title: Thabo Mbeki

text: In December 2007 the final African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) report on South Africa, again suggested that there was an unacceptably high level of violent crime in the country. President Mbeki said the suggestion of unacceptably high violent crime appeared to be an acceptance by the panel of what he called "a populist view". He challenged some of the statistics on crime, which he noted may have resulted from a weak information base, leading to wrong conclusions. Although rape statistics had been obtained from the South African Police Service, "this only denotes the incidents of rape that were reported, some of which could have resulted in acquittals" Mbeki indicated.


title: Thabo Mbeki

text: In 2004 the Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, criticised President Mbeki for surrounding himself with "yes-men", not doing enough to improve the position of the poor and for promoting economic policies that only benefited a small black elite. He also accused Mbeki and the ANC of suppressing public debate. Mbeki responded that Tutu had never been an ANC member and defended the debates that took place within ANC branches and other public forums. He also asserted his belief in the value of democratic discussion by quoting the Chinese slogan "let a hundred flowers bloom", referring to the brief Hundred Flowers Campaign within the Chinese Communist Party in 1956–57.


title: Thabo Mbeki

text: The "ANC Today" newsletter featured several analyses of the debate, written by Mbeki and the ANC. The latter suggested that Tutu was an "icon" of "white elites", thereby suggesting that his political importance was overblown by the media; and while the article took pains to say that Tutu had not sought this status, it was described in the press as a particularly pointed and personal critique of Tutu. Tutu responded that he would pray for Mbeki as he had prayed for the officials of the apartheid government.


title: Thabo Mbeki

text: In October 1959, Mbeki had a son, Monwabisi Kwanda, with Olive Mpahlwa, a childhood friend which whom he had struck up a romance while at Lovedale. Kwanda was raised by his mother and later by Mbeki's mother, Epainette.' He was last seen by his family in 1981 and is presumed to have died in exile, but the circumstances of his death remain unknown. Olive testified about his disappearance at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1996, making an impassioned plea for those with information to step forward.'


title: Thabo Mbeki

text: Mbeki's youngest brother, Jama, also disappeared in exile. He had spent his adolescence in Lesotho and was an activist in the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP) and its Lesotho Liberation Army. BCP was much closer to the PAC than to the ANC, and later became an avowed enemy of the latter. Jama disappeared in March 1982, after he skipped bail.' According to an investigation commissioned by his family in the early 1990s, he was informed upon by a comrade, entrapped by security police, and killed on the side of a highway later in 1982.' Mbeki's only living sibling, Moeletsi, was also educated abroad and is now a prominent economist. He often publicly criticised the policies of his brother's government.


title: Thabo Mbeki

text: Since 1974, Mbeki has been married to Zanele Dlamini Mbeki, a social worker from Alexandra whom he met in London before his departure for Moscow. The wedding ceremony was held on 23 November at Farnham Castle in Surrey, England. Adelaide Tambo and Mendi Msimang stood "in loco parentis" for Mbeki, and Essop Pahad was his best man. They have no children together.


title: Thabo Mbeki

text: Mbeki has received many honorary degrees from South African and foreign universities. Mbeki received an honorary doctorate in business administration from the Arthur D Little Institute, Boston, in 1994. In 1995, he received honorary doctorate from the University of South Africa and an honorary doctorate of laws from Sussex University. Mbeki was awarded an honorary doctorate from Rand Afrikaans University in 1999. In 2000 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws from Glasgow Caledonian University. In 2004, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in commercial sciences by the University of Stellenbosch.


title: Thabo Mbeki

text: During Mbeki's official visit to Britain in 2001, he was made an honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB). The Mayor of Athens, Dora Bakoyannis, awarded Mbeki with the City of Athens Medal of Honour in 2005. During Mbeki's official visit to Sudan in 2005, he was awarded Sudan's Insignia of Honour in recognition of his role in resolving conflicts and working for development in the Continent. In 2007, Mbeki was made a Knight of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem at St George's Cathedral in Cape Town by the current grand prior, Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester.


title: Thabo Mbeki

text: Mbeki was awarded the Good Governance Award in 1997 by the US-based Corporate Council on Africa. He received the Newsmaker of the year award from Pretoria News Press Association in 2000 and repeated the honour in 2008, this time under the auspices of media research company Monitoring South Africa. In honour of his commitment to democracy in the new South Africa, Mbeki was awarded the Oliver Tambo/Johnny Makatini Freedom Award in 2000. Mbeki was awarded the Peace and Reconciliation Award at the Gandhi Awards for Reconciliation in Durban in 2003. In 2004, Mbeki was awarded the Good Brother Award by Washington, D.C.'s National Congress of Black Women for his commitment to gender equality and the emancipation of women in South Africa. In 2005, he was also awarded the Champion of the Earth Award by the United Nations. During the European-wide Action Week Against Racism in 2005, Mbeki was awarded the Rotterdamse Jongeren Raad (RJR) Antidiscrimination Award by the Netherlands. In 2006, he was awarded the Presidential Award for his outstanding service to economic growth and investor confidence in South Africa and Africa and for his role in the international arena by the South African Chambers of Commerce and Industry. In 2007 Mbeki was awarded the Confederation of African Football's Order of Merit for his contribution to football on the continent.


title: Noah Taylor

text: Noah George Taylor (born 4 September 1969) is a British-born Australian actor. He is best known for his roles as teenage David Helfgott in "Shine", Locke in the HBO series "Game of Thrones", Darby Sabini in the BBC One series "Peaky Blinders", Mr. Bucket in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and Danny in the Australian cult film "He Died with a Felafel in His Hand". Taylor also starred as Adolf Hitler in both the American television series "Preacher" and the 2002 film "Max".


title: Noah Taylor

text: Taylor, elder of two sons, was born in London to Australian parents, Maggie (née Miller), a journalist and book editor, and Paul Taylor, a copywriter and journalist. His parents returned to Australia when he was five, and he grew up in Clifton Hill and St Kilda, suburbs of Melbourne.


title: Noah Taylor

text: After performing in plays at St Martins Youth Arts Centre in South Yarra for a year, he gained the attention of director John Duigan, who cast him in the 1987 film "The Year My Voice Broke", the first part of a planned trilogy. Taylor also appeared in its sequel, "Flirting" (1991), alongside Thandiwe Newton with Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts in supporting roles.


title: Noah Taylor

text: Taylor's early roles included acting the lead in the critically acclaimed "The Year My Voice Broke" and "Flirting" and he gained significant international attention playing the tormented young pianist David Helfgott in the 1996 film "Shine". Taylor's résumé includes action movies (""), comedies ("The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou"), psychological thrillers ("Vanilla Sky" and "Predestination") and historical dramas ("Max", in which he played the young Adolf Hitler.) He also played the role of Adolf Hitler in AMC's series "Preacher".


title: Noah Taylor

text: Taylor once commented in an interview that he was sick of acting out the nostalgic reminiscences of other people. He has done this in a number of films including "The Nostradamus Kid", which was based on the early life of the Australian author Bob Ellis, a young David Helfgott in "Shine", the protagonist in John Birmingham's memoir "He Died with a Felafel in His Hand", and "Almost Famous", based on the memories of the film's writer and director, Cameron Crowe.


title: Noah Taylor

text: In 2010 Taylor starred in Simon Rumley's mystery thriller "Red White & Blue", which had its world premiere as part of the SXSW Film Festival in March 2010.


title: Noah Taylor

text: Taylor has appeared in a small number of music videos. One of his earliest screen performances was in the video for Beargarden's song "The Finer Things". This video was directed by Richard Lowenstein, who then cast Taylor in a supporting role in the film "[Dogs in Space]". Much later, he appeared in the video of "Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow", a song by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, along with the video for "M.O.R." by British alternative rock group Blur and he also played a young Romeo in the video "Romeos" from Alphaville.


title: Noah Taylor

text: He has also performed and recorded as a musician. In 2001 he released an album "Popular Music for All Peoples" under the name 'C.B.M.' (Cardboard Box Man) and in 2011, an EP "Live Free or Die!!!" as Noah Taylor & the Sloppy Boys on Z-Man Records.


title: Noah Taylor

text: In 2013, Taylor appeared in both the third and fourth seasons of HBO's epic fantasy series "Game of Thrones", based on the "A Song of Ice and Fire" book series by George R. R. Martin. In the adaptation, Taylor plays the character of Locke, an original character of the television series, who serves as a condensed version of several characters of the books, most notably the ruthless and sadistic mercenary leader Vargo Hoat.


title: Noah Taylor

text: When not acting, Taylor draws and paints, and is also an accomplished musician, playing viola and French horn as a young teenager, and guitar from the age of 16. He plays the piano by ear. He has sung and played guitar in several of his own bands, including Honky Tonk Angels, Cardboard Box Man, Flipper & Humphrey, Access Axis, and The Thirteens, a country-western rock band described by Taylor as, "three manic depressives playing sad angst and western music for sad people". He names Johnny Cash and Lou Reed as two of the artists he admires.


title: Noah Taylor

text: On 14 November 2012, he married Dionne Harris, an Australian fashion designer. Taylor lives in Brighton, East Sussex.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: The Consolidated PBY Catalina is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft that was produced in the 1930s and 1940s. In Canadian service it was known as the Canso. It was one of the most widely used seaplanes of World War II. Catalinas served with every branch of the United States Armed Forces and in the air forces and navies of many other nations. The last military PBYs served until the 1980s. As of 2021, 86 years after its first flight, the aircraft continues to fly as a waterbomber (or airtanker) in aerial firefighting operations in some parts of the world. None remain in military service.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: The PBY was originally designed to be a patrol bomber, an aircraft with a long operational range intended to locate and attack enemy transport ships at sea in order to disrupt enemy supply lines. With a mind to a potential conflict in the Pacific Ocean, where troops would require resupply over great distances, the U.S. Navy in the 1930s invested millions of dollars in developing long-range flying boats for this purpose. Flying boats had the advantage of not requiring runways, in effect having the entire ocean available.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: As American dominance in the Pacific Ocean began to face competition from Japan in the 1930s, the U.S. Navy contracted Consolidated, Martin and Douglas in October 1933 to build competing prototypes for a patrol flying boat. Naval doctrine of the 1930s and 1940s used flying boats in a wide variety of roles that today are handled by multiple special-purpose aircraft. The U.S. Navy had adopted the Consolidated P2Y and Martin P3M models for this role in 1931, but both aircraft were underpowered and hampered by inadequate range and limited payloads.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: Consolidated and Douglas both delivered single prototypes of their new designs, the XP3Y-1 and XP3D-1, respectively. Consolidated's XP3Y-1 was an evolution of the XPY-1 design that had originally competed unsuccessfully for the P3M contract two years earlier and of the XP2Y design that the Navy had authorized for a limited production run. Although the Douglas aircraft was a good design, the Navy opted for Consolidated's because the projected cost was only $90,000 per aircraft.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: Consolidated's XP3Y-1 design (company "Model 28") had a parasol wing with external bracing struts, mounted on a pylon over the fuselage. Wingtip stabilizing floats were retractable in flight to form streamlined wingtips and had been licensed from the Saunders-Roe company. The two-step hull design was similar to that of the P2Y, but the Model 28 had a cantilever cruciform tail unit instead of a strut-braced twin tail. Cleaner aerodynamics gave the Model 28 better performance than earlier designs. Construction is all-metal, stressed-skin, of aluminum sheet, except the ailerons and wing trailing edge, which are fabric covered.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: The prototype was powered by two Pratt & Whitney R-1830-54 Twin Wasp radial engines mounted on the wing's leading edge. Armament comprised four Browning AN/M2 machine guns and up to of bombs.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: The XP3Y-1 had its maiden flight on 21 March 1935, after which it was transferred to the U.S. Navy for service trials. The XP3Y-1 was a significant performance improvement over previous patrol flying boats. The Navy requested further development in order to bring the aircraft into the category of "patrol bomber", and in October 1935, the prototype was returned to Consolidated for further work, including installation of R-1830-64 engines. For the redesignated XPBY-1, Consolidated introduced redesigned vertical tail surfaces which resolved a problem with the tail becoming submerged on takeoff, which had made lift-off impossible under some conditions. The XPBY-1 had its maiden flight on 19 May 1936, during which a record non-stop distance flight of was achieved.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: The XPBY-1 was delivered to VP-11F in October 1936. The second squadron to be equipped was VP-12, which received the first of its aircraft in early 1937. The second production order was placed on 25 July 1936. Over the next three years, the design was gradually developed further and successive models introduced.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: The aircraft eventually bore the name Catalina after Santa Catalina Island, California; the name was coined in November 1941, as Great Britain ordered their first 30 aircraft.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: The Naval Aircraft Factory made significant modifications to the PBY design, many of which would have significantly interrupted deliveries had they been incorporated on the Consolidated production lines. The new aircraft, officially known as the PBN-1 Nomad, had several differences from the basic PBY. The most obvious upgrades were to the bow, which was sharpened and extended by two feet, and to the tail, which was enlarged and featured a new shape. Other improvements included larger fuel tanks, increasing range by 50%, and stronger wings permitting a 2,000 lb (908 kg) increase in gross takeoff weight. An auxiliary power unit was installed, along with an improved electrical system, and the weapons were upgraded with continuous-feed mechanisms.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: 138 of the 156 PBN-1s produced served with the Soviet Navy, after the NAF transferred ownership via Project ZEBRA (1944-1945). The remaining 18 were assigned to training units at NAS Whidbey Island and the Naval Air Facility in Newport, Rhode Island. Later, improvements found in the PBN such as the larger tail were incorporated into the amphibious PBY-6A.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: The designation "PBY" was determined in accordance with the U.S. Navy aircraft designation system of 1922; "PB" representing "Patrol Bomber" and "Y" being the code assigned to Consolidated Aircraft as its manufacturer. Catalinas built by other manufacturers for the U.S. Navy were designated according to different manufacturer codes, thus Canadian Vickers-built examples were designated PBV, Boeing Canada examples PB2B (there already being a Boeing PBB) and Naval Aircraft Factory examples were designated PBN. In accordance with contemporary British naming practice of naming seaplanes after coastal port towns, Royal Canadian Air Force examples were named Canso, for the town of that name in Nova Scotia. The Royal Air Force used the name Catalina and the U.S. Navy adopted this name in 1942. The United States Army Air Forces and later the United States Air Force used the designation OA-10. U.S. Navy Catalinas used in the Pacific against the Japanese for night operations were painted black overall; as a result these aircraft were sometimes referred to locally as ""Black Cats"".


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: During World War II, PBYs were used in anti-submarine warfare, patrol bombing, convoy escort, search and rescue missions (especially air-sea rescue), and cargo transport.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: The type operated in nearly all operational theatres of World War II. The Catalina served with distinction and played a prominent and invaluable role in the war against Japan.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: These patrol planes shared with land based patrol bombers the combat roles while the very long range Consolidated LB-30 and the Consolidated Coronado were pressed into service to increase the all important logistic strategic air lift capability in the vast Pacific theater. The pairings allowed the Catalina to take on the role of eyes of the fleets at longer ranges than the float plane scouts.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: Several different flying boats were adopted by the Navy, but the PBY was the most widely used and produced.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: Although slow and ungainly, Allied forces used Catalinas in a wide variety of roles for which the aircraft was never intended. PBYs are remembered for their rescue role, in which they saved the lives of hundreds of aircrew downed over water. Catalina airmen called their aircraft the "Cat" on combat missions and "Dumbo" in air-sea rescue service.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: The Catalina scored the U.S. Navy's first credited air-to-air "kill" of a Japanese airplane in the Pacific War. On 10 December 1941, the Japanese attacked the Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines. Numerous U.S. ships and submarines were damaged or destroyed by bombs and bomb fragments. While flying to safety during the raid on Cavite, Lieutenant Harmon T. Utter's PBY was attacked by three Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Type 0 carrier fighters. Chief Boatswain Earl D. Payne, Utter's bow gunner, shot down one, thus scoring the U.S. Navy's first kill. Utter, as a commander, later coordinated the carrier air strikes that led to the destruction of the Japanese battleship Yamato.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: The Catalina performed one of the first offensive operations against the Japanese by the US. On 27 December 1941, six Catalinas of Patrol Squadron 101 bombed Japanese shipping at Jolo Island against heavy fighter opposition, with four Catalinas lost.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: Catalinas were the most extensively used anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of World War II, and were also used in the Indian Ocean, flying from the Seychelles and from Ceylon. Their duties included escorting convoys to Murmansk. By 1943, U-boats were well-armed with anti-aircraft guns and two Victoria Crosses were won by Catalina pilots pressing home their attacks on U-boats in the face of heavy fire: Flying Officer John Cruickshank of the RAF, in 1944, for sinking "U-347" (although the submarine is now known to have been "U-361") and in the same year Flight Lieutenant David Hornell of the Royal Canadian Air Force (posthumously) against "U-1225". Catalinas destroyed 40 U-boats, but not without losses of their own. A Brazilian Catalina attacked and sank "U-199" in Brazilian waters on 31 July 1943. Later, the aircraft was baptized as "Arará", in memory of the merchant ship of that name which was sunk by another U-boat.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: In their role as patrol aircraft, Catalinas participated in some of the most notable naval engagements of World War II. The aircraft's parasol wing and large waist blisters provided excellent visibility and combined with its long range and endurance, made it well suited for the task.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: A RAF Coastal Command Catalina, with Ensign Leonard B. Smith of the U.S. Navy as copilot, and flying out of Castle Archdale Flying boat base, Lower Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, located the German battleship "Bismarck" on 26 May 1941, some northwest of Brest, which was attempting to evade Royal Navy forces as she sought to join other Kriegsmarine forces in Brest. This sighting eventually led to the destruction of the German battleship.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: On 7 December 1941, before the Japanese amphibious landings on Kota Bharu, Malaya, their invasion force was approached by a Catalina flying boat of No. 205 Squadron RAF. The aircraft was shot down by five Nakajima Ki-27 fighters before it could radio its report to air headquarters in Singapore. Flying Officer Patrick Bedell, commanding the Catalina, and his seven crew members became the first Allied casualties in the war with Japan. Patrol Wing 10 of the had 44 Catalinas under its command but lost 41 within 90 days. Patrol Wing 10 also lost its main seaplane tender, USS "Langley", to Japanese aircraft during the Dutch East Indies Campaign while it was transporting 32 Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter planes.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: A flight of Catalinas spotted the Japanese fleet approaching Midway Island, beginning the Battle of Midway.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: A Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Canso flown by Squadron Leader L.J. Birchall foiled Japanese plans to destroy the Royal Navy's Indian Ocean fleet on 4 April 1942 when it detected the Japanese carrier fleet approaching Ceylon (Sri Lanka).


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: During the Battle of Midway four United States Navy PBYs of Patrol Squadrons 24 and 51 made a night torpedo attack on the Japanese fleet on the night of 3–4 June 1942, scoring one hit which damaged the fleet oiler "Akebono Maru", the only successful American torpedo attack in the entire battle.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: During the Guadalcanal campaign, some U.S. Navy PBYs were painted matte black and sent on night bombing, torpedoing, and strafing missions against Japanese supply vessels and warships, including conducting interdiction raids on the Tokyo Express. These PBYs were later called "Black Cats". Subsequently, special squadrons of Black Cats were formed, commencing in December 1942 with VP-12, with an additional thirteen squadrons coming into service thereafter. Flying slowly at night, dipping to ship mast height, the Black Cats bombed, strafed, and torpedoed all kinds of Japanese vessels, sinking or damaging thousands of tons of shipping. The Black Cats also performed bombing, strafing and harassment regarding land based Japanese installations, as well as conducting reconnaissance and search and rescue operations. The Black Cat squadrons continued to be active into 1944 with the PB4Y-2 beginning to come in service in greater numbers and replacing the PBYs, the last Black Cat squadrons returning to the U.S. in early 1945.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) also operated Catalinas as night raiders, with four squadrons Nos. 11, 20, 42, and 43 laying mines from 23 April 1943 until July 1945 in the southwest Pacific deep in Japanese-held waters, bottling up ports and shipping routes and forcing ships into deeper waters to become targets for U.S. submarines; they tied up the major strategic ports such as Balikpapan which shipped 80% of Japanese oil supplies. In late 1944, their mining missions sometimes exceeded 20 hours in duration and were carried out from as low as in the dark. Operations included trapping the Japanese fleet in Manila Bay in assistance of General Douglas MacArthur's landing at Mindoro in the Philippines. Australian Catalinas also operated out of Jinamoc in the Leyte Gulf, and mined ports on the Chinese coast from Hong Kong to as far north as Wenchow. Both USN and RAAF Catalinas regularly mounted nuisance night bombing raids on Japanese bases, with the RAAF claiming the slogan "The First and the Furthest". Targets of these raids included a major base at Rabaul. RAAF aircrews, like their U.S. Navy counterparts, employed "terror bombs", ranging from scrap metal and rocks to empty beer bottles with razor blades inserted into the necks, to produce high-pitched screams as they fell, keeping Japanese soldiers awake and scrambling for cover. There was a Catalina base on Drimmie Head on the Gove Peninsula in the Northern Territory.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: Catalinas were employed by every branch of the U.S. military as rescue aircraft. A PBY piloted by LCDR Adrian Marks (USN) rescued 56 sailors in high seas from the heavy cruiser after the ship was sunk during World War II. When there was no more room inside, the crew tied sailors to the wings. The aircraft could not fly in this state; instead it acted as a lifeboat, protecting the sailors from exposure and the risk of shark attack, until rescue ships arrived. Catalinas continued to function in the search-and-rescue role for decades after the end of the war.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: Catalinas were also used for commercial air travel. For example, Qantas Empire Airways flew commercial passengers from Suva to Sydney, a journey of , which in 1949 took two days. The longest commercial flights (in terms of time aloft) ever made in aviation history were the Qantas flights flown weekly from 29 June 1943 through July 1945 over the Indian Ocean, dubbed the Double Sunrise. Qantas offered non-stop service between Perth and Colombo, a distance of . As the Catalina typically cruised at , this took from 28 to 32 hours and was called the "flight of the double sunrise", since the passengers saw two sunrises during their non-stop journey. The flight was made in radio silence because of the possibility of Japanese attack and had a maximum payload of or three passengers plus of military and diplomatic mail.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: An Australian PBY named "Frigate Bird II", an ex RAAF aircraft, registered VH-ASA, made the first trans-Pacific flight across the South Pacific between Australia and Chile in 1951 by (Sir) Gordon Taylor, making numerous stops at islands along the way for refueling, meals, and overnight sleep of its crew, flown from Sydney to Quintero in Chile after making initial landfall at Valparaiso via Tahiti and Easter Island. One of six ordered by the RAAF was used as part of the air route across the Pacific from Sydney to Valparaiso, is in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts ands Sciences in Sydney.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: With the end of the war, all of the flying boat versions of the Catalina were quickly retired from the U.S. Navy, but the amphibious versions remained in service for some years. The last Catalina in U.S. service was a PBY-6A operating with a Naval Reserve squadron, which was retired from use on 3 January 1957. The Catalina subsequently equipped the world's smaller armed services into the late 1960s in fairly substantial numbers.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: The U.S. Air Force's Strategic Air Command used Catalinas (designated OA-10s) in service as scout aircraft from 1946 through 1947.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: The Brazilian Air Force flew Catalinas in naval air patrol missions against German submarines starting in 1943. The flying boats also carried out air mail deliveries. In 1948, a transport squadron was formed and equipped with PBY-5As converted to the role of amphibious transports. The 1st Air Transport Squadron (ETA-1) was based in the port city of Belem and flew Catalinas and C-47s until 1982. Catalinas were convenient for supplying military detachments scattered along the Amazon. They reached places that were otherwise accessible only by helicopters. The ETA-1 insignia was a winged turtle with the motto "Though slowly, I always get there". Today, the last Brazilian Catalina (a former RCAF one) is displayed at the Airspace Museum (MUSAL) in Rio de Janeiro.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: Jacques-Yves Cousteau used a PBY-6A (N101CS) to support his diving expeditions. His second son, Philippe, was killed in an accident in this aircraft that occurred on the Tagus River near Lisbon. The Catalina nosed over during a high-speed taxi run undertaken to check the hull for leakage following a water landing. The aircraft turned upside down, causing the fuselage to break behind the cockpit. The wing separated from the fuselage and the left engine broke off, penetrating the captain's side of the cockpit.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: Paul Mantz converted an unknown number of surplus Catalinas to flying yachts at his Orange County California hangar in the late 1940s and early 1950s.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: Steward-Davis converted several Catalinas to their Super Catalina standard (later known as Super Cat), which replaced the usual Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp engines with Wright R-2600 Cyclone 14 engines of . A larger, squared-off rudder was installed to compensate for the increased yaw which the more powerful engines could generate. The Super Catalina also had extra cabin windows and other alterations.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: Chilean Air Force (FACH) Captain Roberto Parragué, in his PBY Catalina FACH No. 405 called "Manu-Tara", which means Lucky Bird in the Rapanui language, undertook the first flight between Easter Island and the continent of South America (from Chile), as well as the first flight to Tahiti, making him a national hero of France as well as of Chile. The flight was authorized by the Chilean President in 1951, but a second flight he made in 1957 was not authorized, and he was dismissed from the Chilean Air Force.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: Of the few dozen remaining airworthy Catalinas, the majority are in use as aerial firefighting aircraft.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: China Airlines, the official airline of the Republic of China (Taiwan) was founded with two Catalina amphibians.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: Platforms are folded out and deployed from Catalinas for use in open ocean fishing and Mahi Mahi tracking in the Pacific Ocean.


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: The Catalina Affair is the name given to a Cold War incident in which a Swedish Air Force Catalina was shot down by Soviet fighters over the Baltic Sea in June 1952 while investigating the disappearance of a Swedish Douglas DC-3 (later found to have been shot down by a Soviet fighter while on a signals intelligence mission; it was found in 2003 and raised 2004–2005).


title: Consolidated PBY Catalina

text: An estimated 4,051 Catalinas, Cansos, and GSTs of all versions were produced between June 1937 and May 1945 for the U.S. Navy, the United States Army Air Forces, the United States Coast Guard, Allied nations, and civilian customers.


title: Riqui Puig

text: Ricard "Riqui" Puig Martí (; born 13 August 1999) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Major League Soccer club LA Galaxy.


title: Riqui Puig

text: Born in Matadepera, Barcelona, Catalonia, Puig joined FC Barcelona's La Masia in 2013, from UFB Jàbac Terrassa. After progressing through the youth setup, he made his senior debut with the reserves on 24 February 2018, coming on as a second-half substitute for Marcus McGuane in a 1–1 home draw against Gimnàstic Tarragona in the Segunda División championship.


title: Riqui Puig

text: On 11 June 2018, Puig renewed his contract with "Barça" until 2021, and was promoted to the B-team in the Segunda División B. He made his first team debut on 5 December, replacing fellow youth graduate Oriol Busquets in the 55th minute of a 4–1 home routing of Cultural Leonesa, in the season's Copa del Rey; he also assisted Denis Suárez, who scored Barcelona's fourth goal.


title: Riqui Puig

text: Puig made his La Liga debut on 13 April 2019, starting and playing 67 minutes in a 0–0 draw against Huesca. He scored his first goal for Barça B on 14 September, the second in a 2–2 home draw against AE Prat.


title: Riqui Puig

text: On 6 October 2020, Puig was promoted to the first team, being handed the number 12 jersey which was previously worn by Rafinha.


title: Riqui Puig

text: On 13 January 2021, Puig scored the winning penalty in the penalty shootout (Barcelona won 3–2) after being held at 1–1 at the end of extra time by Real Sociedad in the Supercopa de España semi-final. On 24 January 2021, Puig scored his first goal for the first team in a 2–0 away win in La Liga against Elche, when he headed in Barcelona's second goal from a Frenkie de Jong assist.


title: Riqui Puig

text: A product of La Masia, is known to be a player capable of directing the motion of the game through his great attacking prowess. He has drawn comparisons to Andrés Iniesta in the past, however has struggled for playing time.


title: Riqui Puig

text: Riqui Puig's father, Carlos, was also a footballer. A left-back, he spent his entire career representing Terrassa.


title: Ferris wheel

text: A Ferris wheel (also called a Giant Wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsules, or pods) attached to the rim in such a way that as the wheel turns, they are kept upright, usually by gravity. Some of the largest modern Ferris wheels have cars mounted on the outside of the rim, with electric motors to independently rotate each car to keep it upright. These cars are often referred to as capsules or pods.


title: Ferris wheel

text: The original Ferris Wheel was designed and constructed by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. as a landmark for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago; however, wheels of this form predate Ferris's wheel by centuries. The generic term "Ferris wheel," now used in English for all such structures, has become the most common type of amusement ride at state fairs in the United States.


title: Ferris wheel

text: The tallest Ferris wheel, the Ain Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, opened in October 2021. The previous record holder since 2014 had been the High Roller in Las Vegas, Nevada, which opened to the public in March 2014.


title: Ferris wheel

text: The term "Ferris wheel" comes from the maker of one of the first examples constructed for Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. in 1893.


title: Ferris wheel

text: Modern versions have been called "observation wheels". In 1892, when the incorporation papers for the Ferris Wheel Company (constructors of the original 1893 Chicago Ferris Wheel) were filed, the purpose of the company was stated as: [construction and operation of] "wheels of the Ferris or other types for the purpose of observation or amusement".


title: Ferris wheel

text: Design variation includes single (cantilevered) or twin sided support for the wheel and whether the cars or capsules are oriented upright by gravity or by electric motors. The most prevalent design is the use of twin sided support and gravity-oriented capsules.


title: Ferris wheel

text: "Pleasure wheels", whose passengers rode in chairs suspended from large wooden rings turned by strong men, may have originated in 17th-century Bulgaria.


title: Ferris wheel

text: "The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1608–1667" describes and illustrates ""severall Sorts of Swinginge used in their Publique rejoyceings att their Feast of Biram"" on 17 May 1620 at Philippopolis (now Plovdiv) in the Ottoman Balkans. Among means ""lesse dangerous and troublesome"" was one:


title: Ferris wheel

text: Five years earlier, in 1615, Pietro Della Valle, a Roman traveller who sent letters from Constantinople, Persia, and India, attended a Ramadan festival in Constantinople. He describes the fireworks, floats, and great swings, then comments on riding the Great Wheel:


title: Ferris wheel

text: Similar wheels also appeared in England in the 17th century, and subsequently elsewhere around the world, including India, Romania, and Siberia.


title: Ferris wheel

text: A Frenchman, Antonio Manguino, introduced the idea to America in 1848, when he constructed a wooden pleasure wheel to attract visitors to his start-up fair in Walton Spring, Georgia.


title: Ferris wheel

text: In 1892, William Somers installed three fifty-foot wooden wheels at Asbury Park, New Jersey; Atlantic City, New Jersey; and Coney Island, New York. The following year he was granted the first U.S. patent for a "Roundabout". George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. rode on Somers' wheel in Atlantic City prior to designing his wheel for the World's Columbian Exposition. In 1893 Somers filed a lawsuit against Ferris for patent infringement; however, Ferris and his lawyers successfully argued that the Ferris Wheel and its technology differed greatly from Somers' wheel, and the case was dismissed.


title: Ferris wheel

text: The original Ferris wheel, sometimes referred to as the Chicago Wheel, was designed and constructed by Ferris Jr. and opened in 1893; however, an earlier wheel was created for the New York State fair in 1854, created by two Erie Canal workers.


title: Ferris wheel

text: With a height of , it was the tallest attraction at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, where it opened to the public on June 21, 1893. It was intended to rival the Eiffel Tower, the centerpiece of the 1889 Paris Exposition.


title: Ferris wheel

text: Ferris was a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, bridge-builder. He began his career in the railroad industry and then pursued an interest in bridge building. Ferris understood the growing need for structural steel and founded G.W.G. Ferris & Co. in Pittsburgh, a firm that tested and inspected metals for railroads and bridge builders.


title: Ferris wheel

text: The wheel rotated on a 71-ton, 45.5-foot axle comprising what was at that time the world's largest hollow forging, manufactured in Pittsburgh by the Bethlehem Iron Company and weighing 89,320 pounds, together with two cast-iron spiders weighing 53,031 pounds.


title: Ferris wheel

text: There were 36 cars, each fitted with 40 revolving chairs and able to accommodate up to 60 people, giving a total capacity of 2,160. The wheel carried some 38,000 passengers daily and took 20 minutes to complete two revolutions, the first involving six stops to allow passengers to exit and enter and the second a nine-minute non-stop rotation, for which the ticket holder paid 50 cents.


title: Ferris wheel

text: The Exposition ended in October 1893, and the wheel closed in April 1894 and was dismantled and stored until the following year. It was then rebuilt on Chicago's North Side, near the high-income enclave of Lincoln Park. William D. Boyce, then a local resident, filed a Circuit Court action against the owners of the wheel to have it removed, but without success. It operated there from October 1895 until 1903, when it was again dismantled, then transported by rail to St. Louis for the 1904 World's Fair and finally destroyed by controlled demolition using dynamite on May 11, 1906.


title: Ferris wheel

text: The Wiener Riesenrad (German for "Viennese Giant Wheel") is a surviving example of 19th-century Ferris wheels. Erected in 1897 in the Wurstelprater section of Prater public park in the Leopoldstadt district of Vienna, Austria, to celebrate Emperor Franz Josef I's Golden Jubilee, it has a height of and originally had 30 passenger cars. A demolition permit for the Riesenrad was issued in 1916, but due to a lack of funds with which to carry out the destruction, it survived.


title: Ferris wheel

text: Following the demolition of the Grande Roue de Paris in 1920, the Riesenrad became the world's tallest extant Ferris wheel. In 1944 it burnt down, but was rebuilt the following year with 15 passenger cars, and remained the world's tallest extant wheel until its 97th year, when the Technocosmos was constructed for Expo '85, at Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.


title: Ferris wheel

text: Still in operation today, it is one of Vienna's most popular tourist attractions, and over the years has featured in numerous films (including "Madame Solange d`Atalide" (1914), "Letter from an Unknown Woman" (1948), "The Third Man" (1949), "The Living Daylights" (1987), "Before Sunrise" (1995)) and novels.


title: Ferris wheel

text: Following the huge success of the London Eye since it opened in 2000, giant Ferris wheels have been proposed for many other cities; however, a large number of these projects have stalled or failed.


title: Ferris wheel

text: Nippon Moon, described as a "giant observation wheel" by its designers, was reported in September 2013 to be "currently in development". At that time, its height was "currently undisclosed", but "almost twice the scale of the wheel in London". Its location, an unspecified Japanese city, was "currently under wraps", and its funding had "yet to be entirely secured". Commissioned by Ferris Wheel Investment Co., Ltd., and designed by UNStudio in collaboration with Arup, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Experientia, it was expected to have 32 individually themed capsules and take 40 minutes to rotate once.


title: Ferris wheel

text: The Shanghai Star, initially planned as a tall wheel to be built by 2005, was revised to , with a completion date set in 2007, but then cancelled in 2006 due to "political incorrectness". An earlier proposal for a structure, the Shanghai Kiss, with capsules ascending and descending a pair of towers which met at their peaks instead of a wheel, was deemed too expensive at £100m.


title: Ferris wheel

text: Rus-3000, a wheel planned to open in 2004 in Moscow, has since been reported cancelled. Subsequently, an approximately wheel was considered for Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure, and a wheel proposed for location near Sparrow Hills. Another giant wheel planned for Prospekt Vernadskogo for 2002 was also never built.


title: Ferris wheel

text: In 2012 or 2015, there was a proposal for a 900 ft Ferris wheel for the east side of Las Vegas. (This wheel would have been built next to Boulder Station Casino.); however, it was never built. In June 2017, many of the people, including the casino's manager, said that "there was NO such ever thing as an east side Vegas Ferris wheel. I have never heard anything like that." It was revealed much later to be a fan fiction idea. The site of what was supposed to be the "east side Vegas wheel" sits and remains abandoned.


title: Ferris wheel

text: At some malls and amusement parks indoor Ferris wheels were realized. The largest of its kind has a diametre of 47.6 metres and is situated in the 95 metres high Alem Cultural and Entertainment Center in Ashgabat.


title: Ferris wheel

text: Wheels with passenger cars mounted external to the rim and independently rotated by electric motors, as opposed to wheels with cars suspended from the rim and kept upright by gravity, are uncommon. Typically they are called 'Observation wheels' but there is no standardised terminology.


title: Ferris wheel

text: Official conceptual renderings of the proposed New York Wheel also show a wheel equipped with externally mounted motorised capsules.


title: Ferris wheel

text: In the centreless (sometimes called hubless or spokeless) wheel design, there is no central hub and the rim of the wheel stays fixed in place. Instead, each car travels around the circumference of the rim. The first centreless wheel built was the Big O at Tokyo Dome City in Japan. Its height has since been surpassed by the high Bailang River Bridge Ferris Wheel on the upper deck of the Bailang River Bridge in Shandong Province, China, which opened in 2017.


title: Ferris wheel

text: The first centreless wheel in North America opened in January 2019 at the indoor Méga Parc in Quebec City, Canada. The wheel at Méga Parc was designed and manufactured by Larson International.


title: Ferris wheel

text: Transportable Ferris wheels are designed to be operated at multiple locations, as opposed to fixed wheels which are usually intended for permanent installation. Small transportable designs may be permanently mounted on trailers, and can be moved intact. Larger transportable wheels are designed to be repeatedly dismantled and rebuilt, some using water ballast instead of the permanent foundations of their fixed counterparts.


title: Ferris wheel

text: Fixed wheels are also sometimes dismantled and relocated. Larger examples include the original Ferris Wheel, which operated at two sites in Chicago, Illinois, and a third in St. Louis, Missouri; Technocosmos/Technostar, which moved to Expoland, Osaka, after Expo '85, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, for which it was built, ended; and Cosmo Clock 21, which added onto its original height when erected for the second time at Minato Mirai 21, Yokohama, in 1999.


title: Ferris wheel

text: One of the most famous transportable wheels is the Roue de Paris, originally installed on the Place de la Concorde in Paris for the 2000 millennium celebrations. Roue de Paris left France in 2002 and in 2003–04 operated in Birmingham and Manchester, England. In 2005 it visited first Geleen then Amsterdam, Netherlands, before returning to England to operate at Gateshead. In 2006 it was erected at the Suan Lum Night Bazaar in Bangkok, Thailand, and by 2008 had made its way to Antwerp, Belgium.


title: Ferris wheel

text: Roue de Paris is a Ronald Bussink series R60 design using of water ballast to provide a stable base. The R60 weighs , and can be erected in 72 hours and dismantled in 60 hours by a specialist team. Transport requires seven 20-foot container lorries, ten open trailer lorries, and one closed trailer lorry. Its 42-passenger cars can be loaded either 3 or 6 at a time, and each car can carry 8 people. Bussink R60 wheels have operated in Australia (Brisbane), Canada (Niagara Falls), France (Paris), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur & Malacca), México (Puebla), UK (Belfast, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield), US (Atlanta, Myrtle Beach), and elsewhere.


title: Ferris wheel

text: Other notable transportable wheels include the Steiger Ferris Wheel, which was the world's tallest transportable wheel when it began operating in 1980. It has 42 passenger cars, and weighs 450 tons. On October 11, 2010, it collapsed at the Kramermarkt in Oldenburg, Germany, during deconstruction.


title: Ferris wheel

text: A double Ferris wheel designed to include a horizontal turntable was patented in 1939 by John F. Courtney, working for Velare & Courtney. In Courtney's design, there were two independent Ferris wheels, each rotating at either end of a cantilever arm. The cantilever arm was supported in the middle by a tall vertical support, and the cantilever arm itself rotated around its middle pivot point. The design was similar to the earlier Aeriocycle, but the double wheel patented by Courtney allowed the cantilever arm to make a complete rotation, while the Aeriocycle was limited to a seesaw motion. Courtney continued to file additional patents on improved designs through the 1950s to make them more portable, and at about the same time, the Velare brothers patented the "Space Wheel", a side-by-side double with four total Ferris wheels.


title: Ferris wheel

text: The design was later sold to the Allan Herschell Company in 1959 and marketed as the "Sky Wheel"; the first sale as the Sky Wheel was to 20th Century Rides in October 1960. The Sky Wheel seated up to 32 riders in 16 two-person cars, with 8 cars per wheel, and riders reached a peak of approximately . The height and popularity of the Sky Wheel was eclipsed by larger single wheels in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and it has since largely disappeared from common use. , there are four known Sky Wheels that remain in operation.


title: Ferris wheel

text: In March 1966, Thomas Glen Robinson and Ralph G. Robinson received a patent for a Planetary Amusement Ride, which was a distinct double wheel design. In the Robinsons' patent, the cantilever arm was bent at a slightly obtuse angle, and the cars were carried on a spoked "spider" rotating structure at each end of the cantilever. With the obtuse-angle cantilever, one spider could be lowered to the ground in a horizontal plane so that all the cars on that spider could be unloaded and loaded simultaneously, while the spider on the other end of the cantilever would continue to rotate in a near-vertical plane.


title: Ferris wheel

text: Robinson sold two of these rides – Astrowheel, which operated at the former Six Flags Astroworld in Houston, Texas, and Galaxy, which operated at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California. Both were manufactured by Astron International Corporation. Astrowheel was part of the original lineup of rides when Astroworld opened in 1968; it was removed in 1981 to make way for the Warp 10 ride. Astrowheel had an eight-spoked spider at the end of each arm, and each tip had a separate car for eight cars in total on each end. In contrast, Galaxy had double the capacity with a four-spoked spider at the end of each arm; each tip bore an independent four-spoked sub-spider for sixteen cars in total on each end. Like Astrowheel, Galaxy was part of the lineup at Magic Mountain when the park opened in 1971, and was removed in 1980 when Six Flags took over ownership of both parks.


title: Ferris wheel

text: Swiss broker Intamin marketed a similar series of double wheels manufactured by Waagner-Biro, comprising a vertical column supporting a straight cantilever arm, with each end of the cantilever arm ending in a spoked Ferris wheel. The first Intamin produced was Giant Wheel at Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which operated from 1973 to 2004. Other double wheels made by Waagner-Biro/Intamin include Zodiac (Kings Island, Mason, Ohio; 1975–86; moved to Wonderland Sydney and operated 1989–2004), Scorpion (Parque de la Ciudad, Buenos Aires, Argentina; 1982–2003), and Double Wheel (Kuwait Entertainment City, Kuwait City, Kuwait; 1984–91).


title: Ferris wheel

text: A triple variant was custom designed for the Marriott Corporation and debuted at both Marriott's Great America parks (now Six Flags Great America, Gurnee, Illinois, and California's Great America, Santa Clara) in 1976 as Sky Whirl. Each ride had three main components: the three spiders/wheels with their passenger cars; the triple-spoked supporting arm; and the single central supporting column. Each wheel rotated about one of the three ends of the supporting arm. The supporting arm would in turn rotate around its central hub as a single unit about the top of the supporting column. The axis about which the supporting arm turned was offset from vertical (i.e., the plane of rotation was not horizontal), so that as the supporting arm rotated, each wheel was raised and lowered. When lowered, one wheel was horizontal at ground level. At the same time, the other wheels remained raised and continued to rotate in a near-vertical plane at considerable height. The lowered horizontal wheel was brought to a standstill for simultaneous loading and unloading of all its passenger cars.


title: Ferris wheel

text: The Sky Whirl was also known as a triple Ferris wheel, Triple Giant Wheel, or Triple Tree Wheel; it was in height. The Sky Whirl in Santa Clara was filmed for a memorable rescue scene in "Beverly Hills Cop III" (renamed to "The Spider" for the film). The Santa Clara ride, renamed Triple Wheel in post-Marriott years, closed on September 1, 1997. The Gurnee ride closed in 2000. Two triple wheels were built for Asian clients: Tree Triple Wheel at Seibu-en (Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan; 1985–2004) and Hydra at Lotte World (Seoul, South Korea; 1989–97).


title: Ferris wheel

text: An eccentric wheel (sometimes called a sliding wheel or coaster wheel) differs from a conventional Ferris wheel in that some or all of its passenger cars are not fixed directly to the rim of the wheel, but instead slide on rails between the rim and the hub as the wheel rotates.


title: Ferris wheel

text: The two most famous eccentric wheels are Wonder Wheel, at Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park, Coney Island, US, and Pixar Pal-A-Round (previously Sun Wheel and Mickey's Fun Wheel), at Disney California Adventure, US. The latter is a replica of the former. There is a second replica in Yokohama Dreamland, Japan.


title: Ferris wheel

text: Pixar Pal-A-Round is tall and has 24 fully enclosed passenger cars, each able to carry six passengers. Each passenger car is decorated with the face of a Pixar character. Sixteen slide inward and outward as the wheel rotates, the remainder are fixed to the rim. There are separate boarding queues for sliding and fixed cars, so that passengers may choose between the two. Inspired by Coney Island's 1920 Wonder Wheel, it was designed by Walt Disney Imagineering and Waagner Biro, completed in 2001 as the Sun Wheel, later refurbished and reopened in 2009 as Mickey's Fun Wheel, and again rethemed as Pixar Pal-A-Round in 2018.


title: Ferris wheel

text: Great Wheel Corporation (merged with World Tourist Attractions in 2009 to form Great City Attractions)


title: Ferris wheel

text: Ronald Bussink (formerly Nauta Bussink; then Ronald Bussink Professional Rides; then Bussink Landmarks since 2008)


title: Street Fighter II

text: It prominently features a popular two-player mode that obligates direct, human-to-human competitive play which prolonged the survival of the declining video game arcade business market by stimulating business and driving the fighter genre. It inspired grassroots tournament events, culminating into Evolution Championship Series (EVO). "Street Fighter II" shifted the arcade competitive dynamic from achieving personal-best high scores to head-to-head competition, including large groups.


title: Street Fighter II

text: "Street Fighter II" became the best-selling game since the golden age of arcade video games. By 1994, it had been played by at least 25 million people in the United States alone. Due to its major success, a series of updated versions was released with additional features and characters. Worldwide, more than 200,000 arcade cabinets and 15million software units of all versions of "Street Fighter II" have been sold, grossing an estimated in total revenue, making it one of the top three highest-grossing video games of all time and the best-selling fighting game until 2019. More than 6.3 million SNES cartridges of "Street Fighter II" have been sold, making it Capcom's best-selling single software game for the next two decades, its best-selling game on a single platform, and the highest-selling third-party game on the SNES.


title: Street Fighter II

text: "Street Fighter II" is regarded as one of the greatest video games of all time and the most important and influential fighting game ever made. Its launch is seen as a revolutionary moment within its genre, credited with popularizing the fighting genre during the 1990s and inspiring other producers to create their own fighting series. It sparked a renaissance for the arcade video game industry and impacted competitive video gaming and wider popular culture such as films and music.


title: Street Fighter II

text: "Street Fighter II" follows several conventions and rules established by its 1987 predecessor "Street Fighter". The player engages opponents in one-on-one close quarter combat in a series of best-two-out-of-three matches. The objective of each round is to deplete the opponent's vitality before the timer runs out. Both fighters having equal vitality left yields a "double KO" or "draw game" and additional rounds ensue until sudden death.


title: Street Fighter II

text: In the first "Street Fighter II", a match can last up to ten rounds; this was reduced to four rounds since "". If there is no clear winner by the end of the final round, either the computer-controlled opponent will win by default in a single-player match or both fighters will lose in a 2-player match. After every third match in the single-player mode, a bonus stage gives additional points including a car-breaking stage, a barrel breaking stage, and a drum-breaking stage. Between the matches, the next match location is selected on a world map.


title: Street Fighter II

text: Like in "Street Fighter", the controls are an eight-directional joystick and six attack buttons. The joystick can jump, crouch, walk left and right, and block. A tradeoff of strength and speed are given by three punch buttons and three kick buttons, each of light, medium, and heavy. The player can perform a variety of basic moves in any position, including new grabbing and throwing attacks. Special moves are performed by combinations of directional and button-based commands.


title: Street Fighter II

text: "Street Fighter II" differs from its predecessor due to the selection of multiple playable characters, each with distinct fighting styles and special moves including combos. According to IGN, "the concept of combinations, linked attacks that can't be blocked when they're timed correctly, came about more or less by accident. "Street Fighter II"s designers didn't quite mean for it to happen, but players of the original game eventually found out that certain moves naturally flowed into other ones." This combo system was later adopted as a standard feature of fighting games and was expanded upon in this series.


title: Street Fighter II

text: The leader of the Shadaloo organization, M. Bison, in his global domination plan sets up a world fighting tournament, to select the best fighters to work in his Shadaloo organization through brainwashing.


title: Street Fighter II

text: M. Bison's plans are foiled by Akuma (who was not a competitor in the tournament) who catches him off guard and performs the Shun Goku Satsu on him, killing the Shadaloo boss in an instant. Akuma then takes M. Bison's place in the tournament to fight the finalist, who some sources hint is Ryu. Akuma mocks M. Bison for being the slave of his own power, not knowing that he is actually in absolute control of his Psycho Power.


title: Street Fighter II

text: The original "Street Fighter II" features a roster of eight playable World Warriors. This includes Ryu and Ken—the main protagonists from "Street Fighter"—plus six new international newcomers. In the single-player tournament, the player fights the other seven main fighters, then the final opponentsa group of four CPU-only opponents known as the Grand Masters, which includes Sagat from "Street Fighter".


title: Street Fighter II

text: Takayuki Nakayama stated in an interview that many character design ideas were trialled and dropped along the development process. Rejected character designs for "Street Fighter II" included a bullfighter and an American amateur wrestler.


title: Street Fighter II

text: With the exception of Sagat, the Shadaloo Bosses have different names in the Japanese version. The African-American boxer known as Balrog in the international versions was designed as a pastiche of real-life boxer Mike Tyson and was originally named M. Bison (short for "Mike Bison", with "Mike" being one of the American opponents faced in "Street Fighter"). Vega and M. Bison were originally named Balrog and Vega, respectively. When "Street Fighter II" was localized for the overseas market, the names of the bosses were rotated, out of concern that the boxer's similarities to Tyson could have led to a likeness infringement lawsuit. This name change was carried over to future games in the series. To avoid confusion in tournament play, many players refer to each character by a defining characteristic. The names are "Claw" to refer to the character from Spain, "Boxer" to refer to the African-American boxer, and "Dictator" to refer to the final boss.


title: Street Fighter II

text: The characters in the Japanese version have more than one win quote and if the player loses a match against the CPU in the Japanese version, a random playing tip will be shown at the bottom of the continue screen. While the ending text for the characters was originally translated literally, a few changes were made due to creative differences from Capcom's U.S. marketing staff. For example, the name of Guile's fallen friend (who later debuted as a playable fighter in "Street Fighter Alpha") was changed from Nash to Charlie, since a staff member from Capcom USA said that Nash is not a natural sounding English name.


title: Street Fighter II

text: Although the original punching-pad cabinet of "Street Fighter" had not been very popular, the alternate six-button version was more successful, which began to generate interest in a sequel. Capcom began to make fighting games a priority after "Final Fight" was commercially successful in the United States. Yoshiki Okamoto recounted, "The basic idea at Capcom was to revive "Street Fighter", a good game concept, to make it a better-playing arcade game."


title: Street Fighter II

text: Development of "Street Fighter II" took about two years and about 35 to 40 people, with Noritaka Funamizu as a producer, and Akira Nishitani and Akira Yasuda in charge of the game and character design, respectively. The budget was estimated at .


title: Street Fighter II

text: Funamizu notes that the developers did not particularly prioritize "Street Fighter II"s balance; he primarily ascribes the game's success to its appealing animation patterns. The quality of animation benefited from the developers' use of the CPS-1 hardware, with advantages including allowing different characters to occupy different amounts of memory. For example, Ryu can occupy 8 megabits and Zangief 12 megabits.


title: Street Fighter II

text: The vast majority of in-game music was composed by Yoko Shimomura. This is ultimately the only game in the series on which Shimomura worked, as she left the company for Square two years later. Isao Abe, a Capcom newcomer, handled a few additional tracks ("Versus Screen", "Sagat's Theme", and "Here Comes A New Challenger") for "Street Fighter II" and became the main composer on the subsequent versions. The sound programming and sound effects were overseen by Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, the composer on "Street Fighter".


title: Street Fighter II

text: Location testing began in Japan. It was then exhibited in the United Kingdom at London's Amusement Trades Exhibition International (ATEI) in January 1991. The same month, Capcom held a two-week location test in North America, before unveiling the game at Capcom's distributor conference on February 1, 1991, held at Marriott Harbor Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Capcom introduced "Street Fighter II" as its "greatest video game ever".


title: Street Fighter II

text: "Street Fighter II" was released for the Super Famicom on June 10, 1992, in Japan, followed by a North American release for the SNES in August and a European release in December. It is the first game released on a 16-megabit SNES cartridge. Many aspects from the arcade versions were either changed or simplified in order to fit into the smaller memory capacity. This version has a secret code allowing both players to control the same character in a match, which is not possible in the original arcade version. The second player uses the same alternate color palette introduced in "". The four Shadaloo Bosses are still non-playable, but the code enables their "Champion Edition" color palette. Tatsuya Nishimura, who had recently joined Capcom from TOSE, arranged the soundtrack with assistance from Shimomura, Abe, and Sakaguchi.


title: Street Fighter II

text: The American SNES cartridge was re-released in November 2017 as a limited edition item to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the "Street Fighter" series.


title: Street Fighter II

text: U.S. Gold released versions of "Street Fighter II" for various home computer platforms in Europe, namely the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, PC (DOS), and ZX Spectrum. These were all developed by Creative Materials, except the ZX Spectrum version by Tiertex Design Studios. The PC version was also published in North America by Hi-Tech Expressions. These versions suffer numerous inaccuracies, such as missing graphical assets and music tracks, miscolored palettes, and lack of six-button controls due to these platforms having only one or two-button joysticks as standard at the time. Though officially advertised by US Gold along with the C64 and ZX Spectrum conversions and anticipated in magazines, the Amstrad CPC development by Creative Materials was canceled.


title: Street Fighter II

text: The Game Boy version of "Street Fighter II" was released on August 11, 1995, in Japan, and in September 1995 internationally. It is missing Dhalsim, E. Honda, and Vega. The graphics, character portraits, and stages are based on "Super Street Fighter II", although some moves (such as Blanka's Amazon River Run) from "Super Street Fighter II Turbo" are included. Because the Game Boy only has two buttons, the strength of punches and kicks is determined by the duration of button presses.


title: Street Fighter II

text: "Street Fighter II", "Champion Edition", and "Turbo" are in the compilation "Capcom Generation 5" for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn, which was released in North America and Europe as "Street Fighter Collection 2". All three games are in "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1" for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, and in "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded" for the PlayStation Portable.


title: Street Fighter II

text: "Street Fighter II" spawned a series of revisions, each refining the play mechanics, graphics, character roster, and other aspects of the game. The first update, "", was released in arcades in March 1992. It rebalances characters' power levels, allows both players in two-player matches to select the same character (distinguished by alternate costume colors) and allows players to choose the four previously computer-only boss characters.


title: Street Fighter II

text: Following the release of "Champion Edition", a wave of unauthorized modifications for arcade cabinets, such as the so-called , appeared, prompting Capcom's official response with "Street Fighter II Turbo" in December, increasing the playing speed and giving some characters new special moves.


title: Street Fighter II

text: "" was released in September 1993, using the more advanced CP System II, allowing for updated graphics and audio, and introducing four new characters, but relieving the speed increase of "Street Fighter II Turbo", which led to it being quickly superseded by "Super Street Fighter II Turbo", released in February 1994, which allows for a selective game speed, introduces powered-up special moves called Super Combos, and adds a new hidden character.


title: Street Fighter II

text: All arcade "Street Fighter II" games have been ported to various platforms, as individual releases and in compilations. Later home versions further revise or expand the game, including "Hyper Street Fighter II" (which was later given an arcade release) and "Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix". "" was released for Nintendo Switch and adds two (later three) characters who previously debuted outside "Street Fighter II" updates.


title: Street Fighter II

text: In addition to official updated versions, numerous counterfeit modified versions of "Street Fighter II" were in wide circulation. For example, nine different counterfeit versions were available on Super Famicom in Japan by December 1992.


title: Street Fighter II

text: By 1994, "Street Fighter II" had been played by at least 25 million people in the United States alone, across arcades and homes. All versions of "Street Fighter II" are estimated to have grossed a total of in revenue, mostly from the arcade market. , it is one of the top three highest-grossing video games of all time, along with "Space Invaders" (1978) and "Pac-Man" (1980).


title: Street Fighter II

text: "Street Fighter II" was not immediately successful in Japan, as most arcade players were initially playing it solo, rather than multiplayer as originally intended. Yoshiki Okamoto was disappointed with its initial performance, and was told he should have produced another solo beat 'em up like "Final Fight" instead. After Japanese arcade magazine "Gamest" began publishing articles informing readers about the "battle play" feature, the game began gaining considerable popularity in Japanese arcades. In Japan, "" magazine listed the game on their April 1, 1991 issue as being the second most-successful table arcade cabinet of the month, outperforming games such as "Detana!! TwinBee" and "King of the Monsters", before "Street Fighter II" topped the charts two weeks later. It went on to become the highest-grossing arcade game of 1991 in Japan, and then it again became the highest-grossing arcade game of 1992. "Street Fighter II Turbo" became the highest-grossing arcade game of 1993, with "Street Fighter II Dash" ("Champion Edition") at number four and "The World Warrior" at number nine.


title: Street Fighter II

text: "Street Fighter II" was similarly successful in the Western world. In the United States, the game was more immediately successful as it exceeded expectations in test markets, with individual machines earning per week, Capcom USA sales representative Jeff Walker predicted it would "become the kit of 1991" and "RePlay" magazine said the game showed there was "plenty of life" left in the then struggling arcade business. By March, it had become a blockbuster and the top-grossing game in the United States, giving a substantial boost in earnings for street operators. It topped the "RePlay" arcade software charts from May 1991 through August 1992, for a total of 16 months. On the "Play Meter" arcade charts, it was the top-grossing video game during JanuaryFebruary 1992 and May 1992. "Street Fighter II" was the highest-grossing arcade game of 1991 in the United States, and one of the top five highest-grossing arcade conversion kits of 1992 (below "Champion Edition"). Its success was considered phenomenal; by 1992, it had turned around the convenience store segment of the coin-op industry and become the best-selling arcade game in ten years. "Electronic Games" noted in its October 1992 issue, "Not since the early 1980s has an arcade game received so much attention and all-out fanatical popularity." It was similarly successful in Australia, where it was performing strongly after 16 months on the market, with "Leisure Line" magazine noting in 1992 that not "since the days of "Space Invaders" (1978) has a game had such longevity".


title: Street Fighter II

text: In 1991, 50,000 arcade units were sold worldwide, including 17,000 units in Japan, with Capcom reporting continued production of arcade units due to repeat orders. In the United Kingdom, "Your Commodore" reported in July 1991 that spectators were betting on players at London West End arcades. Between early 1991 and early 1993, "Street Fighter II" had captured about 60% of the global coin-op market, including 10,000 units installed in the United Kingdom by mid-1991, with individual machines in the UK estimated to be taking between per week over the next two years. "Street Fighter II" generated an estimated annual revenue of in the UK alone for the two years between mid-1991 and mid-1993, totaling ( at the time, equivalent to $ in ).


title: Street Fighter II

text: The company sold more than 60,000 arcade machines of the original "Street Fighter II", including about 20,000 to 25,000 units in the United States. It was followed by "Street Fighter II′" ("Dash" or "Champion Edition"), of which 140,000 arcade units were sold in Japan alone, where it cost ¥160,000 ($1300) for each unit, amounting to ¥22.4 billion ($182 million) revenue generated from hardware sales in Japan (equivalent to $ in ), in addition to about 20,000 to 25,000 units sold in the United States. On the US "RePlay" arcade charts for July 1992, "Champion Edition" was number one on the upright cabinets chart (above Midway's "Mortal Kombat") while the original "Street Fighter II" was number two on the coin-op software chart (below SNK's "World Heroes"). "Street Fighter II" generated (equivalent to $ in ) annually in 1993, making it the year's highest-grossing entertainment product, above the film "Jurassic Park". In January 1994, Capcom referred to "Street Fighter II" as "the most successful video game series of the decade" while promoting "Super Street Fighter II". In early 1994, Capcom projected sales of "Super Street Fighter II" to reach 100,000 arcade units. According to the March 1995 issue of "GameFan" magazine, the game had earned "billions of dollars in profit".


title: Street Fighter II

text: In addition to Capcom's official arcade units, many pirated counterfeit "Street Fighter II" arcade clone units were sold across the world. "RePlay" noted in January 1993 that "Street Fighter II" had "single-handedly re-ignited the worldwide black market in counterfeit PCBs and speed-up kits". Many counterfeit arcade units often outsold official "Street Fighter II" arcade cabinets in various markets. For example, about 200,000 counterfeits were in Mexico alone, where Capcom did not officially sell the game. Bondeal from Hong Kong produced 3,000 copied arcade units per month for markets such as Latin America, and a Taiwanese firm produced 20,000 copied arcade units in 1991; in Taiwan, up to 150,000 clone units were manufactured by 1992. Many counterfeit units were in South Korea, such as a trader selling about 100 "Street Fighter II" PCBs by 1992. Seven different versions of the game claimed to be sequels in 1992, mostly from Hong Kong, and one named "Champion of Champion Editions" reportedly was in British arcades. Capcom and its partners took legal action against counterfeit arcade units in regions such as Southeast Asia, North America, South Korea, and Puerto Rico.


title: Street Fighter II

text: The numerous home conversions of "Street Fighter II" are listed among Capcom's Platinum-class games, with more than one million units sold worldwide. In Japan, 1 million copies of the Super Famicom version were sold in June 1992 within the first two weeks of its release, at a retail price of (equivalent to $ then, or $ in ). The February 1992 issue of "Gamest" magazine in Japan said that, due to low stock, the console versions were selling for much higher at ¥15,000 (equivalent to about at the time, or $ in ). It topped the Japanese "Famitsu" sales charts from June through July to August 1992. It was a multi-million seller in Japan by December 1992.


title: Street Fighter II

text: In the United States, 750,000 units of the SNES version were sold between July 15 and September 30, 1992, with a retail price of . According to "Electronic Gaming Monthly", "Never has a game taken the country [by] storm as this one has." It remained America's top-selling Super NES game for much of late 1992, in August and then October, November, and December. In 1992 in North America, units were sold. In the United Kingdom, "Street Fighter II" replaced "Super Mario World" as the bundled game for the SNES, and the SNES and Amiga versions made it the second best-selling home video game of 1992, below "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" for the Mega Drive. Worldwide, 4 million "Street Fighter II" cartridges had been sold by September 1992, units by the end of 1992, and over by 1993. The SNES version became the company's best-selling single consumer game software, at more than 6.3 million units, and it remains its best-selling game software on a single platform. By 1993, units of all home software versions had been sold, and units for Nintendo and Sega consoles by March 1994.


title: Street Fighter II

text: The SNES versions of "Street Fighter II Turbo" and "Super Street Fighter II" had 4.1 million and 2 million unit sales, respectively, followed by the Mega Drive/Genesis version of "Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition" with 1.65 million sales. In total, more than 14 million copies were sold for the SNES and Mega Drive/Genesis consoles. The SNES version of "Street Fighter II" was Capcom's best-selling single game until 2013, when it was surpassed by "Resident Evil 5". The Amiga version was successful in the United Kingdom, where it became the best-selling home computer software of 1992, though only being available for the last 16 days of the year. "Street Fighter II" also topped the UK's Amiga sales chart in January 1993, and the UK's Atari ST chart in March 1993. In 2008, "Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix" broke both the first-day and first-week sales records for a download-only game. "Street Fighter II" was the best-selling fighting game with 15.5million units sold across all versions and platforms, until it was surpassed by "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" in 2019.


title: Street Fighter II

text: Like the arcades, the home conversions were impacted by copyright infringement. Upon release of the SNES version in 1992, thirteen different unauthorized versions were reportedly available for the Super Famicom.


title: Street Fighter II

text: The original arcade version of "Street Fighter II" was awarded of 1991 in "Gamest" magazine's Fifth Annual Grand Prize, which also won in the genre of Best Action Game (the award for fighting games was not established yet). "Street Fighter II" placed No. 1 in Best VGM, Best Direction, and Best Album, and was second place in Best Graphics below the 3D Namco System 21 game "Starblade". All the characters except M. Bison (known internationally as Balrog) are on the list of Best Characters of 1991.


title: Street Fighter II

text: "Street Fighter II Dash" was awarded Best Game of 1992 in the Sixth Annual Grand Prize, as published in the February 1993 issue of "Gamest", winning again as Best Action Game. It placed No. 3 in Best VGM, No. 6 in Best Graphics, and No. 5 in Best Direction. The "Street Fighter II Image Album" is the No. 1 Best Album in the same issue, with the Drama CD version of "Street Fighter II" tied for No. 7 with the soundtrack for "Star Blade". The List of Best Characters only had Chun-Li at No. 3.


title: Street Fighter II

text: In the February 1994 issue of "Gamest", both "Street Fighter II Turbo" and "Super Street Fighter II" were nominated for Best Game of 1993, but neither won (the first place was given to "Samurai Spirits"). "Super" ranked third place, and "Turbo" ranked sixth. In the category of Best Fighting Games, "Super" ranked third place again, while "Turbo" placed fifth. "Super" won third place in the categories of Best Graphics and Best VGM. Cammy, who was introduced in "Super", placed fifth place in the list of Best Characters of 1993, with Dee Jay at 36 and T. Hawk at 37. In the January 30, 1995 issue of "Gamest", "Super Street Fighter II X" (known as "Super Turbo" internationally) placed fourth place in the award for Best Game of 1994 and Best Fighting Game, but did not rank in any of the other awards.


title: Street Fighter II

text: The Super Famicom (SNES) version was critically acclaimed. "Famitsu"s panel of four reviewers gave it scores of 9, 9, 9, and 8, adding up to 35 out of 40. This made it one of their five highest-rated games of 1992, along with "", "Shin Megami Tensei", "World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck", and "Mario Paint". They later gave the "Turbo" update a score of 36 out of 40. This made "Street Fighter II Turbo" their highest-rated game of 1993, and the twelfth game to have received a "Famitsu" score of 36/40 or above.


title: Street Fighter II

text: The arcade game was well received by English-language critics upon release. In March 1991, "RePlay" magazine said "the graphics and sounds are tops" while praising the "solid" gameplay, and it was considered the top game at the American Coin Machine Exposition (ACME) that month. In May 1991, Julian Rignall of "Computer and Video Games" gave it ratings of 94% for graphics, 93% for sound, 95% for playability, and 92% for lastability, with a 93% score overall. He criticized the original "Street Fighter" for being a "run-of-the-mill beat 'em up with little in the way of thrills and spills" but praised the sequel for being "absolutely packed with new ideas" and special moves. He noted the "six buttons combining with 8 joystick directions to provide more moves than I've ever seen in a beat 'em up" and praised the "massive, beautifully drawn and animated sprites, tons of speech and the most exciting, action-packed head-to-head conflict yet seen in an arcade game," concluding that it is "one of the best fighting games yet seen in the arcades" and a "brilliant" coin-op. In the June 1991 issue of "Sinclair User", John Cook gave the arcade game an "addict factor" of 84%. He praised the gameplay and the "excellent" animation and sound effects, but criticized the controls, stating players "might find the control system a bit daunting at first [with] a joystick plus six (count 'em!) fire buttons [but] it's not that bad really". He concluded "this is bound to appeal to you if you like the beat 'em up style of game." Jeff Davy of "Your Commodore" praised the game for its large sprites, character animation, varied opponents, character moves, and two-player mode. "Computer and Video Games" later referred to "Street Fighter II" as the "game of the millennium" in 1992.


title: Street Fighter II

text: The SNES version of "Street Fighter II" was very well received. In "Electronic Gaming Monthly" ("EGM"), its panel of four reviewers gave it scores of 10, 9, 10, and 9, adding up to 38 out of 40, and their "Game of the Month" award. Sushi-X (Ken Williams) gave it a 10, calling it "The best! "Street Fighter II" is the only game I have ever seen that really deserves a 10!" Martin Alessi gave it a 9, describing it as "the best cart available anywhere! Incredible game play!" Ed Semrad gave it a 10, saying "The moves are perfect, the graphics outstanding and the audio exceptional. Get one of the new 6 button sticks and you'll swear you're playing the arcade version." "GamePro" printed two reviews of the game in its August 1992 issue, both giving it a full score of 5 out of 5; Doctor Dave described it as "Capcom's best arcade conversion yet" while Slasher Quan stated that almost "everything's perfect in the Super NES version" and that it is "a nearly flawless conversion of the arcade original that's made even more enjoyable by new options and the convenience of home fighting." "Super Play" gave it a 94% score, stating that with "the inclusion of "Champion Edition"s Character vs. Character select and the extra options, I would even go so far to say that this is actually better than the coin-op." "Electronic Games" gave it scores of 95% for graphics, 92% for sound, and 93% for playability, with a 94% overall, concluding that it is the best fighting game to date. "Nintendo Power" scored it 16.2 out of 20, stating that the "hottest arcade game around has been faithfully reproduced for this Super NES conversion" and that it "is just like having the arcade game at home!". "Nintendo Power" ranked it the best SNES game of 1992, above "" in second place.


title: Street Fighter II

text: "Computer Gaming World" in April 1994 said that ""Street Fighter II" now enters the PC ring rather late and with a touch of weak wrist". The magazine reported that "the atmosphere and the impact of hefty welts and bone-crushing action is just not here. The usual lament of many PC gamers about arcade conversions is once again true: too little and too late".


title: Street Fighter II

text: "Entertainment Weekly" wrote that "Sure, it's violent (people can be set on fire), but "Street Fighter II" offers a depth of play (each character has more than 20 different moves) unmatched by any other video-game slugfest."


title: Street Fighter II

text: "Street Fighter II" was named by "Electronic Gaming Monthly" as the Game of the Year for 1992. "EGM" awarded "Street Fighter II Turbo" with Best Super NES Game in 1993. "Street Fighter II" won the Golden Joystick Award for Game of the Year in 1992. "Game Informer" gave it the "Best Game of the Year" and "Best Playability in a Video Game" awards. It won "Electronic Games" magazine's Electronic Gaming Award for the Video Game of the Year, where it was nominated along with "NHLPA Hockey '93" and "Sonic the Hedgehog 2".


title: Street Fighter II

text: The Mega Drive version of "Street Fighter II" received 10 out of 10 for both graphics and addiction from "Mega", who described it as "a candidate for best game ever and without a doubt the best beat-'em-up of all time" and gave it an overall 92% score. "MegaTech" scored it 95% and awarded it Hyper Game, stating "the greatest coin-op hits the Megadrive in perfect form". "Edge" gave the PC Engine version of "Champion Edition" a score of 8 out of 10. The four reviewers of "Electronic Gaming Monthly", while remarking that the Game Boy control is difficult, the game speed "lethargically slow", and it is a very old game, agreed it to be an excellent conversion by Game Boy standards. The Axe Grinder of "GamePro" agreed, praising the graphics and Game Boy survival mode, but criticizing the slow controls and concluding that "The real problem here is that the game's just plain old."


title: Street Fighter II

text: "Street Fighter II" has been listed among the best games of all time. "Game Informer" ranked it as the 22nd-best game ever made in 2001. The staff praised it for popularizing the one-on-one fighting game genre and noted that its Super NES ports were "near-perfect." They later ranked it the 25th-best game ever made in 2009. Other publications that listed it among the best games of all time include BuzzFeed, "Electronic Gaming Monthly", IGN, "Edge", "Empire", "Famitsu", "FHM", G4, GameFAQs, GameSpot, GamingBolt, "Guinness World Records", "Next Generation", NowGamer, "Retro Gamer", "Stuff", "Time", and Yahoo! "Guinness World Records" awarded "Street Fighter II" the world records of "First Fighting Game to Use Combos", "Most Cloned Fighting Game", and "Biggest-Selling Coin-Operated Fighting Game" in the "Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008". In 2017, The Strong National Museum of Play inducted "Street Fighter II" to its World Video Game Hall of Fame.


title: Street Fighter II

text: The "Street Fighter II" games were followed by several sub-series of "Street Fighter" games and spinoffs including "Street Fighter Alpha", "Street Fighter EX", "Street Fighter III", "Pocket Fighter", "Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo", and "Vs. series". Capcom released "Street Fighter IV" for the arcades in July 2008, followed by Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in February 2009 and Microsoft Windows in July 2009. "Street Fighter V" was released for the PlayStation 4 and Windows in 2016.


title: Street Fighter II

text: "Street Fighter II" is regarded as one of the most influential video games of all time, and the most important fighting game in particular. The release of "Street Fighter II" in 1991 is often considered a revolutionary moment in the fighting game genre. It has the most accurate joystick and button scanning routine in the genre, allowing players to reliably execute multi-button special moves, and its graphics use Capcom's CPS arcade chipset, with highly detailed characters and stages. Whereas previous games allow players to combat a variety of computer-controlled fighters, "Street Fighter II" allows human combat.


title: Street Fighter II

text: The popularity of "Street Fighter II" surprised the gaming industry, as arcade owners bought more machines to keep up with demand. It was responsible for introducing the combo mechanic, which came about when skilled players learned that they could combine several attacks with no time for the opponent to recover. Its success inspired a wave of other fighting games, which were initially often labeled as "clones" or imitators, including titles such as "Guardians of the 'Hood", "Art of Fighting", "Time Killers", "Mortal Kombat", and "Killer Instinct". "Street Fighter II" also influenced the development of the combat mechanics of beat 'em up game "Streets of Rage 2". However, "Street Fighter II" also received criticism for its depiction of street violence, and for having inspired numerous other violent games in the industry.


title: Street Fighter II

text: "Street Fighter II" was the best-selling arcade video game by far since the golden age of arcade video games, bringing an arcade renaissance in the early 1990s. Its impact on home video games was equally important, becoming a long-lasting system-seller for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Since then up until the late 1990s, numerous best-selling home video games were arcade ports. In 2005, "Electronic Gaming Monthly" ranked it the 9th most important game since they began publication in 1989, stating no game "did more to prop up arcades" in the 1990s and it was the first killer app for the SNES.


title: Street Fighter II

text: The game popularized the concept of "face-to-face", tournament-level competition between two players instead of just high scores. This enabled the competitive multiplayer and deathmatch modes found in modern action games. John Romero, for example, cited the competitive multiplayer of "Street Fighter II" as an influence on the deathmatch mode of seminal first-person shooter "Doom".


title: Street Fighter II

text: It is an innovation in revision series, with Capcom continuously upgrading and expanding the arcade game instead of releasing a sequel. This furthered the practice of patches and downloadable content found in modern video games.


title: Street Fighter II

text: "Street Fighter II" has been frequently sampled and referenced in hip hop music, by artists such as The Lady of Rage, Nicki Minaj, Lupe Fiasco, Dizzee Rascal, Lil B, Sean Price, and Madlib. This started with Hi-C's "Swing'n" (1993) and DJ Qbert's "Track 10" (1994) which sampled "Street Fighter II", and the "Street Fighter" film soundtrack (1994) which is the first major film soundtrack to consist almost entirely of hip hop music. According to DJ Qbert, "I think hip-hop is a cool thing, I think "Street Fighter" is a cool thing". According to "Vice" magazine, ""Street Fighter"s mixture of competition, bravado, and individualism easily translate into the trials and travails of a rapper." The "Perfect" sample was used by Kanye West and Drake in "The Life of Pablo" (2016). UK rap includes grime DJ Logan Sama saying, ""Street Fighter" is just a huge cultural thing that everyone experienced growing up [with] such a huge impact that it has just stayed in everyone's consciousness." According to Jake Hawkes of Soapbox, "grime was built around lyrical clashes [and] the 1v1 setup of these clashes was easily equated with "Street Fighter"s 1 on 1 battles." Grime MCs such as Dizzee Rascal were sampling "Street Fighter II" in 2002, and "Street Fighter II" has been sampled "by almost every grime MC". It became an integral part of BBC Radio 1Xtra DJ Charlie Sloth's "Fire in the Booth" freestyle segments, using samples such as "Hadouken", "Shoryuken", and the "Perfect" announcer sound.


title: Bob Morley

text: Robert Alfred Morley (born 20 December 1984) is an Australian actor. He is best known for his role as Bellamy Blake in The CW's "The 100" (2014–2020). After appearing in school plays, Morley was cast as Drew Curtis in the Australian soap opera "Home and Away" in 2006. For the role, he received a nomination for the Most Popular New Male Talent Logie Award. Morley appeared on the Australian music talent show "It Takes Two" in 2007, and joined the cast of drama series "The Strip" (2008). He played Aidan Foster in "Neighbours" in 2011, and starred in the Australian sports drama film "Blinder" in 2013.


title: Bob Morley

text: Morley grew up on a farm in Kyneton, a town in Victoria, Australia. He is the son of a Filipina mother and an Australian–Irish father, who died when he was young. Morley has two older sisters and one older brother. He studied drama at school all the way through to Year 11, until he was asked not to continue. Morley told "The Age" that he was a "naughty" student and did not take things seriously. After he completed year 12, he moved to Melbourne and began an engineering degree. A year later, he decided to enroll in Creative Arts at the La Trobe University and got an agent.


title: Bob Morley

text: Morley began his career by acting in university plays, including "Falling to Perfect" and "Tale From Vienna Woods", and short films. He appeared in the 2005 low-budget horror film "Dead Harvest", directed by Damian Scott, and as an extra in the soap opera "Neighbours". That year he got a part in "Angels with Dirty Faces" and his performance brought him to the attention of the "Home and Away" casting directors. Morley joined the cast of "Home and Away" as Drew Curtis in 2006. For his role as Drew, Morley was nominated for the Most Popular New Male Talent Logie Award. He appeared in the second series of the Australian celebrity singing competition series "It Takes Two" in May 2007. On 12 June 2007, he received his highest score but was voted off. In 2008, Morley departed "Home and Away", and was cast as Tony Moretti in the Nine Network action drama series "The Strip". The series was cancelled due to low ratings after its first series. Morley went on to appear in Nine Network's television film "Scorched" (2008). Morley was nominated for "Cleo" magazine's "Bachelor of the Year" award.


title: Bob Morley

text: In 2009, he starred as Lorca in the play "Palindrome for a Dead Poet". The following year, Morley featured in season four of "Sea Patrol", in the fifth episode titled "Paradise Lost". In 2011, he starred in the Australian thriller "Road Train", directed by Dean Francis. In June 2011, it was announced that Morley had joined the cast of "Neighbours" as Aidan Foster, a love interest for Chris Pappas. Morley and Mason's characters formed the show's first gay couple. Morley took a ten-week break from the soap to appear in "Blinder", a feature film about Australian rules football. He returned to the set of "Neighbours" in early June 2012.


title: Bob Morley

text: Morley joined the cast of drama film "Lost in The White City" in 2013. That year, he was cast as Bellamy Blake in The CW's "The 100". In 2018, Morley completed the Warner Bros. Television Directors’ Workshop. He appeared in the third season of police procedural "The Rookie" in 2021. He played a supporting role in the Australian romantic drama series "Love Me", a six-part adaptation of the Swedish series "Älska Mig", featuring an ensemble cast including Hugo Weaving and Bojana Novakovic. Morley will star in sci-fi film "I'll Be Watching" directed by Erik Bernard.


title: Bob Morley

text: On 21 September 2016, he tweeted fans a link to purchase a shirt that he designed to raise funds for Beyond Blue, an Australian organisation that provides information and support for Australians' mental health. He designed another shirt in 2017, in which the campaign proceeds were donated to the JED Foundation, a non-profit for the protection of emotional health and the prevention of suicide.


title: Bob Morley

text: In September 2017, he joined fellow "The 100" cast mates to participate in the BC Children's Hospital Benefit Soccer match in Vancouver, Canada.


title: Bob Morley

text: In January 2020, Morley and his wife Eliza Taylor put together a t-shirt campaign to raise funds for the Country Fire Authority, the Rural Fire Service, and the Australian Red Cross during the 2019–2020 Australian brushfire crisis.


title: Bob Morley

text: On 5 May 2019, Morley married Eliza Taylor, his co-star on "The 100". They announced the marriage on 7 June 2019. In early 2020, Morley and Taylor revealed that she had a miscarriage while filming the final season of "The 100".


title: Bob Morley

text: In February 2022, Taylor and Morley announced via Instagram that they were expecting their first child together. On 19 March 2022, Taylor announced that she had given birth to the couple's first child, a son.


title: Numeral system

text: A numeral system (or system of numeration) is a writing system for expressing numbers; that is, a mathematical notation for representing numbers of a given set, using digits or other symbols in a consistent manner.


title: Numeral system

text: The same sequence of symbols may represent different numbers in different numeral systems. For example, "11" represents the number "eleven" in the decimal numeral system (used in common life), the number "three" in the binary numeral system (used in computers), and the number "two" in the unary numeral system (e.g. used in tallying scores).


title: Numeral system

text: The number the numeral represents is called its value. Not all number systems can represent all numbers that are considered in the modern days; for example, Roman numerals have no zero.


title: Numeral system

text: For example, the usual decimal representation gives every nonzero natural number a unique representation as a finite sequence of digits, beginning with a non-zero digit.


title: Numeral system

text: Numeral systems are sometimes called "number systems", but that name is ambiguous, as it could refer to different systems of numbers, such as the system of real numbers, the system of complex numbers, the system of "p"-adic numbers, etc. Such systems are, however, not the topic of this article.