Top Ten Classic Video Games

10. Pong

Origins: Pong was based on a game called 'Tennis for Two' that was a simulation of a game of tennis on an oscilloscope. Physicist William Higinbotham, the designer, goes down in history as creating one of the first electronic games to employ a graphical display.

betwing88 : The overall game is intended to represent a game of Tennis or Table Tennis (TABLE TENNIS). Each player has a bat; the bat can 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 the ball hits the bat, the ball will move in different directions - should it hit one of the top or bottom lines, then it will bounce off. The theory is simply to make the other player skip the ball - thus scoring a point.

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

Nostalgia: for me it is the father of video games. 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 always remember this game!

9. Frogger

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

THE IDEA: Easy - you intend to walk in one side of the street to the other. Wait betwing88 - there's a lot of traffic; I better dodge the traffic. Phew Made it - hold on, who put that river there. Better jump on those turtles and logs and get to another side - hold on that's a crocodile! AHHH! It sounds easy - the cars and logs come in horizontal rows, and the direction they move, the amount of logs and cars, and the speed may differ. You need to move you frog up, down left and right, avoiding the cars, jumping on logs and avoiding nasty creatures and obtain home - do this several times and you move to another level.

Game Play: Yet another simple concept that's amazingly addictive. This game relies 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 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 a long time, but never 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 initial shooting video gaming and drew heavily from the playability of Breakout.

THE IDEA: 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 utilize your solitary laser cannon, by moving horizontally, and zapping those dastardly aliens out of your sky. Luckily, you have four bases to cover 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 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 quantity 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 high tech as it returned in the days of monochrome video gaming!