Snooker is a cue sport that is played on a baize-covered table with pockets in each of the four corners and in the middle of each of the long side cushions. It is played using a cue and snooker balls: one white , 15  worth one point each (the game is sometimes played with fewer red balls, commonly 6 or 10), and six balls of different : yellow (2 points), green (3), brown (4), blue (5), pink (6), black (7). A player (or team) wins a  (individual game) of snooker by scoring more points than the opponent(s), using the cue ball to  the red and coloured balls. A player (or team) wins a match when they have achieved the best-of score from a pre-determined number of frames. The number of frames is always odd so as to prevent a tie or a draw.

The table
Snooker is played on a rectangular snooker table with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. The table usually has a slate base, covered in green baize. A baulk line is drawn across the width of the table,  from the cushion at one end; these two latter items are respectively designated as the baulk cushion and baulk end. A semicircle of radius , called the D, is drawn behind this line, with its centre on the midpoint. The cushion at the other end of the table is known as the top cushion.

A regulation (full-size) table is ; because of the large size of these tables, smaller tables are common in homes, pubs and other places where space is limited. These are often around  in length, with all the dimensions and markings scaled down accordingly. The balls used are sometimes also scaled down, and/or reduced in number (in the case of the reds) by omitting the longest row of balls in the rack.

The balls

Snooker balls, like Billiard balls, are typically made of phenolic resin, and are smaller than American pool balls. Regulation snooker balls (which are specified in metric units) are nominally 52.5 mm (approximately  inches) in diameter, though many sets are actually manufactured at 52.4 mm (about  in). No weight for the balls is specified in the rules, only that the weight of any two balls should not differ by more than 0.5 g. Some recreational sets (which are usually not measured metrically) are  in (about 54 mm) up to as large as pool balls, at  in (about 57.2 mm); larger ball size requires wider pocket openings. Miniature sets also exist, for half-size home tables. There are fifteen , six  (yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, and black), and one white . Usually none of the balls are numbered, though the six colour balls often are in the US, where they are easily mistaken at first glance for pool balls (the design is similar, but the numbering does not match pool's scheme).

At the beginning of a frame, the balls are set up in the arrangement shown in the illustration. The six colours (a term referring to all balls except the white and the reds) are placed on their own spots. On the baulk line, looking up the table from the baulk end, the green ball is located where the "D" meets the line on the left, the brown ball in the middle of the line, and the yellow ball where the "D" meets the line on the right. This order is often remembered using the mnemonic God Bless You, the first letter of each word being the first letter of the three colours (Green, Brown, Yellow). The blue ball rests at the exact centre of the table, while the pink is placed midway between it and the top cushion. The red balls are arranged in a tightly-packed triangle behind the pink, with the apex as close as possible to the pink but not touching it. Finally, the black ball is placed on a spot  from the top cushion, centred from left to right so that the brown, blue, pink, and black balls all sit on an imaginary line that bisects the table along its length.

Objective
The objective of the game of snooker is to strike the white cue ball with a cue so that it strikes the object balls in turn and causes them to fall into one of the six pockets, called potting. Points are scored for potting balls legally, in accordance with the rules described below, or in the event of a foul committed by the opponent. The player who scores more points wins the frame, and the first player to win a set number of frames wins the match.

Match
A match usually consists of a fixed, odd number of frames. A frame begins with setting up the balls as described above. A frame ends when all balls are potted, or when one of the players concedes defeat due to being too far behind on points to tie or beat the opponent's score.

A match ends when one player has won enough frames to make it impossible for the other player to catch up. For example, in a match of 19 frames, the first player to win 10 is the victor.

In most versions of snooker there is no time limit between shots however the referee can issue a warning, and in case the warning is not respected the referee can reward the frame to the opponent. In other versions the maximum time allowed for each shot is 60 seconds, otherwise a foul is incurred.

Gameplay

At the beginning of each frame, the balls are set up by the referee as explained. The frame begins with one player taking the cue ball in-hand, placing it anywhere on or inside the D and attempting to hit one or more of the red balls on an initial break-off shot. A common strategy for this shot involves placing the cue ball on the baulk line, between the brown ball and either the green or yellow ball. The break-off alternates between players on successive frames.

Only one player may visit the table at a time. A break is the number of points scored in a single visit to the table. A player's turn and break end when they commit a foul, fail to pot a ball, or when a frame is complete.

The ball or balls that can be hit first by the cue ball are called the ball(s) "on" for that particular stroke. The ball(s) "on" differ from shot to shot: a red ball is always the ball "on" for the first stroke of a player's turn and, if potted, must be followed by a colour.  A potted colour must be followed by a red, and each player alternates between a red and any choice of colour until a break ends with a miss or the reds are all potted. If any reds remain unpotted at the end of a break, the remaining red balls are "on" for the opponent's first shot. Only "on" balls may be potted legally; potting a ball not "on" constitutes a foul. All of the reds are "on" for the break-off shot, and for the first shot of any turn in which one or more reds are still on the table.

Each frame of snooker generally consists of two phases. The first phase lasts as long as any red balls remain on the table. During this phase, all red balls are "on" for the beginning of a player's turn; the player must therefore first hit and attempt to pot one or more of them. If the player either commits a foul or fails to pot a red, the turn ends and the opponent begins to play.

Each legally potted red ball awards one point and remains off the table until the end of the frame. The player continues their turn by nominating one of the six colours (yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, black) as the ball "on" for the next shot. The rules of the game indicate that the player must state the desired colour to the referee, although it is usually clear which ball the player is attempting to pot, making a formal nomination unnecessary unless the referee insists on it.

Potting the nominated colour awards further points (two through seven, in the same order as the preceding paragraph). The referee then removes the colour from the pocket and replaces it on the table in its original spot. If that spot is occupied (that is, if the ball cannot be placed on it without touching another ball), then the ball is placed on the highest available spot. If all spots are occupied, it is placed as close to its own spot as possible in a direct line between that spot and the top cushion, without touching another ball. If there is no room this side of the spot, it will be placed as close to the spot as possible in a straight line towards the bottom cushion, without touching another ball. The player then resumes play, with the red balls "on" again.

The alternation between red balls and colours ends when all reds have been potted and an attempt (successful or not) to pot a colour is made after the last red is potted, or when the last red is potted or knocked off the table as the result of a foul and is not replaced. All six colours have then to be potted in ascending order of their value (yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, black). Each becomes the ball "on" in that order. During this phase, the colours are not replaced on the table after being legally potted; however, any colour potted as the result of a foul is re-spotted.

After all six colours have been potted, the player with the higher score wins the frame (but see below for end-of-frame scenarios).

Because only one of the colours can be "on" at any given time, it is a foul to first hit multiple colours at the same time, or pot more than one colour (unless a free ball has been awarded; see below).

Touching ball
If the cue ball comes to rest in direct contact with a ball that is on or could be on, the referee shall declare a "touching ball". The striker must "play away" from that ball without moving it, but is not required to hit any other ball because the touching ball is on. If the object ball moves, it is considered a "push shot" and a foul is called. No penalty is incurred for playing away if:

 The ball is on. Example: Striker pots a colour, making the reds on for the next shot, and the cue ball comes to rest touching one of them.
 The ball could be on and the striker nominates it as on. Example: Striker pots a red, cue ball comes to rest touching the green, and the striker declares that ball as on.
 The ball could be on, and the striker nominates another ball as on and hits it first. Example: Striker pots a red, cue ball comes to rest touching the green, and the striker declares the black as on and hits it first.

If the cue ball is touching another ball which could not be on (e.g. touching a colour when the striker must pot a red, or vice versa), a touching ball is not called, and the striker must play away from it and hit a legally nominated object ball. Where the cue ball is simultaneously touching several balls that are on or could be on, the referee shall indicate that each and every one of them is a touching ball; the striker must therefore play away from all of them.

The striker scores no points for balls potted as the result of a foul. Depending on the situation, these balls will either remain off the table; be returned to their original spots; or be replaced in the positions they occupied before the foul shot, along with any other balls that were moved during the shot. For details on such situations, see Fouls below.
If a player fails to pot a ball "on", whether a red or a nominated colour, the other player will come to the table, with the reds always being the balls "on" as long as there are still reds on the table.

Fouls
A foul is a shot or action by the striker which is against the rules of the game.
When a foul is made during a shot, the player's turn ends, and no points are awarded for any balls potted on that shot.
Common fouls are:
 Failing to hit any other ball with the cue ball.
 First hitting a ball "not-on" with the cue ball.
 Potting a ball "not-on".
 Potting the cue ball (in-off).
 Touching any object ball with anything but the cue ball.
 Touching any ball before all balls have come to a complete stop.
 Hitting the cue ball more than once on the same shot.
 Making a ball land off the table.
 Touching the cue ball with anything other than the tip of the cue. The exception is that while positioning the cue ball "in-hand"; it may be touched by anything except the tip of the cue.
 Playing a "push shot" – a shot in which an object ball (whether "on" or not) in direct contact with the cue ball moves when the cue ball is hit, unless the cue ball hits a very fine edge of the object ball.
 Playing a "jump shot" – a shot where the cue ball leaves the bed of the table and jumps over any part of a ball before first hitting another ball.
 Playing a shot with both feet off the ground. The player may lean over the table, support a portion of their weight on it, and/or use a mechanical bridge as desired, but at least one foot must remain in contact with the ground.
When a player commits a foul and the cue ball remains on the table, the opponent may either play from the resulting position or—if the position is disadvantageous—request the offender play again. If the cue ball is potted or leaves the table, the opponent receives it "in-hand" and may then place it anywhere on or within the "D" for the next shot.

It is sometimes erroneously believed that potting two or more balls in one shot is an automatic foul. This is only true if one of the potted balls is not "on" (e.g. a red and a colour, or two different colours). When the reds are "on", two or more of them may be legally potted in the same shot and are worth one point each; however, the player may only nominate and attempt to pot one colour on the next shot. If a free ball has been granted (see below), a colour may be legally potted in the same shot as a red or another colour, depending on the circumstances.

Should a cue ball be touched with the tip while "in-hand", i.e. when breaking-off or playing from the "D" after being potted or knocked off the table, a foul is not committed as long as the referee is satisfied that the player was only positioning the ball, and not playing a shot or preparing to play one.

The following fouls award seven points to the opponent when committed:

 Playing at reds, or a free ball followed by a red, in successive strokes
 Failing to declare which ball is "on" when requested to do so by the referee
 After potting a red or free ball nominated as a red, committing a foul before nominating a colour
 Using a ball off the table for any purpose
 Using any object to measure gaps or distance

Any other foul awards points to the opponent equal to the value of the ball "on", the highest value of all balls involved in the foul, or four points, whichever is highest. If multiple fouls are committed in one shot, only the penalty for the highest-valued foul is scored. The penalty for a foul is thus no lower than four points and no higher than seven.

Not hitting the ball "on" first is the most common foul. A common defensive tactic is to play a shot that leaves the opponent unable to hit a ball "on" directly. This is most commonly called "snookering" one's opponent, or alternatively "laying a snooker" or putting the other player "in a snooker".

Because players receive points for fouls by their opponents, repeatedly snookering one's opponent is a possible way of winning a frame when potting all the balls on the table would be insufficient to ensure a win or tie. This portion of the frame is known as the "snookers-required" stage.

Free ball

There were many variations of the rules of snooker in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The Billiards and Snooker Control Council (B&SCC) codified and unified the rules of snooker in 1919. The rules included having a free ball instead of playing from '' when there was no clear shot at the object ball after a foul.

A free ball is a player-nominated substitute for the ball "on" when a player becomes snookered as the result of a foul committed by the opponent. The snooker is considered illegitimate in this case, and the affected player is allowed to nullify it by nominating any object ball as being "on" for the first shot of their turn. Once the free ball shot is taken legally, the game continues normally; however, if the player who committed the foul is asked to play again, a free ball is not granted. If the free ball is potted by itself, it is respotted and the player scores the points for the actual ball "on".

For example, as illustrated in the provided picture, if the ball "on" is the red, but is snookered by the black due to a foul, the fouled player will be able to name any colour as the free ball. The player could then pot the chosen colour as if it were a red for one point. The colour will then be respotted, the player will nominate a colour to be on for the next shot, and normal play will resume.

As a natural corollary of the rules, the free ball is always a colour ball. If the reds are "on", they can only be snookered by colours; after all the reds are potted, the lowest-value colour still on the table is "on" and can only be snookered by another colour.

The scoring for a shot in which both the free ball and the actual ball on are potted depends on the point in the game at which it occurs. If the reds are on and both the free ball and one or more reds are potted, then each ball potted is scored as a red for one point. If a colour is on and both it and the free ball are potted, only the actual ball on is scored. In both cases, the free ball will be re-spotted and the actual ball(s) on will remain off the table. These two situations represent the only times when a colour can be potted in the same shot as a red or another colour without a foul occurring.

The player may hit the free ball into the actual ball on in order to pot the latter, referred to as planting. Going back to the picture above, the player could nominate the black as the free ball and use it to plant the real red. If the player potted both balls in one shot, two points would be awarded and the black would be re-spotted. A foul is committed if the player fails to strike the free ball either first by itself, or simultaneously with the actual ball on.

Failing to pot the free ball incurs no penalty, so the striker may play a snooker using the free ball if desired. However, if said snooker is achieved by having the free ball obstructing the ball on, then the strike is a foul and a penalty of the value of the ball on is awarded to the opponent. The reason is that the free ball was to be treated as the ball on, and one cannot snooker a ball on by another ball on (following the same logic that a red cannot snooker another red when red is on). The only exception to this is when there are only two balls remaining on the table, namely pink and black. If the opposition somehow fouled trying to pot pink, and illegitimately snookered the striker with the black, then it is fair for the striker to snooker the opposition "back" with the free black ball.

When judging a free ball, the cushions are not considered an obstruction and the situation is judged as if they were not there, i.e. as if the table was a flat surface with no limits or edges. When the cue ball gets stuck at the edge of a pocket jaw (commonly referred to as "angled") in such a manner that the player is unable to hit any ball on, a free ball is only awarded if all the balls on would be at least partially obstructed by a ball not on, if the cushions were not in the way. If a free ball is not awarded, after a foul, the player may choose to either take the shot from the current position or ask the offender to play again, as per the usual rules on fouls.

A ball on is considered to be unobstructed only if every portion of it can be directly hit by the cue ball without first making contact with another ball or a cushion. If multiple reds remain on the table, each one is evaluated as if the others were not there, as one red cannot be snookered by another; if at least one red is judged to be unobstructed, a free ball is not granted.

Foul and a miss

A foul and a miss will be called if a player does not hit the ball "on" first (a foul) and is deemed by the  to have not made the best possible attempt (a miss). In this case, the opponent has the option to request that all balls on the table be returned to their position before the foul, and require the fouling player to take the shot again.

The rule was introduced to prevent players from playing  (i.e., deliberately fouling so as to leave the balls in a safe position, reducing the risk of giving a frame-winning chance to the opponent). Multiple misses often occur because players attempt to hit a shot very softly or thinly in situations where a fuller contact might leave their opponent an easy potting chance. This can lead to an apparently easy  being attempted several times, as players feel that it is better to concede many points but leave a safe position, than concede none and leave a frame-winning chance.

In practice, the "best attempt" determination consists of three key elements:
 Whether the player's choice of shot is the easiest to be achieved. If a player deliberately attempts a difficult shot with an easier escape available, intention to leave the opponent a bad position after a foul is presumed, and thus a miss will be called.
 Whether the cue ball has been hit with sufficient strength to reach the ball "on". Undershooting almost always results in a miss, as intention to leave the opponent in a bad position after a foul is again presumed in this case.
 Whether the player has tried to get the cue ball as close to the ball "on" as possible.
All three of these elements must be present in order for the referee to decide that a player has made their best attempt.

There are three situations in which a miss will not be called, even if the referee decides that a best attempt has not been made:
 If either player needs penalty points to win a frame, or if either player would need them after the current penalty is applied. This is to prevent the players from running up the score by repeatedly missing in worst-case scenarios.
 If the score difference is equal to the number of points still on the table, either before or after the penalty is applied, and the referee believes that the foul was not intentional. This is to prevent the score difference from decreasing too much, at the referee's discretion.
 If it is physically impossible to play a legal shot (the snooker is truly inescapable, as judged by the referee). The player must still put sufficient strength into the shot so that the cue ball would be able to reach its target if it were not obstructed, and attempt a shot that could succeed if the obstruction were not present.

If a player fouls and misses in a non-snookered scenario, and if the opponent requests that the shot be replayed from the original position, a second failure to make a best attempt is ruled a foul and a miss regardless of the score difference. The fouling player is issued a warning by the referee, and a third such failure forfeits the frame to the opponent.  A foul after such a warning is very rare.

The end of a frame
A frame normally ends in one of three ways.
 A concession, in which one player gives up due to being too far behind to have a realistic chance of winning the frame. Concession before the  stage may be interpreted as unsporting conduct and result in a penalty of a second frame being applied.
 The final black is potted legally (including after a re-spot), and this does not leave the score tied.
 The striker leads by more than seven points with only the black remaining. They may claim the win at this point, but may also elect to pot the black despite having won the frame after potting the pink. This may be done if the striker wishes to complete a high-scoring break (see "Maximum break" below).

There are three less common ways to end a frame:
 A foul on the black, when the black is the only ball left. It is sometimes wrongly assumed that play continues after a foul on the black if there are fewer than seven points between the scores. This is not the case: the player who is in the lead following the assessment of a penalty after a foul, when only the black remains, becomes the winner.
 Failure to hit a ball "on" three times in a row, if the player has a clear sight of the ball. The referee will warn a player after a second such miss that a third miss will mean that the opponent will be awarded the frame. This rule does not apply if the player is snookered. As missing due to avoiding a direct shot on a ball is usually a tactical, rather than skill-related, outcome, this rule is rarely invoked, as a player will simply hit the ball directly on the third shot.
 A player may incur a verbal warning if the referee deems that they are taking too long to shoot. Additional hesitation may forfeit the frame to the opponent at the referee's discretion.

If the score is tied after the final black is fouled or potted, the black is re-spotted. The winner of a coin toss by the referee decides which player will take first strike at the black; that player receives the cue ball "in-hand" for their first shot. Play then continues normally until the black is potted or another frame-ending situation occurs.

If the players reach a stalemate situation, as determined by either their own indication or the referee's judgment, they may choose to discard the scores from the current frame and restart it. Should the stalemate last for a certain period of time as specified by the referee, the players must restart the frame.

Maximum break

The highest break that can be made under normal circumstances is 147. To achieve it, the player must pot all 15 reds, with the black after every red, followed by potting all six colours.

This "maximum break" of 147 rarely occurs in match play. The fastest maximum break in a tournament was achieved during the World Championships on 21 April 1997, by Ronnie O'Sullivan against Mick Price in five minutes and eight seconds.

If an opponent fouls before any balls are potted, and leaves the player a free ball, the player can then nominate a colour and play it as a red for one point, then nominate a colour and pot it for its normal value. It is thus possible to score for 16 reds and blacks (16 * 8), plus the values of all the colours (27), resulting in a break of 155. Under tournament conditions, Jamie Burnett achieved 148 points.

The highest possible score, as distinct from the highest possible break, is unlimited and depends on the value of points scored from the opponent's foul shots when added to the player's own scored points (which may not require the highest break). However, the highest possible score from a single visit clearance is 162 (foul on the black, followed by a free ball treated as a red, as above).

References

External links
 Official Rules of the Games of Snooker and English Billiards Published by WPBSA, revised May 2022

Rules
Snooker

Rules of snooker


Government House, located in Road Town, Tortola, is the official residence of the governor of the British Virgin Islands.

The original structure, dating back to 1899, was destroyed by a hurricane in 1924. The present structure was built on the same site in 1925-26 and was the home of commissioners, presidents, administrators and governors until 1999, when it was deemed unsuitable. The Island Sun published an editorial against the demolition of the historic building and members of the public expressed their disagreement with the official decision. In 2003, a new Government House was built on adjacent land while the old structure has been transformed into a museum.

In November 2003, Governor Thomas Macan moved into the new residence located at Tortola. The project included the construction of the new Government House and a reception hall, as well as the restoration of the old Government House, which is now a museum. The structure was built by Meridian Construction and designed by OBM and FCO Estates.

See also
Governor of the British Virgin Islands
Government Houses of the British Empire

External links
Old Government House Museum, Tortola, British Virgin Islands

Official residences
Government Houses of the British Empire and Commonwealth
Buildings and structures in Road Town

Government House, British Virgin Islands


Llangynwyd is a village (and electoral ward) 2 miles to the south of Maesteg, in the county borough of Bridgend, Wales. It was part of the medieval commote (Welsh: cwmwd) of Tir Iarll.

History and amenities
The village is the site of Llangynwyd parish church, the ruins of Llangynwyd Castle and one of the oldest pubs in Wales (the Old House, dating from 1147.)

The place name Llangynwyd refers to the hilltop village with a church dedicated to St Cynwyd, son of Cynfelyn. The church was founded by St Cynwyd in the 6th century. All that remains of the original structure is the stone socket of a wooden cross, which can be seen in the wall above the entrance. The church was rebuilt in the 13th century and has since been restored several times. The square tower dates from the 15th century and was completely restored in 1893. The church has the biggest private cemetery in Europe.

The old village of Llangynwyd, "Top Llan", was the home of the legendary Maid of Cefn Ydfa, featured in the song "Bugeilio'r Gwenith Gwyn". It was also the home of the poet Wil Hopcyn, said to have written it. The antiquary T. C. Evans was born in the parish, as was the poet Evan Bevan.

The village still celebrates the New Year, or Calennig, with the Mari Lwyd: a horse's skull draped in a white sheet with flowers.

Today the "old" village of Llangynwyd is commonly referred to as "Top Llan" and the more recent and much larger adjoining village is simply called "Llangynwyd"

Education
The village is home to Llangynwyd Primary School, built in 1911, and to Bridgend's first Welsh-language comprehensive school, Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Llangynwyd, which takes pupils from the county borough's four primary schools that teach in Welsh: Ysgol Cynwyd Sant, Ysgol Bro Ogwr, Ysgol y Ferch o'r Sgêr and Ysgol Cwm Garw.

Ward
Llangynwyd is also the name of the electoral ward which covers the village. The ward is coterminous with the community of Llangynwyd Middle. The ward elects one county councillor to Bridgend County Borough Council.

References

External links

Llangynwyd Middle Community Council
Llangynwyd Village Hall run by the Llangynwyd Community Association
www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Llangynwyd and surrounding area
BBC Wales feature on the Legend of the Maid of Cefn Ydfa
Llangynwyd at GENUKI.org.uk
History of Llangynwyd Parish (1887), Thomas Christopher Evans

Villages in Bridgend County Borough
Wards of Bridgend County Borough

Llangynwyd


John Walters (11 July 1939 – 30 July 2001) was a British radio producer, presenter and musician. Initially a schoolteacher and a jazz enthusiast, he played trumpet in The Mighty Joe Young Jazz Men and the 1960s pop group The Alan Price Set before joining BBC Radio 1 in 1967, where he was John Peel's producer from 1969 to 1991.

Biography
Walters was born in Long Eaton, near Nottingham. He read Fine Arts at Durham University, where he worked under Victor Pasmore and as a student had his paintings exhibited alongside the works of David Hockney. He then taught at a comprehensive in Kenton, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, wrote a jazz column for the Newcastle Journal, gave evening classes in jazz history, played the trumpet with local bands and met Alan Price, then organist with the Animals. When Price quit to form his own group, Walters was recruited. He featured on five of the Alan Price Set's British hits, and played the Albert Hall and the Paris Olympia.

Walters joined the fledgling BBC Radio 1 in 1967 as a staff producer. He soon linked up with DJ John Peel and became his producer, starting in 1969. As a producer for Peel, he turned down the Sex Pistols for a "Peel session" when, drawing on his experience as a schoolteacher, he said Johnny Rotten "didn't look like the kind of boy you would trust to give out the scissors". He reportedly regretted this decision later, but was responsible for getting The Smiths their first session after witnessing an early concert. He was also responsible for The Fall's first session, a group which would later become Peel's favourite. Walters and Peel became close friends, with Walters being Peel's best man when he married his wife Sheila, and Peel requesting Walters play Roy Harper's "When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease" as his on-air memorial song if Peel were to die before Walters.

Walters also produced Vivian Stanshall's first foray into radio, both by overseeing Stanshall's Rawlinson End Radio Flashes when Stanshall stood in for a vacationing John Peel, and Stanshall's Sir Henry at Rawlinson End. He presented the long-running Radio 1 arts magazine Walters' Weekly, as well as Loose Ends and Idle thoughts, and was heard reviewing the music papers on the Janice Long show in the 1980s. In the 1990s, he was a reporter on the BBC's current affairs magazine Here and Now.

Walters died suddenly on 30 July 2001, from a heart attack, at the age of 62. He was survived by his wife, Helen.

References

External links

John Peel's first show after the death of John Walters

1939 births
2001 deaths
People from Long Eaton
BBC radio producers
British radio people
British radio producers
British record producers
Alumni of King's College, Newcastle

John Walters (broadcaster)


Alexander Franz Anton Lion (15 December 1870 – 2 February 1962) was the co-founder of the German Scout Movement.

Early life
Lion was born in Berlin, the second son of six children in a Jewish banker's family. His parents were the merchant and banker Max Lion and Cäcilia Loeser. Between 1876 and 1880 he was privately tutored at home, after which he went to high school. At the age of 16, Lion left the Jewish community, and was later baptized a Catholic.

On 5 August 1889, Lion was awarded a bronze medal of the Order of Orange-Nassau after saving the life of a drowning boy.

He learnt French at high school and took additional private lessons to learn English. After leaving school he studied medicine at University in Würzburg, Berlin and Kiel.

At Easter 1893 Lion signed up as a volunteer in the Bavarian army. Between 1904 and 1906 he served as a surgeon during the Herero and Namaqua Genocide in German South-West Africa.  While serving in South-West Africa he met the man with whom he would later go on to found the German branch of the Scout Movement, Maximilian Bayer.

Founding of the German Scout Movement
In March 1908 Lion read an article in The Times entitled "Scouting as a Sport". This brought the founder of the Scout Movement, Robert Baden-Powell, to his attention, and later, in August that year, he began corresponding with Baden-Powell. Shortly after Lion wrote his first article about Scouting in the magazine "Ärztliche Rundschau".

During a month-long study tour of England in 1909, he spent three days in London with Baden-Powell. Following this meeting he set up the German Scout movement, writing the book "Das Pfadfinderbuch", (the Scouting book)., with Maximilian Bayer.
In January 1909 "Jugendsport in Wald und Feld", a club to promote Scouting in Germany, was founded. Lion and Bayer were among the founding members. In 1912 "Das Pfadfinderbuch", was published in its 3rd edition as "Jungdeutschlands Pfadfinderbuch", which was a stronger German adaptation of Scouting for Boys than the two first editions. In 1911, the German federal Scouting organisation was set up, with Lion as a founding member.

The following year, Bayer, Lion and von Seckendorff helped Elise von Hopffgarten to write Pfadfinderbuch für junge Mädchen (the scouting book for young girls). Free of patriotic language and slogans, they wanted to make young women more independent.

Bayer, Lion and von Seckendorff were subject to attack from General von Jacobi, who accused them of, amongst other things, lacking in support for their country, King and religion. Jacobi created an anti-Semitic cartoon lampooning Lion, playing on Lion's Jewish birth, changing "Jungensport in Feld und Wald" (youth sports in field and forest) to "Judensport in Wald und Feld" (Jews' sports in forest and field), and calling Scouting supporter General Baschwitz a "vain Jewish man".

In 1913 Alexander Lion met Emmerich Teuber, an Austrian Scouting pioneer and later member of the International Committee of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, and the two Scout Leaders became friends.

First World War
On the outbreak of the First World War, Lion became head physician at a field hospital, and worked to treat the wounded on the front lines, work for which he received the Prussian Iron Cross Class II. On 14 October 1915 he became the head physician for the 2nd Royal Bavarian Division. Serving in Lens, he rescued wounded and dying soldiers from the battlefield. For this work he received the Bavarian Merit Cross.

At the end of 1915, Lion was requested to help the German troops stationed in the Ottoman Empire. There he met Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz, who was a big supporter of the Scouting movement in Germany and Lion and Bayer. From April 1916 Lion was a doctor for the First Turkish Expedition Corps. However, in August of that year, Lion fell ill with dysentery. Later that year, in October, he was awarded the Ottoman War Medal for his work. A month later, he returned from the front line to Munich, where his family now lived.

In 1917 he returned to the Turkish front, later moving to the Romanian front, serving at Bukovina with the Royal Bavarian Cavalry Division. After the ceasefire on the Romanian front, he returned to France, serving at Reims and the Somme. Again he put himself at great personal risk to rescue the wounded, winning him the Iron Cross, Class I and the Bavarian Military Merit Cross, 3rd class with Swords. At the end of the war he was serving with the 39th Reserve Division in the Vosges.

The Inter-War Period
After the war, Lion joined a volunteer division, Freikorps Epp, taking part in the dismantling of the Bavarian Soviet Republic. The last military rank he hold was that of a Generaloberarzt a.D.

After being demobbed from the army in 1921, Lion worked as a doctor at the spa resort of Oberhof. He was also chief of the German Red Cross in Gotha. From 1923 to 1926 he was an active member of the German Democratic Party.

The introduction of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935 saw Lion classified as a Jew and his civil rights suspended.
In 1936 Alexander Lion became Honorary Scoutmaster of the Österreichischer Pfadfinderbund, which was the Austrian interdenominational member organization of World Scouting since 1922.

Even during the Third Reich, Lion remained in contact with his friends in the Scouts in other countries. When Austria was annexed by Germany at Anschluss, the Gestapo found incriminating documents, sparking a wave of arrests among Scouts. On 2 November 1938, Lion was arrested by the Gestapo and subjected to lengthy interrogations. On 19 November, he was moved to the Gestapo's headquarters. There he was put on trial, but, thanks to a skillful defence, he was sentenced to only 10 months for treason.

The Second World War

Until 1942, Lion lived in Kolbermoor. However, he was then denounced by a supporter of the Nazi Party, but the Mayor personally secured his safety.

Lion's brother, Richard, and his wife, Beatrice, both died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Lion's sister, Rosa, died in Vught concentration camp on 2 May 1943.

After the Second World War
Immediately after the end of the war, Lion became the head of the Youth Office in Bad Aibling, using his position to build up the Federation of German Scouts, and in October 1948 he was appointed the honorary president of the organisation.

He became the driving force in the reconstruction of the Scouting movement, first in Bavaria, but later across the whole of Germany. With his involvement, the first Scout camp of the post-war period war held near Munich between 8 and 10 June 1946. In the same year, the Bavaria Federation of German Scouting was founded, with Lion as its honorary president. In July and August of the same year, a Scout camp was organised at the Chiemsee lake with groups attending from Munich, Cologne and Hesse. In 1948 he took part in an international Scout meeting in Mittenwald.

On 16 October 1946, Lion gave a lecture regarding the Scouting Movement on Radio Munich, giving the movement widespread publicity. In the same year he was officially recognised as a victim of persecution by the Nazi regime. Between 1946 and 1948 Lion was a member of the denazification court in Bad Aibling.

He became honorary president of the new founded Bund Deutscher Pfadfinder.

In August 1951 he took part in the 7th World Scout Jamboree at Bad Ischl, Austria.

Lion died on 3 February 1962.

He is buried in the cemetery in Fischach.

See also

 Scouting in Germany

References

1870 births
1962 deaths
Place of death missing
Physicians from Berlin
People from the Province of Brandenburg
19th-century German people
20th-century German people
20th-century Freikorps personnel
Scouting pioneers
Scouting and Guiding in Germany
Scouting and Guiding in Austria
German expatriates in Austria
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism
German people of Jewish descent
German Youth Movement
Recipients of the Iron Cross (1914), 1st class
Recipients of the Military Merit Cross (Bavaria)
Recipients of the Bronze Medal of the Order of Orange-Nassau

Alexander Lion


Natural rights are rights that believe it is important for all humans and animals to have.  These rights are often called "inalienable", meaning they can never be taken away.

The idea first came up in ancient times but was discussed most famously by English philosopher John Locke in the 1600's. Locke said that the most important natural rights are "Life, Liberty, and Property". In the United States Declaration of Independence, the natural rights mentioned are "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness".  The idea was also found in the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Locke, Jefferson, and others think that the purpose of government is to protect peoples' natural rights. A social contract is an implicit agreement among the members of a society to cooperate for social benefits. There have been many times in history that natural rights have been breached by both governments and individual people.

Related pages
Fundamental rights
Natural law
Social contract

Human rights

Natural rights and legal rights


Friends, Lovers, Chocolate is the second of the Sunday Philosophy Club series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith, set in Edinburgh, Scotland, and featuring the protagonist Isabel Dalhousie. It was first published in 2005, and is the sequel to The Sunday Philosophy Club.

Plot synopsis
Isabel Dalhousie is in her early forties and lives alone in Edinburgh. Due to an inheritance from her late mother, she can work for a nominal fee as the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics. Her closest friends are her niece Cat, a young woman who runs a delicatessen; her housekeeper Grace, who is outspoken and interested in spiritualism; Cat's ex-boyfriend Jamie, a bassoonist to whom Isabel has been secretly attracted ever since they met; and Brother Fox, an urban fox who lives in Isabel's garden.

When visiting Cat's delicatessen one lunchtime, Isabel meets Ian, who has recently had a heart transplant, and seems to have gained the memories of the heart's former owner, particularly the memory of a sinister-looking man with hooded eyes and a scar on his forehead. Ian is worried that this man may have killed the original owner of the heart, and Isabel decides that they have a moral duty to try to find out more.

Later, Cat tells Isabel that she is about to receive a visit from Tomasso, an Italian whom Cat recently met at a friend's wedding. Cat suggests that he and Isabel, being of similar age, should go out to dinner. Isabel dismisses the idea, thinking of Jamie. Later that evening, she is shocked when Jamie tells her that he is having an affair with a married woman.

The next day, Isabel discovers that a young man, Rory Macloed, died in a hit-and-run accident on the day that Ian received his new heart. She visits Rory's mother, Rose, and meets Rose's partner Graeme, who perfectly fits Ian's description of the possible killer. However, Rose insists that Rory was not an organ donor.

That evening, Jamie and his lover Louise visit Isabel, who is determined to be polite; but her jealousy gets the better of her and she is rude to Louise, who leaves with Jamie. When Isabel phones Jamie the next day to apologize, Jamie says that he and Louise have broken up – because Jamie is still in love with Cat. Hearing this, Isabel decides to go out to dinner with Tomasso, who is very attractive. He impulsively suggests to Isabel that they go on a tour of Scotland, and she considers the benefits of having an Italian lover.

A few days later, Isabel sees Graeme in a pub, and phones Ian, who comes to the pub and confirms that Graeme is the man in his memory. Isabel is certain that Rose Macloed has been lying about Rory's not having been an organ donor, perhaps in order to protect Graeme. She asks her journalist friend Angus to speak to his contacts at the hospital, and he confirms that the young donor of Ian's heart was named Macloed.

Isabel meets Jamie for dinner, where he reveals that although the donor's name was Macloed, it was not Rory: a second young man, Gavin Macloed, died on the same day. Then the conversation turns to relationships, and Isabel tells Jamie that Cat will never love him. Jamie angrily leaves the restaurant.

Isabel, in a last attempt to solve the mystery of the heart, goes to visit Gavin's family in West Linton, just outside Edinburgh. His mother, Jean, tells her that her son's heart was donated, but that his father Euan, who is estranged from the family, does not know. Isabel sees a picture of Euan: he has hooded eyes and a scar on his forehead.

When she returns home, she finds a letter from Tomasso, telling her that he has been called back to Italy and will not be able to go traveling with her.

Isabel tells Ian about the second Macloed family, and they go together to tell Euan about his son's heart. Afterwards, Ian informs Isabel that he visited West Linton shortly after his operation, and spoke to several people there. From this Isabel concludes that Ian must have seen Euan, heard about his son's death, and subconsciously connected Euan's face with his new heart.

Finally, Jamie apologizes for his behavior in the restaurant, and he and Isabel spend the evening in the usual way, playing music and drinking wine at her house.

Development
After criticism for the first novel in the series asserted that Isabel was difficult to empathise with, McCall Smith aimed in this novel to show "more of the human side of her".
The title refers to "three issues of great philosophical importance" that test our moral inclinations. The "philosophical resonance" of friendship and lovers are evident; as McCall Smith says, "Friendship involves philosophical issues. Lovers can certainly give rise to moral difficulties." Chocolate represents "temptation and our inability to resist temptation" and is included for personal reasons, because the temptation of chocolate affects "most of us ... me in particular."

A key subplot is Jamie's affair with Louise, which can be seen as demonstrating his willingness to enter into relationships with older women and foreshadowing the events of the next book in the series.

Reception
Despite Friends, Lovers, Chocolate being the second book in the Sunday Philosophy Club series, there are still comparisons to McCall Smith's previous series The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. For example, Bookreporter.com says that, "Isabel Dalhousie is as wise, charmingly offbeat and original as Mma Ramotswe", adding that the novel is "As Scottish as a single malt whiskey" and that "McCall Smith's love of Scotland is as poignant as is his love of Botswana in his African series".

The Times Online was more critical of the novel's perceived slower pace, calling it "sleuthing for softies" and commenting "[It was] entertaining, but I longed for more drama".

However, Love Reading calls the book "utterly charming".

Influences and references

W. H. Auden (1907-1973)
Isabel mentions being a fan of Auden, and insists that she sees links between Auden's poetry and that of Robert Burns, particularly Burns' poem 'A Red, Red Rose'. Late in the novel, when considering Gavin's death, Isabel also quotes several lines from Auden's 'Bucolics' (1955).

Robert Burns (1759–1796)
Burns was a Scottish poet who is mentioned several times in the novel. In particular, the opening chapter quotes from Burns' inscription on the grave of another Scottish poet, Robert Fergusson, who is buried in the Kirk of the Canongate in Edinburgh:

This simple Stone directs Pale Scotia's way
To pour her sorrows o'er her Poet's Dust.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Freud was an Austrian psychoanalyst whose theories include that of the id, ego, and super-ego, which Isabel calls "scientifically shaky". She sums up this particular theory as "arguments over space, food and sex."

Robert Garioch (1909-1981)
Lines from the Scottish Garioch's poem 'At Robert Fergusson's Grave' are quoted along with Burns' inscription (see above) in the opening chapter.

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Haydn and his oratorio 'The Creation' (1798) are mentioned by a theatre-goer early in the novel.

D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930)
Isabel quotes from Lawrence's 1923 poem 'Snake', and classes Lawrence (along with Hemingway) as a poet who would 'throw rocks at snakes'. (Auden is classed as a poet who wouldn't.)

Oliver Sacks (1933-2015)
Sacks is a neurologist whose 1985 book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is mentioned by Isabel as the precursor to a number of works with similar titles.

Editions
The UK audio version of the book is abridged, and is read by Phyllis Logan.
The US version is unabridged and is read by Davina Porter.

References

External links
Alexander McCall Smith's official website

2005 books
Novels by Alexander McCall Smith
Novels set in Edinburgh
British philosophical novels
Little, Brown and Company books

Friends, Lovers, Chocolate


Pierre Juquin (born 22 February 1930 in Clermont-Ferrand) is a French communist politician and trade unionist.

Early life and PCF politics
The son of an SNCF employee, he is a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure (ENS), and was a teacher of German at the Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux between 1959 and 1966. A classmate of Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie (at ENS), Juquin joined the French Communist Party (PCF), and was a candidate in the municipal elections of 1959 as well as a regional leader for the PCF in Seine. A collaborator of Georges Marchais, he was admitted as observer to the PCF Central Committee, and defended the official party line inside the Union des Étudiants Communistes. He was also a prominent member of the Syndicat National des Enseignants du Second Degré (SNEF, a teachers' union, in which he helped the communists gain a decisive say).

He was elected to the French National Assembly for Essonne and, in 1967, became a full member of the PCF Central Committee. Voted out of the Essonne seat in 1968, he regained the position in 1973 - and was re-elected until 1981; an observer to the Politburo in 1979, he joined the body in 1982, and was assigned leadership of the press and propaganda bureau.

Independent voice
He was excluded from the Politburo in October 1984, and publicly disagreed with decisions taken at the 25th Party Congress of February 1985. His opposition was tolerated until October 1987, when he was excluded from the Party altogether - after he had expressed his wish to run for French Presidency on his own platform.

Thus, Juquin ran in the 1988 presidential election with backing from the Unified Socialist Party (PSU) and the Revolutionary Communist League, grouping some former PCF members, Trotskyists, various Greens, and independent left-wingers. Juquin only managed to obtain 2.08% of the vote. His movement survived as the New Left for Socialism, Ecology and Self-management, which fused with the PSU to form Red and Green Alternative (nowadays known as Les Alternatifs) Juquin joined the Greens in 1991.

References

1930 births
Living people
Politicians from Clermont-Ferrand
French Communist Party politicians
The Greens (France) politicians
Deputies of the 3rd National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic
Deputies of the 5th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic
Deputies of the 6th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic
Candidates in the 1988 French presidential election
French trade unionists
École Normale Supérieure alumni
Lycée Lakanal teachers

Pierre Juquin


Joanne Giannini (born March 15, 1953) is an American politician who was a  Democratic member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives, representing District 7 (Providence) from 1994 till 2010. On July 2, 2010, she announced she would not run for reelection.

Legislation
Beginning in 2005, Joanne Giannini became the leading proponent to change the prostitution law in Rhode Island, every year submitting bills to close what she termed the legal "loophole" that allowed indoor prostitution. "Rape behind closed doors, is that permissible? Is murder permissible if it's done behind closed doors?", she asked. Critics of her bills have argued that "In Joanne Giannini's world, prostitution and human trafficking are synonymous, and every prostitute is a victim, not an individual making a personal choice." Giannini addressed the issue in her appearance in the 2009 documentary Happy Endings?, concerning the lives of the women in the Asian massage parlors in the center of the debate to re-criminalize prostitution. Giannini's bill was signed into law in November 2009.

Another loophole in Rhode Island laws was discovered in July 2009 when a 16-year-old runaway girl from Boston was found working at a strip club in Providence. Shortly after that, Joanne Giannini introduced a bill to ban minors from working in strip clubs in Rhode Island. Her bill was successfully passed and signed into law a few months later.

In January 2010, Representative Joanne Giannini introduced legislation that would make it illegal for Rhode Island drivers to use cell phones without a hands-free device. Representative Peter F. Kilmartin introduced similar legislation. These bills are currently being studied.

Issues
In March and April 2010, Rhode Island experienced significant flooding, which closed many businesses throughout the state, including the Warwick Mall. As chairperson of the House Finance Committee panel, Giannini expressed this concern about unemployed workers: "I'm looking to see what else we can do" to reduce backlogs and delays that unemployed people are experiencing.

Awards
During her years of service, she has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the RI Human Rights Foundation "Braveheart Award," the American Heart Association "RI Heart on the Hill" Award, the RI National Guard Award of Excellence for Meritorious Service in Times of War, the Award of Excellence RI Foster Parent Association, the Mount Pleasant Crime Watch Award, the RI Hospitality Association Ambassador of Hospitality Award, the Concerned Citizens of Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Award, and the Appreciation Award for the Homententum Athletic Games.

References

External links
Rhode Island House - Representative Joanne Giannini Official RI House website

1953 births
Living people
Democratic Party members of the Rhode Island House of Representatives
Politicians from Providence, Rhode Island
Women state legislators in Rhode Island
21st-century American women

Joanne Giannini


Xplay (previously GameSpot TV, Extended Play, and X-Play) is a TV program about video games. The program, known for its reviews and comedy skits, aired on G4 in the United States and had aired on G4 Canada in Canada (and briefly on YTV during its time as GameSpot TV), FUEL TV in Australia, Ego in Israel, GXT in Italy, MTV Russia & Rambler TV in Russia, Solar Sports in the Philippines, and Adult Swim and MuchMusic in Latin America.

The show in its previous incarnation was hosted by Morgan Webb and Blair Herter, with Kristin Adams (née Holt) and Jessica Chobot serving as special correspondents/co-hosts (Tiffany Smith, Alex Sim-Wise and Joel Gourdin have also served as correspondents during the show's run). Adam Sessler was the original host of the program; he previously co-hosted with Lauren Fielder and Kate Botello.

Xplay began on ZDTV in 1998 as GameSpot TV, where Sessler co-hosted with Fielder for the show's first year, then co-hosted with Botello up through 2002 (the producers of ZDTV originally had plans to air a video-game program when the channel launched called Extended Play that would be hosted by Simon Rex; however, when an agreement was reached with the makers of the newly created GameSpot website, plans for the original show's format were scrapped in favor of a GameSpot-branded program, and Rex was dropped as host).

The show assumed the previously rejected Extended Play moniker in 2001 after ZDTV changed to TechTV and the partnership with Ziff Davis' GameSpot ended. Botello left in early 2002, and Sessler hosted the show by himself up until April 2003, when Webb joined the cast and the show was renamed X-Play.

A new incarnation of the show was featured on the revived G4 network which operated from November 2021 to October 2022.

History
GameSpot TV, Extended Play, and X-Play all originated in San Francisco, California. Throughout the course of the show's history, it has gone through numerous changes, in more than just name.

GameSpot TV
In the days of GameSpot TV, the show was filmed on a simple ZDTV studio set consisting of faux-brick walls, randomly positioned TV monitors, and functioning Gauntlet Legends and Rival Schools arcade game cabinets. For the occasional special episode, filming would move off-site to another location, such as the Sony Metreon arcade, and numerous game conventions such as the Classic Gaming Expo and E3. Each episode would start off with Game News, where Sessler or Fielder would give a brief overview of top news stories featured on the GameSpot website. Game reviews were run in a segment known as The Grill (games were graded on GameSpot's official 0.1-10.0 system), Spotlight showcased special content such as interviews with industry leaders, and Game Breakers featured strategy guides and hints for recently released games. New episodes would debut on weekend mornings at 10:00 a.m. EST. Botello became Sessler's new co-host on April 29, 2000, and towards the end, the 10-point grading system was changed to a 5-point system.

Extended Play
When GameSpot TV converted to Extended Play on February 17, 2001, the show moved entirely to the Metreon, and took on a very simple style and format. Filming consisted of co-hosts Sessler and Botello and a small single camera crew; the show featured strictly game reviews and game hints. New episodes debuted once a week at 9:00 p.m. EST. Like GameSpot TV, certain special episodes would be filmed elsewhere. In August 2002, the series became a daily program with a mix of repeats and first-run episodes airing Monday-Friday at 4:00 p.m. EST, with Friday episodes remaining in the 9:00 p.m. timeslot. After the departure of Botello on March 29, 2002, Sessler continued to host at the Metreon by himself, until the change to X-Play in April 2003.

X-Play San Francisco
When X-Play debuted on April 28, 2003
the show moved back to the TechTV studios, and Morgan Webb came on board as co-host, leaving her previous hosting duties on TechTV's The Screen Savers and Call for Help. X-Play had a larger scale than that of Extended Play, but it still maintained an extremely simple and spartan style. Filming was done in TechTV's Studio A, home to the sets of Call For Help, Fresh Gear, and TechLive. The filming setup was increased to three cameras; a main floor camera, a Jibcam for high angle shots, and a black-and-white handheld DV camera, which would be cut to suddenly and intermittently throughout episodes.

X-Play's primary set consisted of a single couch, coffee table and television (with working game consoles) positioned in the middle of the large studio floor, but hosts Sessler and Webb would migrate around various areas of the studio, normally not even going to their actual set until the end of the program. Each episode would typically conclude with Sessler and Webb playing one of the consoles on the TV. The show's format consisted primarily of game reviews and previews (with some previews being conducted as live in-studio demos by Morgan and Adam), with an occasional game-related sketch thrown in for comedic value.

The Disembodied Voice was also introduced to the show at this phase in its history. This unseen announcer would begin each episode with an often over-the-top introduction to which the hosts usually responded or commented (these comments varied widely, ranging from total non-sequiturs to Gilbert and Sullivan references to current events, along with viewer-submitted intros taken from the show's web forums).

Unlike its predecessors, X-Play had more of an edge, containing some adult language and more mature (sometimes controversial) subject matter. As a result, it was paired in a programming block with the network's other new show, Unscrewed with Martin Sargent. X-Play originally ran five nights a week at 11:30 p.m. EST, but it was moved up to 11:00 EST soon after. X-Play aired four brand new episodes for their first two weeks, but would ultimately air three new episodes a week for the majority of the show's remainder on TechTV.

Many of the episodes created during this time period aired on the G4 Rewind block of retro programming in 2008; the first episode would end up being the last show on the channel itself before it officially shut down on December 31, 2014.

X-Play Los Angeles
Comcast purchased TechTV in May 2004 and merged it with its gaming channel, G4, necessitating a move for X-Play's base of operations from San Francisco to G4's Santa Monica studios. X-Play continued production at the TechTV studios in San Francisco until August 2004. The final episode to be produced in San Francisco aired on August 24, 2004.

The first episode of X-Play to be filmed at the Los Angeles set aired on September 13, 2004. The new set designed for the show resembled a lounge—or rumpus room - where the hosts could sit around while discussing their latest reviews (during the 400th episode, which originally aired on May 8, 2006, all chairs were removed from the set so that Adam and Morgan had to stand throughout the duration of each episode).

While originally maintaining its late-night time slot, new episodes were eventually moved to 4:00 p.m. EST in the afternoons (usually airing on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays) starting on April 10, 2006. This changed to 3:00 p.m. EST on September 5, 2006, before X-Play returned to prime-time on November 6 of the same year, to an 8:00 p.m. EST timeslot.

On March 4, 2007, it was announced that the G4 Studios in Santa Monica would close on April 15. Production of G4 programs was relocated to the Studios of the E! Television Network situated elsewhere in the Los Angeles area. As a consequence, new sets had to be designed for X-Play, and many G4 employees involved in production were laid off.

The E! Building's set was smaller than the Santa Monica studio, thus some aspects of the studio had to be shrunk down. The X-Play logo was retro-fitted to sit above the stage on the right-hand side of the set, with curtains surrounding the entirety of the space to create a sense of intimacy; a large flat-screen monitor was also placed in the background, and several small decorative glass balls were strategically placed around various spots on the floor (Adam and Morgan would often joke of their fear that they would trip over one of these balls and hurt themselves). During video-game analysis and viewer mail segments, Sessler and Webb would sit in orange recliner chairs as they debated over the issue at hand.

X-Play Expands
On January 14, 2008, G4 commenced with a complete overhaul to the show's entire format, branding the move as X-Play "jumping to the next level".

Both Adam and Morgan have stated that this new format represents "the type of show that they've always wanted X-Play to be", whereby a strict focus on game reviews was replaced with a broader range of topics relating to the video-game field (including more in-depth gaming news, first looks at game demos, and game cheat-codes/strategies with Kristin Adams twice a week).

The set was once again refurbished to coincide with the change, as the studio now has blue-tinged walls covered with several flat-screen monitors, and a giant orange X-Play logo (also newly redesigned for the relaunch) covering the floor. In addition, G4 took advantage of the new set and show format by expanding X-Play's schedule in order to air new episodes five days a week.

However, economic factors forced G4 to contract X-Play's schedule back down to only three original episodes per week, starting on March 2, 2009; in addition, the show's timeslot was moved out of prime-time to 6:30 p.m. EST (although reruns still air at 8 o'clock) and a number of X-Play staff members were laid off.

X-Play XL
In December 2008, the show aired X-Large one-hour episodes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. According to G4 television president Neil Tiles, this was an experimental change with the possibility of having all episodes run 60 minutes long sometime in the future where new segments were incorporated to see if X-Play could "go deeper than the current half hour show allows." Tiles also stated that the writers will be looking to add "more comedy" back into the program "as requested."

1,000th episode
On February 1, 2010, X-Play aired its 1,000th episode. To commemorate this milestone, G4 aired a six-hour marathon containing favorite episodes of the series, leading up to the premiere of the actual new episode.

Changes in 2012
In April 2012, it was announced that Sessler would no longer be part of G4. Blair Herter, previously a co-host on X-Play, would become the new co-host of the series. The X-Play set was once again redesigned, and debuted on the June 18, 2012 episode. The new set featured giant white-tinged flatscreen monitors (displaying two large orange-and-black "X" logos) positioned behind the hosts, as well as the addition of a studio audience (making the presentation of the program similar to that of Attack of the Show!). Also, there is an area of the studio with two large reclining chairs and a glass table, used as a place to interview featured guests (such as Mark Lamia from Treyarch and Ted Price from Insomniac Games).

Original series finale
On October 26, 2012, it was reported that the show (along with Attack of the Show!) would cease production after 2012. The hour-long finale of the original iteration of X-Play aired on January 23, 2013. During the broadcast, the hosts announced that the network would be auctioning off X-Play memorabilia via eBay (the set was even designed to resemble a telethon, with several people—Drunk Link, Canadian Guy, Superman, a pair of Imperial Stormtroopers - manning phones), and that all proceeds from the winning bids would be donated to Child's Play at childsplaycharity.org/xplay. The three items auctioned off were a seven-foot Dovahkiin statue, a signed copy of the script for the final episode, and a Halo 4 Limited Edition Xbox 360 console bundle signed by the X-Play staff.

After a montage of scenes from the show's history to close out the broadcast (with the tagline "A show on television, April 2003 - January 2013"), the remaining cast and crew thanked the viewers, as well as the developers for making the games that made the show possible ("even Koei, because ... taking a dump on Dynasty Warriors filled up a lotta time"). The closing credits then ran in the style of a 1980s-era video game, with an 8-bit version of the logo and the phrase "CONGRATULATIONS!!! You have completed X-Play" written in an 8-bit font and set to chiptune music. Once the credits were complete, the words "GAME OVER" appeared on screen along with an Xbox Live "Achievement Unlocked: 100G - Mission Complete" badge, with the G4 Media copyright box shown in the bottom left corner.

When G4 ceased broadcasting on December 31, 2014, the last program broadcast at 11:30pm EST was the first episode of X-Play.

Webb and Sessler reunited for Bethesda Softworks' press conference at E3 in 2016.

Revival
On July 24, 2020, G4 announced a revival of the network set for a 2021 launch. Later on November 24, 2020, G4 released A Very Special G4 Reunion Special, which featured former X-Play hosts Adam Sessler, Morgan Webb, and Blair Herter (who is one of the key people behind the re-launch), as well as correspondent Kristin Adams. On January 28, 2021, G4 announced that X-Play (alongside Attack of the Show!) would return with it. On February 12, 2021, G4 announced that Adam Sessler would return to host. The revival premiered on November 19, 2021, broadcast live on G4's Twitch and YouTube channels. Unlike the previous iteration, the episodes were two hours long (they were later cut down to 30-minute episodes on G4's cable channel). Sessler, Froskurinn, The Completionist and The Black Hokage co-hosted the revival; Sessler mainly co-hosted the show remotely from his San Francisco home while the others were based at G4's studio in Los Angeles. Froskurinn was let go after G4 bought out the remainder of her contract in September 2022.

The show was canceled in October 2022 when it was announced that month that G4 would shut down for the second time, with its final episode airing on October 20.

Reviews
There have been over 2,705 games reviewed on X-Play; for most of the show's run, reviews were designated by a five-point rating scale, based on such factors as graphics, sound, gameplay, and playability (i.e. replay value).

Original ratings scale
On X-Play's original TechTV homepage, the ratings system was broken down in the following way:

The first game to receive a perfect "5 out of 5" rating was Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell during the November 20th (2002) episode, while the first game to receive a "1 out of 5" rating was Infogrames' 2003 racer Humvee Assault, during the May 29th (2003) episode.

2007 ratings primer
In a 2007 episode billed as a "primer on our scoring system", Adam and Morgan further elaborated on their ratings scale:
 A score of 1 is a game that "has to produce true crappiness, [through] the full cooperation of an entire development team - level designers taking off early to attend their children's soccer games, animators getting so high during their lunchbreak that they can't operate their mouse, and of course money hungry execs who will release anything if they can dupe kids into begging their moms for it."
Example Given: 50 Cent: Bulletproof
 A score of 2 "is such a difficult score to give, because it requires a game that fundamentally fails, but has a barely redeeming charm which makes it untenable to give a 1; it's that Suddenly Susan cocktail of technical competence floated atop a pile of dreck."
Example Given: Genji: Days of the Blade
 There are different levels to a score of 3 - "there's the 3 that's a mix of very good and very bad elements (like Blood Will Tell) or 3's that have a great concept that's poorly executed (like Railroads!), and then there's those 3's that are just churned out because they know people will buy them even though there's nothing original in it (like every FIFA game ever)."
Example Given: Sid Meier's Railroads!
 "There are really two kinds of games that get 4's regularly: these are great games with significant problems (like Dead Rising) and games that are amazing but just aren't suited for everyone (the Warhammer: Dark Crusade expansion or any of the Sims expansions are good examples)."
Example Given: Dead Rising
 Titles that earn a perfect 5 out of 5 are "those magnificent games which, whatever minor flaws they may have, call out to us and say, 'Buy me, you must buy me' ... "
Example Given: Ōkami

During this episode, the hosts also explained why they use a 5-point ratings system, rather than a 10- or even 100-point scale:

2011 ratings primer
On the January 24, 2011 episode, Adam and Morgan gave an updated ratings primer in response to confusion spawned by aggregator review sites like Metacritic. To that end, the X-Play review scale was broken down in the following manner:

1 out of 5
 Broken controls
 Amateurish design
 Less fun than a menu screen
 Mainly shoddy licensed games (Clash of the Titans) and shovelware (Tournament of Legends)

2 out of 5
 Some fun to be had
 Serious flaws in gameplay
 Rental at best
 Examples given were Quantum Theory and Tron: Evolution

3 out of 5
 Not bad, not great (average)
 Technically competent
 Often lacking in ambition
 Mainly rushed sequels (Front Mission Evolved) and functional licensed games (James Bond 007: Blood Stone)

4 out of 5
 Good game with good ideas
 Accomplishes most goals
 Minor flaws hurt playability
 Games that might not be for everyone (Heavy Rain)

5 out of 5
 Outstanding, genre-defining title
 Realizes all ambitions of its design
 Renews your faith in gaming
 Examples given were Red Dead Redemption and Mass Effect 2

Introduction of the half star
During the 2012 season premiere (January 17), the "half star" was introduced to the X-Play ratings system, with the hosts explaining that they felt a change towards a "more granular ratings scale will help distinguish the great games from the really great games from the really really great games." They also believed that over the years it had gotten "a little too easy to score the coveted 5 out of 5," and that the change will make such an accomplishment "more of a rarity"; it also means that the lowest score a game can achieve is now a "point-5 out of 5."

In addition, the review scale was again broken down to make the show's criteria clear to the viewing audience:

5 stars
 Exceptional game
 A true must-play
 Example Given: Gears of War 3

4 stars
 Great game with minor issues
 Lacks that "certain something"
 Example Given: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

3 stars
 Decent game
 Nothing special, nothing awful
 Example Given: Dead Island

2 stars
 Severely flawed
 Not recommended
 Example Given: The Lord of the Rings: War in the North

1 star
 Truly awful
 No redeeming qualities
 Example Given: Thor: God of Thunder

The hosts concluded this explanation with the following caveat:

The first game to receive a half-star in its rating was Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (two and a half stars) during the February 13th (2012) episode.

The first game to receive the lowest possible rating was Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor (0.5 stars) during the July 2nd (2012) episode.

During the April 8 (2013) edition of "Sessler's ... Something", Adam (then an employee of Revision3) implied that the introduction of the half-star rating was actually pushed through by G4 executives without his knowledge; he stated that he "came back in 2013 to find out that we had moved to a half-star system as well, [and] it was all at the behest of one very very large publisher who said that [the show] wouldn't be taken seriously unless we were listed on Metacritic."

2021 relaunch
With the relaunch of the show, the rating system has been simplified back down to its original "out of 5" format. In opting to get rid of half points, Adam Sessler stated that half points "are for cowards" and that "score[s] are not reviews." In fact, Adam says that he prefers to not give scores at all, but that the system was an integral part of the old show that they wanted to carry over to the new iteration; the score reflects the hosts' thoughts on the game.

During the November 19, 2021 episode broadcast live on Twitch, Adam and new Xplay hosts TheBlackHokage, Froskurinn, and Jirard "The Completionist" Khalil broke down the revised Xplay rating scale as follows:

1 out of 5 - Broken, Unfinished, or Worthless

 Rarely "awarded".
 We're embarrassed FOR this game.
 A waste of a player's money and time.
 No fun to be had except to watch this game be roasted by Xplay.

Examples Given: Cyberpunk 2077 for PlayStation 4, Shadow the Hedgehog (video game)

2 out of 5 - This is a bad game

 Aggressively poor design decisions were made.
 It makes you angry to keep playing.
 The bad overwhelms the good.

Examples Given: Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII, Apex Legends for Nintendo Switch.

3 out of 5 - This is a fine game

 A "good" game.
 Enjoyable, but lacks that special something.
 Forgettable, but technically competent.

Example Given: Aliens: Fireteam Elite

4 out of 5 - This is a great game

 Top of the "normal" review scale.
 Technically perfect title that lacks some sort of spark.
 Top-level game that never truly surprises the player.

Examples Given: Halo Wars, Persona 4, Brütal Legend.

5 out of 5 - Highest Score Possible

 Rarely awarded.
 More than the sum of its parts.
 Creates a lasting, unique experience for the player.
 A must-play!
 Major contender for Game of the Year.

Examples Given: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Bully (video game), No More Heroes (video game), Psychonauts 2.

During the breakdown, Froskurinn tells viewers to think of the scale "less as a 5 point scale and more of a 4 point scale, with the 5 as a bonus that is very, very hard to reach."

Sketches and segments
Various recurring segments and comedy skits have been used throughout the show's history by the X-Play writers.

Gaming Update/The Feed: Gaming Edition
The Gaming Update originally began in 2007 as a short segment (hosted by Joel Gourdin) which recapped the top three or four news items of the day, and would often air before leading out to commercial. When X-Play relaunched with their new format in 2008, the segment developed into a two- to three-minute piece running at the start of each show, narrated by either Adam or Morgan (or by Blair Herter, who served as X-Play newsdesk producer at the time), then continued via a news ticker at the bottom of the screen throughout the rest of the episode.

Video Viewer Mail/X-Play Inbox
Adam and Morgan would often read selected correspondence from the program's viewers at the end of every episode. These messages from the fans could be questions about the current state of the videogame
industry, requests for recommendations on the best games to buy, or (especially during the TechTV era) hate mail from viewers who felt that X-Play did not give certain games a "fair" rating.

On November 6, 2006, X-Play gave their Viewer Mail segment a high-tech face-lift, by renaming it Video Viewer Mail. While previous correspondence was held via the written word or e-mail, the producers added the
ability for viewers to also record short clips of themselves asking questions with a webcam or video recorder; people who had their viewer mail appear on air often would receive a free gift, such as a game or T-shirt
provided by Jinx.com.

In early 2011, this segment was again rebranded as simply The X-Play Inbox, with the practice of featuring video clips sent in from viewers seemingly dropped altogether.

Face Time
This segment featured the hosts conducting an interview with a personality from the gaming community (programmers, directors, company CEOs, etc.) either in studio or via satellite. It continued the X-Play tradition of having famous names on their show, including non-gaming celebrities such as Adam West, David Duchovny, John Cleese, Ben Affleck, Angelina Jolie, Carmen Electra, Ben Stiller, Andrew W.K., Rob Van Dam, Kurt Angle, Quentin Richardson, Jet Li, Vin Diesel, Janina Gavankar, and Kumail Nanjiani.

X-List
A top-five list compiled by the X-Play writers that have to do with video games (including Top Five Smash Bros. Levels, Top Five Creatures in Halo 3, and Top Five Recommended Obscure Games).

Cheat!
The Cheat! concept originally existed as a half-hour television program airing on the G4 network; however, in 2008 the show's host - Kristin Adams (née Holt) - moved over to the X-Play staff and Cheat! was re-created
as a single segment where she provided cheat codes and/or secrets for currently released games to the viewing audience.

Spoiler Theater
In this segment, Adam and Morgan showcased and spoiled the endings of current-generation games that had been on the market for some time (their reasoning was that the game had been available to the home viewers for such a length of time that if they have not yet purchased/beaten said game by this point, they never will). Past games that have been given the Spoiler Theater treatment include Metroid Prime, Resident Evil 4, Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II, Devil May Cry, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and Metal Gear Solid 2.

There was also an occasional segment called Insignificant Spoiler Theater (alternately identified as Not-So-Spoiler Theater and Irrelevant Spoiler Theater on G4's website), which featured the endings of games that either exhibited very little in the way of plot (such as Katamari Damacy and Left Behind: Eternal Forces) or were based on movies where the storylines are already well-known (like The Godfather, Reservoir Dogs, and Pirates of the Caribbean).

X-Play Investigates
This segment began during the TechTV era as a parody of investigative news programs; X-Play would delve into such "hard-hitting" issues as the effects of E-rated games on America's youth, just what the "cool" people (such as then-TechLive anchor Chris Leary) were into, the horrors of animal testing for video-game quality control, and why certain intellectual property - like the TV show American Chopper - deserved to have their own video games (in the cleverly titled "How'd They Get a Game?").

However, this segment has recently taken on a more serious tone, with the show tackling subjects without the sole intent of creating comedy skits. Examples include a look at the portrayal of sex in video games, the prevalence of "achievement whores", and an inspection of the life of competitive gamer Steve Wiebe.

Best Of Awards

X-Play would dedicate an entire show to the best games released over the preceding twelve months; awards were handed out in several categories, such as "Most Original Game" and "Best Handheld Game", but the most prestigious - and most hotly debated - is "Game of the Year":

 2021 winner - Psychonauts 2
 2012 winner - Borderlands 2
 2011 winner - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
 2010 winner - Mass Effect 2
 2009 winner - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
 2008 winner - Fable II
 2007 winner - BioShock
 2006 winner - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
 2005 winner - Resident Evil 4
 2004 winner - Halo 2
 2003 winner - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Golden Mullet Awards
The polar opposite of X-Play's yearly "Best Of" special, The Golden Mullet Awards were used to showcase the reviewers' picks for worst video games of the past year. The name is a twisted "homage" to the Aquaman character from the poorly reviewed 2003 game Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis, who sported a blonde polygonal mullet hairstyle.

The X-Play Challenge
In this segment, the hosts would have a celebrity guest conduct a speedrun through "World 1-1" of the original Super Mario Bros. for the NES. Their times were then placed on the leaderboard (i.e. a cardboard facsimile of the
flagpole found at the end of the level):

 Randy Pitchford: 21.1 seconds
 Ted Price: 23.6 seconds
 Cliff Bleszinski: 24.0 seconds
 Game: 25.3 seconds
 Scott Porter: 26.3 seconds
 Kiki Wolfkill: 27.5 seconds
 Ken Levine: 31.6 seconds
 Andrew W.K.: 33.1 seconds
 Ernest Cline: 38.5 seconds
 Thomas Jane: 39.7 seconds
 Todd Stashwick: 42.7 seconds

Non-Denominational Holiday Buyer's Guide
For the holiday season, X-Play aired gift guide episodes that recommends video games to viewers for Christmas.

Themes

Recurring characters
X-Play has amassed a large group of fictional characters that will appear from time to time, often to bring some humor during game reviews.

Interns
X-Play has its own cast of interns (students from local universities who have signed up with G4 to gain valuable work experience in the television production field), who will sometimes appear as characters on the show. When appearing on camera, they are commonly outfitted in a white undershirt with the word INTERN scrawled across the chest in black Sharpie.

Their roles are not relegated to simply being on-screen comic relief, as the interns are accountable for much of the game footage used during reviews/previews. X-Play interns also play a role in other behind-the-scenes work on the show's set; some of the former interns have eventually been hired full-time within the G4 company itself. Examples include Leticia Caparaz (the first intern to be offered a full-time position in 1999 as a Production Assistant and later the program's Web Producer, before leaving the company in June 2004 as a result of the G4/TechTV merger), Jason Frankovitz (he would leave the show in early 2005), Albert Iskander (who has worked as a Production Assistant for G4's Video Game Vixens and G4tv.com), Gene Yraola (now a part of G4's Games Editorial Department, the liaison between the shows and the actual software/hardware companies), Eric Acasio (a production assistant for X-Play) and Emily Mollenkopf (hired as a production assistant on Attack of the Show in 2006).

A near-complete list of interns who have worked on the show follows:
 From San Francisco, California: Leticia Caparaz, Jason Frankovitz, Scott Humphrey, Chris Ivarson, Matt Ketterer, Robert Padbury, Desiree Peel, Jana Suverkropp, Kevin Theobald, Blake Yoshiura, and Kevin Yuen.
 From Los Angeles, California:, Eric Acasio, Russ Brock, Steve Dutzy, Brian Flores, Gil Garcia, Albert Iskander, Isaac Gelman, Kenny, Megan, Erik Merlin, Emily Mollenkopf, Geoff Pinkus, Stephan, Alex Villegas, Chuck Wilkerson, Chris Wilson, Gene Yraola, Rob Yeager, Daniel Powley, Michael "Sully" Sullivan, and Thomas McBeath

The Screaming Intern (played by Robert Manuel) was actually not a true intern, but instead was an editorial coordinator for the show.

Guest appearances
When X-Play was still a part of TechTV, personalities from other shows on the network would often make guest appearances (including Leo Laporte, Yoshi DeHerrera, and Unscrewed's Martin Sargent and Laura Swisher). This continued after the merger with G4, with names like Kevin Pereira, Tina Wood, and Julie Stoffer.

X-Play has also had pseudo-celebrities who are not affiliated with G4 (such as Tony Little, Kato Kaelin, Michael Winslow, and Rip Taylor) appear on the show.

Hatred
There have been several gaming titles/genres/trends over the years which the hosts have displayed an exaggerated sense of "hatred" towards (often playing up their dislike for the cameras in order to make for humorous television). These include:
 Card battle games such as Yu-Gi-Oh!.
 Games based on anime series (particularly Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, and Fullmetal Alchemist).
 "Ungodly boob physics", where female video-game characters are rendered with impossibly large breasts that bounce and sway unnaturally and independently from the rest of their bodies (this phenomenon is particularly prevalent in Japanese dating simulation games like Sexy Beach 2).
 Game series which continue to produce titles despite a lack of quality and/or innovation (such as Dynasty Warriors, Mega Man, Leisure Suit Larry, Tony Hawk, and 3D iterations of Sonic The Hedgehog).
 The proliferation of WWII first-person shooter games on the market (during their review of Moscow to Berlin: Red Siege, Morgan remarked "That's it! No more World War II games! According to my contract, I only have to review 75 World War II games per year, and I already hit my quota in March!").
 Video games based on existing IPs (like current movies or TV shows), since they are usually rushed to the market to cash in on the latest craze and end up being painful to actually play (such as the Charlie's Angels or Da Vinci Code video games).
 3D water levels in games, since the show's writers feel that game developers almost never capture the feeling of swimming in an enjoyable manner ("Instead of making us awkwardly pilot our character through zero-gravity space, why don't you just come to our house and punch us in the face? It's exactly the same amount of fun!").
 Escort missions, where the player is forced to keep an NPC character (who has its own health meter) from dying; this often proves difficult when the NPC's A.I. is so insufficient that they continuously place themselves in harm's way (leaving the player with little or no chance to save them). However, Resident Evil 4 is an exception of this.
 Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue (Morgan has often called this the worst game ever made).
 Jonny Moseley and the ridiculous comments made in his video game Jonny Moseley Mad Trix (including the classic line "What if it snowed in San Francisco?").
 Dane Cook and his brand of comedy.
 Uwe Boll and his film adaptions of video games.
 Shovelware for the Nintendo Wii, like All Star Cheer Squad and "Crappy Minigame Collection No. 272".
 Developers who feel the need to take a perfectly acceptable single-player game and tack on a multiplayer mode.
 Sixaxis controls in PS3 games.
 3D Castlevania games.
 Level grinding in role-playing games.
 Japanese RPGs. This was considered to be Adam's pet peeve where people would tell Adam that Japanese RPGs, such as Final Fantasy, are the best RPGs. Adam however believes that Final Fantasy is not the best RPG.
 Devil May Cry, claiming that it is a "last-gen" game.
 The animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Physical comedy
For comedic purposes, the X-Play writers have portrayed the show as an exceedingly violent working environment; interns are often depicted as suffering from sexual harassment and physical abuse at the hands of the hosts (such as being forced to use a bucket to relieve themselves - instead of the bathroom - or retrieving items suspended over the "X-Play snake pit").

This violent dynamic has also manifested itself within the interactions between the hosts themselves (like when Morgan Webb continuously struck Adam Sessler with a baseball bat during X-Play's mockumentary on the history of violence in video games).

Online content
The producers of X-Play have used a number of internet-driven initiatives to engage the show's technologically savvy audience.

The X-Play Boards
The show's hosts have often been the subject of numerous negative comments (including "Morgan's not really a gamer!" and "Sessler doesn't know gaming because he hates Final Fantasy!") through the show's official message board. The vitriol spewed forth on the forums has become so well-documented that the X-Play staff even produced a music video dedicated to the message board's denizens entitled On the X-Play Boards (MP3 format).

The song was written and performed by Marque Phahee and the Bling Dongs (in reality X-Play segment producer Mark Fahey playing an acoustic guitar), featuring the X-Play After School Choir (composed of Morgan, Adam and various recurring X-Play characters). It is also supposed to be the lead track from the X-Play: The Musical motion picture soundtrack (even though X-Play eventually created an actual all-musical episode which made no mention of On the X-Play Boards).

Chat
When X-Play was still a part of TechTV, the show would host an online chat every Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. EST. After the merger with G4, X-Play's official IRC chat room was re-designed by Philippe Detournay and Raphael Seeqmuller using the PJIRC chat client.

On November 6, 2006 (to coincide with the show's move to prime time), G4 integrated X-Play's chat feature into the actual broadcast of each new episode. Using an idea similar to their production of Star Trek 2.0, a window covering the bottom half of the screen would pop up during reviews and display messages typed out by G4 users on X-Play's official web site in real-time (with moderation for broadcast standards to avert profanity and other inappropriate responses). The presentation of the X-Play chat function was later redesigned for the show's 2008 reformatting, so that chat messages would display on the left-hand side of the screen during a review.

Twitter
The interactive chat feature was abandoned in late 2009, in order to take advantage of the increasing popularity of the micro-blogging site Twitter. The show's producers now present X-Play viewers with a question relevant to the day's news/reviews via their official Twitter feed, then display the resulting answers during that night's episode through a scrolling ticker on the bottom portion of the screen.

Starting the week of June 13, 2011, the show began the practice of having their on-air personalities live-tweeting during reruns of the show airing on Thursdays and Fridays.

X-Play: The Online Game
X-Play: The Online Game is a short Flash game created by the San Francisco-based company Orange Design (graphics and audio by Sean Talley, programming by Fearghal O'Dea).

The brief intro sequence begins in the fictitious X-Play Labs (which made an appearance on the show during the X-Play X-Plentions skit), where Morgan is about to put the finishing touches on the X-Play online game. An excited Adam asks if the game can have "fudge zombies and stealthy ninjas and drunken pirates and radioactive Dik-diks", then haphazardly presses a large red button which "digitizes physical matter and materializes digital matter"; this causes all of the bad guys from the X-Play video game to escape (much to Morgan's chagrin).

Once the game begins, players can choose from big-headed versions of either Adam (whose main weapon is Slippy the Fish) or Morgan (whose main weapon is her fists), and battle their way through a few continuously repeating levels of action. Controls consist of the arrow keys for movement, the "A" key to punch, and the "S" key to kick.

The game is no longer available on G4's website, but a mirror site can be found via Orange Design's online company portfolio.

Hyperactive
Culled from the theory that many viewers of TechTV both watched the network while using the internet, TechTV's Hyperactive  was launched in 2004.

Designed to be used as a combination trivia game and chat room which would run concurrently with the 11 PM weeknight block of X-Play and Unscrewed with Martin Sargent, participants could compete against one another by answering questions relating to, and revolving around, video games, pop-culture and host references from episodes that were currently airing. Leaderboards were synchronized with the episodes as they aired, often showcasing the names of the 10 highest scoring contestants as the show came back from each commercial break.

After the merger of TechTV and G4, Hyperactive continued until late 2004. During this time, participants could win an iPod mini by playing the game.

Daily Video Podcast
On November 11, 2005, G4 started offering X-Play segments (reviews, skits, etc.) for free in podcast form via their website and the iTunes Store, giving viewers the opportunity to watch segments on-demand with their computers and portable devices. These podcasts have since become available through other podcatcher software (such as the Zune Marketplace) as well.

X-Play Weekly
On August 14, 2008, a special weekly wrap-up show called X-Play Weekly was made available for download on the Xbox LIVE Video Store, allowing Xbox 360 owners to view highlights from the previous week's episodes for 160 Microsoft Points ($2 US).

Beginning the week of June 15, 2009, X-Play Weekly was also made available for download through the PlayStation Network, also at $2 per weekly program.

Feedback
In September 2009, G4TV.com rebranded its Feed Nightcap vodcast (a web spinoff of the Attack of the Show segment "The Feed") with the new title Feedback . This weekly segment was hosted by Adam Sessler (before Blair Herter took over official hosting duties with the October 19th 2011 episode) and features a rotating panel of co-hosts drawn from X-Play's editorial staff with the occasional guest from the gaming industry (such as Tim Schafer and Cliff Bleszinski). The show's stated goal is to deliver "intelligent, informative, and very very humorous discussion about games" by reviewing current news stories as well as answering viewer questions, and is filmed via a roundtable format in G4's audio recording studio. Even though the show could be considered an extension of the AOTS brand, all of the content for the program is drawn from and presented by X-Play staff.

Book
On October 22, 2004, TechTV (in association with Peachpit Press) published the book The X-Play Insider's Guide to Gaming: All You Ever Wanted to Know About Video Games From G4techTV's Brutally Honest Experts. Written by Marc Saltzman (along with the X-Play Cast) and weighing in at a hefty 468 pages, the book contains game reviews, cheat codes, and Q&A sessions with the cast and crew. Adam and Morgan even went on a nationwide book-signing tour to help promote their literary endeavor.

Copies of the book can be found everywhere from the Brooklyn Public Library to the University of Hong Kong.

References

External links

 X-Play microsite to celebrate show re-launch
 X-Play Reviewed Games Database

ZDTV - Gamespot TV (ARCHIVED)

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Xplay


Georg Theodor August Gaffky (17 February 1850 – 23 September 1918) was a Hanover-born bacteriologist best known for identifying bacillus salmonella typhi as the cause of typhoid disease in 1884.

Early life and career
Gaffky's parents were the shipping agent Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Gaffky, and Emma Schumacher. His medical studies at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin were completed in 1873 after an interruption by the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. His dissertation postulated a relationship between lead poisoning and kidney disease. He worked as an assistant at the Berlin Charité hospital and passed the state medical exams in 1875. He then worked as an army surgeon.

Gaffky worked as an assistant to Robert Koch in Berlin. Under Koch's leadership, Gaffky and others developed bacteriological protocols and achieved progress in  identifying causes of infectious diseases.

Principal discoveries
Following Karl Joseph Eberth's description of a bacillus suspected as the cause of typhus, and  Koch's independent work on the same organism, Gaffky dedicated years to  improving  culture methods to isolate the bacillus. He was able to produce cultures in gelatin and other hosts.

In 1884, Gaffky published results reporting that he had isolated the eberthella or Gaffky-Eberth bacillus in 26 of 28 cases of typhoid.

Gaffky was later part of an expedition to Egypt in which Koch identified transmission methods of cholera. He became a government advisor during the 1892 cholera outbreak in Hamburg. He led an investigation of the 1897 outbreak of bubonic plague in India.

Gaffky served as director of the  Berlin Institute for Infectious Diseases from 1904–1913.

References

 Gloria Robinson, "Gaffky, Georg Theodor August." Charles Coulston Gillispie, Dictionary of Scientific Biographies. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970).

External links

1850 births
1918 deaths
Physicians from Hanover
German bacteriologists
Medical Microbiology and Immunology editors

Georg Theodor August Gaffky