title: New Horizons

text: Investigators compiled a series of images of the moons Nix and Hydra taken from January 27 through February 8, 2015, beginning at a range of . Pluto and Charon appear as a single overexposed object at the center. The right side image has been processed to remove the background starfield. The other two, even smaller moons, Kerberos and Styx were seen on photos taken on April 25. Starting May 11 a hazard search was performed, looking for unknown objects that could be a danger to the spacecraft, such as rings or hithero undiscovered moons, which could then possibly be avoided by a course change. No rings or additional moons were found.


title: New Horizons

text: Also in regard to the approach phase during January 2015, on August 21, 2012, the team announced that they would spend mission time attempting long-range observations of the Kuiper belt object temporarily designated VNH0004 (now designated ), when the object was at a distance from "New Horizons" of . The object would be too distant to resolve surface features or take spectroscopy, but it would be able to make observations that cannot be made from Earth, namely a phase curve and a search for small moons. A second object was planned to be observed in June 2015, and a third in September after the flyby; the team hoped to observe a dozen such objects through 2018. On April 15, 2015, Pluto was imaged showing a possible polar cap.


title: New Horizons

text: On July 4, 2015, "New Horizons" experienced a software anomaly and went into safe mode, preventing the spacecraft from performing scientific observations until engineers could resolve the problem. On July 5, NASA announced that the problem was determined to be a timing flaw in a command sequence used to prepare the spacecraft for its flyby, and the spacecraft would resume scheduled science operations on July 7. The science observations lost because of the anomaly were judged to have no impact on the mission's main objectives and minimal impact on other objectives.


title: New Horizons

text: The timing flaw consisted of performing two tasks simultaneously—compressing previously acquired data to release space for more data, and making a second copy of the approach command sequence—that together overloaded the spacecraft's primary computer. After the overload was detected, the spacecraft performed as designed: it switched from the primary computer to the backup computer, entered safe mode, and sent a distress call back to Earth. The distress call was received the afternoon of July 4 and alerted engineers that they needed to contact the spacecraft to get more information and resolve the issue. The resolution was that the problem happened as part of preparations for the approach, and was not expected to happen again because no similar tasks were planned for the remainder of the encounter.


title: New Horizons

text: The closest approach of the "New Horizons" spacecraft to Pluto occurred at 11:49 UTC on July 14, 2015, at a range of from the surface and from the center of Pluto. Telemetry data confirming a successful flyby and a healthy spacecraft was received on Earth from the vicinity of the Pluto system on July 15, 2015, 00:52:37 UTC, after 22 hours of planned radio silence due to the spacecraft being pointed towards the Pluto system. Mission managers estimated a one in 10,000 chance that debris could have destroyed the probe or its communication-systems during the flyby, preventing it from sending data to Earth. The first details of the encounter were received the next day, but the download of the complete data set through the 2 kbps data downlink took just over 15 months, and analysis of the data continues as of 2021.


title: New Horizons

text: The mission's science objectives were grouped in three distinct priorities. The "primary objectives" were required. The "secondary objectives" were expected to be met but were not demanded. The "tertiary objectives" were desired. These objectives could have been skipped in favor of the above objectives. An objective to measure any magnetic field of Pluto was dropped, due to mass and budget issues associated with including a magnetometer on the spacecraft. Instead, SWAP and PEPSSI could indirectly detect magnetic fields around Pluto.


title: New Horizons

text: "The New Horizons flyby of the Pluto system was fully successful, meeting and in many cases exceeding, the Pluto objectives set out for it by NASA and the National Academy of Sciences."


title: New Horizons

text: "New Horizons" passed within of Pluto, with this closest approach on July 14, 2015, at 11:50 UTC. "New Horizons" had a relative velocity of at its closest approach, and came as close as to Charon. Starting 3.2 days before the closest approach, long-range imaging included the mapping of Pluto and Charon to resolution. This is half the rotation period of the Pluto–Charon system and allowed imaging of all sides of both bodies. Close range imaging was repeated twice per day in order to search for surface changes caused by localized snow fall or surface cryovolcanism. Because of Pluto's tilt, a portion of the northern hemisphere would be in shadow at all times. During the flyby, engineers expected LORRI to be able to obtain select images with resolution as high as if closest distance were around 12,500 km, and MVIC was expected to obtain four-color global dayside maps at resolution. LORRI and MVIC attempted to overlap their respective coverage areas to form stereo pairs. LEISA obtained hyperspectral near-infrared maps at globally and for selected areas.


title: New Horizons

text: Meanwhile, Alice characterized the atmosphere, both by emissions of atmospheric molecules (airglow), and by dimming of background stars as they pass behind Pluto (occultation). During and after closest approach, SWAP and PEPSSI sampled the high atmosphere and its effects on the solar wind. VBSDC searched for dust, inferring meteoroid collision rates and any invisible rings. REX performed active and passive radio science. The communications dish on Earth measured the disappearance and reappearance of the radio occultation signal as the probe flew by behind Pluto. The results resolved Pluto's diameter (by their timing) and atmospheric density and composition (by their weakening and strengthening pattern). (Alice can perform similar occultations, using sunlight instead of radio beacons.) Previous missions had the spacecraft transmit through the atmosphere, to Earth ("downlink"). Pluto's mass and mass distribution were evaluated by the gravitational tug on the spacecraft. As the spacecraft speeds up and slows down, the radio signal exhibited a Doppler shift. The Doppler shift was measured by comparison with the ultrastable oscillator in the communications electronics.


title: New Horizons

text: Reflected sunlight from Charon allowed some imaging observations of the nightside. Backlighting by the Sun gave an opportunity to highlight any rings or atmospheric hazes. REX performed radiometry of the nightside.


title: New Horizons

text: "New Horizons" best spatial resolution of the small satellites is at Nix, at Hydra, and approximately at Kerberos and Styx. Estimates for the dimensions of these bodies are: Nix at ; Hydra at ; Kerberos at ; and Styx at .


title: New Horizons

text: Initial predictions envisioned Kerberos as a relatively large and massive object whose dark surface led to it having a faint reflection. This proved to be wrong as images obtained by "New Horizons" on July 14 and sent back to Earth in October 2015 revealed that Kerberos was smaller in size, across with a highly reflective surface suggesting the presence of relatively clean water ice similarly to the rest of Pluto's smaller moons.


title: New Horizons

text: Soon after the Pluto flyby, in July 2015, "New Horizons" reported that the spacecraft was healthy, its flight path was within the margins, and science data of the Pluto–Charon system had been recorded. The spacecraft's immediate task was to begin returning the 6.25 gigabytes of information collected. The free-space path loss at its distance of 4.5 light-hours (3,000,000,000 km) is approximately 303 dB at 7 GHz. Using the high gain antenna and transmitting at full power, the signal from EIRP is +83 dBm, and at this distance the signal reaching Earth is −220 dBm. The received signal level (RSL) using one, un-arrayed Deep Space Network antenna with 72 dBi of forward gain equals −148 dBm. Because of the extremely low RSL, it could only transmit data at 1 to 2 kilobits per second.


title: New Horizons

text: By March 30, 2016, about nine months after the flyby, "New Horizons" reached the halfway point of transmitting this data. The transfer was completed on October 25, 2016, at 21:48 UTC, when the last piece of data—part of a Pluto–Charon observation sequence by the Ralph/LEISA imager—was received by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.


title: New Horizons

text: As of November 2018, at a distance of from the Sun and from 486958 Arrokoth, "New Horizons" was of the constellation Sagittarius at relative to the Sun. The brightness of the Sun from the spacecraft was magnitude −18.5.


title: New Horizons

text: On 17 April 2021, "New Horizons" reached a distance of 50 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun, while remaining fully operational.


title: New Horizons

text: The "New Horizons" team requested, and received, a mission extension through 2021 to explore additional Kuiper belt objects (KBOs). Funding was secured on July 1, 2016. During this Kuiper Belt Extended Mission (KEM) the spacecraft performed a close fly-by of 486958 Arrokoth and will conduct more distant observations of an additional two dozen objects, and possibly make a fly-by of another KBO.


title: New Horizons

text: Mission planners searched for one or more additional Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) of the order of in diameter as targets for flybys similar to the spacecraft's Plutonian encounter. However, despite the large population of KBOs, many factors limited the number of possible targets. Because the flight path was determined by the Pluto flyby, and the probe only had 33 kilograms of hydrazine propellant remaining, the object to be visited needed to be within a cone of less than a degree's width extending from Pluto. The target also needed to be within 55AU, because beyond 55AU, the communications link becomes too weak, and the RTG power output decays significantly enough to hinder observations. Desirable KBOs are well over in diameter, neutral in color (to contrast with the reddish Pluto), and, if possible, have a moon that imparts a wobble.


title: New Horizons

text: In 2011, mission scientists started the New Horizons KBO Search, a dedicated survey for suitable KBOs using ground telescopes. Large ground telescopes with wide-field cameras, notably the twin 6.5-meter Magellan Telescopes in Chile, the 8.2-meter Subaru Observatory in Hawaii and the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope were used to search for potential targets. By participating in a citizen-science project called Ice Hunters the public helped to scan telescopic images for possible suitable mission candidates. The ground-based search resulted in the discovery of about 143 KBOs of potential interest, but none of these were close enough to the flight path of "New Horizons". Only the Hubble Space Telescope was deemed likely to find a suitable target in time for a successful KBO mission. On June 16, 2014, time on Hubble was granted for a search. Hubble has a much greater ability to find suitable KBOs than ground telescopes. The probability that a target for "New Horizons" would be found was estimated beforehand at about 95%.


title: New Horizons

text: On October 15, 2014, it was revealed that Hubble's search had uncovered three potential targets, temporarily designated PT1 ("potential target 1"), PT2 and PT3 by the "New Horizons" team. PT1 was eventually chosen as the target and would be named 486958 Arrokoth.


title: New Horizons

text: All objects had estimated diameters in the range and were too small to be seen by ground telescopes. The targets were at distances from the Sun ranging from 43 to 44 AU, which would put the encounters in the 2018–2019 period. The initial estimated probabilities that these objects were reachable within "New Horizons" fuel budget were 100%, 7%, and 97%, respectively. All were members of the "cold" (low-inclination, low-eccentricity) classical Kuiper belt objects, and thus were very different from Pluto.


title: New Horizons

text: PT1 (given the temporary designation "1110113Y" on the HST web site), the most favorably situated object, had a magnitude of 26.8, is in diameter, and was encountered in January 2019. A course change to reach it required about 35% of "New Horizons" available trajectory-adjustment fuel supply. A mission to PT3 was in some ways preferable, in that it is brighter and therefore probably larger than PT1, but the greater fuel requirements to reach it would have left less for maneuvering and unforeseen events.


title: New Horizons

text: Once sufficient orbital information was provided, the Minor Planet Center gave provisional designations to the three target KBOs: (later 486958 Arrokoth) (PT1), (PT2), and (PT3). By the fall of 2014, a possible fourth target, , had been eliminated by follow-up observations. PT2 was out of the running before the Pluto flyby.


title: New Horizons

text: On August 28, 2015, 486958 Arrokoth (then known as and nicknamed "Ultima Thule") (PT1) was chosen as the flyby target. The necessary course adjustment was performed with four engine firings between October 22 and November 4, 2015. The flyby occurred on January 1, 2019, at 00:33 UTC.


title: New Horizons

text: Aside from its flyby of 486958 Arrokoth, the extended mission for "New Horizons" calls for the spacecraft to conduct observations of, and look for ring systems around, between 25 and 35 different KBOs. In addition, it will continue to study the gas, dust and plasma composition of the Kuiper belt before the mission extension ends in 2021.


title: New Horizons

text: On November 2, 2015, "New Horizons" imaged KBO 15810 Arawn with the LORRI instrument from . This KBO was again imaged by the LORRI instrument on April 7–8, 2016, from a distance of . The new images allowed the science team to further refine the location of 15810 Arawn to within and to determine its rotational period of 5.47 hours.


title: New Horizons

text: In July 2016, the LORRI camera captured some distant images of Quaoar from ; the oblique view will complement Earth-based observations to study the object's light-scattering properties.


title: New Horizons

text: On December 5, 2017, when "New Horizons" was 40.9 AU from Earth, a calibration image of the Wishing Well cluster marked the most distant image ever taken by a spacecraft (breaking the 27-year record set by "Voyager 1"s famous "Pale Blue Dot"). Two hours later, "New Horizons" surpassed its own record, imaging the Kuiper belt objects and from a distance of 0.50 and 0.34 AU, respectively. These were the closest images taken of a Kuiper belt object besides Pluto and Arrokoth .


title: New Horizons

text: The dwarf planet Haumea was observed from afar by the "New Horizons" spacecraft in October 2007, January 2017, and May 2020, from distances of 49 AU, 59 AU, and 63 AU, respectively. "New Horizons" has observed the dwarf planets Eris (2020), Haumea (2007, 2017, 2020), Makemake (2007, 2017), and Quaoar (2016, 2017, 2019), as well as the large KBOs Ixion (2016), (2016, 2017, 2019), and (2017, 2018). It also observed Neptune's largest moon Triton (a captured KBO) in 2019.


title: New Horizons

text: Science objectives of the flyby included characterizing the geology and morphology of Arrokoth and mapping the surface composition (by searching for ammonia, carbon monoxide, methane, and water ice). Searches will be conducted for orbiting moonlets, a coma, rings and the surrounding environment. Additional objectives include:


title: New Horizons

text: Arrokoth is the first object to be targeted for a flyby that was discovered after the spacecraft was launched. "New Horizons" was planned to come within of Arrokoth, three times closer than the spacecraft's earlier encounter with Pluto. Images with a resolution of up to per pixel were expected.


title: New Horizons

text: The new mission began on October 22, 2015, when "New Horizons" carried out the first in a series of four initial targeting maneuvers designed to send it towards Arrokoth. The maneuver, which started at approximately 19:50 UTC and used two of the spacecraft's small hydrazine-fueled thrusters, lasted approximately 16 minutes and changed the spacecraft's trajectory by about . The remaining three targeting maneuvers took place on October 25, October 28, and November 4, 2015.


title: New Horizons

text: The craft was brought out of its hibernation at approximately 00:33 UTC on June 5, 2018 (06:12 UTC ERT, Earth-Received Time), in order to prepare for the approach phase. After verifying its health status, the spacecraft transitioned from a spin-stabilized mode to a three-axis-stabilized mode on August 13, 2018. The official approach phase began on August 16, 2018, and continued through December 24, 2018.


title: New Horizons

text: "New Horizons" made its first detection of Arrokoth on August 16, 2018, from a distance of . At that time, Arrokoth was visible at magnitude 20 against a crowded stellar background in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius.


title: New Horizons

text: The Core phase began a week before the encounter and continued for two days after the encounter. The spacecraft flew by the object at a speed of and within . The majority of the science data was collected within 48 hours of the closest approach in a phase called the Inner Core. Closest approach occurred January 1, 2019, at 05:33 UTC SCET at which point the probe was from the Sun. At this distance, the one-way transit time for radio signals between Earth and "New Horizons" was six hours. Confirmation that the craft had succeeded in filling its digital recorders occurred when data arrived on Earth ten hours later, at 15:29 UTC.


title: New Horizons

text: After the encounter, preliminary, high-priority data was sent to Earth on January 1 and 2, 2019. On January 9, "New Horizons" returned to a spin-stabilized mode to prepare sending the remainder of its data back to Earth. This download was expected to take 20 months at a data rate of 1–2 kilobits per second.


title: New Horizons

text: In April 2020, "New Horizons" was used in conjunction with telescopes on Earth to take pictures of nearby stars Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359; the images from each vantage point – over 4 billion miles (6.4 billion km) apart – were compared to produce "the first demonstration of an easily observable stellar parallax."


title: New Horizons

text: Images taken by the LORRI camera while "New Horizons" was 42 to 45 AU from the Sun were used to measure the cosmic optical background, the visible light analog of the cosmic microwave background, in seven high galactic latitude fields. At that distance "New Horizons" saw a sky ten times darker than the sky seen by the Hubble Space Telescope because of the absence of diffuse background sky brightness from the zodiacal light in the inner solar system. These measurements indicate that the total amount of light emitted by all galaxies at ultraviolet and visible wavelengths may be lower than previously thought.


title: New Horizons

text: The spacecraft reached a distance of 50 AUs from the Sun, almost 7.5 billion kilometers (5 billion miles) away, on 17 April 2021 at 12:42 UTC, a feat performed only four times before, by Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, and Voyager 2. Voyager 1 is the farthest spacecraft from the Sun, more than 152 AUs away when New Horizons reached its landmark in 2021. The support team continued to use the spacecraft in 2021 to study the heliospheric environment (plasma, dust and gas) and to study other Kuiper Belt objects.


title: New Horizons

text: After the spacecraft's passage by Arrokoth, the instruments continue to have sufficient power to be operational until the 2030s.


title: New Horizons

text: Team leader Alan Stern stated there is potential for a third flyby in the 2020s at the outer edges of the Kuiper belt. This depends on a suitable Kuiper belt object being found or confirmed close enough to the spacecraft's current trajectory. Since May 2020, the New Horizons team has been using time on the Subaru Telescope to look for suitable candidates within the spacecraft's proximity. As of November 2020, none have been found close enough to the trajectory of New Horizons for it to be able to make a close flyby with its remaining fuel.


title: New Horizons

text: In addition, "New Horizons" may take a picture of Earth from its distance in the Kuiper belt, but only after completing all planned KBO flybys. This is because pointing a camera towards Earth could cause the camera to be damaged by sunlight, as none of "New Horizons"' cameras have an active shutter mechanism.


title: New Horizons

text: "New Horizons" has been called "the fastest spacecraft ever launched" because it left Earth at . It is also the first spacecraft launched directly into a solar escape trajectory, which requires an approximate speed while near Earth of , plus additional delta-"v" to cover air and gravity drag, all to be provided by the launch vehicle.


title: New Horizons

text: However, it is not the fastest spacecraft to leave the Solar System. , this record is held by "Voyager 1", traveling at relative to the Sun. "Voyager 1" attained greater hyperbolic excess velocity than "New Horizons" due to gravity assists by Jupiter and Saturn. When "New Horizons" reaches the distance of , it will be travelling at about , around slower than "Voyager 1" at that distance. The Parker Solar Probe can also be measured as the fastest object, because of its orbital speed relative to the Sun at perihelion: . Because it remains in solar orbit, its specific orbital energy relative to the Sun is lower than "New Horizons" and other artificial objects escaping the Solar System.


title: New Horizons

text: "New Horizons" Star 48B third stage is also on a hyperbolic escape trajectory from the Solar System, and reached Jupiter before the "New Horizons" spacecraft; it was expected to cross Pluto's orbit on October 15, 2015. Because it was not in controlled flight, it did not receive the correct gravity assist, and passed within of Pluto. The Centaur second stage did not achieve solar escape velocity, and remains in a heliocentric orbit.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, commonly referred to as ML or MLBB, is a mobile multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game developed and published by Moonton, a subsidiary of ByteDance. Released in 2016, the game grew in popularity worldwide, most prominently in Southeast Asia, and has since crossed the 1 billion downloads feat, with peak monthly players of 100 million. In 2021, "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang" achieved an all-time gross of US$1 billion with 44 percent of its revenue emanating from outside Asia, making it the top mobile game of its genre with the most global appeal.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: At its core, the game pits 2 teams of 5 against each other in real time with at least 10-second matchmaking and 10-minute matches. Featuring traditional battle arena gameplay, players must fight over three lanes to take the enemy's tower and defend their own. Like classic MOBAs, there is no hero training to level up or pay to play angle—winners and losers are decided based on skill, ability, and strategy.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: Following success, Moonton has tapped into the esports scene with the creation of several regional tournaments dubbed as "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League" (MPL) in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Middle East and North Africa regions that serves as a qualifier for the Mobile Legends World Championships where a total of 15 countries, including Japan, Russia, and the United States, have participated so far. It was also among the 6 games chosen for the first medal event of esports competition at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games held in the Philippines.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: Originally named "Mobile Legends: 5v5 MOBA", the initial release of the game in 2016 was met with criticism citing similarities with another MOBA game, League of Legends. In July 2017, Riot Games filed a lawsuit against Moonton for copyright infringement; however, the case was dismissed by the Central District Court of California in the United States on account of "forum non conveniens". Moonton has since then made several remodeling and patch updates for distinction and game improvements.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang" is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game designed for mobile phones. The game is free-to-play and is only monetized through in-game purchases like characters and skins. Each player can control a selectable character, called “Hero”, with unique abilities and traits. There are 6 roles that define the main purpose of heroes: “Tank”, “Marksman”, “Assassin”, “Fighter”, “Mage”, and “Support”. These roles determine the responsibilities of players for their respective teams. Players can also set specific builds for heroes which include in-game items and emblems.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: Two teams of five players go against each other in real-time. Players will be matched in correspondence with their current ranking. There are seven ranks in the game with “Warrior” being the lowest followed by “Elite”, “Master”, “Grandmaster”, “Epic”, “Legend”, and the highest rank, “Mythic”. A player can only invite and form a team with other players of similar rank or players that are one rank higher or lower.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: Taking down the opposing base is the main goal to achieve victory. There are three lanes in the game: The gold lane (top), exp lane (bottom), and the mid lane. Depending on what side of the map (blue or red) a player starts on, the gold and exp lanes will be switching places. Between each lane is the jungle. The jungle can be divided into four parts: two between the enemy's lanes and two between a player's team lanes. The jungle has different creeps and monsters that offer buffs, experience, and gold.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: A player can't attack the enemy base directly without taking down opposing turrets in at least one lane first. Each lane has three turrets that shoot at heroes and deal a ton of damage. To attack them without taking damage, a player needs help from their team's “minions”. Minions constantly spawn at the teams’ bases and travel down along each lane. The team to successfully destroy all the turrets in one or all lanes will increase their chances of destroying the opposite team's base.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: In classic mode, the gameplay is similar. However, winning or losing a match won't affect a player's ranking. Players can also form a whole team regardless of their rank differences and freely choose any heroes along with weekly free ones and any trial card they possess.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: Arcade is an additional game mode in "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang" that can time-to-time be playable during special events, holidays, or occasions. The mode feature various strategy based sub-games.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: "Brawl" is a game mode where players are given two random heroes in their inventory at the start of the game. This mode contains only one lane with two turrets defending the base of both teams. Items can only be bought inside the base and players that leave it cannot re-enter unless when respawning. A special variation called "Shadow Brawl" is released from time to time. The difference is players at the start of the game will choose from the same set of heroes. The hero with the most votes will be used by the entire team.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: As an auto battler game, "Magic Chess" is all about strategy. A player, represented by a "commander", faces 7 other players over the course of several rounds on a chess-like battlefield. Instead of fighting one's self, a player buys, equips, and lines up units that constitute MLBB Heroes. Apart from different types of "synergies", a player has to delegate the random items they gained while also taking care of the specific position of each hero on the battlefield. Additionally, a player can increase their gold income by economizing or going on winning/losing streaks. In the end, a player has to eliminate the other competing players by reducing the health points of their commander to zero. Depending on a player's placement, they will gain a certain amount of rank points after the game. Starting at "Warrior", players can rank up to "Mythic" similar to the core game's ranking system. In update patch note 1.4.60, "Magic Chess" was included as a permanent arcade game mode, after temporarily being added in January 2020. This and "Brawl" are the only permanent arcade modes so far.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: Various arcade games use the same battlefield as rank/classic mode but with twists. These modes include "Mayhem", where all heroes' abilities are enhanced and a player starts the game at level four, "Deathbattle", where players will play different heroes in a single match, and "Mirror", where players of the same team will be using the same hero throughout the match based on majority voting.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: Other game modes include an option to fight against AI heroes, custom 5v5 battles with other players, and hero training.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: After Moonton's staff of 20 finished developing its first game called "Magic Rush: Heroes", released in 2015 to commercial success, they proceeded with developing the company's next project, a mobile multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game later titled "Mobile Legends". The staff's experience with engineering "Magic Rush: Heroes" for a global market, such as customizing its features for the differing cultures and state of telecommunications of various countries, became beneficial for them to effectively design "Mobile Legends" as an appealing game for global players. "Mobile Legends" was released by Moonton with the subtitle ""5v5 MOBA"" on July 14, 2016. The game was distributed by Elex Tech in the United States. However, after the lawsuit from Riot Games in 2017, Moonton has removed the game from Google Play and re-released it as "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang".


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: According to a scan of published apps on Google Play by Check Point Research last June 2019, "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang" was affected by CVE-2015-8271 (FFmpeg RTMP video streaming), a vulnerability that also affected popular apps like Facebook, Messenger, and SHAREit. The results suggested that the use of third-party components and open source resources, including libraries, may have led to old, vulnerable code still being present in apps.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: On July 18, 2019, Moonton announced "MLBB 2.0" via its Epicon 2019 conference. "MLBB 2.0" consists of an engine upgrade to a more recent version of the Unity game engine from version 4 to version 2017. Moonton also promised faster loading times and start-up speed of up to 60%. Other improvements of the update include reduced lag, improved character modelling, and the new in-game map "Imperial Sanctuary". The update helped increase the cross-platform social media views earned by the game from 56 million in September 2019 to 76 million the next month making the game ranked fourth of all channels from all gaming brands in the US.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: In early 2020, the game was heavily affected by third-party plugins and scripts that allowed map-hacks prompting Moonton to publicly publish punishments made through its social media accounts revealing the account ID of the banned players. Some accounts were also hacked due to exploits to Device ID that may have been due to the third-party scripts according to an official statement from Moonton. In response, patch 1.4.86 enabled two-factor authentication when logging in to a new device.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: Announced on June 5, 2020, "Project NEXT" was Moonton's next big project slated for "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang"'s 5th year anniversary. This included changes in user interface, revamps to several older heroes' 3D models, skill sets, stories, and voice lines. They also announced a method called "Smart Targeting" to further improve accuracy. There were also multiple changes that were specifically aimed at providing players with a much-improved gameplay experience, including the launch of a revamped version of the "Brawl" game mode. New login events, exclusive cosmetics, and a new hero was introduced with this update. "Project NEXT" was divided into three phases: The first phase was released on September 22, 2020, the second phase was released on June 15, 2021, and the third phase was released on September 21, 2021.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang" initially had 10 selectable characters, referred to as "Heroes", upon its release in 2016. It later grew to 70 by November 2018, and as of December 2021, 112 heroes are in the live server. The fictional setting where majority of the heroes reside and stories take place is called the "Land of Dawn". It is a world divided in 7 distinct regions where each location comprises its own historical events, fables, battles, factions, and heroes of different races; some of which are related and/or have intertwining lives. Moonton uses this setting to introduce new heroes and create series of stories.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: With the game's popularity exponentially growing in Southeast Asia, Moonton has released several heroes based on actual people and characters from Southeast Asian histories and folklore to further increase the game's appeal, introducing heroes such as Lapu Lapu (Philippines), "Minsitthar" (based on Kyansittha; Myanmar), "Kadita" (based on Nyai Roro Kidul; Indonesia), and Badang (Malaysia). In June 2017, Moonton approached Is Yuniarto, an Indonesian comic book artist best known for "Garudayana" (a Javanese action fantasy comic series), to include "Gatotkaca" from the comics as a playable character in "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang". "Gatotkaca" is based loosely on Ghatotkacha, an important character from Mahabharata. In November 2020, Moonton announced Filipino professional boxer Manny Pacquiao as the brand ambassador for "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang" in the Philippines. To commemorate the partnership, Moonton also launched a hero based on Pacquiao in the game known as "Paquito".


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: Occasionally, Moonton releases multiple skin series with accompanying stories separate from the central lore. Heroes are usually grouped into “Squads”; the most notable of which are the superhero and supervillain squads that are comic book-inspired. On January 10, 2022, Moonton announced their first ever anime-themed skin series called “The Aspirants” featuring renowned Japanese voice actresses Yoshino Nanjō and Nana Mizuki with original music from composer Yasuharu Takanashi.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: Over the years, "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang" has collaborated with different franchises to release purchasable character customization called "skins".


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: In March 2019, Moonton approached SNK for collaboration, introducing characters from The King of Fighters (KOF) game series as skins in the game. These skins have unique ability effects and voice-overs. The 1st KOF series skins released in the game were Iori Yagami for the hero "Chou", Leona Heidern for "Karina", and Athena Asamiya for "Guinevere". The 2nd KOF series skins released were Kula Diamond for the hero "Aurora", K' for "Gusion", and Orochi Chris for "Dyrroth".


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: In July 2021, MLBB collaborated with Star Wars to release two "epic skins" which were Master Yoda for the hero "Cyclops" and Darth Vader for "Argus". In December 2021, the collaboration returned and a third epic skin, Obi-Wan Kenobi for the hero "Alucard", was released. The event was time-limited purchase and exclusive in Southeast Asia and Japan.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: In August 2021, MLBB released a skin collaboration with the media franchise Transformers which included Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Bumblebee for the heroes "Johnson", "Granger", and "X.Borg" respectively. The event was divided into four phases spanning from August to November with lottery and exchange-type mechanics. This event was also time-limited.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: In February 2022, MLBB announced its collaboration with Sanrio featuring the iconic characters Hello Kitty, Badtz-maru, Cinnamoroll, and Pompompurin.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: In August 2022, Moonton announced a skin collaboration with Kung Fu Panda. It will feature three new exclusive skins: General Kai for the hero "Thamuz", Po Ping for "Akai", and Lord Shen for "Ling".


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: On July 31, 2019, Moonton released a spin-off game titled "Mobile Legends: Adventure", an idle role-playing game where players start with a hero and unlock various features by progressing through a campaign. The game features several characters from "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang".


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: Moonton also released its first ever animated television series titled "Legends of Dawn: The Sacred Stone" directed by Ziaolong Zhang. It follows the story of "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang"'s hero "Claude" and his monkey sidekick, "Dexter", as they steal an artifact from the "Imperial Capital". The animated series premiered on Tencent's streaming services WeTV and Iflix on September 5, 2021, and made its television premiere on TV9 in Malaysia, NET. in Indonesia, and ABS-CBN Corporation's Kapamilya Channel and A2Z (owned by ZOE Broadcasting Network) in the Philippines on September 19, 2021.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: The first official esports competition held by Moonton was the "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asia Cup" (MSC) in 2017. It is an annual MLBB esports tournament in Southeast Asia. The tournament consists of different teams from different countries in Southeast Asia such as Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand & Singapore (since 2017), Vietnam & Myanmar (since 2018), Cambodia & Laos (since 2019), and Middle East and North Africa region (since 2022). In 2017, teams were chosen only through a series of local qualifiers. However, starting 2018, participants were invited through local qualifiers and the top two teams from Southeast Asian countries with established "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional Leagues".


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League", or commonly referred to as MPL, is a series of official regional tournaments that was established in 2018 that serve as qualifiers for MSC and the World Championship. The regions that received the first official MPL season were Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Myanmar. However, Malaysia and Singapore shared the same league at that time until Singapore officially received its own league season in 2021. In August 2021, Moonton officially announced MPL Brazil, the first MPL league outside the SEA region. Cambodia also hopped on the train with its own MPL league, in partnership with Smart Axiata, the leading telecommunications operator in the region.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: Regions outside Southeast Asia without an official MPL had their own qualifier tournaments such as the "MLBB: Gulf Cup 2020" and "M3 Arabia Major" for the Middle-East and North African region, and the "M3 World Championship North American (NA) Qualifier 2021" for the North American region.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: On November 5, 2020, One Esports and Moonton announced a new tournament called One Esports MPL Invitational (MPLI) where 20 invited teams will compete in a series of single elimination matches for a prize pool of US$100,000. On December 15, 2021, Moonton, in partnership again with One Esports, announced its first ever all-female esports tournament called the MLBB Women's Invitational (MWI) with a prize pool of US$15,000.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: "The Mobile Legends: Bang Bang World Championships", commonly referred to as "M-Series" and "Worlds", is an annual international esports tournament wherein teams worldwide would be facing off each other to become the worldwide champion for "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang". The first MLBB World Championship, dubbed as "M1", was held in Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from November 15 to 17, 2019. The competition featured 16 teams across the world who battled it out for a prize pool of US$250,000. The second world championship, dubbed as "M2", was supposed to kick off in 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was later on rescheduled and was held at Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore in January 2021 with a prize pool of US$300,000. The third world championship, dubbed as "M3", was held in Singapore for the second time and had an increase prize pool of US$800,000. It had a peak viewership of 3.18 million, breaking the record from "M2".


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: All winning teams were given an exclusive honorary skin in-game from a hero of their choosing to commemorate their championship to which players can purchase for a limited time.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: After the game's initial release, Riot Games suspected that the game was imitating the intellectual property of "League of Legends" and contacted Google to remove the game from Google Play. Moonton then removed the game before Google could take it down and eventually relaunched it with the altered name "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang" on November 9, 2016. In July 2017, Riot Games filed a lawsuit against Moonton because of copyright infringement, citing similarities between "Mobile Legends" and "League of Legends". Riot Games also complained that the name title of "Mobile Legends" sounds confusingly similar to "League of Legends". The case was dismissed in the Central District Court of California in the United States on account of "forum non conveniens". Tencent, Riot's parent company, on behalf of Riot Games, then filed a new, separate lawsuit directly targeting Moonton's CEO, Watson Xu Zhenhua (as he had previously worked in Tencent as a senior employee) in Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court, for violating a law regarding Non-Compete Agreements, which ruled in Tencent's favor in July 2018, awarding them a settlement of (RMB19.4 million).


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: In 2021, Moonton has allegedly disallowed MLBB esports organizations to create teams for "" and was criticized by the Team Secret CEO that the move "cannot be good from a healthy ecosystem or competitive integrity standpoint." An unnamed source then later clarified that there is indeed an exclusivity contract but was only optional and that Moonton will give benefits to those who agree on the exclusivity. Some MLBB esports organizations still have teams for "Wild Rift".


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: Following the triumph of esports team Blacklist International on "M3", team captain Johnmar "OhMyV33nus" Villaluna alleged on a live stream on December 22, 2021, that their request to give the championship skin to the hero "Estes" was denied, claiming that the developers had to consider the "marketability" of the hero. The hashtag #WeWantEstes trended on different social media platforms from the morning of December 23, with Blacklist co-owners Tryke Gutierrez and Alodia Gosiengfiao and teams such as "Echo PH" and "Bren Esports" joining the call for Moonton to rescind their decision. Other supporters vented their frustrations by giving "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang" the lowest rating on Google Play Store. On December 24, Moonton announced "To our beloved gamers, "Estes" is the chosen champion "M3" skin. We have heard your voices, and we will proceed with Blacklist International's choice. Merry Christmas, and may all your wishes come true." through their social media pages.


title: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

text: "Mobile Legends: Bang Bang" was banned in India on 29 June 2020 in the aftermath of the 2020 China-India skirmish.


title: Dannielynn Birkhead

text: Dannielynn Hope Marshall Birkhead (born Hannah Rose Marshall Stern; September 7, 2006) is an American reality television personality and model. She is the daughter of Anna Nicole Smith and Larry Birkhead and was the focus of the Dannielynn Birkhead paternity case.


title: Dannielynn Birkhead

text: Dannielynn Hope Marshall Birkhead, named Hannah Rose Marshall Stern at birth, was born to Anna Nicole Smith on September 7, 2006, in Nassau, The Bahamas. Almost immediately, questions over her paternity arose, quickly followed by the death of her half-brother, Daniel Smith, three days after her birth. Daniel Smith's death and Dannielynn's custody preceded the paternity claims made by attorney Howard K. Stern, Larry Birkhead, Anna Nicole's bodyguard Alexander Denk, and Frederic von Anhalt, husband of the actress Zsa Zsa Gabor. Smith named Howard K. Stern as the father on her daughter's birth certificate.


title: Dannielynn Birkhead

text: Birkhead, a celebrity photographer from Kentucky, brought his challenge to court to legitimize his claim. After DNA testing, Birkhead was formally established as the father. After gaining custody of his daughter, Dannielynn’s surname was changed from Stern to Birkhead.


title: Dannielynn Birkhead

text: When Birkhead was five months old, her mother died of an accidental drug overdose at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. In 2008, she was declared sole heir to Smith's estate, estimated at $700,000.


title: Dannielynn Birkhead

text: At 16 months old, Birkhead underwent surgery to correct the strabismus in one of her eyes. Her father wore a patch as well so the pair could "play pirates together".


title: Dannielynn Birkhead

text: At age six, Birkhead participated in a modeling campaign for Guess Kids, the children's line for Guess? clothing. Paul Marciano, the co-founder of Guess?, stated "Dannielynn has the same playful spirit that her mother had on a set." The campaign was followed by the Spring 2013 line.


title: Dannielynn Birkhead

text: In August 2014, federal court judge David O. Carter ruled Dannielynn Birkhead will not receive $44 million from the estate of the late E. Pierce Marshall, the son of J. Howard Marshall. Her father was hopeful that Dannielynn would receive a substantial amount of money in sanctions. Judge Carter denied this request, ruling that there was "just no evidence before the court that justifies awarding sanctions against Pierce Marshall's estate".


title: Dannielynn Birkhead

text: Since 2008, Birkhead and her father have attended the Kentucky Derby, where her parents had first met. At the 2021 Kentucky Derby, Birkhead wore a turquoise pantsuit from Jovani Fashion with a large white flower fascinator. At the 2022 event, she wore an outfit previously worn by singer Janet Jackson to the same event in 2003.


title: Ratatouille

text: Ratatouille ( , ), , is a French Provençal dish of stewed vegetables which originated in Nice, and is sometimes referred to as "ratatouille niçoise" (). Recipes and cooking times differ widely, but common ingredients include tomato, garlic, onion, courgette (zucchini), aubergine (eggplant, brinjal), capsicum (bell pepper), and some combination of leafy green herbs common to the region.


title: Ratatouille

text: The word "ratatouille" derives from the Occitan "ratatolha" and is related to the French "ratouiller" and "tatouiller", expressive forms of the verb "touiller", meaning "to stir up". From the late 18th century, in French, it merely indicated a coarse stew. Modern ratatouille uses tomatoes as a foundation for sautéed garlic, onion, zucchini, aubergine (eggplant), bell pepper, marjoram, fennel and basil. Instead of basil, bay leaf and thyme, or a mix of green herbs like herbes de Provence can be used. The modern version does not appear in print until c.1930.


title: Ratatouille

text: "The Guardian"s food and drink writer, Felicity Cloake, wrote in 2016 that considering ratatouille's relatively recent origins (it first appeared in 1877), there exists a great variety of methods of preparation for it. The "Larousse Gastronomique" claims "according to the purists, the different vegetables should be cooked separately, then combined and cooked slowly together until they attain a smooth, creamy consistency", so that (according to the chair of the Larousse's committee Joël Robuchon) "each [vegetable] will taste truly of itself."


title: Ratatouille

text: Similar dishes exist in many cuisines. These include: "pisto" (Castilian-Manchego, Spain), "samfaina" (Catalan, Spain), "tombet" (Majorcan), "ciambotta", "caponata" and "peperonata" (Italy), "briám" and "tourloú" (Greek), "şakşuka" and "türlü" (Turkish), "ajapsandali" (Georgian), "lecsó" (Hungarian), "ghiveci" (Romanian) and "zaalouk" (Moroccan). Different parts of the Indian subcontinent have their own versions of winter vegetable stew. Gujarat makes "undhiyu", Kerala "avial" (with coconut and curry), and Bengal "shukto". "Confit byaldi" can be considered as a variation of the dish.


title: Ratatouille

text: In 2007 Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios released the film "Ratatouille". The film features Remy, a young rat with an exceptional sense of taste and smell who dreams of becoming a chef. The climax of the film sees Remy prepare the titular dish in the form of confit byaldi for the notoriously harsh food critic Anton Ego, who unexpectedly loves the dish due to childhood nostalgia for his mother's cooking. The movie gave widespread exposure to this meal in American culture and around the world.


title: RDX

text: RDX (abbreviation of "Research Department eXplosive") or hexogen, among other names, is an organic compound with the formula (ONCH). It is a white solid without smell or taste, widely used as an explosive. Chemically, it is classified as a nitroamine alongside HMX, which is a more energetic explosive than TNT. It was used widely in World War II and remains common in military applications.


title: RDX

text: RDX is often used in mixtures with other explosives and plasticizers or phlegmatizers (desensitizers); it is the explosive agent in C-4 plastic explosive. It is stable in storage and is considered one of the most energetic and brisant of the military high explosives, with a relative effectiveness factor of 1.60.


title: RDX

text: RDX is also known, but less commonly, as cyclonite, hexogen (particularly in Russian, French, German and German-influenced languages), T4, and, chemically, as cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine. In the 1930s, the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, started investigating cyclonite to use against German U-boats that were being built with thicker hulls. The goal was to develop an explosive more energetic than TNT. For security reasons, Britain termed cyclonite "Research Department Explosive" (R.D.X.). The term "RDX" appeared in the United States in 1946. The first public reference in the United Kingdom to the name "RDX", or "R.D.X.", to use the official title, appeared in 1948; its authors were the managing chemist, ROF Bridgwater, the chemical research and development department, Woolwich, and the director of Royal Ordnance Factories, Explosives; again, it was referred to as simply RDX.


title: RDX

text: RDX was widely used during World War II, often in explosive mixtures with TNT such as Torpex, Composition B, Cyclotols, and H6. RDX was used in one of the first plastic explosives. The bouncing bomb depth charges used in the "Dambusters Raid" each contained of Torpex; The Tallboy and Grand Slam bombs designed by Wallis also used Torpex.


title: RDX

text: Outside military applications, RDX is also used in controlled demolition to raze structures. The demolition of the Jamestown Bridge in the U.S. state of Rhode Island was one instance where RDX shaped charges were used to remove the span.


title: RDX

text: RDX is classified by chemists as a hexahydro-1,3,5-triazine derivative. In laboratory settings (industrial routes are described below separately) it is obtained by treating hexamine with white fuming nitric acid.


title: RDX

text: This nitrolysis reaction also produces methylene dinitrate, ammonium nitrate, and water as byproducts. The overall reaction is:


title: RDX

text: RDX was used by both sides in World War II. The U.S. produced about per month during WWII and Germany about per month. RDX had the major advantages of possessing greater explosive force than TNT, used in World War I, and requiring no additional raw materials for its manufacture.


title: RDX

text: RDX was reported in 1898 by Georg Friedrich Henning, who obtained a German patent (patent No. 104280) for its manufacture by nitrolysis of hexamine (hexamethylenetetramine) with concentrated nitric acid. In this patent, the medical properties of RDX were mentioned; however, three further German patents obtained by Henning in 1916 proposed its use in smokeless propellants. The German military started investigating its use in 1920, referring to it as hexogen. Research and development findings were not published further until Edmund von Herz, described as an Austrian and later a German citizen, obtained a British patent in 1921 and a United States patent in 1922. Both patent claims were initiated in Austria; and described the manufacture of RDX by nitrating hexamethylenetetramine. The British patent claims included the manufacture of RDX by nitration, its use with or without other explosives, its use as a bursting charge and as an initiator. The U.S. patent claim was for the use of a hollow explosive device containing RDX and a detonator cap containing RDX. In the 1930s, Germany developed improved production methods.


title: RDX

text: During World War II, Germany used the code names W Salt, SH Salt, K-method, the E-method, and the KA-method. These names represented the identities of the developers of the various chemical routes to RDX. The W-method was developed by Wolfram in 1934 and gave RDX the code name "W-Salz". It used sulfamic acid, formaldehyde, and nitric acid. SH-Salz (SH salt) was from Schnurr, who developed a batch-process in 1937–38 based on nitrolysis of hexamine. The K-method, from Knöffler, involved addition of ammonium nitrate to the hexamine/nitric acid process. The E-method, developed by Ebele, proved to be identical to the Ross and Schiessler process described below. The KA-method, also developed by Knöffler, turned out to be identical to the Bachmann process described below.


title: RDX

text: The explosive shells fired by the MK 108 cannon and the warhead of the R4M rocket, both used in Luftwaffe fighter aircraft as offensive armament, both used hexogen as their explosive base.


title: RDX

text: In the United Kingdom (UK), RDX was manufactured from 1933 by the research department in a pilot plant at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, London, a larger pilot plant being built at the RGPF Waltham Abbey just outside London in 1939. In 1939 a twin-unit industrial-scale plant was designed to be installed at a new site, ROF Bridgwater, away from London and production of RDX started at Bridgwater on one unit in August 1941. The ROF Bridgwater plant brought in ammonia and methanol as raw materials: the methanol was converted to formaldehyde and some of the ammonia converted to nitric acid, which was concentrated for RDX production. The rest of the ammonia was reacted with formaldehyde to produce hexamine. The hexamine plant was supplied by Imperial Chemical Industries. It incorporated some features based on data obtained from the United States (U.S.). RDX was produced by continually adding hexamine and concentrated nitric acid to a cooled mixture of hexamine and nitric acid in the nitrator. The RDX was purified and processed for its intended use; recovery and reuse of some methanol and nitric acid also was carried out. The hexamine-nitration and RDX purification plants were duplicated (i.e. twin-unit) to provide some insurance against loss of production due to fire, explosion, or air attack.


title: RDX

text: The United Kingdom and British Empire were fighting without allies against Nazi Germany until the middle of 1941 and had to be self-sufficient. At that time (1941), the UK had the capacity to produce (160,000 lb) of RDX per week; both Canada, an allied country and self-governing dominion within the British Empire, and the U.S. were looked upon to supply ammunition and explosives, including RDX. By 1942 the Royal Air Force's annual requirement was forecast to be of RDX, much of which came from North America (Canada and the U.S.).


title: RDX

text: A different method of production to the Woolwich process was found and used in Canada, possibly at the McGill University department of chemistry. This was based on reacting paraformaldehyde and ammonium nitrate in acetic anhydride. A UK patent application was made by Robert Walter Schiessler (Pennsylvania State University) and James Hamilton Ross (McGill, Canada) in May 1942; the UK patent was issued in December 1947. Gilman states that the same method of production had been independently discovered by Ebele in Germany prior to Schiessler and Ross, but that this was not known by the Allies. Urbański provides details of five methods of production, and he refers to this method as the (German) E-method.


title: RDX

text: At the beginning of the 1940s, the major U.S. explosive manufacturers, E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company and Hercules, had several decades of experience of manufacturing trinitrotoluene (TNT) and had no wish to experiment with new explosives. U.S. Army Ordnance held the same viewpoint and wanted to continue using TNT. RDX had been tested by Picatinny Arsenal in 1929, and it was regarded as too expensive and too sensitive. The Navy proposed to continue using ammonium picrate. In contrast, the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), who had visited The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, thought new explosives were necessary. James B. Conant, chairman of Division B, wished to involve academic research into this area. Conant therefore set up an experimental explosives research laboratory at the Bureau of Mines, Bruceton, Pennsylvania, using Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) funding.


title: RDX

text: In 1941, the UK's Tizard Mission visited the U.S. Army and Navy departments and part of the information handed over included details of the "Woolwich" method of manufacture of RDX and its stabilisation by mixing it with beeswax. The UK was asking that the U.S. and Canada, combined, supply (440,000 lb) of RDX per day. A decision was taken by William H. P. Blandy, chief of the Bureau of Ordnance, to adopt RDX for use in mines and torpedoes. Given the immediate need for RDX, the U.S. Army Ordnance, at Blandy's request, built a plant that copied the equipment and process used at Woolwich. The result was the Wabash River Ordnance Works run by E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. At that time, this works had the largest nitric acid plant in the world. The Woolwich process was expensive: it needed of strong nitric acid for every pound of RDX.


title: RDX

text: By early 1941, the NDRC was researching new processes. The Woolwich or direct nitration process has at least two serious disadvantages: (1) it used large amounts of nitric acid and (2) at least one-half of the formaldehyde is lost. One mole of hexamethylenetetramine could produce at most one mole of RDX. At least three laboratories with no previous explosive experience were instructed to develop better production methods for RDX; they were based at Cornell, Michigan, and Pennsylvania State universities. Werner Emmanuel Bachmann, from Michigan, successfully developed the "combination process" by combining the Ross and Schiessler process used in Canada (aka the German E-method) with direct nitration. The combination process required large quantities of acetic anhydride instead of nitric acid in the old British "Woolwich process". Ideally, the combination process could produce two moles of RDX from each mole of hexamethylenetetramine.


title: RDX

text: The vast production of RDX could not continue to rely on the use of natural beeswax to desensitize the RDX. A substitute stabilizer based on petroleum was developed at the Bruceton Explosives Research Laboratory.


title: RDX

text: The NDRC instructed three companies to develop pilot plants. They were the Western Cartridge Company, E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, and Tennessee Eastman Company, part of Eastman Kodak. At the Eastman Chemical Company (TEC), a leading manufacturer of acetic anhydride, Werner Emmanuel Bachmann developed a continuous-flow process for RDX utilizing an ammonium nitrate/nitric acid mixture as a nitrating agent in a medium of acetic acid and acetic anhydride. RDX was crucial to the war effort and the current batch-production process was too slow. In February 1942, TEC began producing small amounts of RDX at its Wexler Bend pilot plant, which led to the U.S. government authorizing TEC to design and build Holston Ordnance Works (H.O.W.) in June 1942. By April 1943, RDX was being manufactured there. At the end of 1944, the Holston plant and the Wabash River Ordnance Works, which used the Woolwich process, were producing (50 million pounds) of Composition B per month.


title: RDX

text: The U.S. Bachmann process for RDX was found to be richer in HMX than the United Kingdom's RDX. This later led to a RDX plant using the Bachmann process being set up at ROF Bridgwater in 1955 to produce both RDX and HMX.


title: RDX

text: The United Kingdom's intention in World War II was to use "desensitised" RDX. In the original Woolwich process, RDX was phlegmatized with beeswax, but later paraffin wax was used, based on the work carried out at Bruceton. In the event the UK was unable to obtain sufficient RDX to meet its needs, some of the shortfall was met by substituting amatol, a mixture of ammonium nitrate and TNT.


title: RDX

text: Karl Dönitz was reputed to have claimed that "an aircraft can no more kill a U-boat than a crow can kill a mole". Nonetheless, by May 1942 Wellington bombers began to deploy depth charges containing Torpex, a mixture of RDX, TNT, and aluminium, which had up to 50 percent more destructive power than TNT-filled depth charges. Considerable quantities of the RDX–TNT mixture were produced at the Holston Ordnance Works, with Tennessee Eastman developing an automated mixing and cooling process based around the use of stainless steel conveyor belts.


title: RDX

text: A Semtex bomb was used in the Pan Am Flight 103 (known also as the Lockerbie) bombing in 1988. A belt laden with of RDX explosives tucked under the dress of the assassin was used in the assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. The 1993 Bombay bombings used RDX placed into several vehicles as bombs. RDX was the main component used for the 2006 Mumbai train bombings and the Jaipur bombings in 2008. It also is believed to be the explosive used in the 2010 Moscow Metro bombings.


title: RDX

text: Traces of RDX were found on pieces of wreckage from 1999 Russian apartment bombings and 2004 Russian aircraft bombings. Further reports on the bombs used in the 1999 apartment bombings indicated that while RDX was not a part of the main charge, each bomb contained plastic explosive used as a booster charge.


title: RDX

text: Ahmed Ressam, the al-Qaeda Millennium Bomber, used a small quantity of RDX as one of the components in the bomb that he prepared to detonate in Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve 1999-2000; the bomb could have produced a blast forty times greater than that of a devastating car bomb.


title: RDX

text: In July 2012, the Kenyan government arrested two Iranian nationals and charged them with illegal possession of of RDX. According to the Kenyan Police, the Iranians planned to use the RDX for "attacks on Israeli, US, UK and Saudi Arabian targets".


title: RDX

text: In the 2019 Pulwama attack in India, 250 kg of high-grade RDX was used by Jaish-e-Mohammed. The attack resulted in the deaths of 44 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel as well as the attacker.


title: RDX

text: RDX has a high nitrogen content and a high oxygen to carbon ratio, (O:C ratio), both of which indicate its explosive potential for formation of N and CO.


title: RDX

text: RDX undergoes a deflagration to detonation transition (DDT) in confinement and certain circumstances.


title: RDX

text: It starts to decompose at approximately 170 °C and melts at 204 °C. At room temperature, it is very stable. It burns rather than explodes. It detonates only with a detonator, being unaffected even by small arms fire. This property makes it a useful military explosive. It is less sensitive than pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN). Under normal conditions, RDX has a Figure of Insensitivity of exactly 80 (RDX defines the reference point).


title: RDX

text: RDX, when exploded in air, has about 1.5 times the explosive energy of TNT per unit weight and about 2.0 times per unit volume.


title: RDX

text: The substance's toxicity has been studied for many years. RDX has caused convulsions (seizures) in military field personnel ingesting it, and in munition workers inhaling its dust during manufacture. At least one fatality was attributed to RDX toxicity in a European munitions manufacturing plant.


title: RDX

text: During the Vietnam War, at least 40 American soldiers were hospitalized with composition C-4 (which is 91% RDX) intoxication from December 1968 to December 1969. C-4 was frequently used by soldiers as a fuel to heat food, and the food was generally mixed by the same knife that was used to cut C-4 into small pieces prior to burning. Soldiers were exposed to C-4 either due to inhaling the fumes, or due to ingestion, made possible by many small particles adhering to the knife having been deposited into the cooked food. The symptom complex involved nausea, vomiting, generalized seizures, and prolonged postictal confusion and amnesia; which indicated toxic encephalopathy.


title: RDX

text: Oral toxicity of RDX depends on its physical form; in rats, the LD50 was found to be 100 mg/kg for finely powdered RDX, and 300 mg/kg for coarse, granular RDX. A case has been reported of a human child hospitalized in status epilepticus following the ingestion of 84.82 mg/kg dose of RDX (or 1.23 g for the patient's body weight of 14.5 kg) in the "plastic explosive" form.


title: RDX

text: The substance has low to moderate toxicity with a possible human carcinogen classification. Further research is ongoing, however, and this classification may be revised by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Remediating RDX-contaminated water supplies has proven to be successful. It is known to be a kidney toxin in humans and highly toxic to earthworms and plants, thus army testing ranges where RDX was used heavily may need to undergo environmental remediation. Concerns have been raised by research published in late 2017 indicating that the issue has not been addressed correctly by U.S. officials.


title: RDX

text: RDX is degraded by the organisms in sewage sludge as well as the fungus "Phanaerocheate chrysosporium". Both wild and transgenic plants can phytoremediate explosives from soil and water.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: Batman: Arkham Asylum is a 2009 action-adventure game developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Eidos Interactive in conjunction with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Based on the DC Comics superhero Batman and written by veteran "Batman" writer Paul Dini, "Arkham Asylum" was inspired by the long-running comic book mythos. In the game's main storyline, Batman battles his archenemy, the Joker, who instigates an elaborate plot to seize control of Arkham Asylum, trap Batman inside with many of his incarcerated foes, and threaten Gotham City with hidden bombs. Most of the game's leading characters are voiced by actors who have appeared in other media based on the DC Animated Universe; Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, and Arleen Sorkin reprised their roles as Batman, the Joker, and his sidekick Harley Quinn respectively.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: The game is presented from the third-person perspective with a primary focus on Batman's combat and stealth abilities, detective skills, and gadgets that can be used in combat and exploration. Batman can freely move around the Arkham Asylum facility, interacting with characters and undertaking missions, and unlocking new areas by progressing through the main story or obtaining new equipment. The player is able to complete side missions away from the main story to unlock additional content and collectible items. Combat focuses on chaining attacks together against numerous foes while avoiding damage, while stealth allows Batman to conceal himself around an area, using gadgets and the environment to silently eliminate enemies.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: Development began at Rocksteady Studios in May 2007, with a 40-person team that expanded to 60 people by the project's conclusion after approximately 21 months. Among others, the game design was inspired by "Batman"-penned works of Neal Adams and Frank Miller, and Grant Morrison's "" graphic novel. Built on Unreal Engine 3, "Arkham Asylum"s production underwent several variations, refining both gameplay such as the combat system, and the central story, resulting in the removal of plot elements and some of Batman's main enemies, who did not fit the tone of the rest of the game. Rocksteady began developing ideas for a sequel months before "Arkham Asylum"s completion, hiding hints to the sequel within the game.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: "Arkham Asylum" was released worldwide for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles in August 2009, followed by a Windows version a month later. The game received critical acclaim, particularly for its narrative and combat. Reviewers called it the "greatest comic book game of all time", and the "best superhero game of modern times". It won several awards, including Best Action Adventure game, Best Game, and Game of the Year from various media outlets, and it held the Guinness World Record for "Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever". It has been cited as one of the greatest video games ever made. The game received several re-releases, including a Game of the Year edition in March 2010, a Mac OS X version in November 2011, and a remastered version for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in October 2016. "Arkham Asylum"s success launched the "" series, comprising video game sequels and spin-offs, comic books, merchandise, and movies, beginning in October 2011 with its direct sequel "".


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: "Batman: Arkham Asylum" is an action-adventure game viewed from the third-person perspective. The playable character is visible on the screen and the camera can be freely rotated around him. The player controls Batman as he traverses Arkham Asylum, a secure facility for the criminally insane located off the coast of Gotham City. The opening areas of the game are linear, serving as a tutorial for the moves and approaches available to the player. Once the player emerges onto the island they can freely explore the game world, although some areas remain inaccessible until certain milestones in the main story. Batman can run, jump, climb, crouch, glide from heights using his cape, and use his grapple gun to climb low structures or escape to higher ledges.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: The player can use "Detective Vision"a visual mode which provides contextual information, tinting the game world blue and highlighting interactive objects like destructible walls and removable grates, the number of enemies in an area and their statussuch as their awareness of Batman's presenceand shows civilians and corpses. The mode is also used to follow footprints, investigate odors, and solve puzzles.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: Batman has access to several gadgets which he can use to explore or fight. The batarang is a throwing weapon that can temporarily stun enemies or trigger remote devices. A remotely controlled version can be steered once thrown, and the sonic batarang can be used to attract the attention of specific enemies wearing monitoring collars, or detonated to knock a nearby enemy unconscious. Explosive gel can be used on weak walls and floors, and can be remotely detonatedsending rubble crashing onto an enemy. The line launcher can be used to traverse horizontal spans. The Batclawa grappling devicecan be used to interact with remote objects such as vent covers or to grab enemies. The Cryptographic Sequencer is used to override security panels, open new paths, or disable various asylum functions. Some areas are inaccessible until Batman acquires the gadgets necessary to overcoming the obstacle. The player is encouraged to explore the game world away from the main game to find and solve riddles left by the Riddlerwho hacks into Batman's communication system to challenge him with riddles. Objects can be collected, and some of the Riddler's puzzles require the player to find areas related to the answer to a riddle and scan it with "Detective Vision". The game world has 240 collectable items, such as Riddler trophies, chattering Joker teeth, interview tapes with some of Arkham's inmates, and cryptic messages left in the asylum by its founder Amadeus Arkham that discuss the facility's sinister history. The player is rewarded for solving riddles and finding collectibles with experience points and additional game content, including challenge maps that test the player's skill at the game's combat system, character biographies, and in-game statues of "Arkham Asylum"s characters.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: Players can traverse enemy-controlled areas using stealth or direct combat. The game's "Freeflow" combat uses three main buttons: attack, stun, and counter. The system lets Batman move quickly between enemies, chaining attacks together until all enemies are unconscious. Combining the three main abilities can keep Batman attacking while moving between enemies and avoiding being attacked himself. The more combo attacks that are chained together, the faster and more agile Batman becomes, and special attackssuch as a throw, grapple, and an instant takedown which can immediately defeat an enemybecome available. Combat is rewarded with experience points, which are used to unlock gadgets, combat moves, and health upgrades. Higher combos, a wider variety of moves, and avoiding damage delivers more points. Enemy attacks are preempted with a warning icon, which indicate the attack can be countered. Some enemies require different approaches to overcome; knife-wielding thugs must be stunned before they can be attacked, and others must be struck from behind. Some enemies are armed with guns which significantly damage Batman. Enemies react to Batman's elimination of their allies, which raises their fear level and alters their behavior; for example, they will adopt new patrol routes, requiring the player to adapt to the changing situation. During combat, Batman's health is diminished by attacks, but is fully restored once the battle ends.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: The player can use predatory tactics through stealthincluding silent takedowns, dropping from overhead perches and snatching enemies away, or using the explosive gel to knock foes off their feetto tilt the odds in their favor. Some areas feature sections that require the player to use these tactics to avoid alerting the Joker's henchmen and thus failing to meet an objective. Many areas feature stone gargoyles placed high above, helping Batman remain concealed. Batman can use his grapnel gun to reach the gargoyles, giving him a high vantage point over the area and the enemies. From the gargoyles, Batman can glide down to attack enemies or hang upside down from the gargoyles to grapple a nearby enemy and leave him tethered there. The player can use floor grates to attack from below, hide around corners, use batarangs to stun enemies from afar, and use the grapnel gun to pull enemies over ledges.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: "Arkham Asylum" features a series of challenge maps separate from the game's story mode that are unlocked while playing, and others are available as optional downloadable content (DLC). The maps focus on the completion of specific goals, such as eliminating successive waves of enemies in combat, and subduing patrolling enemies while using stealth. The methods and variety of abilities used to achieve these goals earn an overall performance score that is ranked online against other players. On the PlayStation 3, the Joker is a playable character in the combat and stealth challenge maps via optional DLC; he must confront the asylum guards and police commissioner James Gordon. The Joker has his own combat abilities and weapons, such as a handgun, exploding chattering teeth, and x-ray glasses which allow him to see opponents through walls.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: On compatible systems, the Microsoft Windows version uses nVidia's PhysX software engine to produce realistic, dynamic interactions with the game world. With PhysX enabled, some areas contain smoke or fog which reacts to Batman moving through it, while with PhysX disabled the fog will not appear at all. Other effects include dynamic interaction with paper and leaves, surfaces which can be scratched and chipped, and dynamic, destructible cloth elements such as banners and cobwebs. The "Game of the Year" version features the ability to play the game in 3D on any 2D television using anaglyph 3D glasses.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: "Arkham Asylum" is set in the fictional Arkham Asylum, a facility on Arkham Island off the coast of Gotham City that houses criminally insane supervillains. The game features a large ensemble of characters from the history of "Batman" comics. Three voice actors, who worked on the DC Animated Universe series of film and television, reprised their roles for the game. Kevin Conroy voices Batmana superhero trained to the peak of human physical perfection and an expert in martial arts, Mark Hamill voices Batman's psychopathic nemesis the Joker, and the Joker's sidekick Harley Quinn is voiced by Arleen Sorkin. Batman is aided by his allies Oracle (Kimberly Brooks)who remotely provides him with intelligence, and police commissioner James Gordon (Tom Kane).


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: In the asylum, Batman is faced with several supervillains; he must defend himself from an enraged Bane (Fred Tatasciore), subdue indiscriminate serial killer Victor Zsasz (Danny Jacobs), confront the monstrous Killer Croc (Steve Blum), defeat the plant-controlling Poison Ivy (Tasia Valenza), and battle his way through hallucinogen-induced nightmares created by the Scarecrow (Dino Andrade). The Riddler (Wally Wingert) does not physically appear in the game, but communicates with Batman and challenges him to solve riddles placed around the island. Other characters appearing in the game include the asylum's warden Quincy Sharp (also voiced by Kane), Batman's parents Thomas and Martha Wayne (voiced by Conroy and Valenza respectively), and asylum guard Aaron Cash (Duane R Shepard, Sr). The shape-shifting Clayface appears in cameo, taking on the guise of other characters as he tries to trick the player into releasing him. The Mad Hatter was almost included in the game, but the developers removed him. The body of Ra's al Ghul is in the asylum's morgue and the Ventriloquists dummy, Scarface, appears several times throughout the story. Several other charactersincluding the Penguin, Jack Ryder, Mr. Freeze, Two-Face, Catwoman, and the asylum's founder Amadeus Arkhamare referenced in the game, but do not appear in it.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: After the Joker assaults Gotham City Hall, he is caught by Batman and taken to Arkham Asylum, which temporarily houses many members of the Joker's gang, who were transferred after a fire at Blackgate Prison. Believing the Joker allowed himself to be captured, Batman accompanies him into the asylum. The Joker's plan is revealed as Harley Quinn takes control of the security and the Joker escapes into the facility, aided by a corrupt guard who kidnaps Commissioner Gordon. The Joker threatens to detonate bombs hidden around Gotham City if anyone tries to enter Arkham, forcing Batman to work alone. Tracking Quinn to the medical facility to rescue Gordon, Batman is exposed to the Scarecrow's fear toxin. After fighting off Scarecrow's hallucinations, Batman finds and subdues Quinn before rescuing Gordon. The Joker then directs Batman to the captured Bane, who has been experimented on by asylum doctor Penelope Young. The Joker frees Bane and Batman fights him, during which Quinn escapes. Afterward, he goes to a secret Batcave installation he had hidden on the island, where he restocks his gadgets.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: There, Batman learns that the Joker returned to the asylum to gain access to Young, who has been developing Titana more powerful version of the Venom drug that gives Bane his strengthintending to use it to help patients survive more strenuous therapies. Young learned that the Joker had been secretly funding her research to create an army of superhuman henchmen; her refusal to hand over the formula precipitated Joker's return to the asylum. While searching for Young, Batman destroys her Titan formula, then rescues her from Victor Zsasz. An explosion kills Young and the Joker obtains the completed batches of Titan.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: At the penitentiary, Quinn releases Poison Ivy from her cell before being imprisoned by Batman. Quinn accidentally reveals that Joker has a Titan production facility in the Arkham botanical gardens. Batman travels there and learns that Titan is created by genetically modified plants. He learns from Ivy that the spores required to create an antidote are found exclusively in Killer Croc's lair in a sewer. Afterward, Joker injects Ivy with Titan, enhancing her powers, and she begins to ravage Arkham Island with giant mutant plants. En route to Croc, Batman encounters Scarecrow again and pursues him into the sewers. Scarecrow is attacked by Croc and dragged underwater. Batman recovers the necessary spores and subdues Croc before returning to the Batcave, but can only synthesize one dose of the antidote before Ivy's plants breach the cave and destroy his equipment.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: Batman returns to the botanical gardens and defeats Ivy, halting the rampaging plants. The Joker announces that the preparations for his party are finally complete and Batman travels to the asylum's visitor center to confront him. The Joker reveals he has recaptured Gordon and tries to shoot him with a Titan-filled dart; Batman leaps to Gordon's defense and is shot instead. Batman attempts to resist the change, and an upset Joker takes an overdose of Titan, mutating into a massive monster. In a makeshift arena on the building's roof, the Joker challenges Batman to a fight as Titan-induced monsters in front of news helicopters. Batman refuses to transform, uses the antidote on himself, and defeats the Titan-affected Joker and his henchmen. In the aftermath, those affected by Titan begin to revert to normal, including the Jokerwho is taken into custody as police officers retake the asylum. Batman overhears a call about a crime led by Two-Face in progress and flies back to Gotham City in the Batwing. In a post-credits scene, a crate of Titan formula is shown floating in the ocean near the asylum when a hand surfaces and grabs it.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: "Batman: Arkham Asylum" was first announced in August 2008; it was developed by British studio Rocksteady Studios under the aegis of Eidos Interactive and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Eidos obtained the rights to make a Batman game in spring 2007, and approached then little-known Rocksteady after viewing the developer's prototype. At Eidos' request, Rocksteady presented their approach to the "Batman" license, and by May 2007, they had begun developing the game's concept, with full production beginning in September. Writer Paul Dini ("", "Detective Comics") was first approached by DC Comics around late 2007 about the prospect of creating a story for an original Batman video game. Dini found the idea intriguing, believing that few Batman games were based on an original idea, instead being adapted from film or television. DC Comics asked Dini what his approach to writing a new Batman film or graphic novel would be, but one that was designed for gameplay. He later met with the Rocksteady team, where it was decided that Dini's ideas were in line with what Rocksteady wanted to achieve. By the time Dini joined the project, Rocksteady were investigating the idea of setting the game within Arkham, and had produced preliminary designs depicting it as a huge estate on an island connected to mainland Gotham City by a bridge. The cast had not been finalized, but given the setting it was certain that the Joker would play a large role. The game and story were developed together, with the limitations of mechanics requiring the story to be built around them. The core aim was to make the game engaging enough for players to spend 8–10 hours completing it, especially those uninterested in Batman-franchised media. Rocksteady would guide Dini when they thought he was writing too much story or character motivation.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: Among various Neal Adams and Frank Miller-penned "Batman" stories, Grant Morrison's "" was an inspiration for the game's design. Producer Nathan Burlow said the narrative and atmosphere of the 2007 game "BioShock" influenced "Arkham Asylum"s design. Director Sefton Hill said the influences of the gadgets and abilities that can be combined and used in different ways came from "The Legend of Zelda" and "Metroid". The design team isolated the components that they felt made Batman, and exaggerated these elements. Design ideas which contradicted these facets of the character were dropped, and other elements of Batman, such as his refusal to kill his enemies, were strictly enforced, which provided additional challenges in allowing the player to have complete freedom in the game without transgressing on that fundamental aspect of the character. Arkham Asylum was chosen as the setting because it confined the player to an area containing several enemies, whereas in an open city setting he could receive help, return to the Batcave, or otherwise be able to distance himself from his opponents.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: The development team wanted to include iconic aspects of the Batman mythos, and decided early on in production to have Conroy, Hamill, and Sorkin reprise their roles in Dini's "Batman: The Animated Series" as Batman, the Joker, and Harley Quinn, respectively. Hamill has thousands of lines of dialogue in the game, and Conroy has relatively few in comparison. After seeing character models of the Joker's "Arkham Asylum" appearance, Hamill decided to portray the character as dark and gritty while retaining a clownish and playful nature. Although the game features references to plot events in both "The Animated Series" and "Batman" comics, the story does not directly follow any singular story or depiction of the character.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: The game took approximately 21 months to complete; Rocksteady began development with a team of 40, which had expanded to around 60 by the game's completion. Combat was considered one of the greatest challenges in developing the game; the system went through three iterations. Rocksteady originally developed the game's combat as a full rhythm action game. It was later set in 2D, which involved colored circles crashing into each other during fights; the final system was based on this 2D model. Combat was designed to be unique for Batman, and was given a simple control scheme to reflect the ease with which Batman can perform the moves. "Arkham Asylum" was built on Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3. Eidos president Ian Livingstone said one developer spent two years programming Batman's cape, using over 700 animations and sound effects to make it move realistically.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: The developers intended to use other Batman characters in the game, but these were removed when it was decided they would not work within the story. For example, Batman's enemy Mr. Freeze did not fit because the character has different motivations to the Joker. Unlike the Riddler, who is obsessed with proving his superiority over Batman, Mr. Freeze does not hold a personal grudge against Batman, and Mr. Freeze would not care about the other villains' plans. A garden maze under Poison Ivy's control was considered as a location; she could grow it in different directions. In its center, Batman would find the Mad Hatter hosting a tea-party, but the developers decided these ideas would not match the game's tone. Batman's vehicles, the Batmobile and Batwing, were considered for inclusion in the game, but developing unique control mechanics and gameplay segments for them would have taken too much time, and compromised its quality; the vehicles appear in the game, but players cannot control them.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: Rocksteady began conceiving ideas for a possible sequel, which became "", approximately seven months before development of "Arkham Asylum" was completed. Rocksteady developed ideas for the sequel's story and setting so the games' narratives could be effectively connected. A secret room containing hints, blueprints, and concept art for the next game was hidden in the asylum warden's office in "Arkham Asylum". The room remained hidden for six months following the game's release until Rocksteady revealed its presence. "Arkham Asylum"s musical score was composed by Ron Fish and Nick Arundel, who also composed the soundtrack for the sequel, "Batman: Arkham City".


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: To develop the game's overall aesthetic, the main aim was to create designs that would combine comic book style with realism. The environmental architecture and characters had to be extravagant enough to represent the "Batman" universe, but needed realistic texture and detail. The second aim was to recreate the dark, Gothic imagery inherent to the "Batman" universe, especially Arkham Asylum, so that the structure would feel as insane as those whom it houses. The asylum was considered an ideal location because it can house many of Batman's foes.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: Batman's design was heavily influenced by the work of comic artist Jim Lee, who drew Batman as a strong, muscular character who could believably take part in extreme combat. His black and dark gray costume was based on modern versions, and has military influences and an industrial look. Approximately thirteen concept designs were produced before his final appearance took form. Artists avoided film interpretations of the Joker, partly because the developers only had access to the rights to the original Batman license. Alan Moore's 1988 graphic novel "" influenced the character's design. Harley Quinn underwent a drastic redesign, removing her black and red full-body outfit and jester's hat, and replacing them with a costume with design elements from a nurse's outfit and a schoolgirl's uniform. WildStorm, Lee's comic book publishing company, produced concept art for the game.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: Designs for the asylum departed from comic interpretations of a large mansion and instead developed an entire island, with hints of Alcatraz prison, composed of multiple buildings to allow for greater variety and exploration. Each building was designed with a different architectural style to make the facility appear believable and to imbue each location with a history. The medical building was inspired by Victorian architecture and its metalwork structure was intended to inspire feelings of horror. The intensive treatment unit has a Gothic, industrial aesthetic. The catacombs beneath the facility, inspired by early twentieth-century brickwork and Victorian industry, were meant to feel oppressive. The maximum security area was designed to feel claustrophobic and was retrofitted like a bunker, and the Arkham mansion displays a High Gothic style. The designers integrated crooked lines into environmental objects, such as trees and drainpipes, where possible. 40 rooms, 34 corridors, three exterior areas, and three Scarecrow-induced hallucination areas were designed for the game.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: To bring these areas to life, the level designers produced game mechanic elements using simple room layouts and shapes, while concept artists worked in tandem to create artwork for each location, following the art direction. Environment artists would then build 3D layouts based on those designs. Finding an appropriate color palette for the game world was difficult; browns and monochromatic colors could depict the desired dark and moody atmosphere, but the developers wanted the aesthetic to resemble the vibrant color schemes of a comic book. To this end, they used saturated colors for in-game lighting. Lighting was an important component of the game, being used to highlight points of interest and to draw the player onward in otherwise boring corridors. To maintain the intended level of detail and allow the game's console versions to fit into the devices' memory, each area had to be streamed in and out of memory seamlessly to free up memory for textures and geometry. All of the cutscenes were storyboarded by Rocksteady artists, being visualized in the game engine before the character performances were motion-captured. The design team decided that cutscenes should be used to advance character relationships, and that after each cutscene the player should have had their goal changed or the importance of their actions modified. Priority was given to keeping action scenes under the player's control, rather than showing them in cutscenes.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: "Batman: Arkham Asylum" was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in North America on August 25, 2009, and on August 28 in Europe and Australia. It was released for Microsoft Windows in North America on September 15, 2009, and on September 18 in Europe and Australia. A Game of the Year edition was released on March 26, 2010, in Europe and on May 11 in North America. Feral Interactive developed a Mac OS X version, which was released on disc and as a download on November 3, 2011. On the Windows version of the game, the developers used an anti-duplication measure that disables Batman's glide ability and causes other bugs, preventing copied games from progressing beyond a certain point. Although not the first game to implement such countermeasures, "Arkham Asylum" received media coverage, as this was seen as a novel method of copy protection.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: A "Collector's Edition" containing the game, a replica of Batman's batarang, a behind-the-scenes DVD, a leather-bound 48-page book about Arkham's inmates, and a code to download the "Crime Alley" challenge map was released. Pre-ordering the game at some retailers allowed access to the "Dem Bones" challenge map. The Game of the Year version was initially announced for release only in Europe, Asia, and Australia, but a North American release was later added. The "Game of the Year" version includes the game, support for TriOviz 3D visual effects, two pairs of themed 3D glasses, and the six released DLC challenge mapstwo of which were omitted from the North American version. A version of the game for the Nintendo Wii was in development by Red Fly Studios before being cancelled.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: "Batman: Return to Arkham", developed by Virtuos, features remastered versions of "Arkham Asylum" and "Arkham City" using the Unreal Engine 4 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Additionally, both games include all previously released downloadable content, and feature improved graphics, upgraded models and environments, and improvements in the lighting, effects and shaders for both games. Originally intended for release in July 2016, the collection was delayed indefinitely in June that year in order to give the development team "additional time to deliver a polished "Batman Arkham" game experience." The collection was released on October 18, 2016.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: In April 2009, it was announced that the Joker would be a downloadable playable character for use in the game's challenge maps exclusively for the PlayStation 3. Additional DLC packs were later released. The "Insane Night" pack, containing the "Totally Insane" combat and "Nocturnal Hunter" stealth challenge maps, was released on September 17, 2009. The "Prey in the Darkness" pack was released on September 23, 2009, and contains the "Heart of Darkness" combat and "Hothouse Prey" stealth challenge maps. In North America, the "Prey in the Darkness" pack was released exclusively for the PlayStation 3.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: A demo version of the game was released via digital download for the PlayStation 3 on August 6, 2009, and for Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows on August 7. The PlayStation 3 version of "Arkham Asylum" unlocked a Batcave-themed virtual apartment for players on the social-gaming platform, PlayStation Home. Additionally, North American game retailer GameStop ran a contest which allowed one winner to be rendered in-game as an Arkham inmate. A series of action figures based on character designs from the game were released through Warner Bros.' outlet DC Direct.


title: Batman: Arkham Asylum

text: "Batman: Arkham Asylum" received critical acclaim. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Xbox 360 version 92/100, the PlayStation 3 version 91/100, and the Microsoft Windows version 91/100. The game held the Guinness World Record for "Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever" based on an average Metacritic score of 91.67, until it was succeeded by "Arkham City".