Replay: The History of Video Games (76 page)

BOOK: Replay: The History of Video Games
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Social networking

The explosive growth of social networks after 2005 has been accompanied by a rush of games tied to websites such as Facebook and MySpace that revolve around co-operation between friends.

  • Habbo
    (2000, Sulake Corporation, Sampo Karjalainen & Aapo Kyrölä, Finland): A social network for teenagers presented as a hotel, which has a video game look as well as games integrated into it.
  • Lexulous
    (2007, Lexulous, Rajat Agarwalla & Jayant Agarwalla, Facebook, India): Essentially a remake of the board game
    Scrabble
    . Originally called
    Scrabulous
    until Hasbro’s lawyers objected.
  • Parking Wars
    (2007, A&E Television Network, area/code, Facebook, USA): Park on other people’s streets and fine those who park on yours. Like the moment in
    Monopoly
    where you hope your opponent won’t notice you landed on their property but on a global scale.
  • Restaurant City
    (2007, Playfish, Facebook, UK): Build and manage restaurants for people to visit and enlist your friends as employees.
  • Farmville
    (2009, Zynga, Facebook, USA): Insanely popular crop growing.
  • Mob Wars
    (2009, PsychoMonkey, David Maestri, Facebook, USA): Team up with your friends to build a mafia empire by beating up rival players.

Indie & Doujin-soft

Both the western indie game scene and Japan’s equivalent doujin-soft movement are treasure troves of surprising, confusing, delightful and appalling games that are growing in number at a bewildering rate. This list can only scratch the surface:

  • Pencil Whipped
    (2000, ChiselBrain, Lorne Flickinger, PC: Windows, USA): First-person shooter set in a pencil sketch world that looks like a disturbed child’s nightmare.
  • Uplink
    (2001, Introversion Software, Chris Delay, PC: Windows, UK): Knife-edge hacking game. Introversion went on to make:
    Darwinia
    (2005, Introversion Software, Chris Delay, PC: Windows, UK): Real-time strategy reinvention;
    Defcon
    (2006, Introversion Software, Chris Delay, PC: Windows, UK): An unsettling game of global thermonuclear war.
  • Cave Story
    (2004, Studio Pixel, Daisuke Amaya, PC: Windows, Japan): A glorious Japanese indie platformer with a RPG heart.
  • Torus Trooper
    (2004, ABA Games, Kenta Cho, PC: Windows, Japan): Gut-wrenchingly fast fusion of
    Wipeout
    and
    Tempest
    .
  • Tumiki Fighters
    (2004, ABA Games, Kenta Cho, PC: Windows, Japan): Fly a toy plane through chunky polygon world and use the debris of those you destroy as a shield. Formed the basis for
    Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy
    (2008, Majesco, Budcat Creations, Wii, USA)
  • Dan! Da! Dan!
    (2005, Omega, PC: Windows, Japan): Vertically scrolling shooter where you blast your way through pastel-coloured blocks to avoid crashing.
  • I’m O.K. – A Murder Simulator
    (2005, Thompsonsoft, PC: Windows, USA): Side-scrolling shooter retort to the bombastic anti-video game campaigner Jack Thompson, who said he’ll donate $10,000 to charity if
    Grand Theft Auto
    publisher Take-Two released a game about a father of a child killed by a computer gamer who takes revenge by murdering people in the industry.
  • Passage
    (2007, Jason Rohrer, PC: Windows, USA): A five-minute slice of video game social commentary exploring life, death and marriage.
  • AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!: A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
    (2009, Dejobaan Games, PC: Windows, USA): A game about hurtling to earth after leaping off a skyscraper. An exhilarating rush of out-of-control panic.
  • Blueberry Garden
    (2009, Erik Svedäng, PC: Windows, Sweden): Eccentric platform game.
  • Bonsai Barber
    (2009, Zoonami, Wii, UK): A quirky game where you trim the foliage of vegetable customers at your barber’s shop.
  • Canabalt
    (2009, Adam Atomic, Daniel Baranowsky, Online: Flash, USA): Many indie games champion the ideal of games controlled by one button alone. This is one of the best – a panicked and frantic race over rooftops to escape the monsters that are destroying the city.
  • Everyday the Same Dream
    (2009, Molleindustria, Paolo Pedercini, Online: Flash, Italy): Stylish agit-prop with an addictive soundtrack.
  • Machinarium
    (2009, Amanita Design, Jakub Dvorsky, PC: Windows, Czech Republic): Beautifully illustrated indie adventure game.
  • Zombie Pub Crawl
    (2009, Orange Crane Games, iPhone, USA): Marauding zombies are getting in the way of you and a pint of lager. Time to get out the gun.
  • Enviro-Bear 2010: Operation: Hibernation
    (2010, Justin Smith, iPhone, Canada): Bear tries to drive car. Cue clumsy driving chaos.

Miscellaneous

The square pegs that won’t fit the round holes:

  • Scram
    (1980, Atari Program Exchange, Chris Crawford, Atari 800, USA): Nuclear power plant management.
  • Frogger
    (1981, Sega, Konami, Coin-op, Japan): Traffic-dodging gem that defies categorisation.
  • Midwinter
    (1989, Rainbird, Maelstrom Games, Atari ST, UK): Organise a guerrilla war to overthrow an evil dictator. Its giant polygon 3D island was a technical marvel at the time although the game’s an unforgiving experience. A few years later the excellent
    Hunter
    (1991, Activision, Paul Holmes, Amiga, UK) offered a similar experience – minus the character recruitment elements – across a large 3D archipelago.
  • North & South
    (1989, Infogrames, Stéphane Baudet, Atari ST, France): Zany strategy board game with excursions into real-time strategy and platforming.
  • Storm Master
    (1991, Silmarils, André Rocques & Louis-Marie Rocques, Atari ST, France): Design strange flying machines to wage war on the enemy in action sequences.
  • Transarctica
    (1993, Silmarils, André Rocques, Amiga, France): Giant war trains battle across the frozen wastes in this unusual fusion of action, strategy and adventure.
  • Chop Suey
    (1995, 20th Century Fox, Magnet Interactive Studio, Theresa Duncan & Monica Gesue, PC: Windows, USA): Two girls go on a giddy trip through a Midwest town. One of the opening shots of the games for girls movement of the late 1990s.
  • Barbie Fashion Designer
    (1996, Mattel Media, PC: Windows, USA): Design clothes for Barbie dolls and print them out on special fabric printer paper. The first game aimed at girls to become a big success and ahead of the curve of user-generated content to boot. Create-and-print play was also explored by another girl game:
    Anime Land
    (1995, Casio, Casio Loopy, Japan): Create and decorate manga images and then turn them into stickers by printing them out on the Loopy’s thermal printer.
  • Snake
    (1997, Nokia, Nokia 6610, Finland): The first mobile phone game to grab people’s attention. Eat dots to grow your tail while avoiding the walls or your tail. Its roots can be found in
    Blockade
    (1976, Gremlin, Coin-op, USA).
  • Power Shovel / Power Diggerz
    (1999, Taito, Coin-op, Japan): Very silly fun with diggers.
  • Magic Pengel: The Quest for Colour
    (2003, Taito, Garakuda-Studio, PlayStation 2, Japan):
    Pokémon
    -style creature battling where you draw beasts that the game then brings to life.
  • Segagaga
    (2001, Sega, Tetsu Okano, Dreamcast, Japan): A tongue-in-cheek state of the industry address.
  • Jet Set Radio Future
    (2002, Sega, Smilebit, Xbox, Japan): Icily cool inline skating graffiti ’em up where you race around a city-turned-playground while decorating buildings with your spray can.
  • Wario Ware Inc.: Mega Microgame$! / Wario Ware Inc.: Minigame Mania
    (2003, Nintendo, Game Boy Advance, Japan): Rapid fire bursts of bright, simple and bizarre mini-games that veer from the nostalgic to the wildly inventive.
  • Katamari Damacy
    (2004, Namco, Keita Takahashi, PlayStation 2, Japan): Roll a sticky ball around a crude-but-charismatic 3D world until you become a messy mass of people, animals, pianos and other everyday objects. Silly but fun. Keita Takahashi followed it up with the how-far-can-you-stretch madness of
    Noby Noby Boy
    (2009, Namco Bandai, Keita Takahashi, PlayStation 3, Japan).
  • Cooking Mama
    (2006, Taito, Cooking Mama, Nintendo DS, Japan): Cookery themed mini-games. Prompted a protest game from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who objected to the meat-based recipes:
    Cooking Mama – Mama Kills Animals
    (2008, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Online: Flash, USA)
  • The Simpsons Game
    (2007, Electronic Arts, EA Redwood Shores, PlayStation 3, USA): The game’s simple beat ’em up action is nothing special but its wicked lampooning of the video game industry and game design conventions demands attention, not least Will Wright’s power-crazed cameo.
  • Fl0w
    (2007, Sony Computer Entertainment, Thatgamecompany, PlayStation 3, USA): Relaxing zooplankton adventures. Drift through the ocean nibbling on other wee beasties to evolve.
  • Flower
    (2009, Sony Computer Entertainment, Thatgamecompany, PlayStation 3, USA): A dreamy, beautiful, enchanting and, above all, joyous game where you control the wind to create streams of swirling petals that cavort around the country fields bringing them back to life.

Hardware Glossary

A brief overview of the computers and consoles mentioned in this book. If you want to learn more the Old Computers website is an excellent starting point: www.old-computers.com

#123

3DO Interactive Multiplayer 

Manufacturers: Creative Labs, Goldstar, Panasonic, Sanyo

Year released: 1993

Origin: USA

Type: Home console

Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins’ bid to create a common standard for video games. Several companies produced versions of the 3DO, starting with the Panasonic FZ-1. Creative Labs’ Creative 3DO Blaster was an expansion card that turned PCs into 3DO systems.

A

Acorn Archimedes

Manufacturer: Acorn Computers

Year released: 1987

Origin: UK

Type: Personal computer

The first computer to use Acorn’s ARM microprocessor technology.

Altair 8800

Manufacturer: MITS

Year released: 1975

Origin: USA

Type: Kit computer

One of the first computers available for home use. Inspired the formation of Microsoft.

Amiga

Manufacturers: Commodore International, Amiga Technologies

Year released: 1985

Origin: USA

Type: Personal computer

After Commodore went bust in 1994, a German company called Amiga Technologies bought the rights and continued making the Amiga line of computers until it too shut down in 1997. The Amiga now lives on as the AmigaOS operating system.

Amstrad CPC

Manufacturer: Amstrad

Year released: 1984

Origin: UK

Type: Personal computer

A popular competitor to the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum in Europe. Especially big in France.

Amstrad GX4000

Manufacturer: Amstrad

Year released: 1990

Origin: UK

Type: Home console

Amstrad’s bid to create a European rival to the NES. Based on the technology of the Amstrad CPC line of computers.

Apple I

Manufacturer: Apple Computer

Year released: 1976

Origin: USA

Type: Personal computer

One of the first fully assembled home computers. Only around 200 were made.

Apple II

Manufacturer: Apple Computer

Year released: 1977

Origin: USA

Type: Personal computer

Part of the first wave of mass-produced home computers.

Astrocade

See Bally Professional Arcade

Atari 400 / 800

Manufacturer: Atari Inc.

Year released: 1979

Origin: USA

Type: Personal computer

Originally the 400 had 4Kb of RAM and the 800 had 8Kb. Later this was upped to 48Kb.

Atari 5200 SuperSystem

Manufacturer: Atari Inc.

Year released: 1982

Origin: USA

Type: Home console

Based on the hardware of the Atari 400 and 800 computers.

Atari 7800 ProSystem

Manufacturer: Atari Inc., Atari Corporation

Year released: 1984 and 1986

Origin: USA

Type: Home console

Originally released in 1984 but when Jack Tramiel bought Atari’s consumer division soon after it was pulled from sale. Re-released in 1986 to compete with the NES.

Atari Jaguar

Manufacturer: Atari Corporation

Year released: 1993

Origin: UK

Type: Home console

Designed by Flare II, a company founded by a team that had previously worked for Sinclair Research and on the unreleased Konix Multisystem.

Atari Lynx

Manufacturer: Atari Corporation

Year released: 1989

Origin: USA

Type: Handheld console

Full colour handheld rival to the Game Boy. Designed to cater for left-handed players too. Created by some of the same team that developed the Amiga computer.

Atari Pong

See Sears Tele-Games Pong

Atari ST

Manufacturer: Atari Corporation

Year released: 1985

Origin: USA

Type: Personal computer

The first home computer to support the MIDI electronic music standard and became widely used by professional electronic music acts such as 808 State. The Amiga’s main rival in Europe.

Atari VCS 2600

Manufacturer: Atari Inc.

Year released: 1977

Origin: USA

Type: Home console

The system that popularised the cartridge-based console. Released in Japan as the Atari 2800 in 1983. Combat, a remake of Atari’s 1974 coin-op Tank, was built in.

Auto Race

Manufacturer: Mattel Electronics

Year released: 1976

Origin: USA

Type: Handheld game

The first handheld video game. Used LED lights for its visuals.

B

Ball

See Game & Watch

Bally Professional Arcade 

Manufacturer: Bally, Astrocade

Year released: 1978

Origin: USA

Type: Home console

Designed by Dave Nutting As
sociates. In 1982, Bally sold the rights to Astrocade, who relaunched it as the Astrocade.

Bandai Intellivision

See Intellivision

Bandai SuperVision 8000

See SuperVision 8000

Bandai TV Jack 1000

Manufacturer: Bandai

Year released: 1977

Origin: Japan

Type: Home console

Part of Japan’s home Pong boom of 1977. Bandai’s first step into the video game business.

BBC Micro

Manufacturer: Acorn Computers

Year released: 1981

Origin: UK

Type: Personal computer

Line of home computers commissioned by the BBC.

Brown Box

See Magnavox Odyssey

Casio Loopy

Manufacturer: Casio

Year released: 1995

Origin: Japan

Type: Home console

Short-lived console aimed at female players. Included a built-in thermal printer that allowed users to print colour stickers. It could also capture images from videocassette recorders.

C

Cassette Vision

Manufacturer: Epoch

Year released: 1981

Origin: Japan

Type: Home console

Until Nintendo released its Famicom, this was Japan’s leading console.

CD32

Manufacturer: Commodore

Year released: 1993

Origin: USA

Type: Home console

A CD-based console reincarnation of Commodore’s Amiga computer.

CD-i

Manufacturer: Magnavox, Philips

Year released: 1991

Origin: Netherlands

Type: Home console

Released under the Magnavox brand in North America.

CDTV

Manufacturer: Commodore International

Year released: 1991

Origin: USA

Type: Home console/Personal computer

Sold as a console but could be turned into a Amiga computer.

ColecoVision

Manufacturer: Coleco

Year released: 1982

Origin: USA

Type: Home console

Its initial success was cut brutally short by the US video game crash.

Color TV Game 6

Manufacturer: Nintendo

Year released: 1977

Origin: Japan

Type: Home console

Nintendo’s first games console containing six Pong-style games.

Color TV Game 15

Manufacturer: Nintendo

Year released: 1978

Origin: Japan

Type: Home console

Yet another Pong console with 15 variations on offer.

Color TV Game Block Breaker

Manufacturer: Nintendo

Year released: 1979

Origin: Japan

Type: Home console

Home version of Nintendo’s 1978 coin-op game Block Breaker.

Color TV Game Racing 112

Manufacturer: Nintendo

Year released: 1978

Origin: Japan

Type: Home console

Console offering a selection of driving games. The console’s casing was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto.

Commodore 64

Manufacturer: Commodore International

Year released: 1982

Origin: USA

Type: Personal computer

The best-selling home computer model of all-time with around 17 million sold worldwide. Included the SID sound chip that was on of the most advanced for its time.

Commodore PET

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