Frequently Asked Questions about the Giant List
Where do you get all this information?
Initially it was all from an overflowing memory and romps through old magazines. These days most of the information comes straight from the horse's mouth (I could put together an impressive list of the great game designers who've visited the site!) and from game fans all over the net.
Where I can I find game X?
I don't know. Try asking in a newsgroup (rec.games.video.classic is a good start). Frequently, the author of a game no longer has a copy, so there's no sense in asking me to contact him (and if he did have one, I doubt he'd want to give it away). I know this sounds harsh, but it's true.
What does "classic" mean?
"Classic," in the electronic gaming sense, means "systems released before the U.S. launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985." The Atari 2600, Intellivision, Atari 800, C64, Apple II, Vectrex, Spectrum, etc., plus coin-op arcade and handheld games from that era. Sometimes this is called "the 8-bit era," even though a few systems were 16-bit, like the TI-99/4A, and even though some 8-bit systems were released in the 1990s, like the Game Gear.
What's so special about the introduction of the NES?
There was a noticible change in the style of games after the NES was released. Some people liked it, some didn't, but there was a change nonetheless. Additionally, the extremely interesting "one man, one vision" game became very rare for systems like the NES.
What about the Amiga and Atari ST?
Yes, those systems were surrounded by some of the creative spark of earlier days, but they're beyond the scope of the list.
Why are games for some modern systems on the list?
Modern games are included if the author created at least one title for a classic system. It's fun to see what the game programmers of yore are up to now. Notice that many Amiga and Atari ST programmers came from the Atari 800 / C64 / Apple II world.
Why is my favorite Commodore 64 game listed as an Atari 800 title?
Games were commonly ported between systems like the Apple II, C64, and Atari 800, and sometimes the ports became more popular than the original. Fort Apocalypse is a good example, being an Atari 800 game that is considered a C64 classic. When I started the list I wasn't interested in such trivial ports, as little creativity is involved, but I'm softening on the issue.
Why do you use the term "game programmer" instead of "game designer"?
A novelist is still called a writer, even though the act of physicaly putting words on paper is only part of authoring a book. And so it goes with classic games; usually the person who came up with the concept and did the design also did the coding.