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Stronghold Crusader
''Stronghold: Crusader'' is a 2002 real-time strategy video game developed by Firefly Studios and originally published by Gathering of Developers for Windows. It is a sequel to the 2001 video game ''Stronghold''. ''Crusader'' has much in common with the original ''Stronghold'', but differs from its predecessor in the fact that the game is no longer set in England, instead being set in the Middle East during the Crusades. Another prominent addition not found in its predecessor is a skirmish mode in single-player, allowing customized battles with AI opponents instead of the linear campaign. The game was also released as ''Stronghold Warchest''. This version was a compendium of ''Stronghold'' and an enhanced version of ''Stronghold: Crusader'', containing additional characters and an additional Crusader Trail. ''Stronghold Warchest'' was only released in a limited number of countries (e.g. USA or Poland), meaning players in the rest of the world have never encountered the second C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Firefly Studios
Firefly Studios Limited (also stylized as FireFly Studios) is a British video game developer based in London. Formed in August 1999 by Simon Bradbury, David Lester, and Eric Ouellette, the company focuses on historic real-time strategy games for the PC and Macintosh systems. They are best known for their ''Stronghold'' series of games. In June 2021, the studio was acquired by Devolver Digital. History Firefly Studios was established in August 1999 by Simon Bradbury, David Lester, and Eric Ouellette, who met while working at Impressions Games. The studio released its first game, ''Stronghold,'' in 2001, to critical and commercial success. The following year they released its successor, Stronghold Crusader, also to critical and commercial success. The later Stronghold releases, '' Stronghold 2'' (2005), and '' Stronghold Legends'' (2006), both received poor reviews and were given Metacritic scores of 63 percent and 57 percent respectively. The last of the series, '' Stronghold: Cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steam (service)
Steam is a digital distribution service and storefront developed by Valve Corporation, Valve. It was launched as a software client in September 2003 to provide video game updates automatically for Valve's games and expanded to distributing third-party titles in late 2005. Steam offers various features, such as Matchmaking (video games), game server matchmaking with Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) measures, social networking service, social networking, and game streaming services. The Steam client functions include update maintenance, cloud storage, and community features such as direct messaging, an in-game overlay, discussion forums, and a virtual collectable marketplace. The storefront also offers productivity software, Video game music, game soundtracks, videos, and sells hardware made by Valve, such as the Valve Index and the Steam Deck. Steamworks, an application programming interface (API) released in 2008, is used by developers to integrate Steam's functions, including digital rig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stronghold 2
''Stronghold 2'' is a 2005 real-time strategy video game developed by Firefly Studios and originally published by 2K for Windows. The third installment of the ''Stronghold'' series and the sequel to ''Stronghold'', the player again develops a stronghold in the Middle Ages. The game engine was enhanced over the original ''Stronghold'' to provide full 3-dimensional graphics. Other changes include new military and peace campaigns and the addition of crime and punishment, allowing players to torture unruly peasants. A number of new characters were also introduced. On 5 October 2017, Stronghold 2 was re-released digitally on Steam by Firefly Studios as ''Stronghold 2: Steam Edition''. It is available as a standalone title or as a free upgrade for owners of the ''Stronghold Collection'' on Steam. The re-release includes the following new features and improvements: Steam multiplayer, 16:9 Widescreen resolution support, visual enhancements to the in-game textures, 6 new maps, the a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bink Video
Bink Video is a proprietary file format (extensions .bik and .bk2) for video developed by Epic Games Tools (formerly RAD Game Tools), a part of Epic Games. Overview The format includes its own proprietary video and audio compression algorithms (video and audio codecs) supporting resolutions from 320×240 up to high definition video. It is bundled as part of the Epic Video Tools along with Epic Games Tools' previous video codec, Smacker video. It is a hybrid block-transform and wavelet codec using 16 different encoding techniques. The codec places emphasis on lower decoding requirements over other video codecs with specific optimizations for the different computer game consoles it supports. It has been primarily used for full-motion video sequences in video games, and has been used in games for Windows, Mac OS and all sixth-generation game consoles (Dreamcast, GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox) and all major seventh-generation gaming platforms (Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military orders in Western Christianity. They were founded in 1118 to defend pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem, with their headquarters located there on the Temple Mount, and existed for nearly two centuries during the Middle Ages. Officially endorsed by the Catholic Church by such decrees as the papal bull ''Omne datum optimum'' of Pope Innocent II, the Templars became a favoured charity throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and power. The Templar knights, in their distinctive white mantle (monastic vesture), mantles with a red Christian cross, cross, were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades. They were prominent in Christian finance; non-combatant members of the order, who made up as much as 90% of their members, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oasis
In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environmentBattesti, Vincent (2005) Jardins au désert: Évolution des pratiques et savoirs oasiens: Jérid tunisien. Paris: IRD éditions. . that sustains plant life and provides habitat for animals. Surface water may be present, or water may only be accessible from wells or underground channels created by humans. In geography, an oasis may be a current or past rest stop on a transportation route, or less-than-verdant location that nonetheless provides access to underground water through deep wells created and maintained by humans. Although they depend on a natural condition, such as the presence of water that may be stored in reservoirs and us ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Jerusalem (1099)
The siege of Jerusalem marked the successful end of the First Crusade, whose objective was the recovery of the city of Jerusalem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre from Islamic control. The five-week siege began on 7 June 1099 and was carried out by the Christian forces of the First Crusade, Christian forces of Western Europe mobilized by Pope Urban II after the Council of Clermont in 1095. The city had been out of Christian control since the Muslim conquest of the Levant in 637 and had been held for a century first by the Seljuk Turks and later by the Fatimid Caliphate, Egyptian Fatimids. One of the root causes of the Crusades#Background, Crusades was the hindering of Christian Christian pilgrimage#Holy Land, pilgrimages to the Holy Land which began in the 4th century. A number of eyewitness accounts of the battle were recorded, including in the anonymous chronicle ''Gesta Francorum''. After Jerusalem was captured on 15 July 1099, thousands of Muslims and Jews were massacred ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Krak Des Chevaliers
Krak des Chevaliers (; , ; or , ; from , ) is a medieval castle in Syria and one of the most important preserved medieval castles in the world. The site was first inhabited in the 11th century by Kurds, Kurdish troops garrisoned there by the Mirdasid dynasty, Mirdasids. In 1142 it was given by Raymond II, Count of Tripoli, to the order of the Knights Hospitaller. It remained occupied by them until it was reconquered by the Muslims in 1271. The Hospitallers began rebuilding the castle in the 1140s and were finished by 1170 when an earthquake damaged the castle. The order controlled castles along the border of the County of Tripoli, a Crusader states, state founded after the First Crusade. Krak des Chevaliers was among the most important and acted as a center of administration as well as a military base. After a second phase of building was undertaken in the 13th century, Krak des Chevaliers became a concentric castle. This phase created the outer wall and gave the cas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Antioch
The siege of Antioch took place during the First Crusade in 1097 and 1098, on the crusaders' way to Jerusalem through Syria (region), Syria. Two sieges took place in succession. The first siege, by the crusaders against the city held by the Seljuk Empire, lasted from 20 October 1097 to 3 June 1098. The second siege, of the crusader-held city by a Seljuk relieving army, lasted three weeks in June 1098, leading to the Battle of Antioch (1098), Battle of Antioch in which the crusaders defeated the relieving army led by Kerbogha. The crusaders then established the Principality of Antioch, ruled by Bohemond I of Antioch, Bohemond of Taranto. Antioch (modern Antakya) lay in a strategic location on the crusaders' route to Judea through the Syrian Coastal Mountain Range, Syrian Coastal mountain range. Supplies, reinforcements and retreat could all be controlled by the city. Anticipating that it would be attacked, the Seljuk governor of the city, Yağısıyan, began stockpiling food and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Heraclea
The Battle of Heraclea took place in 280 BC between the Romans under the command of consul Publius Valerius Laevinus, and the combined forces of Greeks from Epirus, Tarentum, Thurii, Metapontum, and Heraclea under the command of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus. Although the battle was a victory for the Greeks, they incurred severe losses.Legion Versus Phalanx, Myke Cole Background Tarentum was a Greek colony, part of Magna Graecia. The members of the leading faction in Tarentum, the democrats under Philocharis or Ainesias, were against Rome, because they knew that if the Romans entered Tarentum the Greeks would lose their independence. The Greeks in Tarentum had grown afraid of Roman expansion after the Third Samnite War. After the surrender of the Samnites in 290 BC, the Romans founded many colonies in Apulia and Lucania, the most important of which was Venusia. In 282 BC, after a battle against the Samnites, Lucanians, Bruttians and Thurii, Roman troops entered the Italian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Nicaea
The siege of Nicaea was the first major battle of the First Crusade, taking place from 14 May to 19 June 1097. The city was under the control of the Seljuk Turks who opted to surrender to the Byzantines in fear of the crusaders breaking into the city. The siege was followed by the Battle of Dorylaeum and the Siege of Antioch, all taking place in modern Turkey.Runciman, Steven (1969).Chapter IX. The First Crusade: Constantinople to Antioch. In Setton, Kenneth M.; Baldwin, Marshall W. (eds.). ''A History of the Crusades: I. The First Hundred Years''. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 288–290. Background Nicaea, located on the eastern shore of Lake Askania, had been captured from the Byzantine Empire by the Seljuk Turks in 1081, and formed the capital of the Sultanate of Rûm. In 1096, the People's Crusade, the first stage of the First Crusade, had plundered the land surrounding the city, before being destroyed by the Turks. As a result, sultan Kilij Arslan initia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crusader States
The Crusader states, or Outremer, were four Catholic polities established in the Levant region and southeastern Anatolia from 1098 to 1291. Following the principles of feudalism, the foundation for these polities was laid by the First Crusade, which was proclaimed by the Latin Church in 1095 in order to reclaim the Holy Land after it was lost to the 7th-century Muslim conquest. From north to south, they were: the County of Edessa (10981150), the Principality of Antioch (10981268), the County of Tripoli (11021289), and the Kingdom of Jerusalem (10991291). The three northern states covered an area in what is now southeastern Turkey, northwestern Syria, and northern Lebanon; the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the southernmost and most prominent state, covered an area in what is now Israel, Palestine, southern Lebanon, and western Jordan. The description "Crusader states" can be misleading, as from 1130 onwards, very few people among the Franks were Crusaders. Medieval and modern write ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
