Top 8 Games of 1972. reviews: Roulette, Haunted House, States, Bagels

Here are games ranked from 5th to 8th place.

The complete List of the Top 37 Games.

These games are played on a very unconventional console, the very first gaming console in history. It had almost no graphics of its own, consisting of just a few pixels. The primary graphics were on a plastic overlay with a drawn image that attached to the screen and stuck there due to the static electricity of old televisions. The old televisions used cathode-ray tubes, unlike the modern liquid crystal displays. The package also included a paper manual, chips, cards, dice, and more, depending on the game.

Roulette (Odyssey)

In this game, you use various items besides the screen. First, there's an overlay on the screen, and then there's the tabletop part of the game, chips, and paper money.

Each player is given $1000. Bets can be placed on black or white, even or odd, and on one or multiple numbers.

After pressing the reset button, the pixel must end up off-center; otherwise, the round is reset. In the tabletop part of the game, there are fields where you place your chips, and it immediately shows the odds at which you win if you're lucky, for example, 12 times the bet.

Haunted House (Odyssey)

You play as either a detective or a ghost and then switch roles. The ghost starts, hides behind one of the objects, and becomes invisible until the detective gets close.

The detective needs to move from the bottom left to the third floor from the top right. He must name objects one by one, and a card is given for each correct guess. You must avoid hitting the window with a light pixel, or you lose a card.

As you approach the ghost, the other player says "boo," and the ghost becomes visible. Now, you must avoid the detective, using alternative routes, or you lose half your cards.

When you reach the letter on the third floor, you must also pick one of the cards with secret messages and perform the written action, which can be either beneficial or harmful.

After the game, players tally up who has more cards when playing as the detective.

States (Odyssey)

Two players take turns playing this game. With the button pressed, the pixel is invisible, so you move it that way. Then, you suddenly turn it on to reveal its location. The player must name the state near that pixel or the nearest state if they didn't hit it. For a correct answer, the player receives a card for that state.

Then, the players switch places, and if they land on an already guessed state, they become a contender and try to answer a question about that state. The question is written on the front of the state card, with answers provided on a separate page.

The player with more cards wins.

Bagels (Altair 8800, Commodore PET/CBM, HP Programmable Calculator, KIM-1, Mainframe, Sol-20, TI Programmable Calculator, TRS-80)

This is a word guessing game where you try to figure out a phrase made up of random letters. You provide your guess, and the computer tells you how many letters you got right in the correct position or if you have the right letter in the wrong place. By comparing your attempts and these hints, you must deduce the phrase within a limited number of attempts. It's a simple text-based game, but this simplicity made it popular because it could be ported to many less powerful platforms.

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