I, Robot

It's your gaming that interests me. Your studies of the interplay of human motives and emotion.

When I think 'I, Robot', I think Isaac Asimov. Then I think Will Smith. After that I think there was another book with the title, and some Outer Limits episodes. It's common, is what I'm saying, but very rarely - if ever - do people think of I, Robot, the game.

I certainly didn't. I was hoping it was something to do with Asimov's short stories, but I was wrong, as is often the case. With a title like that, you can't go wrong with guessing that the game contains a robot, but what does it do? I haven't got the foggiest of ideas, but there's a way to find out.

Utopia

You sunk my fishing boat.

Source // Wikipedia

The idea of utopia has been around for hundreds of years, as have the questions of whether they'd make for great living spaces in the first place. For hundreds of years philosophers have only had books on the subject, their questions going unanswered - until now. Or 35 years ago. Ish.

Utopia is a battle between two city-building Gods, if you want to call yourselves that, where the idea is to create the very definition of a perfect island habitat, and ultimately score more than the other guy.

It is our first multiplayer centric game of the list, at least to my recollection, which means calling in P2 and doing some research, because I've no idea what on Earth this game is.

Time Pilot

Please deposit coin and try this game.

Source // YouTube

For a short while I was really hoping Time Pilot would be some game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, based - however loosely - on the film of the same name. Unfortunately, that film was called Timecop, and it would come out 12 years after Time Pilot. I'd imagine that even if the latter parts of those titles aren't similar, then the notion of travelling through time is, so I'll be disappointed if we don't do anything time-y.

Piloting something is everywhere in games, it's been done. How can we play with time?

Tron

On the other side of the screen, it all looks so easy...

I know for a fact I've not played Tron, but ever since catching the later parts of the film on TV a long time ago (and then subsequently watching it all, a few times, along with behind the scenes stuff, and the sequel), I think we've all wanted to be Kevin Flynn in some fashion. 

Thirty-three years on, thanks to the wonderful whizz kids at Disney, I'm able to play Tron as it was meant to be played - in a Flash game on a website with optional mouse support. There is a God.

I kid, but it's the only way I can play, so I'll take it. And it's faithful too. Unlike some of the flash versions of Atari games I've played so far, for example, this isn't a tarted up reskin or reimagining. Beyond a change in menus and a pop up set of instructions for each minigame, it seems to be a straight port of the arcade classic.

Time to hop into a Light Cycle and scram.

Sokoban

Who is even in charge of this warehouse?

Source // YouTube

Sokoban just sounds like a space shooter, doesn't it? It's futuristic, it's foreign, and seeing as it's the 1980s, there's a high chance of that all being true. Except of course that it isn't the case at all, and Sokoban is actually about moving boxes around a warehouse.

Why wouldn't it be?

Xevious

I don't think I am devious enough, no...

Source // Wikipedia

A scrolling shooter from Namco? Boy, I'm really excited for yet anothe-ooh, I see some ground there. Not set in space, eh? Let's see what we've got here. We're still space themed in Xevious, but not obviously so. I've got something to look at other than the vast emptiness of space this time around. Trees, and grasslands, and road networks, and floating saucer things and pyramid turrets. Yeah. Plenty of simple looking shapes of one colour or another. What more do you want? Gameplay?

Q*bert

I couldn't have said it better myself, Q*bert...

Q*bert? Yeah I know Q*bert. Who doesn't know Q*bert? Played it? Nah, never.

Something about blocks, jumping on blocks, bound to be some avoiding things thrown in. Funny looking walking nose or something. Yeah, Q*bert. Simple little game, piece of cake.

Mr. Do!

Mr. Do is indeed very active...

What the hell is Mr. Do! all about? How do you even pronounce it? What is going on? All these questions and more flood my brain upon first checking out the title. Mr. Do is a clown, I gather, with a particularly lethal ball and a fascination with cherries. Obsession, perhaps. Can't get enough of them as you navigate the ball bouncing, dinosaur bashing buffoon around the stage, picking up points from all manner of places.

Oh, and it looks and plays like Dig Dug too.

Moon Patrol

Who knew the Moon could be this hostile?

Source // Wikipedia

Moon Patrol sounds pretty spacey, but at the same time somewhat mundane. Patrols become routine, they turn repetitive, whether you're on a different celestial body to your native world or not. Will Moon Patrol be similarly simple and samey?

Will it hell, it's got aliens and missiles and explosions and stuff.