Friday night, back from the pub with your housemates and a few hangers on. Staple 1990s yoof TV show The Word has just finished with a raucous live performance by some up-and-coming grunge band and now it’s time to play video games.
In the decade of the original PlayStation and the Sega Saturn, there was no online multiplayer – if you wanted to compete against human beings, you did it in your living room with friends, and anyone else you found in the pub at closing time. It had to be something accessible, something competitive, something that allowed two or even four people to play at once. It needed to have short rounds, because everyone wanted to play. Invariably that would mean one of two options: a footie sim or a fighting game.
