parameterize

en-verb

parameterize (third-person singular simple present parameterizes, present participle parameterizing, simple past and past participle parameterized)

parameterizes (present singular third-person)
parameterizing (participle present)
parameterized (participle past)
parameterized (past)

(databases, programming, transitive) To rewrite (a database query, etc.) as a template into which parameters can be inserted.

parametrizar

to write (a database query) as a template into which parameters can be inserted


supp

last season i got myself to g4 by abusing swain and other mage supps.

2022 January 28, u/victingz, “Should I "boost" myself to gold with mage supps ?”, in Reddit, r/supportlol, archived from the original on 2023-11-18:

Is there any hero that actually builds blink dagger to specifically blink away from a fight? Mostly its an initiation item. Even supps like Oracle and SD build it more to be able to hide and then jump to save carry afaik. Blink can be used to disengage, but I don't think that's ever the primary explicit goal of the hero building it.

2023 August 5, u/punksterb, “My Dota 2 Defensive Item Alignment Chart”, in Reddit, r/DotA2, archived from the original on 2023-11-18:

Nah supps were garbage in S1 unless you have short term memory. Dps were overturned due to the passive and they had to buff a few supps (remember the +5 mercy pistol bullets?) and remove the dps passive because of how strong it was. Although I agree that support is definitely the strongest role now.

2023 September 19, u/sankara123, “Are supports really OP?”, in Reddit, r/Overwatch, archived from the original on 2023-11-18:

(video games, slang) A support (in a competitive video game, a player or character who supports or heals their team's players rather than directly engaging enemies).


LSP

en-noun

LSP (countable and uncountable, plural LSPs)

Liskov substitution principle
Liskov substitution principle#English

(programming) Initialism of Liskov substitution principle, one of the SOLID programming principles.

Language Server Protocol
w:Language Server Protocol

(programming) Initialism of Language Server Protocol.


Brainfuck

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Brainfuck.wav

From brain + fuck, implying that it is confusing to use.

Some eccentric languages are structurally just as simple, but intentionally made awfully hard to understand — like the notorious languages Brainfuck […] or Malbolge.

2005, G. Braziller, Inc., edited by Morten Søndergaard, Perttu Rastas, and Björn Norberg, Get real: real time + art + theory + practice + history, →ISBN, page 48:

Brainfuck is an archetypically minimalist language, providing merely eight commands, each represented by a single character. These commands operate on an array of 30000 byte cells initialized to 0.

2008, Matthew Fuller, Software Studies: A Lexicon, →ISBN, page 269:

Brainfuck language is the gotoless programming language, and it has a implicit byte pointer which is free to move […] In addition, Brainfuck defines only eight-instructions associated with the pointer[…]

2010, Miguel Soriano, Sihan Qing, Javier López, Information and Communications Security: 12th International Conference, Icics 2010, Barcelona, Spain, December 15-17, 2010 Proceedings, →ISBN, page 345:

programming language
programming language

A minimalist esoteric programming language, created for amusement, in which every basic machine instruction is represented by a single character.


copybook

(programming, COBOL) A series of instructions or data definitions copied into multiple programs from a shared library; boilerplate.


RCP

rich client platform
w:rich client platform

(software) Initialism of rich client platform.


callout

2011, Wes Nolte, Jeff Douglas, Salesforce Handbook (page 300)

One of the great benefits is that it allows you to perform callouts during trigger executions.

(programming) The invocation of an external third-party component.


Hello World

(programming) A simple script or program designed to output the text "Hello World" as a demonstration of the computer language or environment.


Hello World

The Hello World of Web 2.0

2006, Eric Van der Vlist, Erik Bruchez, Danny Ayers, Joe Fawcett, Alessandro Vernet, Professional Web 2.0 programming:

Google refers to this as the "Hello World" of Google Maps.

2006, Rael Dornfest, Paul Bausch, Tara Calishain, Google hacks:

Animated Clock: The Hello World of Animated and Interactive SVG

(programming, by extension) A simple first program for any purpose.

こんにちは世界

rare except in Japanese-based programming languages


Smalltalk

From small talk; according to Alan Kay (one of its creators):
The name actually appeared before the first Smalltalk design, which was done in 1971. I had mentioned to someone that the "prose" of then current programming languages was lower than a cocktail party conversation, and that great progress would have been made if we could even get to the level of making "smalltalk". It then occured^([sic]) to me that this word was also a great pun for a language aimed at the world of small children.
As for hype: Another motive for "smalltalk" was the practice at the time of naming operating, and other, systems (which hardly did anything) after mighty indo-european gods, such as Thor, Zeus, Odin, etc. I figured that if Smalltalk ever did something neat, then people would be pleasantly surprised.

(computer languages) An object-oriented, dynamically-typed, reflective programming language.


nonassignable

Constants, unlike variables, are nonassignable.

(computing, programming) That cannot be assigned to.


Nintendo

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Nintendo.wav

Borrowed from Japanese 任(にん)天(てん)堂(どう) (Nintendō).

(video games, trademark) A Japanese multinational company that develops, publishes and releases both video games and video game consoles.


Nintendo

Wanna play on my Nintendo after school?

There is nothing wrong with the accoutrements of personal affluence, but if the numbers of personal stereos, Nintendos, mobile phones and cars grow […].

1995, David Gladstone, editor, British Social Welfare: Past, Present, and Future, page 274:

These professionals are the sort whose children play with Nintendos and own bikes

2005, Lila Abu-Lughod, Dramas of Nationhood: The Politics of Television in Egypt, page 280:

Franz: “How do elves make Nintendos?” Dad: “You ask all the hard questions, don't you? I really don't know.”

2005, Larry L. Meyer, No Paltry Thing: Memoirs Of A Geezer Dad, page 128:

The only message at home was from my nephew, letting me know my mother was back home, safe and sound, except for a sore "Nintendo thumb".

2007, Ilene Schneider, Chanukah Guilt, page 106:

(video games) A Nintendo Entertainment System, or other video game system made by Nintendo.

ኒንተንዶ

(video games, by extension) Any video game console, especially by those not familiar with video games.


first time

en-verb

first time (third-person singular simple present first times, present participle first timing, simple past and past participle first timed)

first times (present singular third-person)
first timing (participle present)
first timed (participle past)
first timed (past)

I'm first timing this game.

Looking forward to first time this champion in my ranked games.

(chiefly video games, transitive) To try for the first time.


pred

en-noun

pred (countable and uncountable, plural preds)

(chiefly programming) Abbreviation of predecessor.


collider

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-collider.wav

The race controller will check for a trigger hit between this player's collider and the start/finish line trigger, but this script has an OnTriggerEnter function to check for triggers used to force a respawn.

2014, Jeff W. Murray, C# Game Programming Cookbook for Unity 3D, page 339:

(video games) A model of the shape of an object for purposes of collision detection.


flower box

1988, Computer Partners, Inc, Handbook of COBOL techniques and programming standards
To make this easier to do, set up an empty flower box and copy it into your program...

[…] you might have several lines of comments enclosed in a "flower box".

1989, Cary N. Prague, James E. Hammitt, dBase IV programming:

To end the flower box, type / to specify the end of a multiple line comment.

2001, Danny Ryan, Tommy Ryan, ASP.NET: your visual blueprint for creating Web applications on the .Net:

I then modified the code we had written earlier to include a flower box […]

2002, John Smiley, Learn to program with Visual Basic.NET:

(computing, programming) A comment in source code that spans several lines, serving to introduce the source code that follows, and bordered by asterisks.


p-code

Most implementations of the Pascal programming language employed a p-code system to achieve a greater level of machine independence.

(programming) A very low-level code that is machine-independent and enables a compiled file to be run on different processor types.


reproducer

software engineering
software engineering

(software engineering) A series of steps which reproduce a bug or other condition of interest.


PKK

(video games) Initialism of player killer killer.


termbase

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-termbase.wav

(translation studies, software) A database of terminology, usually in a multilingual format.


TCR

TCR (countable and uncountable, plural TCRs)

(software engineering) Abbreviation of technical certification requirement: a test case that must pass before software can be certified as compliant to a given standard.


VPL

Implementing a visual programming language (VPL) is much harder man implementing a textual programming language (Myers 1990).

2010, Kang Zhang, Visual Languages and Applications, →ISBN, page 167:

visual programming language
visual programming language#English

(programming) Initialism of visual programming language.


nonfunctional

functional programming
functional programming

(programming) Not of the functional programming paradigm.


PWA

PWA (countable and uncountable, plural PWAs)

Throughout this book, we focused on the core capabilities of the browser, and we handcrafted the manifest files and code that make a PWA a PWA.

2020, John M. Wargo, Learning Progressive Web Apps, Addison-Wesley Professional, →ISBN:

progressive web application
progressive web application#English

(software, countable) Initialism of progressive web application.


unpin

en-verb

unpin (third-person singular simple present unpins, present participle unpinning, simple past and past participle unpinned)

unpins (present singular third-person)
unpinning (participle present)
unpinned (participle past)
unpinned (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-unpin.wav

[…] you can use the GCHandle class mentioned earlier to pin a heap block until you explicitly unpin it.

2012, Ian Griffiths, Programming C# 5.0, page 244:

(programming, transitive) To undo the pinning or fixing of (an array in memory, a security certificate, etc.) so that it can be modified again.


unequip

unequip (third-person singular simple present unequips, present participle unequipping, simple past and past participle unequipped)

unequips (present singular third-person)
unequipping (participle present)
unequipped (participle past)
unequipped (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-unequip.wav

role-playing video game
role-playing video game

(transitive, video games) In role-playing video games, to deactivate (an item carried by a player).


proxy mine

2000: "twopinacoladas", review of The World is not Enough http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/n64/review/R12476.html
In mid night departure (forest with the air control) base the frame rate ''SUCKS'' out side far worse then PD with 4 players 8 sims and proxy mines.

Proxy mines are always good because the computer doesn't seem to defend against them.

2002: "yc", Super Smash Bros. Melee: Marth http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/gamecube/file/516492/18648

2004: "TerranRedneck", review of Custom Robo http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/gamecube/review/R73394.html
Pods are like "little buddies" that help you out. Some buzz around your rivals head obscuring his vision and annoying him, some serve as proxy mines, while others simply bounce off the walls blowing up on the first bot they meet.

The proxy mines detonate when anyone comes near them (including the one who set the mine) and are absolutely wonderful for laying traps.

2006: "ProtectorOne", Perfect Dark: Multiplayer Scenario FAQ http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/n64/file/198275/43519

If you get too close it'll trigger. Shoot it from a safe distance and it will blow up. … Leave the room and go through the door that was previously protected by a proxy mine.

2007: "UnknownMercernary", Die Hard: Vendetta: FAQ/Walkthrough http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/gamecube/file/479800/47821

(slang, weaponry, video games) A proximity mine; a mine that explodes when something approaches within a certain distance.


mutating

The begin() member of std::string returns a mutating iterator.

(programming, of an object) Having the ability to make changes to data other than its makeup.


Cupertino effect

Named for the fact that some older computer spellcheckers did not have knowledge of the word cooperation, and when a user typed it in the document, the spellchecker automatically replaced it not with co-operation, but with Cupertino, a name of a city in northern California and headquarters of Apple, Inc.

Although computer dictionaries have improved, the Cupertino effect still creates havoc.

2015, Arhlene A. Flowers, Global Writing for Public Relations, Routledge, →ISBN:

(computing, software) The replacement, by a spell checker, of words that it interprets as being misspelled, by words which are still incorrect in context.


MediaWiki

A camel case compound of media + wiki, based on Wikimedia.

MediaWiki is the most well-known wiki software because it is what runs WikiPedia. MediaWiki is simple to use and an excellent way to start collaborating on documentation or articles.

2006, Tim Jowers, The Business Guide to Free Information Technology, LuLu Press, →ISBN, page 59:

The architecture of MediaWiki is driven in large part by the idiosyncrasies of PHP. When MediaWiki was first developed, it used PHP 4.x, which lacked much in the way of object-oriented programming features.

2007, Mark S. Choate, Professional Wikis, Wiley Publishing, →ISBN, page 41:

MediaWiki is the software platform underlying Wikipedia; he chose that software because he's "amazed and fascinated" with both Wikipedia and the software underlying it, he said. He wanted to learn more about building wikis, and thought Lostpedia was a good place to start.

2008 April 26, Mitch Wagner, “Lost Fans Find Internet Thrills Via Wikis, Games, Second Life”, in InformationWeek, archived from the original on 2012-10-22:

A notable irony of Wikipedia's popularity is that the editing process of its supporting technology, MediaWiki, is complex to learn. Editing Wikipedia pages requires significant investment to learn MediaWiki's unique and powerful code structure.

2009, Terry T. Kidd, Irene Chen, Wired for Learning: An Educator's Guide to Web 2.0, Information Age Publishing, Inc., →ISBN, page 187:

First released in 2002, MediaWiki is one of the top wiki engines and runs most of the wiki hosting sites. The name was a play on “Wikimedia,” and many people find it to be annoyingly confusing.

2010, John K. Waters, John Lester, The Everything Guide to Social Media, F+W Media Inc., →ISBN, page 166:

The main downside of publishing a site using MediaWiki is that it won't give you a great opportunity to use or improve your HTML skills.

2011, Laura Lemay, Rafe Colburn, Sams Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML and CSS in One Hour a Day, Sams Publishing, →ISBN:

The site is based on Wikipedia's MediaWiki platform, which allows anyone to add or edit the available content, provided they register for an account using a verifiable email address.

2012 October 8, Neil McAllister, “Tech rivals team up for free web dev docs”, in The Register, www.theregister.co.uk, retrieved 2012-10-28:

The wiki software used by many websites, including the Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia, Wiktionary, etc.


bunny hop

bunny hop (third-person singular simple present bunny hops, present participle bunny hopping, simple past and past participle bunny hopped)

bunny hops (present singular third-person)
bunny hopping (participle present)
bunny hopped (participle past)
bunny hopped (past)

first-person shooter
first-person shooter

(video games) to jump repeatedly while making contact with ground for as little time as possible, often combined with air strafing, especially in first-person shooters.


-mancer

I’ve always thought it was a shame us Cullenmancers missed out on a romance tarot with how beautiful all their designs are.

As a Solasmancer I don't expect more, but I'd hope somehow Solas' experience with the Inquisition has an impact on him going forward.

I agreed with some and disagreed with others, so I'm putting it out there for my fellow Galemancers: what's Gale's [zodiac] sign?

2023 December 22, Theia-Euryphaessa, Reddit:

(fandom slang) A suffix attached to a video game character's name to create a word for a player who romances that character in the game.


OG

en-adj

OG (comparative more OG, superlative most OG)

more OG (comparative)
most OG (superlative)

Accounts with OG names like "Daniel" or "summer" can often fetch a high price.

I joined Twitter pretty early and managed to snag a semi-OG handle.

I'm sure in lots of cases people get paid. In fact there is a black market for OG handles that can reach prices of up to 5k.

2020 May 24, u/jbutens, “How are celebrities able to get social media handles that are exactly their name? Do they buy it from people etc. if it's already taken?”, in Reddit, r/NoStupidQuestions, archived from the original on 2024-02-26:

Tryna fill my friends list with og/semi og names.

2021 May 16, @Horroraholic_, Twitter, archived from the original on 2024-02-26:

Just wait untill the doxing / social engineering comes for og accounts

2023 May 11, u/Esco1980, “Why is this change being pushed despite overwhelmingly negative feedback?”, in Reddit, r/discordapp, archived from the original on 2024-02-26:

Shut down http://kyo.rip, haven't touched siege in ages, lots of people using the site to try to brute force accounts, check for og names and just being weirdos and I cba to update or maintain the site anymore. Goodbye

2023 June 6, @KyoDaHotdog, Twitter, archived from the original on 2024-02-26:

It's a semi OG name, CocoChopper isn't og in any way

2023 June 11, u/HypeTheMoneyMaker, “Stepping down from CocoChopper for a semi-OG ign 🫡”, in Reddit, r/HypixelSkyblock, archived from the original on 2024-02-26:

(social media, video games, slang) Relating to a username which is a common word, phrase, or name.


general availability

(software) A release of software which is good enough to be made available outside the originating company, to the general public.


getter

A proper getter must return the type of its attribute.

2002, James Steven Perry, chapter 2, in Java Management Extensions, →ISBN, page 47:

object-oriented programming
object-oriented programming

(object-oriented programming) A function used to retrieve the value of some property of an object, contrasted with the setter.


tramp data

Functions should use matching variable names for tramp data to improve readability.

(programming) Data which is passed via one function to another, and not otherwise used by the first.


brancher

None of the brancher instructions have any effect whatsoever on any flags; instead, they are the instructions which look at the flags.

1983, Richard Mansfield, Machine Language for Beginners, page 69:

This is pretty typical for a C-written brancher.

1999, Mickey Kawick, Real-time Strategy Game Programming Using DirectX 6.0, page 37:

(programming) That which branches, or jumps to another instruction location within a program.


BG

Along the way, a host of NPCs will join your party—and, as proven in the BG games, no one does NPCs better than BioWare.

2004 February, Jeff Green, “[Reviews] Knights of the Old Republic: BioWare and LucasArts deliver a brilliant Star Wars RPG”, in Jeff Green, editor, Computer Gaming World, number 235, New York, N.Y.: Ziff Davis Media, Inc., →ISSN, page 61, column 1:

All BG fans have a soft spot for Minsc, the ranger with one too many conks on the noggin and his famous Space Hamster, Boo. […] There’s a lot of great user-made content out there for the BG series.

2005 December, William Abner, “Baldur’s Gate: Closet Classic (1998)”, in The 2006 Gamer’s Tome of Ultimate Wisdom: An Almanac of Pimps, Orcs, and Lightsabers, Indianapolis, Ind.: Que Publishing, →ISBN, page 19, columns 1–2:

Interestingly, there’s no alignment system in Dragon Age, unlike previous BG games.

2008 August, “First Shots: Dragon Age: Origins”, in PCGZine, number 21:

When David [Gaider] was hired, BioWare was still at the Whyte Avenue site, ramping up work on Baldur’s Gate II. “I didn’t know anything about BioWare, but had heard of BG I,” David says.

2020 November, Ben Gelinas, “BioWare Labs”, in BioWare: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development, Milwaukie, Ore.: Dark Horse Books, →ISBN, part 3 (From Ambition to Reality), page 175, column 1:

(Can we date this quote?), (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(video games) Initialism of Baldur’s Gate (series).

Starting off as a half-elf ranger with a stick, Scooteris was kind of cool by the end of BG and its expansion, with +2 armor and a longbow. But it’s not until TOB [Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal] that he gets equipment that can kill with one blow.

2001 October, Thierry Nguyen, “BioWare gives gamers a fitting send-off to its epic role-playing game: This Is the End, My Only Friend”, in Jeff Green, editor, Computer Gaming World, number 207, New York, N.Y.: Ziff Davis Media, Inc., →ISSN, page 86:

The Baldur’s Gate series (BG with its expansion pack and sequel/expansion pack) has sold nearly 4 million units worldwide. […] Role-playing games like BG also more complicated and required additional QA [quality assurance] time and completely different QA processes.

2003, Erik Bethke, “What Makes Game Development Hard?”, in Game Development and Production (Wordware Game Developer’s Library), Plano, Tex.: Wordware Publishing, Inc., →ISBN, pages 22, column 1, and 24, column 2:

BG’s pausable combat system was a landmark for tactical RPGs, and Dragon Age wants to recreate that same sense of combat orchestration. […] Talky party members with big personalities were a staple of BG, but having thousands of pixels instead of a few dozen to render your allies’ personas means BioWare is eager to develop new favorites for its fans. We’re not sure they’ll be as off-the-wall as Minsc from BG2 […]

2009 March, “Dragon Age: Origins”, in Gary Steinman, editor, PC Gamer, number 185 / volume 16, number 03, South San Francisco, Calif.: Future US, Inc., →ISSN, pages 32–33:

BG maps (75 in total) represent mostly indoor environments while WIII [Warcraft III] maps (36 in total) – imaginary outdoor environments.

2018, Anton Andreychuk, Natalia Soboleva, Konstantin Yakovlev, “eLIAN: Enhanced Algorithm for Angle-Constrained Path Finding”, in Sergei O. Kuznetsov, Gennady S[imeonovich] Osipov, Vadim L. Stefanuk, editors, Artificial Intelligence: 16th Russian Conference, RCAI 2018, Moscow, Russia, September 24–27, 2018, Proceedings (Communications in Computer and Information Science; 934), Cham, Zug: Springer, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 213:

Baldur’s Gate
w:Baldur's Gate (video game)

Initialism of Baldur’s Gate (the first game).


VN

(online gaming) Initialism of very nice (complimenting a play).


sublevel

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sublevel.wav

(video games) A level making up part of a larger level.


curly bracket

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-curly bracket.wav

Either { or }, having various uses in math, music, computer programming and chemistry.

kllapa gjarpërore

either of the two characters: “{” and “}”


tate

This is a monitor, not a TV - but I LOVE it for gaming purposes as I can easily rotate the screen. I had to unscrew the rotation mechanism and flip it around so that Tate mode games play the right way up.

2002 September 20, JigsawMan, “What television are you using with your console?”, in uk.games.video.dreamcast (Usenet):

Shiki is good, haven;t played that in tate mode yet. I though^([sic]) Psyvariar was boring to begin with - but that was because I just didn;t 'get' the game. Now I love it. Haven;t played that in Tate yet either. Hence the need for a whizz bang TV!

2003 August 4, Dan, “Good 4:3 TV for Gaming?”, in uk.games.video.misc (Usenet):

Perhaps the next generation of consoles, with more RAM, will finally give us some worthy collections. All vertical games should have 'tate' capability, Menus should be slick, with full-screen detailed adverts, commercials, interviews w/developer, etc.

2003 December 4, EssenceK, “Midway arcade classics”, in alt.games.video.xbox (Usenet):

I think the small size of the screen allows the eye to take in the entire playfield, lessening the chances of dying from some unseen projectile catching your vision off guard. Plus, it's a snap to flip the monitor vertically to play in "tate" mode.

2005 September 21, crymad, “What size TV do you use to play classic games?”, in rec.games.video.classic (Usenet):

Many would likely not orient their screen in a vertical or tate orientation (i.e, turned sideways as a vertical monitor) and many of these games do not have a rotation feature to support vertical/tate monitor orientation (although some do support it but then it means rotating the monitor to play and then rotating back afterward).

2009 October 17, Daniel W. Rouse Jr., “Aspect ratio 16:9”, in alt.tv.tech.hdtv (Usenet):

(video games, attributive) Of video games, a vertical mode.


slurpy

slurpy (comparative slurpier, superlative slurpiest)

slurpier (comparative)
slurpiest (superlative)

(programming) In the Raku programming language: being a form of variadic parameter list that can capture additional parameters.


gibs

At the perfect moment, Romero fired into the barrel, leaving the monster in a bloody pile of gibs.

2004, David Kushner, Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture, page 148:

(video games) The internal organs of certain computer game characters after being splattered to death.


meat shield

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-meat shield.wav

(video games) A so-called "tank" whose main purpose is to hold aggro from mobs and absorb damage.

(video games) A stunned or dead enemy character used as a shield against attacks.


ICA

International Contract Agency
w:International Contract Agency

(video games) Initialism of International Contract Agency.


golfed

One of the best optimizations of Perl programs is trimming the number of operations it has to perform. The less work it has to do, the better. This isn't an argument for obfuscated or golfed code—just good profiling […]

2006, Chromatic, Damian Conway, Curtis Poe, Perl Hacks: Tips & Tools for Programming, Debugging, and Surviving:

(programming) Having had its source code made as short as possible, as in code golf.


parallelize

en-verb

parallelize (third-person singular simple present parallelizes, present participle parallelizing, simple past and past participle parallelized)

parallelizes (present singular third-person)
parallelizing (participle present)
parallelized (participle past)
parallelized (past)

The programmers had to learn how to parallelize their algorithms.

We present a general method to parallelize branch & bound algorithms on transputer networks and an application of this method to solve symmetric traveling salesman problems by a best first branch & bound strategy.

1992, Wouter Joosen, Elie Milgrom, Parallel Computing: From Theory to Sound Practice, Barcelona, Spain, page 598:

(programming) To make to execute in parallel.


PTB

The developer clarified that players will be able to enjoy all of these changes and new Stranger Things content until the end of the PTB[.]

2019 August 30, Glenn Carreau, “Dead by Daylight Finally Getting Dedicated Servers”, in GameRant, archived from the original on 2020-11-08:

The clients targeted for this injection are Discord, Discord Development, Discord Canary, and Discord PTB (Public Test Build).

2022 August 17, Bill Toulas, “Malicious PyPi packages turn Discord into password-stealing malware”, in Bleeping Computer, archived from the original on 2023-12-16:

Those who wish to participate need good internet as these PTBs require them to practically reinstall the whole game.

2023 August 8, Lukus Herblet, “How to play Dead By Daylight's Alien Chapter PTB”, in SportSkeeda, archived from the original on 2023-08-08:

A new PTB update has arrived for Dead by Daylight, and it offers a whole bunch of new things for players to check out.

2024 April 4, Marc Deschamps, “Dead by Daylight Update Lets Players Test New Features and Updated Killers”, in Comicbook, archived from the original on 2024-07-16:

It is worth keeping in mind, while you can test the Ashlands biome on the PTB, it’s still in development meaning you may experience more glitches and bugs while playing on the PTB.

2024 April 24, Hayley Andrews, “Valheim Ashlands release date: When is Valheim’s next biome update?”, in Dot Esports, archived from the original on 2024-05-23:

(software) Initialism of public test build, public test branch.


adventure game

Phipps have put together a well planned and sometimes amusing adventure game here, with text and location graphics, which are simple but attractive.

1984 May, “Living Guide to Spectrum Software: Adventure Games”, in Crash, number 4:

The critics of adventure games are quick to point out that, really, adventure games are not games at all, but merely a series of puzzles strung together with bits of story between them. The puzzles, regardless of their form, serve as locked doors […]

2010, Richard Rouse III, Game Design: Theory and Practice, Second Edition:

Undoubtedly a force in the early days of the graphical adventure game genre was LucasArts. With an army of professional film personnel from which to draw, LucasArts titles gained a huge reputation for outstanding storytelling[…]

2011, Sue Blackman, Beginning 3D Game Development with Unity, page 6:

(video games) A computer or video game of the genre characterized by investigation, exploration, puzzle-solving, interaction with game characters, and a focus on narrative rather than reflex-based challenges.


BFF

(software engineering) Initialism of backend for frontend.


CRP

composite reuse principle
composite reuse principle#English

(software) Initialism of composite reuse principle.


dialer

He treated his assistant as a voice-operated dialer.

A person or device that dials, as using a telephone.


class diagram

static structure diagram
static structure diagram

(software engineering) A type of static structure diagram that describes the structure of a system by showing the system's classes, their attributes, and the relationships between the classes.


use case

(software engineering) A potential scenario in which a system receives an external request (such as user input) and responds to it.

So Amazon unveiled more software services to make A.W.S. indispensable. In a speech at the event, Andy Jassy, the head of A.W.S., said it wanted to “enable every imaginable use case.”

2019 December 15, Daisuke Wakabayashi, “Prime Leverage: How Amazon Wields Power in the Technology World”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Shopify fulfills what’s known in the software development community as the “80 percent use case,” which means it provides 80 percent of the features that merchants need and third-party developers supply the rest[…]

2020 November 24, Yiren Lu, “Can Shopify Compete With Amazon Without Becoming Amazon?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(software engineering) A usage scenario for a piece of software; often used in the plural to suggest situations where a piece of software may be useful.


broken source

(software, slang, derogatory) open source computer software that is buggy, unstable, or lacking features.


mockable

en-adj

mockable (comparative more mockable, superlative most mockable)

more mockable (comparative)
most mockable (superlative)

To run tests on a mockable version of android.jar, you would need to introduce product flavors, which we covered in Chapter 4.

2016, Murat Yener, Onur Dundar, Expert Android Studio, page 233:

(software engineering) Of which a mockup or prototype may be made.


difficulty level

en-noun

difficulty level (plural difficulty levels)

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(video games) A variable setting in a video game determining how challenging it is to play.


header file

(programming) A file, usually in the form of source code, that is automatically included in another source file by the compiler.

hlavičkový soubor

file that is automatically included in another source file

(programming) A file that contains declarations but no implementations.


remote method invocation

remote method invocation (countable and uncountable, plural remote method invocations)

remote procedure call
remote procedure call

(software, object-oriented programming) remote procedure call


FSF

Free Software Foundation
w:Free Software Foundation

(software, organisation) Initialism of Free Software Foundation.


Atari

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Company name, founded in California in 1972, from Japanese 当たり (atari), with reference to the game of Go.

Asked what they liked best about visiting their father, both named playing his Atari game. "What if he didn't have an Atari, would you still go visit him?" Dr. Davis asked.

1988, Jerry Bledsoe, Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder, Dutton, →ISBN, page 204:

Even my husband, when he takes a break from playin' his Atari on the TV, makes comments about how weird the livin' room looks without the rain lamp.

2003, Ruby Ann Boxcar, Ruby Ann's Down Home Trailer Park Guide to Livin' Real Good, Citadel Press, →ISBN, page 76:

Whatever the reason, you've found yourself wanting an Atari once again. Yes, the very first video game company did produce many different consoles, but when I say "an Atari" you know what I'm talking about: the Video Computer System, a.k.a. the VCS, a.k.a. the 2600, a.k.a. the Atari.

2005, Chris Kohler, Retro Gaming Hacks, O'Reilly, →ISBN, page 8:

(video games) An Atari video game system or computer, such as the Atari 2600 or Atari ST.


replayability

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This new game is reported to have excellent replayability, with many features that draw players into the game's engaging world.


replay value

(video games) The entertainment value obtained by playing a computer game more than once; replayability.


XD

(computing, programming) Initialism of experience design.


EQ

(video games) Initialism of EverQuest, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game.


SSG

SSGs would see a boost in 2008 with the creation of Jekyll, a Ruby-based SSG created by Tom Preston-Werner.

2023, Bryan Robinson, Eleventy by Example: Create powerful, performant websites with a static-first strategy, Packt, →ISBN, page 2:

static site generator
w:static site generator

(web development) Initialism of static site generator.


ring out

Calque of Japanese リングアウト (ringu auto), equivalent to English ring (noun) + out (verb)

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Even when Heihachi doesn't score a ring out with these combos, almost half of an enemy's health disappears […]

2003, Michael Lummis, Soul Calibur II Official Fighter's Guide Limited Edition, page 105:

(video games) A win in a fighting game obtained by throwing one's opponent out of the arena.


ring out

en-verb

ring out (third-person singular simple present rings out, present participle ringing out, simple past and past participle ringed out)

rings out (present singular third-person)
ringing out (participle present)
ringed out (participle past)
ringed out (past)

(video games, transitive, intransitive) To throw (an opponent) out of the arena, thereby winning.


geno

(video games, roguelikes, informal) Genocide.


geno

geno (third-person singular simple present genos, present participle genoing, simple past and past participle genoed)

genos (present singular third-person)
genoing (participle present)
genoed (participle past)
genoed (past)

I decided to geno insects because of the risk of swarms in the early game.

(video games, roguelikes, transitive, informal) To (commit) genocide.


uninstallation

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(software) The process of removing a program from a computer.


orthogonality

In this chapter we develop one of the key concepts in the geometry of the vector space Rⁿ, namely, the concept of orthogonality of vectors.

1984, John Wesley Brown, Donald R. Sherbert, Introductory Linear Algebra with Applications, Prindle Weber & Schmidt, →ISBN:

Suppose we have an imaginary pair of axes with a set of comparable language entities on one and a set of attributes or capabilities on the other. When we talk of “orthogonality”, we usually mean that the space defined by these axes is as “full” as we can logically make it. Part of the Ruby way is to strive for this orthogonality.

2015, Hal Fulton, André Arko, The Ruby Way […] , Addison-Wesley Professional, →ISBN, page xl:

(mathematics, statistics, software engineering) The property of being orthogonal.


exit program

(computing, programming) A computer program which exits cleanly from an application, or on computer shutdown


breakpoint

(programming) A point in a program at which operation may be interrupted during debugging so that the state of the program at that point can be investigated.

斷點 /断点

(computing) point in a program where operation may be interrupted

If a device's screen width is equal to, or less than, the screen width defined at the breakpoint, it will have the related CSS applied to it. You sometimes want to set breakpoints to match particular device screen widths, but I have found that what is most important is simply that the layout remains usable as it gets smaller.

2012, Charles Wyke-Smith, Stylin' with CSS: A Designer's Guide:

(web development) A particular size at which a web page is designed to switch to a different layout.


breakpoint

breakpoint (third-person singular simple present breakpoints, present participle breakpointing, simple past and past participle breakpointed)

breakpoints (present singular third-person)
breakpointing (participle present)
breakpointed (participle past)
breakpointed (past)

If the microprogrammer wishes to continue execution at a breakpointed location, it is desirable to execute the breakpointed microinstruction, replace the microinstruction with a branch microinstruction to restore the breakpoint, and continue microinstruction execution.

1981, Ben E. Cline, Microprogramming Concepts and Techniques, page 134:

(programming, transitive) To flag with a breakpoint.


MBT

en-noun

MBT (countable and uncountable, plural MBTs)

model-based testing
model-based testing#English

(software, testing) Initialism of model-based testing.


PLA

(historical, trading) NYSE stock-ticker symbol for Playboy Enterprises, Inc., now PLBY.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus
w:Pokémon Legends: Arceus

(fandom slang, video games) Initialism of Pokémon Legends: Arceus.


PLA

software engineering
software engineering

principle of least astonishment
principle of least astonishment#English

(software engineering) Initialism of principle of least astonishment.


galge

Borrowed from Japanese ギャルゲー (gyarugē), a shortening of ギャルゲーム (gyaru gēmu), a wasei-eigo derived from English gal + game.

(video games) A video game centered around interactions with attractive anime-style girls.


strategy game

A game in which the players' decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome, such as chess, checkers or go.

joc d'estratègia

game in which players' decision-making skills have a high significance


computer chess

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(computer games, chess) The game of chess involving a computer able to play autonomously, i.e. without human guidance.


antipattern

From anti- + pattern, coined by Andrew Koenig in 1995.

If a Design Pattern gives you a general solution to a recurring problem in a particular context, then what does an anti-pattern give you? An Anti-Pattern tells you how to go from a problem to a BAD solution.

2004, Eric Freeman, Elisabeth Robson, Bert Bates, Kathy Sierra, Head First Design Patterns, O'Reilly, →ISBN, page 612:

(software engineering) A design pattern that may be commonly used, but is ineffective or counterproductive in practice.

antisuunnittelumalli

a design pattern that may be commonly used, but is ineffective or counterproductive in practice


remaster

en-verb

remaster (third-person singular simple present remasters, present participle remastering, simple past and past participle remastered)

remasters (present singular third-person)
remastering (participle present)
remastered (participle past)
remastered (past)

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But the remastering shows how nostalgia is driving publishers’ decision making.

2020 August 1, Imad Khan, “Like Old Hollywood Movies, Video Games Get a Polish for New Audiences”, in The New York Times:

(video games) To produce a new version of a video game with updated graphics, often re-recorded music, and added features and content.


anamorphism

functional programming
functional programming

(functional programming) A generalization of the list-producing unfolds known from functional programming to arbitrary abstract data types that can be described as final coalgebras.


catamorphism

(functional programming) A generalization of the folds on lists known from functional programming to arbitrary abstract data types that can be described as initial algebras.


rubber duck

rubber duck (third-person singular simple present rubber ducks, present participle rubber ducking, simple past and past participle rubber ducked)

rubber ducks (present singular third-person)
rubber ducking (participle present)
rubber ducked (participle past)
rubber ducked (past)

rubber duck debugging
rubber duck debugging

(transitive, programming) To act as a sounding board for a programmer that is debugging their code, facilitating rubber duck debugging.


jank

Ostensibly a back-formation from janky (“shoddy, poor quality”).

back-form

Bethesda’s jank made a PvP-centric experience hellish. Players kept finding exploits left and right.

2019, Patricia Hernandez, After the backlash, Bethesda is on a long quest to redeem Fallout 76, Polygon:

Maybe Soulstorm is an ideal tribute to the PlayStation era, considering how much period-specific jank is in the code.

2021, Luke Winkle, Oddworld: Soulstorm review, PC Gamer:

Jank is the understated secret sauce of game development. It can make a bad game good and a good game great.

2018, Ryan Cooper, The Joy of Jank, Unwinnable:

The build I played was rough around the edges; I experienced a couple of hard crashes, as well as some placeholder assets and bugs that went beyond the charming old-school jank I was expecting.

2023, Jordan Oloman, STALKER 2 is a merciless trip down memory lane, Polygon:

(video games, slang) Game mechanics of unconventional or flawed design or implementation, and the experience of such mechanics, as to ruin or disrupt play, or break immersion; e.g. bugs and glitches.


pickler

programming language
programming language

(programming) (in the Python programming language) A program or algorithm that performs serialization.


reroll

en-verb

reroll (third-person singular simple present rerolls, present participle rerolling, simple past and past participle rerolled)

rerolls (present singular third-person)
rerolling (participle present)
rerolled (participle past)
rerolled (past)

Their procedure is to unroll the loop once, trace schedule the two iterations, and then reroll the loop into one.

2012, Monica S. Lam, A Systolic Array Optimizing Compiler, page 143:

(transitive, programming) To convert (an unrolled instruction sequence) back into a loop.


laggy

en-adj

laggy (comparative laggier, superlative laggiest)

laggier (comparative)
laggiest (superlative)

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I've given up trying to play on that laggy server.

(computing, Internet, video games, informal) Tending to lag, or respond slowly because of network latency.


gaymer

You're a gaymer aintcha? :)

2003, Gorf, “FA:Fzero Jap”, in uk.games.video.gamecube (Usenet):

> Are you a gaymer then?
No, I'm just a gay man that enjoys computer games in exactly the same way that non-gay men enjoy computer games.

2003, Nick, “Gaymers”, in uk.games.video.gamecube (Usenet):

How is this self-ostracism? Is anyone who would choose to post there thus prevented from posting here, or to any of the planet* websites Gamespy owns? Or to any of the publisher/developer forums available for discussion? I post to a mailing list for gay gaymers, and yet I post here. How am I ostracized?

2003, Julie d'Aubigny, “Gaymers”, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (Usenet):

(slang, video games) A homosexual gamer.


out-of-band

(programming) Referring to a value returned by a function that is not in its natural range of return values, but rather signals an exception.


ATB

(video games) Initialism of active time battle.


subpattern

A pattern that is contained in another, larger pattern.


line noise

(programming) Data that looks random, as when outputting a binary file as text.


writable

writable (comparative more writable, superlative most writable)

more writable (comparative)
most writable (superlative)

In general, writable variables must have unique instances per processor executing a shader and therefore cannot be shared.

2009, Randi J. Rost, Bill M. Licea-Kane, Dan Ginsburg, OpenGL Shading Language:


destructor

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(object-oriented programming) A function that runs when an object is no longer required, used to release any resources that it was using.


sanitizer

en-noun

sanitizer (countable and uncountable, plural sanitizers)

Coordinate term: linter

memory sanitizer

Sanitizers have been available for a while with the Clang compiler and were later also introduced into the GCC toolset.

2018, Radovan Bast, Roberto Di Remigio, CMake Cookbook: Building, testing, and packaging modular software with modern CMake, Packt Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 218:

(software) A program to detect errors in code, usually integrated into a compiler.


type-safe

en-adj

type-safe (comparative more type-safe, superlative most type-safe)

more type-safe (comparative)
most type-safe (superlative)

Narrow performs a type-safe conversion into an instance of a subclass.

(programming) Not susceptible to the class of programming errors that could lead to items of one data type being incorrectly treated as another type.


multicast

The result is a new multicast delegate that invokes both of the original implementing methods.

2005, Jesse Liberty, Programming C#: Building .NET Applications with C#:

(programming, of a delegate) Having multiple targets, such that a call to the delegate triggers a call to each target.


rethrow

en-verb

rethrow (third-person singular simple present rethrows, present participle rethrowing, simple past rethrew, past participle rethrown)

rethrows (present singular third-person)
rethrowing (participle present)
rethrew (past)
rethrown (participle past)

(programming, transitive) To throw (an exception) again.


rethrow

(programming) The act of throwing an exception again.


lookahead

en-noun

lookahead (countable and uncountable, plural lookaheads)

(regular expressions) The analysis of the subsequent characters before the regular expression is matched.


finalizer

(programming) A function that runs when an object is garbage collected, similar to a destructor.


telefrag

en-verb

telefrag (third-person singular simple present telefrags, present participle telefragging, simple past and past participle telefragged)

telefrags (present singular third-person)
telefragging (participle present)
telefragged (participle past)
telefragged (past)

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(video games, first-person shooter) To frag (a player) by teleporting into the other player.


telefrag

(video games, first-person shooter) A frag caused by teleporting into the other player.


text adventure

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(computer games) A computer game in which the player is given a textual description of the environment and uses a command line to interact with it.


platformer

Conceptually speaking, the platformer may be the most archetypal video-game genre.

2010, Tom Bissell, Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 97:

(video games, informal) A platform game.


POD

en-noun

POD (countable and uncountable, plural PODs)

(uncountable, programming) Initialism of plain old data.


light gun

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(video games) A device resembling a gun that allows the player of a video game to target a point on the screen.


collision detection

collision detection (countable and uncountable, plural collision detections)

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(computing, chiefly video games) The process or mechanism of determining whether two shapes are partially occupying the same space.


hylomorphism

hylomorphism (countable and uncountable, plural hylomorphisms)

Hylomorphism (computer science)
hylomorphism

(functional programming) Composition of an anamorphism and a catamorphism.


call stack

The details of the call stack are hidden from general view. As a Lua programmer, you want to keep in mind that a stack is being used behind the scenes to make sure that function calls work as expected, but in general you won't need to be aware of its implementation or details.

2007, Kurt Jung, Aaron Brown, Beginning Lua Programming, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 216:

(programming) A stack that stores details of the functions called by a program in sequence, so that each function can return on completion to the code that called it.


valueness

Coordinate term: referenceness

(programming, rare) The quality of being a value or a value type.


GG

(online gaming, slang) Good game; commonly used at the end of a gaming match; also sometimes used to end an argument.


game with a purpose

game with a purpose (plural games with a purpose)

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Coined by Luis von Ahn in 2008, see citations.

(video games) A computer game that serves some purpose for the people setting up the game by harnessing human abilities in an entertaining setting.


cyclomatic

This finding reveals that the drawing of a CFG for a given program or component is not necessary in the cyclomatic analysis.

2007, Yingxu Wang, Software Engineering Foundations: A Software Science Perspective, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 820:

(software engineering) Of or relating to a software metric that measures the complexity of a program based on the number of linearly independent paths through the source code.


reference implementation

reference implementation (plural reference implementations)

(software engineering) A piece of software that implements a specification of requirements and whose main purpose is to help in the creation of other software implementations of the specification by serving as a point of reference rather than being put to directly productive use.

mallitoteutus

implementation of a specification which serves as an example


OSI

Open Source Initiative
w:Open Source Initiative

(software, organisation) Initialism of Open Source Initiative.


SRS

SRS (countable and uncountable, plural SRSes)

(software engineering) Initialism of software requirement specification.

(education, software) Initialism of spaced repetition software.


access modifier

access modifier (plural access modifiers)

object-oriented programming
object-oriented programming

(software, object-oriented programming) An access specifier.


access specifier

access specifier (plural access specifiers)

Examples of access specifiers in C# are internal, private, protected, and public.

Java has the access specifiers private, protected, public, and the default specifier package that does not have a keyword.

(software, object-oriented programming) A keyword applied to a variable, method, etc. that indicates which other parts of the program are permitted to access it.


IDM

IDM (countable and uncountable, plural IDMs)

Alternative form: IdM

identity management
w:identity management

(design, software) Initialism of identity management.


autoboxing

Coordinate term: unboxing

Autoboxing and unboxing are typically used for collections of primitives. Autoboxing involves the dynamic allocation of memory and initialization of an object for each primitive.

2014, Robert Liguori, Patricia Liguori, Java 8 Pocket Guide, O'Reilly, →ISBN, page 28:

(object-oriented programming) Automatic boxing, the implicit conversion of primitive data types to wrapper objects.


enregister

en-verb

enregister (third-person singular simple present enregisters, present participle enregistering, simple past and past participle enregistered)

enregisters (present singular third-person)
enregistering (participle present)
enregistered (participle past)
enregistered (past)

Enregistering a value during compilation of a program may improve runtime performance.

(programming) To store in a register of the CPU.


retrogamer

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-retrogamer.wav


register variable

en-noun

register variable (plural register variables)

(programming) A variable whose value is stored directly in a register for faster access.


miniboss

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One of MadWorld's minibosses is about to turn our hero into a flapjack.

2009, Nintendo Power, volumes 237-239, page 58:

(video games) A minor or incidental boss in a video game.


Snake

en-proper noun

Snake (countable and uncountable, plural Snakes)

en:Snake (disambiguation)
en:Snake (zodiac)
en:Snake River

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Snake.wav

(video games) An early computer game, later popular on mobile phones, in which the player attempts to manoeuvre a perpetually growing snake so as to collect food items and avoid colliding with walls or the snake's tail.


copy constructor

en-noun

copy constructor (plural copy constructors)

(object-oriented programming) A constructor that takes an existing instance as a parameter and copies its values.


griefer

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First, be a tree; in other words, ignore the griefer. This approach can be very effective because most griefers want you to get pissed off, and if you don't, they may move on to more fertile targets.

2007, Brian A. White, Second Life: A Guide to Your Virtual World, Que Publishing, →ISBN:

Julian Dibbell's description of griefer culture demonstrates a high degree of congruence with Huizinga's description of the spoilsport. The griefers have indeed “made a new community,” loosely organized on somethingawful.com and the /b/ forum of 4chan.org

2011, Kristie Miller, Marlene Clark, Dating: Philosophy for Everyone, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:

“[…]Maybe we can set up a trap for the griefer.” “That's an amazing idea!” said Kyra. “ What type of trap?” asked Steve. “We can create something very valuable that the griefer might want to steal or destroy and we can wait by it until the griefer arrives.

2015, Winter Morgan, The Mystery of the Griefer's Mark: An Unofficial Gamer's Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

(online gaming) One who griefs: a player who plays a game primarily to reduce other players’ enjoyment of it.


massively multiplayer online game

massively multiplayer online game (plural massively multiplayer online games)

massively multiplayer online games (plural)

(online gaming) A computer game in which a large number of players can simultaneously interact in a persistent world.

massively multiplayer online role-playing game


XP

Extreme Programming
extreme programming#English

(software engineering) Initialism of Extreme Programming.


technology tree

technology tree (plural technology trees)

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(video games) A hierarchical representation of technology that may be researched and implemented for the whole faction by the player, most often in real-time strategy games.


skill point

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(video games) One of the points allocated to a player character, often when leveling up, to purchase abilities on their skill tree.

(video games) A renewable energy point that may be used alongside magic points, to separate magical and physical abilities.


skill tree

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(video games) A hierarchical visual representation of customizations a player can make to their character. Skill trees can either branch out or eventually fold back to a single point depending on the game. Typically some form of skill point is used as opposed to spending experience points.


content key

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downloadable content
downloadable content

(video games) A downloadable content file that unlocks items, characters, levels, or other content that was included with a video game but not immediately accessible (if at all through normal gameplay).


save point

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(video games) A location found in a video game that allows the player to save their game, often found in non-overworld areas such as towns and dungeons, where saving anywhere is not allowed. Gameplay resumes from the save point used.


survival horror

survival horror (countable and uncountable, plural survival horrors)

Calque of Japanese サバイバルホラー (sabaibaru horā), from English survival + horror.

cal

(video games, uncountable) A video game genre that emphasizes scarcity of resources (such as health or ammunition refills) in a dangerous setting like that of a horror film.


"Extra life" sense borrowed from Japanese 1UP (wan appu) and perhaps popularized by Super Mario Bros. (1985); but the term existed earlier in multi-player pinball and other arcade games in the 1960s, where "1Up" and "2Up" were used as flashing notifications to indicate who would play next (or who was "up" next in order). See https://www.inverse.com/gaming/1up-meaning-origin-definition-gaming.

(video games) An item that grants the player an extra life in the game, staving off game over by one more try.

Before any player registers points, the PAC-MAN scoring table displays in white "1 UP" and "2 UP" where the scores will appear.

1982, Harlington Wood, Jr., Atari v. North American Philips Consumer Electronics Corp., 672 F.2d 607, n. 2 (7th Cir. 1982)

This is the players turn (1-up or 2-up)

1998, Sega Genesis, Frogger 1998 - Walkthrough:

(video games) In a game with multiple players, an indicator or identifier of player 1.


cut scene

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cut scene.wav

Coined by game designer Ron Gilbert to describe non-interactive cinematic sequences in the 1987 adventure game Maniac Mansion, in reference to the cuts between scenes in films.

(video games) A typically non-interactive portion of cinematic narrative shown during a video game to advance the story. Cut scenes may be presented with full motion video or may be done with the game engine, in which case they may allow some interactivity.


en-noun

2-up (countable and uncountable, plural 2-ups)

(video games) An item that grants the player two extra lives in the game.

(video games, uncountable) In a game with multiple players, an indicator or identifier of player 2.


level cap

(video games) The maximum attainable level of the player character, often in role-playing video games. Level caps may be raised in subsequent playthroughs or expansion packs/downloadable content.


red ring of death

red ring of death (plural red rings of death)

Derived from blue screen of death, a type of failure on a personal computer running Microsoft Windows.

(video games) A fatal hardware exception in the Microsoft Xbox 360 video game console characterised by three or four red indicator LEDs around the power button.

Xbox 360 technical problems#General Hardware Failure errors


sidequest

Completion of a sidequest often results in the acquisition of money or items that are otherwise unavailable, or unlocks another sidequest.

The following items are either the objects of a quest or vital components of an optional sidequest.

2003, Bryan Stratton, Stephen Stratton, The Legend of Zelda®: The Wind Waker, Prima Games, →ISBN, page 19:

Two tasks I want to discuss are mentioned several times within this chapter: sidequests and adventure paths. These tasks are unique because they offer students a challenge beyond the required work within Michael's classroom. Sidequests are projects that students complete to deepen their understanding of the content.

2022, Adam Moreno, Purpose-Driven Learning: Unlocking and Empowering Our Students’ Innate Passion for Learning, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN:

(video games) A quest given to the player that has no direct bearing on the main story or campaign of the game.


ninja loot

en-verb

ninja loot (third-person singular simple present ninja loots, present participle ninja looting, simple past and past participle ninja looted)

ninja loots (present singular third-person)
ninja looting (participle present)
ninja looted (participle past)
ninja looted (past)

(online gaming) To unfairly loot the corpse of a fallen enemy before other members of the party can divvy the spoils.


save slot

(video games) One of a set of programmer-determined slots (such as files or memory addresses) for creating a saved game.


bind on equip

(online gaming) Describing a piece of equipment (armor, weapons, accessories) that becomes bound to a player character when equipped by them. The player may sell/trade/give it to another character so long as they have not used it. After use, the player may only sell it to an in-game vendor or discard it, destroying the item. Used mainly on quest rewards and moderate to rare drops. Compare to bind on pickup.


bind on equip

bind on equip (third-person singular simple present binds on equip, present participle binding on equip, simple past and past participle bound on equip)

binds on equip (present singular third-person)
binding on equip (participle present)
bound on equip (participle past)
bound on equip (past)

(online gaming, of a piece of equipment) To become permanently associated with a player character upon being equipped.


bind on pickup

(online gaming) Describing an item that becomes bound to the player that loots it. The player cannot transfer it to another player; they may only sell it to an in-game vendor or discard it, destroying the item. Used mainly on quest MacGuffins and rare drops. Compare to bind on equip.


bind on pickup

bind on pickup (third-person singular simple present binds on pickup, present participle binding on pickup, simple past and past participle bound on pickup)

binds on pickup (present singular third-person)
binding on pickup (participle present)
bound on pickup (participle past)
bound on pickup (past)

(online gaming, of a piece of equipment) To become permanently associated with a player character upon being picked up.


arcade game

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-arcade game.wav

Luckily for fans, these arcade games (as the good old classic titles are now called) used to have rather simple mechanics, and most players could learn to play them, despite their poor or non-existent knowledge of English.

2014, Miguel Á. Bernal-Merino, Translation and Localisation in Video Games:

(video games) A coin-operated video game or amusement device.

арка́дна игра́

‘They’re Twitch Games,’ he grinned, ‘arcade games. An adventure game is one where you use your mind; if you can type, you can play an adventure. If you require anything other than that, you’ve got a twitch game — an arcade game — where your skill of movement is more important than your thinking. […]

1985, Scott Adams, quoted in Graeme Kidd, Great Scott!, in Crash issue 15

It's not an arcade game—there is no crack of the bat or roar of the crowd or even much in the way of a screen display—but for the true fan, there is the excitement of mathematically structured matchups of real current and past teams with a more-than-passing resemblance to real-life outcomes.

1985, PC Mag, volume 4, number 14, page 51:

(video games) A game for a computer or console that shares traits of coin-operated video games, such as short levels, simple and intuitive controls, and rapidly increasing difficulty.


multi-user dungeon

en-noun

multi-user dungeon (plural multi-user dungeons)

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massively multiplayer online game
massively multiplayer online game

(computer games) A text-based online game in which players enter instructions on a command line to jointly engage in role-playing. MUDs are a precursor to the massively multiplayer online game.


minigame

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If you collect 100 coins, you get to play a balloon-popping minigame.

I promise to enter next time, if you keep the compo like it is now ;-) Or... why not alternating between a minigame compo and a minidemo comp ?

2002, Fabrice Frances, “2002 MiniGame Compo - download and vote!”, in comp.sys.oric (Usenet):

... servers exist online where hundreds or even thousands of users play the game , all sharing space and resources along with other creatures in Minecraft. These servers host many types of gameplay, from minigames, to spleefing (my favorite), ...

2015, Mark Cheverton, The Jungle Temple Oracle: The Mystery of Herobrine: Book Two: A Gameknight999 Adventure: An Unofficial Minecrafter's Adventure, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN:

Dreams’ creative range is astonishing, and it’s possible to make any style of game in minutes, whether it’s a marble run, a city sim, or a rhythm-action minigame within another game. Ettouney hopes this may encourage jaded gamedevs to experiment more: […]

2018 March 14, Edge, number 316, page 73:

(video games) A small and simple game, especially an incidental game within a larger video game.


respawn

en-verb

respawn (third-person singular simple present respawns, present participle respawning, simple past and past participle respawned)

respawns (present singular third-person)
respawning (participle present)
respawned (participle past)
respawned (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-respawn.wav

(video games, of a collected item, weapon or other pickup, or enemy) To reappear at its spawn point.

weapon or other pickup; or enemy; weapon or other pickup; or enemy

Some top 100 websites are circumventing user deletion of HTTP cookies by respawning them using Flash cookies with identical values, […]

2009 September 17, Pinsent Masons, “Hidden Flash cookies track even opt-out users on web's biggest sites”, in Out-law, retrieved 2014-04-24:

How and why he gets stuck in this constant respawn cycle is a bit unclear, […]

2014 March 25, Angela Watercutter, “Tom Cruise Respawns Into Alien War in New Edge of Tomorrow Trailer”, in Wired, retrieved 2014-04-24:

“Everything in this cult of personality is fragile,” Borkowski said, but added that Musk had proven before that he can “re-spawn” when he encountered difficulties.

2024 April 3, Dan Milmo, quoting Mark Borkowski, “How much is Elon Musk to blame for Tesla sales slip?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(video games, of a character) To re-enter play after being killed, often where the game was last saved.


respawn

The race controller will check for a trigger hit between this player's collider and the start/finish line trigger, but this script has an OnTriggerEnter function to check for triggers used to force a respawn.

2014, Jeff W. Murray, C# Game Programming Cookbook for Unity 3D, page 339:

(video games) The reappearance of an item or enemy; the situation where something is respawned.


gamerscore

en-noun

gamerscore (countable and uncountable, plural gamerscores)

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From the trademark Gamerscore, from gamer + score.

(video games) Points accumulated by earning achievements in Xbox video games.


I started creating 8-bit music around 2002 when I picked up nanoloop[…]

2007, Nick Collins, Julio d'Escriván, The Cambridge companion to electronic music, page 189:

(computing, of a word size, or an integer) Represented using units of 8 bits (1 byte)

Typically far more complex than the songs of the 8-bit games, songs in Amiga games had a highly varied structure, but usually followed the same basic principles seen in the 8-bit games (shorter loops with fewer distinct sections for battle music, and longer loops with more distinct sections for in-game music).

2008 January 1, Karen Collins, Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design, MIT Press, →ISBN:

Much of La-Mulanas 8-bit' aesthetic is tied to its self-imposed graphical limitations. To start, the native resolution of 256 × 192 pixels is (as we would expect) much less than that of contemporary standards[…]

2008 November 12, Brett Camper, “Retro Reflexivity: La-Mulana”, in Bernard Perron, Mark J.P. Wolf, editors, The Video Game Theory Reader 2, Routledge, →ISBN:

(computer graphics, music) Originating from or resembling the art or music of the 8-bit computer era.


JRPG

From J- (“Japanese”) + RPG (“role-playing game”).

prefix

role-playing game
role-playing game#English

role-playing video game
role-playing video game

(video games) Initialism of Japanese role-playing game, a traditional genre of role-playing video game generally understood as involving a pre-determined story and player characters, a party of multiple controllable characters, and an emphasis on narrative and storytelling.


d-pad

(video games) A plus-shaped directional input pad on a video game controller that allows for eight degrees of movement, now largely superseded by the thumbstick.


debuff

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From de- + buff (“to make a player or item stronger”).

(roleplaying games, video games) An effect that makes a game character weaker; a negative status effect.


debuff

en-verb

debuff (third-person singular simple present debuffs, present participle debuffing, simple past and past participle debuffed)

debuffs (present singular third-person)
debuffing (participle present)
debuffed (participle past)
debuffed (past)

(roleplaying games, video games) To make a character or unit weaker.


Xbox

From "DirectX box". In use since the announcement of the original Xbox in 2000.

The Xbox or the Arcade Game Box? That's weird. They knocked off the look of the Xbox with the PlayStation controller.

2015 June 24, “Top 10 Chinese Knockoffs of Foreign Products” (00:01:45 from the start), in China Uncensored, spoken by himself (Chris Chappell), New Tang Dynasty Television, via New Tang Dynasty Television:

(video games, trademark) Any of the home consoles in Microsoft's Xbox product line, especially the original Xbox.

Xbox

video game console manufactured and distributed by Microsoft


Xbox

Xbox (third-person singular simple present Xboxes, present participle Xboxing, simple past and past participle Xboxed)

Xboxes (present singular third-person)
Xboxing (participle present)
Xboxed (participle past)
Xboxed (past)

There's a time and a place for mindless activities (we don't need to make them a big deal) but, if done excessively, they don't exactly deliver what they promise. In other words, Xboxing for hours at a time may give you an illusion of rejuvenation but it doesn't truly make you feel rested.

2018, Shelley Aggarwal, Signe Darpinian, Wendy Sterling, No Weigh!: A Teen's Guide to Positive Body Image, Food, and Emotional Wisdom, London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, →ISBN, page 49:

(intransitive, video games, informal) To play a video game using an Xbox home console.


saved game

(video games) A block of saved data, representing the player's progress in a game, that can be restored at a later time for continued play.


playthrough

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(video games) The act, or a recording, of playing a game from start to finish.


in-engine

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(video games, especially of a cut scene) Rendered in real-time or pre-rendered by the game engine.


savestate

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(computing, video games) A file that contains an emulator's or virtualizer's state at the moment it was saved to disk. The file contains the contents of the memory, registers and other pertinent data that allows the user to resume the application from the moment the file was created.


gold farmer

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(online gaming) A person who plays an online game to resell in-game currency and items for profit outside of the game; one who engages in gold farming.


interactive fiction

en-noun

interactive fiction (countable and uncountable, plural interactive fictions)

(literature, uncountable) Text adventures and their descendants.


metacharacter

This chapter moves on to look at several regular expression metacharacters and modifiers. Metacharacters can be combined with literal characters and quantifiers, which were discussed in Chapter 3, to create more complex regular expression patterns.

2005, Andrew Watt, Beginning Regular Expressions, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 73:

You can't enter invisible characters—such as tab characters, line-end characters, or carriage returns—in the Find What or Change To fields. To get around this, you enter codes—known as “metacharacters”—representing those characters.

[2006, Olav Martin Kvern, David Blatner, Real World Adobe InDesign CS2, Peachpit Press, →ISBN, page 224:

(computing) A character used to signify something other than its literal form, such as the asterisk when used as a wildcard.


battery-backed

akkukäyttöinen

electronics: using a battery to maintain something

using a rechargeable battery to maintain operation

paristokäyttöinen

using a non-rechargeable battery to maintain operation

akkumuistia käyttävä

using a rechargeable battery to maintain storage

paristomuistia käyttävä

using a non-rechargeable battery to maintain storage

(video games, of saved game data) Written to a volatile memory chip in a video game cartridge to maintain the data when not in use.


gold farming

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-gold farming.wav

The gold farming industry turns one man's play into another's work, but most gaming workers see a clear difference between work and play.

2007 October 23, Ge Jin, “Chinese Gold Farmers: Immigrant Workers in the Game Land”, in Friedrich Von Borries, Steffen Peter Walz, Matthias Böttger, editors, Space Time Play: Computer Games, Architecture and Urbanism: The Next Level, Birkhäuser Basel, page 463:

While some companies seem largely indifferent to gold farming, others see gold farmers as unfairly extracting value from property that they do not own. Gold farming is often described as a parasitic business practice that undermines the stability of virtual economics.

2010 October 26, Greg Lastowka, Virtual Justice: The New Laws of Online Worlds, Yale University Press, →ISBN, →OL:

You heard of gold farming? Selling multiplayer online game currency for real cash?

2012 November 15, “Critical”, in Person of Interest, season 2, episode 7, spoken by Leon Tao (Ken Leung):

massively multiplayer online games
massively multiplayer online games

(online gaming) The business of farming/grinding for in-game currency (gold in many games) and items in massively multiplayer online games for for-profit resale outside of the game.

打钱 打錢 /打钱

farming/grinding for in-game currency for for-profit resale outside of the game


quick time event

quick time event (plural quick time events)

Introduced by the Japanese 1999 action-adventure video game Shenmue.

(video games) An interactive cut scene-like sequence in a video game where the player has a limited time in which to push a button, or sequence of buttons, displayed on screen.


spawn point

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(video games) A location on a game map in which a player, bot or item spawns.


dependency injection

dependency injection (countable and uncountable, plural dependency injections)

software architecture
software architecture

(software architecture) A type-safe way of supplying an external dependency to a software component.

依賴注入 /依赖注入

a process of supplying an external dependency to a software component


inversion of control

(software architecture) Abstract principle describing an aspect of some software architecture designs in which the flow of control of a system is inverted in comparison to the traditional architecture, getting the flow of control from a generic code part.

obrácení řízení

abstract principle describing an aspect of some software architecture designs


MDI

MDI (countable and uncountable, plural MDIs)

graphical user interface
graphical user interface

multiple document interface
w:multiple document interface

(software, graphical user interface) Initialism of multiple document interface.


MDI

Microsoft Document Imaging format
w:Microsoft Document Imaging Format

(software, graphics) Initialism of Microsoft Document Imaging format.

Mission Data Interface
w:Mission Data Interface

(software, navy) Initialism of Mission Data Interface.


TV game

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(video games) An early type of video game, the predecessor of modern games consoles, consisting of a unit with a built-in controller that plugged into a television set.


pay-to-play

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As the lawsuit claims, we’re being programmed to constantly seek a dopamine hit from each swipe in what it calls a “pay-to-play” loop.

2024 March 14, Georgina Lawton, “I’m not surprised people are suing a dating app company – our addiction to swiping makes us miserable”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(video games, of an online game) Requiring payment from the player.


waterfall model

waterfall model (plural waterfall models)

A sequential software development process in which development is seen as flowing steadily downwards (like a waterfall) through the phases of requirements analysis, design, implementation, testing, integration, and maintenance


sidescrolling

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Another sequel, Pac-Land, transported the adventurous wedge into a sidescrolling world where he had to navigate a series of platforms and obstacles.

2008, Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Jonas Heide Smith, Susana Pajares Tosca, Understanding video games: the essential introduction, page 63:

(video games) That scrolls horizontally.


ctor

There is one important caveat with ctor-initializers: They initialize data members in the order that they appear in the class definition, not their order in the ctor-initializer.

2014, Marc Gregoire, Professional C++, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 162:

(object-oriented programming) Abbreviation of constructor.


aimbot

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For the British, in the first confrontation, [a range-clock system] probably would've been somewhat useful - especially if Iron Duke was giving the ranges, considering that thing seemed to have an aimbot installed - but it would've maybe only marginally improved things for the British, I think.

2021 May 2, Drachinifel, 3:58:12 from the start, in The Drydock - Episode 144, archived from the original on 2022-09-26:

(video games) A program or patch that allows the player to cheat by having the character's weapon aimed automatically.


aimbot

en-verb

aimbot (third-person singular simple present aimbots, present participle aimbotting, simple past and past participle aimbotted)

aimbots (present singular third-person)
aimbotting (participle present)
aimbotted (participle past)
aimbotted (past)

(video games) To cheat in a video game using an aimbot.


cooldown

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I had to wait for the cooldown to finish before recasting the spell.

Private Terminal: After using a power, you must wait for it to recharge before using it again.
Private Terminal: This is called the cooldown period. When a power is in cooldown, its icon is gray. A red icon indicates that the power cannot affect the current target.

2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Tactical Mastery: Advanced Power Use:

(video games) The minimum length of time that the player needs to wait after using an ability or item before it can be used again.

(by extension) A particular ability with a powerful effect but long cooldown period, making it important to track when it was last used and when it can be used again.


JScript

(programming) A dialect of JavaScript developed by Microsoft.


LiveScript

The name originally proposed for JavaScript.


ECMAScript

(programming) A standardised specification of JavaScript, developed by Ecma International.


fire button

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You launch him into the air with a quick press on the fire button, trying to pass over bombs as you fly.

1986, Rachael Smith, Bomb Jack (video game review in Your Sinclair issue 5, May 1986)

(video games) A button on a joystick or joypad that corresponds to the action of firing a weapon, but often represents other in-game actions.


stack trace

(programming) A hierarchical trace of the function calls made by a program, used in debugging.


autofire

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You start off with just seven clips of ammo and five grenades — so all you autofire merchants are in trouble. Only real soldiers, with an accurate eye and careful trigger finger need apply here.

1988, Operation Wolf (review), Crash issue 59 (December 1988)

High-speed autofire and a choice of two joystick sizes are featured.

1989 October, Popular Mechanics, volume 166, number 10:

Also the crappy joystick, the SJS1, is useless. It's as stiff as a Skoda's steering and there's no autofire on it. I can't help thinking that I made the worst investment of my life by buying this computer.

1990 March, Letters: Your Sinclair, number 51:

(video games) A feature on a joystick or gamepad that permits automatic firing, as though the player were repeatedly pressing the fire button.


autofire

autofire (third-person singular simple present autofires, present participle autofiring, simple past and past participle autofired)

autofires (present singular third-person)
autofiring (participle present)
autofired (participle past)
autofired (past)

(video games, weaponry) To fire automatically.


bad ending

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(video games) An ending that occurs when the player finishes the video game but is not completely successful for some reason, as opposed to a good ending.


good ending

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-good ending.wav

(video games) An ending that occurs when the player finishes a video game and is completely successful, as opposed to a bad ending.


powerup

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-powerup.wav

(video games) Alternative spelling of power-up


pixel art

What can I say about pixel art other than that the designers who create it have way too much time on their hands? All joking aside, pixel art has taken on a life of its own in recent years.

2005, Matt Kloskowski, Extreme Photoshop CS, page 132:

The Pencil tool is useful when you want to control exactly how a pixel changes. For example, pixel art is often done using the Pencil tool with a brush size of 1 pixel […]

2013, Olivier Lecarme, Karine Delvare, The Book of GIMP: A Complete Guide to Nearly Everything, page 69:

(computer graphics) A style of digital art drawn at the pixel level, sometimes having the pixels enlarged for a retro appearance.


OOPL

programming language
programming language#English

(programming) Initialism of object-oriented programming language.


party game

Mario games range from strict arcade games to racing games, party games, and complex 3D action-adventures.

2009, Rusel Demaria, Reset: Changing the Way We Look at Video Games, page 373:

(video games) A multiplayer game, usually consisting of a series of short minigames, that can be easily played in a social setting.


unit testing

software engineering
software engineering

(software engineering) A software testing methodology in which individual tests (unit tests) are developed for each small part of a program.


unit test

(software, testing) An individual test in unit testing


preloader

(web development, historical) In Flash animations, the loading screen that stalls for time while resources are downloaded.


OPC

Open Platform Communications
w:Open Platform Communications

(communication, programming) Initialism of Open Platform Communications.

Open Packaging Conventions
w:Open Packaging Conventions

(programming) Initialism of Open Packaging Conventions.


param

(mathematics, programming, informal) Abbreviation of parameter.


casual game

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-casual game.wav

(video games) A video game targeting casual, irregular gamers, typically having few rules to learn and a low initial level of difficulty.


Sokoban

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Borrowed from Japanese 倉庫番 (sōkoban, “warehouseman”).

bor+

These so-called deadlock states are largely responsible for the failure of our attempts to solve positions in the game of Sokoban.

1998, Robert Mercer, Eric Neufeld, Advances in Artificial Intelligence:

The sokoban problem encodes a small instance of a well known computer game, where a single stone must be pushed to its goal position.

2000, Zbigniew W Ras, Setsuo Ohsuga, editors, Foundations of Intelligent Systems:

Sokoban exhibits a large number of difficult search-space properties.

2002, Jonathan Schaeffer, H. J. Van Den Herik, Chips Challenging Champions, page 30:

(video games) A computer puzzle game, devised in 1980 and frequently reimplemented, in which the player must push boxes to designated locations under a set of movement constraints.


unlockable

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But usually when people refer to the metagame, they mean things such as unlockables or customizable features.

2012, Keith Burgun, Game Design Theory: A New Philosophy for Understanding Games, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 98:

(video games) An initially hidden feature that is made available to reward the player for some achievement.


Perlish

en-adj

Perlish (comparative more Perlish, superlative most Perlish)

more Perlish (comparative)
most Perlish (superlative)

Incidentally, the eval { } block around the method call is the Perlish way of catching exceptions.

2004, Ian F Darwin, Java Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Java Developers:

Second, the standard domain-specific notation you're recreating in your Perl class must conform to the Perlish precedences and associativities.

2005, Damian Conway, Perl Best Practices:

In this chapter, I'll try to present examples in a more Perlish style of Perl.

2006, Jeffrey Friedl, Mastering Regular Expressions:

programming language
programming language

(computing, programming, informal) Typical of, or suited to, the Perl programming language.


coroutine

From co- + routine, coined by Melvin Conway in 1958.

Although a powerful tool, coroutines can be hard to understand due to the way data can flow back and forth between sections of the code.

The actual origin of the concept of symmetric unit control is difficult to determine. One of the earliest published applications of coroutines was in the area of syntax analysis (Conway, 1963).

2010, Robert W. Sebesta, Concepts of Programming Languages, Addison-Wesley Longman, page 440:

Python coroutines are the product of a series of enhancements to the humble generator functions we've seen so far in the book.

2015, Luciano Ramalho, Fluent Python: Clear, Concise, and Effective Programming, O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 479:

(programming) A piece of code that performs a task, and that can be passed new input and return output more than once.

subroutine

a coroutine that accepts input once and return output once

generator

a coroutine that accepts input once, but yield output multiple times


generic programming

(programming) A style of computer programming in which algorithms are written in terms of to-be-specified-later types that are then instantiated when needed for specific types provided as parameters.


I-frame

invincibility frame
invincibility frame#English

(video games, speedrunning) Abbreviation of invincibility frame.


quux

Metasyntactic variable
metasyntactic variable#English


flip-screen

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Learic and Leanoric concoct their spells by travelling round the flip-screen landscape, collecting rare herbs and roots from the countryside.

1987, Feud (review in Crash magazine issue 38)

Yes, that's right, you've correctly deduced from the plot that what we're talking about here is a flip-screen adventure, each screen presenting you with a few baddies to beat up and one or two problems to solve before you can progress onto the next one.

1990, Hammerfist (review in Your Sinclair magazine issue 54)

So, your masterpiece is going to have to be either a straightforward (upward?) vertically scrolling blast (with a choice of fast or faster still but both supremely smooth), a single flip-screen affair or a 'push-scrolling' jobbie where the screen scrolls in accordance with the main sprite.

1992, Ian Osborne, Shoot-'Em-Up Construction Kit (review in Zzap! magazine issue 84)

(video games) Not scrolling, but composed of linked screens between which the player can travel.


sourcebook

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That sourcebook is aimed at players of fighters, rogues, rangers, and warlords, and by design you're not going to find much in that book to appeal to other characters.

2008, James Wyatt, Bill Slavicsek, Richard Baker, Dungeon Master 4th Edition For Dummies, page 156:

(video games) A publication intended to supplement the core materials of a roleplaying game.


unboxing

Autoboxing and unboxing are typically used for collections of primitives. […] Unboxing involves the production of a primitive for each object.

2014, Robert Liguori, Patricia Liguori, Java 8 Pocket Guide, O'Reilly, →ISBN, page 28:

object-oriented programming
object-oriented programming

(object-oriented programming) Automatic conversion of objects back to value types.

kuorinta

automatic conversion of objects back to value types


bullet time

First used with reference to the 1999 film The Matrix, and later to the slow-motion effects in the 2001 video game Max Payne.

...particularly in the use of the bullet-time technique...

2006, Dani Cavallaro, The Cinema of Mamoru Oshii: Fantasy, Technology and Politics:

(film, video games) A visual effect in which the camera pans around a slowed-down object, such as a flying bullet.

(video games) A mode in which gameplay slows down to allow the player to observe and maneuver around bullets or other fast moving objects.


fall-through

en-noun

fall-through (countable and uncountable, plural fall-throughs)

Deverbal from fall through.
switch (x) {
case 1:
 printf("Printed when x=1");
 break;
case 2:
 printf("Printed when x=2");
case 3:
 printf("Printed when x=2 or x=3");
 break;
}
A case statement in the C programming language containing a fall-through. Because the second case has no "break" at the end, execution will "fall through" to the third case.

text float box

<tt>switch (x) {
case 1:
 printf("Printed when x=1");
 break;
case 2:
 printf("Printed when x=2");
case 3:
 printf("Printed when x=2 or x=3");
 break;</tt>
}

It is a good idea to comment the (rare) cases in which a fall-through is intentional so that an uncommented fall-through can be assumed to be an error.

1997, Bjarne Stroustrup, The C++ Programming Language: Language Libraries and Design:

If you place default elsewhere, then a break will be required to prevent fall-through.

2001, Graham M Seed, Barry J Cooper, An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming in C++:

Specifically, it prohibits fall-through conditions in almost all cases.

(programming) In certain programming constructs, the situation where execution passes to the next condition in a list unless explicitly redirected.


attract mode

(video games) A demonstration mode intended to attract potential players to an arcade game.


unescape

en-verb

unescape (third-person singular simple present unescapes, present participle unescaping, simple past and past participle unescaped)

unescapes (present singular third-person)
unescaping (participle present)
unescaped (participle past)
unescaped (past)

Hopefully, the possibilities afforded by escaping and unescaping strings are now becoming clear.

2006, Richard Leggett et al., Foundation Flash Applications for Mobile Devices, →ISBN, page 76:

(programming) To reverse the escaping of a string.


spawner

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[…] at this point, there are enemy birds that fly out of the pipe and attack the player's avatar. The pipes themselves are "enemy spawners" […]

2006, Alice J. Robison, Inventing fun: videogame design as a writing process, page 77:

(video games) An object in a simulated game world that spawns further objects.


nonstatic

(object-oriented programming) Not static.


gameboard

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The Mario games extended the gameboard with side scrolling […]

2011, Janet H. Murray, Inventing the Medium: Principles of Interaction Design as a Cultural Practice:


run-and-gun

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Play switches from an overhead run and gun to a platform jumping shooter in this mediocre game.

2002, Andy Slaven, Video Game Bible, 1985-2002:

What makes a horror game different to write than, say, a run-and-gun first-person shooter?

(video games) Of a player's character, that runs on foot and uses a projectile weapon.


shmup

Highlights include the great-looking shmup Judgement Silversword.

Galaga was probably the most influential of all of these because it added bonus levels and the power-up, a concept that has become standard in every shmup.

2005, Raph Koster, A Theory of Fun for Game Design:


Numeronym presenting accessibility as "a" followed by 11 more letters, followed by "y".

(software engineering) Abbreviation of accessibility.


pixel-perfect

en-adj

pixel-perfect (comparative more pixel-perfect, superlative most pixel-perfect)

more pixel-perfect (comparative)
most pixel-perfect (superlative)

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It was the first (and, indeed, practically the only one to this day) to have an animated loading screen, the first to have pixel-perfect collision detection […]

1991, Stuart Campbell, “The YS Official Top 100 Part 1”, in Your Sinclair:

Manual pixel-perfect collision-detection routines can be difficult to create and processor-intensive to run.

2003, Colin Moock, ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide:

(video games, design) Involving precision at the pixel level.

(computing, design) Having precise dimension ratios in all aspects on well-defined drawing glyphs.


ESC

en-noun

ESC (countable and uncountable, plural ESCs)

extended static checking
extended static checking#English

(software) Initialism of extended static checking.


Schemer

(programming) A person who programs in Scheme.


contravariance

contravariance (countable and uncountable, plural contravariances)

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Coordinate term: covariance

I get why with covariance I can return a Dog (a Dog is a Mammal), but why does contravariance work the other way? Shouldn't it accept a derived type when it expects a base type? Contravariance is consistent with Postel's Law: […]

2005, Jesse Liberty, Visual C# 2005: A Developer's Notebook, O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 47:

(object-oriented programming) The reversal of the order of data types acted upon by an operator.


high score

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There's a fine bit of strategy involved in maximising your points — and if ever there was a high score freak's dream, this is it!

1986, Rachael Smith, Bomb Jack (review in Your Sinclair magazine)

To make the game more interesting, let's create a personal score display that matches the global high score display.

2002, Jesse Jacobson, Flash and XML: A Developer's Guide:

(video games) A score that is the highest or among the highest for a particular game, often recorded in a high-score table.


high-score table

high-score table (plural high-score tables)

(video games) A list of high scores presented in tabular format.

edetabel

a list of high scores presented in tabular format


templated

A templated method cannot be virtual.

2019, Andrew Hilton, Anne Bracy, All of Programming, page 351:

You can indicate that a class is a templated (also called parameterized) class by drawing a dashed rectangle in the upper-right corner of the class .

2005, Dan Pilone, Neil Pitman, UML 2.0 in a Nutshell, page 32:

(programming) Based on a template that is instantiated by means of parameters; parametrized.


callable

The list of server tasks is a compromise between only one task for all remotely callable subprograms and one task for each remotely callable subprogram.

1989, Angel Alvarez, Ada: The Design Choice:

Historically, all viable frameworks have always provided a mechanism to implement callbacks. C# goes one step further and encapsulates callbacks into callable objects called delegates.

2010, Trey Nash, Accelerated C# 2010, page xxvi:


callable

The ctypes module can be used to create Python callables that wrap around arbitrary memory addresses.

2013, David Beazley, Brian K. Jones, Python Cookbook: Recipes for Mastering Python 3:

(programming) An object of a type that can be called, such as a function.


noninherited

(computing, programming) Not derived from a superclass through inheritance.


microkernel

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Coordinate term: unikernel

In the 1980s, microkernel systems emerged. Microkernel systems were similar to security kernels in that they aimed for minimal functionality in the kernel, but microkernel systems focused on providing system abstractions for building complete systems more easily and more efficiently, rather than more securely.

2008, Trent Jaeger, Operating System Security, Morgan & Claypool Publishers, →ISBN, page 95:

(operating systems) A minimal operating system kernel offering basic mechanisms rather than abstract services.


invariant section

invariant section (plural invariant sections)

* (law): Coined by Free Software Foundation in free software copyright licenses.

(programming) A property that does not change through a program's execution.