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Temple Of Apshai
''Temple of Apshai'' is a dungeon crawl role-playing video game developed and published by Automated Simulations (later renamed to Epyx) in 1979. Originating on the TRS-80 and Commodore PET, it was followed by several updated versions for other computers between 1980 and 1986. ''Temple of Apshai'' is considered one of the first graphical role-playing games for home computers, predating even the commercial release of Richard Garriott's ''Akalabeth: World of Doom''. It was an enormous success for its era, selling 20,000 copies by the end of 1981, and 30,000 copies by 30 June 1982 and remaining a best-seller for at least four years. It was followed by several sequels and two expansions. The latter were bundled with the main game into the remake ''Temple of Apshai Trilogy'' in 1985. Games using the ''Apshai'' engine were collectively known as the ''Dunjonquest (series), Dunjonquest'' series. Gameplay The player in ''Temple of Apshai'' assumes the role of an adventurer who explores ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epyx
Epyx, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher active in the late 1970s and 1980s. The company was founded as Automated Simulations by Jim Connelley and Jon Freeman, originally using Epyx as a brand name for action-oriented games before renaming the company to match in 1983. Epyx published a long series of games through the 1980s. The company is currently owned by Bridgestone Multimedia Group Global. History Formation In 1977, Susan Lee-Merrow invited Jon Freeman to join a Dungeons & Dragons game hosted by Jim Connelley and Jeff Johnson. Connelley later purchased a Commodore PET computer to help with the bookkeeping involved in being a dungeon master, and came up with the idea of writing a computer game for the machine before the end of the year so he could write it off on his taxes. Freeman had written on gaming for several publications, and joined Connelley in the design of a new space-themed wargame. Starting work around August 1978, Freeman wrote the basic rules, missio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomson TO8
The Thomson TO8 is a home computer introduced by French company Thomson SA in 1986, with a cost of 2,990 FF. It replaces its predecessor, the Thomson TO7/70, while remaining essentially compatible. The new features of the TO8, like larger memory (256KB) and better graphics modes (powered by the Thomson EF9369 graphics chip), are shared with the other third generation Thomson computers ( MO6 and TO9+). The TO8 has a tape drive and Microsoft BASIC 1.0 (in standard and 512 KB versions) on its internal ROM, and there is an optional external floppy drive. Graphics were provided by the Thomson EF9369 The Thomson EF936x series is a type of Graphic Display Processor (GDP) by Thomson-EFCIS. The chip could draw at 1 million pixels per second, which was relatively advanced for the time of its release (1982 or earlier). There are various versions ... chip, allowing the display of 16 colors from a palette of 4096. More than 120 games exist for the system. An improved version, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pen-and-paper Role-playing Game
A tabletop role-playing game (typically abbreviated as TRPG or TTRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a form of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a set formal system of rules and guidelines. Within the rules, players have the freedom to improvise; their choices shape the direction and outcome of the game. The terms ''pen-and-paper'' and ''tabletop'' are generally only used to distinguish this format of RPG from other formats, since neither pen and paper nor a table are strictly necessary. Gameplay Overview In most games, a specially designated player typically called the game master (GM) purchases or prepares a set of rules and a fictional setting in which each player acts out the role of a single character. The GM describes the game world and its inhabita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roadwar 2000
''Roadwar 2000'' is a 1986 video game published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. It is a turn-based strategy game set in a post-apocalyptic future which resembles the world portrayed in the ''Mad Max'' films. Gameplay and plot In 1999, a terrorist group unleashes a deadly virus on the United States, leading to its collapse. Various vigilante and survivalist groups appear and cars become the primary form of transportation and combat. The player starts off as sort of a scavenger and attempts to build up an army capable of making crossings between cities on highways, which have become littered with hordes of marauding mutants, cannibals, and criminal gangs. Winning enough battles and gathering a sizable army may bring the player's character to attention of the ailing US government, who will recruit the player to find eight missing scientists, America's only hope to finding a cure for the disease. The player must bring them back to a secret base. Along the way, the player must l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeffrey Johnson (game Designer)
Jeff Johnson or Jeffrey Johnson may refer to: Government and politics *Jeff Johnson (Alberta politician) (born 1966/67), current provincial politician and Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta *Jeff Johnson (Minnesota politician) (born 1966), former State Representative of Minnesota *Jeff Johnson (Ohio politician) (born 1958), former member of the Ohio Senate * Jeff Johnson (South Carolina politician) (born 1971), member of the South Carolina House of Representatives * Jeffrey W. Johnson (born 1960), former Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal *Jeff Johnson (BET personality), American political activist and social commentator Sports * Jeff Johnson (baseball) (born 1966), former Major League Baseball pitcher *Jeff Johnson (Canadian football) (born 1977), Canadian Football League running back with the Toronto Argonauts * Jeff Johnson (footballer) (born 1953), Welsh football player Arts and entertainment * Jeff Johnson (bass player) (born 1954), American jazz b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BASIC
BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College in 1963. They wanted to enable students in non-scientific fields to use computers. At the time, nearly all computers required writing custom software, which only scientists and mathematicians tended to learn. In addition to the program language, Kemeny and Kurtz developed the Dartmouth Time Sharing System (DTSS), which allowed multiple users to edit and run BASIC programs simultaneously on remote terminals. This general model became very popular on minicomputer systems like the PDP-11 and Data General Nova in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Hewlett-Packard produced an entire computer line for this method of operation, introducing the HP2000 series in the late 1960s and continuing sales into the 1980s. Many early video games trace their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Temple Of Apshai TRS-80 Screenshot
A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples are called Mandir), Buddhism, Sikhism (whose temples are called gurudwara), Jainism (whose temples are sometimes called derasar), Islam (whose temples are called mosques), Judaism (whose temples are called synagogues), Zoroastrianism (whose temples are sometimes called Agiary), the Baha'i Faith (which are often simply referred to as Baha'i House of Worship), Taoism (which are sometimes called Daoguan), Shinto (which are sometimes called Jinja), Confucianism (which are sometimes called the Temple of Confucius), and ancient religions such as the Ancient Egyptian religion and the Ancient Greek religion. The form and function of temples are thus very variable, though they are often considered by believers to be, in some sense, the "house" of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Turns, Rounds And Time-keeping Systems In Games
In video and other games, the passage of time must be handled in a way that players find fair and easy to understand. This is usually done in one of the two ways: real-time and turn-based. Real-time Real-time games have game time progress continuously according to the game clock. One example of such a game is the sandbox game ''Terraria'', where one day-night cycle of 24 hours is equal to 24 minutes in real time. Players perform actions simultaneously as opposed to in sequential units or turns. Players must perform actions with the consideration that their opponents are actively working against them in real time, and may act at any moment. This introduces time management considerations and additional challenges (such as physical coordination in the case of video games). Real-time gameplay is the dominant form of time-keeping found in simulation video games, and has to a large degree supplanted turn-based systems in other video game genres as well (for instance real-time strateg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byte (magazine)
''Byte'' (stylized as ''BYTE'') was a microcomputer magazine, influential in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s because of its wide-ranging editorial coverage. "''Byte'' magazine, the leading publication serving the homebrew market ..." ''Byte'' started in 1975, shortly after the first personal computers appeared as kits advertised in the back of electronics magazines. ''Byte'' was published monthly, with an initial yearly subscription price of $10. Whereas many magazines were dedicated to specific systems or the home or business users' perspective, ''Byte'' covered developments in the entire field of "small computers and software", and sometimes other computing fields such as supercomputers and high-reliability computing. Coverage was in-depth with much technical detail, rather than user-oriented. The company was purchased by McGraw-Hill in 1979, a watershed event that led to the rapid purchase of many of the early computer magazines by larger publishers. By this time t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Player Character
A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not controlled by a player are called non-player characters (NPCs). The actions of non-player characters are typically handled by the game itself in video games, or according to rules followed by a gamemaster refereeing tabletop role-playing games. The player character functions as a fictional, alternate body for the player controlling the character. Video games typically have one player character for each person playing the game. Some games, such as multiplayer online battle arena, hero shooter, and fighting games, offer a group of player characters for the player to choose from, allowing the player to control one of them at a time. Where more than one player character is available, the characters may have distinctive abilities and differing styles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dunjonquest (series)
Dunjonquest is a series of single-player, single-character fantasy computer role-playing games by Automated Simulations (later known as Epyx). ''Temple of Apshai'' was the most successful and most widely ported game in the series. The games relied on strategy and pen & paper RPG style rules and statistics. There were two basic types of ''Dunjonquest'' games: *''Temple of Apshai'', ''Hellfire Warrior'' and related expansions for both are of the larger type, and contain four dungeons each with detailed room descriptions and no time limit. These games contain an "Innkeeper" program, where the player character is created and equipment can be sold and bought. Character statistics can also be put in manually, and floppy disk versions allow to save the character between sessions. The dungeons are reset upon each visit. *''Datestones of Ryn'', ''Morloc's Tower'' and ''Sorcerer of Siva'' are confined to a single, smaller dungeon, and the player has to achieve a goal within a time limit. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
