I realize that I spent a rather large amount of virtual space bemoaning the decline of the Japanese RPG and highlighting all the ways the genre is not a game at all, but, as I implied in that article, I
RETROSPECTIVE: Pirates! Gold
Long before Pirates of the Caribbean tapped into our collective pirate souls, there was a little game called Sid Meier’s Pirates!. Originally released in 1987 for the Commodore 64, the game was ported to eight different platforms over the ensuing
RETROSPECTIVE: Bubble Bobble
Back when I was a wee tyke, no more than seven, there weren’t a lot of cooperative game options available to gamers. To give some sort of perspective, my childhood was back in the days of NES, so while I
RETROSPECTIVE: Sam & Max Hit the Road
In the late 80’s and early 90’s, LucasArts was a bastion of creative gaming thought amid an ocean of mediocrity. Perhaps I’m overstating the point given that plenty of wonderful games were produced other studios during those years, but a
RETROSPECTIVE: SimCity 2000
Without waxing too philosophic, the majority of popular video games, even those without any typically violent content, explore the darker impulse of the id: destruction. This is not limited to the fine purveyors of first-person shooters. Destruction is not limited