Manic Miner to Grand Theft Auto.

Retro gaming nerd Andrew Shanahan looks back at the history of video games and rates the top ten British video games of all time.

You would think that a story that plotted the link between a killer toilet and a multi-billion pound British games industry that employs more than 10,000 people would be pretty big news. Yet no matter how hard you look it’s far easier to find MPs calling for computer games to be banned, or government scientists indulging in lurid, knee-jerk reports about the dangers of games than it is to find anything celebrating Britain’s pioneering role in turning Planet Earth into a globe full of gamers.

So why aren’t officials queuing up to trumpet this incredible British success story? Why are exhibitions like Urbis’ Videogame Nation the exception rather than the rule? More to the point why isn’t there a statue of gaming guru, Matthew Smith on the fourth plinth of Trafalgar Square? The simple answer is snobbery. Cultural oligarchs will always view books and paintings as higher up the artistic pecking order than, say, the thousands of lines of assembly code that when run together take the form of incredible galaxies.

So, in an attempt to give them their due, we have sifted the web to bring you our top ten British games – and give you a chance to play them for yourself.

1. OXO
Many argue that Steve Russell’s 1962 game Spacewar! is the first ever video game and, whilst it’s undeniably up there among the earliest (although frequently misremembered as Asteroids), Alexander Douglas’ OXO appeared more than a decade before*. Douglas was a computer scientist at Cambridge University and to study human-computer interaction he programmed a version of noughts and crosses into the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) computer. There was no joystick or mouse, so Douglas used a telephone as an input device. Genius. Download OXO emulator.

2. Lemmings
There are three reasons that Lemmings makes it onto this list. The first is that it was an early success, selling in excess of 20 million copies in the early 1990s (for DMA Design, now better-known as Rockstar North, the company responsible for the Grand Theft Auto franchise). As well as healthy sales figures many imitations followed – including the Worms games (try here for a free Worms variant). The second is Lemmings’ innovation. Sid Meier’s seminal Civilisation is often credited with single-handedly creating the “God” genre – where a player takes responsibility for a whole world – but Lemmings (released in the same year) also created a wider, community view that saw the action taking place across the whole screen, thus contributing to the development of the new genre. Thirdly, and most importantly, Lemmings rocked. In fact, it still does. Play Lemmings online.

3. Manic Miner
Manic Miner was programmed for the ZX Spectrum in 1983 by a bona-fide gaming legend – Matthew Smith. The game itself is a 20-level platform affair where you must guide Willy (who gained greater nominal exposure with the sequel Jet Set Willy) through a strange landscape that consists of carnivorous plants and those infamous killer toilets. The game was feted at the time as the first to include music, but arguably its most important legacy was that it enshrined the kind of totally bonkers surrealism that still looms large in modern titles. Smith’s use of strange baddies and, um, ‘quirky’ gameplay was lapped up – consequently enabling other developers to let their imaginations run riot. Play Manic Miner in a new window.

4. GoldenEye 007
As the name would suggest, GoldenEye 007 was a movie tie-in with the 1995 Bond film of the same name, even though it actually appeared two years later. Developed by Tim and Chris Stamper’s company Rare for the Nintendo 64, the game was a massive hit, with sales of over eight million and a host of plaudits, including a BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award. As well as innovations like the sniper rifle, the key to GoldenEye 007’s popularity was its split-screen multiplayer mode, which allowed up to four players to simultaneously enter the game’s different environments and fight each other. This made it perfect for group gaming sessions, pre-empting modern multiplayer deathmatch games and elevating the title to cult status. Play GoldenEye 007 online.

5. Jetpac
A long time before GoldenEye 007 Tim and Chris Stamper had founded Ashby Computers & Graphics, better known by its trading name Ultimate Play The Game. Jetpac was their first release (back in 1983) and it was a huge success, selling over 300,000 copies and generating a turnover of £1 million. Importantly, it underwrote the development of other notable titles such as Sabre Wulf. Played today, Jetpac seems basic, even a little boring, with the aim simply being to guide your astronaut avatar to assemble and fuel a space ship before moving on to the next level. But its popularity emphasises that the game was perfectly pitched: children and teenagers loved it, and many went on to develop a love of gaming that lasted for life. Play Jetpac in a new window.

6. Dizzy – The Ultimate Cartoon Adventure
It’s a well known fact that the computer game industry attracts the young. In 2009, three-quarters of its workforce are under 35. Back in the early days of gaming, however, developers were even younger, often getting into games while still at school (and when we say ‘getting into’, read ‘building their own’). The Dizzy franchise was a prime example. Designed and programmed by one set of schoolboy upstarts (Philip and Andrew Oliver), it was published by another (Richard and David Darling, via their company Codemasters). As with Jetpac, the gameplay is now a little dated but Dizzy makes our list thanks to its role in establishing these two highly influential fraternal pairs in the industry. Fast forward 23 years and the Darlings have seen Codemasters become an industry leader and been knighted for their work, while the Olivers are still churning out successful games with Blitz Games Studios. Download Dizzy – The Ultimate Cartoon Adventure.

7. Sensible Soccer
To say that Sensible Soccer has cult appeal would be a significant understatement: it was the only British title to make it onto a global list of the most important games of all time - alongside the likes of Tetris and Sim City. The game was originally programmed for the Amiga and launched in 1992, but has something of an evergreen appeal thanks to being ported onto a dizzying array of formats (most recently the Xbox Live Arcade). Designers Jon Hare and Chris Yates were clearly influenced by the early Spectrum titles, and Sensi (as it’s known) imitated 1980s games by focusing on playability rather than lavish graphics. This created a simplistic 2D football game that was easy to pick up but had a long shelf-life. Inevitably, the game spawned other ‘Sensible’ titles including Sensible Golf and, remarkably, even a Sensible Train Spotting. Play Sensible Soccer in a new window.

8. Elite
To give you an idea of the influence of Ian Bell and David Braben’s game, Elite had sales of 150,000 at its peak – approximately the same number of BBC Micros in existence that could play it. The reason for such phenomenal popularity (and its enduring appeal) was down to Braben and Bell’s ambitious take on a mercenary space adventure. Among the many innovations were the use of wireframe 3D graphics and advanced mathematics, which allowed BBC computers to generate their own galaxies. Even the marketing was innovative, featuring an over-sized box stuffed with manuals and a novel set in the Elite universe. The game also showcased some incredibly important ideas, taken up with enthusiasm by the industry and used in pretty much every game since, such as a fully realised in-game economy and the player’s ability to customise and upgrade their own ship. Download Elite here or here.

9. Daley Thompson’s Decathlon
The Manchester-based Ocean Software was well known for its many tie-in titles and was responsible for game versions of films such as Rambo and RoboCop. However, one of its earlier titles, 1984’s Daley Thompson’s Decathlon, cashed in on, as the name suggests, the success of Olympic athlete Daley Thompson. The game revolved around 10 different sporting events and the player’s attempts to guide Thompson to Olympic success. It was remarkably similar to Track and Field (Konami), but the real reason people remember it is because of its gameplay, which largely centred around thrashing the ‘z’ and ‘x’ keys. This very physical sense of fun was essential to the early gaming industry and seems to be the sort of spirit that the Wii is attempting to tap into and revive with its own sporting titles. Play Daley Thompson’s Decathlon.

10. Grand Theft Auto IV
It’s ironic that those lovable Lemmings were somehow responsible for the amoral adventures of Niko Bellic in the seedy world of Liberty City. GTA IV’s decision to open up the gaming world and allow gamers to happen onto developed storylines already embedded in the city was as revolutionary and popular as Elite’s policy of allowing gamers to explore their own worlds. Released in 2008, GTA IV took more than $500 million in the first week and has now sold more than 13 million copies worldwide. Despite the game’s success, it was the subsequent controversy that generated the headlines, once again showing that even now, after decades of success, the UK games industry still has a way to go before it gets credit for what it started.

* Pedants will note that the first ever, ever video game was Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann’s 1948 Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device. Naturally, it featured tanks and missiles.

Andrew Shanahan is an award-winning freelance writer whose work ranges from journalism with The Guardian, The Independent and national magazine titles to scriptwriting with the BBC. He has also developed a series of innovative writing projects for the internet with Moving Audio.

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