Monsters in the Dark: the Making of X-COM: UFO Defense - Special Edition

Monsters in the Dark: the Making of X-COM: UFO Defense - Special Edition
Author: David Craddock
Publisher: Bookbaby
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2021-10-05
Genre:
ISBN: 9781098397111

Monsters in the Dark charts the career of legendary designer Julian Gollop through the creation of 1994's X-COM, a terrifying and terrifyingly deep wargame hailed as the finest PC game (IGN) and a bona fide classic (GameSpot). Includes bonus interviews not found in the book's standard edition.

Monsters in the Dark

Monsters in the Dark
Author: David Craddock
Publisher:
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2021-09-27
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN:

It is the Year 1994... In North America, turn-based strategy games were trampled by flashier video games like Doom and Mortal Kombat. All but one: Sid Meier's Civilization, a game of conquest and megahit developed by Maryland-based MicroProse. Over in southwest England, the producers at MicroProse UK aspired to design a tactical game that matched or exceeded the success of their American counterparts, who viewed the UK branch as nothing more than a support studio. Nearby, a bespectacled teenage boy toiled away on his home computer, dreaming of the day his programming aptitude would catch up to the epic campaigns unfolding across his imagination. From his early experiments in board games to digital battlefields that lit up bestseller charts, Monsters in the Dark charts the career of legendary designer Julian Gollop through the creation of 1994's X-COM, a terrifying and terrifyingly deep wargame hailed as "the finest PC game" (IGN) and "a bona fide classic" (GameSpot).

The Eyes of Bayonetta 2

The Eyes of Bayonetta 2
Author: Sega
Publisher: Udon Entertainment
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018-11-20
Genre: Bayonetta (Game)
ISBN: 9781772940848

Bayonetta is a butt-kicking, havoc-wreaking witch who wields sweet weapons like pistols, whips, hammers, flamethrowers, and poison bows. But it's not just about brawn -- it's also about style. The Eyes of Bayonetta 2 collects all the fabulous artwork behind this celebrated video game sequel. Included are character designs, development sketches, weapon & environment designs and promotional artwork. It's all topped off with character & enemy profiles, journal entries, and plenty of exclusive creator commentary.

The Demon-Haunted World

The Demon-Haunted World
Author: Carl Sagan
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 474
Release: 2011-07-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0307801047

A prescient warning of a future we now inhabit, where fake news stories and Internet conspiracy theories play to a disaffected American populace “A glorious book . . . A spirited defense of science . . . From the first page to the last, this book is a manifesto for clear thought.”—Los Angeles Times How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don’t understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience and the testable hypotheses of science? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan argues that scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit of truth but to the very well-being of our democratic institutions. Casting a wide net through history and culture, Sagan examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies of the past as witchcraft, faith healing, demons, and UFOs. And yet, disturbingly, in today's so-called information age, pseudoscience is burgeoning with stories of alien abduction, channeling past lives, and communal hallucinations commanding growing attention and respect. As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason is not just a cultural wrong turn but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms. Praise for The Demon-Haunted World “Powerful . . . A stirring defense of informed rationality. . . Rich in surprising information and beautiful writing.”—The Washington Post Book World “Compelling.”—USA Today “A clear vision of what good science means and why it makes a difference. . . . A testimonial to the power of science and a warning of the dangers of unrestrained credulity.”—The Sciences “Passionate.”—San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle

Silent Hill

Silent Hill
Author: Bernard Perron
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 171
Release: 2012-01-03
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 0472051628

The second entry in the Landmark Video Games series

Typeset in the Future

Typeset in the Future
Author: Dave Addey
Publisher: Abrams
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2018-12-11
Genre: Design
ISBN: 168335334X

A designer’s deep dive into seven science fiction films, filled with “gloriously esoteric nerdery [and] observations as witty as they are keen” (Wired). In Typeset in the Future, blogger and designer Dave Addey invites sci-fi movie fans on a journey through seven genre-defining classics, discovering how they create compelling visions of the future through typography and design. The book delves deep into 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Alien, Blade Runner, Total Recall, WALL·E, and Moon, studying the design tricks and inspirations that make each film transcend mere celluloid and become a believable reality. These studies are illustrated by film stills, concept art, type specimens, and ephemera, plus original interviews with Mike Okuda (Star Trek), Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall), and Ralph Eggleston and Craig Foster (Pixar). Typeset in the Future is an obsessively geeky study of how classic sci-fi movies draw us in to their imagined worlds.

Dreamland

Dreamland
Author: Bob Lazar
Publisher: Interstellar
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2019-10-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0578437058

Bob Lazar is the reason Area 51 became infamous in the 1980s and his recent appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast with 7 million listeners is credited with inspiring the Storm Area 51 phenomenon. In his DREAMLAND autobiography, Lazar reveals every detail of his highly controversial story about being an insider within the world's most legendary military research base. Bob Lazar was a brilliant young physicist that found himself employed at a top secret facility in the middle of the desert outside Las Vegas. Under the watchful eye of the government elite, he is tasked with understanding an exotic propulsion system being used by an advanced aerospace vehicle he is told came from outer space. The stressful work and long, odd hours start to wear on Bob and he becomes concerned for his safety. He tells his wife and a couple close friends about what he's doing in the desert, and his employers find out and are furious. When they station goons outside his house, Bob seeks help from wealthy UFOlogist, John Lear, who encourages Bob to take his story to award-winning investigative journalist George Knapp at KLAS-TV, a CBS affiliate. To prove he's telling the truth, Bob takes a group of people out into the desert to watch a test flight of the "flying saucer." On the way home, they are stopped by the police, who notify the base, and Bob loses his job. In a series of interviews with CBS TV, Bob Lazar then blows the lid off "Area 51," blows the whistle on the effort to conceal this craft from the American people, and blows up his career as a top physicist. Bob Lazar's reports have been the subject of intense controversy for decades. He has been interviewed numerous times and his story has been corroborated by other individuals he worked with and who were present when these events happened. But until now, Bob Lazar has never told his own story, in every detail in his own words, about those exciting days in the desert outside of Las Vegas and how the world came to learn about the experiments being conducted at Area 51.

Attract Mode: The Rise and Fall of Coin-Op Arcade Games

Attract Mode: The Rise and Fall of Coin-Op Arcade Games
Author: Jamie Lendino
Publisher: Steel Gear Press
Total Pages: 435
Release: 2020-09-27
Genre: Computers
ISBN:

From their haunts in the shadowy corner of a bar, front and center at a convenience store, or reigning over a massive mall installation bursting with light, sound, and action, arcade games have been thrilling and addicting quarter-bearers of all ages ever since Pong first lit up its paddles. Whether you wanted a few minutes’ quick-twitch exhilaration or the taste of three-initial immortality that came with topping the high score screen, you could get it from the diverse range of space shooters, dot-eating extravaganzas, quirky beat-’em-ups, and more that have helped define pop culture for more than four decades. In Attract Mode: The Rise and Fall of Coin-Op Arcade Games, author Jamie Lendino celebrates both the biggest blockbusters (Pac-Man, Star Wars: The Arcade Game) and the forgotten gems (Phoenix, Star Castle) of the Golden Age of coin-op gaming, and pulls back the curtain on the personalities and the groundbreaking technologies that brought them to glitzy, color-drenched life in the U.S., Japan, and all over the world. You’ll start your journey exploring the electromechanical attractions and pinball games of the early 20th century. Next, you’ll meet the earliest innovators, who used college computers and untested electronics to outline the possibilities of the emerging form, and discover the surprising history behind the towering megahits from Nintendo, Sega, and others that still inform gaming today. Then you’ll witness the devastating crash that almost ended it all—and the rebirth no one expected. Whether you prefer the white-knuckle gameplay of Robotron: 2084, the barrel-jumping whimsy of Donkey Kong, or the stunning graphics and animation of Dragon’s Lair, Attract Mode will transport you back to the heyday of arcade games and let you relive—or experience for the first time—the unique magic that transformed entertainment forever.

Global Trends 2040

Global Trends 2040
Author: National Intelligence Council
Publisher: Cosimo Reports
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2021-03
Genre:
ISBN: 9781646794973

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.

The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate
Author: Richard Condon
Publisher: RosettaBooks
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2013-11-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0795335067

The classic thriller about a hostile foreign power infiltrating American politics: “Brilliant . . . wild and exhilarating.” —The New Yorker A war hero and the recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, Sgt. Raymond Shaw is keeping a deadly secret—even from himself. During his time as a prisoner of war in North Korea, he was brainwashed by his Communist captors and transformed into a deadly weapon—a sleeper assassin, programmed to kill without question or mercy at his captors’ signal. Now he’s been returned to the United States with a covert mission: to kill a candidate running for US president . . . This “shocking, tense” and sharply satirical novel has become a modern classic, and was the basis for two film adaptations (San Francisco Chronicle). “Crammed with suspense.” —Chicago Tribune “Condon is wickedly skillful.” —Time