The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor.
A computing platform or digital platform is the environment in which a piece of software is executed. It may be the hardware or the operating system (OS), even a web browser and associated application programming interfaces, or other underlying software, as long as the program code is executed with it. Computing platforms have different abstraction levels, including a computer architecture, an OS, or runtime libraries. A computing platform is the stage on which computer programs can run.
The Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) is a volunteer-run Internet chess server. It was organised as a free alternative to the Internet Chess Club (ICC), after that site began charging for membership.
A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally or over the internet. During its early history, video games were often single-player-only activities, putting the player against pre-programmed challenges or AI-controlled opponents, which lack the flexibility of human thought. Multiplayer games allow players interaction with other individuals in partnership, competition or rivalry, providing them with social communication absent from single-player games. In multiplayer games, players may compete against one or more human contestants, work cooperatively with a human partner to achieve a common goal, supervise other players' activity, co-op. Multiplayer games usually require players to share the resources of a single game system or use networking technology to play together over a greater distance.
A browser game is a video game that is played over the Internet using a web browser. Browser games can be run using standard web technologies or browser plug-ins. The creation of such games usually involves use of standard web technologies as a frontend and other technologies to provide a backend. Browser games include all video game genres and can be single-player or multiplayer. Browser games are also portable and can be played on multiple different devices, web browsers, and operating systems.
Voice chat is telecommunication via voice over IP technologies—especially when those technologies are used among players in multiplayer online games.
An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PCs, consoles and mobile devices, and span many genres, including first-person shooters, strategy games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG).
Chessmaster is a chess-playing computer game series which is now owned and developed by Ubisoft. It is the best-selling chess franchise in history, with more than five million units sold as of 2002.
This article presents a number of methodologies that have been suggested for the task of comparing the greatest chess players in history. Statistical methods offer objectivity but, while there is agreement on systems to rate the strengths of current players, there is disagreement on whether such techniques can be applied to players from different generations who never competed against each other.
An Internet chess server (ICS) is an external server that provides the facility to play, discuss, and view the board game of chess over the Internet. The term specifically refers to facilities for connecting players through a variety of graphical chess clients located on each user's computer.
The World Chess Network (WCN) was a commercial Internet chess server devoted to the play and discussion of chess that launched in 1997 and closed ten years later in 2007 when it was bought by Internet Chess Club and merged with Chess Live to form World Chess Live. As a typical chess server, the network provided basic services such as the conduction of live chess games over the Internet between two human players. Chess tournaments were occasionally conducted by the service, including a select few matches between known chess Grandmasters where spectators could watch the game in real-time. During its heyday, the network was frequented by professional chess players including notable Grandmasters like Elena Donaldson, Susan Polgar, Larry Christiansen and Larry Evans.
Chessmetrics is a system for rating chess players devised by Jeff Sonas. It is intended as an improvement over the Elo rating system.
Guitar Hero Mobile is a series of rhythm video games in the Guitar Hero series, adapting the normal console-based gameplay which uses a guitar-shaped controller to match notes of popular rock music songs to work with the face buttons on advanced mobile phones, including BlackBerry devices and those supporting the Windows Mobile platform. The first three games in the series—Guitar Hero III Mobile, Guitar Hero Backstage Pass, and Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile—were developed by MachineWorks Northwest LLC and published by Hands-On Mobile, while a mobile version of Guitar Hero 5 was developed by Glu Mobile. The series has proven to be popular; the Guitar Hero III Mobile game has been downloaded more than 2 million times, and over 250,000 songs are played each day across the series.
Rockstar Games Social Club is a digital rights management, multiplayer and communications service provided by Rockstar Games for use with their latest generation of games. Rockstar Games Social Club was first announced on March 27, 2008, with pre-registration beginning on April 14, 2008. However, that date was moved to April 17, 2008. The name is a reference to organized crime, which commonly uses the term "social club" to describe a meeting place or hideout. The service received a major update in 2012, prior to the release of Max Payne 3, with the addition of social networking features and a "crews" system that allows players to form groups and combine their achievements to unlock bonus features.
John Criswick is a Canadian entrepreneur focused on mobile entertainment and mobile software.
Galcon is a series of real-time strategy video games for Android, iPhone, webOS, Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Flash, which were developed by Phil Hassey. It is set in space and involves maneuvering fleets of ships to capture enemy planets.
Ka-Glom! is a puzzle game created and published by mobile games developer Magmic Inc. Originally developed for BlackBerry in 2006, it has since been ported to Java, Windows Mobile, and Apple iOS devices. It is similar to the Japanese video game Puyo Puyo originally released in 1991 by Compile for the MSX2.
Magmic Inc. is an Ottawa-based developer and publisher of mobile entertainment and lifestyle software. Founded in 2002, they produce original and licensed apps for a variety of mobile platforms, including Java ME, BREW, Sidekick, Windows Mobile, Apple iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.
The Texas Hold’em King franchise is a series of games for mobile devices based on the popular version of poker, Texas Hold 'em. Developed by Ottawa-based Magmic Games, the titles have been ported to a number of devices all leading to the latest version with varied features taking one version a step up from the last.
Vainglory is a video game developed and published by Super Evil Megacorp for iOS, Android and PC. The game is a version of the MOBA genre wherein two opposing teams of three or five players fight to destroy the enemy by controlling the path between the bases, which is lined by turrets and guarded by AI-controlled enemy creatures. Off the path, players battle for control points that provide resources. The game was released for iOS in November 2014, after being soft-launched for over half a year, with the Android version being released in July 2015. A Mac and Microsoft Windows version of the game was released in July 2018. Through cross-platform play, players on all four platforms can play together simultaneously.
