The 15 greatest video games of the 80s – ranked!

Button-bashing arcade sports vied with the thrill of urban planning, Pac-Man ate up everything, and Super Mario Bros smashed gaming into the mainstream

The 1980s were crammed with wonderful adventure games - The Hobbit, King's Quest, Leather Goddesses of Phobos - but the first point-and-click title to be designed by comic genius Ron Gilbert using the SCUMM scripting language is the classic that busted out of the genre ghetto. Filled with great jokes and B-movie cliches, the game made brilliant use of its accessible and intuitive interface, as well as seamlessly integrating cutscenes and non-sequential puzzles. The start of a weird and special era.