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Maniac Mansion
''Maniac Mansion'' is a 1987 graphic adventure video game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It follows teenage protagonist Dave Miller as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend Sandy Pantz from a mad scientist, whose mind has been enslaved by a sentient meteor. The player uses a point-and-click interface to guide Dave and two of his six playable friends through the scientist's mansion while solving puzzles and avoiding dangers. Gameplay is non-linear, and the game must be completed in different ways based on the player's choice of characters. Initially released for the Commodore 64 and Apple II, ''Maniac Mansion'' was Lucasfilm Games' first Self-publishing, self-published product. The game was conceived in 1985 by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, who sought to tell a comedic story based on horror film and B-movie clichés. They mapped out the project as a paper-and-pencil game before coding commenced. While earlier adventure titles had relied on command lines, Gilbert ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Realtime Associates
Realtime Associates, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was founded in 1986 by David Warhol and a group of ex- Mattel Electronics employees originally to create games for the Intellivision system. Since then, the company has developed and published over 90 games for systems including the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Saturn, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Super NES, Genesis, Pico, Nintendo Entertainment System, TurboGrafx-16, Game Boy, Game Gear, Game Boy Color, IBM PC compatibles, and Macintosh. In addition to its entertainment software portfolio, the company creates serious games and Games for Health, including HopeLab's Re-Mission. Games GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox * '' Intellivision Lives!'' LeapPad * '' LeapTrack Series 1'' * '' LeapTrack Series 2'' Game Boy Color * '' All Star Baseball 2000'' * '' Barbie: Ocean Discovery'' * '' Caterpillar Construction Zone'' Nintendo 64 * '' Charlie Blast's Territory'' * '' Elmo's Letter A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imagine Publishing
Imagine Publishing was a UK-based magazine publisher, which published a number of video games, computing, creative and lifestyle magazines. The company was acquired by Future plc on 21 October 2016. History It was founded on 14 May 2005 with private funds by Damian Butt, Steven Boyd and Mark Kendrick, all were former directors of Paragon Publishing, and launched with a core set of six gaming and creative computing titles in the first 6 months of trading. In October 2005, it had acquired the only retro games magazine Retro Gamer, after its original publisher, Live Publishing went bankrupt. Early in 2006, it further acquired the rights to publish a considerable number of titles including gamesTM, Play, PowerStation, X360, Digital Photographer and iCreate, from the old Paragon Publishing stable of magazines when owner Highbury House Communications went into liquidation, following Future Publishing's withdrawal of its offer to buy the company, due to threats of a monopoly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LucasArts Adventure Games
From the late 1980s to the early 2000s, LucasArts was well known for their point-and-click graphic adventure games, nearly all of which got high scoring reviews at the time of their release. Their style tended towards the humorous, often irreverent or slapstick, slapstick humor, with the exceptions of ''Loom (video game), Loom'' and ''The Dig (video game), The Dig''. Their game design philosophy was that the player should never die or reach a complete unwinnable, dead-end, although there were exceptions. Many of the games shared similar game interfaces and technology, powered by SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion). After 1997, these games transitioned into 3D computer graphics, 3D graphics with the GrimE game engine. Common features between the games include in-joke references to both other LucasArts games and Lucasfilm productions, as well as other running gags, such as Chuck the Plant and ''Sam & Max'' cameo appearances, that spanned numerous games. Most of the ga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Game Engine
A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" used more widely in the software industry. ''Game engine'' can also refer to the development software supporting this framework, typically a suite of tools and features for developing games. Developers can use game engines to construct games for video game consoles and other types of computers. The core functionality typically provided by a game engine may include a rendering engine ("renderer") for 2D or 3D graphics, a physics engine or collision detection (and collision response), sound, scripting, animation, artificial intelligence, networking, streaming, memory management, threading, localization support, scene graph, and video support for cinematics. Game engine implementers often economize on the process of game developme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Command-line Interface
A command-line interface (CLI) is a means of interacting with software via command (computing), commands each formatted as a line of text. Command-line interfaces emerged in the mid-1960s, on computer terminals, as an interactive and more user-friendly alternative to the non-interactive mode available with punched cards. For a long time, a CLI was the most common interface for software, but today a graphical user interface (GUI) is more common. Nonetheless, many programs such as operating system and software development utility software, utilities still provide CLI. A CLI enables automation, automating computer program, programs since commands can be stored in a scripting language, script computer file, file that can be used repeatedly. A script allows its contained commands to be executed as group; as a program; as a command. A CLI is made possible by command-line interpreters or command-line processors, which are programs that execute input commands. Alternatives to a CLI ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paper-and-pencil Game
Paper-and-pencil games or paper-and-pen games (or some variation on those terms) are games that can be played solely with paper and pencil, pencils (or other writing implements), usually without erasing. They may be played to pass the time, as icebreakers, or for brain training. In recent times, they have been supplanted by mobile games. Some popular examples of pencil-and-paper games include tic-tac-toe, Sprouts (game), sprouts, dots and boxes, Hangman (game), hangman, MASH (game), MASH, paper soccer, and Spellbinder (paper-and-pencil game), spellbinder. The term is unrelated to the use in role-playing games to differentiate Tabletop role-playing game, tabletop games from role-playing video games. Board games where pieces are never moved or removed from the board once being played, particularly abstract strategy games like Gomoku and Connect Four, can also be played as pencil-and-paper games. References External links * A Zen Guide to Paper and Pen GamesPencil and Paper Gam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
B-movie
A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second half of a double feature, somewhat similar to A-side and B-side, B-sides in recorded music. However, the production of such films as "second features" in the United States largely declined by the end of the 1950s. This shift was due to the rise of commercial television, which prompted film studio B movie production departments to transition into television film production divisions. These divisions continued to create content similar to B movies, albeit in the form of low-budget films and series. Today, the term "B movie" is used in a broader sense. In post-Golden Age usage, B movies can encompass a wide spectrum of films, ranging from sensationalistic exploitation films to independent arthouse productions. In either usage, most B movies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Self-publishing
Self-publishing is an author-driven publication of any media without the involvement of a third-party publisher. Since the advent of the internet, self-published usually depends upon digital platforms and print-on-demand technology, ranging from physical books to Ebook, eBooks. Examples include magazines, print-on-demand books, music albums, pamphlets, brochures, video games, video content, artwork, Zine, zines, and web fiction. Self-publishing is an alternative to traditional publishing that has implications for production, cost and revenue, distribution, and public perception. Types In self-publishing authors publish their own work. While it is possible for an author to single-handedly carry out the whole process independently, many authors engage with professionals for specific services as needed (such as editors or cover designers). A growing number of companies offer a one-stop shop where an author can source a whole range of services required to self-publish a book (som ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nonlinear Gameplay
A video game with nonlinear gameplay presents players with challenges that can be completed in a number of different sequences. Each may take on (or even encounter) only some of the challenges possible, and the same challenges may be played in a different order. Conversely, a video game with linear gameplay will confront a player with a fixed sequence of challenges: every player faces every challenge and has to overcome them in the same order. A nonlinear game will allow greater player freedom than a linear game. For example, a nonlinear game may permit multiple sequences to finish the game, a choice between paths to victory, different types of victory, or optional side-Quest (video games), quests and subplots. Some games feature both linear and nonlinear elements, and some games offer a sandbox mode that allows players to explore an open world game environment independently from the game's main objectives, if any objectives are provided at all. A game that is significantly nonli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Point-and-click
Point and click are one of the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (''pointing'') and then pressing a button on a mouse or other pointing device (''click''). An example of point and click is in hypermedia, where users click on hyperlinks to navigate from document to document. User interfaces, for example graphical user interfaces, are sometimes described as "point-and-click interfaces", often to suggest that they are very easy to use, requiring that the user simply point to indicate their wishes. Describing software this way implies that the interface can be controlled solely through a pointing device with little or no input from the keyboard, as with many graphical user interfaces. In some systems, such as Internet Explorer, moving the pointer over a link (or other GUI control) and waiting for a split-second will cause a tooltip to be displayed. Single click A single click or "click" is the act of pressing a computer mouse button o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mad Scientist
The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as "mad, bad and dangerous to know" or "insanity, insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly ambitious, taboo or hubristic nature of their experiments. As a motif (narrative), motif in fiction, the mad scientist may be villainous (evil genius) or antagonistic, benign, or neutral; may be psychosis, insane, eccentricity (behaviour), eccentric, or clumsy; and often works with fictional technology or fails to recognise or value common human objections to attempting to Playing God (ethics), play God. Some may have benevolent intentions, even if their actions are dangerous or questionable, which can make them accidental antagonists. History Prototypes The prototypical fictional mad scientist was Victor Frankenstein, creator of his Frankenstein's monster, eponymous monster, who made his first appearance in 1818, in the novel ''Fra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucasfilm Games
Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game licensor, former video game developer and 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 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. Later, as Lucasfilm regained control over its licensing over the ''Star Wars'' franchise, LucasArts produced numerous action-based ''Star Wars'' titles in the late 1990s and early 2000s, while dropping adventure g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
