In New Zealand we called them “spaceys”. I still remember the first time i saw one…it was a a chain takeaway store called “Uncles” in Auckland a around 80-81. The game was Space Invaders of course.
Anyway my fav of the early days was Karate Champs! That was the one where you just had two joysticks to make your fighter kick some ass!
Then we got Kung Fu Master!
We went nuts for Kung Fu Master…that was totally kick ass!!!
Then there was the underground Kung Fu classic Yie Ar Kung Fu! My brother was running an awesome Pirate Themed Restaurant in Auckland and in the bottom part for kids it had Yie Ar Kung Fu…i used to getb shitloads of free credits so i was a master!!!
Q-Bert was awesome too
Never got to play Karate Champ I’m afraid. Q-Bert was indeed awesome.
One of my favorites still to this day is
BREAKOUT!
I was watching a show about video games the other day and it turns out it was none other than Steve Jobs who invented Breakout. I can do some pretty heavy damage on this one…
Gotta love MAME for stuff like this…
remember karateka? It was the first game that the creator of prince of persia made… similar concept… run to the right and don’t get hit… they had this one part where a gate would come crashing down fast every time you went near it. I tried everything to get past it. running, jumping, walking, waiting for it to clank down and then walking or running under it while it came back up, but nothing ever worked…
but as far as old old old games go
I remember one where you were a bartender and had like 5 rows of seats and had to keep throwing beer down and knocking away customers and if they made it the right you lost. then they had this mini game between boards where they put a ball under a glass or something and moved it around and you had to pick which glass it was under… nevertheless my young mind got really good at it and i’ve never lost at similar games in real life… made a few bucks off the streets in nyc playing that game, till guiliani cleaned up the town…
I’m a total loser for old school games, arcade, atari, old pc adventure games… now I think although the graphics are outstanding alot of games are just bleh… big big boards with alot of filler but nothing too entertaining in them… like give a drummer a 50 piece set and he’ll just probably try to make noise and hit everything… give him a snare, kick and a cymbal and you’re forced to be more creative… same with the old games… people had to make damn good games that focused more on enjoyment then flashy shit… in my opinion anyway
Karateka was on Apple.
It was nae bad pal.
i was always a dig dug fan meself.
Yeah Defender was totally BADASS…that was New Zealand’s gang members game of choice.
Tron was awesome too…you hopped in the stand up machine and it had the cool blue glow.
Then after a few years Dragons Lair hit the scene…i was pish at that. But if you could work the damn thing you were DA MAN!
but as far as old old old games go
I remember one where you were a bartender and had like 5 rows of seats and had to keep throwing beer down and knocking away customers and if they made it the right you lost. then they had this mini game between boards where they put a ball under a glass or something and moved it around and you had to pick which glass it was under… nevertheless my young mind got really good at it and i’ve never lost at similar games in real life… made a few bucks off the streets in nyc playing that game, till guiliani cleaned up the town…
This game is called “Beer tapper” or “Rootbeer tapper” depending on which version you have.
MY favorites include Tron (Which I have downloaded for Xbox 360)
Marble Madness (which was created by a 16 year old kid!!! or so the the creators of ready to rumble boxing tell me!-my sister used to be married to a dude that worked at midway games-long story)
I like Yie Ar Kung Fu I’ve downloaded that for Xbox 360 as well my skills are rusty though cause I can’t get passed chain
Finally I had Karateka for my atari 7800 and I could only get like 4 stages in before that god damn bird would fuck me up cause there was no way to kill it!! I think i could make it 1 or 2 stages into where the bird was. You can watch people beat this game on Youtube!
there are so many great games it’s hard to nail down just a few.
Late,
grmpysmrf
Hyper Olympics!!!
that’s just called “track and field” here in the US
Late,
grmpysmrf
Had to mash those buttons damn fast in Track & Field.
Good times. Go here for many more memories:
The arcade classics collections that came out for the PS2 were pretty nice too. Midway had 3, Namco had 1 I believe, Taito had 2, Capcom had one, Atari had 1, Intellivision had 1 I think.
Great stuff!
now this list predates nintendo
Mr Do’s castle was a joy. Ollie’s follies… mountain king… miner 20 40 9er… gremlins… ketstone cops
Hey anybody see the movie the king of kong… It’s about this couche bucket who holds the record for the #1 donkey kong score for 20 years. He’s totally cocky and full of himself and living in his own hype and then some random guy who just likes to play the game beats his score. The old score holder throws a fit and has his goons go to the guy’s house and denounce his machine as a phony… and well I won’t give the movie away
I think the death of dreamcast was a real shame. Though the system had alot of stinkers, some of the games on there really were pushing the bounderies. Space channel 5 was just the shit.
it started to look bleak with the playstation and xbox garbage then nintendo came back with 2 home runs (wii and the ds)
I just wish they’d make adventure games like the old lucasarts and sierra games
I will own up some mofo’s at Joust. I loved Wizard of Wor on the Intellivision. Gauntlet and Deadly Discs of Tron pretty much ate up all my quarters as a little kid. When I got a bit older it was the more ‘fighting’ classics: Double Dragon, Street Fighter II (every edition), Mortal Kombat (first only, 2 sucked), and Samurai Showdown. Also loved stuff like Rampart.
I think the death of dreamcast was a real shame. Though the system had alot of stinkers, some of the games on there really were pushing the bounderies.
you said it sir! Dreamcast was fantastic!! I really prefered the game"Shadowman." Never heard of “space channel 5” The sports games were great too I played NHL 2k Like crazy! The only crappy game I bought was “Zombies Revenge!” that game was all about sucking balls!
I Liked Ready 2 Rumble Boxing but I was partail to that cause I knew the guys that made it! as a matter of fact most of the characters in that game I know! Kemo claw was patterned after my ex brother-in-law.
Gauntlet legacies kicked ass on that system too!
Late,
grmpysmrf
Did somebody say Dreamcast? That system was the shit my all time favourite system. I remember i had Gigawings 2, Quake 3 arena (pc version is better), Powerstone, House of the dead, NFL blitz 2001, E.G.G. (worst game ever created by man), MLB 2k, and Phantasy Star online.
Gotta get my hands on a Dreamcast again.
Ms Smrf and I plan on filling up our house with arcade games! I already have a Professional Foosball table (An actual Coin Op Tornado table not a fuckin “SEARS Professional” table) We are looking to get an air hockey table (I don’t want one But The Ms. does so wtf am I gonna do?)
THis fuckin house is gigantic!! 2669 Square feet 5 bedrooms a formal dining room and a regular living room- although the formal dining room is as big as a living room and one of our bedrooms is also as big as a living room so in actual use we have 3 living rooms
(all that for less than we are paying for rent right now!)
So I would be happy getting a Tron machine and a GnR Pinball machine to go with my Foosball table!
Both of our cars are just about paid off so our only real bill will be splitting a house payment. So we are in pretty good shape to create the home arcade!
Late,
grmpysmrf