Oldest games to do <a thing>

[Twed]

That was preceded by one year by the Shakin' Stevens game, although as the latter came as a bonus on an album (or single, or both - unclear) it might not count.

True.

There's also the wonderful 1983 music video for Chris Sievey's (Frank Sidebottom, although I'm sure you all know that) Camouflage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u9ZyV-BHFA

Not interactive though.

First football management sim? That has to be before 1984, I'd wager.

[Mister Six]

What was the first game that let you play as a gay character? I assume it's an RPG. Fallout 2 gave you the option but there must be some before that.

[Spiteface]

Was the original Fatal Fury the first fighting game to be a little more than strictly 2D? There were 2 planes to the action where you could jump into the background or foreground of the stages. Which I don't recall any others doing this (Duel mode on Streets of Rage 2 doesn't count) until fighting had been polygonal for a while (Virtua Fighter didn't have sidestepping until 3, the gameplay still being 2D at that point)

[Mister Six]

There was a Mode 7 SNES game that had fully rotating arenas, I think, though I don't remember the name.

[Twed]

What was the first game that let you play as a gay character? I assume it's an RPG. Fallout 2 gave you the option but there must be some before that.

You can play as Luigi in Super Mario Bros two player.

[biggytitbo]

Maybe Monty mole in 1984 was the first game about a current topical political issue - the miners strike? Was released whilst it was still ongoing.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Death race 1976. Not so much censored but taken off the shelves.

https://ncac.org/resource/a-timeline-of-video-game-controversies

It's a pretty good squeal tbf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBBtt72aJLA

[buzby]

Pole Position in the arcade had roadside Marlboro (amongst other) adverts.

Only in Namco's native Japanese version. The Atari version licenced for the rest of the world had all the advert billboard graphics changed to adverts for other Namco/Atari games.

The full list of advertisers in the Namco version are:
Goodyear (on the blimp at the start)
Marlboro
Pepsi
S.E.V. Marchal (French automotive electrical equipment company)
Martini
Canon
Champion (automotive equipment company)
Agip (Italian oil company)

Technically, the way the bitmaps were stored for the sign sprites was quite clever - one bitmap could be used ot display tow signs, depending on what palette was being used.:
Bitmap 1 - Marchal/Marlboro

Bitmap 2 - Agip/Pepsi

Bitmap 3 - Champion/Martini

Bitmap 4 - Namco/Canon


The Namco Japanese relase of the sequel Pole Posiiton II the following year had similar adverts in it with some changes - Goodyear was taken off the blimp and a Dunlop bridge was added, and Honda was added. The Atari release added some product placement adverts alongside the self-publicity ones:
Dentyne
Tang
7-Eleven

[The Culture Bunker]

First football management sim? That has to be before 1984, I'd wager.

The first Football Manager game was 1982, dated by the fact Peter Barnes is one of the players you can have. His career went right off a cliff post-82.

[lazarou]

Balance of Power (1985) is probably one of the more famous early games with an overt message (i.e. nuclear war is a failure state).

I guess a lot of the wargames from the preceding decade are sort-of-but-not-really eligible. And maybe some of the less war-y simulationist games.

Maybe not the first but a notable one is 1985's surprisingly charming Seaside Special, which has you stealing irradiated seaweed from a beach under armed guard to bring to 10 Downing Street and throw in the faces of members of the then-Tory cabinet until they die. Final boss is of course Maggie Thatcher.

There is of course a framing story about how the cabinet has actually been taken over by alien 'Polytikians' wearing these people's skins to help take the edge off it a little. It's not a great game but it's a wonderful little piece of work in its own way.

[jamiefairlie]

The first Football Manager game was 1982, dated by the fact Peter Barnes is one of the players you can have. His career went right off a cliff post-82.

I think 'Football manager' by Kevin Toms was 1981.  I certainly had it for my ZX81 at Christmas time 1981.

[Twed]

Nice.

A Day In The Life must have been the first game featuring the system's creator. Is it the only one?

[Twed]

I fucking love the sarcastic "CAN YOU COPE?".

[lazarou]

A Day In The Life must have been the first game featuring the system's creator. Is it the only one?

Not quite there but Jack Attack was so named because the red-faced monster reminded them of Commodore's Jack Tramiel when he went off on one. A 'Jack Attack' was what they called those when they happened.



Alan Sugar and Sir Clive both turn up as puzzle pictures in the very underrated Split Personalities.

[Twed]

Oooh, good stuff!

I was fascinated with Split Personalities. Any time the real world appeared in a computer game I felt like it was magic.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Nice.

A Day In The Life must have been the first game featuring the system's creator. Is it the only one?

C5 Clive.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Oh, and just last week I found this printout, done on the amazing ZX printer...


^{(Open image in another window to embiggen.)}

A magazine printed a program which was mainly a load of numbers which when ran produced the image.  I must've spent a few hours typing it in.  I think it said "Our Hero" underneath and maybe played a little tune.  A friend took the image and added the extras.  (An early "photoshop"!)  There was never any game though, just that image.

[Twed]

Best post on CaB.