History of porn games - The wild 80s

History of Porn games – The 80s

Adult games are a part of gaming history.

Games have been around for thousands of years. In fact, some even argue that games are the oldest form of human culture. But although games and gamers have been around for a long time, adult games are still something relatively new. And yet it comes as a no surprise that adult games are a part of gaming history. Whenever there were technological advancements in the entertainment sector, adult sector followed. Games were no different. That said, there's no shortage of history to be explored about these taboo topics! So let's begin with a brief history lesson on how we got here. It all started in the wild 80s.

Adult games of the 80s

First adult themed games started to appear in the 80s and the first ever game to be created as such was a game called SoftPorn Adventure released by On-line Systems which later changed their name to Sierra On-Line, yes that Sierra which also gave us Larry and a bunch of "Quest" adventure games.

In softporn adventure, the player searches for certain items that will allow him to win the affections of three women. Benton, the author of the game claimed some part of SoftPorn adventure was based on his own life, what part of was it though, never got revealed.

Funny thing is that famous Larry was actually based on the SoftPorn adventure and the first part is considered to be a remake.

SoftPorn adventure was released in 1981 for Apple II system and it sold 50,000 copies. Mind that Apple sold only a couple hundred thousand of Apple II computers at that time. SoftPorn Adventure was later re-released to the Japanese market in 1986 by Starcraft.

Want to give it a try play SoftPorn adventure here

One of the first true porn game was Custer's Revenge, and it was released in 1982 for the Atari 2600 console

The game itself is pretty simple: you play as General Custer who has been tasked with taking down an Indian tribe by making his way across their land and dodging arrows along the way. If you manage to make it all the way through without being hit by an arrow or killed by one of their warriors (who will attack you if they see you), then at the end of your journey there's an implied sexual encounter between yourself and Princess Summer Rain (a Native American woman).

The game was widely denounced for its graphic depiction of sexual violence and its racist themes, and was eventually banned in several countries.

Today, "Custer's Revenge" is widely regarded as one of the most tasteless and offensive games ever made, and is often cited as an example of the negative aspects of the early days of video gaming.

While "Custer's Revenge" has been largely forgotten today, it remains a cautionary tale about the dangers of insensitive and inappropriate content in video games

Custer's revenge was created by Mystique, a company that specialized in making adult games. It was designed to be played on the Atari 2600 console and could only be found in an arcade or convenience store (where most adults wouldn't see it). The game itself wasn't very popular, but it did open up a new market for other developers who wanted to create similar games.

After Custer's Revenge was released, Mystique went on to create games like Beat 'Em and Eat 'Em (a game where you play as a pizza delivery man who has to fight off thugs that try to steal your food) and Booby Trap (where two naked women are tied up in a dungeon). While these games were successful in some areas of the country, they weren't nearly as popular as other video games at the time.

One of the biggest producers of adult-themed game was a studio called Playaround.

PlayAround was a video game company active in the early 1980s. The company was known for producing and distributing unlicensed and adult-themed video games for the Atari 2600 and Intellivision consoles. These games, which were often low-quality and featured explicit sexual content, were distributed in a double-ender format, with two different games on each cartridge. Some of the company's most well-known titles include "Burning Desire," "Bachelor Party," and "Strip Poker."

Playaround's games were controversial at the time, due to their adult themes and the fact that they were unlicensed, and the company faced legal challenges from Atari and Mattel, the manufacturers of the Atari 2600 and Intellivision consoles, respectively. Despite these challenges, Playaround continued to produce and distribute adult-themed video games until the video game market crashed in 1983.

I mentioned Leisure Suit Larry series before and as it goes the first game did appear in the 80s as well. Leisure Suit Larry is a series of graphic adventure games created by Al Lowe and published by Sierra On-Line. The series debuted in 1987 with "Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards" and followed the adventures of Larry Laffer, a bumbling, middle-aged man in search of love and romantic encounters.

The games were known for their humor, puzzle-solving gameplay, and adult themes. The series continued with several sequels, including "Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places)" and "Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude." The series has had a cult following and is considered a classic of the adventure game genre. In recent years, there have been several remakes and remastered versions of the games released as well as some new additions to the series.

There were other games released in that era, most of them softcore strip poker games like Strip Poker: A Sizzling Game of Chance by Artworx, Hollywood Poker and PlayHouse Strip poker.

Check out the gameplay of the games in our Vintage Adult games video

The Japanese Eroge games of the 80s

Of course Japan was also on the prowl when it came to adult games, they started to emerge in the 80s and never stopped.

The first Japanese adult game, also known as an EROGE or H-game, is widely considered to be "Night Life," which was released in 1982 for the NEC PC-8801 computer. This text-based game was one of the earliest examples of an adult game in Japan and paved the way for the growth of the H-game industry.

First commercial Eroge game was Lolita Yakyūken a game produced by studio PSK in 1982 or the NEC PC-88 and Fujitsu FM-7 home computers. It was a paper, rock, scissors type of game where you selected one of the gestures and hope to win a round. If you did the girl then stripped one piece of clothing. If you lost the police got you for playing a loli game. Mhm.

Lolita did get a sequel called simply Lolita 2 which was in fact a text adventure game where you played a pervert following young girls and there was even a third installment the Final Lolita which also had some RPG elements to it.

And yes like Sierra had it's adult themed games also the now big Japanese companies like Square Enix had their own spicy titles one such being Lolita Syndrome released in 1983. I think we can still see some of that influence in the titles they produce even now.

Early Eroge games were pretty simple and followed a simple story they did however involve Anal sex which was considered a blasphemy back then and it did receive back lash from the media. The games were popular and they even made the PC-8801 system popular but they were not cheap with a copy selling for $80 and more.

Soon new genres evolved like RPG. One such title being the 1989 game called Chaos Angels by ASCII corporation

Since then, the Japanese adult game industry has grown significantly, producing games with increasingly sophisticated graphics and gameplay. The genre has also expanded to include a wide range of themes and sub-genres, including romantic comedy, science fiction, and horror. Despite being popular in Japan, many japanese adult games were and still are not widely available outside the country due to cultural differences and restrictions on the sale of sexually explicit material.

Final thoughts on the 80s porn games

Despite the controversy surrounding adult-themed games in the 80s, the genre continued to grow, with new titles being released for home computers and consoles. However, many of these games were only available through underground channels and were often distributed illegally. In the late 80s, the advent of home computers with more advanced graphics capabilities allowed for the creation of more explicit and sophisticated adult games.

Despite continued public outrage over the content of these games, they remained popular among a niche audience and continued to be produced into the 90s and beyond.

And yes take a look at the 90s era in the next article!

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Did I miss an important adult game of the 80s? Let me know in the comments.