Grim Fandango
''Grim Fandango'' is a 1998 adventure game directed by Tim Schafer and developed and published by LucasArts for Microsoft Windows. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered static backgrounds. As with other LucasArts adventure games, the player must converse with characters and examine, collect, and use objects to solve puzzles. ''Grim Fandango'' is set in the Land of the Dead in a retro-futuristic version of the 1950s, through which recently departed souls, represented as '' calaca''-like figures, travel before they reach their final destination. The story follows travel agent Manuel "Manny" Calavera as he attempts to guide new arrival Mercedes "Meche" Colomar on her journey. The game combines elements of the Aztec afterlife with ''film noir'' style, with influences including '' The Maltese Falcon'', ''On the Waterfront'' and ''Casablanca''. ''Grim Fandango'' received praise for its art design and direction. It was se ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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LucasArts
Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor, former video game developer and video game publisher, publisher, and a subsidiary of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a larger 1990 reorganization of the Lucasfilm divisions, the video game development division was grouped and rebranded as part of LucasArts. LucasArts became known for LucasArts adventure games, its line of adventure games based on its SCUMM engine in the 1990s, including ''Maniac Mansion'', the ''Monkey Island'' series, and several ''Indiana Jones'' titles. A number of influential game developers were alumni of LucasArts from this period, including Brian Moriarty, Tim Schafer, Ron Gilbert, and Dave Grossman (game developer), Dave Grossman. Later, as Lucasfilm regained control over its licensing over the ''Star Wars'' franchise, LucasArts produced numerous action ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Microsoft Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sectors of the computing industry – Windows (unqualified) for a consumer or corporate workstation, Windows Server for a Server (computing), server and Windows IoT for an embedded system. Windows is sold as either a consumer retail product or licensed to Original equipment manufacturer, third-party hardware manufacturers who sell products Software bundles, bundled with Windows. The first version of Windows, Windows 1.0, was released on November 20, 1985, as a graphical operating system shell for MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The name "Windows" is a reference to the windowing system in GUIs. The 1990 release of Windows 3.0 catapulted its market success and led to various other product families ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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List Of Commercial Failures In Video Games
As a hit-driven business, the great majority of the video game industry's software releases have been failure#In business, commercial disappointments. In the early 21st century, industry commentators made these general estimates: 10% of published games generated 90% of revenue; that around 3% of PC games and 15% of console games have global sales of more than 100,000 units per year, with even this level insufficient to make high-budget games profitable; and that about 20% of games make any profit. Within years after Steam (service), Steam relaxed limits on which games could be digitally distributed on its service, they reported that around 80% of games failed to reach $5000 in revenue in their first two weeks of sales. Some of these failure events have drastically changed the video game market since its origin in the late 1970s. For example, the failure of ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (video game), E.T.'' contributed to the video game crash of 1983. Some games, though commercial f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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List Of Video Games Considered The Best
This is a list of video games that video game journalists or magazines have considered among the best of all time. The games are included on at least six separate best-of lists from different publications (inclusive of all time periods, platforms and genres), as chosen by their editorial staff. List Publications The reference numbers in the notes section show which of the 53 selected publications list the game. * '' 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die'' – 2013 * ''The Age'' – 2005 * '' Collider'' – 2020 * '' Dexerto'' – 2024 * '' Digital Trends'' – 2023 * ''Digitally Downloaded'' – 2016 * '' Electric Playground Network'' – 2013 * '' Edge'' – 2000, 2009, 2015, 2017 * '' Electronic Fun with Computers & Games'' – 1984 * ''Empire'' – 2009 * ''Entertainment Weekly'' – 2003 * ''Esquire'' – 2018, 2019, 2020 * '' FHM'' – 2010 * '' Flux'' – 1995 * '' G4'' – 2012 * '' GamesMaster'' – 1994, 1996 * '' Gamecenter'' – 2000 * ''Game Informer'' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Casablanca (film)
''Casablanca'' is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid. Filmed and set during World War II, it focuses on an American expatriate (Bogart) who must choose between his love for a woman (Bergman) and helping her husband (Henreid), a Czechoslovak resistance leader, escape from the Vichy-controlled city of Casablanca to continue his fight against the Nazis. The screenplay is based on '' Everybody Comes to Rick's'', an unproduced stage play by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison. The supporting cast features Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Dooley Wilson. Warner Bros. story editor Irene Diamond convinced producer Hal B. Wallis to purchase the film rights to the play in January 1942. Brothers Julius and Philip G. Epstein were initially assigned to write the script. However, despite studio resistance, they left to work on Frank Capra's ''Why We Fight'' ser ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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On The Waterfront
''On the Waterfront'' is a 1954 American crime drama film, directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, and features Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning and Eva Marie Saint in her film debut. The musical score was composed by Leonard Bernstein. The black-and-white film was inspired by "Crime on the Waterfront" by Malcolm Johnson, a series of articles published in November–December 1948 in the '' New York Sun'' which won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, but the screenplay by Budd Schulberg is directly based on his own original story. The film focuses on union violence and corruption among longshoremen, while detailing widespread corruption, extortion, and racketeering on the waterfronts of Hoboken, New Jersey. ''On the Waterfront'' was a critical and commercial success and is considered one of the greatest films ever made. It received twelve Academy Award nominations and won eight, including Best Pictur ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Maltese Falcon (1941 Film)
''The Maltese Falcon'' is a 1941 American film noir written and directed by John Huston in his directorial debut. Based on The Maltese Falcon (novel), the 1930 novel by Dashiell Hammett, it is a remake of The Maltese Falcon (1931 film), the 1931 film. Starring Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Sam Spade, Mary Astor as his ''femme fatale'' client, and Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet as villains, the film follows a life-and-death quest for a jewel-encrusted falcon statuette in San Francisco. The film premiered in New York City on October 3, 1941, and was an immediate success, eventually becoming one of the first 25 films selected by the Library of Congress to be included in the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 1989. Plot In San Francisco, private investigators Sam Spade and Miles Archer meet prospective client Ruth Wonderly. She claims to be looking for her missing sister, who ran off from their home in New York an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Film Noir
Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American film noir. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key lighting, low-key, black-and-white visual style that has roots in German expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and attitudes expressed in classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression, known as noir fiction. The term ''film noir'', French for "black film" (literal) or "dark film" (closer meaning), was first applied to Hollywood films by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, but was unrecognized by most American film industry professionals of that era. Frank is believed to have been inspired by the French literary publishing imprint Série noire, founded in 1945. Cinema hist ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Aztec Religion
The Aztec religion is a polytheistic and monistic pantheism in which the Nahua concept of '' teotl'' was construed as the supreme god Ometeotl, as well as a diverse pantheon of lesser gods and manifestations of nature. The popular religion tended to embrace the mythological and polytheistic aspects, and the Aztec Empire's state religion sponsored both the monism of the upper classes and the popular heterodoxies. The most important deities were worshiped by priests in Tenochtitlan, particularly Tlaloc and the god of the Mexica, Huitzilopochtli, whose shrines were located on Templo Mayor. Their priests would receive special dispensation from the empire. When other states were conquered the empire would often incorporate practices from its new territories into the mainstream religion. In common with many other indigenous Mesoamerican civilizations, the Aztecs put great ritual emphasis on calendrics, and scheduled festivals, government ceremonies, and even war around key tran ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Calavera
A calavera (Spanish – for "skull"), in the context of the Day of the Dead, is a representation of a human skull or skeleton. The term is often applied to edible or decorative skulls made (usually with molds) from either sugar (called Alfeñiques) or clay, used in the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead () and the Roman Catholic holiday All Souls' Day. ''Calavera'' can also refer to any artistic representations of skulls or skeletons, such as those in the prints of José Guadalupe Posada, or to gifts or treats in relation to the Day of the Dead.Cordova, Ruben C. (2005). "Calaveras". In Ilan Stavans, ed. in chief, and Harold Augenbraum, assoc. ed., ''Encyclopedia Latina: History, Culture, and Society in the United States.'' Danbury, Conn.: Grolier Academic Reference, 4 vols.: I: 248–249 Some widely known ''calaveras'' are created with cane sugar, decorated with items such as colored foil, icing, beads, and sometimes objects such as feathers. They range in multiple color ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Calaca
A calaca (, a colloquial Mexican Spanish name for skeleton) is a figure of a skull or skeleton (usually human) commonly used for decoration during the Mexican Day of the Dead festival, although they are made all year round. Description Tracing their origins from Maya civilization Mayan imagery, Calaca's are frequently shown with marigold flowers and foliage. As with other aspects of the Day of the Dead festival, Calaca's are generally depicted as joyous rather than mournful figures. They are often shown wearing festive clothing, dancing, and playing musical instruments to indicate a happy afterlife. This draws on the Mexican belief that no dead soul likes to be thought of sadly, and that death should be a joyous occasion. This goes back to Aztec beliefs, one of the few Calaca to remain after the Spanish conquest. Calacas used in the festival include carved skull masks worn by revelers, small figures made out of carved wood or fired clay, and sweet treats in the form of skulls ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Retro-futuristic
Retrofuturism (adjective ''retrofuturistic'' or ''retrofuture'') is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipating what will come, retrofuturism is the remembering of that anticipation. Characterized by a blend of old-fashioned "retro styles" with futuristic technology, retrofuturism explores the themes of tension between past and future, and between the alienating and empowering effects of technology. Primarily reflected in artistic creations and modified technologies that realize the imagined artifacts of its parallel reality, retrofuturism can be seen as "an animating perspective on the world". Etymology The word retrofuturism is formed by the addition of the prefix "retro" from the Latin language, which gives the meaning of "backwards" to the word "future", a word also originating from Latin. According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |