Scott created adventure games, most memorable (to my retro mind) of which was the Quest Probe series. As I looked up at the games on the shelves of Games Workshop and W H Smith I remember marvelling at the packaging which promised so much, well, adventure. Designed to look like comic book covers they were everything I could ever want. Escape into a world of Hulk rampaging through a city? Yes please. The thought of Hulk’s wrecking ball fists swinging to my whim was a powerful lure. Could this be the game to send me into such a world?

No.

Of course not. These were the days of colour clash and loading times. This was before SID let alone Sam and Max. Reaching into the earth shattering world of Hulk would take a while longer.

All that didn’t matter; not to a young boy being sold the dream of high adventure. The cover was enough and some might argue it was too much. After all, there was no way the game could deliver on such a promise. Yet there was no feeling of disappointment, no sense of being cheated. The game told a story, illustrated by some simple images. And as any writer of radio plays will tell you: storytelling isn’t dependant upon technology. These stories were incredible.

The cover was just the beginning.

These days (and forgive me for sounding old) many game marketing companies don’t feel they have to sell the sizzle anymore (see, I didn’t say “all” – I’m not that old). What’s in the game is good enough. leave your imaginations at the door and step into our world they say.

The dream gets forgotten as we wake into a world of processing power and special effects.

And all this isn’t to undermine the games. Stepping into a fantasy town, onto an alien shore or even a football pitch, well that experience really is better, more real than anything that has gone before. Our imaginations are both simulated and stimulated.

It’s just that you generally wouldn’t know that from the cover. Games are a world into the imagination, not a technological demo. So when it comes to packaging we should be aiming to inspire, to sell the dream and encourage the consumer to bring themselves fully into the fantasy. Many now tell us exactly what to expect. If that happened way back when then Hulk’s impact would have been tiny.

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