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A computer game is any sort of game that is played using a computer. Although often associated, computer games are not necessarily video games although all but the earliest video games (such as Pong, which used dedicated analogue circuitry) are computer games. Computer games encompass a broader range of games that do not depend primarily on video display, including text-based adventure games and other interactive fiction.

The usual distinction today is rather subtle; a game will be a "computer game" if it is played on a general-purpose computer (such as Apple Mac, PC, Amiga or Commodore 64), but a "video game" if it is played on a computer that is specialized for game playing (such as video game consoles). Because of hardware differences, versions of the same game played on a computer will typically feature a wider assortment of direct controls exploiting the full computer keyboard, while video games tend to use more layers of menus, or motion sequences (up-up-down-left, etc) via the game controller.

The most important distinction between computer and video games arises from the fact that computers tend to have high resolution monitors, optimized for viewing at close range by one person, while home video game consoles use a much lower-resolution commercial television as their output device, optimized for viewing at a greater distance. As a result, most computer games are intended for single-player or networked multi-player play, while many video games are designed for local multi-player play, with all players viewing the same TV set.

Formerly, video games tended to need and use less computing power than computer games, but with the increasing power of video game hardware, that distinction is nearly erased, and many games are now produced for both computers and video game systems. Video game manufacturers usually exercise tight control over the games that are made available on their systems, so unusual or special-interest games are more likely to only ever appear as games on general-purpose computers.

Recently, computer games have also been used as a digital-art medium. See artistic computer game modification.

See also

• list of computer and video games by name
• list of computer and video games by category
• timeline of video games and computer games
• list of free game software
• flight simulator
• submarine simulator

External links

• IGN PC: computer game news, reviews, and previews for the Windows PC platform.
• GameSpot: a large, corporately-owned database of gaming reviews, news, downloads, and forums
• Open Source Gaming: a database of gaming reviews, news, downloads, forums, image galleries, more specifically focused on games released under an Open Source license
• Linux Games: a news site with the latest on Linux game ports and releases

Download sites

• Download Free Games: a large freeware and shareware game download site
• Gamehippo: another free game download site