Best 80's computer game

[catullus]

The '80s for me:

1) Arcade games. Not covered in this topic, but space invaders was my favorite, and still resides on my palmtop. The games you never actually won, just tried to not lose as long as possible.

2) ZX81 games. My own games, programmed in BASIC or Z-80 assembly language. Or typed in, byte by byte from program listings in game magazines.

3) PC games. Leisure Suit Larry (the first). Bard's tale (never got "into" that one, however). Zaxxon. An Australian(?) helicopter game with 3D controls, imposed on two 2D screens. InfoCom's classic "HitchHiker's guide". The first golf games, both PC and Mac. Board game conversions (especially Othello/Reversi).

Number one in group 3) must be the only unchanged survivor of that time, Tetris.

C.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Rogue . I think most people should know it .

And of course, the perhaps more legendary... Sopwith 2. http://www.theunderdogs.org/game.php?name=Sopwith+2

[Crazy Eddie]

Elite, definitely.
Closely followed by Steve Crows masterpiece, Starquake.

[Lonestar]

What, no Scorched Earth?

[JohnT]

Ultima first came out in 1979 and I remember playing 1 and 2 on an Apple II sometime around 1983-84. I had Exodus: Ultima 3 on my Atari 800 and I got rid of that machine by 1988 at the latest.

The "one-on-one" Bball game that somebody mentioned was Electronic Arts' Jordan vs. Bird. No fadeaway jumpers for MJ in that game!

All these posts and not a single mention of M.U.L.E.? The shame!

OK, my fave games (all Atari 800, btw):

1. Exodus: Ultima 3
2. Zork 1-3
3. Hitchhickers Guide
4. Choplifter!
5. Bill Budges Pinball Construction Set.
6. Star Raiders
7. Rescue on Fractalus!
8. Montezuma's Revenge
9. 7 Cities of Gold
10. Planetfall.

[Rex Little]

Of course, M.U.L.E.! Thanks for reminding me. Excellent game. I know a group of guys who get together every month to play board games for a full day. They keep an Atari 800 around so they can play M.U.L.E. sometime during the day.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Bob Dornan
Ultima = 90's

Nope. Ultima I in 79, II in 81, III around 84, IV around 88.

[Urban Ranger]

Some of my 80's favourite games (that means I liked them then, not necessary now):

- M.U.L.E.
- Archon I/II
- Worms (very different from the later MicroProse Games)
- Railroad Tycoon
- Empire
- rouge/Moria/Omega
- SimCity
- Spot
- Star Raiders
- Ultima II
- Bard's Tale I
- Questron

Dang I played a lot of them games!

[Juggernaut]

Coast Guard or whatever it's name was, for the C64.

[November Adam]

I forgot about Choplifter... that was fun. So was Lode Runner, and Pit Fall.

Does anyone remember that cheesy game for the Atari 2600.. Nightdriver? It's funny looking at something like that and then something like Gran Turismo 3, isn't it.

[Grumbold]

Pretty much in chronological order of my trying them:

Ultima I on an Apple II
Manic Miner on Spectrum 16k (only platformer I ever looped 4 times )
Elite on Spectrum 16k
Arnhem/Desert Rats on Spectrum 48/128k
Dungeon Master on Atari ST
Bards Tale I on Atari ST (knew it was time to change when 2 & 3 weren't ported)
Warlords 1 on PC 286
Then Sid Meier showed up, and the rest is obvious

[tonic]

Quite hooked on the text games like Zork and The Hitchhiker's Guide (which I believe was withdrawn due to copyright violation). In many ways like reading books vs seeing the same version on the screen, the absence of graphics makes the imagined scenes so much more involving.

[moosie]

Gotta be Joust on the Atari 800XL

Now that game was Egg-citing, Egg-cillerating, Egg-cellent, Egg-cetera! (oh how we laughed).

[Zealot]

I was born in 1980, so these games are from a child's point of view...

Maziacs, Chuckie Egg, Lode Runner, Horace goes Skiing and Special Delivery (a game where you're Santa Claus and you go down the chimneys) were my favorites on my father's 48K.

I only had an XT 8086 in 1990, but my first games were Populous 1, Police Quest, King Quest and GP500. I loved them, because they had great graphics! (I'm talking from when I changed my CGA monitor to a SVGA monitor, of course!) Although I had no mouse!

[Urban Ranger]

Grumbold,

You had a lot of computers when you were a kid!