PixlBit

     I was listening to the Brainy Gamer podcast today and heard about this new indie publisher Press Select. Their mission is to publish books about videogames. So if you're thinking about doing a longer form piece, they may be someone you could submit to. Here's their web page link: http://pressselectpubhttp://pressselectpublishing.com/blogs/news/8672969-welcome-to-press-selectlishing.com/blogs/news/8672969-welcome-to-press-select

     When arcades were all the rage and Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, and Space Invaders ruled the day, going to the arcade was the ultimate video game experience and they were everywhere. Second to that were home consoles and you had three choices: The Atari's AVCS (later Atari 2600), Mattel's Intellivision, and Coleco's ColecoVision. They had lots of ports of arcade games and a host of original titles perfectly suited to their respective systems. Lastly, you could also play games on the first affordable home computers. In North America you had: the Commodore 64, the Tandy's TRS-80 (I used to call it the Trash 80, but I was just being a snob), the pricey IBM PC 5150 (something a rich Aunt of mine had), or an Apple IIc (the one my parents got). Arcades, consoles, computers. You had it all.

     I wasn't going to do it this week, but the alure of accumulating gamerscore and playing Xbox 360 with my friend was just too great. I had to feel the thrill of victory and the agony of bad gameplay as I muddled through any-and-all in the quest for more achievements.

     In the late eighties, instead of playing Duck Hunt, Super Mario Bros., Metroid, or Legend of Zelda on NES, or Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System, I was either in the arcades or playing games on my Apple Macintosh computer. At the time, I had no idea there were new home consoles out on the market. Maybe 'cause I was never home. I was in college. This explains the following list of games that I call my number ones from the late 80's.