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Runaway: A Road Adventure

Runaway: A Road Adventure is a 2001 graphic adventure game developed by the Spanish company Pendulo Studios and published by Dinamic Multimedia. It follows the story of Brian Basco, an American college student on the run after he unwittingly saves a murder witness named Gina Timmins from assassination by the New York Mafia. Searching for clues about a mysterious crucifix linked to the murder, Brian and Gina embark on a cross-country journey through the United States while pursued by two Mafia hitmen. The player assumes the role of Brian and explores the game world while collecting items, solving puzzles and conversing with non-player characters.

Inspired by the road movie genre and films such as Pulp Fiction and Raising Arizona, Pendulo Studios began Runaway in 1998. The team abandoned the nonlinear and parodical nature of its previous title, Hollywood Monsters, in favor of a more straightforward and adult-oriented approach that blended humor with drama. Runaway initially featured hand-drawn 2D graphics; production problems necessitated a switch, one year into development, to pre-rendered 3D characters with toon shading. The change caused major delays, exacerbated by a shortage of qualified character animators in Spain: the country's recovering game industry had a limited talent pool. Runaway's small core team of nine members was supported by part-timers and freelancers during development.

Runaway was highly anticipated in Spain, and it won awards and positive reviews upon its July 2001 release. Early domestic sales were strong, but Runaway's distribution and international debut were scuttled when Dinamic Multimedia closed that September. Forced to downsize in response, Pendulo fought for roughly one year to buy back Runaway's rights; the developer finally secured global publishing deals during 2002 and 2003. DTP Entertainment and Focus Home Interactive had significant success with Runaway in Germany and France, respectively, and the game sold 600,000 units across Europe by 2006. Runaway was well-received by German publications such as PC Games, and a panel of journalists and industry figures in France named it one of 2003's best titles. Reviews in the United States were mixed.

As Pendulo's first international hit, Runaway financially revitalized its developer. Pendulo built on the game's design and visual style in future projects, and became Spain's longest-running game developer by 2019. Although adventure games were in decline before Runaway's global release, publications in Germany, France and Spain reported that the game helped to reenergize its genre. Runaway has been named one of the best Spanish games and best adventure games of all time, but also cited as a polarizing title; in Germany, it inspired the popular term "Runaway Syndrome" to denote poor adventure game design. The game spawned two sequels—Runaway 2: The Dream of the Turtle (2006) and Runaway: A Twist of Fate (2009)—and formed a series that sold over 1.5 million units worldwide by 2010. Hidden Runaway, a spin-off, followed in 2012.

Gameplay
Runaway: A Road Adventure is a graphic adventure game controlled with a point-and-click interface, in a style that has been compared to LucasArts adventure games. Using a mouse, the player navigates the player character through the game world and interacts with hotspots, such as items and non-player characters. Interaction with hotspots is context-sensitive. For example, if the cursor transforms into a magnifying glass while hovering over a hotspot, the player may click to learn more about the object highlighted. When the cursor transforms into a hand or speech balloon, it indicates that a hotspot may be manipulated or spoken to, respectively.

To progress in Runaway, the player gathers items, solves puzzles and converses with non-player characters; the game contains no action-based or time-limited sequences. Most puzzles involve the use of items, which are stored in an inventory subscreen. Items are often hidden in the game world and sometimes require pixel hunting to locate,  and certain items may only be found by examining the same hotspot multiple times. The player must occasionally combine items in the inventory to solve puzzles. Conversations, handled by picking dialogue options from a menu, provide puzzle hints and other assistance.

Runaway's player character is unable to die, and progression is linear. The game follows a system in which the player character refuses to collect certain items before their use is made clear in the plot. As a result, the player must solve many puzzles in a specific order. When the player progresses enough, a cutscene will play to provide information and to further the plot.

Story
In New York City, the college student Brian Basco prepares for a cross-country road trip to his new school, the University of California, Berkeley. Before he can drive out of the city, he collides with a woman named Gina Timmins who runs in front of his car, and Brian delivers her to a hospital. Gina tells Brian that she is a lounge singer, and that her father, a government employee, had just given her an ancient and mysterious crucifix for safekeeping. Made men from the Sandretti crime family, Gustav and Feodor, had then kidnapped him and demanded information about the artifact as she had watched in secret. The thugs had unintentionally killed him, causing Gina to reveal her presence and be chased into the street; Brian had unwittingly saved her life by hitting her. Gina finishes her story and succumbs to sedatives administered by the hospital staff. Intrigued, Brian decides to help her evade the Mafia, and he outwits a Sandretti hitman who arrives to murder her. After Brian starts a fire in Gina's room, the two flee to a museum in Chicago, where Brian believes that his archaeologist friend Clive can tell them more about the crucifix. As they arrive, a Mafia informant outside the museum alerts Gustav and Feodor.

Clive listens to Brian and Gina's story with concern, and Brian gets Dr. Susan Olivaw, a restorer, to prepare the crucifix for identification. He ultimately uses the museum's database to determine that the object is of Hopi origin. Clive then calls Brian out of the database room with a warning that Gina is in danger. As he exits, Brian is knocked out by Gustav and Feodor, who had offered to let Clive live in exchange for Gina and Brian. Nevertheless, Gustav and Feodor kill Clive and leave with the two captives, whom they transport to a remote cabin in the desert. Brian is interrogated and beaten unconscious, and awakens to find himself alone, as the gangsters have taken Gina to a separate room for questioning. Managing to escape, Brian stumbles upon three drag queens who were abandoned in a broken-down tour bus by their manager. They agree to help Brian save Gina if he helps them escape the desert. Aided by the drag queens, Brian tricks Gustav and Feodor into leaving their cabin, which allows him to enter and rescue Gina. One of the drag queens, revealed to be ex-military, hijacks the gangsters' helicopter as an escape vehicle for the group. The drag queens fly Brian and Gina to Arizona's Hopi region before departing.

As Brian and Gina search for clues about the crucifix, Gina falls and appears to die in a hole near an abandoned mine shaft. Brian is distraught and nearly quits the mission until a mysterious Hopi man appears. Claiming to be the last Hopi chieftain, the man reveals to Brian that the crucifix is a key that opens a sacred, secret Hopi crypt, which lies near a Hopi village beyond the abandoned mine. As the mine is blocked by large boulder and Brian lacks supplies, he is forced to explore the surrounding area. He soon meets Sushi Douglas, a computer hacker; and Oscar, a strong man with a troubled past, who now works for the local folk healer Mama Dorita. Oscar helps Brian remove the boulder at the mine's entrance, and Brian travels through it to reach the abandoned Hopi village. There, he finds Gina alive, although her leg is broken. Brian proceeds to unlock the sacred Hopi crypt and, inside, to once again encounter the Hopi man, who gives him a human finger preserved in a jar of formaldehyde. The man tells Brian that the jar had been placed there sacrilegiously by a now-dead Hopi descendant. Brian and Gina return to Mama Dorita to mend Gina's broken leg, and Brian chooses to employ the healer's services to contact the dead man—whom he believes to be Gina's father—via a séance. Brian serves as a medium and is possessed.

During the séance, Gina speaks to the spirit of a man named Johnny "the Indian", a former member of the Sandretti family, about a large sum of money he had hidden. The spirit refuses to reveal its location. After the séance, Gina admits to Brian that she had lied: she is not a singer but a stripper, and the man she had seen die was actually Johnny. The gangster had offered to run away with her and a $20 million sum he had stolen and hidden from the Sandretti family; after his death, his crucifix-shaped key was her only clue to the money's whereabouts. Brian is hurt by these revelations but decides to help. He learns with Sushi's assistance that Johnny had used his own sister, a nun, to store the money in a bank accessible only via fingerprint scanner. Johnny had then murdered her and preserved her finger as a key. Although Gustav and Feodor soon close in on Brian and Gina's location, Oscar successfully detains the gangsters. Sushi frames Gustav and Feodor via a phone call with the Sandrettis' don, who is led to believe that his men had stolen Johnny's money for themselves and killed Gina and Brian. Afterward, the gangsters are murdered by the Sandretti family, while Brian and Gina successfully withdraw the money from the bank. Brian initially resolves to return to school, leaving Gina and the money behind, but he changes his mind at the last minute and runs away with her to the tropics.

Concept and design
Following Pendulo Studios' release of Hollywood Monsters in December 1997, the developer started to create a sequel to the game. The first installment had been a commercial hit in Spain, Pendulo's home country. However, Kai Fiebig of Hollywood Monsters' publisher, Dinamic Multimedia, explained that Pendulo soon revamped its project. At a meeting to assess the sequel, one of Pendulo's leads suggested a change in direction because of a thriller film he had recently seen, and the core concept for Runaway was born. Art director Rafael Latiegui later said that "the first sketches of what would end up becoming Runaway" were created in summer 1998. The team devised a story based on the road movie genre; early influence was derived from the films Pulp Fiction and Raising Arizona. Pendulo's desire to create a more tightly structured game than Hollywood Monsters inspired Runaway's chase-themed plot. For the setting, the team picked the United States over Spain for the recognizability of its locations to a global audience, and for its greater suitedness to the road movie format. Latiegui's recent trip to New Mexico and Arizona influenced the team: he had taken several hundred photographs, which guided Runaway's color palette and served as the basis for many in-game locations.

According to Latiegui, Runaway's story was intended to be "more adult" and "less zany" than that of Hollywood Monsters. While Pendulo's previous game had been a parodical comedy, the team sought to give Runaway a balance of humor and drama. Gerard Masnou of GameLive PC noted Pendulo's addition of violence, strong language (including "joder") and sexual themes to the game's Spanish script, which contributed to its rating of +18 in Spain. Latiegui said that Runaway's transgressive elements—such as the appearance of drug use, stripping and drag queens—were not for the purpose of controversy, but that they nevertheless alienated certain publishers. In designing the protagonists, the team conceived Brian as a nerd whose look and personality would evolve because of his adventures in Runaway, while Gina was intended to drive the plot. Her design was particularly inspired by actresses Natalia Estrada and Jennifer Connelly. Latiegui explained that the team's goal was to make Gina "really sexy" and "especially exuberant"; her character design proved to be a greater challenge than Brian's, and she underwent several redesigns before her model sheet was finalized.

In 2000, Latiegui cited films as a greater inspiration than competing adventure games for Runaway. Pendulo's staff self-described as a group of "movie fanatics", and project manager Ramón Hernáez said that he had initially wanted to become a filmmaker rather than a game developer. The team purposely included references to films throughout Runaway, such as borrowed names and pastiches of famous scenes. Hernáez, who was responsible for outlining much of Runaway's script and scenario, added the majority of these references. Among them are nods to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Great Escape and Perdita Durango. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was another prominent influence. Despite the impact of Pulp Fiction and Raising Arizona on the script, Hernáez noted that the two films were not among his personal favorites. He compensated by including allusions to The Apartment, The Quiet Man and the work of Woody Allen—particularly Manhattan Murder Mystery, which supplied the conceit for the game's ending. According to Hernáez, the team added few personal references to Runaway beyond the names of two hackers mentioned by Sushi, who were named after Hernáez's nieces.

Runaway was co-designed by Latiegui, Hernáez and lead programmer Felipe Gómez Pinilla, Pendulo's co-founders. They hoped to mimic the design of "classical" adventure games, particularly The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. Both LucasArts adventure games and the early work of Sierra On-Line influenced the game. From the start, Pendulo tried to move away from the nonlinear design style used in Hollywood Monsters, in favor of what Latiegui called a more straightforward and "less scattered" linear format. Pendulo later opined that Hollywood Monsters' openness had often led to "stagnation" for players. Instead, the team divided Runaway into discrete chapters, and sought to give the game a clear difficulty curve that inclined gradually. According to Latiegui, Pendulo's primary goal with the puzzles was simply to avoid players' "feel[ing] frustrated or stuck at any time." For the interface, the designers chose a traditional point-and-click setup, as they found the style more intuitive than direct character control. Reflex-based action scenes were planned, but Pendulo rejected the idea after testers judged them disruptive to the overall experience. The team also sought to limit the game's use of dialogue trees, as Pendulo believed them to be unpopular with players.

Production
Runaway was Pendulo's largest project to date, and Gerard Masnou wrote that it "was the most ambitious graphic adventure ever developed in Spain" at the time. The game's funding was derived entirely from Spanish investments. During production, Pendulo stated that Spain's game industry had improved since its low point in the 1990s, although it was "very far from living a golden age." According to Joan Font of GameLive PC, the industry still suffered from a dearth of professional talent while Runaway was in development. Spain's education system lacked courses for game development, and the country's existing industry professionals often migrated to foreign companies for better working conditions and pay. As a result, most of Pendulo's staff on Runaway consisted of autodidacts who learned in part on the job. Felipe Gómez Pinilla said that the company asked prospective collaborators "to have a classic drawing or animation foundation and to master the programs they will be using." The game's team was small: Rafael Latiegui said that Runaway had nine core members during most of its creation, assisted by a series of part-timers on elements such as music. Programming was almost exclusively a solo effort by Pinilla. The company also relied on external contractors for certain key tasks. Despite the industry's limited workforce, Ramón Hernáez said that Pendulo had a "relatively" easy time finding talent.

The soundtrack for Runaway was composed by freelancer David García-Morales, who had previously worked for Pyro Studios on the music to Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines. He sought to give each of Runaway's areas a unique theme suited to its environs, while ensuring that the tracks "had some connection to each other, whether of harmony, melody or rhythmic drums". García-Morales later said that this balance of unity and difference was difficult. Pendulo's proprietary adaptive music engine, the MIP Music System, was used to alter the soundtrack based on in-game events. In addition to the game's background music, Pendulo decided "from the very outset" to give Runaway a signature theme song, according to Latiegui. The goal was to increase the game's similarity to films via the inclusion of music with lyrics. Pendulo picked a stylistic direction for the sung tracks and began to explore demo tapes from interested bands; Latiegui said that the team "by chance" encountered a tape from the musical act Liquor, sent in by García-Morales. Singer Vera Domínguez caught Pendulo's attention, which led to Liquor's selection. Writing for Micromanía, J. A. Pascual compared the band's resultant work for Runaway to the output of The Cranberries. García-Morales hoped to raise Liquor's profile with the opportunity, as he was personally invested in the band's success.

Like Hollywood Monsters and Pendulo's earlier Igor: Objective Uikokahonia, Runaway began development with completely 2D graphics. The game maintained this style for a full year and to a "very advanced" stage of production, according to the Spanish press. Most of the 2D artwork was created by outside contractors under Pendulo's supervision. Publisher Dinamic Multimedia publicly revealed Runaway in 2D form during mid-1999; Micromanía reported that the game looked like an "authentic animated film". One of that magazine's columnists called the game's 2D visuals ready to "compete, side by side, with the greatest successes of LucasArts." Although Pendulo completed the entire first chapter of Runaway in 2D, animation proved to be a major challenge for the team,  especially when it came to the game's characters. It was expensive and slow to produce; Latiegui later recalled that "you wanted to have a cel in three days and instead ... it took three weeks" to achieve the intended quality. The animators struggled to keep their art on-model. Latiegui said in 2007, "When I see those drawings I still laugh because they are very curious". As a result, the team deemed Runaway's 2D graphics unworkable.

Hoping to find a solution, Pendulo began to experiment with modeling the characters in polygonal 3D. As the team disliked realistic 3D art styles, it was initially a struggle to find a suitable look, and to match the 3D characters to the existing 2D backgrounds. Pendulo sought to make Runaway's visuals reminiscent of comic books: Latiegui noted that he had grown up with Spanish comics such as El Víbora, Totem and Cimoc. The company also used artists Adam Hughes and Richard Corben as reference points. These considerations led Pendulo to choose a non-photorealistic rendering style never previously used by an adventure game. Pendulo pre-rendered the 3D character models to create sprites and then added more effects on top, such as real-time lighting and hand-drawn tweaks. To integrate items into the world, the team created versions of the background visuals both with and without items; the game switches between these images when an item is placed or removed. Latiegui later said that the team was "surprised that, yes, [it] could do something decent" in 3D. Dinamic's Alberto Hernandez wrote that the publisher was won over by "the first tests".

The contractors responsible for the 2D visuals were subsequently let go; instead, Pendulo staffed up with a new group of full-time artists. Pendulo proceeded to scrap all of the 2D animated character art, and to recreate the game's cast in 3D, based on the existing character designs. The finished first chapter was then remade in the new style. To achieve Runaway's final look, the team used a combination of proprietary and third-party software. Pascual wrote that Pendulo "used the same procedure" employed by then-recent animated properties, such as The Iron Giant and Futurama, that similarly blended 2D and 3D artwork. Runaway's graphical overhaul did not require a rewrite of the existing game engine, which was an upgraded version of the Hollywood Monsters engine designed to feature full-scene anti-aliasing and a 1024 × 768 display resolution. Latiegui called support for this higher resolution "logical" given the team's heavy focus on visuals, the element of Runaway with which Pendulo was happiest. The new style was nevertheless both challenging and time-consuming to create, and Latiegui noted that the team was "trapped by the limitations of 2D and those of 3D all at once." Pendulo struggled to find enough qualified 3D character animators in Spain, according to Micromanía's Francisco Delgado, and Hernáez wrote that the quality of the facial animation ultimately fell below his hopes.

Runaway's visual overhaul resulted in major delays. Originally due in early 2000, the game entered a protracted development cycle and was for a time without an official release date, which led to rumors throughout 2000 about the game's status. Although it was projected by that August for a late-2000 release, and was reportedly "90% complete" by October, the game proceeded to miss its planned December 2000 launch. Adventure Gamers' Eivind Hagerup wrote that Pendulo "didn't want to rush the game before Christmas, because this would lower the quality of the game." While Dinamic subsequently rescheduled Runaway for mid-January 2001, the game encountered another string of delays through the first half of 2001, which Dinamic attributed to "technical problems" and the discovery of major software bugs. In his column for GameLive PC, Masnou wrote at the time that Runaway's lengthy development and numerous delays were worrying signs, and warned the creators to "release this game before we get tired of waiting and we just forget about it." Hernáez noted that the team was unhappy with the slow pace of development, as it increased costs and devalued the final product. Pre-release praise for Runaway was nevertheless high, growing as the development time extended. In early 2001, Alexander García of MeriStation reported that Runaway had become one of Spain's "most anticipated graphic adventures".

As Runaway's production progressed through 2001, Dinamic fell into financial turmoil. The publisher's ventures related to the dot-com bubble—such as the massively multiplayer online role-playing game La Prisión—had proven unsuccessful, and Dinamic was caught in the global dot-com collapse. By early March, rumors had spread that Dinamic was in danger of closing. The company responded that only its online division was being shuttered, and that Runaway and its other traditional games were not in jeopardy. However, key faculty secretly departed Dinamic to join Pyro Studios during the period, and Dinamic entered receivership and cut 39 jobs in late March. Dinamic owed a significant debt of 1.5 billion pesetas to multiple creditors by this time. In response to these issues, Dinamic pushed Pendulo to rush Runaway's release "because it needed money to stay afloat", according to Pinilla. He noted that the last months of the game's development were difficult, and he complained that Dinamic "did not provide the necessary funds for a sufficient number of people" to complete the project. While Runaway ultimately went gold on June 25, 2001, its final version contained serious bugs that required several patches. Pendulo reported that most of these bugs occurred for users with 15-bit video cards, and took steps to address this issue.

Debut and turmoil
Dinamic Multimedia published Runaway in Spain on July 6, 2001. Shipped on three CD-ROMs and at Dinamic's standard list price of 3,995 pesetas, the game proceeded to sell well in Spain during its initial months. It was the country's fourth best-selling computer game in August; GameSpot Spain reported that the title had accrued "healthy sales" by that time. It claimed 22nd on the charts the following month. However, the game soon encountered problems. On September 24, Dinamic announced its liquidation, following its financial upheaval earlier in the year. Although certain commentators had speculated that Runaway's sales would save the publisher, it was ultimately Dinamic's last published title. At the time, VNUNet reported Dinamic's closure as "bad news ... for the battered Spanish game software industry". A writer for MarcaPlayer later called it "probably the most traumatic event that the Spanish video game industry has experienced in history". This situation hurt Runaway's distribution and commercial performance in Spain. In retrospect, Rafael Latiegui said that it had the effect of "blocking" domestic sales, and Gerard Masnou remarked that the game went "almost unnoticed" because of Dinamic's closure. By GfK's measurements, Dinamic's release of Runaway totaled 8,980 units sold domestically.

According to Felipe Gómez Pinilla, Spanish adventure game developers relied on international sales to reach profitability, as the domestic market was too small to cover their costs. None of Pendulo's earlier titles had achieved international success, and Masnou called it a rarity for any Spanish adventure game, but the team felt that Runaway might break the trend. An English localization of Runaway was initially announced for a simultaneous launch with the Spanish edition, while Italian and German releases were inked for fall 2001. However, Dinamic's downfall cast doubt on the future of Runaway outside Spain. Latiegui remarked after Dinamic's closure that, unless a deal to repurchase the game's rights emerged "very quickly", Pendulo could follow its publisher into bankruptcy. By mid-October 2001, all international versions of Runaway were placed on hold. Dubbing had not yet begun for the German edition by that time. Pendulo proceeded to undertake lawsuits and engage the publisher in a legal battle for the rights, a process that lasted roughly one year. Adventure Gamers' Marek Bronstring wrote that the game was "caught in limbo" during this time; Pendulo struggled to stay solvent. Latiegui later called the period an extreme challenge, and the company had to lay off the majority of its staff to make payroll. By November 2001, negotiations to release the game in Germany were ongoing and a fan petition to save Runaway had begun.

International breakthrough
Pendulo Studios finally secured the rights to Runaway in July 2002. The game appeared in Russia, published by Russobit-M, in early August. Later that month, Pendulo announced that the German-language edition of Runaway had been revived. Its publisher was revealed as DTP Entertainment in early September, by which time the game was set for a November launch across the German market: Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The German translation had been completed and its dubbing work started by mid-September. Retailer pre-orders in the German market quickly surpassed DTP's forecasts. For the Czech edition, Pendulo signed with TOP Distributor, the publisher that Dinamic Multimedia had originally contracted to bring Runaway to the Czech Republic. Pendulo and TOP began their translation effort before the rights issue was resolved, via an under-the-table agreement, and the publisher received its first Czech-language beta edition in June 2002. The Czech translation took four months; dubbing was completed in October. Runaway's German and Czech versions both went gold in November, and releases followed on November 18 and in early December, respectively.

DTP Entertainment supported Runaway in Germany with a heavy marketing campaign that characterized the game as "the return of the classic adventure", according to the publisher's Chris Kellner. At the time, adventure games were perceived in countries such as Germany and France as a declining genre. Runaway debuted at #9 on GfK's weekly computer game sales charts for the German market, and spent five consecutive months in Media Control's top 30. The game's sales in the German market surpassed 50,000 units within a year, ultimately climbing to 60,000. Kellner declared it "a huge success" for the publisher. Following Runaway's debut in Germany, Pendulo landed deals in December 2002 to release the game in three more countries: France, with Focus Home Interactive; Poland, with TopWare Interactive; and the United Kingdom, with GMX Media. All three were slated for spring 2003. Like DTP, Focus Home publicly labeled Runaway "the return" of traditional graphic adventure games. The company's Cédric Lagarrigue later said that his team had "a huge desire to revive" the genre, and that they believed Runaway could do so.

Runaway's worldwide spread continued throughout the early part of 2003. By February, Pendulo had signed contracts with Comgame 576 and FX Interactive to ship the game in Hungary and Italy, respectively. Agreements emerged in March to localize Runaway in the Netherlands, Belgium and North America—the third through Tri Synergy. In France, Focus Home backed the game with a large financial investment in hopes of securing a hit. Two members of the firm Words of Magic oversaw the French translation and dub, which included the French voice actors for Cameron Diaz, Tom Cruise and Will Smith. Words of Magic finished the localization within two months, in the process adding jokes and references specific to France, alongside new hints for certain puzzles. Runaway appeared in France on March 21. Initial sales were strong: the game reached #3 on GfK's French charts, and it remained in the top 20 through July. Runaway ultimately maintained a six-month streak on GfK's list. Similarly, Fnac reported Runaway as its third best-selling game across all platforms during April's first half, and it continued to chart in the store's top 30 through the end of May. In August, Lagarrigue called Runaway a major hit for his company.

While securing these international deals, Pendulo worked in late 2002 and early 2003 on a remastered Spanish version of Runaway, this time published by FX Interactive. In early 2002, the two companies had collaborated on a re-release of Hollywood Monsters. Changes to the remastered Runaway included a new box cover by Luis Royo, increased video quality, added hints for difficult puzzles, a new voice-over for Gina—redubbed by the actress who voiced Angelina Jolie in Spain—and other updates. Pendulo and FX announced the remastered version in January 2003. Latiegui stated that the new edition's "most important" function was to solve Runaway's ongoing supply shortage in Spain, caused by Dinamic's closure. The remaster was soon confirmed as a part of El Mundo's 2003 "Los Mejores Videojuegos del Mundo" (MVM) collection,  games that the newspaper included with its Sunday edition as optional purchases for €5 each. Hollywood Monsters had been included in the successful 2002 collection. Set for release in mid-March 2003, Runaway's MVM edition became a hit and sold 100,000 units over the weekend.

While the remaster was initially exclusive to El Mundo's MVM collection, FX Interactive chose to reissue it as part of the publisher's "Premium" budget line in mid-2003. The company followed this SKU later in 2003 with the "Multiadventure" bundle, which paired Runaway with the titles Traitors Gate and The Longest Journey. FX brought Runaway to Italy in May; Latiegui characterized its early performance in the country as a "great success". Pendulo also revealed a deal that month to localize the title in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Later in the year, Focus Home announced a French relaunch of Runaway in a Collector's Edition bundle, supported by a renewed marketing campaign. This new edition appeared in early October. Despite Runaway's popularity in continental Europe, the title's English edition struggled to reach shelves. Evan Dickens of Adventure Gamers wrote that "the game stubbornly refused to find its way to an English translation". GMX Media's localization in the United Kingdom was beset by delays as 2003 progressed, and it ultimately failed to materialize. Tri Synergy's North American version remained without a scheduled release date by the middle of that year. It finally launched in the United States on August 20.

By January 2004, Runaway had become an international commercial hit. At the time, MCV's Frank Mischkowski wrote that its sales totaled 400,000 units at full price and in Europe alone. Ramón Hernáez noted that the game's "sales are not explosive, [but] they add up" over time. Runaway's largest markets were France and Germany, according to Latiegui. He added that it had not "done badly at all" in the United States by February 2004, where its lifetime sales at brick-and-mortar retailers reached 12,928 units by the end of the month. Conversely, Richard Moss of Ars Technica later wrote that Runaway was one of many adventure games that "barely made a mark in the US but sold well in Europe" during the late 1990s and the 2000s. Runaway accrued roughly 500,000 global sales by March 2004, and remained DTP's best-selling adventure game by that September. In May 2006, GamesRadar+ reported that Runaway had totaled 600,000 sales in Europe. The game and its sequel, Runaway 2: The Dream of the Turtle, together had sold one million copies by April 2009. Of these sales, France accounted for 250,000 units.

Spanish press
Runaway garnered positive reviews from Spanish outlets such as Micromanía, MeriStation and GameLive PC, while PC Actual declared it the "Game of the Month". It came in third place for GameLive PC's 2000–2001 "Best Adventure Game" prize; the editors called Runaway "an adult game, intelligent, very well structured and rich in the kinds of details that separate good craftsmanship from the rest." In MeriStation's 2001 EME awards, Runaway received 14.1% of the reader vote in the "Best Adventure Game" category, which placed it third behind Silent Hill 2 and Shenmue 2.

Micromanía's J. A. Pascual called Runaway "excellent", arguing that it recaptured the spirit of LucasArts-style adventure games and disproved the prevailing wisdom that traditional adventure games were dying. Gerard Masnou of GameLive PC and the reviewer for PC Actual similarly described Runaway as a bright spot for its genre; Masnou wrote that adventure game players "have a new classic to hold on to" following "a few years of drifting". PC Actual's writer went further and hailed the game as evidence, alongside releases like Commandos 2: Men of Courage and Severance: Blade of Darkness, that high-quality Spanish game development in general was resurging. Alberto de Vega Luna of MeriStation continued the praise for Runaway: he found it to be a rare highlight for 2D adventure games, a genre "that unfortunately is disappearing from the market." However, he felt that the game was held back from "essential" status by severe bugs at launch, which he cited as "without any doubt" Runaway's greatest flaw.

Pascual found the puzzles in Runaway to be well-balanced and "perfectly logical". Luna and Masnou concurred on the puzzles' quality, although they declared them somewhat too easy. All three writers lauded Runaways visual presentation,  and PC Actuals critic joined in complimenting the graphics both technically and artistically. While PC Manía echoed the praise for the "spectacular" presentation, the magazine's reviewer argued that Runaway's principal character designs were overly similar to those of the Broken Sword series. Masnou likewise criticized this aspect of Pendulo's game: he wrote that "it looks too much like Broken Sword", a problem that touched "its premise and ... its style of gameplay". In his view, it was among Runaway's primary downsides, alongside a general lack of innovation. Pascual cited the Broken Sword similarities as a positive, since he felt that Runaway's design "melt[s] the essence" of its influences together and generates "its own personality" with the result. Despite these comparisons to Broken Sword, the reviewers for Micromanía, GameLive PC and PC Manía all enjoyed Runaway's story. The third magazine's critic ultimately summarized Runaway as a "good title for everyone addicted to graphic adventures and, of course, for those who are just starting."

International reviews
In France, Runaway was named one of the four best computer games of 2003 at the Digital Awards, part of the Euro Cyber Games. Judging was handled by a panel that included representatives from SELL and the Association des producteurs d'œuvres multimédia (APOM), alongside journalists such as Daniel Ichbiah and Le Figaro's Sébastien Lubrano. The French websites Jeuxvideo.com and Clubic praised Runaways story, characters, music, visuals, puzzles and French localization; Clubics writer also noted the game's humor as a high point. Critics from both outlets dubbed Runaway a savior of traditional adventure games, although they faulted its "pixelated" and sometimes stiffly-animated cutscenes. Conversely, despite echoing Clubic and Jeuxvideo.com on the "classy" visuals and "excellent" score, the writer for France's Joystick summarized Runaway as a failure. Breaking with the others, he found the script middling and lambasted the game design as "execrable": for him, the puzzles amounted to "boring stupidity" with numerous illogical leaps.

Among German players, Runaway claimed a 97% recommendation rate in PC Games' reader polls. According to the magazine, the graphics and story were widely lauded by the public, although the game was criticized for its brevity. German critic Georg Valtin of GameStar offered Runaway a positive review, while PC Games David Bergmann and PC Actions Tanja Bunke declared it superior to Grim Fandango. All three writers praised Runaway's story, humor and visuals, and cited the game as a return to form for its genre. The three similarly enjoyed the game's puzzle design,  despite Bergmann's dislike for its "frustrating" pixel hunts and Valtin's criticism that certain puzzles require "guessing". Joining Jeuxvideo.com and Clubic, Bergmann also docked Runaway points for its "pixelated, blurry" cutscene sequences. Nevertheless, discussing the German localization effort, both Bergmann and Valtin offered strong praise. Summarizing the game, Bunke hailed it as "the current non plus ultra of adventure games", and Bergmann wrote that it was "undoubtedly the best adventure of the year 2002."

Runaway met with a "love-it-or-hate-it reaction upon its English release", according to Jack Allin of Adventure Gamers. The game's reception was "mixed or average" among the outlets surveyed by Metacritic. It was panned by Computer Gaming World, whose Dana Jongewaard dismissed Runaway as the "bimbo of graphic adventure games: both pretty and stupid." Despite praising its visuals and finding its voice acting and storyline adequate, she condemned the "maddening frustration" and repetition of its puzzles. Chuck Osborn of PC Gamer US followed Jongewaard on Runaway's graphics and puzzle logic, but broke with her on the plot and voice acting, the latter of which he called one of the game's worst elements. Declaring Runaway "a who's-who of point-and-click adventure-game pitfalls", Osborn denounced its use of stereotypes such as "a Japanese caricature right out of a WWII-era Bugs Bunny cartoon". Both writers warned all but the biggest adventure game fans to "run away" from Runaway. By contrast, Game Informer and GameSpot characterized Runaway as a "solid", if flawed, entry in its genre. GameSpot's Brad Shoemaker liked the story and called the visuals "a treat", but deemed the puzzles, voice acting and humor uneven. Game Informer's Lisa Mason similarly highlighted the "stylish, clean, and fresh" visuals, and found the characters to be "great". However, with Shoemaker, she disliked the unevenness of the puzzles and voice acting. Jeremy Zoss of Game Informer summarized, "It's no Day of the Tentacle, but it'll do", a sentiment echoed by Shoemaker.

Legacy
Pendulo Studios stopped creating games after Dinamic Multimedia's closure, but Rafael Latiegui said in early 2003 that the developer could recover if Runaway sold well enough. He noted that Pendulo "never stopped having development ideas so ... everything depends on the sales of Runaway". The game's hit status in Europe ultimately revived the company, and Felipe Gómez Pinilla dubbed Runaway "a turning point for" Pendulo. It was Pendulo's global breakthrough; a writer for MeriStation called it "one of the most discussed and beloved graphic adventures by adventurers around the world." In 2018, MeriStation reported that the Runaway series remained one of the most famous Spanish game products in the European Union. Runaway's success enabled Pendulo to rehire most of its layoffs from the Dinamic turmoil, and Pendulo proceeded to become Spain's longest-running game developer by 2019. It has been named a major force in Spanish games,  particularly in the adventure genre. In 2015, researchers Víctor Manuel Martínez and Manuel Garin cited Runaway as the start of Pendulo's own brand of adventure games. Pendulo's Josué Monchan similarly said that the company "found [its] voice" with the project. Its later games reused Runaway's cartoonish aesthetic, which MarcaPlayer deemed a Pendulo "hallmark" by 2011.

Runaway's popularity, during a period of decline for traditional adventure games,  became evidence in the game industry that the genre could still succeed. Jack Allin of Adventure Gamers wrote in 2012 that Runaway "was cited as one of the games that helped catapult the genre back into an era of relative prominence." Martin Ganteföhr of House of Tales called it "practically impossible" to interest publishers in adventure games during the early 2000s, but he argued that "charming titles like Runaway ... recaptured many hearts and minds." In France, Nicolas Magnier of Gaming-Side offered a similar account. The Hamburg Chamber of Commerce's Hamburger Wirtschaft magazine reported that Runaway revived its genre "overnight", while a writer for Jeuxvideo.com stated that it "marked the rebirth of the genre." Other publications to cite Runaway as a contributor to the reenergization of adventure games include La Libre Belgique, Gameblog, GameStar, PC Games and MeriStation. The game's success inspired DTP Entertainment to reorient its business around adventure games.

In 2012, MeriStation's César Otero called Runaway "one of the games alongside Commandos that ... [made] it clear that Spain still possesses the talent that made us great between 1983 and 1992." Runaway has been listed as one of Spain's best games by HobbyConsolas, IGN España, GQ España, 20 minutos and Yoigo's Bloygo. Defconplay likewise cited Runaway, together with its sequels, as one of Spain's five best games. Weighing Runaway's place globally, Gameblog, IGN España and Xataka named it one of the best adventure games ever. At the same time, writers for Adventure Gamers and Hardcore Gaming 101 have characterized Runaway as abnormally polarizing. Kurt Kalata of the latter publication wrote that "many proclaimed the cartoonish adventure to be a return to form ... [but o]thers found it a harrowingly shallow experience". John Walker of Rock, Paper, Shotgun recalled it as "remarkably charmless, and sometimes even offensively so." Kalata was similarly critical. In Germany, Runaway inspired the popular term "Runaway Syndrome" to denote frustrating adventure game design. Adventure Gamers and Retro Gamer Germany have defined Runaway Syndrome as the need to examine a hotspot multiple times to acquire an item. Other sources define it as the player character's refusal to perform actions before their purpose in the plot is clear.

In February 2009, Focus Home Interactive re-released Runaway on GOG.com, and a GameTap version followed that June. A launch through DotEmu arrived in September 2010. Runaway had appeared on Valve's Steam platform by the following year. In May 2013, Pendulo and publisher Bulkypix announced a partnership to port Runaway to iOS, with a revamped interface to accommodate touch controls. The Runaway port was one of several iOS re-releases by Pendulo during the period, in an effort to keep the company solvent after other avenues of funding had closed. Josué Monchan compared the strategy to one that Revolution Software had used previously to survive. Runaway launched on iOS that June to "mixed or average reviews", according to Metacritic, and HobbyConsolas selected it as one of the "5 Best iOS Games of the Week".

Sequels
Pendulo Studios began to plan a sequel to Runaway soon after the first game's international launch. Rafael Latiegui later said that the team "wanted to immediately get [into] a video game" after spending a year away, and that a sequel was the "quickest way" because of the groundwork already laid. He noted that Runaway had not been developed with a sequel in mind, but that a large number of unused ideas nevertheless remained after the first game's release. In January 2003, PC Games reported that Runaway 2 was under consideration and had been partly storyboarded but was not yet greenlit. Prior to Runaway's release in France, Latiegui explained that Pendulo was waiting for the rest of the game's global returns before committing to a new title. The first game's commercial performance, combined with the team's desire to explore Runaway further, ultimately became a key inspiration to greenlight a sequel.

Runaway 2 was first announced by DTP Entertainment in August 2003, at the Games Convention in Leipzig. By that time, the game had passed the concepting phase and its plot was finished. Pendulo opted to reuse the same game engine from the first title, with upgrades. The project was initially scheduled for late 2004. Because of Runaway's high profits, Pendulo was able to put its own money into Runaway 2, although most of the game's funding was derived from French investments. Pendulo expanded significantly, and it sought to make the sequel much larger than its predecessor; writer Josué Monchan later said that the team grew overambitious and lost direction. The game underwent numerous delays, initially to mid-2005 and then to late 2005, spring 2006 and September 2006. First released in November 2006 as Runaway 2: The Dream of the Turtle, the game continues the story of Brian Basco and Gina, who fall into trouble because of a plane crash during their vacation to Hawaii. Its international launch came roughly eight months before its release in Spain. The project garnered Pendulo's worst reviews to date, and Monchan later called it "a horrible game". Its poor reception led the team to take feedback into greater consideration for future titles, Monchan said, which influenced the design of the next Runaway entry.

A third Runaway game had been considered during Runaway 2's creation, and Pendulo unofficially confirmed that it was under development in November 2006. It received an official announcement at the Games Convention in August 2007; certain outlets initially reported that Runaway 3 would be set in Japan and would take place immediately after its predecessor. The game was first shown in February 2008 at the Game Developers Conference, where its name was revealed as Runaway: A Twist of Fate. Pendulo and publisher Focus Home Interactive wanted to attract series newcomers with the numberless title, and Jeuxvideo.com reported that the game was "not the direct follow-up" to Runaway 2, but a relatively standalone project. Monchan said that Pendulo "rethought everything" about adventure game development in hopes of avoiding the mistakes of Runaway 2. A new engine was adopted for A Twist of Fate that offered improved graphics, although the game retained a pre-rendered 2D visual style. Unlike the first two Runaway entries, the game features Gina as a playable character alongside Brian. A Twist of Fate was first released internationally in November 2009; its Spanish version, again delayed, launched in early 2010.

The three Runaway games totaled 1.5 million units sold worldwide by 2010. Despite retaining ideas for further sequels, Pendulo opted to temporarily retire the Runaway franchise after A Twist of Fate. Latiegui explained in 2011, "After almost a decade with the saga, we needed a break." The team reported that it was particularly tired of Brian as a character. Nevertheless, Pendulo undertook a Runaway spin-off the following year, under the name Hidden Runaway. Unlike Pendulo's earlier work, Hidden Runaway is a hidden object game aimed at casual players. Released for iOS devices in October 2012, the game was a commercial flop.

title: Runaway: A Road Adventure


text:
Talk:Mary Pearcey

Untitled
I see I forgot to sign this. Sorry! J S Ayer

May 2006 DNA articles
In May 2006, a number of articles were run in newspapers around the world saying, in essence, "envelopes letters believed to be from Jack the Ripper were tested for DNA and seem to have been sealed by a woman. Mary Pearcey is the only widely recognized female suspect." Editor Victrix removed all references to this, saying "news coverage over the DNA test results has been thoroughly awful, printing things that are simply false... removed bad info taken directly from this example of poor journalism."

It may be that the articles are erroneous, but I think it is wrong to simply delete the reference because an editor disagrees with it. Instead, present competing sources and argue for their superiority. I will revert the text to include the DNA discussion, recognizing that it may need improvements. Uucp 03:31, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

 * And reverted back to remove false and pointless info.

 * Modern newspaper coverage of anything related to Jack the Ripper is pretty much always terrible sources of information, as they go for what sounds dramatic over what is actually correct. Sources on equal footing should have info from both posted so that the reader can choose and decide, but in this case the books are far superior and news reports are just not at all acceptable as reliable sources.

 * For example, the claim that Pearcey was the only female Ripper suspect named is just wrong. Mary Kelly herself has been suggested as having been the Ripper, as well as the alleged female Russian agent whose name escapes me because it's just some nonsense some nobody came up with.

 * As far as finding some DNA on a letter that showed female traits... uh, so what? These letters were not held as crime scene evidence and protected over the century, any number of people have been able to access and handle the originals at the archives and could have left their DNA on it. Patricia Cornwell being the most obvious possibility. There's nothing to indicate that this unknown female wrote the letter, and absolutely no reason to think that the person who did write the letter was Jack the Ripper.

 * It's complete and utter nonsense, so much so that it isn't even discussed on the Jack the Ripper article. Listing it here as if it in any way had anything to do with Mary Pearcey is ridiculous.

 * Sorry, but that's why they have multiple people edit this encyclopedia. Victrix 00:31, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

 * In May 2006, Mary Pearcey was discussed in the Daily Mail (London), Sunday Mail (Glasgow, Scotland), The Mirror (Ireland and U.K. editions), The Herald (Glasgow), Belfast Telegraph, Hobart Mercury (Australia), The Independent (London), and the AAP Newsfeed (Brisbane), some more than once. I would be glad to e-mail you the text of every one of the articles. You may have issues with some of the conclusions in these articles, but deleting any mention to them is inappropriate. Your declaration that they are "complete and utter nonsense" is nothing but POV. I have added a discussion of the 2006 press and removed an inappropriate assertion in the article that Pearcey was insignificant. Uucp 13:54, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Russian text
The four lines of Russian that were briefly part of this article say, "Mary Pearcey in 1890 with exceptional cruelty murdered the wife and little daughter of her lover. She was arrested practically at once; the murderess had walked the night streets, pushing before her a baby carriage not her own.  Investigation showed that she suffered from epilepsy and amnesia.  She had killed, and remembered nothing about it." J S Ayer (talk) 02:51, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Mary Pearcey


text:
Imperial Hotel Gold Coast

Imperial Hotel Gold Coast is a luxury hotel located by the Southport Broadwater in Main Beach, and Marina Mirage shopping centre at Southport Spit on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The hotel was constructed by the Sunland Group on the site of the former Fisherman's Wharf complex. Opened on September 15, 2000, the hotel features 200 rooms, 72 apartments, 600 seater ballroom, bars, restaurants and a Versace retail store.

The design and furnishing of the hotel was overseen by Versace in Milan, Italy. The building itself was created by Gold Coast architect Desmond Brook of DBI Design.

In 2023, fashion house Versace decided not to renew its branding agreement. From 1 August the new name was The Imperial Hotel.

History
Soheil Abedian of the Sunland Group visited the House of Versace in 1997 to propose the idea of a Versace branded hotel. He claims Palazzo Versace Gold Coast to be the first fashion-branded hotel. On his reasons for approaching Versace, Abedian says "Gianni Versace was a lover of architecture in the first place, a person who used in his fashion all the elements of the Baroque style. ... Also, Versace was the only fashion house at the time that had a home collection and everything that a hotel needed from the porcelain to cutlery, pillows to fabric." The main building was designed in Postmodern architecture style in a broad interpretation of Neoclassical architecture.

In 2005, Emirates International Holdings acquired 50% of Palazzo Versace Gold Coast at the same time entering into a joint venture to develop a chain of hotels including a similar hotel in Dubai. In 2006 Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the United Arab Emirates Vice President and Prime Minister, suffered a heart attack and died while staying at the hotel. In September 2012 a conditional contract was entered into to sell the hotel complex to a Chinese consortium.

Hotel and condominiums
Imperial Hotel has 200 hotel rooms and suites and seventy-two neighbouring condominiums, and four restaurants. Palazzo Versace also has its own private 90 berth marina, and underground carpark.

title: Imperial Hotel Gold Coast


text:
Edmund Taczanowski

Edmund Taczanowski (1822, Wieczyn – 1879, Choryń) was a Polish general, insurrectionist, member of the Taczanowski magnate dynasty (he was grandson of the famous privateer Maksymilian Taczanowski), and Lord of the estate of Choryń in the province of Poznań.

Early years and military career
The son of Jozef Grzegorz Mikolaj Piotr Taczanowski and Franciszka Drweska, as a youth Taczanowski was influenced by Polish poet and national hero Adam Mickiewicz, who lived at Choryń in 1831 while Prussian authorities prevented him from returning to Russian-Poland to support the insurrection there. Originally a Prussian officer, Taczanowski resigned to participate in the Greater Poland Uprising 1846 and in the 1848 revolt against Austrian-Polish rule. Following the collapse of this planned military action, he served with Giuseppe Garibaldi in the Italian Risorgimento. Wounded, he was placed in French captivity, but he was later released and served as a General in the 1863 Polish revolt against Russian rule. With the collapse of this action and Czarist suppression of the revolution, Taczanowski fled to France and then to Turkey, where he unsuccessfully attempted to find support for the creation of a Polish liberation army and the establishment of an independent Polish state. Under an amnesty, the Prussian government allowed his return to Choryń in 1870 where he remained with his family until his death nine years later. Today, his grave is considered a site of Polish national honour. The manor of Choryń is now a historic landmark bearing plaques in remembrance of both Taczanowski and Mickiewicz.

Personal life
He was married in Czermin in 1860 to Aniela Baranowska (daughter of Agnieszka Baranowska). They had six children, including Stanisława Taczanowska and Stefan Taczanowski.

title: Edmund Taczanowski


text: User talk:69.177.28.85

title: User talk:69.177.28.85


text:
Talk:Villains United

Lead section
The introduction to this article (the upper section) should be changed to reflect Villains United's focus on the Secret Society. As it stands it still portrays the focus to be more on Lex Luthor's society rather than the Secret Six. Although this is covered in the summary it should be done up above. To prevent redundancy this will require substansial edits. --Ryuukuro 04:28, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

 * The description of the revelation of the dual Luthors is confusing, and I strongly suggest changing it to something better. The description from the Infinite Crisis entry is clearer, and reads:

 * "The central revelation of the book, however, is that Mockingbird is actually Lex Luthor, and that the Luthor organizing the Secret Society is actually an alternate-universe version of Luthor. Also notable is Luthor's apparent murder of Pariah, a character from the original Crisis."--Galliaz 01:31, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

Membership question
Wasn't the second Fiddler (with a different name) part of the Society?

And didn't Dr. Sivana show up in the Outsiders as a member?Thanos6 04:45, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Atomic Skull?
Is it positive that it's the first Skull? I thought only the second one existed post-Crisis. Thanos6 01:43, 25 November 2005 (UTC)
 * A little late coming, but both Atomic Skulls exist post-Crisis. The first Atomic Skull was seen fighting against Thunder and Lightning during that whole sleeper agent thing that caused Magenta to go coo-coo crazy. The second Atomic Skull is a guy who was affected by the gene bomb back in Invasion! and fought against Superman.--DoctorWorm7 03:08, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

Splitting off the Roster
Sweet Lord, this article is something of a mess. I'm going to take a look at it, see about splitting off the rather huge lists of Society members and such, and try to clean it up. Give me your opinions about where the new article should go, or if it should be placed with something else. --DoctorWorm7 06:51, 24 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree. The article itself is fine, but the vast membership listing needs to be its own page, with a link in this main article. Honestly, the entire second section needs to be removed.Cybertooth85 21:32, 26 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Look at the Secret Society of Super-Villains, I wonder if we even need the roster section. Really, the only differences between this page's roster and the other is this is more chronological, and includes other villains and their relation to the Society. I vote we merge whatever excess info is here with the Society page and place a link in place of the current section 2. Cybertooth85 22:23, 26 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm going to go ahead and start up a "List of Secret Society of Super Villains members" similar to the List of Justice League members. That should help clear up not only this article, but the SSOV's article as well. --DoctorWorm7 03:20, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Well, I just merged the extra info here to the Society's existing page, then cut out the section here and linked to the 3rd formation on the Society's page. It saves making a new article. Let me know what you think. Cybertooth85 04:49, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
 * While you were doing all that, I actually was working on List of Secret Society of Super Villains members, so that's kinda moot. Sorry about the trouble there. Want to help out getting things straightened out there?--DoctorWorm7 04:57, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:4-villain.jpg
Image:4-villain.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in Wikipedia articles constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale.

If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.Betacommand (talk • contribs • Bot) 05:15, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

External links modified
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title: Talk:Villains United


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/E-AMUSEMENT

 This page is an archive of the proposed deletion of the article below. Further comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or on a Votes for Undeletion nomination). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was No Consensus. Redwolf24 (talk) 01:56, 27 August 2005 (UTC)

E-AMUSEMENT
advertisement and subscription help for a particualr online service. Delete. DES (talk) 04:30, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, vanity with no real content. edit: oops, forgot to include tag. GregAsche 04:53, August 19, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, might even be copyvio, but not worth searching for. -- WCFrancis 04:51, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete Basically spam.Amren 06:02, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep and Cleanup e-Amusement is a Japanese notability online service for arcade games. RadioActive 17:09, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep, notable function of various notable arcade games. Kappa 21:47, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Bizarre. —Charles O'Rourke 22:49, August 19, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. However, I see neither ad, nor spam nor vanity nor bizzarity. I see a how-to, or a FAQ which WP:ISNOT. With that removed, the remaining content could possibly be mentioned in Konami, but not such as to warrant a redirect. -Splash 23:57, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete per Splash. Xoloz 17:48, 20 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep and cleanup. --SPUI (talk) 22:41, 20 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep and cleanup. Other Japanese arcade games use this system as well and it could be used for informing people interested on the subject without having to clog up every individual game page with information on the general information on the service. If anything, this page should be kept and referred to as a main article if a game's page contains an e-AMUSEMENT section. It has its purpose. --64.18.184.68 06:13, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep and cleanup. I apologise if this is my first real article and it didn't contain much information, but I do have extra content to add. I also assure you that e-AMUSEMENT is a legitimate add-on to these games offered by Konami - so much so that it has become almost an integral part of the latest versions of these games. --PkerUNO 05:29, 23 August 2005 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in an undeletion request). No further edits should be made to this page.


text:
The Hidden Valley of Oz

The Hidden Valley of Oz (1951) is the thirty-ninth book in the Oz series created by L. Frank Baum and his successors. It was written by Rachel R.C. Payes and illustrated by Dirk Gringhuis. The book was followed twelve years later by Merry Go Round in Oz (1963).

Plot
Jonathan Andrew Manley, nicknamed Jam, is a boy from Ohio, the son of a biologist. At the start of the story, he is building a "collapsible kite" from plans he found in a popular magazine. Rather than cutting the pieces of his wooden frame to match the plans, however, he scales up the kite to match the size of his wood, yielding an extra-large result. The size of the thing inspires him to try to fly on it; he attaches a shipping crate, and gathers up three of his father's experimental animals (two guinea pigs and a white laboratory rat). A strong gust of wind lifts kite, crate, and passengers into the sky; Jam is on his way to the Land of Oz.

Kite and crate thump down the next day, in the purple landscape of the Gillikin Country. Jam is amazed to find that his animals can now talk; the guinea pigs call themselves Pinny and Gig, while the white rat introduces himself as Percy. Jam meets some of the inhabitants, who inform him of local conditions. This remote valley of Oz is dominated by a wrathful 50 ft. giant called Terp the Terrible, who enslaves the common people to work in his vineyards and his jam-making factory. Terp captures Jam, and is struck by his name; the giant threatens to spread the boy on his breakfast muffins the next day, and eat him. Terp imprisons the boy and his animals in the highest tower of his castle.

The courtyard of Terp's castle contains a magic muffin tree, guarded by a fierce monster. In the night, Percy is able to help Jam and friends escape the tower, with the aid of a handy grapevine. Jam and his pets flee, though Percy doubles back to steal one of the magic muffins. On the Gillikin plains, Jam and friends are menaced by the Equinots, hostile centaurs; Percy frightens away the Equinots when he eats some of the magic muffin, and grows to ten times his normal size.

A local farmer and his wife provide shelter for the night; Pinny and Gig, who have little taste for adventure, decide to stay at the farm as pets of the farmer's children. Another kite flight takes Jam and Percy to the tin castle of the Emperor of the Winkies, the Tin Woodman. There, the party is soon joined by Dorothy Gale, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, and the Hungry Tiger. After hearing Jam's tale, the assembled party decide to defeat Terp and free the oppressed Gillikins.

Their path from the Winkie Country to the Hidden Valley in Gillikin Country leads through a wilderness; a commotion in the jungle brings them a new friend on their quest in the form of the Leopard with the Changeable Spots who is an outcast to his fellow leopards. They nickname him "Spots". They enter Bookville, where a hostile King and his royal court condemn them to be pressed into books. Percy gnaws the travelers a way out of their bookshelf prison during the night. Another disagreeable adventure awaits them in Icetown which is inhabited by snowmen. To escape an igloo prison, the Scarecrow volunteers his stuffing as kindling for a fire.

The travelers, with a re-stuffed Scarecrow, eventually reach the Hidden Valley in Gillikin Country. Percy's shrinking-and-growing experiences with the magic muffin have made them realize that Terp needs a steady supply of muffins to maintain his giant stature. Jam and company, with local collaboration, lure Terp away from his castle and hypnotize the guardian beast into harmlessness. The Tin Man chops down the magic tree, killing it. Terp is trapped in the smokestack of the jam factory until he shrinks to his normal size.

The party travel to the Emerald City, where Jam is welcomed as a hero. After a celebratory banquet, Ozma and the Wizard send the boy home to Ohio once more. Percy remains in Oz and convinces the Wizard to enchant him into his large size permanently.

Development
Cosgrove originally intended to have Jam travel to Oz by rocket, but the publishers informed her that that had already been done in The Yellow Knight of Oz. The revised first chapter is believed to be the work of Francis Joseph O'Donnell, one of Reilly & Lee's main editors. Cosgrove's original opening was published posthumously in an issue of Oz-story Magazine. She later gave an account of how she wrote and revised Hidden Valley and worked with the personnel at Reilly & Lee. Her article appeared in The Baum Bugle, and was later included as an Afterword in the 1991 edition of Hidden Valley. Among the trivia she remarked on in this article was that the editors had added in Jam's catchphrase "Golly" and Percy's catchphrase "Kiddo," both of which she initially disliked.

Cosgrove created Percy the white rat based on her experience in laboratory work; she considered lab rats "fascinating" and "clever." Percy, who calls himself "the personality kid," is an extrovert, a classic American wise guy; he calls everyone "kiddo." Cosgrove liked the character enough to use him again, in her second Oz book, The Wicked Witch of Oz, and in a short story, "Percy and the Shrinking Violet."

Cosgrove used the Leopard again in her story "Spots in Oz."

Cogrove began work on a second Oz book soon after finishing the first; but Reilly & Lee declined it, due to low sales for Oz books in the 1950s. The work would finally appear in print forty years later as The Wicked Witch of Oz.

Reception
Baum biographer Katharine M. Rogers says that this book "recaptures the humor and inventiveness of [Ruth Plumly] Thompson." David L. Greene and Dick Martin agree that "The Hidden Valley is closer to vintage Ruth Plumly Thompson than to anything by Neill or Snow."

title: The Hidden Valley of Oz


text:
Talk:Binomial type

A funny sum
Anyone ever see something that looks like this:

 * $$\sum_{k=0}^n {n \choose k} y^k

\frac {1}{k!} \frac{d^k}{dx^k} f(x)$$

Any identities, relations,etc. for such a thing? Does it have a name? Its painfully suggestive of something but I can't put my finger on it ... linas 04:30, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

 * Those are called Appel sequences. Like sequences of binomial type, they're a special case of Sheffer sequences. Michael Hardy 18:29, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

i dont get it, whats the definition?

title: Talk:Binomial type


text:
Talk:Freeform role-playing game

Regional bias?
At the moment, this article is written from a distinctly British POV. It is perfectly comprehensible, but over the next week or so, I may look into providing American "translations" of some Britishisms. I say again, this is a minor nit, not a big problem at all. The Bearded One 04:31, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
 * The bias is entirely understandable, since I am a Brit and I created the article. Your contributions are, of course, welcome. Do you know which came first, and if so should this article be moved to the US name?   — PhilHibbs | talk 10:09, 19 August 2005 (UTC)

 * My understanding is that American "freeforms" began at sci-fi conventions in about 1983 or 1984. I have a more complete history for the American side, but I'm out of state right now.  I'll be back on Tuesday.  Ta.  The Bearded One 20:45, 20 August 2005 (UTC)
 * A quick search of my online resources located something. The first documented American "freeform" was called "Rekon 1" and was run in 1983. The Bearded One 17:05, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

 * I don't think the article should be moved; from my (admittedly second-hand) knowledge freeforms are far more common in Europe and Australia than in the US, and in any case freeform is an accepted term there as well. I've added a bunch of info on Australian freeforms (as I mention in the article, they've historically been much more popular here than standard LARPs) and tried to make the descriptions a bit more generic to cover the different styles of play. If we can get more information about UK and America freeform specifics, there's definitely room to have a subsection for each, outlining the differences (assuming they're significant enough to warrant that). All feedback on my additions welcome, too. -- Guybrush 07:07, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

 * I don't know how frequently UK freeforms deal with controversial or social issues, but that is becoming increasingly common in US freeforms, and it has been the case for years in Scandanavian freeforms. This article could probably stand to be broken into regional sections and expanded, but we'd need contributors from each region, Scandanavia included. The Bearded One 11:49, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

 * I have a history of freeforms / roleplay up, albeit slightly inaccurate. I'll be working on this as I find documentation that suggests otherwise:  Roleplayer's Timeline Alighieri 15:33, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

LARP vs Freeform

 * Freeforms are distinguished from other LARP games in that they employ minimal or no rules.

This does not seem to be at all acurate in describing the distinction between freeforms and boffer larps in the USA. I would say that the more important difference is that, in de-emphasizing combat, freeforms re-emphasize social interactions. The Bearded One 13:48, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

LARP, tabletop, freeform, system games
Hello,

I would just like to point out that this page seems to be about LARPs "which are also known as freeforms (in some parts of the world)" and not the other way around.

"Freeform" is also used with a completely different definition - that is, a roleplaying game where no system is used. This is particularly relevant with online roleplaying games. A system game is any game that uses a system - including rock/paper/scissors in WoD LARPs. A freeform game is based entirely on descriptive writing (at least in the case of online), and offline I would suspect based on acting and player's actual abilities.

I would like to suggest that the article title be changed to say "LARP" rather than "freeform" and that in most of the article, use "LARP" instead of "freeform."

Online Forum- and Email-based Freeform
Hello all -- I just added a small paragraph at the bottom on the type of freeforming I'm familiar with. I'll see if I can find a supporting external link as well. cruinne 02:19, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

I've updated it a bit as well, relating to the same topic. I'm also considering re-instating the sparring article, which got merged somehow with the online roleplaying article. Thought, that article contains so much crap information. Alighieri 15:33, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Freeform role-playing game