Future Crew

Future Crew was a Finnish demogroup who created PC demos and software, active mostly between 1987 and 1994.

History

The group was founded in 1986 by PSI (Sami Tammilehto) and JPM (Jussi Markula) as a Commodore 64 group, before moving to the PC demoscene in 1988; other members included, over time, Trug, Wildfire, Pixel, ICE, GORE, Abyss, Purple Motion, and Skaven, as well as several others not listed here.

Noteworthy demos by Future Crew include Unreal (released at Assembly 1992), Panic (released at The Party 1992) and Second Reality (released at Assembly 1993). Second Reality may be considered one of the most influential PC demos ever made. Future Crew was also responsible for the popular MOD editor Scream Tracker, which was fashioned after the Amiga Soundtracker, as well as the Advanced DigiPlayer sound editor and later became itself inspiration for other trackers like the Impulse Tracker.

Future Crew was co-organizer of the first Assembly demo party in 1992, and continued organizing the annual party until 1995, when the organization set up the Finnish company ASSEMBLY Organizing in order to "provide a solid financial basis for the events and a reliable partner for our sponsors". Long time Future Crew member Abyss is one of the party's main organizers.

Unreal (Flumpool album)

Unreal is the first mini-album released by Japanese all-male pop rock band flumpool on November 19, 2008. Its cover is a nude photography, describing the band's members as "dolls". It was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for shipment of 250,000 copies.

Track listing

Charts

References

Unreal (book)

Unreal is the first in a series of collections of short stories by Australian author Paul Jennings. It was first released in 1985.

The stories

Without a Shirt

A boy called Tom has a speech impediment that forces him to say "Without a shirt" each time he finishes a sentence. When he is forced to move to a new house in the center of a cemetery because his dog is repeatedly digging, he eventually finds some bones that may be linked to his speech impediment. Was later adapted as an episode of Round The Twist.

The Strap-Box Flyer

A man sells a glue that will stick to anything, but it stops working after four hours. After getting many to buy it, he leaves town, then meets a man who has invented a box that can make people fly into the sky. The name of the salesman is Giffen.

Skeleton on the Dunny

A boy is forced to live with his aunt because of his parents' deaths, but the only toilet at his aunt's house is in an outhouse. Even worse, that outhouse is haunted by the ghost of a man who was dead after looking after the house when the aunt was on a holiday. Was later adapted as an episode of Round The Twist.

Katana

Historically, katana (刀) were one of the traditionally made Japanese swords (日本刀, nihontō) that were used by the samurai of feudal Japan. Modern versions of the katana are sometimes made using non-traditional materials and methods. The katana is characterized by its distinctive appearance: a curved, slender, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands.

History

The production of swords in Japan is divided into specific time periods:

The first use of "katana" (gatana) as a word to describe a long sword that was different from a tachi occurs as early as the Kamakura Period (1185–1333). These references to "uchigatana" and "tsubagatana" seem to indicate a different style of sword, possibly a less costly sword for lower-ranking warriors. The evolution of the tachi into the katana seems to have started during the early Muromachi period (1337 to 1573). Starting around the year 1400, long swords signed with the "katana" signature were made. This was in response to samurai wearing their tachi in what is now called "katana style" (cutting edge up). Japanese swords are traditionally worn with the signature facing away from the wearer. When a tachi was worn in the style of a katana, with the cutting edge up, the tachi's signature would be facing the wrong way. The fact that swordsmiths started signing swords with a katana signature shows that some samurai of that time period had started wearing their swords in a different manner.

Katana (disambiguation)

Katana is Japanese for backsword and often refers to uchigatana, especially in English. For a list of fictional katana, see Katanas in fiction. Katana may also refer to:

Dreamcast

The Dreamcast (Japanese: ドリームキャスト, Hepburn: Dorīmukyasuto) is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998 in Japan, September 9, 1999 in North America, and October 14, 1999 in Europe. It was the first in the sixth generation of video game consoles, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, Nintendo's GameCube and Microsoft's Xbox. The Dreamcast is Sega's final home console, marking the end of the company's 18 years in the console market.

In contrast to the expensive hardware of the unsuccessful Sega Saturn, the Dreamcast was designed to reduce costs with "off-the-shelf" components, including a Hitachi SH-4 CPU and an NEC PowerVR2 GPU. Released in Japan to a subdued reception, the Dreamcast enjoyed a successful U.S. launch backed by a large marketing campaign, but interest in the system steadily declined as Sony built hype for the upcoming PlayStation 2. Sales did not meet Sega's expectations despite several price cuts, and the company continued to incur significant financial losses. After a change in leadership, Sega discontinued the Dreamcast on March 31, 2001, withdrawing from the console business and restructuring itself as a third-party publisher. 9.13 million Dreamcast units were sold worldwide.