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Grim Fandango is a personal computer game in the graphic adventure genre released by LucasArts in 1998 and primarily written by Tim Schafer. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered 2D backgrounds. As with other LucasArts adventure games, the player must converse with other characters and examine, collect, and use objects correctly to solve puzzles in order to progress. Grim Fandango's world combines elements of Aztec beliefs of afterlife with style aspects of film noir, including The Maltese Falcon, On the Waterfront and Casablanca, to create the Land of the Dead, which recently departed souls, represented in the game as calaca-like figures, must travel through before they reach their final destination, the Ninth Underworld. The story follows travel agent Manuel "Manny" Calavera as he attempts to save Mercedes "Meche" Colomar, a newly arrived but virtuous soul, during her long journey. The game received positive reviews, praising its artistic design and overall game direction in particular. Grim Fandango was selected for several gaming awards at the time of release, and is often listed in publishers' lists of top games of all time. However, the game has been considered a commercial failure, which partially led LucasArts to terminate their adventure game development, contributing to the decline of the adventure game genre. (more...)

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November 12: Birth of Bahá'u'lláh, a holy day in the Bahá'í Faith

• 1028 – Future Byzantine empress Zoe married Romanos III Argyros according to the wishes of the dying Constantine VIII.
• 1893 – Mortimer Durand, Foreign Secretary of British India, and Abdur Rahman Khan, Amir of Afghanistan, signed the Durand Line Agreement, establishing what is now the international border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
• 1927 – Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union.
• 1942 – World War II: The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal (Japanese air attack pictured), the decisive engagement in a series of naval battles between Allied and Japanese forces during the months-long Guadalcanal campaign in the Solomon Islands, began.
• 2006 – Although the Georgian government declared it illegal, South Ossetia held a referendum on independence, with about 99 percent of voters supporting to preserve the region's status as a de facto independent state.

More anniversaries: November 11 – November 12 – November 13