Epyx Games (1979–1993)

Programmed by Dennis Caswell. Platform-puzzle game featuring digitised speech ("Another visitor. Stay a while… stay forever!") via Electronic Speech Systems technology. Zzap!64 score: 98%. One of the most acclaimed C64 games ever made.

Epyx's best-selling game. Six California sports events: half-pipe skateboarding, footbag, BMX, surfing, roller skating, flying disc. Music by Chris Grigg. 300,000 copies sold in first nine months.

Eight Olympic-style events launched the landmark Games series. Sold over 400,000 copies on C64 alone. Events include 100m dash, pole vault, high jump, swimming, diving, gymnastics, cycling, and rowing.

Randy Glover's 30-level platform classic. Defuse bombs across single-screen stages of increasing deviousness. An early platform-game masterpiece, released under the Epyx name in 1983.

Six winter sports events: biathlon, bobsled, figure skating, free skiing, hot dog aerials, and speed skating. Followed Summer Games with the same multi-event formula applied to the Winter Olympics.

Eight more Olympic events including kayaking, triple jump, javelin, equestrian, fencing, and more. Produced by Kathy Bachus-Kosaka. A worthy successor to the original Summer Games.

Eight international sporting events: barrel jumping, cliff diving, caber toss, log rolling, sumo, weight lifting, slalom, and bull riding. Produced by Kathy Bachus-Kosaka.

One of the earliest split-screen two-player racing games on home computers. Race on 12 circuits while managing pit stops and tyre wear. A technical achievement for 1984.

Dennis Caswell returned for the sequel. Expanded level design, nine towers to explore, and the return of the digitised voice. Not quite the lightning-in-a-bottle of the original, but a worthy follow-up.

Randy Glover's compact companion to Jumpman. Twelve single-screen stages with a more accessible difficulty curve than the original. Published in the same year as its predecessor.

Automated Simulations' flagship dungeon-crawler RPG. One of the earliest graphical dungeon exploration games, Temple of Apshai launched the Dunjonquest series and established the company's name in early home computer gaming.

An early Automated Simulations action game where the player controls a giant monster destroying a city. An unusual premise that demonstrated the company's willingness to experiment beyond the dungeon-crawler genre.

Epyx published the seminal dungeon-crawler Rogue - the game that gave the roguelike genre its name. Originally created by Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman, Epyx's distribution deal brought it to the widest audience of the era.

Guide movie monsters (Godzilla, King Kong, and others) through cities, devouring buildings and terrorising populations. A light-hearted action title with enormous visual charm.

Jeff McCord's dungeon-crawler, originally designed for VIC-20, was ported to the C64 by Epyx. A procedurally generated dungeon with a race to retrieve a legendary sword before your torch runs out.

Epyx's officially licensed adaptation of the popular game show. Supported up to three players and faithfully replicated the puzzle-solving wheel-spinning gameplay of the television format.

Epyx published the home conversion of Capcom's Street Fighter. The C64 version was a notable port of the original arcade fighting game, preceding the more famous Street Fighter II by several years.

A late-period Epyx action title released during the Chapter 11 period. A top-down aquatic shooter demonstrating that Epyx continued to publish creative titles even in financial difficulty.

Off-road racing through four different terrain types: Baja California, Indiana, Sahara, and Himalayas. Multiple vehicle types with different performance characteristics. Published near the end of Epyx's peak years.

The sequel to Epyx's best-selling game added snowboarding, surfing, boogie boarding, hacky sack, and hang gliding. Released under Chapter 11, it captured some of the original's sun-drenched spirit.