California Games

California Games
Developer(s)	Epyx
Publisher(s)	Epyx
Platform(s)	Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Atari 2600, Atari Lynx, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, NES, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega Master System, ZX Spectrum, Virtual Console, PlayStation Network
Release	Template:Vgy
Genre(s)	Sports game
Mode(s)	Single-player

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 consider California Games to be the last classic Epyx sport game. After this game, the staff in Epyx changed.

The game was followed in Template:Vgy by California Games 2. The sequel didn't 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.

Easter eggs

California Games contains a number of easter eggs:

• On some random occasions, there is an earthquake during the skateboarding event, causing the H of the Hollywood sign to fall down (The remaining "OLLYWOOD" might also be a reference to the ollie skateboarding trick.)
• Players can hit the seagull (named 'George') in Footbag. Hitting the gull grants more points.
• There is a Shark in Surfing who sometimes appears laughing at the player if they fall off their board. Sometimes, Dolphins also appear.
• When practicing Flying Disc, a UFO occasionally 'abducts' the catcher of the disc.

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. The Commodore 64 version was released for the Wii's Virtual Console service in Europe on April 11, 2008.

Cultural influences

• The game was the focus of a comedy skit made by Mega 64.

External links

• California Games at MobyGames
• California Games at SpectrumComputing.co.uk
• California Games on the Amiga at The Hall of Light (HOL)