Okay, so I’ve been wanting to make a comprehensive list of volleyball video games for a while now. It’s tougher than you might think! Here’s how I went about it, bumps and all.
Digging for Info
First, I just started brainstorming. I jotted down every volleyball game I could remember playing, from my childhood all the way up to now. That got me a small handful, but I knew there were tons more out there.
Next, I hit up Google. I tried a bunch of different searches like “volleyball video games,” “best volleyball games,” “list of volleyball video games,” and so on. This gave me some bigger lists, but they were often incomplete or focused on just one platform.
Organizing the Chaos
I ended up with a bunch of different websites and articles open, all with slightly different lists. So, I decided to make a spreadsheet. This was key to getting things organized.
I created columns for the game title, the platform (like PlayStation, Xbox, PC, etc.), the release year, and any notes I had about the game (like if it was good, bad, or just weird). I would then add more rows to the spreadsheet as I did my search on the internet.
Filling in the Gaps
As I went through the lists, I started noticing some patterns. A lot of older games were hard to find good info on. So, I started digging into retro gaming sites and forums. This helped me find some obscure titles I’d never even heard of!
I would try to search a game’s title on Google, such as “Super Spike V’Ball”, then I would get many results about this game. I would then check many of the search results to confirm that they are indeed talking about volleyball video games, so I would add the valid results that match my search into my spreadsheet.
The Never-Ending List
Honestly, this is still a work in progress. There are so many volleyball games out there, especially if you include mobile games and even some mini-games within larger sports titles.
I realized pretty quickly that I’m never going to find every single one. But I’m trying to make my list as complete as possible, at least for the major releases and anything that’s somewhat well-known.
It is a hard work, but I love to do it.
