I may find myself journeying back in time to play a stray game that I’ve missed from the year but I am now officially closing the books on 1980. I played over 85 games that were published this year for home computers. It was an exciting time in an industry that was much like the wild west. You had individuals quitting their regular jobs to become programmers and game developers and you had individuals and companies working out of their garage. Many games in 1980 were still sold in a Ziploc bag with typewritten instructions.
It was a period where games like Ultima and Wizardry had not yet set industry standards and so it was an age of experimentation. Developers were groping around in the dark as they presented odd iterations in the quest to simulate the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing experience that was taking the world by storm.
It is this very reason that made it such a pleasure and a treat to play each of these games first hand. Loading each of these games for the very first time was like opening up a mystery box – you just didn’t know what to expect or what you were going to get. It was a year of undiscovered gems and in many of these games what worked really well would be emulated by other companies going forward. One encountered some extremely unique games in this era that were some real treats to experience.
So who walks away with the coveted Retrogamestrove.com Game of the Year for 1980?
In the computer role-playing category I am giving the 1980 Game of the Year award to Rogue. You can read my original review of Rogue that was published December 24th, 2020. Though Beneath Apple Manor predates it (1978 Retrogamestrove.com Game of the Year winner), Rogue, which is ASCII based, is considered the forerunner and the namesake of what would become a new subgenre. Roguelike would go on to become a term that characterizes a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels.
These games were immensely popular with college students in the 1980s and 1990s and remain so even today. I found Rogue to be extremely addictive even by today’s standards and was constantly muttering; “Just one more try”. It’s influence is still felt today by the several variants that exist and are still being created today. It is for these reasons that I am awarding Rogue with the 1980 Game of the Year in it’s category. Thank you Michael Toy and Glen Wichman for creating such a fun and addicting game whose influences are still felt today.
In the interactive fiction category the Game of the Year award has to go to Zork I. You can read about my initial experience with Zork I here that I published February 18th, 2021. The sophisticated word parser of Zork I was able to understand adjectives, compound verbs, conjunctions, and prepositions. It is a marvel that in an Infocom game that you’re able to type in most anything and get a qualified response.
The intricate descriptions and puzzles compared to other text adventures was mind blowing at the time. The description lengths of each location made the world of Zork I seemingly come to life. I likened my experience with the game and it’s comparison to others that have come before it to the scene in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy leaves the cottage and steps into Oz for the very first time; a world suddenly depicted with vibrant colors. Playing Zork I was the same type of experience for me. Zork I would be the game that launched Infocom into what would become super stardom. The company ended up producing high quality interactive fiction throughout the roll of years. Blockbuster after blockbuster. Zork I was the shot across the bow to announce that “we have arrived”. Awarding Zork I the 1980 Game of the Year for the interactive fiction category was an easy and obvious decision.
Here is the Retrogamestrove.com Awards Page I will also place this link that can be accessed at anytime from our Home Page.
I wanted to take the time to make a few honorable mentions of other very interesting games that were published this same year. There are some individuals and company’s that created and published some extremely interesting and entertaining games that remain a bit underrated even today.
Med Systems would publish three different games in 1980 and I found all three of the games to be extremely entertaining and a “must play” for game historians. Reality Ends by William F. Denman Jr. presented a unique game format which I found to be highly enjoyable. Deathmaze 5000 written by Frank Corr Jr & William F. Denman Jr. may be the very first dungeon crawler that predates both Ultima I and Wizardry I that no one talks about. I found the objects and puzzles and mapping out of the maze to be highly enjoyable and difficult as well. This pair would also write and produce Labyrinth that would prove to be a challenge for those who love the old school chore of having to successfully map their dungeon levels. I was surprised to discover that I found all three of these games to be hidden gems for myself in 1980 and that all three originated from the same company as well.
Highlands Computer Services published Oldorf’s Revenge, The Tarturian, and Creature Venture in 1980. Oldorf’s Revenge and The Tarturian would introduce a very unique system in which you switch back and forth between character classes each possessing a very unique set of skills or spells. Each of these characters would be integral in solving a myriad variety of puzzles throughout the two games. It was an odd RPG hybrid that was eccentric enough to win me over. Both of the games were very challenging as well and worth the time that I put into them. Creature Venture is a wire-frame graphic adventure that is better than the few that have come before it in my humble opinion. It was well done and of higher quality than all of the Sierra games that have come before it.
We were also introduced to the extremely difficult Savage Island Part 1 in 1980 which would be the pinnacle of Adams’ illustrious career. He set out to make an extremely difficult text adventure and was certainly successful. The introduction of a randomization factor coordinated between the weather & the bear on the island completely turned the text adventure trope upside down. It was the first time in a game where it became a matter of attempting the same thing several times and expecting a different outcome; which in real life is the very definition of insanity.
All of the games that were given to us in 1980 provided for a very memorable year. The fact that industry standards for genres had not been set caused the creation of a lot of different hybrid games which created a unique experience. There was a sense of awe and mystery as I began each and every game from this era and what it did for me was really reinforce the enjoyment I’ve been getting from playing these games in the order in which they were published.