California Games

California Games
C64/128 Cover art
Developer(s) Epyx
Publisher(s) Epyx
Designer(s) Chuck Sommerville
Ken Nicholson
Kevin Norman
Composer(s) Chris Grigg
David Wise (NES version)
Chikako Kamatani (SMS version)
Andras Magyari (Genesis version)
Series Epyx Games
Platform(s) Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Atari 2600, Atari Lynx, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, MSX, NES, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega Master System, ZX Spectrum
Release 1987
Genre(s) Sports
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer
Screenshot of California Games for the Commodore 64.

California Games is a 1987 Epyx sports video game for many home computers and video game consoles. Branching from their popular Summer Games and Winter Games series, this game consisted of some sports purportedly popular in California including skateboarding, freestyle footbag, surfing, roller skating, flying disc (frisbee) and BMX.

The game sold very well, topping game selling charts for winter months. It also got very positive reaction from reviewers, many of whom consider California Games to be the last classic Epyx sports game, due to staff changes not long after its release.

The game was followed in 1990 by California Games II, but the sequel failed to match the original's success.

Development

Several members of the development team moved on to other projects. Chuck Sommerville, the designer of the half-pipe game in California Games later developed the game Chip's Challenge, while Ken Nicholson the designer of the footbag game was the inventor of the technology used in Microsoft's DirectX. Kevin Norman, the designer of the BMX game went on to found the educational science software company Norman & Globus, makers of the ElectroWiz series of products.

The sound design for the original version of California Games was done by Chris Grigg, member of the band Negativland.

Ports

Originally released for the Apple II and Commodore 64, this game was very lucrative for Epyx and was released for several other platforms over the years. It was eventually ported to Amiga, Apple IIGS, Atari 2600, Atari ST, Atari Lynx, DOS, Sega Mega Drive, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Nintendo Entertainment System, MSX and Sega Master System.

More recently the game was released for mobile phones in the Java format, and current rights holders System 3 CEO Mark Cale has stated that the game will be available in future as both a retail product and an on-line product for the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS.[1] The Commodore 64 version was released for the Wii's Virtual Console service in Europe on April 11, 2008 and in North America on July 6, 2009.[2]

Events

The events available vary slightly depending on the platform, but include all of the following:

Team sponsors

Team sponsors for California Games include Epyx, Costa Del Mar, Kawasaki, Santa Cruz, Ocean Pacific, Casio, Auzzie, Spin Jammer, Maxx-Out, Milton Bradley, Santa Cruz, Jetski and Ray-D-O.

Reception

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
CVG37/40[4]
Crash36%[5]
Sinclair User8/10[6]
Your Sinclair7/10[7]
Zzap!6497%[8]
MicroHobby (ES)[9]
The Games Machine92%[10]
MegaTech80%[11]
Mega60%[12]
Award
PublicationAward
Zzap!64Gold Medal

With more than 300,000 copies sold in the first nine months California Games was the most-successful Epyx game, outselling each of the four previous and two subsequent titles in the company's "Games" series.[13][14] CEO David Shannon Morse stated that it was the first Epyx game to appeal equally to boys and girls during playtesting.[15]

Computer Gaming World recommended the game, calling it fun.[16] Compute! called California Games "both inventive and charming".[17] The game was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon #129 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4½ out of 5 stars.[18] In a capsule review for STart, Clayton Walnum said California Games "isn't a bad package, especially since it comes free with the Lynx." He found the BMX and surfing events great fun but deemed the skateboarding event frustrating and said the foot-bag event is pleasant but quickly wears thin.[19]

Cultural influences

References

  1. ↑ GoNintendo » Blog Archive » System 3 CEO confirms upcoming original Wii downloadable games, new California Games included- What are you waiting for?
  2. ↑ California Games (Virtual Console) Review
  3. ↑ "Sega Visions - Issue 1" (1). Sega Visions. June 1990: 35. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  4. ↑ http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=C+VG/Issue072/Pages/CVG07200036.jpg
  5. ↑ http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=Crash/Issue49/Pages/Crash4900027.jpg
  6. ↑ http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=SinclairUser/Issue071/Pages/SinclairUser07100021.jpg
  7. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-02-13. Retrieved 2012-02-11.
  8. ↑ http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzap100/100thspec5.html
  9. ↑ http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=MicroHobby/Issue163/Pages/MicroHobby16300022.jpg
  10. ↑ http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=TheGamesMachine/Issue01/Pages/TheGamesMachine0100079.jpg
  11. ↑ MegaTech rating, EMAP, issue 6, page 76, June 1992
  12. ↑ Mega rating, issue 9, page 23, Future Publishing, June 1993
  13. ↑ Maher, Jimmy (2015-06-19). "The Evolution of the (Epyx) Games". The Digital Antiquarian. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
  14. ↑ Maher, Jimmy (2016-12-22). "A Time of Endings, Part 2: Epyx". The Digital Antiquarian.
  15. ↑ Ferrell, Keith; Keizer, Gregg (September 1988). "Epyx Grows with David Morse". Compute!. p. 10. Retrieved November 10, 2013.
  16. ↑ Teverbaugh, Rick (October 1987). "Sports Scoreboard" (PDF). Computer Gaming World. No. 40. p. 42. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  17. ↑ Bobo, Ervin (November 1987). "California Games". Compute!. p. 40. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  18. ↑ Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia; Lesser, Kirk (January 1988). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (129): 32–42.
  19. ↑ Walnum, Clayton (December 1990). "The Lynx Collection". STart. No. 39. Antic Publishing. pp. 66–67.
  20. ↑ JonTronShow (2014-06-14), California Games - JonTron, retrieved 2016-02-21
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