California Games (C64/DOS/Atari/Lynx/NES/SMS/Genesis) Reviews

BMX IS IMPOSSIBLE!

C64 version better... =/

Brings back memories! Now I can throw away my old floppy disk.

I just bought this and don't see the DOS version option, was this removed? I remember playing the DOS version back in the 80s.

Bowling allies in the 80-90's good times. Please get the Oregon Trail Dos version on Steam.

Still probably the best surfing video game ever created.

The emulation of the games is pure garbage. The DOS version is in a separate DOS Box, and it is not easily configurable. A waste of time and money

California Games developed by Epyx, Inc. and Published by Pixel Games UK is a fine addition to any Steam collection. The game(s_ offer a nice diversity and challenge that keep any gamer enthralled.

This was on sale, so I picked it up. If you'd never played California games back in the 80's--well, it was on virtually every popular platform and we had it on the NES at our house. I can remember plopping my ass in front of the T.V. for hours, using the NES Advantage and with the right group of people, the game can be a lot of fun. From time to time: I'll go searching through steam, through the "Retro" category, to see which companies own the rights to which franchises and to see which ones are now on PC/steam. Sometimes, I'm surprised, I've seen Shadowgate, Uninvited, Nightshade and others; so when I saw California Games--Yes please! As listed in the description: there are multiple versions of the game in one package and I have played them all at this point. The most hilarious one being the Atari 2600 version (I'm sure it will be funny for a stream) The games have basic controls; although they're not always so intuitive--but if you played them back when: it won't take you long to remember. The graphics are pretty much as they were and same for the sound. The real meat and potatoes of the game, comes from having multiple people to play with--which brings me to the low points: The multiplayer is here, but it only applies to people who are also in the same room or sitting on the same couch. Wow, playing a video game with people in the same room, what a foreign concept nowadays. You people who missed out on the arcade experience or playing on the couch, you really missed out. Back in my day: I believe we could have up to at least 4 players, for a round of California games There isn't a lot of variety here, except for the versions of the games that are in the package. Half Pipe, Foot Bag, Surfing, Skating,BMX and disk toss--but this game is all about competition and high scores--that's what it's designed for. So you'd think in this day and age: some kind of online play would be a fit: but it's not here. I don't even think this thing has remote play enabled. Also the price point was a bit much: I paid about $13 for this with taxes included. For my budget and circumstances , it was honestly a bit steep. If I didn't have a fond nostalgia for it; I probably wouldn't be keeping it. It should have been half that. The package also included California Games II, which is only the DOS version and well--it's DOS and this game is not setup for controller support out of the gate. A fun little package really and great for anyone who was there the first time around. But due to the lack of any other kind of competitive or co-op play. I would not recommend this game. If however, you have a room full of people and you can all sit down and play together, it will be fun. Make a drinking game out of it or something or place bets.

Recent update added a ton of versions to the game, used to be DOS only in this release I think. Has a functional menu to select the different platforms, settings, etc and some basic controller support in all of the versions. Doesn't have Steam remote play enabled, but played 2P easily over Parsec and had a blast checking out the different versions. One snag we hit was player 2 having no input in I think the Master System version. If you have this issue, setting both players as using "joystick 1" when prompted fixed the issue for us. Easy recommend at $10 now. On sale, an absolute steal. Get it and unlock some core memories. *Works great on Steam Deck now too