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Placing Commando in the shoot-'em-up category is almost reason for debate. The ground based game mechanics and army assault theme naturally lent it something of a run 'n' gun lilt, yet when broken down into its raw components, we can see that game design legend Tokuro Fujiwara was keeping to a well established and, certainly in 1985, the single most popular style on the arcade floor - the shoot-'em-up.

Seldom have arcade games been so accurately titled as Berzerk. Not only does it represent the actions of the mental antagonists quite accurately, it reflects the surreal and outlandish design that drives this crazy game to devour our loose change.

It can’t be denied; Atari’s designers came up with some incredibly inventive and interesting games before their decline. Battlezone is one of the finer examples - a two stick game (before Robotron was even a glint in Eugene Jarvis' eye), with the ever-popular objective of destroying as many enemies as possible.

I challenge anyone to sit and play a Space Invaders cocktail cabinet for more than 10 minutes without feeling the subtle pinch of boredom nibbling at their fire-button finger, though it's equally impossible to walk past that original Taito coin-op and not say "Wow! I'd love to own that machine!". Perhaps it hasn't aged particularly well, or perhaps it's just massively overplayed (I suspect the latter), but there's something about the grandfather of the modern games industry that, despite its limited gameplay and simplistic design, remains disturbingly appealing.

It's a good thing we wore the big belt today, because Eurogamer's feeling a bit bigger this afternoon what with the launch of Eurogamer France!

We (the British) have funny ideas about spies. Either they're ultra-suave, tuxedo'd public school boys with expensive, deadly wristwatches (who'd stand out a mile in a crowd), or they're sleazy, rain coated, privacy invaders wearing off-the-rack trilbies and carrying a newspaper with eye holes cut in it (who'd also stand out a mile in a crowd).

Star Wars euphoria over spilled into the arcades in the early 80's with Atari unleashing Star Wars the arcade game onto a public hungry for an immersive experience in a galaxy far, far away. After spending your weekly pocket money shooting down Tie-Fighters and generally saving the Rebel Alliance over and over again, playing the latest Star Wars clone on your home computer did not really live up to the arcade experience. That was until Realtime Games Software Ltd released 3D Starstrike on the Spectrum, a blatant clone of Atari's flagship title.

Gottlieb certainly weren't prolific videogame developers. In fact, it could easily be argued it was a one hit wonder: but what a hit! Q*Bert put his developer firmly on the videogame map for all eternity to see, and although his antics would only really be expanded by way of home system conversions, his well-earned renown places him in the same pantheon as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and... Horace (on account of them both looking so weird).

After the worldwide phenomenon that was Pac Man, Namco found it difficult to recreate anywhere near the level of success that our pill popping friend did. Which is a pity as it has meant that games such as Rally-X have been living under that sizeable cloud ever since.

Will Wright, creator of SimCity, the Sims and forthcoming open-ended evolution game Spore, gave the inaugural annual BAFTA Video Games lecture at an event in London last night, and GamesIndustry.biz was there to capture all the details.

Eidos is still unable to confirm exactly when Tomb Raider: Anniversary will be released on Nintendo Wii in Europe, but it did assure us today that it will be this side of Christmas.

If you're not doing anything next Friday, 2nd November, and you're in the vicinity of London, you might want to consider popping along to the Shepherds Bush Empire to join in with Fuse 07 - a Ubisoft-backed game and music show will feature a gameplay demo of Assassin's Creed among its many stage acts.

Splash Damage's 1.2 update for multiplayer PC first-person shooter Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is currently with publisher Activision's quality assurance folks and should be released within a few weeks.

THQ is the latest publisher to set its sights on Xbox Live Arcade, with four games planned for release on Microsoft's downloadable game service - including two as soon as next month.

When people hear the name Irem, they think of one game and one game only. But 5 years before they were to create the seminal R-Type, Irem coders were cutting their teeth on a very different battle to destroy the alien invaders.

Despite being the third release in Ultimate's near-legendary Sabreman series, it's since beenconfirmed that Knight Lore was completed before Sabre Wulf. A revelation which, if anything, makes the isometric 3D engine even more impressive.

Ultimate Play The Game is a company synonymous with producing ground breaking titles for the ZX Spectrum with their 1983 debut, Jetpac, re-setting the benchmark for shooters on Sir Clive's Technicolor wonder machine that other game developers thereafter had to measure up to.

It's so easy to forget how gaming habits change. We look back now, and most every game stamped with the retro seal is considered simple. They might be, in comparison to modern titles, but at the time we had very particular and demanding requirements which varied wildly depending on format. Jack the Nipper, therefore, should be considered quite carefully when placed in line for retro scrutiny.

Great unanswered mysteries of the Spectrum age: just what the hell was Horace supposed to be? His torso is utterly baffling. Are those supposed to be... eyes? Vacant holes? What? Perhaps the shameful truth is that a demented blob was simplest to animate.

Rock Band's US release will be supported by a community minded relaunch for the game's official website - www.rockband.com - to help encourage the game's early buyers to play together.

Highway Encounter is quite special. Although constructed from familiar pieces, the result is a unique, um ... how to put this ... road clearance simulator. Which is not to say the player is cast as a diligent council worker. Far from it. In fact, this is perhaps the closest anyone will get to taking on the role of a Dalek. Or at least a laser-fitted dustbin.

No-one had posed the question "what happens if you mix Alice in Wonderland, The Neverending Story, a Sisters of Mercy b-side and some Spectrum code?" but in 1986, Odin Computer Graphics answered it anyway. As it turns out, you get a surrealistic platform game with an unusual approach to level design. And an unusual approach to pretty much everything else really.

The PS2 and Xbox 360 versions are already screaming along further up the track, and the PS3 version is lining up on the grid for tomorrow, but the PC version of Juiced 2 is still around a month away, and THQ has released a demo version to try and sell you on its merits.

Despite the vagueness of its title, Hall of Things is perhaps best thought of as a Tolkeinian arcade graphical adventure maze game. Actually, Hall of Things is probably a better, more accurate and concise description of what this popular title was all about.

Ubisoft has secured the voice acting talents of the principal Beowulf film cast members for its upcoming next-gen and handheld adaptation.

Having heroically declared that all modern games are rubbish just the other week, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell has gone back on his comments to some extent and paid tribute to Tetris, The Sims, Spore, Wii Sports, Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero as laudable examples of innovation.

MotorStorm has been patched to version 3.0, introducing support for the upcoming DualShock 3's rumble (hurrah) and tweaking a number of other variables.

Epic Games' Mark Rein says it's "too early to know" whether Unreal Tournament 3 will hit PS3 this year.

I spent much of the N64's lifetime cursing Nintendo for failing to continue the story of bounty hunter Samus, whose 2D adventures against the nefarious Metroid creatures I had so enjoyed on the Super Nintendo, GameBoy and NES before that. However, the double-act of Metroid Fusion (GBA) and Metroid Prime (Cube) has seen the series return so phenomenally in excess of my expectations that I'm left panting and wheezing, wondering just where the hell any of this came from!

Forza Motorsport 2's first downloadable race-track will go live tomorrow, 26th October, developer Turn 10 has said.