One of the very early committed arcade collectors here in the UK was a guy called Pete Davies. Known on the arcade forums as Invadar, he was by all accounts, very well liked. I can’t say that I knew him on a personal level (I’m not sure that many people did), but was obviously aware…
Author: Tony
Owner/Author of arcadeblogger.com
The Secret History of the Arcade Trackball
The trackball as a method of user interface control has been around for some time. In terms of public consciousness, I would argue that arcade games pioneered their widespread use by getting them literally in the hands of a mainstream consumer audience. The best way to get someone using a new device, is to put…
Pac-Man: A Lesson in Perfection
Couple of things for you to watch this week, rather than something to read for a change. I wrote some time back about Jon Stoodley’s attempts to achieve a perfect game of Pac-Man. If you want to familiarize yourself with the contents of that article, go here. Jon gave a great talk earlier this year at…
Atari Tempest: Time-Lapse Photography
Thought we’d try something different this week. For the record, I am definitely a ‘point and click’ photographer – my mobile phone has always been my camera of choice. The extent of my photography skills is using an image size optimiser for the pictures I post here on the blog. Manipulating images and setting ISO…
Tomcat: Atari’s Lost Vector Game
With a total roster of thirteen vector releases, Atari were undoubtedly the kings of wire-frame arcade games. It all began with Lunar Lander and then Asteroids. Released in 1979, these two games heralded the company’s innovative intent, and arguably began the Golden Age of videogames. Whereas traditional raster arcade monitors house an electron gun that…
Nibbler: The Billion Point Arcade Game
Last week saw the release of the much anticipated arcade gaming documentary, Man vs Snake. Joining a roster of other similarly themed movies such as The King of Kong, Chasing Ghosts and the excellent High Score, the film tells the story of one man’s efforts to repeat a unique arcade world record achieved some 25…
Atari Centipede Upright Restoration 2
So things are going well with the restoration of the Centipede upright. Everything has been stripped out pretty much. We have a cleaned up marquee, bezel, control panel and monitor. Time to take a look at the inside and outside of the cab itself. Things aren’t pretty there. General grime, dead insects and dirt greet…
Ridge Racer! A Full Scale World Record
A slight departure from the norm this week. I tend to focus on arcade games from the early eighties, but a recent story came about that I thought had to be shared, especially as it involves a UK gamer, and a great arcade related quest. Although released in 1993, there’s no doubting Namco’s Ridge Racer…
Super Rare Atari Centipede Cocktail Surfaces!
Close examination of the original promotional flyer for Atari’s 1981 Centipede arcade cabinet shows three styles of cab; from left to right, a cabaret, upright and cocktail. Nothing particularly unusual there, as most releases around that time looked to house themselves in a similar portfolio of cabinet designs: But further inspection of the cocktail cabinet…
Arcade Raid Gone Wrong: Cinematronics Sundance
Let sleeping dogs lie: Avoid interfering in a situation that is currently causing no problems but may well do so as a result of such interference. So goes the proverb. There’s an argument in classic arcade collecting circles, that if you do let the proverbial dog lie, you will end up with a pretty mundane…
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