FAR FROM NOISE

Not the most perfect choice for a New Year's post , but certainly an important moment in gaming history. I was about to write something about this game yesterday when I heard that one of my 16 year-old ESL students took his own life by jumping off a balcony of his family apartment. A great kid who was far superior to me at everything he undertook and  was gracious and kind.

The game starts with all the questions a living human faces - fear, doubt, transience of one's physical existence, reality and fabrication in one's life, one's place in the grand scheme of things, the lack of purpose, the loneliness etc The idea for a game is unique - an old car with a young woman inside is balancing on a cliff overlooking the vast  ocean. Aware of the predicament she got herself in, she tries to make sense of it all and reflect on her own life, first on her own and later in a company of a wise deer.The  author gravitates heavily towards and builds the girl's character around his own philosophical views, namely those of naturalism and transcedentalism. The girl came to a place she used to visit as a kid, and you can almost see the storm that goes through her mind as she reflects on her failures and inadequacies. It takes a deer talking nature and natural phenomena such as rain and lightning and thunder to bring her round to a different understanding of life and Universe.

A high level of interaction is successfully achieved solely by using dialogue and  life story building around the main character which is close to impossible to achieve in  textual adventures. Animations liven up the  pace, every details serves the narrative.The game could do without additional intermezzos of poetry, but unlike those recorded lectures in EVERYTHING they are not that demanding and don't grab your attention that forcefully. The conscious decision to not include voice acting and limit the game to texts and background music and ambience is another brilliant way to keep the emphasis on Nature and its grandeur. The intellectual clash between the deer and the girl is reflected in their different use of language, but the rift seems to be growing smaller as the story unfolds. Or not?

Despite this being a game changing title for me, I feel the author is trying to impose his views on us and grin derisively at the world and I think it would be even more ground-breaking if he developed several different characters adhering to different philosophies the player could choose from. This way we only get to see the author's views as the story unravels and him toying with a young mind who might have had  enough. Free will, yes, but moral responsibility first and foremost.

CASHFLOW

This inventive board game by Robert Kiyosaki , a successful entrepreneur  and business lecturer, was built around  his own views on success in business, and he did it so successfully that even if you don't necessarily subscribe to his point of view  you still end up being partially converted after a few runs. True, the first few spins on "how money works" will probably awaken  the deep and long-supressed frustration about not achieving success and financial stability before 40 (or 30) and the remorse about taking up Humanities instead of  Maths and Accountancy, but then you start having fun and learning about cashflow and assets and liabilities, about the fact that a bigger car or house you buy is not necessarily an asset, and that being a good employee climbing the corporate ladder isn't going to make you rich in the long run. Absolutely hated it when I first tried it. Only after reading Robert's book entitled "Rich Dad Poor Dad" did I give the game a second chance, Everything Robert wholeheartedly believes in is perfectly integrated into this game. The "rat race" track of losers/employees and the "fast lane" of intelligent people/ business owners, the situations that force you to recognise assets and liabilities, dealing with taxes and financial problems , saving money, opening and managing accounts etc. The video game version just transfers the perfect playing experience from the board to the screen.

A true business simulation classic if there ever was one.

FLOOR KIDS

 Game music pioneers made some poor games big by making incredible tunes for them. In order to make this game great, developers had to find a music maker that could give real substance to a breakdance game. Kid Koala was no doubt a perfect pick for the soundtrack, paying homage to both the craft and the culture behind it, and the developers were both such great music fans and were so extremely musical themselves to be able to integrate the music with movements and programming of the characters. Lots of love and sweat was put into Floor Kids.
The game isn't about nostalgia and the roots of a famed urban culture that flourished in the 80s, but about celebrating a global and embracing cultural phenomenon that has beaten time in its own right. Everything about the mechanics and the dancing is superfun: the rhythm-based sections, tapping as fast as you can at some beaks, the freezes , the combos, the five  features essential to excelling at breakdancing (funk, flavour, flow, fire, flyness)... It's playable, fun, unique and has great replay value . Akthough more seasoned generations could say they performed all these stunts in the streets and that nothing beat the real thing, this game might just be an excellent introduction to a future breakdancer and DJ.

HUMAN RESOURCE MACHINE

Finally - a game dealing with the most hated and the most excruciatingly painful  position in the global workforce! Not only did they do a splendid job at making you feel like a puppet master toying with destinies of the employees at the company, but you also get to do it total-surveillance style and program people by means of basic algorithmic thinking. So not only do you get to control everything and everyone making a system that would automate things. but you also  get to boost your own self-esteem in the process.Even a complete ignoramus like myself won't get scared of the algorithmic nature of a limited number of commands at your disposal. Run your programmes and revel in success.

PARAPPA THE RAPPER

This lively game with care-free animation and simple mechanics was a total game-changer that cemented its position of a true gaming classic introducing an entire genre of games to come. Besides being  one of the first rhythm-based games , PARAPPA THE RAPPER went way beyond that, helping disseminate hip hop  culture among young (and especially non-English-speaking) populations across the world. Sure, one could argue against diluting and approapriation of a culture and its essence, and the characters might be interpreted as racial stereotypes to a certain extent by some, but this game is about something else - it's about growing up, righting the wrongs, helping others, building empathy, and looking cute while doing it. The on-screen prompts the gameplay is largely consisted of  help you with your learning as you rap through your life lessons. As far as the language of the raps go, it's invaluable for any ESL learner hoping to come closer to understanding the flow and accentuation of English utterances. But again, you can still have fun with this awesome game even if  English be your mother tongue - it's fun, easy to play, it won't take too much of your time and you'll enjoy playing it.

MINI METRO

The other day I watched an episode of The Orville  which dealt with discovering a 2-dimensional civilization and thought the colourful lines of movements of its beings and objects  were remindful of old metro scheme designs and vehicle pathways of Tron and that it would great if such designs were used more frequently in gaming. Minutes into my on-line quasi-research and I come upon Mini Metro.What a great example of an exciting real-life job simulation carved into a slick game! Subway and train outlines have been part of gaming since its infancy, but this title gives you an actual opportunity to see the results of your construction engineering efforts seconds after you've built, reinvented, upgraded or altered the lines. The city (one in 10 actual cities you can pick) and its population gets bigger and so does the number of stations  you need to connect with subway lines and thus keep make things run as smoothly as possible,

Mini Metro is visually pleasing and fun and easy to play and has a decent replay value and cute music. It also has that Je ne sais quoi  quality about it that makes it both charming and ground-breaking at the same time. Could it be the compelling nature of fighting entropy on any scale and within any given system the thing that makes Mini Metro a great game? Or is it simply the combination of casual gameplay and deep tactics? Try this instant classic, you won't be disappointed.

EVERYTHING

When I was 9 I thought it would be great if someone made a game in which you could be a platform, a sprite, a boulder,a trap, a contraption, the hero's arch enemy or anything else but the hero. Someone beat me to it (Tim Winsky http://indianastone.twinskygames.com/ ) and the result is wonderful. I recently realised , though, that there are people who went way further than what I thought leaving the confines of your average video game concept could mean. What if you could play everything within a game and be a microorganism, a plant, an animal, a boulder, an island, a natural phenomenon, a celestial body, a galaxy and so forth, all within a single game? Add some metaphysical humour and unease ,beautiful music and passages of recorded narration by the inimitable Alan Watts and you got EVERYTHING the game. It rewards reflection and patience, and as you ascend or descend by experiencing the interconnectedness of forms in the pool of  universal consciousness you realise you can listen to its thoughts, receive and sing its vibrations, and become a vibrating sequence yourself. Entering and leaving forms (even those such as oil rigs, boots and snowmen) as you gain knowledge through experience of being leaves you asking "What am I supposed to want here?" (Alan Watts again). Playing it over and over again, I suppose.

This is the best game I've ever played. Period. Nothing comes even close.

ANOTHER LOST PHONE : LAURA'S STORY

Feeling ill at ease with passages of deeply personal reminiscences found in  artists' autobiographies?Feeling as if you're encroaching upon their privacy while catering to their self-gratification? Then this game is not for you.

We've all grown into wonderful underachievers turning to other people's woes and failures for comfort and we can't help it. If you found somebody's phone in the street, would you explore it  before returning it? Would you bother looking for wifi passwords, data, e-mail and social media content, calenders and business communication to find out what happened to the owner of the phone? By exploring and testing Laura's phone to pick up the pieces  you test yourself on how far you can go.

Looking at another person's smartphone through your own phone adds to the creepy Big Brother feel to the game and the concept itself is original, simple and elegant. marinating in juices of an intriguing story that unravels in a surprising way.

CUPHEAD

There's been a lot of nitpicking about this game. It's nothing more than a collection of bosses, the Cuphead character lacks character, we've all waited too long for this and it doesn't live up to the hype etc.Forget that.

From an era of animation that produced hundreds of cartoons that are now banned for their social,racial,chauvinist undertones  comes a game celebrating the years of uncertainty and fear dressed in cuteness and duelling with the devil.The distorted world Cuphead's living in is a map, a menu for the voracious and lost,  depicted with faded colours. Characters are monomaniacal and blind to anything around them.The authors have they even toned down  the racial  and chauvinist stereotyping of  some of  Max Fleischer and Tex Avery's cartoons  (Mexicans, East-Europeans, Italians).They softened it down but still retained the characteristic physical features for characters and bosses. The fact that the devil is also entitled to the souls of the bosses you fight with to free your soul of smelling your own flesh roast till there's no tomorrow only goes to show you how thorough the game makers were in outlining the story. Why go there? Why not?An era that had dance marathons  deserves to be presented in the form of a game as it is eerily similar to contemporary experience.There's almost an educational value to this game.

But there is so much more to this than making a threnody for the Roaring 20s and the frightening 30s - it's a fun and highly addictive game  requiring skill and alertness acquired through trial and error, just like the favourties from the 80s and 90s we loved as kids. If nothing else , Cuphead should be praised for all the love, painstaking exploration and creativity put into it.

FLOW

It's a game about a microscopic being going about its daily business in a water-like microworld, eating other microscopic organisms or using them to cross to other planes, growing and evolving and becoming more complex as it goes further into the deep, arriving at a black mass where its journey ends. Simple and cute, I know. But the sensation you're left with way surpasses the game's premise, same as with JOURNEY - it's about the trip itself more so than anything else, but unlike Journey where I traversed sandy expanses with ruins left behind long-gone civilization and felt the journey  reflected a uniquely human existence at its core, Flow  finds you in a primordial soup where you're every living being that ever lived rising from and giving itself to the cycles of matter. It's about  womb, water, blood, fear of Microcosm and Macrocosm intertwined. You can't die in this game. Everything's in flow.

ALTER EGO

The oldest bildungsroman in gaming I can think of was a welcome relief from genre's dominant fantasy subject matter during the 80s. ALTER EGO was  made by a psychology professor and sometimes the playing resembles answering an extensive questionnaire about your life and its travails while living a part you're assigned. On the other hand, introspection isn't bad.  You walk through  life replete with choices you make as a male or female (though including other genders would have been great) of many dispositions and a number of moods. You can give truthful answers or not, be benevolent or malevolent, and each answer determines the way your afterlife plays out. Sets of questions are grouped under icons on the screen that cover an area of life -emotional, social, defining moments and rights of passage, intellectual life and the accruement of knowledge etc and there are thousands upon thousands of questions appearing randomly. Your aim is to develop into a functional human being without dying in the process. Deliberately making wrong decisions  will also enable you  to have a differennt kind of fun and see how you can end your life in the game - and again, there are dozens of ways to do it.
The replay value and the fact that Alter Ego was one of the very few games in my c64 collection  with a "save game" option made playing this game a truly unique experienc. It could have done with some music and maybe some funny fx to spice it up, but  nevetheless it's ace.

DRAGON'S LAIR

Before Dragon's Lair a truly cinematic gaming experience could have only taken place in the imagination if the player while they were mentally traversing magical kingdoms inside the confines of textual adventures.The game appeared almost a decade before interactive movies would become a thing  (and would fall from grace soon afterwards) and heralded the genre in the best way possible . I'm not really sure what kind of processing power a laser disc could have provided an arcade cabinet with , but my personal impression at the time was one of sheer awe. In the years when cheap animation reigned supreme on TV (MOTU,Tarzan etc). the emergence of a game that was visually even more appealing than the series was a huge thing. At that time the animated series wasn't being broadcast anywhere in Yugoslavia, so imagine my surprise when I first laid eyes on the game. Who could resist playing out a cartoon, being at the same time entertained and annoyed with a myriad of excellent ways to die. Nowadays people say the game is nothing more than a series of movie sequences you become an able director of after spending a fortune on your trial-and-error learning curve. Memorising steps to  victory wasn't something that was unknown to 80s gaming anyway (one can easily evoke  memories of titles that taunt the player in a number of largely similar  ways). so a credit should be given where it's due , and this game surely deserves the credit and pomp it got.  Whining about coins lost in the local arcade isn't the way to go about writing a  game review.

KUNG FU MASTER

Whether a particular movie served as inspiration for this legendary game or the whole  king fu action movie genre lent its cliches to it, there could be no doubt that Kung Fun Master changed the face of gaming and set some basic standards for side-scrolling beat-em-ups for good.
Lee is a classic kung fu hero who allows the player  to immerse themselves in a genuine kung fu experience as portrayed on big screens of the time. He displays a deliberately limited number of moves (3 kicks, 2 punches and 1 stiff jump) that require restraint, precision and patience and some getting accustomed to the game's rhythm in a player to fully appreciate it. Many contemporary kung fu/karate movie cliches crept in as well -The Caucasian girlfriend of a Caucasian fighter feeling neglected and left out due to his daily routines; a fight scene where many attackers kidnap the girl despite fighter's effort; a mysterious impotent man named after a letter who's  probably a bit too much into muscles and muscular physique and autoeroticism for  someone trying to play the role of an alpha-male; fighting inside a temple with one floor too many where fighters are literally swept off the floor; villains laughing for no reason; energy-draining Holders and little people who know kung fu; fire-breathing dragons released out of cracked spheres and poisonous snakes coming out of pots; butterflies sucking you dry and female kung fu bosses (evil disguised as beauty); enemy jams the fighter has to free himself from that are entertaining on the eyes. Add an excellent backing track,  impressive fx and graphics for a 1984 game to it all and you can easily understand why the experience of playing it in the arcade was truly magical. This  game scores high on playability and replay value with the kids of today that have tried it, and it only goes to show how good the game was.

BOOKWORM

This must be the single useful piece of software I've ever used in my ESL classes, and the only one kids really reacted to and perceived of as a video game interesting enough to be given repeated plays. Every  9-to-11-year old that tried Bookworm was absolutely amazed by how addictive it is - "Can I play this one  on my phone, is it available? No - why not? It doesn't look like an old game". Later on I found out it was available online and on iPhone. Needless to say, I installed the game on all those defunct machines that were still being  used in classrooms I taught in.

Serbo-Croatian/Croato-Serbian language is a language where spelling is 100% phonetic, so imagine the travails of having to persuade kids to learn the spelling of individual words of a language they're only beginning to understand. Bookworm, a simple game of stringing letters to get to real words while accompanied by a bespectacled worm,  succeeded where I failed so many times as a teacher.

FLOWER

This game  evokes a powerful set of emotions, not unlike those I felt playing Journey. Albeit another game from the same team and implying the idea of a voyage, and whether perceived as a life's parable or not, it takes the player on a voyage of pure emotion, the one of tracking and observing the fate of a seemingly insignificant thing in nature such as a simple flower petal. Hardcore gamers probably rolled their eyes in horror when they first saw this game, but it takes only a bit of streching to accept it for what it is - a marvellous, pioneering, genre-bending gem. You go from light to dark,  enthropy to order, cityscapes to country landscapes, chaos to creation in joyous motion that gives you a sense of genuine freedom, and all of that is accompanied by music that suits each particular change along the way. No enemies to kill or mame or hurt in any way

A tale of a windmaster dancing with a single petal- who can resist embarking on such a great adventure?

FAÇADE

This game recreates the feel of a dinner invitation you unwillingly accept only to find yourself amidst serious marital quarrels and ugliness that a stale relationship gives birth to at times. Nobody wants you to be a marriage councellor, but you  have to simply turn into one for the sake of your own mental well-being. Fake it through  uncomfortable theatrics and jabs at topics like parents, money, careers, personal traits etc  and steer the couple towards a reconcilliation of some kind. Or pick a road more frequently travelled nowadays and  ruin the dinner even further with insults and bad words, budding in  and neglecting your guests' feelings, all leading to Trip and Grace seeing you out and continuing their quarrel behind closed doors. Either way, you clearly see the effect of your comportment.
 This game is a beacon of light for all the wannabe interactive dramas that put too much emphasis on  graphics and too little emphasis on the story and the way it unfolds. And yes, the visual side reminds me of "Waking Life" and "Scanner Darkly"

BUBBLE BOBBLE

My sisters loved playing this classic, my dad loved it , hell, I even  got my mom to play it once - and she hated video games.What was so enticing about this title? Was it the fact that it was one of the few genuine 2-player experiences from the 80s that did it for this classic? Aside from trapping enemies in a bubble and popping them and jumping platforms, the two B brothers must have offered something je ne sais quoi  to earn the status of a classic. It must have been the head-spinning and the cuteness that did it for all of us.The cute factor and the world that displayed this cuteness worked just as well in the arcade or an amusement park or on my friends NES whenever I would play it - there was always somebody asking to join me in my Baburu Boburu adventures. And yes - the iconic game soundtrack was heaven!

For all that it’s a great game inspired by a merely good one, Bubble Bobble was not, in itself, hugely influential—with the possible exception of the magnificent sequel Rainbow Islands. Between them, perhaps, they simply managed to perfect the formula. RS

CALCULATOR : THE GAME

Ever thought there was more to your personal calculator than doing calculus, ever wished there was some secret mechanism that could unlock its hidden features and turn it into a game console of sorts? Even if it be a Tabletop game? As a kid I would turn it upside down trying to write words and would often try to play with the look of operations on screen so that I could get hints at imagined landscapes -little did I know about ascii then.
This game  is not about existential  glitches and the meaning of life as some other similarly Spartan designs and titles would suggest.This one's a genuine game, and a cute one at that. And cute and charming sells. Puzzles start with regular operations at each level only to become more of an infatuating interaction with your cute calculator that add to the feeling of excitement and excellence with each new level.Levels change, buttons change, your calculator gives you uplfting comments. You almost wish you chose a career in science instead of humanities,

One of a kind game.

CANABALT

This  free flash game with a man running from a world crumbling behind him, trying to escape death/apocalypse  jumping buildings was ported to a plethora of systems, and rightfully so. Running games were already in abundance at this time in gaming history, but the key to Canabalt's brilliance was its simplicity, both in terms of playability and the bleak urban surroundings  moving rapidly on the screen that seem to be reminiscent of  a nasty dream. It reminds me of those  easy-to-play-hard-to-finish games that reigned the 80s gaming universe, and the ease with which it successfully translated to c64 only proves my point further. It'a a game that would have been a smash whenever it appeared. This title is a personal favourite among endless runners.

You can download the c64 version at c64.com or wait until RGCD have made more cartridges.

TAMAGO

Sometimes aimless and absurd is the way to go in an industry run by inertia and greediness. This time it's all about existentialism and concept, and it works exceptionallly well. You break the egg shown on the screen by tapping it exactly one million times.- a feat  requiring a few months of your waking hours. Call it novelty or curiosity or plain love for the absurd or stupid, but this game has already had more than 5 million users. The mystery behind the 1mil mark made people use cheats, hacks and even mechanical screen tapping devices to achieve it.

The game grants them a "So What?" sign above the egg upon completion of the task, and though it could be construed as an extremely mean gesture on the game maker's part, it might entail a more serious issue of modern gaming, be it casual or hardcore, and call for a more serious debate on free time and gaming as a meaningful undertaking.

Curiosity killed the screen and made an omelette.

EPISTORY - TYPING CHRONICLES

There have been other typing games so far, yes, but none so elaborate, original and as beautifully programmed as Epistory.You do get incrementally better at typing  as you progress with this title, but the way the game unfolds  and the joy you get from playing the game is magical! You help the narrator of the story by running a girl riding a 3-tailed fox using only your keyboard. By following the narrator and helping the story unfold, new terrains and landscapes reveal themselves and your wisdom and magical abilities increase. You engage the enemies and manipulate  objects by typing out letters of the words that appear above them, and it plays a hundred times more exciting than it sounds. If you look at a game while it's played by someone else you do not get the feeling of experiencing a typing game at all.

Papercraft and origami designs were a clever addition to the "search of knowledge" premise behind the game, though largely introduced due to Unity's Tiled Map Editor's limitations.The exploration is easy, battles pose a real challenge to your  typing skills and you're presented with many tactical choices at each point in the story.

The fox/kitsune character  derived from Chinese/Japanese mythology was an incredibly clever thing to introduce, as the general non-conformity of available tales and myths surrounding kitsune through ages lend themselves beautifully to using the 3-tailed fox as a more generalized symbol. With a hundered years for each tail to grow, our fox has grown much wiser and powerful  and has already unlocked a number of magical powers that come of age (mouths or tails generating fire , lihtning, ice) , yet she has a lot to go to see all of 9 tails  grown on her, and this makes her a suitable companion to the main character.Kitsune also manifests itself in dreams and create illusions one cannot tell apart from reality. Should this be taken into account while playing Epistolary? You could , but being completely igorant of the story behind kitsune won't spoil the enjoyment of playing this wonderful game for you.

Oh, yes- the game's available in 9 languages and supports different keyboard layouts.

NEBULUS

I loved having someone else play this game while I observed Pogo the main character always being at the centre of the screen with everything else moving around him. The fake 3d looked pretty real to me and it was one of those c64 titles that you were bound to play for the value of graphics alone. Sure, it was all about memorization and you were supposed to learn where all the tricky bits were , but the experience of playing this "tower toppler"  was incredibly fun..It was only later that I learned that Pogo and Populus were beloved by people owning other home computers at the time , and that other ports were equally entertaining and pleasing to the eye. The rising platforms, the simple form of sprites and the sense of depth in perception combined with decent game mechanics on both the towers and the bonus levels made this title a gaming delight.

It might have failed as a sci-fi title if anyone considered this to be a sci-fi game to begin with , but it is an absolute classic of a platformer.  It did not spawn a host of clones and new games, but those that appeared (Phatasmagoria for dos!) were always eagerly played by yours truly/

SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIORS

What a befitting title for this ingenious piece of gaming software. Whether you consider this to be a proper game or not, the idea behind it is absolutely unique,  no doubt about it. And the gameplay is very much true to life, as the trolling and fighting for and against social justice takes place in virtual space, just  as God intended. Progressivists troll, regressivists troll , trolls troll for the fun of it, and everyone looks exactly the same as everyone else , all in a world where it's ok and not ok to have an opinion on anyone and anything and run people down by use of cars if they disagree with the car owner. In a world where fascism is sold as freedom of speech  and the double standards are employed throughout the globe by big players, it is hard even for a politically-minded individual to keep track of what might be going on in this confusing new world.The aptly used pejorative term stresses this feeling  and gives the player a hint of what to expect from the game itself. The game does what it says on the tin, you engage in outwitting trolls until they go online and another troll takes their place, recreating and reliving "real-life"online experiences that are immediately identifiable. Expecting anything else from this game would mean steering away from its intent and purpose, if there be one.

The question is -why would anyone go through such lengths at recreating unpleasant trials and tribulations that everyone of us has experienced online? Is it meant to make us realize  people can't change and that  trying to prove otherwise is a complete waste of time? Does it make us rethink the agressive posture we sometimes assume when talking to a complete stranger or casual acquaintance we're never likely to meet offline anyway? I guess it's about preserving your sanity and reputation , online and offline.

OPERATION WOLF

I was so impressed by this game and played the proots out of it and dreamt it and dreamt of taking it back home with me (or at least  ripping out the massive machine gun and taking it home).All other FPSs I played never got even remotely close to this gem in terms of their hold on me. The detailed graphics, the moving screen and the magnificent sprites, a difficulty level on a par with Green Beret's- any one of these characteristics would have won me over. It had the 80s-Rambo-like-soldier-plowing-through-some-third-world-country-boondocks grit and exaggeration written all over it, and an impressionable kid like myself was instantly hooked (Little did I know my country was going to become a third-world country in just a few years after that). There are 6 stages  the completion of which bring their respective goodies, with  on-the-go energy and ammunition boosts you would snatch off the screen as you enjoy the feel of a cold machine gun in your 8-year old hands.Lovely. All the Dooms,Bloods,Quakes, Half-Lives appeared  after the novelty wore off for me. I'd still pay for the arcade cabinet to own and have displayed in my room today - a subtle reminder that wargames leave a nasty taste in one's mouth after shite hits the fan and  the war appears on your doorstep when you're a teen.

MARBLE MADNESS

Marble Madness aged incredible well, as if its makers knew there would one day be a retro-mania spanning across media such as music,film, gaming etc. So all the innovations used on the cabinet - the trackball used instead of a joystick to help you immerse into the game's world and its unique physics (and no buttons- a sincere thank-you to whoever came up with this idea!), the stylish graphics that could pass for some contemporary nostalgia-driven graphics of today, the interesting soundtrack that used a unique Yamaha audio chip that propelled  this 1984 title  to an almost 16-bit era soundwise. And it's as hard as an 80s' game gets- I remember being entertained and frustrated at the same time playing this in the arcade.

I have yet to try it on some emulator and although I guess it won't feel the same, it'll  still be worth revisiting for its architecture and physics.

BLUE WHALE

After reading the Big Whale Suicide game hysteria elegantly debunked in my favourite local computer magazine (Svet Kompjutera,July2017, p.43)  I started thinking about art in gaming and art in general and how it exists even if its sole existence is based on documentation and not on its actual physical presence/ form.
Social media games have been extremely popular since their very inception and a number of unique ideas have sprouted to this very day, but the fact that media constructed a game  around a forum meme tricking global post-truth population into thinking it existed is nothing short of revolutionary.
I always speak of the necessity of coming up with new genres in gaming- well, here's one! It's refined, it borders on art and its practices, it spurs bigotry, paranoia, xenophobia, anti-millennial hysteria,confirms new media uses and practices...
The supposed author of the meme-game wrote a new page in gaming without knowing it.

COLOSSAL CAVE ADVENTURE

This game was not only the first text adventure game ever, but also the game that inspired many rogue-like and role-playing elements in the games that were to come. Exploring a mysterious cave to find  the rumoured riches comes with simple and effective  sets of commands and the narrative unfolding of the story that is entertaining and conversational enough to keep you interested throughout. Even some words and sentences from the game became concepts in later games. For a pre-80s computer game this must have been a true revelation.

I played this game on  my ZX as a kid, and I greatly enjoyed playing it and looking at the accompanying pics , but when  a friend of mine recently posted the news of the original version being available online I had to try it, realizing I enjoyed it more. It probably had to do with the absense of pics and the feats of imagination that make the game so enjoyable.Playing a book and not a movie. And this comes from someone who never enjoyed text adventure games that much anyhow.

A true gem that needs to be played and appreciated.

 http://www.amc.com/shows/halt-and-catch-fire/exclusives/colossal-cave-adventure

World of Guns Gun Disassembly

Not all unique game ideas are brilliant. Some are both stupid and unique at the same time. And if they happen to target a particular audience all the better. The title -World of Guns-Gun Dissassembly- speaks for itself and it appeals to lovers of weapons and mobile upbringing  of the military worldwide. As somebody living in the Balkan I fail to see the grace behind this manual-slash-game and the possible educational value to this game, though I do understand the weapon craze and fascination of someone who hasn't seen what a weapon can do to human flesh. The gameplay is simple, you get to learn about the basics and you can chose among a number of different guns, rifles etc.I assume the etheral substance of clouds underneath the weapon you're disassembling is put there as a stark contrast to a sight of a gun or maybe as a means to make guns look more heavenly. Whatever it may be , I fail to see the reason behind it. The retro-modern elevator music fits the manual feel to the game perfectly well,
In a world where guns and nations and countries and other shite is all supposed to be long gone and obsolete but isn't, we still feed on the mass hysteria that feeds our fears and short-sightedness. So whoever came up with  this game is a genius and deserves every penny they earn.

QIX

One of those games quickly achieving cult status that you both hate (for being too damn hard to play in an arcade full of people yelling around you) and love (because it breaks new grounds).
You're a drawing marker (though I like to think of it more in terms of a futuristic vehicle as seen from way, way up) marking area by area of a rectangle screen with the aim of claiming  at least 60 percent of the rectangle, all the while avoiding direct contact with the Sparx who thread the same paths you did and claiming an area without it being touched by a mysterous entity the game was named after.

It's a fun and exciting play, so I guess its quick decline in popularity has to do with somewhat abstract graphics that didn't clearly indicate what you were seeing on the screen. Being a game ma(r)ker has always been hard. To me this is as essential in the history of gaming as Tetris, Pang, Block Out and other like-minded games. Try it for yourselves on any of the browsing game sites with classics nd you'll see how great it is.

TOTALLY ACCURATE BATTLE SIMULATOR

This is a tale of comedy and military tactics lumped togeter to form a unique gaming creation. You strategise and make your awkward army charge, hoping for the best.The soldiers emit strange and funny screams, run and wave their hands hillariously, reminding one of games like Humans Fall Flat or Octodad. Did the idea for this game  come while  the authors witnessed a battle recreation at some Medieval Festival and laughed at polyester ranks?

The game does offer you a chance to talk to your inner warlord and accurately think of strategies and plans you fully implement in a given battlefield,era and weapons array just like any other decent game in the genre does. But that's not the point  here- it's all about quirkiness and fun. I cannot help but think about the possible anti-war sentiment present in this game, and how disposable a soldier is in any given era. War is madness and it engulfs the cannon fodder with trembling terror, no heroes, period.

LEMMINGS

Ported to a number of different systems, Lemmings proved to be one of the biggest video games success stories of the 90s. A simple, unique and addictive concept of successfully guiding a number of lemmings to the level's exit by assigning 8 different tasks to 8 of them while paying attention to all the others in order to get as many of them to the exit gate by navigating and changing the levels' landscape became an instant iconic title in the  Amiga universe and one of the games most readily associated with Amiga. It inspired clever games across different gaming eras, from The Lost Vikings to Max and the Magic Marker and beyond.
120 beautifully designed and well-structured levels (or 20 in a 2-player mode) with ascending difficulty level throughout are still an eye-candy and still bring genuine joy to the player.
The music could have been given greater care with arrangements and sounds, but again it was the era of the unfortunate 16bit OGTs.However, this is insignificant compared to how great this game was and still is.

THE ORACLE OF BACON

The famous parlour game that stood the test of time is finally available in its digital form. It is, without a doubt, far more engaging and exciting to be playing it with your friends sans computer, but the phenomenon of practicing the "6 degrees of separation" theory on Kevin Becon the actor is too great of a joy to miss if you lack available players around you. And even if you're a movie buff you'll be discovering a number of flicks you've never seen or heard of.
One day when intelligence is global we will be able to play this game linking any two persons in the world :)
You can play the game here:
http://oracleofbacon.org/

BATTLEZONE

This game was the first to drop the vector graphic bomb on the gaming world- nothing was the same afterwards. It still looks and plays beautiful and may tickle even a present-day kid's curiosity with just enough sensory data and beauty to try it.And by beauty I mean being able to take any screenshot while playing and use it on a contemporary synthwave/electronica  album coverart before any other design. I definitely see the smooth vector display inspiring the makers of the original Tron movie as well. The game screen is divided to give the illusion of space and  shooting UFOs , tanks and missiles invokes just enough of a wargod in you to be in a state of constant excitement while playing. No wonder it stirred quite a buzz in the day.
Battlezone shouldn't be admired for its historic value but for the very play value that made it a gem among gems.

FOUR LAST THINGS

It was a brilliant idea to use Dutch and Flemmish Renaissance paintings and build an entire game around them. The Dutch were the first to base their art on the more  intimate and non-religious everyday subjects and non-generic landscapes, and  it was extremely clever that the author of the game used those to tell a tale of transgressions and absolution.
You're an everyday kinda bloke of poor physiognomy (which, by default, dooms one to a life of moral and spiritual decay) who comes to St.Paul's church to atone for his sins. But since the said sins were not committed in the parish this church is part of  he can't be pardoned by the cardinal, unless of course he committs sins in the parish  under their jurisdiction. So you set out on a journey of committing all of the seven deadly sins until you're worthy of consideration of a pardon.
This point-and-click adventure plays well, looks beautiful despite the awkward , almost Monty Pythonesque walk of the protagonist, and  the quest for each sin is  accompanied by carefully chosen paintings.Another aspect of the game I truly admired is the use of the contemporary vernacular and not the corresponding  Early Modern English variant. The end will find a believer a tad disappointed, but otherwise you'd be in for a real treat playing the game. It is a bit short, but the 2 hours you'll spend solving puzzles and communicating in the style of the best point-and-click classics of the 90s  is well worth your time.
There's also something else I noticed about the game -some paintings and music don't belong in the Renaissance. Putting Satie and other post-Renaissance/post-Baroque music alongside Bach, Dowland and others can't be a coincidence, there must be something the author wanted to say with this. Is the sin of lust you commit with Goya's Maja Desnuda t intended to be otherworldly and ahead of its time, does it transcend time and sin ?

911 OPERATOR

Simple ideas always win and so do interesting concepts. It was about time somebody made a 911 operator simulation. Not that anybody dreamt of being a 911 operator in a video game, but since it's here, we can say the experience comes as close to the real thing as possible... or so I'm told by an acquaintance of mine who works in the field and has played the game. You receive emergency service calls and have fire departments, police and paramedic teams you can call and dispatch. You make on-the-spot decisions on the level of urgency of received calls that range from pranks to cat problems to math homework problems to bomb threats to any type of known hazardous situations in this day and age. After downloading a map of almost any major city online, the simplified but excellent graphics intensifies the whole experience, and the fact that there are upgrades and a career mode only adds to the replay value of the title. If they only made more content  this would be the most brilliant simulation games ever made. I hope they make such upgrade one day as the game itself is well worth it.

HIDDEN FOLKS

This is a unique hidden-object game  with beautiful, hand-written  animated scenes you interact with  while searching for characters, animals and objects. Using previous experiences  of picture books that teem with life as opposed to the often bland visual aspect of a standard hidden-object game allowed this title to come to life like no other in this genre. The layered drawings you click on are exclusively accompanied by recorded mouth noises and voices which  I find absolutely dazzling and adds to the vastness of the drawned surroundings. Now, these are the OGTs people should be making!

Even those who cringe at the very idea of ever playing another hidden-object game should have a go at this gem.

NOBY NOBY BOY

This is an experimental game, a game which stretches your character to fantastic proportions, and in which stretches your our understanding of what a game is or could be. Is the absense of  a clear objective , a discernible goal within a game allowed in games? Can we call such games games?

You control a pink four-legged creature called Boy who's in direct communication with the Sun who sends Boy's regards to the Girl. Wierd pop tunes that verge on being annoying to an unaccustomed ear are wonderfully paired with odd controls and camera views and randomly generated sandboxes that inhabit a unique and odd-looking world the Boy lives in. Boy eats  people and objects and stretches and that's pretty much what he does all throughout the game.

The Girl's directly linked to The Boy, and she stretches whenever somebody playing the game stretches.The randomly generated sandboxes unlock planet by planet to all the players as they collectively play a giant single-player game and help Girl reach another planet in the Solar system, unlocking new sandboxes. The author of the game thought it would take years and years to unlock all the planets  and that the interest in the game would wane without gamers ever unlocking all of them, but it only took 2489 days  for the Girl to connect all the planets in the system and get back to Earth . That's how engaging this game was/is to those who played it.

Is this a game about love and finding your significant other? Is it about loneliness and our voracious appetites? Is it about evil in this world , as some might suggest? The critics view the game as a non-game, as an experiment in form  and to some degree I can relate to that. But shouldn't each new  game challenge us and not be just another eye candy to waste time on? It has interesting gameplay, odd mechanics and it's immature, childish, absurd and fun. You should definitely give it a try.

CHIPWITZ

What it says on the tin, and so much more than that!  This is the first successful robot simulation game ever! Knowing one of the authors of this game and the rich artistic inner world he lives in only makes me realize even more how  forward-looking and adventurous this title was and still is.
In order for the robot to be able to navigate mazes you use a programming language comprised exclusively of icons that look intriguing and beautiful on both Apple II and c64 and the new windows version. Once I got past my initial discomfort of trying an educational game as a kid and the puerile impatience that  accompanied it , its charm worked its way through each subsequent mission. The learning experience that it entailed I became aware of  only years afterwards. Both you and the robot are on a constant learning curve  of systematic thinking as you continue using the hieroglyphic  programming language to navigate mazes, conserve energy and avoid obstacles. Icons are used in sets of 60 per all of the 8 available panels plus subpanels to go about each given mission.
Very few similar titles have appeared since (CODDY WORLD ON ALGORITHM comes to mind) and none have achieved what Chipwitz has. It's fun to play , addictive and educational.

you can dowload the latest Windows version of Chipwitz here as intended by the original programmers.
 http://www.chipwits.com/

TETRIS

TETRIS  was a title that  made such an impact on the gaming world and such a revolution in gaming that every console or personal computer since had to have at least  one version of it available. The game that shook the world came to Alexey Pajitnov in a dream and stood out as an  inherently unique tile-matching puzzle game.The concept was simple and unique- you rotate dropping pieces to form solid lines at the bottom of the screen so that they could disappear. It's still equally addictive and attractive. It was a triumph of brains and imagination over graphics, state and corporate greed.To think that a single game could mess things up  on a grand scale only to  end up being what it was - a game of the people for the people- is amazing . Long live Alexey Pajitnov !

SHADOWMATIC

Another great game the greatness of which lies in its simplicity. You solve puzzles by manipulating shadows to get a recognizable shape.. Spatially manipulating  oddly-shaped object (or a group of objects) rotating at the centre of the screen being  lit by a sigle light source  proves to be much more of a challenge hat one would initially think.The game appeals to our childhood fascination with shadows and playing shadow masters and puppeteers and is highly recommended to both kids and adults. Loads of fun for your ios/android!

SPACE HARRIER

God bless the 80s and its technical restrictions when it comes to video games, for Space Harrier with its surrealist surroundings wouldn't have been made. The game was ported to a plethora of systems and  I played the game quite frequently on 4 of them and enjoyed each and every version of it. Whether I played the 16bit arcade version or the clunky 8bit C64 version with the mesmerizing sid soundtrack, the experience of playing the game was simultaneously joyful and bizarre. First I feared the fact that I would let it suck me into its world whenever I played it and I feared this game just as I feared early animes as a kid (whether it was framerate, the goriness of it  or something else, I don't know). There was also something beautifully unsettling about flying through a long-gone civilization's urban landscape and killing mammoth cyclops and  the extinct civilization's defence systems in the form of  giant heads and flying shapes, and I couldn't help but feel like a usurper disturbing the peace of the deceased. No explanation was given to the nature of Harrier's mission(s), no storylines, nothing, and I would often  get this feeling of being a bad guy. When I revisited the game in college I had a completely different perception of the game , but the taikan (body sensation) remained. I still feel strange playing this title.

Space Harrier was the first successful rail shooter ever made.

1-2 SWIITCH

There's been much negative hype about the newest Nintendo console , but it only seems to add to the never-ending dissatisfaction of the fraction of gamers worldwide that simply don't enjoy a more "Japanese" entertainment product. By Japanese I'm thinking quirky and unique, disregarding European and American humour, preferences and cultural  norms. 1-2 SWITCH condensed the rich experiences of the Japanese arcade world and came up with a concept that is more accessible to the Western audiences. 18 remarkably simple and fun-to-play mini-games - milking the cow, quick draw, sword fight, wizard fight, runway - are just an introduction to  a new system and the concept behind it, making controllers and the console itself part of the game (holding and rocking a baby console :) ) and looking far more graceful than the tennis games of the previous Nintendo paradigm. I would love it if they switched from a controller to a holographic glove (yes, the original glove was glitchy as hell but I loved it) one day making the experience even greater, but this is as good an experience as it gets. 

Hard-core gamers will naturally ditch this console and its conept for a more "immersive" experience  found elsewhere, but us casual gamers can only give kudos to the new Nintendo system for trying to reinvent themselves. If you hated the mini-games titles back in the 80s you'll hate this one as well.Or you can try the new Zelda game for Nintendo Switch , it's looking wonderful. Or not. 

ROGUE

I've been a fan of roguelike games for a while now, but it wasn't until the local computer magazine ("Svet Kompjutera")  went into the nature and the origins of the genre  that made me go back and try the game the whole genre was named after. Boy was I  surprised! What I thought was the result of an amassed experience of a history of titles within the genre basically boiled down to one single game. Everything one loves about a roguelike is here: permadeath, text terminals, procedurally generated levels, ludicrously hard gameplay, procedurally-created levels,suspense,looting and dungeon crawling, sprites positions etc. Let go of your thirst for the graphically demanding games and try this gem, you'll enjoy it immensely. The rudimentary ascii graphics will spark your imagination beyond anything you've seen in this genre  so far.

YOUTUBERS LIFE

Yes, art should imitate life. And yes, why not transpose modern-day experiences into a simulation? This game is about all the little facets of becoming a Youtube professional. You progress from creating a Youtube alter-ego and chosing your preferred type of content and your humble beginnings of a Youtube enthusiast sharing your flat and your computer time with your roommates all the way up to having assistants and making your content in a rented mansion.You take baby steps and take care of all the little details , including nutrition, energy level, finances, deadlines, comments, followers, buying equipment and enhancing video quality of your videos. All the intricate details make this title anything but a lifeless, generic simulation.
Whether this game should be considered a breeding ground for the aspiring Youtubers out there, or whether it helps your "online" presence is unclear, but  participating in a simulacrum of a simulacra must be rewarding  and strangely appealing.

WEB DIMENSION

WEB DIMENSION is one of those hidden gems of yore that  simply beg for a re-release. It was one of the first titles you got to play a Demiurge in, dabble in creation and construct paths to help evolution run its course.
A grey web that greets you at the beginning is your playfield. With a stretch of imagination you'd be perceiving it as anything but the actual spiderweb in no time. Each level  requires you to freeze the coloured organism into energy clusters  waiting for them by a web node (the grey web phase), stabilize these energy clusters (the blue web phase)  and make preparations for the transition to occur (the light-colour-changing-music phase) . The accompanying music  is stripped down to its bare tasty melody/rhythmic nuggets that get more flavoured  as you progress, thus letting you, the Demiurge, know you're closer to the Universal Music that resounds your glory  :)

 "To experience, enjoy, create. There is no beginning, no end, no rules, no lives to be lost, no score to be gained. Watch. Listen. Learn". (WEB DIMENSION manual: http://c64-games.blogspot.rs/2011/08/web-dimension-manual.html )

MAIZE

Though a bit short, this title can easily become another point-and-click classic. In this particular genre, titles become classics  mostly by using humour as their main ingredient. Newer games in the genre that leave some sort of a mark in today's world and age are mostly those exploiting absurdist and  existential humor. And MAIZE has these in copius amounts. We have a teddy bear sidekick with a Russian accent that has no actual value throughout the game and follows you and makes generic and trite comments that we soon grow to love; we have fields of sentient corn and the backstory of a scientific experiment  gone wrong and  awkward first-person movements that make you doubt your identity; the ending annuls your 3-hour efforts to save the new species, and makes you laugh over what you played. Everything else is secondary to the story and the humour - the puzzles are extremely easy to complete and collecting objects is super easy since they're all highlighted.

Sentient corn, people!

PINOUT

With hundreds of different pinball simulations I've played so far I can say I finally found one that's unique as a computer game. Instead of recreating some original machine in its physicality and movements, PINOUT lets go of the simulation and becomes something more - a game that could last for tables on end. Combining the genres of endless runner and pinball simulation was an incredibly smart thing to do. You jump from one beautifully designed table to another until you've reached a checkpoint.

The retro is strong with this one- a Tron-like retro-futuristic envirnoments  accompanied by appropriate  retrowave/synthwave music is a treat for a retro gamer;  there is a ton of  classic powerups that reach new heights here (random, motion link, slow motion, time freeze etc ) , altered and distorted; all  bonus mini games are exquisite homages to 8-bit classics (a racing game,a blasteroid-type game, a horizontal  space shooter etc) with 8bit sounds and themes and no retrowave colouring, so that you're able to enjoy them the same way you did on pinball machines in the late 80s/early 90s.

If you've ever enjoyed any pinball game on any of your machines you've ever had, get PINOUT- you won't be disappointed.

ANOTHER WORLD/ OUT OF THIS WORLD

This was the first genuine cinematic experience in gaming I had. It was as if the game maker had done his first movie debut and not a game. A b-movie , but a strong one nevertheless. Its pacing was that of a movie, the soundtrack was that of a movie, the photography was given so much attention to actually fool you into believing you're watching one. No score or stats appearing on screen, no intrusive music or tunes that would come in the away of the general feeling of alienation and loneliness. Great rotoscoping results I only saw in "The Lord of the Rings" cartoon before that. Playing with expectations just like in real movies  with sudden changes or subtle hints at changes through introducing details /objects further hightened the experience. And just like the movie makers of yesteryear who knew not to overdo  it with special effects , he kept monsters and sprites  more in the realm of contours and hints than finished products, thus making it still fresh for players who'd be willing to play it in 2017.

 It was so "out of this world" and such a unique account of loneliness in the modern world that whenever I revisited it on any platform I would just confirm what I initially thought of the game- this title had to be autobiographical. The hero wakes up in the alien world he cannot make head nor tail of. One cannot ascertain the where and when of this world, and  the feeling of being lost permeates  the entire narrative. The friendly alien helping the hero only makes everything even more distant and desperate.Danger lurks everywhere. That simply had to be what the game maker thought of the world he grew up in and of the people around him.

Try this cake. It's delicious.

THE TALOS PRINCIPLE

The best game ever made in any of the countries that were once collectively known as Yugoslavia!

The game can easily be enjoyed without getting philosophical about androids and volition and laws of robotics and demiurges and the meaning of life and intelligence and communication and the Tower of Babel and be played for the appeal of its puzzles that get increasingly more difficult as the game progresses.The game looks wonderful, plays well and the accompanying music algorithms are spot on.Utmost care is given to all the sets , objects and artefacts. But neglecting the original intention of the creators to perceive of this title as of a philosophical game simply results in dumbing it down. This is one of the most powerful , if not the most powerful philosophical statement in gaming I have seen so far (alongside the unparalleled The Stanley Parable, of course). Making people think about their life and how free in their actions and thoughts they really are as they play the game is the greatest gift  a player can be given.

A game worth every penny.

LEADERBOARD GOLF

I've never been a fan of watching sports on TV or playing sports games. Didn't really like them in the 80s and 90s (except for a passing interest in  NHL97/98 and DRAZEN PETROVIC BASKET (for obvious reasons :) ), and not liking football naturally excluded me from enjoying the PES or FIFA series that reign supreme nowadays.

LEADERBOARD GOLF was the only sports game that has ever made a lasting impression on me, and the first game on the c64 that came really close to a perfect simulation of any sport. With beautiful animations, mappings and views of the courses and excellent controls of the game, it was both easy and fun to play. A simple look at a walkthrough video doesn't even come close to what an actual player felt while playing this title in the 80s. I felt as if my c64 was somehow upgraded whenever I'd play it. It was also the only sports game my sisters enjoyed playing!

Later on, I found the Amiga, the Amstrad and the Atari versions had an even more impressive graphics.Then came the other games in the LEADERBOARD  series that brought us more courses and even smoother graphics, but the original title remained one of the pillars of the c64 legacy.

Still waiting for a decent swimming  game/simulation...