"Computer Games" is a song by New Zealand band

Mi-Sex Mi-Sex (also styled as MiSex) is a New Zealand new wave band originally active from 1978 to 1986, and led for much of its existence by Steve Gilpin as vocalist, Kevin Stanton as guitarist and songwriter, Murray Burns as keyboardist and songwr ...

, released in September 1979 in Australia and New Zealand as the second single from their debut studio album, ''

Graffiti Crimes ''Graffiti Crimes'' was the debut studio album by New Zealand new wave music group Mi-Sex, released in July 1979. The album peaked at number six on the New Zealand albums chart and number 16 on the Australian Kent Music Report. the album was cert ...

'' (1979). The song peaked at number 1 in Australia and 5 in New Zealand. The music video was filmed on location at what was at the time Control Data Corporation's North Sydney centre and included gameplay from the 1979 arcade games ''

Speed Freak Speed Freak is a monochrome vector arcade game created by Vectorbeam in 1979. Along with Atari, Inc.'s '' Night Driver'' and Bally Midway's ''Datsun 280 ZZZAP ''Datsun 280 ZZZAP'', also known as ''Midnight Racer'' or ''280 ZZZAP'', is a 1976 ...

'', ''

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

'' and '' Star Fire''. The single won the award for Best Australian Single at the 1979 ''TV Week''/''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

'' Music Awards. The single was also released in Europe and North America, as well as South Africa where the band's name was altered to MS to satisfy censorship. The song was also re-recorded as the final track for the band's 1983 album '' Where Do They Go?'', a dub version was the 12" B-side of their 1983 single "Lost Time" and again on the 2016 EP ''

Extended Play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

''.

Reception

Musicologist Ian McFarlane opined that it was an "electro-pop anthem... with its simplistic, brain-teasing riff and Gilpin's mannered vocal yelps, "Computer Games" boasted little substance but was constructed for maximum effect. It came to epitomise the one word which has plagued the memory of Mi-Sex: 'contrived'."McFarlane
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entry. Archived fro
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on 7 August 2004. Retrieved 7 May 2016. Stewart Mason from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

said "

Steve Gilpin Stephen Ellis Gilpin (28 April 19496 January 1992) was a New Zealand singer and a founder of new wave band Mi-Sex. In November 1972, he won the national final of TV talent show, ''New Faces''. In 1977 he was a founder of Mi-Sex, which became ...

's theatrical vocals, full of Brian Connolly-style hiccups and leaps into falsetto, are an interesting counterpoint to the unvarying electronic rhythm, particularly on the memorable stuttering chorus." '' Cash Box'' said, "This avant-pop band has taken the sound first pioneered by Eno and

Ultravox Ultravox (earlier styled as Ultravox!) were a British new wave band, formed in London in April 1974 as Tiger Lily. Between 1980 and 1986, they scored seven Top Ten albums and seventeen Top 40 singles in the UK, the most successful of which was ...

and molded it into more of a hard rock sound. The band employs witty future-orientated lyrics to augment the swirling synthesized sounds."

Track listings

Australia/New Zealand 7" (BA 222563) # "Computer Games" – 3:54 # "Wot Do You Want?" – 2:55 Australian 12" # "Computer Games" (Disco Version) – 4:41 # "Graffiti Crimes" – 3:49 Spanish version # "Juego De Computadoras (Computer Games)" – 3:54 # "Que Queres? (Wot Do You Want?)" – 2:55 United Kingdom dance version # "Computer Games" (Special Dance Mix) – 6:17 # "Wot Do You Want?" – 2:55

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References