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Front cover design by Emily Gratton Meet us at Job Centre Plus in Wisbech on Mondays Or at WWW. VolunteerCentreFenland.org.uk Email : [email protected] Registered charity no. 803237 Registered address: 148 Elm High Road. Wisbech. PE14 0DW Tel : 01945 582 192 Homeless in Wisbech Seen here is Connor Yorke being offered a volunteering opportunity with Keith Smith, the director of the Ferry Project and two other volunteers, who have been helped and supported by the project. Last year Connor wrote, “I was brought up in the East End of London. When I was fifteen I left to move to Huntingdon with my previous partner, and her mother. Sian had our baby four months after I moved up. After a row with Sian’s mum I moved out and for a while I was homeless in Huntington, living in sheds, tents, wherever I could really ……... After five months I decided I needed to sort myself out, as it was unfair to my daughter……………” “……………. To begin with I was wandering around doing nothing in Huntingdon. Then I met a friend on a bus and came with him to Wisbech. I couldn’t find anywhere to stay so I stayed in a tent for three months on the rugby field, and got into a real mess. I was offered the night shelter in Wisbech ……….. ” “…………… With the Ferry Project Project I’ve gained a lot of voluntary experience and am beginning to get my life together, and I am free of drugs and have been for five months.” Well done to the Ferry Project, staff and volunteers who make it all possible. The Phantom of Wisbech Gaming: Games Anyone? The electronic systems used to play Notice: I’m not a big gamer, but i’m video games are known as into historical factoids and I platforms; examples of these are understand what makes them so personal computers and video game enduring. Most of my play time Consoles. These platforms range comes from the Nintendo Wii and I from large main frame computers to had a DS, but I couldn’t complete small handheld computing devices. the levels on some games without Consoles (Playstation, Xbox) and some supervision. But I’m kind of games on laptops and smartphones into technology, so sure, why not? I like Candy Crush. My mother plays grew up playing Wii games, when it all the time at home in the living my mum and dad were away, I and room. It’s as highly addictive as the my sister would play Tennis on Wii sweets on screen. Sports, we would have the whole family around sometimes and my favourite game to play was boxing, Setup: there were various selective sports modes but the freedom of punching The input for various games varies your opponent KO was feasibly fun from console to console. Like for to me. example, the Nintendo Switch. You can either play it like a PSP, or if you At the end of the day, they’re still want slide the controller and very fun. cartridges into the joystick and play Games like Disney Infinity or the it like a classic games system on Lego games or Sandbox games like your TV. Or use the cartridges like a Minecraft might be up there for me Wii remote by freely and Infinity and Lego have moving them while holding them in introduced me to hardcore your hands. concepts about the films and characters you can play with. I hope one day Travellers Tales (the people responsible) make Terminator and Rambo titles. I prefer games with a considerable amount of freedom. I plan on making new friends over playing games on my Nintendo Switch when I buy more. History: puzzles and game mechanics. In Pac-man’s case, finding your way through a maze while avoiding The history of video games dates villainous (otherwise called bosses) back to as far as the early 1950’s, spirits while eating dots and a which academic computer scientists couple of power-ups. Back in the began designing simple games day, they would loop the same level and simulations as part of their over and over again while increasing research. Video gaming did not the difficulty on each. In Space reach mainstream popularity until Invaders, the idea is shooting aliens the late 1970’s and early 80’s. who have come to take over earth Around this time, computer games while avoiding their attacks, it’s started appearing in warehouses pretty simple by today’s standards, known as arcades. They were but without Space Invaders, we almost the precursor to hardware might’ve not have the way paved computers like Macintosh or for Call of Duty or other FPS (first- Microsoft. They involved inserting person shooters) 20 years later. coins into a machine, a bit like a self-checkout at a supermarket. In They were described as 8-bit, which the US, the main price was 25 cents. means the graphics were animated On screen, you would get the title as art like the Mona Lisa rather than of the game followed by the factory CGI like a film with computer maker copyrighted out of sight at generated animation like Toy Story. the bottom. Like for instance, a The animation would evolve circled c followed by a company like throughout the years. Atari or Nintendo. The titles would always have fancy stylized fonts. One of the earliest games put on the market was Space War, created by Steve Russell, a computer scientist, the D-list Bill Gates if you like. He attended Dartmouth College, a privately furbished college in New Hampshire, America from 1954 to 1958. Space War was expanded and given new modes by the college community and was eventually made public to the education community. Famous games like Pac-man and Space Invaders involved simple The game featured two spaceships, called ‘the needle’ and ‘the wedge’, basically the avatar and the boss Revenues peaked at around $3.2 with a big fight. billion in the US around 1983, a drop of almost 90%. The crash Infamous Circumstances: shook the then really successful industry, and led to the bankruptcy During the 1970’s, home gaming of several companies, including a emerged, including the iconic Pong. company called Cinematronics When people think of computer which created the game Dragon’s games, this might be one of the first Lair made by animator Don Bluth, ones coming to mind. Others tried the man behind childhood cashing in on Pong’s popularity at animations like An American Tail the time. and The Land Before Time. Consoles like the Atari kick-started the golden era of gaming in general. Later that year, chartered remains and burials of E.T, among other During the early 1980’s, an games that weren’t financially hot, unfortunate event called the video were found within a scrapheap. game crash of 83 happened. This incident primarily happened because of market saturation of copies of a poorly made tie-in game based on Steven Spielberg’s film, E.T: The Extra Terrestrial, considered one of the worst games ever made. Legacy and (darker) enough to receive films released in cinemas. Impact: They’re not always successful, the Mario movie starring Bob Hoskins Today, as of 2016, an average age of messed up the material in the eyes a person who plays a video game is of fans and turned the tables by 35. A number slowly increasing as making the villain of the series, people who were children playing Bowser into a human with a craving the first arcade, console and home for weird pizza toppings over computer systems have passed such kidnapping princesses. experience on to their own children. Games will always have a Some juveniles (8-12 year olds), reputation for being something teenagers (13 – 19) and adolescents exceptional to the eyes of the (20-25) of today have then gone on people that grew up playing them. to make gaming a way of life. From the 1970’s through to even the early 1990’s, video game playing The gender ratio of gamers is also was seen as a sub-culture hobby changing. According to research activity and even as a substitute to from 2011, 71% of people aged six physical sports like football or to forty-nine played games. Some tennis. If this had continued, video game characters have gone Wimbledon would’ve ended its run on to become icons in their own at the time. right, even becoming the face of the company like Mario for Nintendo As games became more realistic, and Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega. issues of questionable content arose. According to 200 academic Both characters and worlds come studies from the American together every three or four years Psychological Association, video to produce games for various games have caused more harm than Nintendo owned consoles good and could be causing children promoting the Olympics like the to become more aggressive to Winter or London 2012. figures in Authority. Games like Mario and Luigi have gone on to become mainstream James Crowson In the last decade diagnosed adulthood causing long term physical and mental health problems.. Households are busier problems to young people caused making it harder for people to calm by lack of sleep has gone up from down. According to experts in sleep 1500 to 8000, according to the NHS deprivation, children in particular figures. These issues are known to are not having sufficient time to have a disastrous effect on social wind down from all the activities skills and education.