GENRE INNOVATION OVER VARIOUS GENERATIONS.

The Golden age of video arcade games reached its zenith in the 1980s. The age
brought with it many technically innovative and genre-defining games developed and
released in the first few years of the decade, including:

Adventure games

• Zork (1980) further popularized text adventure games in home computers and
established developer Infocom’s dominance in the field. As these early computers
often lacked graphical capabilities, text adventures proved successful.
• Mystery House (1980), Roberta Williams's game for the Apple II, was the first
graphic adventure game on home computers. Graphics consisted entirely of static
monochrome drawings, and the interface still used the typed commands of text
adventures. It proved very popular at the time, and she and husband Ken went on to
found Sierra On-Line, a major producer of adventure games.
• Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (1983), developed by Yuji Horii (of Dragon Quest
fame), was the first visual novel and one of the earliest graphic adventure games.
It is viewed in a first-person perspective, follows a first-person narrative, and
was the first adventure game to feature colour graphics. It inspired Hideo Kojima
(of Metal Gear fame) to enter the video game industry and later produce his own
classic graphic adventure, Snatcher (1988).
• King's Quest (1984) was created by Sierra, laying the groundwork for the modern
adventure game. It featured color graphics and a third-person perspective. An on-
screen player character could be moved behind and in front of objects on a 2D
background drawn in perspective, creating the illusion of pseudo-3D space. Commands
were still entered via text.
• Maniac Mansion (1987) removed text entry from adventure games. LucasArts built
the SCUMM system to allow a point-and-click interface. Sierra and other game
companies quickly followed with their own mouse-driven games.

Beat 'em up
• Kung-Fu Master (1984), a Hong Kong cinema-inspired action game, laid the
foundations for scrolling beat 'em ups with its simple gameplay and multiple
enemies.
• Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun (1986), also released as Renegade, deviated from the
martial arts themes of earlier game, introducing street brawling to the genre,[18]
and set the standard for future beat 'em up games as it introduced the ability to
move both horizontally and vertically.

Fighting games
• Karate Champ (1984), Data East's action game, is credited with establishing and
popularizing the one-on-one fighting game genre, and went on to influence Yie Ar
Kung-Fu.
• Konami's Yie Ar Kung Fu (1985), which expanded on Karate Champ by pitting the
player against a variety of opponents, each with a unique appearance and fighting
style.
• Street Fighter (1987), developed by Capcom, introduced the use of special moves
that could only be discovered by experimenting with the game controls.

Interactive movie
• Dragon's Lair (1983) was the first Laserdisc video game, and introduced full-
motion video to video games.

Maze games
• Pac-Man (1980) was the first game to achieve widespread popularity in mainstream
culture and the first game character to be popular in his own right.
• 3D Monster Maze (1981) was the first 3D game for a home computer, while Dungeons
of Daggorath (1982) added various weapons and monsters, sophisticated sound
effects, and a "heartbeat" health monitor.

Platform games
• Space Panic (1980) is sometimes credited as the first platform game,[23] with
gameplay centered on climbing ladders between different floors.
• Donkey Kong (1981), an arcade game created by Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, was
the first game that allowed players to jump over obstacles and across gaps, making
it the first true platformer. This game also introduced Mario, an icon of the
genre.
• Jump Bug (1981), Alpha Denshi's platform-shooter, was the first platform game to
use scrolling graphics.
• Taito's Jungle King (1982)[26] featured scrolling jump and run sequences that had
players hopping over obstacles.
• Namco took the scrolling platformer a step further with Pac-Land (1984),[27]
which was the first game to feature multi-layered parallax scrolling and closely
resembled later scrolling platformers like Super Mario Bros. (1985) and Wonder Boy
(1986).
• Mario Bros. (1983), developed by Shigeru Miyamoto, offered two-player
simultaneous cooperative play and laid the groundwork for two-player cooperative
platformers.
• Congo Bongo (1983), developed by Sega, was the first isometric platformer.
• Prince of Persia (1989) was the first cinematic platformer.

Platform-adventure games
• Metroid (1986) was the earliest game to fuse platform game fundamentals with
elements of action-adventure games, alongside elements of RPGs. These elements
include the ability to explore an area freely, with access to new areas controlled
by either the gaining of new abilities or through the use of inventory items.
• Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1987) and Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (1987)
are two other early examples of platform-adventure games.

Racing games
• Turbo (1981), by Sega, was the first racing game with a third-person perspective,
rear-view format.
• Pole Position (1982), by Namco, used sprite-based, pseudo-3D graphics when it
refined the "rear-view racer format" where the player’s view is behind and above
the vehicle, looking forward along the road with the horizon in sight. The style
would remain in wide use even after true 3D graphics became standard for racing
games.

Role-playing games
• The earliest role-playing games to use elements from Dungeons and Dragons are
Telengard, written in 1976, and Zork (later renamed Dungeon), written in 1977.
• Akalabeth (1980) was created in the same year as Rogue (1980); Akalabeth led to
the creation of its spiritual sequel Ultima (1981). Its sequels were the direct
inspiration for many of the first Japanese console role-playing games.
• Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu (1985) is considered the first full-fledged action role-
playing game, with character stats and a large quest, with its action-based combat
setting it apart from other RPGs. The Legend of Zelda (1986) and its sequel Zelda
II: The Adventure of Link (1987), both developed by Shigeru Miyamoto, further
defined and popularized the emerging action RPG genre.
• The Bard's Tale (1985) by Interplay Entertainment is considered the first
computer role-playing game to appeal to a wide audience that was not matched until
Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo.
• Dragon Quest (1986), developed by Yuji Horii, was one of the earliest console
role-playing games. With its anime-style graphics by Akira Toriyama (of Dragon Ball
fame), Dragon Quest set itself apart from computer role-playing games. It spawned
the Dragon Quest franchise and served as the blueprint for the emerging console RPG
genre, inspiring the likes of Sega's Phantasy Star (1987) and Squaresoft's Final
Fantasy (1987), which spawned its own successful Final Fantasy franchise and
introduced the side-view turn-based battle system, with the player characters on
the right and the enemies on the left, imitated by numerous later RPGs.
• Megami Tensei (1987) and Phantasy Star (1987) broke with tradition, abandoning
the medieval setting and sword and sorcery themes common in most RPGs, in favour of
modern/futuristic settings and science fiction themes.

Rhythm game
• Dance Aerobics was released in 1987, and allowed players to create music by
stepping on Nintendo's Power Pad peripheral. It has been called the first rhythm-
action game in retrospect. Scrolling shooters
• Defender (1980) established the scrolling shooter and was the first to have
events (e.g., enemy movement) taking place outside the player’s view. A radar was
displayed showing a map of the whole playfield.
• Moon Patrol (1982) introduced the parallax scrolling technique in computer
graphics.[37]
• Thrust (1986) The player's has to maneuver a spaceship through a series of 2D
cavernous landscapes, with the aim of recovering a pendulous pod, while
counteracting gravity, inertia and avoiding or destroying enemy turrets.

Stealth games
• 005 (1981), an arcade game by Sega, was the earliest example of a stealth-based
game.
• Metal Gear (1987), developed by Hideo Kojima, was the first stealth game in an
action-adventure framework and became the first commercially successful stealth
game, spawning the Metal Gear series.

Survival horror
• Haunted House (1981) was the first to intentionally introduce elements of horror
fiction into video games.
• Sweet Home (1989) introduced many of the modern staples of the survival horror
genre. Gameplay involved battling horrifying creatures and solving puzzles.
Developed by Capcom, the game would become an influence upon their later release
Resident Evil (1996), making use of its mansion setting and its "opening door" load
screen.
• Alone in the Dark (1992) took the action-adventure style and retooled it to de-
emphasize combat and focus on investigation. An early attempt to simulate 3D
scenarios by mixing polygons with 2D background images. This style became the
inspiration for Resident Evil (1996).

Vehicle simulation games

• Battlezone (1980) used wireframe vector graphics to create the first true three-
dimensional game world.
• Elite (1984), designed by David Braben and Ian Bell, ushered in the age of modern
style 3D graphics. The game contains convincing vector worlds, full 6 degree
freedom of movement, and thousands of visitable planetary systems. It is considered
a pioneer of the space flight simulator game genre.