PlanetQuest is a grid computing project for discovering new planets and classifying stars from Earth-based observatories' images.

Overview

The PlanetQuest project is currently still under development, and will utilize the BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) platform.

To search for new planets, PlanetQuest developed the Transit Detection Algorithm (TDA), photometric (light-measuring) method, which can automatically detect new planets, using the optical information from ground-based telescopes. The TDA has also been adapted for use in NASA's Kepler Mission. Some of the data gathered from Kepler will be processed by PlanetQuest.

Those working with PlanetQuest are encouraged to participate in the project's discussion group hosted by Google, where members are able to get project updates, work together to advance the project's goals, find support, and learn how to best make use of the BOINC software on their systems or networks.

Note: The PlanetQuest website has not been updated since 2006.

See also

Transit detection method

Distributed computing

List of distributed computing projects

BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing)

External links

PlanetQuest Website

PlanetQuest Google Group

Category:Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing projects Category:Exoplanetology

es:PlanetQuest fr:Planetquest it:PlanetQuest pl:PlanetQuest ru:BOINC#Планируемые проекты sv:Planetquest

Ken Croswell is an astronomer and author living in Berkeley, California. His first degree mixed science and wider interests, majoring in physics and minoring in English literature. He also got a PhD in astronomy for studying the Milky Way's halo.

He is primarily known as a writer on astronomy and space topics. He has written regularly the New Scientist, New York Times and various magazines in the popular science press. He is also the author of six books on astronomy, including The Alchemy of the Heavens and Planet Quest.

References

External links

Ken Croswell's website

Category:American astronomers Category:Living people

name	Geoffrey Marcy
birth date	September 29, 1954
nationality	American
field	Astronomy, Astrophysics
alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles (B.A.)University of California, Santa Cruz (Ph.D.)
work institution	Carnegie Institution for ScienceSan Francisco State UniversityUniversity of California, Berkeley
known for	extrasolar planet discoveries
prizes	Henry Draper Medal (2001)Shaw Prize (2005)
doctoral advisor	Steven S. Vogt
signature
footnotes	}}

Geoffrey W. Marcy (born September 29, 1954, St. Clair Shores, Michigan) is an American astronomer, who is currently Professor of Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, famous for discovering more extrasolar planets than anyone else, 70 out of the first 100 to be discovered, along with R. Paul Butler and Debra Fischer.

Background

Marcy graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Summa Cum Laude with a double major in physics and astronomy from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1976. He then completed a Doctor of Philosophy in Astrophysics and Astronomy in 1982 at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

He has held teaching positions, first at the Carnegie Institution of Washington as a Carnegie Fellow from 1982 to 1984. Marcy then worked as an Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy from 1984 to 1996 and then as a Distinguished University Professor from 1997 to 1999 at the San Francisco State University. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the San Francisco State University and a Professor of Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley and the Director of Center for Integrative Planetary Science.

Astronomy Career

In the early 1980s, his research into stellar magnetic fields had reached a dead end.

Marcy confirmed Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz's discovery of the first extrasolar planet orbiting a Sun-like star - 51 Pegasi b. Other achievements have included discovering the first multiple planet system around a star similar to our own (Upsilon Andromedae), the first transiting planet around another star (HD209458b), the first extrasolar planet orbiting beyond 5 AU (55 Cancri d), and the first Neptune-sized planets (Gliese 436b and 55 Cancri e).

Research Achievements

Made First Zeeman Measurements of Magnetic Fields for Solar-Type Stars

Found Paucity of Brown Dwarfs Orbiting Stars (The Brown Dwarf Desert)

Developed Method of Precise Doppler Measurements (3 meter/sec)

Discovered 70 of first 100 Extrasolar Planets Known

Found Evidence that Solar System May be Peculiar (Circular vs Eccentric Orbits)

Discovered First System of Planets Around a Sun-Like Star (Upsilon And)

Discovered First Transiting Planet Around another Star (HD209458)

Discovered First Candidate Saturn-Mass Planets (HD46375, HD16141)

Discovered First Extrasolar Planet Orbiting Beyond 5 AU (55 Cancri d)

Co-Discovered First Neptune-Sized Planets: Gliese 436b and 55 Cancri e

Honors

Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences with R. Paul Butler (2001)

Shaw Prize with Michel Mayor (2005)

Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2010)

On October 28, 2006 he received an honorary doctorate in science from the University of Delaware.

Personal

Marcy lives with his wife Susan Kegley in California.

See also

List of stars with confirmed planets

References

External links

Marcy's homepage at UC Berkeley

Autobiography

Interview with Dr. Geoff Marcy on Smart People Podcast (July 26, 2011)

Interview with Geoff Marcy (March 11, 2009)

Interview with Geoff Marcy (February 1, 2011)

Category:1954 births Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:Living people Category:American astronomers Category:San Francisco State University faculty Category:University of California, Santa Cruz alumni Category:Winners of the Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni Category:Discoverers of extrasolar planets Category:National Academy of Sciences laureates Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

de:Geoffrey Marcy es:Geoffrey Marcy fr:Geoffrey Marcy it:Geoffrey Marcy lb:Geoffrey Marcy ms:Geoffrey Marcy ja:ジェフリー・マーシー pl:Geoffrey Marcy zh:傑佛瑞·馬西

Title	Sonic Adventure
Developer	Sonic TeamSonic Team USA (international)NOW Production (additional DX staff) Sega Studios Shanghai (360/PS3 ports)
Publisher	Sega
Designer	Takashi Iizuka (Director/Level Designer)
Writer	Akinori Nishiyama
Artist	Kazuyuki Hoshino (Art Director)Yuji Uekawa (Character Design)
Composer	Jun Senoue (Sound Director)Kenichi Tokoi Fumie Kumatani
Released	}}

PlayStation Network: }} |genre = Platformer |modes = Single-player, multiplayer |ratings = |platforms = Dreamcast, Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft Windows, Zeebo, PlayStation 3 (PSN), Xbox 360 (XBLA) |media = Optical disc, Download |requirements = Windows XP or better, 800 MHz Pentium III, 32 MB Geforce 2 or Radeon SDR, 1.2 GB hard drive space }}

is a video game developed by Sonic Team and released on December 23, 1998, in Japan by Sega for the Dreamcast. One of its development titles was Sonic RPG (although the final product was an adventure game, not a standard RPG). The final updated edition, known as Sonic Adventure International, was released on September 9, 1999, in North America, October 14, 1999, in Japan and Europe, October 18, 1999, in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and December 1, 1999, in Australia. It has sold over 2.5 million copies, making it the best-selling Dreamcast game. It was the first Sonic game on a sixth generation console.

An enhanced port was released in 2003 as Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut (see below) for the Nintendo GameCube and in 2004 for Microsoft Windows. The game was ported to Xbox Live Arcade on September 15, 2010 and PlayStation Network on September 20, 2010. The game was featured on Dreamcast Collection, a four-game bundle released in 2011.

Gameplay

This game is the first in Sonic series to feature free-roaming 3D gameplay. The game is divided into three types of stages: Action Stages, Adventure Fields and Subgames. The division of Action Stages and Adventure Fields was a serious departure from previous Sonic games. In addition, unlike the previous game in the series, Sonic Adventure has six different characters to choose from: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Big and E-102 Gamma; each with their own style of gameplay. Only Sonic is playable at first, but other characters are made available after encountering them in his story. When all stories have been completed, a final story is unlocked.

Sonic's stages involve high speed gameplay, whilst Tails' stages require him to reach the end of the level before Sonic (and in one case, Robotnik) does and Knuckles' stages see him searching the area for shards of the Master Emerald. All three of these returning characters retain a lot of their trademark moves from previous Sonic games. Amy's stages require her to escape from the E-100 Zero robot chasing after her, Gamma's stages involve shooting through levels to reach a target and Big's stages involve fishing for his friend, Froggy.

Action Stages are the main playable levels for each character, where the player must face various enemies in order to complete their respective goals. Adventure Fields split up the action, where players can explore the surroundings to advance the plot, discover new levels or search for items which enhance a character's ability (for example, the Light Speed Shoes allow Sonic to run across a path of rings). Subgames deviate from the main gameplay of the character, which include minigames such as kart racing and snowboarding. Players may also find hidden Chao Gardens, which allow them to raise Chao, a sort of virtual pet. Chao can be taken with the player by downloading the minigame Chao Adventure to their VMU, or in the GameCube version, a Game Boy Advance with Sonic Advance. The player can also raise their stats by giving them small animals that they found by defeating the robots, which improves their performance in Chao Races. There are also eggs hidden throughout the Adventure Fields which can produce special types of Chao.

By playing through Action Stages and Subgames, searching through the Adventure Fields or winning Chao Races, players can earn Emblems. In the case of Action Stages, each one has three Emblems, which can be earned by replaying the stages and fulfilling certain objectives, such as beating the level within a time limit. In Sonic Adventure DX, these can unlock hidden extras such as Game Gear games.

Synopsis

Characters

Much of Sonic Adventure centers on Sonic, a hedgehog who has the ability to run at supersonic speeds, and Miles "Tails" Prower, a two-tailed fox who often accompanies Sonic on his adventures; they are the main characters of the game who are in pursuit of Robotnik /DR.Eggman. Supporting characters include Knuckles, an echidna who guards the Master Emerald on Angel Island, Amy Rose, a pink hedgehog who has a crush on Sonic, and newcomers Big the Cat and E-102 Gamma. Big is a purple, noticeably overweight cat who must rescue his best friend Froggy who became possessed by Chaos' tail, and swallows Big's "lucky charm", a Chaos Emerald, which causes him to mutate. Gamma is one among a series of robots designed by Eggman to take orders without question. After an encounter with Amy, he suffers a malfunction and gains a "conscience". He then turns his aim to destroying his robotic brothers and freeing the animals trapped inside them.

The main antagonist of the game is Dr. Robotnik, also known as Dr. Eggman because of his round body shape, who has formulated a new plan to conquer the planet, this time not relying on his robots alone, but employing a strange liquid creature known only as Chaos. Chaos also serves an antagonistic role in the game, and is the guardian of the Chao. He is apparently water or a plasma-like material and changes form after consuming a Chaos Emerald. After consuming all seven Chaos Emeralds, he turns into Perfect Chaos, which Eggman aims to use in order to conquer the planet. The main antagonist of Amy's story is E-100 Alpha (better known as Zero), the first E-100 series robot who is a large green robot and is considered the prototype. Zero is one of Dr. Eggman's Robots sent to find Amy's friend Birdie. He follows Amy wherever she goes hoping to capture her and the bird. At one point he succeeds but Amy is rescued by E-102 Gamma. Eventually Zero is defeated by Amy on the Egg Carrier.

Dr. Eggman's E-Series of robots play a large role in Gamma's story, as he is one of them, and is out to destroy or "save" the others. All of them have letters of the Greek alphabet as part of their name. E-101 Beta is a black robot with two gun arms. He is the first boss in E-102 Gamma's side of the story, and is later upgraded into E-101 Beta Mk II, who is Gamma's fifth and final boss. E-103 Delta is a blue robot who is Gamma's second boss, waiting at the end of Windy Valley. E-104 Epsilon is an orange robot who is the third boss of Gamma's side of the story and is fought at the end of Red Mountain. E-105 Zeta is a purple robot who is Gamma's fourth boss and is located at the end of Hot Shelter. While at first humanoid, Zeta is altered into a cylinder-like form with several turrets made up of a few Dreamcast machines.

Friendly characters who are non-playable include Tikal, a mysterious female echidna who appears whenever Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, E-102 Gamma and Big are sent back in time. She is trying to stop her father, Pachacamac, from stealing the Chaos Emeralds from the Master Emerald shrine. She appears mostly in the form of a pink ball of light called a Hint Orb. A major feature of the game are Chao, small creatures who can be raised in the Chao Gardens and play a supporting role in the story.

Plot

Centuries ago, the planet was bestowed the seven Chaos Emeralds. These mystical gems were infused with ancient unlimited power, and consequently it did not take long before wars erupted over who would control them. Amongst the seven Chaos Emeralds was the Master Emerald, the controller of the seven Chaos Emeralds with the power to either amplify or negate the power within them. Whilst the seven Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald rested peacefully, a Chao inhabiting the land nearby the Shrine of the Emeralds accidentally made contact with the holy water surrounding it. The water transcended the Chao into a peaceful creature known as Chaos, who with the ability to control water henceforth became the guardian of the Shrine. Some time after, a tribe of Echidnas, led by Pachacamac, angered Chaos by attempting to steal the Chaos Emeralds, ruining the sanctuary it was protecting and destroying the many Chao living there. Chaos, in his fury, summoned the negative powers of the seven Chaos Emeralds to transform into Perfect Chaos and proceeded to slaughter the Echidna race. Pachacamac's daughter, Tikal, had pleaded with Pachacamac not to disturb the Shrine of the Emeralds but her efforts were futile. After Perfect Chaos left the shrine to enact revenge on the entire world, Tikal prayed to the Master Emerald to seal her and Chaos within in.

In the present day, Dr. Eggman learns of the legend surrounding Chaos through a mural in the lost world. Believing it to be true, he creates his flying fortress, the Egg Carrier, seeks out the Master Emerald and shatters it, freeing Chaos in the process while interrupting Knuckles's job of protecting it and forcing him to collect the shattered pieces. Eggman's goal was to control Chaos, and use its destructive powers to collect the Chaos Emeralds and conquer the entire world, turning it into Robotnikland. To help him, he has created the E-Series robots, a group of powerful robots powered by animals placed inside them and programmed to obey him. Soon after, Chaos makes his way into the Mystic Ruins where Big is sleeping. Big's friend, Froggy, ends up swallowing Big's lucky charm, the yellow Chaos Emerald, and bitting off Chaos's tail which causes him to grow his own tail. Big then begins chasing down Froggy. As Sonic returns from an adventure, he sees the police trying to attack Chaos who has arrived into Station Square. He fights and defeats him, but Chaos escapes. Later at night, Eggman creates E-102 Gamma, the second of his E-100 robots. Eggman tests Gamma's skills by having him do target practice and battling E-101 Beta in order to join the team of the Egg Carrier. The next morning, Tails is out testing a new prototype plane but malfunctions and crashes. Sonic rescues him, and Tails shows him a Chaos Emerald he found which gets stolen after a battle with Dr. Eggman upon arriving at the Mystic Ruins. Amy's story begins in mid-story of all the characters. Remembering old times with Sonic, the Egg Carrier flies over Station Square, and a bird smacks into Amy. As soon as the bird drops, a robot named ZERO chases Amy. After they learn of Eggman's plans, Sonic and his friends spring in to action to stop Eggman and they all start their own separate, but intertwined, journeys for the Chaos Emeralds.

Sonic has defeated Eggman and Chaos, Tails has stopped Eggman from bombing Station Square with a missile, Knuckles has restored the Master Emerald, Amy has rescued a small bird and his family from the clutches of Eggman and his robotic minion Zero, Big has rescued his best friend Froggy, and Gamma has rescued his robotic brothers from Eggman's clutches, destroyed by a last resort point blank blast from his elder "brother" E-101 Beta MK-II and releasing the bird during the process.

However, shortly afterward, Angel Island falls once again, and Eggman is attacked by a surviving Chaos. Meanwhile, noticing that Angel Island has fallen once again, Knuckles decides to go to Sonic with the Chaos Emeralds for advice, when suddenly he finds Eggman on the island, bitter and defeated. Knuckles asks him what happened, to which Eggman responds "This is terrible! C-Chaos is...", before being attacked once more alongside Knuckles by Chaos, who steals the latter's six Chaos Emeralds.

Elsewhere, Sonic and Tails take notice that Angel Island has fallen once again, and hurry to the scene, where they find Eggman and Knuckles lying on the ground. Knuckles then reveals to Sonic and Tails that Chaos stole and absorbed the six Chaos Emeralds he was in possession of. Eggman flies off in a hurry, going to his secret hangar to use the Egg Carrier 2. Sonic and Tails then decide that they must retrieve the final Emerald before Chaos, when suddenly, Sonic is teleported to the past where he witnesses former echidna chief Pachacamac and his warriors attacking the Master Emerald shrine, with the chief's daughter Tikal pleading to them not to attack the shrine before they are all killed by Chaos, who absorbs the seven Emeralds and attempts to destroy the world. Sonic then returns to Angel Island, where he and Tails return to Tails's plane the Tornado 2, which uses the seventh emerald as a power source. However, they arrive too late and Chaos retrieves the seventh Emerald before they do.

Meanwhile, in Station Square, Chaos transforms into his final form, Perfect Chaos, and floods the entire city. Sonic arrives, where he witnesses Eggman trying to attack Chaos in the Egg Carrier 2. However, Chaos immediately destroys it. Tikal then appears, explaining that Chaos's heart is filled with anger and sadness and the negative energy of the Chaos Emeralds flows through him. Chaos drains the Emeralds' power completely, leaving all power of the Emeralds useless. Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Big arrive with all 7 Emeralds and their collective positive energies along with Sonic's good heart enables him to re-ignite the Emeralds' positive powers. Sonic transforms into Super Sonic and neutralizes Perfect Chaos. Chaos is not destroyed completely, but his heart is filled with joy, happiness and forgiveness. Tikal takes Chaos back with her, but leaves the Chao to live peacefully with humans. Sonic runs off into Station Square and Angel Island is put back to its original state high in the heavens.

Development

Development of Sonic Adventure began around April 1997 with a development team of 30 members. Then Sega employee Yuji Naka had been unhappy with prior treatment of Sonic, especially in the Sega Saturn racing game Sonic R. After several titles for the Mega Drive, he worked mainly on the game Nights into Dreams.... However, learning of the Dreamcast brought him a renewed interest in creating Sonic games. The development team focused on graphics and high resolution for this game, with Naka reflecting that "[w]e have pushed the Dreamcast as far as we can at present".

Naka aimed to create levels that would take the player at least five minutes to complete, yet retain similar gameplay to the Mega Drive titles. Following the creation of the basic level maps, Naka wondered "why don't we use this map for other characters?" This led to the introduction of Big and E-102. The development team conducted surveys of fans to ensure that the final product—especially the characters—would please them. Sega made it a top priority to keep the game hidden until shortly before its release. Despite these efforts, screenshots were leaked onto the Internet in mid-1998. Naka presented the game to Edge in mid-August, and official announcement fell on August 22 in Japan.

Sonic Adventure also introduced a drastic shift in the overall art style of the games that continued to be used over the next few years. The more detailed, modernized redesigns of Amy Rose and Dr. Eggman probably best reflect this. The characters resemble graffiti art in their official artwork, striking more dynamic and extreme poses. In the game, there were some unused items, such as the Sky Dragon from the level Sky Chase, the so-called unused levels, Final Egg and Lost World. The level Emmerald Coast is going to be included in the upcoming Sonic Generations.

Music

Head composer Jun Senoue brought a new sound to the Sonic the Hedgehog series with this game, and as such it features many different styles of music such as jazz, rock, techno, pop and country. Each heroic player character (aside from Gamma) also has an instrumental motif that later translates into a vocal theme song that plays during the end credits of their story. The game contains vocal performances from Tony Harnell, Karen Brake, Marlon Saunders, Dread Fox, Ted Poley, Nikki Gregoroff and Johnny Gioeli, whom the latter would later join Senoue to form the band Crush 40. The development team preferred the use of "hot, funky, and rock 'n' roll" music over the traditional techno-based music present in earlier Sonic games.

Ports

In 2003 an enhanced port was released for the GameCube and Windows titled . The Windows version was at first released only in Japan and Europe, but later saw a limited North American release. Sonic Adventure DX includes a Mission Mode, which included 60 missions to complete throughout the Adventure Fields and Action Stages. It also contains an unlockable compilation, which comprises twelve Game Gear games featuring Sonic and friends. Also, if all Emblems are collected, then the player can play as Metal Sonic. Also, Cream the Rabbit makes a cameo appearance in certain parts of the game. Reviews were generally less positive than those of its Dreamcast predecessor, scoring more than 20% lower than the original release.

On June 10, 2010, Sega officially announced Sonic Adventure would be released on both the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in Fall 2010. Sonic Adventure DX was released on Steam, as the first in a series of Dreamcast titles to be released as digital downloads. Additional features will include enhanced graphics, surround sound, online leaderboards, achievement/trophy support and unlockable Avatar Awards, consisting of a Sonic Adventure T-Shirt and Sonic's "Speed Shoes".

Sonic Adventure was released on Xbox Live Arcade on September 15, 2010, while the PlayStation Network version was released on September 20, 2010. The initial release is based on the PC version of Sonic Adventure DX despite the game simply being called "Sonic Adventure". The DLC package, simply titled "Sonic Adventure DX Upgrade", has launched alongside the game on XBLA, for 400 Microsoft Points, and $4.99 on PSN, effectively making the entire Sonic Adventure DX 1200 Microsoft points ($15). It upgrades the game to include all of the features from the GameCube and PC versions with the exception of the Game Gear games and Dreamcast DLC.

Reception

The reception at the time of original Dreamcast version was overwhelmingly positive, including reviews from GameSpot and GameSpy being above 90%. The current Game Rankings average ranking is 88%. It became one of the few Sega All Stars games. In Japan, it received an excellent 38 out of 40 from Famitsu. Although criticized for its camera system, framerate issues, and fishing stages with Big, the game was still highly praised for retaining the fast and enjoyable gameplay that Sonic was known for in 2D as well as the game's graphics, multiple character storylines, and soundtrack. Brandon Justice of IGN rated the game an 8.6/10, criticizing various glitches and voice acting while praising the game's visuals and gameplay. On the other hand, GamePro gave it a 5/5 saying, "Sonic is fun, fast, and a great reason to purchase a Dreamcast". The game has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling Dreamcast game. This includes one million sold in the United States.

The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 ports received less favorable reviews. While some critics viewed it as a good piece of nostalgia, others criticized the lack of improvements and the game's more noticeable age, with IGN giving it a score of 3.5 out of 10, calling it "so fundamentally flawed that it borders on unplayable", making it the lowest scored Sonic game on the site since Sonic and the Black Knight. 1UP.com gave it a D rank, criticizing its lack of improvements and touchy controls. Retro Gamer gave the Xbox 360 port 63%.

References

External links

Sonic Retro page on this game

Official website

Category:1998 video games Category:3D platform games Category:Cancelled Sega Saturn games Category:Dreamcast games Category:Nintendo GameCube games Category:Nintendo GameCube platform games Category:PlayStation 3 games Category:PlayStation Network games Category:Sega Studio USA games Category:Sonic Team games Category:Sonic the Hedgehog games Category:Video games developed in Japan Category:Video games developed in the People's Republic of China Category:Video games developed in the United States Category:Windows games Category:Xbox 360 games Category:Xbox 360 Live Arcade games Category:Open world video games Category:Zeebo games ar:سونيك أدفانشر de:Sonic Adventure es:Sonic Adventure fr:Sonic Adventure ko:소닉 어드벤처 it:Sonic Adventure nl:Sonic Adventure ja:ソニックアドベンチャー pl:Sonic Adventure pt:Sonic Adventure ru:Sonic Adventure simple:Sonic Adventure fi:Sonic Adventure sv:Sonic Adventure