Douglas E. Smith
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Douglas E. Smith
Douglas E. Smith (28 October 1960 – 7 September 2014), usually credited as Doug Smith, was an American video game designer and programmer best known as the author of the 8-bit game ''Lode Runner'' (1983), considered a seminal work of the 1980s. Smith, of Renton, Washington, wrote his most famous game while an architecture student at the University of Washington. He wrote the game on a VAX-11/780 in Fortran with some Pascal and assembly over the course of a summer, where it was played by students who provided feedback and levels. It became a "cult hit" on campus. After his nephew asked to play on the Apple II+ he ported it over a 3-day weekend in 6502 assembly language. He borrowed money to purchase a color monitor and joystick and continued to improve the game. Around Christmas of 1982, he submitted the game to four publishers and quickly received offers. He took the deal with Broderbund and the game was published in 1983. It was one of the first games to include a level e ...
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Video Game Designer
Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdisciplines are world design, level design, system design, content design, and user interface design. Within the video game industry, video game design is usually just referred to as " game design", which is a more general term elsewhere. The video game designer is very much like the director of a film; the designer is the visionary of the game and controls the artistic and technical elements of the game in fulfillment of their vision. However, with very complex games, such as MMORPGs or a big budget action or sports title, designers may number in the dozens. In these cases, there are generally one or two principal designers and many junior designers who specify subsets or subsystems of the game. As the industry has aged and embraced alternative pr ...
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Assembly Language
In computer programming, assembly language (or assembler language, or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as Assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence between the instructions in the language and the architecture's machine code instructions. Assembly language usually has one statement per machine instruction (1:1), but constants, comments, assembler directives, symbolic labels of, e.g., memory locations, registers, and macros are generally also supported. The first assembly code in which a language is used to represent machine code instructions is found in Kathleen and Andrew Donald Booth's 1947 work, ''Coding for A.R.C.''. Assembly code is converted into executable machine code by a utility program referred to as an '' assembler''. The term "assembler" is generally attributed to Wilkes, Wheeler and Gill in their 1951 book '' The Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Di ...
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Video Game Artists
Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) systems which, in turn, were replaced by flat panel displays of several types. Video systems vary in display resolution, aspect ratio, refresh rate, color capabilities and other qualities. Analog and digital variants exist and can be carried on a variety of media, including radio broadcast, magnetic tape, optical discs, computer files, and network streaming. History Analog video Video technology was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) television systems, but several new technologies for video display devices have since been invented. Video was originally exclusively a live technology. Charles Ginsburg led an Ampex research team developing one of the first practical vi ...
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Video Game Designers
Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) systems which, in turn, were replaced by flat panel displays of several types. Video systems vary in display resolution, aspect ratio, refresh rate, color capabilities and other qualities. Analog and digital variants exist and can be carried on a variety of media, including radio broadcast, magnetic tape, optical discs, computer files, and network streaming. History Analog video Video technology was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) television systems, but several new technologies for video display devices have since been invented. Video was originally exclusively a live technology. Charles Ginsburg led an Ampex research team developing one of the first practical vide ...
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2014 Deaths
This is a list of deaths of notable people, organised by year. New deaths articles are added to their respective month (e.g., Deaths in ) and then linked here. 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 See also * Lists of deaths by day * Deaths by year {{DEFAULTSORT:deaths by year ...
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1960 Births
Year 196 ( CXCVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Dexter and Messalla (or, less frequently, year 949 '' Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 196 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus attempts to assassinate Clodius Albinus but fails, causing Albinus to retaliate militarily. * Emperor Septimius Severus captures and sacks Byzantium; the city is rebuilt and regains its previous prosperity. * In order to assure the support of the Roman legion in Germany on his march to Rome, Clodius Albinus is declared Augustus by his army while crossing Gaul. * Hadrian's wall in Britain is partially destroyed. China * First year of the '' Jian'an era of the Chinese Han Dynasty. * Emperor ...
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Secret Of Evermore
''Secret of Evermore'' is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in North America on October 1, 1995, and in Europe and Australia in February 1996. A Japanese release was planned to follow the North American release by a few months but was ultimately cancelled. The story of ''Secret of Evermore'' follows a boy and his pet dog as they are inadvertently transported to the fantasy world of Evermore. The player guides both the boy and his shapeshifting dog through Evermore, a world composed of separate realms, each resembling a different period of real-world history: "Prehistoria" (prehistory), "Antiqua" (classical antiquity), "Gothica" (the Middle Ages), and "Omnitopia" (an imaginative future world). The gameplay shares many similarities with ''Secret of Mana'', such as real-time battles, a ring-shaped menu system, and the ability to switch control between the two characters. Despite similar game mec ...
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Chrono Trigger
is a 1995 role-playing video game developed and published by Square. It was originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as the first game in the ''Chrono'' series. The game's development team included three designers that Square dubbed the "Dream Team": Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Square's '' Final Fantasy'' series; Yuji Horii, creator of Enix's '' Dragon Quest'' series; and Akira Toriyama, character designer of ''Dragon Quest'' and author of the ''Dragon Ball'' manga series. In addition, Takashi Tokita co-directed the game and co-wrote the scenario, Kazuhiko Aoki produced the game, Masato Kato wrote most of the story, while composer Yasunori Mitsuda wrote most of the soundtrack before falling ill and deferring the remaining tracks to ''Final Fantasy'' series composer Nobuo Uematsu. The game's story follows a group of adventurers who travel through time to prevent a global catastrophe. ''Chrono Trigger'' was a critical and commercial success u ...
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Secret Of Mana
''Secret of Mana'', originally released in Japan as is a 1993 action role-playing game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the sequel to the 1991 game ''Seiken Densetsu'', released in North America as ''Final Fantasy Adventure'' and in Europe as ''Mystic Quest'', and it was the first ''Seiken Densetsu'' title to be marketed as part of the ''Mana'' series rather than the ''Final Fantasy'' series. Set in a high fantasy universe, the game follows three heroes as they attempt to prevent an empire from conquering the world with the power of an ancient flying fortress. Rather than using a turn-based battle system like contemporaneous role-playing games, ''Secret of Mana'' features real-time battles with a power bar mechanic. The game has a unique Ring Command menu system, which pauses the action and allows the player to make decisions in the middle of battle. An innovative cooperative multiplayer system allows a s ...
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USgamer
Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British mass media company based in Brighton. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and other video game businesses. Its flagship website, ''Eurogamer'', was launched alongside the company. In February 2018, Gamer Network was acquired by ReedPop. Gamer Network also organises the EGX trade fair. History Gamer Network was founded under the name Eurogamer Network in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. It was formed alongside the opening of its flagship website, ''Eurogamer'', which itself launched on 4 September 1999. Nick Loman left the business in 2004 to pursue a career in medicine and "competitive BBQ". In February 2011, Eurogamer Network acquired American publishing house Hammersuit, alongside its IndustryGamers.com and Modojo.com websites. On 1 March 2013, in line with the international expansion, Eurogamer Network a ...
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Broderbund
Broderbund Software, Inc. (stylized as Brøderbund) was an American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits ''Choplifter'', ''Lode Runner'', ''Karateka'', and ''Prince of Persia'' (all of which originated on the Apple II), as well as ''The Print Shop''—originally for printing signs and banners on dot matrix printers—and the ''Myst'' and ''Carmen Sandiego'' games. The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon, and moved to San Rafael, California, then later to Novato, California. Brøderbund was purchased by SoftKey in 1998. Many of Broderbund's software titles, such as ''The Print Shop'', '' PrintMaster'', and ''Mavis Beacon'', are still published under the name "Brøderbund". Games released by the revived Broderbund are distributed by Encore, Inc. ''Brøderbund'' is now the brand name for Riverdeep's graphic design, productivity, and edutainment titles such as The Print Shop, ''Carmen Sandiego' ...
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MOS Technology 6502
The MOS Technology 6502 (typically pronounced "sixty-five-oh-two" or "six-five-oh-two") William Mensch and the moderator both pronounce the 6502 microprocessor as ''"sixty-five-oh-two"''. is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by a small team led by Chuck Peddle for MOS Technology. The design team had formerly worked at Motorola on the Motorola 6800 project; the 6502 is essentially a simplified, less expensive and faster version of that design. When it was introduced in 1975, the 6502 was the least expensive microprocessor on the market by a considerable margin. It initially sold for less than one-sixth the cost of competing designs from larger companies, such as the 6800 or Intel 8080. Its introduction caused rapid decreases in pricing across the entire processor market. Along with the Zilog Z80, it sparked a series of projects that resulted in the home computer revolution of the early 1980s. Popular video game consoles and home computers of the 1980s and early 1990s ...
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