The Atari VCS was affordable and offered the flexibility of changeable cartridges. Nearly a thousand of these were created, the most significant of which established new techniques, mechanics, and even entire genres. This book offers a detailed and accessible study of this influential video game console from both computational and cultural perspectives.Studies of digital media have rarely investigated platforms--the systems underlying computing. This book (the first in a series of Platform Studies) does so, developing a critical approach that examines the relationship between platforms and creative expression. Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost discuss the Atari VCS itself and examine in detail six game cartridges: Combat, Adventure, Pac-Man, Yars' Revenge, Pitfall!, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. They describe the technical constraints and affordances of the system and track developments in programming, gameplay, interface, and aesthetics. Adventure, for example, was the first game to represent a virtual space larger than the screen (anticipating the boundless virtual spaces of such later games as World of Warcraft and Grand Theft Auto), by allowing the player to walk off one side into another space; and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was an early instance of interaction between media properties and video games. Montfort and Bogost show that the Atari VCS--often considered merely a retro fetish object--is an essential part of the history of video games.

    With city-sized populations of nearly full-time players, these games generate their own cultures, governments, and social systems and, inevitably, their own economies, which spill over into the real world.The desire for virtual goods--magic swords, enchanted breastplates, and special, hard-to-get elixirs--has spawned a cottage industry of "virtual loot farmers": People who play the games just to obtain fantasy goods that they can sell in the real world. The best loot farmers can make between six figures a year and six figures a month.Play Money is an extended walk on the weird side: a vivid snapshot of a subculture whose denizens were once the stuff of mere sociological spectacle but now--with computer gaming poised to eclipse all other entertainments in dollar volume, and with the lines between play and work, virtual and real increasingly blurred--look more and more like the future.

    No respite. No forgiveness.There is only WAR!In the nightmare future of the 41st Millennium, Mankind teeters upon the brink of destruction. The galaxy-spanning Imperium of Man is beset on all sides by ravening aliens and threatened from within by Warp-spawned entities and heretical plots. Only the strength of the immortal Emperor of Terra stands between humanity and its annihilation, and in his name, countless warriors and agents do battle against the encroaching darkness. Foremost amongst them stand the Space Marines, the ultimate protectors of Mankind.Across airless moons, within the depths of dark, twisted hive worlds and even in the immaterial realm of Warp space, battles rage that will shape the future of the galaxy forever. It is a universe that you can enter today, if you dare. But remember that this is a dark and terrible era, and there is no peace amongst the stars...The Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook is your essential guide to playing atmospheric battles in the 41st Millennium. It helps you field majestic armies of Citadel miniatures across the war-ravaged battlefields of the far-future, in the ultimate contest of strategy and skill. With 452 full-colour pages, this hardback Rulebook is packed with rich background and contains all the rules for fighting pulse-pounding tabletop battles. The Rulebook includes exciting features such as dynamic close-combat, flyers, psychic devastation and interactive scenery. As well as jaw-dropping artwork, contained within is a history of the 41st Millennium and a richly detailed guide to the races and weapons of the far-future. It also features a comprehensive hobby section to set you on the path to choosing, collecting and building your own Warhammer 40,000 army of Citadel miniatures.

    Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to produce the most notoriously successful game franchises in history—Doom and Quake— until the games they made tore them apart. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry—a powerful and compassionate account of what it's like to be young, driven, and wildly creative.

    We still don't know how to talk about game design. We can't share our visions. We forget what works (and doesn't). We don't learn from history. It's too hard to improve.The breakthrough starts here. A Game Design Vocabulary gives us the complete game design framework we desperately need--whether we create games, study them, review them, or build businesses on them.Craft amazing experiences. Anna Anthropy and Naomi Clark share foundational principles, examples, and exercises that help you create great player experiences...complement intuition with design discipline...and craft games that succeed brilliantly on every level.Liberate yourself from stale cliches and genres Tell great stories: go way beyond cutscenes and text dumps Control the crucial relationships between game "verbs" and "objects" Wield the full power of development, conflict, climax, and resolution Shape scenes, pacing, and player choices Deepen context via art, animation, music, and sound Help players discover, understand, engage, and "talk back" to you Effectively use resistance and difficulty: the "push and pull" of games Design holistically: integrate visuals, audio, and controls Communicate a design vision everyone can understand

    The humble, pixelated games of the ‘70s and ‘80s have evolved into the vivid, realistic, and immersive form of entertainment that now rivals all other forms of media for dominance in the consumer marketplace. For many, video games have become the cultural icons around which pop culture revolves.PRESS START TO PLAY is an anthology of stories inspired by video games: stories that attempt to recreate the feel of a video game in prose form; stories that play with the concepts common (or exclusive) to video games; and stories about the creation of video games and/or about the video games—or the gamers—themselves.These stories will appeal to anyone who has interacted with games, from hardcore teenaged fanatics, to men and women who game after their children have gone to bed, to your well-meaning aunt who won’t stop inviting you to join her farm-based Facebook games.At the helm of this project are Daniel H. Wilson—bestselling novelist and expert in artificial intelligence—and John Joseph Adams—bestselling, Hugo Award-nominated editor of more than a dozen science fiction/fantasy anthologies and series editor of Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy (volume one forthcoming from Houghton Mifflin in 2015). Together, they have drawn on their wide-ranging contacts to assemble an incredibly talented group of authors who are eager to attack the topic of video games from startling and fascinating angles.Under the direction of an A.I. specialist and a veteran editor, the anthology will expose readers to a strategically chosen mix of stories that explore novel video game concepts in prose narratives, such as save points, kill screens, gold-farming, respawning, first-person shooters, unlocking achievements, and getting “pwned.” Likewise, each of our authors is an accomplished specialist in areas such as science fiction, fantasy, and techno-thrillers, and many have experience writing for video games professionally.Combining unique viewpoints and exacting realism, this anthology promises to thrill generations of readers, from those who grew up with Atari 2600s to the console and PC gamers of today.

    Brodie Seminar Book Series) shows how you can change your mindset and improve your personal motivation. Learning how to remain motivated in your life is essential. Without motivation, you will surely find yourself lacking quality results in life. • Do you have everything you wish to achieve in your life? • Do you have any important goals to accomplish in your life? • Are you really accomplishing your goals and dreams? • Have you ever stopped to actually evaluate the quality of your life? Most people struggle to produce the exact results they want in their life, typically due to a lack of motivation or inspiration to take the necessary actions. If you want to become successful in your life, the secrets are revealed in Motivation 101. These untold secrets will encourage and prepare you to take action. It is these actions that will translate to increasing the results you want. Motivation 101 will help open your eyes, mind, and body and will help teach you how to stay motivated and to take action to accomplish your goals. This is why Motivation 101 is a must-have in every library or home. Here are a few things that you will get out of Motivation 101 • How to start your day on the right note • How to utilize the Power of Music throughout the day • How to realize who your greatest opponent really is • How to create your own environment • How to Just Do It when it comes to accomplishing your goals • How to become a Master of Your Own Universe The perfect way to get motivation is from deep within you. Doing something that will motivate you will surely get the results. This book is intended to help eliminate procrastination and teach you how to be passionate about everything you set out to do, encourage you to do what you really love and help create value for not only for yourself but for others. This is the fundamental success principle that you must aspire to accomplish and Motivation 101 will help your journey. Motivation 101 can help you move toward enjoying your peak level of living. Life is more than mere existence. We only truly exist when we live our lives with purpose. Motivation 101 shows you how you can easily start your own journey towards a healthier mindset – a mindset that you can be proud of and achieve mental freedom. But more than this, Motivation 101 explores what it means to live a truly happy and fulfilled life – to really live the life of your dreams and pursue what you love. It encourages you to examine your own motivations and desires in order to determine your path in life. To get access to the bonus materials and resources (all for FREE), be sure to visit: www.BrodieEDU.com

    It gives full details of exactly how to play the game, explains basic theory and includes many examples of play.

    Written between 1973 and 1976 by Paul Magriel and Renée Magriel, Backgammon was the first book to lucidly explain the inner workings and advanced positional play of the game. The most important aspects are broken down into their component parts and then explained with a unique, easy-to-understand, step-by-step building-block approach. The book is enhanced by 600 clear and precise diagrams, a glossary and tables, including the betting odds. For any player who means to take the game seriously and wants to play well, Backgammon is an indispensable guide. This new 2004 edition of also includes a lively behind-the-scenes foreword by Renée Magriel Roberts that illuminates the man behind the name "X-22" and describes the creation of the book. Having stood the test of time for over a quarter-century, Backgammon is still the best and most widely recommended and quoted standard instructional manual and reference work on the game for novice and expert alike.

    -Complete Walkthrough Leads Gamers through Entire Game! -Comprehensive Coverage: Expert Tactics, All Weapons, Killstreaks, and More! -Detailed Maps for all Single and Multiplayer Levels. -Analysis of All Gameplay Features: Survival Mode, Killstreak Rewards and More! -Achievements and Trophies, Unlockable Weapons and Attachments, novel play modes!

    Do you want the calm, clarity, and focus of mindfulness without the trappings of formal meditation practice? This book will provide you with a set of tips and techniques that can guide you in infusing your daily life, as it already is, with exactly that.

    Together, we own and run TWO successful blogs! We went from $0 to over $103,457.98 in our first year of blogging, and we now make over $100,000 per month between both of our combined blogs, and we’re going to tell you EXACTLY how we got started in this eBook. It’s going to include the ups and the downs, the great successes and the complete and utter failures, and all of the steps in between.

    Paul hired Michael as his security guard, beginning a thirty-year music business career in which he worked with such legendary names as Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, The Osmonds, Sheena Easton, Frank Sinatra, Bon Jovi, Cher, and Kiss. As tour manager, Michael was responsible for every aspect of their safety and their comfort, from making sure they were not mobbed on stage to making sure they got paid. To some of them he became close. He was best man at Jon Bon Jovi's wedding, and provided personal security for Cher at her Malibu home. He shared their wildest excesses, their highs and their lows; he saw their fears, and all too often, their loneliness and paranoia. Sometimes hilarious, frequently shocking, always perceptive, Star Man is the outrageous, uncompromising, and brutally honest story of one man's life with the biggest stars of rock.

    As a hardy, easy care, and potentially long-lived lizard, the leopard gecko is the perfect size, attractive in its velvety skin, and fairly easy to breed. The subject of breeding geckos is covered in multiple chapters in this book led by author and herp expert de Vosjoli, who is joined by gecko specialists Dr. Roger Klingenberg, Ron Tremper, and Dr. Brian Viets, who each contribute special chapters to this up-to-date and authoritative guide. Colorfully illustrated, Leopard Geckos provides excellent general guidelines for keepers who wish to add a gecko to their vivarium and maintain their pet in excellent health and condition. The authors provide an introduction to gecko characteristics including distribution, size, longevity, and growth rate, to help beginners better understand the anatomy and behavior of these fascinating lizards. This Advanced Vivarium Systems title includes information about selecting a healthy leopard gecko, handling, housing needs, water and feeding requirements, and shedding and tail loss. Dr. Klingenberg provides the chapter “The Recognition and Treatment of Disease,” which covers specific disorders keepers should be aware of. De Vosjoli begins the discussion on breeding leopard geckos, and then is joined by Dr. Viets for a chapter on “Incubation Temperature and Hatchling Sex and Pigmentation.” Tremper’s chapter on “Color and Pattern Variations” focuses on the genetic aspects of breeding leopard geckos. The book also discusses the African fat-tailed gecko plus other eublepharids, including the African clawed gecko, Japanese leopard gecko, Malaysian cat gecko, and the Central American banded gecko.

    Have you ever opened a Kindle book to find that the font started out way too small or way too large? Have you tried to change to a different font while reading and discovered you couldn't? Have you jumped to a new chapter in a Kindle book and seen that the chapter heading lost its formatting? Has a Kindle completely ignored formatting you knew was in the book? According to Amazon, the simplest way to publish your Kindle book is to upload an HTML file you've saved from Microsoft Word or another app. By itself, that method can bring you maybe 80% of the way to a well-formatted, trouble-free ebook. But what about the other 20%? In this follow-up to his bestselling -From Word to Kindle, - Aaron Shepard takes your saved HTML as a starting point and tells how to quickly tweak and tune it to avoid common problems. Assuming no knowledge of HTML, he introduces the basics of the language, then reveals how to use find-and-replace and macros to touch up an entire book in seconds! If you're serious about Kindle publishing and you're technically inclined -- but not a full-fledged geek -- Aaron provides the tips you need to bring your Kindle book to the next level, making it something truly to be proud of. ///////////////////////////////////////////////// Aaron Shepard is a foremost proponent of the new business of profitable self publishing, which he has practiced and helped develop since 1998. He is the author of -Aiming at Amazon, - -POD for Profit, - -Perfect Pages, - and Amazon's #1 and #2 bestselling paid books on Kindle formatting, -From Word to Kindle- and -Pictures on Kindle.- ///////////////////////////////////////////////// CONTENTS Getting Started 1 WORKING WITH HTML HTML and Kindle HTML Export HTML Editing HTML Processing HTML Basics HTML Checking HTML Cleanup HTML Testing 2 HTML FIXES Fixes for Fonts Fixes for Paragraphs Fixes for Headings Fixes for Line Breaking Fixes for Pictures Fixes for Navigation ///////////////////////////////////////////////// SAMPLE Here are some of the things you can accomplish through changes in HTML. * Adjust bookmarks so headings retain proper formatting when jumped to. * Remove settings that stop the user from choosing their own. * Keep fonts from appearing much too small or much too large when the book is opened. * Make sure indents and other spacing stays relative to larger and smaller font sizes. * Avoid line breaks that leave short words dangling at the ends of lines or paragraphs. * Make up for features lost in translation from your word processor, like nonbreaking hyphens. * Stop -ghost hyphens- from appearing in the middle of words. * Keep pages of text from disappearing for some users. * Prevent the Kindle from applying its own defaults in place of your settings.