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20080730.144615
i added amazon context links... just because i can... if they're not too obtrusive... i'll leave them
20080114.231544
enabled mod_deflate on andromeda. the site is now seeing an estimated 80% reduction in overall size for clients to download
20080109.022443
added an rss 2.0 feed for the news at http://www.subnova.com/news/rss/. it will show the 14 most recent posts
20070823.031056
updated cq calculations so that if a member doesn't login to the website in the past 77 days, the contribution points start vanishing in a hurry... tanking the irank
20070823.024814
removed the referral ads from the bottom of the main content area
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105: Revenge is a Dish Best Served on a Go Board
Written by Dr. Dizaster
The Japanese board game go, often likened to the far east version of Chess, has cropped up numerous times in the history of the game industry, almost always under unpleasant circumstances.
When Atari was in desperate need of money to expand its business, the only firm willing to pick up the tab was Warner Communications. Content at first to simply fund the operation and take a cut of the profits, eventually they began to take a controlling interest in the company, instituting its own policies and inserting managers and other high-level employees where it felt it was necessary.
Eventually, the age-old corporate lifestyle of Warner's board of directors chaffed with Atari's free-wheeling pot-smoking (It was said you could get a contact high by walking from one end of the manufacturing plant to the other) lifestyle. A fierce tug-of-war ensued, but Warner had far more clout than Atari did, and Atari's leader, Nolan Bushnell, was ousted. As part of the takeover, Bushnell was forced to sign a no-compete clause, stating that he would have nothing to do with the gaming industry for seven years. (At least, not on a professional level.)
Seven years later, to the day, and the situation looks very different. Atari is collapsing around itself, counting quarterly losses in the 9-digit category. Bushnell has managed to bankroll what properties he's managed to keep (Including Chuck E. Cheese, of which Nintendo was a singular franchisee at one point) into a fairly sizeable bank account.
Bushnell has been working behind the scenes for years, incubating others' ideas and innovating some of his own. On the day his no-compete clause expires, Bushnell announces he is to begin heading up a new company. Grinning like only one who is striking back can, he announces at the press conference that the name of the new company is Sente.
Now, in go, the word "Atari" is roughly analagous to the term "Check" in Chess. Having been expelled from Atari, Bushnell's revenge- Starting a new company whilst Atari sank to its knees- seems fitting. "Sente" means "Checkmate" in go.
Go would crop up again in the history of another video game giant, this time Nintendo. While go was the favored game of Nintendo's president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, the word tengen, relating to the center of the board, would become a thorn in their side for years... |
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Slackers.
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