BACK TO THE 80S

ALTHOUGH IT STARTED IN THE SEVENTIES, GAMING TRULY EXPLODED IN THE EIGHTIES AND IN DOING SO, IT DELIVERED SOME OF OUR BEST GAMING MEMORIES, FROM BUDGET TITLES TO MAGAZINES CRAMMED WITH THE LATEST REVIEWS. HERE, ICONOCLASTS FROM THE PERIOD EXPLAIN WHY IT W

Everyone has their favourite period for gaming, whether it’s the embryonic stages of the Seventies, or the three-generation span of the Nineties that saw 8-bit systems dying while 32-bit consoles kicked off the 3D revolution. For many of our readers, we’re guessing the Eighties was their favourite period for gaming, and in all honesty it’s not hard to understand why.

While there were great games and hardware around in the Seventies, everything exploded in the following decade and the wealth of choice was truly staggering. Home computers largely dominated this period, building on the foundations that had been started in the previous decade by companies like Apple, Atari and Commodore. As home micros became more affordable in the Eighties and highlighted the strengths of videogames, computer magazines became prolific and many focused more on games, delivering type-ins you could try out, and later supplying cover tapes with independent and commercial games on them.

This influx of home computers naturally led to youngsters wanting to push the limits of what was possible, and as a result bedroom coders began to appear. John Romero and Jordan Mechner were just a few of the coders tinkering away in the US, primarily on Apples and Ataris, while various Sinclair, Amstrad and Commodore systems paved the way for the likes of David Perry, the Oliver twins and Jeff Minter in the UK.

The Eighties was also a period when the gaming industry began to ‘grow up’. While big companies like Apple, Activision, Commodore and

Atari certainly existed in the Seventies, more and more publishers appeared in the following decade. Ordering games by mail order was still possible, but it was becoming increasingly easier to find games in shops and even your local newsagent.

While a multitude of computers were released in the Eighties, let’s not forget the consoles of the period. Atari was a prevailing force with various systems from the 5200 to the Lynx debuting in the decade, and while the US console crash affected the industry, the Atari name remained synonymous with gaming for most of the Eighties, and it was only matched by Nintendo after the Japanese giant began to dominate the US post-crash. Sega’s Master System fared better in Europe, and by the latter half of the decade it was obvious that consoles were on the rise, although many of those 8-bit systems struggled to take the shine off the 16-bit computers that began appearing during the mid-eighties.

As the decade continued, genres began to evolve, or even appear, while arcades continued to lead the hardware charge that had first began in the Seventies. Developers began to think outside the spaceship and vehicle avatars that had become so popular in the previous decade, and actual characters began to appear, some of which are now the most recognisable stars in the world. The following pages will highlight the above, and many other aspects of the decade which made the gaming scene so much fun to be a part of. We hope you enjoy the ride.