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Zarch
''Zarch'' (also known under its ported name of ''Virus'') is a computer game developed by David Braben (better known as the co-author of '' Elite'') in 1987, for the release of the Acorn Archimedes computer. ''Zarch'' started off as a demo called ''Lander'' which was bundled with almost all releases of the Acorn Archimedes. In 1988, ''Zarch'' was ported (under the new name, ''Virus'') to the Atari ST, Amiga (coded by David Braben), and IBM PC (coded by Chris Sawyer). It was later ported to the ZX Spectrum by Steven Dunn. The game was groundbreaking for the time, featuring a three-dimensional mouse-controlled craft (the "lander") flying over a tile-rendered landscape that dazzled reviewers in a primarily 2D-dominated game industry - ''ACE'' (''Advanced Computer Entertainment'') magazine led with the headline "''SOLID 3D - the future of games?''" when it reviewed ''Zarch'' with a score of 979, the highest rating ''ACE'' had given at that time, only bettered by the later Amiga ...
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Zarch Screenshot 2
''Zarch'' (also known under its ported name of ''Virus'') is a computer game developed by David Braben (better known as the co-author of '' Elite'') in 1987, for the release of the Acorn Archimedes computer. ''Zarch'' started off as a demo called ''Lander'' which was bundled with almost all releases of the Acorn Archimedes. In 1988, ''Zarch'' was ported (under the new name, ''Virus'') to the Atari ST, Amiga (coded by David Braben), and IBM PC (coded by Chris Sawyer). It was later ported to the ZX Spectrum by Steven Dunn. The game was groundbreaking for the time, featuring a three-dimensional mouse-controlled craft (the "lander") flying over a tile-rendered landscape that dazzled reviewers in a primarily 2D-dominated game industry - ''ACE'' (''Advanced Computer Entertainment'') magazine led with the headline "''SOLID 3D - the future of games?''" when it reviewed ''Zarch'' with a score of 979, the highest rating ''ACE'' had given at that time, only bettered by the later Amiga ...
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David Braben
David John Braben (born 2 January 1964) is a British video game developer and designer, founder and CEO of Frontier Developments, co-creator of the '' Elite'' series of space trading video games, first published in 1984. He is also a co-founder of and works as a trustee for the Raspberry Pi Foundation which in 2012 launched a low-cost computer for education. Personal life Braben attended Buckhurst Hill County High School in Chigwell in Essex. He studied Natural Sciences at Jesus College, Cambridge, specialising in Electrical Science in his final year. In May 1993, he married Katharin Dickinson in Cambridge. His current wife is Wendy Irvin-Braben and he has two sons. Work In 2008, Braben was an investor and non-executive director of Phonetic Arts, a speech generation company led by Paul Taylor. Phonetic Arts was acquired by Google in 2010, for an undisclosed sum. In May 2011, Braben announced a new prototype computer intended to stimulate the teaching of basic computer sci ...
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Superior Software
Superior Software Ltd (also known as Superior Interactive) is a video game publisher. It was one of the main publishers for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers in the 1980s and early 1990s. It currently releases games for Microsoft Windows, iOS and Android; mostly updates of its original games. History Superior Software was established in 1982 by Richard Hanson and John Dyson, two graduates of the University of Leeds, England. They had previously programmed software published by Micro Power, and they wrote Superior's first four-game releases for the BBC Micro: three were written by Hanson and one by Dyson. Describing the early days, Hanson commented: Superior mostly focused on the machines of Acorn Computers Ltd and also published software for other platforms including the Oric-1 and Commodore 64. Key management personnel have included Steve Botterill, Chris Payne and Steve Hanson. Major software developers Peter Johnson, Tim Tyler, Martin Edmondson, Nicholas Chambe ...
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Chris Sawyer
Christopher Sawyer is a Scottish video game designer and programmer. He is best known for creating ''Transport Tycoon'', which has been considered "one of the most important simulation games ever made", and the bestseller '' RollerCoaster Tycoon'' series. After a period away from the games industry in the late 2000s, Sawyer founded 31X, a mobile game development company. Early life Sawyer was born in Stirling, Scotland, and had an interest with computers and programming from an early age, writing simple scripts in BASIC on a ZX81 at a local store in Doune. Being unable to afford a BBC Micro, Sawyer purchased a Camputers Lynx with which he could write simple programs in machine code. He graduated with a degree in Computer Science and Microprocessor Systems from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Career Memotech & MS-DOS titles (1983–1993) Sawyer began to write games in Z80 machine code on his Memotech MTX home computer- which possessed a built in assembler- and then ...
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1987 In Video Gaming
1987 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as '' Castlevania II: Simon's Quest'', ''Dragon Quest II'', '' Final Lap'', and '' Zelda 2'', along with new titles such as ''After Burner'', ''Contra'', ''Double Dragon'', ''Final Fantasy'', ''Metal Gear'', ''Operation Wolf'', ''Phantasy Star'', ''Shinobi'', ''Street Fighter'' and ''The Last Ninja''. ''The Legend of Zelda'' was also introduced outside of Japan. The year's highest-grossing arcade game worldwide was Sega's ''Out Run''. The year's bestselling home system was the Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom) for the fourth year in a row. The best-selling 1987 home video game release in Japan was '' Dragon Quest II: Akuryō no Kamigami'', while the year's best-selling home video games in Western markets were ''The Legend of Zelda'' in the United States and ''Out Run'' in the United Kingdom. Financial performance Highest-grossing arcade games The year's highest-grossing arcade game worldwide was Sega's ''Out Run''. ...
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Acornsoft
Acornsoft was the software arm of Acorn Computers, and a major publisher of software for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. As well as games, it also produced a large number of educational titles, extra computer languages and business and utility packages – these included word processor ''VIEW'' and the spreadsheet '' ViewSheet'' supplied on ROM and cartridge for the BBC Micro/Acorn Electron and included as standard in the BBC Master and Acorn Business Computer. History Acornsoft was formed in late 1980 by Acorn Computers directors Hermann Hauser and Chris Curry, and David Johnson-Davies, author of the first game for a UK personal computer and of the official Acorn Atom manual "Atomic Theory and Practice". David Johnson-Davies was managing director and in early 1981 was joined by Tim Dobson, Programmer and Chris Jordan, Publications Editor. While some of their games were clones or remakes of popular arcade games (e.g. ''Hopper'' is a clone of Sega's ''Frogger'', '' Snappe ...
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Flight Ceiling
With respect to aircraft performance, a ceiling is the maximum density altitude an aircraft can reach under a set of conditions, as determined by its flight envelope. Service ceiling Service ceiling is where the rate of climb drops below a prescribed value. The service ceiling is the maximum usable altitude of an aircraft. Specifically, it is the density altitude at which flying in a clean configuration, at the best rate of climb airspeed for that altitude and with all engines operating and producing maximum continuous power, will produce a given rate of climb. A typical value might be climb, or on the order of climb for jet aircraft. The one-engine inoperative (OEI) service ceiling of a twin-engine, fixed-wing aircraft is the density altitude at which flying in a clean configuration, at the best rate of climb airspeed for that altitude with one engine producing maximum continuous power and the other engine shut down and feathered, will produce a given rate of climb, usually ...
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BBC Micro
The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphasis on education, it was notable for its ruggedness, expandability, and the quality of its operating system. An accompanying 1982 television series, ''The Computer Programme'', featuring Chris Serle learning to use the machine, was broadcast on BBC2. After the Literacy Project's call for bids for a computer to accompany the TV programmes and literature, Acorn won the contract with the ''Proton'', a successor of its Atom computer prototyped at short notice. Renamed the BBC Micro, the system was adopted by most schools in the United Kingdom, changing Acorn's fortunes. It was also successful as a home computer in the UK, despite its high cost. Acorn later employed the machine to simulate and develop the ARM architecture. While nine models ...
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Acorn A500
The acorn, or oaknut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains one seed (occasionally two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule. Acorns are long and on the fat side. Acorns take between 5 and 24 months (depending on the species) to mature; see the list of ''Quercus'' species for details of oak classification, in which acorn morphology and phenology are important factors. Etymology The word ''acorn'' (earlier ''akerne'', and ''acharn'') is related to the Gothic name ''akran'', which had the sense of "fruit of the unenclosed land". The word was applied to the most important forest produce, that of the oak. Chaucer spoke of "achornes of okes" in the 14th century. By degrees, popular etymology connected the word both with "corn" and "oak-horn", and the spelling changed accordingly. The current spelling (emerged 15c.-16c.), derives from associat ...
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Bomber
A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an aircraft occurred in the Italo-Turkish War, with the first major deployments coming in the World War I, First World War and World War II, Second World War by all major airforces causing devastating damage to cities, towns, and rural areas. The first purpose built bombers were the Italy, Italian Caproni Ca 30 and United Kingdom, British Bristol T.B.8, both of 1913. Some bombers were decorated with nose art or victory markings. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strategic bombing is done by heavy bombers primarily designed for long-range bombing missions against strategic targets to diminish the enemy's ability to wage war by limiting access to resources through crippling infrastructure or reduci ...
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Fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of living fish species are ray-finned fish, belonging to the class Actinopterygii, with around 99% of those being teleosts. The earliest organisms that can be classified as fish were soft-bodied chordates that first appeared during the Cambrian period. Although they lacked a true spine, they possessed notochords which allowed them to be more agile than their invertebrate counterparts. Fish would continue to evolve through the Paleozoic era, diversifying into a wide variety of forms. Many fish of the Paleozoic developed external armor that protected them from predators. The first fish with jaws appeared in the Silurian period, after which many (such as sharks) became formidable marine predators rather than just the prey of arthropods. Mos ...
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