PixlBit

I decided to go strictly with games released in the 70s next month. This really limits the video game landscape for me, but I made a list, and I'll see what I can do with it. Here's what I got so far. 

Atari 2600

Cary! New DLC for Atari 50 in October too, all Namco on Atari stuff!

I'm not a big fan of the Odyssey or Pong consoles, but Atari interests me. Unfortuneately, limiting my list to 70s makes it very short. 

1. Breakout - Turn Pong on it's side for solo play and, suddenly, I enjoy it. I'm going to try and stick to the original and not play every modern variant like last time. I'm trying to be a purist, playing on original hardware only. I'm using a Retron '77 until I find an Atari Jr., my ideal choice for 2600 play. 
2. Bowling - An incredibly simple bowling game, but I always enjoy it. You can curve the ball just so, which creates a little difficulty. My gaming buddy and I often play it competitively. 
3. Sky Diver - This was appealing to me when I played it on some recent collection (Atari 50?). I'll have to find a cartridge. It's very simple, just aim your sky diver at the targets for points, but there's wind to contend with and the timing of the drop. It has just enough difficulty to keep it compelling. 

There were about 30 games released for the system, '77-'79. I remember playing Combat, Air-Sea Battle, Canyon Bomber, and Superman as well as the above but these aren't too interesting to me today.  

Arcade

1. Lunar Lander (1979) - An old favorite from real arcade days. I find it frustrating today, but it's nice to revisit it. Weirdly, it wasn't ported to 2600. 
2. Breakout (1976) - The old arcade cabinet is a great way to play this with the original dial controlers. The game has strangely grown on me in recent years. 
3. Super Breakout (1978) - Multiball, moving wall, and multiple paddles are added. The Atari port didn't come out until the 80s though. 
4. Lunar Rescue (1979) - My current favorite retro Taito game! I discovered it on a Taito collection a few years ago and fell in love with it. The game combines aspects of Asteroids, Lunar Lander and Space Invaders in one great mashup. If I ever get into developing games, I'd make a Atari homebrew port of this for sure. 

Others I played back then were Galaxian, Space Invaders, Sea Wolf, and Indy 800 but I'm not that keen on them now. 

Pinball

There are more pinball tables available on digital collections for the 70s. Yes, I will try and play real hardware one day in August, but I'll probably play more simulations 'cause they're more available. Here's some platforms with 70s pinball tables. 

1. Pinball Arcade has about 10 1970s tables including the classic, Gorgar (1979). 
2. Zaccarria Pinball is a collection of Italian made tables, and a lot of them are from the electromechanical days of the 70s. Plenty to play here. 
3. Pinball FX3 has a Williams collection with a few 70s tables in them. The table packs are still in the Xbox store, so I'm assuming they're still available. I love the fun, arcady FX platform and wish they hadn't changed it to the current spiffy design. 

Handhelds

Man, there were a lot of handheld devices in the 70s, mostly LED based games, or combinations of mechanical features and LEDs. I had boxing game, a racing one, Simon rhythm game, and probably others I've forgotten about. But, The Mattel Electronics sports games (Baseball, Football, Basketball and Hockey) were my favorite, especially Baseball. I got one again a few years ago and so will briefly replay it for nostalgia sake. 

 Board Games (or dice or card, etc.)

For reals, the 70s was the board game decade for me as a 3 to 12 year old. Yes, there was Pong, some arcade visits, and the Atari 2600 (which I might not have had until 1980, if I'm honest), but loads of board games were played by me, my friends and my family. Here's some I remember fondly and would like to play again. 

1. Avalon Hill games - Better just to lump all these hex-based strategy games together because there are a lot of them. I played sea battle game War at Sea back then and WWII Squad Leader and it's expansions later on in the 80s. Others I'd like to play now are the PanzerBlitz, Panzer Leader, sea battle game Victory in the Pacific and WWI air battle game Richthofen's War. 
2. Boggle - Word games are interesting to me, this only mildly so. Scrabble would be better but it's older. Boggle ain't a bad word find game though. 
3. TSR published - Chainmail rule set for minatures and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1977). I've always been curious about Chainmail and I got into D&D in '77 with the AD&D rules and books. Boy, those books go for some money these days. I wish I'd kept mine. 
4. Chopper Strike - This was a interesting game I had as a kid. It's played on two levels with miniature choppers and jeeps. 
5. London Cabbie Game ('71) - I remember this very fondly, as I loved it. You drove minature taxis around a map of London for fares. I'd snap up a copy if I ever see one. 
6. Sopwith ('78) - Just an interesting WWI air battle strategy game that looks interesting to me now. 
7. Charge It! ('72) - This was a game we played as a family about the fairly new concept of credit cards. I believe it was primarily a card game. 

 Although this is a large list, the ones I actually have and the time it takes to play them is not large at all. Maybe it would take me a day or two to go through what I own. I'll have to think of something, but I'll always defualt to a current game I'm playing like Avowed or Farm Together 2 when I run out of 70s related stuff. 

PS: If interested, check out my blog on the other stuff of the 70s I get into (books and comics, TV, film, music, and art) in August at tomesintime.wordpress.com. A new one goes up every Sunday night.