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Johnny Mnemonic (pinball)
Johnny Mnemonic is a pinball machine designed by George Gomez and released by Williams Electronic Games, Inc in August 1995. Based on the 1995 film of the same name, itself an adaptation of William Gibson's cyberpunk short story, the game introduces innovative mechanics including a player-controlled magnetic glove and a Cyber Matrix ball lock system. Though overshadowed by the film's commercial struggles, the pinball machine has gained recognition for its fast-paced gameplay and unique features, securing a spot in the Pinside Pinball Top 100. Description ''Johnny Mnemonic'' was developed by Williams Electronic Games, Inc., with George Gomez as the lead designer and John Youssi contributing the artwork. Drawing inspiration from Gibson's short story, Gomez also incorporated film elements, such as the magnetic glove used to manipulate the pinball. Released in tandem with the movie, the game's sales suffered due to the film's poor box office performance. Over time, however, it has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WMS Industries
WMS Industries, Inc. was an American electronic gaming and amusement manufacturer in Enterprise, Nevada. It was merged into Scientific Games in 2016. WMS's predecessor was the Williams Manufacturing Company, founded in 1943 by Harry E. Williams. However, the company that became WMS Industries was formally founded in 1974 as Williams Electronics, Inc. Williams initially was a manufacturer of pinball machines. In 1964, Williams was acquired by jukebox manufacturer Seeburg Corp. and reorganized as Williams Electronics Manufacturing Division. In 1973, the company branched out into the coin-operated arcade video game market with its ''Pong'' clone ''Paddle Ball'', eventually creating a number of video game classics, including '' Defender'', ''Joust'', and '' Robotron: 2084.'' In 1974, Williams Electronics, Inc. was incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Seeburg, which changed its name to Xcor International in 1977. Williams Electronics was spun out as an independent company ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pinball Machine
Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails called 'pins' and had hollows or pockets which scored points if the ball came to rest in them. Today, pinball is most commonly an arcade game in which the ball is fired into a specially designed cabinet known as a pinball machine, hitting various lights, bumpers, ramps, and other targets depending on its design. The game's object is generally to score as many points as possible by hitting these targets and making various shots with flippers before the ball is lost. Most pinball machines use one ball per turn, except during special multi-ball phases, and the game ends when the ball(s) from the last turn are lost. The biggest pinball machine manufacturers historically include Bally Manufacturing, Gottlieb, Williams Electronics and Stern Pinb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Mnemonic (film)
''Johnny Mnemonic'' is a 1995 cyberpunk action film directed by Robert Longo in his feature directorial debut. William Gibson, who wrote the 1981 short story, wrote the screenplay. The film, set in 2021, portrays a dystopian future racked by a tech-induced plague, awash with conspiracies, and dominated by megacorporations and organized crime. Keanu Reeves plays Johnny, a data courier with an overloaded brain implant designed to securely store confidential information. Takeshi Kitano portrays a yakuza affiliated with a megacorporation attempting to suppress the data; he uses his in-house psychopathic assassin played by Denis Akiyama to do so. Ice-T and Dina Meyer co-star as Johnny's allies, a freedom fighter and a bodyguard, respectively. It was shot in Canada; Toronto and Montreal filled in for Newark and Beijing. The project was difficult for Gibson and Longo. After they struggled for years to finance a low-budget adaptation of Gibson's story, Sony greenlit ''John ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Gibson
William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as cyberpunk. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his early works were noir, near-future stories that explored the effects of technology, cybernetics, and computer networks on humans, a "combination of Low-life, lowlife and high tech"—and helped to create an iconography for the Information Age before the ubiquity of the Internet in the 1990s. Gibson coined the term "cyberspace" for "widespread, interconnected digital technology" in his short story "Burning Chrome" (1982), and later popularized the concept in his acclaimed debut novel ''Neuromancer'' (1984). These early works of Gibson's have been credited with "renovating" science fiction literature in the 1980s. After expanding on the story in ''Neuromancer'' with two more novels (''Count Zero'' in 1986 and ''Mona Lisa Overdrive'' in 1988), t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberware, juxtaposed with societal collapse, dystopia or decay. Much of cyberpunk is rooted in the New Wave science fiction movement of the 1960s and 1970s, when writers like Philip K. Dick, Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, John Brunner (novelist), John Brunner, J. G. Ballard, Philip José Farmer and Harlan Ellison examined the impact of technology, drug culture, and the sexual revolution while avoiding the utopian tendencies of earlier science fiction. Comics exploring cyberpunk themes began appearing as early as Judge Dredd, first published in 1977. Released in 1984, William Gibson's influential debut novel ''Neuromancer'' helped solidify cyberpunk as a genre, drawing influence from punk subculture and early hacker culture. Frank Miller's ''Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest types of literature and has existed in the form of legends, Myth, mythic tales, Folklore genre, folk tales, fairy tales, tall tales, fables, and anecdotes in various ancient communities around the world. The modern short story developed in the early 19th century. Definition The short story is a crafted form in its own right. Short stories make use of plot, resonance and other dynamic components as in a novel, but typically to a lesser degree. While the short story is largely distinct from the novel or novella, novella/short novel, authors generally draw from a common pool of literary techniques. The short story is sometimes referred to as a genre. Determining what exactly defines a short story remains problematic. A classic definition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and WGN-TV, WGN television received their call letters. It is the most-read daily newspaper in the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region, and the List of newspapers in the United States, sixth-largest newspaper by print circulation in the United States. In the 1850s, under Joseph Medill, the ''Chicago Tribune'' became closely associated with the Illinois politician Abraham Lincoln, and the then new Republican Party (United States), Republican Party's progressive wing. In the 20th century, under Medill's grandson 'Colonel' Robert R. McCormick, its reputation was that of a crusading newspaper with an outlook that promoted Conservatism in the United States, American conservatism and opposed the New Deal. Its reporting and commenta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Shadow (pinball)
''The Shadow'' is a 1994 pinball game designed by Brian Eddy and released by Midway (under the '' Bally'' label). It is based on the 1994 movie of the same name. Description This game featured new speech by Penelope Ann Miller (Margo Lane), John Lone (Shiwan Khan), and Tim Curry Timothy James Curry (born 19 April 1946) is an English actor and singer. He rose to prominence as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the musical film '' The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' (1975), reprising the role he had originated in the 1973 London, 1974 L ... (Farley Claymore) (reprising their respective roles), as well as speech from the movie. The Shadow's speech for this game was provided by Williams/Midway voice actor, Tim Kitzrow. Retrieved on August 9, 2007. The game's noted feature ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in San Bruno, California, it is the second-most-visited website in the world, after Google Search. In January 2024, YouTube had more than 2.7billion monthly active users, who collectively watched more than one billion hours of videos every day. , videos were being uploaded to the platform at a rate of more than 500 hours of content per minute, and , there were approximately 14.8billion videos in total. On November 13, 2006, YouTube was purchased by Google for $1.65 billion (equivalent to $ billion in ). Google expanded YouTube's business model of generating revenue from advertisements alone, to offering paid content such as movies and exclusive content produced by and for YouTube. It also offers YouTube Premium, a paid subs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Ritchie (pinball Designer)
Steven Scott Ritchie (born February 13, 1950) is an American pinball and video game designer. His career began in the 1970s. Ritchie holds the record for best-selling pinball designer in history. He has been called "The Master of Flow" due to the emphasis in his designs on ball speed, loops, and long smooth shots. Ritchie was also the original voice of Shao Kahn in the ''Mortal Kombat'' fighting game series, serving as the announcer of ''Mortal Kombat II'' (1993), ''Mortal Kombat 3'' (1995), and the updates to ''Mortal Kombat 3''. He is the older brother of fellow pinball designer Mark Ritchie. Biography Steve Ritchie was born in San Francisco, California and moved to Pacifica when he was five. He first played pinball at a local bowling alley that he visited during his parents' bowling league night. Ritchie graduated high school early and joined the Coast Guard shortly before his eighteenth birthday. He trained as an electronics technician, serving in Vietnam, California, and A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
FunHouse (pinball)
''FunHouse'' is a pinball machine designed by Pat Lawlor and released in November 1990 by Williams Electronics. Starring a talking ventriloquist dummy named Rudy, the game is themed after the concept of an amusement park funhouse. ''FunHouse'' is one of the last Williams games to use an alphanumeric display; the company switched to dot matrix the following year. Description ''FunHouses primary feature is the talking head of a ventriloquist dummy, named Rudy, located in the top right corner of the playfield. Rudy responds to events in the game, including informing the player of special bonuses, taunting and heckling the player, and appearing to follow the ball with its eyes when certain targets are hit. Rudy is voiced by Ed Boon, and the technology behind Rudy's facial movements was dubbed "Pin-Mation" by Williams. The theme and artwork were heavily inspired by Riverview Park, an amusement park near the manufacturer's headquarters. For example, the park's Riverview Carou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1995 Pinball Machines
1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government no longer providing public funding, marking the beginning of the Information Age. America Online and Prodigy offered access to the World Wide Web system for the first time this year, releasing browsers that made it easily accessible to the general public. Events January * January 1 ** The World Trade Organization (WTO) is established to replace the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). ** Austria, Finland and Sweden join the European Union. * January 9 – Valeri Polyakov completes 366 days in space while aboard then ''Mir'' space station, breaking a duration record. * January 10– 15 – The World Youth Day 1995 festival is held in Manila, Philippines, culminating in 5 million people gathering for John Paul II's concluding m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
