15 Retro Video Games That Take You Back In Time

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15 Retro Video Games That Take You Back In Time
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Whether you’re 50 or 15, you likely have many treasured memories of video games. Since its emergence in the 1970s, the games industry has constantly evolved, producing a huge variety of gaming experiences that cater for every taste, from action adventures to role-playing games, shoot-’em-ups and strategy titles – meaning kids and adults across several generations can affectionately recall many an afternoon spent hunched around a TV screen, trying to work out how to beat that big boss or make it to the next stage. So let’s hop aboard the retro train and take a look back at 15 of the most beloved and influential video games of all time. Nostalgia engaged? Let’s go!

By Graeme Mason

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15 Retro Video Games That Take You Back In Time.
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Pong (Atari, 1972) – While computer games existed before Pong – possibly as far back as the 1940s when huge room-encompassing mainframes were exploited by bored scientists – it was this Atari game from 1972 that first brought the pixelated phenomenon of video games to the masses. Initially in arcades, and then with Atari’s own console and the multitude of clones that obliquely operated as sports simulations such as Tennis and Football, Pong remains one of the most recognisable video games of all time – as well as one of the simplest and most compulsive. It also marked the dawn of multiplayer, pitching two players against each other with its splendid cocktail-style cabinet.

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15 Retro Video Games That Take You Back In Time.
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Space Invaders (Taito, 1978) – The premise seems so obvious: an alien fleet is invading Earth and it’s up to the player, controlling a lone defending tank, to repel the would-be conquerors. As the incessant extraterrestrials slowly descend, a mind-numbing sound accompanies each movement, occasionally punctured by the shrill alarm of a passing flying saucer. Space Invaders’ then-unique mechanic is the aliens themselves, increasing in speed and ferocity as the player eliminates them. The first big arcade shoot-’em-up, the legacy of Taito’s game cannot be overstated – as witnessed by the sheer number of clones and imitators that appeared in the aftermath of its release.

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15 Retro Video Games That Take You Back In Time.
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Pac-Man (Namco, 1980) – The breakout success of Taito’s Space Invaders inevitably led to a slew of shooting games throughout the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. But one game stood apart, and in the process revolutionised the gender bias in arcades. Popular with arcade-goers of all genders, Pac-Man’s abstract dot-munching escapades also included the first cut scenes as the round hero turned from pursued to pursuer, reflecting the supremacy he acquires when gobbling a power pill. Partially inspired by an incomplete pizza, the central character’s quirkiness, along with the cute enemy ghosts, endeared a whole new audience – and at the same time, created the first gaming superstar.

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15 Retro Video Games That Take You Back In Time.
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Jet Set Willy (Software Projects, 1984) – While things were going pear-shaped for the US video game industry after the 1983 market crash, the UK computer games scene was going from strength to strength, with the popularity of rival micros the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 driving development of countless games. While actually a sequel – to 1983’s Manic Miner – Jet Set Willy is regarded by many as author Matthew Smith’s magnum opus, and few games represent the plucky Sinclair Spectrum computer as well as this multi-screen platform adventure. Each location of the mansion is deviously plotted, full of bizarre household elements and strange creatures, and – befitting its author’s working class origins – the aim is not to save the world but to clear up Willy’s home of party detritus so he can finally earn some well-deserved shut-eye. Not the first platform game, but one of the most influential.

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15 Retro Video Games That Take You Back In Time.
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The Oregon Trail (MECC, 1985) – Computers in the 1880s were often sold to suspicious parents on the grounds of being educational. Fortunately, games such as The Oregon Trail, a semi-simulation designed to teach children the grim reality of 19th-century pioneer life, actually mixed real historical lessons with asset management and simple arcade mini-games. The series began in the ‘70s as a text-based adventure, but it’s this Apple II version, complete with graphics, that became the most popular version in the mid-’80s. Packed in with many Apple II computers, the nostalgia for The Oregon Trail also stems from its common use in American schools, leading to a whole generation brought up on the perils of typhoid, rattlesnakes and the dreaded dysentery.

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15 Retro Video Games That Take You Back In Time.
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Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, 1985) – While not the first official Mario game – that honour goes to the 1983 arcade game, Mario Bros. – Super Mario Bros. was the game that brought the diminutive Italian plumber to the world at large. Released on the Nintendo Entertainment System, it introduced the fantasy setting that has served the series since, with Mario journeying across the Mushroom Kingdom in search of the kidnapped Princess Toadstool. Offering a smooth game design, brilliantly catchy tunes and a vibrant style, this is the game that helped Nintendo back into the big time while simultaneously instigating one of gaming’s most treasured series.

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15 Retro Video Games That Take You Back In Time.
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The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo, 1986 – RPGs have always had a fervent following, and The Legend of Zelda, again released on the Nintendo Entertainment System, has the biggest and most passionate fan base of them all. Starring a verdant hero known as Link, the plot is superficially similar to Super Mario Bros., featuring a princess kidnapped by an evil force that threatens the peace of Link’s homeland. Throughout its mix of action, adventure and role-playing, The Legend of Zelda draws the player into its memorable world and, together with the Mario adventure, helped cement Nintendo’s position as the premier video game company of the late ’80s and early ’90s.

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15 Retro Video Games That Take You Back In Time.
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Tetris (Nintendo, 1989) – The history of Tetris is almost as complex as the history of the country it originated from. Devised by Russian designer Alexey Pajitnov, the rights for the game bounced around during the latter part of the ’80s before ending up on its perfect platform in 1989: the Nintendo Gameboy. Bundled with the handheld itself, the block-dropping game was ideal for the pick-up-and-play nature of the Gameboy and ensured a huge audience for its challenging yet compelling gameplay. While far from the first video game to use blocks as a gaming mechanic, Tetris was finally in the right place and the right format, ensuring its status as the world’s most celebrated puzzle game.

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15 Retro Video Games That Take You Back In Time.
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Street Fighter II (Capcom, 1991) – Refining the gameplay made famous by the 1987 original, Capcom’s Street Fighter II, an arcade game that proliferated across home consoles to become a worldwide phenomenon, is recognised today as one of the most important video games in the one-on-one competitive fighting genre. Starring a range of colourful characters, the game lives up to its World Warrior sobriquet by also including a series of backdrops from around the globe. Yet it’s with the gameplay where SFII really shines. Each character offers a divergent fighting style, including special moves, combos and lightning-fast strikes, taking the beat-’em-up to the next level.

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15 Retro Video Games That Take You Back In Time.
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Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega, 1991) – Mascots come and go in the video game world, but few endure like Sega’s speedy blue hedgehog. Up against the domination of Nintendo, the Sega Mega Drive (or Genesis in the United States) needed a hero – step up the rapid anthropomorphic Erinaceus europaeus, ready to do battle against the evil Dr. Robotnik. By encouraging the player to complete each level as quickly as possible, Sonic’s designers created a distinctive style of gameplay propelled by his spin attack and the ring collection bonus scheme. With Sonic games continuing today, along with movies and a mountain of merchandise, the supersonic hedgehog remains one of gaming’s most enduring and popular personalities.

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15 Retro Video Games That Take You Back In Time.
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Sensible Soccer (Sensible Software, 1992) – Football games concurrently matured and gained a youthful zip with Sensible Software’s Sensible Soccer, the lovingly remembered first game in a fantastically successful series for the UK developer. Viewed from above, the action in Sensible Soccer is supremely nippy, with the on-screen footballers constantly bouncing around the pitch. Multiplayer helped, bonding friends around a TV screen, but it’s the sheer smoothness of Sensible Soccer that won the hearts it still has today. Adored by a range of gamers beyond those who also love the sport, this is a video game simulation that transcended both mediums to create something genuinely special.

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15 Retro Video Games That Take You Back In Time.
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Doom (id Software, 1993) – It’s hard to imagine today, but back in 1993, the PC was often regarded as a second-class games platform. There were fans, of course, and id’s 3D Wolfenstein had already shown what a PC could do in the right hands, but it took this evocative tale of a space marine trapped on Mars together with a legion of Hellspawn to make the world really consider popping into their local PC shop. Cunningly drip-fed to gamers via the early ’90s fad of shareware, Doom’s multiplayer aspect also ingratiated it to a fresh audience, all blowing lumps out of each other via its Deathmatch mode. A legendary game that single-handedly pioneered online multiplayer while energising the first-person shooter genre.

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15 Retro Video Games That Take You Back In Time.
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Resident Evil (Capcom, 1996) – Bursting out of the abundance of shoot-‘em-ups and platform games of the early ’90s, Resident Evil took the concept of survival horror, with its tight, zombie-infested corridors, and created a franchise that’s grown enormously over the last 25 years. Using pre-rendered backdrops, its graphics were startling for the time, and the tank controls (the player character rotates on the spot) cleverly infused the game with high tension, assisted by some knowing camera blind spots. Gory, taut and astute in its paucity of ammunition and thought-provoking puzzles, nobody that experienced Resident Evil forgets those rabid dogs, bursting through the windows of the Spencer Mansion before leaping onto the poor unsuspecting player.

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15 Retro Video Games That Take You Back In Time.
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GoldenEye 007 (Rare, 1997) – Film licences in the ’80s were generally either poor representations of their subject, a substandard game, or both. The situation improved with the 16-bit generation, but it wasn’t until the mid-’90s that the games finally began to feel like the films they were supposedly based upon. Enter Rare and its fondly remembered take on the 17th James Bond movie, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan. A first-person shooter, GoldenEye took in all the relevant locations from the movie over its seven missions, including the Archangels Dam and a sleek frigate in Monte Carlo, neatly echoing the movie’s plot. It added up to an experience that was as close as you could get to being the famous spy, and its inventive multiplayer mode led to groups of friends crowding around Nintendo 64s, gleefully attempting to eliminate each other.

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15 Retro Video Games That Take You Back In Time.
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Halo: Combat Evolved (Microsoft Game Studios, 2001) – When Microsoft decided to compete against the powerful existing companies in the console market, it was clear it needed a hero. An icon. A legend. And it got one with the Master Chief, a towering hulk enclosed within a powerful green armour and gold-tinted helmet visor. The Chief became the star of Halo: Combat Evolved, a first-person shooter that places the player on a spaceship just after it has discovered the eponymous structure and just before it’s attacked by an alien species known as The Covenant. With his gruff voice, powerful melee attack and nascent blossoming relationship with the AI construct Cortana, the legend of the Master Chief and Halo was forged on the original Xbox, the first-person shooter finally coming of age on consoles.

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15 Retro Video Games That Take You Back In Time

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