Ken Williams (gaming)
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Ken Williams (gaming)
Kenneth A. Williams (born October 30, 1954) is an American game programmer who co-founded On-Line Systems together with his wife Roberta Williams. On-Line Systems eventually became Sierra On-Line and was ultimately renamed Sierra Entertainment. The couple were leading figures in the development of graphical adventure games. At its height, Sierra employed nearly 1,000 people prior to its acquisition in 1996. History Early years Williams was born in October 30, 1954 in Evansville, Indiana and later grew up in Simi Valley, California. Ken and Roberta's early contributions to the computer game industry were partially chronicled in the book '' Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution''. He wrote the textbook ''Apple II Computer Graphics'', and articles for '' Softline''. Sierra On-Line Williams and wife Roberta co-founded On-Line Systems in 1979. Sierra's notable online service, the ImagiNation Network, was purchased by AT&T in 1994. Williams was the president of Sierra until ...
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Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tutorials, lectures, and round Table, roundtables by industry professionals on game-related topics covering Video game programmer, programming, game design, design, audio, production, business and management, and visual arts. History Originally called the Computer Game Developers Conference, the first conference was organized in April 1988 by Chris Crawford (game designer), Chris Crawford in his San Jose, California-area living room. About twenty-seven designers attended, including Don Daglow, Brenda Laurel, Brian Moriarty, Gordon Walton, Tim Brengle, Cliff Johnson (game designer), Cliff Johnson, Dave Menconi, and Carol and Ivan Manley. The second conference, held that same year at a Holiday Inn at Milpitas, California, Milpitas, attracted abou ...
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Vivendi Games
Vivendi Games was an American video game publisher and holding company based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1996 as CUC Software, the publishing subsidiary of CUC International, after the latter acquired video game companies Davidson & Associates and Sierra On-Line. Between 1997 and 2001, the company switched parents and names multiple times before ending up organized under Vivendi Universal (later renamed Vivendi). On July 10, 2008, Vivendi Games merged with Activision to create Activision Blizzard. History CUC/Cendant On February 21, 1996, CUC International announced its intention to acquire Davidson & Associates (including Blizzard Entertainment) and Sierra On-Line, two American video game companies, in a stock swap. The deal closed on July 24, 1996. CUC International previously only operated membership shopping clubs, wherefore analysts were surprised by the company's move into the software industry. Subsequently, following the acquisitions, CUC International establ ...
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Game Designer
Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in the form of gamification. Game designer and developer Robert Zubek defines game design by breaking it down into its elements, which he says are the following: * Gameplay, which is the interaction between the player and the mechanics and systems * Mechanics and systems, which are the rules and objects in the game * Player experience, which is how users feel when they're playing the game Games such as board games, card games, dice games, casino games, role-playing games, sports, video games, war games, or simulation games benefit from the principles of game design. Academically, game design is part of game studies, while game theory studies strategic decision making (primarily in non-game situations). Games have historically inspired ...
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Mustache
A moustache (; en-US, mustache, ) is a strip of facial hair grown above the upper lip. Moustaches have been worn in various styles throughout history. Etymology The word "moustache" is French, and is derived from the Italian ''mustaccio'' (14th century), dialectal ''mostaccio'' (16th century), from Medieval Latin ''mustacchium'' (eighth century), Medieval Greek μουστάκιον (''moustakion''), attested in the ninth century, which ultimately originates as a diminutive of Hellenistic Greek μύσταξ (''mustax'', ''mustak-''), meaning "upper lip" or "facial hair", probably derived from Hellenistic Greek μύλλον (''mullon''), "lip". An individual wearing a moustache is said to be "moustached" or "moustachioed" (the latter often referring to a particularly large or bushy moustache). History Research done on this subject has noticed that the prevalence of moustaches and facial hair in general rise and fall according to the saturation of the marriage market. Thus, ...
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The Rise And Fall Of Sierra On-Line
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of the archaic pr ...
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Nordhavn (yacht)
Nordhavn is a trade name of a line of ocean-going trawler-styled motor yachts designed and produced by Pacific Asian Enterprises, Inc. (PAE) Overview PAE designs, builds and markets offshore passagemaking vessels ranging from in length. These full-displacement motor vessels travel at slow speeds - typically - but are able to cover thousands of miles on a single load of diesel fuel, and many have made long ocean passages. Most Nordhavn vessels have a raised forward pilothouse - separate from the main salon and galley - or an aft deckhouse with the pilothouse raised on a second level above the salon. The majority of Nordhavn vessels have standing headroom in the engine room, with most vessels having a single main engine and a "wing" 'get home' engine (which has a separate prop shaft and folding propeller). Some models optionally have twin engines. The vessels are constructed under the supervision of PAE project managers by boatbulding companies in Taiwan ( Ta Shing Yachts), ...
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Ken Williams (cropped) - On-Line Systems First Anniversary Celebration
Ken Williams may refer to: Sports *Ken Williams (baseball) (1890–1959), baseball outfielder * Kenny Williams (baseball) (born April 6, 1964), outfielder and Executive Vice President of the Chicago White Sox * Ken Williams (basketball), American college basketball player * Ken Williams (Australian footballer) (1918–1977), Australian footballer for Collingwood * Kenneth Williams (New Zealand cricketer) (1882–1920), New Zealand cricketer * Kenneth Williams (Trinidadian cricketer) (born 1968), Trinidadian cricketer * Ken Williams (footballer, born 1927), English professional footballer * Kenneth Williams (swimmer) (born 1937), British Olympic swimmer Other * Kenneth Williams (1926–1988), British actor * Ken Williams (composer) (born 1952), Canadian composer for film and television *Ken Williams (game developer) (born 1954), computer game developer and founder of Sierra On-Line *Ken Williams (songwriter) (1939–2022), American songwriter, music producer and singer *Kenneth L. Wi ...
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The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt and Roy O. Disney as the Disney Brothers Studio; it also operated under the names the Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions before changing its name to the Walt Disney Company in 1986. Early on, the company established itself as a leader in the animation industry, with the creation of the widely popular character Mickey Mouse, who is the company's mascot, and the start of animated films. After becoming a major success by the early 1940s, the company started to diversify into live-action films, television, and theme parks in the 1950s. Following Walt's death in 1966, the company's profits began to decline, especially in the animation division. Once Disney's shareholders voted in Michael Eisner as the he ...
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Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washington, United States. Its best-known software products are the Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface lineup of touchscreen personal computers. Microsoft ranked No. 21 in the 2020 Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue; it was the world's largest software maker by revenue as of 2019. It is one of the Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Meta. Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975, to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. It rose to do ...
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Id Software
id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack. id Software made important technological developments in video game technologies for the PC (running MS-DOS and Windows), including work done for the '' Wolfenstein'', ''Doom'', and '' Quake'' franchises. id's work was particularly important in 3D computer graphics technology and in game engines that are used throughout the video game industry. The company was involved in the creation of the first-person shooter (FPS) genre: ''Wolfenstein 3D'' is often considered to be the first true FPS; ''Doom'' is a game that popularized the genre and PC gaming in general; and '' Quake'' was id's first true 3D FPS. On June 24, 2009, ZeniMax Media acquired the company. In 2015, they opened a second studio in Frankfurt, Germany. ...
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First-person Shooter
First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the player character in a three-dimensional space. The genre shares common traits with other shooter games, and in turn falls under the action game genre. Since the genre's inception, advanced 3D and pseudo-3D graphics have challenged hardware development, and multiplayer gaming has been integral. The first-person shooter genre has been traced back to ''Wolfenstein 3D'' (1992), which has been credited with creating the genre's basic archetype upon which subsequent titles were based. One such title, and the progenitor of the genre's wider mainstream acceptance and popularity, was ''Doom'' (1993), often considered the most influential game in this genre; for some years, the term ''Doom'' clone was used to designate this genre due to ''Doom''s i ...
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