The Toughest Gamers on the Block

Believe it or not, but the Boomer and subsequently, Gen X generation are considered the toughest gamers in video gaming history. Boomers because they started the industry and Gen X because they had to accept most of the challenges the Boomers passed on to them, video games for boomers primarily started in the Arcades and that meant inserting quarters. Naturally, game companies wanted games that practically ate quarters so they could profit or at least break even. The solution, make the games really difficult. Despite the standard allotment of 3 lives, a typical arcade game went "Game Over" in a few minutes, prompting the eager player to insert another quarter!

The reason for difficulty didn't end there. Outside the Arcades, gamers had either home gaming consoles like the Atari 2600 or a Micro-Computer of their own like the Commodore 64, or worst, both. Despite being top-of-the-line during the time, the hardware was limited and RAM memory usually scaled from around 16K to 64K for gaming use. That's "Kilobytes" folks, compared to the Gigabytes and Terabytes we have today. We know how innovative the Boomer game developers of the time were, so making do with 48-64K to run a complete game meant using every trick in the book to keep the gamer playing for as long as possible.

The solution was to simply keep the gamer challenged at a single level that by the time he or she gets to the next, it would have been equivalent to climbing a mountain. Thus, keeping the game immersive with as little memory at one’s disposal. Also, many games (especially the earlier ones) didn't have adequate "Save" options, this was more a software and programming limitation of the time and the ability to jump back to a saved point and restart from there. Regardless, it was favorable to the developers as it gave the player the added challenge to start from the beginning, and all-over again if one gets pawned in the middle of a level. Of the 3 lives, one is lost and the challenge repeats again.

Finally, during the latter part of the decade, game designers started to experiment with new ideas in gaming. Going back to the principle of a gamer's money's worth, they intentionally (or unintentionally) made the game a bit difficult to add the extra challenge and the feeling of accomplishment for the player who gets to beat the difficulty.

The Challenge of the Game

Let's take a look at some of the hardest video games released in the 1980s. Contrary to many general misconceptions today, not all of the most difficult games of the time were Arcade Games. The difficulty was spread among the game genres and an all-text adventure may have been next to impossible to solve just as well.

Ghosts 'n Goblins

An arcade-type game which became popular in the Micro-Computer games market, Ghosts 'n Goblins released by Capcom in 1985 had the gamer playing Sir Arthur, a knight who had to save a princess from demons. The game was brutal considering enemy monsters kept spawning near you, you got wiped out after only 2 hits, the controls were intentionally clunky and usually threw you into danger, and to make you scream in frustration, when you finally defeat the final boss, the game forces you to play it for the 2nd time at a much harder setting. Ghosts 'n Goblins was considered the curse of 80s arcade gaming, and the ultimate challenge as well.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The late Douglas Adams just didn’t frequent pubs in the UK, he wrote “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy“ novel series as well as co-created the All-Text game with Steve Meretzky for Infocom. Released in 1984, the game was the interactive port of the book into all-text gaming format. Unlike “Zork” that could be solved by meticulous mapping, Hitchhiker’s game logic was based on Douglas Adam’s notoriously “mind-boggling” British humor which was most of the time, illogical.

F-15 Strike Eagle

MicroProse is a game company sorely missed so much today. Lt. Colonel (Wild) Bill Stealey’s work in pioneering combat simulations along with legendary programmer Sid Meier provided the gaming world with simulation game classics remembered and retro-played till today. “F-15 Strike Eagle” is considered as one of the realistically hardest jet fighter games of the Era. Aside from learning the complex control set-up (navigation, Radar, Fuel, Weapons, etc.), engaging enemies with realistic behaviors left almost little room for error. The game physics was brutal, one mistake and your Strike Eagle hits the ground instead.

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord

The 1980s provided the foundation for today’s MMORPG gaming world. The Era where the classic board game paper, pen, and dice RPGs were ported over to the exciting new Micro-Computers. Among the pioneers was Sir-Tech’s “Wizardry” released in 1981. As of the early CRPGs, the game was difficult. To begin with, if your team gets wiped out by a trap or a mob of opponents, your characters are “Permadead” and completely wiped out from the game. Mapping was tedious and difficult as it was manual and drawn by hand, what’s more, teleport traps could send your team to a sudden death (auto deleting your saved data) and by then, there’s no choice but to restart the game.

The Colonel's Bequest

Released by Sierra On-Line in 1989, “The Colonel's Bequest” is a graphics and text adventure mystery game where you play as Laura Bow, a college co-ed invited to a mysterious island estate owned by a retired colonel. However, when you get there, family members start getting murdered one by one and you will have to solve the mystery and play super sleuth. The game can be played by text input instructions, or as it was 1989, the mouse was already available for the later computers. The game, however, plays out in strict real-time, if you are not at the right place at the right time, you will completely miss a clue or an important event. What’s more, you can walk right into a trap and immediately get killed, and much worst, reach the end of the game not being able to solve the mystery. By then, your only option would be to restart again.

The 1980s was the time of challenging baby boomer games, by Boomers, for Boomers, and the young Gen X. Beating the challenge was the name of the game which provided a gaming environment like no other in gaming history.