Notes

Top Ten Classic Video Games
10. Pong

Origins: Pong was based on a casino game called 'Tennis for Two' that was a simulation of a casino game of tennis on an oscilloscope. Physicist William Higinbotham, the designer, goes down ever sold as creating one of the first electronic games to employ a graphical display.

The Concept: The overall game is intended to represent a game of Tennis or Table Tennis (TABLE TENNIS). Each player includes a bat; the bat could be moved vertically. The screen has two horizontal lines on the top and bottom of the screen. A ball is 'served' and moves towards one player - that player must move the bat in order that the ball hits it. The ball rebounds and moves back the other way. Depending on where the ball hits the bat, the ball will move in different directions - should it hit one of the top or bottom lines, then it will bounce off. The idea is simply to make the other player miss the ball - thus scoring a spot.

Game play: although it sounds utterly boring, the overall game play is really very addictive. It is easy to play but very difficult to understand, especially with faster ball speeds, and more acute angles of 'bounce'.

Nostalgia: for me this is actually the father of video gaming. Without Pong you probably wouldn't have video games - it started the craze that could continue grow and become a multi-billion dollar industry. I am going to always remember this game!

9. Frogger

Origins: this game was developed by Konami in 1981, and was the initial game to introduce me to Sega. At betwing88 was very novel and introduced a fresh style of game.

THE IDEA: Easy - you would like to walk in one side of the street to the other. Wait a minute - there's lots of traffic; I better dodge the traffic. Phew Made it - hang on, who put that river there. Better jump on those turtles and logs and move on to the other side - hold on that's a crocodile! AHHH! It sounds easy - the cars and logs come in horizontal rows, and the direction they move, the amount of logs and cars, and the speed may differ. You must move you frog up, down left and right, avoiding the cars, jumping on logs and avoiding nasty creatures and get home - do that several times and you move to another level.

Game Play: Yet another simple concept that's amazingly addictive. This game depends on timing; you find yourself dinking in and out of traffic, and sometimes going nowhere. betwing88 are poor, the sound is terrible, but the adrenalin really pumps as you try to avoid that extremely fast car, or the snake that's hunting you down!

Nostalgia: I really like this game for many reasons. I played it for a long time, but never really became a specialist - however, it had been the initial ever game I managed to reproduce using Basic on my ZX81 - I even sold about 50 copies in Germany!

8. Space Invaders

Origins: Tomohiro Nishikada, the designer of Space Invaders was inspired by Star Wars and War of the Worlds. He produced on of the initial shooting video games and drew heavily from the playability of Breakout.

THE IDEA: aliens are invading the Earth in 'blocks' by moving down the screen gradually. Because the intrepid savior of the planet earth it's your task to utilize your solitary laser cannon, by moving horizontally, and zapping those dastardly aliens out of the sky. Luckily, you have four bases to hide behind - these eventually disintegrate, but they provide some protection from the alien's missiles.

Game Play: that is a very repetitive game, but highly addictive. Each wave starts a little nearer to you, and moves a little fast - so every new wave is really a harder challenge. The overall game involved a fair amount of strategy along with good hand eye co-ordination.

Nostalgia: I wasted a lot of time playing this game. While originally simply green aliens attacked, some clever geek added color strips to the screen and the aliens magically changed color the lower they got - that has been about as hi-tech as it returned in the times of monochrome video games!
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