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\r\nIt was this day on May 22, 1980 that the Pac-Man arcade video game first debuted in Japan as Puck-Man. Developed by Namco and later licensed to Midway, Pac-Man became an instant classic and is to this very day synonymous with the video game medium. Here is a sampler from the official Pac-Man website:\r\n
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\r\n\r\n\"PAC-MAN is a cultural icon whose popularity has crossed the globe for 30 years. This official PAC-MAN 30th Anniversary site is dedicated to telling the story of PAC-MAN through his games, gear, and accomplishments. His journey through the maze of gaming infamy is far from over! Be sure to check in as the story is told that is distinctly PAC-MAN!\"\r\n\r\n
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\r\nYou can check out the one and true website dedicated to this 80\'s classic pop icon here:\r\n
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\r\nhttp://pacman.com/en/\r\n
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\r\nAlso, be sure to check out the neat and playable Google Doodle dedicated to the video game idol!\r\n
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\r\nIndie developer Jay Barnson has written up a new article over at Tales of the Rampant Coyote. In it, he describes how dungeon level design has developed over the span of a quarter century, from classic TSR tabletop modules all the way to the complex 3D worlds of modern CRPGs. Here is an excerpt:\r\n
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\r\n\r\n\"The early first-person-perspective Computer RPGs worked well translating the old 2D graph-paper maps. These games offered four directional views in a tile-based world. They really couldn\u2019t show curves or any walls oriented in anything but the four cardinal directions, but they got the job done okay. \r\n
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\r\nAnd of course, the top-down or isometric view CRPGs worked fine with these kinds of maps, although again everything worked best at nice 90 degree angles without very many exceptions. The descendants of these latter games still stick to the nice 2D, rectilinear maps pretty well, though they often offer more interesting wall and floor shapes and height changes.\"\r\n\r\n
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\r\nThis article is an interesting read in its own right - but even more so, if the reader just so happens to be a level designer in video games. The rest of the article can be found at the following link:\r\n
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\r\nFor your reading pleasure, here is a series of EA\'s fiscal 2010 highlights:\r\n
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\r\n\r\n\r\nFourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2010 Results\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n\r\nYou can read the rest at the following link:\r\n
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\r\nThe good folks over at Toms Hardware have updated their perennial guide to building a PC with new tips, tricks, and sage advice. If you are in the market for a new computer and plan to have it custom built, this guide is a must read:\r\n
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\r\n\"Even though the computer industry\'s primary constant is change, there are several \"constant constants\" to aid builders in component selection. Tom\'s Hardware Guide has been a primary resource, covering the latest technologies for over thirteen years. Our community members have answered individual hardware questions for nearly as long, both sources working to prevent common mistakes that might ruin a well-intentioned PC project.\"\r\n
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\r\nThe comprehensive 17-page article can be found at the following link:\r\n
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\r\nhttp://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-your-own-pc,2601.html\r\n
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\r\nJay Barnson over at the Tales of the Rampant Coyote website has written up a short editorial piece entitled \"Manual Labor.\" In it he describes a bygone era where games, CRPGs in particular, would typically come with printed manuals that were simply overflowing with information or were even spiral-bound. He then goes on to explain the demise of the printed manual due to the \"streamlining\" of modern RPG games:\r\n
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\r\n\"But back when I discovered the hobby, memory and disk space (we used floppies back then) were at a premium, and so much of the cool detail of the game was found in\u2026 tah-dah! The manual. In the Temple of Apshai, it even went so far as to have the deion of all the dungeon rooms and treasures in the manual itself. Even as late as the D&D Gold Box series (late 80\u2019s to the very early 90s), the manual(s) contained journal entries with a lot of additional information and clues to help you in the game. By that time, the amount of text wasn\u2019t the problem, but the lack of screen real estate at 320 x 200 for displaying text usually was. Some manuals even went so far as to be written entirely from an in-game perspective, going through great contortions to explain the controls without completely departing from the contextual fiction (as some in-game tutorials do today).\"\r\n
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\r\nThe rest of the editorial can be read at the following link:
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