From Space Opera, science fiction gradually became more subtle, producing the great names of the fifties and sixties. Oddly, though there are some good examples, games don't represent this phase so well. About the only mainstream game to originate on the BBC micro, Elite proved an early example. There were elements of the game that are pure opera, with 3D space battles that provided the basic screen format for all the greats like X-Wing and Wing Commander, but there was more. The basis of Elite was trading, travelling from planet to planet in an astoundingly detailed galaxy, buying and selling like an interplanetary Del Trotter. You could deal in legitimate items, or more dubious goods, risking the wroth of the police. It was this extra dimension that brought Elite forward a generation.

    Finding a modern equivalent is harder. The Dune games, based loosely on Frank Herbert's mixed series of books are pretty good (though not a patch on the book. Dune effortlessly combines an epic family saga with Lawrence of Arabia, impressive pseudo-spiritual texts, and wonderful atmosphere on the desert planet Arrakis), but I'm going to plump for Mechwarrior 2 in its latest incarnation, Mercenaries. This is a land-based battle game,

    		 but again the simple sequence of follow a mission and return to base is expanded by a business aspect to the game as you build a team of mercenaries to take on missions and make money. While lacking the video impressiveness of a Wing Commander, Mercenaries is wonderfully compelling.

    When it comes to written science fiction, the 50s onwards was a period of incredible richness. But before delving into the classics of that time, I ought to skip back to H. G. Wells. His second great, The First Men in the Moon, is very much of this class. With tongue-in-cheek humour and exciting adventure, it bypasses Space Opera and is good reading to this day. Picking a handful of classics is almost impossible. But there are some names that can't be ignored. First on many lists is liable to be Isaac Asimov . With a prodigious output in fiction and non-fiction, Russian born but American to the core, Asimov typified the new breed of writer. His characterisations might have been weak, his love interest minimal, but his science and rich spattering of ideas were wonderful. Probably best to illustrate this particular period are Asimov's trilogy Foundation, Foundation and Earth, and Second Foundation. Throw in his robot short stories collected in I, Robot and you get a perfect sample.


    Next down the line has to be Robert Heinlein. Heinlein's best period was in the middle of his output. The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag contains two gems. And he built a crooked house about a house shaped like an opened-out hypercube that collapses into itself so that each of the eight rooms joins onto each of the others, and All You Zombies … where a man becomes his own father and mother in a twisted time travel paradox. Of his novels, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a wonderful description of a future revolution on the lunar colony, helped by a self-aware computer, and though Stranger in a Strange Land marks the start of his woffly phase, it had a huge impact and is tighter than the subsequent books.

    There are so many others who could be included. A familiar English name is Arthur C. Clarke. Clarke's early successes included whimsical stories, set around a pub in a P. G. Wodehouse style ( Tales from the White Hart),

    		 but from 2001 onwards, it was the technological epic with spiritual overtones that proved to be Clarke's speciality. To pick two other names almost at random, Fred Pohl has produced consistently enjoyable books, probably best represented by his joint work with Cyril Kornbluth. Try The Space Merchants for a brilliant humorous adventure, pitting the hero against the worst excesses of a world run by big business and advertising agencies. Clifford Simak is another who has steadily produced wonderfully readable books, set in rural America. His work is much gentler and more people-oriented than the typical SF novel. Oh, and spare a thought for Irish writer Bob Shaw, who has never quite reached big name status, but from this period onwards produced many excellent books.

    Check out Other Days, Other Eyes for the classic SF invention of slow glass, a glass that light takes weeks if not years to pass through, providing windows that look out on beautiful views wherever you are, or even capable of witnessing a murder.