document_title: Pac-Man

question_text: how many levels are there in pac man

question_tokens: how many levels are there in pac man

text: Pac-Man

text: Gameplay[edit]

text: The player navigates Pac-Man through a maze containing various dots, known as Pac-Dots, and four multi-colored ghosts: Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde. The goal of the game is to accumulate points by eating all the Pac-Dots in the maze, completing that 'stage' of the game and starting the next stage and maze of Pac-dots. Between some stages, one of three intermission animations plays.[23] The four ghosts roam the maze, trying to kill Pac-Man. If any of the ghosts hit Pac-Man, he loses a life; when all lives have been lost, the game is over. Pac-Man is awarded a single bonus life at 10,000 points by default—DIP switches inside the machine can change the required points to 15,000 or 20,000, or disable the bonus life altogether. The number of lives can be set to 1 life only or up to five lives maximum. High score cannot exceed 999,990 points; players may exceed that score, but the game keeps the last 6 digits. There are 256 levels in total, however, when the game was made, the memory ran out at 256, so it is only half loaded while the other half is a jumble of letters and digits.

text: Near the corners of the maze are four larger, flashing dots known as Power Pellets that provide Pac-Man with the temporary ability to eat the ghosts and earn bonus points. The enemies turn deep blue, reverse direction and usually move more slowly. When an enemy is eaten, its eyes remain and return to the center box where the ghost is regenerated in its normal color. Blue enemies flash white to signal that they are about to become dangerous again and the length of time for which the enemies remain vulnerable varies from one stage to the next, generally becoming shorter as the game progresses. In later stages, the enemies go straight to flashing, bypassing blue, which means that they can only be eaten for a short amount of time, although they still reverse direction when a Power Pellet is eaten; starting at stage 19, the ghosts do not become edible (i.e., they do not change color and still make Pac-Man lose a life on contact), but they still reverse direction. There are also fruits, located directly below the center box, that appear twice per level; eating one of them results in bonus points (100–5,000).

text: Enemies[edit]

text:
The enemies in Pac-Man are known variously as "monsters" or "ghosts".[24][25][26]
Despite the seemingly random nature of the enemies, their movements are strictly deterministic, which players have used to their advantage. In an interview, creator Toru Iwatani stated that he had designed each enemy with its own distinct personality in order to keep the game from becoming impossibly difficult or boring to play.[27] More recently, Iwatani described the enemy behaviors in more detail at the 2011 Game Developers Conference. He stated that the red enemy chases Pac-Man, and the pink enemy aims for a position in front of Pac-Man's mouth.[28] The blue enemy is "fickle" and sometimes heads towards Pac-Man, and other times away. Although he claimed that the orange enemy's behavior is random, in actuality it alternates from behaving like the red enemy when at some distance from Pac-Man and aiming towards the lower-left corner of the maze whenever it gets too close to him.

text: Although Midway's 1980 flyer for Pac-Man used both the terms "monsters" and "ghost monsters",[24] the term "ghosts" started to become more popular after technical limitations in the Atari 2600 version caused the antagonists to flicker and seem ghostlike, leading them to be referred to in the manual as "ghosts", and they have most frequently been referred to as ghosts in English ever since.[29]

text:
Color

Pac Man (Original)[30]

Pac-Man (English version)

Character(Personality)

Translation

Nickname

Translation

AlternateCharacter

AlternateNickname

Character(Personality)

Nickname

Red

Oikake (追いかけ)

Chaser

Akabei (赤ベイ)

Red guy

Urchin

Macky

Shadow

Blinky

Pink

Machibuse (待ち伏せ)

Ambusher

Pinky (ピンキー)

Pink guy

Romp

Micky

Speedy

Pinky

Cyan

Kimagure (気まぐれ)

Fickle

Aosuke (青助)

Blue guy

Stylist

Mucky

Bashful

Inky

Orange

Otoboke (お惚け)

Feigned Ignorance

Guzuta (愚図た)

Slow guy

Crybaby

Mocky

Pokey

Clyde

text: Level 256[edit]

text: Pac-Man was designed to have no ending – as long as at least one life was left, the game should be able to go on indefinitely. However, a bug keeps this from happening: Normally, no more than seven fruit are displayed on the HUD at the bottom of the screen at any given time. But when the internal level counter, which is stored in a single byte or eight bits, reaches 255, the subroutine that draws the fruit erroneously "rolls over" this number to zero when it is determining the number of fruit to draw, using fruit counter = internal level counter + 1. Normally, when the fruit counter is below eight, the drawing subroutine draws one fruit for each level, decrementing the fruit counter until it reaches zero. When the fruit counter has overflowed to zero, the first decrement sets the fruit counter back to 255, causing the subroutine to draw a total of 256 fruit instead of the maximum of seven.[31]

text: This corrupts the bottom of the screen and the entire right half of the maze with seemingly random symbols and tiles, overwriting the values of edible dots which makes it impossible to eat enough dots to beat the level. Because this effectively ends the game, this "split-screen" level is often referred to as the "kill screen".

text: Emulators and code analysis have revealed what would happen if this 256th level is cleared: the fruit and intermissions would restart at level 1 conditions, but the enemies would retain their higher speed and invulnerability to power pellets from the higher stages.[32]

text: Perfect play[edit]

text: A perfect Pac-Man game occurs when the player achieves the maximum possible score on the first 255 levels (by eating every possible dot, power pellet, fruit, and enemy) without losing a single life, and using all extra lives to score as many points as possible on Level 256.[33][34]

text: The first person to be credited with achieving this score is Billy Mitchell of Hollywood, Florida, who claimed to perform the feat in about six hours.[34][35] In April 2018, Twin Galaxies removed all of Billy Mitchell's scores for several different games, saying that there was evidence of cheating in his score submissions for multiple Donkey Kong records.[36] Since Mitchell's claim, over 20 other players have attained the maximum score in increasingly faster times. As of  2016[update], the world record, according to Twin Galaxies, is held by David Race, who in 2013 attained the maximum possible score of 3,333,360 points in 3 hours, 28 minutes, and 49 seconds.[37][38]

text: In December 1982, an eight-year-old boy, Jeffrey R. Yee, received a letter from U.S. President Ronald Reagan congratulating him on a worldwide record of 6,131,940 points, a score only possible if he had passed the unbeatable Split-Screen Level.[34] In September 1983, Walter Day, chief scorekeeper at Twin Galaxies, took the US National Video Game Team on a tour of the East Coast to visit video game players who said they could get through the Split-Screen Level. No video game player could demonstrate this ability. In 1999, Billy Mitchell offered $100,000 to anyone who could pass through the Split-Screen Level before January 1, 2000. The prize expired unclaimed.[34]

text: Development[edit]

text: Up into the early 1970s, Namco primarily specialized in kiddie rides for Japanese department stores. Masaya Nakamura, the founder of Namco, saw the potential value of video games, and started to direct the company toward arcade games, starting with electromechanical ones such as F-1 (1976). He later hired a number of software engineers to develop their own video games as to compete with companies like Atari, Inc..[39][40]

text: Pac-Man was one of the first games developed by this new department within Namco. The game was developed primarily by a young employee named Toru Iwatani over the course of 1 year, beginning in April 1979, employing a nine-man team. It was based on the concept of eating, and the original Japanese title is Pakkuman (パックマン), inspired by the Japanese onomatopoeic phrase paku-paku taberu (パクパク食べる),[41][42] where paku-paku describes (the sound of) the mouth movement when widely opened and then closed in succession.[43][44]

text: Although Iwatani has repeatedly stated that the character's shape was inspired by a pizza missing a slice,[10] he admitted in a 1986 interview that this was a half-truth and the character design also came from simplifying and rounding out the Kanji character for mouth, kuchi (口).[45] Iwatani attempted to appeal to a wider audience—beyond the typical demographics of young boys and teenagers. His intention was to attract girls to arcades because he found there were very few games that were played by women at the time.[46] This led him to add elements of a maze, as well as cute ghost-like enemy characters. Eating to gain power, Iwatani has said, was a concept he borrowed from Popeye.[47] The result was a game he named Puck Man[48] as a reference to the main character's hockey puck shape.[49] Later in 1980, the game was picked up for manufacture in the United States by Bally division Midway,[45] which changed the game's name from Puck Man to Pac-Man in an effort to avoid vandalism from people changing the letter 'P' into an 'F' to form the word fuck.[48][49][50] The cabinet artwork was also changed and the pace and level of difficulty increased to appeal to western audiences.[48]

text: Reception[edit]

text: When first launched in Japan by Namco in 1980, Pac-Man received a lukewarm response as Space Invaders and other similar games were more popular at the time.[12] However, the game's success in North America in the same year took competitors and distributors completely by surprise. A frequently-repeated story claims that marketing executives saw Pac-Man at a trade show before its release and completely overlooked both it and the now-classic Defender, seeing a racing car game called Rally-X as the game to outdo that year.[52][53] However, industry reporting from the era indicates that it was Namco itself which was heavily promoting Rally-X at the 1980 Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA), where Pac-Man was at least as well received and reviewed as Rally-X.[54] The appeal of Pac-Man was such that it caught on immediately with the public. It quickly became far more popular than anything seen in the video game industry up to that point. Pac-Man outstripped Asteroids as the best-selling arcade game in North America,[55][56] grossing over $1 billion in quarters within a year,[15][57] by the end of 1980,[58] surpassing the revenues grossed by the highest-grossing film of the time, Star Wars.[59] 60% of players were women according to one estimate, because of its lack of violence, while 90% of those playing space shoot-em-up Omega Race were men.[60]

text: More than 350,000 Pac-Man arcade cabinets were sold worldwide,[61][62] retailing at around $2400 each[63] and totalling around $1 billion ($2.4 billion in 2011), within 18 months of release.[61][64] By 1982, the game had sold 400,000 arcade machines worldwide and an estimated 7 billion coins had been inserted into Pac-Man machines.[65] In addition, United States revenues from Pac-Man licensed products (games, T-shirts, pop songs, wastepaper baskets, etc.) exceeded $1 billion[65] (inflation adjusted: $2.33 billion in 2011).[64] The game was estimated to have had 30 million active players across the United States in 1982.[66] Nakamura said in a 1983 interview that though he did expect Pac-Man to be successful, "I never thought it would be this big".[40]

text: Toward the end of the 20th century, the arcade game's total gross consumer revenue had been estimated by Twin Galaxies at more than 10 billion quarters ($2.5 billion),[15][16] making it the highest-grossing video game of all time.[14] In 2016, USgamer calculated that the machines' inflation-adjusted takings were equivalent to $7.68 billion.[67] In January 1982, the game won the overall Best Commercial Arcade Game award at the 1981 Arcade Awards.[68] In 2001, Pac-Man was voted the greatest video game of all time by a Dixons poll in the UK.[69] The readers of Killer List of Videogames name Pac-Man as the No. 1 video game on its "Top 10 Most Popular Video games" list, the staff name it as No. 18 on its "Top 100 Video Games" list, and Ms. Pac-Man is given similar recognition.[70]

text: Richard A. Edwards reviewed the Atari version of Pac-Man in The Space Gamer No. 53.[71] Edwards commented that "If you must have Pac-Man for your home, then this is it, but if you're hesitant, there are enough differences in this version to suggest passing it by."[71]

text: Impact[edit]

text: An important trait of any game is the illusion of winnability ... The most successful game in this respect is Pac-Man, which appears winnable to most players, yet is never quite winnable.

text: The game is regarded as one of the most influential video games of all time,[73][74][75] for a number of reasons: its title character was the first original gaming mascot, the game established the maze chase game genre, it demonstrated the potential of characters in video games, it opened gaming to female audiences, and it was gaming's first licensing success.[73] In addition, it was the first video game to feature power-ups,[76] and the individual ghosts had deterministic artificial intelligence which react to player actions.[77] It is also frequently credited as the first game to feature cut scenes, in the form of brief comical interludes about Pac-Man and Blinky chasing each other around during those interludes,[78]:2 though Space Invaders Part II employed a similar technique that same year.[79] Pac-Man is also credited for laying the foundations for the stealth game genre, as it emphasized avoiding enemies rather than fighting them,[80] and had an influence on the early stealth game Metal Gear, where guards chase Solid Snake in a similar manner to Pac-Man when he is spotted.[81]

text: Pac-Man has also influenced many other games, ranging from the sandbox game Grand Theft Auto (where the player runs over pedestrians and gets chased by police in a similar manner)[82] to early first-person shooters such as MIDI Maze (which had similar maze-based gameplay and character designs).[78]:5[83] Game designer Chris Crawford praised its balance, observing that Pac-Man "appears winnable to most players, yet is never quite winnable".[72] John Romero credited Pac-Man as the game that had the biggest influence on his career;[84] Wolfenstein 3D was similar in level design[85] and featured a Pac-Man level from a first-person perspective,[86][87] while Doom had a similar emphasis on mazes, power-ups, killing monsters, and reaching the next level.[88] Pac-Man also influenced the use of power-ups in later games such as Arkanoid,[89] and the game's artificial intelligence inspired programmers who later worked for companies such as Bethesda.[77]

text: Legacy[edit]

text: Guinness World Records has awarded the Pac-Man series eight records in Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008, including First Perfect Pac-Man Game for Billy Mitchell's July 3, 1999 score and "Most Successful Coin-Operated Game". On June 3, 2010, at the NLGD Festival of Games, the game's creator Toru Iwatani officially received the certificate from Guinness World Records for Pac-Man having had the most "coin-operated arcade machines" installed worldwide: 293,822. The record was set and recognized in 2005 and mentioned in the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008, but finally actually awarded in 2010.[26]

text: The game has inspired various real-life recreations, involving either real people or robots. One event called Pac-Manhattan set a Guinness World Record for "Largest Pac-Man Game" in 2004.[90][91][92] The business term "Pac-Man defense" in mergers and acquisitions refers to a hostile takeover target that attempts to reverse the situation and take over its would-be acquirer instead, a reference to Pac-Man's power pellets.[93] The game's popularity has led to "Pac-Man" being adopted as a nickname, most notably by boxer Manny Pacquiao,[94] as well as the American football player Adam Jones.

text: On August 21, 2016, in the 2016 Summer Olympics closing ceremony, during a video which showcased Tokyo as the host of the 2020 Summer Olympics, a small segment shows Pac-Man and the ghosts racing against each other eating pac-dots on a running track.[95]

text: Merchandise[edit]

text: The Pac-Man character and game series became an icon of video game culture during the 1980s, and a wide variety of Pac-Man merchandise has been marketed with the character's image, from t-shirts and toys to hand-held video game imitations and even specially shaped pasta.

text: General Mills manufactured a cereal by the Pac-Man name in 1983. Over the cereal's lifespan, characters from sequels Super Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man were also added.

text: Hallmark produced a Pac-Man Keepsake ornament in 2008 that resembled the arcade game.

text: Television[edit]

text: The Pac-Man animated TV series produced by Hanna–Barbera aired on ABC from 1982 to 1983.[96] In 2010, a computer-generated animated series titled Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures was reported to be in the works. The show was released on Disney XD in June 2013.[97][98]

text: Music[edit]

text: In music, the Buckner & Garcia song "Pac-Man Fever" (1981) went to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts,[11] and received a Gold certification with over a million records sold by 1982,[99] and a total of 2.5 million copies sold as of 2008.[100] Their Pac-Man Fever album (1982) also received a Gold certification for selling over a million records.[101] In 1982 "Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a song titled "Pac-Man", which is a parody of "Taxman" by the Beatles. The song was played on the radio but was not released on a record at the time due to a cease and desist letter sent by the attorneys representing the Beatles. The song was eventually released in 2017 as part of the 15-album box set Squeeze Box: The Complete Works of "Weird Al" Yankovic.[102][103] In 1992, Power-Pill (an Alias of Aphex Twin) released Pac-Man — a techno tune which apart from a Breakbeat and a few vocals, consists entirely of samples from Pac-Man.

text: Film[edit]

text: At one time, a feature film based on the game was in development.[104][105]

text: In Weird Al Yankovic's music video for "White & Nerdy", there are several scenes of Weird Al dancing in a black room, in front of road flares shaped like the arcade version of Pac-Man (which itself, is a parody of Chamillionaire rapping in front of a lizard made of road flares is his music video for Ridin'.[106][better source needed]

text: In the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, there are two scenes where the title character recites trivia about the name Pac-Man to a love interest. He mentions the original name was Puck-Man, from the Japanese word paku-paku (to open and close one's mouth), but was changed to avoid potential vandalism from its resemblance of a curse word.[107]

text: Pac-Man, Clyde, Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and the game itself appear in Wreck-It Ralph. Clyde appears at the beggining of the film at "Bad-Anon" (whitch is held inside the game Pac-Man, itself) talking to ralph and giving him some advice. at the apartment building in the game fix-it felix, jr., as ralph was returning, he spots some fireworks over the building, he uses glass bottles as bionculars to see what's going on, he finds out that the're having a party without him, ralph then sees pac-man through the windows eating shrimp coctails, indicating that he was invited to the party, this angers ralph, after ralph destroys the cake by accedent after an argument with Gene, the cake splatters and everyone is covered in frosting, includng pac-man, who gasps in shock.

text: The Pac-Man character appears in the film Pixels (2015), with Denis Akiyama playing series creator Toru Iwatani.[108][109] Iwatani himself makes a cameo at the beginning of the film as an arcade technician.

text: In the Japanese tokusatsu film Kamen Rider Heisei Generations: Dr. Pac-Man vs. Ex-Aid & Ghost with Legend Riders, a Pac-Man-like character was introduced as the main villain.[110] Pac-Man is referenced and makes an appearance in the 2017 Marvel Cinematic Universe film Guardians of the Galaxy 2. The protagonist Star-Lord is portrayed as a fan of the game, mentioning that he wants to create a Pac-Man statue in one scene, and later briefly takes the form of Pac-Man during the film's climactic battle.[111]

text: Other gaming media[edit]

text: In 1982, Milton Bradley released a board game based on Pac-Man.[112] In this game, players move up to four Pac-Man characters (traditional yellow plus red, green and blue) plus two ghosts as per the throws of a pair of dice.  Each Pac-Man is assigned to a player while the ghosts are neutral and controlled by all players.  Each player moves their Pac-Man the number of spaces on either die and a ghost the number of spaces on the other die, the Pac-Man consuming any white marbles (the equivalent of dots) and yellow marbles (the equivalent of power pellets) in its path. Players can move a ghost onto a Pac-Man and claim two white marbles from its player.  They can also move a Pac-Man with a yellow marble inside it onto a ghost and claim two white marbles from any other player (following which the yellow marble is placed back in the maze.  The game ends when all white marbles have been cleared from the board and the player with the largest number of white marbles is then declared the winner.[113]

text: Sticker manufacturer Fleer included Pac-Man Rub Off Game cards with their Pac-Man stickers.  The card packages contain a Pac-Man style maze with all points along the path covered with opaque coverings. Starting from the lower board Pac-Man starting position, the player moves around the maze while scratching off the coverings to score points.  A white dot scores one point, a blue monster scores ten points, and a cherry scores 50 points.  Uncovering a red, orange, or pink monster scores no points but the game ends when a third such monster is uncovered.  A Ms. Pac-Man version of the game also includes pretzels (100 points) and bananas (200 points).[114]

text: Nelsonic Industries produced a Pac-Man LCD wristwatch game.  This follows essentially the same rules as the video version, though with a simplified maze.[115]

text: A pinball version titled Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man was designed by George Christian and released by Bally/Midway in 1982.[116] The spin-off arcade game Baby Pac Man also contains a non-video pinball element.[117]

text: In South Pasadena, California a store called Kaldi has a non-commercially available Pac-Man 2 game machine in the store. Only 3 machines exist, the others are in a mall in Arcadia, California and Brooklyn in NYC.[citation needed]

text: Remakes and sequels[edit]

text: Pac-Man is one of the few games to have been consistently published for over three decades, having been remade on numerous platforms and spawned many sequels. Re-releases include ported and updated versions of the original arcade game. Numerous unauthorized Pac-Man clones appeared soon after its release. The combined sales of counterfeit arcade machines sold nearly as many units as the original Pac-Man, which had sold more than 300,000 machines.[118]

text: One of the first ports to be released was the much-maligned port for the Atari 2600, which only somewhat resembles the original and was widely criticized for its flickering ghosts, due to the 2600's limited memory and hardware compared to the arcade machine,[119][120][121] and several design and implementation choices.  Despite the criticism, this version of Pac-Man sold seven million units[122] at $37.95 per copy,[11][123] and became the best-selling game of all time on the Atari 2600 console. While enjoying initial sales success, Atari had overestimated demand by producing 12 million cartridges, of which 5 million went unsold.[122][124][125] The port's poor quality damaged the company's reputation among consumers and retailers, which would eventually become one of the contributing factors to Atari's decline and the North American video game crash of 1983, alongside Atari's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.[122]

text: Meanwhile, Coleco's tabletop Mini-Arcade versions of the game yielded 1.5 million units sold in 1982.[126][127]

text: II Computing listed it tenth on the magazine's list of top Apple II series games as of late 1985, based on sales and market-share data,[128] and in December 1987 alone Mindscape's IBM PC version of Pac-Man sold over 100,000 copies.[129] The game was also released for Atari's 5200 and 8-bit computers, Intellivision, the Commodore 64 and VIC-20, and the Nintendo Entertainment System. For handheld game consoles, it was released on the Game Boy, Sega Game Gear, Game Boy Color, and the Neo Geo Pocket Color.

text: Pac-Man has been featured in Namco's long-running Namco Museum video game compilations. Downloads of the game have been made available on game services such as Xbox Live Arcade, GameTap, and Virtual Console. Namco has released mobile versions of Pac-Man for BREW, Java, and iOS, as well as Palm PDAs and Windows Mobile-based devices. A port of Pac-Man for Android[130] can be controlled not only through an Android phone's trackball but through touch gestures or its on-board accelerometer. As of  2010[update], Namco had sold more than 30 million paid downloads of Pac-Man on BREW in the United States alone.[131]

text: A version of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man was released on the Galaxy Games multi-game cocktail table unit in 1998. The game differed from the original in that players controlled Pac-Man's movement with a trackball instead of a normal arcade joystick.

text: Microsoft released Microsoft Return of Arcade in 1996 and Microsoft Return of Arcade: Anniversary Edition in 2000, and includes Pac-Man as one of its bundled arcade games.

text: Namco has repeatedly re-released the game to arcades. In 2001, Namco released a Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga "Class of 1981 Reunion Edition" cabinet with Pac-Man available for play as a hidden game. To commemorate Pac-Man's 25th anniversary in 2005, Namco released a revision that officially featured all three games.

text: Namco Networks sold a downloadable Windows PC version of Pac-Man in 2009 which also includes an "Enhanced" mode which replaces all of the original sprites with the sprites from Pac-Man Championship Edition.  Namco Networks made a downloadable bundle which includes their PC version of Pac-Man and their port of Dig Dug called Namco All-Stars: Pac-Man and Dig Dug.

text: In 2010, Namco Bandai announced the release of the game on Windows Phone 7 as an Xbox Live game.[132]

text: Pac-Man has numerous sequels and spin-offs, including only one of which was designed by Tōru Iwatani. Some of the follow-ups were not developed by Namco either —including the most significant, Ms. Pac-Man, released in the United States in 1981. Originally called Crazy Otto, this unauthorized hack of Pac-Man was created by General Computer Corporation and sold to Midway without Namco's permission. The game features several changes from the original Pac-Man, including faster gameplay, more mazes, new intermissions, and moving bonus items. Some consider Ms. Pac-Man to be superior to the original or even the best in the entire series.[13] Stan Jarocki of Midway stated that Ms. Pac-Man was conceived in response to the original Pac-Man being "the first commercial video game to involve large numbers of women as players" and that it is "our way of thanking all those lady arcaders who have played and enjoyed Pac-Man."[133] Namco sued Midway for exceeding their license. Eventually, Bally Midway struck a deal with Namco to officially license Ms. Pac-Man as a sequel. Namco today officially owns Ms. Pac-Man in its other releases.

text: Following Ms. Pac-Man, Bally Midway released several other unauthorized spin-offs, such as Pac-Man Plus, Jr. Pac-Man, Baby Pac-Man and Professor Pac-Man, resulting in Namco severing business relations with Midway.[10][134]

text: Various platform games based on the series have also been released by Namco, such as 1984's Pac-Land and the Pac-Man World series, which features Pac-Man in a 3-D world. More modern versions of the original game have also been developed, such as the multiplayer Pac-Man Vs. for the Nintendo GameCube.

text: On June 5, 2007, the first Pac-Man World Championship was held in New York City, which brought together ten competitors from eight countries to play the new Pac-Man Championship Edition developed by Tōru Iwatani.[135] Its sequel was released November 2010.

text: For the weekend of May 21–23, 2010, Google changed the Google logo on its homepage to a Google Doodle of a fully playable version of the game[136] in recognition of the 30th anniversary of the game's release. The game featured the ability to play both Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man simultaneously.[137] After finishing the game, the website automatically redirected the user to a search of Pac-Man 30th Anniversary.[138] Companies across the world experienced slight drops in productivity due to the game, estimated to be valued at the time as $120,000,000 (approximately €95,400,000; £83,000,000). However, The Official ASTD Blog noted that the total loss, "spread out across the entire world isn't a huge loss, comparatively speaking".[139] In total, the game devoured around 4.8 million hours of work productivity that day.[74] Some organizations even temporarily blocked Google's website from workplace computers the Friday it was uploaded, particularly where it violated regulations against recreational games.[140][141][142] Because of the popularity of the Pac-Man doodle, Google later allowed access to the game through a separate web page.[143] On March 31, 2015, Google Maps added an option allowing a Pac-Man style game to be played using streets on the map as the maze.[144]

text: In 2011, Namco sent a DMCA notice to the team that made the programming language Scratch saying that a programmer had infringed copyright by making a Pac-Man game using the language and uploading it to Scratch's official website.[145]

text: In April 2011, Soap Creative published World's Biggest Pac-Man working together with Microsoft and Namco-Bandai to celebrate Pac-Man's 30th anniversary. It is a multiplayer browser-based game with user-created, interlocking mazes.[146]

text: In 2016 an in-app version of Pac-Man was introduced in Facebook Messenger. This allows users to play the game against their friends while talking over Facebook.

text: On June 10, 2014, Pac-Man was confirmed to appear as a playable character in the game Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. The 3DS version also has a stage based on the original arcade game, called Pac-Maze.[147] A Pac-Man Amiibo figurine was also released by Nintendo on May 29, 2015.

text: Super Impulse has released stand-alone Tiny Arcade versions of Pac-Man along with Ms. Pac-Man, Galaxian and Space Invaders.[148]


document_title: Heroes of Might and Magic

question_text: what is the latest heroes of might and magic

root

text: Heroes of Might and Magic

text: Games[edit]

text: Timeline of release years1990King's Bounty19911992199319941995Heroes of Might and Magic I1996Heroes of Might and Magic II199719981999Heroes of Might and Magic III200020012002Heroes of Might and Magic IV2003200420052006Heroes of Might and Magic V20072008200920102011Heroes of Might and Magic VI2012201320142015Heroes of Might and Magic VII

tag: table

text: King's Bounty (1990), an earlier game from New World Computing, largely precipitated the design of Heroes and is included in some Heroes anthologies. It was later remade and branded as a Heroes title for the PlayStation 2 game, Quest for the Dragon Bone Staff. A sequel to King's Bounty was released in 2008 as King's Bounty: The Legend.

tag: p

text: Main titles, expansions and adventure packs[edit]

text:
Heroes of Might and Magic: A Strategic Quest (1995)
Heroes of Might and Magic II (1996)
The Price of Loyalty (1997)
Heroes of Might and Magic III (1999)
Armageddon's Blade (1999)
The Shadow of Death (2000)
Heroes of Might and Magic IV (2002)
The Gathering Storm (2002)
Winds of War (2003)
Heroes of Might and Magic V (2006)
Hammers of Fate (2006)
Tribes of the East (2007)
Might & Magic Heroes VI (2011)[6]
Pirates of the Savage Sea Adventure (2012)
Danse Macabre (2012)
Shades of Darkness (2013)
Might & Magic Heroes VII (2015)[7]
Trial by Fire (2016)

tag: ul

text: Spin-offs[edit]

text:
Heroes of Might and Magic (Game Boy Color, 2000)
Heroes of Might and Magic II (Game Boy Color, 2000)
Heroes Chronicles (2000)
Heroes of Might and Magic: Quest for the Dragon Bone Staff (PlayStation 2, 2001)
Heroes of Might and Magic Online (2008)
Might and Magic: Heroes Kingdoms (2009)
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes (Nintendo DS, 2009; Xbox Live Arcade, 2011; PlayStation Network, 2011; PC, 2011)
Might & Magic Clash of Heroes: DLC I Am the Boss (2011)
Might & Magic Heroes: Era of Chaos (2017)

text: Anthologies and special editions[edit]

text:
Heroes of Might and Magic Compendium (1997), includes King's Bounty and first two Heroes games including expansion pack. Released by 3DO.
Heroes of Might and Magic II Gold (1998), includes Heroes II and its expansion. Released by 3DO.
Heroes of Might and Magic Millennium (1999), includes King's Bounty, Heroes I, Heroes II Gold and Heroes III, but no expansions to Heroes III. Released by 3DO, in a 3 CD-ROM disc set.
Heroes of Might and Magic III: Complete (2000), a special edition that includes Heroes III and its expansions packs (all updated to latest versions) and a custom title screen. Released by 3DO.
Heroes of Might and Magic Trilogy (2000), Heroes I, Heroes II and Heroes III, but no expansions to Heroes II nor Heroes III. Released in a joint venture by 3DO and Ubisoft, in a 3 CD-ROM disc set.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Platinum Edition (2002), includes Heroes I, Heroes II Gold and Heroes III Complete. Released by 3DO, in a 4 CD-ROM disc set.
Heroes of Might and Magic III+IV Complete (2002), includes Heroes III Complete and Heroes IV Complete. Released by Ubisoft, in a 1 DVD-ROM disc set.
Heroes of Might and Magic IV Complete (2004), includes Heroes IV and all of its expansions. Released by Ubisoft.
Heroes of Might and Magic V: Silver Edition (2006), includes Heroes V and the expansion pack Hammers of Fate.
Heroes of Might and Magic V: Collector's Edition (2007), includes Heroes V and all of its expansion packs. It also includes three bonus DVDs including Storyline Trailers for the main game and its expansions, Developer Diaries, Heroes V Universe Album, Exclusive Monsters Test Videos, Fan-Made Heroes Game Encyclopedia and more. Released by Ubisoft.
Might and Magic Heroes V: Epic Collection (2009), includes Heroes V and both of its expansion packs. Released by Encore Games.
Heroes Pack (2009), includes Dark Messiah and Heroes V and its expansion packs. Available on Steam.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Complete Edition (2008), includes the first five Heroes games and their expansions. The included games are accompanied by extras and goodies, such as soundtracks DVDs, a faction booklet, a Heroes of Might and Magic V T-shirt or The Art of Might and Magic artbook. Released by Ubisoft.
Might & Magic Heroes Collection (2011), includes all five Heroes games and their expansions. It was released by Mastertronic Games in a 4 disc set.[8]
Might & Magic Heroes VI: Limited Edition (2011), includes Heroes VI and Heroes III along with one extra item (Staff of Asha) and hero (Kraal) for Heroes VI. Released by Ubisoft.
Might & Magic Heroes VI: Deluxe Digital Edition (2011), includes a digital copy of Heroes VI, two .pdf documents (164-page concept art book and an A2 format double sided poster), the game's soundtrack and one month subscription on Heroes Kingdoms. Released by Ubisoft.
Might and Magic Franchise Pack, (2012), includes Dark Messiah, Heroes V and its expansion packs, Clash of Heroes and its DLC, Heroes VI and its two adventure packs. Available on Steam.
Might & Magic Heroes VI: Gold Edition (2012), includes Heroes VI and its two adventure packs. Released by Ubisoft.
Might & Magic: Heroes VI: Complete Edition (2013), includes Heroes VI (version 1.5.1) and its standalone expansion pack and two adventure packs.

text: Gameplay[edit]

text: The Heroes series is within the genre of turn-based strategy. The titular heroes are player characters who can recruit armies, move around the map, capture resources, and engage in combat. The heroes also incorporate some role-playing game elements; they possess a set of statistics that confer bonuses to an army, artifacts that enhance their powers, and knowledge of magical spells that can be used to attack enemies or produce strategic benefits. Also, heroes gain experience levels from battle, such that veteran heroes are significantly more powerful than inexperienced ones. Experienced heroes may persist through a campaign, but generally do not carry over between scenarios.

text: On a typical map, players begin a game with one town of a chosen alignment. The number of different alignments varies throughout the series, with the lowest count of four appearing initially in Heroes I and peaking at nine in the Heroes III expansion Armageddon's Blade. Each town alignment hosts a unique selection of creatures from which the player can build an army. Town alignment also determines other unique traits such as native hero classes, special bonuses or abilities, and leanings toward certain skills or kinds of magic.

text: Towns play a central role in the games since they are the primary source of income and new recruits. A typical objective in each game is to capture all enemy towns. Maps may also start with neutral towns, which do not send out heroes but may still be captured by any player. It is therefore possible, and common, to have more towns than players on a map. When captured, a town retains its alignment type, allowing the new owner to create a mixed army, although Heroes VI introduces the ability to change a town's alignment to the capturing player's. A player or team is eliminated when no towns or heroes are left under their control, or they do not control a town for seven consecutive days. Barring any special conditions, the last player or team remaining is the victor.

text: A side objective commonly appearing in the series is the acquisition of a powerful object called the "ultimate artifact" (Heroes I and II), grail (III and IV), or Tear of Asha (V, VI, and VII), buried somewhere on the map. In all games except Heroes VI, heroes visit special locations (called obelisks, or oracles in Heroes IV) to gradually reveal a map of the location of the artifact; in Heroes VI, a hero must instead collect four Fragments of the Moon Disc, which then causes the Tear of Asha to appear somewhere on the map. The ultimate artifact provide immense bonuses to the hero that carries it; the grail or Tear of Asha allows the hero to construct a special building in one of their towns that confers immense bonuses to the player.

text: Time and resource model[edit]

text: Each turn (consisting of all players' moves) is represented as a single day, and days are organized into cycles of weeks and months (measured as four weeks). The primary resource is gold, which is generated by towns on a daily basis. Gold alone is sufficient for obtaining basic buildings and most creatures. As construction progresses, increasing amounts of secondary resources such as wood, ore, gems, crystals, sulfur, and mercury are required. These resources, as well as gold, are produced at mines and other secondary structures, which are located on the map and require heroes to capture them. As with towns, mines can also be captured by enemy heroes, presenting an additional avenue for conflict.

text: At the start of each week (each day in Heroes IV), creature dwellings produce new recruits, and in most cases neutral armies will increase in size (by default; can be turned off if desired). In some of the games, the start of a new month causes neutral armies to spawn all over the map, providing fresh challenges and opportunities.

text: Combat[edit]

text: Whenever a player engages in battle, the game changes from the adventure map display to a combat screen, which is based on either a hexagonal or square grid. In this mode, the game mimics the turn-based tactics genre, as the engaged armies must carry through the battle without the opportunity to reinforce or gracefully retreat. With few exceptions, combat must end with the losing army deserting, being destroyed, or paying a heavy price in gold to surrender. Surrendering allows the player to keep the remaining units intact.

text: Creatures in an army are represented by unit stacks, each of which consists of a single type of creature, in any quantity. A limited number of stacks are available to each army, varying by game. Players generally maneuver their stacks attempting to achieve the most favorable rate of attrition for themselves. The games also have an automatic combat option that allows the computer to make tactical choices for a player. Heroes participate in battle as well: passively by granting bonuses to their army, and actively by engaging in combat and casting spells. In most of the games, heroes do not act as units, and cannot be harmed. However, in Heroes IV they do act as regular units and can be "killed"; these dead heroes are transferred to the nearest town's dungeon where they can be freed if their team captures the town.

text: Combat is affected by several random factors. In addition to simulating dice rolls to determine damage, a variety of influences including hero abilities and special bonuses determine a unit's luck and morale ratings, which affect the likelihood of those units triggering a bonus during combat. A unit that triggers good luck deals more (or receives less) damage, and a unit that triggers high morale receives an extra turn. In some other games, luck and morale can also be negative, with opposite corresponding effects. Luck and morale can be improved by hero abilities, artifacts, and spells. Morale may suffer with overwhelming odds in combat or by mixing incompatible unit types (e.g. Chaos with Order.)

text: History of changes[edit]

text: Knowledge allows heroes to cast more spells, either through a spell memorization (HoMM I) or spell point (II-V) system.

text: Heroes II introduced secondary skills. Heroes can learn a limited variety of secondary skills with several levels of proficiency. Secondary skills give specific, miscellaneous bonuses to heroes and their armies. For example, skill in logistics increases the distance a hero's army can travel, while skill in leadership gives their army a morale bonus.

text: Beginning with Heroes II, some creatures were able to be upgraded. By Heroes III, every creature (excluding those not found in any castle) was able to be upgraded.

text: Heroes III also introduced a new artifact platform; rather than having 14 spaces for any artifact, the player instead has a much larger backpack, but can only use a limited number. For example, only one headpiece can be used at a time, as well as only one pair of boots, etc.

text: Replay value[edit]

text: Games in the series often include a map editor and/or random map generator. Several fansites collect and rate user-generated maps.

text: Storyline[edit]

text: Original universe[edit]

text: Up until Heroes of Might and Magic V, the Heroes series took place in the same fictional universe as the Might and Magic series, and later Might and Magic installments heavily referenced the games, with some taking place in the same world.

text: Heroes I and II take place on the planet of Enroth, on a northerly continent of the same name, and chronicle the adventures of the Ironfist dynasty. The protagonist of Heroes I is Lord Morglin Ironfist, a knight who discovers a portal to the realm of Enroth while fleeing from his throne's usurpers, and goes on to conquer and dominate the continent, establishing a unified kingdom and a new rule.

text: Heroes II featured a two-sided conflict between Morglin's sons, Roland and Archibald, both vying for their deceased father's throne. Canonically, Roland defeats Archibald, though the player can choose to align themself with either side. It was the first game in the series to feature playable heroes as campaign characters—the main characters of Heroes I were represented by the player's presence rather than as commanders on the battlefield.

text: The storylines of Heroes III and the Heroes Chronicles shift focus to the Gryphonheart dynasty on the southern continent of Antagarich, and introduces the Kreegan as playable characters and enemies. In Heroes III, Queen Catherine Gryphonheart, King Roland's wife, is called home to attend her father's funeral, to discover Antagarich being torn apart by various factions. Heroes III's expansions build on the setting with more prominent character development, featuring new and old heroes from the series in differing roles.

text: The events preceding Heroes IV precipitated the destruction of Enroth due to a clash between Armageddon's Blade and the Sword of Frost. The ensuing destruction brings about portals leading to another world, Axeoth, through which many characters escape. Heroes IV's campaigns focus on the scattered survivors from Enroth and Antagarich as they form new kingdoms and alliances in the new world.

text: Ubisoft continuity[edit]

text: Heroes of Might and Magic V was the first Might and Magic title to take place on the previously unheard of world of Ashan, as part of Ubisoft's franchise-wide continuity reboot. Its six campaigns are each centered around a faction leader, tied together by the character of Isabel Greyhound, Queen of the Griffin Empire. The Heroes V expansion packs both continued this storyline, leading into the events of Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Heroes VI acts as a prequel, occurring 400 years prior.

text: Reception[edit]

text: Critical reception for the series has been generally positive, with GameRankings scores averaging from the high 70s to high 80s.[citation needed]

text: By October 1997, overall sales of the Heroes of Might and Magic series had surpassed 500,000 copies.[9] This number rose to 1.5 million copies by December 1999.[10] The Might and Magic franchise as a whole, including the Heroes series, surpassed 4.5 million copies in sales by May 2001.[11]

text: Production[edit]

text: This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (July 2010)


document_title: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (TV special)

question_text: the elf in rudolph the red nosed reindeer

text: Plot[edit]

text: Sam the Snowman welcomes the viewers to Christmastown at the North Pole and introduces Santa and Mrs. Claus who live in a castle located north of the Christmas Tree Forest. Mrs. Claus fusses over Santa as she wants him to fatten up by Christmas Eve. Sam then recalls the year Christmas was almost cancelled due to a snowstorm and tells the story of how a very special reindeer saved the day.

text: Donner, Santa's lead reindeer, and his wife have given birth to their new baby fawn, Rudolph. Upon admiring him, they are surprised to see that Rudolph has been born with a glowing red nose. When Santa arrives, he warns Donner that Rudolph will not make the sleigh team because of his nose. Donner then decides to hide the nose by covering it with mud to allow Rudolph to fit in with all the other reindeer.

text: Over Rudolph's first year of life, Donner trains him in the basics of being a reindeer, including hiding from the Abominable Snow Monster of the North. Rudolph enters the reindeer games, competing against his fellow fawns. During flight practice, Rudolph meets a doe named Clarice who tells him he is cute, and kisses him, which causes an elated Rudolph to fly higher and faster than everyone else. However, while celebrating with the other bucks, Rudolph's nose cover pops off, and the others react with fear, then scorn and finally rejection as Rudolph is kicked out of the Reindeer Games. Walking away, Rudolph walks with Clarice, who supports him, until her father firmly tells her to never have any more contacts with a red-nosed reindeer. Then, Rudolph meets up with Hermey, an elf who ran away from Santa's workshop because he wanted to be a dentist instead of making toys, and they decide to run away together. The pair then meet a prospector named Yukon Cornelius, who has fruitlessly searched his whole life for silver and gold. After escaping the snow monster on an ice floe, the trio crash land on the Island of Misfit Toys where unloved or unwanted toys live with their ruler, a winged lion named King Moonracer. The king allows the group to stay one night on the island in exchange for returning to Christmastown to ask Santa to find homes for the unwanted toys. However, Rudolph leaves the island in the middle of the night on his own, fearing that his nose, which attracts the snow monster, will endanger his friends.

text: Time goes by and Rudolph grows into adulthood; he tries and fails to find a place to settle where he will be accepted despite his nose. Returning home, he finds that his parents and Clarice have been looking for him for months. He sets out once again to find them, only to discover that the snow monster has captured them. Rudolph tries to save Clarice from being eaten, but the monster hits him in the head with a stalactite, dazing him. Hermey and Yukon return to Christmastown and go to save Rudolph. Hermey, posing as a pig, lures the monster out of his cave and Yukon drops rocks on his head to knock him out. Hermey then pulls out all the monster's teeth. Realizing Yukon drives the toothless (and now terrified) monster back, only to follow it over the cliff with all his pack dogs. Mourning Yukon's presumed death, Rudolph, Hermey, Clarice, and the Donners return home where everyone apologizes to them. After hearing their story, Santa welcomes the group back to Christmastown, promises that he will find homes for the Misfit Toys, Hermey opens his own dentist's office, and Clarice's father apologizes for being so hard on Rudolph. Yukon then returns with a reformed snow monster (Yukon notes that they bounce) and demonstrates the beast's ability to trim a Christmas tree. While everybody's celebrating, Santa interrupts, grimly informing everyone that because of the storm, he is forced to cancel the Christmas trip. Santa is soon distracted by Rudolph's red nose and realizes that its light could cut through the storm. He asks Rudolph to lead the sleigh and Rudolph agrees. The team then flies off to the island and pick up the toys. The special ends with Santa wishing the viewers a merry Christmas as he and Rudolph fly off into the night.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Billie Mae Richards[3][4] voices Rudolph, a reindeer with strong mental (he learns to speak shortly after birth) and physical strength who is shunned for his nonconforming red nose, but later saves Christmas.
Stan Francis voices:

Santa Claus, portrayed in the special as a moody, nervous and "skinny Santa" whose fears are only allayed when he conjures the idea of using Rudolph's nose to lead the sleigh.
King Moonracer, a winged lion who rules the entire Island of Misfit Toys. King Moonracer's voice uses a reverb effect to distinguish it from Santa Claus.

Paul Kligman voices:

Donner, Rudolph's father and Santa's most prized reindeer. While he loves and accepts Rudolph, he shows great concern that society will reject him for his nose and tries to protect him by creating a nose cover.
Comet, head coach of the Reindeer Games.
Clarice's unnamed father, who forbids Clarice from shaming the family by associating with a red-nosed reindeer.

Burl Ives voices Sam the Snowman, the narrator.
Paul Soles voices Hermey, an elf who dreams of pursuing a career in dentistry and "feels different" from the other elves. He eventually is forced out and runs off with Rudolph.
Janis Orenstein voices Clarice, a female reindeer who is the only one of Rudolph's age to not reject him. She later joins Rudolph's parents in the search party.
Larry D. Mann voices Yukon Cornelius, the "greatest prospector of the North" who joins Rudolph and Hermey on their journey but never finds the silver and gold he seeks.
Peg Dixon voices:

Mrs. Claus, a pushy wife who mocks her husband's lack of appetite.
Mrs. Donner, a loving and mostly submissive wife.

Carl Banas voices:

The Head Elf. For the Head Elf's voice, Banas uses a meek Bill Thompson-like voice when speaking in front of Santa Claus, but turns into a ruthless boss with a voice similar to Mel Blanc's Yosemite Sam or Cosmo Spacely when Santa is not around.
Various Misfit Toys, including a Spotted Elephant, King Moonracer's footman; a bird that swims, a cowboy who rides an ostrich, a train with square wheels on his caboose, two teddy bears (one on a bicycle and one with wings), a boat that doesn't float, a set of clown nesting dolls with a wind-up mouse as the last one, a water pistol that shoots jelly, a plane that can't fly, a toy car that only drives in reverse, and a scooter with two wheels in front and one in back.

Alfie Scopp voices:

Fireball, who introduces Rudolph to the opposite sex, but later snubs Rudolph when his red nose is revealed.
Charlie-In-The-Box, the island's sentry.

Corinne Conley voices Dolly, a seemingly normal girl rag doll on the Island of Misfit Toys. Her misfit problem is never explained on the special; many decades later, on NPR's Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! news quiz show (broadcast December 8, 2007), Rudolph's producer, Arthur Rankin Jr., noted that Dolly's problem was psychological, caused by being abandoned by her owner (named as Sue in the special) and suffering depression from feeling uncared-for.[5]

text: Production[edit]

text: The TV special, with the teleplay by Romeo Muller, introduced several new characters inspired by the song's lyrics. Muller told an interviewer shortly before his death that he would have preferred to base the teleplay on May's original book, but could not find a copy.[6] Other than Burl Ives, all characters were portrayed by Canadian actors recorded at RCA studios in Toronto under the supervision of Bernard Cowan.[7]

text: After the script, concept designs and storyboards for Rudolph were done by Arthur Rankin, Jr. and his staff of artists at Rankin/Bass in New York City. The company's trademark stop motion animation process, known as "Animagic", was filmed at MOM Productions in Tokyo with supervision by Tadahito Mochinaga and associate direction by Kizo Nagashima.[6] Besides Rudolph, Mochinaga and the rest of the Japanese puppet animation staff are also known for their partnership with Rankin/Bass on their other Animagic productions almost throughout the 1960s, from The New Adventures of Pinocchio, to Willy McBean and his Magic Machine, to The Daydreamer and Mad Monster Party?.[6]

text: Aftermath[edit]

text: Since those involved with the production had no idea of the future value of the stop-motion puppet figures used in the production, many were not preserved. Rankin claimed in 2007 to be in possession of an original Rudolph figure.[8] Nine other puppets—including Santa and young Rudolph—were given to a secretary, who gave them to family members. Eventually seven were discarded.[8] In 2005, the remaining two puppets of Rudolph and Santa were appraised on Antiques Roadshow; the episode aired in 2006 on PBS. At that time, their appraised value was between $8,000 and $10,000. The puppets had been damaged through years of rough handling by children and storage in an attic.[9] Toy aficionado Kevin Kriess bought Santa and Rudolph in 2005; in 2007, he had both puppets restored by Screen Novelties, a Los Angeles-based collective of film directors specializing in stop motion animation with puppet fabricator Robin Walsh leading the project.[8][10] The figures have been shown at conventions since then.[11]

text: Production credits[edit]

text:
Directed by Larry Roemer
Produced by Arthur Rankin, Jr.
Co-Producer: Jules Bass
Written by Romeo Muller
Adapted from the Story by Robert L. May
Adapted from the Song by Johnny Marks
Music and Lyrics by Johnny Marks
Music Conducted and Arranged by Maury Laws
Associate Director: Kizo Nagashima
Recording Engineers: Bill Giles, Alan Mirchin, Ralph Friedman
Sound Effects: Walter Gustafson
Recording Supervisor: Bernard Cowan
"Animagic" Supervisor: Tadahito Mochinaga (aka Tad Mochinaga)
Continuity Design: Anthony Peters

text: Different versions[edit]

text: Original 1964 NBC broadcast edit[edit]

text: This version has the NBC "living color" peacock at the introduction. It includes the original end credits, where an elf drops presents that list all the technical credits. It also includes commercials that were exclusively for GE small appliances with some of the same animated elves from the main program introducing each of the products, and closing NBC network bumpers, including promos for the following week's episodes of GE College Bowl and Meet the Press, which were presumably pre-empted that Sunday for the inaugural 5:30 PM (EST) telecast. The College Bowl quiz show was also sponsored by GE.[12] The original does not include Santa traveling to the Island of Misfit Toys, but does include a scene near the end of the special in which Yukon Cornelius discovers a peppermint mine near Santa's workshop. He can be seen throughout the special tossing his pickax into the air, sniffing, then licking the end that contacts the snow or ice. Deletion of the peppermint segment in 1965, to make room for Santa traveling to the Island of Misfit Toys, leaves audience to assume that Cornelius was attempting to find either silver or gold by taste alone.[6]

text: 1965–1997 telecasts[edit]

text: The 1965 broadcast also included a new duet between Rudolph and Hermey called "Fame and Fortune", which replaced a scene in which the same characters sang "We're a Couple of Misfits". Viewers of the 1964 special complained that Santa was not shown fulfilling his promise to the Misfit Toys (to include them in his annual toy delivery).[6] In reaction, a new scene for subsequent rebroadcasts was produced with Santa making his first stop at the Island to pick up the toys. This is the ending that has been shown on all telecasts and video releases ever since. Until sometime in the 1970s the special aired without additional cuts, but eventually more commercial time was required by the network. In 1978, several sequences were deleted to make room for more advertising: the instrumental bridge from "We Are Santa's Elves" featuring the elf orchestra, additional dialogue by Burl Ives, and the "Peppermint Mine" scene resolving the fate of Yukon Cornelius.[6] The special's 1993 restoration saw "Misfits" returned to its original film context, and the 2004 DVD release showcases "Fame and Fortune" as a separate musical number.

text: 1998– CBS telecasts[edit]

text: Most of the 1965 deletions were restored in 1998, and "Fame and Fortune" was replaced with the original "We're a Couple of Misfits" reprise. A short slide reading "Rankin/Bass Presents" was inserted at the beginning of the special to reflect the company's name change. The "Peppermint Mine" scene was not restored; it has not aired on CBS since the mid 70s.

text: Starting in 2005, CBS aired the video of the "Fame and Fortune" scene with the soundtrack replaced by an edited version of "We're a Couple of Misfits".[6] The special has been edited to make more time for commercial advertising by shortening some musical numbers.

text: Home media[edit]

text: When Rudolph was first issued on VHS, Betamax, and LaserDisc by Family Home Entertainment and Broadway Video from 1989 to 1997 under the Christmas Classics Series label, the 1965 rebroadcast print described above was used. All current video prints of Rudolph by Classic Media are a compendium of the two previous telecast versions of the special. All the footage in the current versions follow the original NBC airing (without the original GE commercials) up until the "Peppermint Mine" scene, followed by the final act of the 1965 edit (with the Island of Misfit Toys finale and the 1965 alternate credits in place of the original end credit sequence).

text: In 1998, the special was released by Sony Wonder on VHS. In 2000, it was released on DVD, and on Blu-ray Disc in 2010 (although the Blu-ray does not contain the bonus features from the previous DVD release.) This edit has been made available in original color form by former rights holders Classic Media,[13] (which in 2012 became the DreamWorks Classics division of DreamWorks Animation, and finally in 2016, part of Universal Pictures)[14] As previously mentioned, this is also the version currently airing on CBS, albeit in edited form to accommodate more commercial time. In November 2014, Classic Media released a 50th anniversary edition of the special on Blu-ray.[15] Walmart released an exclusive 50th anniversary Blu-ray edition with a storybook.

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text: The songs and incidental music were all written by Johnny Marks, with Maury Laws supervising. In addition to the songs previously mentioned, the score also includes the film's love theme "There's Always Tomorrow", sung by Clarice after Rudolph is kicked out of the reindeer games. Marks' holiday standard "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" appears as instrumental background music when Rudolph first arrives at the Reindeer Games. Also included in the soundtrack is an instrumental version of Marks' setting of the Christmas hymn "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day."

text: In 1964, an LP record of the soundtrack was released on Decca Records. It contained all the original songs performed as they are in the special, with the exception of Burl Ives' material, which has been re-recorded. MCA Special Products released the soundtrack on CD in June 1995. It is an exact duplication of the original LP released in 1964. Tracks 1-9 are the original soundtrack selections while tracks 10-19 are the same songs performed by the Decca Concert Orchestra. The song "Fame and Fortune" is not contained on either release. On November 30, 2004 the soundtrack was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling over 500,000 copies.

text: Ives re-recorded "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "A Holly Jolly Christmas", with different arrangements, for his own album Have a Holly Jolly Christmas in 1965.[16]

text: Merchandise[edit]

text: Books and other items related to the show have in some cases misspelled "Hermey" as "Herbie". Rich Goldschmidt, who wrote Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Making of the Rankin/Bass Holiday Classic, says the scripts by Romeo Muller show the spelling to be "Hermey".[17]

text: A Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer video game was released on November 9, 2010. The adaptation was published by Red Wagon Games for the Wii and Nintendo DS, and was developed by High Voltage Software and Glyphic Entertainment respectively. The Wii version was received poorly, and garnered extremely negative reviews from sites such as IGN giving it a 1.5/10.[18]

text: Sequels[edit]

text: The Rankin/Bass special, which currently airs on CBS, inspired numerous television sequels made by the same studio:

text:
Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1976), a special that first aired on ABC and is still aired annually on both ABC and Freeform.
Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979), a feature-length special that paired Rudolph with the song-inspired character Frosty the Snowman.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys (2001), a direct-to-video computer-animated film that is considered[by whom?] an unofficial sequel to the 1964 film.
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - 4D Attraction"[19] (2016), A faithful, 10-minute stop motion story adaptation in the form of a 4D film for SimEx-Iwerks;[20] produced by Bent Image Lab and directed by Chel White.

text: In popular culture[edit]

text: The television special's familiarity to American audiences through its annual rebroadcasts, along with its primitive stop-motion animation that is easy to recreate with modern technology and the special's ambiguous copyright status, has lent itself to numerous parodies and homages over the years.

text: Films by Corky Quakenbush[edit]

text: Animator Corky Quakenbush has produced parodies of Rudolph for several American television shows:

text:
In its December 16, 1995 episode, the Fox Network's comedy series MADtv aired "Raging Rudolph",[21] which also parodied Martin Scorsese's films. In it, Sam The Snowman narrates in a Joe Pesci-like voice how Rudolph and Hermey got violent Mafia-style revenge on their tormentors. This was followed by two sequels: "The Reinfather",[22] spoofing The Godfather trilogy and "A Pack of Gifts Now",[23] spoofing Apocalypse Now.
A 2001 episode of That '70s Show, titled "An Eric Forman Christmas", featured a subplot where Kelso was taunted by his friends for still watching "kiddie shows" like Rudolph even though he was in high school. A dream sequence produced and directed by Quakenbush, Kelso himself appears in stop-motion form with Rudolph and Santa who encourage him to continue watching their show.
In December 2005, the George Lopez Show featured an animated segment in which Lopez sees a stop-motion version of himself on television in a Rudolph-style special mirroring the theme of the holiday episode.

text:
In the stop-motion animated film The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Jack looks through a book version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to find a logical answer to explain Christmas to the other citizens of Halloween Town. Later, Zero, the ghost dog, has a magnificently glowing pumpkin nose, which is bright enough to break through the fog that Sally has conjured up. Jack lets Zero go to the head of his skeleton reindeer team and light the way for him.
Chel White, of Bent Image Lab, directed two parodies that played on Saturday Night Live', on Robert Smigel's TV Funhouse:

In a 2001 TV Funhouse episode, Sam the Snowman refuses to narrate the story because of the September 11, 2001 attacks. He then takes two children to Ground Zero at New York City, but Santa Claus convinces him to narrate the story, because people need comforting stories like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Sam decided to narrate the tale, but was immediately interrupted by a special news report.
In 2004, TV Funhouse referenced the Red state-blue state divide. In the segment, Santa hangs out with liberal celebrities Natalie Merchant, Margaret Cho, Al Franken, and Moby while skipping over the Red states ("screw the red states, voting for that dumbass president just because of that moral values crap. I don't want any part of them!"). Rudolph's red nose turns blue.

In 2004, for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer's 40th anniversary, CBS produced stop motion promos for their programming line-up, done in the style of Rankin/Bass animation. Appearing as elves in the CBS promos were puppet versions of CBS stars Jeff Probst from Survivor, Ray Romano and Doris Roberts from Everybody Loves Raymond, William Petersen and Marg Helgenberger from CSI, Charlie Sheen from Two and a Half Men, Phil Simms and Greg Gumbel from The NFL on CBS, and late-night talk show host David Letterman. A new stop-motion animation featuring Rudolph and Santa meeting even more CBS network stars was also aired in 2005.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 made numerous references to the special in their movie hecklings, such as Rudolph's line "I'm cute!! I'm cuute!! She said I'm cuuuuuutte!!!!". In episode 321, which screened Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, the MST3K cast had their own ideas for potential residents on the Island of Misfit Toys including Toaster Dolls, Patrick Swayze's Roadhouse board game, the EZ Bake Foundry, and Mr. Mashed Potato Head.
In 2010, the comedy website CollegeHumor made a short parody video called "Rudolph The Regular Reindeer", depicting what the special would've been like if Rudolph had a normal nose.

text: Uses in advertising[edit]

text:
In 1964, Rankin & Bass produced several commercials for the General Electric-sponsored broadcast.[12]
In November 2007, the Aflac insurance company released a commercial that featured Rudolph, who has a cold but does not want to miss work. All his friends say he will be unable to pay for his expenses. Santa then tells them about Aflac. Charlie wonders what will happen if Rudolph is not better by Christmas, but Rudolph thinks the Aflac duck can do the work. Rudolph gets better in a week, but Blitzen is sick, so the Aflac duck fills in for him.[24]
In 2009, Verizon began showing a commercial of the Misfit Toys with an AT&T phone. The characters wonder why it is there with all of its features but soon discover why, when the phone shows a map of where it has 3G coverage. (Verizon's ad campaign touts its much wider 3G coverage compared to AT&T's.) The toy airplane replies: "You're gonna fit right in here!" and falls on the ground laughing.[citation needed]
Starting in 2011, there have been several Bing.com commercials, filmed to look like the same stop-motion style as the special, which feature several characters including Rudolph, Yukon Cornelius, Hermey, the Bumble, and the Misfit Toys.[citation needed]
A 2012 commercial for Windows phone features Bumble the Abominable Snowman (with his full set of teeth), speed-dating and getting advice from friends through Live Tiles. A follow-up features Bumble at Santa's North Pole pool party, and Santa using Live Tiles on his new Windows Phone to help him give his elves the holiday-season toy production directives.[citation needed]
A 2013 commercial for Nissan shows a woman in a dealership briefly entering a fantasy, wherein Santa's Elves, including Boss Elf and Hermey, have expanded their manufacturing line to include Nissan cars. Furthermore, the Bumble makes an appearance test driving one to his obvious approval.[citation needed]
CBS celebrated the special's 50th anniversary in 2014 with Rudolph and Sam the Snowman celebrating with cast members from The Big Bang Theory and NCIS while passing by their studio lots.[citation needed]
In 2014, the United States Postal Service used four characters (Rudolph, Hermey, Yukon Cornelius, and Bumble) for the year's "Contemporary Christmas" stamp issue.[2][25]
In 2015, the Rudolph characters began appearing in commercials for AT&T with a stop-motion version of spokes-character Lily Adams.

text: Other References[edit]

text: In the sci-fi/comedy series The Orville, in the episode "About a Girl", characters watch Rudolph to make the character Bortus consider his plans to arrange gender reassignment surgery for his newborn daughter (Bortus's species, the Moclans, are a single-gender species who statistically produce only one female every seventy-five years, with females thus having no clear place in their society) by demonstrating how unconventional people can accomplish great things, although Bortus humorously misinterprets the film to suggest that Rudolph's father might have considered euthanizing his child as an anomaly.

text: Copyright issues[edit]

text: The copyright of the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer special lies in a loophole of American federal copyright law. When the recording was originally published, the date of copyright (published in Roman numerals) was accidentally listed as 1164 (MCLXIV), omitting an M that should have been present (1964 in Roman numerals is MCMLXIV); this mistake was not corrected with subsequent edits and remains on televised prints to this day.[26] The songs were validly and separately copyrighted, and the original character on which the special was based also remains under copyright and trademark protection, extending some indirect copyright protection to the special as a derivative work. (A number of films, such as It's a Wonderful Life and His Girl Friday, fall under similar circumstances: a public domain film loosely based on a copyrighted work.)

text: Assuming the error in the copyright is considered substantial enough to invalidate it (U.S. copyright law before 1988 required works to have a valid date on a copyright notice, while providing some leeway in regard to non-substantial errors), the error puts large portions of the special not directly tied to the songs or original story into the public domain. (Some of the characters, particularly Santa Claus and the adult reindeer, relied on material that was already public domain anyway; all of the characters except Rudolph, most of the images, and large portions of the spoken soundtrack would thus be public domain in this interpretation.) Because of the indirect copyright protections and uncertainty over their extent, permission is still required to show the program as a whole. The extensive derivative works seen in popular culture are likely a byproduct of this uncertain copyright status.


document_title: Biosafety level

question_text: which bsl level is for lethal agents for which there are no vaccines or other countermeasures

text: Biosafety level

text: History[edit]

text: The first prototype Class III (maximum containment) biosafety cabinet was fashioned in 1943 by Hubert Kaempf Jr., then a U.S. Army soldier, under the direction of Dr. Arnold G. Wedum, Director (1944–69) of Industrial Health and Safety at the United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories, Camp Detrick, Maryland. Kaempf was tired of his MP duties at Detrick and was able to transfer to the sheet metal department working with the contractor, the H.K. Ferguson Co.[5]

text: On 18 April 1955, fourteen representatives met at Camp Detrick in Frederick, Maryland. The meeting was to share knowledge and experiences regarding biosafety, chemical, radiological, and industrial safety issues that were common to the operations at the three principal biological warfare (BW) laboratories of the U.S. Army.[6] Because of the potential implication of the work conducted at biological warfare laboratories, the conferences were restricted to top level security clearances. Beginning in 1957, these conferences were planned to include non-classified sessions as well as classified sessions to enable broader sharing of biological safety information. It was not until 1964, however, that conferences were held in a government installation not associated with a biological warfare program.[7]

text: Over the next ten years, the biological safety conferences grew to include representatives from all federal agencies that sponsored or conducted research with pathogenic microorganisms. By 1966 it began to include representatives from universities, private laboratories, hospitals, and industrial complexes. Throughout the 1970s, participation in the conferences continued to expand and by 1983 discussions began regarding the creation of a formal organization.[7] The American Biological Safety Association (ABSA) was officially established in 1984 and a constitution and bylaws were drafted the same year. As of 2008, ABSA includes some 1,600 members in its professional association.[7]

text: Levels[edit]

text: Biosafety level 1[edit]

text: Biosafety level 1 (BSL-1) is suitable for work with well-characterized agents which do not cause disease in healthy humans. In general, these agents should pose minimal potential hazard to laboratory personnel and the environment.[8] At this level, precautions are limited relative to other levels. Laboratory personnel must wash their hands upon entering and exiting the lab. Research with these agents may be performed on standard open laboratory benches without the use of special containment equipment. However, eating and drinking are generally prohibited in laboratory areas.[8] Potentially infectious material must be decontaminated before disposal, either by adding an appropriate disinfectant, or by packaging for decontamination elsewhere.[8] Personal protective equipment is only required for circumstances where personnel might be exposed to hazardous material.[8] BSL-1 laboratories must have a door which can be locked to limit access to the lab, however it is not necessary for BSL-1 labs to be isolated from the general building.[9]

text: This level of biosafety is appropriate for work with several kinds of microorganisms including non-pathogenic Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and other organisms not suspected to contribute to human disease.[10] Due to the relative ease and safety of maintaining a BSL-1 laboratory, these are the types of laboratories generally used as teaching spaces for high schools and colleges.[9]

text: Biosafety level 2[edit]

text: At this level, all precautions used at Biosafety Level 1 are followed, and some additional precautions are taken. BSL-2 differs from BSL-1 in that:

text:
Laboratory personnel have specific training in handling pathogenic agents and are directed by scientists with advanced training.
Access to the laboratory is limited when work is being conducted.
Extreme precautions are taken with contaminated sharp items.
Certain procedures in which infectious aerosols or splashes may be created are conducted in biological safety cabinets or other physical containment equipment.[8]

text: Biosafety level 2 is suitable for work involving agents of moderate potential hazard to personnel and the environment.[9] This includes various microbes that cause mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting.[11] Examples include Hepatitis A, B, and C viruses, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), pathogenic Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella, Plasmodium falciparum, and Toxoplasma gondii.[11][12]

text: Biosafety level 3[edit]

text: Biosafety level 3 is appropriate for work involving microbes which can cause serious and potentially lethal disease via the inhalation route.[8] This type of work can be done in clinical, diagnostic, teaching, research, or production facilities.[9] Here, the precautions undertaken in BSL-1 and BSL-2 labs are followed, as well as additional measures including:

text:
All laboratory personnel are provided medical surveillance and offered relevant immunizations (where available) to reduce the risk of an accidental or unnoticed infection.[8]
All procedures involving infectious material must be done within a biological safety cabinet.[8]
Laboratory personnel must wear solid-front protective clothing (i.e. gowns that tie in the back). This cannot be worn outside of the laboratory and must be discarded or decontaminated after each use.[8]
A laboratory-specific biosafety manual must be drafted which details how the laboratory will operate in compliance with all safety requirements.[8]

text: In addition, the facility which houses the BSL-3 laboratory must have certain features to ensure appropriate containment. The entrance to the laboratory must be separated from areas of the building with unrestricted traffic flow.[8] Additionally, the laboratory must be behind two sets of self-closing doors (to reduce the risk of aerosols escaping).[9] The construction of the laboratory is such that it can be easily cleaned. Carpets are not permitted, and any seams in the floors, walls, and ceilings are sealed to allow for easy cleaning and decontamination.[8] Additionally, windows must be sealed, and a ventilation system installed which forces air to flow from the "clean" areas of the lab to the areas where infectious agents are handled.[8] Air from the laboratory must be filtered before it can be recirculated.[8]

text: Biosafety level 3 is commonly used for research and diagnostic work involving various microbes which can be transmitted by aerosols and/or cause severe disease. These include Francisella tularensis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Chlamydia psittaci, Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, Eastern equine encephalitis virus, SARS coronavirus, Coxiella burnetii, Rift Valley fever virus, Rickettsia rickettsii, several species of Brucella, chikungunya, yellow fever virus, and West Nile virus.[12]

text: Biosafety level 4[edit]

text: Biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) is the highest level of biosafety precautions, and is appropriate for work with agents that could easily be aerosol-transmitted within the laboratory and cause severe to fatal disease in humans for which there are no available vaccines or treatments.[8] BSL-4 laboratories are generally set up to be either cabinet laboratories or protective-suit laboratories.[8] In cabinet laboratories, all work must be done within a class III biosafety cabinet.[8] Materials leaving the cabinet must be decontaminated by passing through an autoclave or a tank of disinfectant.[8] The cabinets themselves are required to have seamless edges to allow for easy cleaning. Additionally the cabinet and all materials within must be free of sharp edges in order to reduce the risk of damage to the gloves.[8] In a protective-suit laboratory, all work must be done in a class II biosafety cabinet by personnel wearing a positive pressure suit.[8] In order to exit the BSL-4 laboratory, personnel must pass through a chemical shower for decontamination, then a room for removing the positive-pressure suit, followed by a personal shower.[8] Entry into the BSL-4 laboratory is restricted to trained and authorized individuals, and all persons entering and exiting the laboratory must be recorded.[8]

text: As with BSL-3 laboratories, BSL-4 laboratories must be separated from areas that receive unrestricted traffic. Additionally airflow is tightly controlled to ensure that air always flows from "clean" areas of the lab to areas where work with infectious agents is being performed.[8] The entrance to the BSL-4 lab must also employ airlocks to minimize the possibility that aerosols from the lab could be removed from the lab. All laboratory waste, including filtered air, water, and trash must also be decontaminated before it can leave the facility.[8]

text: Biosafety level 4 laboratories are used for diagnostic work and research on easily transmitted pathogens which can cause fatal disease. These include a number of viruses known to cause viral hemorrhagic fever such as Marburg virus, Ebola virus, Lassa virus, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. Other pathogens handled at BSL-4 include Hendra virus, Nipah virus, and some Flaviviruses. Additionally, poorly characterized pathogens which appear closely related to dangerous pathogens are often handled at this level until sufficient data are obtained either to confirm continued work at this level, or to work with them at a lower level.[12] This level is also used for work with Variola virus, the causative agent of smallpox, though this work can only be done at the World Health Organization approved facilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, United States, as well as the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology in Koltsovo, Russia.[13]

text:
Regular inspection of positive-pressure suits to locate any leaks[14]

SPECT machine at BSL-4 imaging facility that separates subjects with pathogens from the machines.[1]

The circular containment tube separates the patient table in the "hot" zone (pathogen present) from the "cold" zone around this MRI machine.

Air Pressure Resistant (APR) door to separate the hot and cold zones

Working inside a BSL-4 lab with air hoses providing positive air pressure.

Inside a Class III biological safety cabinet with an aerosol control platform

Effluent decontamination system of a BSL-4 lab of NIAID

text: List of BSL-4 facilities[edit]

text: According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report published on October 4, 2007, a total of 1,356 CDC/USDA registered BSL-3 facilities were identified throughout the United States.[15] Approximately 36% of these laboratories are located in academia. 15 BSL-4 facilities were identified in the U.S. in 2007, including nine at federal labs.[15]

text: The following is a list of existing BSL-4 facilities worldwide.

text:
Name
Location
Date
established
Description

Laboratório Nacional Agropecuário de Minas Gerais (Lanagro/MG)
Pedro Leopoldo, Minas Gerais, Brazil
2014
Focus on Agropecuary diseases and diagnostics.[16]

National Service of Healthcare and Agriculture Quality (SENASA)
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Diagnostic laboratory for Foot-and-mouth disease.[17]

University of Melbourne – Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2014
Diagnostic reference lab.[18][19]

Australian Animal Health Laboratory
Geelong, Victoria, Australia
1985
Large diagnostic and research lab equipped with two BSL-4 animal rooms.[19][20]

National High Security Laboratory
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Operates under the auspice of the Victoria Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory.[21]

National Microbiology Laboratory
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Located at the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health, it is jointly operated by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.[22]

Wuhan Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wuhan, Hubei, China
2015
Wuhan Institute of Virology has existed since 1956 and already hosted BSL3 laboratories. A BSL4 facility was completed in 2015, and became the first BSL-4 laboratory in China.[23]

Biological Defense Center
Těchonín, Pardubice Region, Czech Republic
1971, rebuilt 2003-2007
Located at the Centrum biologické ochrany (Biological Defense Center)[24]

Jean Mérieux BSL-4 Laboratory
Lyon, Metropolis of Lyon, France
1999
Built and owned by the Fondation Mérieux. Since 2004, operated by INSERM.[25]

Laboratoire de la DGA
Vert-le-Petit, Essonne, France
2013
Operated by the Ministry of Defense.[26]

Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville
Franceville, Haut-Ogooué Province, Gabon

This facility is operated by a research organization supported by both Gabonese (mainly) and French governments, and is West Africa's only P4 lab (BSL-4).[27]

Robert Koch Institute
Berlin, Germany
2015
Diagnostic and experimental lab facility.[28]

Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine
Hamburg, Germany

Part of the Leibniz Center Infection. National reference lab for tropical viruses.[29]

Friedrich Loeffler Institute
Isle of Riems, Greifswald, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany
2010
Focus on animal viral diseases and diagnostics.[30]

Philipps University of Marburg
Marburg, Hesse, Germany
2008
Focuses on hemorrhagic fever viruses.[31]

Országos Epidemiológiai Központ – National Center for Epidemiology
Budapest, Hungary
1998
Division of Virology operates three WHO National Reference Laboratories. The BSL-4 biosafety laboratory provides a modern means to process dangerous imported zoonotic viral pathogens.[32]

High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL)
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India
1998
This facility deals especially to zoonotic organisms and emerging infectious disease threats.[33]

Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology
Hyderabad, Telangana, India
2009
National BSL-4 Containment Facility for Human Infectious Diseases.[34]

Microbial Containment Complex
Pune, Maharashtra, India
2012
Run by the National Institute of Virology.[35]

Istituto Nazionale per le Malattie Infettive
Rome, Lazio, Italy
1997
The "National Institute of Infectious Diseases" used to operate within the Lazzaro Spallanzani hospital; the facility is now independent and is home to five BSL-3 labs as well as a single BSL-4 laboratory, which was completed in 1997.[36]

National Institute for Infectious Diseases
Musashimurayama, Tokyo, Japan
2015
Located at National Institute for Infectious Diseases, Department of Virology I. Built in 1981; operated at BSL-3 until 2015 due to opposition from nearby residents.[37]

Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN)
Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan
1984
Facility completed in 1984 but not operated as BSL-4 due to local opposition.[38]

State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology (VECTOR)
Koltsovo, Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia

One of two WHO-approved facilities for work on variola virus.[13]

National Institute for Communicable Diseases
Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
2002
[39]

Public Health Agency of Sweden
Solna, Stockholm County, Sweden
2001
The only BSL-4 facility in the Nordic region. Constructed for research and diagnostics of hemorrhagic fever viruses.[40]

University Hospital of Geneva
Geneva, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland

"Glove box" type laboratory; primarily for handling clinical samples.[41]

Spiez Laboratory
Spiez, Canton of Bern, Switzerland
2013
Run by Federal Office for Civil Protection and the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports.[42]

Institute of Medical Virology
Zurich, Canton of Zurich, Switzerland

Part of the University of Zurich. Primary purpose is diagnostics of highly pathogenic viruses.[42]

Institute of Preventive Medicine
Taipei National Defense University, Taipei, Republic of China

[43]

Health Protection Agency's Centre for Infections
Colindale, Greater London, United Kingdom

Department of Health laboratory. Diagnostics for various viral diseases.[44] Part of the European Network of Biosafety-Level-4 Laboratories.[45]

National Institute for Medical Research
Mill Hill, Greater London, United Kingdom

Medical Research Council laboratory. Research and diagnostics for highly pathogenic viruses.[44]

Institute for Animal Health
Pirbright, Surrey, United Kingdom

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council laboratory. Research on highly pathogenic animal diseases.[44]

Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
Porton Down, Wiltshire, United Kingdom

Ministry of Defense laboratory. Focuses on protection from biological weapons.[44]

Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response
Porton Down, Wiltshire, United Kingdom

Department of Health laboratory. Diagnostics and research for haemorrhagic fever viruses.[44] Part of the European Network of Biosafety-Level-4 Laboratories.[45]

Francis Crick Institute
Camden, Greater London, United Kingdom
2015
Has BSL-4 space but does not work on human pathogens.[46]

National Institute for Biological Standards and Control
Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

Department of Health and Home Office laboratory. Develop assays and reagents for research on virulent pathogens.[44]

Veterinary Laboratories Agency
Addlestone, Surrey, United Kingdom

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs laboratory. Diagnostics and research for animal diseases.[44]

Merial Animal Health
Pirbright, Surrey, United Kingdom

Private lab. Produces vaccines against foot and mouth disease and bluetongue disease.[44]

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Currently operates in two buildings. One of two facilities in the world that officially hold smallpox.[13]

Georgia State University
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
1997
Research focus on B virus.[47]

National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), Kansas State University
Manhattan, Kansas, United States
2022 (expected)
Under construction. Facility to be operated by the Department of Homeland Security, and replace the Plum Island Animal Disease Center. Expected to be operational by 2022-2023.[48]

National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Bethesda, Maryland, United States

Located on the NIH Campus, it currently only operates with BSL-3 agents.[49]

Integrated Research Facility
Fort Detrick, Maryland, United States

Operated by NIAID. Focuses on animal models of human diseases.[50]

National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center
Fort Detrick, Maryland, United States

Operated by the Department of Homeland Security. Focus on potential bioterrorism threats.[51]

US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID)
Fort Detrick, Maryland, United States
1969
Run by the U.S. Army. Research focuses on biological threats to the U.S. military.[52][53]

National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory (NEIDL), Boston University
Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Focus on potential threats to public health.[54]

Rocky Mountain Laboratories
Hamilton, Montana, United States
1928
NIAID laboratory. Focus on vector-borne diseases.[55]

Galveston National Laboratory, National Biocontainment Facility
Galveston, Texas, United States

Opened in 2008, facility is operated by the University of Texas Medical Branch.[56]

Shope Laboratory
Galveston, Texas, United States
2004
Operated by the University of Texas Medical Branch.[57]

Texas Biomedical Research Institute
San Antonio, Texas, United States
1999
The only privately owned BSL-4 lab in the US.[58]

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Vector Borne Diseases
Fort Collins, Colorado, United States

A BSL 3/4 facility that operates in connection with some of CSU's biomedical research programs. The Fort Collins, Colorado location specializes in arboviral and bacterial diseases.[59]

text: Safety concerns[edit]

text: A North Carolina Mosquito & Vector Control Association (NCMVCA) study highlighted safety concerns. In the United States laboratories can be funded by federal, state, private, non-profit, or academically. The last accounts for 72% of the funding. There is no central monitoring agency accountable for monitoring laboratories and standards vary according to funding, the age of the laboratory, and is dependent on the size and whether it is SA approved.[60]

text: High-containment labs that are registered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Select Agent Program must adhere to Department of Defense standards.[61] No single federal agency, according to 12 agencies' responses to a GSA survey, has the mission to track the overall number of BSL-3 and BSL-4 labs in the United States. This means no agency is responsible for determining the risks associated with the proliferation of these labs.[62]