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Vectorbeam Games
Vectorbeam was an arcade game manufacturer active in the late 1970s who specialized in vector graphics-based arcade games. It was formed after splitting off from its primary competitor, Cinematronics, and disappeared after re-merging with them soon after. Vectorbeam was founded by Larry Rosenthal based on his graduate work from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and which he patented for a custom arcade vector display. Vectorbeam was in direct competition with other arcade game manufacturers. The company ceased operations soon after poor sales of its ''Barrier'' arcade game, and sold its assets to Cinematronics. List of Vectorbeam games * ''Space War'' (arcade game) (1977) * ''Barrier'' (1979) * ''Speed Freak'' (arcade game) (1979) * ''Tail Gunner A tail gunner or rear gunner is a crewman on a military aircraft who functions as a gunner defending against enemy fighter or interceptor attacks from the rear, or "tail", of the plane. The tail gunner operates a fle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arcade Game
An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade video games, Pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games or merchandisers. Types Broadly, arcade games are nearly always considered games of skill, with only some elements of games of chance. Games that are solely games of chance, like slot machines and pachinko, often are categorized legally as gambling devices and, due to restrictions, may not be made available to minors or without appropriate oversight in many jurisdictions. Arcade video games Arcade video games were first introduced in the early 1970s, with ''Pong'' as the first commercially successful game. Arcade video games use electronic or computerized circuitry to take input from the player and translate that to an electronic display such as a monitor or telev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cinematronics
Cinematronics Incorporated was an arcade game developer that primarily released vector graphics games in the late 1970s and early 1980s. While other companies released games based on raster displays, early in their history, Cinematronics and Atari, Inc. released vector-display games, which offered a distinctive look and a greater graphic capability (at the time), at the cost of being only black and white (initially). Cinematronics also published ''Dragon's Lair'' in 1983, the first major LaserDisc video game. Beginnings Cinematronics Inc. was founded in 1975 by San Diego Chargers football players Dennis Partee and Gary Garrison in Kearny Mesa, California. Soon after, they brought in a third partner named Jim Pierce to manage the company's day-to-day operations. Cinematronics' first games, a ''Pong'' clone, a ''Flipper Ball'' copy and their first original game design, ''Embargo'', were released in 1975, 1976, and 1977, but they were not particularly notable. In 1977, Pierce an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Massachusetts Institute Of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the most prestigious and highly ranked academic institutions in the world. Founded in response to the increasing industrialization of the United States, MIT adopted a European polytechnic university model and stressed laboratory instruction in applied science and engineering. MIT is one of three private land grant universities in the United States, the others being Cornell University and Tuskegee University. The institute has an urban campus that extends more than a mile (1.6 km) alongside the Charles River, and encompasses a number of major off-campus facilities such as the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the Bates Center, and the Haystack Observatory, as well as affiliated laboratories such as the Broad and Whitehead Institutes. , 98 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vector Display
A vector monitor, vector display, or calligraphic display is a display device used for computer graphics up through the 1970s. It is a type of CRT, similar to that of an early oscilloscope. In a vector display, the image is composed of drawn lines rather than a grid of glowing pixels as in raster graphics. The electron beam follows an arbitrary path tracing the connected sloped lines, rather than following the same horizontal raster path for all images. The beam skips over dark areas of the image without visiting their points. Some refresh vector displays use a normal phosphor that fades rapidly and needs constant refreshing 30-40 times per second to show a stable image. These displays, such as the Imlac PDS-1, require some local refresh memory to hold the vector endpoint data. Other storage tube displays, such as the popular Tektronix 4010, use a special phosphor that continues glowing for many minutes. Storage displays do not require any local memory. In the 1970s, both ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barrier (video Game)
''Barrier'' is a maze arcade game using vector graphics released by Vectorbeam in 1979. The game was sold to Vectorbeam by Cinematronics. Gameplay Players move a small triangle around on the grid, while attempting to avoid the diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...s that are also moving around on the grid. Reaching the end of the grid teleports the player back to the front of the grid to gain points. The game is played on a 3x10 grid that is displayed at angle to make it appear to be in 3-D. References External links *''Barrier''aArcade History 1979 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Maze games Multiplayer and single-player video games Multiplayer hotseat games Vector arcade video games Vectorbeam games Video games developed in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Wars
''Space Wars'' is a shooter video game released in arcades by Cinematronics in 1977. Like the PDP-1 program ''Spacewar!'' (1962) it is based on, it uses black and white vector graphics for the visuals. The hardware developed for ''Space Wars'' became the platform for most of the vector-based arcade games from Cinematronics. It was distributed in Japan by Taito in 1978, and a Vectrex port was published in 1982. Gameplay Two players controlled different ships. One button rotated ship left, another rotated the ship right, one engaged thrust, one fired a shell, and one entered hyperspace (which causes the ship to disappear and reappear elsewhere on the playfield at random). The game offered a number of gameplay options, including the presence or absence of a star in the middle of the playfield (which exerted a positive or negative gravitational pull), whether the edges of the playfield wrapped around to their opposite sides, and whether shells bounced. The game had three part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Speed Freak
Speed Freak is a monochrome vector arcade game created by Vectorbeam in 1979. Along with Atari, Inc.'s '' Night Driver'' and Bally Midway Midway Games Inc., known previously as Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known as simply Midway, was an American video game developer and publisher. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Rampage (series), Rampage'' ...'s '' Datsun 280 ZZZAP''–both from 1976–it is one of the earliest first-person driving games and the first such game known to use vector graphics. Gameplay The game is a behind-the-wheel driving simulation where the driver speeds down a winding computer generated road past other cars, hitchhikers, trees, cows and cacti. Occasionally a plane will fly overhead towards the screen. One must avoid crashing into these objects and complete the race in the allotted time. The player can crash as many times as he wants before the time runs out and players were treated to two different crash animations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tail Gunner
A tail gunner or rear gunner is a crewman on a military aircraft who functions as a gunner defending against enemy fighter or interceptor attacks from the rear, or "tail", of the plane. The tail gunner operates a flexible machine gun or autocannon emplacement in the tail end of the aircraft with an unobstructed view toward the rear of the aircraft. While the term ''tail gunner'' is usually associated with a crewman inside a gun turret, the first tail guns were operated from open apertures within the aircraft's fuselage, such as the Scarff ring mechanism used in the British Handley Page V/1500, which was introduced during latter months of the First World War. Increasingly capable tail gunner positions were developed during the interwar period and the Second World War, resulting in the emergence of the powered turret and fire control systems incorporating radar guidance. In particularly advanced tail gunner arrangements, the tail armament may be operated by remote control fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warrior (arcade Game)
''Warrior'' is a 1979 arcade fighting game. It is considered one of the first fighting games,"The Making of... Warrior". (December 2006) ''Edge Magazine'' 169, pp. 101-103 excepting several boxing games such as ''Heavyweight Champ'', released in 1976, and Atari's unreleased ''Boxer'' (which was cloned as 1980's ''Boxing'' for the Atari 2600). Developed by Tim Skelly while working at Cinematronics, it was released under the Vectorbeam company name shortly before Cinematronics closed Vectorbeam down; they had purchased the company in 1978. The game featured two dueling knights rendered in monochrome vector graphics and based on crude motion capture techniques. Due to the limitations of the hardware used, the processor could not render the characters and gaming environment at the same time and backgrounds were printed, with the characters projected on the top. Controls Originally Skelly planned for a two-player system with each player using two joysticks, one to control the movem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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