Growing up in the 80’s, sports and video games would go together like apple pie. My brothers and I were fortunate enough to be pretty good athletes and played the games at home as well. This article will cover the best of the best from the decade. It will cover all systems as well as arcades.   Rankings depend on realism, fun factor, replay value, graphics and sound.

10. Summer Games – Epyx – 1984

Summer Games, this was a classic. It had variety, excellent graphics for its day and was lots of fun to play. I particularly enjoyed the diving event, one would need to make the most moves in the air and try to straighten the diver up for minimal splash.  The judges always favored their home country diver, very realistic feature!

• Pole vault
• Platform diving
• Sprinting
• Gymnastics
• Freestyle swimming
• Skeet shooting
• Rowing

Epyx continued with this genre and created Summer Games II, Winter Games, World Games and California Games. These were all great games  worth playing again any day of the week!

9. Micro League Baseball -1984- Micro League Sports Association

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Done in a Robot Chicken look, check out this YouTube video featuring original sound, visuals plus Master D’s exploding cranium… after the credits of course.  In glorious side-scrolling 2D LEGO!

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Majesco Entertainment dropped a gaming bomb on classic arcade gamers everywhere with today’s announcement of 15 classic Data East Arcade titles hitting the Nintendo Wii in early 2010. Wii players will finally benefit from online multiplayer as well as having your hi-scores linked to your Mii characters.

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In a leaked document discovered on French website Objectif-sega.com that PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility could be coming to the PSN.  In the past, we reported other reports of BC but this “leaked” document listing games is more evidence of it happening.  We already know God of War and God of War 2 will be bundled on thier own Blu-Ray disc instead of PSN.  But it seems like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and a Sonic Game will make it’s way to the PSN.

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X-Arcade Tankstick Joystick $249.95 $199.95

My very first  post on PerezStart.com, was the top 5 arcade style game controllers. It was a very successful article which garnered many hits and comments. I wanted to follow up with a new champion of ASGC’s, the X- Arcade! What an amazing piece of peripheral perfection!  Glad they didn’t go away.

It looks like someone ripped off the panel of a Street Fighter II machine and cleaned out the edges.! The professional joysticks, the soft, med and hard buttons for kick and punch, plus two more extra buttons. It even sports the rolling ball controller in the middle for all of sidepocket arcade fans.

What makes this device a step above the rest is the compatibility option.You can buy a bundle with all the adapters or just get the adapter that you need for the system that you have.

“The X-Arcade™ was built with internal electronics to be compatible with the major past, present and FUTURE game systems. Once you own the X-Arcade™controller, you will never need to buy another arcade joystick again!”

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Growing up in the 80’s , I was always fascinated by driving. Especially since my Dad sported the racing gloves and drove a stick shift Corola throughout the decade.  Therefore,  naturally, I wanted to be just like him.  I knew that wasn’t going to happen until I became an adult, which was a bummer. However, I was part of the 80’s generation, where one was now able to drive a racing car via a video game. How cool was that? The following is a list of my favorite racing old school games of the 80’s!  Even Next-generation gamers will appreciate this list.

10.Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s Super Off Road -  1989

I can remember the days, late 80’s Bigmouth Pizza on Bergenline Ave in North Bergen, NJ! They featured Ironman’s Stewart’s Super Offroad! This was a souped up version of Championship Sprint. It featured off road madness, water pits, mud pits, nitros and more!
This racing game was loads of fun and included up to 4 players of fun for everyone! For all of our Latino readers, how funny is the name of the track above? Guess you need grandes to get through this obstacle! LOL

A next-gen version of this game is available on WiiWare called Drifter..

Looks pretty good!

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The image above nearly caused me to think I missed the biggest point-n-click adventure game.  But after some research, I realized this fan made iteration of Han Solo Adventures was not made by LucasArts but is currently being developed for free play by Stacy Davidson.

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Nothing better than finding a $ 10 bill in your pocket, unless of course its a larger denomination. I found the next best thing, to make our readers aware of an excellent arcade game they probably missed back in their youth. Now you have a chance of reliving your youth by playing the game today, well at least through MAME! Or should we just sign a petition to have this released via VC?

I remember the corner pizzeria by our home in NJ, it was called Vito’s! Vito’s always had  rare games to play, not just your Pac Man’s and Galaga’s. Gladiator sticks out in my mind as the best arcade game at the time! The characters were larger than anything I’d have ever seen in games. The graphics were superb for 1986 standards. It was not a game that was too difficult, it was just right. One can get pretty far after practicing for a while.

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Last year, I wrote an article on the 7 Top Video Game Urban Legends.  I got flak for some of them, (jumping over the flagpole in Super Mario) and some we well remembered.  I figured, I’d bring back the post with some much needed fixup.  So without further ado…

We all have heard of them, swore to have done them or know someone whose cousin has. That’s right, I’m talking about Video Game Urban Legends (VGUL). No, I’m not going to talk about the munchkin in the back of “Wizard of Oz” who supposedly hangs himself from the tree. Not also talking about how there is a ghost in the window in “3 Men and a Baby” who died in that house. Not Bigfoot or Loch Ness. I’m talking Video Games…. I’m talking Urban Legends in Video Games.

I have searched high and low to bring to you, our latest installment of these Urban Legends, and finish up with a wide known but not seen VGUL.

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Our friends over at ThinkGeek.com have come up with the answer to our portable emulation prayers! A single hand held unit that will run most of your favorite emulators and play all of your favorite roms.  We all love the Nintendo DSI, but this unit takes things to a different level with boundless possibilities for the user.

The unit has limited software when you first open it from the box. However, I am sure, all of our readers have all of the emulators and roms they need in some old hard drive stuffed away in the basement or attic.

The unit runs:

MAME
AMIGA
ATARI ST
Commodore 64
NES
SNES
GAMEBOY
GAMEBOY Advance
NEO GEO
and many many more…..

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