What was the first game developed by Daydream Software?
Daydream Software
Their first game was "Safecracker", a point and click adventure game published by DreamCatcher Interactive. The game had a tumultuous production, starting when GT Interactive bought initial publisher Warner Interactive Europe. Daydream Software went public in late 1996. The company's goal was to increase its economic and decision-making freedom, and to secure the ability to select a publisher at the end of each game's development rather than at the beginning. President Jans Phersson-Broburg argued that self-financing Daydream's future games with money from Swedish investors, instead of obtaining "funding linked to specific projects" from publishers, would offer the developer more stability, flexibility and room for growth. For Daydream's public launch, roughly 20 million kr worth of shares, or 45.5% of the company, were offered to investors in Sweden. The initial public offering was a success, and Daydream opened on the Stockholm Stock Exchange's Stockholm Börsinformation (SBI) list in January 1997. Daydream was eventually able to buy back the rights to "Safecracker".
Dragon Slayer (video game)
"Dragon Slayer" is an early example of the action role-playing game genre, which it laid the foundations for. Building on the prototypical action role-playing elements of "Panorama Toh" (1983), created by Yoshio Kiya and Nihon Falcom, as well as Namco's "The Tower of Druaga" (1984), "Dragon Slayer" is often considered the first true action role-playing game. In contrast to earlier turn-based roguelikes, "Dragon Slayer" was a dungeon crawl role-playing game that was entirely real-time with action-oriented combat, combining arcade style action mechanics with traditional role-playing mechanics.
Rare (company)
Famicom's owner, Nintendo, once claimed that it would be impossible for their console to be decoded. Using the information the Ultimate Play the Game team learnt from Rare, the team prepared several tech demos and showed them to the Nintendo executive Minoru Arakawa in Kyoto. Impressed with their efforts, Nintendo decided to grant the Ultimate Play the Game team an unlimited budget for them to work on games for the Famicom platform. After they returned to England, they moved from Ashby-de-la-Zouch to Twycross, and established a new studio through Rare. They set their headquarters in a Manor Farmhouse. Rare also set up another company known as Rare, Inc., in Miami, Florida. Headed by Joel Hochberg, the American company was involved in maintaining Rare's operation in the US and contacting major US publishers. Famicom was eventually released in North America and Europe under the name Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
With the unlimited budget, the Rare studio could work a large variety of different games. The first project Rare worked on was "Slalom", a downhill skiing title. The company then worked with various gaming publishers that included Tradewest, Acclaim Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Sega, Mindscape, and Gametek to produce over 60 games for the NES and several additional Game Boy conversions. They helped in creating new and original intellectual properties, including "R.C. Pro-Am", a racing game with vehicular combat elements, and "Snake Rattle 'n' Roll", an action platform game with Tim Stamper developing the game's graphics. Rare also developed "Battletoads", a beat'em up inspired by the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" franchise. The game became known for its extreme difficulty, and upon seeing success, publisher Tradewest published multiple ports for the game, and tasked Rare to develop sequels. Tradewest also gave their own "Double Dragon" licence to Rare, allowing them to develop a crossover game between the two franchises. Rare released three "Battletoads" games in 1993, including "", "Battletoads in Ragnarok's World" and "Battletoads in Battlemaniacs". The last "Battletoads" game was released for the arcade in 1994. Several "Battletoads" games were also ported to Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis.
Deus Ex
The original "Deus Ex" was conceived by Warren Spector in 1994 under the working title "Troubleshooter". The main drive behind "Deus Ex" was Spector's growing dislike for straight fantasy or science fiction video games, and the want to create something new and different. In an interview, he stated that he wanted to emulate the immersive playing styles of games like "Ultima Underworld", and eventually, after being rejected by Origin Systems, the company he was working with at the time, and Looking Glass Studios, Spector's project was picked up by Ion Storm, who, according to Spector, asked him to "make the game of [his] dreams". The title "Deus Ex" was meant to both represent aspects of the plot in the game and to poke fun at the design techniques that were prevalent in the majority of games at the time. The second game in the series, "Invisible War", was unveiled at E3 2002. The designers chose to allow the players to choose which sex their player character would be, an idea conceived for the original game. After the release of "Invisible War", both Harvey Smith, the main designer for "Deus Ex", and Spector left Ion Storm in 2004, with the former citing health problems and the latter saying he wished to pursue his own projects. Later, because of restructuring at Eidos Interactive, Ion Storm was closed down the following year. A multiplayer-focused third game titled "Deus Ex: Clan Wars" was originally being made at Crystal Dynamics, but because of the commercial underperformance of "Invisible War", it was distanced from the "Deux Ex" series and renamed "Project Snowblind". "Human Revolution" was announced in 2007 under the working title "Deus Ex 3". The game's creation was handled by Eidos Montréal and the developer's parent company Square Enix, whose Visual Works department created the CG movies for the game. The game became the first entry in the series to receive downloadable content in the form of "The Missing Link", an extra episode designed to fill a narrative gap in the game. In 2013, a new title was created for iPhone and iPad. Titled "The Fall" and set within "Human Revolution"s timeframe, the game was created by the previous game's core team and a team from mobile phone developer N-Fusion. In October 2013, Eidos Montréal announced that they were working on another title in the series for PC and next-gen platforms, and that it would be the first part of a larger, transmedia project called "Deus Ex: Universe".
Clusterball
When asked how the team initially came up with the idea for "Clusterball" in an interview with Eurogamer, Daydream Software's Nigel Papworth responded with "We sat around and discussed what we thought were the greatest aspects of real life games and computer games, and concluded that ball games rule in real life, flight sims in the digital universe. The conclusion was to build a flight sim ball game!"
Video gaming in Australia
Beam Software was one of the first Australian game development studios to achieve global success, with a text adventure adaption of The Hobbit released in 1982 for the ZX Spectrum. The company went on to produce other successful titles including The Way of the Exploding Fist for Commodore 64 in 1985 and Le Mans for the SEGA Dreamcast in 2001. Ozisoft, a major distributor of games, was established in 1982.
Fire Emblem
The first "Fire Emblem" title, "Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light", was originally never intended as a commercial game, defined by creator Shouzou Kaga as a dōjin project with three other job-holding students. As it turned out, the game was successful, prompting the development of more games in the series. The game was developed at Intelligent Systems, whose previous notable game was the strategy game "Famicom Wars". Kaga would work on the "Fire Emblem" series until "Thracia 776", when he left Nintendo and began development on "Tear Ring Saga" for the PlayStation. After "Thracia 776", the "Fire Emblem" series had several releases on portable devices. At this time, Marth and Roy from "Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light" and "Sword of Seals" appeared as playable characters in "Super Smash Bros. Melee", prompting western interest in the "Fire Emblem" series. The positive reception of the characters made Nintendo decide to localize "The Blazing Blade" under the title "Fire Emblem". Due to its overseas success, it was decided to return the series to home consoles for "Path of Radiance" for the GameCube. Despite it arriving late in the GameCube's life cycle, it provided a late boost to sales, reaffirming Nintendo's faith in the series. By 2010, the series was suffering from declining sales and Nintendo told Intelligent Systems that if their next "Fire Emblem" failed to sell above 250,000 units, the series would be cancelled. This prompted Intelligent Systems to include lots of features new to the series, intending to make it the culmination of the series. The game's reception and sales ended up saving the series from cancellation, convincing Nintendo to continue production.
List of esports games
Doom is a series of multiplayer 1v1 and free-for-all deathmatch games developed by id Software. Doom is notable for establishing the arena-style deathmatch format, and also was partially responsible for the first online FPS community through DWANGO, an online gaming service officially endorsed and partially worked on by id Software. People also played Doom deathmatch online through other BBS services. The Ultimate DOOM and "Doom II," alongside Heretic, were played in the Deathmatch '95 tournament, sponsored by id Software, Microsoft, and DWANGO. This tournament, perhaps the first PC esports tournament of its kind, was played through the online DWANGO service. Finalists from the US and the UK were flown to Microsoft headquarters to compete in a LAN party format event, named Judgement Day. Dennis Fong, best known for his victory at the Red Annihilation tournament for "Quake", won Judgement Day, marking his first entry into esports. Doom II was also played in Cyberathlete Professional League and QuakeCon tournaments.
Ready at Dawn
Ready At Dawn was founded in 2003 in Irvine, California, United States by Ru Weerasuriya, Andrea Pessino, Didier Malenfant, and former members of the Sony Computer Entertainment subsidiary Naughty Dog. They released their first game, "Daxter", in 2006. The company finished working on their second PSP game, "" as well as a Wii port of "Ōkami", with added motion controls. In June 2008 it was confirmed that the company had ceased developing games for the PSP, and that they had returned the relevant development kits to Sony. However, reports claim that the developer received new development kits after returning. Their next game was "", collaboratively developed with Sony's Santa Monica Studio for the PSP, with their new proprietary engine. Ready At Dawn released the "" for the PlayStation 3 on September 13, 2011. This collection is a port of their two "God of War" games for the PSP, "Chains of Olympus" and "Ghost of Sparta", to the PS3 with high-definition graphics, DualShock 3 support, Trophies, and Stereoscopic 3D, the first "God of War" release to support this feature.
Daylight (video game)
Daylight is a survival horror video game developed by Zombie Studios and published by Atlus for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4. It was the first game to be powered by Unreal Engine 4.
Beatshapers
Founded in 2006 as a game label, in the summer of 2009 it has become a full scale development studio with publishing capabilities and developed and self-published PlayStation minis debut title - "BreakQuest". Announced within PSPgo/minis launch, Beatshapers' "MelodyBloxx" (IGF Mobile 2010 Honorable mention) was cancelled. In 2007, Beatshapers became the first winner of PlayFirst Developer Dash Award (project "Little Star"), although the game was never published. In 2011, Beatshapers became an IndieCade 2011 Festival finalist with "StarDrone" for PlayStation 3. Beatshapers also has a sister company, Noisaurs, which produces sound design and music for video games. In summer 2015, Beatshaperss acquired rights for "StarDrone" IP from Orb Games, working on new version of the game, releasing as PSVR exclusive early 2018. StarDrone VR was IMGA 2017 Awards nominee.
Spyro the Dragon
"Spyro the Dragon" was the second game developed by Insomniac Games, following the release of their first game, "Disruptor", in December of 1996. Although "Disruptor" was critically lauded, it was not successful financially; however, the game's praise was enough to impress Universal Interactive Studios and encourage the team to continue with their next endeavor. The idea of a game about a dragon was introduced by Insomniac artist Craig Stitt, who suggested the concept out of his own interest in the mythical creature. Initially, the game's tone was far darker and more realistic; according to Insomniac's COO, John Fiorito, who joined the company in 1997 during "Spyro"s development, inspiration was taken in part from the 1996 film "DragonHeart", and the game was initially "realistic and kind of dark and gritty" before the game took a more whimsical direction. Mark Cerny, an executive with Universal Interactive Studios, advised that the team create a game with more mass market appeal, as the demographics of the PlayStation were decreasing and its selection of children's titles were greatly outnumbered by the Nintendo 64's. According to programmer Peter Hastings, the dragon character was originally going to be named "Pete", but the due to copyright concerns over the name bearing similarities with Disney's 1977 film, "Pete's Dragon", the name was scrapped. After considering the name "Pyro," which was ultimately considered "too mature", they finally settled on "Spyro." During the development of the game, Spyro was originally going to be green, but the developers thought it was a bad idea because he would blend in with grass, so they eventually changed him to purple. During development of "Spyro", Insomniac had a very close relationship with "Crash Bandicoot" creator and fellow PlayStation developer Naughty Dog, who had their office located directly across the hall from theirs. The two developers would frequently work together, playing early builds of each other's games and later going on to share game technology. As a result, a hidden demo of "" was hidden in "Spyro", and vice-versa.
Dungeons &amp; Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. It was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR). The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast (now a subsidiary of Hasbro) since 1997. It was derived from miniature wargames with a variation of Chainmail serving as the initial rule system. "D&D" publication is commonly recognized as the beginning of modern role-playing games and the role-playing game industry.
Digger T. Rock
"Digger T. Rock" was the first game to be developed by the newly re-branded Rare. During the late 1980s, the Stamper brothers sold the rights of Ultimate Play the Game to U.S. Gold and shifted their focus from the British home computing market to broader home console gaming. Rare became one of the first western developers to be granted a licence by Nintendo to produce games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, during which Rare began employing more staff and expanding their operations in order to develop more games for home consoles. "Digger T. Rock" and "Solar Jetman" were the first games by Rare to be released on a Nintendo console, both in 1990. They were both later included in Rare's 2015 Xbox One retrospective compilation, "Rare Replay".
Dungeons of Daggorath
"Dungeons of Daggorath" was one of the first games that attempted to portray three-dimensional space in a real-time environment, using angled lines to give the illusion of depth. It followed the 1974 games "Maze War" and "Spasim", written for research computers, and the first 3D maze game for home computers, "3D Monster Maze", released in 1981. The game "Phantom Slayer", which like "Daggorath" was released in 1982 for the Color Computer, also featured monsters lurking in a maze. While "Daggorath" was visually similar to these games, it added several elements of strategy, such as different kinds of monsters, complex mazes, different levels of visibility, and the use of different objects and weapons.
Role-playing video game
Computer-driven role-playing games had their start in Western markets, with games generally geared to be played on home computers. By 1985, series like "Wizardry" and "Ultima" represented the state of role-playing games. In Japan, home computers had yet to take as great a hold as they had in the West due to their cost; there was little market for Western-developed games and there were a few Japanese-developed games for personal computers during this time such as "The Black Onyx" (1984) which followed the "Wizardy"/"Ultima" format. With the release of the low-cost Famicom console (the Nintendo Entertainment System as named in Japan), a new opportunity arose to bring role-playing games to Japan. "Dragon Quest" (1986) was the first such attempt to recreate a role-playing game for a console, and requires several simplifications to fit within the more limited memory and capabilities of the Famicom compared to computers; players in "Dragon Quest" controlled only a single character, the amount of control over this character limited due to the simplicity of the Famicom controller, and a less-realistic art style was chosen to better visualize the characters within a tile-based graphics system. "Dragon Quest" was highly successful in Japan, leading to further entries in the series and other titles such as "Final Fantasy" that followed the same simplifications made in RPGs for "Dragon Quest".
DragonLord Enterprises, Inc.
DragonLord created the first adventure game for cell phones in the world, "Cavern Crawl", in 2001. DragonLord was the first developer in America to create games for cell phones, and one of the first in the world, after Nokia's "Snake".
DragonLord's "Cavern Crawl" and "Mystic I Ching" were
factory-built into the firmware of such cell phones as the Kyocera Model 2235 handset, distributed by Verizon; the S14 Opal, distributed by Cricket and MetroPCS; and the 2255 and 2325,
distributed by Sprint PCS in America and Virgin Mobile in the UK. The games were noted for providing animation and game play that were ahead of their time.
Graeme Devine
Devine founded GRL Games in Santa Cruz, California in 2010, focused on making games for the iPhone and iPad. According to the company's website, the GRL either stands for "Giant Robot Lizard" or "Graeme Roque Lori." GRL Games' first application, "Full Deck Solitaire" was released in 2011 along with "Clandestiny", "Full Deck Word Games", "Full Deck Poker Solitaire" and "Solitaire Minute". GRL Games' announced "Dance City" on 10 March 2012.
Don Daglow
Don Daglow (born circa 1953) is an American computer game and video game designer, programmer and producer. He is best known for being the creator of early games from several different genres, including pioneering simulation game "Utopia" for Intellivision in 1981, role-playing game "Dungeon" in 1975, sports games including the first interactive computer baseball game "Baseball" in 1971, and the first graphical MMORPG, "Neverwinter Nights" in 1991. He founded long-standing game developer Stormfront Studios in 1988.
Nights: Journey of Dreams
Nights: Journey of Dreams, stylised NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, is an action video game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Wii. The sequel to the 1996 Sega Saturn title "Nights into Dreams", it was released in Japan and North America in December 2007, and in Australia and Europe the following month. The story follows two children, Will and Helen, who enter a dream world called Nightopia. When their nightmares come to life, they enlist the help of Nights, an exiled "Nightmaren", as they journey through Nightopia to stop the evil ruler Wizeman from escaping into the real world.
Asylum (1981 video game)
Asylum is an adventure game created by William F. Denman Jr. and released in 1981 by Med Systems (later known as Screenplay) of Chapel Hill, North Carolina for the TRS-80 computer. It combines a text adventure with simple line graphics to create a first-person perspective 3D game. Med Systems had earlier released games like Rat's Revenge, Deathmaze 5000, and Labyrinth with the same kind of graphics; these games were among the earliest commercial examples of 3D games.
Matrix Software
Matrix Software was founded in July 1994 by Oohori Kousuke and three friends who had each been involved in the video games industry for many years beforehand. Kousuke, a veteran of the game development industry since high school, joined with former members of Climax Entertainment and Telenet Japan to create a company that he felt would "bring people serious game content". Nearly three years after their establishment, the company released their first game, "Alundra" for the PlayStation game console in April 1997, which would prove popular enough to receive a sequel two years later. In September 1999, Matrix obtained their first business partner in Chunsoft, with whom they collaborated to create a spin-off to their popular "Dragon Quest" series, "". Since then, the company would join with other companies to create games for other entertainment franchises such as Yoshihiro Togashi's "YuYu Hakusho", Eiichiro Oda's "One Piece", and Square Enix's "Final Fantasy".
Google Daydream
The Daydream View was released on November 10, 2016.
Dream Chronicles (series)
The "Dream Chronicles" series was intended to include two trilogies, "Faye's Journey" and "Lyra's Destiny", with three games each and two core stories. However, only the first five games were released when the distributor and rights holder PlayFirst cancelled releasing and distributing games on PC/Mac platforms in order to focus on its growing mobile gaming market. The developer, KatGames, has to moved on to other projects.
Synergistic Software
Synergistic was founded in 1978 by Robert Clardy and Ann Dickens Clardy. One of the earliest successful third-party software developers for the Apple II platform, they are most well known for their "Dungeons & Dragons"-inspired "Dungeon Campaign / Wilderness Campaign" game, which was later expanded and repackaged as "". "Dungeon Campaign / Wilderness Campaign" is one of the earliest "D&D"-like games that is epic in scope (compared to the more commonplace "dungeon crawl" games, such as "Temple of Apshai".
Dungeons of Daggorath
Dungeons of Daggorath is one of the first real-time, first-person perspective role-playing video games. It was produced by DynaMicro for the Tandy (RadioShack) TRS-80 Color Computer in 1982. This game is famously mentioned in the novel "Ready Player One", but does not appear in its film adaptation.
Midwest Military Simulation Association
Dave Arneson joined when he was in high school. He produced a newsletter describing the group's Napoleonic and American Civil War games, as well as its play-by-mail Diplomacy games. In 1986, under the direction of Hal Thinglum, "The Midwest Wargamers' Association Newsletter" won the Charles S. Roberts Award as the best Best Amateur Wargaming Magazine. The younger members of the group began to meet at Arneson's house. More interested in wargaming than collecting or historical reenactment, these members played a critical role in the development of RPGs. Dave Wesely conducted what is considered to be the first role-playing game, set in Napoleonic Germany, in 1967. Arneson later developed a fantasy role-playing milieu called Blackmoor, and co-created Dungeons & Dragons with Gary Gygax in 1973. Dave Megarry conceived the idea of a dungeon crawl, and designed a board game around this idea called Dungeon!, published by TSR, Inc. in 1975. That same year TSR also published Star Probe by John Snider.
Insomniac Games
"Disruptor" was released to positive critical reception, and was named "Dark Horse of the Year" by various gaming publications. John Romero, founder of "Doom" developer id Software praised the game. Insomniac considered "Disruptor" a lesson about video game development. According to Price, it was "the best game that nobody ever heard of". With little marketing and advertisement, the game was a commercial failure for Insomniac and the company almost went bankrupt. Sales of "Disruptor" failed to meet the team's expectations. Despite the game's poor performance, Universal continued to partner with Insomniac for its next game. The team's morale was low; they decided to develop something new instead of a sequel to "Disruptor".
Jade Empire
"Jade Empire" was developed by BioWare, after it earned critical and commercial success with "Baldur's Gate", "Neverwinter Nights" and "", RPGs based on pre-existing "Dungeons & Dragons" and "Star Wars" fictional universes. The game, which began development in May 2001, was the company's first original RPG intellectual property. The concept of "Jade Empire" had existed with company founders co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk since they started BioWare alongside the plan which would lead to "Baldur's Gate"; called a "dream project", their aim was to fulfill player fantasies of becoming a powerful martial arts master. The game was first developed and released for the Xbox. Zeschuk later felt they should have held the game back and developed it for the console's successor the Xbox 360.
Bill Fawcett (writer)
Bill Fawcett was one of the players in early "Dungeons & Dragons" games being played in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas, using photocopied prototypes of the rules handed out by Gary Gygax. Darwin Bromley brought Fawcett on as a partner in Mayfair Games soon after the company was formed in 1980, and together they designed the game "Empire Builder" (1980). As a veteran role-playing gamer, Fawcett decided to get Mayfair into the RPG field, and the company kicked off its "Role Aids" game line with "Beastmaker Mountain" (1982). As a result of their connections with Mayfair, FASA was able to get a license to publish adventures (1982–1984) for Chaosium's "Thieves' World" role-playing game thanks to Fawcett's friendships with Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey. Fawcett and Jordan Weisman designed the robot arena fighting game "Combots" (1983) for FASA.
History of Western role-playing video games
The dark fantasy-themed RPG "Diablo" was released by Blizzard Entertainment on December 31, 1996, in the midst of a stagnant PC RPG market. "Diablo" is set in the fictional kingdom of Khanduras, in the world of Sanctuary, and has the player take control of a lone hero who battles to rid the world of Diablo, the Lord of Terror. Its development was influenced by "Moria" and "Angband", and "Diablo" resembles a roguelike due to its focus on dungeon crawling, and its procedurally generated levels. Major differences include the commercial quality of the game's graphics, its simplified character development, and its fast, real-time action. A factor in "Diablo"'s success was its support for online, collaborative play over a local area network or through its Battle.net online service. This greatly extended its replay value, though cheating was a problem. While not the first RPG to feature real-time combat, "Diablo"'s effect on the market was significant, a reflection of the changes that took place in other genres following the release of the action titles, "Doom" and "Dune II". It had many imitators, and its formula of simple, fast combat and replayability were used by what were later referred to as ""Diablo" clones", and more broadly "action RPGs".
Traitors Gate (video game)
Daydream went public in late 1996, with the plan for "Traitors Gate" prepared. The company's goal was to increase its economic and decision-making freedom, and to secure the ability to select a publisher at the end of each game's development rather than at the beginning. President Jan Phersson-Broburg argued that self-funding Daydream's future games with money from Swedish investors, instead of opting for publisher financing "linked to specific projects", would offer the developer more stability, flexibility and room for growth. According to Papworth, "Traitors Gate" was part of Daydream's roadmap for the future after going public; the company told investors in late 1996 that a game with the working title "Project II" was under development, with an estimated 18-month production cycle and 7-10 million kr budget. Internally, there were four competing "Project II" designs at that time. For Daydream's public launch, roughly 20 million kr worth of shares, or 45.5% of the company, were offered to investors in Sweden. The initial public offering was a success, and Daydream opened on the Stockholm Stock Exchange's Stockholm Börsinformation (SBI) list in January 1997. As a result of this influx of capital, all subsequent development of "Traitors Gate" was self-funded.
Dream Chronicles 2: The Eternal Maze
Dream Chronicles 2: The Eternal Maze, also known as Dream Chronicles: The Eternal Maze, and often shortened to Dream Chronicles 2 or The Eternal Maze, is a 2008 adventure, hidden object, and puzzle casual game developed by KatGames and originally published by PlayFirst. It is the first sequel to 2007's award-winning game "Dream Chronicles", also the second installment in the "Dream Chronicles" series, plus the middle part of the first trilogy called "Faye's Journey". The game is set in a mystical world of realistic fantasy where mortal and fairy realms collide and continues the plot from where the original "Dream Chronicles" ended. "Dream Chronicles 2" tells the story of a mortal woman named Faye who wakes up from a powerful fairy's dream spell, and continues the quest to search then save her kidnapped fairy husband and imprisoned little daughter. With help from her mother-in-law, Faye travels deeply into the Fairy Realm, where no mortal like her has entered before, which contains lots of fatal obstacles and magical fairy locks. Upon solving them, the answers provide clues that help Faye restore her family, and eventually unravel the mystery of that strange realm.
Dreamscape (video game)
Dreamscape (stylized as dream:scape) is a first-person adventure video game, with puzzle elements, developed and published by American studio Speedbump Studies. It was released worldwide on June 9, 2011 for iOS devices exclusively. The game does not follow traditional video game conventions, as it involves minimal interaction from the player and does not require choices to be made, and there are only basic puzzles for the player to complete. It instead places focus on its story, which is told through the perspective of a man called Wilson, who is caught in the limbo between life and death. Moments before his death, Wilson is transported to his own Dreamscape and is allowed to relive all his memories for one last time. While there he finally discovers the truth as to why his fiancee, Amelia, disappeared on the day of their wedding.
First-person shooter
The earliest two documented first-person shooter video games are "Maze War" and "Spasim." "Maze War" was originally developed in 1973 by Greg Thompson, Steve Colley and Howard Palmer, high-school students in a NASA work-study program trying to develop a program to help visualize fluid dynamics for spacecraft designs. The work became a maze game presented to the player in the first-person, and later included support for a second player and the ability to shoot the other player to win the game. Thompson took the game's code with him to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where with help from Dave Lebling to create an eight-player version that could be played over ARPANET, computer-run players using artificial intelligence, customizable maps, online scoreboards and a spectator mode. "Spasim" had a documented debut at the University of Illinois in 1974. The game was a rudimentary space flight simulator for up to 32 players, featuring a first-person perspective. Both games were distinct from modern first-person shooters, involving simple tile-based movement where the player could only move from square to square and turn in 90-degree increments. Such games spawned games that used similar visuals to display the player as part of a maze (such as "" in 1979), and were loosely called "rat's eye view" games, since they gave the appears of a rat running through a maze. Another crucial early game that influenced first-person shooters was "Wayout", that while featuring the player trying to escape a maze, it used ray casting to render the maze, simulating visually how each wall segment would be rendered relative to the player's position and facing angle, allowing more freeform movement compared to "Maze War" and "Spasim".
Enix
Over the next few years, Enix published several video games for various Japanese home computer systems. Rather than developing games within its own company, Enix would continue to outsource the production of its games to other developers through the use of royalties. Enix is perhaps most famous for publishing the "Dragon Quest" series of console games (released as "Dragon Warrior" in North America until 2005) developed by Chunsoft. Key members of the developer's staff consisted of director Koichi Nakamura, writer Yuuji Horii, artist Akira Toriyama, and composer Koichi Sugiyama, among others. The first game in the Famicom-based RPG series was released in 1986, and would eventually sell 1.5 million copies in Japan, establishing "Dragon Quest" as the company's most profitable franchise.
Development of Doom
The initial concept for the game was proposed in the fall of 1992, after the release of "Wolfenstein 3D" and its sequel "Spear of Destiny". Lead programmer John Carmack was working on creating an improved 3D game engine from those games, and the company wanted to have its next game take advantage of his designs. Several ideas were proposed, including a new game in their "Commander Keen" series, but John Carmack successfully proposed a game about using technology to fight demons, inspired by the "Dungeons & Dragons" campaigns the team played, to be titled "Doom". The initial months of development were spent on prototypes, while Hall created several iterations of the "Doom Bible", a design document for his vision of the game and its story; after id released a grandiose press release touting features that the team had not yet begun working on, the "Doom Bible" was rejected in favor of a plot-less game with no design document at all.
Emergency Room (series)
Emergency Room is a simulation video game series in which the player assumes the role of a medical person who treats hospital patients. The first game, "Emergency Room", was released for DOS in 1995. It was developed and published by Legacy Software, which created additional games in the series as Legacy Interactive Inc. beginning in 1999. The subsequent games were released for Macintosh and Microsoft Windows up until 2001, and a Nintendo DS game was released in 2009. The eighth and final game in the series, "Emergency Room: Heroic Measures", was released in 2010.
Traitors Gate (video game)
"Traitors Gate" was conceived in November 1996, when designer Nigel Papworth of Swedish developer Daydream Software began to explore possibilities for the company's next title after "Safecracker". Coming across an article about the Tower of London in an issue of "National Geographic", Papworth realized that the structure contained "everything a good game needed", including a cleanly circumscribed playing area and an obvious gameplay objective. He and the team subsequently developed a game concept set inside an accurate reproduction of the Tower, with a plan to capture "the feel of the weathered stonework and mixed architectural styles with as near to photographic quality as time and technology would allow." Their goal was to make a game that was both entertaining and educational. The decision to cast the player as an American agent came early, as the country's alliance with Britain precluded violent gameplay approaches by the player and shifted the focus to stealth and puzzle-solving.
Traitors Gate 2: Cypher
"Traitors Gate 2" was commissioned by The Adventure Company following its success with the North America release of Daydream Software's "Traitors Gate", which sold roughly 250,000 units in the region by August 2003. Daydream told its investors that a deal with "an internationally recognized publisher" to develop the sequel was reached in April 2002, and that it was funded ahead of time by this outside party. The project was scheduled for a 14-month development cycle. "Traitors Gate 2" was ultimately developed by the company 258 Productions. Nigel Papworth, who conceived and designed the game at 258, recalled, "I didn't really want to go back and do a pre-rendered game. It's an awful lot of administration and the actual workload is huge. But I said [to TAC]: 'I'll do it if you'll let me do it in real-time 3D.' " He felt that graphics technology had advanced enough to make this leap, and that the switch offered him "a huge amount of freedom for the gameplay." As a result, the team licensed the Gamebryo engine to create "Traitors Gate 2". By June 2002, the game was set for a September 2003 release.
Dreamscape (video game)
"Dreamscape" was mostly developed by George Lippert, who is the CEO of Speedbump Studies. Lippert acted as the game's sole programmer, and also provided the voice for all male characters. He also co-wrote the game's script alongside Jane Kalmes. Lippert designed the game around a 3D cabin model he made while learning to use the Unreal Engine in January 2011. Development began the same month, and was finished by April the same year. All voice acting was recording using iPhones, occasionally while in a closet. Carol Mertz, in association with Rampant Interactive, provided the voices of Amelia and the Scarecrow Guide. Lippert's eight-year-old son Zane, with some digital assistance, provided the voice of young Amelia. Isaias Garcia composed and performed the musical score.
Development of Doom
The development of "Doom", a first-person shooter video game by id Software, began in November 1992 and continued until the game was released in December 1993. Seven people worked on "Doom", which is considered one of the most significant and influential titles in video game history. The initial development team was programmers John Carmack and John Romero, artists Adrian Carmack and Kevin Cloud, and designer Tom Hall; late in development Hall was replaced by Sandy Petersen and programmer Dave Taylor was added to the team. The music and sound effects were created by Bobby Prince.
Insomniac Games
The company's first project was "Disruptor", for the first PlayStation console, whose poor sales almost led to the company's bankruptcy. Insomniac's next project was "Spyro the Dragon", a successful video game that spawned two sequels within two years. Insomniac closely collaborated with Sony Computer Entertainment and created two game franchises, "Ratchet & Clank", and "Resistance". The two franchises proved to be both a critical and financial success for the company. The company would also begin work on its first multiplatform game "Fuse" in 2013 (with Electronic Arts as its publisher), but the game regrettably turned out to become one of Insomniac's worst-reviewed games.
List of id Software games
Shortly after the release of its sole self-published game, "Doom", in 1993, id briefly moved into publishing works by other developers. The only titles it published were a trilogy of games by Raven Software, which use modified versions of game engines developed by id and featured id employees as producers. A fourth game, "Strife", was briefly under development by Cygnus Studios and was to be published by id; after a few months it was cancelled. It was later finished by Rogue Entertainment and published by Velocity in 1996.
History of video games
SuperSet Software created "Snipes", a text-mode networked computer game in 1983 to test a new IBM Personal Computer–based computer network and demonstrate its abilities. "Snipes" is officially credited as being the original inspiration for NetWare. It is believed to be the first network game ever written for a commercial personal computer and is recognized alongside 1974 game "Maze War" (a networked multiplayer maze game for several research machines) and "Spasim" (a 3D multiplayer space simulation for time shared mainframes) as the precursor to multiplayer games such as 1987's "MIDI Maze", and "Doom" in 1993. In 1995 iDoom (later Kali.net) was created for games that only allowed local network play to connect over the internet. Other services such as Kahn, TEN, Mplayer, and Heat.net soon followed after. These services ultimately became obsolete when game producers began including their own online software such as Battle.net, WON and later Steam.
Early mainframe games
Some mainframe games that did not appear in "101 BASIC Computer Games" have still had a lasting impact. One such game was "Space Travel", developed by Ken Thompson in 1969, which simulates travel in the Solar System. The player flies their ship around a two-dimensional scale model of the solar system with no objectives other than to attempt to land on various planets and moons. The player can move and turn the ship, and adjust the overall speed by adjusting the scale of the simulation. The ship is affected by the single strongest gravitational pull of the astronomical bodies. The game was developed at Bell Labs, and was ported during 1969 from the Multics operating system to the GECOS operating system on the GE 635 computer, and then to the PDP-7 minicomputer. While porting the game to the PDP-7, Thompson developed ideas for his own operating system, which later formed the core of the Unix operating system. "Space Travel" never spread beyond Bell Labs or had an effect on future games, leaving its primary legacy as part of the original push for the development of Unix.
Another influential early mainframe game was "Baseball", a sports game that was created on a PDP-10 minicomputer at Pomona College in 1971 by English major Don Daglow. "Baseball" was the first baseball video game that allowed players to manage the game as it unfolded, rather than just picking players at the beginning of a game. The program is documented at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. "Baseball" was continually updated through 1974, and distributed to other PDP-10 installations. The text-based game had each player control the pitcher or the batter; they would enter their intention to, for example, pitch to or walk the batter, or switch hitters. The batting player could direct on-base players to steal, and the batter to hit. The results of the play would be printed out onto paper as a verbose description, like a radio description of the game. Daglow went on to develop more sophisticated baseball games in 1983 with "Intellivision World Series Baseball", and 1987 with "Earl Weaver Baseball", as well as numerous other games.
Dark Souls – The Board Game
"Dark Souls" is an action role-playing video game series developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. "Dark Souls – The Board Game" is an officially licensed board game based on the series. It was created by UK-based company Steamforged Games. In 2015, designer and co-founder of Steamforged, Mat Hart, had been prototyping dungeon crawler tabletop games. He disliked the reliance on luck and repetitive nature of these games, so he sought to address these issues. Hart met with a friend, who was employed at Bandai Namco as a video game producer. Bandai Namco itself was eager to find a board game design that could translate the "Dark Souls" series into a new format. Before pitching their ideas to Bandai Namco, Hart and his team analysed the series to identify key aspects and find out which elements could make the transition to a board game format. Hart felt that the project he was currently prototyping shared some of the same design philosophies embedded in the "Dark Souls" series. The success of Steamforged's medieval fantasy football tabletop game, Guild Ball, contributed to them acquiring the "Dark Souls" license from Bandai Namco. The designers at Steamforged began rebuilding Hart's prototype as "Dark Souls" product. The biggest design challenge that Steamforged faced was trying to incorporate the high level of difficulty that the "Dark Souls" series is known for while maintaining an enjoyable board game experience. The design team was given full access to resources of the series so that they could replicate the tone and aesthetics. Initially, they found it difficult to decide what content should be included in their board game adaptation; they wanted to bring iconic bosses and enemies from all three games in the series. Designer Rich Loxam believed that the use of miniatures would appeal to players by helping to immerse them in the fictional universe.
Daydream Software
In 2003, the company announced "Campfire: Become Your Nightmare", for the Microsoft Xbox and Sony Playstation 2 consoles. It was dubbed as a "reverse survival horror game" (similar to Rockstar's "Manhunt" and 505 Games' "Naughty Bear") that put the player in the role of a serial killer on a campground. The game was inspired by slasher films of the 1970s and 1980s. However, the game received little press other than a trailer and concept artwork, and thus it was cancelled in 2004 for unknown reasons.
List of TI-99/4A games
The game is one of the first graphical role-playing video games . Based loosely on the tabletop role-playing game "Dungeons & Dragons", it is a standard dungeon crawl adventure in which a player or number of players controls the fates of 1–4 characters as they navigate through a maze of tunnels. Texas Instruments used the game in its marketing, citing it as entertainment software involving "strategy and logic". In 2008, Howard Kistler of DreamCodex developed a revised version of the game, which he called "Tunnels of Doom Reboot", that featured music by German composer Frank Scheffel.
Jim Ward (game designer)
Ward was one of the players in Gary Gygax's early Greyhawk games as Gygax developed the "Dungeons & Dragons" game. The "Dungeons & Dragons" character Drawmij was named after him; "Drawmij" is simply "Jim Ward" spelled backwards. Rob Kuntz and Ward's "Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes" (1976) expanded the original "D&D" game by introducing gods. Ward designed "Metamorphosis Alpha" (1976), which was the first science-fantasy role-playing game, and published as TSR's fourth role-playing game. Ward co-authored "Deities & Demigods" (1980) . In the early 1980s, Ward and Rose Estes formed an education department at TSR, intended to sell classroom modules to teachers. Ward ran Kuntz's adventure "The Maze of Xaene" as the "D&D" tournament module at EastCon in 1983, although the module never saw print at TSR. Ward wrote "Greyhawk Adventures" (1988), a hardcover volume that presented new rules for the Greyhawk setting. Ward, with David Cook, Steve Winter, and Mike Breault, co-wrote the adventure scenario that was adapted into the game "Pool of Radiance".
Digital Leisure
In early 2000, the company added the development and publishing rights of "Dragon's Lair" creator Rick Dyer's arcade game "Hologram Time Traveler" which was released in the fall of 2000 on multiple formats. The game was the first arcade game to simulate 3D holographic images. Later that year, the company acquired the worldwide publishing rights to Dyer's "Kingdom II: Shadoan" for DVD-ROM, DVD-Video and CD-ROM.
Realtime Games Software
Their first game, "3D Tank Duel", was a wireframe graphics game in the style of the Battlezone arcade machine, written for the ZX Spectrum. This was followed up with "Starstrike 3D", a game based on the "Star Wars" arcade machine. Throughout its existence, the company continued to innovate in the world of 3D graphics, with their most notable release being "Carrier Command". The company was also involved in porting "Elite" to the PC and "Starglider" to the ZX Spectrum.
Doom RPG
Doom RPG is a mobile phone game developed by id Software and Fountainhead Entertainment. It combines the "Doom" first-person shooter franchise with role-playing video game elements. The storyline incorporates many similar events of "Doom 3", but involves different characters than those in the third game.
Dream Craft
Dream Craft (abbreviated as DC) is a Japanese-American fantasy role-playing game (RPG), published by Wizards of the Coast and originally created and designed by Salohcin Tims. It was one of the first such non-digital games to have been originated in Japan and had become very popular within its first month after release in 1992.
Daydream Software
Most of Daydream Software's games were continued by other companies later.
Knightmare
"Knightmare" was conceived by Tim Child in 1985, inspired by the two ZX Spectrum games "Atic Atac" and "Dragontorc". Realising that if a ZX Spectrum could do these types of adventure game, then a television programme could revolutionise the genre, he enlisted the help of artist David Rowe to design realistic looking backgrounds with an airbrush. Borrowing the technique used in weather forecasts, Child devised a large blue room, which was set up in Studio A of Anglia Studios. The advanced computer graphic environments were created by the Travelling Matte Company using a Spaceward SuperNova computer. Travelling Matte was owned by set designer Robert Harris, who had trained at Central Saint Martin's in stage design and had been working with John Peyre at BBC TV when "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" started to blend digital images with real world studio scenery. Harris had a background in CGI, having trained in 3D animation at Middlesex Polytechnic under Dr John Vince, and experience in playing out "live" graphics for current affairs programmes like "Newsnight" and "Panorama". Knightmare required real time CGI inserts and virtual lighting changes, door reveals and animated monsters in real time, within live action against blue screen using Ultimatte.
Early history of video games
That game was "Computer Space", developed by Bushnell and Ted Dabney. They had found the Data General Nova, a US$4,000 computer that they thought would be powerful enough to run four games of "Spacewar" at once; the computer turned out to not actually be powerful enough for the project. While investigating the concept of replacing some of the computer with purpose-built hardware, however, the pair discovered that making a system explicitly for running such a game, rather than general programs, would be much less expensive: as low as $100. By 1971 when Bushnell met with Pitts and Tuck, a prototype version had been successfully displayed for a short time in August 1971 in a local bar, the design was nearly finished, and the pair had founded a company around it called Syzygy. Bushnell had also found a manufacturer for the game, Nutting Associates, who would make the final game cabinets and sell them to distributors. Bushnell felt that "Galaxy Game" was not a real competitor to "Computer Space", due to its high price. Pitts and Tuck believed, however, that despite the economic argument their game was superior, as they felt that "Galaxy Game" was a true expansion of "Spacewar", while "Computer Space" just a pale imitation. Some players at the time, however, believed "Galaxy Game" to actually be just a version of "Spacewar!". "Galaxy Game"s prototype installation was very popular, though at a low price-per-game, and the pair developed a second version to display at the same location; they were never able to enter production, though, as they eventually had to abandon the idea after spending US$65,000 developing it due to the high cost and lack of business plan.
Around the same time as "Galaxy Game"s prototype installation, "Computer Space" was released. It was the first coin-operated video game to be commercially sold (and the first widely available video game of any kind). While it did well in its initial locations near college campuses, it performed very poorly in bars and arcades where pinball and other arcade games were typically placed; while it was commercially successful and made over US$1,000,000, it did not meet the high expectations of Nutting, who had expected to sell more than 1,500 units. Bushnell and Dabney immediately started work on another game, using the same television set design as "Computer Space", as well as founding their own company Atari, Inc. to back their projects. While initially this game was to be a driving game that Bushnell planned to design, their first employee, Allan Alcorn, took a prototype ping-pong game suggestion of Bushnell's and expanded on it to create a game the company immediately seized on. They were unable to find a manufacturer, but on the evidence of the success of their prototype installation, decided to produce the game cabinets themselves. "Pong" was released in 1972, a year after "Computer Space". It was immensely commercially successful, selling over 8,000 units. It inspired copycat games to be sold in America, Europe, and Japan, and led to the popularization of the medium.
Dread Dragon Droom
This software was written and created by Derek Allen, who was one of the pioneers of ICT in Education. After "Droom" he went on to write various software packages including "Albert's House", "Pond" and "Rainbow Stories", all marketed through RESOURCE. Derek Allen also wrote sequels to the program: "Dragon Droom's Revenge" and "Stardust" (early versions were known simply as "Dust"). Many of his programs continued to be available for PC from Resource Education, which had become a private company based in Derbyshire. It closed in mid-2015.
Don Priestley
His first commercial game was "The Damsel and the Beast", inspired by a program called "Mugwump" and published by Bug-Byte. Further ZX81 games written freelance were "Dictator" (a successful strategy game later ported to the Spectrum) and "Mazogs" (which was later rewritten for the Spectrum as "Maziacs"). "Mazogs" was one of the first home computer games to feature large mobile sprites.
Id Software
Eighteen months after their release of "Wolfenstein 3D", on December 10, 1993, id Software released "Doom" which would again set new standards for graphic quality and graphic violence in computer gaming. "Doom" featured a sci-fi/horror setting with graphic quality that had never been seen on personal computers or even video game consoles. "Doom" became a cultural phenomenon and its violent theme would eventually launch a new wave of criticism decrying the dangers of violence in video games. "Doom" was ported to numerous platforms, inspired many knock-offs, and was eventually followed by the technically similar "". id Software made its mark in video game history with the shareware release of "Doom", and eventually revisited the theme of this game in 2004 with their release of "Doom 3". John Carmack said in an interview at QuakeCon 2007 that there will be a "Doom 4". It began development on May 7, 2008. "Doom", the fourth installation and a reboot of the Doom series, was released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on May 13, 2016, and was later released on Nintendo Switch on November 10, 2017. In June 2018, the sequel to the 2016 reboot, "Doom Eternal" was officially announced at E3 2018 with a teaser trailer, followed by a gameplay reveal at QuakeCon in August 2018.
Christian video game
Starting in the late 1980s the unlicensed game developer Color Dreams using the name of Wisdom Tree, developed the first Christian video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, called "Bible Adventures". It featured Bible accounts such as Noah's Ark, Baby Moses, and David and Goliath. It was released in 1991 to Christian bookstores.
Role-playing video game
The earliest RPG on a console was "Dragonstomper" on the Atari 2600 in 1982. Another early RPG on a console was "Bokosuka Wars", originally released for the Sharp X1 computer in 1983 and later ported to the MSX in 1984, the NES in 1985 and the Sharp X68000 as "New Bokosuka Wars". The game laid the foundations for the tactical role-playing game genre, or "simulation RPG" genre as it is known in Japan. It was also an early example of a real-time, action role-playing game. In 1986, Chunsoft created the NES title "Dragon Quest" (called "Dragon Warrior" in North America until the ), which drew inspiration from computer RPG's "Ultima" and "Wizardry" and is regarded as the template for future Japanese role-playing video games released since then.
Shadowrun (1993 video game)
Shadowrun is a cyberpunk-fantasy action role-playing video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), adapted from the tabletop role-playing game "Shadowrun" by FASA. The video game was developed by Australian company Beam Software and first released in 1993 by Data East.
Catacomb 3-D
"Catacomb 3-D" was followed by three games, in the so-called "Catacomb Adventure Series". They were not developed by id Software but internally by Softdisk with a new staff for Gamer's Edge, who also made the later "Dangerous Dave" sequels. All of the games, including the original "Catacomb" titles, are now distributed legally by Flat Rock Software through their own web store and via GoG.com. Flat Rock have also released the source code for the games under the GNU General Public License in June 2014 in a manner similar those done by id and partners. This has lead to the creation of the source port "Reflection Catacomb", also called "Reflection Keen" due to shared support for "Keen Dreams", and ports all of the 3D "Catacomb" games to modern systems.
Dream Chronicles
Dream Chronicles, originally titled Dream Chronicles: The Endless Slumber, is an adventure, hidden object, and puzzle casual game developed by KatGames and published by PlayFirst. It is the first installment in the series. The game was pitched to PlayFirst at the first Casual Games Association event in Amsterdam in February 2006, and became the first adventure game to hit the mainstream casual game industry. The prototype was initially rejected by publishers, but after coming up with the premise of "Dream Chronicles", KatGames was signed-up by PlayFirst and completed the title. Set in a mystical world of realistic fantasy where mortal and fairy realms collide, the game tells the story of a mortal woman named Faye who is the only one being able to awaken from a powerful fairy's dream spell. She embarks on an adventure through a dream world to find her fairy husband and save her hometown. To solve the mystery, players must complete challenging puzzles and search for subtle clues leading to the whereabouts of Faye's husband.
Cyberdreams
Cyberdreams' most successful titles were "Dark Seed", incorporating the art of H. R. Giger, and "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream", based upon Harlan Ellison's short story of the same name. Cyberdreams other published titles included "CyberRace", a futuristic racing game using the vehicle designs of Syd Mead, "", a film noir interactive movie, and a sequel to "Dark Seed".Titles announced by Cyberdreams but never completed include "Hunters of Ralk," a role-playing video game designed by "Dungeons & Dragons" creator Gary Gygax, and "Wes Craven's Principles of Fear", based on a concept by film director Wes Craven. Other announced, but unreleased games are "Evolver", an adaptation of "Species", "Reverence", and "The Incredible Shrinking Character". Only two survived with the help of other publishers: "Ares Rising" and "Blue Heat". "Reverence" was also eventually leaked as a playable prototype.
Dreamkiller
Dreamkiller is a dark fantasy first-person shooter where the player takes on the role of Alice Drake, a psychologist with the ability to enter the minds of her patients to fight the monsters appearing in their dreams. The game is developed by Mindware Studios and published by Aspyr for Microsoft Windows.
Dynamo Games
Dynamo Games Ltd was an independent video game developer and publisher based in Dundee, Scotland. Established in 2004, it was the first developer working exclusively on mobile platforms to win a gaming BAFTA award, and one of the first studios to develop titles for the Google Android mobile operating system. Besides developing games for various handheld formats, Dynamo launched several applications for mobile phones using Java technology.
Scott Bizar
Scott Bizar, dissatisfied with TSR's "Dungeons & Dragons" (1974) and "Warriors of Mars" (1974), founded his own company, Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU). The company's first two products were Hugh McGowan's "Gladiators" (1975), a man-to-man miniatures combat system, and "Royal Armies of the Hyborean Age" (1975), a first-of-its kind wargame set in the world of Conan, was co-designed by Bizar's roommate, Lin Carter. At Gen Con IX in 1976, Edward E. Simbalist and Wilf K. Backhaus met Bizar, who was interested in their role-playing game "Chevalier" they had brought with them but decided not to sell to TSR; Bizar and helped guide the game to print over the next year as "Chivalry & Sorcery", the first RPG from FGU. In the late 1970s, Bizar was looking for a new science-fiction roleplaying game to act as one of FGU's flagships, and contacted Simbalist and Phil McGregor to produce the game, which was published in 1980 as "Space Opera". During the process, Bizar never met Simbalist or McGregor, or A. Mark Ratner, and the project was completed over more than two years entirely by correspondence. In the early 1980s, Bizar started picking up product lines from defunct publishers, which brought "Bushido" and "Aftermath!" to FGU in 1981. FGU purchased the rights to "Swordbearer" (1982), and also bought Heritage's old stock, something that Bizar felt was a necessary part of such a deal; FGU published their own edition in 1985. In 1987, Bizar was considering new locations for FGU that could offer him reduced warehousing costs, and decided on Arizona, the home of friend Rick Loomis and his gaming company, Flying Buffalo. Bizar rented office space and warehouse in Tempe, but since FGU was having difficulties Bizar took jobs as first a car salesman and then a school teacher. Bizar was intent on staying in the hobbyist industry, and founded a game shop in Gilbert, Arizona called Waterloo, using stock from his parents, who were running their own Waterloo game stores in New York; the FGU offices and warehouse were soon moved to this new location. After founding a second store in Phoenix, Arizona, Bizar was hit by massive fraud at the Gilbert store, when an employee took out credit cards in Bizar's name, opened fake bank accounts, and fraudulently offered up Bizar's stores as collateral; Bizar lost money due to the fraud and was also forced to fight lawsuits over the next years originating from it, and eventually had to close down the Phoenix store in 1996. Bizar had been getting some older FGU books back into print, while preparing new books for publication, but the fraud put an end to all that.
Fever Daydream
Technical
DreamRift
DreamRift was an American independent video game developer based in Orlando, Florida, founded in 2009. They have developed two video games for Nintendo's handheld systems Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS: "Monster Tale" and "".
Night Trap
Rob Fulop, developer of "Demon Attack" (1982) and other Atari games, began working with Atari founder Nolan Bushnell at his company Axlon shortly after the video game crash of 1983. James Riley was also working with Bushnell at the time on a series of interactive retail advertising campaigns. Riley received a call from Fulop, his neighbor, who explained that an engineer presented an interesting device to another one of Bushnell's employees, Tom Zito. The system used VHS technology to create movie-like gaming experiences and allowed four video tracks to be played simultaneously. The team dubbed this system "NEMO" (Never Ever Mention Outside).
Zito wanted to put together some demos to present the technology to Hasbro. Riley wanted to create an environment the player could move freely about, leading to the idea of surveillance cameras. Fulop and Riley were inspired by the play "Tamara" (1981) which ran parallel stories running in 13 different rooms. The audience would need to decide for themselves which stories they wanted to follow. Fulop and Riley watched the play three times over the course of a weekend in 1985. Fulop and Riley liked the design model and thought it would make a good basis for an interactive media experience. A prototype game titled "Scene of the Crime" was produced to demonstrate the new technology to Hasbro and test the surveillance camera gameplay. It was a short five-minute demo where the player follows suspicious characters around a house to find who stole a stash of money. The player switches between cameras to observe the characters and eavesdrop on their conversations; all the characters have a plot to steal the money. At the end of the game, the player must guess who stole the money. In December 1986, the team flew to Hasbro headquarters in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and pitched the technology to Hasbro CEO Stephen Hassenfeld and a boardroom of 22 executives who liked the system and gave funding to support further development for the technology and games.
Ayeah Games
Ayeah Games, Inc. is a social games developer located in Boston. The company was founded in January, 2010 by Douglas Levin and released its first Facebook game entitled FanSwarm on October 31, 2010. It was credited as the first "social reality" game on Facebook, using real-time news to determine a celebrity's buzz.
Video gaming in Bangladesh
Apple Soft IT is one of the first video game companies in Bangladesh, and was established in 2011. It is a game developing company in Bangladesh. Red Cloud 71 was its first product of Applesoft IT. Video gaming was introduced in the country through arcade gaming through a significant growth during the late 1990s because of the availability of personal computers at lower prices. However, the local video game development only started in the early 2000s. "Dhaka Racing", a racing video game set in the streets of Dhaka, is the first 3D video game to be developed in the country. The game was designed by two undergraduate students of computer science and was launched independently by eSophers in 2002. Getting a huge response from the gamers across the country, the game eventually paved the way for the local video game development sector. A year later, inspired by the success of "Dhaka Racing", a group of computer science students from Chittagong developed "Chittagong Racing".
Paradigm Entertainment
Nintendo reportedly contacted Paradigm in 1994 after it co-developed a realistic flight simulator called "Hornet" with the entertainment company Magic Edge Inc. Through connections to Silicon Graphics, designers of the Nintendo 64, Paradigm worked for nine months starting that same year on a technology base for its own Nintendo 64 software. At E3 in May 1995, engineers from Paradigm aided Nintendo in polishing a demo of the Nintendo 64 shown for developers and distributors in a whisper suite. Paradigm partnered with Nintendo the following month to begin development on "Pilotwings 64", one of the first games available for the new console worldwide. The game was a success for the company, accounting for half of its revenues by the beginning of 1997 and had sold over one million copies worldwide by February 1998. In May 1996, one month prior to the console's Japanese launch, Paradigm released a turnkey development bundle titled "Fusion 64".
Traitors Gate (video game)
Traitors Gate is a 1999 graphic adventure game developed by Daydream Software. Set in a reproduction of the Tower of London, it follows the story of Raven, an American special agent trying to steal and replace the Crown Jewels of England for their protection. The player assumes the role of Raven and solves puzzles within the Tower while evading the guards. Progression through the game is nonlinear and under a time limit: the player may solve certain challenges in multiple ways, but must win before 12 hours elapse.
Dream Chronicles
In 2005, CEO and lead game designer of KatGames, Miguel Tartaj shared the game idea with two potential partners but according to him "it didn't go anywhere". Tartaj wanted to find a publisher who could provide his team with the creative input and non-development support. He also needed a partner whom his team trusted, and had a track record of successfully navigating the casual games market. Tartaj first met PlayFirst's creative director Kenny Dinkin and director of publishing Craig Bocks at Casual Connect Amsterdam in 2006. He was impressed by their dedication to creativity and innovation, and could immediately sense that they shared his vision to make this unique game a reality. KatGames eventually signed an agreement to PlayFirst on what came to be known in June 2007 as "Dream Chronicles".
Daydream Software
Daydream Software was founded in 1994 in Umeå, Sweden. Its starting team of five was headed by lead designer Nigel Papworth on the principle that they would develop their own games without working with other major publishers to develop commissioned games.
Adventure game
The most famous early Japanese computer adventure game was the murder mystery game "Portopia Serial Murder Case", developed by Yūji Horii (of "Dragon Quest" fame) and published by Enix. Its development began in 1981, and was released in 1983. The game was viewed in a first-person perspective, followed a first-person narrative, and featured color graphics. Originally released for the PC-6001, the player interacts with the game using a verb-noun parser which requires typing precise commands with the keyboard; finding the exact words to type is considered part of the riddles that must be solved. The game was non-linear, which includes exploring an open world, a branching dialogue conversation system where the story develops through entering commands and receiving responses from other characters, and making choices that determine the dialogues and order of events as well as alternative endings. It also features a phone that could be used to dial any number to contact several non-player characters. The game was well received in Japan for its well-told storyline and surprising twist ending, and for allowing multiple ways to achieve objectives. Hideo Kojima praised the game for its mystery, drama, humor, 3D dungeons, for providing a proper background and explanation behind the murderer's motives, and expanding the potential of video games. The game has also been compared to the later-released "Shadowgate" where the player must examine and collect objects, and find their true purpose later on. According to Square Enix, "Portopia" was "the first real detective adventure" game.
Project Dream
After Nintendo released the SNES, Rare decided to use the profits they made from Nintendo Entertainment System games to invest in Silicon Graphics workstations. Rare used this high-end technology to develop "Donkey Kong Country" (1994), which received critical acclaim and became the second bestselling SNES game behind "Super Mario World" (1990). After finishing "Donkey Kong Country", Rare staff decided to apply the technology to a new game that was not a platformer. They settled on developing a RPG, as they were all fans of the genre. The codename "Dream" was chosen because they wanted their RPG to have a fantastical, magical feel. "Dream" used "Donkey Kong Country"s graphics technology to an advanced level. It was inspired by Japanese RPGs and LucasArts adventure games; the team wanted to combine those games to create one with a "Rare flavour". "Dream" was developed by Rare's "" (1995) team and was announced in 1995.
History of Western role-playing video games
The earliest role-playing video games were created in the mid-to-late 1970s, as offshoots of early university mainframe text-based RPGs that were played on PDP-10, PLATO and Unix-based systems. These included "Dungeon", written in 1975 or 1976, "pedit5", created in 1975, and "dnd", also from 1975. These early games were inspired by pen-and-paper role-playing games, particularly "Dungeons & Dragons", which was first published in 1974, and J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Some of the first graphical computer RPGs (CRPGs) after "pedit5" and "dnd" included "orthanc" (1978), which was named after Saruman's tower in "Lord of the Rings", "avathar" (1979), later renamed "avatar", "oubliette" (1977), named after the French word for "dungeon", "moria" (1975), "dungeons of degorath", "baradur", "emprise", "bnd", "sorcery", and "dndworld". All of these were developed and became popular on the PLATO system during the late 1970s, in large part due to PLATO's speed, fast graphics, and large number of players with access to its nationwide network of terminals. PLATO was a mainframe system that supported multiple users and allowed them to play simultaneously, a feature not commonly available to owners of home personal computer systems at the time. These were followed by games on other platforms, such as "Temple of Apshai", written in 1979 for the TRS-80 and followed by two add-ons; "" (1980), which gave rise to the well-known "Ultima" series; "Wizardry" (1981), and "Sword of Fargoal" (1982). Games of this era were also influenced by text adventures such as "Colossal Cave Adventure" (1976) and "Zork" (1976); early MUDs, tabletop wargames such as "Chainmail" (1971), and sports games such as "Strat-O-Matic".
Traitors Gate (video game)
"Traitors Gate" was conceived in 1996 by Daydream Software designer Nigel Papworth, who saw the Tower of London as a natural setting for a game. The team sought to replicate the structure with near-perfect accuracy, and began by capturing over 5,000 reference photographs on location. Pre-rendering the game's panoramic environments challenged the team, which averaged seven members; production took roughly three years to complete. Self-funded by Daydream after a successful initial public offering, "Traitors Gate" ultimately cost between $1- and $2-million, and by 2000 was distributed in 10 languages and 27 countries by companies such as DreamCatcher Interactive and FX Interactive.
Forgotten Realms
Numerous Forgotten Realms video games were released Between 1990 and 2000. The "Eye of the Beholder" PC game was released in 1990. This game was later followed by two sequels, the first in 1991, and the second in 1992. All three games were re-released for DOS on a single disk in 1995. Another 1991 release was "Neverwinter Nights" on America Online, the first graphical Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG). In 1998, "Baldur's Gate" was released, the first in a line of popular role-playing video games developed by BioWare and "considered by most pundits as the hands-down best PC roleplaying game ever". The game was followed by a sequel, "" in 2000 as well as "Icewind Dale", a separate game that utilized the same game engine as "Baldur's Gate". "" was released in 2001. Several popular Forgotten Realms characters such as Drizzt Do'Urden and Elminster made minor appearances in these games.
Daydream Software
Daydream Software is a defunct Swedish video game developer founded in 1994. They released four games (with another in the works) before closing in 2003.
Daydream Software
Daydream Software was put through liquidation in February 2003 before closing in 2004. Most employees moving on to form a new development company: Resolution Interactive, which focused on iPhone games. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
Slalom (video game)
"Slalom" was developed by British video game company Rare by Tim and Chris Stamper. Rare had been looking to develop games for consoles in the wake of rampant computer game piracy in the United Kingdom. They chose the NES for its nascent popularity, though the console had no Western developers, and asked Nintendo for a license. When Nintendo declined, they reverse engineered the console and made a demo, "Slalom" to show the company. Nintendo was astonished at their effort, and made Rare its first Western developer, beginning a long and close collaboration between Rare and Nintendo of America founder and president Minoru Arakawa.
Daedalus Entertainment
Daedalus Games began when Robin Laws approached Jose Garcia in 1993 with an idea for a Hong Kong Action Cinema RPG; Garcia liked the idea, but the RPG "" was his first priority, and was published in 1994 with Garcia as the main designer and developer, with Laws, Bruce Baugh, and Rob Heinsoo as additional authors. Daedalus Games was incorporated as Daedalus Entertainment in preparation for publishing the Hong Kong action game Laws had intended, but Garcia liked the setting that Laws was working on and decided to use it as a basis of a collectible card game to take advantage of the CCG market and Daedalus published this game as "Shadowfist" (1995). Daedalus Entertainment published the role-playing game "Feng Shui" (1996), designed by Laws using a variant of the "Nexus" game system; Laws also designed supplements for "Feng Shui".
Electric Dreams Software
Electric Dreams Software was a video game publisher established in 1985 by former managing director of Quicksilva Rod Cousens and former Software Manager of Quicksilva Paul Cooper. The company published video games for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC between 1985 and 1989, becoming one of the top eight UK software houses of that decade.
Wargame
In 1983, Games Workshop released "Warhammer Fantasy Battle", a fantasy wargame. Games Workshop at the time made miniature models for use in "Dungeons and Dragons", and "Warhammer" was meant to encourage players to buy more models. The success of "Warhammer" led Games Workshop to create "Warhammer 40,000", a science-fiction counterpart. These two games went on to become the most popular miniature wargames in the world.
Fredrik Liliegren
While studying at Linnaeus, in 1992 Liliegren and fellow students Ulf Mandorff, Olof Gustafsson, Andreas Axelsson and Markus Nystrom, members of the former demogroup the Silents – for which Liliegren acted as a spokesperson – founded the computer game company DICE and developed pinball computer games for Amiga. The first games were Pinball Dreams – which they started developing in 1988 and sold in 1992 – and the Battlefield series.
NDreams
The first project created by nDreams for PlayStation Home was the world's first console-based and virtual world-based alternate reality game, Xi. Xi was released on March 23, 2009 and lasted a total of 12 weeks, taking place within PlayStation Home, across the web and in the real world.
Dark Seed (video game)
Dark Seed is a psychological horror point-and-click adventure game developed and published by Cyberdreams in 1992. It exhibits a normal world and a dark world counterpart, which is based on the artwork by H. R. Giger. It was one of the first point-and-click adventure games to use high-resolution (640 × 350 pixels) graphics, to Giger's demand. A sequel, "Dark Seed II", was released in 1995.
NDreams
The first game released by nDreams for virtual reality was the tech demo SkyDIEving, which launched in 2013. This saw players freefalling through the sky until they inevitably crashed to their doom on the ground. Patrick O'Luanaigh stated that nDreams had seen "fantastic" reaction to SkyDIEving since it was released in 2013 and the demo received many plaudits.
Flying Nightmares
Flying Nightmares is a video game developed by American studio Lifelike Productions and published by Domark for the Power Macintosh, one of the first ever commercial PPC native games. It was also ported to the 3DO.
Daydreamer (video game)
Daydreamer is a video game developed by Roland Studios.
Shadowrun
Eight video games have been developed based on the "Shadowrun" franchise; the first in 1993 was an action role-playing game titled "Shadowrun" and developed by Beam Software for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The second, also titled "Shadowrun", was released for the Sega Genesis in 1994, developed by BlueSky Software. The third game was an interactive fiction adventure game developed by Japanese company Group SNE in 1995 for the Sega CD, again titled "Shadowrun". A fourth game, titled "Shadowrun: Assassin", was planned to be released in 1998 by FASA Interactive Technologies for the PC, but was cancelled. The next game released was a first-person shooter for the Xbox 360 and Windows Vista, entitled "Shadowrun". It was developed by FASA Interactive, owned by Microsoft, which also produced the title. It was the very first game that allows cross-platform play on the Games for Windows – Live service. As the publishers of the "Shadowrun" role-playing game stated at the time of the video game's release: "Microsoft rewrote the timeline and setting for this game, so it is not in continuity with the tabletop RPG. It may be more accurately described as a game loosely based on "Shadowrun"."
List of id Software games
id Software is an American video game developer based in Dallas, Texas. It was founded in February 1991 by four members of the software company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack. The founders, along with business manager Jay Wilbur, had previously developed the 1990 personal computer game "Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons" as "Ideas from the Deep" while still employees of Softdisk. After its founding, id developed further shareware computer games in the "Commander Keen" series for Apogee Software, as well as a series of small games for Softdisk, before releasing the "grandfather of first-person shooters", "Wolfenstein 3D", in 1992 through both shareware and retail. It was followed by "Doom" (1993), considered one of the most significant and influential titles in video game history, which id self-published in shareware before releasing for retail through GT Interactive. GT Interactive published a sequel, "Doom II" (1994) and the two companies split publishing duties on id's final self-published or shareware game, "Quake" (1996).
Daydream Software
Their next project was "Ski-Doo: X-Team Racing", a snowmobile racing game. The title was released by Simon & Schuster Interactive in 2001 for PC computers. The game received little media attention.
Destiny of Ancient Kingdoms
Destiny of Ancient Kingdoms more commonly known as DOAK, is the first South African free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) to be released on Steam. "DOAK" was created with the purpose of giving South Africans a PC game that they can truly call their own. "Destiny of Ancient Kingdoms" was developed and distributed by Utopia Dream Entertainment Alliance (UDEA) in South Africa.
The story for "Destiny of Ancient Kingdoms" begins in a prehistoric age after Giants and Gods battled each other to decide the fate of the world.
LucasArts adventure games
LucasArts' first adventure game was the 1986 title "". The game's development was led by David Fox, with contributions from Douglas Adams, Christopher Cerf, Noah Falstein and Brenda Laurel. Based on the film of the same name, it is LucasArts' first video game adaptation of a film. It is the only adventure game not published by LucasArts, as "Labyrinth" was published and distributed by Activision. "Labyrinth" differs significantly from later LucasArts adventure games as it uses text parser gameplay as the main means of play.
"Labyrinth" was followed in 1987 by "Maniac Mansion". "Maniac Mansion" was the creation of Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, and marked the debut of SCUMM, the game engine that powered all but two of LucasArts later adventure games. The game was also the first LucasArts adventure game to be released for DOS. "Maniac Mansion" was LucasArts' first full graphic adventure game, using a point-and-click interface rather than the text-based gameplay seen in "Labyrinth". A menu of verbs allows the player to choose how to interact with the game's environment. "Maniac Mansion" aims to parody the horror genre. The game was subject to several enhancements and re-releases, and was included as a game within a game in its sequel, "Day of the Tentacle".
PDP-10
Will Crowther created "Adventure", the prototypical computer adventure game, for a PDP-10. Don Daglow created the first computer baseball game (1971) and "Dungeon" (1975), the first role-playing video game on a PDP-10. Walter Bright originally created "Empire" for the PDP-10. Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle created the first MUD on a PDP-10. "Zork" was written on the PDP-10. Infocom used PDP-10s for game development and testing.