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Retro Games of the Decade: 1980's Edition

1. King's Quest IV; (PC) I played a bunch of PC games after we got our 286 in 1988, which was my first computer/gaming device/anything, but this is the one that really grabbed me, and in fact my entire family loved it, even my mom. ^^
2. Populous; (PC) I loved just trying out anything and everything in this game~
3. Contra; (NES) This game taught me the thrill of finally beating a game after trying so many times - I beat it on the very last day I was staying at my relatives' house in Indiana before we had to leave and I wouldn't have a chance to play it again for a long time, and I was super excited about it!
4. SimCity; (PC) Got this for Easter 1989 and spent many, many hours with it! Also still sometimes how I estimate city populations to this date due to how much I stared at the copy protection list.
5. Rogue; (PC) I never beat this but I loved it anyway! I even kept a list of all of the monster-letter abbreviations with notes that I put up on my first website I made many years later!
6. Blades of Steel; (NES) I dunno why I loved this game so much but I think my friend got sick of it because I wanted to play it so much
7. Zork I; (PC) Drew... so... many... maps... I really loved this game too even though I can't even remember beating it!
8. Rocket Ranger; (PC) This game was so awesome! Even with the ridiculous copy protection!
9. Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?; (PC) I loved all the Carmen Sandiego games, being a huge geography nerd, but this was my favorite!
10. Dark Castle; (PC) I can still remember a bunch of the sound effects and some levels from this game perfectly even though I haven't played it in 13-14 years probably...

x. Galaga; (NES) I played this game a -lot- whenever our neighbors were gone on vacation and my family housesat for them they would let me play their NES!
x. Arkanoid; (PC) Mouse controls woo~
x. Kingdoms of Kroz; (PC) I don't think I actually played this until the 90s but it was still fun!
x. Pool of Radiance; (PC) This one either, but after Eye of the Beholder came out I went back and played this one and it became one of my favorite D&D games
x. Tecmo Bowl; (NES) The other sports game I made my friend sick of playing~
x. Gauntlet II; (PC) I still remember the time I got the farthest I had ever gotten in the game and then I spawned in between 4 walls and couldn't do anything :(
x. Mixed-up Mother Goose; (PC) My sister always wanted to play this game! It was fun, though~
x. Sopwith; (PC) The version I had for the 286 was called Red Baron, but this is definitely the right game - it took me a really long time to get any good at it, kept crashing all the time!
x. Lode Runner; (Apple) I played this game every time I went to my parents' friends' house! I never got that good, but I liked watching them play because they were sort of obsessed with it at the time....
x. Cross Country USA; (PC) Who knew sitting and watching a truck drive across the country picking up stuff could be so much fun! Actually, I really did play this a lot...
x. Paperboy; (NES) Just fun!
x. M.U.L.E.; (Atari) One of the only games for the Atari that I actually genuinely liked when I played it in the mid-90s at a friend's hosue
x. Archon; (Atari) The other one! Was pretty fun!
 
It amazes me seeing so many PC games in the thread. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome -- but I didn't realize so many of them actually came out in the 80's. It wasn't until the 90's that I had a halfway decent machine, so I had somehow imagined most of these great 80's games actually came out later.

My personal story: I had TIE FIGHTER and wanted nothing more to play it, but my PC didn't have enough "Extended RAM" or whatever bullshit. I tried every configuration I could to get it to run, and it never did. I must have read the manual and included storybook so many times that I could imagine the game running in my head.

I never did get it to run, though.
 
1. Kaboom! 1981 Atari 2600. With analog paddle controllers. Think you know what fast is? Play this game. There's nothing else like it.
2. Donkey Kong coin-op.
3. Zaxxon - early SEGA goodness. The flight stick, the cold sound of space, the '3D' perspective. Awesomeness.
4. Star Wars - coin-op version,sit-down cab, with voice clips and the SW music. WOW!
5. Dragon's Lair - I always liked it. It drew people in. The art was so wonderful, and if you bought Joystik magazine, you knew how to beat all the levels. Even the black knight and the lizard king!
6. Space Harrier - SEGA started to get EVERYONE's attention.
7. Outrun - okay SEGA, I am now a lifelong fan.
8. River Raid (Atari 2600 and other systems). Compare your average Atari game , or Pac-Man, to this. This game was incredibly fun and playable. On the 2600 hardware too!
9. Robotron - Euguene Jarvis' masterpiece, still as fun and crazy today as the first day I played it and died quickly.
10. Ms. Pac-Man - interesting GCE story, but I put it here because its a perfect 10/10 game still to this day.

I was there for all of them. The 80's!
 
There's no nostalgia in this list. I grew up playing games, sure, but I know so much more now. I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of what was going on in 1985 and up in arcades and on consoles, and I feel that I know enough about 1984 and prior to know that I like very few games from those years. One area that I absolutely lack knowledge in, however, is home computer games of the 80s. PC gaming started in the 90s for me, and I've never looked very far back. Especially not into the mountains of European stuff. As a result, I'm practically braindead when it comes to, say, older strategy games.

Ultimately, I feel like could spend months on end doing this and still not be sure with the results. Especially the order. The only thing that will stay constant about this list is that it’s ten games that I consider to be masterpieces.

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1. R-Type ; (Arcade) R-Type’s stages crawl along slowly, but it actually works in the game’s favor. The high-resolution backgrounds are gross and awesome, doing the horror thing in a way that few action games can. Thankfully, the enemies move at a quicker pace, constantly using unique ways of restricting players that don’t make intelligent use of the game’s awesome Force pod system. It was the Force pod that made R-Type stand out, mechanically, working almost like a Gradius option but with more manual control and less simple firepower positioning. The weapon variety was also great, with each weapon proving to have its uses. The stages constantly introduce new enemies and often make the terrain a serious danger. An incredible shooting game on all fronts.

2. Bubble Bobble ; (Arcade) A massive and tough single-screen platformer with a million different little tricks to learn. So many little items with weird uses to learn about, so many hidden warps, and of course, so many stages! To top it off, there are risky scoring tricks that can net you the bubbles needed to get extra lives. It all amounts to a pretty complicated game, and it’s one that you have no choice but to coordinate with a partner in. At least, assuming you want to beat it! And no game has goofier player sprites.

3. Gradius II ; (Arcade) A perfect sequel. The original Gradius was groundbreaking, but a bit sloppy due to its awkward difficulty curve. Gradius II expands on everything, with actual boss variety, more of those vast multi-screen-tall zones, awesome environments, and a more consistent (and overall harsher) difficulty curve. The game opens with an absolutely killer first stage, and it keeps the pace up throughout the entire game. Hard to not respect a 1988 arcade game that has the balls to eschew a Continue function, too!

4. Final Fight ; (Arcade) Double Dragon was really cool. A complex 3D action game with a nice set of moves, weapons, huge bosses, and so on. Final Fight, however, both expanded upon it and cleaned it the hell up. It has no crippling slowdown. It has a smoother control system. It has characters that are extremely detailed and badass when compared to the SD Double Dragon dudes. It has a good amount of enemy variety. And probably above all else, it has absolutely brutal AI that can’t be rendered useless with a single elbow. Oh, and it has that subway music. Shame about the rapid punches!

5. The Revenge of Shinobi ; (The Super Shinobi, Mega Drive) Like Famicom Ninja Ryukenden, every last tile of The Super Shinobi is calculated. Every jump, every item, every quirk in the enemy AI. It’s a way more focused than The Super Shinobi II, and the tension factor is pretty high thanks to the limited continues, high enemy damage, and tight jumps later on in the game. Melee attacks are awesome in this game. They cancel projectiles, but are most useful for doing so when you run out of shurikens. The game actually manages to be enjoyable in zero shuriken mode. The double jump timing is wonderfully strict. The shuriken arc is perfectly balanced. This stuff is all in The Super Shinobi 2, sure, but you never really need to worry about it given how easy the game surrounding the mechanics is.

6. Ghouls'n Ghosts ; (Daimakaimura, Arcade) Another perfect sequel, improving upon the original in every way. Every last screen in this game is full of action. Every one. Much like in the original, you’re always at risk from constantly spawning, unpredictable enemies, and you have to fight them all off while worrying about the arc of every jump you make and the movement of every last platform. Magic abilities help a bit and add some variety to things, and they do it without making the game too easy.

7. Gain Ground ; (Arcade) It’s an off-putting game when you first place it, for sure, thanks to the paltry number of tiny, clumsy, crazy-slow sprites crawling around at a snail’s pace in the game’s first stage. When you start to learn it and dig a bit into it, though, you quickly realize that this is very little like other top-down 2D action games. You’re forced to learn and plan for everything. You need to know ranges. You need to know behaviors. You need to know all of the abilities for all of your characters. And you need to be able to see how all of these things come together in each and every stage layout the game puts you up against. You’ll have to actually plan how you’ll approach a stage, and when you inevitably lose a character that you aren’t expecting to lose or encounter an enemy that doesn’t behave in ways you expect him to, you have to think on your feet. Massive and brutal.

8. Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels ; (Super Mario Bros. 2, Famicom Disk System) A refinement of the earlier platformer that did momentum-based movement so very well. Just like in the original, everything about the game’s movement model is very fun to learn, and even after you have a good feel for things, it’s incredibly satisfying to get good at maintaining speed and getting a ton of height off of jumping on enemies. And the stages, this time around, will make sure you get really intimate with all of these rules. May be Nintendo’s best game.

9. Herzog Zwei ; (Mega Drive) I think the talk of this game founding the RTS genre might be accurate. Even if it isn't, this is still one of the most demanding versus games of its time. Players are asked to manage the creation, positioning, and behaviors of their units, juggle battles on multiple fronts, help their units fight off enemies (if not THE enemy), and all the while mind their fuel. Absolutely nothing like it at the time (not even the original Herzog), and hardly anything like it since. Excellent soundtrack.

10. Strider ; (Strider Hiryu, Arcade) It can seem a little rough around the edges today, with the rapid-fire slashing, but you get over that pretty quickly. Strider Hiryu has huge, complicated stage layouts that require a lot of sliding, running around on curved surfaces, and wall climbing. Enemy placement and platforming challenges can get a bit devious to force the player to use all of their movement possibilities. It’s also excellent-looking, with a ton of very memorable traps and screen-filling bosses.

x. Nethack ; By 1989, the Nethack team was at version 3.0. I can only imagine this was the roguelike of choice.
x. Elite ; Almost on tech alone.
x. Space Harrier ; Might be one of Sega’s strongest games of the 80’s, aesthetically.

Sorry if I went a little too large with the pictures. Let me know if I’m breaking any rules with the games.

Aeana said:
I feel like my votes here wouldn't count for much since mine would be a lot of Japan exclusives. I'll still probably cast my votes, even though I'll be the only person who votes for some of the stuff I want to list. So hard to rank. (._. )
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Really looking forward to the list. You've got a pretty unique perspective, I think.
 
Tain said:
8. Super Mario Bros 2 ; (Famicom Disk System) A refinement of the earlier platformer that did momentum-based movement so very well. Just like in the original, everything about the game’s movement model is very fun to learn, and even after you have a good feel for things, it’s incredibly satisfying to get good at maintaining speed and getting a ton of height off of jumping on enemies. And the stages, this time around, will make sure you get really intimate with all of these rules. May be Nintendo’s best game.
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Please list this as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, lest it get counted as the Doki-Doki Panic adaptation.
 
this is way too hard. im gonna hijack Shion's post and just rearrange for my own sake.

1. The Legend of Zelda - I stil replay it every few years, especially BS version. it really opened my eyes to adventure gaming.

2. Phantasy Star - I actually played 2 first, but went back on this one and was so impressed - early sci-fi/RPG beauty with the right amount of challenge and dungeon crawling.

3. Contra - One of the best co-op experiences to date.

4. Metroid - "Amazing side-scrolling Action/Adventure with incredible atmosphere. Exploring and travelling around an unknown alien world was one of the best gaming experiences of my life." yeah i cant top that.

5. Metal Gear - Tactical espionage action before i knew what those first two words even meant.

6. Castlevania - One of the best side-scrolling Action/Adventure games of all time.

7. Super Mario Bros. - Blew me away in the arcades, and again when i saw the home port.

8. Pac-Man - i still play CE DX, and the OG version sometimes. Mrs Pac-Man is better, though.

9. Mega Man 2 - It's the one i can finish and still know the OST.

10. Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode - This was the first game i thought was "badass" in the day.

FUCK i forgot bubble bobble.
 
timetokill said:
It amazes me seeing so many PC games in the thread. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome -- but I didn't realize so many of them actually came out in the 80's. It wasn't until the 90's that I had a halfway decent machine, so I had somehow imagined most of these great 80's games actually came out later.

My personal story: I had TIE FIGHTER and wanted nothing more to play it, but my PC didn't have enough "Extended RAM" or whatever bullshit. I tried every configuration I could to get it to run, and it never did. I must have read the manual and included storybook so many times that I could imagine the game running in my head.

I never did get it to run, though.
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TIE Fighter did come out in the 90s though! And it's a shame you never got it running back then, the game was incredible. One of my favorite space sims, and also one of my favorite Star Wars themed games as well, such great story telling - the game made you really feel like someone important rising up the ranks. You could always try it someday down the road, if it sees a re-release (even in DOS form, the 640x480 graphics are still serviceable).

I think one of the worst offenders for me personally with Extended RAM was Betrayal at Krondor, I remember having to build special boot disks for that game and a few others! The built in tool for making the boot disk never worked as well as what you could tweak yourself either, but it was worth it. Now it's all handled automatically with DOSBox, no more having to reboot your machine to test configurations.
 
Really hard for me to do... I'd need to sit down and take a real hard look at it. But here we go...

1. Phantasy Star 2 (1989, Mega Drive / Genesis) ; It's my favorite game of all time, so of course it will be on this. Some of the most challenging dungeon designs in RPG history, and a great dystopian future setting that was unheard of for the time. Also has one of the darkest game endings in history and filled with plot twists that constantly kept you on your toes.

2. Phantasy Star (1987, Mark III / 1988, Master System) ; This game probably had a more profound impact on developing my videogame tastes than any other game in history. A fan of Final Fantasy and the early Dragon Quest games, this game just felt lightyears ahead when I saw it for the first time at a friend's house. The smooth-scrolling 3D dungeons, large nonlinear game world with 3 different planets to travel to, many different vehicles you could acquire, and beautiful animated monsters/cinematics just simply blew me away. This game made me near-exclusive to the (Japanese) RPG genre.

3. Wrecking Crew (1986, Famicom / NES) ; An action/puzzle game that still remains unique to this day. Control Mario as you try and tear down various construction sites. You have to meticulously plan your moves like in the best action/puzzlers. 100 stages to travel through, one of my favorite music themes courtesy of Hip Tanaka, and best of all... an innovative level editor!

4. Mega Man 2 (1988, Famicom / 1989, NES) ; Although 3 is my favorite MM ever, that came out in 1990 so it doesn't count :P But 2 was absolutely mindblowing at the time, and still holds up some 20+ years later. Graphics and soundtrack were beyond anything else on the console at the time, the level design was excellent as well.

5. The Legend of Zelda (1986, FDS / 1987, NES) ; One of the first ever gaming experiences for me, after Mario/Duck Hunt and a few other assorted games. The nonlinear, open ended world and feeling of adventure the game had was a joy to behold. Trying to solve the puzzles and make my way through the dungeons while my family helped me out was awesome. Nowadays, the series is known for being so stale and rote, I just wish Nintendo would axe Aonuma and make something this interesting again.

6. Super Mario Bros. (1985, Famicom, NES) ; What remains to be said about this? The most important game ever made, even if it's not my favorite.

7. Contra (1987, Famicom / NES) ; The NES version was the first one I played, and I prefer it to the arcade version. Insanely detailed graphics for the time, great music, and classic run 'n gun gameplay... when I played it at a friend's house as a newbie to videogames (same friend is now a fellow coworker), I instantly fell in love.

8. Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (1989, Mark III / SMS) ; The last game on this list that I actually played (in 2005), an awesome Metroidvania-esque game where you change into different animals to traverse the levels. It's challenging and has a big world with lots of secrets.

9. Life Force (1987, Famicom / NES) ; My introduction to the wonderful world of STGs. The internal anatomy theme was very cool and creepy, music was to die for too. Between this, Jackal, and Contra, I became a massive Konami fan so this gen is really painful to me to see them practically wither up and die.

10. Balloon Bomber (1980, Arcade) ; The oldest game on the list, a Taito game developed soon after Space Invaders. I love the little bassline ditty the game plays, as well as the funny animations on the balloons flying back and forth. It's a pretty simple game, as befitting a game from 1980, but it oozes charm for me.

Other picks: The Guardian Legend, Jackal, Dragon Quest 3, Final Fantasy 1, Goonies 2, Sim City, Kid Icarus, Metroid, Adventures of Lolo, Ninja Gaiden 1, Revenge of Shinobi, Truxton, Thunder Force 2, Radia Senki, Ladybug, Ms. Pac Man, Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, Blaster Master, Space Harrier, Outrun, After Burner, Marble Madness, Doki Doki Panic/Mario 2
 
IrishNinja said:
this is way too hard.

8. Pac-Man - i still play CE DX, and the OG version sometimes. Mrs Pac-Man is better, though.

FUCK i forgot bubble bobble
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You can still change the list. And then we'll be friends again. :P
Also, while I/we obviously love both, it's abso-fuckin-lutely TRUE that Ms. Pac-Man is the superior game, no contest.

Loved your post Tain! Also looks super cool.
I wish mine was that sleek, as I've been constantly editing in a lot of context about my choices, too bad nobody will endure/care enough about reading that wall of text (yeah, I've linked it :P) At least it was fun for me to write, as it was cool to read yours, to relive so many memories, although it was super hard to put down only 10 picks and my honorable mentions list could have go on forever so I had to draw the line somewhere. If it's not my list it doesn't mean I don't love a game, but I mostly tried to get rid of nostalgia rose-tinted glasses at least for my top10.
 
Aeana said:
I feel like my votes here wouldn't count for much since mine would be a lot of Japan exclusives. I'll still probably cast my votes, even though I'll be the only person who votes for some of the stuff I want to list. So hard to rank. (._. )
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Please do, I enjoy seeing info about or references to titles I know nothing about by informed people with taste.


Brashnir said:
After culling my list, it seems a bit cruel to make us choose 10 from the entire 80s, and then 10 from 1990 alone. Perhaps an Early 80s (up to 1984, and could include 70s games too) and a late (1985-1989) 80s thread would have been a better lead-up to the individual years threads.
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BigWeather said:
I know this ship has probably sailed, but any way we can do yearly for 1980 through 1989? In my opinion the 80s probably held more evolution than the 90s or 00s and a top-10 for the entire decade just doesn't capture that. Especially considering that arcade games are included, and the vast majority of the prominent ones were in the 80s (making the list that much harder to cull down to 10). Also, for many old timers like me the 80s were the best decade for gaming -- hate to give it short shrift. Thanks!
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THIS.

A top ten list for the 1980s is pretty disappointing if you are going to then make a yearly top ten for the 1990s. Gaming didn't begin in the 1990s and anyone who lived through that 1980s golden age era can rattle off huge lists of titles they loved that younger people probably have no clue about or care for. For 1980s Arcade alone my reduced list of top games is still running 20+ deep. :\

Maybe after the other decades are over we can bring the 1980s back?
 
This turned out to be much harder than I thought. Also way too much personal text below (yay Blog Post!) but whatever, the 80s was magical for video games .

Couple of caveats: these are the games ranked by importance to what they mean to me, not necessarily the 'best' games (although all are good, some are better than others). I'm also sure I'm forgetting some stuff, but I can edit later if I read someone's post and a reminder bell goes off. Lastly I included Arcade games (in the early 80s the gulf between my 2600 and the arcade was.. large!) which I assume is ok. One final note: we didn't get an NES until pretty late in the decade and I was still heavily playing my C64 then, so that will explain certain huge NES games not being on my list. I've simply never played them.


1. Out Run; (Arcade) Will hold a spot in my heart as one of the top 10 games ever for me. There was a version of this game at the hotel we stayed at in Orlando while doing an extended Disney vacation when I was young. It was the sit down Ferrari version of the game and was (amazingly) only a quarter. My parents (God love 'em) saw how much I loved the game and pretty much fed me dollars for our stay. The graphics, the driving, THE MUSIC (to this day Splash Wave is amongst my most favorite game ditties ever). I simply love this game, and if there is every a sit down car version reasonably available for me to purchase I *WILL* own it. It also represents the game that kickstarted my continued love of racing games.
2. Tetris; (NES) Still my favorite puzzle game of all time. To this day I can sit down and play Tetris for an hour, something I don't think I can say for a lot of 80s games. Also very important to me because it was one of two games my father and I both played.
3. Archon; (C64) The first real multiplayer game in my life. My friends and I spent countless nights at sleepovers playing each round after round after round. This is one of the games that defines the Commodore 64 for me, and computer gaming in the 80s as a whole. We still reference Archon to each other 30 years later. How this hasn't been updated for XBLA/PSN is beyond me.
4. Arkanoid; (NES) Great game, but here 100% because of how much it reminds me of living at home with my family in the 80s. My father LOVED this game. It and Tetris are the only two games he ever played. Mom would watch he and I trade the controller back and forth along with my brother. Still fun today even.
5. Star Wars Arcade; (Arcade) I went to an arcade expo about a month ago, this is the 2nd game I looked for (after Out Run) and it still holds up to this day. This was back when my love of Star Wars was deep and the sensation of space dogfighting wouldn't be improved upon until the 90s.
6. Pitfall; (Atari 2600) A stunning game for the 2600 at the time. Nothing, NOTHING, brings back my memories of sitting in my bedroom with my brother and playing 2600. Most of the Activision games from the 2600 era were head an shoulders above the competition (especially for ‘at the time’), but the joy of running Pitfall Harry around on the small black and white TV our parents got us with the 2600 will forever be one of my formative gaming memories.
7. Pool of Radiance; (C64) Started my love affair with the Gold Box DnD games (which will continue showing up into the 90s). The perfection of DnD on the computer at the time (and not surpassed until Baldur's Gate).
8. Winter Games; (C64) My favorite of the 'games' series from Epyx, but honestly I loved all of them. Remember this is the era of the '84 games in LA, so this whole series would be a favorite. Summer Games II (below) was a close 2nd. The whole series will was a graphics and music showcase on the C64 along with a great collection of mini-games. I had to have at least one 'Game' title in the top 10.
9. Ghostbusters; (C64) Must have beaten this game 50 times (short game, not that impressive, but really captured my imagination). Another game that defines the C64 in my head.
10. Bard’s Tale III: The Thief of Fate; (C64) My first BIG role playing games (I picked up Pool of Radiance a bit later). Was the first game that really captured the feel of DnD (even named some characters after my regular play group). Never completed it, but still holds a warm spot in my heart to this day.



Honorable Mentions in Alphabetical Order:
x. Contra; (NES) Brother and I played this endlessly.
x. Demon Stalkers; (C64) My favorite of the Gauntlet clones of the era.
x. Dragon’s Lair; (Arcade) Loved to watch other people play (especial the good ones), was a waste of my 50c at the time.
x. Ghouls’n Ghosts; (C64) Great platformer that I really was never very good at (true through the PSP version). Love to tone/art style/music. Wish I didn't suck so much at it.
x. The Great Giana Sisters; (C64) Played this game quite a bit before we finally got a NES -- LOVED the music. Well worth finding the DS version.
x. Gyruss; (Arcade, C64) Between Tempest and Gyruss I always had a spot for the 'circular' shooters. The C64 cartridge was pretty close to arcade perfect. Loved the trip through the solar system.
x. Hillsfar; (C64) More action oriented than the Gold Box games, but still one I quite enjoyed.
x. Leisure Suit Larry III; (DOS) I actually didn't play this until '91, but it was the first point and click adventure game I ever played to completion
x. Maniac Mansion; (C64) my first point and click adventure. LOVED the opening, so cinematic. Unfortunately never beat the game. Probably should rectify that.
x. Marble Madness; (Arcade, C64) Fantastic graphics mixed with physics that were amazing at the time. The level design was fantastic. Love the arcade game because of the control but the C64 port was pretty decent (for the time).
x. Raid on Bungeling Bay; (C64) Little did we know where this game would take Will Wright, but at the time I was amazed at how real the world felt, as time went on in the game factories would be repaired as the Bungeling empire would attempt to rebuild from my devastating attacks, made the game seem alive.
x. Satan’s Hollow; (Arcade, C64) My favorite shooter of the early 80s, mostly because mom would let me play it at our local grocery while she shopped.
x Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back; (Atari 2600) The only other 2600 game I spent HOURS playing. The 2600 really didn't lend itself well to long play.
x. Summer Games II; (C64) My second favorite title in the 'Games' series.
x. Super Mario Bros.; (NES) We got our NES relatively late in the decade, but I still played countless hours of the game. To this day the only Mario game I've ever beaten.
x. Tron; (Arcade) The movie was a favorite, and in my minds eye this game became the movie while playing. Doesn't quite hold up outside of nostalgia.


Note: Hopefully all the text doesn't mess with the compilation script, let me know if I need to update anything.
 
1. mega man 2; one of sole reasons to own an nes.

2. contra; awesome fun co-op game. one of the first co-op games i remember playing.

3. double dragon; another awesomely fun co-op game, as hard as it was. the only thing more fun than raging is raging at or with someone else.

4. teenage mutant ninja turtles; beat-em-up + ninja turtles are a winning combination. there were very few 4 player multiplayer games that were as fun.

5. outrun; great music, great graphics, great racing.

6. space harrier; this game was addicting even just to watch. probably the closest thing i could call video game pr0n at the time.

7. wonder boy iii: the dragon's trap; it was one of the sole reasons to own an sms. also one of the first slower paced "thinking" game that i can remember enjoying.

8. mike tyson's punch-out!!; this game was just so fun and had a lot of charm. it's hard not to crack a smile at the various quirky opponents.

9. final fight; such a high quality game that holds up even today. made beat-em-ups popular, but even if you didn't like beat-em-up's you can't help but appreciate the technical finesse of this game.

10. black belt; the boss fights for this game were pretty mindblowing compared to all the other fighting/beat-em-up games out at the time.
 
timetokill said:
Truly awesome post, Tain. Great picks, too, though I never got a chance to even see Gain Ground in an arcade near me.
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Dash Kappei said:
Loved your post Tain! Also looks super cool.
I wish mine was that sleek, as I've been constantly editing in a lot of context about my choices, too bad nobody will endure/care enough about reading that wall of text (yeah, I've linked it :P) At least it was fun for me to write, as it was cool to read yours, to relive so many memories, although it was super hard to put down only 10 picks and my honorable mentions list could have go on forever so I had to draw the line somewhere. If it's not my list it doesn't mean I don't love a game, but I mostly tried to get rid of nostalgia rose-tinted glasses at least for my top10.
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Thanks! I gotta look at Sega's Pitfall II, Dash. I didn't even know it existed until late last year, but I have yet to really give it a shot.
 
LoveAndBeer said:
x. Demon Stalkers; (C64) My favorite of the Gauntlet clones of the era.
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Cool, someone else in the world has heard of this game. It is one of my favourites even though I never did finish it. I think it is the best Gauntlet clone out there, and better than Gauntlet.
 
1. stunt car racer ; Amiga. Utterly absorbing multiplayer racer set on huge roller coaster style tracks. Insane sense of being there. Stupidly annoying AI almost breaks the single player game, but multiplayer over a custom serial cable was sublime.
2. Warhead ; (AMIGA) claustrophobic and unnerving space combat game with fish eye lense. Amazing sense of tension - including missions where nothing much happens.
3. Sentinel ; (Amiga). Absorb-them-up puzzler on a chequered board, climb to the highest point. Incredibly tense with a constant 'is he watching me' fear. When the. Sentinel stares at you, you genuinely panic.
4. Gauntlet ; (Arcade). Such a coin gobbler when you had a group of friends playing. Sense of exploration felt unique at the time
5. Outrun ; (arcade). We had a deluxe cabinet in our local arcade and it was just sensory overload. All the scaling sprites were just overwhelming - tech heaven
6. Head over heels; (C64). Won this in a Zzap!64 competition. Co-op single player game where you split up the main characters and use their unique abilities to solve puzzles etc. fantastically rich 3D isometric graphics similar to Knight Lore.
7. Tempest ;(arcade). Early 80’s vector shoot em up, latterly updated for the jaguar by Jeff Minter.
8. International Karate PLUS ; (AMIGA) Three player combat with sampled bruce lee sounds and a great soundtrack and a ton of hidden goodies. Sound effect of a kidney punch was very memorable
9. Star wars ;(arcade). Sit down arcade game with you piloting a vector graphics x-wing.shooting waves of TIE fighters, taking down towers on the death star, culminating in the trench run to destroy the death star. Great game, with sampled speech straight from the movies
10. Battlezone ;(arcade). This fairly basic first person vector tank shooting game wasps very memorable for me.npossibly the first arcade game I played. They had a deluxe stand up version at the seaside where we were staying on holiday, where you look through 'goggles' which is more immersive. I even remember the machine needed 2x5p coins rather than 1x10p, which meant lots of trips to the change counter.

Stole some of DCharlies comments as they echoed my own.

SNES vs PSOne will be interesting for the 90's
 
1. Wasteland ; my favorite and most-played RPG of all time.

2. Rolling Thunder ; my favorite and almost the most-played single-player arcade game of all-time since it hit that fateful year when Kid Nikki and Shinobi also arrived at the arcades.

3. Karate Champ ; the first and, in my mind, still most interesting one-on-one fighter ever made.

4. Prince of Persia ; classic design and still better than every PoP game since, save for the Konami SNES update.

5. Galplus ; my favorite entry into the Galaga series of shooters, also the most fun old-school, one-screen shooter of all-time.

6. R-Type ; maybe the best side-scrolling SHMUP still, but no other shooter possessed me like this one did when it hit arcades.

7. Renegade ; my personal favorite Technos Japan BEU and one that encapsulates the feeling of fight or flight better than any other, simply due to the level dimensions and death pits on one or both sides of the arena.

8. Final Fight ; although SoR2 can claim most-played BEU for me, FF is second to the most money I ever spent on any arcade game, save for DK and, of course, excluding SFII and VF2 in the 90s. This occupied after school time in freshman year of HS at least one hour a day for almost a year.

9. Stunt Car Racer ; still most amazing initial racing experience I've ever had and this was my go-to Amiga game for a long time. I would happily back a KickStart for a remake/sequel by Crammond.

10. Donkey Kong ; the most played arcade game ever for me. Spent hundreds of dollars on this thing.

-----------------------

Honorable mentions:

x. Star Castle ; first arcade game I ever got into.

x. M.U.L.E. ; the most played multiplayer game in the 80s for me, outside of arcade co-op game series, like Ikari Warriors and Double Dragon.

x. Super Dodge Ball ; one of the best one-on-one games ever and the NES version just plays better than the arcade game.

x. Castlevania ; my favorite 2D action series.

x. Super Mario Bros. 3 ; best Mario and best platformer package ever.

x. The Legend of Zelda & The Adventure of Link ; best Zeldas are best (LttP is third).

x. Elevator Action ; second to Rolling Thunder for me and my love of side-scrolling action-shooters.

x. Ghosts 'n Goblins & Ghouls 'n Ghosts ; Capcom's best arcade actioners.

x. Black Tiger ; one of the best and most overlooked arcade games of the time. Loved it.

x. Alpha Mission ; SNK's finest straight SHMUP. The powerup system was pretty innovative for the time.

x. Pyros ; a game that follows the deliberate pacing of puzzle games, yet asks you to be precise and fast-acting, like a Capcom game. Excellent.

x. Iron Tank ; my favorite tank-themed game of the 80s.

x. Strider ; my ideal of stylish Japanese action arcade gaming.

x. Phantasy Star ; my favorite series of console RPGs and the first is still a solid experience.

x. Ultima II & III ; got me hooked on CRPGs gameplay.

x. Wizardry II ; introduced me to CRPGs first, AFAIR.

x. The Ancient Art of War ; made me interested in tactical games.

x. Herzog Zwei ; maybe the best one-on-one real-time tactical-action game.

x. Quartet ; this along with Gauntlet I & II had me spending way too many credits on playing through with a full group of four. Fun times.

x. Raiders of the Lost Ark ; first action-adventure, outside of Adventure, that I ever played obsessively. I was one of the first people in the world to complete it with Polaroid snapshot of Indy on the pedestal at the top of the screen, though I didn't win the big prize Atari was giving away. The experience made me less crushed at the inability to find and complete the SwordQuest games for the prize.

x. Pitfall! ; first game to get me to ditch school in elementary. Was badass at it in my twenty-minute run.

x. Faxanadu ; bought this mostly because of the screenshots and the cool and elegant cover. Great action-adventure game with some crazy infectious tunes.

x. The Magic of Scheherazade ; one hell of an awesome adventure game.
 
Yeah, I was really expecting a lot more NES myself as well. Great to see all these awesome Arcade titles and C64 and stuff listed!
 
1. Super Mario Bros. ; (NES) - Helped modernize the platforming genre. This is the game that got me into gaming.

2. Megaman 2 ; (NES) - Would be the best game of the 80's if not for that stupid Wily Castle boss that you can only kill with bombs.

3. Bubble Bobble ; (Arcade) - I love this game. There's so much to do, and its a blast with friends.

4. Tetris ; (GB) - The most popular version of the most popular game ever made?

5. Mike Tyson's Punch-out!! ; (NES) Is it a rhythm game or a sports game? It's really fun either way.

6. Pacman ; (Arcade) - Needs no explanation, really.

7. Balloon Fight ; (NES) - I would have picked Joust for the originality, but I think the balloon trip puts this one over the top.

8. Castlevania ; (NES) - A true classic. Although later entries in the series are a bit better.

9. Centipede ; (Arcade) - Fast, addictive, fun.

10. Robotron 2084 ; (Arcade) - Midway made some killer arcade games back in the day.
 
1. Out Run - Arcades in 1986 - Quite simply one of the best games ever, and the best 2D racing/driving game ever made.
2. Tetris - Timeless classic, hasn't aged a bit, and quite possibly the most played puzzle game of all time.
4. Space Harrier - Arcades - Arguably the most important rail shooter of all time, really only rivaled by the game that influenced it, Buck Rogers. Went onto influence the best games the genre would see, and it itself, was the best of the early rail shooters. Still holds up great today, and spent a lot of hours just playing it in Shenmue.
5. Super Mario Bros. - NES - The actual premiere of one of gaming's foremost mascots, has aged fairly well with gameplay that's largely intact.
6. Legend of Zelda - NES - The debut of the Zelda franchise, this one has aged a little worse than Super Mario Bros. in my opinion, but it's still a great game.
7. After Burner
8. Pac-Man
9. Phantasy Star - SMS - The greatest RPG of the third generation, it really hasn't aged super well, but it's still playable.
10. Shinobi - SMS
 
1. The Last Ninja (C64) ; The Uncharted-serie of the C64, so far ahead of it's time that it's almost funny looking at other games from that era. If you're going to show one single game to someone that has never tried the C64 then this is it. The music alone can get people to love the game.
2. Last Ninja 2 (C64) ; A superb sequel to the game above, there is no other place to put it but here.
3. Dungeon Master (Amiga) ; One of the fathers of the dungeon crawler genre and still one of my favorite games of all time. You can see bits and pieces of this game in lots of modern games, some elements are intact but some thing are still better here.
4. Zelda II - Adventures of Link (NES) ; Why hasn't there been another side scrolling Zelda? This is a truly underrated Zelda game, one of the best in the serie. It may be hard, but so are Ninja Gaiden and Demon's Souls, and that didn't stop people from wanting more.
5. Battle Squadron (Amiga) ; Possibly one of the best shmup from this whole era and one of those that holds up very well even up to this day. What's even better is that all of you can play it on iOS as Battle Squadron ONE right this minute. Might be the most perfect Amiga conversion ever made.
6. Legend of Zelda (NES) ; It might not be my favorite Zelda but it's still definitely a game that needs to be on a list like this. There are tons of gameplay mechanics in this game that is still regarded as standard in modern games too.
7. Rick Dangerous (Amiga) ; An awesome platformer heavily inspired by Indiana Jones in a humoristic way with pixel perfect trial and error gameplay like nothing else. I still play it every now and then on my old Amiga.
8. Rock'n Roll (Amiga) ; The name might fool you, this has nothing to do with rock'n roll music. Original, innovative and perfect controls makes this game a true gem among all the games where you're rolling a ball around a maze.
9. Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES) ; Platforming perfection. And I actually like this more than the first one, the digging mechanic makes the game really unique among the rest of the Mario games.
10. Super Mario Bros. (NES) ; Platforming perfection yet again, still better than most, if not all, modern platformers.
 
1-Bubble Bobble (Arcade): The Software Creations 16 bit masterpiece.
2-Defender of the Crown (Amiga): The game that really showed what the Amiga was capable of.
3-IK+ (C64/Amiga): The finest beat'em up ever.
4-Rainbow Islands (Arcade): Still great
5-Summer Games (Amiga): Decathlon 2.0
6-Populous (Amiga): One most influential Amiga game ever
7-Sim City (Amiga): I spent 200+ hours on this one
8-Ports of Call (Amiga): The first game I played on the Amiga
9-BurgerTime (Arcade/Intellivision): GOTY 1983!
10-Pitfall (Intellivision): A incredible journey
 
1. Asteroids Deluxe (Arcade, Atari, 1980) - Release a year after the classic Asteroids, I far preferred Asteroids Deluxe. The addition of the shield as opposed to the warp help take out the randomness of dying when you needed to use it in an emergency. I still play it to this day on MAME.

2. Ms. Pac-Man (Arcade, Midway, 1981) - Another classic arcade game which still holds up today. The smarter enemies also helped eliminate most of the partern plays you could use with the original Pac-Man.

3. BattleZone (Arcade, Atari, 1980) - At the time the 3D vector graphics was mind blowing. The excellent sound and the twin stick controllers helped bring the tank simulation experience to life.

4. Bubble Bobble (Arcade, Taito, 1986) - Loved this game especially when playing with some else.

5. Donkey Kong (Arcade, Nintendo, 1981) - Probably one of the first platforming games I ever played. Spend many a hour playing this as a teenager at the local corner cafe.

6. Defender ((Arcade, Williams, 1980) - Super colourful and with buttons galore, Defender was an amazing audio visual experience for me at the time.

7. Utopia (Intellivision, 1981) - I never owned the Atari 2600. Instead I had an Intellivision console with its strange controller with multiple buttons and plastic overlays. Utopia island economic system was something different to play. I enjoyed planting my crops and waiting for the rains to bring in extra gold. You also needed someone else to play the game against as there was no A.I. in the game.
 
1. River City Ransom; One interconnected world, RPG stats with fun beat-em-up gameplay, competitive co-op. BARF.
2. Super Mario Bros.; There are more recent Marios I prefer, but this one is pretty indispensible and still fun.
3. Tetris; There are dozens of puzzle games out there, but only a few come anywhere near the lasting power of this one.
4. Super Mario Bros. 2; Still a platformer, but with wildly different rules. Jumping on enemies DOESN'T kill them? I also appreciate it more now for how as an outside game it injected a lot of characters and concepts into the Mario canon that are still in use today.
5. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!; Game design good enough that one of the best things about the Wii version was that they barely changed it.
6. Donkey Kong; Still fun to play, and an interesting bridge between older games with one screen and later games with many many screens.
7. Ms Pac-Man; Leader of the Pacs.
8. Dallas Quest; Ahahaha, what can I say. Objectively perhaps does not earn a place on the list, but it was my introduction to adventure games and I put a lot of time into it, even if I probably never got halfway through. Damn giant rat.

TwinIonEngines said:
It's the inconsistency that grates. The last ten years of the 20th century is not the same thing as the 1990's, which is kind of odd.
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But the last ten years of the 1900s are the same thing as the 1990s. Different measurements. 1981-1990 would be the "Top Games of the 199th Decade" thread.
 
1. Balloon Fight; Every month or so I play this game again. So much fun.
2. Legacy of the Wizard; Incredibly underrated NES game. Far ahead of it's time.
3. Ghosts N' Goblins; One of the hardest games of the 80's and also the most addicting.
4. Bubble Bobble; Still love this one.
5. Elevator Action; Fun arcade experience overall.
6. Golden Axe; Great little beat-em-up.
7. Super Mario Bros; An absolute classic platformer, that no matter how old it is I've still found myself coming back to.
8. Tass Times in Tonetown (Apple IIGS); If I had to put any computer game it'd be this one. So ridiculously unfair but I kept going back to it.
9. Super Mario Bros 2; This game gets some crap but I think it's an absolutely fantastic NES platformer. Would've loved to see another SMB in this style.
10. Mega Man 2; This one's a bit low cause I honestly didn't play it as much as the other Mega Man games. But really, it's hard to exclude a Mega Man game here.

Doing this list made me realize how most of the amazing NES games I played came out in the early 90's. God, doing that decade is going to be brutal.
 
1. Super Mario Brothers; I begged my parents to buy my brother and me a Nintendo Entertainment System, and this game was the reason why. To my younger self it represented a kind of kinetic freedom that I hadn't gathered from other, earlier games. The blue sky was part of it; the music another; the secret pipes a third. But the strongest appeal was, I think, just the marvel of a video game character whose most persistent opponent was simple gravity, and whose most useful skill was choreographed jumping.

2. The Legend of Zelda; So the local Wal-Mart had one of these, and I more or less spent every minute in the store playing it or waiting behind some other kid to play it. Along with SMB, Metroid, Kid Icarus, and some other stuff I don't remember clearly, it had a golden copy of The Legend of Zelda. I had never seen anything at all like it- not having much experience with PC or C64 games of that era, even the 3/4s perspective was novel to me. The creatures, the map, the tiny warrior hero with his sword, the caves and lakes and dungeons... They were brand-new in my scope of video games, but not to my imagination: this was the world of The Hobbit and Narnia come to life, a portal to fantasy escapism. I eventually got it (birthday or something) and diligently battled my way to Ganon. At that point in my life it was probably my longest video game experience by nearly an order of magnitude.

3. Mega Man 2; True story. My kid brother and I beat this on a rental in a single night. We swapped back and forth playing each world; this is probably my most memorable "sharing a single-player game" experience. I thought it was fun, but not particularly hard... It kicks my ass today. We must have been in "the zone".

4. Space Invaders (Atari 2600); We owned it so it saw a lot of playtime. For some reason it took me a while to understand that I wasn't supposed to shoot out my own shields. Ahh well, the best defense is a good offense...

5. Metroid; Another pleasant memory from the M82. I remember some kid had punched in JUSTIN BAILEY on the Wal-Mart machine; thus I learned one of gaming's first great spoilers. Going back to the game now, it's striking how linear it really is; it felt labyrinthine and unknowable when I was a kid, inspiring a sense of exploration. Metroid deserves special praise for sprite and backdrop design; chugging along on that puny NES, it's a true marvel of expressive creepiness. Never having seen Alien, that Giger inspiration was lost on my childhood self; even today all the Alien franchise stuff looks like Metroid to me.

6. Super Mario Bros. 2; For a long time I would have told you this was my favorite Mario game- I really had no idea it wasn't, really. It was popping with new ideas for Mario and friends to explore... Projectile weapons! A dark-world that revealed secret doors! Characters with unique abilities! That crazy-awesome egg battle with the creep Birdo! And, of course, it ended with the bubble-battle with Wart, the most mistreated of all Nintendo villains.

7. Pac-Man (Arcade); To tell the truth, my very first game was Pac-Man on the 2600. It was the first my family owned, and the first I personally ever played. I loved it; I remember playing so intensely and so long that my hand would become stuck to that horrible Atari rubber joystick and I had to literally pry it off. The game was tough and addictive; it went on and on, speeding up, changing color schemes every few levels, keeping big blocky score at the top. Of course, as a Pac-Man port it sucked, but as a little kid I didn't know that. I eventually played the full-size version at a Pizza Hut, which was legitimately an era-defining game and earns its place on a top-ten list.

8. Ninja Gaiden (NES); A friend of mine marveled when I told them my brother and I beat Mega Man 2 in a single evening; it apparently took him and his brother a couple months. I felt like a gaming god until the topic of Ninja Gaiden came around... Apparently these hand-eye coordinated freaks beat that game over a weekend. This is nearly incomprehensible to me. I must have spent dozens of hours trying to get through this slaughterfest, slooooowly learning new ways to die, excruciatingly claiming new pixels of Ninja territory before becoming mincemeat yet again and being sent crashing back to the start. I had played through that first zone- the one with the pseudo-Coke-signs- so many times that I could literally mash my way through it with my eyes closed. But BY GOD I did it in the end; that bastard who killed Ryu's father paid in BLOOD.

9. Contra (NES); Yes, I beat it. No, I never beat it without the Code. No, I can't imagine why anyone would want to beat it without the Code; playing invincible dispensers of leaded pain and flame seemed to be the entire point.

10. Mike Tyson's Punch Out!!; It has this charm, this good-natured comic sense of itself, that still appeals to me. Wink, wink.
 
JoshuaJSlone said:
8. Dallas Quest; Ahahaha, what can I say. Objectively perhaps does not earn a place on the list, but it was my introduction to adventure games and I put a lot of time into it, even if I probably never got halfway through. Damn giant rat..
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Oh god the memories! :BOWS:

Drop owl

Also, does BITE LIP ring a bell for anybody here?
 
(assume each game is the NES version unless I note otherwise, since that was my primary gaming tool throughout the 80s until I got my Gameboy in 1990)

1. Super Mario Brothers; sat staring at the bully babysitters who wouldn't let me play for over a year - finally played when I was supposed to be napping and it was fucking amazing and made me a videogame fan forever
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (arcade) ; magically appeared at my arcade one day and me being a massive TMNT fan, I thought God had put it there just for me - at first I didn't think you could actually play it because the graphics were so good that they must be FMV (lol)
3. Pirates! (PC); my first and one of my favorite free-roaming games of all time; blew my mind at how much freedom I had at the time
4. Super Mario Brothers 2; I still adore how big and colorful this game is and the gameplay is a huge 180 from part 1 but was awesome in itself. I always regretted that they never made a Super Mario USA 2. Also, I completely stole this from my sociopathic best friend and I'm still shocked I never got caught.
5. Mike Tyson's Punch Out! (NES); still one of the most cleanly designed games ever. I put days of my life into this game though I could never beat it and I later put days into the game when I cheated to unlock it in Animal Crossing. It held up so well that I would play AC just to play PO.
6. Metroid; I was terrible at it at first, but the world made me want to keep exploring and find things that no other kid was able to find. I never got to play Zelda 1 during the 80s, but I imagine the way they felt about Zelda, I felt about Metroid.
7. The Oregon Trail (PC); All I'm going to say is two things: I still play it obsessively on my cell phone and it made me WANT to go to school to play this.
8. Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest; awesome music, day and night cycle ("what a terrible night for a curse"), again I never got very far, but it was extremely memorable.
9. Ironsword: Wizards and Warriors 2; The first game I ever bought with my own money when I saw it for $20 one day. A great adventure game that took me forever to get to the final level, but I had a blast all the way to the end. I believe I still have the registration card in storage that's completely covered in passwords - I had to switch to a sheet of paper near the end.
10. Adventure of Link - I couldn't get very far, but I still played and played and played over and over again, doing just the first dungeon and maybe beating it, maybe not. But still playing and playing and loving it. To this day I still haven't even gotten 1/3 of the way through.

Honorable Mentions:

x. Castlevania
x. Tetris (GB)
x. Metal Gear
x. Contra
x. Excitebike
x. Paperboy (NES)
x. Wizards and Warriors
x. Sim City (PC)
x. Super Mario Land
x. Where In The World Is Carmen San Diego?
x. Tecmo Bowl
x. Odell Lake
x. The Black Bass
x. Breakthru
x. Fester's Quest
x. Solomon's Key
x. Willow
x. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
x. Ninja Gaiden
x. Kung-Fu (NES)
x. Gun.Smoke
x. Donkey Kong Classics
x. Rampage (NES)
 
1. Super Mario Bros. ; an all time classic. I remember sucking at it and barely beating the first few levels but it was still mad fun.
2. Tetris ; most original puzzle game of all time, it never gets old
3. Contra ; I remember playing this with my brother on the FAMICOM for hours and hours. So damn addicting.
4. Battle City ; aka 'Super Tank' on the market's pink Famicom Family cartridge. I remember this game having tons of levels and if my memory serves right a level creator ?
5. Adventure Island ; epic platformer
6. Circus Charlie ; used to love this as a kid but unfortunately I don't think this game ever became too popular.
7. Mario Bros ; this game introduced the POW block so definitely deserves to be in the list
8. Ice Climber ; worst fucking jump physics ever but still fun
9. Donkey Kong ; another classic that I sucked at it but still played over and over again
10. Duck Hunt ; I remember playing this at my friend's house with the lightgun and having tons of fun and laughing at the troll dog.
 
I didn't really become a gamer until I got my NES in 1991, I had a 2600 before that, but I barely played it. Still, I played a ton of 80s games on my NES.

1. Super Mario Brothers. -no need to say anything.
2. The Legend of Zelda - Brought real depth to the NES
3. Goonies 2 - One of several games that merged platforming and adventure brilliantly on NES
4. Super Mario Bros 2 - Introduced plenty of secrets and alternate routes into platforming
5. Super Mario Land-Showed that a handheld game could be close to a console
6. King's Quest - Established graphic adventures
7. Raiders of the Lost Ark-proto Zelda, amazingly deep for an Atari 2600 game
8. Ultima III: Exodus - Deep, refined part based roleplaying
9. Dragon Quest/Warrior - Made RPGs streamlined and accessible, leading to the JRPG formula
10. Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego - showed that educational games could be fun
 
1. Dragon Warrior IV
2. Mother
3. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
4. The Legend of Zelda
5. Mega Man 2
6. Dragon Warrior III
7. Super Mario Bros.
8. Castlevania
9. Zork
10. StarTropics

Fuck yeah
 
I believe Mega Man 2 was 1990 in Europe so that's out. Now then...

1. Bubble Bobble - one of my favourite games ever, truly timeless
2. Super Mario Bros 2 - somehow I prefer this to the original, I loved all the secrets
3. The Legend of Zelda II: Adventure of Link - same here, probably the first RPG elements I ever played
4. Mega Man - too damn hard to be the very best, but very memorable game
5. Kid Icarus - aged better than Metroid and a really cool adventure
6. Wrecking Crew - I played this like crazy
7. Super Mario Bros - I didn't really appreciate its greatness until later
8. Defender of the Crown - mindblowing early Amiga graphics
9. Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders - my first point&click adventure
10. North & South - crazy comedy RTS with insane platforming levels

Honourable mentions:
x. Parsec - mostly monochrome side-scrolling shooter for TI-99/4A, so many hours wasted (Wikipedia)
 
1. Metroid ; Flawed but an amazing creativity burst. I played it for the first time some years ago and I do think this game truly has something special. For as hard as it is, I kept going back to it. I can only imagine how it must have been playing it in the 80's. Amazing atmosphere too.
2. Life Force ; Timeless shoot-em-up. The way I like them. I love the game theme of being inside the body of an alien.
3. Castlevania ; B-movie horror cliches meets amazing gameplay and music.
4. Mega Man 2 ; Pure fun and not as frustrantly hard as other games in the series.
5. Super Mario Bros. ; The first game I remember playing and responsible for getting me hooked in to games. It's design speaks volumes to these days.
6. Tetris ; The arcade-style puzzle game.
7. Legend of Zelda ; A mind-blowing experience for the time.
8. Punch-Out ; A puzzle game dressed as an sports game? How many genius designs is Nintendo able to come up in just a few years?
9. Ninja Gaiden ; The quintessential action game of the time.
10. Pac-Man ; Fun to this day.

This is overloaded with NES games. I played quite a few Sega Master System games at the time, but, interestingly, none of those I'd put on a top 10 of the decade. Alex Kidd has got nothing on these games I've listed.

I wish I had played more games from the decade, though. I'm not familiar at all with the PC scene of the time, never having played Ultima or Sid Meier's Pirates or the first Sim City or other classics. I'm also not familiar with the C64 or the Amiga, since they were never distributed in my country, as far as I know. Even NES games I only know a few and most of them were recently through the Virtual Console. Oh well, I'm a bit younger, mostly a 16-bit generation kid, what can you do.

I really wish I could vote for Super Mario Bros. 3, since I don't associate that game with the 90's.
 
1) Elite - Such a mindblowing jump in gameplay, technical prowess, plus all round scope and ambition that it's still hard to get your head round what they achieved back then with the limitations they had. I put Elite in a whole different league to everything else around this time
2) Tetris - Perfect example of an inspired idea translating into a perfect game
3) Super Mario Bros. - Set the template for platformers, perfect controls and level design with some brilliant mechanics as well
4) The Sentinel - Unbelievably original game, that was not only incredibly clever and strategic but also conjured up an atmosphere all of its own.
5) Bubble Bobble - Wonderful design and gameplay, again a really clever idea perfectly implemented
6) Paradroid - Really captured your imagination, polished to perfection and the numbered droids + the way you took control of them was a genius idea
7) Revenge Of The Mutant Camels - Jeff Minter was a revelation in these days for trying different game concepts, and while all interesting this is the one that really stood out. It was very epic for its time actually but in a really off-the-wall way. Loved it.
8) Little Computer People - the first virtual pet, and a randomly generated one at that, but presented in such an inspired way. You couldn't help but fall in love with the idea of someone living inside your computer. The disk just containing a house encouraging them to move into. With their dog of course.
9) Manic Miner - Another wonderfully off the wall game, had a character and appeal all of its own
10) Marble Madness - Great idea and beautifully done, fell in love with it at the arcade instantly.

Honourable mentions:

x) Populous - Birth of the modern God sim
x) F/A-18 Interceptor - Took flight-sims to a whole new (and more enjoyable) level
x) Mr. Do! - Took Dig Dug and expanded it so much that it had an unrivalled depth to it. Fascinated me as a kid.
x) Pac-Man - Practically hypnotic it was so well done
x) Gauntlet - Nailed top-down and 4 player co-op gameplay, and great atmosphere about it
x) Defender Of The Crown - Simple gameplay but the leap in graphics was unbelievable at the time
x) Gribley's Day Out - Another Andrew Braybrook (Paradroid) game, and his most interesting from a gameplay point of view
x) Ancipital - As above but for Jeff Minter, 4-sided gameplay was very interesting
x) Knight Lore - Jaw-dropping at the time from Ultimate Play The Game (Rare) and set the template for isometric puzzlers
x) Jet Pac - Another Ultimate game, and wonderfully playable despite simple mechanics
x) Defender - Williams classic, perfect feel, perfect sound effects and THAT LASER EFFECT!
x) Joust - Another Williams classic and their most original, Balloon Wars can sod off
 
My personal list based on the games I played and/or owned:

1. The Legend of Zelda: The legend.
2. Super Mario Bros.: The first Nintendo game I ever played as the SMB/Duck Hunt double cart. Iconic for a reason.
3. Contra: Revolutionary 2-player action. Intense and always fun. Best with a friend! UUDDLRLRBAselectstart!
4. Double Dragon: Also best with a friend. Loved the fighting and style.
5. Dragon Warrior: My first ever RPG. Got it for free with my Nintendo Power subscription and loved every single minute of it. Started my love of RPGs.
6. Gradius: Though I was never good at it, I always enjoyed it. Objectively well designed though hard.
7. Mike Tyson's PunchOut!: Glass Joe, King Hippo, Sandman, Don Flamingo and The Kid. Legendary names and a legendary game.
8. RC Pro Am: One of my favorite NES games. The races were amazing fun and the graphics were head of their class at that time.
9. Final Fight: Loved this one in the arcade! Haggar with that air suplex was the shit!
10. Mega Man 2: Arguably the best in the franchise on the NES, and that's saying something. Great, great game.

Special mentions:

Kid Icarus - Tough for me, as all platformers were tough for me, but I'll never forget the music and gameplay style, as well as punching in that cheat code to go straight to the last level!

Gauntlet - Amazing 4 player game, but it was only available at a distant arcade that I only got to visit once in a blue moon.
 
I think what I like best about this thread is the sheer amount of variety and backgrounds and experiences. My 80's were nothing like the 80's some of you had. Really cool.
 
timetokill said:
I think what I like best about this thread is the sheer amount of variety and backgrounds and experiences. My 80's were nothing like the 80's some of you had. Really cool.
Click to expand...

Definitely. One of those rare times where I actually bothered to read all of the comments people were putting in.
I'm glad that the way you guys worked the rules out meant we didn't just get soulless posts made of only game's titles like we usually get in voting threads.

And sorry for all those typos and such in my list, there were so many that in the end I gave up trying to fixing all of them edit after edit since I'd also keep adding stuff: blame the iPad's virtual kb, my typing skills and most of all my Capcpomy proofreading.
 
1. Castlevania ; i think this was the first game that felt dark and creepy to me. this might sound mind-boggling today, but some of the enemy sprites grossed me out. gameplay and graphics were excellent, the soundtrack is just perfect. even today, i listen to castlevania music weekly.
2. Super Mario Bros. 2 ; cute game with lots of options. having so many characters to choose from was rare.
3. Contra ; very popular with friends. 2 player mode was endless fun. konami music kicked so much ass.
4. BurgerTime ; might be the first game that i truly appreciated. cute sprites, easy gameplay. don't play hungry.
5. Bubble Bobble ; the bubble bobble melody is legendary. i played this on many platforms, but i think the last copy i still have at home is on the master system. you could find a BB cabinet in the weirdest places.
6. Punch-Out!! ; very unique style. we need more of these games.
7. OutRun ; out of this world and with perfect music.
8. Skate or Die! ; i was obsessed with this on NES. hard to play but fun with a buddy. it was ported by konami.
9. Life Force ; rich in variety, music by my favorite composer.
10. Phantasy Star ; played this one much later, but could still appreciate what it was made of. but some of the design choices reminded me of why i stayed away from most RPGs at that time.
 
1. Dragon Warrior - much like others, got this game for free through the Nintendo Power subscription. I was 8 years old, this was my first RPG. 22 years later still loving the genre (mostly on handhelds these days)

2. Contra (NES) - 2 player madness sitting cross legged 3 feet away from our enormous 25 inch screen. Plus ... that code.

3. Super Mario Bros (NES) - Played this game so much, I could get to world 8 with my eyes closed. No matter how many times I played World 8 ... it was always a challenge. I remember it being the first game I played at home where a video game looked like a real person, I went from the 2600 straight to the NES and Super Mario Bros.

4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade) - For me, the perfect evolution of arcade beat em ups, it was Double Dragon with characters I actually cared about. Slam a soft drink and a slice at the skating rink, grab three friends and hit the TMNT machine. This was the perfect Friday night for my 8 year old self.

5. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!! (NES) - I don't think I've ever actually beaten Mike Tyson, and I still enjoy this game to this day. The music, the characters, the cut-scenes. It's the best boxing game I've ever played, although it's barely a boxing game.

6. Bubble Bobble (NES) - This was the first game I ever bought with my own money. I didn't even know what it was when I bought it, I guess I liked the box. Simply amazing 2 player game.

7. Wizards & Warriors - I guess this game wasn't very difficult on NES, because I had no problems beating it at 8 years of age. One of the most memorable soundtracks in all of video games, and the control was spot on. Also, that boxart ...

8. Donkey Kong (Arcade) - This is the first video game memory I have. I was 5 years old, my mom would sit me on a stool in front of Donkey Kong at the bowling alley in my hometown. The sad thing is, I'm probably just as skilled at Donkey Kong today as I was then. This game is hard!!!

9. Tetris (NES) - Almost the best puzzle game I've ever played, and certainly the most influential. Even my parents loved Tetris, my stepdad would sneak into my bedroom some nights and play Tetris while I was sleeping!

10. Ghosts'n Goblins (NES) - Fuck this impossible game!!! I can't get past stage two!!! Incredible and I love it.

x Honorable mention to the Gameboy Tetris packin, which I probably played more than the NES version.
 
VKS's Top Ten List of Including 90s PAL Releases Because Both the NES-Era PAL Release Schedule and the Thread Rules are Arbitrary and Unfair. Besides, I Didn't Get a NES Until 1991 Anyway, so it's Functionally the Same as Importing. Additionally, Australian Release Dates for Some of these Games are Hard to Find. Regardless, All these Titles Qualify as Having Released in the West During the 80s.

1. Super Mario Bros; [NES] The game that started it all. Everything about the game is iconic, from the music, the colour pallette, the sound effects and the gameplay. This game set down the rules games would follow for another ten years. I remember first playing this game and just being sucked in. Up until that point, I had only played stuff on the level of River Raid, Yar's Revenge and Pitfall and seeing how smooth and colourful everything in the game was blew my six-year-old mind.

2. The Legend of Zelda ; [NES] I didn't actually get to play this until just recently (I only beat it for the first time last year as a GBA NES Classic, I think), but my memories of this game back in the day consisted of lusting after that gold cartridge and imagining what the symbols on the boxart's shield might represent. Even as a kid, I knew I was looking at something special. It might have been too difficult for me as a kid, but playing it as an adult gave me a real appreciation for how advanced this game was for its time in spite of some archaic design choices. Especially cool is how smooth the animation is for the boomerang.

3. Zelda II: the Adventure of Link ; [NES] Again, I didn't actually get to play this back in the day (NES Classics GBA version), but when I did play it, I recognised its greatness. It carries a lot of baggage, most of all in its being obtuse and difficult near the beginning. Thing is, it doesn't stop the game having some of the most vivid atmosphere in the series until Wind Waker. Traveling from one town to another, each with its distinct architecture and character (conveyed in surprising form by the 8-bit tech) and embarking on quests felt so epic. Maybe it was also the power of imagination, but the world just felt so alive.

4. Metroid ; [NES] I didn't play this game until it became extra content packed into Zero Mission. Thanks to the fact that at this point I'd basically memorised the Zero Mission map, I was able to navigate in this game with no worries. The result was a joyful romp through a Zebes I'd never known, wherein I tested the limits of what could be done using the 8-bit engine (which was surprisingly, a lot).

5. Ironsword: Wizards and Warriors II; [NES] (1991 in PAL regions) I played WW3:Kuros Visions of Power prior to playing this game and only knew about it from the backstory provided in the WW3 manual. I spent months imagining what sort of a game it was, choreographing in my head the fights against each of the four elemental fiends and the final epic confrontation with the wizard Malkil atop Icefire Mountain. Actually getting the game meant adjusting my lofty expectations, but nevertheless the game didn't disappoint, taking me on this wondrous adventure packed with a ridiculous amount of content and secrets. Amazing game.

6. The Guardian Legend; [NES] (1990 in PAL regions) It was a hybrid shooter / Zelda clone with amazing music and an intriguing backstory. It also featured a woman who turned into a jet fighter and incredible music. To this day, the main theme remains one of my favourite pieces of video game music.

7. Shadow Warrior (Ninja Gaiden); [NES] (15th of August 1991 in PAL regions) This was one of the first games I had ever seen that had cutscenes. The mournful music that plays in the opening cinematic is amazing and when the pseudo-drums kick in, I remember getting chills up my spine.

8. Arkanoid; [NES] I basically got addicted to this game for three months. I remember getting to level 70 something with a mixture of luck, warp zones and just being in the zone. I loved this game.

9. Probotector (Contra); [NES] (28th of December 1990 in PAL regions) I had no idea this was called Contra overseas until years after the fact. Once, on a particularly amazing run (not I nor my cousins knew about the Konami code), I even got up to level 6. Even though in my heart of hearts, I knew that the Spray Gun was the best one, I would often pointedly not use it in favour of the Fireball and got really good at employing it, too.

10. Marble Madness ; [NES] This was one of those games I've never beaten and as a kid, I got ridiculously good at. I got up to the second-last level once with plenty of extra time, but still failed there. It was only years later that I found out that there was a bug on this level that actually prevented you from seeing the end level.

x. RoboWarrior; [NES] I borrowed this game from a friend of mine and in the space of a few weeks fell in love with it. It was essentially a bomberman adventure game and it was unlike anything I'd seen up until that point.

x. Snoopy to the Rescue; [Commodore 64] One of my first video games. I don't remember much of it, to be honest, apart from the fact that one of the enemies looked like Australian children's book character Grug and another seemed to be a mouse in a dress with a balloon, but I remember loving this game so damn much.

x. Tetris ; [GB] It's Tetris. They'll be playing this game a thousand years after we're all dead.

x. Super Mario Bros 2; [NES] The theme song still makes me nostalgia for this game pretty hard. I played this whenever we went over to this one guy's house and it was awesome.

x. Wizards and Warriors; [NES] (7th of Jan 1990 in PAL regions) I played this years after playing WW3:KVoP and I:WW2, but it was still a lot of fun. To be frank, I prefer the jumping physics in this one over its sequels.

x. Ducktales; [NES] (December 1990 in PAL regions) We borrowed this from a friend and got to the moon eventually. We weren't very good at getting the treasure, so we just played it like any other platformer.

x. Donkey Kong; [NES] Simple, fun and amazing. I remember playing this as part of the Donkey Kong Classics collection on the NES. It was the most fun title on the cart in retrospect, even though I preferred Donkey Kong Jr at the time (I don't know why. I got it as a 3DS Ambassador title and it really doesn't hold up.
 
1. Legend of Zelda; (NES - 1986) This was the game that made me want to design videogames. I had never been so completely entranced by a game, or immersed in its world, until this game. The gold cartridge, the map, the chill-inducing title screen music... it felt like I was playing a game of the future. The mechanics of the game are still solid today, and I still play it probably once a year. It has the great feeling of a truly open world, where exploration was tough but incredibly rewarding. The "Did you find the ____" game with friends while playing this was intense as well. It honestly felt sometimes like you were the first person to discover some of the game's secrets. The flexibility of the system, allowing you to kill bosses with a variety of your weapons and ultimately, your ingenuity, is still something I wish was present in games more often today. Hell, the fact that you can nearly beat the game without getting a sword is a testament to the flexibility of the game. Love it to death.

2. Baseball Stars; (NES - 1989) I had a lot of baseball games for the NES, but none of them came close to how good Baseball Stars was. In a time when it was still somewhat rare to have the ability to save your game, Baseball Stars let you create your own teams, create a league, and hell, even create players. I had never seen such a thing before, and I was hooked. The fact that the fielders actually seemed to move somewhat intelligently, and that you could have a real defensive skill, was amazing to me as well, after playing games that felt a lot more boring, like Bases Loaded. I played the hell out of this game.

3. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!; (NES - 1987) This game continually kicked my ass every time I played it, but as I continued to play, I could sense I was getting better... my timing getting better, my reflexes getting faster. I would start to take chances, finding those "stun" opportunities, etc. The music was catchy as hell and would stick in my head for days. The main thing with this game was that each victory, especially over the harder opponents, felt like a real victory, and you really felt those damn losses. Getting to Tyson and losing was heartbreaking, as it would take so much effort just getting the chance to fight him. But I'll say this -- finally beating Tyson was one of the best feelings in the world. I was jumping up and down, celebrating, just pure ecstasy. Games that can do that come few and far between.

4. Super Mario Bros.; (NES - 1985) I actually had a Sega Master System before I had even heard of the NES (I was young). One year my grandma got me a NES and that Mario/Duck Hunt pack-in. My parents said I had to choose either the NES or the Master System, which I had about 5 games for already. I took the NES and never looked back. Super Mario Bros. was amazing. I still remember eagerly watching my dad hook up the system to the TV, and the image coming in, the colors wrong at first, then working. Blissful.

5. Ms. Pac-Man; (Arcade - 1981) I don't think there was ever an arcade I went to without playing this game at least once. It was never the game I went to play, but it was always the game I ended up playing.

6. The Oregon Trail; (Apple II - 1985) I could not wait to use the computer lab to play this game. It was an obsession. RIP Buttface, Dogbutt and all the rest who didn't quite make it out west.

7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; (Arcade - 1989) I was hugely, hugely into TMNT as a kid, collecting the action figures, watching the cartoon and dressing up as them for Halloween. This arcade game called to me every time with its attract mode, playing the theme song and the awesome building scroll from the sewers. Playing this with friends was the best, just way too much fun.

8. Super Dodge Ball; (NES - 1989) The different teams from all over, the power shots, the intensity of trying to time those bean throws. Playing this with a friend was ridiculously fun.

9. Final Fight; (Arcade - 1989) This was such a fun brawler, that I always wanted to play it. However, I remember being somewhat traumatized that Haggar was tied up with explosives... HE'S GONNA DIE IF I DON'T GET MORE QUARTERS IN THERE DAD, COME ON!!!

10. S.T.U.N. Runner; (Arcade - 1989) When I went to the arcade, there was no game I wanted to play as much as this one when it came out. The cabinet, with the bike and all, was awesome and really got you into the game, and it was freakin' 3D! It was pretty mindblowing. I feel like this was the precursor to F-Zero in a lot of ways, a series which I love above all other racing games today.
 
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