Side-scrolling video game

A side-scrolling game, side-scroller or 2D is a video game in which the gameplay action is viewed from a side-view camera angle, and the onscreen characters generally move from the left side of the screen to the right (or less commonly, right to left) to meet an objective. These games make use of scrolling computer display technology. The move from single-screen or flip-screen graphics to scrolling graphics, during the golden age of video arcade games and during third-generation consoles, would prove to be a pivotal leap in game design, comparable to the move to 3D graphics during the fifth generation.

Use of side-scrolling

A common use of the side-scrolling format is in the platform game genre. Platform games are action games that feature jumping, climbing, and running characters who must be guided through many diverse levels. Games such as Super Mario Bros. are among the most famous side-scrollers of this type.

The side-scrolling format is also popular among beat 'em ups, such as the popular Battletoads series. Side-scrolling is even used in certain role-playing video games such as the 2D Castlevania: Symphony of the Night or the Korean MMORPG MapleStory. Often in beat 'em ups the screen will scroll to a certain point then stop and require the enemies on screen to be defeated before it moves on.

Side

Side (Greek: Σίδη) is an ancient Greek city on the southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey, a resort town and one of the best-known classical sites in the country. It lies near Manavgat and the village of Selimiye, 78 km from Antalya in the province of Antalya.

It is located on the eastern part of the Pamphylian coast, which lies about 20 km east of the mouth of the Eurymedon River. Today, as in antiquity, the ancient city is situated on a small north-south peninsula about 1 km long and 400 m across.

History

Strabo and Arrian both record that Side was founded by Greek settlers from Cyme in Aeolis, a region of western Anatolia. This most likely occurred in the 7th century BC. Its tutelary deity was Athena, whose head adorned its coinage.

Dating from the tenth century B.C., its coinage bore the head of Athena (Minerva), the patroness of the city, with a legend. Its people, a piratical horde, quickly forgot their own language to adopt that of the aborigines.

Possessing a good harbour for small-craft boats, Side's natural geography made it one of the most important places in Pamphylia and one of the most important trade centres in the region. According to Arrian, when settlers from Cyme came to Side, they could not understand the dialect. After a short while, the influence of this indigenous tongue was so great that the newcomers forgot their native Greek and started using the language of Side. Excavations have revealed several inscriptions written in this language. The inscriptions, dating from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, remain undeciphered, but testify that the local language was still in use several centuries after colonisation. Another object found in the excavations at Side, a basalt column base from the 7th century BC and attributable to the Neo-Hittites, provides further evidence of the site's early history. The name Side may be Anatolian in origin, meaning pomegranate.

Cue sports techniques

Cue sports techniques (usually more specific, e.g., billiards techniques, snooker techniques) are a vital important aspect of game play in the various cue sports such as carom billiards, pool, snooker and other games. Such techniques are used on each shot in an attempt to achieve an immediate aim such as scoring or playing a safety, while at the same time exercising control over the positioning of the cue ball and often the object balls for the next shot or inning.

In carom games, an advanced player's aim on most shots is to leave the cue ball and the object balls in position such that the next shot is of a less difficult variety to make the requisite carom, and so that the next shot is in position to be manipulated in turn for yet another shot; ad infinitum.

Similarly, in many pocket billiards games, an advanced player's aim is to manipulate the cue ball so that it is in position to pocket (pot) a chosen next object ball and so that that next shot can also be manipulated for the next shot, and so on. Whereas in the carom games, manipulation of the object ball's position is crucial as well on every shot, in some pool games this is not as large a factor because on a successful shot the object ball is pocketed. However, many shots in one-pocket, for example, have this same added object ball control factor for most shots.

A-side and B-side

The terms A-side and B-side refer to the two sides of 78 and 45 rpm phonograph records, whether singles or extended plays (EPs). The A-side usually featured the recording that the artist, record producer, or the record company intended to receive the initial promotional effort and then receive radio airplay, hopefully, to become a "hit" record. The B-side (or "flip-side") is a secondary recording that has a history of its own: some artists, notably Elvis Presley, Little Richard, the Beatles, Chuck Berry, and Oasis, released B-sides that were considered as strong as the A-side and became hits in their own right. Creedence Clearwater Revival had hits, usually unintentionally, with both the B-sides of their A-side releases. Others took the opposite track: producer Phil Spector was in the habit of filling B-sides with on-the-spot instrumentals that no one would confuse with the A-side. With this practice, Spector was assured that airplay was focused on the side he wanted to be the hit side.