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1976
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280-ZZZAP
Arcade version from 1976
★★★★★★★★★★
280-ZZZAP is a simple racing game similar to Night Driver. Try to get a high score by driving as fast as possible on a randomized track until time runs out. The car has two gears, and steering gets much harder at top speeds. Crashing into the side of the road will reset the car, but there are no obstacles or other vehicles to worry about.
Most settings allow the time limit to be extended once by reaching a certain score before it runs out. The rating given when the game is over is not only based on the score but also on the amount of crashes.
Although 280-ZZZAP isn't a bad game, it's just too basic to be entertaining for long, but it was fun enough until I got the highest rating.
Title Screen  Game Start  Gameplay  |
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Adventure
PC version with 350 points from 1987
★★★★★★★★★★
The adventure genre is named after Adventure. The first of its kind is a purely text-based affair with a simple two-word parser. The game is also known as Colossal Cave Adventure, an apt title since the goal is to find all the treasures hidden in a vast cave. Exploring it is not the only challenge as a variety of puzzles need to be solved along the way.
Navigating the gameworld can be difficult because its locations often don't connect in a linear fashion, making mapping essential. In rare cases, the description doesn't include every possible movement option, and none are provided in the mazes. To not miss a potentially important place, all eight directions as well as up and down have to be tried in every single location. This process is extremely tedious and not my idea of fun. The two mazes are especially bothersome.
The limited inventory space isn't much of a problem since there aren't too many items in the game. The dwarves that can be encountered in most areas of the cave add a bit of action along with a small chance to die, but they distract from the experience rather than enhance it.
I managed to collect most of the treasures before I got stuck. With more experience, I might have solved a few more puzzles, but I never would have figured out how to get the pyramid or what to do in the last room. The final part of the game is bizarre, especially the ending.
I became really irritated when I saw that I didn't get the highest score even though I had done everything correctly and I would have to do it all over again to get the full amount of points. It didn't help that restoring a game saved inside the cave always put me into the pirate's maze, but only saving in the building was still better than not being able to save at all.
I didn't find anything on the internet about the points that were mysteriously missing so I had to get to the bottom of it myself. I could barely believe it when I discovered that the version I played deducts five points for requesting the instructions at the start of the game. It made me want to rate it even lower, but I later felt it wasn't warranted.
Adventure deserves its place in the history of video games for introducing a new genre, but I don't consider it a good game. Although I like the concept, I found the gameplay too annoying to be enjoyable. The writing isn't bad, but the quirky setting doesn't appeal to me, and there's almost no story.
Startup Screen  Introduction  Help  |
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Amazing Maze
Arcade version from 1976
★★★★★★★★★★
Amazing Maze is a competitive maze game. The player starts at the exit on the right side, and the AI or a second player starts at the other exit on the left side. The first to leave the maze through the exit on their opponent's side wins the match. Before a match begins, there is a short amount of time to study the random layout of the maze, and the correct path is shown when it ends. The movement speed of the AI increases a little each time it loses.
Amazing Maze is an amazingly simplistic game that offers very little and just isn't fun.
Title Screen  New Game  Maze 1  |
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Bigfoot Bonkers
Arcade version from 1976
★★★★★★★★★★
Bigfoot Bonkers is a Light Cycle game. Two competitors leave behind a solid trail as they automatically move forward one step at a time, the players only controlling their direction. Crashing into the wall at the edge of the screen, a trail, or one of the three randomly placed big feet ends the match and awards the other player a point. The game is over once a player reaches the score required to win.
Bigfoot Bonkers is bare-bones, which I found rather off-putting, and the gameplay doesn't appeal to me either. I didn't really get any enjoyment out of it.
New Game  Match 1  Match 1  |
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Breakout
Arcade version from 1976
★★★★★★★★★★
Breakout is basically Pong with its playfield rotated by ninety degrees and the player on top replaced by eight rows of bricks. The paddle is used to prevent the ball in play from falling through the bottom of the screen. It bounces off everything else, and a brick is removed after it has been hit by it. It's possible to clear up to two screens.
The wall of bricks is divided into four sections of different colors, each one consisting of two rows. The higher a section, the more points are scored for destroying a brick of that color. The ball speeds up twice after certain amounts of bounces, and it also gets faster if it hits an orange or red brick. Should the ball hit the wall at the top, the paddle is reduced to half its size.
Breakout is a bit more interesting than Pong and its myriad clones, but the gameplay is still rather simple. Since there's no actual goal, I set one for myself and ended up playing for a much longer time than I had originally intended before I managed to reach it. It wasn't more than a moderately entertaining experience, though.
Startup Screen  Game Start  Ball 1  |
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Cops n' Robbers
Arcade version from 1976
★★★★★★★★★★
Cops n' Robbers is an action game for up to four players. Each player controls a car, which is confined to its lane. The two cars on the left belong to the police and the other two on the right belong to the robbers. In a single-player game, the AI controls both police cars. Beer trucks drive in the middle of the large street that separates them and can be used as cover while the players try to shoot one another for a certain amount of time.
The cars move up and down at the same speed. The angle of the rifle can be adjusted, but each side can only have two bullets on the screen at a time. One hit will remove a car from the road, but it can be respawned without limits after a short time, though it can be hit again right after.
Cops n' Robbers might be more fun in multiplayer, but as a single-player game it's decidedly underwhelming.
Startup Screen  New Game  Instructions  |
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Night Driver
Arcade version from 1976
★★★★★★★★★★
Night Driver is a simple racing game with three tracks of varying difficulty to choose from. The only goal is to drive as fast as possible during the allotted time. The top speed is recorded in addition to the high score, and the numbers for the novice track are kept separate. The car has four gears, which are easily managed. There are no other vehicles or anything else on the road, and the only challenge is to stay on it at high speeds.
Night Driver is too limited to be fun for long. The tracks get repetitive after a while, and I didn't really like the feel of the gameplay.
Startup Screen  Novice Track  Novice Track  |
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Notes
| ⁃ The first RPGs were developed on the PLATO mainframe, but the very first one from 1974 was apparently deleted in short order. The others fail to meet my requirements because they're only available on cyber1, but I don't feel like I'm missing out on much since the CRPG Addict has covered them quite extensively.
⁃ The Dungeon (pedit5), The Game of Dungeons (dnd), Moria, and Orthanc were all available in 1975. They seem to be among the most complex games created up to that point, but also the most grindy. I dislike excessively repetitive gameplay, but I always thought it was more of a modern nuisance mostly attributable to MMOs. As it turns out, it has been a part of the genre from its very beginning. Even more surprising, Moria is basically the predecessor of MMORPGs, so that kind of gameplay has also been there from the start. |
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