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Orson Scott Card on Games, 21 Years Ago

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the back-in-the-dark-ages dept.

MilenCent writes "Long long ago, Orson Scott Card wrote a game opinion column for Compute! Magazine. In the November 1983 issue, he had some interesting things to say about the essential ingredients of a great game, all arguably still important today. He picked out one company that, at the time, consistently excelled in most of these areas--try to guess which one! Additional commentary over at Curmudgeon Gamer."

2 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. What a debut! by Yeechang+Lee · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes, it's hard to believe that *that* company was once the unquestioned leader of innovative gaming.

    Consider the company's first five titles:

    * Hard Hat Mack for the Atari 800 and Apple II
    * Archon for the Atari 800
    * Pinball Construction Set for the Atari 800 and Apple II
    * Worms? for the Atari 800
    * M.U.L.E. for the Atari 800

    One is absolutely, bar none, one of the greatest games of all time. Two more are notable milestones in gaming history. Four, perhaps all five, are considered classics.

    I like EA and its games. It's a tremendously-successful company, is (I think) the *only* videogame maker other than Nintendo and Sega to survive intact over the past two decades, and over the past 23 years has put out many other fine titles. But let's not forget that there was a time when it didn't depend quite so heavily on annual releases of Madden and NBA Live.

  2. M.U.L.E. is great. See for yourself... by Errandboy+of+Doom · · Score: 5, Informative

    Read about and download M.U.L.E. here.