Game 73: Frogger

In the year 1981, young people would while away the tedium of living in 1981 by daring each other to run out in front of heavy traffic. It was a global phenomenon. Hundreds of bored feral kids were mown down by articulated lorries and racing cars during the infamous motorway massacres of late '81.

At the same time in a bizarre coincidence, Japanese company Konami created a video game called Frogger. Its basic principle similarly based on roadkill, but this time a frog was dodging the vehicles instead of a small child.

Your goal is to safely guide five frogs across the road and river so that they each in turn reach their lily pad homes. There are many obstacles along the way: if you're not too careful you could be flattened by a car, drowned in the river or eaten by a crocodile. So take it easy on the little froggies.

Game 72: Arkanoid

Just in case you weren't around in the '80s, Arkanoid was an arcade game developed by Taito in '86, based on Atari's Breakout games of the '70s. This authentic remake of the original game is one of the best I've come across, and has entertained me no end! So take control of the good ship "Vaus", and avenge the untimely destruction of your mothership... the Arkanoid. (One of my favourite games EVER!)

Game 66: Push

Run and jump with one hand, warp reality with the other. Ian Snyder's Push is a platform game with an exciting and inventive twist that lets you reshape levels in real-time with an omnipotent force bubble. Plus you can make your own levels for others to tear asunder.

Game 44: River Raid

River Raid is a 1984 Activision game that is counted, in my book at least, as being among the better shooters of the time. After all these years it remains a favorite and is among the first games mentioned when asked which titles are remembered most fondly. River Raid owes this remarkably popularity not to deep gameplay or stunning visuals - it has neither - but to being a simple, solid and lovable title that's easy to get into. 

This is by no means a perfect remake, but it is fun to play and fast to load, includes sound, skill options and 60 levels, and might bring back a few memories!

Game 28: Tetris

It's most likely you've come to play Tetris through many hours of button-prodding on the Nintendo Game Boy.  But the real hero is inventor Alexey Pajitnov, a Russian genius with a fixation for puzzles and an affinity with beards [brains and style!].  Here is a tribute recreation from Paul Neave.

Here's how you play.  Shaped blocks (called tetrominoes by the way) fall into a pit where you need to arrange them so they form a complete horizontal line.  Once a line without gaps is created, it disappears and the blocks above fall down.  The more lines you create simultaneously, the more you score. 

Remember to take a break every few hours or your eyes will actually start seeing everything square (I tell you this from experience!).

Move - arrow keys                          Pause game – P

Fast drop – down key                      Quit game – Q

Rotate clockwise – up key or X         Rotate c/clockwise – Z

Game 12: Asteroids

Let me take you on a journey.  It's a short journey, I know you haven't got all day.  A journey to a world where lines ruled...

The year was 1979, and computers could only be made to draw two things: one was a line, and the other was also a line.  With clever arrangement, both these lines could be transformed into spaceships and big rocks and flying saucers.  And so, thanks to the line pioneers at Atari, we were blessed with the line-tastic Asteroids.

Your spaceship floats in space and you have to destroy all the asteroids, but the more you shoot the more you create.  Watch out for the UFOs which can shoot back, and be careful: you only have one ship for every 10,000 points scored.

Use the arrow keys to move         Pause game – P

Fire missile – space key               Quit game – Q

Hyperspace – ctrl or shift key       Mute sound – M

Game 2: Space Invaders

Space Invaders is the grandaddy of retro. It's a simple game with simple graphics, but it has one of the most vital assets for any computer game: gameplay.  Modern games have a tendancy to forget this with their fancy graphics and huge budgets.  These little alien blobs are all you need!

The more aliens you shoot, the faster the remaining aliens move.  If they get too close, it's game over — so shoot quick.  And watch out for that flying saucer...

Move left – left arrow key       Pause game – P

Move right – right arrow key    Quit game – Q

Fire laser – spacebar              Mute sound – M