Is gaming now an acceptable hobby for an adult?

Short answer is no! But that doesn't make for much of an article, so let's expand on the subject.

Despite the popularity of the big franchises like Grant Theft Auto and Call of Duty or the success of the family-friendly Wii or the pervasive nature of casual games on Facebook and mobiles, it seems to me people's attitude towards gaming as a specific hobby has not improved at all over the last couple of decades. I know plenty of people who play games like Candy Crush Saga or FIFA 14 (perhaps even more than I play my games these days), but they don't consider it a hobby; it's something akin to listening to the radio in the car and given no more priority in their lives than that.

How bad is it?

It depends on who you talk to, but at the most extreme it's worse than I originally thought. Here's a quote from a guy where I work, on hearing some other guys talking about the upcoming Xbox One and PS4:

"If that's what you do with your time, you might as well commit suicide. I mean, what's the point?"

While I didn't think people's acceptance of gaming as an adult hobby had grown much, I had not realised how strongly some people felt. And as I get older (I'm in my late 30s), I'm finding people are even more bewildered by my enjoyment of gaming.

Really, gamers, it's for your own good.

But it will improve?

Maybe, but I doubt it and I have a very simple reason for saying that: just because someone likes something casually, doesn't mean they understand taking it to the next level.

Over the past decade the Marvel movies have been a huge success, with plenty of people seeing Iron-Man and Avengers in the cinema, then going on to buy the film on DVD and Blu-Ray, but only a very small percentage would go on to buy the comic books. Likewise, although millions of people bought Wii's, only a small percentage bought its most hardcore game, Monster Hunter Tri (2 million sales worldwide, compared to the 100 million Wii consoles sold).

Monster Hunter Tri -- probably not one for the Candy Crush fans

I actually think as games get more mainstream press coverage, the more of a backlash there seems to be against them. Whatever depth of gameplay there is in Grand Theft Auto V, the fact Sky News still talk about shagging hookers and then killing them to get a refund means the game probably does more damage to the medium than good. At best, non-gamers deem the coverage to be either a waste of valuable news time or some subverted form of advertising; at worst they see it as damaging to children (who shouldn't be playing such games, but in the minds of these people only kids should play games, so it's catch 22).

Likewise Call of Duty's dedicated fanbase talking about how great it is to shoot people online or World of Warcraft players talking about playing 30+ hours a week doesn't help either and neither will the inevitable footage of people queuing up for Xbox Ones and PS4s. We'll be seen as pathetic man children who have nothing better to do with their time.

It's not just games

I know plenty of people for whom the idea fiction full stop (let alone outright fantasy) is something to be shunned in adulthood. To paraphrase another guy I once worked with, on the subject of reading novels,

"As soon as I read, 'John walked into the room' I just think, no he didn't, he's not real and neither is the room." 

As far as suspension of disbelief goes, that's as fragile as it gets.

'To be or not to be?' Well, not to be, cause it's all made up!

Does this actually matter?

To me, no, there are plenty of niche hobbies I don't understand and (whether I realise it or not) sneer at, comic books and roleplaying board games among them. Equally, there are plenty of mainstream hobbies and activities I don't get, such as soap operas, reality TV and pretty much all spectator sports. 

As gamers, it's more important we understand and accept gaming's place in society and culture. The following are both fundamental to gaming as a medium, but also mean other people cannot take them seriously:

• Games are something people first indulge in as children and so they are automatically associated with toys.
• They focus on violence as the main sources of motivation and entertainment.
• They are ethereal and nothing you achieve in a game exists in reality. Once the console or computer is turned off, it's gone.
• Generally speaking, games are disposable. Once we complete a game or a sequel is released, we move on. And while this is a ostensibly a retro gaming blog, the fact it retro gaming is a pretty small niche in the community.

What can we do to improve people's attitude?

As much as you love your games, your best bet is not to take them too seriously and don't get too defensive about your hobby. Nobody like an evangelist and the more you argue, the more you are likely to reinforce people's views that mature gamers need to get a grip. In my experience I've found a version following line is your best defence when asked if you play games or why you play games:

"Yeah, I play a few games here and there. It's better than watching X Factor or Geordie Shore."

And then move on, change the subject. Admittedly talent shows and reality TV are soft targets, but that's the point. And when you get back home to your console or PC and you fire up some brilliant, awe-inspiring game that pushes our beloved hobby to new heights, games like Mass Effect, Heavy Rain, Skyrim, Fez, Journey or dare I say it, Grand Theft Auto V, remember, at the end of the day, the non-gamers of this world are the ones missing out and that's not your problem.

(For the record, the guy who made the suicide comment suggested exercise as something better to do as a hobby, which to me is on par with suggesting "eat breakfast" or "get dressed" as a hobby.)

MTW 

Nostalgia Trip - Coin-ops and chlorine

Such was the ubiquitous nature of arcade machines in the 80s and early 90s that you could find them installed in all sorts of locations. I've spoken in the past about video rental shops in my home town having Street Fighter II in them, but as the idea of family pubs grew drinking establishments started to add cabinets and pinball tables along side their fruit machines, jukeboxes and pool tables. Sometimes lone machines appeared in youth clubs, chippies, cafes, launderettes, shops, cinemas and even break rooms in businesses. However, there was one non-arcade establishment that frequently trumped them all and bizarrely that was swimming pools.

The Marina Centre in Great Yarmouth had a dedicated arcade for a while.

I first played a number of significant games at swimming pools. It was in the canteen at the pool in my village where I first played Atari's vector graphics Star Wars; it was at a pool in a neighbouring town that I first played Gorf and Mikie; and it was at a surprisingly well equipped arcade at a pool in Great Yarmouth that I first played Paper Boy, Hang-On, Fire Fox and a number of other machines.

As such, taking my own kids to the pool now often brings back a strong sense of nostalgia; when I visit the same pools I used to go to as a kid, I can sometimes picture the machines they had and where they were located. Sadly these days, traditional video arcade machines and pinballs rarely have a place in modern, so-called arcades, let alone leisure centres. Where as all of the other businesses I mentioned replaced their video games and pinball tables with fruit machines and quiz machines, swimming pools have either simply removed the machines altogether or, paradoxically, replaced them with drinks and snack machines.

While it would be easy to say swimming pools got rid of their arcade machines for the same reasons as everyone else, I have to wonder if there is another, more sinister factor. The truth is, businesses simply do not want kids loitering their premises. Growing up I used to see crowds of kids congregating a number of unlikely locations, from the fountains in the shopping centre to the wall outside mini-super markets. These days such crowds of teenagers are a rare sight. Indeed there is even a device called a Mosquito alarm (also known as SonicScreen) that businesses can install outside their building that emits a high frequency sound that only people under 25 or so can hear, which is designed to irritate their young ears to the point they move away. This is all part of the demonising of teenagers that has plagued British tabloids and daytime chat shows for the past decade or so and which is incredibly unfair to the vast majority of kids. So when an old arcade throwback like myself thinks back to those days when spotting arcade machines was as easy as spotting pigeons, I have to wonder, what have these businesses really go rid of?

MTW 

Top 10 run 'n' gun games

Run 'n' gun games may contain elements of shoot 'em ups and platformers, they can be modern day or futuristic, but whatever elements they're made of, they're all about blowing s**t up and taking names, just like the OTT action movies of the 80s and 90s. Speaking of which...

Ikari Warriors

One of the original top-down run 'n' gun games, Ikari Warriors is an all time classic. After crash landing your plane behind enemy lines, you have to fight your way up the scrolling jungle of enemy soldiers, taking weapons and also vehicles to aid your escape. The game is very clearly inspired by the Rambo films, with player 1's character looking almost exactly like Stallone (player 2 was the same, but blue). It's also one of those games that is difficult to translate to home platforms due to its rotating joystick controls (a problem we'll encounter again later on).

Metal Slug series

If you don't know what a typical run 'n' gun game looks like, you have obviously haven't played any of SNK's Metal Slug games. And if you haven't played any of these beautiful, violent and brilliantly ridiculous examples of arcade gaming, what the hell are you doing on a site like this? Metal Slug is one of the crowning jewels of SNK's legendary Neo Geo system and features some of the most detailed pixel art ever, but it's the high energy, high explosive, tongue-in-cheek gameplay that makes it a classic.

Gunforce: Battle Fire Engulfed Terror Island

If I was giving out awards for Most Awesome Subtitle, Gunforce: Battle Fire Engulfed Terror Island would probably win. This Irem run 'n' gun game from 1991 is very clearly inspired by Contra, but has a contemporary setting and two player co-op. Gunforce gives players the ability to lock the direction of fire by simply tapping the joystick and staying still, something many other similar games didn't do (such as Contra which always put the gun in a neutral position when you let go of the joystick). And although plenty of run 'n' gun games give you control of vehicles, there was something more free form about Gunforce's selection. They tended to be the same as the enemy vehicles and included screen-filling examples, such as the helicopter in the screenshot above. 

Total Carnage

In the 90s, Midway were the kings of over-the-top, parent shocking video games, from the visceral digitised action of Mortal Kombat to the worship of the cathode ray tube and total disregard for human life that was Smash TV. Released in 1992, Total Carnage shares a lot in common with Smash TV. Many of the game play elements, weapons and even characters came from Smash TV. As the name suggests, this is probably the craziest, crassest game in this list - a delight for teenage boys who grew up watching Willis, Van Damme, Lundgren, Sly and Arnie in action. The game also features an interesting password system, that will let you warp to sections of the if you know the four letter code.

Cyber-Lip

Here's another one from the SNK Neo Geo. Released a few years before Metal Slug, Cyber-Lip takes the game play of Contra and the plot from Terminator. You and a friend take control of two human soldiers, sent to take out the robotic army that's terrorising Earth after a military super computer goes haywire. Some notable features of Cyber-Lip are the ability to shimmy along handrails and the fact when you die you come back on a flying jet ski thing, which, for a few seconds, not only gives you the ability to clear the screen, but also allows you to position yourself where ever you like.

And no, I don't know what a Cyber-Lip is.

Mercs

Capcom's 1985 Commando was one of the earliest examples of vertically scrolling run 'n' gun games, pre-dating Ikari Warriors by a year. However, sticking to my rule of only including one game from any series, I must confess to preferring the faster, more hectic sequel from 1990. This game not only plays great, it looks great too, with clean, yet detailed pixel art that for some reason reminds me of Bitmap Brothers games. Unlike some of the other top-down games in this list, Mercs doesn't require any specialised controls, which means it translated well to home platforms too.

Midnight Resistance

I have found memories of various Data East games, but none more so than Midnight Resistance from 1989.  Like many of the games in this list, the characters looked like Rambo, but then he was the biggest action hero around at the time. Fallen enemies would sometimes drop keys, of which players could collect up to six. At the end of each level you break into a weapons store and each weapon or ammunition pack would require a certain number of keys to unlock. This was effectively just a coin and shop system, but it was more in-keeping with the story than having a random shop in the middle of the war-torn environment. This is another game that requires a rotating stick and so it didn't translate well to home platforms.

Finest Hour

Despite taking its name from a Winston Churchill speech, Namco's Finest Hour from 1989 is actually set in the future and puts the player in control of an armoured robot, seeking out the enemy in a jungle-like terrain and blasting them to smithereens. Finest Hour has a few unusual features. Firstly, it has an auto-lock on for the main gun and second, although it's not a one-hit-death game, you don't have health either. Instead you have a heat gauge, which goes up when you are hit. If the meter reaches critical, you blow up. However, stay out of danger for long enough and you'll cool down again. So when people talk about the auto-recharging health and shields of modern games like Halo, Gears of War and Call of Duty, you have to wonder if it started here. Officially, the game was only available in Japan, but I do remember it making it over to a few UK arcades. 

Rolling Thunder series

A former Classic of the Month, Namco's Rolling Thunder oozes spy style. The original had super smooth and detailed animation to go along with its great gameplay and atmosphere; the sequels added more locations, improved graphics and two player. The sequels are also some of the few run and gun games that put player 1 in control of a female protagonist (although others, such as later Metal Slug games, had optional female characters).

Alien Syndrome

Firstly, I love, love, love Sega's 1987 classic Alien Syndrome! I mean, I have soft spots for all the games in this list, but I have particularly found memories of Alien Syndrome - not so much the arcade original as the Sega Master System conversion. It wasn't as fast, but I always thought the graphics were cleaner. Nonetheless, this game manages to evoke the sense of foreboding and dread that permeates the Sigourney Weaver movies and with the kind of squelchy, undulating monstrosities found in John Carpenter's The Thing. Unlike the other games in this list, the maze-like structure of the levels of this game force players to explore and the time bomb ticking down in the background only added to the sense of dread.

Contra (AKA Gryzor)

Characters that looked like Arnie and Sly? Loads of big, crazy guns? Soldiers, robots and aliens to blast? What was not to like about Contra - or Gryzor as I knew it in the 80s. I was truly terrible at this game, but it wasn't until I was much older that I discovered it is generally considered one of the hardest games of that period. I own the Xbox Live Arcade version and even when I lower the difficulty and use all my continues, I still can't get past level 3. This game also made it to my original Top 10 list of seminal arcade games from my youth and for good reason. As good as similar games are in this list, Contra is still my favourite. So you can imagine how excited I was a few years ago when the games company I worked for at the time were pitching for the contract to do a modern remake of this classic franchise. Sadly, the bid fell through and it wasn't to be.

Join me again next month when I'll be counting down my top 10 light gun games.

MTW

Creepy Classic of the Month: House of the Dead

Manufacturer:	Sega
Developer:	Wow Entertainment
Genre:	Light gun
Board:	Sega Model 2
Year:	1997

It's halloween at the end of the month, so's time for another creepy classic of the month and boy, is it a doozy.

Zombies and videos games appear to be a match made in heaven. From dedicated zombie games such as Resident Evil, Left 4 Dead and ZombiiU, to the undead appearing in otherwise non-horror games, such as Elder Scrolls, Call of Duty and even western adventure Red Dead Redemption. For fans of arcade games, the number 1 zombie game has to be Sega's light gun series, House of the Dead.

The game is set in the undead-infested Curien Mansion, home and laboratory of the scientist Dr. Roy Curien. Now I won't go as far as to call Curien a mad scientist, but his experiments did lead to the zombie outbreak that permeates the series, so he certainly wasn't all that stable. You and a friend take control of agents Thomas Rogan and "G", as they search for Rogan's missing girl friend. On arrival at the mansion, you encounter a dying man, who hands you a journal containing details of Curien's monstrosities. This becomes essential as you face the game's various bosses.

House of the Dead first made its international appearance in 1997, a few years after Namco's Time Crisis and Sega's own Virtua Cop. Like those two games, House of the Dead featured polygonal graphics, but in the years since those other games first appeared the technology had improved no end. The increased detail in the textured models was essential for giving the zombies and other nasties a suitably decayed and grotesque appearance.

Unlike Time Crisis with its cover/reload pedal, House of the Dead stuck to the old technique of making players to shoot off screen to reload. This only added to the tension of being surrounded by hordes of brain-hungry undead, as you had to readjust your aim when you flicked back to the screen. Whether this was Sega's intention or not I don't know (although I doubt it, given their earlier games used the same technique), but it certainly increased to the sense of desperation.

This first video shows the game in action, but second from FindArcadeGames shows an old cabinet they've recovered, which looks to be in excellent condition.

MTW

Top 10 hack 'n' slash games

More of a sub-genre of beat 'em ups than a genre in its own right, hack 'n' slash games differ from other beat 'em ups and fighting games in that they tends to have medieval and fantasy settings rather than being about dingy backstreet dust ups. So, it's time to put on your elf ears, dwarf beards and maybe dig out your shurikens too, as we look at MTW's top 10 hack 'n' slash games:

Golden Axe series

Of course Sega's seminal Golden Axe was going to be in the list, so let's get it out of the way to begin with. Although there had been co-operative games before, with Golden Axe it felt like the way the game was meant to be played. I've always put this down to how well the three characters' skills complemented each other. My favourite, the dwarf Gilius Thunderhead, has melee range, but weak magic; the barbarian, Ax Battler, has balanced melee and magic; the armoured bikini-wearing Tyris Flare had the best magic, but the weakest melee skills. By playing Golden Axe with a friend you didn't just double your fire power, you increased your tactics too.

Rastan Saga

Taito's Rastan Saga is was one the granddaddies of the hack 'n' slash genre. The titular hero is your typical, Conan-esque barbarian, who has to carve his way through hordes of lizardmen to rescue, what else, a princess. Rastan's gameplay has almost as much in common with platformers as it does hack 'n' slash beat 'em ups, with Rastan having to jump and plunge his way around the landscape in order to reach his destination at the end of each level.

Ninja Spirit

After Tolkien-esque fantasy, the next most common topic for the hack 'n' slash genre is ninjas. Few arcade games give players as strong a sense of being a stealthy night blade as Irem's Ninja Spirit. From the outset players are able to choose which of four weapons they want to use (a katana, shurikens, bombs or a kusarigama), but things get really interesting when our hero, Gekkou, collects the magic gems that summon ninja spirits, which follow him and repeat his actions (with about a half second delay). But don't let all this arsenal fool you, Ninja Spirit is rock hard! 

Rygar

Playing Rygar again for this article, I'd forgotten just how bloody fast it is. The game throws everything at the player and there's a surprising variety of creatures and minions to deal with too, like pteranodons, headless hulks, burrowing centipede monsters and rhino dog things. Thankfully, Rygar's flying, spiked shield has plenty of reach, so with a bit of good timing it's possible to stop all of these monstrosities from ever getting close.

Magic Sword: Heroic Fantasy

In the early 90s, Capcom released a load of great fantasy hack 'n' slash games, starting with this, Magic Sword. The game has character classes that will be instantly familiar to anyone who's ever played a tabletop role-playing game or indeed a MMORPG. There's a knight, a priest, a thief, a wizard, a ninja, an amazon, a lizardman and the bizarrely named bigman. Whatever. Each one has their pros and cons, such as the priest who is generally the weakest, but is particularly powerful against the undead. What's different here is that the players do not take control of these different classes. Instead you control a generic warrior and have to rescue the other classes, at which point they will fight alongside you, mimicking your moves (a bit like the spirits in Ninja Spirit). The game also got ported to Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network a few years, in the Final Fight: Double Impact compilation, so there's no excuse to miss out on this one.

Knights of the Round

Released in 1991, Capcom's Knights of the Round is obviously based on the legend of King Arthur. Players get to choose from Arthur, Lancelot or Perceval and in classic style, each one has their own skills and abilities. In a nod to role-playing games, each character can be levelled up during the course of the game (a theme that we'll see repeated a lot in this top 10). Ostensibly, KotR is pretty basic, but it's the game's blocking system that really makes it shine. Hit attack and back at the right time and you gain a few seconds of invincibility. It's a simple and effective system, that was rarely seen at the time.

Shadow Dancer

Despite the ninja hero, the Eastern magic and the white wolf, we switch to modern day (or at least modern at the time) for our next game. Sega's Shinobi series is legendary, but the series really upped its game with this instalment. The addition of Shinobi's canine companion seemed remarkable at the time, especially as you were given limited control of the beast in order to set him on certain, otherwise hard to reach, enemies (such as the sniper in the screenshot above).

Gauntlet Legends/Dark Legacy

Released 13 years after the original, Gauntlet Legends and the sequel from the following year, Dark Legacy, features 3D polygon graphics and an isometric view that's more akin to modern action RPGs such as Torchlight, Path of Exile and Diable III as anything else. I originally played Legends on my Dreamcast, but it was a pretty close conversion by all accounts. As with other fantasy-themed games in this list, Legend and Dark Legacy feature a rudimentary levelling sysem, but the health and gold works much as it did in the original games. Unlike the original, the game has much more focus on melee combat, as opposed to throwing an endless supply of axes at your foe (how did the barbarian ever carry so many?), which is why it gets to join this list.

Strider

When I first saw Strider, I was blown away by how agile Hiryu was and dazzled by the flashing arc of his katana as he cut a swathe through scores of Soviate soldiers and bizarre robots, such as the ape pictured above. The game's future Russian setting and multi-lingual voices also made this one stand out from the crowd. For me, this is the game that first made me pay attention to Capcom and as this list has shown, they were a company to watch in the late 80s and early 90s.

Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom/Shadow Over Mystara

With the official Dungeons & Dragons licence attached to it, Capcom's pair of hack 'n' slash games Tower of Doom and Shadow Over Mystara are perhaps the closer to a proper role-playing game than any other arcade game. Both games are great, which is why they are sharing a spot in this list, but for me Shadow Over Mystara probably has the edge. With all the typical classes and creatures, a rudimentary inventory system for both clothing and weapons, and dripping with fantasy lore, this game has pretty much everything you'd want from an arcade D&D game. Both games are available on Steam, Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network as a double pack called Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara, so as with Magic Sword, there's no need to miss out.

There we have it, all the swords, knights, ninjas, magic, princesses and dragons an arcade throwback could want. As with any of my top 10s, there are bound to be games other people would have included in their list (I have no doubt there are a few people screaming, "What about Ninja Gaiden?!" or "Err.. you forgot King of Dragons!" but these are the ones I'd be putting 20p into, given the choice.

MTW

Relabelling session

Adding labels (AKA tags) to posts is a fine art. It's all to easy to add labels that are either too vague (and so you end up with loads of posts with the same label) or too specific (in which case the label gets used once or twice and that's it). For Arcade Throwback's labels I've always used manufacturer names so that fans can find all the posts about manufacturer, but after that my labels have been improvised. So I've decided to have a tidy up. The following labels are now gone :

• Clones *
• Conversions *
• Emulation *
• Feature
• Homages *
• Play now 
• Ports *
• Remakes *
• Show reels
• Tournaments *

* Posts with these labels now have one of the following new labels:

• Clones & Homages
• Expos & Tournaments
• Emulation & Ports

Hopefully things keeps things tidier and also groups up several related posts that were previous separate.

Classic of the Month - Lunar Lander

Developer:	Atari
Manufacturer:	Atari
Genre:	Simulation
Board:	Dedicated 6502-board
Year:	1979

Released in 1979, not only was Lunar Lander one of the earliest video arcade games, it was Atari's first vector graphics game and ushered in such classics as Asteroids, Battlezone, Tempest, Gravitar and Star Wars. But what are vector graphics? Well, if you imagine a child's dot-to-do drawing, but with perfectly straight lines between the dots, you'll get basic principles of the technology. The lines are the vectors and unlike a sprite, which is just an arrangement of pixels of different colours, the shape of a vector drawing is controlled mathematically. This means if you rotate, expand or shrink the shape, each point is moved relative to the position of all the other points; the angles of all the lines that make up the shape stay the same, so the shape itself is never distorted. Again, this is unlike a sprite, which is distorted when its rotated, because the individual pixels cannot be rotated, just moved, so they no longer fit in exactly the same position relative to their neighbours; everything has to be rejigged. Likewise, sprites don't scale well, because the only way to scale a sprite is to add or remove pixels; removing pixels loses detail and adding pixels disrupts the ratio of each coloured pixel (unless scaled by a factor of 2, but now we're perhaps getting a little too technical), so the shape becomes warped. These simple graphics emulate the stark landscape of the moon and the vastness of space beautifully, which is probably why so many early games were set in space. Vector graphics were the precursor to polygonal graphics, which take exactly the same rules as vectors, but apply shaded faces to the area between the points to make the shape appear solid. Later, we learnt to apply sprites to these faces, to give the polygonal shape the detail of a sprite and the flexibility of a vector.

But let's get back to the game itself. Arcade games are usually fast-paced, hectic affairs, but not so with Lunar Lander. The game was inspired by the Apollo 11's moon landing of ten years earlier and puts players in control of their own "Eagle". Play starts with the lander at the top of the screen and the rocky, nay mountainous landscape below. On surface of this vector moon there are several flat spots, each with a point multiplier written below. The trickier the landing (such as on a narrow ledge or in a deep gully) the higher the multiplier. Players must rotate the lander and use their limited supply of thrust to control the landing of the vessel on one of these spots. As you approach the landing zone, the screen switches to a zoomed in view, which gives players the chance to fine tune their approach. And fine tune you must if you are to stand any chance of landing without destroying or at the very least damaging the lander. A successful landing adds points to your high score, along with whatever multiplier was associated with the zone you landed on, then it all starts again.

It's a very simple game that rewards patience and care over quick reflexes or pattern recognition. This makes it a very rare beast among arcade games and about the only comparable experience I can think of is Rampart, not in terms of gameplay, but in terms of the mindset required to play it. As early arcade games go, this is one of the most rewarding and that is in part down to the rarity of the experience it provides - even by today's standards.

MTW