One of my favorite computer games?of all time, really?is the seminal SPY vs. SPY, which wasn't the biggest of sellers, but has a big place in my heart. I purchased it after having been a fan of the MAD magazine strips (RIP Mr. Prohias), and didn't know what to expect. I'm not familiar with many videogame adaptations from comics, as opposed to movies, but as common knowledge goes, most transitions do not survive intact and suck badly. SPY vs. SPY was different.

A much touted-feature, and infact, necessity of the game is the split-screen mode. This is a game you simply cannot play alone?you are either going head-to-head with the computer AI (I use this term loosely) or another player. My bro and I came up with some pretty funny variations, including a "cooperative" mode where we pretended stabbing each other with swords was actually "love hugs", and we'd help each other collect required documents (this was in the first game) before greeting each other at the airport exit and graciously descending into dialogue.

Sometimes we'd get to the point where we were locked in a stalemate of kindness, so one of us would carefully deposit all the goods in a room (they get lost after death otherwise), and then we'd make a self-sacrifice not unlike a masterful John Woo tale told in cellshade. Warmly endearing!

I got a dual pack of the first two games. I wouldn't play the 3rd installment in the series, Arctic Antics, until many years later via a Commodore 64 emulator. By then, the world had moved on a lot, but the themes of honor, bravery, loyalty, and friendship still stay with me to this day.