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word	definition
16-bit	1) The processing power of a chip or system, refers to how many bits of information can be handled by the processor at once. Can also refer to the width of a bus or data path. 2) A way of describing graphic power. 16-bit color is usually 32,000 colors - 15 bits of color, with one check-bit. In some cases, 16-bit color is 64,000 colors. See also bit.
1T-SRAM	MoSys 1T-SRAM technology (which is available in densities up to 128Mbits) uses a single transistor cell to achieve high density while maintaining the refresh-free interface and low latency random access memory access cycle time associated with traditional six-transistor SRAM cells. Embedded 1T-SRAM, as used in the Dolphin console, enables designers to get beyond the density limits of six-transistor SRAMs. It also reduces much of the circuit complexity and extra cost associated with using embedded DRAM. 1T-SRAM memories can be fabricated in either pure logic or embedded memory processes using as little as one ninth of the area of traditional six-transistor SRAM cores. In addition to the high performance and density, this technology offers dramatic power consumption savings by using under a quarter of the power of traditional SRAM memories. "1T" refers to the single transistor feature while the "S" means that the RAM is static as opposed to dynamic (DRAM). The static nature of the SRAM is intended to give the Gekko chip immediate access to all the info it needs which should give the Dolphin its incredible speed.
2D Fighting Game	A sub-category of fighting game (see fighting game) in which the characters are represented by flat bitmapped sprites, and are generally fighting along a single face-to-face plane (although some examples may have more than one plane), enabling characters to hop from the foreground to the background (Fatal Fury series). The sprites can be hand-drawn (Street Fighter II), digitized from actors (Mortal Kombat), or pre-rendered 3D models (Killer Instinct).
32 bit	1) The processing power of a chip or system which refers to how many bits of information can be handled by the processor at once. Can also refer to the width of a bus or data path. 2) A way of describing graphics power; 32-bit color is 16,000,000 colors - 24 bits of color, with eight check-bits. See also bit.
32X	An underpowered 32-bit add on for Sega Genesis that plugged into the cartridge slot. The 32X had two 23 MHz RISC processors, and could lay an additional layer of graphics over the standard Genesis display. It could display more colors than the standard Genesis display as well. Introduced at Christmas 1993, it never caught on. Almost all 32X projects in development were canceled by Sega in late 1995, due to lack of system support.
3D Accelerator	A hardware add-in board that speeds 3D operations on PCs, accelerators are not optimized for displaying graphics.
3D Fighting Game	A sub-category of fighting game (see fighting game) in which the characters are represented by 3D polygon models rendered on the fly by the game machine, and where combat isn't restricted to a single line, allowing characters to dodge and roll from side-to-side. The first example was Sega's Virtua Fighter.
3DO	A 32-bit system introduced in 1993, this console has an ARM60 RISC processor operating at 12.5 MHz. Originally pushed as a $700 "multimedia machine," it languished until the price dropped and games were emphasized. Still, 3D0 stopped production in 1996 due to insufficient sales.
5.1	Short for 5.1 Surround Sound, such as Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS. This is a discrete 5.1 channel soundtrack encoded to an AC-3 bitstream. If played with Dolby Digital decoding circuitry, discrete sound can be heard from six speakers (five speaker channels and one .1 LFE subwoofer channel).
5200	A classic system released by Atari as a follow-up to the 2600 in 1983. In addition to a pause button, better graphics and sound than the 2600, it sported joysticks which did not center themselves when released, rendering many games nearly unplayable.
64 GB Pak	The Japanese name of Nintendo's plug-in interface between the Game Boy and the N64. The device attaches to a standard N64 controller and offers the ability to import game data from a Game Boy game into an N64 title. First supported title: Pokemon Stadium.
64-bit	The processing power of a chip or system, 64 bit refers to how many bits of information can be handled by the processor at once. Can also refer to the width of a bus or data path. See also bit.
64DD	Nintendo's disk drive attachment for the N64. Proprietary "ZIP-like" disks hold up to 64MB of data. Programmers can designate more than half of that space as writable space, to store game data, customization code, and so on. The DD also includes a ROM chip with new sound samples and a network adapter. Requires a memory expansion to work. The 64DD was released in Japan in November 1999.
7800	Follow up to the 2600 and 5200 (2600 + 5200 = 7800), this 8-bit system was shelved by Atari in 1983, and not released until the NES took off after 1985. It never had the following of the NES and suffered from too little third-party development. The system could play 2600 games as well as games designed for it.
8-bit	1) The processing power of a chip or system. Refers to how many bits of information can be handled by the processor at once. Can also refer to the width of a bus or data path. 2) A way of describing graphics power. Eight-bit color is 256 colors. See also bit.

word	definition
ABI	Stands for Audio Binary Interface. Specifically, the portion of the Nintendo 64's software libraries used to control the microcode for music and sound effects.
Action Game	A game characterized by simple action and response gameplay. This is the broadest category of games, there are many variants and sub-genres, and not many games fit neatly into just one. Under the most basic definition the player's on-screen character can run, jump, roll, shoot or fly, but the defining obstacles are overcome by "physical means", rather than involved intellectual problem solving. Examples include some of the earliest videogames (Donkey Kong), but the genre also includes more recent 3D efforts (Jumping Flash!)
Action-Adventure	A game which is nearly all action (see action game), but that also includes a good deal of strategy and more advanced problem solving. Often this is simply in the form of finding the correct series of buttons, levers, switches, etc. which can give the player access to new stages and levels (Shigeru Miyamoto's Mario World series) but can be much more complicated and include collecting special objects for later use (Zelda 2, Soul Blazer).
Active Matrix	Also known as Thin Film Transistor (TFT), Active Matrix is a type of LCD flat panel display in which each pixel is controlled by one to four transistors. TFT displays sport the best resolution of all flat panels, but are also the most expensive.
Affiliate Label	A company whose products are packaged and distributed (and sometimes manufactured) but not marketed, by a publisher who does not own the company is known as an "affiliate label" to the publisher.
AI (Artificial Intelligence)	A set of computer instructions or algorithms designed to simulate the actions of an intelligent being.
AL (Artificial Life)	In a nutshell, AL is the antithesis of AI. While AI seeks to simulate real-world behavior by following a complex series of rules, AL starts with very simple rules for a system and enables complex behavior to emerge from them. Galapagos from Anark is the first commercial game to use AL, but rumors abound that several AL based RPGs are in the works.
Algorithm	An algorithm is a group of instructions for performing a task or solving a problem, such as an algebraic formula or a program for a computer. Many 2D fighting games from the same companies have the same algorithms, except different graphics are used.
Alias Power Animator	Alias's 3D surface modeling and animation software package. In addition to the creation of polygon models for videogames, Alias is used extensively in the movie industry to create special effects in major blockbuster movies like Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park.
Aliasing	A digital phenomenon. In the realm of graphics, when trying to display an image on a portion of the screen where the resolution is too low to display its details correctly, aliasing can occur. Edges look jagged instead of smooth, moire patterns develop in fine parallel lines and the image quality is degraded overall. The problem is most prevalent in diagonal lines.
Alpha	The first playable version of a game. Alpha software generally barely runs and is missing major features like gameplay and complete levels. See also Beta. Also: The transparency of pixels in bitmap images. See "Alpha Channel."
Alpha Channel	The alpha channel is an extra 8-bits of information that is sent to the screen in the RGB color model (see RGB), it doesn't show up as red, green or blue, but it has uses in numerous special effects. It is particularly useful in communicating transparency in objects. An alpha value of 100% would be totally opaque, 50% would be translucent, and 0% is completely transparent.
Amiga	Started by R.J. Mical and David Needle, this company made add-ons for the Atari 2600 before creating a true multitasking computer, the Amiga, which was released by Commodore. The company was acquired by Commodore and the name can also generally refer to the computer, which was not successful in the US except in vertical markets for video processing and editing. The Amiga attempted a comeback in 1997 with PowerPC based systems, but it never managed to stir mass market interest.
AMOA (Amusement and Music Operators Association)	A trade group representing companies and individuals involved in the coin-op machine industry, from cigarette units to arcade videogames to redemption machines.
Analog	Way of representing information (such as the position of a joystick or the height of a soundwave) that uses a continuous range of values. Contrast with digital.
Anti-aliasing	A graphics procedure designed to eliminate a stair-stepping effect, known as jaggies, occurring at low resolutions. It works by blurring pixels at edges of lines to make the difference between two color areas less dramatic.
API (Application Programming Interface)	Originally for rich operating systems, a published set of standard routines/functions for a specific task, which can mesh with code libraries. Both Windows 95 and the MacOS are now touting APIs specifically written to aid in game development. Microsoft is pushing the DirectX APIs while Apple is promoting its GameSprocket APIs.
Arcade	A place where one can play coin-operation amusement machines, from videogames to pinball to redemption machines which dispense tickets that can be traded in for prizes.
Arcade Conversion	An arcade facsimile found on home systems. These games are rarely straight conversions because, despite the claims of every home-system manufacturer, arcade systems are usually one or two steps beyond home systems in terms of resolution, speed and graphic power.
Arcade Game	A coin-operated videogame.
Arcade Perfect	A term used to describe a flawless conversion of an arcade game to a home system.
ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit)	Simply a custom chip dedicated to a single task, like processing graphics.
Atari VCS/2600	The first home videogame system to achieve major consumer success, the Atari VCS (Video Computer System), later renamed the 2600, sported an 1.19 MHz 6507 processor and 128 bytes of RAM. Games came on ROM cartridges. Graphically primitive to today's eyes, it was amazingly popular, creating an awesome boom and raking in hundreds of millions of dollars for Atari, a division of Warner Bros. Eventually the market became super saturated with bad games and crashed between 1983 and 1984.
Away Team	A group of marketers and producers at Sega who spearheaded the introduction of the Saturn into the US market (formerly known as Tiger Team).

word	definition
Bandwidth	A measurement of how many bits of information can be transmitted at a given time, it is generally used as a generic jargon term (e.g. "the Net doesn't have enough bandwidth to transmit video, dude") rather than a technical term (e.g. "the bandwidth of X is Y").
Battery Back-up	In cartridges, a long life battery is often used to preserve the contents of small RAM chips, for the purpose of saving one's place in a game after the system is turned off. Battery back-ups are used in PCs to save preference settings, clock times, etc.
Baud	Measurement of the data transmission speed of a telephone or network. At low speeds, the baud rate is equal to the number of the number of bits transmitted per second, thus it is often used incorrectly as a synonym for bits per second (see BPS).
Beat-'em-up	See Fighting Game.
Beta	Software nearing the release stage of development that still contains bugs or other problems. At the beta stage, software is stable enough to distribute to reviewers and to show retailers: all the final play elements should be in place.
Bilinear Interpolation	A technique used to improve the appearance of a textured surface when viewed at a given distance by blending the colors of adjacent texels.
Bit	1) Contraction of Binary digIT. The smallest discrete unit of information available to a computing device. Since all non-esoteric modern computing devices are binary, a bit is usually represented as a 1 or a 0, meaning on or off. 2) The bit is the basic measuring device for information in computers and videogames. It used to measure computing power of systems, referring to how many bits the microprocessor or CPU of the system could process at once. An 8-bit system, like the original NES, works with 8-bit "words" and is less powerful than a 16-bit system, like the Genesis or Super NES, which can process 16-bit "words". This is confusing because often a system will have different processors using differently sized bit "words". The NEC TurboGrafx had an 8-bit CPU but a 16-bit graphics chip. The Atari Jaguar uses 16-, 32-bit and 64-bit chips but has a 64-bit wide bus. 3) The color generation capability of a system is also measured in bits. Color on a computer screen is made up by combining different intensities of red, green and blue in a pixel. The number of colors a system can generate is measured in bits. In general, the formula is 2^x, where X is the number of bits, shows how many colors can be generated. number of colors a system can be generated. Thus, 8-bit color is 256 colors, 4-bit color is 16 colors, and so on. Sometimes with 16- and 32-bit color, some bits are used as check-bits or for generating alpha channels, and are unavailable for actual color generation.
Bitmap	A 2D digital image. A bitmap exists in the computer's memory as an exact representation of the image. Strictly speaking, a bitmap refers to images that are bi-level (that is, each pixel in the image is either "off" or "on" as in black or white), but the term is commonly used in place of the correct term, "pixmap" to describe color digital images (similar to the way that "font", which means one typeface at a specific size, and style has come to be synonymous with the term "typeface" which refers to every font of a given typeface). Every pixel in the image is stored (mapped) in memory at a specific location. ("Pixel 1, line 1 has a color value of X, pixel 2 line 1 has a color value of Y, etc.) Backgrounds and sprites are examples of bitmaps. Storing bitmaps takes a very large amount of computer memory.
Blast Processing	A marketing term coined by Sega to promote Sonic 2. It referred to a then-new graphics routine which supposedly gave the Genesis faster graphics processing.
Blitter	Stands for Block Image Transferer. A blitter is a device that enables a system to copy data directly from memory to the screen without going through a graphics processor. It is the fastest way to put an image on screen but it is very crude graphics can't be altered when they are "blittered."
Bonus Level	A level or stage in a game where the character can not be hurt, but can gain special items like free guys, power-ups or extra points. Typically bonus levels are either hidden and require discovery or appear after a certain number of regular levels have been completed.
Boot Chip	Special circuitry Nintendo uses in its Nintendo 64 to prevent game piracy.
Boot, Boot Up	To start a computer system - the term was originally called IPL (initial program load), but later the word "boot" came as a shortening of the phrase "boot-strap process." During the boot, a computer checks set locations on a disk to be told the location of the machine's operating system.
Boss	A larger, more powerful and more difficult to defeat enemy than those normally encountered in a game. A typical boss is a singular enemy fought only once, usually at or near the end of a level or stage (see level, stage). In some games it may be encountered several times, but may be more powerful and difficult to defeat each time. If the same boss is encountered multiple times, it generally requires a different strategy to defeat each time.
BPS	An acronym for bits per second. It is a technically accurate term for measuring the speed at which data can be transmitted over a telephone or a network line.
BSP (Binary Space Partition ) Tree	The Binary Space Partition Tree is a somewhat new and very popular method of backface culling. It allows the game to "walk" a tree which tells how objects relate to one another in the 3D world. The file ends up looking graphically like a tree, with recursive branches going out all over. To perform the action, a head object is chosen. The program follows the tree, and must decide to go left or right down the tree. By progressing in this manner, all objects can be drawn in proper order, eliminating improper polygon drawing. This technique is used in games such as Quake. Note: BSP Trees can only be used for objects which do not move such as walls or immovable objects in an arena.
Bug	An unintentional flaw in a computer program. When encountered by the user it often generates unexpected or erroneous results. For example, a bug in EA's NHL Hockey '95 prevents players with extremely good records for their hockey teams in the regular season from entering the playoffs.
Bulky Drive	Working title for the Nintendo 64's Disk Drive add-on, the 64DD. Derived from the term "bulk media," meaning capable of storing large amounts of data.
Bump Mapping	A technique used in graphics to simulate rough or bumpy textures with irregularities in shading.
Bus	The pathway between devices (usually chips) on a circuit board. A wide bus carries more bits of information and is thus faster than a narrower bus.
Byte	The standard size "word" used in computer memory. It is comprised of eight bits.

word	definition
Cache	Special RAM (sometimes built into the processor) in which frequently accessed pieces of information can be stored to avoid having to search the entire memory bank for them. Caches can greatly speed the execution of a program.
Cache Coherent Memory	Systems which have more than one processor (like Sega Saturn) often have more than one cache. Cache coherent memory means that the processor will check both its own, and any other processors' caches, when writing to or reading from memory, to make sure it is always writing to or reading from the most up-to-date memory, whether that's in another processors' cache or general memory.
Cartridge	A small device, containing chips, designed to be inserted into a computer or system. It contains either ROM chips with program information or RAM chips (generally for saving information). Before the advent of CD-ROMs, most videogames for home systems used to come on cartridges (also called "carts").
CD-i	A CD-ROM standard designed by Philips that could only be played in its proprietary CD-i consoles. Marketed as a high-end multimedia machine, it was slaughtered in the marketplace by cheap multimedia PCs. A last ditch attempt in 1994 to emphasize the gameplaying aspects of the system failed as well.
CD-Recordable	A CD which can be written to by using a special hardware device. In actual CDs, pits carved into the surface of the CD are read by the laser in the CD-ROM drive. CD-Recordables, or CD-Rs, simulate the pits by putting ink spots on the CD. CD-Rs are generally gold in color, not silver or black.
CD-ROM	A compact disc, similar to an audio CD, containing information that can be read by a computer or console. Since CDs can only be written to once (using special equipment), they are functionally read-only in nature, hence the suffix ROM (see ROM). CD-ROMS can hold about 650 megabytes (650 million bytes), far more than a magnetic disk or cartridge, allowing them to store memory intensive data, like video. Reading from a CD-ROM is far slower than reading from a cartridge or magnetic disk.
CD-X	Compact Sega Genesis/Sega CD combo that sold at $399, it barely made it into production. If you've got one, it's a collector's item.
CES	Consumer Electronics Show. A huge trade show for consumer electronics, like stereos and TVs. Until E3, it was also the premier trade show for video and computer games. Although some companies still have a presence at CES, its influence is greatly diminished.
CGA (Color Graphics Architecture)	A graphics standard designed for XT machines. CGA cards were capable of displaying graphics at 320x200 and 4 colors - black, white, magenta, and cyan. Even for the time (early 1980s), these graphics were terrible, paling in comparison to other color machines available on the market.
Chance	Used for "life" in many Disney games, since Disney prefers not to insinuate that its cute characters could die. See life.
Cheats	Codes or tricks that are programmed into a game which give the player special abilities, like invulnerability or extra weapons. Cheats are often programmed into games to facilitate easy testing, and left in to add depth. Many magazines print cheats for games that they have discovered.
Chip	A generic term for a semi-conducting integrated circuit. Chips are generally nearly flat black quadrangles a few millimeters thick. They are far faster than transistors or vacuum tubes (to put it mildly).
Cinepak Compression	Video compression standard developed by Apple. It provides excellent compression and good video quality. It is an asynchronous compression process - it takes orders of magnitude longer to compress video than to play it back.
CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer)	The traditional architecture of a computer processor, it accepts instructions which it then interprets. CISC chips can process more complex instructions than RISC chips, which makes them easier to program for, but they deliver slower performance at comparable speeds. Thus, a 20 MHz CISC chip will, all things being equal, be slower than a 20 MHz RISC chip. The Motorola 680X0 and Intel X86 and Pentium chips are examples of CISC chips. Contrast with RISC.
Classic	In game terms, a classic game is an old game that still has excellent replay value, like Pac-Man. More generically, it is used to describe consoles and software from before the crash of '83-'84, like the Atari 2600 and Intellivision and games like Combat, Target Fun, and Ninja Golf - whether or not they were actually classic in the fun-to-play sense.
Claymation	A form of stop-motion animation that uses easily malleable characters. Examples include Gumby, the California Raisin ads, and Clayfighter from Interplay.
Clipping	A process that occurs in 3D graphics. If an object in 3D space cannot be viewed, it is not drawn by the computer. If it can be seen, it is drawn. If only part of the object can be seen, it is "clipped" and the visible portions are drawn. Computing the portions which are visible takes many more processor cycles than simply drawing or not drawing an object. Sloppy programming can result in improper clipping, so that when the view is very close to the edge of an object, it may not be drawn when it is supposed to be.
Clock Speed	The speed at which a computer chip operates, usually measured in Megahertz (MHz).
CLUT	Color Look Up Table. See color palette.
Coaster	A CD-ROM which is so terrible that it has more functionality as a coaster for drinks than it does when inserted into a computer or game system.
Code	1) A series of key clicks or button presses in a game that can activate a cheat. See cheat. 2) The program instructions that run a computer or console. See source code.
Codec	A piece of software which COmpresses and DECompresses a stream of data, typically video or audio. MPEG and Cinepak are examples of video codecs.
Coin-op	Any coin-operated machine. Usually refers to a coin-operated arcade videogame.
Coleco	A videogame pioneer, Coleco designed the first digital home videogame system in 1976, the TelStar arcade, which could only play one type of game, Pong. A cartridge-based system, the ColecoVision, followed in 1982. The ADAM computer (1984) was released just as the home computer and videogame industries crashed simultaneously. Coleco is actually an acronym for COnnecticut LEather COmpany.
ColecoVision	A cartridge system introduced by Coleco in 1982. It was far more powerful than the other systems available at the time (the Intellivision and Atari 2600). Although it sold more than 500,000 units in two years, it didn't have the installed base to survive the crash of '83-'84 and was discontinued in '84.
Color Palette	Can refer to two things. The color palette may be the total number of colors a system is capable of generating, even if they cannot all be displayed at once (the Genesis can display 64 colors from a palette of 65,000), or it may refer to the (64, say) colors that are being used on-screen at that time, in which case it would more correctly be referred to as a CLUT. Since 32-bit systems can generally display thousands or millions of colors simultaneously, discussion of color palettes is rapidly becoming archaic. Creating custom, well designed CLUTs is still a factor on PCs which can display only 256 colors, however.
Combo	In a fighting game, a "combo" is a combination of moves executed in rapid sequence, often following so closely together that the opponent has no time to respond. In some recent games (Killer Instinct being the first) combos can do more damage to the other character than the sum of the damage inflicted by the individual moves. Some moves are only available during or after combos.
COMDEX	A massive PC industry trade show at which many PC game companies have displays and provide demonstrations.
Commodore 64	A classic 64 K computer introduced by Commodore in 1982. It had a cartridge slot and was originally intended to be used with a cassette tape as the storage mechanism. It was very inexpensive, but displayed only 40 characters across the screen at a time and was functionally unexpandable. It had better graphic abilities than a stock Apple II, but not the Apple IIe.
Compilation	A collection of old games, presented as a single package. Compilations of classic games are becoming more popular with companies who want to cash in on past hits: Williams, Namco, Activision, Atari and others are releasing versions of classic games which run on modern systems.
Compiler	A piece of software that converts source code written in a high-level language (such as C) to object code (typically Assembly language) that a microprocessor can run. Also can be used as a noun, compile to refer to the object code itself.
Console	A computer dedicated to playing videogames. A console generally has a very limited input mechanism (a joypad). Examples include Nintedo 64, Sega Saturn, and Sony PlayStation.
Continue	In arcades, when a game is over, one is often presented with the opportunity to continue where one died (instead of starting over at the beginning of the game) by inserting another quarter or token. Most home games also have the continue option, but have a limit of some set number of continues to prevent one from finishing the game the first time it is played.
Controller Pak	Nintendo's proprietary data storage card plugs into the N64's controller and stores up to 256k of game save data.
Conversion	A game originally written for one platform (Nintendo 64, for instance) that's translated to work on another platform (like Saturn); also called a port.
Copy Protection	Special code in a program that prevents a disk from being copied using conventional measures. Copy protection may also require a "key disk" to be inserted every time a game is played, or information to be retrieved from the manual (such as a series of numbers) every time the program is started. Designed to foil piracy, copy protection is such a hassle for end users that few programs employ it. The fact that most games now ship on CD, which makes them more difficult to copy, is about as strong as copy protection gets in the industry today.
Counterfeit	Bootleg software presented as the legitimate article. The counterfeit software trade costs the industry billions of dollars a year worldwide, although it's a problem more in countries with less stringent intellectual property laws, like Hong Kong, India, and South America than in the US.
CPU (Central Processing Unit)	The "brain" of a computer (including a game system). It accepts instructions from a program, executes them via the ALU (arithmetic logic unit) and generates an output. While graphics output is generated by the CPUs in most PCs, many game systems use dedicated graphics co-processors to speed the generation of complex graphics, like 3D polygon spaces.
CTW (Computer Trade Weekly)	A highly respected European weekly newspaper for the game industry.
Culling	A way of rasterizing convex objects, culling tells the rasterizer not to bother drawing polygons on the back of convex objects, like spheres, that will be hidden from view.
Cut-scene	An intermission during gameplay in a game, cut-scenes usually feature animation, information about the next level, or full-motion video. In the cartridge days, when space was at a premium, cut-scenes which contained lots to see and hear were very popular, because they were very rare. With the surfeit of storage space that CDs provide, they have become almost obligatory; usually a tedious video must be endured or if possible, aborted by pressing a button on the joypad. See also FMV.

word	definition
Data Path	The physical path that bits (in the form of electrons) travel between components on a circuit board. Measured in bit-width (i.e. a 64-bit data path).
Dataglove	A control unit that fits on the hand and enables the user to use hand motion to control on-screen actions. Perhaps the most famous example is Mattel's Power Glove for the original NES.
DD64	Alternate name for Nintend's 64DD disk drive add-on.
DeBabelizer	A software package that, at its most basic, converts graphics files from one format to another. It also enables a user to dither images to different resolutions or color depths, enables batch processing, and more. Debabelizer is used on almost every single piece of game software developed today.
Delayed	Software which has missed its ship date. See slip.
Deluxe	In arcades, a deluxe unit is one that goes beyond the standard stand-up construct. It may feature a sit-down format or active response (i.e. it shakes). Namco's Alpine Racer, where you stand on a pair of skis, is perhaps the ultimate deluxe game.
Depth Shading	Also known as distance shading, fog shading, or depth cueing. To prevent a processor from rendering objects in a 3D environment out to infinity, which would cause monumental slowdown, many games employ depth shading. After a certain arbitrary distance, every object is considered to be out of the view volume and left unrendered. To compensate for objects suddenly popping into view, objects at the far edges of the view volume are shaded to appear as though they are coming out of a fog.
Design Document	The complete "script" for a game, it contains (or should contain) every piece of information needed by programmers and artists to create a game.
Designer	The designer is the person who specs out the game, coming up with the plot, the format, the puzzles, and the goals. She or he does not (necessarily) program the game or create the artwork.
Developer	Refers to the company that actually creates the game versus the company that publishes it (duplicating the discs, printing the boxes, working out distribution, etc.). Often, the developer is given a brief initial specification sheet by the publisher.
Development Studio	A developer wholly owned by a publisher, which operates at least semi-autonomously. An example would be Origin, which is wholly owned by Electronic Arts, but which operates largely as its own entity.
Digital	A way of representing information (such as the height of a sound wave or the color of a pixel) that uses a number of discrete values. Where a sine wave would be analog, a digital representation of a sine wave would be made of tiny stair steps.
Digitize	To convert a photograph or video image, etc. from analog form into digital form.
Director	The premier multimedia authoring tool, Director makes creating very standard looking and acting multimedia presentations fairly easy.
Display List	A list of graphics commands to create an image on screen. A display list can be pre-computed and modified for each frame to produce animation.
Distributor	A company that handles the allocation of software packages to retail outlets. Many companies act as their own distributors, whereas many choose to employ a third party.
Dither	A process by which a system creates the illusion of displaying more colors than it can actually generate. Dithering is accomplished by placing dots of different colors next to each other in a variety of patterns. For instance, placing red and yellow dots next to each other in a checkerboard pattern will create an impression of the color orange.
Dolby Digital 5.0	Discrete five-channel soundtrack encoded to the AC-3 bitstream. If played with Dolby Digital decoding circuitry, discrete sound can be heard through five speakers.
Dolby Digital 5.1	Discrete 5.1 channel soundtrack encoded to an AC-3 bitstream. If played with Dolby Digital decoding circuitry, discrete sound can be heard from six speakers (five audio channels plus a .1 LFE subwoofer channel).
Dolby Digital Stereo	Audio format developed by Dolby Labs. This is a stereo soundtrack encoded to the AC-3 bitstream. If played with Dolby Digital decoding circuitry, sound will be heard through the front left and front right speakers only.
Dolby Digital Surround	Matrixed surround soundtrack encoded to the AC-3 bitstream. If played with Dolby Digital decoding circuitry, sound can be heard through five speakers. Surround information is monophonic.
Dolby Digital-Surround EX	Lucasfilm THX and Dolby's 6.1 surround format adds a rear surround speaker for discrete seven channel reproductions. Dolby claims more realistic spatial effects with this setup.
Dolby Pro-Logic	Utilizing spatial algorithms and computer-based models of reconstructed soundfields, Dolby Pro Logic simulates actual soundfields by manipulating the ambience surrounding a recording signal as opposed to the recorded signals having the correct spatial information initially. Unlike the more complex (and expensive) Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS sound, Pro-Logic simulates surround sound with four channels of sound (transmitted through standard stereo connectors): Front Left, Front Center, Front Right, and one non-directional Surround channel (no left/right distinction). DPL has been around for quite some time, and is encoded on VHS, TV, LaserDiscs (newer LaserDiscs have 5.1 sound as well), and some videogames.
Dolphin	Codename for Nintendo's DVD-based follow-up to the Nintendo 64, Nintendo Gamecube.
Doom-like	Outdated term to describe any first-person shooter in the early '90s. A game with a similar first-person perspective to Id's landmark game Doom, which also generally liberally copies its gameplay, and which consists largely of running around mazes, looking for hidden doors, and killing things.
DOS (Disk Operating System)	DOS has come to be a casual term for the MS-DOS operating system that runs IBM-PC compatibles.
Double Buffering	Double Buffering is an animation technique that uses two frame buffers. One frame is displayed while the other one is being rendered into, then the two change places. Provides smoother animation and higher frame rates than single-frame buffering.
Downloading	1) The process of transferring information from a remote computer or system to a local computer or system. 2) The process of reverse engineering a proprietary console videogame system, by whatever means necessary for the purpose of development without paying registration fees.
DRAM (Dynamic RAM)	DRAM is RAM made out of capacitors as opposed to flip-flops (SRAM).
Draw In	In a 3D game, whole objects sometimes suddenly "pop" into the view volume. This is draw-in. It occurs because of either sloppy programming of clipping areas, or a lack of processor power, which causes the system to not render objects until they are very close and important in the game.
Dreamcast	Sega's 128-bit videogame console, released on November 27, 1998 in Japan and on September 9, 1999 in the US. The system runs a customized Sega OS as well as a custom flavor of Microsoft Windows CE. The Dreamcast media format, dubbed GD-ROM, is capable of holding 1GB of data.
Drip System	Code-name for Nintendo's early Gamecube development systems. Most of Gamecube hardware features water-themed names (due to Gamecube's code-name: Dolphin). For example, the graphics chip is called Flipper and sound hardware components are called Wave and Splash. "Drip" refers to the fact that the early dev systems weren't running at full potential.
Drop Out	When too many polygons are being displayed on screen for the computer to continue to update the display at a constant rate, some of the polygons may "drop out" and disappear. This effect can be very disconcerting.
DTS	Stands for Digital Theater Systems. DTS signals are discrete 5.1 channel recordings that must be played with DTS decoding circuitry (ie you need a DTS playback device and DTS receiver). Discrete sound can be heard from six speakers (five audio channels plus the .1 subwoofer channel). The PlayStation 2 is DTS compatible.
Dual Shock 2	Updated version of the PSX Dual Shock Controller for use with the PlayStation 2. Although similar to its predecessor, the Dual Shock 2 features analog buttons and a pressure-sensitive digital pad.
Dual Shock Controller	Sony's second generation PlayStation controller. It features dual analog sticks and a built-in dual rumble feature. Released in 1998 and later on packed in with the PlayStation console instead of the standard digital controller.
DVD	Originally stood for Digital Versatile Disk, now commonly: Digital Video Disk. A new standard for optical discs, DVD is the next step beyond CD. It holds up to 10 times the storage capability of current CD-ROMs.
Dynamic Play Adjustment	An AI routine, pioneered by Sega, that adjusts the difficulty of the game on the fly to the user's skill level.

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E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo)	An annual computer entertainment and videogame trade show. Since its debut, it has taken on an increasingly large role in the gaming industry.
EAD	Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis & Development Division. Headed up by famed game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, this is Nintendo's internal software development team.
Easter Egg	A small item, usually an inside joke, hidden in a program which is accessed by performing a certain sequence of commands. The first easter egg was found in the Atari 2600 game Adventure. By following a special sequence of commands, the character could pass through a wall into a hidden room that contained the programmer's initials. Easter eggs are present in almost every program, from QuarkXPress to Microsoft Windows.
ECTS (European Computer Trade Show)	The European equivalent of E3, ECTS is held in London every March and September.
Edge Anti-aliasing	Anti-aliasing is a graphics procedure designed to eliminate a stair-stepping effect, known as jaggies, occurring at low resolutions. It works by blurring pixels at edges of lines to make the difference between two color areas less dramatic. Edge Anti-aliasing only works on the edges of polygons and doesn't remove artifacts that are not situated on the edges, so it will not solve the moiré patters. It's a post operation, which means that it's applied to an already finished image. The available detail is used and blurred to avoid the staircase effect.
EGA (Extended Graphics Architecture)	A replacement for the CGA standard for PC video display, EGA cards displayed a standard 320x200 resolution at 16 colors. EGA was also capable of several higher-res modes that were very rarely used in gaming.
EISA (Enhanced Industry Standard Architecture)	Invented by a group of electronic manufacturers to answer the proprietary Microchannel architecture released by IBM. The EISA specifications consisted of a 32-bit bus, a method for machines to look at what cards were in the system, and what resources those cards need. This ability to look at the card's resource requirements was one of the big factors in developing a plug-and-play operating system.
Emotion Engine	Name of the PlayStation2's 128-bit CPU.
Emulation	A mode which enables a computer to simulate the operation of another computer. The universal computing nature of modern computers means that any computer (given enough time and storage space) can emulate any other computer. In game terms, many classic games are being released for next generation systems in emulated form. That is, instead of rewriting a game for PlayStation, you simply write an emulator of the original computer or arcade board for the PlayStation and let the emulator run the original code. For classic games, this is considered preferable than rewrites of the games, since some of the most warmly remembered "features" of classic games were actually bugs.
Encryption	To prevent unauthorized use, many consoles require that their cartridges or CDs have specially encrypted code on them before they will work in the console. This encryption can only be placed by the console manufacturer, which allows them some measure of control over who produces games for the system. Most encryption routines can be bypassed, some more easily than others. The PlayStation, notably, has an almost criminally easy way to bypass encryption.
Engine	A collection of software routines that perform a specific task.
Entertainment Alley	Coined after Silicon Valley and Multimedia Gulch, Entertainment Alley refers to a strip on US route 101 that runs from Redwood City to Brisbane, CA and off of which are located the greatest density of game developers in the country. Sega, 3DO, EA, Digital Pictures, Domark, Capcom, Sony, SGI, Game Players magazine, PC Gamer magazine, and NEXT Generation are just of few of the game industry-related concerns located in the Alley, where lunches at hip spots may resemble mini-trade shows, or more commonly, cold war-era Berlin, with people looking over their shoulders before exchanging hot gossip.
Environment Mapping	A rendering technique used to create realistic-looking reflections on a surface. Reflections are everywhere in the real world but are usually absent from videogames due to the extremely high performance required to process reflections in real time.
EPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM)	A ROM chip that can have its contents overwritten with a special hardware accessory.

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Famicom	Short for FAMIly COMputer, the Famicom is the Japanese name for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
Fatality	A special move that can be executed in some fighting games, notably the Mortal Kombat series, after a match is over, which results in (usually) the graphic death of the losing character. Variations include Animalities (where the character turns into an animal before killing its opponent), Babalities, where the loser turns into a baby, and "friendship" moves, where the character does something goofy, like signs an autograph for the loser.
Field	The image on a TV screen is drawn in two parts. First, the odd lines (across) are drawn, then the even lines are drawn (see interlace). Together these two images are known as a frame. A field is one half a frame, one scan pass of the electron gun that draws the image on the TV screen.
Fighting Game	A game which consists of one-on-one duels between two characters, one controlled by the player, the other controlled by either another player or the computer. The fighting may be executed hand-to hand, but characters may also use weapons, or have supernatural powers such as the ability to throw fireballs. See also 2D fighting game, 3D fighting game.
Fill Rate	Fill rate is the rate at which pixels are drawn into the screen memory. Fillrate is a common measure used to illustrate the capabilities of today's 3D graphics processors. It depends on the width of the memory bus, the speed of the memory transactions, and the 3D processor's ability to saturate the memory interface with transactions. Fill rate is usually measured in millions of pixels/second (Mpixels/sec).
First Party	The manufacturer of a hardware system. The term is used to describe the origin of software for a given system. First party software comes from the manufacturer. For instance, Nintendo is the first party publisher for the Super NES and Ultra 64. See also second party and third party.
First Person	A perspective in which a player's character is not represented on the screen, but rather the view is such that the player "sees" what he or she would if they were actually performing the actions found in the game (looking through the window of a cockpit, for example). See also third person, simulation.
Flat Shading	Rendering a polygon with a uniform color across its face.
Flicker	Mainly a problem of 16-bit systems. When too many sprites appear on-screen at once they would begin to flicker and lines of sprite graphics would disappear from the screen. This was the 16-bit version of the polygon glitch.
Flight Sim	A simulation which attempts to duplicate as closely as possible the experience of flying an airborne craft. The game may be based on a real craft (Falcon 3.0, Apache), or an imaginary one (the Wing Commander series), but the game must be designed with an emphasis on realism and include as much detail as technically possible.
Flight Yoke	A hardware input device that is a facsimile of the flight yoke used on airplanes, it is used by some people to provide maximum realism in flight simulators. Flight Yokes are generally analog devices.
Flipper	Nintendo Gamecube's 202.5 mhz graphics chip, designed by Palo Alto-based ArtX.
FMV (Full-Motion Video)	Having FMV cut-scenes in games has gained vogue since the rise of high capacity CDs as storage devices, and many games based entirely on FMV have been released. How much FMV cut-scenes add to a game is still a very open question and few entirely FMV-based games have risen above mediocre. The quality of FMV in games is generally below that of TV or VHS video.
Forward Scrolling	A perspective in which objects in the background scale out "toward" the player, typified by games like Space Harrier, Burning Force, and Afterburner. This differs from first-person, 3D games by the fact that the perspective is simulated by scaling 2D sprites.
FPS	1. Frames Per Second 2. First-Person Shooter
Frame	Made of two scan fields (see field, interlace), it is the "complete" image that appears on a TV screen.
Frame Buffer	An area of RAM used to store the pixel data for a single screen image, or frame.
Framerate	The number of complete screens or frames drawn per second (FPS). Higher frame rates provide smoother motion.
Frames Per Second (FPS)	A measure of how many frames are drawn per second on a screen. In standard US NTSC TV broadcasts, 30 frames (and 60 fields) are drawn on the TV screen per second wherease standard motion pictures run at 24 FPS. The more frames drawn per second, the greater the realism of the motion shown on the screen. Many games draw less than 30 frames per second to the screen. The TV image is still refreshed at a rate of 30 FPS, but a new image simply isn't drawn with each new pass.
Free Guy	In a game, when you get an extra life, either by reaching a certain number of points or finding a one-up icon, it is often referred to as a free guy (see also life).
Full Scene Anti-aliasing	Anti-aliasing is a graphics procedure designed to eliminate a stair-stepping effect, known as jaggies, occurring at low resolutions. It works by blurring pixels at edges of lines to make the difference between two color areas less dramatic. Full Scene Anti-aliasing uses something called supersampling, which means that the image is rendered internally at a higher resolution than the screen resolution and then downsampled to the actual screen resolution. This is done on a per tile base, which means that a 32x16 microtile will be downsampled using bicubic filters to a 16x8 tile before it's written to the screen buffer.

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Game Boy	A portable game system by Nintendo introduced in November 1989. Games come on cartridges. It has a monochrome LCD screen which can display 16 shades of gray. Thanks largely to the pack-in game, Tetris, the Game Boy was a major success, despite being the most technically inferior hand-held on the market today. It is powered by a 1 MHz processor.
Game Boy Advance	Nintendo's backwards-compatible 32-bit handheld, to be released in 2001. GBA features a 2.9 inch (40.8mm x 61.2mm) reflective TFT color LCD screen and uses Nintendo-made game paks.
Game Boy Color	Backwards-compatible color incarnation of Nintendo's best-selling handheld, introduced in November 1998 (US). Using a TFT Color liquid crystal reflective screen at 160x144 pixels resolution, the GBC is able to display 56 colors at once (out of 32,000) and 10 sprites per line. The GBC retails for $69.99.
Game Gear	Eight-bit portable game system introduced by Sega in April 1991. Although the cartridges are different sizes, it is "partially" compatible with the Sega Master System. It has a 32-color LCD screen, and is powered by a 3.5 MHz Z80 CPU.
Game Over	Message which appears on screen when a game is over. Also, a book on the history of Nintendo, by David Sheff.
Gamecube	Nintendo's follow-up to the Nintendo 64. This 128-bit console uses 405mHz IBM PowerPC copper chip technology and uses Matsushita's proprietary mini-DVD format for data storage (1.5GB). The system is scheduled to be launched in 2001.
Gameplay	The key element in any game, the gameplay is in fact the game itself: the act of bouncing the dot which represents the ball off the line that represents the paddle (as in Pong); the way one moves the plumber around, jumping on heads when rescuing the princess (as in Super Mario Bros.), etc. The art and sounds in a game are merely dressing for the gameplay.
GD-ROM	Proprietary CD-based media format used for Sega Dreamcast. The disks, which are the same size as CDs, are capable of holding 1 gigabyte of data.
Gekko	IBM's 405mhz 0.18 Micron copper chip that's at the heart of Nintendo's Gamecube console.
Genesis	16-bit console introduced by Sega in August 1989. It took about a year before it caught on, but it managed to wrest control of the videogame market from Nintendo by 1991. It has a 7.8 MHz Motorola 68000 processor (the same one used in the original Macintosh - a Mac OS Genesis cart was once produced at a Mac Hack conference as a technical demonstration), 64 Kilobytes of RAM, and can display 64 colors at once.
Genre	A game category that can be generally described as having similar styles of gameplay and goals, like fighting, driving, shooting, action, puzzle, etc. Many games fit into one genre or another, and many are hybrids.
Genre Fatigue	What happens when you play one too many games in which you run from left to right, jumping from platform to platform, shooting bad guys (or jumping on their heads) in your quest to fight yet another boss "digitized from actual movie footage."
Glitch	Synonym for bug. In the next generation, it often is used in the phrase "polygon glitch" to refer generically to drop-out and draw-in.
God Game	A sub-genre of strategy games in which you run a civilization or small tribe, often with the tribe represented by tiny, on-screen animated people. The prototypical god game is Populous, although the definition has been stretched to include titles like Sim City. Usually the perspective is isometric or overhead.
Gold Disc	The final beta of a CD-ROM game is called a "gold disc" in reference to the color of recordable CD-ROMs, which are gold, not silver.
Gouraud Shading	Also known as smooth shading, this is a method of shading polygons. In Gouraud shading, colors are first calculated at each of the vertices in a polygon. Then the surface of the polygon is shaded to give a smooth transition between the different colors at each vertex.
GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)	A special processor dedicated to graphics, it enables low cost systems to process graphics, particularly 3D graphics, that would be impossible using a general purpose CPU.
Graphic Adventure	An adventure game which has graphics in addition to (or completely in place of) text. Due to limitations in storage technology, graphic adventures are necessarily more limited than text adventures, unless the graphics are used purely as illustration for a text adventure. They can range from totally text-free games like MYST, which simply involves pointing and clicking with a mouse, to games like Mission Critical, which contains almost as much depth as a text adventure.
Graphics	Simply put, anything that is not text that appears on a computer or TV screen. Often, a distinction is made between the art quality in a game and the representation of that art on-screen, the graphics.
Graphics Accelerator	A daughterboard or add-on chip that enables a computer to off-load any graphics-oriented instruction to a separate processor. By including tricks and cheats that help draw certain objects and shapes faster and free up valuable CPU cycles, these boards can improve graphics-intensive software (like games) performance by leaps and bounds.
Green Book	A CD standard named for the color of the cover of the book that described it. Green book CDs are CD-i compatible.
Guy	See life.

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Hack	1) The process of breaking into a proprietary system without the owner's consent. 2) The practice of taking an existing program or hardware, and reverse-engineering it to modify or improve the software or system. In the case of software, the result can be a similar program, but changed with the addition of new levels, graphics, features, etc. For hardware, it may be the addition of new peripherals or removal of territorial lockouts.
HDD (Hard Disk Drive)	In the general sense, this refers to any sort of immovable disk storage device for a computer or what-have-you, but in the particular context of the PlayStation2, it is the Japanese designation for the system's hard drive/network access peripheral. A small device about one-third the height/length of the PS2, which connects to the console via its PCMCIA slot, it provides high-capacity storage and potential broadband network access (cable modem or DSL) via a built-in Ethernet connection.
HDTV	New high-resolution TV standard that will more than double the current resolution of TVs. HDTV uses a digital rather than analog transmission standard. An onslaught of technical problems have prevented its acceptance as of yet, but it is, allegedly, coming.
Head Tracker	A motion tracker specifically designed to follow the movement of a user's head. Found in many HMDs.
Hidden Level	A secret level in a game that requires the user to discover it, usually by performing a special action, such as going down a pipe or smashing through a wall. Sometimes hidden levels are only revealed when a certain goal has been reached - winning every race in a game may reveal a new track, for instance.
High-Res	An image or game that has a high resolution. See resolution.
Hinkfo	Noun. Pronounced: "Hink Foe" Definition: Data, information, news or lore, acquired through study, instruction, observation, or passive osmosis. Example: "Tal sent Jason some hinkfo on getting logged on to the EverQuest server." First recorded use: Best of the Worst Letters section on IGNPC.
HMD (Head-Mounted Display)	Used in virtual reality, an HMD is used to provide an immersive experience. Generally, they are goggle-like instruments that have two small screens in them, one for each eye. By offsetting the image displayed in each, a computer can generate stereo images. Many HMDs feature head-tracking abilities. See also head tracking.
Hollywood Angle	A tragic offspring of the marriage of Hollywood and Silicon Valley is the "Hollywood angle." This is when developers, usually based in Hollywood and with Hollywood ideas of what is and is not good entertainment, set out to make a game that is more like a movie than a game. They are invariably about as interesting as watching home movies developed by game designers (that is, not at all), generally lack all but the most rudimentary interaction, and have no real gameplay to speak of. See also FMV.
HUD (Heads Up Display)	Used primarily in flight sims. It generally provides information such as weapons loads, velocity, target tracking and more.

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Ice level	A level in a side-scrolling game in which the platforms the character moves on are covered in virtual ice, making the character slide around when he or she tries to stop. Along with mine-cart levels, the ice-level is the most over-used gag in the side-scrolling world.
Icon	A small, abstract graphic representation of an object (a free life or power-up, perhaps). Generally, a game character needs to touch an icon to gain its power.
IDSA	Stands for Interactive Digital Software Association. A computer game industry trade group active in a variety of sectors, ranging from copyright to First Amendment protection and Internet regulation.
IGN	Originally launched by magazine publishing house Imagine Media, IGN and two of its sister networks were spun off into a new company, called Snowball.com. IGN originally stood for Imagine Games Network.
ILM (Industrial Light and Magic)	Special effects studio owned by entertainment guru George Lucas, ILM creates the best special effects in the known universe. Few software products, even those from LucasArts, can afford ILM-generated special effects.
Immersive	Industry buzzword. "So immersive that you forget the real world," is the goal that every game shoots for these days, and every press release touts.
In Hardware	Term used to denote "hard coded" routines- that is, abilities of a piece of hardware to perform graphic or audio operations without customized programming. Prime examples would be the Sony PlayStation's 3D routines, or the Nintendo 64's ability to trilinearly mipmap which are built into their respective chipsets. See also In Software.
In Software	Term generally used to denote custom programming of a special visual or audio effect or operation, rather than using a "hard coded" routine built into the hardware. See also In Hardware.
Information Superhighway	Media concept that weaves together a nebulous mixture of the Internet, video-on-demand, future services from set-top boxes, and a global "do everything" network, on which, of course, you'll also be able to play games. Since most video-and- game-on-demand trials have been massive failures, don't hold your breath.
Intellivision	Classic console introduced by Mattel in 1982 that had greater graphics power than the dominant Atari 2600. It was slower than the 2600 and had less software available, but it was known for its superior sports titles.
Interactive Movie	A game that purports to contain the best elements of a movie and a game - the video and plot of a good movie combined with the interaction of a good game. Few if any have succeeded. Because it would be impossible to film footage of every possible character movement in an environment (which can be represented easily with sprites or polygon-based characters), control is extremely limited. Also, many interactive movies are designed by people utterly unfamiliar with what makes a good game. See also Hollywood Angle, FMV.
Interface	Anywhere the user interacts with the software is interface. This includes everything from select screens to character control. The term interface, though, is generally used as a noun to describe the part of the software designed with user interaction involved. Thus, if you must go through 20 select scenes before you start playing the game, you can say the game has a poor interface.
Interlacing	Because the electron guns that draw pictures on TV screens were initially too slow to draw the screen in one pass - the first lines at the top of the screen would be fading by the time the last lines were drawn - pictures on TVs are drawn using what is known as interlacing. First, the odd lines down are drawn (line 1, 3, 5, etc.), then the even lines down are drawn (line 2, 4, 6, etc.). The image shown by one pass is known as a field, and the complete image drawn by two passes is known as a frame. Standard TV broadcasts run at 30 frames per second. In an effort to boost hype for a product, sometimes ads or press releases will state that their games are "60 fields per second," instead of 30 frames per second. Most computer monitors are noninterlaced, and many arcade screens are noninterlaced as well (one of the reasons arcade screens always seem to look sharper than TV screens, other than their often higher resolution).
Internet	A loosely knit, global computer network initially developed by the US government to exchange information between academia and the military. The looseness and interconnectivity is intentional, designed to provide a noncentralized communications network that could function in the event of a nuclear war. Today, the main things available to consumers on the Internet are newsgroups - vast bulletin boards; document-and-file retrieval databases; chat areas; online gaming sites, and World Wide Web sites.
Interpolation	Generically, it determines from two or more values what the "in-between" values should be. Gamers will be more concerned with graphic interpolation, particularly the "bilinear" interpolation of texture maps, which reduces the blocky Doom effect. For instance, when one approaches a wall in Doom, the texture maps scale up to such a degree that a single texel is often spread over many pixels, causing the wall to look extremely blocky and destroying the realism of the scene. Bilinear interpolation (so called because it works in two dimensions, x and y) lessens this effect by looking - for each pixel - at the texel which should be drawn to it, but also at the three other nearest texels. It then interpolates this texel data to determine a color for the pixel, so that two adjacent pixels, which would have had the same color if the texture map was point-sampled, will likely have different colors when the texture-map is bilinearly interpolated. The end result is that when viewed at close range, the texture map has an apparently higher resolution than it actually does, keeping magnified texture maps from looking blocky. Nintendo 64 and M2 are the only next-generation systems which will support bilinear interpolation.
Intro Sequence	Generally the "intro" is a fully animated sequence that appears when a game is first loaded and explains the back story of the game and may introduce the main character and enemies.
Inverse Kinematics (IK)	A method used to produce natural movements of animated characters by using the mathematical principals governing the behavior of connected parts and joints.
ISA (Industry Standard Architecture)	A non-proprietary standard for 16-bit PC bus architecture, invented by IBM.
ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network)	A high-speed digital line that can transmit data faster than a 28.8 K modem can across a standard (analog) phone line. Often used for Internet connection from offices and homes.
Isometric View	A game perspective that presents the action as if viewed from above and at an angle. Zaxxon was the first game to be seen this way, and later examples include Populous, Landstalker, and Captain Quazar. Also known as a 3/4 view.

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Jaggies	A stair-stepping effect in graphics caused when the resolution of the display device is too low to accurately simulate a diagonal line or curve.
Jaguar	A next-generation cartridge system released by industry pioneer Atari in late 1993, Jaguar has a Motorola MC68000 CPU and two 64-bit RISC graphics coprocessors. Although the system had some power, the software support was notoriously weak, with mediocre games being the rule rather than the exception. Software standouts include Tempest 2000, Rayman, and Power Drive Rally.
JAMMA	1) The Japanese Amusement Machine Manufacturer's Association 2) A standard format of arcade game circuit boards that enable machine owners to swap JAMMA-compatible circuit boards between JAMMA-compatible arcade machines to change the game that is played on them. This enables the same cabinet to be used for a variety of games, thus reducing costs to the arcade owner.
Joypad	An input device which works the same as a joystick but without the stick. Instead, there is a pad (usually called a D-pad) which is cross shaped (Nintendo has the patent on the cross, so non-Nintendo joypads usually feature a cross in a circle) and is manipulated with the thumb instead of the hand. There are also usually two or more buttons on the joypad. Joypads are much more common on console systems than on the PC, where joysticks are more popular.
Joystick	An input device which consists of a stick, a base unit, and usually at least one button (with the exception of such games as Pac-Man). Moving the stick can move objects on-screen (like your character) and pushing the button(s) perform(s) some actions. There are two types of joysticks, analog and digital. While analog joysticks relay to the computer how far in a given direction the joystick is being moved, digital joysticks merely indicate if the joystick is being pushed in a certain direction or not. Its output is binary, and hence less flexible in use.
JPEG (Joint Photo Experts Group)	A compression standard for still images which has variable levels of compression. JPEG is a "lossy" standard - the more you compress the lower the quality of the resultant image. Still, JPEG offers one of the best compression-to-quality ratios available.

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Katana	Former working title for Sega's Dreamcast. Japanese for "sword."
Kilobyte	One thousand bytes. A measure of memory storage capacity. Abbreviated, "K." Can also refer more precisely to 1024 bytes, depending on the usage.

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Latency	Refers to the time lag between when a command is given by a remote device (such as a home computer) and when it is executed (by an online service, for instance). Latency is a huge problem with online gaming, since many games require an instant response, and even a tiny latency can destroy the feel of gameplay.
Level	A level is a discrete stage in a game. In early games, such as the original Donkey Kong, each level was almost a complete game, with a specific end unto itself, and each level was markedly different. In one you might need to wind your way up the girders of a building, avoiding barrels, while in another the goal might be to cross over rivets in girders while avoiding roving fireballs. In more modern games, the levels often scroll off the screen. Sometimes levels are called "stages" or "zones" as well, and often groups of similar levels are grouped into mega-levels called "worlds." Generally it is accepted that more levels a game has the better it is.
Licensed Games	Any game based on a story or character from another medium, such as a movie, comic book or TV show (Batman Forever, Beavis and Butt-Head, Bart's Nightmare, etc.).
Licenses (NBA, MLB, etc.)	In sports games, getting key licenses, like those of major league sports and players unions, is vital for success, so players can play with "real teams" and "real players."
Life	Many videogames give you three chances with which to play. These are commonly called lives, because most of the time failing in a videogame results in your character getting killed in the game fiction. When all the lives are lost, the game is over. Almost always, there is a way to get more lives, either by finding special items or reaching a certain score in the game.
Light Gun	An input device that resembles a gun, The gun is in sync with the screen update rate. It can also sense when the pixel at which it is pointed is updated, and from those two pieces of data, can determine exactly at which pixel on the screen it is pointed at any given time.
Linear	An adventure game in which almost all the puzzles must be completed in a specific order is linear. You must progress through the game in a straight line, as though you were reading a book. Linear games tend to have limited puzzles which are either extremely easy or extremely hard.
LINUX	PC based freeware Unix OS derivative. Some game developers are now noticing LINUX because of it's UNIX flexibility (multi-threaded) and the fact that it's free.
Load Time	The time it takes for information to transfer from a storage device, like a CD-ROM or cartridge to RAM. Long load times from CD-ROMs were initially thought to be a potential problem with next-generation systems. However, few consumers have complained.
Low-Res	An image or game that has a low resolution. See resolution.

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Mac OS	The operating system for the Macintosh series of computers, the Mac OS features a hierarchical file system and an easy-to-use (but processor draining) graphic user interface.
Man	See life.
Marketing Blitz	A coordinated public relations and marketing attack designed to generate hype for a game, hardware platform or even simply a promotional event. It typically includes print and TV advertising, attempts to get editorial coverage (especially covers) in enthusiast and general interest magazines, and hopefully, along with the rhetoric, this blitz includes a good game.
Mascot	A character, usually cartoony, who acts as a symbol for a company and may star in the company's games. Examples include Nintendo's Mario, Sega's Sonic, and Crystal Dynamics' Gex. Mascots often appear in company literature and frequently have cameo appearances in games in which they do not play a major role. For instance, there is a bas-relief of Sonic carved into a mountain in Daytona USA.
Master	Technically, this is a piece of hardware used in the actual creation of a CD; in game terms, it means the copy of the game, usually on a CD-R, that is exactly what consumers will see in their boxes.
Match	In modern pinball games, at the end of the game, numbers appear. One set for each player, and the match number. If the match number "matches" a player's number, he or she gets a free credit on the machine.
Maze Game	A game that consists, in whole or part, of being chased (or chasing things) around a maze, which may or may not fit entirely on the screen. The most classic examples of a maze game are Namco's Pac-Man and Rally-X, but games such as Doom or Descent can also be thought of, to some degree, as maze games.
Megabit (archaic)	A megabit is one million bits, equal to 128 kilobytes, or .125 megabytes. During the cartridge era, cartridge size was usually given in megabits. Abbreviated, it's "Mbit." Example: Super Mario 64 shipped on a 64Mbit cartridge, which translates to 8MB (megabytes).
Megabyte	1024 K (kilobytes. 1K=1024 bytes). A measure of memory storage capacity. Abbreviated, it's "MB." ,
MegaDrive	The European and Japanese name for Sega Genesis.
Memory card/cart	A cartridge that contains RAM instead of ROM and is used to save games when a battery back-up isn't possible (i.e. on CD-ROM based systems).
MFLOPS	Millions of Floating Point Operations per Second. A measure of the math prowess of a processor. Floating-point operations are more costly in terms of processor power, but they're also more precise. They are used extensively in 3D rendering.
MHz (Megahertz)	A megahertz is one million cycles per second and is used as a measure of computer chip speed, with higher numbers being better. A quartz crystal with a specific resonating frequency is in every processor, and the frequency at which it vibrates regulates the cycles of current going through the processor which allow it to perform tasks.
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)	MIDI is a standard that enables electronic musical devices to communicate with each other. Music can be stored in MIDI format, which contains instructions for playing the music rather than the digitized music itself, which drastically lowers storage requirements.
Mine Cart Level	A level in a (usually side-scrolling) game in which characters get into mine carts and careen around mines. Mine cart levels are generally faster than most, and involve memorizing the location of specific obstacles.
Mip-Mapping	When viewing a distant texture-mapped object in a 3D world, many texels make up each pixel seen on the screen, causing the textures to often appear aliased or distorted, if point sampling, the most common texture-mapping technique, is used. Mip-mapping solves that problem by precomputing (that is, prefiltering) different levels of detail of your texture image, and accessing the appropriate level according to the object's distance from the camera. For example, a texture image which is 16x16 texels, will have four more mip-maps at lower resolutions, 8x8, 4x4, 2x2 and 1x1. Bilinear mip-mapping chooses the closest mip-map image to your pixel's level of detail, then performs a bilinear interpolation upon that texture image to get the color value for the pixel. Trilinear mip-mapping requires over twice the computational cost, as it chooses the two closest mip-maps, performs a bilinear interpolation on each, then averages the two results to arrive at the final screen pixel value.
MIPS	Millions of Instructions Per Second, a measure of the computing power of a processor.
Mode 7	This graphics mode in the Super NES enables scaling and rotation of the background image. Although a much ballyhooed feature prior to launch, few programs have effectively used it outside of flashy intro sequences and cut-scenes.
Modem	Contraction of MOdulator/DEModular, a modem is a device which converts digital computer signals into analog signals so that computers can send data over phone lines to other computers.
Modem Cartridge	Developed by Seta in Japan, this N64 cartridge features a standard telephone port for network play of Morita Shogi. Software modem handles most of the work -- slow response times kept this cart from convincing other developers to use one. Nintendo later released a modem cartridge of its own in conjunction with the 64DD.
MOO	A text-based virtual environment, a MUDs object-oriented is similar to a MUD, but is used for purely social interaction, not gameplaying.
Morrissey, to	Verb. Pronounced: More is see. Definition: To shout loudly and point in a comical manner at co-workers who arrive late for work. Example: "Cassamassina was late today, so Peer pulled a Morriseey and pointed and laughed at him." Origin: Named for Mike Morrissey of Games Business magazine, who was the first to point and laugh loudly as Matt, Jason and Tal trooped in a bit late one day.
Motion Capture	A process by which an object's motion through 3D space is digitized. Sometimes mechanical systems are used, but the most common capture method uses an array of video cameras operating in infrared frequencies to capture the motion of special markers (usually balls of reflective tape) in 3D space. The object being captured (a human making a pitching motion, for instance), has several reflective balls attached at key points, like the head, hands, joints, etc., and is then filmed by the cameras (most often an array of six cameras is used). The video is composited by a computer, and since the base position of the cameras is known, the 3D location of the balls can be interpolated by the difference in ball position in the camera views in each frame. The end result from motion capture is basically the motion of the skeleton of the thing captured, around which can be "wrapped" a 3D modeled character, to generate extremely life-like animation. Games such as Virtua Fighter 2 and NFL Game Day use motion capture effectively.
Motion Tracker	Any one of several different units designed to follow the motion of a control device. Different methods include optical tracking, which uses light in determining an object's location and magnetic tracking, which detects changes in the orientation of the Earth's magnetic field. Most commonly found in various VR devices.
Moves	At its most basic, a move is anything a character can do in a game. While early games, like Galaga, may have had only three moves (move left, move right, and shoot), newer games, particularly fighting games, may have hundreds, from low punch, to block, to mid-kick, etc. Often, in fighting games, many of the moves are hidden, and not revealed in the documentation.
Movie Tie-in	A game whose appeal is based purely on its movie license, not the quality of the gameplay. Generally, the quality of movie tie-in games is extremely low, as publishers count on the quality of the license to sell titles to less savvy gameplayers.
MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group)	A standard for compressing full-motion video, it enables far more video to be stored in a given amount of space than when uncompressed. Like JPEG, MPEG is "lossy" and MPEG compressed video is of lower quality than standard VHS video.
Mtropolis	Object based multimedia authoring tool. Mtropolis competes with other products such as Director but has several unique features such as the method it uses for manipulating matted Quicktime video. An excellent tool for multimedia titles that have extensive use of blue-screened video. Titles that have used the technology include Muppets Treasure Island and Space Bar from Rocket Science/Segasoft.
MUD (Multi-user Dungeon)	A realtime Internet game where users can adopt aliases and participate in adventures and combat. As the name implies, any number of players can be on the site at once. Some MUDs rival RPGs in complexity while others focus strictly on person-to-person combat or social interaction.
Multimedia	At its most basic, multimedia is an experience that involves more than one medium. TV, with the sound turned up, is multimedia. In general, though, multimedia refers to PC entertainment software that features sound, animation, possibly FMV, and interaction by the user. Most "interactive multimedia" products are far more restrictive than games, particularly in what you can do. Some multimedia products present themselves as games, while others are of an educational, reference, or nebulously defined "entertainment" nature.
Multimedia Gulch	Region of San Francisco, in the formerly industrial South of Market district. It is the location of Macromedia, developers of Director, the premier multimedia authoring tool, as well as many multimedia developers. Named analogously to Silicon Valley.

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NEC Turbo Duo	A combined NEC TurboGrafx and CD-ROM unit.
Neo-Geo/Neo-Geo CD	A 24-bit system developed by SNK, the Neo-Geo arcade unit enables the easy switching of games. SNK brought the concept home with the Neo-Geo Gold system and found a niche market with a steady stream of 2D fighters, shooters, and arcade sports titles. In an effort to bring cart prices down from the $200 zone, a single-speed CD based unit was released overseas, but not in the US. Still somewhat popular in arcades, the Neo-Geo is going nowhere in the home market.
Neptune	A planned Sega product which would have incorporated a 32X and Genesis in one unit. It was scrapped due to dismal 32X sales.
NES (Nintendo Entertainment System)	Nintendo's 8-bit cartridge system, introduced in the US in limited markets in 1985, against the advice of almost everyone on the continent, who, still smarting from the crash of '83-'84, thought that videogames were finished. Nintendo single-handedly revitalized the industry and was rewarded with total market dominance, which lasted until Sega introduced Genesis.
Net Surfer	Someone who spends time exploring the Internet (particularly the World Wide Web).
Network Games	Multiplayer games run simultaneously on many computers or consoles which are networked together, either locally or remotely (generally through a direct modem connection, the Internet or an online service). The advantage of network gaming is that playing a game with other people is almost always more engaging than playing against a computer. The disadvantages include problems with latency and the fact that most local networks exist only in the workplace, which is not the ideal environment for playing games.
Neural Network	A group of software-simulated "neurons" which can be collectively trained to identify patterns in data.
Next Generation	1) An adjective referring to the newest wave of gaming technology, beyond the current state of the art hardware technology. 2) NEXT Generation - Imagine Media's multi-platform magazine, renamed to Next GEN in 1999.
Nibble	Half a byte or 4 bits.
Nintendo 64	Nintendo's next-generation 64-bit system, the cartridge-based Nintendo 64, codesigned with Silicon Graphics, contains hardware for mip-mapping, z-buffering, and bilinear interpolation. After a Spring launch in Japan, the console was released in September 1996 in the US.
Nomad	An elegant hand-held version of Sega's Genesis, it was released in November 1995. Battery powered, it provides video output and can accept a standard Sega controller as an accessory. It accepts any 16-bit Genesis cartridge.
Nonlinear	An adventure game in which most puzzles need to be completed in no special order is considered nonlinear. Less structured than a linear game, it is almost always considered preferable.
NPC (Non-Player Character)	Taken from the world of pen-and-ink role-playing games, an NPC is a character encountered in an RPG who is not controlled by the user.

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Object Code	Intermediate file format between high level source and Assembly, object code can be combined with other object code files to produce one big executable. This allows programmers to write games in small bits, rather than have one massive file.
Odyssey2	Magnavox's last entry into the videogame console market. Released (unfortunately) at the same time as Atari's 2600. Noteworthy for it's inclusion of a membrane keyboard, and the available addition of a speech module. With less processing power than even the 2600, and hampered by lack of third party development, it never quite caught enough market share to survive the Atari's massive popularity.
One-up	In early two-player simultaneous games, this message would flash on-screen when the first player received an extra life. Two-up would appear when the second player got an extra life. Since then, though, it has come to be shorthand for getting an extra life, usually not by accumulating a certain number of points, or items like coins or rings, but by finding a special icon. The icons themselves are often called one-ups.
One-up Loop	A flaw, sometimes intentional, in the level design of a side-scrolling game, which enables you get at least two free guys and then die, leaving you with a net gain of one life and restarting you at a point in which you can then do the loop again. Basically, if you have enough patience, you can use a one-up loop to get an infinite number of guys. The most famous one-up loop is the fourth level of Sonic 2.
Online	A word whose meaning has evolved far past the original definition, online was originally a term used when a remote device, like a printer, was connected to a computer and ready to receive data. Now, however, online is most commonly used as a noun to refer to the state of a local computer when it is attached to a remote network like the Internet or a commercial service like CompuServe.
Operating System (OS)	The program that runs a computer, whether a PC, Genesis, or PlayStation. It is loaded into the computer's memory first when it is switched on, and acts as the interface between the hardware and the software that runs on the system.
Over the Shoulder	See second person.
Overhead	Also known as top down, this is just what it sounds like - looking down on the action, as if the roofs of buildings had been removed and you are floating above them. Often the on-screen characters are seen as if from the side, or foreshortened to simulate perspective.

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Palette Swap(ping)	A technique in which a videogame uses the same basic character with a different color scheme to make the character look like a different character. Used often in the Mortal Kombat series and many RPGs, and other fighters.
Parallax Scrolling	A method of simulating a 3D feel by having multiple background planes moving at different speeds with the planes that are "farthest" from the player moving more slowly than those in the foreground.
Password	A series of alpha-numeric characters that can be entered into a game to restore a previous game, either starting you on specific level or restoring a game to that state it was in when the password was received. A password is different than a code in that passwords are not hidden; while you may need to get to a certain point to receive one, using them is not cheating.
PC Engine	Japanese name of the TurboGrafx.
PCB (Printed Circuit Board)	Literally a fiberglass board to which chips and other electronic components are affixed. Extremely flat copper pathways connect the components. A "motherboard" is the main PCB in a system.
Perspective Correction	Also known as inverse texture mapping. Without this, texture mapping is done relative to the 2D screen, causing the texture to "swim" and deform as the object moves in 3D space. By mapping the texture in 3D perspective space, this effect is negated, but at considerable computational cost. Lack of perspective correction is most apparent when looking at a texture mapped object which recedes far into the distance, like the ground or a wall.
Phong Lighting	Developed by Bui-ti Phong in 1972, a method of lighting a 3D world, the phong lighting model applies three different types of lighting to the vertex of every polygon. Phong lighting works by performing operations based on the normal of the polygon, the "normal" being an imaginary line drawn orthogonal (straight up from) the face of the polygon. The first of the three lighting types is ambient light - light which is just there because god (in this case the programmer) said it was. It affects every polygon equally. Diffuse lighting is the second type. It assumes that there is no reflection from the objects it is lighting (clay is an example of a nearly perfect diffuse surface), but it does take into consideration the angle that the light hits the surface. If it hits it fully, it will be 100% illuminated, if the object is turned slightly, it will be less illuminated, etc. The third aspect is called specular highlighting, which takes into account the angle between the light-source and the "eye" of the viewer, so that if the light bounces off a particular spot on the object straight into the "camera" it will be illuminated 100%, and less so if it misses the camera. The phong lighting model is fairly realistic for games, but fails to account for the fact that in real life, reflections off of steel or other metals change color depending on what angle they're viewed from, while specular highlighting always gives a reflection of the same color. Phong lighting works only on the vertices of a polygon (using Gouraud shading to color the rest of the polygon), so if a highlight happens to fall in the middle of the polygon, it will be missed, which requires programmers to "tessellate" or break-up large polygons into many small ones to be sure of "catching" highlights at vertices. However, phong lighting is very fast and doesn't require much processor power.
Phong Shading	A method of shading that applies the phong lighting model not to every polygon, but to every pixel of every polygon. Even SGI's Reality Engine can't do Phong shading, so unless you're ready to spend a few million dollars on your next game machine (and write all the games yourself), don't expect to see phong shading anytime soon.
Photorealistic	An image which approaches photographic quality. With a large enough color palette (around 16,000 colors) it is possible to display photorealistic images on a TV or computer screen.
Photoshop	Premier graphic retouching software from Adobe, it is used at some point in the creation of almost every single reproduced graphic image you see in magazines, advertisements, and games.
Pikachu Nintendo 64	A redesigned version of the standard Nintendo 64, the Pikachu Nintendo 64 bears the likeness of Pokemon Pikachu on its right side. The unit went on sale on July 21, 2000 in Japan and November 6, 2000 in the US.
Pippin	An Apple-licensed "multimedia player" console to be introduced by Bandai in Japan, Pippin uses the Mac OS and hardware. Basically, the Pippin is a nonexpandable Mac Jr. that uses a TV as the monitor.
Pirate	Someone who illegally copies games.
Pixel	Short for PIcture ELement, it is the smallest discrete unit of a computer or TV tube that can be assigned a specific color, the "dots" that make up TV and computer screen pictures. It is also used to refer to smallest element in a digitized image.
Pixmap	Contraction of pixel map, this refers to any digitized image, and is the correct term for "color bitmaps," although it is rarely used outside the computer graphics community.
Platformer	A sub-category of action game characterized by requiring the player to (in addition to any shooting and fighting) make his character run and jump across gaps and other obstacles. See also side-scrolling action game.
Player Killing	On a MUD, player killing is just what it implies, killing another player character - the character of another human, not an NPC. On most MUDs this is discouraged, although on some it thrives.
PlayStation	32-bit videogame console introduced by Sony in September 1995. Originally conceived as an add-on to Nintendo's SNES (see: PSX), the CD-based standalone console went on to become the most successful of the '90s "next-generation" gaming consoles, beating out Nintendo's N64 and Sega's Sega Saturn.
PlayStation 2	Sony's follow-up to the mega-popular PlayStation console. Although it utilizes more advanced circuitry and chipsets, this DVD-based system is fully backwards compatible to its predecessor. The console is powered by a 300 MHz CPU and outputs DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound in DVD playback mode. The PS2 launched in Japan on March 4, 2000 and October 26, 2000 in the US.
PlayStation one	Redesigned, smaller version of the original PlayStation. The system, which is about 1/3 the size of the PSX is 193 mm wide, 38 mm in height and 144 mm in depth and it weighs in at 550g. Launch date: July 7, 2000 in Japan and September 19, 2000 in the US.
Point Sampling	The standard way for mapping a texture map to a 3D object. Only one point on the texture map is looked at per pixel. When the object being mapped is very close to the camera, the same texel is mapped to many pixels, resulting in the blocky close-ups found in Doom and other games. When the object being viewed is far from the camera, the distance between texels represented in contiguous pixels is too great, resulting in a swimming, aliased effect. Contrast with interpolation, mip-mapping.
Polygon	A three or more sided 2D shape from which 3D environments are created, and which can then be represented on a 2D screen.
Power-up	An icon that is either hidden in a level or appears when an enemy is killed, which, when "picked up" by the player (either by touching it or shooting it, generally), gives the character special powers, which are sometimes temporary and sometimes last until the player is killed or moves on to the next level.
PRDS	Stands for Project Reality Development System. PRDS is a custom Nintendo 64 version of Alias Power Animator, a popular 3D surface modeling and animation software package.
Prerendered	A 3D scene which is rendered and then stored, usually as a bitmap. Prerendered images are often used as backgrounds and sprites in 2D games, like Nintendo's Donkey Kong Country. Unlike scenes which are rendered in realtime, you cannot change the viewing angle or size of a prerendered image.
Preview	Often confused with a review, a preview in a magazine is a noncritical look at an unfinished game, provided to give readers a sneak peak at upcoming software.
Price Point	A marketing term. To figure out its meaning in English, drop the word "point." It is generally used abstractly, as in "For a system to succeed it needs to come in under a $200 price point."
Producer	Although the roles of producers differ at different companies, generally, the producer coordinates the activities of the designer, programmers and artists on a game.
Programmer	The person who actually writes the code that makes up a game. Ten years ago, programmers were often also the designers and artists of their games, but this is now the exception, not the rule.
Project Reality	Working title of Nintendo's 64-bit console. See Nintendo 64.
Propeller Head	A geek.
PS one	Newly styled PlayStation that is about 1/3 of the size of the regular PlayStation -- about the size of a portable CD player. The PS one is 193 mm wide, 38 mm in height and 144 mm in depth and it weighs in at a meager 550g.
PS one	See: PlayStation one
PS2	Short for Sony's PlayStation2.
PSX	A prelaunch name for the Sony PlayStation, the "PS-X" evolved out of the name of the original, unreleased PlayStation, which was to be a CD-ROM add-on for Super NES. This unit, the "PlayStation X" evolved into the system that was released by Sony on Sept 9, 1995, the PSX, or, more formally, PlayStation.
Publisher	A company which actually physically produces discs, boxes, and manuals, and handles getting software boxes into stores as well as marketing and advertising. Publishers may develop their own games (like Interplay) or they may contract all their games out to independent developers, or they may do some of both.
Puzzle	In an adventure game, the challenges that you must overcome are called puzzles. One classic puzzle comes from Zork II. A certain door is locked and the key is in the lock, on the other side of the door. To get it, you must find a place mat and a letter opener, slide the place mat under the door, push the key through with the letter opener, and pull the place mat back. The quality of an adventure game is based entirely on its puzzles.
Puzzle Game	A genre of game in which you solve puzzles which generally involve manipulating shapes and colors. The most famous example is Tetris, and its many clones, like Columns.

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Quad Speed	A measure of speed of CD-ROM drives. A quad-speed drive, the current standard, spins the CD four times as fast as the original standard called for (a single speed drive), and enables the computer to take information off the CD four times as fast.

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RAM (Random Access Memory)	This is the temporary memory in a computing device, where information directly relating to what the processor is currently working on is stored.
Randnet DD	Online service for Nintendo's Japan-only 64DD N64 combo. Stands for Recruit and Nintendo Network". Using the 64DD and a modem cartridge, Japanese 64DD owners connect to an online network and hook up with gamers around the country. Randnet's first day of service was February 24, 2000. The service cost was 2,500 yen/month ($23.50).
Rasterization	The process of going from a mathematical, polygonal representation of a 3D scene to a 2D image displayed on a screen. This is where the intensities of lighting on polygons are translated into actual color values for pixels on the screen.
Rating(s)	In 1994, after a '50s style senate witch-hunt in which videogames were blamed for every problem facing American youth, the videogame industry caved in and implemented a ratings system.
Ray Tracing	A way of rendering a 3D image which follows the path of every ray of light. Noninteractive, it works best for rendering images which have many reflective surfaces, like steel balls.
RCA Cord	The standard connecting cord for video and audio information. Yellow cords are for the video signal, white is for left channel audio, and red cords are for right channel audio.
RCP	Reality Co-processor. The heart of the Nintendo 64, this custom chip performs all graphics and audio processing.
RDP	Nintendo 64's Reality Display Processor. This processor in embedded within the Reality Co-processor and performs all pixel-level operations, including texture mapping and anti-aliasing.
Realtime	Adjective which indicates that the thing it modifies happens immediately. Almost all games, except adventure games, function in realtime. Another peripheral definition is where things progress in a temporal sequence whether a player is there to witness it or not.
Red Book	A CD standard named for the color of the cover of the book that described it. Red Book CDs are standard audio CDs. Some CD-ROMs contain tracks of Red Book audio.
Region Coding	DVD players and gaming machines are often "region (en)coded," which means they are limited to playing back software made for the local market. Region coding is basically a pretty straightforward way of ensuring that the varying worldwide release dates of movies are adhered to by consumers. The region codes for DVD players are as follows: Region 1: U.S., Canada, U.S. Territories Region 2: Japan, Europe, South Africa, Middle East (including Egypt) Region 3: Southeast Asia, East Asia (including Hong Kong) Region 4: Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South America, Caribbean Region 5: Eastern Europe (Former Soviet Union), Indian Subcontinent, Africa (also North Korea, Mongolia) Region 6: China Region 7: Reserved Region 8: Special international venues (airplanes, cruise ships, etc.)
Render	When the computer creates a graphic representation of an abstract mathematical 3D model. It can take hours to render an extremely complex scene (like a frame from the movie Toy Story); 3D games exist in an environment which can be rendered enough times per second to provide the illusion of actual motion. This is known as being rendered "on-the-fly" or, "in realtime."
Resolution	A measure of the density of pixels on a screen, measured by two numbers, which represent the number of pixels available across and down the screen (e.g. 640x480). Many computers and game systems can generate video output at a variety of resolutions. Higher numbers are capable of displaying more detailed and lifelike images.
Review	An article in a magazine which provides a critique of a game, often with ratings.
RF Box	In older TVs which had no direct video-in cables, an RF box could be attached to the antenna attachment and video and audio signals were fed into the TV via the RF box, which turned the signals into electrical impulses that the TV interpreted as coming from the antenna.
RGB (Red, Green and Blue)	RGB refers to the way monitors and TVs create color images. Creating colors on a screen is an additive process, in which the primary colors are red, green, and blue (in the reflected color model, the primary colors are magenta, yellow, and cyan - often misconstrued as red, yellow, and blue). Each pixel on a screen is made up of three sub-elements, one red, one green, and one blue. When each sub-element is excited by the electron gun in the back of the tube, it glows. Depending on the intensity with which it glows, it can have a state somewhere between black (not glowing) and fully red, green, or blue. When all three sub-elements are fully glowing, the pixel is perceived by the eye as glowing white. By varying the intensity at which the various sub-elements of the pixel glow, different colors are created. Computers and consoles can cause the sub-elements to glow at a certain finite number of intensities. If the system can generate 8-bit color, it can make each sub-element glow at 8 different intensities (one per bit), which results in 256 different colors. The number of colors that can be displayed is equal to 2x, where X is the number of bits assigned to color. See also bit.
RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer)	A processor architecture in which the amount of operations the processor can perform on data is limited, but which is much faster than standard CISC chips. Preparing instructions for a RISC processor takes far longer than with a CISC processor, since a RISC processor can handle fewer commands. Since most computer programs are written in C++ or another high-end language, the only thing that needs to talk to the processor is the program (called a compiler) which translates the C++ into machine language. This makes using fast RISC chips, like the Power PC, much more attractive. RISC chips are smaller and run cooler than CISC chips with comparable power.
ROM (Read Only Memory)	This is memory data that can be read by the CPU, but cannot be rewritten over. Traditionally, ROM was found only inside computers. Cartridge games changed that, by storing games on ROM chips which were inserted into the system. The use of CDs as a storage mechanism changed the definition again, as ROM left chips and began residing on plastic discs.
ROM Burner	It can either be a hardware device to burn memory into chip ROMs, or a device used in the manufacturing process of CD-ROMs.
Rotation	Some consoles, like the Super NES, have the ability to rotate sprites in hardware, which made rotation very fast and fairly smooth.
Rotoscoping	A way of creating animation by tracing the movements of human actors from film or video. Previous to the advent of motion capture, this was the best way of getting smooth, humanlike animation.
Round	Similar to boxing, fighting games are generally fought in matches, which consist of an odd number of rounds. The first player who wins the majority of the rounds, wins the match.
RPG (Role-playing Game)	The category means slightly different things depending on whether one talks about PC RPGs or console RPGs, but the main characteristic of both is that the player is free to move from place to place in the game environment, interact with other NPCs, solve puzzles, find and collect tools and weapons, keep track of numerous character statistics like Hit Points, and (usually but not always) combat is decided by choosing battle options from menu screens. Console RPGs, heavily influenced by Japanese games like the Phantasy Star and Final Fantasy series, tend to have a strong emphasis on storyline and character interaction, while PC RPGs, typified by the Might and Magic series, more heavily favor statistical bookkeeping and tightly constructed puzzle solving.
RSP	Reality Signal Processor. This processor is embedded in the Nintendo 64's Reality Co-processor and performs all 3D manipulations and audio functions.
Rubbernecker	Analogous to the "tire kicker" who frequents car dealerships without ever making a purchase, a rubbernecker is someone who hangs around game stores like Electronics Boutique or Software Etc. without ever buying a game. Most hard-core gamers "rubberneck" from time to time.
Rumble Pak	Nintendo's limited force feedback device. Plugs into the N64 controller's memory pak slot and sends out jolts and buzzes when prompted by compatible games. Initially viewed as a silly gadget, the Rumble Pak quickly paved the way for built-in "shock" features in controllers. The Rumble Pak shipped with Nintendo's Star Fox 64.
Rumor	Because of the fiercely competitive nature of the videogame industry, these are very secretive, which makes the climate perfect for rumors to sweep through it like wildfire. The Internet also facilitates the transfer of unconfirmed information. Some magazines present information for which they can get no official confirmation (usually because it's bad news) as rumors.

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S-video	A video cable standard that is less subject to interference than standard video RCA cables.
S3TC	Developed by S3, S3TC (S3 Texture Compression) is a technology used to compress textures in 3D games. Textures are compressed at a 6:1 ratio. S3TC technology is built into Gamecube's graphics chip.
Saturn	A 32-bit console introduced by Sega in May 1995, it features dual Hitachi 28 MHz RISC processors. Released early in a surprise move by Sega, it suffered until late 1995 when the first excellent titles, Virtua Fighter 2 and Sega Rally were released.
Scaling	Some consoles like the Lynx, for instance, had the ability in hardware to scale sprites very quickly and very smoothly. The Super NES was also touted as having hardware scaling of sprites. In reality it only supported hardware scaling of backgrounds which programmers used tricks to make it look as if it was scaling sprites.
Scan-line Conversion	Process used to take vertices defining a polygon, and fill the polygon in. In simple terms lines are "drawn" between the vertices, and the minimum X value (in 2 space) and the maximum X value are recorded. Once the polygon is converted into a min/max value (basically lines running on the furthest left side, and right side) horizontal lines between the minimum and maximum are drawn, and the polygon is filled. Texture mapping, Gouraud, phong, and flat shading can all be accomplished using this procedure.
SCUMM	The long-running adventure game engine found in many LucasArts' games. Stands for Story Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion, the first game in which it appeared.
SDDS	Stands for Sony Dynamic Digital Surround. Sony's answer to the multichannel audio challenge. Discrete 7.1 channel recordings must be played with SDDS decoding circuitry to achieve discrete sound from eight speakers.
SDK (Software Development Kit)	A collection of programming libraries and routines; basically an SDK is a set of prefabricated building blocks of code for programmers, so they don't have to waste time rewriting very basic - or very complicated - pieces of software, like sprite-scaling routines, or networking protocols.
Second Party	A company which publishes software exclusively for a single company. SquareSoft was a defacto second party publisher for Nintendo, until it defected to Sony. See also first party and third party.
Second Person	A game perspective in which the player's view is locked behind (and usually slightly above) their on-screen character, as in Virtual Hydlide or Drahken.
Sega CD	A CD-ROM drive add on for the Sega Genesis. Hampered by poor sales, long load times, dated graphics, and flat-out bad games, the Sega CD never caught on and died a quiet, unnoticed death when Sega pulled the plug on it in late 1995.
Set-Top Box	A media invention that goes along with the information superhighway, the set-top box will (in the future) control your cable, Internet access, play games, and do everything else you could ever want it to do. Some companies have attempted to generate some media hype by referring to their consoles as set-top boxes.
SGI Workstation	A high-powered 3D workstation on which many of the graphics and animation in next-generation games come from. Manufactured by Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Shareware	Software which is made easily available (usually online) with a "try-before-you-buy" strategy. If you download and use the software, you are expected to pay the shareware fee. Shareware is based on the honor system, but many games have key features disabled or don't include all levels until you pay the shareware fee.
Ship Date	The date a software or hardware product leaves manufacturing and is shipped to retail outlets. Also used generically by development staffs to refer to the date they ship the product to manufacturing.
Shoot-'em-up	See shooter.
Shooter	A game consisting mainly of shooting enemies and avoiding bullets (or lasers, bombs, etc). Often, they contain power-ups which improve the quality of your weapons, or add options like bombs, etc. The first shooter is generally acknowledged to be Space Invaders. They can be forward-scrolling (Namco's Burning Force I), side- scrolling (William's' Defender), vertically scrolling (Raiden), top-down (Loaded), first-person (Doom), isometric (Zaxxon, Crusader) and non-scrolling (Galaga).
Shoshinkai	Former name of Nintendo's annual Spaceworld Expo in Tokyo, Japan.
Shovelware	A CD-ROM that contains exceptionally poor software, designed to sell units to uninformed consumers; also, a CD that contains dummy files to appear more full than it actually is. See also coaster.
Side-scrolling	The planes of the foreground and background move from left to right or vice versa.
Side-Scrolling Action Game	A sub-category of action game which consists of having your on-screen character run (usually from left to right), and jump, shoot, fight, collect special items, etc. as he or she goes. Possibly the most prevalent action category, it stretches back at least as far as the original Pac Land and Mario World, through the Shinobi, Ninja Gaiden, and Castlevania series, to present examples such as Cutthroat Island, just to name a (very) few. The number of such titles has steadily dwindled as the use of 3D has caught on.
Sidekick	A special sub-category of mascot, a sidekick is the main mascot's friend, who often takes a subservient role in the mascot's game. Examples include Yoshi (Mario's sidekick) and Miles "Tails" Prower (Sonic's sidekick). In rare cases, a sidekick (like Sonic's sidekick Knuckles) may eclipse his or her mentor and get their own game (Yoshi's Island, Knuckles Chaotix).
Silicon Alley	Area in New York City roughly defined as south of 40th street but with the main emphasis in SoHo and Chelsea where there are an abundance of New Media companies. See also Multimedia Gulch and Silicon Valley.
Silicon Valley	An area surrounding San Jose, CA, which is the location of many high-tech companies, including Apple Computer, Atari, Xerox's famed Palo Alto Research Center, NASA's Ames Research Center, and many more.
Siliwood	A word coined to describe "the marriage of Silicon Valley and Hollywood," in new interactive entertainment endeavors.
Simulation (Sim)	Any game which attempts to re-create, with as much detail and realism as possible, any "real" activity. Action-based games which "put you in the driver's seat" of a tank, plane, ship, and so on, are the most typical examples, but the category has been stretched to include some kinds of strategy titles which attempt to re-create certain real-life resource management problems, such as The Perfect General which attempts to "simulate" running a war. See also flight sim.
SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)	Pure marketing jargon. In plain English, an SKU is the box that the software or hardware comes in. Pronounced "skew."
Slip	When a product misses its ship date, it slips. Also can refer to the ship date (e.g. "the ship date for Stoathunt slipped").
Slipstream Release	Often when a product is rushed to market (to make a heavily advertised release date, for example) it ships with bugs in it. Rather than recalling the software, the bugs are quietly corrected and the new software is "slip-streamed" shipped in place of the flawed original without any announcement. Sometimes people who find the flaw in the first shipping copy receive a free upgrade if they call and complain. Sometimes not.
SMS (Sega Master System)	Sega's 8-bit answer to the original NES, it and the Atari 7800 shared less than 10% of the U.S. market to Nintendo's 90+% in the 8-bit age.
Software Emulation	See emulation.
Sound Blaster	A soundcard for PCs by Creative Labs, the Sound Blaster is the standard for PC sound.
Sound Card	An add-in card for PCs which allows these computers to produce sounds more impressive than a rudimentary "beep."
Soundtrack	The background music that may play when one is playing a game. It is distinct from the sound effects generated when events occur in the game.
Source Code	Computer instructions written in a language like C or Pascal, which a compiler translates into object code and which is then read directly by the CPU.
SPA (Software Publishers' Association)	A trade group made up of PC software companies, including many game companies.
Spaceworld Expo	Nintendo's annual consumer-oriented gaming expo in Tokyo, Japan. Designed to raise consumer awareness of Nintendo products, the show focuses on displaying the latest software for Nintendo's handheld and console systems and is often flooded by millions of Pokemon-loving kids with Game Boys.
Specular Highlighting	AKA: Specular Reflection. A rendering technique that creates a reflection of the light source on a shiny surface.
Sprite	A 2D graphic object on-screen which can be manipulated without affecting the background images. Most pre-32-bit systems used sprites for everything that moved on-screen.
Stage	Synonym for level, in some games it is also synonymous with world. See level, world.
Stand-up	Another name for a coin-operated videogame. This is the standard arcade game format, as opposed to "sit down" deluxe games, like driving games, or games in a cocktail table format.
Storyline	Many games feature a storyline or plot which provides a rationale for the gameplay. Game storylines are generally very simplistic (e.g. "you must rescue the princess"), although RPGs may have exceptionally complex, involved storylines.
Strategy Guide	A book designed to aid the player in learning basic and advanced strategies for a particular game. These strategies can range from as simple as a moves list for a fighting game or as complex as a walk-through for an RPG. There are both official and unofficial strategy guides. Official guides are approved by and at times even published by the publisher of the game they detail. Unofficial guides have not obtained permission for the game publisher.
Sub-boss	An enemy which is larger and/or more powerful than the enemies usually encountered in the course of a game. Although, like bosses, sub-bosses are also usually singular enemies, often they are encountered more than once, usually in the middle of a stage or level, or as a prelude to encountering the actual boss. See also boss.
Super Famicom	The Japanese name for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super NES).
Super NES	The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo's 16-bit cartridge game console.
SVGA (Super Video Graphics Array)	A graphics standard that began when graphics card manufacturers created cards that were able to display 640x480 at 256 colors. Higher resolutions than 640x480, such as 1024x768 (at any number of colors), are also grouped under this term.

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Tester	Someone who is paid by a software company to play a game extensively to ensure that it is bug-free and that the gameplay is at the appropriate difficulty level.
Texel	A texel is the term for the dots that make up texture maps (many people incorrectly call these bitmaps). Because texture maps scale larger and smaller as the object which is texture mapped moves toward or away from the camera, the dot which defines the color at any given point of a texture map may correspond at a ratio of less than or more than 1:1 with screen pixels. Thus, we call them "texels" to underscore the fact that, unlike the pixels that make up a standard bitmap, their size may be different from a screen pixel.
Text Adventure	One of the earliest kinds of computer games, predating screen graphics or even video screens (early text adventures could be played entirely on printers, if necessary), most typified by Zork I-III. Descriptions of what you "saw" were printed out, you responded by typing in simple, usually two-word commands, "light lamp," "go west," etc. - known as "text parsing" - and were told what happened. Later text adventures incorporated graphics to show an area, and text parsers even became able to understand full sentences, but by then, graphic interfaces were becoming increasingly popular and common.
Texture Map	A special kind of bit-map, texture-maps are laid over or wrapped around polygons in 3D games to enhance the realism of the look of the game. A map of bricks may be laid over a polygon wall, for example.
Texture Mapping	The process of placing a bitmap image, or texture, on a surface during rendering.
TFT	See Thin Film Transistor.
TGS	See Tokyo Game Show.
Thin Film Transistor (TFT)	A type of LCD flat panel display in which each pixel is controlled by one to four transistors. TFT displays sport the best resolution of all flat panels, but are also the most expensive. Also known as: Active Matrix.
Third Party	A company which publishes software for a console that it doesn't produce. Almost all software publishers are thus third parties. Getting the support of independent third parties is considered essential for a platform's (or first party's) success.
Third Person	The most common view in games, especially 2D games. The character you control is seen from the side or back, and moves independently about the screen.
Throttles	Input device that looks like the throttle of an airplane, they are used to provide greater realism in PC flight simulators.
THX	Certified audio standard. Around 1980, THX, or Tomlinson Holman's eXperiment (a division of Lucasfilm) came to the conclusion that greater accuracy of audio is essential in reproducing believable soundfields. While manipulating frequency integration (EQ), and standardizing hardware reproduction equipment (PA), the THX standard ensures playback quality from the control room to the movie theater to the living room. THX is now certifying home theater reproduction systems too. Often mistakingly called an audio format, THX is a standard of encoding, decoding, and processing multichannel sound information for an optimum playback experience. Special optimization of a listening environment is necessary for THX certification.
TLMMI	Trilinear MIP-map Interpolation.
TMH 10.2	Audio standard. TMH 10.2 is Tomlinson Holman's latest multi-channel audio design. Theoretically discrete sound can now be placed in 12 separate channels allowing for a more "psychoacoustically efficient" means of audio reproduction.
Tokyo Game Show	A bi-annual event held by Japan's Computer Entertainment Software Association (CESA).
Top Down	See overhead.
Track Ball	An input device which is basically an upside-down mouse. Instead of moving the mouse, you move the ball directly. In the classic era, several games were trackball controlled, such as Marble Madness and Missile Command. There are no trackballs available for next-generation systems.
Transfer Pak	Nintendo's plug-in interface between the Game Boy and the N64. The device attaches to a standard N64 controller and offers the ability to import game data from a Game Boy game into an N64 title. First supported title: Pokemon Stadium.
Trilinear Interpolation	A rendering technique used to improve the appearance of a textured surface when viewed at a given distance by blending the colors of adjacent texels from two separate texture maps.
Trilinear MIP-map Interpolation	Also known as TLMMI. An advanced form of texture mapping. A sophisticated rendering mode combining trilinear interpolation with MIP mapping.
TurboGrafx	System released by NEC in the late '80s, it used flat cards instead of cartridges, had an 8-bit processor with a 16-bit graphics processor, and had only one joystick port. Despite several innovations, like the first CD-ROM drive for consoles released in the US and an awesome hand-held version of the console, the TurboGrafx never caught on in the US, although it still has an extensive following in Japan, particularly with RPGs.
Turing Machine	Named after computer pioneer Alan Turing. a Turing Machine is a universal computer, a machine which can simulate any other machine. Basically, in proposing the Turing Machine, Turing was proposing the modern computer in which hardware is separate from software. A few early computers, like the Turing-constructed Enigma, were hardware units capable of "running" only one program, which was hardwired in.
Turing Test	Named after computer pioneer Alan Turing, this is a test in artificial intelligence. If an AI program can successfully convince a human that it is human, we can conclude that this AI is actually intelligent.

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Ultra 64	Former name of the Nitnendo 64 console. See Nintendo 64.

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Vaporware	Software for which a release date is announced, but fails to ship on time, if ever.
Vector Graphics	An early graphics system used primarily in the early 80s that could only draw using bright green or blue lines against a black background. Asteroids, Star Wars and Battlezone are prime examples of vector graphics titles.
Vectrex	Early '80s home console with 9"x 11" black and white screen. Colors were provided via colored plastic overlays that stuck to the screen for different games. The system was based around the Motorola 68A09 microprocessor and was known for such games as Minestorm, Star Castle, Star Hawk and Solar Quest. These systems are quite rare, and are extremely valuable to collectors.
Vertex	A point in 3D space that defines a corner of one or more polygons.
Vertically Scrolling	The planes of the foreground and background move from the top of the screen to the bottom or vice versa.
VGA (Video Graphics Array)	A graphics card standard that demands a resolution of at least 640x480 at 16 colors. These cards also made 256 color graphics (at lower resolutions only) available to PC owners.
View	Many 3D games provide multiple camera angles, or views, from which to see the action.
View Volume	The portion of a 3D world that is actually viewed on-screen at any given moment.
Vite	A special video sprite that contains FMV, it is used extensively in games from Digital Pictures, like Quarterback Attack, and enables many fields of FMV to be overlaid.
Voxel	Beyond the polygonal texture-mapped world lies the voxel. A voxel is a 3D pixel, and exploring a voxel environment would be like visiting a world made of tiny little lego blocks. Voxel technology requires processing power far beyond that of the next-generation systems.
VR (Virtual Reality)	Any attempt to make working with a computer mimic the actions that a user would use to do the same thing in real life. Different examples include: first-person 3D graphic worlds, HMDs, Datagloves, and light-guns.
VRAM (Video RAM)	This is memory in a computer or console that contains the image shown of the screen. It can be read from (painted on the screen) and written to at the same time and it is far faster than using standard RAM.

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Wave Table Synthesis	A way of creating sounds of simulated musical instruments by using samples of the instruments instead of purely electronic music generation.
Wavebird	Code-name for Nintendo's wireless Gamecube controller.
Webmaster	One who has mastered the Web... A designer, a programmer, a creator.
Windows	Cludgy, slow, graphic operating system shell for MS-DOS computers, it bears more than a passing resemblance to Apple's Macintosh OS.
Windows 95	A sleeker version of Windows for MS-DOS computers, Win 95 makes running games on PCs far easier for the end-user than under DOS, and it creates standards for game hardware. Microsoft has developed a number of gaming related APIs which are supposed to aid in achieving better performance than a comparable PC running Windows 3.1. Windows 95 is a true OS and does not act as an overlay on DOS.
With An Attitude	What many companies present their mascots as ("He's a bandicoot with an attitude!") in the attempt to make them sound "zany." To date, Sonic the Hedgehog is the only mascot that has ever been able to pull off the attitude thing ("Hedgehog with an attitude").
Wizard	Someone who has obtained a certain experience level on a MUD, and is endowed with special powers, including, sometimes, the ability to add to the adventure world.
WonderSwan	Released only in Japan in 1999, the WonderSwan is Bandai's answer to Nintendo's Game Boy. Though smaller in size and cheaper in price, the WonderSwan is slightly more powerful than the Game Boy -- but lacks the developer support of Nintendo's handheld wonder. Like the Game Boy, the WonderSwan was designed by the late Gumpei Yokoi.
WonderSwan Color	Upgraded color version of Bandai's Japan-only WonderSwan handheld. Slated for release on December 30, 2000, the WonderSwan Color retails for 6800 yen (around $65). The unit can display up to 241 colors on-screen at once, and features as many as 28 sprites per line.
World	Sometimes a series of similar levels in a game is grouped together in a mega-level heading called a "world."
Writer	In an adventure game or RPG, the writer handles dialogue and often description and backstories, but not puzzle design or plot.

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X360	A short abbreviation (unofficial) for Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console. It is certainly faster than writing "Xbox 360" (complete with non-breaking space).
X-Eye	A 16-bit system from JVC that combined a Genesis, Sega CD and audio CD player in one complete package. The system sold reasonably well in Japan but failed to move large numbers of units in the US market due to poor software support of the Sega CD and the high price point of the system.
Xbox	Microsoft's first videogame console, scheduled for launch in 2001. The system is said to be powered by an nVIDIA 300MHz custom Xchip and a 733 MHz Intel CPU. Although it is DVD-based like Sony's PlayStation 2, it raises the bar by also including a hard drive for storing massive amounts of data.
Xbox 360	Microsoft game console that is the successor to the Microsoft Xbox. It is scheduled to launch in late 2005 and sports wireless controllers, four players (on the same deck), a 20GB (planned) hard-drive, 12X DVD-ROM capable of reading dual-layer DVDs, and an Ethernet (CAT-5) port. It has limited backwards compatability with XBox titles (due to the different code architecture).

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Yellow Book	A CD standard named for the color of the cover of the book that described it. Yellow Book CDs are CD-ROMs.

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Z-buffering	When dealing with 3D graphics, it's very important that the computer not draw polygons that can't be seen by the user (that are off the screen or behind other polygons closer to the user's point of reference), since drawing, or rasterizing, polygons to the screen takes a lot of time. To avoid this in conventional 3D programming, the developers must take special care to note how polygons are drawn to the screen, in what order they are drawn, and they must keep a list, in memory, of the "order" in which the polygons go along the z-axis, so that time is not wasted drawing hidden polygons. Z-buffering is a hardware routine that takes care of the chores of knowing which polygons to draw and which to omit automatically. This speeds the process of drawing polygons to the screen and can allow a faster refresh rate. Although no 32-bit game machines support z-buffering, it's become a standard for 64-bit and later hardware.
Z-line/Z-axis	In a 3D environment, the Z-line or Z-axis, is depth. The X-axis defines height, the Y-axis defines width, and the Z-axis defines depth into the world from the edge on the view volume (the screen).