FIFA 18 and why I stopped playing FIFA games

I wrote this article for GameTripper in 2022, but it didn’t end up being published. I have made a few minor edits but have left largely as-was. It…

Steve Davis Snooker – “Colour wanted”

In 1969, the controller of BBC Two, one David Attenborough, had a bit of an issue. He had a few colour cameras, and a desire to put something…

Platoon – “The first casualty of war”

Does this game-of-the-movie capture the coolest parts of the film? Was its development time (probably around three months) long enough to create a competent computer game? Are the…

Out Run – “A tank full of gas and an open road”

First, a recap of the last time I wrote about Yu Suzuki and Sega. After joining Sega from university in 1983, Suzuki was the lead designer for Hang-On,…

Combat School – “Don’t be a chicken!”

Konami did very well from Hyper Olympic (also known in some places as Track and Field), the 1983 multi-sports game which became one of the arcade successes of…

Game, Set and Match – “Over 20 exciting events”

Out of all the UK number one games I’ve covered from 1983 to 1987, Game, Set and Match is the third to have been a compilation rather than…

Joe Blade – “Prime the explosives”

The increasing success of Code Masters in 1987 prompted rounds of coverage of the Darling brothers as young business whizz-kids. They were far from the first such story….

Grand Prix Simulator – “Cunningly devised circuits”

In its January 1984 issue, Computer & Video Games magazine printed code listings for nine different games, ready for readers to type into their computers and run. Each…

Renegade – “There is always time to die”

Yoshihisa Kishimoto was born in Tokyo in 1961. There isn’t a lot of information available online in English on his early life, but he talked several times about…

Run for Gold – “Load runners from tape”

In 1980, the British government set up the Microelectronics Education Programme, MEP, with an initial budget of £12 million for four years. It was aimed at schools, and…