Computer Games

In the earliest days, computer games were easily distinguished from videogames; videogames played on consoles didn't have much computer power and tended to appeal to younger kids, while computer games were played on more expensive personal computers and so tended to appeal to older boys. With the passage of time, the distinctions have shifted and blurred somewhat. Videogames are still played on televisions and so lack the graphic resolution of the much bigger computer monitors. Videogames remain the province of younger players, but we are seeing greater overlap between videogames and computer games.

Star Raiders

This game single-handedly launched the Atari personal computers. It was the first 3D space combat game, and it blew everybody's socks off. The game was designed by Doug Neubauer, one of the engineers who designed the hardware for the Atari computers. Realizing just how powerful the hardware was, he set to work creating a game that would take full advantage of that power. As it happened, Star Raiders tapped less than half of the display power of the Atari hardware, but even that was so far ahead of everything else that the game dazzled all who saw it. These old Atari games can be experienced by obtaining an Atari emulator for modern Windows machines; a variety of sites on the Web offer such emulators.

Eastern Front (1941)

I confess that this is my own design, published in 1981, but I believe that the game deserves attention for a number of breakthroughs. It was the first game to use a smooth-scrolling map; it had top-notch AI for the time; and it sported a clean user interface, something uncommon in wargames of the time.

Wizardry

A straight copy of Moria, Wizardry was a game designed for the Plato networked computer system of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Moria was the first successful copy of Dungeons & Dragons to appear on a computer; however, since it is impossible to play Moria, you'll have to settle for Wizardry.

Dandy

Designed by John Palevich and published by the Atari Program Exchange in 1983, this game presented a grossly simplified version of Dungeons & Dragons ("D and D" get it?). In the process, John created something entirely new. Although the game could be played by a single player, it really took off when two or more players cooperated. This was the first game to really exploit the cooperative element in an entertaining way. Although it wasn't a big commercial success, Atari paid homage to the idea by ripping it off with Gauntlet, an arcade game.

Deadline

A text adventure game that blew open the doors of a staid and stagnant genre. Text adventures had been around since the original version, Adventure, showed up at mainframe computer centers in the mid-70s. They were easy to program and quickly showed up on personal computers. In 1979, when I joined Atari, there was already a text adventure editing program written in BASIC for the Atari Home Computer. The genre piddled along fitfully until 1984, when Deadline came along. It was a whodunnit with the player as a gumshoe, trying to assemble the clues into a presentable case. The publisher went on to produce a series of imaginative text adventures, including Planetfall, Trinity, A Mind Forever Traveling, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Because these games were text only, it is not difficult to find versions that run on modern machines.

M.U.L.E.

Designed by Dan Bunten, published by Electronic Arts in 1983. In my mind, this is the finest computer game ever designed. By this I mean that nobody has ever so brilliantly exploited the strengths of the platform on which the game was delivered. The players are colonists of a distant planet who must develop land using a M.U.L.E. device, then sell the product of their land and buy the commodities they need to operate. The marketplace phase is pure genius, transforming buying and selling into a crazy competition that's loads of fun. The game boasts delightfully whimsical graphics and a funky musical accompaniment; the elements all combine to produce the greatest game design of all time.

Balance of Power

The second Crawford game in this list. It presented cold war geopolitics. The game is notable for its unique mechanics, which involved such things as treaties, financial aid, military aid, and direct military intervention. Yet there were no battles or direct combat; everything was presented in terms of political decisions. What made the game exciting was the diplomatic confrontation that could lead to nuclear war. Such confrontations were high-stakes games of bluff; misjudging your opponent could lead to mutual annihilation. The game was realistic enough to be taken seriously; it garnered severe criticism from zealots on both ends of the political spectrum.

King's Quest

An early graphic adventure. All the gameplay of a traditional adventure game, with pretty pictures to boot. Not much more.

Trust & Betrayal (a.k.a. Siboot)

Yet another Crawford design, this game was not a commercial success, but it was one of my most innovative efforts. The player engaged in a series of nightly "dream battles" involving something rather like a rock-scissors-paper game. The trick to the game, however, lay in the player's activities during the day. Meeting with other characters, the player attempted to garner information from them by flattery, alliance, intimidation, or any other technique that might seem appropriate. The central action was the making of a deal in which the player swapped information in his possession for information from the other character. This act constituted a betrayal of the person whose information he revealed; should that character find out that the player had betrayed him, he would be angry and take his revenge. Additional layers of betrayal were possible by revealing the deals other people had agreed to. All of this was carried out using an iconic language that permitted a broad range of expressions.

SimCity

By Will Wright. This was the game that everybody, myself included, thought would never get anywhere. But there was something addictive about trying to get your city working better and better all the time. The player starts the game with a plot of land, some people, and some money. He starts building a city, establishing residential areas, retail areas, industrial areas, and so forth. He must build roads and mass transit systems to permit residents to reach their jobs, police stations to suppress crime, and fire stations to fight fires. Tax revenues are generated by the retail and industrial areas; those tax revenues are used to fund the various public services. All the various factors in the game must be juggled against each other; should the population grow too rapidly for the transportation infrastructure, the citizens will become discontented with the traffic delays. Not enough police stations allows crime to run rampant, again causing dissatisfaction. More adventurous players are invited to unleash a variety of disasters on their cities, such as fires, earthquakes, and of course the gigantic monster who likes to stomp on buildings.

The 7^th Guest

This was the personal computer's answer to Dragon's Lair. The programmer, Graeme Devine, was brilliant with video technology, creating an engine capable of playing video from the slow CD's of the time. The designer, Rob Landeros, had a cinematist's feel for imagery and emotion. Together, they built a smashingly beautiful product with truly haunting, genuinely frightening imagery. Unfortunately, like Dragon's Lair, the gameplay was insufficient to carry the product it was nothing more than obscure puzzle-solving. Once again, everybody rushed to do video-based CD games. The continuing advances in video technology on personal computers kept the patient technically alive long after brain death had occurred. The sequel, The 11^th Hour, sold reasonably well, but that was the end of the series.

Myst

The 3D rendering analogue of The 7^th Guest. The designers had produced a number of games with exactly the same gameplay; these games had sold moderate amounts, but they were basically just graphic adventure games like King's Quest and so generated little excitement. But these guys were the first kids on the block to use 3D rendering engines to produce splendiferous imagery to tack onto their graphic adventure games. Whoosh glorious success! Just like The 7^th Guest, the sequel sold reasonably well, and that was the end of the series.

Doom

The first big hit 3D first-person shooter. It was preceded by Castle Wolfenstein, but that game was shareware and didn't penetrate the public consciousness as deeply. Moreover, Doom made some significant advances that blew open the doors on this kind of game. The history of game design in the 90s is mostly a story of people trying to outdo Doom.

Civilization

Sid Meier's great classic strategy wargame was based on the equally classic game Empire. However, Sid went far beyond the original in creating this masterpiece. The basic "conquer the world" design was there, complete with cities as generators of military units, but Sid took it much further: Cities could grow and develop their own economic and industrial potential, supplement their defenses, or build great projects that benefited all the cities owned by the player. This made for a less militaristic game. The most important element for all game designers to learn from this game is the fine-tuning.

Civilization is without doubt one of the most carefully tuned games ever created. The interplay between military, scientific, economic, and industrial factors is complex and intricately balanced.

LESSON 3

Those who would build the future must understand the past.

Warcraft

This game kicked off a major revival in real-time strategy games. Normally resource management is associated with turn-sequencing, but Warcraft showed a way to handle the problem in real-time play. It certainly wasn't the first real-time strategy game, nor the best, but it stands as something of a milestone in the genre.

Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe

Flight simulators have been around since the very beginning of personal computers, and there have been many important ones, but I will single out this game as the best overall example of the genre. It lacks the mind-numbing complexity of Falcon and the magnificent graphics of the modern games, but its combination of simple play and great fun made a big impression on the industry.

Populous

The first "god game," Populous is important for the more indirect style of gameplay that it introduced. Instead of directly commanding your effective units, you indirectly affected the growth and development of an autonomous community. Although such ideas had been explored much earlier in Jim Dunnigan's designs, Peter Molyneaux translated these ideas into computer format with excellent results. Sadly, few other designs have developed these concepts; Peter has single-handedly developed them.