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Invasion Of The Space Invaders
''Invasion of the Space Invaders: An Addict's Guide to Battle Tactics, Big Scores and the Best Machines'' is a 1982 non-fiction book on video games by the British author Martin Amis. The foreword is written by American filmmaker Steven Spielberg, also an arcade game enthusiast. Writing in ''The Village Voice'', U.S. author Paul Collins described the book as "completely endearing in its utter dorkiness", while English writer and videogame enthusiast Simon Parkin in ''The Guardian'' described it as "a valuable snapshot of early critical thinking about video games". Written during what has been called the golden age of arcade video games, the book comprises three parts: a survey of the 1980s arcade scene in New York City, London, Paris and elsewhere, with Amis's musings on video games as a phenomenon; cheat sheets with tips and tricks for 20 prominent games, including ''Space Invaders'', '' Defender'' and ''Pac-Man''; and a look to the future with the impending arrival of home gamin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Amis
Martin Louis Amis (born 25 August 1949) is a British novelist, essayist, memoirist, and screenwriter. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and ''London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his memoir ''Experience'' and has been listed for the Booker Prize twice (shortlisted in 1991 for ''Time's Arrow'' and longlisted in 2003 for '' Yellow Dog''). Amis served as the Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester until 2011. In 2008, ''The Times'' named him one of the fifty greatest British writers since 1945. Amis's work centres on the excesses of " late-capitalist" Western society, whose perceived absurdity he often satirises through grotesque caricature; he has been portrayed as a master of what ''The New York Times'' called "the new unpleasantness".Stout, Mira"Martin Amis: Down London's mean streets" ''The New York Times'', 4 February 1990. Inspired by Saul Bellow and Vladimir Nabokov, as we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Invaders
is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter and set the template for the shoot 'em up genre. The goal is to defeat wave after wave of descending aliens with a horizontally moving laser to earn as many points as possible. Designer Nishikado drew inspiration from North American target shooting games like '' Breakout'' (1976) and ''Gun Fight'' (1975), as well as science fiction narratives such as the novel ''The War of the Worlds'' (1897), the anime ''Space Battleship Yamato'' (1974), and the movie ''Star Wars'' (1977). To complete development of the game, he had to design custom hardware and development tools. Upon release, ''Space Invaders'' was an immediate commercial success; by 1982, it had grossed $3.8 billion (equivalent to over adjusted for inflation ), with a net profit of $ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mark O'Connell (writer)
Mark O'Connell (born 23 June 1979) is an Irish author and journalist. His debut book, ''To Be A Machine'', was published in 2017, followed by ''Notes From an Apocalypse'' in 2020. His third book, ''A Thread of Violence'', was published in 2023. He has written for publications including ''The New Yorker'', ''The New York Times Magazine'', ''The New York Review of Books'', and ''The Guardian''. He is also the author of the Kindle Single ''Epic Fail: Bad Art, Viral Fame, and the History of the Worst Thing Ever'' (Byliner/The Millions), as well as an academic study of the novels of John Banville. Education and personal life O’Connell was born in Kilkenny in 1979, and grew up there. His father worked as a pharmacist. O’Connell has an older brother and a younger sister. He studied English at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), completed a PhD in the novels of John Banville, and graduated in 2011. He lives in Dublin. Major works In 2017, O'Connell published ''To Be a Machine, To Be a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edge (magazine)
''Edge'' is a multi-format video game magazine published by Future plc. It is a UK-based magazine and publishes 13 issues annually. The magazine was launched by Steve Jarratt. It has also released foreign editions in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. History The magazine was launched in October 1993 by Steve Jarratt, a long-time video games journalist who has launched several other magazines for Future. The artwork for the cover of the magazine's 100th issue was specially provided by Shigeru Miyamoto. The 200th issue was released in March 2009 with 200 different covers, each commemorating a single game; 199 variants were in general circulation, and one was exclusive to subscribers. Only 200 magazines were printed with each cover, sufficient to more than satisfy ''Edge''s circulation of 28,898. In October 2003, the then-editor of ''Edge'', João Diniz-Sanches, left the magazine along with deputy editor David McCarthy and other staff writers. After the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Review Of Books
The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of Books'' was founded in 1979, when publication of ''The Times Literary Supplement'' was suspended during the year-long lock-out at ''The Times''. Its founding editors were Karl Miller, then professor of English at University College London; Mary-Kay Wilmers, formerly an editor at ''The Times Literary Supplement''; and Susannah Clapp, a former editor at Jonathan Cape. For its first six months, it appeared as an insert in ''The New York Review of Books''. It became an independent publication in May 1980. Its political stance has been described by Alan Bennett, a prominent contributor, as "consistently radical". Unlike ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (TLS), the majority of the articles the ''LRB'' publishes (usually fifteen per issue) are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Shippey
Thomas Alan Shippey (born 9 September 1943) is a British medievalist, a retired scholar of Middle and Old English literature as well as of modern fantasy and science fiction. He is considered one of the world's leading academic experts on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien about whom he has written several books and many scholarly papers. His book ''The Road to Middle-Earth'' has been called "the single best thing written on Tolkien". Shippey's education and academic career have in several ways retraced those of Tolkien: he attended King Edward's School, Birmingham, became a professional philologist, occupied Tolkien's professorial chair at the University of Leeds, and taught Old English at the University of Oxford to the syllabus that Tolkien had devised. He has received three Mythopoeic Awards and a World Fantasy Award. He participated in the creation of Peter Jackson's ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy, assisting the dialect coaches. He featured as an expert medievalist i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation for high quality design and production and a fine list of English-language authors, fostered by the firm's editor and reader Edward Garnett. Cape's list of writers ranged from poets including Robert Frost and C. Day Lewis, to children's authors such as Hugh Lofting and Arthur Ransome, to James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, to heavyweight fiction by James Joyce and T. E. Lawrence. After Cape's death, the firm later merged successively with three other London publishing houses. In 1987 it was taken over by Random House. Its name continues as one of Random House's British imprints. Cape – biography Early years Herbert Jonathan Cape was born in London on 15 November 1879, the youngest of the seven children of Jonathan Cape, a clerk from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hutchinson (publisher)
Hutchinson was a British publishing firm which operated from 1887 until 1985, when it underwent several mergers. It is currently an imprint which is ultimately owned by Bertelsmann, the German publishing conglomerate. History Hutchinson began as Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., an English book publisher, founded in London in 1887 by Sir George Hutchinson and later run by his son, Walter Hutchinson (1887–1950). Hutchinson's published books and magazines such as '' The Lady's Realm'', ''Adventure-story Magazine'', ''Hutchinson's Magazine'' and ''Woman''.Ashley, M. (2006). ''The Age of Storytellers. British Popular Fiction Magazines 1880–1950''. London: The British Library and Oak Knoll Press. In the 1920s, Walter Hutchinson published many of the "spook stories" of E. F. Benson in ''Hutchinson's Magazine'' and then in collections in a number of books. The company also first published Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger novels, five novels by mystery writer Harry Step ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Money (novel)
''Money: A Suicide Note'' is a 1984 novel by Martin Amis. In 2005, ''Time'' included the novel in its "100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present". The novel is based on Amis's experience as a script writer on the feature film ''Saturn 3'', a Kirk Douglas vehicle. The novel was dramatised by the BBC in 2010. Plot summary ''Money'' tells the story of, and is narrated by, John Self, a successful director of adverts who is invited to New York City by Fielding Goodney, a film producer, to shoot his first film. Self is an archetypal hedonist and slob; he is usually drunk, an avid consumer of pornography and prostitutes, eats too much and, above all, spends too much, encouraged by Goodney. The actors in the film, which Self originally titles ''Good Money'' but which he eventually wants to rename ''Bad Money'', all have some kind of emotional issue which clashes with fellow cast members and with their roles — the principal casting having already been done by Goodney. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pac-Man
originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The player controls Pac-Man, who must eat all the dots inside an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts. Eating large flashing dots called "Power Pellets" causes the ghosts to temporarily turn blue, allowing Pac-Man to eat them for bonus points. Game development began in early 1979, directed by Toru Iwatani with a nine-man team. Iwatani wanted to create a game that could appeal to women as well as men, because most video games of the time had themes of war or sports. Although the inspiration for the Pac-Man character was the image of a pizza with a slice removed, Iwatani has said he also rounded out the Japanese character for mouth, kuchi ( ja, 口). The in-game characters were made to be cute and colorful to appeal to younger p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Defender (1981 Video Game)
''Defender'' is a scrolling shooter video game developed by Williams Electronics in 1980 and released for arcades in 1981. A side-scrolling shooter, the game is set on either an unnamed planet or city (depending on platform) where the player must defeat waves of invading aliens while protecting astronauts. Development was led by Eugene Jarvis, a pinball programmer at Williams; ''Defender'' was Jarvis' first video game project and drew inspiration from ''Space Invaders'' and ''Asteroids (video game), Asteroids''. ''Defender'' was demonstrated in late 1980, before entering production in early 1981. It was distributed in Japan by Taito. ''Defender'' was one of the most important titles of the golden age of arcade video games, selling over 55,000 units to become the company's best-selling game and one of the highest-grossing arcade games ever. Praise among critics focused on the game's audio-visuals and gameplay. It is frequently listed as one of Jarvis' best contributions to the v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, gastronomy, and science. For its leading role in the arts and sciences, as well as its very early system of street lighting, in the 19th century it became known as "the City of Light". Like London, prior to the Second World War, it was also sometimes called the capital of the world. The City of Paris is the centre of the Île-de-France region, or Paris Region, with an estimated population of 12,262,544 in 2019, or about 19% of the population of France, making the region France's primate city. The Paris Region had a GDP of €739 billion ($743 billion) in 2019, which is the highest in Europe. According to the Economist Intelli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
