1979's games: Adventure, Invaders, and ... Touch Me?

I never played Adventure as a kid, and didn't feel any particular draw to it through retro consoles. Frankly, I didn't get the big deal with it.

Well, I still won't stand up and say that I now believe in this #1 console game for 1979, but having played my way through at least one level I can at least claim to finally be part of the phenomenon. And, I'll admit, as I played it through this retro games site, I do see how it could have taken home gaming by storm - especially as I've been complaining about the over-abundance of Pong clones for the past couple of years. Adventure is different, stressful in its way, and, yeah, it's fun. Darn it - I might be talking myself into playing some more levels now. 

Elsewhere in gaming: Space Invaders continues to steal quarters from kids; Nintendo keeps plugging along in its console development with the Color TV-Block Kuzushi system, which only sold in Japan and offered a home version of Breakout with some variations on the block patterns; and Atari, who found last year's top-selling Simon handheld game a little too similar to their own Touch Me arcade game (I didn't know about this when I wrote about Simon last week), decided to take back the crown and release a home version of their original game ... and, incredibly, didn't take advantage of this moment to change the name.

So, Touch Me it remained.