80s Awesomeness! ~ 162

I don't know very much about Final Fantasy other than it was a spawn of the 80s and is a pretty important video game as far as video games are concerned.  An epic role playing game that started off having far fewer pixels and are more two dimensional stuff.  And then it evolved into this -

That's about all of it.

80s Awesomeness! ~ 155

The object? To change the color of the cubes while dodging some of the nasties you see in the image. Oh, you can shoot things out of your nose to protect you too. I think I remember the later versions of this guy because this original incantation isn't doing anything for me.

80s Awesomeness! ~ 146

Oh yeah. Look at those graphics. Totally epic. This video game's called Pole Position. I don't remember it in the slightest but apparently it was a totally awesome racing game of it's day. I believe it. Just look at the commercial.

80s Awesomeness! ~ 126

Released upon this world in 1987, Mega Man looked like some kind of Robocop bastard child that was fighting an evil scientist. I personally never had this game for my super awesome Nintendo gaming system (the original, of course) but I'm sure I would have loved it. You get to kill stuff? Sign me up.

80s Awesomeness! ~ 119

Along with being a Dominos Pizza spokesthing, there was also a video game called Avoid the Noid where, you guessed it, had to avoid the noid.

Apparently you deliver pizzas and attempt to avoid the noid. Don't know what the noid is? He was kind of like what the Geico gecko is now, just far more annoying. Like The Hamburglar on crack. From what I can tell, the noid didn't last long into the 90s.

80s Awesomeness! ~ 113

Some of you need no explanation for the above image and in fact are probably going oh my god! The rest of you are looking at it going oh my god with a very different emphasis. For those of us old enough to remember, playing Oregon Trail on those beat up Apple IIs in computer class was an awesome reprieve to an otherwise tedious day of school. The graphics were stupendous for the time and it was roleplaying before roleplaying had moved out of its mom's basement and into the main stream.

Some played the game to win. Others played to see how awfully they could die or destroy their wagon train. Whatever your method, you know you had a blast doing it.

80s Awesomeness! ~ 106

Born in 1987 (excellent year, by the way), this epic fighting game pit two uber-awesome soldiers against the forces of evil aliens that want to take over the earth. Brought to you in amazing 2D renderings, Contra was it. Originally you only got to indulge in this awesomeness in an arcade but Nintendo smartened up and released a NES version the following year. Wise move, guys. We wouldn't want people getting rabid over this.

The fight was epic. Truly.

80s Awesomeness! ~ 97

Moon Patrol. Another super-exciting 80s arcade game where you drove around in a dune buggy, going only one way, and having to jump over craters and such. Joy! I've never played this one but apparently it did exist. I really shouldn't judge, though. I still heart Mario Brothers like whoa.

80s Awesomeness! ~ 91

Back in the 80s, a movie was released called Tron about a video game with a mind of its own. What better way to capitalize on product placement than actually creating a video game based off of the movie? Bam! Tron was born. Again. So if you loved the movie, you could now place the video game too, although the graphics weren't as good. You can play it too by going here. Don't get too blown away now.

80s Awesomeness! ~ 84

What better way to kill Dot Matrix bugs without getting grossed out than through your most excellent Atari system? Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is kill as many barely recognizable bugs as possible. And not forget the centipede himself! Otherwise he'll eat you. Not really something you want to happen, right?

And be warned about the commercial below. It's a little disturbing.

80s Awesomeness! ~ 80

Filled with yet even more dot matrix fun, Space Invaders was quintessential for any 80s gamer. Who could resist killing alien enemies lining up in formation a la 1776? I know I couldn't.

80s Awesomeness! ~ 71

Street Fighter!!!

You know you loved this game. You know, if you had it on your own gaming system, you tried to move those controllers to high hell and back to get those kicks right. Or, if you played in the standard arcade version, you beat those poor little red buttons into submission, and quite possibly into the console itself. I will still gladly take this 2D rendering of street fighting awesomeness over the 3D renderings any day. I just can't get my brain around them.

80s Awesomeness! ~ 64

Snake!!!

Its simplicity is awesome. Its graphics . . . not-so-stunning. The play-time, amazing. Get the apple-thing. That's all you have to do. Get the apple. But it grows! The more you play, the more the snake grows! Watch out! Or it'll eat itself. Not good.

80s Awesomeness! ~ 58

More dot matrix fun! Who doesn't love shooting at moving blobs with little pixel dots? Sometimes simplicity is all you need. Not 3D renderings. What fun are those?

80s Awesomeness! ~ 48

The Legend of Zelda!!!

Yeah, I come from a time when we had to blow in our video games to make them work. And work they did! Google did not exist to solve all our life's problems.

Anyway, Zelda! I wasn't a huge fan of Zelda, mainly because I kept getting stuck at a certain point and couldn't move beyond it. Usually I'd end up hurling my controller across the room . . . only to have it bounce back since it was still attached to the console. Zelda's still around so I don't think I need to explain it but it's certainly come a long way from it's original 1D super pixel status.

80s Awesomeness! ~ 41

Frogger!!!

Nothing says awesome like 2D fun. It's a simple concept - get the frog across the road without getting him squished. It's not as easy as it looks, though, so don't get too cocky. This right here is the peak of video game engineering in the 80s, let me tell you. Right up there with Donkey Kong.

80s Awesomeness! ~ 33

Oh yeah. The original in all its 1D glory. You know the theme song just popped into your head when you saw that image. This was THE video game to have on the original Nintendo gaming system. If it decided to crap out, you blew in the bottom of the cartridge, maybe smacked the system around a little bit, and bam! It worked. We didn't need Google. We had our own brains.

And don't kid yourself to thinking that you didn't move that rectangle controller all over the place trying to make Mario jump higher or farther. We were ahead of our times then, weren't we?

80s Awesomeness! ~ 24

Ok, as soon as I hit post on this I realized I got all dyslexic with my postings. Oi. So look for Freaky Friday tomorrow. It's backwards week! Didn't you know that? O_o


Do not adjust your computer monitors for Duck Hunt was all about pixelation! If you remember those square, gray gaming systems with those lightweight square controllers from Nintendo, the original (none of the Wii or DS or 2), you should remember Duck Hunt in all it's awesome shooting glory. It even came with a gray and orange gun that you could shoot at the screen with.
An easy way to cheat was just put the gun barrel right up to the TV screen. It was all sorts of awesome. What's even better, I found a website where you can play Duck Hunt for free! OMG, awesome! But let me tell you, it's like a million times harder with a mouse. Those ducks move at warp speed, man. I tell you.

Duck Hunt - The Game

80s Awesomeness! ~ 18

This was one of the ultimate video games back in the day and oh so freakin' addictive. Just one more play and you can have that Kong beat and save the princess! And the music . . . it was techno before techno. Nowadays Donkey Kong is all suped up and 3D but it doesn't beat the 1D pixelated Nintendo ladder game of the 80s.

80s Awesomeness! ~ 15

You know you've rubbed your thumbs raw playing this game. "I'm on level 73! Just five more minutes!" Probably one of the longest lasting video games, and while it's graphics have been updated over time, Tetris is still Tetris and it's just as addictive today as it what when it first came out. For all it's simplicity, hours can easily slip by before you even blink.

If you have a day to blow and are well stocked up on eye drops, go ahead and play.