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Legends Of Kesmai
''Island of Kesmai'' is a discontinued multi-user dungeon (MUD) online game. An early entry in the genre, the game was innovative in its use of roguelike pseudo-graphics. It is considered a major forerunner of modern massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). Launch date In the summer of 1980 University of Virginia classmates John Taylor and Kelton Flinn wrote ''Dungeons of Kesmai'', a six player game inspired by '' Dungeons & Dragons'' which used Roguelike ASCII graphics. They founded the Kesmai company in 1982 and in 1985 an enhanced version of ''Dungeons of Kesmai'', ''Island of Kesmai'', was launched on CompuServe. Later, its 2-D graphical descendant '' Legends of Kesmai'' was launched on AOL in 1996. The games were retired commercially in 2000. Price to play The game was available on CompuServe for no additional charge, but CompuServe charged $6 per hour for 300 baud or $12 per hour for 1200 baud access rates. The game processed one command ev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kesmai
Kesmai was a pioneering game developer and online game publisher, founded in 1981 by Kelton Flinn and John Taylor. The company was best known for the combat flight sim '' Air Warrior'' on the GEnie online service, one of the first graphical MMOGs, launched in 1987. They also developed an ASCII-based MUD, '' Island of Kesmai'', and empire building game, '' MegaWars III'', which ran on CompuServe, and later, GEnie. The company was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. in 1994. The company continued to develop massively multiplayer games such as ''Air Warrior 2'' and ''Legends of Kesmai''. They distributed their games through AOL and eventually a new gaming service formed with three other publishers, GameStorm. AOL purchased CompuServe in 1997 and retooled its AOL Games Channel in a way that placed Kesmai unfavorably compared to its own games division, WorldPlay. Kesmai sued AOL for monopolistic practices. The suit was settled out of court with undisclosed terms. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virtual World
A virtual world (also called a virtual space or spaces) is a Computer simulation, computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many simultaneous users who can create a personal Avatar (computing), avatar and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities, and communicate with others. These avatars can be textual, graphical representations, or live video avatars with auditory and touch sensations. Virtual worlds are closely related to mirror worlds. In a virtual world, the User (computing), user accesses a computer-simulated world which presents Perception, perceptual stimuli to the user, who in turn can manipulate elements of the modeled world and thus experience a degree of Immersion (virtual reality)#Presence, presence. Such modeled worlds and their rules may draw from reality or fantasy worlds. Example rules are gravity, topography, animal locomotion, locomotion, real-time computer graphics, real-time actions, and communication. Communicati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1985 Video Games
1985 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as ''Super Mario Bros.'' and ''Kung-Fu Master (video game), Kung Fu'', along with new titles such as ''Commando (video game), Commando'', ''Duck Hunt'', ''Gauntlet (1985 video game), Gauntlet'', ''Ghosts 'n Goblins (video game), Ghosts 'n Goblins'', ''Gradius (video game), Gradius'', ''Hang-On'', ''Space Harrier'', ''Tetris'' and ''The Way of the Exploding Fist''. The year's highest-grossing arcade video games were ''Hang-On'' and ''Karate Champ'' in the United States, and ''Commando'' in the United Kingdom. The year's bestselling home system was the Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom) for a consecutive year, while the year's bestselling home video game was ''Super Mario Bros.'' Financial performance In Video games in the United States, the United States, annual Video game crash of 1983, home video game sales fell to ( adjusted for inflation) in 1985. Meanwhile, the arcade video game industry began recovering in 1985. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ars Technica
''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. ''Ars Technica'' was privately owned until May 2008, when it was sold to Condé Nast Digital, the online division of Condé Nast Publications. Condé Nast purchased the site, along with two others, for $25 million and added it to the company's ''Wired'' Digital group, which also includes '' Wired'' and, formerly, Reddit. The staff mostly works from home and has offices in Boston, Chicago, London, New York City, and San Francisco. The operations of ''Ars Technica'' are funded primarily by advertising, and it has offered a paid subscription service since 2001. History Ken Fisher, who serves as the website's current editor-in-chief, and Jon Stokes created ''Ars Technica'' in 1998. Its purpose was t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TSR (company)
TSR, Inc. was an American game publishing company, best known as the original publisher of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D''). Its earliest incarnation, Tactical Studies Rules, was founded in October 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye. Gygax had been unable to find a publisher for ''D&D'', a new type of game he and Dave Arneson were co-developing, so he founded the new company with Kaye to self-publish their products. Needing financing to bring their new game to market, Gygax and Kaye brought in Brian Blume in December as an equal partner. ''Dungeons & Dragons'' is generally considered the first tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG), and established the genre. When Kaye died suddenly in 1975, the Tactical Studies Rules partnership restructured into TSR Hobbies, Inc. and accepted investment from Blume's father Melvin. With the popular ''D&D'' as its main product, TSR Hobbies became a major force in the games industry by the late 1970s. Melvin Blume eventually transferred his shares to his ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dragon (magazine)
''Dragon'' was one of the two official magazines for source material for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game and associated products, along with ''Dungeon (magazine), Dungeon''. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, ''The Strategic Review''. The final printed issue was #359 in September 2007. Shortly after the last print issue shipped in mid-August 2007, Wizards of the Coast (part of Hasbro, Inc.), the publication's current copyright holder, relaunched ''Dragon'' as an online magazine, continuing on the numbering of the print edition. The last published issue was No. 430 in December 2013. A digital publication called ''Dragon+'', which replaced ''Dragon'' magazine, was launched in 2015. It was created by the advertising agency Dialect in collaboration with Wizards of the Coast, and its numbering system for issues started at No. 1. History TSR In 1975, TSR, Inc. began publishing ''The Strate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the designers and programmers responsible for its games as "software artists". EA published numerous games and some productivity software for personal computers, all of which were developed by external individuals or groups until 1987's ''Skate or Die!'' The company shifted toward internal game studios, often through acquisitions, such as Distinctive Software becoming EA Canada in 1991. Into the 21st century, EA develops and publishes games of established franchises, including ''Battlefield (video game series), Battlefield'', ''Need for Speed'', ''The Sims'', ''Medal of Honor (video game series), Medal of Honor'', ''Command & Conquer'', ''Dead Space'', ''Mass Effect'', ''Dragon Age'', ''Army of Two (series), Army of Two'', ''A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
America Online
AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo! Inc. The service traces its history to an online service known as PlayNET. PlayNET licensed its software to Quantum Link (Q-Link), which went online in November 1985. A new IBM PC–compatible, IBM PC client was launched in 1988, and eventually renamed as America Online in 1989. AOL grew to become the largest online service, displacing established players like CompuServe and The Source (online service), The Source. By 1995, AOL had about three million active users. AOL was at one point the most recognized brand on the Web in the United States. AOL once provided a Dial-up Internet access, dial-up Internet service to millions of Americans and pioneered instant messaging and chat rooms with AIM (software), AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). In 1998, AOL purchased Nets ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sprite (computer Graphics)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a Plane (mathematics), two-dimensional bitmap that is integrated into a larger scene, most often in a 2D video game. Originally, the term ''sprite'' referred to fixed-sized objects composited together, by hardware, with a background. Use of the term has since become more general. Systems with hardware sprites include arcade video games of the 1970s and 1980s; game consoles including as the Atari VCS (1977), ColecoVision (1982), Nintendo Entertainment System, Famicom (1983), Sega Genesis, Genesis/Mega Drive (1988); and home computers such as the TI-99/4 (1979), Atari 8-bit computers (1979), Commodore 64 (1982), MSX (1983), Amiga (1985), and X68000 (1987). Hardware varies in the number of sprites supported, the size and colors of each sprite, and special effects such as scaling or reporting pixel-precise overlap. Hardware composition of sprites occurs as each scan line is prepared for the video output device, such as a cathode-ray tube, without i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game
A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player character, character (often in a fantasy world or science-fiction world) and takes control over many of that character's actions. MMORPGs are distinguished from Online game, single-player or small Multiplayer online game, multi-player online RPGs by the number of players able to interact together, and by the game's persistent world (usually hosted by the game's video game publisher, publisher), which continues to exist and evolve while the player is offline and away from the game. MMORPGs are played throughout the world. Global revenues for MMORPGs exceeded half a billion dollars in 2005, and the western world's revenues exceeded a billion dollars in 2006. In 2008, the spending on subscription MMORPGs by consumers in North America and Europe gre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Of Warcraft
''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a 2004 massively multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Windows and Mac OS X. Set in the '' Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of Warcraft'' takes place within the fictional planet Azeroth, approximately four years after the events of the previous game in the series, '' Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.'' The game was announced in 2001, and was released for the 10th anniversary of the ''Warcraft'' franchise on November 23, 2004. Since launch, ''World of Warcraft'' has had ten major expansion packs: '' The Burning Crusade'' (2007), '' Wrath of the Lich King'' (2008), '' Cataclysm'' (2010), '' Mists of Pandaria'' (2012), '' Warlords of Draenor'' (2014), '' Legion'' (2016), '' Battle for Azeroth'' (2018), '' Shadowlands'' (2020), '' Dragonflight'' (2022), and '' The War Within'' (2024). Two further expansions, ''Midnight'' and ''The Last Titan'', were announced in 2023. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
