haven't affected my mind: nothing can affect my mind. The violence is all right because it's orin pretend.
George: it may be preteno’. but I'm not. Zippy: Oh shut up. George.
I Kate St Claire, Lollies guitarist and singer
I fucking hate videogarnes. But . . . Final Fantasy!!! Imaginative plots. beautiful design by fabulous Japanese artist. Amano. and the cutest bishonen ever to grace a \./ideogame console. My housemate in NYC got a hold of a copy and we didn't get to actually watch our TV for two years. The only vrdeogarne ever to actually have entire sites dedicated to slash fan fiction about it. Cloudequals-PHWOAR!!!
"' I Mil Millington, ‘ Guardian ' I columnist ’ ' ' Staying modern '- i and mainstream, I'd go for Medal of Honour. the PC version. not the natefally iritur‘iatingiy PlayStation one. I didn't play tnis game. No. I actually liberated Occapred France. Really. I did. It's the at'iiosphere and feeling of
.lltll‘itl'l‘ESIOll created by a game that lifts it from a pieasing technical exercise to a ct; ssic piece of brain ttlelCKlllg. It's got y’Ou tll‘t': yOtl wake up the next morning ‘.'."ltll your tace marked out in the pattern of a keyboard.
I Ross Noble, comedian
For ages it was Metal Gear Solid. but this year I've discovered Medal of Honour: Front Line and that has far outstripped it. Essentially. it's like being ll‘ an episode of Band of Brothers and l actually started to
comince myself that I was single- handedly responsible for saying
i l.l’()l)(3. But I do spend so much time ‘.'.ratching old war riiovres or the History Channel so if you sit In front of all that stuff repeatedly. and then on the same screen put on something you can actually interact with. \.'./e|l. it's going to get a b.t obsessional. isn't it?
I Jenny Colgan, author
l or my money. the best videogame ever was Banjo- Kazooie on the Nintendo (54. It was beautifully
rendered. was incredibly satisfying to
play. but most importantly had the dream combination of a big. musical bear (Banjo) With might but little brain. who just happened to carry a natty blue rucksack with a very sarcastic bird in it (Kazooie) who would fly it in a good mood and peck yOu on the head if she wasn't. If I remember correctly. you cOuId turn the bear into a crab. a beetle or a washing machine. there were some singing frogs and a friendly witchdoctor. I played it solidly with my then-boyfriend for three months. Then one day. as we were reaching the end. I accidentally erased the saved game. We split up shortly afterwards.
I Lousie Welsh, author
Cleverly named. Pong was video table tennis which made a pong noise and. let's face it. stank. The game's graphics were basic: two white lines representing bats and a dot for a ball. You could vary your bat size and ball speed depending on your skill but if you lined the bats up precisely the game would play itself. ping ponging away an audio alibi in the living room while you got up to mischief
e sewhere. Eventually the tracking on our TV went and Pong was confiscated. Apparently. Pong is now highly collectable.
I Stuart Braithwaite, Mogwai Ieadman
My love affair with the famOus blue hedgehog arose over ten years ago in the psychedelic era of my youth. That my infatuation wrth Sonic coincided with similar infatuations wrth the Orb's Adventures beyond the Ultr'awor/d and a curious habit of staring at my parents' bathroom floor may be insignificant. Then again it could be utterly significant. All I can say to those too yOung or too old to have embraced the full joys of defeating Dr Robotnik by betrricing on his head and freeing the fluffy hordes is that you have frankly never lived.
I Christopher Brookmyre, author
I'd say Quake 2 because at the time it stood out so much bes‘rde its predecessors. due to the way it looked and the storyline. But that's Just the single player game. The online game was revolutionary and became a subculture of its own.
The history, " . of videogames
18 October 2002 - 2 February 2003
Royal Museum, Chambers Street. Edinburgh $5 adults £3 concessrons €10 families Tickets 0131 247 4422 0131 473 2000 www.nmS.ac.uk/garneon
Lara Crotl (c) 8: (TH) Coro Dotson Lumlod 1996 - 2002 . 09mm by Emir-can Gunny Landon m
;\ ‘o P Qs
0 <3 SALAMAN‘)?’
3rd Birthday Oktoberfest!
Draught Wheat Beers, Alt Beers, Kolsh & Pilsners Braumeister Olaf on hand to advise and
assist. ’Grossen Sausage’ barbecue each night
Thu 24th - Sun 27th October Open until lam, 7 nights 01 3t 467 3825
\‘i ii". .‘ THE LIST 19