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Cosmic Balance II
''The Cosmic Balance II'' is a turn-based strategy game written by Paul Murray for the Apple II and published by Strategic Simulations in 1983. It was ported to the Atari 8-bit computers. The game is a sequel to '' The Cosmic Balance'' (1982) also designed by Murray. In 1984, SSI published a sequel, '' Imperium Galactum''. Gameplay ''The Cosmic Balance II'' is a 4X turn-based strategic level space warfare game. The game consists of several scenarios that grow in complexity, starting with a solitary one that acts as a tutorial in resource management, through set two-player scenarios involving more and more planets and ships. The game also has a scenario creation tool. Games can be played against a computer or human opponent. The map consists of 16 space sectors which vary in size and shape. Despite this, all sectors have 40 planets in them. There are four types of planets in the game: terran, industrial, mining, and farming. Terran planets on their own can produce indust ...
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Strategic Simulations
Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) was a video game developer and publisher of over 100 games from its founding in 1979 to its dissolution in 1994 (though the brand was in use until around 2002). The company focused on computer wargames then later added role-playing video games. SSI published the '' Panzer General'' series and the official video game adaptations of ''Dungeons & Dragons''. History The company was founded by Joel Billings, a wargame enthusiast, who in the summer of 1979 saw the possibility of using the new home computers such as the TRS-80 for wargames. While unsuccessfully approaching Avalon Hill and Automated Simulations to publish wargames, he hired programmers John Lyons, who wrote '' Computer Bismarck''—later claimed to have been the first "serious wargame" published for a microcomputer"Titans of the Computer Gaming World"''Computer Gaming World'', March 1988 p.36.—and Ed Williger, who wrote '' Computer Ambush''. Both games were written in BASIC as w ...
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Tactical Level
Military tactics encompasses the art of organizing and employing fighting forces on or near the battlefield. They involve the application of four battlefield functions which are closely related – kinetic or firepower, mobility, protection or security, and shock action. Tactics are a separate function from command and control and logistics. In contemporary military science, tactics are the lowest of three levels of warfighting, the higher levels being the strategic and operational levels. Throughout history, there has been a shifting balance between the four tactical functions, generally based on the application of military technology, which has led to one or more of the tactical functions being dominant for a period of time, usually accompanied by the dominance of an associated fighting arm deployed on the battlefield, such as infantry, artillery, cavalry or tanks. Tactical functions Kinetic or firepower Beginning with the use of melee and missile weapons such as clubs ...
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Strategic Simulations Games
Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "troop leadership; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty Uncertainty or incertitude refers to situations involving imperfect or unknown information. It applies to predictions of future events, to physical measurements that are already made, or to the unknown, and is particularly relevant for decision .... In the sense of the " art of the general", which included several subsets of skills including military tactics, siegecraft, logistics etc., the term came into use in the 6th century C.E. in Eastern Roman terminology, and was translated into Western vernacular languages only in the 18th century. From then until the 20th century, the word "strategy" came to denote "a comprehensive way to try to pursue political ends, including the threat or actual use of force, in a dialectic of wills" in a military conflict, ...
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Single-player Video Games
A single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the gameplay. Video games in general can feature several game modes, including single-player modes designed to be played by a single player in addition to multi-player modes. Most modern console games, PC games and arcade games are designed so that they can be played by a single player; although many of these games have modes that allow two or more players to play (not necessarily simultaneously), very few actually require more than one player for the game to be played. The '' Unreal Tournament'' series is one example of such. History The earliest video games, such as '' Tennis for Two'' (1958), '' Spacewar!'' (1962), and '' Pong'' (1972), were symmetrical games designed to be played by two players. Single-player games gained popularity only after this, with early titles such as '' Speed Race'' (1974) and '' Space Invaders'' (1978). The reason for this, according to Raph Ko ...
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Atari 8-bit Computer Games
Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames) and its focus is on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and blockchain". The original Atari, Inc., founded in Sunnyvale, California, United States in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was a pioneer in arcade games, home video game consoles, and home computers. The company's products, such as ''Pong'' and the Atari 2600, helped define the electronic entertainment industry from the 1970s to the mid-1980s. In 1984, as a result of the video game crash of 1983, the assets of the home console and computer divisions of the original Atari Inc. were sold off to Jack Tramiel's Tramel Technology Ltd., which then renamed itself to Atari Corporation, while the remaining part of Atari, Inc. was renamed Atari Games Inc. In early 1985, Warner established a new corporation jointly with Namco subsequently named ...
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Apple II Games
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ''Malus sieversii'', is still found. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Eurasia before they were introduced to North America by European colonization of the Americas, European colonists. Apples have cultural significance in many mythological, mythologies (including Norse mythology, Norse and Greek mythology, Greek) and religions (such as Christianity in Europe). Apples grown from seeds tend to be very different from those of their parents, and the resultant fruit frequently lacks desired characteristics. For commercial purposes, including botanical evaluation, apple cultivars are propagated by clonal grafting onto rootstocks. Apple trees grown without rootstocks tend to be larger and ...
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1983 Video Games
1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the true Internet). * January 6 – Pope John Paul II appoints a bishop over the Czechoslovak exile community, which the ''Rudé právo'' newspaper calls a "provocation." This begins a year-long disagreement between the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the Vatican City, Vatican, leading to the eventual restoration of diplomatic relations between the two states. * January 14 – The head of Bangladesh's military dictatorship, Hussain Muhammad Ershad, announces his intentions to "turn Bangladesh into an Islamic state." * January 18 – United States Secretary of the Interior, U.S. Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt makes controversial remarks blaming poor living conditions on Indian reservation, Native American re ...
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List Of 4X Video Games
4X is a subgenre of strategy video games. The term is a loose acronym of "explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate", coined in 1993 to describe the gameplay of ''Master of Orion''. 4X games usually feature complex simulations of scientific research, economics, diplomacy, and social dynamics. Unlike computer wargames, they usually have more ways to win than through warfare, and they model the creation and evolution of an empire from its beginning. Games prior to ''Master of Orion'' have been retroactively identified as 4X games. Early precursors include the board games ''Outreach (board game), Outreach'' and ''Stellar Conquest'', both published in the 1970s. Some early strategy video games, such as ''Andromeda Conquest'' (1982) and ''Cosmic Balance II'' (1983) incorporated what would later become elements of 4X games, but the first 4X video game was ''Reach for the Stars (video game), Reach for the Stars'' (1983). Because of the genre's focus on mouse-and-keyboard control s ...
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VisiCalc
VisiCalc ("visible calculator") is the first spreadsheet computer program for personal computers, originally released for the Apple II by VisiCorp on October 17, 1979. It is considered the killer application for the Apple II, turning the microcomputer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a serious business tool, and then prompting IBM to introduce the IBM PC two years later. More than 700,000 copies were sold in six years, and up to 1 million copies over its history. Initially developed for the Apple II computer using a 6502 assembler running on the Multics time-sharing system, VisiCalc was ported to numerous platforms, both 8-bit and some of the early 16-bit systems. To do this, the company developed porting platforms that produced bug compatible versions. The company took the same approach when the IBM PC was launched, producing a product that was essentially identical to the original 8-bit Apple II version. Sales were initially brisk, with about 300,000 copies sold. ...
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Computer Gaming World
''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through the 1990s and became one of the largest dedicated video game magazines, reaching around 500 pages by 1997. In the early 2000s its circulation was about 300,000, only slightly behind the market leader ''PC Gamer''. But, like most magazines of the era, the rapid move of its advertising revenue to internet properties led to a decline in revenue. In 2006, Ziff announced it would be refocused as ''Games for Windows: The Official Magazine, Games for Windows'', before moving it to solely online format, and then shutting down completely later the same year. History In 1979, Russell Sipe left the Southern Baptist Convention ministry. A fan of computer games, he realized in Spring, 1981 that no Video game journalism, ...
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Space Combat
Space warfare is combat in which one or more belligerents are in outer space. The scope of space warfare includes ''ground-to-space warfare'', such as attacking satellites from the Earth; ''space-to-space warfare'', such as satellites attacking satellites; and ''space-to-ground warfare'', such as satellites attacking Earth-based targets. There exist international treaties, which are in place to attempt to regulate conflicts in space and limit the installation of space weapon systems, especially nuclear weapons. On October 31, 2023, during a Red Sea crisis, Yemeni missile strike on Israel, Israel's Arrow 2 system intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Yemen by Houthi rebels; this successful interception occurred outside of Earth's atmosphere thus making it the first recorded practical instance of space warfare during an active conflict. On April 14, 2024, Iran launched more than April 2024 Iranian strikes against Israel, 120 ballistic missiles at Israel, making it the fir ...
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Hyperspace
In science fiction, hyperspace (also known as nulspace, subspace, overspace, jumpspace and similar terms) is a concept relating to higher dimensions as well as parallel universes and a faster-than-light (FTL) method of interstellar travel. In its original meaning, the term ''hyperspace'' was simply a synonym for higher-dimensional space. This usage was most common in 19th-century textbooks and is still occasionally found in academic and popular science texts, for example, '' Hyperspace'' (1994).'''' Its science fiction usage originated in the magazine '' Amazing Stories Quarterly'' in 1931 and within several decades it became one of the most popular tropes of science fiction, popularized by its use in the works of authors such as Isaac Asimov and E. C. Tubb, and media franchises such as ''Star Wars''. One of the main reasons for the concept's popularity in science fiction is the impossibility of faster-than-light travel in ordinary '' physical space'', which hyperspace ...
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