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Paul Reiche (left) and Fred Ford

Toys for Bob, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Novato, California, and founded in 1989. The founders, Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford (both pictured), met when Reiche sought a programmer to develop Star Control , and developed several games, including The Horde , Pandemonium! , and The Unholy War . In the early 2000s, the studio transitioned to working on licensed games before being laid off by Crystal Dynamics. It was incorporated in 2002 and Activision became their publisher before they acquired the studio in 2005. Credited with inventing the toys-to-life genre, the 2011 release of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure was considered a technological and commercial breakthrough. In 2018, Toys for Bob assisted with the remaster compilations Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Spyro Reignited Trilogy . The founders left the company in 2020. Microsoft acquired the holding in October 2023 and the studio spun off from Activision in May 2024. ( Full article... )

Carmarthen Infirmary

• ... that patients at Carmarthen Infirmary (pictured) in the late 19th century were required to help with cleaning, laundry, and caring for other patients?
• ... that Irish chess player Diana Mirza was labeled the "teenage chess queen" when she was 17 years old?
• ... that Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Dana–Thomas House around an existing house because a will banned the old house's destruction?
• ... that hockey player Alexander Karmanov is the tallest draft pick in the history of the NHL?
• ... that the first reconstruction of Camarasaurus was drawn on sheets of linen and measured 21 m (68 ft) in length?
• ... that there was an NFL player named Red Heater ?
• ... that part of the travelling exhibition Verstummte Stimmen , which commemorated Jewish figures in opera who faced Nazi persecution, remained permanently in a park in Bayreuth?
• ... that architect Arthur Edwards designed the Birmingham Municipal Technical School with a steam engine in the basement?
• ... that, according to its manufacturers, one boat used in Casino Royale "was the first sailing boat to go up the Grand Canal in Venice for 300 years"?

Broad Peak

• Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey sign the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement .
• Shootings at a residence and a Debsirin School branch in Nonthaburi province, Thailand, leave at least nine people dead.
• A consortium led by the Public Investment Fund purchases video game publisher Electronic Arts in a leveraged buyout.
• An avalanche on Broad Peak (pictured) in Pakistan kills ten climbers.

August 10

The Hungarian Battle of Lechfeld 955 by Michael Echter

• 955 – Hungarian invasions of Europe: Forces under Otto the Great were victorious at the Battle of Lechfeld (depicted) near present-day Augsburg, Germany, holding off the incursions of the Magyars into Central Europe.
• 1270 – Yekuno Amlak deposed the last Zagwe king and seized the imperial throne of Ethiopia, beginning the reign of the Solomonic dynasty, which would last for more than 700 years.
• 1966 – The Heron Road Bridge in Ottawa, Canada, collapsed during its construction, killing nine workers.
• 2007 – Amid large protests against the impending demolition of the Queen's Pier , the Hong Kong High Court dismissed legal attempts to preserve the landmark.
• 2019 – Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier and convicted sex offender, was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York.