Chewers 150 Best Video Games of the 70's and 80's

2. Star Wars Arcade (1983)

To this day, few games are as fully immersive as this classic.

3.  Spy Hunter (1983)  (Arcade console)

One of the best get-out-your-teenage-aggression games. The sit-down console version of this game owned my quarters.  Nothing was more thrilling that machine-gunning the bejesus out of those blue cars to the tinny sounds of the Peter Gunn theme.  There have been many fancier Shoot-n-Drive games since this one, but this remains my favorite.

4. Tron (Arcade game, 1982)

Based on the movie (duh), this game was introduced by Bally/Midway in 1982 and was named "Coin-Operated Game of the Year" by Electronic Games magazine. 

This game gave the player a lot of bang for their quarter or token because it was really four games in one: you had to throw your disc, ride a light-cycle, shoot Tetris-like blocks, and fight Battle Tanks.

6. GALAGA. I still can't resist playing it when I'm at a bowling alley or campground.

7. Black Tiger 1987

Featuring the world's most dextrous hero, able to wield a chain axe, climb a pole and throw triple daggers all at the same time!

Just a wonderful mash-up of every fantasy trope you can think of, all rolled into an addictively twitchy platformer.

8) Double Dragon II: The revenge (1989 Japan, 1990 USA/EURO), Nes

One of the first cases of a home console version being superior to the original arcade game; the gameplay experience was enhanced through the roof with the addition of a mode were your attacks could hurt your partner and even granted you lives for killing him, thus destroying many a friendship/brotherhood; it also probably holds the dubious honor of including plattaforming elements just to piss off players (fuck you forever, Mistery House level)...and that music!

9) A mind Forever Voyaging (1985), PC/Amiga/Mac

Probably the masterpiece of the Interactive Fiction genre, AMFV presented one of the most complex, vivid storylines in videogames and can still surpass most modern games with its scope and emotional/philosophical themes and reflexions; It may not be art, but it is as human as it gets.

10. The Legend Of Zelda (Nintendo 1986)

The "Led Zeppelin" of the first wave of Nintendo cartridge games. Even well into the 90s, Zelda was still fun as hell.

11. Wasteland (Commodore 64, Apple II)

If you've played any iteration of Fallout, you owe a debt of gratitude to this game.  Although on the surface it appeared to simply be a Bard's Tale-style RPG with a fresh coat of Mad Max-colored paint over it, Wasteland offered a compelling story with some of the most interesting and entertaining quests PC gaming at the time had to offer.  I particularly remember a vivid sequence that took place inside the head of a robot you discovered in an abandoned lab, a truly surreal experience that felt both disturbingly out of place and totally a part of the game.  My friend got his copy on Friday afternoon, and by Sunday morning, playing non-stop in shifts on two computers, we nearly had the damn thing beat.  You don't get much more absorbing than that.  And where else could you explode enemies like blood sausage and reduce them to thin red paste?

12. Super Mario Bros/VS Super Mario Bros (1985), NES/Arcade

The reason most of us bought an NES to begin with.  I was an avid arcade gamer and thought that I was a pretty good game player.  I was familiar with Mario from Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr and even the original Mario Bros.  I thought I understood Super Mario Bros when I saw it in the arcade, but I had a good friend who was a more artistic thinker than myself.  I watched him play, watched him blow through the borders of the game and find hidden routes that my brain couldn't comprehend.  I watched him go to the negative world.

I literally got to a point that I would rather watch my friend play to see what he could find than to play the game myself.  This is the kind of thing that wouldn't work now, the internet sucks the magic out of game secrets before they really even exist.  At the time it was absolutely mind blowing and was the true start to Mario as a franchise.

Super Mario Bros. (NES/Famicom 1985)


Up there with Wii Sports as the smartest pack-in game for a console ever. This sucker even brought gaming back from the (partially caused by E.T. on the 2600)great video game crash of '83. I'll never forget getting my NES as a kid and being completely blown away by this game*(on the same cartridge as Duck Hunt. TWO games on one cart? HOLY SHIT). I'd never played a platformer this precise, this fun. It still holds up as a completely classic design. And oh man, that music. I bet most everyone here can hum the music from EVERY STAGE.

Nintendo wasn't exactly an unknown before SMB, but this cemented their legacy as the king of the early platformer.

*was I the only person who would swing their arms while making jumps in the early days of this game? As if it would somehow help?

Crap. The server maintenance or whatever screwed a few of us up I think. Oh well, the more the merrier haha.

I was going to go with Mario 3 but saw the release date was 1990 in the US, which for some reason I can't believe(2 years after Japan seems crazy). Still the best Mario in my book.


NEVER FORGET

15. Mega Man 2 (1988)

Capcom has spent the better part of 25 years trying to make a game in this series as amazing as this again, coming close a few times, but never hitting the sweet spot. It's a perfectly designed game, challenging without being impossible, balanced so that the rock/paper/bubble launcher gameplay can be usurped with just enough skill and luck, a wild, insane variety of traps and enemies.

And the soundtrack. Oh man, the soundtrack....

Quote:

Originally Posted by dynamotv 

EDIT: Get out of my head Art Decade!

I would but it's full of naked ladies in here!

17. After Burner (Arcade 1987)

In the wake of Top Gun's success in 1986, a number of flight simulator games were released. Thanks to it's state of the art, super-smooth graphics & realistic flying mechanics, After Burner crushed them all.

18. Mike Tyson's Punch Out (1987), NES

Essentially a straight port of the arcade game from a couple of years earlier, but with the added bonus of replacing "Super Macho Man" your final opponent with Mike Tyson at the peak of his career.  It was really a well disguised rhythm and puzzle game rather than an actual boxing game, but it didn't matter.  As aggravating as it was when Piston Honda would do his uppercut that would knock you down instantly, or when Bald Bull would unleash his fury that made you feel helpless, it was equally invigorating when you discovered the counter to each of those moves and finally got the timing down.

All of the fights had a degree of forgiveness in them where you could blow the timing but still recover.  Until the last fight.  This is the reason the console port wins out over the arcade.  I got to Super Macho Man in the arcade and it felt impossible.  I got to Mike Tyson at home and tortured myself trying to figure out the counter to each move, and then tortured myself trying to perfect the timing, but then I did it.  Such a great feeling when I finally beat that game, and an added bonus to be able to brag to your friends that you beat Tyson.

Justin picked the correct Mega Man.

19. Ms. Pac-Man (Arcade 1981)

New stages! Better cinemas! Bouncing fruit! A bow!

HOT.

#20 (NUMBER 20 AND NO-ONE HAS MENTIONED IT!!!!)

Elite (1984).  Multi-platform

Jesus.  I can't believe we got to number 20 before it got mentioned.

Still quite possibly my best game ever, yes it hit the sweet spot, yes there was nothing like it before, yes I was 11 and a complete geek so completely primed for it, but I still think it would stand up today. 

,

21. Karateka (PC 1984)

In 1984, this simple kung-fu actioner blew my mind.

Not the best. Not the worst. Just the first.

22. Joust (1982)

My alltime favorite Atari game

One or two players uses a button and joystick to control knights riding flying ostrichs. The object is to progress through levels by defeating groups of enemy knights riding buzzards. Great gameplay.

23. 720 (now imagine there's a little degree symbol at the end there) (1986), Arcade

SKATE OR DIE!

God bless Atari and how great their arcade games were.  There's a ton I'd pick but this one always had a special place in my heart.  It had it's own special joystick (back before we wanted all games to feel the same) that pivoted around 360 degrees for your tricks.  The entire game was nothing but a panicked race against the clock.

I have to do a bunch of tricks around town and stick the landing for points to buy tickets!  Now I have to use my ticket to enter one of the skate events!  Now I have to do well in the skate event to increase my timer!  Now I have to OHMYGODTHEBEESARECOMING.

I had games where I did fantastic and played for a long time on a quarter.  I had games where I couldn't stick a trick and bees ate me before I'd played 3 minutes.  I always had fun.

25. SimCity (1989)

I'd never seen anything like this when I played it for the first time. It struck a chord with me, big time. The ability to create and entire bustling metropolis at my fingertips! THE POWER TO DESTROY IT MWAHAHAAHAAAHAHAHA!!! It drove me mad with power.

My friend had this on his Mac. Back when they had teeny black and white screens, and these dazzling graphics:


I stayed at his house one weekend and I don't think I even pried myself away from the computer to eat. Ever since I've been hooked on games with level editors, and to a lesser extent, other god games. Even SimAnt was fun.

26.  Dragon's Lair (1983)  (Arcade)

Game-changer.  It seems so quaint now, but if you were around in the arcade scene back in 1983, this game was an atom bomb to pixel-graphic, side-scrolling landscape.    It was also the first game that cost a then-outrageous 50 cents!   

I read Dragon's Lair is coming out on LIVE soon. It's been on DVD for years as a remote game, but still, I'm sure that will make someone happy. I wonder if the original animation was ever high resolution, that's could make it worth an upgrade.
That game tricked millions of kids into thinking those were game graphics. I know I almost shit my kidpants the first time I saw it. I was really into those Choose Your Own Adventure books back then, and it reminded me of them even though it wasn't quite the same.

Going back up the page, I think my fondest game memories other than my choices were with the Gauntlet and Gauntlet II cabinets. So much fun with 4 players. I can picture everyone running from Death and someone getting trapped with him(the Warrior, of course). Then he'd screw you over later by shooting the food out from under you. they don't make 'em like that anymore.

28. Combat (Atari 2600, 1982)

If the Atari 2600 were the Old Testament, Combat would be it's Ten Commandments.

30 - The Dizzy series, specifically Treasure Island Dizzy (1987)

honestly, I could fill this list with Speccy games, all the while thinking "they don;t make them like they used to"

I got seriously hooked oo this game.  The first one I can remember where you put disparate elements together to get a result (as used to great effect later in the Lucasarts games like Monkey Island).  Great platformer, great puzzler.  NO SAVES so you either had to keep your speccy on constantly, or just work through the shit you'd worked pout before really quickly on next load.

#31 Knight LOre ('84)

the first "perspective" game I can remember.  I never liked Sabre Wulf (the first, "2D" one) but this game kicked my ass.

The "only being able to do certain things while a man, and other things as a wolf" was a cock.  Go and grab loads of stuff, get ready and then the fucking moon would come up, you'd turn into a wolf and all the doors would slam shut on you, or some shit.  Unbelievably addictive.

Again, no save.  Things were tough back in the day.

Ninja Gaiden is great, it's a shame it's so incredibly cheap with the crazy respawning enemies and insane jumps.

#32 Jet Set Willy ('84 - seems to have been a bit of a banner year)

Ummed and ahhed a long time about this vs Manic Miner.

But chose this.  Although Manic Miner was first, and I lost a LOT of my life to it, this is the one that caused me to "POKE" my speccy for the first time, the first that had some vague attempt at anti-piracy and the first I felt was unbelievably massive.

POKEing was stopping the load at a certain point, entering a bunch of "pokes" and then carrying on the load.  This was used for legitimate reasons (to debug the Attic Room being the best) but also, infinite lives, mega jump etc etc.  Never finished it, but I did poke it so that it finished when he got the first object (and then sprinted for the khazi to vomit - nice).

33.  Herzog Zwei (Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, 1989)

Pretty much single-handedly invented the Real-Time Strategy genre.  This explains it better than I can, being that I'm lazy:

http://www.1up.com/features/essential-50-herzog-zwei

34. Contra (NES 1987)

Hey, remember that movie where Arnold & Stallone fight a Xenomorph? No? Well, Konami made a video game out of it anyway.

(see below)

Quote:

Originally Posted by dynamotv 

16. Donkey Kong:   The first game appearance by Mario although he was known as "Jump Man" at the time.   Primitive by today's standards, it's still a blast to play and the level design is flawless.   A true classic....

 

 

The Atari 2600 version.   This is what we had to settle for back in the day with arcade ports.

 

 

I've been to a few places where they had an arcade machine set up with all the old games, and without fail I will sit there and play Donkey Kong for hours. It's so crazy difficult, every stage that you beat feels like such a huge accomplishment.

35. NetHack (1987)

Perhaps a bit of a cheat, since it was in continuous development for 15 years after originally being introduced, but certainly worthy of inclusion. You can search far and wide, but you're probably never going to find a game with the depth of gameplay or replayability of NetHack (not to mention degree of difficulty). After all, in what other game can you throw a cream pie at a troll, or die because you accidentally fell downstairs while holding a cockatrice corpse. It's a completely unforgiving game where the smallest mistake can ruin you just when you thought you were invincible. Of course, that only makes winning it that much more satisfying, and the multitude of play styles and little easter eggs will keep you coming back time and again. Graphically simple, yet one of the most engrossing gaming experiences you can find.

Do you want your possessions identified?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

34. Contra (NES 1987)

 

Hey, remember that movie where Arnold & Stallone fight a Xenomorph? No? Well, Konami made a video game out of it anyway.

This game! So hard with out the Konami Code. I loved it so, but never beat it.

36.  Dungeon Explorer (1989)

Yeah, I was one of those weirdos with a TurboGrafx 16.

Pretty much a mash-up of Zelda and Gauntlet and a fairly deep game for its time.  Kinda obscure, but everyone that I know that has ever played it has fond memories of it.

EDIT: Forgot to put the year in there.

#37 - Operation Wolf (1987)

Light gun!  I sank every 10p I had into this sucker on one family holiday to Blackpool.

#38 Shadow of the Beast (1989)

I remember seeing this and thinking "the graphics are AMAZING" and then playing it and thinking "this is IMPOSSIBLE".

Fuck it was hard, I don't think I got beyond the third level.  There was no pattern to anything - spikes would jump up at you randomly, eyes would expand out of nothing.

It was, however, my first introduction to really mint graphics.

Oops, I forgot to number my entry... rather than everyone editing I'll just move mine down here to #39:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bailey 

 

As much as I liked RBI Baseball as a kid, this game blew it away in terms of gameplay, the ability to create a team, customize and even upgrade players, follow your stats, etc.  I can still play it today, and in fact I did not too long ago (I just had to blow on the cartridge and then use a tape cassette case to hold it down.)