Nintendo‘s classic 1981 release, Donkey Kong, was the first appearance of Mario (and his missus, Pauline – whatever happened to her?) and was also the first ever video game to feature jumping. Yes: jumping.
Tag Archives: Iconic
Smash TV, Arcade
Williams‘ brilliant 1990 arcade hit, Smash TV, is an insane overhead shooter with a wicked sense of humour.
You play a contestant in a futuristic game show – one in which you must kill to survive. And you have to kill a lot of people, robots, monsters, and snakes, to make it to the end.
Star Wars, Arcade
Atari‘s classic Star Wars arcade game took the gaming world by storm back in 1983.
It gave games-players a chance to pilot an X-Wing for the first time and wowed audiences with its superfast vector graphics and amazing digitised sound.
Paperboy, Arcade
Atari‘s 1985 arcade hit Paperboy features an isometric road to cycle down and houses to throw newspapers at. It’s an attractive proposition for an arcade game. Especially when the game has real bike handlebars for steering, which the original arcade cabinets did.
Defender, Arcade
Williams Electronics‘ iconic Defender is one of the highest-grossing arcade games of all time.
Rainbow Islands, Arcade
Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 is possibly Japanese game developer Taito‘s finest hour. On any system.
Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, GameCube
It is debatable what the best Mario Kart game of all time is.
Ballblazer, Commodore 64
Lucasfilm Games released Ballblazer upon unsuspecting audiences back in March 1984 (actually, on Atari 8-bit systems first).
The game is a futuristic one-on-one sports game, with two players battling it out, from inside the confines of a small, floating vehicle, called a Rotofoil.
Half-Life 2, PC
Half-Life 2 was first released by Valve Corporation in 2004. It was such a giant leap forward for games in general – not just first-person shooters – that its reverberations are still being felt today.
Half-Life (one) is a brilliant game, but Half-Life 2 completely blows it out of the water.
Jet Set Willy, ZX Spectrum
Here are all the screens from Matthew Smith‘s original classic ZX Spectrum platform game (and sequel to Manic Miner), Jet Set Willy. All 61 of them. Plus the ending after completing the game.
The King of Grabs 