Peter Andrew Jones
Peter Andrew Jones (born 14 December 1951) is a British artist and illustrator who has produced a large number of fantasy and science fiction genre illustrations. During a professional career of over 43 years he has worked on book jacket covers, film posters, advertising, and games, as well as contributing to many BBC TV and commercial TV programs and projects. Early life Peter Andrew Jones was born into the relative poverty of post-war Britain in Islington, north London, the son of Reginald and Catherine Jones, his father an engineer. Showing interest in the visual arts from an early age, he describes the London of his early boyhood as 'smog-ridden and grey' with little for children to do, and took to painting to fill time and "colour his world". He also began to develop a lifelong love of aviation and space technology encouraged by commercial Airfix kits and drawing fighter aircraft at RAF Leuchars when visiting his mother's relatives in Fife, Scotland. At school he continue ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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National Gallery (London)
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director of the National Gallery is Gabriele Finaldi. The National Gallery is an exempt charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Its collection belongs to the government on behalf of the British public, and entry to the main collection is free of charge. Unlike comparable museums in continental Europe, the National Gallery was not formed by nationalising an existing royal or princely art collection. It came into being when the British government bought 38 paintings from the heirs of John Julius Angerstein in 1824. After that initial purchase, the Gallery was shaped mainly by its early directors, especially Charles Lock Eastlake, and by private donations, which now account for two-thirds o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Virgin Interactive
Virgin Interactive Entertainment (later renamed Avalon Interactive) was the video game publishing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group. It developed and published games for major platforms and employed developers, including Westwood Studios co-founder Brett Sperry and ''Earthworm Jim'' creators David Perry and Doug TenNapel. Others include video game composer Tommy Tallarico and animators Bill Kroyer and Andy Luckey. Formed as Virgin Games in 1983, and built around a small development team called the Gang of Five, the company grew significantly after purchasing budget label Mastertronic in 1987. As Virgin's video game division grew into a multimedia powerhouse, it crossed over to other industries from toys to film to education. To highlight its focus beyond video games and on multimedia, the publisher was renamed Virgin Interactive Entertainment in 1993. As result of a growing trend throughout the 1990s of media companies, movie studios and telecom firms invest ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chaosium
Chaosium Inc. is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include '' Call of Cthulhu'', based on the horror fiction stories of H. P. Lovecraft'', RuneQuest Glorantha'', ''Pendragon'', based on Thomas Mallory's ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', and '' 7th Sea'', "swashbuckling and sorcery" set in a fantasy 17th century Europe. Many of Chaosium’s product lines are based upon literary sources. While Stafford himself has been described as "one of the most decorated game designers of all time" and "the grand shaman of gaming", multiple other notable game designers have written for Chaosium. These include David Conyers, Matthew Costello, Larry DiTillio, Paul Fricker, David A. Hargrave, Rob Heinsoo, Keith Herber, Jennell Jaquays, Katharine Kerr, Reiner Knizia, Charlie Krank, Robin Laws, Penelope Love, Mark Morrison, Steve Perrin, Sandy Petersen, Ken Rolston, Ken St. Andre, Jonathan Tweet, John Wick, and Lynn Willis, among others. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain (board Game)
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is a Games Workshop adventure board game published in 1986, based on the ''Fighting Fantasy'' gamebook ''The Warlock of Firetop Mountain''. The game can be played by 2-6 players. A typical game has a length of two hours. Gameplay The game consists of the players roaming a labyrinth, fighting creatures and finding treasures. The players have three basic scores which affect combat and how a player can react to traps: SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK, mirroring the system in the Warlock of Firetop Mountain, original gamebook. The object of the game is to travel across the board to the end of the dungeon and open the treasure chest of the evil warlock Zagor. However, whilst doing this the players must work out the combination of three keys which will allow them access to the treasure chest at the end of the game, and obtain these keys, either by finding or stealing them. Players do this by using a system similar to Cluedo, asking other players if they have a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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White Dwarf (magazine)
''White Dwarf'' is a magazine published by British games manufacturer Games Workshop, which has long served as a promotions and advertising platform for Games Workshop and Citadel Miniatures products. During the first ten years of its publication, it covered a wide variety of fantasy and science-fiction role-playing games (RPGs) and board games, particularly the role playing games ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' (''AD&D''), '' Call of Cthulhu'', ''RuneQuest'' and '' Traveller''. These games were all published by other games companies and distributed in the United Kingdom by Games Workshop stores. The magazine underwent a major change in style and content in the late 1980s. It is now dedicated exclusively to the miniature wargames produced by Games Workshop. History 1975: ''Owl and Weasel'' to ''White Dwarf'' Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone initially produced a newsletter called ''Owl and Weasel'', which ran for twenty-five issues from February 1975 before it evolved into '' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Games Workshop
Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are ''Warhammer Age of Sigmar'' and ''Warhammer 40,000''. Founded in 1975 by John Peake (game designer), John Peake, Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson (UK), Steve Jackson, Games Workshop was originally a manufacturer of wooden boards for games including backgammon, mancala, nine men's morris and Go (board game), Go. It later became an importer of the U.S. role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'', and then a publisher of wargames and role-playing games in its own right, expanding from a bedroom mail-order company in the process. It expanded into Europe, the US, Canada, and Australia in the early 1990s. All UK-based operations were relocated to the current headquarters in Lenton, Nottingham in 1997. It started promoting games associated with The Lord of the Rings (film series), ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy in 2001. It al ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jamie Thomson (author)
Jamie Thomson (born 14 November 1958, in Iran) is a British writer, editor and game developer, and winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2012. Biography Jamie Thomson grew up in Brighton where he met one of his co-authors Mark Smith at school at Brighton College. He graduated from the University of Kent with a degree in politics and government. Jamie Thomson was an assistant editor on ''White Dwarf'' magazine from 1981 to 1984 and wrote a regular column for ''Warlock''. While working at Games Workshop, he was one of the developers of the computer game ''The Tower of Despair''. From 1984 to 1996 he was a prolific and best-selling author, usually publishing at least two titles per year. One of his most successful series was ''The Way of the Tiger'', six linked adventures about a ninja hero, written with Mark Smith. The books have been published in Japan, France, USA, Italy and Sweden. He is the author of numerous novels and 'choose-your-own-adventure' type gamebooks. His contri ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mark Smith (author)
Mark Smith is the author of several fantasy gamebooks. Background Smith is of Czech-Hungarian/English descent, born in Birmingham Smith was educated in Brighton and went on to gain an MA in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University and spent some time racing in Formula Renault. Career Mark Smith is an author of gamebooks, including co-authoring two ''Fighting Fantasy'' titles ''( Talisman of Death'' and '' Sword of the Samurai''), and the series ''Duel Master'', ''Falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene. Adult falcons ...'' and '' Way of the Tiger'' (1985-1987), all of which he co-authored with Jamie Thomson, whom he met whilst at school in Brighton. Today, Smith remains in southeast England, having been made insolvent by HMRC in December 2020. List of works *Fighting Fanta ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lone Wolf (gamebooks)
''Lone Wolf'' is a series currently consisting of 31 gamebooks, created by Joe Dever and initially illustrated (books 1–8) by Gary Chalk. Dever wrote the first 29 books of the series before his son Ben, with help from French author Vincent Lazzari, took over writing duty upon his father's death. The first book was published in July 1984 and the series has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide. The story focuses on the fictional world of Magnamund, where the forces of good and evil are fighting for control. The main protagonist is Lone Wolf, last of his caste of warrior monks known as Kai Lords, although in latter books the focus shifts on one of his pupils as the main character. The book series is written in the second person and recounts Lone Wolf's adventures as if the reader is the main character. Original publication (1984 - late 1990s) Development and popularization Joe Dever was seven years old when he became a fan of the British comic series The Rise and Fall of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Joe Dever
Joseph Robert Dever, also known as Joe Dever (12 February 1956 – 29 November 2016) was an English fantasy author and game designer. Originally a musician, Dever became the first British winner of the ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' Championship of America in 1982. He first created the fictional world of Magnamund in 1977 as a setting for his ''Dungeons & Dragons'' campaigns. In 1984, he released the first book of the ''Lone Wolf'' series of young-adult gamebooks, and the series has since sold over 11.5 million copies worldwide (as of September 2014). He experienced difficulty with his publishers as the game books market began to contract in 1995, until publication ceased in 1998 before the final four books (numbers 29–32) were released. Since 2003, the series enjoyed a revival of interest, particularly in France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Poland following the re-release of the gamebook series in these countries. From 1996 onwards, Dever had been involved ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Starship Traveller
''Starship Traveller'' is a single-player Gamebook#Adventure gamebooks, adventure gamebook written by Steve Jackson (UK), Steve Jackson and illustrated by Peter Andrew Jones. Originally published by Puffin Books in 1983, the title is the fourth gamebook in the ''Fighting Fantasy'' series. It was later republished by Wizard Books in 2002. A digital version developed by ''Tin Man Games'' is available for Android (operating system), Android, iOS, Windows 10, MacOS, and Linux. Rules This adventure was the first ''Fighting Fantasy'' title with a science fiction setting. It was the first title to introduce rules for (phaser) gun combat and (ship-to-ship) spaceship combat, in addition to hand-to-hand combat. The player must also manage the statistics of multiple characters (Captain and crew) and the vessel itself. It is also possible to finish the adventure without having engaged in combat at all. Story ''Starship Traveller'' is a science-fiction scenario in which the hero is the capta ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain
''The Warlock of Firetop Mountain'' is a single-player adventure gamebook written by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, and illustrated by Russ Nicholson. Originally published by Puffin Books in 1982, the title is the first gamebook in the ''Fighting Fantasy'' series. It was later republished by Wizard Books in 2002, and Scholastic Books in 2017. As well as launching the ''Fighting Fantasy'' series, the gamebook inspired two direct sequels and five novels, and has been adapted into a board game, an audio drama and a video game. Publication history In 1980, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone attended a Games Day, and after meeting with a Penguin editor decided to create a series of single-player gamebooks. Their first submission, ''The Magic Quest'', was a short adventure intended to demonstrate the style of game. ''The Magic Quest'' was eventually accepted by Penguin Books, although the authors devoted a further six months to expanding and improving upon the original concept. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |