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asynchronous romantic connection. a text-based loving relationship, typically characterized by extreme distance, time zone or life circ-mstances keeping the partc-p-nts apart.
it’s been a drag since carina was shipped overseas, but our arc is strong — so i’m hanging in!
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advanced reader copy. a free, not-quite-final version of a book often distributed to reviewers or book convention attendees.
i loved getting to read an arc of the next book of the series, but there were a bunch of typos in it.
a part of a story line. used all the time by the web comics jack and idiots in the park.
the new idiots in the park arc is hillarious!
a chapter in a story.
did you read the new arc in “jack”?
an incomplete circle.
a semicircle is an arc.
an arc is the internal change the hero goes through in a story. it can be positive change of character — a happy ending – or a negative or no change — which gives us a tragedy.
the main character on “v for vendetta” has an arc. she goes from being a normal everyday kind of a girl to a revolutionary.
the male act of slowly backing up while urinating into a toilet in order to aim slightly upward and achieve a half-circle appearance of urination into stated receptacle.
-“hey, you spent a lot of time in there, what were you doing?”
-“i mastered the arc”
attack retrieve capture (arc) is a multiplayer, 2d computer game originally created by hoopy entertainment in the mid 1990s. the game is primarily capture the flag (ctf), but other game modes exist. in the 2-team ctf mode, each team is trying to capture the other’s flag(s). players pilot small ships equipped with 4 types of weapons: lasers, missiles, bouncy lasers, and grenades.

gameplay

movement

there are two to four teams (green, red, blue, and yellow). each player pilots a ship of his or her team’s color. the ships move around a plane. there are obstacles which the ships cannot p-ss through (walls, areas with no floor, etc.)

objectives

capture the flag

in “capture the flag” mode, a team wins by bringing the other team’s or teams’ flags to their own flagpost corresponding to the color of the flag. a team may have multiple flags. there are also neutral flags, which are white. a player carrying a flag moves more slowly than normal; also, he or she cannot use a teleporter or move “against” a conveyor belt.

if a player drops a team flag (not white), a player from that team or another opposing team can pick up the flag after a few seconds. if a player touches their own dropped flag or the flag is left alone for a certain time, the flag is returned to its home post immediately. neutral flags do not return by themselves.

switch

in “switch” or “b-tton” mode, the map has one or more switches on it. a player “claims” a switch for their team by touching it. a team wins by gaining control of all the switches.

deathmatch

there is no team objective in this mode. players only attempt to kill each other to gain a high score.

historical overview

the game has developed into a cult hit since the first beta releases, and its small but devoted fanbase has followed it for several years. initially arc was hosted on a server rented out by hoopy, and clients ran it via hfront (hoopy front end). the original developers of arc, john vechey (jv) and brian fiete (bf), took arc to total entertainment network (ten) (now pogo.com) in 1998 for its 1.0 release. in 1999, ten went under and arc appeared to go with it. but by december 1999, world opponent network (won) had acquired arc and began to run another beta test. during this time, won attempted to make arc a source of income, by adding advertis-m-nts into the game interface. however, the idea never got off the ground, and won suffered the same fate as ten in 2001. the future of arc was again uncertain, but sierra entertainment kept arc going under much the same operation as won had. however, in a fairly expected turn of events, err0r resigned on april 29, 2005. the future of arc is uncertain

arc eras

the timeframes are rough.

1995 – 1998: hoopy/hfront (subdivided into the versions of arc, e.g. beta32, beta40, beta45, beta52, beta60)
1998 – march 1999: ten
dec 1999 – feb 2001: won
feb 2001 – 2006: sierra (current)
note: sierra is currently owned by vugames

arc community

arc has a very strong community, perhaps the reason for its longevity. some players have played for close to 10 years. the length of time a player has played is somewhat of a status symbol within the community, and players are frequently cl-ssified by when they started playing (see the arc eras). the community also revolves around clans and leagues.

league play

near the end of hfront, a player named sedition organized a tournament he called clanwars. this single elimination tournament had plenty of problems, but when ten arrived, clanwars came under new management and became arc’s first league: the arc premier league. the apl and other leagues ran seasons and tournaments between the clans, mostly for pride, but occasionally a prize was offered. naming of the chat lobbies on ten was a prize for the first apl, and a few seasons later, apl was sponsored by diamond multimedia, resulting in the winning clan receiving mp3 players..w00t
important people

bf – brian fiete, co-founder of hoopy entertainment
jv – john vechey, co-founder of hoopy entertainment
c:\ – josh langley, graphics designer
bob – hoopy webmaster and server administrator
warpig – jason kapalka – hoopy, ten liaison
err0r – andy fewtrell – lead admin (retired)
osiris – head administrator of arc throughout sierra era. r.i.p. (from-to: date?)