Anthony Frank "Tony" Hawk (born May 12, 1968), nicknamed "The Birdman", is an American former professional skateboarder and actor. Hawk is well known for completing the first documented 900 and for his licensed video game titles, published by Activision. He is widely considered to be one of the most successful and influential pioneers of modern vertical skateboarding.
In 2002, he created the "Boom Boom HuckJam", an extreme sports exhibition and tour that was launched in Las Vegas. Throughout his career, Hawk has made numerous appearances in films, other media, and his own series of video games. He has also been involved in various philanthropic activities, including his own Tony Hawk Foundation that helps to build skateparks in underprivileged areas. In 2014, Hawk was labeled as one of the "Most influential skateboarders of all-time" by FoxWeekly.
Tony Hawk was born on May 12, 1968 in Carlsbad, California, to Nancy and Frank Peter Rupert Hawk, and was raised in San Diego, California. When Hawk was young, he was described as being "hyperactive," and his mother says that he was "so hard on himself and expected himself to do so many things." One time, Hawk struck out in baseball and was so distraught that he hid in a ravine and had to be "physically coaxed out" by his father. His frustration with himself was so harsh that his parents had him psychologically evaluated at school. The results were that Tony was "gifted," he tested with an I.Q. of 144, and school advisers recommended placing him in advanced classes. Hawk attended Jean Farb Middle School from 1980 to 1981, and eventually returned for the show, Homecoming with Rick Reilly, where he set up a ramp and did a demonstration.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is a skateboarding video game, the second in the Tony Hawk's series of sports games. It was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision in 2000. It was first released for the PlayStation, with subsequent ports to the Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Game Boy Advance, Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, and iOS. It also was released for the Xbox on November 15, 2001 as part of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x collection featuring the first two Pro Skater games. The game received widespread critical acclaim and remains one of the highest rated video games of all time.
The player, playing as a professional skateboarder (either real-life or created) completes a number of tasks which result in cash rewards. With money gained, the player can then purchase skill improvements and better tricks and skateboards. Pro Skater 2 was also the first game in the series to introduce the manual, a skateboarding trick where the performer balances on two wheels. This improved players' ability to string together high-scoring trick combos. Many new tricks were introduced for the first time, as was the option to edit the combinations for tricks. It was also the first of the Pro Skater games to feature Create-a-Skater and Park Editor features, now staples in the series. Three new professional skaters were introduced to the series on this game: Steve Caballero, Rodney Mullen, and Eric Koston.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is a skateboarding video game in the Tony Hawk's series. It was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision in 2001 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation, GameCube and Game Boy Color. In 2002, it was published for the Xbox, Game Boy Advance, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 64 and Mac OS. It was the first game released for the PlayStation 2 supporting online play, and the last game released on the Nintendo 64 in North America. According to Metacritic, Pro Skater 3 and Grand Theft Auto III hold an average critic score of 97/100, making them the highest-rated PlayStation 2 games of all time.
This game saw the introduction of the revert, a trick that enabled vert combos to be tied together with a manual, by tapping a button when landing in a quarterpipe. This allowed for much longer combos than in the previous two games, where landing in a quarterpipe would finish a combo. The game also added hidden combos. These were variations on standard tricks that could be performed as grab, flip, lip, or grind tricks. For example, double-tapping the kickflip button would, naturally, make the character perform a double kickflip. This system would later be refined in Pro Skater 4.
Tony Hawk's Proving Ground is a video game developed by Vicarious Visions for the Nintendo DS, by Neversoft for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and by Page 44 Studios for the PlayStation 2 and Wii. Proving Ground is the ninth installment in the Tony Hawk's series, and the last to be developed by Neversoft as the franchise was then transferred to Robomodo.
Proving Ground was not as successful as Project 8 (2006). When it debuted in 2007, critics were hesitant about its controls, despite receiving praise for its visuals and audio. Amidst this somewhat lackluster reception, it was a financial success. The Xbox 360 version in America came with a demo of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, which was released on October 28, 2007.
Proving Ground was the last game in the main series of Tony Hawk games for 8 years until Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 in 2015.
It features same gameplay from earlier Tony Hawk games; it includes new features as Nail the Manual and Nail the Grab. Similar to Nail the Trick off of the previous Tony Hawk games but features different moves to do.
Tony Hawk's is an extreme sports–adventure video game series endorsed by professional skateboarder Tony Hawk and published by Activision. The series was primarily developed for home consoles by Neversoft (1999–2007), and for handhelds by Vicarious Visions (2001–2007). The series has since been developed by Robomodo since 2008.
The first five Tony Hawk's received critical acclaim for their unique gameplay, varied soundtracks, and expansion over their predecessors. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 and Pro Skater 3 are critically ranked among the best games ever released for the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, respectively.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 is a skateboarding video game in the Tony Hawk's series developed by Robomodo and Disruptive Games, and published by Activision. The game is the tenth game in the series, being the first main entry in the series since 2007's Proving Ground. The game was released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 29, 2015. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released on December 15, 2015 in North America and Europe, after they were delayed to improve the original versions.
Upon release, the game received negative reviews (especially in comparison to its predecessors), with many critics panning the game for its numerous technical issues, simplistic missions, bland environments, environmental clipping, and physics issues. The game's environments were criticized for their poor aesthetics, unmemorable theming, small size, dull challenge tasks, and for not containing as many hidden secrets as those in previous Tony Hawk games. The nature of the game's online modes were criticized for providing little incentive to players and exacerbating the game's performance issues. Patches have since been released to fix the game and add new content.
A proving ground is the US name for a military installation or reservation where weapons or other military technology are experimented with or are tested, or where military tactics are tested. The usual British term is training area.
While these types of facilities are usually military or government establishments, some civilian industries have their own proving grounds for testing prototypes and new technologies.
There are five proving grounds in the Czech Republic with the total area of 1296 km2.
Here I stand
On the proving ground
Mortal man
Hiding my failures
And I can
Leave here without a sound
But then where would I be?
Broken again, lonely and free
Without a friend
I know I have demons to battle
So I pray for the strength
that I haven't yet found
I'll go where the Diamondbacks rattle
And wait for the day
On the hot proving ground
Lately my faith
Dwindles like kindling in fire
Shimmers and shakes
like a ghost in the wind
Glimmers and waits for the change to begin
Lately my faith
I know I have demons to battle
So I pray for the strength
that I haven't yet found
I'll go where the Diamondbacks rattle
And wait for the day
On the hot proving ground
If I hold on 'till the new sun arrives
If some small part of my true self survives
Then I might run like a child on the sand
Never to carry this burden again
And oh here it comes, the one thing I forgot
The secret I found is the secret I lost
But can I believe in the truth I betrayed
Can I make peace with the choices I made
Help me hold on
I know I have demons to battle
So I pray for the strength
that I haven't yet found
I'll go where the Diamondbacks rattle
And wait for the day