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1989 · NES
| Region | Date | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| North America | Jun 1989 | Milton Bradley |
| Europe and Australia | 15 Aug 1991 | Milton Bradley |
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A sports day for the beach crowd. Instead of the hurdles and the high jump, it offers what was supposedly popular in California in 1987: half-pipe skating, footbag, surfing with Rippin' Rick, roller skating, BMX and flying disc. The exact line-up changes from machine to machine, but the idea does not: short events, one at a time or in a row, with friends taking turns for the high score.
The NES version came from Rare and was published by Milton Bradley in June 1989 in North America, and in Europe in August 1991.
Epyx made it for the Apple II and Commodore 64 in 1987, a spin-off from its Summer Games and Winter Games. The company reportedly spent more than three person-years on it, and a surfer on the team wrote the surfing event. Chuck Sommerville designed the half-pipe and went on to make Chip's Challenge; Ken Nicholson designed the footbag and later invented DirectDraw, part of Microsoft's DirectX. Chris Grigg of the band Negativland did the sound.
It was Epyx's biggest seller: more than 300,000 copies in its first nine months and past 500,000 by 1989, beating every other game in the 'Games' series. CEO Dave Morse said it was the first Epyx game that boys and girls liked equally in testing. It came to a dozen more machines, packed in with the Atari Lynx in September 1989, and topped the UK Master System chart in February 1990. California Games II followed in 1990. The Commodore 64 version reached the Wii Virtual Console in 2008 and 2009; the rights now sit with Epyx Games, LLC, which says it is working on a revival.
As a party game, yes. Each event takes a minute to learn and longer to get good at, and passing the controller round is half the fun. Footbag in particular is oddly hypnotic: you are just trying to keep a little bag in the air, and the room goes quiet while you do.
Played alone it runs out of road quickly, because once you know an event there is nowhere else to go. It is a game for a group, and it always was.
Dave Morse's note from testing is the interesting bit: this was the first Epyx game that girls liked as much as boys. Summer Games and Winter Games were named after seasons and built on beating each other. This one was named after a place and a feeling, a sunny afternoon with friends.
Caillois split play into contest, chance, make-believe and vertigo. Summer and Winter Games leaned on contest. California Games added a dose of make-believe: for a minute you are not on the carpet in winter, you are on a board off the coast. Change the kind of play and you change who wants to join in.
Read: The magic circle: the world that rules make →
You have been training these without noticing. Here is how to do it on purpose, and where it pays off away from the couch. All the skills games teach →
In the game. Short events, friends taking turns for the high score, passing the controller round. It's built for a crowd.
Do it on purpose. Teach a mate the event you're best at and let them beat you once. Then go again for real.
Off the couch. Being good company at a party matters more than winning anything. Cheer someone else's score and you'll get invited to the next one.
In the game. Footbag is oddly hypnotic: keep the little bag in the air and the whole room goes quiet while you do.
Do it on purpose. Run footbag five times, phone away. Notice what your head's doing on your best go.
Off the couch. Give someone the same attention you give that bag, eyes up, phone down. People remember being properly listened to.
In the game. Half-pipe, surfing, BMX, flying disc: each event takes a minute to learn and longer to get good at.
Do it on purpose. Pick your worst event and play only that for twenty minutes. Chase clean, not fast.
Off the couch. Picking up a new sport at the beach or a mate's place without making a fool of yourself is a confidence thing. Confidence is attractive.
Verdict · 6/10
A box of beach-day minigames that sold half a million and was built for a crowd. Grab three friends or leave it on the shelf.
