Latest news with #SimCity
The Courier
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Courier
The best games from Dundee's ZX Spectrum in 1990 - as beloved Speccy entered 'twilight era'
The end was nigh for Dundee's ZX Spectrum in 1990. The home computer produced by Dundee Timex workers was nearing the end of its commercial life after Sega and Nintendo burst on to the scene. Did it go out with a whimper? The Spectrum of Adventure author Tom Christie says there was still gas in the tank. 'By now, programmers had learned how to squeeze every scintilla of power out of the machine's creaking processor, and it seemed hard to believe that any original games were still to arrive for the famous system at this late stage,' he said. 'And yet, somehow, game designers were still able to come up with the goods. 'While the ZX Spectrum may no longer have been cutting-edge, it could still boast a vibrant, highly creative, and community-driven gaming scene, with a dedicated fan base across the UK and beyond. 'This was something of a twilight era for these early computers, but the gaming scene remained active and imaginative, with some surprisingly inventive games.' Tom has chosen 10 classic games to arrive on the platform in 1990. These include the popular SimCity and the brilliant Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge. How many of these games can you remember? Turrican was one of the most hotly-awaited titles of 1990. The shoot 'em up released by Rainbow Arts won big with magazine awards. It involved blasting through five alien environments. 'The game boasted huge levels which invited players to go exploring rather than encouraging them to complete each stage in a linear way,' said Tom. 'The mutant warrior hero was robust enough to handle anything thrown at him.' The tagline was: 'Never forget: shoot or die'. Crash magazine described Turrican as 'one of the best Speccy games seen this year'. The long-running Sim series all started here with SimCity. Tom said: 'It's easy to forget that this game appeared on the Spectrum in a hugely ambitious port released by French company Infogrames. 'All of the classic options were there. 'As mayor, the player had to balance their communities between different zones, while having to keep citizens happy with reliable services. 'The game was just as addictive on the Speccy as it would be on other platforms.' The city management game cost £9.99 on release. Your Sinclair's magazine review stated that the game was 'beautifully simple in concept and hangs together perfectly.' Tom said Activision produced something quite original with Time Machine. The player takes on the role of an eccentric scientist who must 'manipulate history' through five different time zones. Tom said: 'Professor Potts is cast adrift in time, and his every decision can have vast implications – for instance, failure to safeguard a species of clever little mammals will mean that the human race never comes to evolve. 'The game certainly wowed the reviewers of the time, with Sinclair User noting that Time Machine was an absorbing and innovative game. 'It also highlighted its excellent mono graphics.' The game cost £9.99 on release. Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge was a highly playable racing game. There was even a two-player head-to-head mode to race against a friend. Tom said: 'It was a big hit on later systems so Spectrum owners may well have been surprised by how well the game translated to their computer. 'Gremlin Graphics were long-time veterans of the Speccy. 'The third-person perspective works well with smooth gameplay throughout. 'The racing retains the excitement of the game's more powerful versions.' Crash magazine said it was 'one of the best two-player car simulations around.' This puzzle game was heavily hyped by publisher US Gold. Tom said the game played 'like an inspired cross between Thrust and Asteroids'. He said: 'The player has control of a spaceship which must nudge spheres – each of them containing a shape – into each other with force and momentum. 'If the spheres contain identical shapes, they will disappear on impact, but if the shapes are different then smaller spheres will be produced which must also be dealt with. 'It may sound simple, but in execution it could be maddeningly difficult to master.' Crash magazine described E-Motion as 'frustratingly addictive'. And now for something completely different… Were you a fan of Monty Python's Flying Circus? Tom said: 'One of the most surprising game licenses of 1990 was an adaptation of the surreal 1960s sketch show that immortalised the dead parrot. 'Published by Virgin Software, the game was based on Terry Gilliam's bizarre animations – only now repurposed as a sideways-scrolling shoot 'em up.' Reviewers were as impressed as they were mystified. Sinclair User commented: 'There's enough gameplay to keep you engrossed even if you don't know what the hell's going on.' The Spectrum tape included a free Mr Gumby badge. Gremlin Graphics' famous mascot Monty Mole was back in 1990. This was the sixth title in the series. Monty was given a Hollywood-style makeover in this superhero-inspired platformer. He was faced with five different alien environments to tackle. The hapless mole had been called upon to save an alien planet from disaster. Hidden rooms were craftily positioned on each level. Sinclair User said: 'It offers a stiff challenge, full of colourful graphics.' Super Off-Road went down well with gamers at the time of its release. The game was published by Virgin Games. It was endorsed by professional off-road racer Ivan Stewart. Tom said: 'The arcade original had been a brightly-coloured affair. 'Meanwhile, the Spectrum version was monochromatic, making it occasionally difficult for players to keep track of their car. 'That said, the game was never less than fast-moving or addictive.' Your Sinclair agreed. They said it was 'the best super sprint-type game ever seen on the Speccy'. The Last Ninja series had a huge fan following on the 8-bit systems. Tom said System 3 Software produced something special with this Remix edition which was an updated version of Last Ninja 2 from 1988. He said: 'Using an isometric view, the player can employ ninja fighting skills against enemies, improvising weapons and gathering useful items as they go. 'With brilliant stylised backdrops and an atmospheric playing environment, this was a real treat to explore.' Crash said the game was a clever arcade adventure with appealing graphics. Rainbow Islands was a classic platform game. Players could fire rainbows that had multiple uses: to act as weapons, create makeshift platforms, or collect items to increase their score. Tom said: 'Arguably one of the most perfect arcade conversions ever released, Rainbow Islands first hit the coin-ops in 1987. 'Ocean Software brought it to the Speccy in 1990. 'The Spectrum version retained the large, colourful sprites of the original, along with flawless scrolling and excellent in-game music. 'The expansive multi-level worlds also carried over from the arcade version.' The game won several awards from the trade press at the time. 'Rainbow Islands was the kind of game that saved the best for last,' Tom said. 'It showed that the revered Speccy still had life left in it even at this late stage, which is why – even all these years down the line – retro gamers are still enjoying these titles.'
CNBC
05-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
CNBC Excerpts: Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman Speaks with CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin on 'Squawk Box' Today
WHEN: Today, Monday, May 5, 2025 WHERE: CNBC's "Squawk Box" Following are excerpts from the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman on CNBC's "Squawk Box" (M-F, 6AM-9AM ET) today, Monday, May 5. Following are links to video on and All references must be sourced to CNBC. ACKMAN ON BUFFETT BILL ACKMAN: Buffett's been my, you know, one of my most important heroes, certainly in business and I would say in life. ACKMAN ON HOWARD HUGHES ACKMAN: What we do is we own all the land. We sell lots to homebuilders. Homebuilders build homes, people move in. And then the company over time builds the amenities, builds the community. I call it a bit like SimCity, but in real life. And eventually we build high rise office buildings and, you know, apartment buildings. And it's a great business, but it consumes a lot of capital because you have to keep building the cities. Now, the cities, at a certain point in time get to a level of maturity where they start actually throwing off cash. And that's really where we are with Howard Hughes today. ACKMAN: Howard Hughes as a real estate company today is not going to throw off a lot of cash to your point, but five years from now, ten years from now, it's going to produce more cash that it can generate. ACKMAN: Howard Hughes today couldn't afford to hire the 40 odd Pershing Square team members, the eight investment team members. So we're going to bring all the resources of Pershing Square to Howard Hughes, and we're going to charge a 15, we're going to get paid a $15 million fee, and we're going to get paid a incremental fee to the extent that the market cap of Howard Hughes grows at a rate in excess of inflation, we're going to get a 1.5% fee on the increase in market cap, basically above today's market cap. Let me finish for a second. And only if the market cap on a per share basis. So if we issue a bunch of stock to make an acquisition that doesn't increase our fees, it actually reduces the fees as a percentage. ACKMAN ON LIKELIHOOD OF BUILDING INSURANCE COMPANY ACKMAN: I think it's more likely that we will build an insurance company. In fact, we have a person that is a phenomenal executive in the industry that we're just beginning a conversation with that's intrigued by what we're doing. And I like the idea of building from scratch because you don't assume a bunch of other people's kind of liabilities. And I think, you know, he's a super talented executive and hopefully we can make a deal with him. But that would be a kind of more intrigued with the idea of building something from a blank sheet of paper. ACKMAN ON BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY ACKMAN: Greg Abel is known to be a superb operator and a very good allocator of capital, certainly in the businesses that he's managed. I think it's yet to be proven that the current management team has the, you know, capability that Buffett has had to obviously buy businesses and it's more challenging now because of the scale. So I don't I think for sure the businesses will be run arguably, you know, potentially even better than they've been run historically because now a great real operator focused on that running the company. ACKMAN: I think they're going to start returning capital. ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: You do? I think the form of dividends. ACKMAN: I think they'll, yeah dividends. I think they will be a little bit more aggressive about buying back stock. I don't see Berkshire waking up in six months and Berkshire announcing $100 billion acquisition. I think the new CEO will be and the new board, not the new board, the current new CEO and the current board will be a little bit more careful on the first deals because if Berkshire's first deal turns out not to be a good one, you know, I think that the market will kind of frown upon that. But I think the business will do very well. ACKMAN: I wouldn't bet against Berkshire. ACKMAN ON INFLATION ACKMAN: I think inflation is largely been wrung out of the economy. Right. Price of eggs. I think the price of energy is coming down and it's going to stay down. And I think, you know, obviously very, very good for the economy. ACKMAN ON TARIFFS & THE FED ACKMAN: I think tariffs if they were they ultimately get resolved will increase the cost of some by a percent of some products. But it's not like inflation that will compound. It's more like a one-time reset. And then we'll we won't have meaningful inflation from there. And I think that's a backdrop in which the Federal Reserve toward the end of the year, could start. It could have a few kind of rate cuts. ACKMAN: I think a small cut relatively soon I think makes sense because I think what's happened is, you know, we've we've Q1's benefited by some frontloading of purchases and inventive tariffs. The uncertainty associated with, you know, Liberation Day, so to speak, is caused many businesses to pause and wait to see what's going to happen. And that's going to be reflected in Q2. And so I think you could, you know, there's definitely a deceleration in economy and, you know, now. Absolutely. So the question I think what's important is the tariffs get resolved in the relative short term because I do believe if we're still dealing with the tariff thing is still major headlines. ACKMAN ON CHINA ACKMAN: The right thing to do, in my view, is we pause on China. Let's give it a little more time. Maybe it's 180 days because we got we're going to be busy here. What that does is it stabilizes the risk to the US economy and small businesses around the country. But China is now highly incentivized to make a deal. Why? Because because of the shock of 145% of the potential for high tariffs against China, every company that's producing in China and selling to the US is moving their supply chains elsewhere. ACKMAN ON HARVARD ACKMAN: Harvard became, over time, a political advocacy organization for one party. When a university goes from being a university to a, you know, affecting, you know, becoming a political advocacy organization, it's not it doesn't deserve nonprofit status. I mean, and they have to Harvard should be a place where students go to learn and the best research gets done. It shouldn't be a place that is allowing pro-terrorist organizations on campus that only allows certain kinds of thinking and speech on campus. That's that's a political advocacy organization. It's not a university. So I don't think we're going to end up there where Harvard loses its tax-exempt status. I want Harvard to succeed. You know, it's been very important to me over time, but really, it got itself to a very bad place. And Alan Garber is a good president, but he's not managing. You know, the mismanagement here is Penny Pritzker. If this were any other kind of corporation, the notion that she's still chairman of Harvard, leading the charge here and in terms of how Harvard managed everything from COVID, I know we have to go, but it's an important topic to the endowment management, to waste, to free speech, to who they hired as president of the university. It's time for a change in leadership in the board at Harvard.
Otago Daily Times
22-04-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Letters to the Editor: Lundy, South D and dairy
Today's Letters to the Editor from readers cover topics including the release of Mark Lundy, the future of South Dunedin and the price of dairy. Lundy parole may be but verdict still flawed Mark Lundy has been granted parole two years after he became eligible. The second guilty verdict was based on forensic evidence that expert witness Prof Stephen Bustin, professor of molecular science at a London University critiqued as ''novel, invalid, no better than pseudoscience''. This test was to prove whether the speck of central nervous tissue found on Lundy's shirt was of human origin or could have originated from eating a chop or sausage. Four immunochemical tests were undertaken and each was performed three times. Seven out of 12 were positive and the cutoff was set arbitrarily at 50%. If this test was consistent and reliable, why wasn't the aggregate of positive tests a number divisible by three? Lundy's second guilty verdict was just as flawed as his first, and was appropriately delivered on April Fool's day. Ian Breeze Broad Bay Loving it With all the images on social media over recent days showing earthmoving machinery in action at Wanaka. I take it that they are preparing the site for the long-awaited McDonald's restaurant? John Noble Mosgiel Sim city So now the council wants us to play Sim City according to their seven possible futures for South Dunedin mail-out. If you missed out on this '90s computer game, players had to manage various aspects of city life, including zoning, infrastructure and citizen needs, all the while trying to keep the city thriving and prevent disasters. One has to wonder what we are paying them to do when they want us to tell them how to play the game! Lynne Newell Dunedin Better quote perhaps? Given this Easter's weather, perhaps the quote of the day from Sir Geoffrey Palmer (ODT, 21.4.25) ought to have been 'New Zealand is an irredeemably pluvial country'. Alan Roddick Waverley Huge and wild The English poet A E Housman wrote: The Grizzly Bear is huge and wild; He has devoured the infant child. The infant child is not aware He has been eaten by the bear. When is America going to wake up? Russell Thew St Leonards Cheese and milk prices should be decreasing With the cost of living being so prominent I want to ask if we are being ripped off? Globally, as reported in Trading Economics, which tracks commodity sales, for the 2025 period to March, milk and cheese prices have decreased globally by between 7-9%. While at the same time these items increased in price to the local consumer by 9%. If our price is tied to global prices, as New Zealand producers claim, why has the New Zealand price increased, when globally it decreased? Are we being ripped off? Kevin O'Hara Dunedin Self-congratulations Since the decisive parliamentary vote to defeat the Treaty Principles Bill, I have observed with interest the self-congratulatory outpourings from those who opposed the Bill. If the parliamentary vote was indeed a true reflection of the wider public's attitude to the issues raised via the Bill, I wonder why the Bill's opponents were so determined that it should not be put to a public referendum. John Bell St Clair Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cleveland Clinic to build hospital in West Palm Beach, and 'Pee-Wee's Playhouse' meets luxe mansion in Boca Raton
Welcome to The Dirt! I'm real estate, weather and critter reporter Kimberly Miller with the latest developments in the sizzling market. I'm starting to get the distinct impression that we are all living in SimCity and billionaire Stephen Ross is the game master building up a metropolis around us like the machines in the Matrix. Or maybe it's Forge of Empires? Or just a full blown, all out "Game of Thrones" scenario and West Palm Beach is Kings Landing. Ooh. Can I be Daenarys?!? Just kidding. I could never eat a horse heart. 🤢 Moving on. Ross orchestrated the deal to have Cleveland Clinic open a hospital in West Palm Beach, and signed a purchase agreement — with cameras present of course — to sell land along Australian Avenue for the medical campus. Stay up to date on South Florida's sizzling real estate market and sign up for The Dirt weekly newsletter, delivered every Tuesday! Exclusively for Palm Beach Post subscribers. In other real estate news last week, another Jimmy Buffett house sold, a fun estate that is a mix of "Pee-Wee's Playhouse," Mount Olympus and high-end luxury mansion is for sale in Boca Raton, and (stop me if you've heard this already) Stephen Ross did something. Also, and this is kind of real estate related because there's a python hot spot in Palm Beach County and you don't want to buy anything near a python hot spot, do you? You might think the designer of 1201 Marble Way, has, in all actuality, lost her marbles, but you'd be (mostly) wrong. Angela Nalbantu, who owns the 12,700 square-foot estate in Boca Raton, is just really into mythology, and the four elements, and folklore, and dragons, and Archangels, and peacocks, and painting, and making pottery, and sewing. I mean, who isn't? Right? Alas, with most of her children grown and out of the house, she and her husband are looking to downsize from the 12-bedroom waterfront home with three pools, including one shaped like a fish. Some home décor and furniture may be negotiable. The second of three Jimmy Buffett homes on the Bohemian-style (as Bohemian as you're going to get in Palm Beach) Root Trail sold for $4.795 million this month. Buffett, who died in 2023, may have personified the margarita-loving beach bum surfing pirate persona, but he was also an astute businessman. He was named a billionaire by before his death. There's just one Buffett cottage left on Root Trail if you're interested, and it's listed at a just-reduced priced of $4.775 million. That's down from the original list price of $6.125 million. File this under "Stephen Ross did something, again" news, which is ample these days. This time it's the opening of the One Flagler office tower in West Palm Beach, a 25-story stunner at the base of the Royal Park bridge. It is 95% leased, has a fitness center, and is home to the acclaimed restaurant Estiatorio Milos, which is open to the public. So, wait, that's how many buildings now for Ross in West Palm Beach? And do we count CityPlace as a single building or multiple? Either way, I think Ross is winning the SimCity tournament of champions. Game over. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Bye, Felicia. Live lightly. Kimberly Miller is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate, weather, and the environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@ Help support our local journalism, subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Cleveland Clinic comes to West Palm Beach and another Jimmy Buffett home sells
The Onion
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Onion
‘The Sims' Turns 25
The Sims , which has sold nearly 200 million copies, celebrates its 25th anniversary this February. In honor of the video game franchise, The Onion looks back at its key milestones. 1977: Will Wright gets a great idea for a video game while watching a family burn to death in their home. 1989: SimCity , the game's city-building precursor, debuts as a popular alternative to constructing a large metropolis in real life. 2000: Mom doesn't get it. 2003: Console debut introduces The Sims to gamers not allowed to play Grand Theft Auto. 2011: The U.N. condemns Iran after evidence emerges proving they are developing their own version of The Sims . 2015: Night of sleep lost creating a family that looks kind of like the Ninja Turtles. 2020: Yearning for pandemic escapism, millions turn to The Sims to recall what it's like to walk in circles in a different-looking house. 2023: The Sims 4 reaches over 70 million active losers. 2025: New patch removes pesky 'sentience' bug.
