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Betrayal at Krondor

Betrayal at Krondor is an MS-DOS-based role-playing video game developed by Dynamix and released by Sierra On-Line in the summer of 1993. Betrayal at Krondor takes place largely in Midkemia, the fantasy world developed by Raymond E. Feist in his Riftwar novels. The game is designed to resemble a book, separated into chapters and narrated in the third-person with a quick-save bookmark feature.

Although neither the dialog nor narrative were written by Feist himself, the game is considered canon, having been novelized as Krondor: The Betrayal five years later. Events in the game were also written into the Riftwar novels.

PyroTechnix completed a sequel, Return to Krondor, which was released by Sierra in 1998. Its protracted development experienced considerable delay, and the finished product was not nearly as warmly received as Betrayal.

GOG.com released an emulated version of Betrayal at Krondor for Microsoft Windows in 2010.

Gameplay
Gameplay occurs mainly from a first-person perspective while traveling the overworld, dungeons, and caves, but switches to a third-person view during combat. The user interface is mouse-driven, with keyboard hotkeys for each action.

The game has two possible views, the 3D first-person view and the 2D top-down map view, where the player is represented with a triangular marker. The overworld is completely mapped, but other locations are automatically mapped in the top-down view as the player explores them. The player can also view the full map of Midkemia and see their location.

Each chapter's main plot usually takes place completely within one or two regions of the game world. However, the player is given enormous freedom to explore the world however they wish, with ample opportunity to perform optional sub-quests and enhance their characters' abilities, gain cash, upgrade weapons and armor, and so on. Only certain locations are accessible in each chapter, though the player is free to explore anywhere within those boundaries as well as take their time performing quests. While traveling, the party camps in the wilderness to rest and recover lost health and stamina, provided that there are no enemies in the vicinity.

Moredhel wordlock chests
One of the game's unique features is the large assortment of Moredhel wordlock chests, hidden throughout the land. These chests have combination locks with letters on each dial, and a riddle written upon them whose answer opens the chest. Wordlock chests can hold valuable items and equipment, as well as quest items essential to completing the game. If no member of the player's party can read Moredhel, the writing on the chest will appear untranslated, although it can still be opened by a brute force method of systematically cycling through each tumbler. The Moredhel alphabet is a character substitution of the A-Z alphabet. Gorath, a Moredhel, can read it, and casting the Union spell allows Patrus to do so for short periods of time. Wordlock chests containing essential quest items are relatively easy to find, either located near roads or their locations being disclosed through interaction with NPCs. However, "bonus" wordlock chests are typically hidden in areas where the player is not likely to travel unless they are assiduously searching for treasure.

Plot and dialogue
The storyline is advanced primarily through literary cutscenes. Each chapter begins and ends with a cutscene, consisting of text, dialogue, and animations. The player meets various NPCs during their travels. Dialogue is text-based and some NPCs have their own pictures as well. Conversation is tree-based: in some cases, the player can choose between various dialogue keywords. This is used to get information, training, and items, sometimes for a price.

RPG system and player character development
There are two or three characters in the adventuring party at any time. While the player meets various non-human characters during the game (including dwarves, elves, goblins, and dragons), five of the six player characters are human. The exception is Gorath, a dark elf. There are two classes of characters: fighters (Locklear, James, and Gorath) and magicians (Pug, Owyn, and Patrus). Fighters use swords and crossbows, while magicians use a staff. The only long-range attacks magicians are capable of are magic spells.

The character system is unique. The main character attributes are health, stamina, speed, and strength. Speed determines how many combat grid squares the character can move. Strength influences the amount of damage the character inflicts in mêlée combat. Spell-casting, swinging one's weapon, and combat damage first use up stamina. Once stamina is depleted, you begin to eat into health. Once it decreases, the character's skills (such as the crucial trait of weapon accuracy), as well as their movement speed, are adversely impacted.

In addition to attributes, each character has a set of skills expressed as percentages. Skills can be emphasized, causing them to improve faster, while de-emphasized skills improve more slowly. Unlike many other role-playing games, skills are improved by using them rather than through a leveling up system. For example, fixing weapons will improve the weaponcraft skill, which in turn will make the character more effective at fixing weapons in the future. Skills include defense, crossbow accuracy, mêlée weapon accuracy, spell-casting accuracy, enemy assessment, weapon and armor repair, barding, haggling, lockpicking, scouting for ambushes, and stealth. Some NPCs offer training in skills and items can increase skills permanently or temporarily.

Characters can acquire various status effects that affect their health or skills. Characters whose health drops to zero in combat are knocked out and acquire "near death" status, making them ineffective in combat, and their health recovery rate drops virtually to nil. If the health of the entire party drops to zero, the game will end. Improved healing rate is handled as a status effect as well, as are poisoning, drunkenness, sickness (from eating spoiled rations), and plague, which is an extremely serious condition that can reduce the party to moribund husks incapable of any productive action.

Magic
Spells are organized into six groups, grouped by magic symbol. Four groups of spells are combat spells and two groups are non-combat spells.

Spells first drain the caster's stamina and then health. Some spells have variable strength; the player can choose how much energy the spell consumes. Some combat spells also require that the target being within line of sight of the caster.

Spells are learned from scrolls that are found in caches or on enemies and can be bought from shops or NPCs throughout the world.

Items and inventory
The game features a wide variety of items, including equipment, food, treasure, and magical artifacts. Each item also has detailed background information available by right-clicking it.

The inventory management allows transferring items between the party characters. In the case of stacks of multiple items, there's also an option to distribute them evenly within the party. The game also manages money and keys independently.

Each weapon and type of armor has modifiers affecting its combat effectiveness, such as accuracy, damage, blessing, and racial modifiers. After combat, most weapons and armor must be kept in shape with a whetstone or armorer's hammer respectively. There are also items that enhance weapons and armor, such as the poisonous silverthorn or fiery naphtha.

Player characters must carry and eat rations every day or their health starts dropping. Rations are sold in taverns and can be found on enemies and in caches. Rations can also be poisoned or spoiled and will sicken characters if they eat it, adversely affecting their health, although careful inspection of all packages of questionable provenance will avoid this possibility.

Combat
Combat is turn-based and takes place on a grid, similar to tactical role-playing games. The characters can move to a different location on the grid and if they can reach an enemy, can attack in the same move. There are two options for attacking: a thrust and a swing. The thrust is the default attack used when moving to attack an enemy. The swing often does more damage but is less accurate and uses up one point of health/stamina. Fighters can use crossbows and magicians can cast spells, but only if there are no enemy units in adjacent squares. The player can also rest, which regains health and stamina, defend against enemy mêlée attacks, or assess an enemy's capabilities.

Injured enemies may try to flee from combat, and will escape entirely and permanently from the player's grasp, unless they are killed or otherwise prevented them from reaching the upper edge of the battlefield. Defeated enemies remain on the ground after a battle, allowing the player to loot their remains. Salvaged items of little use to the party may be sold at shops in order to boost cash reserves.

The combat interface is also used to solve magical traps. Traps involve various types of hazards, such as fireball blasters and laser crystals, and the player either has to disable them using the objects provided or otherwise navigate through the trap and reach the top of the combat field.

Although the game uses a GUI, many actions can be performed using keys as well. There is a glitch (or intended hidden feature) that allows the player to make certain combinations of two moves in a single turn—one using the mouse and another using the keyboard—or rest twice by pressing 'R' before the turn begins and holding it through the turn. Computer opponents also seem to use this in some instances (like moving and defending in the same turn).

Another type of character-environment interaction, that could be considered a trap or a bonus, are the graveyards scattered around the landscape. The player is able to read the inscriptions on the gravestones (usually in the form of a short poetic eulogy), and then decide to dig up the grave (if someone has a shovel). Some graves reveal items and/or money, while others summon a ghost (in some cases, multiple ghosts), which must be fought using the standard combat interface.

Temples, stores and inns
Temples offer a variety of services including healing and blessing equipment. They also sell a relatively expensive teleportation service; the player is able to teleport between any temples they have already visited, with the price based on the distance traveled. This operates on the principle that a person visiting a new temple will memorize a unique pattern upon the wall, and by recalling this pattern at a different temple, be transported to the first temple with the aid of a priest.

Stores buy and sell various kinds of items; some also repair equipment. Inns and taverns allow characters to buy food and alcohol, gain information on local happenings, gamble (in some inns), talk to some NPCs, earn money by playing the lute, and sleep, which allows full healing of wounds and fatigue, whereas resting in the wilderness only restores 80% of health and stamina.

Main characters

 * Seigneur Locklear
 * (Chapters 1, 5, 7) Locklear is the youngest son of the Baron of Land's End, a Seigneur in Prince Arutha's court, and a skilled swordsman decorated for his service at Armengar and Sethanon during the Great Uprising (A Darkness at Sethanon). Locklear recently entered the service of a Kingdom garrison in Yabon to investigate reports of moredhel activity, where he rescued Gorath of the Ardanien from an assassin.

 * Squire Owyn Beleforte
 * (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9) Owyn is a nineteen-year-old magician and the youngest son of the Count of Tiburn. Uninterested in politics, Owyn instead idolizes the magician Pug. A resourceful and crafty boy, Owyn used part of his father's wealth to travel and study magic in secret. His father eventually discovered what he was doing and, due to the political embarrassment Owyn causes him, has given him a great deal of freedom, hoping that he will eventually settle down and become suitable for a political marriage. Owyn was traveling home from visiting his aunt in Yabon when he met Locklear and Gorath. Not eager to return to the boredom of life at home, Owyn hitches his fate to theirs.

 * Gorath of the Ardanien
 * (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9) A hero of the Riftwar, Gorath was chieftain of Clan Ardanien and Delekhan's chief rival to the throne of Sar-Sargoth. Gorath believes Delekhan's plan to invade the Kingdom to be madness and betrays the moredhel to warn Prince Arutha, as it the only way to save his people from another disastrous war. There is also another reason for his exile: he has broken from the Dark Path and is "Returning" to the eledhel in Elvandar, assuming he is not killed by his brethren first.

 * Seigneur James
 * (Chapters 2, 3, 5, 7) Once known as Jimmy the Hand, James is a legend among the Mockers and the son of the Upright Man, though he is unaware of his parentage. After foiling a Nighthawk attempt to assassinate Prince Arutha (Silverthorn), James was forced to give up his life as a thief and became a squire in Arutha's court, where he became best friends with Locklear. James eventually rose to the rank of Seigneur, becoming one of Arutha's most trusted and loyal servants but still wanders the Thieves' Highway, often on business for the Crown.

 * Patrus
 * (Chapters 5, 7) Patrus is the court magician and magical adviser to Baron Gabot in Northwarden and one of Owyn's early magical tutors. Despite his old age, he is a spry and capable magician, whose knowledge of the Union spell allows him to temporarily read moredhel.

 * Duke Pug conDoin
 * (Chapters 8, 9) As an orphan growing up in Crydee, Pug was apprenticed to Kulgan the magician but showed little magical ability until he was captured by the Tsurani during the Riftwar (Magician: Apprentice). Seeing potential in the boy, Tsurani Great Ones trained him in the magic of the Greater Path, previously nonexistent in Midkemia. When he returned, Pug helped the sorcerer Macros the Black end the Riftwar and was adopted into the royal family and given land to start his academy of magic at Stardock (Magician: Master). Pug is considered the most powerful magician in Midkemia, having inherited much of Macros' power in addition to his Tsurani training. He is married to Katala, whom he met in Kelewan, and has two children: a biological son William and an adopted daughter Gamina, who has telepathic powers.

Allies

 * Prince Arutha conDoin
 * Prince Arutha of Krondor is ruler of the Western Realm, younger brother of King Lyam, and half-brother of Duke Martin of Crydee. Arutha proved himself one of the Kingdom's best field commanders defending Crydee during the Riftwar and became prince after the unexpected deaths of King Rodric, Prince Erland, and his father Duke Borric. He is a well-loved and capable ruler, albeit a reluctant one.

 * Cullich
 * Gorath's estranged wife Cullich is a moredhel witch who helped him escape from the Northlands. Cullich thinks Gorath's willingness to surrender his position as clan leader is a sign of weakness but she doesn't trust Delekhan and will help Gorath if she can.

 * Baron Gabot
 * Baron Gabot is commander of Northwarden, which guards one of the four passes between the Kingdom and the Northlands. Previously Huntmaster of Carse, Gabot was old acquaintances with Duke Martin, who recommended him to the position after Baron Rossol died. Like Martin's father Duke Borric, Gabot saw the benefit of having a magician in his service and appointed Patrus his magical adviser.

 * Liallan
 * As a powerful moredhel clan leader and Delekhan's consort, Liallan openly supports him though she believes his plan is doomed to fail. She has her eye on the throne of Sar-Sargoth for herself and secretly aids many of Delekhan's enemies, including engineering Gorath's escape from the Northlands. Should Delekhan and his son Moraeulf die during their invasion, it would leave her in a prime position to take over the leadership of the moredhel.

 * Duke Martin conDoin
 * Once known as Martin Longbow, Duke Martin of Crydee is the elder half-brother of King Lyam and Prince Arutha. The illegitimate son of Duke Borric, he was raised and trained by the elves in Elvandar before becoming Huntmaster and later Duke upon the death of his father. One of the best archers in Midkemia, Martin dislikes court life and often roams the forests with his longbow in hand.

 * The Oracle of Aal
 * The Aal are among the oldest races in the universe and one of the few to survive the Chaos Wars between the Valheru and the gods. The Oracle, the last of its dying race, agreed to help Pug and Tomas during the Great Rising in exchange for salvation. After the battle of Sethanon, Pug brought the Oracle to Sethanon and placed it in the body of the dragon Ryath, whose mind was drained by a Dreadlord (A Darkness at Sethanon). The Oracle of Aal now watches over the Lifestone and will send warning to Pug and a secret garrison near Sethanon if it is disturbed.

 * Squire Phillip
 * Though he appears to be a young noble about Owyn's age, Phillip is actually thirty-seven, a captain in the Kingdom Army, and a courier for the secret garrison near Sethanon. Owyn met him at a party in Yabon prior to the start of the game and meets him again throughout his travels.

 * Tomas
 * Prince Consort to Queen Aglaranna and Warleader of Elvandar, Tomas grew up in Crydee with his best friend Pug. During the Riftwar, Tomas discovered the dying dragon Rhuagh, who gave him an ancient suit of armor (Magician: Apprentice). The armor transformed Tomas into a blend of human and Valheru and gave him the memories and abilities of Ashen-Shugar, the Valheru to whom it once belonged. After marrying Aglaranna, Tomas considers Elvandar under his protection and only leaves in the most extreme of circumstances.

Villains

 * Delekhan
 * Delekhan is the leader of the Moredhel Nations of the North. One of the Murmandamus' field generals during the Great Rising (A Darkness at Sethanon), Delekhan believes Murmandamus still lives, imprisoned by Prince Arutha at Sethanon. He has unified his people with the help of magicians known only as "the Six" (later revealed to be Tsurani Great Ones) in order to invade the Kingdom of the Isles, free Murmandamus, and finish what was started a decade before.

 * Makala
 * Makala is a Great One, a magician from the Tsurani homeworld of Kelewan, who is visiting Prince Arutha's court ostensibly as a representative of the Emperor of Tsuranuanni. Believing that Pug hid a weapon of tremendous power which could be used against the Tsurani, Makala set out to investigate what really happened at the battle of Sethanon. He manipulates Delekhan and the moredhel, using their attack as a diversion so that he can enter Sethanon unhindered.

 * Narab and Nago
 * The brothers Narab and Nago are magicians who serve Delekhan. Nago has infiltrated the Kingdom and coordinates moredhel spies from a secret location near Sarth. Narab has fallen out of favor with Delekhan, and seeking to regain his position in Delekhan's inner circle, captures Owyn and Gorath for him. However, Delekhan is displeased with what he has done so Narab turns on his former master and helps Owyn and Gorath escape. He then plans on becoming leader of the moredhel himself.

 * Navon du Sandau
 * To most he is simply a charismatic young merchant, but Navon is actually Neville Corvalis, the half-brother of Owyn's cousin Ugyne. When Ugyne's father Count Corvalis found out that Neville was his wife's illegitimate son, he arranged to have Neville killed in a wine cellar collapse. Though he was believed dead, Neville's body was never found. He was found by Nighthawks who had regrouped in Cavall after their destruction in Krondor by Prince Arutha (A Darkness at Sethanon). Using a Corvalis family heirloom, a magical spyglass, Neville convinced them he had magical powers and became their leader. He then set about exacting revenge on Count Corvalis, burning down the keep so the caverns underneath could be used as a Nighthawk hideout and courting Ugyne so he could take over her family's fortune.

Midkemia

 * Cavall Keep
 * (Accessible in Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6) Cavall Keep is a small eastern farming town in the Kenting Hills ruled by Owyn's uncle, Count Geoffrey Corvalis. The keep burned down mysteriously three years ago, preventing access to the caverns underneath, which run south to the waterfall known as Cavall Run.

 * Elvandar
 * (Accessible in Chapter 6) The forest city of Elvandar, home of the eledhel (the light elves), lies far to the northwest of the duchy of Yabon and is ruled by Queen Aglaranna and Prince Consort Tomas. Though isolated and well-protected, the Tsurani attacked Elvandar during the Riftwar and there are still skirmishes with the moredhel on its northern borders.

 * Highcastle
 * (Accessible in Chapters 1, 2, 3) The frontier fort town of Highcastle guards Cutter's Gap, one of the four passes between the Kingdom and the Northlands. Overrun by the moredhel during the Great Rising (A Darkness at Sethanon), Prince Arutha had the fortifications reinforced in recent years. Highcastle is currently commanded by Baron Baldwin de la Troville and, in his absence, Baron Kevin of Zun.

 * Krondor
 * (Accessible in Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6) Capital of the Western Realm of the Kingdom of the Isles, Krondor is the traditional home of the heir apparent to the throne. It is currently ruled by Prince Arutha and Princess Anita, though the sewers under the city are a maze of tunnels known as the Thieves' Highway and controlled by the Mockers, the thieves' guild of Krondor, and their mysterious leader, the Upright Man.

 * LaMut
 * (Accessible in Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6) The city of LaMut is located in the duchy of Yabon, near the reopened rift to Kelewan. It is ruled by the Earl Kasumi and home to a large Tsurani population that settled there after the Riftwar.

 * Malac's Cross
 * (Accessible in Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6) The city of Malac's Cross marks the eastern boundary of the Western Realm and is home to the Abbaye Ishap, an ancient temple currently run by the Abbot Graves. Outside of the city, where the old city once stood, is a statue of a dragon, built as a tribute to Malac, from which the Oracle of Aal can be contacted.

 * Northwarden
 * (Accessible in Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5) The fortress of Northwarden lies on a narrow mountain path overlooking one of the four passes between the Kingdom and the Northlands. Northwarden is currently commanded by Baron Gabot.

 * Romney
 * (Accessible in Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6) Located on the river Rom, the eastern city of Romney is known as the City of Guilds. Although ruled by Duke Romney, control of the city lies with its various merchant guilds, leading to the occasional guild war.

 * Sarth
 * (Accessible in Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6) The town of Sarth is home to an ancient mountaintop fortress which was converted into an abbey and library by the Order of Ishap. The vaults have hundreds of thousands of books, containing a wealth of knowledge about the history and lore of Midkemia, tended to by Brother Anthony and Brother Marc. Beneath the vaults is an abandoned dwarven emerald mine known as the Mac Bourgalan Dok.

 * Sar-Isbandia (Armengar)
 * (Accessible in Chapter 4) The fortress city of Sar-Isbandia was built atop miles of naphtha tunnels long ago by the glamredhel (the mad elves) before they were obliterated by the moredhel (the dark elves). Located in the Vale of Isbandia north of the Inclindel Gap, humans from Yabon settled in the city hundreds of years ago, renamed it Armengar and became lifelong enemies of the moredhel. The Armengarians were among Murmandamus' first targets during the Great Rising so Prince Arutha and Guy du Bas-Tyra, the city's Protector, evacuated the city and attempted to destroy Murmandamus' army by incinerating the city (A Darkness at Sethanon). Recently, moredhel have moved into the ruins and started to rebuild.

 * Sar-Sargoth
 * (Accessible in Chapter 4) Twin city of Sar-Isbandia, the fortress city of Sar-Sargoth to the north was also built by the glamredhel and was taken by the moredhel as their capital. The tunnels beneath the city are home to Delekhan's dungeons while the outskirts are lined with pikes bearing the heads of his enemies.

 * Sethanon
 * (Surface ruins accessible in Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6, underground ruins only accessible in Chapter 9) Once a minor barony in the heart of the Kingdom, Sethanon was poorly defended and completely destroyed during the Great Rising (A Darkness at Sethanon). Coincidentally built above the ancient Valheru ruins containing the Lifestone, King Lyam and Prince Arutha ordered the city abandoned after the Battle of Sethanon, ostensibly as a memorial to those who had died there, and stationed a secret garrison nearby to protect it. Within the ruins beneath the city lies the Lifestone and its guardian, the dragon Ryath, whose mind contains the Oracle of Aal.

 * Silden
 * (Accessible in Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6) The eastern fishing town of Silden is a seaport on the Kingdom Sea. Located on a nearby island off the coast is the temple of Eortis, the dead god of the sea. Known for its shady underworld, someone known only as The Crawler has recently establish himself within the city, disrupting business for both the Mockers in Krondor and the guilds in Romney.

Timirianya

 * (Accessible in Chapter 8) The desolate world of Timirianya was destroyed by the Valheru and is currently inhabited by Panath-Tiandn, humanoid serpents akin to Pantathians. During the Chaos Wars, the gods of Timirianya crystallized magic into solid manna, causing the Valheru to leave when they thought the world's energy was depleted. In order to cast magic on Timirianya, one must use a crystal staff and keep it charged with raw manna.

 * The Temple of Karzeen Mauk
 * Located in the north, all that remains of the high temple of the gods of Timirianya are nine pillars, within which the surviving gods have taken refuge. Only Dhatsavan, Lord of Gates, still has enough power left to communicate with visitors.

 * The Temple of Dhatsavan (Riftworld Mine)
 * Also known as the Riftworld Mine, the ruins of the temple are buried underground and are currently occupied by Panath-Tiandn. After Makala abducts her, Gamina is imprisoned in a crystal cage within the ruins.

Plot
Ten years after A Darkness at Sethanon, Seigneur Locklear is serving at a northern Kingdom garrison when he saves Gorath of the Ardanien from an assassin. Gorath has brought a warning of an invasion planned by Delekhan, leader of the moredhel, so Locklear agrees to take him to see Prince Arutha in Krondor. Injured from numerous attacks, they ask for help from Owyn Beleforte, a young magician from Tiburn. The game begins in their camp north of LaMut.

Chapter I: Into A Dark Night
Owyn is bandaging Gorath's and Locklear's injuries when they are attacked by a moredhel assassin whom Gorath dispatches before the three of them set out south. Surviving multiple assassination attempts, they eventually reach Krondor. Finding the palace gates sabotaged, they enter the palace via the sewers with Seigneur James' help. Upon meeting Prince Arutha, another moredhel assassin sneaks in and attempts to kill Gorath, only to be foiled by Pug.

Chapter II: Shadow Of The Nighthawks
Gorath informs Arutha of Delekhan's plans, but Arutha does not trust him because he does not know the location of the attack. Gorath thinks they can find out by intercepting Delekhan's Nighthawk spies in Romney. Arutha arranges for James to escort Gorath to Romney and meet with a group of the king's soldiers investigating recent Nighthawk activity in the east. Arutha will muster his army and await word of where the attack will occur. James, Owyn, and Gorath secretly slip out of the city through the sewers and head east. Arriving at the tavern in Romney, they discover that the king's soldiers have all been murdered.

Chapter III: The Spyglass And The Spider
Two clues were left behind at the murder scene: an enchanted spyglass and a silver spider. James, Owyn, and Gorath follow the trail of the spyglass and the spider north to Cavall Keep and uncover the leader of the Nighthawks, the merchant Navon du Sandau. After killing him, they enter the Nighthawks' hideout in the caverns beneath Cavall Keep, where they learn that Delekhan plans to attack Northwarden. Realizing that Nighthawks probably infiltrated the fortress, they split up. James heads to Northwarden while Owyn and Gorath head south to warn Arutha. Before they can reach Arutha though, Owyn and Gorath are captured by Narab, one of Delekhan's chieftains.

Chapter IV: Marked For Death
Gorath and Owyn are taken to Sar-Sargoth, where Narab presents them to Delekhan. Delekhan, enraged that Narab has ruined his plans, tells him his life is forfeit. Narab turns on Delekhan and, unbeknownst to them, frees Owyn and Gorath. They escape Sar-Sargoth and head south to the Inclindel Gap, where they meet a Kingdom patrol and are taken to Arutha's camp. Learning of the impending attack on Northwarden, Arutha readies his army and sends Owyn and Gorath to Krondor to seek Pug's help in case the moredhel employ magic.

Chapter V: When Rivers Run Blood
James and Locklear arrive at Northwarden and are sent by Baron Gabot to find his magical adviser Patrus. The three of them help Duke Martin prepare for the attack by poisoning moredhel food supplies, finding the minstrel Tamney, stealing the moredhel battle plans, and killing six moredhel magicians hiding behind Kingdom lines. Returning to Northwarden as the moredhel siege begins, they discover that Nighthawks have murdered Baron Gabot, leaving James in command. The battle goes badly and they are about to be overrun when Arutha arrives with his army in time to drive off the moredhel.

Chapter VI: Betrayal
Makala visits Pug in Krondor, telling him that Gamina is considered an abomination by the Assembly of Magicians and that he has imprisoned her until her fate can be decided. Pug is enraged at Makala's betrayal and vows to find her, blasting the words "The Book Of Macros" into the wall. When Katala is unable to find him or their daughter, she discovers his message and informs Owyn and Gorath. Following clues from the libraries at Sarth and the Abbaye Ishap, Owyn and Gorath head west to Elvandar, where Gorath completes his "Returning" and pledges his allegiance to Queen Aglaranna and Prince Consort Tomas. Tomas shows them the Book of Macros, a gift from Pug to find him should he leave the message to do so. Recently injured by a poisoned blade in a moredhel skirmish, Tomas asks Owyn and Gorath to go in his stead. Owyn and Gorath read the book, which teleports them into the unknown.

Chapter VII: The Long Ride
In Northwarden, the moredhel raiding leader is captured and reveals that they plan to use a rift machine in the Dimwood to bypass Arutha's army, enter Sethanon, and free Murmandamus, whom they believe is alive and imprisoned there. Realizing that the attack was a diversion engineered by Makala, Arutha orders his troops to Sethanon and instructs James, Locklear, and Patrus to find and destroy the rift machine. After learning that the machine can be disrupted by a Tsurani device called a Waani, they find the machine and disable it. However, as the rift collapses, it pulls in everything nearby before exploding. James and Locklear grab onto trees but Patrus is sucked into the collapsing rift and is apparently killed. At the same moment, three figures appear in a flash of purple light.

Chapter VIII: Of Lands Afar
Owyn and Gorath are teleported to Timirianya, where Owyn realizes that magic does not work and Pug would be powerless. Owyn and Gorath eventually find Pug, who has figured out that by abducting Gamina and manipulating Delekhan, Makala has lured Pug away from Midkemia and Arutha's army away from Sethanon and is free to enter Sethanon unopposed and seek out the Lifestone. Using the Cup of Rlnn Skrr, Owyn restores Pug's powers and they find Gamina imprisoned in a crystal cage in the underground ruins of the Temple of Dhatsavan. Gorath smashes the cage and, using a special pattern stone Pug has brought, the four of them return to Midkemia.

Chapter IX: Mad Gods Rage
In a flash of purple light, Pug, Owyn, and Gorath appear before James and Locklear in the Dimwood and tell them to wait for Arutha and let him know that there is no magical threat to his army; Makala will be waiting for Pug at Sethanon. Pug, Owyn, and Gorath travel to the caverns beneath Sethanon and kill the Tsurani Great Ones ("the Six") protecting the Lifestone Chamber. Gorath remains behind to protect the Oracle of Aal, which was incapacitated by Makala, while Pug and Owyn confront the magician. Makala believes that Pug was keeping the Lifestone hidden to use as a weapon and wants it destroyed, but Pug refuses because it would release the Valheru souls trapped inside. Engaging Makala in a magical battle, Pug and Owyn eventually kill him.

Afterward, Gorath enters the chamber locked in combat with Delekhan. When Delekhan reaches for the Lifestone, Gorath tries to stop him and they begin to transform as the Valheru within try to escape. Pug and Owyn are forced to kill them both with a blast of magic in order to prevent the Valheru from being released. Returning above ground, Pug creates magical illusions of Murmandamus and Delekhan which are then incinerated by the Oracle of Aal. Having seen their leaders killed, the moredhel retreat, during which Narab kills Delekhan's son Moraeulf, fulfilling his plans for taking over the moredhel. Owyn is left alone with Pug, who reveals that since Owyn now knows about the Lifestone, Pug must ensure that the secret is safe and suggests that Owyn become one of his students at Stardock. Owyn laughs and replies that he's never wanted anything else.

Development
Although the game was licensed from Raymond E. Feist, a long-held myth was that the text and the story of the game were actually created by Feist himself. Feist states in his afterword to Krondor: The Betrayal that he was busy writing The King's Buccaneer during the game's production and that the plot, text, and new characters were created solely by designers Neal Hallford and John Cutter. Feist did have editorial final say on the game, but most of what Hallford and Cutter created was left intact.

Technical details
The game runs in 256-color 320x200 VGA mode. The graphics engine uses textured 3D graphics to draw the terrain and uses sprites for most of the detailed objects. The engine does not support multilevel terrain as such, but obstacles such as hills and mountains are supported. Most shops, inns, temples, special locations, and large cities are navigated through pictures usable through hotspots, while smaller towns have 3D buildings.

NPC and character art is based on photographs. Environments are a mix of captured images and hand-drawn. In combat and puzzle screens, all characters are animated, except for movement - characters do not appear to move their legs while walking. The game models illuminate to a certain extent: in the overworld, day and night are modeled, and in underground locations, the player needs to use a torch or a light spell to illuminate their surroundings.

The game runs in protected mode, using Borland C++'s Ergo DPMI / RTM DOS extender. It remained quite compatible with Microsoft Windows up to the 9x series and works very well in DOSBox and VDMSound. A playable version for Mac OS X DOSBox is also available. xBaK is a game engine recreation which allows Betrayal at Krondor to be played natively under the X Window System, using the original data files.

Release history
The following commercial editions of the game have been released:

 * 1993: The original 3½" floppy disk release.
 * 1994: CD-ROM edition, which includes Red Book CD-audio versions of the original game's MIDI music tracks, a 5-minute video interview with Raymond E. Feist, and a Windows hint program/package.
 * 1996: Re-release of the CD-ROM in Sierra's SierraOriginals budget line.
 * 1997: free download on Sierra's website to promote the game Betrayal in Antara, though this version is no longer available.
 * 1998: CD-ROM edition (but without the CD-audio soundtrack) that came with the hardcover edition of Krondor: the Betrayal, with a PDF manual and video interview with Feist, promotional materials and a trailer for Return to Krondor.
 * 2010: CD-ROM edition re-released on GOG.com as a downloadable file.

Contrary to popular belief, Vivendi Universal Games has stated that the game is not free to be redistributed by others.

Krondor: The Betrayal
Feist later wrote Krondor: The Betrayal, a novelization of the game and the first in a series of new Midkemia books called The Riftwar Legacy. Feist credited Hallford and Cutter as co-authors of the original story for Krondor: the Betrayal, and dedicated the book to both of them.

The game and book are set approximately halfway between A Darkness at Sethanon and Prince of the Blood. There are minor differences, such as Owyn's last name being Belefote rather than Beleforte and the towns of Tanneurs and Eggley are changed to Tannerus and Eggly, but the novel largely covers the main plot of the game accurately and ignores most of the sidequests.

The game first introduced Lysle Rigger, Jimmy the Hand's long lost twin brother as well as Kat and Abbot Graves, whose granddaughter was Katherine "Kitty" Graves. Both Lysle Rigger and Kitty Graves would play significant roles in Feist's Serpentwar novels.

Reception
Sales of the original 3½" floppy disk release were slow, leading Sierra to sell the Riftwar rights back to Raymond Feist, but the game became a hit when it was re-released on CD-ROM.

Pelit gave Betrayal at Krondor a 94% score, calling the game citing "the wonderful game system, lack of bugs, and the book-like atmosphere" and said "Krondor is as big a revolution in turn-based role-playing games as the Underworlds were in 3D role-playing games." Computer Gaming World in October 1993 called Krondor "a fantasy role-playing game unlike any other ... a new high-watermark in RPG design". While noting that the graphics "are not going to knock players out of their chairs", the magazine praised combat as "the best I've seen in a fantasy CRPG". It concluded that the game was "a rare gem ... and has set new standards for others to follow. For once, a game actually lives up to, even exceeds, its advance billing". A less enthusiastic review by Sandy Petersen appeared in November 1993 in Dragon magazine #199 in the "Eye of the Monitor" column, in which he gave the game two stars out of five. Though Petersen praised the graphics for being "well-rendered" at times and for its "rather entertaining plot", he chastised the gameplay for being slow and for subjecting the player to "dull maintenance activities", such as armor polishing, as well as quests that he found frustratingly hard to understand how to complete. Quandary gave it a 4.5/5 in its 1996 review, calling it "no ordinary role-playing game" with its "complex" immersive environment, traps, and riddles replacing "the usual pits and levers and rolling rocks that are more common in role-playing dungeons." They also called the strategic turn-based combat "very satisfying" though "it takes a little getting used to."

Betrayal at Krondor was named 1993's best role-playing game and overall "Game of the Year" by Computer Games Strategy Plus. In June 1994 Betrayal at Krondor won Computer Gaming World's Role-Playing Game of the Year award. The editors wrote that it "is the quintessential example of how a computer game should be built from a fantasy novel", stating that they thought it took the most creative risks while readers liked "its play value and non-linear story". The magazine ranked Krondor #43 on their list of the 150 best games of all time in the magazine's November 1996 Anniversary Edition. The magazine added the game to its Hall of Fame in 2001, saying that Krondor was the "first role-playing game to offer a 3D environment and...one of the first games to use digitized images effectively in the context of a role-playing game." In 1994, PC Gamer US named Betrayal at Krondor as the 31st best computer game ever. The editors hailed it as "a pivotal title in the evolution of role-playing games", praising its "interactive plot and characters that stir the emotions of the player." The magazine later included it on its 1997 "The Best 50 Games of All-Time" list. In 1998, PC Gamer US declared it the 44th-best computer game ever released, and the editors called it "a classic that will last through the ages."

title: Betrayal at Krondor


text:
User:Prodigaldruid

General
I was born in Victoria, B.C. (Canada) on August 5. I currently live in Las Cruces, New Mexico (USA), for reasons that are not worth elaborating upon. As of the writing of this brief autobiography, I attend Mayfield High School.

In my spare time, I read books, play video games, and manipulate computers. I read sci-fi, fantasy, and thriller novels, and am particularly fond of Stephen King and Lincoln Child.

I run my own website, called Dolphin Safe Studios. I use it to host the free games and apps that I write. I have no formal training in programming, but consider myself fairly good.

I am proud to be a deist that Unitarian Universalism, or vice versa.

I can be reached at prodigaldruid at hotmail dot com. I write it that way to avoid spambots, although I think Wikipedia has good protection against those anyways.

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

title: User:Prodigaldruid


text:
Beaumanor Hall

Beaumanor Hall is a stately home with a park in the small village of Woodhouse on the edge of the Charnwood Forest, near the town of Loughborough in Leicestershire, England. The present hall was built in 1842–8 by architect William Railton and builder George Bridgart of Derby, for the Herrick family, with previous halls dating back to the 14th century, and is a Grade II* listed building It was used during the Second World War for military intelligence. It is now owned by Leicestershire County Council as a training centre, conference centre and residential facility for young people.

Beaumanor Park history
Following the Norman Conquest, the land in the area was owned by Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester. In the 13th century ownership passed to the Despenser family, who created a deer park and hunting lodge at what is now Beaumanor. In 1327 the land passed to Henry de Beaumont, for whom a new house, Beau Manor was built in 1330, Beaumont also having the nearby church built in 1338. The house was replaced by a new construction in 1595 for Sir William Herrick, a government official under Elizabeth I and later a member of parliament for Leicester. The house was extensively altered around 1610, and stood until 1725, when it was replaced by a smaller house, completed in 1726. The third hall was demolished in 1842, and the present hall built for William Herrick over a seven-year period between 1842 and 1848 by William Railton in the Jacobean style. The hall was constructed using stone from Derbyshire quarries, primarily Duffield and Ashover, with floors of marble from Ashford. When completed, the building had cost £37,000.

The Herrick family
William Perry Herrick (1794 – 1876) who built the present house in about 1850 was born in Wolverhampton in 1794. His father was Thomas Bainbrigge Herrick who was a barrister and his mother was Mary Perry daughter of James Perry of Eardisley Park. William spent his childhood in his family home Merridale House (now called Bantock House) in Wolverhampton. He went to Oxford and became a barrister. In 1832 his uncle who owned Beaumanor died and as he had no male heirs the property was inherited by William. He also inherited Earlisley Park in 1852 when his maternal uncle James Perry died. These properties and their associated landholdings made him a very wealthy man. He lived with his younger sister Mary Ann Herrick (1796-1871) at Beaumanor for many years. Mary Ann had inherited money from her mother in her own right and was known to be a great benefactor. An account of her generosity was contained in a book about Leicestershire. It stated:

 *  "Many were the gifts made to the church by this benevolent lady; to give an account of them is impossible. The best known examples of her munificence are the almshouses at Woodhouse, built in 1856; a house for the schoolmaster and mistress at Woodhouse Eaves, built in 1860; the infant school in the same parish, built six years later; and the dispensary at Loughborough, built in 1862, at a cost of 5000 pounds; the expense of the last two benefactions being shared by her brother, William Perry Herrick, Esq., of Beaumanor."

William also gave generously to the Anglican Church. In 1872 he paid for the construction of St Marks Church in Leicester with some help from his sister.

In 1862 William married Sophia Christie (1831-1915) who was 37 years his junior and the daughter of Jonathan Henry Christie, a London barrister. The couple had no children. His sister Mary Ann who continued to live at Beaumanor died in 1871 and William died in 1876. He left all of his property to his wife Sophia and on her death to his relative Montagu Curzon.

Sophia managed the Beaumanor estate for the next 40 years and was well regarded by the tenants. She kept a fairly large number of household staff one of whom was Elizabeth Ellerbeck (1843 – 1919) the housekeeper who remained with her for over 30 years.

Sophia died in 1915 and Beaumanor was inherited by William's relative William Montagu Curzon who took the additional surname of Herrick in 1915 when he became owner of Beaumanor. William Montagu Curzon Herrick (1891-1945) was born in 1891 in London. His father was Colonel Montagu Curzon who was named by William Herrick as his heir when his wife Sophia died. In 1898 shortly after Sophia built Garatshay which is near Beaumanor, the family moved to this residence. Unfortunately Montagu died in 1907 and did not gain his inheritance. His wife Esme remarried the Reverend King and the family continued to live at Garatshay.

Shortly after William inherited Sophia's property he married Maud Kathleen Cairns Plantagenet Hastings (known as Kathleen) who was the daughter of the 15th Earl of Huntingdon. In 1923 a wedding was held at Beaumanor which was widely reported in the newspapers. It was the marriage between Dorothy Hastings the cousin of Kathleen and the Queen's nephew Lord Eltham. One newspaper gave the following description of the wedding.

 * "The bride who was given away by her father wore a cream satin dress with a long trail of orange blossom on the left side, long tight fitting sleeves, train of cloth of gold and Brussels lace veil (heirloom of the bridegroom's family). She carried a bouquet of deep cream roses and wore a pearl ribbon with a diamond pendant, the gift of the Queen.

 * ''"She was attended by two bridesmaids who were attired in powder blue satin, veiled with heavy silver lace, powder blue sleeves and belt of chiffon. They carried arum lilies and wore diamond arrows, the gift of the bridegroom."

William and Kathleen held frequent house parties at Beaumanor and one of them hosted in 1926 is shown in the photograph.

Until just preceding the Second World War in 1939, the Herrick family owned the park. The estate consisted of Beaumanor Hall and 6,500 acres of land, including several farms, Beacon Hill, the Hangingstone Rocks, St Mary's in the Elms church, the vicarage house (Garats Hay), workers houses/cottages along Forest Road and 350 acres (1.4 km²) of parkland.

In 1939 the War Office requisitioned the estate, including Garats Hay, and the vicar moved to a cottage in the village.

The park became a secret listening station where encrypted enemy signals (Morse code) were intercepted and sent to the famous Station X at Bletchley Park (by motorcycle every day) for decoding. Beaumanor Park was to be the home of the War Office 'Y' Group for the duration of the war.

After the war (1945) the estate passed back to the Herrick family, and on the death of William Montague Curzon-Herrick, the Beaumanor estate passed to Lt. Col. Assheton Penn Curzon Howe Herrick, who in 1946, for financial reasons (death duties, etc.), decided to dispose of his assets. In a sale conducted at the Town Hall in Loughborough on 20–21 December 1946, the War Office bought both Beaumanor Hall and Garats Hay and some of the immediate surrounding grounds used during the war.

Beaumanor Hall history 1939–1970
From 1939 the hall itself was occupied by Number 6 Intelligence school, and the rooms inside Beaumanor Hall were used as a training centre for the Civilian Staff of the Post Office, Civil Service and Merchant Navy. The Royal Corps of Signals, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force were also having military staff trained inside the hall.

The huge cellars stretching underneath the whole of the building were used as electricians' workshops. The outbuildings and stables at the side and rear of the hall were used as workshops. These housed aerial riggers, a barracks store, M T Office, transport garage workshop and the instrument mechanics' laboratory.

By late 1941, most of the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force military personnel had left for duties at other Y-stations, and the main part of the site became the home of the Royal Signals. Military personnel were still being trained inside the hall for various tasks until the end of the war. In February 1942 the first of the newly trained ladies of the Auxiliary Territorial Service arrived at Beaumanor and were billeted in outlying villages and Garats Hay hall. Beaumanor became one of the most important of the small number of strategic intercept stations, or "Y stations", intercepting enemy radio transmissions and relaying the information to "Station X", at Bletchley Park, for decryption and analysis. It is known that one of the first confirmations of the successful Operation Chastise mission was received here. It is also widely rumoured that this listening post knew details of the Katyn massacre as early as 1941; however, the British government files were not released to the public, as it would implicate surviving perpetrators.

By 1943, Room 61 on the top floor of the hall was being used for Radio fingerprinting (Ackbar 13). This new technology was employed to uniquely identify the particular wireless set that was being used to send the transmissions.

Special receiving sets filmed the signals as they came in, like a cathode ray tube, and then the signals were captured on film and developed. Light tables were then used to compare the signals in order to verify who was sending them. A civilian from military intelligence at Bletchley Park was in charge of this room.

The Radio Direction Finding records room was next door and kept records of the signals' exact locations of origin.

In 1940 the use of the hall for all of these different functions allowed for the required specially designed wireless set rooms to be constructed in the grounds of the hall. This was instead of converting the existing rooms within the building for this purpose. A field to the north of the hall was chosen as the ideal location to construct the new set huts.

In the mid-1970s the hall was bought by Leicestershire County Council, developing quickly into a busy Conference and Education Centre.

The operational huts
The War Office Y Group had acquired an architect who worked as part of the local staff at Beaumanor, and he was tasked with designing the set rooms and other buildings. These were to be disguised and fitted into their surroundings by being made to look like normal outbuildings associated with a country house. This disguising is unique to Beaumanor, and there are no current records of any other buildings the military used during the war being disguised in this way.

A twenty acre (8.1 ha) field to the north of the hall was chosen as the appropriate site to build the required operational set rooms (huts). The huts were spaced far enough apart to avoid collateral damage should a bombing raid occur. Each hut was brick-built with blast walls, and then a disguising outer covering was put over it.

The huts were disguised in different ways: one to look like a cart shed with barn (J), two to look like cottages (H&I), the fourth to look like stables (K), the fifth disguised as a glasshouse (M) block, and the sixth, Hut G, as a cricket pavilion complete with a false clock tower.

To give them an identity, the huts were each given a letter of the alphabet. The four huts around the perimeter of the field were lettered H, I, J and K. These huts were to be the four set rooms, which housed the wireless receivers for intercepting messages.

All of the cables and aerial feeds were located in underground ducts. Each hut had a pneumatic tube for sending the handwritten, received messages to G hut via a cylinder, which was shot down the tube. This tube system was also underground and out of sight.

In order to carefully conceal them, the other huts were given wooden exteriors and located in the wooded area to the rear of the hall on its western side. These huts were lettered A, B, C, D, E and F.

The wireless listeners were uniformed women of the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service), who had been trained on the Isle of Man. They intercepted German and Italian messages, many of which had been enciphered on Enigma machines. It was the most difficult of signals intelligence gathering, because the enciphering meant that no prediction was possible. Once gathered, the intercepts were sent by motorcycle courier to Bletchley Park, for decryption. Collectively, the women who worked at Beaumanor were known as the WOYGians.

title: Beaumanor Hall


text:
Pathare Prabhu

Pathare Prabhu is one of the Hindu communities found mainly in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

Introduction
The Pathare Prabhus and the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus (CKP) are considered sister communities, both being part of the 'Prabhu caste'. Both Pathare Prabhu and CKP follow the Advaita Vedanta Smarta tradition of Hinduism propounded by Adi Shankara.

Along with all the Maharashtrian Brahmin castes and the CKP, they are considered one of the 'high' or 'elite' castes of Maharashtra.

The Pathare Prabhu, in the 19th century would to refer to Mumbai (then known as Bombay) as 'Desh' (country). They formed the "Union Club" under which were the five primary collectives of Girgaon, Mazagaon, Parel, Mahim and Worli. In 1887, they held a meeting at the "Desh" level in which it was decided to stop inviting "naikins" (dancers) to sing at the Upanayana (thread ceremonies or "munja") and marriage celebrations. Historians cite an incident where a Pathare Prabhu member who broke this rule two years later was socially outcast by the community. He sued for defamation but the British Court ruled against him.

Notable people

 * Moroba Kanhoba – 19th century writer and social reformer (women's rights advocate), author of the famous Marathi novel "Ghashiram Kotwal". His highly publicized marriage to a widow ended in a tragedy after the couple was found dead within a year of the marriage.
 * Shivkar Bapuji Talpade – A Vedic Scholar famous for flying an unmanned heavier-than-air aircraft in 1895 in Bombay
 * Atmaram Sadashiv Jayakar - Notable zoologist, physician, naturalist and explorer. Best known for his scientific study on animals and medical surveys of Oman. He described some unknown species like Arabitragus jayakari, Hippocampus jayakari and Omanosaura jayakari, all named after him. He also studied the Omani dialect of Arabic.
 * Mahadev Vishwanath Dhurandhar - Well known Indian painter and artist.
 * Kanhoba Ranchoddas Kirtikar - Notable botanist, surgeon and Marathi poet.
 * Mukund Ramarao Jayakar - First vice chancellor of the University of Pune.
 * Raobahadur Narayan Dinanath Velkar (1798–1870) - 19th century social reformer, and first Native Muncipal Commissioner of Bombay city and one of the founders of The Times of India.

title: Pathare Prabhu


text: Category:Transformers characters

title: Category:Transformers characters


text:
A.G. Barr

A.G. Barr plc, commonly known as Barr's, is a British soft drink and energy drink manufacturer based in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, Scotland widely known for manufacturing the drink Irn-Bru. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

History
The company was founded in 1875 by Robert Barr in Falkirk. In 1887, his son, Robert Fulton Barr, set up a division of the original company in Glasgow, which had a much larger population. In 1892 the Glasgow branch passed to Andrew Greig Barr (where the name A.G. Barr comes from), a brother of the branch's founder. In 1899, they soft launched Irn-Bru, eventually launching it in 1901. The Falkirk and Glasgow divisions merged in 1959, and the company was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1965.

In 1972, A.G. Barr acquired the Tizer brand. In 2001 the company acquired Findlays Mineral Water which is sourced in the Lammermuir Hills. In 2002, Roger White joined A.G. Barr as managing director, and in 2004 became the first chief executive from outside the Barr family.

The Company acquired Forfar-based Strathmore Mineral Water in May 2006. The Irn-Bru 32 energy drink variant was launched in 2006. In 2008, the company purchased the Taut sports drink range, and exotic fruit drink company Rubicon.

In November 2012, the company agreed to merge with Britvic, which produces drinks like J2O, Tango and Robinsons, as well as holding the authority to produce Pepsi for the UK market, to create one of Europe's largest soft drinks companies. The merger was abandoned in July 2013.

In December 2022, the company acquired Boost Drinks for £20 million from founders Simon and Alison Gray.

In October 2023, it was announced A.G. Barr had acquired the Rio Tropical Limited soft drinks brand from the independent brewer and pub company, Hall and Woodhouse Limited, for £12.3 million.

Legal disputes
On 14 July 1961, the Coca-Cola Company asked Lord Walker for an interim interdict about the type of bottle used by A.G. Barr's "Kolabar", "Cydrap" and "Stilkrush" in the Court of Session. Coca-Cola's argument was that "real danger that the bottle used by [A.G. Barr] for containing Kolabar will be mistaken by the public for [Coca-Cola].", while A.G. Barr's argument was "the position of Coca-Cola in the soft drinks industry in Scotland is insignificant in comparison with that of [A.G. Barr]". Lord Walker refused the interim interdict, as a large part of their business could've been disturbed, additionally because Coca-Cola made no sales in the country at that point.

Operations
A.G. Barr produces a variety of soft drinks from production sites at Cumbernauld, Forfar and Milton Keynes. Irn-Bru was launched in 1901.

Brands

 * Boost Drinks energy and sports drink acquired in December 2022
 * Irn-Bru Scotland's most popular soft drink
 * Tizer bought in 1972
 * Barr Flavours including Cola, Lemonade, Limeade and Cherryade
 * Bundaberg (manufactured under license for the UK and Ireland markets)
 * D'N'B dandelion and burdock
 * KA
 * OMJ!
 * Rubicon Drinks
 * San Benedetto soft drinks (manufactured under license for the UK market)
 * Simply Fruity
 * Snapple (manufactured under license for the UK and Ireland markets)
 * Strathmore Scottish spring water
 * Sun Exotic
 * Xyber energy drinks

title: A.G. Barr


text:
Trax (game)

Trax is a two-player abstract strategy game of loops and lines invented by David Smith in 1980.

The game is played with a set of identical square tiles. One side of the tile has red and white straight lines and the other red and white curves.

History
Trax was invented in 1980 by David Smith, a chartered accountant in Christchurch, New Zealand. Smith published five games between 1970 and 1980, including Chess Cards, a variant of chess in which players could choose to either draw a card (with a chess piece printed on the obverse) or move a card already in play according to the revealed piece's rules. Chess Cards featured "boardless" play; once drawn, the card could be played onto any flat surface, subject to additional rules that would prevent playing the cards into isolation from the cards already in play. In November 1980, Smith began to develop the boardless aspect of Chess Cards with a more original, abstract game, which led to Trax. He quickly developed the idea of two coloured paths, but discovered that play could stop if three edges had the same colours, leading to his breakthrough invention of the forced-play rule, approximately one week later on November 26.

The game was first published in New Zealand and the United States in 1982. Originally, the tiles were made out of cardboard and were red with black and white lines. As the game became more popular, the tiles were changed to high-density plastic using the same colors. The change to black tiles with red and white lines took place in 2005.

In 1999, Microsoft Corporation selected Trax as one of the first proprietary games in its Internet Gaming Zone. For the 2015 International Conference on Field-Programmable Technology in Queenstown, New Zealand, Trax was selected for the design competition for implementation using a field programmable gate array processor.

The reigning world champion is Donald Bailey, an engineering professor at Massey University in New Zealand. , with the exception of a loss in the 1994 final, he has won every Trax world championship since 1990.

Gameplay
TRAX is a two-player game that does not have a defined playing board, but any flat surface is suitable. For the commercial boxed versions of the game, 64 identical square, double-sided tiles are included. On one side is the cross/straight paths, where the colors connect opposite sides, and on the other side is the curved paths, where the colors connect adjacent sides. Rotating the tile by 90 degrees yields six possible orientations:

 * Straight side: Trax tile +W.svg Rotate2 svg.svg Trax tile +R.svg
 * Curved side: Trax tile FW.svg Rotate2 svg.svg Trax tile BW.svg Rotate2 svg.svg Trax tile FR.svg Rotate2 svg.svg Trax tile BR.svg

By mutual agreement, the players select a colour for their path, with the player selecting the white path making the first move. The first tile to be played is either (curved tile with white running top–left and red running bottom–right) or  (cross tile with white running top–bottom and red running left–right). Each successive move is made adjacent to a tile in play; the colours of the track on the newly-played tile must link to the track on the adjacent tile in play. For example, the following sequence is a legal series:

The objective is to get a loop or line of your colour while attempting to stop your opponent from completing a loop in their colour.

TRAX includes a forced-play rule. If a tile played in any turn forms an adjacent space or spaces into which same coloured track enters from two edges, that same player must play an additional tile into each such space so as to join up the same coloured track, be it white or red, as part of that turn. A forced play may itself require further forced plays to be made. A turn is not complete until the only remaining spaces are either single edged spaces or two edged spaces entered by tracks of both colours. In the three-move example above, note that the White path player created a forced move with the third tile played and the fourth tile extended the path of the Red player.

An illegal move is one that creates an adjacent space into which the same coloured track enters from more than two edges. The entire turn must be replayed from the initial tile.

Winning conditions
A player wins when they form a loop, which is a continuous closed path of the player's chosen color, or when they form a line, which is a continuous path of the player's chosen color that extends for at least 8 rows or columns from one edge of the board to the opposite edge. Examples of each condition are given below.

If the result of a single turn (including forced moves) is that both players meet the winning criteria simultaneously, the player whose turn it was is declared the winner.

Notation
The turns in a game may be recorded in text format as a three-character code according to the position and type of the tile played. The first character denotes the column into which the tile was played, and the second character denotes the row. Columns are numbered successively from left to right as @, A, B, ..., Z, AA, AB, ..., AZ, BA, ... and rows are numbered successively from top to bottom as 0, 1, 2, 3, ... The third character denotes the type of tile played; symbols were chosen based on the general shape of the tracks. Crosses/straights are denoted by "+" and the curved tiles are denoted by the forward slash ("/") or backslash ("\") characters, which represent the direction of the diagonal of the corners between unconnected sides. The rotational orientation of the tile played is determined unambiguously by the tile(s) adjacent to where it was played, so the orientation of the tile played does not need to be specified using this nomenclature system. Similarly, the forced-play rule determines any additional tiles played during that turn, so the forced tiles do not need to be recorded.

However, because the first tile to be played determines the orientation (relative directions) of the game board, only two valid first moves are possible. The two valid first moves are:
 * Trax tile FW.svg (denoted ), where the white track defines the top and left sides of the game board and the red track defines the bottom and right sides.
 * Trax tile +W.svg (denoted ), where the white track defines the top and bottom of the game board and the red track defines the left and right sides.

The third possibility would be:
 * Trax tile BW.svg (which would be denoted ) is not a valid first move. Since the white path on a curved tile defines the top and left sides, if the curved tile is played as the first move in this orientation, the playing field is rotated by 90° clock-wise and the move would still be recorded as.

In this notation system, because the @ column and 0 row are used for the leftmost empty column and topmost empty row, this "origin" point will change in the turn following a turn in which a tile was played (or forced) into the @ column or 0 row. For example, once the first move is made ( or ), that first tile becomes position A1 for the second turn, so if the second player plays a tile to the right of that first tile, the second move is recorded as, , or. The only legal moves for the second turn would be (to the left),  (above),  (below), or  (to the right).

Prior to 1998, an alternative three-character notation system was used. The first two characters consist of a number and a letter, with the letter denoting the column (in order from left to right, A, B, C, ...) and the number denoting the row (in order from top to bottom, 1, 2, 3, ...). The third character is either S (when a straights/cross piece is played), C (when a curved piece is played as the first tile or against two edges), or U/D/L/R (depending on the track which being continued, either Up, Down, Left, or Right, respectively). The sequence of the first two characters are reversed when the tile is played above the tile in the top left corner, so for example A1x is played to the left of the tile in the top-left corner, while 1Ax is played above that tile.

Variations
"Loop Trax" is a variant where the winning criterion is limited to closed loops only. Other variations include limiting playing board size (to 8×8, as "Limited Tiles" or 3×3, as "Mini Trax"). Originally, the game was limited to an 8×8 board because each set was supplied with 64 tiles; the variant "SuperTrax", which removed the size limits, required the purchase of at least one additional set. With the advent of virtual play, "SuperTrax" has become the dominant variant.

Example game
This game was played between Donald Bailey (white) and Tom Seigenthaler (black) in early 1994. The cross/straights tile placed during the first move (as ) ended up in the final position of "C7".

Reviews

 * Games #32
 * 1982 Games 100 in Games

title: Trax (game)


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/HealthCap

Adverstisement, vanity, I don't think we need this. -- Solitude 12:16, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * delete. Ianb 17:51, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete, and keep your filthy adds away from our Wikipedia. --Ardonik 21:04, Jul 16, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. I show ads no mercy. - DropDeadGorgias (talk) 21:11, Jul 19, 2004 (UTC)


text:
122 (number)

122 (one hundred [and] twenty-two) is the natural number following 121 and preceding 123.

In mathematics
122 is a nontotient since there is no integer with exactly 122 coprimes below it. Nor is there an integer with exactly 122 integers with common factors below it, making 122 a noncototient.

122 is a semiprime.

122 is the sum of squares of the divisors of 11.

φ(122) = φ(σ(122)).

In other fields

 * The atomic number of the chemical element unbibium
 * The emergency telephone number in several countries
 * The number of men of Michmas at the census (Bible, Nehemiah 7:31)
 * The Enroute Flight Advisory Service (EFAS) "Flight Watch" frequency: 122.0 MHz
 * The oldest age in years to which a human being has ever been authenticated to live (Jeanne Calment).

title: 122 (number)


text:
Talk:RAW image file

Although manufacturers write "RAW" in all caps, there's no particular justification. Unlike JPEG, GIF and other image file types, raw isn't an acronym. It's the usual English word "raw" and it indicates unprocessed image data. "Unprocessed" means, as the article explains, that settings like color balance, contrast and sharpness have been ignored (although they've typically been recorded, so that software can later recreate the effects).

This article contains some factual errors at this point. For example, each "pixel" in a raw image does not take 1 byte. Typically, each component of each pixel takes 8 bits (1 byte), and 3 components is normal (RGB). Some cameras use 16 bits (2 bytes) per component.

To avoid editing conflicts, I'll wait an hour or two to correct this info. I also saw some other minor errors in the article. - David Remahl 12:25, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)

With my old Minolta Dimage 7, it's neither one byte per pixel, nor three. A raw file takes about 9.7 megabytes, which is somewhere between 5 and 15, for this five-megapixel camera. I don't know the file sizes for the Fuji consumer camera (which has two kinds of sensors on the chip) or the Kodak professional camera (which can give twelve bits per component per pixel --- is that right?).

Fg2 12:35, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:RAW image file


text: Category:Sega games

title: Category:Sega games


text: Category:Broderbund games

title: Category:Broderbund games


text:
Devi Das Nahar

Devi Das Nahar is a valmiki activist and politician from Amritsar district, Punjab, India. He is president of Valmiki Dharam Yudh Morcha.

Political career
Nahar is president of Bahujan Samaj Party (Ambedkar), a splinter group of the Bahujan Samaj Party active in Amritsar area of Punjab. In the 2002 legislative assembly elections in Punjab, BSP(A) put up 23 candidates, who together received 20,260 votes. The BSP(A) reunited with the BSP on 31 December 2003. In 2004, after the elections of Lok Sabha, Sh. Devi Dass Nahar along with Jia Lal Nahar, Pritam Chand and Balwant Singh Sultanpur was expelled from Bahujan Samaj Party and refloated his BSP(A) due to differences with Narendra Kumar Kashyap national general secretary of party and state president Avtar Singh Karimpuri. In 2009 Lok Sabha elections, BSP(A) announced its support to the SAD-BJP candidates after Sukhbir Singh Badal met with Devi Dass Nahar.

title: Devi Das Nahar


text:
Talk:Alfred Ablett

Alfred Ablett died in 1897, so how did he manage to come to Canada in 1912 and serve in both World Wars (in his 80s and 110s respectively)? I suspect that this is not the same man! -- Necrothesp 12:32, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Are you saying this is not Alfred Ablett or are you saying that an Alfred Ablett came to Canada in 1912 and served in both world wars...?

My grandfather, Alfred Ablett, named after his great grandfather, VC recipient, Alfred Ablett did come to Canada in the early 1900's, did serve in WW1, had three children two of who served in WWII (Alfred being one of them - KIA 1945) Betty the other (CWAC)

Photo Request
It would be nice to have an image/photo of Alfred Ablett. Adamdaley (talk) 06:12, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

title: Talk:Alfred Ablett


text:
Bhandup

Bhandup (Pronunciation: [bʱaːɳɖup]) is a suburban locality in Mumbai, in the state of Maharashtra, India. The name Bhandup is derived from Bhandupeshwar, one of the names of the Hindu god Shiva. An old temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, the Bhandupeshwar Mahadev Mandir, is located in Bhandup (west) near Moti Bai Wadi IDUBS high school. Sonapur signal is north lead line on L.B.S. Marg and south is dockyard colony. Bhandup railway station is on the Central line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway network. A few fast trains stop at Bhandup station, mostly during the peak hours.

History
Bhandup is one of the oldest suburbs in Mumbai. It is home to Shivaji Talao, or Shivaji Lake, named after the Maratha ruler, Shivaji. Devotees of Ganapati immerse idols of the elephant god Ganesh at the lake during the months of August through September, as well as in Bhandupeshwar Kundh in Bhandup Village East near the Eastern Express Highway.

The earliest records of Bhandup come from 1803, and show the contemporary Bhandup estate to comprise Bhandup, Nahur and Kanjur Marg.

The Silaharas, also known as Shilahara, were the rulers of this region with partial Dravidian ancestry who later mixed with the Prakrit speaking Indo-Aryan locals of Konkan. The Silaharas promoted socio-economic progress in the 11th century around Bombay. To control the regions in Bombay and Thane, the built the Rajapatha, passing from the north of Bhandup, following the current Bombay-Thane road.

Historical records indicate that the distillery at Bhandup was one of the two biggest sources of liquor in the Bombay Presidency, the other being the Uran distillery.

Bhandup was also one of the first railway stations in India. The first train ran between Bori Bunder and Thane on 16 April 1853 with 400 passengers aboard 14 railway carriages, at 3:35 pm. It is said that the idea to connect Bombay with Thane and Kalyan occurred to Mr. George Clark, the Chief Engineer of the Bombay Government, on a visit to Bhandup in 1843.

However, Bhandup was not a part of Bombay until 1950, when the boundaries of the Bombay municipal corporation were extended up to Andheri on the western side and Bhandup on the eastern side.

Demographics
Bhandup falls within the S-ward, as defined by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai. The population of Bhandup has risen exponentially in the last twenty years.
 * The discordance between population and density could be due to re-drawing of ward boundaries

The majority of residents of Bhandup are Hindus by religion. The dominant language is Marathi. Although a large percentage of the residents are natives of Maharashtra, in the last few decades, there has been a huge influx of non-native residents into Bhandup, reflecting the trend witnessed for Mumbai as a whole.

Industry
According to the 2001 census, there were 12,380 industrial establishments in Bhandup (S-Ward), providing employment to 36,921 residents of Bhandup. The rest of the employed populace are employed outside the limits of the S-ward.

One of the first industries to start in this area was Crompton Greaves in 1937, currently in Kanjur Marg. Currently, almost all of the industries in Bhandup are in Bhandup West, including CEAT Tyres, Asian Paints Ltd, BASF, and the Indian Smelting And Refining Company Limited. Apart from these big companies, there are several small-scale manufacturing units all over Bhandup West.

The presence of a large number of industries, coupled with large traffic flows throughout the day, led to Bhandup's air is one of the worst in Mumbai in 1999. However, several of the polluting industries have moved out of Mumbai since, leading to slightly better air quality.

Bhandup has Asia's biggest water filtration plant. The eastern sections of Kanjurmarg and Nahur blend into Bhandup without clear demarcation.

Retail
In recent years, several mall construction projects have been initiated in Bhandup. One reason for Bhandup being a prime location for malls is its proximity to affluent areas like Powai and Mulund. In the past few years, several industries in Bhandup have shifted or started shifting out of Mumbai, rendering vast tracts of land vacant. These land-plots are being used for the construction of huge residential complexes, in turn, providing the customer base for these malls.

Dreams the Mall, being developed by Satra Properties, is one of the biggest malls in Bhandup. It is located close to Bhandup Railway Station. Neptune Magnet Mall is a shopping mall that is part of a satellite township, Living Point, comprising six towers of 22 stories each being developed by Neptune group. Some of the other malls in the area include the Leo Mall and a shopping space being developed by HBS Centrix.

Transport
Bhandup is connected with the rest of the city through the road network. The arterial road of Bhandup West is the Agra Road i.e. L.B.S. Marg, while Bhandup East is flanked by the Eastern Express highway. Four buses (numbers 144, 453, 545 and 603), however, pass through Bhandup East, as the area is relatively sparsely populated. There is also a special bus service in the mornings for female commuters, going from Bhandup to Andheri. There is also a special State Transport Bus service in the morning which run between Bhandup and CWC (Navi Mumbai) and Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport Corporation runs a bus (route no 144) through Bhandup East which plies between Andheri East and Airoli.

Bhandup is also a railway station on the Central Line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway network, between KanjurMarg and Nahur.

Schools
There are over 35 schools in Bhandup. Most of these schools are affiliated with the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education.
 * NES High School and Junior College

 * Adarsh Vidyalay, Bhandup East (Marathi medium)
 * Adarsha Vidyalaya Highschool & Junior College, Bhandup (West)
 * Ahilya Vidyalaya (Jamil Nagar)
 * Ahilya Vidyalaya (Utkarsh Nagar)
 * B.E.S English High School, Next to Railway station, Bhandup (East)
 * B.P.E.S. High School, Pratap Nagar, Bhandup (W)
 * Cosmos English High School & Jr. College Bhandup (West)
 * Gurunanak English High School Bhandup (W)
 * I D U B S High School and Jr. College Bhandup (W)
 * IES School, Bhandup East (English/Marathi medium)
 * Mohammadi Urdu High School (Sonapur Bhandup)
 * Navjeevan Vidyamandir & Jr. College
 * New English School Dockyard Colony Kanjur West
 * Pawar Public School, L.B.S. Marg, Bhandup (W)
 * Pragatik Vidyalaya school Tembipada gavdevi Road Bhandup West.
 * R.S.S Vidya Mandir English/Hindi Bhandup west
 * Parag vidyalaya, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj talav, Bhandup West, Mumbai - 78.
 * Sahyadri Vidyamandir, Shivaji Talav, Bhandup West, Mumbai-78.
 * Saraswati vidyalaya Kanjurmarg East
 * Shree Saraswati Vidyamandir Bhandup (West)
 * St. Francis Xavier's High School Bhandup (East)
 * Yashwant Chandaji Sawant Vidyamandir, Utkarsh Nagar, Bhandup (West)

Colleges
Bhandup has five major accredited colleges, out of which two are in Bhandup (East) and three in Bhandup (West). All of them are affiliated to the University of Mumbai. The breakup is as follows:

Football
Bhandup has several Football clubs which are members of the Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA), including the Sunday Boys Football Club, the GKW Rangers, Ushanagar Youth CluB, DATAR CHAMP'S Football Club (DC), Samarth Garden Football Club (S.G.F.C), UshaComplex Football club (U.C.F.C). And Gunners Football Club and GN Boys and Loss Fc and Satya Vijay Football Club (SVFC),Bhandup Sports Academy(BSA).

Bhandup also has its own football association called the Bhandup Suburb Football Association (BSFA).

Cricket
Bhandup has several cricket clubs.

Social organisations
There are several social organizations in Bhandup of which Sarvajanik Pooja Samiti Bhandup village east, founded in 1946, is the oldest, followed by Adrash Sports Club (1956), followed by Vijay Krida Mandal, Shree Saibhajan Sanskrutik Mandal (Bhandup), Vikas Mandal, Sai Vihar, Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, Jeevan Vidya Mission and the Rotary Club of Mumbai Bhandup., Shiv Shambhu Raje Pratishthan Village Road Bhandup

Notable people

 * Vinod Kambli - former India Test/ODI player. Grew up in a chawl in the Kanjur/Bhandup area
 * Dhananjay Mahadik - Indian National Hockey Player
 * Ashok Patil- MLC from Bhandup west
 * Sanjay Dina Patil - ex-Member of Parliament-North-East Mumbai and Nationalist Congress Party
 * Om Puri - Bollywood actor used to stay here before getting into Bollywood
 * Sanjay Raut - editor of Saamana and Shiv Sena leader
 * Rupali Repale - long-distance swimmer
 * Jemimah Rodrigues - Indian Women's Cricket Teams Youngest Player
 * Ramchandra Sapre - chess master

title: Bhandup


text:
Fitzroy High School

Fitzroy High School is a state school catering for Years 7 to 10, located in Falconer Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia. The school was first opened in 1915, but closed in 1992. After a long community campaign, it re-opened in 2004.

History
The Fitzroy Central School as it was first known, opened for the 1915 school year, admitting students from Grades 5 to 8. In 1957, it received its current name, and was allowed to take students up to Year 12. In 1988, it merged with Exhibition High School, but retained its original site.

Closure
After coming to power in 1992, then-Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett embarked on an array of budget cuts in an attempt to restore the state's flagging finances. As a result, the decision was made to close a significant number of schools across the state. Fitzroy High was one of the first to be earmarked for closure, and it shut down at the end of the 1992 school year.

After its closure, the local community feared that the site, which had been public land ever since 1871, would be sold for development. Community groups decided to occupy the site, in an attempt to prevent its sale, and in a widely publicised campaign, maintained a 24-hour vigil for fourteen months. People occupied the site in four-hour shifts, or slept overnight in the principal's office or administration wing.

Twelve years later, Fitzroy High reopens its doors
In 1993, the state government finally struck a deal with the local community, and the Kangan Batman TAFE was allowed to use the site. They operated a campus at the site until 1998, when budgetary requirements forced it to close. The following year, they handed the site back to the Education Department. Around the same time, Jeff Kennett lost power, and was replaced by Steve Bracks, who was more supportive of their cause.

The site lay dormant for two years, until then-Education Minister Mary Delahunty approved plans to re-open the school for Years 7 to 10 in 2001. The site was significantly renovated, involving the construction of a new science and technology wing, a library and a food technology division.

During 2002, the school was used as a central filming location for the children's series Short Cuts.

Re-opening
On 28 January 2004, the school re-opened, with 135 students in Years 7 and 8. It expanded to Years 9 and 10 in the 2005 school year, and plans were announced in December 2005 to begin classes for Years 11 and 12 in 2007 in conjunction with another Melbourne school, Collingwood College.

A building program, comprising a unique design to facilitate the school's learning philosophy, was completed in 2009 to increase accommodation for up to 600 students in years 7–12. The new building has now won a number of design awards including the Dulux Colour and the Australian Institute of Architecture Victorian Chapter annual award 2010 -Public Alterations and Additions. The school was also short listed in the 2010 Premier Design Awards in Victoria.

New campus
Since the start of 2022, Fitzroy High School has opened a new campus that they are sharing with Collingwood College. Their original (and main) campus only hosts year 7-10 students.

Notable alumni

 * Filmmaker Nadia Tass
 * Invincibles Test Cricketer Neil Harvey
 * Architect/developer Nonda Katsalidis
 * Cinematographer/director Vincent Monton
 * Actor George Spartels
 * Polltician Lidia Thorpe (Years 7 and 9)

Teachers
Writer Helen Garner, former MP Caroline Hogg, former Lord Mayor of Melbourne John So, painter John Brack, and past director of the National Gallery of Australia James Mollison previously taught at the school.

title: Fitzroy High School


text:
Stepping switch

In electrical engineering, a stepping switch or stepping relay, also known as a uniselector, is an electromechanical device that switches an input signal path to one of several possible output paths, directed by a train of electrical pulses.

The major use of stepping switches was in early automatic telephone exchanges to route telephone calls. Later, they were often used in industrial control systems. During World War II, Japanese cypher machines, known in the United States as CORAL, JADE, and PURPLE, contained them. Code breakers at Bletchley Park employed uniselectors driven by a continuously rotating motor rather than a series of pulses in the Colossus to cryptanalyse the German Lorenz ciphers.

In a uniselector, the stepping switch steps only along or around one axis, although several sets of contacts are often operated simultaneously. In other types, such as the Strowger switch, invented by Almon Brown Strowger in 1888, mechanical switching occurs in two directions, across a grid of contacts.

Single-axis stepping switches
Stepping switches were widely used in telephony and industrial control systems when electromechanical technology was paramount.

A basic stepping switch is an electrically operated rotary switch with a single (typically input) terminal, and multiple (typically output) terminals. Like other typical rotary switches, the single terminal connects to one of the multiple terminals by rotating a contact arm, sometimes called a wiper, to the desired position. Moving from one position to the next is called stepping, hence the name of the mechanism. Using traditional terminology, this is a single-pole, multi-position switch.

While some stepping switches have only one pole (layer of contacts), a typical switch has more; in the latter case, all wipers are aligned and move together. Hence, one input with multiple wires could be connected to one of multiple outputs, based on the receipt of a single set of pulses. In this configuration, the rotating contacts resembled the head support arms in a modern hard disk drive. Multipole switches were common; some had perhaps as many as a dozen poles, but those were less common.

Most switches have a bank of stationary contacts extending over half a cylinder, while some have only a third of a cylinder. The typical "half-cylinder" switch has two sets of wiper contacts opposite each other, while the "third of a cylinder" type has three sets, equally spaced. For any given level, both or all three wipers are connected, so it makes no difference which of the two (or three) is connecting. When access to more outlets was required, the rotor had two sets of wipers opposite each other but offset vertically: on the first half rotation one set of outlets was accessed; the second set of outlets was accessed on the second half rotation.

An electromagnet advances (steps) the wipers to the next position when fed with a pulse of DC. The magnet's armature (spring-loaded) operates a pawl that advances a ratchet. When the pawl reaches its full stroke, it blocks the ratchet so it and the wipers will not overshoot. When power to the coil disconnects, the spring retracts the pawl. Another pawl, sometimes called a detent spring, pivoted on the frame ensures that the wipers do not move backward; contact friction keeps them in place. Some uniselector designs step on application of the operate pulse; others step on its removal.

In most applications, such as telephony, it is desirable to be able to return the wipers to a "home" position; this is at the beginning of rotation, at one end of the array of fixed contacts. Some switches have a cam attached to the wiper shaft. This cam operates a set of contacts when the wiper is at home position, which is at the beginning of the span of rotation. Other circuit designs used one level (pole) of the contacts to home the wipers, so the separate homing contacts were not needed.

Typical stepping switches have contacts directly operated by the stepping magnet's armature; these contacts can serve to make the magnet cycle ("self-step") and advance the wipers as long as power is applied. The external control circuits remove power when the wipers reach the desired position; that could be the home position.

Most stepping switches rotate the wipers in only one direction, but some are bidirectional; the latter have a second magnet to rotate the wipers the other way. A third variety "winds" a spring as the wiper steps progressively, and a ratchet holds the wipers from returning to home position. When the circuit is no longer needed, another electromagnet releases the holding pawl; the spring then returns the wipers to their home position.

Stepping switches were quite noisy in operation (especially when self-stepping), because their mechanisms accelerated and stopped quickly to minimize operating time. One could compare their sound to that of some snap-action mechanisms. Nevertheless, they were engineered for long life, given periodic maintenance; they were quite reliable.

Single-axis stepping switches are sometimes known as uniselectors.

Two-axis stepping switch
Slightly more complicated was the two axis stepping switch, (also called Strowger switch or two motion selector in Britain). Typically, a single compact group of wipers could connect to one of 100 (or 200) different fixed contacts, in ten levels. When the switch was idle, the wipers were disengaged from the fixed contacts. The wipers moved up and down on a vertical shaft, and rotated into the contact bank to make a connection. A spring, internal to the vertical shaft, returned the wipers to their home position at the bottom.

This type had two stepping coils with pawls and ratchets, one to raise the wipers to the desired banks of contacts, and one to rotate the wipers into the banks. These were commonly used in telephone switching with ten banks of ten contacts. The coils were typically driven by the electrical pulses derived from a rotary telephone dial. On a two-motion selector, as a digit was dialed, the wipers would step up the banks, then automatically rotate (self-step) into the selected bank until they found an "unused" outlet to the next switch stage. The last two digits dialed would operate the connector switch (final selector in Britain). The second to last digit would cause the wipers to move up and the last digit would cause them to rotate into the bank to the called customer's line outlet. If the line was idle then ringing voltage would be applied to the called line and ringing tone was sent to the calling line.

Another variant of the two-axis switch was the Stromberg-Carlson X-Y Switch which was quite common in telephone exchanges in the western USA. It was a flat mechanism, and the moving contacts moved both sidewise, as well as to and fro. It was quite reliable, and could be maintained by people with minimal training.

Applications
Stepping switches are used in a variety of applications, other than telephone systems. By connecting several in series with the highest output of one going to the stepping contact of the next, a counter could be constructed. Or by feeding the stepping contact with an endless pulse train via a relay, and controlling the relay from the switch's own output, it can be made to automatically hunt for the first unpowered line (or powered, depending on whether the relay is normally open or normally closed). They could also be used as a demultiplexer, so that two input lines could control a number of output devices. One input line steps the switch until the correct device is selected, and the other then powers that device. Many other applications are possible.

Such switches were used in a series of Japanese cypher machines during World War 2: CORAL, JADE, PURPLE (the names were American). The British code-breaking machine called Colossus used rotary stepping switches, which was used to break the German Lorenz cipher.

title: Stepping switch