Top 3 Best Games 1973. reviews: Wumpus, Lemonade Stand, Lunar Lander

All list top 37 games.

Top 3. Wumpus (Altair 8800, Apple II, Commodore PET/CBM, HP Programmable Calculator, Intel 8080, KIM-1, Mainframe, Sol-20, TRS-80, Wang 2200)

This is a text-based, turn-based adventure where the player needs to kill a monster named Wumpus, located in one of 20 rooms. Each room has one entrance and two exits (three paths in total). All rooms are numbered, and this is indicated during the game.

Wumpus may not stay in one place and sometimes reacts to the player's actions. For example, when you find him before shooting, he will either move away or kill you.

The game features two bottomless pits and two caves with super-bats that transport you to a random cave. Pits kill you.

Since Wumpus reacts to light, you navigate by scent and wind, and information about neighboring caves is provided: drafts from pits, the monster's smell, or the presence of bats.

To kill the monster, you have five curved arrows that can change direction and even return like a boomerang. When shooting, you specify the cave and distance (up to 5 caves). If the arrow misses Wumpus, he may change his position. You need to track him down or rely on luck.

Many consider the game a precursor to the survival horror genre, although not everyone agrees.

Top 2. Lemonade Stand (Apple II, DOS, Mainframe)

This is a business management simulator for running a lemonade stand. You have 12 rounds to achieve the maximum result without going bankrupt. Either stop the game due to bankruptcy or update the high-score table.

Before each round or day, the weather is indicated: sunny, cloudy, hot, dry. If it's cloudy, a random event like a storm may occur, causing you to lose all money for that round. Then, you choose how many servings to prepare, how many advertising signs to place (they cost money), and the price per glass. The results for that round are then revealed.

Other random events include wind blowing away some signs or streets being blocked, etc.

The game was quite well-known in schools in the 80s, as Apple II often supplied its computers to classrooms with this game.

Top 1. Lunar Lander (Arcade, Macintosh, Windows, Apple I, Commodore PET/CBM, Apple II, TRS-80, Atari 8-bit, VIC-20, TRS-80 CoCo, Game Boy, DOS)

Here, you attempt to land a lunar module on the moon. In the initial text-based version of the game, you were shown the amount of fuel, current speed, and distance to the ground.

You had to specify the amount of thrust. If the thrust was too high, fuel would be depleted too quickly, and you'd crash. If it was too low, the spacecraft would crash due to high speed.

Later, as graphics improved (e.g., with vector graphics), additional controls were added, such as the angle of movement and lateral speed. With vector graphics, you could also crash if you landed on uneven terrain.

Later versions of the game transitioned from turn-based to real-time mode.

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