Have Computers invented new real-world games?

September 27, 2011 1:09 AM

Are there games that were invented as computer games and then became popular as real world games?

Many computer games today are computer versions of games that can be played using physical objects. Card games or Dice Games for example. Chess. Checkers. Also Board Games. There are also a large class of games which model physical sports. Baseball, Football, Tennis, Billiards, etc.

What games, if any, were first invented as computer games and then, somebody thought, hey this can be played without a computer!

Card games that didn't exist before but were created as computer games - do count. Also any board games that first began as computer-only.

But novelties don't count - for example someone dressing up as a gorilla and throwing barrels at a Mario.

posted by vacapinta to computers & internet (21 answers total)

You can play Civilization without a computer. What a world!
posted by cmonkey at 1:18 AM on September 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Angry Birds card game
posted by bleep at 1:22 AM on September 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

cmonkey: Wasn't Civilization based on a boardgame? I just get this from Wikipedia:
"Meier admits to "borrowing" many of the technology tree ideas from a board game also called Civilization, published in the United Kingdom in 1980 by Hartland Trefoil (later by Gibson Games), and in the United States in 1981 by Avalon Hill. The early versions of the game even included a flier of information and ordering materials for the board game. "

bleep: The Angry Birds card game is not the same game but something "inspired by" with dice rolls.
posted by vacapinta at 1:35 AM on September 27, 2011

Not sure if it would necessarily count as popular, but after Final Fantasy VIII came out people made and played real world versions of the Triple Triad card game from it.
posted by fearthehat at 1:37 AM on September 27, 2011

There's a Doom boardgame which is apparently quite good.
posted by tumid dahlia at 2:29 AM on September 27, 2011

There's a Doom boardgame which is apparently quite good.

Also Gears of War, Resident Evil, Eve, Halo, Plants Vs Zombies, and Dragon's Lair. New games Yomi and Puzzle Strike simulate Street Fighter/Mortal Combat-style fighting games. I've heard Tannhauser described as akin to a First-Person Shooter.
posted by liquidindian at 3:49 AM on September 27, 2011

I have this terrible Pac Man board game.
posted by mkb at 3:52 AM on September 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Donkey Kong
Games based on Warcraft
Games based on Starcraft
This Diablo II D&D game looks bad bad bad
Mkb beat me to the Pac Man game (which I'm not surprised to hear was terrible), but there was also this Pac Man candy, which I suppose you could play as a game if you wanted to.
Invader (based on the obvious)

I'm not sure any of these were really popular, though. In fact I'm pretty sure they were all awful, except maybe the *craft ones.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 4:09 AM on September 27, 2011

On the borderline of what you're asking, but always worth linking to, is the folks doing Live Action Role Play of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, at Chernobyl.
posted by McCoy Pauley at 4:21 AM on September 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

cmonkey: Wasn't Civilization based on a boardgame? I just get this from Wikipedia:

Huh, I had no idea.

To make up for it, here's a board game version of Asteroids.
posted by cmonkey at 4:23 AM on September 27, 2011

Wasn't Civilization based on a boardgame?

Yes, and it was a great game (as long as you had a spare 12 hours or so), but it wasn't that game.

Civ the computer game may have been inspired a bit by the boardgame, but it really wasn't a version of it.
posted by pompomtom at 4:30 AM on September 27, 2011

In addition to that terrible Pac-Man game, there were also terrible games based on Frogger, Centipede, Donkey Kong, etc.
posted by box at 6:08 AM on September 27, 2011

The mention of Angry Birds probably does count when you consider the illicit Chinese amusement park version.
posted by mmascolino at 6:10 AM on September 27, 2011

This is probably closer to Angry Birds than the game bleep linked to.
posted by Stephanie Duy at 6:18 AM on September 27, 2011

I have heard that Culdcept (sort of a cross between Magic Cards and Monopoly) was briefly produced as a physical game in Japan.
posted by yellowbinder at 6:34 AM on September 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Pokemon started as a video game, but the card game (which is similar but not identical) is popular in its own right.

(When I was little, we had the Zaxxon board game. I don't know why; we never owned or played the real Zaxxon.)
posted by Metroid Baby at 7:02 AM on September 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

FITS is essentially a board game version of Tetris - multiplayer but with no player interaction.
posted by liquidindian at 8:01 AM on September 27, 2011

Did somebody say board game of Tetris?

(I used to have this one. It wasn't good.)
posted by box at 8:08 AM on September 27, 2011

Fantasy Flight Games publishes a lot of high end "big box" games, many of which are licensed from video games.

Space Hulk is basically Aliens.
posted by mkultra at 8:45 AM on September 27, 2011

I don't know how much it's caught on in the real world (I've played it with a few friends a couple times), but Fallout: New Vegas had Caravan.
posted by CrystalDave at 1:44 PM on September 27, 2011

my old college played real life Counter Strike. it was a small campus, so people would sneak around in black clothing with flashlights trying to tag each other with strips of duct tape
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 4:38 PM on September 27, 2011 [1 favorite]