WEBVTT - Bestselling Games of All Time 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:14.040 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:18.360 I am your host, Jonathan Strickland, senior writer for how 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:22.880 stuff works dot com. And as I record this, my 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:27.360 email is starting to fill up with messages about E three. 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:30.680 That's the big computer and video game trade show that 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:34.640 happens in Los Angeles every year. This year, it's a 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:38.360 little different from previous years. This year, for the first 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:41.519 time in Ages, E three is going to open up 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:45.240 its doors to the general public. You can actually attend 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:47.360 E three as a member of the general public. I 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:50.519 think you have to purchase a ticket to go. I'm media, 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:53.599 so it's different for me. I'm covering the event. I'm 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:58.160 not attending it the way other folks are. But this 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:00.400 is the first time in the Ages that the general 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:02.800 public has been allowed to go to E three. Before, 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:04.360 it's been one of those things where you had to 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:07.680 be an industry professional or part of the media in 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.360 order to get uh in there, or you just had 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:14.560 to know somebody and kind of leverage those personal relationships 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.360 in order to get access to it. So it should 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:20.080 be a really interesting show. But it does mean that 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:23.880 things are starting to get real busy. In my email inbox, 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:25.959 I do plan on going to E three. I plan 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:28.360 on recording at least one show about what I see 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:30.280 out there if I can, if I can manage it. 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:34.200 Uh And I thought, in honor of all that, in 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:36.679 honor of E three and video games, I would do 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:38.320 a show in which I talk about some of the 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:42.600 best selling games of all time, and some of these 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:46.120 might get a more thorough treatment in a future episode 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:49.200 of Tech Stuff. I might dedicate a full episode either 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:53.040 to a specific video game franchise or more likely the 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.680 company that created the franchise. In some cases, I might 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:01.240 talk about a specific video game designer. Uh. So it's 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:03.880 very possible that some of these that I mentioned today 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:07.440 I will revisit in some future episode. But today, let's 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:10.200 take a stroll down memory lane and talk about popular 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:14.040 video and computer games. And I'm really gonna cover sort 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:17.720 of all the major eras of video game and computer 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:21.919 game history. Now, one thing I have to mention early 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:26.920 on is that video games sales were very different in 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:30.399 the early days than they are today. Today we talk 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:34.680 about dozens of millions of units sold for a truly 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:38.440 blockbuster game, but back in the day that was way 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:42.280 too big a number to even dream about. Uh, it 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:45.200 was more of a niche market in the early eighties 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:47.840 when computer games and video games were really first starting 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:52.040 to take off. So with today's world, where you've got 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:56.160 pre sales and you've got these these digital delivery systems 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:57.560 where it means you don't even have to go to 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:00.880 a store to buy the thing anymore, the numbers obviously 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:03.680 are very very different. Also, video games are much more 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:06.480 mainstream now than they were in the eighties. You know, 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:10.200 it was a bustling industry back then, but it was 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:15.799 still very much a niche industry. Back in those good 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:18.120 old days, when you were happy to have eight bits 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:20.640 to rub together in order to make a game, things 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:23.720 were a little different. And I'm not going to cover 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:28.919 every console or every system because that would take way 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:31.880 too much research, honestly, to have to look at the 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:35.440 different sales figures for every single platform that was out there. 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:38.120 But I covered all the major ones, including the major 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:42.119 ones of the past. Um and to start with, we'll 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:46.400 take a look at the good old at now is 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:49.800 not the only early video game console. There was Collique Vision, 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.880 there was in television. There were other Atari models like 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.000 but they is what I think of when I think 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:02.640 of classic home video game market. It was the big 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:05.200 daddy out of all the systems that were out there, 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.520 at least as far as a dedicated video game console, 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:13.000 and it was one of the most successful ones of 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.200 that time. So let's take a look at the top 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:21.359 ten titles featured on that system. And I want to 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:23.200 tell you right now that when I talk about the 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:25.320 ones at the very end of the list, or really 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:27.320 the beginning of the list, because I started ten and 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:31.920 work my way down, you could substitute a few different 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:35.919 names for the top numbers ten, nine, and eight and 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.760 seven or so like those those top four. You could 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:42.239 probably switch this out with some others because these sales 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:46.479 were very similar, like around a million units each. So 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:49.920 that is something to keep in mind when I'm talking 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:53.520 about these top selling ones. They were so close that 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:55.680 if you were to look at a different list of 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:59.120 top ten best selling games for the attor, I would 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:02.000 bet the last few entries on the list would be 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:05.880 a little different than the ones I have. But I'm 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:08.200 the one running this show, so I get to pick 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:10.560 which ones end up on the list. Since they were 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:13.160 all so close that it really is kind of a 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:16.080 judgment call in the first place, and I wanted ten 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:22.880 because that's a nice round number. So number ten, depending 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:28.839 upon the version that you're looking at, was Kaboom. Kaboom 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:31.600 was a game from Activision, so that was a third 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:36.120 party developer for games on the Autar and in Kaboom, 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:40.679 you used a paddle style controller to move a bucket 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:44.280 or sometimes a series of buckets back and forth across 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:46.359 the base of the screen. At the top of the 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:51.200 screen was a naughty little man, the mad Bomber, dropping 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:53.880 a series of bombs down and your job was to 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.640 catch the bombs before they could hit the ground. So 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.600 you would slide your bucket back and forth using this 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:04.760 paddle controller to catch the bombs. Pretty simple gameplay, Very 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:08.200 compelling though, because it was fast paced and it got 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:12.640 much more challenging the longer you played. Most of these games, 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.359 that's the way they worked. The difficulty would increase the 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:19.680 longer you played the game. This one came out and 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:23.880 sold more than a million copies. Number nine was one 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:26.760 of the games that I would argue ranks among the 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:29.800 best that ever came out for the at In fact, 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:33.400 I would probably put this as a tie for number 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:37.240 one of my favorites, and it was called River Raid. 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:41.520 River Raid was a top down shooter in which you 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.000 would control a jet and you flew back and forth. 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:49.080 It would scroll vertically, so you're flying over a river, 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:53.080 uh and the screen would change scrolling from the top 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:56.040 down to the bottom. Meanwhile, you're flying back and forth 0:06:56.200 --> 0:07:02.839 shooting down boats and also helicopters, and and you would 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:04.960 end up destroying stuff in order to try and find 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:09.120 fuel because as you flew, you would actually consume the 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:12.200 fuel that you were using, meaning that if you didn't 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:15.200 pick up more fuel, your jet would eventually crash. Even 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:17.480 if you were able to avoid all the enemy fire 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:20.040 coming at you, you would still need to pick up 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:25.760 more fuel. So this was another game from Activision. Activision 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:28.520 produced lots of games for the Atari. A lot of 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:32.000 the big successful ones came out of Activision, and I 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:36.200 thought that River Raid was one of the more exciting 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:40.800 and interesting games on there. It was the one of 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:43.400 the ones that got closest to replicating the sort of 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:47.160 experience you might have at an actual arcade. The graphics 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:52.800 weren't arcade level graphics, but the action was similar to 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:56.520 what you would find in an arcade machine. Number eight 0:07:56.600 --> 0:08:00.680 was a game called Adventure, one of the best known 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.880 games of the era. I have played Adventure, but I 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:05.760 did not own it. I did have an Atari twenty 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:09.800 when I was a kid. Sometimes people say the Adventure 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:12.480 was one of the earliest, if not the very first 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:15.280 action adventure game. I think that might be going a 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:18.160 bit far, but I see where they're coming from. It 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:20.800 came straight from Atari, so it was the first party game. 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:24.080 It didn't come from a third party developer, and it 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:27.360 required you to navigate a maze searching for a chalice 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:33.280 while simultaneously trying to avoid three naughty little dragons and 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:36.600 a little action adventure game. You go through these different 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:38.920 maze like areas finding components that would allow you to 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:41.240 get access to the chalice, and if you could then 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:44.560 you could win the game, essentially win that level more 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:48.880 or less. Also, this game has the honor of being 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:51.880 the first video game that anyone was able to point 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:55.040 to and say, there's an Easter Egg in that video game, 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:57.679 and the easter Egg was the name of the developer. 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.880 So back in those days, Atari did not allowed developers 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:04.640 to include their names on either the packaging or the 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:09.559 game itself. Atari didn't want developers to have any connection. 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:12.880 They didn't want this to become a personality thing. They 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:15.440 wanted to be known as just a company that produced 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:18.720 great games, and they didn't really see the value of 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:23.240 allowing developers their chance to claim any of the credit, 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:26.400 and this caused a lot of consternation in the video 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:33.559 game developer world. So in this case, the developer decided 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:36.240 that it might be a little cheeky and fun to 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:38.760 hide his name inside the game itself, and if you 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:40.560 knew the right place to go in the game, you 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:43.920 could go down an invisible go through an invisible door, 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:46.600 down a corridor into a room that had the developers 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:51.800 name in it. And uh. Eventually, a Tori stance on 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:55.880 not allowing developers to include their names attached to games 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.640 would lead to a lot of people leaving Atari to 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:02.400 form their own company. That's how Activision got its start, actually, 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:05.559 was that there are people who are working for Atari 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:07.440 who got tired of the fact that they could not 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:11.040 claim any credit to the games they developed, and so 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:14.000 they left to form their own company where they could 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:17.040 make their own policies. So it's actually a policy that 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:21.000 would ultimately hurt Atari in the long run. The seventh 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:24.320 best selling game for the hundred is a title that 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:28.000 tech Stuff once declared the worst video game of all time, 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:31.640 though to be fair, that was actually the result of 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:35.480 a poll that we put out among tech stuff listeners. 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:38.120 We asked our listeners to nominate what they thought was 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.240 the worst video game of all time, and the number 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:44.120 one response, not the only response, but the one that 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:48.240 got the most votes was ET the Extra Terrestrial for 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:51.400 the Atari dred and that is the number seven best 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:54.760 selling game on the at now. I don't really think 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:57.800 it deserves the title of worst video game of all time. 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:00.760 I think there are way worse games there than ET. 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:04.679 But man, it was not a great game. It had 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.640 a lot of problems. It was also really expensive for 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:09.680 Atari to produce because they had to pay for the 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:13.200 license to get ET so they could make a game 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:15.960 about it. Uh And it sold a lot of copies. 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:18.880 It was on number seven on this list, but Atari 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:22.280 produced way more copies and they were actually able to sell, 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:24.560 and a lot of those would end up buried in 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:27.280 a landfill. And you can learn more about that story. 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:30.440 There's a documentary called Atari Game Over. You can actually 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:33.800 watch that, and it has the whole journey of of 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:39.400 identifying the landfill where supposedly these games were dumped, and 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:41.520 then they do a dig to see if they can 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:43.920 actually find the games. And I don't want to spoil anything, 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:45.960 but it's a good documentary, so you should check that 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:49.319 out if you're interested in this story. And a lot 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:53.160 of people point to ET as being an expensive mistake 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:58.600 that ultimately contributed to Atari's collapse. Uh, and that seems 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:02.600 pretty fair. Atari into up over committing on these big, 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:07.480 big projects and then not selling enough units, and they 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:09.959 took a math on it. They they suffered losses as 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:13.960 a result that ultimately led to a massive crash in 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:16.640 the home video game market. This is one of those 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:20.600 games I had as a kid. I had E. T. D. Extraterrestrial, 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:25.280 so I experienced this pain firsthand. I played it and 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:27.079 it was one of those things where in my mind 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:29.360 I had never really completed the game, but then when 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:31.600 I watched the play through, I realized I had completed 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:33.840 the game on numerous occasions. I just kind of blocked 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:37.480 it out of my mind. It helps to remember that 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:42.200 the game developer, Howard Scott Warshaw, it was working under 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:45.000 a crazy deadline. He was given something like five weeks 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:47.080 to develop this game from start to finish. So he 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:49.520 really had an impossible task ahead of him when it 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:52.880 came down to making this game, and that should give 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:56.359 you at least some sympathy for him, and it explains 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:58.080 why the game turned out the way it did. He 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:00.760 didn't have enough time to develop, you know, a more 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:06.479 well rounded, interesting game, and everything in the game works. 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:11.240 It's just not particularly fun to play. So there are 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:14.600 other games that don't even have components that completely work, 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:16.839 So that that alone tells me this is not the 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:20.640 worst game ever developed. Uh. Then we've got a game 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:24.480 called Atlantis, which was the first game on this list. 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:27.800 I actually don't remember ever playing or seeing played. So 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:30.200 in this game, you would protect the city of Atlantis 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:33.840 from enemy aircraft flying overhead, and you had a set 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:37.720 of three cannons that you could use. You can control 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:40.040 with the joystick, so you could switch between the cannons 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:41.720 using the joystick, and then you would fire with the 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:45.440 button and tried to shoot down the aircraft that flew overhead. 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:47.920 As the aircraft would pass overhead, they would get a 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:51.559 little lower on their subsequent passes, and at certain points, 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:55.160 once they reached an altitude, they would start firing down 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:57.800 and destroying your cannons, so it became a race to 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:01.320 destroy the aircraft before your can ends were destroyed, similar 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:03.760 to another game that's on this list called Missile Command. 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:08.560 UH also kind of tied with Atlantis around this same area, 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:11.520 so technically I guess there are eleven items on this list. 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:15.200 Was a game called Demon Attack, which I had heard about, 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:16.880 but I also never played this one. I didn't know 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:20.120 Demon Attack. This one came from a company called The 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:24.200 Magic and was launched in two Now. Atari had actually 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:27.560 sued a Magic over this game, saying that they had 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:31.240 copied another game called Phoenix. And if you look at 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:35.400 Phoenix and you look at Demon Attack, they do, in 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:39.000 fact look extremely similar to one another, although Phoenix is 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:42.840 a faster paced game than Demon Attack is Demon Attack 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:46.440 you play a little cannon that can move back and 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:48.520 forth across the bomb of the screen, kind of similar 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:51.840 to Space Invaders, and you fire up at these three 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:56.520 flying objects that are at different levels of altitude. So 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:58.880 there's one in the low position, one a middle position, 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:01.640 and one in the high position and UH, and your 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:05.320 job is to destroy wave after wave of these three things. 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:09.080 And each time you complete one wave, you get a 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.360 new set of three, and they might have slightly different abilities, 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.840 like the kind of projectiles they fire change a little bit, 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:18.440 and eventually get to a point where when you destroy one, 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:21.720 they'll it'll split into two smaller entities that can swoop 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:25.120 down at you and also shoot at you. Interesting note, 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:26.880 if you do ever play this game and you want 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:31.360 to look like a total pro playing it, only the 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:37.240 bottom most creature can actually shoot at you. So if 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:41.720 you concentrate on destroying the bottom most creature in each 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:44.960 wave and and they do respawn, but they only respond 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:47.720 a certain number of times per wave. If you destroy 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:50.560 that lowest level one, you can take all the time 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:52.920 in the world to destroy the next two because they 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:56.520 will never shoot you ever. Uh. The only difference is 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:58.720 that if you get to the levels where you shoot 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.760 one and it splits into creatures, those that pair of 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:08.040 creatures will move down levels until they're at that lowest level, 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:09.440 and at that point they can shoot at you and 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:13.080 swoop at you, but in their big form, they'll just 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:16.440 like you can set your controller down and go order 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:22.360 a pizza. You're fine. They'll never shoot you. Spoiler, I 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:24.440 guess if you're talking about a game that came out 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:28.760 in the early eighties that is on an obsolete system, 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:32.000 but interesting that it was one of those where Atari 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:35.120 would actually take another company to court. By the way, 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:39.760 the case was settled out of court, but yeah, it was. 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:44.520 It was. It caused some consternation. Next on the list, 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:47.600 number five, since that was kind of a tie. Is 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:50.840 a real classic in arcade game history Space Invaders. So 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.600 similar to what I was just saying before. Space Invaders. 0:16:53.600 --> 0:17:00.320 Of course, very very successful arcade game uh A debuted Japan. 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:05.080 The arcade version debut in Japan in nine. Now a 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:12.080 company called Tito created Space Invaders, and then Bally's Midway 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:15.719 division would end up licensing it and distributing it here 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:20.680 in the United States and in Europe. The Attori version 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:22.959 of Space Invaders came out in nineteen eighties, so two 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:26.280 years after the game had come out in arcades, and 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:29.240 they sold around two million copies, which was a huge 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:33.240 number for home video games at this stage. Two million 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:37.119 is enormous. Space Invaders was one of those titles that 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:41.040 helped sell consoles because people remembered how much fun they 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:42.800 had playing it in the arcade and they wanted to 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:46.600 have that experience at home. So it's a known quantity 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:50.360 and you'll often see games come out where people will 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.400 say that's that's the the killer app or that's the 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:59.360 one that will sell consoles because it creates a an 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:03.480 experience that people want to have or that they associate 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:07.040 with being fun. So in this case, Space Invaders was 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:09.439 a really popular game in the arcades and it really 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:15.040 helps sell some Atari consoles um and it was more 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:17.600 or less the same game on the Atari twenty hundred. 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:21.879 It wasn't as colorful or as a uh you know, 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.640 the graphics weren't as good, which is weird to say 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:26.679 when you look at the graphics of Space Invaders, but 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:30.880 it's true. But it had the basic game elements fairly 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:35.800 well represented in the twenty version. Number four is was 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:37.960 Missile Command. This is the game I was talking about 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:40.960 earlier when I was talking about Atlantis. Missile Command came 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:44.720 out in nineteen eighty, with the Atari twentyre port debuting 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:48.359 the following year, so was when the arcade version came out, 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:52.919 and the arcade version had a roller ball control, but 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:57.480 the Atari version used the basic joystick. It still was 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:00.280 a big hit with the with fans. They bought two 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:02.600 and a half million units of this thing. So it's 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:07.160 very successful gameplay for Missile Command if you've never played. 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:11.480 It involves moving a little set of crosshairs over the 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:15.200 horizon as missiles are coming in towards a city, and 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:19.280 you can fire anti missile projectiles and what happens is 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:21.600 they'll they'll fly out, and then at the point where 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:27.280 you designated with your crosshairs, the anti missile projectile will 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:31.280 explode in a little circle. Any missiles that make connection 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:36.080 with that circle will disappear. They're nullified. So the game 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:41.119 becomes one of fast reflexes and also just strategy figuring 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:45.359 out where you can place these anti missile projectiles to 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:49.480 take out as many different enemy missiles as possible, because 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:52.320 you have a limited number of shots per level, so 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:54.960 you want to make sure that you get two or 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:57.720 three per level instead of trying to dedicate one for 0:19:57.800 --> 0:19:59.840 one thing. You would run out of time before you 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.600 it take down all the missiles and you would start 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:06.879 losing parts of your city. But anyways, again another one 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:10.080 of those games that had very simple gameplay, but it 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:12.760 was compelling. It It encouraged people to keep playing and 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:14.840 keep trying to get better and beat that high score. 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:20.040 So while these games were simplistic, especially compared to today's games. 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:25.720 What they had was some sort of hook that latched 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:29.040 on to that reward center in our brains, that lizard 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:32.720 part of our brains that wants to achieve something, and 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:37.560 it just gently presses that button saying good job. And 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:41.040 if it presses that button just frequently enough, not so 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:43.240 frequently that you get tired of it, but not so 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:46.960 infrequently that you get frustrated by it, it becomes a 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:53.080 compelling game. Number three was another classic port Asteroids. Asteroids 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:56.080 was one of the very first arcade games, especially one 0:20:56.119 --> 0:21:00.160 of the first successful arcade games, and the port came 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:02.199 out in ninety one and it would go on to 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:06.359 sell just shy of four million copies, again a huge 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:10.640 number in those days. This game involves controlling a spaceship 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:14.640 that has to blast asteroids before they collide with the spaceship. 0:21:14.680 --> 0:21:17.280 If you collide with an asteroid, your spaceship is destroyed. 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:20.439 But when you shoot an asteroid, it splits into smaller 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:23.280 asteroids until they get to such a level that they 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:26.960 just are disintegrated. So it then becomes a game of 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:30.400 shooting asteroids to break them apart, but not shooting too 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:33.320 many big asteroids, because otherwise you just have a huge 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:36.520 field of smaller ones you have to maneuver around. The 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:39.040 Arcade game was really challenging because all it had were 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:42.520 buttons to control your spaceship. You can control the direction 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:45.840 you were facing, your thrust, and your rate of fire 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:50.040 as was a little hyperspace button, whereas the Arcade the 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:52.520 the Atari version used it all as a controller, so 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:56.199 you would control your spaceships orientation and thrust with the 0:21:56.280 --> 0:21:59.080 joystick part and then the fire with a button. So 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:01.680 it made a little sim blur, but I still thought 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:05.359 it was really fun back in those days. Um number 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:09.000 two is the only game on this list that I 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:13.639 think is as good as River Raid, which was Pitfall. 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:18.960 Number two. Best selling hunter game was Pitfall. It was 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:23.239 an early platform er, so platform ring games were not 0:22:23.320 --> 0:22:26.680 a thing, uh from the get go. Like a lot 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:30.080 of the early games were war games or strategy games 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:33.840 or puzzle games. This was a platform er and you 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:37.399 control a little dude named Harry. And you have Harry 0:22:37.480 --> 0:22:40.960 running through the jungle, swinging over ponds, jumping on alligators, 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:45.359 dodging scorpions, and picking up random treasures to generate the points. 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:47.920 And you had a timer so you had to try 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:50.240 and get as many treasures within that timer as possible, 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:53.560 or you know, obviously if you ran into enemies you 0:22:53.560 --> 0:22:56.160 could lose lives, so your your game was over either 0:22:56.200 --> 0:22:59.000 when the timer ran out or more likely when you 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:04.720 died three times. Pitfall also was well known for the 0:23:04.760 --> 0:23:08.280 fact that when you had Harry jump on a rope 0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:12.360 a vine and swing, he made a little Tarzan like noise, 0:23:12.400 --> 0:23:15.080 although it was the eight bit version of a Tarzan 0:23:15.240 --> 0:23:19.600 like noise, so not exactly perfect audio, but it was 0:23:19.640 --> 0:23:22.160