Classic of the Month - Xybots

Manufacturer:	Atari
Genre:	3rd person shooter
Board:	Dedicated Motorola 6800-based hardware
Year:	1987

Some of the biggest games on home consoles for the last few years have been 3rd person shooters like Gears of War, Uncharted and Mass Effect.  But 20 years before any of those games came out, Atari released a revolutionary arcade game, that contained the same, basic formula.  1987's Xybots was viewed from behind the protagonists, Major Rock Hardy and Captain Ace Gun, looking "into" the screen.  The joystick twisted left and right, allowing the players to both strafe and turn. And it wasn't even polygonal; Xybots was entirely sprite-based. The sprites were view-aligned, so that when you turned, the enemies and items turned with you and never actually rotated.  Meanwhile the maze structure shifted perspective as required.  It was rudimentary, but it gave the player a level of control that had not been seen before.

You could also argue Xybots was an action RPG, because at the end of every level you could spend points earned to upgrade your abilities, from improving your shield, making your gun faster and more powerful and making Rock and Ace move more quickly.  It also featured a co-operative mode and a detailed HUD, with information about your progress.  In a 1988 review, Games Machine magazine said, "The twin player/partnership facility of Xybots works so much better than four-player chaos that occurs in games like Gauntlet.  More emphasis is placed on teamwork, which adds a new dimension, and two players working in unison make for a deadly force."  Not the sort a thing you can say about most co-operative arcade games.  Even games like Final Fight, Double Dragon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tended to be chaotic and even frustrating.

Often, when you go back and play a revolutionary game like Xybots, it feels horribly antiquated.  This is because innovative games inspire innovation and other developers expand on the core ideas and improve them.  While the 3rd person model has been improved and perfected, Xybots is still great fun today.  It actually feels a little bit like a 3rd person Doom - with robots!  If I was to level one complaint at this classic, it would be its combined health and timer system. Your health ticks down from 99, which means you have just over a minute and a half to finish each level, assuming you don't get shot or use your Zap ability to freeze enemies, both of which knock off 10 HP.  There are health packs around, but of course you waste time and risk being shot trying to get to them.  This means in true arcade form, Xybots is rock hard and they slightest mistake can be fatal.  Nonetheless, I booted this game up to play before writing this review and quickly lost the next hour or so to it.  Not too shabby for a 24 year-old precursor to the modern 3rd person shooter.

If you want to play it legally, it is available on Midways Arcade Treasures 2 for Microsoft Xbox, Sony PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube.

MTW

What's a cockpit machine?

The crown jewels of any arcade were the cockpit machines. These big, all encompassing machines that had authentic controls (steering wheels and pedals for driving games, yokes or pistol-grip joysticks for flying games) and an integrated seat, hence cockpit.

Most cockpit machines were open, like this Hydro Thunder machine (right):

Sometimes cockpit machines were enclosed, like the Star Wars machine pictured below.

These machines were great, because they provided a sense of seclusion in what might otherwise be a bustling environment, helping the player focus.

There were even cockpit machines that had hydraulics, so the whole thing moved as you played. Sega made loads motorised cockpit machines, including Space Harrier, Hang-On and After Burner, but the absolute king of morotised cockpit machines was the ultra-rare G-Loc 360 machine, pictured below, which used a gyroscopic mechanism so it could turn players fully upside-down:

For those of us who dream about having our own private arcade, cockpit machines would be an amazing addition to the collection.

MTW

So you don't like modern games?

I write a blog where I wax lyrical about old arcade games and the only modern games I talk about are the ones like old games. So does that mean I only like old games? No, on the contrary, I love modern games and working in the industry has done nothing to quell my enthusiasm for games new and old.

Here are 10 modern games (in alphabetical order) I love, that have nothing to do with arcade gameplay mechanics.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

I don't get comic books and I didn't like either of Chris Nolan's Batman films, but despite this, I loved Rock Steady's Batman Arkham Asylum. For the first time I could see why comic book fans wanted Batman to be dark and brooding, rather than camp and colourful. This game has brilliant combat, great gameplay mechanics and lots of atmosphere.

Bioshock 

What is it about us humans that makes us love dystopian visions more than utopian ones? Maybe it's like Agent Smith said in the Matrix: "Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program." The world of Rapture started out as a utopian society, where science and human endeavour were rewarded above all else, but that's not the world the player gets to see. Instead we see what happened when it all fell apart. And what a glorious playground for the dangerous and insane it is too.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series

Street Fighter II turned arcades into battlegrounds, with players demonstrating their nerve and skill in face-to-face competition. These days that competitive spirit may have moved online, but it's just as fierce as it was 19 years ago. The Call of Duty franchise has been around for almost half of that time, but with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare everything changed. The new generation of online consoles came to life like never before and the world had a new favourite competitive game.

Elder Scroll IV: Oblivion

Tolkien will never know just how big the ball he started in motion when he wrote Lord of the Rings has become. From other fantasy authors such as Robert Jordan, David Eddings, Terry Brooks and David Gemmel, to boardgames like Dungeons & Dragons, to card games like Magic the Gathering, to videos games like Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series. The latest instalment in this legendary series is a triumph of video game design and technical prowess. Outside of MMORPGs (more on those later), few video game worlds are as vast or as well realised as Oblivion's.

Gears of War series

The new flagship series for Microsoft's Xbox 360, Gears of War is a grim and gritty sci-fi horror, with some of the most visceral action in video game history. But it's also a series that's got more to it than just big guys, big guns and bloody gore. There is real emotion and pathos in this series - Don's pursuit of his captured wife in the second game is testament to this. It also conveys the feeling of comradery among soldiers better than any other game too; in Gears, you are not a lone soldier, you are one of four brothers, together to the bitter end.

Mass Effect series

A sprawling sci-fi RPG, with as much focus on conversation as combat, Mass Effect's world is deep and involving and somewhere I would love to live. Few games have ever been so cinematic and the blend of combat and conversation is unrivalled. The series shifted focus with the sequel to be more action-orientated and less open, but at the same time the characters and their relationships grew. I can't wait for the third instalment.

Mirror's Edge

More dytopia, but a very different kind of Bioshock's grim and rotting world. The unnamed city of Mirror's Edge is polished and gleaming, but every bit as broken. Incorporating parkour with first person action sounds like a recipe for disaster, but with Mirror's Edge it works beautifully. Running, jumping and sliding through the city is fluid, exhilarating and dare I say it, liberating. It's a game that feels like it could not have existed on previous generations and is definitely a product of our time. For this one I had to include a video, so those who haven't seen it can witness it for themselves.

Super Mario Galaxy series

Nintendo's mascot is one of the few 90s gaming icons to survive the transformation to 3D polygonal graphics. Super Mario Galaxy is one of the most fun, charming and above all inventive games you are ever likely to play. I feel the Wii was a bit of a misfire overall, with far too many inspired games with poor controls, but this game shows just what the machine is capable of, both with its graphics and its motion controls. The sequel has just come out and actually manages to be even better than the first one. I don't know how Nintendo do it.

Portal 

Oh my God, what a game Portal is. Ingenious and hilarious, stark and yet brimming over with character thanks to the menacing, maniac matriarchal super computer that is GlaDOS. The puzzles in this game are some of the best ever offered up in video games, thanks to the sublime portal gun, but beyond the puzzle package here is a game that manages to tell such a great story with so little effort.

World of Warcraft

Five years ago, a bunch of my work colleagues convinced me to try Blizzard's new massively multiplayer role -playing game, World of Warcraft - or WoW for short. I had previously tried Everquest and not liked it, but I had liked the Warcraft and Starcraft strategy games, so I gave it a go. I was quickly hooked. I also introduced it to my fiancée  thinking we would maybe play it for a few hours a week, but she became hooked too, and for the next two years we were putting tens of hours a week into this vast, colourful and engrossing game. We're married now with two kids, so neither of us have time for WoW, but if we did, we'd probably be hooked again.

So there we have it, ten modern games/franchises that I've enjoyed every bit as the arcade games of my youth. Arcade throwback I may be, but gamer I am first and it's my love of games that lead me to the arcade in the first place and it's that continued love that keeps me playing today.

MTW