Favourite Game Candidates: Pre-NES Consoles 1

Initially my plan was to lump all the pre-NES consoles into one post. My thinking was that I'd almost certainly played more notable SNES games than all of these games combined so it might keep the post lengths at least comparable. And then this one post just kept getting bigger and bigger... Too big, in fact. So I'm splitting this one up. And when I get to the SNES, well, I'll probably have to make a bunch of different SNES game posts. We'll see!

I'm going to start with the two systems my family owned when I was a small child: Atari 2600 and Atari 600XL home computer!

Flower!

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - This game is frequently cited as one of the worst games of all time. A lot of the blame for the 1983 video game crash is placed squarely on this game. The heavy losses from this game sunk Atari as a company. The game went from design to production in 5 weeks and was done by one programmer! It sold 1.5 million copies which is an awful lot, but 3.5 million copies went unsold which is pretty ridiculous. Atari made several critical mistakes with this game and it cost them. Despite all that, I loved this game as a kid. I didn't know about any of that stuff. I didn't know that games could be so much better. I didn't know that levitating out of a pit only to fall right back in over and over was unacceptable. It was just the way the game worked and I had to deal with it if I wanted to make a flower grow and help ET phone home.

Realistic Wartime Violence!

River Raid - This game for the Atari 600XL was played a lot in my household. I don't recall personally liking it all that much but it was definitely a family favourite. Reading a bit about it now I'm amazed at the history here. This was the first shooter ever to scroll. It was also programmed by Carol Shaw who was apparently the first female video game designer. There was no end to this game. It just got harder and harder to collect enough fuel to stay alive. The goal was just to score as many points as you could. Interestingly the game apparently had a rating discouraging minors from playing it since it promoted violence. Your plane is shooting at a helicopter, after all!

I hate you, snake!

Q*bert - I don't even remember what system I played this on. Atari 600XL maybe? I liked this game a lot. Some of the levels the cubes would toggle between hit and un-hit so you had to make a plan to hit every cube an odd number of times. I remember having the Q*bert board game, too!

Bring it on, Terry!

Joust - I think we had this for the Atari 600XL. I remember having a lot of fun with this game as a kid. Bouncing along on that left-middle platform to rocket out the crack on the right side? Sweet! I think this game more than any other game showed how I approach games differently than other people. I can remember early on at University a time when Josh and Jer were really into playing Joust. I'd watch them play a bit and ask why they weren't killing the pterodactyl. They looked at me like I was insane. And everyone else around agreed with them! They thought he existed to encourage you to finish the levels faster and was to be avoided at all costs. I thought he was a challenge that needed to die. He was worth a lot of points! I can remember spending a lot of time as a kid getting good at killing him off for points. (Good here being relative of course since he'd often kill me... But I'd get him some of the time! At least I was brave enough to try!)

4 Player Arkanoid!

Warlords - I remember this game only because it used the paddle controllers. You got two paddles per controller port so you could play this with up to 4 players. Really the game itself is nothing special. The cool part is the early multitapesque set-up from the paddles.

How much for the flute?

Raiders of the Lost Ark - This game was my introduction to adventure style games. Having to pick up the right stuff at the right time and use it in the right spot. Figuring out to avoid the dud items. Properly timing when to use the parachute to slide under that stupid branch... This game was pretty sweet. And I beat it! Woo!

Uh, say what?

Yar's Revenge - I'll be honest here. I don't remember playing this game. I recognize the name and I know we had it. I vaguely recall my brother really liking this game. It was referenced in a lot of the articles I was reading about earlier games on this list, though. Apparently it was the highest selling Atari game. It was programmed by the same guy who did Raiders of the Lost Ark and ET! Apparently he spent 7 months on Yar's Revenge. 6 months on Raiders of the Lost Ark. And 5 weeks on ET. No wonder people think it's 'unpolished'!