Source: TV Gamer – Summer 1983
T.V. Gamer is a gaming magazine that was published in the U.K. in the early 1980s. The premiere issue from Summer 1983 included reviews of the major systems and games already out at that time.
Atari
- System Review – This review points out the advantages and disadvantages of the venerable Atari 2600 (VCS). As the most popular system still at that time it had a massive game library and was still well supported. However, it was already pretty old for a game system in 1983 having been released in 1977 and memory was very limited at only 4K.
- Software Reviews – Brief reviews or overviews are given for the following Atari 2600 games. While I’ve played many more since, the ones with a ‘*’ are ones that I owned and/or played as a kid.
- Adventure
- Air Sea Battle
- Amidar
- Asteroids* (Arcade classic. A pretty decent conversion on the 2600.)
- Atlantis
- Backgammon
- Barnstorming
- Basic Maths
- BASIC Programming
- Basketball
- Berzerk* (I didn’t own this one but remember playing it at someone’s house. I was probably around 5 years old. One of the earliest games I played)
- Bowling
- Boxing
- Brain Games
- Breakout*
- Bridge
- Carnival
- Casino
- Centipede* (Arcade classic. Another pretty decent conversion on the 2600.)
- China Syndrome
- Chopper Command
- Circus Atari*
- Codebreaker
- Combat* (came with every Atari 2600 for a long time)
- Concentration
- Cosmic Ark
- Cross Force
- Defender* (Arcade classic. Another pretty decent conversion on the 2600.)
- Demon Attack
- Demons to Diamonds* (This one got bad reviews even at the time but I spent a lot of time playing it.)
- Dishaster
- Dodge’Em
- Donkey Kong
- Dragonfire (I first played this game on a Color Computer 3.)
- Dragster
- E.T. The Extra Terrestrial* (a pretty bad game but by no means the worst ever)
- Fire Fighter
- Fishing Derby
- Freeway
- Frogger* (Another I first played at someone else’s house. One of the earliest games I played)
- Frogs ‘N’ Flies* (A more obscure game but I spent a lot of time jumping from lily pad to lily pad trying to catch flies.)
- Galaxian
- Gangster Alley
- Golf
- Gorf
- Grand Prix
- Hangman
- Haunted House
- Human Cannonball
- Ice Hockey
- Indy 500
- International Soccer
- I Want My Mummy
- Kaboom
- Laserblast
- Lock ‘N’ Chase
- Lost Luggage
- Math Gran Prix
- Maze Craze
- Megamania
- Miniature Golf
- Missile Command* (Arcade classic and yet another pretty decent conversion.)
- Mousetrap
- Ms. Pac-Man
- Nexar
- Night Driver* (I don’t think I owned this one but I know I played it.)
- Othello
- Outlaw (I didn’t have this one but I once knew someone who referred to this game as “Sit Down” because it looks like you just sit down when you get shot)
- Pac-Man* (The game play wasn’t too bad but the graphics were far worse than they needed to be, even for the 2600)
- Pele Soccer
- Phoenix
- Pitfall* (One of the best though I preferred Pitfall II on the Commodore 64.)
- Planet Patrol
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Raquetball
- Reactor
- Riddle of the Sphinx
- River Raid (I played this on the Commodore 64)
- Room of Doom
- Sea Quest
- Shark Attack
- Skeet Shoot
- Skiing
- Sky Diver
- Slot Racers
- Smurf
- Space Cavern
- Space Chase
- Space Invaders* (I never really liked this game despite it being the one that really gave birth to the “modern” arcade)
- Space War
- Spider Fighter
- Spiderman
- Stampede
- Starmaster
- Star Raiders* (This game did a great job for the time of creating the feeling of a larger universe.)
- Star Voyager
- Star Wars – Jedi Arena
- Star Wars – The Empire Strikes Back
- Street Racer
- Super Breakout
- Superman
- Surround
- Tanks But No Tanks
- Tape Worm
- Tennis
- 3-D Tic Tac Toe
- Trick Shot
- Tron – Deadly Discs
- Vangaurd
- Venture
- Video Checkers
- Video Chess
- Video Olympics
- Video Pinball
- Volleyball
- Warlords
- Wizard of Wor (Another I first played on the Commodore 64)
- Yars’ Revenge
- Zaxxon
- Competition – A video game trivia contest in which you could win the next five Atari 2600 game releases.
Vectrex
- System Review – The first portable game system to accept cartridges and also the only vector based home system. It was quite popular for a short time but suffered a premature death due in part to the video game crash.
- Software Reviews – This system had a fairly small library…
- Armor Attack
- Berzerk
- Blitz
- Clean Sweep
- Cosmic Chasm
- Hyperchase
- Minestorm
- Rip Off
- Scramble
- Solar Quest
- Space Wars
- Star Hawk
- Star Trek – The Game
- Competition – A sort of connect the dots competition based on the fact that the Vectrex used vectors for display. You could win a Vectrex and two games.
Colecovision
- System Review – At the time, the Colecovision was the newest game system available. It had more memory than the 2600 or Intellivision (32K) and the best graphics. Games on the Colecovision looked a lot like games on the Commodore 64. The Colecovision had a few expansion modules and could even be turned into a full-fledged computer with printer. However, their timing was bad as the video game industry was experiencing a drastic down-turn and there were already better home computers available.
- Software Reviews – The Colecovision while not having the largest library did have some pretty impressive games for the time.
- Carnival
- Cosmic Avenger
- Donkey Kong (By far the best home conversion at the time)
- Gorf
- Lady Bug
- Mousetrap
- Smurf – Rescue in Gargamel’s Castle
- Turbo
- Wizard of Wor
- Zaxxon
Intellivision
- System Review – Next to the Atari 2600, the Intellivision was the next most popular video game system of the first half of the 1980s. Technically, it fit somewhere between the Atari 2600 and the Colecovision though it managed to create its own niche with sports games and the Intellivoice add-on. I was not a fan of the hardwired controllers though.
- Software Reviews – While not as massive as that of the Atari 2600, the Intellivision did develop a pretty impressive game library.
- Advanced Dungeons & Dragons / Cloudy Mountain (I was always a fan of the Gold Box AD&D games but this was the first licensed AD&D video game I am aware of.)
- Armor Battle
- Astrosmash
- Atlantis
- Auto Racing
- B17 Bomber
- Backgammon
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Beauty and the Beast
- Bowling
- Boxing
- Burger Time
- Carnival
- Checkers
- Chess
- Demon Attack
- Donkey Kong
- Dracula
- Dragonfire
- Frog Bog
- Frogger
- Golf
- Gorf
- Horse Racing
- Ice Hockey
- Ice Trek
- Lock ‘N’ Chase
- Loco-Motion
- Math Fun
- Micro Surgeon
- Mission X
- Night Stalker
- Pitfall
- Poker & Blackjack
- Reversi
- Royal Dealer
- Roulette
- Sea Battle
- Sharp Shot
- Skiing
- Snafu
- Soccer
- Space Armada
- Space Battle
- Space Hawk
- Space Spartans
- Stampede
- Star Strike
- Sub Hunt
- Swords and Serpents
- Tennis
- Triple Action
- Tron Deadly Discs
- Tron – Maze A Tron
- Tron Solar Sailor
- U.S. Football
- Utopia
- Vectron
- Winter Olympics
- Wizard of Wor
- Word Fun
…and more!
