From today's featured articlePhantasmagoria is a point-and-click adventure game designed by Roberta Williams for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. 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. Made at the peak of popularity for interactive movie games, Phantasmagoria features live-action footage. It was based on Williams's 550-page script, about four times the length of an average Hollywood screenplay, and cost $4.5 million to develop. Peter Maris directed a cast of 25 actors, all performing in front of a blue screen. The musical score includes neo-Gregorian chant performed by a 135-voice choir. Phantasmagoria became one of the best-selling games of 1995. It received mixed reviews, earning praise for its graphics and suspenseful tone, but criticism for its slow pacing and easy puzzles. The game drew controversy, particularly due to a rape scene. Some retailers declined to carry it, religious organizations and politicians condemned it, and it was refused classification altogether in Australia. (Full article...)
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Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively anthropomorphic. They were thought to possess extraordinary powers and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size. The deities typically wore melam, an ambiguous substance that "covered them in terrifying splendor". The ancient Mesopotamians believed that their deities lived in Heaven, but that a god's statue was a physical embodiment of the god himself. The Mesopotamian pantheon evolved greatly over the course of its history. During the first of the four phases of the history of Mesopotamian religion, starting in the fourth millennium BC, deities' domain mainly focused on basic needs for human survival. During the second phase, which occurred in the third millennium BC, the divine hierarchy became more structured and deified kings began to enter the pantheon. During the third phase, in the second millennium BC, the gods worshipped by an individual person and gods associated with the commoners became more prevalent. During the fourth and final phase, in the first millennium BC, the gods became closely associated with specific human empires and rulers. (Full list...)
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Nembrotha cristata is a colourful species of sea slug. This nudibranch, a marine gastropod in the family Polyceridae, lives on rocks or coral reefs in the tropical Indo-West Pacific Ocean. This species of sea slug is black with green markings. Adults reach sizes of around 50 mm in length. Photograph: Steve Childs
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