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| 02.02.2007Multiplayer Generation Gap?
After reading the "The Quantum Leap Awards: The Most Important Multiplayer Games of All Time" piece I can't help but think that us "old guys" (AKA, over 30!) must not be participating in the polls enough...
Spacewar (PDP-1, 1961-2) *THE* head to head deathmatch (or even any of its arcade lineage of Computer Space, Space War, etc.). One on one competitive play, physics, partial damage, resource constraints/management. In 1962!
Gauntlet (Atari, 1984-5) Even though Gauntlet was introduced close to the end of the "Golden Age" for arcade video games it still managed to innovate. Although there were plenty of other multiplayer arcade games by then, Gauntlet was largely a cooperative game. The characters had different strengths and weaknesses and players had a much better chance of long term survival through cooperation. (Listen in on a game of Gauntlet and you'll hear the familiar "who needs health?", "let the Wizard get the potion!", "I have lots of keys, you take this one", etc.) And besides, who can forget "Warrior shot the food!" (Bonus points for anyone that mentions "Dandy" as the predecessor to Gauntlet!)
Street Fighter II (Capcom, 1987) Certainly not the first two player fighting game (Karate Champ and others predate it), but arguably the one that got things going in a modern sense and came at a time when the arcade industry was otherwise dying. The game provided great variety and a tremendous amount of depth in the form of special attacks (and the incredible button/stick sequences that went with them). It clearly was the model for MANY franchises that still exist to this day (Mortal Kombat, King of Fighters, Samurai Showdown, Virtua Fighter, Tekken, Dead or Alive) and is probably single handedly responsible for console controllers having more than two buttons on the pad!
Ikari Warriors on the NES... 'feh. ;-)
-Clay Cowgill
Embedded Engineering, LLC-Clay Cowgill
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