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Windham Classics
Windham Classics Corporation was an American video game publisher and subsidiary of Spinnaker Software. The corporation was founded in 1984 and went defunct circa 1985/86 or later. The headquarters were in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Adventure games Windham Classics published five adventure games. The games belonged to the genres of interactive fiction with graphics and point-and-click adventure game. They were based upon books for children. The game development was a part of Spinnakers marketing strategy in the adventure game market in the 1980s: Target groups of Windham Classic adventures were children players and target groups of Telarium, another Spinnaker subsidiary corporation, were grown-up players. * '' Below the Root'', 1984 (developed in corporation with Zilpha Keatley Snyder, based upon her novel '' Below the Root'') * '' Swiss Family Robinson'', 1984 (based upon the novel ''The Swiss Family Robinson'' by Johann David Wyss) * ''The Wizard of Oz'', 1985 (based ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spinnaker Software
Spinnaker Software Corporation was an American software and video game company. Founded in 1982 by Bill Bowman and C. David Seuss, it was known primarily for its line of non-curriculum based educational software, which was a major seller during the 1980s. Spinnaker pioneered the educational software market and was the first company to mass market low cost, educational software. It went public on NASDAQ in 1991 and was acquired by The Learning Company in 1994. The Learning Company was subsequently acquired by Mattel. Educational and entertainment titles One of the key elements of the business plan was to change the marketing of software aimed at home users: Instead of plastic bags, the software was put into brightly colored, durable plastic boxes. To reach non-tech-savvy parents as potential buyers, full-color advertisements were run in magazines like ''Good Housekeeping'', '' Better Homes and Gardens'' and ''Newsweek.'' The budget for advertising was huge: In 1983 $1.5 millio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Wizard Of Oz (1985 Video Game)
''The Wizard of Oz'' is an illustrated interactive fiction game developed by and published by Windham Classics for the Apple II, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, and MSX in 1985. It is an adaptation of the books ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' and ''The Marvelous Land of Oz''. Gameplay The game is a text adventure where players assume the role of Dorothy and interact with the characters, world, and objects from the books through commands. Characters include the Tin Woodman, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion from the first book, along with Jack Pumpkinhead, the Sawhorse, Mombi and Tip from the second book. Reception ''The Wizard of Oz'' was positively received by the press. ''II Computing'' said that "a good parser makes it easy to have believable dialogues" with the characters, and observed, "The on-screen illustrations are not flashy. They utilize the Apple's graphics well, but in a way that appears more like a children's storybook than an epic cartoon novel. This, of course, is the way yo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Treasure Island
''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure and historical novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. It was published as a book in 1883, and tells a story of " buccaneers and buried gold" set in the 18th century. It is considered a coming-of-age story and is noted for its atmosphere, characters, and action. The novel was originally serialised from 1881 to 1882 in the children's magazine '' Young Folks'' under the title ''Treasure Island or the Mutiny of the Hispaniola'', credited to the pseudonym "Captain George North". It was first published as a book on 14 November 1883 by Cassell & Co. It has since become one of the most-often dramatised and adapted novels. Since its publication ''Treasure Island'' has significantly influenced depictions of pirates in popular culture, including elem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ''Through the Looking-Glass'' (1871). He was noted for his facility with word play, logic, and fantasy. His poems ''Jabberwocky'' (1871) and ''The Hunting of the Snark'' (1876) are classified in the genre of literary nonsense. Some of Alice's nonsensical wonderland logic reflects his published work on mathematical logic. Carroll came from a family of high-church Anglicanism, Anglicans, and pursued his clerical training at Christ Church, Oxford, where he lived for most of his life as a scholar, teacher and (necessarily for his academic fellowship at the time) Anglican deacon. Alice Liddell – a daughter of Henry Liddell, the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, Dean of Christ Church – is wide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Through The Looking-Glass
''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' is a novel published in December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford, Christ Church, University of Oxford. It was the sequel to his ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865), in which many of the characters were anthropomorphic Playing card, playing-cards. In this second novel the theme is chess. As in the earlier book, the central figure, Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Alice, enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a large looking-glass (a mirror) into a world that she can see beyond it. There she finds that, just as in a reflection, things are reversed, including logic (for example, running helps one remain stationary, walking away from something brings one towards it, chessmen are alive and nursery-rhyme characters are real). Among the characters Alice meets are the severe Red Queen (Through the Looking-Glass), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a girl named Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic creatures. It is seen as an example of the literary nonsense genre. The artist John Tenniel provided 42 wood-engraved illustrations for the book. It received positive reviews upon release and is now one of the best-known works of Victorian literature; its narrative, structure, characters and imagery have had a widespread influence on popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre. It is credited as helping end an era of didacticism in children's literature, inaugurating an era in which writing for children aimed to "delight or entertain". The tale plays with logic, giving th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alice In Wonderland (1985 Video Game)
''Alice in Wonderland'' is a graphic adventure game developed by Dale Disharoon and published by Windham Classics for the Apple II and Commodore 64 in 1985. It was remade for the Philips CD-I. Loosely adapted from ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and ''Through the Looking-Glass'', it is a platform adventure game in which Alice goes down the rabbit hole to Wonderland only to discover she must escape before the Red King awakens, ending the dream of Wonderland and the world behind the Looking Glass, and Alice along with them. Rounding out the cast are characters from ''The Hunting of the Snark'', another nonsensical work by Lewis Carroll. Also appearing is the Wasp in a Wig, a character featuring in a deleted chapter from ''Through the Looking-Glass.'' It uses the same engine as Dale Disharoon's previous game for Windham Classics, '' Below the Root''. Reception ''Alice in Wonderland'' was positively received by press, including a score of 8/10 in ''Computer and Video Games'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Marvelous Land Of Oz
''The Marvelous Land of Oz: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman'', commonly shortened to ''The Land of Oz'', published in July 1904, is the second book in L. Frank Baum's Oz series, and the sequel to '' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900). This and the following 34 books in the series were illustrated by John R. Neill. It was followed by ''Ozma of Oz'' (1907). The story features the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, and introduces Princess Ozma and Jack Pumpkinhead to the Oz mythos. Plot summary The events are set shortly after the events in ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' and after Dorothy Gale's departure back to Kansas. The protagonist of the novel is an orphan boy called Tip. For as long as he can remember, Tip has been under the guardianship of a cruel Wicked Witch named Mombi and lives in the northern quadrant of Oz called Gillikin Country. Mombi has always been extremely mean and abusive to Tip. As Mombi is returning hom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz
''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is a 1900 children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. It is the first novel in the Oz series of books. A Kansas farm girl named Dorothy ends up in the magical Land of Oz after she and her pet dog Toto are swept away from their home by a cyclone. Upon her arrival in the magical world of Oz, she learns she cannot return home until she has destroyed the Wicked Witch of the West. The book was first published in the United States in September 1900 by the George M. Hill Company. It had sold three million copies by the time it entered the public domain in 1956. It was often reprinted under the title ''The Wizard of Oz'', which is the title of the successful 1902 Broadway musical adaptation as well as the 1939 live-action film. The ground-breaking success of both the original 1900 novel and the 1902 musical prompted Baum to write thirteen additional Oz books, which serve as official se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johann David Wyss
Johann David Wyss (; 28 May 1743 – 11 January 1818) was a Swiss author, best remembered for his book ''The Swiss Family Robinson'' (''Der schweizerische Robinson'') (1812). He was born and died in Bern. It is said that he was inspired by Daniel Defoe's ''Robinson Crusoe'', but wanted to write a story from which his own children would learn, as the father in the story taught important lessons to his children. ''The Swiss Family Robinson'' was first published in German in 1812, then translated into English two years later. The book was edited by his son, Johann Rudolf Wyss, a scholar known for writing the Swiss national anthem, '' Rufst du, mein Vaterland''. Another of Wyss's sons, Johann Emmanuel Wyss, illustrated the book. Johann David Wyss died in 1818 at the age of 74. He lived longer than his son Johann Rudolf, who would die twelve years later at the age of 48. Wyss has been described as an author whose style was "firmly Christian and moral in tone".Dinah Birch, Katy Hoop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adventure Game
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media, such as literature and film, encompassing a wide variety of genres. Most adventure games (text and graphic) are designed for a single player, since the emphasis on story and character makes multiplayer design difficult. '' Colossal Cave Adventure'' is identified by Rick Adams as the first such adventure game, first released in 1976, while other notable adventure game series include ''Zork'', '' King's Quest'', '' Monkey Island'', '' Syberia'', and ''Myst''. Adventure games were initially developed in the 1970s and early 1980s as text-based interactive stories, using text parsers to translate the player's commands into actions. As personal computers became more powerful with better graphics, the graphic adventure-game format became po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Swiss Family Robinson
''The Swiss Family Robinson'' (German: ''Der Schweizerische Robinson'', "The Swiss Robinson") is a novel by the Swiss author Johann David Wyss, first published in 1812, about a Swiss family of immigrants whose ship en route to Port Jackson, Australia goes off course and is shipwrecked in the East Indies. The ship's crew is lost, but the family and several domestic animals survive. They make their way to shore, where they build a settlement, undergoing several adventures before being rescued; some refuse rescue and remain on the island. The book is the most successful of a large number of " Robinsonade" novels that were written in response to the success of Daniel Defoe's ''Robinson Crusoe'' (1719). It has gone through a large number of versions and adaptations. History Written by Swiss writer Johann David Wyss, edited by his son Johann Rudolf Wyss, and illustrated by another son, Johann Emmanuel Wyss, the novel was intended to teach his four sons about family values, good far ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
