Legends of the Three Kingdoms

Legends of the Three Kingdoms (; literally Three Kingdoms Kill), or sometimes Sanguosha, LTK, 3KK for short, is a Chinese card game based on the Three Kingdoms period of China and the semi-fictional 14th century novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (ROTK) by Luo Guanzhong. The rules of the basic LTK are almost identical to the rules of the older Italian card game Bang!. LTK was released by YOKA games (游卡桌游) on January 1, 2008, and has been followed to date by a total of seven official expansion sets, an online version LTK Online, as well as a children's version LTK Q Version. There are self-created cards by players, but these are mostly unofficial.
LTK initially began with a strong following in China since the entire game is in Chinese. Sales of LTK totaled 20 million yuan in 2009, and 100 million yuan in 2010. However the game has begun to reach an international audience after players began translating the game into the English language and posting these translations on blogs and forums. Site visit statistics from one of these blogs showed that readers outside of Mainland China come primarily from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Malaysia, and New Zealand.
Relevance to history.
The cards and characters of LTK are all related to the ancient history of China, the most telling of which are the characters and their abilities. Each character is given an ability in the game which usually mirrors the historical character's personality, actions, strength/weakness, cause of death, and historical events in which the character was involved, etc. For example, Liu Bei's ability Kindness (仁德) allows him to give away his cards to other players, mirroring the benevolent and kind nature of Liu Bei in ROTK. Cao Cao, on the other hand, is given the ability Treachery (奸雄), which allows him to keep any card which causes him damage. This mirrors Cao Cao's style of coaxing able advisers of his enemies to defect and join him, then utilizing them for his cause.
The relevance of these abilities to ROTK and the Three Kingdoms history is interesting enough to inspire players to discover more about ROTK and Three Kingdoms history for themselves. One blog author describes his knowledge of Three Kingdoms evolving from uninterested to semi-expert after immersing in the study of LTK abilities. In August 2012, UC Berkeley offered a course in LTK. The faculty sponsor of the course, Professor Robert Berring, wants to get undergrads "acquainted with essential philosophy dating back to China's ancient dynasties".
Basic rules of the standard mode.
The standard mode of LTK can be played by 2 to 10 people. Each player plays one of these four roles: Monarch (主公), Minister (忠臣), Rebel (反贼) and Traitors (内奸). There can be only one monarch in the game at all times, but the number of ministers, rebels and traitors are determined by the total number of players, as shown in the table on the right. Each player may have 3 or 4 Health points (see below), depending on their character.
Objectives.
Different roles have different victory conditions:
The game ends immediately if:
As long as one of the scenarios listed above occur at the endgame, the associated roles can claim victory even if the character has already been killed. In general, the Monarch and his ministers must work together to kill the rebels and traitors, while the rebels can cooperate to kill off the ministers before attacking the Monarch. Meanwhile, the traitor(s) can guise as a minister and help to kill the rebels, before revolting against the ministers and finally confronting the Monarch.
Types of cards.
LTK consists of a few types of cards, which serve different purposes in the game.
Play.
There are six main phases to playing when it comes to any player's turn.
Death.
When a player's Health points is reduced to 0, he faces imminent death and must instantly take action: he may request to be saved by a "Peach" card (thus letting other players play the card), or may use one immediately if he has it. If he is successful, his health will be recovered to 1 point. Otherwise, he dies (except some special character like Zhou Tai), and must reveal his role card and discard all other cards. If he is a Rebel and killed by a card from another player, that player may draw 3 cards.
It is possible for a player's health to have a negative value (such as suffering from a Lightning attack). In this case, the player will need as many "Peach" cards as he requires to raise his health back to 1 point in order to continue the game (for example, a Health point of -1 requires 2 "Peach" cards). The abilities of certain cards or characters may involve healing more than 1 points of health, or even prolonged living below 1 Health point.
Point duels.
Certain special characters (such as Xun Yu) may initiate point duels with another player to unleash their special abilities. This is done when the initiator plays a card, and the other player does the same, and both players compare the numerical digit on the upper left corner. The player with the larger number on the wins, with "Ace" as the smallest value and "King" as the largest value. In the case of ties, the initiator of the duel is considered to have "lost" the duel. Suits such as diamonds, hearts, etc. do not matter. Both cards are discarded into the discard deck; players cannot retrieve back the cards into their hands.
Character allegiance.
All LTK characters are separated into four historically relevant allegiances. They are Shu Kingdom, Wei Kingdom, Wu Kingdom, and Neutral Heroes. In the original LTK, there are no repeated characters. However, as later character expansions are introduced, some characters are duplicated in different allegiances. This is because of the complex changes of each historical figure. Some characters, such as Jia Xu, were under the allegiance of different kingdoms through the course of their lives.
With the introduction of the first LTK expansion pack, a new fictional allegiance known as the Demi-Gods was introduced. Demi-God characters are typically very significant characters in ROTK and Three Kingdoms history, and these characters are given abilities that are much more powerful than regular characters. The presence of Demi-God characters can severely imbalance a regular game, and thus most players choose not to include Demi-God characters into gameplay. Since Demi-God characters are obtained by chance in expansion packs, Demi-God character cards have become collectible pieces. Prices of single Demi-God cards have been known to equal, or exceed, the price of the whole expansion pack.
In 2011, YOKA released collectible SP cards that comes with every purchase of Zhuoyou Zhi (桌游志) magazine, a monthly magazine discussing board and card-games in China. Many SP cards are remakes of existing LTK characters with different allegiances, representing that character from a different time period in his or her career.
Expansion packs and collectibles.
As of October 2012, seven different official LTK expansion packs have been released. Two different Collector's Editions have also been released. Beginning January 2011, ultra-collectible SP cards were released monthly with every purchase of Zhuoyou Zhi magazine. As of October 2012, the SP Yang Xiu character released with the inaugural issue of Zhuoyouzhi magazine has been seen to sell for 500 yuan, which is over forty times the original price of the magazine.
Variations.
Variations to the original game are played by people from all over China. The game has since been translated into English. Many people created different ways of playing LTK with no roles.
Criticisms.
LTK is essentially an exact rip off of Bang!, there are a few differences between them. Ie. the basic cards and tool cards. The similarity has motivated the creators of Bang! to sue LTK and its Western distributor. While the court found there was potential for copyright infringement on its initial hearing, it ultimately ruled in favor of Ziko Games and dismissed the case in 2016.


Ko Banchha Crorepati

Ko Banchha Crorepati (Who Wants to be a Millionaire; also simply known as KBC Nepal, Nepali":" "को बन्छ करोडपति) "is a Nepali television game show based on the British program "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?".
The show premiered on 3 February 2019 on AP1 Television. It is hosted by Rajesh Hamal and produced by SRBN Media Pvt. Ltd. Contestants can win a huge cash prize up to 1 crore (10 Million) Nepali rupees.
Season 1.
Host.
Rajesh Hamal, considered a national icon and prominent media figure, is an actor, activist, producer and director. The “Maha Nayak” of Nepali film industry has been actively delivering for almost three decades. His natural craze among the film audience has propelled him ahead of his time right from the start of his career in 1991.
Director is Suresh Paudel, assistant director is Babu Surace dc, and Mohan raj Adhikari. Since then, he has appeared in over 300 national and international films.
Production.
Ko Banchha Crorepati is a brainchild of SRBN Media Pvt. Ltd. SRBN is an upcoming media house that promises to provide programs that entertain, exhilarate and educate in equal measures. Pouring the years of experience gained in their respective fields of journalism, education, engineering, etc., SRBN is here to stay at the top. SRBN considers itself as a unique media house unlike any other in the market. It will be a one-stop media and entertainment house that will develop various quality contents for the TV and motion pictures in the days to come. This show is a brainchild of Bipin Kumar Acharya (CEO) of SRBN Media Pvt. Ltd and three other members namely Suraksha Adhikari( Creative Head), Ramesh Neupane (COO) and Rita Sapkota( Media Head). These four people dared to dream when nobody did and the result is that they have the biggest and best show running in the country.
The show is directed by Aman Pratap Adhikari. Bipin Kumar Acharya looks into the creative aspects and leads all the creative elements. Ramesh Neupane leads WWTBAM System handling and Suraksha Adhikari heads the pre production aspect assisted primarily by Aasma Sharma. Director of photography is Pramod Karki.
Gameplay.
Qualification.
Similar to the original airing in Great Britain, members of the public completed a qualification quiz which opened at the start of each season at various times in the year (also known as "registration period"). Would-be contestants would send a premium-rate SMS to a designated number and answer a question by responding. Contestants would complete a series of interviews before being randomly selected from a pool of other hopeful contestants and appearing on the stage in Fastest Finger First. In order to be eligible, contestants must be residents and citizens of Nepal and at least 18 years of age.
Fastest Finger First.
The selected contestants are then brought to the studio to play Fastest Finger First where they will be asked to arrange four answers into the designated order in the shortest amount of time.
Main game play.
After determining the winner of Fastest Finger First, they would join the host in the "Hot Seat" to start answering a series of multiple-choice questions on their way to win the top cash prize as outlined in the table below. Along the way, the contestant is free to walk away from the game with their winnings, but if they got a question wrong, they would walk away with nothing unless they correctly answered a milestone question (highlighted in yellow) that would guarantee some winnings.
To help them along the way, much like its counterparts, the contestant had a set of lifelines available for them to use. Which lifelines were available were dependent on the format being used.
They are given below:
The complete sequence of prizes is as follows. Guaranteed safe levels, where the contestant is guaranteed this amount of money to take home, regardless of any subsequent questions they may get wrong, are in bold.
The contestants' run ends when they either answer a question incorrectly, decide to not answer a question and walk away with their prize money, or if they answer all 15 questions correctly (winning Rs. 1 Crore).
Hallmark.
Music.
The musical score most commonly associated with the franchise was composed by father-and-son duo Keith and Matthew Strachan.
Set.
The basic set design used in Ko Banchha Crorepati was conceived by Millionaire franchise. The floor is made of Plexiglas, beneath which lies a huge dish covered in mirror paper. The main game typically has the contestant and host sit in "Hot Seats", which are slightly-modified. All chairs are situated in the center of the stage; a computer monitor directly facing each seat displays questions and other pertinent information.
The lighting system is programmed to darken the set as the contestant progresses further into the game. There are also spotlights situated at the bottom of the set area that zoom down on the contestant when they answer a major question; to increase the visibility of the light beams emitted by such spotlights, oil is vaporized, creating a haze effect.


The Final Conflict (video game)

The Final Conflict is a strategy game written by Thomas G. Cleaver for the Apple II and published by Hayden Software in 1982. An Atari 8-bit family version followed in 1983. In "The Final Conflict", the human race has met its demise. What remains are the ruins of dead civilizations and two robot armies, loyal to the whims of their expired human creators.
Reception.
Richard Steinberg reviewed "The Final Conflict" in "Space Gamer" No. 64. Steinberg commented that "All in all, "Final Conflict" is a game that should bring you many hours of good, clean war-making. This isn't any easy game; you'll need your thinking cap for this one."


Tsukada Special

In shogi, Tsukada Special (塚田スペシャル "tsukada supesharu") is a Floating Rook variant of the Double Wing Attack shogi opening developed by professional Yasuaki Tsukada in the 1980s.
The strategy is characterized by an aggressive offense at a very early stage of the game and a particular positioning of Black's rook on the 24 square after a pawn exchange initiated by Black dropping a pawn on 24.
According to Kiyokazu Katsumata, the Tsukada Special has been influential on many different openings, especially the Twisting Rook opening as well as Ranging Rook strategies.
Initial positioning.
6. R-26. After the main opening lines of Double Wing Attack Floating Rook, Black floats their rook to 26 temporarily preventing White from exchanging pawns on the eighth file.
6. ...S-72/S-62. White now has a major choice of whether to move their right silver to either 72 or 62. The 72 option is the newer joseki position. Staying on the seventh file (S-72) allows White the options of playing either Climbing Silver (advancing down the eighth file) or Reclining Silver (advancing to the central file) while moving the silver to the sixth file (S-62) favors Reclining Silver since White's Climbing Silver will be slower (due to the pawn blocking advancement at 63). Another difference is that S-72 does not block the king from moving to 62 and 71, which may be an important escape route if Black is able to penetrate White's camp before White can castle. However, with the S-72 move, White's pawn in front of the king at 53 remains undefended in contrast with the S-62 move. In the diagram and the immediately following discussion, S-72 is shown.
7. P-16. After White's choice of their silver movement, Black advances their edge pawn on the first file. Moving Black's edge pawn allows the lance to be free to move to 17 in order for it to be defended by the knight on 29, which may be beneficial if White can drop a bishop on an undefended 28 square. Additionally, the open 17 square allows the knight a place to flee from a pawn drop by White at 28. And, if Black's rook can reach the 24 square, then an edge attack with the first file pawn, a dropped pawn, and the lance may be possible.
7. ...P-14. White mirrors Black's edge pawn so that their bishop can move to 13, which allows (i) defense of 24 from Black's rook, (ii) a possible attack on 57, (iii) an escape route in case White's camp along the second file is broken, and (iv) prevents Black's knight from attacking White's lance if positioned on 13 after Black's pawn drop on 13 since the lance can move forward to 14. The advanced pawn also prevents Black's pawn from further encroachment on the first file.
8. P-38. Black then advances their silver on the third file. This position has the same benefits as White's S-72 choice and defends the 27 square from any future bishop drop on that square by White.
8. ...P-64. White moves their sixth file pawn allowing an opening for the Reclining Silver position (which is S-54).
9. P-76. Black responds by opening their bishop diagonal.
9. ...P-86. Once Black's bishop diagonal is open, the advanced pawn now prevents Black's rook from defending rank 6. This allows White to initiate a pawn exchange on the eighth file by attacking the head of Black's bishop.
10. Px86 Rx86. Pawn exchange via White's rook.
11. P*24. Black drops a pawn to attack the bishop's head again for another pawn exchange. This is an essential characteristic of the Tsukada Special.
11. ...Px24, 12. Rx24. After the Tsukada Special pawn exchange, Black's rook is in positioned on rank 4. From here, Black may have the possibility to start an edge attack on the first file or possibly capture White's floating pawn on 64.
Opening White's bishop diagonal (8. ...P-34).
8. ...P-34, 9. P-76. If White chooses to open their bishop's diagonal (P-34) instead of preparing for Reclining Silver (P-64) at move 16, then Black can also open their bishop's diagonal.
9. ...P-86, 10. Px86 Rx86. White exchanges pawns on the eighth file.
11. P*24 Px24, 12. Rx24. Black initiates the Tsukada Special pawn exchange. And, after the pawn exchanges on both sides, the board can reach a position that resembles the Side Pawn Capture opening.
At this point, there are also a number of move missteps that White is at risk of making that lead to stronger positions for Black including even some forced checkmate traps.
Checkmate sequence 12. ...R-84.
12. ...R-84. For example, if White had moved their silver to the sixth file on move 12 (that is, 6. ...S-62) and at move 24 reacts to Black's rook on 24 by moving their rook to 84 to protect the side pawn at 34, a series of moves will lead to a checkmate by Black.
13. Bx22+ Sx22, 14. B*66. Black can trade the bishops and then drop their bishop to 66 attacking both White's rook and silver.
14. ...Rx99+, 15. Bx22+. White's rook can capture Black's knight and promote while Black can capture White's silver.
15. ...Gx22, 16. Rx22+. White's gold captures the bishop, but Black recaptures with their rook and promotes.
16. ...+Rx79, 17. G*69. If White's rook captures Black's silver checking their king, Black can block White's rook by dropping a gold between the rook and king.
17. ...+Rx99. White's rook can escape and capture Black's lance.
18. S*42 K-52, 19. S-31=. But then, Black starts the forced checkmate by dropping a silver on the fourth file checking White's king. The king retreats to rank 2, but the silver can move to the third file unpromoted leaving Black's dragon to check the king. No matter whether the king moves to rank 1 or another piece is dropped, Black's dragon checkmates via the fourth file (+R-42) in the next move.
Note that if White had played S-72 earlier in the opening (instead of S-62), then their king would have had an escape route from this particular checking sequence.


Next Action Star

Next Action Star is an American reality television program shown on NBC from June to July 2004.
Synopsis.
The series featured 14 finalists (7 women and 7 men) vying for 2 spots as the Next Action Star in their own feature film. Each week, the contestants participated in screen tests that determined who got a callback and who goes home. The two winners starred in their own made-for-TV movie, the Louis Morneau-directed "Bet Your Life".
Contestants.
The 14 contestants were:


List of Fire Pro Wrestling games

The following is a list of all video games in the Fire Pro Wrestling series produced by either Human Entertainment or Spike starting in 1989. Most of the titles in the Fire Pro series were released exclusively in Japan.
Human Entertainment Games.
Fire Pro Wrestling Combination Tag.
Fire Pro Wrestling Combination Tag is the first game in the series, released for the PC by Human Entertainment on June 22, 1989. The game would later be re-released on March 13, 2007 for the Virtual Console on the Wii. The game was only released in Japan, and featured no official license. The game featured singles, tag team and tournament matchup modes.
Fire Pro Wrestling 2nd Bout.
Fire Pro Wrestling 2nd Bout is the second installment of the series, featuring a few more match types and additional wrestlers than the previous game. Released two years after the original, featuring a new "World Champion Series", "Super Tournament", and "Elimination Match" modes. The game would be re-released on the Wii Virtual Console on May 27, 2008.
Super Fire Pro Wrestling.
Super Fire Pro Wrestling was released in 1991 for the Super Famicom system. It was developed by Human Club and published by Human Entertainment.
Thunder Pro Wrestling Retsuden.
 was released for the Sega Mega Drive. The game features an "Exciting" mode that allows players to take on each other, an elimination mode where ten chosen wrestlers compete to win, and a handicap mode where one wrestler must take on two opponents. The game was going to be released in the U.S. under the title "Jesse "The Body" Ventura Wrestling Superstars", as published by DreamWorks, but was later cancelled. A ROM for the cancelled English version was leaked online in April 2016.
Super Fire Pro Wrestling 3 Final Bout.
 was released in 1993. This is the first game ever created with contribution from Goichi Suda. Due to complaints about the game's difficulty, Human released "Super Fire Pro Wrestling 3 Easy Type". In this version there is no edit mode but all of the hidden wrestlers are unlocked.
Characters based on wrestling stars such as WWF's Hulk Hogan and WCW's Rick Rude are featured in the game along with Japanese professional wrestlers like Masahiro Chono. Wrestler "Morio Smith" is named after Morrissey of The Smiths as Suda is a fan of the band. Each wrestler is ranked based on their attacking ability, defensive ability, and their running speed. An "edit mode" allows customized wrestlers to be created based on their wrestling type, the color of their skin, and a unique set of customized ring attire. A certain number of points also have to be spent on developing certain attacks (and their respective defense against these attacks from opposing wrestlers). Digitized voices from the wrestlers and cheers from the audience members are included. Two of the buttons on the Super Famicom controller are used for strong blows while another button is used strictly for low blows. Sprites in the game actually show wrestlers in different sizes to each other (depending on height and weight). A battle royale mode permits four wrestlers to face off against each other simultaneously. There are 56 different wrestlers to control; with eight playable wrestling legends. Referees are available and can be chosen by the player; each referee has his own level of strictness and essentially determine how long the match will last. It is possible to perform up to 300 different professional wrestling moves in the game.
Fire Pro Women: All Star Dream Slam.
Officially licensed by All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling
Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special.
Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special was released in 1994. Wrestlers from the game are based on popular wrestlers from the WWF in addition to the WCW and several puroresu organizations. The game was only released on the Super Famicom system. The game's scenario was written by Goichi Suda, and helped make him famous with a controversial suicide plot line.
Fire Pro Gaiden: Blazing Tornado.
Blazing Tornado was released by Human Entertainment in 1994. Although the design is similar to the majority of the games in the series, the controls are primarily based on button mashing, rather than executing properly-timed button presses. This installment features a different group of 8 (9 with the boss code) pro-wrestlers, who hail from all corners of the globe to compete, seeking to become a champion out of themselves.
Game modes are divided into single and tag team match tournaments. The single division allows players to challenge for the vacant Heroic Wrestling Federation/Neo Heroic Championship.
Wrestling Universe: Fire Pro Women: Dome Super Female Big Battle: All Japan Women VS J.W.P..
Officially licensed by All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling
Fire Pro Wrestling: Iron Slam '96.
Fire Pro Wrestling: Iron Slam '96 was developed and released for the PlayStation by Human Entertainment. It is the first game in the series to be done in full 3D. Its gameplay, however, retains the familiar timing-based grapple system found in all of the other Fire Pro games. Also, as with the other games in the series, the characters are based on real-life wrestlers that were popular at the time. Unlike its predecessors, it lacks the extensive Create-A-Wrestler mode.
Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium.
Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium was released in 1996 for the Super Famicom. It has an extensive edit mode where up to 80 created wrestlers can be stored and used in the game. The game features likenesses of over 100 real-life professional wrestlers that were included with fake names to prevent copyright infringement. Fan translations of the game surfaced online with the advent of emulators such as Snes9x and ZSNES. These translations not only converted the Japanese text to English, but also replaced the names of each wrestling likeness to its real-life counterpart. Unlike the more frenzied pace and button-mashing of arcade-style wrestling games, "Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium" focused instead on skill and specific timing. Each wrestler possesses three different 'levels' of attacks, Weak, Medium, and Strong, and must realistically wear down the opponent to use their most powerful attacks without being reversed or countered.
Fire Prowrestling S: 6Men Scramble.
Fire Pro Wrestling S: 6 Men Scramble was released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn. The game's story mode was called "Victory Road", which enabled "Title Match" when completed. The matches in "Fire Pro Wrestling S: 6 Men Scramble" include One Night Match, Open League, One Night Tournament, Elimination Match, Battle Royal, the debut of Death Match and the return of Gruesome Fighting that had not been seen since "Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special". The game also includes a deep wrestler edit mode.
Spike Games.
Fire Pro Wrestling.
Fire Pro Wrestling (released in Japan as ) was the first "Fire Pro" game to receive an official English translation and the first to be released on a portable system rather than a console. A direct sequel, "Fire Pro Wrestling 2", was released in 2002. The games use the A and B buttons for striking and grappling. True to many Fire Pro games, MMA is featured in the game and federations like Pride and The Ultimate Fighting Championship feature with fighters. The Octagon also made an appearance in this game, but was removed in the second for copyright issues.
Reception.
The game received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, "Famitsu" gave it a score of 27 out of 40.
Fire Pro Wrestling 2.
Fire Pro Wrestling 2 (released in Japan as ) is a direct sequel to 2001's "Fire Pro Wrestling". "Fire Pro Wrestling 2" is not actually the second game in the series; it is merely the second game to be officially translated into English.
Reception.
The game received "average" reviews according to Metacritic. In Japan, "Famitsu" gave it a score of 30 out of 40. "GameSpot" named it the second-best Game Boy Advance game of September 2002. It was a runner-up for "GameSpot"s annual "Best Sports Game on Game Boy Advance" award, but lost to "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3".


Barbarossa (board game)

Barbarossa is a plasticine-shaping German-style board game for 3 to 6 players, designed by Klaus Teuber in and published in 1988 by Kosmos in German and by Rio Grande Games in English. "Barbarossa" won the 1988 Spiel des Jahres award.
Gameplay.
The game is played on a circular board, with three tracks running around it. Around the outside are the scoring track and the elfstone (money) track. Further in there is a circular track with twelve marked spaces on it, and in the center there is a space for sculptures. Later editions of the game change the shape of the board but not its contents.
At the start of the game, each player chooses two objects from a list provided and creates plasticine sculptures of each, and places them in the middle of the board. Each player places on the board three tokens: a magician, a witches' hat and an Elfstone. The hats are placed on the scoring track; the elfstones are placed on the elfstone track, and the magicians are placed on the space marked "A". Each player receives three "curse tokens".
Players then take turns as follows: They may begin either by rolling a six-sided die and moving their magician that many spaces, or by forfeiting their roll and instead spending elfstones to move. After they roll or spend elfstones, what happens next depends on the space they land on:
At any point, a player may spend a curse token to either ask a player for a letter (as if they had landed on a dwarf) or to guess an object (as if they had landed on a question mark, but without the questions). Once a player has spent their first three curse tokens, and five curse tokens have been spent, they may take three more tokens - so any given player may spend six tokens during the course of the game.
When a player reaches the end of the scoring track, or when 13 (3-4 players) or 17 (5-6 players) flags have been placed, the game ends. Each player loses two points for each of their objects which only got one flag, and five points for each of their objects which did not get any flags. The player with the highest score wins.
Game interest.
The plasticine-shaping aspect of the game, similar to "Rapidough" or "Sculptorades", has a significant appeal to young players. However, since the game rewards players whose sculptures are guessed later in the game, the best sculptures are not necessarily those made by the best sculptor, but more likely those made by the best riddler. That, together with the spend-or-roll mechanic, which reduces the impact of luck, make the game interesting for serious gamers.


Ruy Lopez, Exchange Variation

The Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
Black may recapture on c6 with either pawn; although 4...bxc6 is playable, 4...dxc6 is almost always chosen at master level. Black has gained the at the cost of a weakened pawn structure, having doubled pawns on c6 and c7. White aims to reach an endgame with a superior pawn structure, which may become an important factor. Thus, Black is compelled to strive for an active position, generally avoiding piece exchanges. The variation was introduced into grandmaster play by Emanuel Lasker, and later invigorated with new ideas by Bobby Fischer.
The Exchange Variation can be a powerful psychological weapon. Black is forced to play actively, which is psychologically difficult if all one needs is a draw. Lasker's famous win against Jose Raul Capablanca in the St. Petersburg 1914 chess tournament is an example of this. With a lead in the tournament, Capablanca was intent on simplifying the game to obtain a draw, but faced with the Exchange Ruy Lopez he played too passively and was routed by Lasker as a result.
Main line: 4...dxc6.
4...dxc6 is the main recapture. Black's structure is weakened, but has free diagonals for both bishops. White cannot win a pawn with 5.Nxe5 as 5...Qd4 forks White's knight and pawn, thus regaining the material, leading to positions where White has forfeited any structural advantage, which was the compensation for ceding the .
5.0-0.
After 4...dxc6, the most popular move for White is 5.0-0. This is sometimes called the Barendregt Variation, a name proposed by Robert Byrne in a 1966 article for "Chess Life", after the Dutch master Johan Barendregt who played it in the early 1960s. Barendregt made considerable contributions to the theory, although the variation is much older than this. White now threatens 6.Nxe5 because the sequence 6...Qd4 7.Nf3 Qxe4 to regain the pawn, now fails to 8.Re1 pinning and winning the queen. Black has several possible responses: 5...Qf6, 5...Qe7, 5...Bd6, 5...Qd6, or 5...Bg4 (all directly defending the e5-pawn, except 5...Bg4 which indirectly defends by pinning the knight). The moves 5...Be6, 5...Be7, and 5...Ne7 are less common moves which have never achieved popularity. The idea behind these moves is that if White plays to win a pawn with 6.Nxe5, 6...Qd4 7.Nf3 Qxe4 is again playable, as the Black minor piece on e6 or e7 blocks the e-file.
After Black defends the e5-pawn, White's main idea is to play d2–d4, opening lines and freeing pieces. Because the pawn-only endgame favours White, White is usually happy if this move leads to mass exchanges on the d-file.
5...f6.
A move that was popular amongst masters during Bobby Fischer's reign and is still popular today is 5...f6. White's most active and modern approach to this defense is 6.d4, after which Black has two options: 6...Bg4 and 6...exd4. The move 6...Bg4 can be met also by two options: 7.dxe5 and 7.c3. On 7.dxe5 Qxd1 8.Rxd1 fxe5, White cannot take the e5-pawn with the knight because the knight is pinned by the bishop. Multiple trades have occurred, however, bringing the position closer to an endgame, which is beneficial for White, who has the better pawn structure.
The second move against 5...f6 6.d4 is 6...exd4. White can play 7.Qxd4 (Fischer chose the more obscure 7.Nxd4 in two Exchange Variation games in his 1992 match with Boris Spassky), offering a trade of queens that Black should take to avoid a worse position. After 7...Qxd4 8.Nxd4 c5 9.Nb3 (9.Ne2 is another line; however, Fischer often preferred 9.Nb3) White will develop freely with Be3 and Nc3 or Nbd2 depending on the position, and bringing one of the rooks to d1, usually the rook on f1.
5...Bg4.
The most aggressive reply to 5.0-0 is 5...Bg4. After 6.h3, Black has possibilities such as 6...Bh5 or 6...Bxf3, but the most modern and active variation is 6...h5. White cannot take the bishop with 7.hxg4 because Black plays 7...hxg4, attacking the knight. If the knight moves, 8...Qh4 threatens checkmate with 9...Qh2# or 9...Qh1#. After 8...Qh4, if White tries 9.f3, trying to escape via f2 after a queen check, Black replies 9...g3 with inevitable mate.
After 6...h5, the most common continuation is 7.d3 Qf6 8.Nbd2 Ne7 9.Re1 Ng6. Now a typical mistake is: 10.hxg4. After 10...hxg4, 11.g3 offering back the piece (White should not try to hold onto the knight, as it would be similar to the position after 7.hxg4 hxg4). After 11.g3 gxf3?! 12.Qxf3, White is safe and has the superior pawn structure, which is considered to offer a small advantage in the ensuing queenless middlegame. However, after 11.g3 Black can play 11...Bc5!, and after 12.Nb3 comes 12...gxf3 13.Nxc5 Rh3 , while after 12.Kg2 0-0-0 13.Qe2 also comes 13...Rh3!.
An interesting alternative to 9.Re1 is 9.Nc4. If Black continues as usual with 9...Ng6?, then White can capture the bishop with 10.hxg4 hxg4 11.Bg5! +−. Therefore, Black usually captures on f3 with 9...Bxf3 10.Qxf3 Qxf3 11.gxf3. The resulting queenless middlegame scores slightly better for White. This line was played by Igor Glek three times, scoring 2½ out of 3.
5...Qd6.
This is often called the Bronstein Variation. White's popular choices are 6.Na3 and 6.d3. After 6.d4 exd4 7.Nxd4, this move permits 7...Bd7 followed by ...0-0-0. Other ways for White to proceed include 6.a4 or 6.c3. This line is a favorite of Oleg Romanishin, who employed it successfully on multiple occasions.
5...Bd6.
The other main reply to 5.0-0 is 5...Bd6. White again goes 6.d4, where Black can play either 6...exd4 or 6...Bg4.
The move 6...exd4 is not the best move. White recaptures the pawn with 7.Qxd4 and stands clearly better. An example of a massacre where Black is on the losing side is as follows: 7...f6 8.Nc3 Bg4 9.e5! attacking the g4-bishop with the queen and the d6-bishop with the pawn. After 9...Bxf3 10.exd6, Black cannot capture the pawn because the f3-bishop is , and after 10...Bh5 11.Re1+ Kf8 12.Qc5, attacking the bishop on h5 while threatening dxc7 discovered check, winning the queen, White has a winning advantage.
The move 6...Bg4 is the better move in this line. White has a couple of possible moves, but the best line is 7.dxe5 Bxf3 8.Qxf3 Bxe5. Numerous trades have occurred, so White is satisfied. After 9.Nd2 Ne7 10.Nc4 Ng6 11.Nxe5 Nxe5 12.Qg3 (Salazar–Smith, Groningen 1976/77), White had the upper hand (Gipslis).
5.d4.
5.d4 was used by Lasker in his famous win over Capablanca, but is less popular today than 5.0-0. The main line is considered to be 5.d4 exd4 6.Qxd4 Qxd4 7.Nxd4 Bd7 (rather than Capablanca's 7...Bd6) 8.Be3 0-0-0 with an approximately equal position.
Other 5th moves for White.
White has also tried 5.Nc3, 5.b3, 5.d3, and 5.c3.
Endgame.
If White can exchange all pieces, the pawn structure is a big advantage in the endgame. Max Euwe gave the pure pawn ending (without pieces—see diagram) resulting after the exchange of White's d-pawn for Black's e-pawn as a win for White. The winning procedure is detailed in "Secrets of Pawn Endings". In essence, the winning plan is to create a passed pawn on the kingside, while Black is unable to do the same on the because of the doubled pawns. The passed pawn ties down the black king and allows the white king to transfer to the queenside at an opportune moment, forcing a pawn through to promotion.
4...bxc6.
This recapture is much less popular than 4...dxc6. Black gains the half-open b-file, but the central pawn structure becomes awkward. The queen bishop has a particularly hard time finding a square, since moving the d-pawn leaves the c6-pawn undefended. If 5.Nxe5, Black regains the pawn with 5...Qg5 6.Nf3 Qxg2 7.Rg1 Qh3; White has lost the right to castle but has a lead in development. Fischer wrote that White has an enduring initiative after 5.d4 exd4 6.Qxd4 Qf6 7.Qd3.
"ECO" codes.
There are two "ECO" classifications for the Exchange Variation.
References.
Bibliography


Mike Vogel

Michael James Vogel (born July 17, 1979) is an American actor and former model. Vogel began acting in 2001 and has appeared in several films and series, including "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants", "Grind", "Poseidon", "Blue Valentine", "The Help", "Bates Motel", "Cloverfield", "Under the Dome" and "The Case for Christ". He starred as the lead in the NBC military drama series "The Brave" for the 2017–18 season.
Early life and career.
Vogel was born in Abington Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, to Kathy and Jim Vogel, and was raised in Warminster Township, Pennsylvania. He is of German descent. Both of his grandfathers fought in World War II; one was a tank commander who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and the other was a Seabee in the Navy. Vogel has two younger siblings: a brother, Daniel Aaron, and a sister, Kristin. He attended William Tennent High School, where Vogel was on the freshman wrestling team.
He also attended Cairn University in Langhorne, Pennsylvania in 1998. During the early 2000s, he frequently traveled to New York City in order to audition for acting roles and modeling slots.
Career.
Vogel began modeling jeans for the iconic Levi Strauss & Company. He was subsequently cast in the television series "Grounded for Life", appearing in a recurring role between 2001 and 2004.
His first film role was in the skateboarding-themed "Grind", which was released on August 15, 2003. The film's co-stars included Adam Brody and Jennifer Morrison. Vogel's next role was in the made-for-television remake of "Wuthering Heights", which premiered on MTV in September 2003. In the film, Vogel played Heath opposite Erika Christensen's Kate. Vogel's last 2003 role was in the remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", which was released in October and had high box office performance.
In 2005, after "Grounded for Life" was canceled, Vogel appeared in four film roles. First, he played Eric Richman, the romantic interest of Blake Lively's character in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants", which had a June release. His next role was the lead in the low-budget film, "Supercross", which was theatrically released in August. Vogel filmed his role in "Havoc", a dark, R-rated drama also starring Anne Hathaway, in 2003, but the film was not released until November 2005. It bypassed theaters and was released directly-to-video. Vogel's final 2005 role was in "Rumor Has It...", starring Jennifer Aniston, in which he had a supporting role as the son of Kevin Costner's character.
Vogel's first 2006 role was in the disaster film "Poseidon", a remake of the 1972 film "The Poseidon Adventure"; he plays the fiancé of Emmy Rossum's character. The film, which had a budget of $160m, opened on May 12 and grossed $181,674,817 at the international box office. Vogel was originally offered the role of Angel in "", but backed out to appear in "Poseidon". The same year, he appeared in "Caffeine", a romantic comedy and signed to appear in a horror movie called "Open Graves", shot in Spain.
In 2007, Vogel appeared in the film "The Deaths of Ian Stone", part of the horror film festival 8 Films to Die For. In 2009, Vogel starred in the neo-noir film "Across the Hall" and the horror film "Open Graves". He was part of the 2010 romantic comedy film "She's Out of My League", "Blue Valentine", TV series "Miami Medical", and "Heaven's Rain".
Vogel was part of the 2011 comedy film "What's Your Number?" and plays Johnny Foote in the film adaption "The Help". He most recently played Dean on the short-lived ABC drama "Pan Am" (based on the history of the defunct airline of the same name).
In 2013, he participated in Howard Goldberg's comedy "Jake Squared", where he plays against among others, Elias Koteas, Virginia Madsen and Jane Seymour. He also appeared in "McCanick", and the first six episodes of "Bates Motel". This was A&E's contemporary prequel series to the 1959 novel "Psycho".
BuddyTV ranked him #96 on its list of "TV's Sexiest Men of 2011".
Vogel starred as Dale "Barbie" Barbara on the CBS science fiction drama series "Under the Dome", based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. The show aired as a summer series on CBS; it ran for three seasons on the network, ending in September 2015.
In 2014, Vogel received a role in the "Hallmark Hall of Fame"'s romantic TV movie "In My Dreams", in which he played opposite, among others, Katharine McPhee and JoBeth Williams. In the same year he played in the drama thriller "The Boy", which tells the story of a 9-year-old sociopath, who was played by Jared Breeze.
In 2015, Vogel starred in the miniseries "Childhood's End", based on the novel of the same name written by Arthur C. Clarke.
In 2017, Vogel starred in the film adaptation of Lee Strobel's "The Case for Christ", portraying the author and teaming up again with co-star Erika Christensen.
On September 25, 2017, NBC debuted "The Brave", for the 2017–18 season. A small team of hardcore military-intelligence agents from varied branches of the service is selected for special, difficult missions. Among the leads is Vogel's character, Capt. Adam Dalton, the team's communications director and a former Delta Force operative. He reports to the character played by series lead Anne Heche. The series was cancelled after one season.
In December 2018, it was announced that Vogel will star in the Netflix psychological thriller "Secret Obsession". The film was released on July 18, 2019.
In February 2019, Vogel played the lead role of David Roman in the ABC science-fiction pilot "Triangle" which was written by Jon Feldman and Sonny Postiglione. ABC passed on the project in September 2019.
In March 2020, it was announced that Vogel would star in an upcoming Netflix series, Sex/Life.
Personal life.
Vogel married Courtney, a former model, in January 2003. They have three children together: Cassy Renee, born 2007; Charlee B., born 2009; and Gabriel James Vogel, born 2013. The family resides in Nashville, Tennessee. They also have a pug, and two horses.


Bang! (card game)

Bang! is a Wild West-themed social deduction card game designed by Emiliano Sciarra and released by Italian publisher DV Giochi in 2002. In 2004, "Bang!" won the Origins Award for Best Traditional Card Game of 2003 and Best Graphic Design of a Card Game or Expansion.
The game is known worldwide as "Bang!", except in France, where it was known as "" until September 2009.
Overview.
The game is played by four to seven players (four to eight players with variants and expansions). Each player takes one of the following roles:
Each player also receives a unique character card with special abilities and a certain number of 'bullets' (i.e. life-points).
The objective of the game is different for every role:
Game.
Set up.
Each player is randomly dealt a Character card and a Role card: there is always a Sheriff, two Outlaws and a Renegade. Roles depend on the number of players (for example, with 7 players there will be 1 Sheriff, 2 Deputies, 3 Outlaws and 1 Renegade). The Role cards are given face down to each player. The Sheriff shows his card. With the expansion, it is possible to play with only three players using a Deputy, an Outlaw and a Renegade.
Gameplay.
The game is played in turns, in clockwise order. The Sheriff begins. Each player's turn is divided into three phases.
"1. Draw two cards"
"2. Play any number of cards."
Each player can only have one weapon at a time. If a player wants to play a new weapon card when already having one, the player must discard the one already had. This is explicitly noted in page 3 of the rules.
When a card is played just follow the symbols on it. Cards can be played only during a player's turn (with the exception of "Beer", "Bang!" and "Missed!").
Normally a card has an effect which is immediately resolved, and then the card is discarded. However, blue-bordered cards, like weapons and horses, etc., have long-lasting effects, and are kept on the table face up in front of the player. In the Dodge City expansion, green-bordered cards are played face up and cannot be used until the following round, then are discarded.
The effects of these cards (in play) lasts until they are discarded or removed somehow (e.g. "Cat Balou" or "Panic") or a special event occurs (e.g. in the case of "Jail" or "Dynamite".)
3. "Discard excess cards."
Once the second phase is over (when the player does not want to or cannot play any more cards), then the player must discard from any cards exceeding the hand size limit. The hand size limit of a player (at the end of a turn) is equal to the number of bullets currently shown on the card that lies under the player's character card. Then it is the next player's turn, in clockwise order.
Game concepts.
Generally speaking (as there are exceptions):
Determining the winner.
Once the Sheriff is killed, the game is over. If the only player left is a Renegade, the Renegade wins. However, if two or more players are still alive or the only remaining player is an Outlaw, "all" the Outlaws win, dead or alive.
On the other hand, if all Outlaws and Renegades are dead before the Sheriff dies, the Sheriff and all the Deputies win, dead or alive.
Strategy.
As only the Sheriff is known, it is hard to know who has what role. Generally, a person's role is implied if he tries to shoot, or otherwise harm, the Sheriff. Others' roles can be implied if they try to harm those who harmed the Sheriff. The advantage of keeping one's role hidden from enemies must be weighed against the need to accomplish one's goal.
Since the Renegade loses if the Sheriff dies when there are still others in the game he must defend the Sheriff to some extent. On the other hand, his ultimate goal is killing the Sheriff. This leads to a "two faced" nature of the Renegade, trying to weaken each side (Outlaws and Deputies) while keeping the Sheriff alive until the end. This also makes it harder to ascertain who is an Outlaw, who is a Deputy, and who is a Renegade, as their actions may be similar.
Official tournament score.
An official scoring system can be found on daVinci web site, the official web site of the Italian editors of "Bang!". The scoring rules are as follows:
Character descriptions.
As the game constantly maintains an ironic point of view on the western clichés, some of the characters of "Bang!" are named after famous people.
There are 16 different characters in the basic set:
Official expansions.
"High Noon".
Released in 2003. A set of thirteen scenario cards that are given to the Sheriff, and revealed at the start of each of his turns – the card's scenario is effective until the next scenario card has been revealed. The name is inspired by the Western "High Noon".
The scenario cards have these effects:
"Dodge City".
Released in 2004. A set of fifteen new characters and 40 new play cards. There is also a set of 8 "role" cards (7 duplicates) allowing up to 8 people to play. The name is inspired by the Western, "Dodge City".
The new characters are:
"Dodge City" features also a new symbol, meaning "discard another card from your hand in order to play this card", and a new card type, the green-bordered cards: they are played like blue cards, cannot be used until the next opponent's turn (in case of a "Missed!" effect) or the owner's next turn (in all other cases) and are discarded immediately after they are used.
"A Fistful Of Cards".
Released in 2005. A set of fifteen new scenario cards, designed by players around the world selected by the original author, which can be mixed with the "High Noon" expansion. The name is inspired by the Western, "A Fistful of Dollars".
The cards include:
Player must choose either "High Noon" or "A Fistful of Cards" as the last scenario card when the two expansions are mixed together.
"Wild West Show".
"Bang! Wild West Show!" is an expansion released in August 2010 with characters that revolve not around historical figures but rather around actors iconic to the western movie genre. The expansion also includes cards and rules not seen in previous expansions.
The 8 new characters are:
The 10 special cards that come with "Wild West Show!" play similarly as the scenario cards in "High Noon" and "A Fistful of Cards". A special card is revealed every time a Stagecoach or Wells Fargo is played.
The 10 new special cards are:
"Gold Rush".
Bang! Gold Rush was released in 2011. It introduced some innovative gameplay mechanics: thanks to the shadow-gunslinger game variant, players are never really out of the game. During his turn, the shadow-gunslinger temporarily re-enters the game and he can play as if he was still alive. With Bang! Gold Rush, the outcome of the match can even be determined by an eliminated player.
– Players can collect gold nuggets to buy equipment. The purchase of an "equipment" card allows the player to selectively enhance his or her character and develop new strategies.
The box contains:
"The Valley of Shadows".
This expansion consists of 20 cards, mostly playing cards and several new character cards. First unofficial version was released in September 2011 in Czechia and Slovakia. It was officially released on October 16, 2014 by the Czech editor ALBI check ALBI webpage.
5 new characters:
3 bonus characters:
5 new blue border cards:
10 new brown border cards:
"Bang The Duel".
This is a standalone game, without any need for prior possession of Bang! Expansions. It is for 2 players only. One player controls a team of law enforcers, while another player controls a team of bandits.
12 law charactes:
12 bandits characters:
"Armed & Dangerous".
Released in 2017. New game mechanic with a new type of resource called Load.
Deluxe version: Bang! The Bullet!
A deluxe version of Bang!, called Bang! The Bullet!, was released in 2007.
This set included three of the official expansions, "High Noon" (second edition), "Dodge City", and "A Fistful of Cards" (second edition), along with several extras:
The 2007 release of Bang! the Bullet! game follows the 3rd edition rules of the basic game and the 2nd edition rules of "Dodge City".
The 2009 reprint of Bang! the Bullet! game follows the 4th edition rules of the basic game and the 3rd edition rules of "Dodge City". It does not include the player mats nor bullet tokens as found in the boxed version of Bang! 4th edition.
Bang! 10th Anniversary Edition.
This edition was released in 2012. It comes in a metal tin, and contains the complete most recent version of the base game with original 16 characters. It also contains 30 wooden bullet markers for keeping track of health, 7 player boards each with different artwork, and 10 bonus characters.
The 10 extra characters are as follows:
Video game.
On October 29, 2009, Palzoun entertainment (which acquired the official license from DaVinci Games) officially announced the development of Bang! The Card Game into a video game. The game will be developed in partnership with SpinVector.
During the Lucca Comics&Games 2010 Palzoun has announced that Bang! The Official Videogame would have been available on Christmas 2010 on different platforms, including iPhone, iPad, Samsung Wave (BADA), PC and Atom Netbook (APPUP). The iPhone App has been published on the iTunes App Store on December 18, 2010. A console version was also expected to arrive in March 2011 but has been delayed.
A live action trailer of the game was released on November 2, 2010.
Online Version.
On May 14, 2012, Christopher Gordon Carr's Software Developer Portfolio released Kraplow! an open source online Bang! clone. You can play this in your browser with AI or with other people. Kraplow! features all the rules from version 4.0 of Bang! and is free to use and open source.
The Starcraft II mod Barcraft is a copy of Bang! that replaces the wild west theme with themes and characters from the Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo franchises.
There is a C++ client / server version https://kbang.weebly.com/ that requires a download available since 2008-03-05.
Lawsuit.
In 2014, DaVinci Editrice initiated a lawsuit against Ziko Games, the Chinese manufacturer that had published Legends of the Three Kingdoms, a game that DaVinci claimed was a clone of Bang!, simply changing the Wild West theme and art to that of ancient China. While the court found there was potential for copyright infringement on its initial hearing, it ultimately ruled in favor of Ziko Games and dismissed the case in 2016.


Mad for It

Mad for It was a British game show for children which was produced by Carlton Television broadcast on ITV from 2 September 1998 to 31 March 2000. Series 1 was hosted by former Nickelodeon presenters Mike McClean and Yiolanda Tokkallos. Series 2 was hosted by Mike McClean, Danielle Nicholls and Nigel Mitchell. There was also a regular character called Pie Boy, played by Alex Verrey, who would go around hitting random people in the studio with flans in a manner similar to The Phantom Flan Flinger from Tiswas.
Games in the show.
Games included were
Much beloved of children's television, a frequent feature of "Mad For It" was "gunge", a green slimy goo which was regularly poured onto losing contestants and occasionally on the hosts themselves. Those who lost the games were sent to a "Dungeon of Gunge" – an enclosure directly beneath a large nose, which expelled gunge onto the hapless prisoners. In the last episode, the tables were turned and the pie boy ended up getting shoved in the dungeon.
The most notable contestant on "Mad For It" was Katie Melua, who appeared on the show when she was fifteen. She won the "Stars Up Their Noses" game after singing "Without You" by Badfinger. If she had lost the challenge, she would have been gunged.


Finalizer (video game)

Finalizer - Super Transformation is a vertically scrolling shooter released in arcades by Konami in 1985. The player controls a jet flying through several different states in America shooting different enemies.
Reception.
In Japan, "Game Machine" listed "Finalizer" in their January 15, 1986 issue as being the fourth most-successful table arcade unit of the year.


Mary Ann Buckles

Mary Ann Buckles is widely credited as the first academic to research and speculate about the emotional and cultural impact of videogames.
Buckles' dissertation, "Interactive Fiction: The Computer Storygame ‘Adventure’", gained attention twenty years after Buckles presented it to the department of German literature at the University of California, San Diego. Espen Aarseth, a researcher based in Copenhagen, is credited with raising the profile of Buckles' dissertation, which Aarseth quotes frequently from in his own book, "Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature".
Buckles left academia after completing her dissertation in 1985, writing one article for Byte Magazine about interactive fiction as literature in 1987 which was based on her dissertation. In it, she discusses how interactive fiction games such as Adventure can have deeper meanings for players, partially because they are responsible for making the choices, and partially because unlike linear printed texts, the number of possible variations on the "story" are quite large.
Buckles received her Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego. , she works as a massage therapist in San Diego, California and was interviewed for the interactive fiction documentary, "Get Lamp". She is married to her husband, Jack, a computational biologist.


Runaround (game show)

Runaround was a children's television game show produced by Heatter-Quigley Productions. The program was hosted by ventriloquist and voice actor Paul Winchell, airing Saturday mornings on NBC from September 9, 1972 to September 1, 1973.
Paul would frequently use his dummies, Jerry Mahoney and/or Knucklehead Smiff on his program. The program was announced by Kenny Williams (as most Heatter-Quigley shows were), with music by Mort Garson. However, the show received low ratings and was canceled following the first season.
Format.
The basic format of the game invited nine children to answer a three-way multiple choice question by running towards their chosen answer, then standing on marked areas numbered 1, 2 or 3. Just before the correct answer is revealed, the host invites the children to "Runaround... now!" at which point they have a split second to jump onto a different area; the premise is to give opponents the "runaround" in case they are merely following their movements.
Host Winchell would say, before giving the correct answer, "When you hear the click, stick!" and then a moment later, "Last chance!", after which point he would press a finger-clicker (a toy device that made a clicking sound). Players still moving or not on one of the three answer areas were eliminated from the round (sent to a penalty area at the side of the stage). Winchell would then say, "Let's see who's right with the light!", whereupon the house lights would dim and the area for the correct answer would light up. Players with the correct answer took a pink ball from a large bowl near the middle of the stage; players with the incorrect answer were eliminated from the round. Each player had a transparent tube, into which the balls were dropped (this was a substitute scoring device for tote boards, which the show did not have). The player with the most balls at the end of the show was the day's winner.
External links.
"Runaround" on IMDb


Mechanized Attack

 is a shooter game developed and published by SNK. It was released in North America for the arcade in 1989, and it was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990. It can be played with either the NES controller or the NES Zapper light gun.
Easter egg.
On the System Construction Screen in the NES version, the player can cause a female figure to undress herself by certain inputs. The player can continue to make certain inputs following the undressing of the female figure, but it also will show a hexagram which will cause the game to freeze up.
External links.
(not shown): SNK, NES version Box Art by Marc Ericksen, 1989.


Urvashi Dholakia

Urvashi Dholakia is an Indian television actress best known for portraying Komolika Majumdar in "Kasautii Zindagii Kay" and Queen Iravati in "Chandrakanta", winning "Bigg Boss 6" and participating in "Nach Baliye 9".
Early life.
Dholakia was born on 9 July 1978 to a Punjabi mother and a Gujarati father.
Personal life.
She married at age 17 and had twin boys, Kshitij and Sagar, at age 18; she has raised them as a single mother.
Career.
Dholakia made her acting debut at age six in a television commercial for Lux soap with actress Revathi. As a child she appeared in the Doordarshan TV series "Shrikant", where she played the younger Rajlaxmi. Her first TV series role as an adult was in Doordarshan's "Dekh Bhai Dekh", as Shilpa. Later she appeared in "Waqt Ki Raftar". She also appeared in the shows "Ghar Ek Mandir", "Kabhii Sautan Kabhii Sahelii", "Kasautii Zindagii Kay" and "Kahiin To Hoga".
Dholakia gained popularity by playing the role of Komolika in "Kasautii Zindagii Kay". The character was described by IWMBuzz as one of the most iconic characters on Indian television. Dholakia received numerous accolades for her performance in the show.
In 2012, she participated in Colors TV's "Bigg Boss 6" and on 12 January 2013, she emerged as the winner of the season. As of 2017, she is featured in Colors TV's historical fantasy series "Chandrakanta" as Queen Iravati.


Frank Partridge (soldier)

Frank John Partridge, VC (29 November 1924 – 23 March 1964) was an Australian soldier, farmer, quiz show champion, and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry "in the face of the enemy" awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces. He was decorated for his actions on Bougainville in July 1945, when he attacked two Japanese bunkers despite severe wounds. Partridge was the last and, at 20 years of age, the youngest Australian awarded the Victoria Cross in the Second World War. He later became a farmer and a television quiz champion, and unsuccessfully ran for political office shortly before his death in a car accident.
Early life.
Frank John Partridge was born at Grafton, New South Wales, on 29 November 1924, to farmer Patrick James Partridge and his English-born wife Mary (née Saggs). Partridge was educated at Tewinga Public School until he left at 13 to work on the family's dairy and banana farm at Upper Newee Creek, near Macksville.
Second World War.
In December 1942, during World War II, Partridge was conscripted by the Australian Army. He served as a private in the 8th Battalion, a Militia unit formed in Victoria. In May 1944, the 8th Battalion was posted to New Guinea.
In June 1945, the 8th Battalion was transferred to the Bougainville campaign, where it operated to contain Japanese forces on the Bonis Peninsula. It was here that Partridge performed a deed for which he received the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award for gallantry that could be awarded to British Commonwealth forces.
On 24 July, in one of the last actions of the campaign on Bougainville, two platoons of the 8th Battalion attacked a Japanese post, Base 5, near Ratsua. Partridge's section came under heavy machine-gun fire and suffered severe casualties, including a Bren gunner who was killed. Although wounded in the arm and leg, Partridge retrieved the Bren gun and began shooting at the nearest bunker while under fire himself. He then rushed forward armed with a grenade and a knife, silenced the Japanese machine-gun with his grenade, and killed the only living occupant of the bunker with his knife. Partridge attacked the second until loss of blood compelled him to halt. Later he re-joined the fight and remained in action while the platoon withdrew.
Partridge was the last and the youngest Australian to be awarded the Victoria Cross in World War II. He was also the first Australian Militiaman to receive the award.
Later life.
Discharged from the army in October 1946, Partridge returned to the family farm. He lived with his father in a dirt-floored farmhouse, and in his spare time devoted himself to self-education, reading "Encyclopædia Britannica" by the light of a kerosene lamp. He had an extraordinarily retentive memory and in 1962–63 he appeared as a contestant on the television quiz show, "Pick a Box", compered by Bob Dyer, alongside contestants such as Barry Jones. His laconic manner appealed strongly to viewers. Partridge was one of only three contestants to win all forty boxes and his prizes were valued at more than £12,000 (in excess of A$250,000 in present-day terms).
He married Barbara Dunlop, a 31-year-old nurse from Turramurra in Sydney, in February 1963. The wedding received extensive media coverage. She remained in Sydney while Partridge built a new house at the farm. He drove to Sydney every weekend to see her. Later in 1963, Partridge sought Country Party pre-selection for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Cowper. His political views were widely regarded as extreme, and he was not selected. To supplement the income from his farm, Partridge also sold life insurance.
Partridge was killed in a car accident in 1964, and was buried with full military honours in Macksville Cemetery. His wife and three-month-old son survived him.
In 1989 a primary school at Nambucca Heads was named the Frank Partridge VC Public School.


Anna Mercedes Morris

Anna Mercedes Morris (born November 6, 1978) is a professional Hollywood stuntwoman and actress. She also goes by the alias Michelle Diamond.
Career.
She has performed stunts on various shows and films including "The Shield", "Wizards of Waverly Place", ', "Cemetery Gates", and "2 Fast 2 Furious". She acts as a stunt double for various actors on shows including "The Riches", "Ugly Betty" (for America Ferrera), and "Without a Trace", and films such as "Black Christmas", "Dead & Deader" (for Susan Ward), ', "Lonely Street" and "Bratz: The Movie".
Morris has also appeared on-screen; she had a small role on "Cemetery Gates" as a bicyclist. On-screen though, she is probably better known for competing (with the nickname of "Roadrunner") on a 1993 episode of the popular Nickelodeon sports show, "Nickelodeon GUTS", where she battled through a bad knee suffered in the Basic Training event to win the gold medal in the entire competition.


Hans Peters

Hans Peters is the first top prize winner of Lotto Weekend Miljonairs (the Dutch version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?").
He won on January 6, 2001. Because the euro wasn't used yet, he won NLG 1,000,000 instead of €1,000,000. The question that won him NLG 1,000,000 was, translated from Dutch: "Who designed the last series of the Dutch Gulden coins, as well as the Dutch side of the euro coins?", with these choices: Luk Luycks, Bruno N. van Eyben, Jaap Drupsteen and R.D.E. Oxenaar. The correct answer was Bruno N. van Eyben.


Cannon Fodder (series)

Cannon Fodder is a series of war (and later science fiction) themed action games developed by Sensible Software, initially released for the Commodore Amiga. Only two games in the series were created by Sensible, but were converted to most active systems at the time of release. A sequel, "Cannon Fodder 2", was released in 1994 for Amiga and DOS. A third game, "Cannon Fodder 3", was made by a Russian developer and released in English in 2012.
Gameplay.
The player is in charge of a squad of between one and eight men that can be, for command purposes, split up to three groups (referred to as Snake, Eagle and Panther squads). All men have a machine gun with unlimited ammunition, as well as limited caches of grenades and rockets that can be found on the map. In later levels, the player is provided with some grenades and rockets at the start of the mission. The player's machine guns do not harm its own soldiers, but friendly fire from grenades and rockets is possible, which are also the only weapons capable of destroying buildings and vehicles. Men can also die if hit by debris flung from exploding buildings and vehicles, get caught in man-traps, mired in quicksand, and hit by enemy fire. Men usually walk, but several vehicles are available in some missions.
The games are split into several missions, which are usually sub-divided into phases. Dead soldiers are replaced by new ones at the start of each phase. Each soldier that survives a mission is promoted and receives a small increase in the rate of fire, accuracy, and range. The player is only able to save the game upon completion of a whole mission. Each phase is structured around mission objectives which range from "Kill all enemies" or "Destroy enemy buildings" to "Rescue all hostages". Some phases are complex, and require the player to use their imagination, pre-planning and strategy. For example, players may have to split their team into two or more groups and leave one group to defend an area or route, assigning its control to the game's artificial intelligence, while taking control of another group.
The pre-mission screen shows a hill with a grave for each dead soldier, with recruits lining up in front of it and a sports-like score at the top of the screen. Soldiers each have unique names, while on the grand scale of things being nothing more than interchangeable cannon fodder. The game has hundreds of individually named recruits, of which the first few — Jools, Jops, Stoo and Rj — were named directly after the development staff. As each recruit is killed in battle, he receives a tombstone on the hill and the next recruit in line takes his place.
"Cannon Fodder 2" introduced a variety of new settings: a Middle Eastern conflict, an alien planet and spacecraft, the medieval and gangster-themed Chicago. It nevertheless retained the same mechanics and gameplay. In the new settings, troops wielding grenades and rockets were replaced by such units as aliens and wizards, but nonetheless behaved in the same manner, as did battering rams representing trucks and so forth. The game was more difficult than its predecessor, employing puzzle elements such as multiple ways -of varying effectiveness- to solve levels. It featured reduced use of water obstacles but retained mines and booby traps.
"Cannon Fodder 3" featured a military, counter-terrorism theme with more advanced weather settings. It retained grenades and rockets as the central secondary weapons and introduced further power-ups. It expanded the selection of vehicles and added further enemy installations such as sniper towers. It also features an online cooperative mode.
Music video.
The theme tune for the game ("War!") was written by the lead game designer Jon Hare, with musician Richard Joseph. Vocals were sung by Hare himself. A music video of the song was put together to promote the original release .
Shot over just one day and for a total budget of £500, it featured the entire team dressed up in military uniforms, an assortment of masks (including one of Mario and Donald Duck) and toy guns. The version of the music track is more complete than the one that appeared on the 16-bit versions and was recorded professionally. In fact, the menu screen track is also a pared down version of a proper song, featuring studio-standard vocals. Both of these tracks were written and performed by Jon Hare, as were many of the other songs featured in Sensible's games.
Games.
"Cannon Fodder".
Production of "Cannon Fodder" began following the completion of the successful strategy game "Mega Lo Mania". Sensible Software wanted to create another strategy game featuring mouse control and the notion of sending troops on missions, but with more action than had been used in "Mega Lo Mania". Production began in 1991 but was slowed due to Mega Drive conversions of other games. "Cannon Fodder" lost its provisional publisher in the aftermath of owner Robert Maxwell's death. As development work resumed, the team gradually reduced the complexity the strategy gameplay in favour of more direct control and action gameplay. In May 1993, Sensible Software found a new publisher in Virgin Interactive, which released the game in November of that year.
Amiga magazines rated the game positively, widely awarding scores of over 90%, while "Amiga Action" awarded an unprecedented score, calling it the best game of the year. Critics praised the fun, addictiveness, music and humour of the game. The game also drew criticism in the "Daily Star" for its juxtaposition of war and humour and its use of iconography closely resembling the remembrance poppy.
Ports.
Once Sensible Software was sold off to Codemasters, the decision was taken to port the game over to the Game Boy Color. The limit on having two men in your squad and a much smaller playing area meant changes had to be made to the gameplay, mainly to make it easier. Jon Hare described the change as converting "11-a-side football to 5-a-side football".
In 2004, Jon Hare set up a small mobile phone games team known as Tower Studios. Their first release was "Sensible Soccer" in 2004, followed by "Cannon Fodder" in 2005. Both titles were published by Kuju Entertainment. The games were only playable on certain color models and due to many keypads' inability to register a diagonal movement the control systems for both games had to be radically redesigned.
"Cannon Soccer".
In 1994, a free minigame called "Cannon Soccer" (or "Cannon Fodder - Amiga Format Christmas Special") was included on the coverdisk of the "Amiga Format" Christmas issue. It was essentially two bonus levels of "Cannon Fodder" in which the soldiers fought hordes of "Sensible Soccer" players in a snowy landscape. The levels were titled "Land of Hope and Glory", and "It's Snow Time".
"Sensible Soccer 92/93 Meets Bulldog Blighty".
One of the demos on the "Amiga Power" cover disk 21 was "Sensible Soccer Meets Bulldog Blighty". It featured a mode of play that involved replacing players with soldiers from "Cannon Fodder" and the ball with a hand grenade. The grenade would randomly begin to flash and would eventually explode after a few minutes, killing any nearby players. The magazine described it as a "1944 version of "Sensible Soccer"", though "The Daily Telegraph" compared it to the Christmas-time football match in 1914.
"Cannon Fodder 2".
"Cannon Fodder 2" is a 1995 sequel featuring very similar gameplay and graphics to the point where an "Amiga Computing" review suggested it had more in common with a data disk than a true sequel. The game featured levels set in deserts and an Alien spaceship as well as levels with a medieval theme. "Amiga Computing" rated the game at 71%.
The designer Stuart Campbell wrote: ""CF2" was a cross-cultural kinda game. Levels were inspired by films, music, other games, politics and events. Titles came from songs, books, and all manner of other sources".
Cancelled sequels.
After selling Sensible Software to Codemasters, Jon Hare ended up consulting on many of their development projects, one of which was the PS2 title "Prince Naseem Boxing". Work on this title was performed in a satellite studio based in Hammersmith, London. However, due to the commercial failure of this title, the studio was shut down. A casualty of this was cancellation of a 3D remake of "Cannon Fodder", something that Hare had been working on for at least nine months. Hare did speak about how he was looking to expand on the whole theme of war and include gameplay not just set on the battlefield: "I'd like to focus on the public's perceptions of war and warfare. There's many interesting things that go on behind the scenes with politicians".
In an interview with Eurogamer in late 2005, Hare confirmed that there was up to two years' work (on and off) put into a 3D update of "Cannon Fodder": "I designed "Cannon Fodder 3" with Codies six years ago, development stopped and started three times and eventually it was seemingly permanently halted when the London studio was closed four years ago. Nothing would please me more than to see this project resurrected, it was very advanced in its structure and therefore would need little modernisation".
In August 2006, Codemasters London announced a brand new version of "Cannon Fodder" for the PlayStation Portable. The game would have retained its familiar top down view, and the big heads of the soldiers, and for the first time the game would have been 3D. After a large launch announcement which included character renders and screenshots, the game was quietly canceled without explanation. In a later interview, Hare said: "Unfortunately, through no fault of their own, Codemasters hit economic problems and had to sell the studio, so everything just went".
"Cannon Fodder 3".
In 2008, now intellectual property owner Codemasters licensed Russian publisher Game Factory Interactive to develop another sequel. GFI created the game along with developer Burut CT and released it in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States in December 2011. English-language media speculated on whether GFI was permitted to release the game outside of that region, but Codemasters ultimately clarified it had reserved but declined the option of publishing the game. GFI released the game in Europe and North America in February 2012 via a download service. The game retains the core style of its predecessors but with more advanced graphics, a counter-terrorism theme and a greater array of weapons and units. English-language publications gave the game mixed, mediocre reviews, with both more positive, and negative reviews appearing elsewhere in Europe.


Philipp Stamma

Philipp Stamma ( – c. 1755), a native of Aleppo, Ottoman Syria, later resident of England and France, was a chess master and a pioneer of modern chess. His reputation rests largely on his authorship of the early chess book "Essai sur le jeu des echecs" published 1737 in France (English translation: "The Noble Game Of Chess" 1745). This book brought the Middle Eastern concept of the endgame to the attention of Europe and helped revive European interest in the study of the endgame.
Stamma died in London c. 1755, with two sons surviving him.
Strong player.
Stamma was a regular at Slaughter's Coffee House in St Martin's Lane, London, a center of 18th century English chess, and was considered one of England's strongest players. He was defeated quite handily by Philidor in a famous match in 1747, which marked the beginning of Philidor's rise to fame.
Apart from the higher skills of Philidor, Ludwig Bledow and Otto von Oppen have suggested that his defeat could be attributed to the fact that Stamma, in Ottoman Syria, was used to playing with the Arabic rules and only after his arrival to Europe got acquainted with the Western rules. Bledow and Oppen also commented that the match was poorly documented, being mentioned only by Philidor's biographers who frequently contradicted each other.
Other legacy.
Stamma's book introduced algebraic chess notation in an almost fully developed form before the now obsolete descriptive chess notation evolved. Philidor's writings had more influence after his victory over Stamma, and the descriptive system based on Philidor's approach was dominant for a long time. The main difference between Stamma's system and the modern system is that Stamma used "p" for pawn moves and the original file of the piece ("a" through "h") instead of the initial letter of the piece.
His name is attached to the Stamma Gambit in the King's Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.h4), and Stamma's mate, a rather rare checkmate.
New edition of Stamma's book.
A new translation of Stamma's book into modern French appeared in November 2015 under the title "Les cent fins de parties de Philippe Stamma".
References.
Bibliography


Super Mario 3D All-Stars

Super Mario 3D All-Stars is a 2020 compilation of platform games for the Nintendo Switch. It commemorates the 35th anniversary of Nintendo's "Super Mario" franchise, with high-definition ports of "Super Mario 64" (1996), "Super Mario Sunshine" (2002), and "Super Mario Galaxy" (2007).
The compilation was released on September 18, 2020 and was available until March 31, 2021, when it was discontinued and removed from the Nintendo eShop. It received positive reviews for its games, technical improvements, and controls, but it was criticized for its presentation, lack of additional content, time-limited release, and the absence of "Super Mario Galaxy 2" (2010). As of March 2021, "Super Mario 3D All-Stars" had sold more than 9 million copies worldwide.
Content.
"Super Mario 3D All-Stars" compiles high-definition ports of the first three 3D platform games in the "Super Mario" series: "Super Mario 64" (1996), "Super Mario Sunshine" (2002), and "Super Mario Galaxy" (2007). The version of "Super Mario 64" is the "Shindō" version released in 1997, which added bug fixes and gameplay alterations.
The games in the collection utilize emulation. They support Joy-Con controls with rumble function, and are displayed at higher resolutions, such as "Sunshine" running in a . Both "Sunshine" and "Galaxy" are displayed in 1080p in TV Mode and 720p in Handheld Mode, while "64" is displayed in 720p in both modes in a . A patch released in November 2020 added camera options for all three games and control options for F.L.U.D.D. in "Sunshine".
"Sunshine" did not initially natively support the GameCube controller on the Nintendo Switch. When originally released on the GameCube, "Sunshine" used the GameCube controller's analog triggers (which Switch controllers do not have) to regulate F.L.U.D.D.'s water pressure. For the collection, F.L.U.D.D. is controlled with the right bumper for precision aiming while standing still, while using the right trigger "is akin to pulling the GameCube's analog trigger to about the three-quarters mark". GameCube controller support for "Sunshine" was added in November 2020.
"Galaxy" features optional Joy-Con controls that imitate the motion controlled-pointing of the Wii Remote, with Mario's spin ability remapped to the Y button. In Handheld Mode, players can use the touch screen in lieu of the pointer. To play "Galaxy" cooperative gameplay mode in handheld mode, a secondary Joy-Con is needed.
The compilation also features a music player mode, which compiles the entire original soundtracks of all three games—a total of 175 tracks. The music can be played when the screen is turned off.
Development.
"Super Mario 3D All-Stars" was developed and published by Nintendo to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the original "Super Mario Bros." (1985). According to "Eurogamer", Nintendo referred to the compilation as "Super Mario All-Stars 2" internally. Nintendo's goal was to retain the included games' "original design and spirit" with updates to the resolutions and controls. According to Kenta Motokura, the project's producer, the developers interviewed the games' original staff to learn of each's importance. The "Super Mario Sunshine" port in the collection uses GameCube emulation technology developed by Nintendo European Research & Development (NERD), who further collaborated with the "3D All-Stars" development team on several new features for the game and upgraded its full motion videos to HD using their own deep learning engine. NERD also assisted with the "Super Mario Galaxy" port by providing graphics and audio emulation technologies.
The collection was first reported by "Video Games Chronicle" in March 2020, and corroborated by other outlets. According to these reports, Nintendo planned to announce it during a "Mario"-themed presentation at E3 2020, but this was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nintendo announced the collection in a special Nintendo Direct for the 35th anniversary on September 3, 2020. The collection was released on September 18, 2020. It was available to purchase for a limited time, both physically and digitally until March 31, 2021. Doug Bowser, the president of Nintendo of America, said that the game's limited availability was due to it being part of the celebration of the 35th anniversary of Mario, an approach the company does not plan on using widely for other releases.
Reception.
Critical response.
According to the review aggregating website Metacritic, "Super Mario 3D All-Stars" received "generally favorable reviews". Critics generally agreed that the games themselves remained enjoyable, but were divided over the presentation, which received criticism for its simplistic nature and lack of additional features, its limited time release, and the absence of "Super Mario Galaxy 2" (2010).
Ian Walker from "Kotaku" said the port of "64" "hasn't introduced any obviously unfortunate consequences" and even fixed some "occasional performance dips" from the original, and that the controls for the game worked well on the Switch. For "Sunshine", he felt the adjusted controls would affect anyone playing who had muscle memory from the original and that the visuals stuttered somewhat late in the game. For "Galaxy", Walker was thankful some of the motion-based controls were remapped to controller buttons but added some of the areas that still required the motion controls were still problematic as they were on the Wii.
"IGN"s Zachary Ryan was "a little bit disappointed in the lack of effort Nintendo has put into" the collection, when compared to the "major overhauls" done for the games in "Super Mario All-Stars", and noted the use of emulation to present the three games helped explain "a lot about the lack of upgrades" in each. For "64", Ryan felt the upscaling made the game look the nicest it ever had, and called the controls "still super tight" and "right at home on a Pro Controller or Joy-Con", despite the x-axis camera controls being inverted. He did wish Nintendo had added "some quality-of-life upgrades", feeling players experiencing the game for the first time "might find it somewhat inaccessible". "Sunshine" was still a fantastic looking game and commended the controls still remaining fluid, though Ryan experienced some slowdown in certain moments. Finally, Ryan felt upscaling "Galaxy" made it "a fully realized version" of the game and praised the updated control options, adding the handheld mode configuration, while "not the most ideal way to play", still worked.
Sales.
By September 7, pre-orders for "Super Mario 3D All-Stars" made it the second-bestselling game of 2020 on Amazon in the United States, behind "". Scalpers resold pre-orders on websites such as eBay, going as high as . Base.com, an online retailer in the United Kingdom, was forced to cancel all of their customer's pre-orders because their allocation of physical games was not enough to fulfil pre-orders. They added that Nintendo and their UK distributors were "unable to give... any reassurance" that more copies would be made available to them through the on-sale period.
In its first week of release, "Super Mario 3D All-Stars" was the best-selling game in the UK, and was the third-largest game launch of 2020 and the fifth-fastest selling Switch game in the country. In Japan, the game sold over 210,000 physical copies within the first three days of its release. In the United States, "Super Mario 3D All-Stars" was the second-best selling game of September behind "Marvel's Avengers", and had become the 10th best-selling game of 2020. The collection was also the best-selling game in September for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. , "Super Mario 3D All-Stars" has sold over 9.01 million units worldwide. In March 2021, ahead of its delisting, the game's physical sales in the United Kingdom spiked around 267%.


The Weakest Link (New Zealand game show)

The Weakest Link was a New Zealand game show based on the original version in the United Kingdom. It was broadcast on TV One and was hosted by Louise Wallace. Season one aired on Tuesday nights in 2001, while season two aired in 2002 on weekends.
Format.
This version of the show featured nine contestants competing for prize money of up to twenty thousand New Zealand dollars. The New Zealand general knowledge questions for the show were written by Derek Bolt. In the first seven rounds there was a money tree ($50, $100, $200, $400, $600, $900, $1,200, $1,600, $2,000) with $2,000 as the maximum result. The eighth round was the same, except the winnings were tripled.
Special episodes.
The show aired three celebrity specials, one of which was sports-themed. In each celebrity special, money was raised for nominated charities. One of the contestants in the first celebrity special was Mayor of Invercargill Tim Shadbolt. In the second celebrity special, $9,600 was raised. This was the highest amount ever achieved on the New Zealand version.
Reception and impact.
The first episode pulled in 670,000 people, outperforming Holmes.
The show's first two episodes received over six hundred thousand viewers, almost half of the national television audience. Amanda Young, one of the winners of the show said about the experience; "It was actually fun. I love that sort of thing of answering questions, pub quizzes, although I haven't entered that many of them." Television New Zealand newsreaders and reporters had been banned from participating in one of the show's celebrity specials because bosses claimed that they didn't want their media staff to look dumb to primetime viewers. New Zealand On Air had reportedly found a new comedy for young adults, who were believed to be stunned by dumb answers.
In 2001, then-Labour Cabinet Minister Lianne Dalziel referenced the show's catchphrase when she told members of the New Zealand National Party "You're all the weakest link. Goodbye."


Download (game show)

Download was an Australian children's game show which aired on the Nine Network from 2000 until 2002. Scott McRae hosted the show in 2000-2001; he was replaced by Nathan Lloyd in 2001-2002, while Emily Jade O'Keefe hosted the final season of the show (which aired in mid-2002). The co-host for the final season was Miss Bytes (shown on TV in the studio).
Format.
Four contestants competed in a tournament format, which consists of a series of word puzzles.
First two rounds (Small Screen Game).
At the beginning of each round, two contestants were introduced. The winner of the coin toss prior to the beginning of the round got to choose a category; the categories used for this round were as follows: Screen Dreams, Planet Earth, Sounds, True Blue, Techno, and Sweating It Out. The first letter in the word puzzle was automatically given. In order for a letter to be "downloaded", a contestant had to answer a trivia question related to the category (the answer always contained the letter that was in the puzzle). The first contestant to buzz in with the correct answer earned 1 point and had that letter automatically placed into the correct position in the puzzle. Solving the puzzle earned the contestant an additional 4 points and eliminated the category from further play. Giving an incorrect answer to the trivia question or solving the puzzle incorrectly yielded no points. The first contestant to score 10 or more points (or the contestant in the lead when time was called, whichever came first) advanced to the third round, while the other contestant left the game with consolation prizes. This round was played twice throughout the game.
Third round (Big Screen Game).
The two remaining contestants who won the first two rounds faced off against each other in this round, and their scores were reset to zero. Both contestants were shown a scrambled word or phrase, and were given a maximum of five clues to try and unscramble it; the first contestant to buzz in with the correct word was awarded a number of points depending upon the number of clues given (the maximum score was five points, with one point being deducted for each additional clue). Every time a clue is read out, some of the letters in the word were unscrambled; if no one was able to unscramble the word in five clues, the word was thrown out and no points were awarded to either teams.
Once time was called, the contestants played a 60-second lightning round, where the point values for each unscrambled word were doubled (the maximum point value was 10 points). The player with the most points at the end of the round won the game and advanced to the bonus round. If both contestants were tied at the end of the round, one final puzzle was played. The player who buzzed in with the correct answer won the game, but an incorrect answer or no response awarded the win to the other contestant.
The highest margin of victory was 90 points (a score of 94–4), which was recorded in October 2002 by Kavel Gounden (who was 11 years old at the time and represented Kenmore South State School).
Endgame.
The contestant who won the game had a chance to win additional prizes. During the first two seasons, the player had to choose one category before the beginning of the round; this was dropped for the show's third and final season. There was a puzzle with four lines: a series of nine letters were blindly chosen by the contestant, and they were placed in the correct positions in the puzzle. Once the positions were filled, the contestant was given 40 seconds to solve all four puzzles (there was one clue for each puzzle). The contestant received a prize for every correct answer; in order for a correct answer to be credited, the line number (or the line letter in the third season) had to be given before the word. Only one puzzle can be solved at a time; if a contestant was unsure, he or she could pass and return to a given clue depending upon the amount of time left in the round. If the contestant solved all four puzzles correctly, he or she won all four prizes If not then he or she will keep the prizes that they did win.


Double Fortress

The Double Fortress (相矢倉 or 相櫓 "aiyagura") is a shogi opening in which both players construct Fortress formations.
Double Fortress games are the most common type of Fortress games found at all levels of play.
Historical Fortress.
Earlier josekis for Fortress in the Edo period (usually spelled 櫓 at that time) were very different from the current josekis.
For instance, in one variation, it is White who delays pushing their rook pawn (whereas Black delays the rook pawn push in the modern era) and an early bishop trade occurs before both players' kings are moved into their castles.
In the 1947 Meijin tournament, Masao Tsukada and Yoshio Kimura played an early example of the typical 3. S-77 type of Fortress with 1.P-76 P-84 development found in modern shogi.
1. P-76 P-84 development.
3. S-77: Blocking bishop with silver.
Blocking White's bishop with a silver (and also defending the eighth file from a possible attack) is an older Fortress joseki, which typically also includes advancing Black's rook pawn.
The more recent joseki advances Black's pawn on the sixth file instead. (See above.)
Classic Fortress 24-Move Set.
Classic Fortress 24-Move Set (旧矢倉24手組 "kyū yagura nijū-tegumi")
Compared to the New Fortress 24-Move Set, note that the Classic Fortress 24-Move Set is (a) symmetrical where both sides have the same formation and (b) that only Black's formation differs (White's formation is the same in both the old and new josekis.)
Right Gold to 67 variant.
Right Gold To 67 (6七金右 "roku-nana kin migi")
Spearing the Sparrow.
Spearing the Sparrow (雀刺し "suzume-zashi")
3. P-66: Blocking bishop with pawn.
At move 6, White also has an option to play Climbing Silver by advancing their rook pawn to rank 5. (See: White Climbing Silver.)
New Fortress 24-Move Set.
New Fortress 24-Move Set (新矢倉24手組 "shin yagura nijū-tegumi")
Quick Fortress castling.
Quick Fortress castling
Silver-37 variations.
After the 24-move set of the Fortress opening, one major branch in the Fortress strategies is the Silver-37 set of variations. Many variations are under this parent variation.
Katō variation.
Named after Hifumi Katō.
Morishita System.
The Morishita System delays moving the right attacking silver to 37 early. Instead, it simply moves the bishop to 68 allowing the king to move into the Fortress castle in subsequent moves.
Other development patterns.
1. P-76 P-34 2. P-66 patterns.
Additionally, earlier Fortress openings in the first part of the 20th century did not follow from the standard 1. P-76 P-84 opening used today and instead developed from mutual opening of the bishop diagonals with 1. P-76 P-34.
Fortress development from Bishop Exchange.
A Fortress position may also be developed from a rejected Bishop Exchange opening. For example, after a Bishop Exchange setup, instead of White trading the bishops off the board, White may choose to reject the bishop trade by closing their bishop diagonal. At this point, both players may convert their left side configurations into Fortress castles by pulling their bishops back and moving their silvers to the 77 and 33 squares. Thus, Black may move their bishop to 68 (or to 59 if their king moves to 69 first) allowing their left silver to move to 77. Likewise, White may move their bishop to 33 (usually triggered by Black pushing their rook pawn to 25), move their left silver to 22, move their bishop to 42 allowing their left silver to move 33.
Although possible, this Fortress development is not very common among professional players. When White rejects the bishop trade in this way, it is more common for White to play a Snowroof position while Black switches to a Fortress position instead of a Double Fortress game.
Game example.
Hirokazu Ueno vs Keiji Nishikawa 2008.