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Psychonauts

Psychonauts is a 2005 platform video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Majesco Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, Xbox and PlayStation 2.

Psychonauts follows Razputin (Raz), a young boy gifted with psychic abilities, who runs away from a circus to try to sneak into a summer camp for those with similar powers to become a "Psychonaut", a spy with psychic abilities. He finds that there is a sinister plot occurring at the camp that only he can stop. The game is centered on exploring the strange and imaginative minds of various characters that Raz encounters as a Psychonaut-in-training/"Psycadet" to help them overcome their fears or memories of their past, so as to gain their help and progress in the game. Raz gains use of several psychic abilities during the game that are used for both attacking foes and solving puzzles.

Psychonauts was based on an abandoned concept that studio founder Tim Schafer had during his previous development of Full Throttle. The game was initially backed by Microsoft's Ed Fries as a premiere title for the original Xbox console, but several internal and external issues led to difficulties for Double Fine in meeting various milestones and responding to testing feedback. Following Fries' departure in 2004, Microsoft dropped the publishing rights, making the game's future unclear. Double Fine was able to secure Majesco as a publisher a few months later allowing them to complete the game after four and a half years of development.

The game was well received, but publisher Majesco  encountered severe financial loss after the game's release and departed from the video game market''. Psychonauts'' has earned a number of industry awards and gained a cult following. It has since been cited as one of the greatest video games ever made. In 2011, Double Fine acquired the rights for the title, allowing the company to republish the title through digital distribution with updates for modern gaming systems and ports for Mac OS X and Linux. Double Fine reported that their own sales of the game have far exceeded what was initially sold on its original release, with cumulative sales of nearly 1.7 million. A sequel, Psychonauts 2, was announced at The Game Awards in December 2015 and was released on August 25, 2021.

Gameplay
Psychonauts is a platform game that incorporates various adventure elements. The player controls the main character Raz in a third-person, three-dimensional view, helping Raz to uncover a mystery at the Psychonauts training camp. Raz begins with basic movement abilities such as running and jumping, but as the game progresses, Razputin gains additional psychic powers such as telekinesis, levitation, invisibility, and pyrokinesis. These abilities allow the player to explore more of the camp as well as fight off enemies. These powers can be awarded either by completing certain story missions, gaining psi ranks during the game, or purchasing them with hidden arrowheads scattered around the camp. Powers can be improved — such as more damaging pyrokinesis or longer periods of invisibility — through gaining additional psi ranks. The player can assign three of these powers to their controller or keyboard for quick use, but all earned powers are available at any time through a selection screen.

The game includes both the "real world" of the camp and its surroundings, as well as a number of "mental worlds" which exist in the consciousness of the game's various characters. The mental worlds have wildly differing art and level design aesthetics, but generally have a specific goal that Raz must complete to help resolve a psychological issue a character may have, allowing the game's plot to progress. Within the mental worlds are censors that react negatively to Raz's presence, and attack him. There are also various collectibles within the mental worlds, including "figments" of the character's imagination which help increase Razputin's psi ranking, "emotional baggage" which can be sorted by finding tags and bringing them to the baggage, and "memory vaults" which can unlock a short series of slides providing extra information on that character's backstory. Most of these worlds culminate in a boss battle that fully resolves the character's emotional distress and advance the story. The player is able to revisit any of these worlds after completing them to locate any additional collectibles they may have missed. Razputin is given some items early in the game, one that allows him to leave any mental world at any time, and another that can provide hints about what to do next or how to defeat certain enemies.

Raz can take damage from psychically empowered creatures around the camp at night, or by censors in the mental worlds; due to a curse placed on his family, Raz is also vulnerable to water. If Raz's health is drained, he is respawned at the most-recent checkpoint. However, this can only be done so many times while Raz is within a mental world, indicated by the number of remaining astral projections; if these are expended through respawning, Raz is ejected from the character's mind and must re-enter to make another attempt. Health and additional projections can be collected throughout the levels, or purchased at the camp store.

Setting
The story is set in the fictional Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, a remote US government training facility under the guise of a children's summer camp. Centuries ago the area was hit by a meteor made of psitanium (a fictional mineral that can grant psychic powers or strengthen existing powers), creating a huge crater. The psitanium affected the local wildlife, giving them limited psychic powers, such as bears with the ability to attack with telekinetic claws, cougars with pyrokinesis, and rats with confusion gas. The Native Americans of the area called psitanium "whispering rock", which they used to build arrowheads. When settlers began inhabiting the region, the psychoactive properties of the meteor slowly drove them insane. An asylum named Thorny Towers Home of the Disturbed was built to house the afflicted, but within fifteen years, the asylum had more residents than the town did and the founder Houston Thorny committed suicide by throwing himself from the asylum's tower. The government relocated the remaining inhabitants and flooded the crater to prevent further settlement, creating what is now Lake Oblongata. The asylum still stands, but has fallen into disrepair.

The government took advantage of the psitanium deposit to set up a training camp for Psychonauts, a group of agents gifted with psychic abilities used to help defeat evil-doers. The training ground is disguised as a summer camp for young children, but in reality helps the children to hone their abilities and to train them to be Psychonauts themselves. Due to this, only those recruited by the Psychonauts are allowed into the camp.

Characters

The protagonist and playable character of the game is Razputin Aquato (or Raz for short) (voice actor Richard Horvitz), the son of a family of circus performers, who runs away from the circus to become a Psychonaut, despite his father Augustus' wishes. His family is cursed to die in water, and a watery hand called the Hand of Galochio attempts to submerge Raz whenever he approaches any significantly deep water. When at camp, Raz meets four of the Psychonauts that run the camp: the cool and calculating Sasha Nein (voice actor Stephen Stanton), the fun-loving Milla Vodello (voice actress Alexis Lezin), the regimental Agent/Coach Morceau Oleander (voice actor Nick Jameson), and the aged, Mark Twainesque Ford Cruller (voice actor David Kaye), said by Razputin to have been the greatest leader the Psychonauts ever had, until a past psychic duel shattered Ford's psyche and left him with dissociative identity disorder. Only when he is near the large concentration of Psitanium does his psyche come together enough to form his real personality. During his time at camp, Raz meets several of the other gifted children including Lili Zanotto (voice actress Nicki Rapp), the daughter of the Grand Head of the Psychonauts, who falls in love with him at first sight (which he eventually reciprocates); and Dogen Boole (voice actress Nika Futterman), the grandson of one of the Psychonaut's founders who can communicate with animals and goes around with a tin foil hat to prevent his abilities from causing anyone's head to explode. Raz also meets the residents of the insane asylum including ex-dentist and brain surgeon Dr. Caligosto Loboto; as well as Boyd Cooper, a former security guard that holds a number of government conspiracy theories about a person known as "the Milkman"; Fred Bonaparte, an asylum orderly struggling control over his mind by a hallucination of his ancestor, Napoleon Bonaparte; Gloria Van Gouton, a former actress driven insane by a family tragedy; Edgar Teglee, a painter whose girlfriend cheated on him; and Linda, the gigantic lungfish that brings campers to the asylum.

Story
Razputin, having fled from the circus, tries to sneak into the camp, but is caught by the Psychonauts. They agree to let him stay until his parents arrive, but refuse to let him take part in any activities. However, they do allow him to take part in Coach Oleander's "Basic Braining" course, which he easily passes. Impressed, Agent Nein invites Raz to take part in an experiment to determine the extent of his abilities. During the experiment, Raz comes across a vision of Dr. Loboto, an insane ex-dentist, extracting Dogen's brain, but is unable to intervene. Raz eventually realizes that the vision is true after finding Dogen without his brain, but the Psychonauts refuse to believe him. After receiving additional training from Agent Vodello, Raz learns that Dr. Loboto is working on behalf of Coach Oleander, who intends to harvest the campers' brains to power an army of psychic death tanks. Lili is soon abducted as well, and with both Agents Nein and Vodello missing, Raz takes it upon himself to infiltrate the abandoned Thorny Towers Home of the Disturbed insane asylum where she was taken. Agent Cruller gives him a piece of bacon which he can use to contact Agent Cruller at any time, and tasks him with retrieving the stolen brains so that he can return them to the campers.

Raz frees the mutated lungfish Linda from Coach Oleander's control, and she takes him safely across the lake. At the asylum, Raz helps the inmates overcome their illnesses, and they help him access the upper levels of the asylum, where Loboto has set up his lab. He frees Lili and restores Agents Nein and Vodello's minds, allowing them to confront Coach Oleander. The inmates subsequently burn down the asylum, allowing Coach Oleander to transfer his brain to a giant tank. Raz defeats him, but when he approaches the tank, it releases a cloud of sneezing powder, causing him to sneeze his brain out. Raz uses his telekinesis to place his brain inside the tank, merging it with Oleander's. Inside, Raz discovers that Coach Oleander's evil springs from his childhood fear of his father, who ran a butcher shop. At the same time, Raz's own father appears and the two dads join forces. However, he turns out to be an imposter, with Raz's real father, Augustus, appearing and using his own psychic abilities to fix his son's tangled mind and beat the personal demons. At the camp's closing ceremony, Agent Cruller presents him with a uniform and welcomes him into the Psychonauts. Raz prepares to leave camp with his father, but word arrives that the Grand Head of the Psychonauts—Lili's father, Truman Zanotto—has been captured. Thus Raz and the Psychonauts fly off on their new mission.

Development
Psychonauts was the debut title for Double Fine Productions, a development studio that Tim Schafer founded after leaving LucasArts following their decision to exit the point-and-click adventure game market. Schafer's initial studio hires included several others that worked alongside him on Grim Fandango.

The backstory for Psychonauts was originally conceived during the development of Full Throttle, where Tim Schafer envisioned a sequence where the protagonist Ben goes under a peyote-induced psychedelic experience. While this was eventually ejected from the original game (for not being family friendly enough), Schafer kept the idea and eventually developed it into Psychonauts. While still working at LucasArts, Tim Schafer decided to use the name "Raz" for a main character because he liked the nickname of the LucasArts animator, Razmig "Raz" Mavlian. When Mavlian joined Double Fine, there was increased confusion between the character and the animator. The game's associate producer, Camilla Fossen, suggested the name "Rasputin". As a compromise, Double Fine's lawyer suggested the trademarkable name "Razputin", which was used for the game.

Most of the game's dialog and script was written by Schafer and Erik Wolpaw, who at the time was a columnist for the website Old Man Murray. After establishing the game's main characters, Schafer undertook his own exercise to write out how the characters would see themselves and the other characters' on a social media site similar to Friendster, which Schafer was a fan of at the time and from where he met his wife-to-be. This helped him to solidify the characters in his own head prior to writing the game's dialog, as well as providing a means of introducing the characters to the rest of the development team. To help flesh out character dialog outside of cut scenes, Schafer developed an approach that used dozens of spoken lines by a character that could be stitched together in a random manner by the game as to reduce apparent repetition; such stitching included elements like vocal pauses and coughs that made the dialog sound more natural. Schafer used the camp and woods setting as a natural place that children would want to wander and explore.

The game's mental worlds were generally a result of an idea presented by Schafer to the team, fleshed out through concept art and gameplay concepts around the idea, and then executed into the game with the asset and gameplay developers, so each world had its own unique identity. One of the game's most famous levels is "The Milkman Conspiracy", which takes place in the mind of Boyd, one of the patients at the mental hospital who is obsessed with conspiracy theories. Schafer had been interested in knowing what went on inside the minds of those that believed in conspiracy theories, inspired by watching Capricorn One as a child. During a Double Fine dinner event, someone had uttered the line "I am the milkman, my milk is delicious.", which led Schafer to create the idea of Boyd, a milkman bent on conspiracy theories. Schafer then worked out a web of conspiracy theories, wanting the level to be a maze-like structure around those, tying that in to Boyd's backstory as a person who had been fired from many different jobs, partially inspired by a homeless person that Double Fine occasionally paid to help clean their office front. Schaefer had wanted the 1950s suburban vibe to the level as it would fit in with the spy theme from the same period. Artist Scott Campbell fleshed out these ideas, along with the featureless G-men modeled after the Spy vs. Spy characters. Peter Chan came up with the idea of vaulting the suburban setting into vertical spaces as to create a maze-like effect, which inspired the level designers and gameplay developers to create a level where the local gravity would change for Raz, thus allowing him to move across the warped setting that was created. The level's unique gameplay aspect, where Raz would need to give specific G-men a proper object as in point-and-click adventure games, was from gameplay developer Erik Robson as a means to take advantage of the inventory feature that they had given Raz. Schafer had wanted Wolpaw to write the lines for the G-men, but as he was too busy, Schafer ended up writing these himself. The art design crew included background artist Peter Chan and cartoonist Scott Campbell. Voice actor Richard Steven Horvitz, best known for his portrayal of Zim in the cult favorite animated series Invader Zim, provides the voice of Raz, the game's protagonist. Initially the team tried to bring in children to provide the voices for the main cast, similar to Peanuts cartoons, but struggled with their lack of acting experience. Schafer had selected Horvitz based on his audition tapes and ability to provide a wide range of vocal intonations on the spot, providing them with numerous takes to work with. Raz was originally conceived as an ostrich suffering from mental imbalance and multiple personalities. Tim Schafer killed the idea because he strongly believes in games being "wish fulfillments," guessing that not many people fantasize about being an insane ostrich.

Double Fine created a number of internal tools and processes to help with the development of the game, as outlined by executive producer Caroline Esmurdoc. With the focus of the game on Raz as the playable character within a platform game, the team created the "Raz Action Status Meeting" (RASM). These were held bi-weekly with each meeting focusing on one specific movement or action that Raz had, reviewing how the character controlled and the visual feedback from that so that the overall combination of moves felt appropriate. With extensive use of the Lua scripting language, they created their own internal Lua Debugger nicknamed Dougie, after a homeless man near their offices they had befriended, that helped to normalize their debugging processes and enable third-party tools to interact with the name. With a large number of planned cutscenes, Double Fine took the time to create a cutscene editor so that the scriptwriters could work directly with the models and environments already created by the programmers without requiring the programmer's direct participation. For level design, though they had initially relied on the idea of simply placing various triggers throughout a level to create an event, the resulting Lua code was large and bulky with potential for future error. They assigned eight of the game programmers to assist the level developers to trim this code, and instituted an internal testing department to overlook the stability of the whole game which had grown beyond what they could do internally. Initially this was formed from unpaid volunteers they solicited on Double Fine's web site, but following the signing of the Majesco publication deal in 2004, they were able to commit full-time staff to this team.

Production and publishing difficulties
Esmurdoc described the development of Psychonauts as difficult due to various setbacks, compounded by the new studio's lack of experience in how to manage those setbacks. The game's initial development began in 2001 during the dot-com boom. Due to the cost of office space at that time, Double Fine had established an office in an inexpensive warehouse in San Francisco that initially fit their development needs. By 2003, they had come to realize the area they were in was not safe or readily accommodating, slowing down their development. With the collapse of the dot-com bubble, they were able to secure better office space, though this further delayed production. Schafer was also handling many of the duties for both the studio and the development of the game. Though some of the routine business tasks were offloaded to other studio heads, Schafer brought Esmurdoc onto the project in 2004 to help produce the game while he could focus on the creative side.

The intent to allow all developers to have artistic freedom with the game created some internal strife in the team, particularly in the level design; they had initially scoped that level designers would create the basic parts of a level - main paths, scripted events, and the level's general design, while the artists would build out the world from that. As development progressed, they determined that the artists should be the ones constructing the level geometry, which the level designers resented. Subsequently, levels that were generated were not to the expected standards due to conflicts in the toolsets they used and Schafer's inability to oversee the process while handling the other duties of the studio. In 2003, the decision was made to dismiss all but one of the level design team, and unify the level design and art into a World Building team overseen by Erik Robson, the remaining level designer and who would go on to become the game's lead designer; the change, which Esmurdoc stated was for the better, disrupted the other departments at Double Fine.

Psychonauts was to be published by Microsoft for release exclusively on their Xbox console; Schafer attributes this to Microsoft's Ed Fries, who at the time of Psychonauts's initial development in 2001, was looking to develop a portfolio of games for the new console system. Schafer believes that Fries was a proponent of "pushing games as art", which helped to solidify Double Fine's concept of Psychonauts as an appropriate title for the console after the team's collected experience of developing for personal computers. However, according to Esmurdoc, Microsoft had also created some milestones that were unclear or difficult to meet, which delayed the development process. She also believes that their own lack of a clear vision of the ultimate product made it difficult to solidify a development and release schedule for the game as well as created confusion with the publisher. Schafer stated that Microsoft also found some of their gameplay decisions to be confusing based on play-testing and requested them to include more instructional information, a common approach for games during the early 2000s, while Schafer and his team felt such confusion was simply the nature of the adventure-based platform that they were developing. Double Fine was also resistant to make changes that Microsoft had suggested from play-testing, such as making the humor secondary to the story, removing the summer camp theme, and drastically altering the story. Fries departed Microsoft in January 2004; shortly thereafter, the company soon pulled the publishing deal for Psychonauts. Esmurdoc said that Microsoft's management considered Double Fine to be "expensive and late", which she agreed had been true but did not reflect on the progress they had been making at this point. Schafer also noted that at the time of Microsoft's cancellation that they were planning on transitioning to the Xbox 360 and were not funding any further development of games that would not be released after 2004; even though Schafer had set an approximate release date in the first quarter of 2005 by this point, Microsoft still opted to cancel. Following this, Schafer and Esmurdoc worked to secure a new publishing deal while using internal funds and careful management to keep the project going. One source of funds that helped keep the company operational came from Will Wright, who had recently sold his company Maxis to Electronic Arts. Prevented from investing into Double Fine by the Maxis deal, he instead provided Double Fine a loan of funds that kept them afloat over the next several months. Wright is credited for this support within the game.

By August 2004, Double Fine had negotiated a new publishing deal with Majesco Entertainment to release the game on Windows as well as the Xbox. Tim Schafer was quoted as saying "Together we are going to make what could conservatively be called the greatest game of all time ever, and I think that's awesome." Though the publishing deal ensured they would be able to continue the development, Esmurdoc stated they had to forgo plans for hiring new developers to meet the scope of the game as agreed to with Majesco. Subsequently, the studio entered, as described by Esmurdoc, "the most insane crunch I have ever witnessed" in order to complete the game. This was compounded when Majesco announced a PlayStation 2 port to be developed by Budcat Creations in October 2004, which further stretched the availability of Double Fine's staff resources. The game went gold in March 2005; Esmurdoc attributes much of the success of this on the solidarity of the development team that kept working towards this point.

Esmurdoc stated that Psychonauts took about 4.5 years to complete — though that without all the complications the real development time was closer to 2 years — with a team of 42 full-time developers and additional contractors, with a final budget of $11.5 million.

Music
The soundtrack to Psychonauts was composed by Peter McConnell, known for his work on LucasArts titles such as Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle. Schafer's familiarity with McConnell, having worked with him on numerous projects in the past, led Schafer to select him for the soundtrack composition. The Psychonauts Original Soundtrack, featuring all the in-game music, was released in 2005. The following year, in late 2006, Double Fine released a second soundtrack, Psychonauts Original Cinematic Score, containing music from the game's cutscenes as well as a remix of the main theme and credits.

Release
The final U.S. release date for the game on Xbox and Windows was April 19, 2005, with the PlayStation 2 port following on June 21, 2005. Psychonauts was re-released via Valve's Steam digital distribution platform on October 11, 2006. Although initially unplayable on the Xbox 360, Tim Schafer spearheaded a successful e-mail campaign by fans which led to Psychonauts being added to the Xbox 360 backwards compatible list on December 12, 2006, and on December 4, 2007, Microsoft made Psychonauts one of the initial launch titles made available for direct download on the Xbox 360 through their Xbox Originals program.

Acquisition of rights and republishing
In June 2011, the original publishing deal with Majesco expired, and full publication rights for the game reverted to Double Fine. When Majesco's rights expired, the game was temporarily removed from the service in August 2011, as Microsoft does not allow unpublished content on its Xbox Live Marketplace. Schafer worked with Microsoft to gain their help in publishing the title under the Microsoft Studios name, and the game returned to the Marketplace in February 2012.

In September 2011, Double Fine released an updated version for Microsoft Windows and a port to Mac OS X and Linux through Steam. The new version provided support for Steam features including achievements and cloud saving. The Mac OS X port was developed in partnership with Steven Dengler's Dracogen. In conjunction with this release, an iOS application, Psychonauts Vault Viewer!, was released at the same time, featuring the memory vaults from the game with commentary by Tim Schafer and Scott Campbell. The game was added to the PlayStation Network store as a "PS2 Classic" for the PlayStation 3 in August 2012. As part of a deal with Nordic Games, who gained the rights to Costume Quest and Stacking after THQ's bankruptcy, Double Fine took over publishing rights for both games, while Nordic published and distribute retail copies of all three games for Windows and Mac OS X systems. Double Fine offered Psychonauts as part of a Humble Bundle in June 2012. In 2016, Double Fine also released Psychonauts as a classic title for use with the PlayStation 4's emulation software.

Reception
Psychonauts received positive reception, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Schafer and Wolpaw's comedic writing was highly praised, as well as the uniqueness and quirks that the individual characters were given. Alex Navarro of GameSpot commented favorably on the "bizarre" cast of characters, their conversations that the player can overhear while exploring the camp, and how these conversations will change as the story progresses, eliminating repetition that is typical of such non-player characters in platform games. Tom Bramwell of Eurogamer found that he was incentivized to go back and explore or experiment in the game's level to find more of the comedic dialog that others had observed. The game was also noted for its innovations, such as the use of a second-person perspective during a boss battle.

The game's art and level design (in particular, the designs of the various mental worlds that Raz visits) were well-received Jason Hill of the Sydney Morning Herald stated that each of the dream worlds "is a memorable journey through the bizarre inner psyche" of the associated character. Two particular levels have been considered iconic of the game's humor and style: the aforementioned Milkman Conspiracy, and Lungfishopolis, where Raz enters the mind of a lungfish monster that lives near camp; in the lungfish's mind Raz is portrayed as a giant monster akin to Godzilla that is attacking the tiny lungfish citizens of Lungfishopolis, effectively creating an absurd role reversal of the typical giant monster formula.

The overall game structure has been a point of criticism. Some reviewers identified that the first several hours of the game are focused on tutorials and instruction, and are less interesting than the later mental worlds. The game's final level, the "Meat Circus", was also considered unexpectedly difficult when compared to earlier sections of the game, featuring a time limit and many obstacles that required an unusual level of precision. On its re-release in 2011, Double Fine adjusted the difficulty of this level to address these complaints. Some found that the game's humor started to wane or become predictable in the latter part of the game.

GamingOnLinux reviewer Hamish Paul Wilson gave the game 8/10, praising the game's creativity and presentation, but also criticizing several other areas of the game, including the large number of unaddressed bugs. Wilson concluded that "Psychonauts has to be viewed as a flawed masterpiece". In 2010, the game was included as one of the titles in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die.

Awards

 * E3 2005 Game Critics Awards: Best Original Game
 * British Academy Video Games Awards 2006: Best Screenplay

The editors of Computer Games Magazine presented Psychonauts with their 2005 awards for "Best Art Direction" and "Best Writing", and named it the year's tenth-best computer game. They called the game "a wonderfully weird journey high on atmosphere, art direction, and creativity." Psychonauts won PC Gamer US's 2005 "Best Game You Didn't Play" award. The editors wrote, "Okay, look, we gave it an Editors' Choice award — that's your cue to run out right now and buy Tim Schafer's magnificent action/adventure game. So far, only about 12,000 PC gamers have." It was also a nominee for the magazine's "Game of the Year 2005" award, which ultimately went to Battlefield 2. During the 9th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Psychonauts received a nomination for "Outstanding Achievement in Game Design" by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Psychonauts won the award for Best Writing at the 6th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards.

Sales
Psychonauts did not reach publisher Majesco's retail sale expectations. Although the game was first cited as the primary contributing factor to a strong quarter immediately following its launch, a month later Majesco revised their fiscal year projections from a net profit of $18 million to a net loss of $18 million, and at the same time its CEO, Carl Yankowski, announced his immediate resignation. By the end of the year, the title had shipped fewer than 100,000 copies in North America, and Majesco announced its plans to withdraw from the "big budget console game marketplace". Schafer stated that by March 2012 the retail version Psychonauts had sold 400,000 copies.

Following Double Fine's acquisition of the rights, they were able to offer the game on more digital storefronts and expand to other platforms; as previously described, this allowed the company to achieve sales in a short term far in excess of what they had been prior to obtaining the rights. In the announcement for Psychonauts 2 in December 2015, Schafer indicated that Psychonauts sold nearly 1.7 million copies, with more than 1.2 million occurring after Double Fine's acquisition of the rights. Double Fine lists 736,119 sold copies via the Humble Bundle (including a Steam key), 430,141 copies via the Steam storefront, 32,000 GOG.com copies, and 23,368 Humble Store copies. On Humble Bundle, the game sold well, with Schafer stating that they sold more copies of Psychonauts in the first few hours of the Bundle's start than they had since the release of the retail copy of the game. Later in 2012, Schafer commented that their ability to use digital venues such as Steam that "[Double Fine] made more on Psychonauts this year than we ever have before".

Sequels
A sequel to Psychonauts has been of great interest to Schafer, as well as to fans of the game and the gaming press. Schafer had pitched the idea to publishers but most felt the game too strange to take up. During the Kickstarter campaign for Double Fine's Broken Age in February 2012, Schafer commented on the development costs of a sequel over social media, leading to a potential interest in backing by Markus Persson, at the time the owner of Mojang. Though Persson ultimately did not fund this, interactions between him and Double Fine revealed the possibility of several interested investors to help.

In mid-2015, Schafer along with other industry leaders launched Fig, a crowd-sourced platform for video games that included the option for accredited investors to invest in the offered campaigns. Later, at the 2015 Game Awards in December, Schafer announced their plans to work on Psychonauts 2, using Fig to raise the $3.3 million needed to complete the game, with an anticipated release in 2018. The campaign succeeded on January 6, 2016. The sequel was released on August 25, 2021 and sees the return of Richard Horvitz and Nikki Rapp as the voices of Raz and Lili respectively, along with Wolpaw for writing, Chan and Campbell for art, and McConnell for music.

Additionally, Double Fine has developed a VR title called Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin for use on Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR. Released in 2017, it serves as a standalone chapter to tie the original game and its sequel, based on Raz and the other Psychonauts rescuing Truman Zanotto. Psychonauts 2 was released on August 25, 2021.

Appearance in other media
The character Raz has made appearances in other Double Fine games, including as a massive Mount Rushmore-like mountain sculpture in Brütal Legend, and on a cardboard cutout within Costume Quest 2. Raz also appeared in a downloadable content package as a playable character for Bit.Trip Presents... Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien. A cameo of Raz appears in Alice: Madness Returns which can be found at the Red Queen's castle as a propped-up skeleton that bears a striking resemblance to the protagonist itself. There is also a hidden symbol of Raz in A Hat in Time which can be found using one of the hat abilities in a certain part of Chapters 3 Act 4.

title: Psychonauts


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Kitaaizu District, Fukushima

Kitaaizu (北会津郡) was a district located in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.

On November 1, 2004, the village of Kitaaizu was merged into the expanded city of Aizuwakamatsu, as a result of which the village and district dissolved.

As of 2003, the district had an estimated population of 7,603 and a density of 269.80 persons per km2. The total area was 28.18 km2.

Towns and villages

 * Kitaaizu (now part of Aizuwakamatsu)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Kitaaizu District, Fukushima


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Jonas Kyratzes

Jonas Kyratzes is a German-Greek video game designer and author of video game industry related articles.

Career
Kyratzes' games are known for breaking with convention and being heavily story-driven. Several of his games are thematically interconnected, often by the recurring figure of Urizen (first mentioned in The Great Machine) and other themes related to or inspired by the work of William Blake. With his wife, he created The Lands of Dream, a setting for many games, a book, and stories (see Stories below) he and his wife created.

He also has an interest in film, and in January 2009 he wrote and directed a short documentary about the 2008 Greek riots called The Greek Riots: Some Basic Facts.

Jonas was born in Germany to a Greek father and a German mother, and raised in Greece. He has written several articles on video games, often advocating the concept that games are an art form. He is also politically active on the internet, blogging about political issues and co-founding the Wikileaks Stories game-making initiative. He describes his political stance as left-wing.

He lives in Frankfurt, (Germany) with his wife, Verena.

Games

 * Last Rose in a Desert Garden (2000): Fatalistic but very short, which takes place in the aftermath of a nuclear war.
 * The Infinite Ocean (2003, 2010 remake), deals with the concept of existentialism, centered on a sentient computer.
 * The Great Machine: A Fragment, an experimental work of interactive fiction about the horrors of war.
 * The Museum of Broken Memories (2006), which also deals with themes relating to war, but is made up of a number of interrelated story fragments.
 * The Strange and Somewhat Sinister Tale of the House at Desert Bridge (2009), a humorous fantasy with melancholic undertones, set in the Lands of Dream.
 * Phenomenon 32, a post-apocalyptic 2D exploration platformer set in an alternate universe.
 * You Shall Know The Truth, a political game about WikiLeaks
 * Alphaland (2011), a platformer set inside an unfinished (alpha) game. Terry Cavanagh is credited as a programmer.
 * The Book of Living Magic (2011), another game set in the Lands of Dream, in which a girl named Raven Locks Smith leaves the town of Dull to find The Book of Living Magic.
 * Arcadia: A Pastoral Tale (2012), another work of interactive fiction (a text-based game).
 * The Fabulous Screech (2012), a Lands of Dream installment expanding on the feline character it is named for, whom was first introduced in The Book of Living Magic.
 * Traitor (2012), Kyratzes' most mechanic-based game, a vertical shooter about a mercenary's role in a growing revolutionary conflict.
 * The Sea Will Claim Everything (2012), his first commercial game, involving another Lands of Dream scenario where a biotechnological dwelling called Underhome must face foreclosure.
 * Moonlight (2012), a surreal text-based game that contains Stephen Fry, Oscar Wilde, Alpha Centauri, eagles, and many more things.
 * The Matter of the Great Red Dragon (2014), a text-based Lands of Dream game
 * The Talos Principle (2014), hired as a writer by Croteam
 * A Postcard From Afthonia (2014), his latest Lands of Dream game, in which the player helps out a cat and a dog, who are married, during a war.
 * Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope (2017)
 * Phoenix Point (2018), developing the narrative and stories for Snapshot Games.
 * Serious Sam 4 (2020)
 * The Eternal Cylinder (2021)
 * Clash: Artifacts of Chaos (2023)
 * The Talos Principle II (2023)

Book

 * Στη σκιά του Αόρατου Βασιλιά (In the Shadow of the Invisible King), (2013) is currently only available in Greek. It takes place in the Lands of Dream.

Stories
Jonas has "collected" many stories that take place in the Lands of Dream. They are all illustrated by his wife, Verena. The stories are found in The Oneiropolis Compendium, the Wanderers' Tales (stories written by other authors that "traveled" to the Lands of Dream), and Likely Facts, excerpts from The Book of Likely Facts (only published in the Lands of Dream), which was written by "Jorrum Dooga."

Future projects

 * Super Omega Land, another platforming game
 * Ithaka of the Clouds, a Lands of Dream text-based game. This game was originally crowdfunded, but Jonas decided to rename it The Council of Crows. Ithaka of the Clouds became a very different (and less expensive) game than Jonas had originally planned.

title: Jonas Kyratzes


text:
Atsushiokanō, Fukushima

Atsushiokanō (熱塩加納村) was a village located in Yama District, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2003, the village had an estimated population of 3,446 and a density of 21.95 persons per km2. The total area was 156.98 km2.

On January 4, 2006, Atsushiokanō, along with the towns of Shiokawa and Yamato, and the village of Takasato (all from Yama District), was merged into the expanded city of Kitakata.

title: Atsushiokanō, Fukushima


text:
Kitashiobara, Fukushima

Kitashiobara (北塩原村) is a village located in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , the village had an estimated population of 2,697 in 1091 households, and a population density of 12 persons per km2. The total area of the village was 234.08 sqkm.

Geography
Kitashiobara is located at the far northern Aizu region of Fukushima Prefecture, bordered by Yamagata Prefecture to the north. Kitashiobara consists of three areas, named after the former the villages of Kitayama, Ōshio, and Hibara. The western portion, Hibara, has a higher elevation than the other two areas, most of it between 800 m and 1000 m. Also, Lake Hibara in Hibara is located in the Bandai-Asahi National Park. It was created in 1888 during the eruption of Mount Bandai. Oguni-numa, a swamp, is reserved by the Japanese government as a natural monument. Some 86% of the village area is covered in mountains and forest.

 * Mountains : Mount Bandai
 * Rivers : Nakutsu-gawa, Ono-gawa
 * Lakes : Lake Hibara, Goshiki-numa, Lake Onogawa, Oguni-numa, Akimoto Lake

Neighboring municipalities
Fukushima Prefecture Yamagata Prefecture
 * Kitakata
 * Inawashiro
 * Bandai
 * Yonezawa

Climate
Kitashiobara has a Humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) characterized by warm summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Kitashiobara is 7.4 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1666 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 20.8 °C, and lowest in January, at around -4.9 °C.

Demographics
Per Japanese census data, the population of Kitashiobara has declined steadily over the past 40 years.

History
The area of present-day Kitashiobara was part of ancient Mutsu Province, and formed part of the holdings of Aizu Domain during the Edo period. After the Meiji Restoration, it was organized as part of Yama District, Fukushima Prefecture. The villages of Kitayama, Ōshio and Hibara. were created with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1884. The three villages merged to form the village of Kitashiobara village was created on March 31, 1954.

Economy
The economy of Kitashiobara is dependent on agriculture, seasonal tourism, and the mining of salt.

Education
Kitashiobara has two public elementary schools and two public junior high schools operated by the village government. The village does not have a public high school.

Railway

 * Kitashiobara does not have any passenger rail service.

Local attractions

 * Morohashi Museum of Modern Art
 * Bandai-Asahi National Park
 * Goshiki-numa

title: Kitashiobara, Fukushima


text:
Shiokawa, Fukushima

Shiokawa (塩川町) was a town located in Yama District, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.

As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 10,457 and a density of 226.15 persons per km2. The total area was 46.24 km2.

On January 4, 2006, Shiokawa, along with the town of Yamato, and the villages of Atsushiokanō and Takasato (all from Yama District), was merged into the expanded city of Kitakata.

title: Shiokawa, Fukushima


text:
Talk:Kings Norton

Untitled
Maybe it would be useful to add some stuff about Kings Norton in the Civil War? For example: the skirmish on the village green between Lord Willoughby's parliamentarians and Prince Rupert's troops is of interest. (17th October 1642)

Also, the story about Queen Henrietta Maria staying there (maybe in the Saracen's Head) while the army she'd raised in Yorkshire camped on land behind the church (Camp Lane gets its name from this).

The Old Grammar School and the Saracen's Head are mentioned in the main Birmingham article, but not here!

The Mop Fair could be worth a mention: held from the 16th century.

 * Go right ahead! Andy Mabbett 15:31, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)

OK, I've added a little bit for the moment. I'll add some more later if this is OK :-)

--Amortize 14:26, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I've added a little on the church. The spelling of St Nicolas really is correct! --Amortize 15:45, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I've got a couple of photos of the Old Grammar School and the Saracen's Head. I've taken them myself, so would there be any problem adding them? --Amortize 09:01, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I have changed the opening paragraph as Kings Norton is now in the district of Northfield - this administrative change occured in June 2006. Also added reference to the Urban District Council --Duncan 20:15, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

This page is looking very messy - its really just a single block of text. I propose that its restructured to make it read more easily, along the lines of the Moseley article. Does anyone object? Duncan 18:20, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
 * No objections here, please be bold and go ahead! DWaterson 01:17, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Major reorder (phase I) done. Hope people like it! To the marching band folk - I've put your link into the text... Duncan 11:48, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Correct spelling please..........
Please can we lovers of King's Norton get the spelling right. It is named after the King's Norton; it therefore was something that belonged to the King. So please its King's not Kings!! Brumman19 21:47, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

 * There is no apostrophe in Kings Norton, per   . This article explains the history of the spelling and the dropping of the apostrophe from current usage. Cheers, DWaterson 23:21, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

 * In fact the market charter refers to 'kingsnorton' without an apostrophe (or indeed a space). As this was signed by King James I suggest that we take his arbitration on it.  Duncan (talk) 15:01, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Local organisations section
This needs to be merged with another section in the article, otherwise it will start becoming an exhaustive list of non-notable groups in the Kings Norton area. It is difficult enough to work out the importance of the organisations already listed. - Erebus555 (talk) 16:24, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

How many C15 buildings?
"the Green contains three later medieval building from the 15th century, the Old Grammar School, the Saracen's Head...two of these ancient buildings..."

Is there a third building missing from the list, or should the above be edited to something like "the Green contains two later medieval buildings from the 15th century: the Old Grammar School and the Saracen's Head, which won the second series of the BBC's Restoration competition in 2004" ? Mittfh (talk) 15:57, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

Anyone know enogh to contribute to a primrose poolfarm and hawekesly article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.178.44.79 (talk) 13:30, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Merge of Kings Norton Royal British Legion Youth Marching Band
I think that article would be better as a section in this article, since I do not think it passes the criteria for notability in its own right. Comments? Willplatts (talk) 17:30, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

 * Agree. I'm not sure it's even notable enough to merge into here - AFD might be a better destination. DWaterson (talk) 21:23, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

 * Disagree. Sorry, I don't think its significant enough locally to be mentioned.  If we merge the article here we open ourselves to either domination of the article by a single organisation or a list of every organisation in the area...  The KNRBLYMB article should stand or fall by itself.  Duncan (talk) 19:36, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

New Book from Price and Demidowicz
I think we need to look at refreshing the article given the considerable new info from this book. I'll try and incorporate stuff over the next few weeks, but if anyone else want a go... Duncan (talk) 09:57, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
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title: Talk:Kings Norton


text:
Joaquín Andújar

Joaquín Andújar (December 21, 1952 – September 8, 2015) was a Dominican professional baseball pitcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Astros, St. Louis Cardinals, and Oakland Athletics from 1976 through 1988. Andújar was a four-time MLB All-Star and a Gold Glove Award winner.

Early years
Andújar signed with the Cincinnati Reds in 1969, one month shy of his 17th birthday. He posted a 33–41 record with a 4.33 earned run average over six seasons in the Reds' farm system. Following the 1975 season, he was dealt to the Houston Astros for two players to be named later (on December 12, 1975, the Reds received reliever Luis Sanchez and third baseman and catcher Carlos Alfonso).

Houston Astros (1976–1981)
Andújar made his Major League debut in the 1976 season opener against his former franchise. After two relief appearances against the Reds, he was moved into the starting rotation. On July 11 and July 17, Andújar pitched consecutive 1–0 shutouts against the Montreal Expos and New York Mets. For the season, he went 9–10 with a 3.60 ERA.

Andújar was 10–5 with a 3.47 ERA at the 1977 All-Star break, and he was named the Astros' sole representative in the All-Star game. However, he injured himself in his final start before the game and could not play. He did not return to his team until September and finished the season 11–8 with a 3.69 ERA.

Andújar began seeing more work out of the bullpen in 1978 and earned his first career save on August 25 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He began the 1979 season in the bullpen and was 4–2 with a 3.23 ERA with three saves and two blown saves when he was added back to the starting rotation. He responded with four consecutive complete game victories in which he gave up just one earned run per game. He was named to his second National League All-Star team and pitched two innings while giving up two runs (one earned). On August 14, he pitched a four-hit complete game against the Montreal Expos while hitting an inside-the-park home run to account for both of the Astros' runs in a 2–1 win.

While splitting time between starting and relieving, he went 3–8 in 1980. The Astros won a one-game playoff against the Los Angeles Dodgers, which resulted in Andújar making his first postseason appearance. He recorded a save in Game Two of the 1980 National League Championship Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. Andújar was the first player to have a postseason save for the Astros and he was the only one to do so until 2004.

1981–1984
After starting the 1981 season at 2–3 with a 4.88 ERA, Andújar was acquired by the St. Louis Cardinals from the Astros for Tony Scott on June 6, 1981, just before the players' strike. MLB.com Cardinals beat writer Jenifer Langosch wrote in 2013 that it was one of the five best in-season trades in franchise history.

He returned to a starting role with the Cardinals and responded by going 6–1 for the rest of the 1981 season. In 1982, he pitched a career high innings. He won his last 7 decisions and had a 1.64 ERA down the stretch to finish the season at 15–10. He pitched a three-hit shutout of the Philadelphia Phillies at Veterans Stadium on September 15 that put his team games up on the Phillies in the National League East, a lead they held for the remainder of the season.

The Cardinals swept the Atlanta Braves in the 1982 National League Championship Series, with Andújar starting and winning Game 3. He started two games in the 1982 World Series against the Milwaukee Brewers, winning both with a 1.35 ERA. He was taken off the field during Game 3 after he was hit in the leg by a line drive. St. Louis manager Whitey Herzog later said that he thought Andújar had been killed by the batted ball, but Andújar recovered in time to start Game 7.

Andújar had a career year in 1984, going 13–6 with a 2.90 ERA at the All-Star break to earn his third All-Star selection (though he was unable to attend). He ended the season at 20–14 with a 3.34 ERA; he led the league in wins, innings pitched (261.1), and shutouts (four) while winning the Gold Glove Award at pitcher. In 1982 and 1984, he led the Cardinals in wins, ERA, games started, complete games, innings pitched, shutouts, and strikeouts.

1985
Andújar got off to a 12–1 start in 1985, and made his fourth All-Star team. The Cardinals and New York Mets became embroiled in a heated battle for the NL East crown that came down to the wire. Andújar went 3–1 with a 4.29 ERA against the Mets that season. A 5–2 loss on October 2 against Dwight Gooden allowed the Mets to pull within a game of the Cardinals. This loss became perhaps the most memorable game Andújar pitched in the rivalry that developed between the two clubs. The Cardinals won the following day and ended up taking the division by three games over the Mets. Andújar ended the season at 21–12 with a 3.40 ERA. In the 1985 National League Championship Series, he was ineffective in his Game 2 start against the Los Angeles Dodgers, which put the Cardinals in a two-game hole. St. Louis came back to win the following four games, which paved the Cardinals' way to the World Series. (Andújar started the decisive Game 6 of the NLCS but did not figure into the decision.)

Between 1982 and 1985, Andújar averaged more than 36 games started per season. A major league pitcher has not had more than 36 starts in one season since Greg Maddux started 37 games in 1991.

1985 World Series
The World Series against the Kansas City Royals went poorly for Andújar. He lasted 4+ innings in Game 3 and took the loss opposite a dominant Bret Saberhagen. John Tudor, meanwhile, was 3–1 with a 1.59 ERA that postseason, leading Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog to go with Tudor in the decisive Game 7, despite the fact that Andújar had five days' rest. The strategy failed, and Tudor was pulled in the third with the bases loaded and three runs already on the board. The score was 10–0 by the time Herzog brought Andújar in for mop-up duty. When umpire Don Denkinger called a ball, Andújar emphatically showed his disagreement and had to be restrained by teammates. Herzog was furious and was ejected. A pitch later, Andújar was ejected for arguing another pitch which was clearly off the plate. Andujar charged Denkinger, bumping the umpire before being restrained by teammates.

Herzog's decision to send in Andújar—normally a starter—led to speculation that his decision was payback for Denkinger's infamous call in Game 6, but Herzog had stated that Andújar was the only Cardinal pitcher that still had any life left in his arm, as the Cardinals had gone through seven pitchers in the game.

Andújar was so furious after being ejected from Game 7 that he demolished a toilet and sink in the visitor's clubhouse bathroom in Royals Stadium with a bat. As a result of this and his conduct toward Denkinger, Andújar was fined $500—the maximum permissible amount at the time—and was suspended for the first 10 games of the following regular season. Andújar was additionally ordered to make restitution for damages.

Oakland Athletics (1986–1987)
Andújar was traded from the Cardinals to the Oakland Athletics for Mike Heath and Tim Conroy during the Winter Meetings on December 10, 1985. Herzog denied that the transaction had anything to do with Andújar winning only one game after August 23 or what transpired during the World Series. Cardinals general manager Dal Maxvill said that the team needed a catcher after releasing Darrell Porter and having only a barely tested Tom Nieto on its depth chart.

Andújar was to begin the 1986 season serving a ten-game suspension (later reduced to five) for the World Series feud with Denkinger. Also, on February 28, 1986, Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth handed down season-long suspensions to Andújar—who police say dealt drugs to then-Cardinals teammate Lonnie Smith in 1982 —and six other players, including Smith, who had admitted to cocaine abuse during the Pittsburgh drug trials. The suspensions were reduced to anti-drug donations and community service.

As luck would have it, Denkinger was the home plate umpire for Andújar's first start of 1986. His first start of the season was uneventful as Andújar lasted just 4+ innings while giving up 6 earned runs. Despite his lackluster start to the season, Andújar had a decent year in 1986, going 12–7 with a 3.82 ERA. He suffered numerous injuries along the way, including an injury sustained during batting practice.

Injuries limited Andújar to 13 starts in 1987. His last start was on August 3, and he lasted just two-thirds of an inning, giving up 3 runs.

Final season
Andújar returned to the Astros in 1988 and was slated to work from the Astros' bullpen; however, because of injuries in the starting rotation, Andújar made some mid-season starts. He ended the season at 2–5 with a 4.00 ERA.

He earned a 5–0 record in the Senior Professional Baseball Association (SPBA) in late 1989. When he was signed by the Montreal Expos on December 11, he became the first SPBA player to sign with an MLB club. He was released by the Expos the following March.

After baseball
After retiring from baseball, Andújar started a trucking business in the Dominican Republic. In 2012, Andújar was inducted into the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame. He died at his home on September 8, 2015, in San Pedro de Macorís, from complications of diabetes.

title: Joaquín Andújar


text:
Smilie

Smilie may be:

People
Smilie
 * Smilie Suri, an Indian model, actress and dancer
 * John Smilie (1741–1812), Irish-American politician

Smillie
 * Carol Smillie, British performer
 * James Smillie (fl. 1970s), British actor

title: Smilie


text:
Anthony Collett

Anthony Keeling Collett (22 August 1877 – 22 August 1929) was an author and writer on natural history subjects and was nature correspondent for The Times during the 1910s and 1920s.

Collett's father was the Reverend William Collett, a former fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. He was born at Cromhall, Gloucestershire, where his father held the living that was dispensed by Oriel College, and was educated privately at Crowthorne and then at Bradfield College before being awarded a scholarship to study classics at Oriel. After graduating he was awarded a college scholarship that enabled him to spend some time at the University of Berlin.

Collett began work as a journalist for the St. James's Gazette in London, where he wrote on many subjects. From 1908, he also contributed to The Times, although not as a staff member until after World War I. He enlisted in the Post Office Rifles for that war, initially as a private and later as a commissioned officer. After fighting at Vimy Ridge, Collett, who was in any case generally not a particularly healthy man, was invalided home and served the rest of the war working in the War Office.

He was not enamoured of London and regularly lived and produced his writings from other places, including in the Italian Alps, Scotland and Wales. During the war, he had managed occasionally to write articles while in France. He died in a London nursing home on 22 August 1929, on his 52nd birthday, having suffered a significant decline in his already poor health in the previous two years. That decline may have been related to his war service.

Collett retained an affection for Bradfield College and was a governor there for many years.

W. H. Auden used many phrases from Collett's Changing Face of England in his poems.

The Chase, a 130 acre woodland in Woolton Hill, was dedicated to the memory of Collett (according to a plaque on the site) when the land was presented to the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty in 1944 by Sir Kenneth Swan as a nature reserve and bird sanctuary.

title: Anthony Collett


text: Category:Russian explorers

title: Category:Russian explorers


text:
Nishiaizu, Fukushima

Nishiaizu (西会津町) is a town located in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 6,090 in 2598 households, and a population density of 20 persons per km². Approximately 66% of the population is over the age of 65. The total area is 298.18 sqkm.

Geography
Nishiaizu is located at the far northwestern corner of the Aizu region of Fukushima Prefecture, bordered Niigata Prefecture to the north and the west. It is known as the "front door" to the Iide Mountains. About 86 percent of the total area is composed of mountains and forests.

 * Mountains : Mount Mikunidake (1644 m)
 * Rivers : Aga River

Neighboring municipalities
Fukushima Prefecture Niigata Prefecture
 * Kitakata
 * Yanaizu
 * Aizubange
 * Kaneyama
 * Aga

Climate
Nishiaizu has a Humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) characterized by warm summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Nishiaizu is 11.8 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1548 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.4 °C, and lowest in January, at around -0.9 °C.

Demographics
Per Japanese census data, the population of Nishiaizu has declined by more than two-thirds over the past 60 years.

History
The area of present-day Nishiaizu was part of ancient Mutsu Province and formed part of the holdings of Aizu Domain during the Edo period. After the Meiji Restoration, it was organized as part of Yama District, Fukushima Prefecture. The town of Nishiaizu was founded on July 1, 1954 through a merger of the villages of Shingo and Okugawa with the town of Nozawa and villages of Onomoto, Tosejima, Mutsuai, Shitatani, Muraoka, Kaminojiri and Hosaka in Kawanuma District. In 2006, Nishiaizu residents decided to decline a merger with the city of Kitakata.

Economy
Nishiaizu is a rural area with a local economy dependent on agriculture and forestry.

Education
Nishiaizu has one public elementary school and one public junior high school operated by the town government, and one public high school operated by the Fukushima Prefectural Board of Education.
 * Nishiaizu Elementary School
 * Nishiaizu High School.

Railway
JR East – Ban'etsu West Line
 * Onobori - Nozawa - Kami-Nojiri - Tokusawa

Highway

 * – Nishiaizu PA

Local attractions

 * Enmanji Kannon-dō, the temple building is the one designated Important Cultural Property in Nishiaizu.
 * Torioi-Kannon Nyohōji - the gate and four wooden statues are Fukushima Prefectural Important Cultural Properties. The temple houses one of the Aizu region's three important statues of Kannon.

title: Nishiaizu, Fukushima


text:
List of Indonesian monarchies

''' This is a list of monarchies, past and present, in Indonesia. '''

A

 * Aceh: In the northern region of Sumatra, the Sultanate of Achin or Atjeh was founded at the end of the 15th century. A powerful Islamic state in the 16th and 17th centuries.
 * Adonara: A state on the volcanic island of the same name ...
 * Amabi: A state in West Timor (Timor Loro Manu) which formed in 1917 the larger KupangKupang state ...
 * Amanatun: A state in West Timor (Timor Loro Manu). The sovereignty was altered in 1962. The palace of the Raja moved from Nunkolo in 1952 ...
 * Amanuban: A state in West Timor (Timor Loro Manu). The palace of the Raja is called Sonaf Naik (Big Palace) ...
 * Amarasi: A state in West Timor (Timor Loro Manu) ...
 * Ambeno, Ambenu, Ambeno Mosu Talip: A state in West Timor ...
 * Arun: A state more or less vassal of the Sultanate of Aceh, in the Meureudu area of Sumatra. The state was part of the Federation of the XII Hulubalangs ...
 * Asahan: Asahan, in east Sumatra, was founded as a state at the end of the 17th century by a son of the Sultan of Aceh. The state represented ...

B

 * Badung: A state created as the result of the fall of the Majapahit empire, after Dewa Agung Ketut, ruler of Bali and Lombok divided his kingdom into several states.
 * Bangli: A state founded after the fall of the Majapahit empire, after Dewa Agung Ketut, ruler of Bali and Lombok divided his kingdom into several states.
 * Banten: Founded in the early 16th century on the collapse of the Majapahit Empire by the son of the King-Priester of Cirebon, the Sultanate of Banten, in western Java.
 * Bima: A state existing in the 17th century on Sumbawa Island.
 * Bone (also spelled Boni): In the Bugi region of the southwestern Celebes (Sulawesi Selatan). The state was founded in 1634, suppressed in 1905, restored in 1931.
 * Buleleng: A state created as the result of the fall of the Majapahit empire, after Dewa Agung Ketut, ruler of Bali and Lombok divided his kingdom into several states.
 * Buton (also spelled Butung): Lie on in the southeast Celebes (Sulawesi Tenggara). The state was founded in 1332.

C

 *  Cirebon : A state founded in 1478 as a result of the fall of the Majapahit Empire, split into 4 lineages in 1662 with their own land and palace (Kraton) in Cirebon.

D

 * Deli: An 1,820 km2 state in east Sumatra founded in 1630. A Rajadom from 1630 until 1814, the state became a sultanate in 1814 when acquiring independence from Siak.

G

 * Gianyar: A state created as the result of the fall of the Majapahit empire, after Dewa Agung Ketut, ruler of Bali and Lombok divided his kingdom into several states.
 * Gorontalo: A state and town in the Northern Celebes (Sulawesi Utara), founded in 1667 and suppressed in 1889.
 * Gowa: A state founded in the Makassar region of southwestern Celebes before 1300.

I

 * Iha: Formerly an Islamic kingdom located in Saparua land, Maluku.

J

 * Jambi: A 53,206 km2 state in the south of Sumatra, founded in 1690 and suspended by the Dutch in 1901.

K

 * Kaimana: This kingdom is located in the west of Papua Island, precisely on the Bomberai Peninsula, and has its capital on Adi Island.
 * Kandis: This kingdom is estimated to be established c. 1 BCE, believed to be the oldest kingdom in Sumatra and the archipelago so far, located in Koto Alang, in the area of Lubuk Jambi, Kuantan Singingi Regency, Riau.
 * Karangasem: A state founded after the fall of the Majapahit empire, after Dewa Agung Ketut, ruler of Bali and Lombok divided his kingdom into several states among 9 of his chiefs among ...
 * Kisar: An island-state on the north of East Timor, locally named Yotowawa and sometime spelled also Kisser ...
 * Klungkung: A premier state born in 1352 after the fall of the Majapahit empire, after Dewa Agung Ketut, ruler of Bali and Lombok divided his kingdom into several states among 9 of his ...
 * Kubu: A state founded in 1772 in West Borneo ...
 * Kupang: A federation created in 1917 composed of the principalities of Amabi, Amaabi OEfeto, Foenay, Kupang Helong, Sonbai Kecil and TaEbenu with an elected monarch ...
 * Kutai: Initially called Kutai Kartanegara, the state was called Ku Tei or Big Kingdom by the Chinese. It was known as the first Hindu kingdom in present-Indonesia known as the Kutai Martadipura Kingdom founded by king Kudungga in the 4th century CE, then the Sultanate of Kutai Kartanegara ing Martadipura was formed later in the 15th century after the royalties converted to Islam.

L

 * Langsa: A state more or less vassal of the Sultanate of Aceh, in the region of Sumatra.
 * Larantuka: A 3,300 km2 state in the Flores islands, founded c1400 ...
 * Laura: A state on the island of Sumba ...
 * Limboto: A state and town in the Northern Celebes (Sulawesi Utara), founded in 1667 and suppressed in 1895
 * Lio: A state in the Flores islands ...
 * Lise: A state in the Flores islands ...
 * Lombok: A state-island in Bali that became independent after the fall of the Majapahit empire, after Dewa Agung Ketut, ruler of Bali and Lombok divided his kingdom into several states ...
 * Luwu: A state founded before 1600 in the Bugis region of the Southern Celebes ...

M

 * Majene: A state in the Mandar region in the Southern Celebes ...
 * Mamuju: A state in the Mandar region in the Southern Celebes ...
 * Manggarai: A state in the Flores islands, founded in 1759. From 1762 until 1815 and from 1851 until 1907, Manggarai was part of the Sultanate of Bima ...
 * Mangkualaman: it was divided out of the historical holdings of the royal family of Pakualaman on 23 August 2021 as a proposed settlement between Royal claimants with KGPAA Mangku Alam Al-Haj Maulana Abdullah Khalifatullah Al-Jawi as head of the principality. The settlement is based on the historic restoration of the Merdiko Praja Mangkualaman Principality, which was established on March 7, 1822, by the Dutch East Indies colonial government.
 * Mangkunegaran: A 2,579.98 km2 state founded on 17 March 1757 in the Surakarta Sunanate.
 * Mappa: A state in the Toraja region of the Southern Celebes ...
 * Marang: A state and town in the Makassar region in the Southern Celebes ...

N

 * Napu: A state in the Middle Celebes.
 * Napu: A state on the island of Sumba.
 * Nita: A state in the Flores islands.

P

 * Pagaruyung: The seat of Minangkabau kings of Western Sumatra ...
 * Pakualaman: A 417.62 km2 state founded on 22 June 1812 or 17 March 1813 in the Sultanate of Yogyakarta in Java.
 * Palembang Darussalam: The Sultanate of Palembang Darussalam (Sumatra) was proclaimed in 1675 and dissolved by the colonial government of the Dutch Indies on October 7, 1823.
 * Perlak: The earliest sultanate in Southeast Asia, believed to be accepted Islam as early as the 9th century.
 * Pontianak: The state of Pontianak was created in Western Borneo (Kalimantan Barat) in 1771 but was elevated as a sultanate only in 1778 by the Raja of Riau.

R

 * Riau-Lingga: A Malay Sultanate existed between 1824-1918.

S

 * Sambas: A state in West Borneo ...
 * Sekar: A small kingdom located in Sekar, Fakfak Regency, West Papua
 * Serdang: A state in East Sumatra (Sumatera Timur), independent from Siak on 16/8/1862.
 * Siak Sri Indrapura: A state in eastern Sumatra founded in 1722, split from Johor Empire, and became dominant in the region in the 18th century, and contracted in the following century to the Siak River basin.
 * Solor Watan Lema: A confederation of five Islamic kingdoms in East Nusa Tenggara.
 * Sonbai: A dynasty in West Timor which was divided in Sonbai Besar and Sonbai Kecil.
 * Soya: A small kingdom in Ambon, Maluku Islands.
 * Sunda: A kingdom in Indonesia.
 * Surakarta: A 3,635 km2 state in Java founded in 1755 after the state of Mataram split into two states.

T

 * Tabanan: is a kingdom in central Bali, built by "Shri Arya Kenceng" the chief of the Majapahit Army who attacked the "Bali Kuna" kingdom in the 14th century. Then for 21 generation his descendant ruled Tabanan.
 * Tanette: founded around 1547 in South Sulawesi ...
 * Ternate: A 65 km2 state in the Moluccas founded in the 13th century by people from Djaïlolo (today Jailolo). Ternate became the premier state of the Moluccas in 1380 over Djailolo.
 * Tidore: is a center of a spice-funded sultanate that arose in the 15th century.

U

 * Ubud: A Raja family in the principality of Gianyar in southeast Bali.

W

 * Wajoq: A state founded c.1450 by refugees by Luwu in the Bugi region of the Southwestern Celebes (Sulawesi Selatan). A kind of aristocratic republic governed by a council.
 * Wehali: A kingdom in the southern part of Central Timor, regarded by the Timorese as the centre of their political culture.

Y

 * Yogyakarta: In 1755, the Sultanate of Mataram in Java split into two states: Yogyakarta and Surakarta. Both states were subject to the indirect rule of the Dutch until 1949 when Indonesia gained independence and full recognition from the Netherlands.

title: List of Indonesian monarchies