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Marc Blank
Marc Blank is an American game developer and software engineer. He is best known as part of the team that created one of the first commercially successful text adventure computer games, ''Zork''. Career Blank first encountered Don Woods and Will Crowther's ''Adventure'' game while he was studying at MIT in the mid-1970s, where the game was played on mainframe computers. Blank was frustrated by the computer's tiny vocabulary; when it parsed user inputs very few words were recognized. After thinking about the problem during his undergraduate years, he started work on his own adventure game using MDL, a computer language invented at MIT. Blank and a handful of friends wrote the original version of ''Zork'' on a PDP-10 while he was attending medical school at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City (he received his MD degree in 1979). The free-play university version of ''Zork'' first became available on the MIT-DM PDP-10 in June 1977. It was then distributed by the D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microcomputers
A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB). Microcomputers became popular in the 1970s and 1980s with the advent of increasingly powerful microprocessors. The predecessors to these computers, mainframes and minicomputers, were comparatively much larger and more expensive (though indeed present-day mainframes such as the IBM System z machines use one or more custom microprocessors as their CPUs). Many microcomputers (when equipped with a keyboard and screen for input and output) are also personal computers (in the generic sense). An early use of the term ''personal computer'' in 1962 predates microprocessor-based designs. ''(See "Personal Computer: Computers at Companies" reference below)''. A ''microcomputer'' used as an embedded control system may have no human-readable input ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apple Newton
The Newton is a series of personal digital assistants (PDAs) developed and marketed by Apple Computer, Inc. An early device in the PDA category (the Newton originated the term), it was the first to feature handwriting recognition. Apple started developing the platform in 1987 and shipped the first devices in August 1993. Production officially ended on February 27, 1998. Newton devices ran on a proprietary operating system, Newton OS; examples include Apple's MessagePad series and the eMate 300, and other companies also released devices running on Newton OS. Most Newton devices were based on the ARM 610 RISC processor and all featured handwriting-based input. The Newton was considered technologically innovative at its debut, but a combination of factors, including its high price and early problems with its handwriting recognition feature, limited its sales. This led to Apple ultimately discontinuing the platform at the direction of Steve Jobs in 1998, a year after his return to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Productivity Software
Productivity software (also called personal productivity software or office productivity software) is application software used for producing information (such as documents, presentations, worksheets, databases, charts, graphs, digital paintings, electronic music and digital video). Its names arose from it increasing productivity, especially of individual office workers, from typists to knowledge workers, although its scope is now wider than that. Office suites, which brought word processing, spreadsheet, and relational database programs to the desktop in the 1980s, are the core example of productivity software. They revolutionized the office with the magnitude of the productivity increase they brought as compared with the pre-1980s office environments of typewriters, paper filing, and handwritten lists and ledgers. In the United States, some 78% of "middle-skill" occupations (those that call for more than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor's degree) now require the us ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bend Studio
Bend Studio (formerly Blank, Berlyn & Co., Inc. and Eidetic, Inc.) is an American video game developer based in Bend, Oregon. Founded in 1992, the studio is best known for developing ''Bubsy 3D'', the ''Syphon Filter'' series, and ''Days Gone''. Since 2000, Bend Studio is a first-party developer for PlayStation Studios. History Marc Blank and Michael Berlyn founded Bend Studio as Blank, Berlyn & Co. in 1992. Blank had been a founder and the product development director for Infocom, while Berlyn, an author of adventure games, had previously worked at Infocom before moving to Accolade (company), Accolade. Blank was approached by a California company after an employee had used Cornerstone (software), Cornerstone, a software package by Infocom, and remembered that the company also developed games. That company was looking to release a "sound-oriented game machine for cars", for which Blank suggested a series of sports games that would sound like radio broadcasts. The project nev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Berlyn
Michael Berlyn (born 1949) is an American video game designer and writer. He is best known as an implementer at Infocom, part of the text adventure game design team. Brainwave Creations was a small game programming company started by Michael Berlyn. The company was founded in the mid-1980s, and is probably best known for co-creating ''Tass Times in Tonetown'' along with Interplay's Rebecca Heineman. Berlyn joined Marc Blank in founding the game company Eidetic, which later became Bend Studio. In the midst of working on the company's second game, ''Syphon Filter'', Berlyn left the video game industry. He later explained, "I did not like what the game business had become, the people who were driving it, or the nature of the product. I left before it was done and said, 'Do not put my name on the product.' I walked away from my own company. When you tell me you want to put a monk or a nun in my game and have them standing there holding guns so I can justify having the players shoot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Quest Begins
''The Quest Begins'' is the first novel in the ''Seekers'' series. It was written by Erin Hunter, which is a collective pseudonym used by authors Cherith Baldry, Kate Cary, and Tui Sutherland and editor Victoria Holmes. The novel details the adventures of four bears, Toklo, Kallik, Lusa and Ujurak, who are stranded together in the wild and must learn to survive. The declining environment around the bears is a theme explored throughout the novel. The development of the ''Seekers'' series began as a result of a request from HarperCollins for another series about animals to the authors who wrote the ''Warriors'' series about feral cats under the name of Erin Hunter. The novel was published on 27 May 2008. The book sold well and had generally positive critical reception with reviewers suggesting the series would appeal to fans of ''Warriors''. Development and publication Conception ''The Quest Begins'' and the ''Seekers'' series began as a request from HarperCollins, who wanted Vi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Border Zone (video Game)
''Border Zone'' is an interactive fiction video game written by Marc Blank and published by Infocom in 1987. It was released for DOS, Apple II, Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, and Macintosh. Unlike most other purely text-based games, ''Border Zone'' incorporates real-time aspects of gameplay. It is also Infocom's thirtieth game. Its tagline is "Action and international intrigue behind the Iron Curtain." Plot Mirroring the real-world tension of the Cold War in the 1980s, ''Border Zone'' is set in and around Ostnitz, located on the border between the Eastern Bloc nation of Frobnia and neutral Litzenburg. The celebration of "Constitution Day" in Ostnitz will include a speech by Litzenburg's American ambassador; there is a plot in motion, however, to assassinate the ambassador in an effort to provoke hostilities between the superpowers. ''Border Zone'' consists of three chapters, each of which places the player in the role of a different character. An American businessman, a KGB agent, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fooblitzky
''Fooblitzky'' is a board game-style video game published by Infocom in 1985 and designed by a team which included interactive fiction authors Marc Blank and Michael Berlyn. It is unique among Infocom titles for not being interactive fiction and for being the first to incorporate graphics beyond ASCII characters. Unlike most Infocom games, it was only released for the Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, and IBM PC compatibles. Gameplay Infocom marketed ''Fooblitzky'' as a "Graphic Strategy Game", and gameplay was compared to that of ''Clue'' and ''Mastermind''. Two to four players travel around the virtual city of Fooblitzky, spending "foobles" and attempt to deduce what four objects are needed to win the game (and then obtain them). Players purchase objects in stores and can visit City Hall to have their possessions evaluated. Much in the same style as Mastermind, the player is told ''how many'' of their objects are correct, but not ''which ones''. Release Each box contained four sets ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enchanter (video Game)
''Enchanter'' is a 1983 interactive fiction computer game written by Marc Blank and Dave Lebling and published by Infocom. The first fantasy game published by Infocom after the ''Zork'' trilogy, it was originally intended to be ''Zork IV''. The game has a parser that understands over 700 words, making it the most advanced interactive fiction game of its time. It was Infocom's ninth game. Plot Krill, a powerful evil warlock, is spreading chaos and destruction. None of the more experienced members of the Circle of Enchanters dare to attempt to stop him. In desperation, the player, a novice Enchanter with only a few weak spells in his spell book, is sent in hopes that Krill will either fail to detect him or dismiss him as harmless. More powerful spells can be found on scrolls hidden in various locations, but as the player becomes more of a threat, Krill will respond accordingly. Gameplay This game has a new spell system based partially on Ursula K. Le Guin's ''Earthsea'' series and pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deadline (video Game)
''Deadline'' is an interactive fiction video game published by Infocom in 1982. Written by Marc Blank, it was Infocom's third game. It was released for the Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, IBM PC (as a self-booting disk), Osborne 1, TRS-80, and later for the Amiga and Atari ST. ''Deadline'' was Infocom's first mystery game, their first non-''Zork'' game, and the game that started their tradition of feelies. The number of NPCs, the independence of their behavior from the player's actions, and the parser's complexity were considered revolutionary at the time of the game's release. Plot The player's character in ''Deadline'' is an unnamed police detective, summoned to a sprawling Connecticut estate to investigate the apparent suicide of wealthy industrialist Marshall Robner. The suspects, who walk around the estate pursuing their own agendas during your investigation, are: #Leslie Robner, the victim's wife #George Robner, the victim's son #Mr. McNabb, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Infocom
Infocom was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called ''Cornerstone (software), Cornerstone''. Infocom was founded on June 22, 1979, by staff and students of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and lasted as an independent company until 1986, when it was bought by Activision. Activision shut down the Infocom division in 1989, although they released some titles in the 1990s under the Infocom ''Zork'' brand. Activision abandoned the Infocom trademark in 2002. Overview Infocom games are text adventures where users direct the action by entering short strings of words to give commands when prompted. Generally the program will respond by describing the results of the action, often the contents of a room if the player has moved within the virtual world. The user reads this information, decides what to do, and enters another short serie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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