Windjammer

A windjammer is a type of large sailing ship, with an iron, or for the most part, steel hull, built to carry cargo in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Windjammers were the grandest of merchant sailing ships, with between three and five large masts and square sails, giving them a characteristic profile.

A common incorrect explanation of the origin of the term consists of an introduction into English of a folk etymology of the term common in Dutch. As Dutch jammeren is similar to "jam" and means "to wail" and since speakers of these languages were not aware that the term "windjammer" originally came from English, the folk etymology claims "windjammer" refers to the typical sound of strong winds blowing through the rigging. In fact, the word comes from the English word "to jam" because the sails are so large that they seem to "jam" the wind.

The windjammers were cargo ships designed for long voyages. They usually carried bulk cargo, such as lumber, guano, grain or ore from one continent to another, usually following the prevailing winds and circumnavigating the globe during their voyages. Several of these ships are still in existence, variously operating as school ships, museum ships, restaurant ships, and cruise ships.

Windjammers (video game)

Windjammers (also known as Flying Power Disc in Japan) is a fast paced sports arcade game released by Data East on the Neo Geo arcade system in 1994 and later on the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on June 22, 2010. Following the bankruptcy of Data East, the intellectual rights for this game were acquired by Paon. It was delisted in Japanese Virtual Console for the Wii on December 24, 2013, making it the only delisted Neo-Geo game for the Wii Virtual Console.

The game mechanics are essentially the same as Pong or air hockey, where players continuously shoot the disc at the goal zone of the opponent attempting to score. The game can be played against the computer or in a 2 player versus.

Characters

There are six characters a player may choose from, each with their own speed/power settings, nationality and special throw.

A setting can be found in the BIOS screen to switch the nationality of the Korean character to UK; the artwork remains the same, but a different voice will be used.