Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy manual

Trigger Happy

all, with one of the best being Konami’s ISS Pro Evolution (see fig. 5). In EA’s World Cup 98, not only are real players licensed, their faces digitally mapped on to computer figures, but the actual French stadia are lovingly rebuilt on the screen. Hoardings around the virtual playing field carry real advertisements; hours of soccer commentary are recorded by real TV commentators, with suitable comments retrieved from the disc to suit onscreen events; and slow-motion replays from multiple angles allow the repeated savoring of a goal.

Sports games have grown up, but in the process they have almost defected to another medium. Of course soccer videogames are in one sense continuing the heritage of mechanical games like Subbuteo, but now solid-looking players can run smoothly around the soccer field or the hockey rink and be viewed from different camera angles, just like on TV. The modern sports game is no longer a re-creation of an actual sport so much as it is a re-creation of viewing that sport on television. With a little more involvement than simply shouting at the players over your six-pack.

74