I played a metric ton of games in the 80s, mostly because back then I was a punk kid who pirated everything on C64/Amiga.
Things I remember fondly on C64:
H.E.R.O.
Impossible Mission
Summer Games/Winter Games/etc
Ultima 2 (My first game I played on C64)
Law of the West
Mail Order Monsters
Amazon (text/static graphic adventure game)
The Heist
Boulder Dash
Archon 1/2
M.U.L.E.
Bruce Lee
There was some Amiga stuff at the end of the 80s, but I can’t remember what was before/after 1990 so I’ll skip that list.
You could probably just copypasta a massive listing of games published between 1980-1990 and find that a great majority here played a great majority of them.
Just rifling through the posts quickly I already notice many oldies goldies I used to enjoy in my early years.
Bard’s Tale
Karateka
Pool of Radiance
Mail Order Monsters
Crescent Hawk’s Inception
And let’s not forget the Ghostbusters game where you bought a car and drove around and trapped ghosts and dropped ghost bait and when the theme song played as a series of shitty “Beep-boops” you could press the space bar and it would say “GHOSTBUSTERS” in a simulated voice that made Stephen Hawking say, “That’s some unintelligible shit,” and it was FUCKING AWESOME because Ghostbusters.
I turned 10 in 1980 (and therefore 20 in 1990), so that decade was the golden age of gaming for me.
Too many Odessey 2, Intellivision and Atari 2600 games to count for starters.
Limiting it to just computer games…
Atari 800/800XL/130XE Favorites
Ultima I-IV
Autoduel (such a cool game for the time)
Seven Cities of Gold (Dan Bunton was awesome, and still a guy!)
Return of Heracles and Ali Baba (Stuart Smith - also awesome, also a guy)
Rescue on Fractalus (the pirated version, because I was that cool)
Temple of Apshai (and it’s sequals)
M.U.L.E. (multiplayer with friends, so much fun)
Micro League Baseball (my friends and I played the crap out of this until…)
…Hardball (probably the most amazing baseball game at that time)
Any Infocom Title, but Hitchhiker’s Guide was my favorite
Boulder Dash and Lode Runner (sidescrolling fun)
Karateka
Elite and Universe (awesome early space trading/exploration games)
Star Fleet I (space combat!)
but my all time favorite 8-bit Atari games were the Alternate Reality games (City and Dungeon). Originally meant to be a series of as many as seven games, Alternate Reality featured graphics, music sound unlike anything previously produced on the 8-bit Atari computers. It also had the trappings of open world sandbox games long before those were even considered a genre. It was like playing an 8-bit prototype Elder Scrolls game. Alas Philip Price went back to military contracting programming work (had to pay the bills living in Hawaii I suppose) and never finished the series.
PC Games
I didn’t get a PC for gaming until around 1989, the same year I got a Nintendo NES (both at college). Thus my pre-1990’s PC gaming consited of mostly older SSI titles and RPGs I’d missed having been an Atari nerd for years previously.
Phantasie series (I loved those games, would be cool to see remakes)
Heroes of the Lance/Dragons of Flame/Pool of Radience/Hilsfar/Curse of Azure Bonds
Might and Magic I & II
Magic Candle I
Ultima V (was that in the late 80’s?)
probably a few more I’m forgetting. I do recall rebuying a lot of stuff for PC that I once had for Atari, like Seven Cities of Gold and Ultima IV.
Except for Infocom that is, I played Trinity for a long time, trying to work my way through it.
Bard’s Tale also took up an entire summer for me.
Superstar Ice Hockey by Mindscape was my favorite sports game of all time. You were the owner/manager/player, could run your team for years, and it had a player trading system and everything.
Dr. J and Larry Bird Go One on One was my go to sports game when I just wanted some quick action.
Gunship was my favorite combat flight simulator and I loved to fly the SR71 in Chuck Yeager’s advanced flight trainer and do some crazy move that would rip the wings off.
Airborne Ranger- completely awesome tactical/action gaming.
Archon- I played a lot of this, because I was into chess around that time and this variation was pretty cool imo.
Empire: Wargame of the Century- my wargame of choice.
Hacker II: The Doomsday Papers- this game was addictive, although I struggled with it.
Mail Order Monsters- I’d love a remake of this
M.U.L.E.- what more needs be said?
edit: I had an Atari 5200, which is what I used for arcade games, like Miner 2049er which is probably my favorite arcade style game ever.
I knew a guy who had an Apple and I got to play that game a couple of times. I always wanted to get that game but as far as I know it never came out for the C-64.
That was a long time ago. Ill try and remember. For most of the 80s I had a TRS-80, near the end of the 80s I had an Amiga.
Trs-80:
Big 5 games: I think Cosmic Fighter was my favorite
Labyrinth, Asylum and Death maze 5000.
Star Fighter, Ghost hunter (I am not sure of the name though).
Lots of Scott Adams adventures.
Amiga: Too may to lost, but here are some memorable ones:
Lemmings
Obliterator
Arkanoid
Fairy Tale Adventure ( I loved this game and wish there were more, I did find a sequel on the PC many years later).
Flood
Turrican
Xenon I & II (bitmap brothers)
Most games by Psygnosis
Datastorm
Cinemaware titles such as Rocket Ranger and It came from the desert.
and a few other arcade / shoot-em-up games I can’t remember.
Had a ZX Spectrum and an Atari 2600.
My most played on the speccy was Jetset Willy, Exolon, Barbarian, Sentinel and The Hobbit.
On the Atari I remember a motorcycle game with jumps and ramps but can’t recall the name.
What a boost when I left school and started earning a wage, bought an Atari 520st and an Amiga 500 for the best of both worlds :D
Eternal Dagger was my last C-64 RPG and real game of the 80s. I went to college in 1986 and really didn’t play again until I got my first job out of college…at a gaming company!
Sierra
Microprose
Spacewar
Red Baron
Chopper Commando (unless I started with 2.0, which was 1990)
California Games (Epyx)
I know I’m missing some but it’s kind of frustrating because I can think of an absolute ton from about 1990-1991, and of course even more thereafter. But just 1990 alone was a banner year for shareware etc.
