sâmbătă, 16 iulie 2011

First video game.

Definition and usage of terms

The "video" in "video game" traditionally refers to a raster display device.[1] However, with the popular catch phrase use of the term "video game", the term now implies all display types, formats, and platforms.
Historians have also sought to bypass the issue by instead using the more inclusive "digital games" descriptive.[2] However, this term still leaves out the earlier analog-based computer games.

History

The history of video games is filled with events and earlier technology that paved the way for the advent of video games. It also includes games that represent direct steps in the evolution of computerized gaming, and lastly the development and release of video games themselves.

1942: NIM

Raymond Redheffer of M.I.T had an article published in 1948 about how to play a NIM device he allegedly[citation needed] created through 1941 to 1942. Also in 1978, he demonstrated the device publicly.[3]
A device procured by the toy collector Mike Mozart is potentially the one Raymond Redheffer created and has some similarities to specifications of the published paper.[4]

1947: Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device

The earliest[citation needed] known interactive electronic game was by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann on a cathode ray tube.[5] The patent was filed on January 25, 1947 and issued on December 14, 1948. The game was a missile simulator inspired by radar displays from World War II. It used analog circuitry, not digital, to control the CRT beam and position a dot on the screen. Screen overlays were used for targets since graphics could not be drawn at the time.[1]

1950-1951: Chess

In March 1950, Claude Shannon devised a chess-playing program that appeared in the paper "Programming a Computer for Ferranti computer."[6]

1951: NIM


A drawing of the NIMROD computer.
On May 5, 1951, the NIMROD computer, created by Ferranti, was presented at the Festival of Britain. Using a panel of lights for its display, it was designed exclusively to play the game of NIM; this was the first instance of a digital computer designed specifically to play a game.[7] NIMROD could play either the traditional or "reverse" form of the game.

1952: OXO / Noughts and Crosses (Tic-Tac-Toe)

In 1952, Alexander S. Douglas made the first computer game to use a digital graphical display. OXO, also known as Noughts and Crosses, is a version of tic-tac-toe for the EDSAC computer at the University of Cambridge. It was designed for the world's first stored-program computer, and used a rotary telephone controller for game control.[8]

1958: Tennis for Two


Tennis for Two recreation
In 1958, William Higinbotham made an interactive computer game named Tennis for Two for the Brookhaven National Laboratory's annual visitor's day. This display, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, was meant to promote atomic power, and used an analog computer and the vector display system of an oscilloscope.[9][10]

1959: Mouse in the Maze, Tic-Tac-Toe

In 1959-1961, a collection of interactive graphical programs were created on the TX-0 experimental computer at MIT. These included Mouse in the Maze[11] and Tic-Tac-Toe.[12] Mouse in the Maze allowed users to use a light pen to place maze walls, dots that represented bits of cheese, and (in some versions) glasses of martini. A virtual mouse represented by a dot was then released and would traverse the maze to find the objects. Tic-Tac-Toe used the light pen as well to play a simple game of naughts and crosses against the computer.[12]

1961: Spacewar!

In 1961, MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen created the game Spacewar! on a DEC PDP-1 mini-computer which also used a vector display system.[1][10] The game, generally considered the first Shooter game,[citation needed] spread to several of the early mini-computer installations, and reportedly was used as a smoke test by DEC technicians on new PDP-1 systems before shipping, since it was the only available program that exercised every aspect of the hardware.[13] Russell has been quoted as saying that the aspect of the game that he was most pleased with was the number of other programmers it inspired to write their own games.[14]

The Magnavox Odyssey released in 1972

1966: Odyssey

In 1966, Ralph Baer resumed work on an initial idea he had in 1951 to make an interactive game on a television set. In May 1967, Baer and an associate created the first game to use a raster-scan video display, or television set, directly displayed via modification of a video signal - i.e. a "video" game.[15] The "Brown Box", the last prototype of seven, was released in May 1972 by Magnavox under the name Odyssey. It was the first home video game console.[1]

1971: Galaxy Game

In 1971, Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck developed the first coin-operated computer game, Galaxy Game, at Stanford University using a DEC PDP-11/20 computer; only one unit was ever built (although it was later adapted to run up to eight games at once).[16]

1971: Computer Space

Two months after Galaxy Game's installation, Computer Space by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney was released, which was the first coin-operated video game to be commercially sold (and the first widely available video game of any kind, predating the Odyssey by six months). Both games were variations on the vector display 1961 Spacewar!; however, Bushnell and Dabney's used an actual video display by having an actual television set in the cabinet.

1972: Pong

Pong, also by Bushnell and Dabney, used the same television set design as Computer Space, and was not released until 1972 – a year after Computer Space.

Controversy and lawsuits

Baer was involved in court battles over patents that spanned the 1970s and 1980s. These trials defined a video game as an apparatus that displays games by manipulating the video display signal of the raster equipment: a television set, a monitor, etc. The previous computer games did not use a video display, so did not qualify as such in the courts.[1]
Source 

Best game of 2011

Portal 2

GamesRadar’s review
You can’t possibly be surprised, can you? Portal 2 is not only the sequel to our choice for the very best game of all time – all time! – it’s a sequel that irrefutably improves on that choice in every imaginable way. Some upgrades are obvious, like the longer campaign, the fancier gadgets and the addition of cooperative play. What back-of-the-box bullet points like those can’t tell you, of course, are that the longer campaign still feels as perfectly paced as the original, that the fancier gadgets work as effortlessly and ingeniously as the portal gun or that the co-op is somehow both totally separate from the main game and yet equally compelling and satisfying.
To describe the elements that truly make Portal 2 an unforgettable experience, however, would require spoilers that might ruin that experience. What do we risk saying about GLaDOS, other than that you will fear – but also pity and understand – the infamous villain more than ever by the end? Or about Wheatley, besides the fact that he is surely gaming’s greatest-voiced sidekick? Or about the haunting history of Aperture, the tie-ins with an epic Valve universe and the crazy clever Easter eggs? These are all the things that make Portal 2 so special, and also the things every player should discover on his or her own.

Most downloaded Wordpress plugins

The number of WordPress blogs has passed the 50 million mark! It’s an amazing achievement and shows the power of the blogging world and the power of the most popular blogging software.
To celebrate the 50 million mark, here is a look at the most downloaded WordPress plugins ever. These 20 plugins are the very exclusive group that were downloaded more than 1 million times each!

20 most downloaded WordPress plugins ever

  • All in One SEO Pack - Automatically optimizes your WordPress blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization). Downloads 8,208,465
  • Akismet - Checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. Downloads 7,010,496
  • Google XML Sitemaps - Generates a special XML sitemap which will help search engines to better index your blog. Downloads 5,386,430
  • Contact Form 7 - Just another contact form plugin. Simple but flexible. Downloads 4,203,678
  • NextGEN Gallery - A full integrated Image Gallery plugin for WordPress with dozens of options and features. Downloads 3,494,547
  • WordPress.com Stats - Stats with no additional load on your server. Plug into WordPress.com’s stats system with this plugin. Downloads 2,589,702
  • WP Super Cache - A very fast caching engine for WordPress that produces static html files. Downloads 2,391,929
  • WPtouch - Mobile theme for your website. Automatically transforms your WordPress blog into an iPhone application. Downloads 2,228,517
  • Google Analytics - Tracks your site: views per author & category, automatic tracking of clicks and pageviews. Downloads 2,037,340
  • AddToAny - Help people share your posts using services like Facebook, Twitter, Google, StumbleUpon, and more. Downloads 1,850,470
  • WP-PageNavi - Adds a more advanced paging navigation interface. Downloads 1,713,578
  • Fast Secure Contact Form - Customizable contact form. Blocks all automated spammers. No templates to mess with. Downloads 1,586,123
  • Google Analyticator - Adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google Analytics. Includes widgets for Analytics data display. Downloads 1,433,450
  • GTranslate - Get translations with a single click between 58 languages (more than 98% of internet users) on your website! Downloads 1,215,595
  • WP e-Commerce - A Web 2.0 application designed with usability, aesthetics, and presentation in mind. Downloads 1,208,872
  • Sociable - Automatically add links on your posts, pages and RSS feed to your favorite social bookmarking sites. Downloads 1,155,054
  • SexyBookmarks - Adds an attractive social bookmarking menu to your posts, pages, index, or any combination of the three. Downloads 1,089,436
  • WordPress Importer - Imports posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, tags and more from a WordPress export file. Downloads 1,050,154
  • WP-DB-Backup On-demand backup of your WordPress database. Downloads 1,044,319

Mr. Smartopants.

The pig is rated the fourth most intelligent animal ! So... being called a pig is not that bad...

Bzzzzzz


 A house fly lives only 14 days.

That's just when it doesn't get squished by some evil human !

Pimp My MINI

Thorpe




Just some pics from London’s Thorpe park. First impression is not so god… You see all the torture equipment displayed behind the fence it kinda makes you want to turn around :) . After that you see the police car… You think your safe, but when you approach you only see blood inside and hear a woman’s voice in the the half broken radio telling you not to go inside alone . Pfu .. Saw alive, and Saw the ride. Be afraid … Be very afraid!

About Thorpe park


Thorpe Park is a theme park located in Chertsey, Surrey, England, UK. It was built in 1979 on the site of a gravel pit which was partially flooded with the intention of creating a water based theme for the park. The park's first large roller coaster, Colossus, was added in 2002. In 2007, Tussauds was bought out by Merlin Entertainments, who now operate the park on a lease from Nick Leslau.[1][clarification needed]
Some of the major attractions at Thorpe Park include:
In 2009, the park had 1.87 million visitors, making it the second most visited theme park in the United Kingdom, after Alton Towers with 2.7 Million Visitors. It was the 11th most visited in Europe.[2]


(Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorpe_Park )