Awesome games from a time when 'one didn't just complete video games'

A selection of BBC Microcomputer video games, from a time when games were so difficult, you did not complete them.
Thrust - a lesson in Physics, from the time when computer games were difficult.
"Probably the most challenging game for the BBC Micro" - so much so that Micro power offered cash prizes to anyone who finished it. I had a primary school teacher who was awesome (and forward thinking) enough to let us play this game ad nauseum. Never managed to complete it.
Repton - one of the greatest BBC Micro games I never owned, not that I would have completed it if I did.
The game that changed everything. Elite -the first truly 3D game. This video shows the game being played on vintage hardware. This was a true revolution in gaming. For the first time you were not limited by three lives with levels speeding up as you progress until it becomes impossible to play. Elite immersed you in a vast sandbox universe. I lost countless Friday nights as a young teen exploring the many alien worlds and battling the Thargoids and I never did manage to make it to the status of 'Elite'.  It is so good, we might do a whole series of posts on it. I wonder how many people are now spending countless nights playing Elite: Dangerous?
"We are the Arcadians" they taunted at the start of every battle. Great stuff! A fantastic version of Space Invaders for the BBC Micro. Impossible to complete, the arcadians just came at you faster and faster...
Exile - a fine example of one of the excellent adventure games for the BBC microcomputer. Did someone say 32K?
A mind-boggling and difficult adventure game featuring teleports, platforms and various beasties we came to expect from Acornsoft computer games.
Ricochet - excellent graphics and a wonderful gameplay made this game a firm favourite. I forget the name of the protagonist in this adventure, however I do remember that the aim of the game was to bounce your way through four different worlds looking for pieces of the thingy you needed to complete the game. It was a truly fiendishly difficult game, and suffice to say, I never completed it.
Baron. One of my favourite beeb games because it kind of felt like a sequel to Castle Quest. I later found out that Baron was written in a hurry to fill up space on the Acornsoft's "Play it Again Sam 11" compilation. It is not actually possible to complete this game, although I stand ready to be corrected.

Chuckie Egg. It is not possible to win, just survive longer than last time. Eventually the big yellow bird in the cage is released. If you survive that, his little blue buddies team up and kill you. Even so, this is probably one of the best games ever. They don't make games like this anymore.
Pipeline - an ingenious game with great graphics, complex puzzles and cool soundtrack. Pipeline also game with a level editor and graphics editor allowing you to spend literally days tinkering with your own levels and puzzles. One of the most memorable features of pipeline was the maze of pipes that one would enter and inevitably become hopelessly lost within...
White Magic 2 - a rogue like monster-slaying game for the beeb. This one had a level editor which was more fun than the actual game.
Ravenskull - "harder than titanium nails laminated with kryptonite!"


All of these games, and more, are available to play on the wonderful BeebEm emulator by David Gilbert.