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What, In Your Opinion, Is the Best Computer Game of the 1980s?


bluejay

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During the 80s, humanity has created loads of wonderful games that still holds up pretty well even today There were horrible ones as well, of course, but that's not the point). If you were to pick your favorite computer(not consoles!) game of the decade, regardless of the genre, what would you pick? I'd say Dungeons of Daggorath for the TRS-80 Color Computer series. Found out about it, played it, fel in love with it, got addicted to it. I mean, a 3D action game of that size from 1982 that runs on a computer with 16k of RAM(I know it's on a cartridge but still)? I know the cassette load/save system is tedious and unreliable, and the game has crude vector-ish graphics, but still, it's absolutely amazing they pulled it off! It has replay value since you can try different tactics to beat the game and explore different areas, and it's not impossible without a walkthrough like Zork. It's actually a fun and addicting game that you can actually play, that's long and complicated, and one you can explore and try different things and have fun. If it was released on a more mainstream system, I think everyone would know its name. Anyways, rant over. What's your favorite?

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Wow, 10 years is a long time.  Especially THAT 10 years.  My first answer has to be Sid Meier's Pirates! on various computers, but I first discovered it on the C64.

 

An answer you might not be expecting is Zelda which was the first game released for the Famicom disk system in Japan.  Of course it is known as a console game elsewhere so a bit outside the intent of your question.

 

And of course, I'll respect my current avatar by also offering The Bard's Tale as a third option.

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13 minutes ago, wongojack said:

Wow, 10 years is a long time.  Especially THAT 10 years.

That's what makes it hard to decide. I love a lot of MS-DOS games like Civilization and SimCity, and C64 games like Impossible Mission. But DoD beats 'em all IMO.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I was thinking about this thread and the votes for Star Raiders.  I wanted to toss in a vote for Wing Commander as a sort of spiritual successor, but it came out in 1990 - LOL.  

 

There were a lot of good "cockpit" games in the 80s though that's for sure.  I might give a nod to Lucasfilm Games' trilogy of World War II flight simulations: Battlehawks 1942 and Their Finest Hour.  Those both came out in the 80s while the 3rd game, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, released in 1991.

 

 

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Geez, I don't even know how to start picking one from the 80s, there were so many incredible games in so many genres.  I'd probably go with Stuart Smith's Adventure Construction Set - it was pretty ground breaking, and had so much potential. The actual gameplay and adventures weren't all that, though.  Maybe Interstel's Empire?   It's been such a long time since I've played it, though, I'm not sure how well it would up and may have been eclipsed by later strategy titles.  Populous was 1989, but that's another one I haven't played in so long it may not holdup as well as I remember.  7 Cities of GoldRacing Destruction SetLoad RunnerPool of Radiance?   I could probably list 50 runner ups I could make a case for.  If I had to pick one decade's worth of games to play forevermore, and nothing else, it'd be the 80s.

 

Civ came out in 1991.

As was mentioned, Star Raiders first came out in 1979.

 

[Edit] - I suggested some arcade/console games but removed them to focus on computer games.

Edited by BydoEmpire
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13 hours ago, BydoEmpire said:

I'd probably go with Stuart Smith's Adventure Construction Set - it was pretty ground breaking, and had so much potential. The actual gameplay and adventures weren't all that, though.

I wanted this game so bad, but they ported it to everything except Atari systems!   I had to settle for Spinnaker's "Adventure Creator", which was basically the kiddie version of this.

 

13 hours ago, BydoEmpire said:

Populous was 1989, but that's another one I haven't played in so long it may not holdup as well as I remember. 

I think it holds up pretty well, actually.

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14 hours ago, BydoEmpire said:

 Populous was 1989, but that's another one I haven't played in so long it may not holdup as well as I remember. 

 

1 hour ago, zzip said:

I think it holds up pretty well, actually.

 

Maybe it does, but if you were to pick it over Sim City (1989), you'd be making a bold statement.  I know they aren't the same game, but . . .

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35 minutes ago, wongojack said:

 

 

Maybe it does, but if you were to pick it over Sim City (1989), you'd be making a bold statement.  I know they aren't the same game, but . . .

I actually would pick it over Sim City.   If I wanted to play a city sim, I'd go with a modern one like Cities Skylines.   I don't think the 1989 one holds up so well.

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If we count 1990 (technically it's part of the 80s), I'd say The Secret of Monkey Island.

 

If not (as it's generally accepted), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (the adventure game).

 

As I said on the "Choose the best and worst game you've ever played" thread, there's a very cool 1h15min retrospective video in Youtube about both games, Lucasarts and adventure games in general.

Edited by IntelliMission
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On 3/3/2020 at 9:46 AM, Goochman said:

Ultima IV

Yep, for me it would probably have to be Ultima IV as well.

RPGs were my favorite games, and I always liked the Ultima series.  (As well as Bard's Tale, Wizardry, and others)

But something about Ultima IV really pulled me in in a way that others hadn't...

Edited by desiv
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  • 3 weeks later...

I have to say SimCity.  It was the only game I imported from Europe for my Atari ST.  It was the only game I bought three times (ST, Amiga and IBM-PC).  It was that good.

 

Populous was amazing.  Star Raiders sold me on the Atari 400 and Kings Quest sold me on the Atari ST.  But I think I put more hours into SimCity than any other game in that decade.  Other runners up were Empire (bought that on my Amiga and then on the ST), Rogue and Shanghai.

 

But the 90's were dominated by Civilization.  And the 00's.  And the 10's.  On track for the 20's.  Dammit, Sid Meier!

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