We've had our eye on this article for quite some time, and since our resident classic co-op guy (that would be me!) has been away from his beloved MAME cabinet this week, the time is now right.  TechRadar's The History of Co-Op Gaming is an excellent read for any fan of co-op.

Gauntlet, Contra, and Smash TV are all discussed, which pleases us since we've covered all those for Co-Op Classics in the past in some form.  Gauntlet is cited as one of the earliest co-op games, and the lessons learned from that game even effect modern co-op games.  The article doesn't follow a strict chronology, instead focusing on innovations like the MMO and voice communication.

Hopefully sometime soon, we'll have a more detailed history of co-op gaming here at Co-Optimus (yeah we should have thought of this first).  In the meantime, head over to TechRadar and tell us what you think! 

Read The Full Article: A History of Co-Op Gaming

I don't mean to call you out, but did you intend to link to the 3rd page?

that's why i hate multi-paged articles. i always send my friends links to the last page. with most people on broadband these days is it really necessary? maybe they could cut back on huge ads

its a good read though. i'm not far into it yet but it's good so far

Fixed that guys, thanks.

I still vote that Joust was the earliest co-op game. That came before Gauntlet right?

Joust predated Gauntlet by a two or three years, so yeah, definitely ahead in terms of co-op play. Though of course you can argue that Gauntlet introduced quite a few features never seen before.

I'm kind of trying to control my nerd rage on this one. The author of that piece seems to not actually be that well acquainted with co-op gaming (particularly console co-op). There are hundreds of current gen games across all platforms that offer a huge variety of options for players looking for co-op.

One of the final paragraphs sealed my opinion on his ignorance though:

"It's no surprise that as people stop gathering around a TV to play games, the odd exception like the Rock Band series notwithstanding, the focus is on more team games and deathmatching."

I'm a bit flabbergasted that any gaming writer makes an argument that people aren't gathering around their TVs to play anymore.

Modern consoles have also brought a resurgence in co-op games that had almost been lost (rail shooters on the Wii and beat-em-ups on the 360/PS3). There's so much going on in the co-op world, but he seems to be blind to much of it.

Okay, nerd rage off.

Joust was definitely first, by about 3 years, though the co-op was fairly limited. Mario Bros. was a few months after Joust, and far more what we'd consider co-op here at Co-Optimus. Probably the earliest co-op would be a MUD or perhaps 2 player vs 2 AI in Pong or a clone.

Roland, I agree the article has its flaws, which is why we'll be doing it up right sometime in the future!

yeah i agree with roland (i guess i shouldn't have posted before i was done reading). there are definitely some commends in there i didn't care for. obviously he's an RPG nut and thinks WoW is the greatest game ever. anyone that thinks their favorite game deserves that distinction is going to have serious bias problems. and yes, i was disappointed there's little mention of current gen consoles and the trend towards co-op specific modes like horde/zombies/firefight.

i think mario bros was the first one we had on C64. great game, i just had a problem with hitting the POW on accident

When the Co-Optimus staff tackles this article, I suggest attaining a sampling of the community's opinions. I agree with Courtney's assessment, and also add my experience was not as arcade based. Someone else like Marc may (or may not) have been more arcade. Some folks came along later than NES and never had an Atari co-op experience (at least we played Warlords in semi co-op fashion).

So I'd love to see y'all ask us for thoughts when you compile your article, even if it's just at the end asking for our memories/opinions/etc.

Edit: Warlords could kinda be played in co-op...

I had played some arcade co-op games, but that was either Ninja Turtles or some kind of superhero game.

I think Baldy's right, from a poll taken earlier and the statistics may have changed since.

From those that took part in the poll, 19 of 30 people are 30 years old or younger. I think that shows that most people haven't experience the early days of gaming. Though I'm sure a lot of those games can be found online. The experience of not playing anything like it before would be taken away.

Still, I would very much look forward to a Co-optimus article of the same. It may even spring a few new (reused) ideas.

I have no doubt that the Co-Optimus staff will do a fantastic job looking at the history of co-op There's certainly a ton more material to mine than what this writer looked at. I did notice that the piece was originally published in a PC centric magazine, so the intent was likely to consider the history of PC co-op gaming, but that was never made clear and the bias against consoles was painfully obvious.

On Joust, I linked to these flyers once before, but they're too awesome not to link to again. Now that's some co-op advertising!

That seemed more like a bunch of random statements about co-op than a history. It ignores nearly every important milestone in co-op gaming and focuses almost exclusively on Doom, L4D and WoW. And even then I can't tell if the writer's goal is to glorify WoW or complain about it's repetativeness.

Joust is definately the earliest co-op game I can recall playing.

yeah, as soon as he started his geek-gasm about WoW, my eyes glazed over and i just skipped a few paragraphs. i like WoW but i really can't stand people who get into it like that. games are supposed to be fun or a break from RL. when you put that much time/work into a game with no actual return (minus selling lvl 40's and gold on ebay), it can't be healthy.