A lot of our readers would not have been around during the 80s, or were too young to remember much of the upcoming gaming scene at the time. But for those that do remember it, it was a golden period for gaming in which a lot of innovative games came out which set the cornerstone for some of the games we play today. Writing this article allowed me to take a trip down memory lane; I use to spend so many hours playing these games. So lets get straight down to it, here’s FunkyKits 5 Favourite Games From The 80s (in no particular order):
Out Run
Out Run first came to my attention as an arcade game produced by SEGA, in which you could sit in a small model of the Ferrari Testarossa Spider you drove in the game.
The arcade version of the game was released back in 1986, becoming one of the best selling video games of its time. Out Run is a 3D third-person racing game, putting the players perspective very low to the ground, directly behind the car, simulating the Ferrari driver’s perspective view, and limiting the player’s viewing distance. This feature, combined with the dips and curves of the road, increased the challenge to the players. The player must race to the end of each state against a time limit whilst avoiding traffic. At the end of each stage, the player is presented with a fork in the road where the player must choose one of two stages. The left route presents an easier stage, while the right offers a greater challenge. Passing through checkpoints awards the player with extra time. Once the timer reaches zero or the player completes the race, the game ends.
One of the coolest features of Out Run was that this was the first ever game in which the player could change the radio station of the car to pump out different types of music to drive to. The radio stations were named Passing Breeze, Splash Wave and Magical Sound Shower, each with a different style of music; from laid back jazz-fusion, to Miami Sound Machine style Latin/Caribbean beats.
The game became so popular that the developers ported Out Run to most of the games consoles at the time, and eventually a PC-DOS version was released in 1989. Out Run still has a following to this day, popping up as playable ‘mini game’ in Yakuza for the PS3 and PS4. You can now even play an emulated version in your internet browser!
Out Run spawned various official and unofficial sequels in the likes of Out Run 2, Out Runner, Out Run 2006: Coast 2 Coast and Turbo Out Run, and you can still find traces of it in modern car racing games such as Test Drive, Need for Speed, DriveClub and Forza Horizon.
