Laser Squad
''Laser Squad'' is a turn-based tactics video game, originally released for the ZX Spectrum and later for the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Amiga, Sharp MZ-800 and Atari ST and PC computers between 1988 and 1992. It was designed by Julian Gollop and his team at Target Games (later Mythos Games and Codo Technologies) and published by Blade Software, expanding on the ideas applied in their previous ''Rebelstar'' series of games. ''Laser Squad'' originally came with five mission scenarios, with an expansion pack released for the 8-bit versions, containing a further two scenarios. Reaction from gaming magazines was positive, gaining it high review rating and several accolades. The legacy of the game can be seen in other titles like the '' X-COM'' series, especially the acclaimed '' X-COM: UFO Defense'' which was also created by Julian Gollop and was initially conceived as a sequel to ''Laser Squad''. Gameplay ''Laser Squad'' is a turn-based tactics war game where the player comp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mythos Games
Mythos Games was a British video game developer company founded by Julian Gollop with his brother Nick in 1988 as Target Games. It is best known for its 1994 strategy game '' X-COM: UFO Defense''. Following the closing of Mythos Games in 2001, Gollop founded Codo Technologies. Games References External linksOfficial websitevia Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ... {{X-COM, state=expanded Companies based in Essex Video game companies established in 1988 Video game companies disestablished in 2001 1988 establishments in England 2001 disestablishments in England Defunct video game companies of the United Kingdom Video game development companies Defunct companies of England ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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UFO Defense
An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are identified as known objects or atmospheric phenomena, while a small number remain unexplained. Scientists and skeptic organizations such as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry have provided prosaic explanations for a large number of claimed UFOs being caused by natural phenomena, human technology, delusions, or hoaxes. Small but vocal groups of ufologists favour unconventional, pseudoscientific hypotheses, often claiming that UFOs are evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Beliefs surrounding UFOs have inspired parts of new religions. While unusual sightings have been reported in the sky throughout history, UFOs became culturally prominent after World War II, escalating during the Space Age. The 20th century saw studies and investiga ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Retro Gamer
''Retro Gamer'' is a British magazine, published worldwide, covering retro video games. It was the first commercial magazine to be devoted entirely to the subject. Launched in January 2004 as a quarterly publication, ''Retro Gamer'' soon became a monthly. In 2005, a general decline in gaming and computer magazine readership led to the closure of its publishers, Live Publishing, and the rights to the magazine were later purchased by Imagine Publishing. It was taken over by Future plc on 21 October 2016, following Future's acquisition of Imagine Publishing. History The first 18 issues of the magazine came with a coverdisk. It usually contained freeware remakes of retro video games and emulators, but also videos and free commercial PC software such as ''The Games Factory'' and '' The Elder Scrolls: Arena''. Some issues had themed CDs containing the entire back catalogue of a publisher such as Durell, Llamasoft and Gremlin Graphics. On 27 September 2005, the magazine's original p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Amiga Power
''Amiga Power'' (''AP'') was a monthly magazine about Amiga video games. It was published in the United Kingdom by Future plc, and ran for 65 issues, from May 1991 to September 1996. Philosophy ''Amiga Power'' had several principles which comprised its philosophy regarding games. Like almost all Amiga magazines of the time, they marked games according to a percentage scale. However, ''Amiga Power'' firmly believed that the full range of this scale should be used when reviewing games. A game of average quality rated on this scale would therefore be awarded 50%. Stuart Campbell offered some rationale for this in his review of '' Kick Off '96'' in the final issue of the magazine: Amiga magazines at the time tended to give "average" games marks of around 70%, and rarely gave scores below 50%. Because the public was not used to this method of grading, ''AP'' gained a reputation among publishers for being harsh and unfair. ''AP'' occasionally hinted that game reviewers were being ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Zero (video Game Magazine)
''Zero'' was a video game magazine in the UK, published monthly by Dennis Publishing Ltd. between November 1989 and October 1992. (Actual publication dates were in the preceding month, as usual for UK magazines.) It won the InDin Magazine of the Year award in both 1990 and 1991, and was also briefly the best-selling multi-format 16-bit computer magazine in the UK. History The pre-launch editor and publisher was Teresa Maughan (also publisher of Your Sinclair) and initial editor was Gareth Herincx, who left during the compilation of issue 3, at which point Tim Ponting took over. Reviewers for the launch issue were: Jonathan Davies, Sean Kelly, Duncan MacDonald, David McCandless, Marcus 'Binky' Berkmann, and Matt Bielby (all former writers for ''Your Sinclair''). Other journalists of note who worked at ''Zero'' included David 'Whistlin' Rick' Wilson, 'Lord' Paul Lakin, Amaya Lopez, Jackie Sutton, Rich Pelley and Jane Goldman. Issue 1 contained a coverdisk containing two free gam ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Amiga Format
''Amiga Format'' was a British computer magazine for Amiga computers, published by Future plc. The magazine lasted 136 issues from 1989 to 2000. The magazine was formed when, in the wake of selling ''ACE'' to EMAP, Future split the dual-format title '' ST/Amiga Format'' into two separate publications (the other being '' ST Format''). At the height of its success the magazines sold over 170,000 copies per month, topping 200,000 with its most successful ever issue. History ''Amiga Format'' can be thought of the "mother" or "big sister" magazine of ''Amiga Power'', which it both predated and outlived. Whereas ''Amiga Power'' was strictly games-only, ''Amiga Format'' covered all aspects of Amiga computers, both hardware and software, both application and gaming uses. A further spin-off was '' Amiga Shopper'', which dealt purely with the hardware and "serious" software side of the Amiga scene. The magazine was published on a monthly basis and offered various multi-issue tutorial ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Amstrad Action
''Amstrad Action'' was a monthly magazine, published in the United Kingdom, which catered to owners of home computers from the Amstrad CPC range and later the GX4000 console. It was the first magazine published by Chris Anderson's Future Publishing, which with a varied line-up of computing and non-computing related titles has since become one of the foremost magazine publishers in the UK. The publication, often abbreviated to ''AA'' by staff and readers, had the longest lifetime of any Amstrad magazine, running for 117 issues from October 1985 until June 1995 - long after the CPC had ceased production and games were no longer available. History Published by Future plc, a company set up by Chris Anderson (ex-''Personal Computer Games'' and ''Zzap!64'' editor). Launch Editor, Peter Connor, also an ex-'' PCG'' staff member, shared the writing duties with the only other staff writer, Bob Wade. Bob, another ex-'' PCG''/''Zzap!64'' staff member, was given the title ‘Software Editor’ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Zzap!64
''Zzap!64'' was a computer games magazine covering games on the Commodore International series of computers, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact. The magazine launched in April, with the cover date May 1985, as the sister magazine to ''CRASH''. It focused on the C64 for much of its shelf life, but later incorporated Amiga game news and reviews. Like ''CRASH'' for the ZX Spectrum, it had a dedicated cult following amongst C64 owners and was well known for its irreverent sense of humour as well as its extensive, detailed coverage of the C64 scene. The magazine adopted an innovative review system that involved the use of the reviewers' faces, artistically rendered by in-house artists Oli Frey and Mark Kendrick, to express their reaction to the games. These eventually evolved into static cartoons as the magazine began catering for a younger market. By 1992, the magazine had changed so dramatically i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Commodore User
''Commodore User'', known to the readers as the abbreviated ''CU'', was one of the oldest British Commodore magazines. With a publishing history spanning over 15 years, it mixed content with technical and video game features. Incorporating ''Vic Computing'' in 1983 by publishers EMAP, the magazine's focus moved to the emerging Commodore 64, before introducing Amiga coverage in 1986, paving the way for Amiga's dominance and a title change to ''CU Amiga'' in 1990. Covering the 16-bit computer, the magazine continued for another eight years until the last issue was published in October 1998 when EMAP opted to close the magazine due to falling sales and a change in focus for EMAP. The magazine also reviewed arcade games. Timeline Carrying on from where ''Vic Computing'' left, ''Commodore User'' was launched in October 1983, with an initial preview issue in June. Initially the magazine contained what was referred to as the serious side of computing, with programming tutorials, mac ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Elite (video Game)
''Elite'' is a space trading and combat simulator, space trading video game. It was written and developed by David Braben and Ian Bell (programmer), Ian Bell and originally published by Acornsoft for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers in September 1984. ''Elite''s Open-ended (gameplay), open-ended game model, and revolutionary 3D graphics led to it being ported to virtually every contemporary home computer system and earned it a place as a classic and a genre maker in gaming history. The game's title derives from one of the player's goals of raising their combat rating to the exalted heights of "Elite". ''Elite'' was one of the first home computer games to use Wire-frame model, wire-frame 3D graphics with hidden-line removal. It added graphics and twitch gameplay aspects to the genre established by the 1974 game ''Star Trader''. Another novelty was the inclusion of ''The Dark Wheel'', a novella by Robert Holdstock which gave players insight into the moral and legal codes ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Your Sinclair
''Your Sinclair'', or ''YS'' as it was commonly abbreviated, was a commercially published and printed British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum. It was in circulation between 1984 and 1993. History The magazine was launched in January 1984 as ''Your Spectrum'' by Sportscene Specialist Press. (Sportscene would later be renamed to Dennis Publishing in April 1987.) Initially, it was published bimonthly, changing to monthly in June 1984. With the January 1986 issue, the title was relaunched as ''Your Sinclair'', with the intention of expanding coverage of the QL into the main magazine (previously, ''QL User'' had been a pull-out section within the magazine), and any future computers produced by Sinclair. However, the magazine remained focused almost entirely on the ZX Spectrum games scene. In 1990, the magazine was sold to Bath-based Future plc, and the April 1990 issue was the first to be published by the new company. That issue's news ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sinclair User
''Sinclair User'' was a magazine dedicated to the Sinclair Research range of home computers, most specifically the ZX Spectrum (while also occasionally covering arcade games). Initially published by ECC Publications, and later EMAP, it was published in the UK between 1982 and 1993, and was the longest running Sinclair-based magazine. The magazine contained news, game reviews, previews, tips, help guides, columns, readers' letters, and cover-mounted game demos. History In earlier years, the magazine built up personality cults around some of its "hilariously" monikered staff, including Bill "Incorruptible" Scolding, John "Disgusting" Gilbert, Chris "Lunchbreaks" Bourne, Claire "Ligger" Edgely, Richard Price (writer of the "Gordo Greatbelly" adventure tips section), and columnist Andrew Hewson (founder of Hewson Consultants software). Under David Kelly's editorial tenure, the magazine began to focus more on the gaming scene, and featured more colour graphics under designer Garet ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |