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The Classics: cultural artifacts for the new millennium

The Classics are must-see, must-read, must-play works revered by The Verge staff. They offer glimpses of the future, glimpses of humanity, and a glimpse of our very souls. You should check them out.

  • Andrew Webster

    Oct 20, 2012

    Andrew Webster

    The Classics: 'Dirk Gently'

    Dirk Gently Classics
    Dirk Gently Classics

    Two of my favorite literary series have very little in common. The numerous adventures of Sherlock Holmes are especially notable for the incredible feats of logic performed by the consulting detective, while The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is an absurdist sci-fi tale filled with fish that can translate any language and a restaurant where you can literally watch the universe end. Luckily for me, there is a character that combines the very best aspects of both: Dirk Gently, the holistic detective.

    Written by the late Douglas Adams, the same author who brought us the universe of the Hitchhiker's Guide, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a bizarre whodunit with ample doses of sci-fi weirdness. It, and the follow-up The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, follow the titular Gently, a detective with what can only be described as unusual methods. Whereas Holmes famously said that "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth," Gently works on a different premise — in most cases the solution is the impossible.

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  • Laura June

    Oct 14, 2012

    Laura June

    The Classics: 'A Mind Forever Voyaging'

    Classics A Mind Forever Voyaging
    Classics A Mind Forever Voyaging

    The Classics are must-see, must-read, must-play works revered by The Verge staff. They offer glimpses of the future, glimpses of humanity, and a glimpse of our very souls. You should check them out.

    A Mind Forever Voyaging is a text-based, interactive fiction computer game released by Infocom in 1985. Created by Steven Meretzky, who had previously designed the successful IF version of Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, AMFV is quite possibly the best text adventure game ever.

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  • Adi Robertson

    Sep 29, 2012

    Adi Robertson

    The Classics: 'The Screwfly Solution'

    Screwfly Solution Classics
    Screwfly Solution Classics

    The Classics are must-see, must-read, must-play works revered by The Verge staff. They offer glimpses of the future, glimpses of humanity, and a glimpse of our very souls. You should check them out.

    When I was a teenager, I decided the best way to learn about science fiction was to read through every Nebula Awards collection in the library system, marking names. It rarely worked: even if I loved the story, I usually forgot the author, leaving me with a jumbled recollection of plot points and writing styles. The single name I remember now isn’t even a real one — it’s Raccoona Sheldon, one of the pen names of the science fiction author named Alice Sheldon but better known as James Tiptree, Jr. She had won a 1978 Nebula for her short story "The Screwfly Solution," and it terrified me.

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  • Paul Miller

    Sep 15, 2012

    Paul Miller

    The Classics: '2001: A Space Odyssey'

    2001 Classics
    2001 Classics

    The Classics are must-see, must-read, must-play works revered by The Verge staff. They offer glimpses of the future, glimpses of humanity, and a glimpse of our very souls. You should check them out.

    In high school my friends and I would end up at the chain video store (Hastings, it was called) about once a week. There we'd spend an hour or two selecting a movie that nobody ended up liking. I usually gravitated toward sci-fi, and one week I happened upon 2001: A Space Odyssey. This was before I knew anything about Kubrick's legend as a director, or 2001's vaunted status in film and sci-fi circles. I just knew I liked spaceships, and Space Odyssey promised that and more.

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  • Kimber Streams

    Sep 9, 2012

    Kimber Streams

    The Classics: 'The Jesus Incident'

    Classics The Jesus Incident
    Classics The Jesus Incident

    The Classics are must-see, must-read, must-play works revered by The Verge staff. They offer glimpses of the future, glimpses of humanity, and a glimpse of our very souls. You should check them out.

    Frank Herbert is well-known, even amongst less hard-core science fiction fans, as the author of Dune. However, few have heard of The Jesus Incident, a later work written in collaboration with poet Bill Ransom. First published in 1979, the novel tells the story of a warring group of humans and clones, placed on a terrifying yet beautiful planet by a god-like figure known as Ship.

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  • Joshua Topolsky

    Sep 2, 2012

    Joshua Topolsky

    The Classics: John Carpenter's 'Apocalypse Trilogy'

    The Thing The Classics
    The Thing The Classics

    The Classics are must-see, must-read, must-play works revered by The Verge staff. They offer glimpses of the future, glimpses of humanity, and a glimpse of our very souls. You should check them out.

    John Carpenter has made a lot of important films, at least if you're a cult or horror movie fan. Halloween, Escape From New York, Christine, and Big Trouble In Little China are just a few of his more popular works. But there are a set of movies in Carpenter's stable of releases which I think are particularly important — and deeply upsetting.

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  • Sam Byford

    Aug 25, 2012

    Sam Byford

    The Classics: 'Another World'

    Another World - Classics badge
    Another World - Classics badge

    The Classics are must-see, must-read, must-play works revered by The Verge staff. They offer glimpses of the future, glimpses of humanity, and a glimpse of our very souls. You should check them out.

    There wasn't anything quite like Another World when it was released, and that's largely the case over two decades later. In an age where too many games teach rules by holding hands and tell stories by stopping play, Eric Chahi's 1991 Amiga classic is all the more relevant. Ostensibly a Prince of Persia-style 2D action adventure, Another World set itself apart with its stark visuals, fluid animation, and vivid sci-fi storytelling. Transported to the titular other world after a lab experiment gone awry, you're left to fend for yourself without any guidance. And you will die.

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  • Andrew Webster

    Aug 18, 2012

    Andrew Webster

    The Classics: 'Dino Crisis'

    Dino Crisis Padded
    Dino Crisis Padded

    The Classics are must-see, must-read, must-play works revered by The Verge staff. They offer glimpses of the future, glimpses of humanity, and a glimpse of our very souls. You should check them out.

    The easiest way to explain Dino Crisis is that it's Resident Evil with dinosaurs instead of zombies. And while that may sound reductive, it's also very true — and it's what makes the game so great. The change gives Dino Crisis a bigger range of enemies to fear and more reasons to fear them. Being trapped in a room with a frighteningly fast raptor is a lot scarier than being stuck in one with a shambling zombie, and throughout the entire experience you're constantly aware of the T-Rex that's lurking about. That roar is very unsettling.

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  • Laura June

    Aug 11, 2012

    Laura June

    The Classics: 'The Left Hand of Darkness'

    classics_lead
    classics_lead

    The Classics are must-see, must-read, must-play works revered by The Verge staff. They offer glimpses of the future, glimpses of humanity, and a glimpse of our very souls. You should check them out.

    The Left Hand of Darkness is one piece in a large series of LeGuin books known as The Hainish Cycle which all occur in the same imagined universe(s), though they stand alone exceptionally well. This particular novel tells the story of Genly Ai, an envoy for the Ekumen, a collective of many planets set in the far distant future of the Hainish world. Genly Ai travels to the planet Gethen in order to convince the civilization to join the Ekumen, an alliance to further trade and communication among the planets. Reading The Left Hand of Darkness, one is left with the sense that the writers of Star Trek: The Next Generation were inspired to pen some of its best moments by LeGuin's work.

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  • Andrew Webster

    Feb 19, 2012

    Andrew Webster

    The Classics: 'Beneath a Steel Sky'

    Beneath a Steel Sky classics badge
    Beneath a Steel Sky classics badge

    The Classics are must-see, must-read, must-play works revered by The Verge staff. They offer glimpses of the future, glimpses of humanity, and a glimpse of our very souls. You should check them out.

    Sometimes all it takes to brighten up a dystopic future is a sense of humor. 1994's Beneath a Steel Sky from Revolution Software took place in a somewhat cliche, gritty cyberpunk world — oppressed citizens kept in check by a Big Brother-style government, that sort of thing — but managed to feel different by not taking itself too seriously. It's the kind of game where the main character is named Robert Foster because he was found in the Australian outback beside a can of Foster's beer, and where your only companion is a smart-ass robot named Joey.

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