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Sure, these days have almost every game sporting the newfangled 3D, but way back when, everyone had to live with plain old 2D. 2D, or two dimensions, limit the game to scrolling backgrounds, but some games even now make use of this basic concept.
Games whose titles consist of a single word.
An online retro gaming streaming platform.
A two-dimensional image or animation overlaid into a scene. The foundation of early 2D games, making up everything from props to the player-controlled character.
It's arguably the one move that symbolizes the medium to those outside it. The ability to jump, be it onto a building, a platform, or a skull, is one of the all time most important abilities ever put in a video game.
The concept of lives in video games evolved to let the player get a second chance after failing once. The most recognizable symbol is the heart.
A level in which everything is displayed on-screen at once, with no scrolling, flip screen, or 3D movement. Many '80s games consist entirely of single-screen levels.
Game Over originally appeared in pinball machines, and later, arcade machines. When players lose at a game, it is game over.
Pixel art refers to digital images composed of visible pixels, drawn with individual pixel-level intent and precision.
In text based games, most, if not all the game play, or graphics is created with words.
8-bit can be a reference to actual computing power, or it can be a retro look for videogames that want to recall a bygone era.
In many games there is a ranking system, the players with the highest point value are listed in a "high score" table.
Games that earned the "ASM-Hit"-Award. ASM (Aktueller Software Markt) was a popular German multi-platform computer games magazine that was published from 1986 until 1995.
A situation where the player-controlled character loses their life immediately. The quickness of that demise is often a stark departure from the balance of power, and sometimes the rules, established by the developers during the rest of the game.
Games that can be played with a CGA monitor and graphics card. CGA, Color Graphics Adapter was the first generation of color graphics for the IBM PC.
The concept of purchasing media and having it delivered over the internet. No physical representation of this content is given, and although the content resides on the user's hard drive they are typically granted a license to the product, rather than ownership of it.
This concept is for games in which at least one of the main characters is male.
The main line of distinction between victory or failure in video games, death is the process of a biological being ceasing to be alive.
These spooky entities are the spirits of the dead, returned from beyond their graves for generally sinister purposes. There's generally about even odds whether a particular ghost will be helpful or malevolent towards the living, but some ghosts just want to be left alone entirely.
Chiptunes are musical compositions that are synthesized by a computer or console sound chip.
Sometimes, for one reason or another, a game will never actually tell you exactly where you are. Usually, this does not negatively impact the gameplay. Usually.
Survival is a concept that signifies that the player's life is constantly in jeopardy.
A circumstance in video games where the player will defeat large numbers of enemies without any assistance from AI or other players. This may occur for part of a game or the entirety of it.
Any game that does not have any written or spoken dialogue in it, regardless if it has characters or not. This includes any text or recorded dialogue that is spoken by a character or narrator, but not text such as "Press Start".
These games are based off of established licenses, such as movies, comics, or TV shows. Examples are the James Bond 007 and Spider-Man franchises.
Interactive fiction is a format that uses text to describe characters and objects within a setting, and the use of a parser to interpret text typed by the player, allowing the player to interact with the characters and objects within the setting.
Anthropomorphism is the concept of an object, concept or character that has human qualities or traits, such as speech, a level of intelligence similar or higher than a human's and self consciousness. "Anthro" means "of human" and related to the concept of humanity.
Collectibles are items such as coins, rings, gems, packages etc. that can be gathered, usually for some kind of reward, or sometimes to simply beat a level. Often (almost too often) the source of earning achievements and trophies on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Whether it be a close up shotgun blast, far away sniper rifle, explosive, or backstab, the "one hit kill" is a popular kill strategy. Usually hard to master and even harder to avoid, the instant kill is loved and hated by gamers everywhere.
Ever since Pac-Man, games have had us navigating mazes.
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