The first big question that, for me, looms over R-Type [1987] (and many arcade titles of its ilk) is a stupid, but fundamental one: why is there so much dang video game inside this video game? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48TyDnakXZE Dead Can Dance - Dawn Of The Iconoclasts [1987] R-Type is way longer than it seems to "need" … Continue reading R-Type [1987]
Tag: war
Eastern Front 1941 [1981]
(Content warning: Nazis. White supremacy, genocide, anti-semitism.) The first Game Developers Conference was held in 1988 in founder Chris Crawford's house. This is funny, if you know a little bit about both. GDC is about as inside-baseball as it gets and is I believe now owned by a marketing company and the cheapest tickets are … Continue reading Eastern Front 1941 [1981]
Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device [1947]
Apologies for the shuffled chronology here, but it is a war game and I was inspired. When Philo T. Farnsworth first demonstrated his all-electronic CRT television to anyone outside of the laboratory where it was invented, he said "here's something the bankers can understand" and turned it on to produce an image of a dollar … Continue reading Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device [1947]
HUTSPIEL [1955]
It's important to remark that though I'm starting here, HUTSPIEL [1955] (one of those video games that only survives as documentation) is not even the first computerized wargame. Earlier attempts more closely resembled the classic "umpire" model of wargaming, ala Reisswitz's Kriegspiel [1824], where you give your instructions and communications to the umpire who is … Continue reading HUTSPIEL [1955]
Deus Ex Machina [1984]
Three off-the-beaten path early 1980s Art Game picks in, and a typology is beginning to emerge. Deus Ex Machina [1984] is largely, through probably not intentionally, a different spin on Lifespan [1983]. What both share in common with The Prisoner [1980], besides the obvious self-identification as art, is that their reflections on the medium has … Continue reading Deus Ex Machina [1984]
Robotron 2084 [1982]
Text version, for legibility and slow connections.Music: Front 242 - U-Men (Instrumental) [1982]
Robotron 2084 [1982]
The screen is enclosed by rainbow flashing that snaps open and shut like a curtain between levels. There's one sound channel but it's overloaded with buzzing and bipping and screaming. There's dozens of robotic enemies closing in on you from all sides, and their colorshifting teletextural bullets travel faster the further they are away from … Continue reading Robotron 2084 [1982]
Castle Wolfenstein [1981]
(Content warning: Nazis, genocide.) Wolfenstein is one of the longest-standing names in video games, typically trading off positions on Wikipedia's ranked list with Mario depending on which had the latest release. It has a much stranger path there than anything in that top tier other than arguably The Oregon Trail [1971]. The series lays pretty … Continue reading Castle Wolfenstein [1981]
Galaga [1981]
(Content warning: war.) The first thing that strikes me on booting up Galaga [1981] is that it is a beautiful game. Games I've written on up to this point have been eyesores. (They mostly make a virtue of it.) Even the prior entry in this franchise, Galaxian [1979], a visual tour-de-force, looks pretty drab, predominated … Continue reading Galaga [1981]
Spacewar! [1962]
Spacewar is still the first video game. Not technically: the developers of Spacewar were already aware of a playable Tic Tac Toe implementation on the very computer they were working on, which by that point was already a more-than-decade-long tradition for computers, not to mention Tennis For Two [1958]. (For greater detail on this cascade … Continue reading Spacewar! [1962]
Arcade Idea 