The Games Were Coming

The Games Were Coming PDF Author: Michael Anthony
Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 138

Get Book Here

Book Description
The story of Leon, an ascetic young bicyclist who neglects the annual carnival in order to train for an upcoming race.

The Games Were Coming

The Games Were Coming PDF Author: Michael Anthony
Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 138

Get Book Here

Book Description
The story of Leon, an ascetic young bicyclist who neglects the annual carnival in order to train for an upcoming race.

Seven Games: A Human History

Seven Games: A Human History PDF Author: Oliver Roeder
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324003782
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 326

Get Book Here

Book Description
A group biography of seven enduring and beloved games, and the story of why—and how—we play them. Checkers, backgammon, chess, and Go. Poker, Scrabble, and bridge. These seven games, ancient and modern, fascinate millions of people worldwide. In Seven Games, Oliver Roeder charts their origins and historical importance, the delightful arcana of their rules, and the ways their design makes them pleasurable. Roeder introduces thrilling competitors, such as evangelical minister Marion Tinsley, who across forty years lost only three games of checkers; Shusai, the Master, the last Go champion of imperial Japan, defending tradition against “modern rationalism”; and an IBM engineer who created a backgammon program so capable at self-learning that NASA used it on the space shuttle. He delves into the history and lore of each game: backgammon boards in ancient Egypt, the Indian origins of chess, how certain shells from a particular beach in Japan make the finest white Go stones. Beyond the cultural and personal stories, Roeder explores why games, seemingly trivial pastimes, speak so deeply to the human soul. He introduces an early philosopher of games, the aptly named Bernard Suits, and visits an Oxford cosmologist who has perfected a computer that can effectively play bridge, a game as complicated as human language itself. Throughout, Roeder tells the compelling story of how humans, pursuing scientific glory and competitive advantage, have invented AI programs better than any human player, and what that means for the games—and for us. Funny, fascinating, and profound, Seven Games is a story of obsession, psychology, history, and how play makes us human.

Gamelife

Gamelife PDF Author: Michael W. Clune
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 0374713170
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 173

Get Book Here

Book Description
In telling the story of his youth through seven computer games, critically acclaimed author Michael W. Clune (White Out) captures the part of childhood we live alone. You have been awakened. Floppy disk inserted, computer turned on, a whirring, and then this sentence, followed by a blinking cursor. So begins Suspended, the first computer game to obsess seven-year-old Michael, to worm into his head and change his sense of reality. Thirty years later he will write: "Computer games have taught me the things you can't learn from people." Gamelife is the memoir of a childhood transformed by technology. Afternoons spent gazing at pixelated maps and mazes train Michael's eyes for the uncanny side of 1980s suburban Illinois. A game about pirates yields clues to the drama of cafeteria politics and locker-room hazing. And in the year of his parents' divorce, a spaceflight simulator opens a hole in reality.

Everywhere You Don't Belong

Everywhere You Don't Belong PDF Author: Gabriel Bump
Publisher: Algonquin Books
ISBN: 1643750224
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 267

Get Book Here

Book Description
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2020 Winner of the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence “A comically dark coming-of-age story about growing up on the South Side of Chicago, but it’s also social commentary at its finest, woven seamlessly into the work . . . Bump’s meditation on belonging and not belonging, where or with whom, how love is a way home no matter where you are, is handled so beautifully that you don’t know he’s hypnotized you until he’s done.” —Tommy Orange, The New York Times Book Review In this alternately witty and heartbreaking debut novel, Gabriel Bump gives us an unforgettable protagonist, Claude McKay Love. Claude isn’t dangerous or brilliant—he’s an average kid coping with abandonment, violence, riots, failed love, and societal pressures as he steers his way past the signposts of youth: childhood friendships, basketball tryouts, first love, first heartbreak, picking a college, moving away from home. Claude just wants a place where he can fit. As a young black man born on the South Side of Chicago, he is raised by his civil rights–era grandmother, who tries to shape him into a principled actor for change; yet when riots consume his neighborhood, he hesitates to take sides, unwilling to let race define his life. He decides to escape Chicago for another place, to go to college, to find a new identity, to leave the pressure cooker of his hometown behind. But as he discovers, he cannot; there is no safe haven for a young black man in this time and place called America. Percolating with fierceness and originality, attuned to the ironies inherent in our twenty-first-century landscape, Everywhere You Don’t Belong marks the arrival of a brilliant young talent.

Winter Is Coming

Winter Is Coming PDF Author: Garry Kasparov
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1610396219
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Get Book Here

Book Description
The stunning story of Russia's slide back into a dictatorship-and how the West is now paying the price for allowing it to happen. The ascension of Vladimir Putin-a former lieutenant colonel of the KGB-to the presidency of Russia in 1999 was a strong signal that the country was headed away from democracy. Yet in the intervening years-as America and the world's other leading powers have continued to appease him-Putin has grown not only into a dictator but an international threat. With his vast resources and nuclear arsenal, Putin is at the center of a worldwide assault on political liberty and the modern world order. For Garry Kasparov, none of this is news. He has been a vocal critic of Putin for over a decade, even leading the pro-democracy opposition to him in the farcical 2008 presidential election. Yet years of seeing his Cassandra-like prophecies about Putin's intentions fulfilled have left Kasparov with a darker truth: Putin's Russia, like ISIS or Al Qaeda, defines itself in opposition to the free countries of the world. As Putin has grown ever more powerful, the threat he poses has grown from local to regional and finally to global. In this urgent book, Kasparov shows that the collapse of the Soviet Union was not an endpoint-only a change of seasons, as the Cold War melted into a new spring. But now, after years of complacency and poor judgment, winter is once again upon us. Argued with the force of Kasparov's world-class intelligence, conviction, and hopes for his home country, Winter Is Coming reveals Putin for what he is: an existential danger hiding in plain sight.

Publication

Publication PDF Author: University of California, Berkeley
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : America
Languages : en
Pages : 518

Get Book Here

Book Description


100 Things Duke Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die

100 Things Duke Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die PDF Author: Johnny Moore
Publisher: Triumph Books
ISBN: 1633193543
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Get Book Here

Book Description
Perfect for Duke fans who think they already know everything 100 Things Duke Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die is the ultimate resource guide for true fans of the Blue Devils. Whether you're a die-hard booster from the days of Mike Gminski or a new supporter of Jahlil Okafor, these are the 100 things all fans needs to know and do in their lifetime. It lists figures from the Vic Bubas era to the current Coach K era—with stories on each of his four national championships and the players involved. The book also features the places all Duke fans needs to visit, such as the Angus Barn, and provides background on the university, including how it was founded and what makes the famed chapel such a special structure. Every essential piece of Blue Devils knowledge and trivia is here, as well as must-do activities, and ranks them all from 1 to 100, providing an entertaining and easy-to-follow checklist as you progress on your way to fan superstardom.

Quarterback Baby Daddy

Quarterback Baby Daddy PDF Author: Claire Adams
Publisher: Ownit Publishing LLC
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 430

Get Book Here

Book Description
One wild night leads Liza to become pregnant...and the starting quarterback doesn't know... Liza is a good girl who has her life planned out but it all goes to hell when she takes a dare to have one wild night. She aims high and catches the star quarterback. When an accidental pregnancy threatens to mess up her plans, she tries to do the right thing, only to be turned away. Five years later she and that quarterback cross paths again, only now she has a daughter she has to explain...

Adventure Games

Adventure Games PDF Author: Aaron A. Reed
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1501346555
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Get Book Here

Book Description
The genre of adventure games is frequently overlooked. Lacking the constantly-evolving graphics and graphic violence of their counterparts in first-person and third-person shooters or role-playing games, they are often marketed to and beloved by players outside of mainstream game communities. While often forgotten by both the industry and academia, adventure games have had (and continue to have) a surprisingly wide influence on contemporary games, in categories including walking simulators, hidden object games, visual novels, and bestselling titles from companies like Telltale and Campo Santo. In this examination of heirs to the genre's legacy, the authors examine the genre from multiple perspectives, connecting technical analysis with critical commentary and social context. This will be the first book to consider this important genre from a comprehensive and transdisciplinary perspective. Drawing upon methods from platform studies, software studies, media studies, and literary studies, they reveal the genre's ludic and narrative origins and patterns, where character (and the player's embodiment of a character) is essential to the experience of play and the choices within a game. A deep structural analysis of adventure games also uncovers an unsteady balance between sometimes contradictory elements of story, exploration, and puzzles: with different games and creators employing a multitude of different solutions to resolving this tension.

The Avengers in Video Games

The Avengers in Video Games PDF Author: Blair Farrell
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476641862
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Get Book Here

Book Description
For decades, Marvel Comics' superhero group the Avengers have captured the imagination of millions, whether in comics, multi-billion dollar grossing films or video games. Similar to the chronology of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Avengers video games first started with titles driven by single characters, like Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor and Captain America. Over time, the games grew to include more and more heroes, culminating in playing experiences that featured the Avengers assembled. This is the first-ever book assessing the video games starring "Earth's Mightiest Heroes." Featured games span consoles and platforms, from popular PlayStation and Xbox titles to an arcade game in danger of being lost to time. All video games are covered in depth, with each entry including game background and a detailed review from the author. Some game entries also include behind-the-scenes knowledge from the developers themselves, providing exclusive details on the Marvel video game universe.