Ghosts of Christmases Past

It has become a bit of a tradition for me to get out my old consoles and computers during the Christmas holidays and this year has been no exception. I've been up into the loft and amongst others I've brought back to life my Megadrive, SNES and my C64. My wife is not happy. But anyway, games I've played so far include the seasonal Daze Before Christmas, Madden 93 - I always play as the NY Jets and I don't know why, NHLPA93 - I always choose to be Edmonton and again I don't no why, Road Rash 1 & 2, Desert Strike, Exploding Fist and Suspended. I even rediscovered the delights of Rollo to the Rescue and have been playing the slightly festive James Pond 2 on my GBA. I just love all this cartridge, cassette, 5 1/4" disk, game swapping madness! I love it as much as I loved playing all the way through the latest games. Must be an age thing.

Two things have struck me while I've been playing on these old machines. No, number 1 isn't my wife hitting me with her high heeled shoes from across the room. No, the first thing I noticed was that so far this holiday I have spent as much time playing all of my older games as I have spent playing just one current generation game, Tomb Raider Legend on my Xbox360, so far this holiday. The second thing I noticed was that Electronic Arts used to release, wait for it, GROUND BREAKING games! They created and published games that other publishers could only dream of or simply wouldn't take a risk on.

We all know only too well the EA licences that now monopolise today's charts, all those once great games that have spawned huge franchises that release and re-release sequel after, often lacklustre, sequel year upon year. But in the deep murky past there are so many great games. Many gamers will remember; Racing Destruction Set, B.O.B, Archon, Bards Tale, Where in the world and Where in time is Carmen Sandiego, Boulderdash 2, Caveman Ugh-lympics, Chuck Yeager's Flight Simulator (a 3d flight sim on the C64!), Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future, Power Monger and Zool. I can go on and on...... so I will. There's Centurion: Defender of Rome, M.U.L.E, Wasteland, Crüe Ball, Rampart, Neuromancer, The Untouchables, Robot Rascals, TKO and more. Even the original Fifa was risky. Taking on the might of top down kings Kick Off and SWOS at their own game. Isometric computer footy wasn't new but it had never been able to compete with the speed and fun of the top down twosome. Fifa took everything that was great about Kick Off and SWOS, made it look gorgeous, include tricks and flicks, set the gameplay in treacle and viola! It was a massive risk that paid off and ironically Fifa is now one of the reasons EA take a lot of stick.

Not all of these EA games are classics of the same calibre as Archon but there is a tangible commitment to fun, variety and quality for the benefit of the gamers. How could it all go so wrong and when did EA get all cynical and more interested in their profits than the gamers?

Let's not end this here. After all it is the holiday season and so I'll leave with a jolly thought with tinsel on it. XBox LIVE Arcade has done a good job of releasing games that would have been in our shops a few years ago but that now would never ever have seen a shelf in the local game shop never mind be lucky enough to sit there gathering dust. Better still the new Wiiware channel will go a step further and give developers the freedom to be ground breaking and once again we'll see new innovation, creativity and variety in videogames.