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109-499: AFL Live is a sports game in the AFL series of Australian rules football video games. It was developed by Big Ant Studios for PlayStation 3 , Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows . It was released on 21 April 2011. The Game of the Year Edition was released for The PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Marketplace on 6 June 2012 and was released for optical disc on 12 July 2012. Commentary

218-566: A basketball court , a crowd, cheerleaders , four periods, the ability to rough up an opponent, and big dunks capable of backboard shattering . Konami's Punk Shot (1990) is an arcade basketball game with an element of violence, allowing players to physically attack each other, which CU Amiga magazine compared to the film Rollerball (1975). The success of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in North America led to

327-625: A female sports game based on high-school track & field, The Undoukai , and a dirt track racing game Buggy Challenge , with a buggy . Other dirt racing games from that year were dirt bike games: Nintendo 's Excitebike and SNK 's motocross game Jumping Cross . Nintendo also released a four-player racquet sport game, VS. Tennis (the Nintendo VS. System version of Tennis ). That same year, ice hockey games were also released: Alpha Denshi's Bull Fighter and Data East's Fighting Ice Hockey . Data East also released

436-441: A lawn sports game Haro Gate Ball , based on croquet , while Nichibutsu released a game based on roller derby , Roller Jammer . Meanwhile, Technos Japan released a game based on sumo wrestling, Syusse Oozumou , and the first martial arts combat-sport game, Karate Champ , considered one of the most influential fighting games. In 1985, Nintendo released an arm wrestling game, Arm Wrestling , while Konami released

545-447: A table tennis game that attempted to accurately reflect the sport, Konami's Ping Pong . On home consoles, Mattel released Intellivision World Series Baseball ( IWSB ), designed by Don Daglow and Eddie Dombrower , in late 1983. It is considered the earliest sports video game to use multiple camera angles to show the action in a manner resembling a sports television broadcast. Earlier sports games prior to this had displayed

654-503: A brand name used for sports games they produced. EA Sports created several ongoing series, with a new version released each year to reflect the changes in the sport and its teams since the previous release. Sega launched its own competing NFL series on the Sega Genesis. The gameplay of Sega's earlier 1987 Master System title Great Football (1987) was the basis for Joe Montana Football (1991), developed by EA and published by Sega for

763-409: A continuous action. For example, football games may distinguish between short and the long passes based on how long the player holds a button. Golf games often initiate the backswing with one button-push, and the swing itself is initiated by a subsequent push. Arcade sports games have traditionally been very popular arcade games . The competitive nature of sports lends itself well to the arcades where

872-433: A definitive agreement with Telstra on 23 June 2011 , estimated to be worth A$ 9 billion post-tax net present value , building upon the signing of a financial heads of agreement a year beforehand. Telstra agreed to "disconnect" its Internet customers from the copper and hybrid fibre-coaxial networks in areas where FTTP has been installed, and agreed to lease dark fibre , exchange space and ducts to NBN Co. As part of

981-576: A detailed XP system, that rewards players for good performance in-game. The game features online play, with Big Ant Studios stating that it uses the PlayStation Network , Xbox Live and Games for Windows – Live to their full advantage. Up to 4 players with Xbox Live, 7 with PSN, are able to play either cooperatively or competitively online. Online play features a full-fledged XP System where players rank up and collect badges for achieving set tasks. The game licensed all 17 teams and 12 stadiums from

1090-858: A game called Tennis for Two , a competitive two-player tennis game played on an oscilloscope . The players would select the angle at which to put their racket, and pressed a button to return it. Although this game was incredibly simple, it demonstrated how an action game (rather than previous puzzles) could be played on a computer. Video games prior to the late 1970s were primarily played on university mainframe computers under timesharing systems that supported multiple computer terminals on school campuses. The two dominant systems in this era were Digital Equipment Corporation 's PDP-10 and Control Data Corporation 's PLATO . Both could only display text, and not graphics, originally printed on teleprinters and line printers , but later printed on single-color CRT screens . Ralph Baer developed Table Tennis for

1199-585: A horizontal side-scrolling format, depicting one or two tracks at a time, a large scoreboard that displayed world records and current runs, and a packed audience in the background. Despite the industry's hype for laserdisc games at the time, Track & Field became the most well-received game at the Amusement Machine Show (AM Show) in Tokyo and the Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) show in

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1308-665: A long history in Australia, originating together with Australia Post as the Postmaster-General's Department upon federation in 1901. Telstra had transitioned from a state-owned enterprise to a fully privatised company by 2006. Australia's telecommunications services were originally controlled by the Postmaster-General's Department (PMG), formed in 1901 as a result of Australian Federation. Prior to 1901, telecommunications were administered by each colony. On 1 July 1975, separate commissions were established by statute to replace

1417-470: A lower score of 4/10. Sports game Sports games involve physical and tactical challenges, and test the player's precision and accuracy. Most sports games attempt to model the athletic characteristics required by that sport, including speed, strength, acceleration, accuracy, and so on. As with their respective sports, these games take place in a stadium or arena with clear boundaries. Sports games often provide play-by-play and color commentary through

1526-630: A major sponsor of the V8 Supercars car racing championship through its BigPond brand and directly sponsored the Sydney Telstra 500 event, the final round of the series held at Sydney Olympic Park . The sport ended this deal at the conclusion of the 2012 season. Telstra had naming rights to the Docklands Stadium in Melbourne from 2002 until 2009. Telstra is also the naming rights sponsor of

1635-400: A new website, including the ability for customers to link their online accounts to their Facebook identity. In March 2014, Telstra announced a new digital development program called "Digital First" with a stated aim to conduct 65 to 70 percent of its transactions online. Telstra published a white paper sharing some key metrics of its digital program: In September 2014, Telstra announced

1744-494: A number of actions, including a back heel, power kick , high kick, sliding tackle , super shot, and fouling other players (kicking, punching, and pulling shirts), which the player can get away with if the referee isn't looking, or get a yellow or red penalty card for if he is. In 1991, the American football game Tecmo Super Bowl was the first mainstream sports game to feature both the league and player association licenses of

1853-591: A partnership with eVTOL racing series Airspeeder . The deal centred around providing a service to transmit terabytes of data for vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure communications for the EXA series. This deal incorporated on-vehicle branding for Telstra. In November 1997, the Australian government sold the first tranche of its Telstra shares, 4.29 Billion shares, publicly at a price of $ 3.40 per share to institutional investors and $ 3.30 to retail investors. This sale

1962-553: A pillar of the corporation’s social responsibility ethos according to Telstra’s head of social services Gerard Devan and the Telstra foundation. The following table shows total complaints handled by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) 2010–2015, and of those, the ones made against Telstra. In February 2011, Telstra announced the formation of Telstra Digital under the leadership of Gerd Schenkel who

2071-472: A publicly listed company with a market capitalisation of approximately $ 600m (June 2016). In February 2011, Telstra announced the creation of an additional 100 retail stores within three years. The carrier opened the world's first Android store, called " Androidland ", on Bourke Street , Melbourne, Australia, in December 2011. These developments built on Telstra's T[life] concept stores it had launched in

2180-503: A season mode with nearly the entire NFL roster. Tecmo Super Bowl is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential games of all time, as it was the first mainstream sports video game with both the league and player association licenses, with ESPN ranking it the greatest sports video game of all time. Sega also developed American football games for their competing Master System console, Great Football in 1987 and American Pro Football ( Walter Payton Football ) in 1989,

2289-496: A simpler " arcade-style " approach to its gameplay, ISS Pro introduced more complex simulation gameplay emphasizing tactics and improvisation, enabled by tactical variety such as nine in-match strategy options. In 1997, Electronic Gaming Monthly reported that sports games accounted for roughly 50% of console software sales. At the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century, extreme sport video games began to appear more frequently. Namco 's Alpine Racer (1994)

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2398-462: A single game. Wii Sports and Nintendo Switch Sports are recent examples. A popular sub-genre are Olympic video games , including Track & Field and other similar titles. Multi-sport tournaments are becoming the basis for computer games. Sports video games have origins in sports electro-mechanical games (EM games), which were arcade games manufactured using a mixture of electrical and mechanical components, for amusement arcades between

2507-464: A straight knockout tournament. Select 8 teams to play in the AFL finals series. Training mode includes tutorials on the controls of the game. The "Footy Factory" allows the player to create their own football player or team. A custom team will start with a 6.5 million dollar salary cap. To offer better balancing for online play, created teams can be used online. The online component offers ranked matches and

2616-412: A trend where presentation would play an increasingly important role in sports games. Magic Johnson's Fast Break (1988) by Arcadia Systems had detailed characters and audio clips of Magic Johnson 's voice. Midway, who had not released a basketball game in sixteen years since Taito's TV Basketball in 1974, released Arch Rivals (1989), a two-on-two game featuring large players with distinct looks,

2725-544: Is commonly referred to as "T1". In October 1999, the Australian government sold the second tranche of its Telstra shares under the "T2" program for $ 7.80 per share to institutional investors and $ 7.40 to retail investors. In November 2006, the government sold a third tranche of its shares, "T3", at $ 3.60 per share. Since its privatisation, Telstra shares have hit a low of just over $ 2.50 per share in late 2010. Since then, Telstra shares have risen to $ 5 per share in December 2013 and $ 6 per share in December 2014. On 17 May 2019

2834-507: Is considered to be the first video game to accurately emulate American football ; it also popularized the use of a trackball, with the game's developers mentioning it was inspired by an earlier Japanese association football game that used a trackball. Atari Football was the second highest-earning arcade video game of 1979 in the United States, below only Taito's shoot 'em up blockbuster Space Invaders (1978), though Atari Football

2943-437: Is for customer service to be fundamental to everything we do". In August 2011, Telstra Digital announced expansion of customer service into social media with 24/7 coverage. By November 2012, Telstra claimed 140,000 live chats for the month and a growth rate of this service of 600% p.a. In October 2013, Telstra announced that it had grown its Live Chat workforce to 600 and its social media workforce to 30. Customer Service became

3052-470: Is provided by Dennis Cometti and Brian Taylor . The gameplay has gone more in-depth with the core mechanics. Some specific improvements include, faster ball movement and a more free flowing game, improved control and camera systems, and more scope for tactical adjustments. The possible addition of obscurities such as "behind the play" incidents will potentially add to the longevity of the gameplay experience. All officially licensed AFL teams are included in

3161-559: Is temporarily suspended. Association football video games sometimes shift gameplay modes when it is time for the player to attempt a penalty kick, a free shot at goal from the penalty spot, taken by a single player. Some sports games also require players to shift roles between the athletes and the coach or manager. These mode switches are more intuitive than other game genres because they reflect actual sports. Older 2D sports games sometimes used an unrealistic graphical scale, where athletes appeared to be quite large in order to be visible to

3270-556: The Sensible Soccer series (1992 debut). Several sports laserdisc games were released for arcades in 1984, including Universal 's Top Gear which displayed 3D animated race car driving, while Sega's GP World and Taito's Laser Grand Prix displayed live-action footage. Sega also produced a bullfighting game, Bull Fight , and a multiple-watersports game Water Match (published by Bally Midway ), which included swimming, kayaking and boat racing ; while Taito released

3379-538: The Liberal–National Coalition 's Howard government : the first, informally known as "T1" (with shares priced at $ 3.30), occurred in 1997. "T2" ($ 7.40) followed in 1999; "T3" ($ 3.60) in 2006. In T1 , the government sold one third of its shares in Telstra for A$ 14 billion and publicly listed the company on the Australian Stock Exchange. In 1998, a further 16% of Telstra shares were sold to

AFL Live - Misplaced Pages Continue

3488-726: The National Rugby League Premiership. Telstra is also the principal sponsor of Swimming Australia . They also sponsored the Minardi team for the 2002 Formula One season , and the Rally Australia 2006 Championships. Telstra also had the naming rights (under TelstraClear ) for the TelstraClear Pacific events centre in Manukau City , New Zealand. In September 2021 Telstra solutions and Telstra Purple announced

3597-433: The Nintendo VS. System titles VS. Tennis and VS. Baseball , Taito's golf game Birdie King II , and Data East 's Tag Team Wrestling . 10-Yard Fight in 1983 had a career mode , where the player progresses from high school , to college , professional , playoff , and Super Bowl , as the difficulty increases with each step. Irem's waterskiing game Tropical Angel had a female player character , and

3706-495: The PlayStation console. The following year, Square 's popular role-playing video game , Final Fantasy VII , included a snowboarding minigame that was later released as an independent snowboarding game, Final Fantasy VII Snowboarding , for mobile phones. In 2000, SSX was released. Based around boardercross , the game featured fast downhill races, avoiding various objects whilst using others to perform jumps and increase

3815-487: The Pong market crashed around the mid-1970s. Sports video games would not regain the same level of success until the 1980s. In 1976, Sega released an early combat sport game, Heavyweight Champ , based on boxing and now considered the first fighting game . In March 1978, Sega released World Cup , an association football game with a trackball controller. In October 1978, Atari released Atari Football , which

3924-428: The arcade video game industry, so they began turning to sports games. The arcade industry began producing sports games at levels not seen since the days of Pong and its clones, which played a role in the recovery of the arcade market by the mid-1980s. There were initially high expectations for laserdisc games to help revive the arcade industry in 1983, but it was instead non-laserdisc sports games that ended up being

4033-570: The highest-grossing arcade sports game of all time. FIFA International Soccer (1993), the first game in EA's FIFA series of association football video games , released on the Sega Mega Drive and became the best-selling home video game of 1993 in the United Kingdom. In contrast to the top-down perspective of earlier association football games, FIFA introduced an isometric perspective to

4142-612: The history of the Nintendo Entertainment System , as they were the earliest NES games released in North America, initially in the arcades and then with the console's launch. Nintendo's arcade version VS. Baseball (1984) was competing with Sega's earlier hit Champion Baseball in the arcades. On home computers, Track & Field spawned similar hit Olympic games for computer platforms, such as Ocean Software 's Daley Thompson's Decathlon (1984). Electronic Arts produced their first sports game for home computers,

4251-400: The wrestling game Tag Team Wrestling . In the field of association football games , Alpha Denshi's Exciting Soccer (1983) featured digitized voices and a top-down overhead perspective, which was later popularized by Tehkan World Cup (1985) from Tehkan (later Tecmo). Tehkan World Cup was a multiplayer association football game with a trackball controller, where a button

4360-436: The "Telstra" brand internationally and "Telecom Australia" domestically until uniform branding of "Telstra" was introduced throughout the entire organisation in 1995, following an unsuccessful attempt to register the trademark "Telecom Australia". Telstra has faced competition since the early 1990s from Optus (Australia's second largest communication company) and a number of smaller providers. Telstra once retained ownership of

4469-661: The 1940s and 1970s. Examples include boxing games such as International Mutoscope Reel Company 's K.O. Champ (1955), bowling games such as Bally Manufacturing 's Bally Bowler and Chicago Coin 's Corvette from 1966, baseball games such as Midway Manufacturing 's Little League (1966) and Chicago Coin's All Stars Baseball (1968), other team sport games such as Taito 's Crown Soccer Special (1967) and Crown Basketball (1968), and air hockey type games such as Sega 's MotoPolo (1968) and Air Hockey (1972) by Brunswick Billiards . The earliest sports video game dates backs to 1958, when William Higinbotham created

AFL Live - Misplaced Pages Continue

4578-480: The 2011 AFL season. Stadiums were AAMI Stadium , West Lakes The Gabba , Brisbane Etihad Stadium , Melbourne MCG , Melbourne Patersons Stadium , Perth Skilled Stadium , Geelong Gold Coast Stadium , Gold Coast Manuka Oval , Canberra Aurora Stadium , Launceston TIO Stadium , Darwin SCG , Sydney ANZ Stadium , Sydney The Game of the Year Edition licensed all 18 teams and 13 stadiums from the 2012 AFL season . The Game of

4687-694: The Australian Business of the Year award, the MYOB Small Business Award, and the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) which has become known as the Telstra Award. Notable past winners include Vaxine , APS Plastics , and eWAY . Telstra also set up a social services CEO round table under Gerard Devan which acted as a "Think Tank" to the sector. Telstra was

4796-415: The Australian and Overseas Telecommunications Corporation Limited (AOTC). The new organisation underwent a corporate identity review and was subsequently renamed Telstra Corporation Limited ("Telstra") for international business in 1993 and domestic business in 1995. Beginning in 1997 and finalizing in 2011, the federal government began to privatise the corporation. The first three stages were initiated by

4905-535: The Best 150 Games of All Time, the highest ranking sports game on the list. International Superstar Soccer Pro ( ISS Pro ), released for the PlayStation in 1997, was considered a "game-changer" for association football games, which had been largely dominated by rival FIFA on home systems for the last several years. Developed by Konami Tokyo , ISS Pro introduced a new 3D engine capable of better graphics and more sophisticated gameplay than its rival. Whereas FIFA had

5014-461: The Future Fund sold off another $ 2.4 billion worth of shares, reducing the government's stake in Telstra to 10.9%. In August 2011, under Labor 's Gillard government , the Future Fund sold its remaining " above market weight " Telstra shares, reducing its holding to 0.8% of the shares, effectively completing Telstra's privatisation. With more than one million shareholders, Telstra is currently

5123-503: The Genesis. Sega then released their own sequel without EA's involvement, Joe Montana II: Sports Talk Football (1991), which became the first American football game with audio commentary. After Sega acquired the NFL license, they shortened the title to NFL Sports Talk Football Starring Joe Montana , which later became known as Sega's NFL series. Due to strong competition from Madden , the series

5232-580: The Mattel Intellivoice module. The game was sophisticated for its time, but was a commercial failure, released around the time of the video game crash of 1983 when the North American home video game market collapsed. Nintendo released a series of highly successful sports games for the Nintendo Entertainment System console and the arcade Nintendo VS. System , starting with Baseball (1983) and Tennis (1984). They played an important role in

5341-491: The NBA Playoffs (1989), the latter ported to the Genesis in 1991, which added more simulation aspects to the subgenre. In the arcades, Midway followed Arch Rivals with NBA Jam (1993), which introduced digitized sprites similar to their fighting game Mortal Kombat (1992), combined with a gameplay formula similar to Arch Rivals . In its first twelve months of release, NBA Jam generated over $ 1 billion to become

5450-677: The National Broadband Network RFP process on 15 December 2008. In response, Telstra announced that it would raise speeds on its existing Next G network and HFC "cable" network so that they both offer higher speeds than the RFP for the NBN requires. Following Telstra's exclusion from the National Broadband Network bidding process Telstra's share price suffered the biggest one-day percentage fall in its history. NBN Co Limited signed

5559-649: The PMG. Responsibility for postal services was transferred to the Australian Postal Commission (Australia Post). The Australian Telecommunications Commission (ATC), trading as Telecom Australia , ran domestic telecommunication services. In 1989, the ATC introduced new buildings and frameworks. In 1993, the Overseas Telecommunications Commission , a separate government body established in 1946,

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5668-616: The United States, the best-selling arcade video game of 1973 was Pong , followed by several of its clones and variants, including Pro Tennis from Williams Electronics , Winner from Midway Manufacturing , Super Soccer and Tennis Tourney from Allied Leisure (later called Centuri), and TV Tennis from Chicago Coin . In Japan, arcade manufacturers such as Taito initially avoided video games as they found Pong to be simplistic compared to more complex EM games, but after Sega successfully tested-marketed Pong in Japan, Sega and Taito released

5777-788: The United States. The game sold 38,000 arcade units in Japan, became one of the top five highest-grossing arcade games of 1984 in the United States, and the top-grossing arcade game of 1984 in the United Kingdom. It was also the basis for an organized video game competition that drew more than a million players in 1984. The success of Track & Field spawned other similar Olympic video games . Numerous sports video games were subsequently released in arcades after Track & Field , including American football games such as 10-Yard Fight (1983) by Irem and Goal to Go (1984) by Stern Electronics , boxing video games such as Nintendo's Punch-Out! (1984), martial arts sports fighting games such as Technōs Japan 's Karate Champ (1984),

5886-493: The Year Edition is an update DLC for the 2012 AFL season , with updated team lists and on-field uniforms for the 2012 season, Skoda Stadium is to be usable and the ability to play in The Toyota AFL Premiership Season mode as The Greater Western Sydney Giants . It was made available on The PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3 and Xbox Live Marketplace for both Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows on 6 June 2012 and

5995-583: The agreement, Telstra would not be able to market their mobile network as an alternative to the NBN for a number of years. Telstra remains the owner of its networks. On 18 October 2011, Telstra shareholders overwhelmingly approved the deal. On 14 December 2014 it was announced that in a A$ 11b renegotiated deal Telstra will transfer ownership of its copper and hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) networks to NBN while disconnecting premises from these networks. This ownership allows NBN Co to use these networks "where it sees fit in for its multi-technology NBN rollout." Under

6104-575: The apps reached 2.5 million downloads. At a results announcement, CEO David Thodey remarked that "the group's new online strategy was delivering" in the context of a 28% reduction of inbound service calls. Telstra estimated that its digital program will provide productivity benefits of $ 100 million in the 2013 financial year from lower printing costs, decreasing commissions to third parties, and reduced dependence on call centre staff. In October 2012, Telstra's CEO David Thodey stated, "The rise of online and social media had 'fundamentally changed

6213-433: The arcades, and subsequently served as the prototype for later baseball video games . It had a split-screen format, displaying the playfield from two camera angles , one from the outfield and another close-up shot of the player and batter, while also giving players the option of selecting relief pitchers or pinch hitters, while an umpire looks on attentively to make the game calls. The game also had digitized voices for

6322-429: The basketball title Dr. J and Larry Bird Go One on One (1983), which was the first licensed sports game based on the names and likenesses of famous athletes; the inclusion of famous real world athletes would become one of the most important selling points for sports games. One on One became Electronic Arts' best-selling game, and the highest-selling computer sports game, having sold 400,000 copies by late 1988. In

6431-546: The clones Pong Tron and Elepong , respectively, in July 1973, before the official Japanese release of Pong by Atari Japan (later part of Namco ) in November 1973. Tomohiro Nishikado 's four-player Pong variant Soccer was released by Taito in November 1973, with a green background to simulate an association football playfield along with a goal on each side. Another Taito variant, Pro Hockey (1973), set boundaries around

6540-615: The early 2000s. In October 2011, Telstra launched a new brand identity and colour scheme. The new identity launched with the slogan "It's how we connect", and features the "T" from the previous logo in a variety of colors. This was followed by a "brand refresh" in February 2014 and again in 2016. In 2013, Telstra was assessed as Australia's third most valuable brand, after Woolworths and BHP Billiton . In 2016 Telstra became Australia's most valuable brand, which it maintained in 2017. Telstra sponsors numerous awards around Australia, including

6649-491: The early 2000s. A rivalry subsequently emerged between FIFA and PES , considered the "greatest rivalry" in the history of sports video games. PES became known for having "faster-paced tactical play" and more varied emergent gameplay , while FIFA was known for having more licenses. The FIFA series had sold over 16 million units by 2000, while the PES series had sold more than 10 million units by 2002. The sales gap between

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6758-709: The edge" by Deloitte 's Centre for the Edge. In September 2011, Telstra Digital launched a new account services portal to help achieve its goal of managing 35% of Telstra's transactions. In October 2011, Telstra Digital announced a new mobile smartphone optimised version of its website. In November 2011, Telstra Digital launched an iPhone app on a trial basis as well as a new online mobile phone shop. In July 2012, Telstra Digital launched smartphone and Facebook apps for customers to manage their Telstra accounts and in November 2012, Telstra claimed that over 700,000 customers had downloaded those apps. In August 2013, Telstra revealed that

6867-623: The emphasis being more on realism than on how fun the game is to pick up and play based from the competitive seasons of each sport. The simulation-style tends to be slower and more accurate with normal rules while arcade games tend to be fast and can have all kinds of ad-hoc rules and ideas thrown in, especially pre-2000s. Examples of this include the EA Sports FC , NHL , EA Sports WRC , F1 , MotoGP , PGA Tour , PGA Tour 2K , MLB The Show , Madden NFL , EA Sports College Football and NBA 2K series. A sports management game puts

6976-405: The entire field on screen, or scrolled across static top-down fields to show the action. IWSB mimicked television baseball coverage by showing the batter from a modified "center field" camera, the baserunners in corner insets and defensive plays from a camera behind the batter. It was also one of the first sports video games to feature audibly speaking digitized voices (as opposed to text), using

7085-640: The executive director of Telstra Digital Gerd Schenkel left Telstra to become CEO of a fintech company. Telstra owns and operates a series of retail stores known as Telstra Stores. Some are directly owned and operated by Telstra and some are operated by licensees. As of May 2016, Telstra has a total of 360 retail stores across Australia. This includes several new 'Discovery' stores, where Telstra has invested millions in redesigning key stores based on local requirements. These designs include new displays, accessory shops, digital tickets and free baristas. 109 of Telstra's stores are owned and operated by Vita Group ,

7194-495: The fast-growing Sega Genesis. In 1990, Orr and Hilleman released Madden Football . They focused on producing a head-to-head two-player game with an intuitive interface and responsive controls. Electronic Arts had only expected to sell around 75,000 units, but instead the title sold around 400,000 units. In 1990, Taito released Football Champ , an association football game that allows up to four players in both competitive and cooperative gameplay . It also let players perform

7303-464: The first video game console , the Magnavox Odyssey , released in 1972. While the console had other sports-themed game cards, they required the use of television overlays while playing similarly to board games or card games . Table Tennis was the only Odyssey game that was entirely electronic and did not require an overlay, introducing a ball-and-paddle game design that showcased the potential of

7412-614: The fixed-line telephone network, but since the nationwide upgrade to the National Broadband Network (NBN), the Australian Government now has legal ownership of these lines since 2007, though Telstra has played a big part in this upgrade supplying resources to the Government on the new network. Telstra also has pay TV and owns 35% of the Australian media company Foxtel. The Overseas Telecommunications Commission (OTC)

7521-467: The following year. Ramtek later released Baseball in October 1974, similarly featuring the use of character graphics. In 1975, Nintendo released EVR-Race , a horse racing simulation game with support for up to six players. It was a mixture between a video game and an electro-mechanical game, and played back video footage from a video tape . After the market became flooded with Pong clones,

7630-572: The game. While it also features three extra teams, Victoria , Indigenous All Stars and an All Stars Team ( Dream team ) from the AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match . An exhibition match, can be played competitively or cooperatively. Select a number of teams through the AFL season. Select a number of teams through the NAB Cup. Create and play with a personalised team, from the Footy Factory, or compete in

7739-581: The genre. International Superstar Soccer (1994), the first game in Konami 's International Superstar Soccer ( ISS ) series, released for the SNES. A rivalry subsequently emerged between the FIFA and ISS franchises. In the 1990s, 3D graphics were introduced in sports games. Early uses of flat-shaded polygons date back to 1991, with home computer games such as 4D Sports Boxing and Winter Challenge . However, it

7848-462: The late 1980s, basketball video games gained popularity in arcades. Konami's Double Dribble (1986) featured colorful graphics, five-on-five gameplay, cutaway animations for slam dunks , and a digitized version of " The Star-Spangled Banner " theme. It was considered the most realistic basketball game upon release, with fast-paced action, detailed players, a large side-scrolling court, innovative cinematic dunks, and detailed sound effects, beginning

7957-503: The latter very well received by critics at the time. The late 1980s is considered the "Golden Age" of baseball video games . Namco 's R.B.I. Baseball (1986) and the Atlus title Major League Baseball (1988) for the NES were the first fully licensed baseball video games. SNK 's Baseball Stars (1989) was a popular arcade-style NES game, while Jaleco 's NES title Bases Loaded (1987)

8066-686: The leadership of David Thodey , Telstra embarked upon a transformation agenda to become more sales and service focused. As part of that, an ambitious customer service agenda was defined. In 2014, Telstra was named "most respected company" by the Australian Financial Review newspaper. Early in 2010, Telstra announced the creation of a $ 1 billion "fighting fund" to be used in a concerted effort to win back market share in key product categories. This effort seems to have paid off with strong sales momentum announced in February 2011. As part of its new strategy, Telstra announced that its "goal

8175-506: The main objective is usually to obtain a high score . The arcade style of play is generally more unrealistic and focuses on a quicker gameplay experience. However the competitive nature of sports and being able to gain a high score while competing against friends for free online, has made online sports games very popular. Examples of this include the NFL Blitz and NBA Jam series. Simulation games are more realistic than arcade games, with

8284-464: The most well-received hits at amusement arcade shows by late 1983. In March 1983, Sega released Alpha Denshi 's arcade game Champion Baseball , which became a blockbuster success in Japanese arcades, with Sega comparing its impact on Japanese arcades to that of Space Invaders . Champion Baseball was a departure from the " space games " and "cartoon" action games that had previously dominated

8393-415: The most widely held ASX-listed company. On 26 November 2008, Telstra submitted a non-complying tender issued by the federal government to build a National Broadband Network , a 12-page letter proposing a $ 5 billion broadband network covering between 80 and 90 percent of the Australian population in major cities, despite the tender requiring 98 percent coverage. As a result, Telstra was removed from

8502-415: The new video game medium. This provided the basis for the first commercially successful video game, Pong (1972), released as an arcade video game by Atari, Inc. Numerous ball-and-paddle games that were either clones or variants of Pong were released for arcades in 1973. Atari themselves released a four-player cooperative multiplayer variant, Pong Doubles (1973), based on tennis doubles . In

8611-498: The opening of a "Digital Transformation Centre" in Sydney to design and built new digital tools for its service systems. In June 2014, Telstra disclosed that it had 3 million customers on "electronic billing" saving it $ 3 million per month in costs. Telstra also mentioned that live chat accounted for 10% of total contact centre activity. In December 2015, Telstra Digital launched customer service on Periscope . In October 2016,

8720-478: The platform becoming a major platform for American sports video games. Basketball games included a port of Double Dribble , with a halo mechanic signifying the optimum release for shots, and Tecmo NBA Basketball (1992). American football video games included Tecmo Bowl (1987), which was ported to the NES with the NFL Players Association license, and Tecmo Super Bowl (1991), which introduced

8829-465: The player in the role of team manager . Whereas some games are played online against other players, management games usually pit the player against AI controlled teams in the same league . Players are expected to handle strategy, tactics, transfers, and financial issues. Various examples of these games can be found in the sports management category . Since Track & Field (1983), various multi-sport video games have combined multiple sports into

8938-423: The player's speed. In 1997, Sega released one of the first mainstream skateboarding games, Top Skater , in the arcades, where it introduced a skateboard controller interface. Top Skater served as a basic foundation for later skateboarding games. The following year saw the release of the console skateboarding game Street Sk8er , developed by Atelier Double and published by Electronic Arts . In 1999,

9047-532: The player. As sports games have evolved, players have come to expect a realistic graphical scale with a high degree of verisimilitude. Sports games often simplify the game physics for ease of play, and ignore factors such as a player's inertia. Games typically take place with a highly accurate time-scale, although they usually allow players to play quick sessions with shorter game quarters or periods. Sports games sometimes treat button-pushes as continuous signals rather than discrete moves, in order to initiate and end

9156-458: The players and the baskets, and attempted to simulate basketball . Each player controls two team members, a forward and a guard ; the ball can be passed between team members before shooting, and the ball has to fall into the opposing team's basket to score a point. The game was released in North America by Midway as TV Basketball , selling 1,400 arcade cabinets in the United States, a production record for Midway up until they released Wheels

9265-437: The public, leaving the Australian government with 51% ownership. In 2006, T3 was announced by the government and was the largest of the three public releases, reducing the government's ownership of Telstra to 17%. The 17% remainder of Telstra was placed in Australia's Future Fund , a sovereign wealth fund established mainly to meet future liabilities for payment of superannuation to retired federal public servants . In 2009,

9374-475: The screen and only a small gap for the goal. Tomohiro Nishikado wanted to move beyond simple rectangles to character graphics, resulting in his development of a basketball game, Taito's TV Basketball , released in April 1974. It was the earliest use of character sprites to represent human characters in a video game. While the gameplay was similar to earlier ball-and-paddle games, it displayed images both for

9483-467: The second highest ranking for any sports game in that 1981–1996 period (after FPS Football ). The 1990s began in the 16-bit era , as a wave of fourth generation video game consoles were created to handle more complex games and graphics. The Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in particular became renowned for its sports video games, as it was more powerful than the NES and with Sega targeting an older audience than Nintendo's typically younger target demographic at

9592-628: The shares closed on the ASX at $ 3.56 up from a twelve-month low of $ 2.547 per share In February 2014, Telstra raised its dividend from 14c to 14.5c per share. Amid the global pandemic crisis of the coronavirus in 2020, Telstra was one of three companies of the ASX 200 to gain in the week starting 15 March. It increased by 1.8 percent on the Australian Securities Exchange. In January 2014, Telstra announced its intention to sell 70% of Sensis to Platinum Equity for $ 454 million. Sensis

9701-461: The sport it emulated; previous titles either had one license or the other, but Tecmo Super Bowl was the first to feature real NFL players on real teams. Orr joined EA full-time in 1991 after the success of Madden on the Sega Genesis, and began a ten-year period of his career where he personally supervised the production of the Madden Football series. During this time EA formed EA Sports ,

9810-501: The subgenre was further popularized by Tony Hawk's Pro Skater , an arcade-like skateboarding game where players were challenged to execute elaborate tricks or collect a series of elements hidden throughout the level. Tony Hawk's went on to be one of the most popular sports game franchises. Association football games became more popular in the 2000s. Konami's ISS series spawned the Pro Evolution Soccer ( PES ) series in

9919-614: The time. Basketball video games included EA's Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs (1991), which launched the NBA Live series. World Series Baseball (1994) introduced the "catcher-cam" perspective, launching the World Series Baseball series and becoming the first game in the Sega Sports line. In 1989, Electronic Arts producer Richard Hilleman hired GameStar's Scott Orr to re-design John Madden Football for

10028-452: The two franchises had narrowed by the mid-2000s. Bigpond#BigPond Games and GameArena Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets related products and services. It is a member of the S&;P/ASX 20 stock index, and is Australia's largest telecommunications company by market share. Telstra has

10137-546: The umpire, and individual player statistics. Sports games became more popular across arcades worldwide with the arrival of Konami 's Track & Field , known as Hyper Olympic in Japan, introduced in September 1983. It was an Olympic-themed athletics game that had multiple Olympic track-and-field events (including the 100-meter dash, long jump , javelin throw , 110-meter hurdles , hammer throw , and high jump ) and allowed up to four players to compete. It had

10246-457: The use of recorded audio. Sports games sometimes make use of different modes for different parts of the game. This is especially true in games about American football such as the Madden NFL series, where executing a pass play requires six different gameplay modes in the span of approximately 45 seconds. Sometimes, other sports games offer a menu where players may select a strategy while play

10355-499: The way' which the company communicated with its customers". In a 2015 Deloitte report, Telstra disclosed that its "CrowdSupport" service community had generated 200,000 pieces of user-generated content. In August 2016, Telstra disclosed that "more than 60%" of visitors to "CrowdSupport" manage to find an answer on the community. In February 2013, Telstra introduced the ability to pay its bills via PayPal. And in June 2013, Telstra launched

10464-416: Was a simulation game with statistics. In 1988, EA released Earl Weaver Baseball , developed by Don Daglow and Eddie Dombrower, which for the first time combined a highly accurate simulation game with high quality graphics. This was also the first game in which an actual baseball manager provided the computer AI . In 1996 Computer Gaming World named EWB the 25th of its Best 150 Games of All Time,

10573-472: Was a skiing winter sports simulator that became a major success in arcades during the mid-1990s. This led to a wave of similar sports games capitalizing on its success during the late 1990s, from companies such as Sega , Namco, Konami and Innovative Concepts. In 1996, two snowboarding video games were released: Namco 's Alpine Surfer in the arcades, and the UEP Systems game Cool Boarders for

10682-516: Was cancelled in 1997. Licensed basketball games began becoming more common by the early 1990s, including Sega's Pat Riley Basketball (1990) and Acme Interactive 's David Robinson's Supreme Court (1992) for the Sega Genesis, and Hudson Soft 's Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball (1991) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). EA followed Jordan vs. Bird: One on One (1988) with Lakers versus Celtics and

10791-607: Was established by an Act of Parliament in August 1946. It inherited facilities and resources from Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Limited (AWA) and Cable & Wireless , and was charged with responsibility for all international telecommunications services into, through and out of Australia. On 1 February 1992, it was merged with Australia's domestic telecommunications carrier, the Australian Telecommunications Corporation Limited ("Telecom"), to create

10900-509: Was featured in the Intellivision ads, which showed the parallel games side by side. Both Atari and Intellivision fielded at least one game for baseball, American football, hockey, basketball and association football. Atari's sports games included Activision Tennis (1981). Sports video games experienced a resurgence from 1983. As the golden age of arcade video games came to an end, arcade manufacturers began looking for ways to reinvigorate

11009-434: Was hired from National Australia Bank / UBank . Telstra Digital's initial purpose was to improve the use of digital channels for customer service. In April 2011, Telstra Digital relaunched its web homepage design. In July 2011, Telstra Digital launched "CrowdSupport", an online forum to crowd source customer service. As of July 2017, Telstra's "CrowdSupport" had 463,000 posts. It was also cited as an example of "scaling at

11118-516: Was merged with the Australian Telecommunications Corporation into the short-lived Australian and Overseas Telecommunications Corporation (AOTC) which continued trading under the established identities of Telecom and OTC. The AOTC was renamed to Telstra Corporation Limited in 1993. The name "Telstra" is derived from the word Telecom Australia ("Tel" from Tel ecom and "stra" from Au stra lia). The corporation then traded under

11227-474: Was not until the mid-1990s that 3D polygons were popularized in sports games. Sega 's arcade title Virtua Striker (1994) was the first association football game to use 3D graphics, and was also notable for its early use of texture mapping . Meanwhile, Sierra Online released American football title Front Page Sports Football in 1995 for the PC. The following year, Computer Gaming World named it twelfth of

11336-434: Was one of the two most well-received games at the September 1983 AM Show (along with Hyper Olympic ) for its graphics and gameplay. Another sports game with female player characters was Taito's Joshi Volleyball ( Big Spikers ) , which topped the Japanese table arcade cabinet chart in December 1983. Kaneko 's Roller Aces was a roller skating game played from a third-person perspective, while Technōs Japan released

11445-550: Was released for the ZX Spectrum computer in 1982. Between 1981 and 1983, the Atari's VCS (2600) and Mattel's Intellivision waged a series of high-stakes TV advertising campaigns promoting their respective systems, marking the start of the first console wars . Atari prevailed in arcade games and had a larger customer base due to its lower price, while Intellivision touted its visually superior sports games. Sports writer George Plimpton

11554-423: Was released for video game retailers on 12 July 2012. AFL Live has received mostly average reviews, with a 64% aggregate rating on GameRankings . IGN rated it 6 out of 10. MMGN and also GameSpot rating it 6.5/10, with MMGN summing up, "The best AFL game to date, and while full of issues, a positive start". The Good Game talk show's two reviewers gave the game a 6/10 and 6.5/10. While Game Arena gave it

11663-416: Was said to have once been "one of Telstra's most lucrative businesses" and reportedly "has been under pressure in recent years amid competition from more agile digital alternatives such as Google". In February 2014, Telstra was reportedly seeking to reduce Sensis employment by 400 to 1,000 positions. In September 2013, Telstra launched a new health business unit – Telstra Health and hired Shane Solomon as

11772-631: Was the only sports game among the top ten highest-earners. In 1980, Mattel 's Basketball for the Intellivision was the first basketball video game to be licensed by the National Basketball Association (NBA). On home computers, Microsoft 's Olympic Decathlon (1980) was one of the first sports-related programs to mix game and simulation elements, and was an early example of an Olympic track-and-field game. The first association football management simulation, Football Manager ,

11881-466: Was used for kicking the ball and the trackball used for the direction and speed of the shot, with gameplay that was fairly realistic. It was a landmark title for association football games, considered revolutionary for its trackball control system, its top-down perspective that allows players to see more of the pitch, and its trackball-based game physics . It provided the basis for later association football games such as MicroProse Soccer (1988) and

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