title: São Paulo (state)

text: Congonhas-São Paulo Airport or just Congonhas Airport is one of São Paulo's three commercial airports, situated 8 kilometres (5 miles) from the city downtown at Washington Luís Avenue, in the Campo Belo district. It is owned by the City of São Paulo and managed by Infraero. In 2013, it was the busiest airport in Brazil in terms of aircraft movements and the second busiest in terms of passengers, handling 209,555 aircraft movements and 17,119,530 passengers.


title: São Paulo (state)

text: Located 14 kilometers from downtown Campinas and 99 kilometers from the city of São Paulo, Viracopos-Campinas International Airport can be reached by three highways: Santos Dumont, Bandeirantes and Anhanguera. The city of Campinas is one of Brazil's leaders in technology. Besides excellent highway connections, it is the location of major universities and many high-tech companies. Because of this, the airport is one of Infraero's highest investment priorities. The old "landing field" as it was called has become one of the main connection points in Latin America.


title: São Paulo (state)

text: The air cargo import/export terminal of Campinas has an area of over 81,000 square meters. The airport began to concentrate in the international air cargo sector in the 1990s and today this is the airports leading source of revenue. Since 1995, Infraero has been investing to implement the first phase of the airport's master plan, making major improvements to the cargo and passenger terminals. The first phase was completed in the first half of 2004, when the airport received new departure and arrival lounges, public areas and commercial concessions. In 2012, the airport received a new terminal, it has since been privatized.


title: São Paulo (state)

text: In rail transport, the state has more than of railways, which comes from the banks of the Parana River on the border of São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul, to the Port of Santos, on the Atlantic coast, for the carriage of goods. The first of such urban transit systems in Brazil and South America, it began operations in 1974. It consists of four color-coded lines: Line 1-Blue, Line 2-Green, Line 3-Red and Line 5-Lilac; Line 4-Yellow started to work in May 2010, and will be completed only in 2016.


title: São Paulo (state)

text: The metro system carries 2.8 million passengers a day. Metro itself is far from covering the entire urban area in the city of São Paulo. Another company, Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (CPTM), ["São Paulo Metropolitan Train Company"] works along with the metro system and runs additional commuter railways converted into light rail service lines, which total six lines (numbers 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12), 261 km long, serving 89 stations. Metro and CPTM are integrated through various stations. Metro and CPTM both operate as state-owned companies, and have received awards in the recent past as one of the cleanest systems in the world by ISO9001. The São Paulo metro transports three million people by day. A regional rail network is also proposed.


title: São Paulo (state)

text: The highway system of São Paulo is the largest state system of the Brazilian Highway System, surpassing the . It is an interconnected network, divided into three levels: municipal (); state (); and federal (). More than 90% of São Paulo population is about from a paved road.


title: São Paulo (state)

text: In November 2021, the State of São Paulo had, between federal, municipal and state highways, a network of


title: São Paulo (state)

text: The State of São Paulo has more duplicated highways than any country in Latin America with the exception of Mexico, and, according to a survey by the Confederação Nacional do Transporte ("National Transport Confederation"), the road system of the state is the best in Brazil, with 59.4% of its roads classified as "excellent". The survey also found that of the 10 best Brazilian highways, nine are in São Paulo.


title: São Paulo (state)

text: The São Paulo highway system, however, is heavily criticized for the high cost imposed on its users. The state of São Paulo concentrates more than half of the toll roads in Brazil and a new toll plaza is created every 40 days average. According to a report of the "Folha de S. Paulo", the cost of tolls to travel the coastal path of of the federal highway BR-101, which connect Rio Grande do Norte to Rio Grande do Sul, is cheaper than to go through the of highways separating the municipalities of São Paulo and Ribeirão Preto. The prices charged by private concessionaires who run the system are frequent targets of complaints from drivers.


title: São Paulo (state)

text: In maritime transport, the state of São Paulo has two major ports: the Port of Santos, located in municipality of Santos and occupies the 39th position in the world by containerized cargo; and the Port of São Sebastião, located in São Sebastião ("San Sebastian") municipality.


title: São Paulo (state)

text: São Paulo state is a cosmopolitan region, a land influenced by its encounter with different traditions beginning with the Tupi-Guarani Native American nation, the intrusion of Iberian and other European elements and the traffic of enslaved Africans. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, European, Asian, and Middle-Eastern immigrants also made their way there. Earlier, the land had been the starting point of the bandeirantes expeditions, which sought to enslave the Natives of the hinterlands and explore their mineral wealth. Hence, São Paulo influenced most of Western Brazil, as well as the states of Minas Gerais, its neighbor north of it, and Paraná, which was originally part of the old São Paulo province.


title: São Paulo (state)

text: A very distinctive character in the culture of São Paulo state is the Caipira tradition, a mixture of Luso-Native-Brazilian and immigrant elements, mainly southern Italian, which influenced its dialect, somewhat different from the Portuguese language spoken in São Paulo city, although the latter is also heavily Italianized. The caipira culture is strong in countryside cities, although centers like Piracicaba, São Carlos, São José do Rio Preto, Araraquara, Ribeirão Preto, Barretos, Campinas, Marilia, Assis, Presidente Prudente, Jaú and Bauru also have a strong retroflex R style of pronunciation and unusual usage of words. It seems that the influence is actually from the Calabrian or Sicilian Italian dialect though, and many of the words peculiar to the region are actually archaic Portuguese forms. Native languages might also have stressed the more nasal sounds of words ending in /m/ or /n/, which is also a feature of other dialects in Brazil.


title: São Paulo (state)

text: Caipira food typically includes fried or barbecued beef steaks; fried eggs; "couve" (collard green); "taioba" (cabbage); "manioc" (corn flour); "farofa" (stuffing); "frango Caipira" (freshly baked or pan-seared chicken); "frango a Passarinho" (fried chicken pieces of chicken); fried breaded sardine or fish fillet; and pork chops or baked pork with lettuce or cabbage and tomato, seasoned with garlic, lemon, and onions. Bean stew with "carne seca" (dried charque beef), "toicinho" (bacon) and white rice is always the staple, but "macarronada" (spaghetti) is always present on Sunday luncheons, and fried sausages are often eaten daily. Mildly spiced legumes, as well as zucchini and other types of squash, are often prepared as a stew with or without meat, and sometimes with quiabo (ocra) and abobora or butternut squash are a favorite dessert, as are sweetened sidra, canjica (white corn kernels cooked in milk, coconut, and condensed milk and peanut bits). Pudim de leite, or milk custard, pave' (mounted cookies in rich condensed and heavy cream sauce) and manjar (white flan) are other mouth-watering treats. If none of these desserts are present, countryside meals will rarely leave out citrics such as oranges and mexericas, bananas, caquis or abacaxi (pineapple). Home-made loaves or regular bakery fresh rolls with butter or corn meal or orange cakes are served with coffee and milk or mate tea in the afternoon before dinner or before bed. Pastries like chicken coxinha fried dumplings and risolis, and the Mediterranean or Syrian-Lebanese kibe and open sfihas are often served in birthday and wedding parties followed by a glazed cake, guarana' and other sodas, champagne, caipirinha sugar-cane liquor or beer. Chopp or draft beer is a must in weddings celebrations.


title: São Paulo (state)

text: Another distinctive character in the state of São Paulo is the so-called "Brazilian erudite culture". São Paulo was the home of the Brazilian Week of Modern Art (Semana da Arte Moderna), organized mostly by poets and artists from São Paulo, like Mário de Andrade, Oswald de Andrade, Menotti del Picchia, Tarsila do Amaral and Anita Malfatti, Victor Brecheret and Lasar Segall. São Paulo was also the birthplace of Brazilian classical composers, like Carlos Gomes (the most famous Brazilian opera composer), Elias Álvares Lobo and Camargo Guarnieri. OSESP, the São Paulo state orchestra is known internationally and it has had both national and international directors.


title: São Paulo (state)

text: São Paulo has some of the most impressive museums in the country, such as the Museu Paulista do Ipiranga, which honors the site of the independence of Brazil and has numerous Native American artifacts, funeral urns and other historic objects, besides the monument resting place of Dom Pedro, Brazil's first emperor and his wife. The Museu de Arte de São Paulo or MASP on Avenida Paulista is the most important Latin American collection of European paintings, and the Pinacoteca do Estado on Avenida Tiradentes exhibits paintings and sculptures. The Museu de Arte Sacra on the same avenue features national Barroc art and an Italian nativity scene, besides having in the chapel next door, the tomb of Frei Galvão, the first Brazilian saint. Across from Pinacoteca is the Luz station built in Britain and assembled in Brazil with the innovating Museu da Língua Portuguesa, the first interactive language museum in the world. Ibirapuera Park features Museu do Presepio or Creche museum, AfroBrasil, the African-Brazilian museum, and the Bienal book and art fair site conducted every two years. The city of São Carlos in the center of the state has the Museu do Avião, an open airplane museum.


title: São Paulo (state)

text: Football is the most popular sport in the state. The biggest clubs from the state are Palmeiras, São Paulo, Santos, Corinthians, Ponte Preta, Guarani, Portuguesa, XV de Piracicaba. Other sports like Basketball and Volleyball are also quite popular. Most of the main athletes and sportsmen in the history of Brazil come from São Paulo, such as: Ayrton Senna, César Cielo, Oscar Schmidt, Hortência Marcari, Éder Jofre, Robert Scheidt, Emerson Fittipaldi, Aurélio Miguel, Rogério Sampaio, Alex Barros, Gustavo Borges, Ricardo Prado, Adhemar da Silva, João Carlos de Oliveira, Maurren Maggi, Fabiana Murer, Thiago Braz, Alison dos Santos, Arthur Zanetti, Rebeca Andrade, Rubens Barrichello, Felipe Massa and many others. The state has some of the strongest sports clubs and associations in the country, such as Pinheiros in multiple sports (swimming, athletics, volleyball, judo etc.) Unisanta in swimming, Osasco in volleyball, Franca in basketball, between others.


title: São Paulo (state)

text: The São Silvestre Race takes place every New Year's Eve in São Paulo. It was first held in 1925, when the competitors ran about 8,000 metres across the streets. Since then, the distance raced has varied, and it is now fixed at 15 km. Registration takes place from 1 October, with the maximum number of entrants limited to 15,000.


title: São Paulo (state)

text: In 1989, The São Silvestre Race became two races, the masculine and the feminine competition. There is also a children's race called São Silvestrinha.


title: São Paulo (state)

text: The Brazilian Grand Prix () is a Formula One championship race which occurs at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Interlagos. In 2006 the Grand Prix was the final round of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship. The Spanish driver Fernando Alonso won the 2006 drivers championship at this circuit by coming second in the race. The race was won by the young Brazilian driver Felipe Massa, driving for the Scuderia Ferrari team.


title: Just like Heaven (film)

text: Just Like Heaven is a 2005 American romantic comedy fantasy film directed by Mark Waters, starring Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo, and Jon Heder. It is based on the 1999 French novel "If Only It Were True" ("Et si c'était vrai...") by Marc Levy.


title: Just like Heaven (film)

text: Steven Spielberg obtained the rights to produce the film from the book. The film was released in the United States on September 16, 2005. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $102 million.


title: Just like Heaven (film)

text: Elizabeth Masterson, a young emergency medicine physician in San Francisco whose work is everything, is in a serious car accident while on her way to a blind date at her sister's. Three months later, landscape architect David Abbott, needing a fresh start from a tragic event, moves into Elizabeth's apartment, after 'discovering' it in what seems to be a fateful .


title: Just like Heaven (film)

text: Elizabeth begins to appear to David in the apartment, and both are confused. She thinks he's a squatter, and he thinks she broke in. Soon they see she isn't really alive as she can suddenly appear and disappear, and move through walls and objects. Elizabeth doesn't know who she is, and insists she's not dead. David unsuccessfully tries to have her spirit exorcised from the apartment.


title: Just like Heaven (film)

text: David enlists the help of psychic bookstore clerk, Darryl, who says Elizabeth isn't really dead. He also tells David he's clearly got a blocked heart, and needs to let go of the woman who was previously in his life. When Elizabeth says David should get over being dumped, he storms out, and Darryl tells Elizabeth to not disrespect the dead. She finds David and he explains his wife Laura had died.


title: Just like Heaven (film)

text: As only David can see and hear her, others think he is hallucinating, drinking, and talking to himself. Elizabeth asks him to help her discover who she is and what happened. David talks to her neighbours but they didn't know her.


title: Just like Heaven (film)

text: Entering a restaurant, a man has a medical emergency, so Elizabeth helps David save his life. Suddenly, she remembers being a doctor, and they go to the nearest hospital, where it all comes flooding back. Her mentor Fran tells David that Elizabeth was in an accident three months ago, and has been in a coma. When David touches her hand, Elizabeth feels it, so she knows she's still connected to her body.


title: Just like Heaven (film)

text: Elizabeth's sister Abby arrives, and the attending doctor notifies her that Elizabeth signed a DNR order, but as she was a doctor there, they've treated her as a special case. However, he asks Abby to disconnect life support, and she says she'll consider it.


title: Just like Heaven (film)

text: David and Elizabeth bond, and he tells her about his wife's death. When he takes her out to a beautiful landscaped garden he designed, she tells him she senses she has been there before. In fact, she was dreaming of the garden in the opening scenes of the film, while cat-napping during a long shift.


title: Just like Heaven (film)

text: When David's told he's been offered a long term lease, he realises Elizabeth will be taken off life support. He tries to prevent it by going to Abby's to tell her that Elizabeth is communicating with him, proving it by telling Abby things only Elizabeth knows. While there, her niece Lily can sense her, putting a cookie on the plate before her.


title: Just like Heaven (film)

text: David begs Abby to keep her alive, but she has already signed the papers so Elizabeth will be taken off life support the next day. As a last ditch effort, David blurts out Abby's secret from her wedding day, freaking her out so she drives him out of her house with a knife.


title: Just like Heaven (film)

text: Elizabeth opts to spend her last night with David in the apartment. The next morning, he is determined to prevent her death by stealing her body from the hospital. He enlists his friend/therapist Jack (Abby's former college boyfriend) to help him. He had set David up a blind date with Elizabeth on the night of the accident - David can see Elizabeth because they were meant to meet. He admits to Jack and Elizabeth that he loves her which is why he doesn't want her to die; he has gotten past his wife's death.


title: Just like Heaven (film)

text: Security guards soon catch them trying to steal Elizabeth's body. As they pull Jack away from her, her breathing tube comes off. As Elizabeth is now dying, David frantically kisses her, while her spirit begins to fade away. Then, amazingly, her heartbeat returns and she awakens from the coma. Elizabeth recognizes Abby, but not David, and he sadly leaves.


title: Just like Heaven (film)

text: Sometime later, Elizabeth moves back into her apartment. Drawn to the roof, she finds David, who has transformed it into a landscaped garden. He reveals he'd gotten in using the spare key her spirit had shown him. When she asks for her key back, their hands touch, her memory of the events during her coma are restored, and they kiss happily.


title: Just like Heaven (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 54% based on 151 reviews, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The site's consensus reads, "Delightfully sweet like a lollipop, "Just Like Heaven" is a dreamy romantic comedy that may give you a toothache when it attempts to broach difficult end of life issues by throwing a cherry on top." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 47 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Just like Heaven (film)

text: Roger Ebert, Richard Roeper, and A. O. Scott all gave it favorable reviews, agreeing that the plot had logical flaws that were somewhat overcome by good dialogue and characterization.


title: Just like Heaven (film)

text: The title of this film is also that of a popular 1987 song, "Just Like Heaven" by The Cure. Singer Katie Melua recorded a cover version of the song for the soundtrack of the film. Melua's version is played over the opening titles, and has lines such as "she said" changed to "he said" to maintain a heterosexual narrative. The original version by The Cure, as well as the remainder of Melua's version, are played over the closing credits.


title: Adam Silver

text: Adam Silver (born April 25, 1962) is an American lawyer and sports executive who serves as the fifth and current commissioner of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He joined the NBA in 1992 and has held various positions within the league, becoming chief operating officer and deputy commissioner under his predecessor and mentor David Stern in 2006. When Stern retired in 2014, Silver was named the new commissioner.


title: Adam Silver

text: During Silver's tenure, the league has continued to grow economically and globally, especially in China. Silver made headlines in 2014 for forcing Donald Sterling to sell the Los Angeles Clippers after Sterling made racist remarks, later banning him for life from all NBA games and events.


title: Adam Silver

text: Silver was born into a Jewish-American family. His father Edward Silver (1921–2004) was a lawyer who specialized in labor law and was a senior partner at the law firm Proskauer Rose. Silver grew up in Rye, New York, a northern suburb of New York City in Westchester County. He attended Rye High School and graduated in 1980.


title: Adam Silver

text: After high school, Silver went to Duke University. He was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, and graduated in 1984 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. He worked from 1984 to 1985 as a legislative aide to Les AuCoin, who was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Silver then attended the University of Chicago Law School, graduating in 1988 with a J.D. degree.


title: Adam Silver

text: After law school, Silver spent one year as a law clerk for Judge Kimba Wood of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He then joined the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore as an associate.


title: Adam Silver

text: Prior to becoming commissioner, Silver was the NBA's deputy commissioner and chief operating officer for eight years. In that role, he was involved in the negotiation of the league's last three collective bargaining agreements with the National Basketball Players Association, the development of the WNBA and NBA Development League, the partnership with Turner Broadcasting to manage the NBA's digital assets, and the creation of NBA China.


title: Adam Silver

text: Previously, Silver spent eight years as president and COO of NBA Entertainment. Since joining the NBA in 1992, Silver has also held the positions of senior VP and COO, NBA Entertainment, NBA chief of staff, and special assistant to the commissioner. During his time with NBA Entertainment, Silver was an executive producer of the IMAX movie "Michael Jordan to the Max", as well as the documentary "Whatever Happened to Micheal Ray?" He also worked on the production side of "Like Mike" and "The Year of the Yao".


title: Adam Silver

text: On October 25, 2012, he was endorsed by David Stern to be the next NBA commissioner. On February 1, 2014, when Stern stepped down from his position, Silver was unanimously approved by the NBA owners to succeed him.


title: Adam Silver

text: On April 25, 2014, TMZ Sports released a video of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling holding a conversation with his girlfriend that included racist remarks. Silver responded on April 29, 2014, announcing that Sterling had been banned from the NBA for life. In addition, Silver fined Sterling $2.5 million, the maximum allowed under the NBA constitution. Silver stripped Sterling from virtually all of his authority over the Clippers, and urged owners to vote to expel Sterling from ownership of the Clippers. Sterling was disallowed from entering any Clippers facility as well as attending any NBA games. It was one of the most severe punishments ever imposed on a professional sports owner.


title: Adam Silver

text: On November 13, 2014, Silver published an op-ed piece in "The New York Times", where he announced that he is in favor of legalized and regulated sports betting, mentioning that it should be "brought out of the underground and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately monitored and regulated."


title: Adam Silver

text: On October 4, 2019, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey issued a tweet that supported the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. Morey later deleted the tweet. On October 6, Morey and the NBA each issued separate statements addressing the original tweet; Morey said that he never intended his tweet to cause any offense while the NBA said the tweet was "regrettable". The statements drew attention and subsequent bipartisan criticism from several US politicians. On October 7, Silver defended league's response to the tweet, supporting Morey's right to freedom of expression while also accepting the right of reply from the government of and businesses from China. Soon after, Silver faced a risk between the partnership of China and the NBA. China responded negatively with decisions to possibly cut ties from the NBA. Silver publicly said, "It is inevitable that people around the world—including from America and China—will have different viewpoints over different issues. ... It is not the role of the NBA to adjudicate those differences." Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo responded to Silver's statements, stating, "Vivo has always insisted on the principle that the national interest is above all else and firmly opposes any remark and behavior that constitutes a challenge to the national sovereignty and territorial integrity. ... Starting today, Vivo will suspend all cooperation with the NBA."


title: Adam Silver

text: On March 11, 2020, Silver made the decision to suspend the 2019–20 NBA season in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. On June 4, 2020, it was announced that the season would resume for 22 of the 30 teams in the NBA Bubble, a $170 million investment to protect the players, the coaches, and the successful completion of the season. Near the end of the regular season, Silver stated that the bubble was "better than what we had envisioned."


title: Adam Silver

text: In 2016, "Sports Business Journal" ranked Silver No. 1 on its list of the 50 Most Influential People in Sports Business. In 2015, Silver was named Executive of the Year by "Sports Business Journal". That year he was also named one of "Time" 100 Most Influential People and one of "Fortune" 50 Greatest Leaders.


title: Adam Silver

text: In 2014, Silver was named the "Sports Illustrated" Executive of the Year. He is on Duke University's Board of Trustees and received the 2016 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Chicago Law School. He is also on the board of the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research.


title: Adam Silver

text: In 2015, Silver married interior designer Maggie Grise. They have two daughters, born in April 2017 and May 2020.


title: Honeysuckle Weeks

text: Honeysuckle Susan Weeks (born 1 August 1979) is a British actress best known for her role as Samantha Stewart (later Wainwright) in the ITV wartime drama series "Foyle's War".


title: Honeysuckle Weeks

text: Weeks was born in Cardiff, Wales, to Robin and Susan (née Wade) Weeks, and grew up in Chichester and Petworth, both in West Sussex, England. Her parents named her after the plant honeysuckle, because its flowers were in bloom when she was born. She has a younger sister Perdita and brother Rollo, who have also pursued careers in acting.


title: Honeysuckle Weeks

text: Weeks was educated at Great Ballard School, Sussex, Roedean School and Pembroke College, Oxford, where she read English (graduating with upper-second class honours). She also spent time studying art on the John Hall Pre-university Course in Venice, Italy. As a child she was a member of the Chichester Festival Theatre. From the age of nine, Weeks studied at the Sylvia Young Theatre School at the weekends.


title: Honeysuckle Weeks

text: Aged 11, Weeks was flown to the United States and cast in the Walt Disney Pictures feature "A Far Off Place" being directed by Steven Spielberg. However, when Spielberg dropped out of the project, Weeks' role was re-cast with Reese Witherspoon.


title: Honeysuckle Weeks

text: Despite missing out on a film role, Weeks was cast in 1993 as the juvenile lead role of Kitty Killen in the television adaptation of Anne Fine's "Goggle-Eyes" in 1993. Her sister Perdita and brother Rollo also appeared with her in small roles in the 3rd episode of that series. The part gained her considerable attention, and she was interviewed by Alan Titchmarsh on the TV show "Pebble Mill" about her role in the series. She quickly became a familiar face to viewers, appearing in a number of Ruth Rendell adaptations, such as "A Dark-Adapted Eye" (1994), and "The Ruth Rendell Mysteries" episodes The Strawberry Tree (1995) and The Orchid Walls (1998), while she had a notable role in "The Bill" in 1995, playing a kidnap victim in the feature length episode "Deadline", with David Tennant as her abductor.


title: Honeysuckle Weeks

text: In 1997, Honeysuckle and Perdita were both cast in Catherine Cookson's "The Rag Nymph", wherein Perdita played the younger version of her sister's character. It was a significant role for Honeysuckle, and she gained further fame when she appeared in the children's TV series "The Wild House" that year, appearing from 1997 to 1998. She appeared in the raunchy BBC serial Close Relations in 1998 as she sought to move to more adult roles, and continued to receive regular acting work, such as in "Midsomer Murders" (1999). In 2002, she was cast as Samantha Stewart in the TV series "Foyle's War" a BAFTA Award–winning detective series set in Hastings during and just after World War II; she starred opposite Michael Kitchen and was featured in every episode of all eight series, which were broadcast between 2002 and 2015. It is the role she is most well-known for.


title: Honeysuckle Weeks

text: She continued to find other roles during this period. In 2006 she appeared in the "Poirot" mystery Cards on the Table, while in 2007, Weeks starred in "The Inspector Lynley Mysteries" as Tania Thompson, a character based on the Canadian serial killer Karla Homolka. In 2008, she appeared as Harriet Pringle in the Radio 4 adaptation of "Fortunes of War". In 2012, she played a small part as Mrs Beeton in an episode of the BBC educational programme "The Charles Dickens Show".


title: Honeysuckle Weeks

text: After "Foyle's War" ended in 2015, she appeared as Mae Harmer in the BBC TV series "Death in Paradise" (series 4), while in May that year, she portrayed a wartime letter writer at in Horse Guards Parade, London that was broadcast live on BBC1. She also appeared in the ITV series "Lewis" episode "Magnum Opus". The following year she appeared in the TV series "The Five" as Laura Marshall, before personal events saw her take a break from acting for the next 3 years.


title: Honeysuckle Weeks

text: In 2019, Weeks guest starred in an episode of "Frankie Drake Mysteries" as author Agatha Christie. It was her first appearance back on screen for 3 years, and she followed it up with an appearance in the Channel 4 series "Maxxx" in the episode House Party.


title: Honeysuckle Weeks

text: Weeks has appeared as Annie Ridd in the TV movie "Lorna Doone" in 2000, and Sarah in "My Brother Tom" in 2001. In 2005 she was cast as Clarissa in "Red Mercury", but her most daring role was in "The Wicker Tree" (the "spiritual successor" to "The Wicker Man)" in 2011, where she had to appear nude in a number of scenes for the first time in her career.


title: Honeysuckle Weeks

text: In early 2010, Weeks appeared as "Sarah Prentice" in a production of the Agatha Christie play "A Daughter's A Daughter" at London's Trafalgar Studios. Later that year, Weeks appeared as Eliza Doolittle in a production of "Pygmalion" at the Chichester Festival Theatre in West Sussex.


title: Honeysuckle Weeks

text: She starred in the UK premiere of Melanie Marnich's play "These Shining Lives" from 8 May to 9 June 2013.


title: Honeysuckle Weeks

text: Weeks admitted in an 2013 interview that she used to be a bit of a wild child when she was younger. "I was a hippie, let's put it that way," she said. "All that free love went on at university and smoking things one shouldn't, but if you don't do it when you are young..." However, she said that she has settled down since she had children. "I used to be quite a wild thing, but motherhood has tamed me," she added.


title: Honeysuckle Weeks

text: Weeks was engaged to the poet and musician Anno Birkin for a short period before his death, at age 20, in a car crash in Italy in 2001. She married hypnotherapist Lorne Stormonth-Darling, of a landed gentry family of Lednathie, Kirriemuir, Scotland, in an impromptu Buddhist wedding ceremony while on holiday in the Himalayas in 2005, followed by a London wedding in July 2007. The couple have one child born in 2011 and live in Petworth.


title: Honeysuckle Weeks

text: In August 2015, Weeks was caught speeding on the A3 in south-west London. It later emerged that she was already banned from driving under the totting-up scheme, due to points violations, and in early 2016 was ordered to wear an electronic tag when the court imposed a four-week night time curfew on her.


title: Honeysuckle Weeks

text: In July 2016, it was reported that Weeks had gone missing, with relatives said to be concerned for her welfare. However, she was later found safe and well and remained with police late that night before returning to West Sussex.


title: Honeysuckle Weeks

text: In 2004, Weeks was nominated in the Most Popular Newcomer category at the National Television Awards, despite having been acting since 1993.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: General elections were held in Kenya on Tuesday, 9 August 2022. Voters elected the President, governors, senators, members of the National Assembly, and members of county assemblies. This was the third general election and the fourth presidential one since the promulgation of the 2010 constitution. The incumbent president Uhuru Kenyatta was not eligible for a third term according to the Kenyan Constitution, nor were two-term county governors. The 2022 general election saw the lowest number of presidential candidates cleared since the multi-party system was implemented in 1992. All parliamentarians elected will sit in the 13th Parliament of Kenya.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: William Ruto was elected President of Kenya, defeating Raila Odinga. On 22 August, Odinga filed a petition at the Kenyan Supreme court challenging the results announced by Wafula Chebukati, chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) . On 5 September, the Kenyan Supreme Court rejected the challenge and upheld Ruto's victory.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: The Constitution of Kenya requires that a general election of members of parliament be held on the second Tuesday of August on every fifth year, which meant that the general election was scheduled for 9 August 2022. If Kenya is at war, the election can be delayed if a resolution is passed in each House of Parliament by at least two-thirds of all the members of the House. Such a resolution can delay the election by up to six months, and may be passed multiple times provided that the delays do not cumulatively exceed 12 months.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: The Constitution requires that a presidential election take place at the same time as the general election. In the unlikely event that prior to the next general election the position of president falls vacant and the office of deputy president is also vacant (who otherwise would assume the office of president), a presidential election could be held at an earlier date. According to the Constitution in such circumstances, an election needs to be held within sixty days after the vacancy arose in the office of President.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: Incumbent president Uhuru Kenyatta was not eligible to pursue a third term due to the two-term limit in the Constitution of Kenya. County governors who had served two terms at the helms of their respective counties were also ineligible for a third term.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: The President of Kenya is elected using a modified version of the two-round system: to win in the first round, a candidate must receive over 50% of the vote nationally and 25% of the vote in at least 24 of Kenya's 47 counties. If not, a second round is held between the top two candidates, in which the candidate with the most votes wins.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: The Parliament of Kenya consists of two houses: the Senate (upper house) and the National Assembly (lower house), both being fully renewed for five years terms. Those elected in 2022 will form the 13th Parliament of Kenya.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: The National Assembly has 350 members, of which 290 are elected in single-member constituencies by first-past-the-post voting. Of the remaining 60, 47 are reserved for women and are elected from single-member constituencies based on the 47 counties, also using the first-past-the-post system. The remaining 13 seats include 12 nominated by political parties based on their number of seats and a Speaker, elected by the assembly from outside of it as an ex officio member. The nominated members are reserved for youths, Persons with Disability and workers.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: The 68 members of the Senate are elected by four methods; 47 are elected in single-member constituencies based on the counties by first-past-the-post voting. Parties are then assigned a share of 16 seats for women, two for youth and two for persons with Disability based on their seat share. A speaker is also elected as an ex official member.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: Only four presidential aspirants and their running mates from parties were cleared. Walter Mong'are's nomination to run for presidency was revoked, after it emerged his degree was not from a recognized university as required by law. The final list of presidential candidates was;


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: A new political dynamic based on class politics is emerging in Kenya, which is being framed as hustlers versus dynasties. The families of incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga have dominated Kenyan politics since independence in 1963. Moreover, Kenya has traditionally been ruled by presidents who belong to either the Kikuyu people – like Kenyatta – or the Kalenjin people, like incumbent vice-president William Ruto. The potential victory of Odinga, a Luo, would mark a departure for the country, which has 44 ethnic groups.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: Ruto initially fought alongside Odinga in 2007 Kenyan general election against the late Mwai Kibaki. The announcement of the presidential results led to ethnic clashes between the two major tribes in Kenya. Police crackdowns on protesters and clashes that turned into ethnic attacks killed more than 1,000 people in post-election violence, eventually prompting a new constitution to devolve power. Ruto teamed up with Kenyatta in 2013. Both Kenyatta and Ruto had been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on crimes against humanity charges for their alleged role in orchestrating the post-election violence in 2007 Kenyan general election. The cases later collapsed, with former ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda saying a relentless campaign of victim and witness intimidation made the trial impossible.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: In March 2018, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his former rival for the Presidency, Raila Odinga, stunned the public when they shook hands and declared a truce after post-election violence in 2017 left dozens of people dead. The two leaders also sought to expand the executive through the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) constitutional changes that would have potentially allowed Kenyatta to stay in power as a prime minister. But despite Supreme Court of Kenya ruling against the proposed amendments in August, the unexpected alliance has persevered, with Odinga attending official government functions with Kenyatta. Cracks within the Jubilee government began to appear, leading to an eventual fallout between the President and his deputy.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: In December 2021 the Mount Kenya Foundation, one of the country's most powerful and wealthy Kikuyu lobbies, announced their support for Odinga, while Kenyatta has repeatedly said that the next president will be "neither Kikuyu nor Kalenjin". On 10 December 2021, Odinga declared his intention to run for the presidency for the fifth time.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: In January 2022, Ruto's United Democratic Alliance announced a coalition pact with the Amani National Congress of Musalia Mudavadi, FORD–Kenya of Moses Wetangula and several other political parties. The new coalition was called Kenya Kwanza.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: In February 2022, Kenyatta's Jubilee party announced that it would join the Azimio la Umoja coalition headed by Raila Odinga, the party leader of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).<ref name="citizen.digital/"></ref> On 12 March 2022, at least 26 political parties, including the major political parties Wiper, Jubilee, ODM and KANU, signed a co-operation pact, endorsing Raila Odinga's presidential candidature. That same day, Kenyatta publicly endorsed Odinga for the presidency.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: On 15 March 2022, the UDA and Kenya Kwanza endorsed Ruto as their presidential candidate for August 2022 general elections.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: With deadline of running mate nomination for presidential as well as gubernatorial aspirants fast approaching, several members had shown interest of clinching the position across the political divide. Azimio One Kenya Alliance held interviews for 10 prospective running mates, namely: Kalonzo Musyoka, Martha Karua, Peter Munya, Sabina Chege, Peter Kenneth, Stephen Kipkiyeny Tarus, Governors Ali Hassan Joho, Wycliffe Oparanya, Lee Kinyanjui and Charity Ngilu. Musyoka, Odinga's two-time presidential running mate had threatened to skip the interviews; he however showed up for the interview on 10th May 2022. At the Kenya Kwanza camp, several names were rumoured to be possible running mates, namely: Rigathi Gachagua, Kindiki Kithure, Governor Anne Waiguru, Ndindi Nyoro, Justin Muturi and Musalia Mudavadi.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: In April 2022, Roots Party candidate, George Wajackoyah named Justina Wamae, a former Mavoko Constituency Member of Parliament aspirant, as his running mate. On 15 May 2022, Kenya Kwanza endorsed Rigathi Gachagua as Ruto's running mate. Azimio la Umoja endorsed Martha Karua as Odinga's running mate on 16 May 2022. Agano Party's Waihiga Mwaure unveiled Ruth Mucheru Mutua as his deputy.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya Alliance Party was the first political outfit to launch their manifesto on 6 June 2022. The ten point manifesto voiced key issues such as a corruption-free government. The manifesto came as a form of declaration and promised to strengthen devolution, economically empower women, waste no single child, spur the economic pillar, facilitate climate-smart agriculture, revamp the manufacturing sector, enact responsible leadership, preserve sovereignty of the people, increase accessibility to clean water, and "Baba Care", which would focus on social protection and transform, and upscaling Universal Health Coverage to Universal Health Care.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: Kenya Kwanza's UDA, and George Wajackoyah's Roots Parties launched their manifestos on 30 June 2022. UDA's William Ruto, who intends to apply the "Bottom-up economic model", presented a manifesto promising to revive the economy, provide healthcare for all, promote Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSME), implement two-thirds gender rule, and affordable housing, among others.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: Wajackoyah on the other hand intends to legalise marijuana for commercial purposes, introduce snake farming, export dog meat, shut and bring down the standard-gauge railway, hang the corrupt, suspend the constitution, introduce four-day work week, move capital city to Isiolo, create eight states, and repatriate idle foreigners.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: On 4 July 2022, Agano Party presidential candidate David Mwaure Waihiga launched his 12-point manifesto. He argues that it is time for the country to move forward and start in a new slate in terms of leadership. He envisages his leadership to pledge alliance to the constitution; his pledge to family, women, youth, persons living with disability, county governments, workers, business owners, the economy, religious institutions, the environment, as well as a pledge to the international community. He also promises to recover public monies stashed in offshore accounts as well as dissolve the Nairobi City County government.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: On 2 March 2022, the Media Council of Kenya (MCSK) in conjunction with Media Owners Association (MOA) and Kenya Editors' Guild (KEG) announced plans to conduct presidential debates in July 2022. Clifford Machoka was appointed to organize the presidential and deputy presidential debates ahead of 9 August 2022 polls. The debates were scheduled to run on of 11, 19, and 26 July 2022 at Catholic University of Eastern Africa; and they were to be broadcast live across most television and radio stations, and their online platforms. Nairobi City County gubernatorial debate was also scheduled amongst the presidential and deputy presidential debates due to it being Kenya's capital. Each of the debates ran in two sessions; the first session involved candidates who stood below 5% in the last three opinion polls, while the second session, were candidates with above 5% approval rating in last three opinion polls.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: On 11 July 2022, the first tier of the Nairobi gubernatorial debate took place and four of the seven candidates expected took the stage, namely: Nancy Mwadime of Usawa kwa Wote party, Herman Grewal of Safina Party, Kenneth Nyamwamu of United Progressive Alliance and Esther Thairu an independent candidate. The second tier of the debate that aired on primetime, put former Nairobi deputy governor Polycarp Igathe against the capital's incumbent senator Sakaja Johnson, though the latter arrived 20 minutes late into the debate. The deputy presidential debate that involved four candidates also aired in two sessions: Justina Wamae of Roots Party Kenya had a face off with Ruth Mucheru of Agano Party. Azimio's Martha Karua and Rigathi Gachagua of UDA, dueled in the second tier. An estimated 34 million Kenyans tuned in for deputy presidential debate; an estimated 18.7 million of them who followed the debate were registered voters; 70% watched the second tier while 5% sat through the first. The hallmark of the three debates, the presidential debate, was the final one, and it was to have Waihiga Mwaure go head on with George Wajackoyah first, while Raila Odinga and William Ruto face off in the second tier. However, Odinga and Wajackoyah dropped from the presidential debate. Odinga argued that he could not debate with Ruto, whom he accuses of having questionable integrity. Wajackoyah's demand to debate with the two main presidential candidates was not met; though he made his way to the debating venue before storming off. Mwaure and Ruto were featured alone in their respective sessions. In addition to joint presidential debates, individual television stations aired gubernatorial debates from other counties, and a constituency debate.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: The campaign season officially kicked off on 29 May 2022 as clearance of electoral candidates continued. Although the presidential race was considered a two-horse, with two main opponents, Raila Odinga and William Ruto, George Wajackoyah of Roots Party Kenya gained significant popularity among the electorate, due to his radical measures to quell the ballooning public debt. Kenya Kwanza alliance led by Ruto held true to their initial campaign strategy by self proclaiming themselves as 'hustlers', calling Odinga a dynasty and a 'project' of the outgoing government. Odinga of Azimio–One Kenya Alliance branded Kenya Kwanza as an alliance of the corrupt since most of the leaders in the coalition are suspected, accused, or convicted of corruption and other integrity issues. Odinga billed himself and his running mate Martha Karua as liberators, who fought for multiparty system; campaigned for the new regime in 2002; were proponents of 2010 constitutional dispensation. On 28 July 2022, Ruto's presidential running mate, Rigathi Gachagua, was ordered by the Anti-corruption court to forfeit Ksh202 million to the state after it was determined the funds were proceeds of corruption.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: On 6 August 2022, all candidates across all elective seats, made their final submissions on different parts of the country. Odinga held his last rally at Moi International Sports Centre; Ruto at Nyayo in Nairobi and Kirigiti stadia in Kiambu County; George Wajackoyah and Waihiga Mwaure at different parts of Nairobi.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) announced to roll out the first phase of a 30-day mass voter registration exercise beginning 4 October 2021. The exercise was targeting between 6 and 7 million new voters. However, with the homestretch of the registration of voters approaching, the commission raised concern over its failure to reach its target. On 17 January 2022, the three-week second phase of the mass voter listing targeting 4.5 million voters kicked off registering low turnout as well. In May 2022, the commission suspended voter registration to March 2023, attributing the move to the auditing and verification processes that may alter with the timelines set ahead of the elections.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: IEBC registered all aspirants expected to run for the various elective seats between 29 May and 7 June 2022. William Ruto and Raila Odinga were cleared on 4 and 5 June respectively, in an event that would see them present their nomination papers.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: In June 2022, reports began to emerge that Sakaja Johnson presented a fake certificate to IEBC from a Ugandan university; that he never graduated from the University of Nairobi (UoN). Initially, Sakaja had stated in interviews that he was an alumnus of UoN, where he purportedly pursued a bachelor's degree in Actuarial Science. It would later emerge, Sakaja was yet to complete his studies at UoN since his enrolment in 2003. He admitted in a radio interview that he did not graduate from the city's university, blaming president Uhuru Kenyatta of plotting to destroy his political ambitions. At the time of clearance, he had presented a Bachelor of Science in Management certificate from Uganda's Team University, where he alleged he was an external student. On 29 June 2022, the Commission for University Education revoked his degree, pending investigations. The IEBC declined to revoke Sakaja's clearance, stating it can only disqualify the UDA candidate if issued with a court order. Uganda's Inspector General ordered a probe into the legislator's degree saga. On 12 July 2022, the High Court dismissed petition over Sakaja's degree, faulting the petitioner, Dennis Gakuu Wahome, for failing to discharge the burden of proof that the gubernatorial candidate degree certificate was fake.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: Former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko was however denied clearance to run for Mombasa governorship following his impeachment in 2020. Sonko filed a petition at the High Court to have it compel IEBC to clear him for the gubernatorial race. On 13 July 2022, the court noted in its ruling, that Sonko's impeachment case was yet to be determined by the Supreme Court, and ordered the electoral commission to clear Sonko to vie for the Mombasa governorship. On 14 July 2022, Sonko presented his nomination papers at IEBC where he was cleared to vie for Mombasa governor. On 15 July 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that Sonko was duly impeached by the county assembly of Nairobi City, which automatically makes Sonko fail the integrity test to occupy any elective seat or be appointed. Following the apex's court decision, IEBC subsequently revoked his clearance.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: By the end of clearance, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) gazetted a total of 16,098 candidates contesting 1,882 elective slots. IEBC received first batch of ballot papers on 7 July 2022. The ballot papers were printed by a Greek firm known as Inform P Lykos, situated in Athens, which was awarded the tender worth Ksh 3 billion. The Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) will be used as the primary mode of voter verification, while the manual register used as a supplementary when these KIEMS kits fail. This led to a vast discussion across the political spectrum on the possibility of KIEMS are subject to manipulation, then a manual register was important; noting that Smartmatic International, the supplier of the digital register is not short of controversy.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: On 21 July 2022, three Venezuelan nationals were intercepted at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) with what was believed to be sensitive election materials. IEBC released a statement on their social media platform decrying the detention of Smartmatic International staff. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss George Kinoti released an official statement claiming the two Venezuelan nationals traveled with expired passports, were in possession of 'questionable' material and were on a business trip. Among them, the foreigners had stickers that were to be used in election. IEBC explained that the stickers had information on the polling station, polling centre, ward, constituency and county. On 28 July 2022, following their public spat, DCI and IEBC ended their row, amicably agreeing that the issue with the stickers had been solved.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: On 8 August 2022, IEBC suspended the gubernatorial election in Kakamega and Mombasa counties, as well as the parliamentary polls for Pokot South, Rongai and Kacheliba constituencies. Chebukati noted that the ballot papers for affected areas had errors, including pictures for candidates and details. Apart from the mentioned counties and constituencies, IEBC also suspended elections in five wards over candidates' deaths. Voters in the affected areas voted on 23 August 2022.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: On election day, voting exercise in Eldas Constituency in Wajir County was postponed to 10 August 2022, due to security concerns. This was after the constituency returning officer was hospitalised after being shot in the leg.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: The voting exercise was greatly affected by the failure of the Kenya Integrated Elections Management Systems (KIEMS) kits to pick voters' fingerprints. IEBC allowed the use of manual register in parts of Kakamega and Makueni counties after a blight of hitches from the KIEMS kits. Some polling stations opened later than the stipulated time of 6 am, leading to delayed voting.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: By midday of election day, 6,567,859, constituting to 30% of registered voters had cast their ballots. An hour to closure of polling centers at 5 pm, the electoral commission reported a voter turnout of 12,065,803 equating to 56.17% of registered voters. On 10 August 2022, IEBC announced 14 million Kenyans, who were identified electronically, had voted bringing the total percentage to 65.4%.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: Member of Parliament for Kimilili Constituency Didmus Barasa had been accused of shooting dead his rival's security guard and fleeing the scene following the event.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: This table below lists polls completed since the announcement of Raila Odinga on 10 December 2021 that he would be contesting the Presidency of the Republic.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: The results had been scheduled to be announced at 3pm on 15 August 2022, however, by 5pm no announcement had been made at that point. Four IEBC commissioners, led by the vice chair Juliana Cherera, held a press conference stating that they do not "take ownership" of the results, citing issues with the final tallying process.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: The results were announced at 6pm by the IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati. All the candidates except Raila Odinga appeared at the announcement; Odinga's chief agent Saitabao Ole Kanchory announced that Odinga would not appear until his campaign team could verify the results. As Chebukati and other two commissioners made their way into the Bomas of Kenya auditorium, violence erupted in the venue and the IEBC staff were escorted away. After security personnel resolved the situation, Chebukati made his way to the auditorium and announced the results, naming William Ruto as the president-elect.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: The following day, 16 August, the dissident IEBC commissioners gave a more detailed explanation of the division within the commission. The vice chair Cherera, Francis Wanderi, Irene Masit, and Justus Nyang’aya, stated that the total percentage exceeded 100%; the results were not processed and analysed by all the commissioners; Chebukati did not provide the total numbers of registered voters, votes cast, or rejected ballots; accused Chebukati of announcing results prematurely, before votes from some counties had been incorporated; and accused Chebukati of exceeding his legal role. This was disputed by the Elections Observations Group, a Kenyan NGO, who stated "The commission's verification process was credible and every critical player was involved with that process – from observers, political party agents, media, body officials ... The commission made data publicly available". Chebukati also defended his announcement by stating that the 100.01% result was attributable to a rounding error, and accused the four dissenting commissioners of trying to force a re-run of the election.


title: 2022 Kenyan general election

text: Odinga rejected the outcome of the presidential election and announced he would begin a legal challenge. He termed the election a "travesty", "unconstitutional", and "null and void". Odinga also asked for his supporters to refrain from violence. On 22 August, Odinga filed a court challenge to the result. Odinga claimed the election results were based on criminal and fraudulent activities, his party agents were barred access to several election sites, technology was used for fraud, and the fraud was preplanned. Several others filed complaints too e.g. claiming that the results were not included in the tallying and verification of the IEBC chairman from 28 constituencies with at least 8% of the votes. On 5 September, Kenya's Supreme Court rejected the petitions and upheld Ruto's victory.


title: History of video games

text: The history of video games began in the 1950s and 1960s as computer scientists began designing simple games and simulations on minicomputers and mainframes. "Spacewar!" was developed by MIT student hobbyists in 1962 as one of the first such games on a video display. The first consumer video game hardware was released in the early 1970s. The first home video game console is the Magnavox Odyssey, and the first arcade video games are "Computer Space" and "Pong". After its home console conversions, numerous companies sprang up to capture "Pong"s success in both the arcade and the home by cloning the game, causing a series of boom and bust cycles due to oversaturation and lack of innovation.


title: History of video games

text: By the mid-1970s, low-cost programmable microprocessors replaced the discrete transistor–transistor logic circuitry of the early hardware, and the first ROM cartridge-based home consoles arrived, including the Atari Video Computer System (VCS). Coupled with rapid growth in the golden age of arcade video games, including "Space Invaders" and "Pac-Man", the home console market also flourished. The 1983 video game crash in the United States was characterized by a flood of too many games, often of poor or cloned qualities, and the sector saw competition from inexpensive personal computers and new types of games being developed for them. The crash prompted Japan's video game industry to take leadership of the market, which had only suffered minor impacts from the crash. Nintendo released its Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States in 1985, helping to rebound the failing video games sector. The latter part of the 1980s and early 1990s included video games driven by improvements and standardization in personal computers and the console war competition between Nintendo and Sega as they fought for market share in the United States. The first major handheld video game consoles appeared in the 1990s, led by Nintendo's Game Boy platform.


title: History of video games

text: In the early 1990s, advancements in microprocessor technology brought two major technology shifts, including the introduction of optical media via CD-ROMs and real-time 3D polygonal graphic rendering. Both aspects were readily incorporated into personal computers and creating a market for graphics cards, including Sony's fledgling PlayStation console line, pushing Sega out of the console hardware market while diminishing Nintendo's role. By the late 1990s, the Internet also gained widespread consumer use, and video games began incorporating online elements. Microsoft entered the console hardware market in the early 2000s with its Xbox line, fearing that Sony's PlayStation positioned as a game console and entertainment device, would displace personal computers. While Sony and Microsoft continued to develop the hardware of comparable top-end console features, Nintendo opted to focus on innovative gameplay. Nintendo developed the Wii with motion-sensing controls, which helped to draw in non-traditional players and helped to resecure Nintendo's position in the industry; Nintendo followed this same model in the release of the Nintendo Switch.


title: History of video games

text: From the 2000s and into the 2010s, the industry has seen a shift of demographics as mobile gaming on smartphones and tablets displaced handheld consoles, and casual gaming became an increasing larger sector of the market, as well as a growth in the number of players from China and other areas not traditionally tied to the industry. To take advantage of these shifts, traditional revenue models were supplanted with ongoing revenue stream models such as free-to-play, freemium, and subscription-based games. As triple-A video game production became more costly and risk-averse, opportunities for more experimental and innovative independent game development grew over the 2000s and 2010s, aided by the popularity of mobile and casual gaming and the ease of digital distribution. Hardware and software technology continued to drive improvement in video games, with support for high-definition video at high framerates and for virtual and augmented reality-based games.


title: History of video games

text: As early as 1950, computer scientists were using electronic machines to construct relatively simple game systems, such as "Bertie the Brain" in 1950 to play tic tac toe, or Nimrod in 1951 for playing Nim. These systems used either electronic light displays and mainly as demonstration systems at large exhibitions to showcase the power of computers at the time. Another early demonstration was "Tennis for Two", a game created by William Higinbotham at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1958 for three-day exhibition, using an analog computer and an oscilloscope for a display.


title: History of video games

text: "Spacewar!" is considered one of the first recognized video games that enjoyed wider distribution behind a single exhibition system. Developed in 1961 for the PDP-1 mainframe computer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), it allowed two players to simulate a space combat fight on the PDP-1's relatively simplistic monitor. The game's source code was shared with other institutions with a PDP-1 across the country as the MIT students themselves moved about, allowing the game to gain popularity.


title: History of video games

text: In the 1960s, a number of computer games were created for mainframe and minicomputer systems, but these failed to achieve wide distribution due to the continuing scarcity of computer resources, a lack of sufficiently trained programmers interested in crafting entertainment products, and the difficulty in transferring programs between computers in different geographic areas. By the end of the 1970s, however, the situation had changed drastically. The BASIC and C high-level programming languages were widely adopted during the decade, which were more accessible than earlier more technical languages such as FORTRAN and COBOL, opening up computer game creation to a larger base of users. With the advent of time-sharing, which allowed the resources of a single mainframe to be parceled out among multiple users connected to the machine by terminals, computer access was no longer limited to a handful of individuals at an institution, creating more opportunities for students to create their own games. Furthermore, the widespread adoption of the PDP-10, released by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1966, and the portable UNIX operating system, developed at Bell Labs in 1971 and released generally in 1973, created common programming environments across the country that reduced the difficulty of sharing programs between institutions. Finally, the founding of the first magazines dedicated to computing like "Creative Computing" (1974), the publication of the earliest program compilation books like "101 BASIC Computer Games" (1973), and the spread of wide-area networks such as the ARPANET allowed programs to be shared more easily across great distances. As a result, many of the mainframe games created by college students in the 1970s influenced subsequent developments in the video game industry in ways that, "Spacewar!" aside, the games of the 1960s did not.


title: History of video games

text: In the arcade and on home consoles, fast-paced action and real-time gameplay were the norm in genres like racing and target shooting. On the mainframe, however, such games were generally not possible due both to the lack of adequate displays (many computer terminals continued to rely on teletypes rather than monitors well into the 1970s and even most CRT terminals could only render character-based graphics) and insufficient processing power and memory to update game elements in real time. While 1970s mainframes were more powerful than arcade and console hardware of the period, the need to parcel out computing resources to dozens of simultaneous users via time-sharing significantly hampered their abilities. Thus, programmers of mainframe games focused on strategy and puzzle-solving mechanics over pure action. Notable games of the period include the tactical combat game "Star Trek" (1971) by Mike Mayfield, the hide-and-seek game "Hunt the Wumpus" (1972) by Gregory Yob, and the strategic war game "Empire" (1977) by Walter Bright. Perhaps the most significant game of the period was "Colossal Cave Adventure" (or simply "Adventure"), created in 1976 by Will Crowther by combining his passion for caving with concepts from the newly released tabletop role-playing game (RPG) "Dungeons and Dragons" (D&D). Expanded by Don Woods in 1977 with an emphasis on the high fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien, "Adventure" established a new genre based around exploration and inventory-based puzzle solving that made the transition to personal computers in the late 1970s.


title: History of video games

text: While most games were created on hardware of limited graphic ability, one computer able to host more impressive games was the PLATO system developed at the University of Illinois. Intended as an educational computer, the system connected hundreds of users all over the United States via remote terminals that featured high-quality plasma displays and allowed users to interact with each other in real time. This allowed the system to host an impressive array of graphical and/or multiplayer games, including some of the earliest known computer RPGs, which were primarily derived, like "Adventure", from "D&D", but unlike that game placed a greater emphasis on combat and character progression than puzzle solving. Starting with top-down dungeon crawls like "The Dungeon" (1975) and "The Game of Dungeons" (1975), more commonly referred to today by their filenames, "pedit5" and "dnd", PLATO RPGs soon transitioned to a first-person perspective with games like "Moria" (1975), "Oubliette" (1977), and "Avatar" (1979), which often allowed multiple players to join forces to battle monsters and complete quests together. Like "Adventure", these games ultimately inspired some of the earliest personal computer games.


title: History of video games

text: The modern video game industry grew out of the concurrent development of the first arcade video game and the first home video game console in the early 1970s in the United States.


title: History of video games

text: The arcade video game industry grew out of the pre-existing arcade game industry, which was previously dominated by electro-mechanical games (EM games). Following the arrival of Sega's EM game "Periscope" (1966), the arcade industry was experiencing a "technological renaissance" driven by "audio-visual" EM novelty games, establishing the arcades as a healthy environment for the introduction of commercial video games in the early 1970s. In the late 1960s, a college student Nolan Bushnell had a part-time job at an arcade where he became familiar with EM games, watching customers play and helping to maintain the machinery while learning how it worked and developing his understanding of how the game business operates.


title: History of video games

text: In 1966, while working at Sanders Associates, Ralph Baer came up with an idea for an entertainment device that could be hooked up to a television monitor. Presenting this to his superiors at Sanders and getting their approval, he, along with William Harrison and William Rusch, refined Baer's concept into the "Brown Box" prototype of a home video game console that could play a simple table tennis game. The three patented the technology, and Sanders, not in the commercialization business, sold licenses to the patents to Magnavox to commercialize. With Baer's help, Magnavox developed the Magnavox Odyssey, the first commercial home console, in 1972.


title: History of video games

text: Concurrently, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney had the idea of making a coin-operated system to run "Spacewar!" By 1971, the two had developed "Computer Space" with Nutting Associates, the first arcade video game. Bushnell and Dabney struck out on their own and formed Atari. Bushnell, inspired by the table tennis game on the Odyssey, hired Allan Alcorn to develop an arcade version of the game, this time using discrete transistor–transistor logic (TTL) electronic circuitry. Atari's "Pong" was released in late 1972 and is considered the first successful arcade video game. It ignited the growth of the arcade game industry in the United States from both established coin-operated game manufacturers like Williams, Chicago Coin, and the Midway subsidiary of Bally Manufacturing, and new startups such as Ramtek and Allied Leisure. Many of these were "Pong" clones using ball-and-paddle controls, and led to saturation of the market in 1974, forcing arcade game makers to try to innovate new games in 1975. Many of the newer companies created in the wake of "Pong" failed to innovate on their own and shut down, and by the end of 1975, the arcade market had fallen by about 50% based on new game sale revenues. Further, Magnavox took Atari and several other of these arcade game makers to court over violations of Baer's patents. Bushnell settled the suit for Atari, gaining perpetual rights for the patents for Atari as part of the settlement. Others failed to settle, and Magnavox won around in damages from these patent infringement suits before the patents expired in 1990.


title: History of video games

text: Arcade video games caught on quickly in Japan due to partnerships between American and Japanese corporations that kept the Japan companies abreast of technology developments within the United States. The Nakamura Amusement Machine Manufacturing Company (Namco) partnered with Atari to import "Pong" into Japan in late 1973. Within the year, Taito and Sega released "Pong" clones in Japan by mid-1973. Japanese companies began developing novel games and exporting or licensing them through partners in 1974. Among these included Taito's "Gun Fight" (originally "Western Gun" in its Japanese release), which was licensed to Midway. Midway's version, released in 1975, was the first arcade video game to use a microprocessor rather than discrete TLL components. This innovation drastically reduced the complexity and time to design of arcade games and the number of physical components required to achieve more advanced gameplay.


title: History of video games

text: The Magnavox Odyssey never caught on with the public, due largely to the limited functionality of its primitive discrete electronic component technology. By mid-1975 large-scale integration (LSI) microchips had become inexpensive enough to be incorporated into a consumer product. In 1975, Magnavox reduced the part count of the Odyssey using a three-chip set created by Texas Instruments and released two new systems that only played ball-and-paddle games, the Magnavox Odyssey 100 and Magnavox Odyssey 200. Atari, meanwhile, entered the consumer market that same year with the single-chip Home "Pong" system. The next year, General Instrument released a "Pong-on-a-chip" LSI and made it available at a low price to any interested company. Toy company Coleco Industries used this chip to create the million-selling Telstar console model series (1976–77).


title: History of video games

text: These initial home video game consoles were popular, leading to a large influx of companies releasing "Pong" and other video game clones to satisfy consumer demand. While there were only seven companies that were releasing home consoles in 1975, there were at least 82 by 1977, with more than 160 different models that year alone that were easily documented. A large number of these consoles were created in East Asia, and it is estimated that over 500 "Pong"-type home console models were made during this period. As with the prior paddle-and-ball saturation in the arcade game field by 1975 due to consumer weariness, dedicated console sales dropped sharply in 1978, disrupted by the introduction of programmable systems and Handheld electronic games.


title: History of video games

text: Just as dedicated consoles were waning in popularity in the West, they briefly surged in popularity in Japan. These "TV geemu" were often based on licensed designs from the American companies, manufactured by television manufacturers such as Toshiba and Sharp. Notably, Nintendo entered the video game market during this period alongside its current traditional and electronic toy product lines, producing the series of Color TV-Game consoles in partnership with Mitsubishi.


title: History of video games

text: After the ball-and-paddle market saturation in 1975, game developers began looking for new ideas for games, buoyed by the ability to use programmable microprocessors rather than analog components. Taito designer Tomohiro Nishikado, who had developed "Gun Fight" previously, was inspired by Atari's "Breakout" to create a shooting-based game, "Space Invaders", first released in Japan in 1978. "Space Invaders" introduced or popularized several important concepts in arcade video games, including play regulated by lives instead of a timer or set score, gaining extra lives through accumulating points, and the tracking of the high score achieved on the machine. It was also the first game to confront the player with waves of targets that shot back at the player and the first to include background music during game play, albeit a simple four-note loop. "Space Invaders" was an immediate success in Japan, with some arcades created solely for "Space Invaders" machines. While not quite as popular in the United States, "Space Invaders" became a hit as Midway, serving as the North American manufacturer, moved over 60,000 cabinets in 1979.


title: History of video games

text: "Space Invaders" led off what is considered to be the golden age of arcade games which lasted from 1978 to 1982. Several influential and best-selling arcade games were released during this period from Atari, Namco, Taito, Williams, and Nintendo, including "Asteroids" (1979), "Galaxian" (1979), "Defender" (1980), "Missile Command" (1980), "Tempest" (1981), and "Galaga" (1981). "Pac-Man", released in 1980, became a popular culture icon, and a new wave of games appeared that focused on identifiable characters and alternate mechanics such as navigating a maze or traversing a series of platforms. Aside from "Pac-Man" and its sequel, "Ms. Pac-Man" (1982), the most popular games in this vein during the golden age were "Donkey Kong" (1981) and "Q*bert" (1982). Games like "Pac-Man", "Donkey Kong" and "Q*bert" also introduced the concept of narratives and characters to video games, which led companies to adopt these later as mascots for marketing purposes.


title: History of video games

text: According to trade publication "Vending Times", revenues generated by coin-operated video games on location in the United States jumped from $308 million in 1978 to $968 million in 1979 to $2.8 billion in 1980. As "Pac Man" ignited an even larger video game craze and attracted more female players to arcades, revenues jumped again to $4.9 billion in 1981. According to trade publication "Play Meter", by July 1982, total coin-op collections peaked at $8.9 billion, of which $7.7 billion came from video games. Dedicated video game arcades grew during the golden age, with the number of arcades (locations with at least ten arcade games) more than doubling between July 1981 and July 1983 from over 10,000 to just over 25,000. These figures made arcade games the most popular entertainment medium in the country, far surpassing both pop music (at $4 billion in sales per year) and Hollywood films ($3 billion).


title: History of video games

text: Development costs of dedicated game hardware for arcade and home consoles based on discrete component circuitry and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) with only limited consumer lifespans drove engineers to find alternatives. Microprocessors had dropped far enough in price by 1975 to make these a viable option for developing programmable consoles that could load in game software from a form of swappable media.


title: History of video games

text: The Fairchild Channel F by Fairchild Camera and Instrument was released in 1976. It is the first home console to use programmable ROM cartridges - allowing players to swap games - as well as being the first home console to use a microprocessor which read instructions from the ROM cartridge. Atari and Magnavox followed suit in 1977 and 1978 respectively with the release of the Atari Video Computer System (VCS, later known as the Atari 2600) and the Magnavox Odyssey 2, both systems also introducing the use of cartridges. As to complete the Atari VCS quickly, Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications , providing the necessary cash infusion to complete the system's design by the end of 1977. The initial market for these new consoles were initially modest as consumers were still wary after the saturation of dedicated home consoles. However, there was still newfound interest in video games, and new players were drawn to the market, such as Mattel Electronics with the Intellivision. In contrast to the dedicated home "Pong" consoles, programmable cartridge-based consoles had a higher barrier of entry with the costs of research & development and large-scale production, and fewer manufacturers entered the market during this period.


title: History of video games

text: This new line of consoles had its breakthrough moment when Atari obtained a license from Taito to create the Atari VCS version of the arcade hit "Space Invaders", which was released in 1980. "Space Invaders" quadrupled sales of the Atari VCS, making it the first "killer app" in the video game industry, and the first video game to sell over one million copies and eventually sold over 2.5 million by 1981. Atari's consumer sales almost doubled from $119 million to nearly $204 million in 1980 and then exploded to over $841 million in 1981, while sales across the entire video game industry in the United States rose from $185.7 million in 1979 to just over $1 billion in 1981. Through a combination of conversions of its own arcade games like "Missile Command" and "Asteroids" and licensed conversions like "Defender", Atari took a commanding lead in the industry, with an estimated 65% market share of the worldwide industry by dollar volume by 1981. Mattel settled into second place with roughly 15%-20% of the market, while Magnavox ran a distant third, and Fairchild exited the market entirely in 1979.


title: History of video games

text: Another critical development during this period was the emergence of third-party developers. Atari management did not appreciate the special talent required to design and program a game and treated them like typical software engineers of the period, who were not generally credited for their work or given royalties; this led to Warren Robinett secretly programming his name in one of the earliest Easter eggs into his game "Adventure". Atari's policies drove four of the company's programmers, David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller, and Bob Whitehead, to resign and form their own company Activision in 1979, using their knowledge of developing for the Atari VCS to make and publish their own games. Atari sued to stop Activision's activities, but the companies settled out of court, with Activision agreeing to pay a portion of their game sales as a license fee to Atari. Another group of Atari and Mattel developers left and formed Imagic in 1981, following Activision's model.


title: History of video games

text: Atari's dominance of the market was challenged by Coleco's ColecoVision in 1982. As "Space Invaders" had done for the Atari VCS, Coleco developed a licensed version of Nintendo's arcade hit "Donkey Kong" as a bundled game with the system. While the Colecovision only had 17% of the hardware market in 1982 compared to the Atari VCS' share of 58%, it outsold Atari's newer console, the Atari 5200.


title: History of video games

text: A few games from this period have been considered milestones in the history of video games, and some of the earliest in popular genres. Robinett's "Adventure" was inspired from the text adventure "Colossal Cave Adventure", and is considered the first graphic adventure game and the first action-adventure game, and first console fantasy game. Activision's "Pitfall!", beside being one of the more successful third-party games, also established the foundation of side-scrolling platform games. "Utopia" for the Intellivision is the first city-building game and considered one of the first real-time strategy games.


title: History of video games

text: The fruit of retail development in early video games appeared mainly in video arcades and home consoles, but at the same time, there was a growing market in home computers. Such home computers were initially a hobbyist activity, with minicomputers such as the Altair 8800 and the IMSAI 8080 released in the early 1970s. Groups like the Homebrew Computer Club in Menlo Park, California envisioned how to create new hardware and software from these minicomputer systems that could eventually reach the home market. Affordable home computers began appearing in the late 1970s with the arrival of the "1977 Trinity": the Commodore PET, the Apple II, and the TRS-80. Most shipped with a variety of pre-made games as well as the BASIC programming language, allowing their owners to program simple games.


title: History of video games

text: Hobbyist groups for the new computers soon formed and PC game software followed. Soon many of these games—at first clones of mainframe classics such as "Star Trek", and then later ports or clones of popular arcade games such as "Space Invaders", "Frogger", "Pac-Man" (see "Pac-Man" clones) and "Donkey Kong"—were being distributed through a variety of channels, such as printing the game's source code in books (such as David Ahl's "BASIC Computer Games"), magazines ("Electronic Games" and "Creative Computing"), and newsletters, which allowed users to type in the code for themselves.


title: History of video games

text: While hobbyist programming in the United States was seen as a pastime while more players flocked to video game consoles, such "bedroom coders" in the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe looked for ways to profit from their work. Programmers distributed their works through the physical mailing and selling of floppy disks, cassette tapes, and ROM cartridges. Soon a small cottage industry was formed, with amateur programmers selling disks in plastic bags put on the shelves of local shops or sent through the mail.


title: History of video games

text: Mainframe and minicomputer games were still developed by students and others during this period using more powerful languages afforded on these systems. A team of MIT students, Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling, were inspired by "Colossal Cave Adventure" to create the text adventure game "Zork" across 1977 and 1979, and later formed Infocom to republish it commercially in 1980. The first graphical adventure games from Sierra On-Line such as "Mystery House", using simple graphics alongside text, also emerged around the same time. "Rogue", the namesake of the roguelike genre, was developed in 1980 by Glenn Wichman and Michael Toy who wanted a way to randomize the gameplay of "Colossal Cave Adventure".


title: History of video games

text: Handheld electronic games, using all computerized components but typically using LED or VFD lights for display, first emerged in the early 1970s. LCD displays became inexpensive for consumer products by the mid-1970s and replaced LED and VFD in such games, due to their lower power usage and smaller size. Most of these games were limited to a single game due to the simplicity of the display. Companies like Mattel Electronics, Coleco, Entex Industries, Bandai, and Tomy made numerous electronics games over the 1970s and early 1980s.


title: History of video games

text: Coupled with inexpensive microprocessors, handheld electronic games paved the way for the earliest handheld video game systems by the late 1970s. In 1979, Milton Bradley Company released the first handheld system using interchangeable cartridges, Microvision, which used a built-in LCD matrix screen. While the handheld received modest success in the first year of production, the lack of games, screen size and video game crash of 1983 brought about the system's quick demise.


title: History of video games

text: In 1980, Nintendo released the first of its Game & Watch line, handheld electronic games using LCD screens. Game & Watch spurred dozens of other game and toy companies to make their own portable games, many of which were copies of Game & Watch games or adaptations of popular arcade games. Tiger Electronics borrowed this concept of videogaming with cheap, affordable handhelds and still produces games in this model to the present day.


title: History of video games

text: The video games industry experienced its first major growing pains in the early 1980s; the lure of the market brought many companies with little experience to try to capitalize on video games, and contributors towards the industry's crash in 1983, decimating the North American market. In the wake of the crash, Japanese companies became the leaders in the industry, and as the industry began to recover, the first major publishing houses appeared, maturing the industry to prevent a similar crash in the future.


title: History of video games

text: Activision's success as a third-party developer for the Atari VCS and other home consoles inspired other third-party development firms to emerge in the early 1980s; by 1983, at least 100 different companies claimed to be developing software for the Atari VCS. This had been projected to led to a glut in sales, with only 10% of games producing 75% of sales for 1983 based on 1982 estimates. Further, there were questions on the quality of these games. While some of these firms hired experts in game design and programming to build quality games, most were staffed by novice programmers backed by venture capitalists without experience in the area. As a result, the Atari VCS market became watered down with large quantities of poor quality games. These games did not sell well, and retailers discounted their prices to try to get rid of their inventory. This further impacted sales of high-quality games, since consumers would be drawn to purchase bargain-bin priced games over quality games marked at a regular price.


title: History of video games

text: At the end of 1983, several factors, including a market flooded with poor-quality games and loss of publishing control, the lack of consumer confidence in market leader Atari due to the poor performance of several high-profile games, and home computers emerging as a new and more advanced platform for games at nearly the same cost as video game consoles, caused the North American video game industry to experience a severe downturn. The 1983 crash bankrupted several North American companies that produced consoles and games from late 1983 to early 1984. The U.S. market in 1983 dropped to by 1985, while the global video game market estimated at in 1982 fell to by 1985. Warner Communications sold off Atari to Jack Tramiel in 1984, while Magnavox and Coleco exited the industry.


title: History of video games

text: The crash had some minor effects on Japan companies with American partners impacted by the crash, but as most of the Japanese companies involved in video games at this point has long histories, they were able to weather the short-term effects. The crash set the stage for Japan to emerge as the leader in the video game industry for the next several years, particularly with Nintendo's introduction of the rebranded Famicom, the Nintendo Entertainment System, back into the U.S. and other Western regions in 1985, maintaining strict publishing control to avoid the same factors that led to the 1983 crash.


title: History of video games

text: Following the success of the Apple II and Commodore PET in the late 1970s, a series of cheaper and incompatible home computers emerged in the early 1980s. This second batch included the VIC-20 and Commodore 64; Sinclair ZX80, ZX81 and ZX Spectrum; NEC PC-8000, PC-6001, PC-88 and PC-98; Sharp X1 and X68000; Fujitsu FM Towns, and Atari 8-bit family, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, Amstrad CPC, and MSX series. Many of these systems found favor in regional markets.


title: History of video games

text: These new systems helped catalyze both the home computer and game markets, by raising awareness of computing and gaming through their competing advertising campaigns. This was most notable in the United Kingdom where the BBC encouraged computer education and backed the development of the BBC Micro with Acorn. Between the BBC Micro, the ZX Spectrum, and the Commodore 64, a new wave of "bedroom coders" emerged in the United Kingdom and started selling their own software for these platforms, alongside those developed by small professional teams. Small publishing and distribution companies such as Acornsoft and Mastertronic were established to help these individuals and teams to create and sell copies of their games. Ubisoft started out as such a distributor in France in the mid-1980s before they branched out into video game development and publishing. In Japan, systems like the MSX and the NEC PC line were popular, and several development houses emerged developing arcade clones and new games for these platforms. These companies included HAL Laboratory, Square, and Enix, which all later became some of the first third-party developers for the Nintendo Famicom after its release in 1983.


title: History of video games

text: Games from this period include the first "" by Richard Garriott and the first "" from Sir-Tech, both fundamental role-playing games on the personal computer. The space trading and combat simulation game "Elite" by David Braben and Ian Bell introduced a number of new graphics and gameplay features, and is considered one of the first open world and sandbox games. Early installments in a number of long-running franchises such as "Castlevania", "Metal Gear", "Bubble Bobble", "Gradius", as well as ports of console games and visual novels appeared on Japanese platforms like the PC88, X68000, and MSX.


title: History of video games

text: Games dominated home computers' software libraries. A 1984 compendium of reviews of Atari 8-bit software used 198 pages for games compared to 167 for all others. By that year the computer game market took over from the console market following the crash of that year; computers offered equal ability and, since their simple design allowed games to take complete command of the hardware after power-on, they were nearly as simple to start playing with as consoles.


title: History of video games

text: Later in the 1980s the next wave of personal computers emerged, with the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST in 1985 and the Atari ST. Both computers had more advanced graphics and sound capabilities than the prior generation of computers, and made for key platforms for video game development, particularly in the United Kingdom. The bedroom coders had since formed development teams and started producing games for these systems professionally. These included Bullfrog Productions, founded by Peter Molyneux, with the release of "Populous" (the first such god game), DMA Design with "Lemmings", Psygnosis with "Shadow of the Beast", and Team17 with "Worms".


title: History of video games

text: While the second wave of home computer systems flourished in the early 1980s, they remained as closed hardware systems from each other; while programs written in BASIC or other simple languages could be easily copied over, more advanced programs would require porting to meet the hardware requirements of the target system. Separately, IBM released the first of its IBM Personal Computers (IBM PC) in 1981, shipping with the MS-DOS operating system. The IBM PC was designed with an open architecture to allow new components to be added to it, but IBM intended to maintain control on manufacturing with the proprietary BIOS developed for the system. As IBM struggled to meet demand for its PC, other computer manufacturers such as Compaq worked to reverse engineer the BIOS and created IBM PC compatible computers by 1983. By 1987, IBM PC compatible computers dominated the home and business computer market.


title: History of video games

text: From a video games standpoint, the IBM PC compatible invigorated further game development. A software developer could write to meet the IBM PC compatible specification and not worry about which make or model was being used. While the initial IBM PC supported only monochromatic text games, game developers nevertheless ported mainframe and other simple text games to the PC, such as Infocom with "Zork". IBM introduced video display controllers such as the Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) (1981), the Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) (1984) and the Video Graphics Array (VGA) (1987) that expanded the computer's ability to display color graphics, though even with the VGA, these still lagged behind those of the Amiga. The first dedicated sound cards for IBM PC compatibles were released starting in 1987, which provided digital sound conversion input and output far exceeding the computer's internal speakers, and with Creative Labs' Sound Blaster in 1989, the ability to plug in a game controller or similar device.


title: History of video games

text: In 2008 Sid Meier listed the IBM PC as one of the three most important innovations in the history of video games. The advancement in graphic and sound capabilities of the IBM PC compatible led to several influential games from this period. Numerous games that were already made for the earlier home computers were later ported to IBM PC compatible system to take advantage of the larger consumer base, including the "Wizardry" and "Ultima" series, with future installments released for the IBM PC. Sierra On-Line's first graphical adventure games launched with the "King's Quest" series. The first "SimCity" game by Maxis was released in 1989.


title: History of video games

text: The Apple Macintosh also arrived at this time. In contrast to the IBM PC, Apple maintained a more closed system on the Macintosh, creating a system based around a graphical user interface (GUI)-driven operating system. As a result, it did not have the same market share as the IBM PC compatible, but still had a respectable software library including video games, typically ports from other systems.


title: History of video games

text: The first major video game publishers arose during the 1980s, primarily supporting personal computer games on both IBM PC compatible games and the popular earlier systems along with some console games. Among the major publishers formed at this time included Electronic Arts, and Broderbund, while Sierra On-Line expanded its own publishing capabilities for other developers. Activision, still recovering from financial impacts of 1983 video game crash, expanded out to include other software properties for the office, rebranding itself as Mediagenic until 1990.


title: History of video games

text: Dial-up bulletin board systems were popular in the 1980s, and sometimes used for online gaming. The earliest such systems were in the late 1970s and early 1980s and had a crude plain-text interface. Later systems made use of terminal-control codes (the so-called ANSI art, which included the use of IBM-PC-specific characters not part of an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard) to get a pseudo-graphical interface. Some BBSs offered access to various games which were playable through such an interface, ranging from text adventures to gambling games like blackjack (generally played for "points" rather than real money). On some multiuser BBSs (where more than one person could be online at once), there were games allowing users to interact with one another.