Masaya Nakamura (Namco)
was a Japanese businessman and the founder of Namco. He was the company's president up until 2002, where he took a ceremonial role in its management. Following the formation of Bandai Namco Holdings, Nakamura would retain an honorary position in the video game division, Bandai Namco Entertainment. Born in Tokyo, Nakamura graduated from the Yokohama Institute of Technology in 1948, having earned a degree in shipbuilding. Nakamura would found his own company in 1955, Nakamura Seisakusho, Ltd., which produced pop-cork guns and coin-operated mechanical rides for Japanese department store rooftops. In 1974, Nakamura purchased the Japanese division of Atari from Nolan Bushnell, seeing it as a perfect opportunity to get into the market, and were allowed to release the company's games in Japan. His company would be renamed to "Namco" in 1977, and a year later would release its first video game produced in-house. Under Nakamura's leadership, Namco would become one of the most dominant ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 million residents ; the city proper has a population of 13.99 million people. Located at the head of Tokyo Bay, the prefecture forms part of the Kantō region on the central coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island. Tokyo serves as Japan's economic center and is the seat of both the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan. Originally a fishing village named Edo, the city became politically prominent in 1603, when it became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate. By the mid-18th century, Edo was one of the most populous cities in the world with a population of over one million people. Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the imperial capital in Kyoto was moved to Edo, which was renamed "Tokyo" (). Tokyo was devastate ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Government Of Japan
The Government of Japan consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and is based on popular sovereignty. The Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary state, containing forty-seven administrative divisions, with the Emperor as its Head of State. His role is ceremonial and he has no powers related to Government. Instead, it is the Cabinet, comprising the Ministers of State and the Prime Minister, that directs and controls the Government and the civil service. The Cabinet has the executive power and is formed by the Prime Minister, who is the Head of Government. The Prime Minister is nominated by the National Diet and appointed to office by the Emperor. The National Diet is the legislature, the organ of the Legislative branch. It is bicameral, consisting of two houses with the House of Councilors being the upper house, and the House of Representatives being the lower house. Its members are direc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Galaxian
is a 1979 fixed shooter arcade video game developed and published by Namco. The player assumes control of the Galaxip starfighter in its mission to protect Earth from waves of aliens. Gameplay involves destroying each formation of aliens, who dive down towards the player in an attempt to hit them. Designed by company engineer Kazunori Sawano, ''Galaxian'' was Namco's answer to ''Space Invaders'', a similar space shooter released the previous year by rival developer Taito. ''Space Invaders'' was a sensation in Japan, and Namco wanted a game that could compete against it. Sawano strove to make the game simplistic and easy to understand. He was inspired by the cinematic space combat scenes in ''Star Wars'', with enemies originally being in the shape of the film's TIE Fighters. ''Galaxian'' is one of the first video games to feature RGB color graphics and the first ever to use a tile-based hardware system, which was capable of animated multi-color sprites as well as scrolling, th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Toru Iwatani
is a Japanese video game designer who spent much of his career working for Namco. He is best known as the creator of the arcade game '' Pac-Man'' (1980). Early life Iwatani was born in the Meguro ward of Tokyo, Japan on January 25, 1955. While in kindergarten, he and his family moved to the Tōhoku region of Japan after his father got a job as an engineer for the Japan Broadcasting Corporation. After becoming a junior high student, Iwatani returned to Tokyo and graduated from the Tokyo Metropolitan University High School, before graduating from the Tokai University Faculty of Engineering. Iwatani was self-taught in computers without any formal training in programming or graphical design. He often filled his school textbooks with scattered manga, which he claims had a major influence on the character designs of his games. Career At the age of 22 Iwatani joined the Japanese video game publisher Namco in 1977. Before he had joined, Namco had acquired the rights to the Japanese div ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gee Bee (video Game)
is a block breaker/video pinball hybrid arcade game developed and published by Namco in 1978. The player controls a set of paddles with a rotary knob, with the objective being to score as many points as possible by deflecting a ball against bricks, pop bumpers and other objects in the playfield. It was developed by Toru Iwatani, known as the creator of '' Pac-Man'' and '' Pole Position''. Outside Japan, it was published by Gremlin Industries. ''Gee Bee'' was the first video game to be designed in-house by Namco – prior to this, the company had manufactured arcade electro-mechanical games (such as ''Periscope'' and '' F-1'') and published a number of video games by Atari, Inc. (notably '' Breakout'') in Japan. Iwatani originally wanted to produce pinball machines for the company; however, higher-ups at Namco disapproved of the idea. As a compromise, Iwatani instead made a video game with pinball-elements, combined with mechanics established in ''Breakout''. ''Gee Bee'' was the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwest Santa Clara County in the U.S. state of California. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the north, Moffett Federal Airfield and NASA Ames Research Center to the northwest, Mountain View to the northwest, Los Altos to the southwest, Cupertino to the south, and Santa Clara to the east. Sunnyvale's population was 155,805 at the 2020 census, making it the second most populous city in the county (after San Jose) and the seventh most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area. As one of the major cities that make up California's high-tech area known as Silicon Valley, Sunnyvale is the birthplace of the video game industry, former location of Atari headquarters, and the location of a fictional computer game company in the 1983 film ''WarGames''. Many technology companies are headquartered in Sunnyvale and many more operate there, i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yakuza
, also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ''yakuza'' is gangster, meaning an individual involved in a Mafia-like criminal organization. The ''yakuza'' are known for their strict codes of conduct, their organized fiefdom nature and several unconventional ritual practices such as ''yubitsume'' or amputation of the left little finger. Members are often portrayed as males, wearing "sharp suits" with heavily tattooed bodies and slicked hair. This group is still regarded as being among "the most sophisticated and wealthiest criminal organizations". At their height, the ''yakuza'' maintained a large presence in the Japanese media and operated internationally. At their peak in the early 1960s, police estimated that the ''yakuza'' had a membership of more than 200,000."Police of Japan 2 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Breakout (video Game)
''Breakout'' is an arcade video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. and released on May 13, 1976. It was designed by Steve Wozniak, based on conceptualization from Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow who were influenced by the seminal 1972 in video games, 1972 Atari arcade game ''Pong''. In ''Breakout'', a layer of bricks lines the top third of the screen and the goal is to destroy them all by repeatedly bouncing a ball off a paddle into them. The arcade game was released in Japan by Namco. ''Breakout'' was a worldwide commercial success, among the top five highest-grossing 1976 in video games, arcade video games of 1976 in both the United States and Japan and then among the top three highest-grossing 1977 in video games, arcade video games of 1977 in the US and Japan. The 1978 Atari 2600, Atari VCS port uses color graphics instead of a monochrome screen with colored overlay. While the concept was predated by Ramtek (company), Ramtek's ''Clean Sweep'' (1974), ''Breakout'' sp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ars Technica
''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. ''Ars Technica'' was privately owned until May 2008, when it was sold to Condé Nast Digital, the online division of Condé Nast Publications. Condé Nast purchased the site, along with two others, for $25 million and added it to the company's ''Wired'' Digital group, which also includes ''Wired'' and, formerly, Reddit. The staff mostly works from home and has offices in Boston, Chicago, London, New York City, and San Francisco. The operations of ''Ars Technica'' are funded primarily by advertising, and it has offered a paid subscription service since 2001. History Ken Fisher, who serves as the website's current editor-in-chief, and Jon Stokes created ''Ars Technica'' in 1998. Its purpose was ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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F-1 (arcade Game)
''F-1'' is a 1976 electro-mechanical arcade racing game developed and published by Nakamura Manufacturing Company (Namco), and distributed in North America by Atari, Inc. The player uses a steering wheel to control a Formula One racer, which must avoid collision with other vehicles. The game uses a miniature diorama with small, plastic cars to represent the player's car and opponents on a physical, rotating track, while also featuring a projector system and lighting tricks to create the illusion of racing. The game was designed by company engineer Sho Osugi, who worked on many of the company's earlier driving-themed electro-mechanical games, and was made to be a smaller version of his earlier game ''Formula-X'' that could easily be placed into smaller stores and entertainment centers. The 1968 electro-mechanical driving game ''Indy 500'' by Kansai Seiki Seisakusho (Kasco) is also believed to be a source of inspiration for the game, likely due to Namco's strong business relationsh ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Periscope (arcade Game)
is an electro-mechanical arcade shooting submarine simulator. Two companies developed similar games with the name''.'' The first, initially called ''Torpedo Launcher'', was designed by Nakamura Manufacturing Co. (becoming Namco in 1977) and released in Japan in 1965, as the first arcade game Masaya Nakamura built. Sega Enterprises, Ltd. also built and released ''Persicope'' in Japan in 1966, as one of its first produced arcade games. Sega's 1968 single-player redesign of ''Periscope'' popularized the quarter () cost per play of arcade games in the United States. Its surprise success prompted Sega to further manufacture eight to ten new arcade games per year for the next few years. ''Periscope'' performed well in locations that would not have normally hosted coin-operated machines at the time, such as malls and department stores. The game's success was formative to Sega and the future Namco, and has been referred to as a turning point in the industry. Gameplay ''Periscope'' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital media, digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as ''The Daily (podcast), The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones (publisher), George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won List of Pulitzer Prizes awarded to The New York Times, 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national "newspaper of record". For print it is ranked List of newspapers by circulation, 18th in the world by circulation and List of newspapers in the United States, 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is Public company, publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 189 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |