Combat was designed by Atari, Inc. and first released for the Atari 2600 in 1977 and was the pack-in game for the system until 1982 (meaning: you got a Combat cartridge with the console, upon purchase).
It was one of the first home video games I ever played (probably the same for millions of others) and it enthralled me. Yes, Combat is very simple by today’s standards, but in 1977 it was a revelation and was much cloned by other developers.
David Crane‘s Pitfall! is a pioneering old game, from way back in 1982.
You control Pitfall Harry and must find 32 treasures in 20 minutes. You run and jump from screen to screen, swinging on ropes, jumping on crocodile heads, and avoiding quicksand. Not to mention: creatures that will kill you if you touch them.
Still considered to be one of the best Star Wars games of all time, X-Wing is a serious, high-tech, fantasy combat sim – in space obviously – with all the different ships from the famous films in there somewhere, modelled in low-res 3D.
Steve Turner‘s 1984 release Avalon is a groundbreaking adventure game with pseudo 3D graphics, released only for the ZX Spectrum.
Sega‘s 1984 arcade hit Bank Panic is a simple reaction game where you play the role of a bank clerk who must answer the various doors in a bank to serve customers, some of whom are genuine and some of whom are bandits.
The sequel to the brilliant Lemmings is even better than the first one, with clearer graphics and more interesting levels and gameplay.
The PC Engine version of Taito‘s classic arcade game Rainbow Islands was only made available on CD-ROM, so you had to have a CD compatible PC Engine to play it.
[That was: until emulation was invented…] 🙂
Adventure – designed and programmed by Warren Robinett and released for the Atari 2600 in 1979 – broke new ground at the time, on a number of different levels.
A 1993 potboiler hit, Dune: The Battle For Arrakis is a real-time strategy game based on the famous Frank Herbert novel, and one of a number of successful games based on that famous book, and developed by Las Vegas-based Westwood Studios.
Continue reading Dune: The Battle For Arrakis, Megadrive/Genesis
The Amiga version of Westwood Studios‘ classic Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game, Dune II, came out in 1993 – not long after the MS-DOS version.
The King of Grabs 