Best platformers for pre-NES consoles?

[BetaWolf47]

I only know of Pitfall!, Montezuma's Revenge, and H.E.R.O. What are some other great platformers for those consoles though? Also, which versions are recommended for the multi-platform ones?

We had a discussion about Pitfall recently, but there must be other pre-85 gems that a child of the 3rd-gen era hasn't played.

[j_factor]

B.C.'s Quest for Tires and Smurf: Rescure in Gargamel's Castle come to mind, both for Colecovision. Although they're not that great, they're important precursors to the later stuff.

[tom]

The original Mario Bros, rocks...

[NayusDante]

Joust comes to mind.

How would you define a platformer? I want to say that it refers to any game with a side-view and a jump button, but given the era you may have to stretch that definition. With all the pits you have to avoid, you could stretch the definition to include E.T....

[tom]

Mountain King, Mr Do's Castle!, Space Panic, Miner 2049er, Bounty Bob....etc these are all great.

Of course there were also many platformers on home computers like A8, Apple ][, C64, all pre-NES.

[Nintega Grafx-16]

Pac-Land

[ubersaurus]

Pitfall II :P Donkey Kong of course. I also always liked Fast Eddie as a kid, even if it is ridiculously easy these days.

[kupomogli]

How come there's no Jungle Hunt mentioned? Jungle Hunt owns.

[k8track]

Journey to the Centre of the Earth, for Commodore 64.

[Leo_A]

Joust is considered a platformer?

[thom_m]

Does Keystone Kapers count as a platformer? If it does, it's one hell of a good one.

[buzz_n64]

Pitfall II (Atari 5200)

[Arkhan]

How come there's no Jungle Hunt mentioned? Jungle Hunt owns.

because its not a platformer? lol



The first things that come to mind for me are Kangaroo and Donkey Kong.

and then a bunch of MSX1/C64/whatever games

Mr. Wongs Loopy Laundry (lol)
The Snowman

(These may be during NES time actually)
Infernal Miner
Kings Valley
Elidon
Lazy Jones
Ninja Kun

Most of the pre-NES stuff was like those weird single screen ones.

[j_factor]

Pac-Land

Wasn't on any pre-NES consoles. :P

[NayusDante]

The ZX Spectrum was released in 82, and I'm pretty sure it has a bunch of platformers.

[8bitgamer]

Cabbage Patch Kids Adventure in the Park for the ColecoVision is way more enjoyable than you would think. Challenging, too.

[miaandjohnrule]

Wasn't on any pre-NES consoles. :P

at least I wasn't the only one thinking that.

[Arkhan]

Cabbage Patch Kids Adventure in the Park for the ColecoVision is way more enjoyable than you would think. Challenging, too.

also athletic land for msx

same game basically.