Favorite Classic '80s Arcade Game?

[Lord Ghaleon]

I got the whole collection on 2000+ games for MAME. I'll tell ya, playing all those classics really bring back memories, especially the one I voted for...STAR WARS!

[barney_rebel]

QUOTE (Lord Ghaleon @ Jun 25 2005, 02:12 AM)

I got the whole collection on 2000+ games for MAME. I'll tell ya, playing all those classics really bring back memories, especially the one I voted for...STAR WARS!

I was playing Galaga on MAME last night. I am missing a few, but I have most. Let me see if I can list them when I get a chance.

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

I didn't acquire them all, but I have just over 1,000 MAME games. My faves are Robotron and Defender, but they're so hard to play with the computer keyboard or store-bought joystick -- Robotron needs two joysticks and Defender (and its sequel Stargate) needs a stick and several buttons. So, I had to make my own arcade controller.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/1001001/robotronstick1.jpg

[barney_rebel]

QUOTE (1-0-0-1-0-0-1 @ Jun 25 2005, 10:14 AM)

I didn't acquire them all, but I have just over 1,000 MAME games. My faves are Robotron and Defender, but they're so hard to play with the computer keyboard or store-bought joystick -- Robotron needs two joysticks and Defender (and its sequel Stargate) needs a stick and several buttons. So, I had to make my own arcade controller. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/1001001/robotronstick1.jpg

Is that really yours? Robotron was one of my favourites too. Fartherst I made it as a kid was the 10th wave I believe.

 

The local computer maganazine here had instructions on how to build your own MAME video aracade game console... and make it look real. The finished product looked exactly like a video arcade gaming console.

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

QUOTE (barney_rebel @ Jun 25 2005, 10:17 AM)

QUOTE (1-0-0-1-0-0-1 @ Jun 25 2005, 10:14 AM) I didn't acquire them all, but I have just over 1,000 MAME games. My faves are Robotron and Defender, but they're so hard to play with the computer keyboard or store-bought joystick -- Robotron needs two joysticks and Defender (and its sequel Stargate) needs a stick and several buttons. So, I had to make my own arcade controller. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/1001001/robotronstick1.jpg Is that really yours? Robotron was one of my favourites too. Fartherst I made it as a kid was the 10th wave I believe.   The local computer maganazine here had instructions on how to build your own MAME video aracade game console... and make it look real. The finished product looked exactly like a video arcade gaming console. Yeah, I made that a few years ago. I couldn't play my favorite games, so I searched the internet for instructions on how to build your own controller, and designed my own. My brother helped my build the cabinet and I wired it. A very time consuming project, but definitely worth it.   What you're seeing in the lower right of the first picture is a circuit board from an old Microsoft Sidewinder gamepad. All the buttons and sticks are wired into that. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/1001001/arcade/robotronstick6.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v318/1001001/arcade/robotronstick9.jpg

[barney_rebel]

Man.... that is damn cool. Awesome job.

 

What we won't do for our own little piece of nostalgia.

[barney_rebel]

Smash TV is also on MAME which is sort of like a new version of Robotron.

 

There is also a game called "Mutant Storm" (small non-freeware game) which is very similar.

[Mustard Death]

I loved Galaga and Tempest...

[Snowdog]

Anybody remember this game?

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/snowdog2004/Adventure.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/snowdog2004/adventure1.jpg

Edited July 13, 2005 by Snowdog

[Snowdog]

or this one:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/snowdog2004/kaboom.jpg

 

I loved those games!

[JohnnyBlaze]

QUOTE (Snowdog @ Jul 14 2005, 04:32 AM)

Anybody remember this game? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/snowdog2004/Adventure.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/snowdog2004/adventure1.jpg

ADVENTURE on the atari 2600 yah? God, I loved that crappy little game

[JohnnyBlaze]

QUOTE (rushgoober @ Jun 10 2005, 02:24 AM)

I voted for Galaga, but there are two I liked more that I can't remember the names of, maybe someone can help? 1. - Had 6 levels I think that each were very different - it would say things when you died like "Bite the dust, space cadet." 2. - This one is probably tougher - there was a base in the middle of the screen that shot in all directions - up, down, left and right.  Missles would get fired at you from top, bottom, left and right towards the base in the middle and you had to fire the missles before they got to you.  The buttons consisted of 4 black buttons, one for each direction to shoot, and one BIG black button that you would use to fire.  My brother and I would play the game where he'd fire continuously as fast as he could with the big button, and I'd use the 4 directional buttons to shoot - it was a blast! I also used to LOVE Monaco GP!

1. I'm pretty sure that's GORF.

2. Isn't that MISSILE COMMAND? Or something along the lines of that name?

 

Has anyone mentioned ELEVATOR ACTION, DISCS OF TRON, RETURN OF THE JEDI, SPRINT & SUPER SPRINT, INDIANA JONES, etc.? ...so many damn fine games that I haven't played in years.

[rattler2004]

Tempest!!!!

 

I would pump quarters into that machine like there was no tomorrow!

[DoubleAgent420]

QUOTE (physics23 @ Apr 7 2005, 04:33 AM)

Another game I played a lot was Rampage. You got to grab people out of their apartments and eat them. And if you didn't eat enough, you started shrinking.

Physics, you ROCK! Rampage rules!

[MarkScudder]

QUOTE (1-0-0-1-0-0-1 @ Apr 30 2005, 02:02 AM)

Wow...so far, zero votes for: Ms. Pac Man Pole Position Tetris Frankly, I'm shocked and appalled!

So was I!

 

(I voted for Ms. Pac Man.)

 

I don't know that I played it a lot when I was a kid... but I love it now. The AI is still difficult today. The ghosts seem so random but it's so easy to trap you. I have gotten good at it in the recent years, so much so that I blew one of my friends away at a rest stop in Massachusetts during a road trip when I put in one quarter in one of those Galaga/Ms. Pac 20th Anniversary Machines (which is literally the same ROM on the same hardware, 100% exactly the same game), and rocked it for like 25 minutes.

 

When I used to live in Albany, there was a pizza joint down the road from me that had an old Ms. Pac cab with a speedup chip in it (Ms. Pac is faster than at the fastest level right from the start, ghosts are the same speed, power pills last just as long), and that was actually easier for me than an unmodified game. I used to rock nearly 100,000 points out of one quarter.

 

I also play it on MAME occasionally, though nothing beats that four-way digital stick on the original cabs. I can't even play it with a USB gamepad (I have to use cursor keys) because most gamepads nowadays are 8-way, and since the game was never programmed to handle an 8-way stick it'll do weird things.

 

The whole key to Ms. Pac is to learn to steer a fraction of a second before the turn opens up. And there's a little bit of advantage to noticing some of the patterns of the ghosts (for example, 9 times out of 10 on the opening board, if you do it right, you can get to the lower-left power pill right before the blue ghost... and I mean, so close you eat him basically in the same nanosecond you eat the power pill), but on average the AI is much more random than the original Pac-Man.

 

Okay, so... other games I used to play the hell out of in the 80s... Atari's RoadBlasters, definitely, what a great game. Did you know that you can continue indefinitely in that game, up until the last stage? Then you gotta do that stage in one shot or you lose. I'm glad I learned that playing MAME, otherwise I would've beat that coin box open and gotten my $400 back.

 

Out Run and After Burner II (the 1987 Sega games) were my favorites of all time. They had the fastest, most impressive graphics at the time, by and far the best impression of forward speed, and the best music. I still love the music, even though it's a bit cheesy. OR and ABII were also some of the first games to have instrument samples (distorted guitar, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals) on ROM chips and it's basically like a sampler, that plays the samples and constructs the song. The samples are rudimentary by today's standards, but at the time it was groundbreaking (anybody remember the old synth-drum sounds on 80s Casio keyboards? If you do, you know why this was so exciting).

 

Not much excites me in arcades today... Rush 2049 was fun because there are all these hidden shortcuts in the maps... but overall there aren't many groundbreaking things being done in video games these days. Back then, when an arcade spent $25,000 on a machine, it does something no other machine does. Now, there isn't much in an arcade that a PS2 can't do. Video game manufacturers have to stop and say to themselves, "We can build this machine for $500 if we put a playstation and a Zenith 29" TV in this cabinet. Now, what would really cost us $50,000 to develop?"

 

And it's too bad all the censorship Nazis (Hillary Clinton etc.) want to come out now and ban Grand Theft Auto... well, actually, let me say this in a bit more politically-correct way... it's too bad that the Grand Theft Auto games are about violence and misogyny and killing cops... because the GTA games are the only true source of oldschool innovation today. Think about it. Remember that Sega game Crazy Taxi? Sub-missions in GTA. Sega also did two video games, one where you drive an ambulance rescuing injured people, and one where you drive a firetruck putting out fires. Mini-games in GTA. Entire video games have been made where you hunt down criminals in a police car. Sub-mission in GTA. Combine that with hidden package collection, rampages, finding oysters and horseshoes in GTA:SA, all the mini-race challenges and RC challenges in all the games, and driving/flying/bike schools in SA... these are literally dozens of games all in one. And that's really the first neat innovation I've seen in video games... well, pretty much since the home consoles caught up (which I'd consider about since the Dreamcast came out).

Edited July 26, 2005 by FuzzplugJones

[Mr. Wiggles]

I would have to say Donkey Kong! I love that game.

[Priestess of Syrinx]

I played Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt on the NES at home all the time when I was six, oh and the first Zelda, wasn't the prince named Link, or was that a separate game, can't remember. I've recently discovered Tetris and I'm an addict, especially with a free version for Windows

[Indica]

Dig dug is pretty cool

[ladirushfan80]

QUOTE (Indica @ Aug 20 2005, 03:15 AM)

Dig dug is pretty cool

oh man! i LOVED that game!!!!!

 

on my first Pc, we had a game called Chip's Challenge.....

that was a cool game....

 

[barney_rebel]

Mr. Do was better than Dig Dug.

[anagramking]

Can't believe I missed this thread after all this time. I enjoyed reading all the responses. I voted for Centipede, but it was a hard decision. Seeing all those names brings back a lot of memories. My top ones were Centipede, Ms. Pac Man, and Galaga. Centipede is just timeless to me, though. And I never got into Millipede afterwards. Robotron was a great game, too. There was a fun one called Zookeeper at the 7/11 by my house. Saw Gyruss mentioned too. Loved that one. I sucked at Defender, though. Dragon's Lair was too hard and too expensive. Super Pac Man was fun, but the other later sequels I didn't care as much for. Dig Dug was great. Sorry, Barney, never tried Mr. Do. The most addicting arcade game of all time was Tetris. That was a beautiful game.

 

I go into an arcade today and rarely do I find my old favorites. I see ones that look like they would cost hundreds of dollars to master. It just wasn't the same afterwards, I guess.

[pedro2112]

I liked battle zone also.. but I chose tempest.

[barney_rebel]

Bubble Bobble or Mario Bros?

 

Bubble Bobble all the way...

[Rhiannon_of_Rivendell]

QUOTE (Drumnut @ Apr 7 2005, 08:35 AM)

I had to say other. I never liked video games. (still don't) I always played Pinball machines or shot pool.

Hey D,

Ever play Zenon?

 

My FAVE pinball game!

 

"try tube shot...."

 

I also liked Q-bert & Ms. Pac Man And one other that was a 4 player, not sure if it was Gauntlet or not... The 80's are a bit fuzzy for me.

 

[Red-Barchetta]

There are a lot of games in this poll that I loved, but my vote went to Millipede.

 

 

Looks like I'm alone in this one. Ah well

 

 

 

R-B