title: Agartala

text: From 2004 the Agartala Municipal Council has been further extended, taking 16 villages of Dukli R. D. Block, seven villages of Mohanpur R. D. Block and two villages of Jirania R. D. Block with area of 43 km and population in addition to the 16 km and population of in the 2001 census.


title: Agartala

text: The city is managed by the Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC), which divides the city into 49 municipal wards under four zones: North, South, East and Central zones. Each ward has an elected ward representative or municipal councillor. For postal administration the city is divided into postal zones. The complete list of municipal wards and their locations by municipal zones are shown in the table below.


title: Agartala

text: On 1 November 1956, Tripura became a Union Territory and an Advisory Committee was formed to advise the Chief Commissioner. On 15 August 1957, a Territorial Council was formed with 30 elected members and two members nominated by the government of India. On 1 July 1963, the Tripura Territorial Council was dissolved and a Legislative Assembly with the existing members of the Territorial Council was formed. Tripura is governed through a parliamentary system of representative democracy, a feature it shares with other Indian states. Universal suffrage is granted to residents. The Tripura government has three branches: executive, legislature and judiciary. The Tripura Legislative Assembly consists of elected members and special office bearers that are elected by the members. Assembly meetings are presided over by the speaker, or by the deputy speaker in the case of the speaker's absence. The Assembly is unicameral with 60 members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA).


title: Agartala

text: Agartala assembly constituency is part of Tripura West. Political clashes between the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Indian National Congress have always been common.


title: Agartala

text: After the independence of India in 1947 Tripura was still a princely state. After the death of the last king Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur on 17 May 1947, a Regency Council was formed headed by Maharani Kanchan Prava Devi, for aid of the minor Prince, Kirit Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur. The regent signed the merger agreement with the government of India. After the merger Tripura became a Part 'C' state. On reorganisation of the states, effected in November 1956, Tripura became a Union Territory with an Advisory Committee to aid and advise the chief commissioner. Tripura gained its statehood on 21 January 1972 before that but merging with India in 1949 the first chief minister of the state was on 1 July 1963, Sachindra Lal Singh of the Indian National Congress, he was the CM of the state for around 3,046 days. From 5 January 1978 the rule of the Congress came to an end as Nripen Chakraborty became the first communist chief minister of Tripura. Later again the communists fell and the INC rose and was in power till 1992, from 1993 again CPI (M) came to power. Manik Sarkar was the CM of the state from 11 March 1998 to March 2018. In 2018 Tripura Legislative Assembly election BJP 36 out of 59 seats, defeating CPI(M) in the process. BJP's Biplab Kumar Deb was sworn in as the chief minister of Tripura.


title: Agartala

text: Agartala is administered by several government agencies. The Agartala Municipal Corporation, or AMC, oversees and manages the civic infrastructure of the city which together encompass 49 wards. Each ward elects a councillor to the AMC. Each borough has a committee of councillors, each of whom is elected to represent a ward. By means of the borough committees, the corporation undertakes urban planning and maintains roads, government-aided schools, hospitals, and municipal markets.


title: Agartala

text: Most of the population is employed in the state and central government, and other government owned enterprises.


title: Agartala

text: The consumption patterns of the residents of Agartala have evolved considerably since the expansion of the city and the corresponding rise in population; previously, major consumption took place once a year, during Durga puja, while during the rest of the year consumption took place largely only for special occasions.


title: Agartala

text: Like in other Indian states, there is mixed religion in Agartala. Hinduism is the dominant religion and there are many temples across the city. The whole city is nestled with tents catering to a variety of themes. Christianity is a widespread faith as well, with Christmas being a very busy time of the year. Agartala is also known for its tribal festivals like Kharchi, and Garia Puja.


title: Agartala

text: Agartala is connected to other cities in India by air via Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport. There are direct flight connections to Kolkata, Imphal, Guwahati, Bangalore and New Delhi. As per AAI report, Agartala airport is the third international airport in northeast India. The airport was built in 1942 by Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Debbarma Bahadur who was the ruler of Tripura State until 1947, and used to be called "Singerbhil Airport"; the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation renamed the airport in 2018. During World War II, US 4th Combat Cargo Group flew Curtiss C-46 from the airport to fly supplies over Burma.


title: Agartala

text: The major airlines are Air India, IndiGo. The airport is under construction to make it an international airport.


title: Agartala

text: Plans passed to upgrade the airport building with a new terminal under construction and better facilities and modern equipment along with more apron, expansion of runways, better CAT and navigation system.


title: Agartala

text: National Highway 8 connects Agartala to Assam and the rest of India by road, also known as the lifeline of Tripura. The highways (NH44, NH 44A) connect Agartala with Silchar (317 km), Guwahati (599 km), Shillong (499 km), Dharmanagar (200 km) and Aizawl (443 km). A bus service connects it to Dhaka (150 km).


title: Agartala

text: Agartala is well connected by road to other parts of Tripura state. National Highway 44 has been extended to the south, thus improving the road connectivity between Agartala and south Tripura. Buses, Jeeps, Trekkers and SUVs are the most common public carriers, and cars and vans are usually used for private hire.


title: Agartala

text: The highway passes through hilly terrains, while travelling from the city towards the North one can experience the lavishing and lush green Baramura Hill Range, Atharamura Hills and the Longtharai Hills and while moving towards the South Debatamura Hills can be seen.


title: Agartala

text: The main mode of public transportation within the city consists of a network of cycle rickshaws, auto rickshaws and buses. To ease traffic congestion a 2.26 km long flyover is constructed.


title: Agartala

text: Since 2008, Agartala has been connected to other cities in India by the Agartala Railway Station situated at Dukli. The foundation stone for the 119-km Kumarghat-Agartala railway project was laid in 1996 by former prime minister H. D. Deve Gowda.


title: Agartala

text: Agartala is the second capital city (after Guwahati, Assam) in the northeast which is connected to the country's railway network. The railway station is located approximately 5.5 km (2.96 nautical miles) from the heart of the city and a lot of modes of transportation are available to reach the city from the station.


title: Agartala

text: Broad-gauge conversion work in the Lumding-Silchar segment was completed in March 2015. Gauge conversion work up to Agartala was completed by the end of March 2016, and railway traffic between Agartala and Silchar began. During the laying of rail lines from Kumarghat to Agartala, provisions were kept for swiftly converting it to broad gauge. Presently, local trains from Agartala to Dharmanagar and Silchar are functional. Work on express trains connecting Agartala to Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati and Dibrugarh has started. Local railway traffic between Agartala to Sabroom has become functional.


title: Agartala

text: A rail link between Agartala and Akhaura in Bangladesh was approved by the government of India in September 2011. IRCON is constructing this 15 km long track that will directly connect northeast India to Chittagong international sea port. The TripuraSundari Express and Rajdhani Express are two Super Fast weekly trains connecting Agartala to Anand Vihar Terminal, Delhi. Other trains like Deoghar express (weekly), Kanchanjungha Express to Sealdah runs four days a week, Agartala-Habibganj weekly special train and Bengaluru bound Bi-weekly Humsafar Express connects the city to the states of Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.


title: Agartala

text: Doordarshan (DD) has a television station in Agartala. Akash Tripura is one of the first television channels in Agartala. It is a full-time Agartala-based news channel. Other full-time based channels are PB 24, Headlines Tripura, Akash Tripura, News Vanguard and Focus Tripura etc.


title: Agartala

text: There are other cable channels such as Hallabol, Sristi Tripura, Sristi Music, Sristi Bangla, Sristi Cinema, CITI, News All India, and Tripura Pratidin, which are not 24 hours channels and are run by Siti and Sristi Cable networks.


title: Agartala

text: There are also KokBorok channels like KokTripura, KhumpuiTV and ChiniKhorangTV Which are currently in service.


title: Agartala

text: Tripura University is Agartala's central university, located in a 10 km range from the city of Agartala. Other universities include the ICFAI University, which was established in 2004 and is ranked 2nd in the Engineering Colleges of India. The Maharaja Bir Bikram University is known as the only state university within Tripura. The Sikkim Manipal University has been ranked 13th in India's best medical universities by India Today as well as being in the top 10 emerging colleges of India.


title: Agartala

text: There are currently 15 general colleges within Argatala including the Bir Bikram Memorial College, the Ramthakur College and the Women's College, Agartala which was established in 1965 and is the only existing college for women within the capital city.


title: Agartala

text: Colleges with a specific academic focus within Argatala include the Tripura Government Law College which provides a five year Bachelor of Law Degree for its students. Argatala is also home to numerous technical colleges including the National Institute of Technology, Agartala and the Tripura Institute of Technology.


title: Agartala

text: The prominent primary and secondary schools of Agartala include the St Paul's School, Agartala which has an aim to teach students who are apart of the Christian Faith. A similar school, the Holy Cross School, was established by the Congregation of Holy Cross. Other prominent schools include the Shishu Bihar H.S. School and the Netaji Subhash Vidyaniketan.


title: Agartala

text: Tripura is an important state in the northeast India with regard to sports. Cricket is the most important sport in the state. Football also has an important role.


title: Agartala

text: Agartala has a large base of football followers. UK mini stadium is an important venue for this game. Tripura Football Association organises a football league known as Agartala League every year to popularise the sport in the state.


title: Agartala

text: Tripura has a state team which plays under the auspices of the Tripura Cricket Association in the Eastern division of the Ranji Trophy championship, the national first-class cricket competition of India. The most important cricket grounds are Maharaja Bir Bikram College Stadium and Polytechnic Institute Ground, Narsingarh. Some other notable grounds are Astabal ground and the Pragati School cricket ground. Tripura Cricket Association organises cricket tournaments at the U-13, U-15, U-17 and U-19 levels where clubs affiliated to Tripura Cricket Association compete against each other.


The United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK) was the official ruling body of the Southern half of the Korean Peninsula from 8 September 1945 to 15 August 1948.


title: United States Army Military Government in Korea

text: The country during this period was plagued with political and economic chaos, which arose from a variety of causes. The after-effects of the Japanese occupation were still being felt in the occupation zone, as well as in the Soviet zone in the North. Popular discontent stemmed from the U.S. Military Government's support of the Japanese colonial government; then once removed, keeping the former Japanese governors on as advisors; by ignoring, censoring and forcibly disbanding the functional and popular People's Republic of Korea (PRK); and finally by supporting United Nations elections that divided the country.


text: In addition, the U.S. military was largely unprepared for the challenge of administering the country, arriving with no knowledge of the language or political situation. Thus, many of their policies had unintended destabilizing effects. Waves of refugees from North Korea (estimated at 400,000) and returnees from abroad caused further turmoil.


text: The short-lived People's Republic of Korea had been established in August, in consultation with Japanese authorities, and rapidly exerted control throughout the country. The U.S. Military Government outlawed it in the South shortly after their arrival. The leader of the People's Republic, Yeo Un-hyeong, stepped down and formed the People's Party of Korea. The U.S. administration also refused to recognize the members of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, led by Kim Ku, who were obliged to enter the country as private citizens.


text: After the surrender of the Empire of Japan to the Allies, the division at the 38th parallel marked the beginning of Soviet and American command over North Korea and South Korea, respectively. From 1945 to 1948 the overall responsibility of southern Korea was given to General Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers due to the vague orders and lack of guidance from both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Department of State regarding Korea. Washington, D.C. decided to give MacArthur a free hand to deal with Korea however he wished. He ordered the XXIV Corps under Lt. General John R. Hodge to not only accept the surrender of Japanese forces but also to set up a military occupation of Korea. U.S. forces landed at Incheon on 8 September 1945, and established a military government shortly thereafter. The forces landing at Incheon were of the XXIV Corps of the U.S. Tenth Army. Four days before he arrived in Korea, Hodge told his officers that Korea "was an enemy of the United States".


text: On 9 September, at a surrender ceremony, Hodge announced that the Japanese colonial government would remain intact, including its personnel and its governor-general. After a major outcry, Hodge replaced the governor-general with an American and removed all the Japanese bureau chiefs, though he, in turn, enlisted the former Japanese bureaucrats as advisors.


text: Faced with mounting popular discontent, in October 1945 Hodge established the Korean Advisory Council. The majority of the Council seats were given to members of the Korean Democratic Party which had been formed at the encouragement of the U.S. and was primarily made up of large landowners, wealthy businesspeople, and former officials in the colonial government. A few members of the PRK were offered to join, but they refused and instead criticized the Council appointees for their collaboration with the Japanese.


text: A proposal was made in 1945 for a long-term trusteeship arrangement. In December 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to administer the country under the U.S.–Soviet Joint Commission, as termed by the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers. It was agreed that Korea would govern independently after four years of international oversight. However, both the United States and the USSR approved Korean-led governments in their respective halves, each of which was favorable to the occupying power's political ideology. From a number of perspectives, it may be argued that not all Koreans necessarily favoured these arrangements. In the south the interim legislature and the interim government were headed by Kim Kyu-shik and Syngman Rhee, respectively, and the elections for which were met with a large uprising.


text: The USAMGIK banned strikes on 8 December and outlawed the people's committees on 12 December 1945. However, in September 1946 the Communist Party of Korea initiated a General Strike. This started among railway workers in Busan but it spread to other industries by 24 September and more than a quarter of a million workers joined in the strike. The USAMG organised military operations to oppose the strikers and also encouraged right-wing anti-communist groups. On 1 October a strike protest in Daegu was fired on by police and a worker was killed. Demonstrations in the following days developed into the 'Autumn Uprising'. The U.S. administration responded by declaring martial law, firing into crowds of demonstrators and killing a publicly unknown number of people.


text: The Jeju Uprising started during the U.S. occupation period in April 1948 when left wing radicals killed 30 South Korean police officers. This uprising happened after a South Korean communist named Pak Hon-yong (who collaborated with Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang) called on left wing and communist groups south of the 38th parallel to oppose the 1948 Korean elections by whatever means necessary, and called for a general strike to begin on 7 February. At this point, there were at least 60,000 members of the communist Workers' Party of South Korea on Jeju, and at least 80,000 active supporters. These members and supporters not only went on strike but in some cases attacked government installations and engaged with police forces in open conflict. These engagements between SKLP guerrillas against rightist groups and police continued through March 1948. Violence escalated dramatically following South Korea's independence in August 1948. President Syngman Rhee's government largely suppressed the uprising by May 1949. The conflict in Jeju saw atrocities by both sides and caused the deaths of 14,000 to 30,000 people.


text: Among the earliest edicts promulgated by USAMGIK was one reopening all schools, issued in November 1945. No immediate changes were made in the educational system, which was simply carried over from the Japanese colonial period. In this area, as in others, the military government sought to maintain the forms of the Japanese occupation system.


text: Although it did not implement sweeping educational reforms, the military government did lay the foundations for reforms which were implemented early in the First Republic. In 1946, a council of about 100 Korean educators was convened to map out the future path of Korean education.


text: Although the military government was hostile to leftism from the beginning, it did initially tolerate the activities of left-wing political groups, including the Korean Communist Party. They had attempted to strike a balance between hard-left and hard-right groups, encouraging moderation. However, these overtures frequently had the adverse effect of angering powerful leaders such as Syngman Rhee.


text: This period of reconciliation did not last long. Within a short time, the military government actively disempowered and eventually banned popular organizations that were gaining support within the general public, including the People's Republic of Korea. The justification given by the USAMGIK was its suspicion that they were aligned with the communist bloc, despite professing a relatively moderate stance compared to the actual Korean Communist Party, which had also been banned at this time.


text: A good symbol of how the U.S. military occupation of southern Korea went overall was when Hodge and the USAMGIK created the South Korean Interim Legislative Assembly in December 1946. This assembly was supposed to formulate draft laws to be used as "the basis for political, economic, and social reforms." However, the left-wing political faction, consolidated under the South Korean Workers Party, ignored the assembly and refused to participate. The conservative faction's Korea Democratic Party, supported by landlords and small-business owners, also opposed the assembly because their main leaders were excluded from it by the USAMGIK. The problem was that even though many of the 45-member assembly were conservatives most of the members were nominated by the moderate Kim Kyu-sik, who was the Vice President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (this was the mostly moderate institution created in 1919 during the Japanese-occupied Korea era with the ultimate goal of delivering independence to Korea in the form of a republic) and was Hodge's choice to lead a future independent South Korea. Unfortunately, Kim was not charismatic and could not inspire either the left wing or the right wing to support him.


text: At the time of division, the overwhelming majority of Korean industry was concentrated in the North, while most of the agricultural land was in the South. Power lines and shipping connections were maintained during this period, but were frequently and unpredictably cut off. The North, controlled during this period by the Soviet Union, had the ability to wreak havoc in the South by cutting off the supply of electricity or fertilizer, and frequently did so.


text: The economy of South Korea did not fare well during this period, although the foundations of recovery were laid. A 1947 assessment by the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee found that the U.S. had mismanaged the Korean economy and failed to enact needed land and labor reforms. The report concluded, "Thus far the U.S. has done little more than hold its own in South Korea. The operation to date has been improvised from day to day to prevent complete collapse, and has left almost untouched the most basic problems." Counterfeiting was reportedly a serious problem during this period.


text: Following the constitutional assembly and presidential elections held in May and July 1948 respectively, its first government officially proclaimed the existence of the Republic of Korea on 15 August 1948. American troops finally withdrew in 1949.


title: Sodium percarbonate

text: Sodium percarbonate is a chemical substance with formula . It is an adduct of sodium carbonate ("soda ash" or "washing soda") and hydrogen peroxide (that is, a perhydrate) whose formula is more properly written as 2  · 3 . It is a colorless, crystalline, hygroscopic and water-soluble solid. It is sometimes abbreviated as SPC. It contains 32.5% by weight of hydrogen peroxide.


title: Sodium percarbonate

text: Sodium percarbonate was first prepared in 1899 by Russian chemist Sebastian Moiseevich Tanatar (7 October 1849 – 30 November 1917).


title: Sodium percarbonate

text: At room temperature, solid sodium percarbonate has the orthorhombic crystal structure, with the "Cmca" crystallographic space group. The structure changes to "Pbca" as the crystals are cooled below about −30 °C.


title: Sodium percarbonate

text: Dissolved in water, sodium percarbonate yields a mixture of hydrogen peroxide (which eventually decomposes to water and oxygen), sodium cations , and carbonate .


title: Sodium percarbonate

text: Sodium percarbonate is produced industrially by crystallization of a solution of sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide, with proper control of the pH and concentrations. This is also a convenient laboratory method.


title: Sodium percarbonate

text: Alternatively, dry sodium carbonate may be treated directly with concentrated hydrogen peroxide solution.


title: Sodium percarbonate

text: It may also be formed from a process starting from sodium peroxide; when absolute ethyl alcohol reacts with sodium peroxide at 0°C, a perhydroxide is produced.


title: Sodium percarbonate

text: As an oxidizing agent, sodium percarbonate is an ingredient in a number of home and laundry cleaning products, including non-chlorine bleach products such as Oxyper, OxiClean, Tide laundry detergent, and Vanish.


title: Sodium percarbonate

text: Many commercial products mix a percentage of sodium percarbonate with sodium carbonate. The average "Oxy" product in the supermarket contains 35–40% sodium percarbonate with about 5% active oxygen when titrated.


title: Sodium percarbonate

text: Sodium percarbonate can be used in organic synthesis as a convenient source of anhydrous HO, in particular in solvents that cannot dissolve the carbonate but can leach the HO out of it. A method for generating trifluoroperacetic acid "in situ" for use in Baeyer–Villiger oxidations from sodium percarbonate and trifluoroacetic anhydride has been reported; it provides a convenient and cheap approach to this reagent without the need to obtain highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide.


title: Perry Mason (TV film series)

text: A series of 30 Perry Mason television films aired on NBC from 1985 to 1995 as sequels to the CBS TV series "Perry Mason". After a hiatus of nearly 20 years, Raymond Burr reprised his role as Los Angeles defense attorney Mason in 26 of the television films. Following Burr's death in 1993, Paul Sorvino and Hal Holbrook starred in the remaining four television films that aired from 1993 to 1995, with Sorvino playing lawyer Anthony Caruso in the first of these and Holbrook playing "Wild Bill" McKenzie in the last three.


title: Perry Mason (TV film series)

text: The original "Perry Mason" television series was broadcast on CBS television from 1957 to 1966. Raymond Burr starred as Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer Perry Mason, a character created by American author and attorney Erle Stanley Gardner. Television producer Dean Hargrove resurrected the Perry Mason character in a series of television films for NBC beginning in 1985.


title: Perry Mason (TV film series)

text: Dean Hargrove was able to bring back the two then-surviving major stars, Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale, reprising their roles as Mason and his private secretary Della Street. In the first telefilm, "Perry Mason Returns", Mason resigns his position as an appellate court judge to defend Street on a murder charge. William Katt, Hale's own son, was cast as private investigator Paul Drake, Jr., the son of original series’ private investigator Paul Drake. William Hopper, who played Drake, had died in 1970; his photograph appears on Paul Drake Jr.'s desk. Katt appeared in the first nine movies before being dropped from the series.


title: Perry Mason (TV film series)

text: In the later TV movies, Mason utilizes the services of Ken Malansky (William R. Moses), an attorney who works with him as a private investigator. Malansky's character is introduced in "The Case of the Lethal Lesson" (1989), as a law student who is defended by Mason on a murder charge.


title: Perry Mason (TV film series)

text: Among the actors to appear in major recurring roles were David Ogden Stiers as District Attorney Michael Reston (1986–1988), James McEachin as police Sergeant (later Lieutenant) Ed Brock (1986–1995), and Alexandra Paul as Ken Malansky's girlfriend Amy Hastings (1989).


title: Perry Mason (TV film series)

text: Budgeted at $3 million, "Perry Mason Returns" was filmed in Toronto, standing in for Los Angeles to save production costs. Because of lower production costs, many of the later TV movies were filmed and set in Denver, Colorado rather than Mason's traditional locale of Los Angeles. Although located in Colorado, a courtroom wall shown at the end of the opening title sequence bears a Seal of Los Angeles County, California plaque.


title: Perry Mason (TV film series)

text: Fred Steiner's theme music was re-recorded by composer Dick DeBenedictis; Steiner himself arranged the theme at DeBenedictis's request.


title: Perry Mason (TV film series)

text: A total of 30 movies were made between 1985 and 1995, with Burr starring in 26. After Burr died in 1993, Paul Sorvino and Hal Holbrook starred in the final four telefilms from 1993 to 1995. These four films were presented as "A Perry Mason Mystery", with Sorvino starring as Anthony Caruso in the first film and Holbrook starring as Bill "Wild Bill" McKenzie in the remaining three. Their characters are introduced as both lawyers and close friends of Mason, who is ostensibly out of town. Both Barbara Hale and William R. Moses reprised their roles for all four films, although in the final film in 1995, Hale contributed only a small cameo with Holland Taylor substituting for her.


title: Perry Mason (TV film series)

text: Hale said that continuing the series was suggested by Burr. "Raymond was so concerned that the crew keep working - we'd been with the same crew for six years. He felt we must keep going as long as the audience was as kind to us as they are. It's the show that will keep going, but not the character. I do think it's a sweet memorial."


title: Perry Mason (TV film series)

text: "Perry Mason Returns", the first television film in the series, was the second-highest-rated TV movie in American television during the 1985–86 season.


title: Perry Mason (TV film series)

text: All 30 Perry Mason television films are available on Region 1 DVD. They were released in five six-film sets that were initially available exclusively through Amazon.com. On June 7, 2016, the first four movie collections were given general retail release.


title: Bill Lancaster

text: William Henry Lancaster (November 17, 1947 – January 4, 1997) was an American screenwriter and actor.


title: Bill Lancaster

text: He was born November 17, 1947, in Los Angeles, California, the son of Burt Lancaster (1913–1994) and Norma Anderson (1917–1988). He contracted polio at an early age, leaving one leg shorter than the other.


title: Bill Lancaster

text: Lancaster, a look-alike for his famous father at the time, guest-starred in an episode of the television series "The Big Valley" in 1967. In 1973, Lancaster played the role of "King", the boyfriend of a murdered college coed in "The Midnight Man", a mystery film starring and co-directed by his father, released in 1974.


title: Bill Lancaster

text: Lancaster's best-known work is his adapted screenplay for John Carpenter's "The Thing". He also penned the original screenplays for "The Bad News Bears" films.


title: Bill Lancaster

text: In 1982, he worked on a first-draft script of an adaptation of Stephen King's novel "Firestarter" for Carpenter to direct. Months later of the same year, Carpenter hired Bill Phillips to work on a rewrite of Lancaster's draft. When "The Thing" did not match the studio's financial expectations, Universal replaced Carpenter with Mark L. Lester and both drafts were scrapped in favor of Stanley Mann's draft.


title: Bill Lancaster

text: Lancaster is featured in the documentary "", found on the collector's edition DVD of "The Thing". Lancaster states that he did not think "Who Goes There?" was a "great" story, but that he responded to the tale's sense of claustrophobia and paranoia. The documentary is dedicated to him.


title: Bill Lancaster

text: Lancaster was married to Kippie Kovacs, daughter of the comedian Ernie Kovacs. They had one child, daughter Keigh Kristin.


title: Bill Lancaster

text: Lancaster died of a heart attack at the age of 49. His ashes were buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, where his father's ashes are also interred. The ashes of his daughter Keigh, who died in 2017 at age 51, were buried with her father's in the same plot.


title: Julianna Guill

text: Julianna Guill (born 1987) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Bree in the 2009 film "Friday the 13th", Madison Penrose in "My Super Psycho Sweet 16", Scarlet Hauksson in the web series "My Alibi", Becca Riley in Bravo's "Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce", and Jessie Nevin on FOX's "The Resident", as well as Christie on the TBS series "Glory Daze". She currently stars on the Paramount+ series "Joe Pickett".


title: Julianna Guill

text: Guill is one of three children who all grew up singing and acting. She was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to parents Ann and Earl Guill. She began tap, ballet and jazz dance at an early age, and continued singing in the choir while at R.J. Reynolds High School, from which she graduated in 2005. She performed in local theater productions, and attended New York University before moving to Los Angeles.


title: Julianna Guill

text: Guill has made numerous guest appearances in television series such as "One Tree Hill", "", "90210", "How I Met Your Mother", "Criminal Minds" and "". In 2009, she appeared in the starring role of Katy in the direct-to-DVD film "", which is a sequel to the 2000 comedy film "Road Trip".


title: Julianna Guill

text: Guill appeared in the horror film "Friday the 13th", a 2009 remake of the original film. The same year, Guill played sweet 16 girl Madison Penrose in MTV's slasher horror television film, "My Super Psycho Sweet 16", which premiered on October 22, 2009. She briefly reprised the character in "", which premiered in October 2010. The following week saw the premiere of the horror film "Altitude", with Guill in a starring role.


title: Julianna Guill

text: In 2010 Guill was cast in a starring role the TBS comedy series "Glory Daze". The same year she starred the web series "Sweety" for the web site Sweety High, after starring in the web series "My Alibi" the previous year.


title: Julianna Guill

text: Guill appeared in the Steve Carell comedy "Crazy, Stupid, Love", and in the 2012 horror film "The Apparition", from Dark Castle Entertainment. She guest starred in the NBC comedy "Community" as Head Cheerleader in "A Fistful of Paintballs". Guill is friends with "Community" star Alison Brie, with whom she co-starred in "My Alibi"; along with fellow "My Alibi" co-star Cyrina Fiallo, they perform together as a singing group The Girls. Between 2014 and 2017, she played Becca Riley in the Bravo television series "Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce" starring Lisa Edelstein.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Phantasmagoria is a point-and-click adventure horror video game designed by Roberta Williams for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows and released by Sierra On-Line on August 24, 1995. It tells the story of Adrienne Delaney (Victoria Morsell), a writer who moves into a remote mansion and finds herself terrorized by supernatural forces. It was made at the peak of popularity for interactive movie games and features live-action actors and footage, both during cinematic scenes and within the three-dimensionally rendered environments of the game itself. It was noted for its violence and sexual content.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Williams had long planned to design a horror game, but she waited eight years for software technology to improve before doing so. More than 200 people were involved in making "Phantasmagoria", which was based on Williams' 550-page script, about four times the length of an average Hollywood screenplay. It took more than two years to develop and four months to film. The game was originally budgeted for $800,000, but it ultimately cost $4.5 million to develop and was filmed in a $1.5 million studio that Sierra built specifically for the game.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: The game was directed by Peter Maris and features a cast of twenty-five actors, all performing in front of a blue screen. Most games at the time featured 80 to 100 backgrounds, while "Phantasmagoria" includes more than 1,000. A professional Hollywood special effects house worked on the game, and the musical score includes a neo-Gregorian chant performed by a 135-voice choir. Sierra stressed that it was intended for adult audiences, and the company willingly submitted it to a ratings system and included a password-protected censoring option within the game to tone down the graphic content.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: "Phantasmagoria" was released on seven discs after multiple delays, but it was a financial success, grossing $12 million in its opening weekend and becoming one of the bestselling games of 1995. Sierra strongly promoted the game. It received mixed reviews, earning praise for its graphics and suspenseful tone while being criticized for its slow pacing and easy puzzles. The game also drew controversy, particularly due to a rape scene. CompUSA and other retailers declined to carry it, religious organizations and politicians condemned it, and it was refused classification altogether in Australia. The sequel "" was released in 1996, although Williams was not involved.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: "Phantasmagoria" is a point-and-click adventure game that features live-action actors and cinematic footage, both during scenes between the gameplay and within the three-dimensionally rendered environments of the game itself. The game was made when interactive movie games were at the peak of their popularity, with the release of such popular computer games as "Wing Commander III" and "Under a Killing Moon". In this single-player game, the player controls protagonist Adrienne Delaney, who is always on the screen. The player can click certain areas of the screen to control her movements or make her explore specific places and objects. The camera angles and rooms change depending on where the player moves Adrienne. The game includes only four mouse commands: look (which changes to "talk to" when selecting a person), pick up item, use item, and walk. The mouse cursor is always an arrow, unlike in most earlier Sierra On-Line games, in which the cursor could be changed to represent different functions (like walk, hand, and eye) by right-clicking. The cursor turns red when it passes over an area where the user can click to perform an action. Once the action has been completed, the cursor will not turn red again. Objects in the game can be picked up by clicking on them or interacting with them in a film sequence, after which the item automatically goes into the inventory. If an object is small enough that it can be easily missed, a pulsing glow occasionally surrounds it to draw attention to it.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: The user interface is a screen surrounded by a stone border, with buttons and eight inventory slots along the bottom. Adrienne can only hold eight items at once, and each black slot can contain an image of an item that the user can click on to retrieve or use within the game. In the middle of the inventory slots is a "P" button that brings up an options screen, allowing the player to save or restore games, change the game screen to full- or half-size, control the volume, or switch between a censored version of the game and uncensored one, with more graphic content. A chapter gauge on this screen conveys how much progress remains in a given chapter. A fast-forward button, located above the options button, allows the user to skip past cinematic scenes. On the left side of the interface is a red skull button, which the user can click to receive hints. On the right side is a red button with a picture of a closed eye, which displays any inventory item that the user drags to the button. The display shows a close-up image that can be turned in multiple directions.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Game designer Roberta Williams, co-founder of Sierra On-Line, deliberately made the "Phantasmagoria" gameplay and interface simple, unobtrusive, and intuitive so it would be more accessible and less frustrating for casual gamers. According to Arinn Dembo from "Computer Gaming World", the game is focused more around the story and the frightening atmosphere, rather than on a difficult gaming experience, and therefore the puzzles are relatively easy, logical, and straightforward.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Successful mystery novelist Adrienne Delaney (Victoria Morsell) and her photographer husband Don Gordon (David Homb) along with her pet cat Spaz have just purchased a remote mansion off the coast of a small New England island previously owned by a famous 19th-century magician, Zoltan "Carno" Carnovasch (Robert Miano), whose five wives all died mysteriously. Adrienne hopes to find an inspiration for her next novel in her new home, but starts having nightmares immediately upon moving in. She is comforted by the loving and supportive Don. Adrienne explores the estate, making mysterious discoveries like strange music, warnings written on her computer, and ominous messages from a fortune-teller automaton. Unbeknownst to the happy couple, Carno had practiced black magic when he lived in the mansion and had summoned an evil demon that possessed him and caused him to murder his wives.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: During her exploration of the grounds, Adrienne finds a secret chapel hidden behind a bricked off fireplace. After opening a locked box atop an altar, Adrienne unknowingly releases the demon that possessed Carno, which possesses Don. Don starts acting menacingly toward Adrienne and drinking heavily, culminating in him raping her later on. Adrienne meets Harriet Hockaday (V. Joy Lee), a superstitious vagrant, and her strong but dim-witted son, Cyrus (Steven W. Bailey), who are secretly living in a barn on the estate. After Adrienne agrees to let them stay, they volunteer to help around the mansion, though Don disapproves. When a technician named Mike (Carl Neimic) visits the mansion to install the phone-line, Don screams at him in a jealous rage, warning him to stay away from his wife. Spaz also goes missing. Adrienne later discovers Spaz's collar where Don had been sitting by the fireplace earlier.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: While the local townspeople believe all Carno's wives died of natural causes or accidentally, Adrienne learns through a series of visions that he murdered them in grotesque ways. Hortencia (Christine Armond), who avoided Zoltan's abuse by secluding herself in her greenhouse, is stabbed with gardening tools and suffocated with mulch. Victoria (Holley Chant), an alcoholic, is killed when Zoltan impales her eye with a wine bottle during an argument. An overly talkative third wife, Leonora (Dana Moody), has her mouth gagged and her neck contorted in a torture device. Finally, the food-loving Regina (Wanda Smith) is force-fed animal entrails through a funnel until she chokes to death. Harriet performs a séance for Adrienne, in which she vomits a green ectoplasm that takes the form of Carno. A repentant Carno tells her that he was possessed by the demon when he tried to learn black magic to use in his performances. He reveals that the previously trapped demon must be stopped and only she can contain it once again. Adrienne is later horrified to discover Spaz's dead body in the garden.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Adrienne visits the nearly 110-year-old Malcolm Wyrmshadow (Douglas Seale), who had been Carno's apprentice as a young boy. Malcolm reveals that Carno met his demise after his last wife, Marie (Traci Clauson), who was tired of being abused by him, discovered he was a murderer. Marie conspired with her lover, Gaston (Jeff Rector), Carno's prop master, to kill Carno by sabotaging the equipment for his most dangerous escapology trick "The Throne Of Terror", in which Carno donned a burning hood and escaped from bonds on a throne underneath a swinging axe. The sabotage left Carno horribly burned and disfigured and he was assumed dead, but he astonishingly survived and mutilated Marie and Gaston. After killing Marie by beheading her, Carno was impaled by Gaston, who then succumbed to his own wounds. Malcolm reveals that it was he who had originally sealed the demon in the estate's chapel. Malcolm also tells Adrienne about a ritual that can eradicate the demon. Later that night, Mike leaves the mansion, finally having completed installing the phone-line. Unbeknownst to Adrienne, Don murders Mike with an axe.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Harriet, fearing for her safety, decides to leave with Cyrus as Don becomes more abusive and erratic. The next day Adrienne discovers she cannot leave the mansion and later finds a collection of photos of her in Don's darkroom which have her head cut off. She is confronted by Don, who is now completely insane and dressed like Carno. Adrienne scars Don's face with acid from his darkroom when he tries to kill her and flees, discovering the corpses of Mike, Harriet and Cyrus hidden throughout the mansion. Don captures Adrienne and straps her into the throne, but she distracts him long enough to free herself and trigger the swinging axe, which impales and kills Don. His death unleashes the demon, which pursues Adrienne through the mansion. She escapes long enough to perform a ritual that traps the demon once again. The game ends with Adrienne walking out of the mansion with a vacant stare, almost catatonic.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: "Phantasmagoria" was a radically different game for Williams, who was best known for designing the family-friendly "King's Quest" fantasy adventure game series. Williams said she did not want to get typecast in a particular genre, adding: "I felt I had more to offer than fairy stories. I wanted to explore games with a lot of substance and deep emotions." Although "Phantasmagoria" was her first horror game, Williams had created murder and crime stories in her earlier mystery games, "Mystery House" and the "Laura Bow" series. Williams was a fan of the horror genre, although she did not watch many horror films as a child after a traumatic experience watching "Horrors of the Black Museum" (1959) at age four. She began watching them again as a teen, and particularly enjoyed such films as "Halloween" (1978), and movies based on Stephen King novels, like "Carrie" and "The Shining" (1980). Williams cited the works of King and Edgar Allan Poe as the inspirations behind "Phantasmagoria".


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Williams had wanted to make a horror game for eight years prior to "Phantasmagoria", and had started to design one on several occasions, but none came to fruition. She felt the computer game industry and software technology had not yet reached the point where an effective and frightening computer game could be made. As a result, she decided to wait until CD-ROMs were faster and could handle real actors, which she believed was crucial for a horror game because she felt the player had to be able to empathize with the character to fear for them. Williams had been considering several horror story ideas for years before making the game. In one, the heroine answers a magician's advertisement for an assistant and gets the job, but the magician turns out to be insane. Another was set in the past, with the female protagonist getting involved in the supernatural life of a magician character. That idea evolved into a woman being married to a man who is drawn to a bizarre house that previously belonged to illusionists and is haunted by ghosts. The final story as it appears in the game has a contemporary setting, but combines elements from modern fiction, 19th century literature, and classic horror films of the 1950s.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: "Phantasmagoria" was the first Sierra On-Line game script to be written like a film screenplay. During the writing stage, Williams was under pressure to ensure "Phantasmagoria" was a commercial success for Sierra. She also faced concerns from her husband Ken Williams, the company president and co-founder of Sierra, who wanted the company to focus more on lower-cost, combat-oriented animated games, and was also concerned about the level of violence in "Phantasmagoria". Williams said she knew the rape scene in particular would be controversial, but she felt it was essential to the plot because it was a turning point that made Adrienne realize something was deeply wrong with Don. She felt the rest of the story "would make no sense" without the scene, but also knew there was a chance it would be cut from the game before production ended.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: The script numbered roughly 550 pages when completed, about four times the size of an average Hollywood screenplay. It also included another 100 pages of storyboards representing a total of 800 scenes. In preparation for writing it, Williams spent six months watching horror films and reading horror novels, as well as reading books about how to write horror novels and screenplays. She also asked people she knew socially to tell her scary stories so she could identify the elements of fear. She immersed herself so deeply into the genre that she began having nightmares and had to scale back her reading. She also spent about six months researching historical aspects of the story before the writing process. Williams had a history of using female protagonists in her games, like the Laura Bow series and some of the "King's Quest" games. She said her own personality was a partial inspiration for the protagonist Adrienne, although it was not purposeful: "I think it just kind of naturally worked out that way."


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Andy Hoyos, the game's art director and a horror aficionado, participated in brainstorming sessions and discussions with Williams during the writing stage. He conceived the ideas for most of the death scenes and tried to make each one different and original with what he called "fresh approaches to murder." Williams wanted to include more scenes with Adrienne and Don as a happy, normal couple, so that Don's transformation to evil would have greater impact. She proved unable to do so while also maintaining the correct pacing for the gameplay. Williams wrote "Phantasmagoria" with the mass market in mind, targeting casual players as well as die-hard computer game fans. To that end, she wrote the game in short chapters to break it into smaller, easier-to-play sections. Her targeted demographic for the game was ages 16 and older. She chose the title "Phantasmagoria" after reading the word in a reference book about the history of magic and magicians. The term refers to a 17th-century theatrical horror show in which "spirits of the dead" were revealed in a darkened theater by the use of a modified magic lantern.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Andy Hoyos was the art director for "Phantasmagoria", and Kim White, Brandee Prugh and Brian Judy were among the computer artists. It was the first computer game Prugh worked on. Mark Hood, a veteran Sierra programmer, and Mark Seibert served as "Phantasmagoria" project managers. Seibert called managing the project "much more of a technical and managerial problem-solving job than I ever envisioned." Unlike previous Sierra games, it also involved managing a great deal of outside resources, such as keeping the studio and outside art contractors on schedule. The game's three-dimensional graphics were among the first rendered on Silicon Graphics software. In creating the look of the game, Hoyos drew particular inspiration from the films of Tim Burton, and he particularly tried to emulate the lighting, sets and "imaginative edge" of "Batman" (1989). Other influences included the films "Alien" (1979) and "Hellraiser" (1987). "Phantasmagoria" was designed using the 3-D software package Alias. Hoyos started by designing the rooms, then created the furniture, and added textures and lighting. Once complete, the computer rendered final images of each room, which became the backgrounds for the game. While most computer games at the time had between 80 and 100 background pictures, "Phantasmagoria" had more than 1,000.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: The game developers realized early during development that the game could not be completed entirely in-house due to the large scope of the project, and required working with Hollywood agencies, actors and special effects houses, among others. This added further complexity to the game's development and design. Gerald B. Wolfe, the game's director of photography, spoke to the artists about how to set up the camera angles during filming to best accommodate the design of the rooms. Mannequins created in the computer substituted as stand-ins for the actors to help Wolfe position the shots. Most of the artists had never created computer-generated backgrounds for video-captured characters, and found it to be a challenging process. Seibert said bridging the gap between Hollywood and the software world was difficult at first, but after about four weeks of shooting, the two sides had "come to a common language and had a greater understanding of the process." Hoyos said the biggest difficulty in designing the look of the game was creating a definitive scale for the environment, and ensuring the objects and environment would eventually be compatible with human characters and maintain realism.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Once the filming was completed, more than 20 two-hour Beta SP video tapes of footage had to be edited down to fit the actions of the game. The programming included editing the original video footage, and mixing the rendered images of doors, drawers, chairs and other objects into the footage frame-by-frame, which was necessary for more than 100 scenes. The game required more polishing and fine-tuning than most games of its time due to the many video components, and the programmers had to determine the desired frame rate, data transfer rate and desired resolution of the video elements. Another challenge for the game was CD resource management. Since many of the scenes in the game could be repeated in multiple chapters, some pieces of the code were written onto several different CDs to reduce the number of times the player had to swap discs in the middle of a chapter, an unusual practice for computer games at the time. The final game was on seven discs, a large number for a computer game, and more than the four or five discs originally expected.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Twenty-five professional actors were cast in "Phantasmagoria". Roberta Williams watched the audition tapes of all the roles, and was involved with Mark Seibert in picking the actors. The only actor that Siebert chose without Williams' input was Victoria Morsell as the protagonist, Adrienne Delaney. Williams had watched other audition tapes for the part and was not happy with any of the choices. While she was on vacation, Seibert watched Morsell's audition and immediately selected her for the part. Williams was initially concerned that she was not involved in the decision, but later came to agree that Morsell was the correct choice. Morsell mostly had television experience, but had also previously worked in film and theater roles. She had to work 10 to 12 hours a day, six days a week, for three months to capture all her character's actions and movements. David Homb portrayed Adrienne's husband, Don Gordon. Morsell and Homb started dating in real life after filming. Robert Miano was cast as the villain Zoltan "Carno" Carnovasch. He had previously appeared in several films by "Phantasmagoria" director Peter Maris.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: The comic relief roles of Harriet and Cyrus were played by V. Joy Lee and Steven W. Bailey, respectively. Lee had mostly done theater work in the Atlanta and Seattle areas, along with appearing in some industrial films and an episode of "Northern Exposure". Bailey had been an actor in Seattle for about three years, doing mostly stage work, as well as some commercials, television episodes, independent films, and industrial films for the United States Navy. Malcolm was portrayed by veteran actor Douglas Seale. Stella Stevens played the antiques store owner Lou Ann, Geoff Pryser played Bob the realtor, and Carl Neimic played phone technician Mike. Traci Clauson portrayed Marie, Carno's fifth and final wife.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: "Phantasmagoria" was Sierra's first game to use live actors integrated with computer-generated backgrounds. About 600 scenes were filmed for the game. The total filming took about four months, 12 hours a day, shooting six days a week. More than 200 people were ultimately involved in the making of the game. A total of $800,000 was originally budgeted for "Phantasmagoria", but it ended up costing $4.5 million. The budget issues caused some friction between Roberta and Ken Williams. It was the first game made in a new filming studio built by Sierra in Oakhurst, California, the same location as Sierra's headquarters. It cost $1.5 million to build and was overseen by studio manager Bill Crow, who said, ""Phantasmagoria" essentially started with the design and creation of the studio." Sierra also developed computerized tools specifically to manage the shooting process, including software to digitize the video into the computer. Some of the software was built as the game was being made and as the need for new tools was being identified.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Sierra wanted the game to have Hollywood-quality film sequences, so they sought a director with experience in the film industry. They hired Peter Maris, whose previous experience was mainly of action and drama films, although some of his earlier films were graphic horror movies. Maris and Roberta Williams collaborated a great deal from the beginning of the process, with Maris explaining what he wanted in each scene from a filmmaker's perspective, and Williams explaining her desires from a game designer's perspective. Maris set up the camera angles and worked with the actors, using three motion-controlled cameras during the shooting. All filming was done entirely in front of a blue screen, and the digitized information was later loaded into the Silicon Graphics computers, which synchronized the relative motion of computer-generated, three-dimensional background art. Next, the live action and the backgrounds were composited using advanced techniques controlled by Petro Vlahos's UltiMatte system. The computer imaging components made "Phantasmagoria" a very different experience for Maris than his usual film industry work. Crow served as a production coordinator during filming, helping facilitate what happened on stage. He also directed the scenes that involved stunts or other special effects that required the coordination of animated sequences with live action. Cindy Jordan worked as the makeup artist.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Due to the nature of filming for a computer game, certain short performances had to be filmed over and over separately, like Adrienne simply crossing a room. Many of the actors, including Morsell, Lee and Bailey, had never done any blue screen acting before, and Miano had only done it once. Morsell in particular said she found it challenging because it was so physically constrictive. Such items as tables, chairs, doors or stairs that the actors appear to interact with are in fact constructed objects painted blue to match the blue screen, and were occasionally challenging for the actors to work with. During one scene, David Homb accidentally stood in such a way that his arm appeared to be going through the living room wall.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Morsell found it challenging to film a scene near the end of the game, in which Adrienne is pleading with Don while getting strapped into the chair with a guillotine overhead. Several different versions of the scene had to be filmed, and Morsell said it was difficult for her to work up the genuine emotion she needed take after take. The torture devices featured in the game were scale models made by local craftsmen. During one scene, the mansion roof starts to collapse, causing beams and chunks of debris to fall around the actors. To achieve this, the crew built lightweight beams out of hollow cardboard, which had to fall in the correct sequence. In another scene, Adrienne crawls along a water pipe that breaks. To film the scene without damaging equipment, the crew built a giant plastic box with a plastic tray underneath for the shoot. Three hoses ran through the pipe so water would spray in multiple directions.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: The chase scene at the end of the game, in which Don pursues Adrienne throughout the entire mansion, took a full week to film. Homb wore a prosthesis on his face to simulate wounds from Adrienne pouring acid on him. Only one prosthesis was available, and it was in such bad shape by the end of filming that Williams said "we were essentially holding it in place with the proverbial wire and bailing wax." Several scenes in "Phantasmagoria" involved animals, including a Doberman Pinscher, two cats, a beagle and several rats. Sierra commissioned Dave Macmillan and other Hollywood animal handlers from the company Worldwide Movie Animals to handle the animals. Two cats were required to portray Adrienne's pet Spaz because the cats were temperamental and each would have moments when they would not perform. Some objects were borrowed by a museum operated by the Fresno Flats Historical Society and used as props in the game. The society was thanked in the credits as a result. Ultimately, all of the scenes filmed for "Phantasmagoria" were used in the final game. Some were edited for length and pacing, but none were cut altogether.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Despite a storyline running over a course of seven days, Adrienne wears the same wardrobe throughout the entire game: an orange shirt and black pants. Williams said this is because many of Adrienne's actions throughout the game can be repeated by the player over and over, making it difficult to change her wardrobe without it becoming "a nightmare of shooting." The only solutions she saw were to allow less decision-making by the player, or to keep the flexibility intact but not allow any costume changes. Williams said she decided the latter option was ultimately better for the game. An orange shirt was chosen for the character because it was the best color to shoot against the blue screen. None of the characters wear blue, purple, gray or any shade of green similar to the blue screen for that same reason.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: For "Phantasmagoria"'s special effects, Sierra sought the professional effects house The Character Shop, headed by senior creature maker Rick Lazzarini. The core special effects team for the game consisted of Lazzarini, Michael Esbin and Bill Zahn. Lazzarini said making "Phantasmagoria" was a much faster and more cooperative process than in the film industry. Due to the tight filming schedule, most effects had to be done in one shot with no cuts, so there was less margin for error. They created the effects for all the death scenes in the game, which included creating assorted body prostheses, burn makeup and what Lazzarini called "gallons of fake blood," which was made of sugar, water and dye.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Adrienne's head is split open by a swinging pendulum blade in one death scene, an effect that took several hours to set up. A fake head was created from a model cast of actress Victoria Morsell's head, with pumps installed to pump fake blood into it, and strings attached to either side so it could be pulled apart. The crew only had one head model, so they had to keep putting it back together and reusing it over and over for each take. After filming was completed, the crew put the head back together and took a picture of Morsell with it.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: One scene involved a burning head, which was created by taking a cast of the actor's face, head and body with a plaster, then placing soft rubber over the cast to simulate human flesh. It was also treated so it did not release black smoke like a rubber tire when it burned. For burn effects placed on the body after the fire, the crew made a sculpture of the wounds, then mounted them onto rubber appliances, which were glued to the actor. For Harriet's death scene, in which she is scalped and her brain is visible, makeup artist Cindy Jordan put a cap over actress V. Joy Lee's head and covered it with mortician's wax to make it look bumpy. Another special effect involved a spirit that appears in the form of ectoplasm during a séance. It was created from cellulose, water and green food coloring. It proved difficult to make, and several attempts were made before the right consistency was achieved. To create the appearance of it coming out of actress V. Joy Lee's mouth, an eight-foot long hose was attached to the side of her face. Project manager Mark Seibert had to suck the fake ectoplasm through the hose to get it in, then during filming he spit it out. It took several shots before the take was successful, and it looked so funny during filming that the crew kept laughing during takes.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Sierra composers Mark Seibert and Jay User created the musical score for "Phantasmagoria", with Neal Grandstaf providing additional music. Most of the music is a mixture of real instruments with synthesized and sampled sounds, and unlike previous Sierra games, the score was recorded live, rather than created in the computer. Themes for the music ranged from rock and roll to opera. The composers observed the game and various scenes to prepare their score, trying to create an ambiance and identify spots to build the tension with music, creating stingers as needed. For cinematic scenes, they watched tapes after the scenes were shot and composed the music afterward. This was a new process for Sierra and the computer game industry in general, but the same concept was regularly followed in the film industry.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: The opening theme of the game features a neo-Gregorian chant, which was performed in studio by a 135-voice choir. Much of the underscore music that plays when the player is exploring the game, rather than during cinematic scenes, is based upon that opening scene. The composers made use of silence in many scenes, to build up tension for moments of a "pounce" effect, creating the effect with music that something is catching the listener. They deliberately saved the most intense music for the final chapter of "Phantasmagoria", when the game becomes the most intense. During some chase scenes, drums and low strings are used in the score to simulate a heartbeat, which grows louder and louder during more dangerous moments.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: "Phantasmagoria" took more than two years to develop. Sierra officials said this was because it was so different from anything that had been done previously, in both the Hollywood or computer game industries, and the new challenges led to complexities. Roberta Williams said: "It took a full year just to get people to understand what I wanted to do." The game experienced multiple delays before it was ultimately released. It was originally planned that the game would be in stores by late 1993 or early 1994, with Sierra saying it would come out no later than the fall of 1994. The game was previewed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago in June 1994, where it was announced the release date had been pushed back to October 1994 and that the game would be made available on two discs. The game ultimately required seven discs. The shipping date was later changed again to Christmas 1994, and then February 1995, before Sierra said it would be delayed yet again as the company continued to refine the technology of live-action video. It was announced the game would be ready in June 1995, but when Sierra organized road shows that month to market 18 of its new games, "Phantasmagoria" was not among them because it was not ready yet.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: The date was changed once more to August 3, before it was finally released in stores on August 24, 1995, the same day as the Microsoft's operating system Windows 95 version. "Phantasmagoria" came out first for Windows 95, Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS, then for Macintosh computers in November 1995. A hint book by Sierra came out at the same time as the game. "Phantasmagoria" was also ported to Sega Saturn and spanned eight discs exclusively in Japan, where it was fully translated and dubbed into Japanese, and released by Outrigger under the name "Phantasm". In response to all the delays, Vince Broady, executive editor of the monthly publication "Multimedia World", said Sierra may have been attempting to avoid the same mistakes from the previous year with "Outpost", for which the company released many advertisements and reviews, but then over-promoted and released before it was finished. Sierra spokeswoman Kathy Gillmore admitted that mistakes were made in marketing "Outpost" and Sierra had tried to fix them. The minimum system requirements were an IBM compatible 486–25, 8 megabytes of RAM, 5 megabytes hard disk space, SVGA (256 colors) and a 2x CD-ROM. It supported Sound Blaster-compatible sound cards, and for MS-DOS the game worked with a megahertz chip. It sold for as much as $80 in some stores, but was typically sold for $69.95.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: "Phantasmagoria" was heavily advertised by Sierra in advance of its release, and the company touted it as its biggest game to date. It was Sierra's first computer game targeted to an adult audience. There was no legislated rating system for computer games in the United States in place, although one was being debated before the U.S. Senate at the time. Sierra was among several major software companies that voluntarily supported the ratings system designed by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, which rated games so adults could make decisions about software purchases. The game was given an "M" rating for "mature" audiences, meaning intended for audiences 17 or older. As a result, it carried a content warning on the box that said "contains adult subject matter." The game box prominently displayed this rating, as well as a warning on the back panel that the game contains adult subject matter inappropriate for children. It also encouraged parents to review the material before providing it to children and asked retailers not to sell it to minors. "Phantasmagoria" also received mature ratings in Germany and the United Kingdom.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: The game itself includes a filter that players can activate with a password so that violent or sexually explicit content is censored. When the filter is in place, the screen blurs during the most violent sections, so the player can hear the action but cannot see it. Sierra officials believed it was the first CD-ROM adventure game that self-censored upon command. Sierra producer Mark Seibert said: "There are some pretty gruesome things, and we're concerned about how that is going to impact parents who want to buy a good game with a good story line." But Gene Emery of "The Providence Journal" said the censoring option was "unlikely to stop any computer-literate 10-year-old" and by scrambling portions of the videos that might be considered offensive, "the censorship option actually makes the explicit scenes seem even worse than they really are."


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: In October 1997, the first chapter of "Phantasmagoria" was included in the Roberta Williams Anthology, a limited-edition collection of 15 games created by Williams over 18 years. "Phantasmagoria" was made available for digital download on the website GOG.com starting in February 2010 for $9.99.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: "Phantasmagoria" quickly became the bestselling game in the United States, and was Sierra's bestselling computer game to date. It grossed $12,000,000 and sold 300,000 units during its first week-end of release, debuting at number four in "PC Data"s August 1995 list of top-selling computer games for MS-DOS and Windows. It followed "", "Microsoft Flight Simulator" and "Myst". By September, it had reached number one on the list among computer games and ranked third among all computer software, following Windows 95 and Microsoft Plus! "InterAction", a magazine published by Sierra On-Line, wrote that no other Sierra game topped game charts as quickly as "Phantasmagoria" did. By the end of December, it remained at number three among overall software, and number one among computer games, and by January it was estimated as many as 500,000 copies had been sold. According to Sierra On-Line, its global sales surpassed 600,000 units by March 1996.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: "Phantasmagoria" finished 1995 as the ninth bestselling game of the year according to an analysis by "PC Data" of sales by 42 retail chains. In January 1996, "Phantasmagoria" was the fourth-best seller among MS-DOS and Windows games, behind "Microsoft Flight Simulator", "Myst" and "Command & Conquer", and it was number six among all computer software. By February 10 it was number five among MS-DOS and Windows games, and by February 24 it was number 10. It received a boost in June 1996, possibly due to the pending release of its sequel "", and jumped back up to seventh among bestselling computer software programs according to "Computer Life" magazine. One year after "Phantasmagoria" was released, it still remained in the bestseller charts, and more than one million copies were ultimately sold, making it Sierra's first game to reach that milestone. NPD Techworld, which tracked sales in the United States, reported 301,138 units sold of "Phantasmagoria" by December 2002.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: "Phantasmagoria" received mixed reviews. Vince Broady, executive editor of "Multimedia World", said Sierra was smart to try to capture the adult market, which was looking for sophisticated games especially after the popularity of games such as "The 7th Guest." Dwight Silverman of the "Houston Chronicle" declared it the best game of the year, calling it a "masterwork" and "as close as it gets to a film you control," although he said not everyone would appreciate it due to its violent content. "Entertainment Weekly" gave it a B+ and called it "one of the surest signs yet of computer games approaching the quality level of the movies." The review said it had some suspenseful and novel twists, but also some "horrific touches (that) seem a bit derivative, such as a Freddy Krueger-like nightmare in which hands pull you through a bed." Kim McDaniel of "The Salt Lake Tribune" called it "the most sophisticated computer game to date" and "a weird, wild, horrific ride that will make you jump at every turn, even if you aren't normally faint-of-heart." Although McDaniel said it might be easy for experienced players, she appreciated that it was more accessible for casual players than difficult games like "The 7th Guest".


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: A "Billboard" magazine review said "Phantasmagoria" "lives up to the advanced billing" and "aims to unnerve and succeeds gruesomely with bloody special effects interspliced in trusty scare-flick fashion with daubs of flesh and hints of sex." "USA Today" writer Joe Wilson gave it three-and-a-half stars and called it well-produced, visually appealing, frighteningly realistic and "a much-needed change from normal fare," although he said the plot did not start to become interesting until halfway through. Gene Emery of "The Providence Journal" said the game was "an impressive work, a sophisticated mix of live action and a rich computer-generated environment, coupled with a musical score that's spooky without being overwhelming." He also called the gameplay "elegant in its simplicity." "San Francisco Chronicle" writer Laura Evenson called it unpredictable and addictive, comparing it to a good mystery novel. A reviewer for "Next Generation" was pleased with the story, the production values of the cutscenes, and the way the game mixed in full motion video without resulting in slowdown or poor control. However, he found that the lack of a challenge made it a poor value for experienced players, since they would be able to finish the entire game in a day or two, and recommended it strictly for those who were new to the adventure genre. Ric Manning of the Gannett News Service wrote, "The graphics are terrific, but don't play on a full stomach." Steve La Rue of "U-T San Diego" found the game "visually opulent and interesting" with "dialogue a lot better than I expected, given the trite gothic novel plot," but also said he had to adjust to the "gradual, contemplative pace." Jack Warner of "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution" wrote: "It's hackneyed, but the art is so good, the acting sufficiently convincing and the atmosphere brooding enough to keep you going," although he said "precious little happens" in the first few discs.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: "Computer Gaming World" writer Arinn Dembo called the storyline of a couple buying a haunted mansion "a cliché so familiar that it needs no explanation," but said it still worked in a computer game because the player could directly experience it in that medium, rather than simply watching it in a film. Dembo also praised the game for featuring a female protagonist, though she said Adrienne was too much of an exaggeratedly feminine "girlie-type girl." Overall, Dembo said the game "achieved a new height of realism and beauty in a computer game" and was "an important technological leap, and represents a step forward for the whole industry." Another "Computer Gaming World" review said "Phantasamagoria" "appears to deliver on its ambitious promises" and that although the puzzles are too simple for experienced gamers, the appeal of the game is exploring a setting that "would have had even the folks in Amityville making tracks." Harley Jebens of the "Austin American-Statesman" said some of the acting was "hilariously bad" and the storyline was predictable, but that the game keeps you engaged, the story draws you in and the controls were well executed. "Fort Worth Star-Telegram" writer Andy Greiser said the game was a beautiful combination of live actors and computer-built backgrounds, but said the action doesn't start to pick up until the halfway point. In a mixed review, Phil LaRose of "The Advocate" praised the game for having a female protagonist and excellent special effects, and said it had gone further toward merging the realms of film and game than any other computer game. He also said the game was too linear, with overly simple puzzles and a plotline with "so many recycled concepts in this game, players will feel like they've seen it all before."


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Other reviews were more negative. "GameSpot" writer Jeff Sengstack said the expensive budget and long production history "do not necessarily translate into high quality gaming." He complimented the graphics and music, but considered "[the game] generally unchallenging, the characters weak, the violence over-the-top, and the script just lame." Mike Hall of the "Albuquerque Journal" compared "Phantasmagoria" to big-budget films with multimillion-dollar budgets and multiple production delays that ultimately failed, like "Cleopatra" and "Waterworld". He said the graphics were beautiful, but the game ended too quickly, the plot was thin and the puzzles were too easy to solve. "The Escapist" writer Brendan Main said the game fell short of its ambition to change how gamers experienced horror media, and the juxtaposition of real-life actors on settings that were "ordinary, pixilated fare" was "odd and unflattering." A one-star review in "The Video Games Guide", published in 2013, "now seems little more than a flawed, though ambitious, white elephant." In a 2014 review, IGN writer Kosta Andreadis said the game's special effects were still effective, and that "Phantasmagoria" wisely builds suspense and saves the violent content for the end of the game. But he said it was ultimately "less a bad game than a bad horror film" and said the execution, "although technically interesting, is extremely goofy, full of ludicrous situations, weird plot turns, bizarre dialogue, and dated costume choices."


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: "Phantasmagoria" earned an Editor's Choice Award from "PC Gamer", and a Golden Triad Award from "Computer Game Review", whose editors later gave it their 1995 Best FMV of the Year prize. It was nominated for Best Adventure/Role-Playing Software in the annual Excellence in Software Awards competition, known in the game industry as "The Codies," which are among the most prestigious honors in software development. It was also named Best Adventure Game of the Year by "Games Magazine", Game of the Month by "Windows Magazine", and was one of three nominees for "PC/Computing"s Game of the Year.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Before "Phantasmagoria" was released, CompUSA, the nation's largest discount computer retailer, notified Sierra it would not stock the game. The company did not comment on specific reasons for their decision except for a written statement from chief operating officer Hal Compton: "Software comes out all the time. Some we buy, some we don't. This one we chose not to." Analysts believed CompUSA objected to the realistic violence in the game. Lee S. Isgur of Jefferies & Co., a global investment bank that followed the computer game industry, said CompUSA's decision probably would not harm overall sales of the game, and that it could in fact help it generate publicity. He added that "It's probably one of the bloodiest games ever." Likewise, Vincent Turzo of Jefferies & Co. said, "When you say you're not going to carry something, of course the consumers rush to the stores to see what it's all about." Roberta Williams said of CompUSA's announcement: "I'm disappointed that they decided to make a stand with my product." Some smaller retailers also decided not to stock "Phantasmagoria", but others like Walmart continued to carry it.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: As well as the graphic gore and violence, the rape scene in "Phantasmagoria" drew particular attention and objections from the game's critics. One major newspaper claimed "Phantasmagoria" "makes a game of sexual violence." Multiple parents' groups, religious organizations, community action committees and special interest groups called for a boycott, and sent letters to the Sierra offices in droves voicing objections to the game. "Phantasmagoria" was unable to be sold in Australia after being refused classification by Office of Film and Literature Classification (the R 18+ classification was not available for video games at the time). The Roberta Williams Anthology collection was also banned in Australia because it featured a one-chapter preview of the game. The governments of two other countries also banned "Phantasmagoria". The game was spotlighted in U.S. Senate hearings debating regulation of content in the computer software industry, and there was talk that it could re-ignite the debate in Congress over whether to impose federally mandated ratings on computer software that stores would be required to enforce.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Sierra found that Williams tended to garner extremely favorable press, even as "Phantasmagoria" got negative press, so the company began having her discuss the game in person. In response to the backlash, Williams said she believed computer games were subject to harsher standards than films and television, which she said often have more violent content than "Phantasmagoria", in part because computer games are often regarded as children's entertainment rather than for adults. Williams said "Phantasmagoria" was less excessively violent than games like "Doom" and "Mortal Kombat", and that unlike those games, "Phantasmagoria" is "the good guy ... not going around shooting up people." Sierra spokeswoman Rebecca Buxton and Dennis Cloutier, the company's vice president of sales, both expressed surprise at the reaction to the game because Sierra made strong efforts to warn viewers about the adult content in its marketing, box warnings and censoring options. Cloutier said the company was essentially "censoring ourselves." Steven L. Kent of "The Seattle Times" said there were more violent games than "Phantasmagoria", but that most video game violence appears in computer animations, and thus can be more easily overlooked than in a live-action game, which elicits a stronger emotional response.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: In April 1998, three years after the game was released, the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System came under criticism for owning 435,000 shares worth $9 million in Cendant, which by this point had purchased Sierra On-Line, due to the violence in "Phantasmagoria" and other Sierra games. Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, and Lamar Alexander, the former governor of Tennessee, all asked the system to sell its stock. McConnell was particularly critical of the rape scene. They suggested a link existed between recent student slayings in West Paducah, Kentucky, and Jonesboro, Arkansas, and the "increasingly violent world many American children enter when they sit down in front of a computer screen." Pat Miller, executive secretary of the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System, said the system wasn't aware of "Phantasmagoria" or Sierra's products, and that it invested in Cendant because it's part of an index fund of the 500 best stocks in the country. Miller added that, if the retirement system finds a problem with Sierra On-Line, it would ask Cendant to cease ownership in the company, and that the system would divest its stock if it refused. Miller said: "We're not going to continue to invest in some company that does something that will be detrimental to our children. We know that our membership would not want us to do that." The same letter was also sent to heads of teachers' retirement systems in California, Ohio and Texas.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: The commercial success of "Phantasmagoria" had a positive financial impact on Sierra On-Line. Before its release, the company's stock rose in July 1995, up $3.875 to $30.875, which Vince Turzo of Jeffries & Co attributed in part due to anticipation of "Phantasmagoria". Sierra's stock continued to rise after it was released. The company closed on the NASDAQ stock market at $43.25 on September 8, 1995, translating to a 73 percent gain in less than three months, which Turzo attributed partially to "Phantasmagoria"s success. For the quarter ending September 30, 1995, Sierra posted a profit of $3.26 million, compared to a loss of $850,000 in 1994. This improvement exceeded expectations in analysts' forecasts, and was thanks largely to "Phantasmagoria" sales.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Williams returned to work on the "King's Quest" series after "Phantasmagoria" was completed. Sierra used the same technology and Hollywood techniques from "Phantasmagoria" to make "" (1995), another interactive movie adventure game. Williams later described "Phantasmagoria" as the game that best represented her career as a game designer. Due to its development delays, "Phantasmagoria" was released after other interactive movie games like "Wing Commander III" and "Under a Killing Moon", so it did not receive as much credit for heralding that game subgenre as the other titles. Harley Jebens of the "Austin American-Statesman" said by the time it was finally released, "computer games that incorporate video [were] becoming a common sight on the software store racks." Sean Clark, a project leader at LucasArts, feared the success of "Phantasmagoria" would set a bad precedent in that software companies would think they need huge budgets and many discs to have a successful game, rather than focusing on quality.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: A "Phantasmagoria" sequel, "Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh" (1996), was released by Sierra a year after the original. It was written and designed by Lorelei Shannon, Roberta Williams' design partner on "King's Quest VII". Williams was not involved with it, and the game featured a very different tone and completely different characters, with no direct connection to the storyline of the first game. Shannon said the original game was a haunted house story in the style of a "late night creature feature," while her game has more science-fiction and fantasy horror elements, in the style of the works of Clive Barker and Tanith Lee. Roberta Williams said both she and her husband Ken enjoyed the sequel. A preview for "A Puzzle of Flesh" was included in the first CD of the original "Phantasmagoria" game.


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Ken Williams had wanted Roberta to work on a "Phantasmagoria" sequel immediately after the success of the first game, but she could not do so due to her obligations to "King's Quest VIII". Ken Williams felt the sequel was less successful because players could sense the absence of Roberta's style. "It's as if a bestselling author had a book ghostwritten. Within a few pages, the fans would know they had been duped and feel disappointed, regardless of the quality of the work." Ken Williams said a third game was not produced after "A Puzzle of Flesh" because of issues after Sierra was acquired by CUC International in 1996. Distribution was handled by Davidson & Associates, another CUC company, which primarily sold educational software. Williams said the company was uncomfortable with the violent content in "Phantasmagoria" and did not attempt to sell the sequel as aggressively as Sierra would have. He also claimed Jan Davidson, the wife of Chairman and CEO Bob Davidson, personally did not like the game and "wanted it shut down." Due to these sales challenges, Williams said "there was no reason to make a third "Phantasmagoria"."


title: Phantasmagoria (video game)

text: Roberta Williams said she was asked by Sierra to make a third "Phantasmagoria" game, and that she said she would consider it, but it was not ultimately made. Williams said:


title: The Rifles

text: The Rifles is an infantry regiment of the British Army. Formed in 2007, it consists of four Regular battalions and three Reserve battalions, plus a number of companies in other Army Reserve battalions. Each battalion of The Rifles was formerly an individual battalion of one of the two large regiments of the Light Division (with the exception of the 1st Battalion, which is an amalgamation of two individual regiments). Since formation the regiment has been involved in combat operations, first in the later stages of the Iraq War and in the War in Afghanistan.


title: The Rifles

text: The Rifles was created as a result of the Future Army Structure review. Under the original announcement, the Light Division would have remained essentially unchanged, with the exception of the Light Infantry gaining a new battalion through the amalgamation of two other regiments, and both gaining a reserve battalion from within the Territorial Army (TA) as it was then called. However, on 24 November 2005, the Ministry of Defence announced that the four regiments would amalgamate into a single five-battalion regiment. The regular battalions of The Rifles was formed on 1 February 2007 by the amalgamation of the four Light Infantry and Rifle Regiments of the Light Division as follows:


title: The Rifles

text: The 2nd Battalion, the 3rd Battalion and the 4th Battalion were all deployed in Basra in Iraq during some of the worst fighting of the Iraq War including the withdrawal from Basra Palace in September 2007.


title: The Rifles

text: The 1st Battalion undertook a tour in Afghanistan between October 2008 and April 2009, ground holding and mentoring the Afghan National Army in Helmand Province. The 5th Battalion was one of the last British Army units to leave Iraq in May 2009. The 4th Battalion provided reinforcement cover for the elections in Afghanistan and took part in Operation Panther's Claw in the Summer of 2009. At the same time the 2nd Battalion was deployed to Sangin and was relieved in due course by the 3rd Battalion. The 1st battalion returned to the Nahri Sarah District of Afghanistan in April 2011, to then be relieved by the 2nd and 5th battalions in October 2011. In March 2018 the 2nd Battalion returned home after a six-month operational deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Shader.


title: The Rifles

text: The regiment has four regular and three reserve battalions, each configured for a specific infantry role:


title: The Rifles

text: Camilla, the Queen Consort is the Colonel-in-Chief of the Regiment, whilst each battalion has its own Royal Colonel:


title: The Rifles

text: The regular element of The Rifles maintains a single regular regimental band, the Band and Bugles of The Rifles. The band form one of 14 professional bands within the Royal Corps of Army Music. This was formed by renaming the Band and Bugles of the Light Division, which in itself was an amalgamation of four separate bands:


title: The Rifles

text: The Band and Bugles of The Rifles is the most senior band in the regiment based in the Rifles. The central Band of The Rifles are based at Sir John Moore Barracks in Winchester. The band is notable in that buglers accompany the band in the front rank. Since 2016, Major Jason Griffiths has served as the director of the band and bugles.


title: The Rifles

text: The Salamanca Band is a 35-member band based at Exeter, being part of the 6th Reserve Battalion. The Devonshire and Dorset Regiment formed the former Band of the Rifle Volunteers. It formed the backbone of the Salamanca Band. The band also has a detachment in Truro. In the summer of 2017, the band went on a tour of the Caucasus, visiting Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, performing with the Band of the General Staff, the Band of the National Guard and the Band of the Ministry of Defence respectively for public performances. On the Georgia visit, the band performed "Tbiliso", which is the unofficial anthem of the City of Tbilisi, was also performed during a concert on a bridge in the neighborhood of Metekhi. In April 2016, the first musician to serve as an army vocalist came from The Salamanca Band.


title: The Rifles

text: The Waterloo Band is a 35-member band based in Abingdon, being part of the 7th Reserve Battalion. The Waterloo Band has performed at events across the UK and the world such as the Basel Tattoo in 2014.


title: The Rifles

text: The "Sounding Retreat" is a form of the Beating Retreat ceremony of the Household Division. The main difference between this ceremony and the regular Beating Retreat is that this is performed by the bugle bands of The Rifles, as well as the former of the bands of the Britain's Light Division. This traditional ceremony (which represents the sounding of Sunset or Retreat in the British Army) has been done on 31 May and 1 June on Horse Guards Parade as recently as 1993 and 2016. Besides the Bugle Band of the Rifles, the Band of the Brigade of Gurkhas also takes part in the ceremony.


title: The Rifles

text: As a rifle regiment, a private soldier in The Rifles is known as a "Rifleman" and Serjeant is spelt in the archaic fashion; the regiment wears a Rifle green beret. A number of "golden threads" i.e. distinctive honours have been brought into the new regiment from each of its founder regiments:


title: The Rifles

text: The following battle honours are a representation of the total honours awarded to the regiments which formed The Rifles. These are inscribed on the regiment's belt badge:


title: Nu-disco

text: Nu-disco is a 21st-century dance music genre associated with a renewed interest in the late 1970s US disco, synthesizer-heavy 1980s European dance music styles, and early 1990s electronic dance music. The genre was especially popular in the first half of the 2000s, and experienced another mild resurgence throughout the 2010s.


title: Nu-disco

text: There are several scenes associated with the nu-disco term, the original one is characterized as house music fused with disco elements (sometimes incorrectly referred to as disco house), and disco-influenced balearic music, also known as "balearic beat revival" or "balearica".


title: Nu-disco

text: Nu-disco is often confused with the other disco-influenced house music genres, such as French house or disco house. French house usually features various special effects, such as phasers and has heavily sample-based production, compared to the usually programmed or live original instrumentation that nu-disco relies on. The other key difference is in the song structure — nu-disco usually has a typical song structure of pop or classic disco song, with multiple breakdowns, and often with verses and a chorus, whereas disco house generally has a more constant and unvaried character throughout the composition, as does most of house music.


title: Nu-disco

text: Disco edits or re-edits emerged at the same time as disco appeared in the early 1970s when DJs were looking for ways to make music easier to mix. A disco edit is a modified version of the original master, edited by disco and house DJs to extend and emphasize the best and most dance-friendly elements. For example, Todd Terje's edit of the Bee Gees hit "You Should Be Dancing" does exactly that, downplaying the old-school vocal riffs in favour of driving bass, lively percussion, and an overall sense of space.


title: Nu-disco

text: In the early days, edits were done with scissors and tape. Some edits became even more popular than the original records from which they were derived. The early editors such as Walter Gibbons, earned a reputation and developed a studio career from their editing work. Given the popularity of edits, labels predominantly releasing edits and remixes began to appear. The first one to arrive was Disconet in 1977, followed by well-known DJ edits services and labels such as Hot Tracks, Rhythm Stick and Razormaid. Such labels remained active until the first half of the 1990s, when an increase of copyright enforcement gradually put them out of business. But the scene's activity didn't fade away, it went underground, where many disco edit labels continue to exist today, such as Brooklyn's influential "Razor-N-Tape".


title: Nu-disco

text: The early developments of the genre are linked with the "Black Cock Records", disco edits label, primarily active in 1993–1998, founded by DJ Harvey and Gerry Rooney. The label was focused on releasing non-official re-edits of disco tracks and some funk-influenced rock. It was not the only existing disco edits bootleg label in the 1990s, but had a huge impact on a generation of house music producers, inspiring many in digging genre and adjusting their own house music productions with disco-sounding elements.