Notes

Top Ten Classic Video Games
10. Pong

Origins: Pong was predicated on a 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 use a graphical display.

The Concept: The game is supposed to represent a game of Tennis or Table Tennis (Ping Pong). Each player has 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 so the ball hits it. The ball rebounds and moves back another way. Depending on where in fact the ball hits the bat, the ball will move in different directions - should it hit one of many top or bottom lines, then it will bounce off. The theory is simply to help make the other player skip the ball - thus scoring a spot.

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

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

9. Frogger

Origins: this game originated by Konami in 1981, and was the initial game to introduce me to Sega. At the time it was very novel and introduced a new style of game.

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

Game Play: 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. The graphics are poor, the sound is terrible, however the adrenalin really pumps as you stay away from that extremely fast car, or the snake that's hunting you down!

Nostalgia: I really like this game for most reasons. I played it for a long time, but hardly ever really became an expert - however, it was the initial ever game I were able 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 first shooting video games and drew heavily from the playability of Breakout.

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

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

Nostalgia: I wasted considerable 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 got back in the times of monochrome video games!

7. Galaxians

Origins: Galaxians expanded on the Space Invaders theme by having aliens swoop down on the defender. It was one of the first games to possess colored sprites.

Concept: Take Space Invaders, then add color, remove the bases and make a few of the aliens swoop down at you and you have Galaxians. Essentially the concept is the same as Space Invaders, you're defending the planet against alien invaders, but instead than the whole screen filled with aliens moving down at you in a good orderly fashion, you obtain sets of aliens swooping down in haphazard ways.

Game play: if you liked Space Invaders then you'll love this. The strategies are different, as you frequently have to avoid several different sets of alien 'swoopers' but when you can shoot them because they swoop, then you get some good great bonus points. The game is difficult and soon you get used to some of the patterns

Nostalgia: this was one of the first games that I played on a pc that was almost the same as the arcade fame. I had an old Acorn Electron, and this game was almost perfect with this little machine. I miss my old Acorn Electron!

6. Defender

Origins: This game was made by Williams Electronics in 1980. THE OVERALL GAME was created by Eugen Jarvis, Sam Dicker, Paul Dussault and SLarry DeMar. It was among the first games to feature complex controls, with five buttons and a joystick. While slow to catch on because of its difficulty, it still was a popular game.

Concept: Almost all of the shoot-em-up games of the era were horizontal shote-em-ups. This game changed the playing field by being a vertical shooter. Just as before aliens are intent to do nasty things to earth - this time around they're trying kidnap 10 humans. You're in charge of the sole defender and must kill the aliens before they kidnap the humans. You fly over a 'landscape' and can see your humans mulling around at first glance. The aliens appear and drop towards the humans - you can kill them at this stage, but as long as they grab an alien, you need to shoot the alien, and catch the human before the alien reaches the most notable of the screen.

Game play: This was a great game that was an easy task to play but tough to master. Shooting the aliens and catching the humans gave the best bonuses, and this formed a major section of the strategy. There have been some different kind of aliens that chased you making the overall game far more hectic than others; often it was just a relief to finish a level. While not as addictive as some, it did provide a feeling of achievement once you reached a higher score.

Nostalgia: I continued vacation with a friend for a week and we spent the complete week in the arcade playing this game and the number one game on my list (I won't reveal the name now!). It had been the most effective memories of my teen years!

5. Missile Command

Origins: In July 1980, Atari published a revolutionary game. It didn't have a joystick, but had a ball that controlled an on screen cursor. It was programmed by Dave Theurer and licensed to Sega.

Concept: Those pesky aliens are receiving smarter. Instead of sending space ships down to fight, they're hiding in deep space and sending a bunch of missiles to inflate the Earth's cities. This game was unique as it work with a 'round' joystick. You used this to move to a spot on the screen and then fire a missile into this spot - the culminating explosion would destroy any missiles that hit the 'cloud'. The missiles were essentially lines that moved down from the very best of the screen at varying angles and speeds - a number of them would split into multiple 'missiles' half way down.

Game play: this can be a very strategic game. Placing your bombs in the proper place and timing them right could essentially clear the alien missiles efficiently. As the game move ahead you found yourself spinning the wheel frantically looking to get the bombs in the proper place. This game was adrenalin pumping fun - sometimes you seemed to be against impossible odds and yet you'd breath a sigh of relief when one city survived.

Nostalgia: this was among the first games I played on a table top machine. While these didn't really catch on, it had been still fun to be able to put a can of soda down when you played!

4. Breakout

Origin: This game was heavily inspired by Pong. It had been created in 1976 by Atari, with Nolan Busnell and Stew Bristow being the key designers. It's probably the most cloned games ever, even today you can find new games using the same theme developing. Apparently the Apple II computer was inspired by this game - wow where would Steve Jobs be now without Breakout.

Concept: The idea is simple - you have a bat in the bottom of the screen that can move backwards and forwards. Above you is a wall of bricks. A ball will move from your own bat - each time it collides with a brick, the brick disappears and the ball bounce back at you. Your task is easy - stop the ball going off underneath of the screen by placing your bat in the manner and bouncing the ball back at the wall - you might also need to remove all of the bricks in the wall to progress to another level!

Game play: that is a fairly difficult game to master. Because the bricks get lower each level and the ball speed increases, it becomes an increasing number of difficult to 'break out'. Also, sometimes the angle that the ball comes off the bat is so acute that it is very difficult to judge where the ball will bounce! It's one of those games where you merely keep saying 'just one more game' and before you know it five hours have passed.

Nostalgia: when I lived in Wales we'd just a little utility room that housed books and my little ZX Spectrum - I used to invest hours playing this game as my Father sat and studied. It had been such as a male bonding session!

3. Hang On

Origin: This game premiered in 1985 and originated by Sega. It had been among the first '3D' racing games and something of the first to introduce a 'realistic' aid to playing the game - that it a more substantial replica motorcycle style cabinet, with speedo, brakes and a throttle. holywin88 became the benchmark for future racing games and result in the highly praised Out Run series. The game cleverly used 'billboards' and trees to give you the feel that you're moving at high speed.

Concept: You are a motorcycle racer - you sit on top of a bike and have to race around a 3d race track, overtaking other riders and reaching certain checkpoints inside a time limit. The overall game featuring different places and conditions (such as night).

Game play: Just one more easy game to play but very difficult to master. Timing the turns was essential, especially if other bikers got in the way. Each slight touch of another bike, or crash right into a barrier slowed you down and made it harder to attain the checkpoint in time. The awesome graphics (for the time) made this game pleasurable to play as you really felt you're in a race. It is another game that kept you returning for more.

Nostalgia: As a kid I always wanted a real motorbike, which means this gave me a sense that I actually had one. I was excellent as of this game (an d Pole Position) and constantly had my name on the high score table - it's perhaps the only game I possibly could truly say I was a master.

2. Pacman

Origin: Developed by Toru Iwatani, and programmed by Hideyuki Moakajima San, this game arrived in mid 1980. The name is derived from a phrase that pertains to the sound when your mouth opens and closes (allegedly). Namco produced the game, but it really became popular in the us when Midway released it.

Concept: You're Pacman and you have become hungry. You find a maze full of 'dots' and zip around eating them. Unfortunately there's some ghosts who aren't too happy relating to this and they'll chase you and eat you - but hey, there's some really big dots that provide you the power to banish the ghosts back to their central cage. The maze is complex, filling up the whole screen, but you can find no dead ends - there's also a passage way between each side of the screen. In the center, may be the cage that holds the ghosts - occasionally bonus fruit appear next to the cage. You essentially have to eat all of the dots to be able to progress.

Game play: This is a simple concept, but with pretty decent graphics and an addictive tune it became a huge success. There exists a lot of strategy to the overall game - each ghost follows a set pattern (although eventually they'll forget this and follow you) - actually you can find books dedicated on the very best route to avoiding the ghosts. The overall game gets harder as you go, with the ghosts accelerating and getting smarter.

Nostalgia: there's something about the music in this game that's just so catching -even as I write it I can hear it in my mind. holywin88 of the first games that I can remember using music as a major feature. I wasted many hours playing this game, and although I was never great I usually had fun trying to devise new routes. Additionally it is probably my most successful programming achievement - I designed a version of the for the Acorn Atom and I actually sold several hundred copies (again in Germany) - I am proud that as a twelve year old, I was able to use logic and programming skills and make some money doing it.

1. Asteroids

Origin: It's truly amazing to believe that this game was first released in 1979 - I am playing it for 30 years now! Produced by Atari and designed by Lyle Rains and Ed Logg, the overall game cleverly used vector graphics and real inertia physics to convert a straightforward concept right into a classic game.

Concept: Your little space ship has strayed into an asteroid belt. By using thrusters, a trusty laser cannon and a hyperspace unit, you need to move your spaceship in all directions over the screen and steer clear of the asteroids. It is possible to go anywhere on the screen and also going off the edge is OK - it just is undoubtedly a wrap around universe. The asteroids come at you from all angles. Initially they are large, and are fairly slow. Once hit they split into smaller asteroids, and these smaller asteroids split again - small the asteroid the faster it goes. Occasionally a nasty alien ship can look and start firing at you - he'll occasionally hit the asteroids and split them. The thought of the game is simple - destroy all the asteroids without colliding into them or getting shot by an alien.

Game play: Wow what can I say. To really succeed at this game you will need to use strategy - firing at all asteroids will fill the screen with a lot of small fast moving asteroids, making it difficult to avoid collisions. Therefore the game required that you select off one asteroid at the same time, and then deal with the smaller asteroids. While achieving this, you also had to maneuver gingerly; with real inertia, you often found yourself drifting without realizing it and suddenly you would be in the middle of four or five asteroids.
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