Iridion 3D is a quasi-3D rail shooter game for the Game Boy Advance
developed by Shin'en. A launch title for the Game Boy Advance, it was
released in North America on May 29, 2001, and in Europe on September
21 of the same year. Influenced by the Commodore 64 game Uridium,
Iridion features a single starship waging war against the alien Iridion
that have attacked Earth. The game spans seven levels from Earth to the
alien's home planet, each with a fixed linear path that ends with a
boss. Iridion began development as a shooter for the Game Boy Color;
when Shin'en decided to drop development and shift their focus to the
Game Boy Advance, Iridion was the first game by the developer to appear
on the system. Though billed as a 3D game, Shin'en used realtime
encoding and resizing to manipulate the size of 2D sprites instead of
creating a true 3D environment. More room on the game cartridge was
available for graphics due to the game's use of the GAX Sound Engine,
which allowed real-time decoding of song data in a small file size. On
release Iridion garnered generally poor reviews. The graphics and sound
were generally praised; even a year after its release, critics at
TechTV considered it the best-looking game on the platform. In
contrast, critics derided the game's repetitive and frustrating
gameplay. Despite lukewarm reception to the title upon release, Iridion
3D influenced future Shin'en shooters such as Iridion II and Nanostray.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridion_3D>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1461:
Yorkist troops defeated Lancastrian forces at the Battle of Towton in
Yorkshire, England, the largest battle in the Wars of the Roses up
until that time with approximately 20,000 casualties.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Towton>
1638:
Swedish settlers founded New Sweden near Delaware Bay, the first
Swedish colony in America.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Sweden>
1807:
German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovered 4 Vesta,
the brightest asteroid and the second-most massive body in the asteroid
belt.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_Vesta>
1871:
The Royal Albert Hall in Albertopolis, London, was officially opened
by Queen Victoria.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Albert_Hall>
1911:
The M1911 single-action, semi-automatic pistol developed by American
firearms designer John Browning became the standard-issue side arm in
the United States Army.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1911_pistol>
1981:
Over 6,000 athletes took part in the first running of the London
Marathon.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Marathon>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
one fell swoop (n):
(idiomatic) One stroke; one action or event with many results
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/one_fell_swoop>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
On seeing his shadow fall on such ancient rocks, he had to question
himself in a different context and ask the same old question as before,
"Who am I?", and the answer now came more emphatically than ever
before, "No-one."
But a no-one with a crown of light about his head. He would remember
a verse from Pindar: "Man is a dream about a shadow. But when some
splendour falls upon him from God, a glory comes to him and his life is
sweet."
--R. S. Thomas
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/R._S._Thomas>
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