Existing comment:
Commodore 64
Action: Jumpman
In the early 1980s, home consoles increased in popularity, and more people could enjoy the rapidly developing world of video games.
Jumpman stood apart from other games at the time with its fluid and realistic animation. The designers achieved this by creating a very simple, stick-figure for the main character.
By simplifying the character details, all of the processing power could be dedicated to the animation.
Jumpman appeared simple on the surface, but each level presented new challenges with objects and enemies that behaved in different and often surprising ways.
Each of the game's levels had a descriptive and intriguing name. Names such as "Look out below", "Mystery Maze", and, "Vampire", seen here, gave players a hint as to what they would discover and drew them further into the story.
Target: Attack of the Mutant Camels
Attack of the Mutant Camels was created by Jeff Minter, an eccentric British game designer, and was an underground hit for the Commodore 64. Jeff "Yak" Minter has an ongoing fascination for ruminants, such as llamas, sheep, and camels, and even the name of his company, Llamasoft, plays to this obsession.
Minter took elements for this surreal game from a classic scene in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
In the film, the Empire uses large, four-legged machines to attack the rebel base. Minter transformed these into giant mutant camels that the player must destroy, adding a personal and humorous element to the familiar Star Wars story.
Adventure: The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate
The Bard's Tale III established many conventions that would become standard for subsequent adventure and role playing games.
In the game, players traveled to different worlds, each signified by its own colorful artwork. The variety of detailed environments for players to explore set this game above other titles of the time. It was also one of the first games to include an automapping feature, in which a top-down abstract map was automatically updated as the player discovered more areas.
Music played a significant role, and included elements from contemporary popular culture, such as a song from the Monty Python film, The Quest for the Holy Grail.
Tactics: Pirates!
Sid Meier's Pirates! was a swashbuckling adventure with an historical twist. Players could travel to six different time periods, from the mid-sixteenth century to the end of the seventeenth century, to seek their fortunes.
Each time period offered different challenges that, combined with the open-ended world, presented players with a new experience each time they entered the game.
During game play, dialogue and illustrations popped up as separate windows. This allowed players to see multiple layers of the story at once, giving weight to their actions as the consequences played out step-by-step.
Pirates! was innovative in how much control it gave to the player, and also in the realistic and historically-accurate environment that it offered for exploration. |