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Kesmai
Kesmai was a pioneering video game developer, game developer and online Video game publisher, game publisher, founded in 1981 by Kelton Flinn and John R. Taylor III, John Taylor. The company was best known for the combat flight sim ''Air Warrior'' on the GEnie online service, one of the first graphical MMOGs, launched in 1987. They also developed an ASCII-based MUD, ''Island of Kesmai'', which ran on CompuServe. The company was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (1980–2013), News Corp. in 1994. The company continued to develop massively multiplayer games such as ''Air Warrior 2'' and ''Legends of Kesmai''. They distributed their games through AOL and eventually a new gaming service formed with three other publishers, GameStorm. AOL purchased CompuServe in 1997 and retooled its AOL Games Channel in a way that placed Kesmai unfavorably compared to its own games division, WordPlay. Kesmai sued AOL for monopolistic practices. The suit was settled out of court with undis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Island Of Kesmai
''Island of Kesmai'' was an early commercial online game in the multi-user dungeon (MUD) genre, innovative in its use of roguelike pseudo-graphics. It is considered a major forerunner of modern massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). Launch date In the summer of 1980 University of Virginia classmates John Taylor and Kelton Flinn wrote ''Dungeons of Kesmai'', a six player game inspired by ''Dungeons & Dragons'' which used Roguelike ASCII graphics. They founded the Kesmai company in 1982 and in 1985 an enhanced version of ''Dungeons of Kesmai'', ''Island of Kesmai'', was launched on CompuServe. Later, its 2-D graphical descendant ''Legends of Kesmai'' was launched on AOL in 1996. The games were retired commercially in 2000. Price to play The game was available on CompuServe for no additional charge. However, CompuServe charged $6 per hour for 300 baud or $12 per hour for 1200 baud access rates. The game processed one command every 10 seconds, which equates ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legends Of Kesmai
''Island of Kesmai'' was an early commercial online game in the MUD, multi-user dungeon (MUD) genre, innovative in its use of roguelike pseudo-graphics. It is considered a major forerunner of modern massively multiplayer online role-playing game, massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). Launch date In the summer of 1980 University of Virginia classmates John R. Taylor III, John Taylor and Kelton Flinn wrote ''Dungeons of Kesmai'', a six player game inspired by ''Dungeons & Dragons'' which used Roguelike ASCII graphics. They founded the Kesmai company in 1982 and in 1985 an enhanced version of ''Dungeons of Kesmai'', ''Island of Kesmai'', was launched on CompuServe. Later, its 2-D graphical descendant ''Legends of Kesmai'' was launched on AOL in 1996. The games were retired commercially in 2000. Price to play The game was available on CompuServe for no additional charge. However, CompuServe charged $6 per hour for 300 baud or $12 per hour for 1200 baud access ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kelton Flinn
Kelton Flinn is an American computer game designer who is a major pioneer in online games. He is a co-founder (with his University of Virginia classmate John Taylor) of the seminal online game company Kesmai, which they began in 1982. His best known title is the first graphical multi-player online game offered by a major service, ''Air Warrior'' (1987). 1970s university mainframe games Like Marc Blank, Will Crowther, Don Daglow and Gregory Yob, Flinn and Taylor were key innovators in the 1970s university gaming culture, where students played for free on college mainframe computers. Flinn took advantage of his pursuit of an advanced degree (a PhD in applied mathematics) to build a long series of games across his undergraduate and graduate school career. Most students lost all access to computers after graduation in the days before personal computers were invented, but Flinn's extended years of study gave him the chance to build a large body of major works. Key games Flinn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MegaWars III
''MegaWars III'' was a massively multiplayer empire building game written by Kesmai and run continuously on CompuServe between 1984 and 1999. It was one of CompuServe's most popular games throughout its lifetime with thousands of players joining the month-long game cycles. It was only shut down after CIS was purchased by AOL and moved to the web-based "CompuServe 2000" interface that would not cleanly support it. A modified version, ''Stellar Emperor'' ran for much of the same time period on GEnie, also ending in 1999 when that service was shut down by General Electric. A new version of ''Stellar Emperor'', sporting a new client-server GUI, was run for a short period on Kesmai's GameStorm. History S In 1979 University of Virginia 4th year students Kelton Flinn and John Taylor started work on a game for the Hewlett-Packard HP 2000F time sharing minicomputer. Known simply as ''S'', the game supported up to eight players on directly connected 2400 baud terminals. Much of what would bec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Air Warrior
''Air Warrior'' was a multiplayer online combat flight simulation game launched by Kesmai in 1988. It was hosted on GEnie and used that service as a server for client software running on a variety of personal computers. It underwent continual improvement through its decade-long lifetime with Kesmai, appearing on new platforms and host services. Electronic Arts purchased Air Warrior in 1999, and became provider of the game, but it was discontinued in 2001. Sequels ''Air Warrior II'' and ''Air Warrior III'' were both released in 1997 and published by Interactive Magic. Air Warrior was one of the first massive online games, hosting hundreds of users during busy periods. It inspired ''WarBirds'', which in turn inspired '' Aces High'', while other members of the ''Warbirds'' team went on to produce ''World War II Online''. Today there are a number of similar games, like ''WarThunder'', most of them based on a freemium model. History Introduced in 1988 by Kesmai, ''Air Warrior'' was p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GameStorm
GameStorm was an online gaming service founded by Kesmai corporation in November 1997. It offered several online video games at a flat monthly fee of $10 per month, a relatively radical payment system in the age of pay-by-hour online gaming. Both Kesmai and GameStorm were sold to Electronic Arts in 1999, and shut down by Electronic Arts in 2001. GameStorm featured games developed by Kesmai, such as ''Air Warrior'', '' Multiplayer Battletech: Solaris'', Stellar Emperor and ''Legends of Kesmai'', along with games developed by several other companies. Legends of Kesmai was the 2d graphical version of Kesmai's groundbreaking Islands of Kesmai MUD from 1985, and may be regarded as an important step in the genre leap from MUDs to MMORPGs. GameStorm's payment method was massively popular for the emerging persistent online gaming genres that rewarded players for time invested, but were too expensive for many people to pay $2/hour for on AOL or other gaming services. Mythic Entertainment ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Air Warrior II
''Air Warrior II'' is a video game developed by American studio Kesmai Corporation and published by Interactive Magic for Windows. It is a sequel to ''Air Warrior''. Development Development of ''Air Warrior II'' was directly overseen by Bill Stealey, founder of the game's publisher, Interactive Magic. Gameplay ''Air Warrior II'' is a flight simulator which allows dozens of international players to challenge each other. Reception '' Next Generation'' reviewed the PC version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "''AWII'' is a must for WWII flight enthusiasts and an excellent choice for anyone looking for a great online multiplayer game." Reviews *''Computer Gaming World'' #155 (Jun 1997) *PC Games - Apr, 1997 *Game Revolution - Jun 05, 2004 *PC Player (Germany) - Apr, 1997 *''Electric Games'' (1997) *''Gamezilla'' (1997) *''Game-Over!'' (Apr, 1997) *''GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, preview ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MMOG
A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players, often hundreds or thousands, on the same server. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent world, persistent open world, although there are games that differ. These games can be found for most network-capable platforms, including the personal computer, video game console, or Mobile app, smartphones and other mobile devices. MMOs can enable players to cooperate and compete with each other on a large scale, and sometimes to interact meaningfully with people around the world. They include a variety of gameplay types, representing many video game genres. History The most popular type of MMOG, and the subgenre that pioneered the category, is the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), which descended from university mainframe computer MUD and adventure games such as ''Rogue (video game), Rogue'' and ''Dungeon (video game), Dungeon'' on the PDP-10. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Air Warrior III
''Air Warrior III'', known as ''Air Warrior 3'' in Europe, is a video game developed by Kesmai Studios and published by Interactive Magic and Midas Interactive Entertainment for Microsoft Windows in 1997. The game had been scheduled to be released in January 1998, before being pushed forward for December 15, 1997. Gameplay ''Air Warrior III'' had as one playing area a map of northern Europe, besides many small playing fields with some real-life features labeled. Berlin, the Kiel Canal, and Peenemünde were unmarked in the game. There was also a playing area map that included a hodgepodge of Pacific islands and the coast of Australia. The player could design custom missions on any of these playing fields. Fans of the online competition developed a tool that enabled the players to paint their own aircraft. Screenshots could be taken in combat, and even videos, which could be distributed over the Internet. Douglas C-47s could be used to carry paratroops to take enemy air bases. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Acquisitions By Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts is an American company that is a developer, marketer, publisher, and distributor of video games, that was founded in 1982. Products of the company include EA Sports franchises, ''Sims'', and other titles on both handheld and home gaming consoles. Electronic Arts often acquires new companies to expand or add to new product lines. For instance, EA chairman and chief executive officer Larry Probst said after the acquisition of JAMDAT Mobile that "we intend to build a leading global position in the ..business of providing games on mobile phones". EA followed through with this later, making the company into EA Mobile, and allowing people to purchase and download content produced by them directly onto their phones. After the acquisition of Origin Systems, some staff in that company claimed that Electronic Arts initially gave them more resources, but allowed little latitude if employees made a mistake, and in some cases no longer trusted them, and even worked against the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the designers and programmers responsible for its games as "software artists." EA published numerous games and some productivity software for personal computers, all of which were developed by external individuals or groups until 1987's ''Skate or Die!''. The company shifted toward internal game studios, often through acquisitions, such as Distinctive Software becoming EA Canada in 1991. Currently, EA develops and publishes games of established franchises, including ''Battlefield'', ''Need for Speed'', ''The Sims'', ''Medal of Honor'', ''Command & Conquer'', ''Dead Space'', ''Mass Effect'', ''Dragon Age'', ''Army of Two'', ''Apex Legends'', and '' Star Wars'', as well as the EA Sports titles '' FIFA'', ''Madden NFL'', ''NBA Live'', ''NHL'', an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CompuServe
CompuServe (CompuServe Information Service, also known by its initialism CIS) was an American online service provider, the first major commercial one in the world – described in 1994 as "the oldest of the Big Three information services (the others are Prodigy and America Online)." It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major influence through the mid-1990s. At its peak in the early 1990s, CIS was known for its online chat system, message forums covering a variety of topics, extensive software libraries for most computer platforms, and a series of popular online games, notably ''MegaWars III'' and ''Island of Kesmai''. It also was known for its introduction of the GIF format for pictures and as a GIF exchange mechanism. In 1997, 17 years after H&R Block had acquired CIS, the parent announced its desire to sell the company. A complex deal was worked out with WorldCom acting as a broker, resulting in CIS being sold to AOL. In 2015, Verizon acquired AOL, includi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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