PC Gaming Week: Headspace Invaders: does PC gaming help motivate the brain?

Introduction and Time Manager

In an article for PC Format in 1991, then-PC Plus editor John Minson explored the question of whether PC gaming can stimulate the grey matter, a question that still holds true today.

While standing in Software Circus's High Holborn store, about half a mile from the city, I watched a number of be-suited businessmen make their way along a shop display devoted entirely to spreadsheets, databases and a multitude of other un-trivial pursuits.

Then I counted them all back down the other side where the racks are stacked with the latest PC games. And, without exception, their return journey took at least twice as long. But I'm sure that if I'd approached them with a cheery "good afternoon, I'm a journalist for a computer magazine…" they'd have bolted from the shop like a schoolboy caught sneaking a peek at the top-shelf magazines.

Such is the stigma attached to playing PC games – at least in certain circles. It might be okay to fly a simulator; that sounds serious. And a strategy game may pass as a test of intellect for Napoleons of the boardroom. But a fast-moving blaster of the sort beloved by the snot-nosed brats who inhabit penny arcades? I didn't get where I am today shooting little green blighters as they sweep from the skies!

As leisure editor of PC Plus, I provide a light-hearted respite from DOS traditionalists hurling bricks through GUI lovers' Windows. But I'm conscious of the fact that I have to pick my reviews carefully. All the same, I occasionally sneak in a short shoot-'em-up review, partly out of perversity, but also because I believe that after a frustrating day at work, 10 minutes of adrenaline pumping action is highly cathartic – not to mention a darn sight safer than taking out your aggression on fellow commuters on the M25.

Gaming is good

But then… (and the clouds part as a heavenly choir swells from nowhere) I saw the light. ALLELUIA! Today I bring you the good news. Computer games are GOOD for you. And that includes all those noisy, fast-moving arcade games. In fact, they may even have the most Positively Beneficial Therapeutic Effects (and I use capitals advisedly). Let me explain.

The germ of this apparently bizarre notion occurred at a seminar held in the hallowed chambers of the Institute of Directors. (See, this isn't so silly at it sounds). For more than a decade, a company called TMI has been engaged in promoting a holistic, humanistic approach to time management. The Time Manager system is centred on a standard, six-ring binder but, unlike other personal organisers which merely allow you to carry around a muddle of information, TMI teaches a technique for making the most of that disparate data.

The basic theory runs along the lines that unless you focus your energies on personal goals, you'll waste vast amounts of effort on mundane, unrelated activities and achieve very little of lasting value. The secret of success is to define what you really want from life and then ensure that the greater proportion of your time is directed specifically towards those ends. The binder provides the mechanics for realising Time Manager methodology.

Inevitably, a computerised version of Time Manager evolved. Key Results streamlines the original. Appointments, activities and addresses can all be linked so that related information is immediately accessible. Meetings are automatically posted to daily, weekly and monthly plans. It even analyses how time spent equates with goals. Planning becomes fun.

But there's much more to the program than keeping a tidy diary. TMI has always encouraged a fuller understanding of the psychology behind time management. For example, it asks you to define no more than ten key areas of activity, because research suggests that the brain is capable of concentrating on one foreground topic, with ten others in the background.

In the seminar, Key Results' designer Ronald Young introduces more novel concepts. Concepts such as the relevance of juggling to become a super-achiever. Don't worry if this sounds a little weird. You can't be more bemused than the twenty managers and managing directors who each found a set of brightly coloured balls on their tables. But, as the day progressed, we all came to understand the reason for the unusual approach – and everyone took their first steps towards becoming jugglers.

Juggling and Space Invaders

When first learning to juggle, you try consciously to work out what you should be doing logically. You have to throw this ball just before you catch that one and… let's just say that if the initial efforts of these captains of British industry were anything to go by, John Major was absolutely right when he ran away from the circus to become an accountant.

Juggling figures

Persevere though and something strange happens. As you become accustomed to the moves and they become second nature, you find that suddenly you're juggling. It's rather like driving a car or playing squash or any one of hundreds of physical activities. If you hesitate to think, it's too late. You have to respond instinctively, immediately.

This demonstrates how the two halves of our brains operate and interact. The left is responsible for logical thought as well as the right side of the body; the right controls the left body and is the source of inspiration and subconscious responses. The right-hand side reacts thousands of times faster than the left, which explains why, at times, conscious thought can actually hinder achievement.

In his role as head of TMI Technology, Ron Young has met scores of high-fliers. The one thing that links them all, he says, is that they are right-brain people. They tend to be inspirational entrepreneurs with low boredom thresholds who hate delays. They're visionaries. As if to prove his point, one of the delegates present at the seminar agreed that this was a perfect description of his boss. He works for Virgin.

But, while a world run by Richards Bransons would undoubtedly be a lively place, without structure their ideas would have little opportunity to flourish. According to Mr Young, super-achievers are people who are able to free their inspirational sides for new projects and problem solving, but can also call on left-brain logic – or at least the talents of a well-grounded management team – to implement their brainstorms.

Hence the juggling balls. Having spent 45 minutes learning the theory, we refreshed ourselves with 10 minutes of tossing balls all over the place. It was play, pure and simple, but it stimulated the creative side of the mind. And instead of feeling numbed at the end of an intensive one-day seminar, most people appeared to be refreshed – even inspired.

It certainly reached parts of my right brain that certain brands of lager never will. I began to wonder if there might not be a computer equivalent to those juggling balls. Then I realised that there is. In all but the most cerebral games, you have to engage your inspirational and instinctive faculties. Nowhere is this better seen than in that granddaddy of all genres, the shoot-'em-up.

Spaced out

Most people have played Space Invaders at some time in their lives. It is hard to explain its eternal appeal, but an enhanced version is about to appear from games publisher Domark. Endless rows of invaders, all following the same path, descend from the top of the screen to the bottom where your cannon moves in the horizontal axis to target them.

Like some biblical king, Space Invaders begat Galaxians which begat a flourishing family of games. But, though your earthbound cannon has become a spacecraft which can move freely around the screen and the invaders have finally realised that they need a rather more sophisticated plan of attack than marching into your line of fire, the basics remain the same.

The secret of saving the earth stays similar too. You learn the flight paths of the aliens and where the major hazards lie, then switch off your mind and get into the rhythm of moving around the screen, blasting everything they throw at you. All of which involves a very similar process to the left-brain/right-brain switch employed in the act of juggling.

This might help also explain why even established PC gamers tend to avoid playing arcade style titles. They're being asked to engage a side of their minds not normally associated with their roles as serious computer users.

Neuroglia reactor

I'm sure that arcade games are not the only way to exercise your inherent inspirational nature. Any one of the many combat flight simulators on the market calls for equally fast reactions. But the sheer multitude of controls to learn and data to monitor before dogfighting can become second nature inevitably makes for a far longer learning curve.

Similarly, the best adventures demand more than mere logic; they require a spark of lateral thinking to untangle their puzzles. And in strategy games, the greatest virtual generals are the ones who can turn an unexpected manoeuvre into a victory.

There is probably a lot of truth in the old maxim that suggests all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Play enables Jacks and Jills to experiment in a safe environment. That in turn allows them to try out potentially risky ideas, which emanate from the right brain, without having to suffer serious repercussions – depending, of course, on how enlightened the boss's attitude is towards your super-achievement aspirations during work time. And gaming may, if Ron Young's theories are right, open the door for those aiming to become the top dogs of tomorrow.

So, as you can see, juggling is not just a lot of balls. And, by that token, neither are computer games.

A brain of two halves

The left brain handles conscious, logical matters. Without it we'd be unable to evaluate our inspirational flashes and turn the various worthwhile ones into reality (and one's head would tend to rattle – ed). But the left brain works in a relatively plodding fashion.

Left to solve puzzles

Games that involves the left brain and also require the creative right aren't too common. You can play many adventures simply by working out what objects are available and applying them to problems as and when they are encountered (a locked door and a key equals an open door).

The best adventures need ingenuity. This has seldom been seen more clearly than in Infocom's superb adaption of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (now available on the budget Mastertronic label from Virgin). Douglas Adams' trips into lateral thinking are far more than logical inversions, and to solve the game's puzzles you have to let your right brain roam free in a search for unlikely solutions.

Similarly, the open-ended nature of Maxis' god simulators Sim City (via Infogrames) and Sim Earth (via Ocean) take them beyond just simple resource management games, in which a mathematical model lurks just beneath the surface, into the realms of imaginative speculation. Their friendly user interfaces, considering the complexity of the programs, and real-time action encourage instinctive actions.

And, with large-scale simulations such as Sim Earth in particular, it is entirely possible to set the game going, then go away and get on with something else, leaving life to evolve at its own pace with only occasional interruptions from the divine PC owner.

Right-brain recreation

The purest forms of right-brain entertainment are ones that, once you've learnt the rules, allow you to switch off your logical brain. Star Wars character Luke Skywalker had 'The Force' and real-life air aces talk about 'sixth sense' that made them dive just before an enemy opened fire. Both are examples of instinctive reactions.

Shoot-'em-ups are ideally suited to stirring the right hemisphere's synapses. A game need only last for a few minutes, making it an excellent diversion, and the fast action requires lightning reactions, so there's no time to make conscious decisions.

Two all-time classics are Xenon (16 Blitz Plus/Virgin Mastertronic) and Xenon 2 (Mirror Image), and as both are available at budget prices, every executive should add them to the golf simulation they keep hidden behind the WordPerfect manual (still, we won't sneak on you).

Anybody who has any qualms about killing aliens (who knows, they may be coming in peace?) could try a driving game. Don't look for the complexities of an accurate simulation. Instead, you want a fast and smooth-moving game with a minimum number of controls.

Electronic Arts' Mario Andretti's Racing Challenge fits the bill nicely, but a budget release just beats it to the chequered flag. Though Out Run (Kixx/US Gold) is becoming a little long in the tooth on the graphics and audio side, its varied scenery and snaking roads make for an addictive drive. It may even enable you to unwind after the early morning automotive nightmare inevitably faced when attempting to drive to work.

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