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The Stygian Abyss
''Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss'' is a first-person role-playing video game developed by Blue Sky Productions (later Looking Glass Studios) and published by Origin Systems. Released in March 1992, the game is set in the fantasy world of the ''Ultima'' series. It takes place inside the Great Stygian Abyss: a large cave system that contains the remnants of a failed utopian civilization. The player assumes the role of the Avatar—the ''Ultima'' series's protagonist—and attempts to find and rescue a baron's kidnapped daughter. ''Ultima Underworld'' has been cited as the first role-playing game to feature first-person action in a 3D environment, and it introduced technological innovations such as allowing the player to look up and down. Its design combines simulation elements with concepts from earlier role-playing video games, including ''Wizardry'' and '' Dungeon Master'', which led the game's designers to call it a " dungeon simulation". As such, the game is non-linear a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Sky Productions
Looking Glass Studios, Inc. (formerly Blue Sky Productions and LookingGlass Technologies, Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company was founded by Paul Neurath with Ned Lerner as Blue Sky Productions in 1990, and merged with Lerner's Lerner Research in 1992 to become LookingGlass Technologies. Between 1997 and 1999, the company was part of AverStar, where it was renamed Looking Glass Studios. Following financial issues at Looking Glass, the studio shut down in May 2000. Notable productions by Looking Glass include the ''Ultima Underworld'', ''System Shock'' and ''Thief'' series. History Foundation and ''Ultima Underworld'' (1990–1992) Prior to founding Looking Glass, Paul Neurath worked with developer Origin Systems, while it was located in Southern New Hampshire, where he led the design on '' Space Rogue''. Following the release of the game, Origin moved back to Texas, from which it originated, leaving Neurath with a studi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First-person (video Games)
In video games, first person is any graphical perspective rendered from the viewpoint of the player's character, or a viewpoint from the cockpit or front seat of a vehicle driven by the character. The most popular type of first-person video game today is the first-person shooter (FPS), in which the graphical perspective is an integral component of the gameplay. Many other genres incorporate first-person perspectives, including other types of shooter games (such as light gun shooters, rail shooters and shooting gallery games), adventure games (including visual novels), amateur flight simulations (including combat flight simulators), racing games (including driving simulators), role-playing video games, and vehicle simulations (including sailing simulators and vehicular combat games). Game mechanics Games with a first-person perspective are usually avatar-based, wherein the game displays what the player's avatar would see with the avatar's own eyes. Thus, players typical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deus Ex (video Game)
''Deus Ex'' is a 2000 action role-playing game developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos Interactive. Set in a cyberpunk-themed dystopian world in the year 2052, the game follows JC Denton, an agent of the fictional agency United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition (UNATCO), who is given superhuman abilities by nanotechnology, as he sets out to combat hostile forces in a world ravaged by inequality and a deadly plague. His missions entangle him in a conspiracy that brings him into conflict with the Triads, Majestic 12, and the Illuminati. ''Deus Ex''s gameplay combines elements of the first-person shooter with stealth elements, adventure, and role-playing genres, allowing for its tasks and missions to be completed in a variety of ways, which in turn lead to differing outcomes. Presented from the first-person perspective, the player can customize Denton's various abilities such as weapon skills or lockpicking, increasing his effectiveness in these areas; this opens up differe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valve Corporation
Valve Corporation is an American video game developer, video game publisher, publisher, and digital distribution company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. It is the developer of the software distribution platform Steam (service), Steam and the franchises ''Half-Life (series), Half-Life'', ''Counter-Strike'', ''Portal (series), Portal'', ''Day of Defeat'', ''Team Fortress'', ''Left 4 Dead (series), Left 4 Dead'' and ''Dota''. Valve was founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. Their debut game, the first-person shooter (FPS) ''Half-Life (video game), Half-Life'' (1998), was a critical and commercial success; with its realism, scripted sequences and seamless narrative, it had a lasting influence on the FPS genre. Harrington left in 2000. In 2003, Valve launched Steam, followed by ''Half-Life 2'' in 2004. With advanced Physics engine, physics systems and an increased focus on story and characters, ''Half-Life 2'' received critical acclaim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986 as a division of Media Technology Limited, and in 1999 became a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media. In its first fifteen years, it was a video game developer and self-published its titles. In 2001, Bethesda spun off its own in-house development team into Bethesda Game Studios, and Bethesda Softworks retained only its publishing function. In 2021, Microsoft purchased ZeniMax, maintaining that the company will continue to operate as a separate business. History 1986–1994: Early years Prior to founding Bethesda Softworks, Christopher Weaver was a technology forecaster and a communications engineer in the television and cable industries. After finishing grad school, he was hired by the American Broadcasting Company, where he wrote several memos about "the importance of alternative distribution systems and how satellites and broadband netw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emergent Gameplay
Emergent gameplay refers to complex situations in video games, board games, or table top role-playing games that emerge from the interaction of relatively simple game mechanics. Designers have attempted to encourage emergent play by providing tools to players such as placing web browsers within the game engine (such as in ''Eve Online'', ''The Matrix Online''), providing XML integration tools and programming languages (''Second Life''), fixing exchange rates (''Entropia Universe''), and allowing a player to spawn any object they desire to solve a puzzle (''Scribblenauts''). Intentional emergence Intentional emergence occurs when some creative uses of the game are intended by the game designers. Since the 1970s and 1980s board games and table top role playing games such as ''Cosmic Encounter'' or ''Dungeons & Dragons'' have featured intentional emergence as a primary game function by supplying players with relatively simple rules or frameworks for play that intentionally encourage ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nonlinear Gameplay
A video game with nonlinear gameplay presents players with challenges that can be completed in a number of different sequences. Each player may take on (or even encounter) only some of the challenges possible, and the same challenges may be played in a different order. Conversely, a video game with linear gameplay will confront a player with a fixed sequence of challenges: every player faces every challenge and has to overcome them in the same order. A nonlinear game will allow greater player freedom than a linear game. For example, a nonlinear game may permit multiple sequences to finish the game, a choice between paths to victory, different types of victory, or optional side-quests and subplots. Some games feature both linear and nonlinear elements, and some games offer a sandbox mode that allows players to explore an open world game environment independently from the game's main objectives, if any objectives are provided at all. A game that is significantly nonlinear is sometim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dungeon Crawl
A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinth environment (a "dungeon"), battling various monsters, avoiding traps, solving puzzles, and looting any treasure they may find. Video games and board games which predominantly feature dungeon crawl elements are considered to be a genre. Board games Dungeon crawling in board games dates to 1975 when Gary Gygax introduced '' Solo Dungeon Adventures''. That year also saw the release of ''Dungeon!''. Over the years, many games build on that concept. One of the most acclaimed board games of the late 2010s, ''Gloomhaven'', is a dungeon crawler. Video games The first computer-based dungeon crawl was '' pedit5'', developed in 1975 by Rusty Rutherford on the PLATO interactive education system based in Urbana, Illinois. Although this game was quickly deleted from the system, several more like it appeared, including '' dnd'' and '' Moria''. Computer games and series from the 1980s, s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dungeon Master (video Game)
''Dungeon Master'' is a role-playing video game featuring a 2.5D, pseudo-3D First-person (video games), first-person perspective. It was developed and published by FTL Games for the Atari ST in 1987, almost identical Amiga and MS-DOS, PC (DOS) ports following in 1988 and 1992. ''Dungeon Master'' sold 40,000 copies in its year of release alone, and went on to become the ST's best-selling game of all time. The game became the prototype for the genre of the 3D dungeon crawlers with notable Video game clone, clones like ''Eye of the Beholder (video game), Eye of the Beholder''. Gameplay In contrast to the traditional turn-based game, turn-based approach that was, in 1987, most common, ''Dungeon Master'' added real-time combat elements (akin to Active Time Battle). Other factors in immersion were the use of sound effects to indicate when a creature was nearby, and (primitive) dynamic lighting. Abstract ''Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons and Dragons'' style experience points and levels ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wizardry
''Wizardry'' is a series of role-playing video games, developed by Sir-Tech, that were highly influential in the evolution of modern role-playing video games. The original ''Wizardry'' was a significant influence on early console role-playing games such as ''Final Fantasy'' and ''Dragon Quest''. Originally made for the Apple II, the games were later ported to other platforms. The last game in the original series by Sir-Tech was ''Wizardry 8'', released in 2001. There have since been various spin-off titles developed for the Japanese market. Development ''Wizardry'' began as a simple dungeon crawl by Andrew C. Greenberg and Robert Woodhead. It was written when they were students at Cornell University and published by Sir-Tech. The game was influenced by earlier games from the PLATO system, most notably ''Oubliette''. The earliest installments of ''Wizardry'' were very successful, as they were the first graphically-rich incarnations of ''Dungeons & Dragons''-type gameplay for ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simulation Game
Simulation video games are a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities. A simulation game attempts to copy various activities from real life in the form of a game for various purposes such as training, analysis, prediction, or entertainment. Usually there are no strictly defined goals in the game, and the player is allowed to control a character or environment freely. Well-known examples are war games, business games, and role play simulation. From three basic types of strategic, planning, and learning exercises: games, simulations, and case studies, a number of hybrids may be considered, including simulation games that are used as case studies. Comparisons of the merits of simulation games versus other teaching techniques have been carried out by many researchers and a number of comprehensive reviews have been published. Subgenres Construction and management simulation Construction and management simulation (CMS) is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protagonist
A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a story contains a subplot, or is a narrative made up of several stories, then each subplot may have its own protagonist. The protagonist is the character whose fate is most closely followed by the reader or audience, and who is opposed by the antagonist. The antagonist provides obstacles and complications and creates conflicts that test the protagonist, revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the protagonist's character, and having the protagonist develop as a result. Etymology The term ''protagonist'' comes , combined of (, 'first') and (, 'actor, competitor'), which stems from (, 'contest') via (, 'I contend for a prize'). Ancient Greece The earliest known examples of a protagonist are found in Ancient Greece. At first, dramatic pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
