Early+simple games (Haunted Hedges, Amsgolf...): which ones do you love / hate?

[cwpab]

In late 1988, my parents visiting a dad's friend ended with me getting around 20 CPC disks full of 80 games.

Some of these disks contained multiple small, simple, early games like Haunted Hedges or Amsgolf.

Which games of this kind did you have as a kid, which ones did you love and which ones did you hate?

(Please note some games are cleary "small/early/simple", like Space Hawks, others are cleary "big", like Saboteur, but some may be considered as somewhere in the middle due to the high quality, like Oh Mummy!... so let's go ahead and consider all early games that mostly take place in a single screen like Oh Mummy! or even Roland in the Caves as small/early/simple)

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In my case I had "Airbus" (Missing in Action, similar to "Sky Reed"), Alien Break-In, Amstrad Jumper, Animal Vegetable Mineral, Amsgolf, Bomber/Bombardero, Bustout/Rebotes, Darts, Electro Freddy, Froggy, Fruit Machine, Grand Prix Driver, Haunted Hedges, Minotaur (Missing in Action, similar to Sultan's Maze but with the colors, enemies and items of the game cover), Maggot Splat, Moon Buggy, Oh Mummy, Roland Ahoy!, Space Hawks, and Spannerman.

I didn't love any of these games, but I remember having fun with Amsgolf, Roland Ahoy! and the missing "Minotaur", where you could generate a random maze choosing the X and Y dimensions.

I hated Amstrad Jumper, Grand Prix Driver, Maggot Splat, Space Hawks and Spannerman, and I remember by the end thinking that Haunted Hedges and Froggy sucked too.

[seanmcmanus]

This is a fun topic. It's hard to separate the quality of the games from the experience as a child playing them, but I like many of those early games.

Roland on the Ropes was the first game I had, and I still enjoy it from time to time. Electro Freddy was the second game, and I really liked that, too, although its limitations are more transparent now.

I bought Computer Hits 2 which included Super Pipeline 2, Mutant Monty, and Android 2, which are all excellent early games in my view (although Android 2 is quite ambitious in terms of its map, so it might not qualify under your criteria). Chuckie Egg is fast and fun, too, and is considered a classic on most platforms.

Grand Prix Driver was awful. Miraculously I completed it once, and the congratulations message wasn't even centred. Bridge It had a terrible reputation, but I actually didn't mind it. Didn't play it for long, but its reputation as the worst game ever seemed undeserved in a hotly contested field (!). The Galactic Plague had a poor reputation, too, although I haven't played it for so long I can't remember how warranted that was.

I didn't have many games to begin with, so I spent more time on type-ins. It remember seeing a type-in for a car racing game that was better than Grand Prix Driver after I'd spent £2.99 at the market on it. I enjoyed games like Frutties, Ah Bod, and Stunt Parrot from magazines like Computing with the Amstrad.

[roudoudou]

i had this basic programm in mind, economic simulation. Very easy once you understand the optimal way to grow.
https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=3016

the billionnaire is a little more hard and interesting
https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1426

also San pablo
https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1870

in small arcade game, i have in mind elevator action, street hawk...


what is crazy is that Elite was released in 1986

[Sykobee (Briggsy)]

Ah, back when AmsGolf was one of the few games I had I had fun with it, it had its own charm despite the obvious issues!

Roland on the Ropes and Roland in the Caves were both fun.

Stockmarket was kinda fun too.

Frutties was a great mag type-in game, and one of the games that started me on programming (changing the map), along with the good Snake game from CWTA and all the write an adventure game tutorials in the mags too.

[crayzyian]

I never had a problem with Galactic Plague - all about timing and positioning.  Great fun!

Bridge It was awful!

[BSC]

Nice topic. I enjoyed Roland Ahoi! for some strange reason. Also Harrier Attack, Oh Mummy, Electro Freddy (it was strangely cute), Aligata Blagger (hard as hell), Super Pipeline 2 (great music), Roland in Time (time travel + cool music), Roland in Space (even cooler) and of course Manic Miner (hard as hell, I think I never reached like room 10 or so without POKEs). Also Master Of the lamps (mainly for its great music) and one particular type-in! I think it was called Sam, it had a level editor where you could put stuff like conveyor belts, ladders, baddies and items and I spent a lot of time with my brother creating levels and then playing each others creations. Awesome for a type-in. 
 
I did not like Punchy (looked like crap) and right now are glad to not remember any other "hated" games. Apparently, only the nice ones got stuck. Oh! Roland on the ropes was crap! 

[Mark_wllms]

I think Codename MAT and Pyjamarama were very early games and both were great. I'm sure I got both Christmas '84.

[Anthony Flack]

When we first got our CPC, it came with four Amsoft games. Roland Ahoy! and Frank n Stein, both solidly average games. Animal Vegetable Mineral was insulting that they charged money for such a rudimentary BASIC program; it ought to have been a type-in in the manual. And Quack A Jack which is a brilliant game. 

Later we got more. I like Roland in Time/Space. Roland in the Caves was OK but far too short. Super Pipeline II is pretty good and has great graphics. Fruit Machine is even less appealing than the real thing. The Scout Steps Out is great. 3D Space Invaders is hot steaming garbage. 

A few weeks ago I acquired an almost-complete set of Amsoft cassettes - 88 games. Nobody else bid on them! Now, I know there are excellent games in there like Manic Miner and Pyjamarama. But as I have been testing them to see which ones load, one game that surprised me so far was Stock Market. I would never have played this back in the day because as a kid this looked boring, almost like business software. But Stock Market is good fun! An extremely simple game that nevertheless works really well. I bet it is a laugh in multiplayer. 

[cwpab]

The graphics on some of these games, while rudimentary, were strangely hypnotic.

Amsgolf, Haunted Hedges and Electro Freddy (powered by cool little sounds too) come to mind.

I must confess I also like the looks of the otherwise terrible Grand Prix Driver. There's something (probably involuntary) impressionist about the red and brown cars and roads.

My next topic is going to be about the feelings that CPC games inspired to our kids brains via mysterious/magical shapes, colors and sounds. Even in shitty games.

[0ziris]

Oh Mummy, first game me and my best friend ever loaded up on the CPC, and we loved it.