Super Smash Bros. Melee

Super Smash Bros. Melee is a 2001 crossover fighting video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the second installment in the "Super Smash Bros." series. It features characters from Nintendo video game franchises such as "Mario", "The Legend of Zelda", "Star Fox" and "Pokémon". The stages and gameplay modes reference or take designs from these franchises as well.
"Melee" includes all playable characters from the first game and also adds characters from franchises such as "Fire Emblem", of which no games had been released outside Japan at the time. "Melee"s gameplay system offers an unorthodox approach to the fighting game genre, with a counter that measures damage with increasing percentages, representing the knockback the character will experience, rather than a depleting health bar seen in most fighting games. It builds on the first game by adding new gameplay features and playable characters. Following the popularity of its multiplayer gameplay, "Melee" has been featured in many competitive gaming tournaments and is one of the most popular competitive fighting games. It was first released in Japan in November 2001, in the Americas in December 2001, and in Europe and Australia in May 2002.
"Super Smash Bros. Melee" received acclaim from critics, earning praise for its visuals, simple controls, gameplay, and orchestrated soundtrack, as well as several awards and acknowledgments from various publications; it is now considered one of the greatest video games ever made. It achieved strong sales upon its release, becoming the GameCube's best-selling title with over seven million copies sold by 2008. "Super Smash Bros. Melee" was followed by "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" for the Wii in 2008.
Gameplay.
Like its predecessor, "Super Smash Bros. Melee" differs from traditional fighting games as the objective is to force their opponents beyond the boundaries of the stage. Most attacks inflict damage and can, if enough damage is dealt, knock back the enemy. Each character's health is measured by a meter that represents damage as a percentage. The higher the percentage value, the farther the player gets knocked back, and the easier they are to knock off the stage, which will result in the character's death and the loss of a stock, or life. Unlike other games of the same genre, in which moves are entered by button-input combinations, most moves in "Super Smash Bros. Melee" can be accessed via one-button presses and a joystick direction. For example, by tilting the joystick to the side and pressing the "B" button, the character will use their "side special" attack. Tilting the joystick up, down, or not tilting it at all while pressing B will use the up, down, or neutral special, respectively.
During battles, items related to Nintendo games or merchandise fall onto the game field. These items have purposes ranging from inflicting damage on the opponent to restoring health to the player. Some items are throwable (ranged items), some do melee damage (battering items), and some have an instant effect on the player (transforming items).
Most stages have a theme relating to a Nintendo franchise or a specific Nintendo game and are interactive to the player. For example, the Mushroom Kingdom stage is from Super Mario Bros, and the Temple stage is from The Legend of Zelda. Although the stages are rendered in three dimensions, players can only move on a two-dimensional plane. Not all stages are available immediately; some stages must be "unlocked" by achieving particular requirements. Some stages feature moving elements and platforms and hazards that harm players, while others lack these elements.
Single-player.
Single-player mode provides the player with a variety of side-scrolling fighting challenges. The applicable modes range from "Classic Mode", which involves the player battling multiple opponents and a boss character, to the "Home Run Contest", a minigame involving the player trying to launch a sandbag as far as possible with a Home Run Bat for ten seconds. Some of these modes are personalized for the character; for example, the "Target Test" sets out a specialized area for a character in which they aim to destroy ten targets in the least amount of time they can. These areas may include references to that particular character's past and legacy. The "Board the Platforms" minigame from the prequel was not included in "Melee". "Melee" introduced "Adventure Mode", which takes the player to several predefined universes of characters in the Nintendo franchise. "All-Star Mode" is an unlockable feature that requires the player to defeat every character in the game while having only one stock and three health supplements between battles.
Multiplayer.
In the multiplayer mode, up to four players or computer-controlled characters may fight in a free-for-all or on separate teams. The central processing unit (CPU) characters' artificial intelligence (AI) difficulty is ranked from one to nine in ascending order of difficulty. Individual players can also be handicapped; the higher the handicap, the stronger the player. Victory is determined in five ways, depending on the game type. The two most common multiplayer modes are “Time mode”, where the player or team with the most KOs and least falls wins after a predetermined amount of time, and "Stock mode", a battle in which the last player or team with lives remaining wins. This can be changed to less conventional modes like "Coin mode", which rewards the richest player as the victor. Players must collect coins created by hitting enemies and try not to lose them by falling off the stage; harder hits release higher quantities of coins. Other options are available, updating from "Super Smash Bros.", such as determining the number and type of items that appear during the battle.
Trophies.
Trophies (known as "Figures" in the Japanese version) of various Nintendo characters and objects can be collected throughout the game. These trophies include figures of playable characters, accessories, and items associated with them as well as series and characters not otherwise playable in the game. The trophies range from the well-known to the obscure, and even characters or elements only released in Japan. "Super Smash Bros." had a similar system of plush dolls; however, it only included the 12 playable characters. One trophy is exclusive to the Japanese version of the game.
Playable characters.
"Super Smash Bros. Melee" features 25 (26 if Zelda and Sheik are considered separate) characters, 13 (14 with Zelda and Sheik separate) more than its predecessor. Fourteen are available initially, while the other 11 characters require completing specific tasks to become available. Every character featured in the game is derived from a popular Nintendo franchise. All characters have a symbol that appears behind their damage meter which represents their series, such as a Triforce symbol behind Link's damage meter and a Poké Ball behind a Pokémon species. Some characters represent popular franchises, while others were less-known at the time of the release; Marth and Roy represent the "Fire Emblem" series, which was not released outside Japan at the time. The characters' appearance in "Super Smash Bros. Melee" led to a rise in the popularity of the series, including releasing it outside of Japan. References are made throughout the game to the relationship between characters of the same universe; in one of the events from "Event mode", Mario must defeat his enemy Bowser to rescue Princess Peach. Furthermore, each character has recognizable moves from their original series, such as Samus's firearms from the "Metroid" series and Link's arsenal of weapons.
Development and release.
HAL Laboratory developed "Super Smash Bros. Melee", with Masahiro Sakurai as the head of production. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto served as co-producer. The game was one of the first games released on the GameCube and highlighted the advancement in graphics from the Nintendo 64. Sakurai wanted to make an opening FMV sequence to pay homage to the debut of the GameCube. HAL and Sakurai worked with three separate graphic houses in Tokyo to make the opening sequence. On their official website, the developers posted screenshots and information highlighting and explaining the attention to physics and detail in the game, with references to changes from its predecessor. The game was in development for 13 months, and Sakurai called his lifestyle during this period "destructive" with no holidays and short weekends. Unlike the experimental first "Super Smash Bros.", he felt great pressure to deliver a quality sequel, claiming it was the "biggest project I had ever led up to that point". Despite the painful development cycle, Sakurai proudly called it "the sharpest game in the series... it just felt really good to play", even compared to its successor, "Super Smash Bros. Brawl".
On the game's official Japanese website, the developers explain reasons for making particular characters playable and explain why some characters were not available as playable characters upon release. Initially, the development team wanted to replace Ness with Lucas, the main character of "Mother 3", but retained Ness in consideration of delays. The game's creators later included Lucas in the game's sequel, "Super Smash Bros. Brawl". Video game developer Hideo Kojima originally requested the inclusion of Solid Snake to Sakurai, but the game was too far in development, and according to Yuji Naka of Sonic Team, Miyatomo requested the inclusion of Sonic the Hedgehog to Sakurai, but, like Snake, was not added because the game was too far into development. As with Lucas, development time allowed for his inclusion in "Brawl". Marth and Roy were initially intended to be playable exclusively in the Japanese version of "Super Smash Bros. Melee". However, they received favorable attention during the game's North American localization, leading to the decision for the developers to include them in the Western version.
Sakurai stated that the development team had suggested characters from four other games to represent the Famicom/NES era until the developers decided that the Ice Climbers would be in the game. The developers have noted characters that have very similar moves to each other on the website; such characters have been referred to as "clones" in the media.
Nintendo presented the game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2001 as a playable demonstration. The next major exposition of the game came in August 2001 at Spaceworld, when Nintendo displayed a playable demo that updated from the previous demo displayed at E3. Nintendo offered a playable tournament of the games for fans in which a GameCube and "Super Smash Bros. Melee" were prizes for the winner. Before the game's release, the Japanese official website included weekly updates, including screenshots and character profiles. Nintendo followed this trend with "Super Smash Bros. Brawl", in which there were daily updates by the game's developer, Masahiro Sakurai. Japanese gaming magazine "Famitsu" reported that Nintendo advertised the game in between showings of "Pokémon 4Ever" across movie theaters in Japan. In January 2003, "Super Smash Bros Melee" became part of the Player's Choice, a marketing label used by Nintendo to promote video games that have sold more than a million copies. In August 2005, Nintendo bundled the game with the GameCube for $99.99.
Music.
"Super Smash Bros. Melee" features both new and re-arranged music from many of Nintendo's popular gaming franchises. In 2002, Enterbrain released a soundtrack in Japan titled "Dairantou Smash Brothers DX Orchestra Concert". The same soundtrack was released in 2003 as "Smashing... Live!" as a bonus for subscribing to "Nintendo Power" magazine in North America, and also as a free gift in an issue of the British "Official Nintendo Magazine". The soundtrack does not include music taken directly from the game, but features many live orchestral arrangements performed by the New Japan Philharmonic. The game contains a number of unlockable tracks that can be obtained after making certain in-game accomplishments. On the same website, the developers have posted discussions about the game's music and voice acting between Masahiro Sakurai and the game's composers.
Dean Harrington is the game's in-game narrator, and also voices Master Hand and Crazy Hand.
Reception.
"Super Smash Bros. Melee" received critical acclaim from reviewers, most of whom credited "Melee"s expansion of gameplay features from "Super Smash Bros". Focusing on the additional features, GameSpy commented that "Melee really scores big in the 'we've added tons of great extra stuff' department". Reviewers compared the game favorably to "Super Smash Bros." IGN's Fran Mirabella III stated that it was "in an entirely different league than the N64 version"; GameSpot's Miguel Lopez praised the game for offering a more advanced "classic-mode" compared to its predecessor, while detailing the Adventure Mode as "really a hit-or-miss experience". Despite a mixed response to the single-player modes, many reviewers expressed the game's multiplayer mode as a strong component of the game. In their review of the game, GameSpy stated that "you'll have a pretty hard time finding a more enjoyable multiplayer experience on any other console".
"Melee"s visuals garnered a positive reaction. GameSpot lauded the game's character and background models, stating that "the character models are pleasantly full-bodied, and the quality of their textures is amazing". IGN's Fran Mirabella III praised the game's use of physics, animation and graphics, although his colleague Matt Casamassina thought that "some of the backgrounds lack the visual polish endowed upon the characters" when giving a second opinion about the game.
Critics praised the game's orchestrated soundtrack; while GameSpot's Greg Kasavin commented that "it all sounds brilliant". GameSpy praised the music for its nostalgic effect, with soundtracks ranging from multiple Nintendo series.
Reviewers have welcomed the simplistic controls, but its "hyper-responsiveness", with the characters easily dashing and precise movements being difficult to perform, was expressed as a serious flaw of the game by GameSpot. With a milder criticism of controls, Bryn Williams of GameSpy commented that "movement and navigation seems slightly too sensitive". The basis of "Melee"s gameplay system is the battles between Nintendo characters, which has been suggested as being overly hectic; N-Europe questioned whether the gameplay is "too Frantic?", even though they enjoyed the variety of modes on offer. Similarly, Nintendo Spin's Clark Nielsen stated that "Melee was too fast for its own good", and "skill was more about just being able to wrap your head around what was happening as opposed to really getting into the combat". In regards to the pace of the game, "Edge" commented that it even made gameplay features such as "blocking" redundant, as the player is not given enough time to react to an attack.
Despite the new features added to the game, some reviews criticized "Melee" for a lack of originality and for being too similar to its predecessor, "Super Smash Bros". Caleb Hale from GameCritics.com noted that while it was "every bit as good as its Nintendo 64 predecessor" he also felt "the game doesn't expand much past that point". On a similar note, "Edge" stated that "it's not evolution; it's reproduction", in reference to a perceived lack of innovation. The nostalgic nature of the game received a positive reaction, as well as the accompanying stages and items that allude to past Nintendo games. Gaming journalists have welcomed the roster of 26 Nintendo characters, as well as the trophy system, which Nintendo Spin labeled as "a great addition to this game".
Sales.
When released in Japan, it became the fastest selling GameCube game with 358,525 units sold in the week ending November 25, 2001. This success continued as the game sold more than a million units only two months after its release, making it the first GameCube title to reach a million copies. The game also sold well in North America, where it sold 250,000-copies in nine days. In the United States, "Super Smash Bros. Melee" was the 19th best-selling video game in 2001 according to the NPD Group. By July 2006, it had sold 3.2 million copies and earned $125 million in the United States alone. "Next Generation" ranked it as the fifth highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Approximately 4.06 million units have been sold in the country as of December 27, 2007. With a software-to-hardware ratio of 3:4 at one time, some have attributed the increasing sales of the GameCube near the launch date to "Melee". As of March 10, 2008, "Super Smash Bros. Melee" is the best-selling GameCube game, with more than seven million copies sold worldwide. It has been estimated that at one point in time 70% of all GameCube owners also owned "Melee".
Awards and accolades.
Several publications have acknowledged "Super Smash Bros. Melee" in competitions and awards. In their "Best of 2001" awards, GameSpy chose it as Best Fighting GameCube Game, IGN's reader choice chose it as Game of the Year, "Electronic Gaming Monthly" chose it as Best Multiplayer and Best GameCube Game, and GameSpot chose it as the Best GameCube Game and tenth best game of the year. It also received a nomination in "GameSpot"s "Best Music" and "Best Fighting Game" categories.
GameFAQs placed it sixth in a poll of the 100 best games ever and was in the final four of the "Best. Game. Ever." contest. In the 200th issue of "Electronic Gaming Monthly", the editors selected "Melee" as the 92nd most influential game in their "Top 200 Games of Their Time" list, defining "Melee" as "Billions of things to unlock, plus Yoshi pummeling Pikachu with a bat". In a similar competition, "Nintendo Power" named "Super Smash Bros. Melee" the 16th best game ever to appear on a Nintendo console, and selected it as the 2001 "Game of the Year". IGN named it the third best GameCube game of all-time in 2007 as a part of a feature reflecting on the GameCube's long lifespan, citing it as "the grand stage of fighters, much like Mario Kart is for racing fans". GameSpy chose it as fourth in a similar list, citing that it had "better graphics, better music, more characters, more gameplay modes, more secrets to discover" in comparison to its predecessor. The game was ranked 58th in Official Nintendo Magazine's "100 Greatest Nintendo Games Ever" feature. In 2019, "Game Informer" ranked it as the 2nd best fighting game of all time. Edge magazine ranked the game 91st on their 100 best Video Games in 2007.
Professional competition and legacy.
"Super Smash Bros. Melee" is a widely played competitive video game and has been featured in several high-profile tournaments. Many consider it to be the most competitively viable game in the series. From 2004 to 2007, Major League Gaming sponsored "Melee" on its Pro Circuit. Although dropping "Melee" from its 2007 Pro Circuit, MLG still sponsored a number of tournaments as part of the Underground Smash Series. "Melee" was also included in the Evolution Championship Series (Evo) in 2007, a fighting game tournament held in Las Vegas and was hosted at Evo 2013 after a charity vote to decide the final game to be featured in its tournament lineup. Due to the large turnout and popularity that year, Evo again included "Melee" at their 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 events. In 2014 "Melee" was played at MLG Anaheim. Evo 2016 is the largest "Melee" tournament to date with 2,350 entrants.
Ken Hoang, also known as "The King of Smash", considered to be the game's best player from 2003 to 2006, has won over $50,000 from Smash tournaments.
Several professional "Melee" players including Christopher "KillaOR" McKenzie, Isai Alvarado, and Ken were seen in the 2005 "I'm a Professional Gamer" episode of the MTV reality series "True Life". The competitive "Smash" community was featured in a 2013 crowd-funded documentary called "The Smash Brothers". The film detailed the history of the professional scene and profiled seven prominent "Melee" players including Hoang, Azen, Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Isai, PC Chris, KoreanDJ, and Evo 2013 and Evo 2014 champion, Joseph "Mang0" Marquez. Commentary footage from a "Melee" tournament is the origin of the Wombo combo internet meme.
In 2020, Project Slippi, a mod for "Melee" designed to introduce quality-of-life features such as replays and online play, was updated to support rollback netcode and integrated matchmaking, allowing netplay across large distances with little latency. In the same year, an e-sports competition known as "The Big House" was sent a cease and desist by Nintendo, due to the usage of this mod.


Uninvited (video game)

Uninvited is a horror-themed point-and-click adventure game developed originally for the Macintosh by ICOM Simulations released in 1986 by Mindscape.
The game uses the MacVenture engine that was introduced in ICOM's prior game, "".
Plot.
The unnamed hero must find the way through an abandoned house in order to rescue a sibling. The quest involves magic and solving logic puzzles while discovering sinister secrets of the house's former inhabitants.
The player regains consciousness from a car crash in front of a large, old mansion. The player's sibling (a younger brother in the computer version but an older sister in the NES version) is gone, and the car is soon lost, as it bursts into flames. The only option is to enter the mansion looking for the lost sibling. It is not long before the player is greeted by the first undead dweller.
It gradually becomes evident that the house once belonged to a sorcerer with a number of apprentices. Dracan, the most talented apprentice, became corrupt and killed the other inhabitants with his magic, resulting in the house becoming haunted.
Gameplay.
The main house consists of two floors and a tower, most parts being in early 20th century style. Some rooms (e.g. the servant's bedroom) have newer decor. No help is to be found, as there is not a single living person inhabiting the house.
Aside from the house, there are three backyard buildings to explore: the observatory, where some of the final events take place; the greenhouse, which is not as infertile as it first seems; and the chapel, which leads into a cemetery maze. Several places are guarded by magical creatures, including apparitions, hellhounds, and zombies, as well as some more unconventional entities; one is a tiny demon that flies by periodically, holding a key.
There is also an art gallery room hidden in the house. To access the room, the player has to collect two lamps from a fireplace, and click on an odd dot on a painting in a study room. The player will then be teleported to a room containing paintings and sculptures. A door in the art gallery room brings the player to the hall of the observatory. Accessing the art gallery is possible in all versions of "Uninvited" except those on the Commodore 64 and NES.
The quest to rescue the player's sibling is mostly a matter of gaining access to the locked or guarded parts of the estate. As in the other MacVenture games, there is a time limit. But unlike a regular time limit that is based on seconds or minutes, the time limit in "Uninvited" is based on moves (a move is defined as speaking to a character, entering a room, observing an object, or using an item). If the player runs out of moves, the evil presence of the mansion takes control, and the player eventually ends up as a zombie. This element is partially absent from the NES version, as it is instead caused by a useless item that may be avoided. Since the story largely revolves around magic, many of the game's puzzles seem illogical. Hints for these and bits of the background story are unraveled in the various diaries and scrolls found within the grounds. Still, because the gameplay is very non-linear, the ending is somewhat abrupt.
NES version.
As with the other NES MacVenture games, "Uninvited", known in Japan as , added music, and elements of the written narration and storyline were altered, including:
The NES version was released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in a package called "8-Bit Adventure Anthology".
Reception.
German magazine "Data Welt" praised the Amiga version's user-friendliness, good graphics and particularly the atmospheric sound, calling the game (translated): "excellent" and "even better than "Deja Vu"". "Computer Gaming World" found the game to be enjoyable and innovative, praising the game's use of graphics and almost exclusive use of the mouse as a way of eliminating frustration. As such, the game was described as "much easier to work with than pure text or text and graphic adventure games." "Dragon" complimented the game, calling it "a truly horrifying adventure game and mystery that’ll leave you shivering in the dark". "Compute!" liked "Uninvited"s "fluid interface, solid logical puzzles, and something's-around-the-corner feel". "Video Games: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine" gave the Windows version 8 out of 10.


Rocket Knight

Rocket Knight is a 2.5D platforming video game developed by Climax Studios and published by Konami for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows. The game was released on May 11, 2010 for Microsoft Windows and May 12, 2010 on consoles, with the exception of the PlayStation 3 release in North America, which was released on May 18, 2010. The Microsoft Windows release is not available in Europe.
"Rocket Knight" is a revival of the "Sparkster" series, which first began with "Rocket Knight Adventures". The game is a sequel to the Sega Genesis game "", and not a remake of "Rocket Knight Adventures".
Gameplay.
The game is shown at a slightly zoomed out perspective, allowing less dangerous use of the jetpack, and uses the auto-filling power meter from "", which powers both the jetpack and sword attacks featured in "Rocket Knight Adventures" (neither "Rocket Knight Adventures" nor the SNES "Sparkster" game have an auto-power meter). Sparkster cannot perform consecutive boosts, but can temporarily hover in midair. There are other tweaks, such as Sparkster only bouncing off walls when he hits them at a 45 degree angle. He is also able to shoot short range projectiles and perform a drill attack which allows him to break through certain surfaces. Sparkster's attack range is also complete, allowing him to deflect certain projectiles with his sword. Like previous entries, there will be side-scrolling shooting segments, where Sparkster can charge his shots and use his jetpack to quickly avoid obstacles. There are several items and power ups along the way, with point and life bonuses earned for collecting all of a certain item in a level.
Plot.
Sparkster, upon his return from fighting the Gedol empire in "", is surprised to find that the Devotindos empire, the pigs that he had fought previously in "Rocket Knight Adventures", had taken up residence in the Kingdom of Zephyrus along with the opossums inhabitants under permission granted by the Zephyrus king performed to the General Sweinhart, a war veteran from the previous war between Zepyrus and Devotindos. With his warning claims being ignored by the Zephyrus king, Sparkster decides to move elsewhere to live with his family for a while, assuming he was no longer as useful as he was.
Fifteen years later, a new threat to Zephyrus has arrived. Sparkster is surprised to find the pigs fighting alongside the opossums against an army of wolves, with Sparkster's nemesis, Axel Gear, acting as Rocket Knight in his absence. Suspecting something may be amiss, Sparkster decides to put on his gear and head back into the fray, ready to fight the wolf army. However, when Sparkster eventually defeats the leader of the Wolf army in their homeland, General Sweinhart turns the Devotindos empire once again against the opossums, their one other threat eliminated. Sparkster must return to Zephyrus to save his kingdom and defeat the Devotindos army.
Development.
When producer Tomm Hulett joined Konami, he decided to work on a pitch for a revival for Sparkster, which was accepted after two years and four pitches. Hulett claims, "it was really a matter of reworking the concept – making the right pitch at the right time," with various recent franchise revivals receiving positive responses at the time. Hulett also said that Konami thought Climax Studios were the best pick partly due to their facial animation technology, allowing Sparkster to produce expressions respective to his 16-bit counterparts. A trailer was released on October 9, 2009.
Reception.
IGN gave the game a score of 7.5, praising the inventive platforming but showing concern for the high price point. Game Informer gave the game a score of 8 out of 10. GamesRadar gave the game 7/10, praising its mechanics but criticising its fluctuating difficulty, along with the high price point. 1up.com gave it a C+ grade, criticising its lack of variety. Sales were near to 12,000 units as of year-end 2010.


The Midnight

The Midnight is a synthwave band composed of Atlanta-based singer-songwriter Tyler Lyle and Los Angeles-based Danish-born producer, songwriter, and singer Tim McEwan.
The band was formed as a result of Lyle and McEwan meeting during a co-writing workshop in 2012 in North Hollywood, CA. Inspired in part by the score for "Drive", and the retro synth genre growing around its release, the pair wrote two singles, "WeMoveForward" and "Gloria", that would be released two years later in 2014 as part of their debut EP titled "Days of Thunder". In 2016, the duo released a 12 track LP, "Endless Summer", followed in 2017 with the release of "Nocturnal", which spent several weeks as a best seller on the music distribution website Bandcamp and reached number 17 on "Billboard"s Dance/Electronic charts October 2017. The band went on to perform their second sell-out concert, taking place at the Globe Theatre on Broadway in Los Angeles in November 2017.
The band had multiple collaborations with Timecop1983, another retro synth genre producer. One of the collaborations appears on the album "Nocturnal", titled "River of Darkness". The other collaboration between them appears on the album "Night Drive" of Timecop1983, titled "Static".
The band's motto is "" (), a Japanese phrase that loosely translates to "a sense of nostalgic wistfulness and the awareness that nothing lasts forever".
In 2019 McEwan appeared in the documentary film "The Rise of the Synths", which explored the origins and growth of the synthwave genre. McEwan appeared alongside various other composers from the scene, including John Carpenter, who also starred in and narrated the film.


Mikhail Donskoy

Mikhail Vladimirovich Donskoy (), (9 September 1948 – 13 January 2009) was a Soviet and Russian computer scientist. In 1970 he graduated from Moscow State University and joined the Institute of Control Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he became one of the lead developers of Kaissa, a computer chess program that won the first World Computer Chess Championship in 1974.
After the dissolution of the Soviet computer chess initiative in the beginning of the 1980s he went into development of databases. In 1994 he established his own company, DISCo (Donskoy Interactive Software Company), which, among other projects, developed the Symbian interface for ABBYY Lingvo dictionaries.


Earnest East

Earnest East (July 8, 1916 - January 8, 2000) was a fiddle, guitar, and banjo player. East began his music career as a member of the Camp Creek Boys, and later founded his own instrumental band which he called the Pine Ridge Boys in 1966. In 1969, the Pine Ridge Boys released their first album, titled "Old Time Mountain Music", on the County label. Their second album, "Stringband Music From Mt. Airy" was released in 1981 on the Heritage label.
East received several folklore awards in his lifetime, including the Brown-Hudson Folklore Award from the North Carolina Folklore Society in 1988, and the North Carolina Folk Heritage Award in 1990.
Early life.
Earnest East was born July 8, 1916 in Surry County in North Carolina and spent much of his childhood learning about and playing music. Music played an integral part of East's childhood, from his own involvement with music, to his family's musical influence on the community. East's family was famous for holding a New Year's square dance and music party as part of the Breaking Up Christmas tradition, an event that persisted even after East's death.
As a child, East spent most of his time at legendary banjoist Charlie Lowe's home learning to read music and play the fiddle, banjo, and guitar. East drew music inspiration from the playing styles of popular recording artists at the time, including Fiddlin' Arthur Smith, learning to create a stronger driving sound by employing the entire length of his bow which became East's signature style. This style, which has been called "slip-chord" fiddling, describes East's ability to slide into a chord, a characteristic sound in his fiddling.
East joined the mountain string-band the Camp Creek Boys in the 1930s along with Kyle Creed (banjo), Fred Cockerham (fiddle/banjo), Paul Sutphin (guitar), Ronald Collins (guitar), Roscoe Russell (guitar), and Verlin Clifton (mandolin).
Career.
Following his short-lived involvement with the Camp Creek Boys, East founded the old-time string band the Pine Ridge Boys in 1966. The group included East's son, Scotty East on guitar, Gilmer Woodruff on banjo, and Mac Snow on guitar. Later, Scotty's wife, Patsy, joined the band on bass. While the group was largely instrumental, Scotty, Mac and Patsy were also singers. The group produced two albums :"Earnest East and the Pine Ridge Boys - Old-Time Mountain Music," which they released in 1969, and "Stringband Music From Mt. Airy", with banjoist Andy Cahan, in 1981. The group performed at many folk festivals including the Smithsonian Institution's Festival of American Folklife and the National Folk Festival, and was wildly popular in their home county of Surry.
In 1988, East received the Brown-Hudson Folklore Award from the North Carolina Folklore Society which honors individuals who contribute to the "appreciation, continuation, or study of North Carolina folk traditions" for his continuation of old-time folk music. In 1990, East received the North Carolina Folk Heritage Award, which honors North Carolina's most prominent folk artists.
Earnest East died on January 8, 2000. Since his death, Mac Snow has kept up East's family's tradition of the New Year's square dance. East's music has continued to be an important representation of folk, and an important contribution to the continuation of North Carolina folk traditions.


Safecracker (video game)

Safecracker is a 1997 puzzle adventure game developed by Daydream Software and published by GT Interactive. It casts the player as a security professional, whose goal is to infiltrate the mansion headquarters of a safe manufacturer and break into 35 of its unusual models. Each safe is guarded by a different type of puzzle, including sliding tiles, anagram codes and translations from braille. The player's progression is nonlinear: the mansion can be explored, and its safes unlocked, in multiple orders. However, the game must be completed within a 12-hour time limit.
"Safecracker" was conceived in 1994 as the debut title by Daydream, one of Sweden's first major computer game developers. After signing with Warner Interactive Entertainment (WIE) in 1995, Daydream began to develop the game with Macromedia Director and QuickTime VR. Expensive Silicon Graphics machines were purchased with Warner's funding to create the visuals; musicians Rob 'n' Raz were hired to compose the soundtrack. However, corporate upheaval at WIE led to costly delays. GT Interactive ultimately bought the publisher in 1996 and purposely slow-walked "Safecracker"s release and promotion. Having anticipated problems with GT, Daydream went public: its hit IPO drew enough capital for the team to repurchase "Safecracker"s rights in 1997 and sign new distributors worldwide.
While "Safecracker"s troubled release hurt its retail performance, long-tail sales at a budget price eventually carried it to 650,000 units sold. Reviewers broadly panned the game's limited core premise, although certain writers considered it a strength and recommended the title to fans of puzzle games. Critical reception of the puzzles and visuals ranged from positive to strongly negative. Following the launch of "Safecracker", Daydream became a foundational company in the Swedish game industry. Nevertheless, problems caused by its early public launch led to the developer's bankruptcy in 2003. Kheops Studio and The Adventure Company later released a spiritual successor to "Safecracker" under the name "" (2006).
Gameplay and plot.
"Safecracker" is a puzzle adventure game that takes place from a first-person view in a pre-rendered visual environment. The player uses a point-and-click interface to traverse the game world and interact with objects. In a manner that has been compared to "Zork Nemesis", the player's movement is restricted to jumps between panoramic static screens. The camera view can rotate 360° on each screen. In "Safecracker", the player assumes the role of a professional in the security systems business, who seeks a job with the fictional Crabb & Sons Company. The firm is a manufacturer of safes with unusual designs. As an audition, the player character is contracted by Crabb & Sons' owner to infiltrate his mansion headquarters and crack the safes within, with the ultimate goal of breaking into the new "F-9-12" design.
The game begins outside Crabb & Sons' building, after which the player sneaks in and begins to explore. "Safecracker" features nonlinear progression: the mansion's rooms can be navigated, and their safes tackled, in multiple orders. However, the game must be beaten under a 12-hour time limit. The mansion contains over 50 rooms and 35 safes, which are guarded by puzzles in a range of styles. Among these are mathematics puzzles, anagram codes, conversions of temperature units, translations from braille, musical problems and sliding puzzles. Unlocking a safe provides the player with clues and keys, which open up new areas and allow other puzzles to be solved. At the same time, certain clues are hidden around the mansion in books and other objects that the player may investigate. Clue items are stored in the inventory on the heads-up display (HUD) interface, which also features a meter that tracks the number of puzzles solved.
Development.
Origins.
"Safecracker" was conceived in 1994 by acquaintances Jörgen Isaksson and Nigel Papworth of Umeå, Sweden. Papworth's interest in making games was first sparked when Isaksson showed him "Myst": its simple HyperCard engine suggested to Papworth that game programming could be easy. Isaksson himself had previously experimented with the medium to entertain his younger sister, yielding a computer conversion of the board game "Mastermind". Papworth seized on this idea and reworked Isaksson's "Mastermind" board into a safe puzzle. After a short time, the pair had devised five more safes in this style, and the thought arose for an entire game about cracking safes in a single building. This concepting stage began in summer 1994. Isaksson and Papworth soon pitched the "Safecracker" idea to Erik Phersson and Jan Phersson-Broburg, the heads of a local computer services company, Sombrero, that Isaksson had co-founded. The more recent hire Leif Holm was present as well.
At a meeting in fall 1994, roughly one month after Isaksson had shown "Myst" to Papworth, the five men resolved to create "Safecracker" together. The Phersson brothers had already been anxious to expand into new fields. Phersson-Broburg immediately arranged an interview with Sanji Tandan, the head of Warner Music Sweden, based on the logic that the publisher had a worldwide foothold in the CD business. The first contact with Warner occurred in October 1994. However, the "Safecracker" team initially lacked any materials to sell Tandan on the game. Papworth, a professional illustrator, wrote that he hurriedly "made 2 pretty crude visuals with colored felt tips on an A1 sketch pad that showed a start sequence and some examples of different safe puzzles". Phersson-Broburg composed a financial roadmap for the project, while Isaksson cooperated with Papworth to construct the game's plot. The team used StrataVision 3D to create a test of "Safecracker"s pre-rendered graphics. Tandan enjoyed their presentation and the meeting was a success. Based on this event, the five team members founded Daydream Software in November 1994.
Nevertheless, Daydream's handshake deal with the publisher fell through. Tandan reported back that the rest of Warner Music Sweden was uninterested in pursuing computer games. Shortly thereafter, the "Safecracker" plan was revived during the 1994 Christmas party at Daydream's new office space. The team was called by the London-based Warner Interactive Entertainment, whose executive Laurence Scotford expressed interest in the game and soon flew to Umeå to learn more. The team then traveled to the publisher's London headquarters and pitched "Safecracker" directly. A writer for the city of Umeå later remarked that it was "a tricky display with cumbersome computers", but the parties reached a tentative agreement to partner on the game. Afterward, the contract was carefully tweaked at Daydream's offices. The developer signed with Warner to develop "Safecracker" in March 1995, as part of a three-year, multi-title deal set to run until March 1998. Funding was provided via an advance against royalties of 2.5 million kr; Daydream was set to earn 50 kr per unit sold, while Warner retained all revenues for the first 50,000 sales of the game. In retrospect, Papworth felt that Daydream was "lucky" to have joined the game industry when it did, as many of "the big record companies" were entering the computer game business with low standards as to the content they financed.
Production.
Daydream Software began development of "Safecracker" by creating thorough blueprints of the mansion and its rooms on paper. Objects inside the building were similarly drawn on paper ahead of the modeling stage. Nigel Papworth wrote that he "raided the local bookshops and bought up all the books [he] could find on antique furniture and Victoriana" for inspiration. The plan was to build the game's visual assets on Macintosh computers with Strata StudioPro after the concepting phase. However, Daydream soon deduced that the agreed-upon budget and deadline for "Safecracker" were unworkable with the developer's existing personnel and technology, according to Papworth. Hoping to speed up production, Jörgen Isaksson suggested that the team develop "Safecracker"s graphics on expensive Silicon Graphics workstations instead. Daydream felt that these machines and their software "offered an unbeatable combination of speed, quality in modeling and rendering". The company persuaded Warner Interactive Entertainment to pay $50,000 for three workstations and a server, which made Daydream one of Sweden's top three buyers of Silicon Graphics computers. As a result, the graphics-production setup for "Safecracker" consisted of SGI Indy machines, for modeling the visuals, and a single SGI Challenge server. All of them were used for rendering.
For "Safecracker"s design, the team adopted a nonlinear approach because they were "allergic" to linear gameplay, Papworth later said. While researching adventure games in preparation, Papworth catalogued his dislikes with the genre and shaped "Safecracker" accordingly. This resulted in a scheme to make the basement and first floor fully traversable from the start, and the second floor unlockable after a relatively short time. In this way, Papworth noted, "Only the end task would be dependent on most of the clues having been already solved", which prevented "Safecracker" from becoming a series of roadblocks. Nonlinearity proved to be a challenge for both the designers and programmers. In an attempt to prevent the open structure from confusing players, the team included "exact instructions and advice" in the starting sequence, Papworth explained. Papworth used each room's theme to determine the design of its puzzles: for example, the music room contains a jukebox-inspired safe. He recalled creating roughly "80% of the safe designs in the first 3–4 weeks" of production; the rest were handled by other team members at later times.
"Safecracker" was developed primarily on Macintosh hardware with Macromedia Director and QuickTime VR. The latter software, which displays virtual-reality panoramas, had not yet been used for many games. It was one of the selling points in the Warner Interactive deal: Papworth remarked that the team hoped to "be the first developer to use [3D rotating panoramas] in a full sized game." Daydream worked initially with a beta edition, as QuickTime VR was not launched until July 1995. To create "Safecracker"s visuals, Daydream used its Silicon Graphics computers to build wire-frame 3D models with programs from Alias Wavefront, including PowerAnimator. Each modeler consulted a collective to-do list, from which he would "pick an object ... and write his name beside it", according to Papworth. This list cited the relevant reference pages in Papworth's books. Texture maps were drawn on Macintosh computers with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Once a textured environment was lit, the team inserted a camera to render 12 images in a 360° radius, and the results were image-stitched into a rotatable panorama with QuickTime VR.
During production, Daydream legally had zero employees, and instead hired Sombrero staff and outside freelancers on a contractual basis. Team members assumed multiple roles. Leif Holm and the new hire Fredrik Jonsson modeled environments and furniture; Holm simultaneously managed aspects of Unix programming. Papworth, alongside his other jobs, textured environments and arranged objects inside them. Isaksson modeled and coded, but also compiled the team's visual assets into QuickTime VR and Macromedia Director, in which they were made playable and interactive. Sound effects, handled with Digital Audio Tapes and Macromedia's SoundEdit, were overseen by Erik Phersson. Papworth recalled that Daydream "purchased about 100 sound effect CDs" to assist him. Hoping to increase the soundtrack's quality by hiring professionals, Daydream contracted Swedish artists Rob 'n' Raz to create a unique musical theme for every room in "Safecracker". This deal caused issues with STIM and the Nordisk Copyright Bureau regarding Rob 'n' Raz's rates, as there were no guidelines for computer software scores. Near the end of development, Daydream similarly contracted the firm Datadesign & Multimedia AB for coding assistance.
Delays and public offering.
As "Safecracker"s production progressed, instability at Warner Interactive Entertainment became a major concern for Daydream Software. These issues resulted in costly delays. The team finished "a basic build of "Safecracker" in less than a year", according to Nigel Papworth, and the game was nearing completion by the first part of 1996. However, around that time, Warner informed Daydream that it wanted the game localized in eight languages, even though the original contract had only accounted for English. This pushed the completion date back four months: the game's pre-rendered visuals contained writing in English and had to be deconstructed and re-rendered in other languages. Laurence Scotford was moved off "Safecracker" thanks to corporate restructuring; meanwhile, Warner Interactive Entertainment's sister branch Time Warner Interactive was sold to WMS Gaming in April 1996. Warner demonstrated "Safecracker"s progress at the spring European Computer Trade Show (ECTS) that month, by which time it was on track for July. Inscape, a Warner affiliate that served as the game's North American distributor, subsequently showed "Safecracker" at the 1996 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).
In July 1996, Time Warner signaled plans to exit the game industry entirely, after its moves earlier in the year. Daydream learned that Warner Interactive Entertainment was being sold to GT Interactive around the time that the localizations for "Safecracker" were almost finished. By September 1996, talks of the buyout effort had become public at the fall ECTS. A writer for the city of Umeå noted that Daydream had "an uneasy feeling" about the deal, partly because GT Interactive was known for shooter games antithetical to "Safecracker"s nonviolent ethos. In addition, Papworth recalled his negative impression of a leading GT executive, whom he later dubbed "the most arrogant and unpleasant individual whom we had stumbled across in [the] industry". Before Warner's sale was completed, Daydream began to explore alternative business strategies to offer the team greater flexibility. The developer sought to increase its economic and decision-making independence compared to traditional publishing arrangements, and, for future projects, to select publishers nearer to the end of development. In particular, Jan Phersson-Broberg wrote that Daydream wanted to secure partners that were "strong at the time of launch."
Daydream struggled to find investors in Sweden. The country's game industry was small: Daydream itself was "one of Sweden's first international developers", according to a writer for the city of Umeå. It was the only development house in the city. Attempts to obtain money from banks were unsuccessful, as they were indifferent to "Safecracker" and did not see computer games as valuable in comparison to staple industries like lumber. Phersson-Broberg noted that Swedish venture capitalists were similarly uninterested in his business, thanks to the long-term returns on investment that Daydream promised. This problem ultimately led Daydream to attempt an initial public offering (IPO), after the brokerage firm Matteus Corporate Finance approached the developer and assessed its worth as 40 million kr. Phersson-Broberg called the plan dangerous and "probably the last thing you choose as a young company". However, he argued that self-financing Daydream's future games with money from Swedish shareholders would provide more stability, adaptability and room for growth.
In November 1996, Daydream bought Sombrero to incorporate the team into a single business. GT Interactive announced its purchase of Warner Interactive Entertainment on November 25, and Daydream released its IPO prospectus to potential investors on the 26th. According to the plan, the company was not expected to reach profitability for more than three years. "Safecracker" had been in development for roughly one-and-a-half years by that time, and was set to launch around the turn of 1997. Papworth's work on the game concluded in November, and he started to explore possibilities for Daydream's next title. A large amount of media attention began to surround Daydream's IPO. The team hosted regular meetings with Swedish and international investors at Stockholm's Sturehof restaurant, where they demonstrated "Safecracker" on large displays. In early December 1996, during the run-up to the public offering, "Safecracker" won the "Best Entertainment Title" and "Overall People's Choice" prizes at the Macromedia European Users Conference. Later that month, Daydream sold 2.6 million shares—roughly 45.5% of the company—to Matteus Corporate Finance at 7.65 kr each. This raised 20 million kr. Matteus's role as the subscriber was to sell these shares to the wider public, with a starting price of 8.35 kr per share.
Daydream opened on the Stockholm Stock Exchange's Stockholm Börsinformation (SBI) list on January 16, 1997. Its launch was an immediate hit: the company's share price ended the first day at 29 kr. Stocks quickly rose to 48 kr, and ultimately stabilized around 58 kr. Buyers included Berth Milton and . The "Wall Street Journal" reported that Daydream became "the darling of the country's stock market"; its IPO achieved a 25-time oversubscription, Matteus's biggest success by that date. Soon after the launch, Pål Leveraas of Norway's Digi.no wrote, "With nothing but a new, self-developed computer game in the portfolio, the five [founders] have already become multi-millionaires." A writer for the city of Umeå similarly noted that "Daydream didn't even have a game on the market, let alone any revenue." Meanwhile, "Safecracker" began to encounter problems with GT Interactive. Daydream told investors that the new publisher was set to honor Warner's agreements on the project, and that the team viewed the situation as "very positive". However, GT Interactive delayed "Safecracker" past its due date of January 1997 to redesign its physical packaging—initially to late March and finally to May.
Release and distribution.
"Safecracker" was first released in Sweden in the middle of May 1997. Later that month and in early June, it received follow-up launches in 14 other territories across Europe and South America. Despite significant pre-release coverage, "Safecracker"s many delays meant that the "momentum for the game ... could not be exploited", according to the academic researchers Ola Henfridsson, Helena Holmström and Ole Hanseth. It accrued sales of 18,000 units in its first two weeks. Jan Phersson-Broberg later told investors that GT Interactive failed to support "Safecracker" at retail. He reported that the publisher "did not advertise, [and] did not place interviews, reviews" or other press relations material for the game, and that he received silence when Daydream Software sought an explanation. Behind the scenes, according to the "Wall Street Journal", the project had "ended up on the 'let-die' pile" at GT Interactive.
Global sales of "Safecracker" reached 22,000 units by the start of autumn, before its launch in the Australian and North American markets. It remained unreleased in the latter region by late 1997. Nigel Papworth noted that North America was "seen as the paramount market to crack" for international developers; its buying power was equivalent to the rest of the world's combined. Reacting to these delays, Daydream publicly reported trouble with GT Interactive Europe in late 1997, and questioned the publisher's competence with and interest in "Safecracker". "Next Generation" quoted the team's statement that it was "increasingly frustrated over the lack of marketing and the stalling of a North American release". In September 1997, Daydream initiated a plan to repurchase all rights to "Safecracker", a move enabled by the developer's independent financing from shareholders. The buyout was executed on November 27. It cost roughly 1.4 million kr, compared to the 2.2 million kr that Daydream owed its publisher for the Warner Interactive advance. The money spent to purchase "Safecracker" counted toward repayment of the advance, which had been set to bankrupt Daydream.
In place of the GT Interactive contract, Daydream hired the talent agency Octagon Entertainment, a firm also involved with "Fable" and "Starship Titanic". Octagon's job was to sign local distribution partners in Asia, Europe, Australia and North America for "Safecracker". Phersson-Broberg told investors that partnering with regional companies, each of which understood its respective market, enabled the developer to "spread [its] eggs in more baskets". This strategy was intended to raise "Safecracker"s chances of becoming a hit. Daydream offloaded marketing and unit production to each distributor, which Phersson-Broberg said would allow the company to "focus solely on developing more good computer games." The developer forecast that the repayment of its advance, combined with its full ownership of the game, would hasten "Safecracker"s breaking even. As part of the buyback deal with GT Interactive, Daydream recalled around 7,500 unsold copies of the game's original release to storage. The developer proceeded to resell these to new distributors at prices ranging from 80 to 180 kr. "Safecracker"s Macintosh version launched in Sweden in December 1997.
By March 1998, "Safecracker"s display at the Milia festival in Cannes had secured it new distribution agreements in nine countries, including Germany, France, Australia and—with publisher PXL Computers—Canada and the United States. Daydream signed with Ahead Multimedia in June 1998 to re-release the game in Sweden, attracted by the publisher's penetration of unusual storefronts such as post offices and gas stations. In markets where GT Interactive had previously launched "Safecracker", the game was sold at a lower price. Phersson-Broberg promised investors greater earnings from North America, as it was a new market for the game. "Safecracker" had reappeared in certain countries by the end of May 1998; revenue on each unit ranged between 30 and 130 kr at the time. Despite PXL Computers' release of the game, Papworth reported in 1999 that "Safecracker" had underperformed in North America. He felt that its tumultuous history had prevented it from receiving "the crack it deserve[d] at the American Market".
"Safecracker"s global sales totaled 65,000 units by January 1999, for revenues of 3.2 million kr. This performance amounted to a lifetime loss of 500,000 kr. Sales had risen to roughly 70,000 units the following month, at which point the game's development costs were fully capitalized. Although "Safecracker" had become a budget game by that time, Daydream told investors that its revenues remained "at the same level as when the product was launched and sold as a full-cost product." Conversely, the company reported later in 1999 the game's lower price point had decreased its earnings. "Safecracker" sold roughly 200,000 units by May 30 and 235,000 by September 30. By April 2000, European and Asian markets alone had accounted for 250,000 sales.
In spring 2000, "Safecracker" received a second launch in North America through DreamCatcher Interactive, the distributor for Daydream's "Traitors Gate" in the region. This deal offered "Safecracker" access to mainstream retailers such as Best Buy, Babbage's and CompUSA, at around 1,600 locations throughout the territory. It became successful for DreamCatcher. The game's worldwide sales reached approximately 275,000 copies by the end of May 2000 and 300,000 copies by mid-2001. In the 2010s, a writer for the city of Umeå retrospectively judged "Safecracker" a success. The author remarked that the game ultimately "sold 650,000 copies, not least via the department store chain Walmart", where it was stocked as a budget title.
Reception.
In October 1997, "Safecracker" won the "People's Choice" prize among entertainment products at the Macromedia International User Conference (UCON). This followed the game's wins, before its launch, at the Macromedia European User Awards.
Reviewing the game's PXL Computers edition, Joseph Novicki of "PC Gamer US" and Joel Strauch of "PC Games" offered conflicting opinions. Novicki praised the "clarity of purpose" in "Safecracker"s narrow focus on puzzle-solving, compared to "Myst"-inspired titles that combine puzzles with plot. By contrast, Strauch considered the game's limited story and premise to be major flaws. The lack of interaction beyond safecracking was likewise cited as a positive and a negative, respectively, by the two writers. While Novicki summarized "Safecracker" as "good puzzle game for gamers of all skill levels", despite problems with its inventory system, Strauch called the puzzles a mixed bag and ultimately panned the game.
The reviewer for "PC PowerPlay", David Wildgoose, continued Strauch's complaints about the "stifling and pointless basic premise" in "Safecracker". Charlie Brooker of "PC Zone" concurred: he dismissed the title as a dull, limited experience, and "the sort of thing that [only] impresses computer game virgins and Macintosh owners". He also echoed Strauch's criticism of the QuickTime VR implementation, which both writers found unimpressive as a computer game engine. Brooker's only praise went to the soundtrack, which he considered "alright". Wildgoose joined Brooker in calling "Safecracker"s visuals technically impressive but nevertheless drab and boring, and took a harder line than Strauch against the "witless, haphazard" puzzles. Writing for IGN, Scott Steinberg was more positive on the puzzles, of which he noted that "a rather large quantity ... are nothing short of ingenious". He also offered light praise to the visuals, in contrast to Brooker and Wildgoose. Despite these concessions, Steinberg ultimately declared "Safecracker" prohibitively difficult and confusing, and he sharply criticized its "techno crud" score.
The adventure game websites Just Adventure and Adventure Gamers were more approving of "Safecracker". Ray Ivey of the latter publication called the puzzle design "simply a delight", and felt that the game was addictive. Just Adventure's Randy Sluganski similarly lauded the puzzles. Although he found them extremely difficult, he wrote that "you actually feel a sense of accomplishment and pride" after solving them. Sluganski also enjoyed the "top-notch" visuals. While he and Ivey both declared "Safecracker"s plot an afterthought, neither writer felt that its simplicity detracted from the game. Both compared the proceedings to "Jewels of the Oracle", which Sluganski believed would limit its appeal, but he nonetheless strongly recommended "Safecracker" to puzzle devotees. Ivey offered a more general recommendation: to him, "Safecracker" was a "breezy good time, not to be missed."
Legacy.
With "Safecracker" as its first release, Daydream Software became an important force in Swedish games. A writer for the city of Umeå later remarked that Daydream "laid the foundation for the lucrative gaming industry in northern Sweden", which later included and Nifflas Games in Umeå itself. The team followed "Safecracker" with "Traitors Gate" (1999) and the online game "Clusterball" (2000). However, Daydream was hounded by problems related to its public launch. The Umeån writer noted that shareholders did not understand the game industry or "the time it takes to develop a large, extensive computer game", and that they demanded faster returns than the prospectus had promised. The "Wall Street Journal" reported that stocks had crashed at Daydream by early 1998. In retrospect, Nigel Papworth called the company's hit IPO "bad for us [in the end]. Here we were, blue-eyed, no proper management, no board." Jan Phersson-Broberg likewise believed that the IPO was premature. After a series of financial and management problems related to its public status, the developer was shuttered in 2003.
In April 2006, plans for another "Safecracker" installment were revealed by publisher DreamCatcher Interactive. It was developed by Kheops Studio, previously known for "Return to Mysterious Island". At the time of the announcement, Adventure Gamers reported that the game was to be a spiritual sequel rather than a direct follow-up, and that it would feature 35 safe puzzles. According to Kheops' Benoît Hozjan, DreamCatcher first contacted his team about developing a new "Safecracker" in early 2006, thanks to the original's status as a hit for the publisher. Kheops responded with a pitch for the game and suggested a story based on locating a will. Hozjan noted that the team had difficulty with the title's "fully puzzle-oriented" design, as its earlier projects had emphasized plot. The resultant game, entitled "", follows a safecracking professional who seeks the lost will of Duncan W. Adams, a wealthy collector of safes with unusual designs. After going gold in July 2006, the title reached store shelves in August. A port for the Wii was released in December 2008.


Insolia

Insolia is a component in the design of the high-heeled shoe designed by New Hampshire podiatrist Dr. Howard Dananberg. It reduces the pain associated with wearing high-heeled shoes by adjusting weight distribution back toward the heel through altering the geometry of the insole, rather than with padding.
Concept.
With ordinary high-heeled shoes, the body weight is concentrated to the toes; this can make the wearer uncomfortable. The Insolia design shifts some of this weight back to the heel in an attempt to reduce high heel foot pain. The weight shift is accomplished by altering the geometry of the insole.
Technology.
The original commercial implementation was an insole board that combined the structural elements of a high heel insole board with the patented Insolia contours. In early 2005, HBN Shoe developed the current implementation: an insole supplement that modifies a traditional high heel to give it the Insolia weight shifting geometry. This implementation is protected in the EU by one issued patent and other patents are pending in the US, the EU, and elsewhere. Insolia now also markets an after-market version that can be easily installed in shoes by consumers via its website.


Anthony Pryor

Anthony Pryor is the author and co-author of several roleplaying game products.
Career.
Anthony Pryor has worked as a game designer for Wizards of the Coast, Inc. His professional RPG credits include the 1992 Greyhawk setting modules "Patriots of Ulek" and "Rary the Traitor", the 1992 books "Dune Trader" and "Asticlian Gambit" for Dark Sun, "Creative Campaigning" in 1992, the 1993 version of "Lankhmar – City of Adventure", the 1994 "Marco Volo" module series ("Marco Volo: Departure", "Marco Volo: Journey", and "Marco Volo: Arrival") and "Spellbound" boxed set (1995) for Forgotten Realms, "The Rjurik Highlands" (1996) for Birthright, and the third edition "Drow of the Underdark" (2007) with Ari Marmell, Robert J. Schwalb, and Greg A. Vaughan. He also wrote extensive!y for the "Sword & Sorcery" imprint of White Wolf Games, producing d20 System material in the Scarred Lands and Ravenloft settings.


Nelson Coates

Nelson Coates is an American production designer for feature film and television. His motion picture credits include the upcoming Lin-Manuel Miranda musical "In the Heights", based on the Tony Award-winning Broadway show; Jon M. Chu’s romantic comedy "Crazy Rich Asians", the highest-grossing romantic comedy of the last decade; Robert Zemeckis’ dramatic thriller "Flight", which critics Roger Ebert and Owen Gleiberman placed on their top-10 lists; and the biographical drama "Antwone Fisher", which received a 2002 American Film Institute Award. Coates’ television projects include the mystery drama "Home Before Dark" and the second season of the drama "The Morning Show", both for Apple TV+.
Coates is currently serving his second term as President of the Art Directors Guild.
Early life.
Born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Coates began his lifelong involvement in the performing arts at an early age. He made his professional debut at six, acting, singing and dancing in regional theater. During high school, Coates also competed in gymnastics, developing an understanding of biomechanics, action and physical space that informed his design of Wesley Snipes’ escape route in "Murder at 1600 " and continues to benefit his work today.
Coates attended Abilene Christian University (ACU), graduating magna cum laude with a B.A. in journalism/mass communications and an emphasis in design. While in college, he performed in more than 30 cabarets, musicals and plays and simultaneously began to design for the stage.
Career.
After graduating, Coates appeared in off-Broadway and national touring productions while designing sets for several Dallas theater companies. His work for the Dallas Theater Center led to his first assignment designing for television, for the PBS series "Gerbert".
In 1990, Coates relocated from Texas to Los Angeles, where he built his career designing for movies and television series. He developed collaborative relationships with numerous directors, working with Gary Fleder on "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead", "Kiss the Girls" and "Runaway Jury"; Anne Fletcher on "The Guilt Trip", "The Proposal" and "Hot Pursuit"; Mimi Leder on "Thick as Thieves", "John Doe" and "On the Basis of Sex"; and Jon M. Chu on "Crazy Rich Asians", "Home Before Dark" and "In the Heights." Coates also designed Angelica Huston’s debut as a feature film director on " Bastard Out of Carolina", Bill Paxton’s on "Frailty" and Denzel Washington’s on "Antwone Fisher".
Entertainment industry recognition.
Coates was nominated for a 1997 Primetime Emmy Award for Stephen King’s "The Stand". He designed 225 sets for the four-part miniseries, including a recreation of a Nebraska cornfield on a Utah stage. Coates grew 3,250 cornstalks from seed to dress the set, but when Utah’s harshest winter in 100 years stunted the crop’s growth, he interspersed close-up worthy replicas.
Coates’ second major award nomination was for a 2008 Art Directors Guild Excellence in Production Design Award, Contemporary Film for "Flight", about a troubled pilot who crash lands a plane to save its occupants. Director Robert Zemeckis tasked the designer with creating a fictional, but believable airline that included the word “jet” in its name, but that avoided any real-world references.
Zemeckis wanted the passengers, crew and their belongings to react naturally to gravity during the accident. To solve this challenge, Coates built a full-length fuselage using modified, genuine, airline parts and that divided into sections. The fuselage, replete with performers and props, was mounted onto various motion simulation rigs including a “rotisserie rig” that rotated 180 degrees.
In her "New York Times" review, movie critic Manohla Dargis said, “…the accident in "Flight" is freakishly real… It’s a showstopper.”
On "Crazy Rich Asians," Coates’ directive was to bring Singapore’s tastes, traditions, culture and design to the silver screen. For greater authenticity, Coates imbued the characters with Peranakan heritage (it wasn’t in the original novel) and tapped its rich art, architecture and design practices for his sets.
Chu wanted the film’s climactic marriage ceremony “…to be a wedding like you’ve never seen before.” In the novel, the ceremony costs $40 million, but the project’s entire budget was only $30 million. Coates attended more than 35 Chinese and Singaporean weddings as research and designed a set in a former 19th Century convent that "Architectural Digest" described as a “church of nature.” He also developed a system for flooding the chapel that preserved the decorations so that the bride could walk on water down the aisle.
Coates won a 2018 Art Directors Guild Excellence in Production Design Award, Contemporary Film, for his designs for the film.
Additional movie projects.
Coates recreated the tundra town of Barrow, Alaska (later renamed Utqiagvik) in the warmer, greener, mountainous Anchorage for the feature film "Big Miracle" (2012). The remote town was the original setting for the movie’s true story about a 1988 whale rescue.
To prepare, Coates watched more than 70 hours of news and documentary footage. He built houses on wagons with varied looks so that the structures could be rearranged overnight to simulate different Barrow streets.
Coates also designed a multi-function water tank that was large enough to stage the underwater action, which included three robotic vehicles maneuvering three animatronic whales. He oversaw the whales’ fabrication so that they precisely matched the original animals in appearance and movement (the historical and new footage were intercut).
For "Fifty Shades Darker" (2017) and "Fifty Shades Freed" (2018), director James Foley hired Coates to reimagine the franchise’s world. The designer added texture and depth to the projects’ 160 sets and introduced visual references to reflect the characters’ backstories. The films were shot simultaneously over 106 days in 167 locations and required Coates to balance a myriad of details to maintain the visual integrity and continuity of each movie.
Entertainment industry and arts organizations.
Coates is serving his second term as President of the Art Directors Guild (ADG). In 2016 he oversaw the formation of ADG’s women’s and diversity committees to address issues in front of and behind the camera. Coates was also instrumental in creating and organizing the Guild’s first new member orientation and first member directory.
Coates is a voting member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS) and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), where he also serves on the Executive Committee of the Production Design Branch. He previously served on AMPAS’ Foreign Language Film Committee (later renamed the International Feature Film Committee).
Collegiate support.
Coates is a member of the Board of Trustees of Laguna College of Art and Design (LCAD), where he has co-chaired fundraising events to support student scholarships.
Coates speaks frequently at universities, including at his alma mater, Abilene Christian University. In 1996, he was named ACU’s Outstanding Young Alumnus of the Year and was accorded the University’s Department of Journalism/Mass Communications’ Gutenberg Award, which recognizes distinguished professional achievements by alumni.
Coates endowed two scholarships at ACU, one in production design and the second in education in honor of his parents.


Angus Abranson

Angus Abranson is a game designer, publisher and poet who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
Career.
Angus Abranson started playing "AD&D" in 1984, and by the age of 14 he was working for Leisure Games - one of the top game retailers in London. In the late 1980s and the early 1990s, Abranson was also writing for "Adventurer" (1986-1987) and other British RPG magazines and was one of the forces behind the foundation of the magazine "Valkyrie" in 1994 and regularly reported news, reviews and editorial for "Valkyrie" afterward.
Abranson was one of a team of London-based UK Roleplaying industry professionals, including "James Wallis", "Simon Rogers" and others, who grouped together to resurrect the "Dragonmeet" convention in 2000. Abranson brought Dragonmeet outright in 2005 and subsequently merged Dragonmeet with Cubicle 7 in 2009.
By 2003 Abranson was the flatmate of Dave Allsop, and they decided to form a new role-playing company called Cubicle 7. Their first priority was Allsop's "SLA Industries", so Abranson announced a publishing schedule of five "SLA Industries" books for 2004, and by the start of the year he had the first two in layout. Abranson and Dominic McDowall-Thomas were friends who regularly gamed and clubbed together, and he agreed to help edit the "SLA Industries" books for Abranson. In late 2006, Abranson and McDowall-Thomas properly formed Cubicle 7 Entertainment Limited, with the two of them as partners. Abranson and McDowall-Thomas handed the creation of "Victoriana" to Ian Sturrock and Andrew Peregrine, as they remained focus on the business side of things. Abranson recruited Chris Birch to write "Starblazer Adventures". After acquiring the "Doctor Who" license, Abranson and McDowall-Thomas needed investment by the end of 2008, and went to Matthew Sprange of Mongoose Publishing who introduced them to the Rebellion Group. Abranson and McDowall-Thomas were then able to go full-time for the first time in March 2009, and as a result Abranson left Leisure Games. Cubicle 7 began partnering with other companies, many of the over 20 companies thanks to Abranson's long-time connections within the industry. Cubicle 7 also acquired a number of licenses such as Charles Stross's The Laundry Files and "Lord of the Rings". The Cubicle 7 print partnerships were not as successful as hoped, reportedly having a "disastrous effect on the company's cashflow", and in November 2011 Abranson left Cubicle 7 to form Chronicle City. He continued the print partnership model at Chronicle City, while Cubicle 7 largely abandoned it,
Abranson went on to partner with long time associate James Desborough, who was appointed creative director at Chronicle City in 2013.
Whilst at Cubicle 7, Abranson, along with Fred Hicks of Evil Hat Productions, Arc Dream Publishing, Cellar Games, Pelgrane Press, and Rogue Games founded the Bits and Mortar Retailer Initiative in 2010.
Abranson has been a guest at a number of gaming conventions around the world, most significantly a Gen Con Industry Insider Guest in 2013, Origins Game Fair Special Guest in 2011, and UK Games Expo where he was also part of the "UK Games Expo Dragons Den" in 2014.
In 2016 Abranson was appointed business director at EN Publishing.
Abranson has written, or contributed to, a number of "role-playing game" book and magazines, such as Hillfolk by Pelgrane Press and "Cabal" by "Corone Design".
Abranson had a poetry anthology published through "Winter House Press" called "Wild Card Symphonies" in 2017.


WRC 9

WRC 9, also known as WRC 9 FIA World Rally Championship, is the official racing video game of the 2020 World Rally Championship. The game is developed by French developer Kylotonn and published by Nacon. It is available for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, released on 3 September 2020.
Development and release.
In March 2019, "WRC 9" was revealed as the official game of the 2020 FIA World Rally Championship alongside "WRC 10" and "WRC 11". It features 14 different locations (reflecting the 2020 season as it was originally intended to be run before the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many events being rescheduled or cancelled and new rallies added to the calendar), including all three returning rallies, Safari Rally, Rally New Zealand and Rally Japan, with up to fifty official crews from WRC, WRC-2, WRC-3 and J-WRC available for the player to choose. The game also features fifteen more landmark vehicles from the WRC history.
The game was released on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 3 September 2020 via Epic Games Store, and later on Nintendo Switch, with a further release date on the ninth generation of video game consoles PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S to be announced.
Reception.
Reception for "WRC 9" was generally favourable among critics. While troubled by smaller issues, improvements with car handling were noted in many outlets. Among critics, the game was scored at 80% by "Push Square". "Pixel Bandits" rated the title at 4/4, noting the fresh challenge provided to long-time fans of the series.


Advergame

An advergame is a form of advertising in video games, in which the video game is developed by or in close collaboration with a corporate entity for purposes of advertising a brand-name product. While other video games may use in-game advertising (such as an advertisement on a virtual billboard or branding on an in-game object), an advergame is differentiated by the Interactive Advertising Bureau as a "game specifically designed around [the] product or service being advertised". An advergame is considered a type of advertainment.
Advergames are commonly targeted to minors, who tend to be more responsive to persuasive messages that can be embedded in such games. Concerns have been raised by parents and advocates for children that such advergames can influence children's habits, particularly food-based products.
History.
Advergames (a portmanteau of "advertisement" and "video games") appeared early in the history of the video game industry. One of the first known attempts was a polo sport game tied into the brand Polo clothing label that Carol Shaw had been developing for the Atari 2600 around 1978 but which was cancelled before release. The first known released advergame was "Tapper", a 1983 arcade game. The game had been originally sponsored by brewer Anheuser-Busch, and predominately featured the brand's logo and with gameplay based on serving beer. Its release was targeted for bars or other establishments for adults, but the game proved popular, and a non-branded version "Root Beer Tapper" was released for general arcades, with beer replaced by root beer.
Numerous advergames were developed through the 1980s and 1990s for home video game consoles and personal computers, but with the introduction of wide-spread availability of the Internet, browser games became a popular route for advergames. Such games were cheaper to produce compared to previous advergames as well as to other traditional advertising routes such as television advertising. A Kaiser Family Foundation report in 2006 found that 73% of 96 food product companies had established dedicated sections of their websites with advergames that were targeted at children, with many of these offering multiple advergames.
Advergames moved into mobile games by around 2014, due to the proliferation of mobile devices and their common use by children.
Other examples.
Other examples of advergames that have achieved widespread awareness include:
Legal concerns.
Protection for children.
Because video games generally draw significant interest from minors, there are ethical and legal concerns around advergames. Whereas adults generally can recognize and resist persuasive advertising in games, younger children may not recognize that an advergame is a form of advertising and can be drawn in by statements made by the game.
One key market area of concern was food product-based advergames. The increased used of browser and mobile advergames in the mid-2000s led to concerns that such games would lead to an increase in the childhood obesity rate. In particular, many food-based advergames promote less nutritious products like snack foods. However, research has shown that the influence of advergames is not limited to foods with poor nutrition, as a study using advergames designed around healthy food choices led to the monitored children to select a healthier snack when presented a variety of choices.
False advertising.
Advergames can run afoul of laws established related to truth in advertising. Making false claims, even if in language not intended to be advertising, in advergames can result in penalties and fines by the national or regional consumer protection agencies. In a notable case, the Gatorade company, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, had published a free mobile game "Bolt!" which featured Usain Bolt and challenged the player to "keep your performance high by avoiding water". The state of California asserted this claim was false, as Gatorade had been shown to be more harmful to the human body than water, and with the game targeted to youth, send the wrong message. The state sued Gatorade, and the case was ultimately settled with Gatorade paying a fine to the state, part of which the state used to promote health-conscious water-drinking habits for children.
National regulations and oversight.
In the United States, attempts have been made by the United States Congress to give the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) authority to oversee online advertising aimed at children, including advergames, but had been challenged by lobbies representing the food industry and effectively shut down such attempts. Nevertheless, the propagation of online games and advertising aimed at children led to passage of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in 2000, which set strict standards for what type of private information websites could collect from minors, with the FTC overseeing any such fines.
In the United Kingdom, advergames regulation was brought into coverage by the CAP Code or the Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing in 2016. The CAP code, updated frequently, provides specific guidance on what advergames (among other types of advertising) can and cannot do, with specific attention to how such games may influence children. CAP code violations are monitored and penalized by the Advertising Standards Authority.
Other concerns.
Messaging in advergames may backfire and impact the reputation of the brand the game promotes. A notable example from Intel, which had published in 2004 "The Intel IT Manager Game", a browser-based game that attempted to give insight into the job opportunities of an information technology manager, including simulating the hires of new employees. However, the game only allowed male employees to be hired by design, and Intel received criticism for discounting female hires. The game was taken offline and later replaced with a new version that had equal gender representation. While the situation could be compared to a similar problem around the game "Fable" which also forced players to male avatars, the real-world setting of Intel's game was seen as a more serious flaw, and at the time, gender representation in the information technology industry was a serious concern.


Roger Sanger

Roger Sanger is an American game designer and the owner of Digest Group Publications, a small publishing firm focused on the role-playing game market and specifically on the game "Traveller".
Career.
Roger Sanger, a fan of "Traveller", came to Joe Fugate's door one morning late in 1994, looking to buy books from Fugate's company Digest Group Publications; Sanger bought some of the remaining backstock at that time, as Fugate was still paying back creditors and holding onto the boxes of remaining DGP items that he owned. Over the next nine months Sanger came to an agreement whereby he paid Fugate a few thousand dollars for the remaining assets of DGP, including copyrights and trademarks; Fugate would keep the larger debts, but Sanger would take care of the smaller debts. Fugate agreed to this arrangement, and Sanger became owner of DGP. Initially Sanger wanted to republish DGP material and support the fourth edition of "Traveller" (1996), published by Imperial Games, but Sanger was unable to come up with an agreement with Marc Miller.


Motomu Toriyama

 is a Japanese game director and scenario writer who has been working for Square Enix since 1994. He initially worked on cutscenes in "Bahamut Lagoon" and "Final Fantasy VII" before serving as one of the 3 directors on "Final Fantasy X" under Yoshinori Kitase where he was incharge of events.
Toriyama started directing himself with "Final Fantasy X-2" and has continued doing so with ', "Blood of Bahamut", "Final Fantasy XIII", "Final Fantasy XIII-2", ' and "Mobius Final Fantasy".
He also co-directed the "Final Fantasy VII Remake" and is part of the "Final Fantasy" Committee that is tasked with keeping the franchise's releases and content consistent.
Biography.
Motomu Toriyama joined Square around the time of the "Final Fantasy VI" launch in 1994. He later mentioned that he enjoyed how everyone on the development team had the opportunity to contribute their ideas without any solid job description. He was assigned to work on "Bahamut Lagoon" as his first project due to his lack of game development experience. For "Final Fantasy VII", Toriyama designed events such as the ones taking place at the Honey Bee Inn. As the designers were given much artistic freedom, he would often create cutscenes that were unlikely to be approved and thus were eventually changed or removed. Toriyama also wrote and directed many of the scenes revolving around the romance between Aerith Gainsborough and Cloud Strife. He tried to make Aerith an important character to the player in order to maximize the impact of her death later in the plot.
After the merger between Square and Enix in 2003, many rookie staff members had to be trained and there were more new platforms to develop for with the release of the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. Toriyama decided to assemble and direct a team of scenario writers and joined various game projects. He later collaborated with "Final Fantasy X" main programmer Koji Sugimoto and supervisor Yoshinori Kitase to create a "Final Fantasy VII" tech demo for the PlayStation 3. Development of this took around 6 weeks. During the first year after the development start of "Final Fantasy XIII" in April 2004, Toriyama thought up a story premised on the "Fabula Nova Crystallis" mythology created by Kazushige Nojima. In March 2006, when the structural part of the narrative started to come together and lead scenario writer Daisuke Watanabe joined the team, Toriyama showed him a rough outline of what he had written and asked him to flesh out the story and to correct how everything would connect.
Toriyama has been the scenario director and supervisor on games in the "Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles" series as well as "" and "The 3rd Birthday", which entailed the creation of a story concept and the supervision of the character conception and scenario writing by his team of authors. For "Lightning Returns", he added an online communication system known as the "Outerworld Services". Among others, it enabled players to write posts on social networks that would then appear as a non-playable character's comment in another player's game. Toriyama's goal with this was to create an online community where the individual members would interact and enjoy the game's world together without being online at the same time, as a precursor to online features found in eight-generation video game consoles. The main ideas for all the areas in "Lightning Returns" came from him as well.
Toriyama has been incharge of the music for all of the games he's directed since "Final Fantasy X". With "Final Fantasy XIII" he wrote lyrics for the first time and again did so for its two sequels and later "Mobius Final Fantasy". With "Final Fantasy VII Remake" he wrote all of the song titles for the first time in addition to again writing lyrics.
Game design.
Toriyama believes his strength is in directing games that are very story-driven. He also thinks that it becomes very difficult to tell a compelling story when the player is given a huge amount of freedom to explore. According to him, the most important aspect of a "Final Fantasy" game is the characters. Toriyama explains that there are different approaches to creating a protagonist: with Yuna from "Final Fantasy X", the general plot had already been set when the character was conceived; with Lightning from "Final Fantasy XIII" instead, the character's personality was decided upon before the backstory was written. He feels that a developer needs to "essentially fall in love at first sight with a character" to "keep [themselves] going". Toriyama considers the voice the "main image of the character" and thus "the most delicate part of making the character".
Toriyama has stated that the aim of the linear game design used in the first half of "Final Fantasy XIII" was to feel like watching a film. This was done to absorb the player into the story and to introduce them to the characters and their battle abilities without becoming distracted or lost. Toriyama explained that the amount of memory and processing power needed to produce impressive graphics was the main reason not to have a seamless battle system for "Final Fantasy XIII". He is interested in using first-person shooter games for inspiration rather than Western role-playing video games, as he believes they give a better sense of tension during battles. Toriyama would later use games such as "Red Dead Redemption" and "" as inspirations for "Final Fantasy XIII-2" and "Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII", respectively. He feels that his role of director marked a shift from creating a game world based on his own vision to unifying a team's ideas into a cohesive whole.


Richard Peduzzi

Richard Peduzzi (born 1943 in Argentan, Orne) is a French scenographer. He was the director of the French Academy in Rome from September 2002 to August 2008.
Since 1969, he has decorated the sets designed by Patrice Chéreau, and together they have put on several dramatic texts by Bernard-Marie Koltès. In the theatre, they participated in the centennial productions of "Der Ring des Nibelungen" at Bayreuth under the direction of Pierre Boulez. For the Opéra National de Paris, they presented Alban Berg's "Lulu", and Jacques Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffmann", and for the La Scala, Milan, they collaborated on Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" (2007). Peduzzi also created films with Chéreau, such as "La Reine Margot" and "Ceux qui m'aiment prendront le train". He was nominated for a César Award for Best Production Design in 1976 for his work on "La Chair de l'orchidée".
Peduzzi's sets are often formed of large vertical masses symbolising the dangers that threaten the characters.


Hum Award for Best Television Film

The Hum Award for Best Television Film is one of the Hum Awards of Merit presented annually by the Hum Television Network and Entertainment Channel (HTNEC) to producers working in the Television industry. Since its inception, however, the award has commonly been referred to as the hum for Best Telefilm.
History.
Hum Television Network and Entertainment Channel presented this award to producers of Pakistani TV industry, as of first ceremony total of four telefilms were nominated and Asim Raza was honored at 2nd Hum Awards ceremony 2012 for telefilm "Behadd".
Winners and nominees.
In the list below, winners are listed first in the colored row, followed by the other nominees. Following the hum's practice, the telefilms below are listed by year of their Pakistan qualifying run, which is usually (but not always) the sitcom's year of release.
For the first ceremony, the eligibility period spanned full calendar years. For example, the 2nd Hum Awards presented on March 29, 2014, to declared the best telefilms of the years that were released between January, 2013, and December, 2013, the period of eligibility is the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31.
Date and the award ceremony shows that the 2010 is the period from 2010-2020 (10 years-decade), while the year above winners and nominees shows that the telefilms year in which they were telecast, and the figure in bracket shows the ceremony number, for example; an award ceremony is held for the dramas of its previous year.


Saitek

Saitek was a designer and manufacturer of consumer electronics founded in 1979 by Swiss technologist Eric Winkler. They are best known for their PC gaming controllers, mice, keyboards, and their numerous analogue flight controllers such as joysticks, throttles, and rudder pedals.
Most Saitek products have been rebranded as Logitech G products since their acquisition by the company.
History.
Saitek (originally called SciSys until 1987) was founded in 1979 by Swiss technologist Eric Winkler as a manufacturer of electronic chess games. By the 1990s the company had distribution and design offices in the United States, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, as well as a factory in China. In 1994, Saitek acquired Hegner & Glaser's successful Mephisto line of chess computers. Saitek diversified into PC peripherals, focusing on game controllers for flight simulation, driving and first-person gaming. Saitek has also expanded into PC peripherals, with an emphasis on input, connectivity and multimedia. In 2005, Saitek launched a high fidelity audio product line for PC & iPod.
On November 14, 2007, Mad Catz announced that they had purchased Saitek for $30 million.
On September 15, 2016, Logitech announced that they had purchased the Saitek brand and assets from Mad Catz for $13 million in cash.