Philips Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy User Manual
Page 81
Trigger Happy
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lines between genres are gradually being erased. Just as
Hamlet’s Polonius happily burbles through the
permutational possibilities of dramatic genre—
“tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical,
historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-
comichistorical-pastoral . . .”—so at the beginning of
thetwenty-first century we are offered driving-RPG
games, RPG-exploration games, puzzle-
explorationshoot-’em-up games and more. And
increasingly, large-scale exploration games in particular
are incorporating “sub-games” of different styles within
them, as a reward for completing certain sections. Sonic
Adventure (1999) lets you play pinball or go
snowboarding; Ape Escape (1999) has a mini-boxing
game locked away inside.
But despite the myriad cosmetic and formal
differences, all videogames in fact share similar
concerns under the hood. When talking about racing
games, I mentioned a particular type that seemed very
serious and detailed: the simulation. Now, the concept
of “simulation” is actually rather pervasive in all sorts
of videogames. After all, God games and real-time
strategy games seem to present recognizable, real-life
phenomena like cities and armies, while exploration
games model seemingly realistic human beings