A Brief History of Video Games Part1

By far the most visually impressive arcade game of its day, Dragon's Lair leveraged LaserDisc technology to construct an interactive movie: although the gameplay consisted of little more than quick time events, at least the death animations were quite rewarding.

The 3D wireframe graphics of space trader Elite in 1984 might not have been as colourful, but the game offered a depth of gameplay and freedom seldom since matched. This was also the year that saw the introduction of the deceptively simple yet fiendishly addictive Tetris: the tumbling tetrominoes originating on the Soviet Elektronika 60, and eventually finding a home on most other platforms.

-- The American release of the NES came in 1985, and with it Super Mario Brothers - a hugely influential side-scrolling platformer that would go on to set sales records unmatched for decades. While the golden age of the arcade might have come to an close, there was no shortage of now-legendary home console releases by 1986.

The Legend of Zelda introduced a charming blend of action and adventure set in the fantasy land of Hyrule. The gothic platformer Castlevania also made its debut, alongside Samus Aran's clash with parasitic space aliens in Metroid. 1987 brought more classics, such as 'Mega Man', with keen platforming action and nonlinear stage selection.

Metal Gear injected some stealth aspects into the top-down genre, with Solid Snake relying more on his wits than overwhelming firepower. Inspired by the earlier Dragon Quest, this year was also the debut of the longstanding Final Fantasy series, which over the course of its lifespan helped secure the enduring popularity of JRPGs. Meanwhile the Western RPG advanced with the first-person perspective of Dungeon Master - this real-time role-playing action defining the state of the art.

In 1988 home micros saw the wonderfully ambitious Exile, pushing the limit of the 8-bit machines with detailed physics and fiendish puzzles. The Nintendo Game Boy launched the year after, going on to be the most successful handheld platform ever - and the diminutive device made the perfect pairing for Tetris. Meanwhile, SimCity kickstarted the city-building category, putting the player in a town planner's shoes and proving quite enjoyable in the process.

--- The end of the decade marked a ramp of pace for the industry, with new 16-bit machines pushing the graphical threshold beyond anything seen before.

Shadow of the Beast wowed many with its graphics, and its impressive sprite artwork and parallax scrolling background acted as a catalyst to drive sales of new hardware. Adventure games also benefited from enhanced visuals, with the so-called point and clicks such as The Secret of Monkey Island illustrating your piratical exploits in a way no text adventure ever could.