Platform games

The platform games of the eight- and sixteen-bit era were built around a single relationship: how far you jump, and how much control you keep in the air. Everything else — enemies, secrets, level themes — is decoration on top of that one curve. Rick Dangerous takes the strict end of it. Core Design gave you a whip, six sticks of dynamite and traps that only reveal themselves by killing you once, so the game is really a memory test disguised as an Indiana Jones tribute.

Two traditions, and where they met

Consoles favoured momentum and generous checkpoints; home computers and shareware favoured precision and single-life stretches. Apogee and id Software found the crossover on PC with the Commander Keen series — Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle introduced smooth EGA scrolling to machines that supposedly could not do it, plus a pogo stick that turns level geometry into a puzzle. The other tradition is cinematic: rotoscoped animation, deliberate weight, death everywhere. Eric Chahi built Out of This World almost single-handedly around polygon scenes and no interface at all, and it still ends before it outstays its welcome.

These are catalogued originals rather than modern remakes, so the jump arcs and collision boxes are the ones you remember. Titles flagged as playable run straight in the browser via an emulator embedded in the page — no installation, no plugin, no registration, nothing to download. Keyboard mapping is done for you, including the awkward two-button layouts.