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vghistory.bsky.social
videogame history
@vghistory.bsky.social
18K followers 0 following 3.5K posts
a meditation on videogame (w/ occasional technology and web) history. donate to my ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/moshboy/ also find me on mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@moshboy nfaq: https://pastebin.com/vUmrYKx6
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vghistory.bsky.social
slurpy, title screen, colecovision (1984) www.mobygames.com/game/158357/...
title screen essentially presents as a info screen about the protagonist and its enemies, including the sprites. slurpy is a green creature with a trumpet-like nose text: use fire button to flip slurpy and spit poison (red) objects. enemies (names, sprites and their respective point worths): glowbug: 5, cave bug: 20 (a purple dot), cave bird: 30, serpent: 80, cave phantom: 90 (sprite looks like a grinning red skull), widowmaker: 60, creeper: 70, deathball, evil eye (neither the deathball or evil eye show point scores and there is a note sayingthat they 'can't be slurped'. also the deathball for some reason looks like a swastika) bottom text: press fire button to begin
November 28, 2025 at 10:22 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
print ad, illustration (1984) archive.org/details/Comm...
a man is sitting at a computer, staring at the screen, shaking, tearing his hair out. he looks incredibly upset and stressed. he is wearing a shirt and tie (which has been loosened). an ashtray is sitting next to the computer, piled up with cigarette butts. a packet of smokes is also sitting beside the screen.
November 28, 2025 at 8:54 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
sporting decathlon, game over, image sequence, dragon 32/64 (1984) www.mobygames.com/game/85686/s...
text (dark on orange strips on dark blue): game over you scored: 8026 you await the crowds applause. a graphic of the crowd's heads, which looks like rows upon rows of clones. text (yellow on red): congratulations you've won silver
November 28, 2025 at 6:59 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
cool boarders 4, print ad, excerpt, snowboarding etiquette, playstation (1999) archive.org/details/psm-...
illustration of a man with a big flannel top on and baggy pants, sitting at a candle lit table with a woman. they are being waited on. text above with an arrow pointing to the illustration: you can't go wrong with flannel. it's smart for any occasion.
November 27, 2025 at 11:22 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
illustration, the basic, magazine (1991) archive.org/details/the-...
a dude wearing spelunking cave gear is in a cave, using a little computer, while wiping his brow and looking up at the view point of the illustration.
November 27, 2025 at 9:59 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
blue's journey, screenshot, arcade (1991) www.mobygames.com/game/16718/b...
small protragonist, blue (wearing blue), is facing a big boss with orangey spiked up hair, wearing green, on a colourful 2d landscape. they boss says: go home if you don't want to die. blue is given two options in his speech box: i'll beat you! i'll go home!
November 27, 2025 at 8:27 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
print ad (2003) archive.org/details/elec...
an ad for ps2 games with online multiplayer capability. text (chunky white on black): if you suck, at least no one will know who you are. ('online broadband only' logo, rectangle, three circles of increasings size within) smaller text: look for this icon on socom: u.s. navy seals and other playstation 2 games with online capability.
November 27, 2025 at 7:20 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
testament, print ad (1988) archive.org/details/popc...
a man in a safari suit, standing spread legged, holding an automatic gun in one hand and a bazooka in the other, looking determined. above him are illustrations of grotesque monsters (one looks like it has three heads, all have long craning necks and sharp teeth, some have horns).
November 26, 2025 at 12:32 PM
vghistory.bsky.social
silver ghost, print ad screenshot (1988) archive.org/details/popc...
2 people, one yellow armoured and one blue armoured, climbing a rock face as a giant bald white creature at the top throws big rocks down.
November 26, 2025 at 5:31 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
illbleed, screenshot, dreamcast (2001) www.mobygames.com/game/4368/il...
earth, wooden(?) structures. overlaid is a futuristic looking pair of mechanical goggles. overlaid text below: horror monitor obtained.
November 25, 2025 at 12:16 PM
vghistory.bsky.social
xzr II, magazine screenshot (1988) archive.org/details/popc...
a massive levitating statue head (faces on 3 sides) is hovering above three warriors. the sky is a reddy-orange colour.
November 25, 2025 at 10:54 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
forgotten worlds, special offer, t-shirt, inside cover, zx spectrum (1989) 'only £4.99 including postage & packing.' www.mobygames.com/game/3871/fo...
text (printed in a half circle above the t-shirt imagery): two cool dudes. one hot situation imagery: taken from the cover with the top half of two muscle-y protagonists, one white, one black, holding big space guns. the white dude is shirtless. the game font is where their bottom half would have been. small text below this: ...it all adds up to a whole lotta trouble..
November 25, 2025 at 9:29 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
illustration, login, magazine (1986) archive.org/details/logi...
two floppy disks with arms and legs and holes in the middle of their faces (disk fronts) play ping pong with the disk on the right hitting the ball through the middle hole of the disk on the left and the disk on the left exclaiming 'muha!!'
November 25, 2025 at 8:25 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
escape from monster manor, 3do (1994) www.mobygames.com/game/12653/e...
three cloaked floating ghostly beings with wide yellow eyes, are holding knives with the ends dripping in blood (in a monor). there is also a floating dismebodied ghostly head of a creature. also a green spindly spider-like creature is in the air.
November 25, 2025 at 6:12 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
'absolute entertainment gave students from john f. kennedy high school, paterson, nj, a tour in recognition of national science & technology week. they saw the stages of production including paper animation, computer art, music, programming, & product testing..' (1994) archive.org/details/Elec...
students are standing (and sitting?) at a development desk set-up inside absolute entertainment's game studio.
November 24, 2025 at 6:33 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
computer graphics (1985) archive.org/details/OhHi...
a dark blue giant human shaped (outline) being that has evolved from a pink puddle of goo (across five stages, each a different colour).
November 24, 2025 at 5:05 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
skate or die: bad 'n rad, manual, back, game boy (1991) www.mobygames.com/game/16330/s...
thick black outline illustration of a skateboarder gettin' air and knocking a dude in the noggin with his board. the dude in question is wearing sunglasses.
November 24, 2025 at 3:59 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
b.a.t., insert disk screen, amiga (1990) www.mobygames.com/game/2200/ba...
a graphic of a 3.5 floppy disk with the side on image of an alien head on it and the words 'insert disk #2'.
November 23, 2025 at 12:08 PM
vghistory.bsky.social
skull, screenshot, commodore 64 (1984) www.mobygames.com/game/19288/s...
first person rpg style view of a passageway. a large floating skull is peaking around the corner. top of screen is score, level, lives and direction. on the right is the amounts of keys and treasure/gems that you have.
November 23, 2025 at 11:11 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
borrowed time, easter egg, macintosh (1985) 'enter the command 'burger' at any time to get beheaded with an axe. this is part of a long-running inside joke on the part of interplay co-founder rebecca "burger" heineman.' tcrf.net/Borrowed_Tim...
window divided up into sections. the section with the graphics shows a wooden shed. to the right is directions, verbs and nouns. below is graphical box for inventory. below this is text: command > s you're on the south end of the park, beside a small shed. command > burger the sky darkens as a huge axe swings down and lops your head off with one clean sweep. it seems the game has ended. would you like to try again? (y/n) > _
November 23, 2025 at 4:51 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
uninvited, screenshot, nes (1991) www.avclub.com/the-10-spook...
pixelated image of a woman's skull, long brown hair still atached, wearing a hat and reaching out for you with a gloved hand. text below: you have gotten the attention of the mysterious lady. to the right of the skeleton (property): pendant letter
November 23, 2025 at 3:12 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
illustration, i/o, magazine (1987) archive.org/details/Io19...
a computer is grinning (face on screen) and waving a sabre/sword thing at its cowering human owner.
November 23, 2025 at 2:13 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
illustration, technopolis, magazine (1985) archive.org/details/tech...
a cat on a computer that is controlling a robot that is painting a cat.
November 23, 2025 at 1:11 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
bugs and drugs, title screen, plato (1980) gamerant.com/plato-system...
black screen, white line grapics of hospital corridors with the title drawn in white lines on the floor, star wars scrolling style. information desk is on the left corridor, emergency is the right corridor. double glass doors are straight ahead. copyright info at top of screen, keyboard key info at bottom of screen.
November 22, 2025 at 5:00 AM
vghistory.bsky.social
merlin, graphics development package, for s-100 computers, print ad, excerpt (1978) archive.org/details/crea...
a graphics screen showing frames of a sprite running, three circles linked together and some ground(?) terrain. caption reads: dense mode: 160h x 100v running man patterns
November 22, 2025 at 3:48 AM