Barry McGuigan World Championship Boxing

Barry McGuigan World Championship Boxing was written by Troy Lyndon and published by Activision in 1985, and on the Commodore 64 it was the most ambitious take on boxing of its day. The name on the box was no accident: that very year the Irish featherweight Barry McGuigan dethroned a long-reigning world champion and briefly became one of the biggest names in sport. The game points you at a single goal — climb the rankings and take his title. In the US the same game shipped as Star Rank Boxing.

What made it stand out was a surprisingly complete career mode. You create a fighter first: name, look and, crucially, fighting style. Then you work your way up a ladder of ranked challengers, and between bouts you split limited training time — heavy bag and weights build punching power, light bag and roadwork build stamina, sparring is a bit of everything. This management layer is the real game: choosing the right opponent and preparing for him matters as much as anything you do in the ring.

The fights themselves are viewed from the side and kept simple — a few punches, a guard, footwork. The craft lies in pacing: swing wildly and your man can barely lift his arms in the later rounds. The weaknesses are just as plain: the animation was stiff even by 1985 standards, and once you read an opponent's rhythm the bouts start to blur together.

It is still worth a look, because this is one of the earliest games to bolt a proper career onto a sports action game — something we now take for granted. And the arc from unknown club fighter to a title shot against McGuigan can still carry an evening, forty years on.

You can step into the ring on oldgame.cz, straight in your browser with nothing to install.