Matt Fox - The Video Games Guide: 1,000+ Arcade, Console and Computer Games, 1962-2012, 2d ed.

SECOND EDITION

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-0067-3

2013 Matt Fox. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
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To Maria and Gemma

So, friends, here we are again. Welcome to the new edition of The Video Games Guide.

The rst edition of the Guide was published in 2006 and if you are a returning reader then I hope you enjoy the extra content. Ive worked hard (and played hard) over the past six years to improve, update and expand the Guide, and this second edition is crammed with even more of the great and the good, the average and the awfulthe results of ve decades of game design. Its almost twice the length of the rst edition; Ive added hundreds more titles to the software reviews, new retrospectives on classic gaming hardware in the computers and consoles appendices, details on how to source video games, and more besides. So to use a gaming analogy, I hope you feel that you hold in your hands a true sequel rather than a mere expansion pack.

If, however, you are new to the Guide then allow me to introduce myself. My name is Matt Fox and I shall be your humble host. As a young child I was smitten by Pong, and from the early bat-and-ball era through to the present day my passion for video games and my eagerness to experience as many of them as I can has remained undiminished. Though I have appeared as an expert pundit and historian on television shows and radio programs I really consider myself a gaming fan rst and foremost. To me, video games have always seemed a special form of entertainment. Its an alchemy that fuses together the processing power of technology, the prowess of the player, and most importantly the imagination of the designer to create an interactive experience. When a game gets it right the spell that is conjured has the power to challenge, excite, transport and delight in a way that seems almost magical.

When I rst began writing this Guide back in the year 2000 older video games werent generally seen as having much relevance. They were toys to be discarded. Thankfully over the last decade this attitude has begun to change; indeed, many of the great titles from gamings past are now easier to get your hands on than ever thanks to retro compilations and the various virtual arcades on the latest generation of consoles. Gaming has a rich and wonderful cultural heritage and Im so glad that people are really starting to embrace, appreciate and preserve it.

Whether your particular interests are the retro or the modern, or a bit of both, Im sure youll nd much to enjoy in the pages of this book. The reviews and ratings within are simply my opinions and while I hope I have experienced enough games in my time to tell good from bad, ultimately my views are no replacement for your own.

So, lets raise a toast and celebrateto gamings rst fty years!

Classic. The pinnacle. Three or four games of this caliber would be considered a good crop for any year.

Excellent. Recommended to all. Well worth playing, well worth owning.

Good. A decent game. If youre a fan of the genre youll nd much to enjoy here.

Fair. Run-of-the-mill. Some good qualities, but nothing to get too excited about.

Poor. A bad game, plain and simple.

1995 PC, Gremlin

Beating off competition from the ofcially licensed FIFA International Soccer, Actua Soccer set a new benchmark for soccer realism in the midNineties.

Like watching football on TV only you control the players! is how the ads put itand although that claim is bound to raise a few sniggers when looking at the graphics today, Actua Soccer did feature true 3D players, whose blocky bodies had been animated by motion-capturing the movements of professional players. Besides the impressive animation, there are some evocative sound effects, including commentary by one of the voices of football in Britain, Barry Davies, not to mention a exible choice of camera views, generous multi-player options, and some giant-sized stadiums to compete in. These factors (and I could also mention the choice of forty-four international teams) help provide some depth, and if the on-pitch action lacks the pace and playability of Sensible Soccer its because, rst and foremost, Actua Soccer is aiming at simulation.

Actua Soccer also appeared on the PlayStation and was followed by sequels Actua Soccer 2 (1997) and Actua Soccer 3 (1998). Gremlin also used the Actua prex on several other sports titles, including Actua Golf (1996) and Actua Tennis (1998).

1984 Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Gargoyle Games

Ad Astra was a run of the mill space shoot em up boasting primitive 3D graphics. Youre really better off looking at superior blasters like Elite or Starstrike 3D to see what the early micro-computers were capable of within this genre, although in Ad Astras defense, it does feature some nicely drawn explosions.

Only on ZX Spectrum.

1972 DEC PDP-10, Will Crowther & Don Woods

Also known simply as ADVENT (back then lenames could only be six characters long), Adventure holds the distinction of being the rst ever text-adventure.

Around the same time as Pong was bouncing its way into amusement arcades, a programmer and caving-enthusiast named Will Crowther was working away at a completely different type of gaming experience. Adventure was to be a text-only game, and thus well suited to the primitive computers of the time. Crowther was a fan of JRR Tolkiens fantasy literature and believed that evocatively described locations could conjure up far better images in the minds eye than the blocky graphics of the day ever could. He was right, and although the text adventure is now an extinct genre, countless numbers were released throughout the Seventies and early Eighties.

The locations in Adventure are partly based on Bedquilt Cave in Kentucky, a place which Crowther had mapped thoroughly. In 1976, a fellow programmer and Tolkien fan, Don Woods, played ADVENT (now known as Adventure) at Stanford University and, with Crowthers blessing, went on to adapt it into a larger, more ambitious game with a distinctly Tolkienesque avor. Crowther was more than happy to see his caves become lled with dwarves, keys, and magic itemssuch things are timeless and have remained a staple of computer games to the present day. Adventure may only have had a handful of commands compared to later text adventures, but many of the traditional favoritescompass points N, S, E, W, Use, Open, Throw, and of course, the magic word XYZZYwere rst seen here.