L is for Largely forgotten rally sim. The first video game worthy of the tag ‘simulation’ wasn’t a flight sim but a 2D side-on recreation of the sport that’s currently monopolising the THC idiot box. An attraction at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s annual exhibition in 1958 and 1959, Tennis for Two was played with custom-built controllers and used an oscilloscope for a screen.
Like Spacewar!, a much better known primordial video game, William Higinbotham’s creation incorporated beguiling Newtonian physics. The natural way the ball arced across the net, and bounced after landing must have seemed like witchcraft to the folk who clustered around the appropriately hued circular display. This online recreation communicates Tennis for Two’s simple brilliance rather well, and includes an optional AI opponent.
M is for Muddy mayhem in MX Bikes
Clumsiness, bad luck, and loss of focus aren’t the only things that can wreck your chances in muddy MX Bikes races. Tear off profligacy can also prove costly.
N is for Nautical hood slide
Tabbing Tabby have added the fifth and final PT boat type to Boat Crew. The Elco 77 was last in line because its hemmed-in helm necessitated some challenging pathfinding and animation changes.
O is for One from the archive…
(This review of Jane’s Advanced Strike Fighters appeared in PC Gamer in Spring 2012)
The PC Gamer ouija board has been red-hot this week. Fred T Jane, the founder of military know-it-alls Jane’s Information Group and the writer of several dodgy late-Victorian science-fiction novels, is none too happy about his surname appearing on the cover of this achingly ordinary aero shooter.
As Fred put it “During the Nineties, my moniker was rarely off box tops. I stayed silent back then, because the games in question were heavyweight sims. JASF, however, is about as heavyweight as a ham and helium soufflé. The thought that the youngsters of today might come to associate my name with cockpit-less aircraft, castrated flight models and landings-free sorties, makes me want to weep.”
The deceased weapons expert has a point. Quite why Jane’s allowed their company name to appear on this airy trifle is a mystery almost as baffling as “Why on earth did Trickstar decide to make a game without an original bone in its body?”. JASF’s big problem isn’t a lack of realism, it’s a lack of personality. The 16 campaign sorties feel so HAWXian, so Ace Combatish, you’ll swear you’ve flown them before.
Note to devs: There’s no international legislation forcing you to include a ‘defend oil refinery’ or a ‘ destroy convoy carrying fleeing general’ mission in your campaign. There is no reason why that campaign can’t be shaped like an asterisk or an ampersand rather than a hyphen.
Fred isn’t far wrong when he observes “There’s more vision and verve in one page of my 1897 classic To Venus In Five Seconds than there is in all 1GB of this pointless shelf clogger.”
I adored all the Jane’s Combat Simulation titles, and was also quite puzzled at the time why that storied brand would rent out its name to that dreck of a game.
I admit, it took me a while to figure out how F related to ‘rally sim.’