Games Archives - Frank Parker

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 4

There are games and toys shown in the ads below that people have kept from their childhood I am sure or wish they could have again to add to their retro collection. These adverts will bring back happy memories for many.

The following adverts are from the 1980’s and 1990’s but may have the odd 1970’s thrown in.

These adverts are more entertaining than a lot of the drivel that is put on TV these days. Enjoy your trip down memory lane.

Categories

Blog Posts

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 1.

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 2.

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 3.

Notes And Links

Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels – The image shown at the top of this page is the copyright of Suzy Hazelwood. You can find more great work from the photographer Suzy and lots more free stock photo’s at Pixabay.

RetroSteveUK on YouTube.

RetroSteveUK on Facebook.

RetroSteveUK on Twitter.

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 3

The following adverts are from the 1980’s and 1990’s but may have the odd 1970’s thrown in.

These adverts are more entertaining than a lot of the drivel that is put on TV these days. Enjoy your trip down memory lane.

Categories

Blog Posts

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 1.

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 2.

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 4.

Notes And Links

RetroSteveUK on YouTube.

RetroSteveUK on Facebook.

RetroSteveUK on Twitter.

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 2

The following adverts are from the 1980’s and 1990’s but may have the odd 1970’s thrown in.

These adverts are more entertaining than a lot of the drivel that is put on TV these days. Enjoy your trip down memory lane.

Categories

Blog Posts

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 1.

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 3.

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 4.

Notes And Links

RetroSteveUK on YouTube.

RetroSteveUK on Facebook.

RetroSteveUK on Twitter.

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 1

The following adverts are from the 1980’s and 1990’s but may have the odd 1970’s thrown in.

These adverts are more entertaining than a lot of the drivel that is put on TV these days. Enjoy your trip down memory lane.

Categories

Blog Posts

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 2.

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 3.

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 4.

Notes And Links

RetroSteveUK on YouTube.

RetroSteveUK on Facebook.

RetroSteveUK on Twitter.

Miniclip

Miniclip is well known for online games on the internet and there is plenty of variety to play. On Miniclip you can play games to compile games statistics such as high scores, and rankings on your own player page and can receive awards for playing games.

You will find lots of great Android games to download here.

You will find lots of great iPhone games to download here.

You will find lots more great games to play online here.

About Miniclip

Miniclip is a Swiss free browser game website. Launched in 2001, it is the world’s largest privately owned online gaming website. It was started in 2001 by Robert Small and Tihan Presbie on a budget of £40,000 and quickly grew. As of 2008, the company has been valued at over £275 million, having been profitable for six of its first seven years, with turnovers exceeding £20 million from 2006–2008 alone.

In 2015, Tencent acquired the majority stakes of Miniclip.

In December 2016, Miniclip crossed 1 billion downloads across its mobile games on iOS, Android and Windows devices, with more than 350 million downloads in the past 12 months.

Miniclip Mobile Games

Miniclip has many mobile games that are available for iOS, Android, Symbian and Windows Phone, such as 8 Ball Pool, Golf Battle, Gravity Guy, Bloons Tower Defense, Plague Inc. for android, Berry Rush, Agar.io, Diep.io, Mini Militia, Ludo Party, among many other app games.

Miniclip Xbox Games For Windows 8

In September 2012, Microsoft announced on the Windows team blog dated 31 August 2012 that Miniclip games will be able to distribute their games on the Xbox division of Windows 8. Miniclip games that are supported by Xbox for Windows 8 include Gravity Guy, iStunt 2, and Monster Island. Gravity Guy was released on Windows Store on 29 November 2010.

In April 2013, most of the Miniclip games for Windows 8 and Windows Phone were distributed for free for one year.

Miniclip Games For Xbox One, PC, And PS4

On 14 February 2017, Miniclip released their first game which can be played on Xbox One, PC, and PlayStation 4, called MX Nitro.

Blog Posts

Links

Miniclip – Official website. The image shown at the top of this page is the copyright of Miniclip and is on NicePNG.

Miniclip Games Index

Banana Mania

Online Games

The 1990’s saw the start of more people using the internet and with that online gaming started to grow rapidly over the following years.

You will find lots of fun online games to play via Blog Posts below.

About Online Games

An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PCs, consoles and mobile devices, and span many genres, including first-person shooters, strategy games, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG). In 2019, revenue in the online games segment reached $16.9 billion, with $4.2 billion generated by China and $3.5 billion in the United States. Since the 2010’s, a common trend among online games has been operating them as games as a service, using monetization schemes such as loot boxes and battle passes as purchasable items atop freely-offered games. Unlike purchased retail games, online games have the problem of not being permanently playable, as they require special servers in order to function.

The design of online games can range from simple text-based environments to the incorporation of complex graphics and virtual worlds. The existence of online components within a game can range from being minor features, such as an online leaderboard, to being part of core gameplay, such as directly playing against other players. Many online games create their own online communities, while other games, especially social games, integrate the players’ existing real-life communities. Some online games can receive a massive influx of popularity due to many well-known Twitch streamers and YouTubers playing them.

Online gaming has drastically increased the scope and size of video game culture. Online games have attracted players from a variety of ages, nationalities, and occupations. The online game content can also be studied in the scientific field, especially gamers’ interactions within virtual societies in relation to the behaviour and social phenomena of everyday life. As in other cultures, the community has developed a gamut of slang words or phrases that can be used for communication in or outside of games. Due to their growing online nature, modern video game slang overlaps heavily with internet slang, as well as leetspeak, with many words such “pwn” and “noob”. Another term that was popularized by the video game community is the abbreviation “AFK” to refer to people who are not at the computer or paying attention. Other common abbreviations include “GL HF” which stands for “good luck, have fun,” which is often said at the beginning of a match to show good sportsmanship. Likewise, at the end of a game, “GG” or “GG WP” may be said to congratulate the opponent, win or lose, on a “good game, well played”. Many video games have also inspired internet memes and achieved a very large following online.

The culture of online gaming sometimes faces criticism for an environment that can promote cyberbullying, violence, and xenophobia. Some are also concerned about gaming addiction or social stigma. However, it has been argued that, since the players of an online game are strangers to each other and have limited communication, the individual player’s experience in an online game is not necessarily different from playing with artificial intelligence players.

The History Of Online Games

The history of online games dates back to the early days of packet-based computer networking in the 1970’s. An early example of online games are MUDs, including the first, MUD1, which was created in 1978 and originally confined to an internal network before becoming connected to ARPANet in 1980. Commercial games followed in the next decade, with Islands of Kesmai, the first commercial online role-playing game, debuting in 1984, as well as more graphical games, such as the MSX LINKS action games in 1986, the flight simulator Air Warrior in 1987, and the Famicom Modem’s online Go game in 1987.

The rapid availability of the Internet in the 1990s led to an expansion of online games, with notable titles including Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds (1996), Quakeworld (1996), Ultima Online (1997), Lineage (1998), Starcraft (1998), Counter-Strike (1999) and EverQuest (1999). Video game consoles also began to receive online networking features, such as the Famicom Modem (1987), Sega Meganet (1990), Satellaview (1995), SegaNet (2000), PlayStation 2 (2000) and Xbox (2001). Following improvements in connection speeds, more recent developments include the popularization of new genres, such as social games, and new platforms, such as mobile games.

Entering into the 2000s, the cost of technology, servers and the Internet has dropped so far that fast Internet was commonplace, which led to previously unknown genres like massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) becoming well-known. For example, World of Warcraft (2004) dominated much of the decade. Several other MMOs attempted to follow in Warcraft‘s footsteps, such as Star Wars Galaxies, City of Heroes, Wildstar, Warhammer Online, Guild Wars 2, and Star Wars: The Old Republic, but failed to make a significant impact in Warcraft‘s market share. Over time, the MMORPG community has developed a sub-culture with its own slang and metaphors, as well as an unwritten list of social rules and taboos.

Separately, a new type of online game came to popularity alongside World of Warcraft, Defense of the Ancients (2003) which introduced the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) format. DotA, a community-created mod based on Warcraft III, gained in popularity as interest in World of Warcraft waned, but since the format was tied to the Warcraft property, others began to develop their own MOBAs, including Heroes of Newerth (2009), League of Legends (2010), and Dota 2 (2013). Blizzard Entertainment, the owner of Warcraft property, released their own take on the MOBA genre with Heroes of the Storm (2015), emphasizing numerous original heroes from Warcraft III and other Blizzard’s franchises. By the early 2010s, the genre has become a big part of the esports category.

During the last half of the 2010s, hero shooter, a variation of shooter games inspired by multiplayer online battle arena and older class-based shooters, had a substantial rise in popularity with the release of Battleborn and Overwatch in 2016. The genre continued to grow with games such as Paladins (2018) and Valorant (2020).

A battle royale game format became widely popular with the release of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (2017), Fortnite Battle Royale (2017), and Apex Legends (2019). The popularity of the genre continued in the 2020’s with the release of the Call of Duty: Warzone (2020). Each game has received tens of millions of players within months of their releases.

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Links

RODNAE Productions on Pexels – The image shown at the top of this page is the copyright of RODNAE Productions. You can find more great work from the photographer and lots more free stock photo’s at Pexels.

Games

Here you will read about modern games systems and the games that go with them. This section also covers board games.

For classic games machines and classic games etc. go to my Retro Gaming section.

To write about every different form of games would take forever and fill up page after page thus becoming boring indeed so I will keep it brief. You can find related topics in one form or another through blog posts or in my decades or collectables sections as well.

About Games

A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are different from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements. However, the distinction is not clear-cut, and many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such as jigsaw puzzles or games involving an artistic layout such as Mahjong, solitaire, or some video games).

Games are sometimes played purely for enjoyment, sometimes for achievement or reward as well. They can be played alone, in teams, or online; by amateurs or by professionals. The players may have an audience of non-players, such as when people are entertained by watching a chess championship. On the other hand, players in a game may constitute their own audience as they take their turn to play. Often, part of the entertainment for children playing a game is deciding who is part of their audience and who is a player. A toy and a game are not the same. Toys generally allow for unrestricted play whereas games come with present rules.

Key components of games are goals, rules, challenges, and interaction. Games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often both. Many games help develop practical skills, serve as a form of exercise, or otherwise perform an educational, simulational, or psychological role.

Attested as early as 2600 BC, games are a universal part of the human experience and are present in all cultures. The Royal Game of Ur, Senet, and Mancala are some of the oldest known games.

Definition Of Games

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein was probably the first academic philosopher to address the definition of the word game. In his Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein argued that the elements of games, such as play, rules, and competition, all fail to adequately define what games are. From this, Wittgenstein concluded that people apply the term game to a range of disparate human activities that bear to one another only what one might call family resemblances. As the following game definitions show, this conclusion was not a final one and today many philosophers, like Thomas Hurka, think that Wittgenstein was wrong and that Bernard Suits’ definition is a good answer to the problem.

Roger Caillois

French sociologist Roger Caillois, in his book Les jeux et les hommes (Games and Men) (1961), defined a game as an activity that must have the following characteristics:

Fun: the activity is chosen for its light-hearted character.

Separate: it is circumscribed in time and place.

Uncertain: the outcome of the activity is unforeseeable.

Non-productive: participation does not accomplish anything useful.

Governed by rules: the activity has rules that are different from everyday life.

Fictitious: it is accompanied by the awareness of a different reality.

Chris Crawford

Game designer Chris Crawford defined the term in the context of computers. using a series of dichotomies:

Creative expression is art if made for its own beauty, and entertainment if made for money.

A piece of entertainment is a plaything if it is interactive. Movies and books are cited as examples of non-interactive entertainment.

If no goals are associated with a plaything, it is a toy. (Crawford notes that by his definition, (a) a toy can become a game element if the player makes up rules, and (b) The Sims and SimCity are toys, not games.) If it has goals, a plaything is a challenge.

If a challenge has no “active agent against whom you compete”, it is a puzzle; if there is one, it is a conflict. (Crawford admits that this is a subjective test. Video games with noticeably algorithmic artificial intelligence can be played as puzzles; these include the patterns used to evade ghosts in Pac-Man.)

Finally, if the player can only outperform the opponent, but not attack them to interfere with their performance, the conflict is a competition. (Competitions include racing and figure skating.) However, if attacks are allowed, then the conflict qualifies as a game.

Crawford’s definition may thus be rendered as an interactive, goal-oriented activity made for money, with active agents to play against, in which players (including active agents) can interfere with each other.

Other definitions, however, as well as history, show that entertainment and games are not necessarily undertaken for monetary gain.

Read other definitions here.

The Gameplay Elements And Classification Of Games

Games can be characterized by “what the player does”. This is often referred to as gameplay. The major key elements identified in this context are tools and rules that define the overall context of the game.

Tools

Games are often classified by the components required to play them (e.g. miniatures, a ball, cards, a board and pieces, or a computer). In places where the use of leather is well-established, the ball has been a popular game piece throughout recorded history, resulting in a worldwide popularity of ball games such as rugby, basketball, soccer (football), cricket, tennis, and volleyball. Other tools are more idiosyncratic to a certain region. Many countries in Europe, for instance, have unique standard decks of playing cards. Other games such as chess may be traced primarily through the development and evolution of its game pieces.

Many game tools are tokens, meant to represent other things. A token may be a pawn on a board, play money, or an intangible item such as a point scored.

Games such as hide-and-seek or tag do not use any obvious tool; rather, their interactivity is defined by the environment. Games with the same or similar rules may have different gameplay if the environment is altered. For example, hide-and-seek in a school building differs from the same game in a park; an auto race can be radically different depending on the track or street course, even with the same cars.

Rules And Aims

Games are often characterized by their tools and rules. While rules are subject to variations and changes, enough change in the rules usually results in a “new” game. For instance, baseball can be played with “real” baseballs or with wiffleballs. However, if the players decide to play with only three bases, they are arguably playing a different game. There are exceptions to this in that some games deliberately involve the changing of their own rules, but even then there are often immutable meta-rules.

Rules generally determine the time-keeping system, the rights and responsibilities of the players, scoring techniques, preset boundaries, and each player’s goals.

The rules of a game may be distinguished from their aims. For most competitive games, the ultimate aim is winning: in this sense, checkmate is the aim of chess. Common win conditions are being first to amass a certain quota of points or tokens (as in Settlers of Catan), having the greatest number of tokens at the end of the game (as in Monopoly), or some relationship of one’s game tokens to those of one’s opponent (as in chess’s checkmate). There may also be intermediate aims, which are tasks that move a player toward winning. For instance, an intermediate aim in football is to score goals, because scoring goals will increase one’s likelihood of winning the game, but isn’t alone sufficient to win the game.

An aim identifies a Sufficient Condition for successful action, whereas the rule identifies a necessary condition for permissible action. For example, the aim of chess is to checkmate, but although it is expected that players will try to checkmate each other, it is not a rule of chess that a player must checkmate the other player whenever possible. Similarly, it is not a rule of football that a player must score a goal on a penalty; while it is expected the player will try, it is not required. While meeting the aims often requires a certain degree of skill and (in some cases) luck, following the rules of a game merely requires knowledge of the rules and some careful attempt to follow them; it rarely (if ever) requires luck or demanding skills.

Read more about the Gameplay Elements And Classification Of Games here.

Types Of Games

For an extensive list of different types of games go here.

The above articles were taken from Wikipedia and are subject to change.

Blog Posts

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 1.

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 2.

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 3.

Games: Nostalgic U.K. Games And Toys Adverts – Volume 4.

Links

Garrett Johnson on Pexels – The image shown at the top of this page is the copyright of Garrett Johnson. You can find more great work from the photographer Garrett and lots more free stock photo’s at Pexels.

Retro Gaming

Although I never played loads of console games back in the day, I did enjoy playing them. It all started for me in the 1970’s with a pong style console that came with a lightgun. I think I was about 10 or 11 years old and I may have had it for my birthday? I wish I could remember that far back. You would hit a square between two lines as bats in “tennis” or hit it against the wall “squash” style and shoot the square that moved around the screen. I can clearly remember my Mom’s old cat Bobby trying to get the square, ha ha. it sounds and looks so basic and non-exciting now but at the time it was state of the art stuff.

Of course, back in the 1970’s , 1980’s and 1990’s when I was playing the console above and the ones I owned after like the Commodore Vic 20, Amiga 500, 500 +, 600, 1200 and CD32, Sinclair Spectrum +2 and +2A and my Sega Game Gear (complete with the TV tuner), they were not retro at the time! I also used to play on Jnr’s Sega Master System, Megadrive and Playstation 1 with him too. As the years past they all become a nostalgia I fondly looked back on and I started my retro gaming collection with the above mentioned Amiga 500, 600 and 1200, the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast and the above mentioned Megadrive. As well as them I have the Nintendo NES, SNES, N64, Gameboy and Gamecube (I also have the Wii and DSi and DSi XL but they are not retro… just yet) and the above mentioned Sony PlayStation 1 and the 2 and 3 and the Microsoft Xbox. I have a lot of games for said consoles and a fair few peripherals as well and other bits and bobs. My collection spans 30 years or so and it is worth more than just money to me, it is a passion I need to play more with because being boxed up doesn’t do it justice. It needs to be on show to look at in wonder if nothing else. As well as them I have played emulation games on PC’s I have had and through my Amazon Firestick and 4K Firestick. and on as well.

So, although I do have a gaming section as part of my fun and games section, you can see why I could not justify sticking my LOVE of retro gaming as a subcategory of it. It deserves pride of place clearly on its own in my website menu.

Read about classic games machines and classic games etc. from my past and any memories regarding them in associated blog posts and in my decades section as well as in the above-mentioned fun and games section.

About Retrogaming

Retrogaming, also known as classic gaming and old school gaming, is the playing and/or collecting of older (or older versions of) personal computers, consoles, and/or video games (generally arcade), in contemporary times. Usually, retrogaming is based upon systems that are obsolete or discontinued. It is typically put into practice for the purpose of nostalgia, preservation or the need to achieve authenticity.

Retrogaming has three main activities; vintage retrogaming, retrogaming emulation, and ported retrogaming. Vintage retrogaming includes games that are played on the original hardware. Emulation involves newer systems simulating old gaming systems, while ported retrogaming allows games to be played on modern hardware via ports or compilations. Additionally, the term could apply to a newer game, but with features similar to those of older games, such as a “retro RPG” which features turn-based combat and an isometric camera perspective.

Participants in the hobby are sometimes known as retrogamers in the United Kingdom, while the terms “classic gamers” or “old school gamers” are more prevalent in the United States. Similarly, the games are known as retro games, classic games, or old school games.

Retrogaming has existed since the early years of the video game industry but was popularized with the popularity of the Internet and emulation technology. It is argued that the main reasons players are drawn to retro games are nostalgia for different eras, the idea that older games are more innovative and original, and the simplicity of the games that require fewer hours of gameplay.

Retrogaming and retrocomputing have been described as preservation activities and as aspects of the remix culture.

Origin Of The Word Retro In Gaming

The first known instance of the term “retro” in terms of gaming came from the online video game store RetroGames, which was launched in 1997 as a joint effort of Turbo Zone Direct and Robert Frasure. It specialized primarily in Turbografx-16, Sega Master System, and NES systems sales and repairs. This was quickly followed by the emulation website retrogames.com in 1998. The original word was coined by Robert Frasure when he found that “Flashback Games” was taken.

Retro Games

The distinction between what is considered retro and modern is heavily debated, but it usually coincides with either the shift from 2D to 3D games (making the fourth gen the last retro generation, and the fifth being the first modern), the turn of the millennium and the increase in online gaming (making the fifth gen the last retro generation, and the sixth being the first modern), or the switch from RCA to HDMI cables for video and sound transfer and the shift from 4:3 to 16:9 as the main aspect ratio for the games (making the sixth gen the last retro generation, and the seventh being the first modern). Some games are played on the original hardware; others are played through emulation.

Retro games can include video games as well as personal computer games for retro computing platforms. Arcade games are also popular and were frequently attributed to individual programmers. Some retro games can still be played online using just the internet browser via DOS emulation. In some cases, entirely new versions of the games are designed or remade. As well as playing games, a subculture of retrogaming has grown up around the music in retro games.

Retrogaming Methods

In the wake of increasing nostalgia and the success of retro-compilations in the fifth, sixth, and seventh generations of consoles, retrogaming has become a motif in modern games, as well. Modern retro games impose limitations on colour palette, resolution, and memory well below the actual limits of the hardware in order to mimic the look of older hardware. These may be based on a general concept of retro, as with Cave Story, or an attempt to imitate a specific piece of hardware, as with La Mulana and its MSX colour palette.

This concept, known as Deliberate Retro and NosCon, began to gain traction thanks in part to the independent gaming scene, where the short development time was attractive and commercial viability was not a concern. Major publishers have embraced modern retro gaming with releases such as Mega Man 9, an attempt to mimic NES hardware; Retro Game Challenge, a compilation of new games on faux-NES hardware; and Sega’s Fantasy Zone II remake, which uses emulated System 16 hardware running on PlayStation 2 to create a 16-bit reimagining of the 8-bit original.

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Clker-Free-Vector-Images on Pixabay – The image shown at the top of this page is the copyright of Clker-Free-Vector-Images. You can find more great work from the creator and lots more free stock photo’s at Pixabay.