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Sandy White (programmer)
Quicksilva was a British games software publisher active during the early 1980s. Quicksilva was founded by Nick Lambert in 1979. The name Quicksilva was inspired by a particular guitar solo in a track on the album Happy Trails by Quicksilver Messenger Service. Quicksilva mainly released games for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, but also did conversions and some original games for the VIC-20, Dragon 32/64, Oric-1/ Atmos, BBC Micro and Acorn Electron home computers. One of their earliest successful titles was a ''Star Raiders''-style game entitled ''Time-Gate'' which reached the top of the ZX Spectrum charts in December 1982. Amongst the company's other successes were Jeff Minter's ''Gridrunner'' (1983), '' Bugaboo'' (1983, a.k.a. ''La Pulga'') and ''Fred'' (1983, titled " ''Roland on the Ropes''" on the Amstrad), two titles licensed from Spanish software house Indescomp S.A. Sandy White's ''Ant Attack'' (1983) for the ZX Spectrum featured revolutionary 3-D graphics for which a p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Privately Held Company
A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is offered, owned, traded, exchanged privately, or Over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter. In the case of a closed corporation, there are a relatively small number of shareholders or company members. Related terms are closely-held corporation, unquoted company, and unlisted company. Though less visible than their public company, publicly traded counterparts, private companies have major importance in the world's economy. In 2008, the 441 list of largest private non-governmental companies by revenue, largest private companies in the United States accounted for ($1.8 trillion) in revenues and employed 6.2 million people, according to ''Forbes''. In 2005, using a substantially smaller pool size (22.7%) for comparison, the 339 companies on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acorn Electron
The Acorn Electron (nicknamed the Elk inside Acorn and beyond) was a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/ home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers Ltd, to provide many of the features of that more expensive machine at a price more competitive with that of the ZX Spectrum. It had 32 kilobytes of RAM, and its ROM included BBC BASIC II together with the operating system. Announced in 1982 for a possible release the same year, it was eventually introduced on 25 August 1983 priced at £199. The Electron was able to save and load programs onto audio cassette via a supplied cable that connected it to any standard tape recorder that had the correct sockets. It was capable of bitmapped graphics, and could use either a television set, a colour (RGB) monitor or a monochrome monitor as its display. Several expansions were made available to provide many of the capabilities omitted from the BBC Micro. Acorn introduced a general-purpose expansion unit, the Plus 1, off ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric Dreams Software
Electric Dreams Software was a UK-based video game publisher established in 1985 by Activision and run by Rod Cousens and Paul Cooper formerly of Quicksilva . The company published video games for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and the Atari 8-bit family of computers between 1985 and 1989, becoming one of the top eight UK software houses of that decade. Software Studios The publisher's in-house video game developer was Software Studios, set up in April 1986 and run by John Dean and Dave Cummings. Software Studios also handled Activision's products marketed in countries outside the United States. The concept behind this team was to pool resources and ideas between all Electric Dreams projects, but they were also directly responsible for two film tie-in licenses, '' Aliens: The Computer Game'' (1986) and ''Big Trouble in Little China''. The company's initial releases were '' Riddler's Den'' and ''I, Of the Mask''. List of releases *'' Riddler's Den'' (1985), David Ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grandslam Entertainment
Grandslam Interactive Ltd. (formerly Grandslam Entertainments Ltd. and later Grandslam Video Ltd.) was a video games software house based in Britain. It was formed in late 1987 from a management buy-out of Argus Press Software by former Argus Managing Director, Stephen Hall and close friend David C. Dudman. Grandslam developed and published many games for home computers during the 1980s and 1990s. Originally based in central London, the offices were relocated to Croydon in 1990. List of games 1987 *''Terramex'' 1988 *''Chubby Gristle'' *''Espionage'' *''City Survivor'' *''The Flintstones'' *''Pac-Land'' *''Pac-Mania'' *''Peter Beardsley's International Football'' *'' Alternate Reality: The City'' 1989 *'' The Running Man'' *''Saint & Greavsie'' *''Thunderbirds'' *''The Seven Gates of Jambala'' *''Warp'' *''Terry's Big Adventure'' *''Trivia - The Ultimate Quest'' *''Chambers of Shaolin'' 1990 *''The Hunt for Red October'' *''Scramble Spirits'' *''Space Harrier II'' *''Leavin T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Argus Press Software
Argus Press was a British publishing company. It was acquired by British Electric Traction (BET) in 1966, and became the publishing arm of that company. It was the subject of one of the most hotly contested management buyouts of the 1980s when a management team led by Kimble Earl, George Fowkes, and Scott Smith secured financing of £207m from forty national and international banks to acquire the UK and US businesses from BET. The acquisition was of particular note as the publisher Robert Maxwell was among the rival bidders, and widely considered as capable of out-witting the management team. Only an eleventh-hour intervention by Earl – exposing members of Maxwell's secret consortium as rival newspaper publishers which meant Maxwell would fall foul of the Monopolies Commission – brought success for the management team. The new company traded under the name of Team Argus. Its portfolio of businesses included the largest group of paid-for and free weekly newspapers in the UK, an e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
When The Wind Blows (comics)
''When the Wind Blows'' is a 1982 graphic novel, by British artist Raymond Briggs, that shows a nuclear attack on Britain by the Soviet Union from the viewpoint of a retired couple, Jim and Hilda Bloggs. The book was later made into an animated film. Plot The book follows the story of the Bloggs, a couple previously seen in the book ''Gentleman Jim''. One afternoon, the couple hears a message on the radio about an "outbreak of hostilities" in three days time. Jim immediately starts construction of a fallout shelter (in accordance with a government-issued ''Protect and Survive'' brochure, which he has collected from a public library), while the two reminisce about the Second World War. Their reminiscences are used both for comic effect and to show how the geopolitical situation has changed, but also how nostalgia has blotted out the horrors of war. A constant theme is Jim's optimistic outlook and his unshakeable belief that the government knows what is best and has the situatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raymond Briggs
Raymond Redvers Briggs (18 January 1934 – 9 August 2022) was an English illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist and author. Achieving critical and popular success among adults and children, he is best known in Britain for his 1978 story ''The Snowman'', a book without words whose cartoon adaptation is televised and whose musical adaptation is staged every Christmas. Briggs won the 1966 and 1973 Kate Greenaway Medals from the British Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject. For the 50th anniversary of the Medal (1955–2005), a panel named ''Father Christmas'' (1973) one of the top-ten winning works, which composed the ballot for a public election of the nation's favourite. For his contribution as a children's illustrator, Briggs was a runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1984. He was a patron of the Association of Illustrators. Early life Briggs was born on 18 January 1934 in Wimbledon, Surrey (now ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Snowman
''The Snowman'' is a 1982 British animated television film based on Raymond Briggs's 1978 picture book ''The Snowman.'' It was directed by Dianne Jackson for Channel 4. It was first shown on 26 December 1982, and was an immediate success. It was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the 55th Academy Awards and won a BAFTA TV Award. The story is told through pictures, action and music, scored by Howard Blake. It has no words, with the exception of the central song, "Walking in the Air". The orchestral score was performed by the Sinfonia of London and the song was performed by Peter Auty, a St Paul's Cathedral choirboy. The film ranked at number 71 on the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes, a list drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, based on a vote by industry professionals. It was voted number 4 in UKTV Gold's ''Greatest TV Christmas Moments''. It came third in Channel 4's poll of ''100 Greatest Christmas Moments'' in 2004. Its broadcast, usually on Chri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roland (game Character)
Roland was a game character developed in 1984 by Alan Sugar, CEO of Amstrad, and Jose Luis Dominguez, a Spanish game designer. The character was named for Roland Perry, a computer engineer who worked for Amstrad. The idea was to have one recognizable character in a number of different computer games in a bid to have the Amstrad CPC compete with the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64. Games in the ''Roland''-series * 1984: ''Roland Ahoy!'' (by Computersmith) * 1984: ''Roland on the Ropes'' (by Indescomp) - A copy of the Spanish game ''Fred''. Roland had to collect bullets, treasures and maps while climbing ropes to get out of a tomb/pyramid. Some villains can be destroyed (skeletons, bats, mummies) while some can only be forced to change direction (ghosts) and some have to be jumped over (dripping poison, rats, scorpions). When the game ends, the end music is the Funeral March. The game was released for the Spectrum and the Commodore as well, and was later remade for the PC. * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bugaboo (The Flea)
''Bugaboo (The Flea)'', later published in Spain as ''La Pulga'', is a computer game created in 1983 in video gaming, 1983 by the Spanish team of programmers ''Paco & Paco'' for the ZX Spectrum. Later versions for the Commodore 64, Amstrad and MSX were produced. Bugaboo, besides being the first video game made in Spain, is one of the first computer games to include cut scenes. Its publication marked the official beginning of the Golden Era of Spanish Software. It was ported to the Amstrad CPC under the name ''Roland in the Caves'', to exploit the CPC's recurring Roland (game character), Roland character. A sequel was released in Spain by Opera Soft under the title "Poogaboo", made by Paco Suarez, one of the authors of the original game. Paco Portalo, the other member of Paco & Paco, left the project after the publication of the original game for the ZX Spectrum. The player takes control of a flea who has fallen into a cavern and must escape. Gameplay The game begins with a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eurogamer
''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX organised by its parent company, which was called Eurogamer Expo until 2013. From 2013 to 2020, sister site USGamer ran independently under its parent company. History ''Eurogamer'' (initially stylised as ''EuroGamer'' was launched on 4 September 1999 under company Eurogamer Network. The founding team included John "Gestalt" Bye, the webmaster for the PlanetQuake website and a writer for British magazine ''PC Gaming World''; Patrick "Ghandi" Stokes, a contributor for the website Warzone; and Rupert "rauper" Loman, who had organised the EuroQuake esports event for the game '' Quake''. ''Eurogamer'' hosts content from media outlet ''Digital Foundry'' since 2007, which was founded by Richard Leadbetter in 2004. In January 2008, Tom Br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
