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The Smoking Mirror
''Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror'' is a point-and-click adventure video game originally released on Microsoft Windows and PlayStation in 1997. It was re-released on Microsoft Windows, OS X and iOS as a remastered edition in 2010 and on Android in 2012. It is the second installment in the ''Broken Sword'' series, and the first game in the series that does not follow the Knights Templar storyline. The player assumes the role of George Stobbart, a young American who is an eyewitness to the kidnapping of his girlfriend Nicole Collard. The game was conceived in 1997 by Revolution. Though serious in tone, ''The Smoking Mirror'' incorporates some humour and graphics animated in the style of classic animated films. It was the fourth and last game built with the Virtual Theatre engine, which was used to render the locations of the game's events. Unlike the first ''Broken Sword'' game, which garnered critical acclaim, ''The Smoking Mirror'' received mixed to positive reviews, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Revolution Software
Revolution Software Limited is a British video game developer based in York, founded in 1989 by Charles Cecil, Tony Warriner, David Sykes, and Noirin Carmody. Company history 1992–1994: ''Lure of the Temptress'' and ''Beneath a Steel Sky'' Released in 1992 for the Amiga, Atari ST, and DOS platforms, ''Lure of the Temptress'' was both critically and commercially a success, which helped set the company up for their future game releases. Revolution released the game as freeware on 1 April 2003. Their next game was released in 1994; '' Beneath a Steel Sky'' became a hit on the Amiga and DOS. The game focused on protagonist Robert Foster's abduction and subsequent search for answers in a dystopian city of the future. In that period they also ported Sierra's '' King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow'' to the Commodore Amiga. Virtual Theatre system was used instead of Sierra's Creative Interpreter due to its much better performance. 1996–1997: ''Broken Sword: The Shado ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Point-and-click Adventure Game
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media, literature and film, encompassing a wide variety of literary genres. Many adventure games (text and graphic) are designed for a single player, since this emphasis on story and character makes multiplayer design difficult. ''Colossal Cave Adventure'' is identified as the first such adventure game, first released in 1976, while other notable adventure game series include ''Zork'', ''King's Quest'', '' Monkey Island'', and ''Myst''. Initial adventure games developed in the 1970s and early 1980s were text-based, using text parsers to translate the player's input into commands. As personal computers became more powerful with better graphics, the graphic adventure-game format became popular, initially by augmenting player's text commands ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conversation Tree
A dialogue tree, or conversation tree, is a gameplay mechanic that is used throughout many adventure games (including action-adventure games) and role-playing video games. When interacting with a non-player character, the player is given a choice of what to say and makes subsequent choices until the conversation ends. Certain video game genres, such as visual novels and dating sims, revolve almost entirely around these character interactions and Nonlinear gameplay, branching dialogues. History The concept of the dialogue tree has existed long before the advent of video games. The earliest known dialogue tree is described in "The Garden of Forking Paths," a 1941 short story by Jorge Luis Borges, in which the combination book of Ts'ui Pên allows all major outcomes from an event branch into their own chapters. Much like the game counterparts this story reconvenes as it progresses (as possible outcomes would approach n where n is the number of options at each fork and m is the depth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puzzle
A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at the correct or fun solution of the puzzle. There are different genres of puzzles, such as crossword puzzles, word-search puzzles, number puzzles, relational puzzles, and logic puzzles. The academic study of puzzles is called enigmatology. Puzzles are often created to be a form of entertainment but they can also arise from serious mathematical or logical problems. In such cases, their solution may be a significant contribution to mathematical research. Etymology The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' dates the word ''puzzle'' (as a verb) to the end of the 16th century. Its earliest use documented in the ''OED'' was in a book titled ''The Voyage of Robert Dudley...to the West Indies, 1594–95, narrated by Capt. Wyatt, by himself, and by Abram Kendall, master'' (published circa 1595) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gamepad
A gamepad is a type of video game controller held in two hands, where the fingers (especially thumbs) are used to provide input. They are typically the main input device for video game consoles. Features Gamepads generally feature a set of buttons handled with the right thumb and a direction controller handled with the left. The direction controller has traditionally been a four-way digital cross (also named a joypad, or alternatively a D-pad, and never called arrow keys), but most modern controllers additionally (or as a substitute) feature one or more analog sticks. Some common additions to the standard pad include shoulder buttons (also called "bumpers") and triggers placed along the edges of the pad (shoulder buttons are usually digital, i.e. merely on/off; while triggers are usually analog); centrally placed ''start'', ''select'', and ''home'' buttons, and an internal motor to provide force feedback. Analog triggers, like that of the GameCube controller, are pres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mouse (computing)
A computer mouse (plural mice, sometimes mouses) is a hand-held pointing device that detects two-dimensional space, two-dimensional motion relative to a surface. This motion is typically translated into the motion of a pointer (user interface), pointer on a computer monitor, display, which allows a smooth control of the graphical user interface of a computer. The first public demonstration of a mouse controlling a computer system was in 1968. Mice originally used two separate wheels to track movement across a surface: one in the X-dimension and one in the Y. Later, the standard design shifted to utilize a ball rolling on a surface to detect motion. Most modern mice use optical sensors that have no moving parts. Though originally all mice were connected to a computer by a cable, many modern mice are cordless, relying on short-range radio communication with the connected system. In addition to moving a cursor (user interface), cursor, computer mice have one or more mouse button ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Point-and-click
Point and click are 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, usually the left button (''click''), or other pointing device. An example of point and click is in hypermedia, where users click on hyperlinks to navigate from document to document. Point and click can be used with any number of input devices varying from mouses, touch pads, trackpoint, joysticks, scroll buttons, and roller balls. 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. These interfaces are sometimes referred to condescendingly (e.g., by Unix users) as "click-and-drool" or "point-and-drool" interfaces. The use of this phrase to describe software implies that the interface can be controlled solely through the mouse (or some other means suc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Third-person (video Games)
In 3D video games, a virtual camera system aims at controlling a camera or a set of cameras to display a view of a 3D virtual world. Camera systems are used in video games where their purpose is to show the action at the best possible angle; more generally, they are used in 3D virtual worlds when a third-person view is required. As opposed to filmmakers, virtual camera system creators have to deal with a world that is interactive and unpredictable. It is not possible to know where the player character is going to be in the next few seconds; therefore, it is not possible to plan the shots as a film maker would do. To solve this issue, the system relies on certain rules or artificial intelligence to select the most appropriate shots. There are mainly three types of camera systems. In ''fixed camera systems'', the camera does not move at all and the system displays the player's character in a succession of still shots. ''Tracking cameras'', on the other hand, follow the characte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adventure Game
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media, literature and film, encompassing a wide variety of literary genres. Many adventure games ( text and graphic) are designed for a single player, since this emphasis on story and character makes multiplayer design difficult. '' Colossal Cave Adventure'' is identified as the first such adventure game, first released in 1976, while other notable adventure game series include '' Zork'', '' King's Quest'', '' Monkey Island'', and '' Myst''. Initial adventure games developed in the 1970s and early 1980s were text-based, using text parsers to translate the player's input into commands. As personal computers became more powerful with better graphics, the graphic adventure-game format became popular, initially by augmenting player's text comm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2D Computer Graphics
2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models (such as 2D geometric models, text, and digital images) and by techniques specific to them. It may refer to the branch of computer science that comprises such techniques or to the models themselves. 2D computer graphics are mainly used in applications that were originally developed upon traditional printing and drawing technologies, such as typography, cartography, technical drawing, advertising, etc. In those applications, the two-dimensional image is not just a representation of a real-world object, but an independent artifact with added semantic value; two-dimensional models are therefore preferred, because they give more direct control of the image than 3D computer graphics (whose approach is more akin to photography than to typography). In many domains, such as desktop publishing, engineering, and business, a description of a document based on 2D computer g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon ( la, Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici), also known as the Order of Solomon's Temple, the Knights Templar, or simply the Templars, was a Catholic military order, one of the most wealthy and popular military orders in Western Christianity. They were founded in 1119, headquartered on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and existed for nearly two centuries during the Middle Ages. Officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church by such decrees as the papal bull '' Omne datum optimum'' of Pope Innocent II, the Templars became a favored charity throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and power. Templar knights, in their distinctive white mantles with a red cross, were amongst 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, managed a large economic infrastructure throu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Remaster
Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. The terms digital remastering and digitally remastered are also used. Mastering A master is the definitive recording version that will be replicated for the end user, commonly into other formats (e.g. LP records, CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays). A batch of copies is often made from a single original master recording, which might itself be based on previous recordings. For example, sound effects (e.g. a door opening, punching sounds, falling down the stairs, a bell ringing) might have been added from copies of sound effect tapes similar to modern sampling to make a radio play for broadcast. Problematically, several different levels of masters often exist for any one audio release. As an example, examine the way a typical music album from the 1960s was created. Musicians and vocalists were recorded on multi-track tape. This tape wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
