The 8-bit era 80’s

A hotbed of companies start to arise and more unique games were being made. A flurry of games consoles invaded people’s homes such as the Commodore 64, Apple II and ZX Spectrum. The 80’s saw many things such as the first 3D game for a home computer (3D monster maze), the first iconic game in popular culture (Pac-man) and the first laserdisc game( Dragon’s lair).

The price and power of computers started to surpass the consoles with the favour of games circling graphic adventures. In 1980 Roberta Williams created Mystery house for the Apple II, which proved a success , she then went on to create Sierra-on-Line.
Whilst the Us had the Commodore 64 the UK had the ZX Spectrum and was hugely popular. 1984 saw the technology of mouse driven games with a point and click interface such as Lucasarts Maniac Mansion.
In the later 80’s a new era of 16-bit machines had started however were still too pricey for many people to afford until later on in the decade. MUDs (Multi-user dungeons) were also very popular in the 80’s due to dialup bulletin board systems. The Handheld LCD games of the 70’s had become more affordable and offered better game play and an affordable price tag along with it.
The crash of 1983 saw the computer market taking over the console market but it would not stay that way for long. The NES ( known in the UK as the Famicom, although I always refer to it as a NES) was released in 1985 and along with Super Mario Bros it became a big hit. Also a struggling and nearly bankrupt SquareSoft planned to release their last game title Final Fantasy and has become one of THE best selling series to date with the 12 in the series reaching UK shores in February.The legend of Zelda was born in this era as was Metal Gear Solid , the first stealth based game.
That was one hell of an era.