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Question: Who was the first female protagonist in a computer game?
This ISN’T as obvious as it first seems.
The early text adventures, such as Colossal Cave (1976), referred to the protagonist as ‘you’, as in ‘you are standing by a small hut. What do you want to do now?’ So it could be argued that if you happened to be female, the protagonist was too.
Ms Pac-Man – Nintendo Game Boy Advance Videogame
If you want to stick to graphical representation, most of the early arcade games (and the computer versions) featured vehicles such as spaceships or tanks rather than characters.
However, in 1981, the U.S. company Midway, having the licence for the arcade game Pac-Man, produced their own version — with the strategic addition of a red bow to the yellow creature’s head to create Ms. Pac-Man, one of the first (if not the first) female protagonists.
As for humanoid female characters, in 1983 Quicksilva released Ant Attack for the ZX Spectrum.
Written by Sandy Wright, it was a sort of hide-and-seek game where your character ran and jumped their way through the city of Antescher to find their companion, who was sleeping somewhere else in the city, while giant ants hunted them down.
At the start of each game you would choose whether to play as a boy or a girl — the person you had to rescue would then be of the opposite sex.
As a playable female character, she is the precursor to Lara Croft, Samus Aran and all the other female protagonists that can be seen today.
Matt McLean, Odiham, Hants
QUESTION: What exactly is an autocephalous church?
An AUTOCEPHALOUS church is a Christian church, typically within Eastern Orthodoxy or the Oriental Orthodox communion, that has full independence and self-governance.
The term ‘autocephalous’ comes from the Greek words ‘auto’ (self) and ‘kephale’ (head).
An autocephalous church has the authority to appoint its own bishops, including its leader, and governs its own internal affairs without external control. However, it remains in communion with other Orthodox churches.
David Knight, Derby
QUESTION: Where did the term hanky-panky originate?
Further to the earlier answer, we are not alone in using a bit of rhyming slang for naughty behaviour. The Portuguese have rala e rola, the Swedes rajtan tajtan and the Germans Techtelmechtel.
Amy Chapman, Warminster, Wilts
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