Tetris (Spectrum HoloByte)
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Tetris (Spectrum HoloByte)
''Tetris'' is a 1988 video game published by Spectrum HoloByte in the United States and Mirrorsoft in the United Kingdom. It was the first commercial release of ''Tetris'', a puzzle game developed in the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s, and was released on multiple home personal computer systems. ''Tetris'' received positive reviews overall, winning multiple Excellence in Software Awards, and would eventually sell over one million copies. Development ''Tetris'' was created by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. Pajitnov wanted to export ''Tetris'', but had no knowledge of the business world. His superiors in the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union were not necessarily happy with the success of the game, since they had not intended such a creation from the research team. Furthermore, copyright law of the Soviet Union created a state monopoly on import and export of copyrighted works, and the Soviet researchers were not allowed to sell their creations. Pajitnov asked his superv ...
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Spectrum HoloByte
Spectrum HoloByte, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher. The company, founded in 1983, was known for its simulation games, notably the ''Falcon'' series of combat flight simulators, and for publishing the first version of ''Tetris'' outside the Soviet Union (in 1988 for MS-DOS). Spectrum HoloByte published games for various home computers and video game consoles. History Spectrum HoloByte was founded in 1983 in Boulder, Colorado, by Jeff Sauter, Phil Adam and Mike Franklin. In 1987 Spectrum HoloByte merged with another game developer, Nexa Corporation, forming a common holding company, Sphere, Inc., and prompting the company's move from Colorado to California. Nexa founder Gilman Louie served as chairman of the combined company. In 1992, Spectrum HoloByte received an investment from Kleiner Perkins, which let the company repurchase shares formerly owned by Robert Maxwell's companies, ending its ties to their bankruptcies. In December 1993, Sphere, Inc. merg ...
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Personal Computer
A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC game, gaming. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or technician. Unlike large, costly minicomputers and mainframes, time-sharing by many people at the same time is not used with personal computers. The term home computer has also been used, primarily in the late 1970s and 1980s. The advent of personal computers and the concurrent Digital Revolution have significantly affected the lives of people. Institutional or corporate computer owners in the 1960s had to write their own programs to do any useful work with computers. While personal computer users may develop their applications, usually these systems run commercial software, free-of-charge software ("freeware"), which i ...
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Henk Rogers
Henk Rogers is a Dutch-born American video game designer and entrepreneur. He is known for producing Japan's first major turn-based role-playing video game '' The Black Onyx'', securing the rights to distribute the Russian puzzle video game ''Tetris'' on video game consoles where the game found popularity, and as the founder of Bullet-Proof Software (and later Blue Planet Software) and The Tetris Company, which licenses the ''Tetris'' trademark. He was instrumental in resolving licensing disputes that brought ''Tetris'' to the Game Boy. Today, he is managing director of The Tetris Company. Early life In 1972 Henk Rogers graduated from Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan. He later relocated to Hawaii, where he pursued studies in Computer Science at the University of Hawaii in Manoa. While studying at the University, Henk met his future wife, Akemi. He followed her to Japan, her home country, and after three extended visits, they married in 1977 and settled down there; they lived ...
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Mastertronic
Mastertronic was originally a publisher and distributor of low-cost computer game software founded in 1983. Their first games were launched on April 2, 1984. At its peak the label was one of the largest software publishers in the UK, achieved by selling cassette-based software at £1.99. As well as supplying leading retailers such as Woolworth's and Toys "R" Us, Mastertronic sold software in outlets such as newsagents which had not been previously associated with the software market. Their range of budget games were incredibly successful during the 1980s, with titles such as '' Kikstart'', '' Action Biker'', '' Finders Keepers'', ''Chiller'' and ''Flash Gordon'' (released under the M.A.D. Label). Later diversification included the setting up of US operations to source and distribute their software, as well as an unsuccessful arcade games division ( Arcadia Systems). However, it was their decision to market the Master System in the UK that ultimately proved most successful ...
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Broderbund
Broderbund Software, Inc. (stylized as Brøderbund) was an American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits '' Choplifter'', '' Lode Runner'', '' Karateka'', and ''Prince of Persia'' (all of which originated on the Apple II), as well as '' The Print Shop''—originally for printing signs and banners on Dot matrix printing, dot matrix printers—and the ''Myst'' and ''Carmen Sandiego'' games. The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon, and moved to San Rafael, California, then later to Novato, California. Broderbund was purchased by SoftKey in 1998. Many of Broderbund's software titles, such as '' The Print Shop'', '' PrintMaster'', and '' Mavis Beacon'', are still published under the name "Brøderbund". Games released by the revived Broderbund are distributed by Encore, Inc. ''Brøderbund'' is now the brand name for Riverdeep's graphic design, productivity, and edutainment titles such as The Pr ...
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Las Vegas
Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-largest in the Southwestern United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city had 641,903 residents in 2020, with a metropolitan population of 2,227,053, making it the 24th-most populous city in the United States. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city, known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment, and nightlife. Most of these venues are located in downtown Las Vegas or on the Las Vegas Strip, which is outside city limits in the unincorporated towns of Paradise and Winchester. The Las Vegas Valley serves as the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center in Nevada. Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and officially incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th cent ...
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Consumer Electronics Show
CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typically hosts presentations of new products and technologies in the consumer electronics industry. History The first CES was held in June 1967 in New York City. It was a spin-off of the Chicago Music Show which, until then, had served as the main event for exhibiting consumer electronics. The event had 17,500 attendees and over 100 exhibitors; the kickoff speaker was Motorola chairman Bob Galvin. From 1978 to 1994, CES was held twice each year: once in January in Las Vegas as the ''Winter Consumer Electronics Show'' (WCES) and once in June in Chicago as the ''Summer Consumer Electronics Show'' (SCES). The winter show was held in Las Vegas in 1995 as planned. However, since the summer Chicago shows were beginning to lose popularity, the ...
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Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west. The territory has a varied landscape, diverse ecosystems, and a temperate climate. Poland is composed of Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 million people, and the List of European countries by area, fifth largest EU country by area, covering . The capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city is Warsaw; other major cities include Kraków, Wrocław, Łódź, Poznań, and Gdańsk. Prehistory and protohistory of Poland, Prehistoric human activity on Polish soil dates to the Lower Paleolithic, with continuous settlement since the end of the Last Gla ...
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Floppy Disk
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a fabric that removes dust particles from the spinning disk. The three most popular (and commercially available) floppy disks are the 8-inch, 5¼-inch, and 3½-inch floppy disks. Floppy disks store digital data which can be read and written when the disk is inserted into a floppy disk drive (FDD) connected to or inside a computer or other device. The first floppy disks, invented and made by IBM in 1971, had a disk diameter of . Subsequently, the 5¼-inch (133.35 mm) and then the 3½-inch (88.9 mm) became a ubiquitous form of data storage and transfer into the first years of the 21st century. 3½-inch floppy disks can still be used with an external USB floppy disk drive. USB drives for 5¼-inch, 8-inch, and other-size floppy disks are rare ...
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Appaloosa Interactive
Appaloosa Interactive (formerly Novotrade International) was a corporation, founded in 1982 in Hungary, that produced video games, computer programs and television commercials during the 1980s and 1990s. History Andras Csaszar and Stephen J. Friedman founded Novotrade International. Csaszar served as the company's president, while Friedman served as chief executive officer. Novotrade began operating branches in the United States in 1989, and was renamed Appaloosa Interactive (after the horse breed of the same name) in November 1996. That month, the company unveiled its 10-month-old Internet technologies division, Appaloosa Online. The company's headquarters were in Mountain View, California. Appaloosa was the parent company and owner of two software development companies in Budapest, Hungary. Appaloosa was known for its '' Ecco the Dolphin'' game series for Sega. Appaloosa also developed two '' Contra'' games on the PlayStation and Sega Saturn for Konami. Appaloosa had 100 emplo ...
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Copyright Law Of The Soviet Union
The Copyright law of the Soviet Union went through several major revisions during its existence. The first Socialist copyright law was passed in 1925. Three years later, it was superseded by a second version that remained in force for more than three decades, until it was replaced in 1961. Throughout these various revisions of the law, some characteristics remained constant. Copyright was automatic in the USSR: a work was copyrighted from its creation, and registration was not needed.Levitsky p. 28. Only creative works expressed in some objective form were subject to copyright.Levitsky p. 100ff.Newcity p. 53ff. The duration of copyright was much shorter than customary in the West. Copyright was, from the beginning, limited to works of Soviet citizens and to works by foreign authors that were first published in the USSR (or, if unpublished, existed in objective form on the territory of the Soviet Union).Levitsky p. 50ff.Newcity p. 60 ...
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