Whilst growing up I had (and still have) many geeky hobbies, but one I never got into was stamp collecting. Recently though I saw some stamps and decided to visit Royal Mail’s special stamp site (https://shop.royalmail.com/special-stamp-issues) to pick them up as a gift. They’ve arrived and, as a geek and a retro gamer, I decided they definitely deserve a blog post to show off how amazing they look.
So in all their glory I present, the Royal Mail Video Game stamps:
The stamps are in a presentation pack showing off the main 8 stamps, and a card showing off the 4 Tomb Raider stamps. The Video Game stamps are to celebrate video games but more specifically they are to celebrate British video games which is why the stamps showcase:
“Elite is a space trading video game. It was written and developed by David Braben and Ian Bell and originally published by Acornsoft for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers in September 1984. Elite’s open-ended game model and revolutionary 3D graphics led to it being ported to virtually every contemporary home computer system and earned it a place as a classic and a genre maker in gaming history. The game’s title derives from one of the player’s goals of raising their combat rating to the exalted heights of “Elite”.”
“Sensible Soccer, often affectionately known as Sensi, is a football video game series which was highly popular in the early 1990s and which still retains a cult following. Developed by Sensible Software and first released for Amiga and Atari ST computers in 1992 as well as for the PC, it featured a zoomed-out bird’s-eye view (most games until then such as Kick Off and Matchday used a closer top-down or side view), editable national, club and custom teams and gameplay utilising a relatively simple and user-friendly control scheme. One of the defining gameplay elements was the aftertouch feature, which enabled effective but unrealistic swerves. The game topped charts such as Amiga Power’s “All Time Top 100″. The graphic style of the game was used in other Sensible Software games, such as Mega Lo Mania, Cannon Fodder and Sensible Golf.”
Note: If you would like to code a version of Sensible Soccer then check out “Code The Classics Volume 1“.
“Wipeout (stylised as wipE’out”) is a futuristic racing video game developed and published by Psygnosis. It is the first game in the Wipeout series. It was originally released in 1995 for PlayStation and MS-DOS, and later in 1996 for Sega Saturn, being a launch title for the PlayStation (in Europe only). Set in 2052, players compete in the F3600 anti-gravity racing league, piloting one of a selection of craft in races on several tracks around the world. Unique at the time, Wipeout was noted for its futuristic setting, weapons designed to both stall and destroy enemy opponents and its marketing campaign designed by Keith Hopwood and The Designers Republic.”
“Dizzy, or Dizzy – The Ultimate Cartoon Adventure, was the first video game featuring the character Dizzy, an anthropomorphic egg. The game was designed by two British brothers, the Oliver Twins. Dizzy was published by Codemasters and was released in June, 1987”
“Worms is a 2D artillery tactical video game developed by Team17 and released in 1995. It is the first game in the Worms series of video games.
Worms is a turn based game where a player controls a team of worms against other teams of worms that are controlled by a computer or human opponent. The aim is to use various weapons to kill the worms on the other teams and have the last surviving worm(s).”
“Lemmings is a puzzle-platformer video game originally developed by DMA Design in Dundee, Scotland and published by Psygnosis for the Amiga in 1991 and later ported for numerous other platforms. The game was programmed by Russell Kay, Mike Dailly and David Jones, and was inspired by a simple animation that Dailly created while experimenting with Deluxe Paint.
The objective of the game is to guide a group of anthropomorphised lemmings through a number of obstacles to a designated exit. To save the required number of lemmings to win, one must determine how to assign a limited number of eight different skills to specific lemmings that allow the selected lemming to alter the landscape, to affect the behaviour of other lemmings, or to clear obstacles to create a safe passage for the rest of the lemmings.”
“Micro Machines is the first game in the series laid the foundation of the gameplay: a top-down racing game with miniature vehicles. The race tracks are unconventionally themed. For example, some races take place on a billiard table while others occur in a garden.”
“Populous is a video game developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts, released originally for the Amiga in 1989, and is regarded by many as the first God game. With over four million copies sold, Populous is one of the best-selling PC games of all time.
The player assumes the role of a deity, who must lead followers through direction, manipulation, and divine intervention, with the goal of eliminating the followers led by the opposite deity. Played from an isometric perspective, the game consists of more than 500 levels, with each level being a piece of land which contains the player’s followers and the enemy’s followers. The player is tasked with defeating the enemy followers and increasing their own followers’ population using a series of divine powers before moving on to the next level. The game was designed by Peter Molyneux, and Bullfrog developed a gameplay prototype via a board game they invented using Lego.”
“Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. The first instalment in the Tomb Raider series, it was released in 1996 for Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and MS-DOS. The game received critical acclaim, with some critics declaring it as one of the greatest video games ever made. The game was commercially successful, selling over 7 million copies worldwide. The game is considered widely influential, serving as a template for many 3D action-adventure games that would follow.”
If you would like some Royal Mail Video Game stamps they are available from:
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