Excitebike was one of the earliest games i remember playing a lot of. If you were to look at it now it seems a bit silly but times of course have changed a lot since when this game was released in 1984. For me and my family it was endless entertainment on our gigantic television set in the living room that we all shared.
The thing that made excitebike so incredible was that it was simple yet still challenging. Also, as far as i know it was the first game ever that you could design your own courses and have your friends try it out. Of course you couldn't save any of the courses which seems crazy now, but I recall sitting with my pals and making a track and seeing which friend could complete it fastest.
The game would even let you put in things that were impossible to do in one jump if you built your own track, which at least in my group of friends resulted in arguments and accusations poor design and some grins on the respective faces of the designer.
I think that if someone today, were to have a look at the mid-90's excitebike and just try to like it for what it is that they would. Compared to modern games it is of course very simplistic, but the entire game is bound to be around the size of part of a save-game file in today's games.
I thought it was an amazing game and it occupied a lot of my time in the past. I honestly think that even though I haven't played it in years that I could fire up the old NES and have a go at this game right now and enjoy it.
What do you think? Do you have a favorite game from the 80's or i suppose early 90's would be ok too. The simplicity of the games from way back then really appeals to a lot of old school players. I think that game companies had to try a lot harder as far as overall design was concerned back then than they do now. These days it just seems to be a question of who has the best graphics.