I stumbled across the Retro Gamer site for some client research and made a note to come back in my lunch break. Looking around the site gave waves of nostalgia about my old Amstrad CPC 464. I’ve downloaded the odd retro game in the past, but like most things nostalgic, the reality doesn’t match up to the memory. Still, the Retro Gamer site is a hive of info and reviews of old games we knew and loved.
I started scribbling down my all time top five 8-bit games. So, in no particular order:
- Barbarian – incredibly gratuitous and violent for its time (this was 1987 and head lopping wasn’t that common), but set the playability standard for the likes of Street Fighter to follow
- Elite – possibly the biggest game to processor power ratio ever seen. Absolutely massive space exploration and trading game
- Bard’s Tale – a fantasy RPG launched towards the end of the CPC’s peak, but absolutely absorbing and, like Elite, a huge game
- Lotus Esprit – an early free roaming car game where you drive around a city trying to break up a drugs ring without harming innocent bystanders
- Head Over Heals - isometric puzzle exploration game which was a massive success on all platforms
If I had to pick one of these as the best over, I’d vote for Elite, purely because of the technical accomplishment (although Bard’s Tale probably gets the “lost hours” award).
It’s interesting how you can age someone by their early gaming experiences; I grew up on 8-bit whereas my younger brother came from the Amiga Generation (top game: Kick Off, by a country mile).
Update: I was at the London Bloggers Meetup last night talking about games and suddenly remembered the awesome Gauntlet - sorry Head Over Heals, you’re bumped.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Not exactly 8-bit but Mig 29 on the Spectrum +2 (none of that +3 disk business here…) – superb AfterBurner rip off. Bestest oldschoolness ever.
I don’t remember Mig29, but AfterBurner was a classic.
I love how geeky you are Phil. Quality post mate.
I’ll take that as a compliment Paul ;-)
Got a fave 8-bit game to throw into the mix – I think you’re just about old enough, or were you an ST/Amiga boy?
I haven’t the faintest idea whether it’s an 8-bit game or not, but I used to enjoy a game of Frogger on the Commodore 64.
The Commodore 64 had a MOS 6510 processor which is 8 bit. :-)
Thanks for that Stav. My life is now complete.
;-)
Gauntlet was absolutely quality. There are a raft of other classics from the CPC 464 that I used to love as much as Gauntlet though, including Ikari Warriors, Dizzy, Paperboy, Bridge-It, Harrier Attack, Kickstart, Oh Mummy, Roland in the Caves…
The list is goes on and on, but if I had to pick the one game we spent most time playing it would probably be Dizzy. Which I hasten to add I don’t think we ever completed!