I have decided to start the rather futile task of playing all the video games.

Why futile?

Well, to an order of magnitude, 10 new games are released every week - I tend to pick up a new title to try at a rate of at most, one a week... There is a bit of a disparity here! Combine this with the fact that there are approximately 35,000 games listed in Giant Bomb's database, and in the past twenty-odd years I estimate that I've played, say, 1% of them. So even if I could keep up with the constant tirade of new releases - my current backlog is almost certainly insurmountable.

Where to start?

Julia Andrews once said "When you read you begin with A-B-C." Surely this rule of thumb could also apply to video games? Consequently, it is my intention to play through the games listed in Giant Bomb's database in alphabetical order, and to write briefly about my experiences.

Caveats:

I only intend to play games that I can obtain legally, practically and without prohibitive cost. Additionally, if I reach a game that is part of a sequence of games - I will most likely tweak my ordering and play them chronologically instead.

Game 000001: 005

005 is an arcade "stealth-em-up" released by Sega in 1981. An hour of research leads me to believe that there is no practical and legal way for me to play this game. Admittedly I haven't yet defined what I mean by "practical" - but purchasing a standalone cabinet is definitely on the wrong side of my personal line of practicality.

Reviews dotted around the internet lead me to suspect that I am not missing much, but surely no game where you can ice-skate past cops while simultaneously attacking them with laughing gas can be that bad? This video demonstrates the four levels in the game. The helicopter vs helicopter level is supposedly pretty tricky.

---

OK so 0 out of 1 for games played isn't a brilliant start, but I've just ordered the PS2 version of 007: Agent Under Fire from Amazon. Check back next week sometime for my thoughts.

I have decided to start the rather futile task of playing all the video games.

Why futile?

Well, to an order of magnitude, 10 new games are released every week - I tend to pick up a new title to try at a rate of at most, one a week... There is a bit of a disparity here! Combine this with the fact that there are approximately 35,000 games listed in Giant Bomb's database, and in the past twenty-odd years I estimate that I've played, say, 1% of them. So even if I could keep up with the constant tirade of new releases - my current backlog is almost certainly insurmountable.

Where to start?

Julia Andrews once said "When you read you begin with A-B-C." Surely this rule of thumb could also apply to video games? Consequently, it is my intention to play through the games listed in Giant Bomb's database in alphabetical order, and to write briefly about my experiences.

Caveats:

I only intend to play games that I can obtain legally, practically and without prohibitive cost. Additionally, if I reach a game that is part of a sequence of games - I will most likely tweak my ordering and play them chronologically instead.

Game 000001: 005

005 is an arcade "stealth-em-up" released by Sega in 1981. An hour of research leads me to believe that there is no practical and legal way for me to play this game. Admittedly I haven't yet defined what I mean by "practical" - but purchasing a standalone cabinet is definitely on the wrong side of my personal line of practicality.

Reviews dotted around the internet lead me to suspect that I am not missing much, but surely no game where you can ice-skate past cops while simultaneously attacking them with laughing gas can be that bad? This video demonstrates the four levels in the game. The helicopter vs helicopter level is supposedly pretty tricky.

---

OK so 0 out of 1 for games played isn't a brilliant start, but I've just ordered the PS2 version of 007: Agent Under Fire from Amazon. Check back next week sometime for my thoughts.

This could potentially be an awesome series. XD I'll definitely be following this

...and yeah, futile seems to be the right word. I'm going to have a hard time playing all the JRPGs I want to play, let alone virtually all games in existence. Still, I salute you for giving it a shot.

hahah i can get behind this

You literally can't do it, but it'll be fun to watch you fail.

This is going to be expensive if you plan to play all the games legitimately!

There are a lot of terrible James Bond games you're going to have to play at the start of this run. I don't think you're even going to get past them.

This is a great idea. I tried to do something similar with my '365 Games to Play Before You Die' series of blogs but I got burnt out by entry 150.

This is the best idea.

Good luck, you crazy motherfucker.

I'm going to watch all the movies. Hell, I'll even read all the books while I'm at it

I love this! Couldn't you have emulated this game in MAME? Or are you going to avoid going d

God speed.

@F1000003:

Insane gameman - y u no go to work?!

@StarFoxA: Yes, this game is available for MAME - but I've decided to avoid emulating games unless I can get consent from the copyright holders.

I assume you've made arrangements and your local mental health facility for when you go insane? =p Good luck though. There are so many awful early games on the Atari that your a better man than me for trying to play them all.

I say good luck to you sir, but without any emulation you have a hard and very very expensive road ahead of you.

@F1000003 said:

OK so 0 out of 1 for games played isn't a brilliant start, but I've just ordered the PS2 version of 007: Agent Under Fire from Amazon. Check back next week sometime for my thoughts.

Oh man, I totally had a poster for that game hanging on my wall 'till very recently. For video game posters that came from a magazine, that was a pretty good one.

Have fun with all the LJN games. ;)

Impossible task but good luck anyways :)

Iv been considering doing something similar but for PC games only.

Iv actually packed away all my consoles and console games.

I will be following your progress :)

Consider yourself followed. Don't disappoint me!

This is a stupid idea which you will never even come close to completing.

I think you should start with the games that you personally find interesting; I'm willing to bet that you'll even struggle doing that.

You play those games. Play'em hard!

At least you didn't add a rule that you had to beat them, at least the ones that can be beat with an actual ending. Anyway, good luck with your insanity.

Get a hold of yourself man!! Tis' a fool's errand!

Haha, good luck with this. I'll be curious to see how far you can make it.

Do you have lots of money? 

Make sure to Have Batman.

Speaking of which, I guess I Will Follow you.

Fuck Julie Andrews.

This is gonna rule.

Shine on, you crazy diamond!

This is insane...and genius. Will be watching.

What if games come out that are behind where you are in alphabetical order? Like if you've reached the Bs and then a game comes out called Aardvark Attack?

Anyway, good luck. This might work better as a team effort. Let me know if there are games which I have and you don't.

Just remember, somewhere in all the games is Dark Souls and Super Man 64.

Good luck, sir. Especially since Agent Under Fire is next on your list.

Just remember that when times get tough, "You Gotta Believe!"

I commend you... and, you got me interested in how long this might take.

If you spent one hour with each of the ~35,000 games, it would take about 4 years of playing with no sleep. So let's take the best case scenario here and say that you wouldn't play for 10 hours a day (sleep + 2 hours leisure time). That would be = ((35,000(games) x 1(hour with each game)) / 14(hours that you're playing a day)) / 365(days in a year). That would take just under 7 years. How bout we put a more realistic number in for the hours a day? If you played 6 hours a day, one hour on each game, it would take nearly 16 years.

Now let's say that you actually want to finish all of these games. This is hard to calculate, a game might take 30 minutes for a little time-waster or >20 hours for an adventure rpg. Let's make a really rough estimate and say that 5,000 of these games will take you 10 hours to complete, and you spend 6 hours everyday playing. About 23 years.

Love it man, more power to you. Your going to have to play through all the Mega Man games!!!! Definitely following.

007: Agent Under Fire is a pretty good game. I still have it on Gamecube. Make sure you try out the multiplayer, wherein you can use the Q-claw (you'll be introduced to this at the very beginning of the campaign) on any surface.

You're mad, sir, it can't be done. But don't let that stop you from trying, you magnificent bastard!

Lol, '005' is number 2 in forums rank right now. The most attention it's gotten in a few decades.

Rooting for ya from 005 to Zzzap/Dodgem.

Where will 0x10c be in your list, I wonder?

I was just reading, in Game Informer, about a guy who wanted to play every single CRPG ever made. At least that's, y'know, feasible in a technical sense if he doesn't count anything past the starting of the project and doesn't do anything else for about twenty years. And I thought he was nuts for attempting this.

But you? You're stark raving mad.