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Halcyon (console)
The Halcyon is an unreleased home video game console produced by RDI Video Systems. The system was planned to be released in January 1985, with initial retail price for the system being . Fewer than a dozen units are known to exist and it never reached retailers because of a lack of affordable disc players. The design featured a LaserDisc player and attached computer, each the size of an early-model VCR. Of the six games planned, only two games were released: ''Thayer's Quest'' and ''NFL Football LA Raiders vs SD Chargers''. RDI Video Systems claimed that the system would be entirely voice-activated, and would have an artificial intelligence akin to HAL 9000 from '' 2001: A Space Odyssey''. History Rick Dyer was one of the many fans of the interactive fiction game '' Adventure'', and wanted to develop his own game, Shadoan, which was an expansive fantasy game inspired by '' The Lord of the Rings''. He envisioned a game that would feature illustrations of every scene, and d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RDI Video Systems
RDI Video Systems (Rick Dyer Industries) was a video game company founded by Rick Dyer originally as Advanced Microcomputer Systems, and was well known for its Laserdisc video games, beginning with the immensely popular ''Dragon's Lair''. The company went bankrupt shortly after releasing the Halcyon gaming console. Games *'' Zzyzzyxx'' (1982) *''Dragon's Lair ''Dragon's Lair'' is a video game franchise created by Rick Dyer and Don Bluth. The series is famous for its Western animation-style graphics and complex decades-long history of being ported to many platforms and being remade into television a ...'' (1983) *'' Space Ace'' (1984) *'' Thayer's Quest'' (1984) (Released first for the Halcyon, and later in arcades) *''Raiders vs. Chargers'' (1985) (Released first for the Halcyon, and later in arcades as ''NFL Football'') *''Orpheus'', not released *''The Spirits of Whittier Mansion'', not released *''The Shadow of the Stars'', not released *''Voyage to the New World'', not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microprocessor
A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry required to perform the functions of a computer's central processing unit. The integrated circuit is capable of interpreting and executing program instructions and performing arithmetic operations. The microprocessor is a multipurpose, Clock signal, clock-driven, Processor register, register-based, digital integrated circuit that accepts binary code, binary data as input, processes it according to instruction (computing), instructions stored in its computer memory, memory, and provides results (also in binary form) as output. Microprocessors contain both combinational logic and sequential logic, sequential digital logic, and operate on numbers and symbols represented in the binary number system. The integration of a whole CPU onto a s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Wolf (animator)
Fred Wolf (born September 13, 1932) is an American animator. His works include the 1967 short subject '' The Box'', for which he won an Academy Award; television specials such as ''The Point!'' and '' Free to Be...You and Me'', and television series such as ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'', '' James Bond Jr.'', and Sarah Ferguson’s ''Budgie the Little Helicopter''. Wolf was also responsible for the famous Tootsie Pops “How Many Licks” commercial. In the 1960s, Wolf set up a studio in Hollywood, California with Japanese-American animator Jimmy T. Murakami (later of ''The Snowman''). The studio was called Murakami-Wolf Films. In 1978, animator Charles Swenson became a partner, and the company became known as Murakami-Wolf-Swenson. Both Murakami and Swenson eventually left the company, and in 1992, it became Fred Wolf Films. In 1989, MWS established a satellite studio in Dublin, Ireland, known as Murakami-Wolf Dublin before eventually adopting its current name (Fred Wolf F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Firmware
In computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for a device's specific hardware. Firmware, such as the BIOS of a personal computer, may contain basic functions of a device, and may provide hardware abstraction services to higher-level software such as operating systems. For less complex devices, firmware may act as the device's complete operating system, performing all control, monitoring and data manipulation functions. Typical examples of devices containing firmware are embedded systems (running embedded software), home and personal-use appliances, computers, and computer peripherals. Firmware is held in non-volatile memory devices such as ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory. Updating firmware requires ROM integrated circuits to be physically replaced, or EPROM or flash memory to be reprogrammed through a special procedure. Some firmware memory devices are permanently installed and cannot be changed after manufact ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cassandra Peterson
Cassandra Peterson (born September 17, 1951) is an American actress. She is best known for her portrayal of the horror hostess character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Peterson gained fame on Los Angeles television station KHJ-TV in her stage persona as Elvira, hosting ''Elvira's Movie Macabre'', a weekly B movie presentation. A member of the Los Angeles-based improvisational and sketch comedy troupe The Groundlings, Peterson based her Elvira persona in part on a "Valley girl"-type character she created while a member of the troupe. The popularity of ''Elvira's Movie Macabre'' led to the 1988 film '' Elvira: Mistress of the Dark'', and later the 2001 film '' Elvira's Haunted Hills'', both starring Peterson as Elvira. The television show was revived in 2010, featuring Elvira hosting public domain films, and airing on This TV until 2011. Elvira returned as a horror hostess in 2014 with ''13 Nights of Elvira'', a 13-episode series produced by Hulu, and again in 2021 for a one-nig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quinn Martin
Quinn Martin (born Irwin Martin Cohn; May 22, 1922 – September 5, 1987) was an American television producer. He had at least one television series running in prime time every year for 21 straight years (from 1959 to 1980). Martin is a member of the Television Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 1997. Early life Born on May 22, 1922, in New York City, Martin was the second of two children. His father, Martin Goodman Cohn, was a film editor and producer at the studios of Metro Goldwyn Mayer; his mother was Anna Messing Cohn. He was of Jewish descent. From the age of 4, he was raised in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from Fairfax High School, then served five years in the United States Army during World War II, enlisting in the Signal Corps at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro, California on September 10, 1940, and achieving the rank of sergeant. He later changed his name to Quinn Martin. While attending the University of California at Berkeley, Martin majored in Engl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merv Griffin
Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 he hosted his own talk show, ''The Merv Griffin Show''. He also created the game shows ''Jeopardy!'' and '' Wheel of Fortune'' through his production companies, Merv Griffin Enterprises and Merv Griffin Entertainment. Early life Griffin was born July 6, 1925, in San Mateo, California, to Mervyn Edward Griffin Sr., a stockbroker, and Rita Elizabeth Griffin (née Robinson), a homemaker. He had an older sister, Barbara. When he was a child, Griffin used to play Hangman games with his sister during family road trips. It was these games which inspired him to create the game show '' Wheel of Fortune'' in 1975. The family was Irish American. Raised as a Catholic, Griffin started singing in his church choir as a boy, and by his teens was earning extra money as a ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Random Access
Random access (more precisely and more generally called direct access) is the ability to access an arbitrary element of a sequence in equal time or any datum from a population of addressable elements roughly as easily and efficiently as any other, no matter how many elements may be in the set. In computer science it is typically contrasted to sequential access which requires data to be retrieved in the order it was stored. For example, data might be stored notionally in a single sequence like a row, in two dimensions like rows and columns on a surface, or in multiple dimensions. However, given all the coordinates, a program can access each record about as quickly and easily as any other. In this sense, the choice of datum is arbitrary in the sense that no matter which item is sought, all that is needed to find it is its address, i.e. the coordinates at which it is located, such as its row and column (or its track and record number on a magnetic drum). At first, the term "random ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constant Angular Velocity
In optical storage, constant angular velocity (CAV) is a qualifier for the rated speed of any disc containing information, and may also be applied to the writing speed of recordable discs. A drive or disc operating in CAV mode maintains a constant angular velocity, contrasted with a constant linear velocity (CLV). A typical CD-ROM drive operates in CLV mode, in contrast to a floppy or hard disk drive, or gramophone, which operates in CAV mode. In CAV mode, the spindle motor turns at a constant speed, which makes the medium pass by the read/write head faster when the head is positioned at the outside of the disk. In contrast, in CLV mode, the spindle motor speed varies so that the medium passes by the head at the same speed regardless of where on the disk the head is positioned. If the disk is recorded at the same areal density throughout, then when read or written in CAV mode, the data rate is higher for the outer tracks than for the inner tracks, whereas in CLV mode, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laserdisc
The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diameter typically spans . Unlike most optical disc standards, LaserDisc is not fully Digital data, digital, and instead requires the use of analog video signals. Although the format was capable of offering higher-quality video and audio than its consumer rivals—VHS and Betamax videotape—LaserDisc never managed to gain widespread use in North America, largely due to high costs for the players and the inability to record TV programmes. It eventually did gain some traction in that region and became somewhat popular in the 1990s. It was not a popular format in Europe and Australia. By contrast, the format was much more popular in Japan and in the more affluent regions of Southeast Asia, such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, and was the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capacitance Electronic Disc
The Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED) is an analog video disc playback system developed by RCA, in which video and audio could be played back on a TV set using a special stylus and high-density groove system similar to phonograph records. First conceived in 1964, the CED system was widely seen as a technological success which was able to increase the density of a long-playing record by two orders of magnitude. Despite this achievement, the CED system fell victim to poor planning, various conflicts with RCA management, and several technical difficulties that slowed development and stalled production of the system for 17 years—until 1981, by which time it had already been made obsolete by laser videodisc ( DiscoVision, later called LaserVision and LaserDisc) as well as Betamax and VHS video cassette formats. Sales for the system were nowhere near projected estimates. In the spring of 1984, RCA announced it was discontinuing player production, but continued the production of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edutainment
Educational entertainment (also referred to as edutainment) is media designed to educate through entertainment. The term was used as early as 1954 by Walt Disney. Most often it includes content intended to teach but has incidental entertainment value. It has been used by academia, corporations, governments, and other entities in various countries to disseminate information in classrooms and/or via television, radio, and other media to influence viewers' opinions and behaviors. History Concept Interest in combining education with entertainment, especially in order to make learning more enjoyable, has existed for hundreds of years, with the Renaissance and Enlightenment being movements in which this combination was presented to students.. Komenský in particular is affiliated with the "school as play" concept, which proposes pedagogy with dramatic or delightful elements. '' Poor Richard's Almanack'' demonstrates early implementation of edutainment, with Benjamin Franklin c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
