1-up
Encyclopedia : 1 : 1U : 1UP : 1-up
- This article is about the computer and video game term. For the website, see 1UP.com. For the term 'to one-up someone', see one-upmanship.
1UP (as 'Player One')
The original meaning of the term 1UP in multiplayer-capable 1980s arcade games was to mark the player's score area. '1UP' would indicate 'Player One's score', '2UP' would indicate 'Player Two's score'. It was common to show both scores on screen at once, with the high-score area in the middle of the score row.
The precise derivation of the phrase is a little unclear. The literal meaning would seem to be 'Player One is up at the machine' but in multiplayer games both 1UP and 2UP were visible at the same time. If it were simply an abbreviation for 'Player One' one would expect to see '1P' rather than '1UP'. In any case, for a long period in the 1980s, even in a single player game it was very common to see the score field labelled as '1UP' rather than the more obvious 'Score'.
1-UP (as 'One Extra Life')
In current gaming console terminology, however, 1-up or one-up is used in a very different sense to mean the acquisition of an extra life during the course of a game.
The inclusion of extra or bonus 'lives', like scoring bonuses, also derives from pinball. In pinball, the player has multiple balls (often three), and plays until a ball is lost in the gutter, at which point the next ball is loaded and the game continues. When all balls are lost, the game is over. Early arcade games took this same play concept, replacing the ball with a 'life'. Extra lives, like extra balls in pinball, could often be earned by scoring a certain number of points, or fulfilling some other complicated in-game condition.
The inclusion of extra lives was very common in videogames from the 1980s on, even in otherwise 'realistic' combat-themed games. The term '1-UP' for 'extra life', however, was not a commonly used term until recently, and then mostly among the console gaming community rather than the PC gaming community.
One-ups (in the second sense) are very frequent in platform games and common in other action-heavy games. Very often, "extra life" is literally true. If the player character is killed extra lives allow the player to return, unscathed, for another try. The 1-Up mushroom is frequently used in pop culture as a mascot for children born during the 1980s due to the generation's widespread use of the Nintendo Entertainment System.
The "1-up" first appeared in the video game Super Mario Bros. 1-ups are usually collected as items or earned through specific accomplishments. One is usually the ultimate reward, and difficult to obtain. Many games give one-ups as a reward if enough (usually 100) of a certain object can be collected, such as coins (Super Mario Bros.), rings (e.g. Sonic) or diamonds. Also, 1-ups may be given as rewards for high scores. On some occasions the 1-up is surpassed by an even rarer extra continue, which awards a whole new set of lives instead of just one - very much like adding a credit in an arcade game. One-ups often take the form of icons of the main character's head, or other such representations such as dolls, coins, hearts, ankh symbols or mushrooms. A simpler icon of just the letters "1up" is also common.
Some games feature items that award more than one life at a time. They are usually referred to as 2-ups, 3-ups, 5-ups, etc., and are often represented by different colored 1-up icons. Confusingly, in some multiplayer games, if Player One receives an extra life, it's displayed as a '1-UP', and if Player Two receives an extra life, it's displayed as a '2-UP', to differentiate between whoever snagged the powerup first. Some games take this further by giving Players One and Two powerups specific to each player, and the other player cannot pick it up.
In some games, a 1-up also awards full health.
In other titles, if the player collects a "health" power-up while that gauge is already at maximum he is rewarded with an extra life.
If the player loses all extra lives and continues, he suffers a game over.
The use of the term may come from Japanese wasei-eigo. "~ UP" (Japanese: ～アップ) means "to raise the ability of; to increase." Other examples include "Power up" (used in Altered Beast), and "Ability UP!," used on the cover of some English study books in Japan. This Japanese shortening of English has provided us with another popular gaming phrase, level up; though Dungeons and Dragons aficionados may disagree about the origins of this oft-invoked phrase.
Other meanings
- One up can also mean to surpass an opponent, scorewise, in any type of game. Also, it can also mean to be tied at 1 point, as in "The score is 1-Up."
- 1up is also a contemporary chiptune composer from Sweden who produces happy and playful tunes.
- On the Internet, 1UP is the name of a North American video gaming website [link] and a French retrogaming website [link].
- The website "OneUp Studios" [link] produces many video game music remixes.
- ExtraLife is a video game related webcomic created by Scott Johnson: http://myextralife.com/
- 1-Up is also a character in the "[[HRWiki:20X6|20X6]]" series on in the Homestar Runner cartoon series and the 20X6 counterpart of Homestar Runner himself.
- 1-Up Zine is the name of a print fanzine about video game culture (not to be confused with the Ziff Davis megasite), that includes personal writing, artwork, and comics on game experience." [link].
- 1UP Games is also a store located in Hamilton, Ontario Canada. [link]
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