The History of Defender: The Joys of Difficult Games

When Eugene Jarvis was developing the now-classic side-scrolling shoot-'em-up arcade game Defender for top pinball machine manufacturer Williams Electronics, he admits that the company's management was skeptical.

Furthermore, Defender's response at the November 1980 Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) trade show was indifferent at best. "They were afraid of this game," said Jarvis, reminiscing on the game's debut. "I guess it was all the buttons."

Unlike most games of the era, which featured at most a few buttons and a controller, Defender offered five buttons along with a joystick to perform the game's esoteric actions.

Nevertheless, despite its extraordinary difficulty, which was arguably balanced by the depth of the gameplay and strong audio-visuals, Defender became a smash hit for Williams.

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gamasutra.com
70°

5 Of The Best Narrative Twists In Video Games

GL compiles a list of some of the most mind-blowing video game narrative twists in recent memory, from The Last of Us to Outer Wilds

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gameluster.com
Rebel_Scum4d ago

With articles like these cant you tag the games mentioned so that we can know ahead of time if there’s a spoiler to avoid?

Not clicking on your article otherwise.

50°

The 5 best video game adaptations of popular board games

Discover our top video game adaptations of popular board games, from Bloodbowl to Wingspan & get your board game friends into video games!

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spawningpoint.com
100°

EKWB reportedly plagued with financial disarray many gaming pc's left without parts

EK Cooling allegedly has slipped itself into a hot soup of seemingly endless financial woes, where it has not paid its staff, suppliers, and contractors for many months as the company is facing liquidity problems and a surplus of inventory left unsold, stuck in the warehouse for a more extended period. Gamers Nexus investigated these claims made by former and current personnel, where he found trails of unpaid bills lasting as long as three to four months and unpaid raises that accumulated for almost a year.

EK Water Blocks has two entities—a Slovenian-based headquarters and a US-based subsidiary, EK Cooling Solutions. Steve narrated the series of events in detail, stating that the company was reportedly irresponsible and negligent regarding payment. Consequently, partners and employees are forced to share the burden of alleged mismanagement. It all begins with its extensive range of products, leading to a surplus of goods. EK has over 230 water blocks, 40 liquid cooling kits, 85 reservoirs, 40 pumps, 73 radiators, and 212 miscellaneous accessories.

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tomshardware.com
just_looken8d ago (Edited 8d ago )

Yes this is not about video games directly but indirectly this will impact the pc gaming/workstation space hard.

This company is massive one of two in the water cool space so if it goes poof then thousands out there have no spare parts or half built computers.

SO yeah i know not about a video game but think of it as amd leaving the pc space but this is ekwb that could be leaving water cooling in the pc space

Jayz2cents a supporter of there products also has issues
https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Giblet_Head6d ago (Edited 6d ago )

As someone that has built a watercooling rig. EK is big, but there's so many numerous watercooling part companies out there. EK's stuff isn't exactly amazing quality for the price compared to others either, it's just ok. Much like Corsair. The impact would be negligible long term. For perspective the majority of my parts are XSPC, at most I use EK for my gpu waterblocks and fittings. Both easily replaceable.