A crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings , or universes into the context of a single story . They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright holders (known as intercompany crossovers ), common corporate ownership or unofficial efforts by fans .
149-507: X-Men vs. Street Fighter is a crossover fighting video game developed and published by Capcom . It is Capcom's third fighting game to feature Marvel Comics characters, following X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes , and is the first installment in the Marvel vs. Capcom series. As the title suggests, the game includes characters from Marvel's X-Men franchise and
298-446: A battalion of cloned super-soldiers , robots and paranormal creatures . The AI uses a planner to generate context-sensitive behaviors, the first time in a mainstream game. This technology is still used as a reference for many studios. The Replicas are capable of utilizing the game environment to their advantage, such as overturning tables and shelves to create cover, opening doors, crashing through windows, or even noticing (and alerting
447-473: A sketch comedy show or as a humorous interlude on an award telecast. Such crossovers may sometimes involve the real actors—for example, a sketch on Royal Canadian Air Farce saw Yasir and Sarah from Little Mosque on the Prairie buying the gas station from Corner Gas , with many of the characters in the sketch being portrayed by the shows' real actors—although they may also feature one genuine star from
596-586: A video game meet and interact with each other. These can range from a character simply appearing as a playable character or boss in the game, as a special guest character, or a major crossover where two or more franchises encounter. Konami made the first crossover video game featuring Simon Belmont from Castlevania , Universal Pictures ' King Kong and Mikey from the Warner Bros. movie The Goonies in Konami Wai Wai World for
745-583: A " shared universe ". For example, in the Marvel Comics universe, Spider-Man has frequent dealings with another Marvel hero, Daredevil , just as in the DC Comics Universe, the Flash and Green Lantern often collaborate. In comic book terminology, these "guest star" roles are common enough that they are generally not considered crossovers; rather, this short-term collaboration to fight crime
894-568: A 4.5 out of 5 for graphics and a perfect 5.0 in every other category (sound, control, and fun factor), calling it "one of the most fun fighting games ever to hit the home market." Rich Leadbetter, reviewing the later cancelled European edition of the Saturn port for the British Sega Saturn Magazine , criticized the lack of PAL optimization and compared the game unfavorably to its predecessor Marvel Super Heroes , saying
1043-681: A GAN on a thousand human-created levels for Doom ; following training, the neural net prototype was able to design new playable levels on its own. Similarly, researchers at the University of California prototyped a GAN to generate levels for Super Mario . In 2020 Nvidia displayed a GAN-created clone of Pac-Man ; the GAN learned how to recreate the game by watching 50,000 (mostly bot-generated) playthroughs. Non-player characters are entities within video games that are not controlled by players, but instead are managed by AI systems. NPCs contribute to
1192-399: A January 2014 episode of Republic of Doyle as Bill Murdoch, a 21st-century descendant of his regular character William Murdoch. The earliest example of a crossover in children's television was PBS ' 1971 program The Electric Company . Crossovers can take the form of a promotional cameo appearance , used to draw attention to another work of fiction, with little rational explanation in
1341-447: A cameo to a full comedy sketch or episode—is an extremely popular way of circumventing this problem. By various means, such crossovers typically avoid outcry from fans by being obvious parody or homage . However, on rare occasion, the humor of such crossovers can be used by one show make a narrative point by capitalizing on the audience's experience of the other program. Parodic crossovers can be directly established as being outside
1490-625: A case in the turmoil of the time after the fall of the Berlin Wall . The episode was produced during the short transition period between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany . Artificial intelligence (video games) In video games , artificial intelligence (AI) is used to generate responsive, adaptive or intelligent behaviors primarily in non-playable characters (NPCs) similar to human-like intelligence . Artificial intelligence has been an integral part of video games since their inception in 1948, first seen in
1639-434: A cautionary rental at best", arguing that the slowdown is not only frequent but dramatic enough to throw off the player's timing, making the port not fun to play. They gave it a 3.0 out of 5 for control, 2.0 for fun factor, 4.0 for sound, and 2.5 for graphics. Electronic Gaming Monthly ' s four-person review team was split: Dan Hsu and Shawn Smith both said that while the conversion is so terrible that anyone who had played
SECTION 10
#17327911888461788-465: A certain way. For example, if the AI is given a command to check its health throughout a game then further commands can be set so that it reacts a specific way at a certain percentage of health. If the health is below a certain threshold then the AI can be set to run away from the player and avoid it until another function is triggered. Another example could be if the AI notices it is out of bullets, it will find
1937-568: A code that allows players to compete in "pseudo-tag team matches", provided that each player uses their opponent's starting character as their partner. For example, if Player 1 is controlling Ryu and Player 2 is controlling Wolverine, then Player 1's partner will be Wolverine and Player 2's partner will be Ryu. The Hyper Combo Gauge also requires roughly half as many hits to fill as it does in the arcade and Saturn versions, enabling more frequent combos. The PlayStation version has training and survival modes, neither of which are included in other versions of
2086-406: A concept later introduced to the action role-playing game genre by Secret of Mana (1993). Games like Madden Football , Earl Weaver Baseball and Tony La Russa Baseball all based their AI in an attempt to duplicate on the computer the coaching or managerial style of the selected celebrity. Madden, Weaver and La Russa all did extensive work with these game development teams to maximize
2235-549: A cover object and hide behind it until it has reloaded. Actions like these make the AI seem more human. However, there is still a need for improvement in this area. Another side-effect of combat AI occurs when two AI-controlled characters encounter each other; first popularized in the id Software game Doom , so-called 'monster infighting' can break out in certain situations. Specifically, AI agents that are programmed to respond to hostile attacks will sometimes attack each other if their cohort's attacks land too close to them. In
2384-454: A crossover "event". In one case, a New York City blackout caused by Paul Reiser 's character on Mad About You was experienced by the characters on Friends and Madman of the People . Such "event nights" can also be linked by a single character's quest across multiple shows on the same evening. ABC attempted this kind of "event night" crossover with its Friday night programming during
2533-779: A defensive block into an offensive counterattack by tagging in the off-screen character. The arcade, Sega Saturn, and PlayStation versions of X-Men vs. Street Fighter all include Arcade Mode and Versus Mode. In Arcade Mode, the player fights several artificial intelligence -controlled teams before competing in a final battle against the boss character , Apocalypse , an antagonist from the X-Men series. In Versus Mode, two players can fight against each other locally. The PlayStation port also features Training Mode, where players can practice moves and combos against non-aggressive computer opponents, and Survival Mode, where players fight against endless waves of teams. X-Men vs. Street Fighter features
2682-592: A device in establishing continuity in a shared fictional universe. This crossover is common in the Star Trek universe , where minor guest stars from one series have appeared as featured guest stars later ones. A good example of this crossover is that of the Klingons Kor , Koloth , and Kang . After the passage of about a century of narrative time, the three onetime adversaries of Captain Kirk appeared together in
2831-432: A difficult task. NPCs must be able to handle both scripted interactions and unscripted scenarios where players may behave in unexpected ways. Designing NPCs capable of adapting to such variability requires complex AI models that can account for numerous possible interactions, which can be resource-intensive and time-consuming for developers. Gamers always ask if the AI cheats (presumably so they can complain if they lose) In
2980-433: A distinct subfield of AI. In particular, the ability to legitimately solve some AI problems in games by cheating creates an important distinction. For example, inferring the position of an unseen object from past observations can be a difficult problem when AI is applied to robotics, but in a computer game a NPC can simply look up the position in the game's scene graph . Such cheating can lead to unrealistic behavior and so
3129-473: A major Valiant hero. Cartoon crossovers are not uncommon, and most of them – like comics or live-action TV shows – will often feature characters owned by the same company or network. One example is Cartoon Network 's The Grim Adventures of the KND . It features five crossovers – Ed, Edd n Eddy , Codename: Kids Next Door , The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy , a reference to The Powerpuff Girls , and
SECTION 20
#17327911888463278-486: A more immersive experience, as NPCs are now able to "learn" from player behavior, which provides a greater sense of realism within the game. Despite all of these advancements in NPC AI, there are still significant challenges that developers face in designing NPCs. They need to balance realism, functionally, and players expectations. The key challenge is to make sure that NPCs enhance the players experience, rather than disturb
3427-632: A number of different works. Illustrator Howard Pyle conceived his work Twilight Land as one such crossover. In it, a nameless narrator is transported to "Twilight Land" and meets famous fairy tale characters for a soirée in an inn: Mother Goose , Cinderella , Fortunatus , Sinbad the Sailor , Aladdin , Boots , the Valiant Little Tailor , and others gather in the framing device and tell each other adventurous tales featuring other literary personages. French author Jules Lemaître wrote
3576-508: A one-on-one battle, attempting to defeat the opposing team. The players are given the ability to switch between their characters at any point during the match. The game also incorporates numerous elements from X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes . The game was released to generally positive reviews, with critics praising its gameplay and sprite animation quality. While the Sega Saturn port received praise for maintaining
3725-556: A pathway yielding the next obstacle for the player. In complex video games, these trees may have more branches, provided that the player can come up with several strategies to surpass the obstacle. Academic AI may play a role within game AI, outside the traditional concern of controlling NPC behavior. Georgios N. Yannakakis highlighted four potential application areas: Rather than procedural generation, some researchers have used generative adversarial networks (GANs) to create new content. In 2018 researchers at Cornwall University trained
3874-440: A predetermined and limited set of responses to a predetermined and limited set of inputs. Many industries and corporate voices argue that game AI has come a long way in the sense that it has revolutionized the way humans interact with all forms of technology, although many expert researchers are skeptical of such claims, and particularly of the notion that such technologies fit the definition of "intelligence" standardly used in
4023-555: A quote from Scooby-Doo , which are all licensed Cartoon Network series. During the 1970s and 1980s, crossovers were particularly common among the Hanna-Barbera properties. Some of the earliest examples happened on The New Scooby-Doo Movies which featured appearances by characters from Harlem Globetrotters , Josie and the Pussycats , Jeannie , Speed Buggy , Batman and Robin , and The Addams Family . Later,
4172-578: A realization of an artificial person corresponding to an NPC in the manner of the Turing test or an artificial general intelligence . The term game AI is used to refer to a broad set of algorithms that also include techniques from control theory , robotics , computer graphics and computer science in general, and so video game AI may often not constitute "true AI" in that such techniques do not necessarily facilitate computer learning or other standard criteria, only constituting "automated computation" or
4321-525: A reasonable way for all the NPCs to evade a thrown grenade; rather than allow the NPCs to attempt to bumble out of the way and risk appearing stupid, the developers instead scripted the NPCs to crouch down and cover in place in that situation. Many contemporary video games fall under the category of action, first-person shooter , or adventure. In most of these types of games, there is some level of combat that takes place. The AI's ability to be efficient in combat
4470-674: A rich family history by speculating familial connections between them (such as a blood-relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan ). Roger Zelazny 's novel A Night in the Lonesome October combines Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Frankenstein, Jack the Ripper, and the Cthulhu Mythos, although he never specifically identifies them as such ("The Count", "The Good Doctor", "Jack", etc.). Occasionally, authors will include into crossovers classic fictional characters whose copyright
4619-609: A roster of 17 playable characters. The character sprites for the X-Men characters were drawn from X-Men: Children of the Atom , with the exception of Rogue , Gambit , and Sabretooth , who had not appeared in a previous Capcom fighting game. The sprite designs themselves are based on the characters' appearances from the 1990s animated X-Men television series , complete with the original voice actors. The Street Fighter character sprites are reused from Street Fighter Alpha 2 . Similar to his secret guest appearance in Children of
X-Men vs. Street Fighter - Misplaced Pages Continue
4768-418: A sort of sequel to Cinderella , named Princess Mimi , where Cinderella's daughter is courted by Polyphemus and Charles Perrault 's Hop-o'-My-Thumb . It is also common for authors to 'crossover' characters who have passed into the public domain, and thus do not require copyright or royalty payments for their use in other works. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
4917-436: A wide variety of quite disparate fields inside a game. The most obvious is in the control of any NPCs in the game, although "scripting" ( decision tree ) is currently the most common means of control. These handwritten decision trees often result in "artificial stupidity" such as repetitive behavior, loss of immersion, or abnormal behavior in situations the developers did not plan for. Pathfinding , another common use for AI,
5066-403: Is Ubisoft's 2017 tactical shooter Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands . Developers used a pathfinding algorithm trained with a data set of real maps to create road networks that would weave through handcrafted villages within the game world. This is an intelligent use of PCG as the AI would have a large amount of real world data to work with and roads are straightforward to create. However,
5215-419: Is a 2D fighting game in which players control various characters to engage in one-on-one combat, attempting to knock out the opponent by depleting their health . It is the first formal installment in the Marvel vs. Capcom series and features dual-character selection and tag team battles. Instead of the typical best-of-three round format, matches consist of a single round. Players select two characters at
5364-547: Is a fighting game engine that features many fan-created and fictional characters and stages from various television series, movies, as well as other video games. Crossovers of multiple characters, owned by one company or published by one publisher , have been used to set an established continuity, where characters can frequently meet within one setting. This is especially true of comic book publishers , as different characters in various Marvel , DC , or Valiant comic books frequently interact with one another since they live in
5513-452: Is a foundational example. Players are tasked with descending through the increasingly difficult levels of a dungeon to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor. The dungeon levels are algorithmically generated at the start of each game. The save file is deleted every time the player dies. The algorithmic dungeon generation creates unique gameplay that would not otherwise be there as the goal of retrieving
5662-415: Is a sub-field of Game AI focusing on giving NPCs the capability to navigate in a dynamic environment, finding a path to a target while avoiding collisions with other entities (other NPC, players...) or collaborating with them (group navigation). Navigation in dynamic strategy games with large numbers of units, such as Age of Empires (1997) or Civilization V (2010), often performs poorly; units often get in
5811-425: Is a well-known fact that many AIs 'cheat' (or, at least, 'fudge') in order to be able to keep up with human players". For example, if the agents want to know if the player is nearby they can either be given complex, human-like sensors (seeing, hearing, etc.), or they can cheat by simply asking the game engine for the player's position. Common variations include giving AIs higher speeds in racing games to catch up to
5960-493: Is another example of this, as all of the main characters and most of the secondary / background characters are fictional characters whose copyright has expired, and all are characters of different authors and creators brought together within one massive extended universe. Many of the works of Philip José Farmer 's Wold Newton family sequences (which has also been explored and developed by other authors) also utilize and interweave numerous otherwise unrelated fictional characters into
6109-507: Is applied to the grid. Instead of just a rigid grid, some games use irregular polygons and assemble a navigation mesh out of the areas of the map that NPCs can walk to. As a third method, it is sometimes convenient for developers to manually select "waypoints" that NPCs should use to navigate; the cost is that such waypoints can create unnatural-looking movement. In addition, waypoints tend to perform worse than navigation meshes in complex environments. Beyond static pathfinding, navigation
X-Men vs. Street Fighter - Misplaced Pages Continue
6258-772: Is called a team-up . A crossover in comic book terms only occurs when a story spans more than one title. This has led to "crossover events" in which major occurrences are shown as affecting most or all of the stories in the shared universe; see Category:Crossover comics . The earliest such crossover event was Gardner Fox 's Zatanna's Search which took place in Hawkman #4 (October/November 1964), Detective Comics #336 (February 1965), The Atom #19 (June/July 1965), Green Lantern #42 (January 1966), Detective Comics #355 (September 1966), and Justice League of America #51 (February 1967). This story dealt with Zatanna attempting to reconnect with her father, Zatara , and seeking
6407-480: Is clearly intended in appearance and description by other characters to be Dr. Fu Manchu appears as a significant villain; however, as this character was not in the public domain at the time of writing and the rights still held by the estate of his creator Sax Rohmer , he is not directly named as such in the work and is only referred to as 'the Devil Doctor'. Crossovers involving principals can also occur when
6556-408: Is important in these genres. A common goal today is to make the AI more human or at least appear so. One of the more positive and efficient features found in modern-day video game AI is the ability to hunt. AI originally reacted in a very black and white manner. If the player were in a specific area then the AI would react in either a complete offensive manner or be entirely defensive. In recent years,
6705-444: Is more common on animated programs, such as when Bender found and ate Bart Simpson 's shorts on Futurama , or Milhouse had a talking Bender doll on The Simpsons . This would seem to be another case when a popular franchise is acknowledged as fiction and not a crossover of the stories. Perhaps the most obvious parodic crossover is found when characters from two series interact outside either series. This occurs most commonly on
6854-487: Is not about intelligence , and shares few of the objectives of the academic field of AI. Whereas "real AI" addresses fields of machine learning, decision making based on arbitrary data input, and even the ultimate goal of strong AI that can reason, "game AI" often consists of a half-dozen rules of thumb, or heuristics , that are just enough to give a good gameplay experience. Historically, academic game-AI projects have been relatively separate from commercial products because
7003-454: Is not always desirable. But its possibility serves to distinguish game AI and leads to new problems to solve, such as when and how to cheat. The major limitation to strong AI is the inherent depth of thinking and the extreme complexity of the decision-making process. This means that although it would be then theoretically possible to make "smart" AI the problem would take considerable processing power. Game AI/heuristic algorithms are used in
7152-423: Is not true intelligence, but an advertising buzzword used to describe computer programs that use simple sorting and matching algorithms to create the illusion of intelligent behavior while bestowing software with a misleading aura of scientific or technological complexity and advancement. Since game AI for NPCs is centered on appearance of intelligence and good gameplay within environment restrictions, its approach
7301-464: Is still held by the original authors (or at least their estates), but who are nevertheless considered iconic or 'mythic' enough to be recognised from a few character traits or descriptions without being directly named (thus not requiring royalties payments to be made to the copyright holder). A prominent example occurs within The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One , wherein a character who
7450-483: Is that of Mad About You and Friends , which share the character of Ursula Buffay . Neither show shares any production or distribution commonality, but rather an actress ( Lisa Kudrow ), a setting ( New York City ) and a schedule ( Friends initially followed Mad About You on NBC 's Thursday night schedule ). Mad About You and Friends share another type of "network crossover". On rare occasions, networks have chosen to theme an entire night's programming around
7599-420: Is very different from that of traditional AI. Game playing was an area of research in AI from its inception. One of the first examples of AI is the computerized game of Nim made in 1951 and published in 1952. Despite being advanced technology in the year it was made, 20 years before Pong , the game took the form of a relatively small box and was able to regularly win games even against highly skilled players of
SECTION 50
#17327911888467748-571: Is when the characters from all three shows split into groups, where the members all share the same clichéd character archetypes, such the main characters Goku, Luffy, and Toriko falling into the dumb, good-natured, strong character archetype. Manga artist Leiji Matsumoto has been known to cross over the characters of his various stories and characters such as Captain Harlock , Galaxy Express 999 , and Queen Millennia , all of which were originally written as separate, self-contained stories. In
7897-411: Is widely seen in real-time strategy games. Pathfinding is the method for determining how to get a NPC from one point on a map to another, taking into consideration the terrain, obstacles and possibly " fog of war ". Commercial videogames often use fast and simple "grid-based pathfinding", wherein the terrain is mapped onto a rigid grid of uniform squares and a pathfinding algorithm such as A* or IDA*
8046-926: The Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 set of movies involved several crossovers, including such combinations as The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones . This was taken to an extreme in the 1977–79 series Laff-A-Lympics , which was essentially a gathering of the Hanna-Barbera characters for a regular series. Crossovers are not necessarily composed of characters under common ownership. Two of the most notable cartoon crossovers consisted of characters from different companies. Disney's movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit had characters from various companies, most notably Disney and Warner Bros. The film also includes cameos of characters from MGM . Another cartoon crossover would occur in 1990, Cartoon All-Stars to
8195-530: The Maetel Legend , Queen Promethium is revealed to be having been Yukino Yaoi, the protagonist from Queen Millennia . Matsumoto has also created various crossovers with Space Battleship Yamato , an anime on which he served as director, although the rights to Yamato are actually owned by Yoshinobu Nishizaki. The first film crossover in a series of Universal Studios monster films was Frankenstein Meets
8344-554: The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode, " Blood Oath " – as the Klingons and Federation had become allies in the century between, the former villains are now portrayed as heroes. The distinction between "spin-off" and "crossover" is sometimes narrow. The two terms can become especially conflated if two shows are linked by a guest star with a single appearance. There is debate, for instance over whether Out of
8493-587: The CP System II arcade board, and was released worldwide later on in 1996. The game received a port to the Sega Saturn in Japan on November 27, 1997. The port was the first game announced to support the Saturn's 4 MB RAM cartridge. It utilized the cartridge peripheral, which was packaged alongside the game, to deliver an arcade-perfect conversion. Though Capcom USA said the game would eventually come out in
8642-640: The arcade appeared in 1974: the Taito game Speed Race ( racing video game ) and the Atari games Qwak (duck hunting light gun shooter ) and Pursuit ( fighter aircraft dogfighting simulator ). Two text-based computer games, Star Trek (1971) and Hunt the Wumpus (1973), also had enemies. Enemy movement was based on stored patterns. The incorporation of microprocessors would allow more computation and random elements overlaid into movement patterns. It
8791-403: The cognitive sciences . Industry voices make the argument that AI has become more versatile in the way we use all technological devices for more than their intended purpose because the AI allows the technology to operate in multiple ways, allegedly developing their own personalities and carrying out complex instructions of the user. People in the field of AI have argued that video game AI
8940-533: The 1997 season. There, they proposed that the title character of Sabrina the Teenage Witch should chase her cat, Salem , through Boy Meets World , You Wish and Teen Angel because it had run away with a "time ball" that was displacing each show through time. In 2013, the Canadian crime drama series Republic of Doyle and Murdoch Mysteries produced a crossover, which was complicated by
9089-399: The AI from point A to point B, usually in the most direct way possible. State machines permit transitioning between different behaviors. The Monte Carlo tree search method provides a more engaging game experience by creating additional obstacles for the player to overcome. The MCTS consists of a tree diagram in which the AI essentially plays tic-tac-toe . Depending on the outcome, it selects
SECTION 60
#17327911888469238-498: The AI would likely miss nuances and subtleties if it was tasked with creating a village where people live. As AI has become more advanced, developer goals are shifting to create massive repositories of levels from data sets. In 2023, researchers from New York University and the University of the Witwatersrand trained a large language model to generate levels in the style of the 1981 puzzle game Sokoban . They found that
9387-600: The Atom , Akuma appears as a hidden character in X-Men vs. Street Fighter . In order to create a level playing field between the cast of Street Fighter and the X-Men series' superheroes and supervillains , the Street Fighter characters were re-imagined with highly exaggerated versions of their special moves. For example, Ryu comes equipped with a "super Hadouken " that fills the entire screen. X-Men vs. Street Fighter debuted in Japan in September 1996 for
9536-471: The Blue is a spin-off of Happy Days , or whether the star of Out of the Blue merely crossed over into Happy Days . Often, the problems of bringing together two shows with different narrative ambitions make the writing of a crossover burdensome. Such difficulties are encountered by situation comedies that wish to crossover with dramatic television programs. The satirical crossover—ranging in length from
9685-654: The Chipmunks , the Smurfs , ALF (from his short-lived cartoon spinoff ), Garfield , and the trio of Baby Kermit , Baby Piggy , and Baby Gonzo (from Jim Henson's Muppet Babies ). Animation companies granted unlimited, royalty-free use of their cartoon characters for this project, a feat that has been unequalled before or since. This cartoon was also introduced by then- President George H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush , and would be distributed to schools and video stores free of charge nationwide. Webtoons (animated shows from
9834-533: The Famicom in 1988. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games , released in Japan two months before Super Smash Bros. Brawl , was the first time that Mario and Sonic (as well as their associated characters) appeared in a game together. In literature , some authors also engage in crossovers by including characters from different novels they have written in one. The first popular crossover in literature
9983-605: The PlayStation version was not released until February 26, 1998 in Japan, where it was renamed X-Men vs. Street Fighter: EX Edition . The PlayStation port was also released in North America on June 11, 1998, and Europe in November 1998. Moreover, due to the memory limitations of the PlayStation, both the graphics and gameplay of the port were altered. Several frames of character sprite animations were removed to reduce
10132-625: The Rescue . This cartoon featured popular characters from children's Saturday morning cartoons, banding together to promote an anti-drug message. ABC , CBS , Fox , and NBC aired this half-hour special one Saturday morning with characters from all their networks, including Huey, Dewey, and Louie (from Disney's DuckTales ), Winnie the Pooh , Tigger , Slimer (from The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters ), Michelangelo (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ), Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Alvin and
10281-421: The U.S., Sega 's decision not to manufacture the requisite 4 MB RAM cartridge in the U.S. presented a major obstacle to the game's release there. Additionally, several major U.S. retailers announced that they would be clearing out all Saturn hardware and software inventory in the second quarter of 1998, casting doubt on whether Capcom could get X-Men Vs. Street Fighter onto retailer shelves if they went ahead with
10430-568: The Wolf Man , in 1943. After the comics publishing house Marvel Comics ventured into movie production , they set off to produce solitary films with popular superheroes from the Avengers team, with characters from upcoming films making cameo appearances in films starring another superhero, leading up to the crossover film The Avengers (2012). Inspired by Marvel's success, Warner Bros. , who hold movie rights for DC Comics ' heroes, announced
10579-519: The academic approaches tended to be simple and non-scalable. Commercial game AI has developed its own set of tools, which have been sufficient to give good performance in many cases. Game developers' increasing awareness of academic AI and a growing interest in computer games by the academic community is causing the definition of what counts as AI in a game to become less idiosyncratic . Nevertheless, significant differences between different application domains of AI mean that game AI can still be viewed as
10728-455: The accuracy of the games. Later sports titles allowed users to "tune" variables in the AI to produce a player-defined managerial or coaching strategy. The emergence of new game genres in the 1990s prompted the use of formal AI tools like finite state machines . Real-time strategy games taxed the AI with many objects, incomplete information, pathfinding problems, real-time decisions and economic planning, among other things. The first games of
10877-409: The actions of NPCs. AI is often used in mechanisms which are not immediately visible to the user, such as data mining and procedural-content generation . One of the most infamous examples of this NPC technology and gradual difficulty levels can be found in the game Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (1987). In general, game AI does not, as might be thought and sometimes is depicted to be the case, mean
11026-454: The added quirk of different personalities for each enemy. Karate Champ (1984) later introduced AI patterns to fighting games . First Queen (1988) was a tactical action RPG which featured characters that can be controlled by the computer's AI in following the leader. The role-playing video game Dragon Quest IV (1990) introduced a "Tactics" system, where the user can adjust the AI routines of non-player characters during battle,
11175-506: The agent has issues over possibly becoming a sperm donor, with David Boreanaz (who plays Booth) repaying the favor in " Road to the North Pole ". An appearance by Elmo , from Sesame Street , was made, in a hallucination of Connie Ray 's, on TV sitcom The Torkelsons . Fan fiction fusions between different science fiction movies and series are often created, such as Star Wars and Star Trek or Babylon 5 and Stargate . M.U.G.E.N.
11324-659: The aid of Hawkman, Batman, Robin , the Atom, Green Lantern, and the Elongated Man along the way. The first major crossover event was spearheaded by the Marvel Editor-in-Chief at the time, Jim Shooter . As a way to further toy sales he devised the Secret Wars crossover which brought all the major Marvel heroes into a 12-issue miniseries to battle a common threat. After the threat was dealt with, they all returned to their regular titles. Secret Wars
11473-555: The algorithms into making content for them. PCG offers numerous advantages from both a developmental and player experience standpoint. Game studios are able to spend less money on artists and save time on production. Players are given a fresh, highly replayable experience as the game generates new content each time they play. PCG allows game content to adapt in real time to the player's actions. Generative algorithms (a rudimentary form of AI) have been used for level creation for decades. The iconic 1980 dungeon crawler computer game Rogue
11622-411: The amount of RAM usage. Most notably, the tag team combat was omitted. Instead of being able to switch between characters at will, the second character only comes into play during certain attacks, such as Variable Combinations and Variable Counters. In addition, the one-round battles used in the arcade and Sega Saturn versions were extended to a two-out-of-three round setup. The PlayStation version includes
11771-401: The amulet is the same each time. Opinions on total level generation as seen in games like Rogue can vary. Some developers can be skeptical of the quality of generated content and desire to create a world with a more "human" feel so they will use PCG more sparingly. Consequently, they will only use PCG to generate specific components of an otherwise handcrafted level. A notable example of this
11920-503: The arcade or Saturn versions would have a hard time enjoying it, it was decent fun on its own merits, while John Ricciardi and Sushi-X both agreed with GamePro that the slowdown kills any enjoyment of the game. Next Generation stated that "If you've never seen a Capcom fighting game before, this might be fun for a few minutes, but there is not one single positive thing to be said for the trade-offs that Capcom made to get this game to PlayStation. Ouch." A sequel to X-Men vs. Street Fighter
12069-518: The beginning of a match, each sporting their own life gauge. Players control one character at a time, while the other awaits off-screen. The starting character can tag in the off-screen character at any time during the fight. The dormant character will also slowly recover a portion of their vitality while the current character is fighting. If one character loses all of their vitality, then the tag partner will automatically come into play. The match continues until both characters on either team are defeated. If
12218-523: The best arcade conversions ever seen to date." Next Generation focused all its praises on the requisite 4 MB RAM cart, viewing the performance improvement resulting from a simple increase in RAM as a foretaste of the possibilities of the next generation of consoles. GamePro was pleased by the tag team feature, responsive controls, and accurate arcade conversion, though they remarked that "the gameplay at times relies more on flash than actual skill." They gave it
12367-460: The case of Doom , published gameplay manuals even suggest taking advantage of monster infighting in order to survive certain levels and difficulty settings. Procedural content generation (PCG) is an AI technique to autonomously create ingame content through algorithms with minimal input from designers. PCG is typically used to dynamically generate game features such as levels, NPC dialogue, and sounds. Developers input specific parameters to guide
12516-704: The cast from Capcom's Street Fighter series. Originally released as a coin-operated arcade game in 1996, it was ported to the Sega Saturn in 1997 and the PlayStation in 1998. The original arcade version is included in the game lineup for Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics , released for the Nintendo Switch , PlayStation 4 and Windows in 2024. X-Men vs. Street Fighter features gameplay similar to Street Fighter , but incorporates dual-character selection and tag team-based combat. Each player selects two characters to compete in
12665-444: The character sprite animations and background details, claiming that "there is no better looking 2D fighter on any console system". While Gerstmann also praised the port for its fast loading times and lack of slowdown, he criticized the game for its defense-oriented gameplay and recycling of the Street Fighter music themes. Game Informer lauded the port for running and looking identical to its arcade counterpart, declaring it "one of
12814-455: The characters have no prior relationship, but are related by time period, locale or profession. The Law and Order series, for example, afford a commonality of setting and profession which lends itself to crossovers, both within the franchise and in a wider universe. Following the cancellation of the ABC soap opera One Life to Live and its high-rated finale, several characters crossed over into
12963-526: The computer was almost as good as humans in using them, which caused players to think that the computer was cheating. Developers say that most game AIs are honest but they dislike players erroneously complaining about "cheating" AI. In addition, humans use tactics against computers that they would not against other people. In the 1996 game Creatures , the user "hatches" small furry animals and teaches them how to behave. These "Norns" can talk, feed themselves, and protect themselves against vicious creatures. It
13112-503: The context of artificial intelligence in video games, cheating refers to the programmer giving agents actions and access to information that would be unavailable to the player in the same situation. Believing that the Atari 8-bit could not compete against a human player, Chris Crawford did not fix a bug in Eastern Front (1941) that benefited the computer-controlled Russian side. Computer Gaming World in 1994 reported that "It
13261-435: The context of the hosting show's narrative. When not clearly presented as parody, this is frequently scorned by fans as blatant commercialism. A notable example of this is The Simpsons episode " A Star Is Burns ", in which the character of Jay Sherman (from The Critic ) appeared. It originally aired on March 5, 1995, on FOX right before The Critic began its second season, its first season having aired on ABC. This episode
13410-444: The continuity of one or all of the properties being crossed over. A good example is the crossover between The Simpsons and The X-Files , which was largely accepted as being outside standard X-Files continuity. They can occur by virtue of a dream sequence , in which the characters of one show will appear as part of a dream had by a character on another show. This method was perhaps used most famously to explain to audiences that
13559-440: The current mood of the environment. The algorithm is able to assess the current mood of the game state through "mood tagging". Research indicates that that there is a significant positive statistical correlation regarding player rated game engagement and the dynamically generated musical compositions when they accurately match their current emotions. Game AI often amounts to pathfinding and finite state machines. Pathfinding gets
13708-416: The defeat of Garry Kasparov by IBM 's Deep Blue computer in 1997. The first video games developed in the 1960s and early 1970s, like Spacewar! , Pong , and Gotcha (1973), were games implemented on discrete logic and strictly based on the competition of two players, without AI. Games that featured a single player mode with enemies started appearing in the 1970s. The first notable ones for
13857-401: The development of "survival instinct". In-game computers can recognize different objects in an environment and determine whether it is beneficial or detrimental to its survival. Like a user, the AI can look for cover in a firefight before taking actions that would leave it otherwise vulnerable, such as reloading a weapon or throwing a grenade. There can be set markers that tell it when to react in
14006-433: The difficulty level is set to its highest) use combat tactics and behaviors such as healing wounded allies, giving orders, out-flanking the player and using weapons with pinpoint accuracy. The 2010 real-time strategy game StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty gives the player control of one of three factions in a 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3 battle arena. The player must defeat their opponents by destroying all their units and bases. This
14155-519: The effect is not obvious to the player. While cheating refers only to privileges given specifically to the AI—it does not include the inhuman swiftness and precision natural to a computer—a player might call the computer's inherent advantages "cheating" if they result in the agent acting unlike a human player. Sid Meier stated that he omitted multiplayer alliances in Civilization because he found that
14304-509: The entirety of Newhart had been the dream of Bob Newhart 's character on The Bob Newhart Show . It has more recently been used to demonstrate that cast members of The Young and the Restless appeared in a dream of a character on The King of Queens . Parodic crossovers can take the form of " gag " cameos by characters of one property appearing on another. Crossovers of this type can also be completely wordless. This type of crossover
14453-685: The expansion cartridge; however, these plans were eventually shelved. At a November 6, 1996 press conference, Capcom announced that the home version of X-Men vs. Street Fighter would be exclusive to the Saturn. Facing ongoing accusations of favoritism towards the Saturn (due to the perceived superiority of the Saturn version of Street Fighter Alpha 2 over the PlayStation version, and the home version of Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge being Saturn exclusive), Capcom later rescinded this announcement, stating instead that PlayStation and Saturn versions of X-Men vs. Street Fighter would be released simultaneously and would both be arcade-perfect. However,
14602-426: The experience of the original arcade version, the PlayStation port was met with mixed to negative critical reception for removing several features, such as tag team battles. The changes were done in response to the technical limitations of the PlayStation. A sequel to the game, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter , was released in 1997. Similar to Capcom's various Street Fighter titles, X-Men vs. Street Fighter
14751-439: The fictional setting, and have to be ignored by the series' respective continuities . Still others intentionally make the relations between two or more fictional universes confusing, as with The Simpsons and Futurama , where each show is fiction in the other. In contrast with legal crossovers, unofficial crossovers are created solely because of the artistic pleasure derived by their creators. Unofficial crossovers often take
14900-539: The field, NPCs in modern video games can now react to player actions with increased sophistication, such as adjusting their tactics in combat or changing their dialogue based on past interactions. By using deep learning algorithms these systems emulate human-like decisions-making, thus making NPCs feel more like real people rather than static game elements. Another advancements in NPC AI is the use of natural language processing , which allows NPCs to engage in more realistic conversations with players. Before this NPC dialogue
15049-452: The financial reward of combining two or more popular, established properties. In other cases, the crossover can serve to introduce a new concept derivative of an older one. Another intention is to give fictional characters more emotional credibility and thus increase immersion for the fans. Crossovers generally occur between properties owned by a single holder, but they can, more rarely, involve properties from different holders, provided that
15198-457: The form of fan-written fiction and fan art , but the trope is increasingly prevalent in amateur films and audio . Whereas official crossovers are frequently stymied by such concerns as copyright, royalties payments, quality of writing and ownership of the characters, unofficial crossovers are unfettered by such concerns, so long as property holders do not exercise their right to enjoin the distribution of such material. A good example would be
15347-456: The future. The musical score of a video game is an important expression of the emotional tone of a scene to the player. Sound effects such as the noise of a weapon hitting an enemy help indicate the effect of the player's actions. Generating these in real time creates an engaging experience for the player because the game is more responsive to their input. An example is the 2013 adventure game Proteus where an algorithm dynamically adapts
15496-506: The game Nim . AI in video games is a distinct subfield and differs from academic AI. It serves to improve the game-player experience rather than machine learning or decision making. During the golden age of arcade video games the idea of AI opponents was largely popularized in the form of graduated difficulty levels, distinct movement patterns, and in-game events dependent on the player's input. Modern games often implement existing techniques such as pathfinding and decision trees to guide
15645-431: The game continued the inflation of explosive projectiles and lengthy combos from Capcom's previous 2D fighters, but felt this breed of game had been milked out, concluding, " X-Men Vs. Street Fighter is a fun game, but it's just a bit of an overdose of the kind of game of which we've already played way too much." In a retrospective review, AllGame gave it a score of four stars out of five, praising its combination of two of
15794-405: The game for GameSpot , argued that Capcom should never have released X-Men vs. Street Fighter for the PlayStation, since it clearly could not handle a decent conversion. While Game Informer and IGN shared many of the same criticisms, both maintained that, while the PlayStation port paled in comparison to the Sega Saturn version, it was still a solid fighting game. GamePro said it was "worth
15943-413: The game was ported to the Sega Saturn and PlayStation, which were released in 1998 and 1999, respectively. Crossover (fiction) This is different from a spoof , where one discrete character, setting, or universe, copies another character, setting, or universe, often in a comedic manner. Crossovers often occur in an official capacity in order for the intellectual property rights holders to reap
16092-435: The game. In June 2020, it was announced that X-Men vs. Street Fighter would be included in home arcade cabinets from Arcade1Up alongside other games like Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes . In June 2024, Capcom announced that X-Men vs. Street Fighter would be among the games included in the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics compilation, which
16241-509: The game. In 1951, using the Ferranti Mark 1 machine of the University of Manchester , Christopher Strachey wrote a checkers program and Dietrich Prinz wrote one for chess . These were among the first computer programs ever written. Arthur Samuel 's checkers program, developed in the middle 1950s and early 1960s, eventually achieved sufficient skill to challenge a respectable amateur. Work on checkers and chess would culminate in
16390-519: The gameplay. Overly realistic NPCs that behave unpredictably can frustrate players by hindering progression or breaking immersion. Conversely, NPCs that are too predictable or simplistic may fail to engage players, reducing the overall effectiveness of the game's narrative and mechanics. Another factor that needs to be accounted for is the computation cost of implementing advanced AI for NPCs. The use of these Advanced AI techniques requires large amount of processing power, which can limit its usage. Balancing
16539-504: The genre had notorious problems. Herzog Zwei (1989), for example, had almost broken pathfinding and very basic three-state state machines for unit control, and Dune II (1992) attacked the players' base in a beeline and used numerous cheats. Later games in the genre exhibited more sophisticated AI. Later games have used bottom-up AI methods, such as the emergent behaviour and evaluation of player actions in games like Creatures or Black & White . Façade (interactive story)
16688-463: The idea of "hunting" has been introduced; in this 'hunting' state the AI will look for realistic markers, such as sounds made by the character or footprints they may have left behind. These developments ultimately allow for a more complex form of play. With this feature, the player can actually consider how to approach or avoid an enemy. This is a feature that is particularly prevalent in the stealth genre. Another development in recent game AI has been
16837-514: The immersion, storytelling, and the mechanics of a game. They often serve as companions, quest-givers, merchants and much more. Their realism has advanced significantly in the past few years, thanks to improvements in AI technologies. NPCs are essential in both narrative-driven as well as open-world games. They help convey the lore and context of the game, making them pivotal to world-building and narrative progression. For instance, an NPC can provide critical information, offer quests, or simply populate
16986-401: The individuals, so certain enemies flee when their leader dies. Attention is paid to the little details, with enemies notably throwing back grenades or team-members responding to being bothered. The underlying " behavior tree " technology has become very popular in the games industry since Halo 2 . The 2005 psychological horror first-person shooter F.E.A.R. has player characters engage
17135-594: The inherent legal obstacles can be overcome. They may also involve using characters that have passed into the public domain with those concurrently under copyright protection . A crossover story may try to explain its own reason for the crossover, such as characters being neighbors (notable examples being the casts from The Golden Girls and Empty Nest ) or meeting via dimensional rift or similar phenomenon (a common explanation for science fiction properties that have different owners). Some crossovers are not explained at all. Others are absurd or simply impossible within
17284-439: The integration of deep learning and reinforcement learning techniques has enabled NPCs to adjust their behavior in response to player actions, creating a more interactive and personalized gameplay experience. One such development is the use of adaptive behavior models. These allow NPCs to analyze and learn from players decisions in real time. This behavior allows for a much more engaging experience. For example as said by experts in
17433-558: The internet) can also have crossovers with different webtoons, franchises, YouTubers and more. Some examples are when Kate from TomSka 's Crash Zoom series makes an appearance in Eddsworld as a trick or treater who possesses Matt and Edd in the episode, "Trick or Threat". In addition to this a couple of characters from Eddsworld make appearances in some Crash Zoom episodes such as "Orcs and Dorks". Anime has also participated in many crossover events featuring characters or shows from
17582-445: The model excelled at generating levels with specifically requested characteristics such as difficulty level or layout. However, current models such as the one used in the study require large datasets of levels to be effective. They concluded that, while promising, the high data cost of large language models currently outweighs the benefits for this application. Continued advancements in the field will likely lead to more mainstream use in
17731-807: The monsters forming teams in numerous movies, much like the Marvel movie franchise. Godzilla , Mothra and Rodan (Radon) each first appeared in standalone films before being set against each other or even teaming up against stronger enemies. Their first encounter was in 1964, first in Mothra vs. Godzilla and a few months later of all three in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster . In 1962, Toho released King Kong vs. Godzilla . Crossovers in video games occur when otherwise separated fictional characters, stories , settings , universes , or media in
17880-581: The most popular franchises of its era and its tag team mechanic. X-Men vs. Street Fighter was only mildly popular when first released in North American arcades, but after several months it caught on and became a hit. A number of U.S. publications reviewed the Saturn version as an import. Reviewers praised the Saturn edition's close recreation of the original arcade version, particularly the animation and sound quality, fast loading times, and absence of slowdown. Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot commended
18029-503: The music based on the angle the player is viewing the ingame landscape from. Recent breakthroughs in AI have resulted in the creation of advanced tools that are capable of creating music and sound based on evolving factors with minimal developer input. One such example is the MetaComposure music generator. MetaComposure is an evolutionary algorithm designed to generate original music compositions during real time gameplay to match
18178-526: The network's remaining soap opera General Hospital , remaining in the same timeline as their former show. Though most common on shows of the same production company (see, for example, " Hurricane Saturday "), crossovers have also occurred because shows share the same distributor or television network . A notable example of this kind of link is that between Murder, She Wrote and Magnum, P.I. These shows were made by different companies, but owned by Universal Studios and broadcast on CBS . Another case
18327-522: The opponent while in the air. X-Men vs. Street Fighter also includes a meter system similar to the two aforementioned games called the "Hyper Combo Gauge". As characters perform moves and receive damage, the players' Hyper Combo Gauges will gradually fill. Players can expend their meter to perform various special techniques, such as the "Hyper Combo", which unleashes high amounts of damage; "Variable Combination", where both characters use their Hyper Combos simultaneously; and "Variable Counter", which transforms
18476-439: The performance of AI-driven NPCs with the game's overall technical limitations is crucial for ensuring smooth gameplay. Experts mentioned how developers must allocate resources efficiently to avoid overburdening the game’s systems, particularly in large, open-world games where numerous NPCs must interact with the player simultaneously. Finally, creating NPCs that can respond dynamically to a wide range of player behaviors remains
18625-579: The player and in-game systems. Academics say the interactions between players and NPCs are often designed to be straightforward but contextually relevant, ensuring that the player receives necessary feedback or resources for gameplay continuity. Recent advancements in artificial intelligence have significantly enhanced the complexity and realism of NPCs. Before these advancements, AI operated on pre-programmed behaviors, making them predictable and repeatable. With AI developing NPCs have become more adaptive and able to dynamically respond to players. Experts think
18774-463: The player or spawning them in advantageous positions in first-person shooters. The use of cheating in AI shows the limitations of the "intelligence" achievable artificially; generally speaking, in games where strategic creativity is important, humans could easily beat the AI after a minimum of trial and error if it were not for this advantage. Cheating is often implemented for performance reasons where in many cases it may be considered acceptable as long as
18923-467: The port's various changes as a result of the PlayStation's technical restraints. Electronic Gaming Monthly , GameSpot , Next Generation , GamePro , and Game Revolution all lambasted the port for its removal of tag team battles (which they regarded as X-Men vs. Street Fighter ' s defining feature) and extremely frequent slowdown. Reviews also criticized the low frame rate and noticeable decline in animation quality. Jeff Gerstmann, again reviewing
19072-529: The production of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and further plans to develop the cinematic DC Extended Universe , while Paramount Pictures and Entertainment One announced plans to create a cinematic universe on the Transformers film series . There have been numerous crossovers in Japanese cinema. The boom of kaiju films saw a lot of crossovers produced at Toho Studios , with some of
19221-631: The release. Ultimately, the Saturn version was never officially released in North America. An imported version was sold at certain Electronics Boutique locations. Capcom's usual European publisher, Virgin Interactive , were reluctant to release any of Capcom's Saturn games using the 4 MB cartridge due to the prohibitive costs of manufacturing the cartridge. Sega licensed the game from Capcom, intending to release it in Europe bundled with
19370-509: The rest of their comrades to) the player's flashlight. In addition, the AI is also capable of performing flanking maneuvers, using suppressing fire, throwing grenades to flush the player out of cover, and even playing dead. Most of these actions, in particular the flanking, is the result of emergent behavior. The survival horror series S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (2007–) confronts the player with man-made experiments, military soldiers, and mercenaries known as Stalkers. The various encountered enemies (if
19519-444: The same company or network. One of the biggest projects down would be Dream 9 Toriko x One Piece x Dragon Ball Z Super Special Collaboration as it includes three Shonen Jump franchises, being Dragon Ball Z , One Piece , and Toriko , crossed over into an hour long special-like most crossovers, this special is filler, a fan-service episode that follows the common plot line in most crossovers. What makes this crossover unique
19668-452: The selection of characters is less exciting and the lack of console-exclusive modes is conspicuous. However, he acknowledged that X-Men vs. Street Fighter is a much more accurate conversion of its arcade counterpart, and concluded it to be outstanding in absolute terms. The PlayStation version, on the other hand, received mixed reviews, holding a 64% on the review aggregation website GameRankings . Many reviewers' critiques were centered on
19817-510: The show amid a cast comprised otherwise of the sketch show's own stable of actors. Parodic crossovers can be used to lend verisimilitude to the fictional world of a program. Characters from a fictional television series may appear on a stylized version of an established non-fictional television series, such as game shows or reality shows . These crossovers between celebrity hosts and fictional characters are quite common on situation comedies . Mama's Family once appeared on Family Feud and
19966-448: The shows' incompatible historical settings; Murdoch Mysteries is a historical series set in the 1890s, while Republic of Doyle is set in the present day. The problem was solved by having the actors cross over as relatives of their primary characters; Allan Hawco appeared on the November 25, 2013 episode of Murdoch Mysteries as Jacob Doyle, a 19th-century ancestor of his regular character Jake Doyle, while Yannick Bisson appeared on
20115-412: The timer runs out before either team is knocked out, then the player with the most combined remaining health is declared the winner. The game borrows numerous gameplay conventions from Capcom's previous Marvel-licensed ventures, X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes , such as the "Super Jump", the ability to jump higher than normal, and "Aerial Rave", the ability to perform combos on
20264-720: The townsfolk of The Vicar of Dibley have had their heirlooms valuated on Antiques Roadshow , for instance. One of the earlier instances of crossovers in TV productions outside the US is the episode Unter Brüdern [ de ] (1990), which was produced by WDR and DFF as a crossover between the West German crime series Tatort and the East German crime series Polizeiruf 110 . Their respective popular heroes Horst Schimanski and Peter Fuchs join forces to solve
20413-643: The unauthorised live action fan film Batman: Dead End which brings together the properties of Batman , Alien and Predator in one setting. Unofficial crossovers can also occur in a "what-if" scenario. Roger makes frequent cameo appearances in Family Guy , while Brian makes cameos on American Dad! . Roger, Rallo Tubbs , and Klaus Heissler were seen in the final Family Guy Star Wars spoof, " It's A Trap! ", as Moff Jerjerrod , Nien Nunb , and Admiral Ackbar , respectively. Stewie also appears as an interactive hallucination of Booth on Bones when
20562-455: The way of other units. Rather than improve the Game AI to properly solve a difficult problem in the virtual environment, it is often more cost-effective to just modify the scenario to be more tractable. If pathfinding gets bogged down over a specific obstacle, a developer may just end up moving or deleting the obstacle. In Half-Life (1998), the pathfinding algorithm sometimes failed to find
20711-462: The world to add a sense of realism to the game. Additionally, their role as quest-givers or merchants makes them integral to the gameplay loop, giving players access to resources, missions, or services that enable further progression. Additionally, NPCs can be designed to serve functional roles in games, such as a merchant or to provide a service to the player. These characters are central to facilitating game mechanics by acting as intermediaries between
20860-506: Was during the golden age of video arcade games that the idea of AI opponents was largely popularized, due to the success of Space Invaders (1978), which sported an increasing difficulty level, distinct movement patterns, and in-game events dependent on hash functions based on the player's input. Galaxian (1979) added more complex and varied enemy movements, including maneuvers by individual enemies who break out of formation. Pac-Man (1980) introduced AI patterns to maze games , with
21009-570: Was hailed as both a critical and commercial success, largely because the events of the crossover had lasting effects on the characters (such as the introduction of Spider-Man 's black suit which would later become the villain Venom ). Jim Shooter later perfected his crossover technique at Valiant Comics with the Unity event. Unity brought all the Valiant characters together to defeat Mothergod , but
21158-721: Was largely condemned by fans of The Simpsons as existing to promote The Critic , an animated series considered inferior by comparison. Even Simpsons creator Matt Groening objected, preferring to remove his name from the credits of that particular episode in protest. In its simplest and most common form, a television crossover involves a starring character on a parent show appearing on a spin-off or vice versa because of established character relationships. An obvious example of this type of crossover occurred when Cliff Huxtable of The Cosby Show visited his daughter, Denise , on A Different World . More complex multi-production franchises can utilize crossovers of characters to serve as
21307-634: Was limited to a fixed set of responses. It is said that NLP has improved the fluidity of NPC conversations, allowing them to respond more contextually to player inputs. This development has increased the depth and immersion of player-NPC interactions, as players can now engage in more complex dialogues that affect the storyline and gameplay outcomes. Additionally, deep learning models have allowed NPCs to become more capable of predicting players behaviors. Deep learning allows NPCs to process large amounts of data and adapt to player strategies, making interactions with them less predictable and more varied. This creates
21456-526: Was released by Capcom in 1997. Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter , while similar in terms of gameplay and art style, replaces a majority of the X-Men cast with characters from other Marvel Comics properties, such as Captain America and Spider-Man . The game is notable for introducing "assists" into the Marvel vs. Capcom series, which allow players to summon their off-screen character to perform an attack during battle. Like X-Men vs. Street Fighter ,
21605-502: Was released in 2005 and used interactive multiple way dialogs and AI as the main aspect of game. Games have provided an environment for developing artificial intelligence with potential applications beyond gameplay. Examples include Watson , a Jeopardy! -playing computer; and the RoboCup tournament, where robots are trained to compete in soccer. Many experts complain that the "AI" in the term game AI overstates its worth, as game AI
21754-402: Was released the following September. In Japan, Game Machine listed X-Men vs. Street Fighter on their November 1, 1996 issue as being the most-successful arcade game of the month, outperforming titles such as Quiz Nanairo Dreams and Stakes Winner 2 . A reviewer for Next Generation scored the arcade version three out of five stars. He complimented the tag team mechanic and noted that
21903-1163: Was the 1885 Mark Twain novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , which had an important guest appearance by Tom Sawyer . Similarly, Lady Glencora Palliser from the Pallisers series of Anthony Trollope appears towards the end of Miss Mackenzie , a novel published between the first and second Palliser novels in 1865, a character first introduced in the novel, Can You Forgive Her? (1864). Andrew Lang 's 1890 collection, Old Friends: Essays in Epistolary Parody , contains letters combining characters from different sources, including one based on Jane Austen 's Northanger Abbey and Charlotte Brontë 's Jane Eyre . Kim Newman frequently uses this device, as does Stephen King . The works of James Branch Cabell , J.D. Salinger , William Faulkner , Margaret Laurence , Thomas Pynchon , Kurt Vonnegut , Mordecai Richler , Sir H. Rider Haggard , Edgar Rice Burroughs , Robert Heinlein , and Isaac Asimov also cross over with each other, linking different characters and settings together over
22052-622: Was the first popular application of machine learning in an interactive simulation. Neural networks are used by the creatures to learn what to do. The game is regarded as a breakthrough in artificial life research, which aims to model the behavior of creatures interacting with their environment. In the 2001 first-person shooter Halo: Combat Evolved the player assumes the role of the Master Chief, battling various aliens on foot or in vehicles. Enemies use cover very wisely, and employ suppressing fire and grenades. The squad situation affects
22201-462: Was told within the existing Valiant Comics titles (and two bookend special issues). Readers were not obliged to buy all 18 chapters as the story was coherent when reading just one title, but far more layered when all were read. Like Secret Wars , the Unity crossover had lasting effects on the Valiant universe; most notably the introduction of Turok , the birth of Magnus, Robot Fighter and the death of
#845154