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English Soccer History Early Days

It's hard to determine exactly how soccer became so popular in England in the 19th century, but the truth is that in the mid 19th century, almost every major town had a semi-professional soccer team. These teams were usually associations of workers from the same factory or institution or simply students at a local University.

Matches between those teams were played occasionally, with little to no prize, but only for competition's sake. However, these matches were played without any rules or a referee and as soccer isn't necessarily a sport that's completely clean of violence, all it took was a harsh tackle or an argument about a particular rule to start a bloody fight between the two teams and their supporters.

But the year 1863 marked an extremely important chapter in English soccer history, as several soccer clubs from all over the country (prominently from London) met up in the English capital and set up a sort of "soccer constitution" called the Laws of the Game (a modified version of the original rules are still in effect today and are still called as such).

That was also the birth certificate of the Football Association, or simply FA that is still ruling over English soccer nowadays and had a tremendous importance throughout the history of soccer in England and the way it evolved.

English Soccer History Important Milestones

With England being rightfully considered the inventors of modern soccer, one would expect them to be amongst the most successful national squads in the World. However, despite having some world class soccer players throughout time and despite always being favorites for the competitions they start in, the English national squad only achieved few important milestones throughout the entire soccer history in England.

The apogee of English soccer and the most important chapter ever to be written in the entire history of soccer in England was definitely the successful World Cup run in 1966, a competition that was held on English ground, giving them the advantage to grasp their long-awaited trophy.

The 1966 team, captained by legendary Bobby Moore and with other key components such as Jackie Charlton or Geoff Hurst playing regularly, remains the best national squad in the entire English soccer history, especially since their success has not been equaled ever since.

English Soccer History Modern Era

England is still a top team in Europe and throughout the World and has some players that are considered having world class quality, but the national team still has moderate success, despite being star-studded.

Recently, the form of English clubs overshadowed the poor performance of the national team, as Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool or Arsenal continue to be heavy contenders for each year's European Champion's League, the most prestigious club competition in the World.

Despite being happy with the respect English clubs impose in Europe, fans are still yearning for that long awaited European or World Cup which could mark a new important chapter in the English soccer history.

Niv Orlian is the author and the owner of http://www.soccer-fans-info.com a website that provides information on various topics related to soccer such as the history of soccer, rules, famous soccer players, real time news, statistics, and training guides.

Boulder Dash, released in 1984, is in no way balderdash. Please do not take the "we do not like pun" high horse here as in terms of this article it has to do with the history of invention.

Here is couple of quick facts about the Boulder Dash story:

* Peter Liepa, who is credited as the game creator, studied Physics just like Douglas Smith (http://www.zxgames.com/en/loderunnerstory.shtml).
* Unlike Lode Runner's creator, Peter did not become quick- and super-rich.

So, here is the story

* Game Inventors: Peter Liepa, Chris Gray
* Occupation at the time of invention: Peter Liepa - unemployed; Chris Gray - unknown
* Location at the time of invention: Canada.

The game concept and its realization seem to be simple (at least in terms of modern technologies). However Boulder Dash's cookbook is composed of one man's versatile interests and another man's idea.

Fascination with animation

Born in 1953 in Ottawa, as a kid Peter aspired to be an animator or special effects designer on the one side, and a particle physicist on the other. He had to drop the latter as he found it too practical and fuzzy and thought there was vague future for particle Physics. The incentive for animation, on the other hand, lived with Peter until there was the right time to let it out.

Fascination with computers

When in high school, Peter was sent to the National Research Council of Canada for a week as part of an internship program. He had to work in a physics lab, Peter's supervisor had a shiny new Wang Calculator and it arrested the young intern's attention. In the same week all interns were taken on a tour of the Council's computer center. Amazed by what he saw, Peter asked to spend the rest of his internship time there. At the computer center there was an interactive terminal, which in those days was something similar to Teletype or IBM Selectric hooked up to a central mainframe. Peter quickly learned to program it, but after the end of week's internship there was no opportunity to study computers for a long time. In those days, the concept of personal computers was unimaginable.

Peter started off in Physics in university, but soon switched to math. His summer jobs were in computer programming, and he spent a lot of time playing early things like Conway's Game of Life, which printed results on paper and had not digital screen whatsoever.

Fascination with human nature

After graduating in math, Peter drifted around studying subjects like human memory and perception. He received a master's degree in Control Theory. Both Control Theory and knowledge of human nature are another key points in what was later to become the cult game.

Another man's idea

When Peter was in his late twenties, he visited a friend of his, who was deeply into electronic toys and had a large screen TV and an Atari 400. Peter spent several evenings playing games, and then had a "I can do this" flash. He went out and bought an Atari 800 to start writing games. But rather than just starting to write a game, Peter thought it would be prudent to contact a local game publisher to see what sort of game might be in demand.

The publisher put Peter in touch with Chris Gray, who had submitted a game in Basic, but did not have the skills to convert it into machine language. The game was similar to an arcade game called The Pit, but after examining it more, Peter found that the game had very few game play variations - too much of it was predetermined.

The development

Not satisfied with Chris' game algorithm, Peter started playing with basic elements of dirt, rocks and jewels and within a couple of days had built the basic "physics engine" of what was to become Boulder Dash. He realized that using a random number generator one could generate random caves, and that by controlling the density of rocks and jewels one could get some interesting game play. The game play fascinated not only from a puzzle standpoint, but it also appealed to various emotional drives - the obvious psychotic ones like greed (collecting jewels), destructiveness (dislodging rocks and killing fireflies) and the neurotic ones like cleaning all the dirt out of a cave.

Chris and Peter lived quite far apart, so that their meetings were infrequent and involved a long drive. It turned out quite quickly that their design goals and methods were fairly incompatible. Peter was developing a game quite different from Chris' original, and did so just about completely on his own. Peter designed all of the elements, physics, caves, the game play, the graphics, the music, and the title. Chris helped out with a few odds and ends - he suggested, for example, how to make the graphics for the game title by composing big letters out of the Atari character graphics. In the end, there was a lot of debate as to how exactly Chris should be credited and what his share of royalties should be.

The working title of the game for a long time was Cavern Raider, and several other variants like Cavern Crystals. Eventually Peter came up with the name Boulder Dash, which is a takeoff on the word balderdash. Coincidentally, a board game named Balderdash was also published in 1986.

The game's main character - Rockford.

Originally, in the early physics engine stage, Rockford was just a static shape similar to a cross. When one moved the shape, it dug through the earth and absorbed jewels. In fact, the graphics were very simple, and elements were all single characters in a 24x40 character display. There was no scrolling in the early versions of the game. It was Chris who suggested that the digging shape should be a "man", and together they came up with a simple human shape. When Peter showed an early version of the game to a potential publisher, they pointed out the "the man" was way too small and needed to be a more recognizable character. But it was not possible to make "the man" more prominent without making everything larger as well. So this was where the hard work began of converting the game from one that ran on a 24x40 character display to one that scrolled over a much larger region.

Now that the game elements were bigger, Peter was able to add much more detail, including making "the man" more recognizable. He built a character editor to work out the pixels and the animation. It was at this point that the Rockford character took shape. Rockford was not supposed to be any particular kind of human or animal, he just evolved in the pixel editor. Since Peter used to be interested in animation, he worked out the character to make Rockford blink his eyes and tap his feet. This was an innovation that added a lot of depth to the character.

The result

Overall, it took Peter about 6 months to finish the first version of Boulder Dash with no more than 2 hours of actual work per day.

Even though Boulder Dash was finished in half a year, it took another six months to find a publisher and work out a publication agreement. By this time Peter was already full time employed at a company that developed word processing software.

And so, the rest is history - Boulder Dash was eventually published by First Star in 1984 and was an instant bestseller.

Having survived for over two decades on the market, the game is still here to fascinate us. You are always welcome play our remake of Boulder Dash (http://www.zxgames.com/en/boulderdash.shtml), which is as close to the original as possible and needs no emulators to run.

Where is Chris Gray now?

We have no idea.

Where is Peter Liepa now?

Peter works in software development at a company named Alias, which produces 3D software for design and entertainment.

Mikhail Zhilkin of ZX Games (Sales, Support and Public Relations). Apart from being ZX Games founder, Mikhail is doing his post-graduate study in Physics, lives in Tokyo, Japan and expresses his extreme pacifism by not doing compulsory military service in his home country. Mikhail enjoys playing soccer and ZX Spectrum games.

Do you ever read about a dog breed and discover that a particular breed can be prone to a number of diseases - most of which you can't understand? Are you in the process of choosing a dog and you want to know which breed-specific hereditary disease that the breeder should have screened out in the breeding stock?

Most breeders spend a lot of time and resources trying to get rid of genetic diseases in their lines. However, some amateur breeders and puppy mills are breeding dogs without screening the parents and perpetuating poor genetic health.

This article is not exhaustive but will attempt to describe some common hereditary musculoskeletal diseases and indicate some of the dog breeds that have shown a tendency to inherit these diseases in the past. Since so many dogs have inherited orthopedic problems, these disorders are extremely well researched and studied. If you want to check on a particular dog breed you can go to www.dog-breed-facts.com and search on a particular breed for its health issues.

There are a number of common inherited diseases for which reputable breeders screen their breeding stock. The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) has specialists evaluate X-rays, DNA, thyroid, cardiac and other tests and register the results. A prospective pure-bred puppy buyer should ask to see the OFA results for the dog's sire and dam.

Chondrodysplasia or dwarfism in the legs is a disease that causes malformation of the carpal and radius bones of the front legs resulting in a stunted and bowed look. Puppies born with this disease do not show any signs until they grow older. The disease can be painful and often the only choice is to euthanize the dog. This disease is most common in the Alaskan malamute and the Beagle.

Elbow dysplasia is a hereditary disease in which the elbow joints of the front legs are malformed. Lameness usually makes its appearance around 7 to 10 months of age and is treated by anti-inflammatories and also surgery. All breeds are susceptible to the disease but it is most common in large male breeds. These breeds include the: Basset hound, Bernese mountain dog, Bloodhound, Bouvier des Flandres, Chow Chow, German shepherd, Golden retriever, Great Pyrenees, Irish wolfhound, Labrador retriever, Mastiff, Rottweiler, Saint Bernard and Weimaraner.

Hip dysplasia is a disorder that results when there is a loose fit of the 'ball and socket' hip joint and the ball may continuously slide part way out of the socket. Over time this will cause osteoarthritis in the joint and the dog will become lame and weak in the hind end. Some relief can be found with the use of nutriceuticals such as glucosamine and chondroitin, and anti-inflammatories. Some cases are so bad that the dog must have surgery or be euthanized. Ensuring that your dog isn't overfed and overweight can delay the onset of hip dysplasia. Larger breeds that grow fastest during the first four months seem to be more prone to this disease. Hip dysplasia is the most common inherited orthopedic disease in large and giant breeds and many medium-sized breeds as well.

Legg-Calve-Perthes is a disease of the hip joint where the ball or head of the femur deteriorates and causes pain and lameness in the hind leg. This disease usually affects young small dogs aged from 4 to 12 months. This condition is successfully treated by surgery. This disorder can affect all terriers, Chihuahuas, Dachshunds, Miniature pinscher, Miniature poodles, Pugs and Toy poodles.

Panosteitis or 'pano' is a common condition which suddenly causes lameness in a growing puppy or adolescent dog. The lameness is a result of inflammation of the long bones of the front and hind legs and can be mild to severe. A veterinarian will probably prescribe pain medication and ask you to restrict exercise. Affected puppies usually grow out of the condition as they mature. It is most common in male medium- to giant-sized dog breeds which include the: Afghan Hound, Basset hound, Doberman pinscher, German shepherd, Great Dane, Great Pyrenees, Labrador retriever and Rottweiler.

Luxating Patella (Patellar luxation) or slipped stifle is a hereditary condition where the knee cap slips out of its groove. In some cases, the kneecap will slip back into place while in other cases; a veterinarian may need to put it back in place. If it is not corrected through surgery, then osteoarthritis will usually result. The condition is quite prevalent in toy breeds. It is commonly seen in the Affenpinscher, Australian terrier, Basset hound, Boston terrier, Chihuahua, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, English Toy Spaniel, Maltese, Papillon, Pekingese, Pomeranian, Poodle (miniature and toy) and Lhasa Apso.

Mike Mathews is a contributing writer and editor for the popular dog breed site: http://www.dog-breed-facts.com. He provides informative, real-world advice and tips on dog breeds, dog health, dog grooming and more. As well be sure to check out his free report on Dog Training.