California Games

Manual

91K plays 1987 #Action#Sport

California Games is a 1987 sports video game developed and published by Epyx for the Apple II and Commodore 64. Branching from their Summer Games and Winter Games series, it is a collection of outdoor sports purportedly popular in California. The game was successful and was soon ported to other home computers and video game consoles, and was the pack-in game for the Atari Lynx when that system launched in September 1989. It was followed by the sequel California Games II in 1990.

The events vary slightly per platform, but include half-pipe, footbag, surfing (starring Rippin' Rick), roller skating, BMX, and flying disc.

From Wikipedia's article California Games, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Keyboard controls

NESPlayer 1Player 2
D-pad↑↓←→IKJL
BZN
AXM
SelectShiftB
StartEnterSpace

Hotkeys

  • 1 Quick save state
  • 2 Quick load state
  • 3 Change save slot

Gamepads are detected when you press a button. Remap any key from the emulator’s Controls menu (gear icon).

Emulator help & troubleshooting

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Keyboard controls

NESPlayer 1Player 2
D-pad↑↓←→IKJL
BZN
AXM
SelectShiftB
StartEnterSpace

Hotkeys

  • 1 Quick save state
  • 2 Quick load state
  • 3 Change save slot

Gamepads are detected when you press a button. Remap any key from the emulator’s Controls menu (gear icon).

Emulator help & troubleshooting

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Press Start Game first.

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Pixel Verdict

California GamesNES

3.5 Good job

Critics 77 · 9 reviews (other versions)

From reviews of other versions of the game (none of this one found).

What the reviews talk about

Key wordsinventivecharmingoutstandingfrustratingrealisticfun

What the critics said

  • Compute! called California Games "both inventive and charming".

    — Compute!, 1987

  • "Epyx Software gives us a refreshing treat", PC Magazine said of the PC version, citing the surfing game's "outstanding animation and realistic graphics".

    — PC Magazine, 1988· about another version

From the Reception section of Wikipedia's California Games article, under CC BY-SA 4.0. The words are the critics'; their full reviews are on the publishers' pages.

Scores

  • ACE 1989 930/1000 (other versions)
  • Crash 2017 36% (other versions)
  • Computer and Video Games 1989 37/40; 82%; 95% ; 94% (other versions)
  • Dragon 4.5/5 (other versions)
  • Electronic Gaming Monthly 1992 5/10, 4/10, 4/10, 5/10 (other versions)
  • Sinclair User 2017 8/10 (other versions)
  • The Games Machine (UK) 2019 92% (other versions)
  • Your Sinclair 7/10 (other versions)
  • Zzap!64 97% (other versions)

From the review table of Wikipedia's article. The face takes, first that applies: the Metascore for this platform, GameRankings' archived average, our average of the critics (one number per publication, a panel averaged), one review alone, the players' rating. Critics and players are never mixed.

Players' rating: 73/100 · 210 votes

Full reviews

Face key

  1. 1.00+
  2. 1.540+
  3. 2.050+
  4. 2.560+
  5. 3.068+
  6. 3.575+
  7. 4.080+
  8. 4.585+
  9. 5.090+

5.0 Outstanding! · 4.0 Great job! · 3.0 Good job · 2.0 Could be better · 1.0 Wake me up when it's over · A thumbs-up adds half a point. Our own drawings, in the spirit of the faces GamePro magazine used in the '90s.

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