Wrestling
Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special (1994, Human Entertainment, Super NES, Japan)
Others
World Games (1986, Epyx, Commodore 64, USA): Ranges from the traditional, such as skiing, to the unusual, such as caber tossing and bull riding.
California Games (1987, Epyx, Commodore 64, USA): Sunny sporting delights.
Wii Sports Resort (2009, Nintendo, Wii, Japan): 11 sports wrapped in an island resort theme. Also see the previously mentioned Wii Sports (2006, Nintendo, Wii, Japan).
Fighting
The boxing game Heavyweight Champ (1976, Sega, Coin-op, Japan) was the earliest example. Then came the genre-defining double whammy of Kung-Fu Master (1984, Irem, Coin-op, Japan) and Karate Champ (1984, Data East, Technos Japan, Coin-op, Japan).
Kung-Fu Master’s followers:
Final Fight (1989, Capcom, Coin-op, Japan): Over-the-top ’80s US urban grit and three-player mode.
Golden Axe (1989, Sega, Makoto Uchida, Coin-op, Japan): Swords and sorcery battling that laid the template for the chirpy indie smash Castle Crashers (2008, The Behemoth, Xbox 360, USA).
River City Ransom / Street Gangs (1989, Technos Japan, Mitsuhiro Yoshida & Hiroyuki Sekimoto, NES, Japan): Beat up gangs, steal their money, buy a spa treatment. A unique, cute and humorous marriage of RPG and beat ’em up.
Dynasty Warriors 4 (2003, Koei, Omega Force, PlayStation 2, Japan): Exhilarating lone warrior versus an army action.
Viewtiful Joe (2003, Capcom, Clover Studio, Gamecube, Japan): Riotous punch-up action inspired by Japan’s tokusatsu (‘live action’) TV shows. Think Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.
Yazuka (2005, Sega, Amusement Vision, PlayStation 2, Japan) and The Warriors (2005, Rockstar Games, Rockstar Toronto, PlayStation 2, Canada): Remaking the scrolling fighting for the 3D era.
Karate Champ’s disciples:
International Karate + / Chop ’n Drop (1987, System 3, Archer MacLean, Commodore 64, UK): Three-player cheat-fuelled fun.
Street Fighter II (1991, Capcom, Yoshiki Okamoto, Coin-op, Japan): One of the most influential and enduring fighting games ever made. Its secret moves were a revolution. Street Fighter IV (2008, Capcom, Capcom & Dimps, Coin-op, Japan) proved the series hasn’t lost its appeal.
Mortal Kombat (1992, Midway Games, Ed Boon & John Tobias, Coin-op, USA): Now best remembered for the controversy than the entertainment value. SNK’s Street Fighter II followers – Fatal Fury: King of Fighters (1991, SNK, Coin-op, Japan) and Samurai Shodown II (1994, SNK, Neo Geo, Japan) – were superior.
Virtua Fighter (1993, Sega, Yu Suzuki, Coin-op, Japan): Took fighting into the third dimension.
Bushido Blade (1997, Squaresoft, Light Weight, PlayStation, Japan): A daring jettison of fighting game tradition. No energy bars, instant kills and limb-disabling damage juxtaposed against beautiful backdrops. Also see the instant death decapitations of Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior / Death Sword (1987, Palace Software, Steve Brown, Commodore 64, UK).
Soul Calibur (1998, Namco, Coin-op [Dreamcast], Japan): Astonishing weapon-based combat.
Super Smash Bros Melee(2001, Nintendo, HAL Laboratory, Gamecube, Japan): Nintendo’s characters gathered together for deliriously fun cartoon punch-ups.
Dead or Alive 3 (2001, Tecmo, Team Ninja, Xbox, Japan) and Tekken 6 (2007, Namco Bandai, Coin-op, Japan): Equally matched rival fighting game series.
Rag Doll Kung Fu (2005, Valve, Mark Healey, PC: Windows, UK): Elastic puppetry underpins this crazed and irreverent martial arts game.
Driving
Restricted by technology, the earliest driving games opted for a bird’s eye view of the road, such as in Gran Trak 10 (1974, Atari, Coin-op, USA).
The best of the overhead tarmac burners:
Ivan ‘Ironman’ Stewart’s Super Off-Road Racer (1989, Leland, John Morgan, Coin-op, USA): Rough and tumble off-road racing on suitably bumpy tracks. As with most overhead racers best played with friends.
Super Cars II (1991, Gremlin Graphics, Magnetic Fields, Amiga, UK): Tongue-in-cheek take on the overhead racer with weapons to destroy your rivals and between-race run-ins with bureaucratic safety officials.
Micro Machines V3 (1997, Codemasters, PlayStation, UK): Based on the toy cars and set on tracks set up on kitchen tables and in household gardens. The overhead racer’s finest moment.
A rare few tried an isometric viewpoint:
Racing Destruction Set (1985, Electronic Arts, Rick Koenig, Commodore 64, USA): Build-your-own-tracks racing. A precursor to the racecourse-building game Trackmania (2003, Focus Multimedia, Nadeo, PC: Windows, France).
R.C. Pro-Am (1988, Nintendo, Rare, NES, UK): Zippy isometric races.
Nürburgring/1 (1976, Dr.-Ing. Reiner Foerst, Coin-op, West Germany) and Night Driver (1976, Atari, Dave Shepperd, Coin-op, USA) introduced the driver’s perspective viewpoint, while Turbo (1981, Sega, Coin-op, Japan) was first with the behind-the-car view. These three games formed the basis of most of what follows and the divide between the simulation-emphasis of Nürburgring/1 and the arcade thrills of Night Driver is still very much visible.
First, the simulation leaning:
Revs (1984, Acornsoft, Geoff Crammond, BBC Micro, UK): The start of physics degree holder Crammond’s efforts to simulate professional racing, which continued with Formula 1 Grand Prix (1992, Microprose, Geoff Crammond, PC: MS-DOS, UK) and Grand Prix 4 (2002, Microprose, Geoff Crammond, PC: Windows, UK). Also see the fantastical rollercoaster drag racing of Stunt Car Racer / Stunt Track Racer (1989, Microprose, Geoff Crammond, Amiga, UK).
Hard Drivin’ (1988, Atari Games, Coin-op, USA): 3D driving game pioneer.
Indianapolis 500: The Simulation (1989, Electronic Arts, Papyrus Design Group, PC: MS-DOS, USA): Landmark use of 3D to simulate Indy 500 racing complete with instant replays and multiple camera angles.
Gran Turismo (1997, Sony Computer Entertainment, Polyphony Digital, PlayStation, Japan): Petrolhead wish fulfilment. Fill your virtual garage with every flash car you ever wanted. Try: Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (2001, Sony Computer Entertainment, Polyphony Digital, PlayStation 2, Japan).
Grand Prix Legends (1998, Sierra, Papyrus Design Group, PC: Windows, USA): Recreates the 1967 Formula 1 season in glorious detail.
F1 2002 (2002, EA Sports, Image Space, PC: Windows, USA): Stole Geoff Crammond’s thunder with its choice between full-on simulation and arcade action.
rFactor (2005, Image Space, PC: Windows, USA): Incredibly detailed. A true simulation.
X-Motor Racing (2007, Exotypos, PC: Windows, USA): So accurate the car industry uses its technology for research and development.
On the arcade side:font>
Out Run (1986, Sega, Yu Suzuki, Coin-op, Japan): All the glamour of the 1980s.
Super Hang-On (1987, Sega, Yu Suzuki, Coin-op, Japan): Motorbike racing.
Cisco Heat (1990, Jaleco, Coin-op, Japan): San Francisco-based racer that makes the most of the city’s famous hills.
Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge (1990, Gremlin Graphics, Magnetic Fields, Amiga, UK): Slick racer that stands the test of time.
Super Mario Kart (1992, Nintendo, Super NES, Japan): Madcap tyre-screeching fun that kick started the whole kart-racing genre.
Daytona USA (1993, Sega, Toshihiro Nagoshi, Coin-op, Japan): One of the most enduring coin-op games of all-time and with good reason.
Burnout (2001, Acclaim, Criterion Games, PlayStation 2, UK): Daredevil racer that rewards dangerous driving. Burnout 3: Takedown (2004, EA Games, Criterion Games, PlayStation 2, UK) had the most panache. Burnout Paradise (2008, Electronic Arts, Criterion Games, PlayStation 3, UK) opened up the city streets.
Crazyracing Kartrider (2004, Nexon, PC: Windows, South Korea): Kart racing goes online. The biggest development in sub-genre since Super Mario Kart.
Need for Speed: Underground (2004, EA Games, EA Black Box, PlayStation 2, Canada): Custom car racing inspired by the 2001 film The Fast and the Furious.
Other racers of note:
Excite
bike (1984, Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, NES, Japan): Side-view motocross racing.
Kikstart 2 (1987, Mastertronic, Mr Chip, Commodore 64, UK): Evel Knievel daredevil stunt biking. Modern equivalent: Trials HD (2009, Microsoft Game Studios, RedLynx, Xbox 360, Finland).
Wave Race: Blue Storm (2001, Nintendo, Nintendo Software Technology, Gamecube, USA): Jet ski racing
F-Zero GX (2003, Nintendo, Amusement Vision (Sega), Gamecube, Japan): High-speed futuristic racing with excellent-looking tracks.
Project Gotham Racing 3 (2005, Microsoft Game Studios, Bizarre Creations, Xbox 360, UK): Racing game series distinguished by its Kudos time bonuses for stylish driving.
Wipeout HD (2008, Sony Computer Entertainment, Studio Liverpool, PlayStation 3, UK): High-definition, breakneck, futuristic racing.
Colin McRae: Dirt 2 / Dirt 2 (2009, Codemasters, Xbox 360, UK): Off-road racing.
18 Wheels of Steel: Extreme Trucker (2009, ValuSoft, SCS Software, PC: Windows, Czech Republic): Truck driving simulation game. For more racing-orientated trucking: 18 Wheeler (1999, Sega, AM2, Coin-op, Japan).
Grand Theft Auto
Although the original came across as a driving game, it was and is so much more.
The spiritual ancestor is the emancipating space sim Elite (1984, Acornsoft, Ian Bell & David Braben, BBC Micro, UK), which gave players a galaxy to play in. Elite has its own, more obvious, followers in Privateer (1993, Electronic Arts, Origin Systems, PC: MS-DOS, USA) and the massively multiplayer online world of EVE Online (2003, Simon & Schuster Interactive, CCP, PC: Windows, Iceland). Also see the official sequels: Frontier: Elite II (1993, Gametek, David Braben, Amiga, UK) and Frontier: First Encounters (1995, Gametek, Frontier Developments, PC: MS-DOS, UK).
The simulated cities of Sean Cooper’s Syndicate (1993, Electronic Arts, Bullfrog, Amiga, UK), a gritty sci-fi game of corporate conquest, and its sequel Syndicate Wars (1996, Electronic Arts, Bullfrog, PC: MS-DOS, UK) are another influence. As were DMA Design’s own early dabbles in 3D with the non-linear Body Harvest (1998, Gremlin Interactive, DMA Design, Nintendo 64, UK) and the 3D platforming of Space Station Silicon Valley (1998, Take-Two Interactive, DMA Design, Nintendo 64, UK). Incidentally, the latter’s possess-the-enemy action owes a significant debt to the cerebral shoot ‘em up Paradroid (1985, Hewson, Graftgold, Commodore 64, UK). See its prettier remake: Paradroid ’90 (1990, Hewson, Graftgold, Amiga, UK).
The first Grand Theft Auto (1997, BMG Interactive, DMA Design, PC: MS-DOS, UK) contains most of the core features of the series, but the move to 3D was a revelation:
Grand Theft Auto III (2001, Rockstar Games, DMA Design, PlayStation 2, UK): The stunning 3D breakthrough that made level-based games look old-fashioned overnight.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002, Rockstar Games, Rockstar North, PlayStation 2, UK): Eighties retro cool with a wicked sense of humour.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004, Rockstar Games, Rockstar North, PlayStation 2, UK): Three cities, one state. The most ambitious of series.
Grand Theft Auto IV (2008, Rockstar Games, Rockstar North, Xbox 360, UK): The most detailed of Rockstar’s city sims yet and the best written story of the series.
Few of the attempts to copy Grand Theft Auto’s virtual city action have delivered. One of the few that did:
Crackdown (2007, Microsoft Game Studios, Realtime Worlds, Xbox 360, UK).
Single-player role-playing games
TSR’s 1974 pen-and-paper game Dungeons & Dragons started it all, but the leap to digital world wear instant, starting with the long-lost pioneer Pedit5 (1974, Rusty Rutherford, PLATO, USA). Then:
Dungeon (1975, Don Daglow, PDP-10, USA): Letters and punctuation in lieu of graphics.
Oubliette (1977, Jim Schwaiger, PLATO, USA) and Moria (1978, Kevet Duncombe & Jim Battin, PLATO, USA): First-person view dungeons.
Most enduring of all the mainframe RPGs was Rogue (1980, Michael Toy & Glenn Wichman, Unix, USA): Beneath its ugly alphanumeric character visuals lurks a game of constant variety thanks to its randomly generated dungeons. Rogue’s influence and fanatical following spawned a huge number of so-called ‘roguelikes’, among them:
Moria (1983, Robert Koeneke & Jimmey Todd, VAX-11/780, USA): No relation to the PLATO game. It was an important influence on the excellent action RPG Diablo (1996, Blizzard Entertainment, Blizzard North, PC: Windows, USA). Diablo’s followers: Dungeon Siege (2002, Microsoft Game Studios, Gas Powered Games, PC: Windows, USA), the spandex-clad superhero RPG Freedom Force (2002, Crave Entertainment, Irrational Games, PC: Windows, USA) and, of course, Diablo II (2000, Blizzard, Blizzard North, PC: Windows, USA).
NetHack (1987, The NetHack DevTeam, Unix, USA): The most notable roguelike. Created by open-source development.
Highlights of the first wave of home computer role-playing games:
Space II (1979, Edu-Ware, David Mullich, Apple II, USA): Recreational drug taking and religious missionary adventures in space. An expansion to the original Space (1979, Edu-Ware, Steven Pederson & Sherwin Steffin, Apple II, USA).
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (1981, Sir-Tech, Andrew Greenberg & Robet Woodhead, Apple II, USA): The biggest RPG of the early 1980s but the series evolved too slowly to maintain its early lead.
Tunnels of Doom (1982, Texas Instruments, Kevin Kenney, TI-99/4a, USA): Replaced line-drawing first-person view dungeons with solid walls.
Alakabeth: World of Doom (1979, Richard Garriott, Apple II, USA) became the foundation stone of the legendary Ultima series:
Ultima: The First Age of Darkness (1981, California Pacific Computer, Richard Garriott & Ken Arnold, Apple II, USA): The start of the genre-defining series.
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (1985, Origin Systems, Richard Garriott, Apple II, USA): The addition of a moral backbone raised the bar for all RPGs and it’s still regarded by many as the best in the series. Marked the start of Ultima’s ‘enlightenment’ trilogy that also includes the brilliant Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (1988, Origin Systems, Richard Garriott, PC: MS-DOS, USA) and Ultima VI: The False Prophet (1990, Origin Systems, Richard Garriott, PC: MS-DOS, USA).
Ultima VII: The Black Gate (1992, Origin Systems, Richard Garriott, PC: MS-DOS, USA) and Ultima VII Part Two: The Serpent’s Isle (1993, Origin Systems, Richard Garriott, PC: MS-DOS, USA): The last great moments for the single-player Ultimas.
Also the spin-offs:
Ultima Worlds of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams (1991, Origin Systems, PC: MS-DOS, USA): Jules Verne steam punk, where the celebrities of the Victorian era travel to Mars in a steam-powered rocket ship.
Ultima Underworlds: The Stygian Abyss (1992, Origin Systems, Blue Sky Productions, PC: MS-DOS, USA): Started Id Software on the path to Doom, but a great RPG in its own right.
Mid-1980s to mid-1990s:
Mandragore (1984, Infogrames, Marc Cecchi, Thomson MO5, France): Ultima-style RPG with an eco-message and references to the ancient Greek poems The Iliad and Odyssey.
Wasteland (1988, Electronic Arts, Interplay, Commodore 64, USA): Post-nuclear war epic that paved the way for the Fallout series. One of the finest RPGs of the 1980s.
B.A.T. (1990, Ubisoft, Computer’s Dream, Atari ST, France): Blade Runner goes Gallic. Features a programmable computer that is attached to the forearm of the player’s character. Also its sequel: The Koshan Conspiracy (1992, Ubisoft, Computer’s Dream, Amiga, France).
Darklands (1992, Microprose, Arnold Hendrick, PC: MS-DOS, USA): Staggeringly detailed and open-ended quest for celebrity and wealth in medieval Germany.
Legend / The Four Crystals Of Trazere (1992, Mindscape, Anthony Tagilone & Pete James, Amiga, PC, UK): A proto-Diablo with an impressively flexible design-a-spell magic system.
The trendsetting Dungeon Master (1987, FTL, Atari ST, USA) took the genre into real-time and won over many who had previously been put off by the lack of action in RPGs. Provided the blueprint for:
Eye of the Beholder (1990, SSI, Westwood Associates, PC: MS-DOS, USA): Official Advanced Dunge
ons & Dragons tie-in that outshined its inspiration.
Captive (1990, Mindscape, Anthony Crowther, Amiga, UK): Sci-fi Dungeon Master with thousands of levels. Its 3D sequel, set in a large virtual city, was even better: Liberation: Captive 2 (1994, Mindscape, Anthony Crowther, CD32, UK).
Ishar: Legend of the Fortress (1992, Silmarils, Atari ST, France): Made managing the personalities and relationships of your band of adventurers central to the game. Also attempted to dissuade players from saving too often by deducting gold for each save.
From the late 1990s onwards, three companies dominated western RPGs: Interplay, BioWare and Bethesda Softworks.
Interplay’s late 1990s output marked a high point for RPG storytelling:
Baldur’s Gate (1998, Interplay, BioWare, PC: Windows, Canada): Fantasy RPG writing at its very best.
Planescape: Torment (1999, Interplay, Black Isle Studios, PC: Windows, USA): A quest of self-discovery that ripped up the RPG rulebook. Deep, unique and often funny.
Fallout (1997, Interplay, Black Isle Studios, PC: Windows, USA) and Fallout 2 (1998, Interplay, Black Isle Studios, PC: Windows, USA): An uncompromisingly bleak journey into the horrors of a post-nuclear war world. Its mix of retro-technology and 1950s Americana was sheer genius.
After Baldur’s Gate, BioWare went on to make:
Neverwinter Nights (2002, Atari Interactive, BioWare, PC: Windows, Canada): The inclusion of the Aurora Toolset turned it into a RPG construction kit.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003, LucasArts, BioWare, Xbox, Canada): BioWare begins its investigation of branching plotlines, moral grey zones and action that it continued in:
Mass Effect (2007, Microsoft Game Studios, BioWare, Xbox 360, Canada): Ambitious space opera.
Replay: The History of Video Games Page 52