Top Ten Classic VIDEO GAMING
- Pong
Origins: Pong was based on a casino game called 'Tennis for Two' which was a simulation of a game of tennis on an oscilloscope. Physicist William Higinbotham, the designer, falls in history as creating among 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 (Ping Pong). Each player includes a bat; the bat can be moved vertically. The screen has two horizontal lines at 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 idea is simply to help make the other player miss the ball - thus scoring a point.
Game play: although it sounds utterly boring, the game play is actually very addictive. It is easy to play but very hard to understand, especially with faster ball speeds, and more acute angles of 'bounce'.
Nostalgia: for me here is the father of video games. Without Pong you almost certainly wouldn't have video gaming - it started the craze that would continue grow and become a multi-billion dollar industry. I am going to always remember this game!
- Frogger
Origins: this game was developed by Konami in 1981, and was the first game to introduce me to Sega. At the time it had been very novel and introduced a new style of game.
THE IDEA: Easy - you wish 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 Managed to get - 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! https://betwing88.ipoopyou.com/ sounds easy - the cars and logs come in horizontal rows, and the direction they move, the amount of logs and cars, and the speed can vary. You have to move you frog up, down left and right, preventing the cars, jumping on logs and avoiding nasty creatures and obtain home - do that several times and you also move to another level.
Game Play: Another simple concept that's amazingly addictive. This game relies on timing; you're 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 try to avoid that very fast car, or the snake that's hunting you down!
Nostalgia: I love this game for many reasons. I played it for years, but hardly ever really became an expert - however, it was the first ever game I were able to reproduce using Basic on my ZX81 - I even sold about 50 copies in Germany!
- 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 Concept: aliens are invading the Earth in 'blocks' by moving down the screen gradually. As the intrepid savior of the planet earth it's your task to use your solitary laser cannon, by moving horizontally, and zapping those dastardly aliens out of the sky. Luckily, you have four bases to cover up 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 closer to you, and moves 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 lots 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 low they got - that was about as high tech as it got back in the times of monochrome video gaming!