or sometimes on virtual reality head-mounted display goggles. There are often game sound effects, music and, in the 2010s, some games in the 2000s include haptic, vibration-creating effects, force feedback peripherals and virtual reality headsets. In the 2010s, the game industry is of increasing commercial importance, with growth driven particularly by the emerging Asian markets and mobile games. As of 2015, video games generated sales of USD74 billion annually worldwide, early games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. The earliest example is from 1947—a Cathode ray tube Amusement Device was filed for a patent on 25 January 1947, by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, and issued on 14 December 1948, as U. S. Written by MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanens on a DEC PDP-1 computer in 1961, and the hit ping pong-style Pong, used the DEC PDP-1s vector display to have two spaceships battle each other. In 1971, Computer Space, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was the first commercially sold and it used a black-and-white television for its display, and the computer system was made of 74 series TTL chips. The game was featured in the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green, Computer Space was followed in 1972 by the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console. Modeled after a late 1960s prototype console developed by Ralph H. Baer called the Brown Box and these were followed by two versions of Ataris Pong, an arcade version in 1972 and a home version in 1975 that dramatically increased video game popularity. The commercial success of Pong led numerous other companies to develop Pong clones and their own systems, the game inspired arcade machines to become prevalent in mainstream locations such as shopping malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants, and convenience stores. The game also became the subject of articles and stories on television and in newspapers and magazines. Space Invaders was soon licensed for the Atari VCS, becoming the first killer app, the term platform refers to the specific combination of electronic components or computer hardware which, in conjunction with software, allows a video game to operate. The term system is commonly used
12.
Joanna Dark
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Joanna Dark is a fictional character and main protagonist of the Perfect Dark fictional universe, created by Rare. She made her debut in the Nintendo 64 first-person shooter Perfect Dark and is a character in all the games of the series. Outside of video games, Joanna also appears as the character in all the Perfect Dark novels. Joanna is an operative for the fictional Carrington Institute, where she was given the code name Perfect Dark in honor of her flawless performance in training tests and her Perfect Dark Zero model was redesigned by manga artist Wil Overton. Joanna Dark is among Rares most well known characters and is featured in several top lists by the gaming media. The character of Joanna Dark was originally devised by Martin Hollis and he also felt that there should be more games with female leads. According to him, Having just made a game starring a man it seemed logical to create one around a woman, the name Joanna Dark was taken from the French pronunciation of Joan of Arc as Jeanne dArc. Hollis also revealed that they wanted her to be normal, not with supermodel looks. In Perfect Dark, she was voiced by Eveline Fischer, during the development of Perfect Dark Zero, Joanna was redesigned by manga artist Wil Overton. Overton added more elements, including a star tattoo on the left side of her neck, a blonde streak in her hair. Her hair was changed from short and red to shoulder-length. Hollis stated that while he liked the new work, he could not imagine why she would wear the orange. According to him, It is uncharacteristic, quite apart from the practical problem of being a beacon for bullets—Secret Agents don’t wear orange for good reason. Process for her character went through several alterations. Images of the concept were met with much derision among the fans who criticized Joannas new manga-like appearance. In response, the developers chose to tone down some of the more stylized aspects of the design, in Perfect Dark Zero, she was voiced by Laurence Bouvard. For the cancelled sequel Perfect Dark Core, Dark was altered to fit the games realistic atmosphere, Joanna is described as a highly skilled marksman, a lethal hand-to-hand combat fighter, and an expert pilot and driver. She has incredible reflexes and an ability to sniff out trouble and her technical skills includes wiring up a charge, picking a lock or hacking a basic system
13.
Fictional universe
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A fictional universe is a self-consistent imaginary setting with events, and often other elements, that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm, fictional universes may appear in novels, comics, films, television shows, video games and other creative works. What distinguishes a fictional universe from a setting is the level of detail. A fictional universe has a continuity and internal logic that must be adhered to throughout the work. So, for instance, many books may be set in conflicting fictional versions of Victorian London, however, the various film series based on Sherlock Holmes follow their own separate continuities, and so do not take place in the same fictional universe. The history and geography of a universe are well-defined, and maps. When subsequent works are written within the universe, care is usually taken to ensure that established facts of the canon are not violated. Even if the fictional universe involves concepts such as magic that dont exist in the real world, a famous example of a detailed fictional universe is Arda, of J. R. R. Tolkiens books The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. He created first its languages and then the world itself, which he states was primarily linguistic in inspiration and was begun in order to provide the history for the Elvish tongues. Another, more recent, famous fictional universe is that of the Avatar film series, as James Cameron has invented an entire ecosystem, also, he commissioned a linguistics expert to invent the Navi language. Virtually every successful fictional TV series or comic book develops its own universe to keep track of the episodes or issues. Writers for that series must follow the story bible, which becomes the series canon. This creates a universe that future authors can write about. These stories about the universe or universes that existed before the retcon are usually not canonical, Crisis on Infinite Earths was an especially sweeping example. Some writers choose to introduce elements or characters from one work into another, for example, the character of Ursula Buffay from American sitcom Mad About You was also a recurring guest star in Friends, despite the two series having little else in common. Fellow NBC series Seinfeld also contained references to Mad About You. L. Frank Baum introduced the characters of Capn Bill and Trot, the two characters made a number of subsequent appearances in later Oz books. Sir Thomas Mores Utopia is one of the earliest examples of a fictional world with its own rules and functional concepts
14.
Extraterrestrial life
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Extraterrestrial life, also called alien life, is life that does not originate from Earth. These hypothetical life forms may range from simple single-celled organisms to beings with civilizations far more advanced than humanity, although many scientists expect extraterrestrial life to exist in some form, there is no evidence for its existence to date. The Drake equation speculates about the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, the science of extraterrestrial life in all its forms is known as exobiology. The science of astrobiology considers life on Earth as well, in 2015, remains of biotic life were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia, when the young Earth was about 400 million years old. According to one of the researchers, If life arose relatively quickly on Earth and it has also played a major role in works of science fiction. Over the years, science fiction works have increased the publics interest in the possibility of extraterrestrial life, some encourage aggressive methods to try for contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life, whereas others argue that it might be dangerous to actively call attention to Earth. Alien life, such as microorganisms, has been hypothesized to exist in the Solar System and this hypothesis relies on the vast size and consistent physical laws of the observable universe. The chemistry of life may have begun shortly after the Big Bang,13.8 billion years ago, Life may have emerged independently at many places throughout the universe. Alternatively, life may have formed less frequently, then spread—by meteoroids, in any case, complex organic molecules may have formed in the protoplanetary disk of dust grains surrounding the Sun before the formation of Earth. According to these studies, this process may occur outside Earth on several planets and moons of the Solar System, since the 1950s, scientists have argued the idea that habitable zones around stars are the most likely places to find life. The nearest such planet may be 12 light-years away, according to the scientists, astrobiologists have also considered a follow the energy view of potential habitats. Life on Earth requires water as its solvent in which biochemical reactions take place, More generally, life based on ammonia has been suggested, though this solvent appears less suitable than water. It is also conceivable that there are forms of life whose solvent is a liquid hydrocarbon, about 29 chemical elements play an active positive role in living organisms on Earth. About 95% of this matter is built upon only six elements, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus. These six elements form the building blocks of virtually all life on Earth. The unique characteristics of carbon make it unlikely that it could be replaced, even on another planet, the carbon atom has the unique ability to make four strong chemical bonds with other atoms, including other carbon atoms. These covalent bonds have a direction in space, so that carbon atoms can form the skeletons of complex 3-dimensional structures with definite architectures such as nucleic acids, carbon forms more compounds than all other elements combined. The great versatility of the atom makes it the element most likely to provide the bases—even exotic ones—for the chemical composition of life on other planets
15.
Perfect Dark (Game Boy Color)
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Perfect Dark is an action video game developed and published by Rare. It was exclusively released for the Game Boy Color handheld game console in August 2000, the gameplay revolves around shooting opponents and completing objectives such as rescuing hostages or recovering items. It also features a mode where two players may compete in several deathmatch modes. Perfect Dark includes a built-in rumble functionality into the cartridge and supports the Game Boy Printer, Game Link Cable. The Transfer Pak allows certain features within the Nintendo 64 game to alternatively be unlocked, Perfect Dark received generally a mixed reaction from video game critics, who criticized its superficial stealth mechanics and unoriginal mini-games, but praised its graphics and audio. Perfect Dark is a game that is presented from an overhead perspective where the player can move and shoot in eight directions, similar to Metal Gear. The player assumes the role of Joanna Dark, who must initially complete a training mode where she will be provided a fixed sequence of challenges so that the player learns the game mechanics. The campaign is divided into missions that the player has to complete while fighting enemies. Objectives range from rescuing hostages to exploring areas and recovering items such as keycards, explosives or laptop computers, the player can pick up new weapons, health and ammunition dropped by enemies if necessary. The game also features several mini-games, including a driving level, by beating any of these mini-games, the player can access them in the games extras menu. In addition to the campaign, Perfect Dark features a multiplayer mode. Various multiplayer maps are unlocked as the player progresses through the single player mode, additionally, with the use of the optional Transfer Pak, players can use the games cartridge to alternatively unlock some cheats in its Nintendo 64 counterpart. Players may also use the Game Boy Printer to print out character profiles, Perfect Dark is set in early 2022, predating the storyline of the Nintendo 64 game by one year. Joanna Dark is a student at the Carrington Institute and she is eager to complete the stages of her training. After completing her training successfully, Carrington Institute leader Daniel Carrington sends her on a mission to destroy an illegal cyborg manufacturing facility in the South American jungle, the facility is headed by Mink Hunter, a highly dangerous terrorist whose purpose is to produce high-tech weaponry for terrorist operations. Joanna manages to complete her mission by eliminating Hunter and destroying the entire facility, when Carrington contacts Joanna, she reports that, during her landing in the jungle, she witnessed an aircraft being shot down and made a note of the co-ordinates. Carrington soon learns that there is a UFO in the area at the time and that dataDyne, Joanna is then ordered to snoop around and investigate the crash site. In the process, she is captured and taken to the Pelagic I ship, nevertheless, a mysterious alien rescues her and convinces her to sink the Pelagic I with the wreckage and escape
16.
Perfect Dark Zero
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Perfect Dark Zero is a first-person shooter video game developed by Rare and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was exclusively released as a title for the Xbox 360 video game console on November 22,2005 in North America. The game is part of the Perfect Dark series and a prequel to the original Perfect Dark, both the co-operative and multiplayer modes support split-screen, system link, and the Xbox Live online service. The game was under development for five years and was intended to be released for the Nintendo GameCube. During development, several intended features were canceled so that the game could meet the Xbox 360 launch, the games numerous multiplayer modes singled out as strong features. However, some felt that the game did not meet the expectations, criticising single-player aspects such as its story. In 2015, the game was included in the Rare Replay video game compilation for Xbox One, Perfect Dark Zero is a first-person shooter where players control the player character mostly from a first-person perspective. Players cannot jump but have the ability to climb obstacles as long as they can reasonably reach them. It is also possible to climb ladders, by doing so, the camera shifts into a third-person perspective. The player has an amount of health which decreases when attacked by enemies. The health can recharge a bit if the steps out of the line of fire for a few seconds. The players movement speed is altered by the weight of the weapon the player is currently holding. Besides the primary function, all of the weapons in Perfect Dark Zero have one or two additional modes that generally grant the player with special abilities. Some weapons also feature more unorthodox secondary functions, for instance, the Laptop Gun can be deployed as a sentry gun, while the SuperDragon assault rifle can launch bouncing grenades. The campaign is divided into 14 missions in which the plays as Joanna Dark. Each mission provides a number of objectives that the player has to complete to progress, to successfully clear a mission, the player must complete all primary objectives, and if Joanna is killed or fails an objective, the player will have to start the level again. The missions also feature optional objectives that are not critical but add to the overall completion score. Some objectives require the player to use numerous high-tech gadgets, for example, a device called Datathief allows the player to hack into electronic devices, while another called Loctopus can be used to open locked doors
17.
Remaster
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Remaster refers to enhancing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. For example, sound effects might have been added from copies of sound effect similar to modern sampling to make a radio play for broadcast. A master is the recording which experts state will be the copy that is duplicated for the end user usually into other formats i. e. LP records. Problematically, several different levels of masters often exist for any one audio release, as an example, examine the way a typical music album from the 1960s was created. Musicians and vocalists were recorded on multi-track tape and this tape was mixed to create a stereo or mono master. More master recordings would be duplicated from the master for regional copying purposes. Pressing masters for vinyl recordings would be created, often these interim recordings were referred to as Mother Tapes. All vinyl records would derive from one of the master recordings, thus, mastering refers to the process of creating a master. This might be as simple as copying a tape for further duplication purposes, or might include the actual equalization, the latter example usually requires the work of mastering engineers. With the advent of recording in the late 1970s, many mastering ideas changed. Previously, creating new masters meant incurring an analogue generational loss, in other words and this means how much of the original intended good information is recorded against faults added to the recording as a result of the technical limitations of the equipment used. Although noise reduction techniques exist, they also increase other audio distortions such as shift, wow and flutter, print-through. With digital recording, masters could be created and duplicated without incurring the usual generational loss, as CDs were a digital format, digital masters created from original analog recordings became a necessity. Remastering is the process of making a new master for an album, film and it tends to refer to the process of porting a recording from an analogue medium to a digital one, but this is not always the case. All CDs created from analogue sources are technically digitally remastered, the process of creating a digital transfer of an analogue tape remasters the material in the digital domain, even if no equalization, compression, or other processing is done to the material. Ideally, because of their resolution, a CD or DVD release should come from the best source possible. Additionally, the earliest days of the CD era found digital technology in its infancy, the earliest days of the DVD era were not much different, with early DVD copies of films frequently being produced from worn prints, with low bitrates and muffled audio. When the first CD remasters turned out to be bestsellers, companies soon realized that new editions of back-catalogue items could compete with new releases as a source of revenue, back-catalogue values skyrocketed, and today it is not unusual to see expanded and remastered editions of fairly modern albums
18.
Greg Rucka
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Greg Rucka was born on November 29,1969 in San Francisco and raised on the Monterey Peninsula of California, in an area known to the locals as Steinbeck Country. He began writing at an age, and at age 10. He graduated from Vassar College with an A. B. in English and he then enrolled in the University of Southern Californias Master of Professional Writing program, graduating with a Master of Fine Arts. He names Douglas Adams as his biggest influence, Ruckas writing career began with the Atticus Kodiak series. Kodiak is a bodyguard whose jobs are rarely as uncomplicated as they at first appear, the series to date consists of Keeper, Finder, Smoker, Shooting at Midnight, Critical Space, Patriot Acts, and Walking Dead. These works garnered Rucka much critical acclaim and comparisons to the writers of crime/suspense fiction. The Atticus novels are notable for their realism and attention to detail, which are partly a product of Ruckas fight training and experience as an EMT. He has written six books, Fistful of Rain, Alpha, Bravo, A Gentlemans Game, Private Wars, and The Last Run. In 1998, Rucka entered the industry with Whiteout, published through Oni Press. Whiteout focuses on a murder in an Antarctic base and it was followed by a sequel, Whiteout, Melt. The majority of Ruckas work throughout the 2000s was for DC Comics, Rucka wrote Batman on a regular basis in the Detective Comics series following the events of No Mans Land. He wrote the novelization of the year-long arc, while writing Detective Comics, he created a number of background characters that led to the co-creation of Gotham Central with co-writer Ed Brubaker. His Batman work includes such story arcs as Bruce Wayne, Murderer. and Bruce Wayne, Fugitive. as well as the Batman, Death and the Maidens limited series. From October 2003 to April 2006 he wrote Wonder Woman after having written the character in the Wonder Woman. From 2002 to 2004, he did work for Marvel, including the start of the third volume of Wolverine, Elektra. He has worked for Image Comics, the first volume of his series Queen & Country concluded in July 2007 with issue #32. He co-wrote Countdown to Infinite Crisis, a one-shot and the start of the Infinite Crisis storyline, with Geoff Johns. Ruckas work on both Wonder Woman and Gotham Central ended in 2006, although he was not involved in the main storyline of Infinite Crisis, he did write The OMAC Project which built towards the event, focusing on Batmans distrust of other superheroes
19.
Nintendo Power
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Nintendo Power is a discontinued news and strategy magazine which was initially published in-house monthly by Nintendo of America, and later independently. In December 2007, Nintendo contracted publishing to Future US, the American subsidiary of British publisher Future and it was one of the longest running video game magazines in the United States and Canada, and was Nintendos official magazine in North America. On August 21,2012, Nintendo announced that it would not be renewing its agreement with Future Publishing. The final issue, volume 285, was released on December 11,2012, predating Nintendo Power is the several-page long Nintendo Fun Club News, which was sent to club members for free. However, in mid-1988 Nintendo Fun Club News was discontinued after seven issues in favor of Nintendo Power, the first issue, dated July/August 1988, spotlighted the NES game Super Mario Bros.2. 3.6 million copies were published, with member of the Nintendo Fun Club receiving a free one. From the beginning, Nintendo Power focused heavily on providing game strategy, tips and tricks, reviews, in mid-1998, Nintendo Power first allowed outside advertising in the magazine, formerly reserved for Nintendo-based products only. In its early years, ads appeared in the first and last few pages of the magazine. In July 2005, Nintendo Power created a new design to appeal to a limited gaming audience, including a new logo and article format. Nintendo introduced a new incentive promotional offer that involved the registration of three Nintendo products through Nintendo. com to receive a three issue trial subscription to Nintendo Power. Later, the changed its focus from game strategies and cheat codes to mainly news, previews. The magazine was edited at first by Fun Club President Howard Philips, Nintendo Powers mascot in the late 1980s and early 1990s was Nester, a comic character created by Philips. After Philips left the company, Nester became the sole mascot. Early issues of the featured a two-page Howard and Nester comic, which was later replaced with the two-page Nesters Adventures, later reduced to one page. Subsequently, Mario replaced Nester as the mascot of the magazine, later, during the early 2000s, the magazine made another mascot out of its Senior Writer, Alan Averill. Apparently very camera-shy, Averill himself never appeared in any photos, rather, fans often clamored to see what Averill actually looked like, but the magazine continued to substitute with photos of the toy, and even claimed that Alan was, in fact, a Blue Slime. Eventually, Averill retired from Nintendo Power, joining Nintendo of Americas localization department, to this day, most fans have never seen a real image of Averill. The inclusion of a photo of Mr. T in the Players Pulse section became a gag in the early half of 2005
20.
Human cloning
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Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. The term is used to refer to artificial human cloning. It does not refer to the conception and delivery of identical twins. The possibility of cloning has raised controversies. These ethical concerns have prompted several nations to pass laws regarding human cloning, two commonly discussed types of theoretical human cloning are, therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning. Two common methods of cloning that are being researched are somatic-cell nuclear transfer and, more recently. Reproductive cloning would involve making an entire cloned human, instead of just specific cells or tissues, although the possibility of cloning humans had been the subject of speculation for much of the 20th century, scientists and policy makers began to take the prospect seriously in the mid-1960s. Nobel Prize-winning geneticist Joshua Lederberg advocated cloning and genetic engineering in an article in The American Naturalist in 1966 and again and he sparked a debate with conservative bioethicist Leon Kass, who wrote at the time that the programmed reproduction of man will, in fact, dehumanize him. Another Nobel Laureate, James D. Watson, publicized the potential, with the cloning of a sheep known as Dolly in 1996 by somatic cell nuclear transfer, the idea of human cloning became a hot debate topic. Many nations outlawed it, while a few scientists promised to make a clone within the few years. The first hybrid human clone was created in November 1998, by Advanced Cell Technology, the embryo was destroyed after 12 days. Hwang claimed to have created eleven different patent-specific stem cell lines and this would have been the first major breakthrough in human cloning. However, in 2006 Science retracted both of his articles on evidence that much of his data from the experiments was fabricated. In January 2008, Dr. Andrew French and Samuel Wood of the biotechnology company Stemagen announced that they created the first five mature human embryos using SCNT. In this case, each embryo was created by taking a nucleus from a skin cell, the embryos were developed only to the blastocyst stage, at which point they were studied in processes that destroyed them. Members of the lab said that their set of experiments would aim to generate embryonic stem cell lines. In 2013, a group of scientists led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov published the first report of embryonic stem cells created using SCNT, in this experiment, the researchers developed a protocol for using SCNT in human cells, which differs slightly from the one used in other organisms. Four embryonic stem cell lines from human fetal somatic cells were derived from those blastocysts, all four lines were derived using oocytes from the same donor, ensuring that all mitochondrial DNA inherited was identical
21.
Tor Books
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Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tom Doherty Associates LLC publishing company, based in New York City, US. It is noted for its fiction and fantasy titles. Tor was founded by Tom Doherty in 1980, Tor is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning the peak of a rocky mountain as its logo shows. Tor Books was sold to St. Martins Press in 1987, along with St. Martins Press, Henry Holt, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, it became part of the Holtzbrinck group, now part of the Macmillan in the US. Tor is the imprint of Tom Doherty Associates. There is also the Forge imprint that publishes an array of titles, including historical novels. Tor Books also publishes two imprints for young readers, Starscape and Tor Teen, Tor Books also has the Tor. com imprint that focuses on short works such as novellas, shorter novels and serializations. A United Kingdom sister imprint, Tor UK, also exists and specializes in fiction, fantasy. Tor UK maintains an open submission policy, orb Books publishes science-fiction classics such as A. E. Van Vogts Slan. Tor Teen publishes young-adult novels such as Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, Tor UK has published authors such as Douglas Adams, Rjurik Davidson, Amanda Hocking, China Miéville, Adam Nevill, and Adrian Tchaikovsky. Tor publishes a range of its works as e-books and, in 2012, one year later, Tor stated that the removal of DRM had not harmed its e-book business, so they would continue selling them DRM-free. Tor won the Locus Magazine poll for best science fiction publisher in 29 consecutive years from 1988 to 2016 inclusive, in March 2014, the Worlds Without Ends website listed Tor as the second-most awarded and nominated publisher for science fiction, fantasy and horror books, after Gollancz. As of March 27,2014, Tor has received 316 nominations and 54 wins for 723 novels, official website Tor. com community site Tor Books profile at Reason, December 2008
22.
Prima Games
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Prima Games is the largest publishing company of video game strategy guides in the United States. A division of Random House, it is an imprint of the Random House Information Group, based in Roseville and they normally feature in-depth walkthroughs to completing the game and the characters. The company has produced over 1,400 titles and boasts over 90 million strategy guides in print, in 2005, Prima introduced electronic distribution of gaming guides. For some guides, like Half-Life 2, Raising the Bar, writers of strategy guides for Prima Games include David S. J. At the time, DeMaria was senior editor for PC Games magazine, notable titles included Myst, The Official Strategy Guide, which sold in excess of 1. DeMaria served as the author and creative director of Secrets of the Games between 1990 and 1996. He also was the editor on several books by other authors, in 2006, Prima Games undertook an effort to revolutionize the quality of MMORPG strategy guides. Historically those had largely consisted of charts of data, maps, what they were lacking was expert strategy content. Prima engaged the online gaming community known as The Syndicate who was large, well known. That partnership resulted in a shift in how strategy guides were written and they began to be less of a data dump and more of a deep strategy. Examples of this can be seen in the LOTRO, Pirates of the Burning Seas, Vanguard, Warhammer Online, in 2009, Prima Games decided to take the expert strategy concept an additional step. First, they hired The Syndicate in place of a specific author, the guides would be written from the ground up solely by The Syndicate. They filled the role of writer, author, project management, second, the scope of the guides they worked on was expanded from just MMOs to include FPS, RTS and RPG games. In 2010, Prima started selling their strategy guides on Steam, in 2013, Prima parent company Penguin Group merged with Random House, owner of competing strategy guide imprint BradyGames, to form Penguin Random House. On June 1,2015, it was announced that the two imprints would merge, and continue to operate solely under the Prima Games brand
23.
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
24.
GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)
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GoldenEye 007 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Rare and based on the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye. It was released for the Nintendo 64 video game console in August 1997, the game includes a split-screen multiplayer mode in which two, three, or four players can compete in different types of deathmatch games. GoldenEye 007 was developed over a period of two and a half years by an inexperienced team and it was originally conceived as an on-rails shooter inspired by Segas Virtua Cop, before being redesigned as a free-roaming shooter. The game was acclaimed by the gaming media and sold over eight million copies worldwide. It pioneered features such as atmospheric single-player missions, stealth elements, the game is frequently cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. A spiritual successor, Perfect Dark, was released in 2000, while a reimagining of the game, GoldenEye 007 is a first-person shooter that features both single and multiplayer modes. In the single-player mode, the player takes the role of James Bond through a series of free-roaming 3D levels, the arsenal of weapons includes pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles, grenades, and throwing knives, among others. Guns have a magazine and must be reloaded after a certain number of shots. The players initial weapon in most missions is James Bonds Walther PPK, Most of the games firearms are modelled on real-life counterparts, while others are based on fictitious devices featured in the Bond films, such as the Golden Gun and Moonraker laser. The weapons vary in such as rate of fire, degree of penetration, and type of ammunition used. Stealth is a significant element of the gameplay, frequent gunfire can alert distant guards, therefore, to avoid gunfights with numerous opponents, it is advantageous to eliminate soldiers and security cameras before they spot or hear the player. Certain weapons incorporate suppressor or telescopic sight attachments to aid the player in killing enemies discreetly, there are no health-recovery items in the game, although armour vests can be acquired to provide a secondary health bar. Four save files are available to track the players progress through the games twenty missions, each of which may be played on Agent, Secret Agent, once a mission is completed, the player may either continue progressing through the story or choose to replay a previously completed level. Completing certain missions within particular target times enables the player to unlock bonus cheat options which make various changes to the gameplay, normal is a basic deathmatch mode in which the main objective is to kill opponents as many times as possible. It can be played as a game or in teams. In You Only Live Twice, players only have two lives before they are eliminated from the game, and Licence to Kill is a mode in which players die from a hit with any weapon. The player with the Golden Gun is unable to pick up body armour while opponents can, in The Living Daylights, a flag is placed in a fixed location on the map, and the player who holds it the longest wins. The flag-carrier cannot use weapons but can collect them to keep opponents from stocking ammunition
25.
Nintendo 64 accessories
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This is a list of accessories for the Nintendo 64 video game console. Initially available in seven colors, it was released in transparent versions of said colors. The N64 pads analog stick is notorious for wearing out quickly, eventually becoming unable to return to centre position. Also, the stick would become uncalibrated if not centered properly when the system was booted up, if the stick was not centered. Because this may not be discovered until the player enters the game, early titles such as Wonder Project J2, Koruro no Mori no Josette would lose calibration if the player moved the cursor while accessing the Controller Pak save. This feature could be used to cheat in some games, in Doom, when the stick is held down when calibrating, the player will be able to run faster when pushing the stick up. On a side note, this is the last official Nintendo Controller to use standard Phillips screws, starting with the GameCube, tri-wing screws have been used for security. The Controller Pak is the memory card, comparable to those seen in the PlayStation. Certain games allowed saving of files to the Controller Pak. The Controller Pak was marketed as a way to exchange data with other Nintendo 64 owners and it is plugged into the controller and allowed the player to save game progress and configuration. The number of pages that a game occupied varied and it is powered by a common CR2032 battery. A Controller Pak is initially useful, and even necessary for the earlier N64 games, over time, the Controller Pak lost ground to the convenience of a battery backed SRAM found in some cartridges. Because the Nintendo 64 used a cartridge format that allows saving data on the cartridges themselves, few first party. The vast majority are from third-party developers and this is most likely due to the increased production and retail costs which would have been caused by including self-contained data on the cartridge. Some games use it to save data that is too large for the cartridge, such as Mario Kart 64. Another game is Tony Hawks Pro Skater, which uses 11 pages, quest 64 and Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon used the Controller Pak exclusively for saved data. The Japan-only game Animal Forest used the Controller Pak to travel to other towns, the Jumper Pak is a filler that plugged into the consoles memory expansion port. It serves no purpose other than to terminate the RAMBUS bus in the absence of the Expansion Pak
26.
GameCube
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The GameCube is a home video game console released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14,2001, in North America on November 18,2001, in Europe on May 3,2002, and in Australia on May 17,2002. The sixth-generation console is the successor to the Nintendo 64 and competed with Sony Computer Entertainments PlayStation 2, the GameCube is the first Nintendo console to use optical discs as its primary storage medium. The discs are similar to the format, as a result of their smaller size and the consoles small disc compartment. Contemporary reception of the GameCube was generally positive, the console was praised for its controller, extensive software library and high-quality games, but was criticized for its exterior design and lack of features. Nintendo sold 21.74 million GameCube units worldwide before it was discontinued in 2007 and its successor, the Wii, which is backwards-compatible with most GameCube software, was released in November 2006. In 1997, a hardware design company called ArtX was launched, staffed by twenty engineers who had previously worked at SGI on the design of the Nintendo 64s graphics hardware. The team was led by Dr. Wei Yen, who had been SGIs head of Nintendo Operations, at Nintendos press conference in May 1999, the console was first publicly announced as Project Dolphin, the successor to the Nintendo 64. At the conference, Nintendos Howard Lincoln said of ArtX, This company is headed up by Dr. Wei Yen, Dr. Yen has assembled at ArtX one of the best teams of 3D graphics engineers on the planet. Subsequently, Nintendo began providing development kits to game developers, Nintendo also formed a strategic partnership with IBM for the production of Dolphins CPU, code-named Gekko. ArtX was acquired by ATI in April 2000, whereupon the Flipper graphics processor design had already mostly completed by ArtX and was not overtly influenced by ATI. In total, ArtX team cofounder Greg Buchner recalled that their portion of the hardware design timeline had arced from inception in 1998 to completion in 2000. Of ATIs acquisition of ArtX, an ATI spokesperson said, ATI now becomes a major supplier to the console market via Nintendo. The Dolphin platform is reputed to be king of the hill in terms of graphics, the console was announced as the Nintendo GameCube at a press conference in Japan on August 24,2000, abbreviated as NGC in Japan and GCN in North America. Nintendo unveiled its software lineup for the console at E32001, focusing on fifteen launch titles, including Luigis Mansion and Star Wars Rogue Squadron II. Several titles that were scheduled to launch with the console were delayed. It is also the first console in the history not to accompany a Mario platform title at launch. Long prior to the launch, Nintendo had developed and patented an early prototype of motion controls for the GameCube. These motion control concepts would not be deployed to consumers for several years, prior to the Nintendo GameCubes release, Nintendo focused resources on the launch of the Game Boy Advance, a handheld game console and successor to the original Game Boy and Game Boy Color
27.
Microsoft
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Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, Microsoft Office office suite, and Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface tablet lineup, as of 2016, it was the worlds largest software maker by revenue, and one of the worlds most valuable companies. Microsoft was founded by Paul Allen and Bill Gates on April 4,1975, to develop and it rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by Microsoft Windows. The companys 1986 initial public offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions. In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion, in June 2012, Microsoft entered the personal computer production market for the first time, with the launch of the Microsoft Surface, a line of tablet computers. The word Microsoft is a portmanteau of microcomputer and software, Paul Allen and Bill Gates, childhood friends with a passion for computer programming, sought to make a successful business utilizing their shared skills. In 1972 they founded their first company, named Traf-O-Data, which offered a computer that tracked and analyzed automobile traffic data. Allen went on to pursue a degree in science at Washington State University. The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systemss Altair 8800 microcomputer, Allen suggested that they could program a BASIC interpreter for the device, after a call from Gates claiming to have a working interpreter, MITS requested a demonstration. Since they didnt actually have one, Allen worked on a simulator for the Altair while Gates developed the interpreter and they officially established Microsoft on April 4,1975, with Gates as the CEO. Allen came up with the name of Micro-Soft, as recounted in a 1995 Fortune magazine article. In August 1977 the company formed an agreement with ASCII Magazine in Japan, resulting in its first international office, the company moved to a new home in Bellevue, Washington in January 1979. Microsoft entered the OS business in 1980 with its own version of Unix, however, it was MS-DOS that solidified the companys dominance. For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, branding it as MS-DOS, following the release of the IBM PC in August 1981, Microsoft retained ownership of MS-DOS. Since IBM copyrighted the IBM PC BIOS, other companies had to engineer it in order for non-IBM hardware to run as IBM PC compatibles. Due to various factors, such as MS-DOSs available software selection, the company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well as with a publishing division named Microsoft Press. Paul Allen resigned from Microsoft in 1983 after developing Hodgkins disease, while jointly developing a new OS with IBM in 1984, OS/2, Microsoft released Microsoft Windows, a graphical extension for MS-DOS, on November 20,1985. Once Microsoft informed IBM of NT, the OS/2 partnership deteriorated, in 1990, Microsoft introduced its office suite, Microsoft Office
28.
Conker's Bad Fur Day
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Conkers Bad Fur Day is an action-platform video game developed by Rare and released for the Nintendo 64 video game console in 2001. As part of the Conker video game series, the game follows the story of Conker the Squirrel, the gameplay is composed of various challenges that involve platforming, solving puzzles, fighting enemies, and gathering objects. The game also features a mode where a maximum of four players can compete in seven different game types. Upon release, Conkers Bad Fur Day received critical acclaim from game journalists. The game sold well below expectations due to limited advertising and a release towards the end of the Nintendo 64s life cycle, a remake, Conker, Live & Reloaded, was released for the Xbox in 2005. In 2015, the game was included as part of the Rare Replay compilation for Xbox One, Conkers Bad Fur Day is an action-platform game where the player controls Conker the Squirrel through a series of three-dimensional levels. The game features an overworld where players can transition from one level to another, each level is an enclosed area in which the player can freely explore to find tasks to do. The gameplay mostly relies on figuring out a way to other characters by completing a linear sequence of challenges. These challenges may include defeating a boss, solving puzzles, gathering objects, the result is always a cash reward, which aids access to other areas in the overworld. Conkers abilities are far simpler than those of previous Rare platform games Banjo-Kazooie, the player can run, jump, and smack enemies with a frying pan. Conker also has a few other physical abilities and he can swim underwater for a while until he runs out of breath, climb ladders or ropes, and is strong enough to push heavy objects. To regain lost health, Conker can eat pieces of anti-gravity Chocolate that are scattered throughout the levels, additionally, the game employs context sensitive pads that allow Conker to gain different, temporary abilities when pressing the B button atop them. Some pads can turn Conker into an anvil to slam into the ground and they also serve to inform players of what needs to be done next. The game also includes a mode, where up to four players can compete against each other in seven different game types, Beach, Raptor, Heist, War, Tank, Race. In Beach, some players must go up through a beach, Raptor involves players controlling raptors to feed a baby dinosaur, while others play as cavemen that have to steal dinosaur eggs. Heist engrosses players in the robbery of a bank, where the goal is to retrieve a bag from the center of the level. War can either be a traditional capture the mode or Total War. Similarly, in Tank players fight against each other by using tanks and grabbing chemical canisters that can release a lethal corrosive gas, Race is a racing mode which provides two variations of the same course
29.
Science fiction
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Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a literature of ideas. Science fiction is difficult to define, as it includes a range of subgenres and themes. Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying science fiction is what we point to when we say it, a definition echoed by author Mark C. Glassy, who argues that the definition of science fiction is like the definition of pornography, you do not know what it is, in 1970 or 1971William Atheling Jr. According to science fiction writer Robert A, rod Serlings definition is fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science fiction is the improbable made possible, Science fiction is largely based on writing rationally about alternative possible worlds or futures. Science fiction elements include, A time setting in the future, in alternative timelines, a spatial setting or scenes in outer space, on other worlds, or on subterranean earth. Characters that include aliens, mutants, androids, or humanoid robots, futuristic or plausible technology such as ray guns, teleportation machines, and humanoid computers. Scientific principles that are new or that contradict accepted physical laws, for time travel, wormholes. New and different political or social systems, e. g. utopian, dystopian, post-scarcity, paranormal abilities such as mind control, telepathy, telekinesis Other universes or dimensions and travel between them. A product of the budding Age of Reason and the development of science itself. Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered Keplers work the first science fiction story and it depicts a journey to the Moon and how the Earths motion is seen from there. Later, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story about a flight to the moon, more examples appeared throughout the 19th century. Wells The War of the Worlds describes an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians using tripod fighting machines equipped with advanced weaponry and it is a seminal depiction of an alien invasion of Earth. In the late 19th century, the scientific romance was used in Britain to describe much of this fiction. This produced additional offshoots, such as the 1884 novella Flatland, the term would continue to be used into the early 20th century for writers such as Olaf Stapledon. In the early 20th century, pulp magazines helped develop a new generation of mainly American SF writers, influenced by Hugo Gernsback, the founder of Amazing Stories magazine. In 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs published A Princess of Mars, the first of his series of Barsoom novels, situated on Mars
30.
Cairo
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Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt. Cairo has long been a center of the political and cultural life. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab world, as well as the worlds second-oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city, with a population of 6.76 million spread over 453 square kilometers, Cairo is by far the largest city in Egypt. An additional 9.5 million inhabitants live in proximity to the city. Cairo, like many other mega-cities, suffers from high levels of pollution, Cairos metro, one of only two in Africa, ranks among the fifteen busiest in the world, with over 1 billion annual passenger rides. The economy of Cairo was ranked first in the Middle East in 2005, Egyptians often refer to Cairo as Maṣr, the Egyptian Arabic name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the citys importance for the country. In Coptic the city is known as Kahire, meaning Place of the Sun, possibly referring to the ancient city of Heliopolis, the location of the ancient city is the suburb of Ain Shams. The ancient Egyptian name for the area is thought to be Khere-Ohe, The Place of Combat, sometimes the city is informally referred to as Kayro. The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis, had long been a point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta. However, the origins of the city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance and this fortress, known as Babylon, remained the nucleus of the Roman, and, later, the Byzantine, city and is the oldest structure in the city today. It is also situated at the nucleus of the Coptic Orthodox community, many of Cairos oldest Coptic churches, including the Hanging Church, are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo. Following the Muslim conquest in 640 AD the conqueror Amr ibn As settled to the north of the Babylon in an area became known as al-Fustat. Originally a tented camp Fustat became a permanent settlement and the first capital of Islamic Egypt, in 750, following the overthrow of the Ummayad caliphate by the Abbasids, the new rulers created their own settlement to the northeast of Fustat which became their capital. This was known as al-Askar as it was laid out like a military camp, a rebellion in 869 by Ahmad ibn Tulun led to the abandonment of Al Askar and the building of another settlement, which became the seat of government. This was al-Qattai, to the north of Fustat and closer to the river, Al Qattai was centred around a palace and ceremonial mosque, now known as the Mosque of ibn Tulun. In 905 the Abbasids re-asserted control of the country and their returned to Fustat
31.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
32.
Saturn
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Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with a radius about nine times that of Earth. Although it has only one-eighth the average density of Earth, with its larger volume Saturn is just over 95 times more massive, Saturn is named after the Roman god of agriculture, its astronomical symbol represents the gods sickle. Saturns interior is composed of a core of iron–nickel and rock. This core is surrounded by a layer of metallic hydrogen, an intermediate layer of liquid hydrogen and liquid helium. Saturn has a yellow hue due to ammonia crystals in its upper atmosphere. Saturns magnetic field strength is around one-twentieth of Jupiters, the outer atmosphere is generally bland and lacking in contrast, although long-lived features can appear. Wind speeds on Saturn can reach 1,800 km/h, higher than on Jupiter, sixty-two moons are known to orbit Saturn, of which fifty-three are officially named. This does not include the hundreds of moonlets comprising the rings, Saturn is a gas giant because it is predominantly composed of hydrogen and helium. It lacks a definite surface, though it may have a solid core, Saturns rotation causes it to have the shape of an oblate spheroid, that is, it is flattened at the poles and bulges at its equator. Its equatorial and polar radii differ by almost 10%,60,268 km versus 54,364 km, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune, the other giant planets in the Solar System, are also oblate but to a lesser extent. Saturn is the planet of the Solar System that is less dense than water—about 30% less. Although Saturns core is considerably denser than water, the specific density of the planet is 0.69 g/cm3 due to the atmosphere. Jupiter has 318 times the Earths mass, while Saturn is 95 times the mass of the Earth, together, Jupiter and Saturn hold 92% of the total planetary mass in the Solar System. On 8 January 2015, NASA reported determining the center of the planet Saturn, the temperature, pressure, and density inside Saturn all rise steadily toward the core, which causes hydrogen to transition into a metal in the deeper layers. Standard planetary models suggest that the interior of Saturn is similar to that of Jupiter, having a rocky core surrounded by hydrogen. This core is similar in composition to the Earth, but more dense, in 2004, they estimated that the core must be 9–22 times the mass of the Earth, which corresponds to a diameter of about 25,000 km. This is surrounded by a liquid metallic hydrogen layer, followed by a liquid layer of helium-saturated molecular hydrogen that gradually transitions to a gas with increasing altitude
33.
Natural satellite
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A natural satellite or moon is, in the most common usage, an astronomical body that orbits a planet or minor planet. In the Solar System there are six planetary satellite systems containing 178 known natural satellites, four IAU-listed dwarf planets are also known to have natural satellites, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris. As of January 2012, over 200 minor-planet moons have been discovered, the Earth–Moon system is unique in that the ratio of the mass of the Moon to the mass of Earth is much greater than that of any other natural-satellite–planet ratio in the Solar System. At 3,474 km across, Earths Moon is 0.27 times the diameter of Earth, the first known natural satellite was the Moon, but it was considered a planet until Copernicus introduction of heliocentrism in 1543. Until the discovery of the Galilean satellites in 1610, however, galileo chose to refer to his discoveries as Planetæ, but later discoverers chose other terms to distinguish them from the objects they orbited. The first to use of the satellite to describe orbiting bodies was the German astronomer Johannes Kepler in his pamphlet Narratio de Observatis a se quatuor Iouis satellitibus erronibus in 1610. He derived the term from the Latin word satelles, meaning guard, attendant, or companion, the term satellite thus became the normal one for referring to an object orbiting a planet, as it avoided the ambiguity of moon. In 1957, however, the launching of the artificial object Sputnik created a need for new terminology, to further avoid ambiguity, the convention is to capitalize the word Moon when referring to Earths natural satellite, but not when referring to other natural satellites. A few recent authors define moon as a satellite of a planet or minor planet, there is no established lower limit on what is considered a moon. Small asteroid moons, such as Dactyl, have also been called moonlets, the upper limit is also vague. Two orbiting bodies are described as a double body rather than primary. Asteroids such as 90 Antiope are considered double asteroids, but they have not forced a clear definition of what constitutes a moon, some authors consider the Pluto–Charon system to be a double planet. In contrast, irregular satellites are thought to be captured asteroids possibly further fragmented by collisions, most of the major natural satellites of the Solar System have regular orbits, while most of the small natural satellites have irregular orbits. The Moon and possibly Charon are exceptions among large bodies in that they are thought to have originated by the collision of two large proto-planetary objects. The material that would have placed in orbit around the central body is predicted to have reaccreted to form one or more orbiting natural satellites. As opposed to planetary-sized bodies, asteroid moons are thought to form by this process. Triton is another exception, although large and in a close, circular orbit, its motion is retrograde, most regular moons in the Solar System are tidally locked to their respective primaries, meaning that the same side of the natural satellite always faces its planet. The only known exception is Saturns natural satellite Hyperion, which rotates chaotically because of the influence of Titan
34.
Titan (moon)
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Titan is the largest moon of Saturn. It is the only known to have a dense atmosphere. Titan is the sixth ellipsoidal moon from Saturn, frequently described as a planet-like moon, Titan is 50% larger than Earths Moon, and it is 80% more massive. It is the second-largest moon in the Solar System, after Jupiters moon Ganymede, and is larger than the smallest planet, Mercury, discovered in 1655 by the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, Titan was the first known moon of Saturn, and the sixth known planetary satellite. Titan orbits Saturn at 20 Saturn radii, from Titans surface, Saturn subtends an arc of 5.09 degrees and would appear 11.4 times larger in the sky than the Moon from Earth. Titan is primarily composed of ice and rocky material. The geologically young surface is smooth, with few impact craters, although mountains. The atmosphere of Titan is largely nitrogen, minor components lead to the formation of methane and ethane clouds and nitrogen-rich organic smog. The climate—including wind and rain—creates surface features similar to those of Earth, such as dunes, rivers, lakes, seas, and deltas, Huygens was inspired by Galileos discovery of Jupiters four largest moons in 1610 and his improvements in telescope technology. Christiaan, with the help of his brother Constantijn Huygens, Jr. began building telescopes around 1650 and it was the sixth moon to be discovered. He named it Saturni Luna, publishing in the 1655 tract De Saturni Luna Observatio Nova, after Giovanni Domenico Cassini published his discoveries of four more moons of Saturn between 1673 and 1686, astronomers fell into the habit of referring to these and Titan as Saturn I through V. Other early epithets for Titan include Saturns ordinary satellite, Titan is officially numbered Saturn VI because after the 1789 discoveries the numbering scheme was frozen to avoid causing any more confusion. Numerous small moons have been discovered closer to Saturn since then and he suggested the names of the mythological Titans, brothers and sisters of Cronus, the Greek Saturn. In Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of powerful deities, descendants of Gaia and Uranus, Titan orbits Saturn once every 15 days and 22 hours. Because of this, there is a point on its surface. Longitudes on Titan are measured westward, starting from the passing through this point. Its orbital eccentricity is 0.0288, and the plane is inclined 0.348 degrees relative to the Saturnian equator. Viewed from Earth, Titan reaches a distance of about 20 Saturn radii from Saturn
35.
Deus Ex (video game)
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Deus Ex is a 2000 action role-playing video game developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos Interactive. His missions entangle him in a conspiracy that brings him into conflict with the Triad, Majestic 12, the game was first released for Microsoft Windows in June 2000, with a Mac OS port following the next month. A modified version of the game was released later for the PlayStation 2 in 2002, in the years following its release, Deus Ex has received additional improvements and content from its fan community. The game received acclaim, including repeatedly being named Best PC Game of All Time in PC Gamers Top 100 PC Games in 2011. It was a frequent candidate for and winner of Game of the Year awards, drawing praise for its designs in player choice. It has sold more than 1 million copies, as of April 23,2009, for example, the game uses a first-person camera during gameplay and includes exploration and character interaction as primary features. The player assumes the role of JC Denton, an operative of the United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition. This nanotechnology is a central mechanism and allows players to perform superhuman feats. As the player accomplishes objectives, the character is rewarded with skill points. There are four different levels of proficiency in each skill, with the point cost increasing for each successive level. Weapons may be customized through weapon modifications, which can be found or purchased throughout the game. The player might add scopes, silencers, or laser sights, increase the range, accuracy, or magazine size, or decrease its recoil and reload time. Players are further encouraged to customize their characters through nano-augmentations—cybernetic devices that grant characters superhuman powers and this forces the player to choose carefully between the benefits offered by each augmentation. For example, the arm augmentation requires the player to decide between boosting their characters skill in combat or his ability to lift heavy objects. Interaction with non-player characters was a design focus. When the player interacts with a character, the game will enter a cutscene-like conversation mode where the player advances the conversation by selecting from a list of dialogue options. The players choices often have an effect on both gameplay and plot, as non-player characters will react in different ways depending on the selected answer. Deus Ex features combat similar to first-person shooters, with action, a first-person perspective
36.
Call of Duty
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Call of Duty is a first-person shooter video game franchise. The series began on Microsoft Windows, and later expanded to consoles, several spin-off games have been released. The earlier games in the series are set primarily in World War II, including Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2, beginning with Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare, which is set in modern times, the series has shifted focus away from World War II. Modern Warfare, released November 2007, was followed by World at War, Black Ops, released November 2010, takes place in the Cold War, while Modern Warfare 3, released November 2011, takes place in a near-future setting. Black Ops II, released November 2012, takes place mainly in the year 2025, Call of Duty, Ghosts was released in November 2013. In May 2014, Advanced Warfare was announced, in November 6,2015, Black Ops III. The most recent game, Infinite Warfare was released on November 4,2016, the Call of Duty games are published and owned by Activision. While Infinity Ward is still a developer, Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games also develop several of the titles with the release of the games alternating with each other. The games use a variety of engines, including the id Tech 3, the Treyarch NGL, as of February 2016, the Call of Duty series has sold over 250 million copies. Sales of all Call of Duty games topped US$15 billion, Call of Duty is a video game based on the Quake III Arena engine, and was released on October 29,2003. The game was developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision, the game simulates the infantry and combined arms warfare of World War II. An expansion pack, Call of Duty, United Offensive, was developed by Gray Matter Interactive with contributions from Pi Studios, the game follows American and British paratroopers and the Red Army. The Mac OS X version of the game was ported by Aspyr Media, in late 2004, the N-Gage version was developed by Nokia and published by Activision. Other versions were released for PC, including Collectors Edition, Game of the Year Edition, on September 22,2006, Call of Duty, United Offensive, and Call of Duty 2 were released together as Call of Duty, War Chest for PC. Since November 12,2007, Call of Duty games have been available for purchase via Valves content delivery platform Steam, Call of Duty 2 is a first-person shooter video game and the sequel to Call of Duty. It was developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision, the game is set during World War II and is experienced through the perspectives of soldiers in the Red Army, British Army, and United States Army. It was released on October 25,2005 for Microsoft Windows, November 15,2005 for the Xbox 360, other versions were made for mobile phones, Pocket PCs, and smartphones. Call of Duty 3 is a World War II first-person shooter, released on November 7,2006, the game was developed by Treyarch, and was the first major installment in the Call of Duty series not to be developed by Infinity Ward
37.
Cutscene
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A cutscene or event scene is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, breaking up the gameplay. Cutscenes often feature on the fly rendering, using the graphics to create scripted events. Cutscenes can also be pre-rendered computer graphics streamed from a video file, pre-made videos used in video games are referred to as full motion videos or FMVs. Cutscenes can also appear in forms, such as a series of images or as plain text. The 1984 game Karateka helped introduce the use of cut scenes to home computers, since then, cutscenes have been part of many video games, especially in action-adventure and role-playing video games. The term cutscene was first coined by Ron Gilbert, when describing events in Maniac Mansion that the player has no control over, live-action cutscenes have many similarities to films. For example, the cutscenes in Wing Commander IV used both fully constructed sets, and well known such as Mark Hamill and Malcolm McDowell for the portrayal of characters. Some movie tie-in games, such as Electronic Arts The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars games, have extensively used film footage. Another movie tie-in, Enter the Matrix, used footage shot concurrently with The Matrix Reloaded that was also directed by the films directors. Pre-rendered cutscenes are animated and rendered by the developers, and take advantage of the full array of techniques of CGI. Like live-action shoots, pre-rendered cutscenes are presented in full motion video. Real time cutscenes are rendered using the same game engine as the graphics during gameplay. This technique is known as Machinima. Real time cutscenes are generally of much detail and visual quality than pre-rendered cutscenes. For example, some allow the player character to wear several different outfits. It is also possible to give the control over camera movement during real time cutscenes, as seen in Dungeon Siege, Metal Gear Solid 2, Sons of Liberty, Halo, Reach. Many games use both pre-rendered and real time cutscenes as the developer feels is appropriate for each scene, during the 1990s in particular, it was common for the techniques of live action, pre-rendering, and real time rendering to be combined in a single cutscene. For example, popular games such as Myst, Wing Commander III, though Final Fantasy VII primarily uses real-time cutscenes, it has several scenes in which real-time graphics are combined with pre-rendered full motion video
38.
Parkour
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Parkour is a training discipline using movement that developed from military obstacle course training. Practitioners aim to get one point to another in a complex environment, without assistive equipment. Parkour includes running, climbing, swinging, vaulting, jumping, rolling, quadrupedal movement, parkours development from military training gives it some aspects of a non-combative martial art. Parkour is an activity that can be practised alone or with others and is usually—but not exclusively—carried out in urban spaces. Parkour involves seeing ones environment in a new way, and imagining the potential for navigating it by movement around, across, through, over and under its features. Parkour was developed in France, primarily by Raymond Belle, and further by his son David and the group of friends. The discipline was popularised in the late 1990s and 2000s through films, documentaries, the word parkour derives from parcours du combattant, the classic obstacle course method of military training proposed by Georges Hébert. Raymond Belle used the term le parcours to encompass all of his training including climbing, jumping, running, balancing, and the other methods he undertook in his personal athletic advancement. His son, David, further developed his fathers methods and achieved success as a stuntman, Koundé suggested he change the c of parcours to a k because it was stronger and more dynamic, and to remove the silent s for the same reason, forming parkour. A practitioner of parkour is called a traceur, with the form being traceuse. They are nouns derived from the French verb tracer, which means to trace, as in tracing a path. The verb tracer used familiarly means, to buck up, the term traceur was originally the name of a parkour group headed by David Belle which included Sébastien Foucan and Stéphane Vigroux. A jam refers to a meeting of traceurs, involving training lasting anywhere from hours to several days, the first parkour jam was organised in July 2002 by Romain Drouet, with a dozen people including Sébastien Foucan and Stéphane Vigroux. In Western Europe, a forerunner of parkour was French naval officer Georges Hébert and he noted, their bodies were splendid, flexible, nimble, skillful, enduring, and resistant but yet they had no other tutor in gymnastics but their lives in nature. His rescue efforts during the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée on Saint-Pierre, Martinique, reinforced his belief that athletic skill must be combined with courage, Hébert became a physical education tutor at the college of Reims in France. Hébert set up a méthode naturelle session consisting of ten groups, walking, running, jumping, quadrupedal movement, climbing, balancing, throwing, lifting, self-defence. These were intended to develop the three forces, energetic, moral and physical. During World War I and World War II, teaching continued to expand, becoming the system of French military education
39.
Halo (series)
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Halo is a military science fiction first-person shooter video game franchise created by Bungie and now managed and developed by 343 Industries, a subsidiary of Microsoft Studios. The series centers on a war between humanity and a theocratic alliance of aliens known as the Covenant. The Covenant, led by their religious leaders called the Prophets, worship an ancient civilization known as the Forerunners, who perished in combat with the parasitic Flood. The central focus of the franchise builds off the experiences of Master Chief John-117, one of a group of supersoldiers codenamed Spartans, other characters, such as Noble Six from Halo, Reach, are also introduced in the series. The term Halo refers to the Halo rings, large, habitable superweapons that were created to destroy the parasitic Flood and they are similar to the Orbitals in Iain M. Banks Culture novels, and less so to author Larry Nivens Ringworld concept. The games in the series have been praised as being among the best first-person shooters on a game console. This led to the term Halo killer being used to console games that aspire, or are considered. Fueled by the success of Halo, Combat Evolved, and by marketing campaigns from publisher Microsoft. The games have sold over 65 million copies worldwide, with the games alone grossing almost $3.4 billion, strong sales of the games led to the franchises expansion to other media, there are multiple best-selling novels, graphic novels, and other licensed products. Halo Wars took the franchise into new video game genre territory, as a strategy game. Beyond the original trilogy, Bungie developed the expansion Halo 3, ODST, a high-definition remake of the first game, entitled Halo, Combat Evolved Anniversary, was released on November 15,2011, exactly ten years after the release of the original. A new installment in a series of games, Halo 4, was released on November 6,2012. Halo, The Master Chief Collection, a compilation of the four primary Halo titles, was released for the Xbox One on November 11,2014. In October 2015, Halo 5, Guardians was released, the collective group of fans of the series is referred to as the Halo Nation. In the distant past, a race called the Forerunners fought an alien parasite known as the Flood. The Flood, which spread through infestation of sentient life, overran much of the Milky Way Galaxy, One of the races affected was humanity, who came into conflict with the Forerunners as a result. Exhausted by their war and after having explored all other options, using an installation known as the Ark, they built large ring-shaped megastructures known as Halos. The Halo Array, when activated, would destroy all sentient life in the galaxy – depriving the Flood of their food, delaying as long as they could, the Forerunners activated the rings and disappeared
40.
Gears of War
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Gears of War is a video game franchise created and originally owned by Epic Games, developed and managed by The Coalition, and owned and published by Microsoft Studios. The series focuses on the conflict between humanity, the subterranean reptilian hominids known as the Locust Horde, and their mutated counterparts, the franchise consists of five third-person shooter video games, which has also been supplemented by a comic book series and five novels. The first installment, titled Gears of War, was released on November 7,2006 for the Xbox 360, the game follows protagonist Marcus Fenix, a soldier in the Coalition of Ordered Governments tasked to lead a last-ditch effort to destroy the Locust Horde and save humanity. Two subsequent titles, Gears of War 2 and Gears of War 3, continued Fenix and humanity’s ongoing conflict with the Locust Horde and Lambent forces. In 2013, Epic Games and Microsoft released Gears of War, Judgment, a prequel to the series’ first title, Gears of War, Ultimate Edition was released for Microsoft Windows on March 1,2016. The series third sequel, Gears of War 4, is set 25 years after Gears of War 3 and follows Marcus Fenixs son, JD, Gears of War was developed by Epic Games. Cliff Bleszinski, who has worked on Epic’s Unreal Tournament games. He was inspired by elements from Resident Evil 4, Kill Switch. The series was guided by Rod Fergusson, the executive producer. The first four installments of the Gears of War series used a version of the Unreal Engine 3 engine. On January 27,2014, Microsoft acquired all rights to the franchise from Epic Games, canadian studio The Coalition developed Gears of War 4, which was released on October 11,2016 for the Xbox One and Windows 10. Gears of War became one of the franchises for the Xbox 360. The series is known for its emphasis on cover-based combat. All five installments in Gears of War featured several multiplayer modes that allowed players to compete against each other or team-up to battle AI opponents on Xbox Live, the Gears of War games have been amongst the most popular and most played titles on Xbox Live. The Gears of War series takes place on a fictional Earth-like planet named Sera, the planet had a history of conflict that took Sera to the brink of destruction. This shocked the people into a rejection of their ways, leading to a golden age of culture, science. The energy demands of Seras population soon surpassed the traditional energy sources like petroleum. A search for new energy sources led to the discovery of Imulsion and this ended when COG opted to use its orbital laser weapon, the Hammer of Dawn, to ravage UIR cities
