Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy manual

Trigger Happy

ravenous yellow disc being chased by ghosts. In generic RPGs, however, character is not merely a pretext to the gameplay, but part of it. Character is defined by talents, strength, cunning and even certain psychological traits, measured strictly quantitatively in points. Whereas the player is constantly getting killed in shoot-’em-ups, the survival and growth of an RPG character, the acquisition of new skills, are paramount. (Because of this emphasis on character, the RPG is the nexus of developments in what is called “interactive storytelling,” of which more later.)

Donkey Kong designer Shigeru Miyamoto’s Zelda games are all RPGs. Even his phenomenal Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998) is one, although on the surface it is a seminal 3D exploration game, because the character the player controls learns more about his past and acquires numerous new skills according to his success in the gameworld. One of the most revolutionary home-computer games of the 1980s, Elite, is usually thought of as an early 3D space game. But it is just as much an RPG too, in that success depends on carving out a career, over a period of several real-world weeks or months, as an intergalactic trader in minerals or narcotics. RPGs are the single most popular genre of videogame in Japan, and

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