LoC 50 - Top Video Games of the '80s (And before!) - Today's High Scores

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

I think arcade or possibly atari, however i played mostly NES

[goflyblind]

When I.say "80's gaming" do you picture an NES, Atari, arcade machine, computer... What pops into your head first?

c64. forever and always.

[RVR II]

Quick word association quiz while we wait:



 When I.say "80's gaming" do you picture an NES, Atari, arcade machine, computer... What pops into your head first?

My Atari 2600 & Original NES game systems

[D.B. Barnes]

It's like the Ark of the Covenant...with more wires.

It's neck and neck between arcade and NES, but I'll have to go with NES. Oh, the hours.

[Rattrap007]

I'd say NES.. I had an Atari too. Never had a C64...

[Compound]

I started the decade with a 2600 and ended with a IBM PC. I spent the latter half of the decade on a home PC, so IBM all the way.

[Russell]

If I'm ever going to splurge on a console ever again... it's going to be a NEO GEO. Great system
but it AND the games cost a shitload of money.

[Pak-Man]

OK! Let's get this show back on the road!

#45 - Arkanoid

(38 Points) 2 of 18 Lists - Highest Ranking - #2 D.B. Barnes

The time and era of this story is unknown. After the mothership "Arkanoid" was destroyed, a spacecraft "Vaus" scrambled away from it. But only to be trapped in space warped by someone........

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Release Date:  1986

Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:

Arkanoid is an arcade game developed by Taito in 1986. It is based upon Atari's Breakout games of the 1970s. The title refers to a doomed "mothership" from which the player's ship, the Vaus, escapes.

Much like the game Breakout, the player controls the "Vaus", a space vessel that acts as the game's "paddle" which prevents a ball from falling from the playing field, attempting to bounce it against a number of bricks. The ball striking a brick causes the brick to disappear. When all the bricks are gone, the player goes to the next level, where another pattern of bricks appear. There are a number of variations (bricks that have to be hit multiple times, flying enemy ships, etc.) and power-up capsules to enhance the Vaus (expand the Vaus, multiply the number of balls, equip a laser cannon, break directly to the next level, etc.), but the gameplay remains the same.
 
At round 33, the final stage, the player will take on the game's boss, "DOH", a head resembling moai. Once a player reaches round 33, he must defeat DOH with his remaining extra lives because there are no continues on the final round.

Because of the game's popularity, five other versions of the game were developed for the market: Tournament Arkanoid and Revenge of Doh (Arkanoid II) both in 1987, Arkanoid - Doh It Again and Arkanoid Returns both in 1997, Arkanoid DS in 2007, Arkanoid Live, and, most recently, Arkanoid Plus! on WiiWare.
 
The controls used by various conversions differ from machine to machine, and some conversions allow for multiple control methods. The two basic control methods are digital and analog. Digital controls (many joysticks and control pads, and keyboards) are considered less desirable than analog controls (most mice, trackballs, and paddles); while digital controls limit the player to single-speed control, analog controls allow the player to move the Vaus at nearly any desired speed across the screen. The NES version of Arkanoid was originally packaged with what's considered one of the rarest of all NES controllers, the Vaus Controller: a small gray controller featuring one button, a small spinner (with limited turn radius), an adjustment port, and the Taito logo. While the game may be played with the standard digital NES control pad, optimum gameplay is achieved with the Vaus Controller. Latter-day MAME arcade cabinet developers have created customized spinner controls to further simulate the arcade experience, although the Arkanoid controller had quirks which have made it difficult to achieve 100% reproduction. The Japanese DS version features an optional paddle controller that connects in the Game Boy Advance slot, but the paddle controller is not being released in America.

Pak's Thoughts -  Taito is a genius! For years I had played Breakout, and enjoyed the game on pretty much every system I owned, but I never knew what it was missing until the day I tried out Arkanoid in an arcade and realized. Breakout needs guns! Guns and magnets and lengthening power-ups and boss fights! Arkanoid remains one of my favorite old games and deserves its place on this list.

And I learned something today! I had never heard of the Vaus controller until just now. Now I think I have to eBay one...

[Pak-Man]

#44 - Bomberman

(40 Points) 3 of 18 Lists - Highest Ranking - #1 gojikranz

Box Art:


Release Date:  1983

Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:

Bomberman is an arcade-style maze-based video game developed by Hudson Soft. It was first released in 1983 for the MSX, NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-6001, Sharp MZ-700 and FM-7 in Japan, and for the ZX Spectrum in Europe (under the English language title Eric and the Floaters, Spanish Don Pepe Y Los Globos). Bomberman spawned the long-running series with many installments building on its basic gameplay. The earlier game Warp & Warp by Namco is most likely the inspiration for the Bomberman gameplay.

The eponymous character, Bomberman, is a robot that wants to be free from his job at an underground bomb factory. He must find his way through a maze while avoiding enemies. Doors leading to further maze rooms are found under rocks, which Bomberman must destroy with bombs. There are items that can help improve Bomberman's bombs, such as the Fire ability, which improves the blast range of his bombs. Bomberman will turn human when he escapes and reaches the surface. Each game has 50 levels in total.

Bomberman was subsequently ported to the Family Computer and released in Japan on December 20, 1985, arriving for the U.S. Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987. Bomberman's appearance in this game (Hudson Soft re-used an enemy graphic taken from their 1984 Famicom/NES port of Broderbund's Lode Runner) is an early version of Bomberman's more famous design, a robotic anime-like character with a pink antenna.

Pak's Thoughts - Bomberman was a great game, but for me (And probably most of you) it never came into its own until the '90s when it became a multiplayer competition. There's still a lot of fun to be had in this old game, though, and the music has been running through my head off-and-on for most of my life. :^)

[Pak-Man]

#43 - Mega Man

(41 Points) 4 of 18 Lists - Highest Ranking - #10 Asbestos Bill, Gunflyer

Commercial:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/AjkyQOYg8VI?version=3&amp;amp;hl=en_US" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/AjkyQOYg8VI?version=3&amp;amp;hl=en_US</a>

Release Date:  1987

Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:

Mega Man, known as Rockman in Japan, is a video game developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It is the first game in the original Mega Man series and the entire Mega Man franchise. It was released in Japan on December 17, 1987, and was localized for North America in December 1987 and for Europe in May 1990.
 
The plot begins the everlasting struggle between the heroic, humanoid robot Mega Man and the evil scientist Dr. Wily. The game establishes many of the gameplay conventions that would define the original Mega Man series as well as its multiple subseries. A standard action-platform game, Mega Man features a somewhat non-linear setup whereby the player can choose the order to complete its six initial stages. With each "Robot Master" boss defeated at the end of a level, a unique weapon is added to the player's arsenal to be used against enemies. Mega Man was developed by a small team of people, which included significant involvement from artist Keiji Inafune. The game was produced specifically for the home console market, a first for Capcom, who had previously focused on arcade titles.
 
Mega Man was critically well-received for its overall design and has been noted for its high difficulty. Although it was not a commercial success, the game was followed by an abundance of sequels and spin-offs that are still being released to this day, many of which utilize the same graphical, storyline, and gameplay setups instituted by the 1987 game. Mega Man has since been included in game compilations and has been re-released on mobile phones and console emulation services.

The plot for the English localization of Mega Man entails the events after the co-creation of the humanoid robot named Mega Man by the genius Dr. Wright (named Dr. Light in later titles) and his assistant Dr. Wily. The two scientists also create six other advanced robots: Cut Man, Elec Man, Ice Man, Fire Man, Bomb Man, and Guts Man. Each of these robots is designed to perform industrial tasks involving construction, demolition, logging, electrical operations, or labor in extreme temperatures, all for the benefit of mankind in a location known as "Monsteropolis". However, Dr. Wily grows disloyal of his partner and reprograms these six robots to aid himself in taking control of the world. Dr. Wright sends Mega Man to defeat his fellow creations and put a stop to Dr. Wily. After succeeding, Mega Man returns home to his robot sister Roll and their creator Dr. Wright.

Mega Man presents the player with six stages designed in the side-scrolling platformer genre. The stage select screen allows the player to freely choose from these six stages, which can be replayed if they are cleared. The player, as Mega Man, fights through various enemies and obstacles in every stage before facing a "Robot Master" boss at the level's end. The player's health, represented by a gauge on the left side of the screen, can be replenished by picking up energy cells randomly dropped by enemies. Upon defeating a Robot Master, the player assimilates the Robot Master's signature attack (or "Master Weapon") into Mega Man's arsenal for the rest of the game. Unlike the standard blaster, the Robot Master powers have limited ammunition which must be refilled by collecting ammunition cells also dropped by defeated enemies. While the player is free to proceed through the game in any order, each Robot Master is especially vulnerable to a specific weapon, encouraging the player to complete certain stages before others.
 
Besides the weapons taken from the Robot Masters, the player is able to pick up a platform generator item known as the "Magnet Beam" in Elec Man's stage. Mega Man also features a scoring system for defeating enemies. Extra points are earned by collecting power-ups from fallen enemies and a bonus is awarded for clearing each stage. When all six Robot Master stages are completed, the seventh and last stage appears in the middle of the stage select menu. This stage, known as the "Wily Fortress", is a chain of four regular stages linked together, each containing at least one new boss. During these final stages, the six Robot Masters must also be fought again in a predetermined order before the final confrontation against Dr. Wily.

Mega Man garnered moderately low sales upon its release, although they were higher than Capcom had anticipated. With little press coverage save for a full-page advertisement in Nintendo Fun Club News, the game established itself as a sleeper hit with overseas fans thanks in part to word of mouth. Inafune blamed its North American cover art for the game's lack of initial prosperity in that region. This box art contains virtually nothing that can be found in the game: Mega Man himself resembles a middle-aged man rather than a boy, his costume is colored yellow and blue instead of being entirely blue, and he is holding a handgun instead of his arm cannon. Over the years, the cover art has become infamous in the gaming community. It has been considered one of worst of game covers of all time by publications including GameSpy, Wired, and OC Weekly.



Pak's Thoughts - You know those games where you played them and loved them as a kid, and then you play them again in your adult life and realize how awful they were? This is not one of those games. I played through the title that started it all as recently as 2 years ago, and still had a blast doing it. If you can beat that rock monster without using the pause trick, then you never have to feel inadequate about being a gamer. :^)

[Pak-Man]

#42 - Ghostbusters

(42 Points) 2 of 18 Lists - Highest Ranking - #4 - Pak-Man

Who ya gonna call?

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Release Date:  1984

Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:

Ghostbusters is a licensed game produced by Activision based on the movie of the same name. It was designed by David Crane, produced by Brad Fregger, and released for several home computer platforms in 1984, and later released for various video game console systems, including the Atari 2600, Sega Master System and NES.
 
Most versions of the game had a similar basic format to the initial Commodore 64 and Atari 800 game, which was written in eight months and later ported to the Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. The game was made in such a short time by incorporating portions of a game named "Car Wars" that was already in production. The game was in production concurrently to the movie. The last week of development was spent on the opening screen which plays the Ghostbusters theme. The player must stock up on equipment and make money to complete their objectives. Upon completion of the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Atari 8-bit and Amstrad CPC versions of the game, a code was provided that allowed the player to start a new game with the amount of money accumulated by the end of the previous game. This allowed accelerated progression in the new game. The game varied in some respects depending upon which platform it was played; the Sega Master System version (1987) added an on-foot shooting gallery level with different animations, while the NES version (1988), ported by a Japanese developer, made the action sequences considerably more difficult, had lower graphical resolution and provided a different ending. The new ending in the NES version was full of spelling mistakes:

Conglaturation !!!

You have completed a great game.
And prooved the justice of our culture.
Now go and rest our heroes !

Pak's Thoughts - This one's a bit of a hidden gem. You had to be introduced to it in just the right way to fully enjoy it. If you just pick it up and play it, it seems like an awful cash-in game, but if you take the time to learn it properly, it can be an incredibly addicting game. It's not so much a Ghostbusters action game as it is a Sim-Ghostbusters game. The Commodore (Or Apple) versions were the ones to play because of the password that let you continue your progress. (And the lack of that awful stair-climbing stage in the NES version) It was always really satisfying to buy the sports car and cruise around with a souped up vehicle, sucking up ghosts at will. There's a fan-remake floating around the internet somewhere with some souped-up graphics and sound. Check it out if you've never played (Or want to play again!)

[Pak-Man]

#41 - Joust

(42 Points) 6 of 18 Lists - Highest Ranking - #14 - Asbestos Bill, Gunflyer

Thy game is over.

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Release Date:  1982

Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:

Joust is an arcade game developed by Williams Electronics and released in 1982. It is a platform game that features two-dimensional (2D) graphics. The player uses a button and joystick to control a knight riding a flying ostrich. The object is to progress through levels by defeating groups of enemy knights riding buzzards.
 
John Newcomer led the development team which included Bill Pfutzenrueter, Jan Hendricks, Python Anghelo, Tim Murphy, and John Kotlarik. Newcomer aimed to create a flying game with co-operative two-player gameplay, but wanted to avoid a space theme, which was popular at the time. Staff worked within the technical limitations of the hardware (originally developed two years earlier for Williams' first game, Defender), excluding concepts and optimizing the visuals.
 
The game was well received in arcades and by critics, who praised the gameplay. The gameplay mechanics influenced titles by other developers. Joust was followed by a sequel three years later, and was ported to numerous home and portable platforms.

Joust is a platforming game where the player controls a yellow knight riding a flying ostrich from a third-person perspective. The player navigates the protagonist around the game world, which consists of rock platforms floating above a flat island surrounded by lava, via two-way joystick and a button. Home console versions, however, use game controllers with directional pads and analog sticks. The joystick controls the horizontal direction that the knight travels, while pressing the button makes the ostrich flap its wings. The rate at which the player repeatedly presses the button causes the ostrich to fly upward, hover, or slowly descend. The objective is to defeat groups of enemy knights riding buzzards that populate each level, referred to as a "wave". Upon completing a wave, a subsequent, more challenging one will begin. Players navigate the knight to collide with enemies. The elevation of an enemy in relation to the player's knight determines the outcome of the collision. If the protagonist is higher than the enemy, the villain is defeated and vice versa. A collision of equal elevations results in the two knights bouncing off each other. A defeated enemy will turn into an egg that falls to the bottom of the screen, which a player can collect for points. If the egg lands on a platform and the player fails to pick it up, it will eventually hatch into another knight that must be defeated again. The game features three type of enemy knights—Bounder, Hunter, and Shadow Lord—that are worth different amounts of points. A pterodactyl will appear after a predetermined time frame to hunt the hero. A second player, controlling a blue knight on a stork, can join the game. The two players can either cooperatively complete the waves or attack each other while competitively defeating enemies.


Given the different control scheme, Williams was concerned that the game would be unsuccessful. Though arcades were hesitant to purchase the game for the same reason, Joust sold well. Williams eventually shipped 26,000 units. A cocktail table version was later released, engineered by Leo Ludzia. It differs from other cocktail games in that it features side-by-side seating rather than opposing sides. This setup allowed Williams to use the same ROM chip as in the upright cabinets. The cabinets have since become collector's items. Though the upright cabinets are common, the cocktail version is a rare, sought after game. Between 250-500 units were manufactured. Players have competed to obtain the highest score at the game. Expert players exploited software bugs to extend the length of their play time and obtain higher scores. One bug, which facilitates the defeat of the pterodactyl, allows players earn a large number of "extra lives". Players can then use the excess lives to leave the game unattended while they rest. Joust has been parodied in popular culture. References appear in episodes of Robot Chicken and Code Monkeys, as well as the video games Mortal Kombat 3 and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
 
Author Steve Kent considered Joust one of the more memorable games of its time. Author David Ellis agreed, and stated that the game retains it enjoyment in contemporary times. In 2008, Guinness World Records listed it as the number sixty-nine arcade game in technical, creative, and cultural impact. A writer for Video Gaming Illustrated called Joust exotic and praised the animation as life-like. Kevin Bowen of GameSpy's Classic Gaming said that despite a concept he described as "incredibly stupid", Joust is an appealing game with good controls and competitive gameplay. Bowen further commented that the multiplayer aspect differentiated the game from others at the time. He described it as "one of the first really fun multiplayer games" and a precursor to the video game deathmatch. Retro Gamer writer Mike Bevan praised the game's physics, calling them "beautifully realised", and described Joust as one of Williams' "most remarkable and well-loved titles". A Computer and Video Games writer called the game "weird and wonderful". Author John Sellers praised the competitive two-player gameplay, and attributed the game's appeal to the flapping mechanism. In 2004, Ellis described Joust as an example of innovative risk absent in the then-current video game industry. In retrospect, Newcomer commended Williams' management for taking a risk on him and the game. The game has garnered praise from industry professionals as well. Jeff Peters of GearWorks Games lauded the gameplay, describing it as unique and intuitive. Fusion Learning Systems' Jeff Johannigman praised the flapping mechanism and Kim Pallister of Microsoft enjoyed the multi-player aspect.

Pak's Thoughts - The distinctive flapping and screeching noises of Joust immediately transport me back in time to birthday parties at Chuck-E-Cheese (Or Showbiz Pizza). While the other party attendees all seemed happy to play in the balls, I'd grab my big stack of tokens and hit the arcade for hours, and no Birthday was complete until I'd played at least one game of Joust. I wasn't extremely good, back then, but there was so much awesome uniqueness to the game I just couldn't stay away.


OK. And we're back on track. If all goes well, I should have 5 more entries up in the morning! Game on!

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

well one more from my list as far as i remember woot for joust

[Compound]

Fun gaming fact- one (several actually) of the quests in World of Warcraft involve the player playing Joust and defeating enemies complete with lance and flying ostrich thing. The unbeatable pterodactyl does not appear in game, but is referred to in the quest text.

[D.B. Barnes]

#45 - Arkanoid

(38 Points) 2 of 18 Lists - Highest Ranking - #2 D.B. Barnes

Another one of the arcade-style games I managed to beat. This time it was in a pool hall. It was the only video game in the joint and we played it constantly. It was great; a sit-down, face-to-face machine where you could slap ashtrays and sodas right on the the screen and go back and forth for hours. There was nothing like the feeling of that ball getting all super speeded up and the laser vaus just within your reach. Good times!