Fairly early in my Steemit "career", I discovered a user by the name of @whoisjohn and have enjoyed his posts about retro video games, often prompting a sense of nostalgia and long forgotten memories from my younger, worry-free days.

In a recent exchange, I asked @whoisjohn what his all-time favourite game was for the period of time - For example, comparing his feelings on Super Mario Bros. (circa 1983) vs. Call of Duty (circa 2003). Until the question was reciprocated, I hadn't realised what a ludicrously difficult question I'd asked!

So having provided my answer at the time, I've thought about it a great deal more and decided to shortlist games that I've loved over my lifetime with a view to sharing my all-time top 10. You can probably tell by the title of my post, 10 simply wasn't enough. 20 isn't really enough but I had to draw the line somewhere. (My shortlist was nearer 50 and that was choosing just 1 version from a particular franchise.)

Now I don't claim to be a hardcore gamer. You won't catch me sitting with a headset talking with a load of people I've never met. I love sports and I've never played Final Fantasy. So my list will undoubtedly be controversial. You'll wonder how I've missed out your favourite game. The chances are I've missed out my favourite game so go easy on me.

So here, I'll begin my top 20 and why I fell in love with each particular game. Let me know what you think.

20 - Treasure Island Dizzy (ZX Spectrum 48k)

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I'm not going to sit here and spout a load of crap about how amazing and memorable this game is because I can honestly remember very little about it. I remember the egg, I remember the coins, I remember the controls (Z, X and space bar) and I remember being pretty shit at it. But it's one of the few games I can remember from the ZX Spectrum which means something in itself. It was my first "real computer" and the one that I started learning to code on. So a part of this inclusion is a doffing of the cap to a machine that played a role in my future career.

19 - Space Invaders (Atari 2600)

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Now this is a game I remember well and was pretty decent at. Much better than that clown in the video. With the simplicity of left & right on a joystick and a red button to fire, you're not going to get an in depth review. This is one of my earliest memories of video games (I remember having Pong on a console of some sort before this) and along with Q*bert, one of my few memories of the Atari 2600.

18 - Double Dragon (Amiga 500)

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When I started to list out some classic video games, my Amiga 500 (upgraded to 1MB) is the machine that accounts for nearly half of the games on my list. So it's fair to say that it's a machine that holds a special place in my nostalgic memory bank. Double Dragon was about as iconic an arcade game as you could get. The simplicity of the back story is enough to tell you all that you need to know -

The Story so far.........

Double Dragon is the story of two twin brothers, Billy and Jimmy Lee facing the odds together in a city where survival has to be learned the hard way. Their knowledge of the martial arts, combined with the experience of though urban existence, has made thom both formidable fighting machines, ready for any challenge that comes their way.

But now the brothers are faced with their greatest challenge ever. Billy's girl Marian has been kidnapped by the Black Warriors, a savage and ruthless street gand led by the mysterious Shadow Boss. Using skill gained from a lifetime on the streets, and whatever weapons come to hand - including knives, whips, baseball bats, rocks and even oil drums - Billy and Jimmy must pursue the gang through the sprawling slums, factories and outskirts of the city, to reach the thugs' hideout for the final confrontation with the infamous Shadow Boss!

Link to the back story and controls

You know a game's good when there's no option to "block" or "defend".

17 - The Sims (PC)

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Wow, looks at this guy's games shelf. I'd love a couple of years going through that lot! I digress.

The Sims. Perhaps a surprise choice, perhaps not. At the time, The Sims was pretty ground breaking and before the days of needing to buy 1,000 expansion packs to own the entire game. It was all in one box and a community providing DLC quickly formed around it. There was something strangely addictive about building the homes and lives for little computerised people (anybody remember second life?) and then making them all fall in love and kiss each other non-stop, hoping that they didn't get caught out by the other sims they were knocking about with. Over time, the sims franchise got increasingly complex and increasingly took the piss with how little you got for your money. Sims 4 will cost you over $350 to own the entire game (source). So this version is the one I've chosen for my top 20, the version that was so special at the time it was released.

16 - Grand Theft Auto (PC)

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Another franchise which has gone on to produce some amazing games and I could easily have chosen any of the other versions. The missions are great fun or you could simply drive around, running people over and generally causing total chaos. GTA has caused controversy with many of the things it has chosen to include over the years and I remember at the time, this version was blamed for numerous driving offences - a quick google search found an 11-year-old boy taking his parents' car for a high speed police chase and it being blamed for teenagers' bad driving. It was always risky getting behind the wheel after spending a couple of hours mowing down pedestrians.

20 - 16 Summary

Choosing my top 20 was incredibly difficult. Putting them in any kind of order was doubly so and I'll look at this list again tomorrow and feel very differently about it. After I've reached number 1, I'll share some of the games that have missed out. @whoisjohn's favourite game is one that I've never played and there are some incredibly popular titles that I've never really gotten into. I've also not had chance to move beyond my PS3 and rarely play any games at all now due to having 2 children that are too young to appreciate blowing somebody's leg off on Soldier of Fortune.

16 - Grand Theft Auto (PC)
17 - The Sims (PC)
18 - Double Dragon (Amiga 500)
19 - Space Invaders (Atari 2600)
20 - Treasure Island Dizzy (ZX Spectrum 48k)

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