System Shock is a 1994 first-person action role-playing video game
developed by Looking Glass Technologies and published by Origin Systems.
It was directed by Doug Church with Warren Spector (pictured) serving as
producer. The game is set aboard a space station in a cyberpunk vision
of the year 2072. Assuming the role of a nameless hacker, the player
attempts to hinder the plans of a malevolent artificial intelligence
called SHODAN. System Shock's 3D engine, physics simulation and complex
gameplay have been cited as both innovative and influential. The
developers sought to build on the emergent gameplay and immersive
environments of their previous games, Ultima Underworld: The Stygian
Abyss and Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds, by streamlining
their mechanics into a more "integrated whole". Critics praised System
Shock and hailed it as a major breakthrough in its genre. It was later
placed on multiple hall of fame lists. The game was a moderate
commercial success, with sales exceeding 170,000 copies; but Looking
Glass ultimately lost money on the project. A sequel, System Shock 2,
was released by Looking Glass Studios and off-shoot developer Irrational
Games in 1999.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Shock>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1586:
Eighty Years' War: Spanish forces were victorious against a
combined Anglo-Dutch army in the Battle of Zutphen.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Zutphen>
1792:
French Revolution: One day after the National Convention voted
to abolish the monarchy, the French First Republic came into being.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_First_Republic>
1914:
World War I: German naval forces bombarded Papeete in French
Polynesia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardment_of_Papeete>
1934:
One of Britain's worst mining accidents took place when an
explosion at Gresford Colliery in Wales, killed 266 men.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresford_disaster>
1994:
The Nordhordland Bridge (pictured), which crosses Salhusfjorden
between Klauvaneset and Flatøy in Hordaland, and is the second-longest
bridge in Norway, was officially opened.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordhordland_Bridge>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
voetsek:
Go away! Get lost! Exclamation of dismissal or rejection.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/voetsek>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Electricity is often called wonderful, beautiful; but it is so
only in common with the other forces of nature. The beauty of
electricity or of any other force is not that the power is mysterious,
and unexpected, touching every sense at unawares in turn, but that it is
under law, and that the taught intellect can even now govern it largely.
The human mind is placed above, and not beneath it, and it is in such a
point of view that the mental education afforded by science is rendered
super-eminent in dignity, in practical application and utility; for by
enabling the mind to apply the natural power through law, it conveys the
gifts of God to man.
--Michael Faraday
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Faraday>