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Wednesday 15 January 2025
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for Acknowledgments; here for the FAQ; here for advice on citations. Find entries via the search box above (more details here) or browse the menu categories in the grey bar at the top of this page.
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Full Thrust
Miniature models based Wargame (1991). Ground Zero Games (GZG). Designed by Jon Tuffley. / Full Thrust is a set of rules for space combat with miniature models. The design favours entertaining gameplay over realistic simulation; all movement is in two dimensions and ships can only accelerate "forwards", in the direction they are facing. The result is a fast-moving, enjoyable game which seems only half real. Hard science is used for such elements as ...
Windaria
Japanese animated film (1986; original title Dōwa Meita Senshi Windaria; vt Once Upon a Time; vt Legend of Fabulous Battle Windaria). Kaname Productions. Directed by Kunihiko Yuyama. Written by Keisuke Fujikawa. Voice cast includes Tōru Furuya, Kazuhiko Inoue, Waka Kanda and Naoko Matsui. 101 minutes. Colour. / The film opens with mourners watching "the ghost ship" – which resembles a ...
Galaxina
Film (1980). Marimark Productions. Written and directed by William Sachs. Executive producer Newton P Jacobs. Producer Marilyn J Tenser. Cast includes J D Hinton, Stephen Macht, Avery Schreiber and Dorothy Stratten. 95 minutes. Colour. / Low-budget, crudely humorous Space Opera. In the year 3008, the Intergalactic Federation Police Cruiser Infinity is sent on a mission to retrieve a powerful blue crystalline artefact, the Blue Star. The titular ...
Last of Us, The
Videogame (2013). Naughty Dog. Designed by Bruce Straley, Neil Druckmann. Platforms: PS3. / In the future, Zombies will rule the Earth. This apocalyptic scenario is a common preoccupation of early twenty-first century pop culture, the central conceit of works ranging from Max Brooks's novel World War Z (2006) – filmed as World War Z ...
Star Raiders
Videogame (1979). Atari. Designed by Doug Neubauer. Platforms: Atari8 (1979); Atari5200, AtariVCS (1982); AtariST (1986; vt ST Star Raiders). / Star Raiders was the first real time three-dimensional space combat game which combined arcade elements (see Videogames) with strategic aspects derived from text-based Star Trek games (see ...
Langford, David
(1953- ) UK author, critic, editor, publisher and sf fan, in the latter capacity recipient of 21 Hugo awards for fan writing – some of the best of his several hundred pieces are assembled as Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man (coll 1992 chap US; much exp vt The Silence of the Langford 1996; exp 2015 ebook) as Dave Langford, edited by Ben Yalow – plus five Best Fanzine Hugos ...