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word
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definition
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Famicom
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Short for FAMIly COMputer, the Famicom is the Japanese name for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
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Fatality
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A special move that can be executed in some fighting games, notably the Mortal Kombat series, after a match is over, which results in (usually) the graphic death of the losing character. Variations include Animalities (where the character turns into an animal before killing its opponent), Babalities, where the loser turns into a baby, and "friendship" moves, where the character does something goofy, like signs an autograph for the loser.
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Field
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The image on a TV screen is drawn in two parts. First, the odd lines (across) are drawn, then the even lines are drawn (see interlace). Together these two images are known as a frame. A field is one half a frame, one scan pass of the electron gun that draws the image on the TV screen.
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Fighting Game
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A game which consists of one-on-one duels between two characters, one controlled by the player, the other controlled by either another player or the computer. The fighting may be executed hand-to hand, but characters may also use weapons, or have supernatural powers such as the ability to throw fireballs. See also 2D fighting game, 3D fighting game.
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Final Fight Game
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A sub-genre of the side-scrolling game, this type of game, named for Capcom's Final Fight, is a side- scrolling game that involves hand-to-hand fighting. Unlike a true fighting game, however, you are generally restricted to two or three moves like punch or kick, so these games require less skill than true fighting games, with button-pushing speed being the main factor in success. Often the game itself will cause your character to do special moves, without any effort on your part. Despite its title, the first Final Fight game is generally acknowledged to be Double Dragon.
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First Party
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The manufacturer of a hardware system. The term is used to describe the origin of software for a given system. First party software comes from the manufacturer. For instance, Nintendo is the first party publisher for the Super NES and Ultra 64. See also second party and third party.
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First Person
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A perspective in which a player's character is not represented on the screen, but rather the view is such that the player "sees" what he or she would if they were actually performing the actions found in the game (looking through the window of a cockpit, for example). See also third person, simulation.
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Flicker
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Mainly a problem of 16-bit systems. When too many sprites appear on-screen at once they would begin to flicker and lines of sprite graphics would disappear from the screen. This was the 16-bit version of the polygon glitch.
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Flight Sim
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A simulation which attempts to duplicate as closely as possible the experience of flying an airborne craft. The game may be based on a real craft (Falcon 3.0, Apache), or an imaginary one (the Wing Commander series), but the game must be designed with an emphasis on realism and include as much detail as technically possible.
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Flight Yoke
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A hardware input device that is a facsimile of the flight yoke used on airplanes, it is used by some people to provide maximum realism in flight simulators. Flight Yokes are generally analog devices.
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FMV (Full-Motion Video)
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Having FMV cut-scenes in games has gained vogue since the rise of high capacity CDs as storage devices, and many games based entirely on FMV have been released. How much FMV cut-scenes add to a game is still a very open question and few entirely FMV-based games have risen above mediocre. The quality of FMV in games is generally below that of TV or VHS video.
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Forward Scrolling
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A perspective in which objects in the background scale out "toward" the player, typified by games like Space Harrier, Burning Force, and Afterburner. This differs from first-person, 3D games by the fact that the perspective is simulated by scaling 2D sprites.
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Frame
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Made of two scan fields (see field, interlace), it is the "complete" image that appears on a TV screen.
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Frames Per Second
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A measure of how many frames are drawn per second on a screen. In standard US NTSC TV broadcasts, 30 frames (and 60 fields) are drawn on the TV screen per second. The more frames drawn per second, the greater the realism of the motion shown on the screen. Many games draw less than 30 frames per second to the screen. The TV image is still refreshed at a rate of 30 FPS, but a new image simply isn't drawn with each new pass.
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Free Guy
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In a game, when you get an extra life, either by reaching a certain number of points or finding a one-up icon, it is often referred to as a free guy (see also life).
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