Investigating the history of videogames, an in-depth look into their obscure, untold and often troubled development story, trivia and everything else interesting.
While it is universally recognized that games are not a “boys only” club, especially nowadays, it is difficult to deny an originally predominant male presence. Today, the situation is – fortunately – quite different, so much so that in certain countries, female gamers are quite more numerous than their male counterpart. Thus, it is important…
Ever since the dawn of time, with money becoming the main medium which we use to access goods and services, getting things for free has always been the dream. Still that straw man argument of “stealing what you need” would apply to necessary goods, like food or clothing. In the case of videogames (or, well,…
Cheating death has always been one of mankind’s biggest dreams. As a way to exorcise our collective fear of dying, we have tried to imagine, again and again, what happens after we shuffle off the mortal coil. Leave it to horror literature to turn our fear on its head, by making “the returned” one of…
If there is one thing to be learned from many of the stories of Italian software houses is that developing games in the 80s was quite difficult. But even harder was finding a publisher, as there was no way anybody could find a public with DIY. In researching the history of Idea Software and the…
Something about parody games has always intrigued me. Perhaps it’s that much present fourth wall breaking quality to them or, maybe, the jokes, usually reserved for a restricted circle of people. Going back a few decades (let’s say, to a time before PYST), parody video games seemed to be few and far between. Nightshade is…
Post apocalyptic ultra violent 80s manga and anime series Fist of the North Star, created by Buronson (yes that is a Charles Bronson reference) and Tetsuo Hara became hugely successful in Japan short after its first volumes hit the shelves. Centered around the post apocalyptic adventures of seemingly unstoppable martial artist Kenshiro, it took a…
The European gaming market in the 80s, or rather, the global market was very much different to that of today. While perhaps stating the obvious, it is important to keep mind considering this article will analyze an era which we could define, generally, as “pre-globalization”. Indeed, forty years ago, well before the digital revolution and…
In the early 80s, the industry was quite populated by women game developers, while not as many as their male counterparts, there were probably more than one might think today. Her names can be easily found in several of the magazines that, in the early 80s, would publish games sent in by programmers. Most of…
Among several of the early Italian software houses from the 80s and 90s, Genias Software seems to be quite the exception. From day one, the company intended to actually cater to the audience’s tastes, not limiting their potential audience to national borders but, instead, keen on exporting games all over Europe and the United States.…
Everyone can identify that one definitive moment, the tiny magic second when a game managed to turn them from a casual part-timer into a full-time passionate gamer. Perhaps that passion, over the years, has been replaced by something else, but that hardly factors in this discussion. What matters is that mystical moment where everything else…