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Perfect Dark is a 2000 first-person shooter developed and published by Rare for the Nintendo 64. The first game of the Perfect Dark series, it follows Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute research centre, as she attempts to stop an extraterrestrial conspiracy by rival corporation dataDyne. The game features a campaign mode where the player must complete a series of levels to progress through the story, as well as a range of multiplayer options, including a co-operative mode and traditional deathmatch settings with computer-controlled bots.

As a spiritual successor to Rare's 1997 first-person shooter GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark shares many features with its predecessor and runs on an upgraded version of its game engine. GoldenEye 007 director Martin Hollis led the game's production for the first fourteen months of its near three-year development cycle before he left Rare to pursue other interests. The game is  one of the most technically-advanced titles for the Nintendo 64, and requires an Expansion Pak to access the campaign mode and most of the multiplayer features. Shortly before the game's release, a feature that would have allowed players to place a photograph of their choice onto the face of their multiplayer character was cut due to sensitive issues surrounding the ability for players to attack images of real people.

Upon release, Perfect Dark received critical acclaim and sold relatively well, eventually joining Nintendo's "Player's Choice" game selection. Critics widely praised its graphics, artificial intelligence, and number of multiplayer options, but some criticised its inconsistent frame rate. The game received the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Moving Images Award for 2000 and the Golden Satellite Award for Best Interactive Product in 2001. The game is occasionally cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. It was supplemented by a Game Boy Color counterpart, which allows some gameplay options to alternatively be unlocked via a Transfer Pak. A remaster, also titled Perfect Dark, featuring enhanced graphics and online multiplayer, was released in 2010.

Gameplay
Perfect Dark is a first-person shooter where players complete levels to unlock content and progress through the game's storyline. Players manoeuvre their character from a first-person perspective and have the ability to lean left or right, look up or down, crouch, crawl, and drop from most ledges; there is no jump ability. Interaction with the environment is via a single context-sensitive button, which can activate computers, operate lifts, and open doors. Players can carry an unlimited number of weapons, ranging from handguns to assault rifles, rocket launchers, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, and combat knives. Besides their primary mode of fire, weapons have a secondary function that enables an alternate fire mode or grants players special abilities. For example, the secondary function of the K7 Avenger assault rifle detects threats like explosive devices. Most weapons have a finite magazine and must be reloaded after a certain number of shots. Some can be used in duplicate, one in each hand.

Players have a certain amount of health which decreases when attacked by opponents. Although the game does not feature health recovery items, players can pick up shields that protect them with a secondary health bar. Players and opponents can disarm each other at close range, and players may use this feature to steal weapons or knock foes unconscious. Damage taken during combat is location-based, with a shot to the torso causing more damage than a shot to a limb. A number of tutorials and training activities can be taken in the game's home level. The most notable of these is the shooting range, where players can test their proficiency with the game's weapons in individual challenges. In addition to training activities, players can find information about the game's locations and characters, which are gradually unlocked as they complete levels.

Campaign

Perfect Dark features a campaign mode where a single player controls the game's protagonist, Joanna Dark, through a series of levels collected together into missions. In each level, the player must complete a set of objectives while opponents controlled by the game's artificial intelligence try to hinder the player's progress. Objectives generally require the recovery and use of high-tech gadgets like night-vision goggles or door decoders. The player has freedom as to how to approach encounters and many objectives can be completed in a nonlinear order. Stealth is an important element of the gameplay because the player can kill opponents without being seen or remain undetected by using disguises. If Joanna fails an objective or her health is fully depleted, the player must start the level again from the beginning.

Each level can be played on three distinct difficulty settings. These affect aspects such as the number of objectives that must be completed, damage taken from opponents, the effectiveness of the game's optional aiming assistance, and the availability of ammunition and protective shields. Four bonus levels may be unlocked by completing the campaign on each difficulty setting and all the challenges in the firing range. Some of these bonus levels allow the player to assume the role of a different character. If all the levels have been completed on the highest difficulty, an additional setting becomes available, allowing the player to customise various aspects of the game's opponents, such as their health, aiming accuracy, and the damage they inflict. The player may unlock cheats by completing levels within a certain time limit.

The campaign includes a co-operative mode, allowing either two players, or one player and up to four computer-controlled bots, to tackle a level together. If two players play, the game splits the screen horizontally or vertically. Options such as friendly fire can be disabled and only one player is required to survive a level. A "Counter-Operative" mode is included, allowing one player to play a level as Joanna while another takes the role of an opponent while attempting to stop her. The player-controlled opponent has less health than Joanna but will reappear as another opponent when defeated. The opposing player may choose to take control of another opponent at any time by swallowing a suicide pill.

Multiplayer
Perfect Dark features a multiplayer mode where up to four players and eight computer-controlled bots can compete against each other in different arenas. A split-screen is used for multiple players. Players start a game unarmed and with a certain amount of health. Weapons and ammunition are placed around the arena in preset positions. Once a player is killed, they are regenerated unarmed elsewhere in the arena. The objective of each game is determined by the scenario being played. Scenarios range from the traditional deathmatch mode, where players score points by killing opponents, to objective-based modes such as Capture the Flag and King of the Hill. Other scenarios include Hold the Briefcase, where players must take a briefcase and survive with it for as long as possible, and Hacker Central, a game type where players score points by hacking a computer system using a data uplink device.

Aspects of a multiplayer game can be highly customised, including the chosen arena, the winning conditions, and the ability to choose what weapons and items appear where in the arena. Players can be grouped into teams or compete individually, and they can optionally be shown coloured according to their team. The appearance, team affiliation, skill level and pre-set behaviours of each computer-controlled bot can be customised. Pre-set behaviours range from them pursuing the highest-scoring player to exclusively chasing the player who killed them last. Other behaviours restrict bots to only attack players using fists and disarming moves. On higher skill levels, bots perform actions at a superhuman level. Players may issue commands to bots of their team to perform certain tasks. For example, a player can order an allied bot to defend an area or attack a designated opponent.

The multiplayer mode includes 30 pre-set challenges against bots that may be tackled by one or more players. These challenges cover a variety of game types, weapon arrangements, and level setups. By completing challenges, additional features such as new weapons, player models, and bot behaviours are unlocked. At the end of a match, the overall results are shown, alongside information about the individual players' performance. The game keeps track of player statistics such as damage dealt and distance travelled, and awards players with medals based on how well they performed. Players are ranked according to their performance; the better the performance, the higher the grade. The player's overall progress, multiplayer setups, and character profiles can be saved to the Nintendo 64 game cartridge or a Controller Pak. The game also supports the Rumble Pak.

Plot
Perfect Dark is set in an alternate 2023 against the backdrop of an interstellar war between two alien races: the Maians, who resemble the archetypal Grey alien, and the Skedar, reptile-like creatures who use a cloaking device to appear human. On Earth, there is an ongoing rivalry between two companies: The Carrington Institute, a research centre founded by Daniel Carrington that secretly operates an espionage group in league with the Maians; and dataDyne, a defence contractor corporation headed by Cassandra de Vries. In exchange for creating an AI with code-breaking abilities to access an ancient alien spacecraft at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, the Skedar agree to supply dataDyne with enough alien technology to become the biggest corporation on Earth.

The player is cast as Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute whose excellent scores in training have earned her the codename "Perfect Dark". On her first mission, she is sent to extract a defector known as Dr. Caroll from a dataDyne laboratory. Dr. Caroll is revealed to be the AI created by dataDyne, and is worried about the mission for which it had been designed. After the extraction, Carrington is held captive at his private villa by dataDyne soldiers. When Joanna rescues him, she is informed that Dr. Caroll has been taken to a dataDyne front in Chicago. There, Joanna learns that Cassandra, NSA director Trent Easton, and a mysterious man known as Mr. Blonde plan to kidnap the President of the United States to get access to a deep sea research vessel called the Pelagic II. Although the President is in danger, Carrington alerts Joanna that a Maian craft was shot down near Area 51 and sends her to rescue a Maian protector named Elvis.

Because the President of the United States refuses to loan dataDyne the Pelagic II, the NSA sends a strike team to kill and replace him with a dataDyne-grown clone. The strike team invades the air base from which the Air Force One will depart. When Joanna foils this strike, the NSA and a group of cloaked Skedar take over the plane itself, which crashes after Joanna attempts to detach a craft attached to it. Having survived the crash, Joanna eliminates the President's clone and rescues the real President. Trent's incompetence angers Mr. Blonde, who kills him after disabling his cloaking device. With no other options, dataDyne hijacks the Pelagic II to reach the ancient spacecraft. However, unbeknownst to dataDyne, the spacecraft contains a powerful weapon capable of destroying a planet and the Skedar intend to test it on Earth before using it against the Maian homeworld.

Joanna and Elvis follow dataDyne to the ancient spacecraft, where they find a reprogrammed Dr. Caroll cracking the weapon. Joanna replaces its current personality with a backup of the original, and the restored Dr. Carroll sets the weapon to self-destruct. As Carrington and Joanna prepare for a Presidential reception, the Skedar assault the Carrington Institute and capture Joanna. In space, aboard an alien spaceship on course to the Skedar homeworld, Joanna finds herself in a holding cell with Cassandra. Feeling that she has been used, Cassandra redeems herself by making a distraction and sacrificing herself, freeing Joanna and therefore giving herself a chance for revenge. With the help of Elvis, Joanna takes control of the spaceship and lands on the Skedar homeworld, where she ultimately defeats the Skedar leader, leaving the Skedar in disarray. The game ends with Elvis and Joanna leaving the planet just prior to an orbital bombardment from the Maian navy.

Development

Concept and design
Perfect Dark was developed by Rare and originally directed by Martin Hollis as a spiritual successor to the company's 1997 first-person shooter GoldenEye 007. Shortly after GoldenEye 007 was released, Rare was planning to work on a game based on the GoldenEye sequel Tomorrow Never Dies, but the company was outbid by Electronic Arts, which would release their video game adaptation in 1999. The result did not upset the developers, who felt they had already spent too much time immersed in the James Bond universe. Working titles for the new project included "Covert Ops" and "Alien Intelligence" before the words "Perfect Dark" were decided on. The word "Dark" was chosen for its association with the game's bleak focus on killing. Hollis noted naming similarities to the 2006 first-person shooter Black by Criterion Games: "Game developers just like black, nihilism, dystopian futures, the number zero, infinity, spheres, perfection—all that kind of stuff". The double slash symbol in the game's logo was inspired by the Japanese writing system, while the bad grammar of the phrase "Perfect Dark" partially alludes to Hollis' affection for the way Japanese developers use English words in their own games and products.

The game's science fiction setting was chosen due to the developers' interest in the genre. The X-Files television series inspired the incorporation of a gray alien character and the premise of aliens being investigated. Other influences on the setting, theme and plot included conspiracy theories and works such as the Ghost in the Shell manga, Elektra comic books, the films Blade Runner and Judge Dredd, and the writing of author Philip K. Dick. Hollis and designer David Doak picked architectural and impressive sci-fi dystopian settings; the plot was then constructed around these locations. For example, the first level takes place in a skyscraper that lead artist Karl Hilton had always wanted to build, and features realistic environments like service stairs and an exterior area that can be explored. Although the game features a new fictional universe, it was still envisioned as a spy shooter like GoldenEye 007. The developers' desires to expand upon its stealth mechanics, along with their admiration for the 1998 stealth game Metal Gear Solid, led to the creation of gadgets such as the CamSpy and the data uplink device.

The decision to make the central character a woman was part of Hollis' belief that there should be more games starring women, considering the fact that GoldenEye 007 already starred a man. To this end, the team created Joanna Dark, influenced by a number of fictional heroines: Kim Kimberly from the 1983 interactive fiction game Snowball, the seductive spy Agent X-27 in the 1931 film Dishonored, the eponymous femme fatale of the 1990 film La Femme Nikita, and FBI agent Dana Scully from The X-Files. The name "Joanna Dark" was taken from the French pronunciation of Joan of Arc as "Jeanne d'Arc", while the name of the in-game company dataDyne was inspired by Yoyodyne from the 1965 novella The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon. The layout of the Air Force One level was inspired by the 1997 film of the same name because it was the only reference material the team had. In the game's Counter-Operative mode, the idea that the opposing player can take control of another opponent at any time was inspired by the 1999 film The Matrix, where agents can reappear as another person in the film's simulated reality.

Production

When production of the game started, the developers upgraded the GoldenEye 007 game engine with new features and enhancements such as real-time lighting and support for bigger environments and more textures. According to Rare, only 30% of the original engine remained, providing a basic framework to construct levels and animate characters. A new movement system was constructed, allowing players to fall off edges. Other incremental improvements included better shattering glass effects, which would allow players to shoot out objects such as bottles of wine, and the inclusion of computer-controlled bots in multiplayer matches. The artificial intelligence was improved so that opponents could work as a team and draw a secondary weapon when disarmed. Death cries and more elaborate gore effects, which allow gunshots to disperse and stain enemies' blood onto nearby walls and objects, were also added.

Originally, Hollis hoped that the difference between light and dark would be a significant feature of the gameplay, and the title was intended to reflect this focus. A flashlight was implemented by software engineer Steve Ellis, who had been responsible for much of the multiplayer mode of GoldenEye 007, but was ultimately not included in the game due to limitations of the Nintendo 64 hardware. In 2006, Hollis remarked that such aims were overambitious, stating that "even today, you can see game developers struggle to make light and dark foundational from a gameplay perspective". Nevertheless, the game features more advanced lighting than its predecessor. For example, lights can be shot out to create darkened areas, gunfire and explosions illuminate rooms dynamically, and the player can use infrared or night-vision goggles.

Hollis was involved with Perfect Dark for the first 14 months of its near three-year development cycle, during which progress was unsatisfactory. As he explained, "each of us was asking for more than the other could give. This situation ended with my departure, and with very deep regret I was unable to see Perfect Dark to completion". Hollis' decision came after his four-year contract with Rare was about to expire, which he chose not to renew as he wanted to pursue other interests. Shortly after his exit in September 1998, four additional members—Doak, Hilton, Ellis and composer Graeme Norgate—left Rare to form Free Radical Design, partially because they were unsatisfied with the working environment. This resulted in a loss of half of the workforce and led Rare to assign more people to the team remaining on the project, which eventually became three times bigger than GoldenEye 007s. Programmer Mark Edmonds was promoted to team leader because of his knowledge of the game engine. Although the story and ideas for the game were kept intact, the new team contributed so much to development that it was seen as a fresh start. The team worked in a very isolated and free environment and did not have a production manager, a schedule, meetings, commercial pressure, or any sort of deadlines. According to artist Brett Jones: "People would just do things they thought were cool and would work".

In spring 1999, Rare moved its headquarters from a country farmhouse in Twycross, Leicestershire to its current multi-million office complex. Although the locations are a few minutes away from each other, the move caused minor disruptions for some. Rare installed an in-house motion capture studio, which was used to capture hit animations and full walk cycles. Game designer Duncan Botwood wore a pair of heels to portray Joanna Dark in some sessions, but motion capture artist Laurie Sage performed most of her moves. Many of the game opponents were based on members of the development team, who also performed the motion capture required for their animation. Numerous secrets were added to the game to fuel the exploration efforts of players, including a piece of cheese hidden in every level. These were deliberately placed by one of the level editors as a graphical oddity for the player's confusion. The game has two hidden passwords: one found by picking up a necklace in one level and another by reaching the highest rank in the multiplayer mode. Rare had originally intended these details to access password-protected sections of promotional websites and use them for an alternate reality game.

As developers kept adding features, the game ended up using all the extra memory on their debug consoles and became too big to fit into the Nintendo 64's standard 4 MB of random-access memory (RAM). Because the developers were unable to optimise it, they made use of the Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak, which increases the Nintendo 64's RAM from 4 MB to 8 MB. Although the Expansion Pak is required to access the game's campaign and most of the multiplayer features, a limited subset of deathmatch options are available without the device—around 35% of the game is playable without an Expansion Pak, as estimated on the game's instruction booklet. The Expansion Pak allows the game to optionally be played in a 480i "high-resolution" mode. The Counter-Operative mode proved to be difficult to implement and led the game to be delayed. The iterative nature of the game's development led Hollis to describe the ultimate number of multiplayer options as "a vast array of features I [had] never planned".

Cut from the game was a feature that allowed players to place a photograph of their choice onto the face of their multiplayer character. The photos would have been taken by the Game Boy Camera accessory and directly transferred to the game via a Nintendo 64 Transfer Pak. They could then be cropped or manipulated with an in-game editor and mapped onto the polygonal head of a multiplayer character. The photos could also be saved to the game cartridge or a Controller Pak for cross-game sharing. Although Rare's Nintendo-side producer Ken Lobb originally stated that the feature was removed due to technical difficulties, the actual reason was revealed to be sensitive issues surrounding the ability for players to attack images of real people. Rare's decision came after then-recent attacks such as the Columbine High School massacre, when new censorship laws were being introduced in the United States.

The soundtrack was primarily composed by Grant Kirkhope, who replaced Norgate after his departure. Writing sci-fi music was a new and enjoyable experience for Kirkhope, as he had mainly worked on Banjo-Kazooie at the time. While he took inspiration from Blade Runner and the whistling sound of "The X-Files" theme song, he reused much of Norgate's sample set, especially peculiar sci-fi noises he had created. One of Norgate's few contributions to the final Perfect Dark score was the theme of the first level. A third composer, David Clynick, composed the game's cinematic sequence while Kirkhope was working on Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Tooie. The game supports 16x9 widescreen and Dolby surround sound, and features voice acting for all in-game and cutscene dialogue. Nintendo wanted an American actress to voice Joanna Dark, but the role ultimately went to composer Eveline Fischer. Because Perfect Dark features more than 45 minutes of voiced cutscenes, the game was shipped in a 32 MB cartridge.

Marketing and release

Although a follow-up to GoldenEye 007 was confirmed to be in development in early 1998, Perfect Dark was formally presented as Nintendo's lead game at E3 1998 in Atlanta, Georgia. Originally scheduled for a release in summer 1999 and later in December 1999, Perfect Dark was heavily trailed in video game magazines, with Nintendo Official Magazine predicting that it would be "the best shooting game this century". A working version of the game appeared at the European Computer Trade Show in September 1998; N64 Magazine described the preview as having "the kind of attention to detail that had everyone who saw [it] drooling". A more complete version was presented at E3 in May 1999, where the game's compatibility with the Game Boy Camera was announced, and at Nintendo Space World in August 1999, alongside Rare's Donkey Kong 64 and Jet Force Gemini. Shortly before release, Rare unveiled a website for the in-game company dataDyne to promote interest in the game's storyline. The game had a marketing budget of $10 million.

Perfect Dark was first released in North America on 22 May 2000. Nintendo arranged a number of publicity stunts, including hiring model Michele Merkin, who appeared as Joanna Dark in commercials and in-store promotions for the game. The game received a Mature rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board, particularly for its graphic content and adult language. This generated some controversy because Nintendo has a reputation for family-friendly games. The European release followed on 30 June 2000. To supplement the game, Rare released a Game Boy Color counterpart, also titled Perfect Dark, shortly afterwards. The Game Boy Color game features a compatibility mode that allows certain cheats within the Nintendo 64 game to alternatively be unlocked via the Transfer Pak. In Japan, Perfect Dark was released on 21 October 2000.

Perfect Dark features a different box art for each regional release. Rare's art director Kev Bayliss, who created the North American and European artworks, designed the North American version in one day because Rare needed it very quickly. He then created a more suitable Joanna Dark model for the European version and all the promotional material at the time. For the Japanese release, a completely different image was requested by Nintendo, who originally considered releasing the game in Japan under the title . "Perfect Dark" does not translate well into Japanese, and the title "Aka to Kuro" was considered sufficiently edgy. The game was ultimately released as , a transliteration of the Western title.

According to NPD's Toy Retail Survey Tracking system, Perfect Dark was the second best-selling game of May 2000 in North America, behind Pokémon Trading Card Game. The Japanese launch saw sales totalling 35,000 units in its first week. As a bestseller, Perfect Dark joined Nintendo's "Player's Choice" game selection on 21 December 2000. The game sold relatively well through the year's holiday season, reaching No. 23 on the all formats chart for the week of 24 December 2000. As of March 2003, Perfect Dark had sold almost 1.3 million copies in the United States and 77,000 copies in Japan. Total sales in the United States reached 1.5 million by December 2007. In a 2011 interview with Eurogamer, game designer Chris Tilston revealed that lifetime sales for the game reached 3.2 million, but did not clarify if the figure accounted for units shipped to retailers.

Reception

Perfect Dark received critical acclaim from video game publications. The most praised aspects of the game were its graphics, artificial intelligence, and number of multiplayer options. GameSpot claimed that, as a console first-person shooter, Perfect Dark is "unparalleled", while IGN journalist Matt Casamassina remarked that its extensive features set the game apart from its peers. Similarly, N64 Magazine described Perfect Dark as "dauntingly huge", stating that it "takes everything that made its predecessor such an enduring favourite and does it bigger, better and more often". Edge concluded that, although the game fails to be as revolutionary as its predecessor, it refines its "phenomenal gameplay while massively developing its multiplayer components". Nintendo Power editors called the game "undeniably a work of art", suspenseful, "more compelling than most action movies and much deeper than any video game of its type".

The graphics were praised for their dynamic lighting, complex geometry, varied textures, and smooth animations. IGN remarked that levels were more detailed than in GoldenEye 007, and that character models and weapons were well-animated. GameRevolution highlighted the game's semi-realistic look, saying that it "adds to the depth and addiction of the game". The game's voiced cutscenes, surround sound effects, and atmospheric score, which was described as a mixture between the Blade Runner soundtrack by Vangelis and GoldenEye 007s, were said to effectively bring the game to life. The Electric Playground credited Rare for being able to fit such a clear-sounding experience into the limited space of a Nintendo 64 cartridge.

The gameplay was praised for the challenging artificial intelligence of enemies and varied level design. The enemies were admired for their use of squad tactics, ability to wait for players to come back instead of obediently chasing after them, and for ducking around a corner for cover. As with GoldenEye 007, the game's nonlinear approach to completing mission objectives was highlighted positively, giving players freedom to deal with situations as they see fit. The multiplayer mode was seen as the strongest aspect of the game. Reviewers noted that the flexibility of options, number of gameplay modes, "clever" weapons, number of unlockable features, and customisable computer-controlled bots give the game an unprecedented amount of replay value. GamePro called the game's Counter-Operative mode one of the "coolest multiplayer modes ever", stating that the player playing as Joanna never knows which enemy the opposing player controls.

The game's inconsistent frame rate was frequently criticised. According to Trigger Happy author Steven Poole, the game's "inadequate temporal resolution—owing to a wrongheaded choice to privilege visual detail over frame-rate—made it unplayable at higher difficulty levels". IGN editors observed that the frame rate can be choppy in large areas or environments with many characters on screen, but felt they were too frequently caught up in the game to notice it, or else were willing to forgive it. Poole described the "lazy sci-fi fetishism" of Joanna Dark's character design as "a blatant and doomed attempt to steal the thunder of Lara Croft", and argued that she illustrated the challenges of characterising the protagonists of first-person shooters, a problem that GoldenEye 007 had avoided by using the already well-known character James Bond.

At their Best and Worst of 2000 awards, GameSpot editors awarded Perfect Dark Best Nintendo 64 Game and Best Shooting Game, and nominated it in the Best Multiplayer Game category. Rare was recognised for its work on the game and received the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Moving Images Award for 2000, and the Golden Satellite Award for Best Interactive Product in 2001.

Legacy
Shortly after Perfect Dark was released, Rare planned to develop a "sister" title, called Velvet Dark, for either the Nintendo 64 or its successor, the GameCube, but the project was ultimately abandoned. The name "Velvet Dark" references Joanna Dark's alleged sister, the character players assume the role of in the game's co-operative mode. Meanwhile, Free Radical Design released TimeSplitters for the PlayStation 2 in October 2000, a first-person shooter based around a completely new engine. TimeSplitters bears several gameplay and presentational similarities to GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark, including a similar aiming system and unlockable options through quick level completions. After Rare was purchased by Microsoft in 2002, the company released a prequel, Perfect Dark Zero, as a launch title for the Xbox 360 in 2005. Although the game received generally positive reviews from critics, some publications felt it did not meet their expectations.

In a retrospective analysis, Edge acknowledged that the game's frame rate and other dated elements of its design rendered it "nigh-on unplayable". The magazine found the ambitious mentality which resulted in weapons and computer-controlled players being "designed for possibilities rather than balance", both one of Perfect Darks most interesting aspects and the cause of its biggest problem: "Restraint [...] would have made Perfect Dark a tighter, more focused experience, helped with those framerate issues, and removed almost all of the fun". The magazine concluded that despite Perfect Dark not standing up as a good game to play in 2009, "its currency of ideas and provocation [...] remains sound". In 2015, Den of Geek considered Perfect Dark "a game that's done more for the shooter genre than often credited for", and said that the game was still ahead of time because no game had revitalised its ideas.

Since its release, the game has attracted a following of elite players who constantly try to speedrun its levels and break world records. These records are managed by their website and involve highly skilled players exploiting tiny gameplay inconsistencies. The game is occasionally cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. In 2001, Electronic Gaming Monthly editors ranked Perfect Dark 65th on their list of Top 100 Games of All Time, while Nintendo Power included it in their 2006 list of Top 200 Nintendo games. In 2007, IGN editors placed the game at No. 86 on their list of Top 100 Games of All Time, noting that "Everything that GoldenEye made great, Perfect Dark did too, and then some." Similarly, Edge placed the title at No. 28 on their 2007 list of 100 Best Videogames (a list voted for by readers, Edge staff and gaming industry professionals), claiming that the game brought the Nintendo 64 era to a satisfying close. In 2009, Official Nintendo Magazine ranked it 37th on a list of 100 Best Nintendo Games.

In 2022, a fan by the name of Ryan Dwyer fully decompiled the original ROM image into C source code, allowing the game to be ported unofficially to various platforms. A reboot, also titled Perfect Dark, is being developed by The Initiative.

Remaster

A remaster of the game, also titled Perfect Dark, was released in 2010 for the Xbox 360 through its Xbox Live Arcade download service, featuring improved frame rate, enhanced graphics and an online multiplayer. The remaster was developed by 4J Studios, the same studio that previously handled the Xbox 360 ports of Rare's platform games Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie. The game received generally favorable reviews from gaming publications. Some critics considered the relatively unchanged game to be outdated, but most agreed that the title was a solid revival of a classic. In 2015, the remaster was included in the Rare Replay video game compilation for Xbox One.

References

External links

2000 video games
Fiction set in 2023
Action video games
Alien abduction in video games
Video games about extraterrestrial life
Augmented reality in fiction
Cooperative video games
Fiction about corporate warfare
Video games about cloning
Works about conspiracy theories
Cyberpunk video games
First-person shooters
Games with Transfer Pak support
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Nintendo 64 games
Perfect Dark games
Rare (company) games
Science fiction video games
Split-screen multiplayer games
Spy video games
Stealth video games
Video games featuring female protagonists
Video games set in Alaska
Video games set in Canada
Video games set in Chicago
Video games set in Nevada
Video games set in 2023
Video games scored by Graeme Norgate
Video games scored by Grant Kirkhope
BAFTA winners (video games)
Video games set in the 2020s
Video games developed in the United Kingdom


text:
Opistophthalmus penrithorum ist ein in Namibia endemisch vorkommender Skorpion aus der Familie Scorpionidae.

Merkmale
Opistophthalmus penrithorum ist ein kleiner bis mittelgroßer Skorpion von etwa 65 Millimetern Länge. Er hat eine dunkel gelbbraune Farbe in verschiedenen Tönen. Die Beine und das erste bis sechste Sternit sind gelborange, die Kammorgane und das Genitaloperkulum leuchtend gelb.

Das mediane Ocellenpaar befindet sich deutlich hinter der Mitte des Carapax, die Länge des Carapax beträgt etwa das 1,75 bis 1,80fache des Abstands der Ocellen zum Vorderrand. Die medianen Ocellen sind groß, ihr Abstand zueinander beträgt nur etwa einen Durchmesser. Das Sternum ist annähernd fünfeckig und ebenso lang wie breit. Die Kammorgane haben bei männlichen Skorpionen 18 bis 22 und bei weiblichen 12 bis 16 Zähne. Das Verhältnis der Längen der beweglichen Finger der Chelae zur Länge der Handrücken beträgt etwa 1,60 zu 1.

Die Oberfläche des Carapax und der Tergite ist bei männlichen Skorpionen fein gekörnt, der Bereich um die medianen Ocellen hingegen glatt und glänzend. Das siebte Tergit hat leicht gekörnte seitliche Oberflächen. Carapax und Tergite haben bei weiblichen Skorpionen eine glatte und glänzende Oberfläche. Das dritte und vierte Segment des Metasomas hat keine Kiele und das Telson ist ventral nicht granuliert. Die Ober- und Außenseiten der Chelae und der Tibiae sowie die Oberseiten der Femora der Pedipalpen sind glatt und glänzend bis leicht netzartig strukturiert, mit nur wenigen verstreuten Granulen. Die Innenseiten dieser Glieder tragen ebenfalls verstreute Granulen. Die übrigen Oberflächen des Exoskeletts sind glatt und glänzend.

Männliche Exemplare von Opistophthalmus penrithorum haben eine insgesamt schlankere Erscheinung als die weiblichen und sind insgesamt heller gefärbt. Ihr Carapax ist schmaler, und während bei ihnen das Metasoma etwa 25 Prozent länger ist als Carapax und Mesosoma, ist die Länge bei weiblichen Skorpionen etwa gleich. Die Kammorgane haben bei männlichen Skorpionen 18 bis 22 und bei weiblichen 12 bis 16 Zähne. Die Pedipalpen männlicher Tiere sind stärker behaart.

Opistophthalmus penrithorum ist nahe mit Opistophthalmus flavescens verwandt, kann aber von diesem und den anderen Arten der Gattung Opistophthalmus durch die Lage der medianen Ocellen, die fehlenden Kiele auf dem dritten und vierten metasomalen Segment und die glatte Oberfläche der Unterseite des Telsons unterschieden werden.

Verbreitung und Lebensraum
Die Terra typica von Opistophthalmus penrithorum befindet sich am Trockenfluss Ururas bei Rooibank, dem früheren Scheppmansdorf, in der namibischen Region Erongo. Das Verbreitungsgebiet umfasst die Kiesebenen der Region Erongo.

Lebensweise
Alle aufgefundenen Exemplare von Opistophthalmus penrithorum wurden in flachen ausgescharrten Hohlräumen unter großen Steinen entdeckt. An den Fundorten war der Boden hart. Es wird angenommen, dass die Art nachtaktiv ist.

Systematik

Erstbeschreibung
Die Erstbeschreibung von Opistophthalmus penrithorum erfolgte 1979 durch den südafrikanischen Arachnologen Bruno H. Lamoral in einer umfangreichen Monografie der Skorpione Namibias, veröffentlicht in den Annals of the Natal Museum (heute African Invertebrates).

Typmaterial
Das Typmaterial besteht aus einem adulten weiblichen Holotypus und zwei subadulten weiblichen sowie vier adulten und zwei subadulten männlichen Paratypen. Der Holotypus und zwei adulte männliche und jeweils ein subadulter männlicher und weiblicher Paratypus befinden sich in der Sammlung des KwaZulu-Natal Museums in Pietermaritzburg. Zwei adulte männliche Paratypen sind in der Sammlung des Ditsong National Museum of Natural History in Pretoria, jeweils ein subadulter männlicher und weiblicher Paratypus ist im Namibischen Nationalmuseum in Windhoek deponiert.

Etymologie
Der Artname penrithorum ehrt die südafrikanischen Zoologen Mary-Lou Penrith von der Universität Pretoria und Mike Penrith von den National Zoological Gardens in Pretoria.

Literatur
 Bruno H. Lamoral: The scorpions of Namibia (Arachnida: Scorpionida). In: Annals of the Natal Museum 1979, Band 23, Nr. 3, S. 497–784, hier S. 738–742, , Online.

Einzelnachweise

Scorpionidae (Familie)
Scorpionidae

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
In the Sunset Country – cortometraggio del 1915 diretto da Frank Cooley
In the Sunset Country – cortometraggio del 1915 diretto da Burton L. King


text:
Routledge ( ) is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and social science.
The company publishes approximately 1,800 journals and 5,000 new books each year and their backlist encompasses over 70,000 titles. Routledge is claimed to be the largest global academic publisher within humanities and social sciences.

In 1998, Routledge became a subdivision and imprint of its former rival, Taylor & Francis Group (T&F), as a result of a £90-million acquisition deal from Cinven, a venture capital group which had purchased it two years previously for £25 million. Following the merger of Informa and T&F in 2004, Routledge became a publishing unit and major imprint within the Informa "academic publishing" division. Routledge is headquartered in the main T&F office in Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire and also operates from T&F offices globally including in Philadelphia, Melbourne, New Delhi, Singapore, and Beijing.

History
The firm originated in 1836, when the London bookseller George Routledge published an unsuccessful guidebook, The Beauties of Gilsland, with his brother-in-law W. H. (William Henry) Warne as assistant. In 1848, the pair entered the booming market for selling inexpensive imprints of works of fiction to rail travellers, in the style of the German Tauchnitz family, which became known as the "Railway Library".

The venture was a success as railway usage grew, and it eventually led to Routledge, along with W H Warne's brother Frederick Warne, to found the company, George Routledge & Co. in 1851.
The following year in 1852, the company gained lucrative business through selling reprints of Uncle Tom's Cabin, (in the public domain in the UK) which in turn enabled it to pay author Edward Bulwer-Lytton £20,000 for a 10-year lease allowing sole rights to print all 35 of his works including 19 of his novels to be sold cheaply as part of their "Railway Library" series.

The company was restyled in 1858 as Routledge, Warne & Routledge when George Routledge's son, Robert Warne Routledge, entered the partnership. Frederick Warne eventually left the company after the death of his brother W. H. Warne in May 1859 (died aged 37). Gaining rights to some titles, he founded Frederick Warne & Co. in 1865, which became known for its Beatrix Potter books. In July 1865, George Routledge's son Edmund Routledge became a partner, and the firm became George Routledge & Sons.

By 1899, the company was running close to bankruptcy. Following a successful restructuring in 1902 by scientist Sir William Crookes, banker Arthur Ellis Franklin, William Swan Sonnenschein as managing director, and others, however, it was able to recover and began to acquire and merge with other publishing companies including J. C. Nimmo Ltd. in 1903. In 1912, the company took over the management of Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., the descendant of companies founded by Charles Kegan Paul, Alexander Chenevix Trench, Nicholas Trübner, and George Redway.

These early 20th-century acquisitions brought with them lists of notable scholarly titles, and from 1912 onward,  the company became increasingly concentrated in the academic and scholarly publishing business under the imprint "Kegan Paul Trench Trubner", as well as reference, fiction and mysticism. In 1947, George Routledge and Sons finally merged with Kegan Paul Trench Trubner (the umlaut had been quietly dropped in the First World War) under the name of Routledge & Kegan Paul. Using C. K. Ogden and later Karl Mannheim as advisers the company was soon particularly known for its titles in philosophy, psychology and the social sciences.

In 1985, Routledge & Kegan Paul joined with Associated Book Publishers (ABP), which was later acquired by International Thomson in 1987. Under Thomson's ownership, Routledge's name and operations were retained, with the additions of backlists from Methuen, Tavistock Publications, Croom Helm and Unwin Hyman. In 1996, a management buyout financed by the European private equity firm Cinven saw Routledge operating as an independent company once again. Just two years later, Cinven and Routledge's directors accepted a deal for Routledge's acquisition by Taylor & Francis Group (T&F), with the Routledge name being retained as an imprint and subdivision.

In 2004, T&F became a division within Informa plc after a merger. Routledge continues as a primary publishing unit and imprint within Informa's 'academic publishing' division, publishing academic humanities and social science books, journals, reference works and digital products. Routledge has grown considerably as a result of organic growth and acquisitions of other publishing companies and other publishers' titles by its parent company. Humanities and social sciences titles acquired by T&F from other publishers are rebranded under the Routledge imprint.

People
The English publisher Fredric Warburg was a commissioning editor at Routledge during the early 20th century. Novelist Nina Stibbe, author of Love, Nina, worked at the company as a commissioning editor in the 1990s. Cultural studies editor William Germano served as vice-president and publishing director for two decades before becoming dean of the humanities at Cooper Union.

Authors
Routledge has published works from Adorno, Bohm, Butler, Derrida, Einstein, Foucault, Freud, Al Gore, Hayek, Jung, Levi-Strauss, McLuhan, Malinowski, Marcuse, Popper, Johan Rockström, Russell, Sartre, and Wittgenstein. The republished works of some of these authors have appeared as part of the Routledge Classics and Routledge Great Minds series. Competitors to the series are Verso Books' Radical Thinkers, Penguin Classics, and Oxford World's Classics.

Publications

Routledge has been criticised for a pricing structure which "will limit readership to the privileged few", as opposed to options for open access offered by DOAJ, Unpaywall, and DOAB.

Reference works
Taylor and Francis closed down the Routledge print encyclopaedia division in 2006. Some of its publications were:
 Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, by Edward Craig (1998), in 10 volumes, but now online.
 Encyclopedia of Ethics, by Lawrence C. Becker and Charlotte B. Becker (2002), in three volumes.

Reference works by Europa Publications, published by Routledge:
 Europa World Year Book
 International Who's Who
 Europa World of Learning

Many of Routledge's reference works are published in print and electronic formats as Routledge Handbooks and have their own dedicated website: Routledge Handbooks Online. The company also publishes several online encyclopedias and collections of digital content such as Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism, Routledge Performance Archive, and South Asia Archive.

Book series
 The Broadway Travellers (1926–37) edited by Eileen Power and Edward Denison Ross.
 Colloquial Series of Multimedia Language Courses
Essential Grammars (since 1999)
 Morley's Universal Library (also known as: Routledge's Universal Library) (1883–88)
 The Muses' Library (1904–1940; 1950–1980)
 established in 1891 by Lawrence & Bullen as a series of fine editions of poetry until L&B folded in 1900, Routledge revived the series in 1904 with reprints and new titles. Over the years parallel editions were published in the US by Charles Scribner's Sons, E.P. Dutton and Harvard University Press
 The Republic of Letters
 Routledge's Railway Library (1848–99)
 were sold through W. H. Smith's bookstalls on railway platforms; in 50 years 1,277 books were published, most as pictorial hardbacks, with some bestsellers re-released as cheaper paperbacks. Authors included Edward Bulwer Lytton, James Fenimore Cooper, Jane Austen, Benjamin Disraeli, Henry Fielding, Frances Trollope, William Harrison Ainsworth, Alexandre Dumas, and Victor Hugo

References

Citations

Sources

External links

 History of Routledge
 Routledge Revivals: Reprints from humanities and social sciences publications, from the backlists of Routledge imprints.
 Routledge & Kegan Paul Archives: Ledgers, authors' agreements, printed catalogues and other papers 1853–1973, University College London.
 Records of Routledge & Kegan Paul: Correspondence files covering the period 1935 to 1990, as well as review files 1950s–1990s, Special Collections, University of Reading Library.
 Archives of George Routledge & Company 1853-1902, Chadwyck-Healey Ltd, 1973. 6 reels of microfilm and printed index. (Available from ProQuest)
 Archives of Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Henry S. King 1858-1912, Chadwyck-Healey Ltd,1973. 27 reels of microfilm with index on microfiche. (Available from Proquest)

Academic publishing companies
Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom
Companies based in Oxfordshire
Reference publishers
Vale of White Horse
1998 mergers and acquisitions
1851 establishments in England
Publishing companies established in 1851


text:
Oricourt és un municipi francès situat al departament de l'Alt Saona i a la regió de Borgonya - Franc Comtat. L'any 2007 tenia 31 habitants.

Demografia

Població
El 2007 la població de fet d'Oricourt era de 31 persones. Hi havia 16 famílies, de les quals 4 eren unipersonals (4 homes vivint sols), 8 parelles sense fills i 4 parelles amb fills.

La població ha evolucionat segons el següent gràfic:

Habitants censats

Habitatges
El 2007 hi havia 19 habitatges, 15 eren l'habitatge principal de la família, 3 eren segones residències i 1 estava desocupat. 18 eren cases i 1 era un apartament. Dels 15 habitatges principals, 14 estaven ocupats pels seus propietaris i 1 estava llogat i ocupat pels llogaters; 1 tenia dues cambres, 2 en tenien tres, 2 en tenien quatre i 10 en tenien cinc o més. 12 habitatges disposaven pel capbaix d'una plaça de pàrquing. A 10 habitatges hi havia un automòbil i a 5 n'hi havia dos o més.

Piràmide de població
La piràmide de població per edats i sexe el 2009 era:

Economia
El 2007 la població en edat de treballar era de 16 persones, 12 eren actives i 4 eren inactives. Les 12 persones actives estaven ocupades(7 homes i 5 dones).. De les 4 persones inactives 2 estaven jubilades, 1 estava estudiant i 1 estava classificada com a «altres inactius».

Activitats econòmiques
L'únic establiment que hi havia el 2007 era d'una empresa de serveis.

Poblacions més properes
El següent diagrama mostra les poblacions més properes.

Referències

 Résumé statistique Fitxa resum de dades estadístiques d'Oricourt a l'INSEE.
 Évolution et structure de la population Fitxa amb el detall de dades d'Oricourt a l'INSEE
 France par commune  Dades detallades de tots els municipis de França accessibles a partir del mapa.

Municipis de l'Alt Saona


text:
Nel Group I partecipano nove squadre, di cui due vengono ammesse ai World Group Play-offs, mentre altrettante vengono retrocesse al Group II.

Squadre partecipanti

Tabellone

Primo turno

Lettonia vs. Macedonia

Svizzera vs. Polonia

Secondo turno

Croazia vs. Italia

Paesi Bassi vs. Macedonia

Svizzera vs. Bielorussia

Georgia vs. Slovacchia

Primo turno Play-offs

Polonia vs. Bielorussia

Secondo turno Play-offs

Italia vs. Lettonia

Bielorussia vs. Georgia

Collegamenti esterni

Coppa Davis 2008


text:
Фелішовка (Feliszówka) – лісистій пік заввишки 1006 м над рівнем моря, одна з найвищих гірських вершин пасма гір Високого Долу. Знаходиться в Західних Бещадах.

Високий Діл історично був межею по якій проходив розділ етнографічних територій розселення українських груп лемків та бойків.
До 1946 року на цих територіях українці складали більшість населення, проте під час "Операції Вісла" їх було виселено до Польщі.

Джерела
 Feliszówka

Гори Польщі
Вершини Карпат
Лемківщина
Закерзоння


text:
Katharina Paldauf (* um 1625 in Fürstenfeld; † vermutlich am 23. September 1675), geborene Fondell, war die Gattin des Pflegers der Riegersburg und eines der prominenten Opfer des großen Feldbacher Hexenprozesses von 1673 bis 1675. Als so genannte "Blumenhexe" auf der Riegersburg wurde sie nach ihrem Tod weit über ihre Heimatregion hinaus bekannt.

Leben
Katharina Paldauf wurde um 1625 als Tochter eines Spenglers in Fürstenfeld geboren. Mit 20 Jahren trat sie in den Dienst der Katharina Elisabeth Freifrau von Galler († 1672), der Besitzerin der Riegersburg. Dort traf sie auch ihren späteren Ehemann Johann Simon Paldauf, der bei der "schlimmen Liesl", wie die Burgherrin im Volksmund bezeichnet wurde, als Burgpfleger (=Verwalter) beschäftigt war. Das Paar hatte mindestens drei Kinder: Katharina, Anna und Ferdinand.

Hexenprozess
Im Frühjahr 1675 wurde Katharina Paldauf, die damals etwa 50 Jahre alt war, in den großen Feldbacher Hexenprozess (1673–75) hineingezogen. Sie wurde von einer mit ihr befreundeten Riegersburger Bäckerin als Hagel- und Wettermacherin sowie Teilnehmerin am Hexensabbat "besagt". Von einer weiteren Angeklagten, einer Schneiderin, wurde sie beschuldigt, eines ihrer Kinder getötet und in den Burgbrunnen geworfen zu haben. Daraufhin wurde Katharina Paldauf verhaftet und wie die anderen Angeklagten in Feldbach im Hexenkeller von 1474 eingekerkert.

Zunächst hatte sie die Beschuldigungen bestritten, die gegen sie vorgebracht worden waren, doch gab sie noch vor ihrer Folterung an, dass sie nachts vom Teufel in Tiergestalt verfolgt werden würde. Im Zuge der anschließend unter Folter durchgeführten Verhöre bekam sie regelrechte Tobsuchtsanfälle, verfluchte ihre Eltern, stieß Gotteslästerungen aus, legte aber immer noch kein Geständnis ab. Erst später, als sie wohl schon völlig gebrochen und von der Aussichtslosigkeit ihrer Lage überzeugt war, nannte sie mehrere Personen, die an Zusammenkünften von Hexen teilgenommen hätten. Zu den von ihr beschuldigten Personen zählten auch die Pfarrer von Fehring, Hartmannsdorf und Paldau sowie der bereits verstorbene Riegersburger Hauptpfarrer Zirkelius.

Im August 1675 wurde Katharina Paldauf unter Bewachung auf die Riegersburg gebracht, um den von ihr beschuldigten Geistlichen, die bereits in Verwahrung genommen worden waren, gegenübergestellt zu werden. Das Ergebnis dieser Gegenüberstellung ist ebenso wie das weitere Schicksal der beschuldigten Pfarrer nicht bekannt, da ein Teil der Prozessakten verloren gegangen ist. Katharina Paldauf starb vermutlich am 23. September 1675. Wohl aufgrund ihrer gehobenen sozialen Stellung war ihr insofern eine "Erleichterung" gewährt worden, als sie noch vor ihrer Verbrennung auf dem Scheiterhaufen getötet worden war.

Der Überlieferung nach soll Katharina Paldauf es fertiggebracht haben, selbst im Winter blühende Blumen zu ziehen. Diese ihr zugeschriebene Fähigkeit, für die sich in den Prozessakten keinerlei Hinweis findet, ist auch die Ursache dafür, dass sie der Nachwelt als "Blumenhexe" in Erinnerung blieb. Als ebenso langlebig hat sich auch die nicht zu verifizierende Behauptung erwiesen, dass es sich bei jenem bekannten Ölbild, welches eine vornehm gekleidete und bereits in die Jahre gekommene Frau mit Blumen in beiden Händen zeigt, um ein Porträt Katharina Paldaufs handelt.

Literatur
 Johann Schleich: Hexen, Zauberer und Teufelskult in Österreich. Steirische Verlagsgesellschaft m.b.H., Graz 1999, ISBN 3-85489-022-2.

Weblinks
 Katharina Paldauf – Die angebliche "Blumenhexe" auf der Riegersburg. Text aus: Helfried Valentinitsch, Ileane Schwarzkogler (Hrsg.): Hexen und Zauberer. Die große Verfolgung – ein europäisches Phänomen in der Steiermark. Katalog zur Steirischen Landesausstellung auf der Riegersburg, Oststeiermark, vom 1. Mai bis 26. Oktober 1987. Leykam-Verlag, Graz/Wien 1987.

Anmerkungen

Opfer der Hexenverfolgung
Hingerichtete Person (17. Jahrhundert)
Person (Habsburgermonarchie vor 1804)
Person (Feldbach, Steiermark)
Fürstenfeld
Bezirk Südoststeiermark
Bezirk Hartberg-Fürstenfeld
Geboren im 17. Jahrhundert
Gestorben 1675
Frau


text:
Halloween is een film uit 2007 onder regie van Rob Zombie. De film is een nieuwe versie van de film met de gelijknamige titel uit 1978. Het is geen letterlijke remake geworden, de plot is hier en daar veranderd. Hetzelfde gebeurde eerder bij The Texas Chainsaw Massacre en Dawn of the Dead. De regisseur van de oorspronkelijke film, John Carpenter, heeft verteld geen problemen te hebben met de nieuwe versie.

In navolging van het eerste deel, maakte Zombie in 2009 tevens een herverfilming van Halloween II.

Verhaal

In Haddonfield, Illinois wordt Deborah Myers (Sheri Moon Zombie) opgeroepen door de school van haar tien jaar oude zoontje Michael (Daeg Faerch). Hij vertoont psychopathisch gedrag en bezit onder meer een collectie foto's van dode dieren. De school acht het niet langer acceptabel en haalt er een kinderpsycholoog bij, genaamd Sam Loomis (Malcolm McDowell). Op hetzelfde moment achtervolgt Michael een van zijn kwelgeesten van school het bos in. Verkleed in zijn Halloween-kleren slaat hij de jongen de hersens in en laat hij het lichaam achter in het bos.

Bloedbad
Die avond blijft Myers alleen achter op Halloweenavond. Hij zou met zijn zus Judith (Hanna Hall) langs de huizen gaan, maar deze vertrekt liever naar haar kamer met haar vriendje. Myers bindt hierop zijn slapende, gehate stiefvader (William Forsythe) vast op zijn stoel met ducttape. Deze wordt pas wakker wanneer Myers zijn keel doorsnijdt. De vriend van zijn zus blijkt de volgende op het lijstje van de tienjarige psychopaat wanneer hij voor de ijskast staat en Myers hem de hersens inslaat met een aluminium honkbalknuppel. Zijn oudere zus moet eraan geloven wanneer Myers met een mes haar kamer binnenloopt. Wanneer moeder Deborah terugkomt van haar werk als stripper, treft ze Michael aan op het stoepje met zijn baby-zusje Baby Boo gezond en wel in zijn armen.

Transformatie tot volwassene
Myers wordt opgenomen in een inrichting waar hij dagelijks gesprekken voert met Dr. Loomis. De moorden heeft hij niet gepleegd, houdt hij vol. Wanneer zijn moeder met Loomis praat in de hal, vermoordt hij echter een zuster met een vork. Zijn moeder die al die tijd trouw op bezoek kwam, kan het niet meer aan en schiet zichzelf thuis door het hoofd. Vanaf dat moment spreekt Myers geen woord meer.

Zeventien jaar later is Myers uitgegroeid tot een, zwijgende, beer van een kerel (Tyler Mane). Hij is geobsedeerd door maskers, waar zijn kamer mee vol hangt. Na een ongeluk ontsnapt hij en keert hij terug naar zijn, leegstaande, ouderlijk huis. Hier vindt hij het masker dat de vriend van zijn zus droeg en kenmerkend is geworden voor de Halloweenserie. Tevens vindt hij het keukenmes. Hij gaat geobsedeerd achter babysitter Laurie Strode aan. Iedereen die hij op zijn pad tegenkomt, helpt hij op plastische manier om zeep. Hij moet en zal met Strode in contact komen, aangezien dat alleen haar adoptienaam is. In realiteit is het Baby Boo, die na de slachtpartij jaren geleden door sheriff Lee Brackett (Brad Dourif) meegenomen en geadopteerd werd. Hij heeft haar nooit verteld waar ze vandaan komt, om haar een kans op een normaal leven te geven.

Climax
Voor Myers uiteindelijk gestopt wordt, moordt hij het halve plaatsje uit. Onder meer dr. Loomis en conciërge Ismael Cruz (Danny Trejo) moeten eraan geloven, ondanks dat deze altijd aardig voor hem waren. Myers wordt in eerste instantie gestopt door dr. Loomis die hem diverse keren beschiet in de hoek van een leeg zwembad, uiteindelijk is het Laurie die hem neerschiet met de gevonden Magnum van dr. Loomis.

Rolverdeling

|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Laurie Strode||In de officiële film gespeeld door Jamie Lee Curtis.
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Annie Brackett||In de officiële film gespeeld door Nancy Kyes.
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Dr. Sam Loomis||In de officiële film gespeeld door Donald Pleasence.
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Lynda||In de officiële film gespeeld door P.J. Soles.
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Ismael Cruz||
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Deborah Myers||
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Sheriff Brackett||In de officiële film gespeeld door Charles Cyphers.
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Michael Myers (27 jaar)||In de officiële film gespeeld door Nick Castle.
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Michael Myers (10 jaar)||
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Ronnie White||
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Cynthia Strode||
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Judith Myers||In de officiële film gespeeld door Sandy Johnson.
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Big Joe Grizzly||
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Mason Strode||
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Morgan Walker||
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Patty Frost||
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Rector Chambers||
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Tommy Doyle||In de officiële film gespeeld door Brian Andrews.
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Lindsey Wallace||In de officiële film gespeeld door Kyle Richards.
|- align=center
|align=left|||align=left|Bob Simms||In de officiële film gespeeld door John Michael Graham.
|}

Andere acteurs die in de film te zien zijn zijn Daryl Sabara en Clint Howard.

Verschillen met het origineel

In Zombies versie van Halloween is meer tijd besteed aan de jonge versie van Myers tot aan het bloedbad waarvoor hij opgenomen werd. In de originele versie wordt deze gebeurtenis voornamelijk 'genoemd', aangevuld met enkele beelden. In de nieuwe versie is Myers kindertijd een wezenlijk in beeld gebracht onderdeel van de film. Concreet komt dit neer op:
Een wezenlijke rol voor Deborah Myers, Michaels moeder. In het origineel uit 1978 komt zij alleen een paar seconden in beeld, wanneer Michael na de moord op zijn zus het huis verlaat en zijn ouders komen aanrijden.
In de nieuwe versie blijkt Deborah een stripper die op zeker moment zelfmoord pleegt. Van beide wordt in het origineel niets vermeld.
In het origineel is de moord op zijn zus Michaels eerste. In de nieuwe versie moet een klasgenoot er als eerste aan geloven.
Van Baby Boo (de latere Laurie) is in het origineel geen spoor te bekennen.
In Zombies versie van Halloween wordt meteen onthuld dat Laurie Strode het zusje van Michael Myers is. In de originele cyclus werd dit pas duidelijk in Halloween II.
De familie van Michael is in de nieuwe versie een disfunctioneel, asociaal geheel. In het origineel maken ze nooit die indruk, in de paar minuten speeltijd die de leden vullen.
In de nieuwe versie vermoordt Myers ook het vriendje van zijn zus, voor hij haarzelf doodsteekt. In het origineel verlaat de jongen ongeschonden het huis zonder Myers tegen te komen.
De climax van de nieuwe versie vindt plaats in een leeg zwembad. In het origineel wordt Myers door Loomis net zo lang beschoten totdat hij door het raam valt van de eerste verdieping van het huis, waarna hij verdwijnt.

Ontvangst
Halloween werd uitgebracht op 31 augustus 2007 en werd door het publiek gemengd ontvangen. Op Rotten Tomatoes heeft de film een score van 29% op basis van 119 beoordelingen. Metacritic komt op een score van 47/100, gebaseerd op 55 beoordelingen. In 2009 werd een vervolgfilm uitgebracht onder de naam Halloween II.

Halloween (filmserie)
Amerikaanse film
Horrorfilm
Remake
Film van Dimension Films
Film uit 2007
Film van Rob Zombie


text:
A Choloepus az emlősök (Mammalia) osztályának szőrös vendégízületesek (Pilosa) rendjébe, ezen belül a lajhárok (Folivora) alrendjébe és a kétujjú lajhárfélék (Megalonychidae) családjába tartozó nem.

Rendszerezése
A nembe az alábbi 2 faj tartozik:

kétujjú lajhár (Choloepus didactylus) Linnaeus, 1758 – típusfaj
Hoffman-kétujjú-lajhár (Choloepus hoffmanni) Peters, 1858

Források
Mammal Species of the World. Don E. Wilson & DeeAnn M. Reeder (szerkesztők). 2005. Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3. kiadás)

Szőrös vendégízületesek
Emlősnemek


text:
Mayoschizocera is a genus of tachinid flies in the family Tachinidae.

Distribution
Peru.

Species
M. hamata Townsend, 1927

References

Tachininae
Diptera of South America


text:
Anorthoa är ett släkte av fjärilar som beskrevs av Emilio Berio 1980. Anorthoa ingår i familjen nattflyn, Noctuidae.

Dottertaxa till Anorthoa, i alfabetisk ordning

 Anorthoa angustipennis Matsumura, 1926
 Anorthoa fabiani Hreblay & Ronkay, 1998
 Anorthoa munda [Denis & Schiffermüller] , 1775, svartprickigt sälgfly
 Anorthoa munda plumbeata Hreblay & Ronkay, 1998
 Anorthoa rubrocinerea Hreblay & Ronkay, 1998

Källor

Bildgalleri

Externa länkar

Fjärilar
Nattflyn
Anorthoa


text:
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Siehe auch
 Liste der Bodendenkmäler in Bad Münstereifel

Weblinks

 Denkmalliste der Stadt Bad Münstereifel (nach Ortsteilen sortiert) Stand: 30. Januar 2019

Bad Munstereifel
!


text:
Sittard () ist eine Stadt im südlichen Teil der niederländischen Provinz Limburg unmittelbar an der deutschen Grenze bei Selfkant. Sie hatte 37.085 Einwohner (Stand: 1. Januar 2022) und ist seit 2001 Teil der Gemeinde Sittard-Geleen, die  Einwohner (Stand: ) auf einer Fläche von 80,58 km² zählt.

Geschichte
Der Ort ist in karolingischer Zeit zwischen 700 und 1000 entstanden. Er gehörte um das Jahr 1200 zum Herzogtum Limburg und erhielt 1243 Stadtrechte. Im Jahr 1400 wurde Sittard zusammen mit den Orten Born und Susteren für 70.000 Goldgulden an das Herzogtum Jülich verkauft, bei dem es bis zum Einmarsch der Franzosen 1794 verblieb.
1543, im Dritten Geldrischen Erbfolgekrieg, erlitten die habsburgischen Truppen der Maria von Ungarn (1505–1558), Generalstatthalterin der Niederlande seit 1531, in der Schlacht bei Sittard am Ostersonntag eine Niederlage gegen die mit Frankreich verbündeten Truppen Wilhelms V. (1516–1592) von Jülich-Kleve-Berg.
Im Krieg, den der französische König Ludwig XIV. gegen die Vereinigten Provinzen der Niederlande führte, wurde die Stadt 1677 fast völlig zerstört.

1794 wurde Sittard (wie das ganze Linke Rheinufer) von französischen Revolutionstruppen erobert; die Franzosenzeit begann.
1798 wurde Sittard Kantonshauptort (Chef-lieu) im Département de la Roer der französischen Republik. Am Ende der Befreiungskriege gegen Napoleon kam Sittard 1815 (im Wiener Kongress) zum Königreich der Vereinigten Niederlande, wurde 1830 bis 1839 Bestandteil des neu entstandenen Königreichs Belgien und gehört seit 1839 durchgehend zu den Niederlanden. Mai 1940 bis Ende 1944 waren die Niederlande von Truppen der Wehrmacht besetzt.

Sport
Bekanntester Verein der Stadt ist der Fußballklub und aktuelle Erstligist Fortuna Sittard, der seine Spiele im Fortuna-Sittard-Stadion austrägt. Im April 2018 stieg der Verein in die niederländische Eredivisie (höchste Spielklasse) auf.

Sehenswürdigkeiten

 St.-Petruskirche (seit 1299 Kapitelkirche, mit 80 m hohem Turm)
 Basilika Unserer Lieben Frau vom Heiligen Herzen (neugotisch)
 Schloss Grasbroek
 Schloss Limbricht
 St. Rosakapelle
 Regina Carmeli Bezinningshuis der Karmelitinnen vom Göttlichen Herzen Jesu (lateinisch Carmel D. C. J. de Collenberg), die "Schwestern vom Kollenberg"

Sittard im Film
Der an Deutschland angrenzende Stadtteil und Villenviertel Kollenberg diente neben dem Studiogelände von First Floor Features in Almere als Drehort für Flodder. Ab etwa 2005 veränderte sich das Straßenbild der ehemaligen Kulisse durch Neubauten.

Politik

Sitzverteilung im Gemeinderat
Bis zur Auflösung der Gemeinde ergab sich seit 1981 folgende Sitzverteilung:

Söhne und Töchter der Stadt
 Matthias von Sittard (1522–1566), Dominikaner, Theologe, Schriftsteller und kaiserlicher Hofprediger
 Bernhard Pothast (1824–1904), Priester, Musiker und Komponist
 Charles Beltjens (1832–1890), Schriftsteller und Dichter
 Felix Rutten (1882–1971), Schriftsteller und Dichter
 Jos Wielders (1883–1949), Architekt
 Nicolaes Reubsaet (1843–1887), Tonkünstler und Musiker
 Frederic Hoefer (1850–1938), Oberstleutnant
 Alphons Laudy (1875–1970), Schriftsteller
 Gulielmus Cobben (1897–1985), römisch-katholischer Bischof von Helsinki
 Frans Gijzels (1911–1977), Politiker (KVP)
 Toon Hermans (1916–2000), Kabarettist, Sänger und Dichter (Ehrenbürger von Sittard)
 Leo Horn (1916–1995), Internationaler Fußballschiedsrichter
 Germ Hofma (1925–2018), Fußballspieler
 Jo Erens (1928–1955), Volkssänger
 Jan Nolten (1930–2014), Radrennfahrer
 Jan Notermans (1932–2017), Fußballer
 Eddy Beugels (1944–2018), Radrennfahrer
 Willy Dullens (* 1945), Fußballspieler
 Jan Krekels (* 1947), Radrennfahrer
 Huub Stevens (* 1953), Fußballtrainer
 Francine Houben (* 1955), Architektin
 Rineke Dijkstra (* 1959), Fotografin
 Mike van Diem (* 1959), Filmregisseur und Drehbuchautor
 Wim Hof (* 1959), Extremsportler
 Willy Janssen (* 1960), Fußballspieler
 Wilbert Suvrijn (* 1962), Fußballspieler
 Arnold Vanderlyde (* 1963), Boxer
 Danny Nelissen (* 1970), Radrennfahrer
 Laurence Stassen (* 1971), Politikerin
 Peter van Wees (* 1973), Skeletonfahrer
 Carl van Wegberg (* 1977), Musicaldarsteller
 Vincent Heitzer (* 1979), deutscher Kirchenmusiker und Domkapellmeister am Bamberger Kaiserdom
 Bas Diederen (* 1980), Triathlet und Ironman-Sieger
 Demi Schuurs (* 1993), Tennisspielerin
 Tom Marx (* 1994), Eishockeyspieler
 Ivar Stavast (* 1998), Handballspieler
 Alec Smit (* 1999), Handballspieler

Weitere Persönlichkeiten mit Bezug zu Sittard
 Helga Paetzold (1933–1990), Kunstweberin (lebte bis zu ihrem Tod in Sittard)
 Rens Blom (* 1977), Leichtathlet

Weblinks

 Offizielle Website der Gemeinde Sittard-Geleen (niederländisch)
 Stichting Historie Sittard (niederländisch)
 Generalmutterhaus der Karmelitinnen vom Göttlichen Herzen Jesu (deutsch, niederländisch)

Einzelnachweise

Ort in der Provinz Limburg (Niederlande)
Sittard-Geleen
Ehemalige Gemeinde in der Provinz Limburg (Niederlande)
Stadt in den Niederlanden
Gemeindeauflösung 2001


text:
Версо́н () — коммуна во Франции, находится в регионе Нормандия, департамент Кальвадос, округ Кан, кантон Кан-1. Пригород Кана, расположен в 7 км к западу от центра города, на берегу реки Одон. Через территорию коммуны проходит автомагистраль А84 "Дорога эстуарий".

Население (2018) — 3 649 человек.

История
Проведенные на территории Версона археологические раскопки обнаружили следы пребывания человека в этом месте 7 тысяч лет назад. Поселения на берегу реки Одон существовали в галло-римские времена; в период Каролингов Версон был важным поселением местного значения. В IX веке здесь была построена церковь Святого Мартена. Как и многие населенные пункты Нормандии, Версон неоднократно был разграблен во время Столетней войны.

Во время Второй мировой войны в здании мэрии немцы разместили штаб Люфтваффе. Коммуна должна была стать важной мишенью во время массированных бомбардировок 26 июня 1944 года, но плохая погода помешала нанесению точных ударов и сохранила большую часть строений.

Достопримечательности
 Церковь Сен-Жермен XII века
 Особняк де ла Фонтен (de la Fontaine) XVI века
 Здание мэрии — сохранившаяся часть старинного замка

Экономика
Структура занятости населения:
 сельское хозяйство — 0,0 %
 промышленность — 26,6 %
 строительство — 12,8 %
 торговля, транспорт и сфера услуг — 42,1 %
 государственные и муниципальные службы — 18,4 %.

Уровень безработицы (2017) — 10,0 % (Франция в целом —  13,4 %, департамент Кальвадос — 12,5 %).
Среднегодовой доход на 1 человека, евро (2018) — 24 450 (Франция в целом — 21 730, департамент Кальвадос — 21 490).

Демография

Динамика численности населения, чел.

</center>

Администрация
Пост мэра Версона с 2020 года занимает Натали Донатен (Nathalie Donatin). На муниципальных выборах 2020 года возглавляемый ею список экологистов победил в 1-м туре, получив 55,66 % голосов.

Города-побратимы
  Хамбюрен, Германия
  Бук, Польша

Культура
В Версоне провел последние годы жизни и умер один из самых известных африканских политиков, первый президент независимого Сенегала Леопольд Седар Сенгор. В его честь в Версоне был построен культурный центр.

Ссылки
 Национальный институт статистики
 Результаты муниципальных выборов 2020 года

Галерея


text:
Gigaton — одинадцятий студійний альбом рок-гурту Pearl Jam, що вийшов у 2020 році.

Історія створення

Gigaton став першим студійним альбомом сіетлського рок-гурту Pearl Jam за сім років, що минули після виходу його попередника Lightning Bolt 2013 року. Альбом також став першою платівкою колективу після введення Pearl Jam до Зали слави рок-н-ролу у 2017 році. Для його запису музиканти відмовились від послуг продюсера Брендана О'Брайена, з яким працювали багато років, на користь Джоша Еванса. Альбом було записано в сіетлських студіях GT та Jump Site, а також в студії Джефа Амента Horseback Court в Монтані.

Однією з головних тем альбому стали кліматичні зміні у світі та їхні наслідки. На обкладинці зображений таючий льодовик, а назва Gigaton відсилає до гігатонн льоду, які щорічно зникають в Антарктиді внаслідок випаровування. В текстах пісень Едді Веддер зображує жахливі наслідки глобального потепління, малюючи постапокаліптичні картини майбутнього. Іншою провідною темою платівки стала критика президента Дональда Трампа.

Музична складова платівки вийшла досить різноманітною. Перша половина альбому містила більш швидкі та рокові композиції, а друга — повільні та медитативні пісні. Відкривала Gigaton позитивна «Who Ever Said», за якою йшли гаражно-рокова «Superblood Wolfmoon» та більш танцювальна «Dance of the Clairvoyants». В «Quick Escape» та «Seven O'Clock» Едді Веддер несподівано заспівав фальцетом. В цілому, динаміку пісень критики порівнювали із червоною кардіограмою, зображеною на обкладинці. Завершували альбом, що складався з 12 пісень, написана та виконана Стоуном Госсардом «Buckle Up», що нагадувала колискову, акустична «Comes Then Goes», а також легкі та «повітряні» «Retrograde» та «River Cross».

Вихід альбому
Альбом вийшов 27 березня 2020 року. В травні платівка потрапила на п'яте місце в американському чарті Billboard 200.

Чотири пісні з альбому вийшли в якості синглів. Дві з них — «Superblood Wolfmoon» та «Dance Of The Clairvoyants» — потрапили до чарту Billboard Mainstream Rock, зайнявши четверте та сімнадцяте місця відповідно.

Критичні відгуки

В журналі Rolling Stone платівку назвали чудовим і надихаючим прикладом дорослого гранджу. В музичному каталозі AllMusic альбом також оцінили на чотири зірки з п'яти. Стівен Томас Ерлвайн назвав його «яскравим, живим і трохи обнадійливим». В газеті The Guardian відзначили, що гурт зумів поєднати гучні приспіви із роздумами про непросте майбутнє людства. Сара Родман (Entertainment Weekly) відзначила, що альбом містить вкраплення «страху, жаху та гніву». Джордж Гарнер з Kerrang! поставив Gigaton найвищу оцінку, назвавши найзапальнішим та найвинахідливішим альбомом Pearl Jam за багато років, і справжнім тріумфом.

З іншого боку, Аніта Багвандас (NME) поставила альбому оцінку «задовільно», назвавши його лише наполовину блискучим: «Він не змінить ваше життя, але отримає досить похвальби, щоб задовольнити давніх шанувальників». На сайті Pitchfork припустили, що метою гурту є «художнє омолодження», яке все ж здається недосяжним.

Згодом платівка стала вважатись одним з найкращих альбомів 2020 року. На сайті Consequence його поставили на десяте місце, назвавши повною протилежністю попереднику Lightning Bolt і відзначивши його мелодійність. В журналі Spin Gigaton поєднали з темами апокаліпсиса через пандемію, теми кліматичних змін та критику Трампа, але також відзначили «креативне перезавантаження» гурту. На сайті Insider.com альбом потрапив на п'яте місце в списку кращих рок-альбомів року, а баладу «Seven O'Clock» було названо кращою піснею гурту за останні двадцять років.

Довідкові дані

Список пісень

Учасники запису

Pearl Jam
 Джеф Амент — бас-гітара,
 Майк Маккріді — гітара,
 Стоун Госсард — гітара,
 Метт Кемерон — барабани,
 Едді Веддер — вокал.

Запис альбому
 Продюсери — Джош Еванс і Pearl Jam
 Зведення — Джош Еванс
 Звукозапис — Джон Бертон і Джош Еванс
 Майстеринг — Боб Людвіг

Техніки:
 Гітари — Джордж Вебб
 Барабани — Ніл Гандт
 Додаткові інструменти — Кевін Шусс

Оформлення альбому
 Концепція — Ел Ностріт, Джером Тернер
 Фото обкладинки — Пол Ніклен
 Інші фото — Пол Ніклен і Джеф Амент
 Дизайн — Джо Спікс, Джеф Амент, Джером Тернер
 Шрифт — Еймс Брат, Едді Веддер
 Типографія — Едді Веддер

Місця в хіт-парадах

Тижневі чарти

Річні чарти

Примітки

Музичні альбоми 2020
Альбоми Pearl Jam