In the year 1981, young people called children would while away the tedium of living in 1981 by daring each other to run out in front of heavy traffic. It was a global phenomenon. Hundreds of bored feral kids were mown down by articulated lorries and racing cars during the infamous highway massacres of late '81.
At the same time in a bizarre coincidence, Japanese company Konami created a video game called Frogger, its basic principle similarly based on roadkill, but this time a frog was dodging the vehicles instead of a small child.
Your goal is to safely guide five frogs across the road and river so that they each in turn reach their lily pad homes. There are many obstacles along the way: if you're not too careful you could be flattened by a car, drowned in the river or eaten by a crocodile. So take it easy on the little froggies.
// Control keys
Use the arrow keys to move
Pause game – space key or P
Quit game – Q
Mute sound – M
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A very nice Japanese man with a very nice Japanese haircut called Tomohiro Nishikado once had the inspired idea to make a video game about shooting white goo at a rampaging invasion of wobbling blobs. And so, in 1978, Space Invaders was born.
It's a simple game with simple graphics, but it has one of the most vital assets for any computer game: gameplay. Modern games seem to forget this with their fancy "3D graphics" and "millions of dollars". These little white dots are all you need.
The more aliens you shoot, the faster the remaining aliens move. If they get too close, it's game over — so shoot quick. And watch out for that flying saucer...
// Control keys
Move left – left arrow key
Move right – right arrow key
Fire laser – space key
Pause game – P
Quit game – Q
Mute sound – M
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Here's a fantastic idea for a brand new computer game called Pac-Man. Firstly, there's this yellow, pizza-shaped blob (with a mouth) which has to roam round a maze swallowing little pills. Meanwhile, four ghosts (named Blinky, Pinky, Inkey, and of course, Clyde) are chasing you as you listen to a high-pitched wailing noise.
I'm not insinuating the creators were off their nuts when they came up with the concept, but I wonder if there's some hidden meaning. The more pills you eat, the higher you get (no pun intended) where the ghosts become more meddlesome and the bonus fruit more exotic. It's barmy but I love it.
// Control keys
Use the arrow keys to move
Pause game – P
Quit game – Q
Lower quality – L
Mute sound – M
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Let me take you on a journey. It's a short journey, I know you haven't got all day. A journey to a world where lines ruled...
The year was 1979, and computers could only be made to draw two things: one was a line, and the other was also a line. With clever arrangement, both these lines could be transformed into spaceships and big rocks and flying saucers and even more lines. And so, thanks to the line pioneers at Atari, we were blessed with the line-tastic Asteroids.
Your spaceship floats in space and you have to destroy all the asteroids, but the more you shoot the more you create. Watch out for the UFOs which can shoot back, and be careful: you only have one ship for every 10,000 points scored.
// Control keys
Use the arrow keys to move
Fire missile – space key
Hyperspace – ctrl or shift key
Pause game – P
Quit game – Q
Mute sound – M
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