Royal Mail stamps celebrate Tomb Raider and other classic video games
- Published
Royal Mail has revealed a set of 12 stamps that celebrate the UK’s contribution to video games. The new set traces the roots of the UK games industry to the very early 1980s and includes four stamps that chart the evolution of the iconic Tomb Raider game.
This stamp celebrates Elite - a game that came out in 1984. It was a space-trading game originally made for 91Èȱ¬ Micro and Acorn Electron. The game arguably changed the face of computer gaming. Using a tiny amount of memory, this was the first genuine 3D game where players navigated a spaceship through galaxies. It is often listed among the most important video games ever created.
This stamp shows the game Dizzy, which was released in 1987. It went on to become one of the most successful British games of the era. The game’s main character is an adventuring egg that runs and tumbles around a fantasy world solving puzzles by collecting interesting objects.
Populous is another game on the stamps. In 1989, it was the first building game and one of the most successful games for the PC ever produced. It won loads of awards and has been voted among one of the most important games of all time.
Lemmings came out in 1991 – and became one of the best received games of the 1990s. The objective was to save the lemmings, and give skills to individuals to help their escape.
In 1991 a ground-breaking race game called Micro Machines entered the world of gaming. Players raced miniature toy vehicles in a game which is seen as a classic.
Sensible Soccer, from 1992, is seen by many to be the father of digital football games. It was listed as one of the 10 most important video games of all time by a committee of US games experts. Wow!
WipeOut was developed in Liverpool in 1995. It was a revolutionary futuristic racing game for the new PlayStation and it soon became a cult hit. It featured original music by Orbital and The Chemical Brothers.
In 1995, Worms featured cartoon-style warfare between, well, you guessed it - worms! The series went on to become an international success story. The special gaming stamps from the Royal Mail go on sale 21 January 2020.