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MicroProse
MicroProse is an American video game publisher and developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization'' and '' X-COM'' series. Most of their internally developed titles were vehicle simulation and strategy games. In 1993, the company lost most of its UK-based personnel and became a subsidiary of Spectrum HoloByte. Subsequent cuts and corporate policies led to Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds leaving and forming Firaxis Games in 1996, as MicroProse closed its ex-Simtex development studio in Austin, Texas. In 1998, following an unsuccessful buyout attempt by GT Interactive, the struggling MicroProse (Spectrum HoloByte) became a wholly owned subsidiary of Hasbro Interactive and its development studios in Alameda, California and Chapel Hill, North Carolina were closed the following year. In 2001, MicroProse ceased to exist as an entity and Hasbro Interactive sold the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Civilization (series)
''Civilization'' is a series of turn-based strategy video games, first released in 1991. Sid Meier developed the first game in the series and has had creative input for most of the rest, and his name is usually included in the formal title of these games, such as ''Sid Meier's Civilization VI''. There are six main games in the series, a number of expansion packs and spin-off games, as well as board games inspired by the video game series. The series is considered a formative example of the 4X genre, in which players achieve victory through four routes: "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate". All titles in the series share similar gameplay, centered on building a civilization on a macro-scale from prehistory up to the near future. Each turn allows the player to move their units on the map, build or improve new cities and units, and initiate negotiations with the human or computer-controlled players. The player will also choose technologies to research. These reflect the cult ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeff Briggs
Jeffery L. Briggs (born March 10, 1957) is the American founder and former President and CEO of Firaxis Games, a video game developer based in Hunt Valley, Maryland, United States. He was previously a game designer at MicroProse but left that company in 1996 along with Sid Meier and Brian Reynolds to form Firaxis Games. Career Briggs holds a Doctorate in Musical Composition and Theory from the University of Illinois. Briggs' composition teachers included Samuel Adler, Warren Benson, Joseph Schwantner, Donald Freund, and John Melby. His career began in New York City where he composed music for various events, including dance and theater groups. He took a job as game editor and designer at West End Games where he worked until 1987. He then joined MicroProse Software, where he served as designer, writer, composer and producer, becoming the company's Executive Producer and, finally, its Director of Product Development. Briggs's music first appeared in a 1989 MicroProse release '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sid Meier
Sidney K. Meier ( ; born February 24, 1954) is a Canadian-American programmer, game designer, designer, and video game producer, producer of several strategy video games and simulation video games, including the ''Civilization (series), Civilization'' series. Meier co-founded MicroProse in 1982 with Bill Stealey and is the Director of Creative Development of Firaxis Games, which he co-founded with Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds (game designer), Brian Reynolds in 1996. For his contributions to the video game industry, Meier was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. Early life and education Meier was born in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, to parents of Dutch and Swiss descent, giving him both Canadian and Swiss citizenship. A few years later, the family moved to Michigan, US, where Meier was raised. He studied history and computer science, graduating with a degree in computer science from the University of Michigan in 1975. Career Following college, M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andy Hollis
Andy Hollis is an American video game designer, programmer and producer, mainly known for his flight simulators. He was one of the founding members of MicroProse. Video game development He began his career at MicroProse Software, where he was responsible for games such as ''Kennedy Approach'', '' Gunship'', '' F-15 Strike Eagle II'', '' F-19 Stealth Fighter'' and '' F-15 Strike Eagle III'', as well as science fiction titles '' Lightspeed'' and '' Hyperspeed''. In 1993, Hollis joined Origin Systems, where he was responsible for creating games for Electronic Arts' '' Jane's Combat Simulations'' brand. Among the simulations created at Origin are '' AH-64D Longbow'', ''Longbow 2'' and '' Jane's F-15''. In 1996, GameSpot named him as the number five in their listing of the Most Influential People in Computer Gaming, "honored for helping to bring back serious flight simulations that don't alienate beginners." When Origin changed its focus to online games, he moved around within Ele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Infogrames
Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA) is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. It is the current owner of the Atari brand through Atari Interactive. Because of continuing pressures upon the company and difficulty finding investors, it sought bankruptcy protection under French law in January 2013; its subsidiaries in the United States have sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as well. All three subsidiaries have since exited bankruptcy. History Early history (1983–1996) The founders wanted to christen the company ''Zboub Système'' (which can be approximately translated to ''Dick System'' in English), but were dissuaded by their legal counsel. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Infogrames Entertainment, SA
Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA) is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. It is the current owner of the Atari brand through Atari Interactive. Because of continuing pressures upon the company and difficulty finding investors, it sought bankruptcy protection under French law in January 2013; its subsidiaries in the United States have sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as well. All three subsidiaries have since exited bankruptcy. History Early history (1983–1996) The founders wanted to christen the company ''Zboub Système'' (which can be approximately translated to ''Dick System'' in English), but were dissuaded by their legal counsel. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hasbro Interactive
Hasbro Interactive was an American video game production and publishing subsidiary of Hasbro, the large game and toy company. Several of its studios were closed in early 2001 and most of its properties were sold to Infogrames (now Atari SA) which completed its studio's closures at the end of 2001. History Hasbro Interactive was formed late in 1995 in order to compete in the video game arena. Several Hasbro properties, such as Monopoly and Scrabble, had already been made into successful video games by licensees such as Virgin Interactive. With Hasbro's game experience, video games seemed like a natural extension of the company and a good opportunity for revenue growth. Hasbro Interactive's objective was to develop and publish games based on Hasbro properties. In January 1997, the company announced they would publish games for the PlayStation. Strong growth (1997–1999) In 1997, revenues increased 145% going from US$35 million to $86 million. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Stealey
John Wilbur Stealey Sr. is an American game developer and publisher who founded MicroProse with Sid Meier. He also founded (in 1995) and is the current CEO of iEntertainment Network. Business career Stealey took a job with General Instrument as their Director of Strategic Planning for their Systems and Service Division in Hunt Valley, Maryland. There he met Sid Meier and co-founded his first game company, MicroProse Software. As CEO he grew the company to over $43 million in annual sales, taking MicroProse Software public in 1991, and selling in 1993 to a Kleiner Perkins company, Spectrum HoloByte. He resigned from the company following the merger. Stealey started the game software company Interactive Magic in 1995, took it public in 1998, and sold to a private equity firm in 1999. While running iEntertainment Network, Stealey mentioned in a 1996 interview that he owned his own military training aircraft and flew it for recreation on a regular basis. Personal life Stealey grad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Reynolds (game Designer)
Brian Reynolds (born 1967) is an American videogame designer who is currently president of Firaxis Games. Reynolds has designed at SecretNewCo, Zynga, Big Huge Games and MicroProse and has been chairman of the International Game Developers Association. He has played a major part in designing a number of multi-million selling games including ''Civilization II'', ''Rise of Nations'', '' Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri'', and ''FrontierVille''. He has also founded or co-founded three game companies, SecretNewCo, Big Huge Games, and Firaxis Games. Early life Reynolds made his first game sale with Quest 1 to '' SoftSide'' magazine, its August 1981 cover feature. He was a gamer in high school, and a SysOp on Randolph School's (Huntsville, Alabama) PDP-11 mainframe computer. A 1990 graduate of the University of the South, Reynolds briefly pursued graduate studies in Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. Career Reynolds initiated his game career with MicroProse where he wor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Firaxis Games
Firaxis Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Sparks, Maryland. The company was founded in May 1996 by Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds following their departure from MicroProse, Meier's earlier venture. They were acquired by Take-Two Interactive in August 2005, and subsequently became part of the publisher's 2K label. Firaxis Games is best known for developing the ''Civilization'' and '' XCOM'' series, as well as many other games bearing Meier's name. History Firaxis Software was founded on May 1, 1996, by Sid Meier, Brian Reynolds and Jeff Briggs, three video game designers formerly employed by MicroProse, a video game venture founded by Meier and partner Bill Stealey in 1982. The name "Firaxis", a portmanteau of "fiery" and "axis", was derived from the name of a piece of music created by Briggs. Briggs explained that they decided to stay in the Baltimore area, rather than moving to Silicon Valley, because it was "just a great place to be" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Baron (arcade Game)
''Red Baron'' is an arcade video game developed by Atari, Inc. and released in 1980. A first-person flight simulator game, the player takes the role of a World War I ace in a biplane fighting on the side of the Allies. The game is named after the nickname of Manfred von Richthofen, German flying ace. The game utilizes the same monochrome vector graphics and similar arcade hardware as Atari's own '' Battlezone''; both were developed at the same time. Like Battlezone, the player is presented with a first-person view of the action. Both ''Battlezone'' and ''Red Baron'' required additional hardware, an "Auxiliary" board, to perform the mathematical computations required for simulating a 3D environment. Gameplay The game is divided up into rounds. Most rounds are divided into air combat (shooting from one to three airplanes in formation) and ground combat (two zeppelins and multiple ground targets). While the game does not feature accurate flight physics (it is not possible to cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strategy Video Game
Strategy is a major video game genre that emphasizes thinking and planning over direct instant action in order to achieve victory. Although many types of video games can contain strategic elements, as a genre, strategy games are most commonly defined as those with a primary focus on high-level strategy, logistics and resource management. They are also usually divided into two main sub-categories: turn-based and real-time, but there are also many strategy cross/sub-genres that feature additional elements such as tactics, diplomacy, economics and exploration. Typical experience A player must plan a series of actions against one or more opponents, and the reduction of enemy forces is usually a goal. Victory is achieved through superior planning, and the element of chance takes a smaller role. In most strategy video games, the player is given a godlike view of the game world, and indirectly controls game units under their command. Thus, most strategy games involve elements of warfar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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