Best 80's computer game

[Dis]

by computer game, I will narrow it down to a system with a keyboard to eliminate atari 2600 games (although they had some good ones- include them separately if you wish), nintendo and other console games, and arcade games.


Many to choose from. Some I can't remember, so in that case they weren't too exceptional. And there are several categories to choose from. So I'm not going to make this a poll, since tastes vary from action to rpg games etc. For actions games I loved Bruce Lee and Archon games. The beachead games were cool as well. For TBS type games I loved 7 cities of gold- a very excellent game. For sports games I loved winter games and I think it was called one on one (basketball games). But as usual rpg's are my favourite genre (because of the depth of the games). Many to choose from. Bard's Tale series being one of my favs. But don't forget Pool of Radiance (came out in 89 if I'm not mistaken). Ultima series and Wasteland.

and lets not forget about strip poker

This is a toughie. But I have to go with the Bard's Tale series. Easily one of the more exciting games I played in the 80's, with plenty of depth and adventure. Wasteland comes in a close second with Ultima behind that. Bruce Lee would probably be my fourth favourite.

[Father Beast]

Questron started me on the RPG path, and there's never quite an experience like the first....

My brother and I used to play on his C64. we had opposing work schedules, so I would play while he was working and likewise. I'll never forget coming home and he showed me his character had 180,000 hit points. I demanded to know how he got that many. he said "well, there's this place in the Land Of Evil where you can buy hit points". then I said, "HOW IN THE WORLD DID YOU GET TO THE LAND OF EVIL??". The dog let me stew on that for 3 days until I figured it out.

that was before he and a friend hacked the game so they had 1E+40 gold, 1E+40 food, and 1E+40 hit points

[tishco]

right, strategy games rule.

chaos...fabulous, even today its on my hard drive emulated, and morkin, its less good pc clone, although, admittedly they dont get played much. pc gamer uk love it.

sword of the samuri, still available from gaming depot, underdogs one doesnt work, just like shogun:total war with action and one on one exelently handled sword fights. honour counted hugely otheriwise its sepiku (or something) for you!

and maybe alter ego, i like suisidal babies!

[Garth Vader]

Back then when I was still into sports I liked Hardball2.

I ran full schedules had the computer play itself, kept written stats (the game was old enough that it didn't do a good job of that on it's own). Man did I have patience when I was young.

[Rex Little]

Dungeon Master, by far. I was so blown away the first time I saw that game, I almost bought an Atari ST in '86 just because that was the only machine it ran on at that time. (A friend convinced me to get an Amiga instead and wait the extra couple of months for DM to port over.) What other game lets you lure a monster into a doorway and watch a portcullis slam down on its head repeatedly until it dies?

Next to DM comes the Ultima series. III was my favorite, followed closely by IV.

[The Mad Monk]

I had a lot of fun with Ultima IV and V--though I'm not sure if V was 80's or not. Starflight was also a great game.

[History049]

Ultima = 90's

[devilmunchkin]

mm.....all those card games the m.s. put on their comps were cheesy but very addictive. if not that, i'd go for Mah JOng (Tai Pei).

[ravagon]

I was always rather fond of Sierra's adventure games. Space Quest etc and Quest for Glory especially. I think the first of those series were released in the 80's.
I'm pretty sure some of the ultima's were late 80's. They were great too (unless one's brother used the original ultima2 game disk to store a character on and ended up trashing the game. Grrr! )

[Dis]

to put it one way I was playing Ultima IV when I was in the 9th grade. I was 14 years old making the year 1987. But that was the last ultima game I played. Actually I only played 3 and 4. I never really got into the series as much as other rpgs'.

P.S. this was the commodore 64 version which may have came out before PC, I'm not sure (an example is Wasteland- which didn't come out for the PC until 1990). I never paid attention to PC stuff.

[Rex Little]

Yes, most of the Ultima series came out in the '80s. I think the first one in the '90s was VI. I know I played IV in '86. And not a lot of games were being written for the PC in those days; the Ultimas were on Apple, Commodore 64 and Atari 800 (my machine) well before they came to the PC.

[November Adam]

I really liked the Star Wars arcade game... the one where everything was wireframe.

That and Dragon's Lair was loads of fun.

Didn't have a computer in the 80's, and not wanting to be left out of the reminencing (sp?)

[SerapisIV]

Originally posted by November Adam
I really liked the Star Wars arcade game... the one where everything was wireframe.

Damn right, I'm really dissappointed by arcades nowadays too though. They have a whole slew of classic arcade games, but no original Star Wars arcade. Is there an emulater out on the web that has the game still?

[November Adam]

i don't know about the emulator.

I haven't really been in an arcade at all recently.

Don't need to, have a computer at home.

[Moral Hazard]

The best I played from the 80's would probably be Pirates! or Airborne Ranger both from the late 80's.

Ultima V was good as well IIRC it's from 89 not sure tho.

Other Classic C64 games that was the only computer (actually my family had about 8 of them) I had till 92.
Way of the Exploding Fist (early simple fighting game)
Law of the West (Pretty simple dialog based game)
Eliza (Not really a game)
Castle of Doctor Creeps (Puzzle game with Frankies and Ray Guns, my dad hacked the Binary and created a few new levels)
Adventure Constuction Kit ( Early RPG builder with a decent game in it)
Gary Kitchener's Game maker (Used basic scripting to write really simple games)

Ah the Commodore of all the games I had, must have had 100s, I only legally owned about 5.

[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!