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.
Hudson Soft developed Godzilla: Battle Legends on the PC Engine, for Japanese movie studio Toho in 1993. It is an energetic 2D beat ’em up with characters featured from the infamous series of monster films.
UPL and NEXOFT Corporation’s classic, cute Penguin Wars was initially released in arcades in 1985. This excellent Game Boy conversion came five years later, in 1990.
It might be considered primitive by today’s standards, but back in 1984 when Pitstop II was first released, it really raised the bar for arcade-style racing games. That is: racing games that are fun to play, rather than being as realistic as possible.
Soooo much better than the first Beach Head… Beach Head II is a balls-to-the-wall, digitised speech-laden action game that sees “The Allies” versus “The Dictator”. The game was developed by Access Software and first published in 1985.
Racing Destruction Set was an early Commodore 64 release for Electronic Arts, first released in 1985.
I’d consider it a timeless classic – especially among C64 race games.
Archer Maclean’s IK+ (International Karate Plus) ushered in a new wave of fighting game on the Commodore 64, back in 1987.
The King of Grabs 