(The following is an essay written by Tim in 1993 that fell through a crack in time. It is a response to the question “What would be the ultimate video game in 20 years?”.)

In 2013, the game I will be playing on my 256-bit Ultra NES will be like Doom, but you’ll be able to drive cars and the cars will have guns on them. You’ll be a guy called Rex Colt and he’ll be like this awesome cyber-warrior who fights against evil dictator guys.

You’ll be in a place that’s kind of like the base in Probotector but it’s actually a huge island and you can go everywhere, not just left and right. It’ll all be one huge level because the Ultra NES will have 8 gigabytes of RAM so it can fit that much in from the 64-gigabit cartridges. The graphics will be virtual reality (imagine Star Fox but better). The island will have heaps of bases for you to fight through, and you can drive between them or just sneak from one to the next.

The enemies you’ll fight will range from cyborg army guys with cool helmets through to giant dinosaurs that can shoot lasers out of their mouths. You’ll be able to fight these guys in epic battles, but you’ll need to level up really hard to do it. There’ll also be cybersharks in the water that attack you if you stay underwater for too long.

The game will have really cool weapons like a sniper rifle with multiple levels of zoom and when you shoot the bad guys their heads explode. You’ll also be able to use a bow and arrow, but it’ll be a cool futuristic cyberbow and arrow and the arrows will actually be the best things in the game. You’ll even be able to re-use arrows you already shot.

Because the Ultra NES will have a 128-channel sound chip, you’ll be able to have people talking and music playing at the same time, and the music will be able to change depending on where you are on the island and also if you’re fighting enemies and doing other stuff.

The game’s story will be told between missions like in Shadow Warriors, but all the talking will be spoken by real voices. There should even be a scene where Rex gets to sleep with a girl, because in the future video games will be able to have sex in them. Rex should be all gruff and gravelly like that one guy from Aliens, and the girl should really like him. When he’s on missions she’ll talk to him over radio to give him tips and advice and say funny things at him.

I think that if a game like this were to exist in 20 years time it would have to be for adults only, because there would be a lot of blood and violence and because it would be ultra-realistic graphics the blood would be like in movies like Terminator or Commando. The 256-bit consoles would be able to make photorealistic graphics so it would be just like playing a movie.

I think this would be the best game I would ever play.